Paul George to Oklahoma City Thunder

If you don't know, the Thunder made a trade that made them title contenders. Now they probably can't make it past the Warriors or Spurs but Paul George is a great player. Here are my predictions for the 2017-18 season.

The Trade

Domontas Sabonis                            Paul George          

                                For     

Victor Oladipo

Pros 

Pacers
I am a Thunder fan and I loved Domontas Sabonis and still do. I feel like with age he can be a knock down three-point shooter. If he gets a starting roll (which I think should happen) he could become the face of the franchise. His passing is outstanding and now that he is not playing with Russell Westbrook he should be able to have the ball in his hands more. Victor Oladipo is a Shooting Guard that does what a Point Guard should. Lucky for him he plays in Indiana where he went to college and the Pacers could use a ball dominant scorer like him. I think his defense can and will improve since he doesn't have to do half of Westbrook's defensive work while Westbrook did half the teams offensive work.

Thunder
Paul George is a Super Star that does not have to have the ball in his hands 100% of the time. You cannot pair any Super Star with Westbrook and expect it to work out. Westbrook needs the ball in his hands and hunts for shots. That would drive someone crazy. Paul George loves to catch and shoot threes and is good at it. Russell understands that if he wants a chance at a title he needs to pass to Paul George. Paul George also gives them defense at the wing that they need. Andre Roberson is probably the best defensive player in the game but provides little to no offense. Paul George is the perfect solution.

Records

Pacers        Thunder

35-47          52-30

Pacers
Paul George is the only reason Indiana has been relevant for the past few years but Victor Oladipo and Myles Turner could prove to be a deadly duo. Sabonis is going to help them to the playoffs in the next few seasons.

Thunder
Paul George is a shooter. Russell carried them to 46 wins last year and Paul George is exactly what they need. A shooter who plays good defense. Paul George is capable of  adding 6 wins to the team

Predictions: 2017 L.A. Rams Season, Part III

In the last post, we looked at the L.A. Rams games for weeks 5 - 9.  This time around, we address weeks  10 - 13.   

Week 10: Houston Texans at L.A. Rams

The Texans were a force to be reckoned with last year after spending considerable time without JJ Watt.  He’s back and supposedly healthier than he has been in a while.  This defense was the real deal last year without him for 13 games!  If he is truly healthy and is a return to form, look out AFC!  And, look out Rams in Week 10!!

Advantage Texans.

 

Week 11: L.A. Rams at Minnesota Vikings

This is the game when Sam Bradford will seek (and find!) his revenge on a Rams team who sported a crappy offense and nearly got the young man killed while playing in St. Louis!  The Viking players are said to LOVE playing behind Sammy, and therefore, I think the Vikings are going to rip an unsuspecting Rams team to shreds…

 

Week 12: New Orleans Saints at L.A. Rams

Drew Brees will set many new NFL records this year, and deservedly so!  He’s great and Miami screwed up royally when they declared his shoulder “unhealthy”. 

All that being said, their defense is a MESS!  I think the Rams defense is good enough to hold a hot Saints offense to only being good, but I think the Rams offense, especially the running game, will be good enough to outscore the Saints.

 

Week 13: L.A. Rams at Arizona Cardinals

This time, these two teams meet on American soil and I still don’t see the outcome as different unless Carson Palmer is injured and they’re starting a back-up.  They’ve got Trevor Knight, Drew Stanton and Blaine Gabbert as the folks behind Palmer.   I think the Rams front 7 gives every single one of those gentlemen some serious problems! 

Rams sweep the Cards this year!




So after this installment, the Rams, according to my nearly expert predictions, will be sitting at 7 - 5, which is quite impressive compared to recent years..

Again, I say, Ugh...

Predictions: 2017 L.A. Rams Season, Part II

In the last post, we looked at the L.A. Rams games for weeks 1 - 4.  This time around, we address weeks 5 - 9, which includes their bye week.  

No time for delays! Lets get to it! 

Week 5: Seattle Seahawks at L.A. Rams

If this game was at Seattle, I’d pick Seattle, however, it’s not!  It’s a “Rams” home game at the coliseum and my belief is that the Rams are coming off of a loss, after three straight wins to start the season.  I think they’re confident and a bit cocky at this point on top of the fact that they’ve fared well against Seattle under Jeff Fisher.  If you go back 12 seasons to 2005, the last 24 games were settled as such:  Seattle 18 :  Rams 6

However, if you go back to the 2012 season, it’s a split series at 5 and 5.  Quite a difference!

If you really want to cherry pick data, start at the 2014 season and the Rams step up to 4 to 2!

On top of that,  if the press is to be believed, there’s still some internal strife going on in Seattle from the Superbowl loss to the Patriots when everybody in the entire galaxy knows that they should have given the ball to Marshawn Lynch instead of throwing what would be a game clinching pick.  I don’t believe that they are healed of this event yet.

So, with a new coaching staff, and therefore, a whole new methodology, I’m not confident at all in this game, but I’m going to go with the home team.

Week 6: L.A. Rams at Jacksonville Jaguars

I’m not sure what the actual stats are for teams that travel across the country are, but I know that the Rams weren’t a great traveling team, and that was from when they were based in the middle of the freakin’ country!!  It seems like they did better traveling West than they did East, but they weren’t stellar whichever direction they went. 

I’m going Jacksonville for that reason alone…  Well that reason and I feel like Jacksonville was starting to put things together last year and I think they’ll continue.

Week 7: Arizona Cardinals at L.A. Rams (London)

This is a tough one.  In talking about the Jacksonville game, I said that the Rams don’t travel well.  London would certainly qualify as some BIG travel!  During the Fisher era of the Rams, it was well known and documented that the Bruce Arians (Cardinals Head Coach) despises the Rams and the Rams didn’t think much of them either!  Both teams are traveling roughly the same distance, so what’s the difference in this one?  An aging Cardinals team in two of the skilled positions (QB & WR) in Carson Palmer (38) and Larry Fitzgerald (34). 

Don’t get me wrong, I would still gladly take Fitz on the Rams at 34 years old, as he would be an instant upgrade to the Rams receiving core, however, with the 38 year old Palmer getting the ball to him, I don’t buy it. 

And don’t get me wrong again,  Carson Palmer has been a very good/great QB for 13 years now (a couple of off years in there…) and still threw for over 4200 yards last year, starting 15 games.  His TD’s declined from 2015 while his INT’s increased for the last two seasons.

I told you this was a tough one…  I’ve really made no good arguments and I’m back to the beginning.  I think the Rams will pull this one out with the fresh stamp of Wade Phillips on an offense with an aging QB and star WR. 

Or something…

Week 8: Bye Week  -  Rams WON’T lose!

Week 9: L.A. Rams at N.Y. Giants

Traveling.  Have I mentioned how the Rams travel?  The good news is that the Rams are coming off of a bye week after the trip abroad.  That being said, the Giants are also coming off of a bye after playing in New York in week 7 in the afternoon game, against Seattle. 

Advantage:  Giants.

So at the end of this post, we’re sitting at the halfway point and more importantly, I think the Rams are sitting at 5-3.   Which means they’re slipping…   Ugh!

Predictions: 2017 L.A. Rams Season, Part I

It’s fun making predictions.  And for the most part, relatively harmless unless you’re a meteorologist and miss a BIG storm that damages much and causes great discombobulation (that's a John Madden term!  :-)  )  to the local masses.   

Other than that, predictions gone wrong are mocked for a brief time and then forgotten.  Sent down the proverbial pipe into the bit-bucket,  never to be mentioned again...  

Unless, of course, they’re saved because some goofy dude, feeling highly confident at the time of writing, posted them to the world-wide-interwebs for all to see!

So that’s exactly what I’m going to do for the 2017 L.A. Rams schedule.  Hopefully, I won’t come off as a simple “homer”.  I will provide a bit of thought as to why I predicted as I did and we’ll move closer to my public shaming as we wait for all three people to read it…

Lets get this thing moving. 

Week 1: Indianapolis Colts at L.A. Rams

I picked the Rams to win this one for a few reasons.  The biggest being that I’m typing this up late on Sunday night, July 2^nd and to date, Andrew Luck, the Colts QB, has still NOT thrown a ball since his shoulder surgery in January 2017.  That’s a big deal since he plays behind a truly offensive offensive line.  In that aspect, his career sort of resembles that of David Carr who took a crazy beating behind a porous Texas O-line and set a record for number of sacks endured.

2^nd reason is that the Colts defense in 2016 wasn’t anything to be proud of either!  My thinking is that the Rams improved O-line will press the D-line of the Colts and allow for good running lanes for Gurley, taking the pressure off of Goff.  

The Rams defensive front seven will have a field day against the Colts O-line.  I'm thinking it may even be a smart thing by the Colts to start Scott Tolzien in place of Luck for week 1.

Week 2:  Washington Redskins at L.A. Rams

The Redskins play a home game against the Eagles in week 1, so no big advantage is to be had there, other than they travel across the country in week 2 to play in L.A.  

I also think the Rams hold an advantage over the Redskins since McVay was the O-coordinator there for the last 3 years and as a result of that, knows a good bit about what the Reds’ do on defense.

The Redskins additions of two receivers in particular, are notable;  Terrelle Pryor and Bryan Quick.  Pryor will pay dividends for QB Kirk Cousins and has the ability to absolutely TORCH the Rams secondary.  But then there's Quick. As Rams fans know, he will shave off many benefits that any other receiver adds to the team by dropping balls and running incomplete routes.

Advantage to the at-home Rams.

Week 3: L.A. Rams at San Francisco 49’ers

In the 2016 season, the Niners won two games…  both of those games were against the Rams!  So, if there was any sort of confidence, I have to only remember that and I will quite quickly, come falling back to Earth.

This is one of many non-sense laden Thursday night games.  In week 2, the Niners play up North in Seattle so no big travel advantage for either team here.

I really don't know what to think, but as a SWAG, I will go with a win for the Rams even though I think the Niners had a great off-season with some amazing talent acquisitions.  

However, I don’t think it will all be “put together” by week 3, but the same could be said for the Rams... 

I don't know!!  I'm going Rams.  

Deal with it.

Week 4: L.A. Rams at Dallas Cowboys

Yikes!  This is going to be a bloodbath in my opinion.   

The newly minted Rams will be feeling all salty and confident coming off of three straight wins, only to run into the charging rhinoceros of my previously predicted Superbowl Champion Dallas Cowboys!   

The Cowboys play Arizona, in Arizona, on Monday Night Football in week 3 so there's that.  However, that's not a big travel burden and should have zero impact on this game.

Even though the Cowboys will be showcasing the 2^nd year starters Prescott and Elliot, the experience those two gained in year one will be WAY too much for the Rams, and this will be embarrassing.

So, thru week four,  my best guess is that the mighty Rams will be sitting at 3-1.  That sounds like a glorious and wondrous thing, right? 

Well, not so fast, they had exactly that same record last year, and then went 11-1 the remainder of the year… 


In my next post, we'll observe the next 4 games in the Rams schedule and determine just how miserable I'll need to be during weeks 4 - 8.