The Cowboys' Draft.

I still haven't watched the majority of the Draft.  I will, but wanted to go ahead and post some thoughts.

Here's the deal.  From everything I've heard, the Cowboys' scouting department loved Shariff Floyd.  He fell to them at 18.  A good organization snaps him up.  If you instead get bowled over by an offer (like SF at 31 and their 2014 R1 pick), you do it.  If, however, you get a ho-hum offer, you turn it down and take the player.  The draft pick value chart is not hard and fast, but it agrees with me in this case that you didn't get value.  Then, at 31, you pick a player you could have picked later, again giving up value.  If you constantly spend your $1 on someone with an $.80 value, eventually you can't make that up, no matter how well your scouting department does.  If your scouting department ALSO struggles (and/or you ignore their advice), you're in too deep of a hole to recover.

We've all seen the Mel Kiper criticisms.  But, what he lacks in an eye for talent (he seems to just filter information instead of making his own judgments, although he does this incredibly well), he makes up for by understanding how to work a draft.  If you can get the Honey Badger in the 3rd round, you CAN'T take him in the 1st, no matter how much you love him, Jon Gruden.  It doesn't matter how good he is, because now you're using your 3rd round pick on someone other than him instead of your 1st round pick on someone other than him.

NBA Playoffs

I think the Lakers can beat the Spurs, but won't.  I think the Spurs can beat the Heat, but won't have the chance.  I think the Pacers have the best chance of beating the Heat.  But, realistically, I think the Heat are about a 9-1 favorite to win it all.  Just sayin'.

Crown Rule

The NFL passed a new rule today.  You're not allowed to lower your head to hit someone with the top of your head.  This rule makes no fucking difference, yet Emmitt Smith, Matt Forte, and others seem to be making a big deal about it.  I don't like the pussification of football either, but nobody does/should use the top of their fucking head anyways.  Fucking dumb.

Close

We're close to a playoff spot.  Good win tonight in ATL.  This team is currently about the 6th best in the West, and a top 10 team overall.  So, anyone that says they suck is wrong, in my humble opinion.

Mike James couldn't get a job in the NBA and is now starting for us.  Delonte can't get a job in the NBA and would be starting for us if he hadn't had problems.

There is a finer line in the NBA than you may think.

I want Dwight.  I don't want Dwight.  We need Dwight.  Ugh.  Why couldn't we have re-signed Tyson?

Mavs

Another frustrating loss today.  OKC wins by 6, but it was close throughout.  Dirk didn't get a single shot in the 4Q.  We got out-rebounded and out-free-throwed (despite going 16/16).  The intensity was good.  Having Matrix there would have been nice.  This team is not as far as people think.  Charles Barkley said even with Dwight, we wouldn't be top 3 in the West.  That's silly.  If the plan had worked, and we had Deron and Dwight, we'd be the best in the West.  Unfortunately, I don't see that kind of upgrade coming down the pipe.  So, we have to get next year's Lillard in the draft (not likely).  Very frustrating.

KD and Westbrook are both amazing.

The whole reason I made the trip to SA was to see Tim Duncan, and it was worth it.  He played fantastically.  And, as always, he made it look easy.  He's not as graceful as he once was, but he's still awesome.

Seeing Kobe, Dirk, Duncan, KD, and Westbrook and their ability to do these incredible things makes me glad to be a basketball fan.  And, to be honest, makes me happy to be an NBA fan.

San Antonio

I drove down to SA and back to watch the Mavs on Thursday.  Traffic in Austin at 2:30pm and 11:30pm was dumb.  Losing by 1 was dumb.  But, I'm glad I went.  Mavs win over Cleveland on Friday was pretty cool.  OKC today is pretty important.  I still can't see us making the playoffs, but it should be fun to watch.

I was thinking last night that the tourney was going to come down to KU, Duke, IU, and maybe L'ville.  Then, I see that those are four of the top five seeds according to projections.  Awesome.  Looks like I'll be going chalk.

Played live poker again Friday night.  Won $21.  I'm the man.

The picture that currently resides on the top of this page is from my wedding day.  We celebrated our 2nd anniversary this weekend.  I'm a lucky dude.

Update

I knew it had been a long time, but I didn't know it had been over a month.

The Mavericks are 30-33 and playing well.  They've got 19 games left.  I think it will be difficult but doable to go 11-8 and end the season at .500.  In some years, that'll get you in the playoffs.  But, realistically, this year, they probably need to get to 45 wins which means 15-4 down the stretch, which I can't see happening.  Sucks.  I'm an NBA nut, so I'm enthralled either way.  Cutting DJ was an interesting move.  In the summer league last year, he was definitely the focus.  I think he was a problem behind the scenes, and you can't be that if you're not a star on the court.  

Free agency began in the NFL today.  I've got plenty of thoughts, but will be most interested to see where Welker ends up.  Maybe, as I start to look at the draft I'll do some sort of post about free agency. 

I have thoughts like that all the time - maybe I'll do suchandsuch post.  It happened constantly at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston March 1 and 2.  It was my second Sloan.  It's a meeting of sports dorks, mostly kids going for MBAs and people already in the industry.  It's not really for fanboys like me, but I enjoy it.  

I got to play live poker Saturday and yesterday, which is a rarity.  I won the home game I play monthly on Saturday, which was nice.  I played well, ran better, and won.  It felt really good.  I went up to Winstar and played yesterday.  I made 165 playing 1/2 waiting for the tourney.  As expected, the tourney did not have a good structure, but at 100+15, it's still good value.  The same guy beat me three times (KJ > AK aipf, 77 limps my A5 bb gets in on an AT9 flop hits a 7, then KJ > A9 to knock me out) to send me out in 8th when 6 of the 59 runners got paid.  Frustrating, but it was nice to play some.  

Tiger won this weekend.  Masters is coming in April.  Also, the draft is in April.  NBA playoffs.  French Open at the end of the month.  March Madness starts next week.  Lots on the sports calendar.

More coming soon.