Ben Golliver (and Kevin Pritchard, I guess) would have us think that a lopsided trade would have something to do with cap space and salaries. Suddenly, they want to turn this into some kind of technical term.

Sorry, lopsided trades are simply like this:

Paul Gasol to the Lakers from Memphis for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie and a couple of draft picks. Or Chauncey Billups to the Nuggets for Allen Iverson.

THAT’S what a lopsided trade is, folks.

Tweet This Post

Funny how that happens. Allen Iverson misses a shot he’ll make a lot of the time, the Trail Blazers dance off the court with an 84-83 win and everyone is smiling. Great game, they say. But one little basket, one missed shot — or the one made shot by Travis Outlaw — and a whole town changes from happy as clams to totally bummed out. Imagine — if Iverson had made that shot or Outlaw had missed his, we’d have to go through a couple more days of “What’s wrong with the Blazers?”

OK, I know you’re going to say, “There goes Dwight, yelling at the kids to get off his lawn again. The grumpy old fool.” And sure, the Blazers won without Brandon Roy. That’s great. But the Pistons were without Rasheed and Rip — and there were several bad signs in this game that should not be swept under the carpet just because it was a one-point win.

Let me mention a few things, some good and some bad:

• Man, the Blazers were playing some especially horrid defense through most of the game. Whether it be man-to-man or zone, it was pretty bad. Even in the second half, when Detroit quit making shots, the defense was not great. This will get you beat so fast in the playoffs you won’t know what hit you.
• Honestly, I do not understand why they’re switching on all those pick-and-rolls. But the sight of Joel Przybilla out there at the top of the key trying to defend Tayshaun Prince or Greg Oden squaring off against Allen Iverson at the same spot is downright ridiculous. You can’t expect to get away with such things. And yet we keep seeing them over and over and over. The pick-and-roll is like Rubik’s Cube to these guys.
• The Pistons opened the game with Kwame Brown checking Greg Oden. And Oden barely sniffed the ball for several minutes. Before his obligatory two first-quarter fouls, he got the ball twice — and dunked both times. You really do have to look for more inside points.
• Outlaw made the big shot. But man, in more than twice as many minutes he ought to get more rebounds than Sergio Rodriguez.
• Jerryd Bayless finally got a little something going. Calling it a “coming-out party” might be a little strong, but it was a start.
• LaMarcus Aldridge played 44 minutes and I say Hooray! for that. He was big on offense with his 26 points but you really would like more than six rebounds in 44 minutes.
• Portland got outrebounded 40-28. How does that happen against Detroit without Wallace? The zone defense makes it hard to get defensive rebounds.
• I would have been a lot more frightened for the Blazers if Prince had taken that last shot rather than Iverson.
• Eight fast break points for Portland, seven for Detroit. Typical.

Hey, a win is a win is a win. The schedule gets easier now and it’s about time. Brandon Roy appears to be ready to play Saturday and so perhaps all will be right with the world. I’d worry, though, that Roy is talented enough that the team will win a lot of games, but the real underlying problems just won’t get solved because his presence makes the Blazers just successful enough to hide them. And that would mean continued losses to the league’s best teams. Honestly, with or without Roy, the defense really does need to improve A LOT as this season heads into the second half.

Tweet This Post

Unsettled times? Uncertainty? Hey, Brandon Roy is out a few games. The schedule, including tonight’s game, has been brutal for the last four games. Let’s relax just a little bit, OK? I mean, the trading deadline is still a full month away and I don’t know if it’s time to panic quite yet.

There seems to be a lot of hand-wringing right now about the Trail Blazers’ bench. Roy’s absence has pushed Rudy Fernandez into the starting lineup and made the second unit a little weaker. OK, so what did you expect?

I take a different approach than most. My feeling about the second unit is “so what?” I mean, the Blazers play only two games this week. And why is it that when Roy is out, it automatically means you have to use your 11th man? For me, with just two games this week, I’d extend the minutes of the starters and simply trim the bench down. There’s no rule that says you have to have a 10-man rotation. Cut it to eight or nine.

And I certainly wouldn’t remove Rudy from the starting lineup. I think with Roy out, I’d try to play Rudy 40 minutes if I could. He could be starting for half the teams in the NBA — let’s give him as many minutes as he can handle. Same with Aldridge, Oden (that may not be possible, obviously) and Blake — keep them on the floor a little longer. I’d extend Batum’s minutes, too.

I’m not sure Jerryd Bayless should automatically play just because Roy isn’t playing. So far, that experiment has been a disappointment and a three-guard rotation is just fine for a few games. For a guy who seems so cocky Bayless has looked very unconfident with the ball in his hands. But tonight the dilemma for the Blazers is that that perhaps the only Piston guard small enough for Bayless to guard is Allen Iverson and if you bring him off the bench he runs into all those guys too tall for him to defend.

So if you’re determined to play Bayless, you may have to start him. If you try to use him on one of those big guards, the Pistons are going to take him right down to the post and punish him, just the way New Orleans did last week.

Rodney Stuckey, who has taken over the point for Detroit, is 6-foot-5 and is going to be a handful for Blake, too. And there’s nobody out there for Oden to guard at all. The Pistons are one of the hottest teams in the league and Portland’s best hope is to try to stay with a big lineup and just pound them on the boards and feed the big men for post-up baskets. Then hope the Pistons are having an off-night with their jumpers.

But again, win or lose tonight, easier games are ahead and it’s no time to panic. Roy should be back soon and I think all teams go through rough stretches. And for all you doomsayers out there who suddenly don’t think the Blazers are a playoff team, sorry — I’m not buying that. Utah may play most of the season without Carlos Boozer and the Rockets are suddenly a mess, with Tracy McGrady a basket case. I’m not sure how long Dallas can continue to play well and can Shaq stay healthy all season for Phoenix?

Sorry to keep repeating this, but perspective is your best friend. Hold on tight to it.

Tweet This Post

The general manager of the Pistons certainly knocked the Northwest Division out of kilter when he gift-wrapped Chauncey Billups for the Nuggets and allowed them to flush Allen Iverson.

I was one of the few people who picked Portland to win that division, believing the Blazers to be deeper, bigger, better-shooting and just overall more talented than the Utah Jazz. The Nuggets, with A.I. floating around gunning up shots, weren’t really a factor in my mind. Oh, a decent team, but I doubted they would make the playoffs.

Since the trade, I haven’t seen Denver in person. But on the tube, they look pretty legit with Billups scoring, spreading the ball around and getting them organized at both ends of the court. This was a serious leadership boost for the Nuggets. I’ve always felt George Karl needs a commanding presence at point guard more than a lot of coaches. He kind of lets his teams go on offense and gives the point guard a lot of responsibility for the outcome.

Billups is fully capable of accepting that task. And now, as well as the Blazers are playing, it’s going to be tougher to win the division with two good teams to beat. I believe Portland is still better than Denver — again, bigger, stronger and deeper. But it’s going to be a real war now.

Thanks again, Joe. I mean, it’s OK to mess up your own team but why did you have to put your fingerprints all over our season out here?

Tweet This Post

All you have to do to see Billups’ value to the Nuggets is to watch the Pistons without him. A.I. is a big dropoff for Detroit, which is 6-6 since he arrived. The real value of that trade to the Pistons now is only the cap space they’ll gain when and if Iverson walks after the season.

Meanwhile, the Nuggets are a different team with Billups on the floor. They’re suddenly defending a little bit, sharing the ball and playing with some direction. Billups is one of those players you don’t really appreciate until he’s gone. And I really cannot believe Detroit made that trade. It has changed the dynamics of both conferences.

Tweet This Post

Yes, I was remiss in not mentioning that Allen Iverson is in his contract year. The Pistons figure on having some major cap room when Iverson walks. Henry at True Hoop does a nice job of summing it all up here, with plenty of kudos for Piston GM Joe Dumars.

Sorry, I never get as juiced up over that as everyone else does. Go ahead, look out there at all the big-time players who will be available as free agents in two seasons and dream to your heart’s content. But will they still be there two years from now? And can you play in that market? Can you go up against that player’s current team and whoever else may have cap room that season and win?

I’m a little more pessimistic about that stuff than most. The system is designed these days to keep most players with their current team. They don’t always stay, but most of them do. And making a lopsided trade that changes the nature of your team just for some perceived future payoff is a bit risky, don’t you think?

Tweet This Post

Everyone is reporting that Allen Iverson is on the way to Detroit for Chauncey Billups, Antonio McDyess and Cheikh Samb. Both Billups and McDyess have had previous stints with the Nuggets.

Incredible to me that Iverson, at 33 years old and with all the mileage on him (he’s averaged 41 minutes per game during his career!), can still command that kind of talent in a trade. It’s so hard for a player of his size (listed at 6-feet, 180 pounds but looks smaller than that) to last a long time in the league, given the pounding he’s taken.

I’ve always loved how hard he plays and at this point of his career, he’s seemed to accept that he’s never going to average big numbers again. Still, that seems like a lot to give up to bring him to a team that was doing pretty well without him.

Tweet This Post