August 2, 2021
There is much to discuss in this explosive edition of Monday Morning Coffee. Starting off with the Lakers, who acquired Russell Westbrook a few days ago. This would have been amazing move……9 years ago. I have great respect for how hard Russ plays every night, but I’ve seen square pegs that fit better into round holes than Russ fits with this roster. The Lakers desperately need shooting. Russ is not a greater shooter at all. This would be ok if it were 1985. It’s 2021. Lebron and AD need shooters around them, and they just lost their best shooter on the team in KCP in the trade. It’s only fair to let Rob Pelinka fill out the rest of the roster before judging, but if we’re talking about the deal at face value, I hate it. Even worse, all the dudes I keep hearing about that want to joint the Lakers like DeMar Derozan, can’t shoot either. Rob has done a lot of amazing things in his time running the Lakers, but I sure hope when free agency opens today, he spends time dining at Nobu with guys who can actually shoot the basketball from 3.
As for the Clippers, it’s been more quiet than a library when it comes to rumors surrounding this team. Serge Ibaka opted into his contract over the weekend, which is no surprise for a dude that just came off back surgery. The real question though is what is going on with Kawhi. Is he the type of dude that is going to go get a couple of free dinners or lunches from teams and entertain leaving, or is he the type of dude that is just going to re-sign with the Clippers after opting out immediately? For the record, if I were an NBA free agent I would be dining with 30 teams, and enjoying a nice meal every night. Kawhi doesn’t seem like that dude though, even though his uncle clearly is. As weird as Kawhi is, he would probably just take an order of chicken wings and re-sign with the Clippers. Either way, he’s weird enough to make any Clipper fan very nervous right now until he actually re-signs.
To baseball where the Dodgers pulled off an absolutely stunning trade deadline. They acquired Max Scherzer and Trea Turner from the Washington Nationals. My hat goes off to Andrew Friedman, who is no longer running this team like some small market poor house in Milwaukee or Tampa Bay. There’s still plenty to be uneasy about, like not winning the division and a one-game playoff against the Padres. However, at least the Dodgers appear to have pitching re-enforcements now that Trevor Bauer probably isn’t coming back. It also doesn’t hurt that the Nationals “threw in” Turner, who is a top 15 position player, and makes the lineup even more insane. Are the Giants and Padres ever going to play each other though? Who are the lunatics that made this years baseball schedule? There’s still much work to do for the Dodgers and weird things happen in baseball all the time, but at least Andrew Friedman has done everything he can to help the Dodgers defense the World Series Championship.
As for the Angels, they had a bizarre trade deadline. They tried to get in on a Max Scherzer trade. Then pivoted toward trading Andrew Heaney and Tony Watson for some Clam Chowder and a slice of New York Pizza. Then they decided to hold onto their most valuable trade assets like Raisel Iglesias and Alex Cobb. The weird change of direction is just another sign of poor leadership. The Halos entered Sunday 6 games back of the last Wild Card in the AL, but with 5 teams they had to climb over. They are further away from the playoffs than you really think. Don’t tell that to Alex Cobb though, who was quoted saying this team is on the verge of winning a championship. Cobb is clearly violating the leagues substance abuse policy and needs to be tested immediately after making such an absurd statement.
Let’s get to the Summer Olympics, where Simone Biles is either the GOAT or a quitter depending on if you ask the Republicans or Democrats these days. Leave it to the media to politicize even this in 2021. In reality the truth is typically somewhere in between. Biles has already proven herself to be arguably the greatest female gymnasts based on her accomplishments. She has secured an overwhelming number of World Championships and Olympic Medals compared to her predecessors and peers. Of course electing not to compete prevented her from further enhancing that legacy. I’m not sure she needed to though, because her legacy is pretty secure. It also ended up giving one of her teammates the opportunity to win a gold medal in the individual all-around. If you look at her video practicing, she did also recognize that she was completely off her game, and probably would have been a detriment to herself and her team. You’ve gotta at least give her credit for recognizing that. She’s still great no matter how you want to characterize it, even if you think she quit in this Olympics.
USA Men’s Basketball is now on to the the elimination round with a matchup against Spain up next. Sure they beat up on the Czech Republic and Iran, but that doesn’t exactly inspire confidence for them winning the gold medal. My favorite was when Damian Lillard said that these NBA players playing for their countries in the Olympics play much differently. So do you Dame……so do you! I also really enjoyed when Zach Lavine jumped into some contact on a 3-pointer against the Czech Republic and looked at the referee to bail him out. The FIBA referee looked at him like 50 Cent looked in that GIF when he was driving away. The referee was thinking “they call that bs in the NBA?” I’m sure these USA NBA players will be hugging the referees when they get back home.
To the ice where we haven’t talked about the LA Kings in a while. Look Rob Blake, I get it, you have drafted a really nice group of prospects. However, if you have no plan to develop or create infrastructure around them, you’ll be rebuilding for eternity. That’s exactly what’s happening. All of the Kings best prospects play center, and few play wing. They lack elite defenseman in their system, and their entire system has abandoned the concept of defense. Perhaps the Kings got marginally better in the short-term with the free agents they signed, but to me all they did was prevent their prospects from having an opportunity to develop and flourish with the guys they added. Things could be worse though. They could be the San Jose Sharks, who are dealing with a gambling scandal on their team. The story is ridiculous too, because no serious gambler would ever bet on the Sharks.
Finally, The Bachelorette went down last week on ABC, and it was “The Men Tell All.” However, that part felt like it was about 20 minutes, since Katie didn’t even want to make eye contact with anyone that didn’t please her. So Michael left the show, but his son is a pretty smart kid. He asked his dad why he’s leaving his love life to the fate of a game show, when he’s a walking E-Harmony date. I also love the drama ABC tried to build up with Michael walking to Katie’s hotel door. Of course it’s going to be Katie’s hotel room he’s going to! He’s not going to see the head of catering and events at the hotel. I’m sure Connor is calling all his exes to ask about his kissing skills after that episode. My thoughts and prayers are with the girl who showed up in a full cat costume just to watch Connor make out with some random other girl in the crowd. The worst part about Justin making it to hometowns is WE WERE ROBBED of his reactions during “The Men Tell All”. I’m not really sold on any of the guys remaining for Katie, nor am I sold on Katie anymore at this point, but I think she likely ends up with Blake. We’ll have to wait two more episodes to find out, but it’s going to take a lot to convince me otherwise.
