Now, truthfully, do you really care if Ike Austin gets traded or not?

Around The Rim is back after a brief respite to take you in directions you never thought possible. Today's ranting includes trade talk and other little nuggets. And speaking of Nuggets, nice effort Wednesday night. They had 37 points after 36 minutes, or three periods. Washington scored 40 in one period alone on Wednesday. The Nuggets and Bucks put on truly dreadful performances.

While you will notice the section that once upon a time dealt with Shaq's Free Throw Follies remains Fantasy Corner, some of you have written in to say we never gave Shaq credit for finally figuring out the weak part of his game. OK, Shaq, congrats on finally making half you freebies and being totally unstoppable. Hurrah! He should've been making these shots years ago.

As always, if you wanna vent your feelings on Around The Rim or anything NBA, don't make like Dennis Rodman and sit down and pout, just click here and e-mail us.

In Heroes and Goats, did anyone else see how Anthony Mason ended his triple-double? He grabbed a meaningless rebound as time expired. It's a shame Wally Szczerbiak didn't have one more second to get his triple-double. Of course, stats are stats and you can't give more credit to stats done in crunch time. ... What you see with Larry Hughes is what you get. Now that Antawn Jamison's season is over, Hughes will shoot a ton, and probably not reach 40 percent from the field. ... John Starks in his final game with the Bulls: 17 points in 26 minutes. ... They have plus-minus in hockey. They should try it in hoops. The Bucks' big three would have to be a minus for the season. What Washington did to them was pathetic. ... Think Orlando is happy with Ron Mercer so far? We don't think so either. Here's some more. Enjoy.

Heroes ...
Mitch Richmond Wiz 26 points on 9-of-12 shooting, 4-4 on threes	Anthony Mason Hornets Likes that point forward thing; 12, 10 and 11 vs. Rockets	Wally Szczerbiak Wolves Starting to really play well; 1 board shy of triple-double

... and Goats
Larry Hughes Warriors He's gonna shoot a lot; 2-for-16 in loss to Wolves	Ron Mercer Magic Was 2-for-11 in 18 unproductive minutes vs. Sonics	Raef LaFrentz Nugs One of many to not show up vs. Suns; 3 pts, 3 rebs in 19 minutes

This is getting old
Everyone's talking about the trade deadline on Thursday and all the people that have to be moved. Guess what? It's nearly impossible for any real deals to happen. The Toni Kukoc deal had to have a third team in order for that one to go down, and Philly probably sold its soul and will regret it dearly in the offseason when Toni bolts for Europe. The Ron Mercer trade was because Denver didn't want to keep him, or the people they got in the deal. In fact, all the people in that trade may be elsewhere next season. Big deal.

Whatever happened to real trading?

Frankly, we're a little tired of all the talk about Glen Rice and Bison Dele and, as Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders called it, the "waste management" the Knicks have to offer. Isaac Austin? How many more teams can he underachieve for? This is the best we can do? We heard a rumor about Jim Jackson for Doug Christie. A simple one-for-one. That would be refreshing. Rice for Shawn Kemp? Yes, we'll take that.

But enough with Dele, who is managing a sewage plant in Israel and doesn't even want to play anymore. Every NBA team wants him so they can release him and lose the money off their cap. What kind of league is this? Nobody wants Rice, arguably the finest outside shooting forward of the last decade, but everyone wants a guy who has almost no chance to play?

Sure, we know it's all about the cap and the luxury tax and wooing Tim Duncan and Grant Hill in July, but NBA fans don't give two Dennis Rodmans about that stuff. They like to watch their teams play and root for their favorite players. And everyone loves trade talk, as evidenced by all the rumors you hear that have no chance of happening. Here's what should happen this week, if playoff teams wanted to win.