In an interview with FoxSports Bill Reiter, Isiah Thomas spoke about how his game compared to those of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. His comments are surprising, to say the least.

“I have no problem saying this at all,” he says. “[Magic Johnson and Larry Bird are] all 6-(feet)-9 and Jordan was 6-6 and a half. If they were all 6-1, it wouldn’t even be a question. They wouldn’t even f—ing rate. If they were all my size, s—, they wouldn’t even be talked about.

“I beat the s— out of them when they were that big. If we were all the same size, f—.” He stops to laugh good-naturedly. “Make them 6-1 and let’s go on the court.”

In basketball, there’s an obvious advantage to being tall, but if it were the only (or even driving) quality necessary to be great, Gheorghe Mureşan would have been a Hall of Famer.

Little guys have an advantage in quickness and bigger guys are closer to the rim. Isiah used his quickness to get by bigger defenders, while Jordan, Magic and Bird used their size to dominate smaller players.

Had MJ, Magic or Bird been 6-1 or 6-2, they still would have been great players. They wouldn’t have been as big, but that wouldn’t affect their ability to shoot the ball or find the open man. Isiah complaining about their height no different than if they complained about Isiah’s quickness. If you’re in the NBA, you’re gifted one way or another.

Thomas says in the piece that he’s terrible at public relations, and this is another example. But the guy can evaluate talent. The Knicks drafted pretty well under his tenure — David Lee, Wilson Chandler, Trevor Ariza, Channing Frye — and he helped the Raptors settle on Marcus Camby, Damon Stoudemire and Tracy McGrady. I doubt he would accept such a role, but Thomas would make a great VP of player personnel.

The article is really about Isiah’s exile, and Reiter mentions Thomas’ abilities in the area of player evaluation as a possible way back into the league:

In 2009, ESPN used the Estimated Wins Added stat, developed by respected basketball mind John Hollinger, to judge 20 years worth of general managers. Isiah was ranked the second-best evaluator of talent…

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Isiah, who can’t seem to stay out of his own way, PR-wise. He has talents that could be useful to NBA teams, but there is so much baggage and ego that goes along with him that it just makes it easier for teams to go another direction. However, Knicks owner James Dolan does like him, so there’s always a chance that he could end up in New York again.

Just don’t let him participate in any trade discussions.

The Melo Watch continues. The Nuggets are a somewhat disappointing 6-5 to start the season and are no doubt affected by the off-the-court drama involving Carmelo Anthony and his reported desire to play for a contender. In several chats with Peter Vecsey, Anthony compares himself to two of the three major players in last summer’s free agency frenzy.

“I’m not Chris Bosh,” Anthony declared. “We’re not the same person. What I do will be straight up. Management knows that.”

“I’m just like LeBron,” Anthony emphasized in the Nuggets’ locker room following Saturday’s practice. “It’s all about winning. That’s all I care about. I want the chance to compete at the championship level. All the other stuff is irrelevant.”

Bosh has become something of a punchline recently, but Melo’s decision to compare himself to the most reviled star in the NBA is a little puzzling. What Bosh did to the Raptors isn’t any worse than what LeBron did to the Cavs. In fact, you could argue that he handled his departure from Toronto in a better way because there weren’t any allusions that he’d be staying. On the other hand, until the moment LeBron uttered the words, “I’m taking my talents to South Beach…” Cavs fans believed that he was going to stay.

Maybe Melo was referring to the fact that Bosh has hinted that he wanted to play with LeBron and Dwyane Wade so that he’d get more television exposure or that he can now easily get the NBA League Pass, and by saying “It’s all about winning,” that’s probably the case. But it’s not a good idea to compare yourself to LeBron, not with the way he’s currently reviled in the city of Cleveland.

I’ve said it over and over — unless the Nuggets are sitting at .500 or below, it’s going to be tough to trade Anthony before the February deadline. It’s hard for management to sell the idea of trading away a team’s star when the team is safely in the playoff hunt. Fans are called fans for a reason — they’re fanatics, and are oftentimes delusional. (Seriously, just check some of the comments from Raptor fans when I insisted that the team should get what they could for Bosh early last season.)

Unless the Nuggets can somehow bring another star to Denver, they aren’t going anywhere this season, not with one-foot-out-the-door Carmelo leading the way. The best thing would be for the team to struggle early on, allowing both management and fans to realize that the team as it’s currently structured is a lost cause. Maybe then they can move on from Melo and get a few building blocks for the future.

It appears that the Nuggets are still considering the deal, if one reads the tea leaves left by Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski:

Denver scout Mike Bratz is courtside for Nets-Celtics game in Newark. His eyes stayed on Derrick Favors, who has played 5 scoreless minutes.

Bratz had no reason to be there other than to scout Favors (or any other potential trade pieces), as the Nuggets don’t play either team until Nov. 20 when they host the Nets in Denver.

The four-team trade had (has?) legs, but the Nuggets kept fielding offers and once Anthony reported to team functions, the franchise decided to stand pat for the time being.

I am adamant in my belief that if Anthony starts the season, the Nuggets will hold onto him until next summer. The West is somewhat depleted with the loss of Amare Stoudemire and Carlos Boozer, so assuming they stay reasonably healthy, the Nuggets are a good bet to be sitting in the Top 4 come February’s trade deadline. At that point, it’s going to be very difficult for the Nugget brass to justify trading away their best player without causing a riot amongst the team’s fan base. Melo will be a good citizen (even if he’s been disingenuous about his desire for a trade) and at that point, he’ll see the light at the end of the tunnel.

In my opinion, the Nuggets are going down the same road as the Raptors did last season, only Bosh’s agent never requested a trade last summer, so Toronto was flying a little blind.

The Nuggets won’t have that excuse.

This year, I’m going to preview the NBA season by starting with the lowest of the low and working my way up to my Finals picks. If a franchise is a legitimate championship contender, I’ll focus on what stars have to line up for a title run. If a team is a playoff also-ran, I’ll identify the weaknesses that have to be shored up via trade, free agency or draft over the next couple of seasons to make it a contender. If a team is likely to miss the playoffs, I’ll take a look at the salary cap, and provide a blueprint for how the team should proceed in the near future to get back in the postseason.

#30: Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cavs could very well finish with the worst record just one year after finishing 2009-10 with the best regular season record. This, of course, is all LeBron James’ fault. He wasn’t supposed to leave, but he did. Not only did he drag his feet during free agency and make it impossible for the franchise to make any other significant moves, he also broke up with the city of Cleveland in the most public way possible. (Hey, at least the Boys & Girls Club made some money off of the deal.) The Cavs are trying to look forward, but it’s tough when you’re planning to start Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon on the wing and are depending on a 34-year-old Antawn Jamison to be your go-to scorer. Jamison and Mo Williams do bring some offense, and Anderson Varejao and J.J. Hickson will keep the front line competitive, but this team is seriously lacking in talent, specifically at shooting guard and small forward. Byron Scott is a good coach, but he’s going to have a tough time winning more than 25 games with this group. The good news, if there is any, is that the team is not in salary cap hell. They project to have about $10 million in cap space next summer and nearly $30 million in the summer of 2012. But there’s more bad news — it’s going to be tough to attract free agents to Cleveland, especially after Dan Gilbert’s open letter to LeBron.

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Toronto GM Bryan Colangelo has had a rough few months. Recently, he took a shot at Chris Bosh and implied that he quit on the team late in the season.

Hedo Turkoglu is no fan of Colangelo, and he had a few choice words about the situation:

“People have to realize something is wrong with that organization and nobody wants to go there any more,” he said in a phone interview from Turkey, where he is captaining the Turkish national team at the World Championships. “It’s not just the players who see this.”

“It’s funny that people will talk behind your back,” Turkoglu said of Colangelo. “If he was feeling this way, why not have the guts to say it during the season? Why not say it to Chris? Now that Chris has left, it’s not nice to say those things.

“Chris has been a franchise player and he did a lot of good things for the Raptors,” Turkoglu added. “I don’t think Chris is the type of player to quit on his teammates.”

Remember, Turkoglu was the one who agreed to terms with the Blazers last summer and then changed his mind because he wanted to play in the more cosmopolitan city of Toronto. So he’s a little flaky in his own right.

Still, the Raptors are a mess. Given his recent track record, I wonder how long they’ll keep Colangelo around.

Chris Bosh responded to claims made by embattled Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo that he ‘checked out’ at the end of the season.

Here’s exactly what Colangelo said, via the Toronto Sun:

“Despite limited swelling and any excessive damage on an MRI, he felt like he needed to sit for six more games … I’m not even questioning Chris’ injury. I’m telling you he was cleared to play subject to tolerance on his part, and the tolerance just apparently wasn’t there and he chose not to play,” Colangelo said.

“The fact that our season was spiralling downward and we were hoping he’d come back sooner and we were also dealing with a few other things at that point … we were really struggling there.”

“Whether he was mentally checked out or just wasn’t quite into it down the stretch, he wasn’t the same guy. I think everybody saw that, but no one wanted to acknowledge it.”

Colangelo is acting like a jilted lover and is trying to cover his own ass. He could have traded Bosh last summer or at the February deadline and gotten something in return, whether it be someone like Joakim Noah from the Bulls or maybe David Lee from the Knicks. His defenders say that no team would have traded for Bosh not knowing if he’d re-sign, but I think both Chicago and New York (or L.A., Oklahoma City or Houston, or any number of teams) would have rolled the dice to get the opportunity to re-sign him to a max deal, since that was reportedly what he was after. (Before you Raptor fans start slamming me for speculating, do you really think the Lakers would have turned down a Bosh-for-Bynum deal in the middle of last season? Really? Go and look at yourself in the mirror — do you really believe that?)

Granted, the Raptors were fighting for a playoff spot at the time, so had Colangelo made the trade, his fan base might have revolted. But that’s only because they didn’t see the writing on the wall.

Bosh (sort of) responded to Colangelo’s allegations in an interview with Sportsnet.ca:

“No, at any time, did I ever give up,” Bosh told Sportsnet. “You know, I take that very seriously. I work hard every time I step on the court — practice, games, shoot-around, whatever you want to say — I take this job seriously and I take my effort on the court seriously.

“I play this game as hard as I can every time I step on the court. On the back of my jersey, it says Bosh,” the 26-year-old forward continued. “The Boshs are hard workers. We have a lot of pride in what we do in our jobs and in life. There was no time, at any time, that I ever stepped on the court — in my NBA career, in my life — and stop playing hard or give up.”

Bosh is talking about his on-court effort while Colangelo accused him of packing it up early when he was injured. Those are two different things. I’d like to hear Bosh answer questions about his injury.

He also asked Toronto fans not to boo him when he comes back to play.

Yeah, right.

John Hollinger didn’t use the I-word, but he blasted the Toronto front office for not understanding the basic rules of the salary cap with regard to the Matt Barnes Debacle.

The whole Matt Barnes saga was jaw-dropping: It appears both Barnes’ agent and the Raptors’ front office leaked to the media that Barnes would sign a two-year, $9 million deal with the Raptors in a sign-and-trade — in fact, every major outlet reported it.

Only one problem: The deal wasn’t even remotely legal under the salary-cap rules, revealing a shocking ignorance of a very important piece of the business on the part of NBA professionals.

Look, this is pretty basic stuff. I’ve seen stories suggesting this was some inscrutable piece of salary-cap arcana, and it’s just not true. For starters, a sign-and-trade deal has to be at least three years. Has to. That’s not a difficult rule to understand. I’m pretty sure all of you got it immediately. That’s why every single sign-and-trade deal that any of these guys has ever done has been for at least three years. You’d think they’d at least know from experience. But right there, much energy was spent negotiating a deal that couldn’t happen.

Second, Orlando couldn’t sign-and-trade Barnes under those terms. He had no Bird rights because he had played only one year on his current contract; the most he could be offered by the Magic this season was about $1.9 million. Again, this isn’t some obscure footnote; it comes up every single year because so much of the league’s rank and file are on one-year deals.

Finally, Orlando could have re-signed Barnes using its midlevel exception, except that (A) the Magic had already used it, and (B) you can’t do a sign-and-trade using the midlevel exception. Toronto couldn’t use its midlevel on Barnes either, since it had already been bestowed on Linas Kleiza.

In a nutshell, the deal had to be a sign-and-trade for at least three years, starting at no more than $1.9 million a year, or it couldn’t happen. This was obvious to anyone with any knowledge of the salary-cap rules. That it wasn’t to the two parties involved is disturbing.

In defense of Toronto and Bryan Colangelo, Hollinger said himself that he didn’t know for sure who leaked the information about Barnes’ supposed deal, though Barnes himself was confident enough about the signing that he even tweeted the news on his feed. So the deal must have progressed at least that far without Toronto realizing that it was an impossible trade to make.

Based on what I’ve seen of Colangelo’s work in Toronto, I’m not a fan. T.J. Ford, Jermaine O’Neal, Shawn Marion — none of those acquisitions worked out. The Turkoglu signing was a moderate disaster and he mishandled/misread Chris Bosh’s situation over the course of the season. He did end up getting a couple of (very late, by the look of it) first round picks and a big trade exception from Miami as part of the Bosh sign-and-trade that could turn into something, but it’s pretty obvious now that the Raptors should have traded Bosh before February’s trade deadline in order to get a good prospect out of the deal. Who knows — maybe the Raptors would be sitting on Andrew Bynum or Derrick Favors (via the Nets’ first round pick) had they shopped Bosh earlier in the year.

Hindsight is 20/20, but one wonders what the team would look like now if the Raptors had drafted Brandon Roy in 2006 instead of Andrea Bargnani. Bargnani is developing and offers some hope for the future, but Roy and Bosh would have been devastating in the pick-and-pop. Instead, Colangelo drafted a power forward to play alongside his best player, who was also a power forward.

Again, a number of teams passed on Roy that night, but still, what if…

Matt Barnes announced via Twitter that he was going to join the Raptors on a two-year deal worth $10 million. Yay! But wait, the Raptors already used the bulk of their mid-level exception on Linas Kleiza. They must be working out a sign-and-trade with Orlando. Yay! But wait…

The Magic, though, are prevented by salary-cap rules from starting a sign-and-trade deal for Barnes at higher than $2 million, because Orlando doesn’t have Barnes’ full Bird rights after employing him for only one season. A sign-and-trade deal would also have to span at least three years, although only the first year is required to be guaranteed.

Barnes was initially believed to be on the verge of signing with a title contender late last week — such as Miami, Boston or the Los Angeles Lakers — when the Raptors made an aggressive late rush to join the bidding.

Barnes also gave serious consideration in recent days to the Cleveland Cavaliers before talks with Toronto got serious.

How do Bryan Colangelo and the Raptors miss this? Aren’t they paid to understand the salary cap and its rules?

After (justifiably) nickel-and-diming Amare Stoudemire, and watching him sign with the Knicks, the Suns are reportedly about to trade for Hedo Turkoglu and Josh Childress in two separate deals.

The Suns, according to the Republic, have agreed to send guard Leandro Barbosa and forward Dwayne Jones to the Raptors for Turkoglu, who badly wants a move after a rough first season with Atlanta.

In the second deal, Phoenix will acquire Childress in a sign-and-trade with the Hawks, who still hold Childress’ rights after the restricted free agent spent the last two seasons in Greece. The Republic reported that Childress has agreed to a five-year, $34 million contract with the Suns, who will use a portion of the trade exception created in Friday’s Stoudemire sign-and-trade with New York to absorb Childress’ contract.

The Suns will save about $7 million per season for the next two years by trading away Barbosa, but they’re committing almost $78 million in new money to Turkoglu and Childress, for a net of $64 million. Stoudemire signed for five years and $100 million.

I like Childress a lot, especially in this offense, but trading for Turkoglu? Really? Wouldn’t it be better to hold on to Stoudemire than to ask a 31-year-old small forward to play power forward?

Granted, the Suns options are pretty slim now that the top free agents have already signed, but Amare signed early, so they had time to make a run at Carlos Boozer or David Lee and were either unable or unwilling to land either player.

Per ESPN…

The Heat’s two newest superstars signed matching six-year, $110.1 million contracts, sources told ESPN The Magazine’s Ric Bucher. Dwyane Wade took an even bigger discount to stay in Miami, signing for six years and $107.5 million, according to the sources.

Sources told ESPN.com’s Chad Ford that James and Bosh are scheduled to make $14.5 million and Wade $14 million in 2010-11.

Each player took $15 million less over the life of the contract to sign with Miami, but the deals came with a caveat.

All three contracts, sources told ESPN.com’s Marc Stein, have an early termination option after the fourth season that would allow LeBron, Bosh and Wade to return to free agency in the summer of 2014. Each player also possesses a player option entering the final season of the contract (2015-16).

Bosh and James’ deals were completed through sign-and-trades, making all three eligible for 10.5 percent raises each year.

The Heat sent two future first-round and two second-round picks to the Cavaliers for James, while packaging two first-round picks to the Raptors for Bosh.

Sources told ESPN that Toronto reacquired its first-round selection in 2011, which Miami had from a 2009 trade that sent Shawn Marion to the Raptors, and added the Heat’s own first rounder in 2011.

Miami then sent its first-round picks in 2013 and 2015 to the Cavaliers and Cleveland has the option to swap first-round picks in 2012, according to a league source.

Both the Raptors and the Cavs will receive trade exceptions valued at $14.5 million, sources told ESPN.com.

So Toronto and Cleveland (!!!) cooperated after all, participating in sign-and-trades to enable Bosh and LeBron to get extra money on their deals. That’s a tough pill to swallow, but both teams will get two late first round picks and a giant trade exception that they can use over the next year.

What’s a trade exception, you ask? It allows a team that’s over the cap to trade for a player without having to trade a player with matching salaries (within 125%). So, for example, if the Raptors are over the cap, and they want to trade for Luol Deng, who gets paid $12 million per season, they can use this $14.5 million trade exception to acquire him without sending any players to Chicago. When two teams that are over the cap make a trade, it generally needs to be even salary-wise. The trade exception is a workaround.