More Draft

This is an amazing video that was posted on Awful Announcing. If you have disdain for Screamin' A. Smith grab a bag of Cheez Doodles and enjoy. BTW, Kevin Love has just become my favorite NBA player. ENJOY.

http://deadspin.com/5020510/stephen-as-career-never-too-dismal-for-heckling

PS. Check out the Awful Announcing's Live draft blog and check out the comments via BK. (that's me)

Draft Thoughts

Thanks to the rain delay in Pittsburgh that ultimately postponed the Yankee game, I hate to say it but I watched the entire 2008 NBA Draft. Anyone who watched that horrible broadcast and still considers Stu Scott to be a good anchor/host has lost their mind. The 4 guys on set were awful. And that's all I'm going to say about that because writing about it will make me mad that I wasted 5 hours watching them.

Anyway here are some of my thoughts about the draft, which as I look at the players selected is pretty weak.

Now that it seems the T-Wolves have traded O.J. Mayo and some bums to Memphis for Kevin Love, Mike Miller and some bums, I think they shoot up to near the top of the list of winners.
At least Mayo got out of Minnesota, it takes a special kind of player to be surrounded by snow for the entire season. But seriously why does the GM of Memphis get paid. He clearly sucks at his job.

New Jersey Nets made out like bandits getting 2 steals in Brook Lopez and CDR, both of whom will have that chip on the shoulder type attitude for their careers or until they get paid. (The NBA where playing hard for 3 years to get paid and then mailing it in happens.) The only thing I know about their 2nd pick is that he was the guy that got fouled against UCLA in that corner trap only a foul wasn't called, thus starting UCLA's run of non-calls that ultimately got them to the Final Four.

Portland is going to be SICK. Joey Dorsey coming off the bench to give energy and put-back dunks when Greg Oden is double teamed will be nuts. I'm putting the over/under on shattered backboards for Dorsey's career in Portland at 1.5. Trading Brandon Rush for Jerryd Bayless is a great move. Rush is the same type of player Brandon Roy is, now Roy can move to the 2 guard and Bayless can run the show.


Wooooooooo. The MAAC gets some love. Rider's Jason Thompson get taken 3 rounds to early by the Sacramento Kings. Huh? I do like the Kings pick of Patrick Ewing Jr., who can potentially be a poor man's Gerald Wallace, but I don't like it enough to overcome the fact that they picked a guy from the MAAC. If they were going to pick from that conference why not pick Tay Fisher. Everyone who reads this blog LOVES Tay Fisher. (Seriously. Think about it. You all do.)

The Bobcats have still yet to prove that they belong in the NBA. D.J. Augustin and Alexis Ajinca. Right positions but wrong players. Michael Jordan is really bad at this GM thing, isn't he?

Oh well. It's been a long night. So I leave you with a little bit of absurd trivia that you all know I love so much.
Q: Who was the first player ever selected from the NBA D-League?
A: Mike Taylor, PG. He was selected 55th overall.

NBA Draft

Alright, alright, alright. Time for some NBA prognostication.

Tomorrow the futures of 60 young men will be determined. Some of these young men will be set in their financial situations for the rest of their lives. Others will regret the day they listened to their cities version of Big Time Willie. (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0809793/)

No one can fault guys like like Johnathan Bender, DaJuan Wagner and Stromile Swift for jumping at the opportunity to make money, hell its the part of the American Dream. But you do have to question their commitment and love of the game if they are hell bent on leaving school (too) early or heading straight to the pro's without ever trying to better themselves in the NCAA, which is in all intents and purposes is the NBA's minor leagues. All be it a minor league that doesn't pay so maybe it's justifiable.

Everyone knows the 2 hot prospects that everyone is ga-ga over, Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley. Both had excellent freshman season's but in different ways. Rose was blessed to be the PG of a title contending team that allowed himself to be exposed to national media. Beasley on the other hand was a BEAST for a mid-level Big-12 team that, if they had a coach that didn't look like a manikin, might have contended in a down year for the conference.

Both are excellent players and will undoubtedly put up numbers, Beasley will probably have the eye-popping stats that will do wonders in fantasy leagues but will his game translate into overall team success?

With the emergence of CP3 and Deron Williams and the success of Steve Nash, the NBA is becoming a point guards league. And Rose fits in perfectly with Paul and Williams, he is willing and able to get his but is unselfish enough to find his guys so they can get theirs. In all likely hood Rose will fall into a perfect situation playing along side guys like Ben Gordon and Luol Deng, and I can't wait until the first lob pass from Rose that goes up to Tyrus Thomas and he throws it down. They might be the next Paul-Tyson Chandler, in terms of ally-oops.


OK so tomorrow I'm going to do a mock draft. I'm doing it tomorrow just in case of any trades and what not.

Stay Tuned.

Yankees vs Reds

Interesting series this past weekend. Much like the series where the Yanks played the Rockies last year and I got a man crush on Matt Holliday it seems that the man crush has left the Rocky Mountains and headed east toward the 'Natti.

I know that everyone seems to have a man crush on Jay Bruce; I on the other hand have fallen head over heels for Joey Votto.

As David Cone mentioned in the broadcast yesterday, the Reds are full of guys that belong at a casting call on The Sopranos. Even though the guys he mentioned had Spanish names not Italian.
But my boy Joey full fledged Canadian-Italian.

Votto's first inning at baseball's cathedral was spectacular. In his first at bat, he took a Mike Mussina pitch and crushed it about 10 rows deep in the right-centerfield bleachers. Then in the bottom of the inning, he made a specatular stab at first base. He went to the right and snagged a ball that took a bad hop. It was a great play by a very athletic fielder. He finished the series 7-for-12.

The Reds look set for the future. They have two potential 30-40 homerun guys in Bruce and Votto. And they have two big pieces they could trade, in Adam Dunn and Ken Griffey Jr., which could get them some quality major league ready prospects. Their pitching staff has some nasty stuff but they suffer from playing in a Little League ballpark. Michael Kay made a good point on the air saying that the Reds need to have guys that strike people out on their staff not guys that are "fly ball pitchers." And from watching this weekend series where their three top prospects were put on display, I'd have to say they look like they'd be a good fit.