Does anyone else find it wierd that St. Louis, Pittsburgh, or Cincy don't have NBA teams??? Why do we have to stretch it at Oklahoma City and Charlotte, seriously?
Well, Cincinnati already had the Kings back in '72, Pittsburgh is a notoriously bad sports town outside of supporting the Steelers (the Penguins were on the verge of moving out), and I would expect St. Louis to never again have a team after striking THE BEST DEAL EVER and refusing to settle. Really, though, if you have enough money, you can stick a team wherever you want to, and for all its faults, OKC does have a whole lot of billionaires.
Not trying to hijack the thread, but I for one wish there was a Cincinnati team. The Royals were long gone by my birth... and people here love basketball, but not pro basketball.. its NCAA all the way. In reality though I don't know if Cincy could fund an NBA team. We barely keep the Reds and Bengals afloat (mainly because they are typically terrible) much less adding another franchise. We had a CBA league team for a while... but it didn't go over very well. The Cyclones were here for a while, then the Ducks, then the Cyclones again, but there just isn't much of an audience for them. There was talk of building an arena in Northern Kentucky to create a D league team, but I haven't heard anything about it in quite some time. There are a lot more teams on this side of the country though, but I guess that's because there are more people.
Oklahoma and Charlotte are both much bigger markets than St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Cincy. Charlotte is TWICE as big as Pittsburgh. It just seems weird because we've grown to associate those teams with sports franchises. Biggest U.S. city with no NBA franchise is San Diego -- #8 in population with 1.25 million people. Going down the list, here are the others in the top 25: 10. San Jose - 930k 12. Jacksonville - 795k 15. Columbus - 733k 16. Austin - 710k 18. Fort Worth - 653k 19. Baltimore - 640k 21. El Paso - 609k 22. Milwaukee - 602k Others cities mentioned above: 20. Charlotte - 630k 24. Seattle - 584k 30. Oklahoma City - 538k 52. St. Louis - 354k 56. Cincinnati - 332k 57. Pittsburgh - 313k
Wrong. The Pens have been selling out home games for years now. And just to clarify, the relocation discussions were a result of shaky ownership and not being able to agree on a new arena. Those issues have since been resolved. The Pirates? We're on pace for our 16th straight losing season. 16!!! If you're judging Pittsburgh sports fans based off of that alone you should slap yourself. Would you be a Rockets die hard if we had 16 straight losing seasons and everybody around you stopped caring? Baseball is about as flawed, corrupt, tainted and unfair as professional sports get. The Pirates are like pawns trying to win a game of chess. These small market teams don't stand a chance -- there's no way around that. We won't get an NBA team but don't for one second think this is a bad sports town.
Yeah the populations are surprising for me. I forgot about San Diego, that should be the top on the list, but still, I've been to Pittsburgh, Cincy, Charlotte, and Seattle, and just judging by their downtowns I was always under the impression that that Pittsburgh and Cincy were just as populated as say a Cleveland, and more so than Oklahoma City or Charlotte. Charlotte's a sprawl tho, kinda like Houston. I've never been to St. Louis, one of the few cities I've yet to go to.
He's a decent 3/4. Hard worker and does a little bit of everything. Defensively he'll be too slow on the quicker 3s and the bigger 4s I say we only shoot for him if we lose Landry (and if he wants full MLE then we should lose him...) Gome has a nice jumpshot from 15' - but I think DVauthrin is all over what we need! A SG/SF who can spell TMac and Battier. I'd also like to try and squeek a PG from Toronto - I wonder if we could send them Alston + Jackson and receive Ford + Parker. It'd be a heckuva risk due to Ford's propensity to injury, but it'd rid us of Alston and leave us with a lights out shooter in Parker. I'd roll the dice on Brooks/ Francis/ Ford getting the job done for us - at least we'd have speedy penetrators who can finish at the rim!
Yes Cincinnati itself is small, but they can't be polling the whole area. The complete market would pull from Kentucky and Dayton too. Paul Brown Stadium seats 65000 people.. and sells out regularly. Are you telling me that 22% of the population in our area go to each and every Bengals game. Not likely. If I am willing to drive 2 hours to Indy to see a basketball game, then people would drive a shorter distance from Dayton, Lexington or Louisville to Cincinnati after college ball was over.. now would they drive to Cincy in December through March.. maybe not. But they still aren't part of the equation in those tallys. I am sure the same thing could be said about St. Louis and Pittsburgh too. What is another sizable city near Oklahoma City? I have driven there and I don't remember any.
If we trade up to the teens is it possible that the forward from LSU Anthony Randolph could slip, he's a tall and very long small forward in the mold of odom.
He's a top 10 pick, and only 18 years old. Not really what we're looking for, but I bet a rebuidling team would pick him up without blinking.
I don't think it's worth it to trade up in this draft because it's kind of thin on talent anyway, so getting into the teens isn't that great unless we could get a great deal. I'd rather let Morey try and swing deals for later picks that won't cost as much but will bring similar talent. Oh and I'm hoping we get Hibbert. Then we have quality backup who can learn from Yao/Deke. Before we worry about trades we need to see what we can do in free agency, I'd like a big splash though (not that I'm expecting one).
I agree with the previous post about this draft being thin. Its not that bad of a draft but the dip in talent from 10-20 isn't that steep, so its kind of like anyone who is projected to go in the teens could really end up anywhere in the 1st round except the top 5. This draft is really deep in big men, Brook Lopez, Robin Lopez, Roy Hibbert, DeAndre Jordan, Alex Ajinca, Kosta Koufos, etc...all projected to go in the top 20. Its best to trade the pick...and I'm sure Morey will do that unless we get a steal or we get a decent backup player like Mario Chalmers. oh and buy one or two of Seattle's(or should I say Oklahoma's) picks. They have 2 first rounders and 3 second rounders...are they really going to stuff 5 new rookies into their roster? Trade or buy the Sonic's picks, I don't care either way is good just get teir picks and I'll be happy. Should be cheaper than Portland's pick.
