The San Antonio Spurs have quietly moved themselves into a position to make a run at a fifth championship next year. I am someone who enjoys watching a great individual player like MJ or Kobe, but I also enjoy watching a great team. With the addition of Richard Jefferson the Spurs have added another viable scoring threat to a team lacking individual star power.
With the age and mileage that have plagued Duncan and Ginobili the past two years I believe Jefferson can give them the boost they need to take one last shot at a championship. The window of opportunity is closing for the Spurs to add to their legacy and instead of wasting time trying to rebuild they are adding talent on the fly. With the Big 3, Roger Mason, and Richard Jefferson the Spurs now have five legitimate scoring threats on their team. They were able to unload three older players which should help them when they get to the playoffs next year. They had no energy against Dallas this season, but with Parker, Mason, and Jefferson they can keep a lot of the workload off of Duncan and Ginobili.
The thing that makes the most sense about this trade is that Jefferson is a player that is used to playing in a team first system. In New Jersey he played alongside Jason Kidd and Vince Carter, clearly he was not the top option game in and out. He will fit in perfectly with the Spurs. Some games he will take over and lead the game in scoring, and other games he will take a more secondary role. I'm not ready to say that this trade gives the Spurs the championship just yet. However, if they can keep their key players healthy there will be no team better prepared or more experienced going into the post-season.
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The Denver Broncos are an absolute mess! The only reasons they had a chance to make the playoffs last year were Ed Hochuli and their explosive offense. Sure, Cutler would make some questionable plays, but Brett Favre was doing in his 18th season. They had zero defense last year, and the kicker this year is that they still have an unproven defense and seem to be in the process of trading offenses with Chicago.
The only reason the Chicago Bears have ever been successful has been due to their defense. Thanks to poor management decisions on the part of Denver it seems that they will be able to piece together a top ten offense. If the Bears have any opportunity to add Broncos wideout Brandon Marshall they must jump at the chance. They past up Anquan Boldin during the draft when they probably could have gotten him for a 2nd or a 3rd and 4th round pick. They have invested heavily in Jay Cutler already, and unless the want him to look like Kyle Orton they need to add one more weapon.
Certainly Marshall has his issues, but he has respect for Cutler and Lovie Smith has experience dealing with trouble makers. The Bears have Greg Olsen and Matt Forte as options for Cutler. Adding a true number one receiver would allow Devin Hester to go back to returning kicks full time and probably put the Bears on top of a weak NFC.
Denver, meanwhile, is looking like a team lacking direction. They fired a Hall of Fame coach, which I don't disagree with. The problem comes in hiring a young assistant to take his place. There are not many Belichick disciples who have turned into a solid head coach and the beginning of Josh McDaniels tenure does not look promising.
The Broncos had defensive problems last year, so what does Pat Bowlen do? He hires an offensive coach who alienates his franchise qb which triggers his top receiver to seek a trade. You're kidding yourself if you think Marshall is trying to leave for any other reason. Without Cutler he is scared that his numbers will decline and ruin his chances at a big time contract when he becomes a free agent. The ultimate example of this dysfunction came when Bowlen said that the Broncos would try to honor Marshall's trade request and McDaniels made a statement to the contrary. I feel bad for Broncos fans. They have been floating aimlessly since Elway retired and the glimmer of hope they had in Cutler to Marshall is now completely extinguished.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
NFL Storylines
A lot has happened in the past week. We have had the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals wrap up in that time span. To be honest, I don't really feel like writing about those things since you can probably get an idea of my opinion from last week's entry.
Football is king in this country. The fact that I could write a viable entry about it in the middle of the summer is a testament to the pull it has. There has been a lot of activity in the NFL this offseason with trades and free agent signings. No story has been bigger than the possible return of Brett Favre. Take a sigh of relief. I am just as sick of his flip-flopping as anyone else. I won't be going down that well-traveled road. Instead I want to take a look at a lower profile storyline that began in the first week of the NFL season last year.
When Tom Brady went down against the Chiefs last year I was esctatic as a Colts fan. I don't mean that as disrespect, if anything it shows how much I respect his abilities. The thing that scares me is the mindset that this will give the Pats coming into this season.
Two years ago the Patriots were caught cheating and they somehow used that to their advantage. People were questioning the legitimacy of their Super Bowl titles and wondering how great the players really were. Bill Belichick, God love him, used that to foster an "us against the world" mentality in his team. They set out on a mission to show the rest of us what they could accomplish if they really tried. The result was the most spectacular display you could request for a Pats fans and a miserable season for any critic. Fortunately, by the grace of the football gods, the villains were vanquished in Super Bowl XLII.
That brings us to last season. Brady goes down and the Patriots are left with a kid who hadn't started since highschool. Once again, Belichick used adverse circumstances to rally his team to an impressive 11 win season. If it weren't for NFL tie-breaking technicalities they would have had a chance to do more post-season damage. I like to think that this season was just putting the inevitable on hold.
As we head into the 2009 season the Patriots have unfinished business to handle. If Brady had not gone down, the Patriots would have been more dangerous than ever in 2008. I believe that the team will come into this year thinking of trying to avenge the biggest choke job since the Colts in Super Bowl III. After last season there was speculation that the Patriots might sit Brady in favor of a younger and more mobile Matt Cassell. That type of talk is what this organization and it's members thrive on.
I don't believe I have seen any team utilize the cliched bulletin board material more effectively than the Patriots. Keep in mind, I'm not saying the Patriots will go undefeated again and actually finish this time. However, Tom Brady is the leader of this team and his age and ability to rebound from knee surgery has caused people to question whether or not he can maintain his elite status. He is just as effective of a leader as his coach, and if Belichick doesn't use this injury to motivate his team then Brady surely will. He would probably never let you know that these things motivate him and certainly would never put that burden on his teammates, but I see him coming into this season working harder than ever win a fourth title.
The media seems to be enamored with stories about high drama players this offseason. We have non-stop Favre (which we'll have to suffer until the day he dies), wide receivers whining and demanding trades, and Vince Young trying to regain his starting position. Quietly, the Patriots have built a faster, younger defense and are just as deadly and motivated on offense as they ever have been. Watch out as we move into this season. I hope the rest of the NFL isn't caught with their pants down like they were in 2007.
Football is king in this country. The fact that I could write a viable entry about it in the middle of the summer is a testament to the pull it has. There has been a lot of activity in the NFL this offseason with trades and free agent signings. No story has been bigger than the possible return of Brett Favre. Take a sigh of relief. I am just as sick of his flip-flopping as anyone else. I won't be going down that well-traveled road. Instead I want to take a look at a lower profile storyline that began in the first week of the NFL season last year.
When Tom Brady went down against the Chiefs last year I was esctatic as a Colts fan. I don't mean that as disrespect, if anything it shows how much I respect his abilities. The thing that scares me is the mindset that this will give the Pats coming into this season.
Two years ago the Patriots were caught cheating and they somehow used that to their advantage. People were questioning the legitimacy of their Super Bowl titles and wondering how great the players really were. Bill Belichick, God love him, used that to foster an "us against the world" mentality in his team. They set out on a mission to show the rest of us what they could accomplish if they really tried. The result was the most spectacular display you could request for a Pats fans and a miserable season for any critic. Fortunately, by the grace of the football gods, the villains were vanquished in Super Bowl XLII.
That brings us to last season. Brady goes down and the Patriots are left with a kid who hadn't started since highschool. Once again, Belichick used adverse circumstances to rally his team to an impressive 11 win season. If it weren't for NFL tie-breaking technicalities they would have had a chance to do more post-season damage. I like to think that this season was just putting the inevitable on hold.
As we head into the 2009 season the Patriots have unfinished business to handle. If Brady had not gone down, the Patriots would have been more dangerous than ever in 2008. I believe that the team will come into this year thinking of trying to avenge the biggest choke job since the Colts in Super Bowl III. After last season there was speculation that the Patriots might sit Brady in favor of a younger and more mobile Matt Cassell. That type of talk is what this organization and it's members thrive on.
I don't believe I have seen any team utilize the cliched bulletin board material more effectively than the Patriots. Keep in mind, I'm not saying the Patriots will go undefeated again and actually finish this time. However, Tom Brady is the leader of this team and his age and ability to rebound from knee surgery has caused people to question whether or not he can maintain his elite status. He is just as effective of a leader as his coach, and if Belichick doesn't use this injury to motivate his team then Brady surely will. He would probably never let you know that these things motivate him and certainly would never put that burden on his teammates, but I see him coming into this season working harder than ever win a fourth title.
The media seems to be enamored with stories about high drama players this offseason. We have non-stop Favre (which we'll have to suffer until the day he dies), wide receivers whining and demanding trades, and Vince Young trying to regain his starting position. Quietly, the Patriots have built a faster, younger defense and are just as deadly and motivated on offense as they ever have been. Watch out as we move into this season. I hope the rest of the NFL isn't caught with their pants down like they were in 2007.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Introduction
To start this blog off on the right foot I think it would be best to introduce myself and the ideas behind this blog.
My name is Nathan Brown and there is only one thing to know about me. I am passionate about very little. It hasn't always been this way, but as I have gotten older (not that I'm old) I seem to care about less and less. It must be the cynical old man that lives in me.
As far as this blog goes, it will be my weekly "take" on what has happened in the world of sports, one of my few passions. I will try to keep this as regular as possible, but if there are any big happenings such as Brett Favre decides to stay retired, (yeah right), I will probably post my opinion about that. This blog will mostly cover the "Big Four" sports in America. Also, I have never claimed to be a writer, speech would be more my medium, but I will keep this as entertaining as possible.
I have picked possibly the worst time of the year to start a sports blog. Right now we have two of the major four North American sports about to finish their finals in the next week or two and then we move on to the sports vacuum that is the summer.
However, as long as Manny Ramirez keeps talking we will have an entertaining summer.
"I didn't kill nobody, I didn't rape nobody, so that's it. I'm just going to come and play the game."
Manny was suspended for fifty games last month for violating Major League Baseball's substance abuse policy. He says nothing to the press for over a month and then comes up with that quote as his defense. Manny has always tried to portray himself as a bumbling fool who happens to be a great hitter, almost as if he were the Columbo of the MLB. With a quote like that it doesn't seem that this image will be changing anytime soon.
When you get caught taking a female fertility drug I don't really think comparing it to rape or murder is the right play in today's media environment. It's almost as if he's really expecting us all to give him credit for not committing either of those heinous crimes, pat him on the back, and send him back on the field after he serves his suspension.
Memo to Manny: I will never give you credit for not murdering or raping someone. The overwhelming majority of the American public have never murdered or raped and yet we still have to adhere to the drug policies at our respective places of employment. If I was working for Taco Bell and I failed a drug test they would not be lenient on me just because I didn't kill anybody. You have to wonder what it is like in the mind of a multi-millionaire celebrity.
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Last night, the best closer in the NBA couldn't close the game. Kobe scored 31 points last night. At first, you would think that he had done everything he could to win based off of that stat. It is a solid scoring night for anybody, especially in the finals. The problem came down to one thing in my mind, free throw shooting. To be sure, Kobe wasn't hitting his shot as well in the second half as he did in the first, but he missed 5 free throws for the game including one in the clutch. The impressive thing about the Lakers is even though Kobe was off in the second half they only lost by four.
Orlando shot an NBA finals record 62.5% from the field and barely won. That has to be disheartening for such a young and inexperienced team. They rebounded well from the crushing Game 2 overtime loss, but how much can they take? If Kobe had finished the game the way he started it Orlando would have lost. My prediction for the remainder of the series is profound: Lakers in six. I know I'm not going out on a limb with that, but that is the feeling I'm getting from the series.
There are only two things I believe that could stop my prediction from becoming reality:
Dwight Howard straps the team to his back just like he did against Boston and Cleveland.
or
The Lakers get complacent and melt down like they have repeatedly throughout the playoffs.
The main thing is that the Lakers offensive philosophy is more consistent than chucking up 30 three point shots in a game and hoping you hit 10. It is amazing that Orlando has made it this far with that game plan. Kobe will lead the Lakers to the championship, earn his fourth ring, and cement his legacy as being the only player in Jordan's league. The next five years will tell us if he can possibly surpass Jordan as the greatest of all time.
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Here's a fun fact: the Stanley Cup Finals are going to a seventh game. Be honest with yourself in response to the next question. Did you actually realize the Stanley Cup Finals were happening? My guess is unless you live in Detroit or Pittsburgh you probably didn't know. Heck, the only reason I even care is because it involves two sports cities I love to hate. I'm a Pacers fan and a Colts fan. My teams have repeatedly had their hearts ripped out by teams from those two cities and we even started a brawl in Detroit.
With everything in the previous paragraph being said...GO PENS! You might think I'm sucking up to my in-laws (they're from the Burgh), but really I just hate Detroit teams a little more than Pittsburgh. It's odd since I have lived in Detroit before and still have family there. My mind is telling me that the Penguins will get massacred on Friday, but my heart is pulling for them.
I have a couple of legitimate sports fan reasons for wanting to see this outcome. These two teams were in the finals last year with Detroit winning. I really just want to see something different happen as a casual NHL fan. My next reason has larger implications for the future of the NHL.
Sidney Crosby is one the best young players in the NHL and already has a fierce rivalry with Alex Ovechkin of the Capitols. Overall, I would say Ovechkin is by far the better player. This is why I want the Penguins to win. Crosby has made it to the finals two years in a row and knocked out the Caps on the way there this year. Winning the Cup before Ovechkin would certainly fuel the rivalry and help bring it to a new level. Since the lockout, hockey has lacked an identity and true stars to market.
Crosby winning a ring would help the NHL capitalize on individual star power similar to the way the NBA has done. When you think of the NBA what comes to mind? Kobe, Lebron, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony? The NBA promotes the individual over the team and has done so since Michael Jordan. This sort of marketing pushes merchandise sales and hypes match-ups like the prized Kobe v. Lebron. Friday night the Penguins will be competing for more than an old beat up piece of tin, they will likely be competing for the future of the NHL.
My name is Nathan Brown and there is only one thing to know about me. I am passionate about very little. It hasn't always been this way, but as I have gotten older (not that I'm old) I seem to care about less and less. It must be the cynical old man that lives in me.
As far as this blog goes, it will be my weekly "take" on what has happened in the world of sports, one of my few passions. I will try to keep this as regular as possible, but if there are any big happenings such as Brett Favre decides to stay retired, (yeah right), I will probably post my opinion about that. This blog will mostly cover the "Big Four" sports in America. Also, I have never claimed to be a writer, speech would be more my medium, but I will keep this as entertaining as possible.
I have picked possibly the worst time of the year to start a sports blog. Right now we have two of the major four North American sports about to finish their finals in the next week or two and then we move on to the sports vacuum that is the summer.
However, as long as Manny Ramirez keeps talking we will have an entertaining summer.
"I didn't kill nobody, I didn't rape nobody, so that's it. I'm just going to come and play the game."
Manny was suspended for fifty games last month for violating Major League Baseball's substance abuse policy. He says nothing to the press for over a month and then comes up with that quote as his defense. Manny has always tried to portray himself as a bumbling fool who happens to be a great hitter, almost as if he were the Columbo of the MLB. With a quote like that it doesn't seem that this image will be changing anytime soon.
When you get caught taking a female fertility drug I don't really think comparing it to rape or murder is the right play in today's media environment. It's almost as if he's really expecting us all to give him credit for not committing either of those heinous crimes, pat him on the back, and send him back on the field after he serves his suspension.
Memo to Manny: I will never give you credit for not murdering or raping someone. The overwhelming majority of the American public have never murdered or raped and yet we still have to adhere to the drug policies at our respective places of employment. If I was working for Taco Bell and I failed a drug test they would not be lenient on me just because I didn't kill anybody. You have to wonder what it is like in the mind of a multi-millionaire celebrity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last night, the best closer in the NBA couldn't close the game. Kobe scored 31 points last night. At first, you would think that he had done everything he could to win based off of that stat. It is a solid scoring night for anybody, especially in the finals. The problem came down to one thing in my mind, free throw shooting. To be sure, Kobe wasn't hitting his shot as well in the second half as he did in the first, but he missed 5 free throws for the game including one in the clutch. The impressive thing about the Lakers is even though Kobe was off in the second half they only lost by four.
Orlando shot an NBA finals record 62.5% from the field and barely won. That has to be disheartening for such a young and inexperienced team. They rebounded well from the crushing Game 2 overtime loss, but how much can they take? If Kobe had finished the game the way he started it Orlando would have lost. My prediction for the remainder of the series is profound: Lakers in six. I know I'm not going out on a limb with that, but that is the feeling I'm getting from the series.
There are only two things I believe that could stop my prediction from becoming reality:
Dwight Howard straps the team to his back just like he did against Boston and Cleveland.
or
The Lakers get complacent and melt down like they have repeatedly throughout the playoffs.
The main thing is that the Lakers offensive philosophy is more consistent than chucking up 30 three point shots in a game and hoping you hit 10. It is amazing that Orlando has made it this far with that game plan. Kobe will lead the Lakers to the championship, earn his fourth ring, and cement his legacy as being the only player in Jordan's league. The next five years will tell us if he can possibly surpass Jordan as the greatest of all time.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's a fun fact: the Stanley Cup Finals are going to a seventh game. Be honest with yourself in response to the next question. Did you actually realize the Stanley Cup Finals were happening? My guess is unless you live in Detroit or Pittsburgh you probably didn't know. Heck, the only reason I even care is because it involves two sports cities I love to hate. I'm a Pacers fan and a Colts fan. My teams have repeatedly had their hearts ripped out by teams from those two cities and we even started a brawl in Detroit.
With everything in the previous paragraph being said...GO PENS! You might think I'm sucking up to my in-laws (they're from the Burgh), but really I just hate Detroit teams a little more than Pittsburgh. It's odd since I have lived in Detroit before and still have family there. My mind is telling me that the Penguins will get massacred on Friday, but my heart is pulling for them.
I have a couple of legitimate sports fan reasons for wanting to see this outcome. These two teams were in the finals last year with Detroit winning. I really just want to see something different happen as a casual NHL fan. My next reason has larger implications for the future of the NHL.
Sidney Crosby is one the best young players in the NHL and already has a fierce rivalry with Alex Ovechkin of the Capitols. Overall, I would say Ovechkin is by far the better player. This is why I want the Penguins to win. Crosby has made it to the finals two years in a row and knocked out the Caps on the way there this year. Winning the Cup before Ovechkin would certainly fuel the rivalry and help bring it to a new level. Since the lockout, hockey has lacked an identity and true stars to market.
Crosby winning a ring would help the NHL capitalize on individual star power similar to the way the NBA has done. When you think of the NBA what comes to mind? Kobe, Lebron, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony? The NBA promotes the individual over the team and has done so since Michael Jordan. This sort of marketing pushes merchandise sales and hypes match-ups like the prized Kobe v. Lebron. Friday night the Penguins will be competing for more than an old beat up piece of tin, they will likely be competing for the future of the NHL.
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