Thursday, July 20, 2017

We're Talking About Summer League?

The Los Angeles Lakers won this off-season's Summer League. Congrats to them, but to steal a sentiment from Allen Iverson: what are we talking about? We're talking about Summer League. Not a real a game, barely even a practice. We're talking about Summer League. Most of the players that are playing in this league are rookies, who have been recently drafted, or players trying to hold on to a miracle of making a G-League (formerly the D-League) team. Lonzo Ball won the MVP of the league even though he played about 4 games. Lonzo stole the headlines of the league with his triple doubles and his sneaker choice, but at times he looked unathletic and slow, he did make crisp passes and looked pretty good overall.

Maybe it's because the sports landscape kind of dries up during the summer when the sexy sports like the NBA and NFL are not in season and college sports are still a few weeks away that these minor league games take such prominence. The Summer League has never been taken seriously, but here are media gasbags making a mountain out of what has always been a molehill. Good for Ball for looking good. Good for the Lakers to have won a championship, something they won't see in the true Association for at least five years when they hopefully win the LeBron lotto and pair him with a more seasoned Ball and the core of young players the Lakers have. Now that the Summer League is over it's time to turn the public's eye to the NFL teams and who they were about to tag instead of signing long term deals.

Monday, July 17, 2017

The Deadline Draws Near

With the second Wild Card still a thing; and MLB still hasn't listened to me about moving the deadline back so that teams on the fence can figure out the right time to make the necessary decisions to either buy or trade teams have started to make some moves. The Cubs traded a huge haul to the White Sox for their ace Jose Quintana even with his 4+ era and the Nationals traded away 3 pitchers to the Athletics for relief help that they needed so desperately. From now til August 31st teams will either push all their chips to the center of the table (the Cubs) so they can continue their push for another World Series or try to accumulate as many pieces for a brighter future (the White Sox). More teams are on the hording pieces side of the equation where several teams can open up their roster and make anyone available in the hopes of becoming the next Cubs or Astros who have a young controllable team.

The Red Sox have a very strong team, but their deficiencies at third base is glaring. The trade of Travis Shaw is not looking good for the Sox who are looking to trade for a third baseman after the failed experiment of Pablo Sandoval who the Sox signed for a huge amount of money (5 years 95 million dollars) while Shaw has been thriving for the Milwaukee Brewers. Rumor has it Todd Frazier is on the Sox's radar and he seems to fit somewhat the needs of the Sox so that could be a chip that falls soon. Some would say the deadline sits in the lap of the White Sox who have several players who they can trade away beginning with Frazier, but also their closer David Robinson might be moved too, along with them is Melky Cabrera who is having a solid year for the White Sox who could be a pretty good 4th outfielder for a contender, he can be had too. So be prepared for the flurry of moves that will envelope the next few weeks.

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

How Unbalanced is the NBA?

With the way the NBA is going the Eastern Conference is going to end up with only 4 teams that are competitive and only a handful of stars which will make the All Star game uninteresting. With the likes of Jimmy Butler and Paul George now with the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Oklahoma City Thunder, respectively, the Eastern Conference has lost two top 10 players and has taken a main piece from two teams in the East that were on the fringe of being competitive and also has effectively taken both the Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers out of the picture for playoff contention. Sure, neither the Bulls or Pacers have made any serious noise even when they have made the playoffs, but at least the Bulls pushed the Celtics, until Rondo's injury. The Pacers were looked at maybe a team that could compete if only they had another piece or two or three.

Now it's looking like it's LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and that's pretty much it for the East. The Wizards have John Wall, but Wall hasn't exactly been a top 5 star. The Celtics have Isaiah Thomas and he has star potential, but his defensive inefficiencies will be the biggest knock against him even though he has twice the heart of most players in the association. Wall and Thomas are good players on contenders (even though any team in the East can be considered a contender) but there is a real lack of star power in the East and the commissioner should be concerned, but there is little he can do to adjust where free agents sign. Even though Gordon Hayward is now going from Utah to Boston the power scale will still be severely tilted in favor of the West. If you thought last season was boring brace yourself for an even more boring regular season and playoffs for that matter.