Thoughts on the last two weeks
March madness
If you had all four number one seeds making the final four, congratulations! My final four consisted of Duke, Florida, Houston and Michigan State. Three out of four is the best I have done in predicting the madness ever. Of course, it would have been four for four. But MSU, as has been the case all year, started the game slowly and just couldn’t recover. I did not think that Auburn would advance passed the round of 32. Them making it to the final four is a surprise for me. I had Duke beating Florida in my bracket. I believe that they are the two best teams in this tournament. However, we all know that anything can happen in sports.
the nba
Anyone else worried about the Cavaliers? Ten games ago this team was 55-10 and rolling across the Eastern Conference. Now they are 60-15, and the 8 game lead that they had on Boston is now only 4. There are seven games left and it’s still a slim chance that Boston can over take them for the East’s top seed. To be fair, the first win of the 5-5 ten game stretch was the last win in their 16 game winning streak. But still, 4-5 in their last nine? Only one of those losses was to a non-playoff team, the Phoenix Suns. The last seven games are against the Knicks, Spurs, Kings, Bulls, Pacers, Knicks and Pacers. They should beat the first three teams. The Bulls will give them some trouble and they will likely lose one of the games against the Pacers. I could see them going 5-2 heading into the playoffs.
The Eastern Conference is all but set. If the Bulls beat the Raptors as I’m writing this, they clinch the play-in. The seedings are almost set already as well. The only questions will be whether the Bucks can over take the Pistons for the 5th seed. And which positions the Hawks, Magic, Heat and Bulls will have for the play-in games. Even though I just criticized the Cavs, they are still the second best team behind the Celtics. Boston is 9-1 in their last ten games and seem to be hitting their stride at the right time.
In the Western Conference, OKC is quite clearly the best team in the NBA as a whole. No question about it. They will still have to show up each and every game to finish this incredible run. Remember that the 73-9 Golden State Warriors did not finish their historic run. As far as seeding, there is so much that can still happen. Houston has a slim lead on the Nuggets with the Lakers looming. Memphis, Golden State, Minnesota and the Clippers are all within a game of each other. Any run in either direction can take any of these teams from 5 or 6 seed to a play-in game.
And then the fight for the 9 or 10 seed for the play-in game. Dallas, Sacramento and Phoenix all fighting for the last two spots. I’m not sure that any of these teams really want to earn those spots. Dallas on top of the horrid trading of Luka, have dealt with a myriad of injuries. There was a time when they almost had to forfeit games because they couldn’t get 7 players to suit up. Then you have the Sacramento Bulls Kings. The team of Lavine and DeRozan didn’t work in Chicago and Sacramento thought that they could fix them. They ultimately don’t have the horses to compete. An above average starting lineup but their bench is not that solid. Of course, it doesn’t help that they gave up so many bench pieces to acquire Lavine in the first place.
Then there is Phoenix. Wow! A team with Devin Booker and Kevin Durant should be a lot better. Speaking of horrid trades, Bradley Beal. Three reasons why it was a horrid trade. Beal hasn’t played like he did in Washington. He was a three time all-star that averaged 22.1 points per game. There was a three year stretch where Beal averaged 25.6, 30.5 and 31.3 ppg. Since he came to Phoenix? He’s averaging 17.8 points per game. That’s a good number for the third option on a team. But not at the $50.2 million that he makes. The second reason is the best ability anyone can have; availability. Beal was drafted in 2012. In the 13 years that he has been in the league, there have been a possible 1,039 games as of today. He has played in 796. That’s a 77% clip, which isn’t terrible. But in the last four years? He’s only played in 191 out of a possible 328; a 58% clip. In fact, outside of a three year run in which he only missed 5 games, he has missed double digit games on average every year. And the third reason? That no-trade clause in his contract. The Suns could have improved their team a little bit at the deadline. Jimmy Butler wanted Phoenix and Phoenix wanted him. But to match salaries, they had to include someone expensive. Enter Bradley Beal. It would have taken more than just Butler for Beal straight up. An extra team would have to have been involved. Jimmy Butler is a big upgrade over Bradley Beal. The Suns would be in a lot better position right now than they currently are. And, there is the added rumor that the Suns put Kevin Durant on the trade block without informing him. In fact, the rumor is that a Durant to the Warriors deal was close to happening but Durant didn’t want to go back to Golden State.
TGL
The TGL completed on March 25th. What I did watch of it was incredibly fun. I hope that it continues for a long time and I’ll be sure to watch it more next season. That putt by Billy Horschel was incredible and sealed the victory for the Atlanta Drive. At least Arthur Blank saw one of his teams win a title.
Nfl draft
We are now 23 days away from the 2025 NFL Draft! I’m curious to see if any teams attempt to try and trade up in the first round to select a QB. I’m on record in saying that I think that drafting Shadeur Sanders will be a mistake. It will be a worse mistake to take him in the top 10. I don’t think that this is a player that you can draft that high. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe he will turn out to be a good NFL QB. And I’m not hating Sanders just because he is who he is. For the record, I wouldn’t draft Cam Ward number one overall either. I think Ward is a better prospect than Sanders. But neither guy is going to come in and immediately set the league on fire. I get it. In this day and age, you need a QB to have team success in the NFL. If I was the Titans though, I trade out of number one to a team that is desperate for a QB and get a Chicago Bears type of haul. Then address the QB position the following year when there will be better prospects. Or make a trade for Joe Milton, whom I think would make a good NFL QB based on what I saw last year.
Ovechkin about to make history
I am nothing more than a casual observer of hockey. I like the sport. It just happens to run at the same time as the NBA and I’m more of a basketball fan. I’m not sure anyone thought that Wayne Gretzky, “The Great One”, would ever have his career goals record be challenged. 894 goals is an incredible amount. For reference, Gordie Howe, one of the greatest of all time, only has 801 goals scored. Alex Ovechkin just scored his 891st goal tonight. Leaving him four shy of owning the record. The remarkable thing is that he is doing this in almost the same amount of games that Gretzky played. Gretzky played in 1,487 games. Ovechkin is currently at 1,483 games played. If he averaged a goal a game moving forward, he would actually have the goals scored record in the same amount of games. For reference, Gordie Howe played in 1,767 games to get 801 goals. Two records that Gretzky will more than likely never have to worry about are career assists and career points. He has 1,963 assists, which is 714 ahead of second place. And Gretzky has 2,857 points which is 936 ahead of second place. That makes the accomplishment that Ovechkin is about to grab that much more remarkable.