The Friday Free-For-All

Questions, Comments, and Concerns about the Final Four, Jay Cutler to Da Bears, and more…

…Well that didn’t take long. It took less than 24 hours after word came late Wednesday that the Broncos were set on trading disgruntled/childish/baby/whiner Jay Cutler to make a deal, and Denver did really, really well. Getting two firsts, a third AND Kyle Orton (who’s better than you think) for Cutler and a fifth is incredible considering a) everyone and their mother knew Denver had no choice but to trade and b) teams have been very reluctant to part with high draft picks for players. To get TWO first rounders? Really, I know Broncos fans are probably bummed to lose a 25-year-old Pro Bowl quarterback, but that’s a great haul and their front office has a chance to more than make up for a loss. They have the 12th pick (their own) and 18th (Denver’s) picks in the first round of the upcoming draft, and as SI’com’s Don Banks mentioned yesterday, The Bronch (as Joel calls them) have plenty of directions they can go. They could stay put and nab KState’s Josh Freeman, or deal up to get USC QB Marc Sanchez. With as gawd-awful/horrible/craptastic as Denver’s D was last year, I’d be inclined to keep the two picks and either take Freeman and the best available defender, or use both #1’s on defense and draft a QB for development later. They could not have possibly hoped to do better once they decided Cutler had to go.

But what makes this so interesting is that it’s also a good deal for Chicago. On E!SPN.com right now they have a poll up of who got the better of this deal, and with almost 300,000 people weighing in, Denver is getting 52% of the vote right now. That’s pretty darn close. Did Da Bears give up a lot? Yes, yes they did. But they do get a 25 year old Pro-Bowl QB to add to an offense that wasn’t great last year, but could be sneaky good for 2009 with awesome 2nd yr back Matt Forte, a solid OLine, and…ok their receivers aren’t very good, but you never know. And in a crappy division (although not as crappy as the NFC West. Then again outside of the AL West, nothing other division in American sports is. What is it the west and crappy lately?), that could be enough, especially when it means two other teams, the Lions (stop laughing) and The Purple (stop crying- oh wait, that’s me whose crying about them really, truly, honestly ending camp with Tavaris Jackson as the starter) didn’t get the QB they so desparately needed. Oh what’s that? The Vikes don’t need him? They’re “happy with the two guys they have”? Brad Childress is like the Knight (we are the knights who say NEE!) in Monty Python’s Holy Grail who keeps having limbs chopped off yet he acts like everything’s fine. Is it a bad sign that my best hope as a Vikings fan for 2009 is for TJack to start- and suck- so that Brad Childress and the whole gang gets fired so we can get somebody in here who actually knows how to run an offense and develop a QB? Probably.

So anyway, the Bears were a middle-of-the-road team with an aging defense who needed to make a push or else, and showed some cahones by pushing all of their chips to the middle of the table (you know, just like the Vikes did last year in overpaying for Jared Allen. And just like they didn’t do this time around for Cutler, for reasons known only to NEE! Childress).

…Final Four this weekend, and I don’t think I’ll be able to watch either of the Saturday games. Par for the course for this year’s tourney as my fiancé and I just bought a house, and being that it was a foreclosure, all of our time has gone into cleaning and fixing, so I haven’t seen much at all in the way of March Madness. Saturday I’ll actually be missing games for my buddy Rich’s wedding, but if I wasn’t at that, I’d be at the new house, so I’d be missing out regardless. Oh well.

…From what I’ve heard and read of what I missed, I expect a UNC/UConn national final. I used to like UConn, but after all this stuff about Calhoun and his recruiting tactics and his comments about how much money he makes, well, I’m not such a big fan anymore. And for some reason, although Carolina fits all the criteria of The Evil Empire of college basketball, I still hate Duke way, way, way, WAY more than UNC. Actually, I don’t think I hate the Heels at all.

…while I hate Calhoun, I do not hate his center Thabeet. I’m torn on him in the NBA, as he has all the signs of Major Draft Bust because he’s shown very little offensive game, yet has been an unbelievable shot blocker and rebounder. St Louis Bilikens coach Rick Majerus was on Barreiro’s show yesterday (or maybe the day before. I pretty much listen to all of my radio on podcasts now, so I quickly lose track of when it was actually aired), and used the analogy of “in a world of blind men, the one-eyed man is king”, meaning that Thabeet is only awesome at shot blocking and rebound because there’s no true centers in college hoops anymore. While that’s true (and at 7’3 he better darn well be dominating the glass and the paint), I still feel like he could be intruiging in the NBA if all he’s asked to do is just that- block shots and rebounds. Would be a no-brainer pick for the Wolves if he’s available as the perfect compliment to Al Jefferson.

…speaking of the Wolves and their draft, if they somehow defied the odds, and their incredible run of bad luck in the lottery, and got the #1 pick, I wondered the following: the consensus #1 pick is Blake Griffin (and again, just from what I heard, he did nothing to dispel that with his play in the tourney. If he was already cemented as the best player before the tourney he would have…”re-cemented” his status there? Whatever. Anyway, Griffin is a true power forward, which is of course the one position the Wolves have filled (twice, actually). Blake not only played his college ball in Oklahoma, but is a native of Oklahoma City, so I wondered if the Thunder would be interested in dealing Kevin Durant (since he has a zero percent chance of resigning there once he hits free agency. Actually what’s less than a zero percent chance? He has a negative possibility of staying there) to Minnesota for Griffin, any or all of their other 3 #1’s, and anybody else on the roster not named Al Jefferson? Griffin would give them a franchise cornerstone to replace Durant, and since he’s from there, he’s the one star-potential player who would actually want to play there long-term. And he’d fit in fine with the versatile Jeff Green at forward (unlike the unversatile Kevin Love, who, just like Jefferson, is an all-offense no-defense power forward). I’d even, and actually gladly, throw in Randy Foye too, since the Stolen Sonics need a shooting guard, and I’m not sold Foye is a future all-star in this league (nice player? Yes. But he’s a 6’2 shooting guard without the potential of Dwyane Wade, OJ Mayo, or Allen Iverson. I’m skeptical to say the least).

…I thought of this as Jer and I were sitting through the first half of Stolen Sonics/Wolves at Target Center a few Sundays ago. I had gotten free lower bowl tickets (and by lower bowl I mean the very last row of the lower bowl. Actually, it was the very last row of the lower upper section- you know, where you take the little stairs up to three of four rows of seats below the luxury boxes? So “lower bowl” is kind of misleading), and had been interested in going (even though it was the Sunday of the Round of 32 in the NCAA tourney) for one reason: to see Kevin Durant.

Since early December when Durant was moved from shooting guard to his natural small forward position, he’s been averaging 27 pts and 7 boards, and has become one of the top 20 players in the NBA. Even on a March Madness Sunday against a T-Pups team with no Al Jefferson, I had to see for myself. And he did not disappoint. Durant is one of the most effortless scorers I’ve ever seen, and yes, this came against the Wolves, but his first half was impressive. He was 5-7 from the floor and 2-2 from the line for 12 points, shooting mostly mid-range one-dribble jumpers that looked as easy as a layup for him. He scored from wherever he wanted on whoever he wanted, and yet the Stolen Sonics still went to the immortal Nenad Kristic almost as much as KD in the first half. I guess it didn’t matter much in the end since OKC was up 20 at half.

I’d tell you all about Durant’s second half…except I didn’t see it. At halftime Jer says “Hey do you want to go down to NBA City for a couple of beers and watch some March Mad”- he didn’t even finish the sentence and I was out of my chair and down the stairs to NBA City (the bar/restaurant in the basement of Target Center). Despite Durant’s awesomeness, I couldn’t have more bored and completely regretful of my decision to attend the game. I paid zero dollars for the ticket, and I paid too much. I realize it’s unfair to judge the quality of the NBA by a Wolves/Stolen Sonics meaningless game in March (it’d be like judging college hoops by attending a game of Northwestern vs a Division II school in November), but man ALL of the worst parts of an NBA game were on display.

A half full building, zero energy from the players or fans, and rap music blaring DURING THE PLAY!!!!!!!!!! This has always been the most inexplicable thing to me, but it’s made maybe one zillion times worse in a situation like this. There’s a professional sporting event happening, and music is blaring during the play. You would never, ever, ever, EVER see this in baseball, football, or hockey. Never. It would be considered a travesty, a sham and a mockery of the sport- a trav-shama-mockery if you will (and I will). It can only be viewed as a blatant and desperate attempt to create an atmosphere of excitement and energy when there is none. It should be seen as the lowest of the low to create fan interest, and an admittance by the team and sport that their product is so bad and so boring that they have to play music during the play to entertain/distract their audience. Yet it’s commonplace in the NBA. Seeing it in this context it looks and sounds pathetic at best, and desperate at worst, and I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

The whole thing just seemed like a contrived used-car-salesmen pitch, and I wasn’t buying. Neither was Jer. He said he was trying to think of how to ask to leave, and I was thinking the same thing. Crazy. Apparently in the second half the Wolves scrubs made a run and only lost by 7, and Durant ended up with 35 effortless points in the win. And you know what? Sitting in NBA City in ridiculously comfy chairs in front of a flat-screen showing March Madness, eating buffalo wings and drinking happy hour-priced beer, I could have cared less. I could not be more turned off by the NBA right now, and will be turning all of my basketball-related interests next year towards college hoops (and I’m hoping and praying that the two big-time recruits Tubby brings in will make the Gophers infinitely more interesting to watch. Or that my wife-to-be lets me get an awesome sports package on Direct TV that lets me watch Gonzaga). Regardless, the Big 10’s “three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust” basketball style will still be more authentic and pleasing to watch than the NBA.