December 30, 2024

There is much to get to in this addition of Monday Morning Coffee, starting with the Lakers, who finally made a trade yesterday. They acquired Dorian Finney Smith, a 3-and-D player, and a reserve guard Shake Milton, for D’Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis, and 3 2nd round picks. Finally! Rob Pelinka made a trade. Even Jimmy Carter waited until Pelinka made a deal before he passed away on Sunday (God rest his soul). At face value, I really like the move. The Lakers really needed better perimeter defenders, and they are getting that with DFS, who has also been a reliable 3-point shooter. Don’t sleep on Shake Milton either, who could be a useful guard off the bench who can replace some of D-Lo’s scoring. D-Lo was a solid shooter, but he was streaky, and he was becoming tougher to play in the backcourt with Austin Reaves, which exposed their perimeter defense a lot more. It will be interesting to see if the Lakers can do something to beef up their front court before the trade deadline with the likes of a Jonas Valanciunas or Robert Williams. In any case, the Lakers roster appears a lot more balanced now, but hopefully we can see a more consistent effort on the floor from them, like we have in last 6 games. By the way, I guess the Lakers and Warriors missed the memo that “the NBA is boring” given how they played such an awesome game on Christmas Day!

Meanwhile, believe it or not, there is actually a target return date for Kawhi Leonard. That date is believed to be January 4th, which is 5 days from now against the Atlanta Hawks at home. They key word here is “target”, and if you listen to Ty Lue, he will tell you, or I guess I should say he is being told by Kawhi’s people that he needs more time to practice 5-on-5. Sorry Ty, but you know this is a complete load of crap. You know that the only way Kawhi is going to get back into NBA game shape is by playing in real NBA games, not some 24-Hour Fitness like cardio in practice. If his people are telling you otherwise, it’s because they know he’ll be lucky to give you 30 games this year with the deteriorating condition of his knees. The fact Kawhi was able to pull of 60+ games last year to convince the Clippers to give him a massive extension is really astonishing. When his contract is up, there is simply no way any team could be bamboozled into paying this man that kind of money again.

To the NFL, where the Rams pulled out another victory over the weekend, and after a handful of teams lost yesterday, they have clinched the NFC West! It’s remarkable how far this defense has come in the last few months. Jared Verse is suddenly the favorite to win the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of The Year. Who says the Rams have no fans? They absolutely showed out on Saturday night, and the place was as loud as I’ve ever heard it. On a slightly more serious note though, there are some concerns with the offense. Matt Stafford isn’t being protected like he was a couple of weeks ago, and Joe Noteboom might get Stafford killed. But the real concern is the passing game. There isn’t much of a vertical threat. It’s basically Puka Nacua on a bunch of screens, while Cooper Kupp suddenly can’t create the separation we used to see. That’s going to make it tough for Kyren Williams to be effective on the ground for long stretches. If the Rams have any hopes of beating a team like Green Bay and going on a deep playoff run, they will need to clean up this portion of their game, and quickly.

The Rams weren’t the only LA Football team that clinched a playoff spot over the weekend. The Chargers dismantled the Patriots on Saturday, locking up a postseason berth for the 2nd time in 3 seasons. Jim Harbaugh beat Nick Saban in the Rose Bowl, won the College Football Playoff national championship to give Michigan an undefeated 15-0 season and took the Los Angeles Chargers to the NFL Playoffs in the same calendar year. He’s a Hall of Fame coach in both the NCAA and NFL. Not only that, but Chargers may have drafted a franchise right tackle, a franchise wide receiver, and two franchise cornerbacks in the last draft. Just give Jim Harbaugh a little more time and this defense will only get better, and they’ll even add a few more weapons on offense. Justin Herbert doesn’t have the flashy numbers of a few years ago, but he’s been solid and a very good leader. The Bolts have not won a postseason game since 2018. But the best thing that could happen to them is to win next week and have the Steelers lose to the Bengals. That would give them a very favorable 1st round match up against the Texans.

Some of you Trojan fans may have forgotten, or tried to forget that the Las Vegas Bowl was over the weekend against Texas A&M. This was actually a great game, and USC had quite a rally to win this one. It was an exciting win, and something to feel good about for the Trojans going into next year. However, I don’t think Jayden Maiava is an ideal starting QB for USC moving forward. He had to overcome three interceptions in that game, and originally, everyone was led to believe that Maiava was much more mobile than Miller Moss. It turns out that really wasn’t the case, and Maiava really isn’t better than Moss, who is now transferring out of USC. Of course Maiava was praised by Lincoln Riley, because what else is he going to say? You’re only as good as your options are, and right now, he is the best and only option available to them moving forward, unless they are pleasantly surprised in the transfer portal.

Don’t look now but UCLA Football suddenly has the #4 transfer portal class according to rivals.com. Then there’s this. Ethan Garbers has exhausted his eligibility. Justyn Martin has transferred to Maryland. Former Appalachian State star Joey Aguilar, announced his commitment to the Bruins on Saturday. Aguilar put up some very gaudy numbers as the Appalachian State starting quarterback. Since no other QB on the UCLA roster has any college experience, the job is clearly Aguilar’s to lose. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but things are looking up in Westwood, and DeShaun Foster might actually know what he’s doing.

Speaking of UCLA, they finally broke through against Gonzaga, defeating them for the first time in the Mick Cronin era, at the Intuit Dome on Saturday. It was heartbreak after heartbreak against the Zags, but this time there was no half court buzzer beater, or other ridiculous devastation. It sure looked like Sebastian Mack tried with that stupid late game foul, but Skyy Clark made two clutch free throws to put the game away. The Bruins should move up significantly in the rankings after this one, and despite the loss to Kentucky, the wins against Oregon and Gonzaga should go a long way toward the their March Madness resume. This team is definitely going to win with defense, and that’s what they did on Saturday, along with some timely 3-point shooting. Dylan Andrews is really the Ethan Garbers of the basketball team. That’s not a good thing for this team.

The Dodgers made another big move over the weekend! They re-signed Teoscar Hernandez to a 3-year $66 million contract. Great for the Dodgers and great for Teo, who the team rewarded for having a fantastic season, and leading the team to a World Series Championship. Not only is Teo a big bat in the lineup, but he also was the emotional leader of the ball club this past season, which they desperately needed, given their playoff failures of seasons past. That cannot go unnoticed, and it’s a great thing that Andrew Friedman recognized this. So what’s next? This has been a fantastic off-season thus far, which can be capped off by signing Roki Sasaki, re-signing Kike Hernandez, and adding a high leverage reliever like Tanner Scott.

On the other hand, ESPN came out with a top 10 ranking of the most frustrated MLB fan bases. Sure enough the Angels came out at #1. The reasons cited were the fact they wasted prime years of Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani in their lineup, gave out a terrible contract to Anthony Rendon, and Arte Moreno refuses to spend more money on significantly improving the club. Knowing the Halos luck, Anthony Rendon probably injured himself opening Christmas gifts, so he’ll bee out for a significant portion of time I’m sure. This type of attitude for an owner just makes you look like a buffoon in the Southern California sports market, as opposed to the cool successful wealthy guy that is beloved by all his friends.

Finally, sports broadcasting legend, Greg Gumble passed away from cancer last week. The man was 78 years old, and in my mind is considered one of the voices of March Madness and the NFL. There was no other feeling in sports quite like 6pm ET on Selection Sunday, hearing the CBS music & Greg Gumble announcing the tournament field. Thank you for everything Mr Gumble!