“Don’t get smart!”
You know that the Celtics are watching this video laughing their asses off.
Page 934 of 2956
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Broncos are denying that quarterback Kyle Orton has ever been on the trading block.
Broncos official texted on report Denver had shopped QB Kyle Orton: “Kyle Orton Has NEVER been available or discussed. Ever! Period.”
The Broncos aren’t going to risk upsetting Orton by making it public that he’s on the trading block. Because if they do have intentions of trading him and a deal never goes through, then their starting quarterback will go through the entire season knowing that his team wanted to deal him in the offseason.
The Broncos find themselves in a tricky situation. Orton’s contract expires at the end of the year and with three developmental quarterbacks (Brady Quinn, Tim Tebow and Tom Brandstater) behind him on the depth chart, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for the Broncos to try to get something for the veteran QB now before he bolts at the end of the year.
Then again, the Broncos need to go with the quarterback that they believe gives them the best chance to win now. With a year of Josh McDaniels’ offensive system already under his belt, that player is Orton – not Quinn or anyone else. Will Orton get Denver to the Super Bowl this year? Probably not, but he’ll likely perform better than any other quarterback on the roster and therefore, it might not be worth it for the Broncos to trade him for a mid-round pick. (I’m just speculating what they would get for him, but it would most likely be a mid-to-late rounder.)
That said, if Quinn turns in a great training camp/preseason and proves that he can be a capable starter, then the Broncos would obviously be more apt to trade Orton before the season. It makes no sense to have two capable starters on the roster when one of them will surely be moving on in a year. Might as well get something in return for him now.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
Per Brian Windhorst of Cleveland.com…
In a move expected since the team lost three consecutive games to be upset by the Boston Celtics in the conference semifinals, the Cavs fired coach Mike Brown on Sunday according to a league source. The news was first reported by ESPN.
Okay, no shocker there. What was the reason for his dismissal?
Some Cavs’ players, including LeBron James, also seemed to lose patience with Brown after some of his adjustments and rotations didn’t work against the Celtics in the playoffs.
However, James is not believed to have made a personal push with management for a coaching change. He left it to the front office to make the final decision.
Brown seemed to struggle with his rotations after having to incorporate Shaquille O’Neal back into the team in the playoffs after O’Neal missed the final six weeks of the season. He started a lineup in the first game of the playoffs that he hadn’t used all season and the turbulence from multiple players changing roles appeared to upset the balance of the team.
Those problems plus, according to sources, some disagreement over some game plans for playoff games with some of the team leaders eventually led to some discord in the locker room during the Celtics series.
I put that bit about LeBron in bold because it may hold a clue to his future. If it’s true that he left Brown’s fate up to management, then it seems like he’s not all that interested in who’s coaching the Cavs, and that’s a bad sign for Cleveland fans that are hoping he re-signs.
Mike Brown will land on his feet. He bungled the playoff rotations, but that was partly because he had too many good players he had to play, especially when the Celtics started picking the Cavs apart.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
It’s funny how much things can swing on a single game. Heading into Game 3, everyone pretty much wrote the Suns off and penciled the Lakers into their third-straight NBA Finals. But with last night’s 118-109 victory, the Suns proved a couple of things: 1) they can beat the Lakers in the playoffs, and 2) Amare Stoudemire can outplay Pau Gasol.
The win gives the Suns confidence and essentially stops the sky from falling. This franchise has been snakebitten for some time, so when the Lakers got up 2-0, you could cut the desperation surrounding this Suns with a knife. Stoudemire was under fire for his play through the first two games, and there was already speculation that he wouldn’t re-sign with the team. Now, the Suns head into Game 4 with some confidence, and they know that if they can win tomorrow night, that they’ll head back to L.A. having won two-straight with an opportunity to steal home court advantage in Game 5.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the Lakers respond to the Suns’ zone. It’s not like it shut L.A. down — the Lakers shot 48% from the field and scored 109 points. But the Lakers also committed 17 turnovers and shot just 28% from long range. In the first two games, the Suns’ problem wasn’t offense, so even though the zone is a little gimmicky, if they can slow the Lakers down at all, they have a shot.
The zone took the Lakers out of the triangle and knocked L.A. on its heels a bit. Suddenly, they didn’t know where the defense was coming from and they finally had to adjust to something the Suns were throwing at them, instead of running the same offense that has been so productive all season. It was a desperation move by Phoenix, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
The NBA playoffs are all about adjustments, and Phil Jackson is one of the best in the game at tweaking his strategy throughout a series. The Lakers should come out in Game 4 prepared for the zone, so the Suns will have to make some adjustments of their own if they hope to head back to Los Angeles with the series tied.
According to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell sent a letter to 44 governors urging them to pass a law that protects young athletes from playing soon after they’ve suffered a concussion.
Washington state has already passed the Lystedt’s Law, which helps keep young athletes from returning to the field too soon after they’ve suffered a concussion. The law was named after Zackery Lystedt, a Washington young who suffered a brain injury in 2006 after returning to a middle school football game following a concussion.
The Lystedt law contains three essential elements:
_Athletes, parents and coaches must be educated about the dangers of concussions each year.
_If a young athlete is suspected of having a concussion, he/she must be removed from a game or practice and not be permitted to return to play.
_A licensed health care professional must clear the young athlete to return to play in the subsequent days or weeks.
I’ve made it a habit not to talk politics on this blog or in my everyday life for that matter. But this is a law that needs to be passed nationwide.
Young athletes are often so desperate to please their parent or coach that they’ll risk injury to prove themselves. They’ll tell someone that they’re fine enough to play and then the next thing you know, they could suffer a serious injury.
But if a coach or a parent has a checklist to go through before the athlete can get back onto the field, then it takes the guess work out of whether or not he or she is ready to start playing again. It’s a good law and it’s nice to see someone like Goodell strive to get it passed in all states.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
FOLLOW US!
CATEGORIES
© 2026 The Scores Report – The National Sports Blog
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑