Good for him

In the summer of 2003 Mike James was a classic fringe NBA player. Someone who was too small to play defense on shooting guards but without any point guard skills whatsoever, James was a free agent the Miami Heat had little/no interest in resigning. Watching him as the #2 offensive option in Toronto this last season I routinely couldn't freaking believe we were talking about the same player.

After signing him at the end of the summer the Celtics exchanged James for Chucky Atkins two-thirds of the way through the 03-04 season (in the infamous Rasheed Wallace deal) and we looked worlds better on offense right away. You know you're a lousy PG when Chucky Atkins is a big immediate improvement. James had an early season game in the fall of '03(I can't remember the opponent now) when he hit the winning a shot at the buzzer and it seemed to ruin him for the year. He spent the rest of his time in Boston charging uncontrollably into the lane and too often turning the ball over in a crowd. That and standing around for the first 15 seconds of the shot clock doing nothing are my primary memories of the Mike James PG experiment. He, Pierce and Davis looked awful together; like a bad pick-up team of guys who all want to shot, don't care much for team defense, but are all good enough that everyone defers to them anyway. This was during the (to date) low point of Pierce's career and he looked miserable through lots of it.

Now James is on to his 7th team in 6 years-- and paired with Ricky again-- but this time will get $6M+ for his efforts. The guy has certainly worked hard enough on his career. Nice for him that his retirement just got a whole lot better.

At the same time I'm not sure how this TWolves team comes together. If Foye lives up to his billing they'll have three pretty identical players in their backcourt, but not one of them a point guard who can make his teammates better. McHale has spent the last several years trying to add talent through free agency, and getting nothing from the draft. It's left him with a roster of over-paid rotation players many of whom are on the downside of their careers. Will the soon-to-be-32-year old James be much different? I wouldn't count on it.