With the upcoming March Madness tourney about to start, I thought I’d do a “what if” post. What if college basketball players were like their football counterparts and had to stay in college for all four years!?! Think how much different the brackets would be! Would it be a no brainer to pick the Texas Durantulas? Probably not, but I’m going to run through the teams that I think would be in mix based on guys they’d still have. I’m not completely sure who the champ would eventually be, but it’s always fun to debate, and I’d have to give it to Senior Kevin Durant!
Memphis – No they wouldn’t have Derrick Rose, because he would be deemed ineligible from that whole cheating on his SAT thing. They would still have Tyreke Evans and Shawn Taggert though. Having both of these guys back would improve their defense. They already showed they could score without them, but they’d just be that much better by being able to shut down the opponents key players. I’m 99.9% sure they would’ve added to their impressive winning streak, and pushed it over 70 games. Read the rest of this entry »
I know basketball season isn’t quite wrapped up, but the Warriors have had the most injury plagued season I’ve ever seen them go through in my lifetime. Nearly all NBA teams have close to 12 guys suiting up for every game, and the Warriors have had 9 or fewer players suit up for 31 of their 63 games thus far. It looks like this trend will continue to for the remainder of the season as even the D-Leagues they’ve called up are somehow getting hurt too. Being a die hard fan of everything that is Oakland sports, it’s tough to watch my team go through these kinds of problems. Anyone that follows the A’s would know that they’ve had their fair share of injuries over the past few seasons, and it got me thinking what team had the worst injury riddled season of all time in Oaktown!?! It wasn’t hard to pick a team to match up with the Warriors this year. The Oakland A’s had a ton of injuries last year (17 times they used the DL), but not quite as many as the 2008 squad (25 times they used the DL, and a team record). So my question is, who had the worst injury plagued season the 2009-10 Warriors or the 2008 Athletics?
Both these guys were supposed to see huge minutes this year.
2009-2010 Warriors
This Warriors season has had lots of lots in just one box season. It’s worse because it’s been mostly the players we thought would be starting. I remember watching a post game interview with Stan Van Gundy, and he was saying that having 8 guys isn’t a huge deal, but which 8 you have is the most important. Truer words have never been spoken. Not that I was thinking that the Warriors were going to have a great season, but I figured we would be better than this! It was announced that Andris Biendrins will getting season ending surgery. He had a terrible year that will come to an end before most knew it even started. They have a pretty long list of guys that are out for the season including three guys that might have been starters such as; Anthony Randolph, Kelenna Azubuike, Brandon Wright, and the guys they traded for are even out for the season like Raja Bell and Vlad Radmanovic. Even the guys who were there as expiring contracts have gotten into some games like Deavan George. It’s amazing how inconsistent their lineup has been. Five games ago the Warriors had three healthy centers and no backup point guards, On Monday they had four eligible guards and only one center. A summary of this season was in a game against the Bucks in mid-January. They didn’t even have enough players to finish a game! The refs didn’t even know what to do when the healthy body, Stephen Curry, received his sixth foul. They had to confer and ended up giving the W’s a Technical foul, and let Curry keep playing so they had the five guys to finish the game.
Will Chavy ever play more than four or five games at a time?
2008 Athletics
The 2008 A’s were a perplexing team. At the time I felt that they were good enough to make a run at a division title around the All-Star break being 3-5 games out of first, but those hopes were dashed around the trade deadline when we sent our proven players like Blanton and Harden off in trades. We essentially were waving the white flag for the season right there. Maybe I wasn’t looking at the overall picture enough at the time, because they had a ton of guys getting hurt, and maybe management felt that they didn’t have as good a chance as I thought they did at making the playoffs. Especially since the Angels traded for Texiera as the premier trade deadline splash. Anyways, they used the DL an amazing 25 times with those players missing a total of 877 games. Sure you have the often injured Eric Chavez type guys on there, but that’s beside the point.They obliterated every other team in the league in that category by 10. They didn’t even recovery that well in 2009 using the DL 17 times, and was second in the league in that category. Maybe it’s not The Curse of the Wash after all that is bringing them down, maybe it’s just the injuries!
All in all, Oakland fans have been getting used to hearing, so and so is having surgery. So and so, is day to day. So and so got in a moped accident. Ok, that last one was a cheap shot, but you get the point. Maybe these past couple of years will make them upgrade their training staffs. Maybe karma will kick in and give them a clean bill of health for the next three years! My pick for the most injured team, goes to the 2009-10 Warriors, they’ve been more banged up than Charlie Sheen the last couple months!
I’ve never been a fan of watching athletes hang on like reality stars do when they reach the 29th second of their 30 seconds of fame. They hold onto their glorious lifestyles as long as they can, and it’s not my call to make, but based mostly on the bad taste it leaves in everyone’s mouth. I’d much rather see some guys out of the league at this point, but there’s always some owners that will pay. It’s sad to watch the best of the best fall into mediocrity. Yeah, they can still play, but they aren’t helping their teams like they think they are. Unless you are a freak like Dikembe Mutumbo there’s a big chance you won’t be playing into your 40’s. Every team has at least one guy that the fans, the media, and the players know that it’s time to call it a career. In the wake of the AI gambling and seeing his production drop off the map over the last two years, I guess it’s as good a time as any to scan through the league rosters, and pick out some guys that may as well apply for the AARP. I’m sure it was a nice ride no matter how long or short it was! I don’t really blame any of them for holding on as long as possible, but at some point enough is enough. Adam Morrison almost made the list after the convincing argument MCeezy made on his future RFP of the day eligibility. Alas, I’m going to keep this list to guys that have had their shot, and either aren’t cutting it or aren’t good anymore.
Lindsey Hunter – Chicago
What!?! He’s still in the NBA!?! I was kind of shocked to see that he was on the Bulls roster. At 39, it will be hard to find an older guard in the league. He makes Jason Kidd look like a baby. He’s only started a total of 13 games over the last 7 seasons, and has blistering ppg averages of 3.5, 3.8, 2.9, 4.9, 2.4, 2.6, 1.0. Clearly it’s about that time to move on Lindsey. Be an assistant coach or something. Read the rest of this entry »
While Reggie Miller’s back to back three pointers in the waning seconds of a game at Madison Square Garden will be forever remembered, there was another triad of triples that often goes forgotten. Not in my mind, though. I feel like I was watching the game when it happened, but I can’t imagine a Nuggets-Jazz game on national television around that time, so there’s a good chance I just saw the highlights and later came to believe I was watching it live. Regardless of the circumstance, Rogers’ 9 seconds of amazing is one of my greatest memories from the NBA glory days. I was a huge Nuggets fan back then, largely on the heels of their huge first round playoff upset of the Seattle SuperSonics the previous year. I loved guys like Dikembe Mutombo, Chris Jackson aka Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, LaPhonso Ellis, and of course Robert Pack. I also liked Rodney Rogers coming out of Wake Forest, but I could never really make up my mind. I liked his game, but he became more and more of a spot up shooter outside the arc, despite having one of the most impressive frames of anyone on the court. Perhaps this game is what convinced him that he should be a strictly three point shooter, I don’t know. What I love best about this clip is the third basket. He gets the ball and then seeks out the three point line. I also love his teammate, presumably Reggie Williams, grabbing him out of excitement, even though Rogers had to get back on D.
Consider this an RFP of sorts. Rogers hasn’t been away for very long, but some might not know that a little over a year ago, he was severely injured in a dirt bike crash. I don’t know what a 6′7″, 260 lb man was doing on a dirt bike, but that’s not for me to judge. He is now paralyzed from the shoulders down. Add to that, I also learned that his father left him when he was little, his mother suffered a near-fatal car crash when he was 17, that put her in a coma for two weeks and hospitalized her for three months, and his step father passed away two years later. So, despite my mixed feelings about Rodney Rogers the basketball player, the man has paid his dues, and the fact that he can’t, and probably never will be able to walk, just makes this 9 seconds all that much more sweet.
Thank you Fanhouse! You’ve given me the inspiration to do some power rankings. I couldn’t believe what their power rankings looked like, I mean really!?! I’m as big of a Laker hater there is out there, but putting the Mavs at numero uno over the Cavs and the Lake show is a little bold!! I’m not sure what Brett over at Fanhouse is smoking, but I need to get some! Anyways, here’s how I see the top 16 teams in the league at this point in the season.
#1 Los Angeles Lakers – They don’t have the best record in the league, but having Kobe sit out for a little will help them. Not missing a beat in the win column keeps them atop these rankings. They will most likely cruise to the Western Conference finals before they are truly tested. John Canzano at the Oregonian might have convinced me that they could be tested by the Blazers in the first round, but I won’t get my hopes up at this point of an early Lake Show exit.
#2 Cleveland Cavaliers – Best record in the league, and a very close 2nd to the champs. Is it a big deal that Shaq is out? No, but in case anyone forgot, they have Lebron. You could put him on the Bucks right now, and get through the first couple playoff rounds, so I’m not buying that the loss of the Diesel is that big of a deal at this point. If he ends up missing more time than expected, that might be another story. Lebron is playing in a different league than everyone else, he doesn’t need Shaq.
#3 Orlando Magic – Vince looks like he finally is fitting in, and the Magic are playing their best basketball of the year. If they keep playing like they have, they could be just as scary as Cleveland in the Eastern Conference. Stan Van Gundy reminds me of Rex Ryan in the NFL. He’s a little unpredictable and unstable, but if you were caught in a fight you would gladly take them on your side.
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Last night I was watching the Warriots play on TNT. A mini part of going to a Warriors games at Oracle is the crowd reactions to Andris Biedrins shooting his free throws. He has has the worst free throw form of anybody in the NBA. He’s worse than most guys playing in an AAU game. I mean, don’t you think he should try something different!?! I’ve heard things from sitting in an inflatable chair, to throwing it up there Rick Barry underhanded style. It sounds like he doesn’t want to change his form, so you can be the judge for yourself what he should do.
On to our next contestant of the worst form known to man, is Charles Barkley, and his golf swing. We’ve seen him get a little better through the Haney project, but Charles is far from fluid with a golf club in his hands. I have to admit the first time I saw him swing a golf club I thought it was a joke!
Personally, I think Chuck’s form is waaay uglier, but since he isn’t a professional golfer, I’m giving Biedrins the nod for the worst form. I’ve seen tons of terrible golf swings, but can’t recall a more awkward jerky one than Charles’s. Biens looks less comfortable than Shaq at the line. It looks like he is throwing a medicine ball on all of his free throw attempts…
I have to admit the only time Durant has failed me was during the NCAA tourney as a Longhorn. He made me a believer that he could single-handedly win a title during the year hitting a few buzzer beaters. Unfortunately, he had a god awful performance in the 2nd round of March Madness, and was out of college basketball forever. Needless to say it destroyed my brackets that year. When he went to Seattle I was pretty happy, and grew a mini-mancrush on him through his rookie season. After Presti hi-jacked the team, I’ve found it very hard to watch them. I feel like I should be boycotting anything that is the Thunder. Another reason why every picture I put up of Durant on posts is him in a Seattle uniform. Alas, it’s impossible not to watch this amazing young team hitting full stride, and Westbrook has grown a TON since he came into the league. The main reason for their success has been Kevin Durant, and how he has put them into contender status at the vetran age of 21 years old.
He's a PC with Windows 7 at least!
The Sonics (still resisting calling them the Thunder) are like that up and coming boxer that is knocking out everyone that they face, skyrocketing up the rankings. Most likely they will fall to the champ in a fight for the belt, but it’s always fun to see the potential of the young guns. Rattling off 9 straight wins has made them relevant in the west, and I don’t see losing the last two being overly devastating. It hasn’t been a small story that KD had 29 straight 25+ point performances, until he scored a measly 21 tonight. He’s turned into the full package, and if he ever learns how to start dishing it, watch out. Then again, why would he pass, when he’s going to score no matter how he’s being defended. I’m already more impressed with his offensive game more so than I am with Melo’s. It doesn’t matter who the other team puts on him or what kind of double team he is facing, he figures it out and finds a way to score! If Melo is a PC, then KD has to be Mac. There’s one thing I’ve always liked about Durant, and that is the fact that he only cares about basketball. I mean, could you ever see him shooting up a night club or even having a gun for that matter? Making a rap video? Sending naked texts of himself? That’s what I thought. He’s a pretty clean cut guy, and only seems to care about getting better at basketball. I wonder if he’ll get arrogant like Kobe and Jordan are. You see something different with him, he’s just one of those competitors that won’t allow himself to waste away his talent.
One thing he has going against him is that he’s playing in the Lebron era, because in any other year, he’d get my MVP vote. It’s wild that if you took Durant or Lebron off either these teams, both would probably be counting how many ping pong balls they had for the John Wall lottery. That is why, I’m picking both of them above Kobe. Their importance to their teams is invaluable. I can still see the Lake Show making the playoffs with the supporting cast they have in place. Lebron looks like he’s hitting his Michael Jordan type stride, where it’s going to be nearly impossible for anyone to get an MVP but him for a few years. I guess Jordan wasn’t given the award a couple times in what many felt was the league getting tired of giving the award to him, and just wanted a change of pace. It seems like as long as Lebron is healthy, and has a good enough cast to get the top seed, it will be his award to lose. I’m praying that I’ll get to see his Big-O impersonation one year, and average a triple double for a entire season. My question is, when are we going to see the third puppet come out in the MVPuppet commercials? KD is already sponsored by Nike, why wouldn’t they throw him in there! He’d be my favorite character of the three.
The trade deadline has come and gone, and there was some activity over the past week leading up to the salary dump or be a contender deadline. I can’t say I was surprised that Amare or Boozer didn’t go anywhere since both teams are still in the playoff hunt, and the Jazz look to be a threat in the west. There were some big moves by teams in contention, so I’ll go through and give you my thoughts on if these teams actually made themselves better to contend for a title…
Great pickup for a team that desperately needed someone to help out Aldridge down low. Aldridge has been playing out of position since Oden and Pryzbilla went down, so moving back to his natural PF spot should increase his productivity. I don’t see Portland as a contender, but this move could get them into the playoffs, and give them a little more experience come next year when they have a better chance at competing for a title. That is, if Brandon Roy starts looking like his old self, and gets that hammy healthy. Trade grade B.
Yeah, I know. I already wrote about this one. I’ll rehash what I wrote before, this does make them better defensively, which should improve their soft image. Caron hasn’t had a great start in Dallas, but I’m sure it will take a little while to assimilate to the new team. I really like Haywood down low. I caught some of the game against the Suns last night and he was swatting all that weak sh** out of the paint. I thought they had a chance before the trade to do something in the west, but this only increases their chances. The trade grade B+
This feels like a terrible trade for the Bulls. They are finally gelling and out of nowhere they ship out a big man that is finally playing well out of town. I like the move for Charlotte, who needed to make a move to be better, and getting rid of Acie Law and Flip Murray won’t effect them at all from an on court standpoint. They’ve easily leapfrogged the Bulls in the east to get destroyed by one of the top three seeds. I still like that they made an improvement, so I’ll give them a B.
Great deal for the Rockets, although I don’t see why they traded away Landry who has a shot at 6th man of the year. I’m just glad he landed in Sac who now has ten PF’s. I think having K-Mart will help the Rockets in the clutch, and since they are in a lot of close games, they will need him at the end of games. I feel like he will give some relief to Ariza and Brooks on the scoring load, and also make their offense tougher to zero in. He’s being reunited with his old coach Adelman so at least there’s a familiarity there. Martin also has that high basketball IQ which never hurts on a team that looks to overachieve. Trade grade B+. I don’t like them giving up their best bench guy in Landry could hurt their chemistry, but overall it’s a good move…
I really like Jamison (partially for his Warriors ties, and partially because it’s my favorite Irish Whiskey). There’s no doubt that Amare would’ve been a bigger acquisition, but Jamison is no slouch. He’s a team guy and his averages are nearly identical to Amare’s 20ppg and 8 rpg. I’m not sure why people don’t view this as a great move. I mean look how well Jamal Crawford is doing for Atlanta after being stuck on crappy teams for years and years. The Cavs didn’t need to add someone that needs to dominate the ball to be effective, and Jamison is a guy that can get his without holding the ball too much! I thought they were the best team to knock off the Lakers, and this only improves them. Trade grade A-. It’s only a minus because they could’ve gone for Amare.
This gem must’ve been caught by the Staples Center kissing cam caught a few years back! I couldn’t resist putting it on the blog… I’ll let the picture speak for itself… Happy V-Day!
I can’t say I was ever all that into the Dos Equis commercials. I get it, the guy is interesting, but seriously how do you earn the title the most interesting man in the world ! It’s like giving your dad a coffee cup with #1 dad written on it. It’s all subject to opinion! I’m much more into Nash being the most ridiculous man in the world! I guess he might not be the most ridiculous person in the world but he could be the most ridiculous man in the NBA!
All-Star Saturday night is just 48 hours away now, and the Dunk Contest is always the make or break event of the weekend. It’s definitely had its share of ups and downs over the course of the last 20 years, even taking two years off, due to a lockout and a season in which the contest was shelved, before Vince Carter single-handedly brought it back. The Dunk Contest is like Christmas. Sometimes you get great presents, most of the time you get some good and some bad, and some years you walk away with nothing more than a stocking full of coal. That’s what the 1995 Contest was…. a stocking full of coal. First off, the list of competitors reads like a 1995 D-League all-star team, even though it didn’t exist back then. Sure, you had the two defending champions, Isaiah Rider and Harold Miner, but the average basketball fan would be lucky if they could remember more than one of the other guys. There was Antonio Harvey, who was actually an opening night starter for the Lakers in 1993, alongside other Laker legends like Trevor Wilson and Tony Smith. There was Tim Perry, who was traded to Philadelphia for Charles Barkley (along with a couple other guys of course). There was Tony Dumas, who believe it or not, was the second best Dumas in the league that year. And then there was Jamey Watson, who to be honest, I haven’t thought about probably since 1995, if not before. He’d be a great RFP of the Day, except he really WAS forgotten. Watson’s first dunk on this highlight reel pretty much sets the tone for the contest as a whole. It looks like a warmup dunk. Even Rider and Miner, two of the best dunkers of the decade, seemed to leave their ‘A’ game at home. I truly believe this contest was the one that got the wheels turning in the league office to think about canning the event. Here are the highlights. Enjoy….. if you can.
I got to thinking today about how I get excited for different events during NBA ALL-STAR WEEKEND each year. One year it’ll be the Dunk Contest, the next it’ll be the Three Point Contest, and the next it’ll be the Haier Shooting Stars. Okay okay, that last one is obviously false. I don’t think anyone with a frenulum preputii gets excited to watch a player shoot set shots with an old guy and a chick. Having said that, I’m on board with Team Sacramento this year. Tyreke Evans, Chris Webber, and Nicole Powell. They might as well just make it a 3-on-3 contest – it’d be so much better. Other things I’m excited to see are Stephen Curry in the 3pt Contest and Gerald Wallace out to avenge his disappointing scores from his first appearance earlier this decade. What takes the cake this year will be the Rookies taking on the Sophomores in the Schick Gatorade Rookie Allstate Sophomore E*Trade Challenge Presented By Ford. Nevermind that both teams are stacked, but just the thought of Tyreke Evans, Brandon Jennings, Stephen Curry, and Jonny Flynn running the floor together is enough to get the juices flowing. For anyone who actually cares about the outcome of the game, the real challenge will be whether the undersized freshmen can keep up on the boards with the likes of Marc Gasol, Brook Lopez, and Kevin Love. While the All-Star game has become an afterthought, the Rookie-Soph Game is the perfect blend of all-star freedom and competitive drive.
Here are a few of the Rookie Sophomore Challenge’s greatest moments….
Tough reminder that Jason Richardson, Troy Murphy, and Gilbert Arenas were all rookies on the Warriors.
Usually my Warriors posts are on the bright spots with the team, but there’s so much negativity in the organization over the past few seasons, I can’t resist NOT talking about their shortcomings. Sadly, the Warriors are one of the worst run franchises of all time. They still don’t qualify on my list as a top 5 worst all time franchise, because they’ve had some success albeit mostly before I was born. The past 17 years have had as many bright spots as I can count on one hand. With a .374 winning percentage letting numerous stars go just to save a few bucks only to watch them do great elsewhere would have any fan fed up. It feels like over the past few seasons that most of Warriors nation has finally had enough. The most recent news of the Warriors inability to make a good choices was cutting Speedy Claxton’s $5.2 million expiring contract. I can’t even pretend to understand how this helps us, since there are teams drooling worse than Homer Simpson over doughnuts to get some expiring contracts for the 2010 free agent class, so why are we dumping the contracts that seem to have so much value going into the trade deadline? We probably could’ve gotten something of value for the expiring contract we got in the Crawford deal over the summer right? I don’t have an answer for either of those questions and I’m sure management doesn’t either, but it did inspire this great website which I urge all our readers to click the red button in support of the fans vs. Cohan! This move just sums up many years of bad decisions by the front office, and truly shows they don’t care about the team winning. If they tell you it’s to get the team better, they must be breaking into those Marijuana clubs in SF and eating all the cookies. There is no conceivable reason to do this before the trade deadline. If they waited for the deadline to come and go and then cut him, I’d understand. This post is dedicated to what went wrong, and the only real way to fix them is to have a new owner! Read the rest of this entry »
mceezy
dyslecix
chappy81
cali4dre
With the upcoming March Madness tourney about to start, I thought I’d do a “what if” post. What if college basketball players were like their football counterparts and had to stay in college for all four years!?! Think how much different the brackets would be! Would it be a no brainer to pick the Texas Durantulas? Probably not, but I’m going to run through the teams that I think would be in mix based on guys they’d still have. I’m not completely sure who the champ would eventually be, but it’s always fun to debate, and I’d have to give it to Senior Kevin Durant!
