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3rd December, 2009 - 6:29 pm
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| Current Features |
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TEAM RANKINGS: Euroleague Top 16 Power Rankings
Barcelona, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Maccabi, Madrid and Siena enter the Top 16 phase as likely contenders to win the 2011 Euroleague.
STANDING 10: Non-National Games Of The Week (1/17-1/23)
The Knicks make three appearances this week, along with several from Blake Griffin and the Clippers.
PLAYER RANKINGS: 2010-11 NBA Player Rankings Through Dec. 14th
Now that more than a quarter of the season is in the books, we don't have many aberrations in the player rankings as Pau Gasol, Kevin Love, Deron Williams, Chris Paul and LeBron James comprise the top-five.
MOCK DRAFT: 2010 NBA Mock Draft, Version 5.0
An interesting week of prevalent deception is nearly over and the actual picks are hours away. Hundreds of hours have been spent watching the 60 players that 30 teams hope will improve their club in the coming years.
LOCKER TALK: Nash, Cleveland, & Orlando
Steve Nash could draw trade interest this summer and Cleveland isn?t overlooking Orlando?
CLASSICS: Hakeem Vs. Ewing: Who Was The Better Center?
Born within six months of each other in opposite corners of the world, two seven footers who are finalists for the Basketball Hall of Fame this fall are two of the best ever to play the center position.
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By Christopher Reina
Kobe Edges LeBron As No. 1 On Current Top 50 List: Any list will have surprises and omissions and though I'm a little bit surprised Kobe Bryant was ranked first ahead of LeBron James, I think the collective age of the voters represents their impression that Kobe is the superior pure basketball player.
I have no objections with the top-six, though I would probably rank Chris Paul third instead of sixth.
Kevin Garnett, Shaquille O'Neal, Tracy McGrady and Elton Brand are all ranked too high for me consider their slippage.
Rewrite this list next year and Greg Oden goes from unranked to the top-20.
I'm not sure about Charlie Villanueva's inclusion, especially in comparison to someone like Gerald Wallace.
LeBron Has Second Thoughts On Dunk Contest: I had a feeling LeBron James was setting himself up to look bad when he said he would be in the Dallas Dunk Contest during the middle of last year's edition in Phoenix. LeBron probably has more to lose by not winning than he does to gain by winning, but for as much as this is an arbitrary event, it is a legacy builder. Just about every outstanding athletic wing player, from Dr. J to Dominque to MJ to Kobe to VC has won it and joining that club has prestige.
If LeBron does participate, I'm giving better than 50-50 odds he does a dunk wearing a Cowboys helmet.
Football Meteorology For Week 13: Jeff Risdon's picks for this weekend's games are in and I love his upset special of the Titans over the Colts on the road. The 2007 Patriots had a tough enough time going 16-0 and I see none of the same special characteristics from these Colts. Jim Caldwell's team is plenty good enough to win a Super Bowl, but you need to be a near flawless machine with a little luck to go 16-0. The Colts have been a flawed machine with a lot of luck to reach 11-0.
Risdon likes Alabama in the SEC Championship Game over the defending Gators. That will be the football game of the week, bar none, and I'll be making pulled pork all day to have at halftime. If Risdon likes the Crimson Tide, he must be all over the six points they're getting from Florida. I don't have a strong gut feeling either way, but I do think Alabama will cover.
ATV Crash Of 3rd Overall Pick Continues String Of Bad Draft Luck For Padres: In terms of drafting, the Padres are becoming the baseball version of the Clippers, a team that once played in 'America's Finest City'. Donovan Tate was already recovering from surgery on a sports hernia and now he has a broken jaw. Professional athletes get 10, maybe 15, years where they can compete and make the kind of money CEOs make and anyone that even looks twice at an ATV or a snowboard or drives 109 MPH on a Minnesota freeway (AD), has a clear fondness for self-destruction.
Polanco Signs With Phillies: Placido Polanco's OPS has come back down to earth from his 2007 season when he had an .846 mark, but he is surely better than the .727 he posted this season. He hasn't played third base for a few seasons, but the move should help him the plate where he won't need to be quite so agile and light. Polanco will be an upgrade over Pedro Feliz at the plate and shouldn't hurt them with the glove.
NHL Prefers Expansion Over Relocation: This is something fans in current NHL cities are undoubtedly glad to hear, but the last thing hockey needs is more mouths to feed. The current owners would love an influx of cash from two more franchise fees, but this is seriously a bad idea. Hockey, basketball and baseball can all afford to lose teams rather than pick up new ones that will dilute the talent on the ice/court/field and the pieces of a shrinking pie.
Outside RealGM
Interesting Numbers at the Quarter-Way Point: Raptors Republic checks in with an interesting/comedic state of the union on each player. Like Blake Murphy, I believe the Raptors are a playoff team revealing some weaknesses early on in a frustrating slump.
I don't have to be a genius to figure out that a team that gives up 118.3 points per 100 possessions is going to have night where they give up 146 points. The second worst Grizzlies give up just 112.6 points per 100 possessions, which just begins to give a sense of the island Jay Triano's team is on defensively. The NBA's best Bobcats give up 98.9 points per 100 possessions, which is a differential of 19.4 points. Of course the Bobcats score just 97.9 points per 100 possessions compared to 112.2 from the Raptors.
The Yankees' case for Halladay: This Buster Olney blog post is behind Insider, but his premise is that the Yankees must soberly examine the ceilings of Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain now that they have a significant MLB sample size. If they aren't future AL East number twos, then they can't hold onto them and let Halladay fall out of their grasp.
My feeling is that teams that trade prospects for proven players should have a success rate of 90%. The team acquiring the proven player has already scouted the cuss (borrowing from Wes Anderson) out of said player and nobody should know the prospect(s) better than their current organization.
Since Roy Halladay should have another five or six years of Cy Young caliber pitching remaining in his arm, I would imagine the Yankees are quietly foaming at the mouth about the possibility of throwing out CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett and Halladay in a five, seven or even 15 game playoff series.
Two things won't always work in the Yankees' favor; they won't always be able to get away with using a three-man rotation and this was the last season they can realistically expect Andy Pettitte to be so effective in the postseason.
Rookie Kenny Britt gives Titans an added lift: While Matthew Stafford and Mark Sanchez have been a long ways away from Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco, 2009 has seen the debut of many successful wide receivers. Percy Harvin, Jeremy Maclin, Hakeem Nicks, Britt and Mike Wallace each have over 500 yards receiving. That list doesn't include Michael Crabtree and his late start, plus the four TDs apiece from Johnny Knox and Austin Collie. I don't know if there is a future Hall of Famer in this class, but this a collection of receivers that will be racking up around 1k yards annually for the next decade.
Please send comments and questions to Scoop@RealGM.com, where we may select it for a future edition.
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