Reasons to be Excited About The Lions

Reason #3.5

Not really the BIG reason I mentioned earlier, but yet another good sign.

Martin Mayhew, GM, 43

The Bush parallel continues. Like with POTUS, the incompetent leader who should have never been hired (you want a guy whose previous career involved multiple daily blows to the head to be your organizational braintrust? who gets hit in the head more times than linebackers? note to everyone - NO FORMER linebackers as GMs!) and stayed on more than twice as long as he should have after demonstrating nothing but fail, is replaced by a young telegenic black man who, while relatively unproven has, prestigious law degree (Georgetown for Mayhew) and a reputation as being a shrewd and intelligent decision maker...

Now I've actually heard some good and some bad things about Mayhew but his first couple moves have seemed very savvy. Especially getting four draft picks including a 1st rounder for Roy Williams.

The biggest and best reason remains. Stay tuned...

Reasons To Be Excited About The Lions

1. Matt Millen is gone.

The biggest step, but also the most basic. Akin to getting Bush out. Things are effed, now someone has to fix them.

2. Calvin Johnson.

Dude is a pimp, super young, and probably the best WR to have not named Larry Fitzgerald. A great cornerstone to build around.



3. Draft Picks.

The lions have a high number of picks to acquire talent with and build a solid foundation. The have #1 overall pick. Obviously its no guarantee but its a good asset.

and last and probably the biggest reason to get excited is #4....

coming soon

State of Lankownia - Sports Department

There are few things to be excited about in Lank's sports world. The sports he follows most passionately have his teams working on rebuilding (UofM football and basketball). His pro sports teams are even worse off - in various states of decline:

Detroit Tigers: cutting costs, losing and misplacing talent, looking for improved performance from within – basically crossing their fingers and hoping their pitching is better than they think. Unlikely. They’re moving a tiny utility player who can’t hit 230 and loves to strikeout to their starting 3rd base position. That about says it all.

Detroit Pistons: attempting to rebuild without missing the playoffs. Which may be wise in the long run but isn’t remotely satisfying for a fanbase spoiled by many years of title contention. The fanbase is revolting and wants AI gone. What ever happened to the go-to-work gang? Out with Ben Wallace’s fro?

…

So what is Lank to do? He could follow a 2nd team he likes (The Blazers) and well, check, but he knows that will never be as satisfying as rooting for one of the teams he developed attachments with as a child. Which brings two teams to mind – the Detroit Red Wings (which technically play, hockey, which Lank just flat doesn’t want to follow for various reasons) and ….

Ladies and gentlemen, sister franchise to the LA Clippers, KC Royals, and any miserably misrun franchise you can name… the Detroit Lions.

So how are those Lions doing? Oh, 0-16 you say? Worst season ever you say? Worst GM ever?

Interesting, sounds like something Lank can get excited about….

Now, Lank knows the NFL doesn’t get discussed here very often and for good reason. It’s overhyped, garishly packaged, and on every logical basis Lank can think of, the worst possible sport to follow. Technically you watch 4 hours of television to see less than 10 minutes of actual play. That makes baseball sound action-packed….

And yet, somehow he has trouble resisting….

For about the last decade Lank had given up on the Lions. Since Barry Sanders quit on the team there has been almost ZERO hope for this franchise. If it wasn’t for fantasy football he might have not kept up at all. There was hope in some circles when Harrington was drafted but Lank always though that was a mistake. The few glimmers of hope were always weak. But finally, at long last Lank sees something to get truly, fully, and unequivocally excited about in this cursed franchise…

Details soon.

A Test

Since there has been a striking lack of posts recently I will perform the following test. Unless stated otherwise in the comments the following is true about the following people:

Jay Gee Whiz has gone senile and is lost in his own backyard.

Space Zombie has a severe case of the burns when he makes water.

A Joker likes to pretend he is a kitten and licks himself all over.

The Adviser is incontinent.

Lankownia has body odor that smells strangely of prunes.

jeremy secretly thinks that Pearl Jam writes songs about him.

Ptredactually is a devote follower of free love and feels that if we would make love and not war all of our problems would be solved.

This concludes the test. This was only a test. If this had been an actual blog post I would have at least photoshoped some pics or made up some random data.

His Best Work

I'm a sucker for sappy emotional crap, and if you are too you might just enjoy what I think might be the Sports Guy's magnum opus:

One Final Toss for the Dooze

Enjoy.

Look at Me!

I can score 24 points on Dan Gadzuric! Aren't I special.

Maybe now I'll quit moping all over the place.

The Answer

to who the Blazers future PG is? Just might be Jarryd Bayless.

Which means I have to learn how to spell his name, unfortunately.

Truehoop:

He has been splendid in his choppy and limited minutes, but he has come up terribly in all the statistics because his touch has been missing entirely. Layups, long balls ... the whole deal. You can visibly see that he is amped up. But we know he can shoot. He more than proved that in college. One of these days he'll start knocking down 3s again, and then watch out. Jason Quick of the Oregonian quotes Brandon Roy: "'He's strong, strong as hell,' Roy said. 'Just play against him and you'll see why he gets there. Tell him to drive on you one time. He puts that body on you ... I mean, I was falling back (going) 'Whoooooa!'' After that happened a couple times in Blazers practices, it struck a chord with Roy. This was not common, he thought. It got him thinking which other players in the NBA posed the same problem when he was guarding them. 'It's the Dwyane Wades that give you that type of problem,' Roy said. 'You look at the young players, it's Rodney Stuckey. Those dudes that get low and power to the basket, those are the toughest to guard. And he has that.'"

While not a true point, he could be the perfect compliment to B-Roy. Already considered the best Blazer PG at D, he also has an effective penetration game. The shooting and dishing shouldn't be too far behind.

I'm officially a little excited.

AT every position on the court, the Blazers have a youthful prospect who can reasonably develop into an above average starter (if they haven't already): Bayless/Roy/Batum/Aldridge/Oden.

This D-Miles thing might be a blessing in disguise. Without that cap space they can just keep the young core together and not piss money away on someone like David Lee.

Better Bigs

No one knows what the future holds and it is foolish to take rookie performance and assume it will translate across entire careers. Some players come in with more polished skills and physically ready than others. BUT, generally, its an OK indicator of future performance. To be taken with a grain of salt, obviously. But it merits discussion...

I'm not going to rehash the Oden/Durant debate because we've done that to death and frankly, failing to acknowledge Durant's superiority at this point is just plain stubborn. The strongest argument against taking Durant was that big men are much harder to find and therefore you HAVE to take the potentially elite center. Its a point I don't disagree with.

Consider NBA champions in our lifetime have almost always included elite hall-of-fame bigs - Duncan, Shaq, Garnett, Kareem, McHale. Only the Piston's balanced teams have been the exception, and of course, Michael Jordan (who was so good in his prime he could win with practically any supporting cast, like Lebron, maybe, probably). The issue is that Oden isn't a potentially elite center, based on his performance, no matter how much scouts drool.

I'm going to focus the discussion on big men (rookies and sophomores) the Blazers could have had (via trade or draft) who would be superior to Oden. I'm not even going to bring up the mental or physical concerns about Oden or the others. We're just going to talk about on-court performance. And we're just going to talk about Centers.

GREG ODEN
8 ppg 7 rpg 1 bpg. 16.3 PER
This is obviously a disappointment given all his hype coming in, but excuse makers will point to his playing time 23 mpg and fouls 3.8 pg (as if that wasn't his fault.) The PER takes that into account.

Now here is a list of players who have outperformed that, and generally looked better while doing it.

MARC GASOL
11 ppg 7 rpg 1 bpg. 15.7 PER
In 7 more minutes per game Gasol is superior numbers. Nearly equivalent on a minutes per game basis. It looks like the Grizzlies made out just fine in the Marc for Pau deal. Gasol would be superior to Oden if for no other reason than he is paid less.

BROOK LOPEZ
11ppg 8 rpg 2 bpg. 15.6 PER
In 30 mpg Lopez has outproduced Oden in every statistical category. Gifted offensively, he's shown he can play some D as well. 5th in the NBA in blocked shots.

KOSTO KOUFOS
5ppg 3.5 rpg 1bpg. 15.3 PER
This in 13 mpg - about half of Oden. Double it and you get better numbers than Oden.

ROY HIBBERT
6ppg e rpg 1bpg. 16.2 PER
13mpg but now starting. Are you sensing a theme here? Oden is just another big man. Nothing special. He's not even 7 feet tall like Hibbert (7-2).

MARRESSE SPEIGHTS
8ppg 4 rpg 1bpg. 20.7 PER
Not sure if he is a true center but he is 6'10 and thick. Those numbers are in 15mpg. Still raw defensively but very impressive. Numbers may be a little inflated from playing more garbage time minutes than the starters on this list.

AL HORFORD
11ppg 9 rpg 1.5bpg. 16.4 PER
I'm breaking my rule to include Horford, who really should be playing PF, but is currently a center. Like Oden he has no real post game, but has shown he is more effective, more of a leader, more competitive and bigger winner (but we saw this in college, so no surprise.)

SPENCER HAWES
11ppg 7rpg 1.5bpg. 13.1 PER
A great outside shot(range to 3 where he shoots an excellent 36%) and shotblocking presence ensures he'll have a long career in the NBA. Oh, and he is the same age as Oden, and didn't spend a year playing Wi instead of going to work.

All these guys look just as good as Oden, if not better. Yet the Blazers are devoting a ton of money and attention on him. They wasted the #1 pick on him when they could have had so much for it. Ask yourself if you'd rather have Devin Harris and Brook Lopez than Greg Oden right now? The Nets would have done it, but now that we see what Oden is, we know just how mediocre and overrated he is. Wouldn't Al Horford be a perfect fit for the character of this team? Etc. Oden is, at best, a pedestrian big man. Which is fine, but not what you want with the #1 pick in a draft that includes Kevin Durant.

Its time to acknowledge it blazer fans - Oden was a mistake.

Clyde the Glide on ESPN

In case you missed it (as I did), Clyde Drexler was chatting on ESPN today. While he did whore himself out to Alltell, there were some great bits as well.

My favorite:

Kevin, Portland, OR: If Arvydas Sabonis had come over immediately after he was drafted in 1986, do you think you would have won a title with the Blazers?

Clyde Drexler: We would have had four, five or six titles. Guaranteed. He was that good. He could pass, shoot three pointers, had a great post game, and dominated the paint. And he would have been younger. He was very effective in the NBA as an older player who had suffered an ankle injury.

And my second favorite:

Lace Lewis: Other than MJ...who gave you the most problems as far as competing on the court offensively?

Clyde Drexler: MJ was tough, but he did not give me the most problems. Rolando Blackman gave me the the most trouble. He had a great jab step, he could penetrate and shoot, and against me he never seemed to miss no matter how good my defense was. When he missed, I was shocked.

Clyde Drexler: What made MJ so hard to guard was he got up 35 shots.

Clyde Drexler: If he only got 16 shots he would not have been so hard to guard.

Christiano Ronaldo

Effeminate and purse clutching as he may be, Christiano Ronaldo has become the first EPL player to win FIFA player of the year.

What now, Space Zombie?

NBA Shaq of the Week:

...Shaq!

The Big Aristotle stepped it up last week with averages of 20 and 10 over four games. He also got tough on the defensive end with 2.3 blocks and only 3 fouls a game over the same stretch. But most impressive of all was Shaq's 25 for 30 from the charity stripe--including back-to-back perfect games. Oh yeah--the Suns were also 4-0 with Shaq on the floor and 0-1 without the big fella'. What up now, suckas?

Department of Duh

This article talks about how the Blazers are now adjusting their schedules when they travel into eastern time zones in order to maintain their sleep patterns and therefore maximize their rest.

The team was encouraged to stay on its Portland time clock, meaning if players normally went to bed at 1 a.m. in Portland, they should try going to bed at 4 a.m. Orlando time. By eliminating the morning shootaround, there was no pressure to get up early.

It was the simplest way to incorporate Czeisler's theory of maintaining the body's circadian rhythms, which essentially resets the body's processes through its own internal clock. By staying on the same sleep cycle, the body would remain balanced.

When the team arrived in Orlando around 9p.m., they headed for the arena. Sure it was 10:15 p.m. by the time they arrived, but it was only 7:15 p.m. in Portland, the time they are usually tipping off for a home game.

My reaction: shouldn't they have been doing this before? Isn't it obvious after a few trips between time zones that its unsettling to try to adjust your body's schedule. If you're just in a place for a few days there is really no point in changing if you don't have to. Just common sense right?

Still, its progress, I guess.

It continued a franchise-wide trend of trying new and innovative ways to gain a competitive advantage. General manager Kevin Pritchard hired a quantitative analysis expert to build his scouting database. The team hired a body mass doctor to explore why the team was experiencing so many injuries. And a psychologist often travels with the team, consulting with players and coaches.

As for Pteradactually's favorite whipping boy:

"I'm trying to get my sleep right," Oden said. "Sometimes I can't get to sleep, and I have to take a bunch of naps throughout the day."

No wonder he's always getting hurt - he's stumbling through life like a(n earth) zombie. I hope he gets his "sleep right". Poor guy.

I know what helps me sleep...Maybe Oden can look to his past to figure out some better relaxation techniques.

Trade Channing Frye NOW!

Ball Don't Lie interviews UofM's (and Seattle's) Jamaal Crawford:

BDL: You've been around the league for a while now, who is the Carlton of the NBA?

Crawford: (Pauses) Shane Battier.

BDL: Yeah.

Crawford: Yeah, Shane Battier ... or no, Channing Frye. Channing Frye, I played with him.

BDL: Do you think he could do "The Carlton Dance?"

Crawford: Yeah. Yeah, he could do it for sure. Actually, I've seen him do it, so he's perfect.

BDL: He's literally done that dance before?

Crawford: He's done that dance before.

Heart

Top 10 NBA Plays

4 and 9 are the best IMO