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      Oklahoma City explores its options

      June 15, 2009 /

      Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman had this to say about the current trade winds in the NBA…

      With just 10 days remaining until the June 25 NBA Draft, one league source said there has been an unusual silence around the league regarding substantial trade talks. The source said the economy is likely the culprit, with the majority of teams primarily interested in shedding high-dollar contracts.

      “Dumping contracts is going to be the principal thing in this draft as far as trades go,” the source said. “You’re not going to see pick-for-pick (trades). You’re going to see pick and bad contract for pick.”

      Outside of the run of the mill free agents, I think there might be a few big names changing teams this summer, but my bet is that they’ll mostly be the second-tier stars with bloated salaries. The playoff teams that are willing to spend won’t shy away from adding the salary given that the player may be the missing piece to the championship puzzle.

      In another column, Mayberry discusses the importance of different positions in the NBA…

      Nine of the 10 teams that finished the season ranked in the top 10 in opponent scoring made the playoffs. The common denominator: all had an interior defender or shot-blocker at the center position. (Nine of the 10 teams that finished at the bottom 10 in opponent scoring missed the playoffs. All but two — Chicago and Phoenix — lacked a difference-maker defensively at center.)

      But on the flip side, with its roster under construction, the Thunder isn’t in a position to draft for need. Many observers around the league think the Thunder should select the best player available, regardless of position and in spite of Oklahoma City’s gaping hole in the middle.

      “A lot of teams feel it’s way more important to have a Brandon Roy than a center,” said the scout. “A guy who can run the high pick-and-roll, get to the free throw line, make plays for others. It’s not even close. You’re dead in the water if you don’t have that guy.”

      The Thunder pick third, so they’re likely looking at Ricky Rubio, Hasheem Thabeet and James Harden. The Rubio/Harden decision comes down to what the team has planned for Russell Westbrook. Is he the point guard of the future (as Chad Ford keeps reporting)? If so, it doesn’t make sense to draft Rubio. If they feel that Westbrook is better suited for off guard, then a Rubio/Westbrook backcourt could also be formidable. I’m guessing that the Grizzlies are going to go with Thabeet at #2, so OKC may very well have to make this decision later this month.

      NBA Draft

      Red Sox interested in Jack Wilson, but do they need him?

      June 15, 2009 /

      According to a report by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, trade rumors between the Red Sox and Pirates involving shortstop Jack Wilson are starting to heat up. There is some hesitation, however, on the Pittsburgh’s behalf because the club doesn’t want to alienate its fan base by trading away another popular player as it did last week when they dealt Nate McLouth to the Braves.

      While Boston would love to add a shortstop while Jed Lowrie continues to recover from a wrist injury, I don’t know if Wilson would be the right fit. While he’s excellent defensively, Wilson brings little to the table offensively and he’s grossly overpaid (he’s set to make $7.25 million this year and $8.4 million in 2010 with a club option buyout of $600,000).

      Even though Lowrie is hurt, he should return at some point this year and he gives the Sox a better overall player at the position than Wilson does. Not to mention, Lowrie is also cheaper.

      The problem is waiting for Lowrie to return. He’s been out since mid April and while Nick Green has filled in admirably, he doesn’t offer much long-term upside. The other issue is that with Lowrie out, there’s a possibility that Julio Lugo may continue to see the field and as all Sox fans know, that’s a tragedy.

      Personally, I think Boston would be better off not making a move for Wilson. Lowrie offers the Sox the most upside at the position and while it may be painful waiting for him to return, they might be better off in the long run if they hold off on making any moves (at least at shortstop).

      MLB

      Let the revisionist history begin…

      June 15, 2009 /

      Tim Legler was on SportsCenter giving his take on the series:

      “…really were only seriously challenged in one series, the Houston Rockets, who surprisingly took them to a seventh game. They did it with relative ease.”

      Really? So one Orlando win and two Laker wins in OVERTIME isn’t a serious challenge?

      I wrote the following last night after the game…

      Unfortunately for the Magic, the competitiveness of these Finals is going to fade as time goes on. The Lakers’ ability to clinch in five games seems dominant on paper and people are going to forget that if not for two plays — Courtney Lee’s missed alley-oop in Game 2 and Jameer Nelson’s failure to contest Derek Fisher’s game-tying three in Game 4 — this series easily could have gone into Game 5 with the Magic leading, 3-1. But by losing tonight the way they did, most people are going to forget how evenly matched these two teams were.

      …but I had no idea that the revisionist history would start so quickly.

      Then there was Magic Johnson, talking about Kobe:

      “Kobe proved all the doubters wrong and all the Kobe haters wrong.”

      While he certainly proved those that doubted his ability to lead a team to an NBA championship to be wrong, how exactly do you prove a “hater” wrong? The New England Patriots have a lot of haters, but how does a Super Bowl win prove them wrong? The same goes for Duke or the Yankees. People don’t hate those teams because they can’t win a title, they hate them for reasons that are intrinsic to the franchise or program.

      For Kobe, it is his insular, “above-it-all” personality early in his career, the perception that he ran Shaq out of town, the way he acts/acted towards his teammates, the alleged rape in Colorado, the $4 million dollar ring he bought for his wife so she’d forgive him for the alleged rape/cheating, and the carefully constructed public relations campaign we’ve been subjected to over the last few years.

      Oh, and of course, there’s this face.

      Kobe haters didn’t think that he couldn’t win a title, they just think he’s a dick. How does last night’s win against the Magic prove them wrong?

      NBA, NBA Finals

      What’s wrong with Johan Santana?

      June 15, 2009 /

      Just under a month ago, Johan Santana took the hill at AT&T Park in San Francisco and what was supposed to be an easy outing against a weak Giants’ lineup, turned out to be one of his worst starts of the season.

      While he did earn his fifth victory that day in San Fran to get to 5-2 on the year, Santana was hammered for 11 hits and six runs (only four were earned) in the Mets’ 9-6 win. Since then, Mets fans have mostly been wondering, “What’s wrong with Johan?”

      Santana’s numbers in his last three starts are staggering. He’s given up 24 hits, 17 earned runs, has struck out just eight and his ERA is 9.56. Granted, most of those bad numbers can be attributed to his outing yesterday at Yankees Stadium when the Bronx Bombers tuned him up for nine hits and nine runs in just three innings of work. The Yankees eventually won, 15-0.

      So is this just a slump for Santana or is trouble brewing on the horizon?

      Against the Yankees, Santana missed spots badly and his velocity appeared to be way down. Pitchers go through rough patches throughout the season, but Johan rarely struggles like the way he did on Sunday.

      There’s a good possibility that Santana is hurt. His elbow bothered him in spring training and he admitted that his back was acting up about a month ago. Even though he says that he’s healthy, maybe he’s suffering some lingering effects from nagging injuries and he just doesn’t have his stuff right now.

      Chances are Santana will turn things around soon. Don’t forget that he has often struggled in the month of April throughout his career but this year he was filthy, posting a 3-1 record with a 1.10 ERA and 44 strikeouts. Maybe he’s just suffering his April woes in June this year.

      Either way, if he does bounce back, it’s good for the Mets that he’s working out the kinks in June rather than late July or August. It’ll be interesting to see how he fares over his next couple of starts because while Met fans aren’t pushing the panic button yet, their hands are certainly hovering over it.

      MLB

      Finals reaction

      June 15, 2009 /

      Bill Plaschke, LA Times: Bryant, the Finals MVP, becomes possibly the most unburdened player in NBA history as he finally wins a title without former teammate and nemesis Shaquille O’Neal, who had earlier won one without Bryant. “I just don’t have to hear that criticism, that idiotic criticism, anymore,” said Bryant, who ended a week of growling intensity by literally gnawing at his fingernails in anticipation of Sunday’s final horn. Sitting with a Moet-soaked T-shirt in the interview room underneath Amway Arena, Bryant shook his head, grinning and chuckling, the taut and tough leader finally admitting that the Shaq rap ripped him. “It was like Chinese water torture . . . it was just annoying . . . I would cringe every time,” he said. “I was just like, it’s a challenge I’m just going to have to accept because there’s no way I’m going to argue it.”

      George Diaz, Orlando Sentinel: A flurry of turnovers, missteps and mistakes. The Magic bumbled their way through the evening, turning the Am into a roadhouse version of the Staples Center. It was an embarrassing way to say goodbye to the season. You lose, you lose. But you always play hard. Always. The Magic only did that in spurts Sunday. And that’s how you get blown out by a superior team. The Lakers deserved to be champions. They found ways to close out games in the clutch, unlike the Magic, who lost two of these matchups in overtime.

      Michael Ventre, NBC Sports      : Next season the Lakers have a team returning that, theoretically, should be favored to repeat. The club has two major free agents in Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza to try and lock up, but given the history of the Lakers and the fact that both players were vitally important to this championship run, it appears that will occur. It would not be a surprise if general manager Mitch Kupchak snagged another player through free agency or the draft, either. It’s almost impossible for any coach to turn his back on that. The allure of another championship? It’s one thing if a coach is foiled time after time by the agony of the pursuit, has a relationship with the Larry O’Brien Trophy similar to the one Captain Ahab had with Moby Dick, and just decides to pack it in. It’s quite another if someone says to the reigning virtuoso, “How would you like to play Carnegie Hall one more time?”

      Chris Sheridan, ESPN: Want to know why Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson sat there on the Magic bench, blank expressions adorning their faces, after that final buzzer? Why Superman and one of his All-Star sidekicks stuck around as the championship trophy podium was hastily assembled and the Lakers stood victorious atop it? Because that was what Howard wanted, and he wanted Nelson to witness, feel and share every raw, painful emotion that was tearing him apart inside. “He wanted me to sit out there and let it soak in so we could get that feeling — that bad feeling, actually, of how it feels, and not let it happen again,” Nelson said. “We don’t want it to happen again, so we stay out there to let it soak in, get upset a little bit. “A motivational thing, that’s it,” Nelson said.

      NBA, NBA Finals

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