Mr. Lazy Post

That’s me… At this time, it does not look like Drive Blog, days 3-5, is going to happen. Frankly, although we saw interesting stuff (Devil’s Tower, Southern Yellowstone, including Old Faithful, and the Grand Tetons), I don’t have a lot of super-interesting stuff to say. There was nothing funny, unlike my drive to Wisconsin last year. Perhaps I will re-post my drive blog from my trip to Wisconsin instead.

So, I’ve been watching some of the various NBA summer league games. This is possibly the worst basketball I’ve ever seen. Now, I’m not anti-street ball or open runs or whatever at all. But there’s a different between playing street and playing badly. For the most part, these teams play badly. There have been individual players who look like they can be/are stable NBA players (Deron Williams is the most complete player I’ve watched, though I’m no fan), but for the most part, each player has sucked individually as have the teams.

Sixer Louis Williams can pretty much get to the rim at will against these summer league guys, but I don’t know what that means because there is pretty much no D. Problem is: he can’t finish anyway. At least he makes his free throws. Since the Sixers are keeping Allen, LW won’t play this season anyway.

Still looking for a job. Hope to find one soon. Just got an interview request for a good looking place in DC, but (1) it’s in DC; and (2) they want to interview me when I’m in Guatemala.

I watched Slaughterhouse-Five on free-per-view yesterday. Not a bad adaptation.

And so it goes…

I’m glad I don’t have to be a Bucks fan

Am I the only person who think that trading TJ Ford for Charlie Villenueva proves that the Bucks should have drafted Chris Paul, even not knowing how amazing he would be?

Now, I’ve been on the Chris Paul bandwagon since he was a freshman, so I’m biased, but still. Imagine you’re the Bucks. You draft Paul. You play last seasons with Magloire, a variety of terrible 4s, Simmons, Redd, and Paul. TJ Ford is your sixth man. Maybe you got something of value for Mo Williams. Probably no better than a borderline playoff team, just like this year’s team. Add Charlie V, now you’re looking like a very likely playoff team for 06-07 (if the team doesn’t implode). It’s not a championship team, but it’s pretty good.

Now, though, they have a Mo Williams/Charlie Bell PG combo. Both of those guys are backups. Yes, I know, so is Magloire, and a soon-to-be-overpaid one at that. True. But you can afford that at center, not at PG. And, on the topic of the Bucks, Michael Redd is overrated. He is a very good scorer, but you can’t build a champion around him. Or Bogut. Another reason the Bucks should have drafted Chris Paul last year.

Well, the point of this wasn’t to criticize a year-old Bucks draft, but really just the general incompetence of their management. (David Noel seems like an ok second round pick.) That general incompetence is why I’m not a Bucks fan. Instead I have to deal with the brilliance of Sixers president Billy King and the touch of death of Warriors owner/not-quite-Jim-Dolan Chris Cohen. Hooray.

you heard it here first

The Indiana Pacers are the future of the NBA. A combo of Danny Granger and Shawne Williams is the future of the SF/PF combination in the NBA. In three to five years, you put those two guys on the court together with a strong supporting cast (i.e., decent PG and C, 3 point shooting SG), that’s about as devastating as it gets.

By the way, some other players who do, or might, fit the bill of that 3/4 combo star:
Currently in the NBA: Shawn Marion (probably the prototype for the position) and Carmelo Anthony. [Also, David West.]
In this draft: Rudy Gay and Ty Thomas.

Some are more 3s (Gay, Melo, Williams), some are more 4s (Thomas, maybe), some are more combo players (Granger & Marion). But the point is that all of them are mid-range, face the basket offensive stars (or potential stars), who also have the ability to post up and go outside, and generally are pogo sticks, which tends to make them good rebounders. (And, yes, I’m sure I’m leaving out many excellent examples.)

This is partly why I think Phoenix would be crazy to trade Matrix. A frontline with an 4/5 center (Amare), the best 3/4 combo in the league (Matrix), and two solid 3/4 combos (Diaw and TimThom [ed: TimThom to the Clips]) just seems so devastating. Especially playing with Steve Nash. Stupid cheap owners.

Now if one of my teams could get just ONE player like that…

thinking about drafting

So, one of the greatest sporting events of the year is coming up on Wednesday: the NBA draft. I unfortunately will not be able to watch it this year and, thus, will only be able to see the super-amazing-crazy clothing on TV. I’ll survive with the photos.

The NBA is my favorite sport. Okay, well, basketball is my favorite sport, but the NBA is my favorite basketball. Selfish players, big egos, whatever. Nowhere else do you see the amazing feats of athleticism than you do in the NBA.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about who my two favorite teams should draft and here are my thoughts.

The next person who uses the word…

…Kelo in my presence is going to get an earful.

I am so sick of Kelo whining. Although, I’m proud to say Kelo is probably my first occasion of legal-political prescience. Although I think the Kelo decision is probably correct on the law, and I like the result, I said from the very beginning (ask my dad, I said this the day the opinion came out) that there woudl be a huge political backlash and, if anything, Kelo would ultimately make condemnation much harder, not easier.

Well, the backlash is in full effect, though the Congressional legislation seems to have fallen through and I don’t know how many states have successfully counteracted Kelo with legislation.

My continuing concern, however, is that Kelo whining will affect court decisions on other not-directly-related issues.

In related a related story of Noah-prescience, I so totally predicted that Chris Paul would be the best rookie and would just generally be an awesome player in the NBA. I never thought he’d be as good as he was as a rookie, but I’ve been on the Chris Paul bandwagon since the first time I saw him play on TV when he was a Frosh at Wake. Too bad the only other player I like on NOOCH (that is, the New Orleans-Oklahoma City Hornets) is David West.

worst pun of the day award

Worst pun of the day award goes to Tim Kurkjian, for the first line of his column on the new ownership group for the Washington Nationals:

“Our long Nationals nightmare is over.”

I’m not even entirely certain that this is technically a pun, but I’m pretty sure; it’s some kind of word play, anyhow. Query: why would anybody want to quote Gerald Ford?

This will NOT be a daily feature.

yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, city boy’s out of his mind again

House call, do yourself a favor.
Take a big bite of the fruit of your labor.
When you might be dreaming, go back in time
To chariots, wizardry, and regicide.
Where the warriors and the armor have a different name
And the church and the paupers play the same old game.
So you try to break the rules that you just can’t bend,
and the city boy’s out of his mind again.

House Dog Party Favor by The Disco Biscuits

NFL draft update

Well the Niners picked two more players I’d heard of (for a total of three).

With the 20th pick in the third round, they picked WR Brandon Williams of Wisconsin. I actually went to a Wisconsin game this year (vs. Indiana). It was probably Williams’s best game of the year; he had over 100 yards and two TDs. He’s way too small for the NFL but is mad fast and, at least, could probably be a good return man. He might eventually be a solid #3 or 4 receiver.

With the third pick in the fourth round they picked Penn State semi-option QB Michael Robinson. I was totally a Michael Robinson fan while he was at Penn State, even during his crappy junior year, and he was just fantastic last year as a senior. Of course, fantastic as an option QB hardly translates to WR, but he’s an incredible athlete and Mike Nolan is a fan of the trick play so maybe he can help out there. I’m sure he throws better than Brandon Lloyd, or whoever the Niners used for those plays last season.

Overall, looks like a solid draft for the 49ers.

NFL Draft

With the sixth selection in the 2006 NFL draft, the San Francisco 49ers select:

Vernon Davis, TE, Maryland

I’m extremely pleased with this pick, especially considering AJ Hawk went #5 to the Packers. I think the Titans made a bold, and good, move to pick Vince Young at #3, though, contrary to reports, I think that means they’re keeping Ground McNair for one more year. It’s too bad for the Raiders, though. Good pick at 9 for Arizona to pick up Lienart. He will immediately challenge Kurt Warner for the staring job. I’m still completely unsold on Reggie Bush, but I’m surprised he fell to #2, even with the contract issues. If he turns out to be even 75% as good as he’s billed, this will be a huge blunder for the Houstons.

I’ll comment again when the 49ers draft again at 22 with the Redskins’ pick, which they got from Denver.

Update: Here it is:

With the twenty-second selection in the 2006 NFL draft, the San Francisco 49ers select:

Manny Lawson, Linebacker, North Carolina State.

They desparately need an outside linebacker, so this seems like a good pick (Lawson is the fourth OLB selected after AJ Hawk was the first OLB taken at #5). I know nothing about the guy. According to Sportsline.com, Lawson played end at NC State, where “he struggled to consistently pressure the quarterback.” He is a great athelete, had great workouts (uh oh). On the other hand, he’s never played LB before and he is projected to be possibly no more than a special teams player as a rookie (though probably a pretty good one, which the Niners could use since they’ve blocked like two punts and kicks total in the past thirty years). It strike me that the transition to LB will be easier for him on the Niners because they play the 3-4, but what do I know.

Overall, I’d say pretty good first round. The Niners are out of the second round (traded their pick to Denver for the Lawson pick), but they pick again late third round with (again) Washington’s pick. Perhaps another comment then.

New Penn hoops coach

Penn has hired Brown coach Glen Miller as it’s new head coach. (No word yet on whether Penn will be playing regular USO shows.)

[Update: Penn Athletics article on the hiring of Coach Miller.]

I don’t know much about Miller yet. Brown’s teams were inconsistent during his tenure. He was previously the head coach at Connecticut College, before that a Jim Calhoun assistant at UConn. He also played for Calhoun in college at Northeastern.

I’ve enjoyed Penn’s hoops dominance during the Dunphy era and I hope Miller can create his own Ivy League powerhouse. Go Quakers!

Let’s do it once…