“SRNY Around NYC” is a periodic feature that highlights all 10 New York metropolitan area sports teams.
The tank is now official, as the Brooklyn Nets have won 2 of their last 10 games. If the season ended today, the Nets would select 6, 22, 25 & 27, with a 9% chancing of winning the lottery to move up from #6 to #1. Of course, Cooper Flagg from Duke is the presumptive first overall pick.
Despite being 2-6-3 in their last 11 games, the New Jersey Devils are still in 2nd place in the Metro Division and 3rd overall in the Eastern Conference, largely fueled by their goaltending and special teams. As a team, the Devils rank 3rd on the power play, 5th in goals against, 7th in save % and 10th on the penalty kill.
Belated credit to former New York Giants GM Dave Gettleman, who controversially bypassed a myriad of QB prospects to select Saquon Barkley second overall in the 2018 NFL Draft. Criticism of the pick was based on the value of a franchise RB vs QB. It took a few years, and a change of uniforms, but Barkley earned MVP consideration this season and has now led his Philadelphia Eagles to the NFC Championship Game.
Scoring has been primary issue for the New York Islanders as they currently rank 27th in the league with just 2.64 goals per game. This is best illustrated with their 26-year-old lead defensemen Noah Dobson who is only averaging 0.51 points per game (ppg) after three consecutive all-star level seasons with 0.65, 0.63 and last year’s 0.89 ppg.
We maintain that the New York Jets are loaded with talent and should be able to attract top candidates for their GM and HC positions. However, you can understand if prospective hires are concerned when they look around the rest of the AFC, and see 7 confirmed franchise QBs under the age of 30: Patrick Mahomes (29), Josh Allen (28), Joe Burrow (28), Lamar Jackson (28), Justin Herbert (26), Tua Tagovailoa (26) and CJ Stroud (23). That list doesn’t include reclamation project Trevor Lawrence (25) and the ascending Drake Maye (22).
The New York Knicks defeated Trae Young’s Atlanta Hawks 119-110 earlier today, giving them their 28th win in their 44 games since adding Karl Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges in the off-season. For perspective, in 2013-14, after adding Lebron James and Chris Bosh, the Miami Heat started the season with 30 wins in the first 44 games.
Three members of the World Champion New York Liberty are playing in Unrivaled; the new 3-on-3 winter league. Sabrina Ionescu with Phantom BC, Courtney Vandersloot and Unrivaled co-founder Breanna Stewart with Mist BC. Unrivaled games are available on TNT, truTV and streaming on Max.
The annual Baseball Hall of Fame announcement comes Tuesday (1/21) with multiple players with New York ties having a good chance to be inducted including Carlos Beltran (839 games with Mets), CC Sabathia (307 games with Yankees), Ichiro Suzuki (360 games with Yankees), and Billy Wagner (183 games with Mets). Wagner, twice an All-Star in his 3+ seasons with the New York Mets, is in his 10th and final year of eligibility and deserves induction. His peer Trevor Hoffman (28 WAR compared to Wagner’s 27.7) made it in only 3 tries.
Alexis Lafreniere scored last night in the New York Rangers 5-4 OT loss to the Montreal Canadians. That’s just the second game in which he has scored in the last 20 games after signing a 7-year, $52.15m contract earlier this year. On the year, he has 26 points (12g, 14a) in 46 games. For comparison purposes, recently exiled Kaapo Kakko has 27 points (8g, 19a) in 45 games.
There’s no doubt that the competitive balance tax in the MLB is not as effective as an actual salary cap, but my fellow New York Yankees fans might want to sit this argument out. It comes off as tone-deaf for the fans of “The Evil Empire” to complain about the Los Angeles Dodgers signing Tanner Scott, Blake Snell, Michael Conforto, Roki Sasaki and Hyeseong Kim a year after signing Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
