Hooped Up

The Suns could have landed their man in Thursday night’s draft before their pick ever came up. Golden State’s selection of Davidson point guard Stephen Curry at No. 7 was likely made for the Suns as part of an Amare Stoudemire trade that can’t be completed until Wednesday. That is because Phoenix would be acquiring Warriors center Andris Biedrins, a base-year compensation player, as part of a Stoudemire deal that would include more Warriors players, possibly power forwardBrandan Wright and/or shooting guard Marco Belinelli.

Arizona Republic

The Hawks and Golden State are close to finalizing a trade that would bring Jamal Crawford to Atlanta and send Acie Law and Speedy Claxton to the Warriors, according to two different sources with knowledge of the negotiations.

Hawks general manager Rick Sund declined to comment through Hawks’ spokesman Arthur Triche.

In Crawford the Hawks would get a veteran player capable of playing both guard positions.

Crawford, 29, averaged 19.7 points, 4.4 assists and 3.0 rebounds last season, splitting his time with New York and Golden State. He also gives the Hawks insurance in the backcourt since starting point guard Mike Bibby and backup guard Flip Murray are both unrestricted free agents.

Atlanta Journal Constitution

The Golden State Warriors select seventh overall in the 2009 NBA draft. Listen to who Fantasy Sports Girl Jennifer thinks the Warriors are picking and then check out her selections vitals, strengths, 08-09 stats and draft demo reel after the jump.

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Every NBA player has a dream. For some it’s to win a NBA championship, for others it’s to have a long career and for a small few it’s to settle down with a Laker girl and to collect mint condition M.A.S.K action figures. For Corey Maggette it’s something completely different and he shared his dream with Jimmy Kimmel.

Sometimes getting fired ain’t such a bad thing and I speak from experience, but we’ll talk about my old job as a Sinbad impersonator another day. Right now it all about Chris Mullin getting the axe in Golden State. 

“Golden State announced Monday that Mullin, as widely anticipated, would not be retained as vice president once his contract expires at the end of June. Instead, Mullin will remain under contract - and presumably, in the shadows - while assistant Larry Riley takes the reins and is introduced as general manager today. Mullin fell out of President Robert Rowell’s favor following disagreements on several high-profile issues last summer - namely, the punishment for Monta Ellis’ moped accident and negotiations for Baron Davis’ contract extension. Rowell then signed coach Don Nelson and swingman Stephen Jackson to huge contract extensions while letting Mullin enter a lame-duck season.”

Donnie Walsh is surely salavating as he reads this!

Via San Francisco Chronicle

Monta Ellis is having a pretty good season after coming back from a wicked moped accident this summer and things should continue onward and upward for Ellis next year in Golden State.

Just watch as Monta Ellis flies down the wing like he’s on a four wheel scooter with airbags and gives Ronny Turiaf a great behind the back pass, (which is the Vespa of passes in the moped basketball community) for the two-handed slam.

As long as he remembers it’s “rubber side down” this summer, his 2009 - 2010 season should be a real good one.

Two things I know for sure today. One, Vin Diesel can’t do a movie that doesn’t have him in a wife-beater at least once. Two, Don Nelson does not like Jamal Crawford.

“Crawford sat out Sunday’s game though his Nellie-imposed vacation was done. He’s saying he needs to practice, which is the reason he sat out Friday’s game. The Warriors’ only practices are Monday and Thursday. So, as it turns out, Crawford won’t play until after that second practice, which puts him back in the lineup for Saturday. He’ll have three practices then, because the Warriors have two off days between Wednesday at Dallas and Saturday at Denver. Whose buying the practice line? Not me.”

Not me either Mr. Marcus. For Nellie not to play a guy that has close to no discretion with shot selection, he’s really not gotta like him. Why? Well Billy, that’s because Don Nelson’s entire offensive philosophy for the past 33 years has been solely based on taking bad shots. Their I said it, my wrist couldn’t stop my fingers.

Via Contra Costa Times Blog

If you’re impressed with the defense of Ronny Turiaf, just wait till you see his punting skills!

Corey Maggette dares the referee to call him for travelling…no dice. This referee only calls choke slams.

If you’ve ever played basketball on any level, one of the first things your coach tells you is to “always play to the whistle”. Well, there are a few times when an exception to that rule happens. Like say for example, a box of Summer’s Eve with a mouth and arms in the crowd brings a whistle to a game and then blows it at the end of a play.

As punishment, that fan should have to shallow his whistle like the officiating crew of the Lakers vs. Kings in the 2002 Western Conference Finals did or like any officiating crew does when the Phoenix Suns play a game in Texas.

There..I said it!