May 19, 2025
Contrary to what you might be hearing, the Lakers have tradeable pieces and assets to improve their squad, and put them into championship contention. If we have learned anything from these playoffs, the gap between all these teams in the West is very narrow. Even for the OKC Thunder, who are the best team, they aren’t head and shoulders better than everyone else. I’m not saying Austin Reaves, Dalton Knecht, and their draft capital can get them Giannis, but it can get them a starting center and more quality role players. One player who is attainable but risky, would be Joel Embiid. Bill Simmons actually suggested this. I mean his contract and health make him so risky, the Lakers might be able to get Embiid for draft capital and their expiring contracts, while holding onto Reaves. Would I do it? I would not. The Lakers training staff has a hard enough time keeping guys healthy that don’t have chronic injury problems. How would they keep Embiid healthy when they can’t even heal a paper cut in two weeks? If you’re going to have 3 players making max money like you would with Embiid, it’s tough to put enough quality players around them. That makes the situation even tougher when one of those three stars isn’t avaialble every night. It’s an interesting idea, but there’s far less risky trades that can be made with the assets the Lakers have, which can still vault them into contention.
I have always said that I’m not saying the NBA Draft Lottery is rigged, but the league doesn’t do a great job trying to convince us it isn’t rigged. I no longer think that. Now I just think the NBA draft lottery is in fact rigged. Yes I understand that statistical improbabilities happen all the time. However, this number of statistical improbabilities happening is nearly impossible. Collin Cowherd said people win the lottery every day. Yes Collin, but the same person doesn’t win the lottery every single year. That’s exactly what’s happening here. It can’t be just dumb luck that the Mavs traded Luka, and earned the #1 pick. Or the Cavs losing Lebron, then getting the #1 pick after that. Or the Pelicans trading Anthony Davis, and getting the #1 pick after that. Or the Pelicans trading Chris Paul, then getting the #1 pick after that. Or Derrick Rose going to his home town in Chicago when the Bulls got the #1 pick. Only 8 out of 41 lotteries has the worst team earned the #1 pick, and none since Adam Silver changed the lottery odds in 2018. It’s like the league is punishing the teams that tank, which I can understand, but the rigging is so obvious. Just because you have some Ernst & Young dude putting window dressing on it, that isn’t good enough to convince me it isn’t rigged.
Props to the NBC for hiring Michael Jordan as a special contributor to their broadcasts next year. I have no idea what his contributions will look like, or if it will be the players interviewing Michael Jordan instead. However, it will be fascinating to watch. I don’t even know if MJ watches the NBA on a day-to-day basis, and for all we know, this guy might be contributing to the broadcasts while smoking a cigar on the golf course, or while playing a few hands of black jack at the Casino in Vegas. Nevertheless, it will be fun!
To baseball, where the Dodgers had a rough weekend against the Angels. Coming into the game, you would have thought the Boys in Blue would have made the Halos look like a tee ball team. It was the other way around though, where suddenly the Angels looked like the ’27 Yankees. The Dodgers pitching just didn’t have it together. It was nice to see Clayton Kershaw back on the mound despite his struggled. I’m going to chalk that one up to rust and too much adrenaline. Since the Dodgers badly need starters right now, he’s worth riding for a while, and I expect that he will be better than he was the other night. It was really the right move for the Dodgers to DFA Austin Barnes and Chris Taylor to make room for Dalton Rushing and Hyesong Kim. Rushing and Kim are excellent young players they need to find time for. Barnes and Taylor both had a very nice run with the club, but their performance had dropped off the point where they had to make room for more promising young players. I don’t know what’s happened to Anthony Banda. He is a shell of what he was last year. Dave Roberts said the Dodgers bullpen usage is currently “unsustainable” but the Dodgers have been operating this year for years. I’ve never loved it, but why is it now a bigger problem than before? The Dodgers have more pitching injuries because they are the biggest believe in analytics in baseball. Throw as hard as you can for as long as you can. That will always lead to pitching injuries you have to manage. On the bright side it’s nice to see Max Muncy turning things around at the plate. Let’s hope this weekend was just an aberration for the Dodgers and nothing more than that.
As for the Angels, is anybody really convince they can build off what we saw over the weekend? We’ll see, but it would be typical Halos to get swept in Oakland. Once thing was clear though, their starting pitching really isn’t that bad. However, a sign of a really bad organization is one where the pitching is bad one year, and the lineup is good. Then the following year the pitching is good but the lineup is bad, and the bullpen, like we are seeing this year. It’s just a hodge podge of players the organization tries in every area, and nothing sticks. Even with the up and down offense, if the Angels could just fix their bullpen, they would probably be a lot more competitive. Let’s see if they can build any momentum after this weekend.
In case you have not heard, the UCLA Athletic Department is in a major financial crisis. This is caused by a settlement with the NCAA to is athletes, Olympic sports running about $34 million in the red during the most recent fiscal year, the lack of suite and premium-seat revenue at the Rose Bowl as part of UCLA’s lease agreement with the stadium, and a legacy licensing and sponsorship agreements with Associated Students UCLA that provides the lion’s share of revenue to the student organization. Their solution is to add a more premium ticket experience to the Rose Bowl with suites and tailgating, dynamic ticket pricing, and elevated experience at Pauley Pavilion. That’s all great, but the reality is if you spend the money, nobody will come unless you’re winning games. The LA sports market demands winning if you want people to show up. Even if you have a premium experience, people won’t show up if you’re a mediocre team. The product on the football field has been mediocre for a long time, and the product on the basketball court hasn’t been elite for a long time. Ultimately, UCLA football and basketball has portions of their season competing with the Lakers, Dodgers, Clippers, Rams, Chargers, USC sports, Kings, and Ducks. You have to win to get people to show up and be willing to pay for the experience. People certainly aren’t going to hike all the way to Pasadena to see some trash football. Until they fix on the field and court product, the rest is pointless because there is too much to do in SoCal.
It’s official: the Kings hired Ken Holland last week as their new GM. This would have been a move I would have been excited about 20 years ago. Not this time. It’s just another move that is not creative by Luc Robitaille. Sure Holland has won Stanley Cups before in Detroit, but that was in the pre-salary cap era. People will point to Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in Edmonton and him getting them to the finals, but he didn’t draft the two stars. Even a monkey could have drafted them. I unfortunately see Holland as someone who might be overly aggressive in free agency and trades, and unload all the young talent on this team for re-tread veterans. Here’s to hoping I’m wrong but I’m not optimistic.
