FanHouse Kevin Garnett

Kevin Garnett has a reputation as a villain on the basketball court, at least to those wearing the uniform of the team he's going up against that particular night. While he's sometimes been criticized for taking things too far, It's understandable to a point, because in the heat of the game, it's not exactly to your advantage to play well with others.

But what about off the court?

When there's no game, the cameras aren't rolling, and no one else is around, that's when a person's true self is exposed, good or bad. And this little story about how Garnett treated a couple of the Pacers' rookies over the summer shows that his off-the-court persona might be just as rough as the one we're accustomed to seeing on it.

I wrote in September that perhaps there would be no worthy center to start for the West in the All-Star Game.

But this isn't the way I want to see that solved. Do it on the court, not with the ballot.

When the All-Star ballot came out Tuesday, Phoenix power forward Amar'e Stoudemire strangely was listed as a center. Yes, Stoudemire has played center before, but he's started all eight games for Suns this season at power forward, with Channing Frye being the starting center.

It is true the ballot, which was selected by six media members from around the country, had to be decided upon before the season began in order to provide time for printing. But it has been apparent since at least September that Frye would Phoenix's starting center, with Stoudemire at power forward.

Home Delivery is your morning roundup of last night's action in the NBA from a fantasy perspective.

Surprisingly, the Timberwolves were able to make a game out of last night's contest against the Celtics. The C's pulled it off in the end, but the T-Wolves kept it close from the opening tip, and actually had the lead for most of the game.

The star of the game just so happened to be Oleksiy Pecherov, who I mentioned in Tuesday's post as a guy to add in deep leagues. Well, standard leagues, it's time to become acquainted with Mr. Pecherov. He posted a game high 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting with eight rebounds, one three-pointer and a steal. You won't see him lead the T-Wolves in scoring often, but he does have the ability to put up 15 points on a given night, adding some nice range for a big man.

The Celtics were led by Rajon Rondo who had 18 points, six assists and three steals. I'm standing by my claim that he's going to lead the league in steals. Kevin Garnett added 12 points, 11 rebounds, three blocks, a steal and a burning desire to win.

There were two lingering questions for the Celtics coming into this, a season where they are widely expected to contend for a championship. The first was the status of Kevin Garnett's knee which appears to be just fine. You can notice a very slight hobble by Garnett after an ill-advised dunk, but that could just be reverberations from the accompanying unnecessary screaming.

The other was the contract status of Rajon Rondo, who was working on an extension to avoid entering restricted free agency by remaining with the Celtics. Talks had slowed, and Rondo was making comments to the effect that it was possible he wouldn't end up in Boston.

Bad news for the rest of the league: he will end up in Boston. Early Monday after a fortunate extension from the league for all teams in negotiations, the Celtics and Rondo reached an agreement on a 5-year, $55 million extension, according to ESPN.

Welcome to the first edition of Home Delivery, your comprehensive roundup of last night's NBA action from a fantasy perspective. Read along each morning as we bring the headline news to you in a format your grandpa would appreciate -- wait, what's a newspaper?

Man Ditches Agent Zero and Gets With Agent Hero

Gilbert Arenas returned to action Tuesday night against the Dallas Mavericks. As an Arenas owner, I'm a bit giddy over his performance -- 29 points, nine assists, 10-of-21 shooting from the floor and 8-of-9 from the free-throw line. It's easy to look at his performance and state that he's "officially back," but we need to contain ourselves and play it cool. At least for one day.

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With the start of the 2009-10 season looming, NBA FanHouse walks through the Valley of the Most Likely; we shall fear no topic.

Last year we handed out this prestigious award to the Lakers' Sasha Vujacic. He basically won the award for being a pest that other NBA players didn't respect. Plus he had girlie hair. With Sasha now sans girlie hair (per request of Phil Jackson), it's time to crown a new winner. The obvious choice: Kevin Garnett.

Garnett has been one of the league's best players this decade. Part of what makes him so great is his intensity. Early in his career, KG was capable of harnessing that intensity in a positive way. In his later years? Not so much.

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

The Celtics are a good team. This is, by most accounts, an understatement.

Boston finished with a record of 62-20 last season, despite the fact that the heart and soul of its defense, Kevin Garnett, missed 22 of the team's final 26 games with a knee injury.

Garnett missed the playoffs as well, but that didn't stop the Celtics from taking the eventual Eastern Conference champions to seven games in the second round, before their title defense ended two rounds earlier than they had expected for most of the season.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the NBA's race for a championship is far less interesting with Kevin Garnett on the sidelines. Nothing would have been better to see the Celtics defend their title at full strength last season, and nothing would be better than a full strength Boston squad -- plus Rasheed Wallace -- battling the Cavaliers and the Magic to come out of the Eastern Conference this year.

But while KG is indeed back to practicing with his teammates, as you'll see in the following video clip, his knee appears to be far from ready for the rigors of the regular season.