July 6 , 2026

Who says July is the dog days of summers for sports? We have a loaded edition of Monday Morning Coffee! We start with LeBron James leaving the Lakers. I appreciate everything LeBron did for this franchise, and the fact he was here for 8 years. I don’t buy this “he wasn’t a true Laker” narrative some of you are pushing. He is one of the greatest players of all-time, and he resurrected a franchise that was maybe at its lowest point in history. He delivered a championship under very difficult circumstances as well, and did so graciously dedicating it to the late Kobe Bryant. He should have you ultimate gratitude and appreciation. The Lakers are in the superstar business, so you have to accept the fact they are always going to have to cater to those stars and deal with that baggage. It’s the cost of winning. LeBron probably would have won more with the Lakers if he and AD didn’t get injured in 2021, or made the ridiculous Russell Westbrook trade that ruined everything. It still doesn’t take away from what he accomplished, and what was still a successful run with the Lakers. I’m actually sad to see him go because the Lakers should be where a superstar like LeBron finishes his career. However, it’s obvious that the new Laker ownership had the guts to push him out the door in the most tactful way possible. Also, this entire process has revealed that there are a lot of groups of weirdos out there. The LeBron fans that are just fans of him and wherever he goes, not the team. The Kobe fans that are only fans of Kobe, and not really the Lakers. How do you people actually enjoy basketball?

Lost in all this is that the Lakers are suddenly putting together what appears to be a much improved team than the last few years. They finally have young defensive center they can build around in Walker Kessler, and are going to be much deeper, younger, and more athletic. I’m still hoping they can find a way to add some combination of Jonathan Kuminga, Rui Hachimura, or even Peyton Watson. Any combination of those guys added to this team, and they are suddenly cooking with gas. Pay no attention to the Laker and Rob Pelinka haters that think the Lakers haven’t had a good offseason, because most of those people don’t even recognize the names of the players they added. That doesn’t mean they aren’t effective. I’m not sitting here telling you this is going to work, but what I am telling you is that this is how modern NBA championship teams have been built. Ironically, if LeBron came back for the minimum, this is the exact type of team he should be on if he wants to win another championship. Unfortunately, LeBron is too prideful of an individual to go back to the Lakers and make it work, even though he should. He is likely going to Cleveland, because that’s really the only fitting end for him.

The Clippers sure seemed in a big hurry to trade Kawhi Leonard to the Raptors, with the looming decision on the Aspiration investigation. I suspect that if the league thought they were going to terminate Kawhi’s contract as part of the investigation, they would have not let the Raptors or Clippers complete the trade. Seems like a penalty is more likely to be fines or loss of draft capital. As for the trade itself, the Clippers were wise to move off of him. I still give them credit for going all in on Kawhi and Paul George, even though it didn’t work out. They simply tied their future to a guy with a degenerative knee condition, and paired him with a guy who doesn’t want much accountability in Paul George. Now they are starting from scratch. They have done a pretty good job of moving on from James Harden, Ivica Zubac, and Kawhi and re-couping a lot of their draft capital. Keaton Wagler is also a nice point guard prospect too they drafted at #5. Their best hope is to let their young players develop, and keep their assets and cap flexibility in hopes of landing a disgruntled start down the line. It will be a few years though before the Clips re-enter the championship contending conversation, but that’s something they’ve hardly been a part of throughout history anyway!

Let’s go the ice, where we’ve seen a busy off-season for both the Kings and Ducks. The Kings made a flurry of free agent moves last week. They signed forwards Matt Zuccarello, Erika Haula, and re-signed forwards Corey Perry and Scott Laughton. This team has gotten old, but one thing that has surprised me: their outlook is nearly the same as it was a year ago. The rest of the division, and even the conference, has done much better this off-season, and a few teams in the division like Anaheim, Calgary, and Vancouver are much worse. This is a borderline playoff team again. However, for a team that claims they are “win now” that just doesn’t cut it. It’s not a Stanley Cup contending team. They will need to rebuild sooner than later, so in my mind it would be better to do it now, but that won’t happen with Ken Holland here as GM. However, the best thing they did was give Brandt Clarke a 5-year deal at a reasonable contract, while not extending Drew Doughty. They also didn’t get involved in a crazy bidding for the likes of these restricted free agents, or superstar trades. That’s also because they didn’t have the assets for it. Get ready for more of the same from this Kings team in 2026-2027.

Meanwhile, the Anaheim Ducks have had an absolutely awful off-season, after what appeared to be a very promising future. They traded Olen Zellweger, Mason McTavish, they lost Jacob Trouba and John Carlson in free agency, and now the big blow: losing Leo Carlson to Philadelphia. All they have to show for it is 6 first round picks, which sounds like a lot until you realize it could take you a half decade to rebuild your team from where you are now. Ducks GM Pat Verbeek is under a lot of heat now for not just destroying the Anaheim roster, but for completely destroying the NHL CBA and salary cap structure. The Flyers are going to pay $18 million to a player that is great, but has never had more than 67 points in a season. This man is by far the highest paid player in the NHL. More money than established stars like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, and more money than emerging stars like Connor Beddard and Macklin Celebrini. Just when I thought the LA Kings had it bad, they can always look up the freeway and see and see an even bigger disaster going on right now.

Just when you thought UCLA Basketball was toast this upcoming season, they appear to be making a big splash. The Bruins are on the verge of landing Nikola Kusturica, a 17 year old phenom from Serbia. He would be paid a whopping $12 million and be with the Bruins for two seasons, before likely jumping to the NBA, where he is projected to be a top 3 pick. Mick Cronin hasn’t exactly been able to recruit much talent this off-season, so this would be a much needed win for his roster. Since the Tournmanet has been expanded to 76 teams, there’s a good chance the Bruins are going to the Tournament again, but whether or not they can do any damage there or in the Big Ten will be dependent on how this roster comes together, and just how big of an impact Kustirca has on this roster. Judging by what they are going to pay him, he must be able to play right away and be elite.

To baseball, where the Dodgers took 3 out of 4 from the Padres over the weekend, and now have a monstrous 14 game lead in the division. There’s not much to not like right now if you’re a fan. If you want to complain about Roki Sasaki go ahead, but the Dodgers can afford to start him and let him develop every six days when they have such a massive division lead, let alone the best record in baseball by a 5 game margin. Also, congrats to Freddie Freeman, Andy Pages, Max Muncy, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto for making the NL All-Star team. Freeman is as consistent as they come and has aged like a fine wine. Andy Pages couldn’t even track down a fly ball less than 2 seasons ago, now he’s one of the best all around center fielders in baseball. Yamamoto is one of the toughest pitchers in baseball and worth every penny of his $325 million deal. And Max Muncy went from a guy who we questioned defensively at 3rd base two seasons ago, to the best 3rd baseman in baseball. Justin Wrobleski and Tanner Scott probably should have been all-stars too, but I get that 6 Dodgers is a lot at that point.

Congratulations to Mike Trout for making the AL All-Star team again. This is about the only good thing going on with the Halos right now. I was a little surprised that Jose Soriano didn’t make the team because he’s been a very good pitcher on a trash team. You probably also thought for a hot second with John Mozeliak in charge, he was going to do the sensible thing and trade some veterans at the deadline. However, the man was non-commital when asked about it, and said he isn’t comfortable revealing their strategy at this point. Look John…..let me enlighten you. Your team has the worst record in baseball right now. The franchise and owner that employs is one of the biggest embarrassments in Southern California. If you are not going to trade veterans for prospects now and can’t convince your boss to let you, you might as well just tell everyone to stop going to the games until the franchise is sold.

Finally, it’s show time for the USMNT tonight against Belgium. A spot in the quarterfinals is on the line tonight. This is going to be a tough match for the US, but I think they can win it. The real story thought is Folarin Balogun, who had his red card reversed, so he will be eligible to play in tonight’s match. I’m astonished that happened, but you know that Donald Trump is going to remind us all how much credit he deserves for the whole thing, and negotiating with FIFA. I remember when I was little and I used to see a character playing POTUS in a movie, and I’d ask my parents if that was the real President. They always told me absolutely not, because the President wouldn’t have time for such nonsense. It turns out that today, the President does have time for this type of nonsense!