An Early Look At NBA Free Agent Moves

There have been lots of NBA free agents “on the move” in the last 36 hours or so.  Some of the signings appear to me to be very important for the teams that did the signings:

1. Brooklyn Nets:  They sign Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan plus they did a sign-and-trade with the Warriors sending DeAngelo Russell west in exchange for Kevin Durant.  This looks to me like a “go-big-or-go-home” move.  Durant will not play next year and there is little to suggest that he will return at age 32 to the NBA at 100% of what he was prior to his Achilles tendon injury.  Moreover, Kyrie Irving is a soap opera looking for a network to televise it.  HOW-EVAH, if those two meld and can replicate their on-court prowess a year from now, watch out for the Nets.
2. Golden State Warriors:  They got DeAngelo Russell for Kevin Durant when it looked certain they would lose Durant and get nothing in return.  Russell will replace Klay Thompson next year until Thompson rehabs his knee injury.
3. Utah Jazz:  They had previously traded for Mike Conley and they just signed Brian Bogdanovic.  What the Jazz lacked last year was balanced scoring and both of these guys can score.  The Jazz improved a lot.

There is always another end of the spectrum no matter what the subject may be.  When it comes to NBA free agency in 2019, the low end of the spectrum has to be the NY Knicks.  For the last year, the mantra of Knicks’ fans went along this line:

• Tank the season and get the #1 pick and get Zion Williamson.  Did not happen.
• Take the cap room the team has and coax Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to sign to play in Madison Square Garden.  Did not happen.  [To make matters worse, the Nets signed Durant and Irving, meaning the Knicks are now the #2 basketball team in NYC regarding star power.]
• All that cap room the team amassed – partly due to the trade of Kristaps Porzingas to the Mavericks – was used to sign Reggie Bullock, Taj Gibson, Elfrid Payton, Bobby Portis and Julius Randle.  Those are good players; none are great players.

Clearly, the Knicks have fast-forwarded into “spin mode” here.  If you listen to team president Steve Mills, it almost seems as if this outcome was desirable:

“While we understand that some Knicks fans could be disappointed with tonight’s news, we continue to be upbeat and confident in our plans to rebuild the Knicks to compete for championships in the future, through both the draft and targeted free agents.”

If you say so…

Brad Dickson had this comment on his Twitter account last week:

“The IOC is poised to add Break Dancing as an official Olympic event. I’m not making that up. At this rate soon Gardening, Drooling, Farting and Napping will all be sanctioned Olympic competitions.”

I have always thought that Sonnet-writing could be an Olympic sport nowadays.  The competitors would be given a topic and 30 minutes to compose the 14 lines that comprise a sonnet.  An international panel of people who have proven that they can spell sonnet correctly will be the judges and medals can be awarded after the competition.  They can do this like the soccer competition and have group sonnet-writing followed by “knock-out rounds”.  The IOC could do all of this in the memory of Percy Dovetonsils.  [Google is your friend…]

Greg Cote had this comment in the Miami Herald last week:

“Baseball named its 16 All-Star Game starters, excluding the two pitchers. The Democrats have more presidential candidates than baseball has starters.”

Another thing to note here is that all 16 All-Star Game starters are highly regarded in their field and can point to sustained excellence in the field of baseball.  You will probably be unhappy if you try to use that yardstick to measure the candidates who have been in the two Democratic “debates” so far.

A report in the Akron Beacon-Journal says that an entire high school football coaching staff was fired for a violation of school district policy.  It seems that the team and its multiple coaches were at a football camp and in the evenings – when none of the players were present – some of the coaches drank alcohol.  That violates a rule that says you can’t drink alcohol while at a school-sponsored event…  Here is the link to that report.

Since everyone seems to agree that none of the players were present or involved in the drinking incident(s), it would seem as if this is enforcing a rule to the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law.

Finally, here is another item from Brad Dickson’s Twitter account:

“US News & World Report ranked every state for quality. Nebraska is 9th and Iowa 14th. Minnesota is third so I doubt climate was a criteria.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………