Nathan Jawai and Patty Mills news

News about the Aussies in the NBA ... do you want the good news or the bad news first?

Ok, we'll star with the good news, firstly Nathan Jawai has been part of a trade that's just gone down that will send him to the Dallas Mavericks. The main part of the deal for the Mavs was Shawn Marion but this should be a good opportunity for Jawai. Yes, the incumbent centre is Erick Dampier and it looks like Marcin Gortat will also be in Dallas, but Dampier is getting old and if Nathan works hard there should be minutes there for him.

Click on the title below to read all about the 4 team deal that went down to make it happen.

Marion to Mavs, Stackhouse to Griz in complex deal - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

The Mavericks, Raptors, Grizzlies and Magic combined in a massive swap Thursday that included eight players, a draft pick and stacks of cash. The deal sent Shawn Marion to Dallas, Stackhouse to Memphis and helped seal the transaction that moved Hedo Turkoglu from Orlando to Toronto.

Among the other pieces: Forward Kris Humphries, center Nathan Jawai and cash went from Toronto to Dallas; guard Greg Buckner moves from Memphis to Dallas; and swingmen Antoine Wright and Devean George go from Dallas to Toronto.

Memphis also received a second-round pick and cash from Toronto and cash from Dallas. The Mavericks and Raptors both also sent cash to Orlando.


Now to the bad news ... and its unfortunately about future superstar Patty Mills. Its been an awful 2009 for the kid, first breaking his hand, then free-falling in the draft and now he fractured his foot in the first day of practice. Its going to be a long, hard slog for Mills to now make it in to the NBA this season. Once he recovers, expect to see him either in the NBDL or even maybe the NBL.

Blazers draft pick Mills breaks foot - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)—Portland Trail Blazers draft pick Patty Mills broke his right foot during practice and won’t play in the NBA’s summer league.

The Blazers said Friday that Mills fractured the fifth metatarsal in his right foot during practice Thursday night. He will have surgery on his foot on Monday, the team announced.

A timetable for the point guard’s return has not been determined.

“You never want to see a player get injured, but it is especially heart wrenching to see a young man go down on his first day of camp,” Portland general manager Kevin Pritchard said. “We’ll do everything we can to help Patty get back on track to realize his NBA future.”

Back on this day, Patty Mills looked like he would be a lottery pick and a lock for starting point guard in the NBA ... oh how things have changed ...

Jordan Farmar - World Series of Poker update

My post earlier in the week about Jordan Farmer playing in the World Series of Poker turned out to be extremely popular (views wise) so its time to update everyone on his progress.

Its not too hard to make it through day 1 at the World Series, the blinds are low and slow and if you stay out of trouble and play tight you can essentially cruise through to day 2 (apologies if I talk too much poker speak).

Despite my low expectations for Jordan, he did indeed continue to do well on day 1d and was well placed going in to day 2. I was updating my mates via e-mail as to his progress and with about 2000 players left on day 2b (the field is so large still they have two different day 2's) Jordan had chipped up to 160,000 and was in the top 20!

Going in to day 3 tomorrow after a rest day for the field today, Farmar has slipped a little from those lofty heights but still has a healthy stack of roughly 75,000. He obviously lost a few big hands late in the day. The next challenge for Jordan is to make it "in the money" which means top 600 (out of 6500 starters) who receive $21,000. Sure, its pocket-change for an NBA player, even for a young back-up point guard like Jordan, but it would be a good achievement to cash in the World Series.

For our Aussie readers, also of note from the Main Event is cricket legend Shane Warne. After he finished just out of the money last year, he's doing very well so far with just over 170,000 chips. The other well-known Aussie is 2005 champion Joe Hachem who has just under 140,000 in chips.

Jordan Farmar and his p p p p poker face

Nike, LeBron James and that dunk

The phrase "not in my house" has new meaning today as chatter on the net is about a confiscated video tape of LeBron James getting dunked on at his own skills academy.

With Nike controlling what can and can't be put on YouTube, how come they couldn't get LeBron and the Cavs in to the NBA Championship series against Kobe??

Click on the title below to read the full story.

Nike does not want you to see that dunk - CBSSports.com

AKRON, Ohio -- You want to see video of Xavier's Jordan Crawford dunking on LeBron James?

If so, too bad.

Because you're not going to see it.

Thanks to Nike.

Turns out, there were at least two cameras rolling Monday night when Crawford dunked on James during a pick-up game here at the LeBron James Skills Academy. It was a two-handed jam, the kind that would've circulated quickly on YouTube. But Nike officials eliminated that possibility shortly after the dunk happened by allegedly confiscating tapes from various cameramen.

Cameron Tragardh & the QABL

Since there's no action yet in the NBL and the NBA has just started summer league games, it seems appropriate to report on the QABL that is in season at the moment.

One of my friends (Tux) work with Tim Coenraad's mum and so we have taken an interest in how he's been playing since he returned from college in the US. Tim used to be a development player for the Brisbane Bullets and has been putting up good numbers over the last few games for the Northside Wizards.

Looking at one of their boxscores, the Wizards team is STACKED with quality players. Adam Gibson (just back from China with the Boomers), Cameron Tragardh, Tim Coenraad, Shane Davis, Toby Zaremba and Josh Darragh (younger brother of one of our Shooters, Adam Darragh).

While there are a number of "names" on the squad, the star is Cameron Tragardh. Cameron was a development player for the Townsville Crocodiles before joining the Brisbane Bullets briefly. He really came in to his own in '08 when he became one of the main offensive weapons for the Wollongong Hawks and earned himself the Most Improved award for that season.

Tragardh is now definitely a player at the NBL level but in the QABL he is a SUPERSTAR. The numbers he puts up are ridiculous! This season he is averaging a league-leading 42.4 points per game, 14.5 rebounds per game (2nd in the league) and shooting at over 60% from the field. Last month he scored 70 points vs Toowoomba on an amazing 29 of 34 from the field and 12 of 13 from the line. In four other games this season so far he has has broken the 50 point mark!

The knock on Cameron at an NBL level is that he's defensively challenged ... but the name of the game is to outscore your opponent. Tragardh has NO problem doing that!

More action from the NBA off-season

There have been some more big name movements in the NBA over the last few days. I mentioned it in my post last week and it was confirmed yesterday the Boston Celtics got their man signing Rasheed Wallace to a two-year deal. Talk is now wondering whether he will start or come off the bench and which 'Sheed will indeed turn up this season.

One of the top free-agents this summer has been Hedo Turkoglu (pictured right) from the Orlando Magic. Rumour had him going to Portland which I don't think would have been great for him or them but thankfully at the last minute he instead signed with the Toronto Raptors. The deal is reportedly for 5 years around $56 - 60 million and goes to show you what well-timed form can do for you. Having big expectations for Hedo this season I drafted in the early rounds of my fantasy league and he under-performed for much of the year. In the play-offs he had some great games, hit a few clutch shots and hello pay-day!!

Jordan Farmar at the World Series of Poker?

So you've just won the NBA Championship title, its the off-season and time to relax ... what to do? If you're Jordan Farmar back-up point guard for the LA Lakers apparently you head to Vegas for the World Series of Poker!

In my other life outside of basketball and work, I'm an aspiring poker player and have been keeping a close eye on the World Series. I was quite surprised to see this hand come up on Poker News and had to do a little research to veryify it was indeed Farmar from the Lakers:

Farmar Commits, Reaps Reward

A player in late position raised and both Jordan Farmar (small blind) and Robert Varkonyi (big blind) called, creating a pot of about 6,000. The flop came . Farmar and Varkonyi checked, the preflop raiser continued with a bet of 5,075, Farmar called, and Varkonyi got out of the way.

The turn was the . Farmar checked, his opponent made a hefty bet of 17,075, and Farmar said "I can't turn back now" as he made the call.

The river was the . Farmar again checked, and his opponent pushed all in for 27,000 -- just a couple thousand more than Farmar's stack. Farmar called relatively quickly, turning over for two pair. His opponent mucked.

Farmar picks up a lot of chips on that one, as well as some kudos from some of his tablemates for the river call. He catapults up to 95,000.

Great work from Jordan and this pot put him in to the top 10 chip-counts of day 1d with a few sessions left to play. I'd be surprised if his run continues too much further, but if it does I'll certainly keep you updated.

Jordan Farmar at the World Series of Poker, pictured with Lou Diamond Phillips, Marlon Wayans, Torrie Wilson, (ex-NBA'er) John Salley

NBA off-season action

In the NBA, after the regular season comes the playoffs and finals ... and then there is the third season which consists of the draft and off-season action. The off-season you'd imagine is pretty dull after the finals but this is where the wheeling and dealing of trades and free-agency comes in to play.

NBA teams can officially begin courting free-agents from 12am July 1 and surprisingly a number of them don't waste anytime. Here's a great line from the guys at Dime today:
… The Celtics are really putting on the full-court press for Rasheed Wallace. As soon as the negotiation period opened at 12 a.m. Wednesday, Danny Ainge was knocking on ‘Sheed’s front door, and later in the day the team sent KG, Pierce, Ray and Doc over to recruit ‘Sheed some more. NBA free agency can defy reality: Under what other circumstances would anyone ever knock on Rasheed Wallace’s door past midnight? He’s liable to answer with a .38 or a tire iron …

So the big trades/free-agent signings so far are:

• Pre-draft, Orlando trader Rafer Alston, Courtney Lee and Tony Battie to New Jersey for Vince Carter and Ryan Anderson
• Detroit will sign Ben Gordon from Chicago and Charlie Villanueva from Milwaukee
• LA Clippers trade Zach Randolph to Memphis for Quentin Richardson

And the breaking rumour today is that the LA Lakers will sign Ron Artest while the Houston Rockets will sign Trevor Ariza (not actually a trade although it looks like one).

Will these two be playing for the same team next season?