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Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Shaq to the Suns The Fallout

As the reality of the Shaq trade is coming to fruition. It seems like we really ought to consider the ripples, that are bound to come when you drop a stone that big into the NBA pond.

Mike D'antoni is gone. I mean he will finish out this year, he might even start out next year. But soembosy write it down a calendar year from today D'antoni wont be coaching the Suns. When the trade cam up Tuesday morning, D'antoni said on his radio show that no deal was close. Hours later the trade is confirmed and Shaq is on a flight to check out his hip. Steve Kerr who is sporting some Championship hardware that D'Antoni is lacking, is pulling the strings in Phoenix and he just doesn't seem to mesh with the current coaches philosophy. (I posted yesterday about Larry Brown's desire for another coaching gig, interesting to think of him in Phoenix)

The Mavericks now have another thing to contend with while they try and figure out what the hell is going on there. One thing you can be sure of A guy like Mark Cuban is not about to sit around and hope things get better. Did you see him in Dancing with the Stars, the man is ultra competitive. You know that last years early exit is still gnawing at him. Look for the Jason Kidd trade talks to take on a little more heat. The situation basically went from Kidd is available so why wouldn't the Mavericks take a look. Now it has become more of a situation where the Mav's need to keep up the the Jones's Lakers and Suns.

The other development which I touched on the other day is the combination of the Kobe-Shaq rivalry and the Lakers-Suns rivalry. If you think that both those guys don't know that the post-trade Championship count is currently Shaq:1 Kobe:0. Kobe has a team that is set up well to make a run at a few titles now. Shaq knows if he is going to win tis race he better get a big lead over the next two years. I'll be interested to see if the SUns are willing to extend Shaq beyond the two years he has remaining.

There is a lot of people who say that the NBA season isn't interesting until the All-Star break. This year they may be right, but it has more to do with how good the second half will be not how irrelevant the first half is.

NFL's Hot New Trend - The Coaching Succession Plan

The NFL is such a copycat league it is amazing we haven't gotten to a discussion of cloning yet. The hot trend as this season came to end seems to be, the coaching succession plan.

When Jason Garrett the offensive coordinator in Dallas began seriously considering offers to coach in Baltimore and Atlanta. Jerry Jones decided that he didn't want to lose the man he saw as the future coach of the Cowboys. He gave Garrett 3 million a year, nearly equal to the salary of head coach Wade Phillips. While it isn't official since Wade Phillips hasn't even mentioned leaving. It is pretty widely accepted that part of Garretts return to the Cowboys is the fact he will be the next coach.

As the NFL world sat around waiting for Tony Dungy to return with a decision about coaching next season. Jim Caldwell sat around waiting to see if the announcement that he would take over for Dungy, would come into effect three days after it was made. When Dungy held the conference to announce his stay or go decision,. It turned out it will be at least another year before Caldwell takes over, possibly even more. Dungy is staying and has said he will go through the same process at the end of next season. Just as he has for the last several seasons.

You can now add Jim Mora and Seahawks to the list. They announced recently that when Homlgren, who also took a few weeks to make a stay or go decision at the end of this season, retires at the end of the 2008 season. Jim Mora will take over the head coaching duties. In a small bit of irony, Mora had recently withdrew his name from the, still vacant, Redskins head coaching job.

That particular position is still vacant despite the pretty much accepted succession plan that was in place for Greg Williams when Joe Gibbs retired. Thing is, it was pretty much accepted by everyone but 'Skins owner Daniel Snyder. Williams not only isn't the head coach, someone else has his old job at defensive coordinator, and he is gone. So take heed Jason Garrett, these other two teams have held conferences and made announcements about their plans. If Wade Phillips loses that job, it'll be because the team is losing and you're a part of that. I don't see Jerry Jones as a guy turning from one losing coach to the other to solve his problems.

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Pau Gasol, (P)Owwie Gasoft, nope POW!! GaSir

After almost a week of anticipation and waiting. The Pau Gasol era began Tuesday night. Gasol missed the previous games since the trades with Jet lag (seriously) and back soreness. This didn't do much to help the nickname of Pau Ga-Soft but I am still hyped to get him. So I cleared my night and was ready and watching when they tipped it up in New Jersey.



Gasol started the game, with Phil Jackson mentioning before the game that he planned to play Gasol around 30 minutes. With Kobe having an off night it was good that Gasol was part of the plans. His line was good with 24 points and 11 boards. I was even more pleased with the other things I saw. The natural looking chemistry between the guys as they chest bumped and high-fived their way through a game that could have been easily lost by a team that wasn't all on the same page. Of course it is easy to fit in to team when you are such a natural passing big man.



While Gasol did show some of his vision and passing that he is known for, he didn't show the other traits he is known for. Timid offense and soft defensive play. No in fact he was grabbing rebounds away from guys with authority and going back strong, for quite a few three point opportunities. With that style of play the high free throw percentage he brings with him will certainly help the Lakers.



I don't think he will have quite as high a line on most nights, however if he continues to give that kind of aggresive effort. The Championship so many people want to give the Celtics, just might be back up for contention. Looks like it is going to be a real POW!! Year.

Linking up with RonDean

You know, after this I am a lot less bothered by the fact my girl always wants Chinese when I want Mexican(Yahoo)

Looks like we found another submission for"Why is it that the world's smartest people use their time to do the most useless stuff"(Gizmodo)

Basically the end result here is you end up with your face at the mouth af a tiger that has just awoken uncomfortably, sounds brilliant(Yahoo)

How quickly the Perfect mighty have fallen(ESPN)





Pryor seems like he isn't going to commit Wednesday. Unless that is because he is heading to USC I don't care(EPSN)