Off the Glass

Time to open the mailbag and answer your questions

Eric Snow will get plenty of chances to put up numbers replacing the injured Allen Iverson. Jesse Garrabrant/ NBAE/Getty Images

By Paul Forrester, Special to CNNSI.com

It's been awhile since we dug deep into the mailbag. So before the conclusion of the season forces OTG to leave the mailbag burning under a bridge in Chicago, let's crack open a few envelopes.

With Allen Iverson's recent injury, I have the need to pick up another guard. I am intrigued with Gilbert Arenas (now that he is getting some PT), but I'm also thinking Eric Snow or Speedy Claxton.
-- Steve Messier, Essex Jct., Vermont

It's almost a toss-up between Snow and Arenas in our book. They both have been hitting double-digits in scoring and handing out about six assists and grabbing a few steals a night. What should tip the scales in favor of Snow is the fact that he plays almost 36 minutes a night (which should increase with AI out) and his team is fighting for playoff position (i.e. meaningful games equal productive games).

Arenas, who has secured the starting point guard spot with the Warriors, is playing for next year, playing to keep his starting job and playing for a team that will take no chances on hurting the kid should he pull up lame.

Mailbag

Do you have a question for OTG? Each week Paul Forrester will answer a few questions submitted by CNNSI.com users. Please use the form below to enter your question or comment.

Your name: Your E-mail Address: Your Hometown: Enter Your Question:

What's up with the Timberwolves lately? Should Kevin Garnett be traded to a team that wants to win?
--Jermaine Kemp, Cincinnati

It's damn tough to win in the NBA with only two players -- unless those two are Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. The Wolves just seem worn down. Garnett and Szczerbiak have taken turns missing shots and with Chauncey Billups starting, Minnesota doesn't have, well, a Chauncey Billups on the bench to keep the offense flowing.

Not only has Garnett had to carry the load offensively, but he's had to do a lot of the lifting on the defensive end, too. Marc Jackson helped out a bit when he first came over from Golden State. But over the course of the last month or so, Jackson has played more like the bench he sat on with the Warriors than the potential rookie of the year candidate the T-Wolves thought they were acquiring.

Winning in the NBA is all about size. That's why the Knicks stink and the Lakers don't, why the Sixers made it to the Finals last year and why the Nets have struggled this year when Todd MacCulloch has been out. Garnett (who is more valuable to the survival of the team than anyone in the front office) is the only consistent size in Minnesota. And after 70 games, KG needs some help, which Jackson hasn't provided and Wally can't.

Do you think Dallas can win a championship, after it made the Denver trade?
-- David, Leslie County, Ky.

Mark Cuban can stockpile more scorers than a convention of hookers but if you don't defend in the postseason, you don't win. Can the Mavericks (who would own OTG's heart if it wasn't regularly stomped on by a certain team playing farther north) win a series by outshooting a club like Sacramento? Sure. But we get bad visions in our head of Dirk Nowitzki being eaten by Tim Duncan. And one win against the Lakers does not a championship trophy beget. The pieces are there; Don Nelson just has to stop playing Doug Moe and force his club to stop somebody, which we don't see Steve Nash or Raef LaFrentz doing. Playoff games are like rugby scrums, not track meets. Pretty basketball has no place in a league modeled by Pat Riley and a center who takes so much pride in dunking the basketball that he sang about it a few years back.

We play in a ten-team league. Our playoffs begin next week. I am trying to decide whom to start out of three players: Michael Jordan, Jason Richardson and Jason Williams. Which of two would you recommend?
--Jon Larson, Sioux Falls

We'd roll with MJ and J-Rich. While MJ is coming off the bench for now, that doesn't mean he won't soon be playing a starter's minutes, especially with Washington trying to hunt down a playoff spot (which probably means more to Jordan than what he or the team does once they're in the postseason). His shooting won't help, but he more than makes up for it with his 5.2 assists and 5.8 boards a night.

Richardson has played a lot more consistently off of his impressive All-Star Weekend and with Larry Hughes in the Golden State doghouse (of course you can make the argument that to play with the Warriors is to play in a doghouse), Richardson's importance has increased.

 

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