MVN: Most Valuable Network

I really hate trade rumors.  I don't mind people coming up with trade scenarios and discussing them. But the worst thing that happened to internet basketball "reporting" was the trade rumor (which can be traced back to its origins in a Peter Vecsey column, I'm sure). And there was one running wild like the 'Liks today that involved the Mavericks, Raptors, an Italian kid, and someone who hates banners that are spangled with stars.

The big rumor going through today that was "certainly going to happen" was the trade of Andrea Bargnani and Anthony Parker to the Mavs for Josh Howard.

Now, this rumor bothers me for many reasons. I can work the ESPN trade machine as well as anyone (even you, Bill Simmons). But I would never rumor a trade that makes absolutely no sense. I do believe that the Mavericks would love to trade Josh Howard as long as they got something significant in return. Would this be something significant in return? Absolutely. But it would leave them without a reliable wing scorer (not counting Jason Terry) and they would have too much money sitting on the bench at the big men positions.

But I REALLY don't see why a savvy decision maker like my good friend Bryan Colangelo would make this trade. Granted, this team needs a reliable wing scorer in a bad way. But for a team with so many depth issues right now, why would they ever trade two for one? Bargnani is playing really well right now and possibly finding his niche with this team after a couple of disappointing years. How would this ever make sense?

Sometimes, rumors need to just be presented as nice ideas. I know "anonymous sources" run the media on these internets but we need to be able to realize what is real and what is unrealistic.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to start a rumor of Randy Foye and Rodney Carney to the Pacers for Danny Granger and a conditional first round pick.
 


Let's Recap All of the Games from Last Night
By Zach Harper

There seems to be some happy sentiment towards the covering of every game in a brief recap.  So we'll stick with that for now.  Here are the games from last night:

Orlando Magic 106, Atlanta Hawks 102 in Atlanta-
The Orlando Magic built a huge lead throughout much of this game thanks to a lethargic Hawks team that didn't seem very concerned with winning a home game against a division rival. Then the Magic weathered the storm as the Hawks nearly erased a 19-point fourth quarter lead. The Hawks stormed back against the Magic with energy and timely defense but couldn't punctuate baptisms like this (don't jump with him Courtney!) because of a missed layup by Mike Bibby. Dwight Howard had 23 points and 19 rebounds to lead the Magic to the win.

Cleveland Cavaliers 111, Charlotte Bobcats 81 in Cleveland- 
I'm only going to need a couple of words to describe this game. Bobcats. Scared. Intimidated. Disinterested. Lazy. Lost.  From the Associated Press, Larry Brown described it as this, "We never competed a lick. There's some players that some of our guys play against they don't think they have a chance. If you look at our history, maybe that's why you don't win. You don't expect to win. The first minute of the game, you look out there and feel like you've got no chance. It's disappointing."

Toronto Raptors 99, Washington Wizards 93 in D.C.- 
Andrea Bargnani completed dominated the Wizards in this game and the Raptors never trailed in this game as the Raptors won for the third time in four games. During these last four games, Bargnani has averaged 20.7 points on 61% from the field. Toronto survived 20 turnovers by shooting 54% from the field, which was led by the 8-9 shooting effort by Andrea. The Raptors swarmed Caron Butler with help defenders for most of the game and forced him to shoot just 6-18 from the field.

Houston Rockets 89, Boston Celtics 85 in Boston- 
There's good news and bad news for Celtics fans. The good news is the Celtics seemed to be genuinely upset that they were going to lose this game in the final 30 seconds, which is not a feeling you could necessarily sense from them in the previous five losses. The bad news is that they couldn't close out this game against the Rockets who were playing without Tracy McGrady. The Celtics managed just 11 fourth quarter points to one of the best defensive teams in the NBA.

New Jersey Nets 100, Memphis Grizzlies 89 in East Rutherford-
The Nets received a surprisingly determined effort from Vince Carter with Devin Harris missing the game due to a hamstring injury. Vince scored 25 points and dished out 12 assists to counter O.J. Mayo's 26 points as the Nets won for just the eighth time in 20 home games. Brook Lopez and Yi Jianlin combined for 37 points and 14 rebounds.

Philadelphia 76ers 110, Milwaukee Bucks 105 in Milwaukee-
Andre Miller hit his second three of the night with 28 seconds left over Michael Redd to give the 76ers a four-point win. Why is this so noteworthy? It was only the seventh that he's made this season and only his 11th three-pointer made in 173 games with the Philadelphia 76ers. Miller finished with 28 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists to lead Philly second straight win. The Sixers went to the line 39 times in this game as they were consistently more aggressive than the Bucks.

Minnesota Timberwolves 129, Oklahoma City Thunder 87 in Minneapolis-
I know.  I don't believe it myself. How is this Thunder team not the worst team ever?

Denver Nuggets 108, Miami Heat 97 in Denver-
Chauncey Billups, Linas Kleiza, and J.R. Smith each scored 21 points to fill the void left by Carmelo Anthony and his broken hand. They survived Dwyane Wade's 31 points who finished strong after just two points in the first quarter. The Nuggets shot 40 free throws compared to the 16 attempts by the Heat as the Nuggets won their fifth straight game and 14th in 18 home games.

Indiana Pacers 113, Phoenix Suns 110 in Phoenix-
The Pacers blew a second half double-digit lead but survived on Danny Granger's three-pointer with 0.9 seconds left to beat the Suns in Phoenix at the buzzer in Mike Dunleavy, Jr.'s season debut. Six Pacers scored in double figures and they shot 49.5% from the field to neutralize the 39 to 15 free throw attempt advantage and 50 to 40 rebounding advantage by the Suns. Granger is averaging 30.9 points in his last 10 games.

Utah Jazz 116, New Orleans Hornets 90 in Salt Lake City-
Coming off of a late win over the Lakers the night before, the Hornets held a 33-29 lead after the first quarter in the battle of Chris Paul versus Deron Williams. Then the Hornets decided to let the Jazz dominate the rest of the game and were outscored 55-31 in the second and third quarters combined.  Paul Millsap had 27 and 14 for the Jazz and the Utah bench had 48 points. The Jazz shared the ball exceptionally well with 27 assists on 40 made baskets. Utah also dominated on the boards with a 55 to 26 advantage.

Portland Trailblazers 84, Detroit Pistons 83 in Portland-
Travis Outlaw scored the last two baskets of the game for Portland including the game-winner with eight seconds left. How good was Outlaw in the final minute of the game? Matt Turney sent me this video via Twitter to explain it. Bust a Bucket. Bust Bust a Bucket.

Los Angeles Lakers 114, Golden State Warriors 106 in Oakland -
The Lakers played extremely lazy for three quarters with terrible passing and uninterested transition defense that gave up 28 points on fastbreaks. But they turned to Pau Gasol in the fourth quarter and let him dominate an inferior Warriors frontcourt to lead the Lakers to their Western Conference leading 28th win of the season. Andrew Bynum showed up without much resistance facing him as he dropped 18 points and 11 rebounds.  Andris Biedrins was a fantasy owners' wet dream with 12 points, 17 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals, and 3 blocks.  


Just two games on League Pass due to the College Football National Championship
By Zach Harper
 
New York Knicks (13-20) at Dallas Mavericks (21-13) at 5:30 pm PST
The Knicks followed up a brilliant defensive effort against the Boston Celtics with an uninspired, embarrassing loss to the OKC Thunder. To beat Dallas, they're going to have to send lots of double teams from different angles at Dirk Nowitzki and force Jason Kidd to knock down jumpers.  They can't let Dirk or Jason Terry get into a rhythm and will have to live with the role players of the Mavs winning this game for Dallas.

For Dallas, they can't get caught up in a running game with Mike D'Antoni's team. Even though this team isn't close to the talent level of D'Antoni's Suns teams of the past, they still have plenty of offensive firepower to catch this Mavericks team off guard.  The key to stopping this Knicks team will be slowing down Nate Robinson and making him play in a halfcourt game. If they can do that and keep Chris Duhon from penetrating throughout the game, they should be able to run away with this game.

Los Angeles Clippers (8-26) at San Antonio Spurs (23-11) at 5:30 pm PST
This will not be a good game by any means and there probably won't be much reason to watch. But if you want to watch a great young scorer who is playing really well right now, tune in and take a look at Eric Gordon. He's a scoring machine that will never give up, something this franchise isn't used to having.  

BCS Prediction: Florida 38, Oklahoma 34


How about you get caught up in some Snuggie Conspiracy?
By Zach Harper

If you've already checked out the links section of this article before you got to this point, then you've read Jon Posnanski's breakdown of the Snuggie commercial. I wasn't really aware of how big and popular this Snuggie phenomenon was until via Twitter the other day, Dan Levy of the On the DL Podcast and the tweeting profile of Hugging Harold Reynolds were talking about how joyous these Snuggies would be. For those of you who don't know what a Snuggie is, it's a Blanket with Sleeves! 

Here's the commercial.

How creepy is this thing? How is this socially acceptable? How is this something that someone would want? I don't care if it IS just $14.95.  I don't care if it comes with a free book light that looks like it was built by Skynet. This is not right!

A blanket with sleeves? You mean a bathrobe? You mean a hospital gown made out of terricloth? This isn't a blanket.  And it isn't a blanket with sleeves.  You want to know what this is?

It's a way to get sucked into a cult. It starts with a revolution of thought. It's followed by a shiny object (free Skynet book light) to distract you from the wrongfulness of your actions (buying one of these stupid things). Then you're being asked to wear these things in public, with friends and family, and eventually in a field with 45 other people, chanting to a comet in the sky before you drink special Kool-Aid.

I frankly can not stand by and allow this to happen to people. We can't give into the Snuggie revolution. We can't let great and brilliant people like the creators of the On the DL Podcast, Hugging Harold Reynolds or even our good friend at Truth About It get mesmerized by a top quality produced commercial that distracts us with fancy words, cool graphics, and lobotomized followers.

Stop the Snuggies! We can't let them win! Save Dan Levy!