Derrick Rose the Modern Day Bill Walton

Derrick Rose has finally started to look like himself over the last month and fans have been really excited to see him playing close to the MVP level he was at five seasons ago. Five seasons ago! It may be hard for people to believe that the last time we watched Derrick Rose put up numbers like this was five years ago. Rose should be entering his prime at the age of 27, but he is only returning to form. Rose only played 113 games over the course of those five years including playoff games. That also includes the entire 2012-13 season he sat out with a torn ACL. This season Rose has played 48 games. That's almost half of what he played in five seasons. This is a sign of good things for Chicago. In fact what if Rose ends up being Chicago's Bill Walton.

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Bill Walton was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers in 1974 and saw limited action in his first couple seasons as a Trail Blazer due to nagging injuries. In 1976-77 Walton lead the Trail Blazers to an NBA championship despite playing in only 65 games. In those 65 games he averaged 18.6 ppg, 14.4 rpg, 3.8 apg, and 3.2 bpg. The very next season Walton would be bit by the injury bug and would play in only 58 games. Even though he played in only 58 games he earned MVP honors behind 18.9 ppg, 13.2 rpg, 5 apg, and 2.5 bpg. In the 1978 playoffs Walton would give it ago, but he couldn't move fluently and would ultimately further injure his foot. Walton would not play in the 1978-79 season. He would return home to the San Diego Clippers for the 1979-80, but would only play 14 games before re injuring his foot. He would then sit out the next two season with the same foot injury. Walton's time with the Clippers was injury riddled, never playing a full season. In 1985-86 Walton was traded to the Boston Celtics. He would play 80 games for the Celtics, the most in his career. He averaged 7.6 ppg, 6.8 rpg, and 1.3 bpg off the bench for the Celtics. He went on to become the first player in NBA history to win an MVP award and a Sixth Man of the Year award. He was a huge factor off the bench for that Celtics team and helped them win the 1986 NBA Finals.

Looking at Rose's career he has missed many games due to injuries, but luckily Rose has access to more advanced medicine. The medical field is much better than when Walton played. This will hopefully help Rose avoid falling into what happened to Walton. The Bulls roster has gained much more talented players since Rose last played at this level and he might not even be considered the best player on the team anymore. With that said he could still contribute a great deal to the Bulls and maybe help them win a championship, much like Walton did with the Celtics.

If Rose continues to play this way and the Bulls get Jimmy Butler back around playoff time, the Bulls will be a tough outing for the top teams in the east.

It is Time for the Nets to Sell

Last night I was wondering why the Nets would even think about trading there two best players. I, like many Nets fans, were hoping that they could turn this thing around next summer by signing top free agents. But today reality struck and in all honesty it will be hard to find a player to sign with the Nets.

With the Celtics owning the Nets picks through 2018, the Nets have no reason to tank. The only problem is the Nets aren't good enough to win either. It's almost like the Nets demolished a decent building before realizing they didn't have the materials to build a new one. And this is why the Nets should trade Thaddeus Young and Brook Lopez.

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Lopez and Young are both having career years and many teams that want to make a run at the playoffs are looking at these two guys. Now the Nets shouldn't do anything drastic either. They need to get back at least a first round pick back for Young. And for Lopez they need to get back a high first round pick and other good assets.

Recently there has been talk about the Nets trading Thaddeus Young to the Raptors for Patrick Paterson, Delon Wright and the Knicks 2016 first round pick. This trade benefits the Raptors who need a major upgrade at the 4 and the Nets get a young point guard with potential and a lottery pick. The Nets should pull the trigger on this because they have a number of power forwards on the team and this would allow to develop Chris McCullough. McCullough was a potential lottery pick last year until he got hurt. He slipped all the way to the back of the draft and the Nets were able to get him at 29. No one knows how well he will do in the NBA, but the Nets really don't have a choice at this point. If the Nets want to get younger this is the trade they need get done.

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Lopez is 27 and is in his prime. That being said now is the time for the Nets to sell on Lopez. Lopez has been healthy all season and has played in all 54 games. He averaging 20.2 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game. Lopez would be a great contributor to a playoff team or he could also speed up the rebuilding process of many teams around the NBA. The Nets have to be smart about trading Lopez though. Giving him away for too little will not be worth it. If the Nets just can't get a high enough value for Lopez they should just hold on to him. Having a 20 and 10 guy on your team is never a bad thing and maybe having him on the roster this summer will attract a fee agent.

The flip side is the Nets don't want to hold on to Lopez to long. If they strike out in free agency they should start to find Lopez a new home before training camp begins. The reason being is Lopez has a 3 year deal that will finish up in 2018. If he decides to skip town the Nets will have lost there most valuable player for nothing. And if Lopez decides to stay he will be 29 going on 30. Around this time Nets will finally have there own pick in the draft in 2019. The problem is the by the time the player they drafted develops, Lopez will be 32 or 33. That's assuming that the Nets draft top 5 in 2019.

In all honesty now might be the time to just let go of these two guys. It isn't something Nets fans or the organization wants to accept, but it has to happen. It's like pulling off a bandage, it should be done quick so it is only a sudden rush of pain rather than having this franchise suffer.

An All Star Saturday Night to Remember

This weekend Toronto has been home for NBA All Star festivities. This is the first time All Star weekend has taken place outside the U.S. It was kicked off Friday night with the Celebrity game, which was entertaining as usual. Tracy McGrady, Jason Sudeikis, Drake, and Kevin Hart were just a few of the headline names for the game. Then the second event Friday was the Rising Stars challenge. The Rising stars challenge may have had the deepest pool of players ever. Both the 2014 and 2015 draft classes were deep and fans got to see all the talent from those drafts on the same floor. Zach LaVine won the game MVP.

And the night everyone looks forward to, Saturday night. The night began with the Skills Challenge. There were some changes to the Skills Challenge this year and the most notable was the addition of big men. The guards had their own bracket and the big men had their bracket. The winners of each bracket would go head to head in a final showdown. Isaiah Thomas and Karl-Anthony Towns would be the two finalist. And surprisingly Towns would win becoming the first center to win the Skills Challenge. A video below shows every player going and the final between Thomas and Towns.

The next event was the Three Point Contest. The event has become more and more hyped each year with more and more great shooters participating. Last night the final would come down to 19 year old Devin Booker, Klay Thompson, and Stephen Curry. Booker wouldn't post enough to beat the Splash Brothers with a score of 16. Curry would go next and post a score of 23. This would leave all the pressure on Thompson. Thompson would rise to the occasion and beat Curry's 23 with a 27. This event has been very exciting in recent years and hopefully it continues to stay that way.

The night was then capped off by the main event, the Dunk Contest. Last years winner Zach LaVine returned to defend his title. It wasn't going to be easy though. Aaron Gordon showed out and honestly many believe he should have won. It was by far the most thrilling dunk contest in a long time, if not ever. Every one of Gordon's dunks was matched by LaVine. They both posted perfect score after perfect score in the final round. They needed two dunk off rounds to settle things and in the end LaVine would come out on top. Either way it was very entertaining and the video below is a highlight reel of the full dunk contest.

Hopefully today's All Star game has the same amount of excitement that last nights events brought. The All Star game will tip off at 8 p.m. Eastern time and can be seen on TNT.

Craziest Trade

This time of year is when trade rumors pop up all over the place. Not all rumors are true, but some are definitely worth keeping in mind. Sometimes teams should take a risk especially if they need some changes. This is where I present a trade that sends Stephenson to Brooklyn without the Nets giving up everything. Jarrett Jack is what makes this trade work. Although he was injured and is out for the season, he has something in his contract that would make him trade-able injured. Jack has a team option for next year. Now the Clippers would no way accept this trade straight up and it doesn't work money wise either. But here is where the Nets may be able to at least get the Clippers to look. 

USATSI

Blake Griffin suffered a broken hand a few weeks ago and will need quite a bit of time to recover. The Nets have multiple power forwards to dispense on their team. With Chris McCullough making his debut last night the Nets have a log jam up front. The Nets wouldn't trade McCullough, but they might want to trade their back up power forward to get McCullough more time on the floor. With the Clippers not having a true power forward other than Griffin, maybe they would consider this trade for Thomas Robinson. The Clippers could use another power forward on their team and Robinson can help. Robinson has only averaged 3.3 points per game, 3.8 rebounds per game, and a half a block per game, but he has done this while averaging 10 minutes per game. With an increase in minutes his averages would jump drastically. He has played 11.4 minutes per game in February and his rebounding average is up to 5.2 per game.

YES

Not many would agree that this trade would happen. And at first glance it seems far fetched, but the Clippers traded away Josh Smith for virtually nothing just to get him out of town. I don't see how the Clippers wouldn't do the same here. With Jack's team option they wouldn't even have to bring him back next season. Then again this adds to the reasons why the Nets should keep Jack. If the Nets keep him they could let him go this off season to clear more cap room. Or the Nets could even hold on to Jack to be their back up point guard next season.