Hardwood Paroxysm | Unbiased opinions from extremely biased people

Randy Livingston “On The Edge” D-League Call-Up Rankings

January 12, 2010 in by Matt Moore with 0 Comments

This week’s call-ups are assembled by Scott over at Ridiculous Upside. Enjoy.

Randy Livingston Memorial “On The Edge” Call-Up Rankings
Player w/ link to season stats	Jon L (RU)	Matt Moore (HP)	ScottÂ Schroeder (RU)	Steve Weinman (D-League Digest)	Composite Rankings

Carlos Powell	1	1	1	2	1
Mike Harris	3	4	4	4	2
Dontell Jefferson	6	2	7	1	2
Anthony Tolliver	7	8	2	3	4
Morris Almond	2	9	3	6	5
Rod Benson	4	3	9	10	6
Dwayne Jones	10	7	5	7	7
Antonio Anderson	NR	5	10	5	8
Reggie Williams	8	6	8	NR	9
Mustafa Shakur	9	10	6	9	10
Trey Gilder	5	NR	NR	NR	11
Alonzo Gee	NR	NR	NR	8	12

Since we went 12, I’d round out the top 15 with Garrett Temple, Greg Stiemsma and Rob Kurz

1. Carlos Powell, Albuquerque Thunderbirds (22.3 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 4.8 apg, 50% FG) – Hardwood Paroxysm’s Matt Moore says it best: He’s taken it to another level since the start of the Showcase and all of a sudden Albuquerque looks like an actual basketball team. Points, rebounding, defense, effort, the whole package. As worthy as anyone you’re going to find.

2. Mike Harris, Rio Grande Valley Vipers (25.8 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 59% FG) – He was just released by the Rockets, who called him up as Chase Budinger injury insurance.Â They used Jermaine Taylor instead.Â As Matt Moore says, “Welcome back Mike. Enjoy your stay.Â It won’t be long.”

3. Dontell Jefferson, Utah Flash (19.4 ppg, 5.7 apg, 4.4 rpg, 47% FG) – I’m going to take this space to explain why I ranked Jefferson as my 7th favorite prospect after having him in the top the last time around.Â He’s been in the Jazz system for the past two seasons, he’s got the best all-around game as a point guard in the D-League, he’s typically very good defensively, his coach is the nephew of Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan and he was still passed over for Sundiata Gaines, a player I wouldn’t call a prototype point guard – there’s got to be something behind the scenes that we’re missing.Â Conversely, as Matt Moore put it, “I think Gaines cock blocked Jefferson.”

4. Anthony Tolliver, Idaho Stampede (21.7 ppg, 11.4 rpg, 48% FG, 36% 3pt) – He’s also had a call-up since we did this last, with the Portland Trail Blazers.Â Reports coming back from that weren’t positive, but reports coming back from the Showcase most certainly were, as I talked to more than one coach that said he’s the most NBA-ready player in the D-League.Â We ranked him number four, but I’d agree that he’s obviously NBA-caliber.Â Also, Moore has already anointed him as this year’s Randy Livingston Memorial Award winner.

5. Morris Almond, Springfield Armor (29.1 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 51% FG) – I handed this one off to D-League Digest’s Steve Weinman: Super-duper-dynamic scorer.Â But since he won’t be a go-to guy at the next level, what else does he do well enough right now?Â Still, he’s too effective at filling it up for me to drop him further than this.

6. Rod Benson, Reno Bighorns (14.3 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 1.7 bpg, 1.9 spg, 51% FG) -Matt Moore said it succinctly, and said it best: “There, you see? You win, you bastards.Â He stopped blogging.Â Now call him up, you ignorant barbarians.”Â I agree, ignorant barbarians, call him up. (Note: I don’t think you’re an ignorant barbarian, Daryl Morey.Â We’re going to be BFF’s 4 lyfe)

7. Dwayne Jones, Austin Toros (17.4 ppg, 15.1 rpg, 2.5 bpg, 66% FG) – I hate that I had to be the one to defend Dwayne Jones, but since I ranked him highest, here goes nothing: He FREAKING SLEEPWALKS WHILE AVERAGING SEVENTEEN POINTS AND FIFTEEN FREAKING REBOUNDS!Â YES, WITHOUT EVEN LOOKING LIKE HE’S TRYING, HE MAKES OTHER D-LEAGUER’S LOOK SO INFERIOR THAT THEY’D BE BETTER OFF TAKING THE ROCK’S ADVICE ON WHAT MOVIES TO ACT IN AS OPPOSED TO TRYING TO OUTREBOUND THIS BEHEMOTH.Â There, happy? I hate all that he stands for, but he’s killing the D-League.Â He’s also averaging 6.2 offensive rebounds per game.

8. Antonio Anderson, Rio Grande Valley Vipers (16.8 ppg, 6.7 apg, 4.1 rpg, 1.5 spg, 47% FG) – I’ve fallen in and out of love with him.Â So has everyone else.Â For the in-love view, let’s have a chat with Steve Weinman: “Likely to rise on my list every week after this. Can do everything well… jump-shooting is coming along… has great size for a back-up PG and the potential to be a situational stopper at the two.”Â For the bad, our very own Jon L: “Personally I’m still a bit wary of Anderson’s offense. He was very solid in December, but pretty erratic so far this month. He’s also shooting a terrible percentage from outside, but averaging as many attempts as guys shooting 10-15 percentage points higher.”Â For what it’s worth, I’m in the middle, but if he keeps struggling as he has been since Will Conroy came to town, I’ll be leaning heavily toward Jon L’s point of view.

9. Reggie Williams, Sioux Falls Skyforce (25.9 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 3.1 apg, 59% FG, 38% 3pt) – I can’t fathom how Steve had him unranked.Â I’m not going to explain why other than tell you to look at the numbers.Â Also, I featured him in this piece.

10. Mustafa Shakur, Tulsa 66ers (19.1 ppg, 6.6 apg, 3.8 rpg, 2.3 spg, 52% FG, 36% 3pt) – Once again,I ranked him highest.Â Yesterday, I wrote why: Shakur really impressed me in his two games in Idaho (Plus, looking at Jefferson’s numbers, they’re not as mind-blowing as you’d think).Â Anyway, back to Mufasa Mustafa – he just plays a good, smooth game of basketball. He really sees the court well, but I’d actually prefer him to drive more often than he does because his team doesn’t have much for legit scoring options.Â He’s also not great at shooting off of the dribble, but I don’t think I saw him miss off the catch-and-shoot, so that helps – a lot.Â Defensively, he’s actually a lot better than what I expected, having the speed and size to play at the NBA level.

It’s Like A Swap Meet With Vendors And No Swappers

January 12, 2010 in by Matt Moore with 1 Comment

The Rockets are in discussions with several clubs about McGrady, and sources say two of the teams near the top of their wish list are Washington and Chicago.

Nothing is imminent with either team, but there are potential deals with both clubs that Houston would be interested in pulling off.

Washington, which league executives believe is in cost-cutting mode after the Gilbert Arenas disaster, could have McGrady for a deal featuring Caron Butler and some expiring contracts, perhaps Mike Miller and Randy Foye.

via Caron Butler on Rockets’ wish list – TrueHoop Blog – ESPN.

Tons of stuff in this rumors piece from Broussard, so let’s take a gander at a few.

I loathe the idea of Mike Miller on the Rockets, seems like an abject disaster waiting to happen. Landing Caron, though, would be quite a coup. Foye would have no spot in the rotation. Brooks and Lowry have been playing too well, and the addition of Butler locks up the 2-3 spot with Ariza for the rest of the season. It makes me a little nervous with Butler kind of being the good mirror image of Ariza’s bad side, but to counter that is the length it would provide. The Rockets have size problems without Yao, but would be able to counter by having their 2-4 spots loaded with hyper-long defenders. Letting Ariza play limited minutes to focus on efficiency would be a big help, and putting Butler at 3 for spots to work out of the high post with Scola would be versatile as all get out.

What else we got?

Talks between the two teams have taken place but they have not reached the serious stage. Philadelphia hinted at a package of Iguodala and Samuel Dalembert for McGrady. But while Houston loves Iguodala’s talent, it’s not sure such a deal would make it a legitimate championship contender. To take back the four years, $57 million remaining on Iguodala’s contract after this season, Houston has to be convinced it would become an immediate title contender once Yao Ming returns next season.

Click through above to read more about this potential deal, but this sounds more plausible than you’d think. Dalembert gives them a real-live center and has been playing better ball this year than I’ve ever seen from him. Iguodala gives them a better scorer than Butler and would take a great big load off of Ariza. Meanwhile…

“IVERSON! MCGRADY! BRAND! IT’S THE 2004 NBA ALL-STAR GAME!”

I still can’t see Morey taking on that kind of dough for Iguodala, though, not with all the scratch he’ll have over the next two years to land a top flight superstar.

Next?

Sources say the Raptors will not consider moving Bosh before next month’s trade deadline unless Bosh tells them he definitely will not return to Toronto next season.

Toronto’s Plan A has always been to re-sign Bosh. However, in considering all possibilities, the club has had internal discussions about Plans B and C, which would include trying to get as good a big man as possible for Bosh (if re-signing him was out of the question).

I never understand why certain franchises can’t see the writing on the wall. It’s one thing like with Boozer. You really didn’t anticipate him being a snake like he was. But this is pretty obvious. Someone in the Raptors organization needs to make a highlight reel just of all the Bosh faces we’ve seen the last two seasons. I feel terrible, because they’re about to get completely dozered, and they really don’t see it coming. I’m sure Bosh says he’ll want to re-sign. That’s what you have to say. That’s how it works. It plays to your advantage. You don’t want fans turning on you. And I really don’t think it’s out of the question, nor do I think it’s a market thing. If this team was the 2 seed right now? Bosh would be saying “Let’s get started on an extension.” But they’re not. They lost to the Pacers last night, and this in the middle of a good run. Save yourselves, Toronto. Save yourselves.

Finally click through for some Boozer stuff, where Utah is really wanting to commit to Carlos Boozer long-term. Because they hate their fans.

A Flight In The Sun

January 12, 2010 in by Matt Moore with 2 Comments

Last winter, I was driving through yet another Midwest snowstorm, on the phone with Graydon, and I asked him this: “If there was one NBA team that you absolutely would NOT want to face in an NCAA-tournament type game, who would it be?” His answer was immediately the same as mine. Orlando. A team that when it’s hot is lightning hot, anchored by a dominant big, with athletic forwards all over the floor. If they were to get hot, put it together, they would be dangerous enough to pillage defensive help systems and create chaos if everything went just right.

You know the rest.

Now, I’m faced with a mental quandary. Am I imagining the same thing with the Hawks, simply because I like the idea of a repeating pattern?

They were creamed by the Magic, absolutely blown into oblivion. The Cavs beat them on back to back nights. And yet, here they are, playing a higher brand of basketball than they ever have with this core, sweeping the mighty Celtics, sitting at 24-13, and armed with so many weapons that if they were to click… Oh, and have I mentioned they’re only four games back of the top seed in the East?

I think there’s still a gap there, but they’ve got two months to figure it out before the final month of the regular season, which features another game with LA and two more versus Cleveland. They could fall apart as they looked to be doing for the past week before the Celtics games, or hit another gear.Nothing would surprise me. But I do believe that too often we focus on imperfect but great things and ignore that which is new. We did it with Cleveland before LeBron took over Detroit. We did it with Orlando before they took Game 3 in Orlando. And we could be doing it with Atlanta.

Crawford makes the offense a whole new level of terrifying. In years past, if Joe Johnson was having a bad night, you were fine. If he was just having an average night, you could live with it. But now there’s Crawford. If everyone else is clicking and Johnson’s struggling, odds are Crawford will fill in the gap. If Johnson is having a good night and the offense is still lumbering, Crawford kick-fires it. And apparently he’s got a particularly bad taste in his mouth for the Celtics, since he’s pretty much single handedly shown their asses the door the last three times they’ve played. Crawford has spent so much time wackadoo systems that he’s learned an uncanny knack for slipping into the crevices of broken plays or transition jacknifed breaks, somehow always being in a hesitant passer’s line of site with his feet squarely beyond the arc. Having a guy that can make broken possessions into three point buckets? Huge.

As I wrote on Twitter, Joe Johnson only has one of these games like he had last night every 50 or so games. But when he does, it’s like the Archangel hath come for the reckoning. There’s just nothing you can do. There are lots of great players in this league, many of them with better overall,consistent games than Johnson. But Johnson does possess that NOVA gear that only a handful have. He can go to the next evolutionary step and if he gets there, even if it’s just for five or six minutes, he can bury you, break your back, and leave you with nothing but that frustrated sigh. Eddie House knows it. Ray Allen knows it. And Marquis Daniels may be learning it soon.

But then, the Hawks are still flawed, deeply. Most games Johnson doesn’t even approach that level, even though he constantly shoots like he’s trying to reach it. Crawford struggles defending. Mo Evans gets too much floor time for as lost as he sees sometimes. You can rattle Josh Smith. Al Horford gives in to his emotions. The list goes on. So the Hawks are likely not going to make it past the second round, almost definitely not winning the East, and definitely not winning the title.

But imagine if they did. You’re talking about a global shift in our thought processes. Mike Woodson with a ring. And all of a sudden you’re looking at what would likely be a re-signing Joe Johnson, a terrific group of role players, and, oh yeah, Josh Smith and Al Horford are still incredibly young. It would be terrifying and cruel.

But for now, let’s simply allow this to be known. The Celtics want no part of Atlanta in the playoffs. All that running, all that jumping, all that speed and athleticism isn’t just a means to create points, it grabs Boston by the neck and shows it in front of a mirror how old it is. The Hawks are young, fast, and powerful.

They’re a warrior clan, and for now, they seem to have invented warfare for themselves.

Waiting For The Egg To Hatch

January 11, 2010 in by Matt Moore with 0 Comments

But Thunder heads shouldnâ€™t expect their team to make a blockbuster deal with an eye on punching its playoff ticket. Sorry to spoil the fun folks, but there are many more reasons to believe the Thunder will stand pat than make a splash.From the start, the front office has been fixated on finding long-term playoff success, not fiddling with moves that bring five more wins. Add to that, the Thunderâ€™s meticulous management still hasnâ€™t deciphered what pieces it does and does not have. Making a move now could add an unnecessary piece, or worse, destroy the puzzle before the picture becomes clear.

via Thunder Insider: A blockbuster trade unlikely | NewsOK.com.

You build and you build and you build. When do you actually accept this thing as the bird? Portland assumed they had the bird. So they went out and got Andre Miller.

Back in the egg! Back! In the egg!

So it’s understandable that OKC is waiting. I think the most important thing for Presti is exactly what he’s doing. Recognizing the incredibly positive effect keeping these guys together when they’re young is having on them. Durant, Green, Harden, these guys are buds. And I get the feeling Westbrook is the Wolverine of the crew, but still invited along to play pool or beat up The Brother of Evil Mutants. Green anywhere else? You know who he is? Tyrus Thomas with range. Inconsistent, buried, a little bit lost. Now? He’s a versatile four who provides the muscle. Even Eric Maynor! Maynor’s been there, what, three weeks? And is part of the rotation and part of the crew.

Bringing in a veteran changes all that. They have their own expectations. Their own money. Their own standards. Their own beliefs. Their own agendas. And you need them. God knows, you’ll need them. But this team is good enough to take the reins from San Antonio when it needs to rebuild as the small market team that is locked in for a decade. But it has to be very careful.

That egg hatches too early and it dies in the wild. It hatches too late and it’ll eat the mother.

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