Matthew Dellavedova reportedly seeking $4 million per year deal
July 16, 2015Top 5 Offseason Stories: The Cincinnati Bengals
July 16, 2015Happy Thursday, Blawg Pound! After a couple of weeks on the road for work, I’m coming to you from the friendly confines of Northeast Ohio. Two weeks ago, I was in my hotel room on the north side of Columbus, unable to pick up STO to watch the Indians. Last week, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, I was able to watch not one but TWO Indians games from the comfort of my hotel room. What a world!
I guess I’ll start with a quick note about my Dominican trip. It was my first trip outside of the U.S. (minus a brief weekend trip to Canada). While I spent most of the time, well, working, I did get a chance to ride around the city and sample a lot of the local cuisine (some of which, I’m regretting this week). Overall, though, it was really neat to try the freshest juices you’ll ever drink, ten different ways of eating plantains, and sample some great atmosphere and entertainment at authentic restaurants.
Let’s talk about one of our teams that currently has three Dominican players (Santana, Salazar, Ramirez) in the Indians. Between the Cavs intensity and travel for work, I just haven’t been as tuned in with the Indians as I always have been. I’m making it a resolution to change that in the second half. I’m going to get to some games. There’s no reason not to. Although unlikely, this team has at least a shot in a wide-open wild card race. Even if I’m not getting the pay-off this season, I am optimistic that this team is heading in the right direction for future seasons.
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Since my WWW brethren didn’t talk about it the last two days, I will. MLB deserves a lot of credit for revamping the Home Run Derby, and I considered it an overwhelming success. By adding a clock and therefore eliminating the selectivity of taking an excessive amount of pitches, the fans got more swings and more homers. It seems like every matchup went down to the wire in regulation or went to extra time. We saw some really neat matchups, mixing young and old along with prolific home run hitters and others that don’t come to mind when first asked about power hitters. Others mentioned it, but I’d love for the Slam Dunk Contest to get the same breath of fresh air, though I’m not sure what can be done. Should we add the Slamball trampolines? Somehow, I don’t think the owners or the players’ association would allow it.
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We all know NBA contracts are skyrocketing. I continue to see a lot of people asking the either/or question with J.R. Smith and Matthew Dellavedova for the Cavaliers this offseason. I will continue to say that until proven otherwise, I don’t think Dan Gilbert (and LeBron James) will allow it to be an either/or situation to lose a key piece of the team, even if it’s going to cost them four or five times whatever they’re actually paying the player. Is Matthew Dellavedova worth four million per season? Perhaps not, but with the cap exploding, you have to ask the question of if he was worth between $2.5 and 3 million under last season’s cap rules. Given that he was the second best player in the two games that the Cavaliers won in the NBA Finals, I would say he is. Delly can knock down the open three (most of the time), and he’s a strong, young defender that can handle the ball. All of that is still very valuable, even with the addition of Mo Williams. J.R. doesn’t seem to have much of a market right now, and James has indicated that he wants him back.
What does all of that mean? I think it means the Cavs will have a small, crowded, productive backcourt next season that may cause Iman Shumpert to shift down to the small forward position behind LeBron James to log some minutes.
Meanwhile, given the commissioner’s comments about teams losing money, Tom Ziller at SBNation warns us to start the NBA lockout countdown clock for Summer 2017.
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I don’t normally watch the ESPYs. In fact, I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve watched the ESPYs for more than five minutes. I mainly did it because of the several awards that both the Ohio State Buckeyes and LeBron were up for. I also found myself disagreeing with just about every single award they gave out (except the ones given to Devon and Leah Still, Lauren Hill, and Derek Jeter, off the top of my head). Despite LeBron’s performance in The Finals, I’m not sure he deserved the best championship performances over Madison Bumgarner, who won two games in the World Series and saved another on two days’ rest while allowing just one run in 21 innings. Recency bias at its finest was on display when the U.S. Women’s Soccer team won the best team over the Ohio State Buckeyes. The U.S. (as far as I know when it comes to soccer) was at least supposed to be in the conversation for going deep into the tournament. Ohio State was left for dead and a severe underdog in their final three games on their third quarterback in a sport where you don’t win when you lose your signal caller. Furthermore, I’m not sure how you shut out Cardale Jones in favor of Mo’ne Davis for breakout player. I won’t complain too much about Steve Kerr over Urban Meyer for best coaching performance, but I would’ve flipped it the other way of course. But, it isn’t the first time that ESPN has made me shake my head, and it certainly won’t be the last.
One of my favorite scribes, Ramzy Nasrallah at Eleven Warriors, talked about ESPN and how it does business, for better or worse.
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That’s all I have for you guys today. Make it a good one.
12 Comments
Although I despise all things State University of Ohio, I did get a chuckle out of this…
http://espn.go.com/blog/sec/post/_/id/103662/ohio-state-fans-show-up-at-sec-media-days-to-troll-alabama
Logan Stieber should have won best male collegiate athlete. 4x NCAA wrestling champ from tiny Monroeville, Ohio led Buckeyes to first team title in school history. Mariota’s team lost.
I’m not sure when people have to be nominated for these thing, and I don’t watch the ESPYs, but did Carli Lloyd get nominated for best championship performance? Because she should have, and she should have won it.
Best news of the day…
http://thebiglead.com/2015/07/16/colin-cowherd-leaving-espn-whats-next/
ESPN didn’t air the women’s world cup otherwise I’m sure you would have seen them get the attention they deserved.
Cya Delly it’s been fun!
That was great but…I knew there was something about you that just wasn’t right now I know! #Buckeyes
The Jenner presentation and speech was pretty great. I kept thinking that must be one of the hardest things to do in all of this, for her to go out in front of all of those athletes and their lukewarm, civil applause. Must be hard going forward knowing the sports world, from athletes to fans, is filled with jokes and hate.
Not sure how anyone can measure who is the “greatest” or most “courageous” or any superlative in the wide array of athletics—but make no mistake, she’s got courage.
If he was taking 4-5 others with him I’d be more excited. Btw if MLB wants to improve the All-Star experience they should ask that Chris Berman, new haircut aside, not cover the HR Derby anymore.
Kind of says something when Caitlyn Jenner is probably the realist person in that family doesn’t it? I kept an open mind but I was incredibly impressed by the speech. That being said it came after Lauren Hill’s award and I have to say Lauren’s mom was amazing. How she was able to stand up there and represent for her daughter was courageous.
Unless the Tribe is involved, I have zero interest in anything baseball.
I heard the new format was better but still only watched maybe a combined 10 minutes if that and I didn’t even see the finals. I watched highlights.