ESPN BYU Football Preview

ESPN.com published an involved preview of BYU's upcoming football season today.

It's pretty good, with a couple omissions and mistakes. That said, the attention is nice.

A year ago, the Cougar offense graduated nearly every significant skill position player, and yet the offense never missed a beat. It's doubtful Mendenhall would push The Quest if he didn't think he had the horses on defense, and his track record grants him the benefit of the doubt.

For Hawaii and Boise State, BCS anticipation built over the course of the season. For the Cougars, it will be there from outset, and the games against Washington and UCLA will go a long way toward determining their postseason fate before the third week in September ends.

A good summary. Can't afford to go 1-2 to start this season, as BYU did the last two years. I don't want to see a top-20 start squandered.

2008 NBA Draft

I love the NBA Draft. I love watching perennial lottery teams mess up over and over again, I love watching San Antonio pick guys from Europe you've never heard of and I love that it's over in four hours and not two days or three weeks (I'm looking at you, NFL and MLB).

So here we are, at the conclusion of another successful NBA draft. And by successful I mean none of the draftees attacked or hugged David Stern (and I'm not sure which one would be worse for him).

Again, I believe this draft is exceptionally weak. Rose and Beasley will be good players, solid players, but not franchise guys. I don't see anyone else doing amazingly well either, but there are always two or three later picks that end up being All-Stars, so I'm not saying the class is entirely devoid of overachievers.

Real quick Utah thoughts: I guess I'm okay with the Jazz's picks. Though I must admit I stared at the T.V. and yelled "IT'S OKUR VERSION 2!" when ESPN was talking about Kosta Koufos. Big, European, can't bang down low, not very athletic, likes to play outside. I mean, Okur is great and all (and I doubt Kofas has his range), but we have one of him already.

The other two picks the Jazz will stash in Europe and most likely will never see the United States. And shoot, Koufos might just go to Europe, as well.

I know we need a good center, but let's not draft centers just to draft centers. Here's hoping Fes can be the guy we need next season.

A recent interview by a Jazz guy on Utah sports radio indicated that Fes will be ready to go. So we'll see.

Len Bias

My family moved to Springfield, Massachusetts in the summer of 1986. I was four years old at the time and not exactly sports-inclined, but if I had been, I would have been right in the middle of the chaos that surrounded the events following Len Bias' death.

But I was too little to be aware of who the Celtics were, let alone what Bias' death meant to the franchise. So I appreciate ESPN's Michael Weinreb's taking a very in-depth look at the tragedy, 22 years after it happened. I view the piece as an excellent example of quality sports journalism.

Definitely worth the read.

Pre-draft NBA news

It's good to see teams get to making moves this offseason. The Celtics and Lakers proved what a huge and immediate impact one good (or dirty) trade can have on your team, so why not see what you can get?

ESPN reports that the Raptors are sending T.J Ford, Rasho Nesterovich and the 17th pick in this year's draft to Indiana for Jermain O'Neal. There will have to be another player or two moved to make the contracts match up, but this is the essence of the deal.

I like this trade, but I'd like it more if I was confident that O'Neal will be healthy. Obviously Toronto has chosen Jose Calderon over Ford, so moving him isn't that big of a deal for them. But a frontline of Bosh and healthy Jermaine is highly impressive, especially in the east.

The Pacers get a good point guard (Ford is great when healthy) to replace Jamaal Tinsley, and ship someone who's essentially worn out his welcome in Indiana. Jermaine is owed $21 and $23 million over the next two seasons, and if he's not healthy, that's money burned. Ford racked up a few double-digit assists games for the Raptors early in the season before he got hurt.

Of course, that leaves Jeff Foster, Ike Diogu and David Harrison manning your frontcourt, so the Pacers may want to make another trade or draft accordingly to shore that up.

It's apparent that the key cog for this trade is health. A healthy Ford and O'Neal makes this trade a good one for both teams. Otherwise, one team or the other or both are getting the short end of the stick in the long run.

A more dynamic Deron Williams?

Boy, am I sick of the hype surrounding this year's NBA draft class. I've already made my feelings clear; I think we'll look back on 2008 as a weak year for talent.

Today I was watching ESPN's pre-draft coverage, and Jay Bilas labeled Derrick Rose as a "more dynamic Deron Williams."

What?

Let's clarify what "A is a more _____ B" means, first. To me, this means B is everything A is, and even more, ie. what is in the blank. For example, "Peja is a more sane Vujacic," or "Pixar is a more intelligent Disney."

I agree that Rose is fast, quick, and can get to the hoop. He may even be better at out-quicking defenders while driving to the rim than Deron is.

But the one thing everyone glosses over is Rose's vision. Can he see teammates for open baskets? Can be anticipate plays before they develop? Can he break down a half-court defense and create good offense for his guys?

I doubt it. Rose only averaged 4.7 assists in 30 minutes per game this last season. Memphis scored 80 points a game, which means Rose created less than 10 points per game (or 12.5%) of his team's offense though his passing.

On the other hand, Deron averaged 6.7 assists in 33 mpg in 2004, with Dee Brown sharing the ball distribution to the tune of 4.5 apg. Illinois scored 76 ppg that year. Hence, Deron was responsible for almost 13 points per game (or 17%) of his team's offense, while sharing the dimes with Brown.

I expect Rose to average around six or seven assists per for his career high, while shooting a rather low percentage on his jumpers.

I certainly don't see him averaging 19 and 10, while shooting 50% from the field and 40% from the 3.

Essentially, Rose is a more quick Kirk Hinrich.

Can Rose come to Chicago and make the Bulls go? To be honest, I don't think there are many players who can. When your headline players are... um.... Luol Deng, and uh... Larry Hughes, and.... Ben Gordon, I guess, there's not much to work with.

Oh, and Vinny Del Negro is your coach. No offense to Vinny, but it's common knowledge that he was like Chicago's sixth choice after they fired Scott Skiles.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: Rose won't make the Bulls a playoff contender any time soon.

And if he does, please feel free to bring up this post and mock me.

Draft thoughts

I don't usually get too involved in prospective NBA players, just like I don't usually care about college football or basketball recruits. Drafting and recruiting are crapshoots for the most part. How many top-5 picks in the NBA draft have turned out to be giant busts? Kwame Brown, Joe Smith, Michael Olowokandi, Shawn Bradley... the list is pretty long.

It's hard to predict who will succeed in the NBA. Some players don't do much in college and turn out to have 10-year careers in the league. Others dominate in college and are out of the NBA within two seasons.

So with that in mind, I'm not going submit a mock draft, but here are some thoughts:

1. I'm not that high on Rose. He's freakishly quick and a decent shooter, but that puts him at the level of Devin Harris, in my book. Maybe he's a better distributor than he showed in college (4.7 apg), but if he's not, Chicago had better not be expecting him to come in and turn that team around.

2. I'm also not sold on Beasley. Recent reports put him at 6'8", which is small forward range. I was more excited when I thought he was 6'10", fair or not. I doubt he'll be able to post up power forwards in the NBA, which means he'll have to rely on his jumper, which is admittedly pretty sweet. Don't see him being a major impact player in the NBA, either.

3. How weird is it that seven years after Stanford produced twin centers who were drafted into the NBA, they do it again? I doubt they'll perform much better than their predecessors.

4. Apparently Roy Hibbert has been working his tail off and getting in shape. Thus, his stock has improved, and he should be gone by the time the Jazz's pick comes around. In that case, TRADE YOUR PICKS, UTAH. Develop Fesenko and Almond and Brewer. Don't bring in two new guys to muddle things up.

5. Mock drafts around the internet say that Plaisted has a face-up game. He never, ever, ever, EVER showed this in three years at BYU. Not once. Trent had exactly one move: back the defender down, then flip a pseuso-hook shot over his left shoulder from the key. If he has somehow developed the ability to face the basket and hit a jumper since March, I will be highly astounded.

That's about all that interests me about this year's draft. I think it's fairly weak. We'll see.

Pet peeve alert

Today I received a forwarded e-mail about the difference between men and women. Normally I don't bother reading forwards past a short skim, but a cursory examination of this one revealed the monologue was an excerpt from Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys, and one that I happen to love.

The problem? The e-mail was headed by this brilliant remark:

Men And Women Are NOT The Same – Not Even CLOSE!
Author Unknown (But SMART!)

Now, I get that someone read this passage from Dave Barry, liked it a lot, and wanted to send it to their friends. Or maybe they read it on the internet, liked it a lot, and wanted to share it with their friends. That's fine, as long as they attribute the correct author.

But somewhere along the way, the information about who wrote this piece was lost.

Now look, in today's information age, it takes all of three seconds to find the truth. I know that's three seconds longer than it takes to read the anecdote, laugh, and click forward yourself, but please take the time.

[/rant]

Now that I'm calmed down, here's the passage on one of the many sites that have posted it (note the correct attribution on this one.)