A roommate of the friends I’m staying with in SLC is moving out tomorrow, driving down to Southern California.  I might or might not be able to ride-share with her.  Otherwise, I’m going to draw up a sign for Los Angeles on I-15 and start hitchhing tomorrow morning.

I’m not sure what my luck will be like, early.  Not many cars on the road on Sunday, compared with weekdays.  And what cars I’ll find on the road on Sunday, early, are headed to church.

We’ll see.

- Michael Mandlin

Growing up in NYC, I just sort of learned to assume that people would steal anything from me that they could.  And not without some reason.  Here?  People get up and walk away from their stuff all the time.  Many leave their houses and cars unlocked.  It took me four days before I stopped asking people to keep an eye on my stuff.  The wonderment in their eyes finally got through to me; they practically didn’t understand.  Was there something really nifty about my stuff they’d want to wait and watch for?

It’s nice.  This place, there are flaws, ugly flaws, but this comfort, this sense of safety, it’s nice.  I’m leaving it now.  I’m driving to Salt Lake City, tomorrow, with two cats from craigslist.  I’m in Utah to cover the Jazz/Hornets game on the 21st, before thumbing it down to LA.

I’m pretty excited; I’ve heard about Jazz fans for years, apparently as loud an arena as I’ll come across.  Looking forward to it.

First off, the Wizards make a nice little deal here with potential upside and no downside. The Wizards are going absolutely nowhere anytime soon. They have two stars in Gilbert Arenas (provided he returns to form) and Caron Butler, in their primes, Antwan Jamison, whose contract will soon be universally perceived as one of the worst in the game, some useful non-impressive bench vets, and some kids I don’t know, but seem to have middling upside. In this deal, they get Mike James, a perfectly decent overpaid bench scorer who should get about 20 minutes a game, for the rest of this season and the next. They also get James Crittenton, who may turn out to be nothing or may turn out to be quite something, signed to a jump-change rookie contract through ’10-’11. They lose Daniels, a nice 33 year-old rotation-quality guy who will be retired before Washington is in a position to make noise in the playoffs.

Daniels is a nice piece for the Hornets, though. The Hornets are going somewhere, immediate contenders and at least the next few years. Daniels is a solid SG backup who doesn’t do terribly much on offense, but doesn’t hurt you either, and plays pretty sound defense. Morris Peterson and Rasul Butler are two shooters who don’t do much else, so Daniels off the bench is a nice change of pace, especially when the opposition has a serious scorer at SG (as is often the case.) Conveniently, Daniels is also quite capable of backing up Chris Paul at the point. He’s no natural, but he can run the offense and rarely turns the ball over. Meanwhile, Mike James wasn’t really doing anything for them. And Daniels, making about the same salary as James is only signed through next year, so there’s no need to be concerned with his mid-30s decline. This is a nice little move for New Orleans that might be one of those deals that turns out to be far more meaningful than it seems, initially.

Memphis meanwhile, makes a dumb, pointless move. I suppose that though initially talking up Crittenton’s potential, when he was acquired in the Pau Gasol trade, Memphis GM Chris Wallce felt there was no reason to keep him around when OJ Mayo and Mike Conley Jr. were cemented at SG and PG for the foreseeable future. But there was no reason not to keep Crittenton around, either. He was barely playing at all for Memphis, but he’s also only 21 (in a few weeks) and though I haven’t seen him play and can’t express a strong opinion at him, he seems to have some upside. He was touted as an athletic 6’5″ PG-in-the-making, but doesn’t seem to have PG chops. Still, he projects to have solid SG size, once he gets a little muscle on his frame, and his PG handle makes him very capable of creating his own shot. Provided he learns to shoot (he can’t shoot a lick) he sounds like a solid prospect. What’s the harm in sending him down to the Developmental League to see how he turns out? Instead they get the mid-draft first round pick they gave Wizards in the Juan Carlos Navarro deal. Here’s the breakdown on that pick, from a Washington Post article on the Navarro deal:

“According to a league source, the draft pick received by the Wizards will be top 19 protected in 2008, meaning the Grizzlies would keep the pick if they finish with one of the top 19 picks. The pick is top 16 protected in 2009, top 14 protected from 2010 to 2012 and top 12 protected in 2013.

If the Wizards have not received the pick by 2013, they will receive a second-round pick and cash considerations.”

It’s something, sure, but nothing amazing, and they traded Crittenton at the lowest point of his value. He isn’t a 26 year-old once-prospect who still hasn’t figured it out, that people insist on describing as “young,” like Hakim Warrick. Two years from now, Crittenton will still be legitimately young. There just seems no reason to trade a guy with upside for a non-impact first-rounder. Of course, this is exactly what you’d expect from Chris Wallace. You can check out his full ugly history of decision-making here. He started his tenure as GM with the Celtics by drafting Chauncey Billups third overall, and then traded him (and others) 50 games into his career for Kenny Anderson, Popeye Jones, and Zan Tabak. And he never really improved on that jackass blunder. Well, here’s to the humor value of Chris Wallace’s continued employment.