BobSaccamanno

This makes my day!

Couldn’t IU essentially have a marketing coordinator the way football staffs have recruiting coordinators? The marketing coordinator would essentially line up sponsorship opportunities for IU players from businesses such as grocery stores, car dealerships, clothing lines. Maybe the shoe guys would be involved. For those who don’t like the new laws, we have to deal with the laws we have, not the ones we want. Louisville, Arizona, Kansas etc probably already have task forces set up on how to operate under the new regime. The rules aren’t final, but you can still start thinking about what you will do under the general premise. IU has too much fan interest and marketing expertise to not optimize its advantage.

That draft did not meet the hype. You had Wiggins first, then Jabari Parker, then Embiid. Embiid has turned out to be fantastic. But, the other two were so hyped and have not met expectations. I recall that the draft that year was especially lauded for having the franchise player level talent. Wiggins is erratic and plays inefficient, losing basketball. Parker was literally on the cover of SI in high school. His recruitment was a frenzy. To be fair, Parker may have been robbed by two knee injuries. But, if we are being fair, he doesn’t play winning basketball either. From what I’ve seen of him, he is awful on defense and he can’t shoot with range. He’s on his fourth team. Really, at Duke, he bombed there too and the defensive bugaboo reared it’s head then. What really annoyed me about Parker was a quote where he said something to the effect that he didn’t need to expend energy on defense since that’s what he and other scorers do. And that was maybe two years ago. That’s toxic. I hate to call him Michael Beasley since that’s a terrible insult and Beasley is a full on head case. The moral is you never know what you’re getting when your team tanks. That particular draft was supposed to have two saviors in it and it hasn’t materialized.

I’d put Toronto in the underrated category. Yes, they lost Leonard but Siakam can be a good alpha player for them. Philly is getting lots of love in the East. They will be a factor but I’d have to question their ability to space the floor and shoot in today’s game.

One thing about Sabonis. Good player but he's in the ideal situation for him. His style of player may not be optimized everywhere. You see it all the time, players underestimate the good situation they were in, go elsewhere, and fall off.

I agree with your stance. Overall, I am on board with the view that we should have a nucleus of 3-4 year players. This requires class balance and experience year after year. You'd have a lot of players ranked, say, 40-200. These would be four stars and high three star players. The three star types would have certain attributes that earn them the IU slot, perhaps it's their motor, makeup, leadership, defense, size, smarts, etc. Something that makes them "Indiana" players. However, there are transformative in-state talents like Romeo Langford that you have to try to get. He is an Indiana legend, and aside from just on the court talent, he's the type of kid you try to land. He transcends the on-the-court product. And he can be a valuable piece on a good team, if he has veterans who know how to play around him. Romeo was a team player all the way. He would have fit in very nicely with a veteran, smart, experienced group.

Unlike Bracey Wright and Noah Vonleh, Romeo has embraced IU and obviously is spending time in Bloomington. And he's visibly helping the program by helping with recruiting. And he's an Indiana legend who took all that in. As a player, if you look at his stats, he put up some good numbers while having tons of problems around him. This was with an injured wrist and without forcing up shots like Bracey. And he played hurt unlike Vonleh. If anything, I wished we empowered him more. I see a lot of distinctions between Romeo on one hand and Vonleh and Wright (two of my least favorite IU players).

As regards Geronimo, I don't see the Troy Williams comp at all. Williams was a liability on defense. Like everyone else, I was really heartened by his comments about defense. And, unlike a lot of kids who get so much attention these days, he seems very self-aware. The scouting report he gave himself was more realistic than the normal 17 year old ("I feel like I am like Kevin Durant" or whatever). Playing defense in basketball is going to keep you in games more often than not, even if stuff is going against you, whether it be the normal erratic officiating, a bad shooting night, etc.

I think he was taking an extreme example to make his point. That's how I took it, anyway. Regarding Romeo, I heard a guy say "Let's face it, he had a very forgettable career." I was apoplectic. I have said it several times, but this is a kid who was very visible and high profile. He selected IU and deserves our respect especially after seeing another Indiana kid snub IU. But now you're seeing his pied piper effect as he's showing school loyalty and pride. Making a noticeable impact on Geronimo is just one part of the puzzle. He's proving to all the naysayers that he's an IU guy all the way.

Just saw this after a long weekend. Great news! I think he can be a very good two-way player and gives us an athletic dimension. Great job by Archie. Looks like we beat out Virginia, coming off a national championship (correct me if I’m wrong). I bet Archie really related to this young man and we know Archie identified him relatively early considering he was a late bloomer. You can also see how the players complement each other, and you can see the pieces for transforming the culture of the program into what we’d all appreciate.

Good stuff. I like both players, for different reasons. Cross has the motor and ruggedness that will play well in the B1G. Love his rebounding numbers too. Geronimo is a rising athlete that looks versatile. He looks like he has the building blocks to defend, pass, shoot, and drive. I'd be very happy with either one.

I wonder if Geronimo and Cross are in an either/or situation?

From the clips, you can see he can play with his back to the basket. At this stage, he can turn either right or left, pretty well. That’s important and not universal as a lot of guys can only go right. It’s going to be a lot harder when you are playing tough guys your own size all the time, but the ability to use both hands and turn both ways bodes well for him IMO. And I agree with the comment above about his frame. Big shoulders and broad chest. He can be a big, strong post player. He looks physically like Chris Lawson to me.

I read somewhere that the Bucks signs the corpse of Kyle Korver. I am not sure if he can still play. He's been around forever. Having a shooter around Giannis doesn't hurt combatting the wall that playoff teams tried to put on him.

Love Ken Burns. Another one I really enjoyed was the Roosevelts. Eleanor was my favorite.

It’s disingenuous to not give Crean credit for finding the likes of Oladipo, Sheehey, and Anunoby. None of them were ranked highly, but they were athletic and rising talents with upside that Crean understood. And they developed under his watch. Maybe Geronimo can give Archie a feather in his cap in recruiting somebody under the radar who can emerge.

This kid reminds me of the type of player Crean might have jumped on. I mean that as a compliment. Maybe Archie’s got a bit of that in him too, and that can be a good thing.

I couldn't agree more on OG. I think he's built to play both ways in the NBA. And he plays with toughness.

Good summary. I would quibble with the Sixers having the second, third, fourth, and fifth best players on the two teams. Second, sure. As for third, Khris Middleton is an all star and a very good two way player. I just don't know what you're getting out of Philly's backcourt in terms of shooting. That might be too easy to defend in the playoffs. I don't think Philly wins the East without Simmons taking a big step forward, which he has not shown any ability to do at this point. Richardson was a good get but they still lack shooters. That "wall" Toronto put up on Giannis was impressive. One issue there is whether Milwaukee gets another shooter so that Giannis can kick it out if he deals with that wall again. Regarding Boston, I am not a fan of Kanter. Very soft and doesn't bring physicality, defense, rebounding etc. I am surprised Stevens would sign off on that one as he doesn't seem like a Stevens player. Their inside game may be a limiting factor, although I love the coach and think Walker is outstanding. Indiana is under-rated. We will see where Oladipo is after the injury. Sometimes it is really the second season back that you can do some damage. In terms of team ball, there's hardly anyone better. That's a heck of a complementary roster. I could see Toronto in the mix with the Miamis and New Jerseys of the world toward the bottom of the East's playoff list. Siakam is coming on and they have some players with a winning mindset.

Why are you dismissing chemistry? It's pretty dang important. Brad Stevens is a winning, team-oriented coach. While talented, I don't think Kyrie particularly fits in that environment. He may be better off with the Tyronne Lues of the world.

I agree with HH’s point about ball dominance. Both Harden and Westbrook have that black hole quality although they can get assists. They’d have to adjust. As far as shooting versus defense, they may complement each other. Westbrook can defend athletes at guard and take on that responsibility, allowing Harden to take a second best perimeter player. On offense, Westbrook can penetrate and draw defenders. Obviously Harden can stretch. It’d be tough for any opponent to cover either, let alone both, ends of that. Neither guy seems to have that elite level winning gene, so they’d have to adjust for the good of the team.

Westbrook to Houston for Paul and some picks way out in the future plus options on pick swaps. With those picks so far out in the future, obviously there’s literally zero visibility. But, it’s always possible some of these picks get liquidated into big time prospects.

Good point, Mile. I am not a huge fan of making all that public, including the price paid for a home. I suppose there is a benefit in terms of researching property taxes. However, I am in favor of the privacy side of things.

Just because a journalist can do something, doesn't mean he should do it. Journalism dogma may tell you that publishing an address is the thing to do, but I don't think it exhibits particularly refined thinking. If journalists feel under attack with their microscopic approval ratings, this type of thing will not help with their collective reputation. It's like they jump at the knee-jerk reaction instead of taking a deep breath and recognizing that restraint is often the best course of action. Say he's moving to Bloomington, which is big news, but stop short of publishing his address. There was actually a very famous singer/actress who was going to move near me and she broke the deal after the media published the address. It's a serious thing.

Regarding Harden, this is an interesting article. I recall Bill Simmons and his cadre of basketball analysts calling the Harden trade legendarily stupid when it happened, not later. https://grantland.com/features/the-harden-disaster/