Sports and Entertainment dominated the podcast this week. With Thanksgiving and Black Friday happening this week, NBA teams went shopping and stocked their cupboards like they were preparing for the apocalypse. It is amazing to me how the MLB and NBA offseasons are just as exciting as the actual live season. With one league without a salary cap and the other one with a soft cap, these high stakes gambles are the real poker games that ESPN should’ve been putting on TV long ago.
My Pelicans were one of the first teams to get stuff going by trading Jrue Holiday to the Milwaukee Bucks for Eric Bledsoe, George Hill, and 3 future 1st round picks. I don’t know what restaurant in New Orleans David Griffin has been training at as a Sous Chef during this pandemic, but this doesn’t happen in my city. This feels like when Sean Payton came to the Saints in 2006 and set his culture in tone within the organization. Griffin’s moves are also signaling to players and agents, that even though this team is owned by the same woman who owns the Saints, there are no Saints personnel in Griffin’s kitchen.
Hill was eventually traded in a multi-team deal where the Pelicans received Steven Adams and resigned him to a 2-year deal. The Bucks had a deal on the table with the Sacramento Kings to send Dante DiVincenzo, another player, and a draft pick in return for Bogdan Bogdanovic. Bogdan, a restricted free agent, was like nah bruh, fuck that shit, there is more money out in the market. The Hawks offered him a $72 million contract, and the Kings simply said aight then, and let him go.
Dennis Schroder was traded to the Lakers, while Batman and Tideking believe this to be a good pick up. It is lost on me completely. As a starter in the Eastern Conference with the Atlanta Hawks, he proved to be a good player, but not consistent. Keep this in mind, as soon as the Hawks got Trae Young in a draft day trade, they got Schroder off the books a month a later in a 3 team trade sending him to OKC, where he primarily came off the bench behind Russell Westbrook his first year, and CP3 the next.
CP3 was traded to the Phoenix Suns where he joins up with Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton. I think he will help elevate Booker’s and Ayton’s play, but the way the Western Conference is set up, there is no clear runaway favorite. The Lakers went slightly younger, but still no consistent shooters, the Clippers are trying to establish a new “culture.” Denver added new pieces, but they have no identity offensively. The Nuggets just look for who gets hot during the game and go from there. If they go with that strategy again next season, Michael Malone will be gone before the end of the season.
Up until Draft night, I thought the Warriors were poised for another legitimate run. As expected, they drafted James Wiseman, but hours before the draft, it was reported that star Shooting Guard, Klay Thompson, suffered a torn Achilles in the opposite leg from the one he tore his ACL at the end of 2019 season. They were my picks to win the Western Conference. As a result of Thompson’s injury, the Warriors traded for Kelly Oubre.
The top of the NBA Draft became more clearer as we got closer to Draft night. Anthony Edwards from Georgia, went 1st to the Minnesota Timberwolves, followed by Wiseman to the Warriors, and LaMelo Ball went to the Charlotte Hornets. The AP College Basketball Player of the Year, Obi Toppin from Dayton, was drafted to Batman’s Knicks. He was not pleased with this pick seeing that they already have a log jam full of players at the forward position anyway. However, in an “un-Knicks” like move the following day, the Knicks unloaded half of those forwards to the open market. They immediately sign the biggest disrespect of the Draft night, the underrated free agent, Myles Powell.
The Pelicans made a sneaky pick that I was mad at myself for forgetting about this kid. Kira Lewis from Alabama, a speedy point guard that has a motor that only quits when you take him out of the game. The Ebbtide Crew is all in agreement that Lonzo Ball needs to be moved off the books. 7th Ward Zo, is what we called him when he arrived and made splashes with Zion, but in the NBA Bubble, 7th Ward Zo stayed in New Orleans, the old Lakers version showed up instead. Perhaps drafting Lewis was to push Ball out of the door or improve his game.
There were some max deals handed out after the draft. Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell, Fred VanVleet, and the Pelicans Brandon Ingram, signed max deal extensions with their teams. I thought the Pelicans would’ve waited to offer Ingram a deal until after Ball was off the books. For now, it appears that Lonzo is a part of the immediate plans moving forward.
Boogie Cousins signed with the Rockets even though the futures of James Harden and Russell Westbrook with the team are uncertain at this point. One of the biggest surprises of this free agency has been the migration of guards leave the Western Conference and heading East. Another one has been the shopping spree of the Atlanta Hawks. As I mentioned earlier, Bogdan Bogdanovic signed with them, they’ve also added Danilo Gallinari, Rajon Rondo, and Kris Dunn. With a team that has young up and coming talent such as Deandre Hunter, Cam Reddish, and long range assassin, Trae Young. The future is very promising in Atlanta…just not for the Falcons. Maybe Magic City Lemon Pepper Wings were included in their contracts at a very friendly discount.
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NFL Week 11 had a nice build up with the anticipation of Taysom Hill making his first NFL start at QB for the injured Drew Brees. A lot of questions of concerns about his ability came into play. He is 30 years old making his first start, Sean Payton uses him primarily as a gadget in certain packages, can he really be that prototypical NFL QB? BRUH!!!! Did he show his ass off or what?!!! As I watched the first half, he made me nervous, and I was ready to get Jamies warmed up toward the end of the half. The second half is where he gained his confidence.
Now because the Saints were playing their most hated rivals, the Atlanta Falcons, this was a time to be a little bit saltier than usual. Matt Ryan was in overrated form yet again. Our defense was lights out. This crew is proven to be just as nasty as the famed Dome Patrol from late 80s and early 90s. The biggest takeaway from this victory was making former Falcon wideout, Roddy White, eat his shitty words. He predicted the Falcons defense would snack on Taysom Hill all game. Quite the opposite with Matt Ryan, getting sacked 8 times in this game, and a total of 17 sacks over his last 2 games against the Saints.
Derrick Henry and the Titans had a very disrespectful game against the Ravens. First, they pulled off a little college taunting by stomping on the Ravens logo in the midfield. Only John Harbaugh came onto the field to defend the team, but Mike Vrabel stuck up for his players with the clap back. The game matched its pregame antics with Henry sealing the victory in OT with one of his patented touchdown runs.
On the podcast, we called out Tideking for his non-committal stance on his Raiders success. He promised to jump on board if they beat the Chiefs on Sunday Night Football. Just like their previous meeting, the Raiders competed to the very end, only this time to give up a touchdown in the final minute of the game.
On Monday night, Tom Brady looked terrible against the Rams. When I have watched the Bucs play this year, it’s almost like watching a team that has only one trick up their sleeve. If that trick gets figured out, they have no other alternative means to reaching a victory. They’re not committed to the run, or throwing anything short to gain yards. Criticize Drew Brees all you want for not throwing the ball down the field or nothing over 20+ yards, the whole purpose is to get the offense moving down the field in some fashion.
The most egregious comment on the podcast came from Twin when we were discussing DeAndre Hopkins, and he referred to him as just a good receiver, and he was the only reason the Cardinals were as good as they were. The rest of us were in extreme disagreement with his opinion, because the Cards were competitive last year even with their future Hall of Fame wideout, Larry Fitzgerald. Getting Hopkins in the offseason was one of the biggest steals in NFL history.
Hopkins is a GREAT wide receiver in this league. Twin also said that he and Michael Thomas are “what and what” as far as their talent goes. I would like to propose my train of thought when it comes to receivers. Some receivers are only as good as the QB that is throwing to them. For instance, I don’t consider Jerry Rice to be the GOAT wideout. For me, he has that title by default, with 2 Hall of Fame QBs and a League MVP passing him the ball, he benefited greatly.
Greats like Chris Carter and Sterling Sharpe, only had a Pro Bowl or future Hall of Famer for brief time during their careers. Jarvis Landry, and more specifically, DeAndre Hopkins never had a Pro Bowl QB their first 5 years of their career, and both of them had the most receptions in their first 5 years of their career. The record, which was held by Landry, was broken by Michael Thomas this past weekend.
Here is the list of QBs Hopkins had throwing him the ball before getting his first full season with Deshaun Watson and he succeeded in spite of their lacking of an elite skillset:
Matt Schaub
Case Keenum
Ryan Fitzpatrick
TJ Yates
Ryan Mallett
Brian Hoyer
Brandon Weeden
Tom Savage
Brock Osweiler
Here are the stats for Michael Thomas and DeAndre Hopkins since Thomas entered the league in 2016:
Michael Thomas DeAndre Hopkins
489 Rec. 502 Rec.
5711 Yds. 6358 Yds.
32 TD 40 TD
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We covered the Versuz battle with Jeezy and Gucci and determined that the buildup to the actual battle was better than the battle itself. Lil’ Wayne was slapped with a federal gun charge and with him convicted of this charge once before, he is most likely to go to jail . . . again!
It was announced that Tideking is now off the market. Prompting Twin to ask the dreaded question, when are you proposing? In true drive-by fashion, Tideking said that Batman is closer to popping that question than he is. In all the years I’ve known Batman, he does not get rattled or show that the wheels are turning inside his head. The mention of tying the knot didn’t faze him at all. As he put it so eloquently, who needs emotion when you’re always executing. I hope a ring will be coming soon.
Tony Love