Recent Moves

Spoonful drop Landry for Brooks

With Alston out, and the gap-toothed, oft-picked-up-and-dropped Landry not turning into Paul Millsap, the Spoonful elected to get on the Aaron Brooks train for the second time. Brooks will again provide some points, 3s and AST. Expect 18 and 10 in Landry's next game

Judgment Haiku:

Bricks clang, whistles blow

Fouls and TOs aplenty;

Rockets never launch

My$hkin cuts DeShawn for Belinelli

Marco Belinelli is the next Rob Kurz - he started and scored 21 points, after two nice games off the bench. Remarkably, if I'm not mistaken, 11 Warriors are owned right now, and none of them are Wright or Randolph. DeShawn is still doing his thing, but remains upside-free.

Judgment Limerick:

A guard, Belinelli, a Warri-

-or has become a great I-talian story,

Once allowed on the floor,

He went off for 21, 4, and 4,

And Nellie exclaimed: "That's Amore!"

My$hkin drops Miles for Walton

Luke Walton is suddenly starting, sending VladRad to the bench - it seems to be working, as the Lakers have won 4 straight, and LukeLuke himself had a nice 14/5/2 line in his last outing. Miles and his fellow black starter, Ronnie Brewer were benched for most of the last Utah game by J-Slo, and some think his run as a starter may be close to an end. We think C.J. will be somewhat useful going forward

Judgment, in Prose: We like this move - Walton's always been intriguing, and, when healthy, can be a nice all-round contributor. He does have some competitiion (T-Ariz and VladRad) at SF, so keep an eye on his minutes going forward. For your poetry fix - check out C.J. Miles (the nba player, not the sexy filipina model) rapping...

Spoonful releases Rasho, picks up Marreese

This was another quick, though perhaps ill-advised, pickup by the Spoonful. E-Brizzle is out for a month with a separated shoulder, and Speights, discussed originally here, should see an uptick in PT. That might just mean more fouls and missed FTs, but Marreese is intriguing as a young, athletic big-man. Perhaps the Hosens would be interested in a Bonner/Speights package deal. Rasho's been OK, though annoyingly inconsistent and foul-prone, but has lost his starting gig to an unholy combination of Roy Hibbert and Jeff Foster. Fun fact - originally, the Hosen dropped Speights for Rasho back in October.

Judgment Haiku:

Rasho, piece of poop

Similarities abound.

Can Marreese be worse?

Whoops!

Spoonful drops e. gordon, picks up landry...again

But this is the last time. We discussed E-Gord here, and Lando many times. Despite rushing to drop Landry for Gordon in the aftermath of the trade. Landry again demonstrated the power of the 'Brooks/Landry effect' - instant production from a recently dropped player, by having some fine games. This time, though, he's had 4 solid games in a row - bumping Hakim Warrick into the Spoonful's 'about-to-drop' doghouse. Gordon, however, went off, in his second game as the Clips SG (25 PTS! 4 3s!) and again in his third (24 PTS! 4 3s!). We're still skeptical - the kid's 19 and couldn't shoot in college - or in his first 13 games. He doesn't produce much outside of PTS and 3s, and will surely make a lot of rookie mistakes. Plus, when Z-Bo gets in the flow, no one else will be allowed to shoot. We predict 11 PTS, 3 REB, 2 AST, and 1.5 3s the rest of the way - but that's not bad!

Judgment: Clearly a mistake and a lack of patience on the Spoonful's part - the only saving grace is that Landry's REBs are more in line with team needs. But to negate a timely, if hastily managed, acquisition such as this, will haunt the Spoonful for some time.

Buckets-a-go-go

NBA trade causes Spoonful panic - landry for gordon

In moves involving three of the handsomest men in the NBA (see above), the Spoonful, reading about the exciting NBA trades between the Knicks, Clippers, and Warriors (more to come), flew, ill-considered, into action, dropping (for the 2nd time) semi-promising, gap-toothed HOU forward Carl Landry, profiled here, for Ricky Buckets, discussed previously, who may garner more minutes in LAC with Mobley gone. Then, realizing that Ricky Davis isn't good, dropped Davis for the higher upside of rookie Eric Gordon, dropped a while back by thenopp, as detailed here. The Spoonful are hoping that reuniting the brothers Gordon will help young Eric take advantage of the opportunity that may be coming his way.

Judgment: As was the case last time, Landry, upon being dropped, had a terrific game tonight - his first in weeks. We're entitling this widespread phenomenon 'the Brooks/Landry effect' in honor of Houston's two 7th men who have been prone to blowing up after being dropped. Gordon may prove useless, but one has to try to capitalize on NBA upheaval. Still, given the Spoonful's need for rebounds, patience with Landry might have been more prudent.

It's 'Amir'acle he was owned at all...

Spoonful drop Amir johnson, re-acquire C.Landry

Sometimes it takes dropping a player to know how much you love them. Even though it feels a bit odd to drop ones 17th round draft pick for ones 19th, especially when the former is starting and the latter is not, higher ups in the Spoonful front office report that it's already a pleasure to have Amir out of their 'hair'.

Amir Johnson, like co-overhyped Spoonful/Piston Rodney Stuckey, got rave reviews in the pre-season; he was touted as a supposed 'sleeper'-type source of rebs and blocks by many so-called 'experts' on such things. However, foul trouble and the crowded Pistons frontcourt have conspired to limit Amir to fewer than 19 MPG.  6/5 with only 1 BPG and 3.5 PF/G isn't helping the Spoonful or the Pistons, and Amir's losing time Kwame Brown, of all people. He'll likely put it together to some degree and end up on a roster in a few months. Fun fact: Amir was the last high school player drafted in the NBA, this is actually his 4th season.

Carl Landry was discussed here - not much has changed, except that he went out and scored 20 the day after he was dropped, and has avoided foul trouble for two straight games. That will likely change when facing Amare and T-Dunc the rest of this week; we'll see if he gets dropped again.

Judgment: The Spoonful lose some BLK and maybe STL, gain points and fouls (in a good way), and probably stay even in rebounds. No great shakes here, but Landry should have more short-term upside due to his situation and strong recent play.

T-Ariza heads to the Spoonful

Spoonful drops Landry for Ariza

Carl Landry is a hard working PF type in his second year out of Purdue. He racks up rebounds and other defensive stats, and gets garbage-type high PCT shots. However, he's a bit blocked behind Scola in HOU, and perhaps crowded further by Battier/Artest/Chuck Hayes. He will have value in case of an injury to Yao, but until then, he's a poor and inconsistent man's Paul Millsap.

Trevor Ariza has been discussed; his situation is not much changed (i.e., minutes questions remain), but he is quite talented.

Judgment: The Spoonful is hoping to trade some rebounds (already in short supply) for a more rounded contribution, and hopes that T-Ariz's upside lands him more minutes in the long run. They will need to add rebounding in some form (and Hakim Warrick ain't cuttin' it).