We are past week 10 in the NFL. There is still not a lot of clarity on the contenders and pretenders. Of course, the New England Patriots are at the top of the heap as always. Nothing new there. The symbol for consistency in the dictionary should be a hoodie! Other than that, the landscape is pretty messy overall. The state of Pennsylvania has 2 good teams. Both the Eagles and the Steelers look ready for the playoffs and are probably primed to go deep. How legit are they as Super Bowl contenders, I am not sure and have my own doubts. AFC continues to be the Patriots' playground. The Bills and the Chiefs have outed themselves as pretenders lately. How excited should we be about the possibility of the Jaguars or the Titans seriously challenging the hoodie? Not much to look forward to there actually. It may once again come down to the Steelers V Patriots like it has so many times in Ben and Brady's careers.
The big list of injuries this season for stars like Aaron Rodgers, Andrew Luck, DeShaun Watson, J.J.Watt, Ryan Tannehill, Odell Beckham Jr., Carson Palmer, Jameis Winston, etc. have made the league way less interesting. There is no real reason to watch the Colts or the Giants or the Texans or the Packers now. But in addition, these injuries have also severely impacted the playoff positioning. Especially in the NFC with Rodgers' injury. It looks like the Eagles, Saints, Vikings, and the Rams are the teams to beat in the NFC. You could make an argument that all 4 are surprising division leaders since none of them even made the playoffs last year. Though in the parity-driven NFL, such power-shifts should never be a surprise. Seattle may get in as well, but with all their injuries, they may not be a legitimate threat this year. I like Brees and the Saints in the NFC all things considered. They have built a legitimate rushing attack this year behind Mark Ingram and rookie Alvin Kamara. And they still have Drew Brees. We may finally get a Brees-Brady Super Bowl. Bring it on.
In the NBA, I am very surprised by all the negative energy around Lonzo Ball. I understand that his dad is to blame for most it. With parents like that, who needs enemies. But still, to say he is a bust already is massive overreaction to say the least. The guy is 20 years old, has barely played 15 NBA games, rebounds very well for a guard, and has scored a triple-double already to become the youngest ever to notch a tripe-double. Most of all, he moves fluidly on the court and looks like he belongs. That used to be enough and considered a great start for a rookie normally. Of course, nothing is normal with Ball, thanks to his obnoxious dad. Lonzo is not scoring or shooting well and I am not saying he is headed to the hall of fame yet, but he is going to be just fine. He is actually going to be more than fine and be good in the NBA. Will he be great or a super-star, time will tell. Everybody needs to relax and let Ball be a normal rookie. Maybe just ignore him and his dad for a while and save all of us some time. It's not like there aren't enough exciting stars or intriguing storylines in the NBA this season. The league is loaded!
The MLB awards all are in. Congrats to Jose Altuve on winning the AL MVP to go with the World Series ring. He is a superstar and seems like a likable guy with a professional work ethic. I am very happy for him. Max Scherzer won the NL Cy Young for the second straight year. I was a little surprised as I thought Clayton Kershaw might edge him for that award. Giancarlo Stanton won the NL MVP and Corey Kluber won the AL Cy Young. This is Kluber's second as well, though not back-to-back. There were no surprises with the Rookie of the Year award as Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger won the AL and NL respectively representing the 2 coasts. The Astros were deserving World Series champions and should be good for years to come. Nothing is guaranteed in baseball, but they have enough talent and pitching, including a former Cy Young award winner of their own in Dallas Keuchel, to be in the hunt for a few years. The 2014 SI cover story proclaiming them as the 2017 champion got it more than right.
The big list of injuries this season for stars like Aaron Rodgers, Andrew Luck, DeShaun Watson, J.J.Watt, Ryan Tannehill, Odell Beckham Jr., Carson Palmer, Jameis Winston, etc. have made the league way less interesting. There is no real reason to watch the Colts or the Giants or the Texans or the Packers now. But in addition, these injuries have also severely impacted the playoff positioning. Especially in the NFC with Rodgers' injury. It looks like the Eagles, Saints, Vikings, and the Rams are the teams to beat in the NFC. You could make an argument that all 4 are surprising division leaders since none of them even made the playoffs last year. Though in the parity-driven NFL, such power-shifts should never be a surprise. Seattle may get in as well, but with all their injuries, they may not be a legitimate threat this year. I like Brees and the Saints in the NFC all things considered. They have built a legitimate rushing attack this year behind Mark Ingram and rookie Alvin Kamara. And they still have Drew Brees. We may finally get a Brees-Brady Super Bowl. Bring it on.
In the NBA, I am very surprised by all the negative energy around Lonzo Ball. I understand that his dad is to blame for most it. With parents like that, who needs enemies. But still, to say he is a bust already is massive overreaction to say the least. The guy is 20 years old, has barely played 15 NBA games, rebounds very well for a guard, and has scored a triple-double already to become the youngest ever to notch a tripe-double. Most of all, he moves fluidly on the court and looks like he belongs. That used to be enough and considered a great start for a rookie normally. Of course, nothing is normal with Ball, thanks to his obnoxious dad. Lonzo is not scoring or shooting well and I am not saying he is headed to the hall of fame yet, but he is going to be just fine. He is actually going to be more than fine and be good in the NBA. Will he be great or a super-star, time will tell. Everybody needs to relax and let Ball be a normal rookie. Maybe just ignore him and his dad for a while and save all of us some time. It's not like there aren't enough exciting stars or intriguing storylines in the NBA this season. The league is loaded!
The MLB awards all are in. Congrats to Jose Altuve on winning the AL MVP to go with the World Series ring. He is a superstar and seems like a likable guy with a professional work ethic. I am very happy for him. Max Scherzer won the NL Cy Young for the second straight year. I was a little surprised as I thought Clayton Kershaw might edge him for that award. Giancarlo Stanton won the NL MVP and Corey Kluber won the AL Cy Young. This is Kluber's second as well, though not back-to-back. There were no surprises with the Rookie of the Year award as Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger won the AL and NL respectively representing the 2 coasts. The Astros were deserving World Series champions and should be good for years to come. Nothing is guaranteed in baseball, but they have enough talent and pitching, including a former Cy Young award winner of their own in Dallas Keuchel, to be in the hunt for a few years. The 2014 SI cover story proclaiming them as the 2017 champion got it more than right.
2 comments:
How do you feel about "Trust the Process" up in Philly? Will more teams try it now going forward (barring draft reform)? Would you (and other NBA fans) be okay with 5-6 years (or longer) of colossal sucking to get guys like Simmons and Embiid? Granted they did whiff on guys like Okafor and MCW along the way so it's not an exact science...
Right, the process is long-winded. Even at Philly, the GM got fired, they had to benefit from a couple of "unfortunate" lucky breaks to get it right :-) Embiid's injury is why they got Simmons and both their injuries is why they got Fultz. So, getting top-3 picks repeatedly is hard. If that does happen, yes the process will indeed work.
The Suns are in the middle of a process themselves whether by design or not. But, their picks have not been top-3 and so far, Booker seems like the only stud they got. The jury is still out on the other youngsters and the process is nowhere near done, though it has already taken a long time. Hard to tell if it's feasible for many GMs to go this route.
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