#DaRundown Sports Podcast Ep. 12: Pacers are sports "bridesmaids", NFL coaching moves, NBA trends

Wudup doe! Its #DaRundown Sports coming for a second time this week and to hold you over before the  big game. Slim (@Eazyslife) and I discuss plenty today. For starters Slim gave his takes from the NFL Championship Weekend and all the Richard Sherman overreactions.  From there he offers up his "Bridesmaids Theories" on the San Francisco 49ers and the Indiana Pacers. To put it quickly you have the 49ers who have been to three straight  NFC Championship games. He drew a comparison to Buffalo Bills of the early 90's. They won four straight AFC titles and lost in the Super Bowl every time. I feel they resemble the Donovan McNabb and Brian Dawkins' lead Eagles in the 2000's. They went to four straight NFC title games and went the Super Bowl the last time in the run and lost to the Tom Brady New England Patriots. Either one you can see the similarities of going deep in the playoffs and coming up short of the ultimate goal a championship. The 49ers are coming short and it will be something to watch over the years and to see what kind of narrative is built up over the years. 
The other is history repeating itself with the Indiana Pacers. Late 90's into the 2000's the pacers had a run but couldn't  get past Michael Jordan for the most part. Fast forward into the present and the Indiana Pacers can't get past LeBron James. In both cases there is a transcendent  player in their way. This is looking like  the year where the Miami Heat look vulnerable with Dwayne Wade inconsitantly in and out of the line up. Couple X - factors on both teams are Luis Scola for the Pacers and Greg Oden for the Heat. Getting quality minutes in the playoffs from these two can give someone the advantage. Oden gives the Heat much needed size and Scola is a players who has played in starting lineups so is more than capable of handling major minutes if needed for injury or foul trouble.
After that we go in on the coaching moves in the NFL. All the head coaching positions have been filled. Most notably we discussed the Jim Caldwell to the Detroit Lions in depth. For one even though I am a Saints fan, I am partial to the Lions because of the hometown connection. I root for them to do well except against New Orleans. I was rather underwhelmed by the hire but I am intrigued by the choices of coordinators. He picked Teryl Austin to be his defensive coordinator. He will be a first play caller in the NFL as he was with Caldwell in Baltimore as the secondary coach. He doubles down on first time play callers by picking Joe Lombardi who was the Quarterbacks coach for the New Orleans Saints. Neither have anything  of note but the pedigree of the programs they come from. I will say this Lombardi's first year in New Orleans? 2009 when the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl and Drew Brees had his best year ever completing 70% of his passes that year.   It does show how much of a Tony Dungy disciple he is by his picks. Dungy is notable for bringing up coaches and gving them opportunities to shine under him. People don discuss his coaching tree but it includes Mike Tomlin, Lovie Smith,  Leslie Frazier, and Jim Caldwell. A pretty impressive lineup especially since all are men of color and help head coaching jobs.  As you can see Lovie Smith didn't hesitate to bring Frazier on as his defensive coordinator. So yea its a family affair in a sense.
We'll be doing one big Super bowl late next week where I will get a fan from both sides to state their case of why their team will win and we will make our picks. Early on look for a NBA podcast in the week. to hold you over.
Stay tuned to the #DaRundown Sports is in growing and evolving.