The NBA's Last Scraps

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As we near September, there are still a few free agents on the market that could come in and help a team in a variety of ways. Although these players will not start for the teams they are picked up by, they will be able to help fill a nine to ten man rotation or give much needed depth in their position.
These six players could make a difference on these six teams.

Leandro Barbosa: Minnesota Timberwolves - The Timberwolves were very active in the free agent market this summer - bringing in veteran wing players they desperately needed in Brandon Roy and Andrei Kirilenko. At the moment, things look kind of shaky with no true shooting guard to back up Roy - a player who was forced to retire just a season ago due to lingering knee issues. They have J.J. Barea and Luke Ridenour, true point guards who played off the ball a little last year with Rubio at the point. Barbosa had a renaissance with Brazil in this years Olympics and seeing that Minnesota loves foreigners who can shoot from deep, Barbosa seems to be a good fit in the Twin Cities.

Louis Amundson: New Orleans Hornets - Most people saw the Gustavo Ayon trade for Ryan Anderson as a great deal for New Orleans. Although Anderson will help in spreading the court for the likes of Eric Gordon, Austin Rivers, and Anthony Davis - the loss of Ayon gives the Hornets exactly one player with above average ability in rebounding, shot blocking, and overall toughness (Davis). While Amundson is not the most skilled big ever, he is defiantly cut from the cloth of 80's big men. He is a good rebounder, a decent rim defender, and someone who would not back down to anyone. He does the dirty work, and on a team full of finesse players, he would have a spot to step in right away.

Dominique Mcguire: Charlotte Bobcats - This is the toughest one because it is impossible to guess what Michael Jordan is doing. Is he trying to get more lottery picks or is he trying to make a push for the playoffs? If the latter is true, McGuire is someone the Bobcats should look into. Tyrus Thomas is the only true Power Forward in Charlotte and he is undersized at that. According to NBAPostup.com, McGuire receives at least an A grade in three categories: offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding, and shot blocking - three things that would help the most porous team in NBA history get out of the gutter.

Derek Fisher: Portland Trailblazers - Derek Fisher is still in the NBA for two reasons - he is still a great spot up shooter and he is one of the smarter point guards in the game. You have to have discernible skills when you are still in the NBA and move slower than Gob Bluth on his Segway. The Blazers need help at back-up point guard and with the starting spot in the hands of a rookie who never played a top 25 team in college, his fatherly advice could be just what the city of roses needs.

Josh Howard: Los Angeles Lakers - The Lakers are in desperate need of a wing off the bench that they could trust deep into the postseason. If I'm Mitch Kupchack, that player will not be Devin Ebanks. Josh Howard has not been a good player for awhile, but he is good enough to take Ebanks spot. With the loss of Matt Barnes, the Lakers bench is looking as bad as it ever has and Josh Howard would at least give the team some defensive toughness off the pine.

Michael Redd: Milwaukee Bucks - The Bucks roster currently consists of four guards; Jennings, Ellis, Udoh, and Doron Lamb. Jennings and Ellis are players that do not have the greatest shot from the land of deep so why not bring back the shooter that once made Milwaukee forget about Ray Allen? Not only does he fit into position needs and actual needs on the court - it would also be a nice homecoming and a possible last go around for the player who will always been seen as a Buck.

Joshua Jackson

@JoshJackson_TID

About the Writer

Hey how’s it going? Your looking good, have you lost weight? Of course not you’re on the internet. But enough about you, this is about me, obviously. My name: Joshua Jackson, My Game: making you interested in sports. I was the sports editor for my high school for both my Junior and Senior years covering sports from basketball to women’s tennis. To all aspiring sports writers – take women’s tennis (you’re welcome). I placed in Kansas 5A sports-writing for newspaper journalism as a Senior. I am an avid sports fan whose main passion is watching, discussing, and writing about the NBA. I currently am a head coach of a 7^th grade basketball team and have been so for the last two years. I hope to bring sports into your home through the perspectives of the coaches, the fans, and the players. Trust me, you will get sports from more angles than a megagon if you continue to follow me. This is going to be a shadow of my actual sports blog which can be found at http://www.throwingitdown.com.

Twitter: @JoshJackson_TID

Who Won the Melky Trade?

When Melky Cabrera brought his act back to Kansas City for the All-Star game, it definitely stung. When Melky Cabrera won the All-Star game MVP I was practically catatonic. How the hell does this always happen? The Royals trade away their best outfielder for pennies on the dollar and they go on to help their new team immensely.

I won’t lie – when the trade for Jonathan Sanchez occurred, I was happy. We got a young, hard throwing left-handed pitcher who had success in the post season for the Giants for an older player who was past his prime. What caught me off guard was Sanchez’s complete inability to command any pitch in his arsenal. We thought we were getting a future solid number two or three starter, instead we got a little league shortstop who’s forced on the mound because the real pitcher ran out of innings. Games in which he was on the mound were boring as hell, moved at a snails pace, and was generally bad baseball.

Sanchez was so bad that even with his tremendous upside, the Royals traded him for Jeremy Guthrie – a player with a career 4.36 ERA, and a win/loss percentage of 67.5%. Through his first three starts with the Royals, Guthrie never made it past the sixth inning and posted an 8.76 ERA. At this point, anyone who would  have considered the Royals winning the Melky trade could have a spot next to The Joker in Arkham Asylum.

Oh, how so much can change in such a short amount of time. Giants fans went from circle jerking themselves to Joe Esposito’s “You’re The Best” to wallowing in self pity while listening to this. Melky Cabrera’s 50-game suspension for using a banned substance is now well publicized. The man had more testosterone in him than a female Albanian weightlifter.

What is even funnier, or sadder  (I haven’t decided after hours of deliberation), is his attempted cover up. Yep, Melky tried to use a fake website that featured a fake product to get him off the hook. Did he really think that was going to work? I knew that kind of stuff wouldn’t work after eighth grade when I created a fake girlfriend online to impress my friends. It took a couple days for a group of 13 year old kids to figure it out, so I’m not surprised MLB officials immediately noticed the smoke screen of bullshit Melky was trying to put up.

On the Royals side, Jeremy Guthrie is pitching like a machine. In Guthrie’s last two starts before today, he has looked like the pseudo-ace the Royals have been desperately trying to find. Look at the stats;
IP: 15.0
Hits: 8
Runs: 0
Walks: 2
Strikeouts: 14

Today he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before giving up his first hit and consequently two runs. If I can calculate this correctly, that means he went 21 straight innings without giving up a run. As a Royals’ fan who has had to watch some of the most abysmal pitching any fan has had to suffer through for the past decade – this renaissance has been good to the eyes. What makes me most ecstatic, however, is the Royals got rid of Jonathan Sanchez for a guy who only walked two guys in two games.

At this point, it seems as though the Royals will get the spoils from the Melky trade, and it only took 3/4 of the season. In retrospect, the Royals traded a Porsche for an invisible car. Somehow, after a couple months trying to drive it, they were able to trade the invisible car for a Prius. Making things sweeter, a week later the Porsche’s engine blew up. Now the Giants have a Porsche without an engine, the Rockies have an invisible car, and although the Royals may not get laid a lot – at least they have a Prius that will run.


Joshua Jackson

@JoshJackson_TID