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Portland’s drafting of guard C.J. McCollum is getting some second-guessing on the blogosphere. Adam Fromal of bleacherreport.com gives Portland a C+ grade.
He says McCollum is small enough he’ll have to settle in as a point guard, where the Trail Blazers already have Damian Lillard.
According to Fromal: “As a result, this was a strange pick. The scoring potential of the Blazers lineup is striking, but there were bigger priorities in Rip City than adding to an already strong backcourt. Steven Adams was still on the board, for example, and there was a glaring hole at center.”
Fromal says there won’t be enough room on the roster for Portland’s No. 31 selection of shooting guard Allen Crabbe of Californa. But center Jeff Withey, No. 39, out of Kansas gets high marks: “Jeff Withey isn’t just a great shot-blocker, he’s a great defender who understands timing and rotations perfectly. Even without top-notch athleticism, Withey will be a great rim-protector in the NBA.”
Bleacherreport’s Luke Petkac writes: “There’s no question that McCollum was the best player on the board at that point, and he’ll provide some much-needed depth for the Blazers. Still, it’s unclear if he and Lillard will be able to play big minutes together — as it stands, they’ll be in trouble defensively.”
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Here’s another Mariners’ name — reliever Oliver Perez — getting some mention in Major League Baseball trade rumors.
Perez is having a nice season in Seattle and is throwing hard again with a fastball averaging about 93 mph. He also has one of the best rates of stranding base runners in the majors. Add to his numbers this one: He’ll only make $330,000 for the final two months of the season.
But Perez has a high base-on-balls rate and a high fly-ball percentage. That latter statistic could be disastrous in a smaller park.
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NFL training camps open in three weeks (Seattle on July 26) so it’s not too early to talk about football.
Bleacherreport.com did a ranking of the top 65 quarterbacks in the league heading into 2013. A few of the numbers: No. 62 Tim Tebow, No. 55. Brady Quinn (now with the Seahawks) No. 31 Jake Locker, and No. 9 Russell Wilson.
About Quinn: “…struggles to find the open man and doesn’t have the confidence to throw receivers open. He’s purely a backup at this point.”
