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HammerDown! Basketball Journal Archives August 2003 - By Bobby Gerould - Rocklin, CA.

08/26/03 ...No smoke up your butt, just an independent opinion. ...Lamar Odom in Miami? That's what I'm hearing. Wow! Clipps let a big talent go in that deal. Here's hoping Lamar will welcome the opportunity to be coached by Pat Riley. Lamar has some unteachable skills. Great vision, and ball handling prowess are his specialties. He makes the Heat much much better. Riley actually has athletes this season! The HEAT have to be the most improved team outside of the Lakers. Draft pick Dwayne Wade is a special guard. More than any college player, Wade let the game play, while doing his thing. That is to say, Wade gets his points and assists in the natural game flow. The right hander rarely forced anything which is an oddity among today's scoring guards. He moves the ball. He can defend point guards without question, and he shares the pill instinctively. Wade defends supremely. He also has the tools to create and finish. His midrange game is very advanced. The three point shot is still inconsistent for Wade, but that is not really his game. He likes to go to the hoop. He has really super active hands and gets his mitts on allot of balls. He blocks shots due to quickness and desire as a help defender. With long arms (wingspan is well over 6'10"), and super quickness and explosion, Wade can drop a dime after taking available space. He rebounds well. He makes the right passes. He can run the floor and finish. He can take contact and still convert. He has a nice crossover dribble, and quick spin that allows him to slither inside. Always seems emotionally balanced on the floor. You might think I like him. : )))) ...Caron Butler is solid. Eddie Jones can get it done. Lamar, Loren Woods, Udonis Haslim. All better, more athletic players than some of the Heaters on the streets. Mike James? Danny Ainge loves a scorer, so James is in Boston. That's good for the Heat. Anthony Carter will be San Antonio's problem. Eddie House is gone too. He's a Clippers guy now. House never could knock down shots with consistency. Dallas signed Travis Best. Best was not very productive in Miami. ...John Wallace will provide offense off the bench in Miami (I'm guessing he won't start. I know he Will score.) Also added was Samaki Walker who has been labeled after a bad situation in Lakerland. Samaki is a good guy. He is not a bad player, and he is light years more efficient than Malik Allen. Brian Grant had a terrific year in 2002-03, playing in all 82 games, and ending as the 20th ranked Power Forward in the NBA on our audit. If only he could play Power Forward each night. He cannot because the Heat have a gaping hole in the middle. Loren Woods would exceed expectations if he became the shot blocker the Heat need. He's better than Ken Johnson. ...Haslim is a guy I've always been high on. An aggressive player that "gets his", I liked him as mid-first round selection in last year's draft. He went unpicked. He is a relentless player with a wide body that shoots a high percentage. Haslim can score in the post going either right or left. He makes the good interior pass, and can finish on the break. Haslim has good leaping ability for a big man. He's 6'9" but is so strong, and has such a power game that he can help a teams overall strength. Haslim is also a super hard worker. He'll step out to 10' and knock down a jumper and he reacts quickly. He bench pressed 185 lb.. 22 repetitions at Chicago pre draft camp in 2002. ...Heat fans should enjoy some exciting hoops in 2003-04.

If I were the Mavs? Smush Parker, Rafer Alston, Mark Jackson (old guy played in all 82 regular season games for Utah last season) or Kenny Anderson, assuming they could be had, would be my picks before Travis Best. ....Chris Whitney & Steve Blake signed by Washington. Whitney needs to have a big season to stay in the show. I'm surprised a younger guard wasn't given a shot. Jason Hart anyone? Blake, for the record was picked ahead of Keith Bogans, and Kyle Korver. We liked both of those guys better than Blake. We also would have preferred Willie Deane (Purdue), Hollis Price, Marcus Hatten, Jermaine Boyette and J.R. Wallace (Central Mich.). ...It won't matter most likely but I can't say I'm thrilled with either Tony Massenburg or Anthony Peeler signing with the Kings. "A.P." is a lefty that needs to improve shot selection. He does play defense, and gets his hands on many balls. If he is the replacement for Damon Jones, I can see it. To expect more, I don't know. Peeler is a tough guy though. He played in all 82 games last season. If you can do that in the NBA, you've earned the right to be called a PRO. ...I still like Chris Carr, and despite a string of injuries, Dion Glover was just starting to figure the deal out. He should be on someone's roster. ...Massenburg is a vet that hits the glass. He will fill space behind Brad Miller, Vlade Divac, Chris Webber, Darius Songaila, and Lawrence Funderburke. ...Uncle Cliffy in the Yay? (Translation: Clifford Robinson in the Bay Area?). Robinson has been backsliding with age. Bobby Sura, the cat the Warriors gave up for Robinson, was just starting in the last two years, to be a NBA worthy guard. Sura is clearly ascending, while Cliffy is going opposite. We ranked Sura as the 35th most efficient player that can play Shooting Guard in the League this past season. Detroit will welcome that after losing Jon Barry to Denver. Cliffy, who has turned into a jump shooter, ranked as our 80th best small forward. Terence Morris is better right now than Uncle, and would come cheaper. I do understand that some feel Sura's contract was too fat. But if he is as efficient as he has been in the last two years, he'll be worth the money. Cliff will not.

08/21/03 ...My buddies are pissed again in the Bay Area. They are not happy with the recent Warriors trade of Antawn Jamison to the Mavs basically for Nick Van Exel. The W's sent Danny Fortson, Jamison, Jiri Welsch, and Chris Mills to the Mavs for Nicky Van Smack, Popeye Jones, Antione Rigadeau, Evan Eschmeyer and Avery Johnson. Lost in the hype of the headliners is Danny Fortson. He might be the rebounder the Mavs need. Fortson had a season to forget last year, and that is what he should do. Forget it. According to the Warriors web site, Fortson missed first three games of the season and final three games of the preseason while attending to the passing of his father. He was given the "DNP-CD" 43 times, missed seven games due to injury or illness, three games for personal reasons and four additional games (3/4 - 3/8) due to a death in the family. In 2001-02 however, the Cincinnati strongman was 4th in the NBA in rebounding. A change of scenery as they say should be great for Fortson who is still only 27 years old. ...Jiri Welsch has been terrible all along but so was Rigadeau. They cancel each other out. ...Mills will be a guy on and off of Mark Cuban's rotating "injured list". ...Popeye Jones is a great guy, and I believe he is still capable. He only saw 222 minutes last season in a tough Dallas rotation but over a two year period he is still efficient enough, and he won't cause trouble. ...Avery Johnson probably should be coaching. ...Eschmeyer was a player we had high hopes for coming out of Northwestern. He is a good shot blocker, and good passer but he has not yet lived up to the hype. Eschmeyer must find ways to be more aggressive offensively. As a third Center, he doesn't stink. ...Van Exel will help the Bay Area heads forget Gilbert Arenas. Nick can light it up and put on a show doing it. I've always liked his heart. However, at the end of the day, the scale leans heavy toward the Mavs on this one. They get a young talented scorer (Jamison) for an aging one (Van Exel). The Mavs also get a 27 year-old rebounder (Fortson) coming off a year that any sane person would describe as emotionally difficult. I'm guessing the rest of the trade won't matter, unless to the Warrior's surprise, Eschmeyer becomes better.

08/20/03 ... Horace Grant returning to the Lakers. ...Perhaps Phil Jackson just needs a guy that he trusts. Horace played just 85 minutes in 2002-03. Sure, he's just a backup for Karl Malone but in the NBA weird things happen, even to the toughest players. If I were betting, I'd say, yeah, Malone will play all 82 games but you never know. Relying on rookie Brian Cook seems shaky to me. Cook can run, and bury a 17' jumper but he does not rebound well. That being said, a healthy Horace Grant at age 38 is still an upgrade from Mark Madsen. However, as is my policy, you don't sign injured guys. Grant is a four-time NBA World Champion and has been named to the league's All-Defensive Second Team four times. The knowledge he can impart to Cook might be the whole reason behind the deal. But I'm always a little leery of that "angle". I heard that Rory Sparrow would be a great mentor for Travis Mays. The Kings traded the pick that was Bimbo Coles for Sparrow in 1990. Rory played well, and then retired. Mays took the skills learned from Rory to who knows where. Coles meanwhile was still in the league last year, finishing off a untarnished NBA career of 14 years. Point is... Fill your roster with healthy, hungry guys that can play. Let the coaches impart the wisdom. ...Madsen joined the T-Wolves. I'm not one to pick on a guy. Madsen was good in college but the truth is other than rebounding, he didn't provide much for the Lake. Thumbs down to the T-Wolves on that one.

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