I take back everything I ever said about Derrick Rose. I referred to him as more of a Jamal Crawford type than a Deron Williams type in my draft preview rant saying Beasley should be picked over him.
Meanwhile, Mike B. has become Derrick Coleman while Rose flourishes in Chicago. Rose isn't another Jamal Crawford, like I called him over the summer. He reminds me of a mini-LeBron.
He's definitely not a pure point, but he doesn't have to be. He's just physically better than everyone else at his 'position.' Just like LeBron is bigger, faster, stronger and has more ups than every 'small forward,' Rose has the same advantages over all point guards in the league.
There really isn't a point guard in the league that can check Rose. He still has a lot to learn, and will struggle at times, but he's a shoe-in for Rookie of the Year at this point. He's single-handedly turning a bad Bulls team into must see TV, especially with moves like this (love the commentary on this, by the way):
Showing posts with label Derrick Rose. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Derrick Rose. Show all posts
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
2008 NBA Draft Preview
Beasley vs. Rose
All of the talk at the top of this year’s draft doesn’t make much sense to me. Throughout the history of the NBA, and this can even be evidenced in last year’s draft, the thought is to always go with a big over a guard.
All of a sudden, Chicago and several other pundits are all the rage of Memphis PG Derrick Rose instead of Michael Beasley. This is a huge head scratcher for me.
First, Beasley fits in with what the Bulls need. He could start right away, with Luol Deng and Joakim Noah on the front court and he would give them a double-double almost right away.
Meanwhile, drafting Rose would mean Kirk Hinrich would have to go. He’s a great player, but after a bad year last year his stock is down. Not to mention the demons Rose would face playing at home. Not to mention, he’s not the pure point guard everyone says he is.
The thing that made his stock jump this high was his performance in the NCAA final this year. He was nearly unstoppable on offense, but he was more like a short 2-guard than a 1. I think everyone is overestimating his ability as a pure point guard and I could see him more as a Jamal Crawford type than the next Deron Williams.
On the other hand, Beasley is like David West with a three-point shot. He will be an all-star within the first three years of his career guaranteed. I don’t know why anyone would want to pass that up.
The rest of the crop:
Headscratchers
O.J. Mayo – I’m not a big O.J. Mayo fan. In the game his team got eliminated from the Pac-10 tourney, I watched O.J. Mayo dribble off the last few seconds of the clock with his team down by three, and throw up a wild three-point shot at the buzzer. Ever since then, I’ve always put him in the category of overrated or poor basketball IQ.
Jerryd Bayliss – He never impressed me at Arizona this year. I saw him play live in their tourney game against West Virginia in D.C. this year and he didn’t do squat.
Brook and Robin Lopez – Stiffs in the making.
Danilo Gallinari – Don’t know enough about him to make an opinion.
D.J. Augustin – I think he’ll be good, but a lot of people think his size will be a problem for him, especially on defense. At the same time, wasn't he the best point guard in the nation last year?
Future Busts
Anthony Randolph – As much college basketball as I watch, I should have heard of this guy at least once.
DeAndre Jordan – Ditto
Eric Gordon – I loved his game initially, but I think he should have stayed in school and developed more endurance and became more of an assassin. He’s the next Rashad McCants.
Kosta Koufus – Should’ve stayed in school as well
Roy Hibbert – Stiff.
Solid Picks
Kevin Love – He’s short, fat and slow for a power forward. But he has NBA 3-point range, can rebound with the best of them and he passes like Chris Webber. He will be a lot better than people think.
Russell Westbrook – He’s not, and will not, be a point guard. He’s a 2. But he’s a heck of a defender and he can make up for his height with his athletic ability.
Joe Alexander – Might end up being the best player from this draft. He can do it all on the court and he might even be the best athlete in this draft.
Brandon Rush – He’s a bit spacey, but without the pressure of having to be the number one guy, he would become a solid contributor to an NBA team.
Chris Douglas-Roberts – He was the most dangerous scorer on Memphis last year and can be really unstoppable off the dribble. He has a sleek game and is a tad unorthodox, kind of like a right-handed Manu Ginobili on the offensive end. I don’t know why he’s not going to be a lottery pick, but he’ll put up lottery pick numbers on the right team.
Sleepers
JaVale McGee, Donte Green, DJ White, Kyle Weaver, Courtney Lee
All of the talk at the top of this year’s draft doesn’t make much sense to me. Throughout the history of the NBA, and this can even be evidenced in last year’s draft, the thought is to always go with a big over a guard.
All of a sudden, Chicago and several other pundits are all the rage of Memphis PG Derrick Rose instead of Michael Beasley. This is a huge head scratcher for me.
First, Beasley fits in with what the Bulls need. He could start right away, with Luol Deng and Joakim Noah on the front court and he would give them a double-double almost right away.
Meanwhile, drafting Rose would mean Kirk Hinrich would have to go. He’s a great player, but after a bad year last year his stock is down. Not to mention the demons Rose would face playing at home. Not to mention, he’s not the pure point guard everyone says he is.
The thing that made his stock jump this high was his performance in the NCAA final this year. He was nearly unstoppable on offense, but he was more like a short 2-guard than a 1. I think everyone is overestimating his ability as a pure point guard and I could see him more as a Jamal Crawford type than the next Deron Williams.
On the other hand, Beasley is like David West with a three-point shot. He will be an all-star within the first three years of his career guaranteed. I don’t know why anyone would want to pass that up.
The rest of the crop:
Headscratchers
O.J. Mayo – I’m not a big O.J. Mayo fan. In the game his team got eliminated from the Pac-10 tourney, I watched O.J. Mayo dribble off the last few seconds of the clock with his team down by three, and throw up a wild three-point shot at the buzzer. Ever since then, I’ve always put him in the category of overrated or poor basketball IQ.
Jerryd Bayliss – He never impressed me at Arizona this year. I saw him play live in their tourney game against West Virginia in D.C. this year and he didn’t do squat.
Brook and Robin Lopez – Stiffs in the making.
Danilo Gallinari – Don’t know enough about him to make an opinion.
D.J. Augustin – I think he’ll be good, but a lot of people think his size will be a problem for him, especially on defense. At the same time, wasn't he the best point guard in the nation last year?
Future Busts
Anthony Randolph – As much college basketball as I watch, I should have heard of this guy at least once.
DeAndre Jordan – Ditto
Eric Gordon – I loved his game initially, but I think he should have stayed in school and developed more endurance and became more of an assassin. He’s the next Rashad McCants.
Kosta Koufus – Should’ve stayed in school as well
Roy Hibbert – Stiff.
Solid Picks
Kevin Love – He’s short, fat and slow for a power forward. But he has NBA 3-point range, can rebound with the best of them and he passes like Chris Webber. He will be a lot better than people think.
Russell Westbrook – He’s not, and will not, be a point guard. He’s a 2. But he’s a heck of a defender and he can make up for his height with his athletic ability.
Joe Alexander – Might end up being the best player from this draft. He can do it all on the court and he might even be the best athlete in this draft.
Brandon Rush – He’s a bit spacey, but without the pressure of having to be the number one guy, he would become a solid contributor to an NBA team.
Chris Douglas-Roberts – He was the most dangerous scorer on Memphis last year and can be really unstoppable off the dribble. He has a sleek game and is a tad unorthodox, kind of like a right-handed Manu Ginobili on the offensive end. I don’t know why he’s not going to be a lottery pick, but he’ll put up lottery pick numbers on the right team.
Sleepers
JaVale McGee, Donte Green, DJ White, Kyle Weaver, Courtney Lee
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Winter is my favorite time for sports. Double doses of football with a dash of wacky baseball trades, free agent signings, etc. While I don't have anything to say about baseball, there's definately a lot to discuss elsewhere ... like my bad predictions.
NCAA Bball
I didn’t do a NCAA preview because it’s pointless. 1. The real season starts in March. 2. With the new(ish) NBA rules, each college season is essentially unpredictable.
There’s an influx of freshman stars who may come and go, struggle early then flourish later on in their careers, or just flame out all together. Regardless, from about 96 until the rule was implemented, most of the Derrick Rose, O.J. Mayo, Eric Gordon types would’ve been on some NBA team’s bench right now.
That said, I think the media has it right with the early favorites of UCLA, UNC, and Memphis.
NBA
LOL at my NBA predictions. I definitely underestimated the surges Dwight Howard and Chris Paul would have this season. They are now in the top 10, as far as players in the league go.
I also underestimated the smarts of Bulls GM John Paxson, and the effects a non-Kobe trade would have on the Bulls.
I overestimated the Hawks young nucleus coming together.
Enough about me. This season has been very exciting so far, the NBA is in great shape. There really isn’t a team in the league without a star, except maybe Charlotte, but they have a good nucleus of young players.
If you’re sleeping on the NBA, wake up. This year has the potential to be one of the best years in recent memory.
NCAA Fball
It’s been hard for me to write about NCAA football since Dennis Dixon is done for the season. I talked him up for the Heisman early in the game, and he was poised to be the best prediction in the almost 1 year history of Sportsology. DAMMIT!
Now it should go to Tim Tebow. I was watching ESPN today and they were hyping up the QB’s from Kansas and Missouri, who are admittedly decent. However, if you were to give it to one of them over Tebow then you might as well give it to Dennis. The biggest benefactor of Kansas and Missouri’s “surprising” runs has been weak scheduling.
Speaking of which, one of those two teams making the national championship game would be a disaster. In the original BCS formula, I’d be surprised if West VA wouldn’t be ahead of them anyway, or maybe even Ohio State. The Big 12 is so suspect, as always, and it would be a shame if LSU didn’t square off with West Virginia or Ohio State at this point.
(Although I still say Michigan would’ve knocked them off with a healthy Hart and Henne. Another one of my predictions bites the dust)
NFL
All of the talk has been about the historic runs of New England and Miami. That’s understandable. However, I think three things are getting lost in the mix.
1. There isn’t really a dominant running back in the league besides Adrian Peterson. By that I mean a traditional power running back. LaDainian is perhaps a victim of poor coaching, a little bit of age, or maybe a combination of the two. Willie Parker is good, but they can’t trust him around the endzone. Brian Westbrook is having a crazy season, but that’s because he’s a combo back. The leader in rushing yards this season may not even crack 1,400 yards.
2. Tom Brady is having one of the greatest seasons in NFL history. This isn’t talked about enough, I don’t think. However, number 2 is only possible because of number 3.
3. Randy Moss is the MVP of the league, and is having one of the greatest seasons any athlete has ever had in any sport. He’s literally unstoppable. He’s making Brady look like a God and making his opponents look second class. When you look at many of his touchdown catches, a lot of them were either bad passes or very questionable decisions that he cashed in on anyway. You can say Brady wouldn’t have thrown those passes to anybody but Moss, but you can also say Brady wouldn’t be this good, this year, if it wasn’t Randy and company at wide out.
NCAA Bball
I didn’t do a NCAA preview because it’s pointless. 1. The real season starts in March. 2. With the new(ish) NBA rules, each college season is essentially unpredictable.
There’s an influx of freshman stars who may come and go, struggle early then flourish later on in their careers, or just flame out all together. Regardless, from about 96 until the rule was implemented, most of the Derrick Rose, O.J. Mayo, Eric Gordon types would’ve been on some NBA team’s bench right now.
That said, I think the media has it right with the early favorites of UCLA, UNC, and Memphis.
NBA
LOL at my NBA predictions. I definitely underestimated the surges Dwight Howard and Chris Paul would have this season. They are now in the top 10, as far as players in the league go.
I also underestimated the smarts of Bulls GM John Paxson, and the effects a non-Kobe trade would have on the Bulls.
I overestimated the Hawks young nucleus coming together.
Enough about me. This season has been very exciting so far, the NBA is in great shape. There really isn’t a team in the league without a star, except maybe Charlotte, but they have a good nucleus of young players.
If you’re sleeping on the NBA, wake up. This year has the potential to be one of the best years in recent memory.
NCAA Fball
It’s been hard for me to write about NCAA football since Dennis Dixon is done for the season. I talked him up for the Heisman early in the game, and he was poised to be the best prediction in the almost 1 year history of Sportsology. DAMMIT!
Now it should go to Tim Tebow. I was watching ESPN today and they were hyping up the QB’s from Kansas and Missouri, who are admittedly decent. However, if you were to give it to one of them over Tebow then you might as well give it to Dennis. The biggest benefactor of Kansas and Missouri’s “surprising” runs has been weak scheduling.
Speaking of which, one of those two teams making the national championship game would be a disaster. In the original BCS formula, I’d be surprised if West VA wouldn’t be ahead of them anyway, or maybe even Ohio State. The Big 12 is so suspect, as always, and it would be a shame if LSU didn’t square off with West Virginia or Ohio State at this point.
(Although I still say Michigan would’ve knocked them off with a healthy Hart and Henne. Another one of my predictions bites the dust)
NFL
All of the talk has been about the historic runs of New England and Miami. That’s understandable. However, I think three things are getting lost in the mix.
1. There isn’t really a dominant running back in the league besides Adrian Peterson. By that I mean a traditional power running back. LaDainian is perhaps a victim of poor coaching, a little bit of age, or maybe a combination of the two. Willie Parker is good, but they can’t trust him around the endzone. Brian Westbrook is having a crazy season, but that’s because he’s a combo back. The leader in rushing yards this season may not even crack 1,400 yards.
2. Tom Brady is having one of the greatest seasons in NFL history. This isn’t talked about enough, I don’t think. However, number 2 is only possible because of number 3.
3. Randy Moss is the MVP of the league, and is having one of the greatest seasons any athlete has ever had in any sport. He’s literally unstoppable. He’s making Brady look like a God and making his opponents look second class. When you look at many of his touchdown catches, a lot of them were either bad passes or very questionable decisions that he cashed in on anyway. You can say Brady wouldn’t have thrown those passes to anybody but Moss, but you can also say Brady wouldn’t be this good, this year, if it wasn’t Randy and company at wide out.
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