Well, it looks like a far more experienced and knowledgable basketball mind than any of us has spoken, and the results are not good. The money quote:
"I think the biggest problem has been I don't know if he has hired enough people around him who he will listen to. I don't think Michael has hired enough people around him who will disagree. I love Michael, but he just has not done a good job. Even though he is one of my great friends, I can't get on here and tell you he's done a great job. He has not done a great job, plain and simple."

Further insights follow about Jordan's decision to draft Adam Morrison.

Some Biyombo updates I had neither seen nor heard, though they're a week or so old:
* When it comes to his NBA agent rights, he has fired his former Spanish agent and signed with Bell Management International, who work out of Maryland. Perhaps they will have an easier time of negotiating the NBA waters.
* His Spanish team now claims to hold his rights through 2014 with a $3 million buyout on the contract. Previously, those numbers were reported to have been 2012 and $1.4 million.
* Biyombo is in a contract dispute with that team and is attempting to get five months of his salary as well as the contract voided. He apparently claims the club didn't pay him on time going as far back as September '010 and also refused to help him get a visa to play in the Nike Hoop Summit. Biyombo's new management has been negotiating with his club in an attempt to reach a settlement as recently as the middle of last week.

In case anybody hoped we could get some veteran influence in our frontcourt from our late-season pickup, it seems that Joel Przybilla will be looking to go back to Milwaukee--the team that drafted him--to finish his career. Regardless, though, he's looking for a "playoff-caliber" team, and he believes the Bucks fit that description. Also interesting is this quote from him about Stephen Jackson, with whom he has been on a team twice already:
"I like Stephen; he's a great teammate. People have given him a bad rap over the years. I've never had a problem with Stephen. I would go to battle with him every night.''

In a post by SBN's Oilers' affiliate, The Copper & Blue, the Hurricanes were rated today as the eighth-best team in the league as determined by Marginal Cap Efficiency. That statistic is calculated using the points earned by the team compared to the team's payroll, showing in an unbiased manner that Maurice and his young 'Canes might not have done so bad at all given the team's financial constraints.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and he might well be delivering us a very early Christmas present. Ryan Miller is sitting tonight due to an undisclosed injury. According to The Buffalo News:

"There is no word on the nature or severity of the injury but it's believed to be an upper-body situation. Miller did take a slapshot from Dion Phaneuf to the collarbone area with 14:48 left in the third period of Tuesday night's 4-3 loss at Toronto. He also took a Brian Rolston slapshot directly on the mask in the first period of Saturday's 2-0 win over New Jersey."

They have a couple of capable backups in Jhonas Enroth and Patrick Lalime, but either is obviously a capable step back from Miller, who is one of the NHL's best when he's on. Any kind of an extended absence from Miller would be a big setback to Buffalo's chances of staying in the playoff picture.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that's none other than Jarvaris Crittenton putting up 26-6-5 on nearly 50% shooting. Sure it's the Chinese Basketball Association, but still. Vaguely impressive, son.

Eric Staal was named one of this week's three stars by the NHL. He came in at #3 behind #1 Matt Duchene and #2 Tomas Fleischmann with his four goals and one assist in three games, fueled by his second hat trick of the season against Anaheim.

I got curious after looking at Infante's stat card the other day when I saw his interesting combination of insane BA and mediocre OPS, so I did a little playing around with baseball-reference.com's Play Index and searched for players in baseball history to have a similar combination. When the numbers are crunched, there have been only 26 players in baseball history to have had a .330+ BA and a sub-800 OPS with at least 200 PAs (Omar's on track for nearly 250), the most recent being Luis Polonia in 1990 for the Yankees and Angels. When the criteria is moved to a .335 BA, it's only ten times in baseball history. At Infante's current .344/.784 pace, he'd be just the second ever to have a BA so high with an OPS so low.

Could this be another potential bargain candidate for the third-line center spot? Ryan Carter has struggled to find a consistent role with a good Ducks team, but he's young, talented, and he'd probably fit right in here. He's also only owed $750K. Beyond that, he's got a big body, and he can play on the wing if we ever needed or wanted him to. So what say you, CC nation? Does Ryan Carter have a home in Carolina?

So it looks like we've got our top-four defenseman! Corvo is actually taking a pay cut from last year, getting $4.5 million over the next two. Good signing for a team that needed depth at the position, and he's still movable with his numbers.

Rutherford gives an update on the search for a defenseman. He still maintains that he would be willing to go into Opening Night with the current defense on our roster and McBain in a top four pairing with Gleason, but also says that acquiring a defenseman will be a big priority to add depth to the position. He says Picard and Rodney are "still in the mix." Joe Corvo, on the other hand, seems to have priced himself out of the Hurricanes budget, even though they'd like to have him back. He also specifically mentioned Sanguinetti as a possibility to go with Harrison in the third pairing, after previously mentioned that spot to go to a player to be determined. More about McBain and the possibility of playing as a top four vs. third pair defenseman:
"He’s clearly a top-4 guy. But we want to do what’s right for his development. That being said, we feel completely comfortable with him paired with Gleason."

Article written about new Hurricane Frederik Andersen during the World Championships.

More praise for Mike Minor, this time coming from Tom Glavine, another "soft tossing" lefty who managed to stick in the bigs and do alright for himself. Frank Wren is also pretty impressed, apparently: "Take away about six pitches all year and he's been nearly perfect. He could come very fast." The article also confirms that he's hitting 94-95 this year on the gun.

So the benchmark has been set. Beason and others (including the media) had talked about Willis as a comparable player when it came to getting an extension done, and it seems that 5 years and $50 million will be the jumping off point.

The Panthers will select at #48, #78, #112, #175, #202, #204, #223, and #249.

The first two picks will come on Friday, day 2 of the draft, while the remaining picks will come Saturday on day three.

I doubt the team really had any interest in him and I didn't think much of him, but if you thought Derek Anderson was a reasonable pickup as a backup or potential competitor to Moore. Instead, he'll battle with Matt Leinart to become the new leader of the Cardinals aerial attack.

Hey TO fans...think he's worth $5 million? That's what he's demanding at minimum. I somehow don't think that's a reasonable deal for an aging, slow receiver with poor hands.