ZoomSlowik

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 31, 2012 -> 08:44 AM) SC looked like garbage. Defensively they are athletic but undisciplined and the play calling was suspect. I thought Lattimore looked good, but I was worried when he reached down for his knee a few times, maybe thats why they decided not to run him more? If he's 100% like they claim there was literally no reason to ever throw the ball and they probably blow Vandy out. I don't know that I'd go that far. Lattimore did get 23 carries as it was, and he was drawing quite a crowd when Shaw was out/hurt. The one successful play when they had the backups in was a zone read where Thompson was able to get 9 yards because like 4 people were ready to tackle Lattimore. They had virtually no threat of a passing game at any time, so even with Lattimore/Shaw combining for over 200 yards, they only scored 17. I think they might have been able to cover, but I don't see a blowout with their struggles offensively.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 30, 2012 -> 09:40 PM) I like the announcers' comment when they ran this highlight: if you're Towson, why do you tackle him?

Article on the NL stretch run.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 23, 2012 -> 03:19 PM) Not sure if I agree, but here's one argument the other way. Outside of OKC, that list includes some of the least profitable frachises in the league. Also, it's not population size that determines a "major market" as much as possible fan base and revenue streams. Looking at the largest US metropolitan areas (obviously this is only cities with NBA teams, and I'm omitting some of the larger markets/bigger NBA fan bases): 4) Houston 2.1 million estimate in 2011 5) Philadelphia 1.5 6) Phoenix 1.47 7) San Antonio 1.4 12) Indianapolis 820k 17) Charlotte 750k 18) Detroit 706 k 20) Memphis 625k 21) Boston 625k I don't really think you'd try to argue that Boston isn't a much better market/location than the teams above them. Also, if we are going to go by population size, San Diego (8) and San Jose (10) seem like much better options.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 23, 2012 -> 02:26 PM) Sacto Kings may be moving to Virginia. Let's move them to another small market, brilliant! Unless Comcast is just giving them ridiculous sums of money (no numbers mentioned in the article), I have no idea how that makes more sense than some of the Anaheim/other California area ones mentioned in the past.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 12:31 PM) Well the argument I made was about how many games they started in college or above before being given a starting job at the NFL level. JUCO is college, just like EIU counts for Tony Romo. /shrugs I counted Delhomme's games as well. Junior college is not college, they don't play against the same competition and the only reason anyone good ends up there is because they can't qualify at a real school. EIU and Louisiana Lafayette are at least FCS schools. If someone like LSU wants to schedule those other schools in the non-conference, they can. That's not the case with Blinn College.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 12:25 PM) I mentioned Cassel yesterday and blanked on him today. Like I said there are exceptions. Cam Newton started for a junior college, thats why he played more than 1 year. http://www.njcaa.org/colleges_college_play...easonselect=459 So that is 2 years of starting. Haha, okay, so junior college is somehow a valid sample size for the NFL now. Can you even name where he went without looking? There are dozens upon dozens of other JuCo players that never even make an impact at the college level. Are we going to start looking at who started how many games at high school next?

QUOTE (DrunkBomber @ Aug 22, 2012 -> 12:16 PM) I couldnt believe I was able to read this far into this discussion before someone brought up Cassel. Hes basically the perfect person to compare the situation to. You guys are missing an even more obvious one: Cam Newton. ONE year of starting at Auburn and he's the #1 pick and an immediate starter. OMG, he can't play!

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 20, 2012 -> 06:13 PM) Thought I changed that. And I still dont think he dominated them. He played them well, but those guys arent NBA centers either. We've been through this before, you were apparently expecting him to average 20-14 for some reason even though he was on a loaded team. He was an elite defender and converted when he did get chances on offense.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 20, 2012 -> 05:17 PM) Well Davis didnt do amazing defense against the few legit C prospects he played. Zeller had a decent game 2x ( game 1 Zeller went 11 pts-7 rebounds compared to Davis 6pts -9 rebounds, game 2 Zeller 20pts-7rebounds, Davis 9pts-12 rebounds), Thomas Davis had a good game (18pts 17 rebounds, but on 6-17 shooting, Davis 6pts 16 rebounds), so I just am not sure where a lot of this is coming from. The guy made spectacular plays, but he didnt exactly dominate the other guys who have potential to be lottery Centers. Its going to be a drastic jump to the NBA. Thomas Robinson. And when you hold a guy that was a POY finalist to 11-29 from the floor in two matchups, that's pretty good defense.

QUOTE (SleepyWhiteSox @ Aug 20, 2012 -> 04:54 PM) How did they kinda do the same with b-easy? I hope you're not still "high" on him since your better-than-DRose prediction ;p And I think your, along with soxbadger's, first-year stats predictions for Anthony Davis are wayy too conservative/low... They keep adding more forwards to the team even though Love is entrenched at the 4, making it harder for guys to find a role and PT. They already had Love and Randolph as other options at the 4 and Brewer and Webster at the 3, then added Williams on top of that. Beasley at least got a shot as the starting SF for a year though. They're also both getting forced into being a SF, which seems like it goes against their skillsets (if you look at his breakdown by position, Beasley has definitely been better at the 4). The jury is still out on Williams. Beasley clearly isn't going to be as good as a lot of people thought he was going to be, but he's not completely useless either. He can score, but he has to stop taking quite so many jumpers and start rebounding at least somewhat like he did in college. I feel like he'd be reasonably decent as a stretch 4 on a team that pushes the pace, but it doesn't look like he's going to get that shot in Phoenix either with Gortat and Scola inside. I also posted what a reasonable expectation is on Davis, which is more like a floor. That seems more reasonable than saying something like 15-10.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 20, 2012 -> 03:47 PM) That is what i'm saying. When they are doing these predictions I think they just have an idea of power rankings in the east and assign arbitrary win totals to show that off. I think the basic takeaway should probably just be "ESPN doesn't think there's much of a difference between NJ, NY, CHI and PHI". Well, it's win totals as well as the rankings. My point was I'd put them closer to where Atlanta is.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 20, 2012 -> 03:07 PM) I think that's just a result of preseason rankings. Lots of inflation goes on there. I don't see why this year would be any different than the past, where the east has the 8th seed below .500 and a few teams hovering just above it. I'm not really sure what you're getting at, they have Atlanta taking the 8th seed at 40 wins. It looks like they just kind of grouped all of their playoff teams between 45 and 50 wins and most of the non-playoff teams between 30 and 37. There's probably going to be more separation than that.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 20, 2012 -> 02:52 PM) I think philly is a lock for 4th best, but the bulls to play along with knicks and brooklyn? Yeah I hope we play so poorly we are behind them but those win totals seem pretty accurate, if not 2 or 3 generous. It's more about the Bulls than the other two (though I do think the Knicks can be better, even if they are kind of a mess), I just don't think they have any margin for error if they're going to win 46.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Aug 20, 2012 -> 02:31 PM) I find that to be about right. Then again, I see Rose making a return earlier than expected. I just can't assume that he's going to be relatively healthy right away much less when he comes back. WAY too many variables involved.

ESPN projects the East They basically have the Bulls in a dead-heat with Brooklyn, Philly and New York for the 4th seed. I find that to be a little optimistic.

My only question with AK47 is how that affects the development of Derrick Williams. They seemed be shopping him pretty hard from the rumors I was reading, which is kind of crazy to me. You just took the guy #2! Give the kid a chance! They kind of did the same thing with Beasley, though at least he got a true shot at SF. The problem is IMO both of those guys are best as small-ball 4's and that's Love's position too. Still, they're not exactly maximizing the talents of these guys.

QUOTE (Felix @ Aug 18, 2012 -> 08:40 PM) "Hes made it known hes not happy in MN" I like how no one actually reads the things that have been said. Brilliant analysis as always, NBA thread. A Felix sighting! People are definitely jumping the gun a bit on Love. There's a difference between saying you want to win and the Dwight-level drama.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Aug 18, 2012 -> 12:38 PM) Why not? Chances are Boozers gonna be amnestied next year so he'll have a starting gig here more than likely. Unless of course the plans to get Kevin Love (Hes made it known hes not happy in MN, and he wants to play with Rose) in a trade next year. Even then he'd be a good piece to move in such a deal, Taj, Deng and picks for Love wouldnt be a bad deal for both teams. Just a pipe dream of course but if we can pull that off and get Harden next year I'd probably s*** myself and film it for everyone to see. Zoom is there anyway Rose-Harden-Butler-Love-Noah would work money wise?? Nope. Even with a generous cap $60 million cap, you've only got $18 million left in space after subtracting only Rose, Love and Noah. All the rookie/minimum guys probably eats up $10 mil of that if not more. This also assumes that they'd actually be able to get Love of course. By the way, Deng actually makes more money than Kevin Love the next two years. That means you have to get a bit more creative to match salaries and come up with a decent offer.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Aug 18, 2012 -> 02:51 AM) Well, Ibake isn't going anywhere. Just signed a 4-year extension. So that leaves Harden. I read multiple articles a couple weeks ago saying he's "pretty sure" he'll resign with the Thunder. I have no idea how they'll pull this off (this is where I wait for zoom to chime in). Basically when retaining your own guys, the only question is how much luxury tax money you want to pay. I have no idea what OKC's approach to this is, though the assumption would be since they're not a major market they'd want to try to avoid spending significantly over it. Since these deals are usually backloaded, they might have some serious struggles with that. Even assuming $12 mil each year for both Ibaka and Harden, they're between $55 and 60 mil for their big 4 starting in 2013/2014 (Harden and Ibaka have one more rookie deal year left) and 2015/2016 (last year of Durant's deal). That doesn't leave a ton of wiggle room under the $70 mil-ish luxury tax, especially since Perkins still has 3 years left (including this year). They may have to amnesty Perkins after this season. One thing in their favor is that they weren't a luxury tax team last year and won't be this year either, so they won't hit the super-ridiculous rates in the repeat offender range like the Lakers and Heat will.

Before I add any comments, when did I become the unofficial cap guy? Just curious...

Article handicapping the AL MVP race.

An article about the real reason everyone loves college football: Tailgating!

QUOTE (farmteam @ Aug 13, 2012 -> 04:12 PM) Since there's now only less than 8 months until the Championship game, might as well have fun with some bracketology. Mizzou and Zona seem awfully low as 6's, and I have a hard time seeing Michigan get a 2 unless Robinson and McGary are just phenomenal.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Aug 13, 2012 -> 01:27 PM) They have a long way to go even be considered in the top half of the West. OKC is still going to devastate them, and Davis has never seen anyone like Dwight. And the Lakers (as you kind of mentioned), and the Spurs, and the Nuggets, Clippers and Grizzlies. There are several other teams out west that are deeper/more experienced than them as well.