February 2nd, 2026
It’s that time of year again! The time where you’ll get to hear all these bogus trade rumors around the NBA with the trade deadline this coming Thursday. In case you needed more evidence, even Shams doesn’t really have any great insider Laker sources. We heard the Lakers were interested in DeAndre Hunter and Keon Ellis, but then they were traded for each other. I don’t think the Lakers are going to do much between now and Thursday unfortunately. They have a bunch of expiring contracts, but they aren’t interested in taking back any money long term beyond this season. They also aren’t interested in giving up any draft capital because they think they might have a shot to trade for Giannis this summer with 3 1st rounders and 2 draft swaps. I don’t think this is a wise strategy though. Giannis seems interested in staying in the East, the Lakers don’t have great contracts to match salaries, and they have Lebron and Austin Reaves on their team now they can try to optimize, along with Luka. In my opinion, their best shot at getting a star is in the summer of 2027 if the Joker or Giannis make it to free agency then. Until then however, they should be willing to take on contracts through next year to try to make the most of Luka’s prime years. The Lakers are always star hunting first and foremost though, and although I think their mentality should be more about role player team building and culture developing, they could care less what I think and seem to still be focused on the stars.
Meanwhile, the Clippers are unlikely to do anything at the deadline either. The way they are looking at is as though they are back in the mix for the play-in tournament after a rough start to the season. They are old, but if they get healthy and peak at the right time, they believe they can make a run to make the best of their roster. I do think the Clips would have some interest in a player like Ja Morant or LaMelo Ball if the price is right, but so far, the Grizzlies and Hornets don’t seem like they want to unload those players for penny’s on the dollar.
We are on the verge of starting the World Baseball Classic, as well as the Spring Training. This is one of those years where as a Dodger fan, you really aren’t excited about the WBC. The teams biggest star players don’t need to throw more innings or play more baseball after their very long championship season If anything I don’t mind if guys like Shohei, Mookie, Freddie, and the majority of the starting pitching staff gets as light a work load as possible between now and August. That should definitely be the case for Blake Snell, who reportedly may not be ready for opening day, and indicated he will need some ramp up time because his shoulder is still a little fatigued from throwing so much in October. See you in the fall Blake! Rest up!
It looked like UCLA Basketball was really regaining momentum there until their loss against Indiana over the weekend. The Hoosiers are a tournament team as well, but UCLA really needs to pad their tournament resume with more quality wins. I realize they defeated Purdue, but it’s going to take more than that. The loss on Saturday included an impressive comeback before losing in double overtime. You can even argue that UCLA got a little screwed by the refs, but they were also lucky to be in that position in the first place, and had plenty of chances to put the game away before that. On a different note, this idea of Amari Bailey coming back to college for eligibility is insane. I know college sports is turning into the wild west with NIL, but you can’t allow guys to come back after turning pro. This would be a horrible precedence to set.
The LA Kings lost yesterday to the Carolina Hurricanes, but that’s not the story. The real news is their pursuit of Rangers winger Arti Panarin, a 34 year old high scoring Russian, who is on the trade block. Memo to the Kings however: You are a lot closer to a rebuild than a cup. Panarin might help you so score some goals, but he won’t fix all your problems. Just because they have the cap space and the draft capital to make the trade doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
Finally, The Grammy’s went down last night at Crypto.com Arena. There were some entertaining performances. Lady Gaga, Olivia Dean, and Alex Warren were fantastic. Normally I don’t like it when anything gets political because nobody is tuning in to hear the politics. However, in this case I didn’t mind the voicing displeasure against ICE. It’s not really political at this point, it’s just plain human decency. If you missed SNL over the weekend, they actually had a great skit making fun of ICE and the stupidity of those it employees. After hearing from Bad Bunny, I’m definitely looking forward to seeing his performance in the Super Bowl next week! My only complaint about the show is that why can’t any of these people dress normal? Trevor Noah was probably the only guy dressed normally, and he was also really funny. Everyone else was dressed like a complete lunatic.
