January 6, 2025

The Lakers lost a tough one yesterday to the Rockets, and some stupid mistakes happened in crunch time. However, overall, things are still starting to look up for this team. Dorian Finney Smith is making a big impact defensively with Max Christie, which isn’t showing up in the box score but it’s happening. They have a tremendous opportunity to reel off about 9 win or so in their next 10 games, and inch closer to the top few seeds in the West. Considering that February is going to be a lot more brutal, this is the time for them to bank wins. It also raises the question of whether or not they should be making another trade before the deadline. Everybody thinks they need a center, and possibly another ball handling guard that can shoot. All that’s true, but is it really worth trading 1st round picks for a guy that’s only going to play 20 minutes a game in the playoffs? It might just be better to wait until Jared Vanderbilt and Christian Wood get healthy. Even the idea of a player like De’Aaron Fox sounds great, until you realize the Lakers would have to gut their team to acquire someone making that much money. In reality the Lakers best hope might be to just improve within. As for Charles Barkley and JJ Redick talking smack back and forth, I have no problem with the approach either took. JJ didn’t even call out Barkley specifically, when talking about how the media keeps reminding us how the product sucks. Barkley on the other hand felt the need to call out JJ, and remind us that the product does suck, and that he’s just a big Laker hater. Chuck is always good for ratings, and he’s wildly entertaining, but his critique is totally fair. There’s nothing wrong with JJ’s take either, even though I don’t agree that the NBA is more talented now than ever. It’s completely fine for both to have widely differing opinions. It was a hilarious segment though on TNT if you had not seen it, check it out below.

As for the Clippers, it’s a Christmas miracle! Kawhi Leonard made his season debut over the weekend. He was limited to 20 minutes in his first game, which was a blowout win against the Hawks. Kawhi was nothing special in his debut, clearly trying to get back into game shape. He says he will build up his minutes, but of course the question everyone is going to have is if he can really build up his minutes without getting injured again. Only time will tell. The Clippers have overachieved to this point, but is anybody really surprised? This team actually has played better over the years without their stars than with all of them. The Clippers just hitched their wagon to the wrong stars, but are stuck with them for the time being.

To the NFL, where I know what you’re thinking. Why did the Rams rest their starters yesterday against the Seahawks with the #3 seed on the line? When you really think about it, it was the right move. Tyler Higbee got injured last year in a game with similar stakes last year. It’s football, you can get hurt easily, and risking the Rams best players health for the #3 seed vs #4 seed wasn’t worth it. Had the Rams won, they would have had to face a very mobile quarterback in Jayden Daniels that would have completely neutralized their pass rush. That game wouldn’t have been much easier than facing either the Lions or the Vikings, who are both excellent teams as well. The Rams already beat the Vikings, and I could actually talk myself into playing them again. Sam Darnold is banged up, and he’s a subzero refrigerator sitting in the pocket, who the Rams could really abuse. If the Vikings can’t stop Jahmyr, then how are they going to stop Kyren? The game is nearly going to be a coin flip, but the Rams should feel really good about their chances. Don’t sleep on this team!

Meanwhile, the Chargers got exactly what they wanted! Securing the #5 seed and a date with the Houston Texans next week during Wild Card Weekend. This is clearly the ideal matchup for the Bolts, who should feel like they can almost bully the Texans. Houston is what you would describe as a finesse football team, which is usually ripe for a Jim Harbaugh team to come in and tear them apart. Either way, the Bolts definitely overachieved in their first year under Harbaugh, and they should be very excited about what’s ahead regardless of the outcome. This could be a fun couple of weeks for the Chargers in the playoffs in any case, and one they could make extremely interesting.

In College Football, for those of you Notre Dame haters, are the Irish “relevant” yet? They knocked off Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff. This team could easily beat Penn State on Thursday in the Orange Bowl, and believe it or not, winning a National Championship isn’t out of the question for this team. The real eye opening part of this though is Marcus Freeman, and his masterclass in coaching. He completely out coached Kirby Smart, and has also done an excellent job recruiting. I also find is very interesting that he is an African American coach who completely rejects the concept of DEI, and is just focused on coaching and winning football. The real problem for the Irish is it’s not going to be long before NFL teams come calling for him. That’s a first class problem at this point for the Irish, who look like real contenders for the National Championship. They just have to hope they don’t run into Ohio State!

To baseball, where the Dodgers are at it again, this time signing Korean Infielder Hyseong Kim. Amazing….another talented super utility infielder, who can play great defense, and will likely be a solid bat that just puts the ball in play. That’s definitely going to be useful for this Dodger team, but obviously leads to questions about other players. Stop trying to tell me that Gavin Lux is going to get traded, because even the organization is saying he’s not at the moment. Yes other teams are calling, but unless something blows them away, Lux has proven he’s an excellent player when he’s in the lineup regularly. Don’t listed to those yahoos that want him off the team because they saw one bad inning during the World Series. The real question though is what happens with Kike Hernandez. Kike is another emotional leader who elevates his game in the playoffs. They need to find a way to bring him back. It’s probably more wise to eat the salary of Chris Taylor, and move him to another team, just to open space for Kike. It’s amazing to me that the Dodgers are so deep that they had to DFA Diego Cartaya, who was their top prospect not long ago. Meanwhile, we are all on pins and needles waiting for the decision of Japanese pitching sensation Roku Saski!

On the other hand, the Angels are essentially being used as leverage with any free agent mentioned. Anthony Santander? Pete Alonso? I don’t really see the fit with any of these guys, because they need to be DH’s, and the Halos have enough of those guys. Then again, this is the Angels we are talking about, so if it doesn’t make sense, then they will probably do it!

Finally, on the ice the LA Kings are winning, but GM Rob Blake continues to mismanage his assets. This time the Kings put Arthur Kaliyev on waivers, who was once a prized young prospect the Kings were trying to develop. This guy is going to get swooped up by somebody, and end up scoring 30-goals for them. The Kings are winning with defense, but they desperately need secondary scoring, and Power Play help. You can only do that by developing talent, or trading for it at this point in the season. Developing it is much more ideal, and the Kings have blown that opportunity with Kaliyev. The Kings might actually be Stanley Cup Contenders if it weren’t for Blake and his mistake after mistake.