Baker Mayfield + Rudy Gobert on the move, plus the Angels are struggling again - Brett Byczek
Baker Mayfield + Rudy Gobert on the move, plus the Angels are struggling again - Brett Byczek
Brett's notes from this past week
Please welcome back Brett for his weekly post!
Happy Friday everyone and since I didn’t get to say it yet, I hope your 4th of July Weekend was safe and a fun time. Noah recapped some big hitters of this week, so check that out if you haven’t had the chance yet. With that being said, let’s check out a few trades and a team having issues, again.
Baker Mayfield Traded to the Carolina Panthers
On Wednesday, the Cleveland Browns traded former number 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield to the Carolina Panthers for a conditional pick for the 2024 NFL Draft. The condition is that if Mayfield plays at least 12 games in the upcoming season, it’s a 4th rounder, and if he plays less than 12, it’s a 5th rounder. In order to play those 12 or more games, he’ll have some competition. The Panthers current quarterback room isn’t the most talented or the most exciting, consisting of former Jet Sam Darnold, recently drafted Matt Corral from Ole Miss, and former XFL standout P.J. Walker. In my opinion, Mayfield will easily beat out these 3 guys for the starting job, but what happens after that could and will be the biggest question mark. After a few years of being average at best in Cleveland, he finally has the chance to prove it in a different location with a whole different environment.
The Panthers made a move that, I think, doesn’t shift their spot in the division. Whether Sam Darnold, Baker, or anyone else in that room starts for them, they’re going to be the third best team in their division, unlikely to give them a playoff spot. However, the price on the Oklahoma stud seemed to be fairly low, after the rough ending that occurred in Cleveland. Mayfield’s two biggest concerns to me if I was the Panthers don’t have too much to do with the on-field stuff, but they are injury and drama. Baker played 14 games last year and has played 2 full seasons in his 4 years, but he has been riddled by nagging injuries that look to bother him on the field. It also seems as though Baker Mayfield finds drama pretty easily, from the Oklahoma-Kansas games in college to his last year in Cleveland with the Odell Beckham Jr. saga. For the Browns, they got rid of someone who didn’t want to be there, and I’d say that’s always a good thing. The best part about all this, we get a week 1 matchup between Carolina and Cleveland that I’m sure will be drama-free.
Rudy Gobert dealt to Minnesota for Massive Haul
Earlier in the week, Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Patrick Beverley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Malik Beasley, Leandro Bolmaro, Walker Kessler (no. 22 overall pick in the draft), and 5 first round picks, 1 of them being a pick swap in 2026. What is Minnesota getting in this trade? Well, Minnesota is getting one of the best, if not the best, rim protectors in the last 2 decades, as Gobert provides great resistance and rebounding within the restricted area. I think Minnesota saw what Boston did with a double-big lineup of Horford-Rob Williams and wanted to replicate that size in the playoffs, due to the success that Boston had this year. The only issue with that is that a tandem of Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert is not the same defensively as the bigs for the Celtics. KAT and Gobert don’t provide the same level of perimeter defense and switch ability that Williams and Horford do.
One thing to note is that Minnesota’s perimeter defense around Gobert is much better than his crew in Utah, which should leave them looking much better on the defensive end than the Jazz did, especially in the playoffs. D’Angelo Russell, Anthony Edwards, and Jaden McDaniels will all have to step up defensively, having to take better assignments this year than the previous, and when locked in, this could be a huge success for the Wolves. Now, they gave up a million assets to do it. Getting rid of Beverley, Vanderbilt, Beasley, and Walker Kessler is not ideal, as you got rid of your best catch-and-shoot shooter in Malik Beasley, your best perimeter defender in Patrick Beverley, and your do-it-all guy in Jarred Vanderbilt. I obviously think this makes Minnesota better today, but it has the potential to be a disaster, but they’re going for it. Teams’ championship windows are getting smaller and smaller, and the Wolves are trying to capitalize on what they think their window is. On the Jazz side, regaining assets and really good players to pair with Donovan Mitchell is a great sign that they are going to try again with their star. Having loads of picks and solid young talent should allow them to grow together again or trade those again for a big star.
To end, I’d like to talk about the real winners of this trade, the Brooklyn Nets. The report was that Brooklyn wanted 3-4 1st rounders for Kevin Durant before this trade, and now the Nets should be asking for every pick from a team until the cows come home if this is what Rudy Gobert is commanding. With that being said, a little shakeup in the NBA is always fun, and I think these Western Conference teams will be much different this year.
The Angels are struggling, again…
The Los Angeles Angels currently sit at 4th in the AL West, 17 games back of the first place Astros. They’re 2-6 in their last 8 games and hitting for a .161 average. None of those numbers are fun, encouraging, or positive for anyone who wants to win. In those last 8 games, they’re scoring 1.63 runs per game, totaling 13 over the contests, including 7 games where they scored 2 runs or less. Shohei Ohtani is hitting .111 in the last week, 2 for 18 with 0 home runs and only 3 RBI’s. Surely, things can’t get worse? Well, Mike Trout is hitting .053 in the last week, so that’s worse. One of the stranger things about all of this for the Angels is that the pitching has been dead average in the last 7 days in terms of Earned Run Average.
14 consecutive losses for the Angels just a bit ago hasn’t seemed to propel them forward at all, as they’ve continued to stay in a slump, struggling to hit the baseball at all. Anthony Rendon being out for the season doesn’t help, as he hasn’t been able to play that many games in the past few seasons due to injury. Overall, the Angels seem to be in a dark place, but it’s baseball, and if you lose 14 in a row, that means you could win 15 in a row. I’m not sure they’re going to do it, but the chance is always there when you have the star power that they have. After all, Shohei Ohtani has the highest slugging percentage with runners in scoring position in the last 50 years at .621 (Mike Trout is second), and the lowest slugging percentage allowed with runners in scoring position in the last 50 years, so he’s doing it all. Trout has also proven to be one of the greatest hitters in the history of baseball. These 2 things are encouraging for Los Angeles, but it almost feels like them winning or going far in the playoffs is never going to happen.
Is Baker ever going to be a positive leader for a football team? He has to be able to make others perform at a higher level - not a reduced level which seems to be what happened at Browns - an ailing franchise and a quarter back who no one wants.
I also applaud the Timberwolves' effort. They do not need Gobert to score many points, and on paper he seems to be the missing piece. However, the franchise just never seems to put it together for one reason or another, so there's that.