Month: January 2024

The Lakers need to be willing to trade Austin Reaves in order to improve

The Lakers have reportedly made Austin Reaves nearly untouchable in trade talks — and it doesn’t make any sense.

With about a week to go before this season’s trade deadline, NBA teams are starting to really jockey for position in order to make a deal that could improve their rosters.

It appears the Los Angeles Lakers have been one of the more aggressive teams in the league so far when it has come to trade talks. Of course, their main target is Atlanta Hawks guard Dejounte Murray, a former All-Star, but there are several other players they’re reportedly interested in.

The one main trade chip they have is D’Angelo Russell, whose name has repeatedly come up in trade rumors despite playing very well in January. However, fellow starting guard Austin Reaves seems to be a more attractive player on the trade market.

Unfortunately, the Lakers seem very reluctant to even consider trading Reaves unless they would get a bona fide star in return — and no, Murray wouldn’t be enough for them in that regard.

If they’re serious about improving their roster now and salvaging what could be their last shot to win another NBA championship with LeBron James, they need to ease their stance on Reaves.

Recap: Auburn gets back on track, bulldozes Vanderbilt 81-54

The Auburn Tigers got back to their winning ways on Wednesday as they handed Vanderbilt yet another blowout SEC loss.

The Vanderbilt Commodores traveling to Neville Arena was exactly what the doctor ordered for the No. 16 Auburn Tigers.

After Auburn’s first losing streak of the season happened last week, the Tigers returned home to win another game in blowout fashion. Auburn’s 27-point victory over Vanderbilt was somewhat expected, but the win nonetheless proves last week was just a hiccup in an otherwise healthy season for [autotag]Bruce Pearl[/autotag]’s squad.

Transfer shooting guard [autotag]Denver Jones[/autotag] played his best game in an Auburn uniform on Wednesday night after showing signs of life at points in the losses last week. His 19 points led all Auburn guards in the game. Results like tonight could become even more of a standard if the junior becomes the type of high-volume backcourt scorer he was at FIU.

Besides Jones, the usual suspects led the Tigers’ attack tonight. Forward [autotag]Jaylin Williams[/autotag] led all scorers in the game with 21 points, while [autotag]Johni Broome[/autotag] bounced-back from a poor game on Saturday to rack up a 16-point, 11-rebound double double.

Guards [autotag]Trae Donaldson[/autotag] and [autotag]Chad Baker-Mazara[/autotag] got back to their usual “stat sheet stuffer” selves, combining for 13 points, 12 rebounds, and 9 assists in the victory

While this game was never truly in doubt, Ezra Manjon, Tyrin Lawrence, and Vanderbilt were able to keep it within striking distance heading into the break. After a 37-27 first half, the Tigers outscored the Commodores 44-27 in the second half to put the game out of reach.

The win moves Auburn back into the win column as they improve to 6-2 in the SEC ahead of a road matchup with Ole Miss on Saturday. As for Vanderbilt, Jerry Stackhouse’s team will return home to face Missouri in a battle of winless SEC teams.

Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on  X (Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Brian on Twitter @TheRealBHauch

Offensive standouts for Chargers from Senior Bowl: Day 2

Here’s who stood out on the offensive side of the ball.

The Reese’s Senior Bowl continued practices on Wednesday, with at least two high-ranking members of the Chargers scouting team in Mobile, AL to watch some of this year’s top draft prospects.

Here’s who stood out on the offensive side of the ball.

Report: Lions to hire new DL coach and defensive run game coordinator

Report: Lions to hire Terrell Williams as the DL coach and defensive run game coordinator

There is an assistant coaching shakeup on the Lions staff coming. According to Diana Russini of The Athletic, the Lions are adding a defensive run game coordinator and defensive line coach to the mix.

Russini reported that the Lions are hiring Titans assistant coach Terrell Williams to be Detroit’s defensive run game coordinator and DL coach. Williams is currently serving as a coach for hte American team at the Senior Bowl.

The 2023 Lions did not have a defensive run game coordinator. They do still have their defensive line coach, John Scott, under employment as of the time of the report. Scott joined the Lions for the 2023 season after serving as a defensive coach for the Penn State football program. There is no word on Scott’s status.

As for Williams, he has been with the Titans since the 2018 season, serving as Tennessee’s DL coach. The title of assistant head coach was added for the 2023 season. Before that, he worked in Miami. That includes a stint with Lions head coach Dan Campbell in 2015 when Campbell was the interim head coach for the Dolphins.

Player grades: Cam Thomas drops 25 as Nets flop in Kevin Durant’s return 136-120

Here are your Brooklyn Nets player grades following Wednesday’s 136-120 loss to the Phoenix Suns in Kevin Durant’s return to Brooklyn.

NEW YORK — The Brooklyn Nets welcomed Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns to Barclays Center on Wednesday and lost 136-120.

For the Nets, Cam Thomas had 25 points and four assists while Mikal Bridges had 21 points and three rebounds. Cam Johnson had 18 points and Spencer Dinwiddie had 16 points.

For the Suns, Kevin Durant had 33 points and eight assists while Jusuf Nurkic had 28 points and 11 rebounds. Devin Booker had 22 points and Eric Gordon had 17 points.

In the first half, both teams played each other to a standstill essentially as neither team could stop the other from scoring at will. Without Ben Simmons, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Day’Ron Sharpe for this game, Brooklyn had quite the issue matching up against Durant (16 points) and Jusuf Nurkic (17 points).

In the second half, this game got out of hand in the third quarter as the Suns put on quite the run by winning the period 42-26 thanks to the dominance of Durant and Nurkic. The Nets were able to play the Suns evenly in the fourth quarter, but when you’re down almost 20 points, you have to create some edges and Brooklyn wasn’t able to make a dent in the huge deficit.

Here are your Nets player grades following Wednesday’s loss:

Top five graded Ohio State wide receivers in the Pro Football Focus era

Take a stab at one through five. #GoBucks

If you follow the NFL or college football even remotely close enough, there’s no doubt you are familiar with Pro Football Focus, or PFF for short.

The analytics website set forth a craze on grading players that geeks and fans alike just can’t get enough of. So much so, that the grading system is used in the media to backup a player’s performance from game-to-game. It’s become mainstream media even though we don’t really know what goes into making the sausage.

That’s OK though because all a lot of folks know is that the the sausage is tasty and they can’t get enough. If you are one of those, then you’ll be interested to know the top-five graded wide receivers that have come through Ohio State during the PFF grading era — basically since 2014.

And remember, OSU has had arguably the best wide receiving collection of any program out there since that time, so making the list is pretty impressive.

So, who leads all Buckeye receivers during that time based on the PFF grading system? You can probably guess it but the margin is razor thin. Here’s a look at the top five.

Yep, as expected, Marvin Harrison Jr. is on top, followed by Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson, and then Michael Thomas. None of these are really too much of a surprise, but you can almost bet that there will be another receiver or two break into this top five over the next few years with how deep and talented the room currently is.

Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes, and opinion. Follow Phil Harrison on X.

Panthers great Luke Kuechly offers advice on how to cover Travis Kelce

Luke Kuechly knows that Travis Kelce is trouble when he walks in.

How do you stop the unstoppable? Well, maybe one of the greatest defenders of all-time has the answer.

Carolina Panthers legend Luke Kuechly was a guest on Wednesday’s episode of Up & Adams. When asked how one could possibly prevent Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce from completely wrecking a game as he often does, the former linebacker offered some interesting advice:

Kelce, even at 34 years old, continues to force opposing defenses to play the guessing game—a futile exercise that the future Hall of Famer usually wins. Over his three games this postseason, the 11th-year veteran has reeled in 23 passes for 262 yards and three touchdowns.

Kuechly, a future Hall of Famer in his own right, does know a thing or two about defending against the pass. The 2013 Defensive Player of the Year and five-time first-team All-Pro earned at least an 82.7 coverage grade from Pro Football Focus in six of his eight NFL campaigns.

But over those eight campaigns, the two have met just once—in Week 10 of the 2016 season. That contest, which resulted in a 20-17 win for Kansas City, saw Kuechly allow one 10-yard catch on one target to Kelce.

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Photo gallery: Hogs get off the schneid in dominant win over Missouri

Arkansas looked like the team it was supposed to be all season Wednesday. These photos prove it.

For most of Wednesday night’s game against Missouri, the Arkansas basketball team looked like an NCAA Tournament team.

Razorbacks faithful are hoping it isn’t too late.

Enough was shown on the road, though, to suggest Arkansas can make one of its patented late-season runs again in 2024. That doesn’t mean the Hogs will rip off 10 straight wins and go Dancing, but it does mean the team isn’t completely cooked yet.

Arkansas had plenty of highlights against the Tigers, too, in a dominating 91-84 win that wasn’t even that close. The Razorbacks led for all but three minutes, using two big first-half runs to open a double-digit lead that maintained until the final two minutes of the game when the outcome was not in doubt.

Nearly everything went right, too. Arkansas won the rebounding battle, outscored Mizzou in the paint by a mile, rarely the turned the ball over and came up with 10 steals itself. The entire effort made coach Eric Musselman proud.

Here are some of the best photos from the Razorbacks’ Wednesday night victory.

Everything Eric Musselman said after Arkansas beat Mizzou

Arkansas got off the shneid Wednesday and looked like a good basketball team – mostly – against Missouri.

Arkansas coach Eric Musselman was a happy man Wednesday night.

His Razorbacks basketball team snapped a three-game losing streak and avoided falling below .500 for the first time in Musselman’s five seasons at the helm by beating Missouri, 91-84, in Columbia.

At times, Arkansas looked like the team it expected to be when the season began. They started the year ranked in the Top 25, but a mediocre December carried into a brutal January and Razorbacks have found themselves well outside the NCAA Tournament picture.

Such results through the month largely left Musselman with more questions than answers. On Wednesday, the head Hog went so far as to say his team looked like the teams from the previous three years, the teams that made three straight Sweet Sixteens.

Arkansas isn’t close, overall, to making it four straight years of such. But with more games like the one against Missouri, the Razorbacks are not exactly dead yet.

The trick is continuing.

Check out more of what Musselman had to say below.

Report: Chargers hiring Ravens player evaluation and analytics manager Corey Krawiec

Corey Krawiec was vital to the Ravens’ success over the past decade.

The Chargers are hiring Ravens player evaluation and analytics manager Corey Krawiec, according to The Athletic’s Daniel Popper.

Krawiec had been with Baltimore since 2013 in a role in which he supported the team’s college scouting, pro scouting, and salary cap departments with data analysis and research.

Krawiec was vital to the Ravens’ success over the past decade.

Joe Hortiz is off to a strong start in his role as Chargers general manager by bringing in Krawiec, who he’s very familiar with, having worked with him in Baltimore.