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?

Rasho-mine!

Spoonful drops Posey for Rasho

 

Not much to say here: Posey (recently discussed here), performed as advertised in a week of games for the Spoonful, some 3s, some DREBs, that's about it.

Rasho, just dropped by the Hosens, had a nice game (despite a DISQ) on Sunday (14/4/3) against the Celtics. Despite rumors that Hibbert might get some starts going forward, Rasho is still a decent, if inconsistent, source of REBs, FG%, and maybe even BLK.

Judgment: Just a trade of 3s/STL for some OREBs/AST/BLK, along with some extra PFs and some DISQ-risk. With the decline of Mason and the disappearance of Morrow, competing in 3s seems unlikely, so this kind of fine-tuning to shore up some weaknesses is a wise, if unexciting, move.

May getting in shape?

Hosen drop Rasho, snap up Fat

We've discussed Rasho a few times - the Hosen have now picked him up and dropped him twice. Despite starting, he's been limited to 18 minutes or less in 4 of the last 5 games, and we're not entirely sure why (the 5th game, on Tuesday, was a delicious 16/10 performance). Earlier in the season he was regularly playing 30+. It may be a matchup thing, as those games were against some good defensive C's. Some of the games were blowouts as well, and coach Jim O'Brien wants to get a good look at super tall (7'2") Georgetown standout Roy Hibbert, who was picked #17 overall by the Raptors and dealt in the ONeal/Ford deal. Hibbert has looked pretty good, and may eat into Rasho's minutes going forward. That said, Rasho is clearly the starter, and would be a useful contributor to many teams.

May has also been discussed before - he was picked up and dropped.rather quickly by Nor'Easter in mid November. May has again regained his starting job, and turned some heads with a 10/11 double, while playing a season high 27 minutes (Note - that was against the extremely terrible Thunder). He followed that up with a much more pedestrian 5/5 line, but managed to get to 20 minutes a game for the second time this season. Perhaps he's working his way into shape. If so, he could be a useful source of points and rebounds. That said, we imagine he'll end up in Larry Brown's doghouse again soon.

Judgment: We still don't see May contributing much soon, especially offensively, unless various the injury prone Bobcats (Okafor, J-Rich, 'Crash') actually get injured. He does have terrific longer term upside, if he can control his weight. We think it was too early to cut Rasho, as he's been pretty productive, and we especially like his bigManPassing.

Welcome Back Rasho

Hosen drop Telfair, re-sign Nesterovic

 

Not much new here - we discussed the Hosen's pickup of Telfair, and of Rasho, previously. Rasho was injured briefly, but came back strong with a 12/12 2 Block line on Saturday . Telfair is starting in MIN, but on Sunday managed only 2 points, 2 TOs, and 2 PFs.

Judgment: Good Riddance! The fleecing of the odensques renders the Hosen less PG-desperate, and now they can address their needs in the frontcourt. This is an excellent pickup.

Rasho dumped

Hosen drop Rasho for Kyle Lowry

Information on Rasho can be found in our previous post. He has sprained his ankle, but otherwise, his situation is unchanged.

Kyle Lowry was the beneficiary last year of Mike Conley's terrible rookie season (9/3/4), and seems poised to capitalize again on Conley's terrible second season (5/2/4). Lowry is averaging 8/3/4, and, when his shot is on, can put forth impressive multi-cat lines. With the Grizz heavily invested in Mayo and Conley, however, there's a question of minutes consistency (and his own shooting inconsistency).

Judgment: We generally approve, though the Hosen do need Bigs, perhaps more than PGs - it's early, though, and Lowry will likely be a solid contributor all season long. Also, being less Pacer-dependent is never a bad thing.

Night Moves

Later Hosens drop Speights for Nesterovic

The first move of the year! At last.

Marreesse Speights, the 16th overall pick of the (real) draft and the Hosen's 19th round pick, is a good prospect, and has had an eye opening preseason, but is not poised to be a fantasy force for some time (though Mo Cheeks is apparently high on him). Realistically, he's unlikely to get many minutes right off the bat with Brand, Dalembert, Ratliff, and I think Reggie Evans playing. They'll all get injured, but probably not at the same time.

Rasho is an old Waiver Wire standby, though not a sexy one. He was, it should be noted, a beast in March (13/7/1BLK) and April (16/7/1). 10 and 5 is a reasonable expectation. It turns out he was the 17th overall pick in 1998 (i.e., he's old). Other recent 17th overall picks: Jermaine O'Neal, Aaron McKie, Desmond Mason, Josh Smith, Danny Granger.

Judgment: Clearly a winning move by the Hosen. With a somewhat thin frontcourt, they can't wait around for Speights to mature, or Dalembert to hurt himself. Rasho should get plenty of minutes (T-Murph and Jeff Foster are the other big men in IND) and will be a help. By the way, I just found out that Kevin Love is white. I'm a bit shocked.