- SPORTSbyBROOKS has the video from Dwyane Wade’s late night appearance where he plays a prank on an unsuspecting fan.

- DEADSPIN has the story of the giant douche bag who tied up his girlfriend’s kids in the garage so he could hit the bar to watch the game.

- HUGGING HAROLD REYNOLDS was name-checked in John Gonzalez’s column about the Raul Ibanez steroid speculation, and the blog chimes in with its take. For Anthony Stalter’s measured take, click here.

- If you’re wondering what happened to Stephen A. Smith, he is doing a podcast on his website and AWFUL ANNOUNCING has it in YouTube form. He is in classic SAS form as he discusses Brett Favre.

- NO GUTS NO GLORY has quotes from Alonzo Mourning where he says that Phil Jackson isn’t really the coach of the 2009 Los Angeles Lakers.

The short answer is…maybe.

Have you noticed how all of this LeBron-to-the-Knicks talk has died down as the Cavs put up the best record in the NBA this season? That’s because Cleveland is a favorite to make the Finals, and with the way the Lakers are struggling against the Rockets out West, the Cavs are looking more and more like an NBA champion. If they do manage to win a title this year (or next), it will be very difficult for LeBron to jump ship without looking like a total a-hole. So he won’t. If he wins a ring, he’ll stay in Cleveland.

So the Knicks will have to look elsewhere for their superstar — enter Dwyane Wade. As Dave Hyde of the Sun-Sentinel writes, the Big Apple would be an attractive destination for Wade.

The Knicks have the money. They have the allure. They have coach Mike D’Antoni’s fun style. They can tell Wade he would revive Knicks basketball and get the kind of spotlight only New York offers such stars. Who wouldn’t be tempted by all that?

So Hyde advocates that instead of waiting for 2010 and trying to add a star big man like Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire while at the same time re-signing Wade, the Heat should go ahead and trade Michael Beasley to Toronto for Bosh this summer.

So there’s the Armageddon scenario for the Heat: It advances only slightly next year, misses on Bosh, has the Knicks singing a siren song to Wade … and loses him.

If you’re Riley, do you risk that? All for Beasley, who, much as I like him, posed as many questions as answers this season? Even Wade, who measures his words, allowed as to how Beasley frustrated him at times with the immaturity.

The best way to sign Wade this summer is to offer concrete evidence he can win big here. That means landing his friend, Bosh. They were Olympians together. They share the same agent. They respect each other greatly.

That’s why the smartest move to make is trading the salary-matching pair of Beasley and Mark Blount to Toronto for Bosh.

It’s an attractive scenario to wait until 2010 and add Bosh to a lineup that includes Wade and Beasley. But there’s a good chance that Bosh could sign with Cleveland or that the Knicks could come in and steal both Bosh and Wade away from the Heat. Why risk a future with Wade for the promise of Beasley? While it sounds a little crazy to trade a young player with a ton of upside for a guy you might be able to sign outright the next summer, it’s risk versus reward. A Wade/Bosh combo would guarantee the Heat would compete in the East for the next five years. Throw in the steady Udonis Haslem, a more mature Mario Chalmers and a small forward to be named later, and Heat would have a nice lineup. But the biggest reason the Heat should acquire Bosh is that it will almost guarantee that Wade re-ups as well.

Now the question is — will the Raptors go for it?

- SLAM says that Rasheed Wallace will retire if he doesn’t get at least $8 million to play next season. By my count, there are seven teams — Memphis, Atlanta, Oklahoma City, Sacramento, Toronto, Portland and Minnesota — other than the Pistons that could give him that kind of money. Who would be interested in ‘Sheed? I’m guessing only teams that are on the verge of competing for a title and have a need for a big man with championship experience. The only “contenders” on that list are Atlanta and Portland, and neither seems to be a good fit. Portland already has a slender sharp-shooting big man in LaMarcus Aldridge, and the Hawks will likely spend their cap space on re-signing Mike Bibby (though that isn’t necessarily the right thing to do). So if Portland and Atlanta pass on Wallace, someone will offer him a mid-level deal (~$5.8 M) and he’ll have to decide if it’s worth it. Any team in the league can sign him for that, so if he lowers his price, demand will rise.

- Dwyane Wade reiterated that he will consider signing an extension once he’s eligible to on July 1st, but that he hasn’t given the idea much thought. The Heat would have a ton of cap space this summer had they held onto Shawn Marion and his expiring contract, but they instead traded for Jermaine O’Neal whom they thought would help their chances in the playoffs over the next two seasons. In the end, I doubt D-Wade will leave Miami. He’s a star there, the weather is great, and with Michael Beasley and a yet to be named big man (Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire) to be signed in the summer of 2010, the Heat have a good foundation for success. To me, the big question is whether or not Beasley can play small forward. If so, then the team should try to put together a starting lineup of Mario Chalmers, Wade, Beasley, Udonis Haslem and either Bosh or Amare.

Read the rest of this entry »

Every so often, I’ll be sitting at a bar, throwing back a few adult beverages with a buddy or two and I’ll pose the following question:

If you could have one current NBA player to build your franchise around, with the goal of winning a NBA title in the next five years – who would it be?

Since the 2009 NBA Playoffs are in their infancy, it seems to be as good of a time as any to kick around this question. My criteria are simple – a franchise player has to be able to carry his team, while being reasonably young and injury-free.

We’ll count down from #10 to #1. My top nine guys were pretty easy to list, but #10 was a bitch. Maybe you can help me decide. Feel free to provide your own top 10.

HONORABLE MENTION

Yao Ming, Rockets (28 years-old)
I love Yao’s post up game, and he is a skilled passer, but the chances are only 60/40 that he’ll be healthy for any given playoffs and those odds are only going to decrease as time wears on. He’s like Robert Downey, Jr. — he’s great at what he does, but you just don’t know if he’s going to be there when you need him.

Chauncey Billups, Nuggets (32)
He seems to be more responsible than ‘Melo for the Nuggets’ great play this season, but he’s 32 years old. Still, his effectiveness depends more on strength, steady play and good shooting than it does his (somewhat limited) athleticism, so he should be able to play into his late thirties.

Al Jefferson, Timberwolves (24)
Jefferson is one of the few young, back-to-the-basket post players in the league. He averaged 23/11 on a bad team, which leads me to believe he could post 19/10 on a playoff team, and should only get better with age.

Amare Stoudemire, Suns (26)
He’s four years younger than our next guy, but he’s already had two serious injuries in his career so one wonders if this is a trend. He also seems to be a little bit on the selfish side and has a rep for being a bad defensive player.

Read the rest of this entry »

With the second pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, the Detroit Pistons select…

Darko Milicic.

This is the blackest mark on GM Joe Dumars’ otherwise solid record guiding the Pistons, but six years later, the Milicic pick is having a domino effect on the franchise. While Dumars did successfully dupe the Magic into trading a first round pick for Milicic in 2006 (which resulted in the selection of Rodney Stuckey in the 2007 draft) the Milicic pick still haunts this franchise. Just take a look at the next few selections in that 2003 draft…

Dwyane Wade seems like a stand up guy, so I loathe to pass this along, but his former business partner, Richard Von Houtman, is making some serious allegations. Keep in mind that anyone with the word “Von” in their name is generally not to be trusted, and he might very well be making this all up.

Richard Von Houtman claims he provided a condo to Wade that the Miami Heat star soon turned into a personal party bungalow. Wade and his friends held numerous gatherings there, which featured sex with random women and marijuana use. Van Houtman said he twice saw Wade smoking a joint in the house but wasn’t in attendance for the orgies that Wade allegedly helped arrange.

“They (Wade and childhood friend Marcus Andrews) both made it clear to me how their goal in life is to have sex with as many women as possible,� Von Houtman said.

The two also went in together on a restaurant chain bearing Wade’s name. Needless to say, things didn’t end well.

“Dwyane and Marcus would show up in the Fort Lauderdale location and round up the waitresses they thought were pretty. They’d disappear with them, leaving the restaurant short-staffed,� Von Houtman said. “They were sexual harassment lawsuits waiting to happen.

“Dwyane wanted us to built a VIP room in the Aventura branch (which never opened) that would be totally segregated, with its own bathroom and chaise-lounges. For what? We were serving food, not sex.�

I’m not sure what to make of this, so I’m not going to try. Let’s see if Wade responds.

In previous columns, I ranked the top 10 free agents of 2010 and identified several players with expiring contracts that might be moved before the Feb. 19 trade deadline. Now it’s time to talk about cap space.

We’ve been hearing a lot lately about how teams are “clearing cap space� so that they can sign a big-name free agent in the summer of 2010 (or in some cases, 2009). But what exactly does this mean?

The NBA has a “soft cap� which is currently set at $58.7 million. Teams that are over the cap can’t sign a free agent from another team for more than the mid-level exception, which usually starts at around $5 million per season. Teams that are under the cap can offer free agents whatever cap space they have up to the level of a max contract, which starts at about $14 million per season under current conditions.

HoopsHype has all the salary data for each team, but I thought it would be useful to compile it all into one table so we can easily see who will have money to spend over the next two summers.

First, my assumptions:

- Given the current state of the economy, the salary cap is likely to stay at about $59 million over the next two seasons, so I used the current cap ($58.7 million) to calculate each team’s cap space.

- Certain players have already indicated that they’re planning to “opt out� of the final year of their contracts so that they can enter free agency. For those that have not announced, I used my best judgment to determine whether or not a player is likely to opt out. For example, LeBron James is very likely to opt out of his contract in the summer of 2010, but Michael Redd, who stands to make more than $18 million that same season, is likely to play out the final year of his deal because he’s not going to get anything close to that kind of money on the open market.

- I’ll also list the major (and some minor) decisions that each franchise will have to make over the next two seasons. These are typically decisions about whether or not to re-sign a player whose contract is up (or is entering restricted free agency). For example, if the Knicks decide to sign David Lee to a long-term deal, it’s going to have an impact on the team’s available cap space.

Without further ado, here’s the table, sorted by total projected cap space in the summer of 2010.

The answer is yes, according to Chad Ford’s sources. Here’s exactly what Ford said in a recent chat.

…from what my sources around the league are saying, Brand is available. The question is, given how poorly he’s played this year and his huge contract, does anyone want him?

When asked a different question (about the Heat), Ford also mentioned Brand.

I think they have to see whether they can pry Boozer or Elton Brand for Marion. I think both are possible and both are better long term fits than O’Neal. The one positive for O’Neal is that he’s off the books in 2010. That gives the Heat LOTS of cap space in the summer of 2010. Of all the markets trying to clear cap … Miami is one of the most desirable for NBA free agents. The fact that Wade and Michael Beasley are there won’t hurt recruiting either.

The Heat have seemingly moved away from signing a power forward like Boozer or Brand because they think that it is Beasley’s natural position. Offensively, he can play either forward position, but defensively, he’s going to have a tough time covering opposing small forwards. So that would seem to cross Miami off a list of possible destinations for Brand though the two sides have had a long romance. Brand signed an offer sheet with the Heat when he first became a restricted free agent and the Clippers matched.

Given the way that Brand has played this season (PER: 14.63, #33 amongst power forwards), I’m sure teams are hesitant to take on the four years and $66 million remaining on his contract. The main problem is his accuracy from the field. Brand is a career 50% shooter, yet he has only made 45% of his shots this season. His blocks are down as well, so one wonders if he has lost some of his athleticism. Of course, he’s been injured so he has only appeared in 25 games and the Sixers have been playing pretty well without him.

It will be interesting to see if Philly moves him before the trade deadline. If they do, it will be a 180-degree shift from last offseason when everyone (including me) was praising the franchise for acquiring Brand. For the record, after his Achilles injury, I didn’t see Brand as a “max” player, but the Sixers needed to pony up to pry him away from the Clippers and the Warriors. It looks like they took a risk and it hasn’t paid off, at least not yet.

Now the question is — will someone else roll the dice on Elton?

I made my picks more than two weeks ago. Then the All-Star starters (as voted in by the fans) were announced.

Now that we know who the starters will be, I’m wondering if there’s any reason to change any of my other picks. Let’s take a look…

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Starters: Allen Iverson, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett and Dwight Howard

My original picks: Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce, Chris Bosh, Devin Harris, Danny Granger, Tayshaun Prince, Jameer Nelson and Vince Carter

I didn’t have Iverson on the team, much less starting, so one of my other eight picks has to go. Unfortunately, I think it’s going to be Prince because the Pistons aren’t good enough to warrant two All-Star nods. The same could be said about the Nets, but Vince Carter’s stats are pretty big. I think I’ll go with this group, though there are a number of players that could take Carter’s spot. If any of these other guys — Johnson, Pierce, Bosh, Harris, Granger and Nelson — don’t make it, it’s going to be a pretty big snub.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Starters: Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, Amare Stoudemire, Tim Duncan and Yao Ming

My original picks: Dirk Nowitzki, Brandon Roy, Carmelo Anthony, Tony Parker, Pau Gasol, Chauncey Billups and Shaquille O’Neal

I had Nowitzki starting over Stoudemire, but no worries there. Would I swap out any of the players? Well, ‘Melo is still sidelined and the Nuggets don’t seem to be hurting too much without him. That weakens Anthony’s position and strengthens Billups’ argument. I could see David West, LaMarcus Aldridge, Al Jefferson or Deron Williams replacing Anthony, but I doubt it will happen. I think the other picks are safe, though Williams could replace Parker or Billups, though I don’t think either guy deserves to miss the All-Star Game.

The reserves will be announced this Thursday on TNT.

The Sacramento Bee is reporting that the Miami Heat have offered Shawn Marion for Brad Miller.

The Heat, numerous league sources said, has had recent talks with the Kings and offered Marion for center Brad Miller and Kenny Thomas. But Miami also wants the Kings to take Marcus Banks, the little-used, sixth-year point guard who has this season and next remaining on his contract for a combined total of $5.1 million.

This rumor supports the theory that the Heat no longer see Carlos Boozer as a good long-term fit due to their opinion that Michael Beasley’s natural position is power forward. Miami needs a point guard and a center, and the 32 year-old Miller (PER: 16.29), still has some gas left in the tank. He is averaging 13.4 points, 9.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game in January, and is still one of the best-passing big men in the game, so he would be able to set up Dwyane Wade and Michael Beasley for open shots.

Both Miller and Thomas have salaries that run through the 2009-10 season so this would not affect the team’s plans for the summer of 2010.

Nope, Devin Harris did NOT make the list.

The results have been announced and here are the starters (as voted in by the fans):

EAST

Guard: Dwyane Wade, Heat
Guard: Allen Iverson, Pistons
Forward: LeBron James, Cavs
Forward: Kevin Garnett, Celtics
Center: Dwight Howard, Magic

WEST

Guard: Chris Paul, Hornets
Guard: Kobe Bryant, Lakers
Forward: Tim Duncan, Spurs
Forward: Amare Stoudemire, Suns
Center: Yao Ming, Rockets

Well, the starters are a popularity contest and sometimes undeserving players are voted in. Such was the case with Allen Iverson, who isn’t having a very good year but is immensely popular with fans. In my picks, I didn’t even have AI on the roster, much less starting. Joe Johnson or Devin Harris should have gotten that spot. AI’s presence makes it unlikely that Tayshaun Prince will make the cut, since the Pistons don’t have a record that deserves two All-Star nods. The other four starters for the East are pretty much no-brainers, though China almost voted Yi Jianlian into the game. (Now that would have been a travesty.)

Things were less controversial in the West. I chose Nowitzki over Stoudemire at forward, but had Amare on the roster, so no harm, no foul. Kobe, CP3, Duncan and Yao are pretty much no-brainers.

Overall, the fans got 9/10 right…that’s a B+ in my book.

No pun intended. Seriously. That title just happened organically.

Anyway, the Heat are considering an offer that would send Shawn Marion to the Raptors for Jermaine O’Neal, or so says the Miami Herald.

The Heat considers center its No. 1 need and O’Neal as the best center available but remains concerned about his sore right knee (which has sidelined him 11 games this season) and the $23 million he’s due in 2009-10, the last year of his contract. It’s 50-50 whether Miami will accept Toronto’s offer of O’Neal for Marion and Marcus Banks, the official said. The O’Neal camp is optimistic it will happen.

Taking on O’Neal’s contract for the 2009-10 season is a bit of a departure for the Heat, who were thought to have been interested in signing Carlos Boozer this summer.

The Heat is receptive to trading Marion for a productive player whose contract runs through 2009-10 because: 1) Carlos Boozer, the top impending free agent, is no longer viewed as the ideal fit here, with Udonis Haslem and Michael Beasley at power forward. 2) Even if Miami kept Marion and didn’t re-sign him, it would have less than $10 million in cap space this summer, not enough for Boozer anyway.

The plan remains big cap space in 2010, with Miami expected to pursue Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudamire to pair with Dwyane Wade, who can also be a free agent that summer.

Aside from the injury, O’Neal’s PER (16.27) indicates that he can still play. The question is the knee. If he’s almost back then this looks like a pretty good move for the Heat because it gives them a short-term option at center while still freeing up plenty of cap space in the summer of 2010 to re-sign Wade and pursue another big like Bosh or Stoudemire.

It’s interesting that Boozer is no longer considered a fit because he plays the same position as Beasley. I thought Beasley would end up as a small forward in the NBA, but the Heat view him as a power forward because he has a tough time defending opposing small forwards. This will be something for Bosh or Stoudemire to consider, whether or not they want to play center for the Heat.

On the flip side, Marion would give the Raptors an athletic forward. Right now, Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon and Jason Kapono are splitting the wing duties, so Marion would serve as an upgrade. He can also play power forward. Interestingly, the Raptors are #18 in the league in total pace, so they are not pushing the ball as much as people might think. The addition of Marion would likely change that.

Assuming O’Neal’s knee is ready and he can help the Heat, this looks like one of those trades that is good for both teams.

The article mentions a few other teams that are interested in Marion. It’s a good read.

- SPORTSbyBROOKS profiles Devin Harris’ new girlfriend, Playboy Cyber Playmate (?) Meghan Allen (pictured).

- FIVE TOOL TOOL lists the 10 Super Bowl stories they’d like to see. #10 - A deity-by-deity breakdown showing which teams the major world gods are supporting.

- Are you wondering where in the hell…um…heck Kurt Warner’s wife has gone? DEADSPIN has the 4-1-1.

- Dwyane Wade’s divorce proceedings are getting ugly. THE MIAMI HERALD has the story.

- THE WORLD OF ISAAC provides the details about the Detroit Lions’ town hall meeting that they’re holding for fans to share their ideas (and/or vent their frustrations). That sounds like a great idea!

- SPORTSbyBROOKS explain$ why you’ll $uddenly $tart $eeing a lot of court$ide ad$ for hard liquor at NBA game$.

Remember Andrea Bargnani? He was the 20 year-old Italian that the Raptors picked #1 overall in the 2006 NBA Draft. During his first two seasons, he struggled with his shot — 43% in 2006 and 39% in 2007 — and didn’t rebound very well for a seven-footer (< 4 boards a game). Some even started to throw around labels like “disappointment” or even “bust.” But even with those shooting struggles, Bargnani managed to score double-figures in each of his first two seasons, so the potential was clearly there.

After a pretty strong start to the 2008-09 season — 14.7 ppg in the first seven games — Bargnani had his ups and downs coming off the Raptor bench. It wasn’t until Jermaine O’Neal’s injury that he really started to flourish. Since O’Neal has been out of the lineup (Dec. 29), Bargnani has averaged 22.3 points and 7.1 rebounds, while shooting 55% from the field and an amazing 58% from long range.

O’Neal may return as early as tonight and it’s unclear what kind of effect this will have on Bargnani and/or his minutes. Bargnani’s emergence has started some rumors about the possibility of trading O’Neal, who hasn’t been a great fit in Toronto. His contract runs for another season at the tune of $23 million (wow!) but expires before the infamous summer of 2010. One idea would be for the Raptors to swap O’Neal for Shawn Marion, who could play small forward alongside Bargnani and Chris Bosh, but the Heat would probably prefer to let Marion’s deal expire and use the cap space this summer or next on a free agent like Carlos Boozer (or even Bosh). O’Neal just hasn’t been able to stay healthy over the last few seasons and I’m sure his giant contract has more than a few owners wary of trading for him.

- THE WORLD OF ISAAC put together a list of The 10 Best Sports Movie Coaches. Not to nitpick, but where is Bobby Finstock (above), the brilliant coach from “Teen Wolf”?

- MAJOR LEAGUE JERK argues that Eli Manning isn’t worth the contract extension he’s about to get.

- DEADSPIN has Eddy Curry’s reaction to the bizarre sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him by his former limo driver.

- The guys over at BALL DON’T LIE (a Yahoo! Sports blog) put together an NBA video podcast. One topic they discuss (at the 3:10) mark is who should be the shooting guard on the 1st Team All-NBA — Kobe or D-Wade? My money is on Kobe, since the Lakers have a much better record.

The NBA All-Star Game is part meritocracy and part popularity contest. First, the fans vote, and the top five vote getters – two guards, two forwards and a center – from each conference are the starters. Then the coaches vote on the remaining seven reserves for each team.

The current vote count can be seen here, but I thought I’d put together my own list – five starters and seven reserves – for each team. To me, when it comes to naming All-Stars a winning record is just as important as great stats, so given two players with similar numbers, I’m probably going to give the nod to the guy on the better team. I’ll list the player’s Player Efficiency Rating, which gives a nice overview of the guy’s per-minute statistical production this season.

And off we go…

EASTERN CONFERENCE STARTERS

Dwyane Wade, Heat
PER: 29.14
D-Wade is back with a vengeance. He’s averaging 29.0 points, 7.1 assists and 5.1 rebounds, and is (almost) single-handedly keeping the Heat in the playoff hunt. With 24% accuracy, I don’t know why he’s shooting so many threes (3.0 per game), but that’s just nitpicking. He’s third in the league in steals (2.25).

Joe Johnson, Hawks
PER: 19.84
JJ is averaging 22.3 points, 6.1 assists and 4.6 rebounds, and has the Hawks in a battle for the #4 spot in the East. His three-point shooting is down two points, but his overall FG% is up a point. Remember when everyone laughed at the Hawks for giving up future MIP Boris Diaw and two first round picks for him?

LeBron James, Cavs
PER: 32.04
LeBron is the front-runner for the MVP thus far. He’s posting 27.7 points, 6.6 assists and 6.6 rebounds a game. His numbers are down, but that’s because the Cavs can afford to rest him an additional four minutes per game. It’s great to see his FG% over 50% (50.8%) and FT% approaching 80% (78.8%). LeBron has always been a statistical stud, but it’s the Cavs’ stellar record that has him leading the MVP race.

When I saw the headline — “‘09 free agents may be better than ‘10 class” — I was ready to jump all over David Aldridge for saying that any free agent class could be better than the one that will likely feature LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Amare Stoudemire. But as I read the full article, he made some sense. I still don’t agree with him, but I see his point.

Here’s a look at the possible free agents in ‘09:

Those with asterisks either have options for ‘09 or can terminate existing contracts for ‘09, and many are expected to do one or the other, for one reason or another:

Kobe Bryant*, Carlos Boozer, Shawn Marion, Ron Artest, Lamar Odom, Hedo Turkoglu*, Mehmet Okur*, Andre Miller, Mike Bibby, Jason Kidd, Allen Iverson, Rasheed Wallace, Kyle Korver*, Anderson Varejao*, Drew Gooden, Stephon Marbury, Grant Hill, Brandon Bass, Joe Smith, Wally Szczerbiak, Zaza Pachulia and Anthony Parker. Jermaine O’Neal could join the group if he walks away from $23 million next season. (Don’t hold your breath. There’s no asterisk by Boozer because he’s already said he’s opting out next summer.)

Aldridge has four major arguments:

1. 2010 is fool’s gold.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that unless seismic changes take place, James is either going to stay in Cleveland in 2010 or go to New York. Maybe Los Angeles. Wade will almost certainly choose between Miami, New York, L.A. and Chicago. Bosh will choose between the preceding cities and, perhaps, Detroit. And that’s it.

Without the Big Three on the market for most NBA cities, the ‘10 class loses a good bit of its luster. That’s going to leave a lot of teams with max money to spend on mostly not-max players.

- There are new photos of Cal pole vaulting hottie Allison Stokke. [SPORTSbyBROOKS]

- The Love of Sports compiles the top 10 images from the 2008 college football season. [The Love of Sports]

- TMZ is reporting that Tom Brady is engaged. Sorry, ladies! [Deadspin]

- Former Bronco Matt Lepsis says he practiced and played while high. [Larry Brown Sports]

- Top football recruit, Jamarcus McFarland, chose Oklahoma over Texas, even though he went to much wilder parties on his recruiting trip to Texas. [SPORTSbyBROOKS]

- East Coast Bias has its own luxury tax proposal for MLB. [East Coast Bias]

- Yardbarker has a video of Rasheed Wallace and a few other Pistons as they do a funny rendition of “Jingle Bells.” [Yardbarker]

- Dwyane Wade steps in and helps a family buy a new house after they accidentally burned their old one down. [SPORTSbyBROOKS]

Yahoo! Sports is reporting that the Miami Heat and the Cleveland Cavaliers are in trade discussions involving former All-Star Shawn Marion.

The Cavaliers have had ongoing discussions with the Miami Heat about an Anderson Varejao and Wally Szczerbiak for Shawn Marion trade, a league executive familiar with the discussions said.

Miami has had discussions with several teams lately on Marion, including the Toronto Raptors and Sacramento Kings, sources say, but Cleveland could deliver the most intriguing proposition. Marion has struggled with the Heat – averaging well below his career averages in scoring and rebounding – but several league executives believe he’ll be more motivated and valuable with a championship contender. That’s the reason Cleveland is entertaining the possibility. GM Danny Ferry and coach Mike Brown are wondering whether Marion could be the difference in a conference final against the Celtics.

Nothing is imminent, but it’s an intriguing possibility. Since Marion’s trade to Miami for Shaquille O’Neal last season, his value has steadily declined. Before the season, his agent, Dan Fegan, turned down a three-year, $30 million extension. Marion will be lucky to get more on the market this summer. Marion, 30, makes $17.8 million this season.

For the Heat, Szczerbiak has a $13 million expiring contract, and Varejao has a player’s option on $6.2 million. He’ll likely opt out. This leaves Miami with a chance to negotiate a new contract with Varejao, or let him lapse and allow the Heat even more cap space for the summer.. Still, Cleveland is 20-4 and hesitant to mess with the chemistry. Nevertheless, the Cavs are trying desperately to win a championship with James prior to 2010 free agency.

Brown loves to play big lineups with Varejao on the floor, but Marion could give the Cavs the versatility on defense that he did the Suns. In the same series, Marion could cover Tony Parker and Tim Duncan. Against the Celtics, Marion could spend time on Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett. For the Cavs, it’s something to consider as the days and weeks churn toward the Feb. 17 trade deadline.

Varejao has played very well this season (PER: 17.82, #17 amongst PFs) while Marion has not been as productive as in years past (PER: 15.92, #15 amongst SFs), but he’s still an above average forward. As the article stated, the upside for the Cavs is Marion’s versatility, especially on the defensive end. Offensively, he’s a nice match for LeBron and Mo Williams because he doesn’t need to have plays run for him to have an impact. He’ll get many of his points on offensive rebounds or on the break.

If I were running the Heat, this is not a trade I would make. Szczerbiak’s contract is expiring, so he’s not the problem. The article states that Anderson Varejao is likely to opt out of the final year of his contract, but what if he doesn’t? If the Heat want to make a run at Carlos Boozer next summer, they need to get rid of Mark Blount’s contract, not potentially take on another deal that runs through the 2009-10 season. If they can get rid of Blount (or Udonis Haslem, which would be a lot easier), they’ll have enough cap space to sign Boozer and will then have a great shot at locking Dwyane Wade up long-term in the summer of 2010.

If Miami is certain that Varejao will opt out, then there is little risk to the trade. They’ll give themselves a backup if Boozer decides to stay in Utah or sign elsewhere, but they’re likely to have that backup plan anyway if Varejao stayed in Cleveland. But if they pull the trigger on this trade and Varejao elects to play out his contract (or gets injured), then they won’t have the cap space necessary to sign Boozer.

I wouldn’t risk it.