Breaking News - Nuggets Agree to Trade Iverson

Not that I’m a huge Nuggets fan (it has less to do with the Nuggets and more to do with the NBA in general), but this bears reporting.

The Denver Post is reporting that the Nuggets have agreed to a trade with the Pistons to send Allen Iverson to Detroit for Chauncey Billups. Also included in the deal is Antonio McDyess, but it appears his contract will be bought out so he won’t actually land on the Nuggets roster.

This is big news for the Denver sports scene… AI was going to be the one to break the first-round playoff jinx. Now he’s being sent off for a hometown boy. Now Iverson was never “the answer” for Denver, but is Chauncey really considered fair return value in this trade? I don’t ask that rhetorically, I really want to know. I’m admittedly far less versed in the NBA than the other 3 major sports.

Either way, that changes the landscape of the Nuggets season for sure. Plus now I’ve had to swap out the banner at the top of the blog to remove A.I. and include Carmelo.

EDIT - I’ve had all of 5 minutes to think about this, and I wonder if this isn’t just what the Nuggets need. Will this bring clarity? Give Carmelo one more shot to make this his team? If Melo can lead and Chancey can provide ‘veteran leadership’ (add that to the list of overrated sports cliches), perhaps this team can make a solid run. I wouldn’t put them in the Lakers/Spurs category yet, but at least a good 1st round playoff showing would be nice. Has anyone watched the first couple games? I’ve been otherwise engaged… how does this team look?

Hooray! NBA Offseason!

It is a ritual in the Sporting World According to Ian to celebrate the fateful day each year (during the first round of the playoffs) when the Denver Nuggets are eliminated from contention for the NBA title. It isn’t that I don’t like basketball, I love basketball, or that I don’t like the Nuggies, I’ve been a fan since they wore the silly 80’s skyline jersey. No, I celebrate the Nuggets’ removal from playoff contention because it means I don’t have to watch another lackadaisical effort by supposed superstars for the whole summer. No more pathetic (and OBVIOUSLY biased) officiating to make me upchuck my sub sandwich. No more showboating or bad coaching. Once the Nuggets are out, I get to ignore the disgusting celebration of all of these things for a few glorious months. No more wishing the NBA were more like college basketball… more like real basketball.

So to wrap up this, another failed season in Denver basketball history, I would like to announce a full-proof plan for making the Nuggets into title contenders for next year and years to come. Ready? GO!

Trade Carmello Anthony to the Houston Rockets for Shane Battier and a slew of first round draft picks over the next two years.

Trade Marcus Camby to anybody willing to take on his enormous salary and limited skill set. Trade him for lots of draft picks.

DO NOT trade the following players:

JR Smith, Allen Iverson, Nene Hilario, Linas Klieza, Eduardo Najera, Rocky (mascot),  and Kenyon Martin.

Anybody else can go. Even George Karl. He’s not a bad coach… but he’s not a good coach either. It’s a wash.

Use two tons of draft picks to take chances on high-potential, high-risk guards and forwards and one sure thing at center.

Start them all at various points next season.

Watch the magic happen.

Week in Review - April 14-20, 2008

This has turned out to be an eventful week on the Colorado Pro Sports scene. So here’s the recap…

We’ll start with the Rockies, who started the week in San Diego with another crushing defeat, this time at the hands of Randy Wolf and the Padres. Ubaldo melted down something fierce. The Rocks came back with a resounding 10-2 win on Wednesday, then on Thursday they played what amounts to an unscheduled doubleheader-and-a-half, an epic 22-inning, 6-hour-plus affair that finally ended in the wee hours of morning with Tulo doubling in the winner. So much has already been said about this game, so I recommend you just take a peek at the box score and enjoy. After the marathon game, the Rocks flew into Houston, and rather than come out flat, they dropped a couple solid wins on the Astros (with Kaz Matsui and his surgically repaired posterior in tow) including another solid outing by Aaron Cook. The week wrapped up with the Rockies dropping the final game of the set. This week, the Rocks come home for a pair of two-game sets (is there anything positive about that?) with the Phillies and the Cubs before hitting the road for a set of divisional matchups with the Dodgers and the Giants.

The Nuggets found themselves in the playoffs, and had just enough time to soak in the sweet smell of victory before getting doused with the stench of The Buss Family Fortune. Anything better than a 4-1 loss will be a miracle. Thankfully, the NBA draws the playoffs out for a solid 2 months, so we’ll get to enjoy this for a while.

And, of course, saving the best of the week until last…

The Avalanche dropped an OT contest to Minnesota, which left them trailing the series 2-1. But Game 4 brought the onslaught, and after a 5 goal lead, things got messy. The Wild showed who they really are as a team, and never recovered. The Avs went back to Minnesota, and despite being brutally outshot in the game, rode an unbelievable performance by Jose Theodore to what some might term a “stolen game” victory, and the series lead. The Avs never looked back, and the Pepsi Center was rocking in playoff form again for Game 6. The Avs played tight defense, Theodore kept up his high level of performance, and the boys in maroon skated to a 4-2 series victory. Now the Avalanche wait for the result of the Calgary/San Jose game (who knew it would go 7?) to determine their next opponent. Should the Sharks win, the Avs head off to Hockeytown to reignite a rivalry that has gone a bit chilly since the days of Roy and Osgood. Should the Flames pull off the upset, the seeds get flipped over and Colorado heads to Dallas to take on the Stars, the team that formerly called Minnesota home. Either way, goaltending performance will be key. And either way, there promises to be some good hockey in the Rocky Mountains again.

That’s it for this Week in Review. It’s supposed to be a nice week, so grab some Rockpile tickets and enjoy an evening at the ballpark this week.

Week in Review - April 7-13, 2008

Well let’s see…

The Avalanche split overtime wins with Minnesota, the first being a SuperJoe Miracle, the second being a well-fought game that would have been a gift win, but it’s still heartbreaking to lose in overtime. The series returns this week to Pepsi Center, and you can bet the hockey-loving hordes of Denver are clamoring for the return of playoff hockey.

The Rockies took the previous week’s beatdowns and passed on the favor to the Atlanta Braves, making little girls of them and getting the 3-game sweep, with contest number four being relegated to a random June off-day due to the April snow-dump. They travelled to PHX, hoping to reverse the bad fortunes of the opening series, and got pretty handily spanked for two games before finally unloading on the tail end of the Diamondbacks rotation, making them 1-5 against the division rivals, getting outscored 43-23 in the six games (that despite a 13-run Sunday). September will tell whether this matters, or if it’s just true early season jitters. This week, the Rox head to 3-game sets in San Diego (more 2007 missed-playoff angst to deal with) and Houston (hello, Kaz Matsui), before coming home for a pair of obnoxious 2-game mini-series with Philly and the Cubbies.

The Nuggets made the playoffs, missed the playoffs, made them again, missed them again, before finally possibly maybe if everything falls right landing in the driver’s seat for the eighth playoff seed, which earns them the privilege of playing Kobe and the Lakers in the first round. Hello, early exit. Good-bye, George Karl. I’d say we hardly knew ye, but let’s be real. We knew ye.

The Broncos argued about whether Cutler is a leader or a prick. Even John Elway got into the discussion. Draft day’s a-comin’.

That’s ProSportsColorado week in review. Stay tuned as Ian will likely talk some more hockey as the week goes on (Game 3 tonight - don’t miss it!), Dan will regale us with tales of baseball prognostication unlike any other, and I will probably cry like a little girl if the Avs lose this series.

In Case You Missed It…

The Nuggets played their best game of the season tonight when they stopped cold an eleven-game San Antonio Spurs winning streak to the tune of 109-96. The Nuggets’ bench provided the spark, and the starters played with consistency both offensively and defensively. Carmello Anthony and Allen Iverson played well, particularly in the second half, but it was the bench duo of Eduardo Najera and J. R. Smith that elevated the Nuggets both emotionally and on the scoreboard.

Now, when watching an NBA basketball game it is imperative that one either drink heavily or think fondly on professional sporting leagues with fair and competent officiating. I prefer the latter, so as the clock wound down in the fourth quarter my prevailing thought was that a Nuggets win over the Spurs would mean two Colorado teams beating the defending champions of their respective sports on consecutive nights in the Mile High City. A 1-0 win on the part of the resurgent Wojtek Wolski and the rest of the Colorado Avalanche versus the Anaheim Ducks Thursday night was the cake, and this high-energy, defensively sound win by the Nuggets tonight was a scrumptious light blue icing. Maybe the Colorado Curse has passed at last and Denver can support two championship-caliber teams for the first time since 1996-97.

Kenyan Martin is officially forgiven

You remember two years ago when this team imploded and right at the center was a guy name Kenyan throwing a fit.   Well I never quite got over that.  I hate it when any player places himself above the team.  I stopped hating him this year when he showed up to training camp with a body fat ratio of 13%, but I never really forgave him until last night. 

Duncan who, MVP what?  Kenyan held him to 7 for 20, stole the ball twice (including the crucial one late in the game), and 7 blocked shots.  The mighty Spurs were held to 77 points.  Before you tell me how typical this is, let me remind you, it was the Nugget’s defence.  I know, doesn’t make a lick of sense.  But it does beg a question for Popovich:

How do hold the Nugget offence to 80 points and lose?

Doldrums

If you’ve ever read The Phantom Toll Booth, then you’ll know exactly what I’m referring to when I call the Avalanche’s last two weeks a trip into the Doldrums. With the noteworthy exception of Wojtek Wolski, this team has sleepwalked through a crucial portion of its schedule. Normally an injury to a third line forward would mean relatively little to a hockey team with the offensive depth and explosive potential of the Avalanche, but the three games following Ian Laperriere’s injury saw this team score only a single goal in each while being outscored over that stretch 14-3. To be fair, the three games were against the resurgent Dallas Stars and two very strong defensive teams in the Minnesota Wild and the Calgary Flames. But over those three games and the three that followed (bringing us up to tonight’s game at San Jose) the Avalanche won just twice and beat only one team; the Northwest Division basement dwelling Edmonton Oiler. Against the Oilers (who we match up very well against as they play fast into and out of transition like we do and are effectively the Avs Lite) the Avalanche looked pretty good, passing well and racking up scoring chances. But in every other game in that six game stretch the Avs looked uninspired, even bored at times. They exhibited no passion offensively and no grit defensively. They allowed the opposing team to dominate virtually every phase of every game, and were especially week trying to hold either blue line. To state it simply, these Avalanche currently look like the team that stumbled through much of last season until Ian Laperriere, Paul Stastny, Peter Budaj, and Wojtek Wolski lit a fire under the whole unit’s collective ass and made a respectable run at the playoffs. The aforementioned players have still played remarkably well throughout this trip in and around (but certainly not out of) the Doldrums, but the rest of the team (most notably the first line and every defensive player save Brett Clark) has treated Laperriere’s absence as an excuse to take plays, shifts, and entire games off. It’s as though the Denver Nuggets’ lazy, undisciplined play has somehow become contagious.

Have no fear. Your faithful narrator is here with a fear-less prediction for the next few games. Unlike the Nuggets, the Avs’ bouts with lackadaisical play are not chronic. Think of it as the difference between a nasty case of the flu and life-threatening pneumonia. While the Nuggets are bed-ridden, pale, and barely alive (having yet to beat a team with winning record and getting spanked by ones that do,) the Avalanche will overcome this illness via stern coaching and veteran leadership. And my prediction is that they will take the next few games to do exactly that. So here we go…

11/30 @ San Jose

Tough game to win, but I expect the Avs to take it at least to overtime (probably a loss after that point though.) San Jose has been up and down this season, but in the Shark Tank they are still very difficult to beat. Expect the Avs to play a solid game offensively.

12/1 @ Los Angeles

After a tough loss the night before, expect the Avs to come out and dominate the Kings. This LA team is pretty bad; old and slow on defense (cough, cough… Rob Blake)  and just plain old at every other position. Should be a win.

 12/3 vs. San Jose

This will be another closely contested game, but playing at home the Avs will come out on top. We’ll call it a two goal win, but one might be an empty-netter.

12/5 @ Columbus

This Columbus team is underrated. It may be because they are outmatched within their own division (and will continue to be as the Red Wings fade and the Blackhawks and Predators rise,) but nobody takes this team very seriously. Let’s hope the Avalanche do or they could be in line for an upset. I’ll go ahead and call this one a win based on the simple fact that we are the better team, but the Avs need to score the first goal in this game and stay away from the kinds of sloppy defensive plays that give cheap goals to sub-par offensive units (I’m looking at you Karlis Skrastins.)

 12/7 vs. Flyers

Philadelphia is my under-the-radar pick to make a playoff run in the East and give the Senators fits in the Conference Championship Series. They are playing with confidence and toughness, and in hockey that combination is especially dangerous. Look for Philadelphia to come out hard, especially if the Avalanche makes a poor showing at Columbus. The Flyers are the kind of team that punishes their opponents for making mistakes, and the Avs make entirely too many of those. I’ll call it a win, but only because we’ve been playing so well at home.

 That’s 4-1 this week, which should be good enough to regain the division lead (maybe by midweek) but the Avs have got to earn it. Look for the game against Philly next Friday to be very important for both squads and hard-fought all the way through. And that’s why the Flyers @ Avalanche is Ian’s GAME OF THE WEEK. (That may look like a lot of uppercase nonsense, but if you turn your computer speakers up all the way while reading it James Earl Jones’ voice can be heard boldly announcing “GAME OF THE WEEK”.)

Ian out.

answering the bat-signal.

i’m here. i promise. long story short:
i used to have no work, and lots of time. now i have managed to pick up a fair bit of work, which results in no time.

somehow, i feel like i have the same amount of money though. that doesn’t seem right. in either case, my time to write has shrunk to a precious few minutes here and there. this bums me out somethin’ fierce.

so. call off the search hounds! here are some things that have happened since i last posted anything here of substance:

1. the rockies got swept in the world series. the biggest sting of this was my tickets to game 5. my brother flew out from the NW on an expensive last minute ticket to go to game 5. verdict on the rockies: it was a great second half run. they’re going to lose a couple guys, hang on to a couple guys, and we’ll see next season how much of it was adrenaline and how much was pure baseball– i think we’ll be happy with what we see, but if all the new baseball fans in town just expect to make the WS again by default, we’re going to see a lot of ex-baseball fans real quick. the real fans among us know how difficult it really is to be the last team standing in your league, which says a lot about what the rox did this past season. i’m excited for next year, if only because maybe there will be butts in the seats, and mid-week games against the pirates won’t feel like they forgot to open the doors at coors.

2. the broncos got bitch-slapped by brett favre, then annihilated by the lions (?!?!), then came back with a solid effort against k.c. it was nice to see them play well, to see cutler continue to mature (that TD pass to graham? elway like. i don’t care what anyone says, that was bad-ass). the defense… well, let’s just say the defense didn’t give up 40+. KC was just plain bad though. the thing is… don’t take this performance as a reason to think denver’s D can stop a REAL offense. because they can’t. when it mattered, they really didn’t stop KC. brody FRICKIN croyle took the team down the field without nary a sneeze, and it was as much the chiefs’ incompetence as denver’s play that stalled those drives. yes, dumervil is awesome, and yes, it’s nice to see some pressure on the qb. these things are marks of progress, but in reality, denver is still a middle of the pack team, and will be until some things change.

3. i got to see my first NHL game live and in person. i’ve been to a lot of hockey, just never at the nhl level. let me tell you… i totally appreciate the athletic ability these guys have to have. they are big, fast, precise… wow. for a fan of the game as much as of one team, that was a pleasure to watch. of course, it was their one home loss that i was at… but you take what you can get. and what i got was a well played game. i want to go again later in the season when the fans actually care and don’t have to be prodded to make noise every 43.8 seconds.

4. back to rockies news, in this instant baseball town (just add tulo!), tulo was brutally and mercilessly snubbed for rookie of the year. that was followed by an unceremonious brushing off of mr. hurdle for manager of the year. so when the east coast writers reveal their votes and rollins is handed the mvp over holliday next week, the cries of east-coast bias can rise again from the rocky mountains. shout it from the top of pikes peak, my friends: we don’t get no respect.

So. where do we go from here? I’m not sure. I’ll just keep being highly inconsistent with my capitalization, and will continue to pull for the local teams, even when the play calling in the redzone looks like something the local junior high flag team might have come up with. I’ll write when I can, and keep doing my best to make this a place for some fun interactions, and where opinions flow freely.

–jason.

ps: do you think the nuggets will be any good? i’m trying to care, i really am… it’s just that basketball ran me by years ago and it’s hard to bring back that lovin’ feeling, you know?

Colorado; Sporting Mecca

Denver, Colorado has long been a sports town. Ever since the Broncos joined the AFL’s Western Conference in 1960, Denver (and populated regions throughout the great expanses of Colorado) has taken pride in its teams and in representing those teams where it really matters; at live home games. Other big cities from coast to coast and up and down the Mississippi can dish out all the “cow town” crap they want but, when it comes right down to it, all that means is that we’re wild out here in the wide open west. Every Sunday during football season big cornfed honkies and scruffy mountain men and hardnosed city dwellers and blitzed college kids pack the stands of Mile High Stadium to represent a culture of oddly diverse (but always hardcore) fans united by the orange and blue. Because Denver is, first and foremost, a football town.

If cities could fall in love (which they can), Denver’s first was the Broncos. (more…)

The Marcus Camby Wonders

I am very disappointed in myself.  I have let myself down more then I could have ever possibly imagine.  I cannot believe that I forgot to write about one of the most useless players to ever win a defensive player of the year award.  Yes, that’s right, I am talking about Marcus Camby.  I have been going on and on about how he ruined the Nuggets chances of winning with his terrible one on one defense, and his curious way of terrorizing the offense.  I have to wonder how a center that is on the same team with Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony can take so many outside shots, and kill the offensive flow of the whole team.  I cannot express in words or actions how much I dislike his presence on the basketball court.  What the Nuggets need to do is trade him while his value is high, and allow Nene to grow in the starting center spot along side Kenyon Martin.  Speaking of Mr. Martin, how bad of a move was that, the worst one in Nuggets history maybe.  I can’t say that yet because he could have a great comeback, and really contribute to the championship that is soon to come to Denver, Colorado, that is if the always perfect NBA refs allow that to happen.  Wink wink, nudge nudge, poke poke, and not to mention, I TOLD YOU SO!!!  Sorry I needed to get that off my chest.  That only problem with this investigation is that it is only uncovering one referee that was involved in gambling, and not David Stern for rigging the last, oh I don’t know, five NBA Championships.

Ok, so off that subject and on to something on a lighter side.  Carmelo Anthony is going to be the leading scorer on the USA team again, and then maybe he’ll get some positive media attention.  Espn.com seems to have this infatuation with Lebron James and Kobe Bryant.  I might have to remind some people that Carmelo Anthony was the second leading scorer last year, if anyone forgot.  So I will laugh, and some will cry when he take to cake again.  Go Carmelo, go USA, and I hope Manu falls on his head and loses his ability to flop like a slowly dying fish out of water.  Soccer is slowly taking over the NBA, and soon we will have headbutts and red cards.