Back where we b(e)lo(n)g
Monday, February 11, 2008
On sabbatical, on winter break, on a month-long bender. Whatever the excuse, the site has been quiet, our Ballhype ranking has fallen into a distant zip code, and the sports blognoscenti have been a few pundits short.
Yet like Agent Zero--who we'll get to soon enough--we're coming back.
But before moving forward, we've got to look behind. Seeking accountability for our 2007 mistakes (many), let's first dwell on WRG's successes. Such as they were last year.
What we got rite
That the Santana trade epic was putting us to sleep (December 2007). Apparently the Yanks and BoSox felt the same way.
That the Wizards bench guards would be better than expected; that Roger Mason was better than any NBDL pick-up the Wizards would make; that Mike Wilks would be worth signing in the event of an Antonio Daniels injury (December 2007). Well...we originally did this tally before the current streak of eight Ls. But Caron injury aside, the Wizards' guards have played better than expected, with Mason emerging in his free agent year.
That the T-Wolves were going to be awful, then knock off a few good teams (November 2007). Yes--we're already reaching--and we know the timing's a bit off. But the Wolves did morph from patsy into a giant-killer for a few glorious games; the Heat look on with envy.
That Jarrett Carter was a commenting phenom (October 2007). Scott Van Pelt now asks JC for style tips.
That Michael Wilbon might be too diversified for his own good (September 2007). The out-of-touch comments on the Sean Taylor tragedy sadly seemed to back this up.
That Andray Blatche's mistake was a lucrative one--for the Wizards (August 2007). Many Bullets fans saw this coming, but Andray's taken a good (although not great) step forward.
What others got rite, riting on our site
That Jason Maxiell would "turn heads" (November 2007, Natalie Sitto, Need4Sheed).
That Al Jefferson would make a strong transition to the West (November 2007, Anthony Hall, Twolvesblog.com).
That David Lee would lose minutes this year (Mike, Knickerblogger.net). Amazing, but true.
That the Magic would win the Southeast (October 2007, Black and Blue Jor, the Howeva Files).
That Damon Stoudamire would be out of Memphis by midseason (October 2007, Spartacus, 3 Shades of Blue).
What we got rong
That the Terps had top-20 talent (August 2007). But the longer we wait to rite this recap, the Terps look increasingly less Hokie and a lot more ready to March.
That the Bucks were a team on the rise (September 2007). Whoops. You win, Weinman.
That the Cleveland-Colorado World Series was worth previewing (October 2007). Cursing Jobu, our Pedro Cerrano offers a thousand hosannas.
That a score of 104-67 in the UNC-Penn basketball game was "generous" to the Quakers (December 2007). It was actually 106-71.
That--speaking of Penn--basketball player-turned-blogger Steve Danley was promising but annoying (June 2007). True, some of his posts for the NYT have taken flack, but the inside comparison of how his two coaches differed won us over.
What we got sort-of in the middle
That Kelly Dwyer's new Yahoo! blog did not, in fact, suck (December 2007). While we loved it, the Yahoo! muckety-mucks weren't quite as sold.
That, rather than serve as a platform for youth, the NBDL was trending toward experienced players (December 2007). When we wrote the post, the well-traveled Jelani McCoy and Eddie Gill had been the only two call-ups of the '07-'08 season; while Luke Jackson immediately followed, six of the next seven players called up were true young'uns, save DerMarr Johnson.
That, just as ACL tears went from career-mangling to manageable, microfracture isn't the death knell it once seemed (October 2007). Amare's playing like a beast, and Zero plans to come back from his own in near-record time. But the sample size remains too tiny to draw major conclusions; give us another few years--say, (Sean) May 2010--to revisit.
That Kobe could still write his L.A. story (November 2007). So far, Ga-so-l good, but still 45+ games too early to call this one in our favor.
Labels: 2007 revisited, our anticlimactic return
posted by Crucifictorious @ 23:58,
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