Month: January 2010 (Page 23 of 65)

      McDaniels loses another coordinator – Miami hires Nolan

      January 19, 2010 /

      Word on the street (and by street, I mean the World Wide Web) is that the Dolphins have hired Mike Nolan to run their defense next season.

      From Yahoo! Sports:

      Miami supposedly asked the Denver Broncos if it could speak with Nolan even before he and the Broncs, um, mutually parted ways. Nolan’s departure extended the list of coaches that had worked with Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels who left after one year: Rick Dennison, who now is the offensive coordinator for the Houston Texans, and former Denver running-backs coach Bobby Turner, who has joined the Washington Redskins, are the others.

      Nolan, of course, was once the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, just as his father before him had been. Nolan the junior had a losing record in the three years that he lasted in that position.

      Nolan is a great hire for Miami, but what I want to know is why McDaniels keeps losing members of his staff. It would be understandable if his assistants were taking jobs with other teams while having the opportunity to climb the coaching ladder, but they’re not – they’re taking the same position, but with other teams.

      Is there a power struggle going on in Denver right? Is McDaniels hard to work with or is this just a coincidence that several members of his staff have decided to jump ship?


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      NFL

      Who deserves to represent the East in the All-Star Game?

      January 19, 2010 /

      By the end of this month, the NBA will announce the rosters for the 2010 All-Star Game. Between the fans (who vote for the starters) and the coaches (who pick the reserves), we usually end up with a pretty representative list of the who’s who of the 2009-10 NBA season, even though there are usually one or two minor headscratchers.

      With that in mind, here are my picks (for now), which are based on some ambiguous combination of the player’s individual performance and his team’s overall record. (Check back tomorrow for the West All-Stars.)

      THE NO-BRAINERS

      1. LeBron James, Cavs
      He’s averaging 30-7-8 with 51% shooting, 1.5 steals and almost a block per game. Moreover, his team currently holds the #1 seed in the East.

      2. Dwight Howard, Magic
      He’s averaging 17-13 with 60% shooting and 2.5 blocks. Pencil him in for the next 10 years, assuming he stays healthy.

      3. Dwyane Wade, Heat
      The Heat are just above .500, and Wade’s numbers (46% shooting) aren’t as good as in years past, but he’s averaging 27-5-6 and his team is sitting in the #6 spot right now.

      4. Paul Pierce, Celtics
      The C’s have been without Kevin Garnett for 10 games and are still holding on to the #2 seed in the East. Pierce is averaging 18-5-4 and his hitting almost 47% from long range.

      5. Chris Bosh, Raptors
      The Raptors are a .500 team and Bosh is averaging 24-11 while shooting 52% from the field.

      6. Joe Johnson, Hawks
      The Hawks are sitting at #3 and JJ is posting 21-5-5, while shooting a respectable 45% from the field.

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      Fantasy Basketball, NBA

      Vikings’ pass rush key to beating Brees, Saints

      January 19, 2010 /

      How does a team beat an opponent that had not been beaten in its last 18 games, that had averaged over 36 points and over 410 yards of total offense a game?

      The quick answer to the proposed question above is a potent pass-rush. Along with the last-minute heroics of Eli Manning and David Tyree, that’s how the Giants beat the undefeated Patriots 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII. And that’s also how the Vikings can beat the Saints this Sunday in the NFC Championship Game.

      Brett Favre, Adrian Peterson and the rest of the Minnesota offense will get a lot of attention heading into this weekend – and rightfully so. Led by Favre and AP, the Vikings have the fifth best overall and the second best scoring offense in the league. But it’ll be the play of Jared Allen and the rest of Minnesota’s pass rush that will be crucial to the Vikings’ Super Bowl hopes.

      The Vikings trail the Saints in terms of total offense and points scored. New Orleans has the best offense in the NFL, led by quarterback Drew Brees and a plethora of weapons ranging from Reggie Bush to Marques Colston and Jeremy Shockey. There’s a reason why the Saints earned the No. 1 seed – they put points on the board, especially at home.

      But the Cowboys proved in Week 15 that Brees and the rest of the Saints’ offense could be neutralized by a defense that can pressure the quarterback. In that game, DeMarcus Ware treated Jermon Bushrod like a revolving door to Brees, while racking up two of the Cowboys’ four sacks that night. Brees had limited time to throw and was often swallowed up by Dallas’ pressure.

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      NFL

      Report: Wizards haven’t decided to void Arenas’s contract

      January 19, 2010 /

      Mike Jones (former Wizards beat writer for the “now defunct Washington Times sports department”) reports that the team hasn’t decided what to do with regard to Gilbert Arenas.

      It was believed that the Wizards would exercise their right to void the remaining four years and $80 million left on Arenas’ deal because of the felony conviction. This belief was further fueled by multiple media outlets outlining the Wizards’ options, and seemed to be further backed up by the TMZ report that Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld told Arenas he had the right to void the deal in a text message.

      But according to a source speaking on the condition of anonymity, the Wizards have not had any discussions or communications with Arenas in regards to voiding the deal, and haven’t decided what their course of action is in the situation because the legal process must play out, and then David Stern, who already has suspended Arenas indefinitely, must decide what – if any – additional punishment the player will receive before being reinstated into the league.

      If Arenas is able to avoid jail time, and is re-instate to the league by Stern, the Wizards are hopeful that they can mend what Arenas’ perceives as broken fences, and move forward with him as their franchise point guard.

      “The Wizards did give him that $111 million contract when everyone thought they shouldn’t, and this still is a player who was averaging 22 points and almost seven assists in his first season back from a two-year layoff,” the source said. “They know that, and would like this thing to work, but just have to see.”

      He’s also shooting a paltry 41% from the field and isn’t much of a defender. He wasn’t worth the contract even when he signed it, and he certainly isn’t worth it now. If the Wizards want to turn this thing around, hitching their wagon to an overpaid volume shooter with a long injury history and a tendency to bring guns into work isn’t the best way to do it.

      Jones’s source uses the pronoun “they” to describe the Wizards, so it doesn’t sound like he/she is actually with the team. It will be interesting to see how the team proceeds; this could just be a ruse (by the source or team) to lead the media to think that Arenas’s fate hasn’t already been sealed. We shall see.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

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