Big sports weekend and SU is here to comment on the latest:

First, I must say I laughed out loud when I just read this headline on espn.com: “Nets Swoop in to Sign Bargnani Ahead of the Kings.”  Er, as in Andreas Bargnani of your New York Knicks?  Surely it was a day off in Brooklyn and the office was close and one of the interns sneaked into the GM’s office and pulled a fast one.  Some people will never learn.  SU says good luck on that one.

SU watched the Djokovic – Federer final today and it was as expected great tennis.  SU knew that Federer could not replicate his serving success from Friday against Murray and that Djokovic would raise his level of play.  It was high quality tennis and Federer likely beats anyone else today based on how he played.  SU continues to maintain that Djokovic will be in the conversation of “Greatest of All Time” when his career is all said and done.  Watching Djokovic is, right now, my favorite sports viewing event of any sport.  Federer had 99% of the fans on his side today and Djokovic was able to tune that out for the most part.  In fact, in the last 3 games, he grew angry with a couple of hecklers which seemed to only motivate him to raise his game to an even higher level as he ran away with it in the end.  Great stuff.

The Yankees finally, finally, finally (did I say finally?) brought up Rob Refsnyder to play second base to replace Stephen Drew over the weekend in Boston.  Clearly, this was a difficult decision as Drew was nearing the .180 mark for the season and Cashman did not want to slow his momentum.  All Yankee fans in unison said, “Refsnyder, please don’t suck this weekend.”  And lo and behold, he didn’t!  in fact, today he collected his first hit, first homerun and first error on an errant throw from Miller in the 9th inning.  The Yankees have 4 days now to figure out what to do.  Clearly, this is a tough decision.  Do you finally play a youngster who is ready to take the next step and at the same time energize the snoozing Yankee faithful?  Or do you say, good job kid, we will make a note of this and see if you should be recalled in August or September?  Surely, this is a no-brainer.  Some team out there needs Stephen Drew for the 2nd half of the season.  He only makes $5 million this year.  The time has come to inject youth and enthusiasm into the line up.  SU will be watching.

Jordan Spieth wins yet another tournament and comes into the British Open red hot.  He is making the fans forget about Tiger Woods.  It’s great to have a young American to root for as well.  We will see how he handles the pressure overseas.

In case you weren’t watching, Porzingis made his debut for the Knicks in Las Vegas and was pretty good.  Again, something to get excited about – a youngster finding his way.  Enough of the boring veterans.  If he can stay healthy (and that is not a given), something to look forward to in November.

Finally, the Mets enter the All-Star Break in 2nd place – 2 games out of first behind the Nats.  Could we have 2 NY playoff teams this year?

SU has been following the DeAndre Jordan saga.  He had a handshake deal with the Mavericks for $80 million over 4 years and then had 2nd thoughts about perhaps returning to the Clippers.  He was not feeling the love from Chris Paul and the Clippers made a house call to Houston to change his mind.  Mark Cuban of the Mavs flew to Houston but didn’t know where Jordan lived plus apparently Blake Griffin had barricaded the door to the house.  The Clippers brass and players stayed until midnight last night which is when teams can officially sign free agents.  You can’t make this stuff up.

SU says it’s a bad precedence.  Look: the road is littered with teams that are spurned by free agents (see your NY Knicks for the past 700 years).  But if a player agrees to sign with a team, and then that team starts to make other moves given that “agreement”, it’s really not fair to then back out like this.  And there is likely a ripple effect on other teams that made moves as a reaction to what Dallas was doing with their other players.  Jordan was not even man enough to talk to Mark Cuban to explain himself.  Dallas had already let Tyson Chandler leave and is now a mish mosh of players that look like the Knicks roster from last season.  The NBA may need to reconsider this moratorium period and just let players sign after some date end of story.

Meanwhile, and more importantly to SU (and likely no one else that reads this), Jeremy Lin has signed a 2-year deal with the Charlotte Hornets.  Per usual, the social media experts were not in the know of what was actually going on here as there were no rumors to this effect.  SU has mulled it over.  Charlotte traded Lance Stephenson (very good as he is a wild man), drafted Frank Kaminsky (okay move) but also has Kemba Walker at the point.  However, it seems likely that Lin and Walker could play together at times.  SU likes the move and is encouraged that the Hornets’ coach wants him there.  Of course in the NBA, you always run the risk of the coach getting fired and Byron Scott being hired to replace him thus ruining your career chances.  SU is officially on board and will re-up for the NBA Season Pass to watch Lin.

Stephen Drew hit another homerun last night thus committing the Yankees to play him for the next 25 games.  That’s how it works with Drew.  Just when you are about to let him go, he hits a homer and you are stuck with him another month.  I can see him playing with the Yankees until he is 47 years old under this scenario.  And now he is even saying that he has been hitting in tough luck with lots of line drives being caught.  SU says when you hit .160 last year and .178 this year, it’s more than “tough luck.”  And by the way, let your manager make that excuse for you – fans don’t want to hear it from him.

Met fans continue to moan and groan but you are half way through the season, in 2nd place, and only 3 games out of 1st place.  You have a great young pitching staff and the Nationals have lots of injuries and are not world beaters.  Ownership just needs to throw the fans a bone now and sign a bat or two.  Surely they can rent a couple of players for half a season right?

SU made its Yankee Stadium debut last night with long-time subscriber J. Levine.  It was a warm, humid night – a good night to lose some weight sweating.  As always, SU has some thoughts to share with the intergalactic subscriber base:

• Before the game and in between innings, the Yankees play a series of video highlight clips from the season to fire up the fans.  It is interesting that A-Rod is nowhere to be seen on any of these.  It’s as if he is not even on the team.  Last time I checked, he was a key cog of the offense and had hit a few milestone homeruns.  I guess because of the Yankees’ ongoing legal battle over his milestone bonuses, they have decided to delete him from any promotional highlights for the fans.  Very odd and very noticeable to SU at least.
• Continuing a proud tradition, no matter what you order at the Stadium to eat, it is $27.50.  And that is the barebones price for your burger, fries and a beer.  It could be a barbecue sandwich or it could be a couple of Nathan’s hot dogs.  SU says it’s always $27.50.  A steal.
• As SU subscriber S. Goldman reported over the weekend, the Stadium is largely dead.  The attendance was 32,000 and change but aside from the loud goings on in between innings, the fans sit back.  No rhythmic clapping with 2 strikes and no batters to get excited about other than A-Rod.  What you feel watching on TV is what you feel at the Stadium.
• The bullpen is very good, the starters generally don’t make it out of the 6th inning and the offense is all or nothing.  They can score via the homerun but no one steals, no one hits and runs and Stephen Drew is always playing.  SU believes they would benefit much more from a younger/lively bat before the trade deadline vs. another starting pitcher.  Paging David Justice.
• Final thought on the Yankees: as a fan, you root for the laundry but you also want to be entertained and excited by your team.  The Met fans out there will say SU is spoiled but this team continues to be dull.  And for me, they are one A-Rod injury away from being unwatchable.

SU has no issue with A-Rod not making the All-Star team.  It’s an exhibition game and he can use the rest at 40 years of age.  It’s fodder for sports talk radio for a week or so but time to move on.

As previously mentioned, SU was totally into the US women’s team’s World Cup Soccer run.  They seemed to play better with each successive round and capped it off last night with their best effort.  For SU, what was most striking was how much of a team these women are.  It’s refreshing after watching months of NBA basketball which as we all know is a player’s league and baseball which is as individual as you can get in a team type sport.  Abby Wambach, arguably the best to ever play the sport, doesn’t even start and only gets in for a cameo at the end.  Doesn’t complain, supports her teammates.  Carli Lloyd gets all the acclaim for the hat trick but even non-fans like SU can appreciate how good the defense was for the US in this whole tournament.  As a fan, it makes you appreciate the best of sports which is about team effort, chemistry and selflessness.  We do not see it very often and you have to enjoy the moment.

There will be much talk about how this will boost women’s soccer in the US at the professional level and there will be buzz for a couple of weeks but as in 1999, it’s very hard to get people interested for a sustained period.  That day may come but we are years and years away from it.  SU will enjoy this for the moment.

As the MLB trade deadline approaches, you have to think that Brian Cashman will finally pull the plug on Stephen Drew.  SU cannot listen anymore to Joe Girardi say how much tough luck he is hitting in with all his line drives being caught.  I have watched enough at bats.  .180 is .180.  And going back to last year, it’s probably .165 for that time period.  SU would definitely not give up any top prospects to get an established player for this year.  Just bring up your top studs and slot them into the line up.

Stephen Matz had his 2nd strong start for the Mets.  Now for them, they likely need to move one of the young starters for an established bat.  Their fan base needs a pennant or playoff run this year.  Time to increase the payroll.  You can raise the price of beer and hot dogs to cover it.

SU is perplexed why DeAndre Jordan would leave the Clippers just because he doesn’t get along with Chris Paul.  That was a great situation for him with a good, players’ coach and teammates in their prime.  Surely the money would have been close.  Of course, no one has ever accused NBA free agents of making the right decisions (see Melo in NY).  Jeremy LIn is now heavily rumored to be coming to Dallas.  That will be a great spot for him and he could start there.  That will be SU’s team to follow for 2015-16.  I will save you all seats on the bandwagon.

The dust has pretty much settled for many of the NBA bigger name free agents.  D’andre Jordon is going to Dallas and apparently that triggers a move where the Knicks will sign Robin Lopez for something like $12 million a year for 4 years.  Say what??  That is the big name free agent signing?  The Knicks are apparently looking to beef up their defense but the way SU sees it, they are going to be average 72 points a game next season.  This is embarrassing.  SU officially gives the ok for Melo to average 35 shots a game next season.  I mean, who else can even score on this roster?

Other names finding a home.  Corey Brewer returns to Houston as does Patrick Beverley.  Richard Jefferson returning to Dallas (SU fave – I know no one else cares).  The most amusing signing of the day has Rajon Rondo going to Sacramento to play with Demarcus Cousins.  It proves that any of us can be an NBA GM.  How do you put a guard who can barely keep it together with a center who is in the same boat?  Unreal.

Clearly, Phil Jackson is not able to attract anyone to the Knicks.  It’s one thing if you are the coach – another if you are the President.  SU says they are striving to get back to the point where they had Amare playing with a bunch of youngsters just before the Melo trade.  Jeremy Lin is still out there and where he lands will be a big factor in who I root for next season.  The Knicks are on the unwatchable list – it’s official now.  OK – enough.  I’ll stop.

Looks like CC has been taken partially out of the rotation.  He will be starting 1 time in the next 15 games it appears.  Girardi is a tough guy.  Except for Jeter, he has not been afraid to do what is best for the team at the expense of some of his former stars’ egos.  The Mets are running on fumes offensively.  It will be interesting to see if ownership decides to move one of the young pitchers to get a bat for this year.

SU just saw this on the ESPN web site:

Arron Afflalo, Knicks agree on 2-year, $16M deal

http://espn.go.com/new-york/nba/story/_/id/13186096/arron-afflalo-new-york-knicks-agree-2-year-16-million-deal

Really?  This is the best they can do?  Clearly trying to follow the Yankees’ model of building a boring team.  As Mark Jackson would say, “Come on Phil.  You can do better than that!”

So, Kevin Love decided to go all in and is signing a long-term deal to stay with Cleveland.  He had his pow-wow with LeBron who no doubt translated his tweet this year when he wrote that Love shouldn’t worry about fitting in but should “fit out.”  Hmmm, seems perfectly clear to me.  So, why is that good for the Knicks?

Carmelo is already dying.  None of the top free agents want to come to NY to play with him.  Love will find that he still doesn’t “fit out” after this season and his agent and others will be whispering in his ear that he needs to be the man and not a complimentary piece.  That will enable Phil Jackson to swap Melo for Love at the end of next season.  LeBron will want his buddy Melo playing with him who at age 32 will finally be aching for that championship ring.  Love is younger and can be a major piece to win in NY.  Equal salary more or less.  SU says it’s a perfect fit.  One year from now you can congratulate SU as being right – yet again.

Note that no-one wants to play with Kobe in LA either.

David West who has been rumored coming to the Knicks put that one to bed as we read this comment on Twitter: “West said the rumors about him going to the Knicks are ridiculous; he wants to be with a contender; the Knicks don’t qualify.”  On to Plan B.  SU says the perfect storm is that Monta Ellis is still out there.  He puts the “hog” in “ball hog.”  How smart was Golden State trading Eliis and keeping Curry when they had both of them a few years ago?  Championships are won and lost on those types of decisions.  The most fun scenario would be that the Knicks sign Ellis in a desperation move to appease Melo, Jackson leaves and Isiah Thomas becomes President.  Then it’s 7 years of famine in the waste land.

SU also saw that Nik Stauskus was traded by Sacramento to the Sixers.  I would like to see a study of how undergraduates have fared in the NBA in terms of longevity, career earnings, productivity.  I know many of them come from nothing and want the money because the risk of major injury is out there in college.  But so many guys get their $1 million rookie deal and then just flounder and drift.  Adam Silver and the NBA are considering a 2-year minimum out of high school now before kids can play in the NBA.  That would be a good thing.

SU is all in on the Women’s World Cup for Team USA.  Last night’s game was quite exciting as they finally played a more offensive style.  They dominated the first half and although half-time was 0-0, they had several scoring chances.  In a single elimination tournament, there is a lot of drama and this game had true end-to-end action.  SU says it’s a worthwhile couple of hours.

We contrast that with watching the Yankees on the West Coast right afterwards.  Apparently, YES Network ratings are down again this year as is road attendance which SU believes is a real indicator of just how boring this year’s team is.  In addition, the Yankees will likely not have an All-star Game starter for the first time in many years.  You can say they are battling for 1st place and are second in the league in runs scored but SU speaks the truth: this is a vanilla, dull, unimaginative team.  Whether they make the playoffs or not is not important.  Brian Cashman needs to get younger and start playing the kids for the future.  If they continue this way, get to the playoffs and lose in the first round, this is not a successful season as you haven’t gotten the younger players into the mix.

The Mets cannot hit but they continue to bring up the young, stud starters which is interesting.  Plus this kid Matz can hit to boot.

Finally, SU has been following some of the NBA free agent rumors and signings.  SU fave Jeremy Lin has made it to the Knick rumor list.  How good would that be?  Melo can tell him that his new contract, whatever it is, is “ridiculous” and of course will show him which corner he should park himself in on offense.  But maybe, just maybe, Derek Fisher would design some plays to have Lin do his pick and roll thing and create some excitement back at MSG.  Why not take a flyer here?  The fans would love it as well.  OK, haters: feel free to hate.

SU is troubled by the Greg Monroe rumors.  I just cannot see this guy as a difference maker.  Same with David West.  If you really want to plan for the future, then go younger and go all in.  But even with sizable cap room, you do not see any of the big name free agents flocking to NY.  And why is that?

Relatively new SU subscriber and frequent commenter Mark N weighs in this morning: “The Knicks have always been planning on rebuilding through free agents anyway so I don’t know what Melo was all cranky about in the first place. If they didn’t take Porzingis who reportedly has the most potential upside which may or may not ever be realized – what was the sure thing he suggest they take in his place? Towns, Russell, and Okafor were already gone and he was reportedly whining about not wanting to play with a rookie PG anyway. Phil is going to be successful based on who he gets to sign in the off season and how they operate in the triangle. Your point on Phil likely telling Melo to dial it back on projecting an air of hopelessness is probably dead on.”

SU has to chuckle on how Melo has apparently done a 180 on his opinion of the Knicks’ 1st round pick.  On Friday, we had Stephen A. Smith, the owner of many inside sources who are right about 23% of the time, say that Melo was outraged – outraged I say!  Then yesterday, Carmelo took to Instragram or some other social media avenue to say the Porzingis pick was a “steal.”

SU interpretation: someone in the Knicks’ brass, maybe Phil, gave him a call to say, “Melo, we are trying to sign free agents to come here and play for the team.  If you describe the situation as hopeless, no-one will come here to play.”  What a concept!  SU believes Melo is furious and frustrated but will toe the party line in order to attract others who might want to play here this coming season.

SU fearless prediction: Melo will tolerate this one more year (and Phil will tolerate it one more year), and then you will see a trade of max players for one another once Durant makes it clear there is no way he is coming here.  Maybe Melo for Blake Griffin?  Something along those lines.

For the record, SU has decided that I am all in on the pick.  He’s young and it’s something different.  The fun as a fan is to watch your young guys develop over time.  We had that happening before the trade with Denver.  SU will tune in to watch this kid and Grant from Notre Dame.  Not the other free agents who will be signed in July and injured by October.

Wimbledon starts tomorrow.  Once again, the draw on the men’s side is so uneven.  Nadal, Federer and Murray are all on one half of the draw.  SU will be rooting for a Djokovic win – figure it will be over Murray in the finals.  Men’s tennis continues to be at the top of my viewing choices these days.

SU has also been watching the women’s World Cup for the US.  It’s great having a former women’s team coach do the color commentary criticizing the current coach.  And according to the other analyst, one of the former women’s team’s players (Foudy?), no US player has committed a foul in the entire tournament.  SU says be a little more objective – please.

Finally, watch out for Tanaka on the Yankees.  He is not throwing his 4-seam fastball.  The end is near.  You can sense something is going on there.  No one will admit it but he just does not look comfortable out there.

Arrrggghhhhh!!!  The Knick fans are dying tonight.  But let’s be honest: no one knows enough about this Latvian kid to know if this will be a major bust or the foundation of the franchise for the next 10 years.  SU has been looking for Carmelo’s tweet to welcome Porzingis to the Knicks.  Instead, he no doubt tweeted in Latvian: “Stand over here while I am jab stepping.”  SU would have liked to see Justice Winslow who dropped to 10th to Miami.  He is a player.  Many on the radio wanted Cauley-Stein from Kentucky.  Say what??  SU was surprised how high Kaminsky went – intereseting.

The Knicks are trading Tim Hardaway Jr. to the Hawks for Jerian Grant from Notre Dame.  Feels like a wash to SU on that deal.  But we know Hardaway Jr. and Melo did not like each other so no surprise there.  Also, rumor is out that the Knicks will sign David West of the Pacers.  34 years old, past his prime, tough guy.  Figure he’ll be healthy for 30 games this season.

Phil Jackson is one of those “smartest guys in the room” type people.  He could have gone safer but at his age and his salary, what the heck!  Apparently lots of NBA GMs like this kid from Latvia.  But SU says this: your franchise player is Carmelo Anthony and is he really going to embrace a 19-year old from Latvia who weighs 109 pounds?  Knick fans do not fret: you are only a couple years away before Isiah Thomas assumes Phil Jackson’s job.

SU has begun the search for a new team to root for next year.  Too many of my Michigan faves are on the move – Hardaway, Trey Burke will supposedly be moved soon.  And where will Jeremy Lin land?  The only certainty for SU is that I will once again need to purchase the NBA Season Pass so I can watch players and teams that I respect and enjoy.  Alas, the Knicks still do not make the cut.

OK Knick fans: what do ya think??????