- Kevin Love is an absolute beast this year. Last night was his 6th game with 20+ rebounds; he is averaging 15.6 boards a game, which is almost 2.5 more than reigning rebound champion Dwight Howard. What's even better is that the T'wolves don't appear to be so hapless anymore. I'm still not sold entirely on Michael Beasley yet, but if you offered me Love and Beasley for Brook Lopez and Devin Harris right now, I'd jump on it.
- Remember this Christian Laettner shot from 1992? Well, my boys from Bucknell repeated it Sunday against Richmond. For those wondering, that is leading scorer Mike Muscala hitting the shot for the 9-7 Bison. As you can see on the right, BU is currently ranked in the top 100 of the RPI and I think along with American U they are going to be the class of the league. Here's hoping for another NCAA tournament shot.
- I wish David Beckham would just go away. I have no doubt that when he signed with the Galaxy that he thought his international career was over with. I have no doubt that he was coming over here to retire. But then something funny happened: against all odds, England started showing interest and he realized that playing in MLS wasn't going to get him back to the World Cup. So in 2009 he forced a loan to AC Milan where he raised his status enough that he was looking like a sure bet to represent England at in South Africa. Then he got injured and had to miss the tournament. Convention would say that finally at 35 his international career was over. England would be crazy to pick him for WC'14 when he was 39, right? Well, apparently Beckham doesn't think so as he is now chasing another loan deal. I can understand his flip-flopping in the past. I mean, he thought he was done, but then was given some hope. There is no hope for him in 2014. He has a commitment to keep with the Galaxy and with this league. He needs to realize that his career will soon be over and that he needs to begin to transition to his post-playing career. Stop chasing England, please.
- Recently I caught some crap for among other things, calling the Seahawks uninteresting. It was a totally subjective description based solely on my excitement or interest level in certain players. Well, since I gave examples of uninteresting teams, I wanted to return the favor and provide the scenario I would love to see in the playoffs. FIRST ROUND: Saints over Seattle. GB over Philly. KC over Baltimore. Jets over Indy. SECOND ROUND: Saints over Atlanta. GB over Chicago. That would then leave us with Jets-Pats and Chiefs-Steelers in the AFC and Saints-Packers in the NFC. Any combo from here on out would be totally interesting to me.
- The Devils suck. I think we all know that (even though I still never thought I would utter those words). What we don't know is what the future holds for one Mr. Zach Parise. As of now, the upcoming restricted free agent has not had any discussions with the front office on a new contract. I think this could be a major problem. I mean, Parise already knows that the current team stinks, but he is away from the game and the team. He might think that their is some hope. What happens if he comes back for month at the end of the season and really sees that their is no hope? There is no way he stays, right? If I'm the Devils, I totally reload. I first re-sign Parise to a long term contract ASAP. I then try to trade all their bad contracts. I know that sounds like a typical 'know-it-all' blogger reaction, but I'm not saying that they should trade for other all-stars. That is impossible given their lack of bargaining power. No, I'm saying, trade for young, unproven guys or draft picks. Get rid of Elias, Arnott and Langenbrunner, hell even maybe Brodeur (the only guy who could get an all-star in return). Get younger. Build around Ilya AND Parise. I can handle a horrendous year if their is a plan.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Tuesday Morning Five-Pack
While I finish up working on my thoughts regarding the suspended OSU players and the NCAA, I thought I would give y'all something to start your day off right. In no particular order, here are the small things that are on my mind:
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Unfortunately, the only guy I see them trading is Langenbrunner, who can probably fetch a 2nd round pick or a 3rd/4th package. He probably has the most value of anyone who will be on the block.
ReplyDeleteI'd be surprised to see Arnott go; he lifted a NTC in order to go to the Devils last summer. He'll be an unrestricted FA in the spring and I can't see him making upwards of 3 moves in the same year. Elias has a full NMC in his contract, as well as a pretty untradable cap hit, but the fact remains that he is more valuable to the Devils than any other team. He's a big part of them and should retire from them in a few years.
Clarkson is replaceable which makes him available (3rd round pick). Greene could go, too, although I hope not (I'd like to see him sign a 4 year/$9-10 million contract extension rather than trading him for a 3rd round pick).
Brodeur is not going anywhere. Unfortunately, neither are Rolston, White, Zubrus or Tallinder.
Unfortunately, they just don't really have any tradeable assets right now that would fetch good returns, assuming they are looking to build around the promising youth of the club (Tedenby, Josefson, Taormina, Urbom, Merrill, Stephen Gionta... wait, not him). They'll have to rely on some luck drafting some decent talent to actually help them out with any late round picks they might acquire.
They didn't do something silly and trade away their first round draft pick this year, did they? If not, are their any studs like John Tavares, Taylor Hall or Tyler Seguin available? Or did we happen to suck in a down year?
ReplyDeleteIt's shaping up to be a good draft year, but not great draft year. The guy slated to go #1 is a 6'4" center named Sean Couturier, from North Moose Knuckle Lake, Canada. Some of the reports have him as a Jordan Staal-type player because of his size and the fact that he's apparently a really good defensive-minded forward. The thing that will make him better than Jordan Staal is that he put up 90+ points last year in the 60odd game QMJHL season. So a better comparison might be if Eric Staal was aviable Selke candidate each year. While it seemed like recent studs (Tavares, Stamkos, Hall) were all slated to be offensive super-stars, I get the sense that Couturier might only have the ceiling of star, but will be a better player in both ends of the ice.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of the top 6, at least, all appear to be good picks. There's a playmaking center (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - CAN) and a pair of Swedes: LW Gabriel Landeskog and D Adam Larsson. I'm intrigued by Larsson as he's a big D, but he looks to be more defensive and less offensive. The Devils need some good defenders, but they also desperately need good break out passes from the blue line (probably moreso).
Assuming they end up with a top 3 pick, I would imagine the Devils go with one of the centers listed above, who will probably go 1-2, Larsson, or Ryan Murphy (an offensive defenseman out of Canada).
It seems like Courturier will be the consensus first pick, with a pretty high ceiling and potential franchise guy, but overall it just doesn't seem to be as good as some of the recent draft classes. So maybe they won't get as much value with a top 3 pick as in recent years, but at the end of the day, any of these guys would help the team out and make the future look better.