Kritik und Lob » e focus in the past at Kentucky

New Philadelphia 76ers President Bryan Colangelos biggest priority heading into free agency was to find a veteran point guard to help organize a team full of youngsters.He is turning to a familiar face to help get the job done.The 76ers agreed to terms with veteran guard Jerryd Bayless on a three-year deal worth $27 million, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Friday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal cannot be signed until July 7.The 27-year-old Bayless was a valuable backup for the Milwaukee Bucks for the last two seasons. He averaged 10.4 points and 3.1 assists last season. His deal with the Sixers is fully guaranteed.Bayless played for the Raptors when Colangelo, who was hired in the offseason to help expedite Philadelphias exhaustive rebuilding process under former GM Sam Hinkie, was leading the front office in Toronto during the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons.Bayless has also played for Portland, New Orleans, Memphis and Boston in his eight-year career, but really started to blossom under coach Jason Kidd in Milwaukee the previous two seasons.He shot 43 percent from 3-point range last year and was an integral part of the Bucks second unit. At 6-foot-3 he can play both guard spots, defend multiple positions and run the offense.In Philadelphia, hell join a team that is switching gears from the tank mode it operated in under Hinkie. But the oft-criticized GM did amass some quality assets, including Nerlens Noel, Jahlil Okafor and the No. 1 pick last month, which was used on LSU star Ben Simmons.The Sixers tried feverishly to acquire another top-five draft pick on draft night in hopes of landing Providence point guard Kris Dunn. But they couldnt swing a deal, and Dunn landed in Minnesota, leaving Philly without a real option at point guard.Ish Smith, who arrived in midseason and played the bulk of the minutes at the spot, left to sign with Detroit. So Colangelo went for Bayless to bring a steadying presence. Salomon Schuhe Schweiz Shop . LOUIS -- Cardinals cleanup hitter Allen Craig says hes recovered from a foot injury and ready to be put on St. Günstig Salomon Schuhe Schweiz . After dropping their final six games of December, the Wild opened the new calendar year with four consecutive wins. Following a loss to Colorado on Saturday, Minnesota rebounded the following night to blank Nashville 4-0, but then had the tables turned on them Tuesday. http://www.schweizsalomon.ch/ . -- Gus Malzahn finally had his day in Fayetteville. Salomon Schuhe Schweiz Outlet . -- Peyton Manning will have all of his wide receivers available for the first time in a month when the Denver Broncos begin their playoff run Jan. Kaufen Salomon Schuhe Schweiz .J. -- New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz will miss the rest of the season after having surgery on his left knee. SPARTA, Ky. -- Kentucky Speedway has changed, and we probably wont know whether its for the better until a full weekend of racing has been completed.Thanks to a repave and a mild reprofiling of Turns 1 and 2, almost everything that competitors have learned since the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series started running there in 2011 has been thrown out. For all practical purposes, Kentucky is a brand-new racetrack, to the joy of some and the disappointment of others.Its a totally different race track, for sure, 2013 Kentucky winner Matt Kenseth?said. Id say its basically like starting over.Almost since it opened in 2000, Kentucky was notorious for its bumpy surface. While that created difficulty in setting up cars to handle, it also provided much of the tracks character. The 1.5-mile oval some 35 miles south of Cincinnati was also famous for its weepers and was known as one of the most difficult tracks to dry and make race-ready after periods of rain.Coarser asphalt and a revised aggregate base, along with south-end banking increased from 14 to 17 degrees, are expected to provide relief from the drainage problems. The other major change to the track is a wider pit lane exit and resultant narrower entry to Turn 1, where the width has been reduced from 72 to 56 feet.About a dozen teams tested the new surface for Goodyear on June 13 and 14, prompting the tire maker to change to a slightly harder right-side compound for the Cup Series to address concerns about the potential for excessive wear.We spent two days testing here and obviously Goodyear needed to make some adjustments to the tires coming back to make them live, said?Kevin Harvick, who claimed pole position based on owner points after qualifying for the Quaker State 400 was rained out Friday.As weve gone through practice, we havent had any tire issues so far. But it changed things a lot with the feel in the car and the things you want in the car. So weve scrambled a little bit, and hopefully getting a little more practice will be beneficial because we still arent exactly where we need to be in terms of balance and whats going to happen the longer you run the car.Harvick admitted that he and crew chief Rodney Childers took a conservative approach for practice. Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne both contacted the wall, and?Kyle Busch had to summon all of his skill to catch a huge tank-slapper.Youre definitely cautious just because you dont know where the limits are, and every time you go out you push or see something you havent done before, Harvick said. You start to gather a notebook in your mind about how far you can push things, how far you can hang the car out or how loose or tight the balance needs to be.The hard thing about repaves at some places is you can be overaggressive and slide up out of the groove, but here, you wind up knocking the side off the car into the fence.The rain that arrived just 20 minutes into Fridays Cup practice made things more difficult for competitors in several ways. After any track is repaved, teams need as much track time as poossible to dial in their cars to adapt to the changes.dddddddddddd In addition, having more rubber laid down on the track tends to widen the groove for the race, creating opportunities for passing.The decision to jettison qualifying in favor of additional practice time was welcomed by the drivers. Just a few days ago, NASCAR altered its rule for a qualifying rainout to set the grid by owner points, rather than practice speeds as it had been done in the past.That put Harvicks Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet on pole, with Brad Keselowskis Team Penske Ford alongside on the front row.With the major changes to the Kentucky track, Keselowski welcomed the extra practice time.The approach is to take all the Kentucky notes and run them through the shredder and start from scratch, he said, adding that he and crew chief Paul Wolfe based their car setup on what worked earlier this summer at Michigan International Speedway. Whats worked here in the past isnt even close to whats going to work here this weekend. That was pretty obvious before we got on the track and confirmed when we did.The cars are challenging to drive like we thought they would be and like we hoped they would be, Keselowski continued. Midcorner speed is way down and straightaway speed is way up, so thats a bit of a handful, but the good kind of handful that really challenges drivers and really forces drivers to really push it to the limit.Keselowski believes that the reduction in midcorner speed brought on by the low downforce package in the Cup Series has the added benefit of reducing the potential for tire issues. But he was concerned about the Xfinity Series race scheduled for Friday night.Its interesting going back and forth between the Xfinity car and the Cup car because the midcorner speed in the Xfinity car is almost 10 mph higher than the Cup car, and the Xfinity cars are just killing the tires.While the focus in the past at Kentucky was getting a car to handle over the bumps, the new challenge is to manage tire wear. With a conservative, ultrahard right-side tire and a high-grip new track surface, expect plenty of two-tire and even no-tire stops Saturday night as teams try to gain track position through pit strategy.The Friday rain didnt help things in that respect.It definitely will make the groove narrower, which is a shame, Keselowski said. The tire on the car this weekend really isnt laying down the rubber that would make the groove wider and wider.It is what it is. We all deal with the same thing and well get through it.One thing the drivers wont have to endure this year is the physical pounding they used to take at the roughest oval on the NASCAR tour. Some of them say theyll miss the bumps and the character they contributed to Kentucky, but Harvick isnt one of them.It feels great, to tell you the truth, Harvick said. My neck doesnt hurt; it doesnt pound your heels and your neck to the point where you cant hardly walk for two days. ' ' '