Month: December 2014

2015 Pro Bowl Snubs

by Sean Fener, posted in Football, NFL Football

Sixteen weeks have flown by, and somehow, the NFL regular season is coming to an end. This week, the NFL announced which players the fans voted into this year’s Pro Bowl. Being voted to the Pro Bowl is a huge honor for any player, but the voting process is flawed, and usually turns into a popularity contest rather than voting for the best player at their position. Every year, there are a handful of players wondering what else they had to do to earn a spot in the game. This piece highlights the four biggest snubs of the 2015 Pro Bowl.

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The West Gets Deeper: How the Addition of Two Enigmatic Veterans Will Affect the Bestern Conference

by Derek Reifer, posted in Basketball, NBA Basketball

The Western Conference has been dominant this season. With at least ten playoff-caliber teams and eight legitimate championship contenders – yes, eight (compared to probably two or three in the East) – the disparity between the two conferences may be as large as ever. Three of the most reliable analytics-based power rankings, Hollinger’s, NumberFire’s, and TeamRankings‘, all rank ten Western teams in the NBA’s top fifteen.

It seems the rich are getting richer: in the past week, two of the East’s most talented players in Rajon Rondo and Josh Smith left the Northeast for Texas. Nothing’s for certain, though, as both players have been centers of controversy over the past couple seasons, especially in analytical circles. While both are very skilled, they have the potential to be poor fits for any team, including their new respective squads. Let’s take a look at the possible pros and cons in each situation.

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