A group headed by Mandalay Entertainment’s Peter Guber and financier Joe Lacob will buy the Golden State Warriors for a record-setting $450 million, CNBC’s Darren Rovell is reporting.
The previous high was the $401 million Robert Sarver paid to acquire the Phoenix Suns in 2004. The New Jersey Nets sold to Mikhail Prokhorov for just $200 million — but the sale was just part of a much-wider deal that put millions of Prokhorov’s money into the financing of the Nets’ new arena in Brooklyn.
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Forgive me for descending into comic-book geekery, but I see Anthony Randolph as the Bizarro Brandon Jennings. Jennings was so far under the radar heading into this season, he actually opted to watch the draft on television from his hotel room, rather than risk getting stuck in the “green room” with a disappointed look on his face.
Randolph, on the other hand, was the single biggest star of the summer — even receiving an invite to Team USA’s mini-camp.
Look at ‘em now. Jennings is breaking rookie records set by the likes of Kareem. Randolph is getting used out-of-position as a backup center.
But take heart, fantasy owners. Don Nelson has heard your pleas, and he’s going to make it all better. As he told the Contra Costa Times:
You ain’t seen nothing yet. He’s going to be a blessed guy if he can mentally prepare himself and handle what I’m going to give him. Because both he and Radmanovic has the ability as a big player to handle the ball and to make it difficult for the defense to match up with us. As long as he grows and matures and understands what we’re doing — and it was a very good practice (Sunday) for him — the sky’s the limit on how I can use the guy and go to his strengths.
That quote is making the rounds of all the sports blogs this morning, and fantasy players everywhere are breathing a huge sigh of relief. “Finally,” they're saying, “we'll start to get some value this freakin’ guy.”
Don’t get your hopes up.
Read the entire article at NBA.com Fool Me Once….
From: Justin Phan
Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 2:23 PM
To: Charlie Zegers
Subject: Slow Starters
There’s a certain point of the season – where you cut those “project” and “upside”-type picks who are simply not performing up to par. Over at the Fantasy Basketball Cafe we field a wide variety of roster questions, and you start to get a sense of which players managers are starting to give up on (or at least starting to get skeptical/worried about).
via Give and Go: Project run away? – Fantasy – Yahoo! Sports.
From: Charlie Zegers
Date: November 4, 2009 10:10:55 PM EST
To: Justin Phan
Subject: Give and Go – Silver Linings
You’re a Warriors fan. I’m a Knicks fan. So over the last few years, between us, we’ve seen an awful lot of awful basketball.
It seems reasonable to expect more of the same this season – and not just from our hometown teams. There are too many teams that are playing out the string, waiting for next year’s free agent class, or waiting for the economy to turn around, or some combination of the two. I don’t think we’ll see any teams approach 1972-73 Sixers levels of badness … but the Kings and Bucks and T-Wolves and Nets and Grizzlies, and probably three or four other teams, may have a hard time hitting the 20-win plateau.
Meanwhile teams like the Lakers and Spurs and Magic and Celtics seem even more loaded than in years past.
Generally, I’m a little bit wary of big-name fantasy players on obvious contenders. Guys like Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan, Ray Allen and Manu Ginobili – their primary focus is the games in May and June, and they’ll sacrifice individual statistics and playing time towards that larger goal. But I can’t help wondering – is there a flip side to that approach?
via Give and Go: Looking in the cellar – Fantasy – Yahoo! Sports.
A quick trip around the league, as training camps open for all 30 NBA teams:
Golden State: Warriors camp is off to a rousing start, with Stephen Jackson repeating his demand for a trade, and Monta Ellis telling reporters that he can’t play with rookie Stephen Curry. For what it’s worth, I don’t really think an Ellis/Curry backcourt makes a ton of sense either… but if I was a member of the team, I’d probably keep that opinion to myself. One of the biggest feel-good stories in the league just a couple of seasons ago, the Warriors seem to be in open revolt against coach Don Nelson. This could get ugly.