Catching Up on NFL and NBA

NFL:

The New York Giants are celebrating their Super Bowl win with their ticker tape parade today.  I have to say congrats to them for a hard fought win against a good New England Patriots team.  I will say this though, I am not on board with this Eli Manning to the Hall of Fame and how he's become a top QB in the league.  I think a lot of that should be tempered as this great year that Eli had was the outlier.  His previous body of work has been somewhat middling (he's averaged 16+ INTs a year vs. 23+ TDs a year).  He's a good guy and has definitely grown as a leader, but let's all just hold off of this Eli is THE MAN for now.  (Take a look at the other QBs that we're talking about being the best in the game).

QB	Avg TDs (since 2004)	Avg INTs (since 2004)
Eli Manning	23	16
Drew Brees	31	14
Tom Brady*	28	9
Aaron Rodgers**	16	4
Ben Roethlisberger	20	12
Philip Rivers	20	9

*Includes a year of 0 TDs and 0 INTs due to injury

**Includes spot duty behind Favre; started in 2008

NBA:

LA Clippers - Count Chauncey Billups as the first person to encounter the Clippers Curse.  Billups has torn his left Achilles and will miss the remainder of the year (my opinion, but you'll see later today).  Mo Williams, now it's your turn to step in and see if you can help this team as a starter.  The big question is whether the Clippers can reach out and get JR Smith.  If so, let's just hope that he leaves his sister and girlfriend at home. 

LA Lakers - Kobe passes the Big Speed Bump (Shaq) on the Lakers all-time scoring list.  Shaq was effusive in his praise for the young Kobe, and maybe there is hope that the two of them can kiss and make up after a few years.  More importantly is Kobe is wishing for some kind of move that will get him Championship #6.  Can the Lakers pull a Howard trade, or maybe steal Deron Williams from the Nets?  If the Lakers get one or both of these deals done, look out for the Black Mamba in the playoffs. 

New York Knicks - Run out and get your Jeremy Lin jerseys now.  The Ivy League grad is actually balling for the Knicks and just helped them beat a Jazz team (above .500) without Amare and Melo (for most of the game, UPDATE - Melo will be out for 1-2 weeks with hammy injury).  I can easily say that Lin is the best POINT guard on the team.  Baron Davis is a shell of a shell of himself and no one knows if and when his back will work correctly.  Douglas and Shumpert, both ACC guys, are more scorers than true point guards.  I think going forward the Knicks gotta start Lin and bring Shump off the bench for scoring and defense. 

Dallas Mavericks - Jason Kidd is still shelved and although no one is rushing him back, one thing we can see is that this compacted schedule is no joke for these older players.  Dirk has been chided for being out of shape and we've seen from an overall level that the NBA off-season, really means what it says it means.

Denver Nuggets - Just as the creamy Nuggets were finding their legs in this compacted season they've been dealt a blow with the injury to Danilo Gallinari.  Gallinari chipped a bone in his foot and we're not sure how long he'll be out.  Gallo was ballin up until this point and although the Nuggets say they don't have that go to player, I think Gallo was that guy.  He's averaging a little over 17 pts per game and with his height and mobility he can provide several mismatches for opposing teams.  Get well soon Gallo, the Nuggets need you. 

NFL Update 8-6-09

With all of the fall out over Eli Manning's big deal with the Giants, there are some other QB's in the league who have to smiling. One in general is Phillip Rivers. If Rivers gets $97.5M I'm taking my little guy out back and we're going to start playing catch a little bit more, with emphasis on him throwing. Other people that are happy, newly acquired Jay Cutler and Peyton Manning who can re up and is sure to get more money than his brother.

Hurting - Not much happens during training camp except the M.A.S.H units seem to be growing. Here's a list of the players that have been hurt during training camp so far (just the bigger names, not ever single injury):

- Reggie Bush - That knee is not looking good. Maybe he should have kept Kim Kardashian just a little longer. I'm sure she could have at least helped him rub that knee down.

- Tommie Harris - After inking a big deal last year, this guy doesn't seem to be ready to play. They have been holding him out of full contact drills (11 on 11).

-Ben Utecht and Daniel Coats - both went down yesterday and the Bengals are now looking at starting rookie TE, Chase Coffman

- Early Doucet and Beanie Wells - both are being monitored, Wells from a sprained ankle and
Doucet from a shoulder injury.

- Mark Clayton - has bleeding in his hamstring. I'm not even sure I've EVER heard that type of injury before.

- Harry Douglas - has a torn ACL and is out for the year (Roddy White may get a contract extension now, since the Falcons are low on receivers).

- Stewart Bradley - out for the year and he was quietly the 2nd leading tackler on the Philadelphia Eagles. I can honestly say I didn't know that.

- Maake Kemoeatu - is out for the year with a torn ACL. This should have the Panthers looking for some defensive line help.

What is a Manning worth?

Well, hopefully you have all seen the news, the Giants lost their freakin minds and signed Eli Manning to a six year $97.5M deal. I was waiting to see if this was in fact a hoax or just a mistake by the Giants (you know, a 9 here maybe should have been a 6 or something). I normally am all for people getting paid, but this (the little Manning) chump has to be the luckiest guy in the league. I mean he just won the lottery each year for the next 6 years. Let's go ahead and say this, Eli is good, not great, but not terrible. This isn't the type of money that you give an average quarterback (he has a career passer rating of 76.1). Had this deal been for Peyton Manning, I could have understood, although the years would have bothered me.

If the Giants were just dead set on making this deal, why not wait till after this season and they could have gotten him re-upped for the equivalent of a 20 piece meal and not the whole strip mall. Eli will be without his top two receivers, Amani Toomer and Plaxico Burress. They will be a team that will run the ball a lot more they won't put up big numbers. Somewhere Trent Dilfer is starting to practice again in hopes of getting back in the league. The Giants will hate this deal in about 2 years, if not sooner.

Am I too rough on Eli? I've never liked him and if he weren't Peyton's younger sibling or Archie's son, he wouldn't garner the attention he gets. He's average, nothing more nothing less.

Redskins at Giants Week 1 Recap

Well, to say that this game was exciting would definitely be the wrong thing to talk about. This resembled a 5th preseason game in my mind. The Redskins actually looked like they need two more preseason games to get it together. The Giants won the game 16-7 in a boring affair, but at least gives the Giants a game up in the NFC East. Things I noticed:

Antwaan Randle El - Two offside penalties for a WR? Are you kidding me? I mean in the same game, 2 of them? You are looking down the line at the ball, no excuse. That's like a nose guard/tackle jumping offside when the ball is right under his nose. Decent stats, 7 catches for 73 yards, although the majority of them were on one play (26 yard pass reception).

LaRon Landry - Welcome to the league again. I have to give it to this guy, he likes to hit, even when the the person he was hitting was 75 lbs heavier and running down hill right at him. Brandon Jacobs hit this guy and I'm sure his spinal cord compacted for a second or two. But Landry got up and stayed on the field and played well. 6 tackles and half a sack and almost 2 interceptions.

Jason Campbell - You stare at Beyonce, Kim Kardashian (don't let Reggie catch you doing it), Stacy Dash, and Jessica Alba. You do not stare down your receivers or it's going to be a looooong season for the Redskins. I was somewhat surprised how badly Campbell played in the first half, but they still had a chance to win the game. Maybe it's just opening night jitters, but I expect more from him.

Justin Tuck - I said he'd be the difference maker for the Giants on defense, I just forgot to add Mathias Kiawanuka to that list too. The two of them handled the Redskins' offensive line for the majority of the game and dominated them. Spagnola was bringing the heat too. I was sitting there counting blitzes and I lost count after about 20. I guess you don't talk trash about the guy that you almost gave your head coaching job to when he's running the defense that you play Week 1 (Snider said that Spagnola wasn't even close to getting the job Zorn has, around the same time that Spagnola said he withdrew his name from consideration).

Redskins Defense - Hey I got rid of them in Fantasy Football because I thought they'd play like they did early in this game for the entire year. They were able to right their ship and stop the Giants, except Brandon Jacobs, for the 2nd half of the game. I might have to think about picking them back up later in the year. They were also without Shawn Springs and lost Fred Smoot for a few plays with a bad back.

Brandon Jacobs - 'That hurt!!!!' That's what had to be going on in the minds of everyone trying to tackle him last night. This guy was looking for people to hit, even after the whistle. 6'4" 275, with speed, that's something I don't want to see coming through the hole at me, unless I have a sledge hammer.

Eli Manning - He was average. Nice move to get in the end zone on the bootleg, but other than that he was average. He got lucky that the Redskins let go two of his passes, but he gets the win.

All in all, a decent, yet boring game. This had to hurt the Redskins more than anyone else because as badly as they played, they were still only 9 points out. They had opportunities but squandered them. That's at least the silver lining in the whole deal. Here's to next week.