Monday, August 17, 2009

Tiger Slips, Usain Bolts

So in the middle of August, as sports fans across the country digest the first full weekend of NFL pre-season football, and diehard pigskin fans tweak their fantasy rankings for upcoming drafts (yes, I’m in that group), Tiger played it safe – and lost, while Usain demolished his year old 100 meter dash record.

Intellectually, you can see what Tiger’s thought process was on Sunday. He had a two stroke lead, the wind was strong and unpredictable, and he thought employing caution and safety would be the best way to secure his 3rd straight tour win, his 5th PGA title, his 1st major of 2009, and 15th major overall...wrong. He couldn’t sink a putt, his shots were errant, and Y.E. Yang’s bold approach and calm nerves ended one of sports’ most incredible streaks. And don’t forget two huge consecutive missed putts inside of 10 feet that could have secured the title for him – the putt at 18 on Saturday, and the first putt of the day on Sunday at #1. He makes those; he’s up by 4 strokes and it’s a totally different tournament.

Going into Sunday, Tiger was 14 for 14 after leading a major thru 54 holes (including being tied) – every one of his major titles. He hadn’t lost any tournament when leading though 54 since 1996 – a 36 tournament streak dating back to his rookie year on tour. The law of averages finally caught up to Tiger and this streak. And I’m guessing Tiger won’t be taking the overly cautious approach anytime in the near future either.

These days, in non-Olympic years, track and field seems to be on a par with the WNBA in popularity. But Usain Bolt, after setting a record in Bejing a year ago with a 9.69 second 100 meter dash, destroyed his record with a 9.58 second clocking in Berlin at the world championships; once again bringing track back into the limelight. And he did it by beating the world record by .11 seconds, the largest margin since the introduction of electronic timing in 1968…the year I was born. In that year, the record of 9.95 seconds was set and remained until 1983. As a high school track & field long distance runner in those days (it wasn’t until college that the ‘Speedburner’ speed started to shine), I never thought I’d see a 100M dash go under 9.7 in my lifetime. 9.58 is ridiculous!! Watching Bolt during the Olympics last year, you could see he wasn’t a 4.3 40 kind of runner. He doesn’t burst out of the gate but rather, keeps getting faster through the race until he’s hit a gear other runners just don’t have.

Now we can go back to being bored to tears by baseball and scouting the newswires for the latest fantasy football developments - “the Jets #3 WR just caught two passes in practice today” – honestly, the coverage definitely goes overboard. Anyway, I will have some fantasy thoughts after my 8/30 draft for those of you who have late drafts or are just curious as to who might be emerging at the skill positions in the upcoming season.

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Thursday, July 02, 2009

NBA Free Agency – Pistons???

So I sent out an email to a few hoops buddies who know the game well, giving them my thoughts on the very questionable moves the Pistons made, as well as a few other thoughts on the early F/A activity. The Pistons immediately generated responses, and I decided to make a blog of the email and subsequent thoughts. Three separate emails below my original are separated by dashed lines.

I don't like their moves at all...Ben G is an undersized SG who guns too much, can shoot you into or out of a game, but is not a complete player, and C-Vill is a perimeter oriented PF....they make all the right moves to get cap space & rebuild, then blow the $$$ on very ??? players.....do you really think these two can be integral members of a championship squad?

Teams have this 'spend now' mentality when they first get their cap space. I say, if the right players aren't available, save it for another year - try to find some upside young guys in the meantime, or a cheap, smart vet who knows his role.

Also, Lakers offered $5.6m/yr to Ariza.....huh??? This guy is young(24), improving radically, a great defender, great athlete, and you really think you can lock him up at 5.6? Paper said he's looking for between $7m & 8m, which is exactly what he should get - $7.5m for 5 years....I hope he walks.

Clippers dump Zach onto Memphis...nice move, though they still have 3 centers - Camby, Kaman, and Jordan, who put up nice #'s last year when he got the minutes.
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Buddy #1: Couldn't agree more...and I used to think the Pistons were as well managed as the other top organizations (Spurs, Jazz, etc.). People gave him a pass on Darko, because he made so many other good decisions. But now? Wow...Gave Billups away for nothing. Touted Amir Johnson and then just gave him away. He killed his own coach all season and then fired him. Alienated his two best players (Hamilton and Prince) and now signs two street ball players that couldn’t guard a pylon. Comedy.
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Buddy #2: Dumars has lost his mind. The guy fires a coach that led them to the Conference finals every year he is there, he then hires a rookie coach who had one year experience as an assistant and traded away they're best player for a known dressing room cancer in Iverson (who is over the hill). He makes this trade to clear cap room supposedly for the 2010 free agency class, but then he goes on to make these moves.
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Buddy #1: And thinking about this, do they plan to have Gordon come off the bench? He is not a PG and Rip Hamilton sure isn’t going to come off the bench again. Why re-sign Hamilton mid-season this year, if this is what they had planned?

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Friday, June 26, 2009

NBA Draft Update

8 PGs in the 1st 21 picks!!!!

I like Minn going double PG at 5 & 6...I would gone big/little w/ Jordan Hill & Flynn, but Rubio's not even 19 yet and has the special intangibles that the best passers have. I like Ty Lawson studying under a master (Billups) in Den, great move by them. Toronto got a gem in DeRozen at #9 - special athlete, solid citizen, got radically better toward the end of his 1 year in college, I love him.

Love that NJ is dumping an aging Vince to get younger and build, and then draft Terrence Williams, who's right there with DeRozen athletically. Of course I hate the safe, boring Hansborough pick by Indy at #13...I like Jeff Teague a lot - the 6th PG taken at #19 by the Hawks. He certainly looks better than their 2007 draft bust Acie Law (I was also wrong on him, thought he'd be good). Teague looks very explosive and smooth. Detroit's pick of Daye at #15 is very questionable...he looks like a 6'10" SG - I'd rather have a 6'5"--6'7" athlete at SG. And his dad was a Bruin who did nothing in the pros.

I like Phx going E. Clark at #14 - big upside, hopefully his attitude improves w/ growth & maturity.

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