NBA.com Draft Preview

Ordinarily, I’m not to keen on rookies as fantasy options. Too often, players come into the NBA needing to learn new positions. Or put on some bulk. Or how to succeed when they can’t get by on size or athleticism alone.

That’s especially true of high lottery picks – who often need to adjust to the fact that they’ll lose more games as rookies than they did in their entire college and high school careers.

But a funny thing happened on the way to this year’s lottery. The top two teams just aren’t that bad.

Look at some of the players on the Chicago and Miami rosters: Dwyane Wade. Shawn Marion. Kirk Hinrich. Ben Gordon. Luol Deng. These are not the teammates lottery picks usually get. A wide variety of factors put the Bulls and Heat on top of the lottery – injuries, internal turmoil, trades and coaching changes – but both teams seem well-positioned for a quick turnaround. And that means the prohibitive favorites to be chosen first and second – Michael Beasley and Derrick Rose – won’t be toiling for terrible teams. The won’t be forced into leadership roles while they’re still getting their feet wet at the next level.

And that could mean the best rookie seasons we’ve seen in a long time.

Here’s my projection for the lottery. We’ll take another look after the June 26 draft.

Stay Classy, Flushing

Note to Omar Minaya:

There's this thing called the Internet now. Also... there's television. ESPN -- perhaps you've heard of it?

I mention this because you seem to think that the shameful, cowardly move of firing your manager at 3:15 AM Eastern -- keeping the news out of the morning editions of the News, Post and Times -- is somehow going to minimize the negative attention you'll receive as a result.

Ain't gonna happen, Omar.

But because I'm a generous guy, I'll say this... when the Wilpons fire you at the end of this season -- a firing you richly deserve, for spending more cash than anyone in the NL while assembling a roster of guys well past their collective prime -- I hope they'll do you the courtesy of making the move during business hours.

Adriana Lima to Marry Marko Jaric

Never thought I'd be linking to People magazine from this site, but here you go:
Supermodel Adriana Lima Engaged to Basketball Star.

Like the rest of you, I suspect, I find two things deeply troubling about that lead.

1. It was depressing enough when we learned she was dating Jaric in the first place. She didn't need to go and marry the guy.
2. "Basketball Star?"

C'mon, People. You're part of the same company that owns Sports Illustrated and TNT. Couldn't someone place a call to Ian Thomsen or Charles Barkley and get a more... accurate description of Jaric's basketball prowess for that headline?

This is exactly the sort of half-assed corporate synergy that caused the AOL Time Warner merger to fail. (But I'm not bitter.)

Of course, I'd be remiss if I posted a blog entry on any Victoria's Secret model without a photo:

Here's the soon-to-be Mrs. Jaric, re-enacting a scene from Grease with some of her hot friends. Plenty more like it over at Askmen.com.



And here's more on the incredibly, blindingly lucky Mr. Jaric:

Wordless Wednesday: One on One

If they'd decided the nomination with a game of one-on-one, the result probably would have been the same...

From the "I wish I'd thought to write this" file... Christopher Orr of The New Republic applies some of Hillary Clinton's Democratic Primary arguments to the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.

A particularly awesome passage:

Once you abandon the artificial four-games-to-two framework that the media has tried to impose on the series, a very different picture emerges, with the Celtics leading by a mere 549 points to 539. Yes that’s right, the margin between the two teams is less than one percent—a tie, for all intents and purposes. This is probably the closest Conference Finals in NBA history, though I will thank you not to check on that.

Nice work, Mr. Orr.

(Hat-tip to Henry Abbot at True Hoop for the link.)

While we're on the topic of basketball and politics, I'll throw in a plug for something I wrote over on About.com a little while back... analyzing the different candidates from a basketball perspective:

Senator Barack Obama's love of basketball has been well-chronicled throughout the presidential campaign, leaving many to wonder if an Obama White House would feature one-on-one and "H.O.R.S.E" instead JFK's famed touch football.

But what about the other candidates? Don't we have a right to know where they stand on basketball? Can Hillary Clinton sink a jumper? How is John McCain's vertical?

It's our civic duty to examine these questions.

Read the full article, The Basketball Candidate, on collegebasketball.about.com. And thank your lucky stars that we don't have to worry about Mike Huckabee any more.