Flip Saunders?
Sure, why not. Saunders is a good enough NBA coach. He's not a closer like Pat Riley or Phil Jackson or a builder like Larry Brown. And he's not a efficient tough guy like Jerry Sloan or Greg Poppovich. But if you give him good players that have good attitudes, he can win you 50 games and make the playoffs. He hasn't made it to the Finals, but so what. He's like Rick Adelman, Doc Rivers, Stan Van Gundy, and a lot of other NBA coaches. You don't get excited at the mention of his name but he can succeed with good talent. If the Wizards are healthy next season, they can be a playoff team again with the same guys they have on their roster right now. If not, then they won't be much good again. Mike Wilbon pressed for Avery Johnson in a recent column, and I think that would have been fine. But this team won't make that next step to contender until Gilbert Arenas get serious about defense and their younger players get serious about being professionals. But Saunders shouldn't have any problem getting a healthy Wizards team back to where Eddie Jordan had them a few years ago.
Who cares about the schedule right now?
The NFL has done it again, getting all of us to pay attention to a complete non event. Last night, they announced the schedule for 2009. Now we already know who will be playing who, but tonight they will give us the actual dates and times for each game. Oooooohhhhhh! Forgive me for not bowing to the almighty NFL, but I did not watch. I don't care right now. I know my Redskins will be playing the AFC West, NFC South, Detroit, and St. Louis along with their NFC East slate of games. And I know that it means nothing as of right now. 2008's sorry team could be 2009's contender. We have no idea. At this time last year, the Miami Dolphins were coming off an embarassing 1-15 season where they looked almost as inept as 2008's 0-16 Detroit Lions. Then they drafted Jake Long, signed Chad Pennington, made a few other moves and won their division with a team not much more talented than the one they fielded in 2007. Detroit or St. Louis could the same thing in 2009. the Raiders or Chiefs could be instantly better as well; at the same time, an expected contender like Carolina could go straight down the crapper for no reason we can see right now.
New Playoff Brackets (just for this year)!
Skip the first round in the East, except for Atlanta vs. Miami. Let the Lakers play three rounds of exhibitions, then the winner of the inevitable Boston-Cleveland Eastern Final.
Flip will Flop