Exec of Year: Ferry Loses out to Denver’s Warkentien
May 3, 2009While We’re Waiting… Romeo Crennel’s Future, Kevin Mack’s Role, and More NBA Playoffs
May 4, 2009The Boots is my form of reporting current sports information from around the area. Boot Ups and Boot Downs are assigned to various events, people or happenings in the world of sports, as I first used in my e-mail based Sports Report. For possible topics for future posts, as always, look to the Tips e-mail address over on the sidebar.
Boot Up: An Incredible Series for the Ages – The Boston Celtics defeated the Chicago Bulls 109 to 99 last night in Game 7 of one of the most thrilling playoff match-ups in the history of the NBA. The league could not have scripted the first round any better, as all of the 1-2 seeds in each conference advanced and the Bulls/Celtics treated us to an incredible array of highlights. In the seven games, the teams combined to play an incredible seven overtimes, meaning that players such as John Salmons (44.7 minutes), Derrick Rose (44.7 minutes), Paul Pierce (44.4 minutes) and Rajon Rondo (45.3 minutes) had career high playing time.
Looking back at these playoffs, this could be one of the most memorable events of the year as Chicago and Boston transcended everything else that was going on in sports. The Celtics, who finished the year 62-20 and actually 144-46 in the last 2 seasons, came literally limping into the playoffs without the services of forwards Kevin Garnett and Leon Powe. These injuries forced the Celtics to play guards Stephon Marbury and Eddie House at much different positions and situations than during the season. The Baby Bulls, on the other hand, broke out in the playoffs and the scoring capabilities of John Salmons and Ben Gordon were on display in just about every single game. I know I had a ton of fun watching this series unfold, and just thinking of another series like this later in the playoff makes me more excited for round two to begin in the next days here.
Boot Up: Joe Smith revival in the playoffs – While it is hard to think back on the accomplishments of the Cavaliers after witnessing multiple overtimes and game-winners in the Chicago and Boston games, there were some interesting stories to look at with the Cavs play. Of course, LeBron James was phenomenal averaging 32 points, 11.3 rebounds and 7.5 assists per game, despite never having to play extended minutes late into the fourth quarter. On the other hand, Joe Smith (or should I say Joe Beast) was the biggest surprise in his 20.3 minutes per game. Earlier in the season, I remarked how Smith has been one of the most consistent players in the NBA throughout his entire career, but in these four games, we saw the reason why he still has tremendous abilities on the offensive end. He was fifth on the team in scoring and third in rebounding during the series with Detroit, adding more evidence behind the fact that the Cavaliers bench is one of the best in the league.
Now looking at the numbers, you can see that he truly was a different animal in the post-season. While in his entire career he averaged around 17-20 points per 48 minutes to go along with 11-13 rebounds, those numbers jumped way up in a short span of four games against the Pistons. He averaged 25.5 points to go along with 13.0 rebounds per 48 minutes in round one, as he 50% from the field with two threes and 15-17 from the free throw line. He was all over the place on offense, and with Andy Varejao struggling against the quicker Detroit forwards, provided a great offensive weapon off the bench. The Cavaliers still do not have a physical low-post scorer to match-up with the efforts of Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum on the Lakers, but we will definitely need solid contribution from Joe Smith on the second unit to have any chance of advancing and meeting them in the finals in the first place.
Boot Down: So how many Jets do we now have? – I noticed that Rick had a Cleveland Browns depth chart earlier in the week, which prompted breaking down the question of how many players from the New York Jets our on the roster. The trade that brought over Mark Sanchez to the Jets brought in three more of Mangini’s former players and brings the running total to seven on the team. The players that have the best chance of stepping in immediately just came in on the draft day deal as defensive end Kenyon Coleman and safety Abram Elam are projected to be starters right away for Mangini and company. I am not going to argue with that trade itself, but it is fascinating to me to think that in the span of just a few months since the end of the regular season, the Browns have managed to transform themselves into the Cleveland Jets.
In addition, what was even so good about that Jets defense last season? Of course, Cleveland was T-16th in points allowed and 26th in total yards allowed so it would be hard to be significantly worse with the help of some key starters, but the Jets were not that great either. They ranked 16th in total yards allowed, 7th best against the run, 29 against the pass and were 18 in points allowed per game. They also brought over one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL in Rex Ryan to be there new coach after a long tenure in Baltimore. If Ryan, who developed players such as Terrell Suggs, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, did not see much in Coleman, Elam or the others, I would have to think they are not that special. I am usually a pessimist in connection to the Browns or the entire NFL, and this is definitely something that concerns me looking forward.
Boot Down: Improbability of an Indians comeback – It is early, it is early, I keep trying to tell myself, but the statistical odds of the Cleveland Indians coming back into a potential playoff picture are daunting. Last season, the Indians finished the season 32-17 after starting 49-64 leading up to early August, and the chances of the Indians finding a way to finish .500 so late in the season were unbelievable at the time. It looks like the conversation is out there about this team only doing well without any pressure on their shoulders, and even if the Indians were to play like they have been since their dreadful 1-7 start this year, it would be tough to make up the difference. The team currently sits four games back of the Kansas City Royals in the Central and six games behind Boston in a potential early season race for the wild card.
The mathematical experts over at Baseball Prospectus claim that the Indians only have a 19.2% chance of finding a way to make the playoffs somehow this season. The theory behind the numbers makes sense to me, as a team that looked so promising early on, has found a way to start the young season 9-15 with one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball. Cleveland will not make the playoffs or even finish at .500 this season unless the two Rafaels both figure out their pitching soon and put together some decent late game stretches. It has been an absolute bore to watch the Tribe this season, hence why the fans are not showing up, and unless they start to change things soon it might be too late for the numbers to add up for the playoffs or even the future of manager Eric Wedge.
14 Comments
I desperately think the Indians need to shake up their bullpen, everything else is there. The offense & starting pitching are coming together for once, yet the bullpen continues to let us down. I think that the tribe are primed for a streak, in fact if it wasn’t for the bullpen, the tribe would be on a 5 game winning streak. Am I crazy for thinking that sipp just might be the best reliever we have and we should shift him to set-up and demote the rafaels/lewis to garbage time?
I don’t know about all of what you said, Louis, but I’m with you on Sipp. Go to the hot hand…
Umm…to me 19.5% chance is actually really good considering they are in LAST place in a 5 team division. 1 in 5 when there are 4 teams ahead of you is actually pretty good…
I’m all in favor of a shake-up. I say get rid of Lewis, Betancourt, Perez, and Wedge and see if they can’t wake this team up. Despite how bad they’ve been, they’re not out of it by a long shot. And if they’re bullpen just stopped imploding they could easily win a few games (they’d be 15-9 going into today and not 9-15 if they just hadn’t blown all these late leads). Its only going to take 87-89 wins to take the Central this year, so why wait until its too late to do something about it?
So you’re saying there’s a chance?!
I’m desperately in love with a school boy
@3 Jeff – That would be the truth if there was not an extra wild card in the mix there. Baltimore, Chicago and Minnesota are the only three teams in the AL that have lower playoff probabilities right now. The team that is currently 11th of 15 teams usually will not have very good chances of eventually turning things around.
I expected the Rocky Mountains to be a little rockier than this
Hey guys. Woah, Big Gulps, huh? All right! Well, see ya later
+1 Denny.
Thanks again for the Browns depth chart.
-The Guy Who Asked For It.
How bout a boot up for the Miami Heat beating down (physically, if not in the win/loss column) the Atlant Hawks, who will limp into the semi-final series against our beloved Cavaliers. Here’s to hoping for another 4 game domination.
“Just when I thought you couldn’t possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this… and totally redeem yourself!”
WHAT THE HELL ARE WE DOIN HERE HARRY??!?!?
i thought they had about a 5% chance so i’m happy with the 19%