Delonte West misses practice (unexcused) again. All right, one unexcused absence I can understand, but after he was MIA yesterday, wouldn’t the Cavs track him down to find out why he was absent? Of course they would, which is why he is either completely unreachable or the Cavs don’t approve of his reasons for missing practice. This is worrisome, but expect the team to give him a lot of leeway to get his life straightened out.
The New York Daily News thinks there has been another sign that LeBron is headed to the Knicks. His name is William Wesley and apparently he has LeBron’s ear. He was at Knicks camp this week and some conspiracy theorists believe his presence is a sign that LeBron will be playing in New York next season.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Joe Johnson will not sign an extension this season. Instead, Johnson is going to become a free agent next summer when a number of teams are going to have the cap space to offer a max deal. After LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and (maybe) Amare Stoudemire, Johnson is the next biggest prize in the free agent class of 2010. He’s one of those players that isn’t quite worth a max deal but he’s going to get one anyway. (Think Michael Redd circa 2005.)
Byron Scott told the Times-Picayune that the Hornets’ starting small forward job is Julian Wright’s to lose. This is about a year too late. Wright was quite productive (PER: 15.48) in his rookie season, but the Hornets went with James Posey instead, thinking that he’d be the missing piece to the championship puzzle. Wright is one of those young, talented players that is going to see a big increase in minutes, so fantasy basketball owners should take note.
Author: John Paulsen (Page 440 of 937)
Kevin Smith to be a game time decision. Smith has shoulder and knee injuries, but the shoulder is more worrisome. The feeling from the Lions beat writers is that he won’t play, so Smith owners should make other plans. Glen Coffee is a nice alternative, if available. Tashard Choice should get plenty of playing time with Felix Jones sidelined and Marion Barber banged up. If neither are available, Maurice Morris will get most of the work with Smith out.
Cowboys expect MBIII to play on Sunday. The team says he was close to playing on Monday night, but they decided to rest him another week. With Felix Jones out, I’d expect Barber and Tashard Choice to split the work, with Barber getting the goal line duties and Choice getting a healthy number of carries and most of the third-down snaps. Denver’s defense has played well, but the competition (CIN, CLE and OAK) has been very suspect. Barber and Choice are both decent starts this week.
Glen Coffee should get plenty of work with Frank Gore sidelined. The 49ers do use Michael Robinson from time to time in the passing game, but expect Coffee to get the lion’s share of touches while Gore is out. Coffee is a good start (RB2) this week against the Rams and is a must-grab if he’s still somehow out there on your waiver wire.
Chris Wells isn’t playing much because he doesn’t know the entire offense. HC Whisenhunt says that Wells is behind the curve because he missed time in camp. When the Cardinals trail, they’ve been using Tim Hightower exclusively, which is why he’s been so valuable in PPR leagues. With Arizona on bye this week, Wells should be able to play catch up. It might be a good time to sell Hightower while his stock is pretty high.
We’ve partnered with On Goal Analysis to bring you a team-by-team preview of the upcoming NHL season. (Just scroll down on the OGA website and hit the calendar.) Here is the preview for the Edmonton Oilers…
Team Play: ISSUE – The Blueline. Truthfully, Florida has more than a couple of question marks among the forward lines, too, but the New & Not-Necessarily-Improved blueline corps (Now Bouwmeester Free!!!) earns OGA’s focus. In addition to the departure of Jay “30-minutes-a-night” Bouwmeester, Florida also said goodbye to Nick Boynton (now with Anaheim), Karlis Skrastins (Dallas), and apparently, to Jassen Cullimore (UFA), as well. Replacing those ‘Cats are Jordan Leopold, Ville Koistinen, and…who else? Well, that’s why they have training camp every year, right? – To find the answers to such questions. Seriously, the Panthers have invited veterans Martin Skoula and Christian Backman (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) to camp, and they’ll compete with a handful of rookies for available roster spots. No matter who ends up on the Opening Night roster, the Panthers’ defensemen have big skates (and minutes) to fill.
Click here to read the rest of the preview (which includes the site’s unique Playoff Qualifying Curve and fantasy information) at the On Goal Analysis site.
The strategy behind DTBWW is that each week, you pick up a defense, preferably one playing at home against a bad offense. And each week, you get pretty good numbers out of your DT position. To see how this approach performed last season, click here.
Last week, I recommended three DTBWW picks. Let’s see how they fared…
…and it was an unexcused absence.
FOLLOW US!
CATEGORIES
© 2026 The Scores Report – The National Sports Blog
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑