It's amazing what a huge impact the Kevin Garnett trade has already had. I find it amusing, albeit necessary, that the league had to completely change the NBA tv schedule to feature the Celtics as opposed to intentionally ignoring them like last year and like they probably had planned to do this year up until the trade went through. The good news for Celtics fans and for the NBA is that the Celtics matter again. The bad news is, their best case for actually being able to win an NBA championship now relies on them telling themselves, "If we could just get into the finals, anything could happen." Sure anything could happen, but that's a lot different from what probably will happen. Good luck getting past whichever Western Conference powerhouse makes it to the finals. At the very least this gives people on the east coast a chance to see some exciting NBA basketball without having to stay up until 1 am.
Dante Culpepper is back. This time he's sporting the silver and black colors of a Raiders uniform. It's hard to imagine Culpepper being an effective QB again, especially on a team as pathetic as Oakland, but I still think the move makes sense for both parties. The Raiders have nothing to lose and Pep pretty much needed to take anything he could get. I feel that Culpepper basically has no fantasy value at this point, but hopefully someone will get excited about him and waste a roster spot on him and his bum knee in my league.
Frank Gore and his broken right hand have slid down my draft board a few spots. He's projected to miss most or all of the preseason. A lot of people think that running backs don't need the preseason to get ready, but that is only partly true. They don't need preseason games to get ready, but they do need the practice. I'm sure he'll still remember how to hold a football when his hand heals up, but It's hard to imagine him being as productive out of the gate. What might be a bigger issue is how much it could affect his ability to catch the ball out of the backfield. He was probably only average at best as a pass catcher and now he has to go a month or more without catching a single ball. I don't think he's someone you have to stay away from in upcoming fantasy drafts, but he's no longer a top 4-6 guy.
Random note: I saw the movie 'Sunshine' last night and without spoiling the movie I wanted to make a comparison. Watching that movie is like thoroughly enjoying a delicious meal and then twenty minutes later finding out that you are highly allergic to every ingredient that comprised it. I sort of left with that , "oh no, what did I just do?" feeling in the pit of my stomach. Good times. There are better ways to spend 950 pennies.
