April 2005

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NBA first-round playoff picks

Filed under: NBA

The first weekend of the NBA playoffs is more than half over and I still haven't put my virtual money or my mouth on the line as to who will advance past the first round. Thus, without getting into too many details (the round will be over if I start spouting; although I'll try to chime in here a few times later in the week), here is the thumbnail version of the way I see it shaking out, with cavaets included where current events have already overtaken my original "wisdom."

Eastern Conference

Heat over Nets in 4.

The Nets have quite possibly the worst collection low post players in the league. The Heat have Shaq. And I still don't like Vince Carter.

Pistons over Sixers in 5.

Philly gets a game only as a means of respecting AI, the second-most valuable player in the NBA this year behind Shaq. A sweep wouldn't surprise me.

Pacers over Celts in 6.

Until yesterday's blowout, I had Indiana winning this in 5. Guess I'm still living in the past, where 'Toine Walker was a rally killer instead of franchise rescuer, and Paul Pierce always has to take--and miss--the last shot. Seriously, although they enjoy a serious edge at point guard (Payton over Anthony Johnson), and better depth, I don't see the Celts overcoming deficiencies in the paint (even with Jermaine O'Neal's bum shoulder) or on the sidelines (Carlisle may be the league's best coach).

Bulls over Wizards in 7.

 Yes, I do think Chicago will sorely miss Eddy Curry in the middle. But Scott Skiles has had them playing great team D all year--check their opponents field goal percentage--and the Wizards are too predictibly reliant on their big three (Arenas, Hughes, and Jamison) for offense. Key matchups: Hughes vs. Hinrich in the backcourt early, Hughes or Arenas vs. Gordon in the backcourt late. (I think the game one is on as I write this, but I don't know the score.)

Western Conference 

Suns over Grizzlies in 5.

All this talk about whether or not uptempo teams can thrive in the postseason will have to wait until the supreme uptempo team--Phoenix--is tested. The dysfunctional Grizzlies are dangerous only so long as they feel like they have nothing to lose. That should be worth a game, two at the most.

Spurs over Nuggets in 6.

This is the series I most anticipate, and the one I am least confident in calling. Variables abound, from the health status of Duncan and Camby (which is huge), to the fascinating matchup between greased lightning Tony Parker and seam-seeker Andre Miller, to inevitable fireworks between the arrogant 'Melo Anthony and the bruising Bruce Bowen. And don't forget K mart, who can be as chippy as the next guy. The more emotional it gets, the more it favors the Spurs, who have a superstar ice man in Duncan and a maniac disciplinarian in Popovich to keep them in line.

Sonics over the Kings in 5.

I had this series going six until I saw how useless the Kings were on the glass for long stretches of the game last night. Plus I want karma to squash the Kings for the two terrible trades they made this year (even if the C-Webb sacrifice was long-term shrewd, knowing the guy was going to blow out what's left of his bad wheel sooner rather than later). Sac has no matchup for Richard Lewis, Peja is a huge choker, Bobby Jackson and Brad Miller aren't close to full strength, and Ray Allen, the best player on either team, is playing for a max contract and max respect around the league. Only an unconscious series from Mike Bibby (who spit the bit last night) or a team choke from a Sonics squad that still doesn't believe it's very good will extend this series beyond 5.

Mavs over Houston in 7.

I had Dallas winning in six before T-Mac trumped Dirk in Dallas yesterday. There are certainly reasons to pick Houston, beginning with McGrady's magnificence and Jeff Van Gundy's court smarts. And Wolves fans still sympathetic to Kevin McHale might note that Houston went out and got four solid-to-very-good backcourt people to lend ballast to the T-Mac/Yao dynamic: Mike James, David Wesley, Bobby Sura, and Jon Barry. It is hard to pick a team in the post season that contains Keith Van Horn, long one of the league's most overrated players. But the Rockets counter with Yao Ming, who is more overrated than Van Horn. Yeah, I know, if the guy could only rest in the off-season he might live up to the hype. But until that happens, we'll see blunderbuss showings in the spring from the big galoot, and Dikembe Mutumbo isn't going to bail him every game as effectively as he did yesterday. Finally, somebody please take that microphone away from Mark Jackson, who is as banal and slow as an announcer as he was durign his last five years at the point.

Posted by Britt Robson at April 24, 2005 6:12 PM

 

Vikes first-round picks draw raves from the "experts"

Filed under: NFL

The online sports press is gushing about the Vikings top two picks in the first round of yesterday's NFL draft. CBS Sportsline.com's senior football writer Pete Prisco hands out his only A+ grade to Scott Studwell and the other Purple People Drafters. ESPN.com's pigskin guru John Clayton cites the Vikes behind only Dallas in his "winners and losers" column, saving some praise for the team's second-round choice. And over at the website shared by Sports Illustrated and CNN, former Vikings beat writer Don Banks likewise slots Minnesota as the second best winner among all NFL franchises, this time as runner-up to Dallas. Finally,  SI/CNN.com's John Donovan, after first voicing reservations regarding the Purple's pick of Troy Williamson over Mike Williams, quickly comes around to proclaim that, "The Vikings got all they could hope for from their two first-rounders."

While I love what the Vikes have done with their defense--especially the signings of Smoot and Sharper in the secondary--all these huzzahs about Williamson must be tempered by the fact that he arrives at the cost of losing Randy Moss. And as good as Williamson might be (thus far all we really know about him is that he's very very fast) I think it is fairly safe to say that there will still be an extreme drop-off at the wide receiver position this season.

Meanwhile, what does it say about the increasing senility of South Carolina coach Lou Holtz that he had a blazing stud lined up on the wing for three years and rarely got him the ball? (Um, I guess is says that Holtz is increasingly senile. ) 

Posted by Britt Robson at April 24, 2005 5:22 PM

 

Former Viking Michael Brim killed in Virginia shootout

Filed under: NFL

The Associated Press is reporting former NFL cornerback Michael Brim, 39, died in a shootout with another man Tuesday night. Brim was drafted by the Cardinals in 1988 and played for seven years with various teams including Detroit, the New York Jets, Cincinnati, and the Minnesota Vikings from 1989-1990.

Read the full account of the shooting here.

Posted by Corey Anderson at April 22, 2005 1:50 PM

 

How to Get Kicked Out of Target Center

Filed under: NBA

Heckling During the Malik Sealy Memorial Is a Good Start

To: David Stern
From: Paul Kaiser, Jim Walsh, Pat Widell
Re: Is it easier to throw a man out of an arena or throw a ball through a hoop?

Dear Mr. Stern

We just got kicked out of the Timberwolves-Spurs game. We're not that surprised it happened, just at how quickly it happened. We told people we were going to inspire Kevin McHale to suit up--at least then we might have had two players on the floor who cared.

Read the rest of Jim Walsh's letter to the NBA Commissioner here

Posted by Corey Anderson at April 21, 2005 3:37 PM

 

How to Get Kicked Out of Target Center

Filed under: NBA

Heckling During the Malik Sealy Memorial Is a Good Start

To: David Stern
From: Paul Kaiser, Jim Walsh, Pat Widell
Re: Is it easier to throw a man out of an arena or throw a ball through a hoop?

Dear Mr. Stern

We just got kicked out of the Timberwolves-Spurs game. We're not that surprised it happened, just at how quickly it happened. We told people we were going to inspire Kevin McHale to suit up--at least then we might have had two players on the floor who cared.

The way Malik Sealy cared. We tried to pay tribute to the late guard by yelling during the Malik tribute before the game, "He was a player," and "he cared," and "we loved him." People sitting nearby came up to us and told us to shut up and threatened us with fisticuffs.

If I need to explain why that is so disturbing, then your league is part of a bigger problem. You must sense it, deep down. We told people as we went into the game, including the woman at the box office, about our Draft McHale plan and everyone thought it was a good idea. Everyone laughed.

Once we started loudly voicing our opinion, people told us to relax. People told us to shut the &^&**%%%$#&# up. We just wanted to see McHale play, because he was tough and competitive back when the league was worth talking about. Heard a great quote the other day from 20th-century Protestant theologian Richard Niebuhr: "Most people are right about what they affirm and wrong about what they deny."

We started getting grief from fans, ushers, security, and, finally, Minneapolis's finest. We left without incident. We asked the officers, Why? They talked about rules and really had no good answer. We weren't belligerent. We were just preaching the truth. Anyway, we got the tickets for free, because one of us freelances for the Wolves fan publication Wolf Tracks, the staff of which and the dishwashing crew we saw at Champps before the game would have made a better team than the mutts in uniform.

As they were booting us and we were calmly expressing our bewilderment, it seemed like the cops actually wanted to listen, because we were making so much sense about everything. It was like their eyes were registering a pilot light, but the furnace wouldn't fire. One of our sons asked, "Are people going to think this is funny, or obnoxious?" Hard to tell, Bud.

Anyway, when we told them we were inaugural season ticket holders, they threatened to revoke our season tickets, which was funny because we cut our losses three years ago. We don't care like we used to, because they don't care. Nobody does. Nobody cares that the police kicked us out of an event in which we pay huge amounts of money to watch other people make even huger amounts of money play a game in the United States of America, land that we love, land where you apparently cannot express a profanity-free, semi-drunk opinion (like, "You've got no heart," and "Howard Dean cared")--opinions that our seating section used to thank us for a decade ago, when we were passionate regulars.

We're done. We hate even talking about how screwed up everything is, so we get together and go to a game, like we did when Bill Musselman was alive, and minimum wage lunch-bucketeers fought and clawed their way to a more respectable record than the legendary 2004-5 Minnesota Timberwolves, a team with exactly one heart.

So ban us. Hell, you'd be lucky to have the three of us behind your bench all next season. If you weren't playing hard, we'd let you know about it. If you played hard, we'd love you 'til the end of time. Minnesotans are funny like that.

And for the record: We'd like to think that McHale, Garnett--players who care--wouldn't have objected to us calling out the team's performance and blowing off a little steam about the mess this world is in, including the NBA, which issued us with three WARNING cards that read:

You are being issued a warning card that the comments, gestures, and/or behaviors that you have directed at players, coaches, game officials, and/or other spectators constitute excessive verbal abuse and are in violation of the NBA Fair Code of Conduct. This is the first and only warning that you will receive. If, after receiving this warning, you verbally abuse any player, coach, game official, or spectator, you will be immediately ejected from the arena without refund.

Oh, well. The night was fun. We had a couple of beers, went to the ball game, got a taste of what the Clash sang about in "Police on My Back," and Public Enemy rapped about on "Fight the Power," all within 20 minutes. We got home to our wives and kids early, and wrote a letter about the world our kids are growing up in, and the elephant-in-the-arena-fact that (to quote Leonard Cohen) "everybody knows."

Sorry we said anything.

Fantastically,

Paul Kaiser
Jim Walsh
Pat Widell

Minneapolis, Minnesota
United States of America

Posted by Corey Anderson at April 21, 2005 3:24 PM

 

'Monday Night Football' Moving to ESPN

Filed under: NFL

The NFL's "Monday Night Football" is leaving ABC after 35 years for ESPN starting with the 2006 season. The deal will cost ESPN $1.1 billion over eight years. No word if Al Michaels and John Madden will be moving to ABC's sister station. No doubt there's a few ESPN staffers would like to take a crack at calling some games.

This leaves ABC the only network station without football, as NBC will take over ESPN's Sunday night game for $600 million over six years and host the Super Bowl in 2009 and 2012. NBC is hoping to lure men to, say, the Cardinals versus the Bills and away from Desperate Housewives. Hopefully ESPN's Sunday night crew, including Joe Theismann and that grouchy Paul guy who resembles a walrus in a necktie, will get their walking papers because of this.

Posted by Corey Anderson at April 18, 2005 5:42 PM

 

Apparently all the editors checked out early last night at the Star Tribune

Filed under: Media

La Velle E. Neal III's Twins recap is utterly befuddling. The third-grade sentence construction is painful enough, but then he loses all grasp of the English language.

The runs can be scored on 450-foot homers, seeing-eye singles or (gasp!), even because of a walk.

However they are scored, it seems to happen to Twins righthander Brad Radke in the first inning of games.

"It happens to me a lot," he said, "but I swear I don't do it on purpose."

The trend did not change Thursday night, but it didn't matter as the Twins smacked the Tigers 10-4 to sweep the three-game series and headed Cleveland with a four-game winning streak.

Radke (1-2) settled in for the flight able to avoid his first 0-3 start to a season. And he tied Jim Perry for third on the Twins career list with his 128th victory.

On Wednesday, the Twins were able to score in the first inning for first time all season. On Thursday, Radke gave up two runs in the first inning, following a trend in recent seasons in which he's most vulnerable in the first inning. The stats back it: Radke has a 5.58 first-inning ERA since 1999. Through three starts this season, it's 15.00.

Posted by Paul Demko at April 15, 2005 12:27 PM

 

2005 Vikings schedule

Filed under: Vikings

The 2005 NFL schedule was released today and the Minnesota Vikings could be in for a very long season. The NFC North has been making some notable off-season improvements, and a Moss-less offense against Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore may need a lot of help from the recent acquisitions on the defensive side of the ball.

Sept 11 Tampa Bay
Sep 18  at Cincinnati
Sep 25  New Orleans
Oct 2     at Atlanta
Week 5 BYE
Oct 16   at Chicago
Oct 23   Green Bay
Oct 30   at Carolina
Nov 6    Detroit
Nov 13   at N.Y. Giants
Nov 21   at Green Bay
Nov 27   Cleveland
Dec 4     at Detroit
Dec 11   St. Louis
Dec 18   Pittsburgh
Dec 25   at Baltimore
Jan 1     Chicago

Posted by Corey Anderson at April 13, 2005 2:43 PM

 

Taylor sounds off about the Wolves

Filed under: Timberwolves

Brian Hamilton has an interview with Glen Taylor in this morning's Pi-Press. He formally forecloses no personnel options, but it's clear he doesn't want Spree or Cassell back either.

Posted by Steve Perry at April 13, 2005 8:19 AM

 

The Twins: unsteady as she goes

Filed under: Twins

Silva's one thing; how's Morneau going to hold up after his beaning?

It's a little too early to fire up warning flares, but the Twins in week one didn't exactly look like the world-beaters that pre-season surveys made them out to be. The obvious item of concern is Carlos Silva's knee injury. Silva was a solid starter for the team last season, and the Twins don't have starting pitching to burn. But he's not likely to be a big difference maker either way--as the 2005 Baseball Prospectus item on Silva points out, he racks up very few K's and depends on his defense for 90 percent of the outs made while he's pitching. Silva's been lucky on the balls-in-play batting average of his opponents, but guys like him are always a simple turn of luck removed from looking like very different pitchers.

The Justin Morneau beaning looks more worrisome to me. Incidents like this have been known to dampen or even ruin whole careers. That's rare, but it's not at all uncommon for players to take a very long time to find their poise and their reflexes at the plate again. Sammy Sosa got beaned in early 2003 and took over a third of a season to get back on track, and he was a lot more comfortable in a major league batter's box at the time of his beaning than Morneau. 

And Morneau's bat, unlike Carlos Silva's pitching, would be a very tough thing to replace. How he does at the plate in his first weeks back will be one sort of clue as to whether the Twins will be just a good team again, or the elite team many think they are this year.

UPDATE: Around the time this was posted, the Twins placed Morneau on the Disabled List, retroactive to last week. 

Posted by Steve Perry at April 12, 2005 4:57 PM

 

Sox recap, Tigers preview

Filed under: Twins

And why the AL Central won't be so kind in '05

The tragedy of the weekend for the Twinkies was the prospect of losing Carlos Silva for half, or maybe all, of the season. That's since been reviewed, and the injury to his right (pushoff) knee has been deemed less serious, but it's still a bad sign: Silva's been the quiet anchor of the staff, a reliable third starter who keeps the ball on the ground. Having to replace him with the Bradke clone Joe Mays in the starting rotation is bad news indeed.

The other bad news of the weekend came on Friday night, when the Twins did the inevitable: Pack the place with a bunch of bandwagon fans, then lose in a humiliating, boring fashion.

Cont'd: The only excitement Friday was in the stands

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at April 12, 2005 4:39 PM

 

Sox recap, Tigers preview

Filed under: Twins

Sox recap, Tigers preview

The tragedy of the weekend for the Twinkies was the prospect of losing Carlos Silva for half, or maybe all, of the season. That's since been reviewed, and the injury to his right (pushoff) knee has been deemed less serious, but it's still a bad sign: Silva's been the quiet anchor of the staff, a reliable third starter who keeps the ball on the ground. Having to replace him with the Bradke clone Joe Mays in the starting rotation is bad news indeed.

(And I'll bet we won't see Silva on the mound until June anyway; three weeks is far too optimistic for any kind of knee injury.)

The other bad news of the weekend came on Friday night, when the Twins did the inevitable: Pack the place with a bunch of bandwagon fans, then lose in a humiliating, boring fashion.

The home team's play was so uninspired--such a shame given the 48,000 plus who were looking for some Friday night excitement--that one had to resort to people-watching to get excited about anything.

Then, late in the game, came the "Kiss-Cam." It's the somewhat annoying between-innings schmaltz where Dome operatives spy cute couples around the park, then put the stadium camera on them until they lock lips. The third couple to hit the scoreboard Friday night provided something that left a few families headed for--and the rest of us rolling in--the aisles: As soon as the gentleman saw himself and his hunnie on the faux-Jumbotron, he palmed the back of her head, and mockingly pushed her face into his lap. (Worry not; she seemed to be in on the joke.) 

Hey, that's the spirit. This blog needs mascots!

Far more troubling was the silence of the bats. Call it the Curse of Mike Cuellar, but the Twins haven't been able to hit a junkballer for some 30-plus years. The completely overhauled Orlando Hernandez, the pitcher formerly known as "El Duque," had plenty goofy spin coming off his fingertips. Hernandez--who has lost about 10-15 mph off his fastball, perhaps intentionally--hit over 85 on the gun only a handful of times, sticking mostly in the 75-mph range, ocassionally throwing beachballs hovering in the mid-50s. I swear Jesse Bartlett struck out twice on one pitch.

By the end of the game, one could be forgiven for wondering how long Morneau's going to be out of the lineup after getting plunked in the noggin in Seattle. The team needs at least the threat of his bat.

Not much to say about Saturday's game, other than it was Bradke Ball Redux, something I'm going to turn into additional, reportable income before the season's over.  

And Sunday, too, was predictable in the inverse way, with "Stroke-Out King" Santana delivering with 11 Ks in seven, and the sudden awakening of Torii Hunter, who dingered at a crucial time, but still has as many fingers (not counting the thumb) on his Gold Glove hand as he does hits this season. Even so, it was a big win on a national ESPN broadcast, for whatever that's worth.

There have been grumblings that part of the failure of the 3-3 Twins at this point is the young leftside of the infield. So far, I'd say this is hogwash, with poor hitting and pitching from the team's supposed leaders--like, uh, Hunter and Radke--being the real cause for concern. Much of Cuddyer's suspect play at third can be chalked up to having the ever-shaky Matthew Lecroy instead of Morneau in the field. We know now that LeCroy is no first baseman.

Hard to think this a year ago, but the Twins may actually need Morneau's glove, and fast.

Onward to the Tigers: Detroit's in town for three, starting tonight. In addition to seeing if Mays is serious about pitching for the team again (he's known for constantly complaining that he's hurt whenever he has a bad outing), it's a chance to see the still-improving Tigers.

They ain't great, but anyone (except Kansas City) has a shot in the AL Central. In fact, The Sox look much better, and I'm not sure Cleveland or Detroit is that far behind. The AL Central won't be the walk Minnesota had the last two seasons, when it seemed a shame the Twins didn't thank the rest of the division as they claimed the "champions" title.

The Tigers were hampered in part last year by DH Dmitri Young being out of the lineup due to a broken leg. When he was healthy, Young looked like potentially one of the best hitters in the division, a notion he displayed on Opening Day this year by homering three times. It's worth dropping in on one game just to see Young.

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at April 12, 2005 4:16 PM

 

Rain Man-ager

Filed under: MLB

Bissinger on La Russa: best bad baseball book ever?

I'm reading the new and amply hyped Buzz Bissinger book about Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, 3 Nights in August--and yes, you can bet the cheesy echo of Seven Days in May is wholeheartedly and unironically intended. 

I haven't seen any reviews besides the ones on the jacket, but it's just thoroughly and deliciously bad--the book reads like it was edited by a prankster and past Bulwer-Lytton bad writing contest winner who hacked into Houghton Mifflin's computer system. I'd never read Bissinger before apart from the occasional Vanity Fair feature, but he may be the worst hack writing now; the main thing I learned from the book is that he's got a career because the editors at VF thoroughly rewrite everything they touch.

Read the rest...

Posted by Steve Perry at April 12, 2005 8:41 AM

 

Rain Man-ager

Filed under: MLB

Rain Man-ager

Bissinger on La Russa: best bad baseball book ever?

I'm reading the new and amply hyped Buzz Bissinger book about Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, 3 Nights in August--and yes, you can bet the cheesy echo of Seven Days in May is wholeheartedly and unironically intended. 

I haven't seen any reviews besides the ones on the jacket, but it's just thoroughly and deliciously bad--the book reads like it was edited by a prankster and past Bulwer-Lytton bad writing contest winner who hacked into Houghton Mifflin's computer system. I'd never read Bissinger before apart from the occasional Vanity Fair feature, but he may be the worst hack writing now; the main thing I learned from the book is that he's got a career because the editors at VF thoroughly rewrite everything they touch.

P. 157: "La Russa saw the old attitude on the 1983 White Sox, whom he managed to a division championship, where veterans Jerry Koosman and Greg Luzinski embraced their roles as team leaders. They relished spending money on pizza and beer for team parties at which baseball talk would fill the androgynous, interchangeable hotel rooms..."

He means "anonymous," but anybody can make an embarrassing mistake, right?

P. 199: "The lowest moment of the season for La Russa came eleven days before the Cubs series started, in the androgyny of a Hertz rental car heading south on Broad Street in Philadelphia."

Oh well. And the stuff about La Russa's tactical genius is just priceless: page after page of blather about the ethics of brushback pitches and retaliation pitches that could have been treated in a sentence--don't do it unless it's payback AND you're pretty sure the other pitcher meant to hit your guy. About 30 pages later, Kerry Wood grazes Albert Pujols's uniform with a pitch that everyone in the Cards' dugout thinks got away from him. Nonetheless Tony instructs his pitcher to plunk Sammy Sosa. Oh well.

I now understand Tony La Russa's deal a little better: He is for practical purposes a borderline autistic. His vaunted baseball thinking mostly consists of fretting for hours before games about things he can't control anyway--like whether the Cubs' number eight hitter, Damian Miller, will reach base with two outs at some point in the upcoming game and bring up the pitcher that inning, as opposed to the pitcher's leading off the following inning (because great baseball minds know that it's good for the other side's pitchers to lead off innings)--and performing tortuous, Rube Goldberg-like mental calculations about batter/pitcher matchups in which the combatants have faced each other in all of two or three at-bats over their entire careers. Bissinger clearly thinks stuff like this is proof of La Russa's intelligence and admirable intensity. I think it's proof he's a little nuts.

All in all, a ripping bad yarn, and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. This is Bob Coles Bad.

Posted by Steve Perry at April 12, 2005 8:31 AM

 

Exchange: After a rotten season, whither the Wolves?

Filed under: Timberwolves

And, heresy of heresies: why not trade KG?

Britt Robson's last regular-season Wolves column sums up the team's many failures; here he jousts with Steve Perry over an immodest proposal to consider a Kevin Garnett trade as part of the team's upcoming overhaul. 

Read their exchange here

Posted by Steve Perry at April 11, 2005 4:33 PM

 

Exchange: Whither the Wolves?

Filed under: Timberwolves

Exchange: After a rotten season, whither the Wolves?

And, heresy of heresies: why not trade KG?

by Britt Robson and Steve Perry

Perry: Your column today pretty much nails the Wolves' season, but there was one thing it left me wondering: Besides the addition-by-subtraction of getting shut of Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell, what else can the team do to make for a steeper, faster rebuilding curve? I can see two possibilities: firing Kevin McHale, not only as coach but altogether, or unloading Kevin Garnett's contract.

Speaking as a pretty coarse and casual fan, I'm inclined to say: why not both? I know it's heresy to talk of trading a franchise player and MVP in the modern NBA; what I'm not so sure about is whether that verdict reflects sound tactical judgment or the imperatives of modern sports marketing.

Consider: For years now, the Wolves have had in Garnett both a) one of the two or three best and most complete players in the game, and b) a very large obstacle to building a competitive supporting team around him, in view of the very large hit against the salary cap that his salary comprises. What have they got for the foreseeable future? Certainly b), but not necessarily a).

Garnett will be 29 years old next month, and he's begun to have leg troubles. I know guys his size have good-to-excellent longevity in the NBA, but he isn't your typical 7-footer, and it's by no means assured Garnett will be a top-tier player through the duration of his contract. His game puts a lot of accent on versatility and physical mobility, and it would seem that his size actually augurs *against* his retaining those attributes into (relative) old age. To put it another way, haven't the Wolves already enjoyed the benefits of KG's best years--and gotten past the first round of the playoffs exactly once for their efforts?

Also consider this: Since we are now seeing that, if anything, *last year* was the great anomaly in this team's performance, not this year, how patient do you think Garnett will be for a rebuilding effort? Isn't it plausible that within a year or so, he'll decide the mess is too big and intractable and he wants out of here in time to win a ring somewhere?

Last question--is this even a meaningful discussion? I mean: How tradeable *is* Garnett for practical purposes, given the league's salary cap structure?

Robson: Well, you've certainly thrown me plenty of meat. Let's dispense with the easiest thing first: McHale will fire himself as coach at the end of this season. Before taking the job, he was a wise-crackin', rule-breakin' grumpy old man who set his own schedule. Coaching has scraped against his temperament and circumscribed his natural behavior. As for continuing on as VP of Player Personnel, I'd say the odds are almost exactly 50-50 on whether he stays or goes. For drama's sake, I'll say he's gone within the next six weeks, at his instigation and with only a little surprise and a little more protest from owner Glen Taylor.

And I think McHale's departure would be a good thing. He made a great early splash drafting Garnett and Marbury. He's had some nice finds in the past couple of years, especially the pair of Chicago plucks, Hoiberg and Hassell. The Sprewell and Cassell trades look a lot worse today than a year ago, but still ultimately worth the risk, if only because they got the monkey of never advancing past the first round of the playoffs off the Wolves' back.

That wouldn't have happened if Joe Smith, Anthony Peeler, Marc Jackson were still around instead of Sammy and Spree. But as someone whose balletic footwork in the low post is generally regarded as second only to Hakeem Olajuwon in NBA history, McHale sure has endured a string of failures with theoretically promising big men, from Stoyko Vrankovic to Michael Olowokandi. Will Avery and Ndudi Ebi were disastrous draft picks, for a franchise that couldn't afford to make those kinds of mistakes, in part because McHale was either colluding or looking the other way when Taylor was making an illegal deal with Smith. And I think it was wrong for him to make Saunders the scapegoat this year. Put it this way: If Saunders deserved to get fired, McHale should be right behind him.

The only way I'd trade Garnett is if he was absolutely determined to force a deal out of town. Some of the things you say about KG are true--he's at or close to his prime, and yet he's only been able to lead his team out of the first round once, a statement that may stand into his 30s, given the rebuilding task that awaits the Wolves. But I think he is amazingly durable, and although the various minor injuries he is almost sure to accrue may bump him off his game a little bit more than before, I'd take my chances on his health and his grit every time.

Besides--and this is really the bottom line on the subject--KG is the only thing separating the Wolves from a return to the NBA gulag, the frozen tundra where nobody wants to play. It's instructive to look at what happened to the Lakers--based in a city that would be nirvana for many players, especially compared to MPLS/SP--when they moved Shaq. They still had an existing superstar in Kobe, received three pretty good players (Odom, Butler, and Grant) in the deal, and will finish behind the Wolves in the playoff hunt this year. Who is the best existing Timberwolf if you trade KG--Szczerbiak? Even if you got pretty good three starters for Garnett, would any of them provide the sort of character leadership and outstanding talent that molds a team?

A KG trade makes sense only if you can make a gamble pay off--say swap Garnett to Indiana for Jermaine O'Neal and Ron Artest and have O'Neal stay healthy and Artest become sane. The other, far less preferable, alternative is to unload KG for $20 million worth of short-term contracts, creating a massive salary dump that enables you to start from scratch. But then you're on the tundra peddling the merits of a franchise whose only claim to fame is that KG once played there... a gulag with Szczerbiak, Hassell, and Hudson eating more than a third of your salary cap for the next four years.

Would other teams be willing to deal for KG and his monster salary? Sure. While he wouldn't have the short-term impact of a motivated Shaq, or the long-term value of a Lebron, I'd rank him right up there in that next tier, alongside Duncan and Amare Stoudamire, in terms of players best able to flip a franchise into championship contention. Landing that kind of a player requires luck and ingenuity and once you have him, you keep him, as the Lakers now know. KG is crucial to the Wolves chances of success in the near future. The question is whether they can rebuild around him before he gets too impatient or old to seriously contend again.

Perry: Okay, that all seems compelling to me; you certainly know more than I do about what a team can and cannot expect to get in return for a franchise player like Garnett.

So, next question: What can they do to maximize their chances of returning to competitiveness sooner rather than later? What should be the team's highest priorities this off-season? I'm not asking what you think they will do; I'm asking what you think they should do, whether it's a matter of upcoming free agents they should go for, or principles they should adhere to.

Robson: It sure as hell won't be easy. The two most important positions on the court, point guard and center, are big question marks. As I said in today's column, I think Cassell needs to be dealt or, worst case, released. He's entering the last year of a deal he already believes is unfair, and Taylor isn't about to extend him after the dysfunctional circus he helped ringlead this year.

Hudson has never had point guard instincts--the one year he started, KG led the team in assists--and his incredibly chronic ankle woes only add to the uncertainty. At center, after seven years in the league, what you see out of Michael Olowokandi is what you're going to get, and that's boneheaded, foul-prone, black-hole pivot play mixed in with rare, teasing bouts of brilliance. I'd love to see Minnesota keep Eddie Griffin, but there's no telling what he'll get on the open market. If the Wolves had to burn the mid-level exception to get him that would be a tough decision, given how many other needs they have. Besides, EG, who is friends with Cassell, may not want to stick around. I really liked Jackie Butler during the preseason and the Wolves would be wise to give him another shot if he's still available.

And if they can keep Mark Madsen--who has the highest positive plu/minus in point differential per 48 minutes played of all the Wolves this season--that's a no-brainer. I think I'd make my top priority a big, rugged point guard, somebody who could defend and dish, enabling the Wolves to deploy Hudson as a designated scorer (a two-guard mostly) off the bench. Jason Kidd would be perfect, of course, but there's nothing on the roster that could pry him from NJ. I'd structure the offense around KG and Wally, in that order. One way the Wolves can improve next year is by having a point guard who looks for Szczerbiak, and by not having Spree sucking up those minutes (and shots) that should go to Wally. I'd ask Hassell to lose a little weight, get ready to defend the two-guard spot and become a bigger part of the offense, which, with Cassell hopefully gone, should include more fast breaks and exploitative points in transition.

The draft picks in both the first and second round are vital to the team's mid-term future. Ditto for the mid-level and $1 million exceptions, because they don't have enough cap space to go after the high-profile free agents. A shrewd and lucky personnel guy, be it McHale or his replacement, could get this team back in the playoffs next year. But barring a stupendous trade or some other masterstroke, I think the club will be back to first-round losses in the post-season.

Posted by Steve Perry at April 11, 2005 2:55 PM

 

Ex-NFL player Cole Ford saw Siegfried and Roy as a Threat

Filed under: NFL

And that makes him crazy?

Posted by Corey Anderson at April 10, 2005 7:04 PM

 

Derby Days

Filed under: Horse Racing

The build-up to the Kentucky Derby hits full stride this weekend with the running of the Wood Memorial, the Illinois Derby and, most significantly, the Santa Anita Derby.

The big story at Santa Anita is Sweet Catomine. The big-ass filly and sire of super-stud Storm Cat is currently the 7-5 favorite. She's seeking to become just the fourth filly ever to win the Santa Anita Derby. There seem to be a fair number of naysayers, though, particularly given Sweet Catomine's draw in the two post.

George Steinbrenner's Bellamy Road is a slight favorite in the Wood Memorial, but this looks to be a wide-open field. Nobody seems much impressed with any of these horses.

The Daily Racing Form, of course, has scads of excellent Derby coverage, much of it free. Andrew Beyer, the dean of horse-racing scribes, is hyping a three-year-old named Blues and Royals.

Posted by Paul Demko at April 8, 2005 11:08 AM

 

Bradke Ball, volume XI, edition I

Filed under: Twins

So maybe yesterday's post did put the jinx on the Twinks after all. But more likely, it's just that the Twins were struck with a typical bout of Bradke Ball, wherein the team's once and forever "ace," Brad Radke, does what he usually does: Give up a home run or two in the first three innings before settling down.

Since Balls thus far is a statistics-free zone, I won't dig up any numbers to back the assertion, other than to say this: Make a bet that someone will go yard on Bradke in the first third of the next game he pitches, and you'll find some easy coin indeed.

In fact, the whole game was typical of the team when it has slumped the last few seasons: Uninspired, non-gritty pitching from Radke, Hunter subsequently pressing too much at the plate, runners left stranded in frustratingly key situations.

(And a new one: Morneau stepping out of the bucket and swinging at every inside pitch yesterday. Someone tell the kid to only swing at pitches on the outer half of the plate before the whole league figures out how to pitch him tight.)

One possible bright spot, though it's far too early to tell for sure: The better-late-than-never maturity of Jacque Jones and Luis Rivas.

Jones actually walked twice in a recent spring training game, something I don't recall the free swinger ever doing. Yesterday, he looked selective, getting hit by a pitch and stroking a double. (And he had one great catch in right.)

Rivas, easily the biggest disappointment in the organization now that Christian Guzman is gone, had the kind of spring training where some were wondering if he'd make the trip north on the opening day roster. He's since had some good wood at the plate (though no key hits), and has managed a few flashy moments in the field. He's the leader in a very young infield now, and it looks as though he might finally lead by example.

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at April 5, 2005 6:43 PM | Comments (0)

 

Twins Preview: A brief mention before we jinx 'em

Filed under: Twins

Opening pitch is less than an hour away for the Twinkies, so it seems like the only time to note the remarkable pre-season hype bestowed upon the team.

Just two months ago, Peter Gammons was on Sportscenter saying the number three story of the season--behind the Yankees-Sox rivalry and the steroid scandal--would be the Twins' pitching staff. That is: the third biggest story in all of baseball this season.

Gammons isn't backing down from his expectations of the Twins this year, and he isn't alone: This ESPN.com roundup of 19 writers and assorted experts shows seven of them putting the Twins in the World Series, and four of them predicting a third World Championship.

Just as remarkable are the Sports Illustrated rankings, which put the Twins at five overall, and have Johan Santana as most valued player--not pitcher, but of all players--in baseball.

CBS Sportsline also has Minnesota as the fifth-best in baseball, but offers a slightly more, uh, predictable prediction for the post season. Finally, there's also this flattering mention of Ron Gardenhire.

It's true, for reasons beyond Santana and Gardy, that the Twins are potentially one of the top five teams this year.

But it's also true that six months ago we were all saying the same about the Wolves and the NBA. So, now that opening day is here, not an utterance of the words "World Series" until October. 

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at April 4, 2005 3:50 PM

 

MLB forecast: how they're picking the Twins

Filed under: MLB

ESPN:

USA Today:

Baseball Prospectus:

Fox/Sporting News:

Posted by Steve Perry at April 2, 2005 3:01 PM

 

Next week in City Pages:
Bert Blyleven profile

Filed under: Twins

He's one of the best color broadcasters in baseball--and the best pitcher who's not in the Hall of Fame

Britt Robson profiles the former Twins ace in next Wednesday's (4/6) City Pages. Here's an excerpt:

?What I loved about Bert was that he?d challenge any hitter at any time,? says former Twins pitcher Frank Viola, who won the American League Cy Young award in 1988. ?Early in my career I was a nit-picker, always nibbling around the plate. I watched Bert pitch and starting challenging hitters myself and that?s when my career took off. He was the ultimate competitor.

?I?ll tell you a little story. One day we are playing against a guy who was one of Bert?s best friends in the game. Bert went up to him beforehand, and said, ?You own me. If you keeping hitting me I?m going to have to slow you down.? Sure enough, the guy gets a hit in his first at-bat, and the next time he was up, Bert hit him right in the knee. After the game he went over and said to the guy, ?I told you what would happen,? and the guy said, ?I know, I know.? I think he maybe even had to go on the disabled list for a little while, but they never stopped being friends.?

As always, you can get City Pages in your email box a day early by signing up for our weekly newsletter at the citypages.com homepage.

Posted by Steve Perry at April 1, 2005 8:35 AM

 

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