teke184

Then the question remains about WTF the Hawks were thinking with that trade... Maybe they wanted to minimize the bitching by the various ownership groups by getting things with little negative effect on the salary cap.

Everyone in the media thinks that this will be the year that Nebraska finally grasps the West Coast Offense. The only thing I say is in Nebraska's favor is that they're playing a schedule that, *for the most part*, is pretty weak. They could easily go 9-3 on it. Numbers in parenthesis are the pre-season ratings given by Fox Sports, except in the case of I-AA Nicholls State University. Nebraska's own pre-season rating there is #17. OOC games- Louisiana Tech (86) , Nicholls State (DI-AA), USC (2), Troy (112) Big 12 North- Kansas (45), Iowa State (39), Kansas State (53), Missouri (33), Colorado (27) Big 12 South- Texas (1), Texas A&M (46), Oklahoma State (63) Given the quality (or lack thereof) of most of their opponents, I'd say a 9-3 or 10-2 is certainly attainable IF the pieces fall in place.

Tell that to Colorado these days.

Could also be called NCAA: Jackie Sherill's Adventures in Coaching. The "March Madness" version of it would be Jim Valvano's Coaching Challenge. "Recruit centers who only score a 460 on their SATs, get caught stealing stereos from the dorms, and then get banned by the NBA for REPEATED substance abuse violations!"

Be sure to add in the SouthWest Conference version... If you get caught paying the players under the table, your entire program gets suspended for a year and then you only get a half-season the year after that.

What did Siegel expect from Clerks 2? Not quite sure... and this was a guy who, when interviewed, talked about how much he liked the *original* Clerks, which included references to snowballing, necrophilia, and self-fellatio.

Speaking of M. Night oohlaoohlalaShamalamadingdong... Joel Siegel from Good Morning America walked out of the Clerks 2 screening halfway through, disrupting it in the process. In Kevin Smith's response on MySpace, he goes off on some of Siegel's annoying habits (pun-tastic quotes for his reviews) and for sucking M. Night's cock for stuff like "Lady In The Water". http://www.nypost.com/gossip/pagesix/pagesix_u.htm

Yeah but if the Hornets are taken away then OKC will be the first to get a team.....before KC or Vegas. Although I think Stern would balk on his word about OKC to give a team to Vegas. Stern balking depends on how well things continue to go with OKC until the Hornets return to New Orleans. If they still have constant sellouts, they'd get the team because they'd have a proven track-record of selling tickets for an NBA franchise. Las Vegas would be tempting for sure, but the city has no track record when it comes to professional sports teams. While there is definitely a corporate base to support such a team, I'd be more concerned about selling season tickets and then putting butts in seats. I'd be worried that there would be an inordinate number of "papered" seats provided by the casinos rather than there being a solid fan-base.

Some things change, others stay the same. Rutgers went from "We're keeping them and dropping Temple?" to a bowl team, while Duke is still the prag of the ACC. Then again, Duke's inheriting most of the teams that kicked the shit out of Rutgers on a regular basis.

Yeah, I was *wondering* how you could do a trade of a $8 million a year player for the rights to a draft pick who's never made it into the league. Think they may use that to pick up Harrington?

Is there anything out there on Peja Stojakovic officially signing his contract with the Hornets? That deal had been in the works for some time now, but my local radio reported it today as a *sign-and-trade* deal involving the Pacers, but listed no one that the Hornets gave up in a trade. I'm treating it as "someone screwed up at the radio station" for now, as they probably misread "signed Indiana Pacers forward Peja Stojakovic" as "in a sign-and-trade with the Pacers for Peja Stojakovic".

One of the times I actually agree withn Roy... Wallace, as an *unrestricted* free agent, is under no obligation to the Pistons to accept a sign-and-trade if he can get an equally good or better deal from a team on his own. This is slightly different from, say, Ron Artest, Vince Carter, or someone else under a valid contract refusing to play unless they're traded or a traded player refusing to report to their new team.

And we thought the franchise sucked NOW... No matter what happens with this ownership dispute, the Hawks probably have a lock on at least 1-2 more lottery picks.

Kirk Hinrich is one of the best distributing point guards in the league. With Chandler's height and athleticism and Kirk's court vision he should have gotten 10-15 PPG easy. He did what was asked of him and it wasn't much. The Bulls won't miss him. And did I miss something with the Hornets? When did Desmond Mason say he wouldn't come back. I thought he was happy in NO. Unless he's signed an extension, his current contract runs through the end of the 2006-2007 season.

The only problem with that line of thinking is that, unless the Pacers work out a multi-team trade to take place this weekend, they can't do a direct sign-and-trade using Daniels as bait. You have to wait 60 days after the trade is complete before you can re-trade an involved player. Harrington will most definitely be signed by the time 10 days are up, let alone 60.

While not a great deal for the Hornets, it clears up the question of "Who'll be the big man to hit the boards?" for the immediate future. I expect at least one more deal before the start of the season, which should send Arvydas Macijauskas packing. (He's not a happy camper right now.) This mostly-young lineup is looking interesting, but I'd like to see how it ends up gelling. C Tyson Chandler PG Chris Paul SG Desmond Mason or Bobby Jackson SF Peja Stojakovic PF David West

Thomas is athletic but unpolished. There's questions as to how much he learned under ex-LSU star Randy Livingston, who was his workout coach when preparing for the tryouts. (Supposedly, Livingston was helping him work on his shooting game, which was the main question mark about him. His most impressive performances tended to be games where he'd block 6 shots and pull down a bunch of boards, although he was still capable of putting up 20 in a game.) The reason I was pushing hard for the Hornets to get Thomas is that I see him as a potential Wallace with a better potential to score, if he picks it up well. Learning under Wallace, even if he doesn't see the floor much this year, could only help his defensive game.

Wow. Talk about an underwhelming replacement for Wallace. I'm surprised that Nazr and Rasho are actually walking into starting roles on other teams. As far as the Spurs go, they've either got to trade for someone or see if Pryzbilla wants to come into a winner.

DO IT Bulls!!!!!!!!!! Hell, do it, Hornets. Chandler is at least a good option at C for the next few years, until Hilton Armstrong or Cedric Simmons develops into a legit threat. As far as Brown and JR Smith go, Smith's not going to succeed with the Hornets because he and Byron Scott don't see eye to eye. Brown deserves the chance to play for a contender, so it wouldn't bother me to see him sent to the Bulls as part of a package deal.

False. BIG TIME false. Then who is the favorite? Cleveland's good but they're still a few role-players away from being a favorite. (Detroit's worsening helps them out, though, at least as far as playoff seeding goes.) The Bulls look good on paper but we'd have to see how things turn out on the court.

Wallace's departure, while helping the Bulls, also pulls the plug on the Pistons' championship hopes because they've got 4 scorers but no one to pull down the boards or block shots for them anymore. And, yes, the Darko debacle hurts them seriously because they picked Darko before he was ready, then gave up on him before he could develop. Now, with no Darko or Ben, they're up shit creek and will need to pull off something interesting in order to get a big man in the center this year. Otherwise, we may see another iteration of the "five shooters, no D" philosophy that can win games but not championships.

Ben Wallace is reported to be visiting New Orleans. With his disappointment at what the Pistons will be offering him, a move to either Chicago or New Orleans is looking more and more feasable. If this happens, I'll be EXTREMELY happy. The Hornets need a true big-man to block shots and control the boards, which is Wallace's MO. That would mean PG, C, SF, and PF would be set. They'd need to firm up an SG at that point, which could mean moving a PG over there (Jackson or a re-signed Speedy Claxon) or signing Bonzi Wells if they've got enough left over. This is all pie-in-the-sky thinking, but it would make for one hell of a lineup being put around the young core of David West and Chris Paul.

Add that into the max contract extension that Carmelo is getting and Denver will be in Salary Cap Hell for the forseeable future, pending them offloading Camby or Martin to some sucker.

The NFC West was particularly laughable circa 1996 when the Rams jumped to St. Louis, as it left only one team in the division (San Fran) who was further west than Arizona or Dallas. Just rename the divisions after people, like the old NHL Norris Division. The NFC North is the only division I can think of offhand where everybody's fairly close to one another. The NFC South is reasonable as well, as it's Carolina, Tampa Bay, New Orleans, and Atlanta.

The NFC West was particularly laughable circa 1996 when the Rams jumped to St. Louis, as it left only one team in the division (San Fran) who was further west than Arizona or Dallas.