The Wheel of Cheese

After watching the 2007 edition of the NBA Draft, I can now take some useless time to provide my own insight on the Minnesota Timberwolves picks, and the draft in general.

Minnesota Timberwolves:

The Wolves had the #7 pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, and they did not disappoint, as they got a solid pick with Corey Brewer from the University of Florida. As I stated in a previous post, I would have been happy if the T-Wolves got either Brewer or his teammate Joakim Noah with their first round draft pick, so getting Brewer made me happy. He is a great defender, something the Wolves need, and he also seems to have a good jump shot that just needs a little more development. Brewer will be a good fit with Randy Foye in the back court, and the two should be a great duo for the Wolves once they both develop into sound NBA players.

With their second pick in the draft, the Wolves took Florida forward Chris Richard, a teammate of Brewer's with the 44th pick in the draft. Kevin McHale, GM of the T-Wolves thought Richard would be a good fit for the Wolves, and in a press conference today at Target Center, he stated that, "Two Gators are better than one,". Personally, I don't know much about this guy, other than he was another Florida Gator. I do however like the fact that the Wolves got a package deal with two college teammates who know each other very well. I am hoping that this will result in an increase in team chemistry and that Richard will ultimately pay dividends down the road as a person who can bang in the paint with the best players in the NBA.

Lastly, after many rumors floating around television networks in the days leading up to the NBA Draft about Kevin Garnett getting traded, draft day came and went without him getting traded. I think this was a bad move by the Wolves, as it seems that he is going to want out after his contract is up, and if traded during the draft, the Wolves could have gotten some great future talent for him. In addition, with draft day being gone, it will now be even harder for the T-Wolves to get something descent in return for Garnett. I guess this is just another boneheaded move by Timberwolves management, and that I should have seen it coming.

Draft Day Notes:

- Seeing Joakim Noah go to the Bulls "in style" with his white suit and hair flying all over the place was quite the attention getter at the draft, even though he was not the number one pick or the first Florida player to be drafted. It should also be noted, he did the Gator chomp as he walked up to the podium, which excited the fans at the draft and made the ESPN crew chuckle. I will say that after being drafted by the Bulls, it should be interesting seeing what he does with his hair upon playing in Chicago, as Scott Skiles has a "no headband" policy, and Noah will need something to help keep all that hair out of the way. Also Joakim and Ben Wallace will possibly be known as "twin afros" and will also set a record for largest amount of hair to occupy the lane in an NBA game according to my buddies over at Stats Inc.

- The Milwaukee Bucks took China's Yi Jianlian with their first overall pick, an interesting pick, as the Bucks will have to work hard to sign him. Initial reports out of the China camp are that they are unhappy about where Yi went (go figure...it is Milwaukee), and that could add to the long process of signing Yi to a contract. This same situation took place a couple years ago when Yao Ming was drafted by the Houston Rockets. It took awhile for him to get signed, but the key difference was that the Rockets had almost all of the paperwork done before the draft, whereas the Bucks don't have much of it done, and they already drafted Mr.Jianlian. Another parting thought was that at the draft, he was interviewed, and it should be known that he seems to be a big party goer, knows more English than Yao currently knows and likes that Sean John gangsta clothing.

- Trades in the NBA Draft this year did occur, but they did not involve KG, and some of them surprised some people. The one that surprised me the most was the trade of Ray Allen to Boston, as he will now play alongside Paul Pierce, as both of these players will now be able to fight for ball possession, as they both like to shoot up the rock. In addition, the Portland Trail Blazers got rid of Zach Randolph and sent him to New York in exchange for Steve Francis and some other players. I thought this was a odd trade, as I will predict that Mr. Randolph will get into some off-court trouble in the NYC area. Whether it be packing heat at the strip joint like Pac-Man Jones, or smoking weed in his whip like Damon Stoudemire, I will say he will get into some trouble during the upcoming season, and face the wrath of Knicks coach/GM Isiah Thomas.

- The ESPN crew did a great job of covering the draft like usual, and they actually kept my interest as I watched past the first round of the draft this year on TV. Seeing Dickie V and Stephen A. Smith verbally spar throughout the draft was pretty good, and between that, you had the monotone voice of Jay Bilas spewin out draft day info, and riling up Stephen A. some more. Also, Mike Tirico was clutch, although seeing the draft did not have any exciting gamelike plays, he was unable to bust out any large signature lines.

The above stories I talked about were just some of the intriguing things to transpire at the NBA Draft on Thursday night. I will say that there were other big things did happen as well (Three Florida players picked in Top 10, DJ Strawberry drafted, etc.), but I would rather save myself from typing it all up right now and get some sleep. Good night!

Labels: nba draft, timberwolves

Posted by Kyle at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments

From time to time, I enjoy a little sports betting, and quite regularly, I am up late at night checking out the early morning lines, deciding whether or not to wager on the day's games early. I don't bet a whole lot of money, as this is no way of getting rich, as I just do it for the enjoyment and the thrill of victory.

Here is a quick preview of a couple of the games coming up tomorow, as I posted this on a popular sports betting site Covers.com in their message forum.

Detroit / Minnesota

* In looking at this game, I like two things. For starters, with Verlander and Santana going at it, I like the UNDER (5 inn/game), as both of these pitchers should get locked up in an exciting pitchers duel at the Dome on Friday. Jim Leyland even said it best as when asked about Friday's expected pitching duel, he stated, "If I was in the neighborhood, I'd stop by,". In picking a team for this game, although Santana in an underdog (+110), I really like his chances Friday night. He will be facing a Detroit lineup that will be without Gary Sheffield, and his offense will hopefully give him some run support that Santana deserves. His record may be 8-6, but if he was on another team in the MLB, he would probably easily have 10+ wins right now (or if the Twins started hitting the ball on a regular basis ).

Washington / Pittsburgh

* This matchup seems to have me divided, as I was originally thinking Nats, but now am starting to sway towards the Pirates. Ian Snell seems to be having a descent year, and like Santana is not getting run support from his offense. His 6-5 record and 2.92 ERA speak for themselves. The Nats have lost 4 out of 5 coming into this game, and are looking to Matt Chico for a rebound. I liked Chico on the mound against the Pirates, but then after seeing this game is on the road, Chico is 0-4 with a 4.95 ERA when pitching away from the friendly confines of RFK Stadium. This game will come down to the Pittsburgh Pirates bats, as Snell should give them a chance to win, but it will all matter if he gets run support.

Tampa Bay / Cleveland

* If you want to sum this game up in one word, you would have to say "run-scoring". The D-Rays and Indians are sending two of the worst pitchers to the mound in MLB, and the result will not be pretty as both pitchers have ERA's over 7 coming into this game. However, taking a closer look at the game, the outlook may not be as it seems. It should be noted though that D-Rays pitcher Edwin Jackson got his first win of the season last game against the Dodgers, and pitched a pretty descent game, going six innings and giving up two runs. Also, Indians pitcher Jake Westbrook recently came off the DL, and had a good outing pitching 7 innings of six hit ball, giving up three runs. What does this all add up to? Well, basically I'd stay away from this game. The initial temptation is to bet OVER, but these pitchers have showed that they can have two different sides to them, as they can pitch both good and bad.

Watch Out - Indians (-200) / Red Sox (-235)

* I circle these two teams going into tomorrow, because they are all favored by a large margin and could get used as a parlay of sorts in a person's eyes. At the same time, I feel weary of these teams all winning, as they could easily slip. The Indians are high favorites due to the fact that Edwin Jackson has been horrible this season, but he came around this past weekend against the Dodgers and just might have another good start against the Indians. When looking at the BoSox here, I know they are heavy favorites becuase of Jamey Wright's rubber arm taking the hill, but just like Edwin Jackson, he too had a descent start last time out and could be in line for another strong outing. I guess I'd just say although its tempting to parlay these teams in some sort of way, I'd keep them out, because I see one if not both of these teams losing tomorrow. On a personal note, I am going to stay away from Parlays for awhile, as I am either hit or miss with them, and they have given me less confidence as of late. So there's another reason not to parlay right there.

Labels: parlay, sports betting, twins

Posted by Kyle at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments

For those of you who are like me, summer lacks basketball. When the NBA season is over, that means no more high-flying dunks, buzzer beaters, three point bombs and most of all, no more Bill Walton quotes on television for a couple more months. So what is the cure for this? Sure, watching ESPN Classic and NBA TV will help starve off the demons of the NBA off-season, as will some cowbell, but the NBA Draft is another alternative, as tonight, the draft selects the future talent of the association and gives fans another reason to groan or cheer for their team, depending on the type of draft they have.

The 2007 NBA Draft is the culmination of the days of trade rumors, draft player workouts, mock drafts and all the expert opinion that has been seen in newspapers, websites and on television. David Stern will take the podium in a tidy fashion, Steven A. Smith will bring his best material to the table over on ESPN, and the crowd at Madison Square Garden will let you know if the Knicks as well as other teams made a good draft choice or not.

Labels: espn, nba draft, timberwolves

Posted by Kyle at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments

Must be a slow day in MLB baseball today as upon checking out the official site of MLB, I saw this article...about birds, not baseball:

A minor annoyance at Comerica Park has begun to go away.
The large flock of seagulls that has hovered around the field at Comerica for the last four games returned on Wednesday, though some pregame schemes by the grounds crew had dwindled their numbers.

Before Tuesday's game, the grounds crew placed six plastic owls around the outfield before the game started. Also on Tuesday, two black Labradors were led around the outfield about three hours before the game.

To read the rest of the article...click on the link below.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070612&content_id=2021557&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb">http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070612&content_id=2021557&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Posted by Kyle at 6:30 PM | Permalink | Comments

* The following blog post is one I posted in the USCHO.com online message forum. It was in response to people mentioning that the NHL has been getting horrible television ratings in the Stanley Cup Finals.

What the NHL has done with its TV coverage lately is just a plain joke and Gary Bettman should be ashamed of himself at the low ratings hockey has received in the U.S. I actually got a good laugh when I heard the Stanley Cup Finals got beat out ratings wise by a rerun of COPS and was not surprised by it one bit. The NHL has gotten fans back into seats at arenas, but what is even more important is that their TV ratings are still on the decline, and have been for the last six or seven years:

NHL TV ratings

I know the comish doesn't read this D-III board, but if he wants to get viewers back, here are a couple steps he could follow...

* NHL should renew their coverage with ESPN/ESPN2 - I can remember the days of watching the NHL on the station that was the "worldwide leader of sports" and it was nice. ESPN did a great job of covering hockey, and it was a channel that almost everybody got on their cable networks. This past year, being at college almost wasn't the same as in my apartment, we did not get Versus, so I was only able to watch hockey once every weekend on NBC. The NHL needs to at least partner with a popular TV station that most cable subscribers get...not one that nobody really knew or cared about. Sure Versus televised the Tour de France and now they have hockey, but if you ask me, I'd never heard of the OLN/Versus network before they started airing hockey, and many cable companies require people to buy special packages to get Versus.

* (Insert Daily Hockey Show Here) - Even if the NHL doesn't get back together with ESPN, they should at least get together with Versus, NBC or whoever they partner with in the future to form a daily TV show that recapped the day in NHL hockey. Back in the day, ESPN has "NHL2Night", which was a daily show that recapped of the day in hockey, and updated people on the world of hockey. Also, whatever station would get this NHL news show will also need to acquire Barry Melrose as a host, as his mullet alone would increase ratings tenfold.

* NHL All-Star Weekend - This one is a very simple concept, as after seeing what the NHL did in airing the 2007 All-Star game in Dallas, they need to rethink their process of airing coverage of the all-star game. For starters, the pre all-star-game events (ex - Skills competition/Young Stars game) should be shown on national tv. I know in the past, its been on ESPN, but more people would watch it on national tv, and it would show a more unique side of the NHL, as people would see the best players showing off their skills, as well as the games rising stars of tomorrow. Finally, the all-star game itself should be shown on national TV (ex - NBC, Fox, etc.), and not the Versus network as it was last year. It seems that for the longest time it was on either NBC or FOX, and this year, the NHL dropped the ball by showing it on Versus, and got horrible ratings. When thinking about this whole all-star-weekend concept as a whole, it should occur on a weekend, not during the week when people have to get up for work the next day. There is a reason why they used to call it "All-Star Weekend", and the NHL definitely needs to return to these ways, rather than having the All-Star Game in the middle of people's work weeks.

There are obviously more ways that the NHL could get viewers to tune into their games, but I just listed three easy, simple steps that I feel would attract more viewers. They are also three things that currently bug me about watching the NHL on television.

Labels: nhl, tv ratings

Posted by Kyle at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments