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There seems to be a plethora of quality point guards available on the NBA trade market.

Chad Ford breaks it down for ESPN.com.

this information comes largely from two sources: GMs who tell us what other teams are offering them, and NBA player agents who often play important roles in getting their clients moved this time of year.

While most of the players will not be moved by the trade deadline, if history repeats itself, several will.

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Tops on Chad’s list is former North Carolina NCAA champ Raymond Felton of the Bobcats.

Felton is a talented point guard, but he doesn’t fit the pass-first mold that Larry Brown wants in his point guards. With rookie D.J. Augustin looking like the point guard of the future in Charlotte, the chances Felton heads somewhere else are pretty high.

Mike Conley from Ohio State and now on the Grizzlies is next on the list.

Some scratched their heads when the Grizzlies drafted Conley with the No. 4 pick in the 2007 draft. While Conley was a coveted draft prospect, the team was already loaded at the point guard position and it was unclear how he would fit. Eighteen months later, Conley still hasn’t found his groove in Memphis.

Conley is a good distributor and an excellent defender, but his shaky shooting has made him a liability. And with O.J. Mayo now dominating the ball, Conley is often left standing around on offense.

Andre Miller, Kirk Hinrich, and Baron Davis are also on the list.

Sounds like some teams are going to fix their point guard problems this year.

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Elton Brand dunking

Philadelphia was down 38 - 13.

Past 76er teams would have quit. We are going to lose, so let’s go home.

But they did not quit and came back to win the game 94 - 92 over the Indiana Pacers. Elton Brand had 15 rebounds and Thaddeus Young had 25 points.

“It was a great comeback by Philadelphia,” Indiana coach Jim O’Brien said. “Sometimes you get too big a lead early in the game — and the NBA is a game of momentum shifts.”
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There is no quit with Mo Cheeks as coach. You noticed last year in the playoffs as this Philly team eventually lost to the Detroit Pistons that they just keep coming at you. There is no quit in these 76ers.

Now the Philadelphia team added prize 20 -10 guy, Elton Brand. Now the 76ers have some power on the blocks and who knows how far this team can go.
Photo source Newscom

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Elton Brand will give the 76ers a player down on the blocks

Last year the Philadelphia 76ers went to the playoffs to take on the Detroit Pistons. A tall order for a team that had not been to the playoffs in quite a while and for a team that was not loaded with established stars.

The Pistons had a simple strategy for victory. There was no inside game for the 76ers. No dominant player on the box to force a double team. The strategy was to stop Andre Iguodala and make someone else beat them.

Andre Miller tried and at times succeeded, but eventually there were too many Pistons and too few 76ers.

The 76ers decided to find that person down low first and did they ever. Elton Brand, a sure double double guy, signed with the 76ers in the off season. It was a blockbuster deal for a team that was already a young improving playoff team.

Everyone was excited.

Coach Mo Cheeks wanted more. What good was drawing a double team down low if there were no outside shooters to take advantage of that?

Andre Miller liked to drive. Andre Iquodala is more of a slasher. Mo wanted some shooters.

Hello, Kareem Rush. Hello, Donyell Marshall. We haven’t seen them unload through the first three preseason games, but the intimation is that we eventually will. Marshall, who grew up in Reading, has said he came, in large part, to play for his hometown team. Rush said he came because the Sixers needed what he could bring.

Rush drained a career-high 102 threes with the Indiana Pacers last season, profiting from coach Jim O’Brien’s green-light offense. Despite that, he saw a brighter opportunity with the Sixers.

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Now if Philly faces a strong team in the playoffs they will have the full assortment of weapons to throw at them.

Photo source Newscom

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LeBron James is partying at the thought of all the NBA players available in 2009

Even with all the big name free agents in 2010, with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh in the group, the year 2009 could still be the year of the free agent.

Try this out for 2009.

Some of the Restricted Free Agents: Andrew Bynum, Marvin Williams, Jason Maxiell

Some of the players that can opt out of contracts: Kobe Bryant, Carlos Boozer, Rip Hamilton, Hedo Turkoglu

True Free Agents: Shawn Marion, Andre Miller, Rasheed Wallace

So what about money?
Some teams are loaded depending on what happens.

Thunder 25 - 30 million
Trail Blazers 15 - 32 million
Grizzlies 18 - 24 million
Pacers 11 million
Heat 10 million
Bobcats 10 million

Plain and Simple, there will be lots of player movement in 2009 in the NBA.

story source espn

Photo source newscom

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Andre Iguodala is surrounded by Rasheed Wallace and Jason Maxiell

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Andre Iquodala has talent just oozing out of him. If you watched the first round playoff matchup of the Philadelphia 76ers and the Detroit Pistons, it was easy to see who was carrying the 76ers.

Andre was the man.

Unfortunately the Pistons are one of the best defensive teams in the league. They blanketed Andre with Tayshaun Prince as the lead defender and help coming from any direction Andre went. Bad grammar, but true story.

Andre still needs to develop his outside game to be a force, but with his strength and athleticism, he is a daunting hoop player.

He is also a restricted free agent.

Andre must be singing with joy, but he isn’t. You see, to sign him you need a lot of money. What team has a lot of money left over?

With last week’s trade of Marcus Camby and his large contract from the Denver Nuggets to the Los Angeles Clippers, the thrifty Grizzlies remain the only club with significant salary-cap space. And they have said they won’t take on expensive contracts. That leaves free agents with few options and even less leverage.

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Time to talk NBA common sense. The 76ers need to sign this guy. They just picked up Elton Brand. They are young and eager. You take a first round playoff team like the 76ers and add Elton Brand to the mix, with Andre Iguodala, Andre Miller at the point, and jumping jack Samuel Dalembert, who knows what can happen?

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Elton Brand will bring his brand of basketball to Philadelphia

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In a blockbuster deal, the Philadelphia 76er’s signed Elton Brand to a 5 year 82 million dollar contract.

Wow!

The 76er’s were eliminated by the Detroit Pistons in the playoffs last year and had no inside presence what so ever. They wanted a big man desperately, but big men are hard to come by.

Philadelphia went all out.

Philadelphia wanted to land a big man this summer and had Hawks restricted free agent forward Josh Smith in town last week for a visit, but he left without being presented with an offer sheet. Smith will look elsewhere, or possibly stay in Atlanta.

The 76ers entered the summer $11 million under the salary cap, but even that wasn’t enough to land a franchise-shifting free agent like Brand. Philadelphia was able to swing a deal with Minnesota that sent forward Rodney Carney and a future No. 1 pick to the Timberwolves as part of a trade that cleared an additional $2 million in salary cap space.

The trade allowed the Sixers to offer a starting salary in the $14-million range. Brand had $16.4 million left on deal he signed in 2003.

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It will make a difference. Check out this lineup…

Brand joins a Sixers team that is no longer the lottery-bound loser it was a year ago. Andre Miller, Andre Iguodala, Samuel Dalembert and the blossoming Thaddeus Young turned the 76ers into a surprise playoff team, even stretching Detroit to six games in a first-round series. Philadelphia coach Maurice Cheeks had his team playing hard every game and he earned an extension from Stefanski.

The Sixers got only 5.2 points out of last season’s power forward, Reggie Evans.

“I feel even stronger and tougher once I’ve got Elton Brand behind me,” Stefanski said. “I’d have to say, yes, we have closed the gap.”

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Philadelphia 76ers lead the series with the Detroit Pistons 2 to 1 with the next game in Philadelphia. Should the 76ers win that game, the Pistons would need to win the remaining 3 games, with two of them in Detroit.

Philadelphia 76ers 95 Detroit Pistons 75

Mo Cheeks discusses point guard play with Andre Miller

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Pistons can’t throw it in ocean

Detroit went into a huge funk in the 3rd quarter and could not buy a basket.

With 10:41 left in the 3rd quarter, Rip Hamilton buried a 3 pointer for the Pistons to make the score 48 - 46. The Pistons did not make another basket in the third quarter. They did make some free throws.

With 10:04 left in the 4th quarter a goaltend was called on Dalembert on a Chauncey Billups layup to break the basketless string. With 8:46 left Tayshaun Prince finally made a layup for an actual basket that went through the hoop.

It was very painful to watch.

It is too Read more

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

The Pistons just could not take care of business. They missed shot after shot. It got ugly.

Philadelphia was behind by 15 points in the 3rd quarter and rallied back. With 4 minutes in the 4th quarter, Pistons fans got the sense that the 76ers were going to win. That is an unfamiliar feeling.

Usually at that time of the game it is all Pistons as they choreograph one easy bucket after another and put the stops on opposing team’s offense, but not tonight as an inspired Philadelphia led by Andre Miller kept charging towards victory.

The 76ers usually sent 3 and sometimes 4 to the glass on Piston misses of wide open shots. Those rebounds resulted in running opportunities at the other end and the 76ers made them pay.

Rip Hamilton missed his shots off the curl plays. Rasheed Wallace missed a couple of inside bunnies, one a turn around that left him wide open and one on a beautiful inside drop step that left him with a layup. Tayshaun Prince was brought in the rescue them and missed two wide open mid-range jump shots. It got ugly.

Maybe the worst stretch was when Chauncey Billups missed 3 free throws in a row and tried to squeeze in a layup in a crowd and missed. This happened while 50% free throw shooter Reggie Evans buried two free throws and made a turnaround jumper from the top of the key. Ouch. Oh my, it got ugly.

Maybe even worse was wasting a monster effort by Rasheed Wallace.

Wallace had 24 points, nine rebounds and matched a franchise playoff record with seven blocks.
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The Pistons were leading by 7 going into the fourth quarter, and as usual were plagued by inconsistent offense.

The Pistons, notorious for their inconsistent effort, proved the cushion wasn’t large enough.

“That’s Detroit,” Iguodala said. “They turn it on and turn it off.

“We just kept fighting the whole way.”

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There were concerns that Coach Flip Saunders would shorten the bench during the playoffs and the same old tired Pistons that lost to LeBron and the Cavaliers last year would be stuck on the floor too much.

The guard play needs to improve. (Hamilton missed 12 of 17 shots.) The celebrated “new” bench was little more than Maxiell. Wallace said he’ll “take this one on the chin,” but he’s the last guy who should feel responsible. He played hard from the opening tip.
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Well, Flip did keep the bench on the bench during the important moments and hopefully he will think twice before doing that again.

NBA Basketball special comment Before Piston fans start complaining, keep in mind this is a seven game series and it will be hard for Philadelphia to repeat what it did here tonight. They buried a lot of shots, while Detroit missed quite a few easy ones.

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LeBron James knows he must improve for Cleveland to win

It is not often that LeBron James is humbled.

It is even less often that the King is shown to be at a deficit with his hoop skills.

The Cleveland Cavaliers surprised a lot of teams last year, but unless LeBron and the team improve, they will fall behind the Pistons, Celtics, and probably the Magic.

And right now LeBron is behind Kobe in his ability to finish a game.

In last year’s Championship, the San Antonio Spurs took LeBron and basically punished him.

So the Spurs took LeBron out behind the woodshed?

Well, not exactly, but something like that.

The San Antonio Spurs prevented LeBron James from dominating in last year’s NBA Championship series.

The Spurs, given more than enough time to game plan, took advantage of his shortcomings during the Finals. Bruce Bowen chased him wherever he went, and when James did penetrate, he usually found a four-man wall waiting for him.

The Spurs’ goal: If James wanted to drive, he was going to have to plow through a crowd of them to do so. Instead, they dared James to fire pick-and-roll jumpers, and he didn’t make nearly enough, shooting just 32 percent in the four-game sweep. source

The King was not going to side idly by and let this public humiliation escape away without Read more

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

Kenny Smith of Yahoo Sports and a pretty good point guard in his own right (couple of championship rings with the Rockets), picks his top 10 point guards. My humble opinions will be in italics.  (Be sure to vote for your favorite point guard in the poll to the right!)

1. Steve Nash: The best in the game. His ability to get the Suns into their fast-paced tempo every night is uncanny. Every team’s defensive emphasis is to slow the Suns down. Most fail. Credit Nash for that.

This guy dribbles like the ball is a yo yo on the end of a string. Simply amazing.

1a. Jason Kidd: If Nash is No. 1, Kidd is 1a. And if you put Kidd on the Suns running Mike D’Antoni’s offense, we might be calling him the best.

Seems like Kidd has played for 200 years and is still at the top of his game.

3. Tony Parker: Not the most dominant point guard left, but he makes the best decisions. The Spurs have become a dynasty and Parker is one of the reasons why.

Less enamored by this choice. Pretty easy to play next to the big fundamental. Parker does play well in big games, though.

4. Baron Davis: “The Body Guard” overpowers most of his peers. Davis’ ability to fuel the Golden State Warriors’ run-run-run offense puts him near the top. If his shot selection gets better he’ll move up the list.

Love watching Baron play, but the number 4 point guard? Hard to believe.

5. Chauncey Billups: Billups is often overlooked in “best of” debates. But his leadership skills and Read more