FanHouse SebastianTelfair

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

A season ago, the Clippers began the year with a renewed sense of optimism. After losing team staples Elton Brand and Corey Maggette to free agency, the club didn't stand pat -- they went out and got some pieces they hoped would make them better.

Well, things didn't exactly work put as planed. Injuries derailed things fairly quickly, and instead of Baron Davis being the one to revive the franchise, he was merely a bystander who watched the team post its worst won-loss record in nine years.

There was a bright side to last year's debacle, however, as it landed the Clippers the number one overall pick in the draft, which they used to select Blake Griffin. With a healthy group to start the season, and some smart tweaks to the roster, L.A. once again has reason to be cautiously optimistic.

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Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

No Raptor has escaped stoning amid Toronto's disappointing start. As the handsome new addition who was meant to fix everything wrong with the Raptors, Jermaine O'Neal has taken a particularly big share of blame. He will not hear any of those accusations this morning, though.

O'Neal destroyed the Kings with 36 points on 15-of-19 shooting, along with nine rebounds, three steals and two blocks. His line either substituted for a mediocre Chris Bosh performance, or made it so that Bosh didn't need to assert himself. Something like that. Clearly, the Sacramento defense keyed on Bosh, often sending a guard to double early. All the focus left J.O. one-on-one with Brad Miller much of the time ... and J.O. delivered.

Two Rondos, Indeed: Rajon Rondo missed a triple-double by one assist, finishing with 11 points, 10 rebounds and those nine dimes. Of course, he also added seven brutal turnovers for the Celtics. Boston lost in Golden State (more on that later), and turnovers continue to be the Celtics' guilty pleasure.

Bench Buddies: Rashad McCants and Sebastian Telfair saved the Timberwolves from the pine. Telfair tossed up a 20-point, 8-assist line, getting 10 of those points from the stripe. Meanwhile, McCants came in shooting missiles: 23 points on 12 FGAs, including 7-of-9 from three. And that was in 21 minutes. Minnesota was murdered by the Knicks on the glass, which made the hot bench shooting doubly vital.

Apparently Al Jefferson wasn't convinced teammate Sebastian Telfair could dunk, so he put $500 on the line to see what he could do. From Steve Kyler of HOOPSWORLD:

Bassy apparently tossed the ball off the backboard and jammed it home. Bassy openly questioned Al about where his money was; Al responded jokingly "I don't pay people I can beat up..." Guess Al forgets Sebastian is from Conley Island – they don't play in Coney Island.

Jefferson's a big dude, but he might want to check Bassy's luggage or glove compartment before he follows through. In other breaking news, Kyler reports that Magic guard Mikael Pietrus had a new cast put on his left hand -- "mainly because he was getting so much crap about the little soccer balls all over the last one." It's a shame: Dwight Howard would make a great goalie.

Hat-tip: Ball Don't Lie, Cannis Hoopus

Update: the league announced today that Bassy got three games.

Remember that one time when Sebastian Telfair ran afoul of the law? Wait, let me clarify. Remember the last time it happened? Well, as Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News reports, it's time to pay the piper:

Telfair was sentenced last month to three years' probation for misdemeanor possession of a loaded .45-caliber handgun, speeding and driving without a license in Westchester in April 2007. He was a member of the Celtics at the time of his arrest. Since his case has been resolved, his suspension by the NBA is automatic. The league needs only to determine how many games he'll serve, with sources indicating it will be for a minimum of two.

If this is true, no one's bothered to tell Randy Wittman or the Timberwolves. From Don Seeholzer of the Pioneer-Press:

"Nope. Haven't heard anything from the league or anything," Wittman said. "Sebastian hasn't heard anything. I would think, if that's the case, we would know. So I don't know. We'll see."

Here's a question for Wittman and Telfair: when's the last time a player has been convicted of possessing a loaded gun and not be suspended? Sure, it happened over a year and a half ago, but Telfair had to have seen this coming, especially since the sentencing was just last month. It's a little odd the NBA has been slow to pass the word along (maybe the guy in charge of relaying the news was busy updating his resume) but Wittman comes across as naive if he really thought the league would look the other way.

In a recent post about Shaun Livingston, I tossed out a casual line which called Sebastian Telfair "one of the worst players in the league last season." This claim was made without research and is completely, 100% wrong. There were much worst players in the NBA last season. Ask Clippers fans. Ask Heat fans. Ask Knicks fans.

But let's set some parameters based on the role Bassy was asked to fill and the quality of his performance. With Randy Foye knocked out much of the season, Telfair was a starting point guard in the National Basketball Association. Heavy stuff. There are only 31* starting point guards in the league any given moment. An elite class, if you will. The same goes for NBA starters: it's a limited group of the best ballers in the world.**

And it is my opinion that last season, Bassy Telfair was the worst.

Only one player who averaged at least 30 minutes a game finished with a worse PER: Bruce Bowen, who happens to be the second best defender on a perennial top-3 defense. Raja Bell's in the neighborhood, and has a possibly undeserved defensive reputation. But Bell can also string threes at a 40% rate, a vital skill which overwhelms his lack of offensive creativity and box-score potency.

Ben Wallace, Tim Thomas and Jamaal Tinsley figure as Telfair's greatest challengers, in my book. But Wallace can still rebound like Hell. Thomas can score and rebound a bit. Tinsley's divinely awful, but even he racked up for more assists per minute than Bassy, and had similar (which is to say "terrible") shooting rates.

Sorry, Wolves fans. Your point guard sucks. Hope he's the back-up.

UPDATE: Canis Hoopus has a really great response.

* T. Jose Caldeford.
** Give or take a Josh Childress.

Crystal Ballin' takes a team-by-team look at what should, could, and probably will happen in the June 26th NBA Draft.

Ah. The Land of Lakes. Where anything can happen. The first rounder could be O.J. Mayo, it could be Michael Beasley, it could be Kevin Love, it could be Larry Bird or it could be traded straight up for Joe Smith a few first rounders. Seriously, Kevin McHale could do anything. But ... oddly, the Wolves might be set up to have a pretty freaking good draft this year if they play their cards right.

Picks: #3, #31, #34

Needs: Assuming they think either Randy Foye or Sebastian Telfair will work out (and they'll probably go through with the experiment anyway even if they don't) at point, they'll look for frontcourt depth (and defense) to compliment Al Jefferson. They also need a legit scorer to keep A's in the seats, though, and that's something they might address first.

Best case scenario: McHale stays away from the phone lines and ends up with either O.J. Mayo or Michael Beasley. Mayo gives them a safety net if Foye/Telfair fail and Beasley would be a pretty nasty tandem with Baby Al down low and allows them to look for frontcourt help (Roy Hibbert?) late in the first round when they package 31 and 34 to move back up.

A surprisingly good game transpired in Boston between the Celtics and Kevin Garnett's former team, the Timberwolves. Even though the standings say that it was the best team in the league hosting the worst team in the league, the emotions were high among the many players that were involved in the deal that brought KG to Boston.

The T'Wolves led for most of the fourth quarter, but couldn't score in the final two minutes and allowed the Celtics to steal this one at the end. Let's break down the last couple of possessions, shall we? With 23 seconds left, the T'Wolves were up one and had the ball out of bounds ... and got the rare and ridiculous five second call for not being able to inbound the ball. On the Celtics' next possession, Al Jefferson played atrocious defense, and tried to come over and help on Ray Allen's layup attempt. The only problem is, not only did Jeferson do absolutely nothing to challenge Allen's shot, but he left his man Kendrick Perkins wide-effing-open to get the rebound and easy putback to give the Celtics the lead.

The T'Wolves were only down one at this point, and with the ball, they still had a chance. The first inbound play went to Sebastian Telfair, who had been hot all night, and I felt would have been their best chance to make a play. But the Celtics had a foul to give, and wisely fouled Jefferson once Telfair got it to him in a pretty good position to score. So on the next inbound play, it goes directly to Jefferson, who is double teamed 22 feet from the basket, and throws a bad pass to Telfair, who catches it high which allows KG to knock it away before the T'Wolves can even get a shot off.

In 2005-06, the dress code's oppression of players was a big deal for a minute. Then everyone calmed down, and people forgot about it. This past year, the NBA and other sports were forced to deal the dangers facing professional athletes. Well, what if part of the answer to these problems were ... the dress code?

Sebastian Telfair seems to think so. From the Pioneer Press:

Wolves point guard Sebastian Telfair thinks twice now about putting on extravagant jewelry. After games, he exits the locker room dressed in a suit, looking like a young entrepreneur. He eschews the image of a flashy basketball player flaunting his wealth with diamond-studded chains.

Telfair knows the dangers of being too conspicuous. He was robbed of a $50,000 necklace outside a Manhattan restaurant in October 2006 at the same location where hip-hop artist Fabulous was shot hours later.

This isn't going to protect players from home invasion; that's a bigger issue of conspicuous consumption, even if, as Clinton Portis noted, players aren't keeping a whole lot of riches around their house. But certainly, keeping a lower profile in public does make it easier to avoid being targeted.

I don't think anyone thought twice about Sebastian Telfair's inclusion in the Garnett deal. After all, the Celtics had at one point all but disowned him. While they backtracked a little this summer, it was just a matter of time before they unloaded him somehow. Heck, it was a fringe benefit of the trade that Ainge got Telfair off of his hands.

However, things are different in Minnesota. As Jim Souhan points out in the Star Tribune, they don't have any point guards. Randy Foye is an off-guard, and Marko Jaric only ever mattered on the Clippers. By default, that puts Teflair in a position to get minutes.

What's more, Minnesota can afford to experiment with Telfair as they see fit. They're not going anywhere anytime soon, and are officially in rebuilding mode. Boston expected things, and in Portland, he was simply too young to do much of anything consistently. Maybe here, the stars will align and for once, Telfair will start to make his career look like something other than a cautionary tale.

It's been nine years since Kevin McHale traded Stephon Marbury to the Nets, but from the sounds of it, Marbury still holds a grudge against his former GM. In an interview with the New York Post, Marbury expressed concern about his cousin, Sebastian Telfair, being traded to McHale's Timberwolves in the Kevin Garnett deal:

"When I do speak to (Sebastian) I'll wish him good luck and tell him to be careful around Kevin McHale," Marbury said. [...]

Marbury's dislike for McHale stems from his Minnesota days. Marbury felt betrayed after he was dealt by Minnesota, and McHale leaked Marbury was jealous of Garnett.

"As far as my little cousin, I wish him all the best because he's got to deal with Kevin McHale," Marbury said. "I wouldn't want to play for Kevin McHale. When I left, all of a sudden I became a bad person from his standpoint. I became selfish and jealous of Kevin."

Personally, I think Telfair already owes McHale a favor -- after Telfair's arrest earlier this offseason, there was some speculation that his future in the league was in doubt. Obviously the main reason McHale acquired him in the KG trade was because his contract fit the deal, but it's still given him a fresh start.