The Morning Wood - 12/20/2006

Stud: Amare Stoudemire
You say microfracture, I say macrosack! The manchild (is that his nickname, or Dwight Howard's, Greg Oden's, or all of theirs?) went for 28 and 10 in 28 minutes last night, leading the Suns to a 115-98 victory over the Raptors. Granted, he was being guarded by the physical specimens of RA-sho NESTER-ovic and Jorge Garbajosa (nicknames: childman), but Stoud has been tossing up ridiculous numbers while leading the Suns to a 15-game winning streak - something that no one seems to be talking about. He's shooting a mind-blowing, anti-Eddie House 63% from the field and averaging 18/8 in only 28 minutes of play. Watching the way he's come back from this operation after only a year of down time, I'm questioning all of your work ethics (we're going Euro on that last one).

Dud: David Stern
I know it's a couple days old, and we sort of touched on it yesterday, but shit, the number of games are ridiculous. Doesn't this type of thing happen on the reg in the NHL, and surely more often and on a grander scale in the MLB? Yet you're throwing out 15 games to possibly the game's biggest star, whereas you rarely see anything more than 5 given out in baseball? I think that there's an element of subtle racism here, kind of like when my colleague giddy goes into Macy's and buys some pleated khaki Dockers. I can't see why else there would be such a discrepency, and while I'll listen to the argument that there's no real barrier between the fans and players, making a melee more dangerous and thus needing to be severely discouraged, I don't buy it, especially because one such incident has happened in sixty years of NBA basketball, and that was sparked by the fans themselves. Not only that, but the suspensions forced the Nuggets' hand in the AI dealings. More on that . . . now.

Talk Around the Cooler:
While without the suspensions, the Nuggets probably could have pried Iverson away without giving up both of their first round picks this year - a consequence that Stern should feel ultimately responsible for - the trade is going to work out well for both sides. There is a lot of talk about how this isn't going to propel Denver into the West's elite, but I think that's exactly what it does. In this era of the game, we've never seen a team with two scorers capable of averging 30 points a game for an entire season. This isn't to say that they both will, but that scoring tandem is going to give opposing coaches an enormous headache. What team has two top-notch perimeter defenders? Really, we can't clone Trenton Hassell, people. While giving up the draft picks hurts, the Nuggets roster is already pretty crowded, with a solid mix of veteran talent, youthful potential and prostate specialists.

As for the Sixers, Andre Miller is a real steal. At around $9mil per, I'd say he's a pretty good value (weird thing to say), plus he'll be an unselfish distributor for Sir-Chucks-a-Lot and the most athletic man in the NBA. Given these three, plus their own draft pick (certain to be top-5 in an incredibly talented draft pool), plus the Haitian Sensation, Sammy D, they could be a playoff team next year. Yeah, I said it. Not only that, but they'll have money to spent (Joe Smith's expiring deal), plus two more picks later in the draft, one of which they'll probably be able to take a chance on a high-risk, high-reward guy. Huge coup by Billy King, if you ask me.

Quick Hits...
George Karl is my new favorite coach. Preach on! At least when he gets anesthesia, he'll finally have taken an effective shot this year. Ba-zing! This should sway the swing voters. You don't see Jerry Bruckheimer announcing which film he thinks should win an Academy Award. Roy Williams made the Pro Bowl. Pitiful. Ronde and Tiki Barber will be on the same squad, too. Man, they look alike. Because, well, they're twins. Not because...um...forget I said anything. Join Bode on his meaningless win tour.