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Helpful hints for a healthy mock

Michael Lombardi of SI.com discusses six rules that should be applied while making a NFL mock draft.

1. With one week before the draft, never believe any team officials’ quotes, especially what direction they may be headed with their selection…

2. As you do your research, if the team and the player are always the same, then the chances of that player going there are not very good…

3. Running backs tend to slip. Backs have a short career in the NFL, so picking one high in the first round is a huge investment…

4. If the mock you’re reading does not have six defensive linemen in the first round, stop reading it…

5. After the 10th pick in the first round, it is all about how well you know what each team needs…

6. The Giants, Raiders, Dolphins, Jaguars, Cowboys and Packers are size/speed teams…

These are good, but I’d like to throw out some more:

7. As long as Matt Millen is still employed by the Detroit Lions, make sure you have them taking a wide receiver. You’ll be right more times than not.

8. Have the Bears drafting an offensive player with a high bust factor in the first round.

9. Even though they’re completely loaded at the position, make sure you have the Raiders taking a defensive back.

Any others?

Patriots to move up for Dorsey?

Citing a source close to the team as well as the player, YAHOO Sports is reporting that the Patriots might trade up in order to nab LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey in the first round.

…In fact, the emphasis on speed rushers is so strong that New England, which has the No. 7 overall pick via last year’s draft trade with the San Francisco 49ers, has had Dorsey in for a personal workout and is contemplating a trade up for him, according to a source close to the team and another close to the player. The last time New England used a pick in the top 10, it selected versatile defensive lineman Richard Seymour with the sixth pick in the 2001 draft.

Personally, I think New England is going to have to get as high as No. 2 in order to draft Dorsey, because it’s a good bet the Falcons want him at No. 3. A lot of people think Atlanta will go Matt Ryan, but they have three second round picks that they could leverage to move back into the first round to nab Louisville signal caller Brian Brohm if they wanted to. Regardless, is Dorsey even a good fit for the Pats’ 3-4 defensive front?

Photo Courtesy of Flickr

Will Kobe benefit from a three-way MVP race?

I’m not sure why I’m spending so much time thinking about the MVP race. Maybe deep down I just don’t want to see Kobe rewarded for his tumultuous offseason. Something irks me about a player being rewarded with such an honor after throwing his teammate and GM under the bus and then taking credit for his team’s turnaround when an All-Star is gift wrapped and dropped at his doorstep before the trade deadline.

Something occurred to me as I was eating my oatmeal this morning – since, by most accounts, it’s a three-way race, could KG and CP3 split the “good teammate” vote allowing the Kobe die-hards to win it for their guy?

Let’s assume that 40% of the voters intend to vote for Kobe, and that 60% are going to vote non-Kobe. If that anti-Kobe vote splits 50/50 between Paul and Garnett, Kobe would win with a 40/30/30 ratio.

Of course, voters have a five-person ballot and points are awarded based on a player’s position in the ballot – 10 points for first, seven for second, five for third, three for fourth and one for fifth, so it’s not so simple. But if that ratio translates to the entire ballot, it’s conceivable that Kobe (or another player) could win the award with less than half the first place votes.

One thing’s for sure – now that Kobe is on a team with 50+ wins, the MVP race is far more interesting.

Jake Long doesn’t want Dolphins?

FOX Sports columnist John Czarnecki is reporting that “the word on the street” is that Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long doesn’t want to play for the Miami Dolphins.

The word on the street is that Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long doesn’t want to play for the Dolphins, who continue to negotiate with him as the first overall draft choice. There’s a special honor in being the first pick so Long’s agents continue to talk.

Of course, there is a deadline to these contract talks and then the Dolphins will move onto the next person on their board. Apparently, it isn’t Virginia’s Chris Long.

The Czar’s information has always been a little hit and miss (biased too in my opinion), so take this rumor with a grain of salt. But if there’s any truth to it, Jake Long needs to buck up and go where he’s drafted. Please, no more John Elway and Eli Manning I-want-to-go-here-drafts.

Let’s reshuffle the NBA playoffs

Well, the playoffs are set…sort of. There are still some teams jockeying for position, but we now know the 16 teams that will comprise this year’s playoff field.

And the 12th-best team in the league, the Golden State Warriors, will not be playing in the postseason.

We knew this was coming. It has been obvious since the start of the season that a good team from the West was going to miss the playoffs this season. Not only that, but the Portland Trailblazers probably should have made the postseason too.

I suggested this almost a year ago, but what if we threw the conferences out and just seeded the playoffs #1 through #16? Our first round matchups would look like this:

#1 Boston vs. #16 Portland
#8 Phoenix vs. #9 Orlando
#4 New Orleans vs. #13 Cleveland
#5 San Antonio vs. #12 Golden State

#2 Detroit vs. #15 Toronto
#7 Houston vs. #10 Dallas
#3 LA Lakers vs. #14 Washington
#6 Utah vs. #11 Denver

Just look at these storylines: Shaq vs. Dwight Howard, CP3 vs. LeBron, the slow it down Spurs versus the up-tempo Warriors, the Lake St. Clair battle between Detroit and Toronto (separated by just a four-hour drive), the Battle for Texas (Houston vs. Dallas), the Battle in the Mountains (Utah/Denver) and, of course, Kobe facing the team that gave him Kwame Brown.

Potential second-round matchups: Celtics/Suns, Hornets/Spurs, Pistons/Mavs and the Lakers/Jazz. Tell me you’re not going to want to watch as much of that round as possible.

If it were up to me, I’d give the best team in each conference one of the top two seeds, so that would make the Lakers the #2 seed and the Pistons #3.

What do you think? Should we scrap the current system?

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