[Izulde]

New Jersey Nets receive
SG Derrick Young
Golden State Warriors 2028 2nd round pick

Golden State Warriors receive
PF Mekeli Lane

What this means for the Nets
Young's a decent bench player, but as the 12th man, he's essentially worthless. He's also a min-sal, hence of no impact financially.

What this means for the Warriors
Lane may be 24, but he's a scrub he's signed on for another year after this one, as opposed to the expiring Young.

Winner: New Jersey
Expiring money, no matter how minimal and a 2nd round pick are the deciding factors in this dull, unimportant trade.

San Antonio Spurs receive
PG Paulinho Buboltz
New York Knicks 2028 2nd round pick

New York Knicks receive
PF Ian McClinton
SF Jon Wilson

What this means for the Spurs
San Antonio's frantic to make a push for the playoffs and Buboltz is an exceedingly dangerous scorer who can still pass the ball at 35. Slated as a 6th man, he instantly upgrades the Spurs' bench and an already firepower heavy West just got more so. Did we mention he's also an expiring $12.7 mil. contract?

What this means for the Knicks
The key to this trade for New York is McClinton, a 25 year old who's pretty average except for very good defense. A respectable insurance policy on the 34 year old Pete Totten and now the first big off the bench for the Knicks. Wilson's 37 and just an $8.9 mil. expiring contract to make the salaries work.

Winner: San Antonio
This is the kind of trade you make when you're serious about getting into the postseason. Excellent exchange for the Spurs and while the Knicks are in rebuild mode, neither of these pieces really does all that much for it at least, not compared to what they gave up.

Milwaukee Bucks receive
SF Andrew Soloman
New Jersey Nets 2028 2nd round pick

New Jersey Nets receive
C Tony Cooper

What this means for the Bucks
Soloman doesn't do anything great, doesn't do anything horribly. The very definition of mediocre and one who can only play SF. He's stuck in the middle of the Bucks bench and is a min-sal deal.

What this means for the Nets
Cooper's 7'4, 301 lbs, but the 21 year old rookie, taken 12th overall, looks a big bust at this point. On the other hand, Demarcus Baptist and Bill Towns are 34 and 36 respectively, so the Nets needed to do something to get some youth in. That Cooper's in the D-League as a starter gives some small hope that he may be better than first appears. In fact, of the 6 players under 30 on the Nets roster, 4 are guards and 1 is a SF, so the need for big youth was strong.

Winner: New Jersey
For the price the Nets paid and the magnitude of their need for youth, Cooper's worth the flier.

See? I'm not the only one who gives up quickly on rookies or under-achieving players.

Horrible way to start off March, losing 117-115 on a buzzer beater to the Heat, the NBA's worst team. Makes it hard to enjoy Terrence Howard's 24 points and 10 rebounds, Ronnie Fry's 20 points and 10 rebounds or David Anyan's 23 points.

We quickly get it sorted out for next game, edging the Pistons 108-103. David Anyan scores 24, Ronnie Fry adds 20 points, Terrence Howard gets 15 points and rebounds both, Filip Svorada garners 15 points and 12 assists and Nigel Abel scores 10 off the bench in 9 minutes.

An important battle for playoff seeding goes our way as we wallop the Grizzlies 111-87. David Anyan and William Tackett each score 23 and we get double-doubles of 20 points and 11 rebounds and 14 points and 16 assists from Terrence Howard and Filip Svorada respectively.

Getting a couple days off finally allows Jim Johnson's ankle to heal enough to start in our 116-96 win over the Clippers, but he looks extremely rusty. Instead, it's David Anyan (25 points), Ronnie Fry (16 points, 10 rebounds), Filip Svorada (12 points, 12 assists) and Terrence Howard (19 bench points) who carry us on the evening.

Filip Svorada is just -gorgeous- in blistering the Rockets for 40 points and 11 assists in our 104-86 victory. Ronnie Fry contributes 18 points and 16 rebounds and Jim Johnson takes the 6th man spot and turns it into 16 points, while Nigel Abel scores 13.

The home fans get a real treat in a hell of a barnburner against the Magic, a torrid duel that sees us emerge on the winning end of a 133-128 OT score. Filip Svorada puts up 31 points, 16 assists and 6 rebounds, William Tackett bursts through for 30 points, David Anyan scores 20 and Jim Johnson chips in 12 bench points.

No such theatrics in Oakland, where all five starters score 15 points or more and we come out with a comfortable 114-100 win. Filip Svorada continues his amazing run of form with 25 points and 15 assists, David Anyan scores 20 and Jim Johnson again leads the reserves with 14 points.

We keep the streak going with a back-to-back sweep. Defense and balanced offense power us to a 96-84 win over the Clippers with top performances by Ronnie Fry (13 points, 13 rebounds), Terrence Howard (10 points, 13 rebounds[/b] and Jim Johnson (13 points, 9 rebounds off the bench). Our 108-74 laugher against Golden State comes via David Anyan's 29 points, Jim Johnson's 12 points and 13 rebounds in his reappearance as the starting C, William Tackett's 21 points and Nigel Abel's 11 bench points.

Portland's punchless in losing 106-85 to us. David Anyan scores 27, Ronnie Fry puts together 12 points and 11 rebounds, William Tackett gets a surprising 12 points and 14 assists operating out of the SG slot and Justin Cherry and Terrence Howard come off the bench for 16 and 11 points respectively. That 16 is a season high for the 27 year old, who never did come even close to being the next Mateen Yeaton as we thought he'd be during the draft hype and his superlative rookie season.

Matchups against the Mavericks are always sold out months in advance and those who got a ticket got a treat as we beat Dallas 121-113 in OT. Andre Miller pulls a stunning switch by having Jim Johnson at PF and Terrence Howard at C. It works beautifully, as Howard explodes for 31 points and 13 rebounds and Twizzler picks up 16 points and 13 rebounds. David Anyan scores 21, William Tackett tacks on 20 points, Filip Svorada dishes out an insane 20 assists, Brandon Edmond scores 13 off the bench and Ronnie Fry does well for 8 points and 11 rebounds as the 6th man. A crazy game, one that saw Marcelino Augusto amass 30 points, 14 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 blocks and 2 steals as a deserving Player of the Game.

We march to Denver for another hotly anticipated game and promptly get our asses kicked 110-97 by the Nuggets. David Anyan scores 20, Filip Svorada picks up 11 points and 14 assists and Terrence Howard and Brandon Edmond lead the second team with 14 and 10 points respectively, but we just couldn't really get anything going after the first quarter.

Philadelphia takes the full brunt of our anger at snapping our win streak against the Nuggets, whipped by a 106-76 final score. Oddly enough Filip Svorada was our only highlight with 22 points, as Andre Miller emptied the bench in this one.

William Tackett may be inconsistent, but when he's on, he's on, as he torches the Pistons for 30 points in our 114-103 win. Ronnie Fry gets 16 points and 13 rebounds, Filip Svorada nets 12 points and 13 assists and Terrence Howard scores 11 bench points.

The Cavaliers have this very annoying habit of beating us at the end of the month and they do it here as we squander a sizeable lead and lose 115-110 in Cleveland. So much for Jim Johnson's 16 points and 13 rebounds, Filip Svorada's 24 points and Terrence Howard's 12 bench points.

But really, it's a minor irritant in the grand scheme of things. We're 53-21, 5 games ahead of the Suns in the Pacific. Dallas is trailing us in the race for the top seed at 48-24, though they lead the Grizzlies by 3.5 half games. The Nuggets have seized a commanding 5.5 game lead on the Jazz in the Northwest at 45-26 and may be able to sneak past the Suns for the #3 spot. Either way, I'm hoping we hang on for the #1 seed, because I want to delay facing Denver and Dallas for as long as possible. Biggest story to me: San Antonio benefitted so much from Paulinho Buboltz's acquisition, they're 41-31 and currently in line for the #6 seed. Now the .+500 team that'd be out of it today is the 39-33 Supersonics, who I'd be absolutely delighted not to meet again.

Indiana's still leading the East at 48-23, though Detroit's 4.5 back for both the top seed and the Central title. Toronto and Boston are separated by only a game in the Atlantic, 39-33 good to give the Raptors the advantage. The Southeast is even tighter, where 36-35 Washington is a half-game in front of Atlanta.