NBA news this week

With the NBA all star weekend officially done we are seeing teams making moves to make themselves marginally better. With play-in teams making a playoff push and top tier contenders bolstering their squads we have lots of moves being made through the NBA, let’s go through some of the news this week and cover it.

         Chicago Bulls

        The Chicago Bulls got some bittersweet news Tuesday as point guard Lonzo Ball will miss the remainder of the 2022-2023 season with a lingering knee injury which has caused him to miss over one and a half seasons. The good news for Bulls fans is they have signed free agent Patrick Beverly to fill in for Ball for the remainder of the season.

       Brooklyn Nets 

        The Brooklyn Nets have agreed to a contract extension with head coach Jacque Vaughn for the next couple years, Vaughn’s extension will last through the 2026-2027 season as he has done a great job coaching the Nets since replacing Steve Nash.

       Miami Heat 

        The Miami Heat are signing free agent forward Kevin Love to a contract for the remainder of the season as Love can bring a veteran presence to this younger Heat team. With Love being bought out by the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier in the week the free agent forward had a few options on where he wanted to land and Love picked Miami.

       Milwaukee Bucks 

The Milwaukee Bucks are signing free agent forward Myers Leonard to a contract for the remainder of the season as Leonard has been a free agent for the last two seasons since saying some slurs over a twitch stream in 2021. This will give Milwaukee some much needed forward depth.

Russell Westbrook to the Clippers

Former MVP point guard Russell Westbrook plans to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers once he agrees to a buyout with his current team, the Utah Jazz. With Westbrook being traded from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Utah Jazz at the trading deadline which was February 9th. 

        With Westbrook signing a massive five year extension with the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2017, Russell has been traded to five teams since then and will now join his sixth team since signing the extension. With Westbrook’s contract being one of the worst contracts in the league it’s been seen as a negative and a salary cap dump for most teams around the league. Russell has been a great player in this league for a long time but the 34 year old guard is and has been seen as a player who fills up the stat sheet and is not a winning player. 

Westbrook was having a pretty good year with the Lakers as he was averaging 15.9 points, 7.5 assists and 6.2 rebounds over 52 games this season before getting traded to Utah. This is a pretty kind bogling move by the Clippers as they don’t seem like a good with the Westbrook as he is a very turnover prone player and a poor shooter which the Clippers need more of since they traded some shooters away at this past trade deadline.

Eric Bieniemy hired as OC of Commanders

Former Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy is leaving the Chiefs on top after Super Bowl win. The two time Super Bowl champion offensive coordinator is leaving the Chiefs to be the offensive coordinator for the Washington Commanders as Bieniemy is getting an job title upgrade with the Commanders, Bieniemy’s title upgrade includes a bigger role on the offensive side of the ball and team, a pay increase and a potential spot as a head coach as Commanders head coach Ron Rivera is reportedly on the hot seat.

        With Eric Bieniemy being seen as one of the top coordinators in this league many fans and media members have wondered why Bieniemy hasn’t gotten his shot as a head coach during this historic run with the Chiefs, many speculate it’s that Bieniemy isn’t a good interviewer, some speculate it’s being of the lack of minority coaches in this league and many believe it’s because of the coach he’s under in Andy Ried in Kansas City. 

With Eric Bieniemy being a longtime coach in football, he has a brilliant mind on the offensive end and especially when you give him a talented quarterback like Patrick Mahomes who’s considered the top quarterback in the league and a potential all time great. Bieniemy has been in Kansas City since Patrick Mahomes first year which was 2018 and since then he’s had a top 5 offense since then.

Justin Fields being traded!?!?

One of the biggest stories of the 2023 NFL offseason is that the Chicago Bears could move off of second year quarterback Justin Fields who had a pretty good year last season. With this current Bears regime not drafting Fields and reportedly not seeing Fields as a top tier quarterback, this Bears regime could move off Fields and restart at the quarterback position. Let’s go through my top three trade destinations for Justin Fields to land.

Atlanta Falcons

Falcons receive: QB Justin Fields, 

Bears receive: 2023 first round pick, 2024 second round pick, 2024 six round pick 

Baltimore Ravens 

Ravens receive: QB Justin Fields, 2023 second round pick, 2024 fourth round pick, 2024 seventh round pick 

Bears receive: QB Lamar Jackson 

Washington Commanders

Commanders receive: QB Justin Fields

Bears receive: 2023 first round pick, 2023 third round pick, 2024 fourth round pick

NFL buying vs selling this offseason

With the NFL beginning their offseason this week we officially have teams and players starting to really make some buzz about either being traded, released or franchise tagged. Every year we have teams that are heavy buyers during the off-season and heavy sellers during the offseason, let’s go through my top 3 teams for each buying and selling and why I think they should do so.

Buyers

Chicago Bears

        The Chicago Bears have by far the best opportunity to improve their roster this offseason with by far the most cap space in the NFL and the number one overall pick in this year’s draft. With the Bears offloading lots of high salaries and having a quarterback on a rookie contract this Chicago roster could look very different heading into next season.

Kansas City Chiefs 

        Even though most wouldn’t consider the Chiefs to be heavy buyers this offseason I do believe they will be as they may not sign the big splashy players but they’ll sign lots of mid tier players on cheaper contracts who’ll look to make a late career push to get a ring, the Chiefs also have lots of cap space compared to other teams thanks to the amount of rookies on defense and cheap star players right now.

New York Giants 

        The New York Giants could have one of the better off seasons as they have a significant amount of draft capital and cap space, the Giants are coming off a very impressive year as they have overachieved by making the playoffs and winning a playoff game. 

Sellers

Baltimore Ravens 

        One of the biggest stories going into this offseason is the Baltimore Ravens who I believe are going to be big sellers as they move off superstar quarterback Lamar Jackson and move many of their star players to retool this Ravens team for the future and look to become a title contender again.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 

        The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are going to be huge sellers as they are fifty million dollars over the cap going into next season. With this Bucs team losing hall of fame quarterback Tom Brady to retirement, this Bucs team could look completely different heading into next season. 

Arizona Cardinals 

The Arizona Cardinals are one of those go either way teams as they do need to move off some old and expensive players like Deandre Hopkins, James Connor and Budda Baker, but with a whole new regime this Cardinals team could go either way with retooling the team around star quarterback Kyler Murray.

Lamar Jackson contract talks

Baltimore Ravens superstar quarterback Lamar Jackson is in the midst of a contract standoff with the Ravens organization, with Jackson wanting a contract extension that matches Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshuan Watson, the Ravens have made it clear they are very hesitant to give Lamar that type of contract as Jackson has been injured over the last two seasons in a row and can’t seem to stay healthy for a full year. 

        With the Ravens organization and Lamar Jackson over the last two seasons being in contract talks, nothing has gotten done as both sides are far off on the guaranteed salary, the Ravens have reportedly shown hesitation to give Jackson the contract due to injury history and his lack of progression in the passing game over his five year career in the NFL.

It’s been widely reported that Lamar and the Ravens are going separate ways as the Ravens are reportedly going to trade Jackson to an NFC team for significant assets and draft capital. Even though the Ravens would essentially be rebuilding ilding if they traded Lamar that’s the road that the Ravens are looking to go down which most fans and media members do not want to see.

Derek Carr top 3 landing spots

With the Las Vegas Raiders releasing star quarterback Derek Carr earlier this week, Carr is set  to be a free agent in sign to whatever team he opposes to, with Derek being considered a top quarterback in this league it’s widely reported that he will have many options to where he could land this upcoming off-season, and for the foreseeable future. Let’s go through my top three favorite learning spots for Derek Carr.

New York Jets 

        With this Jets roster having great pieces on both sides of the ball Derek can potentially lead this young in up-and-coming Jets team to a playoff berth for the first time in over seven years. Even though the Jets have a rebuilding offensive line, they have the necessary weapons and defense to be a top team in the league.

Carolina Panthers

        In what is considered possibly the worst division in football, the Carolina Panthers can really make a playoff push with Derek Carr leading this Carolina offense. With brand new pieces all around the roster and a experienced head coach this Panthers job seems very attractive to a lot of free agents this off-season.

Indianapolis Colts 

The Indianapolis Colts are a good team, but lacks some offensive skill position, players outside of running back and tight end, but with a new head coach coming in and a feisty Defense this Colts team can be really good next year in a wobbly AFC south division.

Philadelphia Eagles lose both coordinators to head coach jobs

NFC champions Philadelphia Eagles have officially lost both of their in game coordinators on the offensive and defensive side of the ball, with the Eagles having a spectacular season this year by making it to the Super Bowl, a lot of this coaching staff as they had all time seasons on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball with lots of improvement over the last two seasons with third year quarterback Jalen Hurts. Let’s go through each of the hires and what this means for both teams.

        The Indianapolis Colts have hired Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen as their new head coach. With Steichen having great success with developing Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, the Colts really admired Steichen as a coach who can fill the Colts whole at quarterback with potential drafting a QB and developing him like Shane did with Jalen Hurts. This gives the Colts a good chance to fix their quarterback position for the future and hopefully spring an already good roster into the playoffs next season.

The other loss for the Eagles is defensive coordinator Johnathan Gannon who had a terrific defense as the Eagles had the third most sacks in NFL history last season. With the Cardinals reportedly struggling to find a head coach because of quarterback Kyler Murray, the Cardinals had to do some searching as they found their guy in Gannon, with over eighty percent of the NFL head coaches being on the offensive side of the ball, the Cardinals have definitely made a out of the box type of hire.

Derek Carr tells Raiders to release him

NFL quarterback Derek Carr has officially told his current team, the Las Vegas Raiders that he will not accept any trade and would like to be released from the organization. Derek is one of the better quarterbacks in this league as he has been a consistent top player in this league for over a decade, with the Raiders being Carr late in the season it was expected that the Carr and the Raiders organization were likely to move on.

        With the Raiders organization having some turnover over the last season, this new regime seemingly wants their own quarterback that they drafted and or traded for, with Carr being at the Raiders for a decade it wasn’t far fetched that Las Vegas could possibly move on from the star quarterback. 

        One big talking point this offseason has been if superstar wide receiver Davante Adams will request a trade or will he stay with the organization, Adams originally went to the Raiders because of his on and off the field relationship with Carr but with the quarterback seemingly out of the building it’s been speculated that Adams could want out too. 

Derek Carr has been linked to a multitude of teams that are a quarterback away like the New York Jets, Carolina Panthers, Indianapolis Colts and many others. Meanwhile the Raiders have been linked to many potential free agents and quarterbacks on the trade block like Jimmy Garrappalo, Aaron Rodgers and once was with Tom Brady before he retired.

NFL super bowl recapped

With the final game of the 2022-2023 NFL season we had the biggest game in America in the Super Bowl, we had the Kansas City Chiefs vs Philadelphia Eagles, with bowl teams having super star quarterbacks. With this game being played in Arizona, this had  great potential to be an all-time game.

        With  the Chiefs defense struggling in the first half, Kansas City saw themselves in a double digit deficit going into halftime, and with Patrick Mahomes re-injuring his ankle some hope was lost for the Chiefs going into halftime. With the Eagles offense having an explosive pass game in the first half Eagles receiver AJ Brown had some phenomenal catches including a 45 yard touchdown catch in the first quarter.

        Coming out at half time this game completely flip-flopped as the Chiefs offense scored on every second half possession and Kansas City‘s defense got great pressure on Eagles quarterback Jalen hurts. With the Eagles young coaching staff having a great first half it looked like the inexperience got to them in the second half as they struggled to score many offensive points and keep up with a highly efficient Chiefs office.

Overall this was a great Super Bowl as the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 in which was a high scoring and very close game even to the end. With this being the last game of the season, we now have a couple months of off-season time to reflect on what was another great NFL season.