April 29, 2019
You didn’t really think we’d go another week without another embarrassing story coming from the Lakers did you? The latest is requesting that Ty Lue or Monty Williams add Kurt Rambis to their staff as an Associate Coach if they are hired. If that’s their attitude, imagine how limited they will be trying to find a President of Basketball Operations when they insist that Rob Pelinka will remain in the front office. I’m not sure how long Jeanie will continue this ridiculous friends and family approach, but it’s getting annoying. Plus, the real irony in all this is that her most qualified friends and family, Ryan West and Jesse Buss, are actually not involved enough in front office decisions. It doesn’t matter whether the coach is Lue or Williams, the problems are much bigger than that. However, if Lue is hired, with Lebron stepping all over him, it won’t be the first time he’s been stepped all over at Staples Center.
The Clippers impressive season came to an end on Friday after losing to the Warriors. Look, I will give the Clips their due. They play hard, they have likable players you can get behind, two good young players, and they have finally stabilized the organization. However, let’s pump the brakes on a couple of things. The idea that the Clippers are a great free agent destination is a false narrative. Why is Kawhi Leonard the only free agent we’ve linked to them? Besides, if Kawhi stays in Toronto, is there actually a plan B? Plan B might not even put this team back in the playoffs. Also, for those of you who suggest the Clippers are going to take the town from the Lakers, the Clips have been better than the Lakers for six years, yet they aren’t even close to making it a “Clipper Town”.
To baseball, where I’m not sure what’s gotten into the NL West, but everybody is suddenly winning, including the 1st place Dodgers. I think it’s fair to say that the best pitcher on the Dodgers is still Clayton Kershaw, despite peoples hopes and dreams that Walker Buehler and Julio Urias were ready for prime time. Kershaw and Kenley Jansen are still great, but not what they once were. That being the case, since the Dodgers are so reliant on their bullpen, I have no idea why they won’t add more reinforcements to their pen like Craig Kimbrel. He’s only a 7 time all-star, and at this point would probably accept an inflated one year deal. Andrew Friedman has shown about as much interest as I have in dating Rosie O’Donnell. The pitching is good, but probably not good enough to win a World Series. That’s not good enough.
At some point, the Angels are going to get some reinforcements back in their lineup like Shohei Ohtani, Justin Upton, and Jo Adell. However, at that point they will be trying to climb out of a hole that is bigger than the Grand Canyon, since they are already in last place and 6 games out of 1st place. That also won’t fix their pitching. The Angels have decided to play copy cat and using the “opener strategy” several teams around the league have been adopting. However, by letting a reliever open the game, then letting your “starter” pitch a few innings, that seems like nothing more than patchwork for a team with a crummy rotation. It also seems like a sure way to exhaust your bullpen over the course of 162 games. The strategy worked for the Rays last season, but they also had a great bullpen. The Halos don’t. Billy Eppler was clearly that kid in school that just looked at everyone else’s paper to pass his exams.
The NFL Draft was highlighted by some great laughs provided by the Cardinals, Raiders, and Giants. The Cardinals gave up on the 10th pick in the draft after one season, traded him for a 5’10 receiver, and replaced him with a 5’10 quarterback who might be playing professional baseball in a few years. Josh Rosen will get good laughs watching Ryan Fitzpatrick throw interceptions in South Beach next year. The Raiders used the #4 pick on a guy who was rated #32 by Mel Kiper, and drafted two other players who weren’t even projected to be 1st rounders. Gruden probably picked Colin Ferrell because he thought he was related to Will Ferrell. Then the Giants, drafted a QB at #6 who they could have gotten at least 10 picks later. They had as many 1st round picks as they will have wins next year.
Meanwhile, the Rams had a pretty good draft by all accounts, trading down to acquire more assets several times. It was also hard not to notice the three separate trades they made with the Patriots, who just defeated them in the Super Bowl. Note to all you super insecure and incompetent NFL executives: not everybody is afraid to trade with Bill Belichick. Some executives like Les Snead actually have confidence in what they are doing. More than anything though, the Rams actually picking a running back as early as they did makes me question the health of Todd Gurley even more.
Finally, an amazing episode of Game of Thrones went down on HBO last night. Spoiler alert for those of you who have yet to see it, so read no further if you plan on watching it later. That was a highly intense and stressful 90 minutes of television. All things considered though, we didn’t really lose any characters that devastated you, but seeing the Night King die was absolutely shocking, and even more shocking at the hands of Arya. That kill was like a Damian Lillard walk-off 37-foot game winner. Jon Snow and Daeny were fairly useless in this episode. Not sure what Daeny was doing the whole time not spitting fire on the the entire Army of The Dead when they broke into the castle. Jon might “know nothing”, but he also did nothing in this episode as far as killing the Night King. It was all Arya. Not sure what the Army of The Dead was doing while Arya snuck up and “Bruce Lee’d” the Night King. I still think before it’s over we’ll lose a Stark or two, and maybe even Daeny. Nevertheless, the last three episodes are going to be epic! Tremendous writing.
