From the controversial Luka Doncic trade to the Lakers, to the arrival of Anthony Davis, the injury siege that wiped out their top two players, to the months of hate directed at ownership, it came to this on Monday night.
The Dallas Mavericks got the number 1-pick in the draft, Cooper Flagg of Duke, and in doing so, hit probably the longest lottery shot in history, like a long Luka Doncic rainbow three pointer.
From the misery of the final months of the draft after the lopsided Lakers team, comes the arrival of the 6’9-Flagg, the sensational 1-and-Done star who does so many things.
Flagg now joins superstar Anthony Davis and the explosive guard Kyrie Irving in a new look Mavericks lineup that will be very good.
Add in the grizzled vet in Klay Thompson and the two young bigs Derek Lively and Daniel Gafford, and this is suddenly a very different basketball team.
Not to be lost in the hoopla on lottery night is that other team in the Lone Star state, San Antonio, its season overshadowed by the stroke suffered by Hall of Fame coach Gregg Popovich, then the significant injuries and illnesses that struck down two other stars.
San Antonio welcomes in next season by getting the 2nd pick in the lottery, which means big sooter Ace Bailey of Rutgers. At 6’10-he joins Victor Wembanyama, the second year superstar center, and the big time guard D’Aaron Fox, whom they got at the trade deadline from Sacramento.
Wembemyama missed half the season with a blood clot issue in the shoulder. Fox went down with a season ending finger injury.
Philadelphia, it’s season wrecked by injuries, gets Joel Embiid, Ty Maxey and Paul George all back, and adds on star guard Dyan Harper of Rutgers or VJ Edgecomb of Baylor.
Charlotte picks 4th, Utah, coming off a miserable season, fell to 5th. Washington, was awful last year playing kids, will draft 6th in a deep draft.
But for this night, that hour, the Dallas Mavericks can set aside all their angst, anger, resentment, frustration and more over the Luka trade, because they can raise a Flagg, they are back, with Cooper joining AD-and-Kyrie in what should be a fun season.
The Mavs hit the jackpot in the Lottery
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“BASEBALL’S WEIRD WEEKEND
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You think you have seen it all, but then there’s always another game to be played to shock-surprise-stun gun you.
So the Padres sledgehammer Colorado on Saturday, a near record 21-0 win. And then turn around get blitzed by the last place Rockies 9-3 come Sunday.
Can you imagine being in the Rockies dugout? Can you imagine being Manager Bud Black? How about being owner Dick Monfort?
The 21-0 pasting was the second most runs the Friars have ever scored, and it was not that they were just hitting home runs all over Coors Field. Yes they knocked 5-bombs over the fence. But they also had 24-hits. The Rox added 3-errors and 3-wild pitches in the game.
It was miserable to see Bud Black have to suffer thru 3-hours of agony, sending a punchless batting order out there and knowing his pitching would take a pounding. And it did happen.
And 24-hours after the GM-Bill Schmidt gave Black a vote of confidence, the owner gave him the pink slip, saying what was going on was ‘unacceptable’. I am sure it was the Manager who traded Nolan Arenado, let the ace of the staff Jon Grey leave as a free agent, caused Kris Bryant to break down again, and let Charley Blackmon walk into retirement.
You could fire Black, some other people should exit also.
Monfort should be expelled as a baseball owner. You take what was once a very good regional franchise, they drew 4M-in a playoff season, and now you don’t spend on free agents, you have yet to uncover gems from the young players you drafted. You have 3-starters on the mound coming off surgeries, and you have tied an all time record with that (6-33) start..
And you put a product on the field that gave up 55-runs in 4-games. A batting order with a (.211) team average. And four starting pitchers who have ERAs like 5.50..6.41…7.71…9.90 with a rookie pitcher with a 12.20 ERA.
But then came Sunday, and Nick Pivetta got battered. Sometimes your dominant stuff does not work in thin air. But the real surprise was the Rockies former ace, German Marquez, winless this year after spending a year recovering from elbow surgery, and dragging that 9.90-ERA to the mound.
And what does he do? He retires 17-Padres in a row. And the anemic offense beat up Pivetta enroute to a 9-3 Sunday win.
No one saw a 21-0 win Saturday become a 9-3 loss on Sunday. Counts only one game for the Padres in the standings. For the Rockies, a one game break from what likely is another 100-loss season.
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“DUCKS HOCKEY…A NEW BEGINNING”
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The Anaheim Ducks have gone somewhere they had not gone before in hiring Joel Quenneville as their new head coach.
The Ducks, who have given us a history of hiring young minor league coaches, or coaches with 250,000-miles on their resume, did something different.
They hired a proven coach, deserving of a second chance, Quenneville, one with 3-Stanley Cup rings on his resume, 969-wins to his credit, and a man who has been out of the game for three season, not because he did something terribly wrong, it’s that he did not act accordingly when he heard of something terribly wrong. 1-problem escalated into career long problems.
Quenneville, a decade plus defenseman, got into coaching early after a solid NHL career on the blueline. There was playoff success in St Louis. He dove into a rebuilding program with the Blackhawks and rode the wave of development of young stars, to guide the Hawks to 3-Cup wins. He wound up in Florida as they were building towards great things.
And then he was gone in an instant, dragged into the muck of an NHL suspension, along with his GM-Stan Bowman and another exec, for not acting quickly enough when reports surfaced that a video coach on that staff sexually assaulted a minor league Blackhawks player during the NHL playoff.
The information was relayed up the ladder to Bowman. The staffer was terminated but wound up taking another hockey job. The GM was fired, Quenneville was forced out of his Florida job, because he did not act on the information he was given in strong enough fashion. Yes they were in the playoffs, but this was serious, and the team did nothing.
If you wish to connect the dots to Joe Paterno-Penn State-the Jerry Sandusky scandal, feel free.
Quenneville, his name besmirched, was removed by the NHL. As part of the penalties he took part in counseling, and working on learning about sexual abuse of children. In essence, he took his medicine, suffered in silence. Hockey friends I know were hurting for him. Not to say he was a victim, because the victim was Kyle Beach, the player violated.
Beach won a lawsuit against the Blackhawks. 3-people lost their jobs. The NHL fined Chicago (3M) in penalties.
The league reinstated Quenneville last off season and he now has a job in hand, to take a very young Ducks team, that made big strides last year with a very young lineup, nearly making the playoffs.
Coach Q’s introductory press conference was a strong example of the strength of the man, standing tall, admitting mistakes he made, and answering very uncomfortable questions.
All he has done since stepping down proves he has taken the actions needed to learn and act, on what he should have done, but did not do.
The comments GM-Pat Verbeek and his new coach made, were right to the point, and become a launching point for a step forward for the young Ducks and the old-dog coach.
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…Ducks GM-Pat Verbeek:.
..’Proven winner’..
‘Ready take step forward with young roster’…
‘Great coaching resume’
‘We are ready for the next phase of development’
‘He is instrumental to get us to our next goal’..
‘He inherited a young Blackhawks team-we saw the results’
‘His attention to detail-his methods are proven’
‘He has a coaching pedigree
‘He impacted every young player in Chicago
‘We interviewed more than 2-dozen people about what happened in Chicago’
‘He was not fully aware-did not act on it’…’
‘I know who he is as a person’
‘Ready for best version of him as coach-person’
‘Joel paid a price for not taking the correct steps’
‘He did not ask questions-did not take action’
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..Ducks Coach Joel Quenneville..
‘I understand the questions about what happened in Chicago’
‘It was horrific-inexcusable for Kyle Beach’
‘I will own my own mistakes’
‘I believed management handled it’
‘I have learned from my inactions’
‘I have apologized to Kyle Beach in numerous conversations’
‘I have learned how to help survivors heal’
‘I will prove I am a man of character’
‘I have learned growth-accountability’…
‘My responsibility was not asking more questions in Chicago’.
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So a Ducks franchise, who hired good people in the past, Ron Wilson to Dallas Eakins, old folks who had some success Randy Carlyle-Bruce Boudreau, now bring in someone who walked down a road, with his name on the Stanley Cup.
Teacher of players, leader of men, on the road to redemption.
Quenneville-and-Ducks, both need each other at this point. Things will get better for both too.
Right guy…right roster…right situation.
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“QUESTIONS-WE’VE GOT QUESTIONS”
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PADRES..Do they suddenly have a problem with pitchers-catchers tipping pitchers? Seems to have been an issue with Nick Pivetta, Dylan Cease and now Wandy Peralta. Third time this season the question has surfaced. Don’t think they have a problem with this batting order now that most everyone is back off the DL. Heartbreaking loss to the Yankees, but a fun series, back and forth hitting home runs and getting the lead and then giving it back. Survived a scare with the forearm cramp with Dylan Cease hopefully. This month of May, time to make a run to get ahead of the Dodgers, with these 15-games in 30-days or so against the lowly Pirates-Rockies-Marlins-Angels, don’t you think?
DODGERS..Money can buy you talent, cannot buy you health, can it? Now LA is without Tommy Edman and Teoscar Hernandez, both catalyst to early season success. Add the injury element to 6-key pitchers. And the fact the bullpen has been asked to throw (157 innings) so far. Long season, but they have depth problems now in the lineup and on the mound.
ANGELS..Virtually all the off season deals to rent free agents have not panned out for the last place Halos. Not hitting (.210-BA), not pitching (4.27-ERA) and they keep signing fringe pitchers who are unemployed like Touki Toussaint, Hunter Strickland, Andrew Vasquez. Buy low get low results? Is that a winning formula to fix a 99-loss team? Feel so bad for Mike Trout, beyond all the injuries, but the wreckage of a roster around him too. Agree?
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Unique observations in these fun nights watching the Padres-Yankees in the House that Ruth Built.
NEW YORK is not what they have always been, a terrifying batting order backed by dominant pitching. There just seems to be something missing in Yankees baseball right now. The electricity in the Stadium doesn’t seem to be there and the seats are far from filled. Of course rainy weather has had alot to do with that.
And yes the 10-run inning in the 7th inning was an aberration of a bad Padres bullpen night and some big swings from long silent NY bats, but that has not been the norm at all this year in the Bronx. And for the Padres, a fun couple of games, except they had to take Michael King out after 6-more dazzling innings before it fell apart.
But aside from that inning, this has not been what Yankees fans subscribe to.
Look at that batting order, and who aside from Aaron Judge’s long ball power, scares you. This is not vintage Yankees baseball, the days of Derek Jeter, Reggie Jackson, the M&M Boys, or even a year ago when it was Judge and Juan Soto.
The pitching staff is ravaged by injury. The ace, Gerritt Cole is facing a 14-month layoff with elbow surgery, after missing a big chunk of last season with arm problems. Beyond that there are ailments lots of place. At one point, New York had 4-starters on the DL, and they don’t have some of them back yet.
Yes, Paul Goldschmidt has had a very good start, considering he had tailed off each of his final couple of years in St-Louis. And Trent Grisham is doing something he never did with the Padres and Milwaukee prior to that.
The Yankees defense looks poor. How many fly balls does your team allow to drop? How little ground does the New York double play combo cover up the middle? Is there a legitimate 3rd baseman at the hot corner?
Cross town, the Mets, even with an anemic Juan Soto batting average, have a better record than the Bronx Bombers, and that is a surprise considering how thin the Mets pitching staff is.
Fun to watch the Padres, who do alot of things right, and are getting their injured guys back healthy in play. Interesting to compare whom the Yankees used to be, and what they are putting out there now alongside their only star in Aaron Judge.
The Padres are proving themselves to be pretty good. The Yankees, not so much right now despite the one big inning vs the Friars.
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