Andre Smith

Andre Smith is falling fast. Usain Bolt fast. Smith was on his way to be the first overall pick in this years upcoming NFL draft and now there is talk about him not even getting drafted at all. If Andre Smith was the stock market, he'd be... well, he'd be a lot like the stock market is right now. It all started at the combine, when Smith did everything he shouldn't have done and then left in the middle of it without telling anyone where he was going. But it was thought that Smith would have a chance to redeem himself, at least partially, at his Pro Day earlier this afternoon. But he screwed that up as well. How much did he screw up?

"The situation has gone from bad to worse for Andre Smith. His bench press results were a pitiful 19-reps. His position work was also very mediocre. One scout has told us is it the "worst workout he ever saw" and a number of scouts are cranky that they made the long trip to Alabama to watch the pitiful workout. A second scout has told us "Smith lost millions of dollars."" - ESPN.com

"To put Smith’s workout in perspective, he did not post a single number that would have placed him in the top performers at his position at the combine and many of his numbers were not even close to the top 10 at his position at the combine." - NFL.com

Those are some pretty rough comments from some pretty credible sources. The king of hairspray himself, Mel Kiper, even threw out the notion of Andre Smith not even getting drafted. NOT GETTING DRAFTED?!?!?! How do you go from first overall to not drafted??? I haven't seen this big of a letdown since McDonald's took away the Shamrock shake for St. Patrick's Day. Smith's life has taken a major downturn. Just about a month ago, he was on track to become a big time name, had won just about every major award for which he was eligible, and was set to become one of the wealthiest people in the league, but now he's a guy without a college degree (he left Alabama after his junior season) who might not even have a future in the game. Ouch.

The good news about all of this that the Broncos have a serious, serious shot of landing him. Bad combine, 40 time, work out, etc. Smith was about as dominant as it gets this past year. Okay, maybe he only could rep 225 pounds 19 times (even though a punter did 25 times....) but there is no question that Andre Smith dominated defenders and kept John Parker Wilson bleach clean. That merits a 7th, even 6th, round pick selection in my book.
Man, now I get why Smith couldn't rep 225 more then 20 times. With man boobs like that I can't believe he could even lift the bar at all. Is there even any muscle in there? Shit.

Johan Petro

All I have to say is "I told you so." Like I expected, Johan "butterfingers" Petro was a bad trade and has contributed nothing this basketball team except for maybe a few extra jersey sales in the popular basketball country of France. If there not selling then maybe we should do what the Rockets did with Yao and design our jerseys to suit the local Paris fashion districts and culture a bit better. Maybe Stan Kroenke should get in contact with Dolce and Gabbana or Louis Vuitton and work out some sort of business deal to make "designer" jerseys. Actually nevermind, jersey's only sell if a player is actually good and Petro is not good. Pheww, the last thing I wanted to see was the Nuggets warming-up in tear-away capri pants and cashmere V-neck windbreakers.

Back to Petro. All he does is foul and turn the ball over. That's it. Hell, I’ll suit up and do that for the small price of locker room concessions and a few autographs. Petro leads the league in fouls per minute and averages a staggering 9.7 fouls per 36 minutes. That means he is barely capable of playing more than one half of basketball before fouling out. Cheikh Samb is better than Petro and we let him walk away for nothing. Everyone used the excuse "Petro has more game experience." Sure, Petro has PLAY-ED more NBA games then Samb but Samb is a better PLAY-ER. Games played doesn't mean anything when you just plain suck. Mark Warkentein, Nuggets VP of Operations, brought in Petro because we needed size (Petro being the only 7 footer on our roster) and a shot blocking/rebounding defensive big man to back up Nene and Birdman. Well, Petro has been none of that except for the fact that he's a 7 footer. Samb could have been all that plus more. Samb is 7 feet tall, younger, cheaper, and more productive. But yet again, the Nuggets front office fucked up and let Samb go in order to trade for a less productive Petro. Here are the stat lines for both players per 36 minutes in a Nuggets unifrom:

Johan Petro: 9.5 pts, 10.7 reb, 1.9 blks, 9.7 fouls

Cheikh Samb: 6 pts, 13.5 reb, 7.5 blks (No, this is not a typo), 2.1 fouls

Of course these stats are skewed because both players don't get signficant and consistent minutes but it's pretty clear who is the more productive player. Samb has a 7.5 (!) blocks to 2.1 foul ratio while Petro has a 1.9 blocks to 9.7 fouls ratio. I got laughed at when I said Samb was better then Petro and look who is laughing now. Sigh* Good luck Samb. You were a baller and I hope you eventually get good minutes with another team.

Back to my original point, WHY DID WE TRADE FOR THIS GUY??? Not only did we trade Chucky Atkins, who was a better PG then Carter and a 6th Man of the Year candidate 2 years ago, but we also gave Oklahoma City our 2009 first round pick for there 2nd round pick! Oklahoma must having jumped to joy when they heard that proposed to them. Here is how I picture the phone conversation going:

Sam Presti (Thunder VP of Basketball Operations and GM)"Wait... So your going to give me a better player AND a 1st round pick for our bad player and a 2nd??"

Mark Warkentein - "Yes, that isindeed what we are proposing."

Sam Presti - "Umm..... well, yeah. Of course I'll accept that. Why wouldn't I?"

Mark Warkentein -"Okay, deal. Thanks for all your cooperation Sam. We plan on doing businesss with you in the future."

Sam Presti - "Definitely! My phone line is ALWAYS open. Actually, you should probably go ahead and take my cell and put it on your speed dial."

Now I'm not a big fan of the French anyways and this certainly doesn't help their case but it sucks that of all the good French players in the league (Parker, Diaw, etc) we have the worst one. Why can't NBA GM's realize that European big men never pan out? You would think the Nuggets of all teams would have learned since they took Nikoloz Tskitishvilli over Amare Stoudamire in 2002 but apparently they felt that a "talent" like Petro, who couldn't even get minutes for the worse team in the league, was a player that would fill the much needed void. Now the Nuggets are limping into the playoffs with a weak front court that will get trampled by a team like the Lakers - especially if Andrew Bynum is back because Bynum will do stuff like this to Petro:

Denver Nuggets Playoff Preview

So as for my first post on the Heralded "Denver Sports Champagne Room" Blog, I will discuss my favorite team and their ongoing playoff stretch run. 

So the Nuggets are in the stretch run of the NBA playoffs. They are currently seeded as the number 4 seed at 43-25, and if the playoffs were to start today they would face the Portland Trailblazers with home court advantage. Let's realistically see where this team should end up. 

Looking at the Nuggets' remaining schedule, one thing is for sure; they have a ton of winnable games. 8 of the final 14 remaining games are below sub .500 teams. 7 games at home, 7 games on the road. The 5 teams above .500 are all in the hunt for the final 8 spots in the western conference playoffs, the other being Phoenix which I don't see making that final spot ahead of Dallas. I think that it is safe to say that the Nuggets will surpass their win total as of last year which was 50 games. In fact, I think that the Nuggets have a chance at matching their franchise best mark at 54 wins in a season. Regardless, I believe that the Nuggets will finally sport a home court advantage playoff series. The closest was the 05-06 season in which the Nuggets finished in the third seed after taking the Northwest division title, but remarkably had a worse record than the Clippers at the 6th seed. Therefore giving up home court advantage. Suffice to say, I think that the Nuggets have a golden (no pun intended) opportunity to do something in the playoffs this year.

Since Carmelo Anthony joined the Nuggets in the 03-04 season as a rookie he has yet to miss the playoffs, but has failed along with his teammates miserably, if I might add. Look for this year to be a different story if the Nuggets clinch a home court series. 

Now for the rest of the west and how I think it will play out:

1) Lakers: Will hold the number 1 seed with ease, and may strive for home court advantage throughout the playoffs with the leagues best record in the final weeks. 

2) Spurs: Will have to work at it, but I think will hold onto this spot. This team just will not go away until Duncan retires. 

3) Nuggets: I think their easy schedule will put them over the top with the Rockets and the Jazz falling a win or two short

4) Rockets: Their schedule is brutal in the coming weeks, but are playing good ball. This team just always seems to come together at the end of the season, and without T-Mac I might add

5) Jazz: If they didn't suck so much on the road, I would put them further up, but they play 8 of their last 15 games on the road, and face some damn good teams. 

6) Blazers: Pretty much a tossup between them and the Hornets, but the schedule favors Portland slightly, and they are reportedly getting Oden back any time soon. 

7) Hornets: Could easily be placed in the 6th or even 5th spot, but just aren't the same team as they were last year. Love CP3, but even he can't weather 8 road games in under a month. 

8) Dallas: Easiest pick of the bunch (besides Lakers). But they gotta love how they looked in LA on sunday; almost knocking off the Lakers (Which is who they will face).

So after looking at the projected standings, I would guess that the Nuggets should end up facing Portland (which I really favor). They are a very inexperienced team, and will likely be facing Denver on the road 4 times in a 7 game series. The Blazers have an awful record on the road against the league's elite, and have done most of their damage on their home court. 

All that said, I think that the Nuggets just have a playoff built team now. The teams in the years' past were all run and gun with absolutely no defense. Lets face it, the Suns have been the best team in the league at that for years, and it hasn't worked for them. So why would it have worked for the Nuggets? This year, the Nuggets have a proven winner in the playoffs in Chauncey Billups, and finally have most of it's players healthy. The most notable is Nene. Dude is just a beast. Not to mention that the Nuggets are actually playing some defense for the first time in god knows when, and they finally have a descent half court team with Nene and Melo working on the blocks, with Chauncey and JR waiting on the wings. The team is just built to win in the playoffs. What they need to do is get that home court advantage, and face a team that they can compete with. In the years' past we've faced the Lakers, Spurs, Spurs, Spurs, and the Spurs. Not really, but you get the picture. Get a team that the Nuggets have a shot at, and who knows how far they'll go? Honestly, I think that if the Nuggets get the third seed and get out of the first round, that they will give the Spurs a run for their money. I pretty much say this every year, but this team is just so much different that the previous years. 

So keep an eye on the coming weeks. Will the Nuggets take advantage of the easiest schedule amongst the west's elite, or will they falter? That will determine their fate. 

One of many to come by your Nuggets & Broncos man: Chris (AKA the Doctor)

Jay Cutler

This whole Jay Cutler saga has turned into a classic 90's soap opera that keeps viewers tuned in every week. It's like Beverly Hills 90210 but out goes Tory Spelling and Shannen Doherty and in comes Jay Cutler and Josh McDaniels. The blame of this goes back and forth every day with the whole "He Said - She Said" elementary game. First the blame was aimed toward McDaniels for trying to trade our future, then it was to Cutler for not growing up and showing up to meet with McD, then it was back to Josh for not working it out with Cutler when he actually did come in, then it was redirected to Cutler for putting his house on sale, etc. etc. etc. HBO needs to land a deal with the two and make a show called Dove Valley 80110. "Lies, deception, botrayal. Will this be the final episode? All new this week on Dove Valley 80110." Alright, I'm going too far. Sorry.

Anyways, let's disect these past weeks events:

March 1 - Josh McDaniels entertains trade talks with his former team the Patriots in order to work a deal out that would send Jay Cutler to Tampa Bay for Matt Cassel and a draft pick. - Now, this is the first big mistake. McDaniels opened up Pandora's box by letting trade talks get to far and not only that but he originally denied it and then later admitted it. Cutler finds out and refused to make any contact with the McDaniels or Pat Bowlen. Cutler skipped a scheduled meeting and said he felt betrayed by the organization. Now he's more pissed then Geraldo Rivera when he opened Al Capone's vault.

March 2 - McDaniels says that he had no intentions on trading Cutler and that he was merely listening to offers. Because as a coach, that's what you do. NO player in the league is untouchable. NO ONE. If McDaniels got offered Tom Brady and two 1st round picks for Cutler then you would obviously take it. Cutler needs to understand that EVERY quarterback in the league gets trade offers. Even Peyton Manning, even Tom Brady, even Drew Brees, and even you Cutler. This is just the name of the game. Take some notes from Donovan McNabb. McNabb is contently is trade talks and he even got benched from the team this year. Did he bitch and whine like a girl?? NO. He went out to practice the next week and won his job back.

March 3 - Trade rumors start to swirl like the Boulder Chinook winds. Cutler to Detroit, to Tampa, to Cleveland, to San Francisco, to Minnesota, blah, blah blah. None of which are worth the trade and McDaniels keeps saying that he will not trade Cutler.

March 14 - Cutler officially puts his 7500 square foot home up for sale. Apparently Jay's parents (who lived down the street) also put their home up for sale. I guess Mommy and Daddy were upset too. Boo hoo. That whole family is a bunch of whiny wimps. The Cutlers are the family that loses the family softball game to the cooler family at the neighborhood picnic (and then moves out of the neighborhood). BUT! Apparently this house was not Cutler's primary residence and he has been trying to sell it for months....

March 15 - Cutler finally meets with McDaniels but nothing is resolved. In fact, everything just gets worst and now Cutler has demanded a trade.

Now originally I put a big portion of the blame on Cutler for being a whiny baby (which is still partly true) but now I have transferred the a large burden of the blame to McDaniels. Why does he hate about Cutler? Josh, aren't you supposed to be a QB guru that makes untalented quarterbacks into good ones? Well, what can you do with a QB that actually does have talent??? Because last time you worked with a QB that had real talent (Tom Brady) you orchestrated the best offense in NFL history and Brady broke all the single season records. Hum..... Now why would you trade a talent like Cutler for a less talented QB in Cassel? I guess I just don't see you logic Joshy.

Cutler now seems like the good guy, though. "I went in there with every intention of solving the issue, being a Bronco, moving forward as a Bronco." Cutler said. " I figured we’d hash things out, shake hands, laugh a little and move forward. What happened [Saturday] was the last thing I expected. If I didn’t think it could be fixed, I never would have come back to Denver." See, now I'ma back on Cutlers side. How would you feel if you went to work and your boss said "Hey, so were looking at other people to replace you but don't worry, you can still keep your job for the time being. We just don't feel that your a long term solution." Yeah I would be be pissed too.

Now St. Patty's day is tomorrow and I'm really sick of hearing about all this drama. I don't want to here McDaniels name for at least 24 hours. The only Irish name I want to associate myself with tomorrow is Guinness and Baileys. Maybe the luck of the Irish will flow McDaniels way and Cutler will come to camp and ready to play because McDaniels can't afford to lose Cutler. McDaniels needs Cutler because he can’t afford to start from scratch with a new QB and not make the playoffs in the next couple of seasons. If McDaniels trades away the future franchise QB and also doesn’t make the playoffs with another QB then he will get canned too. Then he will be looked at as another product of Bilichick’s system and it will be hard for him to get another coaching job.

This could end ugly ladies and gentlemen. Shit's about to hit the fan and I told you this would make for some good television. Get your popcorn ready.

Ubaldo Jimenez

Rockies flame-thrower Ubaldo Jimenez set a World Baseball Classic record on Tuesday by striking out 10 batters in only four innings of work, the most ever by a starting pitcher in tournament history. Now, I have seen U-Ball get hot but not this hot. I mean, were talking Bar Rafaeli hot. He was consistently clocked at 97 and 98 mph while making the Nederland squad look like your typical 40 year old, beer drinking, knee brace wearing, company softball team. U-Ball surpassed the old record (8) for strikeouts by a starting pitcher in the WBC by two, needing only 65 pitches to accomplish the feat. The funny thing is Jimenez left the game in a scoreless tie due to pitch count rules, and his Dominican Republic teammates were shocked by the Netherlands, who upset them for a second time, knocking the Dominicans out of the WBC.

Now I know Nederland doesn't exactly have lineup to drool over (only 1 current MLB player) but they still have a quality baseball team. Knocking off the highly favored Dominican Republic team (10 MLB players, 8 of which have been All Stars) is damn impressive. Ubaldo straight up embarassed them and I hope this is a nice indication of what the Rockies can expect from him this season. It's hard to get excited about anything is Rockies country these days but Ubaldo is a splash of hope from a franchise that is too cheap to keep a winning team. Ubaldo had a killer second half of the season last year and surpassed Aaron Cook as the number 1. I think Jimenez has finally arrived as an elite pitcher and he is no longer just a "prospect" or a "talent." I see his numbers this year looking like 12-6 with a 3.2 ERA. These numbers could (and should) yield a All Star roster ballet but due to the fact that he won't have the wins to back up his numbers (weak hitting, shaky bullpen) he will most likely be watching the Mid Summer Classic from his living room. None the less, Rockies fans are in for a real treat for the next few years. At least until 2013 when the club options are $5.75 million and $8 million in 2014. So, basically we have no chance of seeing him in a Rockies uniform past the 2008 trade deadline.

Renaldo Balkman

Renaldo Balkman is officially my favorite player in the NBA. Not only does he have dreads, look like a pirate, cheer louder for his team than the Nuggets dancers but he can flat out play. Balkman is an energetic, game changing defender that can guard anyone on the floor - from PG to C. He is quick enough to play the perimeter yet, tall enough to cover bigs. He reminds me of a skinnier version of Kenyon Martin. His offensive rebounding is unmatched by ANYONE on the Nuggets. We are among the worst offensive rebounding teams in the league and Balk changes all that when he is in. The Nuggets outrebounded the Clipper 17 to 5 tonight and I'll tell you that it wasn't because of luck. I saw the Pirate out dual Camby THREE times for an offensive board and we all know Camby is one of the leagues best defensive rebounders. That's saying something. Per 36 minutes, Renaldo averages around five offense boards..... He's not a shooter by any means but for some reason he is very sneaky on offense. He constantly gets wide open lay ups due to the fact that his defender loses or forgets about him. Pirates were always known to be sneaky....

At least Balkman is (gasp!) finally logging the minutes he deserves. If it wasn't for the pig not knowing what talent is then Balkman would be a Denver Metro household name by now. George Karl has to be one of the worst personnell coaches in the league. I mean how you start Johan Petro over Balkman? Petro statistically has the worst fouls per minute ratio in the league and doesn't offer anything on offense. Balkman brings the energy and toughness that gets the team going. It's funny because Balkman is better than Najera and yet, Karl used to give Eddie Naj 25 minutes per game. Pathetic. If Karl can't find a way to log him minutes then he isn't doing his job. Here's an idea George - how about you play Jones and Kleiza less and play RB more? Wow that was hard to figure out.

It was a Balk party tonight folks! Here's Balkmans stat line: 22 pts, 11 rebs, 2 stls. It's his intangibles that allowed us to win tonight. The Clippers are the slowest team in the league and Balkman burned through the team with his speed. He made the Clippers play into our game and they struggled to keep up. With Melo and Chauncey not shooting well tonight, we could have easily lost to the Clippers without Balkmans presence.

If this team wants to go deep into the playoffs then were going to need a healthy dosage of the Pirate.

Donté Stallworth

So apparently Donte Stallworth is in a bit of hot water after he allegedly killed a man with his Bentley early this morning. There were no indications that Stallworth was drunk and/or influenced by some other substance but that's usually the case with these rich, young, high profile athletes. Now I'm not a forensic investigator but by looking at the evidence on hand (downtown Miami, 7 am on a Saturday, NFL offseason) I would assume that Stallworth was probably coming back from a late night out on the town and he wasn't exactly sober.


I really like Stallworth. I do. For one, he has long dreads and any athlete with dreads get an automatic bonus point in my book. Donte gets even more points because he looks a lot like Lil Wayne. Lil Wayne is currently my favorite rapper so any resemblence to him is a plus.

I was hoping that their was a chance that Donte could land with the Broncos. It's clearly not working out with the Browns and bringing Donte back to McDaniels system where he thrived would benefit us a lot. A burner like Stallworth paired with a bruiser like Marshall would open up a lot of touches for Eddie "Casino" Royal. Eddie will be used a lot like Wes Welker was used in McDaniels scheme but in order for Eddie to get the touches he needs to have room to work with. Stallworth's wheels will keep the DB's honest and Marshall will draw a lot of attention down low from the linebackers. That leaves Royal in single coverage with a corner and there isn't a CB in the league (outside of Nnamdi Asomugha) that can cover Royal one on one. The Raiders tried it with DeAngelo Hall and you can see for yourself how that turned out (2:20 and specifically 4:20 mark):

Don't you like how I was just talking about Lil Wayne and then he randomly appears in that Eddie Royal highlight mix right at the 2:20 mark? Man I'm having a good day.

Anyways back to Stallworth, he is a speed wide out that runs good routes and has good hands. If we want to utilize Cutler's arm strength then were going to need a legitimate deep threat. Marshall is too slow and Royal is too short. Stallworth would be a guy that could fill that hole. I have always felt that Stallworth has been underrated and over looked due to the elite wide outs that he has lined up along side with - Randy Moss, Joe Horn, and Braylon Edwards to name a few. The one season where he was "the guy" was in '06 with Philly. He tore it up that year and single handedly won me my fantasy league. Another reason why I love the guy ;) The only downside to Donte (besides this latest incident) is that he is injury prone. He is just one of "those" athletes that just can't manage to play a full game without getting banged up. You know the Marcus Camby, Clinton Portis, and Chipper Jones' of the sports world. But I am more than willing to put up with annoying day-to-day (DTD) tag that will come with his health status every week as long as he hits the gridiron on Sundays.

My dream situation would be that this incident actually play's into our advantage. The Browns are not happy with Stallworth's production and an incident like this (especially at this point in the offseason) is a great excuse to cut the receiver. Assuming he was not intoxicated, I would hope that the legal issues could be resolved through a nice compensation check thus eliminating any chance of Donte serving a legthy jail sentence. Then, McDaniels and the Broncos bring him in for a veterans minimum with backloaded incentives based of production and games played.