Bleacher Report - Articles by David Leney

Jay Cutler to the Detroit Lions?

David Leney — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:21:40 -0400

As the Broncos announced today that they will entertain trade offers for QB Jay Cutler, there are plenty of NFL teams lining up. However, no team is in dire need of a franchise QB, or just a franchise anything, more than the Detroit Lions.

Coming off a winless season, the Lions have plenty of positions to fill, which makes the Jay Cutler Saga all the more compelling.

If the Lions are even on the fence about whether or not to draft University of Georgia QB Matthew Stafford with the No. 1 overall pick, the opportunity of getting Cutler is one they cannot pass up. Why take the chance on Stafford when you’re fully aware of what a franchise QB such as Cutler can bring to the table?

The Lions could stand to trade two of their three top-end picks to acquire Cutler and still have a high enough pick leftover to land a first- or second-tier offensive tackle. Sure, the Lions' abysmal defense will stay abysmal another year, but a significantly better quarterback and upgrade to their offensive line will at least enable them to stay in games past halftime, maybe even win a few.

The Broncos might look in Detroit’s direction if not for anything more but to spurn the quarterback who they feel had overreacted to previous trade rumors. I mean, what better way of punishing a player than putting him in Honolulu Blue for the next few years?

Except...

The Lions wouldn’t just be getting Cutler, they would be getting a pissed off quarterback with a giant chip on his shoulder, a natural leader, a word that has gone unfamiliar for far too long with the current roster.

One Out of Three: the Ultimate Fantasy

David Leney — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:42:45 -0400

In most areas in life 1/3 is bad. For example if you make one out of every three shot attempts (33 percent) in a game of basketball you are not warranting significant playing time at any level, unless you’re labeled as a “defensive specialist.”

The same goes with pass attempts in a football game. If you took an exam and got one out of every three questions right, well that means your name is Vince Young and you just completed your Wonderlic Test.

However, with April soon upon us, it brings a game where 1/3 is more than adequate. That’s right Baseball, the game where it’s all right to fail, well kind of. The game where a 1/3 or a 330 percent batting average gets you a first ballot Hall of Fame induction—granted you didn’t lie about using steroids, weren’t an intolerable jerk to the media, and didn’t gamble on games.

This isn’t so much about my love for America’s old-favorite past time, but more about America’s New-Favorite Past time. That’s right, I’m talking about fantasy sports.

Baseball season presents yet another reason to get together with friends on a random, or as I like to call it “football-less Sunday,” to draft a new team for a fresh season and do a little day-drinking in the process.

I’ve played three fantasy sports every year for the last four years, which include: football, basketball, and baseball.

The reason I brought up 1/3 is simple not because it is ironic in baseball that 1/3 is great, but it happens to be the last sport of the trio for the 2008-2009 fantasy fiscal sports year.

I feel, if for no reason but by accident, I have to have a serious contender since I know I drafted well enough in both my football and basketball leagues, yet came up so inexplicably and miserably short in both. To properly put this in perspective I have to go back to the “Mike Vicks Best in Show” draft, the F.F.L. I’m in.

FOOTBALL-$120.00

Getting the ninth pick wasn’t on the agenda, but the wraparound is usually nice so I drafted the duo that, no matter how I looked at it, could not get me less than 36 points each week combined.

I selected Randy Moss and Terrell Owens.

When you’re done laughing remember the seasons these guys had just come off of just one-year prior (we also count receptions in my league).

It did not get any better from there. With my third round pick approaching, I was torn with who my first RB was going to be, since it was evident after two Detroit Lion-like draft selections, I needed to start filling in my tailbacks. I could no longer ignore the trend of rookie RB and their immediate success in the “National Football League,” (courtesy of Jaworski) so I went with my gut and proudly selected Darren McFadden.

Cue laughter once again.

My fourth round pick was a result of me hitting the panic button with the QB run that was happening. With Brady, Brees, Romo, Manning, Palmer, and Roethlisberger already gone, I was determined not to get stuck with the likes of Brett “The Jet” Favre or David Garrad, and with Jay Cutler the furthest name from my head and apparently, MY MAGAZINE, I selected Donovan McNabb.

I then, of course, talked myself into the pick, even gloated about it. “He can’t be as bad as last year, right?” As it turned out he wasn’t and he was actually pretty serviceable most weeks, it’s just that Phillip Rivers, Cutler, Rodgers, and Warner all outperformed him and were all taken significantly later.

As the draft continued, I selected Antonio Gates, Ronnie Brown, Jonathon Stewart, Lendale White, Bears Defense, etc.

Bottom line, I was pleased with myself and I thought this is a winning team, if reasonably healthy and Darren McFadden doesn’t completely crap the bed.

I didn’t count on Brady getting injured in week one, Tony Romo pretending Terrell Owens didn’t exist, McFadden’s lingering turf toe injury, combined with him playing for a franchise that’s run like a stale buffet, Ronnie Brown looking like Barry Sanders one week and Barry Pepper the next, and Devin Hester pulling a Houdini in the Bears special teams.

What burns me the most is that I wasn’t at all wrong about rookie running backs; I just took the wrong ones. Matt Forte, Steve Slaton, and Chris Johnson all performed for their owners on a consistent basis. The season ended with the two seed (top seed gets bye) in my division, fist pumping that I made the playoffs so he could play/murder me in the first round.

BASKETBALL-$100.00

I had just come off my first basketball championship the prior year, headlined by Lebron James and Josh Smith and being that it’s probably my best of the three fantasy sports that I play, I went into the draft feeling like a million bucks.

I left the draft feeling like a billion, but mostly due to the inordinate amount of Maker’s Mark I had consumed. I drafted eighth overall and took Dirk Nowitzki.

I followed that pick up with Caron Butler, Kevin Martin, Carmelo Anthony, Ray Allen, Corey Maggette, Emeka Okafor, Greg Oden, Marvin Williams, Shaquille O’ Neal, Jeff Green, Nene, and Russell Westbrook.

Once again, I felt that my team, barring serious injuries, was getting me to payday.

Like football, I was able to eventually climb into the playoffs, but lost in the second round. I can only rationalize my loss with injuries that were constant and oddly enough happening in a weird rotation, where I never actually had a fully healthy team—ever.

In a Nine Category Yahoo Basketball League health is everything, considering you essentially play everybody on your team throughout the course of a week.

Greg Oden looked as good as Udonis Haslem on a bad day; in fact, I dropped him for Udonis Haslem! Highlights included my free-agency pickup of Eric Gordon for Russell Westbrook and Shaquille O’Neal playing like someone told him the year was 2002.

I did better than I had in football, but sadly there is no prize money for fourth place.

BASEBALL-$100.00

In order to not only get my $320.00 back, but actually make some money along with gaining the respect of my peers, I have to win baseball this year.

I knew going into the draft that the sure fire way to get it done is by doing the opposite of what I had been doing with the previous sports, which was playing it safe. Sure, playing it safe can get you to the playoffs, but without a few risk/reward guys that could potentially pan out to be just “reward guys,” your ultimate future is unknown.

It was no surprise to anyone in my basketball league that my brother won it all because he drafted Yao Ming in the late second round. While we laughed at him at the draft for the headache he was going to endure for the inevitable 55 game season that Yao will probably play, he knew that if he didn’t take him he’d feel equally dumb, mainly because if Yao was to suddenly not be “the always injured guy” the payoff would be extraordinary.

With that said, my baseball team is as follows: C-Joe Mauer (risk), 1B-Miguel Cabrera, 2B-Dustin Pedroia, 3B-Evan Longoria, SS-Derek Jeter, OF-Bobby Abreu, Hunter Pence, Torii Hunter, Util-Chone Figgins, B-Alex Rodriguez (risk), Mike Aviles, Mark DeRosa, Delmon Young, and Jim Thome. SP-Brandon Webb and Josh Beckett, RP-Jonathon Broxton and Brian Wilson, P-Ricky Nalasco, Brett Myers, and Joel Hanrahan.

NOTE* There you have my 2009 Baseball Team, now if anyone out there has a line on a guy I should trade for, drop, or pickup please by all means I am listening.

Remember 1/3 is all you need to become the big winner, good luck to all of you who are playing fantasy baseball this season. Please feel free to share your team via comment.

Another Scary Detroit Season

David Leney — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:38:15 -0400

I can’t say that I didn’t see this coming. However, what I once thought to be a gradual decline turned out to be overnight. I’m talking about the 2008-2009 Detroit Pistons.

Forget about the hiring of Coach Michael Curry; forget about the trade that made Chauncey Billups a Denver Nugget once again. What scares me as a die-hard Pistons fan is the money that will most certainly be spent prematurely, you know, before the 2010 free agent sweepstakes (both R. Wallace and A. Iverson’s contracts expire at the end of this season). I’m scared that they put too much pressure and instilled way too much confidence in young Rodney Stuckey. Furthermore I’m scared that Allen Iverson is the veteran teaching Stuckey how to play point guard. I’m scared that Kwame Brown will don a Detroit uniform for the 2009-2010 season. I’m scared, but mostly sorry that the only ring Antonio McDyess will get to wear is his wedding band. But what I might be scared of most of all is Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton’s heart.

Both Rip and Tayshaun has never been on a Piston team that wasn’t dominating or at the very least a viable contender in the East. Neither is going to make less money in or out of a Detroit uniform, so what could possibly motivate them at this point? Even when the roster was fairly the same after winning the 2004 NBA Finals, they continued to come up short every year after, and on a far more talented…correction, better gelled team than they have now.

It’s bad enough our economy has devastated Michigan more than any other state, but one of the few shimmering lights that embodies the state of Michigan, sports, is flickering out. Not that we expect championships from the menial Lions, but 0-16? The Tigers made what sounded on paper to be an unbelievable steal that sent Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to Detroit prior to the 2008 season, except nobody told Dontrelle. Now the Tigers are locked into two more steep contracts. Hockeytown still has its Red Wings but for how much longer before they turn into the Pistons?

Some people suffer from seasonal depression, sports fans however suffer from it in a different way. Like spring, summer, autumn, and winter, Detroit fans have the Tigers, Lions, Redwings, and Pistons. If that’s not enough to keep the entire state of Michigan on Zoloft, I don’t know what is.

The 76ers: The New Pizza Hut?

David Leney — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 08:43:46 -0400

There seem to be two basic rules for gaining fans and publicity in any sport:

1. Win games and/or

2. Have a player people want to see

The 76ers are starting to accomplish the first, but the attendance at the Wachovia Center still looks more like a Bacon Brothers concert rather than a professional sporting event.

Perhaps it’s because the 76ers are in Philadelphia, a city whose fans often feel snake-bitten, destined to always come up short.

There is only so much the fans can take between the Eagles and the Phillies inevitable collapse. There just isn’t enough room to be disappointed by yet another team.

I’ve always said that the original “Rocky” was the perfect movie set in the perfect place, because he loses at the end.

With that said the 76ers organization has to be panicking.

The team is doing much better, but better doesn’t seem to be enough.

With Allen Iverson’s departure last season the team lacked star power, and regardless of what you may or may not think of Iverson, he was exciting to watch.

It’s really bad when you consider the billboard that reads, “Double the Dre” (referring to Andre Miller and Andre Iguodala) while driving through the city.

I also was taken back when my brother and I walked into the Sixers Pro Shop before a game. The “Pro Shop” if that’s what you want to call it, wasn’t much bigger than my kitchen. It featured unbelievable merchandise such as a Jason Smith autographed picture, a Louis Williams signed basketball, etc—you get the picture.

I know that the front office is panicking as evidence of recent e-mails I have received.

You see, last year I accidentally signed up for the 76ers mailing list.

I can’t say that I received a ton of e-mails last season, but this year the 76ers are offering deals like they’re used-car salesmen, or like a gimmicky Pizza Hut commercial.

You know the ones:

Get the cheesy thick crust pizza wrapped in jalapeños with fajita style chicken for only $8.99!

They try to sell this because they know they can’t advertise a standard pizza, in fact it’s curiosity more than hunger that gets somebody to eat that crap in the first place.

The 76ers aren’t far from that:

PAY $149.00 and YOU and 3 friends get 4 HOT DOGS, 4 BEERS, 4 PASSES to HOLT’S CIGAR CLUB, and a MEET & GREET with the 76’ER’S CHEERLEADERS!!!! PAY $31.00 (why $31.00) additionally to any ticket and it’s ALL YOU CAN EAT!!!! DOLLAR DOG NIGHT, EVERYNIGHT!!!!

As you can see it doesn’t stop. As I’m writing this article on March 9th, tickets to see the Celtics game are now 60 percent off.

It’s like Tower Records is going out of business all over again.

I realize that in every sport, in every city, there are fan appreciation nights along with the occasional good deal, but in the Sixers case I feel like were a week away from:

Come to the game and afterwards you will get laid!

Two weeks away from:

Add $1000.00 to your ticket and you and a friend can coach the Sixers for the evening! Add $500.00 more and you can give the press conference after the game!

The last 76ers game I went to, my brother and I weren’t the least bit surprised when two Moses Malone autographed basketballs were presented to two (of about 20) season ticket holders.

I wasn’t surprised because over the last two years I’ve attended approximately 20-25 games, and every single game a Moses Malone autographed basketball is presented to a season ticket holder.

This means one of two things:

1. Moses Malone’s autograph isn’t worth the Sharpie that it was written with, and/or

2. The 76ers organization kidnapped Moses Malone and has forced this man to sign a gazillion basketballs.

Playing great basketball is enough for me, but with the ten to twelve million that the team will likely have to work with next season in free agency, it is imperative that the Sixers get somebody, anybody, that the casual fan will deem “worth the price of admission.”

NBA Balance of Power: Why the West Is Winning

David Leney — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:06:51 -0500

Unless you’ve lived under a rock this season, then you already know just how competitive the NBA’s Western Conference has now become. Basketball, maybe more than any other sport is played to its competition, and the competition just went up a notch.

I believe the West has become what it is because of four key reasons...

1) The 2005 draft

Milwaukee took Bogut, followed by Atlanta doing what they do best—which was draft their 100^th forward/guard tweener (because they don’t have enough of them). But it was Utah and New Orleans that made out like bandits. It’s not so much that Deron Williams and Chris Paul are just great players, but it’s the fact that they transformed two mediocre teams into relevant contenders. This proving once again that the point guard position is so utterly crucial to a team and it’s chemistry, that the 2005 draft will forever be a haunting reminder to all GM’s, that bigger isn’t always better.

2) The Kevin Garnett trade

Boston fans couldn’t believe it until KG actually landed in Boston. For that matter no one else could either. With Danny Ainge’s job hanging by a thread, he hit the biggest “Oh Sh*t” button the NBA had ever seen. First Ray Allen and then KG; This had to make every other GM around the league feel impotent.

As a result, all the monster movement we’ve seen this season I think has been somewhat influenced by this deal. Kobe Bryant complained before the Boston trade, complained even more after the trade, and ultimately his complaints ended up being the best thing for the Lakers and Pau Gasol’s well-being.

This sprawled a chain reaction which brought Shaq to Phoenix and Jason Kidd to Dallas. Mark Cuban had had his eye on Kidd for awhile, but it wasn’t until everyone else in the West had thrown their chips in, that he decided to go all in. One could also make the argument that the Spurs made one of the best deals before the trade deadline by acquiring Kurt Thomas.

3) Coaching

The Western Conference simply has better coaching, Gregg Popovich, Phil Jackson, and Jerry Sloan to name a few. The East on the other hand has geniuses like Mike Brown, Isiah Thomas, and Maurice Cheeks. When you think about it, Toronto Raptors Head Coach Sam Mitchell has got to be floored knowing that he might be the best overall coach the Eastern Conference has to offer.

4) The Chicago Bulls and the Miami Heat

Think about it, we know Detroit can hang with the best, Boston is certainly proving it’s worth this year, Cleveland, Orlando, and Toronto are all decent teams on the way up. If youcount it, that’s5 out of 15 teams that are legit. If Chicago and Miami hadn’t been such colossal disappointments, the East wouldn't look all that bad. If both those teams were playing well, or at least as well as most thought going into the season. The Eastern Conference playoffs would’ve become interesting in the first round, thus making the NBA just that much more exciting.

The Western Conference might be the better conference right now, but what’s more important is that the NBA is better right now.

NBA MVP: How It Should Be Determined

David Leney — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 05:40:23 -0500

When picking the NBA MVP, I’ve never quite understood the approach, or formula, most voters use.

Picking the best player on the best team always seemed like a cop-out to me. Sure, there’s a lot to be said by having one of the best records, but chances are if your team has the best record then there’s more than one great player on your team.

Take the San Antonio Spurs for example. We all know how talented Tim Duncan is, clearly the MVP for the Spurs, but if you took away Tony Parker or Manu Ginobili is Tim Duncan still as effective? Are the Spurs in general still as effective?

My point is that they should determine the MVP based on: when (FILL IN NAME) is on the floor, I never feel like his team is out of the game.

For me, the two names that come to mind are Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. I’m not saying that these are the only two players that can give you that feeling, but when I watch the Lakers or Cavaliers I can’t help but feel those teams always have a chance, regardless of who’s playing around Kobe or LeBron.

Or you might get that feeling when you see Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, or Steve Nash. There’s no right or wrong answer among the elite players in the league because that feeling is different for everybody.

I tend to lean on LeBron more this season because if you took him away from the Cavaliers, they’d be worse than the Miami Heat are right now. At least without Kobe, the Lakers have Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, and Andrew Bynum.

Kobe also doesn’t make the players around him better the way LeBron does. Pau Gasol was already great, Lamar Odom is a career under-achiever because his expectations coming into the league were through the roof, and Andrew Bynum (pre-injury) is getting very good, not entirely because Kobe but rather Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (over the past two summers).

I actually wish the captain’s of each team exclusively voted for the MVP. How could they be wrong, they're the one’s playing against these guys every night? Who are we as fans to tell Chauncey Billups “you’re wrong, (FILL IN NAME) is much harder to guard than (FILL IN NAME).”

This would also be great as it would bar ESPN’s Skip Bayless from having any vote, opinion, or anything else to rant on about towards the end of the season.

A Thin Line: Joe Johnson & Kevin Durant

David Leney — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:33:19 -0500

The first thing you hear when rookie Kevin Durant’s name is mentioned is his 19.4 points per game on 40% shooting. Now, as anybody knows who follows the game, that that is not a compliment. That's a team killer when you consider the 17 shot attempts taken per game.

One could see my astonishment when I saw the Atlanta Hawks guard, Joe Johnson (also shooting 40%), in an Eastern Conference All-Star jersey this year in New Orleans. What makes Johnson (in his eighth year) not only avoid criticism for his poor shooting, but get rewarded for it by making the Eastern All-Star team?

You could make a case for Johnson if the Hawks had an outstanding record, but at 21-28, it isn’t even good enough to grab an eighth seed. I looked a bit closer to see the rest of Johnson and Durant’s stats and wasn’t at all surprised at the results.

Johnson averages 4.4 rebounds and 5.2 assists. Add in his 2.7 turnovers a game and you have a fairly mediocre stat line. The only thing really going for Johnson is his 85.5% free throw percentage.

Kevin Durant, an 86.5% free throw shooter, at least gives the impression he’s playing defense by averaging one steal and one block a game. Johnson doesn’t average either.

What gets me most is that Joe Johnson might not be the best player on his team. Josh Smith is having an outstanding season, despite his poor outside shooting. At least Smith is able to rebound, defend, and even more recently distribute the ball. Meanwhile, Kevin Durant is probably praying at night to get at least somebody on his team as well-rounded and complimentary as Josh Smith in the near future.

Durant is being asked to be a leader and put the Sonics on his shoulders, all at the young age of 19. To his dismay he is only surrounded by incompetence and inexperience, add in a city that doesn’t want them, P.J. Carlesimo, and you have a recipe for lottery picks for years to come.

So as every analyst and anchor continues to call Kevin Durant a disappointment, just remember, Joe Johnson is an All-Star.

Miami Heat: Looking Ahead

David Leney — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:43:55 -0500

Record: 9-42

I will start by saying the Miami Heat are one of my least favorite teams in all of sports.

In fact Miami sits somewhere between Duke Men's basketball and the Dallas Cowboys on my hate, hate, hate list.

I know what you're thinking, how can I disdain a team that has a 9-42 record at All-Star break. Its bad enough that their fans were subjected to watching the Dolphins this season, so hating the heat is like picking on the handicapped kid, right?

The Trade

The Shawn Marion trade wasn't stealing, as the Lakers so eloquently did when aquiring Pau Gasol from Memphis, but it wasn't far from it. Marion is as complete a player as they come. He's basically a younger, smaller, more energetic version of Rasheed Wallace. Then again, I understand why Phoenix did what they did by going after Shaq (Tim Duncan, the quiet reason), but Shawn Marion is sorely underated.

Many people laugh about the whole "Derek Jeter and his intangibles" spout, but like Jeter, Shawn Marion brings a few of his own. In his Miami debut Marion got the team to play an up-tempo offense against the Lakers, on the other end of the floor he sparked the Heat to play sound defense for the first time all season. Obviously the Heat aren't any threat to the Pistons, or the Big 3 (soon to be the Big 4 with the way Rajon Rondo has been playing lately). Just don't be surprised to see a big turnaround by the Heat next November.

The Draft

Wade and Marion can't do it alone, but they won't have to with Miami's record as bad as it is. Another star could be aquired through the 2008 draft (Michael Beasley, Derrick Rose, Eric Gordon, etc.).

I am counting my lucky stars that Miami pulls a page from the Philadelphia 76er's book of bad logic and starts winning some meaningless games that won't get them in playoffs or a Top 5 lottery pick.

I'm also intrigued about the development of Dorrell Wright. He is still so raw, but if you watch him he is by far the most athletic guy on the team. With a little more experience and direction, Wright could be a very solid player in a few years.

Free Agency

Is the Heat worried about Shawn Marion leaving after this season?

Here's a better question: How many cities (not teams) would you, or a young man such as Shawn Marion, rather play for?

Exactly the reason why a team like the Milwaukee Bucks wouldn't have a chance of grabbing him in free agency.