Jazz In Dallas Tonight

Back-to-back games suck. Especially when I have work the day of.

Let’s see… the Jazz won yesterday in front of a very small crowd, needing some solid play late after almost blowing a relatively big lead. The Koof seems to have lost his spot in the rotation (due solely to the fact that he’s a rookie, of course… because his play has been solid) to Flop (uh oh)… Ronnie Price went from starter to DNP-CD… Korver is back out of the dog-house, and Flop made his first basket of the season last night. Oh, and Okur’s shot is MIA since the Pacers game. If you want some more bad, Deron had 8 TOs last night. That has to stop.

As for tonight…

• The Mavs will be short-handed after their trade yesterday.

• The Mavs have lost 4 straight games.
• Dirk the Jerk hates the Jazz.
• The Jazz are playing the 2nd half of a road-road back-to-back. Take what you want from that info.
• Mark Cuban, hilarious. Too bad the MLB won’t let him buy the Pirates… and too bad all the other owners are scared out of their minds by a owner that actually cares about his team.

That’s that.

Filed under: DAL Mavericks, Deron Williams, Jarron Collins, Kosta Koufos, Kyle Korver, MEM Grizzlies, Mehmet Okur, Pregame Thoughts, Ronnie Price

Jazz/Grizzlies

Game already underway.

• Mavs/Bobcats trade… DeSagana Diop to Charlotte, Matt Carroll & Ryan Hollins to Dallas.
• CJ is playing, ‘Sap is not.
• 3 Shades of Blue

Let’s hope for a better performance than in OKC.

Filed under: CJ Miles, MEM Grizzlies, Paul Millsap, Pregame Thoughts

Minor Trades Made… None By Jazz

Update: Hassan Adams has a Shaun Livingston pulled on him, as he is released just hours after being traded for.

OKC trades a big man … to the Nuggets. The trade is as follows…

Nuggets get: Johan Petro, OKC’s 2nd round pick in 2009
Thunder get: Chucky Atkins, Denvers 1st round pick in 2009

Chucky Atkins. Seriously. It’s a salary dump for the Nuggets (like the Marcus Camby trade before the season and the Cheikh Samb trade a couple days ago… both to the Clippers, no less). The team had no need for Atkins, and decided they needed a young big-man that wasn’t Samb. Atkins is making $3.2 million this year, Johan Petro is at $1.9 million.

I guess my hopes that the Jazz would add a big man took a slight blow, as I had mentioned the Thunder bigs… but I doubt they’ll trade either Sene or Swift now. The Jazz could’ve potentially made a similar trade… Mo Almond & Flop have salaries that add up to $3.1 million, and both are expiring contracts, unlike Atkins. And it’s not like the Thunder needed a PG… they’re already lacking the minutes to keep Earl Watson & Russell Westbrook happy. And both guys have 2 years left on their contract… with Westbrook being on his rookie contract (in other words, and extension can be made). In comparison to Petro, Swift’s salary (if traded) is something like $4 million, while Sene’s is $2.2 million. All 3 are in their final year, and Swift would have to consent to any trade. Even then…

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In an interesting move, the Grizzlies, already overstocked with PGs, traded for Shaun Livingston & cash considerations. In exchange for him, they gave the Heat a conditional 2012 2nd round pick. And then the Grizzlies promptly waived him. So let me get this straight… the Grizzlies waived Darius Miles to make room for Livingston, traded for Livingston… and then waived Livingston. What?

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And finally, the Clippers made another minor trade… after the aforementioned Cheikh Samb & cash for a conditional 2015 2nd round pick (if it’s in the bottom 5 of the round)… trading a future conditional 2nd round pick to Toronto for Hassan Adams.

I wonder if the Jazz will make a trade to improve… they not only have the available players (previously mentioned here), but also a small trade exception from the Jason Hart trade ($484,000).

Filed under: CJ Miles, DEN Nuggets, Jarron Collins, Jason Hart, LA Clippers, MEM Grizzlies, MIA Heat, Morris Almond, OKC Thunder, TOR Raptors, trade

Three Team Trade

The deal:
Wizards get: Mike James, Javaris Crittenton
Grizzlies get: Future 1st round pick (originally Memphis’)
Hornets get: Antonio Daniels, 2nd round pick in 2015 or cash from Memphis

After the trade went down, the Wizards released ex-Jazzster Shorty.

The Wizards were in need of guard help, especially with Agent Zero out. So they settled on youngster Javaris Crittenton (traded for the 2nd time in his short career), a youngster who was caught in a log jam in Memphis… one that resulted in him played about 6 minutes a game in 7 games this season. He struggled to get the time behind Kyle Lowry & Mike Conley (on the other hand, I assume we can put an end to the Conley-to-Portland rumors). The Wizards also acquired Mike James from the Hornets. James was added in the off-season, but couldn’t beat out Devin Brown (another ex-Jazzster) for the back-up PG spot. So now the Wizards have 2 new PGs to man the position, especially with them trading their other PG. Pradamaster over at Bullets Forever likes the deal, but nails it on the head by mentioning that it totally depends on Crittenton’s development. And nails it on the head again by mentioning that the Daniels-for-James swap is a definite downgrade.

Filed under: Dee Brown, Devin Brown, MEM Grizzlies, NO Hornets, WAS Wizards, trade

Deron Returns, Jazz Roll Grizzlies

Finally! The Jazz welcomed Deron back with open arms, after he had missed most of the season to date, and promptly exploded on the Memphis Grizzlies, sending the Grizz out of town with a 117-100 loss. The Jazz were actually ahead by 14 after 1, and 24 after 3 before the Grizzlies made a minor run in the 4th to make it look semi-respectable. Minor run in the sense that J-Slo brought the starters back in.

The Jazz were led by the double-double trio of Deron (11 and 15 assists), Memo (21 and 10 boards) & ‘Sap (24 and 16 boards, including 7 on the offensive end). Ronnie Brewer was also in form, finishing with 21 points, 5 boards & 5 assists.CJ (13) and AK (17 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists) also hit double-figures. Also nice are the shooting stats. Brewer was 8-13. Okur was 7-9. ‘Sap was 11-17, with 5 jams. Deron was 4-9 (eh). AK was 5-10.

Filed under: Andrei Kirilenko, CJ Miles, Deron Williams, Game Recap, Kosta Koufos, Kyrylo Fesenko, MEM Grizzlies, Mehmet Okur, Morris Almond, Paul Millsap, Ronnie Brewer