The Smart Decision

     Now that Golden State has decided to offer 2 NBA All-Stars, a 1st round pick, and half of San Francisco for Kevin Love, I think it's time we start considering what the C's should do with the 6th overall pick. Assuming that Embiid (despite injury), Jabari, Wiggins, Exum, and Vonleh are gone in the top 5, that leaves the Celtics with a choice between Marcus Smart, Julius Randle, and Aaron Gordon. And lets be honest, maybe these guys aren't the hottest chicks at the bar, but each one of them could develop into wifey material. But we have a log jam at Forward so Randle would be a tough fit, especially with Sullinger developing, and Gordon is a freak athlete who can't shoot the pill yet. With all due respect for Randle and Gordon, I think Marcus Smart is the choice here, and let me tell you why:

Pro Smart: 

     First of all, the guys a monster, and we all saw that in not only his freshman year at OK ST, but his sophomore year as well. But I'm not just going to give you my personal opinions about how I think he is the best competitor in the draft with Dwayne Wade-esque potential, I'm going to hit you with some stone cold facts.

Marcus Smart Stats vs. Ranked Teams: (9 games)

23.0 ppg, 5.4 reb, 2.5 stl

     Averaging 5 more points per game than your season average against ranked opponents gets Skard all sorts of hot and bothered. Not to mention, for a guard, this guy eats boards like its nobodys business. And yes he was suspended this past year which would normally cause concern about his character and maturity, but if some red neck started chirping me at work, you bet your sweet cheeks I'd lose my mind as well. I think it should also be noted that Smart is from Flower Mound, Texas. FLOWER MOUND! Christ, can you get any cuter! You can't have character issues from Flower Mound, you just can't.

Pro Dumb:

     It can't be all rainbows and butterflies with the 6th pick, thats just not the way the world works. So here is the Celtics issue; they already have an all-star point guard. Rondo has recently become the C's captain and face of the franchise. Combine that with Danny Ainges patience rivaling a toddlers on christmas morning and we have a less than ideal scenario. Critics will say we don't need another point guard, even though we need just about every position on the floor right now.

     So the Celtic fan simpletons will come out in droves saying "build around Rondo" and "trade the pick for a starter". My god you're dumb. Take a look at the conference finals this year and tell me what you see. 3 of the 4 teams (Spurs, Thunder, Pacers) were homegrown teams who had patience and became perennial contenders. The other team sold their soul for LeBron. It's incredible how many fans just want to be like the Knicks and diminish their assets for an average team.

     No, the Celtics will not be contenders next year if they draft Marcus Smart and say Zach Lavine with the 17th pick. But Smart is going to be a STUD in the NBA and let's be realistic for a second, Rome wasn't built in a day. And I love the Celtics outlook if we have this lineup moving forward with 2 first rounders from now until there's peace in the Middle East:

PG: Marcus Smart
G:   Zach Lavine
SF:  Jeff Green
PF:  Jared Sullinger
C:    Next years top draft pick (Jahlil Okafor perhaps?)

P.S.     Since the Kings are looking to trade their 8th overall pick for an All-Star caliber player to pair with Boogie Cousins, maybe they would entertain this:

    *Celtics get 8th overall and draft Aaron Gordon. Bam. Dream scenario complete.

...with that said I'm pretty much willing to accept any scenario that involves us keeping the pick and drafting any one of these future savages.
   

Kawhi Leonard's Middle School ID Has Me In Tears

First thing that came to my mind? Commitment. Kawhi's been rockin' the braids since his balls dropped. I dare you to name another NBA player with corn rows that still plays today... and is even remotely relevant. That style was hot back when Iverson and Ben Wallace played but at least they had fancy designs and what not. Kawhi's braids are just so early 2000's and he simply doesn't seem to care.

It works for him though. Kid is making a run at finals MVP. Meanwhile in my middle school ID I had a full blown mustache.

PS- LeBron's actually been sporting the receding hairline look since he was like 3 so props to him on his commitment to the hair game as well.

World Cup Preview!

Look, I know I normally fool around and post some light stuff with about 2 paragraphs but this is serious. This is the World Cup. This is the greatest sporting event ever. Super Bowl? Nope. World Series? Stop. Literally anything else? Spare me. I'll let you bingers in on a secret... Blob has a post about how soccer sucks and he's had it lined allll the way up since last year. Wah Wah Wah, soccer is boring, it sucks, nobody cares... well bite me. I don't need Blob's take or any other Americans. It's the most popular sport in the goddamn world for a reason... so lets break it down:

Group A:
No brainer... it's Brazil. You're on your own soil. Neymar is a beast and at the end of the day they have the most pressure of any team to ever play a world cup match. They are Brazil... in Brazil... that's all you need to know. Watch for Neymar and Hulk's huge ass.

Group B:
Uh Spain? But it doesn't matter. The 2 finalists from 2010 are in the same group which is kind of absurd. I love the Dutch. But this really is a 2 horse race. It doesn't matter who finshes first or second because they are both nasty. But bullet to cranium... gimme Spain. Actually, here's the thing, people don't realize Spain is still unreal. Haven't really lost much of their flawless team from South Africa.

Group C:
Japan. EVERYONE sleeps on Japan every single year and I don't understand why. This is a competitive group but Keisuke Honda has one of the best free kicks ever. Literally ever. You can't foul these guys anywhere near the 18 otherwise it could be some real trouble. Also, I think Ivory Coast is gonna be dog shit. Everyone knows Didier and the Toure brothers but they are junk.

Group D:
Italy. Balotelli. That's all you need to know. Most lethal forward in the game. He's an idiot but he also has a foot made of gold. I don't want you guys hitching your wagons to Uruguay. Everyone is hoppin on Suarez's nuts but let ol tio let you in on another secret... He won't perform. He will get shut down. No Suarez, no Forlan... no offense. Noche Noche. I'll take Forza.

Group E:
Toughest one to predict because they all suck. I'm gonna take Honduras. Cinderella team and the Concaf gets NEGATIVE love. To this day I will never respect France. The past 2 world cups have been disgraceful. Zidane in 2006 and their pant pooping in 2010.

Group F:
Argentina. About time, man. They always get jobbed. Messi, it's your time to be a hero. The other 3 teams are hideous. Wrap it up.

Group G:
Germany. Group of death. Most people won't like this take but the Americans are cooked. I said this since the draw. It's not fair to place us in Portugal and Germany but that's the way the milk distills. I just can't wait for USA v. Germany. Mainly because I want to see how Jurgy performs against the mother land. I feel like he will be out for blood. It has it all, really. But I'll take the Krauts. They are so damn mechanical and disciplined. They have some of my favorite players: Muller, Bastian, Gotze. They will win that group relatively easily. That said, Portugal is still nasty because of that animal C Ron.

Group H:
Belgium. I have MONSTER hopes for this team. I'm talking like semi final hopes. Everyone knows about Eden Hazard but Vincent Kompany gets no love. Guy has held it down for the Premier winners because he is an amazing defender. Give me a million Kompany's and you will go far.

That's it and that's all. Go USA!


PS- Blob's the type of cat that loves the show Louie when in reality that show sucks but he will tell you that you don't understand comedy.

PPS- Love you, Blob.

McCan't's

Ungrateful assholes. Everyone involved. The whistle blowers, the fans who care and now the players. They are all a joke.

1) Whistle blowers are clearly just snobby stuck up jokes who want their moment of fame. They don't like basketball and are sick of these classroom slackers. I get that. I wouldn't write a paper for a player either without some compensation coming back my way. But agree to it, make your deal, whatever you need to do and then shut it.

2) The fans who care have to be fans of Ivy League schools or the Stanford/Notre Dame/BC's of the world who took the high road with this student/athlete standard. Big time sports fans as a general rule must know these players, of any sport, are not all meant to attend elite University's. They just happened to have a differentiating factor that exists outside of the classroom that provides them admittance. Sports are entertainment, they are not this moral high road. Once upon a time entertainers were looked down upon as a lower class. I am not telling anyone who they should look up to but people need to take things at face value. If you love college basketball it is certainly not based on McCants writing ability.

3) Rashard McCants was a good college basketball player. He was not good enough to continue entertaining and is grasping back at the limelight. I do not know who McCants thinks he is to blame the school who offered him a community, a place to play ball and the opportunity to learn. The University understood school was not his first priority and provided an out which he took. He is simply taking advantage of a situation and then screwing over the school that helped him.

I know McCants helped the University, in winning a National Championship, and plenty of other schools would have taken him. It is not like UNC was the only one who reached out but that is where he ended up and that is who helped him.

This I ripped right off the ESPN article
"If there are Carolina fans that don't like what's I'm saying and don't like what's happening right now, they need to look in the mirror, see that it's a bigger picture," he said. "... I'm putting my life on the line for the younger generation right now, and I know that nobody else wants to step up and speak out because everybody's afraid, fear, submission, especially the black athletes ... . "College was a great experience, but looking back at it, now it's almost a tragedy because I spent a lot of my time in a class I didn't do anything in."

THE TRAGEDY IS YOUR LAZINESS, NOT THE SCHOOLS
THE TRAGEDY IS YOU HAVE TO PUMP GAS DESPITE A DEGREE FROM UNC
GOOD LUCK BEING A MARTYR AFTER PISSING AWAY A FULL RIDE BECAUSE THEY GAVE YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE LAZY

The only people allowed to be upset are athletes who took on a full class load while competing at such a high level. They can be upset but hopefully first and foremost they did it to improve their life after school and can laugh at McCants for taking the road easily traveled.

Another aside, according to McCan'ts Wikipedia he had a relationship with Khloe on the Kar'dash. They split due to his infidelity...And his sister's name is Rashanda. Yes Rashard and Rashanda.

The NFL. Too Big To Fail?

Let me preempt this article by saying that I LOVE the NFL – everything about it. It’s the most popular sport in America by a landslide and for good reason. That will not change any time soon.

Still, the question remains, will there ever come a point when fans grow a little tired of just how much the league is constantly in our faces? It may not be in our lifetimes, but it’s tough not to consider the possibility.

People have been discussing this issue for some time now, but in light of the recent “news” that the Super Bowl 50 logo will not feature Roman Numerals it really struck a chord with me. Seriously, this is what we’re doing now? Making a big deal about the freaking logo? Who gives a shit if it has Roman Numerals in it or not? Why is this even being discussed? We haven’t even crossed into the summer season yet and teams are just starting OTAs. Never mind the fact that Super Bowl 50 isn’t until 2016.

The NFL regular season starts at the beginning of September and culminates at the beginning of February with the Super Bowl, one of the best days of the year (that’s not an opinion, that’s a fact). All in all, there are about five months of meaningful, gut-wrenching, thrill-inducing football in the calendar year. I’ll throw in August because it’s always cool to see how things work out for teams in training camp and preseason. So let’s top it at six months. Half the year. Most people (myself included) would say it’s not enough. Between living and dying with fantasy football teams and caring way too much about your favorite team, it’s all just so damn good.

BUT in today’s day-in-age there is no such thing as an “offseason.” Anything and everything that goes on with the league is scrutinized and deliberated all year long.

The NFL is a cash cow in every sense of the phrase.

The problem is that the fat cats who run the league are acutely aware of this – and are exhausting all options to milk every penny out of the enterprise.

It seems like there are more and more in-game commercials. The ads are incessant all year round. There is a 24-hour channel dedicated to it, and people probably know more about some dude the Buccaneers drafted in the 6^th round of the draft than they know about important things like the federal interest rate or Barry Obama’s foreign policies. Such is life in general in the 21^st century, but I digress.

League execs want to extend the regular season to 18 games, add coverage to optional workouts, and move a team (or multiple) to London. (Seriously? London?!) People obsess over the free agency period to see which big player their team might land – even if it means staying up all night refreshing their Twitter timeline. Raise your hand if this person is you (I slowly raise mine). As a reminder, this happens in MARCH. Hell, this year’s draft was pushed back and drawn out over an entire weekend just to build as much hype as possible. The analysis was borderline nauseating. I’m also fairly sure McShay and Kiper have already drawn up mock drafts 1.0 and 1.01 for the 2015 draft.

There are games on Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Why? Because they know, even when it’s some meaningless Bengals-Dolphins game with Dalton and Tannehill trading awful interceptions, people will be parked on their couches, beer in hand, watching with the highest of interest.

There have been lockouts, strikes, Super Bowl blackouts, concussion lawsuits, sex boat scandals, drunk driving charges/manslaughters, gun charges, and one guy has literally been charged for multiple murders IN COLD BLOOD (who did he play for again?). All these things could have damaged the league’s reputation and forced fans to stop watching.

They didn’t and we haven’t.

The NFL raked in close to $10 BILLION last year, with a B. Forbes says this number could balloon to $25 billion in the not-so-distant future. Let that sink in for a second….

Personally, I hope the success continues and I know I’ll be a fan of the league as long as I’m walking the Earth, but some small part of me in places I don’t like to talk about wishes they would stop throwing every little incident/detail/proposal/transaction in my face. People tend to jump at things that are scarce. The less that is available to them, the more they are going to want it. The NFL needs to ensure it doesn’t expose itself so much that people start to want less of it.

Baseball used to be the most popular sport in this country. Boxing used to be prime entertainment. People used to be considered the wealthiest in the world if they owned a radio or could afford a smart phone. Everything has a tipping point and change is inevitable. I just hope the NFL fat cats realize this and don’t push their luck because eventually there will be a decline. Can you have too much of a good thing? Absolutely.

To conclude, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the Patriots’ potential this year since the team signed Darrelle Revis back in March and I am writing an article about the NFL at the beginning of June. I’d say the league is doing just fine.

Is it September yet?

Sign The Man? Eric Bledsoe

As we approach NBA free agency, I'm going to be taking a look at upcoming restricted and unrestricted free agents and addressing their value. Last week we dealt with the Celtics Avery Bradley. This week I take a look at upcoming Suns restricted free agent Eric Bledsoe.

His History

The 18th pick in the 2010 NBA draft, Eric Bledsoe has been hard to figure out ever since he entered Big Blue Nation in 2009. While there, Bledsoe played as a 2 guard next to John Wall, which many think disguised his true skill set. This skill set was further hidden from us after the Clippers traded for Chris Paul in 201, which basically gave Bledsoe no shot at seeing any reasonable burn.  In 2012, Bledsoe showed some promise and potential and got his name floated in a few trades, including the infamous Doc Rivers-to-the-Clippers thing. That season he averaged 8.5 ppg and had a PER of 17.5. He was an above-average guard and he was trending upwards. Eventually, he gets traded to the Suns, a team who likes to turn that game speed setting to high, and Bledsoe came out of his shell like a 10th grade guy who just read a Tale of Two Titties for the first time. He only played 43 games last year, but he showed he could do a little bit of everything. He averaged 17.7 ppg/5.5apg/4.7rbg. His PER was 19.6, and virtually every other metric was solid, if not above average. His game/skill set appeals to both the advanced statistic nerds and the basketball purists. He's the Natalie Portman of basketball players.

We know he is super athletic. We know he is very explosive. But we don't know if he has what it takes to be a Max player, capable of telling his teammates to "jump on his back"a la Cedric Maxwell in the 1984 Finals. The Suns have $30 million in cap space this upcoming season,
which I'm sure has Bledsoe's agent waking up with a boner more often than not. But on the contrary, this cap space is also likely causing Suns GM Ryan McDonough to stare himself in a mirror or two and ask himself this question:

Is Eric Bledsoe a max player?

That depends on a lot of things, most importantly, who Mr. Bledsoe would be surrounded by in the Desert. After all, max players are lot like women, man, it's all how you hold 'em.

His Value

If Bledsoe were to sign a max deal, then he's looking at about $60mil over 4 years. The way max contracts work for players with six or fewer years of experience is to award them a maximum of 25% of the that years salary cap. Thus, 25% of a salary cap of $58.6 mil leaves Bledsoe with a max yearly salary of $14.65 mil. This puts him as a little bit cheaper version of Russell Westbrook, which is actually a pretty decent comparison when you think about.

Obviously, the Suns will wait and see if another team first offers Bledsoe a max contract. This same type of shit happened last year with Phoenix when they tried to poach Eric Gordon away from New Orleans with a maximum salary offer sheet, but New Orleans matched it. Right now, reports are saying Phoenix will match any max offer for Bledsoe. This is probably the wisest move. It's technically a max contract, but there's not much max to it. Like being a Varsity captain, but doing it on the track team.

If I'm His Agent

Give me max money, and bake me a bundtcake. Bargaining-wise, it shouldn't be that difficult to get someone to pay for Bledsoe's services. There are a few troubling aspects, such as surgery to repair torn cartilage in his knee and the fact that we don't know if Bledsoe has what it takes to be an alpha male. But that shouldn't hold any GM's bak. The max money isn't too steep, and the Suns have the juice to keep him out West where he can go to RnR with Subbi in the off-season.

If I'm The Suns

Frankly, I'm worried if I do sign Bledsoe and he does end up going to RnR with Subbi in the off-season. I've been to RnR with Subbi. That's the mans league. Bring your lunch pail to that one, because you're gonna get worked.

More legitimate concerns I would have would be the fact that Bledsoe and Goran "The Dragon" Dragic are pretty similar players who play pretty similar positions. Both are capable of playing the 1 and 2. Both are young and have tremendous upside. But, do I really want put $20mil/year into one combo-guard position (The Dragon gets 7.5 mil a year which is basically a bigger steal than a Danny Ocean movie) or would I prefer to diversify my assets like any half-way decent financial advisor would suggest? With all this cap space, maybe I'm better off going after a different type of player like a defensive instigator/douchebag in Lance Stephenson or a do-it-all big man like Greg Monroe.

The point is just because Eric Bledsoe is on your team, you have the final say in signing him, and he's actually pretty fucking good…it does not mean that you have to do it. The League is littered with max contracts that were signed because it seemed logical at the time and there wasn't an alternative. But that is just the wrong way to look at things. There shouldn't even be discussions of "alternatives." You have your plan and you accomplish that. No detours.  Yes, you may be forced to rely on bargains at times. But, if your plan is build around two combo guards to the tune of 20 million a year then sign Eric Bledsoe. If it's not, then don't sign the man. No matter how reasonable it may seem.