The Boston Herald has the details of West’s pending return to Beantown.
From a pure basketball standpoint, West is a great player to get for the league minimum, but the reason that his market value is so low is because he’s a little crazy and he may or may not have caused the Cavs’ playoff implosion earlier this summer. The signing would definitely add a little extra umph to a potential Heat/Celtics playoff series.
Nevertheless, he’ll bring shooting, defense and versatility off the C’s bench.
Earlier in the week, I tackled the RBs and WRs, and now it’s time to discuss late season success with regard to QBs and TEs. Here are a few players that performed well down the stretch and what that success means for the upcoming fantasy season:
QUARTERBACKS
Brett Favre (285 yards, 2.1 TD over the L8 games) was terrific for the Vikings, especially down the stretch. But throw in a bum ankle and a M.I.A. Sidney Rice and things aren’t lined up quite as well for ol’ #4 in 2009. Rice is especially important considering his ability to go up and retrieve all the ill-advised bombs that Favre has a tendency to chuck up. Favre was QB8 last year and I think he’s looking at a finish in the 12-15 range this season…Ben Roethlisberger (310 yards, 1.8 TD over the L6 games) is going to be suspended for the first 4-5 games, and he’s going in the 9th or 10th round as a result. This makes him a great value for use in a QBBC, because he’s probably going to give you top 10 numbers once he starts his season…Vince Young (198 passing yards, 29 rushing yards, 1.3 TD over the L8 games) had a better second half of the season than Kurt Warner, Jay Cutler, Matt Ryan, Carson Palmer and Joe Flacco, yet he’s being drafted behind all of these players (save for the retired Warner) heading into the 2010 season. He has three tough matchups to start the year, but it should be relatively smooth sailing after that.
TIGHT ENDS
Jermichael Finley‘s strong finish (5.5-72-0.5 TD over the L8 games, including the playoffs) has him poised to be a breakout star in 2010. He’s going a little early for my taste, often ahead of a far more proven option in Jason Witten, but he has tremendous upside and is a great pick in the late 4th or early 5th, after the last solid WRs (Steve Smith 1.0, Steve Smith 2.0, Wes Welker, etc.) are off the board. With Donald Driver in the twilight of his career, Finley is poised to become the Packers’ #1 or #2 option in the passing game, and that’s saying something with the way Aaron Rodgers is throwing the ball…Kevin Boss (3.4-41-0.6 TD over the L9 games) was a big part of the Giants’ passing game down the stretch, especially in the red zone. If he can just stay healthy enough to post these kinds of numbers for an entire season, he could finish in the top 10. Given his late round ADP, he’s a very solid TE2 with some upside…Fred Davis (4.1-46-0.6 TD) was terrific for the Redskins after Chris Cooley‘s season-ending injury. Cooley is back now and Davis’s draft stock is in the tank, but he might be the only true TE handcuff out there. If you grab Cooley in the middle rounds, be sure to grab Davis as insurance. Donovan McNabb loves to throw to his TE and Washington is hurting at WR2, so if one guy gets the lion’s share of the targets, there’s a good chance he finishes in the top 10 at the position.
At a press conference to introduce his new GM, Masai Ujiri, the Nuggets’ soon-to-be owner Josh Kroenke said that the recent meeting with Carmelo Anthony went rather well.
Ujiri and Josh Kroenke, recently elevated to team president and awaiting the “owner” title, have good relationships with Anthony. They both spoke Tuesday at a news conference at the Pepsi Center to officially announce Ujiri’s hiring.
Kroenke took aim at a recent column on Yahoo.com that cited sources who detailed a deteriorating relationship between team executives and Anthony’s representation, headed by agent Leon Rose.
“Anything that has been said is either someone trying to manipulate the situation behind the scenes or other motives that are unknown at this point,” Kroenke said. “But Melo and his representation have been great to us.
“I think he knows he can come to me as an individual. We have that amount of respect that we can talk about things openly in a noncombative way. So anything that has been stated from sources behind sources . . . All of our talks have been extremely cordial. I haven’t had a negative conversation with Carmelo Anthony since I’ve known him, and that goes back to my time as a college basketball player. I don’t have a bad word to say about Melo as a person.”
The aforementioned column was written by Adrian Wojnarowski and he paints a very different picture of how the meeting went:
Denver was furnished with a short list of teams and told to get to work. Yes, this is how William Wesley and Leon Rose of CAA work now, thick with threats and ultimatums and a swagger suggesting that the sport belongs to them. After Anthony told owner-in-waiting Josh Kroenke that he still wanted out of Denver during a Sunday meeting, the Nuggets appear done trying to sell their All-Star forward on a contract extension.
This wasn’t a productive, nor particularly pleasant, meeting and multiple sources said it could turn out to be the point of no return for Anthony and the organization. Sources insist it’s no longer a matter of if the Nuggets trade Anthony, but when, where and for whom he’s traded for.
So what’s the disconnect? Well, one of four things may be happening: 1) Wojnarowski is getting bad information from his sources, 2) Wojnarowski has an axe to grind and is fabricating the story, 3) the Nuggets are spinning the situation, or 4) the Nuggets are clueless.
Wojnarowski is a pro, so I think we can cross #2 off of his list, despite the fact that he infuses some commentary into his stories. The Nuggets insist there are sources that are trying to manipulate the situation, though Wojnarowski cites ‘multiple sources’ in his story. At least two people told him that the meeting could represent the ‘point of no return’ for the two parties.
The Nuggets would benefit if they paint a pretty picture of their relationship with Carmelo, as it would help them get a better deal if other teams aren’t sure if Anthony is trying to force his way out of Denver. I suspect that the real issue here is some combination of #1, #3 and #4. It’s entirely possible that Wojnarowski has sources that are trying to create a media dialogue, and that the Nuggets didn’t think the meeting went all that poorly, and are just trying to put lipstick on a pig.
But the crux of Wojnarowski’s story is that the Nuggets were given a list of teams that he’d like to be traded to — did that actually happen? If so, I don’t see how Denver can’t see the writing on the wall, or feel like they have a good chance of keeping Anthony in town. There’s a reason that he hasn’t signed the extension yet, even with a lockout looming next summer.
This video has been making the internet rounds. Some speculate that the RB began running to the wrong endzone, but I think he was trying to run around the defense to the other side of the field and when he realized he wasn’t going to make it, for some reason he decided to chuck the ball towards the endzone. An extra special assist goes to the QB who threw a rocket lateral right at the RB’s helmet, which was the inception of this terrible play.
Is it the worst play ever? Well, there’s DeSean Jackson’s decision to leave the ball as he crossed the goal line…
…but I’m partial to this play in a Vermont high school game since it decided the outcome:
Casey Babcock…that has to be the worst 15 minutes of fame, ever.
On Sunday, Mike Klis of the Denver Post said that Knowshon Moreno doesn’t look close to returning to practice:
…from here, running back Knowshon Moreno and receiver Demaryius Thomas don’t look anywhere near close to returning. Both are running and cutting very gingerly.
Considering Moreno suffered his hamstring injury Aug. 1 _ four weeks ago today _ either he’s a slow healer or he received a least a partial tear. I’m betting on the latter.
On Monday, Klis reported that Josh McDaniels ‘indicated’ Moreno would practice this week:
In his postgame comments, Broncos coach Josh McDaniels indicated starting tailback Knowshon Moreno would practice this week. Moreno’s primary backup, Correll Buckhalter, returned to practice on a limited basis last week but did not play in the preseason game Sunday night against Pittsburgh.
“I think that’s always best for a running back – same thing with (RB Correll Buckhalter) – to get hit before they actually go on to a regular-season game,” McDaniels said. “”But, if that’s not the best thing for us to do, the smartest decision to make, then we’ll probably hold off on that. We’re going to practice this week – we’ll be in pads on Tuesday and we’ll see if we can bang one or both of them around if they’re ready to go by then. We don’t have a timetable yet but both of them are getting close.”
The bit about the hamstring being a tear and not a strain is somewhat worrisome. Moreno is slipping in drafts and owners should proceed with caution. I just passed him up for Mike Sims-Walker in the late 5th, but I’d grab him in the 6th if he makes it back to me. It’s vital that anyone who picks Moreno grab his handcuff, Correll Buckhalter, who his battling his own injury at the moment. The good news is that Buck is usually around very late in drafts.
For what it’s worth, the team is listing him as probable for Week 1.
Tuesday Update: He has been cleared for practice, but Rotoworld is reporting that Moreno is telling people that he’s only at about 80% right now.
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