Offseason Movement: The Sixers probably had the biggest “get” of the offseason when they signed Elton Brand to a long-term deal. So the same team that gave the Pistons a good run in the playoffs is now adding an All-Star caliber player who, along with Kevin Garnett and Chris Bosh, might be the best power forward in the East.
Keep Your Eye On: Thaddeus Young
At just 19 and largely ignored, Young had the highest PER of any rookie in the league who played at least 1,000 minutes. He only saw limited minutes in the first two months of the season, but by February, he was seeing 29 minutes a game and was posting an average of 11.2 points and 4.7 rebounds per game while shooting a stellar 56% from the field. He has an improving long-range jumper and, simply stated, Young has “future star” written all over him.
The Big Question: Can Brand (and Andre Iguodala) lead this team to the Finals?
The Brand signing was a coup for the Sixers, and now that they’ve locked up both Brand and AI2 to big, long-term contracts, one wonders if they hitched their wagon to the right pair of horses. Both guys are very good NBA players, but neither guy has proven that he can be “The Man” on a championship-caliber team. The next two or three seasons will be each player’s best chance to win a title, and it’s going to be interesting to see how this young team develops over this span.
Outlook: Upbeat. While the Brand acquisition looks great on paper, it’s tough to add such a big name and expect everything to go smoothly from the get-go. Brand is coming off a nasty Achilles injury, and while he played well in limited action last season, there’s no guarantee that he’s back to 100%. Still, if they are able to gel, they look like a legitimate contender in the East. They have a strong starting five (including Young, Andre Miller and Samuel Dalembert) and a good bench, and even without Brand, they proved they could compete with the Pistons in the playoffs. All signs point to a nice year.
Page 2121 of 2957
Offseason Movement: The Pistons’ biggest offseason signing was Kwame Brown. That’s right…Kwame Brown.
Keep Your Eye On: The Pistons’ age
Chauncey Billups (32), Rip Hamilton (30), Rasheed Wallace (34) and Antonio McDyess (34) are all at the end of or past their respective primes, so the Pistons are going to hit the wall, it’s just a matter of when. Will it be this season? The team does have some youth in Tayshaun Prince (28), Rodney Stuckey (22), Jason Maxiell (25) and Amir Johnson (21), but Prince is the only completely dependable player on that list. Stuckey has a chance to be a star, but he’s going to be playing behind Billups and Hamilton for the foreseeable future.
The Big Question: Does this group have another run in it?
After last season, it looked like the Pistons were going to make some big changes, but after a few rumored trades fell through, they’re left with pretty much the same roster as last season. So this leaves the Pistons in a tough spot. They’re good enough to (easily) make the playoffs, but are they good enough to make another Finals appearance?
Outlook: Fruitless. Unless everything breaks their way, it’s hard to see the Pistons making the Finals with this group. I like the roster, and when they’re firing on all cylinders, they’re very tough to beat. But they are at times complacent, and they’re just not good enough anymore to be giving games away in the playoffs. They almost lost to an upstart Philly team due to a lack of focus. Once again, they’ll make the playoffs and, once again, they’ll probably win their first round series, but barring a big leap by one of their young players, that’s probably as far as they’ll go.
Randy Galloway of the Star-Telegram absolutely hammered Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys in one of his recent articles.
Fire Wade? Yes, but here’s what happens:
(1) It allows Jerry Jones, the worst general manager in the history of professional sports (you want me to recite his GM record, sans the Jimster?) to casually blow off another bad hire with the usual, “to our fans, I say I’m sorry it didn’t work out.”
Twelve bleeping years, Jerry. That’s how long it has never worked out with even a playoff win. Or actually, make it 15 years since Jimmy left town as the jumping off point.
How could a good owner be so stupid to allow this GM to keep his job? Not exactly a new question, but it’s the ongoing truth.(2) It allows a new head coach-in-waiting to take over when he should be under as much siege as Phillips for what has happened on the field. Jason Garrett, the Red-Headed Jesus of Valley Ranch, has been in charge of an offense in a month-long slump. Jason is failing at the moment. So you promote that?
Not yet, Rojo. Not on merit.
(3) It allows a room full of players, who went gutless in St. Louis, to once again weasel their way out of failure, because, of course, you can’t fire the players.
These are the same frauds who were so happy that a mean old man named Parcells hit the road, allowing Jerry to bring in a “players’ coach, a coach who allows us to be men.”
How, Wade, are these “men” working out for you lately?
Red-Headed Jesus of Valley Ranch? That might be the funniest thing I read in some time.
As for his points, I think Galloway is right on the money. The Cowboys are stuck right now with what they’ve got and they better figure it out because there’s no help coming. If Garrett’s offense was still clicking, than Phillips might have gotten the boot last week. But it’s not and Jones doesn’t have a ton of options.
Baltimore Ravens’ defender Terrell Suggs recently said on a radio show that he had his teammates had a “bounty” on Steeler players Rashard Mendenhall and Hines Ward.
During the “2 Live Stews” syndicated radio show on Oct. 17, when he was asked, “Did you all put a bounty out on that young man [Mendenhall],” Suggs replied, “Definitely. The bounty was out on him and the bounty was out on [Ward] — we just didn’t get him between the whistles.”
Also during the interview, Suggs called Ward “a dirty player” and “a cheap-shot artist. … We got something in store for him.”
Ray Anderson, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, said the league is looking into the comments.
Suggs later backpedaled:
“There wasn’t any bounty,” Suggs said, according to the newspaper. “He [the talk show host] asked me if there was a bounty and I just said I’m going to keep a watch on the guy. He [Ward] broke some guy’s jaw last week, and he tried to cheap shot JJ [Jarret Johnson]. He has also cheap-shotted Ed Reed. We’re just going to be on alert the next time we play him.”
I think comments like these are blown way out of proportion. Do we always have to hold what players say to the absolute literal meaning? Are we all really that naïve to think that Suggs and other players aren’t thinking to themselves before a game, “If I get a good shot on Hines Ward today, I’m going to take it”? Football is a physical game and players take a ‘kill or be killed’ attitude out to the field. Granted, some players are dirty and will take cheap shots, but a lot of the time these comments are said in jest to get fired up for a game.
You don’t think Suggs and the other Ravens want to pop Ward after he did this a few years ago? Of course they do. Saying they had a “bounty” on him was extreme, but again, I think this situation is being blown out of proportion. That said, I’m not surprised that the league is looking into it; they have an obligation to make sure no foul play is being carried out.
The New England Patriots are apparently unhappy with what doctors quarterback Tom Brady has chosen to do his knee surgery.
The Patriots, as an organization, are upset with the situation because they were clear that they wanted Brady’s surgery done under the direction of doctors of their choosing in Boston, sources told ESPN.
Instead, Brady opted to have the surgery in California by a doctor his family preferred, and now there are major problems. Brady was supposed to be back in New England by now, but a timeline for his return remains unclear.
According to the Herald, Brady is on a six-week course of intravenously administered antibiotics, and is still having follow-up exams at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles, where the surgery took place.
If the infection is not brought under control, the patellar tendon graft used to replace Brady’s anterior cruciate ligament could become compromised, according to the Herald’s report. If that happens, he will have to undergo another surgery on the ACL. That would reset the clock on his rehabilitation.
Two schools of thought:
1. The Patriots are paying Brady millions of dollars and therefore, almost have the right to tell him what doctors should be operating on his $60 million knee.
2. It’s Brady’s knee. If he wants the operation to be done by Bert and Ernie, than he has every right to get his ass down to Sesame Street whenever he damn well pleases.
Either way, this isn’t good that every week it seems he’s have more “clean up” procedures done. This has to be absolutely freaking out the Patriots.
FOLLOW US!
CATEGORIES
© 2026 The Scores Report – The National Sports Blog
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑