teke184

If the Hornets signed Bobby Jackson, it probably means Speedy Claxon isn't coming back. Sign and trade, anyone? As far as a Chandler-Brown trade, I'd be all for that. Brown's on the downside of his career, wanting to win the big one before he goes, and Chandler's being replaced by Tyrus Thomas, so that seems like a natural trade.

Peja's on-court qualities are definitely going to fill a need the Hornets had, as they've been weak at outside shooting since Chris Anderson got suspended indefinitely by the league for drugs.. It's the amount of his contract as well as his injury concerns that have me wary.

I think George O'Shinn seems to be taking the "piss everone off" roadshow to every major city without an NBA team. New Orleans took him in when Charlotte told him to go fuck himself and, initially after Katrina, seemed to be the good guy for talking about returning while Saints owner Tom Benson was playing footsie with San Antonio. However, once Oklahoma City showed them such good support, he quietly started changing his tune. If nothing else, this whole mess should convince David Stern to start putting pressure on Shinn to divest himself of controlling ownership of the franchise to someone who isn't a PR disaster waiting to happen, much like MLB with Marge Schott. (She had to sell down to 49.5% and stay out of the day to day business, IIRC) As far as the city of New Orleans' lack of support, take a few things into account. 1. New Orleans isn't a huge city... sports in the Big Easy require support from fans that live in the surrounding area (pretty much the whole state of LA and parts of MS and AL), and most of that area is in piss-poor shape as well these days. In addition, it's easier to support the Saints because they play 8 games in the city either on Sundays or Monday night. The NBA's schedule makes it tougher for "casual" fans to own season tickets and attend every game. 2. Shinn's team pretty much fell apart once he brought them to NO. Don't expect fans to flock to a franchise that seemed to suck as soon as it arrived in the city. At least the Saints have nostalgia and tradition going for them when it comes to sucking. 3. The few games played in New Orleans and Baton Rouge were poorly attended, IMHO, because they weren't publicized enough. I'd have gone to see the Hornets against the Heat at the P-Mac if I'd known about it longer than 2 hours before gametime. The NBA needs to do what the NFL has done and tell the owner "You aren't moving for the forseable future. If you don't like it, there's franchises for sale elsewhere you can buy instead."

As far as Harrington goes, that would be a win for the Lakers on the court, but probably a tough one money-wise. The real losers on that would be the Hawks, who would be getting a handful of magic beans for Harrington. Mihm, McKie, and Cook don't seem to be more than role-players.

WTF? Peja Stojakovic has agreed to a contract with the Hornets. I know that the Hornets need shooters, but Peja has a rep for being a bit of a pussy when it comes to injuries. I just hope it's not another Baron Davis situation where he's good for probably 30 games a season then is on the DL, off and on, for the other 50.

Washington officially goes undrafted. What a dumbass...

He said "I think Isiah's a bum"

This snarky swipes at the Knicks are getting GREAT reactions from the live crowd...

Did you hear the cheer that went up when the commentator says "If he's not Dennis Rodman crossed with Ron Artest, Isiah Thomas's career is over!"?

This one was called by a lot of the mock drafts. Now that they have a big man, they need to pick up a shooter like Brewer.

Pipe dream is shattered... Maybe the Hornets can still get Ronnie Brewer and a center.

Looks like Jordan doesn't have the pull everyone thought he would.

1st pick is... Bargnani. Most people saw this one coming. Chicago's on the board and is expected to pick up Aldridge.

*Still holding out a pipe-dream that the Hornets pull off a trade for Tyrus Thomas*

Depends what you're looking for in a player... If you're looking for a Ben Wallace type who's a potential defensive juggernaut, he may be a good choice. For example, I'd pick him up for the Hornets because PJ Brown is aging and he'd be a good compliment to Chris Paul and the others who are outside shooters. (He can rebound and block like nobody's business, although he isn't a strong scorer because he didn't have to be at LSU.) If you're looking for an offensive scoring machine, you're out of luck for a few years if you get him. You'd be better off with Aldridge or Bargnini because they're more polished.

Thank God... The difference between me being in the Bored Bowl and winning the non-BCS Lucky Strikes Cigarettes Tar Bowl was LSU losing to Georgia and one other "pick-em" toss-up in the championship game week. Having a full week's set of games this year should allow me to do better in the Big South Title Game if I go there for the 3rd straight year.

I'm back, beetches. I'll be keeping LSU.

I don't know if that is more awesome than the kid who beat Flair's son in wrestling doing the Flair strut or not. Meltz made some snarky comments about this in the past when comparing and contrasting Dusty's kid and Luger's kid, both of whom were highly recruited HS athletes at the same time. IIRC, the comment on Luger's kid was "Coincidentally enough, Luger's son doesn't like wrestling very much."

Before everyone starts lining up for the Knicks' 1st Rounder for next year, keep this in mind... Chicago, as part of last year's trade, gets the right to switch positions with the Knicks if the Knicks have a lower pick in the 1st round. That means anyone getting the Knicks' pick would either have to cut a deal with Chicago to void that option or hope that the Bulls absolutely suck this season and end up with a low pick as well. Given that they're pulling things together now, I think it's likely they'll either make the playoffs again or come close, meaning a position of probably 14th or higher as opposed to the Knicks' likely position within the Top 5.

But it was OK to trade it for a 12 & 6 guy with a bad heart? We all know the reason that deal happened... Isaiah Thomas is an idiot.

Good... At least they got something for the unmotivated slug. I thought they'd keep him on the roster this year but not resign him, so getting a solid receiver for him is a definite plus for the Saints. Even though he didn't play much in New England, he still has more experience than some of the backup WRs like Devery Henderson and Nate Poole. Looking at the Saints' depth chart, there isn't a whole lot at wideout once you get past "Cellular" Joe Horn and Dontae Stallworth. Devery Henderson? Can't seem to wrap his head around the Saints' offense (or lack thereof), which is why he never saw the field in the 2004 regular season. Has a high average of yards per reception, but has received no more than 4 receptions in a game. Unless he impresses new coach Sean Payton in some way, he's in danger of getting cut due to the influx of new WRs. Nate Poole? Career backup in that Mecca of offense, Arizona, before coming to the Saints. Never put up solid numbers. In serious danger of being cut. Michael Lewis? The Beer Man is mainly going to be used to spell Reggie Bush at PR/KR. He's never made much of an impact at WR either. Mike Haas? Rookie out of the Pac 10. While he was good at Oregon State, there are only about three teams in the NFL with the quality of the average Pac 10 defense and he's playing on one of them.

This is a win-win series around my area... The Heat winning has local ties because Shaq played at LSU. The Mavs winning has local ties because their coach, Avery Johnson, played at Southern University, which is the other large college in town. As far as predictions go, I'll say the Heat in 6.

More reason I'm glad that CBS, ESPN, and Jefferson Pilot have the rights to SEC games... I don't like any of the three, with the biggest sore thumb on that team to me being Griese. The reason I dislike Griese so much dealt with him being part of the crew who called the Rose Bowl circa 1997-1998, when when his son was QBing Michigan the year they shared the title with Nebraska. I've never been able to take him seriously after THAT particular lop-sided performance on the mic, with them basically playing up Michigan, tearing down Washington State, and completely ignoring Nebraska. (I had a flashback of that at the beginning of 2004 when they did the same for USC=Michigan in the Rose bowl and intentionally downplayed the LSU-Oklahoma title game in the Sugar Bowl.)

Vandy won't be close to .500 this year... Cutler was the heart of that team and I don't see them coming up with another talented QB this soon. If they win more than 3 games, it'll be because their defense, a traditional strength, has carried the load for them.

I'd say they don't pull it off... USC may have re-loaded in the RB department (don't know for sure), but their QB situation is tenuous to say the least. Mark Sanchez may not be available this season, depending on what happens with his sexual assault case. As far as John David Booty is concerned, his back surgery is strike 1 and the hisorical failures of his fellow Evangel High School players on the college level, including his brothers, is strike 2 IMHO. To explain, Evangel is a football powerhouse in northern Louisiana that competes for the 5A title annually. Their top players, such as Josh Booty and Abram Booty of LSU, Phillip Deas of North Carolina, and Brock Berlin of Miami, have gone on to college programs and have either dropped of the face of the Earth (Deas) or flipped out when they come under the slightest bit of pressure (both Booty brothers, Berlin). Part of why their players seem unable to cope on the next level appears to be that they're so used to winning and doing things their way in HS that they can't take it when they start doing badly in college. Josh Booty and Brock Berlin were both known for what I refer to as "Brett Farve syndrome", which is a QB who will attempt to force a pass under any circumstances, ESPECIALLY when under pressure from a good defense, and end up throwing a lot of INTs as a result. The perfect example of this would be the Miami-Virginia Tech game from 2003, which ended up being a 31-7 rout for Tech. Berlin was frustrated and forcing passes all night, which resulted in 2 INTs, 1 of which had directly resulted in a TD for Tech. He was eventually pulled from the game for backup Derrick Crudup, who got the team's only TD that night. That was the start of a downward spiral for Miami that showed a lot of disharmony between the players, including Kellen Winslow Jr's infamous "I'm a fuckin' soldier!" rant as well as several "read between the lines" comments showing a lack of faith in Berlin. As far as Josh Booty goes, he was distinctly unpopular amongst his LSU teammates, as they wanted Rohan Davie to be the starting QB instead. Josh was also known for changing calls at the line when he shouldn't have, resulting in LSU losing at least two games it shouldn't have. (1 was against Alabama, who is a traditional rival... 1 was against UAB at home, which was a VERY humiliating defeat as they were only in their 2nd season of I-A ball, IIRC.) While most of this doesn't directly deal with John David Booty, it's an example of how his fellow Evangel players, including his own brothers, have done a lot of things to harm the programs they played in at college. Don't expect him to come in and be the next Carson Palmer or Matt Leinart.