Report: Spurs send Rose to Knicks for Nazr Mohammed

[ShoogarBear]

There were some direct quotes of Nazr in the story. Doubt they'd make that up in the Sports section.

[timvp]

DIESEL NOT SO HOT IN FIRST NY VISIT WITH HEAT

By EVAN GROSSMAN

February 10, 2005 -- Aside from the fact that standing next to each other, Shaquille O'Neal looks like he could fold up Nazr Mohammed and stuff him in his back pocket like a dollar bill, The Diesel appeared somewhat human and mortal last night in a 116-110 overtime win over the Knicks.

O'Neal, who had Mohammed on him most of the night, wasn't the human eclipse in the paint he normally is. In fact, the big guy might not have been able to throw the ball in the ocean if he tried last night.

While O'Neal dumped 33 points and pulled down 18 rebounds in 36 minutes last month when the Knicks lost 102-94 at Miami in their first meeting of the season, last night he was average under the hoop and had trouble shooting against the Knicks, which is something few opponents ever really suffer from. O'Neal shot 5-for-16 from the field and finished with 16 quiet points and 13 rebounds in 42 minutes.

Never known for his foul shooting, Shaq did hit pair of free throws to put the Knicks down four with 1:53 left in overtime, his two biggest baskets of the evening. For the game, he shot 6-for-8 from the line.

Prior to the opening tip, O'Neal, a human quote box, touched on a host of topics, from the uncertain coaching future of his former skipper Phil Jackson, to Shaq possibly owning an NBA franchise in the future.

Shaq said he would never come to New York.

"The city and the people are great here . . . but you can't drive," he said.



Shaq still talks about becoming an ATF agent, a U.S. Marshall or FBI man after his basketball days are over. It's highly unlikely we'd see The Diesel going through a door with a Kevlar helmet, but we could eventually see him as part-owner of an NBA team.

"The one team that would interest me would be the Orlando Magic. I live in Orlando; my family lives in Orlando," O'Neal said. "I wouldn't want to own a team, too much pressure. But I'd like to put a group together."

Not bad. Sounds like Nazr played Shaq well.

[Das Texan]

from a business standpoint its an awesome trade.


from a personal standpoint it sucks.


malik will kick some ass in new york though.

[timvp]

Knicks notebook: Mohammed in scoring slump
Monday, January 24, 2005
BY COLIN STEPHENSON
Star-Ledger Staff

NEW YORK -- A month ago, some people were starting to tout center Nazr Mohammed as a potential All-Star. Now that thought seems far-fetched.

Mohammed scored just three points in 13 foul-plagued minutes yesterday in a loss to the Bucks. His absence as a scoring threat is one of the reasons the Knicks, who have lost 10 of their last 11, are struggling. In the past six games, Mohammed, who is averaging 11.8 points, has scored seven, two, seven, 16, nine and three points.


"I play off my teammates," Mohammed said. "When we're getting penetration and I'm able to get to the rim, they're able to dump it off to me."

Foul trouble has hurt Mohammed lately, sending him to the bench early in the first half in a several recent games. Against the Bucks he picked up his second foul just 2:25 into the game and went to the bench immediately, in favor of Michael Sweetney.

"I feel I've had a couple of bad calls, but sometimes it's penetration and I'm the 'help' guy," he explained. "I think I try to do too much sometimes. sometimes I try to be the help guy and I try to also get back to my man. I've just got to count on my teammates and realize that they're going to be there instead of trying to do both."

Trying to do too much? Sounds familiar.

[tekdragon]

It's going to be simply a question of "Can we actually use him?", because we just weren't using Malik. Not because Pop is an idiot or had anything personal against Malik, but because in the Spurs system, there are consequences for mental lapses in defensive execution, and Malik just kept making mental mistakes. He'd get out of the doghouse, and put himself right back in. The amount of talent or heart he has is irrelevent if he's not on the court. If he doesn't earn time on the court, he doesn't play. He doesn't earn it consistently (according to Spurs standards, which call for execution as well as effort), so all his talent and heart are wasted on our bench. Maybe Nazr will learn and efficiently fit into our system, maybe he won't. It became quite clear that Malik just couldn't consistantly live up to the standards of execution within the system. Consequently, he's not going to see significant court time. Effectively, we traded away someone who (based on the amount of playing time he earned) had value to the team equivalent to a 9th or 10th man. Obviously, Malik is more valuable and more talented than his playing time/production indicates, but he couldn't keep himself on the court. Again, this is based solely on his performance. The standards for playing time in New York are significantly lower. Malik should see a lot of court time (which is great for him, if you care about him so much), will get lots of exposure in the big apple (as hard as New York is, they'll love his heart and hustle. There's no way you couldn't), and I personally think he's going to thrive in the Eastern Conference. This is a great move for Malik, and it's a great move for the Spurs.

[whottt]

Mohammed is a ing scrub, nothing more than lethargically gained stats. Malik was much more than that and his feistiness will be missed in the playoffs.

I see why the Spurs did it, but it's not really a good trade for the purposes of winning a le. Malik would have helped us more.

Mohammed does nothing, absolutely nothing to improve our le chances this year.

There's a reason the Knicks suck...

[rascal]

1. I can't see Malik ever averaging more than around 12 and 8, because I figure he's probably a guy with severely diminishing returns once his MPG consistenly go above 24-28 minutes.

2. Realistically, Nazr is not "almost averaging a double-double". He was almost averaging a doub-doub through the end of December. Since then he's been in a tailspin. In 2005, freakin' Lorenzen Wright has been a better center, among others.

Mohammed has been battling a groin injury and thats a big reason why his numbers have come down recently.

It was a good trade for the spurs. They get a true center, trim salary and dump a bad contract in Rose who they have been trying to trade for awhile now. They also add an inside player bigger than Malik and won't have to rely on Rasho as a banger and inside rebounder where he is weak.

[T Park]

Well, thats going off foggy memory Kori dont totally hold me to it, I remember when he was there, he was pretty overweight, and I cant remember the coach at the time, but he mae comments of, if Nazr could improve his practice habits and such.


But if those are problems?? What better team to come to?? Stephen Jackson was horrible in discipline and such, and he came to the Spurs and now look at him.


The Spurs are the surgeons of undisciplined players.

[ShoogarBear]

Although trying to do too much on defense, which probably won't be too much of a problem with Pop.

On offense, it sounds like he says he just tries to play off his teammates, which Pop will love, and which was probably Malik's greatest failing on O.

[ChumpDumper]

If you're all still scurred of Shaq there's no trade that will satisfy you save Pryzbilla or Cato, and that ain't happening.

[spurster]

The Spurs are full of young players now, so that's another reason to deal the 1st round picks. We can probably look forward to signing Scola, resigning Devin and maybe seeing LJ III and/or Sato some year.

[tekdragon]

Malik would have helped us more.

He's no help to us from the doghouse.

[whottt]

He's no help to us from the doghouse.

I just don't know what to say to that...he hadn't been in the doghouse lately and he had been playing well.

And his stint in the doghouse last season hurt us more than it did him.

[T Park]

If Robert Horry is healthy, how much time does Malik get, minimum numbers.


Mohammed will be reinvigorated by this trade, come wanted to prove himself, that, and playing next to Duncan.



This is IMO a very good trade, I cant believe it only took Malik.


When I first heard this on the radio in passing I heard Malik Rose and Rasho Nesterovic.


I was wondering what in the world HUGE blockbuster had been made.

I agree with Mark Stein though, this trade is a great and perfect one for the Spurs.

Acquiring him moves some players around and maximizes the current roster.

[exstatic]

Charles Smith had a ty coach.

Charles Smith had a ty knee and was on the wrong side of 30. Nazr's deal also has only 1 year, plus the remaining 20-something games from this year left, and it's relatively friendly at that.

[ChumpDumper]

Had we pried Ariza from Zeke too this would have been an A+ trade.

Pretty good as it is though.

I get the feeling we're keeping LJ3 and Sato if it's possible, so the picks would've been traded away during the summer anyway.

[tekdragon]

You're right, Whottt, he has been playing well. But playing well isn't enough in this system. You have to execute your defensive assignments, not just hustle, rebound and score. Malik has no problem playing well, he plays too hard to not "play well". It's about execution. He plays the game better and harder than most other players on the court when he's out there (especially in terms of effort), but he doesn't think the game well enough to be effective in this system. He'll do great in New York. I have no doubt of that.

Malik deserves to be on the court, not rotting away on the bench. If not here, better he goes somewhere they can fully utilize what he has to offer.

[whottt]

If you're all still scurred of Shaq .

Spoken like a true dumbass.


Chump after losing to the Lakers last year - At least weren't scared of Shaq.

Chump after losing because we stupidly don't play Brent Barry - It's better to lose than play Barry because Barry wasn't shooting. I'm glad we lost.



Shut the up!


All anyone needs to know is that Chump was the guy/girl/it that thought we won the lottery when we signed Charlie Ward. Chump loves lackluster choking players that suck ing ass as badly as ass can be sucked.

And when Mohammed does suck...don't expect any credibility from "it"...it'll just say..."Who cares if we lost? The important thing is that we traded Malik".

[ChumpDumper]

thought we won the lottery when we signed Charlie Ward.

thought it was the best move at the time. You wanted Heal.

Chump after losing to the Lakers last year - At least weren't scared of Shaq.

Chump after losing because we stupidly don't play Brent Barry - It's better to lose than play Barry because Barry wasn't shooting. I'm glad we lost.

Where do you get this drivel? LJ is worried about how Nazr plays Shaq. I said what trades would make a real difference against Shaq, and you come back with Coyote > DRob.

Stay on point, assface.

[timvp]

LJ is worried about how Nazr plays Shaq.

I just posted the recent articles about Nazr. I didn't go out seeking how he matched up with Shaq. I knew that Shaq destroys pretty much any player in the league.

[timvp]

The saddest part of this thread was it was started by mrose31.

Cruel.

[ChumpDumper]

I just posted the recent articles about Nazr. I didn't go out seeking how he matched up with Shaq. I knew that Shaq destroys pretty much any player in the league.

You sure picked up two Shaq articles pretty quickly. Add your commentary and the inference is easy.

[timvp]

Alright then do a search and see what recent articles you find about him. I just posted the latest ones. I apologize that big, bad Shaq was mentioned in two of them.

[ChumpDumper]

Ok, you're not worried about how he plays Shaq. I'll disregard all your comments and bold type.

I apologize for misinterpreting them.

I still would've preferred Thomas, but that's me.

[Jdspur20]

if i may throw my 2 cents in, ill have to say this will benefit the spurs, but its hard to see malik go. he's been with us since '97. i wish him the best. thanks for the memories malik. God speed.

[Rummpd]

As a professor at Drexel I will miss Rose as well from the time I saw him in SA.

However, this may be a great trade for both teams and especially for Rose, who I espect will become a fan favorite in NY for his hustle and grit.

Who knows - maybe even Rose asked to be traded = worse places to get on the map in the NBA again than NY, and he can only help that team.