No sports to watch, no George to cheer, but Votto gifts a donkey (Wait, what?)
We are coming to the close of the annual "Worst Sports Week" of the year and it is time for me to end my three-week break from posting.
Major League Baseball conducted its Home Run Derby and All-Star game this week. Beyond those two farcical money grabs, the MLB All-Star week is absent any real American professional sports competition. Always an awful week for sports fans.
The FiveThirtyEight.com published a chart in 2014 that tracked the number of pro sports games per day over a ten-year period. The deepest chasm of inactivity is this mid-July nadir in which we currently wallow. The other two competing gulfs come in February and October, but you have loads of college basketball and football to help fill those gaps.
I hope you took this week to re-introduce yourself to your family -- they probably have missed you a little.
The past two weeks have been a flurry of trades and free agent signings in the NBA. Transactions in the NBA come in torrents and can be hard to keep up with in real-time. In simplest terms, it is about winning the title and Brad Botkin of CBSSports.com provided a good summation of realistic Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy contenders as of now (free agency and trades continue).
Botkin says the Golden State Warriors are still the clear favorite to win the 2018 title. He sees the Cleveland Cavaliers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs and Boston Celtics as the top five contenders to unseat the Warriors. It is notable that Cleveland has not executed a significant transaction (have only added Jeff Green and Jose Calderon) and the Celtics still have not dealt one of their many first round draft picks.
This pecking order should shift before the fall, but not by much.
Paul George trade thoughts
The Thunder vaulted into legitimate contender status by trading Victor Oladipo and Damonte Sabonis to the Indiana Pacers for Paul George June 30. Initially, I thought Pacers President Kevin Pritchard got taken and that I really hated George. I have softened on both counts since the trade.
Pritchard probably could have let the first 72 to 96 hours play out instead of trading before it even initiated. Every free agent signing fills a spot on one team, but creates a need on another. He never even gave that a try.
On the other hand, he got two young players with some upside. No, their combined efforts will never equal George on his own, but he got something. Kevin Durant left the Thunder empty handed last year and the Utah Jazz just watched Gordon Hayward walk out the door with nothing coming in return.
Pritchard knew he had to walk through a rough neighborhood and he got his wallet taken, but not his cell phone. He can still get an Uber home and call his bank to shut down some credit cards. The Pacers and Pritchard can recover, but it will be painful.
Kevin O'Connor of TheRinger.com is less forgiving. He says the Pacers have had the worst offseason of the entire NBA.
The whole process could have been easier if George (or his people) stopped talking about his desire to be a Los Angeles Laker after his contract runs out following next season. Just days before free agency started, George was talking about staying in Indiana. If he would have maintained that line, it would have helped prop up his trade value a bit.
But, the guy played hard for the Pacers. He was up front and honest with Indiana management throughout the process. Finally, he has the desire to return home and the means to make that happen. I actually agree with Bob Kravitz of WTHR in Indianapolis, George "had every right to take control of his own career."
My son has some Paul George jerseys. I am not sure what he is going to do with them.
I have said it before, Joey Votto is my man! Votto is going to give Zack Cozart a donkey as a present for making the National League All-Star team this year. Supposedly they will do the presentation prior to a Reds home game in the near future.
What the heck? Votto is my guy. Let's just hope Cozart doesn't get traded by August (it is certainly possible). I don't want to do an analysis on one of my favorite teams trading an all-star for prospects and false hope, again.
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