Hello,
I don't know about you, but this NBA season has been sort of blah for me. The Lakers have received way too much attention, especially when that's relative to their seed in the Western Conference. Right now the Lakers are 10th place in the Western Conference. If the playoffs started today, they'd be watching them on the TV with you and me. But the Lakers are so over hyped, that's how I'm starting this blog off. The Lakers have won 7 of 10 games, but I don't think they scare a whole lot of people. Other than Kobe Bryant who frightens you on the Lakers? And if Bryant is only scoring 4 points in a game, that puts more pressure on his teammates. I suggest that would be the worst case scenario for the Lakers. Would you really wanting Ron Arrest taking the big shot if your season is in the balance. Would you want Dwight Howard at the free throw line in a similar situation?
Do any of their other players frighten you? Howard? Please, he's played so bad this season his Dad felt like he had to come out in the press to defend him. Of course Dad blamed those around Dwight, rather than blaming Dwight for not giving a damn. Does Pau Gasol scare you? The Big Stiffy will miss about 7 more weeks. Even when he's healthy he's one of the slowest players in the NBA. He once was good, but now he's a shadow of his former self. And the only people Ron Arrest scares is Lakers fans, every time he shoots. Over his last 9 games played, he's shot a frosty .304 from the field.
Although I realize the Lakers are playing better of late, I'm still leaving the fork I put in them. They may or may not make the playoffs, but they won't be a serious threat.
My favorite team, the Jazz, are floundering. They win more than they lose, but let's be honest they won't even close to winning the NBA championship this year. Although they did pick up a nice win over the Thunder last night. They will probably make the playoffs, but then likely will be swept in the first round by the Thunder or Spurs.
With the Lakers being overhyped and the Jazz being an afterthought, it's looks like I'll be cheering for the Miami Heat for the third straight playoffs. The Heat are a fun team to watch and I love Dwayne Wade. I know I'm not the only one that thinks the Heat are going through the motions in the regular season. I expect them to turn it on in the playoffs and at least reach their third straight NBA Finals.
Congrats to LeBron James for setting a new NBA record last night. He's the first player to score at least 30 points a game and shoot over 60% in 6 consecutive games. James hit 11 of 15 shots last night. What I love about this streak is that James is playing very efficiently. Too many times NBA players will just keep on jacking up shot after shot, no matter how little success they are having. Allen Iverson was the worst at this, to make it worse he was a terrible shooter. I give props to Kobe Bryant for only taking 8 shots last night. He obviously had a poor shooting night, but he tried to contribute in other ways.
The NBA All-Star game is this Sunday. I don't care or plan on watching it, do you? Dwight Howard said he's going to play as long as he doesn't aggravate his "injury". Of course he's going to play, he loves the spotlight. Whether he's deserving of being an All-Star is another question.
Meanwhile the ridiculous fiasco continues on in Dallas. Jason Garrett will be having a press conference today about all the changes made with coaches this offseason. They are merely arranging chairs on the Titanic. Unfortunately the iceberg remains Jerry Jones' inept ownership and Jason Garrett's less than inspiring coaching. Bring a pillow for Garrett's press conference, his droning delivery can put the most over caffeinated teen to sleep. Thankfully only one more year of his disastrous reign.
ESPN was talking about the Cowboys offseason needs. Well this is the easiest question ever, but I'm not real confident that the Cowboys "brain trust" will come up with the right answers. Obviously the biggest thing that needs to be done is for Jerry Jones to stop thinking that he knows football. Since that's not going to happen, no one brings it up. The next thing that needs to be done is that a real head coach has to be brought in. I'm sorry but 21-19 and no playoffs in 2.5 years just isn't good enough, well at least he used to be not good enough for the Cowboys.
Realistically these are the offseason moves the Cowboys need to do right in order to be a legitimate NFL team again.
1) Once and for all they need to get an effective offensive line and some depth to sustain the quality.
2) They need to start drafting character and non-injury prone players. How many bonehead mistakes do the Josh Brents and Jay Ratliffs of the world have to make before the Cowboys (read: Jerry) realizes these players aren't worth the risk. I love DeMarco Murray, but he can only be counted on for about half the games each season. If he's willing to accept the veteran's minimum I say keep him. However I'm tired of the Cowboys paying a lot of money for potential.
3) Paying for potential is what they'll be doing with Tony Romo very soon. If he was paid for actual performance in the time it matters the most, his contract would be much smaller. Of course I'm talking about the playoffs. He can't have success in the playoffs if he can't even lead the Cowboys there. He'll be signed to an extension sooner rather than later, sadly that's a sure thing . The Cowboys need to find and start developing the quarterback of the future. All you Cowboys homers need to realize that Romo isn't the answer. Dallas won't be relevant again until they have a true top of the line quarterback playing for them, Romo isn't that person.
I don't expect a better than a 8-8 season for the Cowboys next year. For me the main questions for next season will be when will Garrett be fired? And can Jones finally hire his first real head coach since Bill Parcells?
Thankfully I also cheer for the 49ers. Other than San Francisco's run to the Super Bowl, the NBA and the NFL have been sort of blah. However I'm looking forward to MLB being right around the corner. Magic Johnson tweeted out yesterday that pitchers and catchers have reported to the Dodgers spring training. I'm so pumped for this upcoming season. I expect that 3 of my 5 teams will be better this season. I expect the Dodgers, the Red Sox and the Pirates to be significantly improved over last season.
Good luck to the Red Sox especially. They are in the AL East, which is sure to be a bloodbath this season with all the money Toronto spent in the offseason. And I do have one question for the Pirates, why are they paying so much money to the has been washed up for a few years Russell Martin? I expect the Braves to continue playing at their high level. As for the Cubs, well they are the Cubs. Who knows if they'll ever be good again?
I'm still considering posting mostly everyday following the Dodgers this season. The recaps will be short, sort of what I'm doing with the EarlyRise kickstarter.com update blogs now.
Also I do love how much money the Dodgers are willing to be a contender. But just because they have a lot of money doesn't mean they need to spend it all. I'd rather the Dodgers spend wisely, rather than mainly going after the big name players. They certainly don't want to wind up being the Boston Red Sox of last season, although half of that roster seems to be Dodgers now.
I was a bit frightened when I read Jonah Keri's "The 15 Worst Contracts In Baseball" at grantland.com. Keri is a good writer and I've enjoyed reading his work for many years now. However from reading this article it's confirmed the fact that the Dodgers are spending just to spend. The most notable example of this being the trade with the Red Sox. Five years from now I predict that this trade will be considered a big win for the Red Sox, even more so than it is now.
The 4 Dodgers players on Keri's list don't even include the injury prone, expensive Josh Beckett. The numbers in parenthesis are where the players are in Keri's article. 14) Adrian Gonzalez- so many things has to go right for him for this deal to be a break even deal for the Dodgers. I wasn't real excited he only hit 3 homers after coming over in the trade. 13) Brandon League, he just signed this deal this past offseason. This deal was almost instantly derided by baseball insiders. League must have a damn good agent. 8) Juan Uribe- this has to be one of the worst deals ever signed by the Dodgers. If this was the NFL the Dodgers would have cut Uribe long ago. 2) Carl Crawford, after a good early career with the Rays, he never panned out in Boston. He was an extremely expensive, injury prone player in this two seasons in Boston. Getting Crawford was probably the most painful part of LA's big trade with Boston. This part of the deal isn't going to end well. Good thing the Dodgers have deep pockets, let's just hope they spend their money wiser going forward.
FYI: the worst contract on Keri's list was Alex Rodriguez's deal with the Yankees. I love so much that the Yankees still owe him $114 million for 5 more years. That's absolutely priceless.
themusicaddict
No comments:
Post a Comment