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Suns select Georgia Tech's Lawal with 46th pickBasketball Betting Lines06/25/2010 - PHOENIX (AP) -The Phoenix Suns, working with a general manager who will walk away from his job next week, have selected Gani Lawal of Georgia Tech with the 46th pick overall in the NBA draft. Lawal left college after his junior season, when he averaged 13.1 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.4 blocked shots. The Suns have plenty of scorers, but the 6-foot-9, 234-pound forward could help address the team's need for rebounding and inside strength. Phoenix also had the last pick of the draft, No. 60 overall, and the chose another athletic forward, 6-8 Dwayne Collins of Miami. The Suns had no first-round pick. It was sent to the then-Seattle SuperSonics, now Oklahoma City Thunder, as part of the Suns' salary-dumping trade of Kurt Thomas in 2007. Steve Kerr announced last week that he was leaving after three seasons as general manager and will explore opportunities in broadcasting. Kerr, who was part of five NBA championship teams, was a color analyst for TNT for four years before owner Robert Sarver hired him as general manager. David Griffin, Phoenix's senior vice president for basketball operations, also decided to leave after 13 years in the Suns organization. Kerr didn't talk to the media. That was left to coach Alvin Gentry, who will increase his involvement in management until a new general manager is found. Gentry said Kerr and Griffin ``still have the best interest in the team.'' ``Those guys have a lot of pride and they're going to try to do the best job they possibly can,'' Gentry said. ``The two picks that we had, to get those kids at 46 and 60, I think is phenomenal.'' Gentry said he had no interest in adding general manager to his title. Sarver had no comment on whether he would like to talk to Kevin Pritchard, who was fired Thursday after seven seasons as general manager of the Portland Trail Blazers. ``Over the next 30 days, the process will play out,'' Sarver said. Gentry called Lawal and Collins ``young kids that have the potential to do some good things.'' ``You can never have too much size,'' Gentry said. ``You saw that in the Lakers series. We think both of those kids have an opportunity to turn into special players. The thing with Gani is he was the leading rebounder playing alongside (Derrick) Favors. Obviously that was a big factor for us.'' Lawal, whose father was born in Nigeria, explored the possibility of leaving college after his sophomore season but decided instead to stay at Georgia Tech, where he was a third-team all-ACC selection for the second straight year. Lawal was a McDonald's all-American at Norcross, Ga., High School. He had 12 double-doubles last season and was ACC player of the week after 21-point games against Georgia and Duke. He scored 29 against Charlotte and had 17 points and a career-high 18 rebounds against Miami. Collins, who has a 7-foot, 4-inch wingspan, led Miami in scoring (12.0 points per game), rebounding (7.8), blocks (1.1) and field goal percentage (.604). The Suns got the 46th choice in the trade that sent Boris Diaw and Raja Bell to Charlotte for Jason Richardson and Jared Dudley. The No. 60 pick came as part of the trade of Shaquille O'Neal to Cleveland. Kerr has denied widespread reports that he was dissatisfied with Sarver's offer for a new contract after building an overachieving team that made it to the Western Conference finals.Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -There were rumors the Portland Trail Blazers were going to make a big move on draft night. What happened was downright surreal.A report surfaced less than an hour before the draft started that general manager Kevin Pritchard had
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Suns exercise option for Gentry, sign 3 assistants >>
PHOENIX (AP) -The Phoenix Suns have exercised the option year of coach Alvin Gentry for the 2011-12 season.Gentry guided the Suns to a 54-28 regular season, third-best in the West. Phoenix eliminated Portland and San Antonio in the playoffs before f
Blazers fire GM Pritchard >>
Suns pick up Gentry's option for 2011-12 >>
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Pacers, Thunder exchange second-round picks >>
Huskers' Lucky hospitalized for undisclosed reason LINCOLN, Neb. -- Nebraska running back Marlon Lucky was hospitalized Monday for undisclosed reasons after Lincoln police responded to a call at his residence. The Nebraska athletic department said in a release Monday that Lucky was admitted Sunday night. MySportsbook.com has the Cornhuskers listed at +2500 to win the BCS National Championship odds. A nursing supervisor at the hospital said all questions about Lucky were being referred to the athletic department. The athletic department said there would be no further comment from the department or Lucky's family. A Lincoln Police spokesman said officers responded to a call at Lucky's residence 11:30 p.m. Sunday. The spokesman said he didn't know Lucky's condition at the time he was taken to the hospital. Lucky, from North Hollywood, Calif., started six games last season as a sophomore and was the team's second-leading rusher, with 728 yards and six touchdowns. He also caught 32 passes for 383 yards. He averaged 19.1 yards on eight kickoff returns. To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com - this sportsbook accepts credit cards.
Sportsbook Betting LinesWho Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error. “You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said. “The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10). How the Opening Line Is MadeThe opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades. Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias. The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line. Why Sports Betting Lines ChangeOnce the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action. Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite. Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.” To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds. |
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