March 13th, 2017
The Lakers introduced Rob Pelinka as their new General Manager on Friday. I heard a lot of good things from Pelinka, and it’s exciting, not just because he looks like Rob Lowe. However, I also heard something a little concerning as well. I heard a lot of talk about free agency. If there’s anything we’ve learned over the past five seasons of Laker basketball, it’s that free agency by itself is a lousy way to build a team, and it’s about to get a lot lousier with the new CBA. However, when you do an excellent job of drafting and developing players, you give yourself the opportunity to get elite free agents, and elite talent via trade. Rob Pelinka probably has some great relationships with players, but hopefully he’ll have more than that to sell to free agents during the offseason. As for the Lakers, here’s a summary of their season in 30 seconds……
On to college hoops, where March Madness is upon us, and the NCAA tournament bracket is set. That means UCLA’s fate has been determined after their disappointing showing over the weekend in their conference tournament. The Bruins blew a major opportunity to get a a #2 seed in the West, and have a very favorable path to the Final Four. Now their potential 2nd round matchup won’t be easy, and then they’ll probably have to face Kentucky and UNC to get to the Final Four. The bigger concern is the fact that UCLA reminded us over the weekend that they live and die by the 3-point shot, and that they can revert back to not playing any defense at any time. Lonzo Ball is banged up, Bryce Alford can’t get any shots off other than 3-pointers, and suddenly, I’m feeling a lot less confident about Steve Alford coaching the Bruins now that’s it’s March.
As for the Trojans, they narrowly made the NCAA Tournament, and will be participating in the play-in game on Tuesday vs Providence. USC will be the #11 seed. Sure enough, they are playing the team that played them last season in the 1st round, and beat them at the buzzer. That’s about as surprising as a USC student being hungover for class on Friday, after a Thursday night frat party. The selection committee loves these type of re-matches and creating story lines out of them. The Trojans game against Providence, and potentially SMU after that should be close ones. They are evenly matched, and USC should feel good that they beat SMU back in November. They probably won’t make it too much further though, with Baylor awaiting the winner of that game.
As for the rest of the bracket, Arizona might as well have a bye to the Final Four. You can pencil in Gonzaga to be upset by the Sweet 16 every year, and this year is no different. Congratulations to Kentucky for winning the SEC tournament. Their players are clearly earning all the money they are being paid. Word is President Trump has selected Trump University to win it all in his NCAA bracket. Kansas also has a fairly easy route to the Final Four but you can always count on them to blow it. That’s an annual guarantee like people smoking weed at Coachella.
The Rams went out and spent money on former USC receiver Robert Woods last week. I realize that the Rams needs help at wide receiver, but $15 million guaranteed for Robert Woods? Alshon Jeffrey got $14 million guaranteed and at least he was once a Pro Bowler. When you include Tavon Austin, that’s two receivers the Rams have overpaid for that are really #3 receivers on a good team. They should be directing most of their resources at the offensive line. Andrew Whitworth was a good start, but they need more.
If you think the Rams are having an unspectacular offseason thus far, the Chargers look like they are trying to give their new cross-town rivals a run for their money. The Bolts signed Russell Okung to help their offensive line, but apparently Okung nor the Chargers knew the rules about negotiating with a player who didn’t have an agent. They might have tampered by negotiating with him prior to the period when it was allowed. Based on how Okung played last season though, they probably have more to worry about him protecting Philip Rivers than the tampering issue.
I’m not in denial anymore. The LA Kings aren’t making the playoffs folks. Every time i find myself saying they are only a few points behind one particular team for the last playoff spot, a week later that team is about 10 points ahead of them. The same is about to happen with St. Louis, who is coming to Staples Center tonight. The wins the Kings are picking up now needed to happen back in December and January.
A tragic episode of The Walking Dead went down last night on AMC. SPOILER ALERT for those of you who have yet to see it so read no further if you are watching it later. The Saviors have officially lost their minds, in case we weren’t sure before. Now they are shooting people over a missing cantaloupe. Our favorite killer homemaker finally knows what happened in Alexandria, and Morgan is about to do his Rambo impersonation. It only took 13 episodes, daylight savings time, and a cantaloupe. I don’t remember a cantaloupe causing this much drama since Janet Jackson’s at the Super Bowl. Apparently in the apocalypse your life is worth 1 cantaloupe. Why isn’t Ezekiel bringing Shiva to these meetings? The last three episodes of this season are going to be epic.
Finally, it’s about to go down tonight on The Bachelor. The finals between Vanessa and Raven. However, when it’s over, you’ll think Nick is going to choose Raven, but he’s really going to choose nobody. Which we all agree is better than living in Canada. The producers must have blown the whole budget on the trip to Finland so they had to settle for ice baths for Nick and Vanessa’s date. Either that or Nick was determined to give Vanessa pneumonia. In the last episode, Nick saw more action than Chuck Norris does with 4 different girls in fantasy suites. The only difference is the action Chuck Norris sees can kill him, while the action Nick sees can give him herpes. My favorite part of the last episode was when Vanessa said this is the best relationship she’s been in. Really? The best relationship you’ve ever been in is with somebody who was dating two dozen women at the same time? Corrine and champagne are one of the ultimate duos of all-time. She was going off at Taylor during the women tell all. It felt like Josephine was Corrine’s hype man, supporting her with every word that came out of her mouth. Poor Taylor though….I guess she gave up her career for lent.
