WNBA ALL Star weekend was a ton of fun to watch! From Allisha Gray making history by winning the Skills Competition AND the Three Point Contest to Arike Ogunbowale setting a scoring record as the WNBA All Stars beat Team USA, scoring 34 points and they all came in the second half! Caitlin Clark broke the rookie ASG assist record. Angel Reese had the first double double as a rookie. Brittney Griner scored her 100th All Star point which has only been done a hand full of times. And everything was FUN and COMPETITIVE - which I can’t say for the NBA All Star weekend these days…

Who’s ahead for the rookie of the year award in the WNBA should not be a debate at this point. It’s just content - and that’s a good thing for women’s basketball. Caitlin Clark vs Angel Reese discussions are good for keeping the W top of mind and relevant to sports fans. But to this point in the season, it’s Caitlin Clark’s award. She’s having a better statistical season, breaking records left and right, she’s had a bigger impact on winning, elevating one of the worst franchises in the league over the past decade, and she’s doing it while being number 1 on the scouting report for opposing defenses. Not to mention what she’s done for the popularity of women’s professional basketball. SUBSCRIBE  @who.won.sports 

How does the best player from your favorite NBA team stack up with the rest of the league? And who’s the best in all of basketball? Nikola Jokic? Joel Embiid? Luka Doncic? LeBron James??? In this video I picked the best player from all 30 teams and ranked them 1-30! Let me know how I did!

The Cleveland Cavaliers have a roster full of redundancy. But does it matter? Bringing back the ‘core 4’ of Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen might be the best move for the Cavs in the short and long term. But they’re not really the redundancy that you should be worried about. It’s the supporting role players, particularly on the perimeter that have overlapping size, skills, and roles that leave significant holes and don’t help mitigate the weaknesses of playing with the core 4. That’s why the Cavs doing nothing thus far in the NBA offseason is not ideal. In an Eastern Conference that is loading up and getting more competitive, the Cavaliers front office seems to be banking on internal development and a coaching change as the path forward. As fans, we have to hope they’re right. But you’re right to be concerned. SUBSCRIBE  @who.won.sports  More Cavs videos: Can the Cavs get better with Mitchell: https://youtu.be/rqtr7gYZmMA?si=WlMeOpNbXmWBPYL4 Cavs hire Kenny Atkinson: https://youtu.be/j76Yt1QaDfc?si=KblSBZuXN5lf1Rxg

If you’re a casual sports fan, or perhaps a basketball fan, who is just not turning your attention to baseball for the summer, this is your episode! If you’re a baseball purest who has been locked in since Spring Training, you may already know this… With the MLB All Star weekend upon us, I thought I would run through the starters from both the American and National League as well as the pitching staffs. Use this as a catchup on who the best hitters are in baseball and some fun facts like nicknames too!

Klay Thompson doesn’t play for the Golden State Warriors anymore. It’s still weird to type that sentence. No more Steph and Klay. No more splash brothers. But is he the missing piece for the Dallas Mavericks? Can putting him next to Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving be the move that gets them an NBA championship? There’s no doubt that Luka should be operating in the most space of his career. But will the defensive questions be too much to overcome, leading to the inevitable fate that they’ll succumb to the gauntlet that is the Western Conference?

DeMar DeRozan being acquired by the Sacramento Kings was…. A bit surprising. He’s undoubtedly and talent upgrade on that roster and is still one of the best scorers in the NBA. But his fit seemed…. Odd. But why? Why is the fit weird? Is it the pace the Kings play with? The Bulls played very slow last year, 28th in the NBA in pace. But the Kings were barely in the top half of the league at 14th. Is it the spacing? The Kings light the beam because they have 3 shooters around De-Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis right? Well, those shooters: Malik Monk, Keegan Murray, and Kevin Huerter in particular, were mostly in the mid 30% range from 3. So what is it??? Well. I figured it out. It’s the area of the floor that DeRozan, Fox, and Sabonis all like to play through. And that’s the challenge Mike Brown will have to solve to make this “big 3” ish group of stars work.

A question I never thought I’d ask, “are the Golden State Warriors better without Klay Thompson?” Has an answer I thought was equally outlandish: “Yes.” Let’s not get it confused, peak Klay Thompson was a force of nature. But 34 year old Klay Thompson, struggling to reimagine himself after 2 devastating injuries, that’s not the same guy. Still a deadly 3 point shooter. Absolutely. And the Dallas Mavericks, specifically Luka Doncic, will reap the benefit of that now. But he’s not the same. And with Chris Paul, well, he’s 39. He might be the most impressive 39 year old not named LeBron James, but he’s clearly had a decline as well and is coming off of injury. He’ll elevate Victor Wembanyama to an immediate All Star in San Antonio, but again. Not the same. And what GSW has done on the margins to replace those guys has been surprising. They’ve gotten a solid 2-way guard in De’Anthony Melton, a really good playmaking defender in Kyle Anderson, and one of the best 3 pt shooters ever, not named Klay Thompson or Steph Curry, in Buddy Hield. So most of what you were getting from Klay and CP3 has been replicated, a significant upgrade on defense has been made, and the pieces could fit into the puzzle in a way that brings more schematic consistency throughout the course of the game. Are they contenders for the NBA Championship? No. But they do seem like they’re a better team on paper, which is not something you would have expected to say if you knew the Splash Brothers were history and Chris Paul was walking away for nothing.

In the most predictable news of the offseason LeBron James signed a max contract with the Los Angeles Lakers. All the picks that could be traded, the cap flexibility LeBron offered up by taking a pay cut… the Lakers have done nothing. No Klay Thompson No James Harden (thankfully) No Jonas Valanciunas Not even Demar Derozen So LeBron keeps his money… So what do the Lakers do now???

Donovan Mitchell extends in Cleveland, making it a great time to be a Cavs fan! He chose a 3 year contract with a player option and that might just be the best case scenario for everyone involved. Including you! He maximizes his earning potential, the Cleveland Cavaliers get a commitment and an improvement window, and the fans keep their best player and know the team should be committed to getting better. Win Win WIN! I’ll explore what’s next and how that improvement could come…