http://www.yardbarker.com/content/player/22787 Recent articles about Ronald Murray en-us The Fantasy Lounge Sports NBA draft kit continues with another team preview. Check out our team overview, sleepers, depth chart and projections for a surprisingly spunky young team in Atlanta! Sat, 13 Sep 2008 13:47:09 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/332471 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/332471 The rumored trade that would send Mo Williams to Cleveland is now reality. In a 3 team trade, Cleveland will send shooting guard Damon Jones to Milwaukee and forward Joe Smith to Oklahoma City. Milwaukee also will get point guard Luke Ridnour and forward Adrian Griffin from Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City also gets Desmond Mason, the athletic small forward, from the Bucks and the Cavs get point guard Mo Williams. The trade was basically a salary dump for the Bucks to avoid having to play the luxury tax. The 6-foot-1 Williams averaged 17.2 points and a team-high 6.3 assists for the Bucks last season. This should take some of the scoring pressure off of LeBron James. Williams will likely be the starting point guard and Daniel Gibson, who they signed to a 5 year contract will likely be the back up. This leaves Delonte West hanging. Sources said the Cavs still want to bring West back and feel that he could be their starting shooting guard and play next to Williams. Delonte could take the qualifying offer and become an unrestricted free agent next summer if he can't get what he feels he deserves in a contract from the Cavs now. Mo Williams wasn't the only point guard on the move on Wednesday. The Atlanta Hawks signed Flip Murray, a 6 year veteran who can play both guard spots. Murray has averaged 9.3 points, 2.4 assists and 2.0 rebounds in his career with Milwaukee, Seattle, Cleveland, Detroit and Indiana. He is expected to back up both Mike Bibby at point guard and Joe Johnson at the shooting guard spot. The USA Women's team absolutely crushed Mali on Wednesday with a 97-41 win to move to a perfect 3-0 in Olympic play. They got off to a slow start as Mali actually led at 8-7 but they sure made up for it once they got going. Lisa Leslie led all scorers with 16 points, to go along with four boards and three blocks, on a perfect 7-for-7 from the field. The USA women's team has now won its three games in Beijing by an average of 47.0 points. Simply amazing. In spite of the controversy over their inappropriate team photo, the Spanish men's team keeps playing good basketball. Thursday, Spain defeated Germany 72-59. Team members have apologized for the photo, saying it was meant to be funny and in no way did they mean it to be offensive. Unfortunately for them, almost no one saw the humor in it. The USA got the monkey off their back and beat Greece 92-69. Greece was the team that defeated them in the world championships two years ago. Next up for the United States will be a clash with Spain, who should provide one of the toughest matchups for Team USA in their quest for the Gold. The Spanish team has more NBA players than any team other than Team USA. Spain and the United States are both undefeated and this will be a big test for both teams. The game will be televised live on NBA at 10:15 eastern time on Saturday. The on again, off again deal between the Sixers and Andre Iguodala is apparently on again. Philly Daily News reports that the deal for six seasons and $80 million, including an additional $5 million in incentive clauses and an opt-out clause after the fifth season was agreed to yesterday and should be signed and finalized next week. There are thoughts around the league are that the Sixers overpaid to keep Iguodala. But, with Elton Brand, Iguodala, Dalembert, Miller, and the team that they have built this off season, the Sixers are going to be a force to be reckoned with this season. With the injury to Jason Smith, the Sixers are looking for another big man to fill out their roster and it has been reported that they have offered a contract for the veteran's minimum to former Celtic Theo Ratliff, better known for his contract than his play with the Celtics. He played only 2 games but his contract was instrumental in bringing KG to Boston. Ratliff reportedly has other offers for more than the minimum, but is interested in returning to Philadelphia where he played from 1997 through 2001. The Portland Trailblazers announced Wednesday that guard Brandon Roy will have arthroscopic knee surgery on Thursday to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. The tear was found in an MRI on Tuesday. He is expected to be healed and ready for training camp. This is another of those what might have been players. The Celtics traded the draft pick that became Brandon Roy to the Blazers for Telfair and Ratliff. While Roy is a very, very good player and would have been a difference maker for the Celtics, Telfair and Ratliff were instrumental in bringing KG to Boston so it worked out ok in the end. It seems sad that former Celtic and current Cavalier, Wally Szczerbiak has been reduced to being talked about as an expiring contract. In spite of his scoring ability, knee and ankle injuries have severely limited him over the past several years and now, his value is mostly what his expiring contract can bring them at the deadline. The latest in the Phoenix Suns' point guard search is that a Slovenian court has settled a dispute between two European teams over how much of Goran Dragic's potential buyout agreement each would receive. In spite of the fact that Dragic has said on several occasions that he will stay in Europe, the Suns are still hoping that he will negotiate a buyout and play for the Suns this season. But the Suns are ready to use a portion of their mid-level expectation to sign Dragic to a multi-year contract that will allow him to negotiate a buyout a year early and become the full-time backup to Steve Nash this season. Dwyane Wade is playing at a very high level in the Olympics and this gives hope to Heat fans. With Wade back 100% and Shawn Marion on the team along with a very impressive rookie in Michael Beasley, Heat fans have to be excited for this season. Alonzo Mourning has said that he hopes to be back at 100% by December if not before. Mourning sees Wade as an MVP candidate next season and also feels that Pat Riley isn't finished yet. The Heat is yet another team that has improved itself this off season and will provide a challenge to the Celtics in their quest to repeat as champions. We reported that Chris Kaman has gotten some flak from both the Clippers and his dad for playing on Germany's Olympic team. Now, it appears Kobe Bryant has joined in those giving him a hard time. When Kobe heard that Chris was playing for the German team he went up to him and asked Kaman to give him just one word in German and he couldn't do it. But Kaman isn't the only one playing for a team that he has very loose ties with. The Georgian beach volleyball team is composed of Brazilian ringers awarded Georgian citizenship in anticipation of the Olympics. After the Georgian team beat the team from Russia, there were some hard feelings from the Russians. On her way out of the arena, Russia's Natalya Uryadova doubted that either opponent could name the Georgia president. Now, she bitterly pointed out the absurdity their triumph. "If they were Georgian, they would certainly be an influence," she said. "But in fact, they are not." Offended and mostly embarrassed, Saka promptly tried to diffuse the situation, giving much credit to the Russians. And then this actually came out of her mouth: "I don't want this to be a war between us." The Georgian team even have assumed names for the Olympics. Then there is Becky Hammon, who grew up in South Dakota, and is playing for the Russian team. Pittsburgh native and former Bucknell star J.R. Holden is playing for the Russian team. It is safe to say that the Olympics aren't what they used to be. They have a certain mercenary feel to them these days. This picture has nothing to do with anything, but after seeing it on Perkisabeast, I just thought it strangely fascinating. Might explain a lot about the Lakers, though. Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:16:24 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/305885 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/305885 The Phoenix Suns are still in the hunt for a point guard to back up Steve Nash. Since passing Rajon Rondo on to the Celtics, they haven't been very successful in their search for Nash's backup. Marcus Banks obviously didn't work out. They were hoping that Slovenian guard Goran Dragic would be the answer and have been holding out hope that he would agree to play for them this season. But, word is that Dragic is planning to stay in Europe and finish out his contract there. In order to entice him to the NBA this season, they would have to give him a contract much higher than the minimum in order to pay for his $1.5 million buyout and that would put the Suns over the luxury tax level which they are trying to avoid. There are a few point guards left on the free agent market including Sam Cassell, Flip Murray, Dan Dickau, Darrell Armstrong, Jannero Pargo, Shaun Livingston, and Damon Stoudamire. How they must be wishing they had never let Rondo go to the Celtics. The Detroit Pistons re-signed 6'9" forward Walter Herrmann on Monday. Herrmann played six seasons in his native Argentina and four seasons in Spain before being signed as an undrafted free agent by Charlotte. He played in 28 games for the Pistons last season averaging 3 points and 1.3 rebounds in 7.1 minutes per game. Oklahoma City (formerly known as the Seattle Supersonics and soon to be named the Thunder) traded New Jersey's 2009 second round pick to the Charlotte Bobcats for 6'6" rookie guard Kyle Weaver out of Washington State. With Josh Smith safely back in the fold, the Hawks are making moves to fill out their roster and have signed Othello Hunter and Thomas Gardner. Both Hunter and Gardner played on Atlanta's summer league team at the Rocky Mountain Revue and made an impression that earned them another look with the team. Hunter is a rookie power forward out of Ohio State who played in the national title game with Greg Oden and Mike Conley. Gardner is a 6'5" guard Gardner out of Missouri, and has a reputation as a scorer. We reported last week that the Lakers have signed the Sun Yue, known as "The Chinese Magic Johnson," to a contract. It would appear that his height of 6'9" has more to do with this nickname than his play. a veteran NBA executive, who has scouted hundreds of players both internationally and in the United States has this to say about him: "He has a nice feel for the game (and) he's a decent passer, with good size. However, he lacks quickness and toughness and doesn't shoot the ball well, with range. He is a below-average athlete." According to this NBA source, Sun is not a NBA-caliber player at this juncture and would not figure to be much of a factor with the Lakers this season, if he were to make the team. The Lakers plan to move him from point guard to shooting guard where he will compete with Coby Karl, Dwayne Mitchell and Joe Crawford for minutes off the bench at that position. The speculation has begun as to how the Jazz can resign both Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur and still keep Andrei Kirilenko and still stay below the luxury tax threshold as they seem determined to do. The answer appears to be that they can't and Kirilenko appears to be the odd man out. AK47 may be hard to trade though because he has three years and $49.35 million remaining on his contract with the Jazz. Next season, not many teams will want to take a contract that will put them on the hook for $17.82 million in 2010-11 as everyone seems to want to clear cap space for the big free agent class that off season. Boozer and Okur can both opt out of their contracts next year and may do so, not necessarily to leave the Jazz but to get a bigger payday. I don't like Kirilenko for the Celtics. He has complained a lot about his role in the offense and I don't see him as a candidate for ubuntu. Speaking of Kirilenko, he scored a team-high 18 points to lead four in double figures for Russia, but his team dropped its first Olympics pool game Tuesday to undefeated Croatia, 85-78. Russia, now 1-1, next faces Australia on Thursday. Spain with its many NBA stars topped Yao and the Spanish team in an 85-75 overtime thriller. This morning, Team USA played Angola and after allowing them to stay fairly close in the first half, they pulled away to win 97-76 to go 2-0 in group play. Next for Team USA: A grudge match with Greece on Thursday morning. Alan Houston is still working on his comeback and would like to return to the Knicks but I am sure he would take a contract with any other team that offers him one if the Knicks don't. Isn't he Danny's kind of player? Retired and looking for a comeback? Houston played in the Nike Pro City league at Hunter and apparently held his own. He put up 25 points in a loss to Ron Artest's squad and showed some flashes of his previous form, according to the report. Speaking of Ron Artest, in 3 days the Rockets will be free to make the deal that will bring Ron Ron to Houston for better or worse. You have to love this one from the Washington Post. I quote it here because rephrasing wouldn't do it justice: The Olympics are just four days old, but the best quote of the Games has already been uttered, and there is a 0.000000 chance that it will be topped. This from colleague Michael Abramowitz's Style Section story about the Bush Fam this morning. Meeting Team USA with Bush 43 before the game, Bush 41 gave a warm hug to Lakers star Kobe Bryant and received an affectionate greeting from Cavaliers hero LeBron James: "What's up, pops?" the massive James asked. One way for a 23-year old pro basketball player to greet a former President might be "Hello, Mr. President." Another might be "What's up, pops." I'm done making fun of LeBron for the crying and the scowling and the wide-eyed disbelief. Anyone who breaks out the "What's up pops?" line is ok by me. The Cavs' puzzling unwillingness to sign Delonte West to a new deal continues. He is their starting point guard and is looking for a multi-year deal that would be better than the five-year $21 million deal that their back up point guard got. It seems reasonable that the starter should get more than the back up, but apparently not to the Cavs. There have been rumors that the Cavs are looking to do a sign and trade with the Bucks for Mo Williams and this makes sense for the Cavs because it would give them an established point rather than one still developing. But, it doesn't make much sense for the Bucks are are obviously in win now mode with the trade for Richard Jefferson as they try to add stars around their star, Michael Redd, to try to find some of the luck the Celtics had with this strategy. Delonte is leaning toward taking the one-year, $2.8 million qualifying offer and become an unrestricted free agent next summer. If he does, the Cavs could not trade him without his consent and he'd have a year to establish his value and make himself more valuable on the free agent market next off season. I really wouldn't mind having Delonte back in Boston. He is a tough gritty player who leaves it all on the court. Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:13:05 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/304451 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/304451 It's amazing to me how much the Hawks offense relies on Mike Bibby and Joe Johnson both being N*Sync. If Joe or Mike don't say It's Gonna Be Me then the offense says Bye Bye Bye and the defense won't be far behind. A big no homo to that last paragraph. Bibby was 0-8 and didn't even look as if he cared. His defense was atrocious and his shot was obviously not falling. Johnson was 13-24 however it wasn't enough. As I said both Bibby and Johnson have to be extremely effective for the Hawks to win and play off of each other. The team has an extremely low basketball IQ and they turn the ball over a lot and the shooting has to be there. One thing I did like last night was Josh Smith getting a technical foul and immediately getting called for a flagrant on the next inbounds. Josh Smith wants to win and there's no denying that. Another thing I noticed was Al Horford playing the first 6:30 of the game and the Hawks were I believe +1, and Mike Woodson pulls him with his 2 fouls and he doesn't see action for the rest of the half.....by that point it was too late. The Hawks just looked like a team that didn't want to win, the Pacers wanted it more and they took it. PS: Joe Johnson played 44+ minutes in a game that wasn't as close as the score indicated. Damn you Mike Woodson, straight to hell. Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:54:03 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/233601 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/233601 For those savvy and/or lucky owners out there, the fantasy basketball playoffs begin tomorrow. To get you ready, FSE has thrown together a cheat sheet to help your team succeed. Emerging fantasy options are highlighted along with a slew of injury updates and expected return dates. Sun, 23 Mar 2008 22:34:56 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/215817 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/215817 BONZI WELLS (NOH, SF) The saavy 31 year-old is showing he still has some game left in him. In his last two outings he has seen increased minutes and productivity. Last night against Houston his 25 points were 28% of his team's total point output, and he also came away with 2 steals and 3 blocks in the win. As I always say, if the coach (Byron Scott in this instance) gives him more minutes, Bonzi's fantasy value will go up tremendously. If you're playoff positioning in your H2H is nearly set and you want to take a shot on Bonzi, I don't blame you. I just might. Thu, 20 Mar 2008 04:56:16 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/211464 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/211464 Fantasy Basketball can be hard. It's a lot easier when you know who to pickup. It's mid Week 19 and we thought all you tired, hard working managers would find a list of pickups by position useful. So take a break from your fantasy baseball draft and pick up some of these guys! Green is a great pickup, black is an average pickup and red is a DROP. Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:19:19 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/182597 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/182597 The next big deadline is coming up on Saturday, March 1. Players waived after that day will not be available to play in the playoffs for any team who might sign them. This may affect several players, but the biggest name being tossed around is Sam Cassell. The Celtics have 2 open roster spots and are interested in several of the players whose names are being tossed around. Let's take a look at the possibilities for the Celtics. Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:22:55 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/166287 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/166287