The Warriors went after LeBron James at the trade deadline, per ESPN.
And LeBron made a mistake in saying he wasn’t interested in leaving Los Angeles.
Neither the Warriors nor the Lakers will win a title this year. Both teams are fundamentally flawed and contractually bloated. If they didn’t have Steph Curry and LeBron leading the way, respectively, they’d be in tire-fire situations.
That’s why the Warriors trading for LeBron would have made all the sense in the world. Both teams will live in a desolate wasteland once their superstars retire. (Sorry, but no heirs are apparent in either locale.) So why should they both languish in mediocrity now?
The Warriors take the present; the Lakers take the future. Seems like a fair deal to me.
LeBron would have been a perfect fit with the Dubs. Not only would he provide immensely valuable late-game wing scoring, but he could also run the Warriors offense when Draymond Green was not on the court.
You may have noticed the Warriors are playing much better now that they’re not employing a true point guard. Their system demands point-forwards, and Green and LeBron are two of the greatest of all time.
And for a guy who seems to be having no fun playing for the Lakers, LeBron would’ve had a blast with the Warriors. Playing alongside a guy like Curry must be euphoric when you’re used to D’Angelo Russell.
Adding LeBron to the mix would have been the one move the Warriors could have reasonably made at the deadline to put them back in title contention.
And the Lakers would have loaded up on some draft picks and young players — Jonathan Kuminga might not be a future superstar, but he’s proven to be a solid building block. They’d be fine in the long run. They might even enjoy a post-LeBron world — it probably has much less angst.
Ultimately, it wasn’t to be. The Lakers reportedly engaged in talks, but LeBron’s real team — his management — shot the move down.
Apparently, the King is too committed to Los Angeles and all of his non-basketball ventures, which are centered in the Southland.
As someone who paid hard-earned American dollars to see Space Jam 2 in theaters, I believe LeBron has his priorities out of whack.
(The family aspect of things would be understandable, save for the fact that he’s a billionaire, and it’s a less-than-an-hour flight from Santa Monica to SFO. His L.A. commute in a car is probably longer.)
I’m sure we’ll hear LeBron-to-the-Dubs chatter until the end of time because the connection now exists, and LeBron will continue to be passive-aggressive about playing for the mediocre Lakers.
But last week was the window. Everything, basketball-wise, was aligned for this deal to go down.
It’s too bad basketball seems to be a secondary interest.
The Giants signed Jorge Soler to a three-year deal this week, adding the exact kind of hitter this team desperately needed.
If only they could sign three or four more players like him.
My favorite preseason projection tool (insert your jokes here) — The Bat X — sees Soler as a .837 OPS hitter.
That’s 60 points better than the Giants’ previous projections leader, Jung Hoo Lee, whose slugging percentage is slated to come off doubles.
In only 529 plate appearances, the system thinks he’ll hit 30 home runs this season. Barry Bonds was the last Giant to hit 30 home runs in a single season, 20 years ago.
But it should be noted that getting excited for Jorge Soler clearly indicates how sad the Giants’ individual projections are for this upcoming season.
With Soler (2.4 projected Wins Above Replacement), the Giants now have only three players projected to be everyday-caliber (above 2 WAR) this season. The other two are Patrick Bailey, whose WAR value is entirely tied to his defense (he’s projected to be 19 percent worse than league-average at the plate), and Lee, who is expected to be a 3-win player, but who is a complete wild card, given that this his first season in Major League Baseball.
Across the roster are players you can like but no one to love. The Giants have only two position players who are top-200 picks in fantasy baseball drafts this season — Thairo Estrada (projected to be 11 percent worse than a league-average hitter) and now Soler.
Or, in other words: This lineup has a bunch of guys but no real dudes.
Maybe Soler can become one in San Francisco. He almost must become one for the Giants to make the playoffs in 2024.
Stanford actually landed the best power-hitting free agent in baseball this week when they signed Japanese phenom Rintaro Sasaki to a letter of intent.
Sasaki, who starred at the same high school that produced Shohei Ohtani, hit 140 home runs in his prep career, a national record.
Instead of going to play professionally in Japan — he was a lock to be drafted No. 1 overall — he shocked the country by opting to come to the States and play college baseball. It locks him into a three-year commitment before a Major League Baseball team can draft him.
It’s also a fascinating decision because Sasaki can’t benefit from NIL in the United States. And I mean that literally — the NCAA’s NIL guidelines prohibit international students from capitalizing on their Name, Image, or Likeness while stateside, as it could jeopardize their student visas. But if Sasaki is physically in Japan, he can make all the money he wants.
What a system!
Regardless, Sasaki, with his 70-grade power, will be the most exciting baseball player in the Bay Area once he enrolls at Stanford in April.
Niners assistant Anthony Lynn is heading to Washington, where he is slated to become the Commanders run-game coordinator.
I couldn’t tell you if this is a big loss or a big nothingburger for the Niners because I legitimately had no idea what Lynn did on Kyle Shanahan’s staff.
Yes, the Niners are a bit cagey when it comes to assistant coaches, but over the course of a 20-plus week season, you pick up little bits and pieces — this guy does this, that guy does that.
Maybe I missed the day of the big reveal, but after a search through every transcript I have over the last two seasons, Lynn was only mentioned eight times, and each reference felt perfunctory.
Though, one time, according to my research, Lynn did ask Shanahan why he didn’t want to practice on artificial turf.
What an anecdote!
Now, I have nothing bad to say about Lynn, but I have nothing good to note, either.
It was all a stunningly unremarkable two years for a former NFL head coach.
But he made an impression on Adam Peters, who left the 49ers front office to become the Washington GM this offseason, and that’s all that matters.
Oh, and by the way, Shanahan said he expects all his coaches to return on Tuesday. That was a lie. And we already knew Klint Kubiak was leaving to be the Saints’ offensive coordinator. Less than 24 hours after Shanahan’s comment, Lynn left.
Is defensive coordinator Steve Wilks the next coach out the door?
I’ve received a ton of feedback on my column calling Shanahan’s decision to take the ball at the start of overtime an error.
When that happens, I see it as a byproduct of poor writing. I must not have effectively communicated my points.
So let’s try again.
My stance remains steadfast:
1. There was no guarantee of the third possession the Niners prioritized. (One in the hand is always better than two in the bush.)
2. While Mahomes having a shot at a third, sudden-death possession is a terrifying proposition, taking the ball first still guaranteed Mahomes a chance to win the game on the second possession. (Either under the circumstances that played out or with a two-point conversion.)
3. By letting Mahomes have the ball second, you gave him the advantage of not only knowing what he needs to do to tie or win the game, but you’ve also provided him fourth-down opportunities to earn it. (As we saw.)
If it is a coin-flip decision, I would err on the side that doesn’t carry those three risks.
But that’s me.
My email and phone number still work if you disagree.