Injuries are taking its toll on the Hornets
Basketball Betting Lines
12/26/2006 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Injuries are destroying the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets season. They own a disappointing 11-15 record, after they started the season with four straight wins.
The Hornets are without three key players. Peja Stojakovic (lower back) is expected to miss at least two months, and David West (right forearm/elbow) is out indefinitely. Guard Bobby Jackson has a cracked left rib and has not played since November 28th.
Stojakovic is averaging 17.8 points per game and last played on November 24th, while West, who is averaging 17.4 points and 8.3 rebounds, has not played since November 12th.
Jackson is averaging 10.9 points and 4.1 boards. He has missed 11 straight games with his injury.
On Tuesday, the Seattle SuperSonics close out a three-game homestand as they welcome the Hornets to KeyArena. It is the second meeting of the season between the clubs this season. On December 8th, Chris Wilcox had 19 points and eight rebounds to lead Seattle to a 94-74 win over the Hornets at KeyArena. The SuperSonics have won two of the last three contests in the series. The Hornets have lost two in a row and five of their last six at Seattle.
The Hornets will host the Sonics on February 23, 2007 and April 4, 2007 in the final two contests of the season between the squads.
New Orleans/Oklahoma City will try and get back on the winning track against the SuperSonics. Tony Parker scored 19 points and handed out nine assists as the San Antonio Spurs routed the Hornets, 112-77, on Saturday at the Ford Center.
Chris Paul scored 20 points in the loss to San Antonio for the Hornets, who have lost five of their last six games overall. Rasual Butler ended with 16 points and Jannero Pargo added 11 off of the bench in defeat.
New Orleans/Oklahoma City is 5-9 on the road this season. The Hornets will visit Portland on Wednesday. The Trail Blazers defeated the Hornets, 92-91, on November 10th at the Rose Garden.
The Hornets are 0-6 when they allow over 100 points this season.
Paul leads the Hornets in scoring (18.9 ppg) and assists (9.0 apg). He has scored in double-digits in five straight games and is averaging 22.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 8.6 assists in that span.
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Clippers are just 11-15 and are in the cellar in the Pacific Division. Expectations are high for the Clippers after they won 47 games during the 2005-06 campaign and advanced to the con
<< Jazz continue solid play
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Utah Jazz (20-8) are four games ahead of the second
place Denver Nuggets in the Northwest Division. They look like they are ready
to end their three-year drought of postseason play.
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Denver Nuggets made a blockbuster move when they
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point guard Andre Mi
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Once again the San Antonio Spurs have the total package.
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Popovich is one of the best coaches in the league.
San Antonio is an impressive 21
Rotterdam, Holland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Eredivisie leaders PSV extended their unbeaten run to 18 games on Tuesday with a tough 1-1 draw against Feyenoord at De Kuip Stadion. Phillip Cocu opened the scoring in the 24th minute
Chelsea held to draw despite Drogba's double >>
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Angels' Rivera to undergo surgery >>
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim outfielder
Juan Rivera will undergo surgery on his broken left leg on Wednesday.
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Dorsey gets the start for Cleveland >>
Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Cleveland Browns named Ken Dorsey as
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Phoenix-Denver game rescheduled >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Phoenix Suns-Denver Nuggets contest
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In addition, the start
FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million
In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.
And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.
Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.
So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.
Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)
The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.
As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.
The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.
In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.
Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.
And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.
So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.
There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.
So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.
And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.
There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)
Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.
Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.
So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.
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