realmofotalk

Rejoice. No, really. Now, I'm with most of you when it comes to stats. The more the merrier. The more advanced they get, the better you can gauge the player's value to a team. But every once in while, you want to be surprised by the statistical anomalies, which the statheads chalk it up to variation at first, and then if the pattern persists they wave their hand and attribute it to the human element. Sometimes you just have to throw the book out on certain players. To quote Michael Lewis' account ...

1. Washington- John Wall, PG
2. Philly- Evan Turner, SG
3. New Jersey- Derrick Favors, PF
4. Minnesota- Wesley Johnson, SF
5. Sacramento- DeMarcus Cousins, PF/C
6. Golden State- Cole Aldrich, C
7. Detroit- Al-Farouq Aminu, SF
8. LA Clippers- Greg Monroe, PF
9. Utah- Patrick Patterson, PF
10. Indiana- Ed Davis, PF

Top 5 is as expected. I chose to agree with Chad Ford on Cole Aldrich to Golden State. Don Nelson doesn't seem ...

Tune in here on Thursday when I suggest the draft prospect that Sir A.J. ignores and pays dearly for it all next season.

Last year at the now-defunct NFL sister site, I pushed for beastly Ole Miss offensive tackle Michael Oher when he fell to San Diego's pick at #16. Instead, A.J. reached for Northern Illinois defensive end Larry English, who made his name beating inferior players in an inferior NCAA FBS conference. Oher went on to start every game for Baltimore and came in 2nd place ...

Say what you will about JaMarcus Russell, and this is coming from someone who knew JR was nothing more than a flavor of the month, but at least the scouts thought highly enough of him to peg him as the top QB in his class. Whereas you thought JR was probably going to end up like Kwame Brown, DHB was already Kwame Brown entering the NFL.

I'll keep my thoughts on this short. While there a legion of fans clamoring for a remake of Vice City and San Andreas, I just don't see it happening. The inspiration for Vice City is 1980's Miami, whose notoriety for the drug business, crime, and well, vice in general, was specific to that decade. Seeing how they've already released two installments (a major one for consoles and a minor one for the PSP) featuring that theme, I believe VC has run its course. As for San Andreas, does such a setting ...