June 12, 2023
Can we just get to the off-season already? The NBA rumors are heating up. The latest of course is around Chris Paul, and him signing with the Lakers if the Suns waive him. I like CP3 personally, and having him on the team would be fun, but I don’t want to rely on him given his age and health. If he wants to sign for the minimum and be a guard in a rotation with D-Lo, Austin, and Dennis, then he could be a nice veteran presence with upside. However, if I’m signing him to for more money than that, and asking him to play 30 minutes a game, I’m asking for trouble. I know he’s friends with Lebron and I know his dream has always been to play for the Lakers, but this isn’t Disneyland; the Lakers aren’t in the business of making dreams comes true. If it’s not on the Lakers terms, move on. Keep it simple Rob Pelinka. Bring back as many pieces of the team from last season as you can.
Meanwhile, it’s hard to envision the Clippers off-season being very eventful. Trent Redon is now their new GM, which nobody knows anything about or cares, because it’s the Clippers. The core of their team is under contract next year, so for better or worse they don’t have many questions. Only whether or not they will bring back Russell Westbrook. He looks like a guy who doesn’t want to leave LA because of his family, and I think the Clips would be willing to keep him at a reasonable price. I personally would not bring back the Kawhi-PG duo if there was a way to move on, but I think the Clips are too afraid to do so. They are afraid all 6 of their fans won’t pay any attention to them anymore.
To baseball, where the Dodger pitching has been falling apart. The Boys in Blue have lost 6 of their last 8, and what is usually the strength of their team is far from it this year. Clayton Kershaw and rookie Bobby Miller are the only reliable starters, but after that it’s just a bunch of dudes with baseball gloves. Julio Urias, Dustin May, and Walker Buehler are injured, Tony Gonsolin is a shell of last years version, and Noah Syndergaard is a total disaster and at this point needs to be DFA’d. The bullpen is also a complete dumpster fire, and not having a true closer has caught up with them in the past week. There’s probably not just one trade that can fix all this at the deadline, but their starting pitching will probably get healthier, and their offense is good enough. Andrew Friedman and his computer should do what they can to try and re-tool their bullpen and even find a closer. Only three teams have a worse bullpen than the Dodgers in all of baseball, which is a sure fire recipe for post season disaster.
As for the Angels, they are staying afloat, winners of 6 of the last 7 games. Shohei Ohtani has been on fire lately, and Zach Neto hit a pair of homers yesterday. In the bigger picture though, every success with this team has been offset by a disappointment. Ohtani’s brilliance is offset by Mike Trout’s inability to hit with runners in scoring position. Zach Neto’s emergence as a solid shortstop is offset by the loss of Logan O’Hoppe to injury. Their bullpen has been solid, but Anthony Rendon still isn’t earning his paycheck, and making stupid statements. Yes Anthony, we know the Angels haven’t been very good and neither have you, but sometimes you have to have the self awareness to know it’s not you that should be saying this. I still think if the Halos really think they have a shot at keeping Ohtani, they need to be buyers at the deadline and do everything to make the playoffs. Otherwise, it would be foolish not to trade him and get something for him.
Has anyone looked at the UCLA and USC Football Big Ten schedule in 2024? UCLA and USC will each travel more than 15,000 miles roundtrip in conference play during their inaugural Big Ten season. In 2024 alone, the Bruins will travel to Rutgers, which is more than 4,800 miles roundtrip, while USC travels to Maryland and Penn State, each of which are more than 4,400 miles roundtrip. If having to adjust to a cross-country schedule for conference play wasn’t bad enough, UCLA also plays nonconference road games at Hawaii and LSU. USC has a brutal travel schedule, having to go visit the East Coast twice for matchups with Penn State and Maryland. All this travel better earn them lots of frequent flier miles with whatever crummy domestic airline they choose. It’s insanity, but all they can hope for is that there are more teams that make a super conference shortly that will reduce the travel over time. Otherwise, they will be at a significant disadvantage in all their sports, not just football.
Also notable in College Football is the news that Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbick is going to be retiring in 2024, and that he will be replaced by NBC Sports Chairman Pete Bevacqua. Bevacqua’s background is very interesting that he’s a TV executive, which tells you how important sports media rights are for Notre Dame. The timing is also very interesting, given all the talk about Notre Dame joining a conference. Swarbick has always insisted that it’s been important for the Irish to maintain their Independence from both a competitive and media perspective. I can only assume before Swarbick steps down, Bevacqua will be aligned, especially if he’s coming from NBC.
The LA Kings are making moves. The just traded goalie Cal Peterson, opening up $5 million of cap space, which gives them $13 million to spend. Moving Cal was important because anyone named “Cal” should be running an auto dealership rather than playing goaltender in the NHL. Of course after re-signing some of their own free agents, they badly need a solid goaltender. The most sensible thing for them to do would be to do this through the trade market, because the free agent market doesn’t have any elite goalies. Actually, Connor Hellebucyck is available, and is one of the best goalies in hockey. The Kings need goaltending and defense badly. They got so used to Jonathan Quick being dominant for a decade, they didn’t have to worry about the position. Now they do, and it’s time to address it in a meaningful way if they intend to compete for Stanley Cups again, and Hellebuyck would be the guy to get them there.
Finally, the LIV Tour announced it will be merging with the PGA last week. That lasted shorter than the career of Vanilla Ice. I can’t begrudge any of those golfers that took those fat paydays from the Saudi’s. Money is money, and most of us would take it if we had the chance. With that being said, it’s probably a good idea that all these golfers who took the money shut their mouth and don’t try to explain anything related to 9/11 or justify it. It was the worst day in American history and always will be. There’s overwhelming evidence that the Saudi’s were involved in funding 9/11 and that fact can’t take away how some Americans feel about them, especially those families directly affected. I’m mostly talking to you Bryson DeChambeau, since you are completely insensitive and have no idea what you are talking about to just tell people to “move on”. Just say you don’t know much about it to comment and move on.