France was soundly defeated by Team USA in their Olympic opener on Sunday, with Tony Parker, Nic Batum, Boris Diaw and Ronny Turiaf all held in check by the stifling American defense. For the most part, the French know what they are going to get from their veterans; their X-factor is Kevin Seraphin, a talented young big man from the Washington Wizards who comes off their bench.
While the rest of the country was discovering (and falling in love) with team handball over the weekend, I went to probably the only high school in the US that had it as a "varsity" sport.
We had a PE coach from Romania who used to be a professional water polo player. (Water polo, like team handball, is apparently big in Eastern Europe) He also had a tremendous amount of body hair, but I digress.
Handball is basically water polo on land, if that doesn’t mean anything to you, you can think of it as basketball meets soccer. I played for a year, which by Skip Bayless logic, makes me a bonafide team handball expert.
The best hitters in baseball get a hit in a little over 30% of their at-bats. The best teams in baseball win a little over 60% of their games. Over a 162-game schedule, even the best offenses in baseball are going to struggle.
Some times, the bloop Ian Kinsler hit with two men on in the 7th drops for a hit. Other times, it hangs in the air just long enough for an outfielder (Chicago LF Dayan Viciedo) to make a diving catch.
There's only so much a baseball player can do to control his outcomes, which is why coaches want them to be as process-dependent as possible. That's why Hamilton was given the night off on Saturday: both Ron Washington and Nolan Ryan have gone on record saying they don't like his swing first and ask questions later plate approach in the midst of his slump. It's the root of Washington's "calm hand" managerial philosophy and it was the focus -- relax and let go of past struggles at the plate -- of the meeting the Texas batters held after their 5-2 to the White Sox.
In Team USA’s 100-78 victory over Spain on Tuesday, Kobe Bryant had six points, four rebounds and three assists. The most remarkable part of his performance was how unremarkable it was: he scored in the flow of the offense, picking and choosing his spots while making plays for his teammates.
The Lakers aren’t quite Team USA, but they will have a mind-boggling amount of offensive firepower next season. With the addition of Steve Nash, Los Angeles now has All-Star caliber players at four of the five positions. Their biggest problem will be making sure everyone gets enough touches.
On Team USA, Kobe is one of many offensive weapons at Coach K’s disposal. It makes no sense for a team that has Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James and Kevin Durant to give a 34-year old shooting guard the green light to shoot the ball at will. The same is true for an NBA team with Gasol, Bynum and Nash.
With two outs in the top of the ninth and the score tied 1-1, the Boston Red Sox won the game with a walk from their No. 7 hitter (LF David Nava), a walk from their No. 8 hitter (C Jarrod Saltalamacchia) and a bloop single from their No. 9 hitter (SS Mike Aviles) that snuck over the out-stretched glove of Elvis Andrus.
No closer, not even Mariano Rivera, is perfect, but that's not how you want a high-priced veteran like Joe Nathan to lose a game. Nathan never found his command, throwing only 14 of his 29 pitches for strikes in the ninth.
In a game where the two teams combined to go for 1-11 with runners in scoring position, the unlikely hero was a slap-hitting shortstop hitting .260/.283/.407 on the season.
By itself, Josh Selby's co-MVP performance in the summer league (averaging 24 points a game on 56% shooting) doesn't necessarily mean anything. There have been many players who starred in Las Vegas and couldn't translate that success into the NBA. However, if you consider his pedigree, his performance this summer could be a sign that a once highly-touted phenom is back on track.
Selby was the No. 1 player in his class coming out of high school, but he never acclimated to college in his one season at Kansas, as suspensions, injuries and a bad fit with the rest of the Jayhawks roster kept him on the bench. After averaging eight points and two assists on 37% shooting as a freshman, he was drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies with the No. 49 overall pick in 2011 based solely on potential.
Players like Selby, AAU stars whose lack of size and/or college production caused them to slide into the second round, have become some of the best values in the second round over the last few years. Lou Williams, Monta Ellis and Daniel Gibson are examples of similar players who over-performed their draft selection in the NBA.
The Super Teams
1) Miami Heat -- With the signings of Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis, Miami is pushing forward with the small frontcourt (Chris Bosh at the five, LeBron James at power forward) they used to win the NBA Finals. Now that LeBron has embraced playing in the post, it’s a nearly indefensible lineup. A dominant seven-footer who can force the Heat to play a traditional center might be the only hope for stopping a dynasty on South Beach.
2) Oklahoma City Thunder -- The next 12 months could be a crossroads for Oklahoma City, as they will have to make tough financial decisions on Serge Ibaka and James Harden. If the league’s big markets continue to flout the luxury tax, the Thunder may have to pay to keep up. They’ll get a boost on the back-end of their rotation from the return of Eric Maynor and the arrival of Perry Jones III, who could end up being the steal of the 2012 draft.
3) Los Angeles Lakers -- Incorporating Steve Nash into their offense will require some juggling, but his shooting ability will dramatically improve their talent level and floor spacing around Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. But as dangerous as they are offensively, they’re going to need Mike Brown to work some miracles on the other end of the floor, which is why Howard would be such a good fit with this roster.
Spain, without a super-athletic 6'8+ small forward type to match up with LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony, is an underdog, but it is more than good enough to win one 40-minute game against anyone. Due to Marc Gasol's dramatic improvement over the last four years, it is much better than the 2008 version, which lost to Team USA 118-107 in the gold medal game.
The real question coming into the Olympics is whether the United States is as good as it was in 2008, not 1992. It is smaller and less athletic up front than the group four years ago. It doesn't have anyone with Dwight Howard's size and finishing ability or Chris Bosh's length, shooting touch and athleticism. Kobe Bryant has put four more years and hundreds of NBA games on his body, and none of its guards finish in the paint and make plays as easily as Dwyane Wade did in 2008.
There's no reason to compare them to the Dream Team, except to find them wanting in comparison. Even if we accept that the 1992 team was the most talented group of basketball players ever assembled, why must we be forced to re-affirm its greatness every four years?
Tom Morello: 'Paul Ryan Is the Embodiment of the Machine Our Music Rages Against'"It's not just lower-income working-class families that are priced out of these places, it's also very important facets of society—like people who are in nonprofits, working for democracy across the globe or creative people," said Julio Salcedo, an architect and associate professor at City College whose two children are enrolled in the International School of Brooklyn.
While there are only a small handful of players capable of changing the balance of power in the NBA, a close playoff series can be swung by what one rotation player does (or does not) give a team in a four-or-five minute stretch. Neither the Oklahoma City Thunder or the Memphis Grizzlies have had the flexibility to make any major moves this offseason, but both should be significantly improved by a talented young role player coming off a year-long injury.
Darrell Arthur, the No. 27 pick in the 2008 draft, and Eric Maynor, the No. 21 pick in 2009, will never be stars. However, their absence due to season-ending knee injuries was sorely felt by their respective teams last season.
Without Arthur in the 2011 playoffs, Memphis coach Lionel Hollins had to mix and match frontcourt reserves. It came to a head in Game 7 of their first-round series against the LA Clippers, when Hamed Haddadi and Dante Cunningham, two marginal NBA big men, played seven crucial minutes in the second half. The Grizzlies were -9 in those minutes; they lost the game 82-72.
With almost the entire roster from the 2008 Olympic Team now playing in either Miami, New York and Los Angeles, the superstar carousel begun by the creation of the Big Three in Boston is finally starting to slow down. Now that most of the stars of the draft classes of 2003-2007 have found a long-term home, with the notable exception of Dwight Howard, speculation will inevitably turn to the 2008 and 2009 draft classes.
That’s why Kevin Love’s recent comments about his frustration with the Minnesota Timberwolves are so interesting. While he’s still locked into a long-term deal, the seeds of his eventual departure have clearly been planted. And if Love follows the career path of the last All-NBA power forward named Kevin in the Twin Cities, the team’s mistakes in the last four drafts will be the biggest reason why.
The draft is the only place where the Timberwolves can acquire the high-level players who could convince Love to stay long-term, and, besides Ricky Rubio, they have failed miserably in that department under David Kahn. Minnesota had multiple chances to assemble an “Oklahoma City North” team around Rubio and Love, but now that Love is headed into his fifth NBA season, their window to get another Top-5 pick is closed.
With a series of moves on the first day of the NBA's free agency period, the Dallas Mavericks were able to turn lemons into lemonade. Of course, they're the ones who gathered the lemons in the first place, but it's a start.
Tyson Chandler took their title chances with him when he went to New York, which Deron Williams acknowledged when he stayed in Brooklyn rather than coming home. After losing out on Williams, Dallas needed to walk a fine line between remaining competitive in 2012 and keeping their cap space headed into the summer of 2013.
They pulled it off Wednesday, signing Chris Kaman to a one-year deal and dealing Ian Mahinmi to the Indiana Pacers for Darren Collison and Dahntay Jones. The trio will make the Mavericks a better team than they were last season without sacrificing any of the team's hard-earned salary cap flexibility, as none are under contract past next season.
For a small-market franchise rebuilding from the loss of a Hall of Fame player, the worst possible outcome is a team capable of contending for a No. 8 seed. The only way to replace a talent like Howard is at the top of the NBA draft, which is why Orlando should focus on bottoming out after Howard’s departure.
Sending Howard to Brooklyn would be a best-case scenario for the enigmatic center and the NBA as a whole, as it would create a legitimate rival for LeBron’s Miami Heat in the biggest media center in the US. However, none of that should concern Orlando, who would be paying Lopez, Nelson and Turkoglu a lot of money for an outside shot at the playoffs.
The best possible deal for Orlando is with the Houston Rockets, a franchise that has been acquiring assets for years precisely for the chance to grab a superstar like Howard. Houston, if they are willing to gamble on picking up Howard without an extension, would give the Magic their best chance to accelerate the rebuilding process. The Rockets have a first-round pick from the Toronto Raptors, who are probably still at least one year away from playoff contention, the cap space to eat some of Orlando’s bad contracts as well as some extremely intriguing high-upside young players locked into rookie scale deals.
One of the biggest changes Ron Washington made to the Texas Rangers philosophy came on the basepaths. A franchise that used to play station-to-station baseball while waiting for the three-run HR now emphasizes taking the extra base and challenging defenses.
Some times -- Nelson Cruz thrown out trying to steal home on a wild pitch in the bottom of the second -- it doesn't work out.
Other times -- Adrian Beltre making a dead sprint from first to home on a Cruz double in the bottom of the tenth -- it does.
That being said, his decision to sign with the New York Knicks was one of the best things that could have happened to the Mavericks. Going into his 19th season, he's become a liability, as the strengths of his game no longer outweigh his weaknesses.
At this point in their careers, Delonte West (if he is re-signed) and Rodrigue Beaubois are both significantly better options at the point. And while Kidd will be missed in the locker room, his presence couldn't convince Deron Williams to sign and any gains from his leadership wouldn't have justified taking away minutes from either of the Mavericks other two PG's.
The 38-year old Kidd no longer has the foot-speed to stay in front of the league's faster guards; in the Oklahoma City series, he started games on Thabo Sefolosha, the Thunder's worst offensive player. Nor is Kidd good enough on offense to justify leaving his defense on the floor. As Sports Illustrated writer Zach Lowe has repeatedly pointed out, he is such a non-entity on offense that teams often leave him wide-open driving lanes to the basket, daring him to look for his own shot.
The Knicks and the Lakers are enormously valuable media entities worth billions of dollars, which is why both franchises have been willing to open their wallet this offseason, despite the hefty new luxury tax penalties in the new CBA. The Lakers, who have nearly $80 million in salaries on their books for 2012-13, signed Steve Nash to a three-year $27 million deal. The Knicks, who already have $61 million in salaries committed for the 2014-15 season, have signaled they will match Jeremy Lin’s $29 million offer sheet from the Houston Rockets.
Because of their willingness to spend, both teams will put significantly better products on the floor next season. Combine their spending with the Brooklyn Nets, who took on over $250 million in salaries in the last week, and it appears the owners' attempt to reign in free-spending teams during the lockout has not had the deterring effect many of them (claimed) they wanted.
For many teams around the NBA, especially the Oklahoma City Thunder, who may have to break up their young core because of luxury tax concerns, the ability of big market teams to spend so extravagantly seems patently unfair. Yet there’s a reason the Knicks, Nets and Lakers have so much money: they have a lot more fans than teams like the Thunder.
An athletic 6’3, 205 guard with a 6’6 wingspan, Williams is a five-tool guard with no holes in his game. His combination of size, skill and athleticism allows him to affect a game in more ways than any of his contemporaries.
But while point guards has become the league’s glamour position, there’s only so much even the league’s best at the position can do to lift their teams into playoff contention. As Williams and Steve Nash have found out in the last two seasons, a Hall of Fame PG on a team without any dynamic frontcourt players doesn’t even guarantee a playoff berth.
And just as Paul’s championship hopes with the Clippers depend on the development of Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, Williams ability to compete at the highest level will depend on who is in his frontcourt. A Brooklyn team with Joe Johnson, Gerald Wallace, Brook Lopez and Mirza Teletovic cannot offer him the defensive anchor necessary to win a ring. Without any more cap room after re-signing Williams, the only way the Nets are competing for a title in the next five years is if LeBron decides to play baseball.
Now that the Dallas Mavericks have come up short in the Deron Williams sweepstakes, the team is left scrambling for options in a barren free agent market without many impact players.
But while the easy choice would be to get the band -- Jason Kidd and Jason Terry (who can't officially sign with the Boston Celtics until next week) or maybe even Steve Nash -- back together, Dallas has to move on. If the Mavericks are going to win another championship with Dirk Nowitzki, it will have to be with a younger and more athletic team around him and a star center in the middle.
Even with Williams in the fold, Dallas wouldn't have contended for a title this season, not with the glaring hole Tyson Chandler's departure left at the center position. That's why the team needs to keep their powder dry for 2013, when the two best centers in the NBA -- Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum -- are set to become unrestricted free agents.
The sports section of "El Universal", the biggest newspaper in Venezuela's capital city of Caracas, is divided into two categories -- "beisbol" and "futbol".
On Saturday night, Johan Santana's sixth win was the lead story. San Diego Padres infielder Alexi Aramista's 2 HR's were the second. Martin Perez was the third.
After making his MLB debut a few nights earlier, Perez made his first career major league start on Saturday night with fellow countryman Yorvit Torrealba behind the plate. And in the Rangers' 7-2 victory over Oakland, everything that has made him such an intriguing and occasionally frustrating prospect -- electric stuff, fiery on-field personality, command problems -- was on full display.
However, due to the increasing fascination with guard play in the NBA, the Pistons were able to get the most skilled big man in the 2010 draft (Greg Monroe) and the most athletic big man in the 2012 draft (Andre Drummond). And in a league getting smaller by the year, Detroit has the chance to buck convention by building an elite team around two Twin Towers.
Monroe, still only 22 years old, is one of the NBA’s most promising young big men. With a usage rating of 23.4, he’s one of the rare big men who can create his own shot with his back to the basket. In his second year with Detroit, he’s already averaging a double double (15 points and 10 rebounds on 52% shooting).
Drummond, a super-athletic 7’0, 280 shot-blocking machine, has the potential to be an MVP caliber player. But even if he never reaches his ceiling, his game complements Monroe well, giving Detroit a two-headed 6’10+ monster in their front-court.
