Give Me The Rock

Since Free Agent Open Season begins tomorrow, PMad and I are going to wait a little while in case there’s any crazy dealings like those we saw Draft Night before we dive into our summer-long coverage of the NBA from a Fantasy Basketball perspective. It’s also a good excuse to take the long holiday weekend off.

I promise you, though, when we get back, we’ll be hitting you up with fantasy-style profiles for every team in the league - even the Blazers and Knicks. We’re even hoping to hit a posting schedule of MWF (which should take more than half way to the beginning of the 2006-07 season: 30 teams / 3 teams per week = 10 weeks, out of 17 before the season starts, and really only like 14 before your fantasy draft). You’d think with 2 MBAs between us, we’d be able to make that a reality.

Of course, you’ll just have to stay tuned to see how it all goes down. It’s going to be beautiful like 4th of July fireworks. But 10 weeks of fireworks, instead of just like 45 minutes or an hour. And don’t worry, we’ll still post about other basketball and fantasy related stuff, too. How stupid would that be if we didn’t?

Before I get to a few late comments about the NBA draft; my neighbor’s roof needs to be replaced. It leaks during a normal rain, shingles fly off when it’s windy, and he’s already had to patch up a 5ft by 5ft section with tar. Instead of going out and calling a roofer, he now has a large blue tarp covering his house. Does anyone out there think that’s a little too cheap?

I’m clearly no draft expert, but why, when a team preemptively trades a pick to another team, does the player selected pretend to be on the team who just traded him (including wearing the hat of the team and talking about how excited they are to be on said team)? It’s absolutely ridiculous. I’m thinking about Randy Foye here, but it’s just as applicable to any of the other picks traded on or before draft night. We already know what team this guy’s really on, let’s give him the right hat and move on with it. But, on the plus side, ending up with pictures like this is enjoyable.

Also, I’m enjoying the “junior high school kid in mid-puberty and at a wedding’ look by Adam Morrison. I always look to others to feel better about myself.

Fianlly, when ESPN cut to Rudy Gay (with microphone) waiting impatiently for his name to be called after the sixth pick, did anyone else catch the watch he was wearing? It was like he was wearing a heavyweight title belt around his wrist. Insanely wide? Check. Huge leather band? Check. Gold Plating? Check. If anyone out there has a picture of that watch, please send it to me or post it, because I’d love to see it again. It’s the kind of watch I hope to wear before I die.

I probably could have combined my 3 short posts into 1 longer one, but each is meritorious of attention in and of itself. And, the 3 posts will get me an extra, like, penny a day, maybe, from Google.

Anyhow, that point is that Jeff of the Celticsblog has a Carnival (this being the 31st) up at that very same Celticsblog. Time to go check my stats!

Not that anything will necessarily be set in stone on Thursday morning… but something like this video certainly doesn’t make it any easier to figure out who the Bulls (or any other team) should take.

Right now, I’m thinking the Bulls should take Tyrus Thomas at #2 and then trade for the Celtics pick (I saw that rumor somewhere), and pick up Rodney Carney to play SG at #7.

Speaking of Draft Matters, in case you are in Chicago and you don’t know about BlogABull, well, there’s a lot of things that I could say, but the main point is that Matt (the author) is organizing a draft night party for Chicagoans. It’s going to be $1 beer night at Kincades (the location of said party), so there are sure to be lots of non-NBA-Draft people there, but I’m sure I’ll be too busy making fun of NBA GM’s player choices and draftee’s suit choices to take the time to make fun of people who go out to bars on Wednesday nights.

I wonder how many of the 19 remaining die-hard NBA fans have this card set? Perhaps a pre-quel question should have been, I wonder how many of the 19 remaining die-hard NBA fans are Celtics fans?

A few completely different things (besides my money) on my mind today.

So, Larry Brown is officially out as Knicks head coach and Isiah Thomas is in. I can’t say that I’m surprised. And now the Knicks and Brown are in a dispute over the $40 million remaining on his contact. You can be sure I’d be fighting for that $40 million too, but again, I’ve never had 40 million of anything, except maybe porn sites I’ve visited. Let hope this dispute can be settled in that typical efficient Knicks way.

The draft is mere hours away. According to the experts out there, the Celtics will likely be taking Marcus Williams with the 7th pick. Or, they might take LaMarcus Aldridge, Rudy Gay, Randy Foye, Tyrus Thomas, or maybe Andrea Bargnani.

At least there is some agreement with the first pick… And if the 2006 draft isn’t enough to curb your appetite, check out the 2007 mock draft. The Celtics are picking 7th again? Damn.

My point isn’t really to disparage mock drafts, I just think that the actual pick should be the least important aspect of a mock draft. The best ones out there actually describe the player and explain the rational for why a player would fit or not fit with a particular team. That is great for a guy like me who doesn’t really follow college hoops and has limited knowledge even on the most famous of these guys (I hear that JJ guy can shoot).

Nels has already highlighted (and participated in! Nice pick Nels) a clever mock draft idea from Hoops Addict and Celtics 17, an audio podcast. It’s a surprisingly informative breakdown of the draft and getting various perspectives from other bloggers, of course, was a good idea. This is one mock draft that I can get behind.

Nels, I’d like to hear who you would like the Bulls to take with the SECOND pick in the draft, if you have a preference. And whether you think the Bulls are going to send Isiah Thomas a Christmas present this year, since Thomas already sent them an early one.

Finally, my apologies for going off track here, but there is a commercial out that is totally bugging the shit out of me. Sure, I hate 9 out of 10 television commercials, but this Mohegan Sun commercial is especially egregious and is played at least 20 times a day on the one channel I happen to watch. Those of you not living in the Northeast may be lucky and have a reprieve from this one. To summarize, a man and his wife are dining at one of the Mohegan Sun’s more swanky restaurants when the waiter asks if they want any dessert. The wife says no, which must have pissed off the husband because he gets up out of his chair and launches into a 30 second monologue about wanting some tiramisu. As in the rest of the commercials in the series (go here to see Tiramisu and the 5 other spots in the series) a spot light comes in on the man during his monologue while everyone in the background is darkened.

This guy has more important worries while the waiter in the back is chatting up his wife

The thing that really drives me crazy is that the whole time this guy is giving his monologue, this young and handsome waiter is hitting on his wife. You can see her laughing at he chats her up. After his monologue, he comes back to the table while the guy is hitting on his wife and asks for dessert. Now, why the hell would this commercial want me to go to the Sun? So waiters can hit on my wife if I step 5 feet away from her? So I can get some crappy tiramisu and piss off my wife while she threatens to cheat on me?

When I go to the casino I just want 2 things, a hot craps table and, if I happen to be hungry, a well stocked buffet. I don’t want hot waiters and baked goods. And I especially don’t want my wife there.

I think Brian Colangelo is attempting to find out if he can build the opposite of the small, fast Phoenix team, using large, slow (sometimes fast) big men. Chris Bosh and Charlie V up front. Mo Pete and Andrea Bargnani as your wings. Mike James running the show. The front four will be able to shoot over anyone, and Mike James is willing to shoot over everyone.

As they say in those Guiness commercials: Brilliant!

Matt Bonner and Eric Williams are both pretty big, though. You think Colangelo would have kept them. He’s got to have something up his sleeve right?

PS: Rasho will have about the same fantasy game in Toronto as he did in San Antonio. Because they both end in O.

For the Spurs, also brilliant! They pick up two guys with expiring contracts for someone they didn’t want to resign anyway. So now they can keep the guys they really want, and dump the guys who won’t be playing that much anyway.

Actually, Matt Bonner might get some time behind Nazr Mohammed if he can play any better than Rasho was. I’m afraid Eric Williams is stuck behind Bruce Bowen, Michael Finley, and Robert Horry, now, though. Too bad for him. Maybe next year he can find somewhere where he can get back to scoring 12.6 points a game.