Lost In The Shuffle
You would have thought a 29-year-old former All-Star signing with a team who recently traded for a hall of fame point guard (on top of finishing last season with the best record in the NBA) would have gotten it’s share of time in the national spotlight… right?
Or what about the best team in the NBA this season nabbing a forgotten-about forward just three seasons removed from earning more MVP votes than Kobe Bryant?
Well, the Dallas Mavericks did just that on Tuesday and the Boston Celtics followed suit. And as for that spotlight? It’s looking pretty dim.
Quick recap: Jamaal Magloire represented the Charlotte Hornets in the 2004 NBA All-Star game, and he even managed to pick up 19 points in the process.
Now let’s be serious, I won’t try and convince you that Magloire had any business in the NBA All-Star game this year - or amongst the league’s finest in any logical sentence for that matter - but he certainly isn’t the scrub his 1.8 points per game this year suggests. Nor is he the scrub the lack of exposure this signing has received suggests.
If nothing else, The Big Cat can sub in for a winded Erick Dampier somewhere in the second quarter and simply exist, all damn-near seven feet and 265 pounds of him. Provided he can jump over a Dick Tracy lunchbox and poke around the rim at loose rebounds and thwartable opponent shot attempts, he’ll have matched the contributions the Mavs had been receiving from ex-backup center Desagana Diop.
Who knows how the signing will shake out in the final few months of the regular season, but at least Mavs fans won’t have to wait for the sparsely used big man to work his way back in to game shape.
“I’ve never seen a guy work so hard when he isn’t playing,” said former Nets, and now current Mavs, teammate Jason Kidd.
The scary thing about this new NBA landscape though, is that the Mavs inking Magloire isn’t even necessarily the best free agent pick up by an elite team in the past 48 hours, that honour belongs to the Celtics who just Wednesday nabbed the easily overlooked PJ Brown.
Brown, who had been collecting dust for the first 50 games of the NBA season, comes off a year in which he saw his minutes take a dive in Chicago. In 2005-06 however Brown had been conducting business as usual: as the best player of players who should never be a team’s best player.
The power forward with career averages of 9.2 points and 7.8 boards per game made headlines in 2005 when he astonishingly earned an MVP vote in the 2004-05 race. The vote, which received scrutiny, was a symbol of appreciation for Brown’s work ethic and ability to make a positive impact on the team’s with which he plays.
Now he’s on the best team in the NBA.
Don’t expect Brown to light it up when he suits up for the Celtics, but do expect young bigs Glen Davis and Leon Powe to take a back seat to the 15-year vet, especially come playoff time. The addition of the 38-year-old had to have been made primarily for his postseason experience.
Maybe we’re all just exhausted from all the big name trades that took place in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline, and too tired to give the necessary props to two teams obviously not ready to rest on their laurels heading into the final leg of the 2007-08 season.
This article was written by:
Austin Kent - who has written 45 posts on Hoops Addict.
As both contributing writer and assistant editor of HoopsAddict.com, Austin Kent has enjoyed covering the NBA game from behind the scenes since 2006. Additionally, he is currently the sports editor of The Brock Press and has written for a number of basketball websites and newspapers throughout Ontario.
Comments
By Kinnon Yee on February 28th, 2008 at 7:37 am
You know, I wonder if NJ’s release and Dallas’ pickup of his contract wasn’t arranged as part of the deal they made. Afterall, the Mavs gave up a pretty good big in Diop. There’s no way to prove it, but heck, it wouldn’t be the first sketchy thing to have been done in this league.
By Anthony RapFan on February 28th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Maybe this whole thing was an “under the table” transaction by both teams, but it actually evened out the trade they made with Kidd, so it all evens out now, somewhat I guess.
For all the Tdot and Raps fans who want Magloire in a Raps uniform should get their heads checked. Jamaal had opportunities to keep himself in shape and play for Team Canada at the same time, and he dismissed the opportunit->ies<-. He had more than one opportunity to represent his country, Canada, and refine his game in off-season, but he didn’t. Sammy Dalembert played for Canada, and he is having a solid season (not a $10 million per year performance, but that was not his fault at all). Now it tells you that Magloire does not put a full committment to his game in off-season. It’s up to Magloire to prove me that I’m wrong.
KY, the Mavs ppl revived Diop from the Cavs neglect, but will NJ take care of him now?
By rashad on February 29th, 2008 at 8:55 am
call me crazy, but I thought that he should have signed with Houston.
By Connor on March 2nd, 2008 at 10:39 am
Didn’t Yao get injured after this signing? If Big Cat inked after Yao went down that was a huge brain fart on the Rockets.