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19th November, 2009 - 6:25 pm
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| Current Features |
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PLAYER RANKINGS: NBA Rookie Review – Version 2.0
After a strong run by Brandon Jennings in the first month of the season, Tyreke Evans and Stephen Curry as the clear leaders to take home the hardware.
TEAM RANKINGS: NBA Team Rankings For Early March
While the Cavaliers are an immovable force at the top of our rankings, the Jazz are now ranked second ahead of the Celtics, Magic and Lakers.
STANDING 10: The Best 90 NBA Jam Nominees
In what will be (and already is) a hotly-debated topic on basketball and video game sites and forums, let's go through each of the NBA's 30 teams and "suggest" who should be featured in what will be one of the most anticipated games of the year.
MOCK DRAFT: 2009 NBA Mock Draft, Version 11.0 (Draft Day Edition)
How will the 2009 NBA Draft shake out? We're only hours away from finding out.
LOCKER TALK: Nash, Cleveland, & Orlando
Steve Nash could draw trade interest this summer and Cleveland isn’t overlooking Orlando…
CLASSICS: Hakeem Vs. Ewing: Who Was The Better Center?
Born within six months of each other in opposite corners of the world, two seven footers who are finalists for the Basketball Hall of Fame this fall are two of the best ever to play the center position.
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By Christopher Reina
Iverson Expects To Sign With New York: Both the Knicks and Allen Iverson have become desperate enough since the summer to become a pair that absolutely need each other. The Knicks stole a win from Indiana last night, which was only their second of the season and they are ranked 26th in points scored per 100 possessions. Iverson only played in three games with Memphis before he left the team, but he was actually fairly productive, posting a True Shooting Percentage of .591, well above his career mark of .519.
Alexander Wants Trade Out Of Milwaukee: Unlike Patrick O'Bryant when the Warriors didn't pick up his third year option, I think Joe Alexander still has a legitimate future in the NBA. I didn't like him as much as Anthony Randolph or Marresse Speights during the 2008 NBA Draft lead-up, but I thought he would be a very good scoring small forward with incredible athleticism. Here is what I wrote about Alexander in my scouting report at the time.
So much what made Alexander such an interesting prospect was how athletic he was during his incredible surge in the Big East and injuries of course quickly neutralize that.
Obviously, Milwaukee doesn't see an All-Star future, which I wrote could be possible before the draft, but I don't think they've completely given up on him either. He only has 716 logged minutes in the NBA and none this season, so I think we can safely say that the boox on Alexander has yet to be written.
Football Meteorology For Week 11: Jeff Risdon's upset special of the weekend is Chicago over Philadelphia, which I agree is an upset worth examining. We'll see if playing against 3-4 defenses is truly the Achilles heel of Jay Cutler.
My survivor pick this week, as much as it pains me and surprises me even still, Cincinnati over the Raiders in Oakland. Whether it is Bernard Scott, Cedric Benson or even Larry Johnson, the Bengals are clearly the better team.
Belichick Curses Out Patriots During Film Session: Did BB Hoodie curse himself out when the 4th and 2 came up during the film session?
I actually was in complete agreement with Bill Belichick's decision to aggressively go for it on 4th and 2 deep within their own territory. I thought the odds of Tom Brady picking up two more yards somehow was much better than the odds of the defense stopping Peyton Manning at that point in the game. Obviously, they don't go for it when a field goal could hurt them, but since the Colts needed a touchdown, I still believe it was the right move.
Champions and legends lose by going for it instead of playing not to lose.
Lincecum Repeats As NL Cy Young: If the SABRmetrics revolution was the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette's head came off several years ago, but this is another big victory for its proponents. Ten years ago, I don't think there is any real chance Tim Lincecum wins over Adam Wainwright, who had an ERA within striking distance and four more wins. The FIP and strikeout rate differentials clearly favored Lincecum and now he has deservingly won his second consecutive Cy Young.
On Twitter this morning, someone opined whether Lincecum would win the Hy Young and the pitcher was forced to make a statement about his recent arrest before fielding normal award questions.
Note to Lincecum's handlers and the Giants PR: Why didn't you release a statement a week or two ago, knowing there was an excellent possibility that Lincecum would win the Cy Young and be forced to comment on it while receiving a historical award?
Outside RealGM
LeBron needs to focus on NBA: I usually go several months between reading Jason Whitlock columns, but I'm glad I caught his piece about LeBron James. Like many people born before 1980, Whitlock believes LeBron is misguided in his quest to retire No. 23 across the NBA to honor Michael Jordan. More interestingly, he dismisses the offhand remark from LeBron about playing in the NFL with the bigger issue that there have been many players who have been called the next MJ, but not one that has been called the next Magic or Bird. I don't think we're even close to seeing a player compare to those two, though possibly one can emerge from Portland if they manage to win multiple titles.
Legacies like Magic's and Bird's come out of not only winning multiple titles, but doing so as a consummate team-first teammate. Since those two, the only future HOF'ers to win multiple titles have been Isiah and Dumars, MJ and Scottie, Hakeem and Clyde, Shaq and Kobe, and Tim Duncan. Duncan doesn't allow himself to become known to the media or public, while Shaqobe had a constant soap opera vibe. The closes thing to Magic and Bird has been Isiah and that was 20 years ago.
Danny Ainge: “In the media there are people who are more concerned with breaking news then they are with writing truth and writing real history”: Trade and free agency rumors are unquestionably a large part of what RealGM does, but we actually started the website to put an end to false rumors that had no basis in reality due to the good old 125% plus $100k rule, which became Trade Checker. Most of us here are more concerned with the machinations behind how a team is put together and watching that development over time rather than simple-minded rumor mongering. We've broken stories here and there, but it is not the end all, be all for us.
On this issue I'm actually reminded of something Mark Cuban said in a very similar way, holding a preference for innovative analysis and writing than merely relaying the posturings from agents or from team executives that are several steps below the ultimate decision-maker.
Cowboys Stadium as a boxing venue?: There isn't a venue out there who isn't interested in hosting the inevitable Manny Pacquiao/Floyd Mayweather fight. A fight of that magnitude deserves a special venue away from the generic, indistinguishable ones we see in Vegas. Mayweather won't agree to Thrilla in Manila, Part Deux, but it should be somewhere gigantic and somewhere outside. I just went to the Los Angeles Coliseum for the first time since the 1984 Olympics and I think that would be an excellent location for it, though the tax issues would be problematic. Cowboys Stadium could be a nice happy medium and the weather of course wouldn't be an issue.
The world of sports is infinitely better when boxing has a superstar or two and we should have that for another five or six years in Pacquiao, who is approaching David Beckham in worldwide popularity and is at least more relevant at this stage in their respective careers.
Is it Time to Trust the Phillies?: The very impatient and quick to criticize Philadelphia fans are beginning to ingratiate themselves to the very capable Ruben Amaro. The Phillies don't figure to be too active this winter and I think that is probably for the better. They can definitely use another starter and a new third baseman, but they took the Yankees to a Game 6 despite getting nearly nothing from Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino in the World Series. If they get back there for the third consecutive season, they figure to have a much more balanced offense than just a 1.448 OPS and five homers from Chase Utley.
Please send comments and questions to Scoop@RealGM.com, where we may select it for a future edition.
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