Knicks vs. Wizards – Preseason Game 2

Starting 5: Payton, Barrett, Morris, Randle, Robinson
That might be the opening day starting 5.

RJ!!!!!

RJ = ROY?
🙂

And Barrett’s jumper needs work. He’s overplaying Beal to the right too much giving Beal room to go left. But he needs to keep shooting and with communication he can get better weak side help.

Barrett’s on-ball defense seems pretty solid. Effort is good and he has good body control.

Yep. His on-ball defense is energetic and he doesn’t seem to commit fouls. He committed 64 fouls in 34 games last year while averaging 34.9 mpg

I have no rational reason for saying this, but I already don’t like Bobby Portis

I want to borrow Taj Gibson’s lunchpail for the next time I go ball…

Of course, as soon as I wrote that the Wizards go on a big run.

Somewhere, Strato must be smiling. Frank goes out of the game, and the Wiz promptly go on a monster run.

Payton is -16, Frank +7, so far.

Neither guy has hit a shot: Payton 0-5, Frank 0-1.

Boy do the Knicks look bad at the moment

randle obviously decided to be mike sweetney for halloween.

if trier is out of the rotation in a preseason game against the wizards with knox, dsj and dotson hurt, where exactly is he on the depth chart?

JK47 – I don’t know if you follow Ken Tremendous on twitter, I imagine you do. But it brings back some FJM fun….

JK47 – I don’t know if you follow Ken Tremendous on twitter, I imagine you do. But it brings back some FJM fun….

I don’t really do Twitter but that makes me want to get back into it

it’s important to panic in the preseason so it needs to be said that aside from a stellar first 90 seconds of game 1 mitch has been pretty bad

You know it’s bad when Payton needs to get some shooting tips from Frank.

wow, 37% on 2pa, 25% on 3pa, 65% on fta…yeah, that’s not good…well, at least they’re playing the worse team in league…

oh wait, maybe the wiz are playing the worst team in the league…

barea is currently playing. pretty fucking amazing.

Payton is 0-8 and -25 in 25 minutes.

Frank is +7 in 3 minutes with 2 rebounds and a assist but is buried on the bench because he got 3 fouls all while they were killing us from 3 while he was out

Fizdale is not bad. He’s brain damaged.

Let’s be clear. Mitch has looked quite bad in both games

i have no idea why ben wallace isn’t in the hall ….

Also there is no offensive system

I had posted an interview w Knox in which he said twice “coach fix hasn’t given us no plays.”

How much longer can the charlatan keep it up? If you’re not working on a system now, you’re never going to.

If it makes anyone feel any better KP has looked like shit in his first two preseason games. Very robust sample.

Damn another crazy Zion line… turns out he might just be good, who knew!

I just listened to part of the podcast with the scout Bryan Oringher mentioned above. He compares Frank’s progress to that of Thomas Satoransky. He didn’t say they were totally similar as players, but he said Satoransky was very bad his first two years, but has progressed to the point where he is a good player and recently got a big contract. He thought Frank could progress over a similar timeframe. I don’t know Satoransky at all. Does his point seem reasonable?

Satoransky can dribble and drive…

Frank’s handle and driving was not the problem for him on offense last night. He got to the rim fine twice and created another decent look off his handle. His problem is between his ears.

I don’t really understand how we can play 2 games against the same shitty team, and in the first one close out hard on shooters and generally play solid defense and in the second give up 19 3 pointers, mostly to wide open shooters.

I guess it was only having 3 days rest?

I’m not worried at all about Mitch.

Does anyone here like the band Moe? I was having a few beers with their drummer last night, he’s a cool guy!

He got to the rim fine twice and created another decent look off his handle. His problem is between his ears.

lol

It’s been obvious for a while that most Zion-skepticism is just contrarianism for its own sake. That’s not to say he’s already the best version of himself, but the fact that he’s probably not just makes him even scarier. There’s really not much to say besides he’s a god damn generational player. Sigh.

Off-topic, but MLB really screwed me over with this 4:08 start time for game 3 of the ALCS. I had already bought tickets with some buddies and never considered the possibility it wouldn’t be a night game. I can still make it because I’m a student (will have to miss a class but oh well), but obviously all of my working friends had to back out and now I’m scrambling to find people who can go.

Yeah, the 26.5 Vegas number is one of the best lines I can remember in a while.

Those Zion highlights are impressive. Made Gobert look 6’1.

Ja looking solid so far too, natch.

I really can’t believe we lost the lottery this year of all years. It hurts so bad. I would have nothing but optimism if we had Mitch, Zion and literally nothing else of value.

I really can’t believe we lost the lottery this year of all years.

It’s painful enough not to get #1 after an all out tank, but then to watch the New Orleans Fucking Pelicans with the luckiest GM in sports history get it with their 10% chance. Excruciating,

I was at a lottery party, and when it went #6 Phoenix, #5 Cleveland #4 Lakers, at that point I think our odds were well over 50% to get #1. The place was going crazy, and then for some reason Mark Tatum rushes to announce the Knicks get #3. And it went from raucous to dead silent.

It really is true, Knicks fans can’t have nice things.

Yeah, the only thing that sours me a bit on watching Zion is realizing the damn Pelicans got rewarded him by wasting 7 years of the career of another transcendent talent. I’ll still watch the Pelicans a lot simply because they will be so fun and must watch basketball, but it will hurt for a long damn time.

KP is going to have a good year. KP’s numbers have been bad, but he’s taken 16 threes over 2 games. On the Knicks he took around 4. The Mavs know how to use him and they’re doing it right.

I think KP is going to have a KP year. Below-average TS%, high usage, just north of Bargnani rebounding, and some highlight-reel blocks. And all of his averages will plummet after December.

@74
The Knicks may not deserve it, but we do! Problem is, James Dolan’s negative karma is way more powerful than the positive karma of all suffering Knicks fans combined. Thus, no #1 pick.

I think KP is going to have a KP year. Below-average TS%, high usage, just north of Bargnani rebounding, and some highlight-reel blocks. And all of his averages will plummet after December.

If you learn something about basketball that’s not in a boxscore, it may be the first thing.

KP was coming off an 18 month layoff and he was the most impactful player on the court for Dallas in game 1 despite the mediocre shooting from 3. He may not even start to play his best basketball this year for a few months. It takes some time to get confidence in your body back after this injury.

I don’t expect “you” to ever understand his value assuming he stays healthy, but Bargnani? lmao

Well, everyone seems to like Lance Thomas

@78 Alsep, was that Scotch Plains Fanwood High School by any chance? I taught there for a few years and also supervised the school store. Lance was a frequent customer and nothing but a polite and friendly kid.

That year the varsity team also had Derrick Caracter, who had a short NBA career with the Lakers and had incredible talent but zero work ethic. And the coach was so bad that they didn’t even make it to the state semis with 2 future NBA players on the team.

I love how the Knicks have had so many awesome non box score guys in the past few years, who contribute on the court for so much more than their stats show us, and yet our record in these years is kinda exactly what the box score tell us it should be.

Five thirty eight has predicted the Mavs should win 46 games this season. I think that’s very optimistic, but let’s see how it goes.

I’m not going to freak out over a preseason loss. Just bc we added a bunch of competent veterans doesn’t mean we’re gonna gem right away.

Regarding hopes for improvement in young players, Mitch has not looked better. But Ntilikina actually does look better, although still not good. We don’t know about DSJ, since he hasn’t played at all. Trier and Knox have played very little, but so far I would say Trier is the same, but Knox is more under control and could be better this year.

The Dallas Mavericks have Luka Doncic and Rick Carlisle so they have enough going for them that they can be a good team.

You know how it takes the average NBA fan a few years to figure out that a once-great player has become actually pretty damn average? Yeah, the coaching version of that player is Rick Carlisle.

His 90-156 record over the last three years isn’t entirely his fault, but it’s not exactly a stretch to say that the guy who (fifteen years ago) helped engineer a defense that routinely held opponents to under 70 points just might not be all that relevant in the era of 130-125 scores at the end of regulation. Yeah, 2011, great. Remind me when Prime Dirk is raised from the dead and planted on the Mavs with guys like Jason Terry (0.6 BPM regular season, 4.8 postseason) and Jason Kidd (3.1, 5.9) and Shawn Marion (1.2, 3.1) playing out of their damn minds.

Anecdotally, yeah, sure, he’s fine. Better than Fizdale, I’m certain. But he’s not going to turn a shitty roster into a contender. The last three years are pretty goddamn clear on that.

After the game, my biggest takeaway is that KP is the 2nd best Latvian player in the NBA.

Are you all dejected because of a pre-season loss to a bad team? Jeeze. This team is going to be better than last year’s team but that doesn’t make the Knicks good. This is still a high lottery pick team. We have to reset some expectations. The ceiling for Ntilikina and Knox IMO us “NBA rotational player”, maybe, eventually, “legit starter”. No player on this team has been consistent enough to be called a star yet.

In other NY news, has anyone read this over-the-top piece by Jeff Passan?

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27745775/a-savage-manager-seat-new-york-yankees-boss-aaron-boone-was-made-moment

And can they speak to Aaron Boone’s character? This reads like the fluffiest fluff piece possible. Is Boone actually a great dude? Is this just a Passan thing?

The savages rant is an all-timer. It’s up there with “Playoffs?” and “Practice?” but the fact that it came out in-game is something really special.

That said, I found Passan’s bit about it showing empathy hilariously misguided. “I feel bad for you,” is the deepest, dankest shade.

Not as easy in basketball but it is incredible that the Yankees were able to use a down season so perfectly to retool.

When you have competent management and a seasons goes to shit you reformulate an effective strategy and pivot. Effective management isn’t hard for effective managers……but they didn’t do it in a half asses way.

Then make a great trade for Didi and Hicks and find quadrupleA guys who can actually play like Voit, Urshela and Tauchman and shrewd UFA signings like Britton, Ottavino and Le Mahieu who could have been afforded by most teams.

Yeah, Lemathieu especially wanted to be a Yankee. Success breeds more success. The opposite is true for our Knicks.

And can they speak to Aaron Boone’s character? This reads like the fluffiest fluff piece possible. Is Boone actually a great dude? Is this just a Passan thing?

Hmmmm….let’s see if we can bring some analytics to this. Boone is a guy whose personal integrity can’t be bought for $5,000,000 unlike the virtue signalers in the NBA and with two biological kids of his own he opens up his heart/family/life to two poor kids from a third world country just because he can.

Seems pretty legit to me….. no wonder Jowles can’t believe it nor relate to it…….

but baseball decisions are becoming more and more about the manager doing whatever the analytics department tells them to do and that’s clearly what Cashman wants out of his manager

Yesterday was a good example, as he was clearly ignoring what was plain to see because he’s told not to let a pitcher go through the order the third time. That’s getting a little ridiculous. It didn’t help them much, but Houston was thrilled he took Tanaka out after 6.

Teams like the Mets and especially the Red Sox had the $$$$ for those players but not the foresight….

The Red Sox’s downfall this past season was specifically that they didn’t have the money to spend on their bullpen. If it was in their budget, they definitely would have tried to sign one of Robertson, Britton and Ottavino. They didn’t want to go over the second luxury cap two years in a row.

This hasn’t been a good playoffs for leaving mediocre pitchers in for the third time through the order. See Wainwright, Adam and Schildt, Mike. The numbers are pretty conclusive. I can understand if you have the Nationals bullpen but the Yankees are stacked.

The Yankees also do a lot better with their bullpen spending than say, the Rockies, who had one offseason when they spent like 30 million per on relievers. Which of course forced them to let Ottavino go. The Yankees do spend a lot but they get value everywhere, kind of like the Dodgers. Again, not a Yankees fan but they run a good operation. Getting value from Voit, Tauchman, Urshela in the way they did is pretty impressive. Lucky yes but impressive.

Jowles in mid season form.

Passan is Passan. I was actually going to use hagiographic at some point. The piece is obviously over the top but as I said Boone does have a good rep in baseball circles. He walks the fine line well between being a conduit for the stat monkeys and being a pedigreed baseball man who knows the culture of the game and can communicate with players.

Amazing how little will trigger you these days

Pretty LOL tastic…. in a discussion of whether Boone is legit you outdid yourself raising strawmen in a single paragraph:

Donald Trump
Breitbart
American far rightparanoid
Anti-Christian and…….
Anti white self victimization

Congrats!!!

And the topper:

I’m not going to tell you about my years of volunteering in Title 1 schools in an attempt to prove my worth to a person who

Well played Jowles…. methinks that’s precisely what you just did…. loooooooolllllllllllll…….

And back to the original discussion:

And can they speak to Aaron Boone’s character? This reads like the fluffiest fluff piece possible. Is Boone actually a great dude? Is this just a Passan thing?

It is completely understandable you cannot believe there are selfless people with personal integrity in this world…….

I still want to know how it’s not a flagrant abuse of power to make military aid to a foreign power conditional on digging up fake InfoWars conspiracy bullshit on your political opponents. I’d like to hear how this would have been totally copacetic if Barry HUSSEIN tried to pull this on Tagg Romney.

I’m sure Neptune has a brilliant answer for all of that.

I still want to know how it’s not a flagrant abuse of power to make military aid to a foreign power conditional on digging up fake InfoWars conspiracy bullshit on your political opponents. I’d like to hear how this would have been totally copacetic if Barry HUSSEIN tried to pull this on Tagg Romney.

I’m sure Neptune has a brilliant answer for all of that.

I think there are a few questions here.

Any time The House wants to vote on Impeachment they can call anything they like an impeachable offense. Fair enough…. have at it. But you have to go down on record.

You characterized the president’s actions as a flagrant abuse of power. Fine.

Others might look upon the same action as asking the government of the Ukraine to get to the truth of what happened in 2016 which directly led to the failed Mueller investigation.

As to young Romney… everyone knows good Mormon boys aren’t even allowed to break wind, let alone snort blow in the NAVY.

I am quite sure you fellows have convinced yourselves the Ukrainians put Hunter on the dole for his well known expertise in the natural gas industry and not to curry favor with old senile pops. I’m also sure the Chinese Banks invested 1.5 B in his expertise too…..

This is almost too funny to actually argue……

And i get to talk about anything I care to unless the owners say differently. Just because you may not care for my positions YOU don’t get to silence me.

you can say whatever you want but you’re not exactly an authority on moral consistency….. so i would kindly tell you to sit down on this topic….

Don’t victimize bobneptune! He’s already suffered enough!

I wouldn’t silence boburanus. He’s the Washington Generals of KB political commentary.

it’s very very clear he’s looking for a fight… so i would try to show some restraint and not actually give in to a troll… as hard as that might be…..

When our paths finally do cross, we’re drinking Lagavulin on my dime.

Bookmarked

On basketball related topics, Zion is averaging 23 ppg with a 74% ts in the preseason. Oh man. I’m trying not to overvalue preseason but he’s not making it easy.

with the way zion was challenging and finishing over someone like rudy gobert… i think it’s safe to assume the rest of the nba doesn’t really have much of a chance either….

giannis and kawhi might have a couple years on top .. but zion is gonna be taking over the league very very soon….

Hubert is the hyperbole police

Yes definitely. Their performance on Colbert the other night was fantastic.

I always say, when you are starting an indie band, start with an amazing female singer who was raised in a cult.

It’s premature to talk about Zion winning the MVP award. It’s preseason. He’s a rookie. Yup, no way we can be talking about Zion Williamson winning the MVP yet. He can’t shoot. He looks kinda fat. He might injure himself. No MVP talk. None at all.

Zion is inhuman.

Jowels can I drink lagavulin on your dime for the 5k I’m going to raise for my Lions Club Tuesday? :^)

I’d seriously would love to get together with everyone at some point in NYC sometime just to see if we all love or hate each other in person.

Can’t complain about a post-Verlander battle of the bullpens. I really like how Boone has managed this game.

No love Jowles. Kidding. I really do want to have KB meetup sometime though. That would be epic.

Yankees going to lose though I bet.

Glad Sanchez got out there. Would have been a huge controversy if he got on after that missed call.

Of course it happened. Something like thirty people were listening to the call and at least two made whistleblower complaint ms. What world are you living in?

I really like how Boone has managed this game.

It’s not his fault his team is built this way, but I think we’re taking the bullpen stuff too far. I don’t see how you can win a 7 games series pulling starters so early every single game. Bullpens are volatile and batters adjust to relievers.

The quick hook on Paxton was probably the right move but yesterday’s call to pull Tanaka after 68 pitches hurt them today bc Britton wasn’t available for multiple innings and Springer looked like he figured Ottavino in his AB the day before.

Pretty sober analysis by a card carrying member of the vast right wing conspiracy:

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/were-in-a-permanent-coup

The Ukraine stuff is overblown. Every single President uses the leverage the behemoth of a country the US gives them to get stuff done.

Trump is literally the top cop in the country. If he wants to investigate Joe Biden’s son getting free money for having the last name Biden, I think that’s in his wheelhouse.

Leverage is used all the time in investigations. It’s used in making trade deals. People are just upset because it has to do with Uncle Joe. It wouldn’t even have been news for 2 seconds if it was one of us, but here are people reacting because it’s being done to another piece of shit that’s famous.

Fuck all of them.

Pretty sober analysis by a card carrying member of the vast right wing conspiracy:

Nah, but to you? Probably looks just fine. Because you’ve been programmed well by Breitbart.

I’d love to hear your opinions on QAnon.

Ah, the old “even this liberal agrees with me” trick.

Want me to post about 1,000 articles by conservatives and former Republican officials who think Trump’s abuse of power here is egregious? Because I could!

Of course they’re all “former” officials because Republicans who are currently in power ain’t gonna buck Donny Cut N Run lest he tweet mean things about them. Profiles in courage. I think Mitt furrowed his brow for a second, that was the most principled and forceful response I’ve seen.

Is there no hope of returning this to a basketball blog with comments about basketball?

The offseason is one thing – when there’s nothing to talk about I have no problem with off-topicblogger and since there’s no Knicks news anyway it’s easy enough to just look the other way if you’re not interested in descending into the muck, but there is actual basketball happening now and you guys are burying the actual basketball comments in a deluge of off-topic griping that is quite clearly going nowhere productive. Can’t you take all this somewhere else? Maybe just exchange emails and fight with each other directly?

I’m going to enjoy Porzingis’s season a great deal.

Nah, but to you?

Just for the record…. Nah…. isn’t much of a compelling argument , either……although in Portland it may be the highest level of intellectual inquiry…..

Young Taibbi is a card carrying lib who happens to make a cogent argument that there has been an unholy cabal to remove this president without good cause since before he took office and kind of gives a road map even for the most obtuse among his landsmen.

But Nah…. rebuts his arguments very well…….

And the argument that the war mongerers like Bill Kristol and others of his ilk wish Trump dead is sort of a red badge of courage.

What does it take to get Fiz fired? Does 5-15 do it? Judging from the 2nd Wizards game there’s not much talent on the roster, but the way they stand around on offense waiting for someone to go one on one is sickening.

What do you think about pulling Green, though? Can’t blame Boone for Ottavino serving up a first-pitch meatball, but Green was cruising.

I can’t blame Boone for removing a reliever after 2 IP and 26 innings, and putting in who should theoretically be his best righty-on-righty matchup guy. Ottavino served up a meatball, but I would’ve been much more angry with Green getting in trouble after all that work. Sometimes you make the right move and still take an L.

i think there is a merely-moderately-unlikely path to fiz getting fired this year. just take a prosaic 25 win season and sprinkle on a stream of minor player mutiny headlines. our roster is a bit of a powder keg for a head coach whose tony robbins charisma might be a little more effective the first time or two through the batting order.

the new york non guaranteeds have just a weirdly deep reservoir of similarly mediocre players, most of whom are at major career economic inflection points. the three relevant players with the least $ on the line this year are there guys who will probably play a lot no matter what (randle, mitch, RJ). otherwise it’s just a shit ton of basically commodity mouths to feed, and come january at 12-28 trier or portis or payton or morris or dsj or frank (well, frank’s agent) or even taj or dotson are going to care about one thing and one thing only and that’s papering the file with minutes and counting stats.

injuries or, more usefully, trades could mitigate this, but the latter isn’t really our strong suit. despite making every conceivable attempt to publicly humiliate himself dolan is still absurdly sensitive to headlines and president steve is impressively sensitive to dolan’s neck temp, so it wouldn’t take much in the way of media noise for a head to roll.

Yeah, if the veterans turn on Fizdale there’s a chance he gets fired. It’s a sort of a double edged sword for him, they justified that the team sucked last year because it was a rebuild focusing on young guys, then they went and signed a lot of mediocre veterans. If they’re on pace to win something like 23-25 games and there’s talk of people unhappy about minutes, etc, Fizdale might be in danger.

Its pretty clear that the management team isn’t expecting much from this team, which is justified by the short contracts they gave to everyone, but even so I’m sure they’ll want to win at least 30 games or something like that.

THAT. DID. NOT. HAPPEN. There is zero evidence at this time that ANY pressure was used or even threatened on the matter of Hunter Biden and Ukraine. I’m not sure anyone even tries to imply otherswise any more.

Being a Trump supporter seems so exhausting to me. If you’re not an idiot, you have to pretend to be an idiot.

Welp, all these injuries are the real fork to stick in Frank’s back.

hmmmmm, first KB goes down for a while, and, now fortnite is down…coincidence – i think not…

I was going to recommend Views from 314 Feet. I also subscribe to RAB’s patreon for a few bucks a month and they produce RAB-quality content fairly frequently.

Being a Trump supporter seems so exhausting to me.

i don’t know about that – i believe supporting him is a source of pride for many…i listened to a bunch of that minnesota rally…seems like a closed circle with a whole lot of us versus them – if you’re already in, the logic is solid and very believable…when it comes to manipulation, he’s on another level…i would not underestimate his ability to inspire/incite…

he may not be smart, but, he’s very clever…

it was weird – every time he called out to the audience to highlight the “redshirt” supporters – all i could think about was adolf’s brownshirts…

You ain’t wrong, geo

As reported by smarter people than me, the matchup looks as tight as can be. The Yanks have no room for error. They can get mashed a couple games, but you can’t sink that Astros lineup with luck. They’re so aggressive and capitalize on mistakes like few modern teams can. That might work both ways, though.

way cool z-man…starting to do some reading on the subject – interesting and crazy complex stuff…wow, i can only imagine the hurdles currently in place…not always so easy to move from the present to a better (for the majority) future…especially when the minority has a great deal of control on the present (and a proposal to enact a policy or process that may negatively impact that minority group’s children comes up)…

i can’t imagine too many folks possibly sacrificing their own children’s future for the betterment of all…

man, i bet those are some intense meetings when this subject is discussed…

Brandon Clarke has 10 and 10 on 6 FGA in 14 minutes.

I can blame luck for the Zion miss, but I can’t forgive passing on Clarke.

Zion’s stats so far are like he’s still at Duke. He gets to the basket just as easy in the NBA preseason and it will be the same in regular games. Porzingis is huge and looks great. With a little luck and competent management/coaching, we could have had both. That would have been magic. I am ashamed to say I am now rooting against both of them. I am still loyal to a team that has no good players, a recruiter who can’t coach and imbecillic management and ownership. Why?
Also, Brandon Clarke will be a poor man’s Rodman.

Not to mention he has 4 fta in 3 games…he couldn’t draw a foul with a 64-box of crayons

I’ve been convinced by many good arguments here that KP maybe isn’t a max player or won’t be a superstar but it’s super suspect to rag on his stat line from a few preseason games after he’s missed over a season of live basketball. Do you honestly expect him to not have any rust after so much time off?

I’m gravely disappointed in Lebron. As a Chinese American, it’s galling that he’d repeat the CCCP party line that China is too unfathomably sophisticated to ever be criticized by non-Chinese. I thought he was more socially conscious than that. He’s done well using his voice to advocate for justice for Black Americans, and I liked that he called Trump a bum, etc. But it sucks that he’s not using applying his lens for racial justice issues to the struggle for human rights in Hong Kong.

I think the NBA may be more favorable to Zion. Due to the 3 seconds rule, you can’t plant Tacko Fall in the paint the whole game. That, and having teammates who can shoot and aren’t Cam Reddish will help a lot.

I lost all respect to LeBron over this. What a loser. The people fighting for their freedom in Hong Kong deserve better.

Zion’s stats so far are like he’s still at Duke. He gets to the basket just as easy in the NBA preseason and it will be the same in regular games. Porzingis is huge and looks great. With a little luck and competent management/coaching, we could have had both.

There was a moment before KD tore his Achilles’ that it truly seemed there was a 14% chance of this team rolling out Kyrie, KD, Zion, and Mitch in the starting lineup this year.

Instead it’s DSJ, Knox, and Barrett. Oh well. This is life as a Knicks fan.

I would have taken the Atlanta haul, but yes, Clarke is a stud and Barrett is all upside. Clarke is Ken Faried with defense and a better inside game.

LeBron is canceled

Here is Big Thief on Colbert…

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/big-thief-not-two-hands-colbert-897768/

So funny, I was just going to write a post about how Clarke is Faried with defense and then I got bogged down reading an article about Faried at Morehead State.

I wouldn’t have wanted to pay the #3 cap number for Clarke when we could have gotten him for much less. But I would rather have him also. His floor seems to be well above average role player and his ceiling seems at least as high as Barrett’s. Could be wrong though, will be an interesting one to track. I think it will end up being a debate where no one ends up changing their minds and just thinks what they thought watching them in college.

All this China stuff really does bring Jordan’s “Republicans buy sneakers” line to mind. I am all for HK and freedom but the NBA is in a very difficult position here. It’s a huge chunk of their revenue and I don’t really see what the detractors expect them to do. It’s not like the rest of America isn’t just as complicit.

It’s a lose lose situation but they cannot surrender to a state, any state, the way they did. They could have said that the league doesn’t mix sports and politics, and would like it to stay this way, but that any individual can say whatever they like because we believe in freedom of speech.

What will they do next? Ban Kanter because Erdogan doesn’t like him? Ban Iranian players from the league? Remove Eastern European players if they say something against Putin?

Also since I’m known for my Yankee stuff here I have to chime in and say I don’t blame Boone at all for how he managed the bullpen last night. I’m very impressed with how much he has improved this year compared to last year. Although I agree that I think he pulled Tanaka way too early in Game 1 especially after they went up 5-0 in the top of the 7th, it forced Boone to use both Otto and Britton which might’ve hurt Otto last night facing the exact same hitters again and Britton not being available for 2 innings. Chapman needing 25 pitches for his 1 inning hurt too cause that removed him from throwing a 2nd inning.

I think Boone handled game 2 as close to perfect as possible. I really can’t get mad at him for Ottavino hanging a slider. His micro management (i.e. one game) is getting better, but I’m concerned about his macro management (i.e. how is he going to get through the whole series).

We got a guy tonight who probably can’t go more than 4 innings*, and tomorrow is supposed to be a bullpen game. And we just basically had a bullpen game. I think he has to think a little more long term. If your starter is cruising, save the bullpen for when you need it.

I also don’t think it’s proper use of analytics. There are two sets of data:

– how much worse starters fare when facing a lineup the third time
– how much worse relievers fare when they’re overused and batters can adjust to them

How about paying attention to both and balancing them? I don’t know if that’s all on him, though. Seems to be an organizational oversight.

What will they do next? Ban Kanter because Erdogan doesn’t like him? Ban Iranian players from the league? Remove Eastern European players if they say something against Putin?

Let’s be honest, if Turkey had 1.4 billion people who loved the NBA, Kanter either would not be tweeting about Erdogan or he would not be an NBA player.

It’s a little harsh to single out the NBA, though. China presents moral dilemmas for everyone, and we don’t always handle them with the same consistency we’d like to imagine we apply.

I know. I need Mitch to get right. This vague feeling that he is going to have a sophomore slump is among the things getting me down.

I read LeBron as saying Morey did not think about how his tweet would affect the NBA and especially the players physically in China. Not sure if he was worried about the $$ or safety but either way I think he has a point.

Well, if the players’ safety in China can be compromised by a single, unremarkable tweet then the NBA should not being sending players to China, ever.

I hope the NBA can avoid becoming just like FIFA.

Things just seem so backwards when we expect our entertainers to be conducting international diplomacy and our gov’t diplomats to be conducting personal business for the President.

This.

I’m disappointed in LeBron’s response for sure, but it sure is rich seeing a bunch of Trump chuds jump down his throat. For the record, here are some things the President of the United States (you know, the person with the most power in the world to actually affect positive change) has had to say about China:

“When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength…That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak…as being spit on by the rest of the world.”–March, 1990

“We discussed Hong Kong and I think great progress has been made by China in Hong Kong, and I’ve been watching and I actually told the vice premier it really has toned down a lot from the initial days of a number of months ago when I saw a lot of people, and I see far fewer now.”–October 11th, 2019

You can nitpick me all you want for posting a quote from before his time as President, as if he’s demonstrated a scintilla of personal growth since then. Regardless, the second quote is from 4 days ago and is exponentially worse than anything LeBron had to say on the matter, coming from the person best positioned to actually do something.

So yeah, I’m disappointed in LeBron, but you’ll have to excuse me if I think there’s, um, something else motivating a lot of the most vitriolic responses to him.

I read LeBron as saying Morey did not think about how his tweet would affect the NBA and especially the players physically in China. Not sure if he was worried about the $$ or safety but either way I think he has a point.

He just gets dumber with every back tracking statement. China is probably the least likely place on earth with their “social credit score” system of having a riot against NBA players. The government of China certainly doesn’t want an incident where any NBA player is harmed or threatened.

Ya know, I’ve heard they have a pretty effective police force in China!

That couldn’t be a dumber statement if LeBron actually said it.

@225
yes you are right it would take a riot to jeopardize player safety. all those knife attacks in schools clearly show there are no crazy people in china, the government has complete control of its people…

lebron could have demurred. it really doesn’t matter what he meant by misinformed. he really really doesn’t have to criticize someone whose pro freedom speech was stifled by the economic power of a murderous regime. steve kerr couldn’t get away with silence but lebron could have.

Morey obviously knows the ins and outs of the NBA’s relationship with China but I’m certainly in agreement with Lebron that he didn’t realize how much of an incident he was going to set off with the tweet. I mean he immediately deleted the tweet, he apologized, and then he’s basically gone into hiding. If that looks to you like Morey considering every angle and then deciding that he supports HK regardless of the cost I don’t know what to tell you. Looks a lot more like an impulsive decision where he didn’t recognize the extent to which China would take umbrage. If Morey could do it all over again does anyone think he sends the tweet?

Yes there is… he has no problem criticizing everything in this country yet he kowtows to China. Just be consistent. You want “social justice” (however you might define that)…. then be for it for everyone ….. even if it is going to cost you from 45 million to 41 million in salary.

It’s definitely a bad look for LeBron James that he had no problem running his Presidential campaign based on a theme of this country completely falling apart with him being the only one who can fix it, while agreeing to not criticize China for economic reasons. Can’t argue with you there. That was a bad thing that LeBron James did.

Anyway, maybe it’s actually kind of good that conservatives recognize that there are legitimately higher standards for LeBron James than there are for the President of the United States. I agree with them on that front! I just wish they’d be a little more explicit about how that’s what they’re actually saying in this case, ya know?

Morey would have the moral high ground you claim for him if he was tweeting from China (or even HK) instead of letting other people take the fallout for him. It’s easy to kick a hornet’s nest when you’re an ocean away and it’s other people who are going to get stung.

and that’s what so tonedeaf about the whole consistency issues…. being citizens of a country you reside in where the game has its primary sphere of influence… is entirely relevant… going into someone’s backyard.. no matter how right you think you are… those ppl are not going to appreciate that..

and you might not care about it or disagree with the nba going into china entirely …. but if they are inviting you to play basketball and you go in as what they perceive as inciting war.. then you probably shouldn’t venture outside the scope of your duties…

here in the us… they are citizens… and speaking out about issues they care about is WELL within their rights and duties as US citizens… so anybody questioning consistency should just stfu….

china with the middle east and change hk to israel/palestine

My God this is a turrble analogy….. Any Hong Kong residents have their kids strap on explosive vests and detonate them in a crowd in the Forbidden City? Any Hong Kong residents tunnel under the straights and come up firing on the Chinese Army with automatic weapons. Do the Hong Kong residents periodically lob a couple of thousand missiles at the Mainland???

Plz go to analogy school……

@ bob
interesting that you read that analogy as HK = Palestine and not HK = israel/palestine which is what was actually written. Maybe you need to go to reading school?

and you go in as what they perceive as inciting war.

When you guys debate each other does this sort of over the top hyperbole get over often. I’m fairly certain the PLA isn’t quavering over the thought of unarmed Hong Kong residents coming over the parapets with a full frontal assault.

The citizens of Hong Kong just want to not be subject to being dragged in front of a kangaroo court in the Mainland. They want to be left the bleep alone. China is the one agitating against the status quo.

This meltdown of yours wouldn’t have been complete without some anti-Palestinian racism, so good job making sure you checked that off.

If you are asking me who occupies the moral high ground in that conflict, I’m pretty sure which side I’m with…..

On a Knicksy note 538’s new stat has Kevin Knox as only the second worst player on a total production level, behind Collin Sexton who took the historic crown last year. On a rate basis both Sexton and 2015 Zach Levine both edged him out.

The only response to fascist conservativism:

Nah

“It would be cool if all of these conservatives criticizing Lebron for not supporting the HK protests also felt the same way about freedom for Palestinians and the people of Yemen.”

I’m sorry, is there something CONSERVATIVE about being disgusted with a multi-millionaire who feels he can casually insult the President of the United States but quakes like a little boy afraid of daddy coming home when it comes to the Communist dictators in China? This kind of behavior is a-okay with liberals?

On the other hand, you’re pretty much right about Yemen.

On the gripping hand, the Palestinians could get all the freedom they want if they would…you know…accept the existence Israel and stop dreaming about driving the Jews into the sea.

Mike

The worst thing that could happen tonight is we burn 5-6 of our best pitchers in a 2-1 loss. That’s what’s got me the most nervous right now.

The worst thing that could happen tonight is we burn 5-6 of our best pitchers in a 2-1 loss. That’s what’s got me the most nervous right now.

What a weird thing that early blowout losses are not the worst thing to happen to a team in the bullpen analytics era.

Also noteworthy:

there is currently a 100% chance of rain tomorrow evening.

That changes the complexion of the series a bit. You’d probably get Tanaka vs Greinke in Game 4 and Paxton vs Verlander in game 5 at Yankee Stadium. Game 6 in Houston would turn into the bullpen game many expected game 4 to be.

I kinda feel like that favors the Yanks a little. Winning all three games at YS is going to be tough. Winning 2 out of 3 and then facing the Astros bullpen in game 6 is a lot more attractive than winning 2 out of 3 and facing Verlander and Cole in Houston.

How do we have another day to go before we have another preseason game to complain about?

It’s crazy, right?

But Verlander pitching in New York makes winning two out of three in New York a lot harder.

I was thinking that, too.

But here’s the rub: I thinking winning game 7 in Houston against Cole is a situation you have to completely avoid. So you need to beat Verlander. And I think we have a better chance of beating him at home than in Houston. So I’d take that trade.

I think we all can agree that if whoever wins the ALCS gets blown out in the World Series, it’s going to be really hard to explain.

As a huge Yankee fan, I was asked “Who do you want to see in the ALCS”. My answer was “It really doesn’t matter”. Throw all stats and records out the window in the playoffs. Games don’t work out the way you expect them to. I have 100% confidence in the Yankees…they are NOT the Knicks!

That number makes sense, since it doesn’t account for which team won Game 1. It’s basically saying, “How often does a team win a series that’s either tied 1-1 or in which they’re down 0-2?” It’s a tautology, but the better team (by definition) is more likely to be 2-0 or 1-1 in the first place, so the series outcome makes sense.

So Fizdale now says RJ may play some “PG”. That is the most sensible thing he’s said in a while. RJ’s had some nice off-ball stuff but he’s not a shooter and is best with the ball in his hands. He’s the #3 pick, probably highest ballhandler ceiling in the club. Give him the ball and let him do stuff. That also gives more room for Frank to play next to him in the Mario Chalmers role.

It’s not the choice I would make either but it’s just mathematically inaccurate to call any minor lineup shuffling a big mistake. Lineup ordering is a minor effect over the course of a season – in a single game you might as well worry about the butterflies flapping their wings in China.

It only took one inning, too.

I don’t know what you’re smoking in @272. This ain’t 162 games. This is one game against the best pitcher on the planet. You want your best hitters to get the most ABs tonight. Period. I bet that won’t be the last time encarnacion bails Houston out of a jam while Torres watches helplessly on deck.

So Fizdale now says RJ may play some “PG”

This is soo annoying to me because it signals unpreparedness at best and making up garbage as he goes along at worst. Why is it that after two preseason games he changes his role on offense? Why not do what most coaches do, define his role on offense and give him 15-20 games to learn how to do it well.
How does RJ’s current skill set enable him to play PG in his system? What is the PGs specific role on offense and how will this effect RJs development and psychology?
Better yet, does Fiz actually have an offensive system that he believes can win in this league? Did he share this with Perry/Mills before they went shopping in July?

My belief in Fiz is diminishing at an increasing rate when, with the season two weeks away, I learn that our highest draft pick since Ewing doesn’t have specific role on team offense or personal development hierarchy of goals within it.

Last season we saw the Knox development plan and gave a pass because we were tanking…

I don’t know. Team optimist and all but to me Fiz saying that about RJ shows that RJ is really impressing both in the games and in practice and Fiz feels like he could be the best PG on the roster. I think its exciting that RJ might be taking on these responsibilities. We know he’s a good passer and not a great shooter (now at least), so this could be the best way to utilize him and if he can take on that responsibility, it shows a lot of poise and maturity.

Sevy settled down.

Someone convince me that “Gerrit” is not a terrible thing to name a kid

the good – cole is up to 70 pitches through 4 innings…the not so good – yanks have left 7 on base…

LeBron, Kerr, Silver and the rest of the NBA handled this poorly but the CCP comes off way worse. I get that they see any criticism as an existential threat but seriously, who freaks out over a single tweet like that from a non-politician? Twitter’s banned in China anyway.

I’m thinking that’s gg

i’m feeling a dramatic comeback is about to begin…

The math is the math and lineup construction just doesn’t matter very much despite people loving to obsess over it.

Dude, there is absolutely no math that says in one game it doesn’t matter where your hitters hit.

Let’s drop him to 7th tomorrow. Doesn’t really matter anyway.

Dude, there is absolutely no math that says in one game it doesn’t matter where your hitters hit

Batting order optimization is worth ~10 runs over 162 games. And going Gardner, EE, Torres instead of Torres, EE, Gardner is a far smaller effect. I’ll leave the math on a single game for you. It’s a rounding error.

Hubert – There is something called The Book by TangoTiger. I haven’t read it but apparently it’s quite convincing on this topic. I buy that if there is a difference in expectation it’s tiny.

But yeah, Torres is pretty smoking hot right now…

I mean sometimes the #3 hitter ends up with the more important at bats and sometimes, like 99.9% as often, the #5 hitter ends up with the more important at bats. And the expected difference between EE and Torres in a single game is very small, regardless of the fact that one is slumping and one is hot coming into the game. So on average, the difference is a fraction of a fraction of a run. That’s just a stone cold fact. The math is the math. You can’t argue your way around it by inventing hypotheticals.

Well, I haven’t read it. But I reads Fangraphs every day and all the smart guys there agree with what thenamestsam said. The difference is super super marginal. Maybe they want Gardner in there as a lefty. I don’t think there is much to choose between Torres and Encarnacion as hitters and Judge and Lemathieu are pretty solid as well.

Good problem to have for sure….

That was an amazing at-bat for DeJong. I can’t imagine the nerves of battling back from a two-strike count with patience.

I have great seats to the Knicks-Hawks game tonight, taking my casual fan 22-yo daughter. Hopefully it won’t be a dud, she has scoffed at my loyalty to this train wreck of a team for years!

Your daughter in the MENSA Society , correct 🙂

I may be too easily swayed, but I feel a bit more sympathetic to LeBron after reading about the China trip from the players’ POV:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27852687/inside-lebron-james-adam-silver-make-break-moments-china

@307 lol, this lucky apple fell like a country mile from the tree!

@308 yeah, but I still like what the Hawks are doing. I expected them to be the worst team in the NBA last year and they surprised me, as did Trae, so I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt for now.

rj as pg is probably not gonna end well…. he’s a guy that can pass but not a guy that actually is gonna be the best passer on the team…. payton and smith should be much much better at it…

@309

The collective hysteria around the internet on the reaction to this is one of the most insane things I’ve seen lately.

The NBA reddit has been filled for days with crazy reactions and people brigading against LeBron while yelling fuck China, free Hong Kong, etc. to the point where it’s become impossible to separate the people who actually care about the situation from the racists just finding an opportunity to call LeBron out or let out their own feelings about China.

Like, now people suddenly deeply care about the fate of the Uighur people, who they probably didn’t know even existed 2 weeks before, and people like Max fucking Kellerman are suddenly paragons of justice.

LeBron is basically just playing the “free speech doesn’t mean you scream fire in a crowded movie theater” card, after him and his team got trampled in a crowded theater bc Morey yelled fire.

And yeah, it’s about the money. So what? They were on a business trip, and Morey fucked with everyone’s business. Did he really do it for the people of Hong Kong? Or is he just another egomaniac calling attention to himself on twitter. Thenamestam, I might not agree with you on lineups, but I thought you were spot on about Morey yesterday.

The NBA reddit has been filled for days with crazy reactions and people brigading against LeBron while yelling fuck China, free Hong Kong, etc. to the point where it’s become impossible to separate the people who actually care about the situation from the racists just finding an opportunity to call LeBron out or let out their own feelings about China.

Like, now people suddenly deeply care about the fate of the Uighur people, who they probably didn’t know even existed 2 weeks before, and people like Max fucking Kellerman are suddenly paragons of justice.

Everyone who believes guys like LeBron and Kerr are hypocrites because they espouse what one could colloquially call social justice positions at home yet Kowtow when their wallet might be influenced by a rounding error aren’t racists. There may be some, but LeBron, Kerr, et al’s positions are pretty hypocritical on their faces.

Anyone who doesn’t understand that the CCP has been the worst regime over the past 70 years as far as human rights are concerned doesn’t have a brain. The Uighur madness is only its most recent manifestation.

It’s fairly certain LeBron’s latest foray into kowtowing is a function of CYA as far as Space Jam II is concerned. I’m sure Maverick Carter told him….”Pssst…. Bron….. you better get out in front of this …. the Chinese sensors are more important than domestic public opinion here!”

Jesus if you can get Ted Cruz and AOC to agree the NBA is way off base here, I don’t know what else one needs.

Muhammad Ali was loved in this country because besides being a wonderful fighter he actually put his ass and career on the line for his principles…. LeBron….. not so much……

Muhammad Ali is beloved now but during his career he was probably the most hated man in America.

But your underlying point is correct. LeBron ain’t no Muhammad Ali.

Americans saying that someone else has been the worst regime in the last 70 years will never cease to amuse me as a Latin American, I’m sorry hahahahah.

I guess when you just directly help guatemalans kill themselves your hands are super clean afterwards!

I don’t know that LeBron and Kerr belong in the same bag just because they speak their minds.

I personally can’t stand Kerr. And yeah, for a guy who has an opinion on absolutely everything, it was extremely hypocritical for him to stay silent on this. Actually, he didn’t even stay silent. He used the pulpit to express his opinions on gun control. That guy is plainly pandering to everyone who espouses a far left political agenda. He’s spineless. He fights battles where he knows he has support.

As for LeBron, I don’t see any hypocrisy in amorally running your business while having opinions and causes. Yeah, he’s probably pissed off that he lost a lot of money over this. I don’t blame him.

The other thing with the NBA and China is it’s not just individual player A that stands to lose money if he speaks up-in theory at least it’s the whole league, so it’s the player, his bosses, his teammates, his friends, everyone. Personally I think the league could pretty easily tell China to go watch college basketball if they’re so upset but it could be more complicated than “Player doesn’t want to lose his money”.

This is the thing I keep coming back to. Lebron has so much influence he could in all seriousness jeapordize the NBA’s entire relationship with China if he came out swinging like some people clearly want him to. While it would certainly be brave, is that really an appropriate choice for him to unilaterally make?

Because of the way China is clearly holding the whole league hostage for the comments of individuals on this (starting with the initial Morey tweet), nobody can really claim to be speaking just for themselves on this issue the way Lebron, Kerr etc. have been able to on domestic political issues. Everyone who speaks is being treated as a spokesperson for the whole league in a sense, and the bigger the platform the more that’s the case (and Lebron’s is probably the biggest). That’s a thorny situation; really the league (and maybe seperately the player’s association) need to decide where they stand on this and act collectively because otherwise you’re putting all these individuals in really untenable situations.

Just want to remind my haters that I said Carsen Edwards was a baller

Based on last year, I don’t have much faith in Fixdale’s ability to identify his best players and lineups, but I hope he tries the Frank/Dennis Smith Jr combination a little because we didn’t get to see it last year.

If he’s serious about defense and Dennis Smith Jr is not looking like a break out player, I hope he uses the Frank, Barrett, Morris, Randle, and Robinson lineup a lot and if he’s very serious about defense and winning I hope he takes a good look at the Frank, Barrett, Morris, Randle, and Taj Gibson lineup.

Tonight’s game at Yankee Stadium is officially postponed. PSA: that usually floods the secondary ticket market. By this time tomorrow, you’re going to find some deals.

As for the series, I’m actually of the opinion this will work out well for the Yanks if Verlander ends up pitching game 5, as expected. They need to beat him to win this series. Better off trying at home than in Houston.

I think I’m melo’d out for the rest of my life.

how is that we can have the olympics playing with literal nazis? are we calling jesse owens a hypocrite also?

Back to analogy school…. No one ever intimated LeBron had to boycott the games…. just not Kowtow to the most virulent form of restriction of civil rights the world has ever known while criticizing where his wallet isn’t exposed a bit.

He could have easily have kept the high ground and said I think Morey is out of line but in America we defend to the death the right of people to say what they believe…. but the Space Jam censors probably would like that much.

He could have kept silent but thought it necessary to lick Xi’s taint so his movie would be OK’ed.

That is a hypocrite……

I’m fairly certain Owens was pretty amped up to shove it up Hitler’s ass with his master race tripe….. just guessing.

you guys have lost your minds with some of these analogies. there is a subset of disappointed people who wish lebron had said something less or something different. that subset isn’t expecting lebron to boycott all games against authoritarian regimes or wear a be water headband. the bar is much lower.

the espn article, for me at least, made it worse, not better. it’s easy to empathize with the players in china. why the fuck is this big mouth spouting off on some arcane (to them) issue he should know will affect hundreds of league employees, especially them? we know in fact that lebron’s initial reaction to silver was all but identical to his public quote days later. why isn’t this dipshit being punished like players do whenever we say the ref sucked? and silver told him: it’s just not the same thing and players do not in fact get punished for their political statements (cf. the nfl). this is a big deal. at least to me. lebron can be mad at morey privately but it is really provincial to have his one public statement focus on how morey made a mistake of ignorance.

there are no easy answers in where we choose to expect people to draw the line in their business dealings. is it pinochet or suharto or duterte or bolsonaro or maduro or mugabe or bolsonaro or xi? i’m not going to pretend the lines i draw aren’t somewhat arbitrary, botj for myself and for others. but when a big brother semi-dictatorial party running the first or second largest economy in the world successfully muzzles a member of your organization from speaking a nonviolent political opinion, you should not be fucking focused on how pissed you are at him. at a minimum just say nothing about the topic and reiterate that you believe no government should be able to intimidate nba employees into shutting up about freedom. or at least say nothing at all. you had plenty of time to realize this issue wasn’t just about the nba.

Lebron should just go crazy and nuke the billions and billions of value built up over decades of work in China, which has been a consistent human rights abuser the entire time. Just finally incinerate the relationship, destroy Nike and Reebok in the process, halve the valuations of NBA teams, chop player salaries 33%.

The world would likely be a better place if Nike was swallowed up by a black hole.

It would be pretty hard to lose 33% of revenues since China represents 10% of NBA revenue.***

I’m really sure Washington, Jefferson and Adams looked at a bigger picture than their family resources…..

***

The NBA doesn’t break out what the Chinese market is worth for professional basketball. But it does make up at least 10% of the league’s current revenue, according to David Carter, executive director of the USC Sports Business Institute. And China is expected to contribute even more than that over the next decade, perhaps reaching 20% of the league’s revenue by 2030.

https://wtkr.com/2019/10/09/no-win-situation-in-china-heres-what-the-nba-stands-to-lose-after-houston-gms-hong-kong-tweet/

Presumably you have not seen James Harden play

I have and I’ve seen Gallo play to but they are nothing like the futbol players who go down the the ground like you clubbed them with an ax and then bounce up an rejoin the play the second the opponent gets booked. You don’t really want to argue any similarity in orders of magnitude.

Presumably you have not seen James Harden play

That got a hearty guffaw

Bob you truly are the purest of the pure. Bravo.

you guys have lost your minds with some of these analogies.

I’ll make one more then.

Let’s say China inexplicably wanted to import knickerblogger bc it loved hearing us argue. They offered a billion dollars to Mike K and all us regulars. Let’s pretend Mike K accepted the money. And he told us: I’m not going to force any of you to do this, but I’m going down this route to make money, and you can come with me if you want.

Now imagine those of us who went along with him, by choice, spent 9-10 years working on getting paid. And one of us — presumably reub — decided that on the eve of all of us getting paid, he’d send a self-aggrandizing tweet that he didn’t even have the balls to keep posted, and that tweet ruined the last decade of work we’d all put in.

I would want to hang that guy. No questions asked. That’s where LeBron seems to be coming from.

Ok, I’ve heard a learn history from BOBNEPTUNE, that’s when I’ll take my leave.

If you think the current CCP is exactly the same as the Mao regimen, you’re already stupid enough that I don’t have to engage you anymore. Good luck fighting the good fight for freedom!

Lots of panic from fellow Bomber-buddies.

This was not going to be a cakewalk series.

The Yankees are NOT fucked. They lost the game on the first pitch. That 1 run lead, for Hou, with Cole on the mound was huge.

I do agree with bunching up the “hot” hitters and would have hit Gleyber 4th yesterday. But Sanchez, Gregorious and Encarnacion need to start hitting again. Sevy pitched well enough to win. One hit, one more yard on that Didi fly and we’ld be singing a different tune. Cole is NOT unbeatable.

The Astros are doing the Yankees a potential favor. As lined up currently, game 7 for the Astros is a “bullpen day”. Curious.

As for my Knicks, I’m looking forward to seeing DSJr and Dotson play tonight. 2-3 of our guards are going to be disappointed in their lack of playing time. This becomes a crucial game for some.

And now my commentary about LeBron.

It is my belief (not shared by all – especially not conservatives) that the USA and our brand of democracy has been a beacon of light for the world. Over the past century the USA was the greatest nation in the world because we took the moral high ground and had the economic clout to do so. We protected the weak and innocent. When Ronald Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” in Berlin, we truly became the greatest nation.

But when some asswipe decided to “Make America Great Again” he did the exact opposite. We no longer sit in that seat of power and respect. We’ve lost all credibility in the world. We handed that title over to Russia but China is competing for it. So now, after Morey’s tweet, China is no longer trying to get into the American market. They know that they have the upper hand in many ways and we can no longer dictate ethics and morals to them.

The right thing to do is say Fuck You to China and just cut bait. But all that would happen is that the NBA would lose a shit ton of revenue and a huge market. We’ll be stuck waving our morality flag while they laugh at us.

In summary, I don’t blame LeBron for his appeasement statement. We no longer have the clout to be moral flag wavers. If that changes, then sure. Not today.

On Maggie and Bart at lunchtime, Maggie said

Lisa have a show, too?

Over the past century the USA was the greatest nation in the world because we took the moral high ground and had the economic clout to do so. We protected the weak and innocent.

i’m not so sure that’s true…i can’t imagine any nation with a “clean” sheet, but, “greatest” nation, moral “high ground”…i don’t know, been a while since i’ve spent time focusing on history – but, i have no doubt that the good ‘ol U S of A has more than our fair share of skeletons in the closet…

the issue with lebron’s statement that triggered so many was that he was clearly putting his own self interests (and that of his fellow employees) above the “greater” good – a bunch of folks trying to make sure they don’t end up somewhere on the back of a milk carton should they want to speak aloud their beliefs and opinions…

i mean i get it – we all love us some me…but, to put it out there like that was about as clueless as “the decision”…

no, athletes don’t have to speak up – but, if you do, don’t start spouting off how your personal comfort or finances has been affected…people will just compare your situation to the situation of the folks going through truly difficult times (insert serious issue here)…

hmmmm, after re-reading the post – i’m wondering if i might be able to squeeze in a few more of these: ” “…

After some thinking & soul searching i came up with that:
Whining about losing money on situations concerning Life, Freedom and Justice is Unethical.
If you can’t help those who are fighting for these Basic Human Rights just SHUT UP.

Lebron is in a weird situation compared to the average NBA player. Hopefully we hear some vocal Hong Kong support from the other players. Lebron is probably one of only a handful of players at risk of huge financial loss from Chinese interference. Lebron likely makes bucket loads from endorsements and merchandise in China, the average NBA player likely does not. It would be nice to hear more NBA players condemn Lebron’s condemnation.

thanks doug…it’s weird, on the one hand – shit likes this is really interesting to me (i’ll set up a free account w/ the nyt to get access)…on the other hand though – it does make me wonder why the heck would something so morbid and horrific would draw my interest…

over the years i’ve become a little more sensitive to certain subjects (warfare being one of them) – i understand the ability to commit atrocities is part pf our dna, and, human behavior (good and bad) is fascinating…my tolerance though for injecting human suffering in to my psyche seems to be waning a bit over the years…

i wholeheartedly love my country warts and all; but, to imagine that america has been on the moral high road the whole way, at all times – is just not very realistic…just in my time: vietnam, homelessness, latin america, the growth of the drug and sex trade industries, the middle east, domestic civil rights exclusions…dang, if i actually spent some time and searched around a bit – i’d probably reach the character limit way before i ran out of different low points to list…

Early B the problem is the salary cap is determined by league income, and the league makes hundreds of millions of dollars from deals with China. So you’re right that LeBron has a lot more to lose personally than say Elfrid Payton, Elfrid Payton also doesn’t want the salary cap going down.

hmmmmm, I wonder what jeremy lin would have to say about all of this – oh yeah, he ain’t saying shit cuz he’s getting buckets for the ducks…

Shouldn’t we be discussing the breakout game DSJ is clearly going to have tonight?

I can’t wait for tonight’s game just to see if Fizdale’s lineups force me to take an extra .25 Xanax by halftime just to hold off an anxiety attack or insomnia tonight.

Well, Portis is starting at center tonight, so that’s something. Maybe Mitch loses that starting slot if he’s not careful…

Mitch is still for the most part getting by on unearthly athleticism rather than instinct for the game. He should absolutely be starting in the regular season — Fiz claims Portis is in there tonight to see if his spacing the floor opens things up for the guards — but I can envision a scenario where he doesn’t improve much this year at understanding basic defensive fundamentals. He’ll get away with that on many nights because he’s insanely talented, but smart teams will be able to scheme around him.

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I wanna see prime Fiz in full effect tonight !

LeBron should have just stayed silent like everyone else in the NBA.

And no this is not Mao’s China, but it’s not Deng’s either. It doesn’t bode well for their economy if political correctness is so much more important than making money.