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Who’s still stepping it up in the NBA Playoffs?

May 13, 2011 / John Paulsen

A couple of weeks ago, I took a look at the numbers to see which players were producing at a higher rate in the Playoffs. Now that we’ve about closed down the second round, I thought it would be a good time to refresh the data.

I calculated Efficiency Per Minute for both the regular season (EPMr) and playoffs (EPMp) and took the difference as a percentage of their performance during the regular season. The resulting percentage is the gain (or drop) in their statistical production in the postseason.

Below you’ll find a table with the 18 (of 71 eligible) players that have managed to step up their games in the Playoffs. Keep in mind that I’m only looking at players that made it to the second round, so the sample size is a bit smaller.

External Sports, NBA

2011 NBA Playoffs statistical studies

Report: Tom Brady “froze out” Randy Moss

May 13, 2011 / Anthony Stalter

Tom E. Curran of CSNNE.com shared an interesting tidbit of information in his latest column about Tom Brady and Randy Moss. The crux of Curran’s piece is about how Moss isn’t an ideal fit for the Patriots any more, but he also mentions how Brady “froze” Moss out in the receiver’s final two games with New England last season.

Moss’ main concern isn’t playing football, it’s making money. And anyone who’s been listening for the last decade has heard Bill Belichick lob the praise “football is important to him” realizes how ill-fitting Randy Moss would be here.
Never mind the fact that, after the Jets game last year, quarterback Tom Brady basically froze Moss out for his final two games in New England. Brady was tired of throwing picks on balls intended for Moss (he threw two against the Jets; he had just two more the rest of the regular season).

This seems like one of those stories in which the player(s) later comes out and says that it didn’t happen. But I wouldn’t put it past Brady to do something like “freeze” anyone (not just Moss – Wes Welker, Deion Branch, Jerry Rice, etc.) out. His no nonsense attitude and leadership are just two qualities that endear him to football fans across the country.

Hey, you don’t want to work, Randy? No problem. But you’re not getting the ball. Good luck trying to get that contract extension you’ve been seeking. I’m not going to stand idle while you look out for No. 1 and the rest of us fight for the TEAM.

And what happened to Moss in the end? He turned out being the poster child for what not to do when you’re a player seeking a new contract. Now he’s practically begging for New England to take him back after he eroded in Tennessee last year. Had he just shut his mouth, continued to work hard and helped the Patriots win, he probably would have received a new contract (at least eventually, barring what happens with the lockout).

But because he put himself ahead of the team, Moss got the treatment he deserved in the end.

External Sports, NFL

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NFL Players seeking $707 million in damages

May 13, 2011 / Anthony Stalter

According to SI.com, locked-out players asked a federal judge on Thursday to make $4 billion in disputed broadcast revenue off limits to the league and to award them at least $707 million in damages.

Jeffrey Kessler, an attorney for the players, urged Doty to rule quickly on the request to put the $4 billion “war chest” in escrow because of the ongoing lockout. The players have argued that the league can make it through the work stoppage in part because it illegally secured that money by renegotiating TV contracts for 2011 that allows the NFL to get paid even if there are no games to televise.
Gregg Levy, an attorney for the league, said the players have no right to damages, and he accused them of “sandbagging and ambush.”
Levy told reporters afterward the league never intended to finance a work stoppage with money from the networks. He said the players don’t have the right to access the money, however, and balked at the proposal for an escrow arrangement.
“It would in effect give the players some entitlement to that money which we don’t believe they are entitled to,” Levy said.
The damages award alone could amount to a huge piece of leverage for the players in their fight with the NFL over the next collective bargaining agreement. And so could making the broadcast money off limits.
“I think that the owners predicated a lot of their strategy in having a revenue stream for 2011,” said Marc Greenbaum, a labor law professor at Suffolk University Law School in Boston who is following the case. “If Judge Doty grants the players’ request, an important part of their strategy is undermined.”

It’s interesting to read how the owners “never intended to finance a work stoppage with money from the networks.” Then how were the owners going to fund their lockout? With loans? Were they going to borrow money from their parents? And what was going to happen to all that TV money if the lockout wiped out the entire 2011 season? The owners were just going to let it sit there as they lost money hand over fist? Come on – that was their insurance policy.

Granted, I don’t think the players should be awarded that money either. In fact, had they not foolishly worked it into the contracts that the league would get paid no matter if there was football to televise or not, I think the money should go back to the networks. I mean, the networks paid to televise football. If there is no football, then there should be no deal.

But alas, the TV networks agreed to pay the league no matter what, and now they’ve unknowingly created a monster in the form of this $4 billion revenue pot.

External Sports, NFL

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Vikings haven’t discussed acquiring Young

May 13, 2011 / Anthony Stalter

Despite hiring his former quarterbacks coach in Tennessee and the fact that he’s working out with Adrian Peterson this offseason, the NFL Network’s Steve Wyche reports that the Vikings have not held internal discussions about acquiring Vince Young.

The Young-to-Vikings rumors started in January after the team hired his former quarterbacks coach, Craig Johnson, for the same position in Minnesota. And now that Young and AP have started working out together, there’s growing sentiment that VY could wind up starting in Minnesota next year while rookie Christian Ponder holds the clipboard.

But the Vikings haven’t even considered that possibility according to Wyche. It would make sense for the Vikes to acquire a veteran quarterback to help tutor Ponder, but it seems like a reach for them to go after Young (a player with maturity issues).

The more likely scenario is that Minnesota will wait for Washington to cut Donovan McNabb and then sign him to a two-year deal to help aid Ponder’s development. McNabb has played in the West Coast Offense his entire career and the Vikings hired former Atlanta QB coach Bill Musgrave, who will be installing his version of the WCO this year. Granted, there’s no guarantee that McNabb would want to sign with Minnesota knowing that he would eventually have to turn the offense over to Ponder, but at least the Vikings would give him the opportunity to start next year. (Assuming of course that Ponder doesn’t set the world on fire in training camp and preseason and win the job outright…if there’s even a training camp and preseason, that is.)