Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011 at 10:52 am  |  15 responses

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21 Questions: Trade Reflections

Boston and OKC trade for titles; New York and New Jersey trade for rep.

by Sandy Dover / @SandmanSeven

If it was good enough for 50 Cent and Nate Dogg, I’m pretty sure it’s exceptionally sufficient for SLAMonline. Regardless of music, 21 Questions with San Dova is taking the task of asking those nebulous questions that seem to revolve around the force of gravity we know to be the NBA. Check for the preguntas at the top of every month or so.

1. Carmelo Anthony to the New York Knickerbockers…are New Yorkers sufficed now?

2. Is New York head coach Mike D’Antoni competent enough to coach the Knicks to anything close to what he did when he was leading the Phoenix Suns, now that Melo and Amar’e Stoudemire are now a dynamic duo?

3. Will Chauncey Billups make people remember who he is? Will he be someone that, instead of being potentially replaced by one of the upcoming 2012 free-agent guards, will be paired up with another elite point guard (like the San Antonio Spurs tried to do with Jason Kidd and Tony Parker in 2003)?

4. Will Anthony Randolph put it all together with the Minnesota Timberwolves? Is it scary to consider that he may be a surlier version of the formerly depressed Michael Beasley?

5. Why does it seem that the Utah Jazz aren’t given as much credit for getting rid of current New Jersey Net Deron Williams ASAP, who didn’t want to be there anyway? Devin Harris and Derrick Favors are good able-bodied players in the present, right?

6. Now that Kevin Durant has a legitimately sized frontcourt with Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins starting with the Oklahoma City Thunder, will we finally see the KD that dominated last August appear this spring?

7. Is it just me who believes that the Boston Celtics just got stronger, despite losing former starting center Perkins to OKC?

8. Is Jeff Green going to come into his own with Boston? Is Nenad Krstic now the Celtics’ Pau Gasol to Kevin Garnett‘s Kobe Bryant?

9. Is Baron Davis the most failed Hall of Fame talent to come about in the last 10 years? Will he actually decide to play hard with the Cleveland Cavs?

10. Why couldn’t now-Sacramento King Marcus Thornton put in more effort in his defense, and why couldn’t New Orleans Hornets head coach Monty Williams give him the benefit of the doubt and start him at off-guard, like Thornton did as a rookie when he took the League by storm?

11. Now that Gerald Wallace has arrived and Wesley Matthews has blossomed, is Portland Trail Blazers swingman Brandon Roy going to be able to fit in? Is anyone wondering whether Roy will complain or become a sort of recluse now that there are able players who have made him somewhat forgettable?

12. Even though the Atlanta Hawks supposedly upgraded their backcourt by trading point guard Mike Bibby away to the Washington Wizards for Kirk Hinrich, why does it seem like the Hawks are just playing around and only getting marginally better?

13. Am I the only one who has faith in Hasheem Thabeet being a productive NBA center with the Houston Rockets? Won’t Dikembe Mutombo and Hakeem Olajuwon’s presence in Houston count for something since he’ll likely spend some time with them?

14. With Aaron Brooks previously creating some dissension with the Rockets before being shipped to the Suns, why does it seem that he acts out as the worst possible times (like he did in his sophomore and junior years with the Oregon Ducks, when he was just a borderline NBA Draft prospect at the time)?

15. Am I the only one who believes that Chris Bosh will get traded by this time next year by the Miami Heat or in the 2012 offseason?

16. With all of these trades having gone on, does anyone feel that Derrick Rose was a little too proud when he refused to actively recruit LeBron James to the Chicago Bulls, especially since the Bulls are pretty much an elite team as it is?

17. Now that rookie power forward Derrick Favors has been traded to the Jazz, will Kris Humphries finally get his due time as the consistent starting power forward for the Nets?

18. Will Brook and Robin Lopez ever get consistent in their play enough to be counted on as legitimate threats in the low post for the Nets and Suns?

19. Since Richard Hamilton pretty much refused to sign off on getting traded away by the Detroit Pistons (and then subsequently released by his future team [the Cavaliers]), does he have any excuse to complain now? And why do the Piston players detest head coach John Kuester so?

20. With the way that Tracy McGrady has played at point guard for the Pistons, don’t you think that the Knicks kind of wish they had maybe kept him as a compliment to Melo, Billups and Landry Fields on the wings?

21. Is it wrong that I totally don’t even think of Isiah Thomas as one of the greatest guards in NBA history anymore and instead I ignore what he has to say, since he still insists on undermining his peers in NBA circles, in light of the fact that he’s supposed to be worrying about coaching his atrocious Florida International NCAA team and not offending Donnie Walsh in the Knicks front office?

Sandy Dover is a novelist/writer, artist, and fitness enthusiast whose work has been published by US News, Yahoo!, featured in Robert Atwan’s “America Now,“ and now in Buckets and Playmaker magazines. You can find Sandy frequently here at SLAMonline, as well as at Facebook and Twitter.