{"id":1162281,"date":"2021-12-27T19:19:38","date_gmt":"2021-12-28T00:19:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1162281"},"modified":"2021-12-27T19:19:39","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T00:19:39","slug":"my-weekend-learning-curve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/my-weekend-learning-curve\/","title":{"rendered":"My Weekend Learning Curve"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">8<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmy-weekend-learning-curve%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1162281&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>As I watched hours upon hours of sports on Christmas Day, only leaving my couch to check on the prime rib in the oven, it dawned on me that I learn something new from every weekend of my sports viewing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In the world of sports, thoughts and opinions change on a dime. It wasn\u2019t all that long ago when Michigan getting into the College Football Playoff was a laughable thought. And yet, Jim Harbaugh will lead his Wolverines into the Orange Bowl against No. 2 Georgia on December 31st.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So, while I\u2019m well aware that my opinions will change and you\u2019ll be able to call me out for the inevitably incorrect thoughts, I\u2019m going to provide them anyway.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Lakers are a hot mess<\/p>\n<p>When the Los Angeles Lakers made the trade to acquire Russell Westbrook from the Washington Wizards in the offseason, his addition alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis was touted as the new \u201cBig Three.\u201d The Lakers were the favorites to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals, an opportunity for James to win his fifth NBA championship.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Why? I can only assume that oddsmakers either know nothing about basketball or haven\u2019t been watching Westbrook play for the past 14 seasons.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The fit never made sense, and it wasn\u2019t just the bizarre Westbrook addition that was confusing to the trained eye. The Lakers added Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard, two players well past their primes. But the Westbrook trade was the most glaring mistake by vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Westbrook is making more than $44 million this season and will make a whopping $47 million for the 2022-2023 season. He won\u2019t be improving with age. Throughout his career, Westbrook has relied on his superior athleticism, something that is beginning to fade.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Now, Westbrook is durable \u2014 he\u2019s played in all 34 games this season \u2014 and he\u2019ll always put up his stats. He\u2019s averaging 19.6 points, 8.1 assists, and 7.9 rebounds per game in 36 minutes per, but he can\u2019t shoot. He\u2019s a career 30.3% shooter from three, and is shooting 30.4% through 34 games from beyond the arc on 3.7 attempts per game.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In today\u2019s game \u2014 especially with James\u2019 telepathic ability to find the open man \u2014 shooters are everything. Why the Lakers decided not to go through with the reported trade for Sacramento Kings sharpshooter Buddy Hield in the offseason will be questioned for years to come. Hield would have provided the Lakers with floor spacing and shooting, something the Lakers could desperately use.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Following the Lakers 122-115 loss to the Brooklyn Nets \u2014 which dropped them to 16-18 on the season \u2014 James backed Westbrook after his poor performance.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe gave us extra possessions, he gave us a lot of looks around the basket, which I know that he can\u2019t stand [failing to convert] as well,\u201d James said following Westbrooks 4-20 game. \u201cBut as far as the effort piece, if a guy plays hard, if a guy leaves it all out on the floor, I got no problem with that. It\u2019s a make-or-miss league.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>James can say whatever he wants to the media. The fit never made sense, and the Lakers are an afterthought in the Western Conference.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The duo of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum isn\u2019t the right fit in Boston<\/p>\n<p>How many times do we have to watch the same thing before we finally say \u201cthis isn\u2019t working?\u201d For the past five seasons, we\u2019ve watched Brown and Tatum play together, getting the Celtics to multiple Eastern Conference Finals. The two appeared to be the league\u2019s next great duo, adding another winning run to the Celtics organization.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It hasn\u2019t played out that way, and based on what we\u2019ve seen so far in the 2021-2022 season, it seems a long shot to ever happen.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Celtics are 16-17, currently 9th in the Eastern Conference, good enough to earn them a play-in game if the playoffs started today. Yes, the Celtics have been hit hard by injuries and by COVID-19, but so has everyone else. It\u2019s the way the Celtics play that points to Brown and Tatum not being the right fit next to each other.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>First year head coach Ime Udoka wants Boston to play fast and move the ball. Neither has happened, with the Celtics ranked 23rd in assists per game and 21st in pace. The \u201cmy turn, your turn\u201d offense with Brown and Tatum lends itself to a stagnant offense, one which bothered Boston\u2019s Marcus Smart so much that he felt the need to call out the two stars in November.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would just like to play basketball. Every team knows we\u2019re going to Jayson and Jaylen, and every team is programmed and studies to stop Jayson and Jaylen,\u201d Smart said. \u201cI think everybody\u2019s scouting report is to make those guys try and pass the ball. They don\u2019t want to pass the ball and that\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I watched hours upon hours of sports on Christmas Day, only leaving my couch to check on the prime rib in the oven, it dawned on me that I learn something new from every weekend of my sports viewing.\u00a0 In the world of sports, thoughts and opinions change on a dime. It wasn\u2019t all &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":1897449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1162281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1162281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1162281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1897449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1162281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1162281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1162281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}