December 28, 2012

Talkin' Sports: Richard Sherman, The Clippers, & Advance Metrics in the NBA

49er16: Let me ask you something. Why is it when a baseball player like Ryan Braun beats a suspension because the "chain of command" was broken everyone is outraged that Braun got off, but when an NFL player like Richard Sherman wins his appeal case for the exact same reason everyone is like "Wooooooooooo! Suck it NFL!"?

The Colonel: Honestly I blame it on baseball writers and pundits like Bob Costas. Their outrage over guys like Bonds drives the hypocritical nonsense that we see with Braun and Sherman. If they weren't so outraged about Bonds and other suspected drug cheats you wouldn't see this outrage. 

49er16: What about the supposed drugs they both used? Braun was supposedly using Testosterone. While Sherman supposedly used Adderall. By the way, I don't understand why players use Adderall or how it improves their performance.

The Colonel: Adderall always seems like a "clutch" drug to me. It's something that people believe will help them but all it really does is help them concentrate. I'm sure there are players who really need Adderall, but not as many who are getting busted.


49er16: Let's just move on before I need Adderall. The Clippers right now are tearing through the entire NBA which brings me to my next point. Can the resurgence of the Clippers and Redskins make people forget that both of those teams have pieces of shit for owners?

The Colonel: I'm sure something will happen between either Snyder or Sterling that reminds everyone that they are terrible human beings. Snyder will over charge for playoff tickets, parking, and concessions. Sterling will get slapped with another discrimination lawsuit for being a slumlord. We cannot forget that these guys are terrible.

49er16: Or Sterling will offend one of his players while bringing a South Korean women into the locker room. I love watching the Clippers play, but hate knowing their owner is such a waste of space.

The Colonel: I love how the NBA treats coaches. Avery Johnson won the coach of the month in November and 24 days later he's looking for a new job. I absolutely agree with Bill Simmons when he says, "only a handful of coaches in the NBA really matter and the rest you hope aren't train wrecks."

49er16: The thing about the Nets is that they completely screwed themselves in hopes of filling that new arena each night. They loaded that roster with bad contracts with mediocre players and traded away draft picks. That team everyone said was destined to be mediocre. Well they're mediocre alright and a new coach isn't going to solve the problems.

The Colonel: And then you have the coach killing Deron Williams. One of the problems I've had with the NBA is that players do have too much power in regards to the coach. If they don't like the coach, he's fired. It's one of the problems with a league where only a few players matter.

49er16: That's one of the reasons why I've always had a love/hate relationship with the NBA myself. Love the athleticism and the beauty of the game, hate the fact you need a special player to win. You can do all the analytics you want, you can look for solid players and pay them with team friendly contracts, you can use advance stats but at the end of the day it doesn't matter because you still need a superstar player like Lebron, Kobe, or Duncan. This isn't baseball or even football where you need multiple good players to win, you only need one superstar who can combine both his skill and mindset to take shots late in the 4th quarter and surround him with good to mediocre players.

The Colonel: I'm not going to say advance metrics don't work in the NBA, but I can't see the entire point of them in that league. Unless you're looking at advance metrics in terms of signing players to contracts then yeah I get why they are used. Still you can fill your entire team with Shane Battier's and it still won't matter unless you have that one special player.

49er16: Getting back to the Nets, I find it hilarious that they think they're going to get Phil Jackson. Jackson has always picked his spots when it comes down to rosters and I'll guarantee he's looked at the Nets roster and will pass no matter how much money they throw at him.

The Colonel: Nets fans seem like a delusional bunch. Just because you have an owner willing to throw money at anyone doesn't mean you have a good team. Ask the Mavericks fans all those years before they won the championship with Cuban. He threw money at everyone and saw no results until they got smart and signed/traded for nice pieces like Shawn Marion and Tyson Chandler to run with Dirk.

49er16: Hell you can go back and look at Dan Snyder and come to the same conclusion.

The Colonel: Exactly. A ton of money spent on players doesn't automatically make you a title contender. It just guarantee's you're going to be either in cap hell or have dead weight contracts like you see in baseball.

49er16: Wanna talk about the Kings and Demarcus Cousins again?

The Colonel: Nope.

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