Finally, an exhibition game to get excited about. Is it possible Shawn Marion and Andrei Kirilenko will be traded for one another at halftime Monday when the Jazz plays the Suns? Could Kirilenko and Marion play against their former teams in the second half? They’d have to pass physicals quickly.
Hard to figure why this deal hasn’t happened yet. Here are the NBA’s two unhappiest stars this side of Kobe Bryant, and there’s good reason for each team to make the deal.
Both teams say there’s nothing going on. You have to wonder why.
To digress, Kirilenko and Marion both said they wanted to be traded before training camp began. Kirilenko went so far as to offer to let the Jazz out of the four years and $63 million remaining on his contract if he could return to Russia.
Marion came to training camp and said nothing had changed and he wouldn’t discuss it anymore, prompting coach Mike D’Antoni to say: “This is a great time of anyone’s life. We’ve got a great team. Phoenix is probably the best place to live. You make a lot of money (a team-high $16.4 million). I have a hard time getting my mind wrapped around [what’s wrong].” Kirilenko also declined to elaborate on why he was unhappy once camp began.
But the Suns were downright complimentary compared with the virtually unprecedented attack on Kirilenko by teammate Deron Williams. He made Bryant’s disparaging comments about his Lakers teammates seem like greeting-card sentiments.
Williams ended last season with a barrage that seemed aimed at European teammates Kirilenko, Mehmet Okur and Gordon Giricek. He told a Salt Lake City radio station: “You see (Carlos Boozer) after practice shooting for 25 or 30 minutes. You see Memo (Mehmut Okur) shooting for 20 minutes. You see all the rookies. [Then] you see Andrei being the first one out the door.”
Williams admitted refusing to pass the ball to Kirilenko last season: “If he’s coming off a screen on one side and Matt [Harpring] is coming off a screen on one side, who do you think you’re going to pass to? You think you’re going to pass to the guy you see working every day in the gym, or are you going to pass to the guy who never works on his shot but yet wants to shoot ’em every time? … Guys don’t want to sit across the locker room from a guy who doesn’t want to be here.”
Kirilenko’s explanation: “I’m stuck. … I don’t have a spark.”
The teams had some preliminary talks, but the Jazz supposedly wasn’t interested, and owner Larry Miller is now saying there will be no deal.
Why not?
The Jazz can extend Williams after next season, and he’s emerging as its key player. Miller has said the former Illinois star is in line for a maximum contract. Marion has two seasons left on his deal, a perfect financial segue to Williams’ new deal.
And while his Suns teammates like Marion, Kirilenko would be a terrific fit for the team. He’s taller, he offers more of a defensive presence inside and he’s practically screaming for a milder coach, such as D’Antoni, after putting up with hard-edged Jerry Sloan.
Marion, meanwhile, would give the Jazz an athletic complement to inside/outside big men Boozer and Okur and a defender who can guard a shooting guard, currently a big weakness. Marion could make the Jazz a legitimate championship contender. How could Utah pass up the chance?
The initial hang-up in the talks was said to be the Jazz’s lack of interest in backup point guard Marcus Banks, a frequent subject of trade talks.
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Marion had 18 points and 20 rebounds in 29 minutes Saturday against the Hornets. He’ll continue to play, though this deal makes too much sense for both teams not to happen.
Aren’t you …
Here’s a sight no one ever expected to see: When Tyson Chandler got the ball in the post in a win over the Suns on Saturday night, the Suns dropped a double team on him. “Eventually he can be a 20 [points]-and-10 [rebounds] guy,” Hornets coach Byron Scott said. “This year he’s going to be a double-double guy. We like to throw it to him down there because we have a lot of confidence in him.” This was after Chandler had 19 points and nine rebounds in 24 minutes, including a smooth 7-for-9 on free throws that had court-side scouts shocked.
“He looks like a different player out there,” one scout said. “They should send Shaq and Ben Wallace to the free-throw school he went to.”
Posting, hitting free throws, catching a bullet pass in traffic from Chris Paul and dunking — this was Tyson “Lobster hands” Chandler? Remarkable transformation for the player who was a quivering wreck in five seasons with the Bulls.
“I had to get over a lot of bad habits,” Chandler said. “I feel I’ve freed myself of that. Playing with Team USA this summer, going against Amare Stoudemire, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, I learned a lot. I made moves and they worked, and if they could work against those guys, the best in the league, I figured I could do them against anyone. I feel I can be a presence in the offense.”
Good and riled
Selling one’s soul to the devil for riches is a common topic in literature. There’s always a price to pay, and subsequent questions whether it was worth it. The latest to hear those questions are Pat Riley and the Miami Heat, who come into the season old, slow, breaking down and coming apart just 16 months removed from an NBA title.
Was it worth it? Many would say yes — Cubs fans, for instance.
But with Shaquille O’Neal getting hurt again and questionable for the rest of the preseason, Dwyane Wade still recovering from last season’s surgery amid whispers his body cannot take the constant pounding, new imports like Penny Hardaway and Smush Parker hurt or out of shape and Antoine Walker drawing Riley’s wrath again over conditioning issues, the Heat looks like a questionable playoff team.
Perhaps it was inevitable after Riley acquired the aging O’Neal, spent big money on the lackadaisical Walker and loaded up on veterans like Gary Payton and Alonzo Mourning.
How long until Riley takes off again as he did last season after growing tired of his team? It’s an anti-Riley team: too fragile to coach and push in the style Riley favors.
“It’s beyond irritating,” Riley told Florida reporters after Walker reported at more than 260 pounds. “I was irritated the first year when I signed him. I was really irritated last year. I’m beyond irritated.”
Riley benched Dorrell Wright for being out of shape and immature last season. And the Heat missed out on every free agent it sought last summer.
Riley is basketball’s Joe Hardy, who sold his coaching soul for that championship after walking away following losing seasons. You wonder if he has regrets.
“That ain’t the Heat,” a fan shouted to Riley as Miami was being blown out again last week with most of its players hurt.
Actually, it is.
Minnesota Timbercelts
It’s bad enough Herman Munster (you see the resemblance to Kevin McHale in the old Munsters TV show) traded Kevin Garnett to the Celtics. Now McHale is saying his former team should make the Finals. The Timberwolves are becoming an unofficial Celtics farm team as the Kansas City Athletics were for the Yankees in the 1950s and ’60s.
“Barring any kind of unfortunate health issues, I just don’t see how that team should not be able to come out of the East,” McHale told Boston reporters.
“Now, taking on a battle-hardened team like the Spurs or someone in the Finals is a whole other gig, but I’m not sure there’s anybody in the East that’s all that battle-hardened.”
Though the Celtics say they’re committed to trying out their new Big Three, some league executives believe the best strategy would be to trade Paul Pierce for an experienced point guard. Garnett and Ray Allen move and move the ball well, but Pierce stops it as an over-dribbling forward.
Meanwhile, poor Juwan Howard (though not monetarily). Just as the Rockets were getting into contention, he was shipped to Minnesota. Howard has been in the playoffs just three times in 13 seasons and has let management know he wouldn’t mind going to Boston. Said Minnesota coach Randy Wittman: “Their roster’s pretty limited. Who are they going to give us back, KG?”
Spurning the Spurs
The Spurs remain the dynasty no one wants. When they won their first title in 1999, Phil Jackson said it deserved an asterisk because of the 50-game season. Last week Dallas’ Jerry Stackhouse told Texas reporters: “They had, as we would see it, an easy road. Really, their main threat was Phoenix, who imploded and messed up their chances.” … Brent Barry, noticing a sign for an upcoming dinosaur exhibit as the Spurs entered the Mavs’ arena: “I thought they were talking about our team.” … Portland players are saying LaMarcus Aldridge, who got 29 against Atlanta in a recent exhibition, is their most improved player … Blazers first-round pick Petteri Koponen stayed in Finland for his required six-month stint in Finland’s army. “I hope I will learn to shoot,” Koponen said, citing one way NBA players could get in less trouble with guns.
Fast breaks
Sloan said he’s seeking a new name for a position, or someone to play it. “We’re trying to find a guard who’s a ‘making’ guard,” he told Utah reporters. “I’ve heard so much about ‘shooting guards.’ Anybody can shoot it. We’re trying to get somebody who’s going to make ’em at that position.” … The Bulls might have taken Spencer Hawes in the draft if Joakim Noah hadn’t been available. Good thing they didn’t. Hawes, a rookie with the Kings, went in for surgery on the same knee he had a microfracture procedure on when he was 14 … It was a contrite Ron Artest telling the Sacramento Bee: “I have short-changed myself. It’s time I really focus on basketball. I let Larry Bird down. The Pacers treated me like family. It was just me being egotistical and immature. But all I can do is go on. I want to see the Kings getting it back, making the playoffs.” Not likely with perhaps the most unathletic roster in the league … D’Antoni acknowledged there were “chemistry” issues on the 61-win Suns last season, in part because of so many veterans and D’Antoni preferring a short rotation. “It’s good we have some rookies this year,” he said of draft picks D.J. Strawberry and Alando Tucker. “We didn’t have any last year. We need someone to carry the bags.”
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