Rants and Ranks

I don't know what to think.  My all time favorite band released a new single , quite frankly, I'm not digging it.  We've all had this scenario where our band of choice shows their new stuff and we go, "Ew, I'm not sure where I'm liking where they are headed."  Normally I wouldn't be so concerned because Heavyweight, the first single from the last album Curve, wasn't a knockout by any means.  In fact, it may be one of my least favorite songs on that CD.  But, they just lost their original drummer, Jeremy Taggart as well.  Speculation is running wild that he left due to creative differences.  And after hearing Won't Turn Back, I wouldn't blame him.  If this does set the tone for the new album direction, then I suppose you can count me out.  Again, this is all rumor at this point, the dude may have just been burnt out and ready for a change.  (CM Punk anyone?) The OLP cynics can just use this for more fuel for their fire.  When O...

Seriously I'm shocked.  I still thought Miami was the front-runners for the LBJ Sweepstakes Part II.  I mean really, should he stayed they would have got nice additions in free agency like they did 3 of the 4 years he was there.  Unfortunately for Miami, Wade, Riley, and Heat fans everywhere, the year they didn't add anyone was the year they got stomped by the Spurs right before he could opt-out. On paper the Cleveland team looked promising.  But we also said that before last year, and they didn't even make the playoffs in the less than appealing Eastern Conference. Allegedly Dion Waiters and Kyrie Irving hate each other, Bennett disappointed big time, and Luol Deng couldn't wait to leave the moment he was traded there.  Can LeBron fix all that? If you're wining, I would assume that would shut up both Kyrie and Dion. If not, I'm sure LeBron could just say "see ya" to one of them, and they would be gone the next day.  One would reasonably assume it ...

I had been throwing out my draft lottery remixes for the past few months, enjoying writing with a hindsight of 20/20 about how NBA draft lotteries should have played out.  My initial interest in doing this was from a SLAM magazine from nearly ten years ago talking about my beloved '96 draft. They redid the draft on how it should have went.  I thought that was a cool concept.  I highly doubt SLAM was the first to do this, but it was the first I had ever seen.  Bill Simmons frequently makes mention "if player X was drafted knowing what we know now, he would have went first," or "player Y would have been a late first-round pick instead of a lottery pick if...".  So it got me thinking about ranking them myself.  It would help me remember players I forgot, remind me how "blank" used to be good before he declined drastically and we forgot he was good in the first place.  Etc. etc. etc. Well Mr. Simmons one upped me by redoing every d...