Business…I’ll be on the radio in Vancouver today around 4:45 EST. Check here for the station’s site and a link to the live feed. I’d love to give you just the link for the feed, but I couldn’t find it. To further endanger my pass, I’ll be talking about Nash.
**EDIT–Here’s the link for the live feed. Firefox can’t handle this, so go to IE.**
So there were a couple of passages in the Nash piece that threw people off. One of them was caused by people not reading closely. The other was caused by me not reading closely.
The first was the idea that LeBron can’t win the MVP because his defense isn’t good enough but the notoriously porous Nash can win the trophy. Remember–I said that if someone’s not going to win the division, he sure as hell be spectacular in every other way just like Jordan was in ’88. Well, the Cavs won’t win the division and Bron’s not a defensive stopper. Nash’s team does lead the division so, according to the logic, his lack of defense won’t hurt him the same way.
The second as that the Joe Johnson/Boris Diaw swap was a wash. And it was…except it wasn’t. And more than anything, I didn’t explain why it was a wash in my eyes. I’ve got three reasons, all of which I just e-mailed to the Crafty Vet who justifiably took me to task for some an incomplete explanation, which is a serious transgression when you write the way that I do.
1. I think Diaw’s role as a point forward in this offense is just as important to the Suns this year as Joe was last year as the fourth option. I know Joe has been a monster in Atlanta this year, but that was the comparison I was making. Of course, I was too stupid to make that clear.
2. This was a sign-and-trade. That’s crucial. Anything the Suns got for Joe was gravy, and no one really gave serious thought to the addition of Boris Diaw. Apparently, Diaw washed all the scrub off himself in the bathroom at Hartsfield before he got to Phoenix. But since it was a sign-and-trade, the standards for fairness become much different. Phoenix had no chance of keeping Johnson, so that qualifies as a wash to me. But that was really, really poorly explained. I mean really.
(Yes, I beat myself down pretty tough over mistakes like that. But part of the reason I make my addy accessible is for people to do just that. Only way to get better in this game, kids.)
3. I watch a lot of Suns games on the League Pass, most of which are broadcast by the Suns announcing team. I really don’t hear that, “what if we had Joe?” sentiment from them. The Suns are just fine without him. It’s the same way I saw it as a wash when the Colts traded Marshall Faulk for a draft pick in ’99. Why? Because they drafted Edgerrin James, and no one thought much about Marshall after that.
So yeah, that’s my fault for making really bad explanations. Gotta correct that in the future. So I don’t think I was an idiot for that Diaw/Johnson statement. I was an idiot for such a poor–or non-existent, if you will–explanation.
And another thing–I’ve been rewarded with the quote of the day from Will Rob. I hope Brother Minister Malcolm’s family doesn’t come sue me for that one.
And I promised Dutch footage yesterday, and I haven’t yet. I still have to do some work to present that properly. Look for that around Monday. Friday’s list day and today will be crazy busy.