It’s Mail Time!
How did Cardinals pitcher Lance Lynn make it into my mailbag? You’ll have to read on to find out.
Being a co-host on the premiere DC sports podcast means you get a lot of mail. It’s mostly love letters from beautiful super models, but sometimes it’s “legitimate” questions from “legitimate” fans. I decided to finally answer some today.
Filling out the entire roster would be tough. But here’s what I do know (all decisions considering good health)-
My starters:
PG Chris Paul
SG Kobe Bryant
SF Kevin Durant
PF LeBron James
C Kevin Love
Not everyone is necessarily playing their conventional positions, but that shouldn’t matter all that much given the style of play. And no doubt in my mind Kevin Love starts at C. He’s close to ideal for the FIBA setup- a big man that can rebound and shoot- and by that I mean rebound and shoot really, really, really well.
Kobe gets the nod at SG for veteran leadership- and most likely his last olympics. And, yes, Black Mamba gets the last shot (though should never be necessary).
Key reserves:
G Steph Curry- lights out shooter, something no team can have enough of- especially with the type of penetrators that this team is going to have.
F/C Anthony Davis- always nice to have a guy coming out of college, park him down low and tell him to defend some of the tall, crafty euro bigs. I think he’d do just fine.
G Russell Westbrook-.team in a little bit of a rut? Hey Russell- go crazy.
G Kyrie Irving- could very well be the future PG of this team. Could also show up as Uncle Drew and confuse everybody.
I mentioned this on twitter a couple days ago- why not leadoff?
Lombo’s been great at the top of the lineup, but he’s still just a rookie (and not a Bryce Harper kind of rookie either- then again, who is?). Plus, Lombo may unfortunately end up in a platoon type of situation with Espinosa at 2nd (how important would a change in the DH rule be for this team?)
And though his numbers have been unimpressive overall since “the contract”, Werth usually takes good at-bats and takes a lot of pitches per plate appearance. He’s also very smart and creative on the basepaths- both important obviously when you’re setting the table for RBI producers like Harper, Zimmerman, Morse and LaRoche. I think Desmond has found himself a home batting down in the 6-7 range given his swing early and often approach, so where else would Werth fit in?
Werth-Harper-Zim-LaRoche-Morse-Desmond-Espi/Lombo-Flores? Let’s do it.
Like many have, I’ve certainly fallen in love with the idea of Bradley Beal.
It seems as though the Wizards have taken chances on pretty much every kind of prospect- [potential] defensive stoppers (Singleton, Jared Jeffries), dominant big men (Kwame), athletic big men (JaVale), franchise point guards (Wall) and even a few “next-potential-Dirk” Euros (Vesely, Pecherov).
But when’s the last time they’ve drafted a player with the offensive/pure scoring potential of Beal? Sorry, won’t give you Nick Young.
The last guy I can think of is Rip Hamilton coming out of UCONN- and I certainly wouldn’t call him a disappointment.
There’s a lot of talent up at the top, as is usually the case, but when there’s a guy who seemingly plays a position (and a role) that your team severely lacks, it’s easy to see why he’s quickly becoming a lot of peoples favorites to land in DC.
Certainly both Gio and Strasburg make the team, but unfortunately (well, fortunately I guess for those that have him on their fantasy teams like I do), how can you not reward Lance Lynn right now?
Dude has been awesome. He’s now 10-2 with a 2.42 ERA. His strikeouts aren’t where the Nats guys are, but he followed up a career high 11 strikeouts with a new career high 12 in his start last night.
Still plenty of time to change, and I’d love to see one of our guys out there starting, but tough to deny Lynn that opportunity as of right now.
That’s a clown question, bro.
