The New Kanye Album

I definitely need to devote more time to this blog. Sorry, but finals have messed my schedule up. I wanted to post today, because a couple of weeks ago, Kanye West released his latest album, and it was hailed by just about every magazine and website in existence as a masterpiece. Well I disagree. I'm not saying Kanye didn't make a great sounding piece of music, though. What he didn't do, is come through on the promise that this album could have been.
Kanye's recent behavior led us to believe that he was going to the lab to create the greatest, most mindblowing album we had ever seen. This...was not close. I won't disagree with those who say the production and sound is top notch; this is certainly the best sounding music money can buy. I will disagree with those who say that this album said anything. To me, this was nothing more than the rap equivalent of Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest, a pretty sounding album with absolutely no depth behind it.
And that's what frustrates me. This is, to me, more of a disappointment than Drake's putrid full length, if only because I had believed that Kanye would be able to deliver something more. I've already been pilloried by my friends for knocking this album, but I could care less. It is, in my opinion, nothing more than a glossy mantelpiece.

What A Week

Sorry about the complete lack of posts recently guys. I hate to deprive all my readers (zing!) of my great writing (double-zing!), but classes and studying recently demanded it. It looks like I won't be able to make daily posts like I wanted to when I first started this. Oh well, none of that matters now, because we've had a crazy week of NBA action, and that is something to rejoice about. I'm not sure how I ever survived with the just NFL games two days a week. What I wanted to look at was the performance of some individual players this far in the season, so lets do just that.
One of my biggest pet peeves as an NBA fan has been Lakers fans who continually fail to realize that Kobe is no longer the best player in the NBA, and this year, I think that's finally been proven. Kobe's fallen off so much that he's not even the best player of his own team anymore (that would be Pau Gasol). So with Kobe finally relinquishing the title of "Best Player in the West", who has taken the torch? The consensus before the season started was to reward this honor to Kevin Durant, but what everyone seems to have forgotten is that Chris Paul is finally healthy, and he's not gonna stand for your guff. So far this year, not only is Chris Paul the hands-down top player in the west, he's also the front-runner for MVP, as he has his Hornets team undefeated, and Lebron hasn't yet seemed to mesh with his sidekicks in Miami.

Early Frontrunner for ROY?

So, who will win the Rookie of the Year award this NBA season? There are three serious contenders: Demarcus Cousins, out of Kentucky and playing for the Sacramento Kings; John Wall, also of Kentucky and playing for the Washington Wizards; and Blake Griffin, out of Oklahoma and playing for the Los Angeles Clippers. Now, as of this writing, the three rookies have only played one game apiece, but I'm not going to let something like that stop me from making my first impressions. After the draft, I was firmly in the Cousins camp, believing that a big man that could control the paint offensively and defensively was a bigger asset than a super quick point guard or a hyper athletic forward. I still, to this day, believe that Portland made the right decision at the time in drafting Greg Oden over Kevin Durant. However, having watched a single game, I can already feel like my pick is in jeopardy. Simply put, Blake Griffin was a beast. According to the advanced box scores at Hoopdata, he scored 20 points with 14 boards and 4 assists in a relatively slow game (92 posessions). He wasn't without flaws though. as J.E. Skeets The Basketball Jones' great video show, Griffin's defensive rebounding was far from polished, and the advanced stats bear that out. His DRR was a measly 12.8 %. Still, for his first night out, he showed some great stuff, and he is undoubtedly the early frontrunner in the race for ROY, and deservedly so. What about the other two? Well, Cousins was also impressive, albeit in limited minutes due to foul trouble early on. His per-minute numbers were on par with Griffin's, and his AR and DRR were in fact better, albeit in a game with 13 more possessions. John Wall's night must be looked at as a fluke. As numerous basketball scholars pointed out, playing against a team like the Magic, where he couldn't get into the lane for fear of a rejection at the hands of Dwight Howard, was the worst possible introduction for the young rookie. His shooting numbers were deplorable, a clear result of his inability to finish inside. He did show some promise passing the ball, and as he gets longer in the tooth, his ability to deal with a defensive presence in the paint should improve.

The First Post

Wow, I can't believe I'm actually doing this, although considering it's 2010, I guess I'm behind the times. This is going to be a blog that focuses mainly on the world of sports. Some of the writers I admire the most are masters are using sports as a spectrum to look at the "real" world. I might try my hand at that, although I don't expect it to be anywhere near as good. Basically, this is just a medium for me to get my thoughts out. Sports are important to me, so they'll be important to my blog. Hopefully, you'll enjoy. If not, I'll be fine with that. Happy reading!