Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Warriors May Be Losing Durant With Sloppy Play and No-Change Giants Reach for Redemption

After weeks of winning, the Golden State Warriors have stumbled badly after the All-Star Break.  Each loss was more embarrassing than the last, culminating so far in losing to the lowly Suns.

They sort of did this last year, but this year I detect a difference: it's making Kevin Durant unhappy.  Some of his comments to reporters are downright cynical.  It's likely the Dubs had a good chance of retaining Durant, but unless things change for the rest of the season, they're apt to lose him this summer, simply because playing for the Warriors may not be fun anymore.  The joy isn't there.  He may look for it elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the San Francisco Giants are playing pre-season baseball, having made no big trades or acquisitions in the off-season.  Mainly they have a team of players who had bad years last year and are aching for redemption.  Maybe that will turn out to be a good thing, in Bruce Bochy's last season.

They lost out to the Phillies on obtaining Bryce Harper, but that may not turn out to be much of a loss.  Harper is volatile, a me first player who seems like he might turn out to be a bad teammate, and could very well crash and burn long before his ridiculously long contract is up.  That he made his decision to not play in San Francisco partly because of California taxes tells me that baseball and community are not competitive values in his world.  He's not Giants material.