Michael Crabtree is the ideal wide receiver to have in an offense that uses the run as its foundation while supplementing it with quick-strike passing. That’s because he’s able to make tacklers miss with his short-area quickness, while frequently turning short-to-intermediate routes into long gains.

It’s an ability that opens up running lanes for both Frank Gore and Colin Kaepernick, with safeties forced to respect his outside speed, and with a gang tackling mentality immediately in place once he catches the ball. Pleasant green field is also opened up for Vernon Davis, and of course Kaepernick utilizes Crabtree as his primary deep option.

Now, all of that is gone. In May.

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Last night, the NBA held its annual pinging and ponging to determine the draft spots of the upcoming NBA Draft, which will be held on June 27 at the Barclays Center. And it’s safe to say that if the Cleveland Cavaliers avoid the NBA Draft Lottery next year, one of 14 teams will be adopting Nick Gilbert. It is known.

As most hoops “experts” are wont to do soon after the lottery, this is my initial mock draft (just the lottery teams). However, please understand that “experts” are like Jon Snow and really know nothing. Here’s the proof, and while I did relatively well in predicting the 2012 NBA Draft, there are a plethora of factors going against draft prognosticators. Maybe we should have Nick Gilbert standing next to us whenever we write these up.

1. Cleveland Cavaliers: Nerlens Noel, C, Kentucky

Noel has been the favorite to go first in this draft for months now. He’s also injured and likely to miss significant time this upcoming season. What does that say about this draft class? Noel could be a default “Never Nervous Pervis” Ellison type of pick where it’s like, “Hey, he’s tall, long, can defend, has potential, and has a cool nickname/haircut.” And like Ellison, Noel will likely miss a good portion of his rookie year. But, let’s look at the positives for Noel — super athletic and quick, can block and steal the ball at a high level and should be fun to watch on a break. However, because of his offensive deficiencies, Noel won’t be a true franchise player although there’s a great possibility 20 years from now that he does Geico commercials wagging his finger.

2. Orlando Magic: Trey Burke, PG, Michigan

Yes, this could be a stretch, I’ll admit that. But, I’m looking at team need here and drafting the reigning Player of the Year isn’t a bad thing. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Magic try to trade down with the next four teams already having their point guard position on lock. Burke would inherit the position currently held by Jameer Nelson, who has a year left on his contract with a team option the following year. Burke has high-grade intangibles and leadership ability, can hit the J, create for others and would be an excellent young player to add to the Magic core.

3. Washington Wizards: Otto Porter, SF, Georgetown

Big fan of Porter! He’s fundamentally very sound and can do a lot of things well. Porter would fit right in with John Wall and Bradley Beal because he doesn’t need to shoot the rock to be effective and can facilitate the offense. Porter has an excellent mid-range game, coming off screens and utilizing ball fakes with one or two dribbles to create space. He’s one of the more NBA-ready players in this draft and could fit in just about any system.

4. Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets: Ben McLemore, SG, Kansas

If there’s any team that might bite on a potential Magic trade-down, it could be Charlotte, who got shafted out of the top three spots after being shafted out of the top pick in last year’s draft. The team would be ecstatic to get McLemore, who could still go higher based on his skill set and ridiculous athleticism. He can rain Js and bring the thunder when attacking the rim. McLemore has the potential to end up being the best player of this draft and a true franchise player.

5. Phoenix Suns: Victor Oladipo, SG, Indiana

The Suns could go with Anthony Bennett here, but I’m going on a hunch that they’d rather shore up their backcourt and add an athletic defensive stopper in Oladipo. He improved his shooting last season and Goran Dragic will love to pass to a super athlete with non-stop motor charging the rim and finishing, something the team currently lacks. Oladipo also has the ability to board because he’s always active and could be a fan favorite.

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Mike Trout! MIEK TORT! And walkoffs, walkoffs, walkoffs. Not necessarily in that order, bee tee double-u (and we barely touch on Trout). ALSO: Dustin Parkes predicts Hunter Pence will finish the season with a higher WAR than Carl Crawford. Time will tell…

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Some (underlined) Mint Musical Interludes courtesy of The Constantines and Arts & Crafts Records and Deathwish Records. Check out the full catologue and buy what you like. It’s the right thing to do.

For sale: one quite good, slightly used coach.

Source says Alain Vigneault, Rick Bowness and Newell Browne have been fired by Vancouver Canucks.

— Louis Jean (@LouisJean_TVA) May 22, 2013

The secret to keeping your job in Vancouver is to pay two goalies a combined nine-plus million a year, keep half of that on the bench, and have it overshadow everything your team does all season.

Told GM Mike Gillis met with ownership before breaking the news to Vigneault, Bowness & Brown.

— Louis Jean (@LouisJean_TVA) May 22, 2013

Gillis: “And as the video clearly shows, gentlemen, this is all of you cheating on your wives while simultaneously extorting money. So, who were we talking about firing?”

In the latest installment of RaptorBlog Radio, Drew, Oliver and I get together to discuss the “sort of” firing of Bryan Colangelo, the current state of the Raptors organization, who may replace Colangelo, and what might become of Dwane Casey.

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Another tumblr. Tip of the that to our Hockey Mastermind Justin Bourne.

We’re now down to the semi-finals of the NHL 14 Cover Vote campaign and it’s down to the final 4: Pavel Datsyuk, Martin Brodeur, John Tavares and Sergei Bobrovsky.

We say farewell to 2 Toronto Maple Leafs who made it far into the campaign. Pavel Datsyuk narrowly defeated Joffrey Lupul in what was the tightest matchup of the last round. James van Riemsdyk made things interesting for Martin Brodeur as they battled for a spot in the semi’s, but Brodeur’s increased social media activity got him the W.

Semi-final voting runs until May 26^th at 11:59 PM ET. The winner of the cover vote will be revealed during the Stanley Cup Finals.

Sergio Garcia would like to remind us that racism still exists. Unfortunately, his method for doing so was not a public service announcement, but a joke aimed at Tiger Woods that referred to fried chicken. There are two things that are awful about this: 1) The public reinforcement of an incredibly demeaning stereotype that the majority of us would love to do away with; and 2) His attempt at irreverence wasn’t even remotely funny.

It all started two weeks ago during the Third Round at The Players Championship at Sawgrass. Tiger Woods decided to take a wood out of his bag – signifying to the crowd that he was going for the green on the par-five second hole – just as Sergio Garcia was taking his swing. The crowd cheered Woods’s decision, causing Garcia to slice his shot.

During a rain delay, Garcia vented some of his frustration while speaking with the Golf Channel:

Well, obviously Tiger was on the left and it was my turn to hit. He moved all the crowd that he needed to move, I waited for that. You do have a feel when the other guy is going to hit and right as I was in the top of the back-swing, he must have pulled a wood and everybody started screaming. So that didn’t help very much.

… and so it began.

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