So, this guy makes sense, right. (Nathaniel S. Butler/NBA/Getty Images)

A look around the league and the Web that covers it. It's also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren't always listed in order of importance. That's for you, dear reader, to figure out.

C: The Painted Area. Two of the smartest people with whom I have ever interacted in this basketball blog world — Mark Haubner and Kevin Pelton — bat around the Kings-Rockets-Suns deal through the lens of a central question — is Thomas Robinson actually, um, good?

[Also: Former NBA lottery pick refuses to leave trashed, foreclosed home]

PF: The Shadow League. Khalid Salaam on Kyrie Irving, on-court brilliance and how "the fallacy of associating black male authenticity with inner-city blues is a trap for suckers and punks." I can't speak to this level of conversation, but it damn sure is an interesting conversation.

SF: Posting and Toasting. Even if we accept that the New York Knicks' defense is the primary reason for the team's recent struggles, which it is ... I mean, what's up with their offense? Love of My Life Seth Rosenthal takes a closer look.

SG: Minnesota Post. Britt Robson on what the lagging, injury-riddled Minnesota Timberwolves have to look forward to — and worry about — as they play out the string this season.

PG: The Classical. Michael Pina stretches out to consider why Kenneth Faried offers "as good a reason to watch basketball as any player in the league."

Tony Parker goes around and over Eric Bledsoe en route to another layup. (AP/Mark J. Terrill)

After a sensational nationally televised performance in a beat-'em-down win over the Pacific Division-leading Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday night — an outing in which he not only scored a game-high 31 points on 12 for 16 shooting and dished seven assists without a turnover in just 28 minutes, but also did all that while completely outshining All-Star Game MVP and "best point guard in the world" title-holder Chris Paul — a lot of people are talking quite a bit about San Antonio Spurs triggerman Tony Parker. And they're saying a mouthful.

During halftime of Thursday's Spurs/Clippers game, TNT analyst (and "The Price is Right" enthusiast) Charles Barkley called Parker, not Paul, the "best point guard in the NBA," and his colleague Kenny Smith agreed. Barkley then, as he so often does, took things one step further.

"This guy — first of all, he should be the MVP," Barkley said. "Listen, LeBron [James] is the best player. Kevin Durant's probably a better player. But when we've been voting on the MVP the last 25 years, we gave it to the guy who had the best record on the best team. Tony Parker should be the MVP. [...] If they finish with the best record — because you think of all the time that [Tim] Duncan and my man [Manu] Ginobili have missed — this guy's unbelievable. And just because he's down in San Antonio with all those big old women, he don't get the credit and respect he deserves."

Setting aside Charles' estimation of the women of San Antonio — I've never been, I wouldn't know — his evaluation of Parker's performance for the Spurs, whose league-leading mark now sits at 44-12, four games clear of the Oklahoma City Thunder for the top spot in the Western Conference, is pretty remarkable. I mean, All-Star selections aside, Tony Parker never gets this kind of national pub. There's got to be something to this, right?

Well played, Chuck. (Screencap via SI.com's Extra Mustard)

Charles Barkley celebrated his 50th birthday by living out many a quinquagenarian's dream — appearing on the long-running and popular CBS daytime game show, "The Price is Right."

Barkley appeared as part of the show's second annual "Celebrity Charity Week," which also featured the likes of Ozzy wife/competition judge Sharon Osbourne, Disney Channel personality turned competition judge/person with whom I am not entirely familiar Demi Lovato, legitimate Georgian housewife NeNe Leakes, and boy-band brothers Nick and Drew Lachey. (A completely perfect group for Sir Charles to join, obviously.) Host Drew Carey showed Barkley five items in some way related to him and — as tends to happen on "The Price is Right" — asked to identify their retail value without going over the correct price.

Stephen Jackson played with a heavy heart on Thursday. (Noah Graham/NBA/Getty Images)When Stephen Jackson left the San Antonio Spurs prior to their Feb. 11 matchup with the Chicago Bulls for "personal reasons," you had to wonder what exactly was going on with the 34-year-old swingman. Not only were the Spurs in the middle of their annual "Rodeo Road Trip," typically a galvanizing and important stretch for one of the West's top teams, but as Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News noted, we're talking about someone who once tried to practice the day after being hit by a car; for him to leave in the middle of a road trip, especially just a couple of games before the All-Star break, something pretty serious had to be up.

[Also: Former NBA lottery pick refuses to leave trashed, foreclosed home]

We know now, unfortunately, that "pretty serious" doesn't begin to cover it. As McDonald's Express-News colleague Mike Monroe reported, Jackson returned to the Spurs for their Thursday night matchup with the Los Angeles Clippers after missing the prior three games to be with his wife, Renata, who last week suffered a miscarriage and lost the child she had been carrying for 6 1/2 months. It would have been the Jacksons' first child.

“I’m as good as I can be,” Jackson said before Thursday’s Spurs-Clippers game at Staples Center. “I’m happy to be back with the team. I need to be back with the team, just for my own sanity. Basketball and being around these guys helps me a lot, so it’s definitely something I needed.”

Jackson learned of the loss while the Spurs were on the first phase of the rodeo road trip. He left the team after it arrived in Chicago for a game Feb. 11, missing games in Chicago, Cleveland and Sacramento. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich told Jackson to take as much time away from the team as he needed.

“It was an unfortunate situation,” Jackson said. “Very frustrating and emotional and I’m nowhere close to being over it.

[Also: Mark Cuban thinks the Lakers should amnesty Kobe Bryant]

“My wife is not doing too well, so I’m happy I had a coach like Pop who gave me the time to be with her. In order for me to help her I also have to help myself because this was a baby we were definitely looking forward to having. Being back with the team hopefully is going to help me be able to help my wife even more.”

After a less-than-thrilling trade deadline that some believe ranked among the worst the NBA's ever seen, we just wanted to see something fun on Thursday night's TNT double-header, and with a pair of games featuring talented no-doubt playoff teams. Unfortunately, the first half of the evening-opening contest between the East-leading Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls saw just 80 total points, 27 turnovers and a relative lack of cool, fun play.

So we appreciated LeBron James opening the third quarter with something jaunty and neat ... even if it didn't count.

Pretty cool way to make sure we're paying attention after a kicked ball, LeBron.

The left-handed 3 from the left side, banked in high off the top left-hand corner of the backboard called to mind this little piece of Larry Legend-making, related by Hall of Famer Larry Bird to ESPN.com's Rick Reilly:

He's baaaaaaack. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

A look around the league and the Web that covers it. It's also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren't always listed in order of importance. That's for you, dear reader, to figure out.

C: Yahoo! Sports. Our own Marc J. Spears breaks the news that the New York Knicks, fresh off clearing a roster spot in a deal pre-trade deadline deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder, have reached an agreement on a 10-day contract with power forward Kenyon Martin, a former No. 1 overall pick and 12-year veteran who split last year between the Chinese Basketball Association and the Los Angeles Clippers, but hadn't played in the NBA yet this season. He's 35 and used to play for the Denver Nuggets, so he'll fit right in with the Knicks, I guess.

PF: The Basketball Jones. Toronto Raptors play-by-play man Matt Devlin (or a certain Canadian podcaster/ex-BDL editor, anyway) takes up the pen, the pad and the mic in a diss track aimed at "local" rapper Wale.

SF: Sports Illustrated. Lee Jenkins, one of the best basketball writers alive, on why trading Kevin Garnett today would have meant the Boston Celtics forfeiting their identity. An awful lot of awesome in a pretty small package, this story is.

Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson impersonate the 2013 trade deadline. (AP/Rick Bowmer)

Heading into Thursday's 3 p.m. EST NBA trade deadline, plenty of speculation surrounded which path the Utah Jazz would take. The team has been careful about its payroll structure in recent years, hitting the reset button during the 2010-11 season following the resignation/retirement of head coach Jerry Sloan by trading (then-)franchise point guard Deron Williams, who was in line for a big payday following the 2011-12 season, to the (then-)New Jersey Nets in exchange for 2010 No. 3 pick Derrick Favors, depreciating asset Devin Harris and a pair of first-round draft picks. They turned the Nets' 2011 first-rounder into Turkish center Enes Kanter; barring a major collapse by a seemingly playoff-bound team, they'll get the Golden State Warriors' No. 1 this year.

With the exception of center Al Jefferson, whose five-year, $65 million contract the team brought in prior to blowing things up, and versatile forward Paul Millsap, who's a pretty good bargain at the $8-million-per deal he got when Utah matched the Portland Trail Blazers' offer sheet for him back in 2009, the Jazz have largely controlled costs. They've relied on short-term, short-money veterans to play roles and sop up minutes, and chosen to bide their time until they could build around developing young players like Favors, Kanter, swingman Gordon Hayward and guard Alec Burks. Only those four players, 25-year-old jumping jack Jeremy Evans and 2012 second-rounder Kevin Murphy have contracts beyond next season; only those six players plus small forward Marvin Williams are presently on the books for next season.

Jefferson's a top-flight low-post scorer and defensive rebounder who might stink on defense, but never turns the ball over, can shoot from midrange and can go toe-to-toe with any post defender in the NBA. Millsap is a reliably efficient scorer and rebounder with improving range who, while not a great defender, is an opportunistic one who generates a lot of steals. They are both 28 years old, healthy and on expiring contracts. These are players (Millsap, especially) who, in theory, could have been helpful to contenders, and whose jettisoning at this year's deadline could have netted Utah a piece to add to that young core, while also opening up minutes for Favors and Kanter.

And yet ...

Jazz confirm that they did not make a move at the deadline.

— Bill Oram (@tribjazz) February 21, 2013

... they did nothin'. (Kind of like most other teams.)

Smile, Dexter -- you're the star of the deadline. (Ron Elkman/Sports Imagery)Hey, who says the 2013 NBA trade deadline isn't exciting? What's more exciting than Dexter Pittman being on the move, huh?

Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal first reported that the Memphis Grizzlies were "in serious talks" to acquire Pittman — a 24-year-old center taken out of Texas by the Miami Heat in the second round of the 2010 NBA draft — and a second-round draft pick from the Heat before Thursday's 3 p.m. trade deadline. Shortly thereafter, Yahoo! Sports NBA columnist Marc J. Spears tweeted that the two sides had agreed to a deal in which the Grizzlies would pick up Pittman by absorbing the balance of his minimum-salary contract — about $323,000 remaining this year, give or take — using a trade exception created by a previous deal.

This seems, primarily, to be a housekeeping arrangement. The East-leading Heat had a full 15-man roster with Pittman on board and wanted to create a slot to possibly pursue a veteran big man who could contribute to their bid for a championship repeat in a more meaningful way than the little-used third-year center. The Grizzlies, meanwhile, had just 12 players on their roster after their recent deals, had to add a 13th pursuant to NBA rules, and had to flexibility to facilitate Miami's desire for a roster spot. The 2013 second-rounder is the cost of Pittman's freight. (And, considering Pittman's generously listed at 275 pounds, that's some freight.) Miami will also get a traded player exception for sending out Pittman's salary without taking any salary back in return; Pittman's on the books for $854,389 this year. Teams have one year from the time they receive/create their trade exceptions to use them in deal, according to Larry Coon's NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement FAQ.