Precious Roy

This game is insane. Some of the pitching and defense in the extra innings has been incredible. I hope this game never ends.

Who's 2.0? Unless you're the New York Knicks and that guy is Zach Randolph, in which case you improbably become worse. As far as not trading Randolph for cap relief, whatever, it sounds ideal, but I completely agree that Randolph could be really good playing for D'Antonio, and if he is they can easily trade him after the season or at the trade deadline and get a much better return on him, like a good draft pick or two and a decent-good player with a short contract. Really, Randolph should flourish under D'Antoni. He's an inside-outside scoring threat and a good rebounder, mediocre defender, but based on his tenure with the Suns D'Antoni won't hold that against him. He could score a lot of points and grab a ton of rebounds next year, the only question I have is if he gets himself in good enough shape and is willing to run.

Thats ridiculous to bury a guy who already has lost alot of credibility with all of the losses (intentional, mind you) to balance the idea that eventually, he will get that big win with cashing in the MITB in return. I don't think there is a question when he cashes in the shot, he will win it, just because of all of the jobbing out he's been doing. Your reasons why he looks like a "chump" is pretty ridiculous too, since it wouldnt really put him over as anything but a chickenshit heel if he would actually get the shot immediately after a babyface is spent after a match (ie Edge's title wins) and I think the idea is to keep him as a face when he wins whichever belt. Plus doing the MITB deal this year the same way as Edge did it twice already in three years is just completely lazy booking. Teasing using the shot doesn't make him a chump at all, just strictly keeps the title shot as unpredicable whenever it happens. I think when Punk teases the shot, its the bookers telling me, "nope not going to happen tonight" basically. And then to boot, you want the title shot, and win, to JBL? The guy is still being bothered by the original injury that took him out (back injury) so he's a less than dependable heel to carry a major belt right now, and he's far from a huge heat magnet at this stage in his career. Give him the IC title if need-be, he can get over just fine with that, but a world title? No freakin way. As you already said, feuds with Cena/JBL and JBL/Batista have both already been played to death and having them headline either of those programs on any future ppv is counterproductive and downright stupid. And rest assured that whoever ends up with the title whenever Raw gets either one, Batista and Cena are the two top guys who will be challenging for it (or possibly against each other if one wins the belt by chance) so they are going to need someone strong to feed into solid programs with them, which honestly I could see Punk doing, but more than likely as a heel soon after he would win the belt. I want to respond to your comments on Punk and MITB first, because I think you're just way off base First of all, CM Punk has to be turning heel soon, it just doesn't make any sense for him not to be, especially if you look at the RAW roster which has four "A" level babyfaces in Cena, Batista, Michaels and Mysterio, plus Kane who's always going to be popular and get a good push, and they just put the IC title on Kofi Kingston. The heel side has Jericho, JBL, Randy Orton whenever he gets back, they'll probably put Cade at the IC level v. Kofi now, and there's not much else. There's a huge opening there for someone to turn and be put in a prominent heel role, and Punk would appear to be the most likely candidate. Second, You don't build up a guy to win a world title by jobbing him out left and right ahead of time. Destroying his credibility so that they can eventually balance it out by giving him the world title? Do you realize how stupid that sounds? Third, I don't think they really have much of a plan for Punk to cash in on MITB, and I certainly don't think it's a foregone conclusion that he will a) cash in and win, and b) if he does, that he'll be a babyface when it happens. Remember, this MITB was scheduled to be Jeff Hardy all along until that suspension hit. They'd been planning on him winning MITB months ahead of time, dating at least to the number one contender match against HHH and program with Orton, which was the start of the slow burn/tease of him getting the title. When he got suspended they had to take both the IC Title and MITB off of him, and CM Punk just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Personally I think they should have given the MITB to Jericho and the IC to someone else, doesn't really matter who. Jericho at least already has the built in credibility level to carry MITB and make it meaningful. I understand the notion of wanting to elevate someone with the briefcase, but if you look at the history of the concept it was successful the first two years when given to guys who had been on the precipice of the main event for years and the fans were willing to buy them at that level, they just needed a final shove in the right direction. Kennedy's win is basically forgotten due to the way circumstances unfolded, not entirely his fault, but clearly beyond him getting hurt the company came to their senses when it came to pushing him to that level. Punk may be in the same boat, as a guy who's been given a "guaranteed world title" position too soon for everyone involved. The other thing is, when you put a midcard babyface on a losing streak like Punk has been on it's generally a prelude to a heel turn. I can't imagine why you think, on a show with John Cena and Batista, the franchise guys, they're going to do a complete 180 on Punk and give him the title as a babyface ahead of them. It seems obvious that Cena v. Batista is the money RAW title match for Wrestlemania next year, and one of them in going to have the belt on RAW sooner than later. CM Punk turning heel and cashing in on MITB as a transitional champion to break up the monotony of Cena/Batista, that I can maybe see. As far as putting the belt on JBL goes, is it a perfect scenario? No. But based on what went down on the PPV I think that angle is a solid follow up. They had a chance to move either of the world titles to RAW, or to do a swerve with MITB after one of the matches and didn't do it. So now how do they book one of the titles back onto RAW? What is a better way to do it given where things stand right now? And I don't want to see a cop-out Cena-HHH rematch or anything like that that just ignores the draft. They're going to eventually do whatever with the rosters, that's understood, but when they're making a such a big deal of the draft resulting in SD having both world titles, they need to honor to the illusion for now.

This is what I want to see/sort of expect to see happen based on the results of Night of Champions: - JBL challenges CM Punk for the money in the bank title shot tomorrow night and wins. Off-camera, JBL conspires with Edge and Vickie Guerrero to on the next Smackdown put HHH in a position where he becomes easy pickings for JBL to steal the title. JBL cashes in MITB, returns the title to RAW and lives up to his promo during the PPV. Edge becomes once again the sole world champion on Smackdown. After the title is "stolen" from HHH the plot between JBL and Edge is revealed, putting some instant heat behind HHH v. Edge and giving a shot in the arm to the floundering JBL. The downside is that JBL sucks in the ring right now, and he was never really all that good when he was the champion on Smackdown with the exception of the odd match here and there, and JBL/Cena and JBL/Batista have already been done many times, with the JBL/Batista matches being particularly bad. But the upside is that he's a good promo and has the credibility level to pull the angle off. He'll get good heat from it, and they can just take the title off him at the next PPV, or SummerSlam at the latest. The other upside is that CM Punk has become the worst inside joke in the company and they should get the MITB off him post haste, before they devalue the thing any more than they already have. It's bad enough that he's lost almost every match he's been in since Wrestlemania, but he looks like the ultimate chump for not cashing it in at the PPV when a) he had a chance to be the guy who brings a world title to RAW after both Cena and Batista had failed, b) he had teased using it earlier in the show in a promo with Cena and Batista (as he seemingly does every other show), and c) HHH had been selling a serious knee injury for the last 15 minutes of that match, continued to sell it post-match, and would have conceivable been easy pickings.

Eh, If I'm Toronto I would make the deal for O'Neal over Wallace. Both dudes are injury prone, Wallace is the better player and better asset if you discount size and position, but IMO pairing O'Neal with Bosh is a better look for that team. I'm down on O'Neal at this point but if he plays to his potential that is a fucking sick frontcourt.

Farnsworth is one of our better arms, yes, and yes, it is crazy. Anyone who's seen Farnsworth pitch over his career and knows his track record can't possibly be comfortable with the dude. And I actually like Kyle Farnsworth, but I don't have confidence in him to be our #2 relief pitcher. Ohlendorf and Ramirez are young, and that's part of the problem. This is not a young team, this is a team that's constructed to win now, to at worst make the playoffs. I don't dislike either of them, but I have absolutely no confidence in them in at this point to be reliable every day pitchers or to handle being put into tough spots. Hawkins is just mop up duty right now, yeah, because he's fucking cooked. I don't want to sound like a broken record when talking about this shit doesn't make any difference, and in retrospect with Wang getting hurt I guess I'm cool with Chamberlain in the rotation, but our bullpen fucking sucks, and I'm sick of the sugarcoating.

A handful of games was apparently a good enough sample size to give a thumbs up to our pen, so what the fuck?

The Mets have hung 15 runs on the Yanks, 9 of them on the pen. But please fellow Yankee fans, keep preaching to me about how solid our bullpen is

I think you might be underrating Jefferson a bit as far as being able to hang with and outplay bigger opponents, he's a fucking beast. Jefferson and Love will get abused at times, no doubt, but on the flipside they will create mismatches on the other end and should be able to exploit bigger and slower defenders. It's a gamble, and there's absolutely going to be games where it doesn't work to the Wolves benefit, but as a duo they can be productive and offset the size issue, IMO. Obviously they're going to need a bigger body or two to stick in there and mix and match with Love/Jefferson, Al should play at the 4 in stretches, and Love should play at the 3 a bit if matchups dictate. They don't have that size off the bench right now, which has to be a priority over the rest of the offseason. As far as Miller goes, I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that he won't stay in Minnesota, they should have the money to keep him when his contract is up, and it's a good situation for him where he's basically the #2/1 option on offense. And seriously, right now Mike Miller is a much better player than OJ Mayo. Mayo has a high upside, but he is not going to be as good as Miller is this year and probably not next year or the year after either. Miller is fucking awesome, people sleep on the dude, but he's got crazy shooting range, handle, passing ability, size, rebounds well from the perimeter, and he's a competitor, he'll match up with anyone. I really like Mayo, like I said I wanted to see him in NY and he's got the potential to be the best player out of this draft, but when you factor in the contracts and the fact that Miller is basically an all-star talent in his prime I'm not seeing much downside for Minnesota here.

Between this trade and just giving away Gasol like they did, Memphis' GM is almost begging for the axe. Mayo should be good, but WTF? They go from Jerry West to this asshole?

It took me a minute to digest that trade, but post-ponderance I love it for Minnesota. Love can work with Jefferson, Big Al can play the 5 without much problem, he's a little undersized for it, but he's got the right combination of motor, skill and athleticism that he can make it work. Hell, he played at the 5 most of last season, the team sucked, but it wasn't his fault, and he produced at high level despite the occasional mismatches. Love is a fucking talent, so good all-around, he should actually be a great compliment to Jefferson with his shooting ability, and both of them are great passers who can create a little off the dribble from 10 feet in. It's an undersized primary PF-C combo height wise, but both have some girth and strength and rebound well, so they should be ok. The key to the deal though is Mike Miller, that is a fucking STEAL for Minnesota. Mike Miller is a fucking criminal, and he's going to shine on that team. I really like Mayo too, he's the guy I hoped NY would get somehow, but Miller AND Love for Mayo? No questions asked. It is a bit of a shame that we won't get the GAY-LOVE pairing though

The Celtics bought the rights to Bill Walker. STEEL.

I don't dislike Felton, I just really like Lee, he's one of the few guys on the team I actually like at this point. It would be a great trade for Charlotte, pairing Lee with Emeka, and Augustine should be good to go at the point.

Rumor of Ray Felton to NY for David Lee. DO NOT WANT

The Heat trade for Chalmers. Good shit.

Sacto somewhat makes up for the first round by grabbing Singletary and PATRICK FUCKING EWING JUNIOR!!!!!!!

What the fuck is Milwaukee doing? You trade for Jefferson, cool, then you draft a tweener forward (who should probably be at the 3) when you already have one in C-Villain, though granted Alexander was one of the best players on the board at that point, but then you take ANOTHER small forward in the second round?!?? Draft a fucking guard. CDR goes to Jersey. Great team for him. Can't believe he slipped so far.

Jefferson is a fantastic get for Milwaukee. That is an underrated dude, not just in terms of his all-around game, but he's smart, well spoken, just a solid character who should fit in well in the land of Favre. Also, he didn't get to show it a ton playing with Kidd, but he's got a bit of Scottie Pippen point forward in him, so with Williams being more of a scorer than a QB and Redd offering no real playmaking skill, Jefferson will by necessity become more of a playmaker.

If Chalmers is there at 35 and the Clippers don't pick him I'm sending a bottle at the tv EDIT* T-Wolves got him. About time.

And Portland picks Joey Dorsey. Got enough bigs yet?

I don't understand how Bayless went from a top 5 pick in almost every early mock, to dropping out of the top 10, to getting traded for the guy picked 13th. I like Rush, he'll probably have a long career just due to the fact that he plays d and has a consistent shot, but he has role player written all over him. Bayless has star potential. Indiana didn't need Bayless, but still, Portland man, Jesus, they're going to be fucking tough last year. AND they add Darrell Arthur AND Ike Diogu to what was already a pretty stacked front line with Aldridge, Frye, Pryz and Oden's delayed rookie season. I was not happy with the Knicks pick. D'Antoni is the perfect coach for the kid, so there's that, but I would have preferred Bayless, Alexander or Lopez.

they give you 2 pts on your first search and then nothing, it would take forever to earn enough to get anything better than a Val Venis baseball card

Mike Mussina (whom I love) is their ace. Three of their four outfielders can't field. Jeter (GIDP machine), Abreu, Cano, and Cabrera: .259/.316/.381. But by all means, continue to obsess over 2 innings of a 9-inning baseball game. Don't really see what that has to with the bullpen,. Jeter, Abreu and Cano are proven hitters who will start performing to expectations at some point barring some sort of ridiculous wasted season type slumping. I'd put money on all 3 of them heating up over the summer. Cabrera, who knows, he started off hot and then shit the bed, but he's basically the #9 hitter, it's not like this season hinges on his performace at the plate.

Ostertag was a stiff who provided good D in the paint when he wasn't hacking dudes and getting himself in foul trouble, and every once in a while he had hid game face on and decided to be a low post scorer, at which he was competent, but it was rare that he actually did that. Comparing Love to him is a joke for a hundred different reasons, most obviously that they are completely different size/skillset wise. If you want to make a 90's whiteboy comparison for Love, Googs would seem like the most fitting, Love has a different game though..

Agreed, he wasn't 100% set and it was a total flop, but the NBA....it's FLOPTASTIC!