The Dream Shake, a Houston Rockets community

(And by the way, nobody loves basketball more than me. I mean, NOBODY. But when an NBA player with two years remaining on his contract for a total of $44 million shows up for the season out of shape, complains most of the year, lets down his teammates and fans again and again, lands in some trade rumors and decides, "Instead of getting traded to a team I don't like, I'm going to announce that I'm getting microfracture surgery four days before the trade deadline and kill any potential trade, and even better, I'll be healed by next spring, just in time to showcase myself for another contract," and successfully pulls this off -- with no repercussions from anybody -- then yes, the system is broken and needs to be fixed. Because that was disgusting. Tracy McGrady, you are officially indefensible for the rest of eternity. Even your cousin Vince wouldn't have done that. And that's saying something.)

Tracy's Pick for the Title:
"Lakers. (Host: That easy, again?) It’s no knock on Cleveland, I think Cleveland’s gonna get there… Cleveland to me is really not that good. If you take what the Celtics did last year… You knew, they were either gonna get to the finals, or they were gonna win it. You can’t really say the same thing about the Cavaliers. Although, they had the best record in the league this year, a lot of people like, ‘Okay, they havin’ a great year, but we don’t know if they can win the championship.’ They really didn’t do anything on the road with the elite teams in the league, they lost, they had a bad record when they went to face the elite teams in the league. I think they’re a good team, but I don’t they’re ready to take the next step."

Speaking of Carter, well-placed league sources say there is a good chance Carter is moved before the trade deadline. San Antonio, Dallas and Cleveland have all been mentioned as possible destinations, but sources say that the emerging dark horse is Houston.

A trade of Carter and Trenton Hassell for Tracy McGrady would achieve two goals for New Jersey: It would get the Nets another $15 million further under the cap in 2010, and it would allow them to remain competitive in the interim.

It appears that the oft-injured McGrady has worn out his welcome in Houston, so it's hard to see why the Rockets wouldn't make that deal."