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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Image: Zuma Press

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

The Detroit Pistons face the ultimate test of the Joe Dumars regime. How about we get rid of every big guy around and then go find a friend for Tayshaun Prince?

Draft day came around and Blake Griffin went to the Clippers and will never be heard from again. He almost made the NBA, too bad. That is a joke, but then, so are the Clippers.

Anyway, back to that friend for Tay. When the 15th pick rolled around the Pistons picked 6′ 11″ and 191 pound Austin Daye. That’s right, 191 pounds. Arnie Kander will have to put some beef on that guy, because right now he looks like Tayshaun’s little brother.

Austin Daye better not be late for dinner

AP writer Larry Lage writes that Joe Dumars remarked that Austin Daye is skinnier that Tay, but that he likes his skill set.
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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Ok, forget the five players involved in the trade. Randy Foye, so what. Mike Miller, likes to shoot. Etan Thomas, can rebound a little. Think more on the picks. Minnesota now has both the 5th and 6th pick in the upcoming NBA draft 2009. Think about the possibilities.

For the Timberwolves, they now own both the fifth and sixth picks in Thursday’s draft. With Foye now on his way to D.C., it’s safe to assume Minnesota will likely draft a point guard with at least one of those two selections.

Multiple sources have indicated that Wolves are very high on combo guard Tyreke Evans. However, there have been questions as to whether or not Evans will be a true point guard in the NBA. With the fifth pick now in their back pocket, the Wolves could now potentially draft Evans along with another “true” point guard should they so desire. The Wolves could also package the fifth and sixth picks in an attempt to try and move up in the draft, possibly as high as #2 if the Grizzlies are willing to pull the trigger.
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Will Ricky Rubio be a Timberwolf?

Timberwolf fans have to be loving the new GM David Kahn. He has put the team in position to land two great rookies or even trade up and get a possible franchise player like Rubio or Thabeet. This was an excellent trade.
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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Ok, the word is not supposed to be heck. It is really a place where bad people go and it is really hot. Actually in Dante’s version it was really cold. Anyway, Blake Griffin is going there.

Yes, the San Diego, er Los Angeles Clippers, one of the most confused franchises run by an often cheap owner have the number one pick and they plan on taking Blake Griffin. You swear this team could pick up Kobe Bryant and LeBron James and still find a way to screw it up.

Blake Griffin to the Clippers

As you may have guessed there is no love lost for the Clippers right here.

“The pick’s not going anywhere,” assistant general manager Neil Olshey said Monday.
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Hopefully they are not discussing Blake’s career with the Clippers as being a failure before it starts!

Photo source Newscom

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

It is draft time speculation time or something like that and the Memphis Grizzlies, a perennial loser in the NBA, have the second pick and no clue as to what to do with it.

Hasheem Thabeet towers over everybody

The most persistent rumor has the Griz taking Hasheem Thabeet, but Hasheem wouldn’t even work out for them. Hey, would you want to spend your career on a perennial loser? Ok, Hasheem said he has some shoulder problems right now, but you wonder what his response would have been if the Lakers had called?

Who would the Grizzlies pick if the draft was held today?

Truth is, no one really knows at this point. No one. Agendas are flying all over the place.

Reports that Heisley has settled on taking Thabeet are erroneous and grossly overblown, as is speculation that coach Lionel Hollins operates with a Thabeet-or-bust mind-set.

Depending on the day, Heisley, Hollins and Wallace are as excited about a potential trade as they are about possibly drafting Thabeet or Rubio. Even guards Curry and DeRozan have become prominent in discussions among decision makers in the organization.

In other words, the Grizzlies are all over the draft map as it relates to the No. 2, 27th and 36th picks.

That doesn’t necessarily mean trouble given the Griz didn’t consummate a deal for O.J. Mayo until draft night last year, and the deal turned out just fine.
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With a solid plan like deciding on draft day who to take, does this explain why the Grizzlies are always such a rotten team?

Photo source Newscom

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

The latest greatest almost impossible to dream rumor about is the Bulls picking up Dwyane Wade with a max contract. Can you imagine rookie of the year Derrick Rose and perennial MVP candidate Dwyane Wade in the same backcourt? Hand them a few average big guys and you are talking title contenders for years to come.

Think of your average Chicago Bulls fan tainted with the memory of the great one, Michael Jordan, still fresh in their minds and his 6 titles. They have to be hurting right now. There was the close miss with the Celtics that were without the services of Kevin Garnett and the thought that Derrick Rose is a few years away from being able to carry the team.

Could Rose be teamed up with Wade?

Oh, it could be great. In a couple of the OT games with the Celtics the Bulls went to Rose in tie breaker situations at the end of games. How nice it would be to hand the ball to Dwyane Wade instead. No knock on Derrick, but it would be his job to set Wade up for the victory shot.

Wade could walk right into a backcourt with Derrick Rose, two potential all-league players with a nice supporting cast with Joakim Noah, Luol Deng and John Salmons. Such a plan likely would preclude making a big offer and bringing back Ben Gordon. But then you also risk Miami pulling off a coup, and, say, getting Bosh and then ending up with the 2010 version of Ron Mercer.

source

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

It is the consensus of the experts that Blake Griffith will be the number one pick in the draft, because he has it all, size, speed, talent, and strength. After Blake, the draft in the NBA for 2009 will get a little dicier.

Blake Griffin will fall to the top of the NBA draft

There’s no consensus. Some are pining for Spanish guard Ricky Rubio [above], who has a huge buyout from his Spanish team, Jovenut, to work out before he can come across the Atlantic . Others seek Connecticut’s 7-foot-3 junior center, Hasheem Thabeet, who has not yet formally decided whether he’ll skip his senior season and enter the draft. If Rubio and Thabeet are in the Draft, they’ll probably go No. 2 and No. 3.

But which one goes two or three depends on who’s picking. And, seven weeks before the Draft, the rest of the top half of the first round is equally unknowable. The difference between this year and previous years is we still may not know the complete top five well into June — perhaps into the final week before the draft.

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The NBA draft is so different from the NFL draft in that there are only 2 rounds in the NBA draft and the first rounder’s are guaranteed 3 year contracts. The players drafted in the second round usually don’t even make a roster.

One big surprise in the draft might be from Ohio State. Their freshman center, B. J. Mullins, has declared for the draft. He played against my MSU Spartans and was quite impressive for a freshman. Excellent footwork and great size. Is he NBA ready? Probably not, but there is a dearth of 7′ centers, so look for him to go high in the draft.

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

Hasheem Thabeet was showing off his big game in the NCAA tournament. As Tom Izzo said, “Until you are on the court and have to face him, you cannot believe how tall he is”.

Special Tom Izzo timeout: A big shout out to my MSU Spartans in the final game of the NCAA facing everyone’s favorite the North Carolina powder blue. May my Spartans rule!

Thabeet behind Kalin Lucas of MSU. It looks like he is playing with a bunch of 8th graders.

7′ 3″ tall and with a build that says he is strong, instead of tall. If you were in the stands watching him play, you might think he was a shorter player playing on a shorter rim, in other words he is not some bean pole.

And Thabeet has skills.

Now, less than three years removed from his days at Cypress Christian, Thabeet has plenty of reasons to smile. A junior who is still considered a raw talent by N.B.A. standards, he has developed into the Big East’s co-player of the year and the league’s back-to-back defensive player of the year. He is expected to be a top-five pick in the N.B.A. draft in June.

His shot-blocking and rebounding have been instrumental in the run that Connecticut (31-4) made to Saturday’s national semifinal against Michigan State (30-6) in Detroit.

This season, Thabeet is averaging 13.5 points, 10.9 rebounds and 4.28 blocks. Not bad for a player who had to be prodded by his high school coaches to dunk in layup lines.
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Hasheem is raw talent in a very tall body and the NBA needs him now.

Why? Will he begin to dominate the NBA?

No, Hasheem is not skilled enough to dominate, but he can begin to bring back the athletic big man to the NBA. It is a league that has oddly grown shorter at the center position and opted instead for speed. Hasheem can bring speed with tall, an odd mix of words, but you get it.

With Shaq on the way out, there are few big physical centers in the league left, maybe Oden or Howard. The NBA has always had big physical centers. We love to watch them play and smash against each other underneath the basket.

Yes, Hasheem wants the NBA and the NBA needs Hasheem.

Photo source Newscom

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

Maybe Michael Beasley should have been standing in front of Derrick Rose?

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Can you use math to predict how good a college player will become in the NBA?

Chris Doughty, a 2008 industrial and operations engineering graduate of the University of Michigan, pointed me to a cool regression analysis of the great John Hollinger. Using data from current NBA players, Hollinger sees how well the players’ college stats explain their subsequent performance in the NBA.
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According to John, Rudy Gay, Marcus Williams, and Rajon Rondo would be the best 3 players from the 2006 draft.

So, who does John pick in the latest draft?

Michael Beasley, Kevin Love, Darrell Arthur, Marreese Speights, D. J. Augustin, and then Rose.

It’s particularly interesting to see what happens to players like Darrell Arthur who had very different Hollinger and actual draft ratings. Hollinger ranked Arthur 3rd in projected PER (player efficiency rating) but Arthur was taken 27th. (Donte Greene, Kosta Koufus, Roy Hibbert, and Marreese Speights were also undervalued by the regression’s lights).

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Jermaine O’Neal is the one on the left. He is now a Toronto Raptor.

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This draft is full of so many equal players that trades may abound. As teams shore up their foundations before the draft.

Check out this latest one.

Pacers to Raptors

After on-and-off again negotiations, the Indiana Pacers have agreed in principle to send six-time All-Star Jermaine O’Neal to the Toronto Raptors for point guard T.J. Ford and the 17th pick in Thursday’s NBA draft, a league executive said Wednesday.
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How about this rumor?

Detroit and the Baron

A team source said that Davis has told teammates he will not exercise the opt-out provision in his contract before its June 30 expiration date, meaning that he will play out the final year of the deal at a salary of $17.8 million.
…
the source said Detroit is willing to divest itself of longtime stars Rasheed Wallace and Chauncey Billups.

Wallace, like Davis an unrestricted free agent after ’08-09, would give the Warriors their best true power forward since Chris Webber’s first stint in 1993-94 and has 3-point range that coach Don Nelson would love.

And the inclusion of Billups, who has been made more expendable by the emergence of rookie Rodney Stuckey last season, would ease any concerns from Nelson about the point guard position.
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Golden State would have to include another player to balance out salaries. Al Harrington has been mentioned.

Can’t figure this one out. If your faith is in Stuckey, then what is Baron Davis for? Why give up Rasheed Wallace when he only has one year on his contract left and he is your only legit big guy? What is missing here?

Cleveland is Redd -y?

How about Michael Redd going to the Cleveland LeBron’s? Wow!

As always, trade rumors are rampant in the hours leading into the draft. The biggest one surrounding Cleveland involves Milwaukee shooting star Michael Redd, a player the Cavaliers pursued but couldn’t sign as a free agent a few seasons back.

Redd, who this week was named to the U.S. Olympic team along with Cavs All-Star LeBron James, could be had for the right price. He has three years and $51 million left on his contract, and Ferry would need to give up some key parts _ perhaps Daniel Gibson and Anderson Varejao _ along with some top picks to bring Redd to Cleveland.

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This would bring scoring to the Cav’s and don’t think the Bucks would get ripped. John Hammond is running that place now and he only wants toughness. The Bucks are trying to build a long term foundation.

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