In Transit
Posted by SBG on Saturday, October 28th, 2006 at 11:44 am
Waiting for our flight to Raleigh.
My wife claims that I'm addicted to this website. Maybe she's right. After all, I'm sitting here on a min vacation writing away. Well, actually, I'm just killing time. Lucy is tired and barely awake.
I was watching TV and I saw an ad for Chevy trucks with a John Mellencamp song. That sucks. JM was one of my favorites back in the day. One of the things that was cool was that he didn't schill for corporate America. Now he does. Sigh.
Wild win again last night. Man, they are running hot. My barber said he was going laat night. I'm no hockey fan, but it's not antipathy or anything, I've just never been a stick and puck guy. But, I've got a good feeling about this outfit. I saw that someone (Boogaard?) got the better of someone in a fight last night.
KG has a new commercial in which he states that he's "working" on a championship. Puhleeze. I'm as big a fan as he has, but how did he keep a straight face with that?
I hear that Adam Mlorrison has not impressed in pre-season. Color me not surprised. I thank God, that the T-Wolves didn't draft him.
Kobe Bean is doubtful for the season opener. I wonder how that knee will hold up. Imagine the uproar in LA if he is diminshed by injury. No Shaq and a reduced Kobe? Oh well, there's always the Clips.
David Eckstein -- the Pirhana that got away.
Barry Bonds, free agent. Make nice with Bruce Bochy, Barry, 'cause their ain't gonna be many offers. Mauer, Bonds, Cuddyer, Morneau, Hunter...
The other day, Buster Olney took a shot at Jeter's so-called leadership. In the process, he took a shot at Cal Ripken. Watch out, Buster, the gods will be after you.
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Since no one else has posted anything here yet, I will take this opportunity to wish myself and Mrs. A a happy 17th anniversary today. We were married on this date in 1989, a date carefully chosen by me because it would be after the World Series was over even if it went seven games. Unfortunately, as most of you will recall, this was the year of the earthquake, which delayed the Series so that the last game was played on my wedding night. The best laid plans of mice....
Happy anniversary, Jeff. At least the last game of the '89 WS was the fourth game of a four-game sweep. Missing a Game 7 would've been much more disappointing, I'm sure.
Who says I missed it? We watched the ball game. One has to set priorities, after all.
Good show, good show.
I hear that Adam Mlorrison has not impressed in pre-season. Color me not surprised. I thank God, that the T-Wolves didn’t draft him.
Morrison sure likes to shoot. He's leading the Bobcats in FG attempts pretty easily, and he's put up a measly 36.0 FG%. And this is the preseason--I imagine that NBA defenses start clamping down once the games start counting. He hasn't even been impressive from the charity stripe, shooting a 69% FT%.
Of course, Foye hasn't exactly been lighting it up, but he seems to be deferring to the older players a lot more than Morrison. (To be fair to Morrison, the rest of his team is rather unspectacular, too, though Gerald Wallace seems to be pretty productive.)
Most rookies are not going to be instant sensations, so I wouldn't bury Morrison if it takes him a couple-few seasons to develop.
Apparently he has impressed some people in the summer league, though. John Denton at espn.com wrote in July:
Apropos of this, frightwig, didn't Nikoloz Tskitishvili impress in summer
schoolleague two years ago?Summer league ain't even pre-season.
that said, I'm willing to cut Morrison some slack. he was a hell of a lot more impressive in college than, say, Kris Humphries.
Humphries also didn't go until the 14th pick in the draft, so I'm not exactly sure why he's a comparison.
Humphries can't score to save his life, but he's pulling down about 12 rebounds/48 minutes, so it seems like he'll probably stick around the league for a while as a role player. He's still only 21, too, so there's some room for improvement. I don't know what sort of value teams usually get from the 14th pick, though.
well, he was a big scorer in college, albeit by hogging the ball and shooting every chance he got.
I'd say that it is very difficult to judge whether Humphries will ever be a player in the league. Means based on 10 min/g (2005-06) or 13 min/g (2004-05) are bound to have large variances relative to their values. For example, he also averaged about 6 fouls per 48 minutes last year -- an unsustainable rate of hackdom for a player who gets real court time.
As for 14th picks, it looks to me that the odds of getting a pretty good player from that slot are reasonably good. Around 50-50, in fact.
Humphries so far has performed similarly to Tellis Frank. I doubt that that comparison would give much comfort to any Kris Humphries fan.
But Majerle, Hardaway and Stojakovic all made at least one all-star game. Mo Taylor, Eric Williams, Malik Sealy, Luke Ridnour and Troy Murphy all are or were multi-year starter/rotation contributor guys and Fred Jones looks to be one as well. That's almost half of the list that one could in good conscience count as "successful" NBA players.
Two Decades of 14th picks by year:
1987: Tellis Frank
1988: Dan Majerle
1989: Tim Hardaway
1990: Travis Mays
1991: Rich King
1992: Malik Sealy
1993: Scott Haskin
1994: Yinka Dare
1995: Eric Williams
1996: Peja Stojakovic
1997: Maurice Taylor
1998: Michael Dickerson
1999: William Avery
2000: Mateen Cleaves
2001: Troy Murphy
2002: Fred Jones
2003: Luke Ridnour
2004: Humphries
2005: Rashad McCants
2006: Ronnie Brewer
Happy Anniversary, Jeff A!
Thanks. Have a safe trip.
Congrats to Jeff and Mrs. A. on th' 17th!
In case anyone actually does care:
On the Strib Gophers sports webpage today, football is fourth down the page. First is women's hockey, then men's hockey, then volleyball. Then football. And nowhere is the score posted on that page.
I-R-R-E-L-E-V-A-N-T....Gooooooo Gophers!
Oops, it should be I-R-R-E-L-E-V-A-N-T...IRRELEVANT...IRRELEVANT...Gooooooo Gophers!