Hey y’all. Today we’re just The Three Point Play - I’ve been hustling to get this one out through all the homework, and this was all I could get. The MLB playoffs and the NHL season storylines? It’s a lot for anyone. So sorry, but I do honestly think it still turned out really great. I was going to do a Friday the 13th special section, but I’m now going to repurpose that writing for a special Halloween column. It does get me thinking, though - I think it would be cool if any writing I never got to finish, I released later, once I’m done, for y’all to read on your own time. Keep your eye out for that.
By the way, if you read my first column, you know I am working on a Casuals Guide, which includes a bunch of confusing phrases, not-confusingly explained by me. But for now, just click on the asterisk by the phrase. That will bring you to a website that tells you about it. I figure that at least for now, that should be good. I don’t know, maybe I’ll just stick with this.
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But enough about me, let’s get to the Three (hey, that rhymes!).
The battle of the extraterrestrials and other meaningless, but fun games (Professional basketball)
Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren are two of the strangest, most wonderfully odd-looking people alive. Both rise easily above 7 feet (Wembanyama stands at an incredible 7’5), but instead of holding awkward postures that you might expect from these giants, they both glide over the hardwood with seemingly little effort.
Chet and Wemby are two highly touted prospects. Chet was #2 overall drafted a year ago by the Oklahoma City Thunder, but due to an ankle injury, he missed his entire first season. Wemby (Wembanyama’s playful nickname) was drafted this year with the #1 overall pick by the San Antonio Spurs.
And on Monday, they finally played each other (in a meaningless preseason game, but still).
Neither played much, but they both played incredible. Wemby had 20 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block on 61% shooting percentage in only 19 minutes. Chet got the best of Wemby this time, though, with 21 points, 9 rebounds, and a block on 70% shooting in only 16 minutes as his Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Spurs in a thriller, 122-121.
It’s hard to overstate how much the NBA world had been anticipating Wembanyama. Over the last two years, we’ve been treated to constant highlights and analysis of this 7’5 French kid. It’s hard not to see why. He can dribble like a guard, shoot like a forward, and defend like a center. And he’s 7’5!!!!!! Yes. Seven feet, five inches. Just insane.
Let’s not get it wrong, Chet Holmgren is also a beast. In his one college year, he was a consensus All-American*, the West Coast Conference’s 2022 Defensive Player of the Year* and Rookie of the Year*, and averaged an incredible 3.7 blocks per game*. He hasn’t been quite as hyped, maybe due to the fact that he’s 5 inches smaller and maybe 10-20 pounds lighter than Wemby, but probably more so the fact that he’s American - we know him and his game. Wembanyama is truly otherworldly - a creature from another planet greater than all of us. He’s simply on another plane of evolution we haven’t yet achieved.
It was an incredible game between the two, and they traded tough buckets and acrobatic moves for the first half before being pulled out of the game - they can’t afford to get hurt in a preseason game. It was just a little taste, but it felt like a whole meal. I can’t wait to see these two play each other for years to come.
Catch the highlights here. Wemby’s Spurs play the Miami Heat tonight at 7:30 ET - watch with a Max subscription - and Chet’s Thunder play the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday at 5, and you can watch that on NBA League Pass.
Other preseason news
In other preseason news, my Hawks came back to beat the Cavs in a thriller (catch the wild final few seconds here). Despite the fact it was a preseason game, StateFarm Arena was rocking. Luka Doncic’s Dallas Mavericks lost to… Real Madrid? If you’re a soccer fan, you might recognize that name, but they have a basketball team, too, and apparently, they’re really good. The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Mavericks twice in Abu Dhabi as well, and nothing else really happened. It’s the preseason.
The NHL is back! (Professional ice hockey)
After four months (yes, that’s how long their offseason is) the chaos that is the NHL is finally back. On Tuesday, October 10, at 5:30 PM ET, the Nashville Predators and the Tampa Bay Lightning took the ice. The Lightning got the best of the Predators, winning 5-3 (Nicholas Paul had 2 goals, an assist, and 3 shots on goal), but that’s not the main thing. The main thing is: hockey is back!
To celebrate, here’s some early-season storylines:
Bedard begins - After talking about Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren for so long, it seems repetitive at best to write about another incredibly hyped prospect. And yet, here we are. Connor Bedard is nowhere near as tall as Wemby or Chet, in fact, he’s pretty regular-sized (5’10, 185lbs). But the kid is a wizard on the ice. In 2022-23, he played in the Western Hockey League, and just killed it. Get ready for these stats: 71 goals* and 72 assists*, for a total of 143 points*, in just 57 games. He finished 21 goals ahead of the guy in second. He (obviously) was drafted #1 overall by the Chicago (racist name alert!!!!) Blackhawks this year, and in two games already has a goal and an assist. The question on everyone’s mind is: can the kid dominate the league?
The Knights’ crusade for another title - The Vegas Golden Knights have it so easy. After their first season in 2017-18, they haven’t once had a losing season. This is not normal. Expansion teams* are usually bad for 4-5 years. Not the Knights. And yet, their fans whined about how the team “hadn’t won a title yet!” They had a point, but when you’ve literally never had a bad team, can you really complain? Anyway, they finally won the big one last year. The trio of Jack Eichel, Chandler Stephenson, and all-time Knights scoring leader Jonathan Marchessault finally led them over the hump. All three of them return, and the question on everyone’s minds is: can the Knights do it again?
Is Sid The Kid…getting too old? - Sidney Crosby is one of the greatest NHL players ever. His Hockey-Reference award page is literally too long too mention, so I’ll link it here. But his nickname, Sid the Kid, no longer applies. He’s 36. Last year, he turned back the clock for a vintage season. He played in all 82 games, scored 30 goals for the 11th time in his career, and scored his most points in a season since the 2013-14 season, as his Pittsburgh Penguins narrowly missed out on the playoffs. The question on everyone’s mind is: do Crosby, Erik Karlsson, and the rest of an aging core have one last great year left in them?
The MLB playoffs just won’t slow down (Professional baseball)
This year has been the first year for me that I’ve started following baseball. I was raised in a baseball family, but it always seemed it slow for me, too… boring. But this year, we finally got regional sports networks, and baseball (the Atlanta Braves, specifically) was suddenly available to me at the click of a few buttons.
It was hard to resist, just because it was constantly on all the time. Eventually, I just started watching.
And it was so fun.
The Braves are so incredibly awesome, it’s hard not to enjoy them. Matt Olson’s homers*, Michael Harris II’s defense, Charlie Morton’s continued greatness, Spencer Strider’s mustache, Ozzie Albies’ batting stance - it’s all just so amazing to watch.
And Ronald Acuna Jr - just how do you even describe Ronnie? He’s like Marlon Brando, Lauryn Hill, and Steven King because the game is just so natural to him. He’s the first-ever member of the 40 home run-70 stolen bases* club, by the way. And yet, as I write this, the Braves are losing 2-1 to the Philidelphia Phillies in a best-of-5 series.
Yeah, that’s how chaotic the MLB playoffs* have been. The Atlanta Braves, who won 104 games and were the best team in baseball this year, could potentially lose to a wild-card team, the Phillies.
And it’s not just the Braves. As I write this on Thursday, October 12, the #1 seeded Baltimore Orioles have been swept by the Texas Rangers. The #2 seeded Los Angeles Dodgers have been swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks. And for the seventh straight time, the Houston Astros have advanced to the ALCS*. It’s been chaos. And it’s been awesome.
I don’t know how to best describe all the games in a short amount of time. It’s important to cover them all, but I’m not going to go game-by-game. So instead, I’ll tell the stories of the series through the best players of the series.
My 5 best players of the playoffs so far (as of 10/11/2023):
(Honorable Mentions: Evan Carter, Rangers, Adolis Garcia, Rangers)
TIE - Nathan Eovaldi, Zack Wheeler, RHP*, Rangers and Phillies - Nathan Eovaldi and Zack Wheeler have been incredible. Eovaldi has 13.2 IP* over 2 games, with a 1.32 ERA*, 15 Ks*, 9.9 Ks/9*, and a 0.80 WHIP*. Zack Wheeler has 13 IP over 2 games, a 2.08 ERA, with 18 Ks, 12.5 Ks/9, and a 0.69 WHIP. These are incredible numbers, and both were quality starts. But the problem is, it’s so hard to say a pitcher has been the best player in the playoffs, because they play so few games*. They’ve both played so good, but for now, Nathan Eovaldi and Zack Wheeler are stuck up here.
Corbin Carroll, LF*, Diamondbacks - I mentioned earlier that this is my first season watching the MLB in-depth. On Tuesday 10/3, I was watching the Diamondbacks’ wild-card* game against the Milwaukee Brewers. After watching Corbin Carroll for like 30 minutes, I was suddenly an expert. I couldn’t stop talking about Carroll, about how natural he seemed, about how good his mechanics are, things I know barely anything about. I got out my phone to check his stats, and I found he hit .285/.362/.506 in the regular season with 25 homers, a great year. After maybe another 15 minutes of me yapping about his throwing motion, my brother turned to me and said, “You know he’s a rookie, right?” Such is the Corbin Carroll effect.
Bryce Harper, DH*/1B*, Phillies - I hate Bryce Harper. As a Braves fan, I’ve had to watch as he rips us apart, game after game. It’s more than just the actual results of the games that are getting to me, it’s that we should be destroying them. We were the #1 seed, the best team in baseball. We hit 307 home runs, for goodness sakes! And through it all, Bryce Harper prevails. And he means business. Last night (10/11) he just killed us. 2-5 with 2 homers, gosh. Every swing of his bat had me losing air. He has a second consecutive World Series appearance on his mind, and he doesn’t care who he has to go through to get there. (This spot was originally going to Corbin Caroll, but after Wednesday, October 11, a date that will live on in infamy in Georgia, I had to move Harper up a spot.)
Corey Seager, SS*, Rangers - Any time you take a record off of Barry Bonds, that’s an incredible accomplishment. Bonds broke baseball (not entirely fairly, I should add) and owns numerous records. But he no longer holds the title for most walks in one division series. Corey Seager was walked 9 times in three games. Why? Because pitchers know he is so dangerously consistent hitting, they refuse to throw anything they think he could hit. It doesn’t matter if he does hit it, it matters whether the pitchers think he could. He’s still hitting .429 this playoffs, though.
Yordan Alvarez, LF, Astros - Yordan Alvarez is on fire. Actually, no, he’s not on fire, he’s on 🔥🔥🔥🔥F🔥I🔥R🔥E🔥🔥🔥🔥. He absolutely obliterated the Twins, and I don’t need to see him play in more games to know he’s not been the best player these playoffs. If you don’t believe me, just look at these stats - .438/471/1.313(1.313!!!!!) slash lines*, with 7 hits, 4 home runs, 6 RBIs*, and 7 runs scored in just four games. He actually scored 28 percent of their runs over that series.
mic. drop.
So, that was a lot. We had two completely unique 19-year-olds going at it for NBA preseason supremacy, some fun NHL storylines, and talked about some great players in the MLB. I’m not gonna lie, it was hard for me to get that done. I have some big news coming sometime next week, and working on that with this is a lot.
But somehow, we manage.
-Ian
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