Before I get into how I feel about the Celtics and what the did during the 2007 draft I have a few key points I would like to make about the draft as a whole and how I think it all panned out.
- First and foremost Yi Jianlian maybe my least favorite player in the entire NBA and he hasn't even played a game yet. I hated Eli Manning when he said he would never play for the San Diego Chargers and I actually laughed outloud when Yi got drafted by the Bucks despite his best efforts to make the Bucks think he didn't even exist. This is a guy who refused to work out in Milwaukee because his handlers (what is he some kind of racehorse?) didn't like the city and because the people close to him felt that Milwaukee didn't have enough of an Asian population for him to feel comfortable. This is a guy who has never worked out against an American player, claims to be 19 when there are plenty of reports who say he is at least 3 years older and who parties with celebrities because his agent gets him on the guest list at Hollywood premieres. I am glad he is in Milwaukee, he may never play for them, but at least he won't see any lush private parties out in beer country. He is going to have to learn how to work a keg tap and mingle with bar folk or else he will be lost and he better bring a translator because he looked awful trying to do an interview for the draft.
- I hate how former athletes get the analyst jobs that I so desperately covet. Now I would understand that former athletes have a far more intimate knowledge of their respective sport than men, but if you are going to hire former athletes at least make them personable, intelligent and literate former athletes. Fernando Vina uses the same cliche catch phrases every night on Baseball Tonight, Shannon Sharpe sounds like Big Black from Rob and Big, and now Mark Jackson gets the job at the NBA Draft and he sounds like he looked up the 10 most common catch phrases used by analysts and just used cue cards to make sure he used at least half of them every time he tried to break something down. People like Orel Hershiser, John Kruk, Jay Bilas and Keyshawn Johnson are all terrific at being an analyst, but please someone hire a knowledgeable sports fan who speaks well on camera rather than a former middling athlete. Pretty Please?
- I hate spoiled athletes, for example Kobe Bryant, but for once I agree with him. Javaris Crittenton? How about someone ready to produce right away. Jared Dudley, Arron Afflalo or Alando Tucker were all seasoned college players who could have stepped in and contributed right away for a Lakers team in search of a man to be sandwiched in between Kobe and Lamar Odom at the 3. Instead they select a point guard for the second consecutive year. Granted Crittenton will be a far better player in years to come that Jordan Farmar who reached his peak when he scored 25 in his first NBDL game. But still, you have a star player who went behind everyone's back and ruined team chemistry and probably injured the psyche of your best young player (Bynum) forever demanding that Mitch Kupchak and the man they call Buss bring him some veteran help. But they refuse to part with Bynum and Odom for a really good player and instead bring in a point guard who is still legally underage and turns the ball over more than Rashaan Salaam used to for the Chicago Bears. That earthquake in L.A.? That was Kobe's head exploding.
- Nobody is talking about the Warriors and how they seemed to make away like bandits with Charlotte. They dumped Jason Richardson because of financial reasons, but they had a glut of guys that could run and shoot and jump anyway, and the reason they failed against Utah was because they really were unable to rebound or play anybody tough inside. Now they got a guy in Brandan Wright who not only can develop into a legitimate post and rebounding threat but also has the unique ability to run the floor and score in transition. If I am correct they now have a starting lineup of Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson, Al Harrington, Brandan Wright, and Andris Biedrins with Matt Barnes, Monta Ellis and this guy Marco Bellini all filling in right where Richardson left off. Watch the Warriors. There are not a lot of Western Conference playoff teams who made significant improvements but I think Golden State is one.
- Philadelphia fans have to be screaming at themselves and of course at Billy King as well. They traded Iverson and had visions of Durant and Oden floating through their heads and then Andre Igoudala turned out to be the player everyone thought he would be and he and Andre Miller, the travelling gypsy that Philly got for Iverson, stood on their heads and helped Philadelphia earn the 11th pick instead of a top 5 selection. Now I applaud the Philly players for refusing to really tank the season and play like every game still meant something but when you have a GM like Billy King you need to make sure that you get a really high pick so that no matter who he takes it will probably be ok. Thaddeus Young is very talented but almost more erratic than Crittenton, his former teammate, and I am pretty sure he is not the immediate help Philly fans were thinking of when Billy King said they were going to turn the team around right away. Then with their second top 20 pick they took Jason Smith, a 7 foot stiff from Colorado State. Please will someone enlighten me on when the last time a 7 foot white center became a key contributor to any team let alone the 76ers? No Chris Kaman doesn't count, and no neither does Andrew Bogut. Billy, I know a few really dangerous guys who you might want to hire to put in your posse to make sure you stay safe. Here lemme give you the number of their current employer, thats Pacman P-A-C-M-A-N. Just call him I am sure he won't be busy.
Now on to Boston, and what they managed to do with their basketball team. I maybe the only person in Boston who actually likes this trade for Boston. Yes, Ray Allen is old, and yes he is also coming over ankle surgery and will probably need to work hard in order to play up to par this season. But that being said, his last two seasons were his most productive of his entire career, and ankle surgery is better than say knee surgery or the shoulder surgery that Dwayne Wade is having. Bill Simmons did scare me by saying it would be the newest version of the Mitch Richmond trade because their stats are very similar but I am still very optimistic.
First of all we gave up nothing. In the Mitch Richmond deal the Bullets gave up Chris Webber who went on to play his best basketball with Sacramento. I highly doubt Wally Szczerbiak, who played in all of 33 games for Boston last year is really going to be ressurected in Seattle, and while Delonte West is a nice player, Rajon Rondo really came on strong at the end and while he still maybe a few years away he will be able to fill West's role. Most importantly this trade prevented Danny Ainge from drafting Yi Jianlian and therefore committing suicide. The city of Boston would have rioted if Yi was the Celtic's pick in that draft. I am pretty sure everyone in the city wanted Corey Brewer and I was one of them and now we have Ray Allen instead of either one of them which I can certainly live with.
Second of all please name a team in the Eastern Conference outside of Chicago and a fading Detroit who really has more talent and potential than a healthy, non-tanking Celtics team. Al Jefferson was one of the best big men in basketball in the 2nd half of the season and he barely got to play in crunch time because the Celtics were so blatantly trying to lose basketball games. Paul Pierce played in exactly half of those games and he was intentionally shut down at the end of the year for fear that he would do something rash and play hard. Now we have potentially 3 20 plus scorers in our starting line up, a solid number of veterans instead of a epic number of guys who still get carded when they go out to bars and two guys, Pierce and Allen, who have both been to the playoffs more than once and have both put up terrific numbers with almost no supporting cast in those playoff times. Say what you want about losing West, Yi Jianlian and Wally's World but I am happy where we stand. At least we won't have Pierce making any video tapes about Al Jefferson and bashing Danny Ainge
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
The New Member of the Big 4
In the town of Acton there really isn't a whole lot that goes on during the day or even at night. Sometimes this can be a blessing in disguise because our boredness fosters an intense conversation that normally revolves entirely around sports. For example, the other day I was at my friend's house playing a rousing game of MLB 2K7, you know, the game with a blatant disregard for the laws of physics, where every hit is a homerun and you end up watching David Eckstein pull an 0-2 slider down and away over the Green Monster of Curt Schilling. Anyway my friend posed an interesting point. He claimed in 5 years the MLS would replace the NHL in the perennial Big 4 of sports that captivates Americans. If you think about it carefully it is a very good point.
The MLS is beginning to spend money to bring some of the best players from Europe over to the United States in order to market the game to the American public, meanwhile the NHL has been steadily declining in popularity and television ratings that it is now being aired on the VS. network, to give you an idea of how obscure that network is it is channel 243 on my satelitte programming. Also my father, only a casual sports fan thought the VS. network was a network based on political debates such as another Crossfire (surely if this was true listening to James Carville speak for more than 30 seconds would have most ordinary Americans throwing themselves off bridges all across the United States). My buddy brought up the point that Americans have been trying to love soccer very hard but with the poor quality of play in the MLS combined with the inavailability of English Premiership games on stations like ESPN and ESPN2, our public has really been left with no choice but to only have a very tepid interest in what is the world's most popular sport. But, the MLS has the trump card over the NHL, its owners are willing to spend a ton of money to make sure that some of Europe's most marketable stars consider coming to play in the MLS.
David Beckham, who I think should have a talk show with Mike Tyson and the guests get to vote to see who has a more absurd voice. I understand he is not particularly well educated but neither was Darryl Dawkins and he still talks normally... or as normally as a 300 plus pound black guy can speak. Anyway, Beckham is set to play in one of the United States largest media markets, L.A., for an incredible amount of money, 300 million. Meanwhile other European stars such as Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo has both been rumored to be entertaining talks from clubs in the MLS to be brought over to the United States to play. So maybe my buddy is right, little kids all across America play soccer in by the millions, and the World Cup, despite being played when most people are either half asleep or starting to feel a hangover from the night before, garnered the largest ratings it ever has in the United States, so maybe it is only a matter of time before we start to have American soccer hooligans and all out riots when the New York MetroStars lose the MLS Cup to the Chicago Fire. It doesn't seem all that unlikely
The MLS is beginning to spend money to bring some of the best players from Europe over to the United States in order to market the game to the American public, meanwhile the NHL has been steadily declining in popularity and television ratings that it is now being aired on the VS. network, to give you an idea of how obscure that network is it is channel 243 on my satelitte programming. Also my father, only a casual sports fan thought the VS. network was a network based on political debates such as another Crossfire (surely if this was true listening to James Carville speak for more than 30 seconds would have most ordinary Americans throwing themselves off bridges all across the United States). My buddy brought up the point that Americans have been trying to love soccer very hard but with the poor quality of play in the MLS combined with the inavailability of English Premiership games on stations like ESPN and ESPN2, our public has really been left with no choice but to only have a very tepid interest in what is the world's most popular sport. But, the MLS has the trump card over the NHL, its owners are willing to spend a ton of money to make sure that some of Europe's most marketable stars consider coming to play in the MLS.
David Beckham, who I think should have a talk show with Mike Tyson and the guests get to vote to see who has a more absurd voice. I understand he is not particularly well educated but neither was Darryl Dawkins and he still talks normally... or as normally as a 300 plus pound black guy can speak. Anyway, Beckham is set to play in one of the United States largest media markets, L.A., for an incredible amount of money, 300 million. Meanwhile other European stars such as Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo has both been rumored to be entertaining talks from clubs in the MLS to be brought over to the United States to play. So maybe my buddy is right, little kids all across America play soccer in by the millions, and the World Cup, despite being played when most people are either half asleep or starting to feel a hangover from the night before, garnered the largest ratings it ever has in the United States, so maybe it is only a matter of time before we start to have American soccer hooligans and all out riots when the New York MetroStars lose the MLS Cup to the Chicago Fire. It doesn't seem all that unlikely
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
The Cleveland Cavaliers
I have watched all 3 games of the NBA Finals this year and watched almost every game of the Eastern Conference Finals against Detroit and could only come to one concrete conclusion. There has never been a single team that deserves to be in the NBA Finals less than the Cleveland Cavaliers. In all 3 games there hasn't been one moment where anyone thought the Cavaliers had a shot at winning the game. Now I always give credit where credit is due and the Spurs deserve a whole heaping of credit, they are the best team in the NBA day in and day out and most likely would have won the Finals whether they were facing the Cavaliers or the Pistons. But at least the Pistons would have presented a challenge for the Spurs. Everyone on the Cavaliers, Lebron James included looks lost against the much more experienced, and cohesive 3 time champions. Allow me to break it down player by player.
Lebron James:
I am pretty sure everyone and their mother all across the country jumped on the Lebron James bandwagon after his reason-defying 48 point performance in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals where the Pistons looked like the Middlesex County "All stars" trying to stop Wilt Chamberlain when he was with the Globetrotters. I am not a witness and as much as I hate Skip Bayless, I agree with him even if it is the first and only time. I understand that he is literally the only Cavalier who opposing teams actually have scouting reports against, and there probably isn't another player on the entire team who can create his own shot, but what am I witnessing? A man child who belongs in the NFL shooting fall away 3 pointers and step back jump shots when literally every position he could go by Bruce Bowen and either get fouled or finish at the rim. He has only attempted 23 free throws in 3 games while he has also turned the ball over 17 times. I know people still have a hard-on from Game 5 and so I will give them a mulligan on being stupid enough to completely ignore the fact that Lebron is averaging fewer points, fewer rebounds and shooting worse from the field than he did in the regular season where everyone from the apocalyptic Bayless to James himself agreed that he wasn't playing at the level he could have been.
So once again I ask what should I be witnessing? I would rather watch Tony Parker put his dazzling display of dribble moves and electric passes on than watch a man who is more physically gifted than any NBA player before him use his size to shoot long jumpers and step back 3 pointers when he has never been the type of shooter that Kobe Bryant is or even Dwayne Wade for that matter. He may still make me eat my words, but it won't be this season, Bruce Bowen has him so thoroughly frustrated that Skip Bayless doesn't even have to mention it, he can just cross his arms and sit back in his chair and smile while all those people on the Lebron Bandwagon watch him implode game by game.
Daniel Gibson:
The first point I need to make is that while Boobie is a great nickname why can't the announcers call him Daniel. I am sure when the ABC sideline reporter interviews him at halftime and they say "Well Boobie..." he is wishing that the cameras weren't rolling so he could punch the guy right in the face for being so damn dumb. A nickname is something that friends use for one another as a term of endearment or sometimes to poke fun at someone but still in an endearing way. Now announcers all over the country are calling him Boobie as if they have been lifelong friends with the guy and are going out for a beer with him after the game. That really gets under my nerves...but I digress.
Gibson is probably the only Cavalier I really enjoy watching, withholding Game 3 of the Finals he has been the only teammate Lebron has been able to rely on on a consistent basis for some semblance of an offensive attack. He has a terrific jump shot and nerves of steel. Plus he is so damn humble and reserved. I watched the Detroit series and he probably hit 6 three pointers that if I had shot and they had gone in I would have probably been labeled the most obnoxious player since Bill Lambeer leaping and pointing and yelling like I had just gotten a date with that hot junior in my chemistry class. But Gibson buries the threes and doesn't even leave his hand up, he starts jogging back up court with a look of complete indifference on his face. Even when he gets mugged by Lebron and the king of all muggers, Anderson Varejao, he still only smiles a little with his teammates and still refuses to acknowledge how surreal it must be for him to bury a 3 pointer right in Chauncey Billups' face.
He also is the only one capable of playing decent defense on Tony Parker because he can match Parker in quickness. In doing so he alleviates the burden Lebron has to carry as the Cavaliers' White Knight. After watching Parker practically walk through the lane in Games 1 and 2 with Larry Hughes and Lebron guarding him it was a breath of fresh air to watch him struggle to get past Gibson who used his quickness to stay with Parker enough to frustrate him. Maybe next year Mike Brown will say, "Hey, I know he is my best point guard, and the perfect sidekick for Lebron's drive and dish, so I guess I will give him some minutes. But not too many because even if Larry Hughes limps around the court like Captain Hook, he is a tough dude for playing hurt so he gets my minutes."
Sasha Pavlovic:
This is the guy who I think has the most redeemable qualities out of the muck that is the Cavs team behind Lebron and Gibson. He shoots the 3 very well for a guy his size and is also about 80 percent from the free-throw line on the season and normally those two qualities have a way of making a player worth keeping around for awhile. I understand that this is his first season playing significant minutes and he is still very young with a lot of potential, but c'mon, the guy is 6-7 and 210 pounds with ball-handling skills of a point guard and good speed. Yet he has still been a complete non-factor in every single playoff game the Cavaliers have played this year. Every game I watch him play I always think he has the ability to abuse the normally smaller defender that guards him but he just sits around the perimeter waiting for the drive and kick instead of using his size to maybe try to get to the free-throw line more than twice a game.
The guy is softer than a down pillow. He hasn't scored more than 17 points in any of the playoff games and he is two best games came against New Jersey when Vince "Boy Defense really excites me" Carter was pretending to guard him for 40 minutes. Now all of you must be sitting around saying well Mike is exaggerating, he must drive to the lane at least a few times. The answer is no, I am not exaggerating and no, he doesn't try to take his man off the dribble, ever. The Spurs are blatantly leaving him open to try and make him be the member of Lebron's court to beat them. They even double teamed Gibson occasionally. Now I am not a math whiz, but a double team on Lebron and a double team on Gibson absolutely has to leave Pavlovic open yet he went just 5-15 from with floor and only 3-9 inside the 3 point arc. That's just pathetic I am sorry. Hopefully he will improve as he gains playing experience. But he really better hope so.
Drew Gooden:
Now I am not one to point fingers, but Drew Gooden is largely responsible for the Cavaliers losses in the first three games of the NBA Finals. As much as Pavlovic has been a non-factor in the playoffs Gooden has probably been twice as bad. His numbers are somewhere around his season average of 13 and 8 but his impact on the game is much farther down the list probably at around 0. Sure he scores 13 points, but he goes head to head against Tim Duncan and so not only are his stats nullified by his lackluster defense has put Cleveland in the negatives in the matchup of power forwards. Plus I may be the only one who gets this feeling, but it seems to me as if Gooden may want to win a championship but he really doesn't like playing 4th option in the offense and deferring to players like Gibson and Pavlovic.
His attitude and general disinterest in everything that Mike Brown and his teammates have to say is best exemplified by Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Millions of viewers on TV and everyone within 200 feet of the Cavaliers bench could hear Lebron and Coach Brown plead with Gooden not to leave his feet on a three point attempt because it could possibly result in a foul that would lead to potential game tying free throws. So what does Gooden do, he leaps about as high and as far as he possibly can and takes an enormous swipe at the buzzer-beating attempt by Chauncey Billups. I can just see Danny Ferry lying in his bed praying to whoever will listen that Drew Gooden will hurt himself playing video games, or shoot somebody at a strip club so he can void his contract and play somebody, anybody other than Drew Gooden.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas:
Now I have always been a fan of the big man from Lithuania. He has been a model of consistency and before Lebron James was an Eastern Conference All-Star for a number of years. Granted the East has about as many good centers as Tom Brady has pregnant girlfriends (2) but still he was able to average something around 18 and 10 for a guy with a limited skill set. He also has been the only player on the Cavaliers team to outplay his counterpart on the Spurs. His opponent Fabricio "Oh Boy" Oberto has been manhandled on the glass, just look at the 18 rebounds, 10 of them offensive, that Ilgauskas grabbed in Game 3 playing by far his best game of the playoffs.
Now for the more negative aspects of his game. My friends and I went to a recent Cavaliers-Celtics basketball games and of course since the Celtics are terrible I rooted solely for Zydrunas Ilgauskas. The really sad part was every time he touched the ball within 15 feet of the basket my friends and I would all simutaneously yell, "running jump hook" and as if on cue Ilgauskas would take one step, lumber across the lane and throw up an ugly jump hook that had puking involuntarily for much of the second half. His major problem is that when he runs, or jogs, or walks, he looks like a luxury liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean and he is more predictable than a Rasheed Wallace technical foul. His defense is mediocre, He is 7-3 so he certainly is hard to shoot over, but its really his offense that has the Spurs showing such a obvious lack of respect for his ability to hurt them. That being said he is also my favorite player on the Cavs. I hope someday he and Arvydas Sabonis travel to Massachusetts and decide to get a civil union and maybe get a reality tv show. I think I would watch that every single time it was on. I mean c'mon it can't be worse than Pirate Master or the Real World Reunited. Maybe the show could be them going one on one against each other everyday. I dare you not be to intrigued, I dare you!
In short, Thanks Cavaliers for ruining an NBA Finals, and thanks America for proverbially humping the Cavaliers like my next door neighboor's dog does to my unsuspecting hapless little brother.
Lebron James:
I am pretty sure everyone and their mother all across the country jumped on the Lebron James bandwagon after his reason-defying 48 point performance in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals where the Pistons looked like the Middlesex County "All stars" trying to stop Wilt Chamberlain when he was with the Globetrotters. I am not a witness and as much as I hate Skip Bayless, I agree with him even if it is the first and only time. I understand that he is literally the only Cavalier who opposing teams actually have scouting reports against, and there probably isn't another player on the entire team who can create his own shot, but what am I witnessing? A man child who belongs in the NFL shooting fall away 3 pointers and step back jump shots when literally every position he could go by Bruce Bowen and either get fouled or finish at the rim. He has only attempted 23 free throws in 3 games while he has also turned the ball over 17 times. I know people still have a hard-on from Game 5 and so I will give them a mulligan on being stupid enough to completely ignore the fact that Lebron is averaging fewer points, fewer rebounds and shooting worse from the field than he did in the regular season where everyone from the apocalyptic Bayless to James himself agreed that he wasn't playing at the level he could have been.
So once again I ask what should I be witnessing? I would rather watch Tony Parker put his dazzling display of dribble moves and electric passes on than watch a man who is more physically gifted than any NBA player before him use his size to shoot long jumpers and step back 3 pointers when he has never been the type of shooter that Kobe Bryant is or even Dwayne Wade for that matter. He may still make me eat my words, but it won't be this season, Bruce Bowen has him so thoroughly frustrated that Skip Bayless doesn't even have to mention it, he can just cross his arms and sit back in his chair and smile while all those people on the Lebron Bandwagon watch him implode game by game.
Daniel Gibson:
The first point I need to make is that while Boobie is a great nickname why can't the announcers call him Daniel. I am sure when the ABC sideline reporter interviews him at halftime and they say "Well Boobie..." he is wishing that the cameras weren't rolling so he could punch the guy right in the face for being so damn dumb. A nickname is something that friends use for one another as a term of endearment or sometimes to poke fun at someone but still in an endearing way. Now announcers all over the country are calling him Boobie as if they have been lifelong friends with the guy and are going out for a beer with him after the game. That really gets under my nerves...but I digress.
Gibson is probably the only Cavalier I really enjoy watching, withholding Game 3 of the Finals he has been the only teammate Lebron has been able to rely on on a consistent basis for some semblance of an offensive attack. He has a terrific jump shot and nerves of steel. Plus he is so damn humble and reserved. I watched the Detroit series and he probably hit 6 three pointers that if I had shot and they had gone in I would have probably been labeled the most obnoxious player since Bill Lambeer leaping and pointing and yelling like I had just gotten a date with that hot junior in my chemistry class. But Gibson buries the threes and doesn't even leave his hand up, he starts jogging back up court with a look of complete indifference on his face. Even when he gets mugged by Lebron and the king of all muggers, Anderson Varejao, he still only smiles a little with his teammates and still refuses to acknowledge how surreal it must be for him to bury a 3 pointer right in Chauncey Billups' face.
He also is the only one capable of playing decent defense on Tony Parker because he can match Parker in quickness. In doing so he alleviates the burden Lebron has to carry as the Cavaliers' White Knight. After watching Parker practically walk through the lane in Games 1 and 2 with Larry Hughes and Lebron guarding him it was a breath of fresh air to watch him struggle to get past Gibson who used his quickness to stay with Parker enough to frustrate him. Maybe next year Mike Brown will say, "Hey, I know he is my best point guard, and the perfect sidekick for Lebron's drive and dish, so I guess I will give him some minutes. But not too many because even if Larry Hughes limps around the court like Captain Hook, he is a tough dude for playing hurt so he gets my minutes."
Sasha Pavlovic:
This is the guy who I think has the most redeemable qualities out of the muck that is the Cavs team behind Lebron and Gibson. He shoots the 3 very well for a guy his size and is also about 80 percent from the free-throw line on the season and normally those two qualities have a way of making a player worth keeping around for awhile. I understand that this is his first season playing significant minutes and he is still very young with a lot of potential, but c'mon, the guy is 6-7 and 210 pounds with ball-handling skills of a point guard and good speed. Yet he has still been a complete non-factor in every single playoff game the Cavaliers have played this year. Every game I watch him play I always think he has the ability to abuse the normally smaller defender that guards him but he just sits around the perimeter waiting for the drive and kick instead of using his size to maybe try to get to the free-throw line more than twice a game.
The guy is softer than a down pillow. He hasn't scored more than 17 points in any of the playoff games and he is two best games came against New Jersey when Vince "Boy Defense really excites me" Carter was pretending to guard him for 40 minutes. Now all of you must be sitting around saying well Mike is exaggerating, he must drive to the lane at least a few times. The answer is no, I am not exaggerating and no, he doesn't try to take his man off the dribble, ever. The Spurs are blatantly leaving him open to try and make him be the member of Lebron's court to beat them. They even double teamed Gibson occasionally. Now I am not a math whiz, but a double team on Lebron and a double team on Gibson absolutely has to leave Pavlovic open yet he went just 5-15 from with floor and only 3-9 inside the 3 point arc. That's just pathetic I am sorry. Hopefully he will improve as he gains playing experience. But he really better hope so.
Drew Gooden:
Now I am not one to point fingers, but Drew Gooden is largely responsible for the Cavaliers losses in the first three games of the NBA Finals. As much as Pavlovic has been a non-factor in the playoffs Gooden has probably been twice as bad. His numbers are somewhere around his season average of 13 and 8 but his impact on the game is much farther down the list probably at around 0. Sure he scores 13 points, but he goes head to head against Tim Duncan and so not only are his stats nullified by his lackluster defense has put Cleveland in the negatives in the matchup of power forwards. Plus I may be the only one who gets this feeling, but it seems to me as if Gooden may want to win a championship but he really doesn't like playing 4th option in the offense and deferring to players like Gibson and Pavlovic.
His attitude and general disinterest in everything that Mike Brown and his teammates have to say is best exemplified by Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Millions of viewers on TV and everyone within 200 feet of the Cavaliers bench could hear Lebron and Coach Brown plead with Gooden not to leave his feet on a three point attempt because it could possibly result in a foul that would lead to potential game tying free throws. So what does Gooden do, he leaps about as high and as far as he possibly can and takes an enormous swipe at the buzzer-beating attempt by Chauncey Billups. I can just see Danny Ferry lying in his bed praying to whoever will listen that Drew Gooden will hurt himself playing video games, or shoot somebody at a strip club so he can void his contract and play somebody, anybody other than Drew Gooden.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas:
Now I have always been a fan of the big man from Lithuania. He has been a model of consistency and before Lebron James was an Eastern Conference All-Star for a number of years. Granted the East has about as many good centers as Tom Brady has pregnant girlfriends (2) but still he was able to average something around 18 and 10 for a guy with a limited skill set. He also has been the only player on the Cavaliers team to outplay his counterpart on the Spurs. His opponent Fabricio "Oh Boy" Oberto has been manhandled on the glass, just look at the 18 rebounds, 10 of them offensive, that Ilgauskas grabbed in Game 3 playing by far his best game of the playoffs.
Now for the more negative aspects of his game. My friends and I went to a recent Cavaliers-Celtics basketball games and of course since the Celtics are terrible I rooted solely for Zydrunas Ilgauskas. The really sad part was every time he touched the ball within 15 feet of the basket my friends and I would all simutaneously yell, "running jump hook" and as if on cue Ilgauskas would take one step, lumber across the lane and throw up an ugly jump hook that had puking involuntarily for much of the second half. His major problem is that when he runs, or jogs, or walks, he looks like a luxury liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean and he is more predictable than a Rasheed Wallace technical foul. His defense is mediocre, He is 7-3 so he certainly is hard to shoot over, but its really his offense that has the Spurs showing such a obvious lack of respect for his ability to hurt them. That being said he is also my favorite player on the Cavs. I hope someday he and Arvydas Sabonis travel to Massachusetts and decide to get a civil union and maybe get a reality tv show. I think I would watch that every single time it was on. I mean c'mon it can't be worse than Pirate Master or the Real World Reunited. Maybe the show could be them going one on one against each other everyday. I dare you not be to intrigued, I dare you!
In short, Thanks Cavaliers for ruining an NBA Finals, and thanks America for proverbially humping the Cavaliers like my next door neighboor's dog does to my unsuspecting hapless little brother.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Is it time for Doug Mirabelli to go?
Let me clue those still living in the dark on the stat line for Boston's much ballyhooed backup catcher. In 2006 Mirabelli had 12 hits in 161 at bats for a spiffy .193 batting average and a .261 OBP. In 2007 in Mirabelli has improved to 16 hits through 136 at bats and a better .309 OBP. If you compare these stats with the stats of our previous back up catcher Josh Bard you will see that Bard is head and shoulders above Mirabelli statistically. Yet, when we traded for Mirabelli last year his arrival was in a State Police Cruiser and was cheered as if he was the governor of Massachusetts, for all of our sakes I will pass on Mitt Romney jokes.
Now I do understand that Josh Bard had absolutely no ability to catch a knuckleball, and his ineptness led to his eventual departure but let's be serious, is Mirabelli really the only catcher in the whole MLB that can catch a knuckleball as effective as Wakefield's? He is 37 years old and looks fatter than the guy in my softball league who only comes for the beer and is too fat to play a real position so he catches the underhand throws from the pitcher. Yet everybody in Red Sox Nation is in love with the guy because he was so solid in 2003 and 2004 when we won our World Series so he somehow has lucked into a free pass in Boston sports fan's hearts despite the fact that he clearly can't hit his weight and looks totally inept at the plate. There is no other Red Sock who elicits cries of impending doom on an inning the same way Mirabelli does when he waddles to the plate. My suggestion would be to release him and find someone else to take his spot either from Triple A or from the waiver wire. I mean it's not like the guy plays everyday, he plays once a week and the only reason for that is because Tim Wakefield throws a knuckleball.
Professional catchers are paid to catch baseballs. Josh Bard struggled but I feel he would have been fine if the Red Sox management hadn't gotten their panties in a wad and went for the great story of having Mirabelli return to the Red Sox in a blaze of glory only to hit below the Mendoza line. Just get rid of him I am sick of seeing him in the lineup every 5 days
Now I do understand that Josh Bard had absolutely no ability to catch a knuckleball, and his ineptness led to his eventual departure but let's be serious, is Mirabelli really the only catcher in the whole MLB that can catch a knuckleball as effective as Wakefield's? He is 37 years old and looks fatter than the guy in my softball league who only comes for the beer and is too fat to play a real position so he catches the underhand throws from the pitcher. Yet everybody in Red Sox Nation is in love with the guy because he was so solid in 2003 and 2004 when we won our World Series so he somehow has lucked into a free pass in Boston sports fan's hearts despite the fact that he clearly can't hit his weight and looks totally inept at the plate. There is no other Red Sock who elicits cries of impending doom on an inning the same way Mirabelli does when he waddles to the plate. My suggestion would be to release him and find someone else to take his spot either from Triple A or from the waiver wire. I mean it's not like the guy plays everyday, he plays once a week and the only reason for that is because Tim Wakefield throws a knuckleball.
Professional catchers are paid to catch baseballs. Josh Bard struggled but I feel he would have been fine if the Red Sox management hadn't gotten their panties in a wad and went for the great story of having Mirabelli return to the Red Sox in a blaze of glory only to hit below the Mendoza line. Just get rid of him I am sick of seeing him in the lineup every 5 days
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