NBA Trade - Dallas and Washington

The Dallas Mavericks and the Washington Wizards got together to pull off one of the larger deals in the NBA. The deal sends Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, and DeShawn Stevenson to the Mavericks for Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, Quinton Ross, James Singleton, and a few greenbacks.

This is a major move for Dallas who had been slumping prior to the All Star Weekend and gives them new life at the 2 (Butler) and the 5 (Haywood). Erick Dampier has been hurt Jason Terry is probably better at coming off the bench. Butler should bring a hard nosed scoring threat to the Mavericks that they haven’t had since maybe Jimmy Jackson. Stevenson can also come off the bench and provide some scoring and some defense.

The Wizards are in rebuilding mode. With the suspension of Gilbert Arenas for the rest of the year, they couldn’t make the playoffs. With other coveted pieces (Jamison and Miller) still on the team, there really aren’t any pieces to rebuild with (expected one of those two to be traded). The Wizards get another head case in Howard, a decent 10 and 10 guy in Gooden, and not much else.

Grade:

Mavericks – B – Solid move but I’m not sure that you gain that much more with Tough Juice (Butler) than what you had with Howard when he was playing well. They do get a little tougher in the paint with Haywood and a little more production with Stevenson.

Wizards – D – Well, that’s about all they can do is dump salary and hope that they can clear Arenas off the books and just start over. If Howard can get his head right AND keep from spraining one of his delicate ankles, he’d be a good complimentary piece when paired with a dominant player.

NBA Recap 10-31-08

Only 3 games on the schedule last night, and all three were good.

Cleveland @ Charlotte - Yes, I will even admit that this game was good, although it was a blow out. The Cavs dominated the Bobcats from the tip and ran out to an early 17 point lead. LeBron James led the Cavs with a 22 pts, 9 rebs, 9 asts performance and he was sitting on the bench in the 4th. Daniel Gibson, the mini Hibachi, was on FIRE last night. getting 25 points in 31 minutes and he missed 4 free throws. The Bobcats looked horriawful. Between Okafor and May they had 9 points and 15 rebs. You're just not going to win many games with those types of numbers. Adam Morrison made a somewhat good impression off the bench going 4-9 for 9 points.

Houston @ Dallas - Who knew that it would take two games before Ron Artest was in the middle of something? The game was close most of the night and when Josh Howard fouled Yao Ming a little to hard, Ron Ron took exception. I think America was waiting to see if he was going to knock Howard out, but Ron came over and tried to calm things down between Howard and Yao. He received a technical foul for his work. (The only thing he did wrong was grab Howard's arm first, before trying to move the two away from each other). This probably incensed Artest a little because we all know he's playing for a new contract and doesn't need any black eyes. So Artest did what we knew he could do, he played ball and ended the game with 29 pts and 7 rebs and hit timely shots down the stretch to guarantee a Rockets win. Yao chipped in with 30 pts and 13 rebs, while Tracy McGrady had a sub par game with 16 pts, 5 rebs, and 7 asts. For Dallas Nowitzki (36 pts, 7 rebs) and Howard (28 pts, 11 rebs, 4 asts) both had great games but it wasn't enough.

New Orleans @ Phoenix - This is why you pay money for James Posey. Posey came in to seal the deal (along with Rasual Butler) on the Phoenix Suns. Posey (13 pts) and Butler (6 pts) hit some very clutch shots to go along with Chris Paul's almost triple double (21 pts, 8 rebs, 10 asts). After playing well a night earlier, I think we learned that the Suns are going to have to limit the Big Sensei's minutes in back to back games. The Suns just seemed to run out of gas on the offensive side of the ball, although Steve Nash (24 pts, 9 asts, 4 rebs) looked like he could possibly play another quarter.

Open Mouth Insert Foot

Now, I've talked about this brother in previous rants, but now he's at it again. My question of the day is why can't Josh Howard just go somewhere and be quiet for like 6 months? I know Mark Cuban is cringing right now. He paid this guy and has openly supported him through the weed comment and the racing, but we'll see what he does after this one gets traffic. I thought about putting this in the Stupid Athlete Tricks, but I held off. I'm giving him a pass on this one, since he's from NC (this is no way means I support the silly stuff you're going to hear out of his mouth). This is a video from Allen Iverson's Celebrity Football Game. Go to the 1:40 mark to start.

Haven't we learned anything yet?

Many of us have watched The David Chappelle Show in it's prime and laughed through all of the skits. One of the funniest was, 'When keeping it real, goes wrong'. So it seems that there are some other people who have watched this show and taken it all too literally. Josh Howard, of Dallas Mavericks fame, was caught and arrested for drag racing in his hometown of Winston Salem, NC. Obviously, this multi millionaire was drag racing his Black Lexus (ticketed for doing 94mph in a 55mph zone) against a silver Volkswagen. He was released on a written promise to come to court on his court date. The driver of the Volkswagen was not identified. Does any of this make sense? I mean Lexus doesn't make many 'fast' cars (meaning they aren't necessarily for racing*) but I'd put my money on the Lexus over the Volkswagen any day.

*Side Note - After attending a Lexus driving event where we were able to take the Lexus IS 250 and the Lexus IS F out on a track and slalom course, I have a new found appreciation for what Lexus puts under the hood. The IS 250 is a little too small for me, but it does pack a punch. Give me either the Lexus 460L or the GS 350 or 460 and I'll be happy.

Nevertheless, Josh Howard goes from the darling from Wake Forest who stayed for 4 years and being one of the best all around players in the ACC to a late first round pick in the NBA draft, to an up and coming star, to a guy who openly admits that he smokes the 'mary jane', and now the guy that gets caught drag racing in his hometown. This last year has been a PR nightmare for the Mavs and have we not forgotten what happened to Bobby Phills when he was drag racing? Keeping it real, has gone very wrong for Josh Howard. At this rate, those millions might run out due to off the court issues. Hopefully Josh has learned something in all of this. We'll stay tuned.