More Love for Marquis

And Daniels? I can understand why a team like the Pacers would decide not to pick up his $7.5 million option. Not in this economy, not with the team sometimes struggling to pull in five-figure crowds. But to pull Marquis Daniels for either a $1.8 million contract, or a sign-and-trade with Tony Allen and Brian Scalabrine?

This is huge.

Honestly, 25 teams could use a Marquis Daniels, and a team that is 13 months removed from a championship just picked him up. You have to appreciate that. And while Daniels hasn't built upon what was a very promising rookie campaign in 2003-04, the guy can play. He has all sorts of little tricks defensively, he can work from two positions, he can shoot, he can shoot on the break, and he can really get into the lane. He's essentially a mini-version of another rookie on the 2003-04 Dallas Mavericks - Josh Howard(notes). At, what, one-sixth the price?

--YAHOO

Speaking of love, Red's Army has a good piece about how the league is flabbergasted over the Rasheed Wallace signing. I must admit, if KG's knee is healthy, there is no way to fully gauge the impact Sheed will have. Did Bill Russell have another Bill Russell coming off the bench behind him? How about Wilt? Kareem? You could say the best example would be Parish and Walton, but even that comparison is a bit off-center, as Walton's health usually limited his number of minutes to less than 20, and old Mountain Man couldn't hoist a shot from more than 15-feet, and even those shots (and it kills me to criticize my dog) were butt ugly.