Archives › Kurt Helin
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These are the guys that cause general managers the most grief (unless you drafted Kwame Brown No. 1 overall, then your grief is your own making). Five years from now your draft pick may turn out to be a solid role player, but every time someone talks about him they’ll say “but he passed up…
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NBA Draft: Pacers will give you the No. 10 pick for a point guard, but you'll want more
Jun 24, 2010, 11:42 AM EDT
Indiana wants to run. Indiana has nobody who can lead the break. Ergo, an ugly and unproductive season. Larry Bird has been trying since the season ended to get an established point guard, via trade or free agency or alien abduction. Whatever it takes. Since it is NBA Draft day, the Pacers are trying to…
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The Celtics have a young star point guard paired with a front line ready to star in a remake of Cocoon. Boston knows that long term it needs to get younger. Boston also knows there are some quality big men up at the top of the draft that fit their needs. So the Celtics have…
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The list is long and infamous: Kwame Brown, Adam Morrison, Darko Milic, Nikoloz Tskitishvili. There may not be any epic busts of that level in this draft, but there are going to be busts. Somebody is going to disappoint an excited fan base. Who? Here’s who we think. Cole Aldrich: I’m hesitant to put Aldrich…
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Yao Ming wants to be back. During the time of year virtually every other NBA player has his feet up relaxing, taking some time off from the grind, he is at the Rockets facility daily busting it on the court. Rockets owner Leslie Alexander watched him work out then told Jonathan Feigen he was “very…
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Remember three years ago, when Kobe Bryant demanded to be traded from the Lakers, the team went through the motions of shopping him around and found a decent offer from the Chicago Bulls? That deal didn’t go through in part because the Bulls would not put Luol Deng into the package. Oh, how times have…
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By the finals, it wasn’t even a talking point any more. Kobe Bryant was playing through an avulsion fracture in his finger, and we didn’t blink. As if it was natural, like a salmon swimming upstream to mate or Lindsay Lohan pissing off a judge. We didn’t think twice of it. But it still hurt,…
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Denver shows Carmelo Anthony the money, he says he wants to see the wins
Jun 24, 2010, 12:35 AM EDT
Carmelo Anthony could be the LeBron James of 2011. I don’t mean the Nuggets have a great regular season only go down a little too easily in the playoffs. Again. No, I mean the free agent stuff– the hype and love from cities around the country that want to lure him in if he would…
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Didn’t take long — he isn’t even the No. 1 pick. Yet. But Reebok has it’s first John Wall commercial out. Complete with the John Wall dance. Expect a lot more of these as Reebok tries to use Wall to springboard back into the basketball shoe market in a meaningful way.
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UPDATE 6:05 pm: It’s that time of year, when rumored deals get leaked and die almost as fast. Just like this one. Apparently everybody in Minnesota and Memphis sobered up and realized this was a bad idea. Here is the official reasoning from Chad Ford: Memphis is unwilling to part with their picks as part…
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Just a few minutes before, Kobe Bryant had refused to even discuss the idea of Phil Jackson retiring, calling it a “buzz kill.” Earlier still Derek Fisher wondered if he would come back if Jackson did not. But right now, Phil Jackson is considering stepping away, which is what he told the media after conducting…
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There was nothing earth shattering from Tom Thibodeau’s first appearance as the Chicago Bulls head coach. He didn’t come out and say Michael Jordan was an overrated player, or he prefers New York style thin-crust pizza, or profess his love for the Green Bay Packers. There were no cardinal sins of Chicago etiquette. What Thibodeau…
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Ron Harper on Kobe: "He's the closest thing we've ever had to Jordan"
Jun 23, 2010, 3:12 PM EDT
Ron Harper has perspective. He was on the Bulls during their heyday for three titles. He was on the Lakers for the first two titles of the Kobe/Shaq era. Through it all he was like a coach on the floor. And he told FanHouse Jordan remains the best, but don’t think the gap is very…
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Cavs shop around Mo Williams, but DeLonte West is the one you can have
Jun 23, 2010, 2:22 PM EDT
UPDATE 2:22 pm: Mo Williams really doesn’t want to be traded. Check out what he put up on his twitter account: Pls don’t trade me, I’m not ready to go. I’m begging. My work ain’t done yet. I’m on both knees….pls. I’m serious 11:42 am: Cleveland is considering everything right now. You have a seven-team…
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Hormets owner George Shinn says Chris Paul is not going anywhere. Sort of.
Jun 23, 2010, 1:38 PM EDT
Once trade rumors get rolling, they are almost impossible to stop. Even when they made no sense. Like the Hornets trying to trade Chris Paul. That’s not a normal kind of insane, that’s like Charlie Manson level insane. It makes no real sense. So owner George Shinn came forward to put an end to that…
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Rudy Fernandez is not a happy man in Portland. He feels he never got a chance, he feels ignored, he doesn’t like the coach, doesn’t like how he’s being used, probably doesn’t even like the pastrami burger at Kenny & Zuke’s Delicatessen. And everybody likes the pastrami burger at Kenny & Zuke’s. Maybe what he…
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Spencer Hawes gets another chance, but Philadelphia is not so forgiving
Jun 23, 2010, 12:36 PM EDT
Right now, everything is good between Spencer Hawes and Philadelphia. The management there, his teammates, the fans are all good with him. It was that way in Sacramento for a long time. He was to be the future. Hawes and the fans loved each other. But that soured. He can drain threes (at a 30…
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The Spurs need to get younger, we may have found their guy. Maybe the guy to replace Manu Ginobili some day. I’ll let the San Antonio Express-News explain: Making a short appearance at the Spurs’ youth summer camp at the University of the Incarnate Word, Ginobili — Olympic gold medalist, international icon and three-time NBA…
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The Sixers really, really want to trade Elton Brand. Really, really. He is the anchor on their grand rebuilding plans. First they tried to package him with the No. 2 pick, but there were no real bites on the line so now the Sixers are pretty set on taking Evan Turner in that spot. Now…
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Chris Douglas-Roberts traded to Bucks for a second-round pick, Nets to target Boozer in free agency
Jun 23, 2010, 9:57 AM EDT
UPDATE 9:57 pm: The two sides have reached a deal — the Nets will get a 2012 second round pick, according to Chad Ford. The NBA equivalent of a player to be named later. That is not much to get back for an up-and-coming player like CDR. But it does free up just more than…
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Chris Paul wants to stay in New Orleans, but only if team is commits to winning
Jun 23, 2010, 9:48 AM EDT
Trade rumors — totally ridiculous trade rumors for the most part — are swirling around Chris Paul. But nobody asked Chris Paul about it. Well, until Chris Broussard of ESPN the Magazine did. “My first choice is to be in New Orleans,” Paul said in a telephone interview from London. “I just want to make…
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NBA Draft: Sacramento may take Ekpe Udoh over Greg Monroe, and Monroe could fall farther
Jun 23, 2010, 9:27 AM EDT
What the Warriors want when they pick at No. 6 is DeMarcus Cousins. But if Mick Jagar has taught us one thing, it’s that you can’t always get what you want (because Sacramento takes him). But if they have to settle for getting what they need, that will likely be Ekpe Udoh out of Baylor,…
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Piston's Charlie Villanueva arrested on domestic assault charge
Jun 22, 2010, 10:52 PM EDT
The disappointments just keep coming from Charlie Villanueva. He was arrested and charged related to a May 19 incident in Burlington, Ontario, a Canadian city 65 miles from Buffalo, according to an Associated Press report. His lawyer, Owen Wigderson, says Villanueva, “denies all allegations of wrongdoing and I’m very confident that he’ll be exonerated.” Villanueva is…
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Nobody is sure what Phil Jackson is going to do, not even his family
Jun 22, 2010, 9:36 PM EDT
Here’s the best part — we’re all going to know what Phil Jackson wants to do by the end of the week. Come back to the Lakers or stay on his ranch in Montana. But nobody knows what he is going to do. Apparently not even his family, although they think he may be done,…
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Eddy Curry picks up player option, Knicks fans dream of a trade that won't happen.
Jun 22, 2010, 6:45 PM EDT
Eddy Curry is now owed $11.2 million for next season — he picked up the player option. Like everyone sane knew he would, because where else is Curry going to make that money? Of course, a few Knicks fans didn’t see that coming. Now twitter and sports talk radio airwaves are filled with Knicks fans…
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Video: If Heat lose, 'all hell will break loose'
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Video: Green breaks NBA finals 3-point record
