February 3, 2025
Hopefully you have picked yourself off the floor by now after learning that Luka Doncic was in fact traded to the Lakers on Saturday night. I still can’t believe it after writing it. The Lakers somehow just acquired a consensus top 5 player, and global NBA superstar. He will be the next face of the franchise. Even more shocking, was the fact they still have Austin Reaves and more 1st round picks. This trade wouldn’t even have been allowed on NBA 2k, and I’m still waiting for David Stern to rise from the dead to veto it before going back into his grave. Luka will need to get his butt in shape, but he’s going to be motivated as hell to do so after the Mavs kicked him to the curb. I don’t know how the Lakers are going to make it work right now with this team, even if they get a center by Thursday’s trade deadline, but who cares. They have the cornerstone of the franchise in the post Lebron era. In the long-run this is phenomenal, and they still have young pieces like Austin and Dalton Knecht alongside Luka. Mad respect to AD though. He gave the Lakers a championship, was one of the best two-way players in the league, and the idea that he is injured all the time is actually flawed, because he hasn’t missed many games the past two years. However, when you get an opportunity to acquire a player like Luka, you can’t say no. You figure the rest out later.
Lost in all this is Lebron James, and his true feeling about what happened. Everyone is publicly playing it like Lebron and Rich Paul were shocked about what happened, and are still processing all of it. You really expect me to believe that?? There is a certain level of plausible deniability in this for both of them. Lebron and Rich Paul may not have known that trade was going to happen right then and there, so they can maintain that they were “shocked” but there is no way the Lakers make a trade of that magnitude without at least knowing that Lebron and Rich Paul would be ok with it. Even Brian Windhorst, who has been reporting from inside Lebron’s jock strap for years, said that Lebron has been “dreaming about this” idea of playing with Luka. He just never thought it would actually happen. While it would be nice to trade Lebron for some assets and draft capital, he has a no-trade clause so he is running the show. He also has a pretty damn good relationship with Jeanie Buss, so I don’t think he’s going anywhere. That’s fine, because at least now the Lakers know what their future looks like, and they don’t have to worry about mortgaging it to appease Lebron.
Meanwhile, the Clippers can actually feel pretty good about themselves for a few reasons this morning. They may have lost against the Raptors yesterday, but they no longer are the ones that in the public eye made the worst trade in NBA history, when they traded SGA for Paul George. For the time being in the public eye that looks like it belongs to the Mavericks (although I think the Mavs will be better in the short-run than people think). In addition to that though, the Clips made a trade of their own, sending Mo Bamba and PJ Tucker to the Jazz for Patty Mills and Drew Eubanks. It’s a nice deal for the Clips because they get a backup center, and a useful guard in Mills, who used to play with Kawhi in San Antonio. It’s not sexy, but it’s a nice solid move for the Clips that should give them a few reinforcements for the 2nd half of the season.
Now that we have a full week to go before the Super Bowl, are we all done with the complaining about the Kansas City Chiefs? Look, I know you all think they have the referees in their back pockets, but the reality of it is, they are a great team, with a generational quarterback talent. Plus, now you are going to get a matchup of truly the two best teams in the NFL, and frankly, either side could easily win. I do think if the Eagles are going to win though, they need to win by more than a touchdown, because if it’s a close game, you can’t bet against Mahomes and Andy Reid. The Eagles also can improve their chances by making sure when they tackle Mahomes, they use pillows and lay him down on the ground softly. I have advice for you as well. Get the taco truck at your Super Bowl party. Get those immigrant works to help you before Trump deports them, and before those tariffs raise the price of your guacamole!
To college basketball where UCLA is back in the mix! They took down Oregon last week, and now Joe Lunardi has them as a #7 seed in the South Region in his bracketology. This has been quite the roller coaster season. A few weeks ago we were wondering if Mick Cronin was going to put his coaching resume on LinkedIn to find his next gig. Now suddenly winning the Big Ten isn’t out of the question. The Bruins at minimum should go 5-5 down the stretch, but 7-3 and 1-2 wins in the Big Ten Tournament would put them in a much better place come March Madness. That way they get up the #4 or #5 seed and wouldn’t have to play a team like Duke or Auburn in the round of 32. They’ll have a big test against Michigan St on Tuesday at home, and if they win, they will improve their tournament resume immensely. I guess you can never count out Mick Cronin and his determination!
The Dodgers are still waiting to clear some roster space for the likes of Clayton Kershaw, and potentially Kike Hernandez. However, in the meantime, they have had to let go of some pretty damn good players to sign the talent they have this off-season. Earlier it was Diego Cartaya, who was once one of the best prospects in baseball. Last week, they released Ryan Braiser, who had a 1.89 ERA in 66 innings. That’s how much of an embarassment of riches the Boys in Blue have these days. They can no longer keep elite talent in their organization because they simply have too much of it. Talk about first class problems!
On the other hand, now that the Angels off-season is basically over, we can sadly say their team isn’t much different than last year. A rotation of Tyler Anderson, Kyle Hendricks, Yusei Kikuchi, Jose Soriano, and Reid Detmers isn’t exactly moving me. Even if Detmers rebounds nicely, this team is ticketed for 70 wins at best, and 100 losses is certainly not out of the question. What’s really sad about the whole thing is that Arte Moreno and Perry Minasian claimed that the Halos were going to compete now and make moves that weren’t of the rebuilding variety. Unfortunately, the Halos really did neither. They have an awful roster with limited Major League Talent, so they didn’t sign enough of it, and they don’t have the player development infrastructure necessary to help with a rebuild with their young players. It’s a terrible in between phase. It’s a rudderless ship and the irony of it is, the Angels have bottomed out already but they are pretending like it hasn’t happened.
Speaking of player development, or lack there of, the LA Kings are just as bad at it. The Kings are in their usual January slump, which happens. However, it’s their player development that has been awful. We already saw them give up on promising forward Arthur Kaliyev, who went to New York and started scoring goals five minutes later. Then they benched promising young defenseman Brandt Clark, and only decided to put him back in the lineup on Saturday because of a couple of injuries. Of course that led to other teams calling the Kings to see if they were stupid enough to trade Clark. Why wouldn’t other teams call? Rob Blake has shown he is the master of hockey malpractice, which explains why the Kings have been unable to regain their status as true Stanley Cup contenders in over a decade.
Finally, the Grammy’s went down last night at Crypto.com arena. Kendrick Lamar owned the night with 5 Grammy’s, coming out on top in every category he was nominated in. Can we just put this in perspective for a moment? Kendrick won all these Grammy’s with a ‘dis track! Has anyone check on Drake after this? Last year the Grammy’s belonged to Taylor Swift, but this year, it was Kendrick. Even better is the fact that he will be going on tour after the Super Bowl, and will be doing a show in Toronto, Drake’s hometown. You can be sure he will be dropping “Not Like Us” over and over again. Also, watching Shakira dance never gets old. I don’t have a problem with Beyoncé winning Country Album of The Year, and Album of The Year. I’m anti-woke, and DEI, but that’s not what this is. She’s talented and has star power. If you can re-invent yourself like she did, it only adds to your greatness. Was there no dress code for the event? Or did Kanye’s wife, Bianca Censori not get the memo? I’ll let you search the internet for that one.
