February 5, 2024

Let’s start with the obvious. The Lakers aren’t going to trade Lebron James, and I didn’t need Rich Paul to tell me that. The Lakers are built with Lebron and AD as their cornerstones, and despite the ups and downs, there’s no reason to move away from that right now. For those of you that want to rebuild, let me remind you of what rebuilding looked like for 10 years before Lebron showed up. Bill Plaschke, take a hike with your trade ideas! As for Thursday’s trade deadline, there is no big name player available that is going to change the Lakers fortunes. With the loss of Jarred Vanderbilt, the Lakers really need a point-of-attack defender like Dennis Schroeder, Tyus Jones, or Malcolm Brogden. Schroeder and Jones shouldn’t cost a whole lot, and maybe could even be had for some 2nd round picks. Too bad Gabe Vincent is about as useful as a door knob this season. I still have no idea how good this team can be, but they sure seem to show up against good teams. Just not the bad ones. Darvin Ham better stop screwing around with the lineups though with about 30 games left. They need to go about 18-13 to stay out of the play-in tournament. As for if Lebron is leaving in the off-season, this is one of those rare times I truly believe he has no idea what he’s going to do. If he wants to make max money, play with Bronny, be on a contender, and play in a city he finds desirable to live in, it will be hard to achieve all 4. He’ll have to figure out what he wants to prioritize, which is why he has that player option.

Meanwhile, the Clippers are continuing to roll, winners of 8 of their last 10 games, and trying to chase down the Wolves and Thunder for 1st place in the West. I doubt the Clips will do anything at the deadline. They already swung their big move of the season with the trade for James Harden, which seems to be working out for them right now. Congratulations to Russell Westbrook for hitting 25,000 career points. He’s certainly bought into his role on this team, which is a far more reduced role at this point in his career than he’s had on past teams, but that makes it better for everyone involved. Would have been funny if the stars aligned and Ty Lue was facing Doc Rivers in the All-Star Game. Even Doc thought it was ridiculous for him to be coaching. I always wonder if any of these guys actually want to be at the All-Star game, as opposed to just getting nearly a week off. My guess is they would prefer the vacation.

Let’s jump to the NHL, where you never want to see somebody lose their job, but the Kings firing Todd McLellan was that right move. Yes the players should feel really bad about it, but ultimately, the Kings still have young players they need to play more and develop to take to the team to the next level. McLellan wasn’t giving those young players the chance they needed, and his veteran players quit on him. The Kings have 3 wins in their last 17 games after starting the season looking like a real cup contender. The real question is if Rob Blake is going to be on the chopping block next if they can’t turn it around, especially after that disastrous trade with the Jets, which gave them a very disappointing Pierre Luc-Dubois. Only time will tell, but the Kings need to turn it around quickly.

Let’s go to baseball, where the thought might seem ridiculous, but why didn’t the Dodgers go after Corbin Burnes? The Orioles acquired the Brewers ace for a can of Coke and a bag of Skittles, mostly because he’s a soon-to-be free agent. The Dodgers have had such a great off-season the thought seems insane, but you can never have enough pitching, and they certainly had the prospects to make such a deal. Nevertheless, all eyes are on whether or not they can get another big bullpen piece, and bring back Clayton Kershaw. At the Dodgers fan fest over the weekend, Dave Roberts said he and Kershaw texted recently, and that they agreed to keep in touch. Unfortunately, this sounds like something you tell your colleagues when you’re leaving a job for another company, and then it never actually happens. We’ll see if Kershaw comes back, but it doesn’t sound too promising. He may just want to pitch closer to home with the Rangers.

Then there’s the Angels, who still aren’t spending a whole lot of money despite their bullpen additions. According to Jim Menolo and Jeff Joyce, on their XM/Sirius MLB hot stove show, they said it was “informed speculation” that the Angels aren’t spending money because the team is about to be sold. I’m not entirely sure I buy this story because even before Arte was looking at selling, this is how he’s managed the payroll the last couple of years. Nevertheless, if this is true, the timing would be somewhat tragic because it would be after Ohtani’s free agency, but I’m sure Halo fans would be excited to have an owner with deeper pockets and a modern baseball thinker moving forward.

I’d like to take a moment to expressed my condolences to the family and friends of actor Carl Weathers, who passed away last week. Weathers was an incredible American actor, who was featured in a number of movies that were significant to American pop culture. Most notably in the first 4 “Rocky” movies, where he played Apollo Creed, Colonel Al Dillon in “Predator”, Combat Carl in the “Toy Story” franchise, and Chubs in “Happy Gilmore”. The man was truly an icon, and should absolutely be celebrated!

We’re just a little less than a week away from Super Bowl 57, where the Chiefs and 49ers will have their showdown in Vegas. Even if you ignore the fact that the 49ers fan base is one of the most obnoxious in football, it’s hard to imagine San Francisco winning this game. The Chiefs have the 2nd ranked defense in football, which is something they aren’t notorious for, which has gotten them to this point. Of course Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Taylor Swift are great, but what really matters here is that Brock Purdy is going to have to find a way to beat the Chiefs defense, which has been spectacular all year. Outside of that I look forward to seeing all the bets on how much Taylor Swift will be shown on the broadcast!

This seems ridiculous to say, but the UCLA Basketball team can still win the PAC-12 regular season title. The Bruins have nine games left, and they are tied for 5th in the conference, but they are only 1.5 games out of 1st place. Considering they will play all the teams in front of them in those 9 games, they could easily get there. They would probably need to make quite a bit of noise in the conference tournament, if not win it, because they don’t have any signature wins against ranked teams. However, the development we’ve seen from Dylan Andrews, and Lazar Stefanovich has been impressive, and was on full display over the weekend in the win against Oregon. Don’t write this team off quite yet!

Finally, I can’t believe that Chip Kelly is actually considering NFL Offensive Coordinator jobs right now. On one hand, I think if he takes one, it would be a blessing for the Bruins Football program because they can get out of his contract, and move on from a guy who really doesn’t like his job. On the other hand, the fact Kelly is considering leaving tells you how far the program has fallen, and how much more difficult it will be in the short run when they move to the Big 10 next year. Still, let’s hope for the sake of the Bruins football program, Kelly decides to go to the NFL.