Tracer Bullet

You know some pretty smart 12 year olds who are talking about ISoP I can distinctly remember sitting in my attic with cards laid out and and subtracting AVG from SLG. The best of these would be my "Sluggers" when arranging my cards into batting orders. I had no idea it had a name, it just seemed like something worth doing. I'd also subtract AVG from OBP to "see who walked alot" amongst those with decent averages. EDIT: This may have been later. Thinking back, I imagine lots of kids did very similar things. I absolutely did the same things. I can imagine kids looking at SLG, in addition to HRs or doubles or RBI to determine who the big sluggers were. I can't imagine too many kids thinking about the formula for SLG, AVG, etc, and isolating singles to determine which hitters relied on a high number of singles to boost their SLG let alone taking the next step and comparing this isolated power across teams to determine what a "good" differential would be (without which, subtracting AVG from SLG would be meaningless).

isn't Dampier's non-guaranteed, which is why he was traded (balanced the $ exchanged) and waived?

There's no way Cap'n Jetes doesn't have ARod killed in LA just to satisfy the rule of 3.

And Stern fines Gilbert 100 large. wow.

what the hell minnesota? http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5365794

Udonis Haslem or Brendan Haywood would be nice coming off the bench, but if Drew Gooden got paid like he did, they'll price themselves out. Haywood got something like 6/$55 from the Mavs today. Holy. Crap. Is there any big that Mark Cuban won't overpay for? that's market rate right now. insanity.

how many people are really watching this? I'll probably check twitter about 15 minutes after the show starts, but I really have no interest in watching this.

you'd essentially have to win every game to "obliterate" the record for wins in a season.

Fall down hilarious. OK, that was a stretch. A better comparison may be A-Rod & Jeter. One is obviously the better player but is still not the star of his team or the city. better comparison, but the difference in individual impact on the game/season makes it yet a stretch. ARod also isn't the global phenomenon that James is. In fact, Jeter is a bigger global star than ARod, even though ARod is a significantly better player. So that comparison really isn't any better. I'm not sure there is a good comparison. I think it's a pretty good comparison. ARod was huge before he went to NY, the biggest star in baseball. But going to NY actually made his star diminish somewhat. Jeter wasn't even the biggest star on the Yankees while they were winning rings. Bernie Williams took a lot of the praise during the 90's WS run, Mariano plus various starting pitchers took some as well. I'm not talking about pub within the sport for being an important piece of the title runs. I'm saying Jeter was a bigger global icon. I can remember many Jeter commercials and print ads. I can only remember 1 with ARod and I think that was after he signed in NY. Heck - ARod was tabloid fodder b/c he was with Madonna and some manly chick(s). But Jeter's girlfriends have been many a Hollywood starlet. Jeter's the one you seen on E! or US Weekly or whatever. Jeter is a bigger global icon outside of baseball circles and he was bigger before ARod, the far superior baseball player, joined him in NY. In this case, LeBron is the superior basketball player (it would appear) and he's the bigger global icon. Wade is a huge persona in Miami, but outside Southern Florida or maybe the state as a whole, he's nowhere near the public figure that LeBron is. That's why I think the comparison breaks down. I think it's better than Jordan/Pippen, but not nearly the same.

Well, I don't think they'd have Beasley if they have James, so the Bulls combo should be an easy win over Bosh/whatever veteran is looking for a ring. (Is PJ Brown still alive?) But of course Dwyane Wade is a hell of a lot better than Rose. well, yeah, but that wasn't really the discussion. I'm looking at a pretty narrow piece of it. Rose is clearly no Wade. But whatever fills out the rest of the Heat roster probably isn't going to be as good as the rest of the Bulls roster. But it's pretty hard to predict which veterans would sign up to ride with James, Wade, and Bosh to several titles in Miami. If they can convince some solid guys to join them, it could be a bloodbath.

Fall down hilarious. OK, that was a stretch. A better comparison may be A-Rod & Jeter. One is obviously the better player but is still not the star of his team or the city. better comparison, but the difference in individual impact on the game/season makes it yet a stretch. ARod also isn't the global phenomenon that James is. In fact, Jeter is a bigger global star than ARod, even though ARod is a significantly better player. So that comparison really isn't any better. I'm not sure there is a good comparison.

Bosh plays defense. Being 6'11" (or whatever he is) does help him in that department, no doubt. I would guess Boozer improves in that regard under Thibodeaux, (and having a better defensive center at his side) but it's not like Jerry Sloan is some bum. If he couldn't get Boozer to give max effort on the defensive side, I kinda doubt a rookie head coach can. Is Bosh's defense better than Noah's? I guess I'm trying to determine if Noah's defense/effort + Boozer's offense is better than Bosh + whatever the Heat have at PF/C (Beasley?).

Lebron will be "the man". He's the global icon. Not in Miami. Jeez. Maybe. He won't replace Wade as an icon in the town, but he'll get equal spotlight, I'd guess. And internationally he'll still be more famous. Bosh is the one that will be seen as 3rd banana, I would think. But I don't think he cares - he just wants $ and titles. He's not on the James/Wade lever anyway.

And he'll always have one less ring than D-Wade. Nothing like being the second option on your own team for being a guy that wants to be the best player ever. Always? Lebron is what, 3 years younger? Unless he wins one by being the main option of a team when he's 35, he'd remain behind Wade on the legacy totem pole. So if LeBron signs with Miami, he's going to be the "second option"? What does that mean to you, exactly?

or either, actually

Miami will be really good. Some vets will probably sign at a discount to get a chance at a title. I'm trying to decide which is better for the Bulls: LBJ in Cleveland with a slight roster change or LBJ in NYC with Amare. Neither seems dominant, but the latter seems, like Miami, a better destination for vets looking to get a ring before they retire.

has it been confirmed that Seantrel ever actually signed his LOI? I've heard conflicting reports, so I was curious.

please please please can we not have the Josh Hamilton trade/not trade debate again. please

If you assume Wade plays until some certain age that's beyond the contract he signs with either the Bulls or the Heat, he'll get paid for that extra year with the Heat eventually. Whether it's what he could make now or not (or more) is only a question of (a) whether he's still a max player at the end of the contract he signs this summer and (b) what the $/year value is for contracts when he's due in 2015-16.

What? I'm saying it's somewhat shaky to assume the reporter's story is based on reliable information. Flames is saying that can't possibly be true, Derrick Rose is a genius yeah, no, that's not what he said. he said he doubts the report is accurate ("rose isn't a fool" isn't the same as "Rose is a genius"). you say you doubt the reporter has reliable information. that's not similar?

I don't doubt it for a second. Why would a point guard whose game is based on driving to the basket want to give up that to have the offense run through someone else? LeBron and Rose are not a good fit. Becuase it's bad news for the Bulls, that's why it's not trustworthy. Haven't you been paying attention the last 90 pages or so? Yeah, we should totally believe the opinion of a Cavs beat reporter. He, unlike us, is completely unbiased. He doesn't want all the work that goes along with covering a Lebron James anyway. At least one can make the (somewhat shaky) assumption that the reporter's story is based on something tangible other than fandom. somewhat shaky? Flames is only expressing doubt at a reporter's basis for a story. You seem to have doubt as well.

If the Bulls don't get any of the big 3, best case scenario is they only end up signing Lee or Boozer this year (I mean in terms of big contracts), LBJ stays in Cleveland and Wade/Bosh in Miami. There's no obvious dominant team and the Bulls can sign a big FA next year (can't Durant opt out if he doesn't sign an extension this year?). Obviously getting Wade or James would be the best result, but at least if it turns out like this, no team is going to dominant the league for the next 5 years.

I think it's the part where he asks people not to analyze a player that's most troubling. "The team sucks but this one rookie is hitting a lot of HRs, so everyone bury your head in the sand and pretend he's great and don't think about it." Yeah, that's just not likely to happen.

I guess I don't understand the point of threads like these. If someone gives us a good return for Byrd, you wouldn't turn it down. But isn't that true of every player? There is no 2002 Mark Prior on this team. I'd trade any player for a good return. But if we're asking if we should shop Marlon Byrd, no - why would we? We don't have to trade him to get Colvin some time in CF. We don't need to dump any player to get Colvin more ABs, esp not a solid player with a team-friendly contract. So if you get a wow offer, you take it. But good teams don't seek to trade good players signed to team-friendly contracts with no obvious better/cheaper replacement in house.

that's not viewing it from his perspective. that's taking your assumptions and then fitting his (alleged) position into it. James is, no question, a better individual player than JJ. I don't think Rose is questioning that either. But would the Bulls be better with James or JJ + some big guy? We all assume so, but it's possible that James and all that comes with him (including World Wide Wes) isn't all positive for a team. I have no idea either way. But it's certainly possible that Rose believes that he could be the leader of a great team (w/o LBJ) rather than a supporting role in an equally or less great team (w/ LBJ). That might mean that Rose just isn't a good GM and shouldn't be tasked with deciding who should be signed by the Bulls. But it's also possible that he knows more about how to construct a winning NBA team than we all do. Either way, preferring one player to another doesn't necessarily make him stupid or not a team player. Plus, it's all hypothetical and assumes that the source of this is accurate re: Rose's feelings about James.