Andy G and I are doing a series on players you’ll be watching for one reason or another this season on League Pass. Check out the first three entries below.
All-League Pass Rookie 1st Team, or “Rookies You Want to Watch”: https://punchdrunkwolves.com/2012/08/23/all-league-pass-team-vol-1-rookies-you-want-to-watch/
All-League Pass Rookie 2nd Team, or “Rookies You (Might) Want to Watch”: https://punchdrunkwolves.com/2012/08/24/league-pass-alert-vol-2-rookies-you-might-want-to-watch/
All-League Pass 1st Team, Eastern Conference: https://punchdrunkwolves.com/2012/08/25/league-pass-alert-vol-3-eastern-conference-league-pass-team/
This installment is a REACTION to Andy G’s All-League Pass Eastern Conference 1st team. It was an interesting list that suggested food for thought.
So, two things.
One. What to do about good players on bad teams. I don’t mean teams that are so bad they’re good. I mean the Pistons. The teams you don’t want to watch under any circumstances, no matter what. When this happens, I think you’ve gotta CUT these guys ’cause you know you won’t ever be able to stomach watching them. And that’s why you got League Pass, so they’ve gotta go.
Take Greg Monroe. I’d have to strike Monroe from Andy G’s Eastern Conference team, not for any fault of his own–he’s a gem and arguably was snubbed for a spot on Team America in favor of Ant Davis and the Pistons don’t deserve him. But the Pistons are unwatchable, no matter what the cause of the #LeaguePassAlert hashtags that’re flying around Twitter.
So if Monroe is out, is Wall too? I don’t want that, but the universe is playing a cruel joke on us here in DC, putting Wall AND Brad Beal on the same squad and then tossing Randy Wittless the keys to the Wiz-ards car. Oh, and the ‘Zards just picked up Martell Webster too. Good. Luck. With. That.
Fuck my life. Okay, anyway. Wall’s out, Eric Gordon’s in, we’re all set.
Two. This gets at Andy G’s choices for the forwards, Paul George and Taj Gibson. This is good stuff; the reason is their defense. Before today I never would’ve imagined saying this, but I think both George and Gibson have a shot at All-Defensive First Team before they’re done. Sure, they’d need the right roles and some team success, but that’s not a complete stretch in this Eastern Conference.
What gives? Gibson’s not even a starter, and George just burst on the scene as viable last season. With Gibson, you could kinda see it coming; he’s been a stud the last couple years as a key part of Thibodeau’s suffocating D. And having Boozer as his comp doesn’t hurt either. But George? Here’s where it gets interesting. He was toolsy (in the good way) as a rookie but he matured last year and became a ridiculously tough defender. His length and instincts at the three are sort of like Rubio’s are at the point – possibly better. In fact, that Indiana team can really get after it and shouldn’t be slept on as a dark horse to come out of the East.
Back to George. It’s going too far to say that his absolute, *almost*no chance in hell of reaching it* defensive ceiling is Scottie Pippen. But no bridge is too far here at Punch-Drunk Wolves, far so I’ll say it anyway: there’s a chance.
Punch-Drunk Wolves 
While I take your point about the Pistons and some other teams being unwatchable, I think what you are failing to consider is that a chief benefit of LEAGUE PASS is the ability to surf around and catch little snippets of each game. In other words, you can just watch half a quarter of Greg Monroe and move on to that Royce White game that everybody’s watching.
Also, Eric Gordon CAN’T be on this team, because he plays in the Western Conference!
I totally get what you mean. In principle, the beauty of League Pass is that you can watch those Pistons any night you want to while knowing the Monroe will be well past his prime and will probably have an ARTHRITIC CONDITION of some sort by the time they’re next on national tv. I’m just saying that in practice – at least for me – there’s a threshold of nose-pinching that I can’t cross for too long before I start getting restless. Unless it’s the Wolves, of course, in which case we’ve managed season in and season out to amuse ourselves by batting around implausible trade scenarios and getting WAY too into the Draft. So I guess I also like being able to flip around the League and wonder why fans are paying to attend games at the Palace, but I stand by my point that I’d rather do something else–almost anything else, including watching Brad Daugherty analyze NASCAR–than watch Will Bynum & co. until the real tilts start at 8. (Sadly, the ‘Zards aren’t much better, so you’re just praying the Celtics or Pacers are on somewhere even though you’ll settle for the 76ers.)
On the Gordon/Western Conference thing: fair enough. I must be really sleep-deprived ‘cuz Nola’s so legit Western that when I’m getting my stroll on on Bourbon Street, I’ve often gotten confused and started looking for The Alamo before remembering that I’m in the SOUTHEAST and am way closer to Orlando than to San Antone. Thanks, David Stern. (Just having some fun here, btw – you wouldn’t have been doing your job if you didn’t bust my balls for that mistake.)
Are we the only ones making Brad D/NASCAR jokes? If so, should we be proud or disappointed?
Someone’s gotta be out there with fresh material–the topic is just too ripe for us to be the only ones.
Your second question is easier: both.
ALSO: Why do I get the impression that you actually Google’d “Mike Miller hair” and decided when you found that GEM to instead write about Paul George?
What I don’t get is how Miller can get a “normal” haircut and still leave the barbershop looking like a bigger meth freak than when he went in. Who does that? How is it possible? Mike, Mike, Mike…a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, that guy. Seriously, I’d bet this is as “clean cut” as he can do:
http://massmurdera.tumblr.com/post/6055534514/drew-magary-mike-miller-looks-like-he-sells-meth
Oh, and like another favorite “Mike” here at Punch-Drunk Wolves–Super Cool Mike Beasley–Miller just auctioned off all his shit at a steep discount (which in Miller’s case involves a 9,000 square foot oceanfront mansion, not random junk he left behind in an ORONO McMansion): http://www.thebiglead.com/index.php/2012/06/06/mike-millers-9000-square-foot-oceanfront-palace-in-florida-is-being-auctioned/
Pattern?
he’s not QQing what he says it’s right -_- the thing here is that they are constantly piroismng to bring dominion but they never do If dominion was an upcoming game style, Riotgames had NOT promessed a date, and the guy was just saying something like BRING THAT SHIT ALREADY! that would be QQing( bitching even ) but it’s not, the promise a release date and then they never release at date. They make us follow a Summoner’s Code and they themselves break it.
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