"The Stack" 2-24-17
Dale Earnhardt Jr. makes his return to the track for the Daytona 500 on Sunday. He missed 18 races I believe last year due to a concussion. It will be nice to see him behind the wheel. Daytona 500 is Sunday on FOX.
John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
The Stack is back on this Friday and we close the week out with again not too many headlines to go over. Next week begins what we hope is our insane run of about three straight weeks with a blog post. Now then, let’s get right to it and see what’s in “the stack” for today, Friday, February 24th:
NBA trade deadline comes and goes
So all of that fanfare regarding the NBA trade deadline sure turned out to be a dud. It was really quite boring on Thursday. Sure there were several trades that happened, but no one big move. Paul George stayed put. Derrick Rose stayed put. The biggest name to move was Nerlens Noel who was traded from Philadelphia to Dallas for guard Justin Anderson, center Andrew Bogut and a 2017 protected first round pick. That is a pretty solid trade for the Mavericks. Hopefully Noel can stay healthy. The other big trade of the day happened between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls sent Doug McDermott and Taj Gibson to OKC along with an unprotected 2018 second round pick for forward Joffrey Lauvergne and guards Anthony Morrow and Cameron Payne. I’d say the Thunder easily won this trade and the only way this works out for the Bulls is if Payne can show that he can be a consistent starting point guard in the league. The other trades of the day included:
The Los Angeles Lakers traded guard Marcelo Huertas to the Houston Rockets for guard Tyler Ennis and the draft rights to guard/forward Brad Newley.
The Rockets traded forward K.J. McDaniels to the Brooklyn Nets for cash considerations.
The Atlanta Hawks traded forward Mike Scott to the Phoenix Suns for a 2017 second round pick, rights to guard Cenk Akyol and cash consderations.
The Suns traded forward P.J. Tucker to the Toronto Raptors for forward Jared Sullinger and two second round picks, one this year and one next year.
The Denver Nuggets traded for Milwaukee Bucks center Roy Hibbert in exchange for a protected 2019 second round pick.
The Rockets and Lakers did another swap with guard Lou Williams coming to the Rockets for guard Corey Brewer and a 2017 first round pick.
So that’s it. The Boston Celtics stood pat. The Indiana Pacers didn’t do anything. Perhaps by not doing anything it will benefit these two organizations. After Sunday and even Wednesday, there just wasn’t a whole lot that materialized on Thursday.
Daytona 500 pick
The Great American race kicks off the 2017 NASCAR season and this is the only time this year most likely you will hear me talk NASCAR in this blog. Yes it’s Daytona 500 time. Chase Elliott won the pole. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was second. It is so nice to see him back out on the track after last season with his scary concussion symptoms. For that reason alone, I would like to see him win. Just no big crashes, no injuries and no deaths. The race is Sunday on FOX.
Quickly before we go, DeMarcus Cousins made his New Orleans Pelicans debut last night and the Pelicans promptly lost to the Houston Rockets 129-99. Cousins and Anthony Davis scored a combined 56 points. This is going to be a problem for the Pelicans this season because they really don’t have anyone else other than them that can score consistently. They need a point guard like Chris Paul. And maybe a couple of other players. But Cousins and Davis together is a start.
Coming up next week: Reaction to the big headlines from the sports world
