Tag Archives: sports nba basketball

Memphis Grizzlies superstar Ja Morant has been suspended for at least the next two games by the Grizzlies. The NBA has started an ongoing investigation with Morant going live on his instagram at a club at 4 am with a gun next to his head in which Ja appeared to be flashing it as a flex to his followers.

        Morant has gotten into quite a few altercations in the last few months with other individuals and as to no surprise, Morant has gotten into more trouble and this time the NBA has punished Ja for his behavior off the court. The NBA released a statement earlier Saturday morning saying “We are aware of a social media post involving Ja Morant and are investigating,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass. 

Later Saturday afternoon Ja trade a statement saying “I take full responsibility for my actions last night. I’m sorry to my family, teammates, coaches, fans, partners, the city of Memphis and the entire Grizzlies organization for letting you down….”

The  Atlanta Hawks have hired a new head coach and it is former Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder. Snyder spent many years in Utah as he led the Jazz to multiple playoff round wins and many postseason trips, Snyder’s head coaching resume with the Jazz is a 373-264 record over eight years.

        With Quin Snyder becoming the new Hawks head coach for the foreseeable future, this Hawks team is looking to get back on track as they’ve had a very bumpy season and are in playoff contention out of the all star break. 

        Snyder is recognized as one of the league’s better head coaches as he led the Utah Jazz to the playoffs six of the eight seasons he was there, even though this Hawks team had been up and down over the last half decade, they’ll look to get back on track and make a strong playoff push this year. 

This Hawks roster is one of the better rosters in the NBA as they have a multitude of all star caliber players like Trae Young, Dejonte Murray, Clint Capela, John Collins and many more. This roster has been successful in the past as they’ve made it to the conference championship just two seasons ago and will look to make it back this postseason.

The Atlanta Hawks have officially fired head coach Nate McMillan who was a pretty good head coach during his tenure with the Hawks these last two seasons. With a record of 99-80 during his tenure as the head coach with the Hawks, McMillan wasn’t deserving of this firing.

        With Nate McMillan leading the Hawks to the Eastern Conference finals in 2021, he’s been one of the better coaches in this league but it’s been widely reported that star point guard Trae Young didn’t get along with Nate McMillan and the two didn’t see eye to eye which eventually lead to the Hawks firing the veteran coach.

With McMillan coaching in this league for over eighteen seasons he’s been a proven head coach for many years and was doing a good job with this Hawks team overall in his two seasons as a head coach. With the Hawks missing the playoffs last year and are on pace to miss them again, McMillan the coaches relationship with the players wasn’t the only thing that had the Hawks make a move in the midst of the season.

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.

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.

With the NBA trade finally closed we have a record breaking amount of trades and moves over this trade deadline which closed on Thursday February 9th at 3pm eastern time. With so many moves being made it’s virtually impossible to go through all the moves so let’s go through the three teams. I think we’re the biggest winners of the trade deadline this year.

Phoenix Suns 

        The Phoenix Suns knocked it out of the park with a plethora of trades but the biggest one is obviously Kevin Durant and TJ Warren who was traded to the Suns for Cameron Johnson, Mikal Bridges, Jae Crowder and four future first round picks. The Suns also traded for Darius Bazley in exchange for Dario Saric and a future second round pick.

Los Angeles Lakers 

        The Los Angeles Lakers made some smart and splashy moves as they traded for star guard D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Davon Reed and Mo Bamba, the Lakers did shell out a lot of players and picks for players in return like Russell Westbrook, Patrick Beverly, Thomas Bryant and additional draft compensation. 

Golden State Warriors 

The Golden State Warriors made some moves as they shelled out former number two overall pick in James Wiseman and also some draft compensation as they added some much needed wing depth in Gary Payton ll and Kevin Knox which really solidifies their needs this year to make another championship run.

Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James has officially broken the all-time scoring record in the NBA as he passed former record holder Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who held the all-time scoring record for the last 38 years. 

        With LeBron, needing 36 points to break Kareem’s record he did it late in the game on Tuesday as he hit a one legged fadeaway jump shot in the third quarter to break the record, with the record being 38,388 this has been a long time coming and over the last two years people have recognized that LeBron had a chance to break the record, and he did on Tuesday night, with the Lakers playing the Oklahoma City thunder, this game was absolutely packed as tickets were astronomically, expensive, even more than last year’s NBA finals.

LeBron James was drafted in the 2003 NBA draft with the number one overall pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers as he was considered the chosen one and drafted straight out of high school which less than a handful of players can say that they have. LeBron has been one of the most consistent players over his 20 year career and has missed minimal games open till his late 30s with the Lakers, even at age 38 LeBron is considered a top player in the league and a great leader.

With Brooklyn Nets all star guard Kyrie Irving being traded on Sunday afternoon, it’s been widely reported that Brooklyn Nets superstar Kevin Durant may want to be traded as well, Durant has already requested a trade back in July of 2022 but with the Nets reportedly wanting a “significant amount” of draft picks and players, no team was willing to give that up for Durant. With Irving being traded this leaves the door open for Kevin Durant to be traded and the reports have already started as the Nets are shopping Kevin to see his trade market. Let’s go through my top three trade destinations for where I believe Kevin Durant could be traded to.

Boston Celtics 

Celtics receive: Kevin Durant, future 2nd round pick 

Nets receive: Jaylen Brown, 2 future first round picks, Grant Williams, 2 future second round picks 

Phoenix Suns 

Suns receive: Kevin Durant, Joe Harris

Nets receive: Chris Paul, 3 future first round picks, Deandre Ayton, Mikal Bridges, Jae Crowder

Atlanta Hawks 

Hawks receive: Kevin Durant, Joe Harris 

Nets receive: Trae Young, 1 future first round pick, 3 future second round picks, John Collins

The Dallas Mavericks have officially traded for Brooklyn Nets all star guard Kyrie Irving. With Irving shocking the whole sports news world with a trade request, the NBA media quickly began to come up with trade ideas and scenarios, with the Mavericks in desperate need of an all star level player like Kyrie, they finally got it and for a hefty price tag for a potential one year player. 

        With the Mavericks having to give up quite a lot for the Nets all star guard, this is definitely a all in move from the organization to win it all this year in what is considered a wide open western conference. Here is the full trade compensation for both teams and what they received back in return.

Brooklyn reportedly receives: 

•Spencer Dinwiddie

•Dorian Finney-Smith

•2027 second-round pick

•2027 first-round pick (unprotected)

•2029 second round-pick

Dallas reportedly receives:

•Kyrie Irving

Brooklyn Nets all star guard Kyrie Irving has requested a trade from the Nets with reportedly saying he’d like to be either traded by this years trade deadline or he will not return to the club in free agency as he is a unrestricted free agent at the end of this season.

        With this being another fork in the road for the Nets they should look to keep Kyrie for the rest of the season as the trade market for the all star guard is very little and teams are reportedly not willing to give up much of anything for Irving as he is one of the most inconsistent players off the court. With this being Irving’s last year and Nets teammate Kevin Durant already wanting out last offseason the Brooklyn Nets should look to maximize on winning the championship this year. 

With this being Irving’s third team in his career, most teams aren’t willing to give him a long term extension this upcoming offseason. The three teams Irving has been on have all ended in a disaster as the Cleveland Cavaliers traded Irving as he was inconsistent and wanted to lead his own team, his second team was the Boston Celtics who traded for Kyrie and quickly regretted it as it was nothing less than drama filled as it was reported he split up the locker room. The last team Irving played for is the Brooklyn Nets which teams like that’s going to end up in a disaster as well as Kyrie has been suspended by the team and league multiple times in his short career in Brooklyn.