Anyone who believes Eddy Curry wants to remain a Bull must be taking the same stupid pills as his agents. And anyone who thinks it will be easy to trade Curry may be similarly afflicted. Curry played well–for him–Saturday night, yet the Bulls lost at home to the Clippers after leading by 24. Yes, general managers all over the NBA are saying, “Get me that guy!”
So let’s look at something that makes a lot more sense for equally desperate teams–the Hornets and the Raptors.
The Hornets and the Bulls are the only winless teams in the NBA. The Hornets are the only team that was not supposed to be. The Raptors, meanwhile, are the only team in the NBA not playing its best player in the fourth quarter. In a loss to Portland on Saturday night, Vince Carter sat out the final period as Toronto made a desperate comeback. Carter was on the bench laughing a lot.
You have to like rookie Raptors coach Sam Mitchell, though. In the fourth quarter of the previous two games, he sat Jalen Rose. If you don’t play hard, you don’t play. No matter what your name is.
“The guys who are going to do the things we ask them to do, offensively and defensively, are going to find minutes,” Mitchell said. “We’re going to find some guys in that room who are going to play team basketball. And the guys who aren’t going to play team basketball are not going to play. I don’t know any other way because I do know one thing: If they do it their way, we’re going to lose, and if I don’t do it my way, I’m going to get fired. But if I’m going to get fired, I’m going to get fired doing it my way.”
There was a nearly half-empty arena for the home opener, so it’s clear Carter’s time in Toronto is over. Teams have been wary about dealing for him and his big contract. But with the Hornets sinking into desperation with a record 0-6 losing streak to start the season, a deal previously considered makes sense: Send Carter to New Orleans, where interest is waning fast, for Canadian Jamaal Magloire. On the court, it would push the athletic Chris Bosh to forward, where he belongs, and when Donyell Marshall returns from injury would give Toronto the toughness it needs to complement its talent.
Maybe the Hornets can dump Baron Davis, hurt again. Perhaps not. But that team, among the poorest in the NBA in scoring, defense and rebounding, needs changes. And in a relatively unsophisticated basketball market, Carter’s act could again sell some tickets. Playing in the West, he’ll also have more freedom to shoot those fall-away 27-footers.
The Hornets have plenty of extra bodies to throw in and perhaps get a draft pick as well. They’re not going anywhere, at least in the standings. Without more customers, they will be the principal target of other cities looking for a team.
Dumb and dumber?
The Pacers’ Ron Artest is either the dumbest guy in the NBA or the smartest. Smarter even than the sports media? Couldn’t be. We also, you’ll remember, wondered that about Dennis Rodman.
(This, by the way, is the obligatory Artest item all NBA notes columns must have this week).
We remember Artest as a Bull with his famous rages and even his bid to work at Circuit City on Sunday off days to get the discount for all the computer toys he was buying. An odd but endearing character.
Artest has become infamous for his request for a leave of absence because he was tired from working on a new rap album for his three-girl group, Allure. There also was a locker-room tussle with Jermaine O’Neal and several episodes of sitting away from the team and in the stands when he was out of the game. This is why you trade him.
So the national media were horrified while we here knew it was just Ron being Ron.
So Artest is brutalized for a week by the righteous police, and then Saturday reminds reporters the album he is promoting is coming out on Nov. 23. Artest is the CEO of TruWarier (yep, that’s how he spells it) Records and executive producer of Allure’s album.
Noted Boston’s Walter McCarty, also a record producer: “It’s something I would never do, but that really could have been a plot to get sales. One thing you have to understand is that Ron Artest is not a dumb person. He obviously knows how to get his name in the paper.”
A heavy load
How much can Kevin Garnett carry for the Timberwolves? First there was Latrell Sprewell’s explanation of the millions he needed to feed his family. What, did he adopt Oliver Miller?
Now Sam Cassell is pouting again, not over a lack of a contract extension but for being held out at the end of a loss to the Pacers because Indiana kept running screen/rolls at him. Sam isn’t usually very interested in defending them.
And now Minnesota has taken on Eddie Griffin, whose drug use was the least of his problems in Houston after he was charged with firing a shot at his girlfriend, leading to his release by the Rockets.
Here’s NBA player conscience Ray Allen: “It’s an unfortunate situation because when you have to worry about contract situations on a championship team, you have lost your focus. Right now [Sprewell] has a lack of focus toward the game because he does not have a contract. He is making it tough on all of us because they think we are all somewhat spoiled brats, rich and don’t care about anybody but ourselves.”
And his point is?
Take note, Eddy
What?! You can be young, a big man and productive? That’s not what we were told. But Orlando’s 18-year-old Dwight Howard is fourth in the NBA in rebounding, averaging 11.3 per game. He has 10 or more rebounds in his first seven games, the first time since the 1992-93 season that a rookie has accomplished the feat. That was Magic rookie Shaquille O’Neal.
“He seeks out rebounds. He doesn’t just watch the game. He plays it,” said Magic coach Johnny Davis, whose team is now No. 1 in the league in rebounding after being 23rd last season. Howard is working extensively with former Bulls center Cliff Ray. Also for the Magic, Grant Hill is averaging 19 points a game. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.
Take note, II
This is scary. Curry is averaging 11.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in his first two games, and Tyson Chandler is averaging 8.8 points and eight rebounds. Charlotte center Primoz Brezec is averaging 15 points and 7.8 rebounds and Emeka Okafor is averaging nine points and 10.6 rebounds for the expansion team that is surprising teams.
“We’re pretty damn good,” Bobcats coach Bernie Bickerstaff said. The surprise is their frontcourt with rookie Okafor and Brezec. “He works well with Okafor,” said Pacers President Donnie Walsh, who gave up Brezec in expansion when the Bobcats threatened to take Reggie Miller. “We hated to lose him. He’s skilled and can shoot the ball.”
Lame-duck coach
Carmelo Anthony didn’t exactly say he was trying to get Denver coach Jeff Bzdelik fired, though it didn’t help after a big loss to Seattle in which he played poorly again and said: “I think the game plan was . . . I don’t know what the game plan was, to be honest with you. Once coach made substitutions at the end, with like five or six minutes left, I knew we gave up as a team.” Anthony was singing to himself in the locker room after the game: “Nobody likes me. But that’s OK.”
Said Bzdelik when asked about changes he might be considering: “I considered a lot of things. I was up at the 23rd floor at a Utah hotel, Grand America, and I was looking down and there was a swimming pool down there. And I thought about, could I make it? I couldn’t get the door open.”
Lame-duck coach II
It also doesn’t sound good for Kings coach Rick Adelman with co-owner Joe Maloof saying of the slow start: “We’re not going to sit back and let this continue. We’re not happy about what’s going on, and I know Mr. Geoff Petrie (the general manager) is not happy either. We have too much talent for this.” The Bulls play both the Kings and Nuggets this week.
Lame-duck coach III
As for that stable organization Jamal Crawford keeps talking about, Knicks President Isiah Thomas counseled New York reporters to stop saying he wants to coach the team. That came even as Thomas got rid of coach Lenny Wilkens’ top assistant, Dick Helm, and now has his own closest friends, Mark Aguirre and Brendan Suhr, on the bench. Thomas did leave himself “a 1 percent chance just in case something ever happens.”
Observers enjoyed a little staredown last week after Suhr went to the bench. Aguirre went for his customary seat on the bench only to find Suhr already there. Aguirre eventually moved to a seat behind the bench. Meanwhile, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg blamed the Knicks’ poor start on owner Cablevision’s decision to buy ads that attacked a proposed new stadium in New York City for the Jets. “If they spent $11 million more on the Knicks, maybe the Knicks would be a better team,” the mayor said.
The quote
Artest on Artest: “I’m not the easiest teammate to play with.”
