Boston Celtics Rebuilding Plan, Version 4.9.2.4824...
Let me begin by saying one thing: I'm not much for using my imagination any more than I have to. I prefer to have things cut and dried, laid out before me. I choose what I like or don't like, and that's that.
Which is why last night's NBA draft threw me a complete curveball. For the past week or so, all Celtics' fans have heard about was "We're getting KG... no, Marion... no, Jermaine O'Neal... wait, maybe Kobe?" Then, for awhile, it looked like the C's were going to package Paul Pierce up and start from scratch. Again. Which probably would have made me cut the last shred of a tie that I have with the team.
Then came yesterday. The news started crawling along that a package was in the works with Seattle, basically centering around Ray Allen for the #5 overall pick in the draft, with contracts to be added. When I first heard about it, I was not a fan. Ray Allen, though a great scorer when his shot is on, is essentially a better outside shooting version of Paul Pierce, or worse yet, Antoine Walker. Plus, he's coming off of double-ankle surgery this offseason - not exactly a gold star for someone who relies on a jump shot. And naturally, he's on a max contract.
Not to mention my assumption that any trade offer for a guy with Allen's reputation would probably have to include either Gerald Green, Al Jefferson or the only real trading chip the C's had, Theo Ratliff's contract.
But then the reports started trickling in - Ray Allen and the Sonics' 2nd round pick for the #5, Delonte West and Wally Szcerbiak's yearly knee injury. Well hey now, that's a whole different story. Somehow, Danny Ainge managed to pull off what, on the surface, looks like a no-brainer trade. They gave away a the #5 draft pick in a 2-man draft (3 if you count Horford), a 1/2 hybrid player in WEst who, though he improved immensly last year, will probably never be able to handle PG or SG duties exclusively in the NBA, and a major contract for a very good shooter who can't play defense or stay on the floor.
What they got in return was a major contract for a very good shooter who can't play defense or stay on the floor and a hugely underrated big man in the second round ("Big Baby" Davis), assuming he can get his weight in check. Plus, Davis should have a chip on his shoulder, since he was expecting to go in the teens and somehow slipped to #35 overall.
Right now, the C's have an Opening Night starting five of Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Al Jefferson and either Davis or Kedrick Perkins. That's not too bad - two max veterans with something left to prove in pursuit of a ring, and a handful of very good, very affordable young guys. Plus they managed to hold on to their only real tradeable contract, and the player with the most "Imagination potential" in Gerald Green.
Sure, they might give up 115 points a night, since Ray Allen has never played defense well, and Paul Pierce has slipped lately (in fact, that could be a real problem since players will drive the lane and draw contact calls on Jefferson, Perkins and Davis), but if they can score 120, the numbers will even out.
They probably don't win the East next year - I'll settle for an Atlantic Division title and a Top-4 playoff seed, preferrably advancing at least one round. But they just got a hell of a lot better than the team that was desperate to land a top-2 draft pick three months ago.
Lata.
Labels: Celtics, Draft, NBA, NBA Draft, Playoffs here we come, Trade
Thoughts on copyright infringement
Is it technically plagiarism if you're copying yourself? I don't know. That's one of those philosophical questions that can never be answered like "If a tree falls in the woods and squashes a squirrel, but no one is around to hear the thing get splattered, does it make a sound", or "If a pitcher stands on the mound but refuses to throw the ball, how does the game progress?" (Thanks for that one Matt)...
Anyway, this is a direct copy from my "
Personal Blog" a couple days ago. Thought it was relevant here too:
/begin personal plagiarism
June 25th, 2007: "...For those of you that know me fairly well, you know that back in the Summer of 2005 I created a "World Series Tribute Video" for the '04 Red Sox. I made a DVD out of it, posted it on my personal website, and also put it up on YouTube. As of this past weekend, it had gotten over 50,000 page views, was listed as a favorite video by over 500 users, and had been linked to in over 150 other websites (mostly MySpace, but not all).
I'd post a YouTube link to it for everyone to enjoy (for the first time, or all over again), but there's a slight problem. This morning, I opened
my Gmail account, and found the following e-mail from the good people at YouTube:
Subject - Video Removed: Copyright InfringementDear Member:This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by MLB Advanced Media claiming that this material is infringing:2004 World Series Champions Tribute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDc_AZ7WCPU (That link obviously no longer works)Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to avoid future strikes against your account, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube's copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide.If you elect to send us a counter notice, please go to our Help Center to access the instructions.Be aware that there may be adverse legal consequences in your country if you make a false or bad faith allegation of copyright infringement by using this process.Sincerely,YouTube, Inc.Now, when I made the video, I made very certain to list all of the sources from which I culled still photos, audio & video clips, and listed all of the information in the video itself at the end - you know, where the credits for most videos are found. I thought this would be sufficient to make sure that everyone knew that I had taken none of the photos, filmed none of the video, and recorded none of the audio myself, but had instead compiled other people's work into my own video. The key is, I made very sure to give credit to the original owners - I even put "Credit Where Credit Is Due" as the title of my end credits. Not to mention I wasn't selling the video for any type of monetary gain - it was posted freely for anyone to watch and enjoy without cost.
I'm no copyright lawyer, but I truly thought I was covered. Guess not. Meh. If you want to see the video (it's about thirteen-and-a-half minutes long), leave a comment or
send an e-mail and I'll direct you to where you can find it. All I ask is that you save it to your computer and don't stream it from my webserver - it will kill the bandwidth and make my web host extremely unhappy. Oh, and that if you repost it or show other people, you tell them where it came from. Who knows - maybe I'll get an offer from Hollywood!..."
/end personal plagiarism
As for sports updates, I think I'll try to get on here tomorrow with some thoughts about the NBA Draft (!?!?) and all the trade rumors heading up to it. Looks like my "
Random Trade Rumor" might actually happen now, or something close to it...
Lata.
Labels: copyright infringement, NBA Draft, plagiarism, Trade Rumors, Youtube
2007 MLB Mid-Season Analysis
With most of the teams in Major League Baseball having played about 70 games of their seasons, it seems like a good time to look back at the pre-season predictions of many an analyst and laugh, heartily, at their mistakes. Yes,
myself included.
Best team in the AL: Proud to say that, right now, it's The Red Sox. The rotation has been outstanding, the offense has been good if not record-setting, and they have handled most opponents pretty easily. The 45-25 (.643) record has them atop the Majors, though only two ahead of the Angels in the loss column. And Curt Schilling's sudden trip to the MRI Machine notwithstanding, they still have the best team to stay atop the league through October. As long as the injury bug that demolished them next year stays away, they should be fine. Look for a Repeat of 1986 (in more ways than one...) with a Red Sox / Angels ALCS matchup.
Best team in the NL: The numbers say it's San Diego, followed closely by Milwaukee (once again,
Damn you Vinny...) and then the Dodgers, D-Backs and Mets. How about the NL West actually turning competetive this season? Remember a couple years ago when we were legitimately stunned at the prospects of a team making the playoffs with a sub-.500 record? Now, the division has four teams above the break-even line, with only the free-spending Giants in bad shape (Maybe Barry's head is weighing them down...). But of those five teams, I still feel most confident about the Mets being the last one standing in October. The Padres/Mets NLCS should be outstanding - Peavy & Young against (presumably) Pedro & Glavine - but I cannot shake this feeling that the Mets need to add one more arm to push them over the top. Mark Buerhle, anyone?
What to watch for in the second half: Aside from the standard pennant races and record chases, I always look for the "Second Half Explosion" - some team that comes from relative obscurity to push for a wild card spot. A team that, if nothing else, inspires their fan base for next year and helps to sell a couple hundred more season ticket packages in '08. There are two teams I can see legitmately pulling this off in the second-half of 2007: Florida & Seattle. They come from completely opposite ends of the spectrum - Seattle overspent on mediocre bats and overvalued pitching for the past two offseasons and is just now seeing any type of return on their investments, while Florida has dedicated themselves to proving that a team can spend less than A-Rod & Manny make combined in a season and still compete for the playoffs. Seattle is currently 3 games over .500, but 7.5 back in the division and 4.5 in the Wild Card. Florida is 4-games under .500, but only 5.5 back in the division and 7 in the Wild Card (I know, none of this makes any sense). Both of these teams could make serious pushes to get into the playoffs, even if neither is a legitmate threat to the top teams in their league.
Awards Predictions:AL MVP: A-Rod if the Yankees win the Wild Card, otherwise it's a three man race between Magglio Ordonez, Travis Hafner and Kevin Youkilis. And you have no idea how big the smile on my face is that Youk even gets mentioned in that conversation.
NL MVP: Prince Fielder has done nothing to make me think that he shouldn't have this award all but sewn up by about Mid-August, but then again, he's got a couple teammates that have helped him out along the way. Albert Pujols can never be counted out, and if the Phillies come on strong as the season progresses, Ryan Howard will most likely have put up good enough numbers to be considered for a repeat win.
AL Cy Young: Before the season started, I was convinced that Roy Halladay, Johan Santana & Curt Schilling would be the top three names on this ballot, hands down. Well, Santana is still up there, but it's Josh Beckett representing the Red Sox, along with John Lackey and Dan Haren.
NL Cy Young: Jake Peavy. End of discussion.
I'd love to comment on possible rookies of the year in both leagues, but the ROY rules about games played are fairly confusing. I will say this - Boston has three names that could qualify for this award (Dice-K, Okajima and Pedroia), meaning that there's a chance none of them gets it as they split the New England writers' votes. In the NL, Hunter Pence & JJ Hardy (if they qualify) have to bear at or near the top of the list. I'm sure there's more I'm missing, but I'll stick with them for now.
And, since this is still technically a blog, I'm going to pass along a few links for you to enjoy. Most of them have already been published either at Deadspin or Danshanoff.com, but since not all of you read those sites, allow me to direct you their way:
- A FANTASTIC interview with Harold Reynolds, formerly of ESPN.
- Hmmm... maybe I won't become a full-blown Pirates fan just yet...
- Your professional wrestling update for 2007... with business-side coverage.
- This made me laugh for a solid 10 minutes - The 2007 Lead Glove Awards.
- Maybe Manny should use this more often - might get him off the previous list.
- Some talk about this video spoof on local Pittsburgh Radio - apparantely, it was pretty funny. (NOTE: If you haven't seen the final Soprano's yet, you may want to skip this. Not because it will spoil anything for you, but it just won't make any sort of sense)
- Speaking of Kevin Youkilis... (As always, the comments make this 30x funnier)
A new section of this blog that I'll be running when and if I remember it... it's Today's Trade Rumor that I'm starting just to see how far it gets!
There's a lot of talk in both the NBA & MLB, as both leagues approach their most intenst trading season. So here's the deal I'm proposing, just to see how far along it gets before someone shoots it down:
Boston Celtics get Shawn Marion from Phoenix
Phoenix Suns get Gerald Green, the #5 overall pick, and Theo Ratliff's contract.
Celtics end up with a stellar defensive player, 3/4 type who can play alongside Al Jefferson giving them one of the best foward tandems in the league, and they have another legitimate scoring threat. Phoenix gets much needed cap relief, bench depth in Green while he develops into what veryone thinks he can be (i.e. the next T-Mac) and with the #5 pick, someone along the lines of an Al Horford / Joakim Noah type to make into the #6 or 7 man on the depth charts. Both teams are competetive in '07-'08, with the Suns still having a great shot to win the West and the C's suddenly becoming a Top-5 team in the putrid East.
Since I don't have access to player salary information, and the firewall where I'm posting from blocks out ESPN's NBA Trade Machine, I can't be sure the numbers work here. But I am certain that something along these lines could get done, and maybe soon.
And before I go, one parting thought to ponder as you're wasting your Wednesday in a cubicle/office, reading random meaningless blogs instead of attending to actual "work" (much like I do)...
Has anyone ever seen Elijah Dukes and Pac-Man Jones in the same place at the same time?
Lata.
Labels: Blogs, Links, Mid-Season, MLB, Predictions, Trade Rumors
Live (sort of) From the US Open... (Practice Round)!! It's Thursday Afternoon!
First things first - I had planned to Live Blog this from the course, but cell phones & PDAs were not allowed. Plus, I wouldn't have had such great photos to illustrate my points. And before you call me a hypocrite because I'm about to spend much of a post devoted to golf not even
one week after I wrote that I could never do that... well, there's only so many times in life to say that you went to a US Open. Even if it was just a practice round.
This past Tuesday I spent about five hours walking the grounds at Oakmont Country Club, site of the
2007 U.S. Open. As a golfer, and a fan of the sport, it was a hell of an experience.
Before you ask - no, I did not see Tiger Woods. Or Phil Mickelson. Or Adam Scott, Aaron Baddeley, Sergio Garcia, Jim Furyk, or probably most of the other names most casual golf fans would know. I wasn't able to get out of a morning meeting (especially since it was my boss that gave me the tickets), so I didn't get to the course until almost 2pm - long after Tiger and the rest had practiced, held a press conference, hit the driving range and gone to the houses they're renting for $50k each (or more) this week.
What I did do is take a walk around most of the front nine of the course (let's face it people - I'm lazy. I wasn't making it around all 18),
taking photos of the players as they teed off or putted. A few observations and links:
There are some players who just give me hope that I can still make it on the PGA Tour. Like
Todd Rossetti, whose beer gut is bigger than mine by a solid 3/2 margin. Or perhaps Kirk Triplett - one of the few PGA Pros that I think I could consistently outdrive given the proper equipment (and by "proper equipment", I mean a steel chair that I could take to his back during his swing... just kidding. No malice for the only man to crack a joke
as he was hitting his tee shot). Or maybe even Trip Kuehne - even I don't often chunk my 3-iron off the tee
this badly.
Johnny Miller - A.K.A. the owner of "
The Round Heard 'Round The World" - is not a fan of the Internet. As I was shooting photos at the 3rd tee box, this golf cart pulls up behind me and out steps Miller. He walks up to the box (no one was teeing off at the time, so the crowd was basically me and five other guys waiting for the next group), pulls out a set of binoculars to look down the fairway and says "Yup. I remember this one. Narrow as all hell." As people started realizing who he was, they rushed over for photos and autographs. Miller, who has aparantely heard of the havoc
Deadspin and like-minded sites are known to wreak on unsuspecting celebrities during major events... ahem... "The Balls"
at Super Bowl XLI comes to mind... was
posing for a photo with another guy, arms around each other's shoulders, when he broke out this gem: "I've got a 10-second rule for poses like this with men. I know what they can do with them Internets and pictures. I'll end up on the new cover of Brokeback or something." Brought the house down.
For all he's achieved as a professional golfer on the PGA and European tours,
Padraig Harrington's legacy, at least with my generation, might be that he's related to Professional Poker Player Dan Harrington. I followed Padraig for about two holes, since he was the biggest name I'd seen at the time, and heard no less than 10 people - all about my age - thinking the same thing. "Gee, I wonder how Dan is doing in the World Series this year?" "Did you see the ESPN piece from 2003 about how Dan Harrington & Padraig Harrington are related?" And then, of course, there was the guy who followed Padraig and shouted "
Erin Go Bragh!" everytime he hit a shot. Yeah, that got annoying fast. By the way - the photo of Harrington's tee shot at the beginning of this paragraph... uh, you cannot imagine just how far that ball traveled.
Standing at the 3rd tee, I noticed
this guy standing directly to my left in jeans, a polo shirt and a ballcap, smoking a butt. I was about 70% convinced that it was Ernie Els in disguise, trying to watch some of the other players teeing off... until I heard him speak in maybe the thickest Wisconsin accent you've ever heard. Kind of killed my whole theory.
Poor
Stephen Ames. A couple years ago, he called out Tiger Woods before the Match Play finals. Tiger then
proceeded to systematically dismantle him, winning their match 9 & 8. For those of you that don't understand the match play system, let's just say that Tiger only needed 1/2 a round to destroy Ames. Anyway, on Tuesday Ames was taking bunker shots for nearly ten minutes on one hole, and couldn't manage to get one ball within twelve feet of his target. Now, I know the greens at Oakmont are a complete joke this week, but this was just hard to watch. And that's coming from someone who is ecstatic when he can get out of a bunker in less than three shots.
Outside of the normal "Big Names" this week, don't be surprised to see
Davis Love III near the top of the leaderboard when it's all said and done. He was hitting pretty well for the time I followed him around, and seemed pretty loose and calm. Then again, it was a practice round on a Tuesday - If you can't seem loose and calm then, you might as well just pack it in before you blow an aneurysm standing over a seven-foot par putt on 18 for the Open Title...
By far,
my favorite picture of the whole day. This is now the background on my PC at home.
I forgot to upload the photo, but there was a great ESPN Cameraman in the same area I was at, doing his best to "stay classy". He repeatedly asked me (or someone else around me) "Now, who's this guy again?", and wanted to make sure we all knew that he usually covered Sunday Night Football and was pissed that they had him getting footage of "all the no-name losers out here..." Nice guy.
Actually, that's a good point to end with. By far, the question of the day walking around with the masses was something along the lines of "Is there anybody in this group?" I will admit, I'm not a die-hard golf fan. I love to play, and I try to catch as much of it on TV as I can (Golf in HD is spectacular, by the way). But even I didn't know half the players I was watching. Which is the entire point - even if the best in the world bring their "A" game to a course like Oakmont, they aren't guaranteed a victory here. The field is so wide open, so full of people who are looking to make a name for themselves, that anybody - repeat
anybody - has a chance to win. Especially on this course.
My prediction: (-2) will probably be enough to win this thing by the time Sunday rolls around.
EDIT: (Right now - 1pm, on a live leaderboard,
74 players are tied at various stages of the course, all at even par. The current leader is at (-2).
74 Freakin' players!) /EDIT The players with the best short game have the biggest advantage, and the long-bombers with a little bit of movement off their tee shots have no chance - the fairways are too narrow, and the punishment is too steep for missing them. Tiger can never be counted out, but I don't think it's his to win. Phil's wrist will probably keep him from showing his usual control around the greens (unless he's exaggerating the injury to drive up the odds on himself, then cash in on a big bet in Vegas. I wouldn't put that past him...) There's a lot of talk that Furyk or Vijay have the right game for this course, but I'm not totally sold on Vijay. Furyk, maybe. But don't be surprised if, late Father's Day this Sunday, we're looking at the leaderboard and asking "Is there anybody in this group?"
Lata.
Labels: Golf, I Really Suck at Golf, Photos, The Toughest Golf Course I've Ever Seen, US Open
The Sports World Comes to a Standstill
This is such a lousy time of year for sports, it’s amazing. Baseball is the dominant day-to-day story, with the NBA & NHL Finals, the majors in golf & tennis, and not much else.
Problem is, baseball is such a long season that on a day-to-day basis one game makes very little difference (I know – try saying that in September when your team misses the playoffs or loses home-field advantage by one game). No one cares about the NBA or NHL Finals; seriously – have you seen the ratings? The Stanley Cup Finals dropped off 20% from last season’s numbers, and last season wasn’t all that great. On average, the three “National” games on NBC brought in a rating of 1.6, which translates to about 1.8 Million households tuned in to the game, in the entire country.
And for as much as I love both playing and watching golf, I can’t in good conscience dedicate an entire post to next week’s US Open, even if it is being held about a mile and a half from my apartment. (Side Note – Tuesday, I’m going to try to live blog the practice rounds live from Oakmont – my boss is a member at a local club and was given tickets for all four days of the Open plus the practice rounds, so he gave me the tickets for the Tuesday practice rounds. Hey – better than working all day.)
As for Tennis and The French Open… c’mon – let’s be serious about this.
I suppose I could dive into the NFL’s early mini-camps, but nothing happens in the early camps that is all that season altering aside from player contract disputes (the big ones so far look to be Asante Samuel, Daunte Culpepper and Alan Faneca) or major injuries – so far, so good on that front.
So where does that leave a lonely sports blogger like me? I could post every day and try to make a story out of what happened the night before, but there are plenty of other sites like DeadSpin or The DanWagon that do a far better job of that than I ever will – plus, the whole “working 9-5 for a living” kind of cramps my daily writing abilities.
I’m open to any ideas. I do plan on writing up a mid-season baseball summary, checking to see just how horrible my Pre-Season preview was. And then of course there’s my annual NFL Preview Opus. I’ll probably jump in between now and then with a few random posts / check-ins, and most definitely some thoughts on the MLB Trading deadline in a couple weeks.
I just wanted to check in today to let you all know that I’m alive. Just busy with life things for the past few weeks. I’ll be back soon.
Lata.
Labels: Boredom, Slow, Summer
