ZoomSlowik

This team has been awful offensively tonight outside of Rose. The D hasn't exactly been great either. I don't have high hopes for this season if Hinrich and Hughes is our starting backcourt like it was tonight.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Oct 17, 2008 -> 02:32 PM) I'm not sold on Duke. Very erratic, lack of athelticism, lack of size (and especially depth of size). I bet they go Sweet 16 but I wouldnt put money any further. I havent looked at all the teams too closely yet but an intial Final Four prediction of mine would be UNC (shocking) UConn Oklahoma Tennessee/Louisville (i cant chose between the two) I hate to say it, but we're probably looking at UCLA again instead of Oklahoma. They have enough talent to get a 1 or 2 seed again, especially since they get the benefit of the doubt with the calls and seeding. Plus once they get into the tournament they're good at ugly-ing up the game just enough to win against all but the most elite opponents. They'll miss Love a lot, but they still have a hell of a backcourt with Collison, Shipp and Holiday and Lee and Anderson off the bench, and they've gotten by with as much/less than Aboya/Keefe/Morgan/Gordon up front.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Oct 17, 2008 -> 10:33 AM) sounds like you're cherry picking stats. Through 2005? Well we are in 2008. I'm not cherry-picking, the source is simply out of date. I really don't feel like going through and re-calculating the stats to include the last two seasons. Those stats also comprise 81 games and 307 at bats, so it's not a supremely small chunk of data. Edit-nevermind, I found a better source that's up to date... A-Rod is at .279/.373/.483/.856 Manny is at .286/.396/.550/.946 Manny's really killed the ball the last two seasons, and that adds 22 games to his totals. So yeah, he's been better, but one solid post-season from A-Rod and it's a push, especially since Manny has 103 career post-season appearances to A-Rod's 39.

I love this whole "Manny never fails when it matters" line of argument. Granted the source is a little out of date, but through 2005 Manny had a career playoff batting line of .257/.348/.492/.840. That looks AWFULLY similar to that of one Alex Rodriguez. People seem to forget that the Indians made the playoffs 5 times with Manny on the roster without winning the big one.

I won't expect any kind of tournament success from Duke until their inside play improves. They'll be suspect against the good teams that have more size and their offense will be inconsistent without someone that can get them easy baskets inside. The highest shooting percentage of any of their returning regulars that can actually score is 47.4%, that's pretty low for a supposed elite team. If you're shooting that many jumpers it's hard to win 3 or more games against quality opponents in a row, at least without the typical "help" they often get. It's possible, but they'd need a fairly kind draw with the matchups.

Still one spot left, last chance. I published our league on the yahoo list, so theoretically we'll fill it with a single non-Soxtalk person if we have to. If it's full and you want in PM me, I can try to kick out the random interloper if there's a Soxtalk person that wants in.

Come on guys, only need one more for a full league now!

We've got 10 now, so it'll happen, but I'd still REALLY like to get two more guys. League ID: 71618 Password: soxtalk

I hate to get my hopes up given their history, but this appears to be the most talented Northwestern team I've seen. They actually have three proven double-digit scorers coming back and they brought in by far their deepest recruiting class, including some potentially legit big men. Maybe for once they won't be screwed if Coble or Moore has an off night and they won't give up 15 points to any big man with a pulse.

If they were so worried about that, then why would you target a guy that had allowed 30 homers in 151 2/3 major league innings to that point himself? His home run rate wasn't all that much lower than Danks' in Charlotte to start 2005 for McCarthy either. I'm not saying I thought this trade would turn out as amazingly well as it as so far, but it's not like we were trading a highly proven above average starter for a massive project, we were getting a lefty with decent stuff that was already in AAA at the age of 21 (which is another reason to not panick about the homers quite so much) and two other arms for a guy that appeared to be ready to start but had only shown flashes.

Figured I'd re-post the info to make it easier to find... League ID: 71618 Password: soxtalk

Alright, we've got 8, just need two more for a viable league and 4 more to fill it. Come on guys!

Alright, we got 6, would really like to get 6 more. Join up guys!

My bad.

Alright, I set up a league, hopefully we can get a full 12 by draft time (next Thursday night). I'll do a 10, but I really prefer 12. League ID: 71618 Password: soxtalk

Again, I never said that they were all QUALITY options, but that's the way this team is built right now. There are an awful lot of people that have some scoring ability on the Bulls and all of them are better at creating their own shots than Thomas (which doesn't exactly say much). Whether they're GOOD shooters or not is irrelevant to the discussion, the bottom line is they're shooting. Unless there are injuries or trades he'll have to force the issue quite a bit with his shot and that's just not his style. Even if he hits 50% of his shots (something he didn't come close to last year, especially after he got more jumper happy), he's going to need 10+ attempts and several FT's to get there. I have a very hard time seeing that, especially since scoring isn't his strongest skill. Now rebounding, steals and blocks, that's another story. Also, I'm not debating the fact that Rose has the ability to be an elite passer, but he's just not there yet. The offense at Memphis isn't exactly traditional, but it still plays to his strength, which is driving and either scoring himself or finding the open big inside or the shooters on the wing. It also took him quite a bit of time to fully adjust to the college game, and the NBA is likely to be no different. It's not a knock on him, it's just that very few PG's come in ready to effectively run an NBA offense in their rookie year. Right now he's going to be more effective as a Tony Parker type PG that consistently drives and tries to get his own shot since he's likely the best finisher on the team right now, down the road as he picks things up (he especially needs some work with the pick and roll, something the Dribble Drive Motion doesn't use) he has the potential to be an elite all-around PG like Paul or Williams. However, that's kind of moot for right now.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Oct 10, 2008 -> 07:29 AM) What other options do we have? Gooden is a somewhat decent option. Noah is not all that really of an option. Deng seems like he only wants 17ppg (which why I think he's severely overpaid) and there's Gordon who is the only legit scoring option that we have. Rose would be lucky to average around 12 because historically, rookie PG's have the worst adjustment period of all the positions. Also keep in mind, Rose is more of a pass first PG. We have 6 guys on the roster that averaged more than 10 points a game last season, and we added Rose who will get a fair number of attempts as well. It's quantity more than quality, unless there are some goofy lineups out there Tyrus will very rarely be a top-3 scoring option. Deng, whichever 3 guards get the most playing time (I would think Rose, Hinrich and Gordon), and probably Gooden will all likely get more attempts than Tyrus, maybe Nocioni as well depending on how the PT is split (god, I hope not). I'm not saying he's going to be useless, but I have a lot more faith in him consistently producing rebounds, steals and blocks. Also, I wouldn't exactly call Rose a pass-first PG, at least not yet. While he can pass well thus far he's been just as effective as a scorer if not moreso, in fact I'd say he's more dangerous as a scorer right now. At Memphis he averaged about 14 points to 5 assists, and last night even with 27 minutes he had 5 assists and 9 shots to go with 6 turnovers. We're likely looking at a more balanced offensive player that will average something like 10 points and 5 assists for the near future, not someone that's going to be rack up 7+ on a regular basis.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Oct 10, 2008 -> 11:52 AM) We just had a draft last night That was more like the Steve9347 invitation only draft than the official Soxtalk league.

Is there enough interest for a league? If I get a few responses I'll start one up...

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 10:02 PM) Right now, I think the Bulls 3 best players are Thomas, Deng, and Noah (despite what he looks like and acts like). Noah is a 10-10 guy every night, it looks like Tyrus really did improve his jumper and he looks like a 14-8 guy, and Deng is Deng- he'll get his 17-7 every night. Tyrus is going to have a VERY hard time getting 14 a game, even if he plays better he's probably not going to get enough touches for much more than 10. There are just too many other options on the team and he doesn't really create his own shot.

QUOTE (SoxFanForever @ Oct 1, 2008 -> 09:31 PM) I saw a preview for that movie Death Race or whatever with Jason Statham and was positive that it was a Twisted Metal movie at first glance. Ha, I did the same thing. I could have sworn those were Spectre, Darkside and Mr. Grimm in the previews.

Twisted Metal is one of my all-time favorites. 1-2 were awesome, 3-4 weren't so hot. I liked Black, but I can see why the stories would turn some people off and it took a while to get used to the speed.

RIP, The Hustler and The Color of Money are two of my favorite movies and Slap Shot is up there too.

So much for getting behind that one...

Worth a shot.