Andy Charles's NBA Basketball fan blog

The Memphis Grizzlies will be hopeful that the NBA D-League lives up to its name after they sent 2009 No 2 draft pick Hasheem Thabeet down to the North Dakota Wizards and made just a little bit of history in the process.

Thabeet, who was expected to be a fairly raw rookie anyway, has had little or no success since the Grizzlies drafted him out of Connecticut last summer, and he is the highest draft pick yet to be sent down to the Developmental League, the NBA’s own version of the minors.

The 7ft 3in giant, who has only really had any success as a shot-blocker and often looked lost out on the court against more seasoned professionals, will be working mainly on his shooting according to NBA Tips, after averaging less than three points per game.

Thabeet has been on court in 50 Memphis games this season, but only logged an average of 10 minutes, scoring in double figures just once against Phoenix in early January.

Continue reading "Grizzlies give Thabeet some time"

That collective sigh you heard was the one coming from New Orleans Hornets fans when they learned that All-Star point guard Chris Paul would be missing for maybe as long as two months in the wake of knee surgery.

Paul needs arthroscopic surgery for a cartilage tear in his left knee, an injury suffered in freak fashion seconds from the end of the loss to the Chicago Bulls last week when he collided with a photographer on the baseline as he went to retrieve an errant shot.

Results of a scan showed that Paul had a partial tear of his meniscus, an injury that really cannot be played through and could develop into something serious if left untreated for a long spell of time.

But maybe, just maybe, Paul’s absence will not be felt as badly as some NBA Predictions first thought, based on the performance of his replacement Darren Collinson in the 109-102 overtime win over a decent Memphis outfit on Saturday night.

Continue reading "Collinson gets his big chance"

As the trade deadline approaches it was the Toronto Maple Leafs who made the first big moves to start the rebuilding of their franchise with the addition of hulking defenseman Dion Phaneuf and veteran goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

The Leafs appear unlikely to challenge for the Eastern Conference playoff places this season, sitting bottom after a 5-3 defeat by Vancouver on Saturday that saw them take a 3-0 lead and fall to an embarrassing defeat with some poor play on the blueline.

Toronto have let in more goals than any other team in the NHL this season and needed a real shutdown defender who also provides some offense – there are few better at both, according to NHL Picks, than Phaneuf.

GM Brian Burke appears to have started work early and, other than center Matt Stajan, doesn’t seem to have given up much in the way of talent to add two players who could be a real improvement on their current staff.

Continue reading "Leafs busy as deadline looms"

As if things weren’t bad enough for the Washington Wizards, Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton have now apparently decided that the locker room is the right place to show off their guns.

No, I am not talking about the size of their respective biceps, but I am referring to the weapons pulled in the locker room after an argument over a gambling debt got out of hand.

Guns? Gambling? Sounds like Arenas and Crittenton are trying to break all of the NBA’s strict rules in one fell swoop.

Although many of the reports last week made it sound like the new version of Gunfight At The OK Corral, and may well have been over-playing it, the fact that both players seemingly had unloaded firearms in their lockers is bad enough.

Only just over a year after Plaxico Burress managed to shoot himself in the thigh, firearms are back on the sports pages and both players may find themselves having to explain their actions to David Stern, with the chance of heavy fines and suspensions possibly following.

Continue reading "No place for guns in Washington"

 You just have to wonder what Greg Oden has done to deserve his bad luck since arriving in the NBA after his third season was ended abruptly by a fractured kneecap over the weekend.

The top pick in the 2007 Draft missed the whole of his rookie season and another 20 games last season, but had just started to show the reasoning behind Portland picking him at No 1 with some excellent performances, including matching his career high for points with 24 against the Bulls.

Sadly, this means the previous talk of Oden being brittle will reach a crescendo, although the injury came about in freak fashion when he clashed with Houston’s Aaron Brooks attempting to go for a block.

The seven-footer will have surgery this week after an MRI scan revealed the significance of the injury and his absence will be felt badly by the Trail Blazers, who also have injury worries about LaMarcus Aldridge at the moment despite him continuing to play hurt.

Continue reading "Poor Oden faces another absence"

There have been plenty of breakout stories early in the NHL season but none more surprising than the form of Colorado Avalanche goaltender Craig Anderson.

Anderson was always considered a journeyman backup in net until a decent effort in Florida last season when he took over the reins from an injured Tomas Vokoun and secured a 15-7 record in 31 games, 27 of which were starts.

He became a free agent at the end of 2008-9 but was not picked up all that quickly, leading some to suggest all he would get would be a one-year deal to backup a star somewhere else.

But the Avalanche saw something different, and given their problems in goal last year (as well as all over the ice to be honest) picked up the 28-year-old, originally drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks and a star in the AHL for Rochester.

Continue reading "Anderson makes Avalanche whole"

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Jackson just can’t seemingly learn how to behave – it doesn’t matter where he plays or what he does, he’s always in the headlines for the wrong reasons either on or off the court.

After a relatively quiet start to his career in San Antonio and Atlanta, ever since he arrived with the dysfunctional Indiana Pacers at the start of the 2004-5 season it has been a long downhill run for the swingman.

Within a couple of months of his Pacer debut, he was handed a 30-game ban for his role in the Palace of Auburn Hills brawl and the season after he was charged with criminal recklessness for firing his gun during an altercation outside a strip club in Indianapolis.

Although things were better for him after a trade to Golden State in early 2007, he was ejected twice during their NBA playoff series win over Dallas, but he did go on to become an important cog in Don Nelson’s team until his demand for a trade this summer.

Continue reading "Jackson just can’t get his way"

It looks as if Los Angeles Clippers fans can breathe a sigh of relief after doctors cleared No 1 pick Blake Griffin to work out with the team after a shoulder injury had threatened to rule him out of the start of the season next month.

The Clippers must have been, as usual, feeling a little snake bitten when Griffin, the big body they needed so badly, strained his shoulder back in July playing in the Las Vegas Summer League.

But Griffin did more than enough in summer action to show exactly what he is going to bring to the Clips, who have suffered as Los Angeles’ second team just about forever – sure they will again this season but the shoots of optimism might just begin to sprout by the end of 2010.

He averaged 19.2 points and 10.8 rebounds and showed against some fringe NBA players from next season that he should be able to bash the boards as he did to such effect at Oklahoma last season.

Continue reading "Griffin news boosts Clippers"

 

Dwyane Wade is one of many star players to become a free agent next summer, although according to basketball betting, he seems to be one of very few who is keen to stay where he actually is at the moment, right in the heart of Miami with the Heat.

Last week there was much talk of Wade returning to his roots in Chicago or heading off to New York to play for the Knicks or Nets.

Much was made of Wade buying a new home in Chicago, a $1.4m riverfront townhouse right in the middle of downtown, but those making mountains out of molehills and having him on the verge of signing with the Bulls conveniently forgot he called the Windy City his home in the offseason.

Although the Bulls could obviously do with a player of D-Wade’s ability, they would be foolish to mortgage the franchise for such an expensive guard, when they already have a bunch of decent ones and are in dire need of a big man.

Continue reading "Shock as NBA player shows loyalty!"

Despite the hype surrounding a lot of high picks from this year’s NBA Draft the man who seems to have been making the biggest impact in Summer League action has been Rodrigue Beaubois, taken 25th by the Dallas Mavericks and thought even then to be a bit of a reach.

The Frenchman, born in Guadeloupe,  did provoke some comparisons with his compatriot Tony Parker, and the early results would suggest those comparisons might just be accurate.

Although the Mavericks team has only gone 1-4, Beaubois has impressed in averaging 17 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.8 assists on good shooting percentages as well.

The best overall performance was the most recent and last of the Vegas League (Sunday) when Beaubois ended when he hit 9-of-12 shots for 23 points and dished out five assists, the sort of line you would expect from Parker, a player he seems to have modelled his game on.

Continue reading "Summer has been good to Beaubois"