Month: September 2010 (Page 5 of 60)

      Sixers really, really high on Jrue Holiday

      September 29, 2010 /
      March 30, 2010: Philadelphia 76ers guard Jrue Holiday (11) going up for the shot attempt during the NBA game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Thunder beat the 76ers, 111-93.

      I can see being optimistic about a 20-year-old point guard who averaged 13-4-6 and shot 50% from the field and 46% from 3PT in 17 games in March, but new head coach Doug Collins might be going a little overboard here…

      “I honestly believe that next year, you’re going to be talking about him being one of the top five point guards in the NBA. I think you’re going to speak about him in the same breath as Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Russell Westbrook, Derrick Rose and Jrue.”

      Good grief, Doug. Whatever happened to keeping your players hungry for praise?

      For what it’s worth, Andre Iguodala supported Collins’ praise…

      At Monday’s media day, Andre Iguodala admitted that he raved about Holiday, not even four months past his 20th birthday, to Collins and Sixers owner Ed Snider back in June. And he’s still doing it today.

      “I said he’ll be one of the top point guards in the league,” Iguodala said. “In his prime, he’ll be a top five point guard and he might go down as one of the greatest point guards, defensively. He’s got kind of a Gary Payton presence, where he can pressure a guy full-court.”

      Keep in mind that Iggy said “in his prime” that Holiday would be a top five point guard. That’s more reasonable than Collins’ assertion that it’s going to happen this season.

      Either way, fantasy owners should take note — the Sixers are really high on this kid.

      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA

      2010 College Football Week 5 Odds

      September 28, 2010 /
      GAINESVILLE, FL - SEPTEMBER 25: Florida fans cheer late in the fourth quarter as the Florida Gators take on the Kentucky Wildcats at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on September 25, 2010 in Gainesville, Florida. Florida defeated Kentucky 48-14 for head coach Urban Meyer's 100th career victory. (Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images)

      We’re still days away from another Saturday in college football, but here are some point spreads that jumped out at me in this weekend’s slate of action.

      No. 7 Florida vs. No. 1 Alabama, 8:00PM ET
      This is the second of three games the Crimson Tide will play against top 25 teams (assuming South Carolina stays in the top 25 after this week) and their second big SEC challenge. They escaped disaster last weekend in Fayetteville with a come-from-behind win over Arkansas and now take on a Florida team that crushed Kentucky last Saturday. Pundits have noted that the Gators’ offense hasn’t been as explosive as it has in years past and that may be the case. But they’ve scored at least 31 points in each of their first four games, including 48 last week against Kentucky and 31 against Tennessee two weekends ago. Nine points seems a tad high for a game of this magnitude.
      THE LEAN: FLORIDA +9

      No. 21 Texas vs. No. 8 Oklahoma, 3:30PM ET
      Whether they were caught looking ahead or just had an off day, the Longhorns’ loss to UCLA last Saturday was devastating. The good thing is that they can’t dwell on the defeat for too long with the “Red River Rivalry” set to renew this weekend. The Sooners’ have only won by a touchdown or less in three of their four games to start the season, but they could be catching the Longhorns at an opportune time. Texas actually matches up pretty well with OU, but 4.5 points isn’t much to lay with the favorite here and the spread could go down closer to game time.
      THE LEAN: OKLAHOMA –4.5

      No. 11 Wisconsin vs. No. 24 Michigan State, 3:30PM ET
      The Badgers are off to a perfect start on the new year, but have failed to cover against the three FBS teams they’ve faced thus far. The Spartans play tough at home and should get a huge lift with the return of head coach Mark Dantonio, who is expected to coach from the press box after he suffered a heart attack two weeks ago. Wisconsin looks awfully tempting at –1, but I fear this game could be a trap. I like MSU.
      THE LEAN: MICHIGAN STATE +1

      No. 22 Penn State vs. No. 17 Iowa, 8:05PM ET
      I think Penn State is playing exactly how everyone should have expected them to play. They’re a young team overall and while they’ve managed to win three of their first four games, they’ve suffered plenty of ups and downs. They needed a strong second half to knock off Temple last weekend and now they have to go into hostile environment to take on the Hawkeyes team that has looked great at home (albeit against Eastern Illinois, Iowa State and Ball State) thus far. The only time the Nittany Lions played on the road this year they looked completely helpless against Alabama. It shouldn’t be total domination like it was in Tuscaloosa that day, but Iowa should wear PSU down in the fourth quarter and pull away.
      THE LEAN: IOWA -7

      Below is a complete list of point spreads for Week 5 in college football.

      Continue reading »

      College Football, External Sports

      Would the Panthers be open to trading Steve Smith this season?

      September 28, 2010 /
      Carolina Panthers wide receiver Steve Smith stands on the field during a break in the action against the Washington Redskins at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina on October 11, 2009. The Panthers won 20-17. UPI/Nell Redmond . Photo via Newscom

      At 0-3 and committed to a rebuilding year in what could be John Fox’s final season as head coach, the Panthers might be wise to trade receiver Steve Smith in order to get something now for him while they still can.

      Actually, Smith doesn’t become a free agent until 2013, so the Panthers have plenty of time to trade him if they inevitably choose too. But at 31, it’s not like he’s getting any younger and his trade value may never be higher than it is right now.

      Carolina isn’t going anywhere this season with the amount of offensive line and quarterback issues they currently have. Thus, Smith is useless to this current team (he’s still a dynamic talent, but what good is he if nobody can get him the ball?), which is why Tom Sorensen of the Charlotte Observer thinks the solution might be to trade him now.

      Sorensen mentions Minnesota as a possible landing spot, which would be a perfect fit. But there are other teams that could definitely use Smith’s services, too.

      The Seahawks are in first place in the worst division in football, but they’re desperate for a receiver after not pulling the trigger on Brandon Marshall and Vincent Jackson over the past couple of months. The Titans are high on Kenny Britt, but they could use another weapon in the passing game, as could the Steelers unless they’re completely sold on Hines Ward and Mike Wallace as their top guns. (I’m certainly not suggesting Ward or Wallace can’t get the job done, but I’m just throwing the idea out there.)

      The wildcard is Atlanta, who has Roddy White but doesn’t have that complement at the No. 2 wideout position. Michael Jenkins is a terrific blocker but he isn’t a threat in the passing game and Harry Douglas is best left in the slot. Teams don’t usually trade within the division, but after the Eagles dealt Donovan McNabb to the Redskins this offseason, nothing would surprise me.

      As of now, this is all just speculation. The Panthers haven’t given any indication that they’re ready to put Smith on the trade block and for all we know, he’s going to finish out his career in Carolina. But given the current state of the franchise, it’s an interesting thought.

      External Sports, NFL

      Nets working on new deal for Carmelo

      September 28, 2010 /

      Per Adrian Wojnarowski…

      New Jersey and Denver were moving from including Utah’s Andrei Kirilenko and Charlotte’s Boris Diaw in the trade packages, front-office sources said, and trying to find trade partners in both the Eastern and Western conferences. Denver and New Jersey were trying to line up new scenarios that still would result with Anthony in New Jersey and Derrick Favors and Nets draft picks in Denver, sources said.

      The four-team trade fell apart when Denver kept trying to include more of its players in deals to spare themselves a bigger luxury-tax bill that would’ve come with the arrivals of Kirilenko and Favors, sources said. The proposed trade would have added $4.5 million in salary to their payroll plus another $4.5 million in luxury tax.

      I understand the reluctance of the Nuggets to take on an additional $9 million in expenses as a byproduct of trading their best player away. It would seem like including a medium-sized contract (Chris Anderson, J.R. Smith) in the deal would solve that problem, though the Nets need to be the team absorbing that extra salary since it’s doubtful that the Jazz or Bobcats are going to want to take it on.

      Four-team trades have a way of falling apart and the Nuggets aren’t doing anyone any favors by dragging their feet. I can’t really blame them, though. They’re just doing their due diligence and seeing if a) they can convince Carmelo to stay or b) they can get a better deal.

      I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — if Carmelo starts the season with the Nuggets, it’s going to be awfully tough to trade him away when the team is sitting in the #3 or #4 spot on the West and Nugget fans are daydreaming about a deep run in the playoffs. With Amare Stoudemire and Carlos Boozer changing conferences, the Nuggets have a great chance to win 50+ games again, and that’s going to make it tough to trade away a superstar in the middle of the season.

      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA, News, Rumors & Gossip

      Longoria and Price call low attendance at Rays’ game “embarrassing”

      September 28, 2010 /
      Tampa Bay Rays' Evan Longoria walks back to the dugout after striking out against the Boston Red Sox during the third inning of their MLB American League baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts September 6, 2010. REUTERS/Adam Hunger (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT BASEBALL)

      Following the Rays’ 4-0 loss to the Orioles on Monday night, third baseman Evan Longoria and David Price said it was embarrassing that Tampa could have clinched a playoff spot and only 12,446 fans (the fourth-smallest crowd of the season at Tropicana Field) would have seen it.

      Longoria’s take, Via the St. Petersburg Times:

      “We go out there and play hard for 162 games,” Longoria said, “and for the fans to show the kind of support they’re showing right now, you kind of wonder what else you have to do as a player.”

      Price said:

      “Had a chance to clinch a post season spot tonight with about 10,000 fans in the stands….embarrassing”

      David Brown of Yahoo! Sports had the best take on this situation that I’ve read so far:

      Jeez, what is it with Tampa Bay athletes who live in glass houses?

      No matter their good intentions, no matter their honesty, no matter if they have reason to be upset — even if they were 1000 percent correct — what Longoria (pictured right) and Price did was a mistake.

      It’s a cardinal rule: You don’t criticize your fan base. It’s stupid. It’s ignorant. It won’t get you what you want. It makes you look entitled, spoiled, narrow-minded and short-sighted.

      The timing was poor, too, after losing 4-0 to the Baltimore Orioles. No matter how well you’re doing — and the Rays are having a great season — nobody wants to hear how bad the attendance was on a night when your team is shut out. It’s an obvious lack of perspective.

      Longoria later said he was “just trying to rally the troops and get more people in here,” which I believe.
      Price already backtracked, saying, “If I offended anyone I apologize” — which is the classic non-apology apology. He’s probably sorry, though, for one reason or another.

      There are many reasons the Rays lag at 22nd overall in attendance. Start with: Bad stadium, bad location of stadium, bad economy. There’s more. It’s all irrelevant to Longoria and Price criticizing the fans.

      It’s just bad policy, scolding people for not paying their own money to watch you.

      Sorry for the long blockquote, but Brown made so many good points that I couldn’t cut it down. He hit a home run with his comments and I couldn’t agree more with everything he said.

      Tampa fans should pack the stadium on a night where the Rays could clinch a playoff spot, but Brown is right when he says there’s nothing to be gained by criticizing your fanbase. It’s in poor taste and imagine how the people feel who did go to the game last night. They spent upwards of $100 to attend a game that the Rays didn’t even show up for and now they have to listen to two of the star players bitch about low attendance.

      Dumb.

      External Sports, MLB

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