Built Ford Tough

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamiheat/post/_/id/10158/why-heat-are-likely-to-part-with-mike-miller Kind of sucks for Miller since he took a paycut last season in order to sign with the Heat only to suffer through one injury riddled season before likely getting the axe. I still believe that a fully healthy and confident Miller is a huge asset to this team, but it just isn't in the cards financially.

http://espn.go.com/espn/commentary/story/_/page/wilbon-111127/nba-season-start-chrismas-day-perfect-resolution-lockout Saying they are the most overrated franchise in American sports may be a bit of a stretch, but I don't know if I would disagree that they are the most overrated franchise in the NBA, at least in terms of on court production. They get hyped up by some as a great franchise due to their presence in New York, but if you look at their history in terms of on court production, it is very underwhelming for the amount of love that they get. If you look at it, since they won their last NBA Championship in 1973, they have only made the Eastern Conference Finals 5 times (Finals 2 times) and 15 times they have missed the playoffs. They have finished under .500 20 times, 9 of which where under .400 and 5 of which were under .300. On the other hand, there are just as many people who absolutely trash the Knicks as there are who overrate them. It really is a love/hate kind of franchise.

He is off crutches now. http://espn.go.com/blog/north-carolina-basketball/post/_/id/1286/harrison-barnes-no-longer-on-crutches

Ed Davis: DeMar DeRozan Jerryd Bayless James Johnson Andrea Bargnani Jose Calderon Amir Johnson Jonas Valanciunas Nothing really of note here, if you ask me. Hollinger basically says that the Raptors suck on defense, which is obvious. Still, I figured I would post this in case anybody wanted to see it.

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/216786/NBA_Releases_Breakdown_Of_Accelerated_Schedule#ixzz1eyoj7Lyj This sounds similar to what I had expected. If the Finals go to a Game 7, it is going to make for a very quick turnaround from the Finals, to the draft to free agency. Should be a very exciting week.

I didn't watch the game (as I mentioned in the game thread) so I can't comment on anything real specific. However, you never know. Even if he did come back and play, it doesn't necessarily mean that he won't miss any time. I know back in my high school playing days that I had come down on somebody elses foot and rolled my ankle. I played through it after sitting out for a couple of minutes and it felt alright, not great but certainly playable. The next day I could barely walk and had to go see the doctor. I ended up missing about 2-3 weeks and was on crutchs for about a week. I doubt he misses much, if any, time as from what I have read it doesn't sound all that bad. Tomorrow will make things clearer, though, as these kinds of injuries are always easier to diagnose the next day. I certainly hope he doesn't miss the Kentucky game. Watching him and Kidd-Gilchrist going at it is going to be awesome.

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/216780/Barnes_Leaves_Arena_On_Crutches#ixzz1etIAw9pw As a Harrison Barnes fan, it would really suck if he misses any sort of significant time since this year is critical not only for his draft stock, but his chances of winning an NCAA Championship, which I know is very important to him. As a Toronto Raptors fan, it may actually be better off is he does miss some time. If he misses a large amount of time, say a month or two with a high ankle sprain or something like that, it may hurt his draft stock and instead of being a likely top 3 pick, he may fall to the 5-7 range. I have full confidence that the Raptors will be a bottom 3 team this year, but who knows how the ping pong balls will fall. If he falls to the 5-7 range, it is basically a guarantee that he will end up as a Raptor, which I would absolutely love.

T-Mac was never much of an off the ball player even in his prime and was basically useless in Detroit before the Pistons played him at the point (where he ended up playing pretty well). Assuming this is true and he will end up in Chicago, what makes them think it is a good idea to put a player who needs the ball to be productive on a team with arguably the most ball dominant player in the league? It seems like a great addition based on McGrady's name, but stylistically, I think it is an awful fit.

I had to work tonight so I wasn't able to watch it. Even though Carolina lost, I still think that they are the best team in the country. Kentucky will likely get the #1 seed in the next set of rankings because of this loss, and you can definitely make the argument that the Wildcats are more talented than the Tar Heels, but I think that UNC is the better team. They just had an off game tonight. Hell, it wasn't even an off night. It was more of an off 5-10 minutes to start the 2nd half and they just happened to dig themselves a hole too deep to get out of. I may be a bit of a homer here, though. I don't have a specific team I constantly follow and jump from team to team based on the players I like, but UNC has been "my team" over the past two years because of Harrison Barnes and Kendall Marshall.

Gunnarsson and Steckel are both listed as day-to-day, so that is good news. Grabovski may return to the lineup tomorrow night against the Ducks as well. I'm not sure if it is official one way or the other yet, though. Lastly, the Leafs have recalled Keith Aulie, so it sounds like Gunnar won't be in the lineup tomorrow night.

I figured it would be easier to just make a new thread so that anybody who is interested can easily acess whatever information they need. Anyways, here is a memo of the entire tentative deal. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B_JqVMjKAfLYNzU3YzVlNDAtMDBlOS00Y2UwLWE5ZTItM2RkZTdjN2FmMzI4&hl=en_US For those of you who can't acess Google Docs, here is what is posted in the link. http://i39.tinypic.com/2q8rbjr.png http://i43.tinypic.com/scb0g8.png http://i39.tinypic.com/67pkw4.png http://i43.tinypic.com/18ovvk.png http://i39.tinypic.com/t9xnio.png http://i43.tinypic.com/30kynvb.png http://i42.tinypic.com/fmqw5t.png http://i39.tinypic.com/e9b6fm.png

Actually, the age limit may be increased. It just won't take effect this season. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=ArSQd6O72znBV_S8YNmo1wu8vLYF?slug=aw-wojnarowski_nba_draft_rule_112611 Either way, I'm happy as long as the Raptors don't get [expletive]ed over yet again. They already got screwed out of Allen Iverson and Kevin Durant/Greg Oden (who knows, maybe he has better luck with Toronto and him and Bosh become one of the best big man duos in the league). If they got screwed out of Anthony Davis this season, I just may have to go on a killing spree, starting with David Stern and Billy Hunter. There may also be a wrinkle to the amnesty clause that wasn't originally talked about. Sounds pretty cool to me. I like it better than simply cutting the player and then him having free reign to choose where he wants to play. This could enable some small market teams to get some bargins on talented, yet overpaid, players. It isn't set in stone, but I really like it and hope it makes its way into the final deal.

Yeah, especially since Bron and Wade will be watching Dirk get his ring. What, you didn't enjoy reading me talk about college ball to myself? For anybody looking for details on the deal, check out Chris Sheridan's website. http://sheridanhoops.com/2011/11/26/nba-lockout-agreement-settlement-details/

Don't forget that little tidbit. I like Bryzgalov, but him playing in Phoenix under Tippett made him look better than he actually is. Burke is an excellent goalie coach and Tippett is quite possibly the best coach in the league with a very disciplined/structured system that gets the most out o fhis players. Just look at how good Mike Smith is playing for the Yotes and he was considered an average backup prior to this year. Bryz is a good goalie, though. I'm not trying to say otherwise.

I figure rather than nitpick your answers, I'll through out a few of my own questions: 1. Who do you like more between North Carolina and Kentucky? 2. Where does Kendall Marshall rank among the greatest passers in college basketball over the last 10 or so years? 3. What are your expectations for Kansas this year? 4. Thoughts on the new CBA in baseball? What do you like and dislike about it? 5. Will the Green Bay Packers go undefeated?

A great article from Sebastian Pruiti of Grantland. A very good read and really does a nice job of breaking down Rivers' first few games with Duke, complete with videos, diagrams and photos. I definitely suggest taking 5 minutes to read it if you are at all interested in reading about Rivers. Read the rest of the article at: http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/10296/the-problems-with-austin-rivers

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/blog/_/name/nba_draft/id/7268542/ncb-kentucky-anthony-davis-continues-show-no-1-draft-prospect It is part of Chad Ford's latest Stock Watch Insider article. Coming into the season I wasn't buying into Davis' hype and thought he was going ot struggle a bit to start off his college career, especially defensively since he is on the thin side. Clearly, the opposite of that has happened. Instead of struggling against bigger college players, he is prospering by showcasing his great defensive instincts, length, athleticism and timing by blocking and altering basically everything in site. He went head to head with Thomas Robinson and came out on top, giving the junior power foreard of the Jayhawks fits. He hasn't really been given an opportunity to showcase his offensive ability aside from being an athletic finisher around the rim and a few impressive passes because of how stacked Kentucky is, but his offenisve abilities were well known coming into college anyways, and he hasn't really done anything to make people think otherwise. So yeah, count me in as somebody who is on the Davis bandwagon. It is still early and I haven't counted out guys like Drummond and Barnes as possible first overall picks, but from what I have seen of Davis, I can understand why so many scouts are absolutely gushing over him. He is going to be a special player and I am fully comfortable saying that despite only watching 2 and a half of his games this season. He is that good.

Lombardi may need surgery on his seperated shoulder and, if that is the case, he will be done for the year. Really sucks for the guy to go through all of that work to come back from the concussion he suffered at the beginning of last season only to play in about 16 games or so to suffer yet another season ending injury.

Yeah, he was smoking that good shit! Maybe that is why he is so paranoid about a conspiracy?

Memphis wins 99-97 in 2OT after Maymon misses a turnaround at the buzzer. He never should've had the opportunity, though, if not for a boneheaded play by a Memphis player. Tennessee turned the ball over on the inbounds play, but the Tiget player who got the steal started celebrating by running up the court, without realizing that there was still a second and a half left on the clock. He got called for a travel with 0.8 left on the clock and gave the Vols another shot. Even though he missed the shot at the buzzer, Maymon had a phenomenal game tonight, perhaps the best game in the history of the Maui Invitational. He finished the game with 32 points, including a shot at the end of regulation to send the game into overtime. To go along with his 32 points, he set a Maui Invitational record by grabbing 20 rebounds, breaking the previous record of 19 which was held by 3 players, one of which was Nick Collison. It really is a shame that the Vols couldn't pull out the upset and saw a game as great as this go to waste. He was a man among boys in the paint today. For Memphis, the Bartons and Thomas all had very good games. Both Bartons had 20+ points (will with 25, Antonio with 21) while Thomas chipped in with 19 of his own. He is still raw and needs some cleaning up of his game, but when he gets accustomed to the college game and is comfortable with his teams offense and system, I think Thomas is going to be a very good player. He is very talented and has a bright future ahead of him.

Tied at 91 with 17 seconds left. Tennessee ball. EDIT: Mayman (sp?) misses the shot from about 10 feet and Adonis Thomas nearly converts from behind half court as time expires. Double OT now.

Pretty much. As far as I am concerned, Bautista and Kemp were the two MVP's but because their teammates weren't good enough, they get penalized. Both of them were nuts this year and were the only reason why their teams were .500 instead of having a near 100 loss season. I knew Braun would get it, though. This doesn't bother me as much as Verlander winning the AL MVP, but it is clear that Kemp was more deserving.

4 points for Crosby last night. How soon before he catches Kessel for the scoring lead? In other news, Kyle Turris finally signed with the Yotes. He signed a 2 year, $2.8M deal. It should be interesting to see if the he will be dealt or if he will actually be with the Coyotes this season.

Memphis-Tennessee are currently in OT, tied at 83. Memphis had a double digit lead at one point but the Vols defense in the 2nd half, holding Memphis to just 28 points, allowed them to get back into the game. Memphis has went into a second half shooting slump for the 2nd straight game. Yesterday it cost them a win, will it cost them another one today?

Crosby with another point, this time an assist on an Orpik goal. I'm not exagerating when I say that he could have 4 points already. If not for a post on the PP from Malkin and Kunitz putting it just over the next, Crosby would have a goal and 3 assists in the 1st period.