Bad Chemistry

From: zegers@rotowire.com
Subject: Give and Go
Date: December 29, 2008 7:06 PM PDT
To: liss@rotowire.com

Hope you had a good holiday, Chris. Santa bring you anything good? My favorite present: a pair of tickets for me and my son to go see Xavier vs. Fordham at the Rose Hill Gym. The Rams are terrible this year, and Xavier is in the top 25 – which means my alma mater is probably going to get squashed … but hearing the little guy chant DE- FENSE makes it all worth it.

Following up on last week’s plea for more competitive balance …

The Lakers and Celtics entered their Christmas Day game with a combined record of 50-8. The Thunder and Wizards entered Saturday’s game with a combined record of 7-50. I’m not sure what that means, but I liked the symmetry of it.

Not as much as I enjoyed the “Steve Francis gets traded to the Grizzlies” symmetry … but I liked it.

Read all of Give and Go on Yahoo! Sports

Give and Go: Final Four Recap and Playoff Positioning

For the first 37-and-change minutes of Monday's NCAA championship game, I was planning for this column to be an extended treatise on my man-love of Derrick Rose and some theories on how I could guarantee the Knicks a top-two pick in the upcoming lottery. But my faith was shaken by that last 2:12.

Three things, actually, bothered me deeply about that game. The missed free throws, obviously, were the big thing.

The more disturbing part, though, was the fact that missing those free throws seemed to take both Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts out of their games completely. Maybe I'm reading too much into what I saw, but it seemed to me they stopped driving to the basket, almost like they didn't want to risk another trip to the line, for fear they'd put up more bricks. I don't think it was a coincidence the missed free throws and Memphis' championship-killing six-minute drought from the field happened simultaneously.

The third thing was actually a piece of insight from Billy Packer, which is remarkable in and of itself, but the ol' curmudgeon did have a good point or two when he wasn't telling us how many possessions the team behind needed to tie the game. (Thank you Billy. We can divide by three just as well as you can.)

At one point, Packer noted that Rose was much more effective when Memphis didn't try to run him off screens. He was at his best taking his man one-on-one off the dribble. And ya know, I think he was right. But here's my problem with that. We were in the last five minutes of Memphis' 40th game of the season, and their point guard, their floor leader, is most comfortable and effective operating OUTSIDE the set offense?!?

It's almost like he's a Knick already!

Story continues on FoxSports.com...

Give and Go: Donnie Walsh, the '07 Draft and More

From: zegers@rotowire.com
Subject: Give and Go
Date: March 25, 2008 7:50 AM PDT
To: liss@rotowire.com

First things first -- how are your brackets? Sadly, I had Pittsburgh and Georgetown in the Final Four, so my chances of finishing in the money are very similar to the Knicks' chances of making the playoffs.

I stand behind my Georgetown pick... but the Pitt selection, in retrospect, was pretty dumb. If I had factored in the "seven man rotation" factor and the "sent to Denver" factor, I might have realized that they'd be absolutely dead on their feet mid-way through the second half of their second game... which, of course, is what happened.

Now that you've had a chance to actually see some college ballers this year, anyone jump out at you as an NBA prospect?

That aside, there are two big NBA stories on all the back pages -- Dirk Nowitzki's injury and Donnie Walsh's job status.

Not much to say about Nowitzki that I didn't already say in this week's Barometer -- I love Brandon Bass as a short-term pickup in every fantasy format, and I think there's a very real possibility that the Mavs will fall out of the playoff picture. Agree? Disagree?

As for Donnie Walsh... as I wrote on my blog last week, I was really beginning to think Walsh was just using the Knicks to secure a better deal from the Pacers. (Actually, I'm not convinced that wasn't the case -- it may be that it just didn't work.) Now most of the NBA press is reporting that Walsh will take a job at Madison Square Garden any day now.

You think he's the right man for the job? He has an excellent reputation -- but the Pacers haven't exactly been the picture of stability over the last several seasons. Would you rather have him running your team, or one of the other oft-mentioned candidates -- a Kiki Vanderweghe or Jerry Colangelo or -- dare I suggest it -- Jerry West?

Personally, I'm a Colangelo guy. Jerry West, it has been reported, hates New York -- at best, hiring the Logo means giving an NBA legend one more payday... but the Knicks just did that with Isiah Thomas.

I'm not sure what Kiki did to merit the reputation he seems to have as a front-office guy, aside from having 'Melo fall into his lap. Tell me again where he drafted Nikoloz Tskitishvili? Fifth overall? In a draft where Amare Stoudemire went ninth and Caron Butler 10th?

Actually, a lot of guys would like a do-over in that draft... after Yao Ming (1st) Stoudemire and Butler there's a whole lot of "unfulfilled potential" in the top of that draft.

Column continues on RotoWire.com...

Give and Go: Injury Reports

Caron Butler has been the best player on one of my teams for the better part of this season. So like a lot of fantasy NBA players, I was pretty frustrated by the way the Wizards have handled his latest injury. For those who haven't been keeping close tabs, the updates went something like this:

Day 1: Ah, he tweaked his hip. He's day-to-day.

Day 2: He's day-to-day.

Day 3-10: He's day-to-day.

Day 11: He's got a torn something-or-other, he'll be out for a while.

(I'll leave the actual description of the injury and its ramifications to our esteemed colleague Mr. Russo.)

I don't know if the Wizards weren't being honest, or if they just didn't know the extent of the injury at first. But I can't help but think that they weren't being 100 percent straight with me. I imagine it's a similar feeling to what baseball owners went through with B.J. Ryan of the Blue Jays last season. (That was, "it's a sprain... it's a sprain... it's Tommy John surgery," for those who blocked out the details.)

So my question is... how much information do sports teams owe fans/fantasy players, where player injuries are concerned? On the one hand, there's an obvious competitive advantage to playing these things close to the vest. But on the other, there are any number of reasons that it's only fair for fans to know whether or not their favorite players are suiting up on a given night. If I'm dropping a couple hundred dollars on tickets to an NBA game, I want to have some assurance that I'm going to see Kobe Bryant and not Sasha Vujacic, y'know?

Column continues on RotoWire.com...

Enter the Matrix

This week's Give and Go column features a breakdown of possible trade offers for Shawn Marion that have been floated in the RotoWire staff league. Check out the whole discussion between me and RotoWire's managing editor Chris Liss here (subscription required).

Give and Go: These Guys Are Experts?

In this week's Give and Go column on RotoWire.com, what starts out as an honest discussion of the progress of this year's NBA rookies turns savage when managing editor Chris Liss launches a savage and unprovoked attack on my team in the NBA.com expert league.

For the ugly side of Chris Liss, check out the full article (subscription required).

Give and Go: Even yet still more Stephon

On the off chance that you're not completely burned out on idle Stephon Marbury speculation... in this week's Give and Go column on RotoWire (subscription required), managing editor Chris Liss and I discuss whether or not the Knicks are better off without him.

Also on the table: which of the other slow starters -- most notably, the Bulls -- have what it takes to get things together? And how good are the New Orleans Hornets?

Give and Go: Roster Management in NBA Fantasy Leagues

In this week's Give and Go on Rotowire, managing editor Chris Liss and I compare notes on roster management in NBA leagues. You need to subscribe to Rotowire to read the full column... at least for now. I'm told it will also be published on Fox Sports' fantasy page, but I haven't seen it yet.

New Column Live on Rotowire

This week's Give and Go is now live on Rotowire.com. This week, Rotowire managing editor Chris Liss and I discuss:

• The disappearance of the prototype NBA center. Where are today's Hakeem, Patrick and The Admiral?
• Is the NBA of today deeper at the wing positions than it's ever been? How do Kobe and D-Wade and LeBron and 'Melo stack up against Dream Team-era guys like Magic, Bird, Jordan and Drexler?
• Should NBA teams draft "tools?" Or should they draft guys who've been proven to win basketball games? Would you rather have a Shelden Williams or a Rudy Gay?

Give and Go is published every week on Friday, and is available to Rotowire.com subscribers.

Give and Go

New column is up on Rotowire.com -- The Give and Go.

Give and Go is a weekly roundup of news/issues relating to the NBA and fantasy hoops, written as a conversation between me and Rotowire editor Chris Liss. This week, we're talking about:

• Possible expansion of the NBA to include a European division
• The NBA's transformation back to a faster-paced style of play
• How to fix the playoff structure

Check it out: The Give and Go

(Rotowire.com subscription required)