nerditry

Does Charlie V just step in and take over Sheed’s spot?

Makes sense. Charlie is reminiscent of Sheed at the point in his career that he got traded to Detroit. He’s adept at stretching the floor to setup outside shooting and send the ball back around the horn if needed. No one has CV confused with a true PF, so again the weight for that falls on Maxiell and Prince depending on whether they resign McDyess or another big man (Gortat?).

Does Gordon start or come off the bench?

Neither makes sense right now. Rip isn’t quick enough, nor does he have the handles to get moved to starting PG. That means Stuckey remains the primary PG and now there’s a log jam. Rip was beside himself over his benching last season and now is stuck in the middle of Joe Dumars and a head coach walking into a tenuous scenario.

If Gordon is their 6th man, Will Bynum and he will comprise the smallest current backcourt I can recall since Courtney Lee and Jameer didn’t play much together. At the end of last season, Bynum found a lot of success in using his strength to create space and attack the basket. If this means that he’ll be getting a lot of assists kicking it back out to Gordon, they give other second units a ton of trouble.

It’s also known that once Ben Gordon gets the ball, it disappears into a black hole until it magically appears in a descent toward the basket.

Does Tayshaun get some extra money for having to again cover his teammates’ defensive mistakes and lapses?

Charlie and Ben aren’t know for being great on the ball defenders and in this system, will again be guarding much bigger players. Prince has to be exhausted. He’s played as many games as any player I can think of on a per-season basis. 82 games in all seasons but his rookie year, nearly 20 playoff games per season except for this year’s sweep by the Cavs.

Please, someone give this guy a rest.

Chicago has to be breathing a sigh of relief.

They now have a well structured team of players. Aside from Brad Miller, they get a ton of dead weight off the books after the end of this season (Jerome James, Tim Thomas, Aaron Gray) and Miller’s contract is $12M expiring. I’d resign him if possible at the MLE if he keeps playing at the level he did against Boston.

They’re going to have a good amount of money to sign a FA this off season, definitely need to target another veteran guard. Maybe even cobbling together a couple of their $6M (Thomas, James) expiring contracts to the Blazers for Bayless/Webster/Blake (expiring, too).

Rose/Salmons(or Hinrich)/Deng/Thomas/Noah?

Very good reporting by Erika Hobbs of the Orlando Sentinel whose investigative desk has been combing through the vast amount of Central Florida muck this year.

Her article looks into why the State Attorney’s office has decided not to look further into allegations of public corruption by a former official from Orange County Public Schools. As a basketball fan, I was taken to a less than happy place by School District Attorney Frank Kruppenbacher’s statement which eerily mirrors that of NBA Capo di Tutti Capi and Don of All Dons, Commissioner David Stern.

School District Attorney Frank Kruppenbacher said he thinks the allegations against Gaston are “an isolated incident,” but he wants to ensure there were not systemic problems with the school district’s contract and bidding process.

“We did a massive look when this first came out,” he said. “We combed a ton of documents and records and could find no evidence that this was anything other than rogue conduct by one individual.”

Let’s compare that to:

David Stern blamed a “rogue, isolated criminal” Tuesday for a betting scandal that has devastated the league and threatened the credibility of every referee.

A subdued Stern said he felt betrayed by former referee Tim Donaghy, the target of an FBI investigation for allegedly betting on games, including some he officiated, over the last two seasons.

Stern said he believed no other officials or players would be implicated in the betting scandal.

Fun, eh?

I can’t imagine it’s an isolated incident that every one of our public/private groups has problems with people that just can’t seem to separate themselves from the PUBLIC monies they’re asked to manage. As if management of that money entitles them to personal access.

It’s the sense of entitlement regarding money that “comes from nowhere,” so no one will miss it and it doesn’t really “belong” to anyone. There seems to be a great deal of resentment amongst Orlando’s public officials who are reticent to admit that we are a one-horse town and that they have no real control over Disney. No one truly cares about the tech corridor in Lake Mary, or the defense research by UCF because none of those would be there, had the mouse not established our town.

And let’s be frank, Disney is NOT IN ORLANDO. Disney has so much swag, pull, clout, stroke that they operate a tiny, but immensely powerful government known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Good for them because I wouldn’t let anyone in our local government help them decide the ply of EPCOT’s toilet paper.

It’s a two-bit town that is mismanaged from the top, and takes its cues from My Two Dads. Yes, the seminal 80s sitcom with Greg Evigan and Paul Reiser. The one where they both banged some slut of a woman who didn’t know which was the father of the girl the two “roommates” eventually adopted.

The City of Orlando has a mayor, and his name is BUDDY! Orange County has a mayor, and his name is RICH CROTTY! Rich manages to spend a lot of his time on poorly run commissions and authorities, figuring out how he can elevate himself to higher and even more disappointing election to a higher office. Buddy likes to make stupid bets with LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa that make our town look even dumber.

These two manage to get less than nothing done in the best interests of Orlando. People that promise us lots of financial benefits from their involvement like Rich DeVos, Cameron Kuhn and Lou Perlman got insanely rich, or even more insanely rich (dead broke as far as Kuhn and Perlman ended up) have their best interests taken care of.

To quote Owen Hart…”Enough is enough, AND IT’S TIME FOR A CHANGE!”

He was also a wrestler that died after falling from the rafters into the ring.

Prince Billy & Tortoise – Thunder Road, My Morning Jacket – Off The Record, Outkast - Bombs Over Baghdad Stimulated Remix, Ratatat - Nostrand, Slave feat. Steve Arrington – Weak At The Knees, Earth, Wind, & Fire – Keep Your Head To The Sky, Dick Dale – Nitro

Oh man, oh man. The folks at Pause Police are too good at what they’re doing. Almost so good that they’re gonna get poached by XXL and made to work for back issues containing cologne inserts.

Their most recent adventures in patrolling the internets for statements made with ghey potential took us on a magical tour in the life of Diddy. A man who has no personal boundaries and is free to reinvent the boundaries of others to suit his whims.

I laughed, I cried, I ate sugar cookies and drank the finest Cambodian Breastmilks.

These are the real, every night Atlanta Hawks, not the ones who play as five equals. Far too easy to see that there’s no clear floor leader and no respected, been there veteran. They’re a poor man’s version of the Portland Trailblazers, without all of the great coach baggage.

What a difference between the respective second round debuts by Cleveland and LA with both being off for an extended period after quick first rounds. The Lakers appear to think too much and it starts to get in their way, causing people to hesitate on good shots, rush bad shots and dribble or pass the ball too many times. The lack of a strong back court running mate for Kobe, coupled with a rational dearth of confidence in Trevor Ariza’s activities anywhere beyond 15 feet mean the ball is in Kobe’s hands too much.

Idle hands are the devil’s work for Kobe to the tune of 32 points on 31 field goal attempts, more glaring when a mere 6 free throw attempts are factored in. The Lake could really used a second scorer amongst the small guys and I wonder what Adam Morrison’s status is and if he’ll see daylight next season. Kobe is still going to be Top 5 next season, but the window is getting smaller.

Ask Kevin Garnett.

Atlanta Hawks 72, Cleveland Cavaliers 99

Jasper says, “That’s a paddlin’.”

Down low rappers. Watch your back [||].

Internets wannabe sexy men aka guidos. Watch your back [||].

The Pause Police are out to get you.

Oh, and especially if you’ve ever worked for Cash Money records.

Houston Rocket + Tru Warier + Funny Dude aka Ron “Ron-Ron” Artest

crossed with

Iconic Ethiopian + South Park Lesson Teacher + International Man of Man of Hunger aka Starvin’ Marvin

equals to

Tormentor of Rafer Alston and Anthony Johnson + Seeming Heir to Andre Miller’s Hair Throne aka Louis Williams

Andy V grew up in Brazil and Bron still put it on him like that? Now we could always go and j’accuse Varejao of taking the scourge of flopping all the way to the bench and overselling what LBJ was cooking up. I bring this up because he’s well known for pulling the chair out from under himself on defense, egregious enough to the point of the flop being featured at the epilogue of his wiki.

Now peep the grin on James’ face. That’s ice cold.

Dude probably ate something high octane before tip-off and that it snaked right out of his warm ups not unlike some exhaust.

Do you have a favorite NBA farter?

Did you drop a little sak passe with Sam “SBD” Dalembert?

Ever sat on the bench and felt the rumble of Robert Swift’s thunder?

My perennial favorite is Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba “Toots” Jean Jacque Wamutombo aka Cookie Monster aka The Congolese Colon

via wshh.com

Here’s my starting five of guys likely to be disgusted by farting:
G Kobe Bryant
G/F Grant Hill
F/C Pau Gasol
F Richard Jefferson
F/C Mark Madsen

Amare’s no dummy. A player of his stature knows when his time is short for that team, ’specially a really bright guy. From my perspective, Amare fell out of love with the Suns when they traded Marion for Shaq (though I have no clue if he and Marion were down) and possibly before that when Phoenix couldn’t figure out if they wanted to run.

Ken Berger @ CBS discusses a Stoudemire to Portland scenario that makes a solid case for both teams.

Phoenix gets LaMarcus Aldridge, Jerryd Bayless and Raef LaFrentz’s expiring $12.7M Golden Phoenix Sizzling Wor-Bar Surprise contract.

An NBA trade…that actually makes sense for all parties as it is the rarest of rumors that fulfills my “To whom, for what?” standard.

Phoenix is solid in the center position with the lesser Lopez (though they are equally inconsistent which is endearing and odd) in development and Shaq doing whatever he does every other game. I’d say that by this time next year, Shaq would be entirely more effective off the bench, playing against 2nd team centers and putting up starter’s numbers in more limited action.

Aldridge does present the same problems that Amare does in a mirror image. L.A. likes to keep it on the perimeter and beyond, adding some post moves to his game this year, still suffering from Rasheed Wallace Syndrome. This afflicts players 6′10″ or taller and keeps them from regularly driving to the basket and easily breaking down their man off the dribble. Currently, the only known cure is video of Kevin Garnett presented by Malcolm McDowell.

The Steve Nash Express is about to go local. Dude was exhausted after his 21 dime performance last week and it’s not going to get any better. Remember, Steve’s rookie year was 1996/97 and out of that draft class, not too many guys are looking so fresh right now. Even Kobe is playing through injury and has added a whole lot more old man to his game in recent seasons.

Bayless is a smallish dude that has more Barbosa [||] in him than Nash, but does a whole lot more to solve their pending problems than Dragic or Leandro do. And attacking the basket is contagious, this is an important trait on a team that often settles for jumpers. I genuinely dig the idea of a Shaq and JB 2nd team dominating their scrubby counterparts and an eventual move to starter.

The expiring contract? Who knows. It could be a pure salary cap move since Sarver loves saving that $$ (re: Deng, Rodriguez).

Portland immediately toughens up their front line, but will have to force Amare to be a POWER forward. Bring back the nasty. Dunk on people’s heads. Everything about the change should be a positive for him. Nate McMillan does an exceptional job getting big results out of his players, the rest of the team has a great attitude, he would be one of the oldest and most experienced players on the squad and would not have to be the star, but could ascend back to that position.

I endorse this trade…unless the Magic have a shot at him.

She doesn’t care what we do…she just wants to spend some time with me.

And that’s how my day went from being at work, to being happy.