Game manager DELUX

via www.bbqclubs.com

He's not a regular ol' game manager, he's Trent Dilfer slathered in BBQ sauce (great completion percentage) and topped with bacon (high TD/INT ratio). Not only that, but when you least expect it, POW, there's the peppercorn crust (toughness)!

The Game Manager DELUX ain't no fast food burger, but you'd rather have a steak (i.e. Manning, Brady, etc.). The Game Manager DELUX will never blow your mind, but you're always happy and full after your meal... cuz the combination of BBQ sauce and bacon is ALWAYS delicious. Would you rely on the Game Manager DELUX for your daily go to meal? Not without some roughage (Frank Gore... just imagine fiber loosening up the... uhh... defense. Yeah, sorry about that imagery).

In all seriousness, though, I love what Smith is doing this year. I think he can take the next step away from "Ho hum #1 pick draft bust." But even if he doesn't, he's proven that he is CAPABLE of being a viable NFL starter... and I hope he keeps it up. I think he's got the moxie, smarts, patience, and determination to get there... at least now that he's got a mildly capable offensive mind drawing up the plays (cue Jimmy Raye laser eyes GIF).

Helmets are the hardest part of a football player's body.

Helmets were invented as a way to protect players' heads. However, because helmets are the hardest part of a player's body, players have learned to use it as a weapon to disrupt the goals of the other team. Players use their helmets to attempt to dislodge the football from a running back's grasp, they try to hit a WR with their helmet to prevent them from holding onto a catchable ball, they use the helmet to deliver a hard hit and send a message not to come over the middle, etc. None of these actions are inherently bad and all are competitively useful. However, there are unintended consequences because players are basically using their head as a hammer. Head and neck injuries are no joke, and must be avoided. Putting a player's best defensive tool (their hard helmet) on their heads encourages players to use their heads more often, not less often. There is some protection availed by putting a helmet on somebody's head, but it does not outweigh the increase in dangerous use. Thus, the governing body of the sport must find a way to afford even more protection to the head and/or decrease the dangerous use of the helmets. I propose a three fold solution:

1. Improve protection by incorporating crumple zones and padding on the outside of helmets, as well as utilizing other new technologies to protect players. As helmets are made now, they ONLY protect the wearer. They do NOTHING to protect the other 21 players on the field. In fact, they create a more dangerous environment for the other 21 players on the field. (e.g. If you had 22 people on a desert island who needed to protect themselves from each other, they'd each be able to protect themselves better with knives, but that'd make the island a much more dangerous place for everybody)
2. Decrease the dangerous use of helmets by limiting the benefit of using the helmet as a weapon by adding padding to the outside of the helmet.
3. Decrease the dangerous use by punishing players for the damage that they do: Give somebody a concussion that keeps them out of their next two games? You have to sit your next two games. Force players to take personal responsibility for their actions on the field.

Let's look at a few of the examples from this past Sunday:

Brandon Meriweather vs. Todd Heap
Heap jumps up for the ball and as he's landing, Meriweather positions his helmet to knock the ball out of Heap's hands if he catches it... Heap doesn't catch it, so there's no ball between Meriweather's helmet and Heap's facemask... direct spearing hit to the head ensues. The main problem with this hit is that Meriweather isn't watching the football, he watches where the football is going to go, ducks his head, and spears his helmet where he thought the football would be. He could have used his hands to try to break up the pass, but because his helmet is bigger and harder, he decided to use the better tool. Under my proposed situation, Meriweather's helmet is covered by some padding to lessen the blow, protect both players, and he is punished for every game Heap misses because of the hit. Knowing that he may be suspended, he may opt for a less dangerous option like using his hands or his facemask instead of spearing at the ball with the crown of his helmet.

James Harrison vs. Josh Cribbs
Now, this is a pretty bad hit. Cribbs is getting tackled, Harrison is following the play, keeps his head up watching the entire thing, then at the very end ducks his head to spear Cribbs in his earhole. He knocks Cribbs out cold, who fumbles the ball. I chose this video to show the disgusting glorification of the hit by fans of his team. There's not much to do here except to change the rules... it's a situation that's in the gray area where he's trying to stop a the forward progress of a player who should be expecting to be hit. However, if you watch the replay, he lines up Cribbs, then at the last second ducks his head to deliver the "devastating blow." He even admits that he's out to try and hurt people. To me, this is needless violence and exactly what the NFL shouldn't tolerate. It's doesn't need to prevent the Patrick Willis hit on Reggie Bush, or the same type of hit on Bush by an Sheldon Williams in last year's playoffs. It's trying to prevent people from lining up a player and deciding to hurt/injure them instead of just tackle them. How do you prevent this? Lessen the impact of his most harmful weapon. Take away his playing time. Suspend him for the duration of the injury he causes.

James Harrison vs. Mohamed Massaquoi
Massaquoi catches a ball coming across the middle of a zone, Harrison is there to stop him in his tracks. I, honestly, don't have too much of a problem with this hit. Harrison is coming up to make a tackle, Massaquoi sees him and ducks as Harrison is aiming at his chest, Massaquoi's head ends up where his chest just was, and unfortunately gets smashed. This is an unintended helmet to helmet contact. Start watching at 0:48 seconds, and double click to step through the play. You can see Massaquoi catch the ball, turn up field, see Harrison, and duck (even leading with his helmet!)... right as Harrison is making his tackle. This is a situation where having protection to absorb the contact would help, but to me it's just an unfortunate situation where a Massaquoi's natural human instict to duck and compact his body put himself in a harmful situation.

Dunta Robinson vs. DeSean Jackson
Jackson catches the ball coming across a zone, Robinson comes in from the opposite direction and attempts to spear his helmet through the ball. Fortunately, he is a little earlier than James Harrison was and Jackson doesn't have time to duck his head, but it's still a nasty situation. Double clicking through the replay, you can see Robinson get there and duck his head right where the ball was at the time. I'm no doctor, but given that he didn't hit Jackson in the helmet, it looks like the major issue for Jackson was whiplash (watch how far back his head snaps) followed by impact with the ground. Guess what? Putting a heavy helmet on your head is going to make whiplash worse! Put some more padding on the helmet, try to make it a bit lighter (there are good modern composite materials for this), and you'll dampen out a lot of the impact forces. In general, you have to discourage players from spearing the football with their helmet. Suspending Robinson for every game Jackson misses is probably the best you can do.

So, of the four situations, two of them were defenders trying to put their helmet through a football and missing, one was a deliberate malicious act, and the other was an unfortunate situation of a players self preservation instincts putting himself in a more dangerous situation. All could be helped with lighter, more padded helmets, and all could be at least somewhat discouraged by "eye for an eye" suspension punishment and lessening the impact of a football player's best weapon (their helmet).

I hear all these football people claiming that you're asking players to stop playing the way they've been taught to tackle throughout their football playing career. I never played football myself, but all the time I hear people saying "Coaches teach you to tackle with your facemask" and to keep your head up or you'll risk a neck injury. As a tackler, you do NOT want to duck your head, get your head pushed down, and then run over because that's EXACTLY how you break your own neck. Keep your face up, wrap up, and make the tackle. If these players actually followed the mantras of every single one of their coaches instead of turning themselves into blind missles with their heads down, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Asking them to tackle properly is not neutering the game, it is asking it to be played properly. For example:

Let's take a look back at Willis' hit on Reggie Bush, and laud Willis not for his excellent football playing ability, but for his ability to MAKE A HARD TACKLE WITHOUT RISKING INJURY TO ANYBODY. Watch the last replay (starts at 0:33). Notice how he keeps his head up? Notice how he wraps up instead of turning his body into a missle? Notice how he watches the play instead of ducking his head and missling at where he thinks the ball is? This is how you make a tackle... this is how you deliver a hard hit. Was that any less exciting than hard spearing tackles? And it's not just Patrick Willis who knows how to make a good hard tackle without spearing somebody:

Ray Lewis

Brain Urlacher

Notice how the best MLBs in the game do NOT missle people? Do you think it's a coincidence that the best of the best know how to tackle properly?

Fun fact #1

# of opponents drives that have started with under 2 minutes left in a half in which the other team tried to score: 6*
# times scored on those drives:5

Points scored on those drives: 19

* - This counts Nate Clements' interception as stopping a drive and his fumble starting another drive. In other words, they've had 6 drives against them, stopped one, and gifted it right back.

Our defense has had 5 opportunities to stop an opponent from scoring with under 2 minutes left in a half. They haven't stopped any of them. They've given up drives of 13, 51, 44, 49, and 68. Bold underlined drives are game winning drives. Furthermore, they failed to stop the Saints from running out the clock at the end of the first half when they had a chance to get the offense the ball back in great field position.

Look, defense has certainly been better than the offense. However, they're unable to stop an opponent who has to score. Our defense is in the bottom third of the league in all significant statistical categories. Our offense has been at least equally bad, but let's not say our offense is letting our defense down. They are both letting each other down. Our defense has given up 24, 25, 31, and 16 points. That's nothing to hang your hat on. Our opponents' QBs have a fantastic 95 QB rating and are completing 67% of their passes. Sure, we've played Drew Brees and Matt Ryan... but they made Matt Cassel look like a superstar as well.

This is not to say our offense isn't to blame, or that there are serious question marks about Alex Smith's future as an NFL QB and as a 49er. It's meant to balance the discussion here. Our defense is playing like:

via common.csnstores.com

And there's no getting around it. If our defense was who we thought they were, we'd potentially be sitting at 2-2 with two great wins against quality teams and two confusing losses... thinking that "If our offense gets even a little in gear, we're going to be scary in the playoffs!"

Instead, our offense is this big questionmark of inconsistency, while our defense is good, not great, until it matters... when they turn back into a pumpkin.

Fun fact #2

First half scoring (49ers-opponents): 30-43

Second half scoring (49ers-opponents): 22-60*

* - Second half scoring includes the infamous "last play injurious TD" from the Chiefs game.

In short, we're pretty competitive in the first half, only being outscored by 3 points per game. Then, we're getting dominated in the second half. When you account for the fact that of the 43 points our opponents have scored in first halves, 13 have come in the last two minutes, we're playing the first 28 minutes of the game even with our opponents (who currently have a 11-4 record, 7-4 against other opponents, and include last year's super bowl winner, the team that beat last year's super bowl winner, and the last remaining undefeated team). Our opponents have not been slouches, and we've played 3 tough road games. I can't explain what's happening, but we're tied 30-30 after 28 minutes, and losing the rest of the meaningful minutes 15-73 (ignoring Josh Morgan's meaningless TD at the end of the Chiefs game).

This team falls apart. The offense sputters in the second half, the defense opens up, and the defense can't stop anybody under 2 minutes.

Fun fact #3

The 49ers start the youngest offense in the NFL. Let's just say they're still growing together. Given this fact, and the fact that the O Line is comprised of 2 rookies and is missing its elder statesman/starting center, there's plenty of reason to hope that things will get better going forward. They offense needs time to gel. They need to learn a lot, and it's a difficult situation for a QB to work with if you don't know if you can trust your WRs and linemen to be where they need to be and block who they need to block. I'm not making excuses for Alex Smith, he certainly has his fair share of the faults in the failures, but he's by far not the only problem with our offense and our team. What the Niners need now is leadership, not panic. This is still true.

I still see silver linings: We've played some really tough competition, far and away the toughest quarter of our schedule. We're only 2 games back in our division with 5 division games left to play, so we can easily make up that ground. Our offense looked much better than in previous games... they didn't come away with any more points or yards, but it looked better from what I saw. The defense wasn't simply able to dictate everything that happened. They converted a few third downs. With another week in the Mike Johnson version of the Jimmy Raye system, I think we'll see even more wrinkles and even more success. We still have tons of talent on both sides of the ball. And we still play in the NFC West.

Each and every player on the 49ers is talented. However, you do not win in the NFL on talent alone. You need special talent. You need talent that puts fear into your opponent, knocks them back on their heels, makes their coaching staff wake up at night thinking about how to stop your special talent. Fact is, the Niners do not have anybody at any position that instills fear in their opponents. Patrick Willis, Frank Gore, and Vernon Davis are the three closest, but are not there.

Willis is great, but he's not that hard to avoid. He may get into the backfield a few times a game, he may be one of the best middle linebackers in the game, but at the end of the day, you can let Patrick Willis do what he does, keep him honest, and beat the Niners through the passing game. Willis is not going to defend your WRs, he's not a great pass rusher. He may be good, but he's no Ray Lewis or Mike Singletary.

Gore is scary. He's short, stout, and fast. He'll disappear in the crowd of 6'3" 300lb linemen and squirt out the hole before your linebackers know where he is. However, he, like any normal running back, is rather ineffective without a capable offensive line. And we do not have a consistently capable offensive line. All you need to stop Frank Gore is a defensive line that will maintain the line of scrimmage and linebackers that will maintain gap discipline. You do not need anybody to sell out to stop the run, you do not need safeties coming up, you don't really even need to run blitz.

Vernon Davis is big and fast. He's very good. But as a defensive coordinator, you still just need people to do their jobs. You do not need anybody doing anything special to prevent him from hurting you. Sure, he'll pick up a few yards here and there, but he's not going to really hurt you over the top (that catch against the Rams notwithstanding), he'll pick up 20-30 yards on a seam if you're in a two deep zone and your safeties get too wide, but other than that, he'll pick up a few first downs, but he's not going to really hurt you. Without a credible WR threat, he's not going to be a big problem.

None of our receivers are remotely scary, nobody's afraid of our pass rushers, nobody's afraid of any part of our secondary, nobody's afraid of Alex Smith, and nobody's afraid of our offensive line either giving Smith time or opening holes for Gore. On both sides of the ball, nobody on the 49ers forces opposing coordinators to account for anything out of the ordinary. They don't have to go max protect, they don't have to blitz to get pressure, they don't have to blitz to stop the run, their safeties do not have to press the box to stop the run, they do not have to take any risks... at all. The offense is dink & dunk, and the defense will usually stop the run, but can't get any pressure on passing downs.

So, in my opinion, this 49ers team is solid at each and every position, but solid doesn't remotely cut it in the NFL. When you compound this with a coaching staff that employs the KISS method, you're letting your opponents dictate what happens on the football field. They're going up against professionals. Teams do not make egregious errors, blow coverages, etc. in the NFL. You need to win the game, not just be there while the other team loses it. When you allow your opponents to dictate everything that happens on the football field, when you allow them to pick and choose from their entire playbook without fear of anything, you're going to lose a lot of games.

On the positive side, with getting rid of Raye and promoting Johnson to Offensive Coordinator, perhaps something can change. Perhaps our offensive players were never inspired by the play calling, perhaps they were particularly uninspired by play calling that never challenged them, perhaps the "1 yard up the middle and a cloud of defenders in Gore's face" play calling just wasn't putting enough pressure on opposing defenses to cause them to make riskier play calls to open up holes.

A lot of the problems and errors we've had are execution related, but it's hard to execute properly when your play calling is utterly predictable and the defense knows what you're doing before you even do it.

Larry Ellison is not God. He is not a savior. He and his money bags were never going to simply open up and turn your favorite sports team into the juggernaut you wanted. Sorry. Any hopes you had of this were founded on immature, selfish, irrational, and silly dreams that were in no way, shape, or form grounded in anything approaching reality.

Ellison is a business man, not a barely deserving impetuous internet prince. Ellison would NOT have treated the Warriors like a toy, he would have run it sensibly. Even if they could (and they can't), neither Ellison nor the actual new owners would be able to spend their way to a championship. Frankly, nor would I want them to if they could.

This is the NBA, not baseball. Unless they get rid of the salary cap and trade restrictions to those over the salary cap, no amount of money would help the Warriors acquire new talent. You actually have to successfully identify talent and/or luck into talented players through the draft and smart trades. I think we can all understand how having a super-rich owner will never effect the outcome of any draft. However, some folks may have difficulty understanding how salary cap rules effect how money can and cannot effect personnel decisions.

Here's a salary cap FAQ. Some highlights:

1. If you are over the cap, you cannot sign free agents except to the Mid Level Exception (usually ~5-6M, nothing that can acquire a seriously talented player).

2. If you are over the cap, you cannot make a trade where your outgoing salary is less than 125% of the incoming salary.

What does this mean?

The only way to increase player payroll is to sign players already on your roster to more lucrative contracts. In other words, you have to acquire the good players before they become really good.

Now that we've got that out of the way... anybody who is complaining about how "Ellison had the highest bid" and how "Cohan screwed us!" is not paying attention to reality. Here are the facts:

Ellison claims to have had the highest bid.

Galioto confirms that Ellison submitted the highest bid, but well after the deadline.

End of facts. That's it. That's all we actually know. Anybody who knows how an auction, or a negotiation, or a silent auction works knows that there are deadlines. Whether it's of the "submit your bid by Tuesday, 10AM" or "going once, twice, thrice, sold to the woman in the yellow hat!" variety. If the auctioneer doesn't stick to those predetermined rules, they lose credibility. If they lose credibility, they will not be hired the next time somebody needs to auction off an NBA team. Galioto Sports has a pretty strong incentive to stick to the rules. If Cohan were indeed the devil, he would have screwed over Lacob & Guber to take extra money. He didn't. Sorry Larry, make a better bid next time if you really don't want to be outbid.

Anybody who is actively involved in bidding has the responsibility to submit a bid before the auction closes. It's really rather simple. If you submit a bid late, sorry, it would be unfair to the other bidders who submitted theirs properly and on time. It would be highly unethical for the auctioneer to allow that and would lead to the auctioneer (Galioto) to never be hired again.

Personally, I suspect Ellison was outbid, didn't want to pay $450M for the Warriors, but was afraid to lose face and look like he wasn't the richest most powerful bidder. Thus, when he didn't have the high bid, he submitted a bid after the fact so he could tell Tim Kawakami that he submitted the highest bid and still appear to be the richest most powerful bad dude of all the bidders.

From what I know, the new owners have been season ticket holders for quite some time, which means that they've loved and stood by the Warriors through the DunMurph years. Meanwhile, Ellison came to watch LBJ play once. The new owners have experience in NBA ownership, while Ellison has none. The new owners have decades of experience weighing countless tough acquisition and investment decisions as a partner at one of the most widely respected venture capital firms in the world. Meanwhile, Ellison operated a very successful database company, making smart business decisions, but far fewer acquisition decisions. The new owners have passion, experience, and familiarity with what it takes to be a successful NBA owner that Larry Ellison does not. Furthermore, they're worth a combined 4 billion dollars, twice as much as resident "rich guy" Mark Cuban. There is precious little that Ellison has as an advantage over these two.

The new owners are not God. They are not anybody's savior. They are not going to turn around the Warriors by opening their checkbooks. In the NBA, you can't do that. Turning around the Warriors basketball team will require savvy drafting (e.g. Stephen Curry, Monta Ellis), exploiting smart trade opportunities (e.g. David Lee), and building the roster into something that is worthy of dipping into luxury tax to keep together. If the Warriors are successful on the basketball court, the money will be flowing in fast enough to justify keeping a good thing going by dipping into the luxury tax.

This guy?

via footballnationblogs.com

Or this guy?

via bettorsedge.files.wordpress.com

On one hand, Davis has been single-handedly dismantling the Raiders for the last decade as he slips further and further towards the great pirate ship in the sky through the acquisitions of: Randy Moss, Jamarcus Russell, DHB, et. al.

On the other hand, Nelson has been single-handedly drinking himself into a stupor while playing a fairly large role in the dismal performance of our favorite sports team through a seemingly contradictory combination of stubbornness and apathy, with a heaping portion of ineptitude and bad health thrown in on the side.

Finally there's our dark horse, this guy:

via blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com

His team may not be actively imploding, but Samurai Mike got so excited during his first ever NFL coaching opportunity that he dropped his pants at half time and routinely spouts out random quotes that sound inspirational, but generally don't make that much sense.

But seriously, let's take a look at the numbers, shall we?

Jackson:

2009/10: $7.65 million

2010/11: $8.45 million

2011/12: $9.26 million

2012/13: $10.06 million

2013/14: Free Agent

Law:

2009/10: $2,216,160

2010/11: $2,940,844 (Team Option)

2011/12: $4,026,015 (Restricted Free Agent)

2012/13: Free Agent

I'm under the impression that the Warriors had already declined the team option for 10/11, but this isn't being reported anyways. The BETcats can either keep him for $3M or not, it's their choice.

Radmanovic:

2009/10: $6,466,600

2010/11: $6,833,800 (Player Option)

2011/12: Free Agent

Bell:

2009/10: $5.25 million

2010/11: Free Agent

Bobcats combined contract obligations to Jackson & Law:

2009/10: $9.87 million

2010/11: $8.45 million

2011/12: $9.26 million

2012/13: $10.06 million

2013/14: None

The Bobcats owe these guys a minimum of $37.64 (including $18.32 million over the next two years)

Warriors combined contract obligations to Radmanovic & Bell:

2009/10: $11.72 million

2010/11: $6.83 million (Player Option)

2011/12: None

The Warriors owe these guys $18.12 million over 2 years.

In this trade, the Warriors have actually decreased their financial outlay for the next two years, and saved themselves $19.52 million in cap space over the following two years. This is a HUGE financial coup for the Warriors. It cannot be understated: HUGE.

Talentwise, I don't think anybody should much care. Jax had an absolutely awful contract. He was good, but the money owed him would prevent us from going out and getting additional talent. This year, he may have been worth 3-5 extra wins this season (and likely not even that much) over Radman/Bell. What you should read there is that Jax was not going to be the difference between the lottery and the playoffs. If anybody was going to be that difference, it was Monta, Randolph, and health... So far Monta's been in a funk, Randolph struggles to stay on the floor due to his foul trouble and general overexcitement, and we've already lost 3 of our top 4 big men and our best back up swing man to injury. We were in a "if all the right pieces fell right," and all the pieces look like this:

via ricksmith.me

This season, we can already tell, is going to be a wash. Getting rid of Jax and his contract while taking back two much shorter contracts, is probably one of only about 25-30 victories we could have expected this year, given the circumstances of Monta, Randolph, and the injuries.

Clearly, we're not seeing the same guy. But, why? A few potential reasons:

1. His ankle isn't completely healed

Certainly a possibility, but with a relatively young guy with over a year to heal, and what with the injury not really being something used in basketball that much, I'm inclined to think it's probably not a big problem.

2. He's just rusty

It's been 6 months since he's been back. Sure, not a lot of live NBA action there, but he should be back up to speed. This is not the issue.

3. He's having a bad start

Sure, a definite possibility. Especially given the turmoil so far this season. However, he's also having some problems that have nothing to do with bad luck. He does not seem to be able to beat his man off the dribble last time we saw him at full speed.

4. Is he more the focus of the defensive attention

A possibility, certainly.

5. He bulked up too much.

I think this is definitely having an effect on his game.

Monta circa 07/08:

via lottobound.files.wordpress.com

Monta circa 08/09:

via cdn.picapp.com

Maybe it's just me, but Monta looks like he's been working out... a lot. He looks thicker in the trunk, he's got bigger (yes, tatted too) arms and much bigger shoulders. Is this added weight slowing him down? I say, yes.

The question, regardless of the reason, is: Can Monta adapt to the new body/defensive attention/etc. and get his offensive game and scoring efficiency back to where we'd all like it to be?

Now, I fully expect his jumper to come back within the next dozen games. Once this becomes more of a constant threat, defenses will not be able to key on his right hand, as it won't be his only major weapon. He definitely needs to develop his lefty drive a bit more as well, but that's not easy. It's especially mentally difficult to start using it in a game situation. It's a big confidence hurdle he'll have to pass, but it's one he absolutely needs, if he's going to be slower to the punch with his right.

Allen Iverson was successful because he was one tough cookie and his svetle frame was somehow able to take the punishment of constantly going inside while maintaining his quickness advantage. For all his faults, he was a special talent in that he was often the quickest player on the floor (in part because he never added "bulk") and could beat you going right even if you knew it was exactly where he wanted to go. I feel like this is something Monta had to some extent, but his recently added bulk has negatively impacted.

Overall, I really do like the defensive attitude and aggressiveness I've seen out of him, and he has not looked nearly as completely overpowered as he has in the past. This is a good thing, but the offensive game still needs to be there. I hope it's a learning curve, I hope he can get there, and I hope this is one of those "it gets worse before it gets better" things. However, I'm not remotely certain that this is the case. Sorry for the ramble, but I've been wondering if anybody else has noticed what I'm seeing. If Monta can play effectively with this added bulk, he can be a viable 2 guard beside Curry. The next hurdle would be getting Monta to accept that role...

So, I was thinking about how Jax was kinda like Sideshow Bob from the Simpsons. You know, he was a good, pretty amusing character, but a bit player. Then he got tired of the same old, same old, and became a villain and a menace. Then I got to thinking, Monta as Bart, Cohan as Mr. Burns... it really kinda fits.

Continue reading this post »

In the first half, we saw the usual "Shaun Hill drops back and has to immediately start running for his life" peppered in there with the constant pressure they get on him every play anyways. Yet, in the second half, Smith had no such problems. Why?

Continue reading this post »

This is just ridiculous. Since when does a once bankrupt, parachute pants wearin', been passe for 15 years old school rapper have any influence on contract negotiations between a rookie NFL wide receiver and the team that drafted him? Oh, when Deion "Prime Time" Sanders is involved, that's when. Sheesh.

Jump to find out how the one and only MC Hammer saved Mike Crabtree and the 49ers by helping them to synchronize their watches to Hammertime.

Continue reading this post »

So, I woke up this morning to see Crabtree's fast splattered all over the ESPN front page, as well as other discussions of him in the local media with pro-Crabtree spin. The Elizabeth Merrill article waxes poetically about how dedicated he is, and how he was doing push ups getting ready for the Niners watching a TV movie instead of watching the Texas Tech vs. Texas game and practicing with Trent Dilfer in the Bay Area (i.e. he's superawesome, super-dedicated, and keeping in game shape). Scoop Jackson's article goes on about rationalizing Crabtree's stance (that the Niners would go nowhere without him and should pay him accordingly) but saying that the Niners' success is throwing a monkey wrench in that stance (i.e. He and his agent were hoping they'd have more leverage and now are finding out that they don't). The Bruce Jenkins article talks about how the Niners will need a guy like what Crabtree should be (i.e. WR threat) in the long run (The Niners still need a guy like him, which is why they drafted him and why we fans should still want him on the team).

Three separate articles, with three separate main points: "he's still in football shape," "this is why he held out, but aw shucks, the Niners are good," and "the Niners still need him." Sounds like a pretty well coordinated PR job to me: "Hey, Niners fans! He's still ready to play, he's still the awesome guy you drafted, your team is awesome, but think about how much more awesomeness the Niners could achieve with a super-awesome WR to complement the running game!!! Get excited for Mike Crabtree!!!".

Now, I may be biased (I like Crabtree and hope he signs ASAP), but does anybody else see this as evidence of him getting ready to sign? If I were his PR team and I knew that he was getting close to signing, I'd have people speak to various media sources (both local and national) to get out the idea that he's not such a bad guy and to explain why there was a hold out. Furthermore, if I knew he wasn't going to be getting what he wanted, I'd put out an explanation of why not (i.e. It's not the agents' fault, so if you're looking for an agent, Eugene Parker is still a good option).

Regardless, it'd be incredibly dumb for Crabtree to hold out the entire season. Likewise, it'd be incredibly dumb for the Niners to go above the #9 pick's money, and they're already offering as close to that as possible. So, given that Crabtree's threat is as close to empty as possible and that the Niners have a very strong incentive not to offer him any more money, he's going to sign that contract eventually. At this point, it does the Niners little good to rush to bring him in because he's already so far behind that you can't expect much of any positive on field impact this season, they can wait to sign him as long as he wants. The final nail in the coffin is that the Niners are winning (hopefully that'll continue) and there's no appearance of "something wrong," thus no incentive to rush to "get a deal done."

Crabtree and co. are realizing that they have absolutely zero leverage. He will sign soon. The only thing that happens from here on out is he keeps losing game checks.

Well,

Now that the Finals are freshly 12 hours old, it's already time to start talking free agency for the losing team:

1. Hedo Turkoglu & Marcin Gortat are going to test free agency and get significant raises

2. Orlando has too much tied up in Rashard Lewis ($18M in '09-'10) and others to make a significant efforts to keep the two without dumping salary.

So, Turkoglu & Gortat can be had in free agency, and others like Alston, Nelson (unlikely to be available), Pietrus, Battie, JJ Redick can be had in trade if Orlando is trying to re-sign Turkoglu and/or Gortat.

Who would be a good fit for the Warriors? How can we make something work? Does anybody else still think having Rashard Lewis signed for 4 more years at >$18M/year is even remotely a good thing? If he was at $12-$13M/year they'd be able to keep Turkoglu. Instead, they're going to be relying on... Pietrus as their starting SF and Nelson to run the pick & roll? That's pretty steep, and when you add in the fact that they'll go from the Polish Hammer to... Tony Battie and Adonal Foyle (assming they even re-sign him) as their backup centers, they'll become worse and much thinner. They're not challenging Cleveland without keeing Turkoglu (and neither is Boston without getting KG healthy.

So, how and where can the Warriors step in? Who do we want? I'd say Alston is the easiest target, but he was notorious for being emotional, which will not play well with Nelson.

What Orlando wants:

1. Re-sign Turkoglu

2. Re-sign Gortat

3. Cap space to do 1 and/or 2

4. Replace the talent of Turkoglu and Gortat with cheaper players

What the Warriors want:

1. Acquire Turkoglu

2. Improve on current roster or cap situation

Options (in order of how happy the Warriors would be):

1. Sign Turkoglu

Highly unlikely, not even going to discuss it. The Pistons (and others) have more money to give and are better destinations.

2. Maggette for Turkoglu (S&T)

No way Magic do this unless Turkoglu just about has paperwork in place with another team and they're looking to get something (anything) for it. I wouldn't put it past Otis "Rashard Lewis gets $120M" Smith, but it's a long, long, long shot.

3. Ellis for Turkoglu (S&T)

The Magic would have to clear some cap space to make this happen, and it would only be feasible if Turkoglu really wanted to leave because I'm sure Orlando would be happier to have Turkoglu. So we'd have to offer more money AND Orlando would have to clear cap space... difficult, very difficult.

Maggette & Turiaf for Alston & Gortat (S&T)

Orlando would really only be interested in this if they lost Turkoglu and couldn't find any good FAs to sign at SF. Not really likely, and I'm not even sure the S&T is legal or feasible. We could do two separate trades, though Turiaf's salary is going down while Alston's is going up... might have to throw in some filler.

3. Maggette & Davidson for Alston & Battie

Would allow them to cut $2M, which they could then use on either Turkoglu or Gortat, Maggette would give them some offensive firepower to repace Turkoglu if they were to keep Gortat (certainly the cheaper of the two).

4. Package built around Ellis, Randolph, and Wright for Rashard Lewis

This would be the "big spalsh" Riley would be looking to make for "the best Nellieball mismatch at PF in the NBA," but I'd probably give up on the team.

As noted many, many times, a S&T is very rare and very difficult to pull off. So none of those are really feasible. I could see us making the Maggette & Davidson for Alston & Battie move, but that's a minor move. It would give us something at PG and cut long term cap. This could also be done with JC by himself, but unless Orlando feels like they're over a barrel, they're not going to do anything that ridiculous. Or maybe they will, their GM is still Otis Smith.

Anybody else have any good ideas for how we can work the Orlando situation?

Anybody's who's been watching this series knows what kind of impact Air France is having on LBJ. LBJ is still scoring, but he's having to work a ton harder and Mikey's forcing him into jumpers instead of just getting owned (which is what everybody else in the NBA seems to do). The Orlando Magic have a 3-1 lead in this series in no small part due to Pietrus' efforts on LeBron and he's been scoring well in the series too (13PPG on 8 attempts per game).

I, for one, am not too surprised that he's successful out there. He can simply focus on what he's good at, defense and open shots, knowing that everybody else is doing their job. This is something that he didn't have on the Warriors.

If they make it by the Cavs, and with a 3-1 lead they've got 3 shots left, they've got a very good shot at taking the championship. If they do win the championship, Mike Pietrus (who had been so hated by Warriors fans when he was here) will have earned an NBA championship. His defense against LeBron has been great and he's been very effective on offense.

I can't remember and I didn't see all of his games this offseason, but has he stepped out of bounds yet? Does it matter? For whatever reason, Pietrus was not wanted here. Perhaps too much was expected of him, perhaps he and Nellie didn't get along, perhaps he likes Florida. But he was a great guy who always gave 100% effort, and I'm very happy that he's enjoying some success. He's now a significant contributor to a serious championship contender. That's more than you can say for BD & JRich.

Was his ankle sore or was he visiting his sick mom?

He came back from the injury and was not himself. He was not scoring efficiently and not really doing much of anything good. Then he had a two week hiatus and came back. Nelson said, from the beginning, that he was resting his ankle, and somewhere along the line the FO said he was also visiting his mom. Monta came back at the end to say "No, I was visiting my sick mom, ankle's fine."

I suspect that his ankle was a little sore, but wouldn't have really kept him out of the game. Being a professional athlete, he thinks he's invincible. "What's a little dull pain to me, the super athlete? HAHAHAH, I laugh at dull pain, I'm indestructible!"

Whatever was the catalyst and whatever was the side effect, the rest seems to have done him some good, as he appears to be close to old Monta. Winning and peak performance cure all rifts, and that seems to be where we're headed. As freerandolph has pointed out, the Warriors have a winning record with Monta in the lineup (10-7 right now). Monta has been playing quite well since he's been back, a few more good games and he might get to the 60% plateau again (He's at 56% right now). It's still too early to tell, and he could easily just be on a hot streak against lazy/crappy defenders (BD is known to get lazy, and Steve Nash is a picnic), but he's showing more than flashes, he's put together whole games. So, what's your take?

Personally, I'm of the opinion that he's still awesome, he was just a combination of rusty and not 100% when he came back in Jan. I also think that he had a sore ankle and he wanted to see his mom, so everybody was happy with him going home and taking a rest for a week or two.