SB Nation User Blog: sam23

AZ Republic calls the Warriors "untrustworthy"

sam23 — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:15:24 -0000

AZ Republic calls the Warriors "untrustworthy"

So the fans/media in Arizona feel that the Suns were "double-crossed" by Nelson/Riley. Speaking of trustworthiness, Tim Kawakami supports this notion so obviously it must be true.

To me, the biggest shock in this story is that The Arizona Republic's editors failed to catch a huge error. Too bad they didn't come to us before letting it go to print.

"Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News, a dependable long-time ~~NBA and Warriors observer~~self promoting rumor whore, wrote in his blog....."

Hollinger on the Draft-Lawson at the top of the class, DeRozan not so much

sam23 — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:22:45 -0000

Hollinger on the Draft-Lawson at the top of the class, DeRozan not so much

Hollinger seems to have had some pretty mixed results projecting PERs over the last 5 years. In addition to supporting the confusion jae has expressed repeatedly about why Flynn and others are projected to go much higher than Lawson, here are some things I found interesting.

-As Hollinger points out, his method has been fairly accurate in pointing out who to AVOID in past drafts (we're looking at you Ike Diogu and P.O'B)
-I feel a little better about Tyreke Evans now....but Evans graded out much higher as a wing than a PG (still a good "fit" next to Monta?)
-Danny Green? Hmm... and 4 Tarheels in the top 20?
-DeRozan is one of the last highly touted prospects I would've expected to come out as the big loser, and I actually thought Harden would also do much better.
-Curry got a better rating as a wing than at PG, but his projected per at PG was still very good.
-Daye at #4? I have a hard time seeing him being a future NBA starter

Thoughts?

OT: How good was Yogi?

sam23 — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:35:08 -0000

I apologize for bringing this here, but the McCoven are some of the best baseball minds I have access to.

So I was up really late/early the other night/morning and got distracted watching the Mike and Mike show while I should've been studying for finals. Its not a show I would normally watch or listen to, but because I'll do anything to procrastinate and there's not much else on besides Girls Gone Wild ads at 3:30 a.m. I got sucked into their discussion about whether the Yankees are the greatest franchise in sports history. Comparing teams or franchises across different sports seems more than a bit ridiculous but what caught my ear was when they said the Yankees had at least 7 or 8 guys who were "locks" as top 50 players of all time. They included Yogi Berra on their list.

Now I'm no baseball historian, but that seemed a bit odd to me. I know Yogi is widely regarded as being among the top handful of catchers of all time, but I never thought of him as being that elite. Again, because I'll do anything to procrastinate, I took a quick glance at some of Yogi's basic stats, confirmed my belief and fired an e-mail off to the show expressing my feelings on the subject. To my surprise, I got an e-mail back the next morning from ESPN's Bob Picozzi (apparently he does morning SC?) stating that Yogi is, indeed, a clear top 50 player of all time. Since then Picozzi and I have been firing back and forth.

His arguments for Berra so far are pretty much just "he's a 3 time MVP," "He was the second best player on a team that won 12 pennants in 14 years from 51-64" and "look at his post-season stats." I'm convinced that Yogi deserved the '55 and '56 MVPs less than Jeff Kent deserved the award in 2000. I'm not arguing that he wasn't great, and not even that he ISN'T among the top 50 of all time, simply that if he is, he's at the very, very bottom of that 50 and not a "shoe-in" or "lock." But, I'm really drawing all my judgements from baseballreference.com so I figured I'd hit up some people who know a whole lot more about baseball than me....what say you McCoven? Am I way off and not giving Yogi nearly enough credit, or is he really just another like-able guy slightly overrated by some east coast bias?

Poll

Was Yogi Berra one of the top 50 players of all time?

Yes, definitely

9 votes

No, absolutely not

19 votes

meh, he's borderline

17 votes

who cares? get back to studying, thats gotta be more entertaining than a meaningless debate over just how good some old Yankee was.

10 votes

55 votes | Poll has closed

Nick Montana headed to Washington

sam23 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:57:32 -0000

Nick Montana headed to Washington

Hill/Smith/Davis as a stopgap til the next Montana era?

Semi OT: Raptors send Kapono to Sixers for Evans

sam23 — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:32:20 -0000

Semi OT: Raptors send Kapono to Sixers for Evans

seems like a relatively minor deal that makes sense for both teams. It does make Toronto even shorter on wing players meaning they could have even more interest in the likes of Belinelli, Maggette, Jackson, and Buike.

OT: One armed Bay Area kid gets hoops scholarship

sam23 — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:28:12 -0000

OT: One armed Bay Area kid gets hoops scholarship

Cool story. That reporter might be the worst basketball player I've ever seen.

NFL rookies (including Crabtree, Coffee, and Davis) reveal endzone celebrations

sam23 — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:19:55 -0000

NFL rookies (including Crabtree, Coffee, and Davis) reveal endzone celebrations

GSoM Group Project: Making the case for ________ at pick #7

sam23 — Sat, 23 May 2009 10:30:16 -0000

ejdacanny has done a great job with his NBA Draft super-threads providing a lot of information on every potential pick and I think he said we should expect super-thread #3, the first since the lottery, in a few days. However, I was thinking maybe a big group of the regulars (sleepy, DFiB, O.M, onlxn, jae-do you still count as a "regular" now that you're a mod?, cap'n, etc) could each focus on one prospect, do some research, and then in a series of separate threads over the next couple weeks, present the case for that guy as the pick at #7 to the rest of GSoM. Right now it looks like we'll need scouting reports on:

Jrue Holiday

James Harden

Stephen Curry

Ty Lawson

Jordan Hill

DeMar DeRozan

Tyreke Evans

Brandon Jennings

Earl Clark

Jonny Flynn

Terrence Williams

Jeff Teague

Eric Maynor

James Johnson

Wayne Ellington

Obviously some of those are a whole lot more likely picks at 7 than others, but I can't really imagine anyone not on that list being the pick. If I left off someone you feel warrants discussion, let me know. (I can't imagine any scenario where Griffin, Rubio or Thabeet fall down to 7 or we reach for a guy like Blair, Hansbrough or Budinger and this "series" will ignore the possibility of a trade up or down )

So thats 15 guys, we need 15 people willing to join in. If you want to join in please post a list of the top 3-5 guys you'd like to "scout." While reading scouting reports on your guy will obviously be a big part of your presentation, ideally each of you will do a little more than just re-phrase what Chad Ford, Ian Thomsen or NBA Draft.net say about your player. I'm guessing there will be more than 14 people eager to join in this project, and I don't mean to exclude anyone but I would like to give priority to some of the regulars who I know will present thorough and well thought out cases for their guys. Please don't take offense if you volunteer and aren't assigned someone. Also, if you feel someone could offer a particularly strong scouting report rec their list of 3-5.

Clips announce they will take Griffin

sam23 — Thu, 21 May 2009 06:31:02 -0000

Clips announce they will take Griffin

Now we can stop all the talk about the Clippers passing over him just so they can send Baron back up to us.

Leon Powe?

sam23 — Mon, 18 May 2009 00:14:21 -0000

Powe is an unresticted FA at the end of this year. He recently had microfracture surgery on his left knee and from most reports the tentative timetable for his return is the middle of next year. With the emergence of "Big Baby" Davis and Kendrick Perkins this offseason it seems doubtful Boston will make re-signing Powe a priority. Already a fan favorite around here from his Cal days/role in beating the Lakers las year, it seems that bringing Powe back to the Bay Area would be an incredibly popular move. My guess is we'd have to overpay slightly to outbid the Celtics, but considering his injury status he certainly isn't going to be out of our price range this summer. Yahoo! sports has suggested it may be difficult of Powe to even find a contract until he comes back. While he come with more than his share of injury concerns, he's proven he can bounce back from serious injuries and still be an effective player. I think he could provide a nice "change of pace" forward off the bench behind Randolph. Most importantly, acquiring a guy like Powe would make Wright a whole lot easier to trade this offseason.