I neglected to mention Peter Schiff

In Tuesday's brief rant about how the ones in charge of the United States economy are apparently clueless, I forgot to bring up Peter Schiff. I'd never heard of Schiff until a few months ago, when suddenly Youtube videos of his doomsaying prophecies began popping up.





What strikes me most is that he laughed at by virtually everyone, yet calmly stuck to his guns. This guy has the financial world figured out at a level I don't think anyone else has reached.

Can we give him at least an advisory position in our government, or does he make too much sense?

These are the people we trust

This it the guy we trust when it comes to the U.S. economy. Newsweek listed him as the fourth most powerful person in the world.

College football in June

Disclaimer: I normally don't get involved at all with recruiting at the college level. I don't believe that ranking 16- and 17-year old kids accurately is possible. For every Ty Detmer (Texas Player of the Year) there seem to be three Ben Olsons (highly recruited, bust once they hit the field).

But today is arguably the biggest offseason day in BYU football history, as quarterback Jake Heaps, wide receiver Ross Apo and linebacker Zac Stout all committed to play for BYU in 2010.

Here's a quick rundown on all three:

Heaps, who will be a Senior at Skyline High School in Washington next year, is a five-star recruit and wanted by every college in the country. He's 6'2" and has a great arm. Here's a Youtube highlight reel:

Good pocket presence, can run, throw the deep ball and find guys over the middle. His high school team went 28-0 over the last two years and won two state championships. Can't ask for much more from a 17-year old kid. 

Apo was recruited by several big-time school and had originally committed to Texas before changing his mind and choosing BYU today. Apparently Heaps approached him and recruited him for the Cougars. He's a 6'4" and plays for The Oakridge School in Texas. Unfortunately there aren't many highlight videos to choose from, but here's a video of him at the 2009 Stanford Nike Camp:

Quickness, decent speed, and okay hands. We'll see how he pans out, but this is a good get.

And finally, last but not least, Stout is a 6'2", 220-pound linebacker from Oaks Christian High School in California. He got a four-star ranking from Scout.com. No video on him that I can find, but he was offered scholarships from Nebraska, UCLA, Arizona and other schools. After whiffing on Manti T'eo a few months ago, Stout is a fine pick-me-up for the defense. 

All three players announced their intentions this afternoon in Salt Lake. I watched the press conference live, and was struck by how each of them realize that they may be good, but they can't win on their own. Heaps said he knows there are 22 players on offense and defense, and it takes more than just one guy to win a football game. 

They each expressed a desire to win a national championship in Provo. While I think this kind of talk is really, really premature, I like the optimism and the fact that these kids believe you don't have to go to a BCS school to win it all. 

BYU is now ranked eighth in Scout.com's recruiting rankings, the only non-BCS school in the Top 25.

Great day for June football. Now let's see how things pan out in the future.

Ambition

This is very, very ambitious. 

If Microsoft can pull this off as advertised, at a price that is affordable to American consumers, I will be highly impressed. 

It just seems too far ahead of the current technological curve to work right now. 

Remember the Virtual Boy?

Yeah, that didn't go so well. Turns out playing it for longer than 10 minutes at a time gave you killer headaches. 

We'll see how Project Natal does. 

My Finals thoughts

I've spent the last few days reading blog posts and ESPN articles and message board thoughts about the 2009 NBA Finals between the Lakers and Magic, and I generally agree with the analysis that the Lakers should win in six or seven games.

Orlando is where they are because of streaky insane shooting from deep. From Bill Simmons:

Orlando enjoyed one of the most remarkable shooting stretches in NBA history: From Game 7 of the Boston series through Game 4 of the Cleveland series, the Magic drained 55 of 119 3-pointers (47 percent).

Good gravy, that's hot. But unfortunately for them, conventional wisdom is that teams who live by the three and die by the three die by the three in the playoffs. The Suns made a couple good runs, but in the end, superior post play and good defense wins over a 3-point shooting team.

And right now, Pau Gasol is the best post player in the Finals. He's not as big or strong or athletically gifted as Dwight, but he has good footwork and great passing ability as well as a nice touch from midrange.

While most people acknowledge Pau's skills, I haven't seen anyone mention the fact that Howard has zero game in the post.

And to me, Howard's lack of footwork is the difference maker in this series. He's been in the league for four seasons now. That he has no ability to destroy people on the low block is a travesty and offends my basketball sensibilities.

Sure, dominating your opponents through catch and dunk works fine for high school and regular season stuff. It may even allow you to get through the East if you have good enough teammates.

But it's not good enough to win a Finals. I think people overlook this glaring deficit in Howard's game because he puts up lines like 40 points and 14 rebounds and 30 points and 13 rebounds with some regularity.

This is impressive, make no mistake. But this is merely Howard using his physical gifts to get easy shots thanks to good passing from his teammates. Give him the ball within a two-foot radius of the hoop, and he will dunk over you or get a layup.

But force him to catch the ball outside of that radius and he's helpless. He can't back his defender down. He has no spin move. He can't hit a jumper. He doesn't know how to use a drop step. I've seen him make a couple hook shots, but they are far from second nature to him.

The Magic hired Patrick Ewing, a big man with a low post game, to coach Howard in July of 2007. It has been almost two years since that decision was made, and apparently, Orlando would have been just as well served to throw that money down a well, because I see no appreciable difference between Dwight of 2007 and Dwight in 2009.

I think this bothers me more than most because I am just under six feet tall and have a good post game. Height and athletic ability mean nothing when it comes to understanding how to work on the low block. For Howard to be so supremely gifted and then waste it because he's too lazy or stupid to learn this one facet of the game is a tragedy in today's NBA.

Can you imagine Howard's body with Hakeem Olajuwan's game? I don't think I exaggerate when I say an individual with that pairing would average 40 points and 15 boards a game over and entire season. Easily.

That individual with those skills and ability working with shooters like Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu beats this Laker team. But today, Howard is not that individual. As it is, Dwight is too easily marginalized and LA will win. Bynum hasn't been great this series, but he is a big, strong body that can stay in front of Howard, much like a smaller Kendrick Perkins did in the Orlando/Boston series this year.

I hope this experience will give Howard the motivation he needs to spend every day this offseason working his tail off to develop the footwork he needs to be a superstar. If not, I don't know what will.

Lakers in 6, and every L.A. fan sends a thank-you card to the Grizzlies and Patrick Ewing.

Kobe and LeBron babysit

Puppets are funny. This one is the best so far.

Why the Gasol trade should be talked about more

In February of 2008, the Lakers traded Kwame Brown and some crumbs to the Grizzlies for Pau Gasol. I've ranted about that move several times since, and if you read my blog, you're familiar with my arguments.

But apparently there are those who don't see the Gasol trade as being any worse than say, the Billups for Iverson move or how Portland traded the pick that was Deron Williams to Utah.

Let me outline why this was a horrendous trade that, in my mind, completely invalidates this Laker team. Without Pau, there is no way they beat Houston or Denver. And as a disclaimer, as much as I disliked the Shaq and Kobe Lakers, I didn't see that team as illegitimate.

What makes the Kwame for Pau trade egregiously inequitable?

The key here is that both players were proven commodities. Pau is an All-Star level forward. Kwame is a major, major bust who contributes little to nothing to whatever team he is on.

That's what bugs me. LA gave away nothing in exchange for a player who has proven he can play extremely well for an extended period of time at the highest level of basketball.

People play the Deron card, but Deron was an unknown commodity coming out of college. There was little to no proof that he could succeed at the professional level. The Jazz took a risk trading up to pick him, just like the Blazers took a risk trading that pick away. It worked out for the Jazz.

In the same way, I do not begrudge the Lakers for having Bynum. Putting aside how ineffectual he's been in the playoffs, that kid has a bright future ahead of him, and I hate that he'll probably be making the Lakers good for another 10 years or so.

But you know what? The Lakers took a chance on an unproven kid coming out of high school. Plenty of bigs cannot take their size and translate it into NBA excellence. LA risked it with Bynum, added a lot of good coaching, and now it's paying off. That's how the game is played.

The Allen Iverson for Chauncy trade was also fine. Detroit made no bones about the fact that they were blowing up the team in order to have cap space this summer. They tanked the season. As they won two championships in the last decade, I think they probably have the right to do so. And in the end, Iverson is a proven commodity in the league... he's a scorer with decent passing skills who can get you 20 points plus per game if you let him have shots.

Chauncy is also a known commodity: a point guard who can score and run an offense well. Denver thought he could help their team, so they took a chance on trading for him.

Was the trade 100% equitable for both teams? Not really, no. Iverson has proved to be more of a problem that Detroit probably imagined, and Chauncy has been better for Denver than I think anyone expected. This is fine.

But when teams are able to give up what amounts to a pile of garbage in exchange for a great player, I don't think that's fair.

And there you have it. Find me another trade in NBA history that is egregiously inequitable as this one was.