As some of you may have all ready heard the news, that Anthony Davis was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, the 4th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, and 2 other first round picks. The Lakers took a big risk by making this deal, but this can all be worth it in the end.

Ok, so the Lakers NEED that third star to come to Los Angeles. The Lakers have paired both Lebron James and Anthony Davis for a dynamic duo, but let’s just say that Davis later on in the season gets hurt. Lebron James would be the main focus on the opposing teams. What happens if Lebron just gets shut down by his defender, who is he going to look to provide the other scoring option? Kyle Kuzma? They NEED that third scoring option incase someone gets injured in the game or say Lebron and Davis gets in foul trouble.

With trading the Lakers trading away their young talent, they don’t have much help around now. The Lakers currently have Lebron James, Anthony Davis, and three very low contracts in Kyle Kuzma, Mo Wagner, and Isaac Bonga on the team roster. People are saying that the Lakers are title contenders now with having Lebron and Davis. I disagree with that statement, because you might have two dominant players, but you need help on your team roster besides those two. So these are some potential targets that the Lakers should go after for that third star.

Kemba Walker

It depends on how much you can convince him to leave Charlotte to come all the way out to LA, but he would be a great guy to have on the Lakers roster. Kemba Walker probably came off his best year of his career last season as he averaged 25.6 PPG, was voted as a starter for the NBA All-Star game, and was voted to the All-NBA Third Team. He is a point guard who can light it up in points in hurry. He is a very good shooter, very quick off the drive, and has handles to create a good shot. He said that his top priority is staying Charlotte, but he may change his mind on wanting to come to play in the big city of LA.

Kyrie Irving

I don’t want to see Kyrie leaving the Celtics to join the Lakers, but this guy should be a no brainer for who the Lakers should get. Kyrie had a good season despite the team’s success last year. He averaged 23.8 PPG with about 6.9 APG. Kyrie was also voted to the All-NBA Second Team. Kyrie is a terrific scorer, when a team needs a big time basket, you can always look at Kyrie Irving to score that basket. Kyrie has played with Lebron before and has won a title together, but Kyrie left the Cavs because he wanted his own team. As time as has gone by, I think Kyrie has possibly missed playing alongside with Lebron and rumors are saying that they could possibly team back up together. If the Lakers add him, they could be a dangerous high scoring team.

Kawhi Leonard

With the Raptors winning the NBA Championship, it hurts the Lakers chances on getting Kawhi Leonard. But he hasn’t said anything about re-signing with the Raptors, and last year before he was traded he said he wanted to play for LA. This would another great player for the Lakers. Kawhi had tremendous season, averaging 26.6 PPG and leading the Raptors to their first NBA championship. If you add Kawhi, you add a great two way player. Kawhi can score the ball really well and can defend the top players on the opposing teams. If you have him on the team, it helps with Lebron’s energy not having to guard the best players, and makes Leonard, Lebron, and Davis a strong triple threat.

Klay Thompson

The Warriors have three big time free agents this offseason with Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and Demarcus Cousins. What happens if Durant re-signs a max contract with the Warriors? Would Klay Thompson want to come back to Golden State? Klay Thompson coming to the Lakers could become a possibility. Klay averaged 21.5 PPG on a loaded Golden State Warriors roster. He is arguably one of the best shooters in the NBA, and can be a guy who can light it up from the three point arc. If the Lakers add him, Lebron can rely on him knocking down the three pointers when he gets double-teamed in the post. I personally think that if they add Thompson, I think that this team could be a really tough team to beat. As some of you may saw Klay tore his ACL in the last game of the finals, he will have to miss a good part of the season next year, but when he comes back they could be dangerous.

So say the Lakers do get one of these players on the team, then the Lakers are definitely going to be a title contending team. Those three contracts will take up a big chunk of the salary cap, so that means that they will have to sign some free agents to low contracts. But having those three players can make this team such a dangerous team.

What happens if the Lakers don’t get that third star player?

This wouldn’t be the worse thing, because that means they can sign a few key role players to their roster. They could possibly sign some shooters such as JJ Redick, Danny Green, Bojan Bogdanovic. Maybe go after a defensive player like Patrick Beverly, Darren Collision, Avery Bradley. Or they might go out and sign guys like Nikola Mirotic, Marcus Morris, and many more. This wouldn’t be a bad thing at all, but I just think that these guys won’t be guys to hit the big shot or help win the NBA title.

The Lakers are looking to get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2013. Anthony Davis has one year left on his contract, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he re-signed or sign an extension with the Lakers. Lebron is getting up there in age, but he has about five years left in him if he stays healthy. They have a brand new coach in Frank Vogel and Magic Johnson is no longer there, so it should be interesting!

Also the last time the Lakers landed three star players, it didn’t work out too great for them.

I highly doubt that this will happen again, but hey anything is possible ;).

Go Celtics!

It was announced today that Mike Conley has been traded to the Utah Jazz in exchange for Grayson Allen, Jae Crowder, Kyle Korver, the 23rd pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, and a future first round pick.

Mike Conley has been a part of the Grizzles organization since being drafted in 2007, but it was time for the Grizzles to let Mike Conley go as they are now most likely to draft Murray State point guard Ja Morant at the second pick.

I think that this was a great trade for both sides. Memphis will get some good players in return to help their rebuild, and Utah is getting a great point guard that will definitely be a contributor to their run of an NBA Championship. Who do I think won this trade? I think that Utah won this trade because they got the best player in the deal.

How does this trade benefit Utah?

This trade benefits Utah big time as they have been trying to make a deep run in the Western Conference. The past two years doing a big load of the scoring was Donovan Mitchell, but once they played good defense on Mitchell, they had no else to look too. People could possibly say that they could look to their big man Rudy Gobert, but he isn’t a guard or small forward that could light it up on the floor. Adding Mike Conley, who averaged 21.1 points per game last season, will be that second go-to-guard for the Jazz. I think this moves makes Utah a team that could possibly compete for NBA Championship.

How does this benefit Memphis?

This trade probably was not a shock for some fans as they are looking to continue to build this team. Giving up a player who has been a part of the organization is tough, but they got some great players in return. Jae Crowder is a tough player, he has great defense and can put in about at least ten points a game for the Grizzles. I loved him in Boston, but it was understandable move to get rid of him if you are trading for Kyrie Irving. Kyle Korver is near the end of his career, but he is an amazing shooter. Grayson Allen, who was remembered as the Duke Blue Devil, just finished his rookie season in Utah. He can be a good player a few years down the line. With having Jaren Jackson on the team and possibly soon to be Ja Morant, the Grizzles could be a good team down the line.

All in all, this was a great trade for both sides. This is only the beginning of the the offseason though. I am sure going to draft night and to free agency, both the Jazz and Grizzles will be looking to make their team stronger. But it might be hard to convince teams to come to either Utah and Memphis, because the city life is probably boring.

Oh, and one more thing before I close. Utah. Jazz guard Ricky Rubio is a free agent this summer and this trade probably will mean he will leave Utah. He wouldn’t be a bad player to see in Celtic green next season ;).

All I can say is that, I definitely did not see this one coming.

Al Horford has decided to opt out of his $30.1 million option for the 2019-2020 NBA season to become an unrestricted free agent this summer. The Celtics big man had one year left on his contract that he signed back in 2016, but he decided to opt out of his contract to pursue a new contract somewhere else.

When I first saw this news, I was excited at first. Al Horford is such an unselfish player, and during the time when I heard this I thought that he opted out of the contract to take on a new contract for less money. I was so pumped, I was thinking in my head we have our big man veteran taking less money and we now have a chance to sign a max contract player.

I was thinking Kyrie is going to get a big contract this summer from the Celtics if he resigns. I was thinking if Kyrie goes to Brooklyn, then we can sign D’Angelo Russell to that max spot. Or if that didn’t work I was even thinking that we could have money to re-sign both Marcus Morris and Terry Rozier back on the team. The whole day I was just happy thinking about the Celtics are definitely going to bounce back after that disappointing season they had this past season.

Well………..lets just say that happiness came to end right after I finished my supper.

I turned on my phone and went on to Twitter to find a post from Bleacher Report saying that “Al Horford and Celtics are no longer discussing a 3 year deal, is expected to sign a 4 year deal somewhere else.”

At first I was like “yeah right. There is NO WAY Al Horford is leaving Boston! He loves it here!” I reloaded my twitter and all I saw was posts saying that Horford is expected to leave Boston. I didn’t even want to believe at first because I thought that Al Horford was a true Celtics player and thought he would retire as a Celtic. As five minutes go by, I see a tweet from Woj from ESPN saying the exact same thing from the Bleacher Report post.

Ok…….now I believe it :(.

Woj was saying that there was a gulf between the two sides on how much Horford wanted and how much they were willing to give to him. According to reports, they are saying that Horford wants to go a new team to sign a four year deal for the money he wants.

I was thinking if Horford wanted money so bad, why on earth would he opt out of his $30.1 million dollar contract? He isn’t going to get more money if he goes to another team. I was thinking that he was only going to stay if they added a big time star on the team and still got paid a good amount of money to make room for that free agent. Al wants to win and I think he was willing to take only a little less money if it meant to bring back Kyrie or another big free agent to the team. Now he decided that the offer wasn’t enough to keep him in Boston and he is now likely to leave Boston.

So what happens now?

I am not really sure where Al Horford is going to go this off season, it is really hard to predicate. I saw a report that he has a destination on where he wants to go that will offer him a big contract. I will be curious to see what happens to him and where he will go. But I know whoever gets him, is getting a good big man who plays the game with heart and passion.

So what does this mean for the Celtics?

With Kyrie Irving and Al Horford most likely leaving the Celtics, the Celtics will be looking to build around Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Gordon Hayward. They have an upcoming draft this Thursday night as they have the 14th, 20th, and 22nd draft picks. I will be curious if they will keep all three of the picks or possibly trade up to get a higher pick or possibly trade for a current NBA player. The Celtics are definitely going to be in for an eventful summer. I think that this team will still be a playoff team, but I don’t think that they will be championship contenders. But I never know, I thought that this team back in the 2017-2018 season had no chance of going far with Hayward and Kyrie missing the playoffs, but they went all to a Game 7 against Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals. Danny Ainge might have something up his sleeve to make this team really good.

I am both nervous and excited to see what the offseason has in store for the Celtics this summer. I don’t like the thought of possibly rebuilding this team, but Danny Ainge always knows what he is doing which makes me confident about the Celtics.

When June 30th comes around, I will probably be seeing a lot of “Woj bombs” tweets on my twitter. Hopefully it bring some good news for the Celtics this upcoming summer.

Who knows maybe Kyrie and Horford will change their mind and come back. Maybe Isaiah Thomas will come back to the Boston to wear a Celtics uniform in TD Garden. We will have to wait and see what the future holds.

Go Celtics!

My name is Isaac Potter, and I am a huge Boston Sports fan. I am writing sports topics about certain news around the NBA, MLB, NFL, and much more. I hope you enjoy reading some of my blogs.