If you haven't heard about it yet, you should check out Darko Milicic's rant against the officials at the Eurobasket tournament. I will warn you though, it's pretty vulgar, so if you get offended easily, stay away. Really though, somebody needs to tell Darko to get a handle on his mouth. After previously calling now-teammate Pau Gasol soft, now he goes and says this. It's not like the reporters didn't give him chances to get out of what he said either, but he just pressed on and kept getting more and more obscene. Really, I'm looking forward to the Darko era in Memphis, there's no telling what might happen. He's come off as completely crazy this offseason, the kind of quotes you usually see from Ron Artest, but his reputation as a player is that he's soft. Are we going to see crazy Darko next year? Are we going to see the lazy Darko who didn't play in Detroit? Who knows. Can we arrange for Memphis to trade for Steven Jackson or Artest? The comedy potential of that would be off the scale.
Greg Oden is having exploratory surgery on his knee. Now, to be perfectly honest, this is probably nothing. It's not reconstructive surgery, and Oden will probably be good to go in camp. However, if you're a Blazer fan, especially a long-time fan who lived through Bill Walton and Sam Bowie, then you've got to be feeling nervous about Oden's various maladies this offseason.
This just in, NBA players are stupid. Seriously, Shawne Williams, what are you thinking? Been reading "Stephen Jackson's Book on How to Stay Out of Trouble", have you? Pro athletes disgust me sometimes.
Important free agents still out there: Chris Webber, Michael Pietrus, Anderson Varejao, Sasha Pavlovic, and Charlie Bell. I'm surprised Webber isn't signed yet, I was sure he would've picked what contender he wanted to play with and signed up quickly, but he's still out there. Still, you gotta think he'll be signing with Dallas eventually. He's not going to San Antonio or Phoenix, so the Mavs are his best chance of snagging a ring.
Game 3 of the WNBA Finals tonight. I know, you probably don't care, but I'll be watching to see if Diana Taurasi drops 30 on the league's best defensive team again.
For all you basketball statheads out there, I'll be making a post shortly on some of the lesser known statistical measures out there, so make sure to check back on that.
Switching gears, reports say that Kevin Everett is making much better progress in his recovery than originally expected, and doctors are optimistic that he will walk again. My prayers go out to him and his family, you hate to see that happen in a sporting event, and it's good to hear that his condition is improving.
I went into Monday Night trailing by 15 points and with Edge James as my only hope. He produced 17 points, and I squeaked out a win. Course, I wouldn't have needed that if I'd started Adrian Peterson and LaMont Jordan, 40 points on the bench kind of sucks.
Again switching gears, Jerry Crasnick has a great article on my boy Troy Tulowitzki, who is putting together a very veteran-like rookie season for the Rockies. He trails Jose Reyes and Jimmy Rollins by just .001 in fielding percentage, but he's had 100 more chances than any other shortstop in the majors. Pretty impressive for a rookie. He's almost like the anti-Ryan Braun, who carries a big stick, but is the worst fielding regular in the league. The sheer gaudy offensive numbers will get Braun ROY, Tulo might be the more valuable rookie.
Anybody know what A-Rod is hitting so far in the month of August? That would be .533/.600/1.367, yeah, that's right, a 1.367 SLUGGING PERCENTAGE. That's just obscene. My friend asked me the other day if i thought A-Rod would hit 60 HRs, and I said "no way". After looking at the numbers, I'm not so sure. 8 HRs in 20 games? He very well might with the way he's hitting. What was a close MVP race with Ordonez has turned into a runaway.
In the NL MVP race, much as I'd like to say my man Prince Fielder should win it with a spectacular second year, but I can't really endorse that even if the Brew Crew make the playoffs. The simple fact is that Ben Sheets has been every bit as important to that team as Prince has. Chase Utley would probably be the choice if he hadn't missed a good chunk of time with injury, but alas, he did. To me, it comes down to Matt Holliday and David Wright. Both have very similar offensive profiles, and it'll probably come down to team performance. If the Rockies pull off an improbable comeback and make the playoffs, Holliday has to be the choice, but otherwise I think the trophy goes to Wright.
If you haven't seen him yet this year, you should try to catch the late innings of a Cubs game to see Carlos Marmol pitch. He throws high heat, and his slider really breaks dramatically. I definitely don't consider myself an expert on pitchers, and often I can't even tell a pitch is breaking until I see the slow-mo replay, but Marmol's ball really moves. He's fun to watch.
Well, that's all for now folks. I'll leave you with this trivia question. Who holds the NBA record for most blocked shots by a rookie?
Ugh, I just finished writing this whole thing, then had a problem with my PC and lost it all. Alas. Such is my dedication to bringing you people all the latest and greatest NBA news that I will tirelessly type it all up again...or I'm just really bored right now and need something to do.
You know what I love about the NBA summer league? It isn't seeing how all the highly drafted rookies do. No, it's seeing all the guys who I remember from their college days, but who dropped off the face of the planet after failing to make it big in the pros. Guys like Josh Powell (who ruined a promising college career by leaving too early, not that I'm bitter), Brandon Bass (ditto), Von Wafer (seeing a trend?), my boy Julius Hodge (please Jules, do something this year so I have a State player to cheer for), and D'Or Fischer (anybody else remember him leading the nation in blocks?). Heck, we've even had a Mateen Cleaves sighting. Can't beat the NBA summer league for seeing those former college stars...well, except for maybe the NBDL.
So, sifting through the worthlessness that is most of the summer league, what are the few things that we can take from what we've seen so far?
Tyrus Thomas has apparently developed a solid mid-range jumpshot, which is big trouble for the rest of the league. Thomas might be the quickest big in the game, and if defenders can't lay off him from 15 feet, we might be seeing a whole lot more highlight reel dunks next year.
Marco Bellinelli has no conscience. Through 3 games, he's taken 56 shots at a rate of a shot every 2 minutes. Even in the notoriously foul-heavy summer league, Bellinelli has taken almost twice as many 3-pointers as free throws. The phrase "quick trigger" does not do the man justice. In other words, he'll be perfect for Nellieball.
Outside of 1 quarter against Cleveland, Yi has been thoroughly unimpressive. He's shooting a terrible percentage and most of his points have come from the line, which is deceptive because of the increased amount of fouls called in the summer league. Well, at least he's got a pretty free-throw stroke.
Is it just me, or is Desagana Diop morphing into a poor man's Dikembe Mutumbo? They even kind of look alike.
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J.J. Redick has been on fire at the Orlando summer league so far, though on one play he saw there was too much traffic in the lane and promptly pulled a U-turn to get away. Sorry, that was a low blow. J.J., if I hurt your feelings, I can send some tissues.
Other than summer league play, the other big NBA news is that the salary cap was announced today ($56.6 mil), meaning that free agent deals can officially be finalized.
Apparently, the Magic have worked out a sign and trade with Seattle where they send a second rounder to the Sonics in order to get Bird rights to Rashard Lewis so they can sign him for 6 years instead of 5. Lewis' deal will start at around $16 mil (max for a 9-year veteran) and end up at around $25 mil in his last year. Yeah, have fun with that one Magic fans.
Mo Williams is seriously considering signing with Miami, and I'm puzzled as to why. I mean, that team is going downhill fast, and you can get twice as much money from Milwaukee, which is a young, quickly improving team where you're one of the leaders. It really wouldn't surprise me at all if the Bucks were better than the Heat next year if Williams comes back. Again, I don't understand the motivation.
Trey Johnson on Williams' decision,
"It's hard to tell where he's leaning. I just told him it would be lovely if he comes to Miami and I make the roster, too." Lovely, Trey? What are you, an 80-year-old woman? Weird quote.
The big free agent mystery now? Darko's final destination. With Charlotte reportedly close to inking Gerald Wallace, Darko is the biggest catch still available. However, there aren't many teams that can offer him the $8-9 mil a year that he wants. Memphis is apparently interested, and Milwaukee would probably make a move pending the Darko and Williams situations. The other option is Charlotte, who would still have enough cap space to offer him what he wants if they sign Gerald Wallace to a $12-13 mil deal.
Well, KG and Kobe trade talks have settled down, and it appears that we'll spend another season with 2 of the league's biggest stars toiling away in futility on bad teams. Sigh. NBA GMs have no spine. Seriously guys, we know you don't like to trade your superstars, but you've got to know when to cut bait and rebuild. Really, you can actually hear KG's trade value plummeting if you listen hard enough.
That's it for now, your daily (and by "daily", I mean "whenever-the-heck-I-feel-like-it") NBA update. I'll leave you with my trivia question of the day, and the imaginary prize goes to the first person who can answer it.
Q: There are 3 players in NCAA history with over 1000 assists on their career. They all played in the ACC. List them in order (most assists to least) and name the school they played for.
e of the lesser known statistical measures out there, so make sure to check back on that.
onez has turned into a runaway.
