To fill in the lull before the NH results are available, scout yourself, your team, an opponent, or the other team... _____________ rimrocker: Solid contributor. Will never be an all-star, but has enough talent to stick around. Defense-- Pros: Strong defender. Takes it personally when the opponent tries to score with weak facts, smears, or exaggerations and rejects such attempts with a vengeance. Good knowledge of the opponent's playbook and can usually anticipate how the play will develop. Makes up for his weakness in economics by playing a strong helping defense. Cons: Uneven. Matchups affect him more than they should. Usually plays well against the political, but seems to lose interest and be caught out of position on most social issues. Offense-- Pros: Prefers the left wing, but will venture into the lane on a surprising number of issues. Pushes the ball hard. Rarely gets in a position where he has nowhere to go. Does well at sensing when the opponent is in fact trouble and usually works to exploit that weakness. Passes well when he gets into issues trouble. Cons: Sometimes pushes too hard and gets ahead of his team. Does not spread the court as well as possible, as he has trouble extending his offensive skills to the far left sideline. Certain matchups, like race, can throw him off his game and he then tends to pick up silly charges. Will sometimes try to do more than his talent allows, such as inject humor in places where only the most skilled can make it work. Fantasy Value: Will put up solid but rarely spectacular numbers. Worth a late second or third round pick for the defensive stats.
basso: former all-star, trying to reclaim faded glory. Defense-- Pros: Always willing to give the hard foul to an opponent who's crossed the line. Decent lateral moves and a willingness to cheat to the middle to help defend an opponent who's camping out in the lane. Excellent shot blocking instincts, marred by... Cons: ...absolutely zero vertical. The eye is defintely quicker than the feet, resulting in perfect defensive tack developing only after the play is long over and the game has moved on. Offense-- Pros: Deadly accurate from 18 feet out, just to the right of the key, a progressive republican MoTay. Never where you expect him to be, on the right on Defense and Econ, but can cross opponents up by faking right on social issues and going left. Cons: The proverbial black hole, never passes- never saw a shot he didn't think he could hit. Streaky, Vernon Maxwell-like, but often gets pinned in the corner, where he tries to bounce the ball off the opponent's leg.
Franchise Blade: Formerly a solid contributor who occasionally was able to step up big, but never an all-star. Defense- Pros: Won't let opponents try to box him in. Seems to always keep something in the reserves. Strong in spurts Cons: Doesn't always put the effort into his posting game. Relys heavily on his teammates to do the work he should be doing himself. He sometimes concedes too much credibility to opposing offense in the hopes of a sportsmanlike game even though he knows that opposing coaches are probably guilty of all the sleezy things he won't seize upon. Occasionally disappears from entirely. Offense- Pros: Tenacious and won't give up when he feels the game is on the line. Franchise is adept at exploring opponents weaknesses. When he puts the work into his game he's able to score big from anywhere on the left, but is capable of taking it strong up the middle particularly on issues of ethics and spin. Cons: Occasionally plays too nice with opponents defense. He often takes himself out of games when it appears that his teammates have the situation under control. He sometimes lacks the killer instinct finding it hard to believe that certain war issues would even be defened by his opponents. Fantasy Value: Might be worth a pickup if you can get him for cheap. If he finds the time to put the proper research into his game again he could be deadly, and will occasionally score big in the interim, but don't expect regular or consistent output from him.
Didn't feel like starting a new thread for this guy. The next James Carville: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,62049,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_7
