A few sports observations after a long lay off from this blog.
There is no good excuse for abandoning this blog, but if I were to offer one, it would be fantasy basketball. Running a fantasy hoops league and football league where I feel the need to comment and trash talk on those respective sites eats into the time I have to rant and rave here. Nevertheless, I still have more to say.
So here are some observations after the first few days of the NBA season and by now some of this is already out of date.
1. I love fantasy hoops. We have a head to head league where your team has to put up better numbers in at least 4 of 7 categories to get a win. For a recap of my draft and a team by team breakdown of the league (if you are extremely hard up for something to read or just want to check out what fantasy hoops is all about), you can click on the 26by2sand3s link on this site. It’s a great league and I think I have a decent, though not great team. I lost to the preseason favorite to win it all in my first week, and now I just lost Roy. Fairly devastating last couple days really.
My roster consists of the following:
Centers – T. Murphy, E. Curry, S. Dalembert – all could be great or awful. We’ll see.
Forwards – S. Marion, E. Brand, V. Carter, B. Roy, C. Wilcox, G. Hill – That’s as good a group as there is in my league….or was until Roy went down
Guard – M. Williams, R. Jefferson, M. James, C. Arroyo – If you’ve never heard of C. Arroyo, that probably tells you all you need to know about my guards. Not so good.
This week I play one of my fellow Schwabe lawyers, Steve, and I’m off to a rocky start after one night.
2. I was more excited about this season than usual, and that is saying something. Not sure why precisely, just excited. Maybe, it is that for the first time in a while, the Blazers have me pumped up. Not because they will be good, but because they are finally headed in the right direction and will be fun to root for this year. Here’s my take on the first game:
a. Most fun Blazer game I’ve seen on TV since the last time they were in the playoffs. Seriously. And it was just game 1 of the season against another bad team, the Sonics. I’m not sure if that says more about the past several years or about me, but it was fun.
b. Zach is one of the best low post players in the league, when he wants to be and he did against Seattle after a few early outside shots. He is a load and really actually underrated on offense. He could average 25 and 12 if he gets even the slightest help from his teammates to pull the defensive pressure. He’s not super athletic, but he is very strong and talented. Sure, I wish he was a better person, but right now I’m just glad he seems recommitted to being a better Blazer.
c. Roy still looks real. I was pumped when the Blazers drafted him because I thought he was the best player coming out of the draft. Tough on D, athletic, can shoot, can handle, can pass, smart, good person, good leader, hard worker, nothing to dislike. Then summer league made that line of thinking seem dead on. Then preseason he continued to look really good and continued to improve with every game. But all that doesn’t matter. So, the big question was, what about when it matters? Wednesday’s game didn’t answer that question, but it was further indication that the answer will be to the liking of the Blazers and their fans. He looked great and won that game for the Blazers. He was clutch, under control and played the pick and roll perfectly to devastating results with Zebo on the other end. It has been so long since the Blazers had a player like that. Will he dominate this year? Probably not, but if he keeps improving and building off of what happened Wednesday, he could single handedly make the Blazers competitive in every game. Note, I said “competitive.” That doesn’t mean I think they will win a ton of games or make the playoffs or anything silly like that. Just that they won’t be a joke.
I wrote that last paragraph before Roy’s injury. I still don’t know the extent of it yet, though word on the street is that it could be long term and require surgery. We should know more late tonight or tomorrow. I have to say this is the single most depressing thing to happen in sports since Balco. I was so pumped about Roy both for real and fantasy basketball, that he could be done for several months or maybe even the season is almost more than I can handle.
d. Jack looked fine, but not great. I think as long as they have Roy handle the point at the end of games and use Jack more in the 2 with Roy and Zach running pick and roll, Jack will be good at the point for this team. Of course, now with no Roy, Jack will have to be huge.
e. Outlaw didn’t impress me, though he did play better than usual. I think he’s a bust. And that’s even after that game against Minny.
f. Ime Uodoka is one of the best untold stories in sports. Undrafted 29 year old rookied from basketball powerhouse Portland State University, not only makes the team, but starts the opener and then not only plays very well, but got the game winning offensive rebound and hit two huge free throws in the clutch. What a great story. He deserves to keep starting and the players love him.
3. I love the LeBrons. Part of it is just that I really like Lebron, but it’s also a fun and often funny commercial that provides a nice break from the thousands of boring car, beer, insurance and pharmaceuticals commercials. I have to say though that I thought the Dunk add and the 2 on 2 add were a bit weak. That said, the swimming add made up for it. Hilarious. Business LeBron’s dive is right up there with the early Little Penny adds and Mars Blackmon in the pantheon of ground breaking sports related adds. Fantastic. It’s good every time.
4. All that said, LeBron is watching his add work mimic his hoops career. Like the king himself, the LeBrons are great stuff. In the end though, they lose out to Wade with the help of a larger player. The Wade/Charles adds are the best on TV right now. They’re simple and short which is nice and the facial expressions sell the whole thing. Watch Wade’s face when Barkley tells him “It wadn’t really about the hat.” He looks genuinely hurt and disappointed. I love it.
5. I love the “new” rules in the NBA. First of all, calling a guy for traveling who changes pivot feet before dribbling is not a new rule, it is just finally enforcing an original rule. I love that every year the NBA decides which of its rules to enforce while openly admitting that it doesn’t enforce all of them. They don’t change the rules, they just change which ones they care about from year to year. Well, it’s better now. The new traveling calls, the new foul calls, the new deference to the offensive player on charge/blocking calls, it is all great for the game. Right now it has made the games ugly in stretches with lots of foul calls, but as the players adjust, it will only get better and better.
Mostly, though I love the new Technical foul enforcement. What? Finally we’re asking the players to act like adults? Unheard of. It is great. I watch sports with my young sons and love nothing more than for them to see that there are consequences to acting like a baby on the court. The fact that they bounced Melo last night on a second T for throwing his head band at the ground after he was already off the court on a nationally televised game, told me they are serious. What’s the over/under on Ts for Sheed this year? I mean, I think his record is 41 for a season. If it was set at 40 would you take the under? Not sure I would. Good times.
One more thing they need to add though. Let’s start giving guys a T for obvious over acting to draw a foul call. Flopping, throwing your arms and screaming when you get stripped, falling to the ground whenever you’re touched, wincing and grimacing every time a defender so much as breaths on you. It is the most obnoxious thing going right now. Manu and Sam Cassel could be used as the poster children.
6. How can we convince TNT to permanently replace Magic with Reggie? I mean at very least let’s not have Magic any more and just go back to just Ernie, Chuck and Kenny with an occasional guest who isn’t Magic. But I would take Reggie every week because, he’s smart, he knows hoops, he is articulate and he is feisty. With a little more comfort, I could see him cracking on Charles all the time which would be very entertaining. So how do we do this? A write in campaign perhaps? At very least, lets not ask Magic for any more insight into the team he partly owns as if we are getting legit commentary. I can’t believe that even has to be brought up.
7. I wanted to write more and even add some football stuff, but I can’t even get myself excited about the Niners winning with Roy’s status uncertain. That said, the Niners did win, so, you know, that’s good. They didn’t look good, but let’s not be picky.
Hopefully it won’t take me month between my next post.
There is no good excuse for abandoning this blog, but if I were to offer one, it would be fantasy basketball. Running a fantasy hoops league and football league where I feel the need to comment and trash talk on those respective sites eats into the time I have to rant and rave here. Nevertheless, I still have more to say.
So here are some observations after the first few days of the NBA season and by now some of this is already out of date.
1. I love fantasy hoops. We have a head to head league where your team has to put up better numbers in at least 4 of 7 categories to get a win. For a recap of my draft and a team by team breakdown of the league (if you are extremely hard up for something to read or just want to check out what fantasy hoops is all about), you can click on the 26by2sand3s link on this site. It’s a great league and I think I have a decent, though not great team. I lost to the preseason favorite to win it all in my first week, and now I just lost Roy. Fairly devastating last couple days really.
My roster consists of the following:
Centers – T. Murphy, E. Curry, S. Dalembert – all could be great or awful. We’ll see.
Forwards – S. Marion, E. Brand, V. Carter, B. Roy, C. Wilcox, G. Hill – That’s as good a group as there is in my league….or was until Roy went down
Guard – M. Williams, R. Jefferson, M. James, C. Arroyo – If you’ve never heard of C. Arroyo, that probably tells you all you need to know about my guards. Not so good.
This week I play one of my fellow Schwabe lawyers, Steve, and I’m off to a rocky start after one night.
2. I was more excited about this season than usual, and that is saying something. Not sure why precisely, just excited. Maybe, it is that for the first time in a while, the Blazers have me pumped up. Not because they will be good, but because they are finally headed in the right direction and will be fun to root for this year. Here’s my take on the first game:
a. Most fun Blazer game I’ve seen on TV since the last time they were in the playoffs. Seriously. And it was just game 1 of the season against another bad team, the Sonics. I’m not sure if that says more about the past several years or about me, but it was fun.
b. Zach is one of the best low post players in the league, when he wants to be and he did against Seattle after a few early outside shots. He is a load and really actually underrated on offense. He could average 25 and 12 if he gets even the slightest help from his teammates to pull the defensive pressure. He’s not super athletic, but he is very strong and talented. Sure, I wish he was a better person, but right now I’m just glad he seems recommitted to being a better Blazer.
c. Roy still looks real. I was pumped when the Blazers drafted him because I thought he was the best player coming out of the draft. Tough on D, athletic, can shoot, can handle, can pass, smart, good person, good leader, hard worker, nothing to dislike. Then summer league made that line of thinking seem dead on. Then preseason he continued to look really good and continued to improve with every game. But all that doesn’t matter. So, the big question was, what about when it matters? Wednesday’s game didn’t answer that question, but it was further indication that the answer will be to the liking of the Blazers and their fans. He looked great and won that game for the Blazers. He was clutch, under control and played the pick and roll perfectly to devastating results with Zebo on the other end. It has been so long since the Blazers had a player like that. Will he dominate this year? Probably not, but if he keeps improving and building off of what happened Wednesday, he could single handedly make the Blazers competitive in every game. Note, I said “competitive.” That doesn’t mean I think they will win a ton of games or make the playoffs or anything silly like that. Just that they won’t be a joke.
I wrote that last paragraph before Roy’s injury. I still don’t know the extent of it yet, though word on the street is that it could be long term and require surgery. We should know more late tonight or tomorrow. I have to say this is the single most depressing thing to happen in sports since Balco. I was so pumped about Roy both for real and fantasy basketball, that he could be done for several months or maybe even the season is almost more than I can handle.
d. Jack looked fine, but not great. I think as long as they have Roy handle the point at the end of games and use Jack more in the 2 with Roy and Zach running pick and roll, Jack will be good at the point for this team. Of course, now with no Roy, Jack will have to be huge.
e. Outlaw didn’t impress me, though he did play better than usual. I think he’s a bust. And that’s even after that game against Minny.
f. Ime Uodoka is one of the best untold stories in sports. Undrafted 29 year old rookied from basketball powerhouse Portland State University, not only makes the team, but starts the opener and then not only plays very well, but got the game winning offensive rebound and hit two huge free throws in the clutch. What a great story. He deserves to keep starting and the players love him.
3. I love the LeBrons. Part of it is just that I really like Lebron, but it’s also a fun and often funny commercial that provides a nice break from the thousands of boring car, beer, insurance and pharmaceuticals commercials. I have to say though that I thought the Dunk add and the 2 on 2 add were a bit weak. That said, the swimming add made up for it. Hilarious. Business LeBron’s dive is right up there with the early Little Penny adds and Mars Blackmon in the pantheon of ground breaking sports related adds. Fantastic. It’s good every time.
4. All that said, LeBron is watching his add work mimic his hoops career. Like the king himself, the LeBrons are great stuff. In the end though, they lose out to Wade with the help of a larger player. The Wade/Charles adds are the best on TV right now. They’re simple and short which is nice and the facial expressions sell the whole thing. Watch Wade’s face when Barkley tells him “It wadn’t really about the hat.” He looks genuinely hurt and disappointed. I love it.
5. I love the “new” rules in the NBA. First of all, calling a guy for traveling who changes pivot feet before dribbling is not a new rule, it is just finally enforcing an original rule. I love that every year the NBA decides which of its rules to enforce while openly admitting that it doesn’t enforce all of them. They don’t change the rules, they just change which ones they care about from year to year. Well, it’s better now. The new traveling calls, the new foul calls, the new deference to the offensive player on charge/blocking calls, it is all great for the game. Right now it has made the games ugly in stretches with lots of foul calls, but as the players adjust, it will only get better and better.
Mostly, though I love the new Technical foul enforcement. What? Finally we’re asking the players to act like adults? Unheard of. It is great. I watch sports with my young sons and love nothing more than for them to see that there are consequences to acting like a baby on the court. The fact that they bounced Melo last night on a second T for throwing his head band at the ground after he was already off the court on a nationally televised game, told me they are serious. What’s the over/under on Ts for Sheed this year? I mean, I think his record is 41 for a season. If it was set at 40 would you take the under? Not sure I would. Good times.
One more thing they need to add though. Let’s start giving guys a T for obvious over acting to draw a foul call. Flopping, throwing your arms and screaming when you get stripped, falling to the ground whenever you’re touched, wincing and grimacing every time a defender so much as breaths on you. It is the most obnoxious thing going right now. Manu and Sam Cassel could be used as the poster children.
6. How can we convince TNT to permanently replace Magic with Reggie? I mean at very least let’s not have Magic any more and just go back to just Ernie, Chuck and Kenny with an occasional guest who isn’t Magic. But I would take Reggie every week because, he’s smart, he knows hoops, he is articulate and he is feisty. With a little more comfort, I could see him cracking on Charles all the time which would be very entertaining. So how do we do this? A write in campaign perhaps? At very least, lets not ask Magic for any more insight into the team he partly owns as if we are getting legit commentary. I can’t believe that even has to be brought up.
7. I wanted to write more and even add some football stuff, but I can’t even get myself excited about the Niners winning with Roy’s status uncertain. That said, the Niners did win, so, you know, that’s good. They didn’t look good, but let’s not be picky.
Hopefully it won’t take me month between my next post.
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