Ty-
The All-star break is always a turning point in the season
where teams start to ratchet up play and effort. To me the West is basically
set even though the Memphis Grizzles are hot and is a good enough team to get
into the playoffs. But If I’m going to pick a team that can make a playoff run
than I think that it is easier in the East. The Pistons might not have played
great up until this point but they are only a game behind Charlotte for the 8th
seed in the east. I think having 20 games to make up a 1 game difference should
be easy. Also they happen to be the more talented team than Charlotte and what
their record would indicate.
Spencer-
I think the New York Knicks have the best chance at a second half run for a playoff spot. Obviously they Knicks have a major disappointment this year and under performed from what people in the off-season thought they were capable of, but you know that team has enough talent in the pitiful eastern conference to at least make the playoffs. Carmelo is a fighter and if what he says about resigning with New York is true we all know he doesn't want to just coast the rest of the season, he wants to prove he likes playing there and that he can be a key to their future. It's going to be important for the Knicks to win the winnable games though, and by that I mean no losing to the Bobcats or the 76ers, and when they are in a game late with a team equal or better than them FINISH! I think if they can do those things they will at least be the eight seed and show their fans that the entire season wasn't a lost cause. Again they are helped by the fact that they play in east so if any team can make it in that conference, they can.
Spencer-
I'm one of the biggest Johnny Manziel supporters out there. I think his game will equate to a solid NFL career, I think he is obviously a phenomenal talent and I think he was unjustly victimized by the NCAA. That being said I don't think it would be the "biggest mistake" the Texans ever made if they don't take him with the first overall pick. If the Texans feel they have other needs to address you can't blame them for that entirely. We saw them do that the year Reggie Bush came out and they passed on him to take Mario Williams who had a solid career at Houston before going to the Bills this past season. I think there is a case to be made for the Texans taking Manziel (he makes your offense more dynamic, they had QB troubles last season, he is a Texas guy) but if the Texans decide they are going with Schaub one more year and want to address other areas then that is what has to happen. They know their personnel better than fans of the game do. I think a lot of Manziel's comments are him selling himself to NFL. He wants teams to see a confident guy willing to work hard to be the best. Also what player with Top 10 potential doesn't want to be the number one pick overall? Can't blame him for arguing his case to be the top pick. My bet is no matter what team had the first pick he'd be saying the same thing. Imagine if the Redskins had the first pick? They just drafted RGIII two years ago and have every desire to keep him as their franchise guy...you think they'd be taking Manziel number one? What if the Ravens had the first pick after they just linked a huge extension with Flacco last year....you think they would draft him? Probably not. So that's my point, Manziel would be saying anyone who passed on him is making the "worst decision." If I'm the Texans I stick to my guns and this doesn't play into who I'm taking number one overall. I take who I need.
Ty-
I absolutely loved what Manziel said! I am a big Johnny
Football fan because he is so electric. To me now it has to happen that Johnny
Football goes to the Jags and balls out against the Texans 2 games a year. But
I like it more for the statement than the actual practice. I don’t think
Manziel is the clear-cut best quarterback in the draft. I think the Texans
would be fine taking Teddy Bridgewater mainly because their team is already
good. I don’t think they have that many wholes. They were a season from winning
a playoff game. Their main reason for being bad was injuries and quarterback
play. So in reality Manziel could play well for the Jaguars and still lose,
which would mean it wouldn’t be the worse mistake ever. I love the quote though
because it is motivation, he might even be better served to not get drafted
with the 1st pick.
Ty-
I feel like this is a tricky question because if I had to
purely go with the “best” player than I would have to go with Jabari Parker.
His numbers have been great and if you watch him play you can see that he can
do everything on the court offensively. He can play down low and on the
perimeter. He may not be as great on defense but he has showed himself to be
the best player. I think that Tyler Ennis has been the freshman with the
biggest impact though. Ennis’ numbers don’t really add up to the other freshmen
but he has been a major reason for why Syracuse is undefeated. He has been especially
great in late game situations, most notably his game winner against Pittsburgh.
But I’m taking Jabari Parker because he has been the best player in terms of
skill and talent. By the way Andrew Wiggins hasn't been as bad as people might think he has been. He has been such a great player defensively as well but his offensive game isn't as developed as Parker. Joel Embiid has been very impactful too and Kansas plays in a tough conference so Wiggins and Embiid deserve credit to but it's just hard to pick against Parker.
Spencer-
To answer this question I'm not looking at stats really. I think each player plays different positions and have different roles on their team. Some are dominant rebounders, some the focus of the offense and some dish out assists so their stats are just too different to base it all of stats alone. For me I'm looking at who has meant the most to their respective team and helped make the team better as a whole. With that as the focus I'm going with Tyler Ennis. People knew this kid was going to be good coming into college but I don't know if they expected him to be this good. Looking at Cuse at the beginning of the year you see a team that lost an NBA caliber point guard in Michael Carter-Williams. You had a forward returning in CJ Fair who was voted the ACC preseason player of the year and had great leadership and basketball experience, but he was never a guy who could run the offense himself. Fair always needed a guy to be the administrator for his game. Thus came along Ennis. He fits that 2-3 zone perfectly with a 6'5 wingspan and he has unbelievable floor vision offensively. He has stepped up to be the general of the offense averaging 5.6 assists per game but also knows when he needs to take the shot himself instead passing it off. His confidence has also been stellar particularly down the stretch in close game. When his team has needed him to make a play in crunch time he as risen to the occasion time and time again, and that goes beyond just the three point buzzer beater against Pittsburgh last week. The biggest thing that differentiates him from his predecessor MCW is that he doesn't give up costly turnovers, as he is only averaging 1.6 a game for the season. That is an important stat for a point guard to have. When you put all that together with a team of guys that buy into the system they play in, its no wonder why Syracuse is 25-0. I believe Ennis' play has been more important to the success of his team than any of the other guys on this list. Parker is obviously a force for Duke and the offense runs through him, the combination of Wiggins and Embiid is scary and those guys can ball and of course Randle is statistically the best averaging a double double, but I just don't see those guys as bigger individual impacts to their team especially in close games, as Ennis has been in guiding the Orange to a 25-0 start.
Spencer-
Let me start by saying this game was awesome! That was exactly what the Olympics are supposed to be about and not only did that game live up to the hype but it united us around cheering for this team to get gold and hope for a rematch. Still though, I don't think it can quite trump the 1980 Olympics Miracle on Ice win over Russia. I obviously wasn't alive then but seeing the highlights and hearing people talk about it, you can just tell what a moment it was for Olympic Hockey and the U.S.A. Nowadays the two teams are more evenly matched then they were back then since it's not amateurs playing on team U.S.A. anymore but professionals. Also you don't have all the historic meaning to it with Cold War going on back then so the impact of the win wasn't as big. Either way I am more excited for a potential rematch of Saturdays game with Russia for gold then for a semi-final game with Canada. The stakes of winning gold against the host country, a "rival" if you will and a shot at redemption after losing the gold medal game in 2010 trumps a rematch with the defending champs (Canada) in the semis for me. All I know is this tournament is gonna be wild! This time next week I hope I'm posting a blog about my thoughts on winning that gold medal over Russia! U-S-A!
Ty-
I don’t think that this really compares to the 1980’s team
because that 1980’s team beat the Russians in a more important game. Although
it wasn’t tournament style like it is today it was an important round robin
game with Medal importance. This year’s game was more about qualifying for the
single elimination portion. Also that American team in the 80’s was way more of
an underdog because Russia had won the gold medal in 6 of the 7 times prior to
that Olympics. That game was great but it would be better if the U.S. team beat
Canada in the semis and then beat Russia again. But I would much rather prefer
to play Canada in the final but I still want to see them beat Canada more
because of the revenge factor.
5) What did we learn?
Spencer- The Mount Rushmore metaphor for sports, sucks.
Nothing bothered me more last week then Lebron James sending the sports world in a frenzy with his naming of who would be on the Mount Rushmore of NBA greats, because it did more than start debates on if his four player were right but then became the standard for comparing players in all sports. I heard people saying it was okay to have more than four people on their Mount Rushmore first of all, which is the first ridiculous part about this. Look Mount Rushmore has four heads on it. If you can't pick just four people for any Mount Rushmore metaphor you shouldn't be using that standard! That doesn't make any sense. Oh Mount Rushmore has four people on it but lets make an exception and add five other heads because I think they deserve it too. Come on man. Secondly four is such a stupid number to compare. What happened to top 10 lists? Even top five lists? Now we gotta do four!? Four? Really? That just doesn't add up to me and is another reason why it should never be used as a standard for measuring the greatest players in a respective sport.
In every professional sport there are more than four greats without a doubt in my mind, which brings me to my next point. Why are we so hung up on comparing greats to begin with!? Why can't one guy be great in his own right and another great on theirs. Its like the Lebron vs. Jordan thing. It's impossible to compare them in my opinion because they are different players, played different positions, played with different styles and who played in different eras. This is the time of year when sports networks get so bored that they feel the need to compare everyone. I heard people talking about if Derrek Jeter belongs on the Yankees Mount Rushmore after he announced his retirement. First of all the Yankees retire just about everyone who has worn a jersey so if all those guys were great they would need 20 Mount Rushmore's to fit them all. This whole idea of Mount Rushmore is ridiculous so lets just drop it. That is my challenge to all the sports networks out there. Move on from Mount Rusmore's and lets talk about some actual sports news. For how long these sports have been played, there are too many greats to pick just four to have their heads etched in stone. That's why we have Hall of Fames, because they fit everyone.
(Ty Butting in- LeBron only brought this up because everybody was talking about Kevin Durant. He basically was like, "Hey stop saying Durant is catching up because I'm going to be among greats!" I'm not mad at it but it seems like LeBron brought this up out of the blue.)
I know there are a lot of NBA haters out there. There are the people who don't like basketball so their hate is understandable. The people that like College but not the NBA makes less sense to me. I understand if you went to a college and loved the school and basketball team that way. But if you are a basketball fan how can you like college more? The NBA play is obviously better, because the NBA gets it's players from the college game.But thats a debate for another day. The thing that people really can't deny is that the NBA All-Star game is the best of all the sports.
Let me just say that All-star games are flawed in general because it is hard to get people to play an exhibition game hard due to fear of injury. The Pro-bowl is a joke, only because lazy football just looks terrible. I don't blame the players because football is a game where it is rare for a team to come out of a game fully healthy. The Baseball all-star game has weight to it but it is usually boring for fans besides die hard fans. Also making it decide the home team of the World Series is stupid, half the players know by then that they probably wont play in the playoffs. It also makes a monotonous season of 162 games less meaningful. The Hockey All-star game is ok but it's hard to give the fans what they want all the time and it's the least watched of the 4.
The NBA All-Star weekend because there are better events because basketball allows you to play different kinds of events. The game in itself is better because people love seeing these guys dunk all over the place and shooting 3's. Yes they don't play defense in the first 3 quarters but who cares? I think people are just lying to themselves if they love seeing great defense and missed shots all over the place. In every single sport people love a shoot out. Defense is great for winning championships but not for entertainment. But they play defense when the game is on the line like it was yesterday.
All-star games are still flawed but I would rater watch the NBA All-star game than any of the other options by a ridiculously wide margin and many people would probably agree
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