Da Truth Speaks: PJ Breaks down the NBA 09 season!

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Good pick(I feel)by the Portland Trailblazers:Former Kansas Jayhawk Dorrel Arthur

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Ten things that should happen in the draft … but won't

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1. Kevin Love gets love In a perfect world he'd be gone by 8 p.m. ET. But that won't happen. In any other recent draft -- with the exception of 2003 -- Kevin Love would have been an automatic top-five selection. Blame his moms and pops for not getting busy a few years earlier, because he would have had his own sweepstakes in 2005 and 2006, when Andrea Bargnani and Andrew Bogut were the top choices. Jamie Squire/Getty Images The best for Kevin McHale to get fans to forgive him for trading KG? Draft O.J. Mayo. 2. "And with the third pick, the Minnesota Timberwolves select … O.J. Mayo The whole Miami thing (Shawn Marion not opting out, Pat Riley having questions about Michael Beasley's "character," last-minute secret workouts of point guards) messed up the most perfect fit in the draft. Mayo is perfect for the Wolves. The perfect complement to Al Jefferson, the perfect mystique and sexiness to build a PR campaign around, the perfect draft pick to make up for Rashad McCants and not have Minnesota rely on Marko Jaric's eight points per game at shooting guard. The perfect player who in a few years could make a city forget the hell Kevin McHale put them through for getting rid of KG. 3. The Bucks pick anyone but Joe Alexander The center/power forward-by-committee continues. At 6-foot-8, Alexander is the type of high-risk player the Bucks have been stockpiling since the Ray Allen era ended five years ago. Still in search of that big-time big (Yi Jianlian, Bogut, Charlie Villanueva, Dan Gadzuric), the Bucks are addicted to spending high first-round draft picks on players considered "projects." Alexander is no Kevin Pittsnogle, but he's still a project. 4. The Nuggets trade J.R. Smith and a future No. 1 pick to the Sonics for the fourth pick … And draft Russell Westbrook. How beautiful would that be? Westbrook in the backcourt with AI? The enigma that has become J.R. Smith can move elsewhere, taking the mental mistakes that have haunted him in the past two playoffs. Regardless of whether Melo is in a Nuggets uniform in November or whether George Karl is the coach in January, Westbrook -- the second coming of Baron Davis -- would fit in Denver as Tim Russert did in the "Meet the Press" chair. 5. The Spurs draft a player from America Be honest, it's time for Pop to stay home. It's time for him to draft east of Crenshaw and west of Brooklyn. The Spurs need to rethink their international approach and realize that they already have two of the three best foreign players in the world, and the chances of getting one more are anorexic. It's time to find another Bowen instead of discovering the next Ginobili. The Lakers lost to Boston in six but took the Spurs out in five, so shouldn't DeAndre Jordan or Chris Douglas-Roberts seem attractive to San Antonio? 6. The Pistons pick CDR to become Rip Hamilton's protégé Every star needs an understudy, someone who can carry on his legacy. Think of how Detroit lucked out with Rodney Stuckey "studying" under Chauncey Billups this season. As one of the best backcourts of this generation starts to age, Dumars could lay the blueprint for the next phase by drafting the player everyone knows is going to be Rip reincarnated. That's much more important right now than trying to trade Sheed. 7. J.R Giddens (New Mexico) and Mike Taylor (Iowa State) hear their names In every draft, certain players remain on the board because of persistent questions about their character and professionalism. In this year's draft these two will be affected the most. (Michael Beasley also will be affected, but for him to drop from No. 2 to No. 3 is essentially irrelevant.) Each has major talent but has not been able to shake the baggage attached to him during his college career. (Taylor was kicked out of school after his junior season and played last season in the NBA Development League; Giddens was suspended at New Mexico in 2007 for "not being a good teammate.") It's always said that the "B" in NBA stands for business, not basketball. Giddens and Taylor are about to discover how real that really is. 8. The Lakers trade Lamar Odom and the 58th pick to Sacramento for Ron Artest Someone from the Lakers needs to go, and they need Ron-Ron to beat the Celtics next season. Odom is the most attractive trade bait GM Mitch Kupchak has with which the Lakers would be willing to part. 9. A GM takes a real risk on Bill Walker He's been labeled as the new Vince Carter … which may not be a good thing. Walker, if he chooses to seriously work on his game in the next three to five years, could be the steal of this draft. He could make the Vince analogies an insult. With the right team and the right amount of patience, he could be another Gerald Wallace or Jason Richardson, but more athletic and more explosive. Scary, ain't it? 10. "The Chicago Bulls select … Michael Beasley" Derrick Rose is too good to pass up, but once GM John Paxson finds out he can't move

They didn't win the lottery with these picks:The Top 14 Worst picks in history

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The first NBA draft lottery was held in 1985. The Knicks drew the lucky card and the obvious top prize: Patrick Ewing. But the history of bad lottery picks soon began, as players such as Benoit Benjamin (third overall to the Clippers) and Jon Koncak (fifth overall to the Hawks) were drafted ahead of future All-Stars such as Chris Mullin (seventh), Detlef Schrempf (eighth), Karl Malone (13th) and Joe Dumars (18th). Here are the worst picks for the top 14 slots in the draft since 1985 (though we'll try to avoid players who suffered unexpected injuries such as Jay Williams or Dajuan Wagner): 1. Kwame Brown, 2001 (Wizards) Michael Jordan made this pick, and there's a reason NBA TV hasn't aired any specials on Jordan's career as an executive. Somehow, Brown has lasted seven seasons in the NBA even though he's never averaged better than 10.9 points per game. (And that was just one season -- his career average is 7.5 ppg.) Brown also has been involved in two of the most lopsided trades in recent years, going to the Lakers in exchange for Caron Butler and ending up in Memphis in the Pau Gasol "trade." Speaking of Gasol, he's one of the many players the Wizards could have picked instead of Brown. Dishonorable mentions: Pervis Ellison (Kings, 1989), Michael Olowokandi (Clippers, 1998), [+] EnlargeAP Photo/Ed Betz How many titles would the Pistons have if David Stern had instead greeted Dwyane Wade with the No. 2 pick? 2. Darko Milicic, 2003 (Pistons) In the past two seasons, Milicic has improved from comically horrible to just your run-of-the-mill bench player. His per-36-minute averages put him near double-double territory, but considering he was drafted immediately ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, that's just not good enough. Dishonorable mentions: Danny Ferry (Clippers, 1989), Shawn Bradley (76ers, 1993), Stromile Swift (Grizzlies, 2000) 3. Chris Washburn, 1986 (Warriors) Let's be honest. We could put a lot of people from the 1986 draft in this list (and we've got one more coming), but Washburn is the poster child for the flameouts that followed. He played just two seasons, never showing any kind of maturity or ability on the court while getting into trouble with drugs off it. Sure, there weren't many great players picked in this draft, but the Warriors would have been better off with John Salley or Dennis Rodman, who teamed for two titles in Detroit. Dishonorable mentions: Benoit Benjamin (Clippers, 1985), Dennis Hopson (Nets, 1987), Adam Morrison (Bobcats, 2006) 4. Marcus Fizer, 2000 (Bulls) The 2000 draft was nothing special (Kenyon Martin was the top pick), but Fizer was special in his disappointment. A power forward who measured surprisingly short leading up to the draft (Ring any bells, Chicago?), Fizer started just 35 games in his career and has been out of the league for two seasons. Dishonorable mentions: Donyell Marshall (Timberwolves, 1994), Antonio Daniels (Grizzlies, 1997) 5. Nikoloz Tskitishvili, 2002 (Nuggets) For all the flak Darko Milicic takes as the poster boy for workout wonders, it's a wonder that people have forgotten about Skita. He demonstrated amazing athletic ability in his pre-draft workouts, then showed nothing on the court. Amazingly, this scene repeated itself in the summer of 2005, when a great showing in the NBA Summer League got Skita a contract with the Timberwolves. He lasted five games. Dishonorable mention: Jon Koncak (Hawks, 1985) [+] EnlargeAP Photo/Luis Alvarez Suggested rule for NBA GMs: Don't draft a guy nicknamed "Tractor." 6. Robert Traylor, 1998 (Mavericks) Don't blame Dallas for this one. They picked Traylor only to trade him to Milwaukee for some tall guy from Germany with funny hair. Oh, what's that? That guy turned into future MVP Dirk Nowitzki. And Traylor turned into a guy who ate too much, averaged 4.8 ppg in seven seasons and later pleaded guilty to preparing a false tax return after hiding assets for a convicted drug dealer. Dishonorable mentions: Joe Kleine (Kings, 1985), William Bedford (Suns, 1986), Bryant Reeves (Grizzlies, 1995) 7. Roy Tarpley, 1986 (Mavericks) Tarpley's stats (career averages of 12.6 points and 10.0 rebounds) are actually decent. He even won the NBA's sixth man award in 1987-88. But he managed to get into so much trouble with drugs that he was twice banned for life (1991 and 1994). Dishonorable mention: Chris Mihm (Cavaliers, 2000), Eddie Griffin (Nets, 2001) 8. Bo Kimble, 1990 (Clippers) Kimble is best remembered for shooting left-handed free throws in honor of his late teammate and friend Hank Gathers during the 1990 NCAA tournament. Unfortunately, though Kimble was a good college player, he wasn't Gathers. He was already 24 years old as a rookie when he shot just 38 percent and averaged 6.9 points. Injuries shortened his career after that, and his most notable contribution to the Clippers was his involvement in the trade

Carmelo's agent assured forward will not be traded

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Anthony's representatives, Nuggets' brass to address trade rumors

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Kobe likes roster makeup, says young Lakers gained experience in playoffs

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Seven and a half minutes with LeBron James

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If LeBron James has an offseason "to do" Post-it stuck to his fridge, it might look something like this: 1. Sleep. 2. Eat. 3. Play with kid. 4. Ball. (and maybe remind Danny Ferry about available free agents.) 5. Eat. 6. Sleep. 7. Play with kid. 8. Xbox with Chris Paul. 9. Eat. 10. Sleep. Or dominate CP3 again, then sleep. Sweet. This summer, though, the not-so-typical Cavs superstar has added a few more items to his list: the Olympics in Beijing, accepting an award at the Spike TV Guys Choice Awards in Los Angeles (airs at 10 p.m. ET Sunday) and a nice assist to The 50 Million Pound Challenge, the national health initiative aimed at getting Americans to lose 50 million pounds. (Half a million participants have lost two million pounds to date.) Jeff Soucek Dr. Ian Smith and LeBron James are teaming up to encourage America to shed 50 million extra pounds. On Wednesday at Quicken Loans Arena, James joined with Dr. Ian Smith, physician, "Celebrity Fit Club" diet expert and Challenge founder, to promote the program's first City Team Challenge, the idea being that Cleveland, united, can lose more weight than your city. (Read more about the program and join the Fit 4 Cleveland team at 50millionpounds.com.) Apparently,the usually accommodating James was so busy -- you know, eating, sleeping and getting Clevelanders to eat salad -- that his "Challenge" publicist was only able to secure five minutes with the Cavs superstar. Thankfully, though, James was kind enough to stretch it a bit longer. Hey, there's always time to help overweight people, and to debate the Evas. -------- ------------------------- ------------------------- ---------------------- Page2: Every offseason, the debate rages: Will LeBron James be a Cavalier in 2010? Luckily for you, the NBA Finals have brought us a far more interesting debate: Who is funnier looking, Sam Cassell or Pau "Horse Face" Gasol? James: (Laughs a lot.) Wow. Oh man, no comment. I don't judge men. (Laughs a little.) Are you OK to watch the Finals, or are you one of those dudes who takes his ball, goes home and breaks a bunch of stuff? No, I'm OK. I love the game so much, so I'm OK to watch the games. I thought it was great, very competitive. Boston's physical play really took a toll on the Lakers. That's why they won. Much like you, Kobe struggled from the field against the Celtics. What is it about the C's defense that is so effective against you two? They're very good. They're definitely one of the best defensive teams I've seen in my lifetime. You know, they have the defensive player of the year in Kevin Garnett, but they have guys around him who learned how to play defense. I think Tom Thibodeau, their assistant coach, did a great job of getting those guys orchestrated and playing the game the right way on the defensive end. Your Cavs got bounced earlier, but some of us feel you had a stronger team this year than you did when you reached the Finals last year. Do you agree with that, and what offseason personnel changes do you think you would benefit most from? I think we're a very good team right now, and we'll continue to improve. The guys that are already on the team will improve their game; that's definitely going to happen. And if there's going to be personnel changes, that should happen also. I'm ready to go to war with whatever we have on the court. Walk me through your typical offseason day. Well, I wake up and eat breakfast. Then I go to the gym and work out. After the workout, I'll take me a nap. Then I wake up, eat lunch, play with my kid and go to sleep. Oh, and lots of video games in between. [+] EnlargeJeff Soucek Smith and James watch contestants sign up online in Cleveland for the 50 Million Pound Challenge. Boooriiing. Although you left something out: You were at the Spike TV Guys Choice Awards last week, where you beat Tom Brady for best fantasy player, which I'm sure was a big honor for you. But let's talk about some of the other awards. OK. T hehottest Eva: Eva Longoria or Eva Mendes? Hmmm, Eva Mendes. Wow, I'm telling Tony Parker. (Laughs.) Well, let him know I chose Eva Mendes only because Eva Longoria is already taken. No can do. More awards … the best video gamer: LeBron James or Chris Paul? (Editor's note: not an official category) LeBron, of course. Top flopper: Manu Ginobili or Manu Ginobili? (Ed's note: not a category either) (Laughs.) Manu. I guess, right? I don't know; it's close. Most crooked: a cork screw or NBA referees? (Ed's note: nope) (Laughs.) Cork screw. Definitely. Best front-office type: Hank Steinbrenner or the guy who sent Pau Gasol to the Lakers for Kwame Brown and three cans of beer? Oh man … ouch. Probably the guy … (Laughs.) I don't know. Let's say even. You know I'm a big Yankee fa

Pierce took the long road to greatness

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He is not a tidy superstar. You cannot neatly wrap the career of Boston Celtics captain Paul Pierce, the newly minted NBA Finals Most Valuable Player and first-time champion, in a perfectly symmetrical box with a corresponding matching ribbon. His path to greatness has been far too gnarly for that. "You're right," he said, still gleefully gripping his championship hat in the wee hours Wednesday morning. "Life has so many hurdles. Some of them I've hopped over, and some of them I've tripped over. The key is to get back up and finish the race." Pierce is the first MVP to survive a nightclub stabbing so severe that wounds a half inch closer to his lung would have been fatal. It has been eight years since he lay bleeding in former teammate Tony Battie's car, his friend imploring him to "Hang on, man, hang on!" as he raced toward a Boston hospital. Yet, as Banner 17 was secured just before midnight Tuesday with a clinching Game 6 thrashing of the Los Angeles Lakers, coach Doc Rivers found himself harking back to that incident. "I was watching him hold that trophy, and I was thinking to myself, 'Paul Pierce was not just almost out the league. He was almost dead,'" Rivers said. "And now he is the Finals MVP. You tell me. Who else has had a turnaround like that?" Pierce's skills were a constant; the bull strength and deceptive quickness and the devastatingly hard drive with the left hand and the 3-point range that improved as he became more seasoned and grew to discern the difference between a killer 3 and one that strangled his own team. He was always capable of gaudy All-Star numbers, but he was a reluctant captain, alternately passionate and withdrawn, charming and raw with frustration. He lacked talent around him and, at times, maturity within. As each season passed without playoff success, more pressure was heaped on No. 34. Pierce lurked in the shadows of a championship city bedazzled by quarterback Tom Brady, a dime novel hero with dimples and a blessed arm of uncanny accuracy, and David Ortiz, a charming baseball icon with a captivating smile, an imposing bat and a moniker -- Big Papi -- that was infinitely cuddly. Pierce was not cuddly -- nor was he a champion. Boston alternately embraced and rejected him as his fortunes rose and fell with alarming frequency. There was the shocking altercation in a Boston nightclub in September 2000 that left him with multiple stab wounds, fighting for his life. Pierce underwent surgery and was told by his physician that his life likely was spared by the heavy leather jacket he wore, which softened the blow of the knife. Details of the attack were sketchy, and questions persisted. Why not call 911? Why did Pierce seem unwilling to prosecute? The case drifted away, prompting speculation the basketball star knew his assailants. He was always capable of gaudy All-Star numbers, but he was a reluctant captain, alternately passionate and withdrawn, charming and raw with frustration. He lacked talent around him and, at times, maturity within. In time, Celtics fans may have forgotten all about the attack, but the captain did not. The scars were permanent, along with the memories. The nightmares didn't help, either. Even as he hoisted his first championship hardware Tuesday, Pierce conceded that his mind drifted back to that night gone horribly wrong. "I think about it all the time," he confessed just hours after the last pieces of confetti finally had stopped floating from the Garden rafters. "You don't ever forget something like that. It changes you." Magic Johnson, who played summer ball with Pierce in L.A., was troubled enough by the altercation to counsel "his little brother" about making better decisions off the court. "I told Paul he was on the verge of greatness. But I also told him he had to leave the street behind," Magic said. "I know how hard that is. When I drive my car through my hometown of East Lansing [Michigan], I know every cat on the block. I slow down and I wave, but they know I've got to keep on going. They understand. "I told Paul, 'Your boys will understand, too. You don't have to cut them out completely. You can check in with them once in a while. But those choices will decide how far you go in this league.'" Pierce's career seemed boundless when, in the 2002 Eastern Conference finals against New Jersey, he led Boston on an improbable fourth-quarter comeback with 19 points in the final frame. The coaching staff of Team USA tabbed him as a regular in the 2002 World Championships, but by the time the team finished in a humiliating sixth place, coach George Karl had branded him as a selfish player who contributed greatly to the team's failure. [+] EnlargeNathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images Pierce sacrificed parts of his game to mesh with Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. And so it went. Pierce was an All-Star in 2003 but a laughingstock

Who had the better Finals apperance:Kobe or LeBron???

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Does Kobe Bryant deserve the majority of the blame for the Lakers poor NBA Finals performance?

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Are the Lakers and Celtics the favorites for next year???

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NBA Finals MVP is Paul Pierce

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LAKERS NEED TO START PULLING SOMETHING OUT OF THEIR A$$E$ TO COME BACK FROM THIS DEFICIT.

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Oh my Goodness...My Lakers are looking BAD right now...Theres 5:20 left in the 2nd but I got a bad feeling the game is over.

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NBA Finals Game 6 Tonight: Predictions?

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Lakers must win situation. Can Boston close it out?

Why Kobe will never truly be Jordan

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Kobe is not unlike Jordan, he’s just not as good. Like Jordan his scoring ability and passion to success are scary. Like Jordan he can take over a game on his own. I mean the kid dropped 81 points in one game. And like Jordan his competitive fire makes him hard to coach and hard to play with. Maybe will a little more charisma and one less suspected rape case Kobe would be more liked … and be more like Mike. Kobe is one of the NBA’s all-time greats, but he is not Michael Jordan.

Anyone else surprised that Paul Pierce has been shutting Kobe Bryant down?

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Farmar steps up in Game 5

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Lakers ready to make history? Probably not without some help

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