Monthly Archives: July 2017

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Cowboys QB Dak Prescott wants to support teammates dealing with legal issues

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Little talk surrounding the Dallas Cowboys this offseason regards their ability on the field. It’s the litany of off-field legal trouble garnering the lion’s share of the headlines.

As training camp opened Monday for the Cowboys in Oxnard, Calif., quarterback Dak Prescott offered his support to teammates such as running back Ezekiel Elliott, linebacker Damien Wilson and cornerback Nolan Carroll, all of whom have had run-ins with the law this offseason.

“What I said, I should have never said,” Vick said. “I think it was taken out of context in regards to what I was trying to convey, but I only want to help Colin Kaepernick. I’m not a general manager, I’m not the guy who makes the decisions on getting him signed, and I’m truly sorry for what I said. I think I should have used a better choice of words.”
Vick specifically said he’s sorry he urged Kaepernick to get a haircut, saying he doesn’t think that has any bearing on Kaepernick’s situation.“His afro has nothing to do with him being signed and I wasn’t trying to relay that message. It was more about helping him at the end of the day,” Vick said.

Whitlock, meanwhile, has been firing back at Vick’s critics, saying it’s hypocritical for African-American TV analysts with short haircuts in suits and ties like Damien Woody of ESPN to attack Vick for telling Kaepernick how to dress for success.
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Minnesota Vikings

Seth Curry stars at point guard, outperforms Chris Paul as Mavs upset Clippers

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Dell’s son. Stephen’s brother. It might not be long now before Seth Curry has an identity all his own: Mavericks star … no matter the position he plays.

The youngest Curry has broken out this season with Dallas as a catch-and-shoot shooting guard, like his father. But he did an even better impression of his MVP brother Thursday, starting at point guard for the Mavs and outperforming Chris Paul in a 97-95 upset victory over the Clippers.

Curry, who got the nod over Yogi Ferrell in a lineup change, poured in 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting, showing off some versatility. He added four assists and three rebounds.
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Paul, by comparison, did not measure up. He managed 15 points (on 6-of-13 shooting) with six assists but was brutal in crunch time, when Curry stood out especially, committing a crucial turnover and throwing up a brutal air ball in the game’s final two minutes.

The Bulls (37-39) are 5-3 since losing Wade. They also climbed to seventh in the Eastern Conference postseason standings by way of currently leading a tie-breaker between the Pacers and Heat, both of whom have the same record as Chicago.
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Many ruled the Bulls out of playoff contention when all the of the discord started surfacing. But one of the ringleaders for stirring up drama, Rajon Rondo, made amends for his actions by pouring in 25 points with 11 rebounds and six assists against the Hawks.

Kawhi Leonard made his case for MVP on Monday night as the Spurs hosted award frontrunner James Harden and the Rockets.

Minnesota Vikings

The Pacers at least wanted to see how the stretch run of this year developed

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There were two factors pushing the Pacers to contemplate a George trade: his impending 2018 free-agency, which already has teams around the league lining up the cap space to make a charge at him, and his desire to win a championship as he hits the back end of his prime years (George turns 27 in May).

Limited Womens Jamie Langenbrunner Jersey The Pacers at least wanted to see how the stretch run of this year developed, to see what kind of progress could be made to returning the team to Eastern Conference prominence. Remember, it was only three years ago that the Pacers were a self-described smashmouth team and the No. 1 seed in the East, losing in the conference finals to the Heat.

That team is long gone, rebuilt in an effort keep up with the offense-heavy modern NBA, where perimeter finesse wins out over the smashing of mouths. Only George remains—except now he needs to be not just the featured player on both ends, but the leader in the locker room and on the court. On Wednesday, George sounded wistful for those simpler days in Indiana.

It’s been different, George said. Like I said, it’s been very different for me. Actually being a leader, being the last Pacer with the group I came in with, the last guy on that roster. It’s been different, I have grown into a different role, becoming a different leader. And you always relive the glory days when they’re gone, and it’s the last little bit that you remember. I’m trying to bring that to this team, and that edge. But it’s taken some time.

So much so that his new team, the Western Conference-leading Warriors, has had to answer for signing him recently.
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We know we’re opening ourselves up to criticism and the hypocrisy stance, Golden State coach Steve Kerr said. It’s all part of professional sports and we’ve got to live with it. (Warriors general manager) Bob (Myers) and I are aware of that.

Minnesota Vikings

The Pacers set an embarrassing and odd NBA record

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The Pacers committed a backcourt violation in Wednesday’s game against the Celtics, which usually isn’t a huge deal, but this turnover actually resulted in NBA history.

Mens P. J. Williams Jersey Thanks to a user on Reddit who did the digging, they discovered the record for backcourt violations in a single season is 12, set by multiple teams. Oddly enough, this user posted this stat a day before the Pacers game and noted they, along with the Bulls, were sitting at 12 already.

My concern level is there’s only 14 games left, and I’ve never had this injury, so I can’t say two days, two weeks. I don’t know. I know Jimmy [Butler] had something similar to this before. I talked to him, and I don’t like what he had to say about this. That’s my concern, is that we’re trying to make the playoffs and there’s only 14 games left.
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It’s my shooting arm too. It’s not good pain at all.

Butler missed 11 games in March 2015 with a similar injury.

Wade scored eight points Wednesday, hitting only 3 of 11 shots before leaving in the fourth quarter.

He is averaging 19.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists in 30.2 minutes per game in his first season with his hometown Bulls, who are 32-36 and a game out of the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 spot going into Thursday’s games.

I think we had a seven-game winning streak earlier in that month. Defensively, we just haven’t been as good. To be a good team in the NBA, you’ve gotta be a top-10 defense, and we just haven’t been consistent there. The injuries, of course, having guys in and out of the lineup hasn’t helped. If you look around the NBA, and you took any team and had their two best players miss significant portions of the season, I think a lot of teams would sort of be in the same circumstances in terms of inconsistency. It’s not an excuse, but more our reality.

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Kyle Lowry dealing with wrist injury, could miss extended time

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Raptors All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry was suddenly left out of the lineup Friday with a wrist injury.

Toronto confirmed the news on Twitter, also mentioning that Lowry would be receiving further treatment on the injury over the weekend.

Cory Joseph earned the start Friday night in Lowry’s place. Serge Ibaka also made his first start since getting sent to Toronto from the Magic.

Lowry is averaging 22.8 points, 6.9 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game. The Raptors (33-24) are currently fourth in the Eastern Conference standings.

Should Lowry miss extended time, Joseph and recently promoted Fred VanVleet will see more minutes on the court.

Well, this makes the Kings considerably worse in the short term. There’s not really another way to put it. The team has traded its franchise superstar, an All-Star player who was averaging 27.8 points, 10.7 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.3 steals per game. Prior to this season, there have been exactly four seasons by three different players who have accomplished that over a full season. Their names may ring a bell: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, David Robinson and Larry Bird. Cousins was the focal point of everything that the Kings did, for good and for bad. The team will be changing its style of play entirely.

The team’s starting lineup projects as something along the lines of Darren Collison, Hield, Arron Afflalo, Willie Cauley-Stein and Kosta Koufos. Maybe Ben McLemore gets thrown in there on the wing, or maybe the team starts Anthony Tolliver at the 4. Once Garrett Temple gets healthy, he’ll be in the mix, too, and the same goes for Ty Lawson. But given that roster and the talent around the rest of the NBA, it’s hard to envision them not being one of the five worst teams in the NBA coming down the stretch. broncos_005

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Panthers post amazing Twitter tribute to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

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Limited Brooks Orpik Jersey It’s a slow time of year for the NFL, so the official social media accounts for NFL teams have to get creative to get the attention of fans.

The Carolina Panthers did just that with an amazing tribute to ’90s TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

This is the story all about how, my life got flipped, turned upside down, and I’d like to take a minute just sit right there, I’ll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air.

The primary reason Durant, Green and Kerr were likely interested in Young is because he’s one of the better 3-point shooters available on the free-agent market. Young averaged 7.0 3-point attempts per game with the Lakers last season and made 40.4 percent of those opportunities. Some of those were pull-up 3-pointers he didn’t make at a very high rate, but Young proved to be at his best when he simply catches and shoots from the perimeter. He made 43.9 percent of his shot attempts in those situations, helping him rank in the 83.3 percentile with 1.14 points per spot-up possession. In total, slightly over a quarter of his offense came from spot-ups last season.
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Despite not scoring as many points off spot-ups as other players in the NBA, Young’s efficiency from those plays put him ahead of the likes of Seth Curry, J.R. Smith, Patrick Beverley, Eric Gordon and Wesley Matthews. He’s coming off a season in which he checked out as one of the best pure shooters in the NBA 鈥?not only one of the best out of this summer’s free agents 鈥?even though his shot selection is still questionable at times.

Putting that weapon alongside Curry, Thompson, Durant and Green will only give each of them more room to operate when he’s on the court because his defender won’t be able to abandon him on the 3-point line similar to how some players approach guarding Iguodala and Livingston.

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Talks progressing to make David Griffin GM of the Knicks

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David Griffin has withdrawn his name from consideration for the Knicks’ GM job, as he and the team could not agree on a role, ESPN reported Sunday afternoon.

Womens Mark Clayton Jersey The Knicks are nearing negotiations to bring aboard former Cavaliers general manager David Griffin as the team’s top basketball executive, ESPN.com reports.

After Smith was drafted No. 9 overall in June, many of his old tweets were deleted quickly, including this NSFW gem.

Womens Mike Singletary Jersey Turns out, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was the reason Smith scrubbed his Twitter clean.

And you know, one of the first things after we drafted Dennis, and I’m talking to him on the phone, I’m like, Dude, I went through your Twitter account. It’s time to get on there and delete,’ Cuban told ESPN while at the Mavericks Summer League game Sunday.

And so, he went through it. And to his credit, they were gone. He had a lot of stupid stuff on there.

Smith isn’t the only athlete to have tweets come back to haunt him. Bears top pick Mitchell Trubisky had some awkward tweets resurface after the NFL Draft this year, as did Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey.

And at this price and term, it’s hard to complain. Hill is only on the books for two years at full term before getting just a partial guarantee in year three. At an average annual value of $19 million, Hill is being paid right in line with his skill level on short term, which makes him an easily tradeable asset. The opportunity cost is that the Kings can’t use their salary cap space in other ways, a la trading for bad contracts while also taking on assets.

In my opinion, though, the amount he’ll help the team’s youth development outpaces the middling positive asset they’d get in return. It’s a give and take in all of these situations, and Hill is going to give the team more than he takes in actual cost as well as opportunity cost.

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Norman Powell could save Raptors from embarrassing first-round exit

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Raptors coach Dwane Casey has figured out how things work in his team’s first-round Eastern Conference playoffs series against the Bucks. When he plays second-year guard Norman Powell major minutes, Toronto wins. When he doesn’t, it loses.

Monday night, the 6-4 UCLA product hit a new playoff career-high, scoring a team-best 25 points to lift the third-seeded Raptors to a 118-93 Game 5 victory against No. 6 Milwaukee to take a 3-2 series lead. It was Powell’s second straight start, something he’d done in just 18 of the 76 regular-season games in which he played. It was also the second consecutive game in which he played 34 minutes after having only averaged 10.8 minutes in Games 1 and 3 and not playing at all in Game 2.

The Hawks got a few more “winning plays” from an unexpected source in Jose Calderon. The veteran backup point guard answered the call when Dennis Schroder went out in the 3:19 left in the first quarter with his third foul. The 35-year-old was tasked with guarding Beal and forced to face John Wall on the other end.

In most situations, that would be a recipe for disaster. Instead, Calderon rose to the occasion. He scored 10 points, added five assists and earned a #PodiumGame.

“I feel comfortable with my teammates,” Calderon said. “It’s important to stay ready. We’ve been working hard these days for this kind of game.”

Dwight Howard also stepped out after receiving much criticism for his play in the series. Howard was one of seven Hawks in double figures with 16 points. He had managed to score only 18 points in the three previous games combined. His offensive outburst, in addition to his 15 rebounds, was crucial to the Hawks win.
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Minnesota Vikings

I had my hands up while the Vermont player was shooting free throws

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Limited Tarik Cohen Jersey Well, I didn’t really hear him say that, but as I’ve said before, I’m not trying to be the best player, I’m trying to be the best team, he said. I don’t even think about it.

Grizzlies coach David Fizdale, who had to come up with ways to stop Leonard, had nothing but praise for him Thursday night.

The thing that just makes him different is I just don’t know many possessions that he takes off because he plays both ends of the floor so well, Fizdale said. And his conditioning is like nothing I’ve ever seen. I mean, the guy, he just keeps coming and keeps coming and keeps coming and he finds a way to make a play, a winning play, whether it’s a steal, a block, a rebound, a drive, pass. He made plays tonight off the dribble. You know, he makes a good argument. I would say that about my own guy, too.

Leonard will have to keep up his strong performances as he and the Spurs will play fellow MVP candidate James Harden and the Rockets next.

I had my hands up while the Vermont player was shooting free throws — their coach was like, ‘Hey ref! You can’t let that Oriental do that!’ I was like, what is going on here? I have been called a ch—k by players in front of the refs; the refs heard it, because they were yelling it [like,] ‘Yeah, get that out, ch—k!’ And the ref heard it, looked at both of us and didn’t do anything.
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It’s crazy. My teammate started yelling at the ref, ‘You just heard it, it was impossible for you not to hear that. How could you not do something?’ And the ref just pretended like nothing happened. That was when I was like, yo, this is a beast. So, when I got to the NBA, I thought this is going to be way worse. But it is way better. Everybody is way more under control.

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NBA Draft lottery: Sixers fans watch Sam ‘The Process’ Hinkie banner raised to rafters

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The 76ers are about to be competitive again after years at the bottom of the NBA. Sam Hinkie was the man who sent them there with his Process.

Well, a good number of Sixers fans trusted the process and believed while Hinkie accumulated NBA Draft lottery picks. On Tuesday, they gave Hinkie his due. At a draft lottery party, of course.

See, some fans understood Hinkie was playing eight-dimensional chess with all those trades and second-round picks and D-League guys playing big minutes.

No doubt a statue of Hinkie will be made if Philly gets the Lakers’ pick this year and then goes 41-41 next season. (UPDATE: Well, no Lakers pick, but Philly will choose third after swapping choices with the Kings.
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Authentic Mens Travis Shaw Jersey 1.1 percent odds of No. 1 pick 鈥?The construction of the Pelicans’ twin towers 鈥?Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins 鈥?along with the upcoming free agency of Jrue Holiday creates the need for a strong point guard to orchestrate the offense in New Orleans. While the Pelicans have a one-in-one-hundred chance of winning the lottery, the Bulls and Cavaliers have both recently won the lottery despite having a 1.7 percent chance, which means New Orleans fans can hold out hope for a minor miracle.

If that were to happen, Markelle Fultz will look to lead the Pelicans back to the playoffs for the first time since 2015, and he’ll have two All-Stars alongside him to ease some of the pressure of being the No. 1 overall pick.

0.5 percent odds of No. 1 pick 鈥?With leading scorer Goran Dragic under contract for at least two more seasons, the Heat possess a lead guard, allowing them to look to improve on the wing with Josh Jackson. He has the size, athleticism and projected shooting ability to be a building block in Miami.