Smith's Musing: Trade Garnett to Milwaukee?

You love Sam Smith. You hate Sam Smith. No matter which camp you fall under, you can't deny his creativity when it comes to reporting trade gossip.

Last June Smith began to muse about the possibility of trading Elton Brand. On draft night, he was dealt to the Clippers. Earlier this season he spoke prophetically about a trade that would send Jalen Rose to Chicago. Remember that deal?

Now comes the doozy. Is Smith reporting a rumor or just talking to be heard when he proposes a trade of Kevin Garnett for Ray Allen, Tim Thomas and Anthony Mason/Jason Caffey?

Note that Smith's "sources" did not tell him this, a la Pete Vecsey. He simply proposes that such a deal might benefit both teams. But if this deal does go down at a later date, he'll be officially know as the Miss Cleo of NBA Reporters.

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Minnesota Timberwolves, Milwaukee Bucks

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Can the Bucks use injuries as an excuse?

While there is no doubt that part of the blame for the Milwaukee Bucks’ late season implosion could be placed on injuries, can it really be called the main reason? What about the New York Knicks, who also missed the post season while finishing with a 33-49 record, their worst in 15 seasons?

Tom Enland, a writer for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, is reporting that the Bucks lost 176 player-games to injury, a figure that holds them as one of the healthiest teams this season. Using a survey prepared by Sixers statistical guru Harvey Pollack as a basis, only New Jersey (174), Utah (137), Sacramento (131) and the Los Angeles Lakers lost less.

The New York Knicks, a team hoping that health will keep their post season exclusion short, lost 229 games to injury and some are not considering the Knicks’ situation as one in need of rebuilding just yet.

"We had some big injuries," said Knicks point guard Mark Jackson. "We had a tough, disappointing season. But by no means do I believe this is a rebuilding situation. I believe we'll be back where we belong."

But five teams that are currently in the playoffs had more player-games lost than the Knicks, and 10 of the 16 teams in the post season lost more than the Bucks, raising a question mark on the theories of both.

Just to put things into perspective of the teams currently in the playoffs Dallas missed the most player-games with 282, followed by Portland (269), Detroit (265), San Antonio (240), Boston (230), Orlando (211), Seattle (208), Minnesota (197), Indiana (192) and Charlotte (182).

The team which could perhaps make the best case for injuries removing any chance of post season action would be the Atlanta Hawks, who missed 319 player games. After acquiring Shareef Abdur-Rahim in an off-season trade with Memphis the Hawks were predicted to be right in the mix of things, but with starting center Theo Ratliff once again pulling a ‘Marcus Camby’, managing only three games for the season, the Hawks chances were doomed before they officially began.

Other Hawks missing in action were forward Chris Crawford, who missed 75 games; forward Alan Henderson, who missed 56; Emanuel Davis, who missed 54; guard Dion Glover (26); and forward Toni Kukoc (23).

Despite the injuries the Hawks did manage an eight game improvement over the previous season much in thanks to a 20-13 finish. This came after the team lost 33 of their first 49 games.

"The season was tough on everybody because we had higher expectations - the playoffs," said Atlanta forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim. "We had some adversity but I think our team will be stronger in the long run because of this year. We have the opportunity to have a bright future."

Other teams to be hit hard by the injury bug were Memphis (310), Houston (304), Philadelphia (299) and Toronto (298).

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Milwaukee Bucks, Atlanta Hawks, New York Knicks

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Bucks left to seek answers for next year

Via Milwaukee Journal

Milwaukee Bucks

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