Detroit won in Boston last night due in no small part to the play of Antonio McDyess. His line – 7-12 shooting, eight rebounds and three steals – isn’t eye-popping, but considering he’s the fifth option in the Pistons’ starting lineup, those are very nice numbers.
The 33 year-old McDyess landed in Detroit in 2004 after changing teams five times, so he’s a bit of a journeyman. People forget just how good he was before several knee injuries derailed his career during 2001 and 2002. In his first six seasons, he averaged 17.7 points and 8.8 boards per game, and was named to the All-NBA 3rd Team in 1999 and to the All-Star Game in 2001, so he was on his way to a very good career before suffering a dislocated knee cap, a torn patellar tendon and a fractured kneecap in the next two years.
He arrived after the Pistons’ championship in 2004, so he still has that insatiable hunger to win a title. And he’ll play a key role in the Eastern Conference Finals because the Celtics do a pretty good job of limiting the opportunities of the other Detroit starters, but it’s very difficult to shut down five guys at once. McDyess scored 10 points in the first half of Game 2, knocking down jumper after jumper. If he can keep that up, the Pistons are going to be very difficult to beat.
Another player who had a very nice game was rookie Rodney Stuckey. He went 5-8 from the field and scored 13 points. More importantly, he allowed Flip Saunders to rest Chauncey Billups, who is coming back from a hamstring injury. Stuckey is strong and has a good feel for the game. In fact, he reminds me a lot of the guy he plays behind… Billups.
Granted, they’re not as important as the Lincoln-Douglas debates, but as long as there have been barstools, there have been men sitting on those stools arguing about sports. This week, John Paulsen and Anthony Stalter sit at a virtual bar and debate what life would be like if the NFL didn’t have a salary cap. Take a seat, order a beverage and feel free to give us your two cents.
Anthony: With the NFL threatening to have an uncapped year following the 2009 season, the first thing most fans want to do is panic. Who wants a situation in the NFL with haves and have-nots like they do in baseball? Well, the fact of the matter is that small market teams can still survive and MLB has proved that. Small market teams (i.e. teams that don’t spend big in order to win) like the 2007 Rockies and 2003 Marlins are prime examples that winning is accomplished on the field and not with a big budget.
John: I’m glad you brought up the Marlins. It’s true that a small-market/low-budget team can succeed for a year or two with a great farm system and good scouting, but what happens to those small market World Series teams the following year? Or the year after that? They either sell of their parts because they can’t afford to keep them or they are raided by the big market teams, who are looking to simply buy themselves a championship. In the four seasons since the Marlins’ 2003 World Series win, they haven’t finished higher than third in their division. It’s true that they can be competitive for a year or two, but they can’t sustain their excellence like the big market teams can. And that’s simply not fair.
Anthony: But at least these teams can still be competitive. Some fans assume that just because a team doesn’t spend a lot, it means that team is destined to finish in the cellar every year. And besides, it’s up to the owners whether or not to spend. We can assume that there’s going to be a huge gap in terms of budget between a team like the Cowboys (we know owner Jerry Jones will spend to win) and maybe a smaller market team like the Seahawks, but we simply don’t know what owners are going to be willing to spend. In other words, we don’t know if the NFL would turn into MLB if the league went without a cap. It sounds like a crazy thought now, but maybe not having a cap will drive the competition even more because owners in the lower market cities will still be willing to spend to win. (Unlike how it is in baseball, where clubs like the Marlins, Royals and Pirates simply don’t want to spend.)
John: It’s definitely possible for a small budget team to make a run here and there, but think what it must be like to be an American League team competing with the payrolls of the Yankees and Red Sox. Since MLB expanded its playoffs in 1995, the Yankees have made the postseason every single season, essentially gobbling up one of the four AL playoff spots each year. Now that the Red Sox started to catch up in payroll, they have made the postseason four of the last five years. So if you’re an AL team other than the Yankees or Red Sox, you’re basically competing for the two other division titles because the AL East and Wild Card berths are pretty much decided going into the season. Then imagine being a fan of the Devil Rays, Orioles or the Blue Jays, who are also in the AL East. Why even bother? In the NFL, the small market teams are already at a disadvantage when it comes to generating stadium revenue and attracting free agents. Removing the salary cap will only serve to eliminate the one thing keeping a competitive balance in the NFL. It’s parity that makes the league so popular, because most fans know that if their favorite team catches a few breaks, they’ve got a good shot to make the postseason. It’s no coincidence that the league exploded in popularity at the same time the salary cap was implemented.
Anthony: I actually agree 100%, John. I love how parity has made the NFL ultra competitive, but it’s interesting to play devil’s advocate regarding this topic. While I don’t think an uncapped year in the NFL would be a total disaster, I would much rather see things continue the way they are and preserve the balance in the league. How great is it that your favorite team has a shot to win every year if they can have a solid draft and make wise free agent pickups? It’s fun for fans.
ESPN’s First Take posed this question recently: Could an NFL Player Score a Touchdown Against a Bear?
“If the bear was really trying, I’d take the bear. But in reality, I don’t see this ever happening.”
Really bear doctor? You don’t see this ever happening?
Is it wrong if I was kind of rooting for the bear to attack the good doctor on camera? Especially when he said, “I’ve been doing this for 40 years and a bear has never attacked me.” Great segment ESPN.
According to ESPN.com, Major League Baseball is playing around with the idea of experimenting with instant replay in the Arizona Fall League.
If that experiment proves practical and successful, MLB then is likely to continue the experiment next March during the World Baseball Classic and spring-training games.
If no insurmountable problems arise, baseball could begin using replay — though only to decide home run calls — as soon as next season.
What is yet to be determined is whether calls would be reviewed by a “replay umpire” in each stadium, as the National Football League does, or in the MLB offices in New York, a system that would more resemble the National Hockey League.
It’s a good idea. Part of the concern with replay is slowing down the game, but getting the call right should be first priority. It’s got to be difficult for umpires down the foul lines to see if a ball hit the top of the fence or the yellow home run line in centerfield. With the amount of technology at our disposal, it would be a shame not to use it. In the case of judging home run calls, I think it’s worth taking the “human element” out of the game.
The time has come for Joba Chamberlain. Yankees’ part owner Hank Steinbrenner is getting his way, as the highly touted pitcher will move into the club’s starting rotation once he’s groomed for the role.
He won the debate about Joba Chamberlain, who officially is on his way to becoming a starter. Steinbrenner stopped all the speculation about Chamberlain remaining in the bullpen as a setup man, albeit the most dominating setup man in the business.
Manager Joe Girardi kept Chamberlain out there for two innings and 35 pitches at the end Wednesday night and revealed afterward that the lad wasn’t out there just to get some exercise. He is being stretched out to start games.
That’s what Hank always wanted and what he had, coincidentally, said in an interview with mlb.com yesterday afternoon.
“This was the plan all along,” Girardi said after the game, with the same straight face he had used when he had hinted on Saturday that Chamberlain could remain a reliever for the rest of the season.
Well, nobody should be surprised. It was only a matter of time before Chamberlain moved into the rotation anyway and once Hank made it public knowledge that he wanted the kid to start, an announcement was soon to follow. Girardi must love management telling him how to run his club.
He arrived after the Pistons’ championship in 2004, so he still has that insatiable hunger to win a title. And he’ll play a key role in the Eastern Conference Finals because the Celtics do a pretty good job of limiting the opportunities of the other Detroit starters, but it’s very difficult to shut down five guys at once. McDyess scored 10 points in the first half of Game 2, knocking down jumper after jumper. If he can keep that up, the Pistons are going to be very difficult to beat.
