Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump. Well, against the Bobcats, O’Neal took Doc’s diminished expectations and stuffed them…
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Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump. Coach Doc Rivers said he didn’t know whether O’Neal would ultimately require…
RedsArmy.com – The Voice Of Celtics Fans
Since the day the Chargers hired him, I’ve always been a Norv Turner supporter. After the Chargers canned Marty Schottenheimer there were rumors the next Chargers coach would be Jimmy Johnson. So while everyone was flabbergasted when the Chargers ended up with Norv Turner I drank the Kool-Aid and argued that it was a good move to keep the offense intact since the Chargers’ previous offensive coordinator, Cam Cameron, was a Norv Turner disciple.
(In retrospect I can sympathize with everyone who thought we were getting Jimmy Johnson. It’s like being caught up in bank robbery, expecting Batman to show up – in this analogy Jimmy Johnson, and getting his sidekick Robin—in this case Turner, who was Johnson’s offensive coordinator with his Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl teams.)
Under Norv Tuner the Chargers have been notorious for their slow starts. For some reason or another (probably because in September the weather in San Diego is beautiful while most of the county has to deal with humidity and thunderstorms) the Chargers stumble through the first part of the season. Again, I rationalized this by maintaining that if you blame Tuner for his slow starts you have to give him credit for the way the Chargers inexplicably turned it on in December, played perfect football and always won the division. But now that the Chargers are a pubic hair away from missing the playoffs, I’m jumping off the Norv Turner bandwagon. I’m saying that if the Chargers don’t make the playoffs this season, the Chargers have to fire Norv Turner.
I am finally ready to admit that Norv Turner is a horrible football coach. Since the loss to the Raiders this past Sunday I’ve been pulling my hair out thinking how incredibly unprepared the Chargers have been this season. For instance:
- How can the Chargers not be ready for the run and let the Raiders run it 52 times for 251 yards? (Think about that for a second… FIFTY TWO RUSH ATTEMPTS! TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY ONE YARDS!)
- How can Richard Goodman not know that you have to be touched down in the NFL?
- How can the Chargers come out flat against a team with a rookie QB that won one game last year?
- How can your special teams allow two consecutive block punts?
- Or two consecutive kick returns?
- How can your equipment people not bring long cleats to a game in the mid-West where it always rains during the latter months of the summer?
In the end it always boils down to the coach. The teams that have the best coaches may not win all the time but they also never make mistakes that cost them games: The Steelers (Mike Tomlin), Patriots (Bill Belichick), Saints (Sean Payton), Ravens (John Harbaugh) never beat themselves. Or to put it a better way: Good coaches don’t let their teams beat themselves.
For the Chargers these past few seasons, it seems like they can’t get out of their own way. They’re complacent. They think they’re better than they actually are. And they only show up to play in about half their games. The coach has to be held accountable for this. In the preseason, instead of pounding it in his player’s head that they overachieved last year, that they finished near the bottom of the league in rushing, that they couldn’t get off the field on defense, that they couldn’t consistently pressure the QB, that they won a lot of games in the final minutes, Turner gloated that this is the most talented team he’s ever coached. In hindsight this probably made his players overconfident and a little complacent. I can’t fathom Belichick, Tomlin, or Payton doing this. Football teams inevitably take on the personality of their head coach. The Chargers have been unprepared and unmotivated for too long and it may have finally caught up to them.
The Chargers should have missed the playoffs two years ago and would have had it not been for an epic collapse by the Broncos. If the Chargers somehow make the playoffs this year it will be due to the fact that Matt Cassel’s appendix got microwaved earlier this week. After the news that Cassel could miss the up to four weeks with his appendectomy this week my running joke has been that God must love the Chargers. Think about it: God (if there is a God, but that’s a totally different discussion) loves suffering. There’s suffering all over the place. People die of cancer. We have 18 year old kids dying in some dessert 10,000 miles away because of… what was it again? There’s homeless people, poverty in third world countries, natural disasters that take out cities at a time. They’re high school and college kids that shoot their classmates, priests that molest kids. My point is, there’s suffering all over the place and this supposedly omnipotent entity is just sitting there watching the show. God is probably a sadist and if he were one wouldn’t you think that he’d love the Chargers? They’re the team that drags their fans to hell every season, brings their hopes up and then slaps them in the face. The reason why this happens EVERY… SINGLE… YEAR… is Norv Turner! God must love Norv Turner. But we, as Charger fans don’t.
(Did I just make an argument that Norv Turner is an agent of God? I’m going to watch out for lighting tonight when I take my dog out to take a leak just in case He decides I’m the person he wants to see suffer next.)
Every Charger fan would love for the Chargers to get rid of Norv Turner after this year but the question is who would they get to replace him? The easy answer is Bill Cowher or John Gruden but we know that’s not happening. It’s almost a shortcut to thinking to suggest that there’s a remote possibility that one of these guys would become the Charger’s next coach. Those guys not only want to coach but they want control of personnel decisions as well and AJ Smith isn’t going anywhere. Plus anyone who was a Charger fan in the 90s knows that the Spanoses would never spend the kind of money it would take to land a coach like Cowher or Gruden. So while it’s cool that Gruden auditions for the head coaching job every time the Chargers are on Monday Night Football let’s think outside the box. I want a coach who’s smart. I want a coach who’s hungry. I want a coach who can motivate his team to overachieve rather than accept the fact that his teams underachieve. Here are my top five choices:
Brian Schottenheimer: This would never happen because AJ Smith canned his dad but there is no doubt Schottenheimer is going to be a great head coach one of these days. The only problem with hiring him is you risk the potential that he carries the same “choke in the playoffs” gene that his dad has. Imagine the crapstorm the first time Brian Schottenheimer loses a playoff game. Herm Edwards’ head would explode while arguing about this with Mark Schlereth in the Coors Light Silver Spotlight segment in SportsCenter. If could affect Schottenheimer his entire career.
Russ Grimm: Grimm interviewed for the Charger head coaching job after Marty Schottenheimer was axed and also was a finalist for the Steeler job that went to Mike Tomlin. He coached under Cowher and coaches under Ken Whisenhunt (another fine coach that would have made the “good coaches” section a few paragraphs ago had he not entirely botched the QB situation in Arizona this season). The only concern I have with him is he’s an offensive line coach and he hasn’t proven that he can run a scheme in the NFL yet. Regardless, the fact that he coached under Cowher and Whisenhunt makes him a worthy candidate. Also it’s hard to imagine an offensive line coach that would put up with one of his lineman on special teams missing an assignment twice. (Yes, I’m talking about you Antwan “I Can’t Count to Four and Fall for the Bootleg” Applewhite.)
Eric Mangini: Say what you want about the way it ended for him with the Jets but this guy knows how to win football games. The Jets were coming off a 4-12 year when he took over and he took them to the playoffs with a 10-6 record. And this year the Browns are 5-7 but they’re overachieving by everyone’s expectations. This year the guy won five games – with wins against the Patriots and Saints – and has Colt McCoy and Jake Delhomme at QB. If Mike Holmgren and the Browns are dumb enough to get rid of him for someone like Gruden the Chargers should pounce. Norv Turner underachieves with Philip Rivers at QB. If you want to know how Turner would do with QBs like McCoy and Delhomme Google “Oakland Raiders 2004-2005” and “Norv Tuner Washington Redskins.”
Leslie Fraizer: This guy is Mike Tomlin 2.0 and it’s not just because they’re both African American. Both guys used to coach the Vikings secondary and by all accounts Fraizer, like Tomlin, is extremely smart and tough. In other words he’s the exact opposite of Norv Turner.
Jim Harbaugh: The ideal choice in my opinion. He clearly has the coaching aptitude (his dad was a coach and he’s John Harbaugh’s brother). The way he coached up USD at first and now Stanford shows that he can get his teams to over perform. He has obvious San Diego connections and his DUI history may convince AJ Smith to re-sign Vincent Jackson (just kidding).
In all seriousness, there will be a glut of great coaching candidates out there this offseason. If you figure teams like the Cowboys, Frisco, Denver the Browns and Minnesota are in the market for a big-time coach the Chargers could sneak in there grab a dark horse candidate and potentially snatch better coach. It’s like going from an ugly girl to a girl that’s a little prettier. It’s the smart move. It’s a move that someone like Norv Turner would never make.
Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
The Celtics still are smarting from their loss in Cleveland on the second night of the season, which came just more than 24 hours following their opening night win against Miami. In a small quirk of the NBA calendar, they return to Quicken Loans Arena tonight.
“I think we went in and our thoughts were still in the Miami game, and we didn’t go about it the way we should have played,” Glen Davis said. “Now we can’t do that. At the end of the day, we need these games for home-court advantage.”
As a result, Davis claims his team speaks a new language.
“We don’t know no English,” he said. “All we know is ‘kill.’ That’s it. No more English. Switzerland. That’s all we know is ‘kill.’ Kill, kill, kill. That’s our mentality. That’s how we have to be the rest of the season — not taking Toronto for granted, not taking Cleveland for granted. No days off. We should be undefeated right now.”
Bad grammar and cliched European references aside, Glen Davis makes sense. He claims the Celtics will take seriously the weaker teams on their schedule. We’ll see. What I do know for sure, a talkative Glen Davis is gold for bloggers. Pure gold.
While it’s hard to imagine a team overlooking the mighty Celtics, the Cavs have a giant distraction looming: LeBron James returns to Cleveland Thursday night. Advantage Boston.
On Page 2, Rondo has high praise for Avery Bradley’s defense.
“You try not to put too much in his head,” said Rondo. “You let him learn for himself, or he can ask Nate [Robinson] or coach Rivers. He has guys in front of him who are willing to teach him [and] help him learn the game.”
And Rondo can vouch for the NBA-ready defense that Rivers had raved about.
“He’s way past me,” said Rondo. “Defensively, he’s way past me now, probably, as far as the pick-and-roll. He’s very physical… He’s a physical presence. He gets into you on picks, he gets up into you, defensively, and he turns you, makes you dribble with your back towards the basket.”
ESPN Boston – Bradley working overtime
I’m excited to see Bradley on the court, pressuring the ball. It’s this type of defensive aggression that will earn him minutes. If Eddie House was capable of running bringing up the ball for the second unit offense, I’m sure Bradley can do it.
The rest of the links:
Globe – Davis rolling with punches | Herald – Keep it simple BBD | ESPN Boston – Injuries force Cs to alter plans | Maine Mondays | Cs #3 in power rankings | Shaq’s unexcused absence | WEEI – Time for Plan B | CSNNE – Celtics prepare for Cavs athletic bigs |
Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
Even though the Celtics have won three straight games, the effects of all the ailments can be seen in the second unit. In the win over Toronto, the starters quickly piled up a double-digit lead, but a depleted second team gave it back in the second quarter. When the starters stretched the lead back in the second half, the second unit let the Raptors chip away again.
“It’s unfair, but let’s be unfair for a second,’’ Rivers said. “The first and third quarter, they scored 35 points on our starters. And you can make that case, especially in the third quarter because they played the whole third quarter. The other two quarters were 32 and 34, and that’s our second unit. So that was the only thing I talked about after the game.’’
Similar to last year, injuries have forced players to take on different roles. A year ago, Tony Allen went from second-team defensive stopper to spot-starting for Rondo. This season, Nate Robinson has gone back and forth from starting to backup point guard. Rivers went in with the idea of using Jermaine O’Neal as his starting center, but O’Neal started only the five games that Shaquille O’Neal missed because of his own knee injury.
Globe – Injury problems a familiar blast from past
With two of the top 10 rotation guys out (Delonte West, Jermaine O’Neal – we won’t count Perk until February), it’s not surprising to see bench productivity waning. The problem is… when the productivity of the second unit decreases, Doc is forced to increase the minutes of his starters. Something no one wants to see (especially John).
Delonte’s versatility was going to allow Doc to reduce the minutes of both Rondo and Ray Allen – two guys averaging more than 40 mpg. Now he’ll have to lean on Von Wafer and Avery Bradley, in spots. We also hope Jermaine O’Neal returns before Semih Erden’s shoulder falls apart.
While the situation isn’t dire, it’s clearly not desirable.
On Page 2, the controversial bump between LeBron James and Erik Spoelstra.
Did a frustrated LeBron James go out of his way to bump Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra during the Heat’s loss to Dallas Mavericks Saturday night?
Or did a ticked-off Spoelstra deliberately try to walk through the King — sending a message both to his unhappy superstar and disappointing 9-8 team?
The third quarter incident happens after another defensive breakdown by the Heat. Spoelstra comes on to the court. James walks toward the bench. Neither man tries to avoid the other. They bump. Hard.
Maybe it’s a deliberate push by one, the other, or both. Or maybe they’re both so frustrated they’re not paying attention. Either way, the Heat called a players-only meeting after the loss.
All together now… Bahahahahahahaha!
The rest of the links:
Herald – Cs strength is inside | ESPN Boston – Avery Bradley keeps positive attitude | Taunton Gazette – Shaq has been entertaining and effective | Globe – Aiming to comfort sick kids, Boston pros make rounds |
The News & Observer has obtained multiple letters related to the NCAA investigation of UNC football including a letter from Dick Baddour to agent-like creature Chris Hawkins telling him to stay away from UNC and its athletes. The PDFs of the letters can be found here. For the most part the letters to the NCAA reporting violations are heavily redacted and do not tell you much outside of the names of persons providing impermissible benefits. The N&O provides this summary of the names named.
The documents show that agent-related benefits were provided by:
• Chris Hawkins, a former UNC football player who the documents say is considered a “runner” for agents or advisers. A runner is someone who befriends players and helps recruit them for others.
Hawkins is mentioned in three of the violation letters to the NCAA as providing “minimal” benefits, though a separate document describes more extensive involvement.
Separately, the documents include a letter from UNC athletic director Dick Baddour that says UNC is “taking formal action to disassociate” Hawkins from the program, banning him from contact with any athletes for five years.
Hawkins said in an interview that he was only trying to help friends and players who were being bombarded by agents and others, and that he was not paid by anyone to secure players.
• Todd Stewart, who is believed to be from Washington D.C.
Stewart is described in one of the NCAA violation letters as a prospective agent because of “self-identified ties with a financial advising firm.”
The documents say that Stewart booked and paid for hotel rooms. After a lengthy section that is blanked out, the documents say “it has been determined that these costs” were paid by Stewart.
Stewart could not be reached on Friday. Stewart has told ESPN that he was contacted by the NCAA, and he acknowledged that he was at a party with players in South Florida this year.
“There were parties and they were popular,” Stewart told ESPN. “But it wasn’t some conspiracy to get players for sports agents.”
It’s not clear if he was asked whether he provided benefits to players.
• Michael Katz, director of marketing and client services for Rosenhaus Sports, which has the largest number of NFL clients.
Two of the NCAA violation letters say Katz provided wristbands that granted access to a pool party. The documents do not say more about that, including specifically whether that action triggers a violation. Previous reports have shown Austin and Little at a South Florida pool party.
Katz could not immediately be reached. The agency where he works is owned by brothers Drew and Jason Rosenhaus. Jason Rosenhaus, the vice chairman of the agency, took information from a reporter on the situation Friday, but declined to comment.
We already knew about Chris Hawkins and there was also some inkling that Drew Rosenhaus might be involved, in this case it was someone working at his firm. I had not heard Todd Stewart’s name before. Since it was concluded that none of the benefits in question came from either John Blake or Gary Wichard(save Marvin Austin’s case) and Hawkins name was already out there as part of Kendric Burney’s case we sort of knew there would be others involved. Well, here they are. Anyone else surprised none of these guys are actual agents and two of them are in agent-like creature territory?
Since I lack supernatural powers and I am not able to tell you what is in the redacted section the letters honestly do not say much. I am sure some intrepid ABCers will have it all pieced together along with proof these people also faked the moon landing. There is apparently a current implication tied to Baddours disassociation letter to Hawkins. I also saw some traffic on Twitter about Hawkins possible being friends with freshman basketball player Reggie Bullock. Both Hawkins and Bullock are from Kinston which makes them knowing each other likely but does not mean Bullock is guilty of anything. I will let you imagine how that will play in ABC World.
About the only other thing I can really parse from this is noting that Hawkins apparently provided benefits to three different Tar Heels and they were described as minimal(assuming three letters means three different players.) We knew about Burney. Who were the other two? Is Michael McAdoo one of them? Charles Brown was always rumored to be involved with Hawkins but his case appears to be tied to the academic prong. Did Hawkins provide minimal benefits to the other three NCAA violators as a part of their total? Given the benefits described for Quinn and Little I am thinking there must be more out there it either has not been released or is more on the NCAA side of things. These letters all came from UNC to the NCAA which makes them fair game for public release.
Anyway, the fact this got released late on Friday means it will get swallowed up in the games this weekend. Someone in Chapel Hill finally got a clue about how the news cycle works.
Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump. The Boston Celtics opted to not have a Magnetic Resonance Imaging test…
RedsArmy.com – The Voice Of Celtics Fans