Isiah Thomas wants Larry Brown to kill himself
That’s the only way to explain the fact that Isiah is trying to trade for Steve Francis. To Larry Brown, there’s only one thing worse than having a selfish shoot-first point guard… and that’s having two selfish score-first point guards.
We’re looking at a backcourt of Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis, and Jalen Rose. If you asked Larry Brown a year ago to design the least desirable starting backcourt that anyone could put together… and you might have gotten those three names. If the Knicks make any kind of a long-term commitment to Steve Francis, it’s hard to imagine Larry Brown wanting to come back next year, and I wouldn’t blame him.
In the short term, if you add a player like Francis to the Knicks line-up, they’ll become a little bit better. With two scorers like Marbury and Francis on the court, they’ll be harder to defend, and they might put up more points, but the ceiling is very low. You’re not going to establish any kind of an offense that moves the ball around, you’re not going to get everyone involved, you’re going to have defensive problems, you’re going to have guys fighting over the ball, and you’re going to have a coach trying to hang himself in the locker room with a pair of Eddy Curry’s shoelaces. That is not the blueprint for a winner.
Of course, this deal is kind of contingent on another deal which may or may not happen, one that probably deserves its own blog item… the near-fruition deal of Darko Milicic and Carlos Arroyo heading to Orlando for Kelvin Cato and a first-round pick. Ignoring the bigger picture of Darko’s legacy for a moment, this deal makes a lot of sense for a lot of teams.
In Carlos Arroyo, they get a very solid point guard who can score, but doesn’t necessarily need to. He’s a very good penetrator, he’ll play a little defense, and he can help a team. Darko Milicic is still young and big, if nothing else. I think he’s still worth taking a chance on if the price is right. The Magic have a lot of injuries and a lot of depth problems, and they could use the bodies. Darko Milicic, in my opinion, would be a great mentor for Dwight Howard… showing him how young players are supposed to play and act, etc.
The Pistons get Cato, a big man who (when healthy) can play defense and rebound, and they certainly need frontcourt depth more than they need backcourt depth right now, with Lindsay Hunter coming back from injury soon and Carlos Delfino giving them some quality minutes. Cato’s also got an $8.6 million contract that comes off the books this summer, giving the Pistons room to resign Ben Wallace and keep the starting five intact, and if Cato gives them anything at all on the court, they can likely resign him for the veterans minimum. Also, if you can get anything resembling a lottery pick in return for Darko Milicic… well, I think it’s time to cut your losses.
I didn’t hop off the Darko Milicic bandwagon until earlier this year when it became clear that the change from Larry Brown to Flip Saunders wasn’t going to do him a lot of good. I still believe he could be a good player… I am convinced that it’s 100% mental with him. For some reason, he has yet to shed the tentativeness and timidity that he’s carried with him since Day One. He’s got great teammates, teammates who like him, and he’s been through two coaches, and he never developed any kind of confidence. By now, it’s clear that that’s never going to happen in Detroit. I don’t know if it will happen anywhere else, either, but it’s at least worth trying.
I’ll be sad to see him go. If he does end up in Orlando, I’ll be rooting for him.
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Eddy Curry can tie his own shoes?
Maybe Darko needs to see that sports psychologist that beat the mental stuffing out of Kyle Boller last December. If that guy can improve Boller, he can work with anyone.
Ok, LMAO at the headline. But….. ” Darko Milicic, in my opinion, would be a great mentor for Dwight Howard… showing him how young players are supposed to play and act, etc.” WTF???????????
You need to put the pipe down MJD, if anything it’s the other way around, Milicic (or however you spell his name, personally i’m not concerned with proper spelling or pronunciation of a players name until they stop being a SCRUB) is a scrub and Howard is a stud.
I don’t even see how you can write that sentence, if you were a GM and had a pick between those two who would you pick???? C’mon man, who are you kidding? Wow, I really am flabbergasted over that line. Do you relly think Darko could teach anyone anything? I’m a Sonics fan I didn’t agree with us drafting Robert Swift, but he’s waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than Darko, so is our other 7 foot rookie the frenchy Petro. Not being antagonistic, just straight up like WOW!!
Fire Zeke!
That trade for Stevie Franchise may involve Nate Robinson who is hands down the tightest player on New York. Isiah should focus more on running a fucking basketball team than trying to whoop Bill Simmons’ ass.
The Knicks…wtf is going on, seriously. Have there been any GM’s worse than Mr. Thomas?
Oh hell yes, I am a SuperSonics fan and our GM is waaaay worse than Zeke. Rick Sund is the biggest Douchbag on earth, literally his face even looks like an old school Douchebag (aka hotwater bottle). Our fuckin owner, coffee boy Howard Schultz thinks he knows how to field a Basketball team, he gave final approval on our last 3 draft picks, that should never happen. Sure you own the team but you know dick about basketball, how to play, who’s good at it, or even how to tell the difference between a basketball, soccerball, or fuckin’ volleyball.
He’s just baiting Simmons at this point.
All-Star weekend is coming up and it’s in Houston. Let me just say an All-Star game in Houston is like a big ass, black folks convention, beautiful. I love Houston they got some fine honeys down in Texas. I’m picking my boy Nate Robinson to win the Dunk Contest, go Huskies.
Ok, as we all know, it’s black history month. That being said, I’m not sure I like ESPN reffering to the dog that won the best in show thingy as ‘colored’. It also states that it it the first ‘colored’ dog to win. Can’t you just call the fuckin’ dog speckled or brown??? Does it really have to be called ‘colored’???
C’mon man, I’m laughing while I write this but at the same time I’m like “c’mon man”. That’s not right, it’s 2006 there shouldn’t be racism involved in dog shows. Does he have a damn designated hydrant he’s gotta piss on, and are there hydrants that say “white’s only”. LMAO
Isiah’s got plenty of shoot-first PGs w/o Francis: Steph, Rose, Crawford, Nate and Big Penny. Trading 2 or 3 of them for 1 is brilliant…for Isiah.
The Darko being a mentor to Dwight Howard line was a joke.
I wish I could quit you, MJD.
I like Batman as his mentor too. Who better than Battie to teach him about what’s it’s like to be an uber bust as a big man?
I simply disagree (getting back to the trade at hand – Milicic/Arroyo for Cato (8 mill cap relief) & 1st round pick unless its 6 or higher)
Detroit was a clear winner here. Listen, Milicic may go on to be a superstar and if he does, then great deal. Otherwise the Magic overpayed for a 1st rounder who’s market value has plummeted (but i guess not if the Magic were willing to pay the price). Milicic has not show any promise, and there hasnt been any word on the street (such as O’Neal in Portland) that this kid really play hard and competitive in practice, in fact you hear stuff like he’s umotivated and aloof. Rarely do you see somebody just flip the switch. I’m not buying.
Detroit on the other hand is the big winner here. They dumped a useless player who will never crack their rotation anyway. They get a first round pick (somewhat protected, thru 6) and they get a big body in Cato. They mite not even use Cato from what I read, but he is a very good shot blocker and a very big body. Could be useful in a similar role to Elden Campbell in the playoffs vs Heat. And then the gravy, he provides 8 million bucks in cap relief, giving the Pistons room to resign Big Ben Wallace.
I think somebody owed Joe Dumars a dicksucking. Thats why he continues to be the silent assassin in the Thomas/Dumars backcourt even today in the field of GM’ing.
Forgot to talk about Arroyo. I agree with what MJD says, but I guess they just really wanted Milicic. Jameer Nelson is the future/present pg of that franchise.
That mentor line was obviously sarcasm.
I agree with everything MJD except the part where you said Detroit needed frontcourt depth more than backcourt depth. Lindsay Hunter is a terrible offensive player even when healthy, and he’s not even necessarily 100% healthy now. Delfino cannot handle much more than spot duty at the point. What happens if Billups gets injured?
In that picture, Darko looks like one of those old “Manglor” action figures, that were made of slimy rubber and could purportedly be ripped into pieces and then put back together, according to the commercial. Shit never worked once. NEVER. But strangely appropriate here.
And BigBoi is slowly, slowly devolving into a new, advanced form of race baiter. With each post, he tiptoes just a tiny bit more to the ‘line’ MJD has drawn, seeing what he can get away with.
Thomas sucked as a coach too.
I feel a little better about Orlando’s side of the deal now. I just thought that — had teams been a bit more patient they wouldnt have had to pay as much for getting Darko, but I didnt realize they had like 5 or so teams in the running, so my fault.
Also, Rasheed Wallace came out and said Darko can play, and thats big for him to say that. I’ve never heard anything like that until now (with the exception of pre-draft talk). And I also think whenever he got miniscule minutes in a Detroit uniform, he was never allowed to play to his strengths. They wanted him to be a traditional on the low block type guy, which he’s really not. WHich is why he looked so out of place. He is more of an open court player, face up to the basket. Hopefully Orlando will use his talents wisely, just as the Pistons have with their core group of guys.
thought you guys would get a kick out of this website:
http://www.jailisiah.com