#draft-picks

#draft-picks

This is ridiculous! Tanking is losing behavior done by losers. Purposely losing is something nobody should want to be associated with. Embarrassing for the league and for the organizations. And the talk about this as a "strategy" is ridiculous. If you are a bad team, you get a good pick. That makes sense. But purposely shutting down players and purposely losing games is a disgrace and impacts the integrity of whole league.

I was paying close attention to the Sabonis chatter in these last few weeks, thinking it would only be a matter of time before the Raptors had a new big man in town. But, in what many Raptors fans should breathe a sigh of relief over, it appears the talks have halted as Toronto's front office is not willing to attach first-round draft capital in any deal, as per Michael Scotto. The Raptors have reportedly been open to attaching second-round picks to spice up the offer, but nothing further.

The Grizzlies suddenly have a treasure trove of future firsts. Per Bobby Marks of ESPN, the Grizzlies' tally is 13 first-rounders across the next seven seasons. Jake Fischer of The Stein Line reports that Utah is sending Memphis its most favorable first-rounder in 2027 between the Cleveland Cavaliers, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Jazz; the Los Angeles Lakers' 2027 first-round pick; and the Phoenix Suns' 2031 first.

The pros of trading Laughton are pretty simple: you could get a good return for him. The Leafs acquired Laughton with half his salary being retained, a fourth-round draft pick in 2025, and a 2027 sixth-round draft pick at last season's trade deadline. They gave up Nikita Grebenkin and a 2027 first-round draft pick. Many, including myself, didn't like the trade when it happened, but Laughton has turned into an integral piece of this lineup.

Law separated the teams into different Tiers, and then numbered them 1-30. The Blue Jays ranked in Tier 6, the second lowest, and 25th overall. The other teams in Tier 6 were Miami Marlins (No. 22) followed by Colorado Rockies, West Sacramento Athletics, Toronto and Texas Rangers. Law wrote, "In fairness, they nearly won the World Series, and traded a lot of prospects to get there, sending nearly all of their top pitching prospects after Trey Yesavage to other clubs to bolster their roster for the stretch run."

Despite being a near-unwatchable product on the field in recent years, the Washington Nationals have had pretty fantastic luck when it comes to having the odds bounce in their favor. Specifically, the ping pong balls for the MLB Draft Lottery have resulted in their favor more often than not, but the team has been unable to take full advantage. Them not being able to take advantage is actually no fault of their own but is in fact due to an outright stupid rule change that Major League Baseball implemented a few years ago.

Williams, a former first-round pick from Alabama, has racked up 322 tackles, 101 QB hits and 40 sacks since joining the Jets in 2019. He was the Jets' 2019 first-round draft pick, has been a key piece of the defense since his arrival. He has gone to the Pro Bowl in each of the last three seasons and was first-team All-Pro in 2022.

And the Dolphins can understand the additional trouble they're in by looking at their salary-cap hell. But the full view of their trouble didn't come in focus until Tuesday's trade deadline blindsided everyone with this conclusion: You'd rather be the stinkin' New York Jets right now than the Dolphins. Just typing that previous sentence makes me think it's suddenly very hot in here. Is this what a panic attack feels like?