Game 2s

I feel like George W at an Enron investor's party... everything's coming up Houston. For the second time in 3 days, TMac and Yao dominated Utah in the second half, and snatched victory from their conservative, sometimes polygamist, clutches. Actually, Mehmet looked pretty impressive and gave Yao some problems in the first half. But with his shooting stroke gone cold, the lusty Turk couldn't get it done on the offensive end. TMac was pretty cold in the first half, but he sank 'em when they counted and Houston took a commanding 2-0 lead going back to Salt Lake City.
The Pistons blah-ed their way to another vic against the sorely outclassed Magic. There's really not much to say here other than that the Pistons could win this series in 4 with Rip Hamilton literally playing with his eyes closed. Dwight Howard's shortcomings are being exposed like a roll of film.

Magic Courting Chauncey?

This is intriguing as hell to me. Chauncey in Orlando kills 3 birds with 1 stone. First, Orlando gets the veteran leadership they'll need when Battie is no longer starting, and Grant Hill finally faces the music and retires. Second, the Magic get the solid shooting stroke and extra scoring punch provided by one of the best pure shooters in the league (maybe the best clutch shooter in the business). Third, the Magic get one of the best point guards in the league, and then have a great trading chip in the expendable Jam Nelson (who becomes worthless with the arrival of Billups). The Magic were feeling gun shy about giving Nelson a fat extension based on his inconsistent play, this way they can let him walk, or sign & trade him for another piece. Now supposedly this would all cost the Magic Darko, but I don't see why. No way Detroit is after Darko, so what're they gonna do, just let him walk? For the 6-8 mil range, I feel like Darko's a steal. So they give Howard 85 mil, they give Chauncey 3 or 4 years at 14 per. They really oughta have money left for Darko at 7 per. Now tell me there's a more evil starting line than Darko, Dwight, Chauncey, Hedo and ________ (insert name here). They would cut a bloody swathe through the Eastern Conference.

Dwight Howard's First Time

Dwight Howard has his first triple double. And there's still a few minutes to go. Congrats DHowie, 17 points, 13 rebounds and 10 TURNOVERS. His fantasy owners rejoice.
On the other hand, Darko's got 14 and 16. 5 blocks so far. Someone has freed Darko. Now feel the wind that shook the parsley. Darko is gonna be a new age Ralph Sampson.

Dwight Howard: Dunk Innovator

Dwight Howard is seriously taking this dunking thing to another level. No idea why he didn't do this one in the actual competish:

Interesting Tidbit

Over the last 5 games Dwight Howard is remarkably shooting a higher field goal percentage than free throw percentage. Let me put that in perspective: Howard's so beastly in the post, he has an easier time putting the rock in the hole from 5-10 feet with 3 dudes in his face than he does taking his time with no defense from 15 feet. Now Shaq's career FG% is higher than his FT%, but it's not as much of a feat, when you're a career 52% shooter from the charity stripe. What makes Howard's last 5 games so special, is that his FT% (over those 5) is actually almost a full 10% higher than his season average as well, check this: 76%FG on 14 attempts, 71% FT on 8 attempts. Unfortunately his TOs are up over 5 per night during the same stretch, still you have to start liking DHowie as much or more than Bosh with these numbers and I love Bosh.

Get Carter

Is Vince leaving New Jersey?
The short answer is yes. The long answer is a little cloudier, but still basically "yes." I would bet the farm Vince Carter gets traded, either by the deadline, or in a sign & trade deal this off season. The thing is he's an expensive malcontent, one who can ball, no doubt about that, but a malcontent nonetheless. Also it's become evident that he can't make the Nets win. If a squad featuring JKidd, Vin, Dick Jefferson and Nenad "Can I Buy a Vowel?" Krstic can't win games, they need to blow it up. Oddly enough, that core did win last year. A lot. In fact, with the steep learning curve Krstic has been on, the rejuvenated play of Kidd and Carter and the rugged all around game of Jefferson, many had the Nets as a title contender this year. Those plans were derailed by the injuries to Krstic and Jefferson, and have the Nets battling the Knicks for the right to be called worse than the Raptors but better than the Sixers or Celtics. Not really much to brag about.
Now New Jersey's got lots of options. They're shopping both Carter and Kidd to anyone who'll listen. The offers back for Kidd have been paltry, and they're not likely to get anything sexier for Carter. At the end of this season, Carter can opt out of his contract and walk away amicably. As we learned from Mark Cuban, this isn't necessarily bad for the Nets. In a free agent rich off season, the Nets would be happy to let Carter walk and then attempt to re-direct his 16 million dollar salary at a stud who's been unleashed and taking bids. Unfortunately this is not a free agent rich market, this off season will not feature an overabundance of guys worth sinking serious loot into. It could; Rashard Lewis, Chauncey Billups, Antawn Jamison, Gerald Wallace and Mike Bibby all have opt out clauses similar to Carter's and could become free agents if they wanted to. But other than Orlando & Charlotte (and potentially Chicago) no team has got the bread to throw at them, so there's not much chance any of these guys are changing teams, without a trade happening, in the near future. Carter's situation is slightly different, because he's got a vested interest in going to either of those 2 teams with significant bank. Carter's family lives in the Florida-Carolina region, and he owns, amongst other things, a house down there. That's why this little snippet from Brian Schmitz at the Orlando Sentinel comes as no surprise... if it's true:

Then there was the talk that TNT, following Dwight Howard around, might have intercepted some dialogue between Carter and Howard that indicated VC might become magic property before the trade deadline.

If that's true my first question is: why the hell hasn't TNT made this little gold nugget known to the public? That's a frickin' page 1 exclusive. Regardless of the truth, or Otis Smith's firm denials, the concept of Orlando trading Grant Hill's expiring contract for Vince's services is almost too good to be true. Orlando talks a lot of yang about wanting to keep Grant Hill, but I can't believe they really mean it enough to pass on the versatile scoring threat (they desperately need) in Carter. Can you imagine a more lethal starting line than this? C- Darko, PF-Dwight Howard, SG/SF- Hedo Turkoglu, SG/SF- Vince Carter, PG- Jam Nelson. I'd have to call them favorites in the east with a line like that, and the best part is they don't have to give up instrumental bench guys like Dooling, Diener, Arroyo, Reddick and Battie to make it happen. I can't fathom why Magic GM Otis Smith is against such a deal, other than Vince's tradition of underachieving teams. And honestly this is actually the only reasonable thing standing in the way of a deal for Vince; Vince himself.