#-1: Lynx (Last Week: -2). Beat San Antone at the X by nine Sunday, then beat the Mercury in Phoenix by eight Friday. I'm getting the feeling that with Maya Moore at the peak of her career and Seimone Augustus, Lindsay Whalen and Rebekkah Brunson still trucking along (and by the way, those four recently [maybe this screening week?] set the record for most WNBA victories by a quartet), somehow the gameplan runs through Sylvia Fowles. I think that's dangerous, especially if the pivot runs hot and cold, and it seems to do.
Aside: Check out the Lynx homepage. There's nothing that stands out, although it's a tad boring. But look at the middle-right portion, the headlines underneath the word "News." There are three headlines from June 9, May 12 and May 11. There are other links of news that are much more current, but seriously, does anyone notice that old news is featured prominently on the Lynx splash page? Somebody should fix that. Unless there's no one employed to fix it, which, if true, brings back doubts about the viability of the league.
Anyway, this entire season boils down to the Lynx vs. L.A. And finally the only two teams worth talking about in the league will meet for the first time in the regular season, as the Sparks come to St. Paul Thursday. The Lynx then go to Chicago to play the Sky Saturday. Two games in three days, one home and one road, circling games and trap games ... I have a bad feeling about this. I think this squad loses one of those two games.
#-2: Wild (Re-Entry!). I don't think local sports fans have ever had a day like Friday, where both winter pro teams made huge trades on the same day. I like the Wild's better, much better, than the Timberwolves' (which I'll explain below -- way below).
General Manager Chuck Fletcher hasn't blown up the team, but apparently seeing stagnation and the need to sign the players he prioritizes as the core of this club to long-term contracts down the road (notably Nino Niederreiter and, secondly, Mikael Granlund), he made a sizable trade that involved one of the team's deep (though, in my opinion, not necessarily shut-down) defensive corps. Marco Scandella was sacrificed from the D crew, along with a third-round pick, to Buffalo in exchange for Forward Tyler Ennis, D-man Marcus Foligno, and a fourth-round pick.
It was interesting hearing the trade rumors and seeing the Wild's protected list for Vegas' Expansion Draft who Fletch put first ahead of the others when it came to Defensemen. Ryan Suter is a no-brainer -- not necessarily because he's fantastic (he's not, not anymore), but because he has a huge contract and I believe a no-trade clause. From there, Fletcher protected from Vegas Jared Spurgeon. Fletcher did throw in Alex Tuch to convince Golden Knights General Manager George McPhee to take Forward Erik Haula instead of Scandella, Jonas Brodin or Matt Dumba, but that was because he wanted more value when he finally had to bite the bullet and trade one of those three.
In a sense, Scandella's an afterthought. Really, the players in this transaction are an afterthought, too. Ennis can score, but he's injured too often. And Foligno is nothing more than an enforcer/thug, the type of toughness the Mild, which thought that speed kills, suddenly realized they needed as they were getting roughed up by St. Louis in the playoffs. Too little, too late in that regard. No, the big piece was the player I haven't forgotten but held back from talking about. The oft-maligned Forward Jason Pominville is going back to the Sabres four years after being traded on Deadline Day to the Wild. His lack of production didn't justify his onerous contract (not to mention the no-trade clause he enforced to stay on the protected list), and so he became the scapegoat for a lot of Wild fans. It got to the point where Fletcher told any team that wanted any of his Defencemen that they had to take Pominville too. So the main point of this trade was Pominville ... no, actually it was Pominville's contract, not Pominville himself.
This is an unusual trade. The HOTT TAKEZZZ!!!! say that Buffalo came out with the better deal. They probably did. But this was a long-term play for Fletcher. Getting rid of Pominville's contract, and dealing away a good player who was also due a payday in Scandella, frees up money to sign better and more important players over the next couple years. In that sense, I totally understand this trade.
Meanwhile, the free agency frenzy started up and more people from the organization decided to take their careers elsewhere. Good luck, Darcy Kuemper and Christian Folin. Meanwhile the Mild got a bunch of scrubs back, most notably Kyle Rau, the Lakeville North star who scored that goal in Triple Overtime to win the Boys' State High School Hockey Championship a few years ago. Means nothing unless a miracle hits and Rau or another free agent pick-up scores, like, 15 goals this upcoming season.
#-3: Twins (Last Week: -4). OK, I know I said this before, but this week might be the week that's seen as the one that torpedoed the Twinks' chances of making the postseason. Against three pretty good teams in Cleveland, Boston and Kansas City, they went 3-5 this screening week. Not only have Cleveland zoomed past them this week (I think), as of press time they are only one game in front of the Royals for second. That's what happens when you're playing this afternoon to salvage a split of a four-game set at Kaufmann (although they did split a Doubleheader with K.C. Saturday, and the weird thing about that is the game they won featured a Pitcher making his debut in The Show, Felix Jorge, not the one where Jose Berrios took to the mound), let alone dropping three-of-four at Fenway (but at least they swept Cleveland with a 4-0 shutout Sunday).
All-Star starters are announced tonight (Sunday night), and Miguel Sano is expected to win Third Base for the American League. If he doesn't, blame the Russians.
They come home after today's tilt versus the Royals. Three vs. Anaheim, then four against Baltimore to close out the first half of the year.
#-4: United FC (Last Week: -3). I didn't think the Loons could go into Yankee Stadium and beat NYCFC. They have too much name recognition (David Villa and Andrea Pirlo would probably be better than 70% of the players in the league if they were 50), too much power. But I've got to be honest: When Christian Ramirez got that rebound Goal to give United an early 1-0 lead, I thought they had the talent to win their first game on the road, or at least get a draw. But nope. Those guys slowly chipped away, then tied, then grabbed the lead, then tallied an insurance Goal. I don't want to be upset because this is still an expansion team. And yet I can't help but feel disappointed that they're not playing better, even against one of the best teams in Major League Soccer.
I was going to attend Tuesday evening's Independence Day tilt against Columbus at Das Bank, but Grandmother, obviously.
#-5: Timberwolves (Last Week: -1). Wow. A week after pulling off a trade that many people believe is a milestone for the organization, they basically fuck themselves with a switch that I don't fucking understand at all.
First of all, how stupid am I to have believed that Tom Thibodeau had to stand pat with keeping Ricky Rubio as his starting Point Guard after trading away putative heir apparent Kris Dunn to Chicago in order to land Jimmy Butler. I did not realize that with Butler coming to Minnesota there was a glut of substandard outside shooting, so even though Ricky Ricky improved in the second half of the year in that regard, he was considered expendable.
But that's where the trouble starts. Thibs shipped off Rubio -- who, by the way, has pretty much been nothing but a dutiful soldier (and yes, I will admit I had my doubts about him initially) who had weaknesses but had strengths few in the NBA can match, and put up with a lot of rumor-mongering I know came from the front office -- to The Bastard New Orleans Jazz for their first-round pick next year. Oh, it's lottery-protected, too? Oh, so for a stand-up guy who can play some defense and has preternatural passing skills we might get the 16th pick in the 2018 NBA Draft? OK, cool.
So who are you going to replace him with? Kyle Lowry I heard might leave Toronto. I can see an upgrade from Rubio to Lowry. But no, Thibodeau did not get Lowry. Instead he signed ... Jeff Teague. I remember drafting Teague in my fantasy basketball league and thinking I got a steal. I haven't fucking played fantasy basketball in at least five years. This is the upgrade? This is our new starting Point Guard for a team that's supposed to be riding high into the playoffs next year?
I am truly upset over these two moves, and I know I'm not the only one. This is not an improvement at all. This is a downgrade, a severe one, even a fatal one. I don't care if you have Andrew Wiggins on the wing, Butler playing Small Forward and Karl-Anthony Towns at the 5. The Woofie Dogs are going to lose games because of the Achilles' heel at the 1. Teague is going to get pressured and he's going to commit Turnovers. Even worse, he won't be able to make the passes Rubio routinely made. There'll be instances where Wiggy or Jimmy Buckets will get under the basket completely unguarded, but Teague won't see him, or he'll be double-teamed and he'll just fucking cough up the ball.
I am saying this now: The Timberwolves will not make the playoffs next year because of Point Guard. And Tom Thibodeau will have to answer to us fans as to why he decided to give up Ricky Rubio for Jeff Teague.
No comments:
Post a Comment