Kris and Dan Answer NBA Questions

"What is your favorite team to watch right now?"

DAN SAYS:

For me, it's the Denver Nuggets.

I have always been a fan of explosive basketball players, the kind that compel you to loudly proclaim "damn!" while watching.

Denver has a lot of these players right now. Kenyon Martin (he's back to his old, nasty form). Nene (he's healthy and playing the way people thought he could when he was drafted in the lottery and got his big contract). JR Smith (simply one of the most talented players in the NBA, if also one of the most frustrating.)

Plus they have Chauncey Billups (a big upgrade for this particular team over AI) competently running the show, and Carmelo Anthony (when he's healthy) is one of the best pure scorers in the league.



So they combine competence and power. They're good, and they do a lot of things during a game that make it fun to watch. They are also a George Karl team, so they're not going to all of a sudden start playing slow-down defense (though they're not as bad a defensive team as they get made out to be - you have to adjust for pace.) That means they're often going to be in a high-scoring game on both sides, so the best guys on the team they're playing are also going to look pretty good.If you're a fan of entertaining basketball, you have to be a fan of watching Nuggets games. I definitely am.

KRIS SAYS:

Dan posed this question about a week ago, and I have thought about it long and hard and watched a bunch of games this past week. Obviously the Nuggets are a fine choice. So are the Hawks, Suns, Magic, Celtics and Blazers.

But to me this decision came down to two teams, the Lakers and Cavs. Mainly because I am a star kinda guy and these teams have the two biggest stars in the game. Yesterday finally mad the decision for me, it is the Lakers.

Kobe Bean Bryant is the number one reason for watching the Lakers play. He is such a joy to watch; he plays the game with a smoothness and effortless demeanor. It is to appreciate the game to watch it played so beautifully on the highest level. But it is not just Bryant who I enjoy watching.

The team has some other excellent players as well as role players who fit the puzzle perfectly. Pau Gasol is the modern day big man; the ability to move up and down the floor, shoot the ball with range and is an outstanding passer on both the perimeter and in the post. The emergence of Andrew Bynum (which I doubted coming out of high school) as a legit post presence in this league. He is big and strong, but light on his feet and has a variety of post moves. And lastly the other player that stands out to me is Lamar Odom. I have followed his star crossed career since I first saw him play as a sophomore in high school. He also, ike Gasol, for his size has such a great all court game, including his passing which makes him an asset to any team that he is on.

Along with those stars they have a slew of role players. Perimeter shooters Derek Fisher, Sasha Vujacic and Vlad Radmonovic help spread the court with their range. When healthy, Jordan Farmer along with Trevor Ariza help bring in a younger more up tempo second unit.

In all, because of Kobe’s immense talent and because of how the rest of the teams fits and plays their roles so well is why I enjoy watching the Lakers more than any team in the league.

Here Come The Warm Jets: The New Coach

Rex Ryan is the new coach of the Jets.

I have to say, I'm happy about this. Of all the candidates they were talking about, this one excites me the most. If Ryan can give the Jets even a reasonable facsimile of the Ravens defense, this Jets fan will be tickled.

Ryan also looks like he will change the culture of the team a bit. Mangini's unnecessarily secretive and paranoid regime wore on everyone. The assistant coaches couldn't talk to the media. Injuries couldn't be discussed. And so on.

Ryan doesn't seem to play that crap. He just says "we're going to build the best football team, so watch out." He's not going to dispassionately spout cliches and platitudes. He's going to be emotional, funny, and fully dedicated to winning. It's going to be a more open and fun environment, which will hopefully translate on the field.

I also like that he has a "fit the system to the players" mentality, and not a "fit the players to the system" approach that Mangini had, especially on defense.

Bringing on other Baltimore people as his defensive staff? Fine by me.

Keeping Westhoff as the special teams coach? Great.

Keeping on Schottenheimer as offensive coordinator? I'm fine with this, too. I don't think he was as much to blame for this past season's collapse as Mangini was. And I like that there will be some continuity on that side, especially given the personell. An established o-line, two above average RBs, some decent receivers, and the unsettled QB position. That screams for keeping the same OC, at least for one year.

There is a lot of work to be done. Can they bring in a few free agents, especially one of the LBs from Baltimore (Bart Scott would be my preference)? Can they get some help in the draft? And what about Favre?

For now, though, I can't be anything but pleased with this choice for coach. Granted, I said the same thing when they hired Mangini. So let's see how I feel in three years.

And Now, A Very Special Guest Post

We have for you today, Sherman Ave Block Party readers, a very special guest post, by none other than Teaneck's own Andrew Zoltan.

Andrew was inspired to write this after our discussion of Kurt Warner's HOF credentials in the last post.  It is a case for Terrell Davis.

Take it away, Andrew:

Between 1995 and 1998, Terrell Davis won two Super Bowls, a Super Bowl MVP, a League MVP, and two AP Offensive Player of the Year awards.   He appeared in 3 Pro Bowls and was First Team All-Pro 3 times.  So he has plenty of hardware.

He rushed for 6413 yards on 1343 carries over that span, averaging 4.8 yards per carry, and he scored 56 rushing TD.  He also had 1181 receiving yards on 152 receptions, for a 7.8 yard average, with 5 receiving TD.  He totaled 7594 yards from scrimmage on 1492 touches, for 5.1 yards per touch.  In 1998 he rushed for 2008 yards, the fourth-highest single-season total in NFL history.   Those are his regular-season stats for those four years.  So he has plenty of numbers.

But Davis’ post-season exploits are even more eye-popping.  He only played in three post-seasons, for a total of 8 games.  In those 8 games, he rushed for 1140 yards on 204 carries, a 5.6 yard average.  Those are not typos.  1140 yards, 204 carries, in just 8 games, in the playoffs against the best teams in the league.  He also chipped in 131 yards on 19 receptions and scored 12 total TD.  If you project his playoff numbers out for a 16 game season, Davis would have had 2280 yards on 408 carries, 38 receptions for 232 yards, and 24 total TD. 

Maybe you don’t buy into the idea of projecting 8 playoff games out for 16 games.  If so, then think about this: for some guys, 1140 yards rushing, 131 receiving, and 12 total TD in a 16 game regular season would be a career year, or a near-best year.  Guys like Franco Harris, Earnest Byner, Garrison Hearst, Larry Csonka, Freeman McNeill, Warrick Dunn, James Brooks, Rodney Hampton, Antowain Smith.  Davis did it in 8 playoff games. 

The running backs in that list aren’t all Hall of Famers, but they all went to multiple Pro Bowls except for Antowain Smith, and he was the featured back on two Super Bowl championship teams.  In 8 playoff games, Terrell Davis bested some of their 16 game regular season stats when they were in their primes.

Davis rushed for over 100 yards in all but one playoff game, his first one in which the Broncos lost to the Jaguars.  He carried only 14 times for 91 yards (a 6.5 yard average) because the Broncos fell behind and had to throw the ball.  I remember watching that game at a bed and breakfast in Mystic CT with the woman who would one day become my ex-wife.  I was stunned that the Jags were winning.  I was also stunned that she wasn’t stunned, and that she couldn’t understand why I was stunned.  I should have known it was trouble right then.  But I digress.

After the 1998 season, Davis blew out his knee.  He only played in 17 games over the next 3 years, totaling 1194 yards rushing (at a 3.8 yard per carry clip), 99 receiving, and 4 total TD.  Those are still pretty decent numbers for a guy with one-and-a-half knees (like pairs of pants, with one-and-a-half knees you ain’t cool), and 17 games is basically one season.  In fact, 1194 yards is more than Curtis Enis rushed for in any single season, and more rushing yards than Ki-Jana Carter had in his entire career. 

TD ended his career with 7607 yards rushing, 1280 receiving, and 65 total TD.  I freely admit that these are not, on their face, Hall of Fame career stats.  But it’s not Davis’ fault that he wasn’t able to play for another 2-4 years and rack up another 3,000 yards to lock up the yellow jacket.

For four years, Terrell Davis was a beast in the regular season, undoubtedly the best player at his position.  More importantly, he was a force of nature in the post-season, consistently putting up impossible numbers against the toughest competition the league had to offer in the most important games of the year.  I don’t recall ever reading stories about him driving drunk, beating his wife, spreading his seed around like Jethro Tull, shooting steroids, shooting heroin, shooting himself or anyone else, causing paralysis-inducing riots at strip clubs, or even causing drama in the locker room.  He is a class act who played hard, was the focal point of two championship teams, and always came up big when it counted.

In my mind, the Hall of Fame is a place you bring your kids so you can point to a bronze bust and say “I saw that guy play.  He was amazing.  Remember his name, look up his numbers, and if you ever see him on ESPN Classic then don’t change the channel.  Sit there and watch him work.”

Terrell Lamar Davis belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Rasputin

Rasputin- A infamous Russian monk who survived 2 assassination attempts before finally succumbing to the third attempt in which he was poisoned, shot 4 times, beaten and then thrown into a river, the cause of death being drowning, the Monk that would not die.


In 1935 famed sports write Damon Runyon wrote: “In all the history of the boxing game you find no human interest story to compare with the life narrative of James J. Braddock.” Well I would adjust that quote just a little, substituting football for boxing and Kurt Warner for James J. Braddock. Like the famous Monk, no matter how many times left for dead, Warner keeps lunging forward.


We all know the story of his climb from Hy-Vee grocery clerk to NFL quarterback. He worked his way through the back alley in the arena league and NFL Europe. Then through injury wound up the starter and before anyone realized it he was raising the Vince Lombardi Trophy. His career has continued with two different teams and now he has the Cardinals in the Super Bowl. Read that previous sentence again.


It was 1994 and Warner was a practice squad player for the Green Bay Packers. He was cut, his NFL career over before it began. Death 1

After playing 2 seasons in the Arena League, again he couldn’t find his way in the league. Left for dead a 2nd time.

Signing last minute with the Amsterdam Admirals he found himself embroiled in a QB battle with the unknown Jake Delhomme. Warner won the battle and after one season the St. Louis Rams signed him, as the 3rd string QB. Basically left for dead, again, buried on the depth chart with a mediocre franchise.

After all his NFL success with the St Louis Rams, including a Super Bowl title his career appeared over after getting released in favor of the younger Marc Bulger. Again, it appeared a career over as injuries took over his career.

He then signs with the New York Giants and after six turnover filled starts he was replaced by rookie Eli Manning. His finger hurt badly, his performance severely degraded and nobody lining up at his door this was finally it, his career dead, for the last time.

The only problem was someone forgot to tell Kurt Warner. Latching on with the Arizona Cardinals as a backup for Matt Leinart. The problem was Leinart likes chasing tale more than watching film, so Warner beat him out for the starting job. Through the midway point of this season many considered Warner the MVP of the league (as predicted by yours truly in his Outlandish NFL Predictions on the very site). He continued on his winning ways getting his team into the playoffs. And was we all know, once in the playoffs anything can happen, and anything did.

Warner now becomes only the second QB in history to take 2 different teams to the Super Bowl. Now the questions lingers, is he a Hall of Fame player. Well we can check the numbers, while his overall yards and TD numbers wont be up there with the greats because of the amount of years he has played, but when he has played well he is as good as anyone.

3 time Super Bowl QB
3 time pro bowler
2 time All Pro
2 time League MVP
8-2 playoff record
93.8 QB rating (4th all time)

Getting You Back In The NBA Swing

As Sherman Avenue Block Party readers know, I am a big NBA fan. Now that the NFL season is winding down, I thought I'd share some NBA-related things with you, to help get you excited about watching basketball again, if you're not already.

If you've been away from watching pro basketball for a while, now is a great time to come back. The league is experiencing a renaissance right now. The quality of play is fantastic. The young talent entering the league is real. The rule changes that were made earlier this decade has opened up the game and made offense more prevalent.

What I'm saying is, this isn't slug-it-out-defense, clear out for one star to either drive or pull up for a jump shot, 82-78 basketball. At the highest levels of the game, the offense being played is beautiful to watch.

You know about LeBron (though what he's doing this year surpasses anything he's done before, which I didn't even think was possible.) You probably know about Wade and Paul and Amare. You should know about what Dwight Howard has turned into (give some credit to our boy Patrick Ewing.) You also need to see what Rudy Gay, Danny Granger, Nene, Kevin Martin, Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant, Russel Westbrook, Caron Butler, Deron Williams, Paul Milsap, and many others are doing.

You know about the Lakers and the Celtics, maybe the Cavs. You need to see how Orlando is playing. And Utah, and Denver, and Phoenix (Shaq is a real baskeball player again), and Portland, and the Hawks (seriously).

Also know about these things:

If you're a Knicks fan, like many of the readers here are, you should be reading Posting & Toasting. It's a well-run and well-written site, with good insight and a good sense of humor. As an example, read this recap of the Knicks win over the Wizards the other night.

Also Knicks-related, read this article called "The Expected" from KnickerBlogger.net for a smart take on the value of David Lee.

One more Knicks-related link: check the video work at Seven Seconds or Mess. Genius stuff. If you're like me, living away from New York and not watching all the games, this will show you what's been going on with the team.

A plug for the Disciples of Clyde NBA Podcast? Here? Well, even if you haven't been listening, which you should be, we also have a new website where we've been doing blog posts as well. I think you all will enjoy this one - it has a cool graph I made!

The best league-wide NBA blog is by far Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo!. That's the first thing I read everyday, without fail.

Have I plugged the FreeDarko book, The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac, on here yet? If not, I should have. I couldn't recommend it more - the essays are smart, the illustrations are jaw-dropping, and the stuff they did with stats is brilliant. This isn't like anything else you've ever seen in sports books.

Chales Oakley has a cooking show. Do you think I'm kidding? Watch this.


And in case you didn't think basketball was truly back and ready to take over:

Perception and Reality - The New York Mets offseason - Part 1

I was listening to my XM Radio on Wednesday afternoon. "Nasty Boy" Rob Dibble comes on in the afternoon and last week he was with some guy I hadn't heard of. He claimed to be a Mets fan and was pissed off with the team after the Derek Lowe signing with the Braves, saying how Omar and the team were being cheap by not giving a 35-year old four years $15 million a year instead of the three and $12 million they offered.

Dibble seemingly agreed, noting that the Braves' signing wasn't a desperation move...

Living in Atlanta and occasionally listening to local sports talk, I can defiantly disagree with that opinion. Frank Wren's move to get Lowe by offering much more than the Mets with an additional year and demanding the decision be made quickly right after reports of John Smoltz signing with the Red Sox ran in the A-block on the news. (For all non-media major, that means it was before the first commercial break). I heard at least one caller renounce his season tickets and the few local radio guys I can stand admitted that the Lowe signing would curb their anger slightly...

Regardless of that, I was calling to say that while the Mets could have done well in signing Lowe it will be OK. That last year's major problem was the bullpen and they'll be fine with Santana, a continued improvement from Mike Pelfrey, Perez and a healthy John Maine. In fact, I was going to add that if they offer Oli P $10 million a year there would be enough to get at least two more quality arms (Randy Wolf, Jon Garland, Pedro???) for the same $5 million that the Braves are going to pay Lowe.

On a side note, I listened to Baseball This Morning the next day and heard Joel Sherman of the NY Post (having studios in New York City can do wonders for accessing talent!) and he put forth the opinion that the Mets were done spending, something Adam Rubin of the Daily News had said yesterday on The Show. Nevertheless, it wouldn't take much to sign Ben Sheets, Wolf and Garland. Maybe $10 for all three and now you've got a surplus of arms in the rotation that will provide innings and likely serve as a stopgap for a season or two while young pitching (Jon Niese, Bobby Parnell) develop.

Obviously I wasn't going to be able to make all these points in my phone call with Dibble, especially since one of them was made by someone else a day later. But none of that would matter because when I started my call with the fact that the Mets main and major problem last year was the bullpen, that the starters weren't that bad, I was cut off.

I was told I was completely wrong, that John Maine failed to improve, that Oli Perez was horrible and that generally the staff was terrible.

I don't know what else was said on that point because I was cut off and since I didn't have my radio on anymore, I didn't get a chance to hear what was said next. I can only assume it wasn't anything nice. I'm sure it was the continued perception of how the Mets failed to catch, then hold off, then catch the Phillies thanks in part to a starting staff that forced the pen to pitch countless innings and wore them down, that they only had five complete games as a staff and other such bollock of non-essential importance.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Perception is defined as a way of regarding something or a mental impression and it's easy to remember Pedro not making it out of the fifth inning or John Maine's pitch count racing towards 100 before the end of the fourth. It's easy to think of Perez walking the world or the parade of fifth starters used like Nelson Figueroa and Claudio Vargas and the sight of any number of relievers coming into a game late and losing a lead.

But the reality of the 2008 Mets tells a simple story - The bullpen blew it.
That point made by a fan, regardless of the information, doesn't hold weight. So how about an article from Jayson Stark from the winter meetings in Vegas after they locked up K-Rod and Putz?

* The Mets were 13th in the league in ERA from the seventh inning on and 13th in bullpen ERA overall.

* They blew 29 saves -- second most in the National League, behind St. Louis.

* They gave up 61 home runs from the seventh inning on, tied with the Giants for the most in the league.

And those aren't even the most devastating numbers that defined the Mets' season...

Speaking of numbers, that's why we all love baseball and Nick Bakay. The numbers never lie and once again reality says that regardless of whatever image you have the starters in Blue and Orange were pretty decent, if not downright good. While the previous numbers were from Stark, I found these myself.

- They had three guys with 30+ starts and two (Santana and Pelfrey) with 200 innings pitched.
- Mets starters ERA with Pedro’s 5.61 was 3.98, but it was still 4.07 which placed them sixth in the National League, nearly a quarter run lower than the league average.
- The 971 innings pitched was eighth in the league, ahead of Boston and the world champion Phillies and their 45 losses to starters were the fewest behind only the 100-win Angels and Cubs.
- The Mets, as a team, finished seventh in league with 86 quality starts, only two behind Phillies and third best in the National League.
- Yes, as a staff they walked 388, which was led by Oli’s 105 but their .253 Batting Average Against was fourth best in the league
- And their 29 blown saves was second behind Seattle and St. Louis and only 60 percent of games were saved, below both NL and MLB average.

All those numbers would lead any reasonable person to accept the reality that the Mets major problem last year was the bullpen, that it's not much to ask or expect similar performances from the main starters in 2009 and if that's the case then maybe this part of Stark's post would come true...

* If all games had ended after six innings this season, the Mets would have finished the year 11 games ahead of the Phillies (aka, the team that won the World Series).

* If all games had ended after seven innings, the Mets would have finished six games ahead of the Phillies.

* And if all games had even been just eight innings long instead of nine, the Mets would have finished five games ahead of the Phillies.

Parental Control

We take an interlude from sports to address some real issues. Okay well not real issues, but outrageous teen issues. Just the other day while perusing the internet I came across a disturbing news story that involved a 13 year old teenage girl who had apparently set the record for text messages sent in a month. Then today, while minding my own business, flipping through channels at work came across another story involving “sexting,” the act of sending nude or salacious photos via a pix message.


I was aware of both of these things, incessant text messaging and the sending of nude photos, but was unaware of the level of which they gone. What are these kids crazy? Do they do anything else besides text message? Hey, here’s a big question, where the fuck are the parents? As I get older things like this begin to worry me more. Most of my friends are having children and beginning to raise families, as is my brother so I hope that they can have more control over their children and educate them better than most of these parents out there now.


This father in California realized something was wrong when he received a bill from AT&T which was over 400 pages in length, imagine the envelope? It turns out his ridiculous teenage daughter had sent in the neighborhood of 14,000 text messages (a modern record as far as anyone knows). TO do the math, that is over 400 text messages a day. Huh, 400 a day? Wouldn’t your fingers fall off?


I send what I thought was a lot of text messages. I have never sent more than 500 in one month, which is the limit I have on my plan. I know most people have unlimited text messaging, but I decided to put a limit on myself, knowing that if I ever went over 500 in a month I have a problem. This young lady sends almost that many in a day. While reading the article they talked about a recent survey that states the average teenager (12-18) sends approximately 1,700 text messages a month. I learned from that, that I was nowhere near the textaholic I thought I was. Attached to the article there was a photo of the child’s father playfully trying to grab the phone away from his daughter as she is text messaging. If I was the father this photo would be of me driving a pick ax through her head.


As for “sexting” I am not sure what to say. Again the title of this blog is Parental Control. As a parent I would think you need to have a better understanding of who your kids are and what they are doing with their time. I know it is hard, but it isn’t impossible. I would hope that parents have enough sense to let their children know the consequences of an action like this. That picture gets out to one person, who then shares it with someone else and so on down the line. Then maybe it gets in the hands of the wrong people and gets posted on your schools website or something like that. As a preacher once told me, you can choose your sin but you can’t choose your consequence.


It is said that 1 in 5 high schooler’s has engaged in “sexting.” That is a disturbing number for sure, at least they don’t send 14,000 “sext” messages…..or do they?

Rank 'em, by Name

This time I will just give you the names of the seven QB's we used in our study and I want you to rank them. The order is different, and again dont try and go back and guess who was who with the stats, just give me your gut.

A) Chad Pennington
B) Carson Palmer
C) Ben Rooethlisberger
D) Tony Romo
E) Eli Manning
F) Phillip Rivers
G) Drew Brees

Rank 'em

Each QB has a letter, simply put which letter you woudl take 1st and then 2nd and so on. Pretty simple game. Don't try and guess who is who just evaluate them on their numbers and let's see what people come up with. Each QB has been int he leagu anywhere from 4-8 seasons and has at least one playoff appearence.

YARDS PER SEASON
TD
INT
COMP %
REGULAR SEASON W-L
WIN %
PLAYOFF APPEARENCES
PLAYOFF W-L
YARDS PER ATTEMPT
NET YARDS PER ATTEMPT


A
3724
26
15
63
32-29
0.524
1
0 and 1
7.2
6.6


B
3758
23
14
63
55-51
0.518
2
1 and 2
7.2
6.7


C
3516
25
11
62
33-15
0.687
3
3 and 3
7.5
6.8



D
3395
23
15
57
41-23
0.641
4
4 and 3
6.4
5.9


E
3520
27
15
63
27-12
0.691
2
0 and 2
8.1
7.4


F
2913
18
12
66
43-35
0.551
4
2 and 4
7.3
6.5



G
2994
20
13
62
51-20
0.718
3
6 and 2
7.9
6.5

Plenty of Blame

Yes I talked trash all week, and I am willing to admit defeat. The Eagles won the game fair and square, however on the Giants side there is plenty of blame to go around.


Yes I am the guy who toots Eli’s horn when he is playing well. He played poorly in this playoff game but I still am fine with him as my QB for the next7-10 years, the kid is a winner and will rebound. I am not willing to say all the blame goes to Eli, but as a QB you have to be willing to except the blame if you are willing to accept the adulation.


If there is 100% blame then it is shared by numerous people this week.


15% of credit has to go the Eagles. They came in prepared and made the plays when they had to, and that is what playoff football is all about.


3% of the blame goes to the Plaxico situation. Obviously people will look to that and give that a lot of credence but I just don’t see it as a huge problem. The Giants aren’t heavily reliant on one player so much


17% of the blame goes to John Carney. He is a pro bowler this year and the fact is he missed 2 field goals in this game, and only missed one during the year.


20% of the blame goes to Elisha Manning. He played poorly. His balls floated on him all day and he made some bad decisions with the ball. One touchdown is squarely on his shoulders, he threw a bad pick in the 1st quarter. As for his second pick, I don’t count that all that much, it was in desperate we have throw the ball every time part of the game.


25% of the blame goes to the Giants coaching staff, mostly on offense. Gilbride called a terrible fucking game, plain and simple. It was clear early on that Eli wasn’t playing well so you have to go to the running game more, especially when it was working. The Giants were 5-11 on first down passes and ran the ball 17 times for 110 yards on first down. So why would you continue to throw the ball on first down whne your QB has shown an inability to throw the ball most of the day and your running game has been successful?. Both Ward and Jacobs ran the ball well, but damn Gilbride likes to outsmart himself, a coaching problem we have discussed here before. We can talk about some specific plays like on 4th and inches why we don’t hand the ball to the 280 running back that we have? And then on 3rd and 3 on the next drive we run a direct snap to Derrick Ward, a play we have not run in 16 games this season. What, are you fucking kidding me?


10% of the blame goes to Antonio Pierce. He flat out sucks balls. To quote one of my old hoops coach’s “he couldn’t play dead in a cowboy movie.” Three times a third down he just let his guy get first downs. On one of the biggest drives of the game he just grabbed a guys face mask for a 15 yard penalty and then forgot to cover his guy on the touchdown. The day he dies will be a holiday for me, I really mean that. I think he is the worst player ever. On my old blog check out March 4 2005’s Daily Nooner where I express my complete distain for Antonio Pierce’s terrible football skills.


10% of the blame goes to the rest of the team for making too many penalties and not making timely plays. The Giants last post season and this season excelled at no making stupid penalties, not turning the ball over and making the timely play. They did not of that against the Eagles.


On a side note how about that Donovan McNabb. All he does is keep winning under all kinds of adversity. Never has a guy who is so good been so universally hated by his own fan base. I hope he wins the Super Bowl and tells all the Eagles fans to kiss his big black ass.

Kris and Dan Answer NBA Questions

"Who has been the most surprising rookie so far?"

DAN

For me, this has to be Brook Lopez. I said, over and over and over again, during the draft that the Lopez brothers looked like guaranteed NBA stiffs. I never saw anything from them in a college game that led me to believe they'd be anything better than career backup centers in the NBA. And this is the new NBA, where center isn't as important as it once was - Patrick Ewing isn't walking through that door, Hakeem Olajuwan isn't walking through that door, David Robinson isn't walking through that door, young Shaq isn't walking through that door, Kevin Duckworth is dead.

Well, color me surprised that Brook Lopez looks like a real, live NBA starter.

Let's look at some numbers (http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/l/lopezbr01.html)

He's playing 28 minutes a game.
He's averaging 10.1 points, 8 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game, and 1.7 turnovers per game.
That works out to 12.7 points, 10.1 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks per 36 minutes.
His PER is 14.8 (average NBA player is 15) and his True Shooting % is 49.5%.

For fun, let's compare that to what Greg Oden is doing http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/o/odengr01.html

He's playing 23.1 minutes a game.
He's averaging 8 points, 7.2 rebounds, 1.2 blocks per game, and 1.5 turnovers per game.
That works out to 12.5 points, 11.2 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per 36 minutes.
His PER is 15.8 (average NBA player is 15) and his True Shooting % is 57.1%.

Did anyone out there think that this season Brook Lopez would have incredibly similar per-36-minute numbers as Greg Oden?

I sure didn't. And that's what makes Brook Lopez the most surprising rookie so far this year.

KRIS

This is such a fun question to answer because of the unbelievable depth of this years rookies class. Never have so many rookies contributed in a significant way in this league.

As I am typing this I am still wrestling between Mario Chalmers and Marc Gasol. Chalmers hit the big shot in the National Championship game last year but coming out he was sort of a tweener. There were some questions about his ability to play the Point full time in the NBA. Gasol played well in the Olympics this summer, but the knock on him was his weight (stamina) and his ability to bring it every time out.

I am going to have to go with Chalmers. While I thought he would be a contributing player and get better increasingly throuhgout his career, he has been a consistant starter for a team fighting for a playoff spot.

Chalmers has started all but on game this season, and playing the PG spot he has allowed the ball to be out of Dwayne Wade's hands (helping keep him healthy) and allowing him to lead the league in scoring right now. Chalmers numbers aren't spectacular, but rather solid. In 32 minutes a game he is scoring 10 ppg and dishing out 4.7 assists, while being 6th in the league in steals at 1.9 a game. He is also shooting a respectable 36% from 3-pt range, as a rookie not known for his shooting range that is a very good percentage.

I also love the way Chalmers leads the team. He is very cool and calm, and obviously some of that comes from being a National Champion in college basketball.

For me, Chalmers has been the most suprising rookie.

A Brief, Melancholy Interlude

This week on the Disciples of Clyde NBA Podcast, we pay tribute to my friend and podcast partner Ken's late mother, who recently passed away from pancreatic cancer.

We are also asking listeners, and by extension you all, to be aware of the Lustgarten Foundation, which is an organization that donates money to pancreatic cancer research, and to donate to them if you can.

Thanks for your time.

Here Come The Warm Jets: 2008 Season Recap

At the start of the year, if you told me the Jets would go 9-7 and just barely miss the playoffs, I might have said "I'll take it." Especially after a frustrating and dispiriting 4-12 season the previous year.

But as it turns out, there's different kinds of 9-7.

A Houston-Texans-esque 9-7 (they were actually 8-8, bear with me) where the team lost a few close games, and won convincingly most of the last half of the year? That would have been fine. Not great, but you can build on that, as Herm might say.

This 9-7 was worse. Way worse. When you go 8-3, and you just beat the best team in the league while they were still undefeated, in their stadium, convincingly, you can't be at all happy with finishing 9-7. You can take that with you, Eric Mangini. The Oakland, San Francisco, and Seattle losses were unforgivable. Good coaches don't let their teams lose those games, even on the road. Period.

Now the coach is gone. The QB who never should have been there in the first place is probably (hopefully) gone.

What are we left with?


The Good

The RBs

Thomas Jones had a career year this year. 1,312 yards, 4.5 average, 15 total TDs, only 1 fumble lost. He'll turn 31 this offseason, but he didn't get tons of carries early in his career (he only started getting over 200 carries a year in 2004) so it's possible he's got one more decent year left in him. He won't be quite as good as he was this year, most likely, but even if he gets fewer carries but still stays solid and doesn't fumble, he's a positive.

Leon Washington showed he can be a real weapon. He is the team's only true playmaker, a guy who can possibly score every time he touches the ball. He is just about guaranteed to see the ball more next year.

Having these two as the pair of RBs going into next year is perfectly fine by me. Presumably, the new coach reduces the carries for Jones, increases them for Washington, and we get a nice combination in the running game. A bonus if they can get another solid year out of 37-year-old FB Tony Richardson, an underrated offseason pickup, and one of the best blocking FBs of the last 10 years.

The Offensive Line

A major weakness in 2007, this turned into a strength in 2008. Give credit to the GM - the Woody and Faneca signings worked out. Favre didn't get sacked too often, and the running game was solid all year (they should have used it more, but that's another story.)

D'Brickashaw Ferguson improved in his third year, and looks like a top-level NFL left tackle. Nick Mangold got his first Pro Bowl, and he'll probably get more. Brandon Moore is a solid guard, a bit unheralded, but if you don't know his name, that means he's doing okay, because you typically only know about the lineman when they f up all the time.

Faneca and Woody are both a little on the old side, 32 and 31 respectively, but not too old to prevent them from having another good year next year. The depth on the line isn't great, but, then, what team really has great OL depth? Pick up a couple of guys in the fifth or sixth round, whatever.

Useful Defensive Players

The defense had an up and down year - mostly great in the games leading up to Tennessee, horrible after that. There are some players, though, that were useful this year and will be useful next year regardless of the coach.

Kris Jenkins, when healthy, was a beast. He wasn't that healthy in, say, every game after Tennessee.

Darrelle Revis is a top-level CB, and deserved his Pro Bowl trip. Kerry Rhodes is a premier safety, and needs to be used more effectively by the next coaching staff.

David Harris and Calvin Pace are talented LBs. Not great in coverage, but can rush the passer, and can stop the run effectively.

Dwight Lowery showed promise as a rookie CB. I think he'll be a much more solid starter next year, based on the flashes of brilliance he showed this year.

Like I said, the coach next year does have some pieces to work with on defense.


The Bad

The WRs

It's probably too harsh to call Coles and Cotchery "bad" but they weren't exactly "good" either. Especially down the stretch. They had trouble getting open, and aren't fast enough to be game breaking players. Brad Smith is a gimmick player, at best. Chansi Stuckey showed promise, but is a third receiver, at best.

The team could use a big, fast receiver. Coles and Cotchery would be better as #2 and #3, or at least as #1b and #2.

The TEs

Dustin Keller showed potential, but faded badly down the stretch. Though he looks like he might be the first TE taken by the Jets in the first round not to be a complete bust, so stop looking at him like that, Kyle Brady, Johnny Mitchell, and Anthony Becht.

Chris Baker is average, and Bubba Franks is somewhat less than that.

Keller and Baker aren't a bad two-TE combo, but we have to hope that Keller's trajectory is upward, and I'm not 100% confident about that.

Some Other Guys on Defense

Sean Ellis had some sacks, but was inconsistent. Kenyon Coleman never did anything to remind me why I should care about him. Abram Elam had some great plays and some horrid plays. Same with Eric Barton and Bryan Thomas.

Any of those guys could potentially be a positive contributor next year. Or they could go and not be missed.


The Ugly

The QBs

Brett Favre had a few games where he was excellent. None of that will make me forget how awful he was in every game after the Tennessee game. He was terrible against the 49ers, the Seahawks, and the Dolphins. Not 'having a bad day' but plain terrible. And he threw far too many picks that were run back for TDs by the other team. The team bailed him out of those a few times, like in the Kansas City game, for example.

The Dolphins game was the worst. All three picks he threw were 100% his fault (despite what Peter King said in his column. Lick a Starbucks frappuccino off of my nuts, Peter King.)

I've been saying for 5 years that Favre is washed up, and needs to retire. I'm saying it again right now. Retire. For the love of God, please. Just go away.

Of course, the other QBs on the roster are terrible. I wanted to believe in Kellen Clemens, but every time I've seen him play, I've never seen a single thing that makes me think he'll ever be an excellent starting QB in the NFL. He holds on to the ball too long, and he has a knack for throwing INTs (he's only thrown 256 passes in his career, and 11 INTs. Not a good ratio.)

Brett Ratliff is the other QB. Apparently the team likes him. Don't worry, I don't know who he is, either. But I'm sure he's the next Tom Brady, waiting to happen, right? Right?

The Coverage Ability Of the LBs

This was the most glaring weakness of the team all year, besides the QBs propensity to throw the ball to the wrong team. The LBs couldn't cover anyone in space. Slot receivers and TEs killed the team all year long. The run defense anchored by an out-of-his-mind Kris Jenkins masked it some the first part of the year. Once Jenkins wore down, this was exposed badly.

Vernon Gholston

Before last year's draft, if you had to vote one guy as "most likely to get drafted too high and be a complete and utter bust" it would have been Gholston. Of course the Jets took him.

He could barely get on the field all year. When he did get on the field, he was awful. All a team had to do was run a misdirection play towards him, and he would bite on the fakes and overpursue every time. And I can only remember one play the whole year where he was even near the QB. It was embarassing to watch.

The Coaching

Mangini was not good all year. He didn't get fired because Favre threw too many picks (though that didn't help, either.) He didn't get fired because of the Dolphins game. He got fired because the 4-12 year spooked him. He was way too conservative all year long. It almost cost them some games, like week 1 against the Dolphins, and did cost them plenty of others, like Oakland and Seattle.

He had a tendency to overthink things. He wanted to do the Bill-Belichick-style "different game plan for every opponent" thing, but it didn't work. For one example, he decided to throw too often in the KC game, when they were the worst rush defense in the league. It's like Kris said, sometimes football is really fucking simple. When you play the worst rush defense in the league, and you have a good running game, run the fucking ball until they stop you.

The other big sin was not going for it on fourth down often enough. He called punts inside opponent's territory far too often. He took FG tries when they should have been going for TDs. If a coach is playing the "smart" call, the "safe" call, the "field position" call, then the team isn't going to be successful in the long run. Victory goes to the bold.

The collapse at the end of the year certainly wasn't all his fault, as I've said. But he did have a lot to do with it, too.


Here we are, then, at the end of another season. Searching for a new coach. Again. Probably searching for a new QB. Again. Needing a big-time playmaker on offense. Again. Needing a stud difference maker on defense. Again.

Frustrating Jets fans everywhere. Again.


That'll be it for "Here Come The Warm Jets" for this season. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I'll check back in after a new coach is hired, and around the draft. Now, get ready for NBA posts galore!

NBA Players are Dumb

This post is by The Innovator not Twinkie.

This whole LeBron crab dribble controversy has me fuming. Dumb LeBron and even dumber Wizards players. There is something called a crab dribble, of course it has nothing to do with what LeBron was doing, but there is such a thing.

Obviously, NBA players have fantastic athletic ability but lack fundamental basketball skill and knowledge. A crab dribble is when a defender is on your back and you are parrallel to the baseline and you dribble the ball low and in between you legs. You are almost squatted down in a crab-like position.

So someone tell the Wizards players if they want to know what a crab dribble is they can look it up, and maybe LeBron too.

Today's College Basketball

In two games this week, I watched the definition of a Top 20 college basketball team in the 21st century.

As the Innovator knows, I'm a huge Georgetown fan and knew with the loss of Roy Hibbert (now taking up space for the Pacers) and four-year point guard and floor general Johnathan Wallace, who is knee deep in trust fund fanny in the Georgetown Law School library, that things would be tough.

There were no men with size returning, JT III was going to ask senior Jessie Sapp to watch over the maturation of sophomores Austin Freeman and Chris Wright and with the transfer of Jerimiah Rivers (Easily the team's best defensive guard), it was going to be interesting to say the least.

But DaJuan Summers was coming back and we were getting a top big man prospect in Greg Monroe, a "silky smooth lefty from the Bayou". I don't know why I'm quoting someone but it seems like I should.

I won't mention the non-conference schedule, only to say that for Town to play Tennessee, Maryland and Memphis before the start of Big East play is a vast improvement. That and it got those kids ready for Monday's game at UConn.

No. 2 UConn with the ESPN The Mag cover boy Hasheem Thabeet, a tall boy who can block shots (He would finish with seven) but really has no offensive skills and yet is considered an All-American candidate.

I won't go into the game when you can watch the highlights here.
But what I saw was a very fast UConn team that can be taken out of their game with a little bit of patience at either end and I watched Town fall victim to the same thing that has been the bane of this team since JT III joined on board.

Yes, they shoot better but they can't rebound and while the Huskies' outrebounding Town 31-23 didn't hurt much, it would rear it's ugly head days later.

When they played Pitt and DeJuan Blair looked unstoppable. And while he's a decent sophomore talent, he's also a 6-7 college power forward with size, hustle and heart. Blair didn't need to showcase a 15-foot jumper to bring the taller Monroe outside. He just pushed him around in the paint, finished offensive rebounds and used his size to not allow the freshman position on the block.

Summers and Monroe were the only ones playing worth a damn in the first half, Pitt was going all out and yet they only were up 33-30 at the half. My point is while they're worthy of their No. 2 ranking when the polls come out Monday I think they are beatable.

The point of this is long gone are the days of completely dominant college teams and I don't think it has anything to do with kids leaving for the draft. It's got to do with the year-long season that youth sports have become. It's the amount of AAU teams and open gyms and the like that produces more and more players, meaning more and more quality teams and while there are exceptions like North Carolina (but while I type this, Boston College is up at the Dean Dome), gone are the days when there were about four teams clearly better than all the rest. More importantly, more teams will have the talent to exploit weaknesses and make March Madness even more fun, but make early season rankings about as useful as a wet sack of shit.

Speaking of sacks of shit, did any of you catch the Outside the Lines about Kevin Hart, the high school lineman who fooled his entire town into believing Cal and Oregon were recruiting him? This kid is my idol because while he was able to embarrass everyone involved with him and himself, he also shows just how stupid the entire high school/college recruiting process is. How a program like Utah can take their two-star athletes and beat the taste out of Alabama and their four-star studs, but this isn't getting through to kids, who feel the need to be ranked and read this and pay attention to that.

I hope Hart got a touch of 'tang after he declared, but it's really sad that he was able to lie for about 10 months time, all so he could have that one moment of shine in front of the camera's.

First post of the "New Year"

Well, Wednesday turned into Thursday and I'm the first to get my blog on...

I'll try to take a point by point method so I don't lose our reader with my rambling.

- ESPN The Mag's article about how the Giants offensive line is the true league MVP is a decent read, but they fuzzed it up by adding the Tennessee Titans defensive line. Yes, they helped push that team to the top of the AFC South but try facing seven straight teams with winning records and opening holes for two 1,000 yard rushers while allowing Eli to stand back without fear means the league should split the award five ways.

- The Mets, the Mets, the Mets. What can I really say about my Choke Artists (Thanks, Cole Hamel). For starters, we're going to start the year with Ryan Church in right field and therefore our need is a right-handed stick for left field. I heard something silly about Andruw Jones or how they need to sign Manny Ramirez and I still think the latter is possible with the market moving so slow...

The market's snail pace means the Mets can sit back on Derek Lowe until the Red Sox
and Phillies get into a bidding war. When that doesn't happen and Scott Boras finishes another lap in his Scrooge McDuck Money Pit, maybe Lowe will sign with a fourth year added to the original offer of 3 and $36 mil.

- We're talking money, so let's get to the pink elephant in the room. The Yanks went out and did what they do which ruins the game, or so cheap bastards like the Brewers' owner would have you believe.

And this is coming from a Mets fan, but more importantly a baseball fan.

For starters, the Yankees have about $90 million coming off their payroll with the expiring contracts of Jason Giambi, Carl Pavano, Andy Pettitte, Bobby Abreu, Mike Mussina and others.
I pulled that from an article published in May of last year, so this was already in the works. They're actually going to spend less than they did last year, unless they get smart and get another free agent pitcher instead of trusting Hughes and Kennedy like last year or stay stupid and don't move Joba back to the pen.

Anyway, the thing about the Yanks is they make a ton of money AND THEN INVEST IT BACK INTO THE BLOODY TEAM. They also pay the luxury tax each year. So basically, the Yankees billionaires spend on the team, a large majority of the other billionaire that own teams take that money and buy expensive umbrella holders or hopefully they follow Lewis Black's advice and hire someone to just scrub and wash their balls.



- It took a while, but I finally was able to watch "The Dark Knight" and it's easily one of the best comic book crossover films ever. That's not saying much, so how about this - it's one of the best films of last year and if Heath Ledger doesn't get the Oscar, he should come out of his grave and demand a recount.

See, that was the biggest problem with the previous Batman movies. Like morons, they killed all the villians at the end of each film. This new version has played it about as smart as possible, keeping Scarecrow alive despite his capture in two films and ending this latest one with the Joker swinging from a rope. Ledger would have returned and been brilliant again, but there was that old "accidental overdose on prescription drugs" routine that all the kids are falling for nowadays.

- I'll end with the channel I'm sure I'll be tuning into nowadays and from now on. MLB Network debuted with Don Larsen's perfect game broadcast, will have Hot Stove updates till spring training, will broadcast 16 World Baseball Classic games and when the season starts, they'll have a live studio each night till the final out, providing jump-ins like Baseball Tonight but something tells me it will be a little better. It will also feature Harold Reynolds, Al Leiter, Barry Larkin and Matt "I still live in my mom's basement" Vascurgin. Let the games begin.