Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Each week, we send out questions to the most plugged-in Phoenix Suns fans and general NBA fans across the country. If you want to be a part of these surveys, SBNation. com and at each of the 30 team-specific blogs. And guess what The Phoenix Suns are the team MOST cheered for across the nation at almost 35% of all answers! General NBA fans are really enjoyed the Suns brand of basketball, their ability to fight through adversity to overcome last year conference finalists in the first two rounds https://www.phoenixfanstoreonline.com/Mikal_Bridges_Hoodie-31. To supplement this with a visual from another source (not SBN Reacts, but in support of), you can see this breakdown of fans by state to see just how many love the Suns playoff run compared to the other teams that are still alive in the 2021 Playoffs. This graph is courtesy of BetOnline (www. BetOnline. ag, Twitter: betonline_ag)I love that Massachusetts is the northeast martyr that loves the Suns despite being so embedded in Nets and 76ers country! I knew I loved those Bostonians. By now youe probably seen that some fans are disappointed in the Lakers falling out of the playoffs in the first round Phoenix Suns Printed T-Shirts. Well, it according to these nationwide results it seems that those complaining fans (and player) are mostly coming from Southern California. Nearly 80% of fans think the playoffs are MORE compelling without LeBron and 70% believe that these new finalists represent a changing of the guard in the NBA rather than just a weird blip due to pandemic and injury Cameron Johnson Pet Jersey. To vote in the Reacts surveys and have your voice heard each week,

The Brooklyn Nets are in first place in the Eastern Conference https://www.brooklynfanstoreonline.com/Landry_Shamet_Flag-127, after beating the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night. The first place Brooklyn Nets: has a nice ring to it. Enjoy it, Nets fans, but it doesn get easier from there. They turn around on Thursday night to take on a pretty good Charlotte Hornets team, and do so without James Harden, Blake Griffin and Kevin Durant. Yikes. Have no fear, LaMarcus Aldridge is here! Hel make his debut tonight for the Nets, a much-needed body to try and keep pace with a quick-tempo Hornets team. And here a shock: He starting. And what about after the game, Tom Well, glad you asked:Wel be talking Nets hoops LIVE tonight at 10:15pm EST after Nets-Hornets on joinClubhouse. Join us! WHEN: 7:30 PM ESTWHERE: TNT (national) Jeff Green Flag, YES (local), WFAN (radio)Game Preview. Charlotte can get loose with the ball. They have the third highest turnover rate in the NBA this year this season and that could prove to be troublesome against an offense like the Nets. Fortunately for the Hornets, Brooklyn doesn force many turnovers on defense so theyl be able to get their fair share amount of good looks Andre Roberson Hoodie. Terry Rozier has stepped up in Ball absence and his ability to heat up and score in bunches will be essential in a matchup like this. Tyler Johnson will get a lot of minutes tonight, and the Nets are going to need him to knock down the open threes that come his way. Depending on how the game shakes out, might even see Chris Chiozza get some run too. For more on the Hornets, check out At the Hive.

It was 28 years ago today that Penny Hardaway first joined the Orlando Magic. To some, it would have been poetic had Hardaway left Memphis to come to Orlando on this date for the second time. What a perfect day this would have been to announce Penny Hardaway as head coach of the Orlando Magic. If youl excuse me, I gonna go cry now. 9-2020 season, and it was easy to tell he had big ambitions for his coaching career Orlando Magic Custom Hoodie. I think he truly believed he could lead Memphis to a national championship with James Wiseman, but Wiseman ultimately couldn play because of eligibility issues and the tournament got cancelled because of the pandemic. For as deep as Penny roots in Memphis are, he is obviously also connected to Orlando as well. There no higher level than the NBA, and for a young coach like Penny I think interviewing for this job and taking it if it offered is a sensible move. Penny has shown that he can recruit, but what other strengths has he shown as a coach at MemphisOonnell: Penny has proven himself to be nothing less than one of the best defensive coaches in America during the last two seasons at Memphis. This past season, his Tigers finished No. 1 in the country in defensive efficiency out of 357 DI teams. The year before, they finished No. 5 in defensive efficiency. Two other things Penny Memphis teams have reliably done: played with tempo, and emphasized sharing the ball on offense. The Tigers finished top-50 in pace each of the last two years, and assisted on 60. 7 percent of their field goals last season (No. 18 in the country). What would have been the biggest question marks about Penny ability to coach at the NBA level Oonnell: Memphis has yet to have a reliably good offense during Penny three seasons https://www.storeorlando.com/Rj_Hampton_T_shirt-26, so that an easy answer. Here where the Tigers have finished in offensive efficiency since he been head coach starting with the 2018-2019 season: No. 81, No. 210, and No. 117. This isn the say that Penny can coach offense, of course. Talent dictates system, and Penny hasn had a dynamic lead shot creator on campus yet. I be really interested to see what his offense looks like at the NBA level. What does Penny recruiting class look like for the 2021-2022 season and what are the projections for Memphis as a teamOonnell: Memphis ended last season by winning 11 of their last 13 games and capturing the NIT championship, which is typically thought of as a springboard for the next season. They did lose several players to transfer including guard Boogie Ellis (a former five-star recruit), but Penny also landed arguably the best transfer on the market in 68 wing Earl Timberlake. Their recruiting class is solid Mo Bamba Flag, ranked No. 15 overall by 247 Sports, and headlined by top-70 recruit Josh Minott. There isn a Wiseman-level prospect coming in this year, and there are some questions in the backcourt, but I say Memphis could be the second best team in their conference behind Hosuton. If Penny had left, how would his tenure as Memphis coach have been remembered Oonnell: I think it would have been remembered by the excitement his arrival brought the program, and also the bad luck he endured. Memphis has a large and passionate fanbase that was hoping Penny could bring them to the mountaintop. It didn happen because of Wiseman eligibility case and because of the pandemic, but they still had a pretty successful season a year ago and seem to be trending up. How would Penny have been viewed by Tiger fans had he left Oonnell: I am positive Memphis fans would have hated to lose him, but I think the Magic job is the one place where they understand. Special thanks to Ricky for taking the time to talk about Penny and Memphis basketball. Follow Ricky on Twitter at SBN_Ricky.

Postponements are always bummers. There are always those days where you look forward to watching a game, especially around here as the weather is cold and damp and there isn much to do outside. Settling in to watch the Phillies is what you do on those nights, especially when they are somewhere else that shouldn be expecting that weather. Unfortunately, they are in New York and weather is the same Dave Hollins Hoodie, only worse.Oh well, at least wel get two tomorrow right?On to the links https://www.philadelphiagearstore.com/Carlos_Ruiz_Flag-231.Phillies news:Still. Still whining over this play huh? Now wee going to pay attention to what Mike Trout has to say? Give me a break. Move on.Scott Kingery will have a chance to take the center field job; he just not ready to do it quite yet.Joe Girardi still believes replay is doing what it should be.With Archie Bradley on the shelf for a while, the bullpen and the roles theye in will change quite a bit.MLB news:Leading the whining? Drew Smyly.ESPN defines and ranks 10 aces in the game today.Topps Baseball is going to release their cards this year as an NFT collection and no, I have no idea what an NFT is, nor do I desire to understand it.Anthony Rendon is headed to the IL with a groin issue Philadelphia Phillies Pet Jerseys.

The Mets have placed first baseman Pete Alonso on the injured list with a right hand sprain and Tommy Hunter on the injured list with lower back pain Luis Guillorme Flag. The team has called up right-handed pitcher Yennsy Diaz and infielder Brandon Drury to take their places on the active roster. And last but not least, the Mets activated Sam McWilliams from the COVID-related injured list and have designated left-handed pitcher Daniel Zamora for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man roster https://www.newprostoreonline.com/Keith_Hernandez_Flag-269. Along with Sean Reid-Foleyho has already contributed substantially in 2021nd Josh Winckowski, Diaz was acquired as part of the Steven Matz trade with the Toronto Blue Jays. The 24-year-old has experience as a starter in his minor league career, but has been working as reliever in Syracuse. He made his major league debut in 2019, but has just the one major league appearance; he otherwise had not pitched above Double-A prior to joining the Mets organization. For Syracuse so far this season, he has allowed three hits and one run in four innings of work. As for Drury, he signed a minor league deal with the Mets over the offseason and has thus far played for the Triple-A Syracuse Mets https://www.newprostoreonline.com/Seth_Lugo_Pet_Jersey-358. He hit in 59 plate appearances. The Mets now have seventeen players on the injured list.

Turns out if you leave 19 runners on base, you don score a lot of runs! Wow! Science is crazy! Hey anyway so the Twins just lost another game and got swept by the White Sox and etc and etc. Michael Pineda pitched pretty okay, but still managed to give up a Tim Anderson dinger on his very first pitch. Get that squared away early. Jake Lamb, a human, took Pineda deep as well in the 3rd for the second Sox run https://www.minnesotagearshop.com/Bailey_Ober_Hoodie-131. At this point I as already ignoring the game to play Crash Bandicoot. Max Kepler knocked in a run, kinda, in the 4th by reaching on a fielding error during which Trevor Larnach scored. You might think the Twins were still in the game by only being down by 1, but clearly you are a big dummy dumb, because Andrew Vaughn singled in another Sox run in the 6th. Kepler would give Twins fans something to cheer for briefly with a 1-out solo dong in the 8th, which would be followed up Singles from the two best Twins hitters Bert Blyleven Pet Jersey. . . uh, Willians Astudillo and Kyle (Is it Kyle) Garlick. Aww shit, don look now but here comes our old pal HOPE. Do you believe in miracles No, of course not. Wee Twins fans. So that amounted to nothing and then some other Sox run happened in the bottom of the 8th but who cares about that https://www.minnesotagearshop.com/Harmon_Killebrew_Hoodie-72. Twins lose! Yay! Hope you guys had a great day unsoiled by watching Twins baseball! May this comment of the day I gift to you bring much happiness and prosperity!

The Milwaukee Brewers traded away two important bullpen pieces in May, allowing them to shore up their offense and infield with the addition of Willy Adames at shortstop. Their relief depth has been tested a bit since then https://www.milwaukeefanstoreonline.com/Bj_Surhoff_Face_Mask-138, however, and yesterday the club announced a move to add a veteran presence to that part of the roster. RHP Hunter Strickland acquired from the Angels in exchange for cash. 3B Travis Shaw transferred to the 60-day injured list. Strickland, 32, has appeared in parts of eight season at the MLB level with the Giants, Mariners, Nationals, Mets, Rays, and Angels. Strickland was part of World Series winners with the Giants in 2014 and Washington in 2019, and across 307 career appearances, he owns a 3. 29 ERA across 276. 0 innings pitched with marks of 8. 3 K/9 and 3. 2 BB/9. Strickland started 2021 with Tampa Bay and pitched well, posting a 1. 69 ERA across 16. 0 innings. His contract was purchased by the Angels in May https://www.milwaukeefanstoreonline.com/Corey_Ray_Flag-175, but his production cratered with after the transaction. He made nine appearances but only tallied 6. 1 innings, yielding seven earned runs with four strikeouts and four walks. He was designated for assignment by Anaheim on June 7th. Strickland was a flamethrower capable of touching triple-digits early in his career, but while he still throws hard, his average fastball velocity of 94. 9 MPH this season is a career-low. His four-seamer and slider are his two primary offerings, and hel also occasionally mix in a sinker and a changeup. Strickland has 21 saves and 72 holds across his career, with plenty of experience pitching in the back-end of the bullpen in higher leverage situations, and should have the chance to earn his way into a prominent role for Craig Counsell. To make room for Strickland on the 40-man roster, Travis Shaw was moved to the 60-day Injured List. Shaw shoulder dislocation will keep him out until at least August, and if his rehab doesn get the results that are hoped for, hel require surgery and miss the rest of the year. In other injury news, Tyrone Taylor was placed on the 10-day IL and utilityman Tim Lopes was recalled. OF Tyrone Taylor placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to June 11, with a right shoulder strain. INF/OF Tim Lopes recalled from Triple-A Nashville. Taylor was hitting with six home runs in 100 plate appearances for the Brewers this season and had been getting more regular playing time lately with Lorenzo Cain on the shelf. Now, though Corbin Burnes Pet Jersey, Tim Lopes will get his first shot at the big leagues with Milwaukee. Lopes appeared in parts of two seasons with the Mariners in 2019-20 before getting claimed off waivers by the Brewers prior to this season. He started the year on the IL and hit . 193/. 308/. 330 in 104 plate appearances at Triple-A while on rehab assignment and after being activated and optioned. Statistics courtesy of Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference