Cavaliers trade Joe Harris

The Cleveland Cavaliers made a small move that could open the door for an addition near the trade deadline as the team sent injured guard Joe Harris to Orlando for the 2020 second rounder of the Portland Trail Blazers.
Cleveland sent the Sacramento Kings 2017 second rounder and cash to Orlando as well.

Harris played in five games with the Cavaliers and another ten with the Cleveland affiliate in Canton with the Charge before injuring his foot.
Harris just underwent surgery on the foot today,so clearly the deal for Orlando is for the cash and willing to wait to get anything out of Harris,
For Cleveland,the trade opens up three million dollars that the team could save against the luxury tax,but it also opens up a spot on the roster for a player that could be bought out by the February
deadline from elsewhere.
Often,one can obtain a valuable role player at those times for a fraction of the cost of obtaining a player via the trade route,so this could be a minor deal that leads to something with a larger impact on the roster.

Harris was a second round pick in 2014 from Virginia by the Cavaliers,averaging 2.7 points in 51 games and played often in the first part of the 2014-15 season before seeing the playing time that he was getting dwindle to the level of the DNP.
Harris is known for his outside shot and could eventually help a team with three point shooting prowess,should he return to full strength from the foot surgery.

Cleaning out the inbox

Time to clean out the inbox and we start with the passing of David Bowie at 69.
I would consider myself to be somewhat of a Bowie fan,although not nearly as large as some.
I prefer his 70's stuff a little more to his 80's comeback songs,which received tons of radio play when I was in high school.
Bowie was a master of re-invented himself through various personas and characters,most notably the Ziggy Stardust character,which is what is still most often recalled in shows and commercials that involve Bowie.
Bowie also appeared in several films,plays and television shows with one that I remember best was a cameo with of all people,Bing Crosby to sing "the little drummer boy".....

Another star of my youth passed away as Wayne Rogers,best known for his role as Trapper John on MASH,passed at the age of 82.
Rogers as Trapper was always my favorite character of the MASH bunch,but he left the show after three seasons as it seemed Alan Alda's Hawkeye was transitioned into the main star,where the movie (and book) had Hawkeye and Trapper as equals.
I always looked at the long run of MASH as three different shows-slapstick rebellion with Hawkeye and Trapper messing with Frank Burns,a funny transition period with Mike Farrell as B.J.Trapper's replacement and then more of a "Dramedy" after Larry Linville's Frank Burns left the show.
Rogers would later star in "House Calls" for a few years and played Major Anthony Nelson (replacing Larry Hagman,who wasn't interested) in a I dream of Jeannie reunion movie.
Rogers would leave acting in the 1990's for the most part to pursue a career in financial management and had been seen often in recent years on Saturday morning's on "Cashing In" a show about finances on the Fox News Channel.

Peter King does a great job in his Monday Morning Quarterback column in addressing the issues and answers on the possible move to Los Angeles from the views of the cities and fans in San Diego,St.Louis and Oakland.
I feel for all of those cities and fans....

The AKC has added two new breeds to its registry in the American Hairless Terrier and the Sloughi have been added.
The Hairless is a spinoff of the rat terrier off of one puppy born that way in the 1970's,while Sloughi is similar to the Saluki-an African hound built for long distance running.

If you like the cole slaw at Chick-fil-a,,you had better hurry up and get some because next Monday (18th) will be the last chance to buy yourself some.
The chain is discontinuing the slaw,but did put the recipe online,so you can get close to it at home.
If you click the above link,it'll give it to you as well...

Disgrace to the game

It was sad to watch the "game" Saturday night between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals.
Not just because the Steelers were handed a victory by two boneheaded decisions by the Bengals and not just because of the sloppy play that could be somewhat blamed on the rainy conditions.

No, this game was disgraceful by the behavior of the two teams on the field and the actions of both teams reflected badly on the game itself.
I cannot say I was surprised that something happened, but I was surprised that so much of it occurred.
Pittsburgh has employed players that made a career of questionable tactics for years such as Joey Porter (and then bring him back as a coach), James Harrison, and even offensive players such as the now-retired Hines Ward known for his knee-cutting blocks, but Cincinnati has slowly begun to rival the Steelers and Ravens for players with thuggish behavior as Marvin Lewis, who coached in both Pittsburgh and Baltimore copied the M.O. by giving every malcontent/cheap shot artist that he could "rehabilitate" a position on his club.

This game featured the Bengals' Vontaze Burfict nearly knocking Antonio Brown's head off with a cheap shot, Adam "Pac Man" Jones pushing coaches, Jeremy Hill challenging four Steelers to a fight and someone coming off the bench to push a Steeler for a penalty that allowed a Steeler drive to continue.

Pittsburgh certainly wasn't going to allow that to stand as Ryan Shazier knocked out Giovanni Bernard on a play that deserved a flag (I'm a huge Shazier fan, but that wasn't clean), William Gay dancing around in the endzone (earning a flag), Mike Munchak(a coach!) drawing a flag for pulling the hair of a Bengal along with the aforementioned Porter in the middle of the field arguing with Bengals and drawing the flag that meant the game.

I'm still trying to figure out what Porter (a linebackers coach) was doing on the field with the fallen Antonio Brown (an offensive player), but he was an instigator as a player so it makes sense to do it as a coach.
It's been reported (with no verification) that Porter was voted a game ball for his stunt with Pac-Man Jones- classy.

This just scratches the surface of the issues of this game.
Look, I'm not a violet and I love a hard-nosed game, but this went beyond that- it was just plain dirty and cheap.
In other words, a sad excuse for a game.

Editors Note: Forgot to mention Mike Tomlin going for two with the score 15-0.
The extra point would have meant it would have taken 2 touchdowns and 2 two-point conversions to tie-no coach decided to go for two in that situation unless you are trying to run the score up or your kicker is injured, which Chris Boswell was not.
A Steeler loss would have been worth Tomlin trying to explain that decision alone.

I don't blame Steelers fans for being happy with the win, it is the playoffs and you take it any way that you can get it, but I wouldn't be proud about it.
Bengals fans shouldn't complain too much (although the Shazier hit should have been a penalty) as they played in just as bad of a manner and even they added to the "event" with the throwing stuff at an injured Ben Rothlisberger.

Marvin Lewis clearly has lost control of his team and you can make a real case for his removal of the old NCAA term "Lack of institutional control".
Meanwhile, you watch the same old Steeler routine every week with Mike Tomlin with his sheepish grin of tacit approval at press conferences basically condoning this crap.
It's simply a sad state of affairs in both cities.

A friend of mine has been a Bengals fan for years and last night, he had enough and renounced his fandom.
It was that bad and it was a disgrace to the game...

TRS Boxing Awards

The time is here for the first annual TRS boxing awards.
I didn't do a round of the year as so many do on these types of things.

Fighter of the year:Gennady Golovkin.

Many gave this award to Canelo Alvarez,but as exciting as his win over James Kirkland was,it was over a limited fighter and I'm always hesitant to give an award based off of one fight (decisioning Miguel Cotto).
Golovkin added the IBF title with a KO of David Lemieux along with stoppages over Willie Monroe Jr and Martin Murray in a three fight season.
Hopefully,GGG can get Canelo in the ring for a megafight before 2016 ends and not at catchweights either..

Fight of the year:Lucas Matthysse vs Ruslan Provodnikov
This bout looked on paper to be a war and it was just that.
Matthysse took a majority decision that I scored a draw.
As I've said before-If you don't like Ruslan Provodnikov and his heart-this isn't the game for you..



Knockout of the year
Canelo Alvarez KO 3 James Kirkland
Kirkland's chin may not be the best,but his aggressiveness and punch can never be questioned.
Alvarez exposed the former with a knockout that spun Kirkland around and left him supine on the canvas.

Prospect of the Year
Errol Spence
Spence narrowly earned the nod over Puerto Rico's Felix Verdejo.
Spence just might turn out to be the mainstream star that Al Haymon's Premiere Boxing Champions badly needs....

This was a little shorter than usual because of a family issue at home that was a distraction.
I'll do better next year-Promise!

Pigskin Picking Machine-Playoff Edition

We continue to the NFL Playoffs and add the National Championship for College.

Last week:3-3
Overall:100- 43

National Championship
Alabama over Clemson 38-21

NFL Playoffs
Chiefs over Texans 21-14
Steelers over Bengals 35-28
Seahawks over Vikings 24-19
Packers over Redskins 26-20

Podcast-90 minutes of Browns talk with Brian Kelley

We have 90 minutes of top to bottom Browns talk with Brian Kelley!

Browns hire Paul DePodesta???

I was originally going to do a podcast on this development, but the road office was a bit busy this evening, so the time delay turned it into a blog post.

The hole at the top of the Cleveland Browns that I wondered about after the firings of Mike Pettine and Ray Farmer and the resulting placement of Sashi Brown at the head of football operations was filled quickly.

The name was sending shockwaves throughout not just the NFL, but the sports world as the new head of the Cleveland Browns was Paul DePodesta of the New York METS.

Yes, the New York METS-who last I watched in October played baseball.
You know baseball-the little small round white seamed ball.

As opposed to football-the pointed-ended brown ball filled with air, which is what the Browns play.
DePodesta was a football player at Harvard (which is more than Sashi Brown) and is the newest chip thrown into the middle of the table under the heading of Analytics.
DePodesta holds the shiny new title of Chief Strategy Officer, which sounds more like something that should be held on the starship Enterprise and will be one of what the Browns call a four-pronged approach with Sashi Brown, Alec Scheiner, and the eventual head coach...

Now this certainly qualifies as out-of-the-box thinking for the Browns and I can certainly see the logic in avoiding what seems to be the same old decision-making Browns, but I'm still puzzled a bit.
I have real issues with Sashi Brown having the final say on a 53-man roster and I have been an advocate of getting rid of whatever it is that Alec Scheiner does since he screwed up the uniforms so badly, but DePodesta is such a catch that I'm willing to give this a chance.

Can this work?
Well, analytics certainly has its place and shouldn't be ignored, but my biggest concerns are these-
How much do they come into play when evaluating talent (draft especially) and can you get a head coach that buys in totally because a halfway effort isn't going to go well for anyone involved...

This (once again) smacks of the usual Browns thinking that they are the smartest guys in the room and are ahead of the curve.
The management structure that the Browns are using is not one filled with success, but considering what Brown's fans have suffered through, it's worth a try.

After all-can it gets much worse????
The answer is -Yes, it can-It's the Browns