Le Journal

The Houston Rockets are one of the few teams that have a real shot to challenge for an NBA title this year. With a 25-15 record, they are currently fifth in the West, but are within shouting distance of the 2-seed. Evidently, Houston seems to have gotten its roster just about right. The Rockets have a phenomenal young core with Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson, and Jabari Smith Jr. They’re one of the best defensive teams in the league, and they rebound the hell out of the ball. Houston already pushed all their chips into the middle this past summer, trading for Kevin Durant. But then, injuries have played such a major role in shaping the race for the Larry O’Brien trophy. We saw it last year when Jayson Tatum blew out his Achilles in the playoffs, and then Tyrese Haliburton suffered the same injury in Game 7 of the Finals. The Rockets caught the injury bug, too, as Fred VanVleet tore his ACL just before the season started. It was a huge blow, but this is a deep team that has recovered well. Reed Sheppard has been streaky but effective, and Houston’s depth has carried them through. Still, it would be nice to have another point guard to help them in their pursuit of a title. Dwyane Wade proffered an answer during Amazon Prime’s telecast this weekend. He suggested that the Rockets should go after Chris Paul, who currently doesn’t have a team after being unceremoniously let go by the Clippers. “They need an organizer. They need a quarterback, they need a conductor. They need a guy who can get guys in their spots, they need a guy who can play with bigs — they got Sengun, they got Adams,” Wade said of the Rockets. “Chris Paul [is] out there. They need a veteran. They need a guy who doesn’t need to score… These are all the things that Chris Paul does very well.” On today’s episode of No Fouls Given, Danny Green and Paul Pierce debated the merits of bringing Paul to Houston. “I don’t dislike it,” Green said, even though he called it “a banana boat push.” Green was referring to the infamous banana boat group that included Paul, Wade, LeBron James, and Carmelo Anthony. “CP is a good, high-intelligence player,” Green continued. “For any group, I think he can help and be a veteran. I don’t think it’s a bad move, I don’t think he needs to play major minutes.” Pierce was open to the move, but he doubts whether it could be a real difference maker. “I don’t think it hurts them,” he said. “But is it the missing piece? It doesn’t put them over the top to say, ‘Oh, you got CP now, I think you can compete with the Thunder, the Nuggets, and the Spurs,’ it doesn’t do that. But I think it helps them,” added Pierce. The Rockets will only make that move if they really feel that Paul can be a positive influence on the team. They would be all the more careful, looking at the weird way in which Paul’s tenure with the Clippers ended. No one knows the truth of it or who’s really at fault. But Paul reportedly clashed with coaches over accountability and leadership style. As things stand, the Rockets have a good thing going and wouldn’t want to risk that. Paul would be a low-cost option if they went that route, but with the trade deadline approaching, they could also make a bigger move for a point guard. They also might just stand pat and trust that Sheppard and Thompson can continue to grow. They could also be hoping that VanVleet might make it back for the playoffs. The post “Doesn’t Put Them Over the Top”: Paul Pierce Gives His Two Cents on Chris Paul to Rockets Chatter appeared first on The SportsRush.

L’OM vient de frapper un coup inattendu sur ce mercato hivernal. Les dirigeants phocéens sont parvenus à conclure un accord avec Quinten Timber de Feyernoord. Mercato OM : Accord conclu avec Quinten Timber Décidemment, l’Olympique de Marseille est capable de surprendre ses concurrents directs sur le mercato. Le club phocéen a récemment devancé Lyon et Séville afin de s’attacher les services de Himad Abdelli. L’OM doit à présent s’accorder avec Angers afin de finaliser cette transaction. Tous les regards se tournent donc vers l’issue des négociations entre les deux écuries. Mais voilà que la direction de l’OM a conclu un dossier d’envergure en toute discrétion. Le célèbre journaliste Fabrizio Romano le confirme, le club phocéen est en passe de faire venir Quinten Timber. Un accord verbal ayant été scellé la direction olympienne et le milieu de terrain de 24 ans. Cette annonce marque un marquant majeur dans le mercato de l’OM. Lire aussi : Mercato FC Nantes : Accord bouclé pour Quinten ? Quinten Timber arrive en fin de contrat en juin prochain avec Feyenoord. Et malgré diverses sollicitations, son choix était déjà fait. L’international néerlandais souhaite quitter son pays natal afin de relever un nouveau deal à Marseille. Le projet porté par Pablo Longoria et Medhi Benatia l’a visiblement convaincu. Des négociations avancées avec Feyenoord Quinten Timber manifeste une volonté ferme de rejoindre l’Olympique de Marseille durant ce mercato hivernal. Ce qui facilite les discussions pour son transfert. Sachant que la direction de Feyenoord devra le vendre afin d’éviter qu’il parte gratuitement au terme de la saison en cours. https://twitter.com/eurofootcom/status/2013191123926163666 La source ajoute que les négociations entre les Olympiens et le club batave sont très avancées. Un accord économique devrait être trouvé sous peu. Le montant exact de ce transfert n’a pas encore filtré. Mais Pablo Longoria et ses hommes sont bien partis pour réaliser un véritable coup de maître sur ce mercato. Lire la suite sur l'OM : Coup de balai à l’OM : Un deuxième départ officialisé ! Mercato OM : Benatia dégote un nouveau crack argentin Mercato : Le signe fort d’Abdelli à l’OM qui affole Marseille

Putting together an NBA roster is part science and part art. It’s also part luck, because there are so many variables at play that are not in the team’s control. NBA general managers need to have a Plan A, a Plan B, and a few other backups just in case their best-laid plans fail. That’s especially true when it comes to dealing with star players. Well, as far as the stars are concerned, along with the teams, other players who are moved around with them are also left in the lurch. But then, more than any other team sport, stars matter in the NBA. They drive the conversation, they sell the shoes, and most importantly, it’s nearly impossible to win big without them. The Toronto Raptors understood that better than most when they traded for Kawhi Leonard in the summer of 2018. The move wasn’t an easy one to make… It meant sending away longtime Raptor DeMar DeRozan. However, it paid off less than 11 months later when Toronto won its first NBA title. Kawhi had already won a title in San Antonio, and he was the best two-way player in the league at that point. However, the Raptors knew that they only had him for one season. His contract was expiring, and it was an open secret that he wanted to go to L.A. to play for either the Lakers or the Clippers. Since Kawhi was the biggest prize on the free agent market, the rest of the league came to a virtual standstill. Teams awaited his decision. That left other players in an uncertain flux, including Danny Green. The small forward had come to Toronto with Kawhi, and his contract was also up. As much as he would have liked to stay, the decision was out of his hands. “I would have liked to run it back,” Green said on the most recent episode of No Fouls Given. “[The Raptors] didn’t have the money. They were only going into the tax for one guy, and it wasn’t Danny Green.” Though the Raptors tried keep Kawhi in Toronto, he ended up with the Clippers. Of course, the legitimacy of that move has been in question since Pablo Torre uncovered the Aspiration scandal. Still, it meant that the Raptors and Green both had to pivot. Once the Kawhi domino fell, so did the rest of the league. “Everybody was waiting on Kawhi; once he made his decision, everybody knew where everybody else was going,” Green said. “So all the things were negotiated at that point. Everybody was just waiting for that to happen.” When Kawhi spurned the Lakers to go to the Clippers, that opened the door for Green to put on the purple and gold, which he said was his first choice. “I would have been in Dallas,” he said if the Lakers had signed Kawhi. “It made sense for everybody to wait for Kawhi, ’cause then you could kind of see where the chips were going to go.” The move ended up working out for Green. The Lakers raised their offer to match what the Mavericks had on the table. And, after Green took it, he went on to pull off his own personal back-to-back as he won the 2020 title alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Kawhi’s decision was a huge sliding doors moment, not just for himself and for Green, but for the entire NBA. Who knows what would have happened if he had stayed in Toronto or gone to the Lakers? But for Green at least, everything turned out great. The post “They Were Only Going to the Tax for 1 Guy”: Danny Green Explains Why He Left Toronto After Winning 2019 Championship appeared first on The SportsRush.

Proche de finaliser le transfert de Dro Fernandez en provenance du Barça pour 6 millions d’euros, le PSG serait également positionné sur les traces d’un défenseur central de calibre mondial du côté de la Serie A. Explications. Mercato : Le PSG suit un cadre de l’Inter Milan Alors que le mercato hivernal était annoncé calme du côté du PSG, Luis Enrique est parvenu à convaincre le milieu offensif du Barça, Dro Fernandez, pour une arrivée avant la fermeture du marché. Sous contrat jusqu’en 2027, le joueur de 18 ans a donné son accord pour cette nouvelle aventure et informé ses dirigeants de sa décision de rejoindre les rangs du Paris SG dès cet hiver. D’après les informations de RMC Sport, le club de la capitale règle désormais les éléments administratifs pour pouvoir lever la clause libératoire de Dro Fernandez, soit 6 millions d’euros. Lisez aussi : Le Barça minimise le transfert de Dro Fernandez au PSG ! « Le jeune milieu a annoncé à ses coéquipiers qu’il allait jouer pour le Paris Saint-Germain », assure le journaliste Fabrice Hawkins. Après cet exploit, le Champion de France en titre prépare déjà le prochain mercato de l’été avec en ligne de mire un cadre de l’Inter Milan. Le Paris SG surveille de près Alessandro Bastoni Trois ans après l’épisode Milan Skriniar, le PSG regarde encore au sein de l’effectif de l’Inter Milan. Alors que Marquinhos tend vers la sortie et qu’Ilya Zabarnyi peine encore à convaincre, les dirigeants parisiens souhaitent recruter un défenseur central de calibre mondial dans les mois à venir. Dans cette optique, le choix de Luis Campos semble se porter sur Alessandro Bastoni. En effet, d’après les informations relayées par l’Insider Ekrem Konur, le conseiller sportif du Paris Saint-Germain aurait coché le nom du joueur de l’Inter pour l’été prochain. Encore sous contrat jusqu’en juin 2028, l’international italien ne sera pas bradé, puisque les Nerazzuri réclameraient au moins 80 millions d’euros pour le laisser partir. Lisez aussi : Champions League: Le PSG au Portugal avec une grosse absence À 26 ans révolus, Alessandro Bastoni dispose déjà d’une solide expérience du plus haut niveau et pourrait se laisser tenter par une nouvelle aventure sous les ordres de Luis Enrique, qui rêverait de l’associer à Willian Pacho. Mais le PSG devra se montrer très convaincant pour battre la concurrence du Bayern Munich, Manchester City, FC Barcelone, Real Madrid, Liverpool et Chelsea sur ce coup. Mais le club de Nasser Al-Khelaïfi a les finances qu’il faut et donc ce dossier s’annonce agité dans les mois à venir. Lire la suite sur le PSG Mercato PSG : Une bonne nouvelle tombe pour Luis Campos ! PSG-OM : La déclaration de Ekitike qui ne va pas plaire à Paris PSG : Luis Enrique lâche une annonce forte sur son avenir

Ross Chastain got the unique opportunity to be on-site at the ‘Roar Before the 24’ test sessions in Daytona over the weekend. He made a surprise appearance at the venue and toured Action Express Racing’s Whelen Cadillac set-up. Chastain, who was a guest of General Motors and Action Express Racing, made some interesting observations. He admitted that while he had seen the IMSA events from up close, getting to the pit box and watching the conversations first-hand was a different experience altogether. The Trackhouse Racing driver then pointed out how quickly the team and the racers are in terms of operations: A driver had been ready ahead of time after a red flag came out for a stalled car. Chastain said that he could take some cues from the speed with which they worked. “It was interesting to see the depth of the team and ask Connor [Zilisch], probably, some silly questions. But it’s just some stuff that I never learned,” elaborated Chastain. “It was just cool to learn about. We could be in this very pit stall for the Daytona 500 next month, and it doesn’t compare at all to this, which is good in our respective series,” he added. Zilisch, who will join Chastain in the Trackhouse Racing garage this season, drove on the track before the Rolex 24. The 19-year-old was also part of the official test session. Zilisch also made his GTP debut in a one-off drive with the Action Express Racing Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R. He relished the opportunity to teach his teammate the ropes of sports car racing. “It was cool to show Ross kind of where I came from, and he loves racing and just wants to see the different disciplines and see how teams do things differently from what we do at Trackhouse Racing,” said Zilisch. Of course, Chastain has seen this kind of setup already, and Zilisch is aware of that. But he underlined that things are a bit different in the IMSA and with Cadillac. The entire exchange left behind one question: Will Chastain become the next Cup Series star to be a part of the Rolex 24? He told RACER magazine that he is interested in participating if the right opportunity comes through in the future. Fans of the Melon Man will be happy to hear that from Chastain. But, for now, his attention remains on tackling the new Cup Series championship format and earning his maiden title. The post Ross Chastain Admits NASCAR ‘Doesn’t Compare’ to IMSA’s Sports Car Racing Experience appeared first on The SportsRush.