Here's the latest of my transcribed BB posts for your reading pleasure. I know it's a half-assed way to run a blog, but it kills 2 birds with one stone and hey, it's better than the big fat nothing I'd be posting here otherwise.

The context here is a discussion of Dallas trading for Jason Kidd by parting with Devin Harris and other spare parts (sorry Stackhouse, that's what they call you these days).

"Is it still cool to bring this up? What with the grand larceny the Lakers pulled, all Kidd talk has been pushed to a background, but I wanted to bring it back. Like Magic and Chuck on TNT, I got something to say. Warning: major rant ahead, mixed with a really long post. [I cannot wait to see what the censor does with this post!]

Jason Kidd, what a complex case. On one hand, you have, for most of his career, the quintessential unselfish point guard. By my count, the second best point in the modern era, behind only Magic, ahead of Isaiah and Stockton. Great combination of size at 6'5'' and blazing speed, especially with the basketball. Not a great shooter, but great killer instinct and a knack for hitting the big shots.

Kidd doesn't get nearly enough credit for his early work in Jersey, where his turnaround of that team was and always will be more impressive than what Nash did in Phoenix (don't even get me started on this, I could write a book). People forget that he took a truly second rate supporting cast to the finals back to back. Even in a watered down east, that's an amazing feat for a non-center.

While Kidd's slipped some since those days, especially on the defensive end, he's still got enough in the tank to average a triple double in last year's playoffs through two rounds. No other player I've seen has come close to doing such a thing. To put it bluntly, I've been a huge fan of dude's game for years.

On the other hand, you have the BS that's been going on this season. Despite what some would have you believe, NJ has the talent this season to be a 50-win team. Even without Krstic, in the sorry eastern conference it was possible with a healthy RJ, Vince, and the young talent on board. Instead, the Nets are horrible, and it is BECAUSE of Jason Kidd. From watching the Nets a handful of times recently, I've come to the conclusion that Kidd has just given up. On his teammates, on this season. In the past, he's dictated the pace o####ame, and made all of the plays for the team at crunch time. This year he's been invisible down the stretch of games, and his team looks headless, leading to a ton of losses in close games. He simply doesn't give a ####, and it's shocking. His apathetic and passionless play is very disturbing to see, especially from a player going to the hall of fame because of his leadership and being the ultimate team player.

...[Y]ou really have to watch the Nets to understand how off Kidd's play is. It really speaks poorly of his character, and I'm supremely disappointed in the guy. Stars tanking on bad teams is not a new concept. Kidd's own teammate admits to doing it in Toronto. KG was doing it the past few seasons in Minny. But the difference is that Vince Carter's Raps and KG's Wolves were truly hopeless situations. If those guys played there #### off, their teams might have made the playoffs. In Jersey, if Kidd plays his #### off, the Nets  are looking at maybe a 5 seed, with an outside shot at getting home court advantage in the first round. With a healthy Krstic, they could be in position to make a run deep into the playoffs. The Nets aren't as good as Detroit or Boston, but talentwise they could hang with every other team. And who knows, with a move or two maybe they coulda challenged the East's elite. [hmm, a certain 7-footer who was on the trading block would have looked nice on their front line...]

What's more, I'm amazed that that media has not really picked up on this tank job. Nets fans should boo Kidd's #### every home game for his half-hearted play and if Thorn is going to cave to his trade request, they should suspend him just like the Sixers did Iverson. F#%@% trade value, his apathy is completely destroying the Nets season and the team would be better off figuring things out without him instead of relying upon their former leader and watching him lifelessly throw the season away.

Speaking of AI, there's an example o####uy in a truly hopeless situation (no RJ, VC or vets at all around him in Philly) who kept busting his butt and handled the situation much better. Why? AI has the class to realize that if you're going to suit up, you should feel some obligation to your teammates, your fans, and yourself to play the game like you care instead of going through the motions. That Kidd's individual stats are so good speaks more of his natural ability than anything else. I have no idea how he's averaging 10 assists a game the way he's playing. Overall, what Kidd's doing is disgusting and a disgrace. I no longer know what to think about the guy.

Despite all of this, I believe that Kidd's play would pick up dramatically if he got his wish and were traded to Dallas. Based on this past summer, he's got plenty in the tank when his head is screwed on straight, and the bottom line is that he's still a hall-of-fame caliber point guard. You may be mortgaging the future by trading away Harris, but Harris probably won't ever reach that level, and getting Kidd would give the Mavs a better chance of getting a ring overall.

A better chance of winning 1+ rings in the next few years > being in the hunt, but not good enough to win a ring for 5-6 years. If you're in it to win rings, you make the Harris-Kidd swap, unless you strongly believe the team will be good enough to win a ring with Harris.  Don't get me wrong, Dallas COULD win the chip with Harris. But I wouldn't bet on it this year - I have at least Phoenix ahead of them. San Antonio and the Lakers ain't far behind either. And does Harris make the Mavs future brighter than, say, the Lakers with Bynum, especially now with Gasol in tow?"

So to recap, for those not into words: Jason Kidd is playing really badly, but Dallas should still trade for him. Any questions kids?

Now playing: my wrapup of prediction for the Eastern conference bracket.

I wanted to first respond to the ravenous Bulls fans, who like to think that their manhandling the defending champs will translate into guaranteed victory: 2007 Heat =/= 2006 Heat. The 2006 Heat had a healthy DWade, and Antoine Walker was finally rolling as the third scorer/playmaker on the team. On the real though, Chicago should have beaten Miami last year. Deng didn't show up for that series and was completely outplayed by Walker, which made his breakout peformance this year all the more shocking.

I'm kinda surprised all those Bulls fans didn't bring up what Detroit should really be worried about: Nocioni's outside shooting. Noce still doesn't quite look like himself after coming back from his injuries, and we'll find out just how well he's doing come Saturday. But if he's hot, he either pulls one of Detroit's bigs away from the basket, opening up the paint for the other guys, or forces the Pistons to go small. I'm not saying he can win the series, but it would make things more interesting. I still say Pistons in six.

Cavs-Nets

Contrary to popular belief, I think this'll be a good series. On paper, the Cavs have way more talent than the Nets, who play Vince, RJ, Kidd, and Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella crew. But between the experience of those Jersey guys and the screwiness of the Cavs roster, this will be a close series. I pick the Cavs in seven.

The trouble with the Cavs roster is that it's like they assembled two different teams, and Ferry & Co. can't decide which way to go. On one side, you have your halfcourt guys - Ziggy Ilgauskas, Drew Gooden, Eric Snow, and Donyell Marshall. On the other you have your uptempo crew - Larry Hughes, Sideshow Bob Varejao, and Pavlovic. Unfortunately, the halfcourt guys can't play fast and the uptempo guys can't really play slow. In between, you have King James, who is good enough to play both styles, but in an uptempo scheme would be the scariest thing the league's seen this side of Dr. J. Who else can you say with 100% certainty that some crazy #@% is going down whenever they get the ball in the open court?

(Here's where I'm going to talk about why LeBron is the MVP of the NBA. This deserves its own column, but I don't have the time or interest to do that right now. So I'll sum it up: look at the team he's working with. If you took out LeBron and put in a decent player, like say a Luke Walton, the guys I mentioned above would struggle to win 30 games. You're looking at Memphis east, folks. Take Nash from the Suns, replace him with a Ray Felton. You still have Barbosa, Stoudemire, Marion, Diaw, Bell and Kurt Thomas. By my count, that's two unstoppable offensive players, another top-25 player in the league, a 6'-9'' playmaking forward, a defensive specialist who can stroke the long ball, and a solid backup big man. Are you telling me that team wouldn't win 40-45 games? As for Dirk? Short answer, see the Mavs-Warriors playoff series. Kobe's the only other guy who has a legit case against Lebron. I pick LeBron because:

a) Kobe's got more help. Lamar Odom is waaaay better than any other player the Cavs have, and if you take him from the Lakers and Larry Hughes from the Cavs, the remaining guys are close, with only a slight edge in the Cavs favor.

and

b) The Lakes may have had more injuries, but they won about ten less games than the Cavs, so I call that a wash.)

All that said, the Cavs have bigs and the Nets really don't, unless you count too-young Josh Boone, too-old Cliff Robinson, and Freeway, who just isn't tall enough. Mikki Moore has a great story, and is actually pretty solid, but the Cavs are one of the best rebounding teams in the league and should feast on the boards at both ends. Defensively, the Nets are the better team though, and JKidd and Vince should be able to get into the paint and cause problems for Cleveland. (On that point, can someone tell my why coach Mike Brown has tried to make the Cavs a defensive, walk-it-up team, when NONE of his starters plays any defense and half of his guys can't score in the halfcourt? Anybody?) As tough defensively as the Nets can be, I don't see them being able to contain LeBron in a Pistons-like fashion.

Also, watch for at least one game turning on the edge in experience and poise held by the Nets. It may come in the form of missed FTs by LeBron, it may come in a key rebound or defensive play made by Jason Kidd, but know that it's coming. The problem is, I don't see there being enough tight games, especially in Cleveland, for the Nets to pull out the series.

This brings us to a Pistons-Cavs, this time in the conference finals. If you've been following the blog, then you know where this is heading. It's just a question of how many games.

Wow. Three posts in and I've already caused a mini-firestorm up in here. Or I hit a raw nerve with Bulls and Suns fans. Either way, very cool stuff.

Raps-Nets

Another series I haven't been able to follow closely. I blame the following factors, in no particular order: a) the Pacific time zone b) the schedule programmers for the playoffs, for putting all the games on NBATV and having them at the same time as other, better series' games. Seriously, didn't they do this to the Nets in the first year last year too? Is it so wrong to want to see the best PG of this generation without missing other games?

Anyway, I thought the Nets would come out on top in this series, mainly because the Raps don't play a lick of defense and aren't a good enough rebounding team to capitalize on the Nets' donut roster (nothing in the middle). I did catch game 4. in time to see the Nets blow Toronto out of the water. Kidd and Carter were getting in the lane pretty much at will, and Chris Bosh was settling for too many jumpers. I really like Bosh's game, and he already shows more leadership than the guy he's most often compared to, KG. But in this series, and in general, he needs to get inside and mix things up more. He's got a great hook, shows flashes of great post up moves on the regular, and it would be a shame for him to fall in the tradition of big guys who jump-shot themselves straight into a "soft" label a la CWebb.

With all that said, I think Toronto's going to win tonight. New Jersey's playing well, but which Vince Carter is going to show up? The deer-in-the-headlights version of games 1 and 2? Or the dominator that owned his former team in the Meadowlands? I'm betting probably somewhere in between, leaning towards the former. I've always admired his dunks (he's the best I've ever seen), but Vince seems to lack the killer instinct of his elite wing peers (namely Kobe, TMac, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen). Thats why I thought the deal bringing him to Jersey would work so well, because JKidd's leadership could overshadow Vince's shortcomings and let him just play loose. 

But things haven't really taken off for the Nets like I thought they would. Before the season, I thought this was the year we'd see New Jersey bounce back to its title-contending ways in the East, even picking them to represent in the finals. Instead, we got an ugly, out of sync mess. And that was before KRS(tic)-One was out for the season. Granted, RJ was dealing with some injury issues, but that's no excuse for them to open the season 11-18. We'll see if they can pull it together in the playoffs, but I'm not optimistic.

The Nets will pull it together enough to win this series though, and I see them clinching it in game 6. That means Cleveland-New Jersey in the second round, which is just a bad matchup for the Nets. More on that next time.

And I haven't forgotten about my MVP manifesto. Suns fans, who didn't seem to enjoy my "pretty-boy" crack yesterday, are going to love it.