Will the Cs seize DeAndre?

Right off the bat....anyone see what I did there with that title?!

Okay, humor attempt aside, I've been pondering some of the moves from the Celtics recently. They're trading away players that are no longer terribly useful to a team that's trying to develop young talent. That's not to say that they're players without character. Green and Rondo were well loved by the city of Boston and I'll truly miss them. But Green and Rondo are much better suited for an actual contender and the Celtics are far from that right now.

Besides the Celtics' own stars is a guy like Brandan Wright who came to Boston in the Rondo trade but only spent about three in Boston before being shipped off to Phoenix. He's a good player who appeared to be the best part of the package in Boston's direction but it just didn't look like he was in the long term rebuilding plans for the Celtics. Admittedly, we are already SUPER deep at PF/C and need someone who is more a legitimate, defined star to anchor the Center position. Still, Wright will definitely help the semi-contender that is Phoenix out West.

Anyway! I haven't seen anyone else really talk about what I'm about to say and I'm not surprised. The Warriors and Hawks have dominated much of the NBA landscape this season...at least in regards to winning franchises whereas the Knicks are gaining attention for futility while Cleveland is just trying to "get by" right now. Seriously, what's going on over there?

Before I keep rambling let me get to my point.

DeAndre Jordan has an expiring contract worth $11.4 million....the 2015 free agent (FA) class doesn't appear to be terribly loaded, at least not in comparison to the 2016 FA class headlined by Durant. So why hasn't anyone been talking about the Cs and their hoard of expiring deals and trade exceptions (TEs)?

The Celtics need a defensive center. Like bad. Sullinger isn't "undersized" if you ask me as he stands at 6'9 with a huge wide end that he's been using to box out and gobble up rebounds since he got into the league. Not to mention Sullinger is at his best guarding PFs but that's not a knock on his defense on Centers...I believe he can defend some of the best PFs around and some Centers but I'd rather not see him get burned out on defense all game and instead explode offensively as much as possible.

Meanwhile, the Clippers need a bench. I don't really trust GM Doc. Coach Doc, yes. But there's no bench. Okay I'm sorry, the bench includes Hedo, Big Baby, Epke Udoh, Reggie Bullock, Jordan Farmar, Jamal Crawford anddddd need I say more? Update: SCRATCH THAT. Much of this post was written previously before some weird trades went down that sent Austin Rivers to Boston before Doc reached out and brought his son over to the Clippers in a move that also required the waiver of Jordan Farmar. Reggie Bullock was also sent away to Phoenix in the deal that netted the younger Rivers while Chris Douglas Roberts was also sent to the Celtics from the Clippers. 

End update. DeAndre can't be trusted to play fourth quarters with his FT liability. In reality, the Clips will play him because they need to but Hack-a-DeAndre will become very commonplace during the playoffs this year. The Clips need a strong bench to go into playoffs with. And yes, I understand that it makes little sense to trade away one of your best players in the middle of a season when you're already poised to make playoffs but let's be real. There's a reason a Chris Paul-led team hasn't made it to the conference finals yet. It's not just on him just as it's not solely on DeAndre's shoulders. But the time to shake things up is now. As we saw in Detroit, sometimes a major shakeup can be majorly beneficial.

Someone's going to max out DeAndre this summer and I'm not sure for all the money Steve Ballmer has that he's willing to dip too far into the luxury tax by matching while still paying Blake and CP3. So let me save everyone a little bit of time.

TRADE DEANDRE JORDAN TO THE CELTICS IN EXCHANGE FOR THE TRADE EXCEPTION CREATED BY THE RONDO/MAVS SWAP!!!

The Rondo-exchange generated a $12.9 million TE. Jordan's salary is $11.4 million. Surely someone can find something to help make the salaries match. Or we have bigs too! Brandon Bass absolutely needs to be on a contender. He's given the Cs too much to wallow away on this playoff-less team. Let's not forget KG who is currently spending his last viable year in Brooklyn when he could potentially find his way to Los Angeles instead! The possibilities are endless!

***

All excited notions behind, I really do see this as something that could plausibly happen. Yes, I believe the Clips would take a step back without DeAndre but that's nothing that replacement bigs like Bass and KG couldn't make up for in spurts. The Clips have been winning games but not so much in the impressive fashion that we saw last year and they're just not a fun team to watch anymore. The SF rotation is horrible and the fact that they think Austin Rivers could be a difference maker, or Tayshaun Prince for that matter, is a joke. Those guys will help but neither will win you a playoff game at this point in their careers. 

The answer isn't solely KG or Bass. Hell, what about Perkins in OKC? Could you not see an old Perk/KG C rotation with Bass backing up Blake and even playing C in small ball lineups? Am I crazy to think KG, Perk, and Bass is better than DeAndre, Big Baby, Hedo, and Udoh? Money-wise there's no comparison between the two groups but if you're in the West you need to go into a win-now mode every season at this point and throw everything out there onto the table.

Look for me to talk about this more in the future!

Too....much....NBA!

It's been a crazy couple of days for the NBA...and I was actually far from dialed into any recent news during the last couple days as my birthday was on Monday. Regardless, the Pistons are doing everything that only my craziest thoughts could imagine while my Celtics are practically having a fire sale. So let's get down a few things I've been thinking of over the past couple days.

1. Feeling bad for Josh Smith.

• It was real easy for me to delight in the madness that was Josh Smith being cut from the Detroit Pistons. I found it crazy to see the Pistons literally pay a player to go play for someone else with nothing in return...well, we all thought nothing. Since he's been cut, the Pistons are 7-1, with their one loss coming against the East's best team: the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks were on their own 6 game winning streak so it's not exactly surprising to see the Hawks come away with the W but the Pistons did make it close, losing 106-103. But back to Smith. I just feel bad that this guy was the target of so many articles recently, none of which likely painted him in the best light. Whether or not he can turn his attention off to that sorta thing is of no importance since you just can't ignore the Pistons record in the past eight games. They won only five out of twenty-three games earlier in the year and you just know Smith saw his former team win game after game after game without him on the roster. It must be demoralizing and just mentally straining to try and ignore what the pundits and analysts are talking about. But remember, he will be paid about $20 million by the Pistons through the next couple years plus whatever the Rockets will be paying him...so can we really feel bad?

     2.  Can the Pistons be ignored?

• 7-1 in their last eight games finds the Pistons firing on all cylinders. Their most notable wins in that span came against an injury-riddled Cleveland Cavaliers squad, the Dallas Mavericks, and the San Antonio Spurs. They're next games will be against the Nets, Raptors, Pelicans, Pacers, Sixers, and a rematch with the Hawks. Honestly...I see them, at worst, going 3-2 in that stretch. If they don't go 4-1 I'll be surprised. They should be able to close the gap between the Nets and Heat if they keep their play strong for the rest of the year. With this in mind, the Pistons need to beat up on the Heat and Nets in their remaining match-ups...but they only play the Nets once more making that all the more important. However, they will play the Heat three times. If they can go 4-0 in these games...which will be tough, then I think they're a lock for playoffs.  

    3.  The Knicks/Cavs/Thunder trade.

• Not sure what to think about this trade still. I'm writing this on the afternoon of January 10th which found the Knicks losing at home to the Hornets 110-82...and it wasn't even THAT close. At one point the lead was stretched to forty. Are you kidding me, Knicks? Regardless, the Knicks shipped Iman Shumpert and JR Smith to the Cavaliers, who sent Dion Waiters to the Thunder, who then sent Lance Thomas and a pick to the Knicks. The Cavaliers also sent out Lou Amundson and Alex Kirk to the Knicks who promptly waived both of them as well as Lance Thomas and their own Samuel Dalembert. Since then, Thomas and Amundson have been resigned under 10-day contracts with the Knicks. The Thunder got a chucker who didn't get along with Kyrie last year and doesn't appear to have a good relationship with LeBron this year. He's also been the victim of too many vines depicting him standing open in the corner, jumping up and down and waving his hands in the air to get the ball from 'Bron only to be denied and frozen out of the games.  I don't think this trade moved the needle much for the Cavs yet. More recently the Cavs then traded for Timofey Mozgov from the Nuggets to replace the injured Anderson Varejao. I would say that the Cavs won the week had I seen their roster improve but I don't think it has. Yes, talent-wise they are better but there's just too many guys on that roster who need the ball in their hands to be successful. I like Shump, I like JR...but I don't like them occupying the same roster as Kyrie Irving, Joe Harris, Matthew Dellevadova, James Jones, Mike Miller, or Shawn Marion...all six men have logged time as the SG this season. In the end, the Knicks cleared a ton of cap space with their wheeling and dealing so I give the nod to the Knicks in this one as they're clearly building to the future. 

   4.  The Celtics/Suns swap and the impending Celtics/Grizzlies/Pelicans (?) swap. 

• Yesterday evening the Celtics sent Brandan Wright, acquired previously in the Rondo trade from Dallas, to Phoenix in exchange for a first round pick and a trade exemption. This trade doesn't necessarily hurt the Cs as Wright did little for the team in his short stay in Boston. It appears that he was never meant to be a fixture in Boston despite some analysts suggesting that he was the best "get" for Boston in the Rondo trade. Phoenix should benefit as their defense with hopefully improve without limiting their fast-paced up and down offense. 
• Onto the impending Jeff Green trade. Last night the Celtics couldn't close a deal in time for it to be official with the NBA so we will all wait until Monday when the league offices open again to see what has officially been agreed upon. What we know is that Memphis has been looking to upgrade their SF position and Boston's Green seemed to fit the bill. Decent, expiring contract plus talent seems to work in the Grizz's favor in regards to Green. Memphis and Boston looked to include a third team into the trade however, which is likely to have caused the delay. 
• In this trade, Memphis will sent Tayshaun Prince to Boston and Quincy Pondexter to New Orleans. New Orleans will send Austin Rivers to Boston and Russ Smith to Memphis. Boston will send Jeff Green to Memphis. Green will fill a need in Memphis while Prince will be nothing more than an expiring contract in Boston. For Boston, nabbing Rivers may be what they're excited most about. They'll have the rest of the year to evaluate him and, honestly, I think Stevens is going to work well with young players like Rivers, Marcus Smart, James Young, Tyler Zeller. No, Boston may not win many more games this season but these young guys will be fun to watch. 

That's all for today everyone. As always, thanks for the views and comments are always welcome. 

Items 6-10 on the NBA in 2015

Okay, so here's the next five things to be on the lookout for in 2015. Sorry for the delay in posting!

1. Stan Van Gundy will be a serious COY candidate. 

I whole-heartedly think that Stan the Man will be in contention for Coach of the Year at the end of the '14-15 season. Listen, the Pistons got off to an awful start only winning five games between the beginning of the season and the Josh Smith waiver. Since then, the team is a perfect 5-0. Now, being 10-23 almost halfway into the season is far from worthy of COY consideration BUT I sincerely believe that the Pistons are on a roll and should squash the bottom feeders in the NBA for the rest of the year. I seriously think they can go 30-19 in the rest of 2015 and squeak into playoffs barring any unforeseen injuries. Heck, Stan Van should be GM of the Year at that point too.

2. Carmelo will sit out after ASG.

The Knicks have won five games all year. Even the Pistons separated themselves from the ire that is the Knicks with their recent five game win streak giving them ten wins on the year. I have little faith in the Knicks organization and I believe they will shut Carmelo down after the All Star Game. With the game in NYC it would be crazy for Melo not to play in HIS city. He's already sat out a handful of games so I see no additional reason for a team with no playoffs hope and 12 players coming off the books at the end of the season to try for anything..except a top three draft pick. That's right Knicks fans. If Melo sits welcome to Tankapalooza. In all seriousness, I'm a Celtics and Rondo fan, my season was ruined when he tore his ACL in January a couple years ago and I think letting Melo sit will be best for everyone. I don't wish that on any player or fan base and I think he needs to rest his body while he can. Rest assured fans, next year will hopefully be a BIG year for you. 

3. The Clippers will trade for Jeff Green.

Straight up, they have to. They have to, have to, HAVE TO. I'm sorry but Matt Barnes will only get you so much in playoffs and you can't rely on a Paul, Reddick, Crawford lineup in crunch time against the Mavs, Blazers, or Thunder, let alone Grizzlies or Rockets in my opinion. Green has an expiring contract, he plays his best ball as a third option, and has experience with Doc. Win-win. Plus Danny Ainge only trades with his buddies so it all works out. 

4. This will be an active trade season compared to last year.

The trade deadline isn't what it used to be. The past two years have been quieter at the deadline partially due to regulations in the new CBA and also due to big name trades happening earlier in the season for teams that wanted to integrate new player sooner rather than later for playoff berths. We saw that with Rudy Gay a couple years ago and with Rondo this year. Still, I think Rondo will have been the biggest star traded this year so get ready for role player galore by the trade deadline this year. The Nuggets are practically a team full of roleplayers like Mozgov, Chandler, and Javale McGee who are all highly expendable if you ask me (the young C, Nurkic, is a BOSS!) The Thunder NEED Chandler and the Cavs just need a C, anyone at this point. Look for the Nuggets, Thunder, and Cavs to be active this trading season. 

5. Barring injuries, the Cavs won't see the Finals for two years. 

Think about it. To win the East you have to go through either Gasol/Noah/Gibson or Nene/Gortat. Unless the Wiz bottom out and face the Bulls in the first round (not gonna happen anyway) the Cavs will have to face one, if not both, of these teams. And that's not giving credit to what's going down in Atlanta. I'm just thinking of bigs here let alone guard play and team defenses. In those respects ATL has been top notch. The Bulls and Wiz will be smart and keep their bigs around as long as the Cavaliers continue to play at LeBron's whim and only employee his buddies as teammates, let alone replace Varejao with a C capable of playing minutes in the playoffs. Man...thinking about the Cavs not having a playoff C in the East actually makes me feel bad for them. I say two years because I believe within two years they will certainly have a capable C or at least better C rotation moving forward.  

That's all for today everyone. Thanks for the read. Head over to my twitter @AlexanderMoylan if you feel like sharing my post. I'll be tweeting the link there. Scroll down a couple posts for the first five things to look for in 2015!

Twitter is a game and we all have to play

Ugh...twitter.

I love twitter. Let's get that out of the way first. Twitter is so much more than just a tool to share your thoughts. In my opinion, if you use it correctly, Twitter can be used to network with individuals in your field. Networking can lead to virtual friendships and even jobs too. However, Twitter isn't THAT easy.

There's a certain amount of etiquette involved in using twitter. After all, not every user opens their Twitter app with the purpose of sharing stories, networking, or building productive relationships. I like to do all of those things but I also like to follow my interests outside of my career path. I follow many of my personal friends' accounts, many professional athletes, and sports reporters since I'm an NBA enthusiast. This means that my tweets range from being related to Student Affairs, sports, and sometimes even conversational. At the same time, there's a couple different ways of going about this which can either help or hurt your networking opportunities and Twitter reputation, in my opinion.

I try to keep my personal tweets to a minimum. I also monitor just how much tweeting about sports I do. Recently I've been talking more about Student Affairs related subjects and finding some really informative accounts to follow. These accounts share stories relevant to institutions of higher education and often hosts fun chats that help you connect with people you wouldn't meet otherwise. I saw a swell of people beginning to follow my account after I was retweeted by a popular Student Affairs account. It was great because I began reading these users' bios and really diggin' what they were about! I became interested in what they may post in the future so, of course, I gave them a "follow-back" and read through their tweets only if they popped up on my timeline; I didn't really go searching through their tweets at all.

This is where etiquette comes in. I'm not the type of person to follow a ton of accounts only to expect a "follow-back". I don't really understand why people are so interested in getting their follower numbers up. Just because someone follows you doesn't mean they actually review your tweets diligently. I'm honestly very confused on this whole issue about followers. Still, I came across a good amount of people that had followed me promptly un-followed me after I followed them...and I have a couple assumptions.

1. People really care about getting a ton of followers but have no interest in following them back for some reason...I have no explanation to be honest. I guess I'm not active on twitter enough to see the purpose of people reading my tweets, with no interest in conversing with them on their tweets either, but hey, that's just me!

2. Maybe people can't handle my tweets! I'm not sure what's the sillier assumption but hey, I'm not going to hate anyone for not being interested in what I tweet about. However, what I do take issue with are people expecting me to tweet ONLY about Student Affairs. I'm not a robot! That's why this blog will feature an NBA-related post from time to time. I'm diversified. Student Affairs is my career passion but I have many hobbies and interests outside of my career. I think it's important for users to respect other people's tweets.

Now, I completely understand finding yourself in the situation of following someone you find interesting only to find them tweeting about something else you may find offensive. By all means, do what you have to do at that point. However, I treat my Twitter account like a resume so I'm always on top of the content featured next to my name and in Student Affairs I expect many of my contemporaries to act the same way. .

The long and short of it is. Guard your twitter reputation. Don't be a follower that only seeks a follow-back. Converse, network, make connections!

In 2015 and beyond....5 year degree > 4 year degree

Earlier this year I wrote a piece for my student newspaper on why some of the analytic measures that go into determining the value of an institution of higher education are outdated and unneeded. What I was referring to in the article specifically was the graduation rate formula. My biggest problem with the idea of a graduation rate is that this number varies from website to website, from institution to institution. But in general, I feel that the expectation that students should be graduating within four years of beginning their coursework isn't doing all students justice anymore.

Let me be clear, I graduated in four years from my undergraduate institution just fine and so did many of my peers, classmates, and friends. Other friends of mine though were unable to do so, sometimes for academic or financial reasons and sometimes both. Speaking purely on academics, I feel that what colleges and universities really want out of their students in 2014/2015 is for them to be well-rounded individuals who can contribute to their communities, homes, or workplaces after completing their degree. However, I think that being "well-rounded" is impossible without substantial time spent outside of the classroom participating in clubs, activities, or a collegiate sport. Leadership opportunities may be unavailable in a classroom setting used solely for instruction whereas clubs and other student-run organizations typically offer students the chance to contribute to the group's success as a member or even a leader. But being a leader requires time and this commitment takes away from time that would otherwise be spent solely focusing on academics. Meanwhile, couldn't we argue that time spent in clubs and student-run organizations gives students experiences that, in addition to their classroom experiences, makes them more well-rounded and diversified from other people in the job hunt after graduation?

As an employer, would you be more interested in the student that completed his/her degree in four years, graduating in good academic standing or the student who graduated in five years, same academic standing, but was also the treasurer -- and perhaps later president -- of a student-run organization and also participated in 200+ hours of community service?

Four years is a long time but with all the pressure on grades how are we affording students an opportunity to really grow? I hate that students feel bad about themselves when they don't graduate with the same peers they began college with. They should have no reason to fell bad in my opinion. Four/five years at college goes by quick...believe me. What's most important in the time you spend as a college student is that you take advantage of every opportunity possible for some of these opportunities will no longer be available once you graduate.

I haven't even mentioned the student who may take longer than four years to graduate from school because of their commitments to part/full-time work outside of school. I've been there myself as a grad student. I worked a part-time job in addition to other commitments that essentially amounted to a full-time work schedule, plus 2-3 graduate courses. It's not necessarily easy, or fun for that matter. However, the adversity of work piled on top of class will only make you stronger if you can make it. Believe me, it's a struggle at times. I've gained so much respect for the students who work full-time as an undergraduate and complete their degrees in four, five, or six years for that matter. Working while attending classes is no joke and those that do it are rarely considered in these graduation rates.

I guess my point is, if you're a student who has realized they may not be able to complete their degree in four years, you're far from being a negative statistic. Of course, I'm aiming these words at the students who participate in extracurricular activities outside of class exclusively. The world demands the best and brightest of college grads and simply attending class isn't enough to set aside one graduate from the next anymore. As a student you should look to be as active in extracurricular activities as possible without compromising your academics. The value of clubs and activities cannot be emphasized enough with the opportunities that exist for working in teams, event planning and execution, and leadership. Strong leaders with an education are so powerful in the world today so let's abandon the notion that being unable to graduate within four years is any indication of the type of student someone is.