User Comments, Suggestions, or Complaints | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Advertising
|
Demarini, Easton and TPX Baseball Bats
|
AllianceTickets.com has cheap MLB Tickets. Get all your Colorado Rockies Tickets, Seattle Mariners Tickets, San Francisco Giants Tickets and all your favorite baseball tickets here. We also carry cheap Denver Broncos Tickets, Seattle Seahawks Tickets and Denver Nuggets Tickets. |
For wholesale prices on baseball gifts and equipment, check these stores out! |
Page rendered in 0.6203 seconds
54 querie(s) executed
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
I wonder if he ever explored prying Rodman free from the Pistons after 1991.
Who wouldn't want to see Nellie coaching Rodman?
He absolutely should be in the discussion much more than he usually is.
if so, i thought it was really high on jordan.
Would still only win one championship.
Is this Mark Price? Or am I blanking on a great?
Who has the bigger internal conflict? Magic Russell trying to be half-Laker and half-Celtic at the same time, or Ardavidas Robinsabonis serving in the Navy while half-Soviet?
It was really down on Hakeem Olajuwon's offense
I actually did not know this (or did, and forgot). Amazing.
Is this Mark Price? Or am I blanking on a great?
Yeah. I was going for someone that would make a fun combo.
Nothing's going their way this year. Geez.
Then again, he's certainly qualified. I do think there may be a conflict of interest here though.
i mean, it does kind of reek of the fox being in charge of the hen house, but that's what sports business is these days.
The Sonics would not have been sold to Bennet if he expressed a specific intent to move them. That was the basis of the the court case against him (ie- were his efforts to work with the city fraudulent).
I suppose I can stop being bitter now. On the other hand, I have to start rooting for Cousins and Evans instead of just hoping they do weird stuff.
he is visibly excited.
How is his hair celebrating?
---
Kirk Hinrich is out tonight with his 6th different injury this season. Unfortunately, none of the the injuries have succeed enough yet to give him an extended break.
On the other hand, could this be a possible good thing? The Wolves have Pek and Love and some guards, but they could use a wing scorer. If they fade away a bit, that gives them a nice lotto pick in their arsenal for next year, right?
I'm just trying to look at the bright side here.
I'd say Bennett deserves every bit of vitriol Seattle fans want to throw at him, with Stern close behind. That being said, if Stern is going to allow Seattle to "steal" the Kings from Sacramento, a podunk city/town that nonetheless supported the hell out of their mostly horrible team for 20 years, just to make up for the fact that he allowed one of his best friends to steal the Sonics from Seattle in the first place then he's doubly a dick.
That's one movin' around franchise
oh ballmer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8To-6VIJZRE
Posssible upsides to this trainwreck of a wolves season:
* Better draft pick
* The rest of the team develops as much as possible and continues growing and developing (since they are a young team), especially...
* D Williams has even more chance to develop into something that was worth the second pick overall. Becoming valuable, at least in trade, is the upside (downside is at least they know he never will and move on).
* Expectations in MN are tempered to a more realistic level. At the start of the season it was a bit over the top and this should reset things, so that maybe we can be pleasantly surprised going forward.
But overall it is a disappointing year, because injuries suck and the most important thing this team needed is for Love and Rubio to click, to grow together and to have all the other pieces grow and learn around them. I think they may have all the parts to build a good team, but we will never know if they can't be healthy and play together.
Williams is playing pretty well right now. He is putting up the same per game numbers (so people think he hasn't progressed) but he is playing 4 fewer MPG. His PER is up from 12.9 to 16.1 and his WS/48 has doubled from his rookie year by virtue of better rebounding and shooting that went from very bad to OK. He is also stretching the floor better on offense (39% 3's, good on longer twos). Since Love got hurt, he is averaging 13-5 with 50% shooting in 20 MPG. He still has defensive limitations as a SF, has trouble finishing at the rim, and is overly passive sometimes in offense, seemingly because he doesn't always know what to do. Still, he looks a lot better to me so far this year. A big part of it is the ability to cross-match the forward sports with Cunningham (and AK at times). My favorite Williams moment of the year was last night when he beat Serge Ibaka on a jump ball.
Also, Love and Rubio have been on the court together for 28 minutes this year.
Dirk for Dwight: who says no?
As to the Dirk/Dwight thing, the Lakers would be:
1. Adding another guy in his 30s with health and defensive issues, who is currently sporting a 14.9 PER.
2. Handing Howard, their only good defender, to Mark Cuban, whom 99% of Lakers fans loathe.
I assume that Cuban would pull the trigger on it, but he may also figure that if he waits, Howard is bailing on the Lakers anyway. I also assume that Dirk has some kind of NTC, although he might agree to it since Nash is here. If it actually got to the talking stages, the Lakers would probably want either Mayo or Collison coming along with Nowitzki, in exchange for Meeks or Blake/Duhon. D'Antoni would also want to ask about his old SSOL stalwart Shawn Marion.
Because it puts him in the driver's seat for getting Howard in the off-season, which is what he wants to do anyway. As it stands now, he can't offer Howard as much money as the Lakers can. Also, Dirk has been outspoken the last week or so about his unhappiness with the team in Dallas and Howard, banged up though he is, is seven years younger than Nowitzki is. They are "going nowhere" with the team they have now, as Nowitzki himself has said in the media, and Nowitzki's deal ends next year, so they may be thinking about dealing him in any case.
Like I said, Cuban might not do it, and I don't think it will happen, but I think Cuban and Nelson would be more likely to trigger on it than Buss and Kupchak would. Howard's rep is in tatters and his career is in a bad patch, and his back may prevent him from ever being what he was. But he is still a guy that you try to get if you have a chance. Put it this way: he is a lot more likely than Nowitzki is to be the best player on a Finals team over the next four years.
Anyway, they're only 5-5 over their last 10 games, FWIW.
You summed it up in your first paragraph. Unless they have injuries or some unforeseen breakdown of some sort, they'll almost certainly win the East. A 5-5 stretch in what are basically the doldrums of the season (Christmas through February) just says to me they're conserving energy or not as focused as they could be, while often getting other team's best efforts.
From the Lakers' POV, it is a loser for basketball reasons. Even with the all the problems, the Lakers ORTG is 6th in the NBA and about the same as it was in 2010. It is the D, which is 22nd and dropping, that is killing them.
And Joe and PJ are right about Miami. My predictions usually suck, but I did say that I thought Miami would have regular-season stretches in which they were going at about 75% and would lose a fair number of games for a team with their core. They do have a few weaknesses, but I think that is mostly what is happening.
I watched Dallas play the Kings last night. We talk about Dallas now and then, but here are some things I noticed about the Kings:
1. They are notably bad at playing active team defense. They work hard running around teams and generally play sound defense on the ball, but they are extremely late on rotations and especially cutting off drivers or guys rolling to the basket. It resulted in tons of fouls as they got to a guy just as he got to the rim with the ball.
2. Tyreke looked a lot better than the last few times I have seen him play. That explosion that allowed him to get to the basket whenever he wanted was there for most of the game. He is coming off of a knee injury so he is not at 100%, and I do not think he will ever be a #1 option if he does not improve his midrange or three point shooting (especially against opponents who are better at protecting the paint). Still, he scored about 20 points very efficiently and was one of the few guys who seemed to be at least marginally aware that his movement could help get his teammates open.
3. Cousins is a great offensive option but like many young bigs, needs to learn to pass out of the double team. There was one play where Collison switched on him and Dirk came to help so he just went through both of them, but there were at least 2 other instances where he was doubled and turned the ball over. I think he will learn. Some of the problem is that he has so many black holes around him. I really cannot see what Salmons and Garcia are giving them. Thomas is an ok sparkplug (no coincidence that he grew up in the same general area as Jason Terry, Jamal Crawford, and Nate Robinson) who is miscast as a starting PG. Really, the team's far and away top need is a distributing PG (also need more shooting- which could be partially addressed by reallocating some minutes- and a little more of a defensive presence in the middle unless Hayes/ Thompson plays better). If they drafted Lillard instead of Robinson, they would be better than Portland right now.
4. I think they are having trouble selling ads on their TV network because almost every commercial break would have the same 2-3 advertisers and many of them would double up on ads during the same break. They must have had 30 Pizza Guys commercials with Thomas in them during the game. The announcer even said "now there is a pizza guy who really delivers!" after one of his baskets.
5. As far as game flow, the Kings were up most of the game, but ran into a stretch in the fourth quarter where they went from up about 10 to down 4 through a lot of dead-end possessions and bad turnovers (again, lack of a real PG). Smart responded by playing a strange lineup of Thomas, Fredette, Thornton, Evans, and Cousins. Carlisle countered with Collison, Beaubois, Mayo, Carter, and DIrk. Dirk is still very out of sync. The Kings pushed the game into OT with that lineup when Thomas banked in a three to tie it in the last 10 seconds. They ultimately lost when Cousins fouled out when he and Carter got tangled on a loose ball and he kind of gave him a forearm shiver. It was a very weird play becaues it simultaneously looked like there was no way you could throw that type of forearm at a guy unintentiionally, but it also looked like he did not totally mean to do it. As soon as he made contact, he was trying to help Vince so he didn't fall down. The refs reviewed it and made it a flagrant 2, which was defensible. Sacto struggled to score from there and lost.
I interpreted that as Cousins thinking, in the immortal words of Ron Burgandy, "I immediately regret this decision."
I thought he was doing the ol' "If he doesn't fall down, it isn't a foul" thing.
prompted by the lofton thread, i looked at a pair of senior power forwards: dave winfield, who walked on to the minnesota club (10.5 pts, 6.1 reb, as a lunch pail guy) and tony clark (11.6 pts, 4.6 reb - kind of a disappointing stretch four) for san diego st.
Stern is a dick, but part of his job is to make sure that all members of his league are in the best situation for them possible. Moving from Sacramento to Seattle is a good move regardless of the reason.
And on that note, moving from Seattle to OK city is still a bad decision no matter the reason.
But really though, if there's a city that the Kings should have moved to, it probably should have been San Francisco. The Warriors belong to Oakland, not San Francisco. Everyone in SF is just bandwagoning. :)
They will look better with Felton back and healthy, but then again, I'm pretty sure the Bulls have a PG coming back as well...
considering that they are 5 games back of the 8 seed in the loss column, and also that they lose their first round pick if they make the playoffs, i'd say it's getting to be around tanking time.
/sadface
http://espn.go.com/dallas/nba/story/_/id/8839464/mark-cuban-says-dallas-mavericks-trade-dirk-nowitzki
This is very much true. The Warriors are entirely an East Bay team. I was very surprised to hear they were moving to SF as they have zero presence there and essentially literally zero fanbase. I would guess a large portion of SF isn't even aware the Warriors exist. Of course if the Kings moved there they would immediately sign a huge TV deal and become the toast of the town provided they won a few games.
Along the lines of the SF move, there's this article (probably posted before). For those not familiar with the city, Pier 32 is much closer to downtown than the Pier 50 site the Giants are pushing. Everyone traveling there would have to drive because it's not close to BART or Muni (Pier 32 is), which makes the Giants's proclaimed primary concern (traffic) doubly ridiculous, and being pushed out of the downtown area would also reduce the team to secondary status (clearly this is not an outcome that would disappoint the Giants). Geographically it's also in a much worse area in terms of restaurants and bars and the like and doesn't have the proximity to downtown/transportation or the layout for those kinds are places to spring up around the stadium as they did with Pac Bell. Basically the Giants, despite being gifted huge sums of land and allowed to do pretty much whatever they want with it, don't feel anyone else should be allowed the same bounty.
Two of those 24 3PTA were Ivan Johnson attempts at the end of the first and third quarters. So, 22 real attempts from a team that averages over 23 3PTA per game and ranks 6th in the league in 3PTFG%.
In other jump shot news, the Hawks took 20 long, two-point jumpers in the first half.
My point being, maybe we also need a box score column for the least efficient shot in basketball to help coaches avoid saying dumb things right after games.
I don't understand how you came to this conclusion. Sure, they are definitely a distant third after the Giants and Niners, but when I go to any number of local dives the Warriors are absolutely always on the TV, and there are always people watching (and these are definitely not sports bars). The game on Friday against Portland seemingly half of the bar was agonizing over the second half collapse. I see the same amount of support in Oakland...it's not like you head over to Oakland and suddenly everyone you see is in Warriors gear talking about the Run TMC days.
Well then this I'm glad to hear. I haven't seen a bunch of Warriors fanship in San Francisco (granted I don't live in San Francisco anymore, but when I'm there it doesn't seem to have changed THAT much) but if there is, great. I think we can all agree though that the very great majority of Warriors fanship exists in the East Bay - because the Warriors are there of course, but regardless. And I do understand obviously why the Warriors would want to move to SF - for the same reason the A's want to move to San Jose, because they'll gain much greater access to corporate sponsorship and draw from a much more affluent fanbase. The benefit of an SF move as compared to a San Jose one, especially if they get that Pier 30-32 spot near BART, would at least be that they would still be accessible to the East Bay so all the po' folk could still attend games. Until they get priced out.
I think I'm just a little sad that Oakland, while I grew up having the A's, Warriors, and then the Raiders after they returned, could very conceivably within the next 5 years have none of those teams. A small non-wealthy city like Oakland was lucky to have all those teams in the first place, but still.
---
Bulls get crushed at home
Bulls are now only 10-10 at home after the Suns curbstomped them Saturday. They are maddeningly inconsistent, and the only way to describe it is the old cliche about playing to the level of their competition. Inconsistency is a very unsettling thing for a Thibs team.
The East Bay has been a GREAT home for the NBA but, like Seattle, the NBA isn't sentimental. That's what the East Bay gets for supporting one of America's worst run teams of the last 30 years so well...
Unrelated question, when comparing Magic and Bird historically, how do you handle back problems vs. unprotected sex problems?
I don't think this was posted; I thought it was awesome. Would have been more awesome if the Knicks hadn't gotten killed in the game it happened, but still.
EDIT: Oh, and Joe C, I meant to say thanks earlier but I forgot. No date set yet, we're still figuring that out.
Nate's annoying, but I don't see how that's a clowning. They got their ass kicked at home and his celebration move got mocked. Speaking of:
Anywho, Bulls are beating the Hawks 48-20 (yes, 20) at halftime right now. Some various awfulness from this game:
If I didn't know any better, I'd say the Hawks have quit on their coach and he's getting fired tomorrow. I doubt that is the case, so I have no idea how it can be this bad for Atlanta.
Bulls against Miami in 1998-99: 49.
The Bulls went 18-77 from the field that game and compounded this with 13-24 from the line. It's especially impressive to score only 49 points when you force 21 TOs.
The immortal Kornel David led the Bulls with 13 points.
[takes rat poison]
Only in that awful lockout season could a team score 82 points and win by 33.
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main