In case you hadn’t heard — and you really must’ve been caught up in some serious stuff if you haven’t heard by now — 2018 NBA MVP and three-time defending scoring champ James Harden is now a member of the Brooklyn Nets.
It’s a complicated deal, to say the least, so don’t worry if you’ve missed all the fine details. What really matters is Harden got his wish to reunite with Kevin Durant in Brooklyn via a ridiculously oversized transaction.
And now that the deal has been made, the more important question — as is the case with any big trade — is who came out on top in this mega deal?
In order to answer, here’s how we’ve ranked the four teams involved in the exchange.
1. Indiana Pacers
If the Nets were going to acquire Harden, they were always going to have to include a third or fourth team in the deal to make sure they could team him up with Durant and Kyrie Irving due to his obscene $41.2 million salary for this season.
This meant that whoever those third or fourth teams were going to be would have an excellent opportunity to vulture in on the main deal between the Rockets and Nets and theoretically find a way to pick up good assets for minimal outgoing value in the process.
In the case of the Pacers, the deal they made was the simplest, but, ultimately, could be the most impactful both short- and long-term.
As the deal eventually worked out, one of the players Houston snagged from the Nets was talented young guard LeVert, whom they immediately flipped to the Pacers for former all-star Oladipo.
This was a great piece of business for Indiana for a couple of reasons. First of all, under new head coach and former Toronto Raptors assistant Nate Bjorkgren, the Pacers look like one of the best teams in the league thanks to the all-star level play of Malcolm Brogdon and the All-NBA-level that Domantas Sabonis is playing at to start the season.
Comparing the stats between Oladipo and LeVert is almost like looking at two mirror images of each other, and while LeVert will want to play on the ball more than Oladipo did, the two players are, essentially, the same productivity-wise with the main difference being the fact that bringing in LeVert could probably help with Indiana’s team roles.
Oladipo, before he got injured, was his team’s undisputed star, but that’s a mantle that has since been passed to Sabonis, something that may have possibly caused friction as this season progressed had they kept the team as it was.
Now it looks like there’s a clear pecking order in place as LeVert doesn’t carry the clout nor the ego to disrupt what is a good situation for him with the Pacers.
Additionally, by bringing in LeVert and sending Oladipo away, Indiana is now under the luxury tax threshold, a big added bonus on top of the addition of a very good player.
Some darn fine work from Chad Buchanan.
2. Cleveland Cavaliers
Ranking at No. 2 is the other vulture in the deal.
The Cavaliers came away from this transaction with Allen and Prince, two high-level role players and, in Allen’s case, a guy with legitimate future star potential.
The Nets are likely going to regret trading Allen away. At just 22 years old, he’s already one of the top centres in the league and figures to only get better.
With Allen, the Cavaliers have a true building block from which to form lethal pick-and-roll partnerships with some of their young guards like Darius Garland and Collin Sexton.
Before they can get down to doing that, however, the Cavaliers need to figure out the logjam they have with all their bigs.
That’s too many, and before the trade deadline they’re going to have to find a landing spot for at least one or two of these guys — and one such potential place could be Toronto.
It’s no secret that the Raptors’ centre production has left a lot to be desired to start the season, and with Drummond and McGee on expiring contracts there could be a trade to be made there.
In particular, Drummond would shore up the Raptors’ need for defensive rebounding in a big way and a deal could be made there without giving up Kyle Lowry or Pascal Siakam if he is still available by Feb. 5, when Aron Baynes will be eligible for dealing.
But even if the team that comes knocking isn’t the Raptors, the Cavaliers are in a good spot because they have a surplus of assets that they should be able to use to improve themselves. And between that and acquiring a future stud like Allen, they deserve praise.
3. Brooklyn Nets
Oftentimes the team that get the best player in any trade is the clear winner, but even though Harden is a phenomenal player, the way Brooklyn went about acquiring him has to make you pause.
First off, the Nets aren’t all that stable at the moment as they’re dealing with drama from Kyrie Irving just deciding to take days off work and looking like he might be done — for now — with life as a professional athlete.
And so now you throw Harden, another big personality, into the mix and you have a recipe for true chaos if things start to go south.
There’s going to be nothing but pressure on rookie head coach Steve Nash to try to bring a team together without a true glue guy on the roster as they traded those types of players away, and there’s obvious concerns — even if Irving does decide to return — about how they’re going to share the ball, as well as which player(s) will have to sacrifice their own personal statistics for the good of the team.
There’s little denying just how great a player Harden is, and any issues with his present weight shouldn’t cause too much unease as his arrival in a new environment will likely signal a rejuvenated level of effort. However, Harden became an MVP and scoring champ because he dominated the ball, pounding the air out of it in isolation situations, something that isn’t going to fly with Durant on the team.
Still, the potential for the new “Big 3” is immense and expectations are understandably sky high. This is a team that could have the Eastern Conference all but wrapped up by the end of February if everything clicks the way they want it to.
If the Nets actually become the Legion of Doom like they’re setting themselves up to be, one really has to wonder what the value of a play-in tournament spot in the East is. Playing for the right to get crushed by Brooklyn doesn’t sound like a lot of fun at all.
That’s only if Brooklyn can unlock its potential, though. With expectations comes pressure and in the Nets’ case the walls look to already be squeezing in on them as they once again have leveraged the entirety of their future on a star-studded trio to try to win.
With all the draft compensation they sent away, the Nets have yielded all of their first-round picks up to 2027 in an effort to win with Harden, Durant and Irving, and if they aren’t able to do it this is a team that will be heading back down the rabbit hole of obscurity once again.
Granted, this trio is much younger and closer to their primes than when Brooklyn opted to team up Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce with Deron Williams, but the comparison is very much there and history has a nasty way of repeating itself.
4. Houston Rockets
The draft-pick haul Houston got looks impressive on paper, and the idea of Oladipo pairing up with John Wall in its backcourt is very exciting, but the closer you look at what the Rockets did, the more faults you find in it all.
Rockets GM Rafael Stone was certainly under the gun to get a deal done with Harden fracturing his team’s locker room more and more by the day, but the final result makes it look as though he did his due diligence and then bailed on the better deal for his team.
A few hours before it was reported that Harden was heading to the Nets, a deal between the Rockets and Philadelphia 76ers was reported to be in the works that would see Ben Simmons heading Houston’s way.
If that is actually true, why didn’t Stone take that deal?
With all due respect to Oladipo, Simmons is a much better player and even though a star duo of Simmons and Wall would have left a lot to be desired from a shooting perspective, trying to score on those guys would’ve been incredibly difficult.
It also would’ve been fun to watch and, more importantly, could’ve helped Houston plan for the future better as Simmons is a legitimate building block.
Instead, the Rockets opted for a picks package, something that could very well work out in their favour. But if Brooklyn ends up meeting its potential, suddenly all those picks become far less valuable mid-to-late first-rounders.
The Rockets’ best bet with all those picks will be to do what Danny Ainge never did with his “war chest” and find a way to cash them in on a big trade for a big star down the road.
When/if that ever happens is anybody’s guess, though.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
