December 16, 2011

Josh Howard Versatile forward Josh Howard has agreed to play for the Utah Jazz, according to Chris Broussard of ESPN. Howard was most recently with the Wizards and was an NBA All-Star in 2007 with the Dallas Mavericks.

Howard has had trouble with injuries starting in 2009 and has been working to return to form following an ACL tear.

But you knew all that, right? What you might not know is that Howard has a good history related to the Jazz, in a way. He scored his career high of 47 points on December 8 in 2007.

Maybe getting around the Jazz will prove be just the right move.

You also might not know that Howard recently jumped on Twitter @RealJoshHoward, so Jazz fans should stamped over and see what he’s up to.

Staff Reports

Washington Huskies guard Venoy Overton (1) works to steal the ball away from North Carolina Tar Heels forward Harrison Barnes (40) during their third round NCAA men’s basketball game in Charlotte, North Carolina March 20, 2011. REUTERS/Chris Keane (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT BASKETBALL)

      

With the NBA back in full preseason swing, college season hitting the December stride and high schools getting ready for their holiday tournaments, basketball season is officially here. Let’s take a swing around the net to see the top stories today.

First off, Real GM takes a story from Sports Illustrated and spins it into a piece denigrating the defensive ability of Harrison Barnes:

Harrison Barnes has the worst stop percentage — which measures the percentage of opponent individual possessions directly stopped by a player — of any Tar Heel rotation player at 50.6 percent.

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Next, we have the news of Chris Paul to the Clippers dominating ESPN and every other network as they continue to miss the big story (why on Earth would Paul choose to play for one of the worst franchises in the league), which is whether this is a temporary move by Paul to get closer to playing for the Lakers. At any rate, some media outlets think that David Stern did exactly what he tried to avoid earlier and created another big market powerhouse:

No matter what David Stern says, the controversy surrounding the Chris Paul trade(s) started because he was initially going to the Los Angeles Lakers, the league’s marquee franchise. As Dan Gilbert’s strongly worded letter showed, small-market clubs still harbor a good deal of animosity towards their big-market colleagues. It’s not too surprising either, because the dynamic between those franchises is what caused the lockout in the first place.

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Finally, let’s talk high school hoops. Thursday night saw a bevy of games on ESPN, including Oak Hill and Miller Grove in a game loaded with high major talent. It’s great to see players we’ve featured on Basketball Elite in the past as they move on to become more known in their careers, including players like Tyler Lewis, Jordan Adams and A.J. Hammons. Oh, by the way, A.J.’s interview will be posted next week.