Who’s Adam Morrison? He’s the one that will drain a three from the corner and then eat your children as you sleep…all in one fluid motion. Ammo. Get it.

Austin Daye (Cleveland Plains Dealer)

According to ESPN’s Andy Katz, sophomore Austin Daye has decided forgo his final two years at Gonzaga and enter the NBA draft.

As H&F’s resident Gonzaga fan, I must say that this seems like a horrible, ill-conceived idea on Daye’s part. Mock draft projections have the 21 year old Daye going to the Pistons with the 15th pick. And while that would be ahead of well-known players like Ty Lawson, Tyler Hansbrough, B.J. Mullens, and Terrence Williams, Daye would be lucky to go this high.

In his two years of Spokane, Daye never added the inside game that he will need to be a true offensive threat in the NBA. Primarily a perimeter player, a majority of Daye’s points came from outside jumpers. If he does indeed have the range to shoot the corner three the NBA loves so much, then yes, he could play in the League for 10-12 years. However, I’m not convinced he has this range yet.

He also could have used another 12 months to get some more meat on his frame. As other H&F’ers pointed out previously, he faded against superior competition and also did not do much down the stretch.

Image: thebestsportsblog.com

Here we are mere hours after the LA Lakers clinched the NBA title with a decisive Game 5 victory over the Magic in Orlando. Color me shocked that Hotdog didn’t immediately throw up a “OMG AMMO WINS NBA TITLE” post. I still feel like that is on the way, so consider this preemptive. Remember Hotdog is the man that suggested the Lakers should trade Kobe to clear minutes for his hero (albeit tongue in cheek…I think).

A game by game look at Adam Morrison’s production in this year’s NBA Playoffs:

4/19/09 vs. Jazz: DNP-CD (Did Not Play – Coach’s Decision)
4/21/09 vs. Jazz: DNP-CD
4/23/09 @ Jazz: Inactive (Street clothes)
4/25/09 @ Jazz: Inactive
4/27/09 vs. Jazz: DNP-CD

You may or may not be surprised to note that the Jazz series boasted Morrison’s most activity of the entire playoffs. He actually got to put on a uniform for three games. The rest of Ammo’s Lakers run after the jump.

5/04/09 vs. Rockets: DNP-CD
5/06/09 vs. Rockets: Inactive
5/08/09 @ Rockets: Inactive
5/10/09 @ Rockets: Inactive
5/12/09 vs. Rockets: Inactive
5/14/09 @ Rockets: Inactive
5/17/09 vs. Rockets: Inactive

5/19/09 vs. Nuggets: Inactive
5/21/09 vs. Nuggets: Inactive
5/23/09 @ Nuggets: Inactive
5/25/09 @ Nuggets: Inactive
5/27/09 vs. Nuggets: Inactive
5/29/09 @ Nuggets: Inactive

6/04/09 vs. Magic: Inactive
6/07/09 vs. Magic: Inactive
6/09/09 @ Magic: Inactive
6/11/09 @ Magic: Inactive
6/14/09 @ Magic: Inactive

Not one single minute. Every other Laker played in the playoffs down to DJ Mbenga and Josh Powell. Even fellow bust Darko played the year Detroit won the title.

As Freedarko put it in their indispensable Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac,

Larry O’Brien Trophy – The NBA championship trophy, which Joe Kleine, Glenn Robinson, and Scott Brooks have held claim to, among others.

“Stats”: espn.com

NBA FInals not like NCAA days for J.J. Redick, Adam Morrison (Newsleader.com)

Add side note: If you have not spent 10+ hours reading the Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac with your mouth agape, poring over it as a divine parchment for the sports aesthete, then fuck you. There are few things in this world that honestly demand your attention and time. This is one of them. Buy it or borrow mine. Seriously.

License to kill gophers by the government of the United Nations. Man, free to kill gophers at will. To kill, you must know your enemy, and in this case my enemy is a varmint. And a varmint will never quit – ever. They’re like the Viet Cong – Varmint Cong. So you have to fall back on superior intelligence and superior firepower. And that’s all she wrote.  – Carl Spackler

There is a headline in Washington State news today entitled, “Spokane parks to detonate Squirrels.”  According the article, they are literally going to pump propane into squirrel tunnels and then create a spark.  At that point, the screwing around is pretty much over.  They are playing for keeps. 

I got to get into this dude’s pelt and crawl around for a few days. Who’s the gopher’s ally. His friends. The harmless squirrel and the friendly rabbit.

So this appears to be a legitimate plan that the city of Spokane has concocted.  They are actually going to do this.  From the article, “The machine is called the Rodenator Pro. It pumps propane and oxygen into the tunnels of squirrels, then sends an electric spark that causes an explosion. The shock waves kill the squirrels and collapse their tunnels.”

 I smell varmint poontang. And the only good varmint poontang is dead varmint poontang, I think.

I mean… I could go on posting pictures about this all night, but I guess I’ll stop.  This is one of the best plans that has ever been stolen directly from a movie.  I applaud the stoned  members of the Spokane Parks Department for their ability to think outside of the country club on this one.

“With the departure of Ronny Turiaf in free agency, we desperately needed another Gonzaga star to carry Kobe to another title,” said Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak. “Adam Morrison provides the perfect package of glitz and glamour. We believe he’ll be an international superstar in a matter of months.

http://brashmoustache.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/adam_morrison.jpg

Let’s now take a second to compare Morrison and Kobe Bryant, to see who the better player is…

College Careers:
Morrison: Led the nation in scoring in the 2005-06 season.

Bryant: Didn’t even go to college!!!

Edge: Morrison

NBA Draft:
Morrison: #3 overall (drafted by Michael friggin Jordan and the Bobcats)

Bryant: #13 overall (drafted by the Charlotte Hornets (I did not know that!))

Edge: Morrison

The Look:
Morrison: Inspired a generation with his brash style and take-no-prisoners good looks. Has been called the James Dean of his generation.

Bryant: Shows his doodle in pictures

Edge: Bryant.

Sike! Edge Morrison.

So there you have it. Science proves once again that the Spokaskan Assassin, Adam Morrison, is the greatest basketball player to play in the NBA. Rumors are abuzz in Hollywood about Morrison becoming a cross-over star – his name has been mentioned as the next star of the Mummy franchise. (He’s also been romantically linked to Tina Fey.)

ESPN.com

Comparisons have been made to Adam Morrison, which I can see – they’re both lanky shooters who my friends seem to hate. This is a fair for a number of reasons:

1. Shooting: In the collegiate game, no one showed the ability to bother the shots of Daye or Morrison. In essence, every shot was an open one.
2. Shooting Percentage: Both have insanely high shooting percentages. Morrison shot 50% from the field in his senior season while Daye gets his at the line (88% last season).

However, I think Daye surpasses the ‘Stache in one key area: defense.

Most of defense is willingness, and I’ve seen a defensive desire out of Daye that was missing last year. Just in this game, Daye had double-digit rebounds early in the second half and his on-the-ball defense appears markedly approved. A man his height and body-type is always going to have trouble with lateral movement and he appears to be no different.

However, in Gonzaga’s system he’s allowed to defend the opponent’s small forward or shooting guard, whoever’s worse. (Let’s not get it twisted – he still has work to do.)

In the Derek Raivio years, the Achilles’ heel was perimeter defense – never was that more clear than in the Davidson game. You couldn’t have drawn a worse matchup for the Zags – Stephen Curry exposed that weak point with ferocity.

But the coaching staff has placed extra emphasis since last season on defense, and there are several reasons for optimism besides Daye’s improved D. Newcomer Demetri “Martin” Goodson ballhawks like a young Lindsey Hunter, while Josh Heytvelt, and I cannot state this strongly enough, looks like the player he was sophomore year (pre-shrooms).

Last season Heytvelt **Andrew Sorenson for 3…BANG!** never really recovered from the broken foot last season. His explosiveness is back – he tetherballed a Yellowjacket shot a few seconds ago – makes the intereior defense that much stronger. **SORENSEN AGAIN! BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE!**

That gives the outside guys confidence to tighten up outside and force some turnovers, which is exactly what they are doing while pulling away from MSU.

Again, this is only Montana State. But as the final whistle blows, one can’t help but feel confident about the #10 Zags. Kiss the women and children: Zags win 83-52. Let’s see the Dawgs top that against Portland.

Also, big ups to Gus Johnson.

The Dawgs are retiring Brandon Roy’s #3 on January 22 against USC.

I haven’t been able to find anything about this on Go Huskies, so this may be a scoop. Get your tickets now. This is a night that you do NOT want to miss. Fly in from wherever you are. I may take the day off work.

Obviously, we’ve gone on at length in this blog about how sweet Brandon Roy is. I think every time I speak with Sparko, B-Roy’s name comes up. Flawson’s Rookie of the Year shirt is in tatters, he wears it so much. And Manny compiled some video highlights of the man himself (although I don’t really care for his choice of words – just shows a lack of class on his part. And everyone else’s, for that matter. I don’t think you guys are really my friends at all. Maybe I’ll just take my blog and go home. Butts.)

But back to the subject, Brandon Roy is the greatest human being many of us have ever or will ever know. Soft-spoken but ferocious on the court, he’s the perfect face of a franchise, college or pro. I hate the Blazers obviously, but I may start rooting for them just to see Brandon do his thing.

Bob Condotta wrote a piece praising Roy about how easy he was to talk to at Washington in Sports Northwest magazine. (Great publication btw – get your subscription today. Fantastic soccer/lingerie football content. Golf’s OK.)

I can definitely back up Condotta’s sentiment. I remember talking to him the day he became eligible, and being skeptical that a guy this nice would ever get minutes in front of Dub-C and Nate. What was this busta doing declaring for the NBA, I thought.

How naive I was – I just didn’t know.

My friends from Seattle tried to school me to his HS legend. JTBW kept a library of local legends’ high school games, going all the way back to Jason Terry and Corey Dillon. (Wow. Corey Dillon playing safety against, you know, Inglemoor* or someone. Can you imagine?)

It was only after watching these tapes that I began to get a measure of how great this #3 could be.

And, of course, he lived up to all the hype. His game elevated in the big conference games against UCLA and Stanford. He was unstoppable in the Pac-10 Tournament. When he was out injured, the team was listless and without a rudder. For as much as Hard-Working Bobby Jones was the heart of the team, B-Roy was the heartbeat.

That being said, though, he did not have as storied a college career as Adam Morrison. No one can dispute this. Good player, but no ‘Stache. I’m just saying. Comments below, please.

*I kid; I kid the Vikings.