NBA fantasy: Hitting the Wall
Wizards guard John Wall is having a horrendous season. Perhaps with a new coach coming in, he can turn it around.
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We are a quarter of the way through the season. Yes, already. Flip Saunders, dismissed by Washington on Wednesday, makes it two coaches fired so far. others will likely follow. this week, we’ll look at who should benefit from a new regime in Washington and what other coaches are on thin ice and who would benefit if they get replaced sometime down the line:
- John Wall certainly can’t get any worse. He’s been a huge disappointment, one monstrous game aside, amidst a sophomore slump for the ages. Perhaps Randy Wittman will help get Wall going, he certainly has the talent to be a fantasy stalwart. Expect Nick Young, JaVale McGee and Jordan Crawford to look better as well. I’m not sure Rashard Lewis or Andray Blatche will find their way under Wittman, but again, like Wall, they shouldn’t look any worse. Perhaps rookie F Jan Vesely will get more of a look. He has shown some flashes.
- Mike D’Antoni is in trouble in New York, unless the arrival of Baron Davis can save him. Carmelo Anthony is a terrible fit in his system and has ruined the career resurgence of Amare Stoudemire, who was fantastic before his arrival last season. If a slow-it-down coach replace D’Antoni at some point, both Melo and Stoudemire probably would benefit and Landry Fields might find his lost game.
- no other coaches seem in danger in the East, except possibly for Paul Silas in Charlotte. Michael Jordan likes Silas, but if the Bobcats keep losing, they could make a move. Bismack Biyombo is starting to get more playing time there and is making an impact, despite being very raw.
- In the West, Monty Williams could be on shaky ground in New Orleans, but the NBA-owned team is unlikely to make a coaching change unless things get really bad. that roster needs an overhaul. Chris Kaman is not a reserve centre. In Phoenix, Alvin Gentry could pay for the mistakes of his bosses, but the team would be smart to keep him. They need to find a way to get Channing Frye going, along with rookie Markieff Morris, who has faded after a tremendous start.
- we got into some surprises and disappointments last week, but here are a few more: SURPRISES: Samuel Dalembert – where did this run come from? He is carrying the Rockets (14 points, 11 rebounds, two blocks per game over six game winning streak), who have been getting poor results from F Luis Scola. Andris Biedrins – Shooting 71% from the floor, Biedrins has been better defensively while contributing blocks, rebounds and steals. Omer Asik – the Bulls centre has made up for a slow start by Joakim Noah. He’s one of the best defensive big men around and is hitting most of his shots as well. Kyle Lowry – He was nearly averaging a triple double, so no surprise when he got one the other day. He’s been brilliant. WHAT HAPPENED? Scola – see above. Lamar Odom – Trade shattered his confidence. Stephen Jackson – Not happy in Milwaukee. Devin Harris – has not lived up to the hype. Danny Granger – Yikes, he was once a top 15 player.
Trainer’s room ticker/Injury updates
The Bulls say F Luol Deng could be sidelined “for some time” due to wrist ligament damage. That’s a crushing blow as he was playing well and is a key performer for them. Ronnie Brewer and Kyle Korver owners will see a boost in their minutes … Kirk Hinrich hoped to make his season debut for Atlanta on Wednesday night … Boston stars Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo should be back later this week … Dallas is being cautions with star PF Dirk Nowitzki, who could sit all week due to a sore knee he says is hurting from over-use … the Pistons are banged up with guards Ben Gordon, Rodney Stuckey and will Bynum all day-to-day, along with F Charlie Villanueva … Wolves G J.J. Barea could miss one-two weeks with an ankle injury … Knicks PG Baron Davis expects to make his season debut within a couple of weeks … Philadelphia is without big men Spencer Hawes and Nikola Vucevic for at least a couple more days … SF Josh Howard expects to return for Utah against the Raptors on Wednesday. Andrea Bargnani was a game-time decision on Tuesday night against Phoenix and would be back against Utah at the latest.
With fantasy rating out of 5
Watch for rust as he has been out for months, but Hinrich has always been a solid player who hits threes, gets assists, steals and even a few rebounds. will get minutes as he can play either alongside Joe Johnson, or starting PG Jeff Teague.
Might be worth claiming with return looking close. Davis is streaky, but should be able to put up some fantastic numbers under Mike D’Antoni. Assuming D’Antoni sticks around in New York for a while.
Showing why he was once a big-time prospect and top draft pick. Averaging 12 points, 3 assists, 4 rebounds and a steal over past three games and shooting 54.8% for the season.
Doc Rivers loves him and Pietrus is fitting in great in Boston. with Ray Allen ailing, Air France has stepped up, nailing the outside shots Allen is known for. He also gets steals and rebounds.
Shooting was always Farmar’s Achilles Heel, but the career 42.4% shooter (36.3% from three) is up to 47.7% from the field (45.7% from long-range). with Deron Williams often out of the lineup, Farmar is worth considering.
Over the past two weeks, a number of players have been hitting a considerable number of threes. the Magic, Heat and Nuggets apparently have no qualms about firing away:
Ryan Anderson, ORL – 2.9 3PM; Hedo Turkoglu, ORL – 2.8; Joe Johnson, ATL – 2.6
Al Harrington, DEN – 2.6; Brandon Jennings, MIL – 2.5; Chauncey Billups, LAC – 2.5
Derrick Rose, CHI – 2.5; Jodie Meeks, PHI – 2.4; O.J. Mayo, MEM – 2.4
Mario Chalmers, MIA – 2.3; Arron Afflalo, DEN – 2.2; Mike Miller, MIA – 2.2
Surprises and disappointments (over the last two weeks)
Samuel Dalembert, C, HOU
9 GP, 11.6 PPG, 10.9 RPG, ,.579 FG%, 2.4 BPG
8 GP, 11.6 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 9.8 APG, 3.7 SPG
5 GP, 19.4 PPG, 3.2 APG, 1.0 SPG, .603FG%, 1.6 3PM
4 GP, 14.5 PPG, 5.5 RPG, 4.2 APG, 2.5 SPG, .440 FG%
Blake Griffin, F, LAC
8 GP, 18.3 PPG, 12.4 RPG, .469 FG%, .424 FT%, 3.0 TPG
Andray Blatche, F, WAS
6 GP, 9.2 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 2.0 TPG, .356 FG%
DeMar DeRozan, G, TOR
8 GP, 15.0 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 0.6 APG, .344 FG%^, 2.4 TPG
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Categories: New York City Jobs Tags: fantasy, javale mcgee, raptors, rashard lewis, stalwart
Jobs Doom or Boom for Obama? Neither
January jobs numbers were essentially positive as the economy added 243,000 jobs and cut the unemployment rate to 8.3% from 8.5%, but what happened in January won’t necessarily transform into November votes. 
“Don’t muck it up,” Obama said, referring to Congress, in a speech after the Bureau of Labor Statistics had released the jobs numbers. “The number is high, but the trend is in the right direction. …To have successive months of increasing employment and decreasing unemployment rates, those are good signs,” said David Weiman, a Barnard College economist. “I do think that’s what individuals are looking at — they’re obviously concerned where they are, but they’re also sort of figuring out what’s going to happen down the road.” Weiman warned that recent positive trends aren’t necessarily permanent for 2012, and he specifically cited the hope that nothing goes “crazy” in Europe. the continent continues to struggle with the sovereign debt crisis that has roiled eurozone nations since 2011. Republican front-runner Mitt Romney released his spin on Friday’s jobs numbers, as he said he welcomed the unemployment decline, but that the president’s policies have prevented true economic recovery. “Last week, we learned that the economy grew only 1.7% in 2011, the slowest growth in a non-recession year since the end of World War II,” Romney said in a statement. “Unfortunately, these numbers cannot hide the fact that President Obama’s policies have prevented a true economic recovery.” Romney tactically chose to highlight overall economic growth in order to avoid more favorable comments on the strong uptick in job growth — a number the Obama campaign is likely to tout for the next month. the Romney tactic seems like a bag of mixed goods. one economist has argued that unemployment is part of a greater collection of economic indicators that could determine November’s election. Yale economist Ray fair said in an interview that his presidential vote equation argues if per-capita GDP has grown in the three quarters before an election, then voters would take it as a positive sign. He adds that the unemployment rate and job growth are two indicators correlated to overall growth.
Jobs Doom or Boom for Obama? Neither
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Categories: New York City Jobs Tags: bureau of labor statistics, unemployment rate, unemployment rates
Old Tappan’s Fuller still has Notre Dame on list
It would seem as though Fuller’s decision to wait to commit is paying off as the picture of where he should attend college is becoming clearer with each passing day.
The nation’s top QB, Gunner Kiel, just enrolled at Notre Dame.
UCLA, just yesterday, picked up a commitment from ESPN Top 150 QB TJ Millweard.
On Monday Arizona picked up a commitment from a dual-threat QB from Texas, their second QB in the 2012 class. Arizona has signed 5 QB’s in the last 3 years.
Baylor has no QB commits in 2012 and has not signed a QB in two years, due to the presence of RG3.
If Fuller wants early playing time in an dynamic offense (2nd in the nation in Total Offense, 10th in Rushing Offense and 4th in Passing Offense) that’s not rebuilding (like Arizona is), but reloading…Baylor is the place. Art Briles evaluates and develops QB’s better than anyone in the country…Kevin Kolb, Case Keenum and now Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III.
At Baylor, Fuller would be in the backfield with former 5-star RB Lache Seastrunk, a sophomore and one of the fastest RB’s in the nation. With Fuller at QB, Baylor would have more speed on offense than anyone in the country.
Old Tappan’s Fuller still has Notre Dame on list
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Categories: New York City Jobs Tags: backfield, case keenum, playing time, sophomore
Credit Suisse Plans to Eliminate 109 Jobs in New York Site
February 01, 2012, 11:38 AM EST
by Hugh Son
(Updates with job cuts in the third paragraph.)
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) — Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland’s second-largest bank, told New York state regulators it plans to eliminate 109 jobs in Manhattan beginning in March.
the cuts were disclosed by the Zurich-based company in a filing dated yesterday with the state Department of Labor. the document cited economic reasons and listed Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC offices at 1 Madison Avenue and 11 Madison Avenue. Dismissals will start March 8 and extend through May 1, according to the filing.
Victoria Harmon, a Credit Suisse spokeswoman, said the figures are part of dismissals announced last year and declined to comment further. the bank said in November it would eliminate 1,500 jobs in addition to the 2,000 cuts announced in July as profit declined.
Securities firms came under pressure as dealmaking and trading slowed on concern that Europe’s debt crisis may deepen. Standard & Poor’s said in a Jan. 27 statement that brokers and investment bankers “are likely to face a prolonged period of low profitability and possibly other financial pressures because of ongoing weakness” in global markets.
the New York State Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN Act, requires private employers with 50 or more people in New York state to provide 90 days’ notice of a plant closing, mass layoff, relocation or reduction in work hours.
Credit Suisse may cut its 2011 bonus pool by 25 percent as its securities unit reports a loss for a second consecutive quarter, Morgan Stanley analysts estimated in a research note today, saying they expect 2011 profit to drop by almost half to 2.64 billion Swiss francs ($2.87 billion).
–Editors: Dan Reichl, Peter Eichenbaum
To contact the reporter on this story: Hugh Son in New York at hson1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net
Credit Suisse Plans to Eliminate 109 Jobs in New York Site
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Categories: New York City Jobs Tags: ag switzerland, dismissals, new york state, state regulators, usa llc
Author Andrew Keen cries out against Facebook and lost privacy
“I’m here as a crier, raising my voice in defense of lost privacy,” entrepreneur and author Andrew keen said, directly attacking Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s expressed views on identity and privacy.
Keen, the author of the soon-to-be-released book “Digital Vertigo,” delved into the actual and ideological dangers associated with the social web at the Digital Life Design conference in Munich.
Keen ultimately called for web denizens to push back against the powers that be and collectively rehabilitate solitude. “we as the little brothers, we are the collective big brother of the 21st century,” keen said.
Keen believes that we, the social sharers of the world, have fallen victim to the seductive notion — he calls it “the cult of the social” — pushed forward by Facebook (and other social services) that we inherently want to be social. he spoke of this cultish way of thinking as a fallacy that leaves us victims to the whims of hungry advertisers. We’ve become the product, he said. “We’re selling ourselves.”
Keen’s thesis of a collective resistance is a bit idealistic in nature, but it certainly provides one answer to the growing uneasiness around the idea of privacy, or lack thereof, on the web.
His comments followed European Commissioner Viviane Reding’s keynote address on European legislation in development that is being designed to allow the free movement of personal data and the protection of that data. Reding spoke about a person’s fundamental right to be forgotten, or the right for an individual to withdraw their consent to personal data shared on the web.
“Even tiny scraps of personal information can have a huge impact,” she said, speaking of the individual’s right to know what data is being collected, for what purpose and for how long. “The individual is in best position to protect their own data.”
“I’ve got bad news for the Commissioner,” keen said, unabashedly pointing to Facebook, and the social network’s mission to get the people of the world to reveal their real selves on the web, as that bad news.
“we need to learn how to live alone,” keen argued.
But Keen’s decree may be more idealistic than plausible, especially considering that Facebook has become the center of what many experts have long called the next evolution of the web, where identity and social serve as the foundation for a personalized browsing experience.
Big brother, be damned.
Disclosure: The Digital Life Design conference paid my way to Munich. VentureBeat’s coverage of DLD 12 remains objective and independent.
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People: Andrew Keen, Viviane Reding
Author Andrew Keen cries out against Facebook and lost privacy
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Categories: New York City Jobs Tags: coo, cult, keen, munich
