Browns Season Tickets Have Arrived
July 25, 2011Indians 3, Angels 2: Win One with the Kipper
July 26, 2011While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com
“After Sunday’s 4-2 loss to the White Sox, Indians manager Manny Acta went on a mini rant about the upcoming Trade Deadline. The point he wanted to make was that Cleveland, headed by rookie GM Chris Antonetti (pictured), is working hard to pull off a deal or two. “The truth will come out,” Acta said. “A lot of people will be shocked, surprised and be quiet for a long time after they find out every effort that the team put into it.” Now, granted, it wasn’t exactly clear what Acta meant. After all, putting in the effort and making something happen are two entirely different things. But it was clear that Acta wanted Indians fans to know that — like them — the Tribe’s decision-makers see the areas that need obvious improvement, and the team is trying to reel in some players to help.” [Major League Bastian]
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Season preview- “At some point, it was inevitable. But that doesn’t mean anyone was actually prepared for the sudden opening of the Big Ten frontier this summer, or had any good reason to be. When the annual preseason magazines started going to press at the end of spring practice, Jim Tressel was still Ohio State’s head coach. Terrelle Pryor was still Ohio State’s starting quarterback. True, they were going to miss the first month of the season, along with three other offensive starters, but they’d be back in time for the thick of conference play. At which point Ohio State would still be Ohio State, immovable object at the top of the Big Ten standings. In the span of a few weeks, the irresistible force of an NCAA investigation altered that dynamic in unusually violent fashion.” [Dr. Saturday]
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Remember a WR the Browns drafted a couple years ago, Paul Hubbard?- “If you’re driving a car and you’re intoxicated, it’s a good idea to keep your car from making contact with other things. But if you absolutely have to run your car into something, that something should probably not be a police officer. And that’s where Buffalo Bills wide receiver Paul Hubbard went wrong. Here’s the very brief report from YNN in Buffalo. The good news, if there can be such a thing in a situation like this, is that no major injuries were sustained. The officer went to the hospital, was treated and released.” [Shutdown Corner]
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Tristan Thompson not making friends back home- “Tristan Thompson is from Canada, and he doesn’t appear to be interested in representing his country in international competition anytime soon. The reasons given for the fact that Tristan is not showing up for Team Canada’s training camp this summer include the fact that he is tired from pre-draft work-outs, and that he is taking classes at UT. Both reasons seem logical enough to me, but I’m not a Canadian. If I was, maybe I’d be offended or something and hit him with a Jamal Magloire blast – assuming that’s a bad enough thing to call somebody. Anyways, Steve Simmons from the Toronto Sun does appear to be offended, and wrote the following about the Cavaliers fourth pick overall this past Saturday.” [Brendan/Stepien Rules]
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Wow. Baltimore must really have their eyes on someone in free agency- “According to Aaron Wilson of the National Football Post, Baltimore has informed receiver Derrick Mason, tailback Willis McGahee, defensive tackle Kelly Gregg and tight end Todd Heap that they will be released this week. The moves will save Baltimore millions on the cap while also helping the Ravens get younger. Heap and Mason are be the biggest surprises of this group, because both are coming off productive seasons. But Heap and Mason are aging players who were making at least $4 million this season, and the Ravens have drafted youngsters at the position in recent years, including receiver Torrey Smith (2011) and tight ends Ed Dickson and Dennis Pitta (2010).” [Walker/AFC North Blog]
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If Amico were in charge of the NBA- “Anyone who played AAU ball would be ineligible to enter the draft until they turned 21. Anyone who didn’t play AAU ball could enter the draft straight out of high school. Trust me, most of the NBA’s problems aren’t because of what takes place in the NBA. Most are because of the butt-kissing buddy system at the lower levels. It’s why guys constantly shrug during interviews (losing is no big deal when you receive a pair of free Nikes at 15), and why LeBron James left Cleveland to play with his friends. Under my plan, the system producing such evils would be squeezed to its knees.” [Amico/FSN]
7 Comments
I like some of Amico’s ideas, they’d make the NBA better. But not sure what you could do about the 3 pt. line. If you make it longer I don’t think it stops guys from shooting them, it will just lower the % of makes. The good thing is it would spread the floor, but guys seem to refuse to shoot a midrange J, so all that will do is cause more dunks/3s.
Also, I LOVE the idea of non lottery draftees have to play 1 yr in NBDL. That would stop some players from coming out early, hopefully choosing to stay in college & work their way into the lottery. Also, do we really need to see the guys picked 28th in the draft in their 1st year? Most of them don’t pan out for their career, let alone their 1st year. Give them time to Develop & see if it improves the game.
guys like DeJuan Blair, etc. are seasoned and as good as they can get already. having them spend a year in the D-League is a waste. alot of the guys drafted in the 20-40 range are the juniors and seniors that weren’t elite enough to come out early.
in addition, you might see more guys jump out early instead of staying in college because the goal is to get to the NBA. If they have to spend a year in D-League, then they might as well get that taken care of as quick as they can.
Baltimore is going after Nnamdi.
I think almost all of Amico’s ideas are foolish.
Lyon already touched on the 3pt line.
abolishing the rookie wage scale is fine if you just think the rookies should be paid well. but, he sites LeBron getting paid more than Bargnani, which would not happen. the #1 overall pick would almost always make more $$$ than the one from the previous season. see the NFL #1 overall picks until they instituted the wage scale for this class.
another example is that he wants a hard cap w/ the Larry Bird exception. but, he doesn’t site how he will handle trades. if teams can go over the ‘hard’ cap and then trade players matching salaries, then he hasn’t changed anything at all (other than getting rid of the MLE and Bi-A-E).
good points mgbode. Didn’t think of it that way.
@ Brendon – I was going to say the same thing. Good thing the Browns don’t have a #1 receiver for him to shut down.
I like Amico’s AAU rule, but disagree strongly with abolishing the rookie salary cap.
Moving the 3 point line doesn’t seem feasible unless you are going to make the court bigger. The corner 3 point line is already very close to out of bounds, and I think it would be incredibly stupid to move it back around the top of the key giving it a balloon shape.
I still watch and love basketball, but the game will never be the same. The mid range jumper is gone for the most part. The NBA offense now consists of either launching a 3 or dumping the ball in the post and getting a foul called.
Watching basketball games from the late 80s and early 90s on ESPN classic is depressing b/c that is how basketball should be.