I had to take a step back for a while before I reacted to the Sixers draft day. When the pick was made Pete and my reaction was “eh.” Nothing surprising and nothing special. I have to admit I am a little bit disappointed but not as much as I was last night. It’s not that they didn’t select the player I preferred (J.J. Hickson), but that we walked away from this pretty talented draft with [...]

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I’m not one to start giving out draft grades, so I’m going use a basic formula for each team’s performance: How would I feel as a fan, today, if this was my favorite team (note: I have omitted the 2 teams without a pick, ATL and NO, and the 3 that only had a 2nd round pick, LAL, DEN and DAL). I’m going to put each team into 1 of 4 categories: Pumped, Ticked, Bored and Confused. I will also have the teams ordered from top to bottom ranging from how strong the emotion would be. Wow that last sentence sounds stupid. Oh well, I’m hungover, the Phillies are sucking, what do you want from me. Let’s do this:

Pumped

Portland Trail Blazers - All they needed was a PG, but at the 13th pick, it didn’t seem likely that one of the top prospects at that position would fall to them. Enter evil-genius Kevin Pritchard who managed to use the 13th pick to get the 4th best player on his draft board (Jerryd Bayless) without giving up anybody in particular. Now their opening night line-up will be Bayless, Webster, Roy, Aldridge and Oden with Frye, Outlaw, Przybilla, Blake and Rudy Fernandez (first year over from Spain) coming off the bench. What a collection of young talent. It may not be this year, but the sky is limit for that crew. [...]

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This is nothing more than a post for you guys to flood the comments with pre, during and post NBA Draft talk. Sixers or other. And keep it all in one central location.

I will lead off with my ideal scenario for the Sixers.

With all the recent shuffling and moves Chad Ford (and others) in his most recent NBA Mock Draft has Mario Chalmers dropping to 17. I say the Sixers “buy” a later 1st round draft [...]

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When the Phillies are playing this bad - I tend to not watch them. I decided a couple years ago that it was not worth the mental anguish of watching Carlos Ruiz hitting into a bases-loaded, one-out, double play. I get too mad. It’s only mid-way through the regular season. I can get mad in September. So instead of watching the rest of the game, gritting my teeth, and probably taking years off my lifespan, I simply change the [...]

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Think you can spot talent and draft better than most NBA GMs and basketball player evaluators?

I know you do because you probably wouldn’t be on this blog and other sports forums critiquing and criticizing the decisions of your favorite team’s management. So with the 2008 NBA Draft today, I put together this fun little test for you.

The Challenge

It’s quite simple actually. Pick the the player that you think is the better overall prospect based on the information provided. [...]

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Here is my first and only NBA Mock Draft. I am going to change it up slightly though. Rather than attempting to predict where players will be drafted (Pete had done a great job of keeping up with all the news and rumors flying around about what teams will actually do in his NBA Mock Drafts), in Recliner GM fashion I will make the picks entirely as if I was the general manager for each of the teams. We all know who the fans think should be selected will vary significantly from who their team will actually pick. So here I go playing GM. (Warning: it’s long since this will be my only NBA Mock Draft) [...]

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OK - so this is clearly the most confusing draft of all time. Chad Ford said it best, so I’m not going to try to say it better:

Every team I speak with says the same thing: This is one of the most difficult drafts ever to predict. Different teams are coming to wildly different conclusions on the same players. Agents are insisting that their players are going higher than others project. Last-minute workouts and trade talks are still changing [...]

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Eddie Stefanski said recently that the Sixers have a list of about “8 guys” they are looking at with the 16th pick. Based on what he’s said about wanting a big man, and who they’ve brought in for workouts, I’m pretty confident that our pick will be from one of the 9 players listed below (unless we trade up or someone like Anthony Randolph falls to us, or the Sixers are completely lying). So - what do the people [...]

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Looks like the Sixers best power forward option might be Josh Smith.

“Some say Atlanta doesn’t want to go above $11 million per year to sign restricted free agent Josh Smith. If that’s the case, look for Smith to end up in Philadelphia.

The Sixers would love to get Elton Brand, but word is that he doesn’t want to take a pay cut from the $16 million-plus he’s due next season — except to go to Miami.

So with Brand pretty much out of the question, Philly will look at Smith and Antawn Jamison. The Sixers can start either one at $11 million with 8 percent annual increases.” - Chris Broussard’s Blog, ESPN

[...]

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The Phillies need another starting pitcher. This past 9-game stretch, where we’ve gone 3-6 against 3 of top teams in the MLB, has shown that come playoff time, you cannot rely on a streaky offense and one good pitcher to win you 7-game series. Up until yesterday, I figured that the starter we need could either come from within the organization (i.e. Brett Myers pulling a Gavin Floyd and finally pitching to his potential 6 years after the fact) or from a low-cost starter outside the organization (Randy Wolf, Dave Bush etc…). But then, I read this in Jayson Stark’s Rumblings and Grumblings: [...]

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