The Wildcard’s 2017 NFL Quarterback Rankings - Part One (#40-21)
You know the NFL season is just around the corner when the QB rankings come soaring in and, guess what, here they are. Fifth year in a row and everything, it’s officially a tradition.
You know the NFL season is just around the corner when the QB rankings come soaring in and, guess what, here they are. Fifth year in a row and everything, it’s officially a tradition.
It’s not about whether the Tall Blacks can win the Asia Cup at full strength, more about how many talented young players are being developed, how well funded and supported the sport is in this country, how many fans get involved… all those things.
Ever since Danny Ainge scooped the greatest swindle in the history of the NBA with the Brooklyn Trade, the Celts have been staked with assets. You can’t even close the desk drawers in Ainge’s office for all the draft picks spilling out of them.
There’s something fishy going on in the NFL. Okay, maybe that’s not the most surprising thing you’ve ever read – about as shocking as revealing that Tom Brady is good at throwing footballs or that Eddie Lacy ordered the second course – but even by the NFL’s lofty standards, this is an odd one.
When the last NBA season ended, Steven Adams and the Oklahoma City Thunder were left in an interesting little nook between a rock and a hard place. The rock being the playoffs, the hard place being the second round of the playoffs.
No team was hit worse by Marksy Marks’ RFA traps than the Portland Trail Blazers. Stuck spending way over the luxury cap for a team that finished 41-41 and were swept in the opening round of the playoffs. That’s not ideal.
You know, Corey Webster was at long odds just to hang around at all after his international mini-camp with the Dallas Mavericks. A 28 year old international player with no NBA experience, just getting that invite was a victory.
With only a classification match left to play the Golden State Warriors went and made a few ch-ch-ch-changes for their final game. Starting five of Tai Webster, Bryce Alford, Noah Allen, Kevon Looney and Damian Jones.
Paul Henare may be chilling out at the NBA Summer League, scouting for those precious last couple import spots, but one glimpse at the current NZ Breakers roster as it stands for next season and there’s something that immediately catches the eye: they’re all from Aotearoa.
As Tai Webster’s Summer League travails stumbled along in Orlando with the Charlotte Hornets, older brother Corey’s had to wait his time for his own chance too... until Las Vegas.
So… what have the Brooklyn Nets been doing this time around? Well, aside from using their copious cap room to trade for D’Angelo Russell and also picking up the odd curious draft prospect… pretty much the same as last year, actually.
So… the Charlotte Hornets thing didn’t work out as planned. One more hurdle to leap over for Tai Webster, he always knew there’d be a few of those.
Going undrafted was the first step. Had Tai Webster been picked up late in that second round, which was always an unlikely chance, then he coulda skipped all the other steps but that’s not what he was preparing for.
Paul George to the Oklahoma City Thunder though, who saw that coming? Of course OKC were involved in trade talks going back awhile, they always are. Barely a season goes by in which Sam Presti doesn’t pull trigger on something eyebrow-raising.
Oh praise the spine-tingling tunes of our Lorde, it has finally happened! The Los Angeles Clippers have been broken, Lob City has crumbled to the ground. This truly is a marvellous day for the NBA.
It’s gotta be a special one the day you get drafted into the NBA, should a fellow be so lucky. But outside those lottery dudes and a few renowned sleepers, simply getting drafted doesn’t guarantee anything.
What a funny old day in the National Basketball Association that was. The NBA Draft is always full of mystery and intrigue but just as the All Star game was overshadowed by a blockbuster trade, the same went and happened with the draft.
The Los Angeles Lakers had Timofey Mozgov on this disgusting contract – 30 years old and one season into a four-year $64m contract averaging 7.4 points and 4.9 rebounds per game in 16-17 – and they needed to get the hell out of it.
Dunno if you saw the news but former Breakers and current Tall Blacks scoring extraordinaire Corey Webster might just have himself another shot at that NBA thing and he's not even the only one in his family who can say that either.
The year was 2015 and kiwi basketballer Corey Webster was trucking away with the New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA preseason, trying to earn himself a contract for the big time.