The Warriors beating the Timberwolves in back to back games this week was a little extra satisfying for the franchise and their fans since they own the latter's top-3 protected 1st round pick after last year's massive trade that centered around D'Angelo Russell and Andrew Wiggins. Minnesota now has the third worst record in the league at 4-13 with just one win more than bottom-dwelling Washington, so that pick has a ton a value. Naturally, the talk around the fanbase during these teams' meetings has been about the trade and whether or not they should be rooting for the Timberwolves to have the very worst record heading into the NBA Lottery.
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Unpacking the Moving Parts of the James Harden Trade
Nets receive:
Rockets receive:
Cavaliers receive:
Whoa. Just...wow. I refrained from doing my usual offseason tracker due to work conflicts at the time, but today's absolute blockbuster is the perfect time for me to jump back into writing about the NBA. There is a lot to unpack from the news that Woj and Shams reported almost simultaneously, so let's break things down team by team starting with the principal participants. Indiana's inclusion might technically end up as a separate trade afterwards rather than part of a four teamer, anyway.
Brooklyn is taking quite the risk by leaving all of those draft picks and potential pick swaps unprotected, and that decision of course stands out after their disastrous 2013 trade for Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Jason Terry that crippled the previous regime. Those stars were much closer to the ends of their careers at the time, and the resulting teams were so bad that after the first pick in 2014 (#17, James Young), the ensuing selections were #3 in 2016 (Jaylen Brown), #1 in 2017 (Markelle Fultz, traded for Jayson Tatum), and #8 in 2018 (Collin Sexton). Harden is only 31 years old as he joins 32 year old Kevin Durant and nearly 29 year old Kyrie Irving, so the team seemingly won't be in danger of falling off the cliff as quickly as last time. They all have the option to hit free agency in 2022, however, so rookie head coach Steve Nash faces a tall order of integrating the three stars rather quickly without a training camp.
Saturday, January 2, 2021
NFL 2020 Week 17 Picks
There is a reason that the vast majority of fantasy football leagues don't include Week 17: things get weird. It's right up there with the first couple weeks of the season as the hardest to predict because you don't know for sure who is actually going to play or for how long, and that is especially true this year with a spike in COVID-19 cases after Christmas. Some of the actual spreads in Las Vegas have changed by quite a bit due to some news, but the lines in the CBS Pick 'Em Pool are still the same. Keeping those factors in mind, here goes nothing:
Home Favorites
Bills -3.5 versus Dolphins
1/3 UPDATE: Early morning reports indicate that Buffalo won't play their starters for much of the game, so I'm switching this pick to Dolphins +3.5.
Browns -7.5 versus Steelers
Patriots -3.5 versus Jets
Colts -14.5 versus Jaguars
Road Underdogs
Falcons +6.5 at Buccaneers
Cardinals +1.5 at Rams
Home Underdogs
Bengals +11.5 versus Ravens
Texans +7.5 versus Titans
Broncos +2.5 versus Raiders
Road Favorites
Vikings -6.5 at Lions
Cowboys -2.5 at Giants
Saints -6.5 at Panthers
Packers -5.5 at Bears
Chargers -3.5 at Chiefs
Seahawks -4.5 at 49ers
Washington -1.5 at Eagles
Last week: 7-9
Season total: 124-116
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