Jerome James is a starter

A lot of people like to rip on Isiah Thomas’s trades and free agent signings, and there’s good reason for that – most of them are horrible, and even the most rudimentary basketball fan can usually make that call immediately.

(To cite an extreme example of this, we were making jokes about Zeke trading for Steve Francis weeks before it happened, simply because it was so outrageous and such a wrong move, we thought there’s no way he could ever een conceive of doing it.)

Anyway, with all the Superb Bowl stuff going on yesterday, we missed a little thing that happened Saturday night in the Knicks’ win over the Magic: hilarious and much maligned Thomas free agent signee Jerome James started next to Eddy Curry.

The James’ insertion was the best-kept secret in Florida during their three-day stay, with the news media not finding out until 30 minutes before Saturday’s tip-off. “Isiah wanted it that way,” James said.

[Ed note: Hell yes he did - can you imagine the laughter exploding throughout the assembled media?]

“Jerome brings a defensive presence to the game and it allows Eddy to roam and challenge some shots a bit more,” Thomas said.

So…by bringing in a defensive center to play alongside Curry, it allows Curry to concentrate on…defense? Wouldn’t it make more sense to at least say that it lets him concentrate on his offense, or just assists him on D or something? Can we ask more questions? YES.

We thought Eddy didn’t even play defense? Does having the mental crutch of assuming “James will take care of it” really help? Isn’t the idea of “James taking care of it” a joke in and of itself? And what of David Lee? Isn’t this the guy everyone on Earth agrees sould really be the starting power forward? Young, energetic, rebounding machine?

Let’s run this down once:

Everyone on Earth thought trading for Steve Francis was a bad idea. Everyone on Earth was right.

Everyone on Earth thought signing Jared Jeffries was a bad idea. Everyone on Earth was right.

Everyone on Earth thinks David Lee on the bench is a bad idea. Everyone on Earth is _______. (The answer is “right”.)

That said, Isiah now has the distinction of having created the chubbiest front line in the NBA, and everyone on Earth agrees there’s something significant there. You get Antoine Walker in there at small forward, and you’re talking legendary.

(There’s a chance Zeke is just trying to showcase James so he can trade him. Unfortunately, the only person dumb enough to fall for this is Isiah himself. Thus, a space-time paradox thingie.)