3MW Top Ten

Now that the NBA has dispensed (somewhat) with their millionaire squabbling, we’re back to what’s important which is BASKETBALL! With NBA Free Agency to open up Monday, 5th December at 10am (ET, USA), 3 Man Weave takes a look at our top ten free agents of 2011-12!

10. Tayshaun Prince (Unrestricted, Detroit Pistons)
The Pistons have finished with Prince. He was such a key part of those mid-2000′s Pistons teams, winning a championship in 2004 and making the finals again in 2007. But now he’s the guy who walked out on coach John Kuester and couldn’t maintain professionalism in what was no doubt a very trying season for the Pistons players. Hopefully, we see Prince in a fresh situation because let’s face it, the guy can still ball. He averaged 14.1ppg last year and there’s a number of teams looking for a defensive 3 man.

9. Caron Butler (Unrestricted, Dallas Mavericks)
The Mavs were without Butler in their NBA Finals victory and many questioned whether they’d keep him this off-season. The Mavs then traded for Rudy Fernandez as well as having Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Corey Brewer, Roddy Beaubois & the developing Domonique Jones under contract. Butler won’t stay with the Mavs and there will be a number of teams who would love to slot Butler’s scoring ability & playoff experience into their lineup.

8. JR Smith (Denver Nuggets)
We question whether JR would be as effective in any other system, as he is in Denver. He gets a TONNE of offensive freedom and his shot-selection shows it. We aren’t a huge fan of Smith and don’t see him playing as well anywhere else (other than perhaps the Knicks under Mike D’Antoni). But you can’t ignore a guy this talented, who can pour on points and is only 26 years old.

7. Jamal Crawford (Unrestricted, Atlanta Hawks)
Still no doubt a little annoyed he wasn’t offered a contract extension last year, we’ll see Crawford on another team in 2011-12. Crawford isn’t young anymore, but the 31 year old came off the bench for 14.2ppg in Atlanta last season. Realistically, Jamal could be that guy teams need to go from a playoff team to a finals team.

6. DeAndre Jordan (Restricted, LA Clippers)
Jordan was huge in 2010-11 for the Clippers. 7 points, 7 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game in 26 minutes of action last season. Add to those numbers, DeAndre oozes potential and is a good friend of Blake Griffin. The Clips are only at $43m in salaries with 10 players under contract. They could comfortably re-sign DeAndre Jordan, sign rookies Trey Thompson & Travis Leslie and they’d still be comfortably under the salary cap. That being said, they have to offer him the contract he deserves (and will demand). If the Clips can’t do that, there’s around 10 other NBA teams with the capacity to sign him to a big deal.

5. David West (Unrestricted, New Orleans Hornets)
Great player, young, still hasn’t hit his ceiling and will be there for the someone to pounce on. It was well-known last season that West and his superstar point guard Chris Paul. Our thinking is that West will go elsewhere and the Hornets will let him go. We aren’t saying West is the bad guy, not at all. In fact we think he’d flourish in another situation (see Zach Randolph).

4. Marc Gasol (Restricted, Memphis Grizzlies)
Was one of the better centres in the NBA last season, averaging 11.7ppg, 7.0rebs, 2.5ass & 1.7 blk. Not to mention shot 53% from the field & 75% from the line. Marc then upped his numbers to 15.0ppg, 11.3rebs & 2.2blk in the postseason. At only 26 years of age and with only 3 NBA seasons on his body… Gasol hasn’t reached his potential. Mind you, the Grizzlies have money to spend so other teams will have to offer some huge money to get Gasol on board and hope the Grizz don’t match it.

3. Jeff Green (Restricted, Boston Celtics)
The Celtics have only 7 players under contract and around $56m tied up in Rondo, Allen, Garnett & Pierce alone. Green is restricted, yes. But the C’s won’t have the money to match the offers that Green is really worth. Before he was traded to Boston, he averaged around 15 points & 6 boards on an OKC team where he was the 3rd option behind Durant and Westbrook. Green is good enough to be a second option on a number of teams. He’s a good guy, a hard worker… and if not for the a couple of solid bigs in free agency this year, we’d have Green at number 1. Indiana and New Jersey would be our picks for Green.

2. Tyson Chandler (Restricted, Dallas Mavericks)
The big guy showed over the past season (realistically, the past 3 seasons) that he’s no longer the young kid who was drafted with Eddy Curry to the Bulls. Chandler may not have put up huge numbers for the Mavs, but a respectible 10.1ppg, 9.4rebs, 1.1 blocks and a whopping 65% from the field. Chandler was huge for Dallas in the Finals against Miami and many Dallas players have openly campaigned for Chandler to return. You’d have to think that Mark Cuban has pretty deep pockets but with their team salaries at $63m and only 10 players on their roster the Mavs may not be able to match offers for Chandler.

1. Nene Hilario (unrestricted, Denver Nuggets)
Nene led the NBA in FG% last season, averaged 14.5ppg, 7.6rebs, 2.0ass, 1.1stl & 1.0blk. He’s not Dwight Howard, but he can score, rebound, defend, has worked hard and in a time where we lack true big men… there is Nene. There’s not a better player at their position in this free agent class than the big guy from Brazil. The Nuggets have a number of unrestricted players (Nene, Kenyon Martin, JR Smith & Melvin Ely), as well as a few restricted players (Gary Forbes, Wilson Chandler & Arron Afflalo). We feel that Nene’s decision may have as much to do with the Nuggets’ approach to keeping his team-mates around as it will Denver’s & other teams’ offers to him.

Honourable Mentions

Thad Young (Philly) - Is restricted and the 76ers brass have openly said they’ll be matching any offer on Young. They won’t be letting him go, so hardly worth talking about.
Jason Richardson (Orlando) – Unrestricted free agent and very talented baller. But we’re not convinced teams will take a gamble on the guy who upset Steve Nash.
Shane Battier (Memphis) - Battier is extremely valuable to your team… hard to fathom for a guy who averaged 5ppg on .426% shooting after the trade to Memphis. But if you know basketball, you know that Shane Battier is that guy who helps you win games.
Kris Humphries (Nets) – We’ll be very surprised if Humphries leaves New Jersey. He’s one of the best big men in this free agent class but New Jersey was where Humphries found his feet. Coach Avery Johnson gave Humphries his chance, gave him his minutes and Humphries responded. The Nets will have to pay him to keep him, but it will happen.
Michael Redd (Bucks) – If you’re signing Michael Redd this offseason, you could end up looking very good. The former All Star who once averaged 26.7ppg in 2006-07 has played only 28 NBA games in the past 2 years. Redd’s contract paid him $18.3M last year and given he’s been paid… we don’t see Redd demanding big money. Let alone being in a position to command it. That being said, the guy is only a few years removed from being one of the best shooting guards in the game.

We don’t get into the habit of defending Lebron James very often, but all the talk (much of it coming from Deshawn Stevenson) about Lebron ‘checking out’ in this Finals series is all a bit much. Granted, he’s not played at his usual standard offensively. The numbers tell that alone where James’ scoring has dropped to 17ppg down from the 25.8ppg he averaged against Chicago in the Eastern Conference Finals. Hate away, but in the end…..he’s defending well, he’s playing hard, he’s competing. He IS deferring to Wade more, yes. But if we took a poll with Miami Heat fans as to ‘who do you want taking a big shot at the end of the game?’…we are guessing that Dwayne Wade would receive more votes. And we’d agree. So Lebron is deferring offensively to a guy who is a better option? And what’s so bad about that?

Even so, Chris Sheridan from ESPN recently said ‘I asked Lebron if he could break a dollar and he said he could only give me three quarters.’

The Mavs are 3-0 in the NBA Finals against Miami…. when Brian Cardinal plays.

The New York Knicks recently held their free agent camp with Javaris Crittendon and Bonzi Wells both playing extremely well.

Allen Iverson wants to return to the NBA, but he couldn’t even muster a full season in Turkey? Don’t get us wrong, we’d love to see AI back in the NBA but we just don’t know he’s got enough in the tank.

We don’t want Isiah Thomas involved with ANY NBA team, but if it has to be the Pistons to keep him from destoying the Knicks again then we’ll live with that. Reality is, Joe Dumars is a better GM than Isiah Thomas will ever be a coach so the NBA is safer with Thomas in Detroit.

While we are talking about coaches, we would love to see Larry Bird back on the sidelines.

But we’ll settle for Mark Jackson… YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!! Could we be happier?  Probably not…

Portland are in talks with Sacramento &  Toronto in an attempt to move up in the NBA Draft. Apparently the Blazers have Andre Miller on the table with their 17th pick with the plan to move up and nab UCONN’s Kemba Walker.

While we’re on the draft, we’ll go out on a limb and say Kentucky big Enes Kanter is overrated. He has some serious range for a big guy, but when you’re his size you are going to score points in college. We’re hearing top 3 from some places, but we see him more as just outside the lottery.

We won’t dwell on Game 2 of the Finals too much. There’s PLENTY of good journalism on ESPN and other networks to dig into the results of Dallas’ epic come-from-behind win in Game 2 against Miami. But for us… Shawn Marion. Yep, Dirk was amazing in the fourth quarter. Yes, Tyson Chandler was great. Rick Carlisle did a phenomenal job managing the minutes. Especially for Chandler (38 mins up from a post-season average of 31.5) and Jason Kidd (38 mins up from 34) who both looked fresh everytime they were on the floor. But Marion. Shawn Marion. The guy made a tonne of big plays. There were nine times in the game where Dallas were scoreless for more than a minute. Four of those times, Marion broke the drought. Not to mention, Marion was also guarding Lebron James in the fourth quarter (James shot 0-3 in the finalperiod, missing all three of his jumpshots in the final 3:27). Shawn Marion.

Goodbye Shaq, we’ll miss you.

Gilbert Arenas is back on twitter.

Donnie Walsh is out of NY, is Mike D’Antoni next?

Steve Nash was in the crowd for Game 2 in Miami and mentioned afterwards that it was the first live NBA game he’s attended since he was in College at Santa Clara.

We really thought better of the LA Lakers organisation than to hire a coach without talking to Kobe Bryant. Now, let’s be realistic…the Buss family own that team. They can hire, fire, do whatever they please. Kobe is an employee so they hardly need his approval. BUT, out of respect for the guy you are paying $30m to and helped get you 5 x championships…maybe you should have made a call and say ‘Hey Kobe, you like Mike Brown as a coach?’

If Isiah Thomas ends up back in the Knicks organisation, James Dolan should be taken away by the men in white coats to a ‘special hospital’.

Mike Brown will be telling Kobe what to do from the Lakers bench… What do you think about that? We like Coach Mike Brown, but aren’t sure if he’s in the Doc Rivers category (nice guy, nice coach but not great) or the Greg Poppovich category (Coach extraordinaire – see also Phil Jackson). We’re really looking forward to seeing what Mike Brown can do with that Laker team.

There are four types of Dallas fans right now:
1. Fans who love Dallas.
2. Fans who love Dirk, therefore love Dallas but would love any Dirk-team.
3. Fans who are die hard Western Conference fans so at this point in the season, Dallas is their team.
4. Fans who hate Miami and are ordering their Mavs jerseys to wear during the finals as we speak.

Steve Nash, once again showing why he’s one of the best people in the NBA with his genuine support of NBA players having freedom of sexual preferance and his support of gay marriage in the USA. Love your work, Steve.

Jamal Crawford, even at age 31 has to be one of the most sought after guys this offseason.

We still don’t get why the Blazers fired GM Rich Cho. The guy made the biggest mid-season trade of 2010-11, bringing Gerald Wallace to P0rtland. That trade made the Trailblazers SO much better. Granted, they traded away some height but Wallace is a recent All Star who flourished in Portland after the trade. Then, when the season is done….they fire the guy who made it happen? Must be some serious personality conflicts in that front office. 3MW has learned one example of this, that when Brandon Roy complained of court-time late in the season, Cho was pushing internally to fine Roy for his public comments. Unfortunately for Cho, Blazers owner Paul Allen and President Larry Miller saw it differently and veto’d Cho’s attempts to punish Roy for his negative comments.

Back to the NBA Finals with the Mavs & Heat, we’ve got ANOTHER rematch on our hands. No doubt every reporter and analyst will talk of this, but we’re having our say too. Doing the research, these aren’t that rare in the whole scheme of things. 30 teams in the NBA, 15 teams per conference and we still have plenty of rematches in NBA Finals history. We’ll limit it to a 5 year window so we can include the current Finals and go back 40 years… check it:

2011 – Mavs v Heat rematch from 2006 (Heat won in 2006)
2010 – Lakers v Celtics rematch from 2008 (Lakers won the rematch after Boston won in 2008)
1998 – Bulls v Jazz rematch from 1997 (Bulls won both finals series)
1989 – Pistons v Lakers rematch from 1988 (Pistons won the rematch after LA won the 88 Finals)
1987 – Lakers v Celtics rematch from 1985 (Lakers won both finals series)
1986 – Celtics v Rockets rematch from 1981 (Boston won both finals series)
1985 – Lakers v Celtics rematch from 1984 (Lakers won the rematch, Boston won in 1984)
1983 – 76ers v Lakers rematch from 1982 (Sixers won the rematch, Lakers won in 1982)
1982 – 76ers v Lakers rematch from 1980 (Lakers won both finals series)
1979 – Bullets v Supersonics rematch from 1978 (Seattle won the rematch, Washington won in 78)
1973 – Knicks v Lakers rematch from 1972 (New York won the rematch, LA won in 1972)
1972 – Knicks v Lakers rematch from 1970 (Lakers won the rematch, NY won in 1970)

Draw your own conclusions on that one and let us know here at 3 Man Weave.

So, who’s going to write a book about the Maloof brothers and this current debacle with moving and not moving the Kings? We’d love to read that.

Dirk deserves a ring. We know, we know…he’s playing for Dallas. They are the official ‘old man brigade’ of the Conference Finals and seeing Mark Cuban on an NBA Championship float through the city of Dallas would be a little weird, if not disturbing. But Dirk…that dude deserves a ring. He’s always done things the right way, he’s a gun (averaging more than 23 a game for the last 10 seasons), has played through many different Dallas teams who were potentially winning Championships but hasn’t gotten there. We’d love to see him win a ring.

Grizzlies v Thunder Game 7…who you got? Is KD going to step up and get it done? Is Z-Bo gonna throw down and put OKC away? Who would have thought at this stage of the season we would have been talking about Memphis and Oklahoma City?

We will miss Phil Jackson, there’s no one like him.

Lebron and Wade both thought about joining the Bulls…who cares! Chicago could never have brought the pair of them into the Windy City (financially) and it’s Derrick Rose’s team anyway.

We are glad Kobe is getting some rest. He and Pau must be exhausted. You can say, ‘no excuses’ you can say that the Champions will get through it. But since the end of the 2007 season, with the 2008 Olympics, regular seasons, playoffs, finals and 2010 basketball championships…Pau & Kobe have played more games & minutes than any other NBA player. No wonder they couldn’t get it done against the Mavs, Three-Peats are hard work!

Carlos Boozer was quoted recently as saying ‘nobody was talking about us at the start of the season’ trying to paint a picture that the Bulls have come outta nowhere and ‘shown them all’. Yeah right, are you kidding? EVERYONE was talking about Chicago ALL SEASON. Pack your ego away, Carlos…you are a nice player, but you are fighting above your weight as it is.

Derrick Rose is leading all scorers in the playoffs with a 28.8 per game average, that’s a little surprising, but somehow not.

OKC’s Serge Ibaka is leading the NBA in blocks per game in the playoffs with a whopping 3.82 swats a game. That’s huge.

We love Greg Monroe.

We love Coach Brett Brown, the Australian Boomers coach who is also assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs.

We love that Shane Battier is relevant again in Memphis.

That is all…