Happy Free Agent Day!

July 11th came, and NBA teams haven't wasted much time getting all official. I'm way late on all this, but thought I would at least extend some effort (or you could just read hoopshype). Here are some of my favorites:

Darko agreed to a 3-year deal with the Grizzlies (for MORE than the new midlevel exception of $5.3 million). Is this what they meant by putting better pieces around Gasol? I'm sure he's ecstatic.

Gerald Wallace is signing with the Bobcats for 6 years and $57 million. The Bobcats will be pretty interesting this season. I hope Walter Herrmann still gets time even though its looking like the offense will revolve around JRich, Wallace, and Emeka. I vowed to forever support him after I reluctantly picked him up off waivers last fantasy basketball season, then watched him revitalize my team. God Bless Walter Herrmann.

Grant Hill is officially a Phoenix Sun. I'm a Hill fan, but not sure how this helps them get tougher or better at post defense, two things they actually need. I think Hill would have been a better fit with San Antonio, another smart vet with good overall skills, but guess he chose Phoenix. Surely he could have signed with SA right? RIGHT?

The salary cap got set at $55,630,000. I am reminded of my insignificance.

It also became official today that Steve Francis will NOT become a Blazer, as Portland officially said they agreed to a buy-out. Bigger news was that the Blazers "only" got James Jones and the Draft Rights to Rudy Fernandez from Phoenix in that big draft day trade. This ends speculation that there was some exciting unknown player in the deal that couldn't be announced (I heard Marion and Diaw most often). Still not a bad deal. The OLive Blazers Blog breaks it down.

Thats it, I'm back to watching Summer League. A Happy Free Agent Day to all!

I've Missed A LOT

Too much has happened since my last post. Some news would come out, I'd think about starting an entry and then some even bigger news would come out. I really wanted to finally outline my position on the Blazers mascot Blaze the Trail Cat (he sucks, but I want to go in depth about why, because that really needs to be said). Florida won. Paul Allen bought back the Rose Garden for real. The Blazers announced plans to retire Lionel Hollins Jersey , which is fine and dandy, but demands I remember how badly the Blazers have messed up on retired jerseys. Hollins was on the championship team in 1977, and they just announced plans to retire his number 30 years later. Hey Terry, hang in there. Ugh. Then I think about Terry Porter and it makes me want to get all nostalgic and talk about how he, in my opinion, is the most beloved Blazer figure to Rip City Fans. At least growing up in my house, Porter was god-like. Clyde's the most famous BLAZER, Walton's the most famous guy who was a Blazer. This could get messy, so I'll save it for another time.

Then, David Aldridge had a report about how the Blazers are ready and willing to use their lottery pick in this year's hyped up draft to bring in a good veteran. The link isn't on NBA.com anymore, but you'll have to believe me. Then I was cruising hoopshype and found a link to an SI article about Gasol still wanting out. Then my mind shoots off to entertain visions of Lamarcus Aldridge and Gasol running down the court together with pinwheels on. Not sure if Gasol would agree to it, but WOW.

And as always, I wanted to revisit the unresolved Fred Hickman issue (you'll have to dig in my old posts if you're curious). The playoffs are starting. Oh, and remember how Zach Randolph is sitting out the season to get back at me (he's on my fantasy team, and we're IN the playoffs)? Well I joked about having to replace him with Walter Herrmann. I did pick Walter up off of waivers, and he is NO JOKE! I still haven't seen him play, but the stats are keeping me competetive. Well ok, I've "seen" him play for the Argentina National Team, I think, I just don't remember. Why don't I remember? Well, he COMES OFF THE BENCH FOR THEM. Argentina's got some major talent, and here I always just watched because its my only time to enjoy Pepe Sanchez, who is one of my favorite players of all-time. I just checked out his site and saw that he's signed with And 1. Didn't know that, And 1 gets a couple cool points back.


Believe it or not, this was all just the beginning. The flood of topics, as well as recent life events that have drained my will/ability to be half-way funny, have created a log jam here at Deceptively Quick. I guess this means I just have to spend way more time blogging and watching basketball, life is hard.

Billy Packer, Walter Herrmann, and the Revenge of Zach Randolph

Its Final Four Day, and I'm watching UCLA v. Florida as I write this. Watching the Pac-10 this year, I've come to expect this smothering UCLA defense. Whats never fails to impress me is their amazing ability to block out. After Florida misses a shot, watching the Bruins go to work is pretty fun. Joakim Noah was just boxed all the way out of bounds on a recent shot. Nice.

I don't root for UCLA often, but I'm really hoping they win today as I have had my fill of Noah's constant chest thumping and screaming, not to mention the constant cuts to his dad sporting the latest crazy Euro tennis player attire.

There was another interesting thing I noticed during today's Final 4 CBS Broadcast, and it came from Billy Packer (who as we all know, doesn't give a fuck what you think of him, which is awesome). If you need a quick reminder, Bill Simmon's article for ESPN.com is a good summary of the man who is the Voice of the Final 4.

Anyways, Jim Nantz (blah) asked the mandatory question towards the end of the Georgetown v. Ohio State game, and the conversation basically went like this:

"So Billy, what do you think of the Oden/Hibbard matchup we just saw?"

Billy: "Well, neither dominated the game. It wasn't Walton versus Kareem or Russell out there."

Nantz (blah): "Right, like many are quick to say they belong with them already. But do you see the potential for them to join that company someday?"

...crickets chirping for a few wonderful seconds of total silence......


Billy: "No."

Nantz (blah): "No!?!?!?!?!?!?! Errrrrgeeee My robot brain cannot handle opinions outside of the mainstream school of basketball thought!!!! SAVE ME BILLY!"

Billy: "I just think those players were just a different type."


And then instead of starting a good conversation that wasn't lame banter and making the same points over and over again, Nantz (blah) just rebooted his hard drive and moved on to talk about something else. Too bad Nantz sucks, I would have enjoyed hearing Billy's opinions about these two players. Nantz's ability to keep broadcasts free of originality and interesting topics is truly amazing.



Moving on, Zach Randolph is shutting it down for the rest of the year. I want him gone anyways, and I want the Blazers to lose more games to improve the outside chances of nabbing Durant, so this should be a good thing. But as of right now, I'm in the playoffs of fantasy basketball. Randolph is on my team. I had to pick up this guy as a replacement. There's only one explanation for this timing, Z-BO (or at the least, some posse member) reads my blog and is trying to sabotage me. Z-BO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (yelling while shaking fists at the sky)