Lights Out

Remember when Bill guaranteed 67 wins for the Celtics this year? Weren't they all supposed to be high-fiving each other while their 12th man dunks to put them up by 40 in garbage time? What happened?

(Muscala got traded before ever actually playing for the Clippers, and Beasley will likely be waived.)

The Clippers had a great trade deadline all in all. Losing Tobias and Boban sucks, but the draft picks they got in return are excellent, and Landry Shamet is a very solid rookie. Somehow, they managed to trade the useless Avery Bradley for two decent players on expiring contracts without giving up any picks. And as the cherry on top, the Lakers decided to gift Zubac to the Clippers for essentially nothing. The rest of the season should be fun to watch, and the future is looking bright.

Quite the contrary. By waiting until the offseason, they actually open up the bidding war by bringing in the Celtics, Knicks, and probably other teams too. They won't get "nothing in return." As for major free agents, they've never signed with New Orleans and probably never will. That isn't going to change whether they give in to the Lakers' demands or not.

The Packers and Spurs say otherwise. The narrative that people hate the Patriots because they're successful is crap. It's because everyone from the owner to the fans is unlikeable, and the success only fuels that. As for all the talk about how sad the pre-dynasty era was for the Patriots - even back in that era, they still went to two Super Bowls. There are some teams that have never even played in one.

IDK. It's not just the Boston factor. Kraft, Belichick, Brady, Gronk, Edelman - they'd all be obnoxious and unbearable in any city. The Patriots overall might get less hate in a different market with less spoiled fans, but they'd still be hated - not just mildly disliked.

What people always ignore with this comparison is that the Niners' competition didn't have a salary cap either. The advantages of not having a salary cap applied just as much to the Giants' Big Blue Wrecking Crew and Joe Gibbs' Skins as it did to Montana's Niners.

Unless the next great team's quarterback starts taking some convenient pay cuts like Brady always does, it will never be this bad again. Mahomes is already pretty much confirmed to get a record-breaking $200 million contract after next season, so it won't be the Chiefs.

And it was great. I'd like more of those, please.

We'd be guaranteed a year off from the Patriots winning Super Bowls. That sounds good to me.

"Any given Sunday!"

The worst part of this is that it's not over. We still have to sit through more YEARS of the same boring outcome.

And we already have our first questionable call that favors the Patriots, that didn't take long.