Category: External Sports (Page 318 of 821)

      One reason the Nuggets might be dragging their feet…

      January 18, 2011 /
      Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony warms up at the Pepsi Center in Denver on November 16, 2010. UPI/Gary C. Caskey

      I missed this tidbit from a TrueHoop post from about a week ago:

      The Nuggets have a great offer on the table now, but might see some merit in stalling, too. For one thing, it’s hard to see what could happen to make the Nets’ current offer disappear. Derrick Favors has spent much of the season playing behind Kris Humphries in New Jersey, and unlikely to increase his market value drastically. Then there’s some gamesmanship surrounding the Nets’ 2011 draft pick. Very high picks like that one, used skillfully, are nearly essential ingredients to winning titles, and they’re damned hard to find. As the Nuggets root for that pick to be as high as possible, they root, of course, for the Nets to lose. And every loss matters, as a heated battle is under way for the NBA’s worst record. The 10-27 Nets have the NBA’s fifth-worst record today, but they’re a mere two games out of the 8-29 Cavaliers’ first, or last — depending on your perspective — place. Of course, the Nuggets can’t do anything to make the Nets lose more … or can they? Giving them an All-Star like Anthony may well cause the Nets to rip off some wins. It sounds a little out there, but one thought is that the longer the Nuggets keep Anthony from the Nets, the better that Nets’ pick is likely to be.

      Gamesmanship, indeed.

      Let’s assume that on Jan. 7 the Nuggets decided that the offer of Derrick Favors, Devin Harris and a first round pick for Melo and bad contracts was an agreeable offer. The trade deadline isn’t until Feb. 24, so during that span, the Nets would play 20 games. If the Nuggets were to trade Carmelo on Jan. 7, it would almost certainly help New Jersey’s win/loss record during that span. The Nets are currently winning at a .244 clip. Let’s make another assumption: They start winning at a .500 rate once Carmelo is on board. So that means they would go 10-10 during the 1/7 to 2/24 span instead of 5-15.

      Those five wins could be very important come lottery time for the Nets’ 2011 first rounder that will no doubt be included in the Anthony trade. As an example, at the end of last season only four games separated the team with the third-worst record (Kings) from the team with the ninth-worst record (Knicks). As a result, the Kings had a 15.6% chance of landing the first overall pick while the Jazz (who had the Knicks’ pick) had just a 1.7% chance of winning the #1 pick.

      So assuming that the Nets aren’t going to pull the offer from the table (and that Carmelo is agreeable to signing an extension with the Nets), Denver stands to benefit by dragging its feet as long as possible.

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

      Ten QB-needy teams that passed on Aaron Rodgers in the 2005 draft

      January 18, 2011 /
      Green Bay Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rogers calls out a play against the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland on October 10, 2010. The Redskins went on to defeat the Packers 16-13. UPI/Kevin Dietsch

      The sight of Braylon Edwards doing back flips after the Jets beat the Patriots on Sunday must have made Brown fans want to puke. He didn’t help their team win anything in Cleveland and now the jagoff is knocking on the door of a Super Bowl appearance.

      What makes the situation even tougher for Cleveland fans is that the Browns could have had the quarterback that absolutely shredded the top-seeded Falcons the night before Edwards and the Jets beat the Patriots. Twenty-one slots after the Browns selected Edwards with the third overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft, the Packers nabbed California quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Where would the Browns be today had they taken Rodgers instead?

      Granted, no two situations are ever exactly alike – especially in the NFL. There’s no guarantee that had Cleveland selected Rodgers over Edwards that the Browns would be where the Packers are today. It just doesn’t work that way in sports – or life for that matter. Rodgers could have turned out to be the next Tim Couch for all we know and as I point out below, had the Browns drafted him that year, they may have never acquired feature back Peyton Hillis in 2010.

      But for a moment, let’s play the “What if?” game. Let’s pretend that everything would have worked out for Rodgers in Cleveland, just like it has in Green Bay. Let’s assume that the quarterback-needy Browns would have set themselves up by taking Rodgers at No. 3 and with that in mind, what other teams blew it by not selecting the California gunslinger?

      Come with me on a journey back to Saturday, April 23, 2005. Below is a list of 10 quarterback-needy teams that passed on Rodgers that fateful day and at what pick in the draft. Also listed are the players those teams took ahead of Rodgers, and a brief look at their current situation.

      No. 1 San Francisco 49ers
      Who they took instead of Rodgers: Alex Smith, QB
      This one probably stings the most. Smith and Rodgers were the only quarterbacks that were worthy of taking at No. 1 and the Niners were set on taking a signal caller. They decided on Smith because they fell in love with his athleticism, which was something Rodgers supposedly didn’t have enough of. Thanks to constant coaching turnover and an unstable situation, Smith hasn’t panned out and Rodgers is running around the Georgia Dome carpet making plays with both his arm and legs. So much for not having any athleticism…

      Continue reading »

      External Sports, NFL

      Strength of Schedule: Playoffs, Week 3

      January 18, 2011 /

      For those of us playing fantasy football (in one form or another) during the NFL playoffs, I thought it would be worthwhile to calculate end-of-year strength of schedule. I won’t be updating the SOS data throughout the playoffs, but I should be able to post a table each week with updated matchups.

      What am I looking at?

      Below you’ll see a table with a list of team names on the left and a list of positions (including PPR data) along the top. If a square is pink, it means that the matchup is tough. If it’s green, it means it’s a favorable matchup.

      It’s important to note that this is NOT straight fantasy points allowed. I removed the bias of schedule by looking at the opponents of each defense and how they fared in their other games. For example, if a particular defense faced a series of great QBs, then that is taken into account in these tables.

      For those of us who are going to play fantasy football through the playoffs, I thought it would be worthwhile to calculate strength of schedule for the first week of the playoffs. I’m not going to be updating SOS throughout the playoffs, but I should be able to post an updated table each week with SOS data updated through W17.

      How do I use SOS?

      Generally speaking, I use strength of schedule as a tiebraker between two similarly ranked players. Let’s say I’m trying to decide between starting BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Cedric Benson. All else being equal, these two players are very close in my mind. But if BGE has a great matchup and Benson has a bad matchup, the choice is clear. In fact, if BGE just has a mediocre matchup while Benson has a bad matchup, I’d probably go with the Law Firm.

      Be careful not to read too much into these tables. You aren’t going to bench Chris Johnson in a bad matchup unless you have a bona fide RB1 with a good matchup waiting in the wings.

      Ben Roethlisberger has the best matchup of the QBs, but keep in mind that the Jets numbers are inflated due to the stint where Darrelle Revis was out earlier in the season. I’d still start Rodgers ahead of Big Ben despite a so-so matchup with the Bears…James Starks looks like a sleeper at RB this week, while the NYJ wideouts could surprise against the Steelers…Greg Olsen looks like the best play at TE, and seems to have good games against the Packers.

      External Sports, Fantasy Football, NFL

      Maroney kicks off free agency by being arrested on weapons and drug charges

      January 18, 2011 /

      Running back Laurence Maroney’s rookie contract expires this offseason and considering he’s largely been a bust since being selected in the first round of the 2006 NFL Draft, one would think he would spend his free time training.

      But one would be wrong.

      According to KMOV.com, Maroney was arrested late Monday night and is being held on unlawful weapons and drug charges. While there aren’t many details at this time, it appears that Maroney was in a car with three other men when the police pulled them over in St. Louis. Oh, and apparently there was a high-speed chase.

      Maroney’s publicist Jane Higgins told KMOV that her client was not with the car involved in the chase, but he just so happened to be behind the car by “pure coincidence.” Per the report, Maroney has a permit for the gun he was carrying, but the permit was in a wallet that wasn’t on him at the time. (You know, because guys carry multiple wallets to match their shoes.)

      For his sake, I hope this was just a misunderstanding and he can clear his name. Otherwise, he’s not going to receive much offers this offseason.

      Update: TMZ is reporting that Maroney was released and not charged with a crime.

      From Rotoworld.com:

      Updating an earlier item, TMZ.com reports that Laurence Maroney was arrested for possession of marijuana and unlawful use of a weapon Monday night, but Maroney’s rep says he has been released and not charged with a crime.
      “Mr. Maroney was unlawfully arrested for possession of weapons. He holds a permit to carry a concealed weapon and he had his permit on his person when he was arrested. He was not arrested for any drugs nor was he involved in a high speed chase. He was released without being charged with any offense and we do not anticipate he will be charged with any criminal offense.” We’ll update this if more unfolds, but it sounds like Maroney has somehow dodged a bullet here, no pun intended.

      Well that’s certainly good news for Maroney.

      External Sports, NFL

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