Monday Morning Coffee

July 15, 2019

I’ve been beating up the Lakers’ front office and ownership for months and rightfully so. However, I’ve gotta give Rob Pelinka credit for the roster he assembled after losing out on Kawhi Leonard. The LakerS should contend for a title. The team has guys that can shoot this year, and what appears to be a lot of depth. Lots of people hate the guy, he has flaws, but the man seems to know what he’s doing. Of course when Pelinka actually thanked Magic Johnson for his contributions at the beginning of Saturday’s press conference, that was “peak Littlefinger”. Nevertheless, hats off to him while everyone was criticizing him, including myself. There’s still the questions around coaching though. Frank Vogel said there is a great deal of mutual respect between himself, Lebron, and AD. What this really means is that he’s optimistic by training camp Lebron will stop calling him “Fred” and that AD will stop referring to him as “dude”.

Meanwhile, congrats to the Clippers for finding a superstar that was weird enough to actually sign with the them in Kawhi Leonard. The same goes for Paul George, who was weird enough to demand a trade just one year after re-signing with OKC. I love how these two guys have already been banned from Alfred Coffee in LA. Wait until these guys try to throw out the first pitch at a Dodger game and they get booed like they were Santa Clause in Philadelphia. Maybe that’s why Kawhi made sure he only committed to two full years in LA when he signed his contract.

I love how Chris Paul getting traded for Russell Westbrook isn’t even one of the top 3 story lines of the NBA off-season. That just goes to show you how much these guys have aged. That trade might have actually made both teams worse. A Westbrook and James Harden combination seems great if Russell could shoot and if the Rockets were allowed to play with two basketballs. Meanwhile, CP3 wishes David Stern was around to veto this trade. At least his State Farm insurance rates will go down now that he is moving from Houston to OKC. He is probably wrestling with the idea of giving up some of that $124 million that’s owed to him just to get out of playing in OKC. The problem is, he’s a pain in the ass to play with these days, and as talented as he still is, that talent might not outweigh the baggage. That baggage is something the Lakers will seriously have to consider if he does end up becoming a free agent. It’s just too risky.

To the NFL where training camp is about to open up, and the Chargers have a contract situation to deal with in Melvin Gordon. Gordon said that he needs a new contract, and will hold out until he gets one, or even demand a trade if necessary. The Bolts would be reasonable to oblige, but only up to a certain point. Gordon and his agent may not have been paying attention to the fact that Le’Veon Bell didn’t exactly do all that great by sitting out a year, losing out on a lot of money. Gordon’s argument is that you can’t just replace a great running back. Apparently he’s never heard of James Conner. I don’t expect this to be a Khalil Mack situation, because the Chargers aren’t as dumb as the Raiders, but there should be a reasonable compromise made by both sides here.

The Dodgers may have taken 2 of 3 from the Red Sox over the weekend, but not without giving their fans something to be concerned about. In typical, Dodger fashion, Pedro Baez came out of the pen yesterday, and blew a two run lead in the 8th inning by giving up back-to-back homers. Do any of the Dodgers’ middle relievers actually get paid? I’m not so sure they should. I wouldn’t trust these guys to open the bullpen door correctly. Combine that with the beating the Dodgers took on Friday, and I’m already scared of what this team might look like again come October. The point is, as the trade deadline approaches, Andrew Friedman better not take the conservative approach, especially when it comes to improving the starting pitching and especially the bullpen. If he does, he should be on the next season of “Hoarders” on A&E, for all the prospects he hoards and foolishly refuses to trade to put this team over the top.

Given how rough of a season it’s been for the Angels, I feel like it’s only fair that the league allow them to play the Mariners every game. That way they might at least have a chance to be competitive in the AL West. It was really nice to see the Angels have some success on the field with a no-hitter on Friday on the night they honored Tyler Skaggs, which continued with another impressive performance after that. The Halos were so hot this weekend, even Albert Pujols was hitting the ball out of the yard. There’s not much to be excited about with this club, but at least this weekend was nice to see, and also makes you think there might even be Baseball Gods out there.

What a great Wimbledon Final yesterday between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. Thank God for that new tie breaker, otherwise these two all-time greats would have been playing through the next several Kardashian marriages. It felt like we were saying Federer has been getting old for about 5 years now, yet somehow, he’s still arguably the best in the world. Djokovic isn’t exactly on the younger side of his career either, and it amazes me that we have yet to see a young tennis star emerge on the men’s circuit in ages. I’m not sure whether this says more about the greatness of Federer, Djokovic, and even Rafael Nadal, or more about the lack of quality tennis players that haven’t emerged. It’s especially disappointing that an American hasn’t emerged in ages as well.

Finally, the Bachelorette went down last week on ABC, and it’s back again tonight. So that’s how it’s going to be Chris Harrison? You’re just going to let Hannah do whatever she wants and keep a bunch of guys around when she’s supposed to keep eliminating dudes? Since when does The Bachelorette get to make up her own rules like that? Harrison has become totally useless on this show, and does nothing but sit by the pool and drink Margaritas until we see him for 5 minutes an episode. Hannah probably told Chris she needs 4 fantasy suites, and Chris likely responded by letting her know it’s not in the budget unless they stick a couple of guys in a windmill tower. I know half of you celebrated when Tyler and Peter got their roses, but I would have loved to see your reaction when Luke P and the rest of the crew stuck around. Can’t wait to see where this disaster ends up tonight.

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