What Would the IMU Do?

So I'm getting pretty stoked about this draft tonight and I'm been talking to Bez while he slacks off at work. He asked me where I thought everyone would go because I was telling him I though Chad Ford's latest Mock Draft was pretty shitty. It started because of a handful of players being in what I thought was the completely wrong place in the first round, but also because He has the Wolves taking two international players and keeping them over seas in the second round. I've already stated that I think the Wolves should move up, which I'll talk about at the bottom of this, but should they keep those picks what good is it to keep players away from this team when backing up our Power Forward turned Center are Micheal Doleac and Chris Richards who is shorter than Jefferson. Our Power Forwards are all too small as well. Gomes and Smith are 6-7 and Madsen is not only nothing more than a glorified cheerleader, but also a 6-9 player who tends to mop up in the 5 spot more than the 4.

Anyways... Here's how I see the Top Ten going down.

1. Chicago takes Derrick Rose. Easy.
2. Beasley goes here. If Miami doesn't take him they trade the pick to either Seattle or Memphis. From Seattle they get Chris Wilcox and the 4. From Memphis They get Mike Miller and the 5. I'm sure there would be other current NBA players involved in this trade for money purposes, but I'm not going to bother figuring that sort of stuff out.
3. The Wolves take Ovinton J'Anthony Mayo. Please take him. Please take him. Please take him. God strike McHale down before 6 PM. ( you don't have to kill him, just incapacitate him during our picks)
4. Jerryd Bayless goes here either to the Heat or to Seattle.
5.The Grizzlies take Kevin Love or The Heat take Russell Westbrook.
6. I think the Knicks take Westbrook or D.J. Augustine Lets face it... the Knicks could use everything and Ford has them leaning towards Danillo Gallinari. I think they want Westbrook to fix that Starbury problem. I'm not sold on teams digging that European Point-Forward bullshit after they all seemingly flop unless they are named Dirk (who just chokes in the clutch)
7.I think the Clips take D.J Augustine. If he is not available they pick Eric Gordon.
8. The Bucks take Joe Alexander. This seems pretty set in stone.
9. The Bobcats will take Kevin Love if he isn't selected at 3 (no please) or 5. If he is gone they take Brook Lopez so that they can move Emeka Okefor to Power Forward.
10. The Nets take Danillo Gallinari at 10.

I think Ford has Bayless way too low, Lopez and Galinary too high, and Augustine and Westbrook slightly lower than they should be. This is a Guard's top 10 and a Center's mid section.

Now. About that trade I want the Wolves to make to jump into the middle of the first round. It looks like The Warriors at 14 are our best hopes if we try to package this years two second rounders and/or Antoine Walker. The Warriors have Andris Biedrins and Monta Elis as restricted free agents and could use Walker's salary off the books to help sign one or both along with not having guaranteed contracts for second rounders. The Sixers are in the same boat as the Warriors at 16 as they have Andre Iguodalla as a restricted free agent this season. If the combination involves the first rounder we got from Boston there are more options... probably the The Wizards who need to figure out a way to get Gilbert Arenas and Antwan Jamison back on their team. My guess is they'll only get Gilbert back.

I'd rather not bother giving up a first rounder and ending up lower with the Wiz, but it may end up happening and that Celtics pick won't be too many spots above the one Miami gave us any way. I want to figure out a way to get rid of Antoine Walker, Marko Jaric, Rashad McCants and Craig Smith are on my chopping block. Bassy and Gomes are very reluctantly there as well. There are worse players that are obvious choices to go, but I don't think they'd be wanted unless contracts don't match up. If you want to know who I'd like us to pick up for a big man its either Kosta Koufus or DeAndre Jordan leaning towards Koufus.

UPDATE: It looks like the Sonics and Clippers will swap the 4 and 7 picks if Mayo is off the table by then. Sounds like the Clippers wanted Eric Gordon even more than I thought they did(I'll go ahaed and take half a point when this thing goes through). I still think Seattle will be looking for a PG.

I want to like the NBA

For the amount of NBA basketball that I watch, which is minimal, I really don't understand why I'm so interested in the off the court/off-season stuff. I follow the NBA news religiously. I rarely will sit down and watch a game. I read many NBA blogs, follow stats, and highlights. I get really into the politics of the league. I really don't know why I am like this or if I'm alone in these actions. Maybe it's due to fantasy, maybe the inter-working of the league is more interesting then the poor product they put on the floor. I believe that it has much more to do with the later.

I have played basketball since I can remember. I quit hockey after one year when I was a kid, because I had to make the decision to play one or the other, to be honest I don't try and have regrets, but I wish I would have kept with hockey, but I digress. I am going to try and write down my feelings about the NBA and how these thoughts have progressed into how I watch this league.

I am going to call this first viewing period the Bulls Dynasty, and I believe it is what initially drew me into the NBA; I was two years old when Jordan was drafted. This period started with my first memories of watching basketball (1989??-1998). When I was 8 the Bulls won their 1^st Championship, 5 more would follow over the next eight years. I remember watching many of the Bulls playoff games over the next eight years. As a kid it was easy to get into the Bulls, they were always winning, especially when the Wolves sucked as bad as they do now; imagine that, McHale wasn't even running them into the ground at this point. I also am a Hawkeye fan, so having B.J. Armstrong on the team didn't hurt.

I remember being at basketball camp in June right after school had got out and we would be on some college campus in the TV lounge watching the NBA Finals on the big screen. Those were the days, for me at least. Back then I watched a quite few games, more then I do now and really got into the playoffs, but rarely followed any news besides the Jordan stuff. I'm not sure how you would categorize that type of fan, it's much more than casual but, not fanatic. I didn't get into the off the court things like trades or drafts, even though they had very large impacts in the league, at that age, I guess I was being a kid.














This next viewing period (1999-2003) has to be called I hate the Spurs and Lakers Dynasty. At the beginning of this time period I really lost interest completely in the NBA. There are some telling reasons to this, one I lived in Australia for some of this, also I was a dumb high school kid and my world was only as big as the 15 people around me.
Also, in this period, I went to college and started to get involved in fantasy basketball. This started to get my interest back into the NBA. This interest was based on purely selfish reason, fantasy sports. The timing of this period is a little weird, because as you will notice the time frame is only 3 years, and the Lakers/Spurs have won Championships since the end of it. There is only one reason this is so short: the Wolves went to the Conference Finals in 2004. This had a very large impact in bringing me back to watching the NBA.

The next period is also short 2004-2005. This period is called the Wolves trip to the conference finals and following season. I had some transition in my life during this period. I started to gain some more interest in the league due to the fact that a roommate that I was living with was a huge NBA fan. Actually he's a huge fan of any sport no matter what it is (he may write here sometimes). So he helped fuel the passion for it, I watched a lot of regular season games and many of the playoff games the year the Wolves were in the finals and games into the next season.

The period I'm in now 2006-present, I will call the blog period. There is so much information out there on what is going on in the NBA, much of it may be speculation, but there is so much of it, it is hard not to be interested in it. Like I said earlier, I read a lot of blogs and pay attention to stats, but watch very little. I will watch the occasional game, I went to a couple, and actually I went to two Wolves wins, one over the Jazz and the other over the Suns, stopping them on an 18 game winning streak.

In my lifetime I have gone from a fan interested in purely entertainment in my first period of NBA fanfare to complete indifference due to the hate of the Spurs/Lakers and lack of interest in the league into a fan that pays a little attention for fantasy. To someone who cares little about what goes-on on the court and more about what happens around the court.

I can have a conversation with almost any NBA fan and keep up with stats, standings, news and anything really but I seldom will sit down and watch an NBA game. I have watched about 2 total playoff games and one of them I watch the whole game (the suns-spurs game after the suspensions). I guess what I'm trying to say is, I really don't get what my infatuation is with the NBA. I don't really enjoy watching the game, besides a few teams (Suns, Wizards) that can play with some energy, not many of them can. I want to like the NBA, that's it, I really want to like the NBA, but I need some more entertainment value out of the league. Can anyone help me????

If I were to advise a GM into how to get me back into actually watching the game these are a few things I would suggest be done or at least tried.

First quit hiring coaches from the damn coaching cesspool. People don’t want to see re-treads, go out to Europe, ala Mike D'antoni and hire some guy who plays a different style from the NBA. Fans are sick of the NBA style; we want to see 4 energetic quarters.

Next, encourage more personalities in the game, ala Gilbert Arenas, by drafting guys who truly love playing basketball. It must be their passion to play basketball for them to be personable. If they’re in it just for the money get rid of them.

I could keep going but this is damn long so I will stop for now, although I will keep hoping the NBA can get me to care to actually watch the games.

Wild Time!!!

With the Wild regular season coming to an end, and each game meaning more in terms of the division race it is time for us here at Some People’s Kids to focus more on my favorite hockey team. I am planning on doing either some sort of live-blog when possible and at the very least a write up on each game.

Today the Wild will face the Quebec Nordiques… no, The Colorado Avalanche... either way they are facing a team that probably won't be making the playoffs. Joe Sakic and Co. will attempt do what Calgary achieved in the last two games by coming off the ice with two points. Before the game starts I thought I'd take this opportunity to tell you that the Wolves suck even when KG has a 20 and 20 game and that Gilbert Arenas hates Micheal Ruffin. Back to hockey... with 4 games left the Wild still have a chance to take first in their division. Must. Stop. Typing... GAME ON!!!

18:39- Early power play goal by Gaborik, nice to start fast unlike the last one vs Calgary.
13:06- I have faith that Boogaard will use his fists today.
8:43- Harding has one hell of a save. Should third stringers be that good? Stupid officials are calling for a replay. We got screwed last time. No mas

1st Intermission
The Wild survive the Avs first power play and outside of Gabby's goal there is not much excitement to speak of. Time to watch the heart wrenching sports story that always finds it's way onto a sportscast.

Period #2
17:32- Avs are on a power play. Didn't know this but the Avs are 11-1-2 in their last couple of games.
15:35- with 3 seconds left on the power play John Micheal-Liles scores a goal.
13:05- Boogaard smashes a dude and Burns ends up with a penalty. I definitely likes the last period better.
6:33- Avs score again. The Wild are putting themselves in a bad position with all of these penalties.

2nd intermission
The wild escaped the rest of the period without giving up a goal, but I think Pavol Demitra Rolston and PMB will have to step up if we are going to win this thing. If we're going to lose this thing Boogaard is going to have to step up and crack some skulls... Poke his brains out!!

Period #3
19:36- Bastards start off with another penalty. This is beginning to look like a Wolves game.
14:18- Wicked! The Wild get a 5 on 3 for 40 seconds. Make me regret that last comment guys.
12:04- Horse Shoes and hand-grenades, fellas. Now is not the time to start losing hockey games
3:22- It's crunch time. We survived another power play, and now we need a goal like Tara Reid need rehab.
4.7- Harding got pulled but had to come back on after an off-sides.

We got killed by penalties and had only a hand full of shots on goal in the 2nd and 3rd periods. I'm making Bez do the rest of these so they stop losing. Time to watch the Final Four.

“Gilbert being Gilbert”

Gilbert answered his critics today on his blog. It is really long, but totally worth the read. This guy has it all figured out. He has a reason for everything, here's a taste, but go check it out.
"The reason everybody loves T.O. is the same reason everybody hates T.O. It’s the celebration, having fun, pulls out the pen and signing autographs. They love it, and then they hate it, for the same reason.

"I love T.O. for that. For having fun. For enjoying football. Same thing with Chad Johnson. That’s where I got the idea of putting “Agent” on my All-Star jersey and try to play in the game with it, because he put “Ocho Cinco” on his jersey.

You know, that’s funny! That’s hilarious to me. It’s all entertainment.

When we step inside that court and people come into those arenas and sit down, it’s not about what they did that day, it’s not about their rent, their jobs, how bad their day is going. It’s about, “I’m going to forget about it for two hours.”

Two hours while this basketball game is going on.

Same thing with a player, no matter what’s going on outside of the arena, when you get in there it’s my job to entertain for two hours.

The antics aren’t taking away from my level of concentration. I’m sleeping in the gym. I’m working out three times a day. I spent my whole summer to get back at two so-called teams."

This is just a small fraction of what he wrote today, it's totally worth the time to read it.

Agent Zero: The Blog File.

Duluth is a cool city!!

The Wizards played here in Minneapolis yesterday and it doesn't sound like it went very well, all around. They had about a 15 hr delay, got to see Duluth, and had no hot water after the game. On top of that they lost. Here is the story from Agent Zero's blog:

Minnesota Nightmare

You all want to hear a story? This is a story people need to be reading on.

Man, we leave Chicago at nine o’clock in the mornin’ to go the plane -- in the mornin’ son, in the mornin’, we in the mornin’, this was nine in the mornin’.

We get on our flight, (this is straight out of Die Hard, I’ve seen it in Die Hard plenty of times), headed to Minnesota and we’re 300 feet away from the ground landing and we have to pull back up because it was all ice.

So, now we’re hovering over the airport for three hours! We’re hovering over it for three hours and running out of fuel, so the pilot says, “We got 30 minutes of fuel left, and the closest place is 20 minutes away.”

So we made an emergency landing in, I don’t even know … Sambook? Sambooki? Oh right, Duluth.

We landed over there and then we sat on the plane on the ground for another two hours. They finally got us a bus and it took us four hours to bus there because the roads were still all snowy and icy. We didn’t get to our destination in Minnesota until 12 at night.

15 hours of traveling, yes sir. What did we do to stay occupied? Complain. I complained for at least 12 hours of it, and the other three I was asleep.

After we lost to them, we went to go take a shower and there was no hot water. It’s 20 below outside, and the water was 10 below. How are we supposed to take a shower?

I had to get about 12 evian waters and use the warm evian waters to take a shower. Actually I had to re-take a shower when I got back to New York because I felt all itchy from all the soap that stayed on me.

It was like my AAU basketball days. Just straight AAU basketball when you go from one city to another city just stinkin’.

We gonna cut off they hot water when they come to our city. See if KG likes the feel of that cold water. It was so cold that I almost went in their locker room and took a bath in their Jacuzzi. The water was cold man, it was cold."

Duluth is a cool city though. Hopefully they start winning here soon, they get caron and antwan back soon so it should start happening.

Gilbert, Gilbert, Gilbert

Gilbert Arenas AKA Agent Zero promised his loving fans that he would drop 50 on the Portland Trailblazers yesterday. What happened? He scored 9 points and took far too many “quality shots.” I am writing this post for two reasons. The first is that my good friend Stuff has developed a man-crush on Gilbert, if Gilbert got frisky before a game and asked Stuff to bend over he would gladly drop trow and ask in his prettiest fan boy voice “could you please sign my ass while you’re back there”? The second is because I like the Wiz and I think that by the end of the year they’ll be the team to beat out east. I don’t think Detroit can make it to the finals without Ben Wallace, I don’t think the Bulls can make it with him, I think that outside of D-Wade and Udonis Haslem the Heat are far too old of a team and the Atlantic division won’t have a representative in the finals for about a million years.
I like Caron Butler and Antwan Jamison, but I think that that nutty bastard Arenas’ personal vendetta against all on team USA that wronged him is detrimental to the team. Look at that, I sound like a college basketball suspension. Arenas needs to recognize when his shot is off and think about winning the game some other way. In the end it should be about winning a game and getting one step closer to the easiest path to the finals not trying to constantly prove yourself. Look at Kobe last year, his scoring at will got his team nowhere and he didn’t have the talent surrounding him that Gilbert does. The man is a point guard, when his shot is off he should probably know how to pass the ball. He has to realize that people are going to catch on to the fact that he feels the need to prove himself to others; teams will start provoking him so that he tries to drop 50 on them. Kobe couldn’t win when he tried to shoulder the load and Gilbert won’t be able to either. Teams win championships, not egomaniacs.