KD returning to the Nets

The Kevin Durant, Brooklyn Nets saga finally ends. Kevin Durant has been arguably the most drama filled superstar this offseason with requesting a trade over 2 months ago then making multiple attempts to utilize his leverage against Nets owner Joe Tsai. The Brooklyn Nets announced early yesterday afternoon that the organization and Durant have mended fences and will return for this next season and by the way the Nets are making this sound, it sounds like Durant will play out the rest of this contract and likely finish his career in Brooklyn. 

A report came out on Tuesday that the Memphis Grizzlies did make a trade offer for Durant but it wasn’t considered to be a real offer, with multiple NBA insiders saying the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors and Miami Heat were the frontrunners for a possible trade for Kevin. It was also reported by many insiders that Nets superstar Kyrie Irving was also made unavailable as the Nets wanted to keep Irving for the last year on his contract and now looking back at that report that was most likely a huge piece as to why Durant made his decision to return to the Nets for the future.

NFL Jets vs Falcons preseason game

The NFL had one preseason game on Monday night and that was the New York Jets taking on the Atlanta Falcons. Each team had some great takeaways so let’s break down each team. 

    The Jets the rookies are making big impacts which is something Jets fans couldn’t always be excited about until very recent, Multiple Jets rookies made impacts like Garrett Wilson who had three catches for 15 yards, second round pick Breece Hall who had four carries but only for a yard, and defensive first round picks Sauce Gardener and Jermaine Johnson who carried their own weight last night. 

As for the Atlanta Falcons, newly added QB Marucs Mariota made a slew of plays showing why he was one of the first QB’s to get named a starter who was in a quarterback battle heading into training camp and into the preseason. Mariota threw for 132 yards on 6-10 passing with a touchdown on a 137.5 quarterback rating, Mariota also scored 17 points while he was under center in this game. Another takeaway was Desmond Ridder and tight end Kyle Pitts looked great.

NFL Sunday night game takeaways

The NFL just wrapped up week two of the preseason and had a few games played on Sunday. Let’s break down the biggest takeaways from each game and each team. 

    Philadelphia Eagles vs Cleveland Browns

    The Eagles have tremendous depth at key offensive pieces, with the Eagles playing backups last night you’d figure the offense would look sorta clunky but no, the Eagles offense looked stout with key backups like Gardener Minshew, Boston Scott and Kenneth Gainwell looking great pushing the offense down the field and accumulating yards without hesitancy. 

    The Browns didn’t have much to cheer on for other than the fact that veteran QB Joshua Dobbs played very well, completing 14-20 passes for 141 yards.  

    New York Giants vs Cincinnati Bengals

    Daniel Jones looked pretty good last night with the second and third stringers, completing 14-16 passes for 116 yards and a nice touchdown. Jones also had his downs throwing multiple passes that were intercepted and almost intercepted. 

    The Bengals secondary is looking scary, with the Bengals secondary being one of the weaker points on the team last season Cinninati made some big changes with drafting DB Daxton Hill, Allan George and many undrafted free agents, the Bengals are doubling down on defense to help third year QB Joe Burrow. 

    Baltimore Ravens vs Arizona Cardinals 

    Baltimore’s tight end room is looking scary. Baltimore is continuing to build a offense around superstar QB Lamar Jackson and newly drafted tight end Isiah Likely is showing promise, Likely last night put on a show finishing with over 100 yards and a touchdown, Likely could really flourish in this tight end based offense especially when Lamar prefers to throw to his tight ends. 

Arizona may have a deep RB room, with starting running back Chase Edmonds leaving in free agency to the miami Dolphins, it left the running back core baire but with potential players like Eno Benjamin, Jonathan Ward and Darrall Williams getting praise from head coach Kliff Kinsbury, Arizona might not be in as a bad spot as they thought.

Saturday night’s NFL preseason game takeaways

The NFL had multiple big preseason games on Saturday night. Let’s break down my three biggest takeaways from these games.  

Pittsburgh Steelers vs Jacksonville Jaguars

The Pittsburgh Steelers may have found their quarterback for the next decade in Kenny Pickett, Pickett was fantastic in his preseason showing against the Jags last night throwing 6-7 for 76 yards and a touchdown but what makes Pickett special compared to the other Steelers QB’s Pickett just seemed so unfazed against any pass rush the Jags threw at the Steelers offensive line. 

Dallas Cowboys vs Los Angeles Chargers

Former USFL wide receiver KaVontae Turpin is showing the Cowboys why he could be special for them, Turpin signed with the Cowboys last month after being a top candidate in the USFL last season. Turpin last night returned two punts for touchdowns and had multiple highlights while doing so, it’s also a big deal for Dallas as they are relatively weak at the receiver position outside of CeeDee Lamb and Micheal Gallup who’s currently coming off a ACL injury.

Tennessee Titans vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers 

Malik Willis continues to impress. Third round pick Malik Willis for the Tennessee Titans has had his ups and downs in the preseason thus far but has showed some potential stardom in him during training camp and the preseason, Willis last night against Tampa Bay had some nice plays making defenders miss and making relatively hard crossbody throws to receivers in the flat, Willis also finished his night with a touchdown throw to TE Chigoziem Okonkwo.

Friday night’s NFL preseason game takeaways

The NFL had three big preseason games on friday night, with the Los Angeles Rams playing the Houston Texans, New England Patriots playing the Carolina Panthers and the Green Bay Packers playing the New Orleans Saints. Let’s break down my biggest takeaways from each game individually.

    Los Angeles Rams vs Houston Texans

    Both the Rams and Texans may have found late round gems on their teams with the Texans, standout wide receiver Nico Collins had some flashes of stardom in this game catching a nice sideline throw from QB Davis Mills and an additional touchdown. For the Rams they may have found a really good cornerback in Cobie Durant who had some key plays in the game with a sack, a tackle for loss, and a great deep throw break up.

    New England Patriots vs Carolina Panthers

The Patriots offense is still struggling, with Mac Jones and the Patriots new offensive coordinators the offense had back to back three and outs and giving up sacks along the way. As for the Carolina Panthers the number 6 overall pick Ickey Ekwonu is also struggling against pass rushes thus far giving up back to back sacks on a Panthers second drive. 

    Green Bay Packers vs New Orleans Saints 

As for the Green Bay Packers, backup QB Jordan Love continues to show his ups and downs as last week he really struggled against the 49ers but this week against the Saints Love cranked up the heat with no turnovers, a phenomenal throw in the end zone which was ruled incomplete due to the receiver being out of bounds, and finished 12-24 with a touchdown. As for the Saints, first round pick Chris Olave he had his first career touchdown with a nice sideline throw for a Olave toe tap.

Deshaun Watson receives 11 suspension

Cleveland Browns star quarterback Deshaun Watson has received a 11 game suspension to open the new season. It’s no surprise that Watson would be getting a longer length suspension with the NFL and NFLPA negotiations on the situation; this suspension for the Browns and Watson is actually very fair considering the amount of backlash the NFL has received over Watson’s horrific news. Judge Sue L Robinson came to a conclusion of a six game suspension earlier this offseason which Watson and his camp thoroughly agreed to but with fans and many media members outraged about the length it was no surprise that the NFL stepped in and gave Watson a much higher suspension length. 

Watson was also given a five million dollar fine to go with the suspension and also therapy which if he doesn’t comply with Watson could receive a longer suspension rather than the 11 games as of right now. With Deshaun reaching a settlement with 23 of the 24 women for alleged personal misconduct, the NFL did make the right decision to give Watson the suspension. Deshaun has received much backlash for this whole ordeal and while the wave of negativity isn’t as big as it once was it will always continue to be there, Watson will now start his Browns career in week 13 against his former team the Houston Texans.

News around the NBA and NFL

Both the NBA and NFL had some big storylines drop with superstars LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and Derwin James of the Los Angeles Chargers both signing massive contracts with their respective teams. Let’s discuss and go further into detail about what both deals are and what they mean for both of them.

        LeBron James signs a two year $97.1 million dollar extension with the Los Angeles Lakers, the deal will make James one of the highest paid players in the league once again, if the salary cap goes up LeBron’s deal could be worth up to $111 million and will also include a player option for the 2024-2025 season. LeBron has been a declining player for the last two seasons for the Lakers in terms of games played with just 56 played last season, yet James still is a top five player when fully healthy and on the court. The Lakers did struggle last year but with the team reportedly looking to move off of star point guard Russell Westbrook, James will stay in L.A for the meantime.

Switching leagues to the NFL superstar strong safety Derwin James has signed a massive four year deal with the Los Angeles Chargers worth $76.4 million with 42 million fully guaranteed. James has been a phenomenal player when on the field but can’t seem to stay healthy for a full season, Derwin is considered to be the top string safety in the NFL and no doubt deserves his money but with injury issues limiting his playing time since entering the NFL and how the game has quickly shifting away from the safety position it’s definitely a question as to why the Charges broke the bank to get him.

Ranking every NFL teams best offensive and defensive player

This will be the final series I’ll be doing before the NFL season starts and we will feature every NFL team’s best offensive and defensive player. We will go into a deep dive of why I picked the player and why. We’ll start with the AFC and eventually get to the NFC.

    New York Jets

    Offense: The best offensive player for the New York Jets has to be quarterback Zach Wilson, now this may seem controversial but with the Jets offense being so young what other players could you say are better than Zach Wilson? Probably none right?! Wilson has a good young team around him who could by the middle to the end of the season make some noise. 

Defense: Quinnen Williams is as of right now the best defensive player the Jets have by far, by the middle of the season we could be talking about rookie “sauce gardener” being the best defensive player the Jets have with Gardener’s high ceiling he could potentially be a top corner by the end of this upcoming season and be a nice one-two punch with Williams.

Ranking every NFL teams best offensive and defensive player

This will be the final series I’ll be doing before the NFL season starts and we will feature every NFL team’s best offensive and defensive player. We will go into a deep dive of why I picked the player and why. We’ll start with the AFC and eventually get to the NFC.

        New England Patriots 

        Offense: Damien Harris is one of the leagues most underrated running backs and is poised to have a breakout year this year, Harris has been on the team for a few years now and has become the most significant player on the pats offense last season.

Defense: Matthew Judon, Judon signed with the Patriots in 2021 and has since played very well throughout his time in New England, Judon in his first season with the Patriots looked like a superstar in the first half of the year racking in sacks and making big tackles on important downs, Judon is considered to be the Patriots best defensive player now that star cornerback J.C Jackson is now on the Los Angeles Chargers.

NBA news around the league

The NBA has had some news swirling around the last few days, so let’s go over each topic and discuss what it means for us fans.

        Last week Brooklyn Nets superstar Kevin Durant met with Joe Tsai to have a follow up meeting regarding his trade request from the franchise. Durant gave Joe Tsai an ultimatum to keep me (as in Durant) or keep Nets GM Sean Marks and head coach Steve Nash. Many conclude this was Durant’s way of assuring he’ll be traded as Joe Tsai likes the GM and head coach. Durant reportedly will sit out if he’s not traded by training camp. 

        The NBA has also released a bunch of calendar games like the opening night game which is the Golden State Warriors vs the Los Angeles Lakers on October 18 where the warriors will receive their championship rings.

        Also the NBA has released the famous NBA Christmas games which include the following below

Bucks at Celtics

76ers at Knicks

Suns at Nuggets

Lakers at Mavericks 

Grizzlies at Warriors