Month: August 2017

Patriots believe top draft pick Derek Rivers has season-ending injury, report says

The Patriots believe defensive end Derek Rivers, their top draft pick this year, will miss his rookie season with a knee injury, ESPN reported Friday.

NFL Media later reported an MRI showed Rivers tore the anterior cruciate ligament and sprained the lateral collateral ligament in his left knee.

The Dolphins quarterback jumped at the opportunity to help the team after Ryan Tannehill got hurt and recently told the MMQB that he didn’t prepare for the broadcasting job with Fox he had agreed to take before opting to resume his NFL career.

“I mean, I’d be lying if I said I did,” Cutler replied when asked if he practiced his television skills.

Then again, Cutler doesn’t exactly take his workout routine too seriously, either.

“The good thing is I play quarterback so I don’t have to be in that great cardiovascular shape,” Cutler said at his introductory press conference.

Cutler signed a one-year deal worth $10 million with Miami on Aug. 7 following a season-ending injury to Tannehill and made his preseason debut last week against the Ravens. The former Bears quarterback had retired in May, but was optimistic about joining the offense of Dolphins coach Adam Gase, who served as Cutler’s offensive coordinator in 2015 while they were both with the Bears.
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The Timberwolves roasted Dave Chappelle with a 4-year-old video of him bricking shots

Authentic Cory Harkey Jersey The Timberwolves are renovating the Target Center and crediting the rebuild to one man: Dave Chappelle.

Chappelle visited the arena is 2013 for a little shootaround, and evidently it didn’t go so well. We can assume this from the endless string of bricks captured in this video. Evidently the Timberwolves didn’t forget, because they waited four years to surface this video, just to tease Dave.

A look at the Nets’ Summer League starting lineup is eerily reminiscent of the roster that posted the NBA’s worst record last season.

Without Jeremy Lin, who missed the bulk of the season with a hamstring injury, Brooklyn’s young players finished 20-62 with their arena cheering opposing players more often than not.
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Still, Brooklyn saw growth last season, especially on defense. They went from dead last in defensive efficiency prior to the All-Star break to No. 8 after it, thanks in part to installing Caris LeVert and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson as the starting forwards.

Playoff contention is still miles away for the Nets, and they know it. Owner Mikhail Prokhorov learned that the hard way when he mortgaged Brooklyn’s future — or present — for an aging Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett years ago.

Kasim Reed, Atlanta’s mayor, attended that concert. Hayes attended a meeting days before to go over the mayor’s security detail, according to the suit. When Reed’s security detail asked to drop off the mayor at the media entrance, Parker denied the request. The lawsuit details that white guests had been granted those privileges.

In a meeting following the exchange, Parker explained that Reed thinks he’s a celebrity, according to the lawsuit. Parker went on to allegedly say that the mayor has this attitude that he deserves special privileges and that he thinks he owns the place.

I got Hill and Miles and this is now my favorite team.

Malcolm Smith Kids Jersey Kristian: Seattle went with a hometown pick at 15 and I went to Hampton. The only Pirates to play in the NBA were Devin Green and the honorable Bad Boy himself, Rick Mahorn. I didn’t have any Pirates to choose from.

So, I went with a hometown guy in Whitehead, who’s from Brooklyn. Nets coach Kenny Atkinson likened him to Marcus Smart, and if he reaches that level, there’s no way Whitehead’s not in my rotation.

Whitney: That’s fine with me. I got Hill and Miles and this is now my favorite team.

Kristian: We needed a big man, but I didn’t want someone who could only play one position. I wanted someone young who was developing a versatile skill set.

Lyles is a 21-years-old, 6’10 forward who can step out and shoot threes. He hasn’t played much, but there’s no reason to believe he can’t develop into a legitimate inside-outside offensive threat in the future.

Authentic Tim Williams Jersey Whitney: Like Kristian said, we got a good leader in George Hill to start, so we wanted to keep this team young. Little does Kristian know I’m getting all the guys with Indiana ties. Shoutout to Arsenal Tech in Indianapolis.

We played fast and loose with that mock draft — it was a thought exercise more than a 100 percent realistic simulation of what would happen. The reality is that expansion, while inevitable, has some enormous variables that need to be worked out before any expansion team bids can be taken seriously.

If the NBA opened up the league to expansion, it would find investors. The NBA is incredibly appealing from a business sense — it’s extremely popular in the United States and globally; it doesn’t have a huge issue like head injuries looming over it like football; it’s socially aware; and its demographics trend much younger than other sports.

Dwyane Wade, Bulls expected to reach buyout agreement ‘at some point in the next few months’

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Dwyane Wade’s homecoming may be cut short.

Wade and the Chicago Bulls are expected to reach a buyout agreement in the coming months, according to ESPN’s Nick Friedell, who writes that the 35-year-old guard isn’t long for the organization’s future.

Today, we are collectively freaking out over Kevin Durant, and Lil Dicky, a moderately famous rapper, having a civil conversation about a hot-button sports topic: LeBron James’ future. Just like us! Sometimes we talk about sports!!!

This is an extremely normal conversation that a million people have every single day, but obviously, it stands out because the two figures involved have a combined 16.9 million Twitter followers. (OK, yes, 16.6 million of those are Durant’s.)
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More and more, this is becoming the norm for Durant. He has been using his Twitter to interact with fans, sometimes even asking them questions or debating a topic they bring up. Durant is in a unique world of his own where people are probably tweet at him almost every minute of every day, but he can still use Twitter like a normal person. Let’s not freak out and make it into a bigger deal than we need to, otherwise you’ll scare other celebrities scared away from doing the same thing.

We took a look at some of the acquisitions the Clippers have made since Rivers became coach to see for ourselves.

June 28, 2017: Trade Chris Paul for Patrick Beverley, Sam Dekker, Montrezl Harrell, Darrun Hilliard, DeAndre Liggins, Lou Williams, Kyle Wiltjer, cash and a TPE.
Chris Paul made it clear he wanted to go to Houston and this move was more magic pulled off by Houston than Los Angeles, but Doc got plenty back in return. It will take time so see how this play out but it’s hard to imagine the Clippers being any better next season. Although, they may not be any worse either.

Eddie Lacy failing to stand out in crowded Seahawks backfield

The Seattle Seahawks made it clear in the offseason that they wanted to beef up their running game. Injuries and a poor offensive line made for an ineffective ground game last season, so Seattle signed Eddie Lacy, hoping the free agent would be part of the solution. Through two preseason games, however, Lacy is starting to look like the odd man out.

Lacy was already running behind Thomas Rawls, who’s been practicing exclusively with the first team for most of training camp. In the Seahawks’ first preseason game against the Los Angeles Chargers, Lacy played with the second team and had a middling stat line of four carries for 10 yards, getting stuffed at the goal line at one point.

The second preseason game, against the Minnesota Vikings, raised even more questions about Lacy’s spot on the team. Rawls sat out with a sore ankle and C.J. Prosise also missed the game, so Lacy got the start and an opportunity to pull ahead of seventh-round rookie Chris Carson. Instead, the opposite happened.

Lacy once again wasn’t too inspiring, rushing six times for 20 yards and looking like just a guy out there. Meanwhile, Carson got snaps with the first team and made the most of his chances, running with a purpose and aggression that Lacy simply hasn’t shown. Carson finished with 44 total yards on seven touches, showing that he’s not going away any time soon.

Now the Seahawks have some tough decisions to make about their backfield. Rawls appears set as the starter, while Prosise has a prominent role as the pass-catching specialist. Behind Lacy and Carson are Alex Collins and Mike Davis, with the latter two possibly fighting for one roster spot.
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Claude Giroux, Flyers look to put ‘bad season’ in rearview mirror

The month prior to the start of training camp finds Flyers captain Claude Giroux taking part in regular on-ice workouts with other local NHL players in his hometown of Ottawa, putting last season’s disappointment, and offseason trade rumors, behind him.
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After reaching the playoffs in Dave Hakstol’s first season as coach in 2015-16, the Flyers took a step back a year ago, missing a postseason berth by seven points.
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Shattenkirk, 28, has recorded four assists and averaged 20:03 of ice time through six games since being traded to Washington from St. Louis last month.

Sharks defenseman Brent Burns is putting together a goal-scoring campaign the NHL hasn’t seen in more than three decades.

With two goals in the Sharks’ 4-1 win Saturday over the Coyotes, Burns raised his season total to 27, putting him on pace to finish the season with 37. No defenseman has done that since Paul Coffey scored 48 goals with the Oilers in the 1985?86 season.

In this era of historically low scoring, Burns’ numbers would be impressive for even the top forwards in the NHL, let alone a 6-6, 230-pound defenseman who logs 24 minutes of ice time a night and spends a majority of his offensive zone time almost 60 feet away from the goal.

Here’s a breakdown of Burns’ season and career from a statistical perspective: After Team USA completed the group stage 0-3, not advancing to the next round, well, Kessel wasn’t going to sit idly by without letting his feelings be known.

The lessons the Red Sox can learn from the Pablo Sandoval disaster

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Raise a glass to Adrian Beltre, then. He’s one of the very best reasons to be a baseball fan, and he deserves to be celebrated for his 3,000 hits. One of these days, I’ll touch his head and let him know how much he’s meant to the sport. One of these days.

From 1998 to 2010, Beltre put up roughly 52 WAR. In his six seasons since then, he’s added another 38 WAR. Although he’s in his age-38 season, he was worth more than 6 WAR just last year, and projection systems like ZIPS and Steamer forecasted another 3 to 4 in 2017. (Beltre missed nearly two months to start the season with a calf injury, which is a real risk of age, but he’s been great since returning and should still reach those projections.) If Beltre sticks around another four seasons or so (through age 41), he should be able to creep his second-career WAR total into the mid-to-high 40s.

While I’d give him almost no chance of playing at a high level until he’s 41, what he’s already done is amazing, and he’s in. He’s a clear Hall of Famer.

This is the start of Beltre’s Hall of Fame career, really. He redefined himself as a high-average hitter. He moved from the pitcher’s paradises of Dodger Stadium and Safeco Field to Fenway Park, and he was rejuvenated. He made his first All-Star team and led the league with 49 doubles.

But there was a pattern. The year before he was scheduled to be a free agent, he had a monster season. From the article linked above:

Limited Mens Mike Singletary Jersey I think of the early Seattle Beltre, just coming off his huge year with the Dodgers. He was a true dog in Seattle—content, lazy, distant. Ask him, and he’ll tell you it was the NL-AL adjustment. Baloney. He made the money, and he coasted.
Verdict: Not a Hall of Famer yet. Not really close.

Dodgers vs. Diamondbacks odds 2017: Los Angeles a road favorite in Tuesday opener

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The Los Angeles Dodgers are a staggering 44-7 over their last 51 games, including an 18-3 record so far in the second half. The seemingly unstoppable Dodgers will continue their march toward the playoffs with a three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks starting this Tuesday night.

When Seth came back to his seat, he was crying. And then Tim hit the homer. I started crying, too. How does that happen? I think God brought Seth and Tim together.
Tebow’s stint in baseball gets maligned by some and over-analyzed by others, but at the end of the day when moments like this happen, can you really be cynical about it?

Jacquies Smith Authentic Jersey Los Angeles is a -125 road favorite in Arizona at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. Kenta Maeda will get the road start for the Dodgers, facing Zack Godley and the Diamondbacks as +105 home underdogs.

So hey … even when you’re an All-Star, there’s room for improvement somewhere. And it’s very cool to see Betts pursuing a career in the skies as well as on the baseball diamond.

Mariners fans noticed. And they were too busy freaking out about the Cruz deal to notice. Look at them tearing each other apart! There were a few posts about Slocumb (with cameo appearances from a teenaged Dave Cameron sprinkled throughout), but everyone was mostly concerned with the top prospect in the system being traded for two middle relievers.

They weren’t wrong. While Cruz was more mercurial than expected, he was still a solid player for years. Timlin and Spoljaric left in free agency after the 1998 season, and only Timlin was above-average, so it wasn’t exactly a good trade. It just wasn’t one of the worst in history like the other one.

Rams expect Sammy Watkins to play against Raiders

Sammy Watkins is making himself at home in Los Angeles.

Rams coach Sean McVay on Monday said the team has started to integrate the newly acquired wide receiver into its offense and is hoping he will be comfortable with the plays in time for the regular-season opener Sept. 10 against the Colts.

“The level of urgency is just a little bit higher. And you’ve just got to be mindful of the progression with him, where he might have to take a little bit extra time,” McVay said, via the team’s website. “And just like you teach all of these guys, there’s a foundation that you have to start with, and then our concepts and our offense kind of builds off one another where we try to make sure that there’s a rhyme and a reason.

“So he’s going to start from behind. It’ll take him a while. But our goal — if we’re intentional about it, and that’s the plan — is for him to be up to speed and kind of have a good feel for the entire offense by the time the regular season rolls around.”

Reid said he spoke with Kaepernick on Sunday, the day after the horror of Charlottesville.

“It’s becoming more apparent for people to see the issues that we’re talking about, especially in the way that it happened in Charlottesville,” Reid said. “We’re just hoping that if we keep talking about it … because a lot of people just want things to blow over. ‘Oh, that’s an isolated incident.’ It happens every day. And if we can keep talking about it, hopefully we can make this change. And it needs to stop being hopefully. It needs to happen. It needs to happen now.”

Every Browning version reads like this: The No. 34 overall pick in 1991 gave Gang Green fans much to boo about in ’92. Going 3-10 as a starter, he completed only 49.8 percent of his passes for seven touchdowns, 17 interceptions and a 55.7 rating that quickly showed he was not an answer. Coming from Johnny Unitas’ former school and going to Joe Namath’s former team didn’t help Nagle one bit.dolphins_081

Contreras’ response and sizable grin was enough to convince Borzello that the organization possessed a future star at catcher.

Do you love playing baseball, or do you just play baseball cause you’re good at it? Borzello recalled asking him in Mesa.

I love playing baseball. I love this game. love competing, Contreras said.

Mark Herzlich Womens Jersey Contreras’ response and sizable grin was enough to convince Borzello that the organization possessed a future star at catcher. Fast-forward more than 18 months and Contreras is on his way to becoming that star.
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Since his fellow backstop Miguel Montero was released amid his harsh comments towards Jake Arrieta’s slow delivery on June 28, Contreras has started 22 of the team’s last 25 games with a consistency and a maturity that has earned respect — and positive reviews — from Chicago’s pitchers.

Entering the season, starter Jon Lester lost his batterymate David Ross. The two paired up in Boston and Chicago (2013-16) before the veteran catcher retired with his second World Series ring and the Cubs’ first in 108 years. Hence, Borzello said Contreras needed to earn respect from the 12-year, major league southpaw.

It’s not just teams who need better closer options that could be interested in Britton, though. In this era of the super bullpen, teams such as the Dodgers, Cubs and Astros would benefit from adding Britton and creating a dynamic 1-2 punch in the latter innings. Worth noting that fellow Baltimore back-end ace Brad Brach could definitely be moved, too.

A day after Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper injured his left knee while slipping on a wet first base bag, agent Scott Boras said Major League Baseball needs to take steps to ensure that wet, slick bases aren’t a safety hazard for players during periods of inclement weather.

Harper stumbled over the bag in the first inning of Washington’s 3-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night. He avoided any ligament or tendon tears, but general manager Mike Rizzo said he suffered a significant bone bruise that will keep him out an undisclosed amount of time.