Raptors Aquire Rudy Gay From Grizzlies in 3 Team Trade

The Toronto Raptors acquired small forward Rudy Gay from the Memphis Grizzlies in a 3 team deal that also included the Pistons. Here's a rundown of what every team got out of the deal: The Grizzlies received Tayshuan Prince, Austin Daye from Detroit and promising center Ed Davis. The Pistons received point guard Jose Calderon. The Raptors receive Rudy Gay and Hamed Haddadi.

Pistons Grade: B+
The Pistons dumped about $15 million off their salary cap this summer by getting rid of Tayshuan Prince's contract, and with the contracts of Corey Maggette, Will Bynum, Ben Gordon, and Rip Hamilton expiring this summer the Pistons will have $36 million in cap room. This should give them ample opportunity to sign some key players to fit around their nucleus of Andre Drummond, Brandon Knight, and Greg Monroe. Also, the Pistons received talented point guard Jose Calderon, who's averaging 7.4 assists/game, who can help fill the Palace in Detroit which has been hard to do lately. With a struggling Eastern conference, the Pistons are also four and a half games out of the eighth seed, so Calderon could provide what's needed for Detroit to make a push for the playoffs.

Raptors Grade: C-
The Raptors received small forward Rudy Gay, who compliments their already young core of Kyle Lowry, Demar Derozan, Jonas Valenchunas, and Terrence Ross. But, it seems as though Memphis' front office laid the bait out and Toronto leaped at it. Gay is averaging a mere 17 points a game along with 6 rebounds, while really not making any significant impact at the defensive end. Pretty good player and compliment to the Raptors, right? Well there's a catch, Gay is being paid $35 million over the next two years. If the Raptors don't reduce their payroll next year they'll be over the luxury tax. The deal made sense in a way because no free agents ever go to Toronto and Gay is an exciting player, but they gave up a promising center who was being paid a small salary, and the Raptors have dug themselves a hole with Gay's contract and there will most like be little play to show for it.

Grizzlies Grade: B-
The Grizzles are currently sitting at the fourth seed in the Western conference, and they just made two salary dumps in about two weeks. Fans in Memphis are not happy with owner Robert Pera trying to save money while the team actually has a legitimate shot to go deep in the playoffs. On one hand it seems like the Grizz are giving up, but on the other they've made two smart trades. The first was a salary dump that got rid of non-impact players, and this one sent Gay elsewhere while he was being largely overpaid for being a scorer, but was averaging less points than millions he was making a year(17.22 points/game, $17.88 million a year.) Memphis also received a versatile, promising center Ed Davis who has come on of late and is averaging about 15 points and 8 rebounds over the last two months.

PED's: The Dark Cloud Looming Over Major League Baseball

Multiple players have been linked to a new PED scandal reported by the New Miami Times, which is one of the many that have surfaced lately
The New Miami Times has reported that multiple players have been linked to buying HGH, anabolic steroids, and other PED's from a Biogenetic lab in Miami. Among these players are Yasmani Grandal, Bartolo Colon, Manny Ramirez, and Melky Cabrera. The players who haven't officially tested positive but have been mentioned in numerous records and payments are Alex Rodriguez, Gio Gonzalez, and Nelson Cruz.

The man behind the scheme is Anthony Bosch, who ran Biogenesis. He supposedly operated the laboratory that supplied these players with their steroids. Multiple payment records include the names of the players listed, especially Rodriguez, who was referred to as "A-Rod" or "Cacique."

Gonzalez, 21-8 for the Washington Nationals last season, posted on his Twitter feed: ''I've never used performance enhancing drugs of any kind and I never will, I've never met or spoken with tony Bosch or used any substance provided by him. anything said to the contrary is a lie.'' Cruz's and Colon's representative's also issued statements saying that the allegations were false.

But let us delve into this. Four players linked to Biogenesis have already been caught, being Grandal, Colon, Ramirez, and Cabrera. A-Rod, Cruz, and Gonzalez are all Latin-American players who spend considerable time in Miami during the offseason. Now this is totally assuming things, but Nelson Cruz exploded onto the baseball scene in 2009 with 33 homers, having only 22 homeruns the previous four seasons combined. Gio Gonzalez went from having a 6-7 record with a 5.75 ERA to going 15-9 with a 3.23, one season apart. And probably the biggest news surrounding all of this is that Alex Rodriguez, who already came out with the truth once and said "I'm a new man now," has been caught again. I don't know if it's just me but all of this seems to add up pretty well.

Alex Rodriguez: 3 time all-star, world series champion, 647 career homeruns, career .300 batting average, 1950 RBI's. Shoo in hall of famer, right? Wrong. Alex admitted four years ago that he used PED's from 2001-2004, but adding that after that he'd quit and realized the risk/reward factor was too high. He looked reporters, fans, and even team executives behind closed doors in the face and said that he hadn't used since 2004.

Right on the heels of Lance Armstrong ruining his reputation through lies and deceit, A-Rod did his best to match that. The once loved, heralded superstar that hit 500 homeruns quicker than anyone else and was predicted by some to break the all time homerun record has come crashing down. The Yankees owe their "slugger" $114 million over the next five years. It's sure to be five more years of declining productivity, drama and scandal, and absolute hate from New York fans. Rodriguez was already disliked by New York fans, but this takes it to a different level. Something tells me that Yankee fans knowing that they've been lied to multiple times, and that Rodriguez is guaranteed about $27 million a year for 5 years will just rub them the wrong way. It's a shame too because A-Rod was a hero for Latin-American players and for a long time represented the notion that sluggers didn't need to use PED's to be dominant.

It seems that with better testing and more investigation, it's becoming harder and harder to trust athletes. Whether it's Lolo Jones, Lance Armstrong, Rashard Lewis, or Shawn Merriman. Almost every sport has been affected by the darkness known as steroids. But none more affected than baseball. Heck, baseball even has a period of time called the "Steroid era." For the first time in more than 20 years, nobody was elected to the HOF in part because of steroids. 6 out of the top 15 players in career homeruns are linked to using PED's. It's been a major issue in the sport for some time, and for awhile it was ignored.

In the last 10 years or so, it seemed that baseball had cleaned the game up. HGH testing was in place, although not very effectively. The Mitchell Report gave an idea of who used and who didn't. And suspensions were to be given to offenders of new rules. But as testing has become more strict and frequent, we're just now learning what's really going on inside baseball.That players are paying thousands of dollars for hard-to-detect substances made in laboratories, and that a simple 50-game suspension won't stop them from going for big contracts.

If the MLB really wants to crack down and stop this nonsense, then harsher penalties are required. It shouldn't take three offenses to finally throw someone out of the league, considering few people(besides Manny Ramirez) are stupid enough to get caught three times. More frequent and accurate testing has been implemented for this season, which will help. But young players like Grandal and Gio Gonzalez are realizing that using PED's overall is worth the risk, which is scary considering young players should be the ones least likely to use it. Baseball has been dancing around this subject for awhile, but now is the time to take a stand and crack down on this debacle, before the sport is even more disgraced.

Highlight of the Night: James Harden Splits 4 Defenders and Slams It Home

NBA Highlight of the Night: Blake Griffin Throws It Down

NBA: Rondo Out For Season

By Wyatt Smith (Clickege)

The already struggling Boston Celtics received devastating news about their point guard Rajon Rondo Sunday.

The Celtics all-star point guard Rajon Rondo was a late scratch for Sunday's game against the Miami Heat due to discomfort in his knee. It didn't seem like too big of a deal considering that Rondo went through the team's walk-through drills before the game and was able to jog around on the knee. But during the middle of the game, in which the Celtics were winning, word got out that Rondo tore his ACL and will miss the remainder of the season.

This is a crushing blow to the Celtics, who have lost six of their last seven games and are barely clinging onto the eighth seed in the Eastern conference. Rondo was the team's third leading scorer, and led the team in assists and steals per game.

Even though the Celtics won an eventful game vs the number one seed Heat yesterday, that's their first win in their last seven games. Now the likes of Leandro Barbosa and Jason Terry are going to have to rewind their careers and step up their play to what it used to be if the Celtics want to stay competitive this season. Barbosa is averaging about 5 points a game and Terry a mediocre 10 points. No date has been set for Rondo's upcoming surgery.

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MLB: Money Isn't The Answer To Everything

By Wyatt Smith (Clickege)

The key to winning in baseball has changed lately, suddenly big market teams are looking at less wealthy franchises with envy.

Being successful in baseball requires more than just money these days. Four of the six teams with the highest payrolls in 2012 didn't make the playoffs, while the team with the second lowest payroll in baseball over-achieved by many peoples' standards by making the postseason. The teams not making the playoffs a year ago, being the Angels, Rangers, Phillies, and Red Sox, and the team with the second lowest payroll in baseball was the Oakland Athletics. Now you could say that one team doesn't make this any sort of trend. But, over the past 3 seasons the Baltimore Orioles, Tampa Bay Rays, Arizona Diamondbacks, Minnesota Twins, and Cincinatti Reds have all attended the playoffs while competing with big market, big spending teams in their divisions.

The biggest spenders in baseball, (Yankees, Red Sox, and Phillies) have declined in recent years for many reasons. The most obvious and predictable, age. Once the money really started to flow in for these teams and free agency became more and more like an auction, the past 10 years belonged to these three behemoths of baseball. But the criticism was always thrown out there because these lengthy contracts would one come back to haunt them.

Examples; Signing a 32-year old Alex Rodriguez to a ten year contract, paying Ryan Howard 25 million a year until he's 37, paying a declining Jimmy Rollins 11 million a year until he's 37. While the Red Sox shipped away their own terrible long-term deals to the Dodgers, they did try to buy a championship in one offseason while hiring an eccentric manager that only caused turmoil. Now all of these teams are between a rock and a hard place trying to build a contender with less cap room because their "stars" that are older now are being overpaid.

So how does the 15th, 16th, 18th, 19th, and 29th highest payroll teams all make it to the playoffs in one year? Well, there's a few reasons. One, is being patient and developing young talent. A great example is the Cincinatti Reds. who's last eight first round draft picks have all made it into the majors by now. The Orioles core of young players, being Matt Weiters, Adam Jones, Manny Machado, and Nick Markakis, are all home-grown and have progressed tremendously through their system. The Nationals had two first overall picks in a row and two years later had the best record in National League.

Another thing all of these teams have done is not tie themselves into long term, nightmare contracts. Waiting for draft picks and prospects from trades to pan out, instead of trying to hit it big in free agency by signing a 32 year old to a ridiculous deal, has started to pay dividends. This offseason, the Toronto Blue Jays had the flexibility and talented farm system to go out and make a mega deal that has propelled them to be the favorites in the AL East. The Royals had more than enough cap room and prospects so they shipped out some young guys for an established big league pitcher in James Shields. The Braves, with a low enough payroll were able to ship out highly touted prospects for a potential superstar in Justin Upton.

Suddenly the MLB has gone from "Whoever is willing to spend the most" to "Whoever manages and builds their team the right way." The Yankees are looking weaker than ever because they don't want to go over the luxury tax, the Red Sox revamped their entire clubhouse desperately trying to find the right group of players, and the Dodgers have had everyone saying "Where will all this money come from?" but they couldn't even make the playoffs last year with a star-studded team.

Now, determined and smart franchises are enjoying success at a low cost. The Tampa Bay Rays have possibly the worst fanbase and stadium, but Joe Maddon is a genius, they have the best front office in the game, and are focused on winning. Using anything from sabermetrics to cutting edge technology, the game is becoming more advanced and small market teams are taking advantage of growing opportunities to do well. Having money always helps, but it's not the answer anymore. The key to winning and winning for a long time has changed, and almost any team can take advantage of this if they choose to do so.

Fan Hits Half-Court Shot, Only To Be Tackled By Lebron James

SHOWTIME LAKERS?

By Wyatt Smith (Clickege)

After being considered by some the favorites in the west, the Los Angeles Lakers have struggled to a 18-25 record so far this year.

When the Lakers traded seemingly nothing for superstar Dwight Howard over the summer, Lakers fans were ecstatic. They had already signed run-and-gun point guard Steve Nash to a contract on July 5, which was a step-up from their point guard play the last 5 years. So when it didn't seem like the team could get any better, the Lakers go out and trade for arguably the best center in the league in Dwight Howard while giving up only an injury prone center, a few other mediocre players, and a bevy of first round picks.

With these two all-star additions, along with an already good team that made it to the playoffs last year led by Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, the Lakers were highly touted before the season began. From radio shows in LA to sportscenter to Twitter, people were buying into this star-studded team from the start. Saying that they were going to resemble the "Showtime" Lakers from the 80's and that with their all-star lineup, along with a wealthy franchise, loyal fan base, and pretty good coach they would be unstoppable. So what went wrong?

The Lakers are a measly 18-25 and currently the 11th seed, also half a game behind the Minnesota Timberwolves. Ouch. After 5 games into the season, the Lakers fired their head coach Mike Brown because they "didn't like his offensive strategy." So what they decided to do was hire a coach who cringes at the word "defense," and expects his team to score 125 points a night with his run-and-gun style, this coach being Mike D'antoni. The only problem is that this teams average age in 29 years old, highest in the NBA and their 4 "superstars" are 38, 34, 32, and 27 years old. Along with an old bench in Steve Blake, Metta World Peace, and Antwan Jamison, it's easy to say that D'antoni was an interesting choice to coach this team.(And to give him a 3 year contract.)

Worst of all, the Lakers passed on Phil Jackson, longtime Lakers and Bulls coach with 11 rings to his name, because ownership thought that withJackson's triangle offense wouldn't include Steve Nash enough. So Jim Buss and other team officials decided because of this (and because Phil wanted more control of drafting and trades) that D'antoni would be a perfect fit for Nash and this team. Wrong. This is one of the oldest, slowest teams in the league and already struggles dealing with athletic new teams like the Thunder or the Nuggets. Another issue is that D'antoni isn't a big fan of centers, and when he was in New York he "discouraged the team from pursuing Howard because of D'antoni's system and also his time with him on Team USA."- Yahoo! sports. D'antoni likes to run a fast-paced game where the center gets a few garbage points here and there, the only issue is Dwight Howard is his center.

Ah yes, Dwight Howard can cause a few problems. Whether it's forcing a coach to be fired, only to be traded from that team by request a month later. Or from time to time he shows little passion for the game and pouts if things don't go his way( remind you of another Lakers center? Hint: the one they just traded this offseason). So now Howard, not being the spotlight in D'antoni's offensive ways, is unhappy with the Laker organization and isn't afraid to express that. Also, Kobe Bryant is known to shoot the ball more than his fair share which is taking away possessions from Dwight. See what I mean when I say there's more than a few problems with this team?

Basically the Lakers are a dysfunctional mess that have made a questionable coaching change that's left their leader Kobe Bryant unhappy, Pau Gasol pretty much out of the picture, frustrated a once-hopeful Steve Nash, and left Dwight Howard feeling uneasy about Los Angeles and his place on the team. D'antoni better find a way to make this team gel together and win more games, now. Because this squad isn't built to win in two years, or even next year, especially if Howard decides to move on to a different team via free agency this summer. Kobe's still putting up all-star numbers for now, but he won't be able to forever. If the Lakers waste their chances with Howard and possibly the last productive year out of Gasol and Nash, then they could be looking at a much bigger problem than just not making the playoffs this year.

Clay Mattews' Awesome Trip/Sack

Bowl Results

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Chick-fil-a Bowl LSU (10-3, 6-2 SEC) 24 Clemson (11-2, 7-1 ACC) 25 AutoZone Liberty Bowl Iowa State (6-7, 3-6 Big 12) 17 Tulsa (11-3, 7-1 C-USA) 31 Hyundai Sun Bowl USC (7-6, 5-4 Pac-12) 7 Ga Tech (7-7, 5-3 ACC) 21 Franklin American Mortgage Music city Bowl NC State (7-6, 4-4 ACC) 24 Vanderbilt (9-4, 5-3 SEC) 38 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl TCU (7-6, 4-5 Big 12) 16 Mich St.  (7-6, 3-5 Big Ten) 17 Valero Alamo Bowl Texas (9-4, 5-4 Big 12) 31 Oregon St.  (9-4, 6-3 Pac-12) 27 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl Navy (8-5) 28 Arizona St (8-5, 5-4 Pac-12) 62 New Era Pinstipe Bowl W. Virginia (7-6, 4-5 Big 12) 14 Syracuse (8-5, 5-2 Big East) 38 Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl Rice (7-6, 4-4 C-USA) 33 Air Force (6-7, 5-3 MWC) 14 Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas Minnesota (6-7, 2-6 Big Ten) 31 Texas Tech (8-5, 4-5 Big 12) 34 Russell Athletic Bowl Rutgers (9-4, 5-2 Big East) 10 Va Tech (7-6, 4-4 ACC) 13 AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl Ohio (9-4, 4-4 MAC) 45 ULMONROE (8-25 6-2 Sun Belt) 14 Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl Baylor (8-5, 4-5 Big 12) 49 UCLA (9-5, 6-3 Pac-12) 26 Belk Bowl Cincy (10-3, 5-2 Big East) 48 Duke (6-7, 3-5 ACC) 34

Military Bowl Pres. By Northrop Grumman San Jose St (11-2, 5-1 WAC) 29 BGU (8-5, 6-2 MAC) 20 Little Caesars Bowl W Kentucky (7-6, 4-4 Sun Belt) 21 C Michigan (7-6, 4-4 MAC) 24 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl Fresno St (9-4, 7-1 MWC) 10 SMU (7-6, 5-3 C-USA) 43 Maaco Bowl Las Vegas Washington (7-6, 5-4 Pac-12) 26 Boise St (11-2, 7-1 MWC) 28 R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl E Carolina (8-5, 7-1 C-USA) 34 La Lafayette (9-4, 6-2 Sun Belt) 43 Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl St. Petersburg Ball State (9-4, 6-2 MAC) 17 UCF (10-4, 7-1 C-USA) 38 San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl BYU (8-5) 23 SDSU (9-4, 7-1 MWC) 6 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl Toledo (9-4, 6-2 MAC) 15 Utah St (11-2, 6-0 WAC) 41 Gildan New Mexico Bowl Nevada (7-6, 4-4 MWC) 48 Arizona (8-5, 4-5Pac-12) 49 Capital One Bowl Georgia (12-2, 7-1 SEC) 45 Nebraska (10-4, 7-1 C-Big Ten) 31 Heart of Dallas Bowl Purdue (6-7, 3-5 Big Ten) 14 Oklahoma St (8-5, 5-4 Big 12) 58 Outback Bowl S Carolina (9-4, 7-1 MWC) 33 Michigan (8-5, 6-2 Big Ten) 28 Rose Bowl Wisconsin (8-6, 4-4 Big Ten) 14 Stanford (12-2, 8-1 Pac-12) 20 Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl Miss St (8-5, 4-4 SEC) 20 N'western (10-3, 5-3 Big Ten) 34