Links To The Present: January 29th, 2010

-LeBron James has been fined $25,000 for kicking a water bottle during the Minnesota game. LeBron was frustrated about a few no-calls on his drives to the hoop, and briefly lost his cool. Even if he was right, there’s not a lot of upside to losing your composure on the court.

-An unnamed scout on whether the Cavs would be better off with Jamison or Murphy, via Mark Stein’s Weekend Dime:

“Jamison can help them more short-term, but I like Murphy’s contract better.

“Jamison is better around the basket. He can shoot 3s like Murphy can. But the last year of Jamison’s deal — $15 million when he’ll be 35 — would scare me. So I’d go with Murphy.

“He doesn’t play defense like the Cavs [expect], but he only has one season left after this one [at nearly $12 million]. If I’m the Cavs and I end up losing LeBron, I’m not going to want Jamison on my books in that last year at $15 million.”

-Chad Ford says the Cavs are one of his 10 teams most likely to make a deal at the deadline. The new piece of information is that the Cavs would be willing to give up their first-round pick this season to get a deal done.

-Below, Elie Seckbach talks to Delonte West before a game. I love Delonte.

-On FreeDarko, Sherman Alexie writes a poem about advanced basketball statistics. Varejao and LeBron are featured.

-A bunch of people have said it, and it was painfully obvious to see if you watched the game last night: Vince Carter, Rasheed Wallace, and Kevin Garnett all look old.

Alright, see you with a preview in a little bit.