NBA summer has been wild

It’s been a wild few weeks in basketball.

Usually at this time of year baseball takes over (at least until NFL?training camps begin). But with the NBA?draft, front office changes and trades, most questions this month centered on basketball.

Let’s get to the answers, with a little golf mixed in.



Are you interested in "The Big 3,” the new three-on-three basketball league?

—Dusty Guggenbiller, Portland



Mildly.

It was fun to look through the rosters of some of the teams in the league created by Ice Cube and see the names of some former NBA stars. The captains include Allen Iverson, Chauncey Billups, Kenyon Martin, Mike Bibby, Al Harrington, Stephen Jackson and Jermaine O’Neal.

But will I watch the games? Probably not.

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The best players on the PGA tour failed at the U.S. Open. Is The Open and PGA Championship going to produce first-time winners too?

—Alex Hunt, Knoxville, Tennessee



Playing the odds, I’ll say no.

We’re in a current stretch of seven consecutive first-time major winners. There was a streak of nine first-time winners in a row between Phil Mickelson (2010 Masters) and Ernie Els (2012 British Open) each winning their fourth major championship. But runs like this are rare.

Expect Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose or Jordan Spieth to break through in one of the final two majors this year.

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What is your assessment of the Cleveland Cavaliers overhauling the front office?

—Adam Gray,

Fort Wayne

If the Boston Celtics sign Gordon Hayward and then trade for Paul George, can they get through the Cleveland Cavaliers and make it interesting against the Golden State Warriors?

—Chris Snow, Portland



On the first question, breaking up a front office that has been to three straight NBA?Finals seems crazy. There will be a ton of pressure on whoever takes over.

For the second, yes, given those circumstances, the Celtics could get past Cleveland. But I wouldn’t bet on it, simply because of the Cavaliers’ experience and a certain guy named LeBron James.

Still, there’s a lot of time left and potentially key moves to be made by the top contenders. Let’s see how it all plays out.