Thursday Insider

[Weez]

Time for Davis, Wells to change addresses?

By Chad Ford

NBA Insider

Send an Email to Chad Ford Thursday, November 6

Updated: November 6

9:54 AM ET

Chat with Chad Ford at 12 p.m. EDT today!

Every year the Christmas season seems to begin a few weeks earlier. On Nov. 1, Wal-Mart replaced its Halloween section with a massive Christmas display.

The point? It's never too early to get your shopping face on. The NBA season is just a little over a week old and the trade deadline isn't until February, but that hasn't stopped the rumor mill from already churning.

Too early to panic, you say? It's a long season? Still believe in your team?

Sure, we buy into all of that. Still, five games into the season it's becoming pretty clear that some players need a serious change of scenery if they're going to break out of their shell. Is it time for some GMs to start thinking trade before a player's value plummets too far?

Insider made some phone calls on Wednesday, trying to get a feel for which players are out there in the NBA rumor mill. While keeping in mind that teams don't shop players (and players don't smoke pot) here's a look at guys who, according to several GMs, could already be heading to clearance.

Ricky Davis

Guard-Forward

Cleveland Cavaliers

Profile

2003-2004 SEASON STATISTICS

GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%

4 17.3 5.8 4.3 .423 .333

Ricky Davis, G/F, Cavs -- Davis already complaining about LeBron? That's the rumbling around the league. We knew that Davis would have a tough time adjusting to being a distant second fiddle to LeBron, but four games and four losses into the season (albeit against Western Conference teams) and the patience already seems to be wearing thin. While a source in Cleveland denies that he's being shopped, several other GMs insist the Davis is available. Davis has five years, $27 million left on his deal. But for a 20-point-a-night scorer, that's a bargain.

Bonzi Wells, G/F, Blazers -- The good news is that Bonzi didn't spit on a fan. The bad news is that flipping off the home crowd isn't much better. Paul Allen and Steve Patterson promised they'd have zero tolerance for this type of nonsense. Wells' claim of a "blackout" is just ridiculous. Now's the perfect time for the Blazers to get their point across. Moving Wells makes basketball sense too. He's struggling at the two this year because he struggles from the perimeter. He's more comfortable playing the three, but with Zach Randolph looking great at the four and Rasheed Wallace moving to the three, Wells is stuck playing out of position. A trade of Wells to the Raptors for Mo Peterson, Michael Bradley and a retiring Eric Montross would give the Blazers the extra luxury-tax relief they've been looking for next summer and would send a strong message to the rest of the team about the importance of staying professional on and off the court.

Eddy Curry, C, Bulls -- In the preseason he appeared on the verge of a breakout season. Now? Wednesday night the Bulls played their best basketball of the season with Curry sitting on the bench. Curry still has a ton of promise and a ton of trade value. Will that hold true if he continues to struggle with the Bulls? Curry seems like a guy who needs a wake-up call. A trade and a serious change of scenery could do that. GM John Paxson is ready to check out of lottery land. The Bulls won't give any of their young players away, but could a combo of Curry, Jamal Crawford (word is he's always been available) and Jalen Rose bring the Bulls the veterans they need to compete? I'd pick up the phone and see if Mark Cuban (who's had a thing for Curry and Rose for years) would give up Steve Nash, Michael Finley and Antawn Jamison for a combo of Curry, Crawford, Rose and Eddie Robinson. Crawford and Rose could hold their own in the Mavs backcourt and Curry could be the answer the Mavs have been searching for in the middle. Meanwhile, the Bulls would get the veterans they've been looking for to surround Tyson Chandler. That's a big, pretty unrealistic in-season trade. But with Cuban, you never know.

Shareef Abdur-Rahim

Power Forward

Atlanta Hawks

Profile

2003-2004 SEASON STATISTICS

GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%

5 14.4 11.4 2.4 .422 .708

Shareef Abdur-Rahim, F, Hawks -- The Hawks look like they're going to be as terrible as advertised. Keeping Rahim, they're one tradable asset, doesn't make a lot of sense. Rahim's career low 14.4 ppg average doesn't help things either. Would a team like the Nuggets or Jazz (who are clearly better than we thought they'd be) be willing to give up a young player or two (like Nikoloz Tskitishvili and Rodney White) for Rahim? The key for the Hawks is to get well under the cap next summer.

Jerome James, C, Sonics -- He's back in Nate McMillan's dog house. His game still intrigues plenty of GMs around the league. Would someone give up a legit power forward for James? The Sonics like what Vladimir Radmanovic has done so far offensively, but he's also the guy who gave up 21 points and 15 boards to a guy with a broken foot on opening night. Given the strong play of Ronald Murray, could the Sonics afford to give up Radmanovic, James and Brent Barry for Rahim? That trade could put the Sonics back on the map in the West and give the Hawks some serious cap room next season.

Around the League

Speaking of trades, you've got to love Suns GM Bryan Colangelo. In the midst of getting thrashed by Greg Ostertag and the Utah Jazz, Colangelo pulled off a trade mid-game for Wizards center Jahidi White.

White is a low-post bruiser who's played a total of four minutes this season and just 230 minutes in 16 games last season. The Suns have been thin in the middle since trading away Jake Tsakalidis and Bo Outlaw in the preseason.

Will White make the difference? Probably not, but the Suns felt they had to do something to address their problems in the middle.

"He's going to help big time," guard Stephon Marbury said. "We're not rebounding the ball well as a whole. I think the addition of Jahidi is going to make it totally different. That guy is an offensive rebounding machine."

The move was a slam dunk for the Wizards. Knight's $5 million salary comes off the books this summer. That should put the Wizards about $5 million under the cap for next season. If they can sweet talk the Bobcats into taking local product Christian Laettner in the expansion draft this spring, the Wizards could be as much as $11 million under the cap next summer and get themselves in the running for another top free agent.

What's up with the terrible shooting percentages around the league? Watching many of the games is akin to watching paint dry.

The league-wide shooting percentage has fallen from 44.2 percent last season to 41.7 percent this year.

Everyone has their theory. The most popular is blaming zone defenses. Wednesday night, both Frank Johnson and Doc Rivers blamed their team's loss on an inability to figure out the zone.

"I haven't seen any team in the league not playing a zone this season," Rivers told Florida Today. "Even the man-to-man defenses are really zones because they are walking guys over. With the 24-second shot clock there just isn't a lot of time to figure out the zones and it results in a lot of bad shots."

". . . We come down the court and run into a zone and all of a sudden it's like, 'Oh, what do I do?' And we just don't respond. . . . We had no energy against the zone," Johnson told the Salt Lake Tribune. "We had no energy playing a zone. We are kind of an individual team in that sense, because we don't move the ball."

The players seem to agree.

"I think it's the zone causing all the problems and it's really killing our league," said Tracy McGrady. "Basically we're settling for more jumpers than ever. Back in the day it was strictly one-on-one and me against you. The zone is killing us because you can have a guy isolated and then they can send another guy at you. It's just tough to score that way."

"It bothers a lot of teams in the NBA; the Mavericks bothered us with it the other night," Jazz forward Matt Harpring said. " . . . You just want to make the other guys shoot from the outside because that's the big weakness in the NBA these days."

That may be part of the answer, but not the whole thing. The Pacer's nasty 71-60 win over the Nuggets two nights ago didn't include much zone defense. Other teams haven't had any problems with the Bulls' zone. Is something else going on here? Blame it on another rule that has wreaked havoc on the start of the season.

"I think that the rule that prevented veterans from reporting to training camp with the rest of the team is the real issue," one league executive said. "These days, teams run pretty complex offenses. A third of the league had new coaches and there was a lot of player turnover. I just don't think a lot of teams really had time to get all their stuff in. A lot of coaches never got around to installing offenses to counter the zone. What you've got, basically, is pre-season in the regular season. Very few teams are playing up to their capabilities yet. That's also why you see some of the young teams playing a little better. They had more time in the preseason."

The Magic are 0-4 at home to start the season and the boos are raining down. With so much pressure on GM John Gabriel and Rivers to perform this season, could ownership clean house if the Magic don't turn things around?

There's been some unrest in Orlando for some time. The promise that everyone felt when Grant Hill and T-Mac signed has dissipated. The Magic are pleading for patience, but is the team ready to blow up? Juwan Howard claims that the perception couldn't be further from the truth.

"I've been in Denver and I can say with that team, we hung together and fought through it," Howard told the Orlando Sentinel. "There was no dissension, no pointing fingers. . . . We're not going to do that on this team. We haven't thought about nothing like that. So I just want to put that word out there: We're all going to stay together as a team. We're a tight group."

No pointing fingers? Obviously, Howard didn't hear Rivers' postgame comments. Howard made straight two turnovers at the end of the third quarter. Both turned into Bulls baskets.

"We still have to get Juwan to play better," Rivers said. "There's no doubt about that. . . Those are the little things now. Everything that is good goes, wrong. . . I thought the two turnovers broke our spirit."

Still, Rivers said he too still believes.

"Maybe I'm crazy but I really believe in this team," he said. "I think this is all going to turn out at the end of the day OK. But right now it feels horrible. To lose two games where you look at the schedule and say, 'We should win these games.' Maybe we're just not that good yet to say that."

Bottom line: NBA has a case of hyper rash

Jay Mariotti / Chicago Sun-Times

Blazers can't put Wells' finger on the problem

John Canzano / The Oregonian

White Is Traded for Suns' Knight

Steve Wyche / Washington Post

Deal brings welcome help

Bob Young / Arizona Republic

Zone defense eclipses Suns' offense

Steve Luhm / Salt Lake Tribune

Magic: Zones causing league shooting woes

John Denton / Florida Today

Howard urges fans' patience

Brian Schmitz / Orlando Sentinel

Peep Show

By Terry Brown

NBA Insider

Thursday, November 6

Updated: November 6

9:21 AM ET

Chicago Bulls: Eddy Curry is stinking up the joint and he knows it. "I need to take some time off, like maybe five months," Curry said in the Chicago Sun Times. "But I'm still confident. Nothing's happening for me right now. I don't know what's up." But his coach, on the hot seat himself, isn't about to give his center any breaks. "We're going to throw Eddy back out there, because Eddy has to learn," Bill Cartwright said. "The thing with Eddy is he's trying to do too much once again. We took him out not for his offense, but for his defense."

HorryLos Angeles Lakers: Robert Horry may miss his old team, the Lakers, but he isn't about to shed any tears over it or miss a meal. "I always catch a little bit of the third quarter or the fourth quarter (of Lakers games) while I'm having dinner somewhere," he said in the L.A. Daily News. "But I pretty much don't watch it, because I be hungry." Oh, and he isn't bitter anymore, either. "Once I found out the Spurs wanted me, all the hurt went out the window," Horry said. "It's just a business. ... You handle it like you're supposed to and be professional about it and you go on."

Miami Heat: Stan Van Gundy is 0-5 as head coach of the Heat. So why is he always smiling? "I still feel a great deal of optimism with the team that's in that locker room," he said in the Palm Beach Post. "I think when we get everybody back it can be a very good team. I don't think it's going to happen overnight either, just because they all walk out there together one night. They haven't practiced together (since) the first day of training camp so it may take a little bit of time. But I think there's a great deal of optimism." And at least one of his players agrees. "Winning and losing, that's how people identify with coaches," Lamar Odom said, "How many wins they've got and how many losses they've got. Right now he's (0-5) as an NBA head coach. Some people are going to say he's not a good coach. But as soon as we start winning they're going to say he's a great coach."

NashDallas Mavericks: By now you know that the Mavericks will be without Steve Nash for at least one game with a hurt shoulder, but even he doesn't know exactly what happened. "I don't really know how it happened," Nash said in the Dallas Morning News. "I guess it got bumped. I just remembered running back down the court wondering what I did to my shoulder. I thought it might get better, but it just kept getting sorer, and finally when I went out, I couldn't make some of my normal movements. That's when I realized how limited I was."

New York Knicks: There's a difference between practicing and scrimmaging and that's where Antonio McDyess' doctor is drawing the line. So, while he is eligible to come of the injured list on Saturday it may be another couple weeks before he actually able to play. "That's the best I've seen him move. He's making tremendous strides," said head coach Don Chaney in the New York Daily News as he remained cautious. "I want him to stay one-on-one. That's all I'm interested in. The progress has to be steady. It can't take leaps and bounds. He has to take his time and go through the steps."

Bulls finally take off as Curry takes a seat

Roman Modrowski / Chicago Sun-Times

Reunion isn't Spur to Horry

Howard Beck / Los Angeles Daily News

Van Gundy positive despite slow start

Chris Perkins / Palm Beach Post

Nash out with hurt shoulder

Eddie Sefko / Dallas Morning News

McDyess gets OK to practice as return looms

Frank Isola / New York Daily News

[Plainview1981]

Shareef Abdur-Rahim, F, Hawks -- The Hawks look like they're going to be as terrible as advertised. Keeping Rahim, they're one tradable asset, doesn't make a lot of sense. Rahim's career low 14.4 ppg average doesn't help things either. Would a team like the Nuggets or Jazz (who are clearly better than we thought they'd be) be willing to give up a young player or two (like Nikoloz Tskitishvili and Rodney White) for Rahim? The key for the Hawks is to get well under the cap next summer. "

Call it a done deal! Get the paper work started.

[swolehawk2]

Why?,....because if those bums were traded to Atl u would just talk shiit about them too. lol

[Plainview1981]

Those pile of crap come 13 million cheaper.