The Republic of Sport

0x NBA/NFL Champion

0x NBA/NFL Champion's Comments

Posted Wednesday September 23, 2009, About: T-Wolves to waive center

Not to be a dick and just jump on you for that statement, but please tell me you aren't serious. Like, at all.

Posted Wednesday September 09, 2009, About: One more T-Wolves trade?

...so Minnesota gives up a top-five pick and one of the best trading assets in the league AND some expiring contracts, so they can get a PG (which they don't need), a SG (which they don't need) and a PF (which they really don't need)?

And then they take on three big contracts (assuming the sign-and-trade contracts become fairly big)?

lol

Posted Saturday September 05, 2009, About: Knicks to make push for Rubio

That wasn't directed at anyone in particular haha.

How many Western Conference teams have awesome backcourts? Think about it for a second, I was surprised, too. Utah has a PG, Portland has a good one, Denver has a PG, OKC will have a good one. Lakers have a SG, Sacramento has a SG, Clippers could have an ok one, Phoenix has a PG, Golden State has Curry at point and an undersized Ellis at SG. New Orleans has a PG, Dallas has a decent one, SA has a good one, HOU has a good one if healthy, Memphis has a SG.

So really, a backcourt of Sessions and Flynn isn't all that bad of an idea considering the circumstances. He might not be the best fit, but at the end of the day, he's cheap, young and improving.

Although the T-Mac comparison might be a little much, I agree that Chandler isn't a bad player. But what's the trade? Him for Rubio straight-up? The Knicks don't have all that many pieces.

Posted Saturday September 05, 2009, About: Knicks to make push for Rubio

Yes, but look at what they gave up. It really wasn't all that much. Miller wasn't working and was as good as gone when his contract was up, not to mention he had a fairly large contract. Foye isn't a bad player, but he really isn't that good, either. He's undersized, injury-prone and doesn't have a set position.

The odds that Rubio was drafted to play for the Wolves were pretty low. They drafted Flynn to play PG. They drafted Rubio to trade for something more valuable than Miller/Foye, and give his age and potential, I think that's fairly possible. And if it doesn't work out, then you can at least give the two-PG offense a chance. Chris Paul and Pargo ran it, and no I'm not saying either one of these guys is CP3, I'm just throwing it out there...

Posted Saturday September 05, 2009, About: Knicks to make push for Rubio

Ok, to say that the picks are meaningless because of what Kevin McHale did in the past is absolutely ridiculous.

And they won 24 games last year so to say maybe high 20s might not be giving them enough credit, but I do agree with you...they're gonna be awful.

Posted Saturday September 05, 2009, About: Knicks to make push for Rubio

Ok I wanna try and clear a couple things up here and defend my boys....

Picking Rubio was NOT dumb at all. First off, who were they gonna get? Stephen Curry is a PG, flat-out. No way he would wanna play the two with the Wolves. Second, it was a weak draft. Who was there to take? The only viable option for all of you Wolves-haters would seem to take DeRozan (who doesn't play defense and has some question marks) or get their guy (which they did with Flynn) and take the trade bait.

Rubio is gonna be coveted by a lot of teams in the coming years. Why does everyone think his value is gonna go down? Yeah, a young point guard who actually has the experience and is a lot closer to contributing in the NBA and is still just like 21 or whatever, yeah, nobody will want that. In 2-3 years, the Wolves have all the leverage with Rubio because they have his rights. Both Flynn or Sessions can still be traded- both make cheap salaries and are young.

Next, Sessions wasn't a bad signing. He played off-guard some last year and did fine with it. Him and Flynn should work ok together, and thus set up the two PG offense and let Rubio see it can be successful, let Sessions just become a SG (a SG who passes, too isn't a bad asset) or simply go out and use all of their cap space they have or one of their first rounders and take a SG or a SF.

Remember, they could have 3 first rounders next year and will have 20+ million coming off the books in salaries.

Finally, everyone wants Rubio to go to the Knicks. Rubio NEVER said he didn't wanna play in Minnesota, and while maybe he doesn't, what are the Knicks gonna offer? Wilson Chandler? David Lee? Nate Robinson? Their two most valuable assets are the two positions that the Wolves don't need. If there isn't a third team, it doesn't look like the Knicks can pull this off.

Posted Thursday August 27, 2009, About: Gophers coach unhappy with Big Ten schedule maker

No problem, I gotta defend the Gophers whenever possible. lol

And the only reason Brewster was complaining was because Indiana got TWO and they got ZERO. I think that's a fairly solid argument.

Posted Wednesday August 26, 2009, About: Gophers coach unhappy with Big Ten schedule maker

Marion Barber
Laurence Maroney
Gary Russell
Matt Spaeth
Ben Utecht
Thomas Tapeh
Anthony Montgomery
Ben Hamilton
Greg Eslinger

Yeah a lot of those guys aren't very good, but Barber is legitimate.

Posted Thursday August 06, 2009, About: T-Wolves to hire Rambis?

Ok there seem to be a ton of Wolves haters on here lol, so I'm gonna try and defend them a bit...

They have pieces. Yes, the summer league doesn't prove much at all but the main thing that it gives you false-expectations of are scoring. Guys who can score and get assists are more legitimate, and 15 and 7 is nice for Flynn. Love is one of the best rebounders in the league and he's still has a ton of room of room for improvement. Big Al averaged 23-11-2 last year, and it's absurd to say he can't carry a team when he's never had a chance to play for a winning team.

There are a couple nice players coming off the bench, like Ryan Gomes, Corey Brewer and Wayne Ellington. Yes those guys are unproven (other than Gomes) but the potential is there. They also have multiple expiring contracts and the biggest trading-chip in the NBA with Rubio, if they don't keep him.

They're gonna suck for a while still, but with more lottery picks, the future looks brighter than it has for a while.

Posted Sunday July 26, 2009, About: Agent says Rubio overhyped

Sort of.

Jennings was stuck behind a guy who won Euro MVP and some other veterans. His coach wanted to win and would only play those guys because supposedly Jennings never got his trust, and he wouldn't play a 19 year old (or however old he was).

HOVA actually knows a lot about Jennings, I don't really.

Posted Sunday July 26, 2009, About: Agent says Rubio overhyped

Austin Daye
Brandon Jennings
Darren Collison
Hasheem Thabeet
Jeff Teague
Jordan Hill

Bill Duffy cleaned up nicely with this year's draft. Then again, he also represents Jeff Hagen, a former Gopher player who is listed under "other athletes" on his website. Why? Because he doesn't do anything. lol

Posted Sunday July 26, 2009, About: Agent says Rubio overhyped

Jennings couldn't crack the rotation because he was playing behind a lot of veteran guys and had problems with his coach, being the cocky kid that he is.

At the same time though, Jennings has a ton of talent, so I'm not gonna be surprised if he has some success in the NBA.

Posted Wednesday July 22, 2009, About: T-Wolves to trade Richardson?

Sort forward?

Posted Wednesday July 22, 2009, About: T-Wolves to trade Richardson?

Gomes can play SF, but I'd say give Brewer at least a little time to develop and see if he can start in the NBA. If only for his defense, if it turns out he can play man-to-man against legit scorers.

Posted Wednesday July 22, 2009, About: T-Wolves to trade Richardson?

First question- how the hell did Quentin Richardson score a contract that would give him $9 million dollars? Doesn't he have career averages of like 12 and 4? lol

And I see what the Wolves are doing...sort of. They got rid of Telfair to show Rubio that they're committed to him. Not a bad idea. They're trading salaries (Miller, Smith) to get ready for the future. Not a bad idea. Smith isn't a bad player, but he's stuck behind Big Al, Love, Gomes and future-Wolf Nikola Pekovic.

I realllllllllly want them to make a run at Joe Johnson next year, and going after a SG might be what they are gonna do. With Love and Jefferson down low, Rubio or Flynn running point and Corey Brewer at SF, with two more lottery picks coming in, that's starting to look like an ok team.

Then again, it's the Wolves. So they'll screw it up somewhere.

Posted Saturday June 20, 2009, About: Gasol deal still irks Memphis owner

Hahaha, favorite comment of this, no doubt.

Posted Saturday May 16, 2009, About: Yankees-Twins feud brewing?

I personally agree with much of what you said.

What I personally dislike is when (and definitely not ALL Yankee fans do this) Yankee fans make excuses for why their free agents aren't performing. Media, pressure, lack of support, whatever. If you're gonna give out $400 million or whatever it is, there are no excuses for when your money doesn't perform.

That's all my rant is for today, haha.

Posted Saturday May 16, 2009, About: Yankees-Twins feud brewing?

And just for my opinion on the whole Yankee fan-Twin fan thingy, the Yankees are a good team. The Twins are a good team. The Yankees do in fact have a lot more money to spend, so I enjoy that the Twins can consistently play with the big boys.

You guys won last night, good job. We can never beat you in the Bronx, lol.

Posted Saturday May 16, 2009, About: Yankees-Twins feud brewing?

Alright, in defense of Gomez, when you lay down a bunt you run on the inside because you are shortening the window of the throw for the catcher. Gomez indeed is an immature guy, but he's just trying to get on base. If he really was doing something wrong, the ump would have made an issue of it. I doubt Gomez will do this again soon.

As for the article, does anyone know of any careers that have been ended by a situation like this? Not that I doubt it, but I'm curious...

Posted Tuesday April 28, 2009, About: Did Vikings steal Harvin from Patriots?

In the sense of speed, and smoking, Harvin is Randy Moss Jr.

Posted Tuesday April 07, 2009, About: T-Wolves to replace McHalle as VP

As big as a surprise as it is, McHale is a fine coach.

Is McHale anything close to a decent GM? No way. He took KG, and if not for that, this guy would be regarded as one of the worst GM's in NBA history. Let me give everyone a rundown of his problems section by section...

Draft-
Traded Ray Allen for Stephon Marbury
Traded Brandon Roy for Randy Foye
Took Corey Brewer over Al Thornton and Thaddeus Young
Took Rashad McCants over Danny Granger and Hakim Warrick (and Monta Ellis).
And my personal favorite..the Mario Chalmers trade for a future 2nd round pick. None of those picks would be a problem, everyone gets passed up on, it's that in every case he narrowed down to those couple of guys, and took by far the worst one.

Contracts-
Marko Jaric for $40 M
Mike James for $28 M
Trenton Hassel for $27 M
Mark Madsen for $10 M

Coaching-
Fired Flip Saunders one year after taking team to Western Conference finals
Fired Dwyane Casey with a .500 record less than 2 years into deal
Let Randy Wittman coach for 2 1/2 years, while he won a grand total of 37 games

And I didn't even mention the trades. Oh well, thanks for letting me vent! Haha