2 Become 1

MoRRie's Pogiboys send Jason Williams to Fat Jubas in exchange for Darko Milicic and Tyrus Thomas.

After finally breaking a thirteen-week consecutive losing streak (needless to say, a league record), the Pogiboys are on the move. It goes without saying that they've had a bad three months -- their last win was in November 2006 -- but now they're headed in the right direction.

A minor trade seems to position them for further success next year. Losing Jason Williams will be a blow but the heady veteran wasn't going to help the Pogiboys much anyway. He needs to be on a contender in order for his combination of distance shooting, steals, and assists to be useful. Welcome to that contender Jason, and to the Fat Jubas.

Eric-L's Jubas are the leaders of the West and showed no signs of giving any quarter to any of their foes, at least until Dwayne Wade got carted off in a wheelchair and the season suddenly looked shaky. Knowing that their biggest star might be out for the season, Eric-L was looking for solutions. A few mega-deals were proposed but ultimately, Jubas' management felt they should just sacrifice a few young bigs, Darko Milicic and Tyrus Thomas, in return for a proven floor general. The recent emergence of Lamarcus Aldridge gave the Jubas the luxury of too many BLK men on the bench so Milicic and Thomas were expendable.

The former White Chocolate is still an excellent fantasy player when healthy, contributing plenty of AST-3PT and sometimes PTS and STL. The only downside to Williams is his age and injury prone status, but on his new team, he'll fit right in alongside Wade, Tracy McGrady, Jermaine O'Neal, and Josh Howard as injury worries. Williams will pick up the slack in Wade's absence and with the Diesel's return down low, it won't be hard to pick up plenty of assists and to set up for three pointers.

In return, the Pogiboys get two young big men who are predominantly useful for their ability to block shots. Replacing Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo with Darko Milicic and Tyrus Thomas will be like having puppies on the squad and if either of them can step up their game, that's a huge upgrade for Alvin's team. Darko has shown flashes of fantasy worthiness and with consistent minutes coming his way, he should only get better. Tyrus is just a rookie, and a bit of a head case, but he can obviously use his athleticism and length to block shots. The question is, can he get some regular playing time on a deep Bulls team?

It looks like a win-win trade for both the Pogiboys and the Jubas -- youth for experience and small for big -- it's the kind of trade we'd like to see more often as teams position themselves for a wide open championship run; or for next year.

2006 Draft Look: Part 2

What a draft for Brian. Kevin Garnett slips to 7th overall, then Ray Allen falls into his lap in Rd2. Check out picks four through six: Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, and Brandon Roy. We would name this the best top of the draft if not for Boris Diaw in Rd3. That's one pick Brian would probably like back. Jamaal Tinsley in Rd13 has proven to be great value too.

Roger had quite a few excellent picks. Rashard Lewis in Rd3, followed by Baron Davis in Rd5; but we like Tyson Chandler in Rd9 for the true steal. You realize he's the mini-(healthy)-Camby right? With double doubles and 2 BLK a game? Oh wait, is the steal in Rd11? With Chandler's ex-teammate Eddy Curry (20 PTS and 7 REB)? JR Smith in the 13th was looking like a genuine steal until the whole Iverson thing happened. The one misstep might have been Chris Webber in Rd6, but that could still work itself out even if C-Webb is no longer a 20-10 guy.

Here's a team whose best pick is, by default, Chauncey Billups in Rd2. Here's picks five through fifteen for Alvin: C Kaman, C Frye, T Murphy, S Telfair, V Radmanovic, D Fisher, I Diogu, J Williams, K Brown, J Pryzbilla. See a single pick you like there in hindsight? And picks 3 and 4 (G Wallace and S Marbury) have had their ups and downs too. Seems like Alvin had the anti-Midas touch this year.

Ping had a pretty good draft, selecting exactly the best player left on the board in most instances. The multi-talented Lamar Odom returns nice value from Rd3 but there's no true steals here, unless you think Desmond Mason in Rd13 was a gem. Al Harrington in Rd7 is pretty good, but aside from that, Ping took the most logical player available so no big surprises or disappointments.

It's hard to pick out a great pick for Trieu. Ron Artest has been on fire lately, so his selection in Rd3 looks pretty good, but Artest comes with his issues. The best pick was probably getting Steven Jackson in Rd11, but that hardly qualifies as a steal. Biggest whiff? Morris Peterson in Rd5. Trieu's waived the two highest draft picks so far this season -- Morris and Mike James, selected in the fifth and sixth rounds respectively. Nobody else has outright cut anyone above an eigth rounder (Troy Murphy by Alvin).

Reno had two picks that have turned out great; Luol Deng in Rd6 and Mike Miller right after him in Rd7. Surely those two picks beat out the injured Brad Miller in Rd4 and the fading Zydrunas Ilgauskas in Rd5. Both big men are still not too bad, but they're clearly on the slide. There's no pick after Rd 8 (Steve Francis) worth noting, or still contributing to the team.

2006 Draft Look: Part 1

As we near the end of the regular season, let's take a look at our 2006 draft again and identify some great picks, some steals, some bad picks, and some terrible picks. In order of the draft #1-12...

Jon took Carmelo with his third pick and it can be argued that Melo is now a solid second round selection. Of course, would you rather have some of the picks post-Melo -- Josh Smith, Jason Kidd, Jermaine O'Neal, Joe Johnson, Andre Igoudala, Rashard Lewis or Lamar Odom? The pick of Jameer Nelson in the fourth hurt pretty bad as Jameer is returning none of the value expected of him. The Funk had no picks that can now be considered steals.

Eric-A exhibited savvy draft day foresight, stealing a resurrected Amare Stoudemire in Rd2 and getting value on the dollar for Zach Randolph in Rd6. Raja Bell (7), Jarrett Jack (10) and Andrea Bargnani (11) will all turn out to be good picks, but hardly true steals. A diminished Ben Wallace in Rd4 now looks a bit early.

The other Eric, Eric-L, made a fantastic grab of up-and-comer Andre Igoudala in Rd4 and that turned out to be an amazing pick -- along with Josh Howard in Rd7. He also nabbed Leandro Barbosa in Rd9 and Al Jefferson in Rd12. The mistakes? Maggette in Rd 6 or maybe Darko in Rd8. Lots of hits for a very few misses however.

Jose took the risk on Pau Gasol in Rd6 and got back second round value pretty quickly. Which is good because their actual second round pick, Andrei Kirilenko has been the biggest bust so far this season. Acquiring the streak shooting Ben Gordon in Rd7 seems to be quite a coup too.

Oliver unearthed two of the biggest late round gems -- Kevin Martin (Rd10) and Monta Ellis (Rd14). In addition, they got Caron Butler's career year at Rd5. The only semi-miss? Rasheed Wallace in Rd4, which isn't even too bad considering what Rasheed had -- and might be still be -- capable of.

Evan got a block and rebounding machine in Rd7, Emeka Okafor, for cheap; which came right after his now ugly looking selection of Charlie Villanueva in Rd6. The best pick might have been committing to Josh Smith in Rd3 however, as Josh is now putting up outstanding, ridiculous, numbers. Then again, maybe it's mighty Mo Williams in the 9th that deserves best pick honors.

DJ

"Dennis Johnson, the star NBA guard who was part of three championships and teamed with Larry Bird on one of the great postseason plays, died Thursday after collapsing at the end of his developmental team's practice. He was 52."

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Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better

It's impossible to get an accurate picture of our last spotlighted team, Buffy. Stats don't reflect the depth and skill of this roster; mainly because they've have major parts missing most of the season. Even with all those injuries, Buffy stands at a strong 9-6 (good for third in the West) and had a four game winning streak earlier in the season.

Injuries are part of the game but this is ridiculous. Chris Paul, Rashard Lewis, JR Smith, Luke Walton, the recently traded Joe Johnson, and Shaquille O'Neal have all missed significant time. Baron Davis and Antawn Jamison are slated to miss a few weeks each -- as is JR Smith again. We'll take a look at Buffy's projected best lineup and how that might stack up.

PTS, REB, AST: Buffy, firing on all cylinders, is a powerhouse scoring team. They're ranked 4th in PTS on the season but the potential is there for a much higher ranking. While there are no scoring champs on this roster, seven guys can consistently put up around 20 ppg (Paul, Duncan, Baron, Rashard, Jamison, Curry, Crawford). That makes for a lot of buckets. We're thinking Buffy can compete with anyone in PTS anyway, simply because they are so explosive and anyone is capable of blowing up for a big week.

The trade for Tim Duncan (10.8 REB) inserts a stud rebounder into the lineup. While there are a handful of pretty good rebounders on the squad -- Curry, Jamison, Lewis, Webber, Collision, and presumably, Shaq, can all get at least 7 REB a game -- Buffy isn't an overwhelming REB force. Yet. Ranked only 8th on the season, they can quickly rise in the rankings if everyone gets on board. Not to mention, Baron and CP3 are both great rebounding point guards. We forsee a top 3 REB ranking if everyone is healthy and in the lineup.

The passing burden falls squarely on the brittle bodies of Baron and Chris Paul. Both average about 8.7 AST a game and that incredible output would allow them to carry the rest of the team. How far though? The next best AST guy on the team is either Jamal Crawford or Luke Walton -- one is a shooter, the other is limited by Kobe and Lamar. While there's a steep drop-off after the two stud point guards, Buffy should be at least middle of the pack in AST -- they're ranked 8th for now.

STL, BLK, 3PT: You're gonna hear this a lot: Baron and Paul carry the team -- this time in STL. Both are at about 2.0 STL per game and those are league leading numbers. Most of the other guards and forwards average about 1.0 STL a game and that should be enough to make Buffy slightly above average in the STL department -- ranked 5th on the season.

Buffy is a bonafide dominant three point shooting team. They're only ranked 3rd on the season, but they've rarely had their full complement of shooters on the floor. JR Smith (2.75), Rashard Lewis (2.2), and Antawn Jamison (2.2) lead the way but Crawford, Davis, Dunleavy, and Mobley aren't too shabby either. If those seven all play at the same time, the 3PT numbers can get astronomical.

The only weakness Buffy has displayed so far is a lack of BLK. They're ranked 10th in the league, and only protect the rim better than the Sour Snails and Funk Coalition -- who barely reject anything except wins. Tim Duncan's 2.3 BLK will help here but one man can't carry a whole team. The other seven-footers on this team, Shaq and Eddy Curry, are hardly good at blocking anything except the buffet line.

FG%, FT%, TO: For a team with so many shooters, this is a fine FG% team. Eddy Curry shoots 58.1% and Tim Duncan will boost that with his 52.7%. If Shaq ever shoots enough to make a difference, his 52.2% is pretty par for the course. Even Baron Davis is at a respectable -- for him -- 42.6%. The only truly terrible shooter here is Jamal Crawford (40.2%), who has no conscience, but in a good way. Buffy is ranked 5th on the season in FG% -- soon to rise -- and that's pretty impressive considering the PTS and 3PT output they are capable of.

The flip side of the shiny coin is that FT% is shot to hell -- ranked 10th and that's before Timmy and Shaq were in the lineup. Duncan and Shaq's free throw woes are well documented. Curry and Webber don't help matters with their sub-70 FT% either. If Roger decides to take his team and go small, he could do quite well in FT% however -- since all of his non-bigs are excellent free throw shooters, highlighted by Rashard Lewis' 90.6%.

Buffy is ranked 9th in TO for the season, recently rising as high as 5th for the second half. Have they gotten better at protecting the ball? Unlikely. It's more a case of Baron and Paul being injured and off the floor. The real concern here is that Eddy Curry, Tim Duncan, and Jamal Crawford all average about 3.0 TO each, the same as the two point guards but without the high return in AST. Still, Buffy should be middle of the pack in turnovers as just about everyone either shoots it immediately, or just puts it in the bucket.

Bench: Buffy is in the enviable position of being able to play the matchups. They could go big with Shaq, Curry, Webber and Collison, or go small and insert JR Smith, Dunleavy, Mobley, and Walton. They can play for REB, for either of the two percentages, for 3PT, and not lose a whole lot in the PTS and AST department. They are a true 9-category team. Fun times eh? The only guy who will probably remain firmly planted on the bench is Hakim Warrick, who has had his moments but is too streaky to play often. Shaq may never see the light of day either, as Roger drafted him with the intention of punishing him for ever leaving the Lakers. Otherwise, there's not a defined bench here as much as a deep squad to play matchups week to week. Pundits project that the bench will usually consist of Shaq, Warrick, Mobley, Collison (who is playing like a monster recently), and Walton. Unless one of them gets the hot hand and can displace Webber, JR Smith, or Dunleavy.

Cure: There's nothing wrong with this team; in fact, there's a lot of right with it. They just need to remain healthy. The key cog, Baron Davis (who is irreplaceable as the second anchor for AST and STL) seems to drive this team's success. If he plays, Buffy wins.

Roger could move some spare pieces for another BLK guy in the mold of Darko Milicic or something like that, but for the most part, what else does this team need? Maybe another point guard to back up Baron and Paul? A witch doctor for Baron's knees? That's about it. This is the playoff dark horse right here.