NBA

[Guest xsilentangel]

Charles Barkley's comments were much more entertaining than the Dunk Contest..

"Maybe no one will win." - Wish it did happen since all the dunks were not creative.

51% is such a suspicious number.. Fan voting...?

On the side note, I'm really happy for Paul Pierce ! Atones for his utterly crappy performance at the last three-point shootout.

[Guest DOVAHKIIN]

Worst dunk contest ever.

DeRozan made it slightly interesting, and I'm not just saying that because I'm a Raptors fan.

I heard Barkley in the end: " I want a refund!"

[Guest lulybonynsungie]

^hahah i didnt catch that! but yea...i would have wanted a refund...lOl oh charles barkley....

oh...Shannon...u disappointed me...

im happy for Steve Nash tho! first the Olympics torch then he won the skill! he was all smiling throughout the events

and too bad Kobe wasnt able to play...

[Guest DOVAHKIIN]

That was a good all-star game, somewhat made up for the craptastic dunk contest we had to suffer on Friday night.

Leave it to Chris Bosh for the game winning free throws

[Guest a-o]

gerald wallace seemed like he didn't even want to be in it.

lol I was thinking the same thing, him and his stoic face.

I think Nate could have pulled out some more quality dunks if needed to. He was pretty much handing the title over to DeRozan, but I guess DeRozan didn't want it... haha

Reggie Miller made me laugh throughout the night though, especially when he dogged on G-Wall and Shannon Brown's dunks.

The NBA's gotta get LeBron and Dwight in the dunk contest like in that one McDonald's commercial. Maybe add AI2 and Josh Smith to it too, I duno. At this point, I think Nate's shown us everything that a short dude can possibly do.

[xkrndreamer]

i wanted the WEST to win!

deron williams had some key TOs and only if AMARE made that dunk.

[Guest chinguz]

Overall a good all star game, those alley oop dunks by LeBron, Dwight and Dwyane were better than the dunks on saturday tbh.

[Guest DOVAHKIIN]

Marcus Camby to the Blazers for Travis Outlaw, Steve Blake and cash considerations.

Yes, the Blazers get a center who's always been better than Pryzbila and Oden to begin with. And they won't have to keep using Juwan Howard at the 5.

Amazing how they've been hanging around the top of the West with all these injuries. I can't believe there was an idiot in this topic last year who said they don't even have one of the deepest benches in the league. Even with all the injuries and the trade, the Blazer still have Batum, Howard, Fernandez, Bayless AND two decent rookies in Dante Cunningham and Jeff Pendergraph on their bench.

No deep bench my richard simmons.

As for the Clippers... another log-jam at the point guard and small forward positions. Good for them.

[xkrndreamer]

deadline is approaching.

i want something to go down.

i don't think amare is going anywhere.

possibly t-mac though

but i think his career is almost done

just like iverson

[Guest DOVAHKIIN]

Iverson has plenty of gas left in the tank. Just not the team-first mentality.

Amar'e's agent seems adamant on getting the guy traded. Chicago and Miami are still interested in him. Wouldn't be surprised to see a package including Tyrus Thomas being sent for Amar'e.

So far deals besides Camby deal:

The Jamison deal:

Jamison and Telfair go to Cav

Ilgauskas, Al Thornton and Cavs' 1st round pick to Wizards

Clippers get Drew Gooden

Others:

Kings deal Kevin Martin, Sergio Rodriguez, Hilton Armstrong, and Kenny Thomas to Rockets for McGrady, Carl Landry, and Joey Dorsey. Knicks may get involved to make it a three-way that will send T-Mac to the New York instead.

Edit: It's a three-way now:

"McGrady, acquired Wednesday by Sacramento, goes to New York along with guard Sergio Rodriguez. The Knicks send guard Larry Hughes, forward Jared Jeffries and forward Jordan Hill to the Rockets, along with a 2012 first-round pick. The Rockets can also swap first-rounders with New York in 2011. The Rockets send forwards Carl Landry and Joey Dorsey to Sacramento, and get Kevin Martin from the Kings."

Bulls trade Tyrus Thomas to the Bobcats for Flip Murrary, Acie Law and a protected 1st round pick.

Bulls trade John Salmons to Bucks for Hakim Warrick and Jodie Meeks.

Celtics and Knicks working out a deal consisting Nate Robinson for Eddie House and JR Giddens

[Guest a-o]

^ lol

New York has become relevant again! J.A. Adande touched upon the implications for free agency, with all the cap space the Knicks got and a pretty legitimate superstar in T-Mac there now, the top tier free agents will be more enticed and willing to go there, and they can probably land two big names.

Another trade that happened was, Nate Robinson and Marcus Landry to the Celtics for Eddie House, JR Giddens, and Bill Walker. This should give Boston an added spark to their rotation.

This year seems to have a lot more trades than prior years with a lot of them involving some relevant names.

Some contenders made some notable trades as well, it'll be interesting to see how it all plays out into the playoffs and beyond.

Anyways, go Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, and DeShawn Stevenson!

[Guest ooBah]

Make or break for TMAC. If he does well, being in NY is gonna make him a legend.

I like the trade for rockets, getting martin and saving almost 11mil from the trade. But it sucks to see landry go, he played extremely good for rockets.

overall the only thing missing from all these trades is amare. I was eager to see where he was going to.. oh well, stuck with the crappy suns management *cough* kerr

[Guest xsilentangel]

Initially, I thought the Celtics had the bad end of the trade but I realized that Eddie House can barely bring the ball up. He can shoot 3's, but it depends.. He's an off and on player. Giddens and Walker can finally develop, since they had absolutely no playing time while being on the Celtics. They used to.. when we were winning games (and could secure that win easily).. but what the beaten up Celtics need right now is not a 3 point shooter nor those very young guys. We need Nate, who can spark the struggling Celtics with his energy. I'm excited to see him play. And Marcus Landry.. I don't really know the pros and cons of him coming to Boston, since I don't really know him well.

I think T-Mac going to NY is absolutely great for him, and the team of course.

That was an intense Celtics-Lakers game. I wish Kobe was there, since everyone is saying that the Lakers would have definitely won if Kobe was in the game. I hope Nate plays today (past 12 here in Boston) versus Portland.. but I doubt it.

[Guest DOVAHKIIN]

Giddens and Walker were just shoo-ins. They're not gonna develop with the Knicks, they're just there for small contract/salary purposes. Celtics get an offensive bench spark that doesn't come in the form of Rasheed Wallace jacking up a million threes and missing 80% of them. Nate has had pretty big games under his belt, and the Celtics have had trouble closing out games offensively down the stretch. Nate might just provide that.

Marcus Landry was another shoo-in. Guy was never even drafted. Expect him to go to the D-League, be waived or ride the bench. The only cool thing about him is that he's Carl Landry's brother.

Just out of curiosity... anyone notice that the Rockets are getting another injury-prone scoring shooting guard? Kevin Martin is a terrific scorer but... I swear when Yao comes back, someone's gonna end up injured again and again and again.

^ lol

New York has become relevant again! J.A. Adande touched upon the implications for free agency, with all the cap space the Knicks got and a pretty legitimate superstar in T-Mac there now, the top tier free agents will be more enticed and willing to go there, and they can probably land two big names.

That's assuming the Knicks want to re-sign McGrady and if he wants to stay with them.

Listen, the Cavs look like they've really stacked their roster this year. Cavs have a pretty good chance making it to the Finals this year, barring any bad chemistry with Jamison and the rest of the Cavs. Cavs have shown they have what it takes to beat the Lakers or any other contending team, so I just don't see LeBron leaving the team.

Bosh, no. He doesn't want to play second-fiddle to anyone. Unless the Raptors really tank the season or get spanked right out of the first round.

There's one guy leaving for sure: Wade. Miami is going nowhere with that roster. Should've traded Haslem or Jermaine O'Neal's expiring contract.

[Guest a-o]

Yeah, some players are more likely than others to land in NY given how the whole T-Mac dynamic plays out. I never really thought about that, but if they ever do decide that they want to play with each other, NY is probably the only team that has the means to make it come to fruition. As a fan, it'd be great to see a core of big-name superstars relatively in their prime on one team. For some reason, I keep thinking about the whole Boston scenario where they landed KG and Ray Allen, but that was a different case as it was more about older players chasing rings during the downswing of their careers.

I don't know, the chances might look slim for LeBron and/or Bosh to land in NY as of this moment, but I think they'd have a chance to become a part of something pretty special and amazing that's never really happened in the league before if they do decide to play alongside some legitimate superstars.

[Guest ooBah]

Giddens and Walker were just shoo-ins. They're not gonna develop with the Knicks, they're just there for small contract/salary purposes. Celtics get an offensive bench spark that doesn't come in the form of Rasheed Wallace jacking up a million threes and missing 80% of them. Nate has had pretty big games under his belt, and the Celtics have had trouble closing out games offensively down the stretch. Nate might just provide that.

Marcus Landry was another shoo-in. Guy was never even drafted. Expect him to go to the D-League, be waived or ride the bench. The only cool thing about him is that he's Carl Landry's brother.

Just out of curiosity... anyone notice that the Rockets are getting another injury-prone scoring shooting guard? Kevin Martin is a terrific scorer but... I swear when Yao comes back, someone's gonna end up injured again and again and again.

That's assuming the Knicks want to re-sign McGrady and if he wants to stay with them.

Listen, the Cavs look like they've really stacked their roster this year. Cavs have a pretty good chance making it to the Finals this year, barring any bad chemistry with Jamison and the rest of the Cavs. Cavs have shown they have what it takes to beat the Lakers or any other contending team, so I just don't see LeBron leaving the team.

Bosh, no. He doesn't want to play second-fiddle to anyone. Unless the Raptors really tank the season or get spanked right out of the first round.

There's one guy leaving for sure: Wade. Miami is going nowhere with that roster. Should've traded Haslem or Jermaine O'Neal's expiring contract.

yeah miami really didn't do much to help wade out this season. even though they keep saying they want to maintain flexibility in salary cap to sign another max contract player to help wade out next season, i'm pretty sure he's frustrated about this season plus the last few.. doubt he'll stay in miami.

As for lebron, i have a feeling that he's going to leave the cavs for larger markets.

[Guest xsilentangel]

Wow Haywood and Butler are great additions to the Mavs.... Orlando blew a lead.. hopefully they start blowing leads instead of the Celtics..

[Guest ooBah]

as much as i love orlando, they just dont have the personnel to hold their lead. there are no real veteran leadership and their defense is inconsistent. most of all, jameer nelson needs to go. he sucks.

[Guest xsilentangel]

^ Yeah I know exactly what you mean. Superman had 29 pounds and 16 rebounds.. a great game for him but this does not occur on a nightly basis. There needs to be consistency in the starting five actually-particularly Jameer Nelson and Vince Carter. For now, I think its lack of chemistry on offense (with addition of new players) and of course, the injuries, that are bringing down the Magic. Pietrus has been struggling, as of lately, too. He plays a big role as a Orlando Magic. The bench needs to step it up, meaning him, J.J. Redick, Ryan Anderson.. etc.

Oh my gosh. Boston Celtics played great. Today, they actually looked like a championship team. I really hope this is the start of a stronger Celtics team. The team started and ENDED the game perfectly. I really don't know what else to say. Just great basketball Celtics. KG is back.

I was very disappointing to find out that Nate couldn't play, due to a case of the stomach virus. I'm really excited for the game on Monday, versus the Knicks!

[Guest DOVAHKIIN]

Nelson is not a playmaker, neither is Carter.

Brutal Cavs debut for Jamison, 0 for 12 attempts.