The Machine NBA2K25 Career Pt. 21 + 🌎My Thoughts on the Sports World Today🌎
I messed up with my uploads so there's no part 20, Part 21 is here now LOL! Whoops.
December 4th 2024 - Philadelphia 76ers vs Orlando Magic
The Machine was pretty close to a double-double on that night! Scoring continues to be a struggle, getting buckets is not as easy as it was at Villanova, but he still shows a lot of promise dishing assists. Grabbing six rebounds at 6'4" from the shooting guard position is also pretty helpful! I'm sure The Machine and Paolo Banchero will see a lot of each other throughout the next decade plus!
- Teammate Grade: A
- Stats: 7 Points, 6 Rebounds, 9 Assists
🌎My Thoughts on the Sports World Today🌎
In the real world, the NFL kicks off fairly soon so I figure I might start giving my two cents on the NFL divisions heading into this new season. I can't wait for some good old football man. Why not start with the AFC South, the division my Titans are in.
The Houston Texans are the favorite for sure as they've won this division the past two seasons, and if I had to predict who will win this division it will probably be them although I don't think it's a total lock at all. They won 10 games the last two seasons and while that's quite respectable, it also tells me that they aren't all that dominant. I feel that C.J. Stroud is a smidge overrated, but still pretty solid. Again, they are the favorites, but seem fairly beatable.
The Jacksonville Jaguars seem to be in no man's land. I literally don't know if Trevor Lawrence is any good yet and the Jags paid him already. Hmmm. Weird to me. I think Lawrence is just a bigger Daniel Jones, but we'll see I guess. It's a massive year for Lawrence I feel. He won't be run out of town with an average season, but I feel that the Jags will certainly start looking around if he does have another meh season.
The Indianapolis Colts are in danger of being really bad in my opinion, but they have a shred of hope I guess. They have Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones to choose from at QB, and while neither of them are too impressive, they do have potential in their own ways and both of them have A LOT to prove in 2025-26. This QB situation feels a lot like the Titans when they had Marcus Mariota and Ryan Tannehill, except that Mariota was probably significantly more proven in 2019 than Richardson is nowadays. I am not a massive fan of either Richardson or Jones, but QB competitions can be quite good at bringing the best out of QBs I feel. Indy has a solid offense otherwise so if they can figure out QB, maybe they can be competitive.
The Tennessee Titans have low expectations but that's probably good for them. The franchise finally seemed to do a full restart and so I don't imagine they will be a massive threat in 2025. Still, not many expected the Commanders to do much last year, so who knows. Being under the radar and catching opponents sleeping could definitely help the Titans win a few more games than people expect. Cam Ward seems to want to be great, and the whole team is very young so it's really anyone's guess what this team will look like.
All in all this division is probably the weakest in the NFL so I imagine an above average team like the Texans will take advantage of that. But that also means there isn't a huge level to reach/gap to fill for any of the other three teams to rise and find divisional success.
In MMA news, Robert Whittaker and Reinier De Ridder had a nice scrap on Saturday with Ridder getting the victory by split decision. Ridder is an interesting fighter, he reminds me of the champ Dricus Du Plessis in some ways due to his awkwardness. He is quite close to a title shot now, I imagine with one more victory he's definitely in line. Whittaker looked game as always but I fear his best championship years are firmly behind him. Whittaker has been though it all and fought everyone. I feel like he's always been a bit of an inbetweener in terms of size for middleweight but just barely. His skill and explosiveness has always been enough to cover any weight differences but with age and wars it may be catching up with him. He hasn't really had a big win in awhile. I imagine Whittaker could make a run but he already has a really strong legacy as it is and I just don't know how bad he wants it anymore. The middleweight division has been really exciting in recent years!
The sports world never sleeps, till next time!
