Alexander: What are the Lakers, Clippers, Kings and Ducks doing?
Based on what the pundits are clamoring, the early days of NBA and NHL free agency have not been kind to Southern California's teams.
The world according to Jim:
• It is fortunate that this region’s NBA and NHL teams play on courts or rinks. If the games were played on paper, judging from the opening salvos of those leagues’ respective free-agent periods, the Lakers, Clippers, Kings and Ducks would be in trouble.
They might already be, if the pundits know what they’re talking about. (That’s always iffy, so these teams’ true believers should keep that in mind.) …
• The Lakers’ two big deals so far have been to give LeBron James a two-year deal after his opt-out, and to sign the No. 55 pick of the draft to a four-year, $7.9 million deal, a kid by the name of Bronny something. …
• The biggest takeaway here? Rich Paul and Klutch Sports run the place, not Jeanie Buss or Rob Pelinka or anyone else in the front office. …
• The second biggest? Most of the targets that could actually have made the Lakers better quicker went elsewhere – including a guy who grew up around the team, wanted to be a Laker badly at one point, and whose dad works for the club. When Klay Thompson went to Dallas instead in a sign-and-trade, what did that say about the Lakers’ readiness to contend for their own Banner No. 18? …
• Meanwhile, remember this moment five summers ago? Steve Ballmer took over an introductory news conference at a rec center in South L.A., new Clippers Kawhi Leonard and Paul George sitting beside him, and declared, “From now on, it’s all about the Larry O’B.”
Five seasons later, there are still no banners to transport to the Intuit Dome and the “213” era is over, George having departed for the Philadelphia 76ers. And if he thought the pressure to win with what is still the No. 2 team in L.A. was difficult, just wait until he gets to Philly and realizes what a demanding fan base really is. …
• That said, the Clippers are still potentially better than the Lakers, contingent on Kawhi’s health, and they’ve made enough other moves to shore up the infrastructure around Leonard. And they’re by far the more professional front office. …
• Yet I am surprised there hasn’t been more of an outcry over the Clippers’ signing of Kevin Porter Jr., who played in Greece last season after being waived by Oklahoma City because of a domestic violence charge. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and harassment in January in a plea agreement that involves, according to Yahoo Sports’ Jason Owens, “a 26-week Abusive Partner Intervention Program or an equivalent program with a private counselor.”
Beyond some social media reaction, there’s been hardly a peep about this signing. …
• As for SoCal’s hockey clubs and their navigation of free agency, I’m not surprised. …
• Ducks GM Pat Verbeek made some on-the-fringes acquisitions, adding a couple of guys who have won Stanley Cups, defenseman Brian Dumoulin from Seattle and forward Robby Fabbri from Detroit – the latter acquisition pushing Anaheim above the salary cap floor – but passed on a full-scale free-agent plunge. That’s sort of the Ducks’ DNA – the club’s last truly high-profile free-agent signing was Scott Niedermayer, by Brian Burke coming out of the lockout in 2005 – and anyway, it’s time for the team’s young talent to step up. …
• As for the Kings’ Rob Blake, he cut his losses by finding a sucker – I mean, taker – for Pierre-Luc Dubois in Washington. But then he turned around and gave a four-year, $15.4 million deal to Joel Edmundson, a significant overpayment for a 31-year-old defenseman with no offensive presence and significant injury history (and, additionally, ties in Montreal to Marc Bergevin, a Kings front office advisor). …
•Are the Ducks better than they were a year ago? Probably, though maybe still shy of playoff contention barring additional moves. Are the Kings better? Ehhhhhh …
• Baseball’s All-Star Game a week from Tuesday will again feature generic uniforms, and can we get the hashtag #BlameNike trending? It’s now been four years since MLB abandoned the wonderful custom of players wearing their own team’s uniforms at the Midsummer Classic.
Can’t they just wear their regular uniforms? Why does everything have to be like this? https://t.co/m501JjjyhO
— Wayne Randazzo (@WayneRandazzo) July 3, 2024
And this quote from commissioner Rob Manfred before the 2022 game in L.A., as reported by The Athletic (and former Press-Enterprise) baseball writer Tyler Kepner, explains a lot: “I never thought that a baseball team wearing different jerseys in a game was a particularly appealing look for us.” …
• So is the commissioner out of step, tone-deaf or simply in Nike’s pocket? Wednesday afternoon, the question was posed on the platform formerly known as Twitter: “Do you want the MLB to go back to having players wear their regular uniforms during the All-Star Game?” The response, as of 12:45 p.m. Friday: 196 yes, 2 no, 1 “don’t care.”
As one respondent put it: “Yes, I need a reason to watch it again and this might do it.” …
• The recent passing of Willie Mays reminded me of one of the charming moments of All-Star Games past: Mays and Ernie Banks would swap batting helmets, with Mays wearing the Cubs’ “C” and Banks the Giants’ “SF.” …
• The consensus is that Gregg Berhalter’s tenure as coach of the U.S. men’s soccer team is about to come to an end, possibly some time next week according to a Fox Sports report, after its flameout in Copa America. It’s a good time for a reminder that before the last World Cup to be held in the U.S., in 2004, the U.S. Soccer Federation opted for the best foreign coach it could lure, Bora Milutinovic. He got Our Boys – then primarily a collection of college players – through the group stage, and attempting to play rope-a-dope with eventual champion Brazil in the round of 16 almost worked. …
• It’s different now. The U.S. didn’t have a First Division league then, and the national team was a bunch of guys with no expectations and nothing to lose. Today the stakes are higher, and what was termed the country’s “Golden Generation” of players is, in reality, a bunch of guys who are employed in Europe’s top leagues but don’t see a lot of playing time with their clubs. I’m not sure that’s much of an improvement.
And should the U.S. federation react by hiring a Jürgen Klopp, a Pep Guardiola or another big-name coach from overseas, how much will really change? In other words, U.S. soccer fan, are you confident the people in charge really know what they’re doing?
jalexander@scng.com