StumpTownSports

The Reason

2008-12-05T14:51:00.000-08:00

Jason Quick of the Oregonian says that one of his readers has labled Brandon Roy as "The Reason." As in, the reason Portland is so good, or the reason Portland's future is so bright or the reason their young players are so good or the reason your team just lost or the reason Portland is never out of a game or....well, you get the idea. I love it. I love "The Natural" too, but The Reason may be even better.

I'm going with it. You should too. Spread the word.

Some quick thoughts

2008-12-04T16:30:00.000-08:00

A few quick sports thoughts for you today:

I don’t understand why people don’t talk about how much Tyler Hansborough looks like a really tall Frodo Baggins. Also, why does he have such a bad haircut?

I think the teams in the Western Conference should be afraid of Denver. They are playing as well as anyone outside of LA and Melo hasn’t even started playing well yet. What if this is the year that Nene and Kmart actually stay healthy and Karl becomes a big game coach? Oh yeah, forget everything I just said. Oh well, at least the trade helped Billups on my fantasy team.

I can’t figure out why the Blazers don’t throw lobs to Oden. There is no play where this is even attempted. Yeah, he is still getting his legs back and doesn’t jump out of the gym, but he jumps well and is 7 freakin feat tall. Do the Blazers (other than Sergio) not know how? Does coach Nate hate lobs? It seems like Oden could get 8 points a game just by either running to the hoop on pick and rolls like Tyson Chandler or just jumping up when the defenders turn their back like Howard does. I don’t get this, and like most things I don’t get, it pisses me off.

Is the Plaxico shooting himself story the least interesting sports story of the month or the whole year? I thought a long time to see if I could care less about this “saga” and decided I could not. I almost long for the days of daily Barbaro updates.

I’m sad that Rudy doesn’t just go with “Rudy” on his jersey like he does on the Spanish team.
Is it possible that Kevin Durant is the next Shareef Abdur-Rahim? Great talent, great stats, no Ws. I know his team sucks, but isn’t that partly the point? If he is all that, should they suck that bad? It is early, but I have seen him play a couple times and yet to be wowed.

Speaking of hyped phenoms, I think everyone who favored Rose over Beas is looking pretty smart. I have to say that B Easy is looking more and more like Glen Robinson every day and that’s not a good thing.

Is there something about the Arizona sun that makes basketball players stupid? First Marion was upset that he played in the most fun system with the game’s best PG that made him look 5 times better than he was and now Amare is in the same boat. Why? Because Shaq is playing well again and gets more attention? Because you want your name to be mentioned with Wade and LBJ and Kobe? Get over yourself. Amare will never be “the man” on a contender so long as he needs to be so badly. Also, no player that plays such bad D should be that mouthy. He’s like a middle class man’s Zach Randolph right now. You heard me.

Blazer fans seem to be stuck in a state of deep emotional dissonance. No one is real sure whether to be disappointed in Oden or patient but everyone seems determined to talk about the debate until we all reach consensus. The local sports radio idiots have been fueling the fire lately on their morning show as they alternate dissing Oden and then swearing they’ve been Oden fans from day 1 when he has a decent game the next night. I blame the Blazers for this. They half-heartedly told us we would have to be patient and then started “leaking” news out of practice that made Oden sound like he would immediately be Shaq and Hakeem rolled into one. The Blazer broadcast guys, KP, Nate, the assistant coaches and the players all did nothing but talk about how unstoppable he was. Then when he finally got on the court for the public to see he looked confused, slow, disinterested and generally the opposite of dominant. If we hadn’t had to suffer so many winks and wry smiles and promises of “just wait and see” we the fans would have been willing to give him time. But since we were told to expect Wilt, we expected Wilt. Instead we got a young Erick Dampier and were justifiably disappointed and irritated. Personally, I think Oden will be just fine and may still end up being great, maybe by the end of this year but more likely in the 2010-11 season. But that’s fine because this team doesn’t need “great” from Oden. So, I don’t blame Oden. I blame the Blazers. Either he is a different player in practice than he is in the games or everyone just got a little overly excited. Whatever the reason it has led to constant annoying chatter on local radio which is only now slowly being replaced by the equally hysterical fans calling for Roy to be named MVP right now. Come on. Can’t we just sit back and enjoy this ride?

I know that I can…at least now that I’ve gotten this off my chest.

Your Portland Trailblazers

2008-04-15T11:50:00.000-07:00

Ding Dong the witch is dead. D Miles is gone and the last of the foul stench that was the Jail Blazers has finally wafted away. Good ridance. Now we just have to hope that he doesn't sign elsewhere and play in 10 games (his money comes back on the cap if that happens). To memorialize the moment, I am posting some Blazers thoughts on my orphaned sports blog. Enjoy and feel free to note your agreement in the comments section.

Next year, the Blazers will need:

1. A starting lineup of:

PG - Jose Calderon - I'm a Jose Calderon fan and to a lesser degree an Andre Miller fan for this team, though it would be preferable to find a point that can actually shoot. Problem is there aren't many PGs in the league that are an upgrade over Blake and the ones that are could not be less available. The best PG who might be available is probably Baron Davis, but I don't think he fits with this team unless Nate could make him stop shooting 3s and I just don’t want him. So, I'm in favor of trading up to get Rose or trading the pick and pieces for Miller. But I think the best course of action is somehow to convince Toronto to part with Calderon. He is underrated and underutilized and somewhat tradeable for Toronto. Is there someone else who would be an upgrade that might be on the market? I don't want Arenas. I'm not sure Hinrich is an upgrade. It’s easy to say we need a better point guard, but making it happen is a different story. Good thing we had Telfair so we didn’t need to draft Paul.

SG - Roy - I still don't want him at the Point full time as it exposes his weaknesses (durability, speed) and limits his strengths (everything else), but I do want to see him at the point in the 4th quarter like Miami uses Wade when he's available. That brings into question how much you spend on a topflight PG if he might be on the bench during crunch time. Personally, I think you still go after the best PG you can and just try to find one who can shoot well enough to play off the ball.

SF - Hedo Turkoglu - Made a huge jump in production this year, but is still redundant of Lewis. They are about to find out that you can't win in the playoffs with two outside shooting small forwards and only your center left to rebound and bang inside. Hedo was actually better than Lewis this year, but Lewis is too expensive to move. I think Hedo is available for the right price. It is probably dreaming to think the Blazers could get both Calderon and Hedo, but it's worth a shot. He would be perfect for the Blazers. Good passer, spreads the floor, can actually be a playmaker on offense, isn't a prima donna, and has turned into a good closer. My one concern is Defense, but you can live with one guy on the floor who doesn't play much D especially when Oden is guarding the rim.

PF - Aldridge - I think he took a nice step forward this year, but he needs to get stronger and improve his rebounding. Still, he looks like he could occupy this spot for a decade.

C - Oden - Count me among those who don't think he will dominate this year, but could still be the difference in 5-10 wins.

2. A bench of:

PG – Blake – It wouldn’t kill me if he was the starter again so long as we had another shooter/scorer who could play in the 4th with Roy. Blake was good, but not great this year and while I think they need an upgrade here to go forward, I have no problem with Blake getting quality minutes off the bench. – Westbrook? – Of the draftable PGs without getting Rose, I like him the best – Taurean Green – Still don’t get why we traded him. Koponenenenen – Hopefully he’ll be ready for a few minutes here and there. Missing – Jack and Sergio – I was a huge Jack fan and while I still think he’s a solid NBA player, he is no longer looking like part of the future. He’s too much 2 and not enough 1 and not consistent enough. I still like him, but he’s a trade asset at this point. Sergio has no place on this team. Can’t shoot at all, can’t finish at the rim and can’t play D. Do we really want to put that on the floor just so we can see a sweet no look pass once every 4 turnovers? If the only way to get Rudy is to keep him, fine. But he gets no minutes and I would rather see what we could get for him…..don’t you think he would fit well with the Raptors uptempo style?.....hmmm….

SG – Say it with me now…Rudy! Rudy! Rudy! The Blazers sent a team over to Spain this week to try to convince him to come. He seems to hold it against Nate that Sergio sucks and he can make a ton more money over seas, but other than that, why wouldn’t he come? This is another test for KP. He found the talent, now he needs to land him. He immediately becomes the Blazer’s Manu. A 6th man that scores for the second unit and plays down the stretch for the first. He and Roy can both handle and the combination they could provide could be one of the league’s best. Not sure about Rudy’s D, but hopefully he can at least flop well. - Stephon Curry – Might he slide to the Blazers in the second? Who knows, but I’m thinking the Blazers look for someone like Curry or Eddie House who can come off the bench on any given night and go bezerk even if you know it won’t be every night. I also think Martel can play some 2. Missing – Von “illa” Wafer. Why is he on our team again? – J Jack – See above.

SF – Webster/Jones – I still like this combination of shooting. Webster gets better doing other things every year and we can just ride whoever is hot or healthy. You can’t have too much shooting and maybe Webster has to go to make some of the above referenced trades happen and if so, ok, but otherwise, I still think the kid can play and gets better every year. He is secretly one of the best dunkers on the team. I also think Roy, Aldridge and Rudy can potentially play some minutes here as needed. If we got Hedo, Outlaw might be a better change of pace fit off the bench, but he’s actually better at the 4 and should be the prime trade bait. Missing – Outlaw – I appreciate the effort and the improvement, but like Jack he is probably needed more as a trade piece than a building block.

PF – Joel Freeman? Josh McRoberts? I like both of those guys, but what the Blazers really need is a rebounder. Suddenly Frye is a rebounding machine for the first time in his life with Prz on the IR. Where was that earlier in the season? If he can keep that up he can stay. Otherwise, he needs to go. He needs to go because his minutes need to be given by an Oakley/Kurt Thomas/PJ Brown/ power rebounder type. I don’t know who else might be out there in the league or in the draft in the second round or if Freeman could be this guy, but I think he’s a bit short. Blazers need someone with size that can get 10 boards and hit an open 8 footer and put in some tip ins. Sometimes you can find guys like that in the second round. Bottom line, this is one of the biggest areas of need for the Blazers. They have to upgrade at the 4 off the bench.

C – Prz – If he plays like he did this year, he probably becomes the best backup center in the league. He can’t score, but he does everything else you want and should mean that we have some flexibility on the bench since his defense improves the team D so much. We could still use some more size here which is why Fry would be a good fit to stay if he is willing to rebound, but otherwise, a guy who could play some tough minutes at the 4 and 5 and score a little and grab rebounds is essential. We need the next Turiaf or Verajao. Surely we can find that guy somewhere.

So, the keys for the Blazers as I see them are:

1. an upgrade at the point, though you don’t sell your soul here because Blake is solid

2. an upgrade to the 4 off the bench

3. an upgrade at the 3. Need a consistent scorer with some versatility without breaking the bank. Jamison might also look good in red, black and white.

4. a healthy GO

5. A stateside Rudy.

If even most of that happens, the Blazers win 50 next year and get the 7th or maybe even the 6th seed. I can’t wait.

ROY

2008-02-01T10:43:00.000-08:00

Roy is an All-Star. I could not be happier.

Pippen

2008-01-11T13:10:00.000-08:00

I'm planning to start posting here again now that I've got some professional changes handled. To start with I'm stealing a link from Henry Abbot's great work for Truehoop and espn.com about Dirk and Pippen.

I never really liked Pippen. There was the unforgiveable shoes incident in Chicago. There was the fighting with Barkley in Houston and then there was an inability to score or get a stop by one of the 50 best players all time in the fourth quarter of the 2000 WCF against the Lakers that I will never, ever forgive him for.

And now recently there is all the brutal things he said about guys he allegedly wnats to coach in Chicago. If he's not a jerk, he does a pretty good impression.

Anyway this is a link from some pretty interesting sounding German show where they matchup two celebs from different backgrounds and follow them around during a night out. This is Dirk and some musician I've never heard off. A little ways in Dirk says something like, "I was disappointed (by his then idol Pippen) because he's an arrogant A** like you would not believe."

Good stuff.

http://www.ballineurope.com/us-basketball/nba/through-the-night-with-dirk-nowitzki/#more-411

More Yi

2007-11-14T10:09:00.000-08:00

Following up on yesterday's post, I just found out that Yi will likely be left off the All-Star ballot. Apparently, the NBA is just as sure as I am about what would happen if he was. It seems a pretty transparent move given that high profile rookies generally make the ballot. I bet Durant will be on there. Yi is about as high profile as anyone and has actually been playing as well as any rookie, so leaving him off the ballow would make a statement.

I will be very curious to see the ballot because in years past there has been a place to write in votes. Is it really that hard to imagine half of the people who watched Yao v. Yi would write in Yi's name? If that happens, he will be a starter. I might have to come off my "it's an absolute lock" prediction, but I still think it will happen.

Yi

2007-11-13T14:03:00.000-08:00

Just a quick comment about the Yi v. Yao game. By all estimates, this meaningless duel between two players who don't play the same position or anywhere near each other on the court, was one of if not the most televiewed sporting events of all time. Nearly as many people as live in the US saw a game that US basketball fans thought was more about TMac and Redd. I only bring this up because, as I've said before, I am going to laugh until I wet myself when Yi is averaging 12pts and 5 rebounds and is the leading vote getter for the Eastern Conference All-Star game. Not only will Yi, who is about the 6th best player on his own (which isn't any good) is not only the biggest lock ever to be voted in as a starter this year, but he is nearly certain to be the leading vote getter for the Eastern squad. Also expect Redd to enjoy the TMac effect and get a boost in voting.

When this happens, we will find something interesting out about the NBA. Will Stern flip the bird at American fans who have zero interest in watching Yi take up an all-star roster spot and hold the status quo in favor of expanding his empire into Asia? Or will this be the year we finally get some welcome changes to the way fan voting works?

Only time will tell, but Yi is going to get more votes than probably MVP KG this year and if that doesn't inspire change, nothing will.

More Blazers and stuff

2007-10-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

My buddy Jeff was good enough to take me to the Blazers/Sonics preseason game last night, so I thought I would leave a brief report and then hopefully comment on a few other sports related items. Jeff has fantastic seats which always adds to the experience and in general, I just find the Rose Garden a nice venue.

Last night was great. Greg Oden finally hit his stride after struggling some in the preseason. It is obvious that on this team, GO doesn’t have to score much, but last night it all came together in a 22 point, 14 rebound 5 block performance that had the Rose Garden buzzing with anticipation for what this team will do when he is in his prime with Roy and Aldridge. Almost all of his points came off vicious lob dunks and put back and he so dominated the paint on the defensive end that Ridnour actually started to cringe when he entered the paint in anticipation of another volleyball spike block.

On the other side of the ball, Durant was slightly less spectacular as it is clear he will have to carry a large load on the talent depleted Sonics. Still, after hitting back to back 3s late in the game to bring the Sonics back, he had a chance to bring the score within 4 when he beat his man off the dribble and went in with a mind to throw down. Unfortunately for Durant, he was met at the rim by Mr. Oden who not only blocked the dunk attempt with both hands, but simply ripped the ball out of Durant’s hands with a growl that made the hair on the back of everyone’s neck stand up. It was amazing. This will be a great duel for years to come.

So, that’s what this recap was supposed to say. It was supposed to be the first meeting of the two most heralded rookies since Lebron and maybe the most heralded 1-2 picks in the history of the NBA. Instead, GO is out for the season and Durant sprained his ankle and missed last night’s game. So sad. I'm still trying to get over it.

So, instead we were treated to the sometimes forgotten talent that is Portland’s future and in one game saw the good and bad of this new Portland team.

In the first quarter, with Roy, Jack, Webster, Aldridge and Przybilla on the floor, the Blazers looked good. The defense could have been better, but the offense was flowing and Aldridge appeared unstoppable. The choice was to let him score or put him on the line. When the starters sat down, it all went down the drain until the 4th quarter when the “finishing” lineup of Jack, Roy, Webster, Outlaw and Aldridge were on the floor and Roy went Roy and scored 14 points on clutch basket after clutch basket and had one of the prettiest assists I’ve seen in a while. He drove right and got stuck in a double team. He started pivoting around looking for a teammate and one of the defenders left him thinking he was now bottled up. So he juked and stepped under the remaining defender and went up for what looked like it would be a tough leaning jumpshot. He hung there long enough for a new defender to come help and then slipped the ball around him to the now open Aldridge who dunked and sent the crowd into a pretty good frenzy for a preseason game. It was oh so nice.

Anyway, as I’m sure you’ve read elsewhere or maybe saw, Roy and Webster hit some clutch baskets and the Blazers won. Since this is preseason though, the more important aspects of the game were what we saw from the other players.
Here’s a player by player look:

Jack – By FAR the best PG last night. He is a good defender and it showed early in the game. Ridnour got loose a couple times, but for the most part, Jack played good D. He was also in control the entire time. He made solid entry passes and controlled and directed the offense. He didn’t shoot a lot, but when he did he only took good shots and made several that he just created when the offense had bogged down. I don’t know or care what his numbers were, Jack played really well in limited minutes. Jack was definitely a stabilizing force and did everything you could ask of a your PG.

Roy – All the papers are talking about it, so I won’t just rehash, but he really got in a groove in the 4th quarter after looking somewhat lost in the first 3. His shot wasn’t falling and he couldn’t seem to decide when to be aggressive and was not looking for his own shot nearly enough. When he came back in unexpectedly in the 4th, he was a different player. For a long stretch he looked like he was playing against Jr. High kids. He would simply get the ball at the top, make a little move and overpower anyone trying guard him until he made an easy shot right at the rim. He is a remarkable player. He doesn’t need to play that way all the time because he is also good at getting his teammates involved, but he does need to look for his own shot much more often than he did earlier in the game. Still it was a relief to see last year’s magic reappear when the Blazers needed it. He’s a stud. Have no doubts. I could go on and on about this, but I’ll leave it at that.

Webster – Who is this guy? 19 points on 7 for 12 shooting including 3-5 from behind the arc and a late go ahead 3 that gave the Blazers the game? What? Are you kidding me? I don’t know where he found the confidence he is playing with now, but I hope it sticks around. And it isn’t just the numbers. He is just so much more aggressive looking for his shot. That’s the good. I still noticed some bad as well. There are still times on the floor where he looks genuinely lost. I noticed this especially during out of bonds plays. He just didn’t know where he was supposed to be. This was evident at times when the Blazers played zone as well. Also, I don’t know if he just can’t dribble or doesn’t like to, but he never tries to take his guy one on one and I mean never. The thing is, if he is ever going to take the big step from designated shooter to all around player, he is going to have to at least pose the threat of driving the ball. Haven’t seen that yet. To be honest though, I would be happy if he were just a really good designated shooter at this point. Also, he has to start so Travis can be the go to guy off the bench. It is the only way the lineups work.

Aldridge – We all know the good. I think he’s going to replace Randolph’s numbers a whole lot sooner than anyone expected. He’s amazing in all facets of the offensive game. As I’ve been saying for a while, he has the body and talent of Rasheed with the discipline and head of someone like Duncan. You think that might work out for him if he stays healthy? My only concerns are: 1) there are still times when he is out of position on D and either has to foul or just gets beat badly. He’s a decent help defender and shot blocker, but he gave up 2-3 dunks last night that were just him being in the wrong place. Fixable, but not fixed yet. 2) Rebounding. I know, I know, he had double digits last night, but he and Frye both need to work hard on this aspect. I see it as their biggest defensive liability at the moment. Joel is the only one who consistently beats other people for rebounds.

Przybilla – He rebounds, he draws charging fouls, he sets good picks, he doesn’t turn the ball over and now he hits his free throws. If he can just do those things all season, it will make a huge difference for this team. He doesn’t need to score, but he does need to defend and rebound like his life depends on it. He showed last night that he still has it in him, though he didn’t play long minutes. I think this will be a big bounce back year for Przybilla and I bet the Blazers start getting good enough offers for him around January, that they will have a real decision on their hands.

Outlaw – Outlaw played great. Didn’t force it, shot the ball well and hustled on defense. I think he will be the power forward at the end of games with Aldridge moving over to the 5. They present a good defending, super fast and versatile front line. The only question will be, can they rebound. Outlaw really looks like he is picking up where he left off last season which is great.

Blake – Blake looked horrible last night. I know he can play better and I’m certain that he will, but there were a couple things that were a concern. I thought he was a decent defender, but Ridnour and West chewed him up as did anyone in the shooting guard spot. It was to the point that I’m not sure the Blazers can play man against a team with aggressive guards while Blake is on the floor. I also really question whether he can play shooting guard unless Roy is also on the floor playing point at the end of games. I can see Blake out there to stretch the D with his shooting, but his D is so bad, I don’t think he can play the 2 as Roy’s backup. So that raises questions about when and how you play the guards.

Sergio – Sergio played pretty well and actually outplayed both Blake and Green last night. He didn’t do anything special, but he hit a 3 which was surprising and wasn’t a turnover machine. That said, he and Blake can never, I repeat never be on the floor together. Sergio is, without a doubt, one of the worst guard defenders in the league. He puts out the effort but he is the wrong combination of short, weak and confused. Last night they ran some time in the disastrous second quarter with Sergio at the point and Blake at the 2. Suddenly, it was if the front line was playing 3 on 5. They can’t play the pick and roll because they can’t fight over screens or cover a bigger cutter. They can’t stay in front of their men, or at least hey couldn’t last night. It was a real concern. If either of them were playing with Roy, or even maybe with Jack, it would have been better, but never together…..never.

Green – Green looked worse than I have seen him play in the 2 prior preseason games, summer league games and scrimmage that I have watched. His shot wasn’t falling and he took some ill advised outside shots that did not come within the flow of the offense. He played pretty good defense, but also threw some terrible passes. Overall, he really looked like a rookie for the first time. I still like him. I still say he is already much better than Sergio, but he had a bad game last night and will clearly have some growing pains.

Lafrentz – He is no longer a serviceable player. I hate to admit that since the Blazers could use his size and shooting, but he just looks overmatched even against guys like Swift and Petro. I don’t think he will be a rotation player for this team.

Frye – Frye didn’t look good at all. He doesn’t really seem to know his role yet. And he looked slow and he does not rebound well. He seems to get decent position, but whether it is his timing or desire or strength, something is keeping him from getting the ball. He has a nice looking shot, but it hasn’t been falling all preseason. I still have hope for him, but he’s been a bad groove for a while now.

In general, it was a great game and good to win and even better to see Aldridge (I’m not on board calling him LA, because LA is our rival) and The Natural get it going like they did. Not everyone played well, but this team is not going to finish 4th or 5th in the division as many are predicting. The only real disturbing things I saw last night besides the fact that the Blazers have 5 guards to play but only one shooting guard, were: 1) Darius Miles and GO were hanging out and chatting it up throught the whole game. NOOOOOOOOO. someone stop this now. Can't we ban Miles from the arena or something? 2) they replaced the Blazer dancers last night with something they called the "Jam squad" that was completely unwatchable. Just awful. Bad move.

Other sports thoughts:

• Seattle is going to be bad this year. They look like they have some talent, even without Durant, but they do not look like a team. I predict they win at least 10 fewer games than the Blazers.

• I knew Kevin McHale was among the worst GMs in the league, but even given that, the trade with Miami surprised me. How in the world does that benefit Minnesota? They traded Ricky Davis, a talented, but expendable player for a completely washed up Antoine Walker. Then they traded a younger, more talented backup center for an older less talented one. And then they picked up an injury case and a conditional (sure to be late first round) pick. Why? Weren’t they lots, lots better just keeping Ricky? For Miami, I think it was brilliant. Both Blount and Davis can help and Davis is a big upgrade from Walker or Posey. Especially while Wade is out, they are going to enjoy having Davis there. I also think Riley and Shaq can keep him in line. This is exactly what Miami needed.

• I think things could very well work out to have Oregon as the number 1 or 2 team in the nation after this weekend. That would be fun.

• I can’t wait until my fantasy hoops draft. Right now, my goal is to avoid drafting players I hate just because they fall to me at the right place.

• I think the Giants will go after a big time offensive player to replace Bonds. Not sure even who is out there, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they talk to Tori Hunter and maybe even A-Rod.

• I’m still too upset to talk about the NFL. It hurts too much. I’m not even excited that Alex Smith is coming back this week. It’s just all so depressing.

• But not even the NFL is going to get me down. I’ve got Blazermania!!!

Here come the Blazers

2007-10-11T11:36:00.000-07:00

Since I had the privilege of attending the season’s first Blazer game last night (preseason home opener against the Clippers, I thought I would share my scouting report of the team and the event. The Blazers won 111-102 after an impressive run at the end of the third and beginning of the fourth led primarily by 22 second half points from Webster who couldn’t miss.

The Rose Garden

• MAX is really the only way to go when going to a game. No parking cost or hassle and the train is full of Blazer fans which helps get you in the right mood for the game. It’s not like tailgating at a college football game, but it still has a small, but beneficial fraction of the same affect.

• There is a giant Oden jersey hanging from the outside of the arena. My son and I just stood for a moment and stared at it in subdued sadness. Then my Son said, poignantly and profoundly, “I think that jersey is too big for him.”

• My son was disappointed that our favorite Blazer dancer (his former Sunday school teacher) has retired. However, he still said the other dancers “seemed nice too” so it will be ok. I thought you would want to know.

• The arena has a brand new scoreboard. It is the most amazing piece of arena/stadium technology I have other seen other than the retracting roof at Safeco. WOW!. First, it is enormous. I don’t know the specs, but the thing is really, really big. Second, it has screens on all 4 sides that show the game and highlights and silly videos in HD. That’s right, true HD. If you are in the upper level, you can actually see the game much better on the scoreboard than on the court. It is fantastic.

• I was unable to find the garlic fries they served last year. I’m not saying they’re gone as I didn’t go all the way around the arena, but it did make me nervous. I love me some garlic fries.

The Clippers

• The Clippers are going to be really, really bad this year without Brand. Not T-Wolves bad, but still very bad.

• Neither Magette nor Kaman played so I didn’t get a real good picture of their starting unit, but those guys are going to have to have career years for this team to be even respectable.

• Sam I am isn’t done. He is still one of the best offensive point guards in the game. He single handedly carried the Clips for most of the game. He’s old and can’t play huge minutes any more and is a bit of a liability on D, but if I were Danny Ferry and couldn’t pry Mike Bibby away, I would take a hard run at Sam. He could be the difference maker in the Eastern conference if he’s traded. If the Celtics get him, fuhgetaboutit.

• Al Thornton is a darkhorse candidate for rookie of the year. I know everyone has already given it to Durant and that is probably a good bet. I expect Durant to put up fairly gaudy numbers (except for FG%) because Seattle will have to rely on him so much. That said, Thornton looked good. He’s a good rebounder for his size and very good slashing to the basket. He looks like more of a one-on-one player than one who fits in the flow of the offense, but he doesn’t look like a rookie. He went for 18 and 10 last night and was fairly impressive.

The Blazers

• The team started strong with Aldridge hitting everything he threw at the rim, but faded at the end of the first quarter. This fade previewed two problems I expect they will have all year. First, this team still has some issues defensively. Aldridge and the Thrilla are the only natural rebounders on the team. While the rest of the guys give it an effort, defensive rebounding is going to have to improve. Plus, I hate to say it, but Blake is a liability on D. Sam made him look silly and I’m not really sure why Jack didn’t get that assignment right away as he is exactly the kind of physical defensive guard that could slow Sam up a bit. That said, Cassell did get Jack to bight hard on his signature pump-fake and then throw your flailing body into the defender and draw a foul. Ridiculous, but extremely effective move. I have a hard time blaming Jack though since Sam has been doing that to everyone in the league for years.

Second, this team is going to struggle in the half court. That is where they miss Roy the most since he remains the only guy who can get his own shot consistently, but still they have to improve. When they have to play in the half court for multiple possessions in a row, they get very jumpshot happy and don’t look good. This is going to be an issue all year I think. How much of one remains to be seen.

• The new desired uptempo pace was on display as the Blazers hit their 100 point goal relatively early in the 4th quarter and really kept a consistent scoring pace throughout. This team’s struggle in the half court makes the new pace absolutely critical. The problem I saw with it is that the team lacks good finishers on the break. Jack and Green are the only point guards that are even serviceable at finishing their own shots at the rim. If the ball handler is not a credible threat to beat you, this will kill many a fast break. The wings are either jump shooters like Webster and Jones or spot up shooting post players like Frye and Aldridge. Roy will help here a lot, but I was looking for Outlaw and even Aldridge for that matter to be flying up the court and at the rim more than they were. Outlaw is such a bad ball-handler that if he doesn’t catch a lob pass for a dunk, he is worthless. Aldridge and Fry just don’t look fluid in transition unless it is to hurry back and post up. So, there were lots of times when the PG would push the action and end up without anyone filling the lanes. That’s going to be a problem

• The Point guards – Jack played fewer minutes than anyone else, but was easily the best of the group. His defense is better than solid and he just seemed to command the team better than the others. Even more important, as noted above, he can finish at the rim. He is so strong that he doesn’t have to be a great leaper and is pretty good at getting his own shot or drawing a foul on the break as needed. Blake and Sergio are worthless in this department. Because they are so bad at finishing (though Blake had a great drive at the first half buzzer), when they are in, the fast break becomes considerably more difficult. Sergio can really push it, but teams play off him so much that they can just play the passing lanes and render him harmless since he can’t shoot. Blake just isn’t athletic enough, though he is going to help this team.

Staying on Blake, he had a poor shooting night, but he is a great asset. Calm under pressure, gets other people involved and can usually hit the open shot. He’s not a great defender, but he works at it. I think he will be a great back up, but Jack is clearly better, especially as a starter.

Sergio does not deserve the minutes he’s getting. He has no shot at all and teams now realize it and back way off him making his ball handling and passing skills much less dangerous. He is also such a liability on defense, the Blazers are going to have to play a lot of zone when he’s in the game to keep every guard in the league from either posting him up or just going by him. He can push the tempo which is good and is still the team’s most creative passer, but he is still a novelty act more than a real contributor. If he has any trade value off of last year’s buzz, I think the Blazers should cash in now. Maybe he becomes a good PG in the future, but he is not the next Nash. Nash came in as a shooter. He was money in college and that was really his primary skill. The great passing came later. I don’t think you can do it the other way nearly as easy. Also….

Taurean Green was a steal in the second round. That kid can flat out play. Like Sergio, he loves to push the ball and has a good feel on the fast break. Unlike Sergio, he can really shoot from the outside and even finish at the rim a bit. I like what I saw out of Green. He played under control and with a surprising amount of confidence for a rookie playing PG for Nate with 3 guys ahead of him. I would give every one of Sergio’s minutes to Green right now. He may not be quite the passer, but every other aspect is so superior, I don’t see how they keep him on the bench this year.

The Wings – Wow, do the Blazers miss Roy, especially in the half court. There is just no one else (except maybe Jack) that dribbles well enough to consistently create a shot for himself when the offense breaks down during a half-court set. I was hoping that would be Outlaw who can get the ball at the free-throw line and just jump over everyone for what should be an easy shot. But I don’t think it is. The wings don’t contribute much but shooting without Roy which will be a problem when those shots aren’t falling. Still, the shooting appears to be vastly improved, so maybe it won’t be as ugly as I fear.

Roy – Did I mention they miss him?

Webster – It was fun to see him play aggressively and hit his shots. I expect those two things were very closely related. He scored 28 and had to have shot a high percentage and probably knocked down 4 or 5 3s. Aldridge and Frye were both getting doubled and Martel hit every open shot. More importantly, he appears to have developed a reliable mid range shot off of a fake drive and step back. He hit every one he tried last night. I would still like to see him attack a bit more and fill the lane on the break some instead of immediately fading to the 3 point line, but his rebounding and D looked improved and if his shot is falling like it was last night, he is going to be a huge difference maker. Since he seems a bit fragile emotionally, it was good to see him get off to such a good start.

Outlaw – Outlaw started, but he’s clearly better with the second unit. He needs to get his points going one on one or by outrunning power forwards. At the 3 as a starter, he just isn’t going to get plays called for him and that seems to take him out of the offense. When he came on last year it was when he was one of the focal points of the offense off the bench. I think they need to start Webster or Jones and make Outlaw the 6th man. He was also much less active than he was at the end of last year and I can’t help but think that is related to his reported lack of conditioning. So, that will hopefully get better and lead to further possessions where the PG beats everyone down the floor and has to pull up. Finally, someone needs to take him aside and teach him how to play the screener on the screen roll. It was ugly.

James Jones – He’s going to help. He can play both forward positions as long as he doesn’t have to guard a real bruiser at the 4 and he can shoot. I think Aldridge is going to get some double teams and having Jones and Webster looks like it will pay dividends. In fact, they played pretty well together spreading the floor and I won’t be surprised to see them get some run at the same time. Jones didn’t shoot all that well last night, but hit enough to keep the D honest, but I think the Blazers are much better equipped this year to handle the Zone.

The bigs – Joel and LaMarcus started and I think they will all year barring injuries. They play well together since Joel doesn’t need the ball and can get Aldridge’s back against bigger players. As good as Webster played, I really thought it was the big guys that gave me the most hope for the upcoming season and beyond.

Przybilla – He knows he’s putting the z in his name in the wrong place right? I mean he’s pulling a Favre and someone should let him know so he can do something about that. I didn’t really get to see the much ballyhooed new shot, but he at least looked like himself again after last year’s absence. He can’t buy a foul call going his way, but he rebounded well and played solid D. Because Frye and Aldridge are so good offensively, it will not surprise me to see Joel lose minutes to that combination, but he looks ready to help the team again which is nice.

Aldridge – He was money. I really think he is primed to become a force offensively and I think it will happen this year. If he stays healthy I think he will score close to 20ppg, no kidding. He is such a good shooter and has such a good feel around the basket, that when you combine that with his length and ability to get down the floor he is going to be really tough to stop. The only areas of concern were his difficulty in finishing on the break and his strength inside. To the first point, he just looks awkward trying to fill the lane. He doesn’t have any Shawn Marion in him. He wants to come down and get open, not come down and dunk over someone. He can still be effective, but I was hoping to see him finishing a bit better in the flow of the fast break. To the second point, the no name power forwards for the Clippers were moving him off the block pretty easily. To his credit, he still found a way to score or get to the line, but it was usually from further out. In other words, he’s not really a great post player yet and is going to be vulnerable to lesser but physical players like Craig Smith or Rony Turiaf. Still, he looks much more ready to replace Randolph’s offense than I expected.

Frye – Frye missed some gimmes, but he still played well. He has been advertised as a great shooter and he certainly showed a nice touch from the outside, but he was very active on the inside as well. I expect he could be the Blazers’ leading offensive rebounder and will even provide some good post options with the second unit. He runs the floor very well and I definitely see him being able to play with Aldridge when the offense needs a boost. Really, their games and styles look amazingly similar with Aldridge just being somewhat more skilled. It would be nice if one of them were more of a bruiser and they may struggle on the boards against some bigger teams, but Frye is going to be good.

LaFrentz – He’s not going to be in the rotation. I went in thinking he could get some minutes this year after Oden went down, but he just doesn’t fit with this team. He doesn’t run the floor well enough and can’t score in the post at all. He’s not a terrible player, but he doesn’t seem to fit here.

Overall, I liked what I saw last night. There is lots to improve on and it did come against one of the worst teams in the league playing without 2 starters, but there was still lots to like and after all, the Blazers did it without their best player as well. It also would have been great to see the big fella out there doing his thing, but this team is still going to surprise some people and whether it shows up in wins and losses this year, they will be a fun team to watch.

My teams

2007-10-05T15:37:00.000-07:00

Some quick (I hope) sports thoughts on each of my favorite sports teams:

NFL – San Francisco 49ers – Ugh. I could just stop there and pretty much capture it. After years of being awful, they have finally made some major steps in the right direction. They brought in a classy head coach with a good mind for defense and team discipline. Plus he likes to wear suits (even if they are made by Rebok) during games, so how can you not like this guy? They have drafted rather brilliantly (though I’m having my doubts about Smith and Davis), but still they seem to be rebuilding this team in the right way through good draft picks (I love you Patrick Willis) and well chosen free agents. For the first time in years, I allowed myself to get excited. I genuinely thought the Niners were a playoff team this year. They had the NFC’s best RB, an unguardable tightend, a QB just coming into his own after a semi-breakthrough year last year, new WRs, great FAs on the defensive side and a weak division. They won their first game by a miracle closing drive. They looked bad on offense, but still got the win and it was just the first game and they did beat a division opponent.

Then in game 2, they looked bad again, but beat another division foe. 2-0. All they needed was to start opening up the offense a bit and all would be well. Then they had to go to play a red-hot Steelers team in Pittsburgh. No one is beating them at home this year, so while a win would have been nice, the loss wasn’t devastating. The most troubling part was the fact that they still could not move the ball at all.

Then they played the Seahawks at home. The Hawks are not a good team this year. Alexander doesn’t run hard outside of 5 yards away from the endzone and they just look old, slow and sloppy. Very beatable. Not for the Niners though. The whole thing came crashing down as the Niners embarrassed themselves, the franchise, the city, their fans, and all of humanity with one of the worst offensive displays in football history. Oh, and plus they lost Smith to injury….and were already missing Davis…oh and they don’t have a WR who can catch the ball or a line that can stop the run or an o-line that can keep Gore from being hit in the backfield or a coordinator who can call anything but run up the middle for 1, run up the middle for 2, drop back and hold the ball until sacked on 3 and 7. I swear, 75% of the possessions went just like that last week.

Completely depressing. Who would have thought Norv Turner could single handedly destroy two franchises with one move. In addition to getting SD to be the must underperforming team in recent memory, he also abandoned the Niners where he had done an outstanding job as the O coordinator and left things in the hands of a rookie who apparently has as much imaginiation as a crowbar.
They aren’t going to the playoffs. They may not win another game at this rate. Of course, Baltimore should be vulnerable if it were someone other than Dilfer playing QB now. So, so painful. Fortunately, the Patriots get their number one pick next year, which could be the top pick over all. I’m going to go somewhere and cry.

NBA – The Portland Trailblazers

Sticking with a theme, the only thing nearly as depressing as the Niners right now is Blazers. Like the Niners, this was the year they were going to turn it all around. Instead, they lost their franchise center for the year before he even played a game and now have lost last year’s rookie of the year to injury before he even played a game this season. This season went from the most exciting, anticipated Blazer season in years to the most depressing thing in basketball in a matter of 2 weeks. I now cringe every time I see a headline about the Blazers.
On a positive note, I do think the Blazers will still be fun to watch this year assuming Roy gets back and stays healthy. They will be able to run and defend much better and have a roster of good guys who play hard and seem to genuinely enjoy playing together. I’m still looking forward to the season, it just makes me sad.

MLB – The San Francisco Giants

Sticking with a theme, the Giants are as depressing as a baseball team can get. They loaded their rosters with ancient players to try to make a run with Bonds and then made Bary Zito the highest paid pitcher in history. Then Zito stunk and so did the Giants. Now they have no Bonds, no youth, no speed, no reason for optimism and absolutely no one to lead or carry the team. Ugh.

Fantasy Football – StumpTown

Sticking with a theme, my best player is F. Gore who can not get near the endzone in this offense and now has rediscovered the joys of fumbling. My second and third best players (Harrison and Boldin) are both hurt and every RB on my roster except Gore is either hurt or named Dunn. Also Baltimore can’t play D any more after I made them my keeper this season and my QB play is mediocre at best. Other than that I’m having a great season. We play 2 games a week and I am miraculously 4-4, but I have scored the second fewest points in the league, so that isn’t going to keep up.

College Football – Oregon Ducks

Sticking with a theme, Oregon choked away its only shot at winning a championship last weekend. Since college football still believes that sports writers should determine who is better rather than playing actual games, the Ducks actually dropped by nearly beating the alleged 3 best team in the country. College football makes no sense. I would be more upset about this, but I just can’t get into college football until the games matter more than the opinions of the analysts.

Wow, I should have blogged more when I was high on the Oden pick and could have been cheerier.

I need a hug.

It Takes Two

2007-07-20T16:28:00.000-07:00

Just for fun here’s a look at every team in the NBA with an eye toward whether they would make good trading partners with the Blazers based on they players they have, the players they need, the contracts involved and the likelihood that they would do the deal. I’m not going to bother with every possible scenario or deal with things like whether the Blazers could get in on a trade for KG or Kobe. I’m working with the premise that the Blazers would, for the right deal, be willing to part with Jack, Przybilla, Webster, Green, McRoberts, Outlaw, LaFrentz and Jones. I’m sure they would trade just about anyone other than Roy and Oden if the price was right, but the Blazers clearly want to keep Roy, Aldridge, Frye, Oden and Sergio…and Blake at least for this year. So, I’m not going to discuss those guys very much if at all. Also, I’m assuming that both Raef and D Miles are basically untradeable because of their contracts and health. Finally, I’m assuming that the Blazers really only need a new starting 3, so I’m looking specifically at trades that would net them a significant upgrade at small forward.

Atlanta

Available/Desirable – Josh Childress, Marvin Williams. Both play the 3. Both have the right timeline for age. Both have manageable contracts at the moment. Of the two I like Childress better because of his D and his shooting. That said, he’s basically a better shooting Travis Outlaw with perhaps less upside. Even with Acie Law playing well in the summer league and Speedy under contract, they could still use PG help and Zaza or the undersized Horford and S. Williams are the only options at the 5, so they may be interested in Joel as well. A trade of Jack and Webster for Childress and Salim Stoudamire (an underrated NBA scorer) would work, but I don’t really like the trade. I think that is too much to give up for a guy that is redundant of what we already have. A guy like Childress fits, but isn’t a significant upgrade.

Willingness – I think Atlanta would be interested in both Prz and Jack, but unless you started talking about players like Josh Smith, I don’t think they have what Portland needs.

Boston

Available/Desirable – For the last couple years Paul Pierce might have been on this list, but that ship has sailed and his health and the pouting he would do if traded to a rebuilding team along with his timeline and his contract make him undesirable. Otherwise, Jeff Green is an interesting player, but he is more of a shooting guard than a SF, so I’m not seeing much the Celts have to offer.

Willingness – I don’t think the Celts are a good trade partner because they are looking for veterans to help Ray Ray and Pierce win now. Jack might be an attractive player for them since they don’t have much at PG, but they just don’t have much to offer. Possibly Gomes, but I think the Celtics really like him and he makes so little money, he would be hard to trade for without taking back a contract like Ratliff which the Blazers do not want to do.

Charlotte

Available/Desirable – Hermann, Morrison, G-Force, JRich, and Carrol can all play the 3. Of those, only Morrison, Carrol and Hermann might be available. Of those, only Hermann is desirable. I think that guy is a stud even if he does look like Fabio’s skinny cousin. Because he can shoot and is flexible enough to play the 4, he is a good fit for Portland, but I think Charlotte really likes him and the salary is so small, the trade is hard. Plus, I’m not sure he is an upgrade (considering timeline) that makes it worth trading some of Portland’s prospects.

Willingness – Charlotte actually looks an awful lot like Portland in that it is pretty stocked with good young players looking to hit their primes about the same time. They don’t really need Jack or Joel, so I’m thinking they wouldn’t be all that interested in what Portland has to offer.

Chicago

Available/Desirable – I still wish the Blazers could have worked out a deal that brought Nocioni in for Zach, with other players involved. I just think Noc fits the need better and would have provided better value for Zach. Oh well, I have to move on. The Bulls have Sefalosha and Gordon who would both fit a need for the Blazers (no point in even commenting on Deng). But I’m not sure Thabo is going to be any better than Outlaw and Gordon might not be happy coming off the bench. Still if we could trade Jack, Webster and one of this year’s picks (Green or McRoberts) and get back Gordon I would do it in a nanosecond. But, of course, the Bulls would not.

Willingness – The Bulls are pretty set at every position except power forward or center where they lack any inside scoring and have guys who are so redundant they can’t really be on the floor together. The Blazers had the perfect player for what they needed, but the Bulls foolishly decided to pass on a guy that would have made them the prohibitive favorite to win the East. Now, I don’t see them having interest in any of the Blazers’ pieces.

Cleveland

Available/Desirable – Pavlovic is really the only player here even remotely interesting. Truth is, I don’t think he’s an upgrade over what the Blazers already have. Man the Cavs are screwed in their attempts to improve. I mean if Hughes doesn’t completely transform this year, they are stuck. Anyway, no one here helps except Lebron and I have a hunch they would want to hold onto him.

Willingness – I’m sure they would love to get Jack or Blake as they desperately need for someone named Booby to be their starting PG, but they don’t have anything to offer. I wonder why they didn’t make a harder push for Blake. Seems like he would have fit well there.

Dallas

Available/Desirable – Josh Howard is the only player that fits the bill. He’s a stud and would certainly help the Blazers. I think he’s one of the top small forwards in the league other than the marquee guys. Based just on the contracts, I couldn’t find a deal that works even if the Blazers took back a bad salary like Jason Terry. Maybe there are salary cap loopholes that are out there that could make it work, but because of the base year compensation rules, it would nearly be impossible for Portland to offer anything close to equal value, at least before the season starts.

Willingness – I could see Dallas having an interest in just about any of the Blazer players. They could use help at the 1, 5 and 2, but the Blazers available probably wouldn’t seem that enticing.

Denver

Available/Desirable – Kleiza is a nice player at a cheap price, but is he an upgrade? Not enough to ship out the prospects it would take to get him. Otherwise the only player who fits is Melo and on top of his contract making it nearly impossible I’m guessing, and this is only a guess, the Nuggets wouldn’t be interested unless the Blazers were offering a package that included Roy and Oden and maybe not even then.

Willingness – They need someone to take Kmart off their hands. They don’t need what the Blazers have.

Detroit

Available/Desirable – Both Prince and Rip would be nice additions. And if they had somehow missed out on getting Billups back, then maybe they blow it up and try to start over and those guys might have been available….maybe. but even if they were, Rip makes too much money and is really more of a 2 than a 3 and while Prince is nice, he is also expensive. A deal for Prince would mean giving up Prz and Webster, which I think Portland would do in a flash, but why would Detroit? As nice as a player like Prince would be, this ain’t happenin’.

Willingness – The Pistons could actually really use Przybilla, but wouldn’t give up Prince to get him. They would give up Nazr and probably several others like Flip, but that doesn’t help Portland at all. Nonstarter here.

Golden State

Available/Desirable – Al Harrington is an interesting option. He is almost certainly available after last year’s playoff meltdown. He would fit Portland’s system and can shoot a little. He would give Portland a consistent scorer which they badly need and he’s still young enough that he could help down the road when the Blazers are good. However, he is currently way overpaid and I just don’t really like him. He was useless in the post season and seems like one of those guys that just doesn’t care that much and provides no positive leadership. I don’t like the contract or the game enough to hamstring the Blazers financially. Somewhat intriguing, but in the end, I don’t think this works. What about Piertrus? He’s an interesting prospect, but it would take a sign and trade and I don’t think he would offer enough upgrade if any to make it worth the trade. Oh and while Belinelli burned up summer league, he has never been that great a shooter in Europe and the Blazers have Rudy coming next year who is better.

Willingness – GS doesn’t need what Portland has. Personally I think they are still trying to get Yi or KG or both and I don’t think they like or should like the available pieces from Portland.

Houston

Availabile/Desirable – Battier would look so nice in a Blazer uni. I mean, the leadership, the character, the defense, the shooting, he would be ideal. Like a rich man’s Ime. He makes almost identical money to Przybilla, so a one for one swap could work on the books. Think the Rockets would be interested? Yeah, me neither. The Rockets really only need a power forward. What about Frye and Webster and a draft pick? It would have to wait a while since Frye was just traded. That could make some sense for Houston, but I see them wanting to keep a guy like Battier. Still, it’s nice to ponder. Or how about Bonzi? Kidding. Just kidding.

Willingness – Frye would give them their missing PF and a starting lineup of Yao, Frye, TMac, James and Bonzi would be pretty dang good with Martel hitting open 3s off the bench. But I think the Rockets want to give Butler and Scola a shot first and even then still don’t want to trade Battier.

Indiana

Available/Desirable – Danny Granger is really the only interesting player on this roster. He’s a nice player that would be a legit upgrade over what Portland has. I would rather have a shooter, but Granger’s good. Problem is he makes so little other players would have to be involved. Some combo of Martel, Joel and Jack would match up contract wise fairly well with Granger and Tinsley. It doesn’t quite work, but is probably close enough to make something happen. That said, do the Blazers want to take back an overpaid backup PG with health issues just to get Granger? Probably not.

Willingness – they should be willing to do just about anything. They were awful with this roster and need to be trying hard to make some moves. I think they are trying to get someone to give them 85 cents on the dollar for O’Neal, but that might be tough. In any event, they could use plenty of the Blazer players, but don’t have much to offer except really bad contracts.

LAC

Available/Desirable – Magette should be very available. He has about the perfect skill set for Portland’s needs. Then there is just that little issue of production, attitude, health and contract. Pass. After that, there’s…..nope, that’s it. Nothing more to see here folks. The Clips are in the lottery to stay. Get ready for Elton Brand trade rumors to start around Christmas. Wouldn’t a Brand back to the Bulls deadline deal stir the pot a bit? Or maybe the Mavs? Just wait for it. It’s coming.

Willingness – shockingly, they don’t seem even willing to part with Magette. They could use any of the Blazer PGs right down to the Finish kid. But they don’t have much to offer unless it was a three team deal and this post is taking too much time as it is.

LAL

Available/Desirable – No Laker is desirable, ever. Odom? We’re still trying to get the smell of chronic out of the facilities. Pass. Walton? We have the cheaper, higher ceiling version as a second round pick (McRoberts). Pass. Vujacic? Still wondering why he is in the league. Pass.

Willingness – The Lakers need nothing but someone with enough star power to keep Kobe in town and the Blazers don’t have that and wouldn’t offer it if they did.

Memphis

Available/Desirable - Jack plus Przybilla for Mike Miller works as to contracts. Let’s make this happen right now. I think Mike Miller is a near perfect fit. I might like Battier a little better because of his defense and leadership, but Miller would be an amazing addition. Consistent scorer, good passer, would spread the floor for the bigs. Could play the 2 or the 3. Just makes me giddy thinking about it. He has 3 more years on his deal which would mean that in 2 years when the Blazers are hoping to have available cap room, he would be a very tradable expiring deal. Or he would come off the books the next year when a certain Chris Paul hits the FA market. I’m telling you, lock this down. Other than Miller, I’m also a Rudy Gay fan, but I kind of think he might be untouchable.

Willingness – Not so much. Maybe before they signed Darko and drafted Connley and then saw the emergence of Lowry in the summer league, but not now. Now they have a good young team possibly able to make a playoff run right now. Sounds silly maybe, but they were a 6 seed two years ago right? How much of their roster is different than it was then? I’m just saying. But maybe they secretly know they still have to trade Pau and will be interested in rebuilding with a good young PG and a good young center. Hey, I can dream can’t I?

Miami

Available/Desirable – Wow, the Heat suck. Can you believe they won a title two years ago? I mean, there’s Wade and Shaq and a bunch of has beens and never weres. How about Antoine Walker for 8 Mil? He can shoot? He can play multiple positions. Heck, he can even bring the ball up so long as you don’t mind him shooting it from 25 feet. He’s the perfect fit I think. Of course I’m kidding. Unless they wanted to take D Miles back (assuming we are 100 percent sure he is not retiring), then maybe….maybe…..ok still probably not. Incredibly, Walker actually has more years left on his outrageous contract than Miles does.

Willingness – Sure, they’re willing. They’re probably desperate. They need any semblance of a player right now. That said, what they really need is proven guys, but they would probably give up half of South Beach to get one of Portland’s PGs. Too bad they don’t have anything.

Milwaukie

Available/Desirable – Here’s an interesting one. What about Yi? He’s probably a 3 right? Flexible enough to play some 4 maybe. Fits the age/timeline. Has huge potential. Good shooter. Portland has a large Asian community. He doesn’t help the Blazers this year at all and still leaves them without any proven scorers on the roster, but he might be too good to pass up if he were available. A trade would be complicated, but I wonder if Jack and Prz would get it done? I think I would do that trade if I were Portland. They also have Charlie V and Simmons, but both those guys have injury issues that concern me. That said, Villanueva is an interesting option. Has some flexibility, has some shooting ability. I would have to leave him on the potential target list depending on his price.

Willingness – As for Yi, it is looking more and more like they can either save their pride or help their franchise but not both. That means, they need to suck it up and trade that kid. I’m thinking GS might be willing to offer more, as might Philly or some other team, but Portland has a lot of good young players and if we are comfortable being pretty bad this next year, adding Yi might be worth it.

Minnesota

Available/Desirable – Hey, maybe we can get Ricky Ricky? Yikes. They don’t have an NBA starting small forward. Sure, Corey Brewer would be a nice addition, but for what? What would the Blazers be able to offer that would even get them close? Nothing. Not much of anything here.

Willingness – I don’t think they will do anything until they either trade or decide they will absolutely not trade KG.

New Jersey

Available/Desirable – How about this. Oh, this is perfect. NJ needs low post offense and an upgrade at power forward. Portland needs a proven scorer and an upgrade at small forward. How about Zach for Jefferson? Win/Win. No brainer. Sure they both have some risk, but they just fit so much better on the other team, this makes too much sense not to happen. Oh yeah, the Blazers decided a simple downgrade at PF was the better way to go. Jefferson is still a good fit, but now the Blazers don’t have the pieces. Plus, and I will say this about this deal even if we still had Zach. Jefferson makes ridiculous money for a long time. Nothing else to offer.

Willingness – No way, no how. NJ is built to win right now. They should move Jefferson for someone like Zach or O’Neal, but they aren’t interested in the Blazer kids.

New Orleans

Available/Desirable – Rasual? Julian Wright? Both would fit well. Buler plays no D though and I think Nate would hate him. Wright is a nice player, but a significant roster upgrade? Not sure about that. Too bad Peja wasn’t 4 years younger and healthy…and available…..and dying to move to Portland.

Willingness – they could use some depth, but I don’t see them anxious to part with Wright and aren’t going to trade any of their starters.

New York

Available/Desirable – Jeffries is a decent player and would be a good fit except now he makes way too much money and isn’t a huge upgrade. Q would be a decent fit except for his attitude, defensive limitations and oh yes, he is also grossly overpaid. Plus adding Q would give D Miles a reason to try to come back and we don’t want that under any circumstances.

Willingness – I get the idea that everyone on this team is available for the right price and by right price I mean one that has the Knicks way overpaying. But Isaiah only wants to get guys who are big name guys who keep the team’s profile high in the Big Apple. The Blazers only have Oden that fits that bill and he’s not going anywhere.

Orlando

Available/Desirable – A couple interesting options here. I’m thinking with Lewis taking 40 minutes a night, any other wing player is available. Plus, wouldn’t Orland want another option at PG? To say nothing of SG? Their front line is even thin other than Howard. They could use some other pieces and they have two players that could help the Blazers. The first is Trevor Ariza who I believe is just waiting the right opportunity to really bust out. I think I would give up Webster and one of the new picks for Ariza and a second rounder. I think Ariza is better and will be better. Then there is Hedo. I think he is a good fit. Prz and some loose change could bring him to the NW. I hear this has been discussed and is dead, but would be a good deal. I’m worried that with Oden likely to be in foul trouble a lot, Joel could be useful. Plus as my buddy Jeff points out, Przybilla probably brings a bit more toughness. But Hedo has a semi-reasonable contract and can spread the floor. If Raef is healthy enough to play some minutes at the 4 and 5, I say do this deal.

Willingness – I don’t know why they wouldn’t jump at the chance to trade Hedo for Prz with as thin as they are at the power forward. Plus, how do you play Hedo and Lewis at the same time? They are basically the same player, just one is better. But like I said, I hear this is dead, so who knows?

Philadelphia

Available/Desirable – Both Korver and Iggy would be good fits. But the new AI is surely absolutely untouchable. Korver may or may not be. He is really mostly a specialist and it is tough to say how highly Philly might value him. I think I think Korver fits well on the Blazers. Good shooter to spread the floor. Still young. Relatively reasonably paid. Seems like a good fit. For the contracts, Przybilla for Korver and Shavlick Randolph works. Why Philly would do that when they already have several mediocre big guys who can’t score, is another question.

Willingness – Tough to say if Philly would be willing to discuss moving Korver. I’m guessing it would have to be a part of a much larger deal than Portland would be interested in. Really, I just don’t think Portland has anything that would get them very excited.

Phoenix

Available/Desirable – Sure Diaw and Marion and Hill and even Raja Bell would be upgrades to the roster and players that fit from a talent perspective, but I think Diaw only works as a Sun and even there has motivation issues. Marion is too much money and too expensive I’m sure. Hill is too old and doesn’t want to play anywhere else and Bell isn’t a big enough upgrade to make it worth it since he is really a 2 rather than a 3.

Willingness – I don’t see much here. I imagine they would be happy to get Portland to take on Diaw’s huge contract, but that isn’t going to happen.

Sacramento

Avaialable/Desirable – I hate this roster. Artest would be a good fit as far as talent goes, but he is a walking nightmare and now that he shoots all the time, it is just worse. Yuck. The player at the 3 that I like here is Francisco Garcia. Man he has bulked up since college when he looked like the second coming of Tayshawn Prince. I like his game and think it would fit for Portland. But he’s still mostly upside which is what Portland already has plenty of. Pass.

Willingness – they should be blowing this thing up, but I don’t see any kind of discernable plan. Tough to say what they might be willing to do. I know Artest is available, but who wants him?

San Antonio

Available/Desirable – Too old and too entrenched. Manu’s great, but not being traded. We’ll just move along

Willingness – Uhmmm….no.

Seattle

Available/Desirable – Well, Green and Durant would be nice, but not likely to be traded. Wally fits pretty well if he were healthy and not paid 12 million dollars next year. Though considering he doesn’t fit into Seattle’s plans either I’m sure how about a LaFrentz and cash or picks for Wally? Both are banged up. Niether fit in the team’s plan. Both come off the books in two years. Sure Wally is better, but he plays the same position as Green and Durant so are they even going to play him? Seems like something that could work out for all involved.

Willingness – I don’t think so. Seattle’s not looking to do any trading with Portland after Mr. Sonic’s defection. Interesting idea though.

Toronto

Available/Desirable – I don’t see anyone who they would consider trading that fits what Portland is trying to do. Just don’t see it.

Willingness – they could use someone like Przybilla, but not enough to give up something like Bargnani or Garbajosa.

Utah

Available/Desirable – AK was another one I wondered about when Portland still had Zach, but we’re past that…seriously, we have to be past that. I actually think the Blazers could use someone like Harpring. For the contracts Prz for Harp straight up works. He would add some toughness and leadership to a young team and plays like Nate likes. Not a great guy for an uptempo team, but would be a nice yin to Outlaw’s yang (I promise to never write about Outlaw’s yang again). Ronnie Brewer could turn out to be a nice player, but doesn’t really fit Portland’s needs right now and is still very unproven.

Willingness – I don’t see Utah wanting to trade Harp for a back up center. Maybe if there was a way to sweeten the pot, but this seems unlikely and nothing to get excited about even if it was likely.

Washington

Available/Desirable – You know what I said about Jefferson above? Well replace him with Jamison and you get the idea. Oh, what could have been…. Anyway, as it is, since Caron Butler is surely not available for a back up center, prospect shooter and backup point guard, I don’t think we need to spend much time here. Though I would love to see the Blazers get Caron.

Willingness – I bet they are very willing to move Jarvis Hayes. Just a guess. But, you know, who cares?

So, after all that, what’s the lesson to be learned? After that Zach trade failed to net a scoring small forward, there really isn’t much out there. Only 2 or 3 teams could provide any options and none of them are likely to really want what Portland has. I am becoming more and more convinced that the Blazers will start the year with a starting 5 of Blake, Roy, Outlaw, Aldridge and Oden with Jack, Frye, Webster and Jones all getting some starts in the early going.

NFL, time to step up.

2007-07-19T16:24:00.000-07:00

Mike Vick was the Lebron James of the NFL. Hugely hyped when he came in the league and had the type of skills that translated very well to marketing prowess. Even though he didn’t match Peyton Manning’s endorsements and has never really lived up to expectations as a QB, he was nonetheless as much the face of the NFL as any other player. He was also such a freakish athlete, that he has the Bo Jackson “you never know what you might see when you watch him” factor. Some of the most amazing things I have ever seen on the football field were done by Vick. He may be the fastest guy in the league on the field and is so dazzling you can’t help but watch.

Of course he had is downside as well. Even though he led Atlanta to some victories, he never really seemed to fulfill his promise. He is not an accurate passer (to say the least) and also seems to lack a mind for the game that allows him to pick defenses apart like Manning and Brady do. But even with that, he was still perhaps the greatest active American athlete in terms of athletic ability, even if that didn’t always translate the way his team would like.

Now he’s in big trouble (massive understatement) and if the NFL continues to sit back and watch, it will be in trouble as well. Goodell has done a good job since coming in as commish. He has taken a strong lead to get the thugs to clean up their acts or bear the consequences. He has shown courage and decisiveness. That is critical because if the players start to alienate the fans by being criminals and just all around bad guys, the league will be in serious trouble. Right now, the NFL is at the top, but much of that is because they have avoided the problems that have plagued the MLB and NBA.

Steroids and recent strikes together with some brutally bad work by Bud Selig has tarnished baseball significantly. Plus, their lack of a cap or some kind of revenue sharing arrangement has made the MLB essentially a two team league in terms of media attention even though neither are the best team (Yanks and Sox).

Crime and general bad behavior, combined with a few other factors that can’t be blamed on the running of the league like the biggest name stars failing to become dominant championship winning players (Wade excepted), have led to an alienation of much of the fan base and hurt the image of the NBA. That said, I think Stern has done a great job and they are fairly quickly even cleaning this aspect up. And there are some great young stars in the league, so unlike baseball, I think the NBA will be fine.

But the NFL has been on a constant incline. It is more popular than ever and consistently puts a great product on the field. The labor agreement, the parity, the power of the team over the individual, it’s all great.

But like everything going well, it can go bad quickly. The Vick debacle puts the league at risk. Everyone from young and old fans, to animal rights groups, to politicians, to business owners and advertisers will be watching this situation very carefully. So how the NFL deals with this is critical. I really don’t think it can be overstated.

That is why I believe that the NFL can not take a wait and see approach. Don’t talk to me about “innocent until proven guilty.” Those are your rights against the government, not your employer. That is a standard designed to get at the truth by forcing the government to play fair. It is not even really about guilt and innocence. For example, no one is proved “innocent” in a criminal trial, just “not guilty.” There’s a difference. But all of that is when your freedom from prison is on the line. Your employer doesn’t need to wait to see if a prosecutor can prove what he needs to for a jury. Your employer can (and should) fire you for things that are not even criminal. So, the idea that the NFL should wait to see if a jury decides the charges have been proved is nonsense. The NFL should be the jury for Vick’s career. They should do what they need to do to become convinced of his guilt or innocence and act accordingly.

Here is what they should do. They should do their own investigation. They should contact the law enforcement people involved and the Federal prosecutors involved. They should hire their own investigators and they should do what any large company would do when one of their employees is accused of something that could hurt the company and find out the answers for themselves.

Then, if they find that Vick is involved in anything like the way that he is accused of, he should be banned for life. They don’t need to wait to see if he’s going to jail, they should just fire him and take whatever steps they can to get back the money the Falcons have paid him. Short of the murders and rapes that have occurred, I can not think of any worse conduct ever committed by an athlete. Worse than gambling, drugs or any of the others. I’m not a PETA supporter. I’m not a vegetarian. I believe animals are not of equal value to humans. But I’m also sickened by anyone treating animals cruelly, especially for no greater purpose than their own enjoyment. If he did what the indictment says, he should be banned from having anything to do with NFL for the rest of his life….oh and should go to prison for a long time.

But it shouldn’t end there. I am afraid that Vick might be the tip of the iceberg. Granted a very famous tip, but still just the starting point. I’m afraid there is a large underground culture where this kind of behavior is acceptable and thriving. Whether that is true or not, the NFL and all the other sports leagues need to investigate themselves thoroughly before it becomes the next steroids issue for sports.

I hope in my heart that Vick has been wrongly accused. But if I ran the NFL, I wouldn’t wait for a trial to find that out. And if I found out Vick was some kind of dog fighting kingpin, I would act as swiftly and harshly as I possibly could.

Time to step up NFL. We’re all watching.

Welcome back Blake

2007-07-16T16:49:00.000-07:00

Now that the Blazers have finally signed Steve Blake, here are my thoughts on the signing and what the Blazers should do next.

I like Blake. Good, solid veteran guy who limits his mistakes, plays hard and seems like a good teammate and person. I think he fits well in Portland where he was very well liked when he was here a couple years ago and should have a much more fun team to play with in a City that is electric with Blazer hype right now even when the news is all about Oden’s tonsils.

Blake also brings much needed shooting and flexibility to play both the 1 and the 2. I really only have 2 concerns about the signing and only one of those is Blake’s fault. First, I’m afraid that it means the Blazers have to trade J Jack for chemistry reasons. From a talent standpoint, I still like Jack and would still prefer he get the minutes as starter or off the bench over Sergio or the other PGs on the team. However, I think Blake came in to start and I’m not sure Jack won’t sulk if he gets benched. That would be too bad. I think a better move might be to trade Jack as part of a package to bring in some consistent scoring.

That said, I still think it would be ideal to keep Jack, hold a true competition for the starting job and play both Blake and Jack minutes at the 1 and 2 with Roy. Sergio’s frighteningly bad play in Vegas over the last couple weeks should be telling to Blazer management. He is quick, has a great handle (that he over-relies on at times) and has great court vision. However, he also has an apparently low basketball IQ, can’t shoot a lick and plays defense like the late great Drazen Petrovic whose tragic death did not diminish his defensive abilities. In other words, he is not a starting NBA point guard. Not yet at least.

Many in Portland already assume that the Blake signing means that the Blazers will trade one of their other point guards. If they do, it will be because they can get good value for Jack and are concerned he will pout. It will not be because they have too many. First, you really can’t have too many good young point guards. Second, Roy is really the only natural 2 guard on the roster and they expect him to play solid minutes at the point. Koponen will play another year in Europe, so that really only leaves 5 players total to man 2 positions (Roy, Blake, Jack, Sergio, Green). That doesn’t sound like too many to me. I think the Blazers (assuming no trade) will play Roy, Jack, Blake and maybe even Green at both guard spots and will probably even play some with Jack, Roy and Blake all on the floor together. I say, you make those 3 the primary rotation and keep Sergio to 10-12 minutes off the bench at the most unless he really takes a leap this year and if he does, look to trade Jack later.

As for other moves, I think the Blazers should be patient. They could start the year with this team and make decisions on potential trades depending on how guys like Przybilla, Webster, McRoberts (who I am really growing to like), Outlaw, Jack and Sergio develop. If a good 3 comes along in a trade offer (like Mike Miller (who my buddy John wisely suggested), Caron Butler, Josh Howard – none of which will happen), it would be ideal to get them in before training camp, but not critical.
A quick note on some other signings:

Mo Williams to the Bucks – Good call. Great position on talented young team that everyone would be in love with but for some brutal injuries last year. Win/win here, especially for Mo who nearly fell for the fool’s gold in Miami. If they can get value for Yi, either from Yi or in a trade, and get Simmons and Charlie V back, they could have a playoff home game in the East. They probably won’t, but they could.

Magloire to the Nets – Hilarious. The best thing I can say about this signing is that it is so nice to know for sure Jamal won’t be a Blazer next year. He is a turnover machine. Fortunately he makes up for it by completely sucking in every other way. He is awful. He was by far the worst Blazer on the team last year and that includes Darius Miles who didn’t play. I think the only explanation for this signing has to be that Rod Thorn goes to bed before the teams in the West play so he never saw the “Big Cat” coughing up hairballs for the Blazers.

Mikki Moore to the Kings – Why? On either side? Why would someone, anyone want to play for the Kings at this point? And why would the Kings want to spend money on a guy that basically has one good year in the league? I guess I like it for the Kings alright, but that franchise is such a mess right now, I don’t really know where anyone fits. After they trade Artest and Bibby, they will be in full blown rebuilding mode. Does Moore help you there? Not sure.

Francis to ? - He hasn’t signed yet, but I sure hope Francis stays in the west to help kill one of Portland’s competitors. Call it “death by dribbling.”

Bold sports predictions of the day:

1. The San Francisco 49ers will win their division this year
2. The Portland Trailblazers will make the NBA playoffs this year
3. Bonds will not break Hank’s record until August and regardless of what happens, this will be his last year as a Giant.
4. Durant will score 23+ppg this year in the NBA, and will win ROY, but there will be quiet rumblings that Jeff Green might actually be the team’s MVP.
5. The Blazers will lead the NBA in lob passes caught for dunks.

NBA Stuff

2007-07-12T17:27:00.000-07:00

Sure, I could have posted something right after the most important NBA draft of my lifetime. Or I could have waited and posted something as soon as teams could talk to free agents. But then I would have been just like every other writer and blogger dispensing relevant insight in a timely manner. And where’s the fun in being just like everyone else?

So, instead I decided to wait until no one really cares any more. It’s a technique I will be sure to teach whenever I’m invited to be a sports journalism professor at Harvard or some place like that.

Lots to cover. Should be a long post. Let’s get right to it.

DRAFT RECAP

I got to watch the NBA draft (or as I like to call it, “The birth of a dynasty”), with my good friends John and Jeeva. Wanting to avoid the usual sportsbar dive food, we met at a swanky sports bar in a trendy part of Portland. Turns out, they import all of their food from dive sportsbars. Dang. Can’t really endorse the “Upper Deck” sports bar…or is it “On Deck”? Either way, avoid all Portland sports bar’s with “deck” in the name.

Still, nothing could dampen our spirits on this night, not even the waiter’s steadfast refusal to come clean on what kind of animal produced the ribs I was eating. After all, my favorite NBA franchise had the first pick in a draft featuring two franchise players including one that happened to be 7 feet tall, skilled, young, mature beyond his years, strong, athletic and hilarious. With The Natural fresh off his rookie of the year season and Aldridge looking like a future star, adding either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant should ensure that Portland is very good for a long time.

Thankfully, when the time came, Kevin Pritchard did the right thing yet again and took Oden with the top pick which I figure means the Blazers will bring in the next decade with another championship parade down Broadway. Hopefully no one will steal Oden’ bike.

But tons has been written about Oden already, including waaaaaaay too much information about his tonsils so let me give my take on the rest of the lottery.

Seattle – Durant – easiest choice in the history of the lottery. Too bad their best young player plays the same position, but since they aren’t stupid enough to give Rashard Lewis 120 mil over 6 years, Durant is the perfect pick

Atlanta – Really, really thought they would trade this pick. I think they are closer than people think to being good. I would say a decent PG and veteran big away. For example, if they had gotten KG and signed Blake or Mo Williams or something like that, they might be my pick to win the East. Lots of rumors but nothing happened so they did the smart thing and took the best player available in Horford even if they do already have a bunch of forwards including a power forward taken with their first round pick last year. At least this year they didn’t take a player like 25 picks too early.

Memphis – Mike Conley Jr. – I’m sorry, but I’m just not sold on this kid. I don’t think he can take over games. I don’t like the basketball IQ. I don’t like the outside shot. Maybe you can look past some of that for a young PG, but not one you are taking 4th overall in a loaded draft. Memphis did desperately need a PG but give me Mo Williams and Yi instead. If Yi was going to hold them up like he’s holding the Bucks up, then maybe you take him and trade him for Andre Miller and the Sixer’s pick. Maybe Conley will prove me wrong, but I bet he gets beat out by Kyle Lowry.

Boston – Traded to Seattle for a front row seat to Ray Allen’s declining years – Jeff Green – Love this trade for Seattle. They knew they were losing Rashard and knew Ray Ray was just going to get grumpier with a rebuilding team. So, why not dump all your stars and start over while they still have enough value to get some decent players to keep you marginally competitive (i.e., not a total disgrace) and a great draft pick. Jeff Green was one of my favorite players in this draft. I think he had that Brandon Roy, NBA ready college player feel to him. I thought he was being underrated and would have taken him ahead of Brewer who people seemed to like more. But, I don’t like this pick for Seattle. They just took Durant. Are they going to play them together and make one of them guard an NBA 4? Yikes. Do they figure anyone they take is coming off the bench, so who cares? Why take the two best small forwards in the draft, when there is a Chinese Dirk Nowitzki just waiting to go to a city with a huge Asian community? Ok, so maybe Yi and Durant’s game overlap as much as Durant and Green, but I still think Yi was the better pick. That said, still a great move for Seattle and a disastrous move for Boston. I think Ray has another good year or two in him, but the outside-outside combo of Pierce and Allen will not only not make them contenders, but it will stunt the development of Jefferson. I think they would have been better off trading Pierce and moving on. Oh well. At least Allen is able to pull off the impressive feat of playing with 3 NBA teams who have green and white as their colors.

Milwaukee – Ji Jianlian – We need to get this guy a nickname soon so that (a) we can stop trying to figure out which of his names to call him or how to pronounce either and (b) get to him before Berman does a highlight package and calls him Yi “true Hollywood story” Jianlian. I feel for Milwaukie and do not believe Yi’s agent should be able to get away with their little blackmail game, but I would have avoided the mess and taken Brandon Wright who fits better on this team anyway. I hope Ji goes to Milwaukee to preserve the integrity of the draft, since I root for a small market team. But Milwaukee knew what they were doing and made this bed for themselves when a player that suits them better was on the board. They need someone to go inside and be able to finish inside, but doesn’t Yi basically do what Bogut and Charlie V already do?

Minnesota – Corey Brewer – Easy call. He wasn’t supposed to slide this far. Great pick for them really as it gives them a good backcourt of the future in Foye (offense) and Brewer (defense) to build around along with whatever they can get for KG and Ricky Ricky before the trade deadline. Just make Phoenix trade Amare and be done with that mess.

Charlotte – Traded to GS for the right to curse at JRich for taking so many ill-advised 3s until he gets injured 20 games into the season – Brandon Right – GS was pissed that the Bucks took Yi, who appeared built for Nellie ball, so they took the best prospect on the board and a guy ‘Sota could really use in their rebuilding plan should they finally decide to part with their franchise player. Interestingly, even though this is the best talent available, if this is not a trade piece, it is a questionable pick. He was the best talent on the board, but does he fit in Nellie’s system? Seems not. Also, with GS so close, why give up JRich (even though he’s not that great) who fits perfectly in their system? I don’t get it unless it all leads to a bigger trade later in the summer. Just a terrible trade for Charlotte. I get that they have to spend that cap money sometime, but on this guy? Still, Felton, JRich, G-Force, May and Okafor is no joke, so if that gets them to the playoffs (which it won’t ), then it’s not a terrible trade…I guess.

Chicago – Joakim Noah – Just don’t like this dude. Don’t like his personality, his dancing, his hair or his game. Can’t shoot at all and should get shoved around plenty. Plus, Wallace becomes more and more untradeable by the minute and you can’t have both of those guys on the floor at the same time. Plus you already have a skinny, energy forward with Thomas. Should have traded this pick along with Noc in a sign and trade to Portland for Zach. Works better for both teams.

Sacramento – Spencer Hawes – Sorry, but has “next white stiff center” written all over him. He’s actually looked pretty good in summer league, so maybe he’ll be better than I think, but I think he’s not going to help much now or later. People keep comparing him to Brad Miller, but Miller was a dominant player in college and Hawes was streaky at best. I think someone like Thornton, who could come in and give your fans something to cheer for now after Artest and Bibby are gone makes more sense.

Atlanta – Acie Law – I like this pick. This kid is a killer. I think he will be Sam Cassel Redux. He also fits Atlanta perfectly because he’s a good enough scorer to play off the ball when JJ plays at the point. Good pick.

Philly – Thaddeus Young – Supposed to be very talented. I don’t know too much about him. They seem to already have Carney and AI playing this position though, so I think I would have gone with Rodney Stuckey here as a scoring compliment to Dre Miller, but Young could prove to be good, so I can’t criticize it too much. Actually, yes I can. They shouldn’t have grabbed another 3.

NO – Julian Wright – Great pick. If NO is healthy, they have Paul, West and Peja who can all score, so they don’t need a big time scorer. Wright is a great talent who is unselfish and a good passer. I think he fits the Diaw role for this team and helps right away.

Clippers – Al Thornton – I would get this more if there were more Maggette trade rumors floating around, but I hear none. I think Thornton can come in and help right away off the bench, so I don’t have a problem with this pick. If it were up to me though I would have taken Crittenton who I think will end up being a steal for the Lakers (except that he won’t be allowed to develop there unless they trade Kobe). Forunately for the Clipps and their fans, they intend to sign the ghost of Steve Francis to save them at the PG position. Brand should start practicing now to not get the ball earlier than 22 seconds into the shot clock to approximate Stevie’s love for dribbling away the offense.

Other first round picks I liked:

Crittenton to LA – big guard, more ready now than people think because of ability to finish and score

Fernandez to Portland – Manu with better hops. This guy is fearless and will be a Barbosa type headache off of Portland’s bench next season.

Almond to Utah – They desperately need shooting and he is a good one. Makes sense to me even if they sign Mo Pete

Tucker to Phoenix – I’m a big fan of guys that show they can really play even if a break down of their individual skills isn’t flattering. So, he’s not the greatest shooter or athlete, but this late in the draft, I think he was a steal. He just knows how to play basketball. He’s the opposite of a guy like Martel Webster. Webster has the talent to be the next Ray Allen, but has as yet not shown that he knows even how to be the next Allen Ray.

Koponen to Portland – Universally loved by scouts. Good size, decent shooting, good vision and gets to develop in Europe for a couple years. KP learned well in San Antonio. Don’t forget this name.

Second round picks that I liked:

Glen Davis to Boston via trade – Fat players usually stay fat or get fatter, but something tells me this guy is going to make it work. Another guy that just flat knows how to get it done. I don’t care about his combine stats. I think he can help that team right now. He could be a poor man’s Charles Barkley with just the slightest amount of self discipline with the room service menu.

Josh McRoberts to Portland – I know I’m singling out all of Portland’s picks like any homer, but this was a great draft and they deserve it. McRoberts was first round talent. He’s a facilitating forward that doesn’t need plays called for him to be effective. He can rebound, has good handles and is a great passer. Great fit for the team and it doesn’t hurt that he is buddies with Mr. Oden which should ease that transition as well. Inspired pick.

Reyshawn Terry to Dallas via trade – overshadowed by the rest of NC’s impressive talent pool, but for this late, I think he has very good potential.

Renaldas Seibutis to Dallas – Portland had this guy in and he tore up his work out. Everything I read tells me this guy will help Dallas after another year or two in Greece.

Taurean Green to Portland – What you thought I would leave one out? Leader in a winning program. Used to being a distributor first because of the talent around him. Used to being in the spotlight. He has already dramatically outplayed the now overrated Sergio Rodriguez in Summer League. He will push Sergio for minutes this year unless they sign Blake.

PORTLAND’S BIG TRADE

I will admit I was angry and somewhat distraught when this trade was announced. First, it involved bringing Steve Francis to Portland. Second, it appeared that Portland just gave away a 23 and 10 guy and got nothing in return that will help a team in need of scoring, score. I still think Portland should have waited and tried to get more. I still think they gave Zach away for too little. I’m still bummed that’s all they got for their most valuable trade asset. But, as all of the pieces of the trade came to light, KP started looking smart again.

It was a bad trade for Portland because they gave away too much scoring on a team that needs it without getting scoring back.

It was a good trade for Portland because:

1. They got rid of a head case that didn’t fit with this team and almost certainly would have corrupted some or all of the new players. Good riddance to the whole “Hoops Family.”

2. They bought Stevie out so the only harm done from his arrival is to Paul Allen’s wallet and I couldn’t care less about that.

3. Getting Stevie for Zach allowed them to shave off the last 30 mil of Zach’s contract leaving the Blazers lots of space at the exact time they will need to extend Roy and Aldridge. Brilliant.

4. By trading Dickau and Freddie Jones who were not needed they got a trade exception and were able to get James Jones, whose shooting should be a real help and more importantly Phoenix’ pick which they turned into Rudy Fernandez who, I’m telling you, will be a monster.

5. Channing Frye is not a bum. With Oden headed toward lots of foul trouble this year, Frye will be able to help at the 4 and 5. I think he can play with Joel or Lemarcus at either position. Though not well publicized, KP and Nate are building their ultimate team plan around an offense that relies on the bigs being able to beat their man down the floor and either get easy baskets in transition or get early position and avoid double teams. Consider, for example, why Zach gets doubled so much more than say Amare. It’s not only because the Suns have so many other weapons, it is also because Amare is rarely just standing on the block in the half-court set. He beats his man down and ends up single covered by a guard or small forward and gets easy baskets and trips to the FT line. This is what KP and Nate are aiming toward. Frye, like Aldridge, Oden and Outlaw, all fit this model.

FREE AGENTS

Now, real quick to the Free Agents –

Rashard to Orlando – not a max player. He makes Orlando better, but so not worth it. Terrible contract they will regret immediately when they realize that he is only marginally better than Hedo. Plus he will not be enough to make up for the loss of Hill and Darko. Plus, they paid for an extra year at more than 20 mil for no reason. Orlando was going to get him for 5 and 90ish, but instead traded a 2nd round pick and helped Seattle with a trade exception for the rights to overpay for another year. If a trade like that went down in fantasy hoops, the commissioner would get death threats if he let it go through. I like the fit on the team and the aggressiveness of the Magic to get him, but not at that price.

Kapono to the Raptors – You can’t have too many shooters, but this is the classic case of a guy looking better than he is because of his team. See, e.g., Tim Thomas with the Suns. Kapono robbed Toronto plain and simple. He is a poverty stricken man’s MoPete. Plus Toronto should have known Darko was going to be available and held out for him.

Darko to Memphis – Good deal for both sides. Memphis only paid for 3 years at what appears to be a reasonable sum. They get a guy to play up front with Pao who is young and still getting better and Ivaroni should be a great coach for him.

Mo Williams to….? – He should sign with Milwaukie over Miami. He’ll enjoy the extra cash and Milwaukie is better and soon to be lots better. Miami is a paper tiger. The Bucks are a healthy season from being the 3 or 4 seed in the East.

Billups, Carter, Wallace to their old teams – all good moves for all sides. Those teams had to keep those guys or start over which they were not in a good position to do. NJ and Detroit overpaid, but they had to.

Finally, I hope Portland re-signs Outlaw and concocts some kind of trade for a consistent scoring small forward. My dream is Prz, Webster and spare parts for Mike Miller and returning spare parts. But I would take Hedo (the rumor of the moment) if we didn’t over pay.

Whew, glad to get that out of my system finally.

Radio Maxim and other things I dislike

2007-06-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

I love sports and I’m not generally a cranky guy, but getting a fresh dose of my least favorite sports talk guy on this morning’s commute must have put me over the edge because I find myself itching to complain about a few things I hate in the world of sports at the moment. Not a complete list. Not in ranked order. Just a few things off the top of my head.

The Herd - The afore mentioned disfavored sports talk guy is none other than Portland’s own Colin Cowherd. Actually I don’t think he’s from Portland, just made an idiot of himself here for a while before ESPN inexplicably picked him up. My dislike for him started when he began referring to himself as a local media icon. I think that’s kind of like being a genius in that if you have to tell people, chances are real good that you are not. The Herd does know football, I will give him that. He seems to have a very keen eye for who is legit on the gridiron and cuts through a lot of the nonsense that floats around from pundit to pundit. Plus he talks about it year ‘round which I appreciate. The problem is, that is all he knows about. He knows nothing about any other sport and so is left to try to do a mini-stand up routine about every sports headline, often doing little more than showing off his immense ignorance. If he were funny, that would almost be forgivable if it weren’t for the additional fact that he is often obnoxious just for the sake of being obnoxious. His rude and abrasive style is so obviously a gimmick that I tire of it in less time than it takes for him to dismiss anyone that disagrees with him. This morning he went off about how he has no use for the NBA (which I love) and is instead trying to embrace soccer. That’s like your personal chef telling you he is going to give up on choice cuts of Grade A premium beef in exchange for Spam. I know, I know, no one is making me listen and it’s not like I’m paying for it, but he is my one sports option on the commute, so if it isn’t Cowherd it is the latest remix of Akon’s continuing and mysteriously popular Chipmunks impression on pop stations or NPR where I’m at constant risk of a Frank DeFord interview and I just can’t take that.

Steroids in baseball – I just don’t think it matters. I mean, they should have had testing and they should have it now, but I’m sick of hearing about it because I think it is a non-story. It wasn’t against the rules. The general term “steroids” now covers a pharmacy worth of different drugs each of which have a different desired effect and outcome. So, you never even really know what is being discussed. I mean even though we’ve heard about them a million times can you tell me the difference between the “clear” and the “cream”? Can you tell me whether either of them makes it easier to hit a baseball? There is no evidence I have seen that they make anyone a better baseball player and even if they do I don’t think the effect is dramatic enough to really be an issue for Baseball’s hallowed records. Look, I’m anti steroids, I just don’t want to keep hearing about them. It is depressing and largely irrelevant. Let’s move on already.

Athlete Predictions – This week it was apparently news that the starting QB for the Detroit Lions (an irrelevant sports franchise) thinks his team is going to win more than 10 games next year. What??? That’s news? How? I mean, let’s do a survey of QBs around the league and see how many think their team is going to be above .500 next year? If any of them say, “no way, not us”, that guy should be canned immediately. Of course Kitna thinks they are going to win. Who freakin’ cares? Just ridiculous. All of these “stories” drive me crazy. Every time an athlete who is drilled constantly to be confident predicts his own or his team’s success in public we make a story out of it. I blame Namath of course. Isn’t the athlete guarantee of victory the dumbest thing in the history of dumb things? Does it suggest, he’s going to try extra hard so his team will win? Why wasn’t he already trying as hard as he could? Plus, what if he’s wrong? Is he going to refund my ticket, cable bill, DirecTV sports package? Of course not. So how is it a guarantee exactly? When a player thinks he’s going to win, it isn’t a story. It should be a story if some guy says he thinks his team has no shot.

Radio Maxim – Here in Portland we have one sports talk radio station. For at least one hour in the afternoon, the hosts stop talking about sports and move to topics like who was the hottest sitcom mom of the ‘80s. Now maybe that’s a perfectly legitimate debate (no way Merrideth Baxter Berney doesn’t win), but if I want to hear about that topic, I’ll turn on VH1. If I want to hear about who’s the prettiest and what’s the best pickup line and who has the best embarrassing sex story, I will read Maxim. I don’t want my only radio sports information source to suddenly cut me off from sports so a couple juvenile sports guys can rant and rave about pop culture that I’m apparently supposed to care about just because I’m a red-blooded American male. I hate it. And everyone from Cowherd to Rome does this and I can take a little, but I wish the sports guys would stick to sports and not decide that because they know about one thing guys like, they clearly know about everything guys like. Absurd.

Ok, I feel better now.

Too early to talk fantasy? Never

2007-06-15T16:28:00.001-07:00

I love to make sports predictions and mouth off about what I think is going to happen for a player or team or anything else in the world of sports. I find that being right in that situation allows you lots of bragging rights and no one really holds you to it when you’re wrong. So far my favorite “got it right” was when I called a local sports talk station before the NBA draft last year in response to a local beat writer who said the Blazers should offer every player on their roster to get the first pick so they could take Adam Morrison. I called in and said Morrison had a ceiling of Mike Miller and probably wasn’t that good and that the best player in the draft was Brandon Roy and that if the Blazers moved up they should take Aldridge. They ripped me for that on the air, but I’ve been bragging about that ever since.

But for every time like that when I called it right, there are 50 times when I was wrong. Truthfully, I follow sports fairly religiously now and that has greatly boosted my ability to call things right. Still, I’m haunted by one particular goof. The biggest Ryan Leaf call of my sports fan career is the cause for this article. It is none other than Mr. Tim Duncan. I thought he was going to be a bust. It sounds absurd now, but I honestly did. I watched him play in the ACC and he seemed soft. I just thought, this guy has the tools, but no heart and plus he can’t jump. I openly told people that he would be at the end of someone’s bench and never get off by the end of his first year. Hmmmm…guess I was a little off on that one.

To compound my mistake I argued about it repeatedly with my friend John who got me involved in his fantasy basketball league. John took Duncan with the last pick of the first round his rookie year. I made fun of him for weeks until I finally had to eat so much crow I started sprouting feathers. Duncan is, of course, a great player and looking back I should have seen then what the rest of the world did. But even more surprising to me was that Duncan was immediately an impact fantasy player.

I know we are months and months away from the start of the next NBA season and fantasy basketball drafts, but I’m still curious. Which of this year’s rookies will be worth drafting and how high will the first rookie go? Assuming you don’t play in a keeper league, do you take Oden or Durant in the first round? Second? Assume they go to Portland and Seattle as predicted. Then assume Seattle lets Rashard go. Both of those guys are getting lots of PT. I think both guys are impact fantasy players their first years, but I think Durant will put up the better numbers of the two. Still, I don’t see taking either of them before the 3rd round in an open draft with no keepers. Am I crazy? Should they even go that high? On the flip side, if they don’t go in the first round this year it could very well be the last year of their careers they aren’t lock first round picks.

For what it’s worth, depending on where they go, here are the guys I think could make a fantasy impact as rookies: Oden, Durant, Thornton, Brewer, Green, Yi and Horford. It is really too early to make such predictions, but watching Duncan tear things up reminded me of that fantasy season when John crushed me on the back of his Duncan prophesy and I started thinking about fantasy hoops and how to avoid that happening again.

I guess I could start by not being a freakin idiot.

Perfectly Suited

2007-06-13T17:13:00.001-07:00

FINALLY!!!! Coach Nolan can finally wear his suit. Great decision by the NFL even if it did take too long to make. Heaven forbid someone show a little class and respect. Apparently the NFL would prefer that everyone dress in that awful cut up sweatshirt that the Pats' coach embarrasses himself in every week.

I really couldn't like Nolan any more at this point.

On my mind...

2007-06-13T15:30:00.000-07:00

Just some things in the sports world to get off my chest:

This is a brutal time of year unless your baseball team is in first place. Mine (the Giants) are far from it. That means, since the NBA finals are all but over, I have to wait until August before there is something interesting going on in sports. Fortunately, this promises to be one of the most interesting and entertaining NBA offseasons in recent memory. Of course, that may only be for me and other Blazer fans, but still…. I love that everyone is talking about the Blazers these days. I couldn’t help thinking as I saw Oden at last night’s game, that Portland may be on its way to where Cleveland is now. Cleveland merchandise is in the top 10 for the NBA even though they are a relatively small market that the rest of the country usually doesn’t care too much about. I don’t expect Oden to have that kind of marketing power (though Durant would), but Portland is relevant again in hoops even before they draft and that’s a good time.

Staying with the NBA for a bit, did you see Side Show Bob’s shot last night at the end of the game? The Cleveland Lebrons are down 2 with about 15 seconds left. LBJ dribbles into a double team and has to kick out FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF RECOVERING HIS DRIBBLE, (this play happens almost every game in the NBA where the star or PG loses his dribble in a place where the play just needs to start over and they do a quick exchange with another player to get their dribble back. Apparently Varajao is the only guy in the league that doesn’t get this. Instead of passing right back to Lebron or even calling time out, he decided he should try to take the best defender in the entire league off the dribble. To his credit, he did avoid a blocked shot by throwing the ball a good 3 feet away from the rim, but alas avoiding a swat does not net your team 2 points and the game was over. I didn’t think I would see a worse shot than Varajao’s late game 3 pointer earlier in the playoffs, but he managed to top it last night and between that and Parker’s brutal dagger 3, the Cavs’ season came to a close. How did Lebron not immediately go over and snap his neck?

Also, Bowen obviously and I believe purposefully fouled Lebron in an attempt to keep LBJ from shooting a 3. Lebron got off a decent shot anyway and the foul was not called. My thoughts: First, no question at all that it was a foul. Can’t be debated. Second, if the foul had been called it would have been a non-shooting foul and would have essentially sealed the game for the Spurs. Third, it probably did affect Lebron’s shot as he was probably waiting for a whistle, but that’s on Lebron not the refs who made the right no call and thus gave Lebron a chance to win the game for his team. He just missed. Kind of like the 2 layups that rimmed out earlier. Part of what makes these finals so boring is that there are absolutely no subplots. Lebron isn’t choking or overcoming the odds. He’s just playing hard and it’s understandably not enough against a far superior team. SA is boring in a dominant sort of way with no one player standing out (though please stop the TP for MVP talk right now). Duncan is the MVP and there is no debate. Just ridiculous discussion. You really forget how good he is until you watch him play a full game and never be in the wrong place, never make the wrong play, never get in foul trouble, never let the refs or other team take him off his game. It is amazing. He may not even be human.

No matter how good you were, wouldn’t you be embarrassed if you were being marketed with the slogan “we are all witnesses?” Wouldn’t you cringe when someone was calling you “King” when you have no MVPs or rings? I sure would be.

Unless some terrible tragedy intervenes, I will be posting a running diary of the NBA draft on this blog on the 28th. I expect it to start with something like, “Well the Trailblazers one giant step toward the playoffs today when they broke the worst kept secret in the NBA and drafted Greg Oden with the number 1 pick. Oden immediately becomes the odds on favorite to retire as the greatest Blazer in history. ….oh and this just in, it appears that Kevin Pritchard has found pictures of the Sonics’ majority owner in compromising positions and in a related story has traded Zach Randolph to the Sonics for the number 2 pick and select, Mike Connely Jr…..just kidding, they take Durant.” I think that’s going to be how it plays out.

I know it is lame to pat yourself on the back, but sometimes if you want something done you have to do it yourself. My secretary was good enough to remind me that right after the all-star game I told her that the Spurs would win the championship in 5 games over the Cavs. Looking now like I’ll be off by one game.

I’m going to try to figure out a way to get to Vegas in mid July for the NBA summer league. Anyone want to join me?

I’m opposed to all this “we have to fix the finals” talk. Last year the finals were compelling. Just an off year. Settle down. There are bigger issues facing the NBA like when are we going to start having H-O-R-S-E as a part of all-star weekend? Also, why are the finals stretched out over 6 months with 3 weeks between each game. Totally kills the drama.

Tiger Woods is going to win the US open with a score of 1 under par and will win by 4-5 strokes.

Man I hope Bonds breaks that stinkin record and retires this year followed by A-Rod convincing the union to allow him to take a pay cut and force a trade to the Giants.

Also have to address the Blazer off season. Here is what I think they should do. KP, I hope you are reading this.
o Draft Oden and sleep like a baby knowing that you can not build any kind of team you want.
o Trade Jack and a second round pick for Atlanta’s number 3 pick. Draft Al Horford. I like Jack. I’m a fan and I think he is a legit starting PG in this league who has improved every year and will likely continue to improve. But I think he has taken all the trade talk and Sergio love too much to heart and I think he is a bit oversensitive and could hurt the chemistry of this team and since his trade value is pretty high right now, I would make this deal. I draft Horford because I think he is the 3rd best player available and I think he gives the Blazers and up and coming stud off the bench in the post who can play right away spelling Aldridge when Aldridge goes to the bench or spells Oden at the 5.
o Trade 2 of the remaining second round picks and cash to move back into the first round late to take Almond or Byars. You can’t have too many shooters and I like both of those guys.
o Sign Steve Blake to a modest FA contract.
o Re-sign Ime and Outlaw
o Trade Zach and Martel to Chicago for Nocioni P.J. Brown and Gordon. Maybe some other spare parts would be needed, but make this deal work. That would give the Blazers a starting lineup of Oden, Aldridge, Ime, Roy and Blake and a crunch time lineup of Oden, Aldridge, Nocioni, Roy and Gordon. That is a killer team. You also have Prz, Outlaw, P.J., Sergio and Almond off the bench. That’s a playoff team starting next year for the next 15 years.

LOOK WHO'S BACK, BACK AGAIN, RIP CITY'S BACK, TELL A FRIEND

2007-05-23T12:49:00.000-07:00

Given the significance of this moment, I am way behind getting something posted. But I’m a family first kind of guy and as giddy as I am about the Blazers, that news paled in comparison to the news I got about my Dad yesterday. For those who don’t know, my Dad is fighting the return of a particularly nasty cancer. There is one treatment. It is a drug that either slows or stops the growth or is ineffective. We found out yesterday that preliminary results show that the drug is working. So, rather than watch the biggest draft of the last 20 years I spent the evening coaching my son’s T-Ball team and having dinner with my parents and siblings. It was hard to ignore the roughly 40 emails I got from friends about the draft, but in that context basketball is pretty meaningless. So, please excuse my tardiness in posting about yesterday’s lottery.

But this is a sports blog, so let’s move on to my comments about yesterday’s improbable events.

First, let me speak for reasonable, articulate Blazer fans everywhere when I say

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!”

I’m not really sure I can say it any better than that.

So, there I am in the little neighborhood park by my house filling in for our coaches who came to the game late. It was a big game with the Cedar Mill Pirates for whom my son Gibson plays every infield position (there is no outfield) and is the team’s undisputed best hitter (in that he usually hits the ball instead of the T and often hits it past second base which is something like a 600 foot homerun in the MLB based on how frequently it occurs in this league), playing against the Cedar Mill Royals. The coaches were late, so I took the players through warm ups. I discovered that it is nearly impossible to check for draft updates on your blackberry while guarding your groin from the errant throws of 6 year olds warming up for a T-Ball game. So, finally, I put my blackberry away to focus on the task at hand.

I had nearly no thought the Blazers would get a top 3 pick. I was just hoping the Blazers would not fall as low as 7. I made up my mind that Corey Brewer was the best possible scenario for the Blazers and was even concerned that he wouldn’t fall that far. I’ve also been hearing good things about Yi, the new Chinese player who seems to have a game that is modeled exactly after Dirk Nowitzki and I thought maybe he would fall to the Blazers.

Even so, I knew that The Natural was going to represent the Blazers at the lottery, so I threw on my number 7 Roy t-shirt just as a show of support since I’m not a believer in luck or fate or whatever you want to call it. And of course I dreamed of the possibility of landing one of the top 2 picks, but they were only dreams.

Then, after the first inning where both teams scored the same amount of runs as there are players on the team for the 42nd consecutive inning, I checked my blackberry again. There were 27 emails all from my sports fan buddies. The first several were agonizingly vague. They said things like “Oh my gosh!” and “Holy ____!!” People were claiming an inability to type or control their bodily functions, but they were not telling me why. I kept opening message after message until the real message became clear: THE BLAZERS GOT THE NUMBER 1 PICK.

I did a double take. I checked more messages. I even emailed a few people back just to make sure they weren’t messing with me. Then I just stood stunned for what seemed like an hour. A voice inside my head started repeating “are you ready?” I wasn’t sure how to answer. Am I ready to have the best center prospect since Shaq on my team? Am I ready to be cheering on a playoff contender? Am I ready for my favorite team to be relevant again? The question kept getting louder and louder until finally it was accompanied by the face of a bewildered shouting opposing coach yelling “coach are you ready???”

Oh, yeah, I’m in the middle of T-ball.

I stayed up watching every sports show I could to try to make up for missing the biggest moment in franchise history since at least their trip to the NBA finals if not their championship in 77. Now that it is starting to sink in, here are my thoughts in no particular order:

I think you have to take Oden – When Kobe and Shaq were headed for divorce, they started a great debate. Who would you rather build your team around? Shaq is a unique dominant force. Kobe is a hyper-skilled scorer with apparently no ceiling. Both play to win and both have their flaws. In my experience, the common answer outside of LA where people are still drunk on the Kobe Kool-aid, was that if they are both the same age, you take Shaq. Why? Because as skilled as Kobe is, big guys who dominate are extremely rare and two-guards that score in bunches are much less rare.

I agree with that take and would add something else. The best, most consistent basketball teams play the game inside-out rather than outside-in. There are exceptions to that general rule, but in general, the game is better when you can have your first option be close to the basket and allow the perimeter players to play off that rather than the other way around. Something tells me, Chicago Bulls fans will have my back on that one as would anyone who has to play the Spurs. You will just usually be better if your top scorer shoots the high percentage that comes with point-blank shots than if your top scorer is a volume shooting guard who shoots in the 30s.

I’ve already heard comparisons between Oden and Durant to the Okafor/Howard (not in the same league) draft when it could have gone either way and lots of comparisons here in Portland to the Bowie/Jordan fiasco. But this is no Bowie/Jordan. If you are going to go back to that draft, you should be asking Hakeem or Jordan. Even with it being Jordan, that is still a tougher question. Ha made the Rockets contenders and brought them some jewelry as well, but Jordan was the best ever, a marketing freak and got 6 rings for the good folks of Chicago. Still, I think there will never be another Jordan and the closer comparison is Kobe and Shaq. Who do you start with if they are both the same age? Even putting aside my hatred for Kobe, I would still take Shaq. And, likewise, I think you have to take Oden over Durant.

I believe Durant could be the better player. He will certainly be the better scorer and could be a one of a kind franchise player mixing the best of Kobe and KG in an unstoppable combination. Of course, he could also be a more athletic version of Dirk with the same defensive liabilities and could fall in love with his jumper so much that he never becomes more than Rashard Lewis. I really doubt it, but it is possible. To be honest, especially living with the whole “passed on Jordan” thing, I am terrified to pass on Durant. But I think Oden is the better pick. Here’s why:

a. He could be the best true center since Shaq and centers like that come along once every 20 years or so. Great scoring wing players come along in some form just about every year. Maybe not like Durant, but still.

b. Portland needs a 5 more than they need a 3. The current team and what is out there in the league will allow Portland to cover the 3 spot much easier than they can the 5 especially if Przybilla doesn’t awaken from his coma.

c. Personally, I think Oden is going to be better. I have concerns about health, but I think he is going to be dominant offensively when he gets his wrist all the way back and is already a much better defensive player. You can build any kind of lineup you want around a player like that. Not as much with Durant.

Couldn’t be happier for the Celtics and Bucks – I don’t hate those teams. In fact I grew up loving Bird more than anything else about basketball and so always rooted for the Celts. But that tank fest in Milwaukie and the utter incompetence of the Celtics left them undeserving. Glad the basketball gods agreed. Though maybe I shouldn’t be so harsh. After all, it was the Celtics that handed the Blazers The Natural.

Goodbye Zebo, hello Rashard – One of the reasons the Blazers will draft Oden is Nate’s love of Rashard Lewis. He will be the number one off season priority and that means you have to move Zach. Look for a sign and trade that will send Zach to a third team (Chicago? Dallas? Minnesota? NY?) and bring Lewis to Portland. Lewis and Durant play the same position and in fact are going to look a lot like the same player next year. With Seattle getting the Durant pick, that will only make this scenario more likely. Pencil Roy, Aldridge, Lewis and Oden into the starting 5 next year right now.

Season tickets are just too expensive – I bragged about how I would be buying tickets if the Blazers got the first pick. Ummm…well…now that it comes right down to it, as much as I would like to be at every game next year, they are still really expensive and my entertainment dollars are already spent on a ridiculous TV and the NBA package. I’m still trying to work something out, but it looks dicey at the moment.

My who they should take top 8 mock draft. I don’t have inside info to tell you what teams will likely do, so I’m giving you what the top 8 teams in the draft SHOULD do with their picks.

Blazers – Draft Oden, print playoff tickets and look forward to another championship in the next 5 years.

Seattle – Draft Durant and make him the center of rebuilding in Oklahoma City.

Atlanta – Trade this pick – They need a PG, but not bad enough to reach this far on Connely Jr. That is just silly. He should be decent and might even be the next TJ Ford, but there are some really good players to be taken in this spot. I say they trade what should be a very valuable pick to get a PG. In fact, Portland wouldn’t be a bad partner. I hear that Atlanta likes Jack and the Blazers may try to move him and bring back Blake to play some point with Sergio when Roy isn’t handling those duties. Trade this pick to the Blazers for Jack and Webster or some other spare parts. The Blazers can then take Brewer and be shamelessly stacked with young talent.

Memphis – Sucks to be Memphis. I say you take Yi here. Gasol and Yi both come from the international game and I bet they could both play a little 4 and 5 in the new more uptempo NBA. I’m tempted to say Horford, but from the video I’ve seen of Yi, I think he could be something special.

Boston – Wow, did they ever get hit hard. How does all that tanking feel now? I love it. Just love it. Anyway, they still make out alright because they can take Brandon Wright. Still raw, but could fit well with Jefferson especially if they can go small.

Bucks – Did I mention I love what happened to the teams that tanked? Under this scenario they luck out and still get Al Horford. They can go huge and play Charlie at the 3 or just add depth. I know they need a 3 more than a 4, but you can’t pass on Horford at this point especially for guys who are less a sure thing like Julian Wright or Jeff Green

Timberwolves – This is the worst spot in the draft. Everyone on this list with the possible exception of Brewer could have been in the mix for top pick in some of the last several years. I don’t think there is another guy here that you can say that about. I think they should look for a 3 here and go with Jeff Green. I can totally see them reaching on one of the centers here, but I think the talent of Green suits them better after they move KG which they have to do.

Charlotte – I could see them taking Noah, but if you’ve read this blog before you know how I feel about him. I think Thornton is the guy here. Don’t get caught up in need when your team is this bad. Just go with a guy that can help you right now. Thornton is the best talent on the board for my money.

Now what do the Blazers do – Trade Zach. Sign Lewis. Buy out Darius. Trade Jack and Martel for depth at the 3 and/or 1. I love Jack, so that is hard for me to say, but I get the idea, that he doesn’t mesh with Nate. Wake up Joel. Bring the other Joel over from England. Kick Magloire to the curb. Get a shooter. It’s as simple as that.

One more note before signing off. The Blazers will make the playoffs next year. Mark it down.

Big money, no whammies, big money, no whammies.....

2007-05-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

HUGE day in the NBA today. If you are lucky, every 3 or 4 years the top pick in the draft is a player who can single handedly remake his team’s fortunes and change the landscape of the NBA. That’s if you are lucky. This year, we have the momentous blessing of 2 such players. Greg Oden and Kevin Durant will go 1 and 2 (probably in that order) in this year’s NBA draft and the lottery which will determine which lucky franchise gets one of those guys takes place tonight. Hopefully I will scrape up the time to do a recap and some analysis of who should go where later this week, but for now, here is how I would order the teams if I were in charge. Or maybe this is how I would rank the lottery teams from teams I would most like to have the top pick down to the least.

1. Portland….of course. With the top pick, they have to grab Oden. Both Oden and Durant fit a need and Durant may be the better player, but you don’t get size, strength, skill and ability in the combination you find them in Oden very often. Could end up being the closest thing to Shaq we’ve seen since the Diesel was breaking backboards instead of scales.

2. Philly – They should have folded up the tent when they traded AI and started playing for ping-pong balls and tanking as much as possible, right? Well, they didn’t. The new AI led them to some astonishingly good play in the later part of the season and Iggy and Dre Miller deserve some love. No tanking, good guys on the team, interesting collection of players, finally unloaded Iverson so they can build a winner, I’d like to see them get rewarded for that.

3. Wolves – I want them to get a high enough pick that they feel comfortable shopping KG. No one in this draft outside the top 2 could really help KG and I don’t want him to get help, I want him out. Minny had their turn and they botched it royally. Now they should have to go it without him and let KG remind everyone that he’s one of the best players in the league again for some other team.

4. Bulls – Love to see them stick it to NY with a nice high pick and they could be instrumental in huge trades and more shake up around the NBA, so them getting another good asset would be fun.

5. Hornets – I just like them. I love Paul, I love the move to get Chandler. I love that instead of just collecting cap space, they actually tried to collect players. Afterall, no one ever won a game with cap space. Give them a good pick and year of health and they are a formidable team.

6. Phoenix – Any team who plays like that should be rewarded. It doesn’t win in the playoffs, but it sure is pleasing on the eye. Working against them is the disgraceful handling of the draft last year, but I still like them.

7. Sonics – So many needs, so many bad centers. I want to make sure they are high enough that they are able to draft another huge stiff in the making like maybe Grey or Hibbert.

8. Bobcats – they are just neutral. I just don’t care enough about them to wish them well or ill.

9. Memphis – Kind of like the Bobcats, I just don’t care that much. That said, I think this team is interesting because I thought holding on to Gasol in a lost year was the right move and adding someone decent could make them a playoff team again.

10. Sacramento – they are a mess. They don’t deserve anyone good

11. Clippers – they don’t deserve a higher pick after ridiculously benching Sam I Am this season in one of the worst coaching moves of the year.

12. Hawks – The ultimate mess (or is that the Sonics). We need to keep them out of the top of the draft to avoid them taking Brewer or Green or some other long, athletic small forward. That said, wouldn’t they be much more entertaining (and probably even better) if they just played Josh Smith at the 5 and went Warrior style with JJ, Williams, Smith, Childress and someone like Jeff Green?

13. Boston – Ainge and Doc are idiots. Just morons. I don’t know how else to say it. I would hate to see them get bailed out.

14. Bucks – They cheated their fans with their tanking. They ruined fantasy seasons the same way. They shouldn’t even get a first round pick this year.

Ok, that’s all for now. There is just over a 5% chance that the Blazers could go into next year with Oden, Aldridge, Rashard Lewis, The Natural and J Jack starting and leading them back to the playoffs. It could happen.

Kobe is the new Iverson

2007-05-04T09:55:00.000-07:00

Now that the Lakers have been ousted and that ousting has been inevitable for several days now, you have already been seeing a lot written about what they should do now. Suddenly lots of people who were saying the Lakers would be crazy to trade away a great prospect center like Bynum for a veteran near the end of their career like Kidd are now changing their tune. When Bynum was one of the early surprises of the season and putting up good numbers everyone (the Lakers included apparently) thought he was the one guy they had to hold onto. Now everyone is killing the Lakers for not giving Kobe help. The real problem? Before you can really help someone, they have to (a) realize they need it and (b) actually want it.

Kobe does niether.

As a result, I believe Kobe’s Lakers are about to look very much like Iverson’s Sixers. Chad Ford on ESPN.com said that the Lakers could end up looking like the T Wolves, but I think the Sixers are a much better comparison. Two things conspired against Philly putting a decent team together while AI was there and in his prime. First was terrible management. Bad draft picks, bad free agent contracts, bad coaching decisions, bad employee relations. The track record of management in the AI era was….well…bad.

The second factor, however, is even more important. Iverson was not someone you could build a contender around. I love Iverson’s heart, competitive drive and awesome skill set. But he is a great scorer, not a great player. He has the skills to be a great player, one of the greatest probably, but his consistent inability to make his teammates better keeps him from the label of “great” in my mind unless you are just talking about his scoring. I argue about this with my buddy Adam who writes great stuff over at www.wisinsider.blogspot.com all the time, and Adam is a smart guy, but he’s just wrong about this one (of course since I think I’m the only one that thinks this, odds are probably in his favor, but I’m going to ignore that).

The real problem with Iverson from a franchise perspective is he can’t be the centerpiece. The same is true for Kobe. Here’s why:

1. During his prime in Philly he was the alpha dog. No way would he have modified his game to suit another dominant player or defer to that player. Who knows what might have been if Shaq had been brought in, but other than that, Iverson never would have deferred. As a consequence, that would have either alienated the other star or would have still left AI as the go to guy and that would have been trouble. Duncan defers to Parker and Manu at times. Shaq defers to Wade. Sometimes, the best player on the team, needs to defer to the other star for that star to be effective. No way AI would have done this unless the other star was a bonafide superstar already established and how many guys like that are there that are on the trading block?

2. Iverson ruins his help – I know the list of guys who were supposed to be the wing man for AI is not particularly distinguished. Still DC, Hughes, Van Horn, Stackhouse and Glen Robinson all played the worst ball of their career with Iverson. Iverson dominates the ball and the thing that makes him great (his belief in himself) is the thing that holds him back because he won’t allow the players around him to develop or excel.

3. Iverson dominates the ball – he over dribbles, refuses to play within an offense and is a classic volume shooter. Sure he scores 30 and that’s impressive especially given his size, but he has to take a ton of shots to get there….shots that his teammates aren’t getting to take.

4. He’s a coach killer. He is such a strong personality and so beloved by fans and makes himself so necessary to the team (in appearance) that he is not required to play in an offense and will, knowingly or not, completely undermine a coach to the rest of the team.

All of those things led to disaster in Philly. As I mentioned, management was terrible and that contributed as well, but even the proven champion builders would have had a nearly impossible time building a contender there. Iverson wouldn’t allow it even though it is truly what he wanted the most.

The comparisons with Kobe in LA are pretty easy to spot for anyone who follows the NBA and isn’t drunk on Kobe Kool-Aid. Kobe suffers from the four problems I listed above every bit as much as Iverson and maybe even more in some ways. I mean, at least Iverson is driven by a will to win. I believe Kobe is driven by a will to be seen as the best. That is a huge difference and is reflected in their play and attitude. And that difference only amplifies the problems listed above.

So, where does that leave LA? Well, where did it leave Philly? It left them years of frustration as they tried combination after combination of players trying to find one that could play and win with Iverson. They never found it, because AI wouldn’t let them (and because they couldn’t find wood in a forest). I think LA is headed in the same direction. There are only 4 things that will keep LA from reaching the depths that Philly did with AI. It will take some combination of all 4 to ever see LA a contender again with Kobe on the team.

1. LA is not Philadelphia. Philadelphia is a great city, but if you were a young famous millionaire who makes their money as a professional entertainer, do you go to the land of the sun and beautiful people, where Hollywood beckons and stars are seen in every trendy café? Or do you go to the historically rich, cold and blustery city in NY’s shadow where you can play for some of the most passionate, but also lamest fans in sports? You may like the snow and the old world American charm, but most freshly minted young rich hoop stars are going to like LA. That gives la la land a significant recruiting advantage when trying to find stars to come play with Kobe.

2. Kobe has even better skills than Iverson. He’s a better shooter, better scorer and even more clutch. This means that even if he remains a one-man show as I predict, that one man show should still win more games than AI did as a Sixer. It’s not enough to make them a contender, but does mean less additional talent is needed.

3. The NBA will protect the Lakers. They need them. The biggest market, the glamour franchise. I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist, but the NBA will start helping the Lakers in any way possible if it really starts to go into the tank. Not sure what form that takes, but it’s real.

4. The T-Mac factor. T-Mac got it this year. He is a completely different player. I have killed him in this post before for being selfish and he does have a terrible history of selfish play, including his shameful behavior in Orlando. That said, Van Gundy or something finally got through to him this year. He has always been one of the most skilled players and best scorers in the league. But this year he finally seems to get that his team has a better chance of winning if he (a) defers some to that 7’6” giant in the paint and (b) expends considerable effort making plays for his teammates (who aren’t very good by the way except for Battier). This led to astonishing feats like his 16 assist performance in the playoffs. Even if Houston doesn’t win, this is a huge development for TMac and the Rockets and has made me a Rockets fan for now.

Well, if T-Mac can turn himself around and start playing the right way, then so can Kobe. Kobe has 3 rings so he may be even more entrenched in his selfish ways, but I think there is hope. Kobe can be a tremendous passer and playmaker and for 2 games in last year’s playoffs against the Suns, he showed that off to great success. But he lapsed back into his usual style and sunk the team. Maybe Kobe will figure it out. He needs to if the Lakers are to have any hope.
The sad reality of all this is that the Lakers would be better off trading Kobe. I know that sounds crazy, but it gives them the best chance to rebuild. Kobe could keep them in the first round of the playoffs for as long as he’s healthy, but probably will never lead them past that. It is a sad waste of talent, but they should trade him and trade him now when they could get anything they wanted for him. They won’t of course and since I’m a Blazer fan, that is just fine with me.

LA, congratulations, you are the new Philadelphia.

Playoff Reflections

2007-04-23T14:52:00.000-07:00

Thought I would take a minute and pass on some stream of consciousness thoughts about the first weekend of the NBA playoffs. It was a great hoops weekend for me in that I actually got to watch quite a bit of hoops. Thanks to my lovely wife for putting up with that. If you haven't done so already, scroll down and check out my playoff predictions. I'm already looking pretty dumb. Good times.

Detroit v. Orlando – Orlando’s just not ready. Detroit should absolutely sweep. No news there, but it was even more obvious than I expected. Detroit showed little to know weaknesses, though I still think they will against better teams, and Orlando just doesn’t have a legit number 1 or number 2 option on offense. Howard is a beast, but he is not a go to scorer. Great rebounder, decent defender and very limited offensively. And he’s a disaster when Detroit slows the game down. Bigger mystery though is what happened to Jameer Nelson this year? This was to be his year. He came on strong at the end of last year and then stunk up the joint this year. I ask now because Orlando could really use some scoring from him right now. I know Detroit didn’t blow them out, but that’s not their style. In just about every game, the Pistons get up by about 10 and hold that lead for the entire game and then either push it to 15 or see if get cut to 5 in the final minute depending on the quality of the opponent or how hard they are playing. That might lead to a couple losses against Cleveland or Chicago, but not Orlando. I hereby declare this the most boring series and I will likely not watch more than 5 minutes combined the rest of the way.

Cleveland v. Washington – I said Cleveland in 5 and that’s looking like I was being a bit generous to the Wiz. Bron looked fiery and it was a huge deal that Hughes stepped up. Still, the Cavs take games off. If they do sweep Washington, it will be a bigger statement about this team than people realize. This was the only game I didn’t see any part of this weekend and I will only watch this one if completely convenient and that’s just for LBJ.

Toronto v. NJ – Fun, fun hoops to watch. Love the Raps style. Love Bosh. Still love watching Kidd and VC on offense. Gotta say, first game played out like I thought the whole series would. NJ’s big 3 and experience are just too much…this year. Sucks for the Raps that they get stuck on NBA TV tomorrow night. Less for me, since I get NBA TV, but a lot of people don’t. If you haven’t seen them, got to a sports bar and check ‘em out at least for a game. They are better than you think. …just not good enough.

Miami v. Chicago – I may get to have an I told you so moment here. Miami should be worried. I meant to do my list of players I thought would break out this year in the playoffs mostly so I could talk about Deng, but didn’t get to it and now it seems pretty obvious. Still, I wasn’t surprised at the game at all. Here’s the deal. Miami is in serious trouble. D Wade has to be 30+ a night D Wade for them to win and he is a shadow of the player he was last year. He still has the speed, vision, handle, to be a great playmaker, but doesn’t have enough finishers for him to be limited to that role. I think this one is over.

Mavs v. GS – I’m shocked. Stunned. I could not believe what I was watching. Would the real Dallas Mavericks please stand up? Please stand up. Please stand up. What was that? Avery apparently missed the memo that goes out to everyone related to sports explaining how things work when you have the better team. When you have two teams and one team can only win if they play their style and they are the lesser team, the better team forces the lesser team to play its way and proves its dominance and also beats the pants off the lesser team. I mean, we all know this right? The Suns didn’t slow it down against LA. The Spurs didn’t try to outrun Denver (of course they also didn’t try to defend Denver, but that’s another story). So, why, why, why did the Mavs try to play Nellie ball? The Warriors can only play running all their gunners at once playing at a break neck pace. They don’t care about turnovers or giving up layups, they just want to run and shoot and shoot some more. Their players are stat hogs that need the ball in their hands and don’t have anything like the skill or patience needed to win in a walk it up/half court game.

I predicted the Mavs would cruise because I saw the Warriors play against a depleted Blazers team and they still couldn’t stop the likes of Martel Webster or Travis Outlaw. They make absolutely no attempt to defend the rim. None. Beat your man, get a layup. It is that easy. I figured a good veteran team like the Mavs would be able to take advantage of the haphazard play of the Warriors, slow them down, take advantage of their size and impose their will on the young undisciplined, inexperienced 8th seed.

So, after coaching pretty dang good in last year’s playoffs, Avery Johnson lost his mind. He changed his lineup to go small even though he is coaching the winningest team in the league. Then the Mavs pushed the ball even harder and at times much more recklessly than the Warriors. Guys were pulling up for jumpers in the 2 on 4 fast break for crying out loud. Not surprisingly, Devin Harris had a great game playing in this style since it fits his game perfectly. The other Mavs?...ummm…not so much. Why no Dirk on the low block? Ever? Why keep the pace so fast when you know that is the only way your opponent can survive? Why play 4 guards at a time when your opponent does that with bigger, better guards? It was almost like Avery wanted to show his old mentor, “see, anything you can do I can do faster and uglier with more unforced errors.” I’m bewildered. If the next game doesn’t see the Mavs slow down the game and try to play bigger, they could lose this series. Astonishing. If they lose, they should take back Avery’s coach of the year award and prohibit this year’s MVP from going to Dirk.

Phoenix v. LA – LA played them tough when Kobe couldn’t miss in the first half. And then, (stop me if you’ve heard this one), when Kobe inevitably cooled some, no one else was in the flow. Luke Walton and Odom seemed to have some pretty good matchups. To bad they can’t get the ball out number 24’s hands. You watch Wade and LBJ and especially T-Mac (this year) and even Iverson a little, and they are setting up their teammates. They start the game as the playmaker to get everyone else involved. Occasionally when they are feeling it, they go on a run in the first quarter, but it’s usually because they are hitting an insanely high percentage or the offense is stagnant, rather than them putting up tons of shots. Not Kobe though. He didn’t get his first assist against run and gun, play no D Phoenix until 6 minutes to go in the 3rd. For a guy who touches the ball on every possession and has the skills he has, he should be ashamed of himself.

That said, Phoenix might want to consider at least one play where they try to throw it into the post. Amare looked lost with his back to the basket. Is Diaw, really the only guy who can catch and score in the post? That could be a very bad sign in the series to come.

SA v. Denver – SA looks old. Manu especially just doesn’t seem to have it any more and Bowen and Finley look completely done. That leaves the Spurs razor thin and much too dependent on Parker and Duncan. I think this game is a bit of a fluke since SA missed so many shots they will normally make, but still. That was the kind of game they used to come back and steal in the final minutes. Give Denver credit. AI and Melo played well and played well together and for most of the game Nene outplayed the best power forward in the game. Next game is an absolute must win for the Spurs. Look for Duncan to get 30+.

Houston v. Utah – this is going to be a good series. Houston looked like the better team and I do think they will win, but these teams look fairly evenly matched and if Utah can get some offense from someone other than Boozer, they will make this a long series.

Some Blazer notes:

--Portland won the coin flip with the Wolves for draft position. In this draft with some very good players in the top 6-7, that could be a huge coin flip.

--Staying with Portland, word is they are making Rashard Lewis their number 1 offseason priority. There is even talk of Pritchard and Nate showing up in Seattle at Midnight the day FA season opens. With ‘shard seeking max dollars (he is just not a max guy, I’m sorry), they would have to trade Zach. A swap seems unlikely so a third team would have to get involved. I hope they know what they are doing. I like Lewis alright and Nate loves him which I take very seriously, but that means Aldridge has to be and stay healthy and take a step forward or this team takes a step back next year. Still, replace Zach with Lewis, count on Aldridge stepping up, get a versatile stopper in the draft like Brewer and things could be looking good next year.

--Of course, if they think they can get Lewis, do the Blazers still draft a 3? If thy get a higher spot than they have, they may want to hope for a Horford or Wright. If they think Zach is gone, does that make Noah an even greater possibility. Nooooooooooo.

--Word out of Blazers HQ is also that Martel may have played his last game in a Blazer uni. I’m not surprised. Nate has been begging him to assert himself all year and given him lots of chances. It hasn’t happened. He’s also a bit of a loner and doesn’t seem to fit in on what is becoming a pretty close knit team. I say, trade him now while there is enough unknown for his stock to be high. He has a bunch of talent, but he may not be ready to show it, at least not in Portland.

--Telfair just got picked up on gun charges. Shocker. We made a promise to take a thug 10 picks too high at least and then made him the reason we didn’t go after Chris Paul. Brilliant!!!

Ok, that’s all for now.

PS., don’t go to sleep on the SF Giants this year. Their pitching is great and as the weather gets better and the bats heat up, they could make a hard run at mediocre.

NBA Playoffs and Awards

2007-04-20T17:05:00.000-07:00

Just so I can say I knew it all along, here are my predictions for the NBA playoffs:

WEST

Round 1

Dallas v. GS – Dallas in 5. GS will get hot and beat them in one game, but their D is so bad, that will be all.

Phoenix v. LA – Phoenix in 6. LA is a mess since they went back to relying on Kobe to score all the teams’ points and the rest of the team are just the only ones in the arena with a better view than Jack. Still Phoenix plays such bad D and plays at such a consistent fast pace that the Lakers will be able to hang around a few games and even take a couple. By the way, anyone arguing Kobe is the MVP is right out of their mind. The league MVP doesn’t allow his team to back into the playoffs with a sub-.500 record after the all-star break and with the team playing its worst when he plays his best. Enough already.

SA v. Denver – Spurs in 5 – Karl, AI and Melo against Pop, Parker, Manu and TD? Not even close. I don’t care how “hot” or “dangerous” the Nugs are. The only parts of the game they will dominate in is turnovers and technical fouls.

Houston v. Utah – Houston in 7 – This one is almost too tough to call. But Utah seems more capable of absolutely tanking and they have absolutely no answer at all for Yao or T-Mac. Also, here’s where that Battier trade starts looking like pure genius.

Round 2

Dallas v. Houston – Dallas in 6 – Tough series, but the breaks will favor the better team and by then T-Back will have some kind of health issue.

Phoenix v. SA – Phx in 7. I see this going down to the wire with the difference in the end being age and conditioning. It will take all 7 games, but Phoenix will outrun them. Either way, I think the Western and NBA champions will come out of this matchup no matter who wins.

Round 3

Phx v. Dallas – Phx in 7 – this has the makings of a classic. I know this isn’t real technical, but I just don’t trust Dallas. Phoenix has more weapons.

EAST

Detroit v. Orlando – Detroit in 4. Detroit is a machine and doesn’t take games off in the playoffs. They just never look like they aren’t in complete control of the game.

Cleveland v. Wizards – Cleveland in 5. What a gift for the Cavs. I actually think Washington might win one in Cleveland. I fully expect the young cocky Cavs led by a young cocky LBJ to take Washington very very lightly. And that’s understandable with no Gilbert, but it will result in a home loss that freaks everyone out and gets everyone piling on Lebron only to have him come out like an caged animal for the rest of the series and take care of business.

Toronto v. NJ – NJ in 7 – NJ barely escapes on the experience of their big 3. Bosh will wake up the whole basketball world and remind them that the best young big in the game might very well reside in Canada, but in the end their defense and erratic play will give in to some clutch shots and NJ will win. That said, this may be the toughest matchup to call. I could see Toronto winning it too and will be rooting for them.

Chicago v. Miami – Chicago in 6. Chicago is not that good, but D Wade is playing on guts alone. His body will not hold up to the punishment and Miami is not even a playoff contender without Wade. If by some miracle, Wade is actually 90% healthy and stays that way, it will be Miami in 6 because Chicago can’t score enough.

Round 2

Detroit v. Chicago – Chicago in 7. This series could flirt with records for lowest points scored. Detroit is a machine as noted earlier, but I think Chicago has the better players and will have huge Mo after beating Miami.

Cleveland v. NJ – Cleveland in 7. Two flawed teams, but NJ has zero interior defense and Lebron will be able to absolutely dominate.

Round 3

Chicago v. Cleveland – Cleveland in 6. Cleveland gets rolling. Chicago stops scoring altogether. LBJ is getting overpraised just as much as he was overcriticized earlier in the year.

NBA Finals

Cleveland v. Phoenix – Phoenix in 5 – LBJ goes off one game and gets the W. And that’s it. The east without Miami at full strength is sooooo much worse than the west, the outcome won’t change here whether the West sends Dallas, SA or Phoenix. Cleveland’s only hope is that a more vulnerable team like Houston or Utah get hot and survive the West. The Eastern teams could (probably wouldn’t, but could) beat those teams.

Phoenix will win and people will be making fun of the people that voted Dirk MVP over Nash.

My Reg Season Award votes:

MIP – Lots of good candidates, but I’m going with Kevin Martin over Biedrins.

6th Man – Barbosa over Manu, even if Manu is eligible.

MVP – Nash – Listen, the point is to be good and make your team good. that’s the goal of every player. The player that does those two things the best in combination is the MVP. It doesn’t matter that he can’t play D. Neither can Dirk by the way. It only matters that he is a one of a kind player that improves his team’s ability to win more than any other player in the league. He may not be in the category as the others who have won 3 MVPs, but that’s not a reason not vote for the best candidate.

ROY – Hmmm…let’s see…that’s a tough one…Umm…guess I’ll have to go with Brandon “The Natural” Roy. One year in the league and they already named the award after him (obligatory name/award reference). By the way, his rookie numbers are nearly identical to Dwayne Wade’s. I’m just saying….

Still No Noah

2007-04-13T16:26:00.000-07:00

This is the continuation of an email discussion on the NBA draft. Scroll down to the beginning post entitled "No Noah" and read that first.

Here is my reply to Adam's response:

KP - I'm completely convinced Pritchard was the brains behind last year's brilliant draft, so I think the Blazers are in good hands. I also completely agree about Roy and Brewer, so I'll comment on one other thing from your first response. If the Blazers keep Randolph, and barring injury, they will make the playoffs next year regardless of who they draft. Now if they get it right and get a decent 3 in the draft that helps, but if they resign Udoka (really much more valuable than people who don't watch this team play could know), and just trot out the same team as this year without the injuries, this team should beat out the Warriors and Clipps and Wolves for the 8th spot. I'm not saying that because I love Zach and I think Aldridge will be better, but Zach is a freaky scorer in the low block and Aldridge isn't ready to completely replace that scoring yet.

Roy in the Allstar game is actually a more ballsy prediction than the Blazers in the playoffs I think. I would be more comfortable saying Roy will deserve to go to the allstar game next year. But you have to be extra good to make that squad as a Blazer. Plus, there are so many big name guards in the west, he will have to go absolutely nuts and he's not a youtube/sportscenter/big time scorer type (which is a good thing by the way) that will grab the national attention until the team is more of a force. Of course I hope you're right, but I'm cynical about the Allstar game. Speaking of, what will the NBA do when Jianlin is one of the top 5 vote getters in the NBA for the allstar team? Don't get me wrong. This isn't a risk, it is a certainty. Until voting changes, 3 guys are locks to be voted on: Yao, T-Mac and Jianlin. I'm already pumped for that controversy.

Draft Express - I guess you were right about getting a rise out of me

Chad Ford - Great 300 reference. I did see it and got it. Not a great movie I didn't think, though that scene you reference was pretty fun. I think Ford is going John Clayton on us. I think Ford was/is a geek who was never invited to sit at the cool table with the likes of Bill Simmons/Klosterman/Scoop Jackson/Rick Reily and the rest of those who are funny and witty and provide you something other than sportscenter breakdowns in written form. As time went on, Clayton kept doing his homework and sports fans became more and more rabid for geeky type sports info since there was so much info out there to consume. Pretty soon, geeky Clayton became a celebrity of sorts and now tries to be funny and hip on his radio show and on sports center. It never works. It always comes off forced and nerdy and worst of all the actual information suffers. I think that's happening to Ford. He appears on TV. He has a podcast and so now he tries to be one of the cool kids instead of the smart geeky kid and ends up being neither and we end up wondering how he writes something like Durant would be his draft pick over Lebron and Wade. I've forgiven him for Darko, but he needs to re-embrace his inner nerd.

Summer Hoops - Great point about the guys who played in the WBC. When you went down that list I was amazed at how many players had off years mostly due to injury. Elton Brand killed me in fantasy this year. I may have to start taking that as more of a factor in fantasy drafts in the future. Goodness knows my brain didn't need another factor to try to compute. If you could get the phenoms to play, and there are ways you could do it (Nike, Addidas, Starbury...kidding), that traveling team of kids would be great to watch. The only downside I see is that I don't think they would be competitive. The world is too good now. I don't really think there is a "solution" to that problem. I think we just have to accept (and believe me it is as hard for me as anyone) that the world caught us at our own sport and then made rules that benefit everyone more than us and now we can't count on winning all the time. We're a contender, not the perennial favorite. it sucks, but I don't see us going back.

The Wright Stuff (auditioning to write headlines for espn.com) - Julian's shooting really bothers me and it should bother coaches in the workouts. I do think he'll slip some in popularity, but I also think he makes a really good fit for Milwaukie. I'm sure they are hoping Simmons comes back strong, but that's a sizeable if and he may be better off the bench anyway. Julian doesn't need the ball to be effective and on a team currently stacked with guys who do, he seems like a better fit than Brandon. That is not, however, to say I think he's the better prospect. I'm not sure B Wright is the next Bosh, but I do think he's better than the last UNC one and done that's making slow progress for the Hawks. I also agree Brandon was underused at UNC. Don't get me started on Roy Williams. That guys is the George Costanza of coaching. He's great with the mothers (they all want to send their boys to play for Roy -- great recruiter), but not as good when he actually has to start doing something with the daughters...or sons....you know what I mean. No one gets less out of good talent than Williams. This is well established. Not even Lute. And I think Brandon Wright is the 3rd best player in the drat, but not so good that you draft him regardless of need and he's not a need for Milwaukie. That's my point.

I think Wright could fall to 4 and then he would be a lock for just about anyone picking there and it looks like we're in agreement that he would be great for Phoenix. By the way did you see that there's an article on Marion in ESPN the mag coming out (on line right now) echoing my thoughts from yesterday? I love it when that happens. both times it has.

Rashard to Phoenix - Lewis to Phoenix is terrifying. Perfect fit. I would do that deal if I'm Phoenix in a heart beat. If I'm Seattle, not so much. Diaw works in Phoenix, but there's too big a risk he reverts back to his Atlanta days for another coach in a different system. Too risky. Then again, at least they would get something for Lewis. I still maintain that Marion is done. Not sure the best fit for him. He's a unique player. if both guys are going to be gone anyway, why not a Marion for Lewis trade? If Marion had to leave, that seems to work for everyone.

Brewer - We agree...again, I might add as I seem to recall we both liked Roy for the Blazers last year around this time. My only concern is that I could really see his stock rising in the workouts. Plus as much as Blazer management tries to get them tanking by sitting players, Nate and the remaining players refuse to lie down. The comeback that fell short the other night against Houston was remarkable. The blazers went with a starting 5 of Jack, Roy, Maurice Lucas, 90+ year old "Blazer Betty" and Blaze the mascot who refused to play without his trampoline. They went down by 20 something and came all the way back to get within 2 in the final minutes. Nate won't let them let up. I love it. But, with the real risk of winning a couple more games, the Blazers could fall to 7th or so and Brewer might be gone. Still, the draft is deep enough that I think the Blazers could get a good 3, so as long as they stay away from Noah and the 3 giant but slow centers in the draft, I think we should be ok.

As for your second rounders, I just want to add that Aaron Brooks is the most underrated player in college. He is a leader and clutch and can score or create as needed. I'd love to get him in the second, but someone's going to have screwed up if he falls that far. that may be even more true for Rush. You really think he might fall out of the first round? that would be astonishing given his one time hype. I think we were all oversold on him at first, but there is still a lot to like. I bet he stops his slide once workouts begin.

If by some miracle the Blazers were to get one of the top 2 picks and assuming Oden is coming out, I will be on the phone that day buying season tickets.

Oh, one more thing. I know most people think Gasol has burned too many bridges to return to Memphis, but I think it is interesting that no one is talking about the fact that they were an up and coming playoff team just a year ago. If they added Oden to Gasol and did something in FA to add to Miller and Gay (like got a real PG...Kidd?) that could be a very dangerous team over night. Maybe it's not Duncan joining the Admiral, but Memphis could go from worst to homecourt in the playoffs if everything went right.

After all that, Adam said:

A lot of great stuff there. I want to get to all of it, but have to run right now.

Other than that, I will just add that 300 was hilariously not good (and that a few of my law school buddies picked up about six sweet catch phrases for just that reason) and that your Memphis theory is A) intriguing and B) something I am quite sure that Jerry West was counting on, now that you mention it. I mean, they started tanking the minute they made Barone (spelling?) the head coach and started playing Phoenix basketball without the man power. Which was pure genius because they managed to tank without offending the fans, because at least the style of play was fun to watch. That is groundbreaking, really.
Okay, gotta run. Te be continued ...

No Noah Continued

2007-04-13T16:08:00.000-07:00

After my marathon response to Adam, he saw me and raised me as follows:

Epic work right there. It is too much to handle to write one coherent response, so I am going to enter responses under each topic in your email below ...

On Apr 12, 2007, at 6:48 PM, Stump, Joshua wrote:

Yikes. I just have to trust Pritchard and I think I have reason to in
this case. I think Portland will be looking for someone who can score
because whether or not they want to keep Zach right now, they have to
know that it could blow up at any moment. If they move Zach, they are
going to need another proven scorer and no one thinks Noah is that guy.
Pritchard went away from the flashy big name last year, so I'm just
going to trust him to do it again this year.

If KP was the architect of last year's draft as I have heard, then I think the Blazers are in good hands. I still think Brewer is the perfect piece, because as long as Aldridge kicks this Wolf-Pakistan-Whatever disease, he can do what Randolph does and then some if needed. Brewer will completely recreate their defense the way Tayshaun, Bowen, and even Josh Howard have anchored their respective D's from the wing, by being able to guard the opposition's best scorer (almost always a 2 guard, it seems) in single coverage while getting the job done on offense (I guess this is debatable with Bowen, but at least he hits that corner three ... or did). Plus he has deep range, can finish at the rim, and - most importantly - doesn't need the ball in any of the spots that Roy does. I also like Green, Julian Wright, and a few other guys to play in that Miles-Udoka wing spot, but they all need to create by getting the ball in certain spots. Anyone who keeps the ball out of Roy's hands is doing Portland a disservice (other than guys that can catch on the block and finish, of course). I love Brewer for them because he can play off of others and doesn't need the ball much at all to do his damage. He is a catch-and-shoot guy and a finisher, and he's fine with that. In other words, he's the anti Nate Robinson. I really think they will go for Brewer and if they do, that they will be back in the playoffs next year. Also, Roy will be in the All-Star game next year, I am convinced. He's unreal in all the non-YouTube ways that I know you love about basketball. I couldn't possibly love him as much as you do, but its close.

Also, I don't think Draft Express has this right even if the teams end
up in that order.

Yes, Draft Express is pretty whack. I just thought that might get a rise out of you:)

I agree with the top 2 of course. On Durant, Chad
Ford just said that if Oden, LBJ, Wade, Bosh, Howard, Durant and Melo
were all in the draft this year he would order them like this:
Durant
Wade
Bron
Oden
Howard
Bosh
Melo

That's a great debate, but I got to say I would order them differently
myself. First, Bosh gets no love. Do people think it is TJ Ford and
Brian Colangelo leading Toronto's surge this year? Admittedly, Durant
was better in college than Wade arguably, but now that we know Wade can
put an aging, lazy, overrated team on his back for the entire playoffs
and make killer J after killer J and can convince every official to give
him every call, and seems to be a good and marketable guy, I think you'd
be crazy not to take him first. And is it just me or is Lebron a
bigger, stronger, better passing version of Durant? I don't get how he
tops that list. I think Ford may have lost his mind.

Chad Ford's work has suffered ever since he decided to try to run BYU Hawaii's political science department (or something like that) and write for ESPN in his spare time. He's never been a humor/opinion guy, so his analysis depends on epic research. When that doesn't happen, he starts drifting, which explains that fairly absurd list. How can you put Durant ahead of Wade and LeBron? How can you put Howard ahead of Bosh? As the tall Persian messenger with the crazy eyes said in 300, "This is Madness!" (And Leonidas would reply, "No. This ... IS ... CHAD FORD!" and then kick him into a bottomless pit. I hope you saw the movie, or at least that part of the preview, so you know the reference. Otherwise, I just wasted 30 seconds of both of our lives.)

I personally go Wade (because of the title and what seems to be a stronger drive) barely over LeBron. Both of these guys are being thrown under the bus a little this year in the "what have you done for me lately?" culture of the sports media. It's ridiculous. Other than Bosh, Shane Battier, and maybe Dwight Howard, name one guy who played on that WBC team that didn't struggle this year or get hurt. That tourney took its toll. International play during the summer almost always does. Which is why we should use Chuck Klosterman's idea of a rotating annual all-star team of high school grads who don't want to go to college (and make a mockery of higher education) while waiting to be "of age" to play in the NBA. A bunch of 19-year old phenoms playing together, practicing, playing exhibitions, and then competing in that year's tourney de jour. It would be great. But now I digress. Going back to the WBC thing, LeBron was sapped, Wade got hurt, Johnson got hurt, Paul played down a bit and got hurt, Antawn Jamison got hurt, Brad Miller, um, please, Carmelo had a weird year, Hinrich was way off all year until about two weeks ago, Elton Brand struggled mightily for several months, and so on. There is no way that is a coincidence. Meanwhile, Mamba is slaying people and Amare is becoming a miracle of modern science after taking the summer to recover from injuries.

Anyway, the point is that this is the wrong time to be re-ranking anyone involved in that tournament. It's effects were too pronounced on this season to examine it objectively. That said, at gunpoint (or in a completely coercion-free reply to your email) I would go Wade, LeBron, Bosh, Oden, Durant, Howard, then Melo ... only because I think Howard (free throw shooting and turnovers) and Carmelo (judgment, maturity) have some big enough flaws that I would reach for a less-proven commodity. But there is no way I take a possible great in Oden or Durant over three guys who are already great NBA players. That is just stupid and it takes me right back to 1999 where we saw decisions like "Jonathan Bender over Shawn Marion," or 2003 where it was "Darko over Melo/Bosh/Wade." Notice Ford didn't put Bender or Darko on his little list.

Ok, I digress.

Back to the draft. If Milwaukie gets 3rd (and they don't deserve better
since I think they are the worst tanking offenders of all), I think they
take Julian Wright to give them good young 3 who has the passing skills
to fit with their other scorers. Brandon Wright may be the better
prospect, but I don't think he's seen as that much better and I think
the Bucks need a 3 really bad.

Julian Wright is sliding fast. He can't shoot and he won't be able to get to the block where he is most creative as a passer. He needs to convince people that he's the next Josh Smith (weakside defender, finisher, underrated passer) but he's neither as athletic or as skilled as a scorer. It doesn't help that his best proxy - AK-47 - dropped off the face of the earth. Wright has passing ability and can really block shots, which makes him a unique and valuable three (especially if he's slotted between two talented scorers at the 2 and 4 in Redd and The Seal), so I agree with you that he's a great fit for the Bucks. But I don't think they will take him. I have B. Wright #3 on my overall board, because I think the comparisons to Bosh are eerie. Both were rail thin lefties that put up great numbers in the ACC and then went pro despite people saying that they were soft and unprepared for the NBA. It is not at all beyond the realm that Wright could be the next Bosh. I had my doubts until I saw him cramming home dunks in traffic and carrying UNC for long periods of time during the ACC and NCAA tournaments (Michigan State game excepted, when he was atrocious). If the Heels had a different coach who realized what he had in Wright, they would have been playing in the title game. Roy "Ladies Glasses" Williams is horrific. Anyway, B Wright is my overall #3 but if the Bucks or Blazers draft there I think they should go a different direction, because a smooth, scoring 4 (while always nice) is not a high need. Brewer, Julian Wright, and Jeff Green (although 3 would be a bit too high, they would want to trade down) are all really good fits for both teams.

The suns would then take Brandon Wright I think. I think this is
Marion's last season for Phoenix and I think they already know it.
Maybe he's back if they win it all, but if they don't (and they won't) I
think he's gone. I've seen a ton of their games and that dude busts his
butt to be a total afterthought. Amare never looks for him and if they
played together a bit more, 2 out of every 3 Phoenix possessions would
end in a dunk. I think there is a chemistry issue there and I think
they move marion and will draft the most mobile big available. Maybe
that's Horford, but I think Wright may be a bit more of the up and down
guy they need. I still think Noah is too stunted offensively for him to
be the guy here. I don't think Horford would be a bad pick, I'm just
speculating.

As you can see above, I am high on B Wright and agree that he would be great in Phoenix. Imagine a guy with 60-80% of Bosh's ability playing there. Exactly. But I think he will be gone even if he shouldn't be. Either way, if Phoenix gets this pick from Atlanta at #4, they are amped, because either Wright or Horford would be an unbelievable add to that roster. I agree that Marion is eventually going to be the cap casualty there. Diaw is going to carry them through another series by posting up some poor Smush Parker wannabe (maybe even Smush himself) for six or seven games, and all of his crappy play will be forgotten. So it will be Marion that goes. Enter Wright or Horford. You have this exactly right. (Although what they should really do is send Diaw and the pick to Seattle in a sign-and-trade for Rashard Lewis and One of The Giant Stiffs, then roll out Nash, Bell, Lewis, Marion, and Amare with Barbosa coming off the bench, while they work The Giant Stiff in for shot-blocking and comedy purposes. Most entertaining team ever.) As for Seattle ...

With the Sonics is where they really get it wrong. Hibbert? No freakin
way. If they take a big here (and they won't), they would surely take
Hawes over Hibbert for the local connection and because he can actually
score. But the sonics have gone Billy Knight on their obsession with
project bigmen and I don't see them taking on another with Hibbert. Of
course, one school says that they still need a big, so why not, but I
think they know Allen is gone and probably expect lewis to be as well.
You can't reach here on yet another offensively challenged 5. you just
can't. My pick here would be Jeff Green. He seems like the kind of guy
who is for real enough that it will come through in the workouts and I
think he'll move up as the draft approaches. He can score and could be
the kind of guy you begin rebuilding around since he can also play
multiple positions.

As it currently stands, the Sonics are the most directionless team in the draft, I think. Even the horrific moves of the Billies (Knight and King) have somehow left the Hawks and Sixers with a framework and some young talent. Josh Smith and Iggy alone give those franchises hope (although I suspect that Atlanta's ridiculous two-game suspension of Smith was not only an attempt to tank and retain their pick by getting into the top three, but also a crafty attempt to improve their bargaining position when it comes time to CTC ... "we would give you a max deal, but you clearly have an attitude problem"). But the Sonics? They have an aging star that knows he should have signed with the Cavs and another star that will probably walk this summer (and become really the first max-dollars guy to walk away from the higher dollars that current franchises can pay under the new CBA). That is why I think they should sign Lewis for the max, then deal him to Phoenix for Diaw and the #4 pick. Diaw's rather fat salary would enable Phoenix to make this move (for at least one year, before deciding what to do with Marion) and would give Seattle a playmaker to build an offense around. They can run and use mismatches, which means he can thrive there. Also, they will have the 4-5 picks in a loaded draft to do whatever they want. They could any number of ways. Go young and talented with B Wright (if he's there) and Jianlin (who Yao calls the "Taller Amare Stoudemire" which cracks me up), or go "ready now" with some Gators (Horford, if he's there, and Brewer). Either way, they could take B Wright or Horford, and then go J. WrightBrewer/Green and they would have a very interesting team. Would you rather have Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis for $26 mil or Horford and Brewer for $7 mil? I'd take the latter, honestly. And this scenario still includes Ray Allen, who they could move to get younger still. Throw in more young talent, Horford/B. Wright, Brewer/J. Wright, Wilcox, Diaw, Collison (who could go back to a 15-20 minute roll player, as he should be), the mismatched point guards (admittedly, still a problem, until Ridnour learns how to be more like Nash or is hypnotized into being a better defender), and all those giant stiffs and this team might grow into something. Okay, now I'm just rambling.

Then the Blazers would take Brewer. Long, great defender, decent
shooter/scorer with lots room to grow and reason to think he will. He
can guard at least 3 different positions, seems like the kind of player
Nate would love. Portland needs a 3 bad. Martel isn't there and may
never be. Portland will make Outlaw an offer, but won't overpay. I
actually expect Ime to be too expensive once some of the smarter GMs out
there realize he's basically a clean Bruce Bowen. But even if Ime comes
back, they could really use a scoring 3. I think the Blazers will look
hard at Julian Wright, Jeff Green, Corey Brewer and maybe even Al
Thornton. Not Noah though. Please...not Noah.

But I can see the thinking. Uptempo team. Zach and/or Lemarcus can
fill it up inside. He's a guy who doesn't need the ball ever but could
finish the break, rebound and defend the hoop. Would allow Aldridge to
play the 4 and maybe open up Zach to be shopped for a scorring 3 (luol
Deng?). I just don't want it. I fear it, but I don't want it.

I totally agree here, as I mentioned above. Brewer would be nice on the Bucks, but he was meant to play small forward for Portland. And I think I mentioned this before, but Jack, Roy, Brewer, and Aldridge have been four of my favorite college players from this decade. Talk about bringing me all the way back to the Blazers bandwagon ...

As for second round pick, it is hard to say, but in a draft with at least 45-50 good players in it, you know they can get a legit NBA player at #38 or #42. Guys I like that would possibly be there:

Aaron Brooks (hometown guy with the chance to be a Barbosa type of scorer off the bench)
Bobby Brown (second most likely to be this year's Barbosa, after Brooks, plus would provide us with a well of amazing "my prerogative" jokes)
Brandon Rush (if he comes out, he will probably go earlier than this, but many projections have him falling this far - I think he's become very underrated lately and he really impressed me with A) his defense on Durant in the Big 12 tourney and B) his willingness to take and make the big shots against So. Illinois)
Rodney Stuckey (another pretty local guy with what they call an "NBA body" and even though he's a tad short - listed at 6'4" - to play the 2 in the NBA, he is a beast and could give them some depth)
Dominic McGuire (poor man's Julian Wright)
Rayshawn Terry (underrated player, good deep shooter, pedigree)
Herbert Hill (would provide some frontcourt depth, is absolutely my draft sleeper this year).

No Noah

2007-04-13T15:57:00.000-07:00

From time to time (and by "time to time" I mean daily) I have some email conversation about sports with one or more of my buddies who love sports as much as I do more or less. Most of my friends manage to come up with much better insight and observation about it than I do, so when appropriate I will try to share that here.

Below and in the next couple posts on this site is an email conversation with my buddy Adam who is a law student, professional sports blogger, fellow fantasy league owner and all around good guy and sports nut. Enjoy and feel free to join in the conversation by leaving your comments:

Under the email heading "worst nightmare" Adam sent me the following:

Draft Express is currently projecting your worst nightmare, Jo Noah to
the Blazers at #6 ...

http://www.draftexpress.com/mymock.php?page=official

Not being able to resist commenting, I checked out the mock NBA draft on that site and then responded as follows:

Yikes. I just have to trust Pritchard and I think I have reason to in this case. I think Portland will be looking for someone who can score because whether or not they want to keep Zach right now, they have to know that it could blow up at any moment. If they move Zach, they are going to need another proven scorer and no one thinks Noah is that guy. Pritchard went away from the flashy big name last year, so I'm just going to trust him to do it again this year.

Also, I don't think Draft Express has this right even if the teams end up in that order. I agree with the top 2 of course. On Durant, Chad Ford just said that if Oden, LBJ, Wade, Bosh, Howard, Durant and Melo were all in the draft this year he would order them like this:

Durant
Wade
Bron
Oden
Howard
Bosh
Melo

That's a great debate, but I got to say I would order them differently myself. First, Bosh gets no love. Do people think it is TJ Ford and Brian Colangelo leading Toronto's surge this year? Admittedly, Durant was better in college than Wade arguably, but now that we know Wade can put an aging, lazy, overrated team on his back for the entire playoffs and make killer J after killer J and can convince every official to give him every call, and seems to be a good and marketable guy, I think you'd be crazy not to take him first. And is it just me or is Lebron a bigger, stronger, better passing version of Durant? I don't get how he tops that list. I think Ford may have lost his mind.

Ok, I digress.

Back to the draft. If Milwaukie gets 3rd (and they don't deserve better since I think they are the worst tanking offenders of all), I think they take Julian Wright to give them good young 3 who has the passing skills to fit with their other scorers. Brandon Wright may be the better prospect, but I don't think he's seen as that much better and I think the Bucks need a 3 really bad.
The suns would then take Brandon Wright I think. I think this is Marion's last season for Phoenix and I think they already know it. Maybe he's back if they win it all, but if they don't (and they won't) I think he's gone. I've seen a ton of their games and that dude busts his butt to be a total afterthought. Amare never looks for him and if they played together a bit more, 2 out of every 3 Phoenix possessions would end in a dunk. I think there is a chemistry issue there and I think they move marion and will draft the most mobile big available. Maybe that's Horford, but I think Wright may be a bit more of the up and down guy they need. I still think Noah is too stunted offensively for him to be the guy here. I don't think Horford would be a bad pick, I'm just speculating.

With the Sonics is where they really get it wrong. Hibbert? No freakin way. If they take a big here (and they won't), they would surely take Hawes over Hibbert for the local connection and because he can actually score. But the sonics have gone Billy Knight on their obsession with project bigmen and I don't see them taking on another with Hibbert. Of course, one school says that they still need a big, so why not, but I think they know Allen is gone and probably expect lewis to be as well. You can't reach here on yet another offensively challenged 5. you just can't. My pick here would be Jeff Green. He seems like the kind of guy who is for real enough that it will come through in the workouts and I think he'll move up as the draft approaches. He can score and could be the kind of guy you begin rebuilding around since he can also play multiple positions.

Then the Blazers would take Brewer. Long, great defender, decent shooter/scorer with lots room to grow and reason to think he will. He can guard at least 3 different positions, seems like the kind of player Nate would love. Portland needs a 3 bad. Martel isn't there and may never be. Portland will make Outlaw an offer, but won't overpay. I actually expect Ime to be too expensive once some of the smarter GMs out there realize he's basically a clean Bruce Bowen. But even if Ime comes back, they could really use a scoring 3. I think the Blazers will look hard at Julian Wright, Jeff Green, Corey Brewer and maybe even Al Thornton. Not Noah though. Please...not Noah.

But I can see the thinking. Uptempo team. Zach and/or Lemarcus can fill it up inside. He's a guy who doesn't need the ball ever but could finish the break, rebound and defend the hoop. Would allow Aldridge to play the 4 and maybe open up Zach to be shopped for a scorring 3 (luol Deng?). I just don't want it. I fear it, but I don't want it.

I will post Adam's response in above this post.

Jaws ate Theisman

2007-03-26T15:17:00.000-07:00

A few comments on the sporting world. I wish I had time to say more, but have to send this out there:

1. I hate that the Blazers weren’t rewarded for their work and good play against the Wolves with a win, but I love the effort. The playoffs are out of reach, but the Blazers are playing like no one told them. At this point, if Roy isn’t unanimous ROY, it will be injustice. If you gave up on the Blazers, it’s past time to come back. They have the 2 best players from last year’s draft, a great coach, play hard and are actually fun to watch.

2. Staying on the Blazers for a moment, what is the hold up with Pritchard being the GM? It is starting to really anger me. They guy that got us Roy and Aldridge and was the lone voice trying to get us Paul (don’t get me started on what a Paul/Roy back court would look like), should have been made Mayor of Portland, much less the GM of the Blazers. Come on!

3. One of the biggest sports announcements of the year was made today and I bet you might have missed it. It is huge. It affects every week of the football season, which for us fans, means more than a third of the year. Jaws is replacing Theisman on Monday night football. It is the best thing to happen to sports broadcasting since….well it is better than anything I can think of. Theisman was and is unbearable. His football analysis consisted of stating the obvious and repeating himself. That could have been excused however, if he had anything resembling a sense of humor or even the sense that there were other people in the booth with him. I’m not a huge Kornheiser fan, though I think he’s fine in moderate doses but I thought he did a good job last season. The only thing dragging him down was Theisman’s consistent inability to play along or even get jokes and the horrible chemistry that ensued. Now he’s gone. Oh, happy day. And he’s replaced by Ron Jawarski who is one of the most insightful NFL analysts in the business. Seriously, that guy is a great teacher. I learn stuff every time he opens his mouth on TV. I couldn’t be happier. Now if we could just somehow take the NFL away from CBS forever, we would really be getting somewhere.

4. I know this is something like basketball blasphemy in the current environment, but I haven’t been that impressed with Oden. I do think the OSU coaching staff and guards should be ashamed of themselves for how poorly they use him on offense. THROW HIM THE ____ BALL!!!! ALREADY, but he also seems to lack interest at times. He doesn’t play with a bounce or an energy to him that you see in guys like Amare and Howard. Not saying he won’t be a very good NBA player, but I am leaning more and more toward the Durant over Oden camp even though I have been reluctant.

5. I’d be willing to bet that the win against Oregon cemented Noah as the number 3 pick in this year’s draft.

6. All Portland fans seem very done with Zach Randolph and I finally reached a point early in the season where I could have lived with trading him. Now, I’m back to defending him. He has done everything they asked this year. He is the go to guy. He brings his game every night, he passes out of the double team, he has welcomed in the new guys and even defers to Roy at the end of games as he should. He still can’t play D and he makes way too much money and he doesn’t seem to be a very good person away from the court, but there is no way the blazers could replace what he gives them by trading him. And the notion that they are better without him is just silly.

7. I think David Carr is the best available FA QB the league has seen in a long long time. Some team may be able to go from out to in the playoffs with a single signing. He is one of the most acruate passers in the league and has simply suffered from having weak skill people around him and an offensive line made out of soggy cocktail napkins.

Finally, a long overdue response to my good friend Curt who responded on an old post. Here’s what Curt said and my response:

1. Nash is awesome, and I think he's definitely the best player in the game today, BUT let's not put him in the same category as MJ, Magic, or The Legend yet. Until he wins some championships, he's not there. And don't tell me he doesn't have the talent to win around him (especially this year). He's got to take the team to the next level consistently.

Response: Completely agree. I wouldn’t put him with that trinity yet and I don’t think I ever said otherwise. My comparison to Jordan was just that Jordan was, for a while, so much better than everyone else that people had to maufacture strange arguments and stretch the truth just to find someone else to give it to, so we didn’t have 5 or 6 consecutive years with Jordan winning the award. Nash is no Jordan, but he has reached that Jordan-like level of being a better fit for the MVP award than anyone else over a long stretch. You have to win rings to be up there with guys like Jordan and Legend and the fact that Nash has not yet is not a big knock on him, but does keep him out of that conversation. While we’re here, it kills me that people are now claiming Kobe should be the MVP because of his scoring run. I will admit that I am the biggest Kobe hater I know. Even still, I have to say I am impressed, make that astounded at the way he has been able to score at will and lift his team from the dumps back to winning again. A truly amazing run. That said, he also let his team suffer a 7 game losing streak down the playoff stretch. And now, if I were a Laker fan, I would be very concerned that the offense has become dependent on Kobe going for 40-60 a night. Well, let me tell you, they need Odom and Walton at least to be on their game to win a single game in the playoffs, and I’m not sure those guys are as involved as they should be. Their numbers have been good during the stretch and the offense has been putting up the points, but they have been barely winning with one guy scoring any time he wants. Not a good sign. Kobe is an amazing scorer and I believe has the skills to be as good as anyone who has ever played, but he’s not the MVP. I would still vote for Nash, though could easily be talked into Dirk.

2. Shaq should not be in the conversation at all. I don't like the theory that just because you're freakishly big, you are a great basketball player. All you are is a freak. And you can't include someone in a great "basketball player" discussion that has to be taken out of games in crunch time because he can't shoot free throws. How is that considered great basketball? He was great at taking up a ton of space, which by default made others better by giving them open looks, but let's not attribute that to skill. This goes for Chamberlain too. If you want to have a great big man discussion, my votes go to Kareem and Russell, with Duncan and Hakeem not to far behind.

Response: I like Shaq. Is he as skilled as Duncan or Ha? Not even close? What about Kareem or Russell or even the Admiral? No way. Shaq’s skills are pedestrian at best. His FTs are an embarrassment and I would not put him in the same category as a Kareem or Hakeem. However, he is, or at least was, a great basketball player. When analyzing a player, I prefer to look at results. If the shot is ugly, but he consistently shoots a high percentage, let’s focus on the end not the means. Size is not a skill in the same way that dribbling or shooting is, but it is an important part of the game. I firmly believe that I have some better basketball skills than Shaq and I’m not a very good player. I’m a better shooter and a much better ball handler, but no one is going to put me in the same conversation as Shaq….obviously. Why? For lots of reasons, not the least of which size matters.

Look at the results. Shaq’s size and strength and athletic ability allowed him to overcome some weakness in skill and allowed him to score at a high level, rebound at a high level, defend at a high level (once upon a time) and make his teammates better not just by taking up space (Stanley Roberts did that), but by drawing attention because whether it was size or skill one and sometimes 2 or 3 people could not guard him. Who cares why they couldn’t? They couldn’t and that’s what matters. If he can score 30 easy, high percentage buckets by being big and Iverson has to take 50% more shots and work the whole shot clock to do it just to score the same amount, who would you want on your team? You take the big guy and that makes him better. He can’t dribble like AI or shoot like AI but if the end result is that he scores the same amount and his team wins (unlike AI), then who is the better player? I’ll go with Shaq.

Madness

2007-03-14T10:15:00.001-07:00

I am still alive. I just haven’t been able to blog. It’s sad really. When I started out I was able to find the time and now that things have cranked up at work, it is harder and harder. Maybe I need a ghost writer.

Anyway, the big news of the moment is that it is the beginning of the NCAA tournament this week, or as I like to call it, “the greatest event in the world of sports.” There is the drama of the games, the upsets, the passion, the school spirit, the competition from wagering (if you’re into that sort of thing, which of course I am not…as far as you know...), it has it all.

Anyway, if you are into that sort of thing, rumor has it that you can participate in a pool by leaving a comment here with a way for me to email you an official invitation.

Where's the story?

2007-02-13T14:05:00.000-08:00

I can’t wait for March Madness. Not only is it the greatest sporting event on the planet, but the sports world is just completely devoid of interesting topics, events, etc.

Let’s review the depressingly bleak landscape:

1. Jon Amechi is gay. First, I don’t really care. Second, I hate the way the media uses stuff like this to try to trap players and coaches into saying something politically incorrect so they can stir up a story where there isn’t one. I imagine the professional jocks of our country are perhaps not the most culturally sensitive folks in the country and frankly that is fine with me. But this is a non-story trying to become a story in hopes that others will comment and make it an even bigger story. This guy has a book to sell and this is an easy way to get publicity. The sports media are like the refs who still buy Manu Ginobili’s flops. They should all know this is just to get their attention, but they just can’t help themselves in turning it into a “story.” Now I have to listen to every time I turn on sports center.

2. Melo is a fill in all-star. Again, who cares? The West is stacked with great (i.e. much better) forwards so it’s no real snub that he was left off at first. It is no surprise at all that he was named an injury replacement. So where’s the story? God me. I want to know why Josh Howard, who has OK numbers for Dallas was such a lock. He’s good, the mavericks are better, but I don’t buy this “the best team in the league deserves at least 2 players” nonsense. Does the player deserve it or not? Howard’s ok, but just ok as all-star caliber players go. How about Zach Randolph who is one of only 4 or maybe 5 players in the league to average more than 23 points and 10 rebounds on a team far out performing their expectations with very little legit talent around him? Not saying he got snubbed, but why is Howard such a given over Zach? Makes no sense.

3. Who will be in the dunk contest? Who cares. The dunk contest only gets worse every year even when that seems impossible. Nate Robinson winning over Iggy last year was sooooooooooo wrong it tainted the whole event. Then add Robinson’s 48 tries to throw down a boring dunk and you have the makings of a truly painful event. Scratch it. Every team in the league has 2-3 guys at least that can, with some practice do most of the dunks that get done. We all know the best dunkers in the league and they show it by dunking in traffic when and where it matters.

4. NBA All star game – Like the dunk contest, the whole weekend has just become uninteresting. The game is ok (though no nash will hurt), but the other stuff is a yawn. They need to introduce H-O-R-S-E right now. It can’t wait. I’m not the first to say it, but it needs to happen.

5. NFL coaching changes – Not compelling. I just can’t get worked up about Marty getting canned. I am happy that Dallas hired Philips who should keep them mired in mediocrity. I’m glad the Niners retained Norv for the moment. That’s all

I mean look at that stuff. Nothing is going on in sports right now. Tiger needs to get back on the course. We need to see more college hoops rivalries. We need to have some blockbuster NBA trades. Something. At least I’m leading my fantasy hoops league, so that’s something.

It’s just depressing.

Sick and Tired

2007-01-12T16:52:00.000-08:00

I’m getting frustrated. Maybe it is because none of my sports teams are any good. Maybe it is because I haven’t been on a basketball court other than shooting with my 6 year old in our driveway in months. Maybe I’m just naturally impatient. But I have to get some things off my chest.

1. I’m sick of Barry Bonds. I held out longer than most and still think he’s the best hitter in the history of the game, but now I’m just tired of him and all the allegations and stories and accusations and slamming he and the Giants on talk radio and on and on. For once I would like to be able to read and hear about the Giants and not have to talk or think about Bonds at all. Just once. I can’t wait for the Bonds era to end. I’m hoping this is the last year and then the Giants can trade for A-Rod and rescue him from NY.

2. I’m tired of NBA players being praised for their skills when the skills they have do not win basketball games. The point of the game in the NBA is not to score or keep the other team from scoring. It is not to show off or to get yourself drafted high in a fantasy draft. It is to win. The NBA is filled with extremely skilled players, but only a few are able or willing to use those skills in a way that helps their team win. This has at least 2 key components. You have to be clutch and more importantly, you have to make your teammates better. This is even more true if you are a superstar making tons of money because you are the main reason your team doesn’t have better players around you, so you have even more responsibility to make them as good as they can be.

If a player doesn’t come through for his team down the stretch and doesn’t make his teammates better, and does not actually win, then let’s not talk about him for MVP or call him great. Let’s acknowledge that he may have great skills, but is not a great player. I’m not saying that a player has to win championships to be great, but a great player raises the level of play for everyone on his team. Magic, Bird and eventually even Jordan all did this and that, more than any other skill or stat is why they were great.

Today I read a headline declaring Gilbert Arenas the best “combo” guard in the NBA. I didn’t read the story. I couldn’t stomach it. Unless “combo” means a combination of most shot attempts and quirky, harmless behavior, I don’t want to read it. Arenas? The best point/shooting guard in the NBA? It makes me want to throw up. I have nothing against Arenas. He is truly one of the most skilled scorers in basketball and has all the skills needed to be one of the all time greats. But he’s not using those skills to consistently raise the play of his team and so I’m not calling him great. I do think, there is still hope for Arenas. I do note that he doesn’t have trouble playing with other scorers like AI, Kobe, VC and T-Mac do, but unless Wade and Nash, both of whom play the one and 2 retired last night and I didn’t hear about it, then there is no opening at the top of the “best combo guard” debate. It’s not even close.

Arenas isn’t even in the same tier as those guys. Not in the same universe. It is just perplexing.
I am sick and tired of all the praised heaped on guys who bring their teams down and stunt the growth of talented teammates with selfish play just because they score or put up good stats. Iverson is not one of the best players ever. Most skilled? Best scorers? Sure. Most competitive? Maybe so. I love Iverson’s heart and will and he’s exciting to watch, but he’s not a great player. He did nothing but ruin the early careers of talented young players in Philly and hold a good team down to mediocrity. I don’t think Arenas is that bad. I think he could still become a great player. But he’s not there yet and he certainly is not the best. The best player in the world right now is Steve Nash. I’m not even sure who else could be put in the conversation. He’s not the most skilled, or the best scorer or the most well rounded. But he makes loosers look like all-stars and his teams win as a result.

Guys like Kobe and Melo and even LBJ (whom I love) may be very good players and have the tools to be some of the best ever. But until they learn how to make the players around them better, let’s not put them in the same category as Nash or Shaq (past tense) or Duncan or guys like that.

3. In a related note, I’m tired of people who claim that Nash is not a worth MVP candidate. He’s so good right now (did you see his game last night? Amazing), that he’s officially reached the status Jordan held with the league a few years back when they started giving other people the MVP just because they got tired of giving it to Mike. Don’t get me wrong, Nash is no Jordan, but the way they differentiated themselves as consistently the league’s best player is becoming similar.

Big Mac

2007-01-10T14:15:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. As usual, it is late on a Wednesday and I’m just now getting this posted, but better late than never…right?

Tonight, we are going to take some time to discuss what we’re going to be discussing for the next few weeks. I admit that I was very intrigued by Larry Morgan’s comments about going through and putting people on the hotseat. Unless there are some objections, I’m going to propose that we do that. So, we’ll talk about that and how that might be structured. My thought is that we give some people some kind of structure to tell us about their lives. So, give some thought to what that structure might be….unless you hate the idea and then you should bring that up tonight as well.

Regardless, we are starting tonight off with Larry’s “have you ever had a near death experience” question.

See you tonight.

This week in sports

2007-01-08T09:10:00.000-08:00

This week’s sports observations, coming to you at no charge as usual as far as you know. This was supposed to be posted last Friday, but technical issues intervened, so this is a touch dated, but oh well.

Happy New Year.

Zito to Giants – My very own penny pinching SF Giants (ok, so not compared to the KCs and Milwaukies of the world, but still…), agreed to pay Barry Zito 126 million dollars to land the free agent pitcher recently. A couple things are astounding about this. First, one of the NY teams (Mets) were in the hunt and no one ever outbids them except sometimes Boston. Second, it is very unlike the Giants to pay that much for a FA, and they did this even after paying Bonds his ransom for the year. Third, why pay Zito all this jack and not pay Schmidt? Schmidt has been their ace and they let him to their bitter rivals down I-5. if they had the money to pay an ace, why not pay Schmidt? Is Zito that much better? Maybe. Not a huge deal. Frankly, I’m just happy they got an ace after letting Schmidt go, so I’m not compaining. Of course, it would still be nice to add someone to the team who was under the age of 65 and I don’t know, maybe someone who can hit to protect and/or take advantage of having Bonds in the lineup. And don’t tell me that guy is Ryan Klesko

Saban lying – First, it does appear Saban lied. No real debate there….I guess. But is that really a national news story? I mean, everyone who is thinking of changing jobs lies to their current employer about it. Ok, that may be an overstatement, but I think most people who when asked at work, “hey why are you so dressed up today and where were you during that 2 hour lunch?” will find something else to say other than “I was interviewing for a job with one of our competitors.” Not saying that makes lying right, just pointing out that maybe Saban didn’t really do anything that note or news worthy. This seems like jumping on some guy for lying to his buddy and telling him his ugly girlfriend is hot. Maybe you can argue that it is still a lie and lying is wrong, but whoever you would be jumping on wouldn’t exactly be the first guy to do it.

While we’re here, was it really a lie? Do we know with certainty that Saban didn’t believe the things he was saying when he said them? What if circumstances changed quickly that simply changed Saban’s mind. If you asked me now “will you be working at your current firm tomorrow?” and I said, “absolutely” and then some other firm called me tonight and offered me 32 million dollars to go to work for them tomorrow, if I took that other job, would I be a lier? I know that isn’t what happened. I know Saban had obviously already been talking to ‘Bama and was at best misleading the media and the fans, but I do have to note that his boss, the owner of the Dolphins, didn’t seem to be at all upset about it and never once accused Slick Nick of lying. If Wayne didn’t feel lied to, why should we care? The answer is that we shouldn’t. Only the media does. They can’t stand it when someone lies to them and actually makes them dig to find the truth, so they jump on anyone who dares. Not saying people should lie ever, or that lying to the media is ok, but I’m sick of the media making news out of things that matter only to them.

Blazers losing – I had hoped that Roy’s return would allow the Blazers to keep playing well and that the transition would be seamless, but alas that was not to be. The reality though is that the Blazers are not a good team and they went on that winning streak mostly beating mediocre teams who were missing their best players. They were playing well and that’s great, but they had not morphed into a good team. I will say, though, that in a few more games, they will start playing better again. You have to spend some time allowing guys to redefine their roles now that the team is healthy and then Nate will get the ship righted. I’m not concerned. Then, there will be a series of trades that will shake things up again and the Blazers will secure their position in the top 5 of the lottery and hopefully get Durant.

Speaking of the draft, I have to say that one of the reasons I’m glad the Blazers went big with the draft last year is that it may discourage them from taking Noah this year if they get the chance. I think he’s a fun college player, but I see him as a very poor man’s Camby and not at all someone worthy of a top pick. Oden is a different story obviously, but I hope the Blazers stay away from Noah who they were very high on last year. Let’s get Durant. I’m sure no other team will have that same idea.

NFL playoffs – No Niners. No Fantasay. What’s left? Well, there’s still rooting against the Cowboys and it is still NFL football. Actually, I think the playoffs is filled with fun story lines and fun teams to watch. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. What happens when a really cold team in disarray meets another cold team in disarray? 15 picks? 12 fumbles? Then add the personalities of the Tuna, Holmgren and TO to this mix and we may be getting ready to set records in coaching frustration in Seattle. 2 good teams underperforming awfully and hooking up in the playoffs. I hope the seahawks kill them, but I sure wouldn’t want to have money on either team right now.

2. The Eagles are for real. In fact, they are my pick to represent the NFC in the Superbowl. Garcia is good and playing well. He is very familiar with the offense, so he had no trouble taking over from McNabb. The defense is playing well and the team is well coached. If westbrook stays healthy, I honestly think this team is better and more experienced than any other team in the NFC.

3. Rex sucks, but if your Chicago, you have to stick with him. The only difference between Griese and Rex is that Griese has a larger body of work to point to in order to confirm that he also sucks. Rex is much better when he’s on and not much worse when he’s off. He has more experience with the first unit and that should matter. He’s an idiot for saying that he was taking it easy against GB last week, but not for taking it easy, just for saying that. I think he’ll be fine unless and until they hook up with the Eagles.

4. Saints are not a contender. Not with that D. Sorry to have to say it, but it is time someone did.

5. Larry Johnson may rush for 200 yards this weekend against the Colts, but he’ll have to. The Colts will take this one. The Chiefs just aren’t good enough in the passing game to score enough to beat the Colts.

6. I think the Ravens and the lightening bolts are the two best teams in the NFL right now and no one else is even close. Some other team could get hot during the playoffs, but right now these teams are in their own league. The Ravens are my pick to get to and win the Superbowl.

7. I wonder if there is anything the Pats could do to get people’s attention. Would even TO disappear on that team? They have a great record, are playing well and have the most clutch playoff QB since cool Joe, and still don’t get mentioned. Weird. That’s a Red Sox town.

Sir Charles – I watched some of last night’s Lakers/Kings game where Charles Barkley was filling in doing color for Steve Kerr. Kerr, by the way, is one of the very best color guys in basketball right now. He’s smart, witty, has the right level of intensity, seems to have good chemistry with whoever he works with, adds interesting insights to the game, doesn’t take himself too seriously and seems like a guy anyone would want to have over to watch a game with. Charles….not so much. I love Barkley in studio. He’s a bit cranky at times, but he is good humor. He and Kenny and Ernie in the studio for TNT is the best in the business (though Legs and Anthony are good too when ESPN uses them). However, he is a fairly poor color guy during the game. Why? Because he’s too lazy to actually prepare or even dream up any insights prior to the game which becomes obvious when he makes 2 points early in the game and then spends the rest of the game simply repeating those points. He must have said, “the Kings are in no mans land” meaning, the Kings are just good enough to make the playoffs, but aren’t contenders, 1000 times in the 3rd quarter alone. Not a horrible observation, but it doesn’t need to be made more than once. And that, and the observation that it is nice to have a superstar player on your team, were the only things Charles said at all except to openly criticize the officiating which I’m sure will get him a nasty phone call from someone that he will not care at all about ( and good for him).

I don’t mean to hash Barkley who has provided me with lots of good basketball entertainment over the years (including those great D Wade phone commercials), but I’m ready to never see him work another game on the sideline.

Fantasy football – The fantasy football season is finally over as my league decides its championship before the NFL playoffs start. This year my buddy Adam and I squared off for the league title and the first ever league championship ring. Adam had great matchups for his guys with very few concerns about whether people would play. I, on the other hand, had a number of guys who may or may not play since their teams had nothing left to play for. I decided to play Deuce McAlister and Jeff Garcia since they had been so good in my run through the playoffs. Deuce was the big question mark. I had Leon Washington in a time share at RB for the Jets, but I went with Deuce. Big mistake. Deuce didn’t play at all and Washington scored a TD. I also went with Garcia over Hasslebeck because hasslebeck was going to be without this to WR, had nothing left to play for and had been awful lately. For the Eagles, however, the division title was on the line so I was confident Garcia would be focused and remain hot. I did not count on the Lions rising up and smacking the Cowboys who found a way to hurt me even when they lost. The cowboy loss meant the Eagles clinched and immediately benched Garcia. Hasslebeck went on to throw for more than 200 yards and a TD.

As you may have guessed, I lost. Had I played Washington and Garcia, I would have won. And if I was 7ft tall I could dunk…I think. My point is just the “if” makes it pretty irrelevant. The bottom line is that Adam put together a great team and played the right guys at the right time and beat me fair and square. I hated losing and hated losing because my guys just didn’t play, but given the way my team performed earlier in the season, I should be happy to have just made the playoffs. Of course I’m not because I’m a hyper-competitive idiot, but oh well.

At least I have Frank Gore as my keeper RB

Joe Montana – As you may know, whether you are willing to admit it or not, Joe Montana is the greatest QB if not the greatest football player to ever play. I won’t argue about this, it is as much a part of reality as gravity or the necessity of Tivo. It just is. And now, thanks to the generosity of my brother, I now have something of Joe’s to keep his memory fresh and to allow me to continue to remind my boys of the greatness of Joe. For Christmas, my brother Enoch, gave me a signed and framed Joe Montana jersey. The old bright red Rebok jersey that he wore for those glorious years in the 80s. If any of you want to come pay homage to it, it is hanging proudly on the wall of man room. You are welcome to come see it any time you need to…even you Dutt…so long as you don’t disrespect it by wearing one of those Cowboy jersey’s that you wear.

Fantasy hoops – after losing 3 in a row to start the season, my squad has now rolled off 6 in a row to move into a tie for first place in the league. An injury to TJ Ford and the games played schedule will mean a likely loss this week, but the team is in good shape. Brandon Roy is back (though not playing great), and Eddy Curry continues his mysterious run as a dominant center. I picked up Speedy Claxton to replace Ford who went on the IR and he is now locked in a battle with Mike James for the last remaining roster spot when Ford comes off IR next week (I hope).

Ohio State v. Florida – Now that’s a good hoops matchup. Oh but wait, don’t they also play for the football title this year? Of course the bowl system is a travesty and of course we should have a playoff to determine the national champion, but we should also get these games moved back to new year’s weekend. I’m ok with moving this game to the next night to give it a spotlight, but stretching these games out like this has become ridiculous. With the NFL playoffs and the NBA in full swing, moving the title game out until next week has had no effect but to make me lose interest all together. I like football, but the college system is such a joke, these games just don’t mean much any more.

Iverson, Bonds, the Niners and more.

2006-12-15T12:40:00.000-08:00

So, here’s the thing. As much as I would love to be writing about and dissecting sports for a living, I’m really a lawyer with a family who was on the brink of two fairly major trials when my father got diagnosed with cancer. Why am I telling you that? Because it explains why I haven’t posted anything lately. But my trials went away, my Dad had successful surgery and is recovering nicely and my family and job still leave enough time for some blogging (barely), so I’m back. Enjoy.

Meanwhile, there is a ton of stuff going on to weigh in on, so here goes.

IVERSON

A buddy of mine in my fantasy hoops league has Iverson and is facing the best team in our league this week without the services of his best player because Billy King understands how to run an NBA team about as well as Jessica Simpson understands quantum mechanics (just a guess there). Anyway, he was asking me when I thought AI would be playing again and here’s my take on that question:

Not for several more days. Here's my theory about what’s gone on. The first wave of offers were 2 team offers and the Sixers discovered that the teams that had what they were looking for: Chicago, Dallas, Orlando had the pieces but didn't want to deal. Of the teams that were interested and had some good stuff to offer refused to offer the right stuff (Boston, LAC). Then there were a couple teams very interested with interesting pieces that Iverson nixed or scared off (GS, Sac). Now, negotiations are heating up with the teams that are desperate to land Iverson, but don't have the right pieces: Minny, Denver and, to my shock, Miami. Word is that the Sixers want a fat expiring deal, a young up and comer and a first round pick. None of the desperate teams have all that, but are willing to try to find it. That takes some time because it has to include a third or fourth team. So, I think Philly thought it was close this summer to something they would take now and assumed those packages would still be available or could be tweaked some now, so they thought they would do a deal right away. Now they are discovering that those deals are gone or can't be made sweeter so they have to hold out hope that one of the teams most desperate to get AI can find the pieces elsewhere. Don't count out Miami. I'm hearing Riley really wants it to happen and actually has the contracts to make it work. It may depend on whether they can talk Philly into taking J Will and how much Philly likes Dorel Wright.

Back to King. Was he in a coma last year? Did he learn nothing from the Artest thing? He should have traded Iverson this summer when he could have bargained from strength. Then he scared off a bunch of teams by announcing that a deal was imminent. The other thing that did was make Philly seem desperate (which they are, but you never want to appear that way), and as each day goes by, Iverson’s value drops. Denver now appears to be the front runner which, knowing that roster, means the Sixers are going to get worked in this deal. JR Smith? Joe Smith? Nene? Andre Miller? Those are some of the players being tossed around in rumours. Of those, only JR is a young player (not counting Nene because his knees are about 57), and I’m sorry, but he’s dreadful. A decent enough scorer when he gets all the shots he wants and has Melo attracting the D. Think a very poor man’s Ben Gordon. And that’s all you get for a former MVP who still has all his powers? Let’s just say that if Basketball was run like English soccer, no Billy King team would ever be invited up to the Premier League.

One more thing on AI. Why does Riles want him so bad? AI and Wade in the same back court? Does that make sense to anyone? Couldn’t this possibly set Wade’s career back 3 years? Why would you want to bring in a 3rd alpha dog to that team, especially when it is one with largely redundant skills of your best player? That sounds like a disaster and not just for the Heat but for all NBA fans. I’m excited to see Iverson in a new environment, but watching he and Wade battle to pump up a combined 50 shots a game from the perimeter, doesn’t sound pleasant. I’m still hoping to see him play with KG.

KG

That reminds me, you know why the Wolves want AI so bad right now? Because if they don’t get him, they know they will have to try to trade Garnett. But they should also know that after Iverson is traded a lot of the assets that would help make a KG trade possible will be spent. They have to get Iverson because if they don’t, they will lose KG for 40 cents on the dollar instead of the 60 they could have gotten if they went into the market before the Sixers did.

THE NEW BALL

I want to go on record as saying I don’t buy at all that the new NBA ball was actually cutting up players hands as some have complained. I understand that Kidd and Nash have complained that they are getting small cuts from playing with the ball. They use synthetic basketballs in HS and in college and I’ve been playing with them all my life and this is the first I’ve heard of these cuts. I think the players just hated the new ball, and I get why because it feels like a ball that K Mart would be ashamed to cell and so they found a new angle to get rid of it. The thing is, I think that is the one that worked. I think Stern feared that sticking with a ball that players were claiming caused injury would give the players union some leverage on this issue and that is something Stern never wants to see. Good move bringing the old one back. Bad move going with this terrible ball in the first place. There are nice feeling synthetics out there….just find one if it’s that big a deal. Oh, and why not just use the ball they use in the NCAA? One more thing, why Spalding? Have you ever played with a decent Spalding ball? In the world of the pickup player, the Wilson and Nike balls are the nicest with Spalding being like a distant 7th. What is wrong with the NBA?

BARRY BONDS

I’m glad he’s still a Giant. I want him to break the record and retire as a Giant. He’s the best hitter in the history of the game and probably one of the game’s 5 best players and he is a Giant. There I said it.

BRANDON ROY

As you may know, I’m a bit nutty over Brandon Roy. I loved his game in college. I love it for the pros. I love that my favorite team has him and I’m convinced he has the ability to become the best Blazer since the Glyde was in town. So, putting the whole future of one franchise on his shoulders wasn’t enough and I also overpaid for him in my fantasy hoops league. Now I’m worried. He had a tendon issue in his foot flair up and take him out of action. He’s been in a boot for about a month. It just came off and he’s been practicing. It’s basically inflammation that comes from having an oversized talus bone. There is surgery that can be done, but they wanted to let it heal on its own first. Now word is that it still hurts when he practices, but it is just some twinges like what it was back when he was able to play through it. Well, that isn’t the same as “healed.” That sounds like what happens when you rest a problem instead of fixing it. It gets better but not healed. I’m worried that we spent 6 weeks with no Roy and now he’s going to have to have surgery anyway. He’s supposed to come back next Wednesday. At this point I’ll be surprised if he plays more than 2 games and then he’s going to be out 4-6 weeks recovering from surgery. Hopefully he comes back in time to help me in the fantasy playoffs. Ugh.

FANTASY FOOTBALL

I’m pleased to report that I barely survived the loss of Hassleback and Fitzgerald (my two keepers) for the middle of the season and hung on to barely make the playoffs in my fantasy football league. This is the league I run with my buddy John and I have managed to miss the playoffs the last 2 years in my own league through a number of bad choices and bad injuries that I’m still not emotionally ready to discuss.

So the playoffs have started and you can click on the Boyz Near the Hood link to the right if you would like any more information on the playoffs since I wrote about a 25,000 word playoff preview there. You know, in case you’re having a slow day on things to read. Anyway, last night couldn’t have started the first round off any better. I opted at the last minute to bench Hassleback in favor of Jeff Garcia because of the crazy storm that we had last night here in the Pacific NW. My buddy Adam gets partial credit for getting me to think about it. Thanks Adam. I was glad to repay the favor by recommending he start Vernon Davis at TE who got a TD in last night’s game. I feared that this decision would be the one that haunted me the rest of the year, but the storm (and whatever else is wrong with the Seahawks) got to Hassleback and he had a bad game, which not only made me feel better, but also allowed the Niners to win.
As a loyal fan of a particular team, fantasy football can be tough at times. Whenever possible, I try not to pick guys from the Niners’ rivals, I have a strict no-Cowboy rule, and I try not to start players against the Niners. Perhaps this is why I keep missing the playoffs? Nah. Anyway, that contributed to my decision to start Garcia and so far, it appears to have worked out well.
Even better though, Frank Gore, after a weak first half, exploded in the second half and ended up with 144 yards rushing, another 30+ receiving and a TD. Good, good start. And how about that TD play to Gore? Did you see it? Alex Smith got hit by a corner on the blitz. Herndon came in untouched like a missle and was wrapping Smith up before any WR had gone down field more than 2 yards. It was 3rd down, key play late in the game. Smith shook off the tackle like Herndon was his 6 year old son trying to tackle daddy in the living room. He scrambled left and threw a beautiful throw down to Gore who went in for the TD. Faaaaaaaaaaaantastic. Me and my own 6 year old bounced around my living room like we had been mainlining espresso. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Now there is even some chance that the Niners could make the playoffs. Not much…but some…and for now, that’s enough.

THE BLAZERS

Quick point. The Blazers just won 3 straight on the road and one of those games was without Randoloph. If the Blazers were to, by some miracle, win 40 games this year, Nate should be the unanimous choice for coach of the year. He is amazing. Everything the Blazers are doing right is all on him. Please let Roy be healthy…please…I’m begging.

BLEDSOE

As I mentioned in my league playoff preview, I am going to take this weekend off and approach Drew Bledsoe about a new business venture. My plan is to first bring him to the Niners, have him declared the starter, then when he is benched in week 4, Alex Smith explodes. I mean why couldn’t Smith be the next Brady or Romo? Why not just go around the league, starting Bledsoe for a few games and then benching him when he gets hurt or you just can’t take it any more and then your backup becomes a super star and starts dating hot famous chicks. It is can’t miss. Cleveland, don’t worry, stick with Frye. Help is on the way.

FANTASY HOOPS

I started 0-3. Injuries hurt, but not as much as the fact that all my players were putting up about half the numbers they put up last year. I really thought I was staring at the worst fantasy basketball team of all time. Elton Brand, Mike James, Mo Williams, Shawn Marion, Eddy Curry, Richard Jefferson, troy Murphy, they were all playing terrible. Not just “not great”…terrible. I tried to trade anyone and everyone I could. I made ridiculous offers just trying to get rid of people. Very few took me up on them. Now those same players have all collectively awoken from their suckiness comas and I’m 3-3 with a good chance to go 4-3 after this week. Jury is still out on whether trading Jefferson for TJ Ford was a good move. Murphy still has some question marks and I don’t know when Roy will really be back, but other than that, as long as VC keeps averaging 7-8 3s a game, then I should be just fine.

Whew. Ok, that’s all for now. Check back after the weekend.

Are you a Fool? Adidas thinks so.

2006-11-09T10:52:00.000-08:00

When I was writing my thoughts on the opening week of the NBA season, I inadvertently left out one of my favorite things. Have you seen the new Adidas adds? In case you didn’t notice from the trademark 3 stripes on every piece of NBA apparel, Adidas has the new deal to provide NBA teams with its gear. And to follow up that coup, they have also launched a new add campaign using its stars to try to get you to buy shoes.

The new slogan is “It takes 5.” You know, as in, it’s not about the individual, but rather the whole team. One guy can’t do it by himself, but needs to have 4 other guys on the same page. They are pretty boring commercials which include such gripping scenes as players dressed in those motion capture suits they use for video games. What that has to do with team play in basketball, I will never know.

But two things makes this a fun add campaign.

First, in spite of the “It Takes 5” slogan Adidas thankfully kept the worst slogan in sports advertising – “Impossible is Nothing.” There is nothing Madison Ave likes better than these silly twists of words and phrases and sometimes they are clever and work well. None come to mind, but I’m sure some of them are good. This one, though, is not. I get that “Nothing is Impossible,” isn’t very catchy, but reversing the words is just dumb. I guess it is supposed to mean that a true athlete scoffs at the idea that something would be impossible, as if to say not only is nothing impossible, but I don’t even consider “impossible” a significant obstacle. So what does that mean for us and for sports?....ummmm…..I have no idea. From their adds last year it appears to mean that even if Tracy McGrady was attacked by an entire miniature Lilliputianesque army while trying to dunk, he could still dunk. Ok, great, I get it now. If only I wear Addidas, I will still be able to dunk even if tiny thread like cables are wrapped around my feet by teeny-tiny little soldiers. Very helpful.

Of course, for me, when it comes to dunking impossible is definitely something.

Second, and most importantly, an add campaign based on a slogan about teamwork features one of the Generation Y me-first all-stars T-Mac himself and Mr. 40 point point guard Gilbert Arenas. I love this. The other guys featured in this add are KG, Duncan, and Billups and are all perfect for the campaign. All those guys are unselfish (to a fault with KG) and historically play on teams that win or lose around a team concept. Then there’s Arenas. He is everyone’s favorite underdog at the moment (though he’s becoming a spotlight addict – I’m worried that he’s going to go Dennis Rodman in a dress on us at any moment), and everyone talks about him as the most underrated guy in the NBA.

If you play fantasy basketball, you might agree. He puts up incredible stats, I mean, incredible. He fills up a stat sheet with the very best in the league but doesn’t have anything like the national fame that Kobe or Lebron have. But a team guy? No way. He is a shoot first point guard in the mold of a bigger, better shooting Alan Iverson. He puts up those gaudy numbers because he makes sure he gets his first and then everyone else can have the crumbs. The more I watch hoops, the more clearly I see that the difference between a good player and a great player is the ability to make teammates better. Kobe showed this in his Jekyll and Hyde performance in the playoffs last year. In the early games he got his teammates involved, saw his own numbers decrease and the team rolled Phoenix and it wasn’t really even close. Then Kobe went back to shooting 3 out of every 4 possessions and the Suns came back and won the series.

Arenas is a great scorer and very skilled player, but he does not make his teammates better and is not a team guy. That said, you could at least make an argument for Arenas. His assist numbers (misleading as that stat is) are good and his team does win despite marginal talent.
T-Mac however, is another story altogether. He is as selfish and me first as they come in this league. He has to be the star. He has to win on his terms or he sulks and pouts and sits out with phantom injuries. He shoots waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to much and takes terrible shots. He doesn’t get his teammates involved ever. Take all the bad characteristics of Iverson, VC and Kobe and put them in one player and you have T-Mac.

So these it takes 5 adds then show all the players doing flashy individual things like dunking and fancy dribbling moves and has the players speaking saying things like “every time I dunked you were fooled”, the idea being that all this time, we just thought McGrady was a selfish player because he shot 30 shots a game and sulked when he didn’t get his way, but really, in spite of him tearing the heart out of his last two franchises to chase money or hide from a bad situation he created, he’s really all about the team and we were all fooled. I guess we’re just supposed to ignore his entire career and start believing that everything we know about team basketball is wrong and that guys like T-Mac and Arenas are really all about the team.

But you’re not a fool….are you?

Now I See What the Fuss Is About

2006-11-08T11:11:00.000-08:00

Seeing Lebron come out and trash the new NBA basketball and at the request of one loyal reader, I’ve decided to throw out my 10 cents (my 2 cents are free) on the new ball.

First, I am starting to agree with Bill Simmons at ESPN that the NBA may have a new publicity trend going that few are addressing. Last year they changed the rules on the dress code right before the start of the season. It wasn’t a change to the game, and meant very little to nothing to the fans, but it was a huge deal to the players and gave the media something to talk about and suddenly everyone was talking hoops during football/playoff baseball season. This year, they brought out a new ball. If there is some rule or code of conduct change right before the season next year, then I’m officially deeming Simmons a prophet and think we all have to admit that Stern is a genius. If it’s true, I see them making a change that brings the NBA rules closer to international rules (different size ball, shorter 3 line, trapezoid lane, new goal tending rules). It will be spun as a way of reaching out to the global hoops community and will suit Sterns desire to continue to expand the NBA. Plus it will give the talking heads material to discuss how this will better prepare our boys for another bronze medal run at the Olympics.

My initial reaction was: “who cares?” I’m not all up in arms over the use of leather. I have it in my cars, in my closet (just jackets…no pants…or…accessories), on my furniture and don’t mind the NBA using it on the basketballs. I wasn’t surprised when the players hated it because it is something different that they had to get used to, but I wasn’t particularly sympathetic since I figured they wouldn’t make them use a completely lame ball and it would be the same for everyone, so no real advantage.

Speaking of the backlash from the players, wasn’t it the players that allegedly called for this? I thought I read when they first introduced it that it had the support of like Paul Pierce and Kenny Smith or something like that. Funny, I haven’t heard much from any players saying how much they like it. In fact, I haven’t heard one word of support from anyone other than Stern. Strange.

Then the other day, I found one of the new balls in a big sporting goods store. Oddly, none of the balls had price tags on them, so I have no idea how much this new ball costs. I will tell you this though, it feels like it should cost $14.99. No joke, it has a terrible texture and feel to it. There are basically 4 kinds of basketballs right now. At the low end you have your rubber basketballs that are super grippy, bouncy and durable. They are the ones we played with in elementary school and that everyone has at least one of in their basement, attic or garage. The extra bounce and grip makes them difficult to play with and they are especially bad for shooters.

Next there is the new on the scene patent leather ball. Have you seen these? They are usually some flashy color like silver or a team color or have some superstar’s name plastered all over them. They are super flashy and some of them are even quite cool looking in a way, but they are awful to try to play with. In the store they actually have some grip and even though they are very hard, they seem like they would be playable. But try to play with one some time. With the slightest bit of moisture or dust, they are the texture of a marble and impossible to grip or get to bounce true. They are rubbish. Come to think of it, a rubber ball is way better. I should have put these lowest.

Moving well up the chain there are the synthetic balls. But a synthetic is not a synthetic if you know what I mean. There is a huge variety of synthetic (“indoor/outdoor”) basketballs out there and you can pay anywhere from about $15 to $50 for one of these balls. The general rule is that the closer they feel to leather, the better. For years I bought Spaldings (the maker of the new NBA ball) mostly because they were the cheapest. Then when money wasn’t the only factor, I started buying Wilson balls. They had wider tracks which allowed you to get a truer grip as a shooter and also contributed to greater backspin and thus, better accuracy and bounces around the rim. They also had a nicer feel that took much longer to get slick as they all do as they wear.

Lately though, the Nike balls have eclipsed all others that I have found. Nike has gone to assigning numbers to their different basketballs to denote the size of the ball (youth, women’s, men’s, etc.) and texture. Unfortunately, most of the Nike balls you can buy are not your basic basketball orangish brown. Most of them are striped and funky colors which makes it almost impossible to convince people to use your ball when you go to play pick up hoops because it just looks to gimmicky and toy like to be taken seriously. That said, they have a better feel and wear rate than any other ball I’ve tried and usually put them through a rigorous test that includes my uneven driveway, indoor wooden surfaces, the carpet covered gym floor at my Church and various playground surfaces.

Specifically, I prefer the Nike 1100. Sadly, I could only find mine in an orange and white combo that looks like it was designed specifically for Pepperdine. It’s a great ball though.

Then, at the top of the basketball food chain is leather. It is for indoor surfaces only and usually costs more than $70 which makes it purely a luxury item for casual players like myself. Still, every once in a while you show up to an open gym and someone will bring their own leather ball. When that happens, there is no debate about whose ball gets used. You can’t improve on leather. It is simply a given in the hoops world kind of like how you shouldn’t choose the guy who shows up to play in pants to be on your team (unless you’re playing with my brother who, for some reason, prefers to play in sweats. Strange I know).

The NBA, however, apparently believed that because the leather balls wear differently and because they need to be broken in a bit and aren’t good right out of the box, that uniformity should rule the day and they moved to a synthetic ball because they could make them all the same, something you can’t do with leather. I don’t think that was necessarily a bad decision. I can see the reasoning behind it. I can say however, that the ball they chose is rubbish.
The difference between a good ball and a bad ball is feel, weight and bounce. All have to be right to have a good ball. Well this new ball feels like the cheapest synthetic ball you can buy and is too light. It does seem to bounce ok, though I have yet to use it in an actual game. I busted one out at the store and dribbled it around a bit and shot on one of their display hoops, much to the consternation of the store clerk that glared t me the entire time, but never got up the nerve to come tell me to stop. Since there was a huge display of various basketballs, I compared it side by side with the others available and it seriously would have been the very last ball I would have purchased not counting the rubber or patent leather balls. It is that bad.

Frankly, I was stunned. I mean, did Spalding or the NBA not have a single person who had ever played basketball even touch these new balls before they were put into mass production? I can’t see how any player could have given this ball a good report. I don’t criticize the NBA for moving to synthetic, but there are much better synthetics out there and they seem to have chosen the very worst one. Now, as I mentioned, I haven’t actually played with one of these new basketballs in a game, so my test was limited, but I’ve been playing ball long enough to have a pretty good feel for what is a good ball and what isn’t and I’m telling you this one isn’t.

The players all claim it gets slick when wet and the minute you feel this ball you know they are right.

Pretty disappointing really. My guess is that they will stick with this ball for the year, and then improve the synthetic used on the balls starting next year. I hope so anyway. It just isn’t right that the ball used at the highest level is worse than the old ball in the corner of my garage that has been replaced but not discarded though it ceased being a good ball years ago.

No Roy, No Joy

2006-11-07T15:52:00.000-08:00

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.

Sports update

2006-10-17T15:09:00.000-07:00

It’s only Tuesday, so maybe we’ll get two updates this week….probably not,…but hey, I can dream.

Here’s the day’s random collection of sports thoughts:

1. I believe last night’s performance by Rex Grossman may very well have been the worst ever by a fantasy QB starting for his team. In my fantasy league’s format, Rex’s 6 turnovers combined with other horrible stats netted him -5 points. By contrast, my QB Matt Hassleback got me 33 points. Good job Rex.

2. Guys, have you ever been holding something and dropped it and gone to catch it just as the object falls below your waist and you catch it by inadvertently slamming it into…well…yourself? Uhmmm, me neither, but if I had that feeling as you double over in pain while contemplating your own stupidity is how the Arizona Cardinals and their fans all feel right now. What an embarrassment. At least Leinert looked great. Pretty cold comfort I’m guessing.

3. Remember how I said Edge was going to miss Indy a whole lot more than the other way around? When a team lets their “franchise” back just walk out the door, other teams should consider that before they overpay. Is Edge helping the Cards at all right now? They really needed him for one play last night, that late first down on short yardage. I know he has a horrible O line, but he is just unimpressive.

4. Another tough loss last weekend for my Niners. Luckily, they get to get well against a soft and well rested coming off a bye Bears’ D. Yikes. Poor Alex Smith. Still the Niner’s O continues to impress. Now if the D could just start holding teams under 30, we might have something. I hope the Niners draft defensive players with every pick next year. On the plus side, Gore is now 2 weeks without a fumble and continues to be as good for me in fantasy as he is for the Niners in real life, which is fun.

5. Speaking of fantasy, I took a 1-1 split last week. Sadly, the team I lost to had almost all his good players on the bye and still destroyed me. Not a good sign for me moving forward. Still, if I can just go .500 the rest of the way, I should make the playoffs which is what matters right now. This coming week should be 2 losses however as the bye is wiping me out. I lose Gore, Deuce, Ravens, newly acquired Antonio Bryant and still won’t have Larry fitzgerald or Matt Jones. In other words, my team is in the hands of Leon Washington. Yikes.

6. My son Gibson and I went to the Blazer scrimmage/fan appreciation day this past Sunday and after seeing them live (from courtside seats no less) for the first time this year, here are my thoughts about the team.

a. Point Guards – Portland is really thin and young at guard. On the day he was drafted, I predicted Jack would supplant Bassy as the PG of the future and he has not disappointed. It looks to me like Jack has improved his mid range shot and looks strong and in control as the starting PG. That said, he is not super quick and I don’t expect Portland to run all that well with him at the lead. Dan Dickau also looked good and I would expect him to get a fair amount of minutes especially early on in the season. Sergio “The Spanish Magician” Rodriguez looked pretty good too. No super flashy passes in the scrimmage, but he’s quick and puts the ball on the money, but didn’t look for his own shot at all. I like Jack and Dickau quite a bit, but they are so inexperienced, Portland is going to struggle again on offense. I think by mid season Jack will be really good and things will start to turn around, but it could be rocky early. Still, Jack is a stud, but might be in trouble against guys like Parker, Baron Davis and Nash (who doesn’t?). Too bad Dixon can’t play point, just for the experience. But he can’t.

b. Shooting Guards – Who are the 2s on this team? Jack, Martel Webster and Brandon Roy all saw time there in the scrimmage and I think that is how it will look during the regular season. Martel looks improved, but still camps a lot out at the 3 point line, rarely looking to drive. He also forced up some of the worst shots taken during the scrimmage. I thinking he is pressing a bit and hasn’t found the confidence he needs to relax and just use his talent. I was also surprised to see how well he dunked during the warm-up layup line before the game. Everyone was hot-doggin and Martel and Roy and Outlaw put on a show. Those last 2 were no surprise, but Webster can jump much better than I thought he could. Jack is big enough and can score well enough that he can play some 2 either with Roy at the one or Dickau at the one or in sets when a healthy D Miles might get that duty. Of course, the real gem here is B Roy, which stands for Rookie of the Year. He looked like a 5 year vet out there. That quiet confidence he showed in college where he looks to be able to take over the game is still with him. No one on this team can stay in front of him if he wants to go to the hoop. He finishes with either hand, can run the point or play the 2, can D either position and could even play some 3 from what I saw. His shot is pure and already had deep range, though I can see that as an area for improvement. He’s going to play 40 minutes for this team spending some time at both the one and 2. I’m not putting him in this category yet, but Portland will use him like Miami uses D Wade. He’s the same “type” of player. Not as fast or as good yet, but he’s a keeper.

c. Small Forward – If you are a blazer fan, I’m sorry to have to break this to you, but Outlaw is not going to bust out. He can run really fast and jump really high, but he still can’t shoot and still looks lost on the court much of the time. I think he is and will always be a poor man’s Darius Miles. I hope he proves me wrong, this team really needs him, but I don’t see it. Webster should get most of the run at 3 unless they need Outlaw’s D. Miles was injured so didn’t play, but of course I’m hoping he gets traded soon anyway. The thing is, he will start when he gets back. I don’t see Webster able to beat him out yet. This is easily the Blazers’ weakest position so don’t be surprised if they go big this year and play Raef or even Zach at the 3 from time to time.

d. Power Forward – The Blazers are loaded with good size. Zebo looks trim and fully recovered from the knee surgery. He wasn’t that aggressive on offense, but he could also score whenever he wanted to. So many usefully offensive sets rely on having a guy who can be a threat to score with his back to the basket. Zach is on a very short list of guys in the NBA who can provide that as incredible as that might sound. This is why he is so valuable. I hope he keeps it together and meshes with the team. He didn’t seem to click particularly well with the guards which is a concern, but I’m holding out hope. After Zach, Zendon Hamilton (who looked really good actually), Jamal Magloire, Joel Pryzbilla, Raef Lefrentz and eventually LeMarcus Aldridge (who didn’t play) will all play the 4 at times and all are capable. That said, as you look over that list only Zach and magloire (a little) can provide much offense. Jack and Roy are going to have to take a ton of shots this year. They just are.

e. Center – Magloire and Pryz are battling over who gets to start. I think Nate would prefer to start Joel and bring Jamal off the bench. Joel is a much better defender and is a smart player and good rebounder with very limited offense (as in none). Jamal would be a great option with the second unit. The offense mostly runs through the post (Zach) and Magloire could play that role with the second unit if he can get past not being a starter. Not sure if his ego will allow that so, I expect him to start.

f. Other observations
i. Guys were really hustling. Especially, Raef and Dickau. I think Nate is still in control of this team
ii. The team already defers to Roy. They clearly work to get him the ball when they need a bucket.
iii. Magloire is shorter than I thought.
iv. Dickau is going to become a quick fan favorite with his hustle and scrappy play.
v. This is going to be a slowish half court team like SA or Miami. Personally, while I like the Suns style better to watch, I don’t think this is a problem. Only the Suns ran an uptempo game with success last year and for all the talk about a trend in the NBA to go small and push the ball, only one team did it well last year.
vi. I’m still worried about where the offense is going to come from. Zach is going to have to score 20 points a game for them to be at all competitive unless Martel takes a big step forward and Roy comes through now. Won’t surprise me at all if Jack finishes no worse than 3rd in scoring. He’s strong and can finish and has a really nice 15 foot jumper.

Ok, that’s enough for today.

Weekly Sports Report

2006-10-13T13:31:00.000-07:00

I had high hopes that I would post something, maybe just something short, to this blog every day or at least 5 times a week. Well, it has turned into a once a week thing, but I’m not giving up my dream just yet. Instead, I would rather delude myself into thinking I am mysteriously going to get an extra hour a day for the rest of my life.

Here’s what’s on my mind in the world of sports:

1. I hope the Yankees trade A-Rod. I like A-Rod. I think he gets unfair treatment by fans and the media. He is, as far as I can tell, a good guy as athletes go and he came up in the NW for Seattle and he is if not the best player in baseball, at least in the conversation. I love the guys who make their living being clutch since that’s a huge part of sports and to date in his career I will concede that A-Rod hasn’t exactly been Larry Bird in that department, though as Bonds proved a few years ago that can change. But A-Rod takes way too much heat for this just as the others get too much credit. He does his job day in and day out and does it better than almost anyone. Stop hating. I was sad when he went to the Yankees because it was a no win for him. If they win, Jeter gets the credit. If they lose, Alex will take the blame. That played out even worse than I could have expected and now that it is where it is, I hope they trade him. I would love for the Giants to get him in fact, but I can’t see them absorbing that contract and keeping Bonds and they are going to keep Bonds so there you go. Still, I hope it happens

2. Speaking of baseball, I did get sucked into the playoffs a bit. My buddy Adam talked up the playoffs and the reasons to watch and he convinced me just enough to tune in a bit and I’m glad he did. I hope the A’s extend that series because both the As and the Tigers are great teams to watch and root for. Frank Thomas, the Tigers young pitchers, Pudge back for more, Kenny Rogers always seconds away from punching someone. Good stuff. Especially after that awful 119 loss or whatever it was season a couple years back, it is fun watching the Tigers win having stuck with some of the guys that suffered through that campaign. In the National League, however, where they play real baseball, the teams are much less interesting. The Cardinals have the personality (or lack thereof) of their manager and only the excitement of watching someone who may end up one of the defining players of this generation (Pooholes), gives a reason to watch them. The Mets are from NY and therefore, the enemy and I can’t even stomach watching NY teams anymore. They get 10 times more press than any other team (even on the west coast), and spend like crazy to get ridiculous lineups and contribute to the continuing demise of Baseball as a legitimate contender for my sports attention.

3. Last week was a horrible week in College football. I don’t care what else happened, because the Ducks lost to a very good Cal team in a very bad way. I give Cal credit, but the Ducks giftwrapped that game to them. But here’s the real issue. Without a playoff system, the entire college regular season is a single elimination tournament. But now the Ducks keep playing what amount to exhibition contests for the rest of the year with absolutely no shot at winning the title. Oh they could still make a bowl and even have an outside chance at winning the conference, but who freakin cares? This is why I can not fall completely in love with college football. Only about 5 teams in the country, by reputation and program strength can lose a game and still hope to win a title. Oregon, of course, is not one of them. So, now we’re not even half way through and the Ducks are done. Football season is over except that it isn’t. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. The people in the NCAA who allow this to continue should be rounded up and deported. And not to Europe either, but someplace bad. I’m not even kidding.

4. The NFL was a completely different story last week. My beloved 49ers got a win against their cross-bay rivals. This was huge for a number of different reasons:

a. Some people I care about may or may not have won money betting on this game and I’m not saying it was me, but if it was I sure would be happy and so would my brother if he bet and I’m not saying he won more than 100 bucks, but I’m sure he’d be thrilled if he did.
b. Because of the bye week I had to start Alex Smith at QB and I always rely on F. Gore for fantasy football success. Both played big which was huge for me (more on that below)
c. The Raiders may be the worst football team in the history of the NFL and are a real threat to lose every game and I couldn’t stomach the idea of my Niners being their lone win.
d. To drop to 1-4 would mean that all the apparent progress was just a mirage and my fragile football psyche couldn’t handle that.
e. The Niners need to win games against teams that are bad for them to have any kind of decent year. So, for them, it was really a must win

5. My non Niner football thoughts for the week (from last week) are:

a. Joey took over in Miami, just like I predicted. In fact I even predicted that it would happen after Culpepper played badly and they found some injury to blame it on so they could save face and start Joey. Of course, I also predicted he would lead them to the playoffs and resurrect his career. Ooops. That ain’t happenin.
b. The Eagles are a great team. McNabb is carrying that offense and you can tell because last week he didn’t have Westbrook at strength and had no WR who would be anything more than a number 3 on many other teams and they still won a huge game…against Dallas….and TO….very, very good times.
c. The Bears are not going undefeated. They have been good and their D is amazing, but they don’t even look as good as last year’s Colts and that team didn’t make it. The Bears will lose at least 2 games. Mark it down. Still, barring injury, Eagles will play the Bears for the right to play in the Superbowl and the winner will go on to win the big game.
d. I do not like the Pink intro to Sunday night football. The song is actually ok and the look of the thing is fine and Pink looks like a man, baby. She is neither feminine, nor masculine. She is not at all attractive and is just sort of hard to watch. And now I guess we’re stuck with it for the rest of the year. And who thought this was a good idea to begin with? I mean your best options to appeal to the generally male football watching audience is to go one of two ways: Either tough and manly like football itself (e.g. Hank Williams, Kid Rock, Jay Z, the Boss or something like that) or you go with straight sex appeal which is always appealing to men and trot out some awful popstar like Jessica Simpson who sells her self on sex appeal not musical talent. Instead, they chose Pink which is sort of like the Subaru Brat in that just like it was neither a good car, nor a good truck, she is neither tough enough or pretty enough to get the job done. I don’t get it.
e. I’ve thought about it and tried to be fair, but I still hate Theisman. Not as a person, but as a commentator. He is terrible and since he has no discernable sense of humor, it always sounds like Kornheiser is making fun of him….and he probably is.
f. Why isn’t Indy scoring? Is it really because of their running game? I haven’t seen them play much, but where is the high-powered offense? They should be very concerned.

6. Fantasy football report: Thanks to Alex Smith and Frank Gore and the continued unheralded success of Deuce McCallister (the forgotten man in the Bush media storm), I went 2-0 last week in fantasy football bringing my record up to 7-3 and putting me alone in 3rd place. I had the high point total of the week for the 3rd week out of 5 and it was good enough to bring me back up after posting the weeks low total the week before. This week I have Hassleback back, but it will be my first week without the services of star WR, Larry Fitzgerald whose absence will be sorely missed from my already thin WR lineup. To cover for this I traded Alex Smith for Antonio Bryant and feel pretty good about that. Now a starting lineup of Bryant, Keyshon and Mike Furrey (who?) will have to hold down the fort until Matt Jones and Fitz get back from injury. The guys I’m playing with seem to have much more favorable matchups for their guys, but I’m remaining hopeful. I probably only need 5 more wins to get a playoff spot.

7. Fantasy Basketball report: We have our draft day set for the 25th and must declare our keepers by next week. I’ve decided to keep Marion and Brand and place CP3 back into the free agent pool. It is very hard to let him go as I’m convinced he’ll be even huger (yes, “huger”) this year, but I can’t not keep Brand, he’s just too good. Not sure any of this matters however since my buddy Adam starts the year with Kirk and LBJ. He will have to really make some bad mistakes in the draft (which he very rarely does) for anyone else to have a shot. But you never know.

8. Gibson and I are going to the Blazers’ fan appreciation scrimmage this Sunday. Should be fun, especially since Gibson is waaaaay into the NBA these days. My mission: Get Brandon Roy’s autograph. I think I’m even going to buy display worthy basketball for him to sign. I can’t decide if I’ll even have any other Blazers sign it. Yes, I have a man crush on Brandon Roy. Deal with it.

Ok, that’s all for now.

Thoughts for the week

2006-10-05T15:20:00.000-07:00

Here are my quick hit sports thoughts for the moment:

1. This weekend’s game against the Raiders is a huge game for the Niners. I thought KC last week was going to be the game where the Niners established themselves as a team moving in the right direction and not to be taken lightly. Instead, they went out and got killed. After a couple days, I’ve had sufficient time to fully rationalize the loss. First, KC is better than it played in the first couple weeks and had a bye to fully plan and remotivate itself. It was still a bad loss, but not quite as bad as it first seemed. That said, the Raiders are that bad. They aren’t as bad as they looked in the first 2 weeks against 2 of the best Ds in the league, but they are still really, really, really bad. That is a game the Niners have to win. If they don’t it is going to be hard to see how they have made any progress from last year. Gore has to hold onto the ball and the defense has to show up. I’m predicting an ugly game as both teams are still finding themselves with the better 49er team victorious in the end. My buddy Scot is an Oakland fan (apparently there are some still out there in spite of Al Davis’ best efforts) and I’m hoping he takes my offer of a lunch bet on the game.

2. Speaking of big games, how about the Ducks/Bears Pac-10 showdown. That game could end up being 48-42. Both teams have very good offense. Unfortunately for the Bears, the Ducks are better tacklers. The Bears miss a lot of tackles and the Ducks, while they have some issues, especially stopping the run, are a physical D that wraps people up and gets after the QB when they need to. I think both teams score it up, but the Ducks come out ahead. While we’re on the Pac-10, SC should kill Washington this weekend, but it is also the type of game that if USC comes in overconfident, they could leave looking up at the Ducks in the Pac-10 standings. And wouldn’t that be nice….

3. I can’t get into the baseball playoffs at all. There is not a single story line or team that draws me in at all. I haven’t watched a minute of any game so far and I could see this being the first year in many that I don’t watch an entire game at all. Pretty sad. Of course, I do hope the Yankees and Dodgers lose. After today’s surprising Detroit victory, both of those things could happen. Here’s one prediction. The Yankees will not win the world series. To win in the playoffs in baseball, you need pitching and no lineup makes up for that. That’s just not how it works. It is like defense in hoops. No matter how good the O is, you still have to play D in the playoffs. I don’t know who it will be, but it won’t be the Yanks. You can bet on it. And bet lots if you want. Afterall, this isn’t just for entertainment, it is investment advice.

4. Did you see the Contender finale? Snooz. It is a great show and great concept that could end up saving the entire sport if it could catch on a bit more, but the championship fight was a major disappointment. Where was the energy from Forbes? Had he not slept since they stopped taping? I expected much more from him. Sad. Oh well, still enjoyed the show and hope they bring it back. If they are going to match up the Latin Snake with Grady, they better do it fast before Grady is collecting social security. I mean, that fight has to happen though, right? I sort of care about boxing again for the first time since Haggler and then Tyson. I’m pretty pumped about it really.

5. I am soooooooooooooo tired of all the TO going back to Philly hype. What a made up story. Who cares? The Eagles? Doubt it. TO? Maybe, but who cares what he cares about? The media has to find one game every weekend to over hype and they ruin it in the process because the games can never live up to it and after it’s over everyone remembers that it is just week 5 and these games don’t mean that much unless you are a team that should have been a contender and only has one or two wins so far.

6. For those of you who tune in to get a fantasy update on my team (the thousands of you out there know who you are), I lost both games last week. Not only did I lose, but I posted the low score of the weak for my league. But that’s not all, I also lost to my bitter fantasy rival Chitwood. Add that to the Niner’s embarrassing loss and it was a bad week in football for me. Oh yeah and Fumblin Frank coughed up another one to make it 4 games in a row. Ugh. Now I’m 5-3 with an important week ahead of me. Losing both games would drop be down to .500 and leave me worried and stressed about missing the playoffs again and probably take years off my life. I need at least a split. This week, I go up against Adam and my brother Enoch. Only one of us has a significant player on the bye…me…Hassleback. Though after his stink bomb last week it is hard to call Hassleback a significant player. Since I have Alex Smith as my back up, he still is. Smith is going to have to come through for me big for me to have a chance. Fortunately, as luck (and a schedule review when I picked him up) would have it, he plays the Raiders this week so I have a chance. My big dilemma was who to start at RB. I have Gore, Deuce and Caddilac. All 3 have been up and down and all 3 have intriguing matchups. I think I’m going with Gore (for the Raider factor) and Deuce against Tampa as I think they will move the ball and get closer to the endzone than will Tampa and will also be able to play with a lead which always helps the running game. Oh and I also need Leinert to be able to find my man Fitz or my WRs could tank again. Keep your fingers crossed.

7. You know what happened this week? Something fun and exciting. Still can’t guess? NBA teams opened camp this week of course. It may not seem like a big deal to you, but as one of the last few die hard NBA fans who just happens to be completely disinterested in baseball, I’m pumped. This week I sent out about 50 emails to get my fantasy basketball league back up and running for another year. I should right a book someday on how to run a fantasy sports league. It is way more complicated than people think if you want to get it right. But I love it, so I don’t mind. Our draft will take place right before the season starts. Like in football, it is a keeper league. I have to choose between Brand, Marion and CP3 which is a nice dilemma to have. Marion is a lock as he is one of the top 5 players in fantasy hoops. Brand had a huge year and could be just as good and you probably know how much I love Paul who may very well be my favorite player in the NBA. I’m telling you again, he is Jason Kidd with a jumpshot and will end his career as one of the top 10 PGs of all time. That said, I think Brand has slightly more value in fantasy right now because he is so great on blocks which are hard to come by. Unfortunately, most teams have great keepers and the draft will be critical. Since I was actually good last year, I will likely draft near the end of the order. By then, with roughly 30 or so of the best players gone, there will be no obvious choices. I can’t wait.

8. Speaking of hoops, I’m planning to take both of my sons to the Blazer Fan Appreciation day this year. Last year Gibson had a great time and while Griffin isn’t old enough to enjoy it yet, he is old enough to realize that he’s being left behind and I can’t have that. I may even talk my lovely wife into going this year which would be great fun….for me…and the boys…and probably not a whole lot for her which will require copious amounts of cotton candy.

Ok, that’s all I have time for at the moment.

Gore for fantasy MVP

Alex Smith for comeback player of the year

And Roy for ROY!!!

Odds and Ends

2006-09-28T16:31:00.000-07:00

I don't have time this week to do a recap of last weekend and it is almost the next weekend anyway, so I'll just toss a few things out there:

1. Are people fired up about the baseball playoffs? Are there any compelling stories? Howard with the Phils I guess, maybe. I don't know. Maybe I'm just still bitter about the Giants, but I can't get into it.

2. Speaking of the Giants, why is no one talking about the fact that in September, with his knee finally recovered, Barry is hitting balls out like he was when he was allegedly juicing. Doesn't that cast even more doubt on the whether we should care if these guys are roiding? I'm not saying it doesn't matter at all, but maybe the reasons it matters have nothing at all to do with stats or performance...at least with Bonds.

3. More great NFL matchups this weekend. I'm really looking forward to Chicago and Seattle on Sunday night. Can the Seahawks win with Hasslebeck throwing 45 times? I think we might find out.

4. My fantasy season and the Niners season depends on Gore's injury not being serious. Let's hope the pain is just the reminder he needs to stop coughing up the ball.

5. Speaking of fantasy, I went 1-1 last week thanks to Michael freakin Jenkins. That Atlanta passing game is dreadful. With NO going up early, i thought Jenkins could have a big night as the only WR target in the passing game. Wrong. Vick can't hit an open guy, no Atlanta WR could get open and even when they did and Vick hit them, they dropped the pass. ugly showing. I hope to never have to play Jenkins again. So I'm 5-1 and have a rematch against my arch-rival and co-commish this coming week. He's got better matchups, but if Gore plays, who knows?

6. Still speaking of fantasy, fantasy basketball will be here soon. Can you feel the excitement? So, feel free to chime in on my dilemna. I have to keep two of the following: Shawn Marion, Elton Brand, Chris Paul. Who should I keep in a league that doesn't factor in FG% or turnovers?

7. If you like sports movies, you might check out my movie review of Invincible over on my entertainment blog at www.stumptownmovies.blogspot.com.

That's all for now.

Weekend Recap

2006-09-18T14:41:00.000-07:00

It’s time for another weekend recap. One of the really nice things about football season is that almost all meaningful sports happenings take place on the weekend, so it makes it easy to keep track of it all. You just put in the intense time over the weekend and you have almost a full week to digest and recap. Of course now that we have college football on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and Pro football on Monday and later on Thursday and Saturday, it is becoming harder and harder, but it’s still mostly a weekend sports world right now. When the NBA season starts I may just have to give up sleeping all together.

Anyway, here are my thoughts about the weekend:

1. Friday was a great day for sports because I got to play basketball for the first time in longer than I care to admit. I would play basketball every day for as long as my body could take if I could find a way to make it work, so the fact that I haven’t played regularly in a while really bothers me. But Friday, I got to play some backyard hoops with my buddy Randy in Stockton. I have to start playing basketball again now. My sanity, and certainly my waistline depends on it.

I followed up the afternoon hoops by watching Kansas v. Toledo in the restaurant bar Friday night, a great game that went into overtime. I don’t care about those schools, but overtime is always fun…if it is college that is. I know I’m not the first or even the 5th to say this, but that college OT format is soooo much better than the one we are stuck with in the NFL. Why is this so hard to change? It’s usually money that stops reasonable sports changes (see, e.g., the BCS), but I can’t see how that’s a factor here. The NFL system is something like changing the rules of a classic pistol duel and saying ok, start back to back, take 15 paces away from each other turn and then Bob, you fire first and if you don’t hit and kill Joe, then Joe, you can take a shot and you keep going until one of you hits the other. Doesn’t exactly wreak of fairness.

2. College football is great. I really enjoy it, especially when the Ducks are playing and playing well or when two big time, highly ranked programs are going head to head. That said, Saturday is not just for football. I love being able to sit and watch the games, but not every week all day long. Saturday is primarily for playing with your kids and reconnecting with your family after a long week of work. It is for getting things done and resting and playing and getting outside whenever possible. So, most of the time, I don’t watch more than a few quarters of various games mixed throughout the day on Saturday and frankly, that is just fine with me.
That said, every once in a while it is pretty dang nice to have no obligations and be able to sit and watch as much football as your rear-end and eyes can take. If such a Saturday comes along on the same weekend when 14 of the top 25 teams are playing against each other, then that is no minor blessing and should be cherished and remembered and discussed repeatedly in sports blogs. This last Saturday was such a day. I was traveling on business, but finished my business early and spent the rest of the day “trapped” at my brothers’ places with nothing better to do than watch football. I couldn’t do that every week, or even most weeks, but this week it was pretty nice. So, here are my college football thoughts:

a. Of course, I have to start with the Ducks. What an amazing game. The Ducks looked early like they were going to dominate and then the offense started to fizzle and OU remembered that Fresno State had already conclusively proven that Oregon’s D can not stop the run. OU came back and then went up and then went up some more. OU led by 13 with a little more than 3 minutes remaining in the game. Sitting dejected on the couch next to my brother Enoch, I turned and said, “well, if they can get a quick score they still have time for an onside kick and a couple desperation throws to the endzone.” I knew it was true, but I didn’t believe it would happen.

Then, they took the ball down and Dixon did a Vince Young imitation keeping the ball and running for a TD. I was thinking, “hey that’s great.” But I still didn’t believe they might actually pull off a win. The onside kick comes after a shifting of the line by the kicking team that, as far as I can tell, had no affect on anything but did waste time and look foolish. A good kick. Bodies colliding. A loose ball. OREGON RECOVERS!!!!!

Or did they? Then about an hour and 15 minutes of replay follows. The replay shows a few things relatively clearly and some things just clearly enough. First, the ball was clearly touched by an Oregon player before it went 10 yards. Second, the Oregon players fairly obviously ran into the OU players before the ball went 10 yards (another no no). Finally, it appeared in serious doubt whether Oregon even recovered the ball. All of this was fairly clear to everyone except Dan Fouts who is the biggest homer (for the Ducks) in sports broadcasting, and probably my buddy Whipple who has 15k stashed away to pay for an experimental procedure that would actually change the color of his blood to lime green.

My brother and I watched again and again looking for some way that the refs could find there wasn’t conclusive evidence. The more we watched, the more our spirits sank as it was fairly obvious that the Ducks should not get the football. Little did we know the refs were not watching the replays after all. It turns out that when the refs went to the monitor, they used the time to watch those cool new Nike adds with all the famous football personalities coaching and playing highschool football. Like anyone who likes football, they had a great time watching it over and over saying, “wait, wasn’t that _____?” They admired the production quality and marveled over the money Nike must have spent to bring all those sports personalities together for one commercial. After they had finally seen enough, they realized they were supposed to be reviewing a key play in a game they had not even been watching to begin with. The head ref wheeled around in a panic, but before he could decide what to do next his eyes were caught by the cross-hatch-faux-diamond-plating on the Ducks uniforms and then saw that Nike swoosh. It must have been a sign. He strides confidently to the mic and announces “Nik…err, I mean Oregon retains possession.” 4 people lost their hearing from the cheering Oregon fans at Autzen.

I had that weird feeling I always get when I’m playing sports and someone remembers the score wrong in my favor, or someone doesn’t see my teammate take 4 steps on his way to the basket or something like that. I don’t want to win that way. At the same time I want to win. When I’m playing I can (and do) speak up and correct things. Nothing to do in the Oregon game, but sit back and enjoy the good luck. Then Oregon struck fast to the endzone and I completely forgot the onside kick. It was just pure joy. The commentators started criticizing Oregon for scoring too fast. What? Yes, there was 45 seconds left or something like that, but what should they have done? “Yeah coach, I know he was wide open for the TD, but I thought I’d just throw it away to burn some more clock.” College football commentators are the absolute worst.

Anyway, apparently feeling like the game needed considerably more drama, as if that were possible, the Ducks decide not to tackle the guy returning the kick who runs the ball all the way down to field goal range. After choosing to run instead of taking one shot to the endzone, the Sooners try the field goal and it is blocked!!!! Astounding. What a game. Enoch and I were bouncing around his living room yelling and carrying on like we were one of the thousand drunk Oregon students who rushed the field to make faces at the camera interviewing a frightened Coach Bellotti. Good, good times.

Of course now, every talking head in the country is talking about how the refs jobbed the Sooners and cost them the game. This is one of my least favorite things about sports. How many plays do the refs affect in the course of a game? 3%? 5%? 10%? How many plays do the players affect? 100%, of course. But everyone wants to pull out one or two plays and blame the refs for the outcome of games when they screw up a call. I’m not saying it wasn’t a bad call or that it didn’t affect the game. But refs do not win or lose games. No ref failed to tackle Dixon on his late TD run. No Ref blocked OU’s would be game winning FG. No ref failed to score for OU on various possessions throughout the game. No ref scored any points for Oregon. The refs make a difference, but they do not decide games.

The Ducks deserved that win. They earned it.

One more thing while we’re here. I’m sorry, but the Ducks Unis are the ugliest things I have seen since they added the stripes to the Rockets uniforms back when Chuck was renting Hakeem to get a championship. The mess on the shoulder pads, the strange matted pants, the greens that don’t match each other, the overall busyness. It’s brutal. I love that the Nike design folks work with the players and try to be creative. I love all the different options and really do appreciate the effort. Good idea, bad execution. These things will be remembered and talked about and laughed at for decades. It’s not bad enough that a cartoon duck is the mascot, now they have uniforms that the XFL think are too gaudy.

b. What happened to ND? Did I just get caught up in the hype along with everyone else? Was Michigan really that good? Was it a fluke? Tough to say, but good for Michigan for doing what I gave them no chance to do. The bad part now is that Notre Dame’s season is most likely over after 3 games. What are they playing for now? A non-title determining BCS bowl game? Who cares? Until we get a playoff format, the season will continue to be a season long single elimination tournament where you have to keep playing meaningless games after you lose in week 3. I hate it. It’s why I can’t become a huge college football guy and remain a casual fan. But everyone already knows this is a problem and agrees with it except for the people who actually make decisions about such things, none of whom are likely to read this or have an intelligent thought in the near future, so we’ll move on.

c. When are we going to see the drop off for USC from last year to this year? I mean they lost Leinert and Bush and White and others and they don’t look any worse. I’m beginning to think USC may be the Yankees of college football. It is becoming clear that they likely have the largest payroll for their players and they are so loaded every year it is starting to get unwatchable.

d. Is there a secret agreement among the top programs to let small schools play with them in the first half to get everyone excited about a possible upset only to run away with the game in the second half? Aren’t there about 25 games like that every week? Is it just to torture us? Is there some NCAA official who just sits back laughing to himself every Saturday saying things like, “look, people think Cincinnati is going to beat Ohio State. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!” I think there is.

3. Now on to Pro football. Unlike, …well…ever, I also got to sit around doing nothing but watching Pro Football this Sunday as I was still staying with my brothers who live for that sort of thing and who am I to do otherwise. NFL Sunday ticket was created for days like yesterday when the game CBS was showing in the morning was the Ravens/Raiders game. Seriously, when are they going to bring the NFL back to Oakland? I really think they could support a pro team if the league would give them a chance. I know this is quite a statement, but in all my years of watching football, I do believe this Raider team may very well be the worst team I have ever seen. They can not even snap the ball without fumbling. They did not have their first play for positive yards until well into the second quarter. After the first several possessions ended in turnovers, the commentators found themselves praising the Raiders for actually getting to punt. I think the league should step in and take over the franchise like MLB did with the Expos. It’s time.

But having to watch that game didn’t upset me at all for two reasons. One, my brother Caleb has Sunday Ticket so we could watch whatever game we want (in HD no less) and two, the Ravens’ D is on my fantasy team and was really giving me a good start to the day.

a. Not to be mean, but I can’t say I’m disappointed in the new TerreBill development. TO breaking his hand means Parcells should start openly criticizing him in about 2 days which will kickstart yet another glorious public fued further distracting their owner/public enemy from the fact that his starting QB is having to fight for his life to hold off Tony Romo. Yikes

b. Did you see that Jerricho Cotchery catch where he got sandwiched with a hit that would have ended my life and then somehow didn’t let his knee touch and got up and scored? If you didn’t, find it and watch it. I watched it like 20 times in slow motion with my tivo this morning and loved it every time. Even my lovely, but non-football liking wife was moved to exclaim, “wow.”

c. When will scouts finally realize that your team is better off with a poised accurate passer than a giant QB with a super strong arm? I think probably never. I mean, if you didn’t learn that from watching Montana and Marino all those years, you are never going to get it. Why do I bring this up? Because Drew Brees and Chad Pennington would probably give your team a better chance to win than whoever they have throwing the rock around…with exception of course, but I’m just saying. Ask Miami fans if they disagree.

d. Apparently, Miami was in the microwave and not just the conventional oven, because they got done in no time. Let’s just say, if they were pasta and you threw them up against a window, they would stick. They’re done. Really. It’s over. …unless they start playing Joey. See subsection c above.

e. The Seachickens are in trouble. After their offense looked bad the first week, you could tell yourself, maybe it was just rust and maybe the Detroit D is pretty good. Well the Detroit D just made Rex Grossman look like Payton Manning and the Seattle O still couldn’t move the ball against Arizona who plays D like the French guard Paris. I’m not counting them out yet and Branch should help, but they’re in trouble and if they don’t get things turned around quick, the Giants will win by 3 scores this weekend. (side note: My brother Caleb purchased Seahawk jerseys for his whole family. They are very cool and the family looks great. His 2 year old daughter, however, refused to wear hers and so he had to go out and buy her a Seahawk cheerleading outfit which she loves. Just a little reminder to Daddy, that she is 100% girl)

f. Steve Smith is good, but he’s not going to save the Panthers. If he isn’t what’s making the difference right now, they are in huge trouble. If he is, then every team in the league is going to triple team him and they’re still in trouble. No team has ever won the superbowl after starting 0-2. That record could be broken, but Carolina’s in trouble.

g. Teams I still really like as Superbowl contenders include: Baltimore, Indy, Philly, Atlanta, Pittsburg and maybe Chicago and that’s pretty much it. Notice a pattern? All those teams play really good D. Even Indy, though they might not be in the same league as those others on defense.

4. Ok, enough with the rest, now lets talk about the Niners. What a glorious afternoon. The home opener, the rival Rams, watching with Enoch in his newly purchased Vernon Davis jersey, Frank Gore on my fantasy team, watching in northern California where the Niners is all anyone talks about on radio. It was the coming together of all those things that made an early season victory a truly sweet event. For no extra charge, here are my thoughts on the game:

a. Frank Gore is a bonafide stud. He gains yards on every play, he can run inside and out and catch the ball. He takes on tacklers and drives them back. He is quick, fast, shifty, patient, has good vision. If he stops coughing it up once a game, he has the potential to be the best RB in SF history. I mean that. He may never get to be part of a great team like Craig and Rathman and Watters and the others, but he may be more talented than any of them. Plus, and I really love this more than I can say, he blocks. He saved Smith’s bacon at least 3 times that I saw with great blitz pickups blocking linebackers and safeties. To be that small and still be able to block in the passing game means he can play every down and open up the offense by being available in the passing game. I’m still worried about his health as he has a bad history and plays very physical, and if he goes down to injury, I may cry, but right now, watching him play is a thing of beauty and gives the Niners a chance against just about anyone. Not saying they are now going to beat everyone, but they will have a chance in every game.

b. The Niners beat a pretty good (though poorly coached if you ask me) Ram team without a bunch of fluke plays, without V. Davis doing anything in the passing game and without the entire left side of their O line who also happen to be their best linemen. I didn’t think that was even possible, but they flat out, outplayed the Rams and earned that win. Very impressive.

c. The D, which looked so bad against Arizona played extremely well. The rookies look good, they had some pass rush (6 sacks) and their DBs were amazing, especially in single coverage. Every time the rams threw deep I expected the camera to pan to an open receiver and instead it showed a Niner DB knocking down another pass. The Niners aren’t ready to join the league’s elite, but they are no longer a bye week for the team playing them.

d. Alex Smith looks good. Not better. Not improved. Not progressing nicely. Good. He stands in in the pocket. He delivers the ball high and quickly and has nice mobility to run or throw on the run. He could be more consistent, but he only made one bad decision in the game yesterday that I saw and that statement alone is amazing. I think he’s going to be for real which is a huge relief.

e. Tough game against the Eagles next week, but the Niners have a punchers chance every week and that is something. Now if we could just get the local fox channel to show the game when the Seahawks aren’t playing, we’ll really have something.

5. Now, for the StumpTown Fantasy report: This week I played the most loaded team in the league (Alexander and Rudi and Driver) and the team with Tomlinson. Tough duty. I had a pretty amazing week though. With one guy left to play, I have already bested last week’s league leading effort with 107 points. That’s a lot. 34 of those came from the Ravens’ D. I love the Raiders. My big dilemma of the week was who to start between Caddilac Williams and Deuce. I went with Duece and it paid off. Caddy stunk again and Deuce went for 2 TDs Gore was great again with 127 and a score and Keyshon went over 100 yards. Hassleback let me down with a very sub par performance and Larry Fitzgerald who is usually great was quite lame.

The good news is that with 107 points only 3 teams have higher totals than me right now with one game to go. The bad news is I’m playing 2 of those teams. Great timing. Now I need 20 yards receiving for Matt Jones tonight to win one matchup and I need Jones to outscore Hines Ward by 4 points to win the other. I’m guessing that’s good enough for a split this week and unless something horrible happens, I should be 3-1 after this week.

Next week I play my dreaded rival Dutt for the first time this season. He was the 3rd team to outscore me this week with a huge week. He starts Dunn and Barber and has good players mixed in all around. It will be a tough matchup, but if there is any justice in the world, I will prevail. Let’s just hope Jones doesn’t pull up lame in the first quarter tonight and send me to 2-2 after going over 100 points two weeks in a row.

Ok, that’s enough for now. Go Matt Jones and Go Niners.

Football update

2006-09-14T20:51:00.000-07:00

I know it’s Thursday and you’ve probably already taken more time than you should to digest what happened in the first full weekend of football of the year, but I have to throw out some of my thoughts before this weekend rolls around.

1. Going back a full week, nice performance by the Beavers on the smurf turf of Boise St. Apparently the traveling secretary (who George Costanza thinks does a bad job), left in their playbook for the last time these two teams met and forgot to put in the new gameplan. How else can you explain the Beavers going up by two tds AGAIN early in the game and then getting absolutely shamed for the rest of the game. There are beatdowns, then there are humiliating blowouts and then there is what Boise did to OSU. Nice work Beavers, way to represent the conference. I guess being a baseball school was good enough.

2. 3 great college games last weekend in terms of significance (to me) and I have to say something about all 3. First, thank you to the schedule makers for giving us a decent game in the middle of the day on Saturday with ND v. PSU. I can never just sit down in the middle of the day on Saturday and watch a full football game. Too much other stuff to do. That said, when you come in from working in the yard or running errands or shooting hoops with your sons, you want to be able to turn on the TV and see some football that actually means something to someone other than Mel Kiper and the two school’s alumni. Lately however, the modern trend is to put all the best games at primetime. Granted, I like having good stuff in prime time too, but throw us a bone during the day….like last week.

ND – I’m a believer. I think Weiss really is as smart as everyone say (but people love to doubt) and I think Quinn is the goods as a college QB. I’m less impressed by their All-American WR who I think is probably a better baseball player, but Number 5 picks them all up. What a great get to get him back this year. So, I wasn’t surprised by the win. I didn’t lose faith after the wobbly performance against GT because it was the first week and Brady and Co, clearly had jitters to work out. Well they worked them out Saturday and thumped Joe Pa. I hate to dump on a legend, but Paterno was flat out coached. Where were the adjustments? Where was the creativity on offense? That game looked like the future playing the past. Ugly wake up call for Penn and big statement by ND. I think the Irish beat Michigan this week, but in a much closer game. I think ND is going to have to fight getting over confident from here on out and Mich will be another test. That said, I think they pull it out and if Mich turns the ball over early, it could even be a blow out.

OSU – Troy Smith, wow. I hadn’t seen him play this year before he dismantled Texas, but now I see what the fuss was about. He is good. That said, I actually think Texas was pretty impressive in this game. You would like to see a better defensive effort in a game of that magnitude by their baby QB was pretty impressive under the lights and they played a very good team tough for most of the game. I’m not sure Texas is out of the hunt this year if they don’t put their heads down and sulk. Every contender has some very loseable games on the schedule. And, as good as Troy Smith and OSU looked. I would still take ND ahead of them and LSU and Auburn (what a game that’s going to be) and USC, as much as I hate to admit it.

Oregon – What a huge win against FSU. I know they weren’t ranked and it was a game they were supposed to win, but they were a game squad in their own house playing in a prototypical trap game for Oregon with OU coming to Autzen the following week. I feared the Ducks might be so focused on their revenge game this weekend that they might overlook Fresno and kill their season before it started. Instead, they came out and took care of business. They looked very good on offense even without their all-world RB and made all the right moves during the game. All the right moves, that is, except throwing out someone willing to get in the way of a Fresno RB. That run D was terrible. Really bad. No sugar coating that one. Peterson could rush for 350 yards this weekend. Hopefully though, Oregon has been working all week on how to sneak Ngata back for just one game. One more note on Oregon. Keep your eyes on their QB Dixon. He is known as a runner because of his great speed and moves, but that kid throws lasers. Great arm. I think he’s an excellent pro prospect if he continues to develop good decision making habbits.

3. The NFL’s opening weekend couldn’t get here soon enough for me, but it apparently got here a bit too soon for most of the teams. I can’t remember the last time I saw that much bad football all at once and I’m just talking about one quarter of the Seahawk/Lions game. Ugh. I’m not even going to begin with Tampa and their debacle, but I have to comment about a few others. First, the worst game of the week was the Seattle v. Detroit game. Hands down. If you just saw the 9-6 score and the highlight of the game winning FG, you might have thought it was a defensive struggle won by some clutch plays and heart. You’d be very wrong. Instead, it was two team who looked like they were on one of those Kobe Bryant like protests where they had just decided not to play offense. I’m not sure what the point of the protest was other than to try to make me hate football, but it was ugly. So what does it mean? Here’s a few things I think it means:
a. Detroit was not just Mike Martz away from recreating the greatest show on turf. He didn’t bring Holt and Bruce in their primes and Marshal Faulk as the most devastating offensive weapon in football with him. Those guys could turn a lot of guys into geniuses. I appreciate Martz’ creativity on offense and I think this team will turn around and put some points up as the season wears on, but they were not and are not just one or two tweaks away from being good. They’ve got some work left and it starts by getting something out of the increasingly disappointing Kevin Jones and rests squarely on throwing to Roy Williams more than a handful of times. I’m giving Kitna one more week as my back up fantasy QB, but I’m not that hopeful.

b. Seattle just didn’t show up. That O line is a mess and Alexander looked disinterested and the WRs don’t look like they can beat anyone, but mostly they just looked like they didn’t care. If you’re really really loaded, you can coast some in the NBA. No matter how good you are if you try to coast in the NFL you are going to get injured and beat up. Seattle is lucky to have a W after that last game and their fans better hope it was a wakeup call. Losing Hutchinson from that line matters…a lot. Ask Chester Taylor. But the left side of the line was not the only problem. Hassleback was the only offensive player who played decent and he was his usual accurate self when he wasn’t staring up at D lineman with the sky in the background. Seattle should be worried. Expect them to bounce back against the porous Arizona D this week, but I trust this team even less than before.

3. How about my Niners? Ok, so they lost, but it was still encouraging. That’s where we’ve come as Niner fans: taking solace in losing efforts. So, so sad. Why is it taking so long to deport John York or at least put him in some secret CIA prison as a practice prisoner. The way Denise and John have ruined that franchise should be criminal. That said I liked most of what I saw on Sunday. It is clear that they still having nothing resembling a defense, but the improved offense should at least make them more fun to watch. Smith finally looked good from what little I saw and from the highlights. Vernon Davis, after a less than staggering preseason is looking every bit the high draft choice he is and then there is my main man Frank Gore. Too bad about that name, but nothing to hate about the game. Check out what Adam Hoff has to say about him over at www.rotowire.com (a great site by the way). Adam does a nice comparison of Gore to early L. Tomlinson (still not calling him LT…ever. LT retired so he can star in bit cameos and do massive amounts of drugs. There is only one. Stop it now.)

I’m not ready to anoint Gore the next Tomlinson or even the next Roger Craig, but he did look great. Great power inside, great speed outside, great hands in the passing game. Just a tremendous performance. Granted it was against Arizona who appears to be going with the same defensive game plan as the Niners (i.e., asking politely for the team to stop going to the endzone so much), but it was still fun to watch. Of course, made that much more fun by the fact that he is on my fantasy team and I started him at the last minute over Deuce McCallister and he let me to 2 wins. In other words, I can’t get my hands on a number 21 jersey fast enough. My only concern about Gore is health. He wrecked his knees in college and then had shoulder surgery as well. That’s a lot to ask of your joints, but if he can stay healthy, he could be the most important part of the Niners’ most recent turn around attempt other than Coach Nolan.

4. StumpTown fantasy update – Because I know you care deeply and passionately about my fantasy season, here’s an update after wk 1. For more information about my team and league, you can go to our home site at Boyz Near the Hood. The link is to your right. In our league, we go head to head against two other teams in the league every week. We started out the league, which I run with my buddy from college Chitwood (named for his great mid-range jumper a la Jimmy Chitwood), going head to head against a single team, but both of us are prone to fantasy excess and so, more games seemed better. Last week I beat Clint’s team (Preston Express) and Steve’s team (Bush League) by fairly wide margains and posted the best overall scoring week in the league with 104 points. I never got over 103 points in a dismal year last year, so last week was an excellent start to the season.

I started Hassleback over the “on the hot seat” Kitna which was a no brainer and they both ended up with the same number of fantasy points which was more than either deserved. I expect Hassleback to bounce back from a poor start (in fantasy) and put up some big numbers against Arizona’s butter in the microwave D.

As mentioned I started Gore over Deuce at the last minute along with Caddy Williams. Caddy let me down in a big way and poured salt in the wounds with an injured back that could plague him all season. To say I’m concerned about my first over all pick, number 1 keeper option and key to my season would be like saying that the tabloids are concerned about Tom Cruise’s progeny. (as a side note, can we amend the constitution to put a stop to this naming of couples by combining their own names? How did that start? How can we find them and punish them? No more Benifer/Tomkat/etc. – though if we are sticking with it, let’s do sports couples as well. My nominee to kick off that trend “TerreBill” for my favorite Dallas couple). This week I’m sitting Caddy. Huge risk, but back spasms plus the Atlanta D is just too much for me.

The real hero on my team was really the Baltimore D. They pitched a surprise shut out against Tampa Bay and were the high scorer in all of fantasy in our league’s format. This was especially nice since I had been running at the mouth about how good they were going to be and unlike most of the junk I had been talking, I finally got that one right.

My WRs were awful except for Fitz, so I dropped my first WR drafted (Burleson) for the “relying on Vick” Michael Jenkins. Probably not going to be the move that makes the season, but I had to do something and I think this helps.

5. Manning bowl – I like the Mannings. The whole family seems pretty cool and there is no doubting the talent, but I hope they never play each other ever again. The game was pretty good especially compared to the garbage most teams played on Sunday, but I can’t take all the hype and the shots of the stone faced Manning family in the box.

6. I know Tom Brady is maybe the best QB in the game because he has no one to throw to and still leads them to victory more often than not.

I could go on forever, but I’m out of town on business and just want to get this posted, so I’ll leave it at that.

Go Niners.

Random thoughts...

2006-09-08T15:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a few random thoughts after last night's game:

1. My 6 year old son loved the Pink intro. Me not as much. Is that the new intro? Really? To every game or just that one? How did they decide on Pink? I mean what says football more than an already past her prime female pop-"star" with the name "Pink?" Ugh. Maybe next week, we'll get Fiona Apple.

2. Why did they let Andrea Kramer come on after a 4 day bender? What happened to her? I gasped in shock when she first appeared on my screen. Sometimes, it doesn't pay to have a big TV. Yikes. Maybe, stop letting todlers cut your hair. I know that's mean, but something had to be said. I'm sorry it had to be me. Let's just let her gracefully exit and give her job to the great Peter King.

3. Culpepper looked as bad as a big time QB has looked since any of Bret Favre's games from the last 2 years. Just throw to your own team for crying out loud. Dolphin fan should be very worried. Maybe they can find that guy who Minnesota hired to take out Daunte's knee so they can save face when they have to start Joey.

4. Pittsburg fan should be thrilled. Not only did your team win without their starting QB,but they proved they have a competent back up, proved (at least for one game) they don't need the bus afterall and now you have to think that if Batch could do that, Big Ben should be amazing.

5. Bettis getting off the bus in the intro was contrived and lame. Isn't he a professional journalist now or something? Give me a break. Did Chad Johnson produce that intro?

6. I have never been so excited for a football game I cared nothing about. It is good to get the season started so I can get things back in perspective a bit.

7. The Dolphins made a liar out of me yesterday. I will never forgive them. they are dead to me.

8. Madden is so much better without Summeral. I hate that it took so long to figure that out.

9. Speaking of Madden, if everyone is so convinced about this Madden curse, why do players still do the cover? Pro athletes are the most superstitious people on the planet, so why do they do it? Oh yeah, I forgot, money is good luck

10. Let's put our heads together and figure out how we can get Bob Costas to be involved in every sporting event. Just feels better with him there.

10 things that will happen, not "might", "will."

2006-09-07T14:05:00.000-07:00

With the season kicking off tonight, every where you look in the paper, on TV or on line people are making their predictions. Well, I’ve read enough, so now I need to share with you what’s really going to happen. These aren’t predictions, this just simple fact. Here are some of the things that will happen in football before Tuesday morning:

1. Deuce McAllister will post better numbers than Reggie Bush this week, but Bush will do something that will remind us all of Sanders and Vick. I see one of those 6 yard runs that takes 2 minutes where about 8 guys miss tackles.

2. The Niners will not be as bad as everyone predicts and the game against the Cardinals will be close

3. TO will have a big game and everyone will act like nothing ever happened and the Cowboys (especially the Tuna) are geniuses for signing him. In 3 weeks when he really melts down, the media will forget everything they said and act like Dallas is the stupidest franchise in sports for taking him on. Don’t you wish sometimes there was some group whose job it was to take the media to task and hold them even the slightest bit accountable for all the dumb stuff they say?

4. Pittsburg will look bad and confused tonight as Miami rolls to a big early lead and easy victory. Pitt will be better than they look tonight, but something tells me we won’t see their A game.

5. Tatum Bell will outperform Mike Bell in Denver

6. Eli will beat Payton in a shootout and the experts will clamor to get aboard the Giants bandwagon

7. The second MNF game which features Aaron Brooks and the Raiders against Phlip Rivers and the bolts will be the lowest rated MNF game ever. It starts after 10 on the east coast and people on the west coast know enough to know that if Jeff George is threatening your job, you are not a QB worth watching.

8. Due to various commitments, I will spend roughly 5 times the amount of time thinking about football as I do watching football this weekend. Just a sad state of affairs.

9. Detroit will upset Seattle and have everyone a buzz with how good they look on offense.

10. Joe Theisman will make me miss Dan Dierdorf, something previously thought to be impossible and Kornheiser will start openly mocking him before the 4th quarter.

Draft Confessions

2006-08-30T13:13:00.000-07:00

Turns out that “giant sucking sound” is not NAFTA afterall, but rather the sound my fantasy team is most likely to make. After weeks of anticipation, we had my fantasy football draft last night for the Boyz Near the Hood fantasy league that I run with a college buddy of mine. I’m sure you are all busting to find out what happened and so for that reason and for the therapeutic benefit that it might have I’m going to purge my inner doubts and fears and tell you what happened last night and why I did what I did. Enjoy.

After having spent most of the day at the office getting absolutely nothing work related accomplished, I decided to leave early. It’s not that I didn’t have work to do or that I didn’t want to do it, it is just that I couldn’t really think of anything not related to football and that just doesn’t allow one the sort of concentration one needs to do legal work. I got home about 5 and spent the next hour rearranging my man room, hooking up the computer to my projector, checking in with the 3 teams that are out of state and thus drafting on line and eating about 45 Redvines and then I waited.

John and Rob arrived first and with it came the news that Jeff, who had the first overall pick would be late, but had given his pick to Rob to make for him. The first pick: Tomlinson. This meant that we were going to start the draft with a trade. Earlier in the day, John and Adam had worked out a deal contingent on Tomlinson going first, where John sent his number 2 overall pick to Adam and then John and Adam picked each others picks at random for the rest of the night based on some secret complicated formula designed to distract me as I tried to enter the picks on the website we use. The plan worked and I immediately started drafting players from other sports. With my first pick I chose Cadillac Anderson, former NBA journeyman. Not making that up.

Soon after, my friend Tony called. Tony is a former owner who still comes to the draft to run the computer (no small task), but couldn’t make it. That meant trouble for me because now I was going to have to run the computer and try to draft a team. In the best of years, just drafting a team is a task that takes every ounce of my limited powers of concentration (yes my concentration comes in ounces, if you must know). To try to do two things at once (and I mean any two things) is just too much to ask. Before it even started my draft was in trouble.

Actually, that last sentence is true for a couple reasons. First, I started with WR Larry Fitzgerald and QB Matt Hassleback as my keepers for this league. They are fine players and all, but they don’t play running back. That is a problem because in fantasy football, your season depends largely on having two good running backs and there are only about 8 out there. Bad, bad start.

Everyone else arrived. In this case, everyone else included league veterans: Mike, Jeff, Patrick, Steve, Johnny, and John L, with Clint, Adam and my brother Enoch on line. There was Pizza, the aforementioned Redvines, about 45,000 ounces of soda and enough chips to elevate everyone’s sodium level to about twice the recommended yearly allowance. We were set.

I had the 5th pick in the draft and was hoping to get one of the following RBs in this order:
Ronnie Brown, Rudi Johnson, Stephen Jackson, Carnell Williams. I knew Tomlinson would be gone, so I’m not even counting him. Adam traded for the number 2 spot so he could get Brown, so I was really hoping to get Rudi. Then Johnny took Jackson….there was still hope. Then John L paused….he wasn’t sure…maybe he would jump on Reggie Bush or the best WR available Chad Johnson since he already had the mighty Shawn Alexander as his keeper….alas, no…he selected Rudi. That left me with Carnell Williams. Not a bad running back, and showed flashes of brilliance last year as a rookie, but also proved to be an injury risk. Deuce McAlister, my first round choice last year, killed me with an early injury, so I’m already getting nauseous at this point.

The expected run of running backs and top WRs followed in our snaking draft format, which would mean that I wouldn’t pick again until the 20th pick. I was hoping Kevin Jones would fall to me as I see him being a potential force under Martz in Detroit. Clint spoiled that by taking him with the 14th pick early in the second round of this 12 team draft. That left me hoping Westbrook would fall. He’s chronically injured, but I think he’s become a bit underrated after missing the whole preseason. People seem to have forgotten about him. People, that is, other than my brother who nabbed him 2 picks in front of me. Now the pressure was on to find a serviceable second RB from what was left.

I narrowed it down to Frank Gore, Deuce McAlister, and De’shaun Foster. Then Steve took Thomas Jones so all three were left. Really, this was a no brainer. Gore is a Niner which means I would have one of my home team guys (always a huge fun factor in fantasy) and he’s also set to explode if he can stay healthy. A great athlete, the sure starter and only decent RB on the team and a guy having a very good camp who now gets to run behind Larry Allen’s enormous caboose. Of course, with SF his TD chances might not be that much, but given what was left, he was the obvious choice. I din’t need a QB and there was no WR left on the board that made it worth gambling on passing up an RB when I still only had one on my roster. Gore it was.

I had gone through a couple mock drafts in preparing for this one and the thing I noticed again and again, was that once the top 5 or so WRs were gone, the rest were really difficult to differentiate. Plus, there were tons of WRs, compared to other positions, that could blossom into good players and almost none that were a sure thing. Compare that with the pool of RBs which was more shallow than a relationship with Paris Hilton and my strategy was coming together. I decided that my draft slot was not going to allow me to get another top WR, so I needed to draft RBs until there were absolutely no good ones left and only then start looking at WRs unless a great one fell in my lap.

So, I hoped Foster or Deuce would fall to me with my next pick (29th). Foster went with the next pick. Then it started to look like a very good WR might be there and I thought about shifting my strategy. TO, Driver and Hines Ward were still on the board and any of them would have made a really nice 3rd pick in a keeper draft. However, I couldn’t draft TO because of my strict “no Cowboys” policy when drafting. If I can’t win without drafting someone who plays for my sworn enemy, then I don’t want to win.

Driver and Ward got picked as did Mike Bell who would have entered into the mix, as much as I wanted to avoid the whole Denver mess, so Deuce was waiting for me when it came back to me. But that was a dilemma. First, Deuce ruined my season last year when he went down with a knee injury and I hate him for it. My team made trades, but never recovered. Second, Deuce ruined this season for me by leaving me without a good RB keeper, which was my plan when I drafted him last year and I hate him for it. Third, he wasn’t a good keeper option because he is still recovering from surgery and the Saints drafted Reggie Bush, the most talked about and exciting college runner I can remember.

That said, Deuce has looked recovered in pre season and I think the Saints know that Bush is not ready to be a regular runner. That means, Deuce should still get his carries, especially around the goal line because he’s bigger than Bush, and that means, he could actually end up being a top 10-15 RB. In fact, I think he will. I think he’s going to redeem himself from last year and give my team a boost this year. So, I took him again. That meant 2 of my first 3 picks were players from my team last year that was the worst I had ever had in fantasy. Good start. Thank you very much.

I still didn’t have a second WR, but I wasn’t worried. I figured there would still be lots at the same (albeit lower) level to choose from when things came back to me. Turns out I was right. The problem was, they were all so mediocre and similar that I couldn’t get excited about picking one. I looked back at my list of RBs and decided to take another one. With the injury prone backs I have, I could use the insurance and maybe I could get someone who would be good trade bait later. I decided to go with Chris Brown, the starting RB for the Titans.

Starting RBs are so rare really and Brown has been decent in the past when healthy, so this seemed like a solid pick with the WRs I really wanted (Walker, Jackson, Williams, Plaxico and Housh) taken ahead of me. However, before I entered Brown into the computer, my buddy and fellow Niner fan Mike, came to the rescue. “You know, Henry was just named the starter today right? Brown’s not starting.” What? There was chaos in the draft room with others swearing that was false and me reeling at how I could have missed something like that. John L., who had a laptop, confirmed that Brown was being called “starter in name only” and that Henry would get the nod. No one else had picked yet, so I changed my pick. With the guys good enough to let me do that, I knew I couldn’t take long deciding. I quickly looked at the WRs and froze. I didn’t like any of them. Panic was setting in. Find someone. Someone on a decent offense. Ummmm….ummmm…..”Nate Burleson.” An audible groan went out from the room as everyone knew I had choked.

Burleson relies on catching from my QB which isn’t good in fantasy and plus he’s the number two guy and really fell on his face last year. Bad pick. Darick Mason (the next pick…your welcome), Joey Galloway, Matt Jones and even Antonio Bryant would have been better picks. Ugh.

Now I was nervous about my WRs. Looking at the remaining guys I saw nothing but stiffs on bad teams and number 3 guys on good teams. Uh oh. Had I waited too long? Should I have taken and better WR over Deuce? Then I got a little gift. Matt Jones, who I probably should have taken over Burleson fell to me with the next pick. And then I remembered why I took the strategy that I did. WRs at this point are a crap shoot so I had just as much chance at getting a decent one now as I did the last round or the next round or 3 rounds from now.

A bunch of guys I wanted went off the board before my next pick like Galloway, Bryant and Williamson. When it came time to make the 68th overall pick, I thought about taking Kevan Barlow because we have to carry 4 RBs and he was a potential starter still out there. The thing is, I just don’t think he’s for real and don’t see him producing for the Jets. So, I went with the best guy available on an offense that might be productive. Eddie Kennison. Truth be told I don’t trust Kennison at all, but I liked him slightly better than Coles who was the only other WR I considered.

After that I got Keyshon (a steal I think), the Baltimore D (I really wanted Carolina), Shawn Graham (I really wanted Feeley), TJ Ducket in case Portis stays hurt and Mewelde Moore because I wanted Chester Taylor who went much earlier than I thought because I believe that Minny’s new O line is going to produce a good runner there. So, I took Moor in case Taylor goes down.

In the end, I hated my team. I had just missed on the guys I really wanted, most of whom got taken right before I would have taken them and left me with guys I felt like I had to take. My RBs are brittle, my WRs are thin and inconsistent and neither my QB, D nor Kicker is anything special. I think it will take some weird goings on for me to make it to the playoffs this year, but it is football, so there’s a chance.

And that’s why I keep coming back.

Go Niners!!!

2006-08-28T12:13:00.000-07:00

Team USA and Fantasy Football

One day until my fantasy football draft and it can’t get here soon enough.

Unlike many of my buddies who share my love for football and fantasy, I only play in one football league. Every year it seems I get invited to play in others, but to this point I have turned them down. I’ve gone the multi-league route and it has some good points but in the end what I love most about fantasy is the “gives you something to root for” quality it brings to the season. In multiple leagues it inevitably works out where you have a guy in one league and you play against him in the other and then who to root for just becomes too complicated. I like to keep my sports rooting simple. So the league I run, Boyz Near the Hood (a link to which is at your right) is the only league I do and the draft is tomorrow.

I have the 5th overall pick in a keeper league. Last year I drafted Deuce McAlister in the first round thinking he was going to have a big year and would also make an excellent keeper for this coming year. Then he blew his knee out and took me down for two seasons. I was just over .500 last year when he went down and I went down with him unable to recover as Willis McGahee, my keeper from the year before, demonstrated his allergy to the endzone. The rest of my team was actually pretty decent, but that huge gap at RB and a few more bad breaks and I missed the playoffs.

Adding insult to injury, Deuce’s injury and Houston’s stupidity in passing on Bush made Deuce a shaky keeper for this year at best which essentially left me without a running back keeper. So, I decided instead on Hassleback and Fitzgerald. I really like both these guys for fantasy, so I can’t complain about that, and there were owners in my league with less desirable choices, but to start out without an RB means that I have to hit paydirt with my first pick.

I will take a running back. Alexander, Tiki, Portis and Larry Johnson are all keepers already giving some other team a monster head start. I couldn’t get the first pick in our draft which I’m sure will be Tomlinson (who I continue to refuse to call LT because there was only one LT). Even if the owner with the first pick completely drops the ball and doesn’t pick Tomlinson, he won’t fall all the way to pick 5. So, there are 4 other guys I want, but there is no guarantee with any of them that they will be number 1 backs and that will be my only back of consequence. Think of it this way, Matt and Fitz are fine keepers unless you think of them as my first two picks in an open draft. Then it is a disaster.

Bottom line, I’m going to have to steal someone in the second or third round to get back to competitive.

Here are some of my observations about this past weekend along with my response to Adam’s last comments to my earlier post about Team USA and Football.

Adam writes, “How are you seeing all these games? I couldn't find tonight's game against Australia anywhere.”

The answer is 5 little letters that greatly improved my sports viewing life: NBA TV. I get the NBA channel and they play all the US games multiple times. Unfortunately for my body’s need for sleep, they also carry a bunch of the other matchups between other countries which, I have seen some of. They are also showing the US games on ESPN 2, but the reality is that you also need Tivo as most of the games have been played at about 3:30am pacific.
Here are my thoughts about Team USA after this weekend.

1. Their half court D seems to be getting much better. I say “seems” to be because I don’t think that Australian team was very good. But the US seems to be doing a lot less improvised trapping on the perimeter which was leaving huge lanes to the hoop complete with flashing run way lights and police escort for mediocre players to look like superstars as they knifed through to the hoop for easy layups. A well executed trapping defense can be suffocating (remember the Runnin Rebels from the early ‘90s?), but even then you risk getting killed if the team can push through the trap. So, when the trapping comes just from another player in the area suddenly double teaming a guy on the perimeter, the team is at a distinct disadvantage if the surprise trap doesn’t immediately end up in a steal.

The US has moved away from that some and more toward just playing solid D on their guy and counting on Brand, Howard and Bosh to be behind them to change or block shots which they have been doing very well. Interestingly, the new approach exposes some of these international teams and their lack of athleticism. If they get open lanes and open shots, they have a chance despite their distinct talent deficit. However, if they have to earn their shots just like the US usually does, then the US gets the value of their more talented roster. One more thing about talent on these rosters. I have seen all the top teams play in this tourney and while Argentina and especially Spain have been as or more dominant than the US to this point, they do not have near the talent on their rosters. Not even close. Not in the same discussion. Pau Gasol is the only guy on either team that could even sniff the starting lineup or even regular minutes on the US team. As we all know (or should) talent doesn’t win on its own, but improved D, means no easy baskets and then you have to rely more on talent and the US has loads of that.

2. I think the US is like Tiger Woods in this tourney. What I mean is that if the US plays up to potential, no other team on their best day will be competitive. That doesn’t make the US a lock to win any more than Tiger is, but it puts things in perspective. That’s why the US has to be the favorite. Right now Spain and Argentina are playing just as well, but only the US can say that if they hit their top gear, no other team can hang with them. I can totally see them getting beat by any team from here on out, but I can also see them blowing any team out by 25. Deep down, the rest of the world knows this.

3. I’m hearing people start to say that Melo might be a better FIBA player than NBA player. I think they’re right. He has a great medium range extended jumper. He has ok deep range, but you don’t need deep range in FIBA, you just need to be able to hit the shot no one in the NBA can make. It is a bit deeper than Rip hits it on the curl, but not as deep as most of the gunners in the NBA. The thing is, this is a bad shot in the NBA and Melo will get hammered by coaches and teammates if he takes it regularly unless he shoots an astonishing percentage. In the NBA, you either take the 3 for its added benefits or you get the ball inside for the higher percentage. Shooting from 20 feet is this no mans land that doesn’t fit in the NBA offense. That said, Melo is playing sweet and I do think it will carry over to a very nice year in the NBA
It raises another question though about what other American players might be better in FIBA than in the NBA. I wish I could spend about 3 hours thinking and researching this question, but I will just have to go off the cuff. First, though it reminds me that Steve Nash would be unstoppable in FIBA. He is money from the range of their 3 pointline and his run around like a crazy man giving everyone open shots would play perfectly here. Paul and Hinrich have lessened my desire to force Nash to become a citizen, but he would still be amazing. I can’t see a way the US would ever lose with him at the point.

Well a healthy Grant Hill would have been great with that same deep mid-range shot and excellent play-making abilities from anywhere on the floor. I think we all forget how good he was. Danny Ainge would have been all-world. But here’s my list of American players that I think could contribute right now in FIBA much better than they do in the NBA:

A. Martel Webster – All J, nothing else, but that’s enough sometimes
B. Mike Dunleavy Jr.
C. Devean George
D. Brad Miller – He’s good in the NBA and not being used much by Coach K, but I think he would be a dominant FIBA player on another team
E. Ben Gordon (technically English, but they’re almost Americans)
F. Mike James
G. Mike Miller
H. Adam Morrison and JJ Redick – I know they hasn’t even played yet, but based on how I project they will do, they’d do it even better in FIBA

Dang it, I feel like I’m forgetting some obvious ones. Let me know who I’m missing. Looking for guys who can stroke it from 20 feet, big guys who can pass and hit a spot up 8 footer consistently, guys who can get in a deadly rhythm if they get a few open looks, defense and athleticism not necessary.

4. I think Melo, Battier and Joe Johnson are the three most important members of this team. Why? Why not Wade or LeBron? Because the way those 3 are shooting the ball means that teams have not, for the most part, even tried to play zone against the US. The US’s biggest weakness is that they don’t have much of a set offense to rely on when the defense is disruptive. To this point, they’ve survived because Paul, Wade, LBJ and others are great at penetrating. However, a zone would make that much tougher and would make it harder to survive without a set offense. But with Melo (or “candypants” as my son calls him. My son speaks some Spanish and upon hearing that his name was Carmelo, he said, “hey, doesn’t that mean candy?” I said, “ummm…I think maybe so”, so then he said, “well, since he thinks he’s fancier than he really is, I’m calling him ‘candypants’ from now on.” Then I wept in pride and had to leave the room), JJ and Battier stroking the ball from 3 so well, teams have been rightly afraid to zone up. No team can stay with the US in man and so, they’ve been cruising.

5. I think Chris Paul may be a keeper. Next year in my fantasy hoops league I thought my keepers were going to be Marion and Brand. Not a bad start. But I also have Paul. Paul is outdoing himself in Japan and I didn’t think it possible for him to get this much better this soon. Would I rather start the year with Marion (arguably a top 8 fantasy player) and possibly the best fantasy pg in the league? Not sure. Brand was awesome last year. Tough call.

6. I think Chris Bosh is redeeming himself. I tagged him for whining which he deserved and dismissed the idea that he had really played all that well in the last game of pool play, but against Australia he had a chance to play with the game still in question and was fairly dominant. I think Jamison just lost his minutes. Bosh’s D, even on the perimeter is a real eye opener. He still fouls too much, looks lost at times on O and looks cranky too regularly, but he is a great defender and finisher. Mr. Bosh, welcome to the team.

7. I think I loved watching the Italians lose. They were talking trash to Wade and Team USA as they played the Americans very tough in pool play. What? Talking trash to Wade? And this team? When you’re freakin Italy? I know the US has struggled in international play, but please. It was nice to see them shown the door.

Now some thoughts on football and some more response to Adam’s comments:

Adam says, the Cowboys may win the NFC and should win 11 games. I hate to say it, but he could be right. The Cowboys look pretty dang good on both sides of the ball. Fortunately, they also have TO. I’m counting on Parcells completely losing it and having to go to rehab and Bledsoe to hit TO with a folding chair on the sideline to derail the season.

The Niners are going to give up a lot of points. I hope their defensive players are in good shape because they are going to get a lot of minutes. Vernon Davis is the real deal. He could play the slot. He might could even play out wide. He’s a freak.

Still not a believer in LJ or the chiefs this year. I know, I know. I’m the only one.
If Carson Palmer looks decent tonight, where does he go in fantasy drafts? I mean, should we not expect similar numbers to last year with similar weapons and another year of experience? At this point, I wouldn’t laugh at anyone taking him in the second round in an open draft….if he looks good tonight.

D’Angelo Williams will be something special and may end up the starting RB in Carolina by the end of the season and a first round pick in next year’s fantasy drafts.

I’m going to want to kill Joe Theisman by week 4. He’s just that bad. I like Tony Kornheiser so far, but Theisman is just awful. I might actually miss Madden.

I think I better get back to work

Watch for my draft recap and season preview for my fantasy league which I will post here whether you want it or not.

2006-08-25T17:53:00.000-07:00

Tiger

I just noticed that Tiger is leading at the WGC Invitational and I wonder if Phil Mickleson got Clyde Drexlered. As a Blazer fan, I remember all too well the SI cover and article that came out calling Clyde the second best player in the NBA and making all kinds of comparisons to MJ and even suggested that there were some aspects of the game where Clyde was better. Anyone who knows anything about the MJ era in the NBA already knows what happened next. This was right before the Blazers met the Bulls in the NBA finals and reporters were just trying to make a story. Instead, they made MJ feel like he had something to prove and he spent the remaining games before taking home the title, demolishing Clyde and the Blazers.

A few short months ago there was all this talk about a Mickleslam and Lefty catching up and maybe even passing Tiger as top player in the world. Then Tiger's Dad died and Tiger went away and then missed the cut at the Open and the people talked Phil up even more. I know Phil's massive choke at the Open wasn't Tiger induced, but I have to take note of the fact that Tiger is in line to win his 4th consecutive PGA event which includes 2 majors and then I look down the leaderboard to find Phil at +8 this week when Tiger is at -9 and I can't help but wonder if Tiger didn't read those stories and get pissed in an MJ sort of way.

It's something worth watching. Just a hunch, but I bet the Phil/Tiger rivalry is basically dead.

2006-08-25T16:15:00.000-07:00

Team USA and Football

I am a bona fide NBA junkie. I follow it closer than any sane person should. I read out of market papers I watch replays of old games, I can tell you off the top of my head that the NBA channel is 601 on Directv and don’t get me started on how much I love/need my NBA league pass. So, that may make it easier to understand that I have watched ever minute of every game that has been televised anywhere that the current Team USA has played. Frankly, I don’t get why this competition isn’t a bigger deal over here. Here’s what you get with the FIBA World Championships:

1. An NBA all-star team playing games that really matter. We all love the NBA all-star weekend in spite of Stern’s ridiculous refusal to incorporate a huge game of H-O-R-S-E into the weekend. We love watching all those great players on the same court together. We watch our favorite start on their own teams all the time wondering, what would it be like if D Wade was finishing that sweet dish from LBJ instead of Eric Snow. So, the first thing you get is some truly great players playing side by side. But unlike the all-star game, where both teams do nothing but throw lob passes for missed dunks and try streetball moves that usually fail, until you get near the end and Iverson takes over because he’s so hypercompetitive, these games matter. Now more than ever.

2. You get to marvel at how unathletic the rest of the world’s players are. I’m not saying their bad ballplayers or bad teams, after all they’ve been kicking our butts lately, but they are, for the most part, slow and earth bound. Let me just say this, Rasho Nesterovic is one of the more athletic international players I’ve seen this year.

3. You get to see some incredible shooting. Since the players over sees can’t jump, they all shoot and shoot well. You don’t have defensive specialists or rebounding stiffs. Every guy that walks on the floor is a threat to drain from 3 and even more likely to hit from 15 feet. And it’s not just that they get on streaks, these guys hit from anywhere all the time. If you’re just talking pure shooters, I’m not sure a single American player in the NBA would even crack the top 20. No joke

4. You get a newfound appreciation for American Refs. Think the officiating in the NBA is subpar? Watch a FIBA game. It is brutal. So far, the only pattern I can find as to when they blow their whistles is to disrupt the flow of the game. If both teams are really rolling and the tempo is steady and the game is a pleasure to watch, there will be 4 fouls called in a row and a mysterious technical called on someone that no one can explain or justify. One thing I will say though, is that I was expecting it to be very biased against the hated Americans, but it hasn’t been. It has been awful, but equally awful for the various teams. In fact, I even get the impression that the refs like most of the American players who really do very little whining except Chris Bosh who needs to shut up and wipe that scoul off his should-just-be-glad-to-be-there face.

5. You get to watch the future of the NBA with pride and hope as you see them put their egos aside and play together. Wade, LeBron and Melo have been nothing short of spectacular and I’m not even talking about their level of play. I’m talking about their ability to play together. Here are three guys who expect that every important possession for their team will be run through them and none of them are hogging the ball. Melo is the worst and Bron is the least selfish, but even Melo has been a revelation. I’ve never been a Melo fan. I was and am a James fan. For some reason, you can’t be both. I think part of it is that Melo seems a bit to much the shoot-first, me-first player that we’ve been suffering through for the past 10 years. But even I have to give him props for the way he’s playing now. He is shooting lights out and is a huge part of the reason the USA is 5-0 in the tourney so far.

Here are my other random thoughts on Team USA

I still wish Redd and Ray Ray were on this team. That shooting would really help.

Hinrich is an all-world on the ball defender. He’s the best I’ve seen at harassing a guy up the court since Mookie Blaylock. I would hate playing against him. It just looks painful.

This team is terribly defensively. They can get after teams full court and cause some turnovers, but their defense in transition and in the half court and their defensive rebounding is surprisingly bad. I know they brought D’Antoni over to work with the O, but are they having him coach the D as well? This is my biggest concern for Team USA. Anyone, and I mean anyone, can cut through our D and get to the rim. When Howard or Brand are in, they protect fairly well, but it still breaks down the D and leads to lots of open shots. I haven’t seen a team yet struggle to get open shots and that includes the poor African team they trounced last. That team just couldn’t make anything. Guys like LeBron and Melo need to step it up to help the bigs, which aren’t so big, on the defensive glass.

Coach K is great. The right adjustments, the right lineups, the right choices in his captains and the right decision starting my boy Chris Paul who is sporting a 16-3 assist to turnover ratio. Seriously, he has 6 turnovers in 5 games as opposed to 32 assists. Oh, and did I mention he was a rook last year?

It hasn’t really happened yet, not even with Italy, but in the medal round, the US is going to be in trouble late and we are going to see the return of playoff D Wade. Wade has already been great. No complaints, but he has the MJ gear. The extra gear that says now that the game is on the line and it could go either way I am going to freakin dominate everyone on the floor. He doesn’t miss under pressure and can get to the rim at will. I mean it as much as I love Bron, Wade is the single biggest reason I believe US wins gold.

All the talk leading up to and during the tourney has been about how much the NBA players struggle under the international rules. What is missing is any mention of how true that is for foreign players in the NBA. In international play, Carlos Arroyo is one of the most dangerous players on the floor. Jose Calderon is considered dominant. Carlos Delfino is game changer. We’ve seen those guys play and mostly suck in the NBA, but we don’t hear much about the fact that just because the international rules make it tough for NBA players to adjust, doesn’t mean the NBA isn’t still by far the best basketball league on the planet. No combo of Euro players I’ve seen in this tourney would be a legit threat to even get out of the lottery in the NBA. This shouldn’t be forgotten whether the US team wins or loses.

Now, on to football.

My fantasy draft is coming up and I don’t want to offer anyone from my league who might read this any insight into my mastermind strategy, but I have to make some comments about the upcoming NFL and Fantasy seasons.

I run a fantasy football league that is a keeper league with a snaking draft. Each year, we choose where we want to pick in the draft based on our finish the year before. Unfortunately, I got to choose second this year where I want to draft which tells you all you need to know about last season. Not every player is keeper eligible every year, so in our league Ladanian Tomlinson was available to draft while the other top backs, Alexander and LJ were not. I was hoping Jeff, who was choosing in front of me would stay away from the first overall pick, so I could grab it and take Tomlinson. Sadly, he was not that foolish.

So, I tried to figure out how many players there were that I would put in roughly the same category behind Tomlinson. There were/are 4. So, I chose the 5th spot in the draft knowing I would get one of them and thinking that even though I like some better than others, I had to get as low as possible so I still had a chance to get something good on the way back. The right choice? Well see. I did the same thing last year and took Deuce McAllister. Deuce went down and so did my season.

LJ and Bush are both going to be drafted too high this year in leagues everywhere

This might be the year I take a Defense earlier than the last couple rounds

I think Willie Parker and Drew Bledsoe are going to be drafted too low this year in leagues everywhere

If I didn’t already have one as a keeper (Hassleback), I would draft a QB high this year if I could get one of the good ones. There aren’t very many

If you’re into fantasy and haven’t yet and have 30 minutes to kill, try one of the mock drafts on espn.com. it’s informative and pretty entertaining. My one try led to this exchange between me and one of the other mock drafters:

Me: Randy Moss in the second round, seriously? Was that your pick or did you leave it on autodraft or what?

Him: Screw you. Randy Moss is the best WR in the game. I would have taken him in the first round (don’t know why he didn’t then), Plus your name is Stump

Me: Yes it is. Keen observation

Him: I know. Did I stump you?

Me: Did you spend the last round thinking that up or did you have your site set on “autojoke?”

Him: Stump is a funny name

Other Participants: “Him, shut up already.”

Good times.

I would love to have more discussion of fantasy football on this site, so if you have any comments or draft dilemmas toss them out there in the comments.

2006-08-18T01:16:00.000-07:00

August Blues

August is a tough month in the world of sports. You basically have Baseball, the PGA Championship and the unfulfilled promise of football.

The PGA championship is fine, but it has the downside of being golf. For me, watching golf can actually be fairly entertaining but it really requires Tiger to be in the hunt. I’m an unapologetic bandwagon Tiger fan. I don’t so much like Tiger as I enjoy his dominance. I just like watching Tiger set records and dominate the sport, so if he’s in contention golf is pretty fun, but if not…it’s just golf. So the PGA has a chance to be interesting, but you can’t really count on it.

I’m a baseball fan, but mostly I’m a Giant’s fan, so like Tiger and golf, I’m mostly only interested in baseball if the Giants are good. If you follow baseball at all you know the Giants are..ummm…how should I put this….awful. That’s it, they are awful. And that would be bad enough, but to make matters worse they have this Bonds guy, maybe you’ve heard of him, who is relatively hard to get behind as a fan. Easy to hide behind (my man is huge), but hard to support. So, baseball’s not offering much.

The real problem with August though is that you can’t stop thinking about football. It’s like a constant tease. Preseason NFL just makes matters worse. It is even really too early to be planning for fantasy football, but I can’t help myself. So, for no good reason other than the promise of football is crowding my brain right now, here are some predictions about the upcoming football season:

1. The Oregon Ducks will win the Pac-10 outright. I think football is won and lost on the O-line and with Oregon returning theirs, they are off to a good start. Plus, even though he may not be as good all around, I believe Dixon is actually an upgrade given the type of offense the Ducks want to run. USC will stumble, Cal isn’t ready and everyone else is mediocre at best. There you have it, your Pac 10 champs, the Oregon Ducks
2. The 49ers will be the surprise team in the NFL this year. They will go 8-8 and shock the world by making the playoffs. Alex Smith will start to look like an elite QB and Frank Gore will rush for 1200 yards while Vernon Davis becomes the next Antonio Gates.
3. The trailblazers will trade Darius Miles to Chicago for the Knicks’ number one pick next year which could lead to the Blazers getting Oden and another stud in the same draft. Ok, so I know that’s not football but I had to toss it in.
4. Miami is going to win 11 games and go into the playoffs with Joey Harrington as their starting QB.
5. Parcells will hire Jeff Gilooly to take TO out so he doesn’t have to deal with him any more. This will happen in about week 3.
6. The Cardinals will still be really bad and Edge will miss Indy way more than Indy misses Edge.
7. USC will lose its home opener to Arkansas
8. Tony Kornheiser will be everything Dennis Miller was supposed to be but wasn’t on MNF and Joe Theisman will pass everyone but Bill Walton on my “most annoying sports commentators” list.
9. Larry Johnson will score half as many TDs as he did last year, killing countless fantasy seasons and the Chiefs will be this year’s “what happened to them, I thought they were supposed to be good” team.
10. StumpTown will return to past glory and win the Boyz Near the Hood fantasy football championship.

There you have it. All that stuff is going to happen (at least it should), so now you don’t even need to watch, but I still will, of course. Anything but more Yankees/Red Sox.

Oh, also, I am really enjoying two other sports related things right now.

First, team USA in the world basketball championships. I love that James and Wade appear on their way to saving America’s hoops rep in the same way they’re saving the NBA. I am not predicting nothing but blowouts like so many on local talk radio, but I do think they’ll win and it’s just good to see them finally taking the right approach.

Second, The Contender. This boxing show on ESPN shines a bright light on what is wrong with boxing. The fact that this show can take 12 guys no one has ever heard of and show them in 5 round bouts that are totally altered with camera work to manipulate the viewer, and make that by far the most interesting thing in boxing tells you all you need to about this sport. Boxing is totally lost right now, but this contender tournament is good, good entertainment. For what it’s worth, if you’re watching, right now I like Walter to win it all. If you aren’t watching, give it a whirl. It’s cheesy and contrived, but surprisingly compelling.

Ok, that’s all for now.

2006-08-01T17:27:00.000-07:00

The Magloire Trade

Apparently Steve Patterson and Kevin Pritchard are reading my blog and thank goodness. I guess they heard my plea for NBA action in the sports dessert that is the summer. Now that Landis has managed to ruin the short lived joy gleaned from the Tour de Lance (that name is sticking, at least here), and the Giants have managed to squander some pretty good talent and a very weak division, I need something to supplement my growing football fever. So, even though most of my sports reading these days is about football, the action is still in hoops.
The Blazers made their 7th trade of the offseason this past week when they sent Ha, Brian Skinner and Steve Blake to Milwaukie for Jamal Magloire. Frankly, I think this is probably a win/win, but I really like the trade for the Blazers, even though it is a bit surprising.

What they gave up –

1. Ha – Ha is huge. I mean really big. Not only is he a legit 7’4 or 7’5, but he is pretty thick. You can see why anyone who knows basketball would have walked into a gym, seen him and started drooling. The problem is he can’t play….at all. He doesn’t know how and has shown zero signs of learning. He is timid and lost and has no discernable skills in spite of the fact that he’s been with the Blazers a couple (three?) years now. In other words, he has the unteachable trait of height, but nothing else. He did not show that he had taken any steps forward in summer ball. Bottom line, he wasn’t going to play this year and probably wouldn’t help ever, but certainly not in the next couple of years. No loss.

2. Skinner – I like Skinner. He works hard and is an underrated athlete. I always thought that if he could get 30 minutes a game he could be in the top 10 in the league in rebounding and is a pretty good defender. Problem is that he is a liability on offense and not good enough anywhere to really justify those 30 minutes in the NBA. He’s a good backup and can play physical in the half court and get out and run a bit. Probably a great practice guy who could fill in as a starter for 10-15 games a year at the 4 or the 5. But that’s not only his current status, that’s his ceiling. And now the Blazers are pretty deep in the front court with Raef, Zach, Aldridge and Joel. He has some value, but the Blazers didn’t need him and he certainly wasn’t a part of the long term plan.

3. Blake – Here’s the tough one. Not only is Blake a very good, underrated true point guard, but he was also one of the more popular Blazers. The crowd loved Blake because he seems like a genuinely good guy and teammate who plays hard at both ends every night and cares more about winning than stats or highlights. Those guys are very rare these days as everyone knows and the Portland crowd lives for them, which partially explains all those empty seats in the Rose Garden the last couple years. The problem with Blake was that he was better than the other PGs on our roster, but not going to be great. He is always going to be solid, but not great. We’re hoping Jack will be great and he can’t get out on the floor if the solid guy on the roster is outplaying him before he becomes great. Make sense? Probably only barely at best. Blake should have been our starting guard based on current ability, but Portland has to get their young guys on the floor because their potential is so much higher and we have to see if it is for real. So, while Blake was a bigger loss than most people will realize, he probably had to go. That said, it also hurts that last year he was Portland’s most reliable outside shooter, could play both guard positions and didn’t seem to mind whether he was starting or coming off the bench. I hate losing him. Apparently the Blazers wanted to ship Dixon out and man, that would have been better.

What we get –

1. Magloire – First, we get one of the better true centers in the league. Seriously. After Shaq, who himself is a shadow of his former greatness, the top true centers in the league is pretty barren of actual basketball talent. And so, a mediocre player like Magloire is near the top of the list. He could easily average a double/double, he’s durable and is a decent shotblocker. He’s not a great defender or great athlete, but most nights, he will be the best center on the floor and that is worth something.

2. Front court depth – You really can’t have too much in the NBA. I think this is actually perfect because it allows Joel to come off the bench which he is better suited to do, but it also allows the Blazers to bring Aldridge along slowly and play him mostly at the 4 behind Zach. Of course, as every Blazer fan is buzzing about, it also should clear the way to be able to trade Zach….I guess. The thing worth remembering is that at this point, Zach is still the Blazer’s only low post offensive threat at the forward position. Just having some good bigs out there isn’t enough on a team that has the scoring problems the Blazers have. I think it is more important for sustaining injuries, keeping guys fresh and giving you the option to go with some very big lineups.

3. Back court space – As referenced above, it also clears the way for the Blazers to play their ultra young back court. If you have a guy like Blake outplaying the young guys, you can’t really keep playing Jack 35 minutes a game before the crowd storms the floor and in wild, random riot. But at this point, Roy, Jack, Spanish Chocolate and eventually Dickau should all be able to find some minutes at the one or two. Notice I don’t mention Dixon because no one here expects Dixon to be on the roster and he is a terrible PG anyway and should play exclusively as a 2 off the bench.

So, I think the Blazers got way more than they gave up. A few other notes about this trade.
First, it is surprising that the Blazers brought in someone in their prime to go along with the rebuilding, but I like the move because it tells me the Blazers haven’t become so myopically focused on developing youth that they have scrapped being competitive altogether.
Second, Magloire has a good contract. 8 Mil this year and then he’s a FA, but the Blazers have his full Bird rights which means they should be able to provide the most attractive offer if they want to keep him around. But they also have the option to clear his salary off the books if they need FA money.

Third, I want to go on record now about this alleged trend in the NBA to move away from big traditional centers. I keep hearing the game is more uptempo now and focused on perimeter scorers and you just don’t need size like you used to in today’s NBA. What? Since when? Exactly two teams in the entire league made a concerted effort to play uptempo all the time and reduce their need for inside post-up players who could score in the half court. 2. Not 20. 2!!. Phoenix and Toronto. Both those names are significant. Phoenix, because their popularity, and exciting style along with their success thanks to a great coach and loads of talent has led to this ridiculous conclusion that there is some sort of anti big or even uptempo trend in the NBA. There isn’t. Even the increased scoring has more to do with free throw attempts than a change in style of play.

Toronto is important because it helps prove my point. Toronto sucked. So, you can’t just throw out a group of guys and tell them to run and gun and get the success Phoenix enjoys. Well, guess what, the other coaches and GMs in the league mostly know that which is why everyone is still looking for big guys who can play in the half court. Look at the top teams other than Phoenix and tell me what trend you see: Dallas (plays Damp and Diop big joint minutes and Diop was one of the keys to their success); SA (plays TD and usually a true 5 right next to him and plays mostly in the half court); Miami (the decidedly down-tempo Shaq), Detroit (a bit of an exception at center, but does not play uptempo at all); Cleveland (they throw it in to Z a lot); Clippers (Grand Kaman is a run last true 5). See a trend here. Except Phoenix, the top teams, don’t run particularly often and rely heavily on a true center.

My point is the game has not become some free-wheeling run and shoot fest with a reduced need for size. Only one team has done that and done it well. Everyone else, is still playing like they were 5 years ago, with the only difference being now their guards get to go to the foul line every time they shoot.

All of that to say, that there is no reduced need for big men and having more is better. So, having Magloire is better. I hate losing Blake, but it’s for the best. As for Milwaukie, I loved their trade of TJ for Charlie V and I figured they would go after a PG. I would have thought they could get more for Magloire, but maybe not and Blake should be a great fit on a team that now has quite a few scoring options. Blake is steady, will distribute and doesn’t need to over dribble or shoot to keep himself in the game. Redd, Simmons, Bogut and Vilanueva should all be relieved that Blake will be running the show instead of Mo.

That’s all for now. More when I get back from Hawaii.

2006-07-31T15:09:00.000-07:00

More Canzano...

I admit, in part to see if my first response from Canzano was just the computer generated response it appeared, I emailed him back asking about Darius Miles and whether there was even a whisper of a rumor about what the plan is for him. Somewhat to my surprise, Canzano responded. He said:

"They're having real issues.

Nobody wants him."

Not exactly the answer I had hoped for, but pretty much what I expected. Who would want him? But more importantly, I have to give Canzano credit for answering my emails. I have to say after this experience and previous experiences with Jason Quick, also of the Oregonian, those guys are pretty responsive. I don't always, or even often, agree with them, but at least they return their emails.

2006-07-31T14:14:00.000-07:00

I just got an email back from Canzano. I have printed the entire text word for word below. I think he makes some really good points and while I didn't see anything to make me change my position, he did give us all some good things to think about. What I like most about this email is that even though he is an important writer for Oregon's most important paper, there is no way this was written by an intern or generated autmatically.

"Thanks for the note.

I appreciate it.

JC"

Seriously though, I appreciated him taking the time to at least give some response to the ramblings of some random fan.

2006-07-31T12:26:00.000-07:00

Today, John Canzano, a sports writer for the Oregonian wrote an article suggesting that the Blazers should trade for Allen Iverson. I think this is, to say the least, a terrible idea. So, I wrote to Canzano about it. Below is the email I sent him. I will post any response I get here.

Good morning John. I'm a long-time Blazer fan and NBA junkie. I read and listen to you fairly regularly, but today you got my attention a little bit more than usual.

Maybe, that was the only intent. Maybe, you noticed how much run stories on possible AI trades get on line and thought you would toss it out there to get people talking and, of course, talking about your article. I couldn't fault you for that, but in case you actually meant what you said, let me throw a few things at you in response.

I'm sure you get a lot of emails, but if you can find the time to respond, I would appreciate it.
First, Philly would not do this deal. John Hollinger on ESPN threw out 5 scenarios that work better for Philly than this one and I bet there would be more. I know you didn't name an exact trade, but if Zach is the centerpiece, it ain't happening unless you add Roy and Aldridge, which the Blazers would and should never do.

Second, here are only some of the reasons the Blazers should absolutely not trade for Iverson.

1. A starting 5 of Iverson, Webster (or Roy), Outlaw (or, gasp, Miles), Magloire and Przybilla is not a playoff team in the West. And even if by some miracle, and it would take a miracle, they all played together and reached past their potential and made the playoffs, they would be bounced quickly. AI has maybe 2 more years at his all-star level and this group could not be in the top 8, much less the top 4 in the West by the end of next year. So why give away or otherwise stop development of the new guys for a team that is still lottery bound?

2. AI is a selfish cancer. He fights with coaches, teammates and the media and stunts the growth and game of his fellow players. He is a scoring machine and no one loves to compete as much as he does and I love him for that, but his assist numbers are an illusion to anyone thinking he is anything but selfish. Every player who was supposed to be the "other" player to be teamed with AI has played his worst basketball with Iverson. Why would you want to bring that sort of destructive force onto a team with this many young impressionable players? How do Martel and Roy and Aldridge learn the importance of practice when their leader believes he doesn't need to?

3. He would run Nate out of town. With Roy a close second, Nate is the most important Blazer right now. The difference in how his teams play compared to Portland's recent coaches has been amazing. Nate is the key to Portland's success. We need to give him players he can work with. Iverson wouldn't put up with Nate's discipline and then Nate would no longer have credibility and then he would be gone.

4. Portland doesn't want another thug and Iverson is a thug. It's not about the police record, it's about the hyper selfish, overly macho attitude that we suffered through with Sheed and Bonzi and Rider and now Miles. The money in Portland, the money that buys the tickets, would not embrace Iverson. Maybe that's wrong or racist or ignorant, or whatever, but it is true. So the end result of bringing in Iverson would be even further alienation of the fans.

5. Portland's young guys won't develop. How do Roy and Webster and Jack or even Aldridge develop when Iverson takes a 3rd of the team's shots every night and totally dominates the ball? That guy does not make his teammates better. Even his assists are, as I mentioned, an illusion. He gets assists because he draws so much attention some other guys get open looks. That's all great, but you need more than just a couple open looks to get into the flow of a game. That's why Chris Paul's assists are 10 time more important than Iverson's because Paul is getting guys the ball where they need it and like it and Iverson is just tossing the ball to whoever is open out of his triple team. There is a huge difference. Name one player who has really developed and flourished playing with Iverson. Just one.

Look, the real disaster of the "jail blazer" era was that we had too many guys whose attitudes were bigger than their games who in turn corrupted every good young player that came after them. Now we have a bunch of good young talent and really only one guy (Miles) there to corrupt and I suspect he has ever lessening credibility with the younger players. Bringing in Iverson would not only not help Portland become a contender, but it would likely ruin the good young talent it has just in time to watch AI limp along for 60 games a year at the end of his career.

I like the idea of taking a risk and brining in a veteran, but not one with Iverson's baggage. Some baggage is ok, it comes with today's NBA, but not that much. I would have been down with getting someone like Pierce who would shoot a lot (but also help win now) but seems to be a good teammate. Or, let's try to get involved in the talks to get KG even if it costs us some of our new young talent. I agree that the next trade is huge, but the next trade needs to be the one that finally kicks Miles out the door. If that also lands us some talent that will actually provide some positives for the newbies, great. If not, let's see what we've got.

Thanks for listening.

2006-07-24T16:24:00.000-07:00

I never want to live in New York City. I just don’t think I could stand the local sports fans and sports media. Not only are they the most obnoxious in the country, there is no one even close. I know this is a well established fact, so I’m only bringing it up because this business over A-Rod is so ridiculous. NY fans are now booing him on a regular basis. The second best player in the major leagues….booing him. Why? Because of some scandal? Because of steroids? Because he spoke out against the team or the city or the fans? Because he’s a bad teammate? No, no, no and no. They are booing him because he’s had a bad week. He’s made a bunch of bad errors and been pretty awful at the plat for a whole week. Never mind that he was player of the month in May or that his on base percentage and OPS are first among 3rd basemen in the AL, his 21 HRs are second, his RBI are first, just like his base on balls. Nah, forget all that, forget he’s the reigning league MVP or that he’s a good guy or that he doesn’t throw his teammates under the buss. Let’s just think about his one bad week and that he’s not the overrated and beloved Jeter and bash the guy.

Now, everyone with a microphone is saying the Yankees should trade him. Good idea. Next, the Cavs should trade LeBron if he ever has two games in a row where he fails to score 20 or has more turnovers than assists. Let’s make sure the Colts ship Manning out of town if he ever has a week where he throws 3 picks. This is just brilliant thinking.

I hope they do trade him. He’s a great player that deserves to be playing in city that appreciates the game and values something other than their own ego and right to jeer. I just hope and pray that after Isaiah is finally done destroying the Knicks, he gets hired by the Yankees so the fans in NY finally get more of what they deserve.

2006-07-21T11:19:00.000-07:00

Landis and Bonds and other news.

Here is my reaction to some of what’s going on in the sports world right now:

1. Is it possible that Landis’ collapse in the Tour de Lance was staged by OLN? I was just starting to care a bit about the tour because, as I’ve mentioned, I love the idea of yet another American providing some much needed humility to the French, when suddenly, he takes both hands off the handlebars and wraps them firmly around his neck and squeezes until he goes from first to more than 8 minutes off the lead. In an instant, slight but mounting interest completely evaporated. Then, dude went nuts. Not only did he win the next stage, but he crushed the competition Lance style making back all but 30 seconds on the leader. I have been amused the past several years at how much the Tour was a foregone conclusion after a certain point. Lance would get, sometimes a small lead of only a few seconds, in the mountains and everyone would declare him the winner. But this year, it seems like anything could happen. I’m not an expert, but as I understand it, there is only one more stage that matters – tomorrow’s time trial. What I wonder is what if one guy is winning by a second or in a virtual tie with another on the last day when the leader gets to ride in to Paris sipping champagne? I hope this happens and I hope the race ends with Landis beating some French guy while drinking champagne.

2. Speaking of the tour, I have to say a couple other things. First, it is a wildly underrated sporting event. You have national pride mixed with great skill and athleticism and a deceptive amount of strategy. You would think the strategy is just ride your bike faster than the other guys, or if you really get sophisticated, maybe “pace yourself.” But this race is full of individual and team strategy with new approaches taken to every stage and the race won or lost more on key decisions than on strength as a rider. It’s good stuff, but sadly, for me at least, I just can’t get into it unless an American is in contention. Which reminds me….

3. I’m the same way with Golf and Tiger. I really enjoy watching the PGA if Tiger is playing and in contention. Otherwise, I would rather nap or perhaps play my brothers’ very good lawn golf game that they use to torment their apartment neighbors in Sacto. Let’s just say that in my brief playing career I knocked not one but two wiffle style golf balls into someone’s third story living room and while I was cringing waiting for a profanity laced tirade, I looked at my brother who shrugged and said, “petty common really. You’ll just have to take a drop.” Good times. All of that to say, I really hope tiger uses his stellar play on the first two days and turns it in to another dominant performance that is always fun to watch. Otherwise, I’m back to trying to make myself care about baseball. Which reminds me….

4. I’m headed to Safeco to watch the Mariners play the Red Sox this weekend and couldn’t be happier about it. I’m bringing my oldest son, I’m meeting up with my buddy Clint and his boy and watching some baseball in the sun. that is baseball at its finest. If you don’t get to go to the games and your team is not a real contender, baseball is just brutal. The Giants right now have me in the worst possible position. They are not bad enough to ignore completely, but not good enough to get excited about. They are a .500 team, no more and no less, but because they play in Baseball’s Minor league division known as the NL West, they still have a shot, even if they never play any better than they are right now. And speaking of the Giants, that reminds me….

5. Bonds avoided indictment by the grand jury, which seems a minor point given that he has already been found guilty by the media and public but is really quite a statement. But, now is a good time to throw a few of my thoughts out there on Bonds. I have resisted up until now because I didn’t want to even think about it, but here goes:

First, I was a Bonds fan even before he came to SF. I loved the skills, the fact that he could do it all and the fact that he openly refused to play along with the sports media who are, for the most part, numbskulls. Then when the best player in baseball came to my favorite team to take over from Will the Thrill as the franchise leader, I couldn’t have been happier. I quickly became a big time Bonds fan, and then increasingly a Bonds apologist. Bonds became so unpopular with the media because he had the nerve to act irritated when he’s sitting naked at his locker and 25 guys who don’t like him shove microphones into his face and ask him “how he feels about going 0-4 that night” Imagine that someone in that situation might grow tired of answering the same stupid questions to the same group of jerks who would all too happily misquote him or write his statements out of context to help them sell newspapers. I know every ballplayer goes through that and most of them manage to play along, but I never blamed Bonds for refusing to.
When Bonds took that jump a few years ago from co-best player of the decade with Griffey and lock hall of famer to “in the conversation” for best player of all time, I was nearly giddy and Bonds could do no wrong in my mind. I didn’t want hear the roid rumors and quickly and easily chalked it up to all the haters that had been attacking Barry for years.

So that was my background when all the Balco stuff hit. Now, here's what I think.

a. I don’t claim Bonds didn’t juice. As far as I know, he’s denied it and it hasn’t been proved, but I’m not saying he did or didn’t.

b. From the beginning, the investigation was about Bonds. He was singled out because he was unpopular and unfriendly and even more than that would get the local DAs and US attorneys and investigating officers’ names in the paper. There are a lot of things wrong with that approach of course, but not the least of which is when you make an investigation and prosecution like that personal like it was, you greatly increase the risk of royally screwing up little things like justice and due process.

c. I was highly irritated at how quickly people jumped to the conclusion that he had done every conceivable performance enhancing substance for years in spite of the fact that no credible investigative body had been able to manufacture proof….not evidence,…proof. You can find “evidence” of anything.

d. I never really got why this was cheating and why, in a sport that largely forgives cheating and sometimes glorifies it, this was so evil. Steroids is worse than scuffing a ball or pretending to have been hit by a pitch when you weren’t or corking your bat? Really? But all those things are against the rules. Right? Steroids was not against the rules in baseball. It may have been illegal and it was certainly a bad choice from a health perspective, but it wasn’t cheating. I’m not saying that makes it ok at all, I think it was and is wrong, but it is significant.

e. Tax payers should not have to pay for any of this. Not one minute of law enforcement time should be spent investigating steroid use in pro sports. Let the sports clean it up and spend the money on schools and roads and things that actually matter.

f. Mostly though, I was sad to see a guy I had rooted for be so tainted. It’s not like he was a role model to begin with. Even though I defended him, I would never want to be like him or have my sons imitate him. But I hated that all of what he accomplished would now be dismissed by so many. I loved that fact that when I was arguing about players with my friends, Barry always won the numbers game. He is, without a doubt, the best hitter of our generation and perhaps the best all time. He stole bases and for a while was a very good fielder. Now, roids is the ultimate trump card. I hate that. Especially since the empirical evidence appears so damning.

g. All of this to say, here’s my take on Barry. He may be the single greatest baseball player in history and in my mind at least, the roids don’t change that at all. At most, the stuff he took, if anything, probably added a few HRs to the total, but they don’t affect vision or balance or hand-eye coordination or any of the things that really matter in hitting. They affect strength, so maybe the year he hit 73, he would have “only” hit 50 without the roids. He’s still the best hitter of all time and given what he did for so long in the field and on the bases, he is at least in the conversation for best ever, roids or not.

Also, and this will be my final point I promise, everyone should take note of the lack of indictment. They have been chasing him for a long long time and it is one thing to not get enough to convict, but the legal system makes it very very easy to indict someone. Prosecuting attorneys are famous for saying that any decent DA could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. But not Bonds? Really? What about all the “evidence” that people claim? It takes next to none to get an indictment, so where is it? Maybe it will come later. Maybe after enough digging, they’ll find something, but it is pretty telling that they haven’t so far.

6. Ok, enough on Bonds. ESPN writer, Chris Sheridan is way out of line when he wrote a long scathing article about how coach K was wrong to suggest to his new Team USA players that they should try to dominate the competition. Sheridan’s point was that we could no long dominate so we shouldn’t try because then we might be crushed if we lose. Chris, call me when you have motivated a group of people to do anything. Last time I checked Coach K has a pretty decent resume for pushing the right buttons with his players. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt maybe.

7. My favorite sports writer Bill Simmons has taken a liking to soccer after the world cup. I believe he must be on the take. This is a sellout of such monstrous proportions I’m not sure I can even read him any more. I had become convinced he offered real insight into sports, but now I see he was much more right than I realized all those times he called himself an idiot. Just to clarify, soccer could probably be a fun game, but instead, thanks to ridiculous rules and the creation of far superior sports, it is basically quite lame.

That’s all for now.

Roy for ROY.

2006-07-12T13:54:00.000-07:00

Just thinking about a few things that I thought I would toss out there with a nod to the excellent Peter King who writes a must-read article called Monday Morning Quarterback for CNN/SI that no football fan should miss during the season. He always includes 10 things he thinks he thinks about football, so here are 10 things I think I think about sports. Also, check my other blogs later for 10 things I think I think about in general and about entertainment.

1. I think Brandon Roy has me really excited. Putting up big numbers in summer league is meaningless, but the scouting reports are not. Word is that Roy is nearly unstoppable going to the rim, is a good enough passer and leader to play point and has been shooting a gaudy 66%. I doubt he’ll get the minutes to get rookie of the year, but I’m still betting he turns out to be the best player of this year’s draft crop.

2. I think I couldn’t have been prouder of my 5 year old son Gibson when he asked me why people liked Allen Iverson and I told him because he is a really good scorer and he said, unprompted mind you, “but Dad, there’s a lot more to basketball than scoring you know.” To which I said, “that’s true, like what?” And he said, “defense, passing and being a good teammate.” Keeping in mind that I don’t do any of those things, I was thrilled to see Gibson overcoming his genetic shortcomings on his journey toward playing the game as it should be played.

3. I think baseball is losing its star power. I was looking at the rosters for the HR derby and the all star game going, “who?” Baseball’s biggest challenge in the post roids era might be finding legit stars who now face the difficult prospect of living up to numbers produce by people getting a bit extra from their “vitamins.” Albert Pujols might not only be the man with the funniest last name in the game, he may also be the most important man for the future of baseball. Baseball needs to do everything they can to make him a household name right now.

4. I think, my friend Alan Beard alerted me to the most significant development in the world of fantasy sports since the internet. Check out this link. I think it speaks for itself and I couldn’t be more pleased that my Football league just voted to make this the official championship trophy.

http://shop.jostens.com/catalog.asp?CID=266662&pfid=2004091310213606328

5. I think the boxing “reality” show The Contender, which is about to start its second season on ESPN, is the one exception to my otherwise rigid no reality tv rule. If you missed it last year, you missed classic moments of Sly Stallone and Sugar Ray being awkward on camera and some pretty fun to watch boxing in a sport that refuses to make the changes it needs to to save itself. I recommend you check it out. As a side note, I was always a Hagler guys, so I don’t mind asking, on a scale of 1 to gay with gay being the most gay, how gay is Sugar Ray? He was a championship boxer? Really?

6. I think I almost always disagree with Colin Cowherd on matters related to life and sports. He is mildly amusing at times and does know a ton about football, especially college football, but he just gets most things wrong. Yesterday, he was going on with great delight about how if he were a pitcher, he would go head-hunting after some 83 year old guy that was being allowed to hit in a minor league game as a promotion. Then he spent a half hour cracking jokes about how lame old people are. Nice. Great choice of targets. By all means, lets lay off the Jose Guillens and Jose Cansecos and Ricky Williams of the world and attack an old guy with enough juice left to take bp every year with his local team. Cowherd is on his way to becoming the Howard Stern of sports radio, and I do not mean that as a compliment.

7. I think I can’t understand why all of the fantasy football mock drafts I’ve seen have Ladanian Tomlinson going 3rd. Second maybe if you like Alexander, but third? Larry Johnson, was a stud, but come on. Priest Holmes isn’t dead and Tomlinson does everything.

8. I think I would not be surprised to see Miami in the Superbowl this year.

9. I think I miss being able to get excited about the Tour de Lance, but without the Lance, I just can’t get into it, which is too bad because it has been a fun summer diversion the past couple years.

10. I think I’m thrilled LeBron appears to be staying in Cleveland. It is the right thing to do and makes it far less likely I will at some point have to hate him for going to the NY Knicks or the LA Fakers.