In a league thats dominated by uber-athletic shooting guards and small forwards, its strange to see a big man thats able to just dominate in the NBA D-League. While that pattern is also evident in the NBA, its more glaring in the D-League as there hasnt been a single big thts been given a major NBADL award (Rookie of the Year, MVP Defensive Player of the Year) since the 2010-11 season. However, that changes with former Raptors 905 big Walter Tavares.
From the moment that the Raptors 905 acquired 73 center Tavares off waivers on November 13th, he immediately stood as one of the more intriguing prospects in the entire D-League. Of course, a lot of that intrigue was due to Tavares standing at 73 while possessing an incredible 79 wingspan, which immediately put him as one of the tallest players in league. In addition to that awe-inspiring frame, Tavares showed incredible mobility on the defensive end, which gave him tremendous potential as a shot-blocker.
While a lot of players just shrink when the attention is directed on them, Tavares stood as a spectacular defensive weapon once he landed in Mississaugua. In Jerry Stackhouses great defensive system that featured a slew of defensive-minded wings and forwards, Tavares was immediately able to fit right in. From the jump, Tavares just looked extremely comfortable, whether he was just standing in the paint or working his way towards the perimeter to defend pick-and-rolls.
Tavares incredible mobility immediately became his best trait as he was actually able to go out and defend against guards or forwards without becoming a burden. Although that tremendous wingspan definitely helps, Tavares quick feet was able to stop any kind of pick-and-roll opportunity that the opposing squad may even think that they possibly had. An example of Tavares ability to hedge on pick-and-rolls is seen in the play below where he sticks with Pistons rookie Henry Ellenson from the perimeter to the paint.
Those quick feet also helps Tavares out when hes working inside the paint as a rim protector. His mobility combined with his huge 78 wingspan allowed Tavares to be the most feared inside presence in the entire D-League. The fear of opposing squads was due to him averaging a league-high 2.7 blocks per game in only 27 minutes per game. Tavares block party was headlined by him blocking 12 shots in a late March matchup against the Erie Bayhawks.
Tavares great work on the defensive end was also evident when you look at on/off numbers. Opponents averaged nearly seven points per 100 possessions less when tavares was on the court (97.9 points per 100) compared to when he was sitting on the sidelines (104.4 points per 100).
Those traits allowed Tavares to play a vital role in the NBDLs best defense while also pushing them to an incredible 39-11 record. Taking all of that into consideration, theres no doubt that Edy Tavares has allowed himself to be named as Ridiculous Upsides Defensive Player of the Year for the 2016-17 D-League season.
Runner-up for RUs DPOY award: Alex Caruso - Oklahoma City Blue. Stood as arguably the best on-ball defender in the NBADL as he averaged 2.1 steals per game during his rookie season
Pittsburgh Penguins vs New York Rangers NHL Game Recap
Feb 25, 2017; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Matt Murray (30) defends the net against the Philadelphia Flyers during the first period in a Stadium Series hockey game at Heinz Field. The Penguins won 4-2. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
You see it every time before a game, teams warming up shooting rather light shots or doing some small stick handling techniques to the net to get in the groove and have their goalie focused, well the Pittsburgh Penguins thought it would be smart before their first playoff game on Wednesday to try and dangle goaltender Matthew Murray out of his equipment forcing him to slide across the crease. Now, this is absolutely foolish, youre in the playoffs, you have a solid number one since Marc-Andre Fleury has been shaky all year and the first thing you do is pull some fancy dangle and force your cold goalie to make a save on it?
This resulted in Murray having to leave the warm up immediately with a lower-body injury, and if you watch it its a groin injury which means he could be out this entire first round. But for the sake of the Pens, they need to pray that hes out for a game or two. Cause, in all honesty, they need him in net rather than Fleury. And dont get me wrong Fleury is solid, but not as solid as he used to be.
Matthew Murray has had a tremendous season with a record of 32-10-4 in 47 games with a .923 save percentage and a 2.41 goals-against-average. Fleury, on the other hand, had a record of 18-10-7 in 34 games with a .909 save percentage and a 3.02 goals-against-average. Do you see now why you dont go all out in warmups? Because youre gonna lose someone important 10 times out of 10. And Im sure the Pens faithful feel the exact same way, play smart, not aggressive.
Call of Duty Black Ops 2 on Xbox One Gameplay! (Backwards Compatible)
As is now the tradition, Activision announced today that the latest game in the Call of Duty franchise made... kind of a lot of money. Black Ops 2 grossed (places pinky at corner of mouth) one billion dollars in 15 days, hitting the mark a day faster than its predecessor, Modern Warfare 3.
While regional prices vary, dividing that by the U.S. sticker price of $59.99 gives us about 16.7 million units sold, which is roughly equal to the population of the Netherlands. You can read Activision"s full press release here , and check out our video critique of Black Ops 2 and the official review to help you decide whether you want to be #16,700,001.
4/14/16: The Cubs score eight runs to complete sweep
By Bruce Levine
MESA, Ariz. (CBS) Theres a numberfor us to consider for the Cubs as the new season sits less than two weeks away: 900.
Thats a number of runs that could be in play for the team to score in 2017.The 900-run mark is certainly a big number, as it projects to just shy of 5.6 runs per game, but its not without context.
Thats a magical figure on the mind ofthe Cubs geek squad of sabermetric experts. Manager Joe Maddon gave that group of bright minds the think-tank assignment of projecting the Cubs best lineups for scoring maximum runs. Specifically, Maddon was interested in the projections with slugger Kyle Schwarber as the lead-off hitter.
This is just another tool in the tool box, Maddon said of using analytics. We felt in Tampa that we had some better options. We had a lot of discussions about (metrics). It was more nouveau when Andrew (Friedman) and I were talking about it then. Now everyone is doing it. The edge is going away. From my perspective, for me, it helps. Just adding another layer to it helps. You would be a fool not to try. So I think it has definitely helped me.
Maddon wouldntreveal the exact number theanalytics department projected for a Schwarber-led lineup at the top, but he did confirm it was more than five runs per game. He also acknowledged this: The statistical gurus project the cubs to score more runs with Schwarber leading off than they scored with Dexter Fowler atop the order in 2016, when they scored 808 runs en route to a championship.
The Rockies led the National League with 5.22 runs per game last season, while the Cubs averaged 4.99. The Red Sox led the majors with 878 runs, an average of 5.42 per game.
The Cubs franchise record for runs in a season is 998, recorded in 1930. That figure was inflated by a lively ball that MLB decided to use in order to attract more fans during the Great Depression.
For now, Maddon wants to put his group in the best position to be successful and challenge his dynamic young hitters.
They gave me a sheet with different scenarios, Maddon said. It was pretty heavy. It was good. Dexter was awesome, but with Schwarbers power potential, the home runs coming out of that spot with extra at-bats (could help). You also have the natural rebounding of Jason (Heyward). He will be a better hitter. We talk about bearing down on defense and pitching because these (offensive numbers) are going to get better. They have more experience. All of these things set up the right way, we should have a better offensive year, especially against right-handed pitchers.
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.
GOP candidate Ron Estes wins Kansas special election
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Up first, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrives in Russia today. For all the friendliness his boss has shown for Russia"s Vladimir Putin, Tillerson faces a tricky visit here. Last week, of course, the United States fired missiles at Russia"s ally, Syria. And on ABC News a few days later, Tillerson partly blamed Russia for a Syrian chemical attack.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
REX TILLERSON: I think the real failure here has been Russia"s failure to live up to its commitments under the chemical weapons agreements that were entered into in 2013, both by the Syrian government and by Russia as the guarantor to play the role in Syria of securing chemical weapons, destroying the chemical weapons and continuing to monitor that situation.
INSKEEP: So that"s the message in public. What we don"t know yet is how Tillerson will deliver that message in private.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
All right. So to talk about this story, we are joined by Domenico Montanaro of NPR"s Politics team and Lucian Kim, who is NPR"s Moscow correspondent. He is live on the line from Skype - via Skype rather. Hey, guys.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: Good morning.
LUCIAN KIM, BYLINE: Morning.
MARTIN: Hi, Lucian. So I"m going to start with Domenico actually. Tillerson"s visit to Moscow - is this just kind of a meet and greet that happens at the beginning of an administration or is he looking to secure a specific commitment from Russian officials?
MONTANARO: Well, it"s interesting timing for sure. Look, here"s the thing. Rex Tillerson had said that he believes Russia was either in cahoots or incompetent when it came to the Syria strike and Assad"s use of chemical weapons. He"s really looking to shame them into seeing if he could separate or draw some kind of a wedge between Assad and Putin.
You heard some of that at the G7 with the foreign ministers. You heard Boris Johnson, the foreign minister for the U.K. talk about how they want to give Tillerson some sticks ahead of this meeting which is an important thing.
MARTIN: Lucian, how does this look from the Russian vantage point? What does Russia want out of this meeting?
KIM: Well, right now the reaction is quite muted. There were very high expectations for this meeting. They basically thought that this would be the start of a great relationship and that this would be the first step in organizing a summit between Trump and Putin, and the missile strike really came as a shock and will overshadow the talks.
MARTIN: They had been assuming that because President Trump as a candidate and president has had all this kind of flowery, effusive language for Putin that this was going to be smooth sailing. Now you"re saying not so much. They"re taking a step back.
KIM: Exactly. I mean, the thing is about Tillerson is they also had high expectations for Rex Tillerson. As you mentioned, he had oil. He was leading ExxonMobil"s business in Russia. And Putin awarded him the order of friendship a few years ago. On the other hand, you know, that"s a goodwill bonus that very few U.S. officials take to Russia. He also has experience in dealing with the Kremlin.
And I think he understands that you don"t necessarily have to agree with Putin, but it"s really important what tone you take and how firmly you defend your position.
MARTIN: But, Domenico, it"s a good point. He is a known quantity. Tillerson"s a known quantity in Russia that could bode well for him.
MONTANARO: Absolutely. But the thing is Tillerson had started off as somebody who could be a nod to Russia. Now he"s somebody who"s being more adversarial toward Russia. However, his use of military force - or the United States" use of military force - there is an argument that he could have some leverage going into these talks given that the United States showed that it will act if lines are crossed.
INSKEEP: You want to, as you"re following this story through the day, pay attention to what is said today and tomorrow during these meetings. But also pay attention afterward. Remember Lucian pointed out that there"s a kind of goodwill bonus that Tillerson gets, but the past two presidents also tried to start off well and seemed to start off well with Vladimir Putin. But each of them over time discovered that Russia"s Vladimir Putin saw his country"s interests dramatically differently than the United States saw its interests and the world"s interests.
MARTIN: Yeah. All right. NPR"s Lucian Kim. He"s our Moscow correspondent. He joined us via Skype. Hey, Lucian, thanks for being with us this morning.
KIM: Thank you.
MARTIN: And, Domenico, stick with us for this next topic which is a little closer to home because it"s still election season, just what you wanted...
MONTANARO: It"s kicking off.
MARTIN: ...For some Americans, it"s still around.
(LAUGHTER)
INSKEEP: I"ve been waiting for a little more because today Kansas holds a special House election - it"s in one district in Kansas - to fill the seat of Mike Pompeo who is now the CIA director. So this is just one of 435 congressional seats, but it"s also a test of strength for the parties under a new president. Now, in this heavily Republican district, Republican John Estes (ph) faces...
MARTIN: Ron Estes.
INSKEEP: Ron Estes.
MARTIN: Yeah.
INSKEEP: Thank you very much. Ron Estes faces a spirited challenge from Democrat James Thompson - maybe there"s a John in there somewhere as well. The president"s approval rating, of course, is at historic lows, but Republicans hope he"s popular enough in Kansas that he can benefit his candidate by making a robocall.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: On Tuesday, Republican Ron Estes needs your vote and needs it badly. Ron is a conservative leader who is going to work with me to make America great again.
MARTIN: OK. So Domenico Montanaro of NPR"s Politics team is still here with us, so what does this race really look like, Domenico? Does the Democratic candidate really have a chance?
MONTANARO: Well, the Republican is still heavily favored here most likely given the fact that Trump won this district by 27 points. But consider the fact that because Trump made this robocall, it elevates the status of it and tells you just how worried Republicans are of the potential that this could be a closer race than expected.
If this race winds up in single digits, which is not impossible given low Republican enthusiasm, a likelihood of a low turnout, which is why you have the president go and make this kind of robocall to get those Republicans out and the fact that this is the first chance for Democrats to express their frustration and outrage with the Trump administration - there"s money pouring into this race. There are going to be Democrats heading to the polls in Wichita for sure, and they want to make sure that Donald Trump is somebody who Democrats will be able to show their enthusiastic outrage against any...
MARTIN: Enthusiastic outrage, yeah.
MONTANARO: It is the first in a series of special elections we"re going to be watching.
MARTIN: Let"s nod to another election coming up in Georgia. What"s the dynamic there?
MONTANARO: Well, in Georgia, you have a special election to replace Tom Price who is now the HHS, the Health and Human Services secretary for Donald Trump. And Jon Ossoff is a former Capitol Hill aide, 30 years old. He"s raised $8.5 million. It"s more money than he knows what to do with. Consider the Ohio Senate race in the last election. the democrat there only raised $10 million. He"s already got 70 staffers. It is a ton of money that he"s trying to pour in there, the Democrats trying to pick that one off in a district, by the way, that Trump underperformed in. And it"s a much narrower election unlike the one in Kansas.
INSKEEP: Let"s remember then in 2009 after Democrats captured everything, they began losing everything. And surely this is what Democrats hope will begin to happen in this year. Now the Republicans seem to dominate. This is the beginning of a kind of season of bellwether elections we"ll have later in the year, governors elections in Virginia and New Jersey - much to watch. But as for today"s race, remember what Domenico said. This district is in Kansas really, really Republican.
MARTIN: All right. We"re going to say goodbye to our friend Domenico Montanaro of NPR"s Politics team.
INSKEEP: Bye, Domenico.
MARTIN: Thanks for getting up early.
MONTANARO: Thanks as always.
MARTIN: And we"re going to move over to China now for a different kind of perspective on a story you may have heard about. Right, Steve?
INSKEEP: Absolutely. You know that video of a passenger being dragged from a United Airlines flight? Sounds a little bit like this.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Screaming).
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: No. No. Oh, my G*d. Oh, my G*d.
INSKEEP: Not a happy passenger being pulled by the arms. That sound is bloodcurdling. Well, the airline said it needed its seat, and he refused to get out, even when offered money. And he was pulled off and bloodied. Well, this story has gone viral in China because according to a witness, the man said he was targeted for being Chinese.
MARTIN: OK. So for a quick rundown of this, we"ve got NPR Shanghai correspondent Rob Schmitz on the line. Hi, Rob.
ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: How is this story playing in China?
SCHMITZ: Well, this video has gone viral faster than any that I can remember in my seven years as a journalist here. One of the videos of it that I was tracking today had 120 million views by 3 in the afternoon.
INSKEEP: Wow.
SCHMITZ: And when I looked half an hour later, it was up to 130 million. So that was moving at a rate of about 20 million views an hour. And that was just one replaying of the video attached to a single hashtag on Webo, one of China"s largest social media sites. So when you consider the hundreds of other media outlets here that are playing this video too, the estimate is likely much higher.
MARTIN: So I mean, this is - has provoked calls to boycott United, both here in the States and in China, I understand. Does the Chinese government see this as a kind of opportunity to shame a major American corporation?
SCHMITZ: Well, I mean, when there"s so much public rage over an incident like this, I"m not sure if the government of China feels like it needs to do much more than just get out of the way.
MARTIN: Let it just go.
SCHMITZ: I mean, United - yeah, United is obviously a competitor of many of China"s state run airlines for across Pacific routes to and from the U.S. and Canada. So what I"d imagine we"ll see in the days to come is a lot of coverage on state-run television news and the newspapers. But overall, this promise is just to get a lot of play here in China. And that has a lot to do with public demand for it, rather than government propaganda.
MARTIN: Also a reminder, man - cell phone videos.
INSKEEP: There you go.
MARTIN: They"re everywhere.
INSKEEP: They change the world.
MARTIN: They capture things. They change the world indeed.
INSKEEP: Also the market - the guy had bought his seat. He paid for his seat.
MARTIN: It"s true. It"s true.
INSKEEP: People sympathize.
SCHMITZ: That"s right.
MARTIN: Hey, Rob Schmitz in Shanghai, thanks so much for your time...
SCHMITZ: Yes.
MARTIN: ...This morning breaking down the story. And...
SCHMITZ: Thank you.
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A recent error was spotted on an Xbox website that listed the popular COD title as a Backwards Compatible game, soon to be made available.
And one fan checking it over appeared to find something very interesting, that Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 had been listed as a Deals with Gold offer alongside other titles.
Black Ops 2 for Xbox One Backwards Compatibility could be found nestled between Black Ops and the Black Op 3 DLC options, along with Call of Duty Classic.
Deals with Gold usually includes a range of discounts on both Xbox One and Xbox 360 games, however, this week also included Black Ops 2 listed as part of the BC program.
This has now been changed but it didnt stop fans from asking what it meant.
After one player asked if Black Ops 2 could be announced as Backwards Compatible on Tuesday, October 11, Xbox"s Larry Hryb was forced to disappoint.
That was my error. Sorry. Not coming to BC tomorrow, Hryb replied.
However, even though black ops 2 will not be made Backwards Compatible tomorrow, Hryb didnt rule out its eventual inclusion.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 remains the most requested Backwards Compatibility title from the Xbox 360, with a total vote count of 193,000.
Three new Xbox One Backwards Compatibility games were released earlier this week, taking the total number of titles to six that have made their debut of late.
It means fans can start dusting off old copies of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Puzzle Quest Galactrix, and Puzzle Quest 2.
Alternatively, Xbox One Gold users can download the collection of games if they were previously purchased digitally, or they can buy them from the Microsoft Store.
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed was voted to be included in the Backwards Compatibility by over 5,000 gamers, while Puzzle Quest Galactrix received just under 500 and Puzzle Quest 2 1,200.
The Sonic racing title is also the game which will take the longest to download and play, weighing in at 4GB. Lost Odyssey, Toy Story 3 and arcade shoot-em-up Guwange were the last games to be made Backwards Compatible by Microsoft in September.
President Donald Trump Steps Into Kansas Special Election Fray | Morning Joe | MSNBC
In the Kansas special election on Tuesday to replace former congressman (and current CIA director) Mike Pompeo, the Republican candidate won by seven percentage points (52.5 percent to 45.7 percent, with almost all precincts reporting).
6:06 AM, Apr 12, 2017 | By John McCormack
John McCormack Senior Writer The Weekly Standard http://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.weeklystandard.com/authors/mccormack.png
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In the Kansas special election on Tuesday to replace former congressman (and current CIA director) Mike Pompeo, the Republican candidate won by seven percentage points (52.5 percent to 45.7 percent, with almost all precincts reporting).
That performance was poor enough compared to November 2016 that some are sounding the alarm about a Democratic tsunami in 2018. Trump won the district in 2016 by 27 points, and Pompeo won by 31 points (61 percent to 30 percent). If a similar swing occurs next fall nationwide, it would certainly wipe out the GOP"s majority in the House.
The argument against panicking is that this particular election was much more about local Kansas politics than Trump or the national GOP. Sam Brownback"s budgets have made him a very unpopular governor, and GOP congressional candidate Ron Estes is closely tied to Brownback as the state"s treasurer. Although Estes ran poorly compared to Trump and Pompeo in 2016, he ran slightly ahead of Brownback and about as well as GOP senator Pat Roberts in 2014. This was just one special election, and upcoming special elections in georgia and montana will show if Kansas is part of a trend. Of course, it"s also worth remembering that special elections do not always predict national trends. As Sean Trende wrote on Tuesday: "Special elections in 2004 saw Democrats win deep-red seats such as South Dakota"s At-Large seat and Kentucky"s 6th District, yet the general elections were a disappointment for the party (to say the least). For that matter, if Republicans do well, Democrats shouldn"t panic either; Republicans faced two dispiriting special election losses in New York and one in Pennsylvania before their 2010 landslide wins."
The case for panicking is perhaps stronger: Trump"s approval rating is already in the low 40s, and the biggest question for the mid-term elections is probably whether or not his rating recovers. If it"s stuck at 40 percent in November 2018, it"s very hard to see the GOP holding on.
Web Link: http://www.weeklystandard.com/article/2007632
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The Weekly Standard 2017 Washington, DC Politics 2017-04-12 http://www.weeklystandard.com/kansas-special-election-narrow-gop-victory-in-district-trump-won-big/article/2007632 2017-04-12T06:06 2017-04-12T06:06 Kansas Special Election: Narrow GOP Victory in District Trump Won Big In the Kansas special election on Tuesday to replace former congressman (and current CIA director) Mike Pompeo, the Republican candidate won by seven percentage points (52.5 percent to 45.7 percent, with almost all precincts reporting).That performance was poor enough compared to November 2016 that some are sounding the alarm about a Democratic tsunami in 2018. Trump won the district in 2016 by 27 points, and Pompeo won by 31 points (61 percent to 30 percent). If a similar swing occurs next fall nationwide, it would certainly wipe out the GOP"s majority in the House.The argument against panicking is that this particular election was much more about local Kansas politics than Trump or the national GOP. Sam Brownback"s budgets have made him a very unpopular governor, and GOP congressional candidate Ron Estes is closely tied to Brownback as the state"s treasurer. Although Estes ran poorly compared to Trump and Pompeo in 2016, he ran slightly ahead of Brownback and about as well as GOP senator Pat Roberts in 2014. This was just one special election, and upcoming special elections in georgia and montana will show if Kansas is part of a trend. Of course, it"s also worth remembering that special elections do not always predict national trends. As Sean Trende wrote on Tuesday: Special elections in 2004 saw Democrats win deep-red seats such as South Dakota"s At-Large seat and Kentucky"s 6th District, yet the general elections were a disappointment for the party (to say the least). For that matter, if Republicans do well, Democrats shouldn"t panic either; Republicans faced two dispiriting special election losses in New York and one in Pennsylvania before their 2010 landslide wins. Congress, John McCormack, Kansas, Conservative Newsstand, home page http://cdn.weeklystandard.biz/cache/280x280-1ee32da774775a9c015d541f5b961b0f.jpg
