In news that surprised absolutely no one, Allen Iverson will NOT opt-out from him fat contract with the Nuggets. I suppose all those GMs who read the lists possible FA for this summer and were waiting to sign Iverson for the MLE will just have to wait.

Well, maybe they can settle for Marion instead. What’s that ? Marion isn’t opting out either ? That’s such a shame. BSPN almost had me believe that everyone and their grandmother will be opting out this summer.

Speaking of Marion, Pat Riley seems to be playing it smart. He is unwilling to give him a 39 million 3 years contract and is offering a 30 million 3 year contract. Otis Smith, are you taking notes ? You’re supposed to offer less than the player/agent is asking for, not more.

There are plenty of reasons for not giving Marion a big bunch of money. Marion is 30, his game is based a lot on his athleticism which might soon leave him, he has a lot of mileage already, his stats have diminished over the last 2 years so he looks to be on the decline and he was never able to lead a team despite putting up impressive stats even when Nash wasn’t there. To boot, Marion is kind of a whiner, he wasn’t happy in Phoenix playing with Nash so he could soon become sour in Miami and demand a trade. Taking all these into account, a 31 year old declining Marion at 10 million per season would be much more tradeable than at 13 million per season. All these are not to say that Marion isn’t a very good player. He is, and it would be great to have more players with his athleticism, durability and selfless play. But he apparently is mentally weak and he craves more recognition (and money) than he deserves.

Looks like Riles, despite making some mistakes as GM earlier in his career, has learned his lesson. He has been pretty good in the draft and I have to consider him an elite GM at the moment. We’ll see how he does in this draft, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he somehow managed to land Lebron or Bosh in 2010 and had the Heat contending for a title by 2011.

I have predicted that as a result of being taunted by Al Horford at the end of game 3, Paul Pierce will try to have a monster game in game 4, and fail miserably. And, lo and behold, Pierce didn’t disappoint. He finished with 5-14 FG, 3 TO and 5 PF, and his Celtics lost. He also shot 50%  (4-8) from the FT line.

Truth be told, he started out very well, shooting efficiently (he finished 4-7 from the 3p line) and at the end he had 7 reb and 5 ast. But in a playoff game he shouldn’t let his frustration boil over and commit silly fouls that put him in foul trouble and keep him out of the game. And where was his vaunted perimeter defense ? Atlanta’s perimeter players had their way with the Celtics’ D: Joe Johnson was 14-24, Bibby 5-8, Josh Smith 8-16.

Brent Barry will be flying back to the Spurs. Well, not really cause he can’t fly anymore, and he never left San Antonio in the first place.

You read it here first: as soon as the Spurs - Sonics trade involving Kurt Thomas and Brent Barry was done, I said that Brent Barry will return to the Spurs, just like Stackhouse was supposed to return to the Mavs:

Gregg Popovich vehemently criticized the Gasol trade and would have probably opposed the initial deal between the Mavs and Nets that had Stackhouse returning to Dallas. But I suspect he wouldn’t be nearly as upset if the Spurs managed to do the same thing (only much more quietly) with Barry.

Well, guess what ? He did “chose” the Spurs after being waived by the Sonics. But not before “think ing about his choices”. Yeah, right. He even claimed he considered the Suns for a while, but in the end he decided to “return” to the Spurs.

So where’s the outrage ? Are the GMs that were criticizing the Mavs-Nets trade so easy to fool ? Isn’t the media able to connect the dots ? Sam Presti worked for the Spurs for the past 7 years before taking the job of GM with the Sonics. He’s been the assistant general manager since 2005, so one figures he worked pretty close with Spurs GM R.C. Bufford. It’s only logical that the 2 reached an agreement were the Spurs would take on Thomas’ salary and receive Brent Barry back and send a 1st round pick to the Sonics for their trouble. Where’s David Stern disallowing the trade ?

Well, I guess when it’s the Spurs, they are allowed to do stuff others aren’t. Not the first time David Stern seems to have a soft spot for the San Antonio team.