S-Jax Finally Traded

Looks like Stephen Jackson will finally be dealt to another team but he won't be on a team on his wishlist as he will be headed to a lottery bound Charlotte Bobcats. The Warriors will send their former captain along with Acie Law for Vladimir Radmanovic and Raja Bell. The move does give the Bobcats a scorer that they have sorely needed since the start of the season but dealing for Jackson can not solve their scoring problems completely. They should have gone the route commonly taken by most rebuilding teams. They should have been more patient with developing their younger players in DJ Augustin and Gerald Wallace, cleared cap space and improve through high 1st round picks. The Bobcats might earn a couple more wins and they might even contend for a playoff spot this season but this move doesn't put them in a better position for the future at all. Raymond Felton will be an unrestricted free agent next season and they won't have any cap space at all until after the 2010-11 season. The move might also mean that the Bobcats will only receive a mid 1st round pick in next year's draft. As blaze said, this move doesn't do anything for the Bobcats other than getting more points on the board and around 5 more wins. S-Jax's a fantastic complementary player on a contender but is a mediocre go-to-guy on a playoff spot contender in th East. I'm not sure if Jackson will be willing to play for 'Cats. Another trade? Highly unlikely but I hope so. For the Warriors, this move is a little shocking but not unbelievable. There have some rumors that Bobcats might be interested in Jackson in the past. Don Nelson has said they will do his best to send Jackson to a team on his wishlist(any Texas team, NY, Cleveland) but maybe no one was willing to pay the next 4 years on Jackson's contract. The move will create more flexibility for the Warriors as Bell's contract expires this season and Radmanovic's expires next season. Both are also quality shooters and are compatible with Nelson's system.

Ball Points (Inspired by patayangbutiki.com’s Butiki Bullets) (9-22-09)

• Finally! Something wrong about Ateneo! The credit goes to blaze for finding this story. This is an issue worth following. If Jobe is proven ineligible before the finals, will the Eagles be even allowed to play in the Finals? Maybe that’s why he's not part of the roster anymore. This may mean another suspension to perennial Final 4 contender next season. Nothing’s final yet and maybe this is just a propaganda to harm ADMU’s reputation. UPDATE: CHED has already released a statement regarding the issue and they have stated that Jobe is eligible for tertiary education. Nice try FEU but better luck next year.
  
• As reported here and here, Smart - Gilas will be facing off with the Singapore Slingers tomorrow in a tune -up match. The result will hardly matter in this one. The main goal of the Gilas program is to expose these young collegiate stars to the international brand of basketball. Smart-Gilas will also be reinforced by 2 Fil-Aussies in this game. Basketball isn't a popular sport in Australia so I'm still skeptical if this guys can make an impact but I guess looking for more players all over the world won't hurt. The SBP should try looking for players are around 6'6" to 6'10" who are versatile enough for the international game. A guy like Nikkah Bahrami wouldn't hurt their cause as well. UPDATE: Gilas won 70-67 behind Cj Giles(21 points), Aguilar (14 points) and Casio (10 points).
  
• I was looking for some highlights of Nikkah and I stumbled upon this video. The reporter was asking about the death of one of his teammates and I don’t think the reporter knew he was asking about Nikkah’s brother, Aiden. The reporter even asked for the name of the player. (Aiden died in car crash with his fiancé. Iran did pretty well without the other Bahrami and they even defended their FIBA-Asia crown against the heavily favored Chinese National Team)
• Looks like Warriors are having some difficulty in accommodating Jackson's request. The teams on his wish list are all deep in the 2 and 3 spot and I don’t think they’ll be able to create space for the Warriors’ captain. (Cavs have The Chosen One, Moon, West and Parker. Spurs have Ginobli, Jefferson, Mason and now Bogans. Mavs have Marion, Howard and Terry. My Rockets have Ariza, Battier, a couple of promising rookies and hopefully a healthy T-Mac.) These teams may choose to play small ball but their rosters are still too deep to find a spot for him. Even other contenders like the Celtics, Magic and Lakers are deep at his positions as well. If he wants to join a contender this season, he’ll have to live with the fact that he might not get to play in the end game. Moving to New Orleans might make some sense especially with inconsistencies of Peja. Ending the game with CP3, Capt. Jack, James Posey, David West, Okafor/Peja(small ball?) isn't too shabby at all. Trading Mo Pete and Devin Brown for Capt. Jack will work financially. The move also frees up Golden State of committing to Jackson for 4 years since Brown’s contract will last for one more year while Peterson’s will only have 2 more years. The question is will Bower accept a 4 year contract averaging about $8.8M annually for a player who won’t guarantee you a spot in the Conference Finals. Sure he’ll improve the team and make bring CP3 a smile on his face but the Western Conference still has a lot of talented and deeper teams that are itching to dethrone the Lakers.