Wednesday, June 30, 2010

FDH Lounge Show #108: June 30, 2010

By Rick Morris

While a last-minute “act of God” put us in best-of mode last week, we’re back in all our glory this week with a brand-new and typically all-over-the-place edition of THE FDH LOUNGE (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com) as the calendar hits the half-over mark in the first year of the new decade [BTW, for your best look back at the old decade and your best look ahead at the “teens,” check out our free eBook DISSECTING THE DECADES: THE FDH LOUNGE LOOKS BACK AND AHEAD AT THE FIRST 20 YEARS OF THE NEW MILLENIUM].

We open as usual with The Opening Statements of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries and our look at This Week in The FDH Lounge before we bring in a man who has climbed through the journalism ranks to become the CEO of a thriving Internet television network. Jim Louderback heads up Revision3, which is one of the entities most responsible for the growing convergence of the Web and traditional television.

At the top of Hour Two, the man who has always been our favorite film critic, Ben Lyons, will be joined (schedule permitting) by a legend of the reviewing business – his own father, Jeffrey Lyons! The summer movie season, the half-year in review in movies, a revisiting of our discussion with him last time about the greatest sports movies … we’ll hit them all. From there, we preview the chaos that will break loose at midnight as Evan Roberts of WFAN in New York comes on to talk all things July 1 and NBA free agency.

Hour Three starts with charter FDH Lounge Dignitary Nate Noy and a breakdown of what has been a very unpredictable World Cup. Then, THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER then wraps up the show in its new timeslot of the final segment with the fantasy hot dog eating draft. Yes, we went there! Speaking of our fantasy division, remember that HOCKEY DRAFTOLOGY 2010 and HOOPS DRAFTOLOGY 2010 deliver your best coverage of the NHL Entry Draft and NBA Draft, respectively.

As always, we urge you to watch the show live (or listen if you’re on dial-up), but if you can’t catch this as it’s happening, you can always catch the FDH archives 24-7 right here or catch us now on iTunes. Also, you can now catch THE FDH LOUNGE VAULT, a compilation of our best interviews and roundtables, now every weeknight from 6-7 PM, also on SportsTalkNetwork.com.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume III, Issue XXV

By Rick Morris

For the most part, we keep our fantasy content on our fantasy website and fantasy blog and keep this site for content on all subjects. It allows our readers to find specific content more easily that way. However, it has come to our attention that because our new fantasy sports newsletter is published on the older Blogger platform that our readers may be limited in their ability to subscribe to it. There does not appear to be a way to have content on the FantasyDrafthelp.com blog forwarded to an aggregate news reader -- however, we know that we have that ability here. So we will link to that newsletter each week right here when it is published. Here is this week's newsletter.

NBA Draft composite grades

By Jason Jones (posted by Rick Morris)

Here are the composite NBA Draft grades. Keep in mind, this is a result of "grade equation" and not grade scale. A 65% should not be read as a "D". This was done by grading each prospect as a prospect, not projecting them as NBA players but as a prospect, factoring reach, value, upside, etc. These grades do reflect traded players and also reflect opportunities seized and opportunities passed.

Single Player Grades
PHI 94 Evan Turner
GS 86 Ekpe Udoh
HOU 79 Patrick Patterson
DAL 71 Dominique Jones

Composite Grades
WAS 92.0 John Wall, Kevin Seraphin
NJN 87.5 Derrick Favors, Damion Jones
DET 82.5 Greg Monroe, Terrico White
TOR 81.5 Ed Davis, Solomon Alabi
LAC 80.6 Al-Farouq Aminu, Eric Bledsoe, Willie Warren
SAC 80.0 DeMarcus Cousins, Hassan Whiteside
MEM 78.5 Xavier Henry, Greivis Vazquez
SAS 74.0 James Anderson, Ryan Richards
POR 70.5 Elliot Williams, Armon Johnson
IND 67.6 Paul George, Lance Stephenson, Ryan Reid
OKC 66.5 Cole Aldrich, Magnum Rolle, Tibor Pleiss
MIN 66.4 Wesley Johnson, Paulao Prestes, Hamady D'Diaye, Lazar Hayward, Nemanja Bielica
MIL 66.3 Larry Sanders, Darington Hobson, Jerome Jordan, Tiny Gallon
PHO 65.0 Gani Lawal, Dwayne Collins
ORL 65.0 Daniel Orton, Stanley Robinson
ATL 61.0 Jordan Crawford, Pape Sy
LAL 58.5 Devin Ebanks, Derrick Character
NYK 58.5 Andy Rautins, Landry Fields
NOH 57.5 Craig Brackins, Quincy Pondexter

Some other notes...

^ The Miami Heat did not even register, as I do not feel they acquired a single player that will make the team. However, by drafting that way, they ensure that more than any other team, they will have enough money to resign D. Wade and sign up to 3 or even 4 max deal or elite free agents. Imagine, D. Wade, C. Bosh, A. Stoudamire, and ... J. .Johnson. I'm not saying it will happen, but Miami will be sick within the next three months.

^ Washington getting John Wall and Kevin Seraphin did improve themselves, but they traded away picks that I thought they should have made.

^ San Antonio may not have a high score, but they got the steal of the draft in James Anderson.

^ The LA Clippers (who have a very nice starting five when healthy) have made selections that speak to the kind of quality depth a team needs to compete against teams like the Lakers.

^ New Jersey didn't go crazy trying to get players that might attract an elite free agent, which is smart; finishing with Derrick Favors and Damion Jones gives them a strong and young frontcourt. Favors starts Day One and after the draft, I am certain that they will be targeting SGs and SFs...surprise, surprise.

Sacramento also improved themselves, even though I liked other guys before the trades. DeMarcus Cousins will start and Hassan Whiteside has tremendous upside and, if given time to mature, could be huge. Now if the Kings could get a decent point guard not named Beno Udrih, they might be on to something.

^ Chris Paul's relative ultimatum...loosely translated, "make basketball moves instead of salary moves or I'm gone" apparently was not well received. The free agents in this offseason are significant, but...after the Knicks, Nets, Bulls, Heat, Clippers, etc, I can't imagine that New Orleans is seriously considering themselves as a contender in free agency.

Friday, June 25, 2010

2010 NHL Entry Draft highlight videos

By Rick Morris

We've started doing this feature for the past few pro sports drafts, NFL, NBA and NHL -- viva la YouTube! Being able to embed highlight reels of top prospects is just another slice of what makes this an incredible time to be a content provider.

We remind you also to utilize our draft guide HOCKEY DRAFTOLOGY 2010 for all of your needs around this big event. Additionally, your 21st Century Media Alliance coverage of tonight's big event (with subsequent updates over the weekend) will be coming from Russ Cohen and the boys over at Sportsology and Card Corner Club. They'll have podcasts, columns and everything you need to keep up with all of the events out in SoCal.

Now, the videos.

Taylor Hall


Tyler Seguin


Brett Connolly


Mikael Granlund


Kirill Kabanov

Thursday, June 24, 2010

2010 NBA Draft liveblog

By Rick Morris

Tonight, the luminaries of The 21st Century Media Alliance come together to liveblog the 2010 NBA Draft as only we can. We invite you to join us for what we know will be a great complement to the viewing experience (or a great substitute altogether if you are not in front of a TV).

2010 NBA Draft highlight videos

By Rick Morris

We've started doing this feature for the past few pro sports drafts, NFL, NBA and NHL -- viva la YouTube! Being able to embed highlight reels of top prospects is just another slice of what makes this an incredible time to be a content provider.

Before the reels, two quick notes, one good and one bad.

^ First, the good. Our HOOPS DRAFTOLOGY 2010 is the ONLY resource you will need on Draft Day. Accept no feeble imitations!

^ Next, the bad. In the course of combing through to try to bring you these quality videos, I frankly had to wade through a ton of crap in the form of losers who are incapable of stringing together decent highlights without putting some crappy rap music in there. Memo to the wannabees inflicting this garbage on the world: nobody cares about your idiotic music bed with Three Six Mafia layered over the football action. Just grow up already. In an ideal world, we could watch all of these videos without any trace of music -- hey, we love music also, good music that is, but even good music with highlights is like dipping steak in chocolate sauce -- but you may want to mute these. Just saying.

John Wall, so incredible that he deserves three videos






Evan Turner


Wesley Johnson


Derrick Favors


DeMarcus Cousins:

Rick Morris 2010 NBA Draft mock draft

By Rick Morris

The 21st Century Media Alliance has struck again! The combined efforts of The FDH Lounge, FantasyDrafthelp.com, Sportsology and Card Corner Club have produced your ultimate guide to the NBA Draft (and beyond), HOOPS DRAFTOLOGY 2010. We encourage you to check out these comprehensive yet compact guides in their entirety, and as an inducement to do so, we are serializing them here.

Here is my mock draft from the guide:

Team Player Position School Height
1 WAS John Wall PG Kentucky 6'4
2 PHI Evan Turner SG/SF Ohio St 6'7
3 NJN Derrick Favors PF Georgia Tech 6'10
4 MIN Wesley Johnson SF Syracuse 6'7
5 SAC Al-Farouq Aminu SF Wake Forest 6'9
6 GS Greg Monroe PF/C Georgetown 6'11
7 DET DeMarcus Cousins C Kentucky 6'11
8 LAC Xavier Henry SG/SF Kansas 6'7
9 UTA Cole Aldrich C Kansas 6'11
10 IND Paul George SG/SF Fresno St 6'9
11 NO James Anderson SG Oklahoma St 6'6
12 MEM Luke Babbitt SF Nevada 6'9
13 TOR Avery Bradley PG Texas 6'3
14 HOU Gordon Hayward SF Butler 6'9
15 MIL Ekpe Udoh PF Baylor 6'10
16 MIN Hassan Whiteside C Marshall 7'0
17 CHI Patrick Patterson PF Kentucky 6'9
18 MIA Damion James SF Texas 6'8
19 BOS Ed Davis PF UNC 6'10
20 SA Gani Lawal SF/PF Georgia Tech 6'9
21 OKC Elliot Williams SG Memphis 6'4
22 POR Eric Bledsoe PG Kentucky 6'1
23 MIN Jordan Crawford SG Xavier 6'5
24 ATL Stanley Robinson SF UConn 6'8
25 MEM Solomon Alabi C Florida St 7'1
26 OKC Daniel Orton PF/C Kentucky 6'10
27 NJN Dominique Jones SG South Florida 6'4
28 MEM Kevin Seraphin PF/C France 6'9
29 ORL Quincy Pondexter SF Washington 6'7
30 WAS Nemanja Bjelica SF/PF Serbia 6'10

Jason Jones 2010 NBA Draft mock draft

By Jason Jones (posted by Rick Morris)

The 21st Century Media Alliance has struck again! The combined efforts of The FDH Lounge, FantasyDrafthelp.com, Sportsology and Card Corner Club have produced your ultimate guide to the NBA Draft (and beyond), HOOPS DRAFTOLOGY 2010. We encourage you to check out these comprehensive yet compact guides in their entirety, and as an inducement to do so, we are serializing them here.

Here is my mock draft from the guide:

Team Player Position School Height
1 WAS John Wall PG Kentucky 6'4
2 PHI Evan Turner SG/SF Ohio St 6'7
3 NJN Derrick Favors PF Georgia Tech 6'10
4 MIN Wesley Johnson SF Syracuse 6'7
5 SAC Al-Farouq Aminu SF Wake Forest 6'9
6 GS DeMarcus Cousins C Kentucky 6'11
7 DET Greg Monroe PF Georgetown 6'11
8 LAC Xavier Henry SG/SF Kansas 6'7
9 UTA Paul George SG/SF Fresno St 6'9
10 IND Eric Bledsoe PG Kentucky 6'1
11 NO James Anderson SG Oklahoma St 6'6
12 MEM Luke Babbitt SF Nevada 6'9
13 TOR Ekpe Udoh PF Baylor 6'10
14 HOU Cole Aldrich C Kansas 6'11
15 MIL Ed Davis PF UNC 6'10
16 MIN Gordon Hayward SF Butler 6'9
17 CHI Jordan Crawford SG Xavier 6'5
18 MIA Greivis Vasquez PG Maryland 6'6
19 BOS Hassan Whiteside C Marshall 7'0
20 SA Damion James SF Texas 6'8
21 OKC Patrick Patterson PF Kentucky 6'9
22 POR Sherron Collins PG Kansas 5'11
23 MIN Stanley Robinson SF Uconn 6'8
24 ATL Elliot Williams SG Memphis 6'4
25 MEM Avery Bradley PG Texas 6'3
26 OKC Solomon Alabi C Florida St 7'1
27 NJN Darington Hobson SF New Mexico 6'6
28 MEM Daniel Orton PF/C Kentucky 6'10
29 ORL Larry Sanders PF VCU 6'11
30 WAS Gani Lawal SF/PF Georgia Tech 6'9

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

FDH Lounge Show #108: June 23, 2010

By Rick Morris

EDIT: Due to the proverbial "act of God," it turns out we are in best-of mode tonight. We apologize and look forward to delivering Episode #108 next week, Wednesday June 30.

THE FDH LOUNGE (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com) features more of its trademark extreme variety on the 108th edition of the program.

We open as usual with The Opening Statements of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries and our look at This Week in The FDH Lounge before we welcome in MLB Network analyst “The Mayor” Sean Casey, a three-time All-Star during his playing career and a man long lauded as one of the nicest and most charitable people in sports. We’ll get his views on the present landscape of the game and catch up on his work with various causes, including Labels are for Jars.

Then we bring in Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Gregg Rolie! How many musicians get to play with one legendary act? And he’s played with two: Santana and Journey – to say nothing of his work with other bands, including the current Gregg Rolie Band. 40 years after performing at Woodstock, he’s still got new and exciting developments going on all the time.

At the start of Hour Two, THE GOON SQUAD breaks down the NHL Awards and NHL Entry Draft with the help of our new guide HOCKEY DRAFTOLOGY 2010. Then, we get into what has been a very unpredictable World Cup. Upsets and controversies have abounded and we’ll assess it for you before our US Open recap. Hour Three starts with a look back at the recently-concluded NBA Finals and Thursday’s NBA Draft with, you guessed it, our new guide HOOPS DRAFTOLOGY 2010!

THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER then wraps up the show in its new timeslot of the final segment with a look at the just-unveiled 2010-2011 “Ultimate Stat” UQB numbers for fantasy hockey. We crunch these numbers in each of the major fantasy sports, so in addition to taking an early look at the puck landscape for next year, we’ll also take another overview of the concept itself and how our statistic really does live up to the billing of Ultimate Quantitative Baseline.

As always, we urge you to watch the show live (or listen if you’re on dial-up), but if you can’t catch this as it’s happening, you can always catch the FDH archives 24-7 right here or catch us now on iTunes. Also, you can now catch THE FDH LOUNGE VAULT, a compilation of our best interviews and roundtables, now every weeknight from 6-7 PM, also on SportsTalkNetwork.com.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Hoops draft guide: Full list of contents

By Rick Morris

The 21st Century Media Alliance has struck again! The combined efforts of The FDH Lounge, FantasyDrafthelp.com, Sportsology and Card Corner Club have produced your ultimate guide to the NBA Draft (and beyond), HOOPS DRAFTOLOGY 2010. We encourage you to check out these comprehensive yet compact guides in their entirety, and as an inducement to do so, we are serializing them here.

Here is a full list of contents:


Page 1: Guide overview, Talent overview
Page 2: Strength of draft by position, Top 30 players regardless of position with skill
description
Page 3: Top 30 players regardless of position with potential stat line and area(s) of
Specialization, Links to highlight videos
of top prospects
Page 4: NBA top player rankings, Team needs, Blank mock draft sheet, David Thompson not getting his due
Pages 5-8: Jason Jones’ “Beyond the Mock”
Page 9: Jason Jones & Rick Morris mock drafts
Page 10: Correlation of top players to NBA titles
Pages 11-12: Examination of how free agency could affect NBA landscape

Hoops draft guide: Needs listed by team

By Rick Morris

The 21st Century Media Alliance has struck again! The combined efforts of The FDH Lounge, FantasyDrafthelp.com, Sportsology and Card Corner Club have produced your ultimate guide to the NBA Draft (and beyond), HOOPS DRAFTOLOGY 2010. We encourage you to check out these comprehensive yet compact guides in their entirety, and as an inducement to do so, we are serializing them here.

Here is a list of needs by team:


NOTE: Needs preceeded by an asterisk refer to openings that might materialize as a result of free agency.

1. WAS: C, PF
2. PHI: SG, C, PG
3. NJ: SF, SG
4. MIN: SF, SG, C
5. SAC: SF, PG, C
6. GS: C, PF
7. DET: C, PG
8. LAC: SF
9. NYK: *C, PG, SG
10. IND: PG, SG, C
11.NO: SG, C, SF
12. MEM: no pressing needs
13. TOR: *PF, SG
14. HOU: C, SF
15. CHI: SG, PF
16. CHA: C, SG, PG
17. MIL: SF, PF
18. MIA: *SG, SF, PG
19. BOS: C
20. SA: C, SF
21. OKC: C, SG
22. POR: SF, PG
23. UTA: C, SG, SF
24. ATL: *SG, SF
25. DEN: *SF, SG, C
26. PHO: *PF, SF
27. DAL: *PF, C, SF
28. LAL: PG
29. ORL: SF
30. CLE: *SF, PG

Hoops draft guide: NBA top player rankings

By Rick Morris

The 21st Century Media Alliance has struck again! The combined efforts of The FDH Lounge, FantasyDrafthelp.com, Sportsology and Card Corner Club have produced your ultimate guide to the NBA Draft (and beyond), HOOPS DRAFTOLOGY 2010. We encourage you to check out these comprehensive yet compact guides in their entirety, and as an inducement to do so, we are serializing them here.

Here is an examination of the top players presently in the NBA:


For these purposes, the top tier of players represents the few in the league who are the most capable of winning a championship without a fellow super-elite player. The second tier represents players who are presently at what might be considered an All-Star level. This list also is fascinating because it reveals the true impact of July 1 on the NBA. Players in bold are potential unrestricted free agents. 10 out of the 30 players on this list could well be on the market, but the true impact goes beyond that number because of the placement of most of the players named here; two of the top four, six of the top 12 and eight of the top 16 players will potentially be able to sign with the team of their choice (and this list doesn’t even reference restricted free agent Rudy Gay). Such a bonanza has little precedent not only in basketball, but in sports as a whole.


Top Tier
1
LeBron James
2
Kobe Bryant
3
Kevin Durant
4
Dwyane Wade
5
Chris Paul
Second Tier
6
Steve Nash
7
Dwight Howard
8
Deron Williams
9
Dirk Nowitzki
10
Chris Bosh
11
Carmelo Anthony
12
Amare Stoudemire
13
Brandon Roy
14
Derrick Rose
15
Joe Johnson
16
Carlos Boozer
17
Rajon Rondo
18
Danny Granger
19
Tim Duncan
20
Monte Ellis
21
Rudy Gay
22
Zach Randolph
23
Paul Pierce
24
Pau Gasol
25
Chauncey Billups
26
David Lee
27
LaMarcus Aldridge
28
Andre Iguodala
29
OJ Mayo
30
Antawn Jamison

Hockey draft guide: Full list of contents

By Rick Morris

The 21st Century Media Alliance has struck again! The combined efforts of The FDH Lounge, FantasyDrafthelp.com, Sportsology and Card Corner Club have produced your ultimate guide to the NHL Entry Draft (and beyond), HOCKEY DRAFTOLOGY 2010. We encourage you to check out these comprehensive yet compact guides in their entirety, and as an inducement to do so, we are serializing them here.

We definitely packed a lot into this guide. Here's a full list of the contents:


Page 1: HOCKEY DRAFTOLOGY Overview
Pages 2-4: Mock Draft/Scouting Report of Top 30
Page 4: Links to top prospect videos, FDH Lounge NHL Awards picks
Pages 5-6: NHL Prospect Flashback: Jonathan Toews
Page 7: NHL Prospect Profile: Jack Campbell, NHL free agency overview
Page 8: NHL Prospect Profile: Tyler Seguin
Page 9: Assessment of priorities by organization,
Importance of top-level players
Page 10: Preview of ultimate fantasy hockey stat for ‘10-11 season

Hockey draft guide: Importance of top-level players

By Rick Morris

The 21st Century Media Alliance has struck again! The combined efforts of The FDH Lounge, FantasyDrafthelp.com, Sportsology and Card Corner Club have produced your ultimate guide to the NHL Entry Draft (and beyond), HOCKEY DRAFTOLOGY 2010. We encourage you to check out these comprehensive yet compact guides in their entirety, and as an inducement to do so, we are serializing them here.

Here is a column on the importance of superstars and megastars to Stanley Cup champions:


As a team sport by and large incapable of devolving into the often-selfish “Me Ball” of the NBA, the NHL is rightfully held up as exemplary of true team play. However, does this tendency devalue the effect that true mega-stars have on the ability to win titles? FantasyDrafthelp.com decided to find out, in an attempt to ascertain exactly how important it is for teams to hit on their picks in the NHL Entry Draft. First, we ranked the top players in our opinion in the last quarter century into three tiers, the top five, the second five and the third five. Then, we took a look at which teams had captured the Stanley Cup during that period of time and looked for any correlations. The results were very revealing. Here’s the designation of the best players on each tier, in no particular order on each tier:

Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Nicklas Lidstrom, Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur
Steve Yzerman, Mark Messier, Ray Bourque, Dominik Hasek, Jaromir Jagr
Joe Sakic, Ed Belfour, Brett Hull, Paul Coffey, Al MacInnis

And here’s who’s won the Stanley Cup over the past 25 years:


1985: Edmonton A (Gretzky), B (Messier)*
1986: Montreal A (Roy)
1987: Edmonton A (Gretzky), B (Messier)
1988: Edmonton A (Gretzky), B (Messier)
1989: Calgary C (MacInnis)
1990: Edmonton B (Messier)
1991: Pittsburgh A (Lemieux) B (Jagr)
1992: Pittsburgh A (Lemieux) B (Jagr)
1993: Montreal A (Roy)
1994: New York Rangers B (Messier)
1995: New Jersey A (Brodeur)**
1996: Colorado A (Roy) B (Sakic)
1997: Detroit A (Lidstrom) B (Yzerman)
1998: Detroit A (Lidstrom) B (Yzerman)
1999: Dallas C (Belfour) C (Hull)
2000: New Jersey A (Brodeur)
2001: Colorado A (Roy) B (Sakic) B (Bourque)
2002: Detroit A (Lidstrom) B (Yzerman) B (Hasek) C (Hull)***
2003: New Jersey A (Brodeur)
2004: Tampa Bay****
2006: Carolina****
2007: Anaheim**
2008: Detroit A (Lidstrom) B (Hasek)*****
2009: Pittsburgh****
2010: Chicago****


* The ‘80s Edmonton teams had several other players who would have rated as “Honorable Mention.”
** Scott Niedermayer, who won Cups with New Jersey and Anaheim, would have rated as “Honorable Mention,” as would Chris Pronger with Anaheim and Scott Stevens (as well as potentially Brian Rafalski) with New Jersey.
*** To properly appreciate the greatness of the 2002 Red Wings, consider that Luc Robitaille and Chris Chelios would have rated as “Honorable Mention.”
**** If this feature was revisited in another decade, Vincent Lecavalier would probably make the cut, with Martin St. Louis probably at least meriting “Honorable Mention.” Eric Staal would have a very good chance to make the list at that time also and the Crosby/Malkin/Fleury troika will almost certainly be represented by two if not three players, so this “megastar principle” may yet prove to be the case for the 2004, 2006, 2009 and 2010 champions as well.
***** Neither Hasek nor Chelios skated for Detroit in the Finals.

So essentially, it’s every bit as important to have high-end impact players in the NHL as it is in the NBA. Only eight times since 1985 has a team won a title without an “A” caliber player (again, not counting the 2009 Penguins who will have anywhere between one and three “A” players once this feature is revisited down the road and the 2010 Blackhawks, who could have the same number) and also in a minority of cases (12), a team has captured the title without at least two players on this list. So after reading this feature, whether one quibbles a bit or not with the rating of certain players, this much is certain: teamwork matters, and so does coaching, but the high-octane engine of superstar power almost invariably is needed if a team is to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup in the end.

Hockey draft guide: Needs listed by organization

By Russ Cohen (posted by Rick Morris)

The 21st Century Media Alliance has struck again! The combined efforts of The FDH Lounge, FantasyDrafthelp.com, Sportsology and Card Corner Club have produced your ultimate guide to the NHL Entry Draft (and beyond), HOCKEY DRAFTOLOGY 2010. We encourage you to check out these comprehensive yet compact guides in their entirety, and as an inducement to do so, we are serializing them here.

Here is a list of draft needs by organization:


Anaheim: G, LW, RW
Atlanta: LW, G
Boston: LW, D
Buffalo: C
Calgary: RW, G, D
Carolina: RW
Chicago: D, C
Colorado: RW, C
Columbus: G, C, RW
Dallas: G, C, LW
Detroit: C, RW
Edmonton: G, RW
Florida: LW, D
LA: RW, LW
Minnesota: RW, LW, C
Montreal: LW
Nashville: LW, RW
New Jersey: RW, G
NYI: C, G
NYR: G, RW, LW
Ottawa: C, LW
Philadelphia: D (of the puckhandling nature), G, C
Phoenix: G
Pittsburgh: G, RW, C
St. Louis: LW, RW
San Jose: G, RW
Tampa Bay: D, C
Toronto: D, G
Vancouver: LW, RW
Washington: LW, D

Hockey draft guide: Tyler Seguin prospect profile

By Russ Cohen (posted by Rick Morris)

The 21st Century Media Alliance has struck again! The combined efforts of The FDH Lounge, FantasyDrafthelp.com, Sportsology and Card Corner Club have produced your ultimate guide to the NHL Entry Draft (and beyond), HOCKEY DRAFTOLOGY 2010. We encourage you to check out these comprehensive yet compact guides in their entirety, and as an inducement to do so, we are serializing them here.

Here is a profile of one of the top two prospects in the draft, Tyler Seguin:


NOTE: This profile was compiled at the NHL combine.

Will he go to the Oilers? Will he go to the Bruins? Will somebody else move up to get him? These are all questions that will be answered on Draft Day in Los Angeles at the end of June, but for now one thing is clear: Plymouth Whalers center Tyler Seguin is a special player who will have an impact at the NHL level sometime in the future.

“I think I’ve heard that from the media. Edmonton and Boston didn’t say much, just casual conversation. I’m sure that will change at the combine,” he said, talking about the two teams with the first two picks in the draft.

Centers are becoming harder to come by in the NHL and teams have started to pay a premium on the free agent market for them. That’s just one compelling reason why Seguin might be selected with the first overall pick rather than Windsor’s Taylor Hall.

“I think you can have that argument. I’m a natural center, he’s a natural left winger. He has a great supporting cast and my cast is a bit lesser. I try to have a complete centerman game and if a team needs a left winger they will take him,” he said confidently and then he added “I’m a natural right-handed shot.”

Now there aren’t that many right-handed shots, and that’s huge on the power play. But the Brampton, Ontario native also talked about what makes him an elite athlete and with the combine going on right now it was timely information, for sure.

“I was a long distance runner, so my conditioning was good and my recovery is good. I can use speed from behind my net and that’s definitely one of the advantages of my game, especially if we are on the power play. I can play wing. I did my whole first year and I can play point on the power play.

“Who really knows? Last summer I did that testing for fun and I actually threw up. I don’t think that means you aren’t in condition; it means you pushed yourself to the max.”

Seguin has been a dominant player in the OHL. Anytime you are averaging more than a point-per-game in the regular season and playoffs, for your career, you are in an elite group. Last season, a few players made the jump to the NHL right out of the gate and Seguin hopes that he can be one of those players. But if he isn’t, he does have a backup plan.

“That’s absolutely the goal. All I want is the opportunity to earn my spot and if not I have a great organization in Plymouth to come back to.”

Either way, this high school student is covered. Now most guys are just worried about graduation, but he is a bit different. He’s been doing tons of interviews while juggling school work and thinking about his future plans. One example of his popularity can be found on the social networking utility, Facebook.

“I’m on Facebook, but I probably will delete that because there is a fake account out there,” Seguin chuckled.

When he’s in the mood for some comfort food, the Ontario native looks no further than a local chain that he favors.

“I like Pizza Pizza. I like it with Pepperoni.”

Like most athletes growing up he was a two-sport athlete.

“I used to play Lacrosse but not anymore, it was a passion of mine,” he revealed.

Los Angeles is known for its glitz and glamour, but this coming June, his fate will be decided and I’m sure he will accept his new challenge in a very understated manor and he will let his play on the ice do the talking.

Hockey draft guide: NHL free agency preview

By Rick Morris

The 21st Century Media Alliance has struck again! The combined efforts of The FDH Lounge, FantasyDrafthelp.com, Sportsology and Card Corner Club have produced your ultimate guide to the NHL Entry Draft (and beyond), HOCKEY DRAFTOLOGY 2010. We encourage you to check out these comprehensive yet compact guides in their entirety, and as an inducement to do so, we are serializing them here.

Here is our feature on the upcoming NHL free agency season:



While the NBA will see its greatest free agent class in history hit the market on July 1, the NHL will have one of its absolute worst and thinnest ones materializing the same day. There is only one megastar in the bunch, New Jersey left wing Ilya Kovalchuk, and even he has some questions surrounding his worthiness of being a player to anchor a championship team. Here are the few players at each position, in order of importance, who could potentially make a decent impact on a team, with positions listed in order of their overall free agency class. NOTE: Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne are not listed because each is expected to either retire or re-sign with Anaheim.

LW: Ilya Kovalchuk, Patrick Marleau, Alexander Frolov, Alexei Ponakarovsky, Ray Whitney
G: Evgeni Nabokov, Chris Mason, Jose Theodore, Dan Ellis, Marty Turco, Michael Leighton
C: Tomas Plekanec, Matthew Lombardi, Vinny Prospal, Saku Koivu
D: Sergei Gonchar, Paul Martin, Pavel Kubina, Kim Johnsson
RW: Maxim Afinogenov, Lee Stempniak, Todd Bertuzzi

FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume III, Issue XXIV

By Rick Morris

For the most part, we keep our fantasy content on our fantasy website and fantasy blog and keep this site for content on all subjects. It allows our readers to find specific content more easily that way. However, it has come to our attention that because our new fantasy sports newsletter is published on the older Blogger platform that our readers may be limited in their ability to subscribe to it. There does not appear to be a way to have content on the FantasyDrafthelp.com blog forwarded to an aggregate news reader -- however, we know that we have that ability here. So we will link to that newsletter each week right here when it is published. Here is this week's newsletter.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

NBA Finals Game 7 - Why not a bigger deal?

By Rick Morris


Tonight, the NBA Finals reached the seventh game for only the second time since 1994 and only the third since 1988, Lakers vs. Celtics no less, and yet it has been greeted with the collective shoulder shrug of a relatively disinterested nation. Why? There are a few reasons.

^ As was noted last night on THE FDH LOUNGE program, David Stern embraces 24-7 drama. "Just spell our names right" is the official mantra of the league. If you're talking about anything NBA, Stern is happy. As a result, when Dan Gilbert and Tom Izzo perpetrate a huge distraction in the middle of the Finals, Stern is perfectly OK with that. Had they tried that during the World Series or Super Bowl week if they were in those respective sports, those respective commissioners would have dispatched Mike the Cleaner from Breaking Bad to their doorsteps. The July 1 hoopla and everything even closely related to that (i.e. the coaching futures of Phil Jackson and Doc Rivers) is hanging over these games, depriving the league of the world's focus on the actual in-game action and nobody among the Powers That Be seems to care. The price they're paying for the game's off-court water cooler talk is the relevance of on-court action.


^ These teams are not inherently extremely exciting in terms of style. Most of the best players on both of these teams have a lot of city miles on them and the proficiency that each has in the defensive realm comes at the expense of exciting play. These ain't your father's Lakers and Celtics. And many of these games have really sucked.


^ The depth is a joke compared to the 1980s clashes between these teams. Essentially, the Lakers were doomed in this series two years ago because Andrew Bynum was unavailable. They were on their way to losing again this year because of Bynum's frail sticks until Kendrick Perkins went down and created a matchup problem the other way. When the health of key players threatens to drop an asterisk on the series' outcome, fan interest is bound to be compromised. Also, many key players on both teams can be woefully inconsistent. Pao Gasol can drop a 40-20 on you and just as easily come out as soft as dryer machine filter fuzz. Lamar Odom is one of the most maddening players in the league, equally capable of resembling a multiple-time All-Star or a developmental league refugee. Sheed is ... well, Sheed. Big Baby dropped to the second round of the draft not for lack of talent, but for lack of commitment and that's the main reason he's never garnered the minutes that his game would otherwise dictate. On and on it goes. Say what you will about James Worthy, Kevin McHale, the Chief and the rest of the '80s champions, but they showed up every night and you knew what you were going to get. How seriously can fans take a series when the number one question seems to be how many slackers will actually show up ready to ball?


^ Bad luck in terms of timing relative to the NHL. This year's six-game Stanley Cup Finals featured plenty of super-exciting action, but they also had less competition on the calendar. The World Cup had yet to start and golf's US Open was not overlapping with any of the championship series. Plus, in addition to the league's aforementioned self-induced off-court hoops stories, they're also competing for headlines with the fascinating reworking of the college sports landscape as each day brings new stories and speculation about who's going where. Football is king in this country and the prospect of a completely changed landscape in the NCAA is going to be front and center regardless of what else is transpiring.

^ Legacy fatigue is taking hold. The Yankees-Red Sox hysteria of the past decade has caused the alienation of everyone outside of those fanbases. The Red Wings have continued to be at the forefront of hockey with two titles and another Finals appearance since 2002. Tiger is bigger than anyone in golf has been since the Golden Bear was about three decades ago and Roger Federer has ruled the tennis world since 2003 like nobody ever has. The Boston/LA deal stood out in the '80s, especially with the Bird/Magic angle putting it over the top. Now? Not so much, especially when you've got to break out the Hot Tub Time Machine to see Boston's (former) Big Three at their best.

So what's the prediction for tonight? With Boston counting as much as they did down low on Perkins' bulk to push around the Lakers' fours and fives, they're in a tough spot without him -- much less being on the road, a scenario which is normally death in a Finals Game 7. Many of the biggest greats from the past will be in the building to watch their descendants carry out the latest phase of this rivalry. Regrettably, this grind-fest is unlikely to be worthy of the lineage. Lakers 93, Celtics 84.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

FDH Lounge Show #107: June 16, 2010

By Rick Morris

Variety? It’s just how we roll on THE FDH LOUNGE (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com).

On the 107th edition of The Great American Radio Show on Internet TV, we open as usual with The Opening Statements of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries and our look at This Week in The FDH Lounge before bringing in one of the most respected voices in the music industry, Eddie Trunk. DJ, VJ, MC, TV producer, TV host … he’s done it all and that doesn’t even cover his work outside the business in terms of voiceovers, participation in sporting events, etc. We’ve had his co-host of “That Metal Show” on VH-1 Classic Don Jamieson on previously (leaving only Jim Florentine to round out the crew of Lounge guests – call us, Jim!) and so the material surrounding that show provides a wonderful jumping-off point for our questioning. From there, we move into THE GOON SQUAD (no longer rooted to the bottom of the third hour but now a recurring show-within-a-show at various intervals) and a recap of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with an outstanding panel: Russ Cohen of Sportsology, Jan Levine of Hockeybuzz and Philadelphia’s Fox 29 sportscaster Joe Staszak.

In the first half of Hour Two, we bring on another multidimensional guest in the vein of Mr. Trunk – actor/producer/director/writer/musician Thomas Ian Nicholas. He’s got a new album out, he’s continuing to pile up acting roles, we’ve got a lot to talk about with him. In the second half of the hour, we break down what will be only the second Game 7 of the NBA Finals since 1994 (and only the third since the Lakers/Pistons tilt of ’88). We will then dissect the early play of the World Cup and the killer-bee sounds propagated by those pesky South Africans.

THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER kicks off Hour Three with a look at our “Ultimate Stat” UQB for hockey next year. As we do for all of the major fantasy sports and some other ones as well, we have a system that compares players to each other across positions on a per-game basis. We’ll brief you on what our research has told us about the 2010-11 fantasy NHL season.

We close with a new member of The 21st Century Media Alliance, Rich Mancuso of the great sports website Keep It In The Ring. He covered the recent boxing card at Yankee Stadium and he’s working to put together an absolutely massive boxing roundtable on our show in the weeks to come.

As always, we urge you to watch the show live (or listen if you’re on dial-up), but if you can’t catch this as it’s happening, you can always catch the FDH archives 24-7 right here or catch us now on iTunes. Also, you can now catch THE FDH LOUNGE VAULT, a compilation of our best interviews and roundtables, now every weeknight from 6-7 PM, also on SportsTalkNetwork.com.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume III, Issue XXIII

By Rick Morris

For the most part, we keep our fantasy content on our fantasy website and fantasy blog and keep this site for content on all subjects. It allows our readers to find specific content more easily that way. However, it has come to our attention that because our new fantasy sports newsletter is published on the older Blogger platform that our readers may be limited in their ability to subscribe to it. There does not appear to be a way to have content on the FantasyDrafthelp.com blog forwarded to an aggregate news reader -- however, we know that we have that ability here. So we will link to that newsletter each week right here when it is published. Here is this week's newsletter.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

FDH World Cup comprehensive predictions

By Rick Morris

GROUP A 2ND ROUND SURVIVORS
1 France
2 Mexico

GROUP B 2ND ROUND SURVIVORS
1 Argentina
2 Nigeria

GROUP C 2ND ROUND SURVIVORS
1 England
2 United States

GROUP D 2ND ROUND SURVIVORS
1 Germany
2 Serbia

GROUP E 2ND ROUND SURVIVORS
1 Netherlands
2 Denmark

GROUP F 2ND ROUND SURVIVORS
1 Italy
2 Paraguay

GROUP G 2ND ROUND SURVIVORS
1 Brazil
2 Ivory Coast

GROUP H 2ND ROUND SURVIVORS
1 Spain
2 Chile

ROUND OF 16
France over Nigeria
England over Serbia
Netherlands over Paraguay
Brazil over Chile
Argentina over Mexico
Germany over United States
Italy over Denmark
Spain over Ivory Coast

QUARTERFINALS
England over France
Brazil over Netherlands
Germany over Argentina
Spain over Italy

SEMIFINALS
Brazil over England
Spain over Germany

FINAL
Spain over Brazil

Thursday, June 10, 2010

NBA free agent “summit” proves league has no guts

By Rick Morris

The NBA already proved that it was selective at best and gutless at worst in terms of enforcement of tampering rules going into this “Summer of LeBron” when David Stern fined Mark Cuban for fairly innocuous remarks while remaining silent about clever but underhanded moves by other teams. Now the league’s fecklessness is extending to the cartel of star players who have always been the power behind the throne.

LeBron, D-Wade, Amare Stoudemire, Chris Bosh and (with all due respect, one of these names is not like the others) Joe Johnson are openly discussing their upcoming “summit” in which they will deign to reshape the landscape of the league heading into the next decade. Of course, they and David Stern are also muddying the waters about whether this event will happen.

At the risk of sounding as connected to contemporary mores as C Montgomery Burns, may I point out yet again that all of these players are under contract until the clock strikes midnight on July 1? For them to openly speculate about their surroundings at a time past that date is disruptive to a standard of equal justice that (theoretically) the league is supposed to propagate.

Now, this ESPN article contains items of an entirely contradictory note about this issue:

“Last week, the NBA said Wade did not break any league tampering rules with his comments.
Under league rules, players cannot tamper with other players, though it's a given that players talking among themselves not only happens, but is impossible to regulate.”

AND

“The NBA metes out discipline only in what it said are ‘the most egregious’ cases, and said Wade's comments ‘do not meet that standard.’”

So which is it? Players cannot tamper or they can be judged to do so in “the most egregious cases?” As always, the answer will come down to what is most convenient for the league at that very moment. In the meantime, the hotel or resort hosting this summit might as well order toilet paper embossed with the NBA rulebook, because that will symbolize what is taking place anyway.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

FDH Lounge Show #106: June 9, 2010

By Rick Morris

Episode #106 of THE FDH LOUNGE (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com) exemplifies, as always, the notion that “nothing is off-topic.”

After The Opening Statements of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries and our look at This Week in The FDH Lounge, we welcome back one of our newest enshrined Dignitaries, New York blogger/lawyer/occasional sports talk show host Steve Kallas. He is always available to weigh in on matters at the intersection of sports, ethics and the law. As such, among other issues, he will break down baseball’s perfect game that wasn’t and the ongoing Lawrence Taylor legal follies.

Around the top of Hour Two, we bring you a very special segment that we taped for this show last week. On Friday’s episode of Head to Head with Walt and Barbershop Jay on STN, The FDH Lounge came in for a jointly conducted interview with NFL Films President Steve Sabol. We covered a lot of ground with him about many aspects of NFL Films operations and you will hear the interview in its entirety. Also, Lounge Dignitary and Head to Head co-Host Walt Payton will be with us for this show and he’ll share his thoughts on what we learned.

Since Walt is a big fan of Breaking Bad (whose lead character is also named Walt, coincidentally!), we’ll then get his thoughts on what is often referred to these days as “the best show on television” as this one steams towards its Season Three conclusion at the speed of an Aztek about to run down two drug dealers. At that point, we bring in a fascinating guest, longtime multi-platform journalist Diane Dimond. She is ALWAYS in the midst of big stories involving celebrities, big news stories and anything else the gossips at the water cooler are discussing. Gary Coleman, Lindsay Lohan, Jacko, the oil spill ... nothing will be off-limits with this guest.

Then, we'll briefly recap the hottest and most shocking pro wrestling angle to end a TV show since the Monday Night Wars ended nine years ago, the NXT “invasion” on Raw this week. Taken together with Sunday night’s Breaking Bad big twist at the end, summer TV is off to an amazing start for what is generally a time to pause and regroup. From there, NBA Finals talk, the Summer of LeBron and all things hoops move to the forefront of our discussion.

THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER kicks off Hour Three with an early look at the 2010 FDH fantasy football draft board, position by position. Then, a truncated edition of THE GOON SQUAD (which, after all, is going directly up against Game Six) breaks down the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the Finals in particular.

As always, we urge you to watch the show live (or listen if you’re on dial-up), but if you can’t catch this as it’s happening, you can always catch the FDH archives 24-7 right here or catch us now on iTunes. Also, you can now catch THE FDH LOUNGE VAULT, a compilation of our best interviews and roundtables, now every weeknight from 6-7 PM, also on SportsTalkNetwork.com.

Friday, June 4, 2010

June geopolitics roundup

By Rick Morris

Once again, the world looks to be going to hell in a handbasket in several different theatres at the same time. Here’s another one of our roundups of credible sources to help you make sense of what is unfolding.

KOREAN PENINSULA
^ From Janes, South Korea is modernizing their weaponry with the new threats materializing.
^ From Janes, South Korea accused North Korea of the sub attack after a comprehensive investigation.
^ From Financial Times, an examination of potential North Korean motives.
^ From the Foreign Policy Passport blog, a comforting sense that North Korea is not really trying to provoke a war.
^ From the Foreign Policy Passport blog, a notation of how the sub attack would fit into a long lineage of boat sinkings that led to war.
^ From Belmont Club, a skeptical look at Hillary Clinton’s policy of “strategic patience” on North Korea.
^ From the UK Times, a column about how China’s failure to reel in North Korea could lead to renewed war on the peninsula.
^ From Asia Times, deadly, ominous silence is said to be emanating from the DMZ.
^ From The Economist, an analysis of the death rattles coming from North Korea.

MIDDLE EAST
^ From Financial Times, a sense that Israel may have misread the ramifications of their attack on the blockade-busters.
^ From the Foreign Policy Passport blog, how Israel’s attack on the Turkish ship may have damaged relations with Greece, of all countries.
^ From the Foreign Policy Passport blog, the storm that is likely to rain down on Israel as a result of the attack.
^ From Stratfor, an examination of how public opinion plays a role in flotilla crises.
^ From Belmont Club, an analysis about how a perception of Israeli weakness may have triggered the flotilla confrontation.

THE EUROPEAN DEBT CRISIS
^ From Financial Times, severe criticism of Germany from a top official at the European Central Bank foreshadows further disintegration as the crisis continues.
^ From Financial Times, a report that indicates that a large-scale default on debt in Europe would be extraordinarily destabilizing to the world economy.
^ From The Moscow Times, an article about how Russia may try to move in to exploit the potential dissolution of the European Union.

GENERAL WAR ON TERROR
^ From Stratfor, a prediction that jihadists will abandon bombs as a primary terrorist weapon because of their increasing level of difficulty with them – in favor of firearms.
^ From Belmont Club, a breakdown of the possibilities that the US will strike at targets on Pakistani soil in the event of a major terrorist attack in America suspected to have been planned there.
^ From Ralph Peters in the New York Post, a harsh analysis about the ramifications of the report exposing new US “black ops” policies.
^ From The Long War Journal, a report about the death by US drone in Pakistan of a key link between the Taliban and al Qaeda.
^ From The Investigative Project, a recap of the guilty plea submitted by a Jordanian national who is confessing to trying to blow up a 60-story skyscraper in Dallas.

FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume III, Issue XXII

By Rick Morris

For the most part, we keep our fantasy content on our fantasy website and fantasy blog and keep this site for content on all subjects. It allows our readers to find specific content more easily that way. However, it has come to our attention that because our new fantasy sports newsletter is published on the older Blogger platform that our readers may be limited in their ability to subscribe to it. There does not appear to be a way to have content on the FantasyDrafthelp.com blog forwarded to an aggregate news reader -- however, we know that we have that ability here. So we will link to that newsletter each week right here when it is published. Here is this week's newsletter.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

FDH Lounge Show #105: June 2, 2010

By Rick Morris

If you haven’t learned by now that “nothing is off-topic” on the “Great American Radio Show on Internet TV,” Episode #105 of THE FDH LOUNGE (Wednesdays, 7-10 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com) will drive home the lesson.

After The Opening Statements of The FDH Lounge Dignitaries and our look at This Week in The FDH Lounge, we welcome in old friend Jake Digman, Director of Public Relations and Ring Announcer for the premier combined amateur/professional cage fighting circuit in the country, NAAFS. Their biggest annual show is taking place on Saturday night right here in the flagship city for FDH and the Sports Talk Network, Cleveland as Fight Nite in the Flats VI emanates from the Nautica Pavilion. We will talk about this huge card and the continued advances of NAAFS in the MMA world.

Just after the bottom of Hour One, we will go earlier than usual into our fantasy show-within-a-show, THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER because of a big special segment at the top of Hour Three. Tonight’s topic? Another installment of Buy Low, Sell High in fantasy baseball.

We start off Hour Two with a bang as we welcome in longtime Mad Magazine Creative Consultant, “Mad’s Maddest Writer,” Dick DeBartolo. His colleague, Al Jaffee, joined us for Episode #59, so we certainly enjoy getting to delve into all things Mad. He is also the Giz Wiz for ABC’s World News Now and the Daily Giz Wiz broadcast and it will be a pleasure to talk about all aspects of his intriguing career. At the bottom of the hour, we grant a rain check to a man felled by illness just as he was about to join us two weeks ago. Newsday NBA writer Alan Hahn joins us to break down the draft lottery, the NBA Finals and the Summer of LeBron.

In Hour Three, we bring back a big-time guest from Episode #67, one of the most prominent duel-threats in the world of sports and entertainment: Dhani Jones! This guy is a dual threat and we don’t mean that he’s adding offensive snaps to his linebacker duties; this Bengal linebacker is also a media superstar! His Dhani Tackles the Globe series on the Travel Channel showcases slivers of other cultures in a completely unique manner and his multimedia contributions to the ESPN media family stand out as well. We’ll talk about Season #2 of his program and the revival of the Bengals’ fortunes in 2009.

While we moved the fantasy segment to accommodate Dhani, we close as usual with THE GOON SQUAD and an in-depth examination of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Finals are underway and to the surprise of (perhaps) only the Philly die-hards, Chicago is up 2-0 as the series moves back to the City of Brotherly Love tonight. With Game Three underway during the game tonight, we’ll bring you a slightly truncated version of GOON and take a look at how the Flyers are matching up against the game’s “must-do” checklist of past Lounge guest and ESPN.com writer Scott Burnside.

As always, we urge you to watch the show live (or listen if you’re on dial-up), but if you can’t catch this as it’s happening, you can always catch the FDH archives 24-7 right here or catch us now on iTunes. Also, you can now catch THE FDH LOUNGE VAULT, a compilation of our best interviews and roundtables, now every weeknight from 6-7 PM, also on SportsTalkNetwork.com.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

NBA Finals preview

By Rick Morris

For the second time in three years, David Stern gets what David Stern wants as one of the most storied rivalries in sports returns to center stage in the NBA Finals. Here’s a look at some of the key aspects of this matchup.

^ In any series that features a rematch from the Finals of two years ago, the most obvious starting point for analysis concerns the set of marked changes from that point. For LA, the addition of Ron Artest looms large, as does Andrew Bynum’s upgrade from 2008 injured/inactive to 2010 active/gimpy. On the other hand, Derek Fisher, never confused with Tiny Archibald even back in his “heyday,” is two years older and much less able to keep up with Boston’s new lead weapon Rajon Rondo. The Celts’ former “Big Three” has seen erosion in the last two years, although they have turned back the hands of time somewhat in these playoffs and Rondo clearly is not the same player he was two years ago.

^ While the biggest media angle surrounding the analysis of coaching in this series concerns Phil Jackson’s quest for his 11th crown, the biggest X-factor is Celts’ assistant Tom Thibodeau, who helped shut down the Cavs’ attack in the Eastern semifinals just as he did to the Lakers two years ago in the Finals. He is arguably the game’s best assistant coach at the moment. However, he is also one part of a potential off-the-court circus that could envelop these games. He is almost certain to move into a head coaching position after the postseason concludes and now the teams seeking his services will have to wait almost up to the NBA Draft to have him potentially in place. With David Stern’s selective enforcement of the league’s tampering rules right now, it sets the stage for TT’s name to be wildly floated during these games. Speaking of contracts, Jerry Buss is making noises about instituting the biggest penny-wise, pound-foolish move since the Dolan family burned the Tribe to the ground: forcing Jackson to swallow a huge salary deduction. Buss is about to find out the hard way that when you’re dealing with the ego of Big Chief Triangle, you CAN put a price on coaching a super-talented roster, living in a dream climate year-round and canoodling with the boss’s cougar daughter. So the potential for excellent coaching on both sides could be undercut by contract drama regarding the 2010-11 season.

^ Thibodeau’s penchant for imparting defensive shutdown play is going to be a new element for LA to deal with in these playoffs, just as it would have been had Mike Brown’s Cavs been waiting for them in the Finals. However, in Ron Artest, the Celts will be facing a better defensive stopper than they are generally used to seeing.

^ Here’s a relevant note from ESPN’s early coverage of the Finals: “The visiting team won both regular-season meetings, which would bode well for the Celtics. In fact, Boston is the first NBA finalist with a better record on the road (26-15) than at home (24-17) in the regular season, and is 6-3 away from home this postseason.” Additionally, both games were decided by only one point. Kobe Bryant was not around for the second game, however, which is noteworthy in terms of how close the Lakers came in that game without him.

^ While Boston’s primary challenge will be keeping Kobe in check (or some reasonable facimile thereof), they must also figure out how to deal with matchup nightmare Pao Gasol. TT will have to work overtime on that matter. With rare exceptions, these weapons are the primary scoring threats for the Lakers – although Lamar Odom remains the biggest wild card in the league, capable of playing at an All-Star level when the spirit moves him. For Boston, a temporarily rejuvenated former “Big Three” is joined by Rondo in terms of diversified scoring options. Rasheed Wallace essentially serves as Boston’s version of Rondo, a real difference-maker when he is so inclined. LA is certainly more top-heavy with Kobe, but Boston has more pieces capable of putting up the points on a given night.

^ Strikingly, in the aforementioned matchup of both teams most recently at the top of the mountain, motivation is not in short supply for either squad. Boston is aggrieved about having been written off due to the aging nature of their core and their squalid play down the stretch of the last two seasons. LA feels a massive historic burden relating to Boston, with the repeated devastations of the 1960s never too far from the surface where the Celtics are concerned. None of the four titles won by Phil and Kobe have come over Boston and they lost in their only shot at them two years ago. Memories of the final humiliation in Boston are particularly egregious.

So how does this series take shape? The Celtics will be hard-pressed to come out of the gate strong with a longer wait for the Finals to start and a nucleus significantly more dependant on remaining hot than the Lakers, who based on the respective recent track records have less to prove in terms of being “for real” at this point. Based on their stellar road record, however, Boston is unlikely to be swept in the first two at Staples, setting the stage for a long series. In the end, however, the Lakers are likely to have more left in the tank, especially given the toll that Boston’s defensive style demands from a rapidly aging nucleus. In a series with a chance to be epic, LA comes out ahead in the end. Lakers in 6.

NBA Finals storylines

By Rick Morris

For the second time in three years, David Stern gets what David Stern wants as one of the most storied rivalries in sports returns to center stage in the NBA Finals. Here’s a look at some of the key storylines of this matchup.

^ 31 championships have been won by teams other than these two finalists, one short of their combined total. Boston leads with 17 titles. The Minneapolis/LA Lakers are second with 15 titles, but that point of comparison doesn’t do justice to how the Celtics have been chased down over the past quarter century. Since their last title in the 1980s run (1986), the Cs have only won in 2008, while LA has captured six to pull close to even. If and when the trend continues and the Lakers overtake the Celtics in the next decade or so, it will represent the team reclaiming what was originally theirs, since they won four of the league’s first five titles from 1950-54 (in Minneapolis) before taking 18 years to win their next one (in LA, with eight Finals losses sandwiched in-between). The Celtics started their legendary run of titles in 1959 and passed the Lakers for the most titles in 1962.

^ Boston’s Finals appearances have been between 1957-69 (with 11 titles and an additional Finals loss in there), 1974-76 (two titles), 1981-87 (three titles and two Finals losses) and 2008-10 (with a title two years ago). While that is certainly impressive, the Lakers can be better summed up by the times they haven’t been in the Finals! In the entire history of their franchise, they have had more than five years between Finals appearances only twice (1974-79 were years without Finals appearances, as were 1992-99). That is a record of resilience unmatched in sports.

^ This series pits the team of the 1950s, 1980s and 2000s (LA) against the team of the 1960s (Boston). Celtics fans might make an argument about being the team of the 1970s with their two titles in ’74 and ’76, but the Knicks also managed two titles with an additional conference title that decade.

^ If Boston wins the title, Doc Rivers joins the ranks of two-time champion coaches. Believe it or not, that would leave Larry Brown (2004) as the only one-time champion coach since Bill Fitch (1981)!

^ Here’s another one to blow your mind: this is only the second time in league history that the two most recent champions have met in the Finals – and the only other time happened five years ago! In 2005, San Antonio (2003 champs) beat Detroit (2004 champs), but this actually marks the first time that the two most recent champs have met with one having beaten the other in the last two years, since Boston upended the Lakers to win in ’08. What is the cause of this dynamic? It’s very simple. In the NBA, repeat (and multiple-repeat) champions are far more evident than in the other major sports, thus reducing the chance for the two most recent champions to meet on the court in the Finals.

^ That ‘05 series also looms in one other way: if you think these Finals are headed for seven games, you need to consider that 2005 was the only time since 1994 that the championship went all the way to the limit. Actually, in addition to those two times, 1988 was the only other time since 1984 that the series went seven games. Meanwhile, there have been four sweeps since then (2007, 2002, 1995, 1989), so statistically, we’re every bit as likely to see this one go four as we are to see it go seven. In that span, the series has gone six games 11 times (2008, 2006, 2003, 2000, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1993, 1992, 1987 and 1985) and five games six times (2009, 2004, 2001, 1999, 1991 and 1990). In other words, figure on the series going six games.

Revisionism about LeBron’s teammates

By Rick Morris

Ever since the Cleveland Cavaliers were eliminated from the playoffs in the second-round shocker at the hands of Boston, there have been some fans giving voice to the cry, “How come Danny Ferry couldn’t surround LeBron with better players?”

Only, that phrase should be spelled out “How come Danny Fewwy couddin suwwound LeBwon wit betta pwayas?” Because that incarnation captures the true infantile nature of the question itself.

As a lifelong Cavs fan and somebody who saw this up close in the same media market for the past five years, I maintain that one can never truly understand the magnitude of what Ferry accomplished – yes, accomplished – without taking into consideration the two key factors concerning player acquisition in the LeBron era:

1 LeBron held a gun to his head for the entire half-decade. That’s not to bash LeBron, merely to make an accurate observation of the circumstances. I cannot fault LeBron for wanting to be hands-on in making sure that the organization surrounded him with the proper talent to maximize his skills. At the same time, that makes him significantly more than a co-signer for the moves that turned out not to work. Let us not forget that with his first (restricted) free agency pending in 2006 that he goaded the organization the previous summer to bring home one of the “Big Three” free agents that year. When Ray Allen and Michael Redd stayed home, he pretty much forced Ferry to sign Larry Hughes. Likewise, his fingerprints were all over the Damon Jones, Donyell Marshall and Z signings of that summer. There’s not a move made in the past five years (or, in fairness, in the two prior to that during the Jim Paxson days) that LeBron did not approve (or, in some cases, dictate). While the ’05 moves are universally considered busts (with the possible exception of the Z re-signing, which I have always seen the merits in considering the league’s dearth of legit centers), his ’08 megatrade that unloaded such pantloads as Hughes and Drew Gooden and returned players such as Delonte West is considered to be inspired. And few if any can lay the blame for the ’10 elimination at the feet of Shaq or Antawn Jamison (notwithstanding Jamison’s execrable “defense” on KG). All in all, considering the obvious handcuffs, Ferry did an amazing job.

2 Ferry had the right pieces in place by 2010. I have used the terms “shape-shifters” and “Transformers” to describe the 2009-10 Cavs and I will always stand by them. Much like when the Cleveland Browns (typically) cluelessly whacked Phil Savage along with Romeo Crennel when “Coach I’m Thinking Arby’s” misused the talent he was given in 2008, too many feebs out there are overlooking the fact that Mike Brown already paid the appropriate price for the team’s failure to live up to expectations. The team had tremendous success heading into the playoffs going big or going small, creating a range of options that no other team in the league could match. Cleveland’s ability to put Boston on the defensive on the (rare) occasions that the Cavs broke out the smaller, more athletic lineup spoke very eloquently to the “what might have been” factor with this roster.

No, the denunciations of Danny Ferry reek of Cleveland’s favorite bitter beverage, a tall glass of 20-20 Hindsight. At every turn, he was having to deal with the pressure being put on him by a megastar who was not-too-subtly threatening to book at the end of his deal if he felt that the team hadn’t arranged the talent to his satisfaction. And he continued to improve at that task over the five years, putting together a deep and talented cast of characters by the time of the final run. If LeBron does leave, the one card I expect him not to play is the “They didn’t give me enough to work with” one – because if he does so, that will reveal him as completely lacking in character.

MLB power rankings for start of June

By Rick Morris

Mid-May power rankings in parentheses.

TOP TIER
1 Tampa Bay (1)
2 New York Yankees (2)
3 Minnesota (3)
4 San Diego (5)
5 Cincinnati (13)
6 Philadelphia (4)
7 Toronto (7)
8 St. Louis (6)
9 Boston (9)
10 Los Angeles Dodgers (16)
11 Atlanta (17)
12 San Francisco (12)
13 Colorado (19)
14 Detroit (10)
15 Texas (8)
16 Oakland (15)
17 New York Mets (18)
18 Florida (14)
19 Washington (11)
20 Los Angeles Angels (20)
21 Chicago Cubs (21)
SECOND TIER
22 Chicago White Sox (23)
23 Milwaukee (22)
24 Pittsburgh (24)
25 Arizona (25)
26 Seattle (26)
27 Kansas City (28)
28 Cleveland (27)
29 Houston (29)
30 Baltimore (30)

BIGGEST RISERS: Cincinnati (8 spots), Atlanta, Colorado and Los Angeles Dodgers (6 spots)

BIGGEST FALLERS: Washington (8 spots), Texas (7 spots), Detroit and Florida (4 spots)