The Basement View

  After getting swept out of the playoffs, the Brooklyn Nets are in an interesting position. Actually, Brooklyn is in the exact same position they were in following the 2018-19 season heading into the summer in which they sign Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. Four years later Brooklyn is getting a do over. A fresh start. What are they going to do with it? Are they going to pull the trigger on a trade to get a superstar with the treasure trove of picks they received from moving on from Irving and Durant away this past winter. Are they going to stay put with the group they have and build the culture through two young All-Star caliber players and a journeyman coach? The question that Sean Marks and the Nets front office must answer is—are the superstars reportedly on the market worth trading away a part of the future the Nets have just started to paint. One thing is clear in Brooklyn, Mikal Bridges is the franchise cornerstone. He is untouchable with whatever the next phase of this retoolin

  As Yogi Berra would say “it’s déjà vu all over again.” Buck Showalter is an all too familiar place. The 67-year-old manager has taken a time machine back to 2012. No, he is not managing in Baltimore anymore, however that’s what it feels like the end of Showalter’s Oriole tenure in Queens right now. The Mets simply can’t get out of their own way. With Pete Alonso likely headed to the Injured List, the Mets scored 10 runs last night in Atlanta. 10 runs on the heels of back-to-back gut-wrenching losses at the hands of the team that has foiled the Mets for the better part of almost three decades, the Atlanta Braves. 10 runs with their hired ace, Justin Verlander, who was looking to put together good starts consecutively for the first time all season. The Mets looked like they were about to exercise some demons in Atlanta last night, and then, the other shoe dropped. It wasn’t good enough. Again. Last night, I wrote that the Mets season was on the line with Verlander toeing the slab. Well

  The Atlanta Braves have snatched the soul out of the New York Mets. Again. For a second straight game, the defending NL East Champions have done what they did last summer and grabbed a victory late; right in the face of the Mets. This time it was aided by great defense. Yes, Michael Harris II hit the eventual game-winning two-run home run against Adam Ottovino in the bottom of the 8 th inning, but it was the rally killing, leaping, and game saving catches in back-to-back innings by Ronald Acuna Jr. and Michael Harris II in the 7 th and 8 th respectively. Max Scherzer said postgame “It’s easy to beat yourself up... but I thought I did some good things tonight… the line between good and great [with these two teams] is so thin anything can change a ballgame around.” What changed the game around was the lack of depth from the starter and going to either tired or lower leverage arms in key moments. Mets Manager Buck Showalter showed confidence in his sputtering team “our guys will come