Matthew Schmidt Articles - Page 111

The Pittsburgh Steelers may have their No. 1 back in James Conner, but that did not step them from adding some depth in the NFL Draft, selecting Kentucky’s Benny Snell in the fourth round. Snell is not only set to become a key cog in the Steelers’ backfield, but he is also setting out to […]

Earlier in the season, Toronto Raptors big man Serge Ibaka had Kawhi Leonard on as a guest on his “How Hungry are You?” series and posed Leonard the question about whether or not he was going to re-sign, to which Leonard stared blankly. It was obviously a joke, and now, with Leonard’s free-agency decision hanging […]

Kawhi Leonard is basically the final shoe waiting to drop in free agency, and his decision is expected to come soon. As for who will break Leonard’s free-agent decision? Odds Shark has ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski as the favorite, surprise, surprise: Odds to be the first to officially report the Kawhi Leonard signing (Bovada):@Wojespn +125@ShamsCharania +200@TheSteinLine […]

Could Kawhi Leonard end up staying in Toronto after all? ESPN’s Brian Windhorst seems to think so. Windhorst noted that Leonard had talked to Kevin Durant about teaming up this offseason, and the only place that could have happened was on the Los Angeles Clippers. He then added that things seem to be lining up […]

The Jacksonville Jaguars are coming off of an incredibly disappointing 2018 campaign in which they won just five games, one year after making it all the way to the AFC Championship Game. The Jaguars decided to make some big changes this offseason, and they started under center, with Jacksonville replacing Blake Bortles with Nick Foles. […]

The Kansas City Chiefs won 12 games and captured the AFC West division title this past season, making it all the way to the AFC Championship Game before ultimately falling to the New England Patriots. With a young and ridiculously talented quarterback, the Chiefs are looking to improve upon what was a terrific season and […]

Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr did not have his finest hour in 2018, throwing for 4,049 yards, 19 touchdowns and 10 interceptions while the Raiders won just four games. In Carr’s defense, the entire Oakland team was awful this past season, and Carr getting sacked 51 times while sitting behind a horrific offensive line did […]

Let me start this off by saying that I am a Boston Celtics fan. Diehard. Bleed green. All of that jazz. The problem is, many fellow Celtics fans are probably not going to like what I am about to say. It’s about Kyrie Irving. Yes, the guy who is public enemy No. 1 in Boston […]

Going into 2019, we know that Andrew Luck and Drew Brees are two of the league’s elite quarterbacks, and I don’t think anyone is going to dispute that. Both guys put up big numbers and both of their respective teams should be in the running for a Super Bowl this year largely because of them. […]

Shaq Thompson is not exactly a household name, but the linebacker has been a regular on the Carolina Panthers defense since 2015, and just because he is not very well-known does not mean he is not appreciated. Panthers head coach Ron Rivera loves having Thompson around, praising his versatility: “One of the things we’ve seen […]

DeMarcus Cousins and JaVale McGee have generated little to no noise on the free-agent market, but it might not be because teams aren’t interested in them. According to Vincent Ellis of The Detroit Free Press, the feeling around the league is that both Cousins and McGee are waiting on the Los Angeles Lakers before making […]

Kawhi Leonard is supposedly deciding either late Wednesday or on Thursday where he will be playing basketball next season, and no matter what decision he makes, it will set the NBA world ablaze. Either NBA fans will rejoice, or everyone outside of Jack Nicholson and the rest of Lakers nation will hate him for the […]

With NBA free agency season upon us (and really almost passed us), it’s time to do what we all do every year and examine which contracts are the best, and which are the worst. Naturally, we are going to start with the worst, because, you know, of course. To be fair, we do live in […]

NBA free agency has pretty much come and gone, except in the case of Kawhi Leonard, who remains without a decision on July 2, and the reason for the wait may be intentional on the part of Leonard. According to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, Leonard may purposely be keeping the Los Angeles Lakers, Los […]

Ben Simmons is one of the most curious players in the NBA. He is a 6-foot-10 athletic specimen who is actually a point guard in a power forward’s body. He can handle the ball, he can pass, he can rebound and he can guard multiple positions. But at the same time, he has some glaring […]

Orlando Magic big man Mo Bamba has great length and is incredibly athletic, but one area in which he could use some improvement is his strength. Well, apparently, Bamba is hard at work on that and has gained 20 pounds of muscle: “I’m roughly 240 (pounds) now and honestly it feels good to play at […]

The New York Knicks agreed on a two-year deal with big man Bobby Portis at the start of free agency, but apparently, the New York Post thought they were getting a different Washington Wizards player: 🤦🏾‍♂️😂😂😂 real life UNDERDOG — Bobby BP Portis (@BPortistime) July 2, 2019 Knicks fans would have obviously preferred to have […]

I’m not sure there has ever been an NBA free agency period that has come and gone as fast as this year’s. Most of the deals were agreed upon before the period even officially opened at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday, and now, there are only a few loose ends left to tie. This summer […]

Jacob Evans did not exactly see much action during his rookie campaign with the Golden State Warriors this past season, playing in 30 games and averaging just 1.3 points over 6.8 minutes a night. While it’s tough for a first-year player to get playing time on a team as stacked as this past year’s Warriors, […]

The Golden State Warriors are certainly not going to be the same team next season that they were the past few years. Kevin Durant is gone, Andre Iguodala was traded and Klay Thompson is expected to miss most of the season while he recovers from the torn ACL he suffered in the NBA Finals. The […]

The Boston Celtics have agreed to re-sign big man Daniel Theis on a two-year contract worth $10 million, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Theis is coming off a 2018-19 campaign in which he played 66 games and averaged 5.7 points and 3.4 rebounds over 13.8 minutes per game while shooting 54.9 percent from the […]

The idea of DeMarcus Cousins in Boston is certainly interesting, but it does not look like the Celtics want to take the risk. According to Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald, the Celtics are not interested in signing Cousins due to the “potential drama” that the big man could bring with him. Deals for Enes […]

Kemba Walker is changing teams for the first time in his NBA career, as he agreed to a four-year, $141 million deal to join the Boston Celtics, ending his eight-year tenure with the Charlotte Hornets. The Celtics kind of came out of nowhere here, as reports surfaced a couple of days before free agency that […]

The Boston Celtics may have signed Enes Kanter, but they lost Al Horford and Aron Baynes, and with the probable loss of Marcus Morris also on the horizon, it seems safe to say that the Celtics still need frontcourt help. Enter DeMarcus Cousins, who is reportedly set to meet with Boston, along with the Miami […]

The Golden State Warriors may have lost Kevin Durant to free agency, and Klay Thompson may miss most of next season with a torn ACL, but that isn’t stopping Colin Cowherd from picking them to win the Western Conference: Kevon Looney back to Warriors. For now we have a clear Western Conference favorite. Steph, Klay […]

The Phoenix Suns have agreed to sign big man Frank Kaminsky to a two-year, $10 million contract, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Kaminsky is coming off of a 2018-19 campaign with the Charlotte Hornets in which he played 47 games and averaged 8.6 points and 3.5 rebounds over 16.1 minutes per game while shooting […]

There was some belief that Kyrie Irving could reunite with LeBron James by joining the Los Angeles Lakers this summer, but it’s looking like that was never even a possibility. According to Joe Vardon of The Athletic, Irving and James spoke after the season ended, but during those talks, James never tried to convince Irving […]

Kevin Durant may no longer be a member of the Golden State Warriors, but his impact on the Warriors will be forever remembered, and Dubs owner Joe Lacob is immortalizing Durant by announcing that no Golden State player will ever wear the No. 35 again in a statement: “As long as I am co-chairman of […]

The Sacramento Kings have agreed to sign big man Richaun Holmes to a two-year, $10 million contract, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic. Holmes spent the 2018-19 campaign with the Phoenix Suns, playing in 70 games and averaging 8.2 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.1 blocks over 16.9 minutes per game while shooting 60.8 percent […]

On Monday, the Portland Trail Blazers came out of left field in acquiring Hassan Whiteside in a trade with the Miami Heat, sending back Maurice Harkless and Meyers Leonard in return. So, what exactly are the Blazers doing here? I understand that Jusuf Nurkic is recovering from a gruesome broken leg injury, but by all […]

The Charlotte Hornets lost star point guard Kemba Walker to the Boston Celtics in free agency on Sunday evening, a move that was expected for a few days. On Monday, Hornets owner Michael Jordan and general manager Mitch Kupchak released a statement on Walker, thanking him for everything he has done for the organization: “On […]

The Dallas Mavericks have agreed to re-sign big man Maxi Kleber to a four-year, $35 million contract, according to Marc Stein of The New York Times. The deal includes a team option for the fourth year. Kleber is coming off a 2018-19 campaign in which he played 71 games and made 18 starts, averaging 6.8 […]

The New York Knicks have agreed to sign point guard Elfrid Payton to a two-year, $16 million contract, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadiumc. The second year of the deal is a team option, per The Athletic’s Michael Scotto, matching a bunch of the other deals the Knicks have made to start […]

The Houston Rockets have agreed to a two-year deal with guard Austin Rivers, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. The deal includes a player option on the second year. The Rockets picked Rivers up off waivers back in December. He proceeded to play in 47 games for Houston, averaging 8.7 points and 2.3 assists over […]

The Utah Jazz have had a very busy offseason, first trading for Mike Conley and then agreeing to sign Bojan Bogdanovic and Ed Davis in free agency. For a team that had very limited talent outside of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, these are obviously big moves. The Conley trade made them much more relevant, […]

Charles Barkley has always made it abundantly clear that he is not a fan of star players teaming up to play with one another, and on ESPN First Take on Monday morning, he doubled down on that statement: "I'm sick of these guys stacking their team … I hate the super team." —Charles Barkley pic.twitter.com/tfe0HWRD0t […]

Kevin Durant agreed to sign with the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday evening, and while his departure from the Golden State Warriors was a move that many felt coming for a while, his decision to leave the franchise with which he won his first two NBA championships was still jarring. However, Durant’s former teammate with the […]

Yes, the Boston Celtics agreed to sign star point guard Kemba Walker as free agency opened up on Sunday evening, but as great as Walker is and as much as he will bring to the locker room, the move felt hollow. Not because Walker would be replacing Kyrie Irving, who agreed to join the Brooklyn […]

The Utah Jazz have made numerous significant additions this offseason, and Charles Barkley is loving what they are doing, saying on ESPN First Take that the Jazz “might be the most improved team in the league.” For context, Barkley noted how Kevin Durant, who agreed to sign with the Brooklyn Nets, would be missing the […]