Month: February 2017

Here¡¯s your guide to the complicated conditions in the Kevin Shattenkirk trade

The good news, as it were, is that injuries (and illness!) really did make things worse. Rice ended up with 11 linemen making between eight and 32 tackles; five missed at least one game, and three missed at least four. Meanwhile, of the 11 primary defensive backs, five missed time, and a 12th missed all season.

The only thing worse than having a shaky lineup is having a shaky lineup that changes every week.

Now, for all we know, the injury bug will bite again this fall. But if that regresses toward a more acceptable mean, Rice’s 2017 lineup might¡¯ve benefited from 2016. Ten of those 11 linemen return, as do nine of those 12 defensive backs. And senior Emmanuel Ellerbee is back to anchor the linebacking corps.

Stats show continuity is most important at the back of the defense, and Rice has it. The main problem, though, is that maybe the two best play-makers (safety Tabari McGaskey and middle linebacker Alex Lyons) are among the small handful of departed defenders.

So we¡¯re going to go through them very slowly, piece by piece, so our brains don¡¯t start bleeding out through our noses like a late-season episode of Lost.

These are all via Sportsnet reporter Elliotte Friedman, by the way. Give the man a hug. And Washington Post reporter Isabelle Khurshudyan, who had to deal with this stuff on her birthday.

Seriously, you know he¡¯s been saving this one since he entered the NFL. Heck, he might have been stockpiling this dad joke since well before that. It¡¯s super corny and utterly beautiful.

Game Kids Zach Parise Jersey We should all have seen a tweet like this coming. Cousins is the league¡¯s low-key king of dad Twitter.

Limited Youth Oliver Kylington Jersey I love using coupons. Makes me feel like life is unfair in my favor.

Bridgewater wasn’t the only rookie QB to suffer an injury Sunday.

The 49ers were a mess through three games. They made a habit of collapsing in the second half, with dumb penalties and offensive miscues. They picked themselves up on Sunday, however. They FINALLY scored a second-half offensive touchdown, Kaepernick’s second of the game. He had thrown two touchdowns combined over his previous two games. The defense was fantastic, obviously.

The 49ers still have yet to put together four consecutive quarters of good football, but their strong second half has to infuse needed confidence in a team that had been a big disappointment through three games.

Derek Carr, Oakland Raiders (ankle/knee)

Bridgewater wasn’t the only rookie QB to suffer an injury Sunday. Carr, the Raiders’ first-year signal caller, suffered a high ankle sprain and MCL sprain during yesterday’s blowout loss to Miami, and is likely to miss significant time as a result.

The medial collateral ligament (MCL) is a structure located on the inside of the knee that helps hold the thigh and shin bones together and stabilize the knee joint. Injuries to the MCL most commonly occur when the knee is directly hit on its outer side and bent inward. An MCL sprain describes tearing to the fibers of the ligament.

When you add a high ankle sprain to the mix, the timetable for recovery is further complicated.
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Cutler was in the midst of his longest ever run without an interception before things came unglued in the third quarter. Two picks led directly to 14 Packers points, and Cutler had a potential third interception overturned when replay showed the ball slipping through the hands of Tramon Williams.
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The second pick might not have been Cutler’s fault — Brandon Marshall ran a double-move when Cutler was expecting a hitch — but the first was simply a case of forcing the throw. Ignoring the fact that Williams was playing inside coverage, Cutler tried to fit a pass into Josh Morgan and had it tipped into the arms of Clay Mathews.

Pat Shurmur: Full offseason will help Sam Bradford

The Minnesota Vikings acquired Sam Bradford eight days before the 2016 season started. After sitting in Week 1 win, the 29-year-old started the final 15 games of the season. Bradford set career highs in yards (3,877), completions (395), threw 20 TDs to five interceptions and set an NFL record with a 71.6 completion percentage.

Despite the numbers, no one watching the Vikings’ offense would describe it as explosive or even efficient. Behind a debilitating offensive line, Bradford had the NFL’s shortest average target last season. He maddeningly threw short of the sticks on third down with regularity. The porous blocking and no run game to speak of relegated the Vikings offense to dink-and-dunk, and led a risk-averse Bradford to get rid of the ball instead of stretching the field.

James Starks, running back, Green Bay Packers

Green Bay released Starks with a non-injury designation on Feb. 7, but his time as a Packer quickly headed toward the end once Mike McCarthy implemented wide receiver-turned-running back Ty Montgomery into the team’s gameplan.

The fact that you completely forgot Emery used to run Chicago’s football operation says plenty about how that deal worked out. Cutler led the league in interceptions in the first year of that deal, and the Bears went 5-11, 6-10 and 3-13 over three seasons before informing Cutler this January they were going in a different direction under center.

I’m not concerned about Jackson’s speed diminishing (according to Next Gen Stats, his top-end speed actually improved from 2015), but he does need a very specific set of circumstances to succeed. Will it be worth $8-11 million to find out?

Mike Tolbert was released by the Panthers, so we took a look back at his wonderful dancing

On Tuesday, the Carolina Panthers released veteran Pro Bowl fullback Mike Tolbert. Tolbert has been in Carolina for the past five seasons, making the Pro Bowl three times during that span.

¡°I feel very fortunate to have coached Mike for nearly his entire career,¡± head coach Ron Rivera said. ¡°He was someone we targeted in 2012 because we felt he would be a good addition to our offense and he was very productive for us.¡±
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Now we know the issue: Huggins¡¦ defibrillator went off. The coach said he felt lightheaded and decided to finish out the game after ¡§talking to a couple people¡¨ during halftime.

Youth Curtis Martin Jersey Huggins said this is the second time his defibrillator has gone off. He suffered a heart attack in 2002.

We¡¦ll update this story as it develops. The Kings shipped off their best player to a team that contended recently but has since taken a nosedive, in exchange for a former player and other compensation that doesn¡¯t nearly measure to the guy being traded. Here, a Rivers-to-the-Jets trade seems to check all the boxes. Los Angeles is trading for a high draft pick and former player, while offloading the most important player on its team.

Kansas State¡¯s all-time records against Texas teams are also generally good. The Wildcats are 10-7 against Texas, 8-8 against A&M, 8-6 against Baylor, 5-5 against TCU, and 8-9 against Texas Tech.

Kansas State didn¡¯t just win the Texas Bowl over TAMU last year ¡ª it also look home the victory in the rodeo that precedes the Texas bowl each year. One K-State assistant even said the Wildcats ¡°rodeo-ed the bleep out of¡± the Aggies.

So it appears for now, K-State undoubtedly has Texas schools¡¯ numbers. We¡¯ll see what 2017 holds for the Wildcats¡¯ streak.

Now that we as a public have forgiven Darren Sharper

Limited Paul Soliai Jersey I guess what I’m trying to say is this: Yes, I started this column off saying that if I was I head coach, I would want Amari Cooper on my team today. As a GM, judging by recent history as well as the current crop of wide receivers coming out, I would be pretty confident that I could get him after the 15th pick in the draft, maybe even later.

I hope I’m wrong. I hope the kid runs a 4.3 and jumps out of the gym this week at the Combine and edges his way back toward the top of the wide receiver pile.

Because tight ends are thought of more as pass catchers than blockers, the results of the drill can have a significant impact on the way teams perceive them. In 2006, Vernon Davis entered the draft process as a fringe first-round tight end, but after he blazed a 4.38-second 40, he vaulted into the top 10. The same thing happened to Eric Ebron last year after he produced a solid 4.60 time.

As for this year’s draft class, the top performers both hailed from small schools. Southern Illinois’ Mycole Pruitt led the group with an official time of 4.58 seconds, followed closely by the 4.65-second showing provided by Southern Alabama’s Wes Saxton. Maxx Williams, the consensus top tight end in the draft, came in third with a respectable time of 4.78 seconds.

I just don’t see it happening.

Limited Cameron Artis-Payne Jersey As many people forget his name means “The Beautiful Dick” and it would be appointment television. The town of Nashville has been synonymous with guys who try to act like a watered down version of John Wayne for years why stop now?

Now that we as a public have forgiven Darren Sharper, its time to set our sites on opening up our hearts and our traning facilities to Adrian? Its been almost a couple months since Peterson has had a court date isnt it time to end this trial by media against Peterson that is nothing more then a switch hunt?

Which team made all the right moves to win in 2017?

We still have more than a month to go until the official start of spring, the vernal equinox, but baseball fans go by a different reckoning than the astronomers. For us, spring training means spring, even if there’s a foot of snow on the ground — and no scientist or groundhog can convince us otherwise.

To wrap up the winter festivities, I asked ZiPS to evaluate team winters based on 2017 wins resulting from trades and signings by estimating the projection difference between two depth charts: a theoretical depth chart for 2017 if the team retained every single player that was traded or lost in free agency and the actual, current depth chart.
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This is not an evaluation of how smart an offseason was, simply because not every team’s front office has the goal of maximizing wins in 2017. It’s a 2017-only evaluation, so a team like the White Sox will rank low here, but that’s not a reflection on the front office’s overall performance.

Memphis guard Tony Allen (four points, four third place), Milwaukee forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (four points, four third place), Oklahoma City center Steven Adams (three points, one second place) and Clippers guard Chris Paul (two points, two third place) rounded out the middle of the findings.

Memphis center Marc Gasol, Miami center Hassan Whiteside, Indiana forward Paul George, Chicago forward Jimmy Butler and Houston guard Patrick Beverley each had one third-place vote.

If the results of this ESPN survey hold steady come postseason-awards voting time, Green will be the first Warriors player to win the defensive honor.
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“I feel pretty good about what I’ve done defensively,” Green said. “I think there’s some things I can get better at and continue to improve. But overall, I feel like I’ve been pretty good individually, and I think we’ve been good as a team.”

Tom Izzo blasted ESPN’s Dan Dakich for saying Michigan State students whine too much

Tom Izzo laid into ESPN analyst Dan Dakich on Tuesday night following Michigan State’s 74-66 win over Ohio State. Izzo’s response came after he heard the Spartans’ student section chanting Dakich’s name throughout the night. After inquiring about what sparked those chants, Izzo agreed that MSU students had the right to be upset.

Dakich sent a series of disparaging tweets about Michigan State on Feb. 8. Dakich, as he frequently does, got into a prolonged Twitter argument, and he offered up a series of since-deleted tweets like this one …

Dakich’s son, Andrew, is a guard for Michigan, the Spartans’ bitter rival. Izzo got wind of the elder Dakich’s comments on Tuesday night as school’s eponymous student section — the Izzone — started chanting “We hate Dakich”

Izzo initially didn’t like the chants, he said, but became angry with Dakich after finding out about the flurry of anti-MSU tweets that led to them.

Regardless, Okafor is still the odd man out in Philadelphia. And as the Feb. 23 trade deadline draws closer, teams that could use a low-post scoring boost will pony up and give the 76ers what they want for their second-year big man.

Okafor is a talented player and Philadelphia knows that. So it’ll wait until the last second and get the biggest return on its draft pick. Whether a sizable return comes before the deadline or during the summer remains to be seen.

“For whatever Alex lacks in visual art ability, he makes up for in confidence, which is to say he has way too much confidence, given his complete lack of an artistic eye. Part of me is frightened that he’s actually a terrific artist and replicates a horrific reality that only he can see.”

Walton and Johnson have yet to sit down and discuss strategy

Eddie George Mens Jersey “There’s a similarity to the way that we want to play with them. Obviously, the game has changed as far as the technical standpoint, and the rules have changed. So there are things that are a lot different now too. But it would be a nice blend to get some of that style in the way we play.”

Because of the Lakers’ recent five-game road trip, Walton and Johnson have yet to sit down and discuss strategy. There is no timetable for their eventual meeting.

Kids LaMarr Woodley Jersey “I have plans to coach games tomorrow and Wednesday,” Walton said. “And then when I get some free time, I would love and am looking forward to sitting down with Magic. It’s going to happen. There’s just no time right now.”

“Well, you know what’s interesting, this is our, I’m happy to say, fifth Super Bowl in the last 16 years, and every time we’ve had the privilege of going to the White House, a dozen of our players don’t go. This is the first time it’s gotten any media attention. You know, some of the players have the privilege of going in college because they’re on national championship teams, others have family commitments. But this is America. We’re all free to do whatever’s best for us. We’re just privileged to be in a position to be going.”

So far six players — Martellus Bennett, Alan Branch, Devin McCourty, Dont’a Hightower, LeGarrette Blount, and Chris Long — have decided not to attend the White House celebration. Hightower did say he’s “been there, done that,” referring to his visit during President Obama’s term after winning a college title with Alabama, however this is not the first time a player declining to visit the White house has received media attention.

With no date set for the visit, and outside pressure mounting on other players, this has certainly become one of the more interesting storylines to follow this offseason. And, of course, the larger question becomes if other teams will start to boycott the White House under Trump as well.

Warriors vs. Thunder 2017 live stream: Time, TV schedule, and how to watch online

Game Womens Steve Carlton Jersey Kevin Durant returns to Chesapeake Energy Arena for the first time since leaving Oklahoma City, providing the backdrop for Saturday night¡¯s matchup between the Golden State Warriors and Oklahoma City Thunder.

ABC will televise the Western Conference showdown beginning at 8:30 p.m. ET, with Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy, and Mark Jackson on the call. The broadcast is also available online through Watch ESPN.

Golden State and Oklahoma City have already played twice this season, but both of those games were in Oakland, and both were Warriors blowouts. Durant dropped 39 points on his former team in a 122-96 victory on Nov. 3, then one-upped himself with 40 points in the Warriors¡¯ 121-100 win on Jan. 18.

But Saturday night is Durant¡¯s first game back in the city he called home for eight NBA seasons, averaging 53 wins over the last seven years, including one NBA Finals trip and four appearances in the Western Conference Finals.

Durant has fit right in with Golden State, averaging 25.7 points and 8.3 rebounds per game this season, all while shooting a career-best 53.5 percent from the field. The Warriors continue to sit atop the league at 45-8, on pace for just shy of 70 wins after winning 140 games in the last two seasons.

Russell Westbrook and Durant formed a dynamic duo in OKC for eight seasons, but with nobody to share the alpha role, Westbrook has really spread his wings in 2016-2017. He has kept the Thunder afloat at 31-23 and they are currently the seventh seed in the West, though just three games out of the fourth spot, which would provide home-court advantage in the first round.
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Westbrook has one of the most eye-popping stat lines in recent memory, averaging a triple-double this season, trying to become the first NBA player to do so since Oscar Robertson 55 years ago. Westbrook is averaging 30.9 points ¡ª tops in the NBA ¡ª 10.5 rebounds, and 10.2 assists through 54 games this season.

Houston has the third best record in the NBA and has emerged with Harden

The following summer, Bazemore signed with Atlanta and Davis signed with Portland while the Lakers fruitlessly pursued LaMarcus Aldridge, Greg Monroe and DeAndre Jordan. The Lakers had traded Steve Blake for Bazemore because they believed he had potential if given an opportunity. They were right, but instead of being rewarded for their faith and investment, Bazemore took the Hawks’ offer while the Lakers prioritized other high-profile free agents. In a cruel twist, the Lakers actually outbid Atlanta for Bazemore when he became a free agent again in 2016, but he chose to be loyal and stay with the Hawks, where he’d flourished the past few seasons.

In both cases, the Lakers’ talent evaluation of the players was spot on, but they couldn’t retain their own players and essentially lost them for nothing.
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Meanwhile, Ariza, who had an interest in returning to his hometown and the city he won an NBA title with in 2009, ended up signing a four-year, $32 million deal with the Houston Rockets, where he is now thriving under former Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni.

Seventy-eight percent of Love’s minutes have come with James on the court. James has averaged 37.6 minutes per game this season, second in the NBA behind Kyle Lowry. With Anthony, the Cavaliers might be able to better stagger James’ minutes.

Although the eye test might suggest that Anthony dominates the ball, he’s averaging 59.6 touches per game, only fourth on his own team and fewer than Love this season (62.0). Anthony is averaging 0.39 points per touch, best on the Knicks.

Greg Salas Game Jersey Rockets officials believe it’s difficult to make a deal considering how strong the team is playing and don’t want to disturb the chemistry that has developed.