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Bulls’ DeMar DeRozan forces Lakers to wonder what might’ve been after dominating them for 38 points in blowout

Published

2 years ago

November 16, 2021

DeMar DeRozan may have signed with the Chicago Bulls this offseason, but he made it perfectly clear in the buildup to free agency that he wanted to join the Los Angeles Lakers. The Los Angeles native idolized Kobe Bryant growing up. He spoke openly about how flattering it was to be mentioned in trade rumors with his childhood team and declared that joining a championship contender was his goal during the offseason. Reports suggested that he was prepared to take a pay cut to join the Lakers. He met with LeBron James at least twice, according to The Athletic. “It almost happened,” DeRozan said of his Lakers courtship.

Instead, his hometown team chose another star. Russell Westbrook became a Laker hours before the 2021 NBA Draft. DeRozan was left without an obvious home. Chicago swooped in and made him a strong $85 million offer, and thus far, they’ve been major beneficiaries of Rob Pelinka’s decision. DeRozan averaged 26.1 points in Chicago’s first 13 games. The 9-4 Bulls sat less than a game short of the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. That made Monday’s decimation of the Lakers the cherry on top of the best start of DeRozan’s career.

The four-time All-Star dropped 38 points on the team that spurned him, and he did it on their home floor. Chicago waltzed its way to an easy 121-103 victory, and after watching Westbrook miss all six of his 3-point attempts, the Lakers can only wonder what might have been.

The Bulls sent the Spurs Thaddeus Young, Al-Farouq Aminu and a first-round in the DeRozan sign-and-trade in August. It’s not hard to envision the Lakers building a package enticing enough to eschew that first-rounder with some combination of Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Montrezl Harrell. All three ultimately landed in Washington. All three could’ve helped the Spurs. Kuzma played for Gregg Popovich at Team USA’s training camp for the 2019 FIBA World Cup. Anthony Davis rocked the Spurs for 34 points on Sunday because they lacked a backup center behind Jakob Poeltl. Every team can use a three-and-D wing like Caldwell-Pope.

Acquiring DeRozan through a sign-and-trade presented one notable challenge for the Lakers: the hard-cap. When teams acquire players through a sign-and-trade, the full mid-level exception or the bi-annual exception, they are not allowed to spend above a figure called the apron (roughly $6 million above the tax line). The Lakers were hampered by it last season after using the full mid-level on Harrell. Reports hinted that they wanted to avoid triggering it again for fear of the flexibility it might cost them.

In practice, that flexibility would have been minimal. The hard cap line is roughly $143 million this season. James, Davis and DeRozan (at the salary he signed in Chicago for) would have cost the Lakers less than $105 million. Even with $5 million in dead money, the Lakers would have had slightly more than $33 million left to spend beneath the hard cap. In reality, they spent only around $36 million on their roster aside from James, Davis and Westbrook this season. That gap is tiny in the grand scheme of things. Had DeRozan taken the pay-cut he was reportedly considering, that difference might have disappeared entirely. Even if it hadn’t, ownership would have saved a fortune in tax bills and been freed from the hard cap next offseason, giving the Lakers more room to build around a trio featuring DeRozan.

The truth of why DeRozan isn’t a Laker doesn’t appear nearly so complex. Without getting far in trade talks and unable to settle on a contract number, the Lakers seemingly decided they preferred Hield, according to The Athletic. It’s just not fully clear why. Hield is a far stronger 3-point shooter, but if that was such a priority, the Lakers likely wouldn’t have landed on Westbrook. DeRozan was always the middle ground between their two extremes. While he rarely shoots 3-pointers, his mid-range game made him more of a spacer than Westbrook, but a stronger shot-creator than Hield. DeRozan is shooting roughly 37 percent from behind the arc this season. Westbrook is down to around 29 percent.

It’s too early to declare the Westbrook trade a loss. He’s adjusting to his fourth team in four years, and the Lakers have a roster that is hardly optimized for his skill set. The same is somewhat true of DeRozan. His defensive shortcomings might have looked more apparent on a roster with fewer point-of-attack stoppers. He might not be shooting so well if he had to share ball-handling duties with so many other creators.

But DeRozan has been the vastly superior player through the first month of the season. He proved it emphatically on Monday night, and until the Lakers figure out how to maximize Westbrook and the deeply flawed roster they put around him, they’re going to have to wonder what could have been had they just brought DeRozan home as he wanted.

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Yankees Are Looking To Avoid Unfortunate History

Published

2 mins ago

September 27, 2023

nigemord@gmail.com

(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

The New York Yankees have consistently been one of the best teams in baseball over the past few decades.

When you have a payroll like them, it is easy to compete for championships year in and year out.

But, the Yankees took a major step back in 2023.

Not only will they not be in the postseason, but they are in danger of not having a winning record.

According to Bryan Hoch, the Yankees need just one win in their last five games to avoid a losing season.

That is important to New York because they have not been under .500 since 1992.

At 80-77, the Yankees need just one win in their last five games to avoid their first losing season since 1992.
Two wins would extend their streak of consecutive winning records to 31, second-longest in franchise (and MLB) history.
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— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) September 27, 2023

If the Yankees can get two more wins they will have a winning record for the 31st consecutive year.

While some fans may care about this streak, it does not mean much if they are not in the playoffs.

One of the main reasons for the Yankees’ downfall this year was due to injuries.

They lost Aaron Judge for a few months and got mostly nothing out of newly-signed starting pitcher Carlos Rodon.

It just seemed like everything that could go wrong for this team did.

The only bright spot from this year is Gerrit Cole, who is in the driver’s seat to win his first AL Cy Young award.

Cole has been dominant and is proving to be well worth the massive contract the Yankees gave him a few years back.

Even in a lost year like this, the Yankees can take a few positives.

The pitching of Cole is one along with finishing the season with a winning record.

The post Yankees Are Looking To Avoid Unfortunate History appeared first on The Cold Wire.

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Brewers Took Time To Celebrate Latest Feat

Published

7 mins ago

September 27, 2023

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(Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images)

The Milwaukee Brewers lost a home game to the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night.

But they still had a reason to get together and celebrate in their clubhouse.

That was due to the Chicago Cubs losing to the Atlanta Braves and the Brewers clinching the NL Central.

Each season when a team clinches a playoff berth, they celebrate in the locker room.

But most times it is after a team wins a game of their own.

Milwaukee still wanted to celebrate even after a loss.

That is because winning the division title is so much more than just one game.

According to Adam McCalvy, Corbin Burnes was in the clubhouse when the Braves took a late lead over the Cubs.

He talked about how the staff started to get the clubhouse ready for a celebration.

Corbin Burnes was in the clubhouse when the Cubs-Braves game flipped, and witnessed Brewers staffers hurriedly preparing the room for a champagne mess. “However it happened,” he said, “they lost, and we won the division.” pic.twitter.com/8cDn67IDQ5
— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) September 27, 2023

The Brewers deserved the opportunity to celebrate after having a strong season.

Before the year many people were uncertain how good they could be.

There were questions about how good their lineup was and if they had enough to keep up with the top teams.

Milwaukee has won 88 games this year and has seemingly answered all of those questions.

One spot where they have thrived is with their pitching rotation.

It all starts with Burnes, who has turned in another strong season.

He has a 10-8 record on the year with a 3.46 ERA and is leading the league in WHIP with 1.060.

Along with Burnes, they have Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta.

Not to mention one of the best closers in baseball, Devin Williams.

Many people may still be overlooking the Brewers, but they are a sneaky pick to win the NL pennant.

The post Brewers Took Time To Celebrate Latest Feat appeared first on The Cold Wire.

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Dan Orlovsky Makes All-Time Claim About 1 AFC Duo

Published

11 mins ago

September 27, 2023

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(Photo by David Eulitt/Getty Images)

When it comes to top players in the NFL, quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs are two of the all-time best at their respective positions.

Mahomes and Kelce are coming off a Week 3 game in which they helped the Chiefs defeat a miserable Chicago Bears team by 31 points.

ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky came away from the latest performance of this duo thoroughly impressed, but it probably isn’t for a reason that most noticed while watching the game live this past Sunday.

The @PatrickMahomes and @tkelce is absurd and one of the greatest of all time pic.twitter.com/fSprApWrXV
— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) September 27, 2023

Orlovsky couldn’t contain his excitement when discussing a play he shared on Wednesday from a Kansas City offensive drive in Week 3.

In his post, the ESPN analyst did his best to share with the world how much Mahomes and Kelce are on the same exact page when they’re out on the field together each week.

In the play he shared, Orlovsky points out how Kelce likely cut off his planned route to the corner of the left side of the field in order to avoid a defender, and instead of throwing the ball to the original planned spot, Mahomes noticed the same thing the tight end saw, and he put the football right in Kelce’s bread basket.

It’s this kind of excellence that has resulted in the Chiefs being able to appear in three of the last four Super Bowls and win two of them.

Mahomes and Kelce already possess enough physical tools to excel at their craft in the NFL, but it’s the mental skills of this duo that have allowed them to separate from their peers in terms of greatness.

The post Dan Orlovsky Makes All-Time Claim About 1 AFC Duo appeared first on The Cold Wire.

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