Fri, Nov 14 6:29 PM PST I made the following trade. It went through Sun, Nov 16, 6:50 PM PST. Looking at the 2009 stats it looks close.  (It did not look as close until Dirk had that crazy game against the Knicks last night which unfortunately did not count for my team).

But looking at the 2009 projections it looks better.

My reasoning for the trade is that Dirk Nowitski is a 1st to 2nd round player and his average ESPN draft position was 5th.  O.J. Mayo was not even in the ESPN 2009 projections but probably should be a 6th to 8th round player.  His average ESPN draft position is 102nd, probably because he was mistakenly left off the projections.  Because of that mistake and my high waiver order (2nd) I was able to pick Mayo as the first player off waivers and he has been a pleasant surprise as one of the hottest players in the past week.

In theory I always prefer trading quantity for quality, hot for cold, and rookies for veterans.  This trade meets all three of those criteria but still I can’t help but wonder if O.J. Mayo is going to be amazing.  After all I remember reading about him before he entered his senior year in high school.

Now if I could just trade McGrady for Bosh…

Categories: Basketball
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Jose Calderon is my new favorite player.  Sure he participated in the racist taunting of Chinese people.  But I will forgive him because he plays so well and is on both of my fantasy basketball teams .  When someone tries to intimidate my fav player, like KG did, well that someone goes to my do not like list, even if that someone happens to be my wife’s favorite player because she thinks he’s funny.

Tags: celtics,raptors
Categories: Basketball
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Thu, Nov 6, 7:10 PM PDT I made the following trade. It went through Sat, Nov 8, 7:32 PM PST. Looking at the 2009 stats it does not look great.

But looking at the 2009 projections it looks fantastic.

My reasoning for the trade is that Elton Brand is a 2nd round player while Aldridge is a 9th round player and Gasol is a bench player. However Brand has been struggling, apparently because he keeps getting double-teamed since the rest of his team is so weak. Brand also did not play most of last season so the jury is still out on how effective he will be.  Philadelphia did give him a ton of money to be a top player and lots of prognosticators were giddy about Philadelphia’s prospects. Aldridge is up and coming and looking stronger every game this season. Maybe he will blossom this season like a young Chris Bosh.

Immediately after this trade I made another trade at Thu, Nov 6, 9:08 PM PDT.  It went through Sat, Nov 8, 9:29 PM PST. Looking at the 2009 stats it looks quite favorable for me.

It does not look as good based on the 2009 projections.

My reasoning for the trade is that while Troy Murphy is a solid player, a 9th round pick, Tracy McGrady could be a top 50 player, a 4th to 5th round pick.  He is a high risk, high reward play because of his injury history.  It does not help my confidence in this trade that he went 1/11 in his latest game.  But in the end, I think that Troy Murphy was not too big of a price to pay.

Now if only I could get Chris Bosh…

Categories: Basketball
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This is my first Fantasy Basketball team, named the Funky Kimchees, the same name I have used for all my Fantasy Baseball teams.

After the draft I was immediately fifth, the other four teams being the other teams that had live drafted while the teams below were the ones that the computer had drafted for them.  Today I moved up to third but I think I will have a hard time winning this league.

Looking over the draft I observed many mistakes.

1. I should have prepared a little better by planning what I would pick each round.  Whenever my pick came up I found myself scrambling.
2. I wish I had better numbers to analyze and use for creating formulas.  I will next season.
3. I did not like having the number 9 pick.  I was hoping to have a top 4 pick so I could get Chris Paul.

Here is my analysis of my draft.

Rounds 1 and 2
I had planned on taking Dwight Howard at #9 and then Deron Williams at #12.  But Deron Williams went at #8.  I then opted to take Dwayne Wade because I needed his assists and three pointers.  Then I made the possible mistake of taking Danny Granger, whom I have a man crush on.  Maybe I should have taken Elton Brand or Josh Smith.

Rounds 3 and 4
I knew entering this draft that I would take Jose Calderon and I did as my number three pick.  I think Jose Calderon could end up as the 2nd best point guard.  Then i could not decide between Chris Bosh and Joe Johnson.  Remembering how Joe Johnson destroyed the Celtics and how he can do everything including assists, I took him.

Rounds 5 and 6
I took last year’s rookie sensation Al Horford and so far he has been disappointing.   I then took Andris Biedrins who has been great.  But I wonder if it would have been better if I had taken Ron Artest or Brandon Roy or Stephen Jackson instead of these two.

Rounds 7 and 8
I mistakenly miscalculated and thought I would be getting Brandon Roy and Stephen Jackson.  But they were taken immediately before me.  Panicking I picked Troy Murphy and LaMarcus Aldridge.  Murphy looks alright but Aldridge is underwhelming.  I wish I had taken Tracy McGrady, I had no idea he was still available.

Rounds 9 and 10
I was looking for point guards but nothing seemed appealing so I ended up picking big guys again, Tyson Chandler and Al Harrington.  Al Harrington was appealing because he shoots the three but watching him tonight sit on the pine I realize Nelson hates him.  I should have taken T.J. Ford, when healthy he is good.  Zach Randolph also was appealing though I was concerned about what was going on with the Knicks.

Rounds 11, 12 and 13
Here I picked up Randy Foye, Marc Gasol, and Anthony Carter.  Randy Foye because he is an up and coming point guard in Minnesota.  Marc Gasol because he had been hot and I was hoping to put him in the starting lineup for the last week in place of Tyson Chandler though it turned out I could not do that.  Now he is trade bait or I will cut him.  Anthony Carter was another player who had been red hot and who I was hoping to put in my starting lineup.  He is another guy I will cut since Billups is coming on board on Friday.

Overall an interesting draft.  I could have done better but I am hopeful I will still win this league.

Tags: raptors
Categories: Basketball
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It seems like there are so many photos of Yao being dunked on so it’s nice to see a photo of Yao dunking over a superstar.

Tags: celtics
Categories: Basketball
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I am happy for the Big Three, aka GPA, especially Ray Allen seated below with his son.

I am also happy for Leon Powe, below holding up his son. His story is truly amazing, growing up poor, sometimes homeless.

One thing I really like about the Big Three is that they genuinely seem to like each other. They support each other and are committed to winning together as a team. This photo illustrates that.

Here are a few more. Notice something similar in each one?

If you noticed the Asian dude behind the big three in every photo you win the prize! That dude is Bryan Doo, the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Boston Celtics. We both attended Highrock Church and even went on a short-term missions trip together. I always enjoy seeing him behind the bench whenever I watch a Celtics game. In yesterday’s post game celebrations I saw Bryan talking with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. Congratulations to Bryan as well!

Tags: celtics,highrock
Categories: Basketball
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This has been the best NBA playoffs ever. Sure my Raptors got bounced right away. Sure I wanted to see Canadian Steve Nash or good guy Chris Paul in the finals, even if it would be at the expense of my old favorites, the Spurs. Sure my favorite player, Dwight Howard, lost to the Piston punks. But the level of competitiveness and play has been fantastic.

And now we get the dream finals, Boston Celtics vs. Los Angeles Lakers. On one side I dislike the Lakers because Kobe Bryant is the anti-MJ. On the other side it’s hard not to cheer for the possessed Kevin Garnett, the “black Larry Bird” (my friend coined that) Paul Pierce, and the smooth shooting “Jesus Shuttlesworth” Ray Allen (“Save us Jesus! Save us!” - He Got Game). Plus who can’t like Leon Powe, he’s from my neighborhood, Oakland (okay it’s true, I’ve only been here nine months, but I’m feeling acclimated).

I have seen so many games but last night was date night so I thought I was going to miss much of the epic Game 4. It turned out, not by plan, that the restaurant we went to, Thai Basil, had the game on and I had a nice seat to watch the action while engaging in stimulating conversation with my wife.

I commented to the wife that the Lakers were building a big lead but they always do that in the first quarter. By the time we left though the lead was huge. When we got home we started putting the kids to bed. I was in charge of taking care of Victoria so I turned on the game. I watched the beginning of the third quarter and saw the Celtics chop the Lakers’ lead down to 12 but then saw it go back up to 20. I then turned off the TV, figuring the game was over and that maybe the Lakers would win the series (my prediction though obviously not my desire).

Later as I sat in Dylan’s bedroom waiting for Dylan to fall asleep I saw on Yahoo! sports that the Celtics were only four points behind! Then I saw that they were up by four points. I then said “Sorry Dylan, I’ve got to go” and ran downstairs to watch the last two minutes. With about half a minute left in the game I heard Dylan call for me and I responded “I’ll be up soon.” With a few seconds left in the game I went back upstairs, checked that Dylan was asleep, went back down and watched an hour of press conferences and highlights while working on my computer.

By the way I can’t believe during Kobe’s press conference that he said he was going to drink lots of beer, wine and twenty shots. Not only does the man have anger issues, is an alleged rapist and a horrible teammate, he’s now admitting he’s a borderline alcoholic.

Bill Simmons has a fantastic diary of The Comeback Game. It’s entertaining reading how upset he is at the beginning, elated in the middle and exhausted at the end. I can’t believe I missed the biggest comeback in NBA history.

As Bill Simmons said:

The Kobe-MJ thing … done. Over. Jordan never would have let that happen in the Finals. Ever. Under any circumstances. Nobody is ever allowed to bring this up again.

Tags: celtics,Dylan,Victoria
Categories: Basketball
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Apparently the “Hockey Night in Canada” theme song may have been played for the last time. This was the theme song of mine and most Canadian’s youths. Here is a YouTube video of two toddlers dancing to the song.

This reminds me of when the NBA switched from NBC to ABC and we no longer could hear the great NBA theme song by John Tesh.

Tags: youtube
Categories: Basketball, Hockey
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Dwayne Wade gives bikes and cars away in commercials and in real life he gives his mom a church.

It is pretty amazing that Dwayne Wade was able to accomplish anything, let alone become an NBA superstar, considering his background. Daily wondering if your mom is dead because of a drug overdose is not the recipe for success

Categories: Basketball, Christianity
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Recently Dylan has been asking to play basketball. When he first asked I was excited with visions of my boys playing in the NBA.

But what we end up playing is not basketball. The boys run around the court, sometimes with the ball, sometimes without. They bring all their stuffed animals and place them around the court. Dylan likes to bat the ball with Mr. Frog. Sometimes they play hide and seek which is quite comical since there is nowhere to hide, they hide behind poles or just crouch on the grass beside the court. Sometimes the boys pass the ball to each other.

Sometimes I bring Victoria. I just hold her the whole time and she just watches. Victoria likes being outside and seeing this brand new world. Sometimes I try to shoot the basketball while holding her and once I kind of hurt my hand doing it. I realized I really need to use my legs when I’m holding a baby with one arm.

Isaac is so small compared to the ball that sometimes when he tries to get the ball he lands on top of it and then rolls forward, coming very close to hitting his head on the court. Isaac seems to have a little more affection for the ball while Dylan prefers just running around and trying to make up games.

One of the games Dylan made up is that one person stands in the middle of the court. The other two stand on the side lines and start cheering. For example if it’s Dylan in the middle then Isaac and I would yell “Go Dylan Go! Go Dylan Go!” repeatedly until Dylan kicks the ball. Then we’re supposed to excitedly cheer “Yeah!” If we don’t Dylan reminds us we’re playing the game wrong.

Categories: Basketball, Dylan, Isaac, Victoria
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