teke184

Yeah, it used to be 15 minutes per pick. I think they shortened it to 10 as part of changing the first day of the draft to only two rounds.

I think the length of the deal is potentially a wash... The teams will tell the player "Do you want more guaranteed money or do you want to hit free agency quicker?" I'm willing to bet a number of players will jump on the "more money" bandwagon because they've seen how many high first-round picks flame out either due to injury or poor production.

NO was already pissed about Tom Benson's flirtations with a permanent Saints move to San Antonio shortly after Katrina hit, so everyone was leaning on David Stern and George Shinn to ensure that the Hornets returned after their two-year sojourn to OKC. OKC deserves a team based off of the support they gave the Hornets while they were there and the Sonics happened to be the first team to hit the market once people knew the market was viable and that the Hornets weren't staying. IMHO, Memphis would be a better fit because it has less history, but Schultz sold the team to Bennett at a *huge* premium over what it was worth, IIRC, and wasn't looking to include locals in the ownership group he sold to. Everyone's vilifying Bennett here when, IMHO, at least some of the blame should go on Schultz for selling the team to a non-local group. If Schultz was so worried about keeping the Sonics in Seattle, he should have either retained the team or sold out to locals like Ballmer, who are ponying up for an arena right now, instead of Bennett.

The Dolphins have signed Jake Long to a 5-year, $57 million deal with $30 million guaranteed. This is less than JaMarcus Russell's deal (Approximately $67 million with $33 million guaranteed) from last year, but that was a six-year deal instead of a five-year deal. (That appealed to both sides because Parcells apparently didn't want to gurantee $70+ million and Long liked being one year closer to free-agency than normal.) The Rams are now on the clock.

Given that Zeke pretty much undermined Larry Brown with the players while Brown was coach of the Knicks, it's a smart AND necessary move by Walsh.

No they get DEN/LA in the second round. Yeah... the Hornets likely get a beaten-up SA or PHX in the second round, if that first game is any indication.

And Billy Cole runs in for the TD...

Depends on what happens with the St. Louis ownership situation. Now that Georgia Frontieri is dead, there's no real ties keeping the Rams in St. Louis. If any of Carroll Rosenbloom's kids are involved in the new ownership group, they'd probably be interested in taking the franchise back to LA. (At least one of the sons was supposed to take over the team when he (Carroll) drowned, but his wife Georgia finagled the team into her control instead.)

Wizards are playing like shit tonight, down by 13 at the half with Caron Butler and Agent Zero tossing around more bricks than a construction worker. I'm really starting to regret making them my "upset special" instead of the 76ers over the Pistons.

Well, I meant driving drunk, not the actual act of getting a DUI. I could definitely fill the list with "raping a XXX" or "murdering an xxx" or "putting it in the xxx when she wasn't inviting you to," but I was thinking more generally. I caught snippets of most of the games this weekend. No real reason to think the favorites aren't going to pull out all the series at this point, though I think Phoenix has a really good shot against the Spurs. The 76ers can pull it out against Detroit if they let up in the 2nd half of Game 2 like they did in Game 1. If this series makes it to Philly with Detroit down by 2, they're going down.

Yep... The last cuts for the Saints came down to which RB would be the last guy kept, as they already had Deuce, Reggie, and Aaron Stecker as their top RBs. Pierre Thomas produced in the pre-season and Pittman sucked at both running and blocking, so they cut Pittman and kept Thomas. Smart move, IMHO, as Thomas showed a lot at the end of the year when they were without Deuce and Bush.

I'll remember that if people start complaining about the Hornets fans chanting "Dirk's a pussy" tomorrow night.

Several outlets are talking about the LA fans' chants of "D-U-I" at Carmelo Anthony during Game 1 over the weekend. Team executive Jeanie Buss apparently was apparently in shock over it. I'm just wondering what the exact chant the Denver fans will come back with in Game 3. "Kobe raped me" seems to be a natural.

That one will happen, IMHO... Reggie is going to end up being converted to WR if he can't cut it between the tackles, which will leave Deuce and Pierre Thomas in the Saints' backfield.

Manu Ginobli won the 6th Man award in a walk... He got all but one of the 1st place votes. Last year's winner, Leandro Barbosa of the Suns, came in second.

Just short of them beating the Celtics in this series, which would be a Tyson-Douglas kind of upset, he's getting canned.

Key words - Later rounds. This guy is going to be a project QB that will sit on someone's roster for at least 2-3 years before he sees major playing time, barring something like last year's Carolina Panthers or Atlanta Falcons where the entire QB corps gets the shit kicked out of them week-in week-out.

Nah, leave the Raiders in Oakland. The Rams are the team that needs to come back to Los Angeles. They were in Los Angeles longer than the Raiders (and before the Dodgers). They're currently stuck in a shitty jerry-built dome in an area that cares much more about baseball than football, with non-local ownership assuming control of the team. This gives you a Los Angeles/Seattle/San Francisco/Arizona division, which probably makes the most sense, and it keeps Los Angeles in the NFC, where it has most of its history. I don't know of a better relocation candidate. The Bills will end up in Toronto before Los Angeles, the Vikings will probably end up sharing a stadium with the University of Minnesota before ultimately building its own stadium (though this is wasteful and stupid and I'm sure those prudent frugal Norwegians up dere would rather just have both teams use TCF Bank Stadium), and the vibe I get from the Jaguars is that they'd do what the Nashville Predators' fans just did: "NOOOOOO!!!!!! YOU CAN'T TAKE THE TEAM WE LOVE SO MUCH!!! WE'LL BUY EVERY TICKET YOU HAVE AND MORE!!!!" (team doesn't move) (fans stop caring) I agree with you, although Minnesota moving to Los Angeles would be a good move since they're more likely to get fans going to the games than the shitty Rams. Plus, re-alignment's easy, just swap the Rams and Vikings' divisions. It's not like L.A. hasn't gotten good use out of a former Minnesota-based team before (expect to see that repeated ad nauseum if the Vikes do move to L.A.). Send the Rams back to LA, which shouldn't be as hard as it's imagined to be... Now that Georgia Frontieri has dropped dead, the team needs to be sold and it could go back to someone who wants the team in LA, such as Carroll Rosenbloom's son that she snaked the franchise away from in the first place.

Don't discount the sucktitude of the NBA Eastern Conference. A competently coached team with 1-2 good draft picks can ease their way into the playoffs at the 8 seed there these days. Or even a team like the Atlanta Hawks, who have a ton of talented forwards but an idiot for a coach.

He told them that BEFORE they sued. I think he got sick of them dicking around with Schultz on a new arena before he sold to Bennett.

I think that's the length of time you meant. I think that the team could be *competitive* in five years with good drafting and a realization that they can't do quick fixes. That still depends on them not doing something stupid like the Eddy Curry trade again, where they gave up one high 1st rounder and then traded positions with the Bulls in another draft for a guy who is an above average big-man but not great.

Not my fault that the elder Irsay was a drunk who decided it was more important to have Jack Elway's bitter rival as his coach than John Elway as his QB.

You do realize Montana was a 3rd round pick (82nd overall), right? I doubt they would have touted him, if this kind of coverage existed back then. I know Montana dropped and that Phil Simms was Bill Walsh's original choice for the QB to build his offense around. I just use Montana as a generic example of an all-time great QB. To be more accurate, I should have used John Elway instead, as he was a high 1st round pick with a lot of hype going into the 1983 draft.

Isiah Thomas is officially out as coach of the Knicks, which comes about two years too late.

If Dorsey, Ellis, and Rivers are gone at #10, I'd say the Saints should trade that pick to the Eagles for the #19 and Lito Sheppard.