Mike Trout Makes A Splash

At SB Nation Dallas, a look at Mike Trout, a rising young star for the LA Angels:

You don't need to be a very serious baseball fan to recognize Mike Trout's talent: the Angels young outfielder is big (6'1 220), really fast and hits the ball really hard.

At only 20 years old, he's been putting up historic numbers in his first 130 at-bats this season: .303/.366./.521 with 5 HR's and 16 RBI's. There have been only 14 players in MLB history who have matched Trout's performance so far at the age of 20; 10 are in the Hall of Fame and the 11th is Alex Rodriguez.

He showed Rangers fans what he could in the Angels 4-2 victory on Friday night.

NBA Draft 2012: Five "Biggest" Gambles

At SB Nation, a look at the five players with tremendous upside potential in the 2012 draft:

Players considered good enough to be drafted by NBA teams usually have either high-level statistical production or high-level physical tools. Ones with both, like Anthony Davis, are usually selected at the very top of the lottery. 

The rest, lacking in one of the two categories, are obviously more difficult to evaluate. But the ones that end up haunting GMs the most are high-upside players who weren't able to consistently dominate in college, either because they ended up taking a guy who didn't develop or passing on a guy who did. 

1. Andre Drummond 

2. Perry Jones III 

3. Quincy Miller 

4. Meyers Leonard 

5. Royce White

Portland's Draft Plan

At RealGM, a look at why the Portland Trail Blazers were the other big winners from the NBA draft lottery:

While the New Orleans Hornets, who are now well on their way to an Oklahoma City-like rebuild, were the biggest winners from Wednesday night, the Portland Trail Blazers weren’t far behind them. Thanks to some short-sighted decision-making from the New Jersey Nets, who essentially dealt a No. 6 pick for a half-season of Gerald Wallace, Portland can rapidly accelerate their rebuilding process with two lottery picks in one of the deepest drafts in the last decade.

The Trail Blazers decision-making process should be made easier by the two excellent building blocks they still have on their roster: LaMarcus Aldridge and Nicolas Batum. Aldridge, the most complete big man in the NBA, is an athletic two-way forward at 6’11, 240 still only 26-years-old. Batum, an athletic 6’8 200 swingman with a good three-point shot, is 23.

At the same time, holding on to their picks wouldn’t be a bad option either. With long-term starters at the power forward and small forward already in the fold, Portland could find the answer at two more positions in the draft. Like the Utah Jazz before them, the Trail Blazers could take advantage of New Jersey’s impatience to create a deep young core with the potential to be a title contender.

LeBron's Heavy Minutes

At RealGM, a look at how LeBron's ability to play without rest is affecting the Eastern Conference Finals:

The most impressive Game 1 stat from LeBron James wasn’t his 32 points, 13 rebounds, 3 assists or 3 blocks, and it wasn’t his customarily efficient 13-for-22 shooting line. Somehow, even though Miami’s starters were pulled with two minutes left in the fourth quarter, LeBron still played 44 minutes.

As a result, the Miami Heat never let up the pressure on an opponent’s back-line. With either Dwyane Wade or LeBron is on the floor for all 48 minutes, having a shot-blocker on both your first and second units is almost a necessity.

It’s a huge problem for an undersized Boston Celtics team that only plays one conventional big man (Kevin Garnett). Without Garnett in the game, the Eastern Conference Finals is a conga line at the front of the rim for Miami. Doc Rivers could only take him out for two-minute stretches in the second half, with Boston -3 in the third quarter and -2 in the fourth without him.

WCF Preview And The Myth Of Momentum

At RealGM, a preview of the Western Conference Finals and why the Spurs recent hot streak doesn't mean all that much:

In the NBA playoffs, momentum is fairly ephemeral. A large portion of a player’s performance depends on who they are defending and who is defending them; how they played against a different opponent the week before only has so much predictive value.

Against either Sefolosha or Westbrook, Parker won’t have his typical athletic advantage on his initial perimeter defender. As a result, San Antonio will probably run a lot of pick-and-rolls to free up Parker and test Oklahoma City’s defensive rotations. In many ways, the veteran Spurs, with skilled shooters and passers at nearly every position of the floor, represent the ultimate test for a Thunder team that too often uses their athletic advantage to cut corners defensively.

On the other end of the floor, Oklahoma City’s perimeter athleticism will test San Antonio’s team defense in ways that the Clippers or the Jazz could not. The Thunder have three different players (Westbrook, Harden and Kevin Durant) who can get to the front of the rim, and Tim Duncan doesn’t have the quickness to challenge and recover to his man like he once did.

Philadelphia's Biggest Mistake

At RealGM, a look at why the 76ers are haunted by a draft-day mistake from two years ago:

Even if the Philadelphia 76ers are able to win a road Game 7 in their second-round series against the Boston Celtics, they would be a huge underdog against either the Miami Heat or the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals. Going from “good” to “great” is the hardest jump to make in the NBA and the 76ers don’t have the personnel to do it.

Their problems start up front: in a league where size is everything, they don’t have a big man who can create his own shot or play above the rim defensively. With an excellent trio of perimeter players in Jrue Holiday, Lou Williams and Andre Iguodala, the 76ers are one elite 6’10+ big man away from being relevant. However, those are the toughest players to find in the NBA, which is why the decisions they made in the 2010 draft still loom over the franchise.

If they had taken DeMarcus Cousins, Greg Monroe or Derrick Favors, they would have changed the entire trajectory of their franchise. Now, they seem doomed to follow in the path of the Atlanta Hawks, another perennial playoff team crippled by a disastrous draft miss at No. 2 overall (Marvin Williams over Chris Paul and Deron Williams).

Kobe's Choice

At RealGM, a look at where the Lakers go from here after their latest second-round defeat:

After disappointing fourth quarter performances in Games 2 and 4, Kobe came into Game 5 on a mission. He was dialed in on every possession, fighting for offensive position on the low block and repeatedly taking the ball to the rim. He did everything in his power to will his team to victory, but it wasn’t even close to enough.

At the age of 33, with over 1,300 NBA regular season and playoff games under his belt, there’s only so much he can do on the court. Bryant scored 42 points in Game 5, but he needed 33 shots to do it. Even more revealing were the rest of his numbers: 5 rebounds, 0 assists and 2 turnovers. That’s what happens when a volume scorer who can’t impact the paint on either side of the ball tries to take over a playoff game.

But while Michael Jordan’s six championships are still in range, they aren’t the only mark Kobe, a consummate student of the game, is chasing. He is 9,000 points behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the all-time scoring list, which would be four more seasons at 25 points a game. But with his shooting percentages continuing to slip, the number of shots he would need to reach that mark would doom the Lakers to four more years of first and second-round exits, regardless of what other pieces they might acquire.