June 19, 2023
Don’t freak out Laker fans. The Suns didn’t build a super team. Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant and Devin Booker can score, but they defend as well as a parked car. The Suns will also have nothing but Uber drivers to fill out the rest of their team. The three star model is outdated. It no longer works in today’s NBA where players are less durable, and depth is important with a more restrictive CBA. The point is, don’t over think this. The Lakers should just try to re-sign as many dudes as possible and try to run it back. If they can add CP3 for the minimum along with all that then even better. You can’t overestimate the value of having continuity, and as long as the Lakers think that way, they will be in good shape heading into next year.
You’ve gotta feel bad for the Wizards and their new front office. They weren’t the ones that gave Bradley Beal that no-trade clause and that horrible contract. You can argue that Beal is expensive, injury-prone, and in decline somewhat, but the return was still awful. Were it not for the no-trade clause the Department of Justice would probably be filing a suit for Basketball Malpractice against the Wizards. When you really think about it though, the return was so bad, what was the point of really trading him now? Maybe further down the road he might have further expanded his list of teams or increased his trade value.
As for the Clippers, there’s more news around Ty Lue that broke last week. Lue and the Clippers will reportedly be unlikely to agree on a contract extension before the season. That means he is likely to be a free agent coach next off-season. This tells you that Lue wants to see if his stars are going to be committed to playing more games and not load managing games like they are 1099 employees. He may also not want to get stuck in a rebuilding situation if Kawhi or PG leave the Clippers next off-season. The Athletic is also reporting that the Clippers are trying acquire Raptors forward Pascal Siakam. While they don’t have much draft capital to give up, it did make me wonder if the Clippers would be willing to deal Paul George for Siakam, since he may be a slightly better fit and miss fewer games.
To baseball, where it’s been nothing but trouble for the Dodgers the past two weeks, especially after getting swept by the Giants at home. The pitching is stunningly 25th out of 30 teams in the MLB this season, owning a 4.66 mark that would be the highest in franchise history since 1944. The rotation has struggled with injuries and depth, and the bullpen is a complete tire fire. That’s not the only problem either. They need a productive middle infielder and more consistency from their outfield outside of Mookie. There’s no way all of this can be fixed by the trade deadline. Their best hope is that the starting rotation gets healthier come July, they find a reliver or two for cheap at the deadline, and they convert either Dustin May or Julio Urias to a high leverage or closer for the remainder of the season. The latter seems like the most unlikely, with Urias ticketed for free agency, and May with health concerns that could prevent him from making a transition. Everyone wants to talk about Ohtani and all this isn’t a big deal if the Dodgers get him. However, do you really want to spend $600 million or more on one guy? How has that approach worked for the Angels the past decade? That’s 2-4 really good players you could get for that price, and in baseball, one guy can only move the needle so far.
Speaking of Ohtani and the Angels, they took 2 of 3 from the Royals over the weekend, and are right in the thick of the AL playoff race. Ohtani has been spectacular, and Mike Trout even came out of his slump over the weekend, going back-to-back with Ohtani yesterday. It’s actually somewhat remarkable the Angels are where they are because Trout has struggled a bit, Anthony Rendon stinks, and the starting pitching has been middle of the road. However, the bullpen has been a strong point, and the Halos have gotten hot the past few weeks. They’ve got 17 games before the All-Star Break. If they can just go 11-6 before the break and get to 50-52 wins by then, they’ll be sitting pretty. I still think the responsible thing to do if Ohtani doesn’t commit to coming back next season is to trade him, but we know Arte Moreno will never do this.
Last week USC announced long-awaited plans to build a three-level, football-only performance center that includes a second, full-length practice field alongside its current practice field, a new locker room, new weight and training rooms, multiple player lounges and a rooftop hospitality deck, among other amenities meant to garner the attention of recruits and set USC apart from other blue blood programs. Lincoln Riley is correct, you can’t underestimate the value of these type of facilities in College Football recruiting today. This was actually brought up by a former Notre Dame assistant coach that is now at LSU, who said the facilities at LSU and the SEC are on another level compared to others, and that matters to kids selecting schools today.
Memo to Rams Executive Kevim Demoff: chill out on the Nuggets gear. I get that your boss, Stan Kronke owns the NBA Champion Denver Nuggets, but you know this is a Laker town. The public doesn’t need to see you in Nuggets gear, especially after they beat the Lakers, and you know the fan bases overlap. You can wear your Nuggets gear when you go to your bosses house, not in public!
Finally, the Chargers schedule is a problem. They have the earliest bye week, week 5. For a team that has been hit with the injury bug annually, it would have been far better for them to have the bye much later in the season. The Bolts will also have to play 6 games in primetime, but oddly enough none of them are against Kansas City. Since Justin Herbert took over as the starter, his five games against Patrick Mahomes have been decided by three, six, six, three and three points. The Chargers are 1-4 in those contests. That is literally the difference between the Bolts getting much better playoff positioning than previous years, or even winning the division.
