NBA Season Preview

Bears suck. Let's get the NBA season started. Just like BEP said. I know, the season started yesterday. I'm a busy man, get over it.

First, the Bulls.

The Bulls are at the center of the Kobe trade talks and, therefore, at the center of NBA news. In case you haven't been paying attention, here's a quick recap. Kobe wants out, his #1 choice appears to be Chicago, he has a no trade clause, Chicago won't include Luol Deng as part of the deal.

What does it all mean? It means the Lakers are screwed. The Bulls made some noise in the East last year. They're more experienced and improved this year. Without Kobe, most experts have them going to the Eastern Conference Finals. Why would they gut the team for Kobe? Answer: they won't and rightfully so. The Lakers are upset because Paxson is low-balling them. If I was Pax, I would be doing the same thing. Both Kobe and LA have created a terrible situation. Everyone knows Kobe wants to leave and the Lakers want to deal him. But Kobe has a no-trade clause. Thus, the Lakers are screwed. Allow me to state my bias now: I'm not a Kobe fan at all. Anyway, I would continue to low-ball trade offers for Kobe because the Lakers are the ones in a desperate situation, not the Bulls. In the end, I think Kobe doesn't get traded. But if so, it's not to Chicago. Paxson is a smart man.

OK, as a reminder, I know significantly less about the NBA than I do about the NFL. Nevertheless, here are my predictions:

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlantic Division

1. New Jersey Nets

2. Boston Celtics

3. Toronto Raptors

4. New York Knicks

5. Philadelphia 76ers

Why am I not in love with Boston? No doubt, the Celtics are dramatically improved from where they were last year. KG, Ray Allen, and Pierce is nothing to sneeze at. But am I to expect what was arguably the worst team in the NBA last year to now win the East? That's a bit much. Plus, Boston's bench leaves much to be desired. The Nets are still solid and have their own big 3 with Kidd, RJ, and Vince.

Central Division

1. Chicago Bulls

2. Detroit Pistons

3. Cleveland Cavaliers

4. Indiana Pacers

5. Milwaukee Bucks.

The top 3 spots could go in just about any order. I think the Bulls look to be set up the best heading into the season. Detroit is old but still a good team. I don't have much faith in the Cavs outside of LeBron but I said the same thing last year. One or two injuries or key trades could make the difference here.

Southeast Division

1. Orlando Magic

2. Washington Wizards

3. Miami Heat

4. Atlanta Hawks

5. Charlotte Bobcats

The Magic are looking to build on last season's success with the "best big man in the East" Dwight Howard. The Wizards still have Arenas (for now) and a relatively solid squad to back him up. What is left of the Heat are old and fading and D-Wade can't save this sinking ship himself. I expect Shaq to be out at least 40% of the season with injuries as usual. The Hawks will be better and Horford will be awesome sooner rather than later. The "other" rookie Acie Law will contribute eventually as well. The Hawks look to have a promising future, it just isn't this season.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Southwest Division

1. San Antonio Spurs

2. Houston Rockets

3. Dallas Mavericks

4. New Orleans Hornets

5. Memphis Grizzlies

Never doubt the Spurs. This division is comparable to the Central in the East in that the top 3 could finish in just about any order. The Spurs know they don't have to finish in first place. They just need to get to the postseason. Then, the dominance will begin. I like Houston to improve this year with new coach Rick Adelman. McGrady is hungry and Yao Ming, well, agrees I guess. How much longer can the Mavs underachieve? Even if they win the division, are you picking them to go deep in the post-season?

Northwest Division

1. Utah Jazz

2. Denver Nuggets

3. Seattle Supersonics

4. Portland Trailblazers

5. Minnesota Timberwolves

The Jazz look like they can improve from last year and Deron Williams is a stud. Jerry Sloan is probably the best coach yet to win a championship. This team made waves in the playoffs last year and I expect them to do it again. The Nuggets have the tools in Iverson, Carmelo, and K-Mart and another great coach in George Karl. They still need to prove they can make it all work. There's a lot of room between these two teams and the other 3. The NBA wants you to care about the Sonics and Blazers because of Durant and Oden but, unfortunately, these are below-average teams in crappy markets and Oden isn't even playing this year.

Pacific Division

1. Phoenix Suns

2. LA Lakers

3. Golden State Warriors

4. LA Clippers

5. Sacramento Kings

OK, so the Suns are the obvious choice here. I'm not sure why I have the Lakers so high. The distractions are many, and a Kobe trade certainly changes things. For some reason, I think Kobe stays in LA this year. I think Phil can get a Kobe-led team to win games. Golden State was fun to watch last year but I'm not sure they can do it again. Jason Richardson was an emotional leader as well as a great player that will be sorely missed.

2007-2008:

MVP: Steve Nash, Phoenix Suns

He deserves it every year and I think he'll prove it again this year.

Rookie of the Year: Al Horford, Atlanta Hawks

Everyone is picking Durant so I'm going elsewhere. My bet is on Horford and if he doesn't get the award, it might just be because of no supporting cast.

Coach of the Year: Rick Adelman, Rockets

Call it a hunch I guess. I think McGrady finally wins a playoff series this year.

Eastern Conference Playoffs

1. Chicago Bulls

2. Detroit Pistons

3. New Jersey Nets

4. Orlando Magic

5. Boston Celtics

6. Cleveland Cavaliers

7. Toronto Raptors

8. Washington Wizards

Eastern Conference Finals

Pistons over Bulls

Western Conference Playoffs

1. Phoenix Suns

2. San Antonio Spurs

3. Utah Jazz

4. Houston Rockets

5. Dallas Mavericks

6. Denver Nuggets

7. LA Lakers

8. Golden State Warriors

Western Conference Finals

Suns over Spurs

NBA Finals

Suns over Pistons

Of course, I could be completely wrong.

NCAA Picks

5 fumbles, 5 freaking fumbles, if there were only 4 fumbles or even less Air Force wins by 2 TDs plus, instead they lose. Was down 860, Matt Ryan came back to put him back in the lead of the Heisman race, so down 895.

Keeping with the Friday night Moneyline pick.

Fresno St ML BSU

Kent -14 Miss St Over 61


Kansas +3 Texas A&M, Duke +23.5 FSU and Troy +1 Ark St.

Thursday Picks and Recap

Was down 640 schrute bucks, which is alot but when you consider how many Stanley nickels that is, well, don't get me started, it makes me sick to my stomach. UConn beat Louisville on a questionable fair catch (i'll take it), lost the other three so down 165 schrute bucks for college, in the pros, picked Buffalo at +145 lost the other two so down 55 schrute bucks for a total of down 860 schrute bucks.

There are two college games tonight, with #2 BC a 3 point dog against the Hokies, is this the 2nd week in a row the #2 in the nation loses on Thursday night, I don't think so, I'll take BC on the ML. Lets take Air Force at +200 as well. Good Luck this week.

NFL Picks

Was down 640 schrute bucks, won on UConn (+135), lost on the other 3 to bring the total to down 805, which is really, really disappointing, especially considering the start. Lets turn it around with this weeks NFL games.

Buffalo +145 Ravens
Giants -9.5 SanFran, Under 39
Bucs +5 Lions, KC +3.5 Raiders, Dallas -3.5 Minnesota

Picks of the Week

My apologies for missing last weeks picks, although after the last couple weeks, a week off was necessary. Two weeks ago went 0-fer so now down 640 Schrute Bucks. Hope everyone has been betting on the Rockies as well as some other games, I should have blogged about, if nothing else for a quick Thursday night pick. I will try to be more frequent in picks as games are starting to be played almost every night.

College Picks-

UConn ML Louisville
Buffalo ML Syracuse Over 55.5
Cinci -3.5 Pitt, UNLV +3.5 CSU, ECar even NCSt

Since that first one is tonight (friday) heres a bonus game-
Ohio ML Toledo.


I'll get NFL picks up later today or tomorrow.

I'm Back with a Concert Review

I took some time off to do a few minor things like get married and get my new job going. Now that I have plenty of more important things I should be doing I thought I'd get back to posting.

This past Sunday was my first NYC concert unless you count the two outdoor ones from earlier this year. I'd prefer to forget one of them (Rock the Bells) and images of the headliner of the other still haunts my nightmares (LL Cool J). Anyway, the show was Common/Q-tip/Percee P/88 Keys. Here's how it went down.

88 Keys- Decent DJ, played some stuff off his new album which I thought wasn't bad. The rest of the crowd wasn't too into it but I think anyone that wrote a beat for the Black Star album gets an automatic pass in my book.

Percee P- On Stones Throw label so he gets Madlib beats. Even throwaway Madlib beats give me an eargasm. Still, his performance was pretty meh. No hypeman which I respect a whole lot but, to be honest, I think he maybe could have used one up there. Of course he did his part of Jurassic 5's "Day at the Races" which was cool. The guy is a well-above average lyricist but unfortunately his live act needs a lot of work.

Q-Tip- Straight up fucking awesome performance. Of course, Tribe is my favorite hip-hop group ever and will likely be for as long as I live. He did pretty much all the classics (Electric Relaxation, Check the Rhime, Scenario, Award Tour, etc.) He did stuff off "Amplified", a couple new joints. Everything was great and backed by a live band with DJ Scratch from EPMD as his DJ. I would have loved to see Busta or Phife up there but Phife is not doing well with his renal failure and dialysis and Busta was probably searching for a buffet (Christ, did anyone see his gut on VH1's HHH last Monday? Put down the chicken wings Trevor!) The only guest was Dres from Black Sheep when he and Tip did "The Choice is Yours". Interestingly, I think I've seen Dres perform that song with Q-Tip, De La, and Mos/Kweli but I've never been to a Black Sheep concert. Someone give that poor guy a record deal already. Anyway, Tip brought the house down.

Common- The typical Com show. He is always good live. I think what sets artists like Com and Q-Tip apart from so many other emcees is their ability to command a crowd and entertain without gimmicks or hype men. Com's band is awesome and he's had those guys like Omar and Kareem Riggins for years as well as DJ Dummy (Who thankfully retired that "It Takes Two" set he used to always do and now does an equally impressive one with Biggie's "Ten Crack Commandments".) It was definitely weird to see Common in a city other than Chicago. It was the same show just no discussion of home. The guest appearance of the night for Com was KRS-One (they likely hooked up from appearing together at HHH earlier that weekend.) While clearly the most unattractive man in hip-hop, KRS-One rules, BDP was the shit, and it was rad to hear him do "South Bronx" and "The Bridge is Over". Freestyle exchange between Com and KRS as well.

Overall great show by two of my top 5 emcees of all time. As a concluding thought I'd just like to say thanks to Common for doing Chi-city proud while Lupe continues to embarrass us! Get well Phife!

PIcks of the Week

Not a good week for picks, 0-fer in college and only the Browns Moneyline. After starting off strong, now down overall, only 40 schrute bucks, but still. Going to combine College and Pro this week into 1 post.

- Iowa ML Penn St
- Ok -12 Tex over 55
- Ind -8 Minn, Ohio +2 Buff, ASU -3 WSU

As for Pros.
- Det ML Was
- Houston -5 Mia Over 43.5
- SF +9.5 Balt, Zona +2.5 STL, Seat Pitt Over 33.5

Sports Guy

I swear to God, all that is holy, my mothers grave, what have you. I did not, I repeat did not read Bill Simmons column before I posted. I just know how he thinks, and i will not shoot myself. I like how he says every gambler will do the tease, but he really means himself and Stoner.


"And if that's not enough, everyone and their degenerate brother will be throwing the Chargers, Cowboys and Colts into a three-team teaser on Sunday. That's never good. Out of those three, the Colts seem like the shakiest link, don't they?"