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AC TITTICOCK'S WEEKLY FREE NBA BASKETBALL PICKS AND WINNERS
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AC's Wagercom 2006-2007 NBA Picks Season Record
Wins: 26 Losses: 25 Ties: 1
NBA Picks Winning Percentage: 51%
Record updated Saturdays and Mondays
Contact AC at ac@wagercom.com or post your questions/comments on the Wagercom Message Board
Read AC's Bio
AC's outlook on the NBA is an entertaining original column featured here at Wagercom. If you are prone to NBA betting or even just an NBA fan, make sure you come back often to read his articles and free NBA Basketball picks against the spread. AC will be providing us with a weekly outlook during the basketball season including free NBA Basketball picks on some of the weekend games each Friday and Saturday.
Our NBA expert AC has had 3 consecutive winning seasons picking NBA games against the spread for a combined 317-281 record yielding a 53% winning percentage which would have won you money including the VIG. AC does this out of the kindness of his heart and for the naked pictures of your girlfriends you send him as a token of your appreciation. So enjoy the columns and the picks..
AC'S NBA FREE PICKS WEEK 8:
Much has happened in the past seven days since AC last chimed in on all things NBA. We had a brawl, we had injuries (Dirk, Rashard Lewis, Paul Pierce), and we had the Iverson trade. In what will likely go down as one of the worst trades in history (including Bagwell for Andersen, Barkley for Hornacek, and AOL stock for Time Warner), Iverson to the Nuggets is another Billy King special, and by special I mean fiasco. So as usual, your boy AC will break down the trade for you so you understand why Duke grad Billy King botched this trade worse than Mike Nifong botched the Duke rape case investigation (and remember, you can’t spell “dumb” without “DU”).
The Trade: Allen Iverson, Ivan Drago McFarlin, and Billy King’s last bit of dignity to the Denver Nuggets for Andre Miller, Joe Smith, Denver’s first round pick, and Dallas’s first round pick.
What the Sixers get:
Andre Miller: In Andre Miller the Sixers get at best the 9th best point guard in the league (Nash, Kidd, Paul, Deron Williams, Baron Davis, Chauncey Billups, Tony Parker, and Mike Bibby) and arguably the 14th best (Livingston, Mo Williams, Sam Cassell, Devin Harris, and Mike James). So pretty much an average NBA point guard and lucky enough for Philly he is locked in for another 3 years at $10MM per year. So the best player they got for Iverson is an overpaid average player whose value depends on those around him since he is a creator, not a finisher. With absolutely no one around him in Philly, he will be forced to take more shots than he is used to which probably isn’t a good thing. The Sixers got Hornacek for Barkley and I can assure you, Andre Miller is no Jeff Hornacek. Heck, he’s barely Bobby Hansen.
Joe Smith: The ever popular expiring contract. Two interesting facts about good old Joe Smith: 1. Even though he is in his 12th year in the NBA, he is only 31. 2. He sucks. So the Sixers ditch Iverson’s $20MM contract and get $10MM back in Miller but lose $10MM of Joe Smith’s contract. In other words, Billy King now has $10MM more to spend on his next great find and to this date his great finds have included Samuel Dalembert who has the basketball IQ of a raisin and Chris Webber whose legs are in such bad shape I hear he is trying out for Murderball.
Denver’s #1 pick: Ok, this is supposed to be one of the deepest drafts in history, but even deep drafts get week after the mid-teens and it is not likely Denver’s pick will be below #20. Denver currently has the #20 pick but once Melo comes back and is playing with AI, it is likely they will finish no worse than 4th in the West which would give them a pick closer to #24 or #25. In other words, unless Billy King somehow conjured up the wisdom of Red Auerbach, the return on this pick will be zero. Here is a breakdown of Billy King’s picks as told by local Philadelphia writer Bill Conlin:
“So, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, in summary, I give you 10 years of the draft since Billy King came aboard in 1997: Keith Van Horn and Marko Milic (whoever he was), Kebu Stewart (ditto) and James Collins; Larry Hughes (Larry, we hardly knew ye) and Casey Shaw; Todd MacCulloch (bad wheels, great voice); Speedy Claxton (an actual warm body, but just barely) and Mark Karcher (huh?); Samuel Dalembert, Damone Brown (Larry must have liked the name) and Alvin Jones (deep on shallow bench); Jiri Welsch (I'm drawing a blank) and Sam Clancy (an extra in "Apocalypto"?); Paccelis Morlende (I thought he was the cardinal from Torino); Andre Iguodala (renting A.I.'s franchise designation short-term); Louis Williams (mopup time looms); and Thabo Sefolosha (he's not easy for you to say, but he did land King the rights to Rodney Carney. Wheeeeee!).
In other words, all mitigated disasters except for maybe Larry Hughes, whom he traded and Andre Igoudala who will always be a 3rd or 4th option.
To be fair, let’s assume the Nuggets struggle and finish with the 11th best record and get the 20th pick. The past 11 20th picks have been Renaldo Balkman, Julius Hodge, Jameer Nelson, Dahntay Jones, Kareem Rush, Brendan Haywood, Jamaal Magloire, Dion Glover, Roshown McLeod, and Paul Grant. In other words, they have a 27% chance of getting an average at best NBA player (Magloire, Haywood, Nelson) and a 9% chance of getting a debatable slightly above average NBA player (Nelson). When you add in Billy King’s draft record to the equation, you get a 0% chance of adding an NBA quality player.
Dallas’ #1 Pick: This will likely be worse or around the same as Denver’s pick so read everything I said above only include names like Rodrick Rhodes, Felipe Lopez, Tim James, Johan Petro, and Kyle Lowry. In other words, this pick is worth as much as a Joe Forte rookie card.
Denver Gets:
Allen Iverson: Iverson is one of the best scorers in the history of the league and is made for a running type of offense which Denver employs. With JR Smith able to handle the bigger guards and nail open threes when Iverson penetrates, and the Nuggets having a number of big men who crash the boards, can throw the outlet pass, and don’t require touches (Camby, Najera, Nene), this may be the perfect team for Iverson. And I didn’t even mention Iverson finally having another scorer to play with in Carmelo Anthony.
Much has been made of the can Melo and AI play together storyline but I think it is bogus. AI wants to win, plain and simple. If you watched the Olympics, and unfortunately I did, you would have seen AI deferring to teammates and playing hard at the team game. It may take 10-15 games to gel, but it will work. Melo and AI are going to be dynamic together and I am not joking.
Final Anlaysis: So for one of the greatest scorers in the NBA, the Sixers got $10MM in salary relief, 2 draft picks that will likely never be NBA players, and an average NBA point guard who is overpaid and under contract for too long. In other words, I haven’t seen someone get abused this bad since I stopped watching those after school specials. The only way Billy King wins this deal is if it helps the Sixers tank to get Greg Oden, but news flash, they were going to be in the Greg Oden sweepstakes anyway and whom would you rather have with Oden next year, AI or Andre Miller and $10MM? See my point? If anything, King should have found a team to get him another lottery pick for next year. That is where the value is.
As for the Nuggets, I think AI is a great piece. They have moved up in the Western Conference ranks and should give Dallas, Phoenix, and San Antonio a run for the title. Of course, the most important player to Denver is still Marcus Camby and regardless of having Iverson, if Camby gets hurt (as usual), none of this will matter (and I promise I wrote that line before learning Camby will be out for awhile with a broken finger).
Friday Night Free NBA Picks:
Utah -6.5 at Charlotte:
It is tough to win on the road by 6 points, unless you are playing a really crappy team. Luckily for Utah, Charlotte is that crappy team. After blowing a double overtime game with 0.01 seconds on the clock to the Knicks, the Bobcats should have been expelled from the league. I haven't seen a choke that bad since the fellatio scene in latest Monsters of Cock video. For the Jazz to win, they need to get games out of Boozer and whichever 2 guard they decide to play (Derek Fisher, Giricek, Ronnie Brewer, Jeff Hornacek). Take the Jazz and hope they play with intensity.
Golden State at Orlando -3.5:
Despite beating the Celtics in Boston the other night, Golden State is an atrocious road team. They are 2-9 on the road which is as bad as a Robin Williams movie. The Magic are settling down just a bit but there is no one on the Warriors that can stop Dwight Howard. As long as the Magic don't get in a run and gun game, and as long as they can have someone stay in front of Baron Davis (you hear that Delonte West and Sebastien Telfair?), they should pull this out.
Philadelphia at Boston Under 189:
This is the first test of the rule I instituted earlier this year which is "always take the under when two completely shitty teams play each other." The Sixers without Iverson, and the Celtics without Pierce qualify as such teams. Take the under and be glad you don't have to watch this. If you're really feeling lucky, you may want to tease the Sixers getting the points as well, but you didn't hear that from me.
Memphis at New Orleans -2.5:
If you can name all 10 starters for this game, you should probably seek professional help. Both teams blow so take the home team giving a basket and hope Gasol is not at full strength.
Saturday Night Free NBA Picks:
San Antonio at New Orleans Under 179.5:
Neither team is really into scoring and even though the line is low, go with the under. The Whorenets are playing without their only inside scoring presence in David West and are rolling out Hilton Armstrong, Desmond Mason, Tyson Chandler, and Rasual Butler with Chris Paul. In other words, take the under and it may even be smart to tease that with the Spurs giving the points. Just hope the Spurs don’t try for 100 points to kill the under.
LA Clippers +8.5 at Houston:
I really don’t know why the Clippers are playing so poorly. My guess is it has something to do with their coach being Mike Dunleavy, but then again, AC has been railing against that nincompoop (hehehe, I said poop) for years. He is an awful coach and unsurprisingly a talented team is struggling with him. Add in the expected decline by Tim Thomas (which I, and everyone else in the world predicted) and you get a team that has yet to gel. Either way, the Rockets are still without McGrady and on paper the Clips match-up reasonably well with them. I’m not sure if the Clips win, but they won’t lose by 9.
Toronto at Seattle Under 197.5:
Remember the rule from last night about two shitty teams playing each other, you always take the under. It worked last night and it should work again tonight. No Bosh, no Allen, no Lewis, and probably no fans. Take the under and hope someone tries to play defense.
Utah -4.5 at Memphis:
Ok, we tried this last night with Utah vs. Charlotte and that didn’t work so well, but if I know Jerry Sloan (and I don’t, so you might want to disregard this point) he will get his players ready to play tonight. The Jazz are slumping like a humpbacked man going under a limbo stick and even though I am not entirely sure what that means, take the Jazz and hope they snap out of it.
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