finding myself watching more women sports than ever before…nice to see soccer and basketball crowds grow each year…saw they now also televise women’s softball, pretty entertaining stuff…

OK, do it, Leon. Dickinson. Good enough for right now.

Giants making moves on offense:
In—Najee Harris
Out—JuJu Smith-Schuster

Can’t remember whether or not they overlapped in Pittsburgh. JuJu has kind of been a journeyman.

Very much a random post. But I will never forget when my daughter moved from New York to Pittsburgh to attend college. It was fall 2020, most likely. She was checking out at a Target, buying some groceries and other dorm stuff.

There was a very kind young African American man on line behind her, who asked to buy her groceries. She was caught off guard, but agreed.

It was JuJu Smith-Schuster, but she didn’t know who he was. Thank you, JuJu, for making Pittsburgh warmer for my kid.

If you’re bored, check out this highlight compilation from his NCAA tournament games with both Kansas and Michigan. He was very impressive against that level of competition, but I guess it hasn’t translated to the size and speed of the NBA. Still, the G-League stats are at least a little bit encouraging. The offensive skill is for real, but the slowness of foot is hard to get past.

Seems like a no-brainer 2-way candidate. He has good defensive instincts, so maybe better training and conditioning can unlock something. But the dude can score in lots of ways and the 3pt shot seems real.

And yes, neither one of them would be rotational players—just situational. I like either one of them because they are huge, young, and defensive-minded (especially Robbins). By the end of the season with enough tutelage, who knows, maybe they could be inserted in for defense at the end of a close game like Mitch used to be and they could actually make an important play for us that KAT couldn’t (maybe foul trouble) or Drum couldn’t (bad defense). On a collaborative team like this, it could happen.

I’m guessing that the Pels have enough developmental bigs and probably want to fill their 2-way spots with other positions.

Agreed.

Here’s what I said back in July:

“Z-man says:
July 30, 2026 at 09:56
I took a look at Hunter Dickinson’s draft profile. He’s sort of an old school behemoth type C who has some skills and a highish B-ball IQ, but has very limited athleticism. He’s currently on a 2-way with the Pels. 7’1″, 255lbs.

In his G-league stint last year, his per 36 numbers were 20.7 pts, 12.5 rebs (3.6 offensive), 3.8 assists, 2.8 tovs, 1.0 blocks, 1.2 steals, .656 TS% on a 22.8% usage, and an impressive 39% on 3’s (50-128).

He is not very mobile and would have trouble guarding in space, but there does seem to be something there if he can pick it up a bit on D”