Sports Time Radio

Yesterday was the day were NFL teams have to use their franchise tags on players they’d like to keep instead of allowing them to go into free agency. Now, there were some players where some players who received the franchise tag from their teams, but that was overshadowed by major news involving two of the leagues top quarterbacks.

Yesterday started with Aaron Rodgers finally announcing a decision on what he’d be doing next season and it looks like Rodgers will be finishing his career in a Green Bay Packers uniform. It was announced yesterday that Rodgers and the Packers have agreed to a 4-year $200 million dollar contract with $153 million dollars of that deal being guaranteed.

To be fair this deal has just been agreed upon so, nothing becomes official until Rodgers actually signs it so you never know what could happen between now and then like Rodgers changing his mind.

It looks as though this will be Rodgers last contract as he’ll be 42 years old by the end of it. Now Rodgers has talked about playing until he’s 45 years old, but with all the talk of him possibly retiring after this past season and last you have to wonder if he’ll be interested in playing after this contract expires.

So, after pretty much two years of Rodgers drama finally wrapped up there was another surprise involving a top tier quarterback.

If you remember last off season Russell Wilson’s agent presented the Seattle Seahawks with a list of teams that Wilson would waive the no trade clause in his contract if Seattle could work out a deal with one of them. Well, yesterday the Seahawks worked out a deal to trade Wilson to the Denver Broncos which Wilson has agreed to and he just needs to pass a physical to make the deal official.

The Broncos have had 11 different starting quarterbacks since Peyton Manning retired, so to get Wilson they traded two 1st round picks, two 2nd round picks, a 5th round pick along with Quarterback Drew Lock, tight end Noah Fant and defensive lineman Shelby Harris. Denver will also receive a 4th round pick along with Wilson.

Wilson had spent his entire 10-year career with the Seahawks after Seattle selected him in the 3rd round of the 2012 NFL draft. Wilson started every game for Seattle since he was drafted with the exception of the two, he missed this season due to injury.

Wilson helped lead the Seahawks to back-to-back Super Bowl appearances. The Seahawks won the Super Bowl in 2014 oddly enough beating the Denver Broncos 43-8. The Seahawks went back the next season but lost the Super Bowl to the New England Patriots 28-24.

We won’t know how his trade works out on the Seattle end until we see how those draft picks turn out or what they do with them. There was some talk yesterday that Seattle might try to package a couple of those draft picks to move up to the top part of this year upcoming draft. As we wait on that end of the trade on the Broncos side, they get the quarterback they’ve been looking for and with their defense a lot of the media thinks they’re now a playoff team. Of course, Denver plays in the AFC West which may now not only be the toughest division in the NFL but may also have the best group of starting quarterbacks in the league.

It seems as though Denver gave up a lot to get Wilson, but the Broncos have a couple of young wide receivers for Wilson to throw to in Courtland Sutton and Jerry Jeudy. Wilson should also be helped out by Denver’s duo of running backs Melvin Gordon and Javonte Williams both of whom rushed for over 900 yards last season. The Broncos should also be helped out by playing a last place schedule this upcoming season.

Let me know what you of this deal. Did Denver give up too much for Wilson? Or do you think it was the missing piece for them?

It appears as though the Seahawks may be going into a rebuild as this morning it was reported that the Seahawks plan to release linebacker Bobby Wagner.

Wagner just like Wilson has spent his entire 10-year career with the Seahawks. Wagner was actually selected one round ahead of Wilson by Seattle in the 2012 draft.

Wagner is one of the best tacklers in football and was the second leading tackler for Seattle last season with 93 solo tackles.

Wagner should be a pretty popular free agent once he’s officially released by the Seahawks as long as he wants to continue to play. If Wagner wants to continue his NFL playing career will have to wait and see, where he ends up next season, but my guess is it will be with a Super Bowl contender.

Don’t forget to listen to the live edition of the Sports Time Radio podcast. The podcast airs live on BlogTalkRadio.com. Now, if you miss the podcast live you can still listen. All you have to do is go to TuneIn.com and you can listen to the podcast any time you want to.

You can also find me on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.

The National Football League is holding its yearly scouting combine in Indianapolis Indiana. In case you don’t know this is where NFL teams get to look at the players, they’re going to make millionaires in a few weeks when they select them at the NFL draft.

Now a lot of the players that are projected to be high draft picks participate in all of the events at the NFL combine, but most if not all of them will have a Pro day at their college to show off their skills. You’d have to think that’s a more comfortable place for them to show their skills and they get to control the narrative unlike at the combine.

I don’t know enough about college football to know who’s going to be picked where and which players will turn out to be either the most surprising pick or even a complete bust for the team that drafts them. The one thing that seems obvious in this group of draft eligible players is that the focus isn’t on the quarterback position like it was last season.

Lat year quarterbacks were taken with the first three picks in the draft and then there were also two more selected in the 1st round. This season it appears as though there may not be a quarterback selected inside the Top 10 and their may only be two or three that go in the 1st round overall.

If you remember only one of those five quarterbacks from the 2021 NFL draft ended up being on a playoff team last season. That quarterback was Mac Jones who was the last of the five 1st round quarterbacks selected. Jones went to the New England Patriots with the 15th pick in the 1st round.

Obviously, the success of the quarterback depends a lot on the players around you and when you’re selected as high as some of those quarterbacks where last season they’re going to a very bad team. While it’s possible to turn an NFL team around very quickly with a good draft and some smart free agent signings it’s difficult to go from 1-15 or 2-14 into the playoffs and that showed last season with these quarterbacks.

Will this coming season be different for whichever quarterbacks are drafted in the 1st round? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what teams they end up on.

Once the NFL scouting combine ends the focus turns to free agency and even though he still has one year remaining on his contract the biggest off-season dilemma is what will Aaron Rodgers do.

Rodgers dominated last off season as he had a bit of a fallout with the Green Bay Packers and had talked about possibly walking away from the game. In the end Rodgers was able to get his contract restructured and added a clause that he couldn’t be franchise tagged by the Packers after this season. Rodgers mentioned that he’d let Green Bay know what his decision about the 2022 season would be before free agency started, but we’re getting down to the wire and it doesn’t seem as though Rodgers is anywhere near an actual decision.

Rodgers options are pretty much the same as they were last off season. He can retire or he can ask for the Packers to trade him. Now there was some belief that when Rodgers agreed to his new contract last year that there was an agreement that Green Bay would trade Rodgers if that was what he wanted, but Packers General Manager Brian Gutekunst has said that’s not the case.

Rodgers has mentioned that if he does return to Green Bay for the 2022 season, he’d like to see the Packers bring back wide receivers Davonte Adams and Marquez Valdez-Scantling. Both wide receivers are free agents, but you’d think that if a contract can’t be worked out with Adams before free agency starts Green Bay will use the franchise tag on him.

What is odd about the Rodgers situation is that the longer he holds the Packers front office hostage waiting for his decision the tougher it will be for them to prepare for the 2022 season and try to bring back Adams and Valdez-Scantling. That brings up the question of how much does he really want both guys to return or is this just his stalling tactic this off season.

Adams is one of if not the best wide receiver in football while Valdez-Scantling is a solid second receiver, but there’s very little chance that they’ll both be in Packers uniforms next season with or without Rodgers on the team. It’s a very good bet that Adams will be kept either through a new contract or with the franchise tag, but Valdez-Scantling will probably end up signing with another team and Green Bay might look to the draft to replace him.

Will see how long the Rodgers drama plays out this off season, but if he’s a man of his word the Packers should have his decision very soon, but will they?

Let’s play the game as well. What do you see happening with Rodgers for the 2022 season? Does he retire from the NFL? Or will he ask Green Bay to trade him? If you think he asks for a trade, where do you see him being traded?

Don’t forget to listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast. The podcast airs live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the live edition of the podcast, you can listen any time you want to on TuneIn.com.

you can also find me on Twitter. I’m @Burketime.

Well, I don’t know about you, but unfortunately for me yesterday my baseball season ended before it even got started.

Yesterday was the self-imposed deadline by the Major League Baseball owners to have a new Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Major League Baseball players union, but sadly that deadline came and went with no new agreement between the two sides.

Now if you remember the owners have said all along that if there was no new agreement by February 28th, they’d start cancelling regular season games. That date was oved back until 5:00 p.m. yesterday since the two sides seemed to be making progress as February 28th ended.

Both sides got together again yesterday, and it looked hopefully, but by the end of the day yesterday there was no new agreement and the owners announced that the first two regular season series for all 30 teams have been cancelled.

Now if you’ve read this blog before or listened to the Sports Time Radio podcast you know that I’ve been saying all along if there are no baseball games on March 30th, I won’t be watching baseball at all this season.

So, now that you know my baseball season is already over, how about yours? Are you managing to stay patient through these ridiculous negotiations? Or are you fed up like me?

So now I’m going to have to find something else to watch. I’ll have the NHL and sadly the NBA playoffs along with the NFL off-season which always seems to get a lot of attention, but once the dog days of summer hit what then? NASCAR will still be going on, but the races are only a couple of times a week counting the trucks and the Xfinity series. I guess I’ll be searching for some alternative sports to watch, do you have any suggestions for me?

This is going to be a very long summer for me since baseball is my al-time favorite sport out of the four major sports and I’m disappointed that they’ve been unable to come to any kind of agreement to get the season started on time.

If you’re hanging in their hoping you get some type of a baseball season, I really hope that you get that wish. I guess the question ow will be how many games the 2022 season will have since there is still no agreement in place and I haven’t heard if there’s a new deadline before the owners will cancel more regular season games.

Well, why don’t you weigh in on these negotiations for me. How do you think they’re going? and do you see an end in sight? Also, with those first two series already cancelled. how many games do you think the 2022 season will end up being?

As always don’t forget to listen to the live edition of the Sports Time Radio podcast on BlogTalkRadio.com. If you do happen to miss the live version of the podcast don’t worry you can still listen. All you have to do is head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you want to.

You can also find me on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.

Last night I was up later than usual watching an NHL game between the Chicago Blackhawks and the New Jersey Devils. The Blackhawks ended up winning a high score affair 8-5.

After that game I was flipping through channels trying to find something to watch. After just checking out a little of this and a little of that I remember that Sportscenter should be on. I turned on ESPN, but I didn’t get Sportscenter as the NBA game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Los Angeles Lakers was still on. I was going to start looking for something else to watch or just give up and go to bed when I noticed that there were only 25.2 seconds left in the game. I thought that it wouldn’t be a big deal tow watch this game wrap-up and then catch some SportsCenter; boy was I way off.

When I found the game, the referees had just started a review of a play. Lebron James had saved the basketball from going out of bounds and the referees where also looking to see if Clippers player Robert Covington had knocked the basketball out of bounds after James saved it. Now, it was difficult to tell if James had stepped on the baseline as he was attempting to save the basketball. As you can guess this slowed down the review and when I say slow down, I mean grind the game to a halt. I’m not sure how long this review took, but it seemed as though the game was stopped for 10 or 15 minutes as the referees reviewed the play.

Finally, after a very long delay it was ruled that James did step out of bounds giving the basketball to the Clippers who had a 1-point lead at 103-102.

Apparently, the Clippers decided that they wanted the keep the Lakers in the game as for whatever reason the Clippers committed an 8 second turnover as they couldn’t get the basketball over half court after calling a timeout. The turnover gave the lakers the basketball down 1-point with 18.3 seconds on the clock, but they didn’t use that time very well.

Richard Jefferson made some great points on commentary about how the Lakers should run their offense quickly and try to score so they would have time to either try to rebound if they missed their shot or play defense if they scored and took the lead. instead, the Lakers got the basketball to James, and he stood and dribbled down the cock until there were about 4 seconds left.

The Clippers ran a double team at James with a third player also close enough to defend James, so he passed the basketball instead of trying to force a contested last second shot.

Carmelo Anthony was the open Lakers player James got the basketball to. Anthony took a long 3-pointer even though the Lakers were just down by 1-point. Anthony shot came nowhere close to going in. The Clippers Reggie Jackson ended up with the basketball and was fouled quickly. Jackson made both free throws, but the Lakers still had 2.2 seconds to tie the game with a 3-pointer, but they didn’t have any timeouts and had to go the length of the floor.

Well, the Clippers decided to help the Lakers out again. The Lakers threw a full court pass which was knocked out of bounds by the Clippers with 0.7 seconds left in the game. If the Clippers would’ve just deflected the basketball into play, they would’ve won the game right then and there.

Obviously 0.7 seconds isn’t a lot of time, but the Lakers did manage to get the basketball to James for a 3-pointer from the corner that didn’t really get anywhere close to going in and the Clippers escaped with a 105-102 victory.

Now once the game got restarted it was interested to see how bad these two teams that were thought to be NBA title contenders at the start of the season are in the positions, they’re in.

Of course, the problem was the length of the review before the final 25.2 seconds of this game. Now if you’ve listened to the Sports Time Radio podcast you’ve probably heard Dan the Man complain about the length of time it takes Major League Baseball umpires to review calls. Well, if he would’ve been watching this, he would’ve thought that the umpires worked quickly compared to these NBA referees.

Now, I understand that the referees want to make sure they got the call right last night, but there’s no way they should’ve delayed the game for as long as they did. Not only does a delay like that kill the flow of the game it also allows the players to cool down which could lead to more injuries which the NBA seems to have enough of. I can tell you that it was no fun to sit there and watch the referees look at a replay of James trying to save the basketball over and over while the announcers try to fill time. It’s time for the NBA to look into some time of time limit for these reviews, but obviously that’s something to consider in the off season.

Unfortunately, this is just another reason that I don’t enjoy watching the NBA.

While we’re talking about the NBA James Harden made his debut for the Philadelphia 76ers last night. Harden was acquired by Philadelphia at the trade deadline in a deal that sent Ben Simmons and other to the Brooklyn Nets.

This was Harden’s first game since February 2nd. Harden had been out with a hamstring injury and even skipped last weekend’s All-Star game. Harden’s hamstring must be 100% as he played 35 minutes last night as the 76ers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 133-102. Harden put up a double-double in his 76ers debut as he had 27 points and handed out 12 assists. Harden ended up just two rebounds short of having a triple-double last night.

There were quite a few people wondering how Harden would mess with Joel Embiid and for the first game it seemed to be just fine. Embiid also posted a double-double last night. Embiid was the 76ers leading scorer with 34 points while also leading the 76ers in rebounds with 10.

Philadelphia is currently 3rd in the Eastern conference standings 2 1/2 games behind the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls who are tied for the top spot in the Eastern conference.

Philadelphia’s next chance to close the gap on the two teams ahead of them comes Sunday afternoon as they take on the struggling New York Knicks.

I hope you’ve taken the time to listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast. The podcast airs live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the live edition of the podcast, you can still hear it. All you have to do is go to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you want to.

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime

Humorously we got a little peak into the NFL’s off season and it looks as though it’s going to be dominated by Aaron Rodgers again.

Rodgers posted a statement on social media yesterday and the media went wild trying to read into what he meant. Now Rodgers seems as though he does this on purpose just because he knows that the media is going to go crazy over any type of statement he makes.

Now I didn’t even bother to read Rodgers statement because from what I had already heard it didn’t mention anything about what his plans for next season are. For some reason the media started reporting that Rodgers statement sounded like he was saying goodbye to Green Bay, but as of right now no one actually has any idea if that’s the case.

Now Rodgers has said that he’d make his decision known before free agency starts, but I have a feeling he’s going to make his decision as late as he possible can. I wouldn’t be surprised if just minutes or even seconds before the free agency period starts is when Rodgers will make his announcement.

The one thing that has attracted my interest to this story is if or how many more times Rodgers can string the media along by releasing social media statements and get them to fall all over themselves trying to figure out what he meant and what he’s going to do. After yesterday you have to figure that every time he says or posts anything it will be breaking news even if it’s nothing like his statement from yesterday turned out to be.

In any case Rodgers still has us all just waiting for him to make and then announce what his plans are for next season.

Even though the NBA is on their extended All-Star break there was some interesting Zion Williamson news that came out yesterday and while most people have covered that to death, I wanted to go a different way with Williamson. What I’m wonder with his injuries is he going to turn out to be a bust?

Williamson was the #1 overall pick in the 2019 draft, but due to injuries he hasn’t played a game this season and in his first two NBA season Williamson played in only 85 of a possible 162 games. With only about 20 games left in their regular season it doesn’t make much sense for the New Orleans Pelicans to bring Williamson back this season unless they know that he’s 100% healthy and there’s no chance of him re-aggravating his foot injury. If Willamson doesn’t play in a game for the Pelicans, this season that means he’ll have appeared in just 85 out of 243 games possible games over his first three NBA seasons.

Now when Williamson is healthy and on the basketball court, he’s shown that he can play at a high level, but he just can’t seem to stay healthy. Wiliamson averaged 27 points and 7.2 rebounds per game last season before it was cut short by the injury he’s still dealing with.

Now at the trade deadline the Pelicans acquired C.J. McCollum from the Portland Trailblazers to pair with Williamson when he returns. New Orleans also received Larry Nance Jr. and Tony Snell in that deal. The question now becomes will Williamson ever be healthy enough to join McCollum in the Pelicans line up.

If Williamson can return healthy at some point, he would give New Orleans three players along with McCollum and Brandon Ingram who can score. Now I’m not sure if these three players would be considered a “Big Three” as teams in the NBA like to put together, but they would be a very solid group to build around. While McCollum is the oldest of this group, he’s just 30 years old while Ingram is 24 years old, and Williamson is just 22 years old.

Since the Pelicans won’t make the playoffs in the Western conference they’ll be in the draft lottery. Imagine if the ping pong balls fall their way and they end up with a top draft pick. That would give them the opportunity to add another young, talented player to the group they have.

So, jump in here and let me know what you think. Is Williamson going to find a way to get healthy? Or are we going to talk about him as an injury bust down the road? I’d also be interested to know what you think about the Pelicans future. Can they build a competitive team in the Western conference with a healthy Williamson? Or do you see things going another way for New Orleans?

Don’t forget to swing on by and listen to the live edition of the Sports Time Radio podcast. The podcast airs live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if for some reason you miss the live edition of the podcast don’t worry, all you have to do is head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you want to.

Feel free to look me up on Twitter @Burketime.

The NBA is on its All-Star break and last night that break started with the celebrity game and the Rising Stars challenge. Tonight, we’ll get to see the Skills challenge, the 3-point shooting contest and the Slam Dunk contest. Sunday wraps up NBA All-Star weekend as Team Durant takes on Team Lebron. Now I don’t have a lot of interest in these events especially the games themselves, but I will watch some of the festivities tonight. Do you watch NBA All-Star weekend?

With the NBA on about a weeklong break thanks to Lebron James complaining some years ago that the players weren’t given enough time off for the All-Star break we have a chance to look at the standings and see who’s sitting were.

The regular season is about halfway over, and it seems as though Phoenix Suns and the Golden State Warriors are the two best teams in the NBA. Phoenix has the best record in the NBA at 48-10 while Golden State is sitting at 42-17 just a game and a half ahead of the surprising Memphis Grizzlies who are 41-19.

In years past we’d hear about how much better the NBA’s Western conference is then the Eastern conference, but that doesn’t seem to be the case this season as the Eastern conference has six teams within just 4 1/2 games of the conference lead.

In the Eastern conference the Miami Heat and the Chicago Bulls are tied for 1st place at 38-21. Right behind the Heat and the Bulls you’ll find three teams Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers and the Milwaukee Bucks are just 2 1/2 games back. The 76ers and the Cavaliers are 35-23 while the defending champion Bucks are 36-24. Then it’s the Boston Celtics who find themselves in 6th place in the Eastern conference with a record of 34-26 jut 4 1/2 games out of the top spot.

With all of these teams bunched at the top of the Eastern conference it begs the question. Who’s the best team in the Eastern conference?

What’s funny about that question is the answer you seem to get the most to it is the Brooklyn Nets even though they’re not one of the teams at the top of the standings. Brooklyn is sitting in 8th place in the Eastern conference at 31-28, but everyone I’ve heard talk about them believe that as soon as Kevin Durant returns from his injury that the Nets will rocket up the Eastern conference standings. There has been no announcement on when Durant will be returning to the Nets line-up, but with just a little over 20 regular season games left, how far up the standings can the Nets climb?

As we look at the Eastern conference standings right now, I think that the 76ers are currently the best team in the conference. Joel Embiid should be the league’s MVP and with the addition of James Harden at the trade deadline it should make the 76ers the favorite going into the playoffs, but would it really surprise anybody if they didn’t make it to the NBA finals?

The Heat have been winning games with defense which is something you don’t hear said in the NBA anymore and you have to wonder if their style can carry over into the playoffs, but Miami also has players that can score in Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry, so they shouldn’t be counted out.

The Bulls have been a bit of a surprise this season. It was clear that the team was improving, but I don’t think anyone expected them to be doing this well. Don’t forget that almost everybody said that the Bulls made a bad signing adding DeMar DeRozan this past off season. Of course, none of them would admit to saying that now as DeRozan is playing at an MVP level and has carried the Bulls as their other starters like Zach Lavine and Lonzo Ball have missed multiple games with injuries.

The Cavaliers are easily the biggest surprise in the Eastern conference, but here they are. You’ll hear the experts say that this team is too young to make any noise in the post season and that they don’t have the playoff experience that teams need. Maybe that would mean something in the NBA finals, but in the earlier playoff rounds sometimes it helps a team if they’re looked at as not supposing to be there.

Of course, Milwaukee can’t be counted out and it seems as though the Bucks don’t get very much credit for actually winning the NBA title last season. The Bucks still have one of if not the best player in the NBA on their roster in Giannis Antetokounmpo and having him could mean a lot come playoff time. Of course, Antetokounmpo will need help from the likes of Kris Middleton and others on the Bucks roster to repeat.

Now, I think in some people’s eyes the Celtics should’ve won multiple NBA title with the roster they had built under then General Manager Danny Ainge. Well, that never came to fruition and Ainge has now moved on. It’s still a little unclear who the Celtics are, and I think most people think that they’ll flame out in the playoffs like they have for so many years now, but is it possible this is the year that they finally put it all together?

I’m going to go with the 76ers to come out of the Eastern conference when it’s all said and done. Philadelphia has the best tandem of players with Embiid and Harden and while everyone talks about having three top players, I think Embiid, and Harden together can be good enough to get the 76ers to the NBA finals.

As always, I’m turning it over to you. Who do you think will end up winning the NBA’s tightly packed Eastern conference? Do you like one of the teams that are currently in the top six of the conference? Or are you on board with a lot of the mainstream media believing that the Nets will put everything together and end up winning the conference?

Don’t forget to listen to the live edition of the Sports Time Radio podcast. The podcast airs live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you just so happen to miss the podcast live you can still listen any time you want by heading over to TuneIn.com.

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime if you want to look me up.

As you know if you’ve been following the blog, I haven’t done all that well with my NFL playoff predictions this season. Well, I did manage to get my Super Bowl pick correct, so that made me a wonderful 8-7 with my playoff predictions. At least I managed to finish over .500.

While we’re on football I have to say that I got a good laugh out of Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray pouting. If you haven’t heard Murray unfollowed or scrubbed as they say the Cardinals from his all his social media accounts. As it turned out Murray was upset because he felt that he was getting too much blame for the Cardinals short comings this past season. I guess Murray never heard the old cliche about how the quarterback gets too much credit when the team wins and too much blame when the team loses and let’s face it the Cardinals were a letdown this past season.

Arizona came out of the gate winning seven straight and they were not only being mentioned as a Super Bowl contender, but Murray’s name kept coming up in the MVP conversation. The Cardinals went 3-2 over their next five games, but still looked to be in great position to possibly win the NFC West or at least grab a wild card spot.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals they fell apart. Arizona went 1-4 over their final five games and while they still finished with a very respectable 11-6 on the season Arizona had to settle for a wild card spot.

The Cardinals traveled to Los Angeles to face the Rams in the first ever Monday night playoff game and it didn’t go well for Arizona as they were beaten easily by the eventual Super Bowl champions 34-11. Arizona was down 21 points before they even managed to score, and the game was pretty much over by halftime.

With the way the season started expectations built up for the Cardinals and with the way it ended you knew there would be finger pointing. I guess Murray didn’t think that any of the blame would be put on him, but I guess he hasn’t paid much attention to what goes on in the off season when a team ends up being a letdown. The two people who always have the most fingers pointed at them are the head coach and the starting quarterback and Murray falls into one of those categories.

Murray is in the fourth year of his rookie contract and since he was a 1st round pick the Cardinals should hold a fifth-year option on him. In this day and age with the way athletes are you’d think Murray will get over this and it’s a good bet that he’s Arizona’s starting quarterback next season, but if he can’t get over this little fit, he’s having, what can the Cardinals do with him?

Murray was the #1 overall pick in the 2019 draft and I’m not sure if the Cardinals could get equal value in a trade if they decide to deal him. Murray has shown improvement ever season, so it would make sense for the Cardinals to want to keep him, but would Murray be willing to stay with Arizona long term?

Now there are three or four teams that are currently looking for quarterbacks, so maybe they’ll reach out to Arizona and see if a trade cane be made, but you have to wonder what the asking price would be. You’d have to figure Arizona would want multiple 1st round picks for a player like Murray. Is there a team out there that would be willing to mortgage their future for Murray? With the draft coming up, I guess will have to wait and see if a team tries to make a move for Murray or if the Cardinals are even entertaining trading him.

Don’t forget to listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you miss the live edition of the podcast all you have to do is head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you want to.

You can also find me on Twitter, I’m at @Burketime

After weeks of speculation by NBA experts and most of them agreeing it wouldn’t happen at the trade deadline on Thursday the Brooklyn Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers agreed to a trade that has sent James Harden to Philadelphia and Ben Simmons to Brooklyn.

This trade ended up coming together very quickly and, in the end, the 76ers received Harden and Paul Milsap while the Nets will receive Simmons along with Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and two 1st round picks.

The two 1st round picks that Brooklyn received are a 2022 1st round pick that they have the right to defer to 2023 if they choose two. The other 1st round pick is a top eight protected 2027 or 2028. Now if they pick ends up being protected and the Nets can’t use it then it becomes two 2nd round picks and $2 million dollars instead.

Now in conjunction with this trade the Nets had to clear a roster spot. To open up that spot they waived DeAndre Bembry to make room.

It had become clear that Harden wanted off of the Nets and in Simmons case he hadn’t played for the 76ers all season and had no plans to play this season.

Of course, the question will become who got the better of this deal and let’s face it figuring that out isn’t going to be easy.

Obviously with Simmons not playing he’s going to have a lot of ground to make up but going to the Nets he won’t be looked upon to score with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving on that roster. Will Simmons finally have the chance to grow into the player that people thought he’d be when he was taken with the 1st pick overall in the 2016 NBA draft?

Simmons biggest issues have been shooting the basketball both at the free throw line and from behind the 3-point line. Simmons rarely if ever actually will shoot a 3-point shot. In his four-year NBA career Simmons has only taken 34 3-point shots. He is 5 for 34 from the 3-point line in his career which equates to a 3-point shooting percentage of 14.7%. Since Simmons played point guard in Philadelphia, he had the basketball in his hands a lot and was expected to go to the free throw line. The problem became the fact that he shot just 59.7% from the free throw line in his career.

Now the move for Simmons that may help him the most is not having to have the basketball in his hand all the time. Durant and Irving will handle the majority of the scoring and ball handling with the Nets. This may allow Simmons to find a new position for himself and play closer to the basket possibly in a post-up position against smaller guards.

Now Simmons hasn’t played in an NBA game since June of 2021 when the 76ers were eliminated by the Atlanta Hawks in the playoffs. While you’d like to think that Simmons has been working out and staying in shape there’s a difference between being in shape and being in game shape.

Of course, the Nets themselves have some issues to get straighten out. Brooklyn has lost 10 straight games. Durant is still out injured, and Irving’s status is always game to game not only with his vaccination status and the other problems he’s had throughout his career. The Nets are currently in 8th place in the Eastern conference and as of now would have to go through the NBA’s play-in format of the playoffs.

Now, from the 76ers side of this deal it looks as though they gave up quite a bit to get Harden, but he’s one of the top players in the NBA and Philadelphia appears to be in win now mode.

Harden has been out with a hamstring injury, and it has yet to have been announced when he’ll make his debut for the 76ers, but when he does Philadelphia will have quite a duo in the lineup teaming Harden with Joel Embiid.

Everyone knows Harden can score and has led the NBA in scoring three times during his career, but he shouldn’t need to be the type of volume scorer he’s been in the past with Embiid on the court with him. Harden does like to control the basketball and can dominate it to the point of maddening his teammates, but don’t forget that while he does have the basketball in his hands a lot, he’s averaged 6.7 assists per game in their career and the last three seasons he’s averaged over 10 assists per game. Harden was averaging 22.5 points and 10.2 assists per game with the Nets this season.

Embiid is having an MVP caliber season. He’s averaging 29.3 points per game and 11.1 rebounds per game while leading the 76ers to a 33-22 record which is currently good for 5th place in the Eastern conference.

If Harden can find a way to fit in with Embiid and the rest of the 76ers it should give Philadelphia the chance they wanted to this trade which is to win the NBA title. The other question in Philadelphia could be, do they have someone else ready to step up and produce with Harden and Embiid?

Philadelphia does have veterans Danny Green and Tobias Harris on their roster and Harris has shown that he can score at the NBA level when given the chance and is still averaging close to 20 points per game. Green is more of an open look 3-point shooter, but every team needs that player who can knock that -pointer down when needed. If either or both of these two can step their game up Philadelphia should become a real threat to win the Eastern conference and have that chance to win the NBA title.

As always, I’d like to know your thoughts on this trade. Please let me know what you think of it in the comment section.

Now yesterday on the Sports Time Radio podcast which aired live on BlogTalkRadio.com Schaumburg Stu, and I made our Super Bowl predictions. Schaumburg Stu went with the Cincinnati Bengals to win 28-24 and he has Joe Burrow as his MVP. Now I’m going with the Los Angeles Rams to win by a score of 31-28 with Aaron Donald winning the MVP. With these two picks both Schaumburg Stu and I see the Bengals covering since they were getting 4 points when we made these picks, and we also see the game going over its projected total. Please leave me your picks for the Super Bowl.

While the podcast did air live yesterday don’t fret if you missed it. Just head on over to TuneIn.com and you can listen any time you want to.

You can also find me on Twitter @Burketime

Yesterday it was announced that the Los Angeles County district attorney will not be pressing criminal charges against Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer. This ruling comes from a five-month investigation into allegations that Bauer sexual assaulted a San Diego woman. With Bauer not facing any legal charges it will now be up to Major League Baseball to hand out a punishment on Bauer, but will they?

Bauer signed a three-year $102 million-dollar free agent deal with the Dodgers before the start of last season. Now due to these allegations Bauer made just 17 starts for the Dodgers last season as he spent the majority of the season on administrative leave. Bauer went 8-5 with an ERA of 2.59 while pitching 107 2/3rds innings in those 17 starts last season. So, it was looking like Bauer was on his way to having a very good season in his first year with the Dodgers until it was ended by these charges.

Now there’s not only the question of if or what Major League Baseball might do with Bauer, but do the Dodgers want him back? There were a lot of reports last season when his status was up in the air that the other Dodgers players didn’t want him in their locker room. It was never said which Dodgers players it where that didn’t want Bauer back in that locker room, but you have to wonder how they feel about the chance of him returning sometime during the 2022 season.

I seriously doubt the Dodgers would release Bauer as he’s owed $45 million dollars for the 2022 season and $17 million dollar for the 2023 season. Now Bauer does have an opt out after this season, but you have to wonder if he opted out how many teams would be interested in him even if he has a good 2022 season.

Even though no charges will be filed against Bauer and that makes him innocent so to speak you have to think this incident will follow him for possibly the rest of his baseball career. I just don’t see a way for him to get people to forget about this.

Bauer pitched his last game for the Dodgers on June 28th, so he’s already been out for three months of the 2021 baseball season. Will Major League Baseball consider that enough discipline or will he be suspended to start the 2022 season? I should add in that is if and when we have a 2022 baseball season. I’ll be interested to see how Major League Baseball rules on this.

Now as always, I want your opinion on this. How do you think Major League baseball will handle this situation with Bauer? Was the three months he missed last season enough? Or do you think that Major League Baseball will suspend him for the 2022 season? And if so, how long will they suspend him for?

As we saw at the trade deadline last season the Chicago Cubs traded away their upcoming free agents, Kris Bryant Javier Baez and Anthony Rizzo in sperate deals. Now there are reports out there that the Cubs have shown quite a bit of interest in bringing Rizzo back into the fold.

Cubs team President Jed Hoyer has brought Rizzo to every team he’s been involved with starting back with the San Diego Padres in 2011 were Rizzo made his major league debut. Hoyer along with Theo Epstein then traded for Rizzo when they were hired by the Cubs. Rizzo then spent the next 10 years as the Cubs first baseman before they dealt him to the New York Yankees last season.

Rizzo was a very good player for the Cubs and was heavily involved in the community as well. The question becomes, does bringing Rizzo back help this team? Obviously signing Rizzo would add a quality bat to their order and he’s a Gold Glove defender having won four in his career, but are the Cubs in a position to actually win? If adding Rizzo was the final piece of the Cubs puzzle then it could be a very good signing, but unless there are a lot of other signings coming down the road you have to wonder how much help adding a player like Rizzo will be.

Of course, there’s also the question of if Rizzo would be interested in returning to the Cubs and Chicago. When Rizzo resigned with the Cubs, he gave them what can only be described as a hometown discount. It’s doubtful that he’d be willing to take less money to return to the Cubs, but if he doesn’t have any other serious offers maybe there’s a chance, he ends up back in a Cubs uniform.

Again, what do you think? Do you see Rizzo signing back with the Cubs? Or will another team step up and sign Rizzo? If you don’t see him signing with the Cubs which team, do you think he lands with?

Don’t forget to check out the live edition of Sports Time Radio on BlogTalkRadio.com. This Friday Schaumburg Stu will make his Super Bowl picks. Not only will he give you the winner, but he’ll predict the final score and who he thinks will win the MVP award. You’ll want to tune in for that and speaking of tune in if you happen to miss the podcast well just head over to TuneIn.com and you can listen to the podcast any time you want to.

If you’re interested feel free to look me up on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.

The weekend off before the Super Bowl is looked at as a slow sports weekend, but there are sports to watch. You could watch some NBA or college basketball. There’s PGA and LPGA golf as well as the NHL All-Star game and don’t forget about the winter Olympics. Who knows maybe while you’re searching for something to watch you’ll come across a new spot that you like?

As for me I’m not a big fan of the All-Star games with the exception of baseball and the fact that there’s only one Chicago Blackhawks player on the Central division team there’s no real attraction for me to watch. I’m sure by now you know that I’m not a fan of the NBA game, but I will watch a little college basketball. As for golf, well I actually do have that on the television right now as I’m writing this. Olympic wise I prefer the events that are involved with the summer Olympics, but I will check-in from time to time to see what event they’re showing and depending on what it is I might stick around and watch some of it. I spent about a half an hour the other day watching Curling.

So, I’m interested to know what your television viewing was this weekend. Was there something you had to see? Or did you just so happen to come across a new sport you watched?

After looking at the first couple of paragraphs I forgot that the NFL Pro Bowl will be played tomorrow. Well, I guess the fact that I completely forgot about the game tells you what I think about it. Yesterday on the Sports Time Radio podcast Schaumburg Stu did pick the NFC to win the Pro Bowl. The AFC was a 1-point favorite when Schaumburg Stu made his pick, but do people really bet on the Pro Bowl? I’m sure they do. I know the Pro Bowl does a good television rating, but I won’t be watching. Will you?

Unfortunately, there’s been absolutely no movement at all in the talks between the MLB Players Union and the Owners; so more and more it looks like spring training will be delayed and if spring training is delayed, you’d have to think that the start of the regular season will be delayed as well.

The MLB Players Union did submit what they called a new proposal, but it wasn’t much different than the one they started with. Apparently, the Owners were going to submit a new proposal from their side, but instead they asked for federal mediator to become involved and help “break the deadlock”, but that was turned down very quickly by the MLB Players Union.

It’s kind of interesting that the MLB Players Union turned down the mediation offer, and it makes you wonder if they think they would come out on the short end of the stick if they went through mediation. Is it possible that a mediator would see some of their demands as ridiculous and way out of the realm of reality? Because let’s face it some of the things that the MLB Players Union has brought up have been a joke. I know that fans always like to try and place blame and it’s very easy to blame the richer owners over the almost as rich players, but it almost seems as though the MLB Players Union isn’t negotiating in good faith. I’m beginning to wonder if the MLB Players Union thinks that a delay in the start of the season will allow them to get what they want in these negotiations because the Owners will lose ticket revenue. Don’t forget that just two years ago MLB played just a 60-game season due to the Covid-19 outbreak so, the Owners lost ticket revenues and everything else that has to do with games being played and having fans in the stands.

If there’s no mediation between these two sides, it looks like the lockout will last for quite a while and you have to wonder when it gets to the point that the entire 2022 baseball season might be lost. It’s quite sad that these two sides can’t work out an agreement and that they don’t seem to understand that it only hurts their fans and the game itself.

Alright, I hope you’ve been listening to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but if you haven’t been able to catch the live broadcast you can still listen to the podcast. If you swing on over to TuneIn.com you hear listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast anytime you want to.

Now you can also find me on Twitter if you’re interested. I’m @Burketime