[Izulde]

Chicago Bulls receive
SG Jason Richardson

Golden State Warriors receive
SF Darius Miles
C Samuel Dalembert
Chicago Bulls 2014 2nd round draft pick

What this means for the Bulls
Richardson is an infusion of 16-17 points a game and passable defense. He gives the Bulls what they lacked; a legitimate scorer. His contract is a little steep since he's 32, but he's a major upgrade at the SG spot in the lineup and in the points department.

What this means for the Warriors
Miles is an average all-around player who will get his points as a 6th man because he can play all five positions. He's also an expiring near-$7 million contract and Dalembert's a $6 million expiring contract with solid defense. One has to wonder, though. With the Warriors this bad and their second-leading scorer now gone, can Baron Davis be far behind?

Advantage: Chicago
Richardson's addition could turn the Bulls into a borderline playoff team. The value of the expiring contracts and the throw-in 2nd rounder aren't enough to make up for how much worse Golden State is now.

Houston Rockets receive
PF Ike Diogu
Detroit Pistons 2014 2nd round pick

Detroit Pistons receive
PG George Greene

What this means for the Rockets
Diogu brings discipline, rebounding and even more versatility to an already multiple-looks capable Houston team on the bench. The Rockets have really been struggling this season, so anything they can do to make things more complex for opposing coaches is a good thing.

What this means for the Pistons
The 24 year old Greene is raw, particularly on defense, but the late 1st round pick (1.28 - HOU 2012 draft) has some interesting potential. It's surprising that Houston gave up on the player they saw as the heir apparent to Mike Bibby so soon. There's also Kenny Graham and Rajan Rondo ahead of him in the guard rotation. Still, one can never stockpile too much PG talent.

Advantage: Detroit
Greene is better than Diogu and the 2nd round pick and that's pretty much what this boils down to.

New Orleans Hornets receive
PG Mackel Greenleaf

Dallas Mavericks receive
SG Thabo Sefolosha
New Orleans Hornets 2014 2nd round pick

What this means for the Hornets
Greenleaf is a non-descript 27 year old backup guard and never lived up to the potential first seen in him when he was drafted by the Rockets at 1.29 in the 2009 draft.

What this means for the Mavericks
Sefolosha is a very good defender with some pretty good shooting and scoring instincts. He's also able to play both guard spots and the three and Nuggets GM Jestor will not be happy to see Thabo back in the West Conference, a player he's been known to have a strong liking for. The 2nd round pick is an added bonus.

Advantage: Dallas
We fail to understand why New Orleans even made this trade.

They're right; I -am- ticked at Thabo back in our conference. But there's nothing to be done about it now.

Riding a four game losing streak is never a good thing, but at least it's a new month and with the turning of the calendar page, we have fresh hope that we can snap out of this low spot and get back up top where we belong.

The punchless Warriors are a good place to start and we end the losing run, but I'm not happy about the five point margin of victory (104-99), particularly since it's at home. Still, Kirk Hinrich scores 31, Mateen Yeaton puts up 22 points and takes down 12 rebounds, Patrick Pastner throws in 21 points and Mike Miller leads the reserves with 11 points. A win's a win at this point, I suppose.

A divisional doubleheader follows and we split it. We beat Utah 104-86 in the first game, Emeka Okafor the man of the match with 25 points, 12 rebounds, a block and 4 steals, Mateen Yeaton -just- missing a triple-double with 18 points, 11 assists and 9 rebounds. The Timberwolves stifle us the next night in a 88-72 game, Mateen Yeaton's 20 points the only noteworthy statistic.

Kirk Hinrich and Mike Miller bail us out in the next game with 21 points and 13 bench points respectively in an 86-77 win over the Cavaliers in Cleveland. As long as we can keep bouncing back from losses, I think this team will continue to gel and hopefully have gained some toughness by the end of the regular season that I think it lacks right now.

The Nets beat us 96-89 in the next game as only Mateen Yeaton shows up, finishing with 24 points. As much fun as this team can be to watch at times, it's also proving quite maddening these last couple months.

No problems, though, as we sweep both games of the doubleheader before the All-Star break and go into the vacation period on a high note. Atlanta falls 112-100 as Mateen Yeaton puts on a beautiful game of 40 points, 5 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 blocks and 3 steals and Dan Jacobson assists with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Charlotte bows down 112-103 as Maestro Mateen Yeaton dazzles with 45 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks, Dan Jacobson thunders for 28 points, 18 rebounds, 6 assists and 6 blocks before fouling out and Patrick Pastner doubles with 18 points and 12 rebounds.

Our very own Kirk Hinrich is the 2013 3-Point Shootout Champion, which is quite exciting to have happen. It's only the second time in his career he's been in the Long Distance competition and the first time he's won it.

I don't care about the Rookies-Sophs game this year so I skip it.

Two Nuggets get named to the All-Star Game. Mateen Yeaton plays 14 minutes and scores 10 points, while Kirk Hinrich doesn't get in the game, the exact same thing that happens to our old friend Ben Gordon on the East squad. The West prevails 101-95 as MVP Kelvin Moody electrifies with 21 points, 19 rebounds and 3 blocks.

We crush the Celtics 111-78 our first game back, Mateen Yeaton leading the way with 33 points. Kirk Hinrich doubles with 15 points and 13 assists and Marcus Williams and Mike Miller highlight the bench with 15 and 11 points respectively.

So it's trade deadline time and there's the eternal question of whether or not to make a move. All in all, I have to say that we really do look like a pretty solid outfit, though I'm not at all adverse to making a trade.

And so we make one.

Denver Nuggets receive
SG Vince Carter

Detroit Pistons receive
SG Mike Miller
C Brendan Haywood

What this means for the Nuggets
Carter is averaging over 20 points a game this season and shows no signs of slowing down in the scoring department despite being 36 years old. Chances are he'll be a half-season rental for Denver, but that suits the Nuggets and Vince just fine. He takes over as the starting SF, shifting Patrick Pastner to the 6th man role and making Denver that much deeper on the bench. They also now rid themselves of Miller's horrendous contract. The question mark: How will Carter perform in the postseason, who hasn't been in the playoffs in a very long time and not once since GM Jestor entered the league?

What this means for the Pistons
Detroit, if they even make the playoffs at all, will only make it as a low seed and are a likely one and done. While Miller has three years remaining on his contract, he's also appreciably younger at 33. He'll fulfill the same 6th man role for the Pistons that he did for the Nuggets, which may originally make this trade seem quite imbalanced. But then there's the fact that by shipping Carter out, Detroit can now give more minutes to their younger players and help develop them, something the still too-old Pistons need to do if they don't want to fall into becoming one of the league's worst teams over the course of the next few seasons. Haywood is roster filler, though he'll get some small amount of playing time in Detroit, rather than being inactive as he was in Denver.

Advantage: Denver
This is a trade that actually makes sense for both teams, lopsided though it looks at first. But the Nuggets upgrade could conceivably take them back to the Finals, maybe even a title and that, along with the payroll flexibility they've just bought themselves, is worth a lot more than the improved situation for the Pistons.

Nice to know the press agrees it's a good trade.

We celebrate Vince's Denver debut by whomping the Grizzlies 118-96. Kirk Hinrich is the MC with 29 points and 13 assists and Mateen Yeaton (22 points), Emeka Okafor (14 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 7 blocks) and Dan Jacobson (13 points, 14 rebounds) are all the life of the party. As for the guest of honor himself, Vince Carter scores 18.

New Orleans is next to go down, 108-99, as Mateen Yeaton scores 26, Kirk Hinrich has 17 points and 12 assists and Patrick Pastner and Marcus Williams hold a bench party of their own with 17 and 14 points a piece.

Our final game of the month is an easy 102-86 victory over the Hawks. Mateen Yeaton scores 25, Kirk Hinrich adds 13 points and 16 assists and our reserves again feature two double-digit scorers in Patrick Pastner (15 points) and Steven Caspers (10 points).

And thus we end the short month as hot as we ended January. As a result of our win streak, we're solidly #2 in the conference at 40-17, well behind the 47-8 Lakers, but enough ahead of the 37-18 Mavericks. We also hold a 7 game edge over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Memphis is still suprising at 35-22, 3 games behind the Mavericks and Houston's looking more and more like they'll miss the playoffs at 22-35.

In the East, Toronto is the only 40 win team. The closest teams are Boston (36-21) and Indiana (35-21). The Pacers are the only team in the Central above .500 and as a result, have a commanding 8.5 game lead. Ben Gordon is still leading the team with a 26.2 points per game average and I'll reserve commentary on Paulinho Buboltz, save to say that he's now edged his way up to Indiana's second-leading scorer.

The Knicks are 16-41 and they're actually ahead of somebody, the Nets, who are 11-46. Maybe George Karl brought improvement to the Big Apple after all.

Lebron James is the league's top scorer and only 30+ point man at 30.5. Gilbert Arenas is second with 28.6 points, Nigel Abel third with 27.6, followed by Ben Gordon. Mateen Yeaton is sitting 8th with 23.3 points.

Four players in double-digit assist averages: T.J. Ford (11.7), Major Drayton (11.1), and Dwayne Wade and Kirk Hinrich both at 10.4 assists a game. Directly below that batch is Chris Paul and Paulinho Buboltz both averaging 9.8 assists a game.

One of the reasons Houston's struggling so much this year is because Yao Ming isn't even close to being the top rebounder in the league. That distinction belongs to Greg Oden with 14.5 boards a game, followed by Andrew Bynum, Andrew Bogut and Kelvin Moody all averaging 12.2 or 12.1 rebounds. Dan Jacobson is tied for 10th with 10.6.

An impressive three players averaging more than 3 blocks a game: Andrei Kirilenko (3.5), Josh Smith (3.4) and Kelvin Moody (3.2). Emeka Okafor is 15th, averaging 2.3 rejections a game.

Gerald Wallace is the lone thief averaging over 2 steals a game at 2.2. Four players are tied for second with 1.8 steals a game; Lebron James, Caron Butler, Andre Iguodola, and Kevin Martin. Mateen Yeaton is tied for 8th with 1.6.

Buddy Bracey and Charles Seegars are the only first years averaging double-digit scoring at 11.5 and 10.8 points respectively. Branko Starcevic is the clear leader in assists with 4.3, Charles Seegars next closest with 2.9.

Pete Totten is the supreme class rebounder with 8.8 boards a game, Buddy Bracey second with a distant 5.2 rebounds average. No rookies average over a block a game, Charles Seegars the closest with 0.9. On the other hand, 3 rookies are averaging over a steal a game: Pete Totten (1.2), Buddy Bracey (1.1) and Kerwin Haston (1.1).