HoopsHype.com NBA Blogs - Eddie Johnson

This trade deadline got me excited, but then it put me too sleep. Usually around the trade deadline we get a deal that changes the landscape, but the deals that finally went down only were good for the bottom feeders – except for Orlando picking up Rafer Alston to replace Jameer Nelson. Alston should stabilize the team, but his shooting has been inconsistent and that was the strength of Nelson.

The thought of Amare Stoudemire or Shaquille O’Neal playing with LeBron James was terrifying if you are a Boston Celtic or Lakers fan. Tyson Chandler leaving the Hornets for Oklahoma City made teams in the West smile knowing if Chandler got healthy come playoff time he would have been a serious problem setting that high pick-and-roll for Chris Paul.

Those trades did not happen, although Chandler to OKC was rescinded due to a failed physical. I guarantee you Paul smiled and jumped around privately knowing he would have Chandler instead of Chris Wilcox.

The key now for the Hornets is… How will Chandler respond knowing they tried to ship him out to a very bad team?

I thought  San Antonio would find a way to get Vince Carter, especially since Manu Ginobili will be out three weeks with a tender ankle, which puts their Southwest Division lead of three games in danger.

I also thought Portland would use some of their assets to find a veteran point guard or acquire Richard Jefferson, but now look for Brandon Roy to handle the ball even more – thus possibly wearing him down come playoff time.

Phoenix and Dallas made the big splash last year by acquiring Shaq and Jason Kidd. I guess the only team that has come close to making us say, “OK, maybe this could work” is the trade of Jermaine O’Neal for Shawn Marion.

Miami is 28-25 and presently 3 ½ games behind Atlanta for the fourth seed with one game left to play against each other this year. O’Neal gives Miami a very good post-up player and a excellent pick-and-pop person to run the two-man game with Dwyane Wade. If O’Neal can stay healthy, Miami becomes extremely dangerous as a first-round opponent.

Toronto gets Shawn Marion and I assume Bryan Colangelo is confident he can sign the Matrix when his contract expires this season, which will pay dividends on both ends of the court. It will not be enough to elevate the Raptors to the postseason, though.

I guess among the bottom feeders Chicago did the best job in picking up John Salmons, Tim Thomas and Brad Miller. Miller will give them a threat to score as well as provide veteran toughness and smarts. Salmons provides the Bulls a player that has size in the backcourt and a unique ability to find lanes to the basket, which with Derrick Rose gives them the best twosome in the league at getting to the basket – other than Ginobili and Parker in San Antonio. Tim Thomas is versatile, but he better hope the Bulls have forgiven him for not giving his all the last time he was in a Bulls uniform. Jerome James will go down as the biggest steal artist in the history of the game. Maybe the Bulls mascot can use him during timeouts as a prop.

I was intrigued by New York’s acquisition of Larry Hughes and Chris Wilcox because neither player can make a jumper if you put a string on the ball and tied it to the rim. Hughes thinks he should be a big-time rotation player, but he shoots 41 percent from the field. On the other hand, he has a respectable 39 percent from the three-point line so maybe Mike D’Antoni is hoping that continues with the Knicks. Wilcox will find it to steal minutes away from the extremely consistent David Lee.

Sacramento has gotten worse and I am thinking that’s the intention. They picked up seven players and not one with the exception of Drew Gooden has  a proven resume, although Andres Nocioni in my opinion will become a valuable player for the Kings eventually. Rashad McCants has talent, but seems to have no desire to work past 70 percent of his ability, which obviously drove Kevin McHale to rid himself of him. Ike Diogu is just hoping to finally get a chance to prove he can play or can’t play.

I really like the direction of Oklahoma City. They pick up a guard with size in Thabo Sefolosha, who should form a solid defensive backcourt alongside Russell Westbrook.

Minnesota picked up a big body in Shelden Williams to offset the season-ending injury to Al Jefferson. Too bad McHale can’t use Williams’ bride Candace Parker, who will be sitting courtside watching instead. Williams has been a huge disappointment and still haunts the Atlanta Hawks for taking him so high in the draft.

Houston gets Brian Cook and Kyle Lowry, but they are in serious trouble without Tracy McGrady and will not be the factor come playoff time I expected them to be.

Bottom line, as I said not one trade excited me and most definitely not one trade altered the course the season has been traveling to this point in the season.

The Celtics, Lakers, Cavaliers are still the cream of the crop and everyone else will need to go into the playoffs on a serious roll to change that perception.

The Nuggets, who are flying under the radar at 37-17, probably should have tried to find one more shooter, but why rock the boat? They have feasted on sub-.500 teams this year to the tune of 21-2 and are presently the No. 2 seed.

There are teams like the Suns and Dallas that did not make a move, but not doing so might give them the confidence to eventually start living up to expectations. The Mavericks are 7-3  in their last 10 games while the Suns have returned to their running style and averaged 141 points in two victories against the Clippers since the removal of Terry Porter.

Utah is the most dangerous team because they have battled injuries all year long and are just now starting to get healthy, proven by a huge victories against the top two teams in the last week.

In the East, the Orlando Magic and the Atlanta Hawks seem to be the only threats to negating a Celtic –Cavalier conference final. The Pistons are fading fast and  seem to be backing their way out of the playoffs with five straight losses and four of them at home.

The best time of the year is upon us.  My Chicago Cubs are back at work, the NCAA Tournament is a month away and the NBA season has turned the corner for the stretch run.

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Yeah, Chris Paul is great. But give Byron Scott a lot of credit.

The New Orleans Hornets are the gypsies of the National Basketball Association. They have relocated twice in the last few years and have adjusted splendidly. I felt the Hornets would be a surprising team, but no one thought that they would be fighting for the best record in the Western Conference halfway through the season.

I know that Chris Paul has been getting the bulk of the attention for this huge turnaround, but before I start with Paul, I want to look at the marvelous job Byron Scott has done in improving this team with everything they have had to deal with over the last few years.

Scott, who is a disciple of Pat Riley, Magic Johnson, Larry Brown and Rick Adelman, has taken a little from each and created a consistency at the coaching position that has gone unrecognized  for a number of years.

Remember this is the same coach who took an overachieving New Jersey Net team to the NBA Finals twice and was promptly fired because rumor had it he was not paying attention to detail. Well, the Nets have not sniffed the Finals since and are presently sitting in the eighth position of the Eastern Conference 15 ½ games behind the Boston Celtics.

George Shinn, who has been much maligned as an NBA owner, snapped Scott up in a hurry and he has brought stability and professionalism to a franchise that was becoming the laughingstock of the league a few years ago.

Scott has been able to do it because Shinn has allowed him to control his environment and not mettle. Scott has encouraged and made some decisions that some initially frowned upon or wondered why, but as we are seeing the Hornets are making a rise that has skeptics unsettled and looking for reasons.

The first thing Scott did was go with his instincts and beliefs on whom he would feel comfortable sitting next to him. Rarely in the NBA nowadays do we see more than one ex-player sitting next to a head coach? Byron Scott has three in Kenny Gattison, Darrell Walker and Paul Pressey.  What is also significant is that Scott was not intimidated about hiring coaches that did not have to be taught about the nuances of the league. These individuals played and have a desire to become head coaches in the future.  This means if Shinn wanted to make a change he would not have to look far.  Riley, Brown and Adelman were also coaches who were not afraid of this situation and now you see through the power of this association.

Most coaches in this league would never put a potential successor next to them and definitely not three, but Scott understands that winning consistently will keep his job anyway… So why not go all? It has paid dividends for him.

It definitely helps to have a Chris Paul, but again here is the beauty of Scott remembering the greatness of Magic Johnson. He has allowed Paul to be great because, believe me, there are some coaches in this league that would not allow Paul to control this team as he does and the numbers we are seeing might not be part of his portfolio.

Paul runs every fabric of this team. I saw him a few weeks ago dress down three veterans in the span of two minutes and they gave him eye-to-eye contact and followed instructions. Why? Because they see a player that is allowing them to have career years and brings it every night with superstar abilities - which  has him pushing two- time MVP Steve Nash for best point guard in the league.

That might be no surprise. Paul has purposely studied Nash on film and considers him the model in how he should play the game.

Although Scott has the unbelievable Paul, he should be hailed for convincing Peja Stojakovic to bolt Sacramento. Also, David West has developed into one of the best low-post threats in the league.

But the biggest coup and the main reason this team has elevated itself into the super team category so far this season is the theft of Tyson Chandler from the Chicago Bulls. I have personally loved the abilities and athleticism of Chandler ever since he came in the league. It was easy to get down on him because he seemed to not care at times and he could not stay healthy, but when you think about it we were talking about a high school kid. If you discount his first three years in the league, which should be for growth, Chandler has missed only 14 games and has averaged close to 11 rebounds a game in the last four years.  Chandler has now become a confident double-double machine that seems to get more dominant with every game.

I am on record as saying I did not agree with the swap of signing Ben Wallace and trading Chandler and now the Hornets are reaping the benefits of your impatience.

The big challenge for the Hornets is to hope that these four key players will continue to flourish and hopefully find a way to get role players Bobby Jackson, Morris Peterson and Jannero Pargo to start shooting better than 39 percent as a trio. 

It’s important because the Hornets rely on field goals and limiting the opposition’s possessions with their great defensive rebounding to keep the game close so Paul can dominate crunch time, which he has done better than any player in the league the first half of this season.

If the Hornets start to struggle in those areas, they better find a way to get to the free throw line more often because they are dead last with only 19 attempts a game.

All that said, this is one of the most exciting teams with Chris Paul and I believe with good health that they will grab a top five seed and be a tremendous problem come playoff time!

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