PosterToBeNamedLater

The Lakers win every single trade they make. I cant remember the last time they didn't hose somebody. The Gasols trade? Given that it directly led them to 3 NBA Finals appearances, 2 championships and shut Kobe up from demanding trades, I think they did pretty well for themselves with that one. Yeah and that trade basically boiled down to Gasol for Gasol because everyone else in that trade, inlcuding the two future first rounders ended up being worthless. Marc Gasol being as good as he has been was a surprise as well. I don't think it is a surprise that first round picks from a very good lakers team would end up being worthless. I think they absolutely got a good deal in that one. I understand that it may be better to tear it completely down to get better rather than staying stuck being average, and not bad enough to end up with a top pick... but they didn't need the lakers to do that. That is also why I was completely fine with Stern nixing the Chris Paul trade to them last year. It seemed to be getting ridiculous. When the bulls tried to trade for Pau, the Grizzlies wanted at least Ben Gordon and Deng (not that I blamed them--the bulls would still have been getting the better deal, but I could also see the bulls thinking that trading away their best players would leave them like the grizzlies in the east). But then the Lakers get him for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie and an unknown Marc Gasol? Then, when everyone wanted chris paul, and probably could offer better trades for him (didn't the celtics even offer Rondo and Jeff Green?), the Hornets were going to accept a few average players that would guarantee them no better than possibly making the playoffs as an 8th seed (but probably not) while the lakers end up with Paul. And you knew they would follow that up with getting Dwight Howard to become a superteam again. I think a lot of fans were starting to think the NBA was rigged in favor of the lakers. To act like that was actually a good trade for the Hornets and that it was the best they could get was completely ridiculous. The hornets got a better deal for him from the clippers.

I have wished for years they would trade the current blue alternates for these: http://media-cache-ec2.pinterest.com/upload/97812623127152641_lwdEyIpP_c.jpg I totally agree with Xzero77 who said the current ones look like batting practice jerseys. I also totally agree with hating the red-billed caps. As far as the jumbotron, if it would replace the Toyota sign, I am all for it.

Barney pretending to be happy to be talking to the Kapman. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8387/8487185660_4de2a0c9e0_z.jpg

Here is Soler and Baez from behind before they take BP. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8097/8487184372_a256421c64_z.jpg http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8523/8487184880_c2fc9e3898_z.jpg Nelson has the body of a kids baseball movie villain.

Here is some castro batting practice.

That's my photo. I just uploaded it. Yea. I saw it on the sidebar when I watched the Jackson video. I totally meant to include that it was from your pics. My bad. No problem. I read your first quote wrong. I thought you were saying people were using the photo to determine whether he got bigger. I was more just shocked that something I had just put up was already being used for speculation.

Here they are from behind (Castro and Soriano). http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8228/8487004362_073ed55329_z.jpg

That's my photo. I just uploaded it.

Kerry doing some coaching. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8244/8487006784_0c00c94184_z.jpg Edwin: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8252/8487007098_b000b62988_z.jpg Castro and Soriano http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8524/8487007380_45f7169efe_z.jpg Fujikawa http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8365/8485913139_ee7316020e_z.jpg

Thanks! Anything else to report? Did you see Baez or Soler? I did see them. I took a vid of Soler in BP, but it wasn't a typical session. It was more game like. Carpenter was throwing to him and everything I have on the video is just of him taking the pitch. The one he ripped was when I wasn't recording. I caught the end of Baez taking swings but didn't get any video.

Here is Theo giving some autographs. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8366/8485915631_99d2cba89f_z.jpg Theo and Jed. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8518/8487004822_c82d4ea012_z.jpg When Theo came by later and no one was around, I asked if there was any jobs in the organization for a calculus teacher. He laughed and said, "we aren't looking to teach our guys calculus right now."

I stopped by Fitch Park today to catch practice. Here is a video of Brett Jackson's new swing as he takes batting practice.

I'm not sure if the level of competition was "quite a bit higher than it is now" as a whole. At worst, it's equal, but I don't think it's as much you think. It's really tough to compare as one era was pretty traditional players (as far as positions and roles) and the other is FULL of hybrid players. The one thing I will say is that big men of today's couldn't compete with the big men in MJ's time. It's not even close IMO. What impresses me about the late 80s/early 90s was how much you can get away with defensively. That's what makes MJ so awesome compare to like Kobe and LeBron. Dude was scoring and putting up insane #s while defense could do whatever they want to him every single game (no hand check rule/never had to worry about flagrant or technical on hard foul/etc). Yeah, poor Michael got hacked constantly, and never got a call. He got calls, but it was a different game then. I was watching an old Bulls/Knicks playoff game a few months ago and there was a drive by Pippen where he was absolutely hammered. If it happened today it would most likely be a flagrant foul, but nothing was even called. There was a lot more grabbing as well when offensive players tried to move around. Bilas has been harping all year about how college basketball needs to be cleaned up. He always mentions that this is how the NBA used to be until they started calling much more contact a few years ago. If you look at foul shots per game, I am sure Jordan has similar numbers to Lebron or wade, but those foul shots today are coming from less egregious fouls. They rarely if ever get hit as hard as people in the 90's did. They are more free to make moves because of how closely fouls are called now.

He didn't make it into the top 20 in pass blocking efficiency for the second year in a row. I'm a little worried that he will be the Bears version of Orlando Pace. Wait... wasn't Orlando Pace the Bears version of Orlando Pace?

Who said that? That reads like somebody else's interpretation of what was said and not a direct quote. "Get-concussed"? It was on MLBTR, I assume it was Towers, Gibson, or someone else in the organization. They are not quoting Towers, they are quoting a writer, Jeff Passan. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/snakebitten--d-backs-make-peculiar-decision-to-trade-justin-upton-s--superstar--talent-to-bolster--grinder--culture-041239192.html I heard Towers on local Arizona sports radio yesterday and he was basically asked if that is why they traded Upton. He didn't explicitly say that was the reason, but it was clear from his answer that it was the reason. He wants the diamondbacks to be a gritty/hustling/hardworking team.

Hopefully that happens. Get the sonics and charlotte hornets back and all will be better with the NBA. As far as the logo for the pelicans though, I don't really like it. It doesn't really scream pelican to me. It just seems like a bird. It also feels like it is a knockoff of another logo that I can't think of right now--and not a particularly good logo (maybe a mix of the Atlanta Hawks and Baltimore Ravens secondary logo). Searching for the logo just now, I like this one submitted by someone to a contest a lot better.

I dont understand why you cant overhaul the offensive staff while leaving Lovie, Taub, and D coaches (likely retaining Hoke as the DB coach). Its almost impossible for me to believe that Trestman wouldnt accept the OC ("HC of the Offense") job here in chicago. We have a mature team, so an overhaul with all new coaches (whom are all recieving huge promotions from all their prior jobs) is incredibly stupid. We are paying Lovie $5mln. Why not let him coach out the contract with trestman as OC and reevaluate after the season. We won 10 games last year and likely could have won 11-12 had Cutler stayed healthy or Hester not dropping that one pass. A few upgrades offensively and this was a contending team with the current staff in place. I don't remember where I heard it, but this week someone was talking about Offensive vs Defensive head coaches and made a good point. They mentioned that with an offensive head coach, they just let the DC run the defense--because everyone has the same goal there. But when you have a Defensive head coach, they can hamper the offense because of their beliefs in controlling the clock and things like "we get off the bus running." Not all of them are like that, obviously (ie New Engrland). But Lovie did believe in those things and I think Lovie had enough of a chance with offensive coordinators over his tenure.

So he got in and out of Twitter before it was cool? I wouldn't be shocked if the statement "hasn't tweeted in six years" actually means he hasn't sent a text message and doesn't really know the difference. Probably less shocking than him actually being into twitter 6 years ago.

I just can't see Emery being that sneaky. I think he just completely embraces his scout background and believes that if he goes the extra mile searching for a coach/prospect he is going to find a diamond in the rough that he can discover. This worries me a little in that I could see an unqualified candidate getting the job based on a good interview, but I suppose he should get the benefit of the doubt for now.

Well we seem to be leaving no stone unturned with all of these requests. Hopefully all of the candidates feel about the bears job the way NFL fans and media do--that it is the best job on the market.

Not in Lovie's nature. Yeah I know. Although the talk all week will be how the bears are terrible and shouldn't be in the playoffs. I could see that helping them to rise up and knock a team off.

If the bears make the playoffs, I really hope they can get more creative and play like a team with nothing to lose.

I am going back and forth myself.

We will definitely treat this as a time wasting possession rather than trying to move the ball.

good lord, cutler throws a great pass for a first down and then tice sabotages the drive with 2 straight runs.