Monday Morning Coffee

T.

May 23, 2022

The Lakers have reportedly narrowed down their coaching search to three finalists: Darwin Ham, Terry Stotts, and Kenny Atkinson. Those reports also indicated that Ham is the frontrunner, and that is Lebron’s preferred choice. Knowing how the Lakers coaching searches have gone in recent years, that probably means they will hire Mike Dunleavy. In all seriousness, I wish they would hurry up and hire Ham so that they don’t overthink it and do anything stupid. Then there’s the wild Zach Lavine rumors Lavar Ball started, suggesting he wants to be a Laker this summer. Not only would this be extremely difficult from a salary cap perspective (which Eric Pincus can tell you all about), but it’s not even a good idea. Lavine has consistently missed a chunk of games the last few years with a knee issue. The Lakers don’t need another $30+ million player who is going to be hurt all the time. They need effective 3 and D role players that can surround Lebron and AD. This is also something they shouldn’t overthink.

Elsewhere around the NBA Playoffs, ESPN should be embarrassed. They spent the entire Celtics-Heat game 3 post game talking about how “depleted” the Celtics were. Are you joking? The Heat are losing players left and right, including their best player, Jimmy Butler, and it’s the Celtics that are depleted? I’m convinced that both Jayson Tatum and Marcus Smart just crapped their pants, and weren’t really injured. Andrew Wiggins just murdered Luka Doncic and put him on a poster last night in game 3 of the West Finals. The Warriors are basically a lock to go to the Finals, and we all should have known when Charles Barkley predicted the Mavs would win in 7.

The Dodgers had their 7-game win streak snapped yesterday in Philadelphia. Things are still going well, but not exactly for Max Muncy. He can’t hit right now, and he also can’t seem to field either, committing an error yesterday that cost the Dodgers the game. At this point, Edwin Rios and Will Smith should be in the 4th and 5th spot in the lineup everyday. Rios has 4 homers in his last 21 at bats, and on average homers every 9 plate appearances. However, I don’t hear anybody complaining about Mookie Betts and his contract anymore. All those idiots said he was the worst contract in baseball after seeing like 3 weeks of the season. Instead, he’s now reminding people why he’s one of the best players in baseball. The Boys in Blue are off to Washington today.

As for the Angels, they bounced back by taking 2 of 3 against the A’s over the weekend. That came after getting swept by Rangers. The Angels are right there with the Astros, but if there’s one thing that’s cost them so far it’s Joe Maddon’s super weird decisions. For instance, why is Jared Walsh not in the lineup everyday? Also, what is the guy’s obsession with Matt Duffy, who is hitting just .229 on the year? A month ago we saw him pinch hitting with the bases loaded for a guy who hit a grand slam earlier in the day. Then when it comes to Jo Adell, feels like he would rather play with 8 guys then put him in the lineup, which explains why Adell got sent to the minors. At this point, it’s not the pitching or anything in the lineup that would worry me. It’s Maddon’s decision making.

In the NFL, the Rams are still trying to work things out with Aaron Donald on a new contract. I also like how Donald’s camp is still floating rumors that he might retire if he doesn’t get the deal he wants. This is no doubt this is nothing but a leverage play to get the deal he wants from them. We’re now hearing something in the neighborhood of $28 million a year, which sounds nuts, but the guy is arguably one of the best defensive players of all-time. With the way Les Snead does salary cap gymnastics, I’m sure he will find a way to figure this out.

The LA Kings are reportedly going to give GM Rob Blake a 3-year extension. One of the things I make a point of here on Jock Talk LA is that when I am wrong (and let’s be honest, that doesn’t happen very often) I own it. I was super critical of Blake for his rebuild that has been as slow as molasses, his poor coaching choices, and what I felt were questionable trades. However, he has really proved me wrong, and I’m happy to see it. He made the best free agent acquisition last year by signing Philip Danault, his patience with the prospects is starting to pay off, and he actually made a great trade by acquiring Trevor Moore and Sean Durzi. His 3-year extension is well deserved, and the Kings may be competing for Stanley Cups again sooner than we think.

Finally, Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher went at each other last week over NIL and it was quite amusing. Saban says Texas A&M bought every player on their team to get the #1 recruiting class, and Fisher fired back by basically saying the GOAT is a cheater. Saban is a total hypocrite here because let’s be real, no way Alabama (or at least through back channels), hasn’t paid off players to build the dynasty they have in the last 15 years. Just because now that there is some legal component to it where A&M is benefitting (and others) Saban doesn’t like it. Saban also said that without NIL, there is more parity in College Football. Are you kidding Nick? College Football is the biggest waste of time the last twenty years because you’re team has dominated, along with Clemson. Maybe NIL might actually bring parity back into the game!

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