Links: Welcome to L.A., Baron Davis!
Plus the T-Wolves, NBA Friday, Bynum and Agent Zero…
Technically, I am currently on vacation, and Wifey has banned from accessing the internet — no, not because of that. She’s just tired of me continuing to write and sort through emails on every trip we take. But I had some stuff to clear up and go through and things I wanted to write about, which explains why I’m posting this late at night.
• First of all, we have a winner in the Draft hat contest. On Friday, I asked Konate to go through all the entries, find the correct entries and pick a winner. He chose “CW,” who did indeed have the first five picks correct. HOWEVA, upon further review, CW entered the contest twice, and I specifically stated only one entry per person. So, I went back through today and found a new winner, by picking out the people who guessed correctly, making sure they only guessed once and then closing my eyes and selecting a winner…Celts Fan! So Celts Fan not wins the Boston hat but a Lakers hat as well. Hat fun (ha!) with those.
• By now you’ve hopefully had a chance to read Sam’s big news, and I just want to publicly wish him the best. Privately, though, we’ve got issues…
KIDDING!
Seriously, this is a great opportunity for Sam and he’s going to be a terrific teacher. We’ll talk more about Sam in the weeks ahead before he packs up his office.
• One thing about the Draft itself…
I spent all day Friday cleaning out my office and moving to another office just down the hall and closer to the SLAM Dome (a.k.a. the dark room that Ben, Khalid, Susan and all of our interns share). Somehow I got my own office a few years ago and I’ve clung to it for all I’m worth. Then, recently, someone realized it would probably just make more sense if I moved three offices down, closer to the SLAM Dome. I’d been in the same cubicle for the last five years, and as I carted my stuff down the hall, I kept stumbling over all sorts of accumulated detritus, from the box score of a game I attended in Spain to notebooks filled with old notes and observations. And in one notebook, scribbled on a page, I found:
OJ Mayo
Rose Hill Christian School
And then the name of his coach at the time and the coach’s pager number. This was from back in 2002, when I was working on a story for the Punks section of SLAM about the growing interest in young high school players. At the time, OJ had just finished the seventh grade, but he was already being feted as the next big thing. So I wrote a piece about OJ, about how he was already a great player, sure, but more about how we should temper our hopes and give these kids a chance to live their lives before we saddle them with undue expectations.
(By the way, I tried to interview OJ for that story, but never got in touch with him. As I recall, I spoke to his coach at the time and was told that all interview requests had to go through OJ’s parents, which was perfectly understandable. I got a number for someone in his family but the phone wouldn’t accept incoming calls. Then I FedExed a letter to his school’s principal asking him to please pass on my number to the Mayo family, but I never heard from anyone and had to go ahead and write the story.)
If you read SLAM, you know we’re the first to bring you news on almost every great high school prospect, from Lance Stephenson to some guy named LeBron. And we did with OJ, too. Then, when OJ went off to USC last year, I watched some of his games and found him to have that certain je ne sais quoi, an unspoken, undefined quality that I thought would make him a great NBA player, or at least a great NBA personality, the kind of player a city could rally behind. When I started hearing that the T-Wolves were interested in OJ, I was actually excited about this.
As far as I’m concerned, the worst thing an NBA franchise can be is irrelevant. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be a fan of the Timberwolves. I’m a Hawks fan, so I understand what it’s like for a team who can’t get their act together for a while. The Hawks lost a tom of games, yes, but they finally got their act together and have started building a winner. (More on that later.)
Minnesota, meanwhile, just can’t do anything right. They’ve been past the first round of the Playoffs once in franchise history(!), but worse than their poor play has been their complete NBA irrelevance. Not only have they been turrible, they haven’t even sniffed competitiveness, at least on a championship level. If I’m a fan of a team, I can live with an occasional missed Draft pick, maybe a few poor personnel decisions, but you have to give me a little something. Minnesota, despite the bumbling, at least had KG for all that time. Until they gave him away.
For a minute there, I thought the T-Wolves were going to return to at least respectability. Drafting OJ Mayo was going to give them some shine, make the League pay attention to them, finally.
And then they traded him for a guy who projects at the same position as their best player, Al Jefferson.
Awesome.
• As for Gilbert Arenas, I hear he’s not only going to agree to deal with the Wizards, but it’s going to be well over the $100 million threshold, like, closer to $130 million. I’m just saying…
• Back to the Hawks. I know Billy Knight isn’t our GM any longer, but if it’s possible to fire him now, even after he quit, I’m all for it. See, last summer he could’ve signed both Josh Smith and Josh Childress to long-term contracts for less money than it’s going to take to keep either of them now. But he didn’t, and now on the open market I’m guessing the Joshes are each going to get pretty nice deals thrown at them.
Charles Barkley nailed it when he noted that the Sixers, above all else, need shooters. For Josh’s sake, I actually hope the Sixers do offer Smoove a huge contract starting at something ridiculous like $12 million a year, although that seems like something that Billy King would’ve done, not Ed Stefanski.
• I hope Golden State fans aren’t mad at Baron Davis for moving back to L.A., because he did a big favor to the Warriors. Not only do they now have the cash to re-sign Monta Ellis, but they clear out a lot of playing time and circumstance. Baron needs the ball to be successful, and for Nellie’s system to really click, at a level higher than it has been, I think not having Baron will actually make them better, especially defensively. I don’t think Baron and Elton together will make the Clippers into the Celtics, but that’s what makes the Clippers fun. Clipper Darrell must be beside himself.
• I’m late posting last week’s NBA Friday, the latest drawing from our man Joel Kimmel, but here it is: Rasheed Wallace.
“Obviously Rasheed is quite the character,” Joel writes. “He also has a lot of character in his face with a couple scars, a beard and expressive eyebrows so I had a lot of fun painting him. I painted him with the official NBA rules in the background defining technical foul violations, fines and flagrant fouls. Rasheed is a great player, but like the Ron Artest piece I did a while back, I wanted to show how the negatives often overshadow the positives of his game. He is practically the poster boy for technical fouls so I painted this piece as if his picture appears next to the technical foul text in the official NBA rulebook. I also threw in a couple diagrams showing the proper way to assess a tech.”
Great stuff, Joel. We’re taking this week off, and in two weeks we’ll return with the San Antonio Spurs.
• Oh, and if you missed my mention last week, both Khalid and I appear on the new series of “I Love The New Millenium” shows on VH1. I wasn’t keeping track of Khalid, but I’m on the years 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007.
Wifey asked me if I thought anyone would recognize me from being on the show, but I doubt it, considering I haven’t had a haircut since taping the show last fall (seriously). Maybe if I chop off my hair and wear the same Bynum Brigade t-shirt every day I’d get spotted. But that would be creepy. At least I was promoted to being an honorary member of The Bynum Brigade. (Mikey, couldn’t you have least not put the TV on widescreen mode? I look like Oliver Miller on that screengrab!)
I actually enjoyed watching all the shows, and I strongly recommend them to you, particularly if you want to hear Khalid’s opinion of the song “Hey There Delilah.”
• Team USA is going to Beijing with just Dwight Howard and his cracked sternum in the middle? Tyson Chandler is only going as an alternate? Here we go again…
Catch you guys next week.
70 Responses to “Links: Welcome to L.A., Baron Davis!”
Jul.1 at 11:50 pm
Dacre says:
1st!
Jul.1 at 11:56 pm
Dacre says:
Thanks for taking time out on your vacation!!!! Your loyalty to your trade and fan base here at slamonlin.com makes you a favourite!
I concur regarding the T-Wolves history…In a business world sense you imagine they would have been liquidated or similar, but they must be still making money…somehow.
Jul.1 at 11:58 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Rasheed may be the best NBA Friday painting yet. When all is said and done, you should re-post them all and hold a vote.
Jul.2 at 12:27 am
BroD says:
Irrelevant? Are we talking about the same franchise that drafted THE Christian Laettner?
Jul.2 at 12:30 am
H to the izzo says:
Monta is going to AT LEAST score 42 ppg next season.
Jul.2 at 12:36 am
Diogo says:
Yo’ Baron is f*cking stupid. He should take the pay cut and go to the Lakers. C’mon now, you CAN have too much money. Why can’t you just chill with a couple mil and a ring on your hand?
Jul.2 at 12:40 am
matt caputo says:
don’t feel bad this ish is what you do.
Jul.2 at 1:01 am
tenorca says:
Tragic times here in the Bay. So much for contending next year. Anyway, any Warrior fan who craps on BD needs to do some soul-searching. This franchise was a giant, steaming @^(& before we
tradedstole BD from the Hornets, which led the way to Nellie, Jax, and the 2007 playoff run/ Mavs upset. One of my best hometown sporting memories. Sad to see him go.Jul.2 at 1:02 am
WeS says:
I hope Belinelli moves into his spot and becomes the new Mark Price.
Jul.2 at 1:06 am
Dacre says:
…OR A BETTER BELINELLI…?
I was thinking Christian Laettner was my favourite PF about a decade ago…along with CWebb and Vin Baker…and Kemp…man that was a sweet position back in the day…
Jul.2 at 1:07 am
Dacre says:
hey RUSS…yOU DRAW TOO RIGHT??
Jul.2 at 1:09 am
Dacre says:
i write music…
[ode to Hursty]
“click my name click my name”…
Jul.2 at 1:28 am
Matthew Kimel says:
Davis is old and washed up, glad the Warriors have more money to spend now!
Jul.2 at 2:04 am
Reggie Evans says:
The best part of all this : Jessica Alba at Clipper home games!!!!!!!
Jul.2 at 2:17 am
d.Y. says:
Dacre… was Billy Crystal really the SF on that team? That explains so much…
Jul.2 at 2:56 am
RV says:
NEW YORK (AP)—The NBA hired Army Maj. Gen. Ronald L. Johnson on Tuesday as senior vice president of referee operations, a newly created position to help strengthen the league’s officiating programs following the Tim Donaghy scandal.
Jul.2 at 3:12 am
jay says:
nice work Joel. Sheed is indeed above the rules.
Jul.2 at 3:13 am
DP says:
I glad somebody is back with some posts. NBA off-season really is the worst time of the year.
Jul.2 at 4:34 am
KA says:
who the hell uses ‘detritus’ in a basketball blog?!! oh, its lang.
Jul.2 at 5:13 am
karan says:
btw, for the spurs illustration, can we just have a picture ginobili falling
Jul.2 at 5:28 am
Gerard Himself says:
don’t…. pay…. 80 mill…. to…. Mountain Drew!
Jul.2 at 5:55 am
Slobodan Chutzpah says:
Reggie is right, this means she’ll be in the front row at every Clippers home game.
Jul.2 at 5:59 am
Slobodan Chutzpah says:
And Lang, I wouldn’t say you look like Oliver Miller. I would, however, still say that you are the spitting image of Evan Seinfeld of OZ/Biohazard/various adult films fame.
Jul.2 at 6:37 am
LAN says:
b dog!!!!!!!!!!!! Who do you think will attract larger attendence, lakers or clippers? baron, gordon, maggette, brand, kaman sounds pretty good to me(and exiting). If they can get them all back that is.
Jul.2 at 6:38 am
LAN says:
This also proves that Baron isn’t playing just for the money.
Jul.2 at 8:02 am
iLL wiLL says:
LAN, Maggette has opted out and is an unrestricted free agent. Only way he stays with the Clippers is if he takes a giant paycut. On the other hand, you’ll have to make due with Al Thornton at the 3 spot.
Jul.2 at 8:25 am
TADOne says:
Rasheed is by FAR the most realistic face drawing Joel has done yet. And like Russ said, I also think it is the best. By the way Joel, i’ll be ordering that Sheed pic from you. As for Baron: good for him. The Warriors sat on their hands too long and he decided to leave 17 mil on the table for five years of security, in his hometown no less. I’m not mad at him at all. I’ll be watching some Clip games this upcoming season.
Jul.2 at 8:42 am
Ryan Jones says:
Hey, more Kevin Love hate. Knowing that both Lang and Kevin are big-boned white guys, I’m pretty sure my old co-worker is just jealous.
Jul.2 at 9:09 am
Hursty says:
Thanks for the love Dacre. That, imo is the best links drawing so far Joel. Great job. Lang- theres a couple of missed words in the 1st paragraph I think.
Jul.2 at 9:13 am
Hursty says:
wow, that general seems like hes real suited to the job….. hard@ss.
Jul.2 at 9:15 am
Froggiestyle says:
As a former teacher myself, youz gunna has lodez uv phun!!! Oh man to see the look on your face after the first day / first week of class - bwahahahahahahaha I can’t stop. Yeah it’s a way worthwhile thing to do but strength patience and power to you my bruthu - you gon need it
I gotta say bwaahahahahahahaa to you Sameroo!
Jul.2 at 9:17 am
Russ Bengtson says:
Ryan, I think you’re being a little oversensitive there about your Everlast-bearded friend. I don’t think that was Love hate as much as it was Mayo love. But hey, I could be wrong.
Jul.2 at 9:18 am
Russ Bengtson says:
And he DOES play the same position as Al Jefferson, does he not? Neither of them appear to be a true five.
Jul.2 at 9:23 am
Sam Rubenstein says:
I had my first day of a summer class yesterday evening. There was a fire drill… during a little quiz we took. Good start!
Love the Sheed photo.
Lang, they vacuumed your old office area. It looks a lot different.
And Baron has just doomed himself to a 20 game season until he gets injured.
Jul.2 at 9:24 am
TADOne says:
How many “true” 5’s are there anymore in the league??
Jul.2 at 9:35 am
Celts Fan says:
Hey Lang, Just shot you an email with my address in it for the hats. Appreciate the hell out of it man, thank you, and I’ll be giving that Lakers hat to a buddy of mine with the “Kobe, tell me how my @$$ tastes” written on the inside. Baron to LAC makes complete sense. You’re right, it doesn’t make them the Celtics, but a lineup of Baron, Eric Gordon/Cuttino, Quinton Ross/Al Thornton, Elton Brand, and Chris Kaman is plenty capable of making the Playoffs and winning a series or 2. That’s a hell of a step (and that’s also assuming DeAndre Jordan dropped to the 2nd round for a reason and can’t get his ish together. If he does, that team is DANGEROUS in a few years) - all this is assuming they keep Brand, which I don’t think Baron signs there w/out assurances from Elton (who, like Baron, has investments in movie-making companies that would make sense for him to stay in LA)
Jul.2 at 9:42 am
Hursty says:
@ Tad, Shaq, Bynum, Yao, Brad Miller, Big Z, Dampier, Haywood, Dikembe Mutumbo… thats all I got. There are LOADS of PF/C’s.
Jul.2 at 9:45 am
Russ Bengtson says:
So let’s see: The Clippers get Baron Davis and a healthy (hopefully) Elton Brand, the Blazers get a healthy Greg Oden to go with an even more experienced core, the Warriors get, well, someone, hopefully. Is NEXT season’s Western Conference playoff race going to be even MORE cutthroat? Who stays home this year?
Jul.2 at 9:53 am
Russ Bengtson says:
Although, given that it’s the Clippers, Baron and Elton will probably collide the first day of training camp and miss the entire season.
Jul.2 at 10:00 am
TADOne says:
The West looks to be sick again. The Blazers with Oden and Bayless are certainly capable of knocking the Nugs out of the 8th spot.
Jul.2 at 10:04 am
Rasheedionics says:
Clippers starting 5 looks strong but not much of a bench. Just like Celtics did last season, they gonna have to sign some veteran players to help them out if they truly have championship aspirations.
Jul.2 at 10:07 am
Rasheedionics says:
Nuggets and Mavericks will be replaced by Clippers and Blazers in the West’s top 8.
Jul.2 at 10:20 am
Ryan Jones says:
Russ, you’re not allowed to publicly disagree with me until your Woodward edit is done. Besides, when it comes to knee-jerk commenting, you know I’m just Kobe to your Jordan…
Jul.2 at 10:25 am
Jared says:
The Wolves need all the talent they can get rigth now. They got two solid players for one. Who knows how good OJ can be. The NBA is a team game, not about one guy. But I forgot all SLAM does is portray stars not teams. Both Miller and Love want to be in MPLS. You’ll see in two years.
Jul.2 at 11:05 am
Allenp says:
Denver stays home next year.
Jul.2 at 11:19 am
Hursty says:
wasnt the lead photo of Baron on the website when he was playing for the Hornets?
Jul.2 at 11:24 am
Diesel says:
Lang I’ve alwys wondered…do they feed you a loose script on those VH1 shows? Also, do they show you the clips you’re comennting on so you can give more detailed jokes, or is it like “Seinfeld…make fun of it”
Jul.2 at 11:36 am
jbn74sb says:
Re the Bynum Brigade picture: Wouldn’t it have made more sense to interview Big Country for I Love The 90’s?
Jul.2 at 11:59 am
Lang Whitaker says:
@Hursty: Yes.
@Ryan: I don’t think I’d be an NBA superstar either.
@Diesel: They gave me like a 50-page document with all topics and then two or three possible questions, and then I had to go through and write jokes for as much as I could. Then when I went in front of the cameras they went through it and asked if I had answers for each question.
Jul.2 at 12:08 pm
Ryan Jones says:
@Lang: Ha!
Jul.2 at 12:44 pm
j says:
I’m so glad the Warriors didn’t give 5 years to Baron. That ship has sailed. He may prove me wrong, but that was a gamble I’m glad the Warriors didn’t take.
Jul.2 at 1:04 pm
albie1kenobi says:
i saw Khalid’s rendition of the delilah song on vh1. that was brilliant. not to mention he was snazzily dressed.
btw, big ups to you Lang for getting me to turn to vh1. that (along with mtv) is a channel i boycott because of the sh!tty garbage they put on.
Jul.2 at 1:17 pm
jay says:
Khalid looks good in the vh1 millenium show & why did Lukasz Orbuktz(?) show up wearing a bynum brigade shirt?? ;]
Jul.2 at 1:27 pm
Khalid Salaam says:
keep it real. the warriors played themselves. who are they gonna get to replace the 21 pts and 7 assists per? who is gonna be the go to guy? who is gonna defend other teams 2 guards (so monta only has to guard 1’s). who is gonna be the emotional leader?
Jul.2 at 1:29 pm
ciolkstar says:
I want to be a Clippers fan now. Baron, E Gordon, Al Thornton, Brand and kaman is actually a great starting 5. Granted Gordon and Thornton are young/inexperienced, but those boys can ball! I fully expect to see that lineup by the end of the season (unless they use Thornton or Gordon as a scoring threat off the bench a la Ginobili. Those 5 deserve starter minutes though)
Jul.2 at 1:29 pm
Sam Rubenstein says:
I’m waiting for that one Sunday when they show all of the episodes of the vh1 show back to back.
Jul.2 at 1:31 pm
ciolkstar says:
Khalid is right about the Dubs though. How crappy is it that Phoenix and G State are basically gonna be unrecognizeable by the season’s start.
Jul.2 at 1:34 pm
ciolkstar says:
It’ll be interesting to see what kind of deal Monta gets. I feel like his numbers are sorta inflated b/c of how they played last year. he’s really going to need to keep his shooting percentage up…I’m interested to see how they spend the rest of baron’s money. And for the record i think throwing it all at Gilbert is a ridiculously bad idea. They will need a point who can cover for Monta’s like of size defensively…
Jul.2 at 1:44 pm
Khalid Salaam says:
I don’t know if the clips are quite good enough for people to start penciling them in for a playoff spot but they have surely improved. I wonder what my man clipper darrel is thinking. He’s probably geeked.
We need to see how Brand plays 1st but yeah they are better. Better than the warriors no doubt
Jul.2 at 1:50 pm
Lang Whitaker says:
@Sam: That was last Sunday. And probably every other Sunday for the next year.
Jul.2 at 2:03 pm
albie1kenobi says:
Khalid, thanks for the sobering post on what Baron will take away from the warriors next year. every one of them are detrimental to the Ws, especially about go-to guy and guarding opposing 2s.
Jul.2 at 2:06 pm
j says:
Jackson has and will remain the emotional leader. Azabuike most likely will be back and can take some weight of Monta. The points will come with the system, that’s how it goes under Nellie ball.
Jul.2 at 4:45 pm
illydiva says:
Joel, although I enjoy the creativity and imagination of your work (this piece too), I think this one looks more like Aaron McKie than Sheed.
Jul.2 at 6:47 pm
maik says:
are you serious? gilbert? 130 million? i love gilbert and he to me was the clutchest player and seemed to make every buzzer beater 2 years ago in theregular season. but even tho hedenied it he has injury problems. i m not sure if he will ever be the same like 2 years ago.
Jul.2 at 10:37 pm
Dacre says:
ciolkstar says:
Khalid is right about the Dubs though. How crappy is it that Phoenix and G State are basically gonna be unrecognizeable by the season’s start.
_______________________________________________
Yeah it’s crappy…Me thinks this is the Suns last chance at a winning season let alone finals contention…..
:(
Jul.2 at 10:39 pm
Dacre says:
Russ Bengtson says:
So let’s see: The Clippers get Baron Davis and a healthy (hopefully) Elton Brand, the Blazers get a healthy Greg Oden to go with an even more experienced core, the Warriors get, well, someone, hopefully. Is NEXT season’s Western Conference playoff race going to be even MORE cutthroat? Who stays home this year?
________________________________________________
I just dreamed it was the Spurs and Suns….
*crys into granola*
Jul.3 at 9:53 am
Nick says:
The west will be rough next year. Brutal, even. Brutal enough to justify shelling out for NBA league pass.
Jul.3 at 9:53 am
Nick says:
and just curious, what DOES khalid say about hey there delilah?
Jul.3 at 11:13 am
Pascal says:
“Rasheed” is indeed and by far the best drawing Joel ever did!! Congrats man, amazing job!
Jul.8 at 12:53 am
Joshi says:
B diddy will turn LA into A playoff team he is one of the most explosive guards and I can see a bright future for LA Baron is a Gun baby