naiwf

That's a decision that will get someone fired. Morrison needs to be on a better team than Charlotte to be effective.

I didn't say you don't know anything about baseball. I merely said that you're ruining it with statistical formulas that need to be run on supercomputers. I don't like baseball enough to care to learn about how if I replaced Braden Looper with a one legged arthritic left handed specialist at night, but only on Tuesdays and Fridays that my team might have won 1.73 more games per season over a 50 year stretch. It's just too much information. The supposed beauty of baseball is that the game is still the same as it was 100 years ago, but everything has become micromanaged to the point of it often not being fun to watch anymore. A-Rod wasn't the most valuable Yankee, he shouldn't be the MVP. Any stat that says he's more crucial to the success of the Yankees than Mo is, is a stat I wipe my ass with. That's all I'm saying.

Whoever it is will be out of T.O. as soon as is humanly possible.

It's times like these where I'm so glad we traded for Eddy Curry.

The Knicks/Bulls will "win" this.

You're a Mets fan right? I'm guessing some statistical spreadsheet will probably tell you that Mo is worth about 5 or 6 more wins per season over a "replacement player". As someone who has suffered through Billy Wagner so far this year, John Franco, Armando Benitez and Braden Looper how much stock do you put into that stat? I'm sure the best closer of all time has more of an impact than the numbers would say, and I'm also fairly sure that if any of the Mets closers of the last decade had been on the Yankees the Bombers would NOT have 24 Championships, let alone 26.

Oh I know it's not fair to put Shavlik in the mix, I just can't believe a no talent piece of shit like him gets NBA money just because he hit the genetic lottery. Hurley was alright, sorta like Jason Williams before they met their untimely demises, but everyone thought Hurley would be like Stockton and he was more of a Scott Skiles type. I didn't mean to consider Christian a terrible player, but by no means did his prowess at Duke translate to an equal level of dominance on the NBA level. I still can't believe he was picked for the original Dream Team instead of Shaq. Oops.

I don't buy certain stats. The Sox have 2 feared hitters. Take 1 out (Ortiz) on opening day and the other (Ramirez) sees nothing to hit all season. As a result, you'd rid Boston of basically all of their offensive threats with the lost of one player. The Yankees on the other hand are still capable of mashing even with Sheff and Matsui out, and being replaced by scrubs like Melky Cabrera and Bubba Crosby. My eyes tell me that the Yankees have more than enough offense to endure without A-Rod while the Sox can't afford to lose either Ortiz or Ramirez. Lastly, Mariano Rivera is essentially the reason the Yankees have been the Yankees for the last decade. A-Rod hasn't helped them win a title yet and I'm sure he was a huge upgrade individually over Charlie Hayes, Wade Boggs and Scott Brosius. Stats can lie especially when they involve complex formulas and have retarded names like VORP and WARP. Sabremetrics has ruined baseball.

Right, because you wouldn't want to end up with the next Elton Brand, Corey Maggette, Shane Battier, Carlos Boozer, Luol Deng, Chris Duhon or Shaun Livingston. Those picks really backfired for their respective teams. When did Livingston go to Duke? Boozer's legs are shot. Battier, Duhon and Deng are roleplayers. And I'll grant you Brand and Maggette are stars or at least emerging in Corey's case, but what does Mr. Redick not have in common with any of those guys, while he DOES have in common with the legendary Danny Ferry, Christian Laettner & Bobby Hurley? No, it's not the color of his skin. It's the fact he doesn't have NBA level athletic ability. That says nothing of current Duke "ballers" who have done nothing in the league like Mike Dunleavy, Daniel Ewing, Dahntay Jones & Shavlik Randolph, and soon to be bust Shelden Williams. The next Trajan Langdon is more likely to be the next Trajan Langdon than the next Duke player who actually contributes in the NBA.

Fair enough, but I think this is all you need to know to determine "value". Which player is feared by other teams when the game is on the line. I think it's safe to say that the big time teams do not fear A-Rod in the 8th or 9th innings of close games. They do however fear Jeter (even though he won't hit a 450 foot bomb), or Ortiz, or Bonds, or Pujols, or Mariano F. Rivera etc. I don't think A-Rod was even the 2nd most valuable YANKEE last year, so how was he the MVP of the league? Without Mo, the Yankees are shit. With half of their lineup and starting rotation not playing right now, they can still go .500 just because Mo doesn't blow leads. Without Ortiz last year, the Sox finish about 81-81 at best. Without A-Rod, the Yankees still make the playoffs. The fact A-Rod's other MVP came when he was on a last place team is just as ridiculous as him winning last year. I mean, if Texas finished last WITH him, how much worse would they have done without him? The writers need to actually think about their votes and not just go with (often times hollow) power numbers.

JJ will be lucky to be Kyle Korver, and KK went 51st in his draft. When in doubt don't draft a Dookie, the odds of a long, successful career are just not with you.

Any particular reason you left out the stat that lets us know how often he actually hits when trying to determine how often he hits?

I really don't think A-Rod's hitting .378 or .391 in any situation considering he's batting .307 for his career, and .276 this year. Where are those stats from?

If Adande's stat just now that Big Papi only has 3 more ABs than A-Rod with men in scoring position (or was it in late games?) but has TWENTY ONE more RBI in those times was true, that's pretty staggering for the so-called MVP of 2005.

Simmons speaks the truth. Dirk should have won the MVP and Dick Vendetta lived up to his first name once again. The NBA really needs to get rid of these officials who try to make themselves the most important person on the floor.

EFA

The Cavs already had JJ Redick, his name was Luke Jackson last time.

By play defense I mean that Nash can't completely sag off of a useless sack of shit like Smush thus rendering it 4 on 5 on the offensive end for his opponents. If Nash just stands there against Terry or Daniels he'll get lit up. You're awfully confident about Phoenix' ability for a team that went 8-6 against two of the worst teams in the whole postseason.

The Mavs afford the SUns the opportunity to play Eddie House, who simply was too much of a mismatch for any Clipper player. And there is the fact that Jason Terry and Devin Harris can't stop Nash. Ross and Livingston gave him problems. ALTHOUGH!!! The key to this series is going to be....Darrel Armstrong. He is Lindsey Hunter West right now and can give Nash fits. Suns are just done with dominating on the post big man right now as they don't have to worry about Dampier or Diop going off on the block and Diaw/Thomas can abuse both of them offensively. The Mavs are playing five on three unless they go small. Oh shit, I forgot about Eddie House. Phoenix should be able to sweep with him on the court! Seriously though both teams present match up issues, but Nash's dead legs won't get 4 days rest between games again and that's the only reason Phoenix is still alive right now. As long as the Mavs guards make Nash play defense it doesn't matter if he scores 30+. You just can't have him take half of the game off like the Lakers allowed him to by playing Smush. I also don't see them winning two games in Dallas which is what they'll need to do since it's almost inevitable Dallas steals one in Phoenix.

Dallas in 6 Detroit in 6 I'd love to see Miami win the East, but I think they'd need to win twice in Detroit which means Game 1 is imperative, and with a week off I think they'll be rusty. Phoenix can win the series, but I think they've expended far too much energy to beat a 6 seed and a 7 seed already. If Nash got gassed running after Cassell and Livingston what's he going to do against Terry and Harris who are faster and better players?

NY will win the #1 for Chicago. I can feel it.

I wouldn't. I'd try to keep Sam for one more year. Livingston will not be able to play 30+ minutes per game with his frame, and it's gonna take 2 or 3 more years for him to fill out.

I'd offer VC, RJ and the picks for KG. You can always get slashers, but 7 footers with small man skills are much harder to come by and the Nets need something to draw people to their building. The Cavs have a lot of money tied up in shitty players for the next couple of years as Snow, Marshall and Jones are due about $16-17 million per until '08-'09, Hughes is making about $12 million until '09-'10. Gooden's making $5.3 next year. Z was a $9 million+ guy this year and that doesn't even touch LeBron's max deal if he chooses to stay. That's a lot of money for next to no help for Bron Bron.

The Nets should try and swing a deal for Garnett if at all possible. Offer them anyone on the roster besides Kidd and Krstic and see what happens. It's not like they'll ever win a title once Kidd retires, so make one last run at it. I don't really know what Cleveland can do since they already have Hughes and Z in place. That just leaves the PF & PG positions available for upgrade. Can they dump Gooden, and even if they could what would they get in return? The Spurs can go to hell.

Had Ron Artest done that he'd have been tossed, suspended for the rest of the postseason, the entire preseason and 3 games into next year.