I am admittedly biased having spent over 20 years in this world.

wait a minute now – i thought you did like modeling stuff…please, tell me you’re not both attractive and gifted with financial acumen…that’s just not fair to the rest of us man…

i guess god balanced your ledger a bit with the knicks…

Wizards: Davis Bertans (right quad strain – out), Thomas Bryant (right foot stress reaction – out), Rui Hachimura (groin injury – out), Jordan McRae (right ring finger surgery – out), C.J. Miles (left wrist surgery – out), Isaiah Thomas (league suspension – out), Moritz Wagner (left ankle sprain – out), John Wall (left Achilles rehab – out)

fire Miller if we lose this one

I note that Miller is now three and five with one blowout win and one blowout loss.

The Blazers and Heat games were pretty much blowout losses.

I am a fairly intelligent person and I believe I have as much ability to assess a financial advisor’s acumen and ethics as I do an estate lawyer or tax professional.

I am admittedly biased having spent over 20 years in this world. It seems to me no different than finding a dentist or a physician. Ask people you trust if they know anyone, find 3-4 people and sit down with them for as many times as it takes for you to trust them. If you don’t get a good feeling, keep looking.

I am also curious as to how many people lost their shirts (and/or missed out on the enormous returns of the last eight years) under the guidance of a professional.

Countless possible reasons for this, some the fault of the advisor and many the responsibility of the client. Ultimately Advisors are only that. If you can’t sleep at night and want to sell, the advisor has to do what you say. If you only want to be in safe investments, the advisor has to avoid equities.

For it to work, you need to have a plan from day 1, you have to be honest and forthright about your risk tolerance, and you need to have regularly scheduled communication to build trust. If none of that’s there, you’re not going to listen to your advisor.

especially when there is far less oversight than there would be toward an unscrupulous or incompetent lawyer or doctor.

This is not entirely accurate. Advisors at the brokerage houses (Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, etc) are under extreme levels oversight. Like every email gets read and my cell phone gets checked. I’m not sure how it is with independents.

Agreed on both counts. Cole has not been impressive (very disappointing as a UNC fan/alum…)–total chucker with a ghastly 38% 2pt%, 67% ft%, no touch, whole game predicated on 3 point shooting. Great rebounder though. LaMelo is a trap prospect and just worse than Lonzo in every way I think. The only thing missing from Edwards is that he’s a bit of a chucker. Hard to tell if that changes though–RJ isn’t really a chucker anymore (usually takes pretty good shots, just sucks at making them) despite his being a chucker at Duke, etc.

Anthony Edwards looks like a pretty complete player, 2PT% is a little concerning though. VCJ seems destined to rise pretty significantly.