Storm brewing, one that will, for reasons I don't quite get expect for the world's need to make my life a better place, flip Gerald Wallace to Oakland. Let's not even get into why Wallace helps a team, why Brown should like him (I did that last week, and felt dirty about it), and what a putz Jordan is.
Just cross your fingers that, by Monday, the Warriors will be looking ahead to a starting line-up of Monta/Wallace/Maggette/Jackson/Biedrins. Wright's ready to play, and my fascination with Anthony Randolph has now progressed into Dunwich Horror territory. In the last two days, I've both suggested that he's pulling the strings in Golden State's personnel moves, and convinced myself that he's too bizarre to ever engage the political process. Not in a harmless, kooky way, but something about his deformity as a player and single-mindedness about destroying the world. I fucking hate Family Guy, but that baby in there comes to mind.
But increasingly, the dopest thing about all this seems to be Don Nelson's attitude about all this. It's amazing how effortlessly he straddles the wide, wide borderland between absurdist provocation and Zen-like organics. That's always been his style as a coach, but talking about personnel, it's the same. Nelson's dangling Harrington out there like trash, which is of course exactly the wrong way to put a guy out on the market. He claims to be largely indifferent to whom they get in return, as long as he's good. Is he daring other teams to bid low, or just confident that he'll get talent regardless of the usual hoops he's supposed to jump through? Never mind that he's working with a failed front office and is forced to dictate moves from the margins of resistance.
When this new player shows up, does Nellie anticipate just throwing him out on the floor, gauntlet-like, and demanding everyone respond to this new stimulus? Or is this the "give me athletes with some skill and they will conquer the world" credo that fuelled the 2006-07 team, the one that makes him even more elemental than D'Antoni and more hands-off than Phil? The ultimate test of this might be, with a super-charged line-up, saying "fuck it" and installing Monta at the point whenever he gets back. That could either force everyone to adjust in creative ways, perhaps with Nelson's input, or burn the building down and leave no other option but to gallop through the ashes and send a message through the hills that way. It could well be his defining, and most triple-reverse masterful, hour.
I don't get why Harrington is so attractive to New York, except that he's better than Curry for D'Antoni's system. It gets tricky if the Knicks have to part with, say, Lee or Chandler to get this done. Given what I know about the team's plans, that seems like a deal-breaker. Could Wallace end up on the Knicks somehow? I'm not about to break out the Trade Machine, but dare I say that D'Antoni's more interested in passers and shooters than another Amare-like hell-raiser. Although, to be fair, Wallace is more like an Amare/Marion hybrid; still, his overall impact on a system would be more like Stoudemire. Plus, I'm assuming this is the kind of D'Antoni team that players have to assimilate, rather than one that assimilates them, and that's not Wallace's strong suit. The Warriors, on the other hand, would be miles away from even considering that fine distinction.
Apologies if this is stuff you've already. Here's a new Quotemonger. Also, R.I.P. to this dude:
I would include an obit, but they all mention the Black Keys. And my special bond with him lost just a little when I realized his surname wasn't "Meyer." But whatever, that first LP is getting buried with me.
UPDATE: Is it preposterous for me to think that, after Tuesday, sports/politics might be forever changed?
(h/t Shanoff)
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