Prowling the NBA: Nov 10

Hey everyone. I have talked to Stop-n-Pop and we have decided to try out a weekly "Around the NBA" FanPost feature here on Canis Hoopus, a mixture of headlining news, short analysis of various games and teams, news from other teams that might directly affect the Wolves, and random observations to keep everyone up to date on what's going on around the league.

Normally this will be done on the weekends, but since the season is already well under way, I figure we might as well get going now.

Lets start with the most interesting news, which, of course is...

After just two weeks and three games with his new team, Allen Iverson has left the Memphis Grizzlies:

And it doesn't appear he's coming back. The team line is that Iverson has a family problem to deal with, terming the absence as a "personal matter", but that seems highly unlikely give what happened last year between AI and the Pistons. Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins said AI's leave is "indefinite", and no one on the team seems to know any more than that. When asked, Center Marc Gasol simply said "we don't know any more about this than you guys. All I know is he's gone".

After just his first game with the Grizzlies, Iverson publicly balked at his bench role, ultimately stating that a "player of my resume" should be in the starting lineup. Sounds like deja vu from last year.

ESPN writer Chad Ford made calls around the league, and reported that a member of the Grizzlies' coaching staff told him that Iverson and Memphis owner Michael Heisley agreed to part ways, thus terminating Iverson's career with the Grizzlies.

But it appears Iverson, in doing this, has terminated his entire NBA career. Said one GM to Ford: "I can't imagine anyone wanting him at this point. Struggling teams now know he's going to be a distraction. Contending teams have to live with the fact that Iverson puts himself above the team. Even the Clippers backed away from him this summer and Donald Sterling will do anything to sell tickets. I'm still not sure what the Grizzlies were thinking."

Another simply stated: "He's finished in the NBA. He can go hang out with Stephon Marbury."

There's a lot more to this story that I've put up here, so ask if you have further questions...

Also, speaking of problems with the Grizzlies...

Rudy Gay and OJ Mayo are reportedly feuding:

This is something that could very directly affect the Wolves. Both the local media and Memphis fans I've spoken to say that Mayo and Gay are having "alpha male" problems and fairly despise each other at this point.

Memphis fans say that this has been brewing since the trade deadline last year and escalated all summer. It openly spilled out earlier this season during a loss to Denver, when OJ started screaming at the team to play better defense. Rudy took exception to this, and the two got into a fight on the court and had to be separated by Hollins.

I asked Memphis fans on the Gamefaqs NBA board if this meant Gay might potentially be available at the trade deadline, where he would only cost the sum of his rookie contract, and got interesting responses.

Said one: "I don't think Gay's game compliments OJ's at all, but that's a different issue. The two hate each other, and now everyone knows it. The way I see it, OJ is the closest thing we have to a franchise player right now, so if one of them has to go, it's Rudy."

So would he be available?

"We wouldn't want to trade him midseason for obvious reasons. But if this thing between him and Mayo keeps escalating, we won't have a choice."

Acquiring Rudy Gay now would bee a boon in dozens of ways for the Wolves. We obviously need a shooter and scorer on the wings. We get to test drive how he fits before making a long term commitment to him. He likely translates into a handful of wins just by his presence.

What do you guys think?

Want to know who else has some big problems?

The Golden State Warriors are buried in drama over Stephen Jackson's trade demand:

He wants out of Golden State. Understandable. Now it's being reported that his teammates want him out too.

But the drama got a shocking new actor last week: Jackson's agent, Mark Stevens. In a scathing phone interview with ESPN's Chris Broussard, Stevens absolutely shredded Warrior's coach Don Nelson.

"No one trusts Don Nelson. When Nelson was in Milwaukee, Wayne Embry trusted him and brought him in, and he betrayed Embry. In Dallas, Mark Cuban took damn good care of him and his son, and he betrayed Cuban."

"In Golden State, Chris Mullin hired him and trusted him, and Nelson backstabbed him by reaching out to president Robert Rowell and blaming Mullin for everything that was going wrong with the Warriors."

"I'm disgusted with the quality of Nelson's coaching and with the lack of trust his players have in him. Nelson is the winningest coach in NBA history to never have coached in the NBA Finals, let alone won a championship. Yet he keeps getting jobs despite being 69 years old."

The Cavs, Bobcats, and Hornets are all said to be interested in acquiring Captain Jack. But the Warriors maintain that they're waiting for the right deal. Question is, how much of this can they stomach before they decide to cut their losses?

Moving on...

The San Antonio Spurs don't looks like contenders this year:

It's something I noticed in their game last week against the Blazers. Their defense isn't at a championship level, and worse yet, doesn't appear to have the potential to get there by March. Antonio McDyess is a shell of what he was just last year in Detroit, Richard Jefferson has played unispired basketball thus far, and Tim Duncan is really starting to show his age.

A fan I spoke with said "Tim's only playing like a real NBA player these days when we get down by a ton or he's mad at the refs."

Without Duncan, the Spurs have about as much interior defense as the Wolves. Bonner is essentially a 6'10" shooting guard, and Blair, for all his unbelievable rebounding ability, has shotblocking and help defense ability equivalent to Craig Smith. The Spurs are, shockingly, undersized this year in a bad way, and Popavich has frequently been resorting to a small ball lineup.

San Antonio has a reputation for starting slow and picking it up on their annual "Rodeo Roadtrip" in January. But with a team this old and unmotivated, one wonders if the Spurs will have that second gear this season.

Props to them on their win against Toronto, though:

Last night the Spurs trotted out a fearsome starting lineup of Jefferson, Finley, George Hill, Keith Bogans, and Theo Ratliff. And won. Yes, they beat the Raptors 131-124 behind 36 points from Manu Ginobili, who seems to have found his midseason form early after an injury-riddled 08-09 campaign and a summer spent off the court.

And speaking of Manu...

Ginobili killed a bat. During a game. With his bare hands:

No lie. Check out the video.

This has, of course spawned all sorts of jokes. BatManu. Manu plays Batsketball. Manu catch bat with bare hands can accomplish anything.

Still waiting for one to top Obi-wan Ginobli though.

Now, for something interesting...

Let's do a statistical comparison of Chris Paul and Chris Duhon:

Paul - 26ppg, 3.6rpg, 10apg on 63% shooting, 68% from three

Duhon - 7ppg, 3rpg, 6.6apg on 25% shooting, 23% from three

Catch that? Paul is shooting a sizzling 63%, while Duhon is on pace to overtake Randy Foye as arguably the most inefficient guard in NBA history. I'm not sure which is more stunning...how incredibly good CP3 has been, or how incredibly bad Duhon has been.

For another interesting comparison, let's do Elton Brand and Marresse Speights:

Brand:
28 mpg
10.2 ppg
6.2 rpg
0.83 bpg
Current salary: $14,858,472

Speights:
22 mpg
13.5 ppg
6.5 rpg
1.3 bpg
Current salary: $1,658,280

It would seem the Sixers wasted $15 million, wouldn't it? Sixers fans I've talked to steadily maintain Brand was a good decision, but their agruments as to why seem halfhearted at best.

Now on to LeBron...

LeBron James threw feul on the fire of speculation this week during his one visit to MSG:

James was quoted as saying he'd gladly accept less than a maximum deal to increase the chances of winning a title, which the New York media instantly took as LeBron is headed to New York. The Knicks' initial plan of clearing enough cap space for two max signings has been torpedoed by the economy, which will bring the cap down $10 million for President Walsh's initial calculations two years ago.

The fallout between James and Cleavland would be staggering if he voluntarily walked away from his hometown. But he's playing this close to the vest, because he knows it will force everyone else to play with their cards face up.

And finally...

Tracy McGrady is not being traded to the Wolves:

Earlier this week, a report was released with McGrady saying he was targeting a return date of November 18th against Minnesota. Some Wolves fans misinterpreted that as McGrady is going to BE a Timberwolf.

False.

Well, that's about it for this week.

I'll probably skip out on this weekend's update unless something incredibly interesting breaks in the next 4 days. Otherwise, tune in each weekend to catch up on the odds and ends of the NBA.