Good Morning!

We’ve got BLOCKBUSTER news coming out of Oregon and no, we’re not talking about the last BLOCKBUSTER in Bend, Oregon. Were talking 3 hours Northwest of Bend, in Portland, where the Trailblazers play.

Damian Lillard has finally been traded and he’s not going to Miami, which seemed like a sealed deal in July. We had a 3 team deal go down and Milwaukee seems to get the most bang for their BUCKS here.

The three-team deal sends Bucks guard Jrue Holiday to the Blazers, along with Phoenix Suns players Deandre Ayton and Toumani Camara. The Suns get Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, Nassir Little, and Keon Johnson. There are also a few picks in the mix, but those come later down the stretch.

We get why Portland and Milwaukee would work something out here but why would Phoenix jump into the mix?

Deandre Ayton has been a shell of himself since the Suns went to the NBA Finals in 2021 and they’ve been lacking depth on the roster. It’s something that caught up with them in the Western Conference Semifinals last year. With this trade, the Suns switch out centers and add a few more guards to the depth chart.

What did this do to the Bucks’ championship odds? Well, they were behind the Nuggets and Celtics as favorites to win an NBA Championship in 2024, and now the Bucks are the outright favorite. They +165 to win the Eastern Conference and +375 to win a title.

MLB Updates

• The Houston Astros defeated the Seattle Mariners 8-3 to close out a 3-game series where the Astros grabbed 2 wins. This was a pivotal W as the team who won would have their chances of making playoffs increase by 50%. The Astros now have an 84% chance of making it to the postseason and Seattle has a 23% chance.

• The Baltimore Orioles beat up on the Washington Nationals last night in a 5-1 routing. They are up 2.5 games on the Toronto Blue Jays and if the O’s take down the Red Sox tonight, they’ll clinch the AL East over Toronto.

• Speaking of Toronto, they faced Gerrit Cole and the Yankees last night and lost 6-0. Cole, who is the front-runner for the AL Cy Young Award through a complete game in his final start of the year and only allowed 2 hits.

• Atlanta Braves OF Ronald Acuna Jr. was already the MLB’s 5th player ever to hit 40 homers and steal 40 bases in a season. Last night he created his own record, the 40/70 record after stealing his 71st bag in what would eventually lead to him scoring the game-winning run.

Thursday Night Football

It’s Thursday and you know what that means….. FOOTBALL! We’ve actually got another decent matchup for TNF. Here’s the matchup

Detroit Lions @ Green Bay Packers, 8:15 pm ET on Amazon Prime Video

• FYI for you fantasy folks, Aaron Jones and Christian Watson are expected to play tonight for the Packers.

Thursday Night College Football

That’s right.. we’ve got 3 more games to put on the TV if you want to watch college football or make some fun bets.

• Middle Tennessee @ Western Kentucky 7:30 pm ET on CBSSN

• Temple @ Tulsa 7:30 pm ET on ESPN

• Jacksonville State @ Sam Houston 8:00 pm ET on ESPNU

Don’t Forget About The Ryder Cup

Let’s start with a cool moment that happened in today’s practice round. Viktor Hovland had a hole-in-one on a short par 4. That’s right… get the good strokes out now!

Set The Alarm Clock

Friday’s round starts quite early in the US. Our West Coast fam can start watching at 10:30 pm PT tonight on the USA Network if they want to watch some of the foursomes action. Our East Coasters can catch the fourball rounds tomorrow starting at 6:25 a.m. ET on USA Network.

That’s all for today. Enjoy your Thursday Night Football tonight!

-The Daily Breakroom