SPECIAL THANKSGIVING EDITION! || Free Agency Moves and Team-By-Team Review || Super Bowl Revenge in Kansas City and Thanksgiving Games Preview || LeBron James Makes History and Warriors Falling Apart?
Edition #24
Intro
Hello everyone. I’m back. I couldn’t post Monday and neither on Tuesday and sorry about that. Anyway.
Wishing you all an early Happy Thanksgiving. May your time with family be filled with joy not just tomorrow, but for years to come. Quick heads up for tomorrow's post: it might be short and sweet or nothing. Who knows? Let's dive into today's edition, and brace yourselves—it's gonna make up for the missed ones on Monday and Tuesday because it's going to be a marathon. Let's get started!
MLB Free Agency Moves
During the weekend and even a few this week, we saw A LOT of free agency moves. Well, not a lot, but much. Here’s a list and what I grade it.
RHP Aaron Nola re-signs with the Phillies.
My Grade: A+
Obviously, Aaron Nola is one of the top pitchers on the market. This was the perfect move for the Phillies to make as they continue inching closer to that World Series title. He was a key factor in making it to the conference championship this season for the Phillies as he went 12-9 with a 4.46 ERA. 202 strikeouts and 1.151 WHIP. All of this in 32 starts and/or 193.2 innings pitched.
RHP Lance Lynn signs with the Cardinals.
My Grade: B-
Lance Lynn gives up way too many homers. The Dodgers are in desperate need of starting pitching. They wouldn’t have let him walk if he didn’t do bad.
RHP Reynaldo López signs with Braves
Grade: A-
A few days after acquiring lefty groundball machine Aaron Bummer, Atlanta bolstered its bullpen further with the signing of Bummer’s former White Sox teammate, López. López is a traditional late-inning flamethrower who is coming off a career year, racking up punchouts at a career-high 30% clip, which positioned him as one of the top relievers on the market. Early reports that the Braves are considering having López stretched out as a starter are curious, to say the least, but securing a pitcher of his caliber this early in the offseason is a nifty move regardless of the role he ultimately settles into.
RHP Kyle Gibson signs with Cardinals.
Grade: B+
Gibson, 36, spent 2023 with the Orioles on a one-year, $10MM deal. He took the ball 33 times for the O’s and logged 192 innings with an earned run average of 4.73. It’s possible that he deserved better results than that, as his 69.7% strand rate was a bit below average. He struck out just 19.5% of batters faced but limited walks to a 6.8% clip and kept 48.9% of balls in play on the ground. His 4.13 FIP and 4.40 SIERA paint a slightly more flattering portrait than his ERA.
Still old….
Shohei Ohtani is still on the market as I expected, but every now and then, a new team is being added or redacted from the sweepstakes.
For me, I’m getting quite nervous. I really want him to sign fast (with the Dodgers) so that we can focus on what we need to focus on, pitching.
MLB Team-By-Team Review: RAYS
The Tampa Bay Rays.
Always a competitor and always has a low payroll. How can this team win, but not the Oakland Athletics, I mean… It’s probably because their owner is John Fisher… 99 wins this season, but started off at a historic pace. 13 wins in a row to start the season and 1 1/2 months into the season, they were 28-9!
There are still a few holes in this team, and getting rid of Tyler Glasnow probably isn’t going to fit it.
SS: Used to be: Wander Franco.
This guy was a stud. Unfortunately, life happens even for sports players. You can find out more about that stuff here. Is he coming back? Probably not, but he has a bit of a chance. If you're a Dodger fan, no, Julio Urias certainly doesn’t have a chance of coming back.
I guess that’s the only thing they lack, but the main reason they lost to the Rangers in the Wild Card was because of their lackluster hitting. In the 2nd game, it was because of their lackluster hitting AGAIN!
So here’s the key for the Rays, get better hittingwise. Pitching wise, you guys are kind of hanging in there, but hitting has to improve.
Super Bowl Revenge in Kansas City
Alright Philly! Way to go and get the win in Kansas City. Here’s what happened and top performers!
The Eagles-Chiefs clash on Monday night in Arrowhead was billed as the must-see game of the 2023 NFL season, and for good reason. The Super Bowl LVII rematch featured the two teams with the two best records in football, vying for the No. 1 spot in their respective divisions, and it lived up to the hype… sort of. A cold and rain-soaked Arrowhead Stadium was the scene for a tale of two halves. The Chiefs dominated the first half (17-7), but the Eagles defense won the second (14-0) for a narrow 21-17 win. Eagles QB Jalen Hurts was held to his worst game of the season, but Philly turned in points on three big drives and let their defense do the rest.
The Go-Ahead Drive
Philly finally connected on a deep pass play to DeVonta Smith for 41 yards — their first deep pass of the game — midway through the 4th quarter. That catch took the Eagles inside the 1-yard line, and a tush-push TD put them on top (21-17).
The Drop Heard ‘Round the World
After back-to-back 3-and-outs from both teams, Kansas City moved the ball past midfield on the final drive. On 2nd down, Mahomes geared up and launched a deep shot for Marquez Valdes-Scantling. It wasn’t a perfect ball in stride, but good enough that it should’ve been caught. Valdes-Scantling’s drop would’ve been the go-ahead, and potentially game-winning, touchdown for the Chiefs.
QB Comparison
P. Mahomes (KC): 24/43, 215 total yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT
J. Hurts (PHI): 14/22, 179 total yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT
Other Top Performers
RB D. Swift (PHI): 15 touches, 107 yards, 1 TD
WR D. Smith (PHI): 6 receptions, 99 yards
RB I. Pacheco (KC): 21 touches, 91 yards
TE T. Kelce (KC): 7 receptions, 44 yards, 1 TD
S K. Byard III (PHI): 8 tackles, 1 INT
DT C. Jones (KC): 5 tackles, 2 sacks
My Opinion
The Eagles did a wonderful job triple-teaming Travis Kelce. A.J. Brown had ONE CATCH the whole night, which was a great job by the Chiefs, guarding him so well. If the Chiefs defense didn’t play how it did Monday night, and Philadelphia was playing a little better in its so-and-so football, then it would have been a BLOWOUT by the Eagles. “Great team win” by the Eagles and just a record I must say, the eagles have been 9-1 4 times (not counting this year) and they’ve made it to the Super Bowl all 4 times! Could this be the revenge year for the Eagles?
Thanksgiving Games Preview
Let’s start…
Packers vs Lions
This Packers team won against the Chargers. The Lions continue to trailblaze towards wins. Is this the matchup we want to see on Thanksgiving morning? If you're a fan of these teams, yes. If you’re a football fan, N O.
The Lions are very good this season. They have 3 straight wins and have a very easy schedule for the next few weeks. The only real competiors are the Vikings and the Cowboys. If the Vikings continue to win and the Lions suddenly start losing, those could be HUGE matchups. Else, the Lions should probably win this division by a few games.
Commanders vs Cowboys
The commanders are coming off a very embarrassing loss against the Giants. Like, what is Sam Howell doing? The Commanders always have promising games against the Eagles, and that’s when I start picking them to win games, but they always find ways to let me down.
This should be a fairly easy game for the Cowboys. Sam Howell better have a bad game this time, but if the Commanders win, I’m going to rage so hard…
49ers vs Seahawks
The 49ers are coming back to what they were at the start of the season. Of course, we’ve only seen one game, but I can just feel it.
Brock Purdy hasn't thrown an INT in either of his games coming off the bye and has 3 TDs in each of them. Crazy! But, he hasn’t played bad teams, either. The Jaguars are an extremely good team, the 49ers still won. The Bucs are in the middle but still have talent. They won against them! The Seahawks are very good too, but will they have enough to beat these 49ers? Geno Smith isn’t a sure shot to play…
We’ll talk about the Black Friday game later!
LeBron James Makes History…. Again…
39,000 point club, table for one.
LeBron James surpassed 39,000 points for his incredible career during the first quarter of Tuesday's game against the Utah Jazz. The Los Angeles Lakers star entered the contest with 38,995 points and needed just five to reach the mark.
The King surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's record of 38,387 points during a February game against the Oklahoma City Thunder last season.
It was another accomplishment in a career that includes four championships, four NBA Finals MVPs, four league MVPs, 19 All-NBA selections, six All-Defensive selections, and 19 All-Star nods.
Perhaps the most notable thing is he isn't even known as a pure scorer, and still has more points than anyone in history. The 40,000-point club will be his next accomplishment, and there is no reason to think he won't get there given his unmatched durability and ability to impact the game even in his 21st season at 38 years old.
He entered Tuesday's contest averaging 26.4 points, 8.2 rebounds, 6.5 assists, and 1.7 steals per game this season and looks well on his way to another All-Star game and perhaps an All-NBA choice.
The accomplishments are one thing for the future Hall of Famer, but he is surely only focused on adding another ring to his resume.
After all, James is discussed alongside Michael Jordan, Abdul-Jabbar and others in debates about the best players in the history of the game, and winning a fifth ring would only bolster arguments in his favor when he does eventually retire.
But the durability and longevity he continues to show also means there will be plenty of categories where he has cleared the rest of his peers and everyone else who has played the game.
Categories such as the 39,000-point club.
Warriors Falling Apart?
The world was a little brighter in the Bay Area two weeks ago.
The flowers smelled a little sweeter. No clouds were obstructing the Golden Gate Bridge. The Athletics were still an Oakland-based baseball team. And most importantly, for our purposes, the Warriors were 5–1 after a thrilling, last-second win in Oklahoma City, announcing themselves as an early contender.
Since then… well, that’s why the title is the title.
Golden State is in the midst of a highly concerning dip, having won only two of its last nine games. The Warriors have lost five in a row, including four straight to start a six-game homestand. (Sorry, that was a lot of numbers.) To make matters worse, Stephen Curry—currently playing at an MVP level—missed the team’s last game because he is dealing with a knee injury. And Draymond Green will miss two more contests due to his suspension for—and I can’t believe this is a real sentence—putting Rudy Gobert in a chokehold.
Why are the Warriors struggling so much? Well, you can’t put the downturn all on one or two people, but the dispiriting play of Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins is a place to start.
When the Dubs were 5–1, it was almost encouraging they were succeeding without a strong Wiggins. But instead of him regaining his form and making the team better, Golden State is now having a hard time overcoming his performance.
Wiggins is currently averaging career lows in points, assists, rebounds, free throw percentage, and field goal percentage. He is shooting a ghastly 13.5% from three. As a result of all of that, Steve Kerr has his minutes at a career low, too, despite the team needing his perimeter defense.
And it’s not like Wiggins is getting terrible looks! He is shooting 17.9% on catch-and-shoot threes, typically the bread-and-butter shot that comes with playing off Steph. Wiggins is shooting a baffling 13.3% and 23.1% on threes classified as either open or wide open, respectively. The opportunities are there, but he’s just not capitalizing.
Thompson hasn’t fared much better. He’s also at career lows in field goal percentage and three-point percentage, and he is averaging his fewest points since his rookie year. Most of Klay’s threes are also classified as open, but he is connecting on just 20.6% of those looks.
The inefficiency from Wiggins and Thompson has sunk the Warriors’ once-vaunted starting group. The fivesome of Steph, Klay, Wiggins, Green, and Kevon Looney has a net rating of minus-14.4 in 87 minutes, which is middling offensively and getting smoked on the other end. Last year that group was arguably the best lineup in the NBA, posting a 21.9 net rating in 331 minutes.
Meanwhile, the full five-man bench group spearheaded by Chris Paul has also mostly gone bust. And despite playing Wiggins and Thompson fewer minutes, Steve Kerr can’t seem to crack the rotation to properly highlight Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga. Those two are needed more than ever, but they have their own limitations (size for Moody, shooting for Kuminga) that have made their integration less than seamless this season.
In the short term, this is all resulting in mounting losses. It is wasting what is yet another superhuman performance from Curry, who is as good as ever, and is now single-handedly forced to lift lineups that can’t shoot and can’t really defend. Steph is truly every bit as terrifying as when he led the Warriors to 73 wins in 2015–16.
In the long term, the questions are getting scary. Are Moody and Kuminga ever going to be championship-caliber role players? Could the Warriors even trade them to get that kind of player in return?
Wiggins is 28 and under contract for two more seasons and a player option. Where is he going to level off? Will he still be a part of the core moving forward?
And then there’s Thompson, who is making $43 million in the last year of his deal. The two sides couldn’t reach an extension before the season, and Thompson seems to be playing his way out of max money. Is the contract situation affecting him?
You could also argue Thompson’s expiring contract is an important trade chip for the Warriors. I would not move him and frankly think the team should have extended him already, but what if he continues to struggle? And what if his money plus draft picks can bring back players who can help win a title this year?
These are not fun thought exercises, and I wouldn’t be having them if the Warriors were still rolling. But as long as this swoon continues, they’ll continue to linger. That’s how dark Golden State’s season has been the last couple of weeks. And if the team doesn’t turn it around soon, the conversation will only grow more uncomfortable.
Conclusion
Have an amazing Thanksgiving!