Reflecting on the Cleveland Cavaliers' 34-point blowout loss to DeMar DeRozan and the Toronto Raptors, Chris Mannix joins Colin Cowherd and Kristine Leahy in studio on The Herd to discuss what owner Dan Gilbert should immediately do in order to keep LeBron James from leaving the Cavs in the off-season.
COLIN COWHERD: How much of this is man overboard? And how much is just negotiable and we've seen it before?
CHRIS MANNIX: I would say, in talking to people within the Cavs, I'd say there's a higher level of frustration with the defense, this year, than what we've seen in years past. They can't stop anybody. You guys talked about this earlier, but no perimeter defense. No interior defense. I was texting with an assistant coach from a team that played the Cavs, recently. And he was telling me what to look for in this game. And he was saying, "Watch them in transition. They don't get back. There's no effort, whatsoever. Watch how many points in the paint Toronto scores because when we played them, it was attack, attack, because they don't have any shot blockers, especially when Kevin Love's on the floor. And maybe the biggest problem of all is that they put Isaiah Thomas, when he was on the floor, in pick and rolls. Just put him in pick and rolls and wait for him to kind of die on those screens.
COLIN COWHERD: Yeah. He's a small guy.
CHRIS MANNIX: And that's what he does. Some of it's not his fault. He dies in the screens because he's a smaller player. But spin that forward a little bit, right? Isaiah in the playoffs. He's going to have to be in one five screen roles with Kevin Love against John Wall, against Kyle Lowry, against Kyrie Irving. How do you look at that and say that all is well? How do you look at that problem that they have, a fundamental NBA defensive play, that they can't resolve? And I'll tell you one other thing, Colin. If Kobe, Altman, and Dan Gilbert are not meeting on this right now, it's criminal. But they should be going to the Clippers, tomorrow, and saying, "Tristan Thompson and the Nets pick for DeAndre Jordan." Tomorrow. That has to be the number one priority for them over the next month.
COLIN COWHERD: Because at least it solves the rim protection issue. You know how everybody bangs on DeAndre Jordan, but every time I watch the Clippers, he plays.
CHRIS MANNIX: Look at what he has to do out there, too. He's got, you know, two guards in the front court who don't defend anybody. He's got a bunch of guys around him. DeAndre Jordan's-- People throw his stats down. Like his defensive numbers are down. That's too shallow a look at it. He has to recover and defend everybody because the rest of the players around him don't defend at a high level.
Calendario del FC Barcelona para la temporada 2017-2018. Fechas y horarios de los partidos del Barça en todas las competiciones: Champions League, Liga Española, Copa del Rey, Pretemporada, Supercopa de España y Trofeo Joan Gamper.
La temporada 2017-2018 del Fútbol Club Barcelona arrancó en agosto con la disputa de los dos primeros partidos oficiales en la Supercopa de España 2017 contra el Real Madrid.
Antes los azulgranas se habían enfrentado a Juventus, Manchester United y Real Madrid, partidos amistosos de pretemporada correspondientes a la International Champions Cup 2017, y realizó la habitual presentación oficial del equipo en el Trofeo Joan Gamper 2017 contra el equipo brasileño del Chapecoense.
A continuación el Barcelona debutó en la Liga Española de Fútbol 2017-2018, cuyo inicio tuvo lugar el fin de semana del 19-20 de agosto, y también confirmó las fechas definitivas de la Copa del Rey de fútbol y la UEFA Champions League 2017-2018.
Recuerda que también puedes consultar las fechas y los horarios definitivos de todos los partidos del Fútbol Club Barcelona en el calendario para la temporada 2017-2018.
* Una vez confirmado, esta noticia será actualizada con las fechas y los horarios de cada partido. Recordamos a todos nuestros lectores que pueden encontrar más información sobre todos los partidos del Barça aquí.
The Vikings are putting their faith in Everson Griffen.
Minnesota announced it gave the defensive end a contract extension Wednesday. According to NFL.com, the extension is for four years and worth a massive $58 million, with $34 million guaranteed.
Griffen, 29, has recorded the fifth-most sacks in the NFL since 2014 (30.5) when he became a starter. He has appeared in all 47 of the Vikings' games in that span, as well.
"Man, this means I'm a Vike for life. I appreciate the coaching staff, the ownership, the organization," Griffen said.
Griffen, who was drafted by the Vikings in 2010, has the second-longest tenure with the team. Only defensive end Brian Robison has been with Minnesota longer.
During that time span, Griffen has 273 tackles, 48 sacks, 71 tackles for loss, five forced fumbles, six fumble recoveries and one interception.
If this was goodbye for Yu Darvish and Texas Rangers fans, it was a rough way to go.
Darvish allowed a career high 10 runs to the Marlins on Wednesday night. It’s the first time he has allowed more than seven runs in any game.
Darvish, a free agent at the end of this season, could be dealt to a contending team in the next few days as the July 31 trade deadline approaches.
He may have scared a few teams with this outing. Darvish’s ERA in his last five starts jumped to 7.20. He has now had two starts this month in which he allowed at least seven earned runs (he allowed seven against the Red Sox on July 4). He had three such starts in his career prior to this stretch.
It was indicative from the first batter that it would not be Darvish’s night. Dee Gordon’s leadoff home run snapped a 413 at-bat homerless streak, the longest active streak among non-pitchers in the majors entering Wednesday.
Darvish in 2017
Darvish was coming off a three-start stretch in which he had a 2.86 ERA, and in his last start prior to Friday, he matched a season high with eight innings in which he struck out 12 against the Rays.
He has pitched well at times this season, allowing one run and one hit in seven innings in a win against the Astros on June 12 and pitching seven scoreless two-hit innings with 10 strikeouts in Yankee Stadium 11 days later.
Globe Life Park in Arlington has been a trouble spot for Darvish this season. He has a 5.38 ERA in 12 home starts this season, compared to a 2.49 ERA in 10 road starts.
Darvish’s career
Darvish was quite good but never quite lived up to the hype after the Rangers won the right to purchase him from the Nippon Ham Fighters for $51.7 million in January 2012. He had a 3.90 ERA as a rookie in 2012 but lost the AL wild-card game to the Orioles. The next season was his best, a 2.83 ERA and a league-leading 277 strikeouts.
But then came an elbow injury that limited Darvish to 22 starts in 2014, knocked him out for 2015 (Tommy John surgery) and a shoulder injury that held him to 17 starts in 2016. He made another postseason start against the Blue Jays last season but lost that as well.
Darvish’s legacy will be strikeouts. His 11.0 strikeouts per nine innings rank best in Rangers history, one spot ahead of Hall of Famer (and Rangers legend and former owner) Nolan Ryan.
But if this is it, Darvish ends with eight straight winless starts, the longest winless streak of his career.
Who are MLB's 'Warriors?' The case for and against these teams
It's a beautiful thing, the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees sniping at each other again.
Nobody has thrown out an "Evil Empire" reference, but after the Yankees acquired Sonny Gray at the trade deadline, Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski compared his archenemy to a franchise from another sport.
"Yeah, I think the Golden State Warriors have significantly made some moves,” Dombrowski joked. "I expected it. I would've been surprised if they didn't. I don't know how they'll lose a game right now."
Of course, Dombrowski was also making a veiled jab at Yankees general manager Brian Cashman. After the Red Sox traded for Chris Sale in December, Cashman quipped, "Boston is the Golden State Warriors of baseball now."
Burn! Sure, it's not Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather-level drama, but let’s have fun with this. Which team really is the Golden State Warriors of baseball?
The thing is, maybe it’s not the Red Sox or the Yankees. After all, the Chicago Cubs are the defending champions and the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros have the best records. Or maybe it's the Washington Nationals.
Let’s break down the Warriors and compare them to MLB teams. Each team will receive a maximum of five points in each category.
The superstar addition
The Warriors won the NBA title in 2015, lost in seven games in 2016 (after setting the single-season record for wins) and then brought in Kevin Durant. Talk about the rich getting richer. This is no doubt what Dombrowski was referring to with Gray. Thing is, however, Sonny Gray isn’t exactly Kevin Durant.
Sale is the much better comparison here, bringing in a Cy Young contender to a rotation that already had the 2016 Cy Young winner, plus David Price, who is similar to Durant as well: Big star who had never won it all in the playoffs (although, unlike Durant, Price has performed poorly in the playoffs), then signed as a free agent.
The Los Angeles Dodgers did trade for Yu Darvish, but Darvish peaked in 2013 and has never won a postseason game. Meh. An interesting thing about the Dodgers is they have the highest payroll in the game, but they haven't signed a mega-free agent under Andrew Friedman, preferring to go for depth, which meant letting Zack Greinke walk.
The Washington Nationals won 96 games in 2014 then signed Max Scherzer, so that's a Durant-like move. The Houston Astros don't have a move that compares. The Chicago Cubs followed up their World Series title by signing ... Jon Jay.
Yes, they signed Durant as a free agent, but they also reached two NBA Finals and won one before he joined the team. Look at their other key players:
Stephen Curry: Seventh pick in 2009
Klay Thompson: 11th pick in 2011
Draymond Green: 35th pick in 2012
It's not often a team drafts three All-Stars in a four-year span. In the NBA, even high picks aren't a guarantee. In 2009, the Memphis Grizzlies selected Hasheem Thabeet with the second pick and the Minnesota Timberwolves, drafting fifth and sixth, selected guards Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn just ahead of Curry. Thompson is fourth among 2011 first-rounders in VORP. Green is third among 2012 draftees.
We can calculate homegrown talent simply by looking at homegrown WAR (via seamheads.com). The 2017 rankings through Tuesday:
Astros: 21.7
Dodgers: 17.8
Yankees: 16.7
Nationals: 16.3
Red Sox: 14.7
Cubs: 9.3
The top four teams rank 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the majors, while the Red Sox rank sixth. Homegrown talent is important.
Curry went from overachieving underdog to MVP and fan favorite, but then the backlash started. Charles Barkley criticized his style of play. Too good to be true, some said. His wife tweeted that the NBA was "rigged."
The Nationals get five points for Bryce Harper, who appears to be on his way to a second MVP Award. He received the most All-Star votes this year, but for some reason he still seems to be a player fans love to hate, even though all he does his play hard and put on a great show.
I'm giving four points to the Cubs here for Kris Bryant. He won an MVP. Plus, nobody can have eyes that blue. He's also hitting just .227 with runners in scoring position, which Barkley would most definitely not approve of.
So far, so good with Aaron Judge. Although now that his average has dipped below .300, people are going to start criticizing all the strikeouts.
Clayton Kershaw? He is too good to be true. I mean, he and his wife have a charity focused on improving the quality of life and increasing opportunities for kids in his hometown of Dallas, plus Los Angeles, the Dominican Republic and Zambia. There must be some skeletons in his closet somewhere. We just need his wife to tweet out something nasty about Madison Bumgarner.
He even said so! "At a certain point, you kind of get a reputation," he said in November. And that was before he punched James Harden on his injured wrist in April. Then there was the incident during the 2016 NBA Finals, when he was suspended for a game after swatting LeBron James in the groin.
Obviously, the Red Sox earn five points here for several reasons: Price's ridiculous feud with Dennis Eckersley and general cantankerous relationship with the media; Sale, who has led the American League in hit batters the past two seasons and famously cut up the White Sox retro jerseys last year because he didn't like them; and Matt Barnes, for trying to throw at Manny Machado's head earlier this season.
The Yankees get four points because of Aroldis Chapman. The Astros get three points because of Brian McCann's general annoying behavior about "playing the game the McCann way." The Dodgers get three points because of Yasiel Puig, even though he has been on his best behavior this season. The Nationals get two points because of this fight, even if it was Hunter Strickland's idiocy that caused it:
I'm also giving the Cubs three points because everyone thinks of Joe Maddon as this new-school manager who drinks wine and does all the goofy things in the clubhouse, but he's actually secretly old school and will have his guys throw at the other team as much as any manager.
The Warriors coach is considered an easygoing player's coach who is good with the media and generally smart enough to stay out of the way. Clearly, he learned to successfully massage a roster with three guys who all need to score their points into a championship team.
Dusty Baker is the best fit here, with one exception: He has been managing since the Ice Age and has yet to win a title. Let's go with four points. Maddon also earns four points since he has won a title, is as good with the media as any manager and is regarded as a player's manager. He seems to love the spotlight a little more than Kerr, however.
Dave Roberts and A.J. Hinch both seem to be a Kerr-types on the rise. Joe Girardi? A great manager, but wound tighter than a 16-year-old trying to pass a drivers license test. John Farrell has won a title and is good with the media, although he still seems fairly nondescript.
OK, nobody cared about the Warriors a few years ago and now all across the country you see Warriors T-shirts or jerseys. Even better, you see "The City" throwback logo everywhere.
The Cubs have always had fans all over the country, but they seemed to pick up legions of new ones last year. Nothing wrong with jumping on the bandwagon. But we give five points here to the Astros because the rainbow jerseys from the 1970s and '80s are suddenly cool now, after two decades of being mocked as the ugliest jerseys ever. Check out Paul Lukas' awesome oral history of the untold story behind those uniforms.
The Yankees and Dodgers? They don't even have throwback jerseys! Although we'll give the Yankees two points for all the Judge jerseys I saw at the All-Star Game.
he New York Knicks are back in the news again. No Carmelo Anthony has not been traded but this move could be pointing to a trade very soon. The New York Knicks have come to an agreement with Michael Beasley for a 1-year deal. It is expected to be the veteran's minimum. Beasley played for the Bucks last year and was a former #2 pick of the Miami Heat.
According to Ian Begley of ESPN:
Barring an unforeseen trade, Michael Beasley's deal with the Knicks will likely be for the veteran's minimum since that's all they can offer at the moment.
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Knicks are expected to have a deal completed with Michael Beasley later today, league sources told ESPN. Beasley is a former No. 2 overall pick who played most recently with Milwaukee. His agreement was reported by Basketball Insiders.
On to the actual move. I don't get it. Beasley is not some guy with upside or someone that could improve his game. At this point of his career, he is an in-efficient scorer that plays very little defense. Actually on second thought, he will fit perfectly with the Knicks. In terms of logistics this move leads me to believe that Melo will get traded and Beasley would be his replacement in the lineup or depth at SF, with Lance Thomas and Kuzminskas being the only 2 options on the wing.
It's a move that makes some sense with Melo on the move and the Knicks lack of scorers, tack on his cheap contract and there is not much risk. I just don't like it because with youth on the roster, I would rather see some of those guys get the playing time. Beasley is better suited for teams looking to make the playoffs, not a rebuilding one.
Michael Beasley is the newest New York Knick and this roster looks very odd and talent-less, outside of Porzingis, it looks real bad. Hopefully Beasley can help them lose games and raise their chances at the #1 pick for next year's draft. But we all know the Knicks will botch that somehow as well
Sean Johnson did his best "Tim Howard vs Belgium" impression this week against the Galaxy. Johnson shutout the Galaxy against a full strength lineup featuring Romain Allesandrini and both Dos Santos brothers. In the process of shutting out the Galaxy, Sean Johnson was able to record five saves, and five beautiful saves at that.
DEF: Justin Morrow, Toronto FC
1x Team of the Week
Justin Morrow was able to get a Gold Cup call up for the USMNT and has had a very good season for TFC. This week Toronto played strong defense and only allowed one goal to Diego Valeri and the Portland Timbers. In the process of the 4-1 win Morrow was able to score two goals on his offensive impact.
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DEF: Michael Murillo, New York Red Bulls
2x Team of the Week
Murillo has been a fantastic surprise for the Red Bulls this season. Murillo's defense was fantastic this week as he and the three man back of the Red Bulls only allowed one goal to Orlando City. Murillo's defense was one of the better performances of anyone this season as he slowed the attack of Cyle Larin, Yoshi, and Kaka.
DEF: Matt Hedges, FC Dallas
5x Team of the Week
FC Dallas drew 0-0 this week with the Colorado Rapids. Great part of Dallas shutting out the Rapids was due in part of tall USMNT centerback Matt Hedges. Hedges showed one of the most dominant defensive performances this season up there with Michael Murillo is this week and Kendal Waston of earlier this season. Though the Rapids offense is weak, Hedges intercepted and killed all the attacks of Kevin Doyle, Dominique Badji, and Shkelzen Gashi.
DEF: Antonio Delamea, New England Revolution
3x Team of the Week
This week saw the return of Antonio Delamea to the MLS Aces Team of the Week list. Delamea has impressed enough this season to where he has had some European play for his national team. Delamea had a great week and was the key leader in the Revs shutout against the Vancouver Whitecaps. Delamea seemed to be in the middle of all offensive sprouts by Fredy Montero and Christian Techera.
MID: Marco Delgado, Toronto FC
1x Team of the Week
Marco Delgado may be one of the lost names in the TFC midfield but he was a key player in their win over Portland this week. Delgado was able to assist on Victor Vazquez's 72nd minute goal to put TFC up 2-0. Only a few minutes later Delgado was able to put away a goal of his own and put Portland up 4-0 at that point. Put with a midfield of Michael Bradley, Victor Vazquez, Marco Delado, Jonathan Osorio and others will keep TFC firing on all cylinders.
MID: Sean Davis, New York Red Bulls
1x Team of the Week
The replacement for Dax McCarthy hasn't gone over EXACTLY how the Red Bulls thought it would go but Sean Davis has been a quality starter all season long. Davis has thrived in the Red Bulls new formation change and was a factor on two of the Red Bulls three goals against OC. Davis first assisted on BWP's 60th minute goal and followed that up by scoring a goal in the 80th minute for the Red Bulls.
MID: Blerim Dzemaili, Montreal Impact
3x Team of the Week
Dzemaili has easily been the most underrated signing this season. He has changed how the Montreal Impact have played their midfield and given them another talented playmaker besides Piatti. Dzemaili had a hell of a week as he started the scoring for the Impact in the 69th minute and put away his second of the game in extra time. What Dzemaili does for the team may go unnoticed by most but it is something people should look into.
MID: Ignacio Piatti, Montreal Impact
6x Team of the Week
I mentioned him before when talking abour Dzemaili, but Piatti had himself a great week as a leader of the Impact. Piatti did all of his damage this week in extra time for the Impact. Piatti put away a penalty kick in the 90th minute to put away the Union for sure. Piatti then assisted on Dzemaili's second goal of the game in extra time as well. Piatti is the man around Montreal and needed if the Impact want to make a late run at the playoffs.
FOR: Alberth Elis, Houston Dynamo
1x Team of the Week
Alberth Elis was a significant signing for the Dynamo this offseason that has paid off as well as any other to start his young MLS career. Elis gave the Dynamo a 1-0 lead in the 21st minute as he put away a ball served to him from Boniek Garcia. Elis then put away the game for sure late as he assisted on the goal scored by Vicente Sanchez in the 86th minute.
FOR: Vicente Sanchez, Houston Dynamo
1x Team of the Week
Coming on as a late sub and making an immediate impact is one way to get more minutes in any form of soccer. Sanchez put away the game late with a 86th minute goal and then put the Dynamo up 3-0 when he assisted on a goal scored by Mauro Manotas. Sanchez was a depth signing to start the season and at the ripe age of 37, he will be a needed depth piece heading into the playoffs.
