Points in the Paint

» February 19, 2009 8:42 PM | By Brandon Hoffman

Marc Berman of the New York Post: “The deadline is over and the Knicks helped their playoff push and made it easier to let Nate Robinson walk this summer. Indeed, Donnie was ready for action. Although Larry Hughes became a non-entity in Chicago, he is a good fit in Mike D’Antoni’s system, is a very nice perimeter shooter and slasher despite his low shooting percentage. I hope he gets playing time over unreliable, out of shape Quentin Richardson. Chris Wilcox, whom the Knicks almost drafted five years ago, is a good frontcourt piece off the bench. I’d rather have him in a rotation over Tim Thomas.” I love this deal for the Knicks. Chris Wilcox will be a perfect fit in Mike D’Antoni’s system. I actually pined for the D’Antoni led Suns to trade Shawn Marion for Wilcox and Rashard Lewis during the 2006-07 season. Wilcox and Lewis played for the Supersonics at the time and both players were available. Marion’s trade value was high and Wilcox and Lewis’ salaries nearly matched Marion’s. Wilcox can fun the floor, is an underrated rebounder, and should fit in well when the Knicks are forced into the halfcourt. The Knicks run a lot of high pick-and-rolls when they’re forced into the halfcourt. Wilcox sets sturdy picks and he’s a great finisher around the basket.

Tony Mejia of Pro Basketball News: “With Chandler failing to join the Thunder, the most important pickup of deadline week winds up being Rafer Alston landing in Orlando. While the Spurs, Celtics, Cavs and Lakers all wound up idle, and New Orleans, Houston, Phoenix actually unloaded or looked to unload major pieces, the Magic were the only potential title contender to bolster their squad. Alston is owed $5.25 million next season, so Orlando didn’t have to absorb a massive cap hit to acquire his services, and the Magic expect to be good enough that the first-round draft pick (‘09 or ‘10) they shipped Memphis’ way won’t be a major loss.” Alston is an upgrade over Anthony Johnson and Tyron Lue, but he won’t come close to making up for the loss of Jameer Nelson. I like this deal for Houston. Alston was expendable. He wasn’t a championship caliber point guard. I also like what little I’ve seen from Kyle Lowry. He has decent size and he’s active defensively. Houston doesn’t need a lot of box score production from their lead guard, they need a steady hand who can be a rock as their first line of defense. I think Lowry is up to the task.

Ken Berger of CBSSports.com: “It’s a well-known fact a cactus can’t grow in Cleveland. For that reason, and others, the Big Cactus will stay in Phoenix. Like everyone else, I was trying to wrap my tiny brain around Shaquille O’Neal playing in Cleveland with LeBron James. I couldn’t imagine it. I’m not sure it would’ve been the right move for the Cavs. If I’m reading this right, the Cavs weren’t so sure, either. But the biggest buzz in the final hours before Thursday’s trade deadline centered around Cleveland’s 11th-hour bid for Shaq. And there’s only one way that could’ve been a bad thing for the Cavs: If it actually happened. That’s why I agree with some rival team executives who asserted Thursday that Cleveland’s play for O’Neal was little more than a show for LeBron James. I liked Cleveland’s aggressive posture leading into the deadline, but I don’t buy that O’Neal was ever a viable option. ‘I think it was blowing smoke,’ one rival exec said.” I hope the Cavs were blowing smoke. If not, they dodged a bullet when this deal fell through. Shaq is still putting up impressive numbers, but he no longer draws double-teams to open up things for his teammates and he’s incapable of playing enough minutes to offset his deficiencies on the defensive end. Shaq is a major liability when defending the pick-and-roll, which is one of Cleveland’s strengths defensively. Ilgauskas has difficulty showing and recovering on picks, but Ben Wallace and Anderson Varajao are excellent at hedging and recovering. Take a look at Tony Parker’s numbers during San Antonio’s first round victory over the Suns last season. The Spurs iso’d Parker and had Duncan (Shaq’s defensive assignment) set screen-and-roll after screen-and-roll for Parker. With Shaq unable to show on Parker or recover on Duncan, Parker destroyed the Suns to the tune of 29.6 points and 7.0 assists per contest. Paul Pierce would have done the same thing in the event that the Cavaliers met the Celtics in the playoffs. Pierce doesn’t have Parker’s speed, but he can score in every way imagineable. I also prescribe to the alpha male theory of locker room leadership. The Cavs have a clear hierarchy in their locker room. LeBron is the leader. Shaq has never taken a back seat to anyone. And while he talks a good game about deferring to others, he invariably complains about touches. Offensively, O’Neal would have given the Cavs a reliable low post scorer, but he would have clogged up the lane. James does most of his damage at the basket and there simply isn’t a lot of room to operate when you have 7-foot, 350 pound station wagon parked in the lane.

The Economy and the Lakers

The Dream Shake: “Now, there is a school of thought that McGrady made this announcement because he doesn’t want to be traded and he wants to stay in Houston. I don’t buy it. I don’t think McGrady is able to think that many steps ahead. He doesn’t exactly strike me a grandmaster of chess. Besides, he is a paid employee of the team, and he’s getting his $23M in 2010 whether he’s healthy or not. So he should have just shut up and kept the news to himself until the TEAM decided to make a public announcement. Tracy is simply too selfish to think about how his decision and subsequent announcement would affect his team. We shouldn’t be surprised. It’s entirely consistent with his character.”