So far, this Celtics/Bulls series has run six games; four went to overtime for a total of seven extra periods. It was the only playoff series ever to have three overtime games, and now that it’s gone to four, I’m starting to wonder if this is the best first round series in the history of the league. It’s certainly the best one that I can remember.
As a longtime Bucks fans, I found it hard at first to root for the Bulls, but I’m really starting to like this team. Joakim Noah plays with exceptional energy and passion, Kirk Hinrich does all the little things in the Chicago backcourt, John Salmons is an up-and-coming swingman, and Derrick Rose is one of the most dynamic players in the entire league.
There were so many great performances tonight. Salmons had 35 points, and broke down Paul Pierce every chance he had. Rose had 28 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and a huge block on Rajon Rondo’s go-ahead attempt in the waning seconds of the final overtime. Brad Miller bounced back from missing game-tying free throws (and nearly having his head removed from his body) in Game 5 to post 23 points, including two huge buckets — a three and a driving layup — at the end of regulation to bring the Bulls back from the dead. Noah had nine points and 15 rebounds, and had a monster steal that he turned into a three-point play (fouling Pierce out in the process) with less than a minute to go in the third overtime.
Ray Allen carried the Celtics for much of the game, finishing with 51 points on 18 for 32 shooting. Pierce and Rondo combined to shoot just 9 of 30 from the field, but Pierce made 11 free throws and Rondo dropped 19 dimes. The C’s wouldn’t have stayed in it without Glen Davis, who chipped in 23 points.
The series moves back to Boston for Game 7 on Saturday.
Fantasy football drafts won’t fire up in earnest for a few more months, but now that the real draft is over, it’s a good time to take a look at the rookie class and try to identify those players that have the best chance to make an impact in 2009.
At any position, a rookie’s value can be estimated with the following equation:
Value = Talent + Opportunity + Readiness
Talent is probably the tougher of the three to judge, but luckily we can leverage the work of those scouts and coaches who just put a ton of time into putting together their draft boards. A first rounder is probably a little better than a second rounder, a second rounder is probably a little better than a third rounder, and so on.
Opportunity is (usually) pretty obvious. If a team has a big hole at running back and they draft one in the first round, the chances are pretty good that he’ll be the team’s leading rusher by the end of the season.
Readiness has more to do with position than anything else. Year in and year out, running back is by far the easiest position for a rookie to excel. The big hurdle is pass blocking, so if they can get that down, they’ll see a lot of playing time. Just hand them the ball and let ‘em run. Rookie wide receivers have a tougher time finding success early on, but there are usually one or two guys each year who crack the top 30. Last year, it was Eddie Royal and Desean Jackson. In 2007, it was Dwayne Bowe. In 2006, it was Marques Colston. Larry Fitzgerald, Lee Evans and Michael Clayton thrived in 2004. The list goes on.
Generally speaking, very few tight ends and quarterbacks make a substantial fantasy impact in their rookie seasons. In 2008, Matt Ryan had the best season for a rookie QB in years, and he finished #16 amongst quarterbacks, making him only a decent backup in most fantasy leagues.
So it’s best to focus on the running backs and wide receivers. Here are a few guys to keep your eye on…
RUNNING BACKS
Knowshon Moreno looks to be the odds on favorite to lead all rookies in rushing, though the Denver backfield is crowded with Correll Buckhalter, LaMonth Jordan, Ryan Torain and Selvin Young fighting for carries. Still, the team burned a first round pick to get him, so they obviously plan to use him. He’s a great all around back and an underrated receiver…Chris “Beanie” Wells joins Tim Hightower in the Arizona backfield. Hightower seems to be more of a short-yardage guy, but don’t rule out the Cards utilizing a RBBC. Wells has had a few nagging injuries throughout his career, but he hasn’t missed much time. His competitiveness has been questioned, though he’s a superb natural runner…Shonn Greene isn’t explosive, but he runs hard and is a patient runner. He has Thomas Jones and Leon Washington ahead of him, but those are two guys that could be overtaken if he plays extremely well in the preseason…Bernard Scott is a sleeper in Cincinnati. Cedric Benson is the starter there and Chris Perry was just cut, so it’s feasible that Scott could overtake Benson if he falters, on or off the field. Scott is a good all around back from a small school (Abilene Christian) who could surprise some people…Most of the other guys drafted early on are going to situations where they’ll likely be unable to overtake the starter unless there’s an injury of some sort. Donald Brown (IND), LeSean McCoy (PHI) and Glen Coffee (SF) fall into this category.
- With the 2009 Kentucky Derby set to run this Saturday, THE LOVE OF SPORTS puts together a betting system that admittedly, probably won’t work. (But God love ‘em for trying.)
- THE BIG LEAD details the heartless act of the Baltimore Sun, who fired two writers who were in the middle of covering an Orioles’ game from the press box – and by phone, no less.
- SPORTSbyBROOKS.COM details the story of Angelo Hadley, a top football recruit for North Carolina who recently helped his brothers burglarize a 14-year old girl’s home while he had sex with her. Looks like young Angelo is on the Marcus Vick-plan of success.
- AWFUL ANNOUNCING has the lowdown on Jerome Bettis reportedly being out at NBC.
- YARDBARKER shares that Jose Canseco is set to fight in the professional MMA ‘Super Hulk’ tournament…whatever that is.
The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame announced the 2009 College Football Hall of Fame Football Bowl Subdivision Class and former Heisman winners Gino Toerretta and Tim Brown made the list.
PLAYERS
•PERVIS ATKINS – HB, New Mexico State (1958-60)
•TIM BROWN – WR, Notre Dame (1984-87)
•CHUCK CECIL – DB, Arizona (1984-87)
•ED DYAS – FB, Auburn (1958-60)
•MAJOR HARRIS – QB, West Virginia (1987-89)
•GORDON HUDSON – TE, Brigham Young (1980- 83)
•WILLIAM LEWIS* – C, Harvard (1892-93)
•WOODROW LOWE – LB, Alabama (1972-75)
•KEN MARGERUM – WR, Stanford (1977-80)
•STEVE McMICHAEL – DT, Texas (1976-79)
•CHRIS SPIELMAN – LB, Ohio State (1984-87)
•LARRY STATION – LB, Iowa (1982-85)
•PAT SWILLING – DE, Georgia Tech (1982-85)
•GINO TORRETTA – QB, Miami (Fla.) (1989-92)
•CURT WARNER – RB, Penn State (1979-82)
•GRANT WISTROM – DE, Nebraska (1994-97)
* Selection from the FBS Veterans Committee, deceased
It’s always amazing to me that a guy like Torretta can put up such great numbers in college, yet never made it in the NFL. (Teams didn’t even consider him as a top pick despite passing for more than 3,000 yards during his Heisman-winning senior season.) But you see examples of it every year (this year’s was Graham Harrell of Texas Tech, who went undrafted), so I guess I shouldn’t be too amazed.
Good to see Pat Swilling on this list. The late Swilling was always fun to watch and I thought he was a little underrated as a player. You have to appreciate self-made players like Chris Spielman, too. Scouts said he was too small, yet he went on to appear in four Pro Bowls.
Third round pick Kevin Barnes wasn’t even a Washington Redskin for more than 24 hours and already he was calling out veteran teammate Fred Smoot for being old.
But Smoot more than held his own in the media and lambasted the rook with a great comeback.
On Sunday, third-round draft choice Kevin Barnes said fellow cornerback Fred Smoot was “getting a little bit older.” Smoot, 30, responded to Barnes on Wednesday.
“They come in like that until they go to three days of [minicamp], and [then] they humble,” Smoot said. “It don’t bother me. I’m going to take him through some things. I haven’t seen the guy. I don’t even know his name, and I love football, so that tells you [something]. I know who’s going to get drafted where. I didn’t know the kid.”
Smoot’s reaction was freaking great. Barnes apparently didn’t get the memo about hazing in NFL training camps. Santana Moss is probably going to eat this kid for lunch. Welcome to the NFL rook!
It was a disappointing season for Chris Paul and Co. as they were unceremoniously eliminated from the playoffs last night in Denver. After last season’s near-miss against the Spurs in the Western Conference semis, along with the addition of do-it-all forward James Posey, many pundits (including myself) thought that they might be the team best positioned to threaten the Lakers’ chances of a return trip to the Finals. But it was not to be.
According to John Hollinger’s PER, Chris Paul had an even better statistical season than last year, when he was in serious contention to become the league’s MVP. David West played his usual 21/9 ball as well.
So what happened?
1. Tyson Chandler wasn’t himself. He battled injuries all year and was even traded to Oklahoma City (and subsequently untraded due to the Thunder’s concerns about his foot). Here are his stats for the last three seasons:
That may not seem like much of a fall off, but three points, three rebounds and a 5% decrease in field goal shooting certainly has an effect. It’s not Chandler’s fault that he had some nagging injuries, but that was part of the reason for the Hornets’ decline.
According to Sports Illustrated writer Selena Roberts’ new book, Alex Rodriguez was on steroids after the 2003 season and may have begun taking them as early as high school.
Roberts was the one that initially broke the news that A-Rod took steroids as a member of the Rangers and while he claims that he stopped taking performance-enhancers in 2003, she writes that he showed steroid-use symptoms into the 2005 season.
Sports Illustrated writer Selena Roberts, who broke the story that A-Rod flunked a steroid screening in 2003, reveals fellow Bombers nicknamed the third baseman “B—h T–s” in 2005.
That was after he put on 15pounds in the off-season and seemed to develop round pectorals, a condition called gynecomastia that can be caused by anabolic steroids, she writes.
In addition, an unnamed major-leaguer is quoted as saying Rodriguez and steroid-tainted pitcher Kevin Brown were seen together with human growth hormone – HGH – in 2004.
Two other anonymous Yankees said they believed A-Rod was using based on side effects they saw – and a clubhouse staffer said management wondered if he was using banned substances.
“No one ever asked Alex directly that I know of, but there was a lot of suspicion in house,” the employee is quoted as saying.
You knew there had to be more to the story and that it would eventually come out that he was juicing while as a member of the Yankees. The smoking gun was when it was reported that he still had a relationship with steroid-linked trainer Angel Presinal well into his Yankee days. Why have Presinal around if you’re not juicing?
What’s infuriating about all of this is that the Yankees had to have known. If his teammates were calling him “Bitch Tits” and people saw him with Presinal, they had to have known he was juicing. But instead of doing something about it, they took a page out of the MLB handbook on how to deal with a player on steroids and they just turned a blind eye.
This news couldn’t be any worse timing for A-Rod since he’s scheduled to play in a spring training game in Tampa today. The Yankees thought that they would be getting their All-Star third baseman back soon, but what they’re really going to get is another media frenzy.
The Marlins’ 11-1 start to the 2009 season has quickly faded over the past week thanks to a seven-game losing streak that was finally halted with a 7-4 win over their NL East rivals the Mets on Tuesday.
Florida beat the Mets again on Wednesday, but some in the Marlins’ clubhouse aren’t thrilled with the effort of the team’s biggest star, shortstop Hanley Ramirez.
• Hanley Ramirez’s failure to run hard on a drive to center last week (he ended up on second, instead of third) struck a nerve with some Marlins people. ”Hanley likes to watch it and get into his trot,” special assistant Andre Dawson said. But “if you go all out all the time, he is less susceptible to mistakes. Hanley needs to focus and be serious and have the attitude that I’m working on something to get better — not just going out there to get the work in.”
Let’s hope the Yankees and Red Sox don’t get wind of this and start putting trade packages together.
Ramirez is a rare five-tool player in baseball and hopefully the staff in Florida will make him realize his full potential. He’s already one of the best in baseball, but he certainly has the talent to be one of the greatest and as a baseball fan, I hope he doesn’t settle for what he’s already done in his young career.
With regard to Carlos Boozer’s future in Utah, Johnny Ludden of Yahoo Sports writes that the Utah Jazz “are expected to explore trading him and devote their resources to keeping Paul Millsap.”
Boozer angered franchise officials and teammates alike early in the season, when he spoke openly of wanting to test his free agency this summer. It didn’t help that he made the comments while he was nursing a quadriceps injury that cost him more than half the season.
After Monday’s season-ending loss, Boozer now says he’d like to return to the Jazz, adding that he feels like “one of those cornerstone people who brought this team back to prominence.” In truth, the decision might not be entirely up to him. Even if Boozer doesn’t opt out of his contract, the Jazz are expected to explore trading him and devote their resources to keeping Paul Millsap.
As if the Jazz needed any more evidence of Millsap’s value, he helped lead Monday’s comeback while Boozer watched from the bench.
“We’re not getting that effort every night from everybody,” [Deron] Williams said, “and we’ve got to have that.”
I may be wrong, but this sounds like the general feeling of the writer more than the actual position of the club. The key phrase is that “the Jazz are expected,” which only means that some nebulous person or persons is of the opinion that Utah will explore trading Boozer in order to keep Millsap. It doesn’t mean that that’s what the franchise is planning to do.
This summer’s free agent market is going to be tough on the players, so even though Boozer has previously stated that he plans to opt out, he may ultimately decide to play out the final year of his contract in order to prove to teams that he can stay healthy. Other than the Jazz, there are five teams that have the cap space to make an offer of $10 million per season or more — the Pistons, the Hawks, the Grizzles, the Raptors and the Thunder. He’d certainly help make the Thunder a playoff team, and he’d be a good fit in Detroit with their current problems along the front line. The Grizzlies have the need, but may not be willing to make the commitment. The Hawks don’t really need a power forward, but the Raptors could certainly use him as a complement to Chris Bosh and Jose Calderon (and it might ultimately keep Bosh in Toronto).
In addition to Boozer, Mehmet Okur ($9.0 million) and Kyle Korver ($5.3 million) can each terminate their contracts early this summer, so the Jazz might have a very different face heading into the 2009-10 season. My guess is that Okur and Korver will play out their contracts since they are unlikely to find that kind of money in free agency. Boozer is set to make $12.3 million next season, so he’ll probably be looking for a deal averaging somewhere in the range of $13-$15 million. But with his history of injury, will anyone be willing to pony up?
