buddha

houston is a better offensive team now. durant gives them shooting they didnt have before. they lose defense in brooks and potential/one on one offense in green. its a possibility that they are overreacting to one series loss to golden state, where their lack of shooting was exposed. its also a possibility that they decided to sell high on green. their extension for him - while a lot on the surface - seemed to hedge their bets a bit against him developing into anything more than a selfish scorer. but he's still young and athletically amazing. a good get for phoenix to bet on his development. brooks supplies the "toughness" ( one might also call it dirtiness) that mat ishbia seems to think he wants this time as he continues to think he can remake the suns into what he imagines tom izzo's spartans were back when he watched games from the end of the bench. i think its a short term gamble by houston that addresses immediate needs and should make them a better team if durant can stay healthy. its also a good gamble by phoenix as they get green and the #10 pick to play with and a plethora of second round picks to get the cheap talent they have little other way to acquire.

houston does a nearly impossible thing: it trades FOR kevin durant and gets MORE likeable!

he's a pitcher and subject to injury anytime. and he plays once every five games. i'd take that offer in a heartbeat if i were pittsburgh.

they'd take less than that.

how much for skenes?

our old friend joe veleno is on the move again. traded to seattle for andre burakovsky.

Friedman says dallas is about to start negotiations with robertson on an extension. i think the idea he was ever available is a pipe dream made up to get clicks. you never know, but i really doubt it.

i think calgary would deal andersson buy i'm not sure they'd do a pick swap. you probably just need to give them a first. they can get that at the deadline if they just hold on to him, why wouldnt they just wait? to get ras? i doubt it. ehlers at 7×9 is very scary. how about we buy out tarasenko, get $3.2ish in cap space this year and use it for marner at 7x13? lol. pipe dream, i know. ehlers is more realistic. robertson is a pipe dream too, imo. i doubt dallas moves him. i REALLY doubt they move him to us. the depth moves make sense. prashanth hasnt been too critical of yzerman until last offseason (and drafting cossa) with the walman deal. he still looks at us as contending in seider/raymond prime and that detroit's future is still set up nicely. but as everyone is noticing these days, the biggest problem in detroit (of many) is their bottom six are useless. the lot of em. the draft picks have hit, but the free agents are terrible.

he seems to enjoy the press conferences less and less.

robertson DOES fit the wings' timeline, btw.

larkin for robertson doesnt work because of dallas' cap situation. however, if your timeline for contention rests on seider/raymond/kasper prime, then it might make sense to think about moving larkin. by the time thosr guys are in their prime and ready to compete (26-27 season) larkin will be edging into the downside of his career and probably will be a 2-3C. prashanth has a nice writeup of it in his latest substack.

oh to be a pirates fan. so very bad every single year.

dealing robertson also makes the most sense because you can get the biggest return for him. he's going to cost 10+ million to re-sign, so think about that if you want to deal for him. i also think they'll re-sign benn for a cheap one year deal. detroit could get into the stratosphere on cap space by waiving holl, tarasenko, and gustafsson. would give them almost 30 million i think. marner is still a pipe dream. all signs point to some west coast team. that said, all signs pointed to gaudreau signing to some east coast team and he ended up in ohio.

we also took on matt dumba in that max trade scenario. taking on - and presumably waiving - dumba would be very helpful to dallas.

bultman's proposal was 2025 first, elmer, and a 2026 second. the stars reporter turned it down.

another reason to hate the lakers.

Ryan Donato looks to be going off the board. set to re-sign in chicago for four years. not that he was on my list of guys to get. all offense who just had a career year on a terrible team.

just become the 51st state and you too can win the stanley cup.

i love the people on twitter arguing that this WOULD NEVER HAPPEN in the nba. ummm...ask michael jordan. we used to beat the **** out of that guy.

they showed up. florida shut them down. edmonton has two great players, florida has one great team.

canada's national boycott of the stanley cup continues. all the leaf fans can stop pretending to be oilers fans now.

a skilled swede to detroit? ya dont say.

is tyrese haliburton's dad there getting in everyone's face and taunting the other team? no? hmm...

given late stage kenny's many first round failures, it wouldnt surprise me if they did scout him extensively and just failed in their evaluations. otoh, kenny seemed to miss by just going for size over everything else (rasmussen, etc), and that is definitely not zadina. seems like that draft was two players (zadina and veleno) who had high pedigrees dropping and kenny picking them rather than realizing they might have been falling for a reason.

every rumor i hear was that they were going to take bouchard over hughes if zadina wasnt there.