Lohensports

 I debated putting this post off until I've had more time to digest the news. I've also got some personal life things going on that make it harder to be sad about basketball stuff, lol. That being said, the Raptors are my favorite distraction in the world, and they did just do something wildly controversial on Friday that demands response from Lohensports. On Friday morning, the Raptors announced they'd be parting ways with team president Masai Ujiri after 13 seasons with the team. Many in Toronto regarded Masai as one of the best executives in all of sports. The Raptors had the most successful 13 year stretch by a long shot with Masai at the helm, and the departure came as a bit of a shock. In this post I am not going to cover why or how this happened, I'd just be speculating anyway and at the end of the day it doesn't really matter why. I wanted to take this time to go over some of my favorite moves that Masai made during his tenure as the Raptors president, which...

 NBA draft night! It's always funny to see the reactions the fans have to the guy that their team picks. The Raptors fans in particular fall in love with certain guys, then the hive mind gets behind them and when the guy isn't picked, the fans riot. I remember when Scottie Barnes was picked the fanbase was clamoring for Jalen Suggs. Obviously the fans were wrong, maybe the front office knows what they're doing? The same thing happened last night when the fans were all geared up to take 7 footer Khaman Maluach who was still on the board at 9. Adam Silver went to the podium and announced the Raptors would be taking Collin Murray-Boyles, a 6'7 forward. The fan reaction was mixed to say the least, and that encourages me more than anything. I've got thoughts on some other draft picks as well that I can't wait to get into! Before I do though, let me just say that I am far from a draft expert. I have barely watched any of these guys and everything I "know" ab...

 Here I was thinking that the NBA finals would end and I'd be left with nothing to write about. After I wrote my post yesterday about the Celtics/Blazers and Rockets/Suns trades, 2 more trades went down that are noteworthy enough for me to discuss. I'll do the exact same format as yesterday, why not! Tonight is the NBA draft so I guarantee Thursday will be an easy day for ideas. The week's shaped up pretty well if you ask me! Trades to discuss are below: Trade 1:  Wizards get: CJ McCollum, Kelly Olynyk, second round pick Pelicans get: Jordan Poole, Saddiq Bey, second round pick Trade 2:  Hawks get: Kristaps Porzingis Celtics get: Georges Niang, Hawks second round pick Nets get: Terrence Mann, #22 overall pick in 2025 Washington Wizards I don't know, I guess I wanted to start with the best player since I have 5 teams to go over. I kind of like this move for Washington. After trading Kyle Kuzma at the trade deadline, the Wizards now move off of Jordan Poole and they can b...

 As much as I try to fight it, this is what the NBA is really about. We had a fairly major trade go down on the day of game 7 of the NBA finals, it's what the league wants us to focus on evidently. Out of respect for the champs, I held off on discussing the KD trade until today, as a result I was hit with another trade to talk about! I think I am going to just quickly talk about all the teams involved and how I view them going forward. The two trades to look at today are:  Trade 1 Rockets get: Kevin Durant Suns get: Dillon Brooks, Jalen Green, 10th overall pick this year, 5 second round picks Trade 2 Trail Blazers get: Jrue Holiday Celtics get: Anfernee Simons, 2 second round picks Rockets I love the KD deal for Houston! Starting with what they lost, as a Canadian I am a big Dillon Brooks fan. He does frequently get his team into trouble by egging on opposing superstars, but other than that he's a great defender and emotional energy guy on every team he's been on and I'...

 What a series, what a playoffs, and it's all over now with a new NBA champion crowned. In classic NBA fashion, a major trade was announced hours before the biggest game of the season, god forbid actual basketball dominate the conversation. Out of respect for the champs, I am not going to be talking about KD today, there's plenty of off season to go over that, we'll focus solely on game 7 and the new undisputed Canadian GOAT Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Plenty to get into so lets dive in! Defense Wins Championships This OKC team has been probably the most frustrating team to play against in the league this year. They don't really have a high powered offense, they rely a lot on Shai to be amazing which he consistently is. They hang their hats on their defense, and for good reason. Last night in the first half, Tyrese Haliburton went down with a devastating injury which we'll get to later. The Pacers managed to hang on though playing some incredible defense themselves. No...

 The Pacers just shocked the world blowing out OKC in game 6 to force a game 7 in the NBA finals. A series that every talking head I could find called OKC in 4 or 5 is now going to a game 7. With that in mind, it's about time I do a whole post on Pascal Siakam. Whether they win game 7 or not, Siakam should be incredibly proud of the season and post-season that he's put together. I am thrilled to see a Raptors legend doing it on the biggest stage, and today we give him all the flowers.  In the 2015-2016 NBA season, the Toronto Raptors had their best season as a franchise to date. They made the conference finals and took LeBron and Kyrie's Cavs to 6 games. Still there was a glaring hole on the roster at power forward. That season the PF rotation was a 36 year old Luis Scola and Patrick Patterson, neither were long term solutions. In the 2016 offseason the Raptors signed Jarred Sullinger to fill that hole. They also spent the 27th pick in the draft on Pascal Siakam, a guy who ...

 Finals off day #1 and I am already going back to talking about trade rumors. Even though I am part of the problem, I do hate this with NBA coverage. I don't know another sport where in the middle of the finals a major trade can go down and the talking heads can talk about that. Then they can move on to speculating about more major trades. Then if there's enough time maybe they can break down the actual basketball that was played. I had a whole conversation today where someone tried to convince me that these finals haven't been fun, which is crazy to me. Anyway, even though I hate it I can't think of anything else for today so we're talking KD lol.  The Case Against Trading for KD The sports gods are already forcing me to watch a past his prime superstar who tore his Achilles in Aaron Rodgers with the Steelers, will they force me to watch another in KD with the Raptors? I guess I'd be a hypocrite to be happy about Rodgers but upset about KD but the difference is...

 Another really fun NBA finals game last night that saw the OKC Thunder take a 3-2 series lead with a chance to clinch it on Thursday in Indiana. The Thunder jumped on the Pacers early, took control, relinquished control, then got it back and stepped on their throats to secure this one. I had a good time watching and as we creep towards the end I'm starting to feel that bitter sweet feeling of knowing I'll see a champ crowned but sad the last NBA game of the year is coming up. Before we get there though, I have storylines to discuss! JDub Masterclass  Around my apartment I like to refer to NBA players as different kinds of odds you encounter in every day life. For example, I like to think of Jalen Green as a dice roll. You might roll a 6 and have him be the best player on the court, you might roll a 1 and have him be unplayable, it's a 1/6 shot. SGA is a Canadian bank deposit. Every day you can check and he's going to be there putting up the amount you expect. So much s...

 Welcome back! I feel like the NBA finals game 4 was a million years ago but it was just this Friday. Another thrilling game. If you ignore all the chatter from ESPN or the internet at large this has been one of the best finals I can remember. So many close games and clutch plays from the big players on each team. I think OKC takes the game tonight but I'm hoping Indiana forces game 7 when they head back home. Anyway, a couple of trades this weekend in baseball and basketball that I can't help but talk about here! Then I wanted to take a small section to shout out Father's day, which to me feels relevant on a sports blog.  Rafael Devers Trade The big one in baseball! I was at my parent's house for dinner when I got the notification that Devers was traded from the Red Sox to the Giants for primarily Jordan Hicks and Kyle Harrison. I am so out of touch with the MLB outside of the Blue Jays so my analysis here won't be as detailed as the NBA trade coming up below, but ...

 I am getting a sick thrill watching this NBA finals. On one hand I love Shai and want to see him succeed, on the other I've enjoyed these Pacers all playoffs and they've got a couple of Canadians worth cheering for on their squad as well. When the series was decided, the NBA universe at large predicted OKC in 5. Nobody gave Indiana a sliver of a chance. I wrote in my series preview that I thought this treatment was unfair. I still picked OKC but I picked them in a nice competitive 6 game series. A competitive series we now have, to the shock of everyone else! The Pacers took game 3 fairly convincingly to take a 2-1 series lead giving me something easy to write about today. Also before I get into it, shout out to Nav Bhatia who was sitting courtside at the baseline last night. Nobody supports Canadian basketball as much as Nav Bhatia, I love to see it.  Whole Team Effort I titled this post "The Benedict Mathurin Game" but that's unfair to the rest of the Pacers. T...

 I had fun writing this one yesterday and so I am coming back with some more today. Lets get a little more granular with what I'm looking for. To me the biggest needs the Raptors have are backup center, big wing/forward, 3rd string/backup PG. I said yesterday that if they don't fill the hole at backup center somehow I don't think they're going to accomplish what they want to. The forward needs are slightly less prominent but it would be nice to swap one of the shooting guards that all deserve minutes for someone with more size. At point guard I am really happy with running Jamal Shead out there as the backup all season, but I don't think he stops them from kicking the tires on someone more established, especially after the injury woes Quickley just went through. I need to take a step back sometimes because in every trade I suggested yesterday I found myself sad about losing the player they traded. I don't know how I became so attached to a 30 win team. Anyway, h...

 The 3 days off in between finals game is making me restless. I am getting a taste of what summer is going to look like where I won't have much to talk about I guess. Anyway, Giannis announced today that he's informed the Bucks he wants to stay in Milwaukee. If you read my Giannis post , you'll know I don't actually mind that. He was always going to cost too much and make the Raptors fringe contenders at best. They're probably 1-2 years away from swinging a consolidation trade for a superstar, why rush the process? With that in mind, who are some other targets the Raptors should have to add depth or smooth out their depth chart which currently is flooded with shooting guards? For the purposes of this post, I am leaving Kevin Durant out of the equation. If they aren't trading for Giannis, they certainly aren't trading for KD who will require likely 2 starters going out the other way just to match salary and is on an expiring contract at 36 years old. None of ...

 I had options today! I was going to save this for tomorrow when there wasn't an NBA finals game to recap, but last night's game was super boring. Shout out to Shai for going off in his 15th 30 point game this post season, he's only played 18 games so far so that means he's scored 30 15 times and less than 30 only 3 times. What an incredible player man. Another guy to shout out is Aaron Wiggins, that guy would be a starter on almost every team in the league. He can do a little bit of everything on the court and the Thunder use him as basically their 7th or 8th man. Crazy how deep that team is. Even though the Thunder were up and in control the entire way last night, I still had to half pay attention until the very end given what Indiana has done this playoff run. A comeback did not happen this time though and as a result there's not much interesting to talk about there.  Another thing I have to dedicate some time to is my girlfriend Puneet is making a decision today...