SNY.tv: NBA players decide to resume playoffs, but strike/protests to continue Thursday

From Danny Abriano:

NBA players have decided to continue with the playoffs, SNY’s Ian Begley confirmed, though Thursday’s slate of games will be postponed.

According to Begley, play could resume as soon as Friday.

The news was first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

All playoff games on Wednesday night were postponed after teams refused to take the court while striking in protest of racial injustice, including the recent police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis.

Sources told Begley that after Thursday’s meeting, there remained a significant number of players committed to not playing the rest of the season, while several non-max contract players had concerns about big-picture financial implications of stopping the rest of the season.

According to Begley, union members explained to players that there could be a 30 percent drop in revenue if they didn’t play the rest of the season.

Hopefully they received some nice concessions regarding social justice support from the owners.

506 replies on “SNY.tv: NBA players decide to resume playoffs, but strike/protests to continue Thursday”

I don’t know what defund the police means.

It means abolish broken police departments and rebuild them from the ground up. It means diverting funds from the cops to other services so the agents of state violence aren’t dealing with things they aren’t trained or equipped to. It means stop buying the police military vehicles and weapons they have zero use for. It means re-negotiating union contracts (when you can’t get rid of them entirely) so that it is possible to discipline officers. It means re-imaging police training so that it doesn’t consist of a once a year two week paid for vacation where they attend a seminar on how to more efficiently kill and injure people. It means a lot of things, these are local issues and will need a variety of local solutions.

The police are the biggest item by far in most cities’ budgets, and they are incredibly bad at their jobs. I don’t just mean the fact that they routinely kill, injure, and harass the people they are supposed to protect. I mean less than half of murders get solved. Only 5-10% of robberies. America venerates these bastards, showers them with money, and their performance at their most basic task doesn’t rise above the level of abject failure. Americans think the cops keep them safe because the police have benefited in decades of free propaganda worth trillions of dollars from TV and film. Americans are Rodney King, still bruised and beaten, standing at a podium surrounded by the people who beat him almost to death, begging people to love the police.

I don’t have much to add on this, so I’m curious what people think about trading up in the draft.

I’m guessing most people don’t want to, but I think Rose is going to take a shot at LaMelo through the Warriors pick, which would likely involve us taking back Wiggins’ contract among other things.

Maybe we get Wiggins and #2, Chicago gets Randle, #8, and our Dallas 2021 first, and the Warriors get Lavine and Bullock?

LaVine probably isn’t good enough for the Warriors to do that trade, and maybe the Bulls just pull a trade directly with GS if he was.

Wiggins would be a bitter pill, but at least we would move up, keep our own picks, and keep our two foundational guys.

*** venerates these bastards, showers them with money, and their performance at their most basic task doesn’t rise above the level of abject failure.***

Did you cut and paste this from the Knicks POBO 1999-2020 thread?

The way i see things reformation of american life/social justice go through gun ownership ban.
As long as the citizens are armed and dangerous police is justifiably trigger ready and violence is lurking everywhere.
Gun Lobby is fucking america from the ass pretty hard.

@ Mr. Walsh,
I got themes I like to work with.

Spending future assests to move up for a questionable draftee seems, uh, very Knicksy actually. Warriors will want more than Lavine (our 2023 1st?), Bulls will want at least our 2021 first not the mav’s. I think Rose would rather trade picks to get an established player, but I suspect we just draft at 8. There’s too much uncertainty to make big moves.

The way i see things reformation of american life/social justice go through gun ownership ban.
As long as the citizens are armed and dangerous police is justifiably trigger ready and violence is lurking everywhere.
Gun Lobby is fucking america from the ass pretty hard.

During peak quarantine boredom I was walking around my local neighborhoods in Portland, picking up street trash. In short order, I found three used hypos on the curb, and made a post about it on my social media. I was surprised how many people were shocked by it. I responded to the effect of, “Well, imagine you’re a needle user. You could shoot up in a car and carry the used needle to a safe place for private disposal, or you could drive around with a felony stuffed under your car seat. Short of ‘getting off heroin,’ what’s your solution?”

Same goes for universal gun ownership — when the United States has three times the number of firearms per capita (~120 per 100k) as the #2 country (Serbia), you bet your ass that every cop on the street is going to treat a random citizen as though they’re ready to blow a hole through a cop’s head to avoid whatever charge is lurking in their vehicle or on their person. That’s in part why I’ve been held at gunpoint by cops. That’s in part why innocent people keep getting shot in the streets.

Perverse fucking incentives, indeed.

Random and disparate thoughts.

Terribly torn about that Silverman piece. I’m totally with a walkout that ends the season for a few reasons. Yet one of the reasons we (and many, many others) are continuing to have heated discussions about the situation is that the players are using their platform to energize us to engage. If they all just go home, yes they can speak up at local rallies and have interviews, but it won’t have the same impact. A part of me thinks they can do more from within the bubble than from outside it (especially in the midst of a pandemic).

I’ve said it before, I just don’t want LaMelo. Not for a team that can’t shoot already. Brilliant kick-outs to… who exactly? If the driver can’t shoot the whole thing is easy to defend. And you don’t need a wizard to throw lobs to Mitch.

And Knew Your Knicks, it’s “in,” not “from.” Your version is giving me a headache trying to imagine it.

@Raven
Thanks for the correction/sorry for the mindfuck
never been good with all these small fkn words…

It keeps making me laugh, so thank you.

Although now I’m sure Jowles will correct my lack of imagination with a link to page X of Joy of Sex Volume 22.

I think Happy Mondays ‘Bob’s yer Uncle’ lyrics trapped me:

“What do you want to hear when we’re making love
Can I take you from behind and feel you in my heart”

After hearding of the McMillan/D’Antoni news, I visited Indy Cornrows (Pacers blog) and people out there were jubilant about the firing and thrilled about MDA. The fans who posted there were almost unanimous on 2 things, after the sweep:

1) Nate had to go;
2) Trade one of Myles Turner or Sabonis to the Warriors for the #2 pick;
3) Resign Oladipo (contentious point, it depends on the price).

Even if the Knicks get Wiggins back, an offer from the Pacers may be difficult to top.

(Anyway, as everybody has expressed here for many years already, Wiggins was always destined to be a Knick at some point, so the FO has Fate on their side)

***No, it is actually a well publicized debated topic, with ideas ranging from police abolition to divesting towards community services.***

I don’t see much ambiguity to any of the interpretations of “defund the police”, and the “debate” isn’t really a debate. Everybody promoting #defundthepolice has the same goal (radical police reform), and the same implementation policy (repurpose the police budget and resources into other agencies). Even the “abolish the police entirely” op-Ed says to “cut the funding in half and the police force in half”, which isn’t really abolishing the police at all. I think that people want to find hypocrisy and ambiguity in the hashtag, but there doesn’t seem to be much. Perhaps there is a better phrase or slogan out there, but in the words of Bobbi Flekman, “money talks and bullshit walks”. If you take away the funding, the police have no choice but to change the way they do business.

Although now I’m sure Jowles will correct my lack of imagination with a link to page X of Joy of Sex Volume 22.

I’m an autodidact on the topic, thanks

but also yes, “from” is also a possibility, although it takes a lot more ingenuity

(Anyway, as everybody has expressed here for many years already, Wiggins was always destined to be a Knick at some point, so the FO has Fate on their side)

How has Tyreke Evans never ended up on the Knicks? Maybe that was what his suspension was for – to keep the Knicks from fulfilling their destiny.

Brian Cronin: How has Tyreke Evans never ended up on the Knicks? Maybe that was what his suspension was for – to keep the Knicks from fulfilling their destiny.

in some parallel universe he is our starting PG with Alex Len in the pivot…

I’m really not sure Golden wants to get rid of Wiggins. Sure, he’s overpriced, but he’s a good fit with the rest of their pieces and he might do ok in a secondary role instead of as hoped for primary scorer.

America venerates these bastards, showers them with money, and their performance at their most basic task doesn’t rise above the level of abject failure. Americans think the cops keep them safe because the police have benefited in decades of free propaganda worth trillions of dollars from TV and film. Americans are Rodney King, still bruised and beaten, standing at a podium surrounded by the people who beat him almost to death, begging people to love the police.

there it is…Eazy-E, won’t you step up to the stand
And tell the jury how you feel about this bullshit?

and, absolutely no doubt – the guns have got to go…whenever i think of our love affair with guns i always hear that NIN beat and bowie tells us all how afraid of americans he is…i know he wasn’t necessarily talking about our society’s penchant for violence, but, that’s definitely what comes to mind when i think of how the world must view us…

it would take at least a generation or two to clean out all the guns here in the states…

Not a chance the Warriors want Wiggins at $31M AAV over the next three years. They wanted the Wolves’ pick and the cap slot. The Warriors can offer the 2020 #2 overall pick, a top-3 protected MIN pick (unprotected in 2022 if not conveyed next year) and the Wiggins slot for a disgruntled or sign-and-trade star. It’s hard to see who that star is, if not Anthony Davis or Giannis, but there’s a lot you can do with $31M in cap space aside from giving it to a max guy who has yet to crack a positive BPM.

I could see Brad Beal as a target. They can plug in some vet’s min rim-runner and call it a day. With Klay, Steph and Beal on the perimeter, they could have a nasty offense again.

If that’s the deal for Beal, Washington would be crazy not to take it. Idk maybe Oladipo/Turner for those picks is a better fit?

One thing is for sure, though, no one needs to involve the Knicks and their dreck roster in these talks.

***One thing is for sure, though, no one needs to involve the Knicks and their dreck roster in these talks.***

But the Knicks are the team to dump Wiggins on!

I mean, I think there’s a scenario where everybody is happy (except for Knickerblogger):

Randle + Smith + #2 to Indiana.

Turner and Oladipo to Golden State

Wiggins + Minnesota’s 2021(/2022) pick to New York

wiggins just has so much potential though, and he’s only 35…no doubt the mecca would bring the very best out of him…

No it would be Wiggins and the Wolves draft a franchise cornerstone at #1 who leads them to a 4-seed in 2022, giving the Knicks the ~22nd overall from an unprotected first.

***The Knicksy thing would be just Wiggins***

I guess we could throw in the #8 if that makes Indiana feel better…

Honestly, if they could just pull a trade with the Hawks to move above Detroit to get Hayes, that would be fine. It might cost them the Clippers pick, though.

There are differing ideas posted here. Abolishing, destroying and rebuilding, and simply diverting money so police departments “have no choice”… these are all different ideas.
I agree with some ideas and not all, as do most of you. But if we do it wrong, and end up underpolicing, and people die… that’s real dead people, likely minorities. I’ve seen it.
I’m with all of you that we need real systemic change to policing. So what then? Cut funding? Then you end up with bitter angry cops without resources – we all remember watching The Wire.

I think you need real reform. A year is minimum for training. Training should include combat training, De-escalation tactics, psychological testing, basic social worker skills. Preferably people with mental illness and addiction issues can be diverted towards specialized police/non-police divisions that deal with only that. Again- Unions should be abolished, there should be outside evaluators looking through each department for the bad cops, and severe punishment or expulsion for those who enabled them. Maybe a mass firing and careful rehiring in each department.

The Honorable Cock Jowles:
Not a chance the Warriors want Wiggins at $31M AAV over the next three years. They wanted the Wolves’ pick and the cap slot. The Warriors can offer the 2020 #2 overall pick, a top-3 protected MIN pick (unprotected in 2022 if not conveyed next year) and the Wiggins slot for a disgruntled or sign-and-trade star. It’s hard to see who that star is, if not Anthony Davis or Giannis, but there’s a lot you can do with $31M in cap space aside from giving it to a max guy who has yet to crack a positive BPM.

I could see Brad Beal as a target. They can plug in some vet’s min rim-runner and call it a day. With Klay, Steph and Beal on the perimeter, they could have a nasty offense again.

I would agree if they can get a big star for him of course they’d be willing to trade him. And Wiggins is way overpaid. But I think they are so far over the cap, they would still be over it even if they could magically get rid of his contract. So unless a magic trade comes along, their only alternative to him is whoever they can hire with some sort of exception. And that person is probably not better than him (although it’s hard to judge in the current situation). So even if he’s way overpaid they might be a better team with him and being say, $40M over the cap, than without him and being, say $15M over the cap. I can some owners making that decision.

Donnie Walsh:
I mean, I think there’s a scenario where everybody is happy (except for Knickerblogger):

Randle + Smith + #2 to Indiana.

Turner and Oladipo to Golden State

Wiggins + Minnesota’s 2021(/2022) pick to New York

I don’t see this deal being good. Minnesota’s pick might not be anything special. So we trade a short reasonable value contract more for a millstone of a contract and a quite possibly middling pick? Instead we could just have cap space in the summer of ‘21.

Donnie Walsh:
I mean, I think there’s a scenario where everybody is happy (except for Knickerblogger):

Randle + Smith + #2 to Indiana.

Turner and Oladipo to Golden State

Wiggins + Minnesota’s 2021(/2022) pick to New York

With some more picks involved (protected or not), I think this is a good frame for a deal.

I believe Beal to the Warriors is a possibility, yeah, but likely not their first option. Their backcourt is fine; they need more help at frontcourt, but maybe settle at Beal after not finding a frontcourt star. If Sabonis is available, they should considerate. He’s just 23.

I think abolishing the police carries with it genuine policy differences compared to a mere defunding (except when the defunding is designed to eventually lead to abolition, like in starve the beast Republican strategy). Defunding of course implies taking away money from departments and even disbanding and reconstituting departments into smaller outfits. What I take “abolish” to mean in comparison to this is simply: get rid of police departments as an arm of the state, entirely. That doesn’t mean we don’t, say, have investigators for homicides, or that we can’t have some kind of armed officer corps respond to bona fide violent emergencies. But the police’s function would be distributed across different organs of the state, and its footprint would be small enough (since it’s obvious that other trained professionals like social workers should do important public safety no matter whether defunding or abolition happens) that they wouldn’t have the resources to put people out on patrol, and the fragmenting of their duties makes it more difficult for them to unionize.

Another alternative to mere defunding is full community control of police, which is what the CPAC legislation in Chicago intends to engineer by creating a citizen’s council that has final say on policy, budget, misconduct cases, etc. This kind of thing can also lead to abolition, insofar as the citizen’s council is intended to be an adversarial force for the police department that also has the power to change their policy and their budget.

I don’t think a mere cutting of funding is enough either–the police have routinely shown that they will kill you with whatever they have (including their arms and knees) for the smallest of reasons. It’s not a training issue. Violent individuals are often attracted to policing, and in any case there are serious structural issues that turn otherwise nice people into murderers or their abettors. Police need to answer to someone else, whether that’s the citizenry or the state.

Violent individuals are often attracted to policing

The fact that this is something up for debate in American society — hard for me to swallow.

The Knicks are finalizing deals for Mike Woodson, Andy Greer and Dice Yoshimoto to join Tom Thibodeau’s staff as assistant coaches, sources tell ESPN.

Woodson, we know, for good and for ill. Greer is a longtime Thibs assistant, in both Chicago and Minnesota. Yoshimoto was also with Thibs at those stops, but I believe primarily as a video coordinator.

Pretty happy with the assistant coaching list. Seems to be heavy on likeable “player’s coach” guys (Woodson, Payne), since Thibs is, uh, not really that. Do we have any info on what Yoshimoto is like?

Seems to be heavy on likeable “player’s coach” guys (Woodson, Payne), since Thibs is, uh, not really that.

Yes, for all his flaws and stubbornness, Woodson’s players usually adore him. Having him and Payne around as the spoonful of sugar to make Thibs’ medicine go down seems smart (on top of the other things Payne is apparently great at).

Alan: Yoshimoto was also with Thibs at those stops, but I believe primarily as a video coordinator.

With Thibs’s emphasis on film this is probably an important job in his mind

Yes, for all his flaws and stubbornness, Woodson’s players usually adore him.

Outside of Beno, of course. 😉

I had somehow blocked the entire Beno Era out of my head, Brian, so thanks for putting it back.

I had somehow blocked the entire Beno Era out of my head, Brian, so thanks for putting it back.

I literally forgot his name. I just knew Woody was a real dick to some foreign point guard on the team. I thought maybe Prigs, at first, but Woody loved Prigs, so I had to look it up and saw it was Beno.

Wow, one of the concessions that the players got from the owners is that the league will use their arenas as polling places. In an era of gross voter interference at the polls, that’s huge.

I remember during that last year of Woodson, Felton went down with an injury for a few games and Beno had to start. Suddenly the Knicks went 7-1 with wins over San Antonio and Dallas on the road and their one loss was against Houston by 2 points. And Shump was playing really well. Then Felton came back, Beno went back to the bench and the Knicks then lost 5 in a row.

And there was pretty clear evidence that because Beno was a lefty, he was more likely to find an open Shump on the side of the court where Shump shot from a much higher percentage and that is why Shump was playing so well. And having Shump shoot well, meant less doubles on Melo, allowing him more open looks as well. Plus Felton was having a bad year that year (the gun charges, etc). But Woodson didn’t care. Felton was his man.

Arenas as polling places is a great idea.

I wonder how it will work. Since arenas are so big, you could have way more voting machines and the ability for more people to wait in line than at a typical polling place. Will these arenas serve as polling places for multiple districts or just the immediate district they’re in?

If they could serve as polling places for multiple districts where thousands of people could be processed to vote, it could conceivably tip the scales in places like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, etc. Its an amazing idea.

Alan: Woodson, we know, for good and for ill. Greer is a longtime Thibs assistant, in both Chicago and Minnesota. Yoshimoto was also with Thibs at those stops, but I believe primarily as a video coordinator.

Wasn’t Greer also on the Knicks staff under JVG?

If this staff can mesh with Payne, Bryant, and Woodson being “suggested” for the staff- I like the makeup of the staff. There’s gonna be plenty of development and tons of teaching of Thibs’ system. The wild card is definitely Woodson, so we’ll see

Silky Johnson, Fleet Admiral of the Tank Armada
Violent individuals are often attracted to policing

Violent individuals are often attracted to policing…
The Honorable Cock Jowles: The fact that this is something up for debate in American society — hard for me to swallow.

I believe this because of first-hand experience. I wish that there was another word other than “violent” but it’s appropriate. People that are officious do too.. If 1 in 1000 police officers are bad, that means there’s about 800 bad police officers (800K police in the US). On the flip side, how many officers would turn in a colleague who voiced but never acted on bigotry? On the potential of doing something really bad? How many would stand by while it was happening? I’m a white male. I’ve had many dozens of “non-traffic” encounters with police. I’ve only had one encounter which was positive: a cop that coached Little League with me found my father, who had Alzheimers, wandering down the street in our town and he called me. As a victim of break-ins, car thefts, pickpockets, yada, yada, they’ve never lifted a hand to help me.

well, I was wrong about woody…I guess better weather and a better team ain’t the most important things…

still love him though as a personality…

Donnie Walsh:
I mean, I think there’s a scenario where everybody is happy (except for Knickerblogger):

Randle + Smith + #2 to Indiana.

Turner and Oladipo to Golden State

Wiggins + Minnesota’s 2021(/2022) pick to New York

I’d want a bit more back for taking Wiggin’s contract but I’d be pretty happy with this trade. Potentially getting two lottery picks in next year’s draft, which is already being hyped as a good one, is huge even if one is top 3 protected. And Wiggins only has 3 years left on his deal; it’s a lot of money but 3 years isn’t crippling.

I’m not sure why Indy would do this though. I’m not sure why they’d blow up their team for the 2nd pick in a bad draft. Also, who’s the Smith that they’re getting? I’m drawing a blank.

Brian Cronin:
Wow, one of the concessions that the players got from the owners is that the league will use their arenas as polling places. In an era of gross voter interference at the polls, that’s huge.

That is great and I love that there’s such an immediate, specific change to throw in the face of all the people yelling “what do they even want!?”

Also, who’s the Smith that they’re getting? I’m drawing a blank.

Dennis Smith.

But yeah, I agree that while I think Indiana will definitely trade Turner, I don’t think it will be for the #2 pick. Who there would even fit in with their needs of a wing who can shoot?

3 years of Andrew Wiggins is absolutely crippling for your on court product. One year of Julius Randle and Bobby Portis eating up all the minutes at power forward did not help Kevin Knox at all (even if he wasn’t helping himself). Imagine 3 years of having to play Andrew Wiggins at the 3 so RJ was stuck at the two?

Yeah, only way I’m not crying myself to sleep over an Andrew Wiggins trade is if Woj reports the Knicks plan to play him full time at power forward or something. That guy is not what you want around a developing team.

Wiggins and Barrett at the forward spots would be interesting, at least.

But yeah, I am so firmly on “Get Barrett to the forward spot” bus that I fear the same thing. Barrett at the 2 is no good for anyone, least alone Barrett.

3 years of Andrew Wiggins is absolutely crippling for your on court product. One year of Julius Randle and Bobby Portis eating up all the minutes at power forward did not help Kevin Knox at all (even if he wasn’t helping himself). Imagine 3 years of having to play Andrew Wiggins at the 3 so RJ was stuck at the two?

It’s really hard to overstate just how bad of a shooter he is. This year, he put up a 33.0% mark from 10-16 and 33.7% on 16+ 2PA, totaling about 20% of his shot attempts. These numbers are right around his career averages (36% and 34%, respectively). This is bad.

Here are some Wiggins vs. Knicks numbers that I had to pull manually, because fuck BBRef.

10-16 feet: player, FGA%, FG%

Wiggins, 10.2%, 33.0%
Morris, 16.8%, 48.6%
Ntilikina, 11.7%, 28.2%
Portis, 11.4, 38.8%
Payton, 10.5, 34.8%
Randle, 9.7%, 43.9%
Gibson, 8.0%, 47.8%
Barrett, 6.5%, 27.7%
Smith, 8.1%, 23.5%
Bullock, 7.6%, 40.9%

16+ 2PA

Wiggins, 9.4%, 33.7%
Smith, 20.4%, 18.6% (this man should not be in the league)
Bullock, 19.6%, 40.9%
Dotson, 19.3%, 44.6%
Morris, 18.9%, 42.5%
Gibson, 15.7%, 42.2%
Portis, 14.6%, 40.7%
Knox, 10.2%, 26.8%
Randle, 8.1%, 35.8%
Barrett, 7.2%, 28.8%
Payton, 6.4%, 42.9%

He’s also a poor 3PT shooter (career high 35.6% in 2016-17, 33.2% this year on a career-best 34.2% of shots) and has seen his dunk rate plummet year-over-year, every year, from when he was yamming it as a rookie and sophomore in Minnesota.

Hard, hard, hardest pass. The fact that Bob Myers is, today, saying he’s a “core 4” player shows that GSW is either (1) shrewdly trying to make other franchises think he’s got upside or (2) showing yet again (McCaw, Robinson, Spellman, Damion Lee, WCS, Burks, Poole, Paschall) that they believe very strongly that they can polish turds.

I believe this because of first-hand experience. I wish that there was another word other than “violent” but it’s appropriate. People that are officious do too.. If 1 in 1000 police officers are bad, that means there’s about 800 bad police officers (800K police in the US). On the flip side, how many officers would turn in a colleague who voiced but never acted on bigotry? On the potential of doing something really bad? How many would stand by while it was happening?

I posted this yesterday, but I’ll repeat it here because the thread got kind of abandoned:

In my hometown (Fort Lauderdale) there was a cop who got caught on video shoving a kneeling woman to the ground. He got suspended. It turned out he had something like 80 complaints of excessive force against him in just two years, and he never faced any form of discipline. No suspension, no write-up, no reprimand, no re-training, NOTHING AT ALL.

Every cop who knew about this cop’s history and enabled it was a bad cop. This is a guy who had several excessive force complaints filed against him PER MONTH and nothing was done. Every supervisor, every partner, every colleague this dude worked with likely knew about his violent streak and nobody said shit.

This kind of shit is why people use “ACAB” type language, and why people are fed up with police in general.

The Mavericks announce Kristaps Porzingis has been dealing with a meniscus tear in his right knee since Game 1 of the playoffs. “Further treatment options are being explored,” but regardless they say KP won’t play in the rest of this series.

Yup. We still got a really shitty package for him, but the idea of having to give that guy a max contract… man.

Kristaps has a meniscus tear.

See? Phil was right to want to trade him. Best team president ever.

(And, yes, a few days ago I was whining when KP was putting up 30-point games. But the kid is a ticking time bomb.)

Well he made it through an entire 0 playoff games without his knee getting fucked up

Well, that was always the main worry with Porzingis and the #1 reason to trade him. Don’t know how serious a meniscus tear is (they seem kind of common in the NBA) but KP still hasn’t made it through a season without injury.

His knees are terrible.

158 Million dollars for three months a season of 2.0 BPM play

That 2021 Mavericks pick just became untouchable.

It obviously helps, but the Mavericks were 11-6 without KP and 1-1 in the playoffs. It’s unlikely that they’ll miss the playoffs next year, especially since they’ll have cap room and, you know, Luka.

Do you believe that:

-Most police officers are bad people
-Most police officers are good people but poorly trained
-Most police officers are good people but just not particularly intelligent because smarter people who would make good police officers don’t want to do the job
-Most police officers are good at their job and good people but are part of a corrupt system of policing

Do you believe that
-We don’t need police at all
-We need police but for a very limited function
-we need police to do most of what they are doing now but that they need to do it better

Brian Cronin: It obviously helps, but the Mavericks were 11-6 without KP and 1-1 in the playoffs. It’s unlikely that they’ll miss the playoffs next year, especially since they’ll have cap room and, you know, Luka.

A meniscus tear is not in and of itself a big deal. Loads of NBA players have had meniscus issues, particularly bigs.

That 2021 Mavericks pick just became untouchable.

You have to hope Doncic loses a leg to think that pick will be anything better than a #15 overall.

You have to hope Doncic loses a leg to think that pick will be anything better than a #15 overall.

Yep, pretty much. Although, that said, it will be fascinating to see what they do with THJ. They were planning on using his salary (and Courtney Lee’s salary, which could have been traded for a first rounder, but the Mavericks didn’t feel like it) for a free agent, but what if they want to bring him back? What do you pay THJ to bring him back?

They’re poorly trained, the requirements are too low, and the system is wildly corrupt. Every cop who knew but did nothing about the one is Ft. Lauderdale is a bad cop, which means they are all bad cops, basically. Good/bad person doesn’t enter into it. Good people do bad things all the damn time because we’re not binary.

Some type of law enforcement is necessary. What we have isn’t law enforcement, it’s legalized gangs. The solutions will be local and varied. One size fits all isn’t a workable approach.

What do you pay THJ to bring him back?

What’s he actually worth? He’s maybe an average wing? I don’t know what their cap space situation is but I can’t see much more than 10-12 AAV, and that only if a replacement isn’t obvious.

Do you believe that…

Z-Man, I can’t answer any of those questions because I think they mostly miss the point. It’s not good vs. bad, or smart vs. not intelligent. I don’t know where I rank on either of those, but I do know that I should be the poster boy for gun control — there were probably two people I would have considered shooting just on my drive to get the lad this afternoon. Put anyone under the grind and tension of constant threat and nonstop dealing with (often) the worst people on the planet, day after day, year after year, and things are likely to go badly. To cherry pick from the points that I think matter, I do think they’re poorly trained, and that they’re part of a corrupt system; and we need the police but for a limited function, and they need to do that limited function a lot better.

The Honorable Cock Jowles: You have to hope Doncic loses a leg to think that pick will be anything better than a #15 overall.

Doncic guarantees you’re a playoff team but no Porzingis guarantees they don’t seed higher than 7th again. You have to think at least both LA teams, Denver, Utah, and Houston will be better than Dallas with OKC, Memphis, Portland, Phoenix, and New Orleans all having a shot to be better than a Porzingis-less Dallas team. Also, Luka is going to have to play 78 games because without him they are the 2018 Knicks.

See, I just don’t see constructive discussion from either side on the matter. I see reactionary slogans, not earnest problem solving.

In my view, the problem is about laws themselves as much as it is about law enforcement. For example, drug laws.

i think we may all be really missing out on the opportunity to discuss what’s truly relevant and important to today’s discussions:

i just picked the nintendo switch – anyone have any suggestions for games…downloaded luigi’s mansion (pretty cool), burnout (fun racing game), those two weird hello neighbor games (youngest godson loves them) – but, i’m looking for a game for myself…

was gonna try out samurai jack (i’ve never watched the cartoons, i like the animation though), but read some not so great reviews…just looking for something “fun”, not too deep…any ideas???

oh yeah, if thems my choices – i’m going with:

-Most police officers are good people but just not particularly intelligent because smarter people who would make good police officers don’t want to do the job
-We need police but for a very limited function

i don’t have a whole lot of familiarity with police folks, thankfully haven’t needed them in my life much…i did though get picked up and detained (literally – i was the wrong “white” guy they were looking for) once…one officer was a black guy, another a white guy, and a white female…

they kinda of fucked with me for a few hours until they asked me an actual question and then quickly realized i was the wrong person…they actually threatened me as they were releasing me…it was such a bizarre situation…that shit haunted me a for a few months…

i don’t think they were particularly evil…they damn sure weren’t that smart…mostly they just reminded me of jocks from high school that were simply action starved adrenaline junkies…

hmmmmm, time to play – what word caused the moderation program to kick in…okay, here’s a slightly reworded variation:

i’m going with:

-Most police officers are good people but just not particularly intelligent because smarter people who would make good police officers don’t want to do the job
-We need police but for a very limited function

i don’t have a whole lot of familiarity with police folks, thankfully haven’t needed them in my life much…i did though get picked up and held (literally – i was the wrong “white” guy they were looking for) once…one officer was a black guy, another a white guy, and a white female…

they kinda messed with me for a few hours until they asked me an actual question and then quickly realized i was the wrong person…they actually threatened me as they were releasing me…it was such a bizarre situation…that shit haunted me a for a few months…

i don’t think they were particularly evil…they damn sure weren’t that smart…mostly they just reminded me of jocks from high school that were simply action starved adrenaline junkies…

The Mavs set a record for highest ORtg of the modern era this year and their offense was still better with KP off the floor. They’ll be fine without him. And it’s not unreasonable to assume that Doncic will spend the offseason learning how to shoot from downtown. If he ever gets to like 38% from deep he will win multiple MVPs. He might do that without the deep ball.

Hi all, wanted to try out my conspiracy take. I live in Seattle and the whole mess seemed to be directed by an online message center calling itself the youth liberation front. My son is of the right age and hangs with some as he says “badass dudes.” what they said was there were a lot of strangers inciting the property destruction. Maybe an audit of Trumps reelection committee is in order. Seems the trump Wisconsin maga kid has got a sudden defense team from a Trump connected law firm. I’m surprised they didn’t have him speak at the convention.

Maybe an audit of Trumps reelection committee is in order. Seems the trump Wisconsin maga kid has got a sudden defense team from a Trump connected law firm. I’m surprised they didn’t have him speak at the convention.

I know I’m back on my bullshit with the book recommendations, but Dark Money by Jane Mayer. Dark Money by Jane Mayer. Dark Money by Jane Mayer.

The section where she describes the “non-profits” that helped organize the Tea Party town hall fiascos in 2010 had me livid. Paying people to help plant “citizens” throughout the public meetings, instructing them to stand up, make a scene, and then sit down quickly so they would be able to continue disrupting the candidates’ speeches and Q&As.

The GOP is paying people to create chaos. There is no doubt about it. We just don’t know exactly who, to whom, where, when, or how much, because, haha, Citizens United. We only know the “why.”

Hi all, wanted to try out my conspiracy take. I live in Seattle and the whole mess seemed to be directed by an online message center calling itself the youth liberation front. My son is of the right age and hangs with some as he says “badass dudes.” what they said was there were a lot of strangers inciting the property destruction. Maybe an audit of Trumps reelection committee is in order. Seems the trump Wisconsin maga kid has got a sudden defense team from a Trump connected law firm. I’m surprised they didn’t have him speak at the convention.

The GOP is paying people to create chaos. There is no doubt about it.

It could be the Russians inciting this. They’d love to see the country in chaos and it might help Trump in the election too.

You don’t need to pay people to create chaos.

People like Alex Jones and Donald Trump engage in “stochastic terrorism.” You demonize people to the point where it motivates your followers to go out and commit violence. You don’t need a lot of them to take action, just a few. Statistically most people aren’t actually going to pick up the AR15 and go on a killing spree, but a few will.

Tucker Carlson’s rationalizations of Kyle Rittenhouse’s murders were textbook stochastic terrorism.

You don’t need to pay people to create chaos.

You don’t, but this one way to astroturf. You pay people to organize, and let the everyday crazies join you.

in case you all have not noticed – the rules for politics have been about the same since folks first cast stones – if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t really trying…

there is but one true objective to politics: win…and, after that – try to avoid getting killed or incarcerated in the process…

takes some serious commitment, I’ll give them that…

Brian Cronin:
Holy shit, Chadwick Boseman died. That’s so fucked up.

I literally just saw the news. 43 and dead of colon cancer. What the fuck

Holy shit, Chadwick Boseman died. That’s so fucked up.

Every fucking time you think this year can’t get any worse…

The GOP is paying people to create chaos. There is no doubt about it. We just don’t know exactly who, to whom, where, when, or how much…

Not only do I believe this 1000%, but there’s some shades of COINTELPRO tactics to this shit (not saying the feds have a hand in any of this). The GOP knows that most of this country needs serious reform and evolution on so many things that threaten the (white) establishment. So instead of figuring out how to adjust such needs that could appeal to traditional republican values, they just want to sow division to hold onto their control at all costs. It’s sickening, and I’m bout fed up with the bullshit.

Sorry yall I’m a bit raw right now. The lead star in one of the best movies to represent the African diaspora (even if from a fictional story base) in my lifetime just died. He also played Jackie freakin’ Robinson – I’m a member of his foundation that his wife Ms. Rachel founded after he died: i became a JRF scholar in ’95 my senior year at Stuyvesant… winning a scholarship from them after Spike Lee came thru in the 11th hour to donate more money so some of the other finalists like me could have a shot at that scholarship.

Standard shit from the ratfucker’s playbook is to accuse the other side of the shit you’ve been doing. Your side eats it up and it insulates you from criticism. So when the movement conservatives started accusing the left of paying people to protest lo these many years ago, well. They kind of gave away their game didn’t they?

***Tucker Carlson’s rationalizations of Kyle Rittenhouse’s murders were textbook stochastic terrorism.***

Ann Coulter says “I wish Kyle Rittenhouse was my President”.

Aubrey Huff calls him a “national treasure”.

And soon Mbudge will be here to inform us that Carlson, Coulter, and Huff are right because there was no mention of #metoo at the DNC, and that All Buildings And Businesses Matter, and fuck lives altogether.

hey cdiggy, any feelings on them playing football in the big 12, conf-usa, sun belt, american, acc and sec …looks like the big 10 is receiving a lot of pressure to play…

pac-12. big 10 (for now), mountain west, ivy league, and mac bowing out…

The Honorable Cock Jowles: I know I’m back on my bullshit with the book recommendations, but Dark Money by Jane Mayer. Dark Money by Jane Mayer. Dark Money by Jane Mayer.

The section where she describes the “non-profits” that helped organize the Tea Party town hall fiascos in 2010 had me livid. Paying people to help plant “citizens” throughout the public meetings, instructing them to stand up, make a scene, and then sit down quickly so they would be able to continue disrupting the candidates’ speeches and Q&As.

The GOP is paying people to create chaos. There is no doubt about it. We just don’t know exactly who, to whom, where, when, or how much, because, haha, Citizens United. We only know the “why.”

In addition to Dark Money, I would recommend Evil Genuises by Kurt Andersen ( of Spy Magazine* among other magazines), which expands and elaborates on the theme of Dark Money on how the right systemically and with great calculation stole the country with the Dems abetting as useful idiots
* Spy Magazine was one of the first publications to troll Trump.

Cdiggy, I sympathize. My step brother died when we were both 40. He had a massive heart attack from a blood clot. He was walking in front of a fire station at the time and they tried to help him, but no one could do anything. It makes you feel very mortal.

I went straight from vacation to the start of 2L so haven’t been around for a bit. Shout out to everyone dealing with our resident boot licking fascist sympathizers. The strike was one of the coolest and most powerful things I’ve ever seen in sports and while I wish more came of it, I think the players made a reasonable decision under the circumstances and getting arenas to serve as polling locations is a legitimately significant win.

So Porzingis, huh? Is it good if a 7’3″ guy has the exact same injury history as Derrick Rose, down to the ages at which Rose suffered the injuries? Asking for a former friend.

Timmy has a player option for 19 million for next year. It’s going to be interesting to see what he does. Maybe we can bring him back a 3rd time!

As bad as I want Vassell or maybe Nesmith on the wing, if Obi is still there at 8- I’m taking him and moving on from Randle. Or..what about offering the 8th pick for Bagley? Then maybe packaging the 27 and one of the Dallas picks to move up for Lewis?

Obi just seems like a younger version of Randle, though. I want a point guard, a 3-and-D wing, or a 4 who better complements Mitch.

Yeah, saw that Campazzo tidbit but it seemed pretty thin. After Prigs, I will always have time for an Argentine pg.

Obi Toppin’s stats are ridiculous, but the defense and the free throw shooting are red flags you really can’t ignore. On defense, his issues seem to be awareness based as opposed to lack of effort or talent. Right now he’s a guy that doesn’t necessarily struggle in space or protecting the rim, but his reaction speed is troubling and could make him unplayable down the stretch of close games.

On offense, this guy is what it would look like if late career Amar’e never had knee surgeries. He has no trouble spacing the floor, he’s decisive in the post, and he’s a lob threat in transition and in the half court. One thing that he has to his game that reminds me of Blake Griffin is his ability to pass the ball. He’s not a ball stopper by any means and he’s a good fit for a modern offense.

Ultimately, I worry that his archetype is losing value by the minute. He cannot play center defensively but that’s his ideal position on offense. And honestly, you have to be an elite player on offense to be able to not have a position on defense. If the Knicks wanted a power forward, I’d say take Patrick Williams out of Florida State or Aleksej Pokusevski.

DRed:
Timmy has a player option for 19 million for next year.It’s going to be interesting to see what he does.Maybe we can bring him back a 3rd time!

Tim Hardaway Jr just became the 2nd offense in the Mavericks’ offense next to Luka Doncic. If he opts in, he has a chance to be the Tobias Harris of the 2021 free agency class.

It’s a low scoring first half. I can’t watch, but it looks like both teams are playing defense

I’m sure the Knicks will take Obi if he drops, but it’s pointless if they don’t have a point guard to pass to him.

I hope they at least give Lamar Peters a shot to win the gig. He’s small, but he can ball out, and he’s only 22.

This 4th quarter is more exciting because I was thinking the 3rd quarter was the fourth.

I like Dame being the Guy in Portland. But I don’t see how his ceiling with them is beyond Conference Finals w/that team.

Appreciate the warm thoughts KnickfaninNJ. And geo – I think the decision making for PAC-12 football is rooted a bit differently than that of the Big-10 (or Big-12 or SEC) due to the states where most of the schools lie (west coast) and how those states are handling COVID.

On the community college level here in CA, football preseason will start in January (with my AD acknowledging that, even then, there may be a possibility of no football games this season).

BTW yall, October 5 is when I tie the knot with my sweet tulip – just 5 weeks away!

This is somewhat reassuring, though the article goes on to note that the Blazers have lots of other options at forward for next year:

Carmelo Anthony, who will become a free agent, said he wants to come back to Portland next season.

“I pray that it can be Portland, honestly,” Anthony said after scoring 27 points. “I think I’ve found a home in Portland. I got comfortable with the organization, I got comfortable with the guys on the team, they got comfortable with me, and at this point in my career, I do think that is the best fit for me.”

Congrats Cdiggy, from one Stuy alumnus to another.

On The Knicks Wall podcast Macri talked to a Sixers beat guy about the prospect of the Knicks taking on the Harris and/or Horford contracts for sweetener. Apparently the unclear cap situation could put Sixers’ ownership in a serious bind and basically force their hand.

Horford would have to be viewed as a complete dump and thus require lots of sweetener–he’s 34 and (mostly) plays the same position as our best player. He’s not bad (yet), but that contract sure seems headed in the most ominous of directions.

Harris is a little more interesting. His contract is so out of sync with his production that we should still require at least 2 first round picks, but he at least theoretically fills a need for us (putting aside for a second that our “needs” are “any and all good basketball players) and is only 28. Plus you know MSG would love to lean into the whole blood in the ground thing.

The Knicks are in a good position relative to many teams this coming year. They have a profitable television station and an owner willing to spend on the team and they have significant cap space. Good deals where they take on money should be available to them. I don’t know if Horford/Harris is the best deal for them but it’s gotta be looked at. Philadelphia is likely to be motivated for change, so that’s a plus.

Bleacher Report had an interesting article about possible trades for lottery teams. They open up with a fascinating one about the Warriors using their trade exception to acquire James Johnson, so that they could pair him with the #2 pick to get an expensive player (their trade exception cannot be paired with a pick and the pick is the real asset). I was, like, “Huh, that’s a very well-thought out trade proposal. Well done, Bleacher Report, I will keep reading this article….”

And then….

New York Knicks receive: Malik Monk, 2020 No. 3 pick

Charlotte Hornets receive: Mitchell Robinson, Reggie Bullock and 2020 No. 8 pick

As per usual, the Knicks were gut-punched at the lottery. They not only failed to climb the ladder, but they slipped from sixth to eighth. This reverses their fortune—at the expense of Robinson, who’s loaded with upside but hasn’t averaged 24 minutes in either of his first two NBA seasons.

This deal wouldn’t go down until draft night, because it’s contingent on LaMelo Ball getting past the first two picks (as he does in the latest mock from B/R’s Jonathan Wasserman). The 6’7″ point guard caught the eye of the Empire State, and the interest may be mutual.

“Multiple teams believe Ball and those in his circle prefer that he lands in New York,” Ian Begley of SNY.tv reported.

Ball is a risk-reward prospect, but he might be the best player in this draft. He’s a preternatural passer, and his aggressiveness in pushing the pace could give this young team an identity. He needs work with his shooting, shot selection and defensive motor (if anyone can keep it revved, maybe it’s Tom Thibodeau), but those can theoretically be coached up. If Ball hits, he’s going to be a marquee star.

The Hornets, who already have Devonte’ Graham and Terry Rozier in the backcourt, might opt against gambling on the young guard, especially if it means adding a building-block big man and retaining a top-10 pick.

Robinson can transform the frontcourt (career 14.0 points, 11.1 rebounds and 3.6 blocks per 36 minutes) as a two-way, above-the-rim force. The Hornets only have one center under contract for next season, and it’s the decidedly average Cody Zeller (career 16.0 player efficiency rating—worlds removed from Robinson’s 22.8 mark). The No. 8 pick could answer Charlotte’s need for an impact wing with Devin Vassell or Isaac Okoro.

I was in the midst of throwing my laptop across the room when I realized I could just close the website and come here to complain about it, instead.

Thanks, everyone!
Tnfh: Class of ’95 here.

Brian: I feel that article you quoted about that possible trade is basically trolling us. It’s like BR has been reading KB and knows that:
1. The board universally panned Malik Monk.
2. We love Mitch.
3. I posted a long entry about that family friend that knows the Ball clan.
3a. My coworkers have trolled me about us drafting LaMelo in large part due to Lavar (not bc they care whether he’ll be good or not).

(Don’t ask me how BR knows about 3a. I’m just suspicious… lol).

Going into the playoffs, the Celtics were happy about getting an injured Sixers team and a Raptors team they matched up well with and, well, it is sure showing.

The Celtics have a decent chance of getting crushed in the NBA Finals.

good for you cdiggy, that’s beautiful ya’ll pushing through with your plans…shoot, 20, 30 years from now you’ll have a very cool story to tell of your wedding…

from what I can remember of your posts it seems you both have been working to make a life together for at least a few years now…

I wish you the very best 🙂

reference football, I think it’s part geography/virus and a whole lot about money – including high school ball…

not sure what’s going on at the moment with the pac-12 and players wanting a new situation – but, I don’t think it’s ever been more clear that in some circumstances: “amateur” athletics is a bunch of bullshit…

it’s so weird how methodical and measured (read: slow) kawhi and luka are with their movements…yet their balance is unbelievable and they both can pretty much go and do whatever they want with the ball…

I feel like Luka should shoot 88% from the line like Manu. Only problem in his game.

Going into the playoffs, the Celtics were happy about getting an injured Sixers team and a Raptors team they matched up well with and, well, it is sure showing.

The Celtics have a decent chance of getting crushed in the NBA Finals.

I wouldn’t read too much into one win. I doubt Van Vleet, Siakam and Lowry are gonna shoot a combined 3-19 from 3 point range too often.

Man, Luka is so good. He has more than twice as many points as the next closest Mav player.

Kawhi is also very good at basketball. Paul George… not so much, right now.

I didn’t realize that Kawhi now holds the post-Jordan record for BPM in a single postseason, since the last BPM adjustment, as far as I can tell. Thanks to StAtHeAd, we can’t see the list without paying anymore, but I believe 14.2 in 2016-17 is the best we’ve seen since Jordan’s 1991 postseason.

Imagine having that player, having his Bird rights, being able to offer him the supermax to keep him in San Antonio… and he just walks, for virtually nothing.

I feel like Luka should shoot 88% from the line like Manu. Only problem in his game.

His 3PT shooting was good this series, but he needs to get it way higher over a whole season. 31.6% won’t cut it in today’s league, even if he is prodigious everywhere else. Crazy thing is, I think he will. The arc on his long ball is perfect. It just needs to find the net.

Oh, I’m dumb. I completely missed that. I thought that was always the gold standard, but when I glanced at the page, I mistook ’12 for ’09. Yup, it’s that absurd LeBron postseason where his best teammate was Mo Williams. Insane.

The only people on the planet that can stop Luka Doncic are Donnie Nelson and Mark Cuban.

But also Luka Doncic hasn’t been a good shooter at any level. He’s a high volume shot maker that you cannot leave open, but I wouldn’t bank on a career 32% 3 point shooter and 73.7% free throw shooter becoming one of the game’s elite marksmen.

Well, Boban was a plus 16. Happy about that.

Also, someone might want to do a wellness check on JK47 after Justin Dunn pitched 6 innings of one hit ball.

Drafting another lebron is a long shot but I think we can be smart enough to draft someone like Jamal Murray or donnovan Mitchell instead of the knox, dennis, and frank of the world

No guard in this draft was even close to having the freshman season shooting/advanced numbers Murray had – .590 ts, .194 ws40, 9.5 bpm, .402 3pt% – and it’s not like he’s been all-world until now.

The closest player in this draft to him shooting-wise is Vassell, who had impressive freshman numbers but on lower usage. Vassell clearly doesn’t have Murray’s handle, but he might be a better overall defender.

Murray has been very up-and-down since the Nuggets made him the starting PG when he was 20 years old. He hasn’t really improved much since then, and though he’s streaky, his shooting numbers have been rather pedestrian. The Nuggets had to give him a $160,000,000 extension still based on his upside, not his actual production. It’s the problem with having 19year olds in the lottery that take time to develop. The ones that breakout young, and the ones that flop completely are the easy ones to decide on, but the Murrays and Porzingises of the league really out their teams in a tough spot come extension time.

Right, and who’s the last 19-year-old point guard to break out? Even if we were in a position to draft LaMelo, he would be a 5-year project, most likely with a scary extension attached.

I wouldn’t bank on a career 32% 3 point shooter and 73.7% free throw shooter becoming one of the game’s elite marksmen.

I guess, but 38pts on 28 shots is pretty good. Especially when the second option is THj.

Maybe Doncic is never a good shooter. And I hope being saddled with THj’s player option prevnts the Mavs from getting a proper number two (aside from the oft injured and wildly overpaid KP). The Knicks pick relies on Doncic having no backup of note.

2020 is a nasty mf…

It’s being reported that the great legend John Thompson has passed

Sheesh
It’s just too much this year

Totes McGoats as Totes McGoats:
2020 is a nasty mf…

It’s being reported that the great legend John Thompson has passed

Sheesh
It’s just too much this year

Many great memories of Big East Basketball in the 80’s. ( sorry for the indulgence in Boomer nostalgia)
Aside to Z-man ( off topic) You may be interested in the podcast Nice White Parents. If not you will at least be amused by the 5th episode.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-book-of-statuses/id1524080195?i=1000486589125

I would take Kira ahead of Ball/Hayes/Halliburton! It’s not just his speed; there have been many speedy guards who have been meh or terrible. What impresses me the most is his natural ability to change pace and change direction. This is what the coaching staff was trying to teach RJ that summer. The second thing is his ability to shoot off the dribble; defender will have to go over the pick. Could you imagine Kira and Mitch in PnR? Third, he actually plays defense and the word is he’s fine in PnR D. Fourth, the Schmitz interview shows an articulate, self-aware guy who’s been improving his game. No DSJ here. He checks every box for the modern NBA 1 guard except switchability on defense.

In terms of what might be possible (not pie-in-the-sky) I would:
(1) Draft Kira at #8 (don’t trade down and risk losing him)
(2) Try to trade up in draft from #27 to try to snag Nesmith/Poku (offer Knox/DSJ/cash,not FN)
(3) Throw money at Christian Wood (he’s young and he ranked 3rd in RPM at his position)
(4) Don’t think Bertans or FVV would be worth what would be required given their age/health/game
(5) Hire shooting coach who fixed Clarke and have him work with RJ

Starters: Kira, Bullock, RJ, Wood, Mitch
Bench: Frank, Randle, Dotson (at a bit over min), Wooten

Should Knicks pick up Knox’s 4th year option?

geo:

was gonna try out samurai jack (i’ve never watched the cartoons, i like the animation though), but read some not so great reviews…just looking for something “fun”, not too deep…any ideas???

There are quite a few games on Switch that can be seen as all time video game classics, as they are quite fun and very accessible. For example Zelda Breath of the Wind and Super Mario Odyssey, also Animal Crossing is pretty chill too. There are smaller sized strategy/puzzle games like Slay the Spire and Snipperclips that I like in small doses. I also personally like to play rhythm games on switch, feeling this is a nice portable platform, although the music tastes vary from game to game, a few examples like Lumines, VOEZ, and Cytus Alpha.

Hey, Robinson Cano is hitting .369. Any chance the Mets can trade him and, say, Edwin Diaz to Seattle for Justin Dunn and Jarred Kelenic? Kelenic’s just a prospect…he might never amount to anything…

What’s that, you say? NFW?

TheClashFan:
Hey, Robinson Cano is hitting .369.Any chance the Mets can trade him and, say, Edwin Diaz to Seattle for Justin Dunn and Jarred Kelenic? Kelenic’s just a prospect…he might never amount to anything…

What’s that, you say? NFW?

Ha! He would rake in a year where injuries and opt outs are taking hold..Diaz has kinda rebounded too. But this would be the funniest “re-trade” ever LOL

Totes McGoats as Totes McGoats: Ha! He would rake in a year where injuries and opt outs are taking hold..Diaz has kinda rebounded too. But this would be the funniest “re-trade” ever LOL

Diaz has 2 saves and 3 blown saves this year. His improved ERA is from when he’s pitched in a setup role rather than as a closer, but with Lugo now moved to the rotation… I’d trade him straight up for either Dunn or Kelenic, but Seattle would laugh and hang up.

Same goes for universal gun ownership — when the United States has three times the number of firearms per capita (~120 per 100k) as the #2 country (Serbia), you bet your ass that every cop on the street is going to treat a random citizen as though they’re ready to blow a hole through a cop’s head to avoid whatever charge is lurking in their vehicle or on their person. That’s in part why I’ve been held at gunpoint by cops. That’s in part why innocent people keep getting shot in the streets. Perverse fucking incentives, indeed.

IMO you missed one thing that is relevant.

Almost every time we have violence and looting and the local government does little or nothing about it or even worse tries to justify it as the only legitimate response to injustice, gun sales go through the roof. People assume that if the police, national guard, Feds or whoever else that should be protecting them, their family, their property, their businesses, etc… are not going to do it, they need to protect themselves. So they buy more guns. The last report I saw said gun sales were up 72% recently. The same response has repeated itself for many years. It’s like clockwork. Every single time.

Those are the same guns that eventually fall into irresponsible hands, criminal hands, the hands of teenagers with psychological issues etc…

We are in an endless loop of violence begetting fear, begetting more guns, leading to more violence, leading to more policing mistakes, leading to more violence, leading to more guns etc.,.

Now people are trying a different route. They’ve come to realize they don’t have to live in or near cities anymore. They can go rural and escape it all. So those with money to invest in new businesses, jobs that allow them to work remote, etc.. are packing their bags and leaving the cities. That will make those economies worse and cause other problems.

The problems are much deeper than than the guns and bad policing alone.

The gun lobby and the police unions are two damn good places to start.

Brador, nice piece and a good reminder that our current social chaos has a long (and mostly ugly) history behind it. I’m a trifle surprised you find it eye-opening, though — where have you been hiding the last 60 years? You’d be hard-pressed to find something on Netflix that is not somehow based on the revenge/vigilante motif. It’s hardwired into our culture.

Starters: Kira, Bullock, RJ, Wood, Mitch
Bench: Frank, Randle, Dotson (at a bit over min), Wooten

Should Knicks pick up Knox’s 4th year option?

I know he’s still young, but you can’t disregard the fact that Kira has put up two seasons of terrible advanced stats, like worse than Knox stats. Plus, Haliburton ate his lunch when they went head-to-head this year.

What Ess would do:

1. If we stay at 8, just take Vassell. The two things we need most are shooting and defense, so there ya go.

2. Take Tyler Bey at 27 as your scrappy stretch 4. He likely won’t start but will grow into the role.

3. Target James Johnson in Minny. Maybe trade Randle for him and a 1st, or if they don’t go for Randle, just take him into cap space. Either way, we should get either their mid-first this year or their 2021 first for taking JJ.

4. Offer VanVleet a 3-4 year max. Solves the point guard issue.

So now we have VanVleet/Vassell/Barrett/Johnson/Mitch with Frank, Bey, Wooten, Knox, and DSJ on the bench, plus the Westchester guys. We also have the extra Minny pick, our 2nd rounder this year, and loads of other picks in the future.

What’s key is that we won’t be too good next year, so we will get a high ‘21 draft pick.

I wouldn’t be shocked if Vassell isn’t there at 8, I could see the Hawks taking him, or the Wolves/Warriors if they trade out of the top

The Honorable Cock Jowles:
The gun lobby and the police unions are two damn good places to start.

No argument there,

Unions are an intellectual dilemma for me. On the one hand I hate the greed that requires they exist, but on the flip side unions often go too far in the other direction and either commit economic suicide for their business/industry or protect workers to an extent that destroys moral and quality.

I once quit a very good job for heath reasons. I took a union job at NYCOTB just to pay for my healthcare while I figured out what I wanted to do next. NYCOTB must be the only bookie in history to go bankrupt. lol

It’s too long a conversation to get into all the union abuses, but I saw employees that were stealing from the till of other employees to fund their gambling during work hours (you are not allowed to gamble during work, let alone steal from other employees) get protected by the union. That’s how bad it was.

One guy I knew wanted a management job or to be transferred to a branch nearer his house. For years they refused both. In what was clearly jest, one day he threatened to blow up the home office. He was reported by his manager. They forced him to go for a psychological evaluation, He was quickly cleared, but his old manager didn’t want him in her branch anymore. So the union helped promote him to manager and sent him to his home branch. It was comical. Everyone that worked their ass off that wanted a promotion or to work at their home branch was joking that they need start stop working hard and start threatening to blow things up.

mitch would be just about the perfect player to pair with jokic and murray. they need a rim runner and someone to help offset jokic’s clever but flawed defense. and you can put jokic on the handful of high usage bigs where he does a decent job and mitch struggles. the fit works much better than porter, whose upside centers around a lot of marginal usage those two don’t need. and the jokic to mitch lob radar would be so busy they’d need faa certification like the amazon drone program. porter looks kinda like a wing zach lavine with the big scoring upside a star happy management group would love more than they should. not rooting for this.

I think Kira at 8 is a reach. I’d much rather grab Nesmith or Vassell. I love Kira’s game but I’m not as convinced he’ll be a starter in the NBA. If we want him, we should absolutely trade down for him. I don’t think any team loves him enough to take him that early.

I don’t really want Toppin either. His numbers are fantastic, but his shooting might be a mirage. If so, he doesn’t really have a place in the NBA. Moreover, I don’t know if he shoots enough threes to keep a defense honest.

I really think Nesmith is going to light up the league from 3 and in today’s NBA (and especially for the Knicks) that makes him a worthy pick at 8.

FWIW, I put the formula for this article: Counting The Baskets into Excel and got the following results:

NBA 3pt% projections
Vassell .360
Toppin .343
Nesmith .383
Lewis .360

The same formula is also used for these projections if you want some idea of how accurate it is: 2017 Prospects. I haven’t checked to see the variance or how accurate it is. But thought it would be fun to see how the players project based on some formula.

The formula uses FT%, 3PTA/40, 3p% to get project the results.

If anything good came out of this season, it’s that I’m fairly sure I’ll never have to watch Marcus Morris in a Knicks uni again.

A few more names and 3p% projections:

S. Bey .362
T. Bey .325
A. Edwards .363 (he’s helped a lot by his FT% & taking 9 3s/40)
Cole .361
Okoro .322
Haliburton .365

I know he’s still young, but you can’t disregard the fact that Kira has put up two seasons of terrible advanced stats, like worse than Knox stats.

All Ages Matter….especially at his age! Age matters more than experience when you’re 18-21. So Kira as a sophomore was the age of a freshman. His sophomore stats were OK though not eye-popping (better than Knox) and proxies like FT%/2FG% &2FGA/STL% were all fine. What’s most important IMO is how his skills will translate to NBA. His speed, acceleration, change of direction, ability to shoot off the dribble augur well. He will benefit from more spacing and PnR action in the NBA game versus college. You couldn’t say the same about Knox (he had no real skills). The marginal benefit to Kira of the NBA style is greater than most of the other players we would be considering at #8. And a quality 1 guard who’s able to create for others is more important for the Knicks than a 3&D player.

Early Bird:
A few more names and 3p% projections:

S. Bey .362
T. Bey .325
A. Edwards .363 (he’s helped a lot by his FT% & taking 9 3s/40)
Cole .361
Okoro .322
Haliburton .365

Can you put the numbers in for Tyrell Terry? He’s at 2.5 3PM/40, 6 3PM/40, 40.8% 3PT%, 89.1 FT%.

I’d imagine he’d grade out pretty well and he’s quickly becoming my favorite PG prospect in the draft. He’s the best shooter at the position, He clearly has a great basketball IQ, and he’s a very competitive player as well. I’m not sure he’ll be able to defend anybody at the next level, but I watch him play and I think he’s one of those Steve Nash/Trae Young/ Steph Curry types that everybody is sleeping on for one reason or another. He’s short and slight, but his rebound numbers are around what you would expect for a 6’4″ point guard so there’s a chance he plays bigger than his height. He can create his own shot off the dribble and he can shoot it off the catch, too. I think in today’s NBA his skill set is too valuable to not draft in the lottery, and I probably take him at 8th overall if I’m the Knicks. Maybe you can trade back and still acquire him while getting a guy like Patrick Williams or Aaron Nesmith, but he’s good enough to go top 10 in this draft I believe.

I also think it would be irresponsible to draft a guard/wing/forward who has shooting issues this year. For my Knicks specific big board, I have guys like Nesmith, Vassell, and Terry very high up, and I’d go as far as saying I would put a priority on landing two of those three if I were running the Knicks’ draft this year.

advanced stats in college don’t mean much…. i’ve probably stated this a million times but a lot of shooting and scoring efficiency in college can be a mirage…. it doesn’t translate all that well…. that’s why if you’re depending on TS% you’re going to look at someone like lonzo ball and think he’s the next iteration of stephen curry when he’s nothing like that….

volume matters… it actually matters more…. in the nba you need to be able to score in a variety of ways and in a variety of situations….. if you are limited… then you will be even more limited in the pros….. lonzo is a perfect case study in this because he went from shooting a lot of 3s in college and hardly getting in the paint to having even bigger problems in the pro’s…..

Early Bird: Terry .382 – 2nd highest number I’ve gotten after Nesmith

And just imagine having an offense with Tyrell Terry and Aaron Nesmith on the floor together. It won’t happen over night, but Mitchell Robinson, RJ Barrett, Tyrell Terry, and Aaron Nesmith could complement each other very well on offense. We absolutely need to be putting elite shooters around our 3rd overall pick from a year ago and the guy who just broke Wilt Chamberlain’s FG% without a point guard to speak of, and these two are the guys I would expressly target. We may need two top 20 picks to get them both when it’s all said and done, and I’m not sure we have enough assets to pull it off at a pricepoint where it’s worth it. I don’t think 27 and swap rights on Dallas’ unprotected 1RP would be worth it for a team like Philly.

If Terry somehow falls to 27, I’d love to grab him there (based on a number of mocks he won’t be). His lack of athleticism and size worries me a lot because his high BB IQ doesn’t mean anything if he doesn’t have the tools to capitalize on it. His rebounding and steal numbers look solid, so maybe it’s not as much of an issue as I think.

Kira started his sophomore year at the age of 18yo.
Ja started his freshman year at age of 18yo (4 months younger than Kira at start of his soph)

The first stat column shows freshman year Ja and the second column shows sophomore Kira:
3FG%/3FGA….30.7/2.8……36.6/4.9
2FG%/2FGA….52.5/6.3……50.7/9.5
FT%/FTA….80.6/4.3……80.2/4.2
FTr….. 47.9…..29.2
DIME%….33.1…..27.7
STL%……..1.6…..2.5
TOV%….18.2…..17.7

The mock draft at NBAdraft.net has the Knicks taking a 6’5” French PG prospect in the draft. And it’s not from 2017! (And If you read the draft profiles of Ntilikina and Hayes (both written by Stephanos Makris) back to back, it reads as if he just used the find-and-replace tool on the 2017 one and replaced Ntilikina with Hayes, and right with left.

Maybe he was like “I was mostly wrong with the Ntilikina one, but this time I’ll get it right”? (Knicks fans better hope so if the mock is accurate).

Terry is definitely a smaller guard, but I don’t think he lacks athleticism. He’s fast enough to beat guys off the dribble and he has the ball handling ability to get where he needs to go. It’s not like he lacks burst or anything like that.

Doesn’t mean a thing, but Randle’s career 3P% matches their prediction exactly, to the tenth. Weird.

I also like Terry because he’s a surprisingly good defender and can actually score in the paint despite his size. Nesmith is an amazing shooter but the small sample size is scary. Also his defense is atrocious despite his excellent length. This draft must be giving teams fits.

Terry would be a great get at #27–every model I’ve seen has him ranked higher than he goes in most mock drafts.

There is truly no consensus as to where he’ll go (Tankathon has him at #21 with Givony having him at #44 right now, just for example) so I have no idea how realistic he’d be at #27. It’s hard to imagine a player I’d prefer with that pick if he is available, though.

I will say that everyone seems to agree Paul Reed will be available, which I don’t understand at all. We should absolutely draft that guy assuming Terry is off the board.

thanks Joinone…

ended up picking up samurai jack, pretty straightforward hack and slash…watched the godson play a bunch of hello neighbor – that is some really weird shit man 🙂

i may pickup zelda and super mario down the road if i feel like diving a little deeper in to one of the nintendo games…

right now i play elder scrolls online like it’s a freaking second job, i really like spending a bunch of time building and maintaining fighting toons in cyrodiil…

oh, big news in the world of video games: ironman and doctor doom are “earnable” skins this season in fortnite

It was pretty depressing watching Edwin Diaz cough up another game and then on the same day seeing that Justin Dunn pitched a very nice game for the M’s. Steve Cohen is about to buy the team though, so it’s probably likely that better times are ahead.

I got a Switch Lite as a Christmas gift and I’ll often fire it up before I go to sleep. Super Mario Kart is my jam, I just get in a trance playing that ish. Kinda want to try hacking my way through an RPG next.

since we’re all now talking and thinking about victor von doom – excellent series if you can get your hands on it: Books of Doom

just checked ebay – looks like the six part series is going for about $40 – not bad and definitely worth it for the read, but, probably better to pick up the tradeback just for the story…

it’s so funny, i’ll tell people about it or show people my comic collection and they almost always say – wow, that must be worth a lot money…i always have the same reply – yeah no, not really…

one day i’m gonna catalog them all…one day…hey bc, you got all your stuff on a spreadsheet?

need to head into work in an hour or so, doing mornings, early afternoons at the house, and late afternoon and evenings at work…lot of people back to work now in the warehouse i work…i’m starting to get a little apprehensive about using the bathrooms and even the copier machine…whatever…

gonna start scheduling more vacation time soon…for some reason – i don’t really wanna do 5 to 10 days in a row…i like just doing 4 or 3 day work weeks…

anyways – point of the story: i’m getting ready to start drinking and wanted to say: prost

geo:
need to head into work in an hour or so, doing mornings, early afternoons at the house, and late afternoon and evenings at work…lot of people back to work now in the warehouse i work…i’m starting to get a little apprehensive about using the bathrooms and even the copier machine…whatever…

gonna start scheduling more vacation time soon…for some reason – i don’t really wanna do 5 to 10 days in a row…i like just doing 4 or 3 day work weeks…

anyways – point of the story: i’m getting ready to start drinking and wanted to say: prost

skol

i took the day off…going to get my flu shot but going start tippin’ a few as well after that…not sure if the alcohol will be a bad mix with the vaccine…

ess-dog:
I also like Terry because he’s a surprisingly good defender and can actually score in the paint despite his size. Nesmith is an amazing shooter but the small sample size is scary. Also his defense is atrocious despite his excellent length. This draft must be giving teams fits.

The sample size for all college and most Euros is really small, that’s the reason they advocate using FT% and 3PA or 3PM instead of just using 3p%.

FWIW, Nesmith took more 3PA/40 than anyone I’ve looked at in the NCAA other than Edwards and had a higher FT% than anyone except Terry. So, it’s not as if it relies solely on his outstanding 3p% over his 2 years of college.

Vassell, Toppin, S. Bey, Haliburton all had higher 3p% but are projected to shoot worse in the NBA than Nesmith.

Also here’s the numbers for the Euros (using Tankathon’s stats from last year, instead of sports-reference’s career numbers because they have larger samples for everyone. Maybe I’ll go find more complete career stats later):

Ball .346
Hayes .358
Poku .364
Avdija .330

Out of these Poku, Ball, & Hayes look much better. If I had to guess as to why, Poku (8.3) & Ball (8.5) because they take so many threes, Hayes because of his .876 FT%. Poku was pretty solid from the FT line too (.783)

I do wonder if Edwards & Ball look more favorable because most teams don’t let sub-.300 shooters shoot > 8.5 3P a game. Of course Ball played so little, that might have changed.

Avdija still looks bad and I wonder if he really has a role in the NBA.

I’m going to reiterate this one, and maybe I’ll look like an idiot in 2-3 years but I’m going to stand on this one:

I would pick Tyrell Terry with the 8th overall pick. I think he is the safest point guard in this draft, I like his fit in a modern offense, and I think his shooting gives him the highest ceiling in the draft of any point guard not named LaMelo Ball. He’s very useful enough off the ball that you could stick him next to a high usage wing, and you do not need to let him dribble for 10 seconds every possession for him to be useful. He’s not Steph Curry and he’s probably not Trae Young either, but maybe he’s Jose Calderon with more defense and that is a very valuable player to have under team control for 7-9 years. He doesn’t have the funky form issues that Vassell and Halliburton give you out of the gate and his game makes him a better bet to soak up higher usages considering he’s a better ball handler than the two. Kira Lewis Jr has similar size and defense issues but is a worse shooter. Aaron Nesmith is a real weapon; a guy who could be JR Smith without the maturity issues, and he’s one of the best shooters to come out of the draft, but you have to squint to see him offer value as a shot creator or one-on-one defender. Give me Tyrell Terry over all of those guys, or just get him on the team if you think you can snag one of those guys at 8 and land him in a trade up or at 27.

After drafting Kira at #8, I’d think about offering RJ for Nesmith. I said think about it. I think I’d do it but I’m not sure. One thing I wouldn’t have to think about is trying to trade up for Poku (Nesmith will be gone). I presume no team would want DSJ or Knox. But given the circumstances, maybe there’s an owner who would take our 5M cash considerations (if that’s legal in a trade-up and we haven’t used it) plus us taking a bad contract for no more than a year. That could save an owner maybe something like 15-25m depending on the contract. We could throw in Iggy too if they want him and, of course, they get our #27.

A PF/C rotation of Mitch/Wood/Poku would be sweet. That said, Mitch/Wood/Randle would not be all that bad or Mitch/Randle/Poku. I don’t know why people are so against Randle providing bench buckets if he’s willing. If his cap hold is an issue, we cut him to sign a marquee player. If Giannis doesn’t want to be a Knick, offer Randle 13m/yr as a bench guy. We’re gonna max out next summer regardless. Dolan firing Mills made that crystal clear.

not sure if the alcohol will be a bad mix with the vaccine…

better than disinfectant – it cleans well and it won’t directly kill you from ingesting it…might wear out some of your organs over time – but, hell it ain’t like we’re built to last forever anyway…

I would pick Tyrell Terry with the 8th overall pick.

He’s a fine prospect but he’s more an off the ball guy, like Seth Curry or FVV. Great shooter, meh passer, no burst, not very fast. If I were sure RJ would be an elite shot creator or Giannis would join the Knicks, then Terry would make more sense. Both of those seem very improbable so give me the guy with elite burst and acceleration who may be unguardable on a spread floor or unstoppable in a Mitch PnR. Shot creation is our #1 priority.

Brodie buying again, at the thrift store. Three trades, inc. reacquiring Todd Frazier? Really? And there goes another good pitching prospect in Kevin Smith for another castoff relief pitcher for the merry-go-round. Oh yeah, and a 36 year old C hitting .119.

My brain hurts. At least not “top” prospects going out, depending upon who the three “player to be named later” guys are.

WHAT?

First I’m presuming we draft Kira. If we’ve got a speedy guard, I don’t want SFs and SGs collapsing. That won’t happen with Nesmith but it will happen if RJ doesn’t improve his 3FG%. But even if he does, there’s a big difference between a wing shooting 40% versus 35%.

RJ’s serviceable on defense but nothing special. He will be an elite rebounder which is valuable for initiating transition. Ultimately his value will be to create for others. I was at MSG this season and I was struck by just how slow he looked. He’s got no burst nor acceleration. He’s strong as an ox though and there is the potential he develops enough of a feel to draw double teams. BUT even then he’d have to up his FT% for that to happen. It’s a bad sign when there are so many “ifs” attached to a player.

So why do I hesitate? I picked Jaren Jackson and Luka as the top 2 picks in that draft in that order. I think I’ll end up being right about the two of them but very wrong about the order. Val has been playing his career best so it might be some time before Jaren moves in as a natural stretch 5. My concerns about Luka was his outside shooting and his ability to create against more athletic defenders. He had an NBA ready body in Europe so it boiled down to his athleticism. Luka is strong and has a super elite feel for the game which you don’t teach. It turns out it doesn’t matter who is guarding him.

Maybe RJ with a more spaced floor could leverage his strength and be in the mold of Luka? Not as good but still very productive? Very possible. I just think Nesmith being a better overall version of Buddy Hield is more probable. Kira/Nesmith > Fox/Shield

Kira/Nesmith/Wood/Mitch would make a dynamite young and cohesive core. I think we’d still have enough money left to pursue a quality starter wing in the next 2 years. Maybe we could cobble a deal involving the two Mavs picks and another pick to land one?

I don’t understand the Nesmith love. Sure he projects as a reasonably good shooter…and that’s about it? It would be insane to trade RJ to move up to get him and I’m not even crazy about RJ.

He has the profile of a guy I might target at #27, and even then there might be guys I’d prefer. Trading up to get him would be the ultimate sucker’s move.

Bucks shooting 61% overall and 53% from 3, and they’re only up by 3 points at halftime.

Miami is remarkably good. I don’t think it was just Indiana’s coaching that made them lose 4-0 to Miami.

So, about 30 minutes after my last post here, my wife and I took our little dog (on a leash) for a walk. About 10 minutes into it we were attacked by what appeared to be a loose pit bull coming from the back yard of a house across the street from where we were walking. I snatched up our little Maltese in time but got caught just above my right elbow when the attacker leaped up and snapped. I kept spinning around as it circled and attempted to jump at our dog until a woman came from the house to retrieve it.

It’s a minor bite, and we did call 911 and had animal control come out. I’ve been assured that the dog’s shots are up to date, but I’m gonna have to call the doc tomorrow and see what he says.

Meantime, I now can claim to have been attacked (sort of) and bitten by a pit bull. So, there’s that.

holy shit clash, that some scary shit…sounds like a good time for a drink for all of you (including the poor pooch)…

that sucks…time to lawyer up and get compensated for the pain and mental anguish you’re going through

Great game by the Heat. It’s hilarious seeing Dragic playing in the clutch here in the playoffs when the Heat were trying to dump him to anyone.

That sucks, Clash. I don’t know if you should automatically lawyer up, but if the injury is severe, do it.

geo:
holy shit clash, that some scary shit…sounds like a good time for a drink for all of you (including the poor pooch)…

More scary for my wife. She was walking a bit behind us (I’d jogged ahead a bit with our dog) and so the whole thing. I didn’t see the dog coming…she yelled and I turned, just in time to save our little dog.

Brian Cronin:
That sucks, Clash. I don’t know if you should automatically lawyer up, but if the injury is severe, do it.

Nah, to quote the Black Knight, “It’s just a flesh wound!” Actually, it really is, though it did break the skin and bled just a bit, I was pulling up and away and just got nipped. I just gotta check on the rabies thing.

The fact that the dog owner lied about what happened has really pissed my wife off, though. They claimed that they opened the door and it just burst out at us. Nope, they were playing with it in the backyard…

oh my goodness…yeah, that some really hard stuff to plan for – and, it happens really really fast…thankfully the pit was focused on your dog…

hey bc – so make me feel jealous…tell me you have all your comic books entered somewhere and neatly cataloged…that’s been a dream of mine for at least 10 years now…

were you able to ever read the: Books of Doom…man, just the title makes me smile…

I’m not trading RJ for Nesmith, but Nesmith is easily the best shooter in the draft that has a clear NBA position. Nesmith has potential to be a good defender because of his size/wingspan.

Nesmith shot a lot of threes at a high-rate to at least give the impression that he can create some extra attempts above and beyond your average 3 &D wing. He does an excellent job moving off ball and hitting shots after coming off screens.

Nesmith has the tools to potentially blossom into a more well-rounded NBA threat.

He’s may not have elite athleticism but he looks like a really solid player at 8. I’m also basing this projections partially off mocks I’ve seen that put him right around 8, which makes me think that’s where he belongs.

Personally, I think Nesmith could be one of the best shooters in the NBA in a few years.

I wish to stress I wouldn’t trade RJ for Nesmith unless we draft Kira at #8. I recognize I’m much higher on Kira than pretty much everybody else. I want one of my wings next to Kira to rate to be an elite shooter who plays average defense and is a high IQ player. Nesmith meets that criterion.

RJ has higher ceiling than Nesmith but if Barrett falters next year we have him on the books for 3 years taking a large chunk of cap and he won’t have any trade value. I’d rather take the more sure thing and use that cap to fill in the rest of the starters. Like I say, Kira/Nesmith/Wood/Mitch as starters and have some cap for the 5th. Maybe Frank will shoot 38% from 3 next year and be a candidate. Maybe some unhappy wing on another team wants out and we have the space to take him into that cap space giving up some picks. How does a Kira/Mitchell1/Nesmith/Wood/Mitchell2 starting lineup strike you?

Also, Tyrell Terry screams Andy Rautins or Jimmer Freddette to me. Sure he can shoot, but he looks more like an undersized SG than a PG. He’s listed at 6’1″ & 160lbs, so emphasis on the undersized. His assist numbers don’t jump off the page either.

Both Rautins & Fredette were 4-year college players while Terry is a Freshman, but that’s my worry when I see a player like Terry and why I’m letting him fall into the 20+ range.

That sucks, Clash. I’ve been bitten by all kinds of things, and it always sucks. Glad you’re all right, and sorry as well for the trauma to Lady Clash. Good thing is if you need the rabies shots, they’re easy nowadays. Five shots in four visits, basically like flu shots.

***Jimmy Butler is a big -time badass***

Aren’t all all-time-greats? 🙂

Shit, sorry you were bitten clashfan. As a pit bull owner myself, I can tell you that a) they are the greatest dogs in the world if they are allowed to be their natural selves, and, b) I wouldn’t want to be bitten by one because they are strong as fuck. Sorry you ran into one that wasn’t properly restrained/trained/loved.

Donnie Walsh:
***Jimmy Butler is a big -time badass***

Aren’t all all-time-greats? 🙂

He sure played like one tonight. This ain’t the ’80s or ’90s tho.

Sorry about that Clashfan. I got bitten by a bull mastiff once. It sucked. Still have two faint puncture scars in my arm.

I dropped the fact that Jimmy Butler was an all-time great shooting guard tonight in a conversation on Zoom just for the hell of it. Everyone was like, no fucking way dude, and then like, wait a minute. If I were internet savvy I would do that Kombucha girl meme with that as the tagline. Might actually kill on twitter.

Good playoffs so far. Enjoying watching Chris Paul a lot. Obviously enjoying Lugentz Dort even more. Where the heck does Paul fit in the all time point guard rankings if he never makes a finals (has he made the Conference Finals more than once?)

What in the fucking world are they doing not having Harden bring the ball up at the end of the game?

Kind of strange how James Harden didn’t get the ball at the end of this game. With Chris Webber on this one too.

Donnie Walsh:
Shit, sorry you were bitten clashfan. As a pit bull owner myself, I can tell you that a) they are the greatest dogs in the world if they are allowed to be their natural selves, and, b) I wouldn’t want to be bitten by one because they are strong as fuck. Sorry you ran into one that wasn’t properly restrained/trained/loved.

Yeah, we love dogs and don’t blame it. The neighbor told animal control that a friend is visiting from out of town with her dog. So, they were out back with it, in a strange neighborhood (to the dog) with lots of walkers/bikers/joggers, etc. And, they didn’t have it restrained. Not so smart.

Westbrook singlehandily coughed this one up…

He fucked up, but I think it was more on D’Antoni. He was the one who put the ball in Westbrook’s hands inexplicably. You have one of the great clutch performers in the game as his teammate and Harden is basically ignored on their final three possessions (and even there, Harden still managed to pull off an amazing play when he threw the ball off of Gallo). It was bonkers.

In all honesty, I think D’Antoni is practically spending his time thinking about how to maximize Domantas Sabonis. 😉

Heat bring the D intensity of the 90ies…without dirty fouls and cheapshots but intense as hell.
And the refs didn’t spoil the game.
Goran ballin. Jimmy out of this world. First I love for obvious reasons the second because of his game…but man i don’t like the Heat.
This is a good test for Giannis, the Bucks and Budz also. Make or brake. I hope it goes to game 7.

OK here is my lottery mock. I think there will be a lot fewer trades than people think this year with teams wanting to play it safe due to COVID. And yes, I predict the Knicks will screw up royally. I hope I’m wrong:

1. Minnesota: Ball
2. Golden State: Edwards
3. Charlotte: Wiseman
4. Chicago: Hayes
5. Cleveland: Avdija
6. Atlanta: Haliburton
7. Detroit: Okwongu
8. Knicks: Toppin
9. Washington: Okoro
10. Phoenix: Anthony
11. San Antonio: Patrick Williams
12. Sacramento: Achiuwa
13. New Orleans: Nesmith
14. Boston: Poku

Ess-dog, Ball May be the best player in the draft, but I just don’t see Minnesota or Golden Stare picking him. I think Charlotte will pay to move up and get him, Golden State will want Wiseman and Minnesota will want Edwards, even though they (Minnesota) shouldn’t.

My guess:

1. Minnesota: Ball
2. Golden State: Edwards
3. Charlotte: Wiseman
4. Chicago: Avdija
5. Cleveland: Toppin
6. Atlanta: Haliburton
7. Detroit: Patrick WIlliams
8. Knicks: Vassell
9. Washington: Okongwu
10. Phoenix: Okoro
11. San Antonio: Poku
12. Sacramento: Saddiq Bey
13. New Orleans: Hayes
14. Boston: Nesmith

Detroit still has Rose under contract and Weaver comes from OKC where they love freaky athletic wings.
I think we will pick either Hayes or Vassell — going to go out on a limb and say they’re going to wait another year to pick their primary ball handler of the future. Plus Zanin is presumably in the war room and he’s also from OKC.

if Hayes isn’t picked by us, I’m not sure who takes him. Washington needs a defender inside and Okongwu fits well there. PHX wants wings and Okoro fits in as a defender. I think SA will either take Hayes or Poku – given their depth at guard I’m going Poku who will really benefit from their development system. I’m thinking Sac will sign and trade or do something with Bogdanovic and then pick up his replacement. New Orleans gets the heir apparent to Jrue and Lonzo. And Danny Ainge will get the best shooter in the draft.

the thing that stood out to me about the Bucks game was that Giannis only took 12 shots.

I thought Miami did a good job of containing him, but the Bucks missed Bledsoe. The Bucks will have to make some adjustments.

Miami is a great organization top to bottom. They may not have enough fire power to be considered serious contenders now, but they have some very good veterans, some very good young pieces for the future, and you sort of know Riley is just one trade away from opening a window for a title run with this group before rebuilding it again with the young pieces. He made a few contract mistakes (like they all do) but he keeps finding ways improve the team, fit pieces together well, and develop almost all the young players he brings in. Great management, great coaching, and great player development.

It would be pretty Wolvesy to do the following:

1) draft Okogie (SG) at #20 in 2018
2) draft Culver (SG) at #6 in 2019
3) trade for Russell (PG) for a 1st round pick with minimal protections in 2020
4) select a ball-dominant PG (Ball) with the #1 overall in 2020

Maybe they’re just assuming that the league won’t be able to contain them playing four PG/SGs and Towns down low, even though Towns spends a ton of time outside the arc.

I mean, when you’re that bad, you pick BPA and deal with the consequences later, but they’re in a shit situation of their own making — they have $104M in committed salaries next year, including James Johnson’s $16M player option (although they rid themselves only of Dieng’s $17M salary to get Johnson, which is a win). The incompetence is staggering.

There’s a reason Durant didn’t want t play with Westbrook anymore.

You can have all the talent in the world and boxscore stats that blow up models because they are so extreme, but if you take a lot of dumb shots and make a lot of dumb passes you are going to have a tough time winning a title. When you are at the title contender level, sooner or later you are going to run into a team that’s more or less your equal. When that happens, stupidity gets amplified down the stretch of important games. OKC is a good team, but they aren’t even a contender.

That’s the next step in Doncic’s development. He has to improve his decision making. He has to find the fine line between aggression and learning when doing less equals more. Right now, he piles up numbers, but he tries to do too much. Of course it would help if KP could go more than a month without getting hurt and they had a legitimate 3rd option that could step up if KP is out, but he’s an over the line stat stuffer now. They are a couple of secondary pieces and some crazy glue for KP away from being a contender as long as Doncic figures out how to maximize his ability.

hey may not have enough fire power to be considered serious contenders now, but they have some very good veterans, some very good young pieces for the future, and you sort of know Riley is just one trade away from opening a window for a title run with this group before rebuilding it again with the young pieces.

Their title window is about 2 years long. Iguodala is 36, Dragic 33, Butler 30, Crowder 29, Olynyk 28, and then their young players, aside from Adebayo, are not all that good (yet).

The Heat have already traded their 2021 and 2023 firsts, so they can’t send anything out until 2025. The good news for them is that they have $82M in committed salary next year and Olynyk’s $12M player option should be tradeable. They’re not losing much — I don’t consider their expirings (Dragic, Hill, Leonard, Crowder, Haslem, Jones) critical to their success. So yeah, this offseason is probably going to determine whether they can push past the Bucks and Raptors in the East. If Riley can pull another superstar out of his ass, he’ll deserve the Exec of the Year trophy back in his hands.

There’s a reason Durant didn’t want t play with Westbrook anymore.

I would have agreed with you when he left OKC, but the more we get to know Kevin Durant, the more I realize that Kevin Durant’s worst enemy is Kevin Durant.

Right now, he piles up numbers, but he tries to do too much.

The only way I agree with this is if you’re saying that he needs to learn how to shoot from deep. It is, on the offensive side, the only flaw in his game. The turnovers can always come down, but he’s got good company at the top of the TO leaderboard.

Again, it’s really hard to criticize the linchpin of the league’s best-ever offense.

Their title window is about 2 years long. Iguodala is 36, Dragic 33, Butler 30, Crowder 29, Olynyk 28, and then their young players, aside from Adebayo, are not all that good (yet).

What was it 2 years ago when most people on the forum were trashing Riley for a few of the bad contracts he gave out and how they wouldn’t want to trade places with Miami?

I agreed about the contracts, but defended what he was trying to do. Now he’s in the playoffs battling the #1 seed in the 2nd round of the playoffs and we are still crying about our lottery position,

He couldn’t care less about rebuilding with picks or the length of the window. He’s going to keep trying to improve the team drafting players, trading picks, signing free agents using cap space, and trading the players he already has when opportunities present themselves. Whatever opportunities are available to make the team better that’s what he’s going to do. He might have 8 different players 2 years from how, but they will generally be good players, fit together well, and play basketball the right way. He may not win another title, but It’s hard to win a title even if you are doing everything right.

The Honorable Cock Jowles: The only way I agree with this is if you’re saying that he needs to learn how to shoot from deep. It is, on the offensive side, the only flaw in his game. The turnovers can always come down, but he’s got good company at the top of the TO leaderboard.

Again, it’s really hard to criticize the linchpin of the league’s best-ever offense.

That’s the thing. He’s already a good 3 point shooter even though you’d never know it by the stats. The problem is he takes way too many bad 3 point shots given his shooting skills at his time. He doesn’t stay within his circle of competence. That’s part of over-aggression he needs tame to learn how to maximize his game.

He’s brilliant going to the basket and making passes off penetration, but he forces way too many terrible passes that lead to terrible TOs. He has to learn that you don’t have to something great on every play. Sometimes the right thing to do is simply dribble back out and start over of just make a simple pass to start it over.

I’m not sure he’ll ever be a good defender, but it might help if he laid of the Twinkies and dropped 15 pounds.

We are talking about a special talent here that imo has some very easy to correct clear flaws that are the difference between being a great player and being Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Lebron James etc.. great.

He couldn’t care less about rebuilding with picks or the length of the window. He’s going to keep trying to improve the team drafting players, trading picks, signing free agents using cap space, and trading the players he already has when opportunities present themselves.

Like any other competent GM in the league?

Whatever opportunities are available to make the team better that’s what he’s going to do.

These are empty words. Sometimes being bad is an opportunity to make the team better. See: Hinkie, Sam. Riley had a 39-43 team least year, which is the purgatory zone. The fact that Butler forced his way off of a team that lost to the world champs by one wild shot? Not really relevant to Riley’s genius. Opportunism is great, but it’s not 12D chess.

As mentioned about 1,000 times on this site, you don’t have to tank to get a good player in the draft, but it sure doesn’t hurt. Doncic, Zion and Morant are generational talents that will dominate the league in five years. Being a perennial 41-win team is not the way to get players like that. Riley did well to draft Adebayo and bring in Butler. Without them, this is not a playoff team.

I mean, he traded the 2021 first rounder on February 19, 2015 in the Dragic trade. Did that really set the Heat up for championship-potential success?

***The turnovers can always come down, but he’s got good company at the top of the TO leaderboard.***

He wasn’t even at the top of the TO leaderboard. His TO% was 30th in the league, better than 20 point guards.

For Minny, Okogie is clearly a bench guy and I think Culver could become a 3. That would give them 3 good ball handlers (yet only one decent shooter in the backcourt as of now). I don’t think they can pass on a talent like Ball, and Russell should be fine off-ball. If Achiuwa slips to their second pick, they will be in decent shape.

GS will just take BPA Edwards and groom him. They can sign cheap vets for their title run. Edwards can also help with that, slowly become their future star, or else make for a nice trade chip.

MJ loves upside bigs and they really need a center.

Come on Jowles that was a little dishonest, I don’t agree with a lot of what Strat says but Miami has got one of the best developmental staffs in the league. There is no one who saw Bam turning into a better version of Draymond Green, they are one good guard away from being a serious title contender and if Dragic keeps playing like this they are in the mix this year. It sucks that two of the best developmental staffs are in the East, if Toronto or Miami had Mitch he would probably be Anthony Davis…

That’s the thing. He’s already a good 3 point shooter even though you’d never know it by the stats.

you never would. this year luka shot 34pct on wide open (6 plus feet) non heave 3s compared to a league average of 38pct. he shot 28pct on catch and shoot 3s vs a league average of 37pct.

These are empty words. Sometimes being bad is an opportunity to make the team better. See: Hinkie, Sam. Riley had a 39-43 team least year, which is the purgatory zone. The fact that Butler forced his way off of a team that lost to the world champs by one wild shot? Not really relevant to Riley’s genius. Opportunism is great, but it’s not 12D chess.

Yeah, I gotta disagree with you hard here. I don’t think Butler chose Miami over Philly bc of South Beach. There was no super friends connection for him to go there either. He isn’t from Miami. Miami was a worse team than Philly last year yet Butler chose them. Do you think their culture, their history of development, Riley, Spoelstra, etc…had anything to do with that?
Even though Butler was on a better team last year he saw that bc of the culture Riley has created there that he would be a better fit and have a better shot to win it all in Miami than in Philly? Do you trust Riley’s ability to draft, develop, sign or trade for another star in the next year or two to pair with Butler cause I sure as hell do.

You’re acting like butler choosing Miami (a worse team) over Philly (a better team) was some sort of personality quirk or anomaly. But I think the evidence is pretty clear Butler chose Miami bc he believed in the organization more than he did in Philly.

The Heat have hardly ever had to tank and yet the worst they usually are is your definition of purgatory. If the worst the knicks were over the last decade was a few seasons where we only won 40ish games and were a low playoff seed, I would be happy as a clam.

For all of your intelligence, you really adhere to the championship or tank idea. Yes, it makes sense to tank sometimes (when you’re all ready shitty) but being a decently good team year after year reaps its own rewards. Competence entices good players. Development means you can have later first round picks and still have faith that you will add good players to your…

Yeah Swift but you need need to have Pat Riley and Erik Spolestra to do that, we have Dolan and a long line of incompetence. We have shown a severe lack of ability to identify and/or develop talent, so we need either a sure fire no brainer Patrick Ewing type via tanking or convince some superstars that being the king of New York is some cool thing that they should care about….

No way in hell we turning into Miami or Toronto under Leon Rose, we probably will end up with a Jimmy Butler type of superstar who will sour because all our draft picks aren’t good. I just hope Mitch will somehow overcome our incompetence and has his head on straight.

I would’t mind having the runs The Grizzlies (2009-2019), the Blazers (2007-), the Pacers (1989-) and the Heat (2003-) have had (the Thunder is an outlier, since they drafted 3 HOFers in a row).

They basically didn’t tank for a decade-plus (except for the Heat in 2007, after Wade was done for the season) and have had competitive teams, with cores that reached at least a Conference Finals. The Pacers were legitimate title contenders in 2012-2014. Memphis and Portland could have almost Thunder-like with good drafts in 2009 and 2007, but it was not meant to be.

Some people can’t be happy with a 2nd-round team, even though winning is very good. It’s funny knowing that you can win a home game against the top dogs of the league almost every year.

That’s been a basic dividing line on this site for years. Who is championship or bust and who is fine with above average.

I am firmly in the former camp. I don’t have a problem with people who believe the latter. There are teams like the Pistons and last year’s Raptors squad that have backed into titles without drafting a consensus #1 superstar.

But after twenty years of this shit, I really don’t see the argument for anything but a patient rebuild, which we have reasonably clear line of sight to.

Isn’t patient rebuild to get you to deep in the playoffs on an annual basis, where one year things may fall into place. That’s essentially the Ewing era Knicks. To me championship or bust = swing for the fences to get that perennial five player which often means banking on getting that player (Lebron, Durant, Giannis, Leonard) when they become available. Maybe it’s just semantics on my part.

Raven
August 31, 2020 at 10:04 pm
That sucks, Clash. I’ve been bitten by all kinds of things

you know, it’s just weird the kind of stuff that sticks in your mind…for the last day or so – i keep wondering – outside of a dog, what kind of other shit is there to be bit by…

i’ll never forget when one of the god kids was around 2 or so we were knocked out napping…child was laying peacefully on my chest, they woke and started saying “eat eat” – at the time – code for feed me…i didn’t much feel like moving, so, just patted them on the back and said sleep…a couple of minutes later woke up cuz they bit me hard on the chest…and, then looked at me and said eat eat again…an effective ploy on their part, i did in fact get up and feed them at that time…yeah, that one was a bit of a biter early on…

so tell me raven, have you ever been bit by a snake, cat, fire ant, rat, bird…give me something odder than those please…what’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever been bit by…

Butler did say (on a recent JJ Redick podcast) that the “accountable” culture at Miami was there. (He claimed that no one was steering the ship in Philly, and that led to him leaving, despite the one-bounce-away ending.) And yes, Butler alone did not make them a contender this year, but he’s the key reason they are. So Riley deserves credit for his salvaging of the inexplicable glut of mid-level, high-priced veterans he’s signed over the years, including Dion Waiters, one of the worst contracts of this century.

I would take the Heat situation over the Knicks’ situation, obviously. They have cap space, a cheap rising star, a legit max player, and a number of value contracts. The projected cap of $109M means that if they’re somehow able to flip Olynyk for cap space, they’ll have almost $40M to play with. That is, indeed, a great place to be.

I’m just saying that Miami should not be considered a poster child for success for the unforeseeable Butler signing, as they hovered in mediocrity for years until a disgruntled superstar landed on their doorstep. Riley has done a few things right since LeBron left, namely keeping Spoelstra at the helm, but trading the 2018 and 2021 firsts for Goran Dragic was not one of them. Signing Olynyk, Johnson, Whiteside, Johnson and Waiters to massive long-term deals were not among them, either.

Hey Geo, weird is in the eye of the beholder, so that’s a hard one. Embarrassing is easier. Worst was having a cute little chickadee I was holding rip a cuticle out of my finger. I’m still proud that I didn’t crush the little fucker like a kleenex. I did hop around making noises like a trumpet, to the delight of the folks I was with. Probably second is my world record lemming toss — little bastard injected his incisors into my thumb, after which I flung him a good 30 feet through the air. I’m pretty sure that one still stands.

Riley is great because he’s built an incredible organization there.
#1 is that he resisted the urge to replace Spoelstra when the big 3 was there and Lebron was asking for a change. Spoelstra is easily one of the 3-4 best coaches in the league. They’ve built an unbelievable development program there – literally everybody not named Dion Waiters that they touch turns into an asset. They give away picks because they believe in their development program to continue to churn out productive players despite lack of premium picks – Kendrick Nunn, Josh Richardson, Derrick Jones, Bam, Herro, Duncan Robinson, etc.

It’s basically the Knicks strategy except with a good development program. “We can give away picks but they’ll be bad picks because we’ll be so good”. For the Knicks we give away picks that end up in the lottery. For the Heat they give away picks that are at worst in the teens. And then they still get cheap young contributing talent because of their development staff.

I was bit by a swan when I was younger. Just trying to feed it some bread. Broke the skin and hurt like hell. Been hating those beautiful fuckers ever since.

Worst was having a cute little chickadee I was holding rip a cuticle out of my finger. I’m still proud that I didn’t crush the little fucker like a kleenex.

bless you raven, i needed that…

shit dink, swans are aggressive as hell…it’s funny how things change over time…i used to love to take the kids to some nearby ponds to feed the ducks (and even swans)…a couple of years ago – they started posting signs around the different ponds saying don’t feed the birds – it messes up their environmental routine or something…

that sucks, i always liked feeding the ducks…fuck feeding pigeons or seagulls – they’re both like rats with wings…

it’s funny, whenever i’m hanging out in certain areas of monterey (especially the lake by the dennis the menace park) i’m always super apprehensive when those pelicans fly overhead….those things are like flying buses – i ain’t trying to get shit on by a pelican…

i did get clipped once by a bird (supposed to be good luck – yeah right) – at the time was wearing some old school “od green” fatigues – that is a stain that does not come out…

I was bitten by a ring-tailed lemur once.

And one time a red-tailed hawk landed on my head and left a Harry Potter scar on my forehead with its talon.

But the time I was bitten, accidentally, by my pit bull was the most painful by far. I had trained it to play insane on-the-ball defense. She made Gary Payton, Kawhi Leonard, and Tony Allen seem slow and weak (but very tall) by comparison. One time she poked the ball loose, and we both went for it. Her tooth punctured my hand and the ball at the same time. Ouch.

Last night was my first dog bite, as minor as it may have been. I’ve been scratched pretty badly by a cat (but didn’t get Nugent’s fever) years ago. My wife has bitten me on occasion…but we won’t go into that.

I’m more of a rebuild and swing for the fences believer. Try to build via the draft and get a “core” of 3 good young players, then go for it with role players and maybe a big vet pickup. I think Philly failed to get 3 before going all in, probably screwing up their chances.

BVW did the same to the Mets this past year. If he had sold rather than bought last year (or even just sat still), the Mets would be sitting very pretty for the next few years, at least having a very good young team to compete with the Braves.

Yeah, I’m a huge fan of dogs (I have a lab – they are the breed that bites the most), but Pitbulls are a whole other thing. I would even suggest that maybe you were lucky it wasn’t worse, ClashFan.

They can be sweet like all dogs, but their jaw power and athleticism is off the charts. It’s like owning a pet Great White Shark! And it seems like only a matter of time before a Pit goes off on someone or something. I saw one literally end some poor girl’s small dog at a dog run once as if it was fetching a ball… really brutal stuff.

Growing up, I was a cat person. Still am, but it seems damn near everyone here in LA/SoCal are into dogs. I’m warming to eventually having a dog (my fiancee flip-slops on it right now but maybe down the line…?), but I’m not into a lap-dog. I don’t want a dog to accessorize with my outfits – I want a “real” dog – not an attack dog but somewhere btwn that and an ankle-biter… lol

Love pits, also terrified of them unless I know their owner’s capacity as a trainer and “alpha.” Rotties and German shepherds too.

Hey Geo – I’m finding my casual drink of choice is Corona – esp w/a shot of grenadine – trust me.

Also, you asked me a while back about my thoughts on college football, and I just saw this article on Trump butting his nose into the Big 10. I would say he really has more important shit he should be focusing on, but the article talks about the political undertones to his call to Kevin Warren.

I’m just saying that Miami should not be considered a poster child for success

Since 95-96, Miami has made 19 playoff appearances and has missed the playoffs only 6 times. They’ve won 3 championships, made 5 finals appearances and have gotten to the second round 11 times.

They are far from mediocre.

I own a dog I rescued when she was already 7-9 years old (chow/shepherd mix) and love her. As a matter of objective reality though, she’s fucking terrible at interacting with everyone but me and a small group of people she’s gotten to know really well over the years (family, roommates, etc.).

Accordingly, I am extremely careful, maybe even overly so, when it comes to preventing those interactions. That’s the obvious responsibility of any dog owner whose dog exhibits unpredictable behavior. You are simply unqualified to own a dog if you don’t operate that way.

Sorry that happened to you Clash, just completely irresponsible and preventable.

I don’t want a dog to accessorize with my outfits – I want a “real” dog

🙂

i’ll be honest – i have little to no desire to care for any living creatures other than the kids and mom…everything else in the world is on its own…actually – i do enjoy taking care of the plants in the garden…what’s nice – if i forget about them for a few days and don’t feed/water them – they don’t die…i love plants…relatively low maintenance and they eat carbon and poop oxygen…how great is that…

i don’t know cdiggy, like we really need a greater reminder that there is no such thing as amateurism – particularly in regard to college football…it’s definitely shining bright right now…

i’m interested to see the outcome of the grievances/demands that some of the pac-12 players have put forth…i haven’t heard much about it the last month or so…

very good chance the big 10 is gonna end up playing football this year, at least some of the schools will…

i’m not such a big fan of the ncaa especially when it comes to b-ball and football…

trump is an absolute next level troll…that fucker has got it down to a science…been a long time since i’ve felt hatred for an individual i’m not even directly connected to – but, yeah, i hate that asshole…

Riley is a superstar whisperer. He drafted Wade, lured Shaq from LA and engineered space for three max players to play at a discount together. He deserves all the credit for their successes. He must also take responsibility for a roster that looked like this:

Whiteside $25.4M
Tyler Johnson $19M
James Johnson $14.4M
Waiters $11.5M
Olynyk $11M

All for a 39-43 team.

Should we say that it was his poor management that led to that position? Or should we give him extra credit for somehow getting out from under those contracts without selling the farm?

The Honorable Cock Jowles:
Riley is a superstar whisperer. He drafted Wade, lured Shaq from LA and engineered space for three max players to play at a discount together. He deserves all the credit for their successes. He must also take responsibility for a roster that looked like this:

Whiteside $25.4M
Tyler Johnson $19M
James Johnson $14.4M
Waiters $11.5M
Olynyk $11M

All for a 39-43 team.

Should we say that it was his poor management that led to that position? Or should we give him extra credit for somehow getting out from under those contracts without selling the farm?

If the debate is whether he is below, above or average…I think the track record suggests above…as part of the assessment of that…sure he gets credit for assembling the roster whether it is via whispering in someones ear or trading or drafting them…and has to be held responsible for shitty moves…but show me one GM that is in the pantheon of “above average” or “great” that doesn’t have a blemish on their record…

Riley is objectively a successful GM. I don’t think the man is a genius or anything, but the Heat have been consistently good over a long period of time. 3 titles, 5 finals, 7 conference finals, and 19 playoff appearances in 25 years, only 2 really bad teams.

There is no doubt that Riley is an above-average GM. I would argue that he’s one of the better POBOs over the last twenty-five years. I’m just saying that this model — give a shitton of money to mediocre players and then wriggle your way out of mediocrity by signing one superstar and developing an emerging one — does not suggest that it can or should be duplicated.

I was responding to the posts by a certain resident anti-tanker, who essentially said, “See? Tanking is dumb and the Heat show that.”

I wonder… What is your price to move Mitch? Would the Warriors 2020 #2 AND their Minny 2021 first do it?

***their jaw power and athleticism is off the charts. It’s like owning a pet Great White Shark!***

Yeah, they can’t score for shit. But talk about lock down defender. This dog was the best defender I’ve ever played against x10. Every possession was like the last minute of game 7. Full press. (But when she’d steal the ball, she’d try to destroy it). Good times.

ess-dog:
I wonder… What is your price to move Mitch? Would the Warriors 2020 #2 AND their Minny 2021 first do it?

Man, that would be really tempting and that’s without knowing what kind of protections are on the Minny pick. If this were a better draft I’d do it 100% but with this crappy draft it depends on bit on the protections.

EDIT: Yeah, I’d do that. The Minny pick is only top 3 protected next year and unprotected in 2022. No brainer.

Of course the we wait another year or two to actually have good useful players on the team.

i have a buddy who keeps pits….they are wonderful animals…i can go months without seeing them, but, as soon as i show up – they instantly recognize me and it’s all love…

he had this one pit years ago named chico…at the time chico was getting old (maybe like 8 or so) and packing on the pounds…him and i were in the front yard playing tug with some rope…we were having fun…

at one point i leaned over chico, who was getting old and kind of fat – in the blink of an eye chico leaped up and grabbed my lips with his teeth…didn’t squeeze, didn’t bite, nothing – he let go right away, he was being playful…

i just stood there in shock for a while at how fast and high he jumped and how deftly he grabbed my lips with his teeth…it freaked me out pretty good…i’ll never forget that…

The Honorable Cock Jowles:
There is no doubt that Riley is an above-average GM. I would argue that he’s one of the better POBOs over the last twenty-five years. I’m just saying that this model — give a shitton of money to mediocre players and then wriggle your way out of mediocrity by signing one superstar and developing an emerging one — does not suggest that it can or should be duplicated.

I was responding to the posts by a certain resident anti-tanker, who essentially said, “See? Tanking is dumb and the Heat show that.”

It’s not just the Heat. There are a bunch of elite teams who built with very little, if any tanking.

In the last two years Smart has shot like 35% from 3 on 741 attempts, so I guess it’s not a fluke.

“I was responding to the posts by a certain resident anti-tanker, who essentially said, “See? Tanking is dumb and the Heat show that.””

In the last 20 seasons…

Miami – five losing seasons, only once back-to-back.
Boston – six losing seasons, only once back-to-back.
Toronto – nine losing seasons, four in a row and five in a row with a winning season and a .500 season in between.
Milwaukee – 10 losing seasons, five in a row and then four in a row.
Knicks – 17 LOSING SEASONS, nine in a row and seven in a row, five seasons of less than 25 wins.

Tanking is dumb. If it weren’t, the Knicks could never have been as bad as they’ve been. Yeah, yeah. The Knicks have been run like crap and traded away 1st round picks. They’ve still been terrible for 17 out of the last 20 years in an era where you can’t trade away back-to-back 1st rounders and have been one of the worst teams in the league 25% of the time…and have virtually nothing to show for it.

This isn’t hard. If you suck, you shouldn’t do stupid things to try and suck slightly less. But you also shouldn’t do stupid things to suck even more. That’s because tanking for success is inherently luck-dependent.

Mike

If the Knicks never tanked but just avoided dumb FA signings and trades and drafted with care, even without being lucky they’d be just fine right now.

If the Knicks ever actually tanked and just avoided dumb FA signings and trades, they’d be just fine right now.

Alternative, also accurate statement.
.

getting stopped and killed for riding a bike…man, this whole summer has been one long lesson in just how dangerous it is to be black in america…not safe to jog, get some fast food, go to your car, ride a freaking bike…shit, it’s not even safe to be in your own home…

no body cam footage either…

i know there’s been talk of how showing images of deadly violence against blacks on tv can actually be detrimental to the situation of resolving institutionalized violence against black folks, but, yeah, seems without it – there will be no change…

I guess Malone could be fired if the Nuggets lose. That’s dumb.

I’ve come to believe that there are only two reasons to fire a coach:

1) gross incompetence
2) Gregg Popovich is available.

I haven’t watched much basketball on tv over the past few years, is 3 seconds still a rule?

What the fuck were the Nuggets doing taking a shot with 4 seconds left and a full shot clock?

What the fuck were the Nuggets doing taking a shot with 4 seconds left and a full shot clock?

I blame Beno.

But yeah, seriously, that was insanely stupid. Maybe Malone should be fired.

And Gobert not just throwing a long pass to Mitchell who should be alone under the basket…

Not going to do a lot to repair the Mitchell/Gobert relationship, that’s for sure.

just saw the garden will serve as a polling station for the election…

so jimmy d donated some of his post covid blood and opened the garden for voting…

now sell the team and be a hero forever…

***just saw the garden will serve as a polling station for the election…***

I have no idea what kind of down-ballot effect this may have, but it means nothing for the presidential race.

Milwaukee, Detroit, Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, and Charlotte are the arenas that can have a real effect on the nation.

oh yeah, that’s all fine and accurate and whatnot, but riddle me this batman – how in the world did you come in that close of contact to a ring-tailed lemur to get bitten…

don’t see a lot of those inside folk’s homes or even backyards…

more so, if you were in that close of proximity to that particular animal – why were you not expecting to get bitten…

Marcus Smart gives me hope for Frank. He didn’t break .400 fg% until he was 24 and has only been average from three the last two years. Smart just seems like much more of a physical freak though, which shows in his steal numbers versus Frank’s.

Btw I didn’t realize that Frank has consistently been raising his ft% and it’s now .864! Not that he gets to the line much, but that bodes well for his overall shooting. Now we just need a Kemba-type to stick next to him.

What the fuck were the Nuggets doing taking a shot with 4 seconds left and a full shot clock?

The whole thing was a sequence of errors. The Jazz shouldn’t have coughed up the ball on the previos possession either, they should have at least gotten a shot off, and then the Nuggets should have have made the layup. They were ahead of the defense but missed it anyway and it was a pretty clean look.

Elam Ending would have fixed that finish. It’s still weird to me that it’s satisfactory that the end of a basketball game can turn into a game of keepaway. It should be basketball from wire to wire.

Not disagreeing on what would be ideal but I don’t know that’s it’s fixable without a massive change. Seems like it’s a structural feature of most timed team sports. Football, soccer, hockey, they all feature of version of running out the clock at the end of close games. The various ideas to fix it are interesting in theory but I suspect too complicated and too different to ever happen.

There’s one argument that really vexes me: “It’ll cheapen the buzzer-beater.”

Like… what?

They should do the Elam Ending in college. I think the NBA has too much invested to change right now. It’s clearly a better format though.

Donovan Mitchell is going to ink a max deal with Utah:

Mitchell and the Jazz will finalize a max extension when free agency opens in mid-October, league sources told Yahoo Sports.

My only thought on the Mitchell extension is it’s amazing how much time Knicks fans, especially here but truly everywhere, spend time debating the merits of things that are quite obviously purely theoretical.

***how in the world did you come in that close of contact to a ring-tailed lemur to get bitten…***

It was at a zoo (and I was the zookeeper).

Which reminds me, this isn’t an animal bite story, but along the same lines. A few years ago I was swimming in the ocean at night and I felt something bite into my foot and drag me backwards. I had no idea what had gotten me. I reached down and pulled out a fishhook. I swam to shore where there was a flashlight bounding around the beach. I emerged from the surf and handed the hook to the fisherman. He stared at me wide-eyed and said “oh shit, I thought I’d hooked a seal or something.” I turned and disappeared back into the water. (He seemed relieved it was only a human and not a seal, which probably would have come with a fine and been a bitch to cleanup after.)

Toronto players like Siakam and FVV are getting a little exposed so far in the Boston series.

You think playing with Kawhi might have benefited them a bit?

It was at a zoo (and I was the zookeeper).

what!!!

okay, so over the years some folks have mentioned having professions in some pretty cool stuff like making music, writing, investment stuff, doing work in tv and film – things that seem pretty cool to me…

freaking zookeeper though – man, that is a whole other level of awesomeness 🙂

Donny, we probably know each other.

Your story reminds me of the longest protracted battle I can remember, with a gigantic triggerfish almost as big as I was that wanted me dead while I was snorkeling in the South Pacific. Took about five very long minutes of beating his attacks off with my flippers before I got away. Never bit me, but not for want of trying. Turns out they have a pugnacious reputation, but still.

Which then reminds me of being bum-rushed by a beaver while swimming in an upstate lake. Not sure what my epitaph would have been, but someone could have had fun with it.

Which then reminds me of being bum-rushed by a beaver while swimming in an upstate lake. Not sure what my epitaph would have been

well, i’m sure you wouldn’t have been the first man to get done in by some beaver…

I emerged from the surf and handed the hook to the fisherman. He stared at me wide-eyed and said “oh shit, I thought I’d hooked a seal or something.” I turned and disappeared back into the water.

oh have we reached the point in knickdom where everyone quietly agrees to post only the as their favorite incarcerated netflix memechild?

Raven:

Your story reminds me of the longest protracted battle I can remember, with a gigantic triggerfish almost as big as I was that wanted me dead while I was snorkeling in the South Pacific. Took about five very long minutes of beating his attacks off with my flippers before I got away. Never bit me, but not for want of trying. Turns out they have a pugnacious reputation, but still.

Which then reminds me of being bum-rushed by a beaver while swimming in an upstate lake. Not sure what my epitaph would have been, but someone could have had fun with it.

Raven, what in the world did you ever do to piss off Mother Nature? You’re being hounded like The Ancient Mariner or something. Ever shoot an albatross?
🙂

Clash, Mother Nature’s a bitch, no sexism intended. And rarely appreciative.

PT, feeling a bit Martin Brody there? I thought Donnie was doing a very nice job of channeling Hemingway. Admittedly the old, washed-up version, but still.

The more I watch these payoffs, the more convinced I become there isn’t a legitimate championship caliber team in the NBA right now. There are several very good teams that would be contenders in most years, but no one that has both the quality and depth on both sides to beat a LOT of the champions of the past. The closest thing to it is probably the Clippers, with the Celtics and Bucks fairly close behind if a 3rd player steps up. But even the Clippers look shaky unless Paul George is playing his absolute best ball and they are healthy. I really don’t think this Lakers team is all that good even with James and Davis, but the rest of the league is so “meh” they have every chance to win it all.

okay then – a dare to you all: try to come up with a cooler profession than zookeeper…

getting paid to do some artistic stuff or working on wall street is pretty amazing, working with animals though – nice…

so let’s hear it – who’s had a cooler gig than being a zookeeper???

as a note, my coolest job ever was working in a bookstore…loved it…

d-mar:
Toronto players like Siakam and FVV are getting a little exposed so far in the Boston series.

You think playing with Kawhi might have benefited them a bit?

IMO, Kawhi is the best big game two way player in the NBA since Jordan. He has 3 gears.

1. Regular season.
2. Playoffs.
3. It’s time to take over from the slackers and win the game.

The answer is yes. 🙂

The Honorable Cock Jowles:
There is no doubt that Riley is an above-average GM. I would argue that he’s one of the better POBOs over the last twenty-five years. I’m just saying that this model — give a shitton of money to mediocre players and then wriggle your way out of mediocrity by signing one superstar and developing an emerging one — does not suggest that it can or should be duplicated.

I was responding to the posts by a certain resident anti-tanker, who essentially said, “See? Tanking is dumb and the Heat show that.”

His model is not to give a shitton of money to mediocre players and then try to wiggle out of it. His model is to try to improve the team short and long term whenever and however he can without tanking and without overvaluing draft picks, That he made some bad salary mistakes a few years ago and has still managed to put together a very nice team with a mix of young and veteran players speaks volumes about the superiority of what he’s doing. He made a few Phil Jackson/Steve Mills level salary mistakes a few years ago, but because he knows basketball, fits players together well, develops them, helps his coach etc.. he overcame those mistakes with his good moves and a little time. He’s not still buried in tanking hell whining about the pick he got in a lottery. The idea of course is to make fewer mistakes, but even the great ones make some. He’ll make more, but he’ll make some great moves too. The net will be better on average than tanking.

“Zookeeper” isn’t as awesome as it sounds. I was a student, with access to a barely accredited zoo. And obviously I wasn’t very good at it, because the animals all attacked me (except the potoroo, which I lost).

geo: a dare to you all: try to come up with a cooler profession than zookeeper…

Didn’t Alsep73 do a long interview with the guys who made “Watchmen”? That show was a wire-to-wire masterpiece. Whoever had the opportunity to talk to those guys at lenght will be forever envied by me.

I couldn’t find the piece, but you can check part of his work here: https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/trent-reznor-atticus-ross-damon-lindelof-watchmen-score-emmys-1049758/

WARNING: If you didn’t watched “Watchmen” yet, watch out for spoilers henceforth. I would never say a word, but I don’t take responsibility for other posters’ behaviour.

WARNING: If you didn’t watched “Watchmen” yet, watch out for spoilers henceforth. I would never say a word, but I don’t take responsibility for other posters’ behaviour.

*haven’t

***I thought Donnie was doing a very nice job of channeling Hemingway. Admittedly the old, washed-up version, but still.***

Hey, I don’t just give away the good stuff for free.

howdy leonam, you’re absolutely right – al has been super fortunate to have the opportunity to dive deep in to some of the most amazing screen work (and the folks involved in that process) ever done…like in forever…and, he’s able to relay those experiences in a way that we can all relate to – which is a whole other freaky skill unto itself…

although, as cool as that is, being up on a stage playing music in front of folks may be an even cooler experience (just guessing)…dealing with big numbers on wall street must be a serious adrenaline rush some days…

still though – zookeeper, working with all kinds of animals…man, that is the definition of a dream job…i always wanted to care for the rhinos, they seem pretty chill and relatively easy to get along with…

for a while when i was in between jobs – had this idea about becoming a park ranger…unfortunately, i couldn’t navigate the hiring process – that and – to be honest, i know jack-shit about the outdoors 🙂

in my whole 14 years in uniform – i spent maybe two weeks sleeping out in “the field”, and, most of that was spent inside some control center module loaded on to the back of a truck…

took the kids fishing for years – we still haven’t caught nothing…yeah, skill and aspirations don’t always match up…

His model is not to give a shitton of money to mediocre players and then try to wiggle out of it. His model is to try to improve the team short and long term whenever and however he can without tanking and without overvaluing draft picks

Right, okay, but that actually was, de facto, his model. Because that’s what he did.

Do you need to tank to be successful? No, of course not. But here’s the win totals of a franchise that tanked their way to three consecutive high picks between 2007 and 2009, starting in 2010, just 1 season removed from a 23-59 season.

50, 55, 47 (lockout season), 60, 59, 45 (missing star player for a full year), 55

And they made the Finals once, the WCF thrice, and the semis once, only missing the playoffs during that 45-win season. All the while trading away a future MVP to keep near-retirement Kendrick Perkins and save like $15M in tax payments.

Likewise, another franchise tanked hard, got their GM canned as a result, and then his two successors fucked it up, but they still managed to win 52, 51 and 43 games (48 game pace). Were it not for the buffoonery of a certain large-collared executive, they could have made those 50-win seasons look paltry in comparison.

Again, I cannot stress this enough, and I’ve already said it a million times: The biggest issue with tanking is that the vast majority of teams that obtain top draft picks categorically are bad at identifying talent. This is why the draft lottery is a dumb institution, and why teams that routinely lose 60+ games are unable to rebuild with the extreme value you have access to near the top of the draft.

The Kings, for example, did not fuck up by getting the #2 pick in the 2018 draft. They fucked up by wasting the pick on Marvin Bagley. Because that is what incompetence does. Tanking isn’t itself the problem.

The truth is that I can’t watch the playoffs games live due to work so i try(hard) to avoid any nba source/spoilers/messages from almost anywhere on the internet and my cellphone till i go home and watch both games without knowing the final score.
Not always successful strategy…
Reading about bites, tanking, animals and trump right after having watched the games.
Not the best but it’s ok!

okay leonam, you win…just finished the interview with trent, atticus, damon, dustin and al – yeah, you’re right – we’re going gonna have to move al’s gig up ahead of even a zookeeper…

what a cool room trent was in…gonna go through the watchmen soundtrack now…tried the first episode of the series and it didn’t really grab me – NIN though, that definitely gets my attention…

i really like that notion of having the score going “against” the on screen imagery…

that’s one of the things that stuck out to me the most while watching some of those ariel pink vids…it creates a really unbalanced and almost disorienting feeling…do i go with my eyes or ears…

Giannis looks like the 7’5″ avatar that I’d make in NBA Live ’96 who dunked on everyone and never missed around the rim.

Also if they lose this series I got 10 bucks that sez Giannis gets traded to GSW for all the picks they have in the cupboard.

The Lost Potoroo is either the name of a good kids book or how the Bucks are going to feel individually after this series is over.

I’ve been rooting for the Bucks, but am starting to come around on the Heat. The end of that game was not the most cerebral confrontation as they go…

One thing that’s becoming apparent in these bubble games……there’s a LOT of young talent in the NBA right now!

I guess they were probably fouls but that’s a shitty way to end a game, especially after all the fucking timeouts

You’d never see those kinds of calls late on a game in the 90s. Those were real ticky-tack… ESPECIALLY that foul on whoever guarded Middleton on that 3. That’s a no-call.

When reality is too awful to handle, the imagination becomes a source of comfort.

I can attest to this since maybe 8 years old… lol.

That was a terrible call. Wow.

The funny thing, though, is that momentum really no longer exists in the Bubble, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the Bucks ultimately still take this one.

Okay, I guess I’d be a little surprised, as 0-2 is a big hole. But you know what I mean. It’s a whole lot different to be 0-2 headed to Miami than to be 0-2 headed to just the same place you played the first two games.

they really are putting an emphasis on not interfering with a shooter landing in this modern NBA

luguentz dort, pac-12 defensive player of the year – and, undrafted…

they’re out there, we just got to start finding them…

man, Covington is a valuable player

It’s why Minny was able to put their price for him at two first rounders and actually get it.

I learned recently that Chinese still can’t watch the Rockets and aren’t supposed to use the name “Rockets”. So sometimes they call the team “404” for the message you get when a web page isn’t found.

just noticed the other day the shipping address in to Hong Kong has changed, it’s now called: Hong Kong SAR (special administrative region), China

used to just be Hong Kong, Hong Kong

I love close game 7s as much as the next guy, but man, I feel like if the Nuggets, Jazz, Rockets, and Thunder ALL want to go home so badly, they should just be allowed to leave.

I watched the end of the game with the sound off. It was a hell of a block by Harden (he wins it with his defense!), and an awesomely athletic maneuver to dodge the ball afterwards, but why didn’t the refs grant the timeout that Chris Paul was calling while Dort had both hands on the ball?

Why in the fuck didn’t Chris Paul shoot the technical? Gallo is a great free throw shooter, too, but how is that not Paul’s spot there?

KnickfaninNJ:
I learned recently that Chinese still can’t watch the Rockets and aren’t supposed to use the name “Rockets”.So sometimes they call the team “404” for the message you get when a web page isn’t found.

Absolutely true and hilarious and sad, all at the same time. Here are the all the different placeholders for the Rockets in the reporting I see today used by some media: “Red team beats the Thunder” “Thunder lost to Strong Western Team” “The game between Yao’s Old Team and Thunder…” “Thunder lost to Paul’s Last Team” . etc.

And now the Laker fans are getting furious because if their opponent is not the Rockets, the games can all be broadcasted online or TV. They probably can only try to pirate stream however hard it might be.

I’m sure I will be the small minority who still supports the Rockets in China after all this. Just crazy to think… what a year, since the incident.

Refs really fucked up those two games, but to their bennefit it looked like consistent unintentional two-way fuckup and no rigging odour felt in what decided the games.
Towards the end teams also played way down to match the refs level…not on D tho. All in all good games to me, several standard devations better than stinker of a game by Jazz and Nugs the other day.

Joinone…wish that one day China could handle “stuff” without 404s and general policies of that genre.

The Heat are a pleasure to watch. Butler is a great overall player, but he’s really not a legitimate #1 scorer. He’s more of a #1a or great #2. But they have a good mix of inside scoring, outside shooting, penetration, and most importantly they get a lot of ball movement. They are almost like a less talented version of the great Spurs teams. They play offense the way it’s supposed to be played and play solid hard defense. I’m still not fully convinced they are talented enough to even beat the Bucks despite being up 2-0, but at least they are demonstrating basketball can still be played properly and successfully if you give a great coach some unselfish players that play as a team.

When are they changing the team name to the Brooklyn Durants?

Will be interesting to see how good he is when he gets back on the court.

a friend of mine who is a heat fan was joking with me that a Knicks team with Giannis would somehow only win 35 games and I realized we haven’t won 35 or more games since 2013-2014. That really stinks.

Holy crap..Steve Nash! I’m not gonna kill this move because he is a PG who was a bit of a basketball savant. But Jacque Vaughn staying on as his lead assistant? It probably should be the other way around, at least for this year. Good luck to them..I guess

They are almost like a less talented version of the great Spurs teams.

I see this, actually. There’s clearly a lot of buy-in from their players. Culture matters.

Interesting hire by the Nets – I kinda like it.

Thinking about Devin Vassell after watching Covington basically do everything last night against OKC. Their physical profiles are very similar (Vassell is though to be in the 6’6″-6’7″ range with ~7′ wingspan, Covington was measured at 6’6.25″ and 7’1.25″ wingspan at the combine) and statistically speaking their stats over the first two years of college were quite similar too (with the caveat that Covington played at a small school and Vassell played in a much tougher conference. I definitely would not be sad with Vassell.

Totes McGoats as Totes McGoats:
Holy crap..Steve Nash! I’m not gonna kill this move because he is a PG who was a bit of a basketball savant. But Jacque Vaughn staying on as his lead assistant? It probably should be the other way around, at least for this year. Good luck to them..I guess

Was Nash on anyone’s radar as a HC for the Nets?

I put Spoelstra right behind Pop in the ranking of modern day coaches. (and fuck Phil Jackson, he never coached a team that didn’t have at least one HOF’er on it)

If Miami makes the Finals, that would be quite the capstone for Spoelstra’s career.

TheClashFan: Was Nash on anyone’s radar as a HC for the Nets?

Not at all. Most folks didn’t know he WANTED to coach. I wonder how this strains his relationship with RJ as it relates to the competitive side of Nash and RJ not wanting to share certain things with each other. Before today, I just knew those two would be in the lab this offseason

***I see this, actually. There’s clearly a lot of buy-in from their players. Culture matters.***

I remember Riley used to have the Charleston retreat for the Knicks every summer. They’d black out the windows of the gym down there, and basically not interact with anybody but themselves to build team chemistry. He probably loves this whole bubble thing. It’s in his wheelhouse.

This is remiscentbof when they hired Kidd as coach. It could work out, but it doesn’t seem to be the result of a systematic search.

Everyone says pick the BPA when you are a bad team, but most of the mock drafts I’ve seen have us picking a point guard because that’s what we need. Am I missing something?

A few mocks have us taking obi or vassell. So not only pgs but if I’m swinging for the fences alexseij is a strong contender.

I don’t think this hurts Nash and RJ and their relationship. Nash can work with RJ in the off season and help him with aspects of his game without sharing secrets of the Nets and vice versa. I think these days the coaches, players, etc…from all the different teams interact and help each other in a way that wasn’t really the case back in the day. Its much more friendly. They might get heated on the court but off the court, everyone is kind of buddy buddy with each other.

I do wonder if Nash works out there though, will RJ be looking to move over there if the Knicks aren’t progressing. Is this just another Nets trolling The Knicks move?

I hope Nash does well. He was one of my favorite players to watch back at his heyday. Those Suns teams broke the mold.

to be fair — I once said Steve Nash had a better chance of landing a head coaching gig than Patrick Ewing.

I put Spoelstra right behind Pop in the ranking of modern day coaches. (and fuck Phil Jackson, he never coached a team that didn’t have at least one HOF’er on it)

Pop had 19 consecutive seasons of at least three of Robinson, Duncan, Manu and Parker, plus Kawhi for six of those. In 2013, Spo had a roster that has 26 total All-NBA selections and should have another at the end of this season. Jackson deserves his rings.

Pop had 19 consecutive seasons of at least three of Robinson, Duncan, Manu and Parker, plus Kawhi for six of those. In 2013, Spo had a roster that has 26 total All-NBA selections and should have another at the end of this season. Jackson deserves his rings.

For the 6 seasons after LeBron left, Spoelstra’s teams averaged 42 wins. And yes, they still had Wade, but he was in his mid 30’s and declining.

I just give him a lot of credit for keeping his teams very competitive year after year, they really haven’t had a major down year since 2007-2008

I wonder if all the players the Knicks absolutely would want at are gone, would the 8 pick for Bagley be good? Or should we just sign Giles and pray his knees hold up? I think both of those guys have “some” of Webber’s game in them. It’d be really interesting to see one of them with our development staff paired with Mitch up front. Of course Giles is the better defender, but he’s also the biggest risk- even if he isn’t gonna get a big deal.

Wait..Giles is a free agent, right?

Just so we’re all clear…

Professional sports team hires white guy (Steve Nash) with ZERO real coaching experience to be their head coach while passing over a black guy (Mark Jackson) who has a WINNING RECORD as a head coach.

And everybody is just fine with it? Some allies you guys are.

Mike

Owen, who were the top three in that mock? It’s behind a paywall, so I can’t look it up.

They didn’t just pass over Mark Jackson (who’s a bigot who may have burned too many bridges to ever coach in this league again), but Jacques Vaughan, who has experience as both a head coach and as head coach of this team, and who will now be asked to be Nash’s lead assistant and hand-holder.

There’s a history of former point guards being hired as head coaches without any time as an assistant — see also Doc Rivers, Jason Kidd, Zeke, our own Derek Fisher, and Steve Kerr. At a minimum, though, the optics on this aren’t great, regardless of what Isola says.

MBunge, you can ascribe the hire to racism if you want; but I think in this case it’s more about who knows who and kowtowing to your stars. Apparently, Durant knows Nash well and thinks he’s very knowledgeable. Durant probably also knows what Jackson is like having been on the Warriors with a lot of teammates who played for Jackson. If he wasn’t favorable to Jackson, I don’t see the Nets considering Jackson at all and I wouldn’t consider that an issue of race.

Note added: I agree with Alan about the optics of the hire.

Yes, the Nets literally asked Durant who he wanted as the coach and he said “how about my best buddy at Golden State? Can we get him?” And so they did it. They would’ve hired a platypus if that’s what Durant wanted. Christ, they fired a perfectly good coach because that’s what Durant and Kyrie wanted.

Top three were Ball, Edwards and then Wiseman but there was an extended discussion of Minn and GSW trading their pick.

I love Steve Nash for how much he loves soccer. Went to a soccer clinic once that he held in downtown nyc and he seemed like the nicest guy in the world. Although I once saw Roger Federer at a charity event and he probably pipped him.

I know he was an executive but how much coaching experience did Steve Kerr have when he took the GSW job?

I agree the optics are poor but I don’t think you get a former MVP with as much going on as Nash has to come back to be an assistant to Jacque Vaughn. I don’t want to “is what it is” this but if Durant and Kyrie wanted it and Tsai wanted it those are some important voices being heard.

Speaking of coaches, how do people feel about Budz at the moment? He is seeming really rigid with his minutes distribution and defensive assignments in these playoffs. Obviously, a great coach, and we’d have been lucky to have hired him instead of Fizdale, but he is… stubborn.

Owen, I think you and I might be the only soccer fans on this blog, but there’s a great doc on Amazon called All or Nothing about Tottenham’s latest season with Jose Mourinho as coach. I actually started to like the guy!

The players, on the other hand, a little boring, especially Harry Kane. Wow, is he dull! But some great “insider” footage, worth watching.

It does strike me that they might want to let Giannis play a few more minutes, at least.

And d-mar, yes, huge fan. Will check it out.

Re: Budenholzer…I think (and one of the analysts mentioned this on the broadcast) the regular season and playoffs are different animals and Giannis’ game doesn’t seem to translate as well in the playoffs…and I guess you can point some of the blame at the coach for not adapting but I also think their roster gets exposed in a short series against the better teams…if you’re counting on Marvin Williams as a key cog in the wheel..well…not sure that is going to work out well…I think Miami has a better roster…

Professional sports team hires white guy (Steve Nash) with ZERO real coaching experience to be their head coach while passing over a black guy (Mark Jackson) who has a WINNING RECORD as a head coach.

And everybody is just fine with it? Some allies you guys are.

Imagine trying to get through life with a brain as primitive as this

JK47

JK47: Imagine trying to get through life with a brain as primitive as this

JK47

I don’t think it is possible..what I do think is that the sometimes that Russian AI program/bot has an algorithm glitch and the shit that is supposed to go to facebook or politico or yahoo…gets sent here based on some key word association…cuz that can’t actually be a real human…

MBunge, I think the optics are bad, but I also think this is what Durant wanted and probably what Irving would tolerate.

My sense is that Mark Jackson burned a lot of bridges during his tenure with Golden State and once that happened, it’ll take a long time to get back in. I fully expect Jerry Stackhouse to get a NBA head coaching job before Mark Jackson is considered.

watching the get-together at the grace lutheran church (trying remember the lutheran story)…what a stark contrast to what occurred yesterday – watch some of that too…probably need to unplug in awhile – but, how enlightening to hear the citizens of kenosha speaks…

always good to hear when people speak to data…numbers don’t really don’t lie, people lie though – they do serve purpose though…

100% – GET RID OF THE GUNS – not sure if that should mean all guns, but…let’s at least start – something…here, here’s $1,000, i’ll take that old m16 off your hands…

– there just has to be federal compiling and review of police data involving cases of shootings and discrimination…which will work terrifically – up until the point, we get some really terrible leadership on top…in that case, hopefully one of the other two branches can protect it…

but, the same story keeps getting told – there’s history and data available to more successfully prevent these events…there’s just no wide spread action plan towards its utilization…

poor joe breathing hard…hang in there brother – god has given you purpose…valar dohaeris…

god bless joe -got a word in there for us crazy folks…

And everybody is just fine with it? Some allies you guys are.

all your race are belong to us

mike

I wonder if Minny would essentially do RJ for the number 1 straight up (maybe we take the James Johnson contract too.) RJ would really fit that team well, better than most of their other options, and the Knicks could start over with LaMelo, Mitch, and the #8 and #27 picks.

I’m not saying I want to do this, just, I wonder if it would happen? Probably not.

What’s your favorite Mark Jackson story?

You pick:

-telling Festus Ezeli’s teammates that Ezeli was happy they were losing, because it inflated his prospective contract value
-banning Jerry West and Jim Barnett from practices because ?????
-conspired to turn his teammates against John Stockton, which led to his retirement
-refused competent assistant coaches so he could try to keep his job
-had Steph Curry hop on his busted ankle while in a church service because injuries can be healed by expelling Satan through hopping
-prayed for Jason Collins when he came out because god hates the Nets
-told the media that he didn’t need extra preparation for playoff games
-told Golden State players that the front office was rooting for them to lose so it would make Mark Jackson look bad
-and of course, cheated on his wife with a stripper, was blackmailed, and also was a “minister” at the same time

If you listen to him on ESPN, you can conclude one of two things.

(1) he is deliberately dumbing down his analysis because (a) TV producers don’t believe that fans want to hear actual basketball discussion, even though Thinking Basketball and Coach Nick and other analytical YouTube content is among the most popular on the internet and/or (b) he’s keeping his Super Top Secret Basketball Thoughts under wraps so as to not give his future coach rivals any inside information about what he actually thinks

(2) he coaches via gut feeling, vague platitudes and the other “trust me, I used to dribble for a living” nonsense that comes out of his mouth as a TV “analyst”

Choosing option 1 may suggest that you are prone to believing that a really, really fuckin’ dumb person is performing that way to play 12D chess, when in fact, they are experiencing the symptoms of dementia and may have had a series of mini-strokes, making it difficult to walk down stairs without assistance, pronounce simple words off a teleprompter, or bring a glass of water to one’s lips…

Why lose the chance of becoming the GOAT sports analyst/sloganeer only to become the next Tyronn Lue ?
Makes no sense for Mark…

Also Steve Nash looks like the perfect scapegoat for KD’s conspiracy plan.
Conspiracy Theories on their finest!

On a more serious note seems like Budz and Giannis won’t be together forever unless Budz find miraculously the way to make Giannis dominant in the playoffs.

Giannis had 29 points on 18 shot attempts, with 14 boards and just 2 TOV. He’s been pretty dominant, although he should be playing every available minute for the rest of the series. If he fouls out, so be it.

If you want to talk about what his coach needs to do, it’s find a way to make Matthews, Williams, Connaughton, Korver and DiVincenzo shoot better than 5-20 from the floor in 70 combined minutes.

i don’t know their financial situation – but, how much would it help to still have malcom brogdon on their roster…

bledsoe and hill played fine and to their normal level of play, but, giannis really needs a ball handler that can create and score more…

He wasn’t dominant to my eyes.
Dominant means to get the ball and your opponents to shit their pants instantly.
Easy buckets and constant defense terror.
Giannis seems like he needs better shot/FT/post moves to be Playoffs Dominant.
He looks like an ordinary all Star.
Not Like the MVP.

Knew Your Nicks:
He wasn’t dominant to my eyes.
Dominant means to get the ball and your opponents to shit their pants instantly.
Easy buckets and constant defense terror.
Giannis seems like he needs better shot/FT/post moves to be Playoffs Dominant.
He looks like an ordinary all Star.
Not Like the MVP.

totally agree…needs to work on his jumper…then he would be unstoppable..

I kind of agree with KYN. I know it’s the hated eye test, but the Bucks look like they’re playing a regular season game while the Heat are playing playoff basketball. Since we’re tossing conspiracy theories around today, I wonder if leading the walk-out (and dealing with all the likely crap that came after) has them still a bit shell-shocked.

Would be a shame, as they’re one of the teams I’m left rooting for right now, plus winning it all would really give them a platform for talking about it all.

“Unstoppable”

That’s the word to be called Dominant in the modern nba. And unfortunately it goes hand in hand with high FT% and pretty good to great Shooting. Unless you can camp on the paint.And destroy like Embiid.

Giannis seems easily stoppable at the playoffs till now.
To the point that it’s awkward and pathetic as he’s the MVP of the league…

And you hear these from a Greek who’s proud of him.

to me…dominant superstar means, in fucking crunch time… you either (a) can get your shot off whenever you want and usually make it , see Leonard, Kahwi or Curry, Stephen or Davis, Anthoy or (b) get one of your team mates a solid open look, see Paul, Chris or (c) both, see The King Lebron…Giannis ain’t in any of those categories…no jumper…mediocre handle…not a great passer…

Okay, sorry, I need to disassociate myself with where this is going. I absolutely think Giannis is a dominant superstar. As Jowles said, 29 and 14 ain’t bad. I do feel he has another gear that seems missing except on occasion this series, and even then he’s getting 29 and 14. I think they need him to get up to 38 and 18, which I absolutely think he can, because he’s a dominant superstar,

Giannis is averaging more PPG this playoffs than Steph Curry ever has. His >40 points per 100 possessions is more than Kawhi has ever averaged.

Robert Horry

I didn’t know what to think when 538 had the Celtics up near the top for most likely to win the title, and by far, but man, they are looking like a championship team. Kemba was such a great get for them. The anti-Kyrie, from a team perspective.

THCJ, just picture a gif of furious applause for that takedown of MJax. Well done sir.

And yeah, Giannis is fine and should be taking two minutes off each quarter.

Brandon Clarke fourth in Rookie of the Year voting, with 6 2nds and 32 3rd place votes. JR gets one 3rd place vote (8th place).

It’s weird that the 2nd round in the East could be basically over before it even begins in the west.

WTF is Rebekka Harlow doing on TNT, looking all fine in a mask, acting like she don’t even KNOW us?

We could have had some fun with Kemba

I love how they were giving Tacko instructions

Quite an ending wow

really a great pass from lowry, who was awesome all night. jaylen brown almost blocked that three from like six feet away. pretty fun game all around.

without the tacko gimmick toronto probably inbounds it into a more normal play

That has to be one of the most amazing set plays I’ve ever seen in a situation like that. Nick Nurse should take a bow.

That Kemba pass was a good reminder that when the “go to guy” is, like, quadruple teamed in a buzzer beater situation, it’s well-within the rules for him to pass the ball!

Lowry is like the anti-Knick. He’s just always doing something smart on the court. OG should be a Knick.

Ultimately I think Boston wins the series because they have so much more offensive firepower, but it’s been a fun one.

Mets walk off the Yanks on Tom Seaver day and Celts get shocked by a 3 at the buzzer. Good sports nite for the Z-man!

I feel like any directive from the Nuggets’ staff that was not “sleep 12 hours a day for the next two days” was the wrong way

That OG shot really was one of the more clutch shots in recent playoff history, even more than Kawhi’s to beat Philly last year because that game was tied.

If OG misses it, their season is basically over. Now they at least have a chance….

Given there were 0.5 seconds left and he had Tako Falls on him, I thought Lowery’s pass was every bit as impressive as O.G.’s shot. That pass was Bradyeseque( though Tatum looked like he used to play free safety for the football Giants).

On a dull Friday, here’s a nice mull about the evolution of the 5. Thinking of the talk here about Mitch, it’s not the three-pointer or ability to get to the rim in two long dribbles that could really add value (although those would be nice, and part of the equation, and I too hold out hope); it’s becoming a point center. I wonder if our new team of development experts will try to push him in that direction.
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2020/9/4/21422487/nba-playoffs-bam-adebayo-draymond-green-marc-gasol

Giannis game ain’t ready for domination in the Playoffs.
It was clear even from the National Teams World Cup.
When the game is loose he’s unstoppable but when the Ds are zones or pseudozones he’s in Real Trouble.
I expect him to have Serious problems against serious Ds of Miami, Toronto, Boston and Clippers.
F(uck)orget the numbers. He ain’t dominant yet during the playoffs.

i remember at the beginning of the season it looked like the yanks had a pretty challenging schedule for the first 30 games or so…i wasn’t really expecting all the injuries to continue for another season…thank goodness they don’t have to play the rays anymore during the regular season…

i wonder how much fight the rockets will have in them tonight…the nuggets looked pretty gassed after going 7 games…

The difference between watching Oklahoma City run their inbounds play in the final second of their game and Toronto run theirs was like watching two different sports altogether. And Boston is a team of good defenders, as opposed to the Houston players who, lets face it, don’t make their money on that end of the court. Which leads me to ask, why was Gilgous-Alexander inbounding in that situation instead of Chris Paul? Nurse wisely had his veteran leader and PG in charge of making the play happen yesterday. Whereas Donovan had a kid, who, in kid fashion, tried to inbound the ball to Steven Adams 25 feet from the basket in a catch-and-shoot situation.

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