Underwhelming Basketball
Still can’t believe how lame the Warriors looked last night. This dude on twitter nailed it, I can’t argue against this in the slightest except his spelling mistake.
Last year the same stuff happened, they got lost and complacent. The NBA season is so long, it’s probably hard to get these dudes motivated for anything but the playoffs. Still, as fans we watch all these games and they just aren’t worth moving your day/night around to watch anymore….
Not like the Giants, my entire world is set nightly to revolve around them. Lqtm….
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Saw some rumors circulating about Jason Heyward for Melancon and Smith. Another LH hitter but he and Duggar could cover CF/RF. If the Giants can get a prospect included it might be worth considering?
Heyward can’t hit. He’d hit .220 at ATT for the full season. I’m tired of dudes and their defensive prowess we need guys who can fucking mash the baseball
fwiw, he’s posted a 1.22 OPS lifetime with 7 bombs over 85 ab at At&t.
Thank you…
Dubs need more all-stars ASAP. Get Westbrook and Leonard here now! Can LeBron come and join our team, too? He’s our daddy even when he doesn’t play. I hate being a Dubs fan and having to deal with close games and losses again.
I’m OK with Duggar covering CF.
But, the RF and LF spots need players that can actually hit, and hit a few HRs.
Outfielders that can hit and drive in runs. What a concept…
The MLB Network is bleh today. The two biggest free agents are schmucks.
Hey Willie, thanks for the heads up about Hop Wilson (Poppa Hop). Man, that is some mean blues slide guitar work.
Nothing much is going to happen till Harper &Machado sign then the dominoes will fall into place..
I didnt check heyward’s att stats before I posted my disparaging comment about him. Guessing he did most of that damage earlier in his career. He’s just not a very good hitter anymore with a huge hole in his swing. I guess I’d take him if it meant we’d get rid of melancon but that’s really all he’s good for. Defense and getting rid of Melancon
Heyward has $126 million guaranteed still to come. Melon & Wince less than $40 million combined.
This deal has zero chance of happening…
I heard Melancon on a radio interview a few weeks back. KNBR, I think.
Said his arm was feeling good. Wow, bombshell news.
I didn’t exactly expect him to say it felt like overcooked linguini.
Listening to him was like listening to paint dry. Ugh.
If he’s in the Pen again, there is no reason to think other than he’s going to suck again.
Then, what to do?
Let Boch continue to put him into 8th inning high leverage situations, because he’s getting a big paycheck?
Just say No.
ZMan should do everything possible to get rid of this SabEvans Bust…
I hope Zaidi has a sense of humor. It will help get him through this season.
Melancon has a full no-trade contract, Heyward has a partial no-trade (I don’t know if SF is on that list), Smith is our best trade chip. Loo mentioned the numbers and I agree with him, this has zero chance of happening.
having a no trade clause just gives the player leverage on where to go. It doesn’t mean he wants to stay. Why would he want to stay in SF? Maybe he’d rather play closer to something else. He’s movable, if healthy
LOL I had NO IDEA Heyward had that much dough still owed. Man, FUCK THAT, under any circumstance, fuck that.
Heyward hasn’t had an .800 OPS season since 2012. He’d be hard pressed to niggle it into the .700’s if he played at ATT full time.
and he’s had a *Buster-like* power outage over the last 3 years. That fucker has still got 126 mil coming to him? BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
These MLB contracts are just insane.
Good luck to the loons that sign Harper to some mega deal. He ain’t worth it…
I hope the Giant s don’t go into the sign an aging vet FA just because they can’t find a young player to sign! I still believe they need to fire all the scouts and whoever else is evaluating players for the draft. How can the Giants go for soooo long with out a power hitting OF, even one who can hit for a .300+ average. The other thing is hitters need to quit complaining about the shift and learn how to hit to beat the shift. Belt should have been working on how to slap the ball down the left field line this whole off season.
Signing a vet FA outfielder to a short term deal wouldn’t surprise me if more creative stuff can’t be done.
Adam Jones would be a classic Giant move…
Yeah, Zum, MLB talking about Harper and Machado all the time now until something moves. They say these two will end up in Philly or White Sox (they’re not sure which player goes where exactly). But Dodgers (Harper) and Yanks (Machado) are quite possible. Boring. I’d be happy if the Mighty Z does addition by subtraction and somehow jettisons the contracts of Smarge, MelonHead, and Longoria and then fills in the pieces.
Yeah, those are the three most hideous contracts on a team loaded with problematic contracts. Good luck, Zaidi. We’ll see how much freedom he has.
The Mighty Z will have to have a “Mind Control Powerful Trance like in Manchurian Candidate” on the tightwad billionaire Charles Johnson for anything to happen with all these ridiculous contacts to go away..
I could probably dig it up somewhere, but just asking, does anyone know offhand how much % of the team Charles Johnson actually owns? I remember thinking he was majority owner but recently heard it’s more like around 25% or some such. Maybe the biggest single owner…
Bozo thx I’ve been meaning to look into this guy too. His song on the Blue Yule CD is called Merry Christmas Darling and according to liner notes Kim Wilson did it too on Austin R and B Christmas Album.
The group is listed as Poppa Hop and his Orchestra but it sounds like just him and rhythm section and those 3 are awesome plus that slashing guitar. The song of the CD which I played at work again today is best one out of all 18 cuts.
I would hope that Sabean/Evans don’t feel that Giants fans are ungrateful jerks. S & E will always be huge heroes for their part in the 3 in 5.
But all the awful contracts the Giants have now are strong evidence the game passed S & E by rather suddenly. The ball is juiced, teams use analytics up the wazoo, and big contracts to older vets are a death sentence. S & E didn’t react to the changes. They seemed befuddled by it all.
Plus the drafting of players had turned horribly inept.
Good points Zumie!
I also wonder if Boch had any pull with S&E on players picked up since he “Always” leaned on older vets presence’s on his roster?
Yeah, Bochy Ball is officially dead and buried. RIP Bochy Ball. It had a great run.
The Kings are getting their buttocks kicked by the Clippers, in L.A.
Wherever Jerry West goes, his team starts winning. It ain’t no coincidence.
i miss this stuff
A good example why the rules were changed to allow the offensive line to defend themselves on those.
The Kings did make it close at the end. They didn’t quit. The bench played well. The starters had an off-night.
Joerger really spread the minutes out last night—with an eye on tonight’s b2b with the Lakers.
The other 3 Cal teams are much improved and they aren’t only ones in West. Warriors of course are not and some wear and tear starting to show on Thompson and Green along with Livingston and Iguodala.
GS drafts have been awful and their curious decision on how to man C position after D West retirement and allowing McGee to walk has come back to haunt them. They’ve also never replaced Ian Clark as G off the bench who can shoot and score a little.
Obviously teams have a blueprint on how to play vs. them (which has been working lately even with close Ws over Kings Clips Dallas) so next adjustment is on players. Part of this is on Kerr too–I think there are times he leaves his stars in there too long (like when Green was melting down the other night), just because of what they have done in past. Large part of this is dealing with who he has to fill in minutes behind them.
Great theater tho.
Great post.
Willie, with little help, at least scoring, coming from the bench other than Jerebko, he can’t do much other than count on the starting guys.
to me, their biggest mistake was not addressing the C position. D-Jones should have been a back up plan not the go-to plan right out of the gate. Looney is better off coming off the bench. They should have gotten someone a little more proven and they just let McGee and Zaza flitter off into the wind. Dubs are getting killed inside lately…..
Kerr making decisions on what the players have done in the past is an issue. He should go chat with Bochy:)
lol, he lists off 8 teams here. How is this drivel coming from a supposed *insider*?
He’s a guy trying to justify his job as baseball reporter. It gets kind of silly sometimes.
Livingston is a ghost. A mirage, a, a hologram if you will. And bench scoring and depth is a problem. Boogie will fix the inside issues, should he ever actually play, but he can’t be counted on as a presence till the playoffs roll around. Iggy is just too old to count on consistently. Looney is pretty much awful and if not for McKinnie and Jerebko off the bench, they would be doing worse. Bell isn’t getting better on offense, and in general rim protection and 2nd chance points are non-existent. We regularly get killed on the boards.
Yeah, Dubs miss the big guys.
Don’t forget, those guys were good at giving screens to loosen up the 3s.
The 3s aren’t dropping like before, because they’re being more contested…
Flav is definitely right about Lakers being better than anyone including myself thought. However, they lost to Washington and Nets on road and Memphis at home within last 10 days. Currently they are 17th in league for points allowed.
There are legit 13 good teams in West in contention for 8 playoff spots. 10 of those are already over .500 Dallas and Utah 1 under TWolves 2 under. So rest of season in West is gonna be dogfight for playoffs.
Lakers Kings Clips all have more games vs. each other rest of week. Good for Cali teams rivalries to see all playing well.
Heyward f’ing sucks…no way around it. That contract is worse than an albatross…let that hang on the Cards necks…
McGee I agree with. Zaza not so much. He is good vs half court teams, but most of the west is up-tempo. He’s lost in the fast paced games. Looney is worthless at boxing out and positioning himself to get rebounds. And I thought Bell would be much better than he has shown on both sides.
Jones is out, right?
yes likely most of rest of season.
Ahh, shit. Thanks.
The Kings really missed Bagley last night. Against certain big men, Cauley-Stein gets thrown around like a rag doll. No chance against that Harrell dude on the Clippers last night.
Harell is a load. Any word on how bad Bagley’s knee is?
Didn’t warriors have Koufos years ago too? Haven’t seen much of him in long time…
Yeah, I’m surprised by the Lakers. They looked so crappy from the get-go.
What is weird is the Dubs just aren’;t passing like they usually do. These days it’s one gun and done. No passing, rebounding, or fast breaks like we usually get.
Chandler was a nice pick-up for the Lakers. He’s still a pretty effective shot-blocker and rebounder.
It was disappointing to go all the way up there to see the Kings play so poorly. Fox did look very good, so that was fun to watch. I made the same comment about Harrell killing us and Bagley would have been a big help on him. Another Kings mistake was trading Zach Collins for Harry Giiles and Justin Jackson. Zach Collins could help this team big time.
Weird to see the Clippers with such a mixed bag of players after having those 3 stars anchor the team for a few years. Staples is a great place to see a game. $10 parking right down the street with lots to do in the area before the game. Dropped my son off in Newport Beach after the game as he went snowboarding today.
I made it home to the mountains by 2:00.
Moving a bit slow today.
Hopefully they’ll get off to a better start vs. the Lakers tonight.
Awesome SD. Yeah funny how Clips have managed to “go in a different direction” dump Paul and Griffin and be in thick of things even with Doc still coaching them.
I think it’s great there are more good young bigs in the game today to provide some balance to all the perimeter shooting, force teams to defend the rim and protect it at other end. Wonder how many them do P Newell drills, or even know who he is.
Reading a review about Better Call Saul, the reviewer wrote about Kim Wexler: “There may be no character on TV I care about more: If anything happens to Kim, I swear I’ll never recover.”
Yeah, we do worry about her. She really does need to get away from Jimmy/Saul.
Yeah, she’s a pretty cool character. Very disappointed, though, in that last season. Felt like they mailed it in. Need to pick it up next time. Also heard of a Breaking Bad movie, where we finally get to find out what happened to Jesse. That would be cool too. And I think Saul could be interesting once they shift to present time in Omaha.
Yes, getting to Saul’s present timeline would be a great move at some point. The prequelling can only go on so long.
I agree this past season spun its wheels going nowhere sometimes.
Re Dubs… Inside is not the issue. If Green and Klay hit the same shooting percentage they have for the last 4 years…that is 2 points for DG and 3 for KT. They score 4 mores points per game and they win .75% of there games. 27-8 vs 23-12. Not complicated. 2 of 4 All stars are not playing well. Add in Curry missed games and you see why they are good but not great in 2018…
true, they live and die by the 3. But they are still getting killed inside, that’s not even debatable.
Scanning the news on MLB… lots happening… none of it very interesting… and not much going down that I wish the Giants had done. Still in Z we trust to bring forth new year’s (new season’s) resolutions. Maybe after the turn of the calendar.
The 2029 calendar, bro…
Touche’…..
I’m beginning to think the Lakers are pretty legit.
Kings win at the buzzer!!!! Great finish!!!!
Great shot by Bogdonavich.
Just a matter of hours, maybe days for my mom: https://thelaughorist.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-first-last-christmas.html
Beautiful tribute of love, Pawlie. I remember some similar feelings at the end of my dad’s life. He lived to be 91.
I don’t have to read your 11 books to know this is your finest work.
You’re the Say Hey Son…
thanks
Pawlie… beautiful sentiments for a life well and long lived. Hope you still have some moments together.
thank you . . . keeping a vigil; loved ones and friends supporting