Lohensports

 Short one today! Sorry for the late post, I had actual work that gets me paid to do today (shocker).  I wanted to take a quick moment to shout out Ochai Agbaji, mostly because I was super low on him coming into the year and up to this point he's proven me so wrong. At first glance, Ochai's numbers don't jump off the page, averaging through 4 games 11.8 points, 1.4 assists, 5.2 rebounds, 1.2 setals and 0.8 blocks per game, but the impact Ochai is having throughout the game has to be highlighted. Last season Agbaji was a pretty good defender, but absolute zero on offense. When he cut he wasn't able to finish at the rim, he had a bad handle and no moves to get by guys, his jump shot was streaky to non-existent. He was reasonably ignored by opposing defenses whenever he was out there. The story has changed this year, Ochai is making so many smart cuts and has really improved his finishing at the basket. In transition, Ochai is making the smart, correct play each time wheth...

One of these days I will write a Raptors game reaction piece. I thought about doing one for the Nuggets game today, but it's so far away and out of my memory now so I figured I'd just take a big picture look at the team so far. Before I get into that, just quickly on the Nuggets game, how many times have you seen a game like that before? A young, scrappy team out-hustles the older veteran team all game only for the veteran team to slow it down and execute better in the last 5 minutes to steal the victory. The Nuggets have a 3x MVP on their side it's no accident that they're better down the stretch, good learning moment for the young Raptors. Anyway, lots to talk about! This team is young, fun and competitive even with all the early injuries.  New Bench Mob In the glory days of Raptors basketball the Raptors would churn out these productive bench players that seemingly came out of nowhere. Guys like Norman Powell, Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, Delon Wright, Greivis Vasqu...

 What a night in sports it was last night! I was feeling a bit overwhelmed flipping between the Raptors and Steelers last night, both games were just so good it was hard to turn away. Ultimately my Raptors fell short in a classic young team loss. Easy to get out executed down the stretch when you're going up against a 3x MVP and champion in Nikola Jokic. Anyway, that's not what we're here to talk about, we're here for the Steelers! Oh man what a great win in what was looking like an all time trap game candidate. The Steelers didn't win this one pretty, but they got the job done and honestly that's Steelers football baby. There were also a ton of mind boggling instances of Giants football which I will certainly get into. Offense Clicking When Tomlin made the call to sub in Russell Wilson for Justin Fields last week, I like a lot of fans was pretty baffled. We have all been proven wrong. Wilson isn't doing anything super crazy out there and he didn't again...

 I have to say, I am battling with 2 loves at this point. With basketball starting, I found myself watching more of that than football on football Sunday which felt dirty and wrong. Usually the Steelers play Sunday which would get me into the football mood for the rest of the games, but with them playing Monday I ended up catching only little glimpses of games for no reason other than just wanting to watch basketball. Sorry if these thoughts are disingenuous everyone.  Hail Mary  It's so rare in the NFL that a game ends in a successful Hail Mary. There's just such a low probability especially when every single person in the building knows what's about to go down. Yesterday the Commanders moved to 6-2 on the season in a game ending on a Jayden Daniels 60 yard Hail Mary touchdown in what can only be described as a classic Bears loss. Not much to break down on that one, just a cool play. Daniels got a full 10 seconds to run around in the back field before absolutely launchin...

 Short one today, I am tired from my long top 20 players post from yesterday, just exhausted. Really though, the joy of writing about the Raptors is lessened by a 30 point loss on opening night I can't lie. I could rant, but it's a rebuilding season so if I get caught up on every loss it's going to be a long ride to March. Anyway, believe it or not there was some good that came out of this game. There was tons of bad as well but for the sake of positivity, lets only focus on one:  The Bad: Scottie Barnes Rough outing for Scottie. To be perfectly fair, Evan Mobley can make a lot of guys look bad, he's one of the best defenders in the league especially against power forwards like Scottie. The issue is, a trend dating back to last season as well is beginning to form. If Scottie doesn't get it going in the first quarter, his intensity and focus drops off a cliff. He starts to sulk and his energy level is noticeably lower. This was ok when Scottie was a young player play...

This is going to be a fun one. With the NBA beginning again FINALLY, I thought today is as good a day as ever to make my top 20 players list. I hope to update this as the season goes on and players move in and out. This is obviously highly subjective, but that's what makes it fun. This is a clean slate, we only have past data to rely on but I want this list to be about what the players can do going forward. Without further ado, the highly anticipated top 20 players this season are:  20. Scottie Barnes My first homer pick on the list. Honestly I think Scottie can rise higher this season, he missed the end of last year with a hand injury and I think that makes people forget. Scottie is a do it all forward with great vision, improved shooting, good ability to get to the rim and awesome help defense. Scottie can plug and play in any team and provide them something positive in every game. There's an argument for a lot of guys at 20, more established players like Jimmy Butler or Kawh...

 Guys, I really battled with what to write today. Great week in the NFL as usual, but today is also the opening night for the NBA, a night I am overwhelmingly excited about. I figured I'd better stick with my NFL reaction for this one because I'll have more to say after the games tonight. Ok lets lock in, we're approaching the mid point of the season and injuries are starting to build up for a lot of teams. This happens every year in the NFL, a true battle of attrition. We've got a pretty good picture now too of who's got it and who doesn't, lets get into it:  Shout Out to San Francisco Hospitals   Oh man the poor 49ers! This season has been an absolute season from hell from an injury perspective. Christian McCaffery hasn't played a single snap all season to start the injury woes, but one injury is something any NFL team should be able to stomach. Then came this week, Deebo Samuel was hospitalized with pneumonia, Brandon Aiyuk tore his ACL and George Kittle ...

 Lets go! I haven't had this much fun watching a Steelers game in years. 37 points!? The last time the Steelers scored 27 points was week 11 in 2021 in what was hilariously a loss to the Chargers in week 11. Nearly 3 straight years without a performance like this is both incredible and sad. A lot of controversy going into this one, which I think made the win that much more delicious. Lets get into it:  QB Controversy You have to start here! There was rumblings after the win last week that Russel Wilson would be taking over as the starter for this game. I, along with a lot of Steeler Nation, was not a fan of this move. Justin Fields had won 4 of his first 6 starts and while he wasn't tearing it up in the passing game, his ability to run the ball was a big weapon, especially in the redzone and on short yardage situations. In the first quarter, I was screaming at my TV thinking I was some all knowing football genius, Wilson looked slow, he wasn't hitting some easy passes and w...

 A couple of players who played very impactful single seasons with the Raptors announced their retirements this offseason and I think they deserve a spot on my blog. Both of these guys impacted the team in different ways, but have been integral parts of Raptors history. And no, this isn't a Vince Carter post, these guys are more near and dear to my heart than Vince ever could be. I can't wait to be an old head in 20 years dropping these names to the boys at a bar as we discuss random role players of the 2010s-2020s, those will be the days.  Danny Green The first guy deserving of a shout out is Danny Green who called it a career at 37 years old. Danny played for a bunch of teams throughout his long career, but the most memorable one for me was his one season in Toronto in 2018/2019. Danny was the fifth starter on the Raptors championship team, starting all 82 games and consistently being a steady force in the Raptors lineup. I still remember the day the Raptors announced the tr...

 I am breaking my usual trend of recapping the NFL week the day after my Steelers reaction. This is mostly because I barely got to watch any football on Sunday so calm down everybody, the NFL recaps will continue next week. Today, I am feeling extremely excited about basketball coming back and I wanted to just freestyle on some of the stuff I've liked so far this preseason.  It feels like this has been the best preseason in years hasn't it? The intensity in a lot of these games shows that basketball is in the best place it's ever been. Last night the Raptors defeated the Boston Celtics 119-118 in what can only be described as a preseason thriller. After coming out sluggish in the previous contest, the Raptors came ready to play against a full slate of Celtics starters getting off to a 20 point lead in the first quarter. Gradey Dick was awesome in the first quarter. This is the player we thought we were getting in the draft last year. Gradey effortlessly ran around screens t...

 As some of you may know from my outros last week, I wasn't originally going to write this today. I thought I had an appointment today to get my wisdom teeth out, but apparently it was just a consultation. I also didn't really get a chance to watch the game due to family obligations over the holiday weekend, so writing this is a bit disingenuous? I don't know I am pretty sure it's just my emotional response to the game every week anyway so does watching it even matter? Yes, it does. Either way lets gooo Steelers win! Najee Harris Formal Apology Najee, I am sorry. I have been super hard on the running back the past few weeks and some would say rightfully so. Najee's production against the Cowboys and Colts was bad to say the least. It looked especially glaring when the third string back Cordarrelle Patterson could come in and make running the football look easy before going back to Najee to get stuffed for 1 yard. Sunday was different though and Harris looked every b...

 To be honest, I was kind of stumped today on what to write about. My guilty pleasure is consuming content predicting who might win the major awards in the NBA so I thought today is a good day to make my uninformed pick for some of the categories. I also didn't want to skip today because Thanksgiving is Monday so I won't be writing then and I get my wisdom teeth out Tuesday so that's another day off. Wouldn't want you guys to miss me too much. I live for this preamble before I get into it, but now lets get into it:  Coach of the Year: Willie Green - New Orleans Pelicans This is traditionally the highest overachieving team award so I figured lets give it to the team I am highest on in the West. I think people are forgetting how good Dejounte Murray is. The Pelicans have been missing a true point guard for essentially the entire Zion Williamson era. Dejounte was stuck with Trae Young in Atlanta, a questionable fit even before they took the court. Both of these situations ...

 It's overreaction time! I love this time of year, everyone's in the best shape of their lives, the stakes are low so everyone has a chance to shine and nothing that happens is actually indicative of anything. It's the perfect time for a guy like me to overreact! Especially since the Raptors first preseason game was against the Washington Wizards, who look to be maybe the NBA's worst team this season, we need to take this all with a grain of salt. Still I am excited as ever to have Raptors basketball back and goddamnit I am going to try and inject some optimism into you guys!  Jamal Shead How can you start anywhere else? Shead looked amazing in his first NBA action on Sunday. I've heard him describe aptly so as an explosive defender, something you can rarely say about a 6 foot guard. Shead came into the game in the first quarter and immediately got an impressive steal tracking his man around a screen and intercepting the pass like a star cornerback. About a minute l...

 Another week, another set of awesome games. This Sunday was the longest NFL Sunday in history starting at 9am EST with the Vikings vs Jets in London and not finishing until around 1am EST with the Sunday Night Football game being delayed. This of course resulted in an extremely grumpy hedge fund analyst on Monday morning, worth it. Ok I've got some thoughts lets get into it! The Commanders are Contenders It's official now. This take would be insane if made at the start of the season, but everything we've seen from Jayden Daniels so far has been electric. As a side note, something interesting I saw this week is that Jayden Daniels practices using VR technology. He runs simulations with a VR headset on running real plays in the Commanders' playbook. Daniels has said that it allows him to get exponentially more reps in without the tax on his body. Who knows if this is really the secret sauce but whatever Daniels is doing, it's working.  Anyway, the Commanders are the ...