Just because the NBA and NHL Finals are over doesn't mean the sports-world has stopped moving! We had more Women's World Cup action this week, the NBA Draft was last night, and baseball is expanding in the weirdest way possible (maybe?). Let's jump right into Tres's Three Pointers!
1) NBA Draft Reactions!
26 trades, 60 picks, and over 3 hours of action! The NBA Draft featured an unparalleled night of triumph and pain for so many young players last night. There were absurd reaches (the Suns), massive falls (Bol Bol), and an unbelievable Twitter battle between Woj and Shams (only to have both of them beaten by Jordan Clarkson!!).
I know we shouldn’t render our final verdicts on teams’ draft decisions until after free agency, but some teams I just don’t understand. I also know that most of these players won’t work out. The odds are more in the favor of most of these players being traded, cut, or waived until they are out of the league in only a few years. But for one night though, every player drafted has a night they can remember forever. No one can ever take away the moment when Commissioner Silver calls their name and that young man goes on stage to shake his hand.
Seeing young players’ dreams become a reality is something I will always love to see because it is a dream we can all strive and hope for in our own lives – not making the NBA but fulfilling our dreams.
With all of that being said, the NBA teams making the picks didn’t nail every move they made tonight. In fact some teams made some really bad moves. A couple teams had some great moves though too! Like I said, I will try to reserve my judgment with some teams because free agency is right around the corner – some teams I just can’t resist though.
However, I think the worst thing overall for your team is to not have anyone care about what you did at all. However, just because your picks weren’t flashy doesn’t mean I don’t care. There is a big difference between those two worlds.
Take the Grizzlies for example. They had a good night drafting. They picked Ja Morant with the second overall pick which was the right move. It wasn’t flashy but I liked it. The Knicks fall into this category. They didn’t reach and they make the right pick with RJ Barrett at number three. The Wizards fall into the category of teams I don’t care about because of the moves they made. They drafted Rui Hachimora who will be good, but it wont matter because they are such a mess right now and I think their front office will screw it up somehow – thus I don’t care about their pick.
So now my general thoughts about some of the teams moves from last night:
Philadelphia’s trade for Matisse Thybulle from Boston was a good move from a defensive point of view because they can stop anyone on defense now, but do they really not care at all about spacing? He has literally zero offensive game. Coupled with Simmons and Embiid, this team has three important players who can’t shoot or won’t shoot. If I’m a Celtics fan I have to be furious that Ainge gave Thybulle away for Ty Jerome (who I liked at Virginia) because I think he’s a much better fit with Boston than Philly.
I’m going to admit this – I don’t know what the Suns are doing. Like I said (as I grit my teeth saying this): I will reserve absolute judgment until after free agency (un-grit teeth) …but I have absolutely no faith in their ability to nail it in free agency. When they traded out of TJ Warren’s contract, I thought they were on the right track because they started making room to sign free agents.
When it comes down to it, Cameron Johnson was just not the right pick here at #11. He was projected to be a late 1st round pick at the earliest which means they didn’t need to reach this high for him. He is the best shooter in the draft without question, he just can’t play a lick of defense and he’s 23 years old which means he’s about finished developing as a player. He is who he is – like most seniors in the draft.
Sticking with the not great picks in this draft…I didn’t like Orlando picking Chuma Okeke. Okeke is a really good big man who is a strong rebounder and finisher. He was one of the best players in the SEC last year and NCAA Tournament before he tore his ACL. I just think the Magic needed to focus more on guards this draft because they already have approximately 500 forwards/centers on their roster (they actually have 7 assuming they don’t lose Vucevic to free agency).
There were also a few other teams that made good picks with the limited selections they had. The Miami Heat took a great player in Tyler Herro from Kentucky – I just don’t know how he fits in with Dion Waiters and Goran Dragic who both dribble the air out of the ball. He may struggle to get minutes with that backcourt. I’m also very high on KZ Okpala so I think the Heat trading for him is a win for Miami.
The Lakers picked a good player with the 46th pick when they drafted Talen Horton-Tucker who is 6’4” and has a 7’1” wingspan. He has the ability to defend spots 1-4 on the court and he’s on a cheap second round contract which doesn’t hurt their cap situation.
Kyle Guy was a good move by Sacramento when they traded for him with the 55th pick. He may not make their final roster and he won’t be a star in the league, but how many times have we seen the last few second round picks or undrafted players make a difference for a team because of their effort plays. TJ McConnell and Fred VanVleet (undrafted) have become incredibly important role players on their rosters despite not being considered highly regarded prospects. Kyle could be that Guy.
The Celtics had a pretty decent draft with the potential to have a fantastic draft if their gambles pay off. Taking Romeo Langford (a pre-season top 5 pick before injury) is a great grab at 15 if he stays healthy. He has a ton of potential and his size allows him to defend both guard positions. He also can get his shot off over smaller defenders. Carsen Edwards had one of the greatest college basketball performances of all time when he went off for 42 points against Virginia in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament last April. Grant Williams was one of the strongest players in college basketball last year and he’ll compete on every possession.
The Celtics also created about $31 million in cap space which allows them to go after a max free-agent or multiple mid-level guys. They have clearly gotten over Kyrie Irving and Al Horford as they turn their eyes towards players like Nikola Vucevic and Malcolm Brogdon in free agency. A tough downgrade for a team who were set to land Anthony Davis last season. Also they promised Aaron Baynes they wouldn’t trade him if he opted into this contact and then they traded him on draft night. That is cold-blooded and messed up. I know it’s a business but moves like that have to affect players on the Celtics and prospective free agents. He's now done this to Isiah Thomas and Baynes. Coupled with the rumors they may try to unload Hawyard and the rumors circulating their young core all of last year, how many times can Danny AInge do something like this before his actions damage his reputation with players around the league.
The two teams that won the night were the Pelicans and Hawks. The New Orleans Pelicans nailed it with the first pick (Zion Williamson) and then grabbed Jaxson Hayes, the best center in the draft who could play besides Zion as a rim defender. Hayes is a late bloomer, but he runs the floor really well and can grab lobs like Clint Capela or DeAndre Jordan. Lonzo Ball is going to have a field day on offense with them. The Pelicans are building a team that fits well together and can grow to be a very versatile team with tons of switch-ability on defense. I still don’t know how they are going to score, but that’s where the $31 million in cap space they created comes in handy this offseason.
The Hawks got exactly every player they wanted to get. They grabbed both Cam Reddish and De’Andre Hunter. Both players who can defend well and space the floor for John Collins and Trae Young. I’ve repeated how bad Young’s defense was last year, so these guys help with that immediately. They needed defense and they got defense. Just like the Pelicans, they have a really great young core who all will have roles to play on this team.
Finally the Twitter battle between Shams and Woj was legendary last night. While Woj didn’t try to vary how he phrased each tipped pick on Twitter, their arms race was at an all-time high as they battled even after the draft had finished. They were tied all night until late in the first round when Shams slipped up! Shams picked the wrong player for Cleveland – he tipped it would be Keldon Johnson when in fact the pick ended up being Dylan Windler.
Just when we though Woj was going to win the night, he then typed “Winder” instead of “Windler” which put him back down to zero and tied with Shams. However, an unexpected winner came out of the first round – Jordan Clarkson!
Late in the first round, he beat Shams and Woj to about 5 picks, including a trade! It was a legendary heat-check performance by Clarkson and was the best thing basketball thing he’s done since his first game for the Cavaliers against the Celtics two seasons ago. Congrats Jordan, you are now the new Woj!
This was a much more fun draft night that I thought it would be! Now onto free agency!
2) Does the NBA Have a Hat Problem?
As the NBA Draft reached its conclusion – and Bol Bol was picked by Miami and then traded to Denver - I started noticing how many hats players were wearing for teams they would never play for. This is for one big reason: all of the trades agreed to before July 6th are just deals that are agreed to “in principle”.
They can’t be called into the league office yet in order to be official. So we had dozens of moments last night where NBA commissioner Adam Silver read a player’s name and the team he was going to, followed another moment where Maria Taylor asked the player how it feels to not be going to that team because they were going somewhere else.
Overall, the entire thing just felt awkward to me because we all know what is happening here and we know all the deals behind the scenes. It also felt redundant that the tv commentators had to constantly remind us that a certain pick by a team wasn’t actually being made by that team. The Lakers serve as a good example for this. On the tv screen, it showed the 4th pick and the Lakers needs, but everyone else was talking about what Hunter would mean for the Hawks. It just seems silly to me that we can’t make these trades official sooner. ESPN had no problem acknowledging it so why didn’t the NBA? We can at least understand that who is finally picking for who.
This leads me to my hat problem. When De’Andre Hunter was selected, he even put on a Lakers’ hat and shook the commissioners’ hand…even though he’ll never play a game for them in his life.
It also confuses fans who are attending the actual draft. If you’re a Miami fan who’s been sitting there for three hours, when you see Bol Bol get picked you think your team got Bol Bol! When you go home though (or look at your phone), then you find out that you don’t have Bol Bol. Why not just tell everyone in the moment when a trade happens? The NBA is known for being a transparent league. Why now just acknowledge everything happening behind the scene?
I don’t know what all the implications would be for the league to just acknowledge the trades without them being completed yet, but I can’t imagine it would be that hard to just be open about all of these trades happening before the actual trade date happens. Maybe the NBA could also actually come up with a solution to fix this problem. For example, the NBA could do like what the NFL does and have free agency happen before the draft. This could have ripple effects because this would move back Summer League and also many teams would draft more for need than potential, but it would be at least interesting for the league to look into.
I think the simplest solution would just be for the NBA to acknowledge proposed trades in the moment. Do like the NFL does, and before they make the pick say: “there has been a trade!” Then you can get the crowd excited and riled up before you announce the trade and the next pick.
And although I don’t like the trades not going down officially yet, I don’t actually have a problem with the NBA using hats for players because we get legendary moments like this one:
3) The Tampa Bay Expos of Montreal and the Montreal Expos of Tampa Bay
Wait What?
Wednesday evening, as we were all preparing for the NBA Draft, ESPN’s MLB Insider Jeff Passan seemed to drop a baseball bombshell with the news that the Tampa Bay Rays are exploring a plan in “which they would play home games in both the Tampa Bay area and Montreal”.
So how would this work? I have more questions than answers, and even my answers to those questions create more questions which makes this move seem nonsensical as best. And while I’m sure there are dozens of people working on a project like this who are much smarter than me, I can’t help but be confused by how this idea will play out.
It seems like a simple idea in theory and a simple solution to a couple major MLB problems. Tampa Bay has consistently one of the worst home attendances in the MLB. Since 2001, they haven’t ranked any higher than 26th in the league in attendance and they’ve averaged only 44% attendance with about 17,261 fans per game. These numbers include the recent renovations done to Tropicana Field that reduced the total amount of seats in the stadium. They need a new stadium so that would prompt this new building by the Tampa Bay city council and Montreal local government. This also seems to satisfy the Montreal fan-base who has been craving a new MLB team – or a team of any kind – since the Expos left for Washington D.C. in 2005.
So it seems to satisfy a couple of problems the MLB has been having. However, it creates dozens of more problems that I don’t think anyone seems to have answers too right now.
First set of questions: How is Tampa Bay going to play in two cities? When will they play in two cities? What is their new name? The Montreal Expos of Tampa Bay (let’s call them that for now)? The Montreal Expos during the summer months and the Rays during spring and fall? The logistics seems weird to me. We’ve seen teams in the past play in multiple cities during the season, but nothing like this.
Tampa Bay is currently in the middle of trying to get a new stadium built by the city so will this cancel that project and those negotiations? Or would they just go through with it anyway? Will both cities now have to build a ballpark for the team so that they can travel and play at home successfully in both cities? I can’t imagine both of the ball parks built for the Montreal Expos of Tampa Bay would be cull size MLB stadiums…
What will happen to the stadiums the rest of the year? Could they get another team to play during those games?
It’s possible that these ballparks would be closer to MLS size stadiums rather than MLB stadiums. When there were rumors that the MLB wanted to expand to Portland, the stadium proposals and ideas were mostly closer to 20-30,000 seats in size rather than 60,000. That way they could sell out more games and get fans closer to the game. I personally like that idea and I think all small markets should do that…that’s a rant for a different time though.
Next, how will the games be split? Will it be a clear 40 games per city? Which city then gets the revenue from players salaries? Will those also be split? Or will one city get more than the other? These questions lead me into questions I have regarding the players.
How will the players deal with this new situation? Will free agents want to come to play in Montreal or Tampa Bay knowing they will have to pay taxes in both cities? The Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto Raptors already have trouble landing free agents because players know they have to pay both the American government and the Queen on Tax Day. That would be a problem from the players.
Also, just for the families of the players…look how far away these two places are!!
Could you imagine having a husband who has to travel all year for baseball but then also play in two cities on opposite ends of North America? Google Maps won’t even give me directions how to get there! Plus flights will be like 5-6 hours each way! There are so many logistical hurdles players for this new franchise will have to deal with. It would deter players from wanting to play for this dual-city team.
Also, how which division would they be in? The AL East or the NL East? The Expose, - before they left – were in the NL East, but the Rays are currently in the AL East. That just further complicates things.
Any way you slice it, even if we get answers to all of these questions, a move like this won’t be happening for a very long time. I’d expect more news on this a few years down the line and a move to happen in the latter half of the 2020s. For a deal like this to happen, it would take both cities local governments negotiations with private contractors in hand with the MLB and team ownership to create a proposal that satisfies all parties. On top of that both of these cities are in entirely different countries! So not only would you have to work with another city, you have to work with another city in an entirely different country! A project like this will take forever!
What will the state of the MLB be like by then? Local TV deals are still a money maker for owners, but nationally televised games have seen ratings consistently decline? Will the MLB be in a completely different state by the time this move even happens? These are massive long-term questions that need to be answered before a move like this even takes place. I have a feeling that if the MLB really wants this move to happen and they can get both cities on board then it’ll happen. It’ll just be a long time before this move ever comes to fruition – if at all.
The best part about this news is that I had an excuse to watch Vladimir Guerrero highlights again - he was such a beast:
*images and screenshots taken from ESPN.com and MLB.com