
June 23rd, 2025
Congratulations to the Oklahoma City Thunder on wining the NBA Championship last night. It’s a shame that Tyrese Haliburton got injured and it would have been interesting to see what happened had he been able to play, but don’t be that guy who discredits the Thunder. NBA history is filled with these “what ifs” especially when it comes to injuries in the finals. If you’re going to play that game, you might as well put an asterisk next to every NBA Championship. The Thunder were the very best team all season long, and having home court advantage was ultimately the difference. Why? Because your role players end up playing better at home. Tyrese Haliburton scored 9 points in the 1st quarter and didn’t play the rest of the game. That’s more points combined than Myles Turner, Obi Toppin, and Aaron Nesmith COMBINED. It’s actually amazing that Indiana was in the game for as long as they were, and it was in large part due to their defense and their bench. SGA also completed an amazing season so hats off to him. He’s just the 4th player in NBA history to be a scoring champion, regular season MVP, and Finals MVP in the same season. Only Shaq, Jordan, and Kareem have done it previously. Yes I know you all want to cook the Clippers this morning for trading him, and the Lakers for not re-signing Alex Caruso, but we don’t need to re-hash those storylines. Every team makes good moves and bad ones. As for OKC, I’m pretty sure they don’t have any clubs there, so these guys will probably be celebrating at TGI Fridays for the next few days.
That came out of nowhere! The Lakers have a new majority owner, Mark Walter. I don’t know anyone that is unhappy about this. If I told you the Lakers were going to be sold, perhaps the first person that would come to mind that you would want to buy them would be Mark Walter. More than anything, Walter is going to modernize the way this team does business. It’s not like you can outspend everyone in the NBA just because you are wealthier. However, they can build an organization that has more people in the front office and scouting department, which can’t hurt. As for Jeanie Buss, I may be in the minority here, but I think she did a better job than she is getting credit for since her father passed away. She successfully took control of the franchise from Jim, and positioned the franchise to get Lebron, resurrecting them back to a championship in 2020. She and Rob Pelinka also have re-positioned the franchise with their next superstar to build around after Lebron with Luka. Yes, there were some decisions that have been made and people in her circle who’s credibility can be questioned, but for the most part, she has been successful. The selling of the Lakers isn’t sad. We can look back fondly on Jeanie and the Buss Family, but also realize it’s time to move on and modernize the franchise. I’m also not convinced that she is truly going to be running the team for the next few years. I heard this with Mark Cuban before, and we know that’s not true because he couldn’t stop the Luka trade. Suddenly though, Rob Pelinka will need to be a lot more comfortable having more people with influence around him, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

As for the off-season, it’s fair to say at this point that Giannis isn’t going to be traded, so the Lakers shouldn’t have any wild ideas about trading Austin Reaves to build a team around 3 max salary stars. The Luka, Lebron, Austin trio is as good a trio in the NBA. However, they should focus on trying to acquire 2 big men. A starting level big like Nic Claxton, revisiting Mark Williams, or Robert Williams. They should then see if they can get a Brook Lopez or Clint Capela on a minimum deal, otherwise they can look to bring Jaxton Hayes back. Then they’ll need some wings that can defend. Bringing back DFS makes tons of sense, but they’ll need to hope guys like Nickeil Alexander Walker can be had for a bargain. The free agent class is weak altogether, but the Lakers need some effective role players. a couple of big men that can rebound, protect the rim, and catch lobs. A couple of wings who can defend and shoot reasonably. Keep an eye on the likes of Marcus Smart if he’s bought out. He can still defend, and would provide the Lakers with an edge on the perimeter they haven’t had in a while.
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Some of you may have noticed that Lebron went on his podcast with Steve Nash last week and talked about “ring culture” and how negative he thought it was. He is basically saying why don’t players without rings get more respect? Look, in some respects he’s right. There are many players like Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, and John Stockton that aren’t respected enough. However, in other respects, he needed to qualify his statement. If he had said, “I don’t agree with the mentality, but it bothered me enough to create a super team in Miami, and then another super team in Cleveland to battle that perception,” I think it would have been more respected. Now he just looks like a hypocrite trying to change his narrative. Of course that led to the likes of Tracy McGrady going on First Take and saying he agreed with that, and that if he had played with someone like Shaq he would have rings. Let’s be clear here for those who went off on Twitter: T-MAC isn’t saying he is better than Kobe. He just said he never had the same opportunity as him. Of course any player can say that, but that’s just what it is. T-MAC was phenomenal, but the man had plenty of great teammates and teams he was on that couldn’t win in the playoffs. That doesn’t give me any confidence he could succeed with Shaq. As for the Kobe fans, and I am one: relax. No need to burn anyone’s house down. I don’t believe for a second that T-Mac would intentionally disrespect Kobe.

It just so happens that Kevin Durant was traded to the Rockets yesterday. KD is still a great player, but he has been passed around the NBA like a Kardashian the past few years. Had he just stayed in Golden State he would have collected another ring or two, maybe won another MVP, and continued to age gracefully while enhancing his legacy. Instead, he has been subscribing to “ring culture” because teenagers on Twitter think his legacy is trash after leaving Oklahoma City. Not sure why he cares. He left because he wanted to win. He won and he was a big part of that dynasty. Instead, he’s been trying to re-create it in Brooklyn, Phoenix, and now Houston. The sad part is, the Rockets probably screwed up their chemistry and defense a little by trading for him. KD will make them more dangerous offensively, but this isn’t 2016. Nobody in the West is scared of Houston after they made this move.

Switching over to the NHL, where the Florida Panthers won their 2nd straight Stanley Cup last week. They defeated the Edmonton Oilers in six games. As a Kings fan, it’s a slight consolation the Oilers lost, so they don’t just shrug their shoulders and say “well we lost to the Oilers and they are the Cup Champions”. Nonsense. The Kings need change to be true cup contenders. They made some by bringing in Ken Holland as their new GM, but they really should change their coach, and their overall offensive approach. It’s not a personnel issue. However, my opinion on that would change if by chance Connor McDavid becomes available. If he does, and there’s rumors out there he might consider a move, the Kings would be a viable landing spot. They should also send everything to get him if necessary. By everything, I mean Brandt Clark, Jordan Spence, Quintin Byfield, their wives and girlfriends, multiple 1st round picks, and one of their top goalie prospects. The Kings should even let the Oilers touch the cup if the win it.

The Dodgers big stretch against their division rivals is in the books, and they certainly did pretty well. They emerged from it with the best record in the NL, a 3.5 game lead in the NL West over the Giants, and perhaps a tad closer to getting their pitching staff healthy. Their lineup is deep enough to keep exploding like they did over the weekend. I never imagined that Andy Pages would turn into the player that he has, and Max Muncy is suddenly looking like an MVP caliber player he was a couple of years ago. Dave Roberts informed us that Hyeseong Kim has earned more playing time. I guess he didn’t tell Andrew Friedman’s computer that, because Michael Conforto is still playing regularly with his .165 batting average. I’m not sure what’s going on with Mookie Betts, but he’s too good of a player to not regress to the mean and start hitting better. By his standards not the best, but by MLB standards, he’s still pretty good. I’m sure all the Dodger fans haven’t been sleeping worried about what Manny Machado was going to do to them if Fernando Tatis got injured the other night. The next giveaway at Dodger Stadium when the Padres are in town should be a candle for everyone to light! That series was one giant troll job with the Dodgers starting Ohtani in basically a rehab start, followed by two more bullpen games. It’s no wonder the Dodgers are publicly saying they are not their real rivals.

Lastly, there’s the Angels who are doing the most Angel things. They take 3 of 4 from the Yankees, and then lose 2 of 3 to the Astros. They are not only driving their fans crazy, they are driving their Manager into having his own health issues, now having to leave the team indefinitely. Prayers up for Ron Washington. The Halos are only 2.5 games out of the Wild Card, but they have about 8 teams they need to jump over to get there. The reality of it is, this team needs to be sellers at the deadline. They had the chance last year to sell, and they really didn’t do much. The right thing to do is to unload Tyler Anderson, Taylor Ward, and even Kenley Jansen. Knowing Arte Moreno and Perry Minasian, they will be doing everything they can to convince you that they are “going for it”. In reality, they are going for nothing but the bottom of the league.
