In keeping with the “keep hope alive” sentiment, here’s how the teams Seattle is chasing fared last night:
Denver (current record: 31-27): W (oh, come on, Pistons!)
Hornets (31-27): L (16 points in the 2nd half?)
Lakers (29-29): L (thanks, Nate)
Kings(27-30): W
Jazz (27-30): L (gotta love that, no matter the situation)
Seattle (22-36): off
The net result is that the Sonics are now 7 games out of the playoffs, which is a full half-game better than they were yesterday. There are no games on tap for tonight featuring Sonic rivals for the playoffs.
Well, I figure at this pace, they’ll pass the Lakers by next Wednesday. Look, I know the “Sonics” and “playoffs” really don’t belong in the same sentence, but if we can’t root for the team we created a website for when they’re 7 games out, then why the hell did we make a website in the first place?
13 comments:
Welcome back Noel Felix!
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sonics/2002839537_websonics02.html
sorry for posting redundant info.
I'll try using the fancy scroll feature on the front page next time.
I'd rather see the standings posted of the teams with worse records than the Sonics.
Sorry, anon, I'm not giving up on the Sonics. I know everyone else is readying their lottery picks, but I don't want to throw in the towel (yet).
Dd, our whole damn team with the exeption of our bigs and D Wilkins should play in the East, soft like a twinkie fillin'
Do you mean when you load pics when you post here in the comments, like the little dude next to my name? To do that, you just need to go to your blogger profile and add a picture (I encourage everyone to do it!). And you can use a Mac or PC (I use both).
I'm not sure if there's a way to post a full sized pic in the comments because of Blogger's retarded limitations.
(Also, if you dig Double Dribble, you might like my other blog, retardedgames.com.)
It's tough to say when it comes to the stereotypical NCAA senior stud. For example, a guy like Julius Hodge, who was such a joy to watch in the tournament last spring, has gotten off the bench all of 5 times this year with Denver.
Yeah, Conroy's had some good stats in the D-League this year, but do the Sonics really need him? Or, look at it this way: Conroy was nowhere near the player in college that Ridnour was, so what makes anyone think he would be better in the pros? It's not as if Conroy had physical talents that just hadn't developed yet. He's just like Ridnour, a slightly undersized PG.
One of my favorite college players of all time was Richard Lucas, a PF from when I was at Oregon. He was so much fun to watch in college, a tenacious rebounder and defender. I was convinced when he graduated that he make a great 3rd or 4th man off the bench. The problem was he was too small to make it in the NBA, and his talent level too low. It's okay to be small, and it's okay to be less talented, but you can't be both. Lucas - and I - found that out when the Sonics cut him from their summer tryout camp.
Probably the best argument: If Conroy had gone to George Washington rather than the University of Washington, would we even be having this conversation?
Duke products are known busts - the only notable Duke players i can think of are Grant Hill - pre Tamia (that's when the injury bug bit him) and Johnny Dawkins...J.J. Reddick is a great college player...he's basically Trajan Langdon with handles...but not that much better.
As much as I dislike Duke, they get a bad rap for turning out NBA players. Here's some more players you can add to the list:
Elton Brand
Christian Laettner
Corey Maggette
Carlos Boozer
Shane Battier
All 5 of those guys were/are solid NBA players. Laettner may be widely hated, but the guy played almost 900 games and scored more than 10,000 points in the league. If you can get that in every draft as a GM, you're doing a helluva job.
Maybe the reason everyone thinks Duke players are busts is that those same players are hyped beyond belief while they're in college and, let's face it, a large number of them are the same skin color as the sportswriters doing the hyping. It didn't hurt Bobby Hurley and Christian Laettner that they were white when it came to the number of column inches devoted to their heroics.
Still, I looked at how UNC grads have done in the NBA as a quick and dirty comparison. Here's a quick list since 1990:
2004 – no picks
2003 – no picks
2002 – no picks
2001 – Brendan Haywood, Bust
Joe Forte, Bust
2000 – no picks
1999 – no picks
1998 – Antawn Jamison, All-Star
Vince Carter, All-Star
Shammond Williams, bench player
1997 – Serge Zwikker, Bust
1996 – Jeff McInnis, Starter/Reserve
1995 – Jerry Stackhouse, All-Star
Rasheed Wallace, All-Star
1994 – Eric Montross, Bust
1993 – George Lynch, Starter/Reserve
1992 – Hubert Davis, Reserve
1991 – Rick Fox, Starter/Reserve
Pete Chilcutt, Reserve
Basically, since 1990 the Heels have produced 4 all-star quality players (Wallace, Stack, Jamison, Carter), to 3 from Duke (Hill, Brand, Magette). If you add in Boozer and Battier, I think the quality of players from Duke over the past decade matches up quite well with UNC's.
Of course, if you include the 80s (Jordan, Perkins), well, that's whole 'nother kettle of fish.
Maryland has Steve Francis, John Lucas, and Brad Davis.
But Ga-Tech has to get the top prize. Throw in Travis Best and they beat anybody.
Good Lord, I can't believe I forgot Big Game James. When I typed in Perkins and MJ, I kept thinking, "who is it that I'm forgetting?" Thanks for the reminder.
I guess I'm not saying that Duke's produced better players than UNC, just that they haven't ALL been washouts. Plus, if you look at their peaks, Hill was much better than Stackhouse (Grant was 1st- or 2nd-team all-league 5 times; Stack: 0) and Brand is definitely better than Jamison.
It is strange how bleak UNC's been for the past few years. Before this year's bonanza, they hadn't produced a decent player in 7 years.
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