In case you missed it, the Bulls/Celtics series had yet another overtime game last night. The Celtics prevailed, in no small part to Brad Miller missing the first of two free throws that would have tied the game. In his defense, his lip was bloodied by Rajon Rondo as he drove to the hoop. Miller caught the ball in the middle of the court and Rondo almost took his head off. It’s pretty clear he wasn’t going for the ball. Why wasn’t this called a flagrant foul?
Month: April 2009 (Page 3 of 53)
The Albany Firebirds offered suspended NFL quarterback Michael Vick a $200, per week salary in order to join their team. Too bad the owner or general manager of the team didn’t know about it.
Earlier in the day, the team an arenafootball2 franchise, announced it had offered the 28-year-old quarterback a one-year contract at the league standard: $200 a week plus a $50 bonus for a win.
“That’s a joke,” Robb said. “Can you imagine him playing for $200 a week? I think (the offer) was a big mistake.”
The announcement was later pulled from the team’s Web site.
Firebirds general manager Garen Szablewski told The Times Union the team’s marketing department came up with the idea to make an offer to Vick.
“The process wasn’t thought through properly,” Szablewski said. “The right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing.”
Think somebody got fired for this one? I don’t even think Vick made less than $200,000 to walk out of the tunnel for games in the NFL.
According to a report by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Dolphins are trying to revolutionize pro football by bringing the spread offense to the NFL, most notably by using Pat White, whom the team drafted in the second round of last weekend’s draft.
“For the 30 minutes it takes to put in a Wildcat play it takes a defense a day to figure it out and work on how to stop it,” former Miami Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson told WQAM radio last week.
White’s ability to not just scramble, but throw the ball with range and accuracy, will allow offensive coordinator Dan Henning and quarterback coach David Lee to add even more elements to the Wildcat offense. Lee brought the gimmicky formation with him from Arkansas.
Upon White’s selection by the Dolphins, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden predicted the spread offense was “officially in the National Football League,” and described White as “a Wildcat that can throw the football. He’s an electric guy.”
There’s a very simple explanation as to why more pro teams don’t use the spread offense like college teams do, and that’s because defenses are too fast in the NFL. Many teams had success using the “Wildcat” formation last year (especially the Dolphins), but don’t think for a minute that defensive coordinators haven’t been working on ways to shut it down.
When Michael Vick first came into the league, many people thought he would revolutionize the quarterback position forever. And while he did have a lot of success in certain offenses (i.e. Greg Knapp’s triple-spread option), defensive coordinators like Monte Kiffin found ways to stop him. Defenses eventually catch up.
Even though it appears he’s stating more of his opinion rather than actual fact, Michael Lombardi of the National Football Post writes that Mark Sanchez is going to start for the Jets next season. He notes that Sanchez can be a game manager and can certainly handle the offense, although he also notes that the Jets will likely rely on their defense early in the season in order to allow the rookie to gain confidence.
Before the 2008 season, I wrote how the Falcons should start Matt Ryan because he was the most NFL-ready quarterback in last year’s draft. I also noted that since Atlanta’s roster was so young, he should take his lumps with the rest of his inexperienced teammates and they could grow together. (Of course, while I was right on that projection, I was also the idiot that said the Falcons should have drafted Glenn Dorsey with the third overall pick and then fill their quarterback need with Brian Brohm in the second round.)
When the notion of starting a rookie quarterback is brought up, most pundits and fans rattle of the list of signal callers that eventually succumbed to the pressure (David Carr, Joey Harrington, etc, etc), and therefore note how awful of an idea it is. But Ryan and Joe Flacco’s performances last year might have gone a long way in changing that mindset, and you can’t leave Ben Roethlisberger out of the discussion of quarterbacks that started as rookies and went on to have great success.
With the Mavericks’ 106-93 Game 5 win in San Antonio, it is the first time that Tim Duncan has lost a first round series. Tony Parker shot 55% from the field, and averaged 28.6 points, 6.8 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game. Battling sore knees, Duncan still shot 53% from the field, averaging 19.8 points and 8.0 rebounds. Normally, those kinds of numbers from the Spurs’ top two players would result in a series win. What happened?
1. No supporting cast.
Manu Ginobili was out. Duh. But the rest of the Spurs failed to step up in his absence. Parker and Duncan combined to shoot 100 of 185 (54%) in the series, which means everyone not named Tim or Tony combined to make just 75 of their 198 attempts (38%). Roger Mason shot 42% from long range during the season, but made just 37% in the series. The midseason addition of Drew Gooden was a bust; he averaged just 7.3 points and 3.8 rebounds, and shot 33% from the field. Without Ginobili, there wasn’t a third scorer to take the pressure off of Parker and Duncan.
2. Mediocre defense.
The Mavs averaged 96.4 points per game, shot better than 46% from the field and better than 38% from long range during the series. Now those numbers are by no means eye-popping, but they are very un-Spurs-like. San Antonio just couldn’t get the consistent stops it needed to make up for its overall lack of scoring. Josh Howard and Dirk Nowitzki were both stellar, while J.J. Barea and Brandon Bass played great off the bench when Dallas needed it.
The Spurs head into the summer with zero cap space, but with the fiscal state of the league, they’ll have a good opportunity to add a quality player at the mid-level exception, assuming they want to spend the money. My guess is that they will, given that Tim Duncan’s championship window continues to get smaller and smaller. The team is fine in the backcourt, with Parker, Ginobili, Mason and George Hill. They need help on the wing and in the frontcourt, so the priority will likely be a big man. Rasheed Wallace’s name has been floated, but Zaza Pachulia, Anderson Varejao, Brandon Bass, Chris Andersen and Antonio McDyess are cheaper options.
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