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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Image: Zuma Press

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

More blogs about basketball.

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

Dallas is struggling to figure out how to stop the Nuggets. There just does not seem to be any one or two players that need stopping. There appears to be a whole bus load.

With the Mavericks moving back home, maybe they can stem the tidal wave of buckets and pull out a couple of victories.

On Tuesday, for the second straight game, Denver’s top two scorers, Anthony and Billups, struggled at the start. But, once again, the Nuggets found others to step up.

Smith, an athletic guard, scored 17 of his 21 points in the first half, and Nene scored 14 of his 25 as the Nuggets took a 58-55 lead. That made up for Anthony and Billups combining for just 10 first-half points.

In Sunday’s Game 1, Anthony and Billups combined for just seven first-half points. But Nene scored 18 of his team-high 24 before intermission, and the Nuggets led, 51-47, en route to a 109-95 win.

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Carmelo is thinking Defense!

This is a confident Nugget team held together by ex-Piston Chauncey Billups and fueled by the high scoring Carmelo Anthony. George Karl has crafted a team that can score easily and defend when it has to. Even Carmelo was talking about playing defense when interviewed before the half. Yes, you are in trouble when Carmelo is talking defense.

Photo source Newscom

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The Denver vs. Dallas series was not supposed to happen. If you roll the tape back to the beginning of the year and someone had told you that Denver would meet the Chris Paul Hornets and that Dallas would face the Tim Duncan Spurs, then the choice was easy. The Hornets and Spurs would advance.

But nobody told Dallas and Denver about the script. Not to mention a few other things.

Ok, let’s mention them.

No Manu Ginobili. Would the Spurs have won with him? Who knows, but their chances would have increased signifigantly.

Rick Carlisle. Rick has changed Dallas. They now play offense at a slightly less frenetic pace and they play defense. While Rick was in Piston land, before Larry Brown, he did an incredible job of making each player accountable. He loves to not double team and hold his defender accountable. It is working in Dallas. (On the flip side, Carlisle was very unlikeable to everyone right down to the janitors.)

The most significant different component in the organization is Carlisle, who has Jason Kidd running a well-coordinated offense and who has the Mavericks playing better defense than they ever did under defensive-minded Avery Johnson.

Carlisle seemed to make all the right moves, getting maximum effort from the bench, from Josh Howard, and, yes, from Erick Dampier.

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Jason Kidd and Chauncey Billups. Read more

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

Maverick fans have to be drooling. Mark Cuban has let it be known that he would pick up the two worst contracts on the Hornets in order to get Chris Paul.

It makes the mind swirl to think of the Dallas Mavericks picking up Chris Paul to play on the same team as Dirk Nowitzki. You would have a former MVP still playing at a very high level with a future MVP candidate adding some much needed full court speed.

Chris Paul defies the laws of gravity

Dirk is still one of the top mismatch players in the league, presenting an interesting combination of size and long distance shooting ability. If you added in Chris Paul, just think of the explosiveness on the Mavericks. Chris is a penetrating point guard and they rule the NBA right now.

So why would the Hornets let this deal happen?

In a word, contracts. They have way too many dollars tied up in longer contracts.

Who would the Hornets want to get rid of so badly that they’d be willing to part with Paul? Peja Stojakovic ($13.39 million next season and $14.26 in 2010-11) would definitely be part of the deal. Chandler ($12.3 next season and $13.2 in 2010-11) probably would be included, too. Morris Peterson (due a total of $12 million over the next two seasons) or James Posey ($19.5 million over three seasons) are other possibilities.

Stojakovic’s contract ranks among the worst in the league. He’s had a very good career, but he’s an oft-injured 40-percent jump shooter these days. But he is the starting small forward for a playoff team.

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Photo source Newscom

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