NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

There will be many that will disagree with the Ron Artest move to L.A., but you will not find me to be one of them. The Lakers just won the title and that is no time to sit still. Those of you out there that have won a title in anything will understand that statement. Those of you that have not will be mystified.

It works like this. You fight hard, get lucky, work hard, play D, hit some big shots, get hot, come together, get a break or two and the next thing you know, your team owns the NBA Championship trophy. Now comes the hard part. You have convinced yourself that you are great and you may be, but there was also the get lucky, hit big shots, come together, etc. stuff that helped you get there.

Changes will be needed and Ron Artest will be a big change for the Lakers.

Ron Artest will soon help Kobe to seek another NBA title

Still some will disagree.

The Lakers have all the shots they need, Kemo Sabe, and they don’t need Ron Artest taking them out of their offense, shooting shots he that should not, making it possible that more efficient players are unable to do their thing. Yes, Ron Artest shot 40 percent from behind the arc last season. But he also shot 40 percent inside of it, and that’s … awful. That’s just not good. While taking fewer than four free throws a game.

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

What is going on with Joe Dumars? He announces he wants a coach by Tuesday and pursues Avery Johnson, but was unable to come to terms with Johnson on a contract. No matter, the coach that brought quick offense to Dallas and seems to know a lot about point guard play will not be the Pistons coach, because he wants too many years and too much money.

So now Joe D is pursuing John Kuester and lo and behold we find out Kuester was a Piston assistant to Larry Brown when they won the NBA title. Why didn’t we know that? We should have.

He earned a lot of respect within the franchise during that stint for two reasons.
One: More than any other assistant, he stood up to Larry Brown. Kuester and Mike Woodson were considered Brown’s two best assistants, but Kuester was more likely to disagree with the head man. This was especially impressive because Kuester is a North Carolina alum, like Brown, and Carolina guys form the tightest fraternity in basketball.

And two: After one season in Detroit, Kuester left to be an assistant for the New Jersey Nets. That was partly because Kuester’s family stayed in Philadelphia when Kuester followed Brown from the 76ers to the Pistons. But it was largely because Kuester knew that in order to be an NBA head coach, he had to work for somebody besides Larry Brown.

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Antonio McDyess to the Spurs

Oh, and one more Piston related morsel. Antonio McDyess is ready to sign with the San Antonio Spurs.

Joe D has gotten rid of Chauncey Billups, Rasheed Wallace, Allen Iverson, Amir Johnson, and now Antonio McDyess. Can Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince be considered anything but trade bait at this point? It is a Piston garage sale.

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Twitter has taken over. Forget about MySpace, Facebook, I-tunes, or any of that other old fashioned stuff. We all tweet now. Yeah, what are you doing right now?

Charlie Villanueva has used twitter to spill the beans. He is now a Piston. The negotiating is done and Wednesday the contracts will be signed. He will be joining Ben Gordon as one of the new high priced free agents.

Charlie Villenueva tweets and rebounds

Villanueva is already a famous tweeter. This happened while he played with the Chicago Bulls.

Villanueva created a stir last season when he posted a message during halftime of a game with the Bucks on Twitter and got a stern lecture from Bucks coach Scott Skiles, who thought it gave the impression that Villanueva wasn’t focused.

Thanks to the publicity, the list of followers who subscribed to Villanueva’s Twitter feed quadrupled in just over 24 hours, going from about 1,600 subscribers to nearly 7,000. On Monday night, he had nearly 40,000 followers.
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Ahh, the modern world. You can’t beat it.

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Just how many old guys can the Celtics stock up on? Let’s see they have Grandpa Kevin Garnett, age 33 with 14 years in the league. Then there is Grandpa Paul Pierce, age 32 with 11 years in the league. Then there is Grandpa Ray Allen, whom they shopped around this winter, but nobody wanted a 3 point shooter that used a walker, soon to be age 34 with 13 years in the league. (Stats from NBA.com)

Now they reach for the geritol and sign Rasheed ‘Technical waiting to happen’ Wallace, age 35 in September with 14 years in the league.

Sure the Celtics won a title two years ago, because for some unknown reason nobody got injured. Last year was more reality than fantasy as Kevin Garnett was injured.

Unfortunately it is a fact of life for Hoop Stars in the NBA that age limits your jumping ability, your quickness, your hops (ability to jump fast), and leaves you more injury prone. Good Luck Boston on picking up an aging brooding Rasheed Wallace.

How will Rasheed Wallace get along in Boston?

Rasheed will always be remembered affectionately in Detroit for being a great teammate and delivering the 2004 title. Thank You, Rasheed.

And with Rasheed Wallace severing ties with the Pistons on Sunday by giving an oral commitment to sign with Eastern Conference rival Boston, the soul has left the building as well.
Multiple media outlets reported that Wallace, 35, agreed to the mid-level exception for $5.8 million per season, and it’s believed to be for two seasons.
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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

The word out of Chicago is that Allen Iverson will go to the Bulls in an NBA sign and trade deal with Detroit for shooting guard Ben Gordon. The deal would put high scoring Alan Iverson on the Bulls for probably the end of his career in a pretty good basketball market. This way the Bulls get something for Ben Gordon.

Allen Iverson to the Bulls?

What do the Pistons get out of this deal and didn’t they already sign Ben Gordon? Right now no one can figure out how this helps the Pistons, because they would be seeking salary cap relief. The deal was made in principal, but the free agent market is not officially open for signings until July 8.

The key for the Bulls is if Iverson would come off the bench as a happy camper.

The Bulls also would want to know that Iverson, 34, would be totally committed despite not making the $20 million he’s accustomed to and without playing the primary role he enjoyed for his entire career until he was traded to the Pistons for Chauncey Billups last season. Iverson did not adapt well to diminished minutes with the Pistons, and late in the season vowed to retire before he would come off another team’s bench.

But Iverson apparently is invigorated by the prospect of getting past the Detroit experience. He wrote on his Twitter account Thursday, “For those of you who thought that I was done, think again! … My only preference will be to play for a coach that knows what I bring to the table and that I am going to bring it every night.”
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Ben Gordon would actually get a bigger contract in a sign and trade deal, but his agent did not even talk to the Bulls before agreeing to sign with the Pistons.

This whole deal seems crazy for Detroit and Joe Dumars takes risk, but does not do crazy.
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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

What is going on with these teams anyway? The Mavericks, Knicks, and Trail Blazers are fighting, that is right, fighting to sign Jason Kidd. Why? He will be a basketball grandpa age of 37 next year and how is he supposed to keep up with the speedy young guards if his team makes the playoffs?

Will Jason Kidd be able to keep up with the young guards, let alone the Tony Parkers of the world?

Jason Kidd will be in the Hall of Fame and there is no questioning that at all, but he will be there for piling up stats like the rest of us pile up our dirty clothes in the corner of the room. He is long past his prime and hardly worth the money to the three teams involved. These are all building teams.

Let us say, just for example, that you have a team with a superstar or two and all you need is a point guard to handle the rock and you are heading to the conference finals. Hey, Jason Kidd would be perfect, but that does not describe any of the above teams.

Kidd has enjoyed a fantastic career. A great deal of what he provides cannot show up in individual statistics, but individual statistics have also helped inflate his worth. He’s a bit of a liability to an offense if he isn’t dominating the rock, dishing out tons of assists. He has a reputation as a fast-break point guard, but I can’t tell you how many would-be breaks have been halted by Kidd chasing after rebounds, instead of leaking out and waiting for the outlet pass. And his jumper, though on-point in 2008-09, comes and goes.

This is the point where I have to point out that I’m not pointing toward denigrating this point guard’s skills. He’s a fine, fine player, even at this stage. He helps teams. I just don’t get where he fits into the plan for a team like the Knicks, or the Trail Blazers.

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Joe D has done it again. This time he has lured high scoring combo guard Ben Gordon to the Detroit Pistons for a reportedly 55 million buckaroos and 5 years. A hefty price, but well worth it.

So what does Gordon bring to the Pistons? Ben Gordon brings the ability to shoot and score from range in a playoff situation. If you watch enough NBA ballgames, you will notice that some players can accumulate stats in the regular season and not do it in the playoffs. It is actually a rare ability to score when well guarded. Rip Hamilton can do it on the Pistons and now Ben Gordon will also bring that ability to the Pistons.

Gordon, 26, has been nailing three-pointers and creating his own shot since he came into the league as the third pick of the 2004 draft.

He is scorer who is a great shooter and adept at running the pick-and-roll. He stands 6-feet-3 and carries a career scoring average of 18.5 points. His compact body allows him to get into the paint and finish through contact. The only real knock is that he’s too short for shooting guard since he lacks the playmaking skills to play the point. That leads to defensive mismatches when paired against taller and more athletic players such as Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade.

Gordon has been on the Pistons’ radar for quite some time. and he upped his value when he averaged 24.3 points during a classic seven-game series against the Boston Celtics in this year’s playoffs.

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Will Ben Gordon co-exist with Rip Hamilton? Many think so.

With the trade of Chauncey Billups to the Nuggets, the Pistons needed a long distance scoring threat at guard and now they have one. Rip can only shoot threes from a set shot position. Nothing wrong with that, but you do not get a lot of those opportunities in the playoffs.
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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

It was ultimately a player revolt and Coach Michael Curry was the victim. You see, in the NBA the players and especially the star players rule. Michael Curry was a rookie coach and a coach that had my doubts on his ability to do the job from the very beginning.

If being a rookie coach on a team that was on the way down was not bad enough, Curry also had to lose star player Chauncey Billups in a trade for Allen Iverson. Hey, you better have superior leadership and people skills if you are going to coach a team with Allen Iverson.

Once Rip Hamilton turned his back on Coach Michael Curry, he was done

When Rip Hamilton was benched for Allen Iverson in a manner that did not suit Rip, you could see the handwriting on the wall.

Giving Curry every opportunity to correct his rookie blunders was Joe Dumars’ original plan, but then it became apparent that the fractious relationship between Curry and Hamilton was beyond saving.

Curry foolishly alienated Hamilton, not telling him privately about his decision to bench him for Allen Iverson before telling the entire team. And in a recent conversation with the Free Press, Curry didn’t seem to be in a hurry to meet with Hamilton to rectify any differences.

Dumars had no alternative but to trust his instincts, despite the outward appearance of a franchise once again going through coaches like tissues. When in doubt, cut your losses and minimize the damage. If it was going to happen, it’s better for the organization to pull the trigger now rather than wait and fire Curry two weeks into next season
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Early favorite for the job is Avery Johnson, who used to coach the Dallas Mavericks.

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Cleveland knows the clock is ticking and they want to do something about it. The clock is the time it takes to get to next year when LeBron James becomes a free agent and the whole state of Ohio holds its breath while suitors come out of the woodwork with all kinds of enticing deals for LeBron.

Think about it. Why did Cleveland easily go after Shaq? There is some question as to whether he is a good fit, because the guy guarding Shaq never has to go more than 5 feet away from the basket, thus cutting off the LeBron drives to the hoops. Shaq is also late in his career and will have a hard time averaging over 25 minutes or 45 games.

Shaq will be key to LeBron's future in Cleveland

But Cleveland had to do it. They had to show LeBron they were trying and if it works, then LeBron would go to the finals and probably stay in Cleveland.

The Cavaliers also have some free agent money and although not a lot, it may be crucial to land a shooter or defender. Here are some possible inexpensive free agent options for Cleveland.

Matt Barnes, Suns — Another lanky wing who is a solid shooter and has the size the Cavs want. His defense is a question, but he has the tools. Excellent spot-up shooter and good in transition going to the rim.

Anthony Parker, Raptors — The Raptors love him and may not let him walk, but they have cap space and other needs. It is well known the Cavs attempted to sign him when he came over from the Euroleague three years ago, and the tall, smooth shooter is very much still on their radar.

Dahntay Jones, Nuggets — Unheralded player with stats that won’t impress many, but has worked to establish himself as a strong outside defender with good size. Was an overlooked key in the Nuggets’ success last season.

Desmond Mason, Thunder — Limited offensively and coming off an injury but also one of the better wing defenders in the league and fits the Cavs’ character requirements. Won’t be the Cavs’ first choice, but they certainly will have him on their list.
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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

It was discussed so what happened? Phoenix thought Amare Stoudemire would be sent packing to Golden State with other players and considerations and in return Golden State would ship back Stephen Curry with other players and considerations. You know how that stuff works.

The secret part of the deal that may not have been discussed from Golden State’s point of view was that Golden State was sure Curry would be off the board by pick number 7. When he was there, they did not want to part with him.

Amare Stoudemire will be a reach for the Warriors without Curry in the deal

So is the Stoudemire trade off the board?

The teams will continue talking about how a trade involving Stoudemire could be worked out but it is now just among several conversations the Suns are having. Such a deal is far less likely without Curry and Golden State’s unwillingness to part with forward Anthony Randolph.
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