The Arbitrary ChuckJerry

I don't understand why the Kings traded Webber for three guys who will never play for them. Kenny Thomas is a god rebounder, but those other guys are just clowns. I thought they were going to have a good chance in the Western playoffs this year because of their experience relative to the other teams. San Antonio is clearly the favorite, but Seattle and Phoenix both lack playoff experience and the Kings probably could have gutted out a trip to the finals, and then who knows what happens. Now I don't really see that happening. Also Peja has been hurt all season, so Bibby has to carry the entire load. They're like the Knicks right now, but more talented.

Philly made a move that will make them contenders in the East this year, but will screw them down the road. Also they're not improved to the extent that they're favorites in the East or anything. They essentially picked up Webber and Rodney Rogers, since the prevailing wisdom is that Mashburn will retire and be erased from the salary cap. Glenn Robinson for Mashburn is essentially a wash since neither of them will probably play for the rest of the season. Philly is definitely not going to win the East, though, so this move is kindof ludicrous. They're definitely better, but in two years Iverson and Webber will be in their mid 30s and will occupy something like 40% of the 76er's salary cap.

Boston will definitely not win the Atlantic division, now called the "Titanic" division by Charles Barkley, pretty funny, since they picked up Antoine Walker, who is a loser through and through. They ran him out of town two years ago and now traded Gary Payton et al. to get him back.

Golden State picked up Baron Davis from New Orleans which is a good move if he stays healthy, but I'm betting against that. He's more fragile than a snowman in Disney World (don't worry, I won't stop). If they can have Baron Davis, Jason Richardson, and Troy Murphy healthy, then they're actually a pretty good team. They would be a contender in the East, but in the West they won't do too much.

Keith Van Horn went to Dallas which is a good fit, I think. He's a wide open, no defense player and Dallas is a wide open, no defense team. Van Horn is actually like a small Dirk Nowitski, so I think he'll play well for them. He was doing well in Milwaukee until he got hurt and he's been consistent his entire career. I think he never just dominated like people thought he might. On Dallas the team philosophy is to spread the ball around and give it to Dirk when he wants it, so he won't have to score 25 a game. If he gets healthy, he'll play well there and they were a contender even before they got him, so they're ok. The key to Dallas' success will be Jason Terry playing well, in my opinion.

I'm really surprised the Timberwolves didn't make any moves. I guess the market for Latrell Sprewell is very small, but they should have traded him for a new pair of Nikes if they could have.

The Knicks did the opposite of what Isiah said he was going to do. They traded shitty gies for other shitty gies, but they added to their salary cap woes. Malik Rose is solid, but so is Nazr Mohammed. Vin Baker and Moochie Norris were both pretty lame, but Maurice Taylor is not much better, and his contract is longer. Who is their back up PG now, Penny Hardaway? They added $32 million to the salary cap, which is ludicrous considering they didn't improve their team at all. The one thing they do get is two first round draft picks, but they belong to San Antonio and Phoenix, so they will be toward the end of the first round.

Anyway, the moral of this story is that Kurt Thomas was the best Knick 3 years ago, and he's the best Knick today. The only good thing that came out of this trading deadline thing is that they didn't trade Kurt Thomas, who's fucking solid. The media seems to think they traded away these guys so they could insert Michael Sweetney into the starting lineup and get him more experience. Also I guess Trevor Ariza will play more since they traded away two of their guards. Is there a plan that will keep Jamal Crawford from shooting every time he touches the ball? Is Allan Houston ever going to play again?