SNY: Knicks guard Kadeem Allen looking to ‘earn a permanent roster spot’ in training camp

Ian Begley doing some work at his new SNY gig:

Kadeem Allen has spent most of his offseason in North Carolina, working out in preparation for his second season with the Knicks. He’s looking forward to making an impact in training camp.

“Just trying to show coach that I can compete at the highest level and I can play at the highest level,” Allen said of his goals entering the season. “Just trying to get out there and earn a permanent roster spot.”

Allen turned down several overseas offers with significant guaranteed money to remain with the Knicks because of his fit with the club. Allen will compete with Dennis Smith Jr., Elfrid Payton, Frank Ntilikina and others for minutes in the Knicks’ backcourt rotation.

Best of luck to Allen. He’s an easy player to root for.

276 replies on “SNY: Knicks guard Kadeem Allen looking to ‘earn a permanent roster spot’ in training camp”

It’s funny that Lin can’t find a team when he’s probably better than any of our four point guards.

Allen and Wooten. And there’s some free agent out there looking for work that’s better than them too. Not leaving 2-3 roster spots open competition was a bad idea by the front office. The Knicks signed 7 average players as free agents. I would have rather seen them sign 4 above average free agents and let kids fight it out for the last 3 roster spots. It was a tactical error, IMO.

I’ve been more positive to the current Knick strategy than many posters here, but I still agree they filled up the roster too quickly and hired one or two too many free agents. It would be very good to have an open roster spot. It’s as though they couldn’t bear the thought of not spending all of their cap space. I don’t know why that should be.

I don’t think you necessarily need to strategize around the Wootons and Allens of the world. Those guys are a dime a dozen. Not leaving a roster spot and cap space available for a profitable salary dump is a more legit gripe.

I like Kadeem but it’s not a big deal, his ceiling is probably being a 3rd stringer who can get done spot minutes here and there. He’s also 26 and won’t shoot 47% on 3s like he did last season in his minutes over a full season. I’d rather they use the minutes to see what they have with DSJ and Ntilikina, as much as I don’t think they have much promise either. Signing Portis or Gibson was stupid for me, but it wouldn’t affect Allen anyway because they’re not competing for minutes, only Ellington and maybe Bullock if he ever gets healthy.

I’d rather have Wooten than Allen, but as long as they are making an effort to take a better look at Wooten, that’s fine by me. I don’t see the point behind Allen. He’s fine as a 3rd string backup, but at his age I’d rather we working with a player in their early 20s even if he’s a bit behind Allen now.

Allen seemed like he can play a bit, but not enough for a team in the Knicks position to really care if that makes sense. It’s possible he’s the best PG we have, but we might as well give minutes to Payton and Smith and I guess Frank (he made a contested layup in French practice).

And Allen is still on a two-way, so we can keep him around for a while without having to create a roster spot for him. The circumstances under which he’d need to spend more than 45 (I think it’s 45?) days with the team are so catastrophic that finding room for him would be the least of our problems.

I know zip about Wilkes, our other two-way guy, who was sick throughout summer league and didn’t play. But unless he shows something major in training camp, I’d cut him and give Wilkes our other two-way deal. As with Allen and point guards, we have such a glut of big men that it’s hard to envision a scenario where he’d need more time with the big club, anyway. And if he does, then we just cut one of the role players.

Training camp will be crazy interesting. We have no idea what will happen in terms of Fiz developing a rotation.

Question: say Bullock is out for 2 months, can Kadeem, Wilks or Wooton be on the 15-man roster until he comes back?

Kadeem Allen is likely stuck on that 2 way deal unless one of Wayne Ellington and Frank Ntilikina piss the bed. I actually think Ntilikina should be the favorite to start at shooting guard as he’s our best perimeter defender and does a lot of the little things coaches like. I don’t actually see where Allen fits on the 15 man, but I guess he has an outside chance.

Again, Kadeem can be with the big club for 45 days before his contract has to be converted into a traditional NBA deal. Same for Wilkes. Someone would need to be cut for Wooten. Though, again, it could be Wilkes.

Training camp will be crazy interesting. We have no idea what will happen in terms of Fiz developing a rotation.

story of the knicks’ lives…

There was a fun article in the Athletic trying to predict the rotation/minutes based on each player’s minutes from last season. Using that as a guide, the total of the likely rotation players= 274 minutes, so the writer had to really use his imagination to get down to 240:
Randle 30
Mitch 23
Morris 27
RJ 25
DSJ 24
Payton 18
Knox 20
Trier 14
Ellington 13
Frank 6
Portis 20
Taj 10
Dotson 10

Frank 6

ha…doesn’t he have some kind of salary decision date in october?

So if the main lineup is: Mitch, Randle, Morris, RJ, Smith… That is a pretty shittay three-point shooting lineup. That is a lineup that will have eFG% problems. I mean, any lineup is a lineup that’s going to have eFG% problems I guess, which is why this team is prolly not gonna be real good.

Mitch .000
Randle .344
Morris .375
Barrett .308 (shorter NCAA line)
DSJ .322

The league average on 3-point attempts last year was .355 for reference.

My hoped for (ans somewhat realistic) opening 10-game minutes allocations are in parentheses:

Randle 30 (32)
Mitch 23 (26)
Morris 27 (22)
RJ 25 (16)
DSJ 24 (20)
Payton 18 (26)
Knox 20 (18)
Trier 14 (20)
Ellington 13 (12)
Frank 6 (8)
Portis 20 (16)
Taj 10 (10)
Dotson 10 (12)
Iggy 0 (2)

Then adjust upward or downward depending on how things shake out.

I think there’s a lot of places on the roster where you can reasonably hope for improved outside shooting (Knox, Trier, Dotson, Bullock with healthy, Frank?), but yeah JK you’re right.

I love good defense as much as all of us (I think) do here, but I think overall improved 3pt shooting will be a huge underlining factor in how well (range: crappy to plucky) we do this season.
We were 24th in total 3ptrs made (823) and 28th in percentage (34%). I wonder how the team would look with median-level shooting (35.25%)… not advanced stats I know, but still a factor.

Re 3 pt shooting, they could put out a DSJ / Ellington / Iggy / Knox / Portis line-u……………….. never mind, I just threw up

edit: RJ, Dotson, Iggy, Morris, Randle? This at least has solid rebounding and a couple of useful defenders.

1) I don’t think we signed Payton to back up Smith Jr. unless the latter emerges as a much-improved player in training camp. I think Payton will start and play starter’s minutes unless and until DSjr outplays him.

2) I think there will be a relatively short leash on both RJ and Knox.

Minutes distribution for first 10 games (obviously some guys will be in and out of rotation):

C: Mitch (26) Portis (16) Randle (6)
PF: Randle (26) Morris (8) Taj (10) Knox (4)
SF: Morris (14) Knox( 14) RJ(10) Dotson (4) Trier (2) Iggy (2) Frank (2)
SG: Ellington (12) Trier (18) RJ (4) Dotson (8) Frank (6)
PG: Payton (26) DSJ (20) RJ (2)

With that lineup, I would expect a lot of scoring inside. I know people are assuming more threes are better, but inside scoring can be efficient too. So if we are below average in three point percentage our overall scoring efficiency may still be ok.

Edited for clarity, I meant the line up in post 18

JK I agree and that’s why I think Ellington and Payton start along with Morris, Randle and Mitch. I don’t think that team defends the perimeter well enough to compensate for the lack of 3-pt shooting. Ellington and Morris are decent enough 3-pt shooters and we would have an excellent rebounding team that would make up for a low eFG%. It’s also possible that Dotson and Ellington would be flipped if Dotson looks great in preseason.

Then the first wave off the bench is Portis, Knox, RJ, Trier and DSJ.

Taj, Iggy, and Frank take turns in and out of rotation.

Kinda hard to score inside when pretty much every opponent knows you can’t shoot threes so they pack in the paint.

Focusing on scoring inside is like a baseball team that tries to win with singles and bunts and stolen bases. That’ll work sometimes, but usually you’re gonna get beat by the teams that hit home runs.

I agree that Duke Ellington should probably start but I really wonder if he is going to get the nod over RJ. I just really get the sense that RJ is going to start and play a heavy load of minutes.

Last I heard Dotson had two surgeries after last season. Does anyone have an update? Will he 100% for training camp?

I actually think Ntilikina should be the favorite to start at shooting guard as he’s our best perimeter defender and does a lot of the little things coaches like.

Do any of these little things involve dribbling, shooting, scoring, or drawing fouls?

I like the idea of RJ playing most of his minutes on a young, dynamic, up-tempo second unit. I think having him and Payton/DSjr/Frank up top with Mitch/Portis setting screens and combinations of Knox, Trier, Dotson and Iggy slashing is an interesting look. Maybe by tinkering around with those combinations you find one that works for RJ.

Or it may be that RJ is more of a slow-it-down half-court player, best paired with Randle, Mitch, Morris/Taj and Ellington.

It’s probably not a good thing that there’s no clue as to what type of style RJ is best suited for.

Last I heard Dotson had two surgeries after last season. Does anyone have an update? Will he 100% for training camp?

Last I heard he should be healthy in time.

I don’t think you necessarily need to strategize around the Wootons and Allens of the world. Those guys are a dime a dozen. Not leaving a roster spot and cap space available for a profitable salary dump is a more legit gripe.

My point, aside from leaving slots open for the Allen/Wooten types is that they should have used the money to upgrade the FA’s. You might come back and say that those types of players rejected the Knicks, and yeah, that’s OK. But you’re right. Having the slot available to acquire a max contract in a trade would have been sweet.

Do any of these little things involve dribbling, shooting, scoring, or drawing fouls?

No, but they’re the same things that led Lance Thomas to be a starter for this team and even a team captain. Frank Ntilikina’s problem (other than the one where he can’t play NBA basketball) is that he only played 43 games last year. If he stays healthy his defense alone will make it very hard for Fizdale to keep him out of the rotation.

———

Payton, Ellington, Morris, Randle, and Robinson could be a pretty balanced, if mediocre, starting five, but this team has so much stock invested in Dennis Smith Jr (you know, the main piece in the Porzingis trade) and RJ Barrett that I think it would be those two in place of Payton and Morris. I wouldn’t mind Smith Jr, Ellington, Barrett, Randle, and Robinson at all.

Do they have more stock in DSJ because he was part of the KP trade or in Payton, who used to play for Perry before and was signed as a free agent. I think statements like “they have more stock” in player X is pure conjecture. I would also argue that the main piece in the KP trade were the Dallas picks and getting rid of Hardaway/Lee without having to give up assets to do so.

I think they want DSJ to succeed but don’t think they’re going to be bull headed about it. Payton is the better PG right now and should start. He’s also better on defense.

The Knicks are going to give Dennis Smith Jr every opportunity to start over Elfrid Payton. They’ve had Keith Smart working with him this summer on the jumper, he’s 3 years younger, and he’s under team control for two seasons plus whatever he signs for in RFA (if we choose to keep him). Payton is entering year six and has seemed to solidify himself as a solid back up point guard. The smart play might actually be to start all of Payton, Ellington, and Morris just to trade them to Golden State this winter, but player development is likely to be the theme.

@34 Maybe Dennis has a bit of an edge because if he plays well, they have more of a chance to sign him long-term, but I doubt that a) the KP trade factors in and b) the team looks at either of them as the PG of the future…unless Dennis makes a quantum leap. It would be amazing if Keith Smart has fixed Dennis’ badly broken shot and he starts killing it from the perimeter, but the odds of that are pretty remote. My guess is that he continues to clank away and make dumb decisions, but that his TS% might creep above .500 largely on improved FT%. Ultimately, I expect that Payton will start and play more than Dennis unless he gets hurt again.

You know, Lin is kind of a sad story. It really is about age. There are teams where he would be the best guard, but many of those teams are trying to develop youth.
He would be a huge sentimental favorite in NY and he on pure skill should start, but he wouldn’t as the Knicks want to run the young guys first. And then the fans would get all down on the Knicks for not playing him.
So I can see why the Knicks wouldn’t touch him.

The other thing is if he is getting starting minutes, history suggests he likely gets hurt and misses a bunch of games.
But I like the kid. Always have. He’s had a tough time with injuries, but he was electric here. Damn you, Melo!

Last I heard Dotson had two surgeries after last season. Does anyone have an update? Will he 100% for training camp?

He’ll be healthy in time for training camp, but not having the opportunity to work on his game this summer is a major negative in my mind. To me, he’s right on the cusp of being a pretty good two-way player off the bench. He needs a more consistent 3 point shot and has to work on scoring off the dribble a bit. If he comes in the same as he left (or needs time to get back in the grove), he may lose his place. He’s not as young as some of the others. He needs to break out soon.

For years, it all (the horrible teams) came down to the Ewing trade.
Then it all came down to the Melo trade.

I like Payton more than DSJ, but they are both young enough and close enough in ability to let them slug it out and see who improves more to win the job.

wow, yanks stand pat at the trade deadline…i guess the price wasn’t right on upgrading from paxton, happ, or c.c….

good chance they’ll just go with german, hiro, and severino/greene (for a few innings) as playoff starters…it could work 🙁

good move by the astros….their playoff starting staff is looking really good…

So the Mets must still think they’re a playoff team. If they win a couple more I might start watching again…

Well, NOW the Marcus Stroman trade makes more sense, even if keeping all five starters and not trading for prospects wasn’t the original plan.

It’s too bad BVW didn’t put together at least a somewhat passable bullpen this year, because the Mets would be in striking distance if he had. I think they have like 22 blown saves? DeGrom, Syndergaard, Wheeler, Stroman, Matz is a fine rotation, but then that bullpen… It’s Seth Lugo and a bunch of gas cans.

I was terrified he was going to trade Syndergaard for pennies on the dollar, so I’m glad he didn’t. I’d be in favor of giving Syndergaard an extension.

It’s Seth Lugo and a bunch of gas cans.

thanks JK, i needed that…

it’s funny, even with a bad starting pitcher, you still can start a game hoping things will be okay…with runners on base in a close game and a less than normally successful bullpen guy enters the game – that’s a whole other level of grief and terror…

But this does show why you should either be a buyer or a seller and not both: the prospects they used for Stroman could have instead been used for some MLB caliber bullpen pieces, and then they could have just kept the cromulent Vargas as the #5 starter. Now they have the five very good starters, but they gave away their only rotation depth (Vargas) literally as a salary dump, while adding nothing in terms of bullpen help. So they are very likely to fall short because of that shitty, hopeless bullpen.

Brodie didn’t do anything catastrophic, but he’s still not good at his job.

Meanwhile, the Yankees’ refusal to acquire Patrick Corbin and/or Dallas Keuchel for nothing but money came back to bite them when there were no good pitchers still available to them on deadline day, while the Astros got Greinke (who would never want to pitch in NY, and whom the Yankees would never want for that reason). Dammit.

@46. Signing Happ over Corbin has been pissing me off all year. And after hearing about the Greinke trade and Voit being done I kind of mentally threw in the towel and have gone into Giants mode.
Not making any deadline trades doesn’t bother me since we can’t know what the offers were, and Cashman has earned major cred re his trading skills.

With bullpens, who the fuck knows. The Mets signed guys with track records like Wilson and Familia then traded minor league pieces for Edwin Diaz and we all know how that turned out.

I mean it’s just as likely that any one of the underperforming guys they already have goes wild in the last two months.

and have gone into Giants mode.

Nah. Things are so bad for the Giants right now, I’m more enthusiastic about this Knicks season. #FireGettleman

#FireGettleman

hell if he ain’t phil all over again, just a different sport…

saw your tweet reference Legion…i know there’s stuff going on behind the scenes with disney, but, kind of glad this will be just be a 3 season series…wanky plot lines aside (it’s a comic – what can you expect), no question it’ll stay as one of my all time favorite series…

I’m actually kinda glad I don’t watch much baseball anymore. All of this deadline action feels really hollow anymore. Greinke taking all the money to play in a shithole like Phoenix was justifiably hollow, but so is renting an ace for 4 months and celebrating him like he’s been part of the slog since day 1.

It is part of the business, I get that, but it just doesn’t tickle me at all.

hell if he ain’t phil all over again, just a different sport…

Ugh, I’ve been saying almost since he got hired. I think his first press conference he said that the way to win in the NFL is to run the ball on offense and stop the run on defense and I was immediately out on him.

That is one perspective Jowles. I hear it. But the deadline is a ton of fun too. Especially this year now that there are none of the trade waiver deals you had before. I dig it. Also, MLB trades, with the ability to pick up cash on deals, and trade prospects of either short or long term value, are so much more interesting to analyze.

Nah. Things are so bad for the Giants right now, I’m more enthusiastic about this Knicks season. #FireGettleman

you are so wrong about this…..

you are so wrong about this…..

In what way? Our general manager is trying to build the best team of 1993, and doing a middling job about it. He traded away the franchise’s most talented and exciting player since Lawrence Taylor for a disappointing safety and an interior defensive lineman. We passed on a great class of quarterbacks to use the second overall pick on a running back (admittedly a really good one) at a time in the NFL when having a great running back is like having an NBA player who’s great at scoring long 2s off isolation plays. Then the following year, when the quarterback class was lousy and the pass rushing class (a huge need) was great, we passed on an edge rusher to wildly overdraft the second coming of Dave Brown, mainly because he was coached by the same guy who had Eli in college, as part of the franchise’s ongoing spasmotic overreaction to the fans being upset at Eli being benched(*) a season and a half ago. Their passing game is built around a guy who is our franchise’s best QB ever, but has aged into a hothouse flower who isn’t even that good anymore when conditions are exactly right, and in this case has been given a WR corps built around two slot receivers — one of whom got suspended for taking fertility drugs. So, no, I do not feel I am being unreasonable in my pessimism about both this season and about the Giants’ long-term prospects so long as Captain Caveman is the GM.

(*) They were really upset because the benching was for Geno Smith, which made no sense. If they had broken Eli’s streak to give Davis Webb a chance, it likely wouldn’t have worked out on the field, but everyone would have understood it.

Hey, at least you guys didn’t trade Khalil Mack for a running back whose equivalent could have been picked in the third round.

Joe Biden looks old and tired. I really have a hard time believing he’ll have the staying power to last in this primary let alone challenge Trump in a general election.

In what way? Our general manager is trying to build the best team of 1993

Completely disagree… They fixed the #1 problem …. the OL and now for the first time in 6 years have actual professionals at all 5 positions with the LT and RG as plus players for sure. Once they started blocking it up just a little the last half of last season the offense and eli took off.

They passes on the QBs last year because they drafted a lock HoF player if he doesn’t get injured….. arguably the best offensive player in the league last year.

The got younger and faster all across the defense.

They replaced an inside LB who was playing weak side safety who couldn’t cover anyone in space with a young pro for much less money.

The traded the oft injured yet mercurial OBJr for three young starters…. and lost the non winning drama. If you hadn’t noticed the Pat.s have done pretty well over the past 16 years without brand name wide outs…..

It’s a lot different being attacked from the left than attacked from the right. If he get through the primaries, he should be okay with Trump.

@59

I legitimately believe he’s entering some type of senility.

He called Senator Booker “President.” He couldn’t even recite the proper email address to his own campaign website in the closing statements, saying it’s Joe30330.com when it’s Joe2020.com.

He can’t even defend himself from the amateurs on that stage tonight. Trump would lambaste him.

What kills me is how Biden actually represents the worn down old man which the corporate media tries to paint Bernie as. Are they even trying to address this issue? I know they want to cover it up, but its so blatant that they have to address this or appear even more biased.

On another note, I was reading the P&T article about Trier and looked at his highlight reel posted in the article. I thought to myself that his game really resembled Harden’s early game. Then I looked at this:

http://bkref.com/tiny/zmp2s

The only significant difference in their rookie per 36 stats was that Harden averaged a steal more and a foul less. Harden shot more 3’s and Trier shot more 2’s. And now Trier is being coached to shoot more 3’s.

Just sayin’.

I wish I could show you guys the picture I took with my buddy’s horse today. It’s nice and relaxing and funny. Everyone should ride a good gentle horse. It takes the stress out of you. 🙂

That’s two bad debates in a row for Biden, who should really fare better as he has lots of experience with this sort of thing. He is really coasting on his name recognition and hoping to just skate to the nomination because not enough people are paying attention. I agree that he looks pretty washed up.

Julian Castro had the best night, he fares well in this format and he landed some solid blows.

I wish I could show you guys the picture I took with my buddy’s horse today. It’s nice and relaxing and funny. Everyone should ride a good gentle horse. It takes the stress out of you. 🙂

that sounds like a very good day bidiong…definitely on my list of stuff I’d like to try…

I know this is gonna sound weird – is bidiong like a word or something – i didn’t get any spell correction when I typed it…

Besides the obvious part, winning, another huge difference between the front office of the Knicks and Yankees was on display today. Everyone was all riled up today about not trading for a pitcher and what did Cashman do? As soon as the game today was over he had a 20min press conference answering a ton of questions from the media. The Knicks this summer sent out an odd press release during the 1st day of free agency and didn’t even have a press conference introducing their new players. Of course the front office has not spoken at all this summer and even Fiz during Summer League told the beat writers covering the team that he can’t speak because the front office was “holding him hostage”.

I wish I could show you guys the picture I took with my buddy’s horse today. It’s nice and relaxing and funny. Everyone should ride a good gentle horse. It takes the stress out of you. 🙂

As someone who owned, trained and bred racehorses for over 40 years I can tell you the guy who wrote, ” There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man,” knew exactly what he was talking about!

I wish I could show you guys the picture I took with my buddy’s horse today. It’s nice and relaxing and funny. Everyone should ride a good gentle horse. It takes the stress out of you.

I used to date a girl who was really into horses. She was like a show jumping champion when she was a kid and when we first started dating she had me come out to this stable where she would ride horses so I could watch her do jumps and dressage and all that hoity toity shit. I was never so sick in my life. It was like somebody shot me in the face with every allergen known to man. Puffy eyes, uncontrollable sneezing, nose running like a faucet. We eventually moved in together for a while and the entire time was an allergy nightmare. I was just perpetually, constantly sick. Allergy meds did almost nothing to help.

Years later I had the allergy blood test done, and it turns out I’m allergic to lots of airborne things, all sorts of grass and animal dander. I’ve always been allergic to cats, that’s something I always knew, and on the test it was like a 3.0 on the scale. Dogs were like a 2.9. Horses though were off the charts, it was like 8.0 or something like that. Like just catastrophically allergic. All that time I was dating the horse girl I had horrific allergies just from horse hair remnants being on her boots and in her car or wherever they happened to be.

So yeah. Fuck horses. Horse hair is my kryptonite.

Completely disagree… They fixed the #1 problem …. the OL and now for the first time in 6 years have actual professionals at all 5 positions with the LT and RG as plus players for sure. Once they started blocking it up just a little the last half of last season the offense and eli took off.

They passes on the QBs last year because they drafted a lock HoF player if he doesn’t get injured….. arguably the best offensive player in the league last year.

The got younger and faster all across the defense.

They replaced an inside LB who was playing weak side safety who couldn’t cover anyone in space with a young pro for much less money.

The traded the oft injured yet mercurial OBJr for three young starters…. and lost the non winning drama. If you hadn’t noticed the Pat.s have done pretty well over the past 16 years without brand name wide outs…..

These are all fine points but he lost me forever when he reache for that shitty QB at 6 when there was an elite pass rusher on the board. That’s a franchise-altering mistake.

Also I love that he drafted Barkley but was disappointed with the way they used him. They need to be creative and stop running him into the line like he’s Rodney Hampton.

I’ve been thinking about good landing spots for the corpse of Melo. The best fits seem to be LAL, LAC, TOR, PHI, MIL, and MIA. If he can commit to being a vet’s minimum bench scorer, he can help those teams. Sort of.

arguably the best offensive player in the league last year.

The way the NFL functions in 2019, it is basically impossible for a non-QB to be the best offensive player in the league. If you don’t have a passer who’s at least a Pro Bowl candidate every year, you’re wasting everyone’s time. Eli hasn’t been that in years, and I doubt Daniel Jones will ever become that.

I appreciate that Gettleman has worked on fixing Reese’s disastrous offensive line, and some of his draft picks outside the top of the first round look solid. But everything he says, and most of what he does, betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of modern football concepts on both sides of the ball, and a Phil Jackson level of hubris that will make it impossible for him to ever realize his mistakes. The Giants are an arrogant organization in general, which is why they just hired a guy they’d worked with before rather than conducting a real executive search. So now we have this bozo in charge.

The Giants have to hope their terrible enough to land Jake Fromm in the draft this year because ole Danny Jones ain’t it. As a lifelong Jets fan, let me be the first to tell you that you can’t win the NFL without a QB or a pass rush, and as it stands the Giants have neither.

Did a two hour commute into the city. Traffic was murder. But was listening to one of the sports radio shows and the hosts were discussing whether Melo, just on the basis of his NBA career, deserves to be in the HOF.

And then I felt a warm sense of joy and peace spread over my body…..

@62

There’s one pretty significant difference between Harden’s and Trier’s rookie years, Harden was only 20 while Trier was 23. Also, Harden’s advanced stats blow Trier’s out of the water.

@72

There’s literally zero chance that the Giants would draft another QB in the 1st next year. Both Gettleman and the Maras are too arrogant to admit they made a mistake. We’re going to be stuck Dan Jones for at least 5 seasons, maybe more, until he proves without a shadow of a doubt that he’s not an NFL caliber QB, just like with Dave Brown back in the 90s.

The Giants have to hope their terrible enough to land Jake Fromm in the draft this year because ole Danny Jones ain’t it.

There is zero chance the Giants take a quarterback in next year’s draft. Zero. Whether Eli plays this whole season, Jones starts half a season, or even 3/4 of it, the front office and coaching staff will insist that Jones needs a full season where he’s taking snaps as QB1 for all of training camp before they can properly evaluate him.

That’s the great danger of taking the wrong quarterback. It’s not just that he’ll suck, but that he’ll prevent you from taking a potentially better one for years to come. What the Cardinals just did with Rosen and Murray is very unusual, and not at all the kind of thing that a deeply conservative organization like the Giants would ever consider.

ESPN: According to Jeff Sherman, vice president of risk for the SuperBook, the anonymous bettor placed a $100,500 bet on the Philadelphia 76ers to make the playoffs at minus-5,000 odds Wednesday. If the 76ers reach the postseason, the bettor will win a net $2,010.

Am I missing something or is this a truly stupid bet. You could put the 100k in the bank and earn nearly 2% in 9 months…

@74 the age difference is real but Trier was on a much worse team from top to bottom. I don’t get why the advanced stats are disparate unless they are normed to league averages. But the skill sets are very similar as rookies, do you agree?

As someone who owned, trained and bred racehorses for over 40 years I can tell you the guy who wrote, ” There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man,” knew exactly what he was talking about!

I agree.

Saratoga this weekend. Whitney/Test.

There’s literally zero chance that the Giants would draft another QB in the 1st next year. Both Gettleman and the Maras are too arrogant to admit they made a mistake.

They made a mistake????? Could the fucking man take a snap from center before all you draftnik morons start chirping in? Ny fans are the absolute worst FFS.

I’ve never seen this guy play a single down but I’m not convinced he sucks and was a bad pick because Steve Serby needs some click bait. Any of you geniuses ever heard of Phil Simms?

And by the way Eli sat the first 9 games of his rookie season and looked worse than awful the last 7 going 1-6 after his mentor was 5-4 to start the season with the same players. His game vs the Ravens was enshrined in a time capsule for suck fever in a starting role.

Saratoga this weekend. Whitney/Test.

I used to love Saratoga and really miss going there. But it’s sunny and 80 degrees with zero humidity in Montauk literally every day, so it’s hard to leave.

They made a mistake????? Could the fucking man take a snap from center before all you draftnik morons start chirping in? Ny fans are the absolute worst FFS.

If you take a 2nd round talent with the 6th pick in the draft you made a mistake whether he makes the hall of fame or not.

ESPN: According to Jeff Sherman, vice president of risk for the SuperBook, the anonymous bettor placed a $100,500 bet on the Philadelphia 76ers to make the playoffs at minus-5,000 odds Wednesday. If the 76ers reach the postseason, the bettor will win a net $2,010.

Am I missing something or is this a truly stupid bet. You could put the 100k in the bank and earn nearly 2% in 9 months…

+1, I was about to ask the same question. I’m curious what do the betting people here think.

There’s literally zero chance that the Giants would draft another QB in the 1st next year.

I disagree. If the Giants are in a position to draft Tui or Fromm, Gettelman will probably be fired.

I doubt they will be, though. I agree with bob that he’s put together a decent team. It won’t be a playoff team, but I don’t expect it to be anywhere near bad enough to draft that high. Barkley alone is good enough to take us out of that range.

I used to love Saratoga and really miss going there. But it’s sunny and 80 degrees with zero humidity in Montauk literally every day, so it’s hard to leave.

I love the smell of horse poop in the morning, it smells like victory.

@77 yes, that’s a ridiculous bet. Unless he turned around and found a casino where he got them not making the playoffs for +6000 or something and bet both sides, guaranteeing a profit.

I hated the Daniel Jones pick, but the David Brown comparison is lazy. I’m willing to give him a shot before I say he’s a bust. He is mobile and tough at least. I recently re-watched last year’s Clemson game, and his receivers dropped about 10 passes as he was getting his ass kicked on every other snap, and he never gave up or showed up any of his teammates.
What I wish was that they would have cut Manning, saved 17 mil of cap space, and let Jones play right away. They’re just kicking the can down the road Knicks style here.

But everything he says, and most of what he does, betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of modern football concepts on both sides of the ball, and a Phil Jackson level of hubris that will make it impossible for him to ever realize his mistakes.

There are still two fundamental truths in profootball…. you got to be able to block it up up front and you’ve got to be able to get to the other team’s passer. It is that bleepin simple.

The current regime inherited an awful offensive line and an awful pass rush. They have addressed both issues and we’ll see how it works out. If Manning doesn’t have to duck and cover after 1.3 seconds every passing down he is going to surprise

If you really want Daniel Jones, you trade down with that #6 pick, because ain’t nobody else drafting Daniel Jones at #6. It’s not a question of whether or not he’s any good (he’s not) but more about understanding how the draft works. You’re leaving value on the table selecting Jones at 6 no matter how good he turns out, because you almost certainly could have had him at like #50 overall.

The Jon Gruden Raiders are very similar to the Giants. “Throwback” style player valuation, egregious reaches in the draft, trading away of superstars for pennies on the dollar, no idea of how to navigate the draft. It’s not good when you’re similar to the Jon Gruden Oakland Raiders.

If you take a 2nd round talent with the 6th pick in the draft you made a mistake whether he makes the hall of fame or not.

Who is the almighty arbiter who comes down from Mount Olympus and declares him a second round pick….

And by the way… can there be a dumber statement that if a guy makes the HOF then he is still a second round pick. I mean you are saying you won’t let the facts ruin your perfect opinion. If you pick a guy 6th and he makes the HOF you made a FABULOUS pick. End of story. Please don’t get that married to an opinion. Its so full of fail.

because you almost certainly could have had him at like #50 overall.

Sez you….. that makes it official!

Bobneptune doesn’t understand many things, the NFL draft being one of them.

Good luck with your Giants, I’m sure that will all turn out great!

What are some examples of egregious draft reaches that turned into HOF players in any sport?

There are still two fundamental truths in profootball…. you got to be able to block it up up front and you’ve got to be able to get to the other team’s passer. It is that bleepin simple.

I agree with this but Gettleman believes that teams need to run the ball and stop the run to win.

The current regime inherited an awful offensive line and an awful pass rush. They have addressed both issues and we’ll see how it works out. If Manning doesn’t have to duck and cover after 1.3 seconds every passing down he is going to surprise

They did inherit a bad O-line and pass rush. They made the O-line last year even worse than it already was and they haven’t addressed the pass rush at all and have definitely made it worse.

Yeah, I get the draft value thing. I’m just saying it’s way too premature to be calling Jones a bust or saying he can’t play. This isn’t basketball or baseball; in football your teammates/coaching/scheme have a much bigger impact on your play / numbers.

Mets on a winning streak, Sam Darnold looking good in camp! Who says its miserable to be a Mets and Jets fan? Wait…
🙂

I loved Andrew Yang’s closing last night. Basically called everyone else on the stage phonies (the makeup remark) and proudly referred to not wearing a tie. He has no chance, but I like the style. Really sick of all the candidates saying, “I’ve done this and I’ve done that.” Generic debate rhetoric.

Biden’s fumbling with his words is troubling. I thought Harris took some serious hits last night.

because you almost certainly could have had him at like #50 overall.

I can’t believe I’m defending Daniel Jones or Gettleman today, but that is a ridiculous statement. You need to stick to the NBA.

Got a guest room, Hubert? I love Montauk, haven’t been there in years.

Most years Jones would have been a day 2 pick. This year it was an incredibly shitty QB class so sure, maybe some other dumb team might have wanted to draft Jones in the first round. That doesn’t mean you draft a day 2 quality QB at 6 overall.

Re: the debate, one of my pet issues is police brutality. The Eric Garner and Tamir Rice murders are 2 of the most blatant recent examples of cops getting away with murder I’ve ever seen (in Tamir’s case, we literally did see it on film).
Last night I was beyond furious watching the mayor of NYC at the time of the Garner murder (which happened in 2014), a Senator from NY at the time of the Garner murder, and the VP of the US at the time of the Garner murder, all blame the Trump DOJ for the cops getting off on this. Just a disgraceful display by scumbag politicians. All 3 of them should rot in Hell.

@95

Trump is far and away the easiest incumbent president to beat in my lifetime, but the democrats might actually find a way to lose.

How difficult is it to find a democrat that is generally pro business and free markets, but recognizes the excesses of the times and the needs of the poor and middle class and wants to address them?

How difficult is it to find a democrat that is anti war and regime change, but not naive enough to think that everyone will work with us in good faith if we are just nice to them?

How difficult is it to find a democrat that’s not bat shit crazy?

What the hell happened to this party?

Out of my ass, I’d say 70%-80% of Americans are somewhere in that center left or center right area politically that would gladly vote against Trump if presented with someone that’s bright and has center positions on economic and foreign policy.

Biden?

I mean come on!

His peak was 20-30 years ago and even then he was a role player off the bench on a bad team.

I thought Harris took some serious hits last night.

Kamala did not take Tulsi seriously. I expected her to prepare—knowing someone was coming after her after the first debate—and she had nothing. That was surprising since Kamala has been talking out both sides of her mouth for months on Medicare for All and downplaying the draconian aspects of her record as a former prosecutor. She had to know someone was going to call her out on it sooner or later but seemed too fixated on going after Joe Biden.

Her attempt to dismiss Tulsi for being an Assad apologist in response was even more disappointing. Red herring ad hominems only show that a person can’t defend their record on its own merits without pivoting to a distraction.

And the worst blemish on her record wasn’t even mentioned in a debate yet: her refusal to prosecute Mnuchin after having him dead to rights and then taking his campaign contributions stinks to high hell. It ties her directly to Trump’s cabinet in a really sordid way.

Biden?

I mean come on!

His peak was 20-30 years ago and even then he was a role player off the bench on a bad team.

WORD
ON
THIS

How difficult is it to find a democrat that is generally pro business and free markets, but recognizes the excesses of the times and the needs of the poor and middle class and wants to address them?

Elizabeth Warren says hai.

How difficult is it to find a democrat that is anti war and regime change, but not naive enough to think that everyone will work with us in good faith if we are just nice to them?

Elizabeth Warren says hai.

How difficult is it to find a democrat that’s not bat shit crazy?

You’d probably classify Elizabeth Warren as “bat shit crazy” because reasons.

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/255074/Ron-Baker-Signs-One-Year-Deal-With-CSKA

So long, immortal beloved.

On a more serious note, I think the fruits of non-expansion are being borne right now. Seems like there isn’t a team in the league desperate enough for NBA talent to pick up guys like Lin, Lance, Melo, Baker, etc. for anything more than the vet’s minimum, if that. I’m a huge opponent of expansion until virtually every roster has a preponderance of legit NBA rotation players. We seem to be nearing that point.

Ron Baker was an undrafted free agent, played 1300 minutes of horrible NBA basketball and is now 26 years old.

Yeah, even the Knicks have about 10 legit NBA rotation players. Let’s get 2 new teams for Seattle and Vegas.

How difficult is it to find a democrat that is anti war and regime change, but not naive enough to think that everyone will work with us in good faith if we are just nice to them?

Elizabeth Warren says hai.

Eh, not so much. You are right on with the first point. But her stances on Israel, Venezuela, Iran and Trump’s budget increases aren’t anti-regime change. She does deserve credit for joining in voting against the Saudi assault on Yemen, for supporting Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, and her no first strike policy.

Teams are also starting to recognize more the value of undrafted rookies, 2nd rounders and G-League players. Why would I waste a roster slot on a guy on the decline who isn’t good, when you can get two-way G-League guys or very cheap rookies who might turn into better players? Even guys like Lance Stephenson and Nik Stauskas, who are adequate end of bench guys, are having to go to Europe or China, mostly because there’s not room for improvement with players like them.

Let’s get 2 new teams for Seattle and Vegas.

How about St. Louis? So weird they don’t have one.

Eh, not so much. You are right on with the first point. But her stances on Israel, Venezuela, Iran and Trump’s budget increases aren’t anti-regime change.

Somebody is fully armed with the official talking points from Bernie Bro HQ

Somebody is fully armed with the official talking points from Bernie Bro HQ

1. This is a very ironic post since the whole “Bernie Bro” smear was a Clinton campaign talking point devised by her Propagandist in Chief, David Brock.

2. I will refer you to the point I made a few posts ago.

Red herring ad hominems only show that a person can’t defend their record on its own merits without pivoting to a distraction.

Got a guest room, Hubert? I love Montauk, haven’t been there in years.

I do. I’m moving out on Aug 12, though. Fucking real world.

@95

Should the Democrats really be chasing the votes of people who vote for a racist, misogynist demagogue because the Democrats somehow aren’t pro-business enough?

Who is the almighty arbiter who comes down from Mount Olympus and declares him a second round pick….

You’re right, he might have been a 3rd round pick if Gettelman didn’t fall in love with him.

He has bad stats, bad arm strength, bad accuracy, and doesn’t win. Do I have to be Zeus to figure out he was a reach as the 6th overall pick?

The reasons they stated for loving him are:

– his performance on the wonderlic
– who his coach was
– one good drive in an exhibition game

These are not strong indicators of success.

Let’s get 2 new teams for Seattle and Vegas.

How about St. Louis? So weird they don’t have one.

Baltimore too.

Ron Baker was an undrafted free agent, played 1300 minutes of horrible NBA basketball and is now 26 years old.

Agreed, but it seems like there were more of those guys in the NBA fairly recently than now. And guys like Lin and Lance were getting snapped up at substantially more than minimum salaries.

More generally, my guess is that the influx of good players has been greater than the outflow of bad players for some time now, probably due to better international scouting and worldwide expansion high-quality basketball. Not that this particular draft was all that great…

On a more serious note, I think the fruits of non-expansion are being borne right now. Seems like there isn’t a team in the league desperate enough for NBA talent to pick up guys like Lin, Lance, Melo, Baker, etc. for anything more than the vet’s minimum, if that. I’m a huge opponent of expansion until virtually every roster has a preponderance of legit NBA rotation players. We seem to be nearing that point.

Baker and Melo aren’t good examples here because they’re both awful, but Lin was playing some seriously good basketball for the Hawks last season and would probably make a lot of teams better.

I don’t think the issue is expansion vs non-expansion, though. A team full of the Jeremy Lins and Shaun Livingstons of the world would be miserable. I think the issue is that even with the flattened lottery odds there is still zero incentive for teams to get marginal wins. At a bare minimum, signing a player like Lin, who is 30, takes minutes away from players who have a chance of being part of your future. It also hurts your lottery odds, albeit less than it did prior to flattening. So the only incentive to sign him is that he might increase your win total, which is still totally irrelevant for non-contending teams (and contending teams correctly feel like they have better options than Lin already).

There are still good GMs and bad GMs, but now that Phil Jackson is gone just about everyone seems to understand this basic trade off. That’s what’s killing players like Lin.

And by the way… can there be a dumber statement that if a guy makes the HOF then he is still a second round pick. I mean you are saying you won’t let the facts ruin your perfect opinion. If you pick a guy 6th and he makes the HOF you made a FABULOUS pick. End of story. Please don’t get that married to an opinion. Its so full of fail.

If the Chicago Bears had taken Tom Brady with the #9 pick in the 2000 draft, it would have been a huge blunder because he was a 6th round pick and they would have only had Tom Brady instead of Tom Brady and Brian Urlacher.

1. This is a very ironic post since the whole “Bernie Bro” smear was a Clinton campaign talking point devised by her Propagandist in Chief, David Brock.

You have a riproaring sense of humor, oh tedious one

@113

No, but this didn’t stop them in 2016 and it won’t stop many of them in 2020. The alternative is looking to actual expand the electorate to incorporate voters who have been traditionally marginalized from the voting process but that would actually mean fundamental changes many candidates are not willing to make.

What are some examples of egregious draft reaches that turned into HOF players in any sport?

This is a fantastic question.

Essentially an egregious draft reach occurs when one person is arrogant enough to think he’s smarter than the rest of the world.

People who are actually that smart rarely choose GM of a sports team as their occupation, so I would imagine there’s not a lot of examples.

I’d still take Ron Baker at the minimum over a few of the players that are on this team now. Baker defends and plays well within a team concept. Being good on one side of the ball and at least trying to play the right way is more than some of these guys can do. I’ll take the zero on offense for 5-10 minutes of high energy high level defense from time to time.

Satan, I was going to ask why not Pete (@100), and then make a comment about how unfortunately people treat him like he is UDFA Ron Baker (rootably cute but pointless) when he could be low-round Kawhi (unseasoned but with superstar potential), but then Z-Man posted the ‘Baker’s with Moscow’ bit and the whole comparison exploded.

I love the smell of horse poop in the morning, it smells like victory.

yep, i am destined to daydream about the racetrack and montauk all day…not a bad way to spend a part of the day i guess…

oh yeah, took my first yoga class last night…it was really cool…i try to stretch well every day, but, definitely no where near to that extent…it was a beginner’s beginner type class, still though – my body really needed it…looking forward to showing up tonight…

there was another really beneficial effect to the class – i know whining about work is even less sexy than talking about religion or politics; and, i’m sure many of you have (or had) a similar work experience…when things get busy at work it’s like taking a test, all day long…it can stay busy like that for days, weeks, longer…15 or even 10 years ago, it might be annoying, but, it wouldn’t really effect me too much…now, after a couple of days it just wears me out…i have no clue how some folks are able to carry around a whole lot more pressure/weight than what i experience…i’ve purposefully tried to limit my responsibilities at work…it just ain’t worth dying for…

so, when i showed up last night for that class – i absolutely felt like i was screaming inside my head…an hour or so later, things quieted down a lot for me…

I’d still take Ron Baker at the minimum over a few of the players that are on this team now.

I mean I guess I’d rather have any player on Planet Earth at the minimum instead of Bobby Portis at $15M.

Is there a player on this roster that Ron Baker could outplay? I’d say there is only one. You know who it is, Strat. Guess.

You have a riproaring sense of humor, oh tedious one

I don’t understand why you can’t just have a discussion on the merits of the issues.

Trump is far and away the easiest incumbent president to beat in my lifetime, but the democrats might actually find a way to lose.

Not true. If the economy is doing well it’s nearly impossible to beat an incumbent. Carter and Bush Sr were much more vulnerable than trump will be.

@127
I live in the south (TN). Sad to say, Trump’s going to sweep the south and midwest no matter who the Dems nominate. About 40% of the country seems to love the guy.

I agree about the economy. Carter and Bush seemed to be nice guys, and Trump is not. But that won’t matter.

I don’t understand why you can’t just have a discussion on the merits of the issues.

Because it’s boring, and this is not really the forum. I’m really only gonna do politics shorthand here. I know that you’ve read whatever’s on In These Times and all the Bernie-friendly media, and you’re confirmation bias-ing your way to insisting Bernie is the only viable option, so the most I’m going to really be weighing in with is mild snark.

so, when i showed up last night for that class – i absolutely felt like i was screaming inside my head…an hour or so later, things quieted down a lot for me…

If you keep going you’ll be amazed at how much it improves.

I dont practice year round but always build in one full season of daily yoga, usually in the spring. It does wonders.

Basic daily mediation is great, too. You should check out the Headspace app if you don’t practice a lot. It’s great for beginners.

Not true. If the economy is doing well it’s nearly impossible to beat an incumbent. Carter and Bush Sr were much more vulnerable than trump will be.

Trump is not a typical incumbent, and it’s not useful to view him through the lens of past politicians.

He’s making no effort at all to appeal to anybody outside of his base. Right now 53% of registered voters plan to “definitely” vote against him, while only 39% plan to “definitely” vote for him. His approval rating is a straight line, it never goes up or down, it stays permanently cemented right around 42% no matter what happens, good or bad.

He has taken a polarized electorate and poured gasoline on the polarization, and that is probably going to come back to hurt him. The D base is bigger than the R base (see: 2018 midterms), and independents don’t like him. I’d put him at less than 50%, even with the strong economy.

Bush Sr would have won if people like me didn’t vote for Perot. Same can be said about Al “No Controlling Legal Authority” Gore and Nader.

@131
I hope you are right, but beware of underestimating him. Remember all the polls right up to the election? Some predicted a Hillary Clinton landslide.

Those who love him will ALL show up to vote. Will all those who hate him, and enough of the moderates?

Trump is not a typical incumbent, and it’s not useful to view him through the lens of past politicians.

Just because Trump is an enormous asshole, the likes of which we’ve never seen in politics, doesn’t mean he won’t have the usual advantages of an incumbent.

Pretty much every candidate inspires intense hatred in a large group of people. That’s the world we live in. Your saint is someone’s satan.

Elizabeth Warren says hai.

If you think Warren is in the center, imo you don’t know where the center is.

Warren is not pro business and free markets.

She’s to the right of Bernie, but that’s not saying much. She wants to solve the problems of the middle class by expanding and strengthening unions and giving them decision making power on company boards. That’s bad business, bad economics, and bat shit crazy all in one.

I’m not a huge proponent of laissez faire free trade agreements (I think they suck), but a part of the decline of unions was self inflicted stupidity. They shot themselves and their employers in the foot on top of forcing the rest of us to pay more than fair market value for the goods and services they produced. That’s why they are gone.

There’s a middle ground between unabashed greed, merging and purging workers, outsourcing, outrageous CEO compensation, bad free trade deals, Wall St bailouts at middle class expense, etc.. and going back to unions and destroying even more companies.

I hope you are right, but beware of underestimating him. Remember all the polls right up to the election? Some predicted a Hillary Clinton landslide.

People who really knew how to read the polls knew that Trump had a mathematically significant chance of winning. Nate Silver got a lot of criticism for getting it “wrong” but gave Trump a 1 in 3 chance to win and correctly predicted that it would be an Electoral College edge that would allow a Trump victory even with a popular vote loss. And he also correctly pointed out that Trump was within a simple polling error of victory, and that polls might not have caught late movement not reflected in polls as a result of the Comey announcement.

Polls are like advanced stats. They’re useful at predicting the future if you know how to read them.

Is there a player on this roster that Ron Baker could outplay? I’d say there is only one. You know who it is, Strat. Guess.

I think if you put him the court with the right combination of players he’d contribute more to the team on a net basis than half the other players. But he’s so limited on offense, fewer combinations would work. Still, I’d rather have him for spot minutes in certain lineups than some of these other guys that do nothing at a high level and get paid a lot of money.

I love yoga pants

didn’t see too many dudes in there last night…i’ll tell you though – two of the folks whom i’ve seen age the best (that are close to my age) have been my sister and a close buddy…both have been avidly involved in yoga for years…

trying to do a better job of taking action…my normal excuse for procrastination is: when you count them all up, not a whole lot of “extra” hours in a week…trying to get past that mindset…

Out of my ass, I’d say 70%-80% of Americans are somewhere in that center left or center right area politically that would gladly vote against Trump if presented with someone that’s bright and has center positions on economic and foreign policy.

This is DEAD wrong. Like, you couldn’t be more wrong. Only somebody who is severely not paying attention would think that in the most polarized political environment in many years, what would really win people over is a centrist. This is a complete misreading of the situation. 40% of the country would claw their own eyeballs out to cast a vote for Donald Trump, and another 40% would do the same to vote against him. There is no fucking way in the world that 80% of the country is looking for a centrist savior to the current situation. That’s David Brooks-level dumb. Which is to say, extremely dumb.

The 2020 election, and all near future elections, will be decided by which party can get its base to turn out better. Centrism is dead. You know why? Let’s invent the perfect centrist, Johnny Commonsense. You know who’s gonna really HATE Johnny Commonsense? The 40% of the country who wants to build a border wall, kick out every brown skinned person, ban abortion entirely and whatever else comes with the deluxe package of wingnut beliefs. The Republican Party has completely excised this type of politician from its ranks. Johnny Commonsense would also be hated by Democrats, who generally want public health care options, gun control laws, school loan forgiveness and the equivalent package of snowflake beliefs.

Johnny Commonsense would be abhorred by like 80% of the country. Like the Starbucks CEO dude. Who likes that guy? Nobody.

I’m really only gonna do politics shorthand here.

But personally attacking me isn’t even short hand political debate, it’s just 5th grade snark. I understand that a review of your candidate’s militaristic voting record is a problem if it presents a picture that is at odds with your take of her as anti-war, but an intellectually honest person would just either stay quiet on the subject or amend their position. Attacking me or progressive media outlets isn’t a defense. It just makes you look petty and uninformed for using a cheap lawyer’s trick.

I hope you are right, but beware of underestimating him. Remember all the polls right up to the election? Some predicted a Hillary Clinton landslide.

The aggregate polling had Hillary Clinton beating Trump by around 3.2 points, a percentage that is around the statistical margin of error.

The fact that she lost is more a testament to her arrogance and incompetence as a campaigner in key battleground states than the fallibility of modern polling practices.

Polls have a tough time capturing some conservative votes.

If one of the candidates is accused of being racist by the media and left, when asked how they are voting some conservatives will say they are voting for the other person just to not be associated with racists even if they are not racist themselves and don’t agree that the candidate is racist.

It may only be worth only 1%-3% or thereabouts, but they’d rather just lie on the poll than argue the the issue and the subtlety of their own positions and then be called racist.

an intellectually honest person would just either stay quiet on the subject or amend their position

Yeah you know actually ignoring you is kind of the best thing for all parties involved. I’m gonna get back to that. #MyBad

They shot themselves and their employers in the foot on top of forcing the rest of us to pay more than fair market value for the goods and services they produced. That’s why they are gone.

Do you mean collectively bargaining higher living wages?

Polls have a tough time capturing some conservative votes.

If one of the candidates is accused of being racist by the media and left, when asked how they are voting some conservatives will say they are voting for the other person just to not be associated with racists even if they are not racist themselves and don’t agree that the candidate is racist.

Nope. Wrong. Frequently debunked.

See: 2018 midterms

Honest question, Strat? What politician in the current landscape is closest to your ideal of Johnny Commonsense? This is an honest question.

I get into similar discussions with a friend of mine on Facebook a lot who bemoans the fact that the parties have gotten so polarized. She just wants a centrist who can appeal to both sides. I ask her to name this centrist. She can’t.

Yeah you know actually ignoring you is kind of the best thing for all parties involved.

Yeah, it’s for the best. You really don’t take criticism of her record very well.

@140

People that agree with you lost to PT Barnum in the last election because they have no idea where the center is and how large it is.

If you would ask why PT Trump got so many votes (and why Perot probably could have become president if he didn’t flake out), you might understand that it’s not racism, Russia, or any of the other dopey excuses democrats come up with for losing.

PT Trump got the hard core republican base, but despite losing a lot of “never Trump” republicans he added a lot of the blue collar workers, union workers, police, firemen, and other municipal workers that usually vote left.

X% is typically kind of locked up on each side.

But there’s this huge underestimated group in the middle. Even though some may lean one way or the other, they can be swayed by the message and candidate to go to the other side. That’s how to win. You are going to get your hard core no matter what and obviously you want them to be enthusiastic and come out in large numbers, but you win in the middle.

You only win primaries on the left or right because you are appealing to the middle of your own party instead of the middle of the nation.

So a political question. Yeah, sorry. While I love the idea of Medicare for all, my concern, as a voter, is the impact it would have on our economy. 1/2 million people work in the insurance business. Many insurance companies would fold. Jobs would be lost. Those stocks would become worthless, driving down most 401K’s and IRAs. How am I wrong?

Back to sports. As a huge Yankee fan, I’m not upset that Cashman didn’t pull the trigger on what were obviously insane trade demands. That would have been a Knicksy thing to do. That’s why Cash is the man!

Glad to see that RJ pulled out of FIBA. I don’t need to see him get hurt.
Speaking of FIBA, Frank desperately needs to show well there. I saw an article today that he’s now 6’7″ tall.

But Strat.

Who is this mythical centrist? Who is the centrist the Democratic Party should nominate?

How about Joe Biden? Centrist or nah? Mitt Romney, is he a centrist? WHO?!?

You’re doing the David Brooks thing, you’re lamenting that the parties don’t nominate candidates that don’t exist.

@148

I’m definitely not a good person to ask because I am all over the map politically.

I’m fiscally conservative/pro business, but anti Wall St, big banks, free trade, and the Fed.

I’m socially liberal politically, but anti Hollywood and more conservative privately. I don’t believe I should impose my values on others but I think some life choices get better results and should be encouraged (but I do break my own rules from time to time lol)

I’m strongly anti war and anti regime change, but I still believe in a strong military and not appeasing dictators or other adversaries.

Most of the candidates I am attracted to are libertarian, but I’m more pragmatic than the hard core libertarians. I’m not sure there’s anyone out there I like a lot, but off the top of my head Rand Paul and Tulsi Gabbard don’t make me vomit most of the time. 🙂 That’s better than most.

Who is this mythical centrist? Who is the centrist the Democratic Party should nominate?

I’m searching for him/her. I can’t vote for Trump and I’m tired of wasting votes.

IMHO, it isn’t Warren, Bernie, or Harris. Biden is kind of centrist, but he’s ready for the Big 3 league not the White House.

I read The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk – it’s a book about the neuroscience and treatment of trauma. It has some neat stuff about how teaching youth in foster care to take care of horses helps them open up and learn how to trust others.

So a political question. Yeah, sorry. While I love the idea of Medicare for all, my concern, as a voter, is the impact it would have on our economy. 1/2 million people work in the insurance business. Many insurance companies would fold. Jobs would be lost. Those stocks would become worthless, driving down most 401K’s and IRAs. How am I wrong?

You’re not wrong here at all. But you have to weight it against the benefit this reform would have on personal savings on average households and improvements in life expectancy that result from everyone being able to seek medical care on a need to basis vs. an affordability basis. I mean, I am sure that thousands upon thousands of coal miners, drillers and frackers will lose their jobs if something like a Green New Deal economy were ever initiated and many arms manufacturers would be put out of business if we ever curbed our domestic and foreign arms sales too. And stocks in those sectors would precipitously drop. But I’d like to stop climate change and our endless export of warfare run amok as much as I’d like to reverse the trend of lowering life expectancy in this country.

See, we’ve identified the problem though. You’re projecting your idiosyncratic views on 80% of the electorate.

How many Republicans do you think are seriously going to vote for Tulsi Gabbard over Donald Trump?

Nope. Wrong. Frequently debunked.

See: 2018 midterms

Whatever they think they did to debunk it was wrong. I see it every single day in conversations with acquaintances. Friends of mine are very reluctant to admit they voted for Trump until they know if they are in hostile company. You should have seen it in the days Pat Buchanan was running. I actually cashed bets on Buchanan doing better than what the polls showed. lol

@155

Have you seen the Mustang? If not, I highly recommend it. What you described is basically the premise of the movie. It’s getting major rave reviews.

geo, I’m also a beginner to yoga. I started it for the first time this week. I’m trying out the 30 Days of Yoga challenge from the Yoga with Adriene youtube channel. I like it so far! I think growing in awareness of my body and spending more time focusing on my breathing will serve my mental and physical health well. I also lift weights and the gentleness of yoga is a good counter-balance to the GRAAGH LIFT HEAVY THINGS AND PUT THEM DOWN AGAIN energy I use at the gym.

Whatever they think they did to debunk it was wrong. I see it every single day in conversations with acquaintances.

Anecdotal Strat evidence, the best kind of evidence.

If this was true, polls would routinely undercount Republicans. They don’t.

See, we’ve identified the problem though. You’re projecting your idiosyncratic views on 80% of the electorate.

How many Republicans do you think are seriously going to vote for Tulsi Gabbard over Donald Trump?

I’m not projecting myself on the electorate. I know I am not in the center. I’m all over the map.

I’m saying I think I have a good idea where the center is even though I am not there on some issues.

Tulsi Gabbard doesn’t have enough name recognition or momentum to be taken seriously yet. She’s also not in the center of the democrat party. So she probably couldn’t get the nomination of her own party to begin with. But I think if you put her message into another candidate she’d win a LOT of Trump votes.

Anecdotal Strat evidence, the best kind of evidence.

If this was true, polls would routinely undercount Republicans. They don’t.

No. It’s only a factor when there are accusations of racism being thrown around against the candidate. If Mitt Romney was running, the opposition would accuse him of all sorts of terrible things related to his businesses, wealth, attitudes etc.. but no one would be afraid to say they liked Romney. People are afraid to say they like Trump.

@161

In the after credits you see actual footage of adult inmates with the horses they are supposed to take care of and how it contributes to the former’s rehabilitation. The power of human animal bonding is truly amazing. I know of a similar program done with a homeless shelter that also doubles as a free range kennel for stray dogs.

Regarding Centrist Democrats, what do you Democrats think of the guy from CO, Bennett? He seems like one of those normal pragmatic type Dems that you’d see 20 or 30 years ago. No shot at winning the nomination these days, but IMO him or Tulsi would clean Trump’s clock.

@166

Regarding Centrist Democrats, what do you Democrats think of the guy from CO, Bennett?

I don’t think of him at all.

JK, Strat is talking about the 10-20% of the population that doesn’t vote strict party line. Tulsi would appeal to that group, not the Repubs. 80-90% of voters will vote for the devil if the right letter is next to their name – see Trump v Hillary.
= Which is why I would take the party names off of ballots if I were King for a Day

LOL I am seeing footage of that Obama hack Tom Perez doing an Ol’ McConnell rendition of “Ol’ McDonald” before last night’s debate. Jesus. This is the leader of the Democratic National Committee. But at least it’s a step up from Donna Brazille and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

Fox News would turn Tulsi or Bennett into Mao/Hugo Chavez/Lenin/Satan.

That’s why nominating a centrist doesn’t matter. Anybody to the left of Patrick Buchanan is a socialist to the Republican voter of today. You guys, to your credit, have a more idiosyncratic brand of political preference but the modern Republican Party is very Fox News-addled. They vote for whoever Hannity tells them to vote for, and they do it enthusiastically.

The left is guilty of this as well, I mean look how much we feared Mitt Romney not that long ago. We’d all happily take Mittens right about now if you offered to swap him for Racist Buffoon.

Kadeem can’t even make the Knicks so why the heck should he keep us on topic here….

JK, Strat is talking about the 10-20% of the population that doesn’t vote strict party line.

And it’s an enormous mistake to assume these people are simply looking for a candidate with straight down the middle policies on everything. On the contrary, studies of swing voter/independent attitudes have shown that they’re pretty much all over the map (happy to cite later if you would like, difficult to do so on my phone at the moment). They might be for a single-payer healthcare system but against abortion under any circumstances. They might be for much, much higher marginal tax rates on the wealthy but against any kind of immigration reform.

The point I’m trying to make is there’s a reason the Howard Schultzes and John Delaneys of the world are getting laughed off the stage these days. There’s no evidence their brand of politics resonates with anyone besides David Brooks.

The way I view it, no politician is going to be able to fine tune their policy proposals to neatly fit the most recent polling. Outside of exceptional circumstances where a politician might believe something that’s downright underwater public opinion wise, they should advocate for what they believe in and try to bring the public along with them. Public opinion is extremely malleable on most issues anyway.

geo, I’m also a beginner to yoga.

yay dough chew 🙂

I think growing in awareness of my body and spending more time focusing on my breathing will serve my mental and physical health well.

there it is right there…such a simple thing: control your breathe…not so easy or intuitive a thing to do though…

remember hitting 40 and having my first anxiety “attack” – that was a serious wtf moment…despite a fairly pleasant disposition – i’m wound up pretty tight upstairs, and, it’s fucking my body up…that biological “flight or fight” mechanism is strong…and, it seems to be getting easier and easier to trigger over the years…

nothing like sitting at your desk, or, even away from work and having something less than pleasant come across your mind and then to suddenly feel like you’re climbing a flight of stairs – with michael myers chasing you…it’s weird shit man…i’m hoping that by better controlling my breathing, i can better control my focus and mind…

i’ve tried that xanax shit…fuck that – i know it helps a lot of people in some tough situations, but, i have little desire to ingest a highly addictive pharmaceutical that involves an inevitable “crash” after a few hours…i’m still gonna be stressed, only now i’m gonna be pissed too cuz i don’t have that artificial “feel good” vibe anymore…

I don’t find xanax to be addictive at all, and I don’t experience any crashes. I only take it in the morning before I go to work so I don’t smash anybody in the face. Sometimes I go days or weeks without it either by forgetting to take it or by running out and I don’t have any issues other than noticing people get on my nerves more.
It doesn’t give me any feel good vibe – it just dulls the edges a little bit.

I love yoga pants

POD.

Hubert, I was half-joking, but only half. It is awesome out there, and I lament the fact the Knicks have given us no reason to congregate at a game or in a nearby bar in years. It would be fun to meet people. Maybe next year, when we sign AD.

thank you soooooo much for sharing that 2-4-18…i know this isn’t “normal” or very popular type stuff to share or discuss…

i’m learning when it’s best, or necessary for myself to utilize this aid…

I only take it in the morning before I go to work so I don’t smash anybody in the face.

oh my god, that is so funny…my “severe” stress manifests itself in either me cussing, breathing or laughing really loudly…i know it’s somewhat bizarre behavior, but, it’s probably better than for me to just start screaming (wasn’t there some self-help shit back in the 70’s called the “primal scream”?) really loudly…

just thinking about it – makes me want to do it so badly…oh, fuck…

@165 ah, so that’s the ‘true stories’ The Mustang must be based on. That’s cool!

Coincidentally, I got the idea to try yoga from the same book on trauma. The author wrote quite a bit about the potential of yoga to help people healing from trauma by putting them back in touch with their own bodies. The body disassociates mental states from physical sensation as a self-defense mechanism to help people survive pain, suffering, and severe stress, at the cost of impairing their abilities to live normal life afterwards. Embodied activities like yoga, caring for an animal, theater, or choral singing have lots of potential to help.

re primal scream
I have used it to good affect throughout the years and actually had a tradition of having my students do it in the schoolyard right before high stakes state exams. Very cathartic. Don’t know if research supports the efficacy of it.

The Mets do have the 2nd easiest remaining SoS of any ML team. It’s feasible that they could make an legitimate run if the starters stay healthy and bullpen stops imploding.

@177

Yeah, based on what you’re writing I’d suggest for you to check the movie out. Seems right down your alley.

@179

Depends on what your definition of “centrist” is. If by “centrist” you mean someone who positions himself between establishment Democratic and Republic Party orthodoxy then, yes, he is a “centrist.” But if you instead mean someone who is in the center of public opinion on the political spectrum then, no, Mike Bloomberg is not a centrist politician but to the right on many issues.

re primal scream
I have used it to good affect throughout the years and actually had a tradition of having my students do it in the schoolyard right before high stakes state exams. Very cathartic. Don’t know if research supports the efficacy of it.

been trying to think where i can go close by to just let loose and not have someone call the cops cuz some guy is out in the street screaming like a madman…

my voice can get a little loud even for normal situations…

i just want to so bad though…i could probably yell in to a towel or something…it may not be the best option, but…

@183

John Lennon tried it. Don’t know if it worked for him but it gave us “Well, Well, Well.”

He’s making no effort at all to appeal to anybody outside of his base. Right now 53% of registered voters plan to “definitely” vote against him, while only 39% plan to “definitely” vote for him. His approval rating is a straight line, it never goes up or down, it stays permanently cemented right around 42% no matter what happens, good or bad.

You said it yourself, polls are great if you know how to read them. None of this matters til we know who is running against him. The person who says “definitely” might be assuming the Dems nominate his/her favorite candidate. These polls are too early to hang your hat on.

But anyway, the point was about whether or not he’s the weakest incumbent of Strat’s lifetime. Bush Sr, to me, wins that award. He was presiding over a terrible economy and his party had won three presidential elections in a row (very rare). He was a sitting duck. Trump isn’t in great shape, but the economy is going to buttress his ass enough to make this hard for whoever the Dems nominate.

speaking of primal screams, the ending of Midsommar was a mother fuckin’ trip

But if you instead mean someone who is in the center of public opinion on the political spectrum then, no, Mike Bloomberg is not a centrist politician but to the right on many issues.

But also on the far left of many others, e.g. gun control, abortion, smoking ban (at the time), entry fee into midtown manhattan, to name a few.

@186

Damn, I want to see that movie so bad. I never checked out Hereditary but this movie interests me. I heard its the type of movie you don’t want to see with an annoyed girlfriend.

been trying to think where i can go close by to just let loose and not have someone call the cops cuz some guy is out in the street screaming like a madman…

Downtown Philly. Cops don’t bother you here unless you park in the wrong place. Closest thing to anarchy I’ve seen.

But also on the far left of many others, e.g. gun control, abortion, smoking ban (at the time), entry fee into midtown manhattan, to name a few.

I had to look it up because you raised some interesting points. From what I could find, you’re right about the smoking ban and especially the NYC entry free which Cuomo still can’t get passed.

But most people agree abortion should be legal in almost all/most cases while as of 2017 a slight majority of Americans have finally accepted that gun control rights are more important than gun ownership rights after all of the domestic terrorism we’re experiencing.

I wouldn’t call his stance far left to public opinion here.

“Gun control rights”
Lmao
I usually don’t engage you but that gave me a good laugh

I put Bloomberg as someone for whom a plausible argument could be made as a centrist. He did have the “nanny state ” response to the big gulp soda size ban he wanted (and perhaps other things I forgot)

Bloomberg is an authoritarian statist. Which in this environment might make him a centrist.

@189

When you say “Downtown Philly” where exactly do you mean? Because I would love to know what your definition of anarchy is.

I usually don’t engage you

You sure about this? Aren’t you the guy who argued that detention centers weren’t concentration camps, or am I confusing you with another poster?

As a NYC educator, I can tell you that Bloomberg’s education policies were all over the map…mostly on the conservative side but some quite progressive features. As a mostly progressive educator with prior experience in the corporate world, I had very mixed, but on balance positive impressions of his leadership.

He was elevated to GM in February 2014, although everything pivoted once LeBron James decided to rejoin the Cavs that July. Griffin celebrated at first, then collapsed on his office floor in tears after James’ letter ran on SI.com, overwhelmed by the sudden pressure to deliver The King’s coveted ring.

I mean, I get it’s a high pressure situation, but come on dude. You just got the damn privilege to build around Kyrie and LeBron James, after the franchise you joined got two other first overall picks and a relatively clean slate, and this is how you react? Why would he even tell this story? Are we supposed to feel bad for poor David Griffin, the guy who gets gift wrapped superstars everywhere he goes? Boo fucking hoo.

@156 –

You’re not wrong here at all. But you have to weight it against the benefit this reform would have on personal savings on average households and improvements in life expectancy that result from everyone being able to seek medical care on a need to basis vs. an affordability basis. I mean, I am sure that thousands upon thousands of coal miners, drillers and frackers will lose their jobs if something like a Green New Deal economy were ever initiated and many arms manufacturers would be put out of business if we ever curbed our domestic and foreign arms sales too. And stocks in those sectors would precipitously drop. But I’d like to stop climate change and our endless export of warfare run amok as much as I’d like to reverse the trend of lowering life expectancy in this country.

Thanks for the feedback. I asked a tough question. There’s a difference between the Green New Deal and Medicare for All. The GND will certainly cause some job loss but those jobs will be replaced by new ones. That’s not the case with Medicare. The entire medical industry will be turned upside down. There’ll be less incentive to become a doctor or a nurse – already in short supply. The insurance business will evaporate and be replaced by a single-payer system that’s already in place. The pharmaceutical industry will collapse too.

It’s interesting that the topic of centrist came up. I’m a left-leaning centrist. I argue (fight might be a more accurate term) with both extremes. The other day I stated that I was against programs like affirmative action, which I knew would go over like a lead balloon. This health insurance thing is another area where my centrism comes in. We should look for evolution not revolution. That’s what was smart about Obamacare. It kept the insurance business alive and provided new opportunity while addressing some of the most awful problems of the system that preceded it.

Bloomberg is would have been my ideal candidate.

Looking for a book recommendation. Can anyone recommend a very good book on the “X’s and O’s” of basketball? How offenses and defenses are set up?

Thanks!

Griffin certainly did a fantastic job getting maximum value for Davis and subsequent assets. But now that he’s flush with assets he seems to think he’s some Masai-level super GM. I know some posters on this board who could have made the same trades he did this offseason.

Expanding on what I said earlier about the fruits of non-expanding, I just looked through every western conference team and it seems like every one of them would be a playoff team in the east except PHX and MEM, and maybe MIN and NOP, all of whom are loaded with young talent with some interesting vets mixed in. Any of those teams can beat anyone on any given night. And the battle for the top 8 spots is going to be epic, so many really good but not great teams.

In the eastern conference, after the Bucks and Sixers, there’s a bunch of deep but flawed teams like the Celts, Pacers, Raps Nets, and maybe the Heat. Then you have meh teams battling for the 8th seed in the Pistons and Magic and maybe the Hawks. The Knicks, Bulls, Cavs, Wiz and Hornets are all looking like lottery locks, but not as bad as last year unless their second-year guys don’t develop much.

So if I were Adam Silver, I’d hold off on expansion until the East catches up a bit, maybe like 3-4 years.

Looking for a book recommendation. Can anyone recommend a very good book on the “X’s and O’s” of basketball? How offenses and defenses are set up?

This should do the trick!!!

The Triple Post Offense, by Fred “Tex” Winter

If single payer M4A would disincentivize people from becoming doctors, then why is there no doctor shortage in any of the European countries with single payer? I highly doubt it actually disincentivizes these career choices, because even in Europe being a doctor pays well and comes with a high degree of social respect; being a nurse is one of the best paying jobs you can get without a lot of postgraduate training, if you live in a union state, and also comes with a high degree of social respect (not enough however). The only way I could see these careers suffering a shortage could maybe be due to the exorbitant cost of medical school in the US compared to everywhere else, but that doesn’t seem to be the fault of single payer, so much as it’s the fault of a dysfunctional education system with no tuition caps. In any case, even if those careers were disincentivized, it’s outweighed by the entire country getting a dramatically increased standard of care, at a lower price, for the cost of a percentage of salary growth for doctors who earn mid to high six figures yearly.

I’m for single payer with a private out-of-pocket option. I think there should always be a market incentive for doctors to choose to not accept insurance as payment in full if they are far better than average. If a doctor is good enough to earn $5 million a year by accepting mostly wealthier patients who can pay out of pocket, it should be legal for them to do so. At most, it could be mandated that a small percentage of their patients are M4All patients.

I would also like to see a continued expansion of PAs and NPs delivering most non-invasive health care. Most of the ones I have seen are great, and they definitely keep costs down.

There’ll be less incentive to become a doctor or a nurse – already in short supply.

In order to be a doctor you have to be AMA certified. The AMA artificially limits the number of new docs they certify. They’ve got a quota to keep pay as high as possible. It’s not a shortage of capable or willing people.

The insurance business will evaporate and be replaced by a single-payer system that’s already in place. The pharmaceutical industry will collapse too.

Why would the pharma industry collapse? They make money in other countries as well or they wouldn’t do business there. Our system is just corrupt and overpriced.

I like M4A as a baseline with supplemental private insurance on top, the way it works now for seniors, basically. Seems fair. Fuck the health insurance companies tho. If they all go out of business that’s a feature not a bug.

David Griffin should really just STFU and count his blessings for being the luckiest GM in the history of organized sports.

RJ is not playing for Canada in the fiba thing because of a calf injury. I don’t think it really matters but I was looking forward to seeing him play.

Looking for a book recommendation. Can anyone recommend a very good book on the “X’s and O’s” of basketball? How offenses and defenses are set up?

YouTube has a ton of excellent analysis and primer content. I’ve always found basketball books a static explanation to a never-static game. Seeing it in action is far more useful IMO.

melo on espn this morning looking for work…

don’t think it’ll happen in the nba…sounds like he really wants to play, not sure how he feels about traveling abroad, but, I think there’s a decent chance he plays overseas…

Things I don’t want to watch. JD and the Straight Shot.

Apparently the sentiments are mutual as JD and the Straight Shot definitely don’t want you watching them. Ingress to the venue will not be vouchsafed to any whose critical faculties pertaining to either music or basketball exhibit any signs of a pulse. While displays of fawning adulation of the band’s performance are certainly preferable, they are not a prerequisite for attendance. All whose appreciation for the talent on display remains within the acceptable bounds of silent enthusiasm will be allowed to remain on the premises.

Melo deserves a roster spot “somewhere” as a 6th man if he wants it. There are still guys in the league in that role that have less left in the tank. The problem is he doesn’t have enough left to win a spot like that on a really good team. Even if he’s willing to accept a bench role now, will he accept that role on 25-35 win team?

David Griffin should really just STFU and count his blessings for being the luckiest GM in the history of organized sports.

It’s strange that he thought this would play well.

Turns out there’s no market for a one-dimensional chucker who can only manage a .500 TS% and does nothing else. Melo is garbage at this point of his career.

We suck, and we have Alonzo Trier, who is easily better as a sixth man/scorer type than Melo. Trier can give you some chucking with 50 points better TS% than Melo. And has room to improve rather than decline. And Trier might STILL not get minutes on this shitty ass team.

Melo has no value. Even as a bench piece. He’s a pain in the ass though! So there’s that!

Melo under contract with trade clause thought he was invincible and rubbed everyone the wrong way. He got fat, divorced, injured and didn’t care about his job anymore. OKC paid to get rid of him for same reasons. Posting pictures on airport hangar drinking wine with a butler next him while someone is paying him to work is stupid. How would you like to give him a few million and then he takes your money and doesn’t show up for work. He was consistently one of the worst player in the league, closing out on three point shooters.

Melo’s past actions haven’t showed him to be a solid work ethic, high effort, high character, principled veteran who you want to keep around your young players. This is why he’s unemployed. Has nothing to do with his current basketball skills.

204 & 212 – Thanks!!

Interesting interview with former shooting coach, Dave Hopla. Especially:

“McKinsey & Company, a worldwide management consulting firm hired by Madison Square Garden to work with the Knicks and Rangers, had a negative impact on the coaching staff and was the source of confusion and paranoia among some players. The firm’s influence led to decisions like not having coaches watch film with players and filling out seemingly endless amounts of paperwork, according to Hopla.”

https://www.sny.tv/knicks/news/how-a-consulting-firms-influence-led-to-confusion-and-paranoia-on-the-carmelo-anthony-led-knicks/309641668

We suck, and we have Alonzo Trier, who is easily better as a sixth man/scorer type than Melo. Trier can give you some chucking with 50 points better TS% than Melo. And has room to improve rather than decline. And Trier might STILL not get minutes on this shitty ass team.

Just for that I’m uninviting you to Trier’s farewell tour in 2035.

All I know is we have not traded a 1st round pick since Dolan hired McKinsey. I doubt that’s a coincidence.

Of course… McKinsey is expensive AF and that was a pretty cheap lesson to learn. It’s kinda like paying Taj Gibson $12mm.

Yeah, outside of name recognition, most teams already have guys who can do what Melo does for 10% of the headaches he would bring. I mean, Jamal Crawford has been absolutely terrible for years now and he was on a roster last season, mostly because it was the Suns and he’s still a recognizable name, so Melo could surely get some place at some team if he wanted to take whatever comes. But most of the teams are not going to want to deal with the endless Melo narratives whenever he plays or doesn’t, and I really don’t blame them. Melo has only Melo to blame for his situation.

Ntilikilla, go to Reddit. Just fuckin’ stop.

I know that you’re totally dismissive of anything but anecdotes and gut feeling, strat, but if you think that Melo is still an NBA player — or at least would not be a total waste of a roster slot that could otherwise go to a young unproven player — you are living in a fantasy world. If the stats aren’t enough for you — and haha of course they’re not, because they’re fake news — go watch the Coach Nick videos on how abjectly horrid Melo was on the Rockets. And then remember that for part of the season Harden was carrying a team full of NBDL-level players to a playoff slot.

Morey has made questionable moves and is not infallible, but to believe that Melo would be useful a year after he flamed out of a roster in deep need of shooting, you have to completely reject both rational and empirical evidence to the favor of your instinct. And in this case, your instinct is dead wrong.

The Melo parable is the epitome of schadenfreude. He would have deserved the kind of retirement tour Wade and Dirk got last year if he only wasn’t wired like that.

Now I’m feeling both sad and elated that he has got this low, especially watching the third niche career Vince was able to carve for himself well into his 40s.

Where you’re not a leader, you really shouldn’t act like he had.

But in the end he was instrumental in us getting Mitch, so thanks again, I guess.

Since the Mets didn’t trade Wheeler, they should extend him. Maybe 3/55 or something gets that done?

Thanks for the feedback. I asked a tough question. There’s a difference between the Green New Deal and Medicare for All.

Thank you for the question. It’s a very thoughtful one on a very important subject.

My own response to your counterargument is the Green New Deal is just one example of many where abolishing a problematic American industry represented a major economic trade off.

When Congress abolished slavery after the passage of the 13th amendment the American South, and national economy by extension, stood to lose a major engine of economic growth. The export of raw cotton to the textile factories of Britain, which financiers and shippers in New England and Mid-Atlantic States handled, was a major source of capitalist profit driving U.S. industrialization. Also, the domestic slave trade was booming as slavery expanded westward during the Manifest Destiny period as cotton and tobacco growers looked for fresh uncultivated soil.

Now I understand that one shouldn’t draw too straight a comparison between private healthcare insurance and plantation slavery, but I’d argue that the healthcare crisis in this country, while not on the same level, represents a real crisis for the U.S. today, and the for profit private insurance along with the hospital industry are the big factors driving that crisis.

So are we really going to tell people whose lives are compromised by rationing meds, facing bankrupcy from paying pricey medical bills, or failing to seek medical help at all that they should continue their exploitation because it will cost their exploiters jobs? It’s the same logic that mid-19th century slaveholders, presenting themselves as an antebellum job creators, used to argue that slavery shouldn’t have been abolished because it would result in net economic losses.

@227

I’m honestly just happy about it, no sadness here. The guy has made 250 million in his career on salary alone, and a lot of those millions came for him because he valued the money over other stuff that could be helping him get a job right now. He could still go to China or wherever and add a couple more millions to that number, whenever he wants. I’m not gonna feel bad about a guy with this sort of options still in is life.

The health insurance thing is another area where my centrism comes in. We should look for evolution not revolution. That’s what was smart about Obamacare. It kept the insurance business alive and provided new opportunity while addressing some of the most awful problems of the system that preceded it.

We have to be honest here and admit that Affordable Care Act’s brief history is proof that the incrementalist approach won’t work. It’s an interesting case study of a private healthcare reform law whose core “individual madate” principal was devised by a right-wing think tank, nearly identical to a former Republican governor’s previous plan, which was adopted by a Democratic President, that was immediately attacked as “socialist” by right-wingers, and rolled back by Republicans in the White House, Congress, and the federal courts. This was a plan which was a major boon to the private insurance industry that hasn’t addressed the major problem of rising premiums and is still under attack because the private insurance lobby won’t protect it.

I’m for single payer with a private out-of-pocket option. I think there should always be a market incentive for doctors to choose to not accept insurance as payment in full if they are far better than average. If a doctor is good enough to earn $5 million a year by accepting mostly wealthier patients who can pay out of pocket, it should be legal for them to do so.

Funny, I agree…. but looking at it from the other side… I’ve always thought there was a market solution to the uninsured at least from the physician’s POV. Incentivise the doctors to treat the uninsured….

How…. give them a dollar for dollar deduction on their federal/state income tax bill for treating an uninsured person. For every dollar service they provide the get a dollar of reduction in their tax liability. They’d be fighting each other to treat poor people FFS.

What doctor in America wouldn’t prefer to treat poor people rather than pay taxes……It wouldn’t cost them a penny and they’d be doing “God’s work”….

no christmas game this year, the fuck??

We fucking invented that tradition. I don’t care how shitty we are. We should always have a game.

I was livid when there was no matinee at MSG on MLK day a few years back, too. Silver needs to respect the traditions.

My own response to your counterargument is the Green New Deal is just one example of many where abolishing a problematic American industry represented a major economic trade off.

The problem with the GND is they give no alternative as to how to generate the power needed to run an industrial society. You can’t generate enough power with windmills and solar and they have their obvious limitations .

You can’t dam up a river anymore because you’ll make some snail darter somewhere homeless.

Even though every lefty’s dream country (FRance) generates 75% of their electricity via nuclear, try building a new reactor here and see where the GND-o-philes come down….

lol, snail darters. It’s insane the outsized effect a tiny fish has had on our legal system.

RE: Schedule I’m 100% sure no one else wants to watch the Knicks except Knicks fans. I’m not sure if that hits Dolan’s bottom line at all, but it should.

Thing is, regarding Obamacare, incrementalism actually DID work. Pre-existing conditions were eliminated, lifetime caps were eliminated and the percentage of people who were covered went way up. It was obviously not a panacea, and there are still lots of problems with the system, but things DID get incrementally better.

Now let Republicans try to roll those improvements back, let them bring back pre-existing conditions and lifetime caps and see how that works out for them. They can’t do it. It’s a third rail. Those are now things that we no longer accept as a society. Luckily for all of us they have punted on healthcare because they have no answers other than “go back to the old way which was even worse.”

I think a robust public option is a good next step, but even if Saint Bernie wins the White House he’s not going to be able to do much with Moscow Mitch running his various Machiavellian schemes. I’d like to hear what the path to MFA is that doesn’t involve incrementalism. Incrementalism is really the only way forward because of the way our political system is set up.

Now let Republicans try to roll those improvements back, let them bring back pre-existing conditions and lifetime caps and see how that works out for them. They can’t do it. It’s a third rail.

Funny story from yesterday. I was at a sales event with an old Republican veteran colleague of mine, who tried talking American history with me once, which I promptly shut down when he said his favorite series was the Bill O’Reilly “Killing” books. He’s a salesman for another large division of my large American company, and this is how the exchange went. No exaggeration on language or timing.

“My wife retired last year. Well, she’s on permanent disability and Medicaid. [She is morbidly obese and has health complications from it, which I had previously known.] She started collecting social security early, too.”

[LITERALLY 3 MINUTES LATER]

“If the Demo-craps have their way, we’ll have socialized medicine in this country, which will be a total shitshow. I know, since my dad had to go through the VA for his medical.”

Thing is, regarding Obamacare, incrementalism actually DID work. Pre-existing conditions were eliminated, lifetime caps were eliminated and the percentage of people who were covered went way up. It was obviously not a panacea, and there are still lots of problems with the system, but things DID get incrementally better.

I thought you weren’t responding to me anymore?

Anyways, yes, if the argument is that something is better than nothing, sure, it’s true progress was made by adopting an individual mandate vs. not having one at all. But if the argument gauges progress in terms of actual results, then no, incrementalism doesn’t work because it isn’t stopping the growing problems created by a for profit insurance system. Life expectancy is trending down again for the third year in a row after it first began a decline back in 2015, the worst downward trend downward since 1915-1918. Premiums continue to rise at exorbitant rates, only buffered by the fact that the government is subsidizing the difference despite Obama’s promise to the contrary.

So we have an inefficient insurance system where not only are we paying more for private healthcare than ever before, but the government pays more so poorer Americans can absorb the increase in premium rates, in a society where lives are shortening because chronic illnesses and drug addiction are being left untreated. This isn’t progress. It’s the opposite. We’re in crisis mode. Your only argument is that things could be worse. But by that standard of logic you could justify any half-measure. The Missouri Compromise was progress according to you.

like to hear what the path to MFA is that doesn’t involve incrementalism. Incrementalism is really the only way forward because of the way our political system is set up.

The way forward is the same as when in the 1930s, labor unions and left-wing organizers pressured a sympathetic president and Congress in the aftermath of a depression to adopt new legislation to improve their lives. And say what you want about Bernie, but he’s the only one of the candidates who has that base of grassroots support around the country willing to mobilize it.

The way forward is the same as when in the 1930s, labor unions and left-wing organizers pressured a sympathetic president and Congress in the aftermath of a depression to adopt new legislation to improve their lives. And say what you want about Bernie, but he’s the only one of the candidates who has that base of grassroots support around the country willing to mobilize it.

Oh, so complete fantasies are what is going to happen. Okay! Wow, Bernie is really just that magical I guess! Maybe he can wave his wizard wand and make Mitch McConnell disappear.

That is one full of shit answer. Bravo, sir.

no christmas game this year, the fuck??

I’m writing a letter to the commissioner.

Oh, so complete fantasies are what is going to happen. Okay! Wow, Bernie is really just that magical I guess! Maybe he can wave his wizard wand and make Mitch McConnell disappear.

The popular movements that girded a decades long New Deal coalition aren’t fantasy. Nor were the near two decades of civil rights post-war activism which gave us the 1964 Voting Rights Act a fantasy. Nor was the 19th century abolitionist movement, which gave rise to the Republican Party as a national political party, the driving driving force for the 12, 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution. There are multiple examples in American history where popular movements have pressured governments to act in accord with popular will. The fact that you dismiss such well documented historical examples of popular resistance as fantasy reveal why the milquetoast technocratic liberalism represented by the Democratic leadership has woefully failed to counter the rise of right-wing extremism today. You’re the contemporary version of the moderate liberal MLK warned was the greatest barrier to progressive change in his Letter From Birmingham Jail.

Just now in my family’s island of Puerto Rico, a tiny colony relation of the U.S., the governor of the New Progressive Party, Ricky Rossello, resigned because various civic groups throughout the Puerto Rican diaspora have protested nonstop for 12 days for his removal after a series of scandals and leaked private chats revealed his administration for the corrupt farce we always knew it was. But the problem facing our island is that there is no major political figure on the scene whose election will marshal that popular disquiet into a political coalition. In the mainland U.S., however, that candidate does exist, and he is openly encouraging people to pressure government to enact progressive reform not with magic through civic engagement with strikes, public demonstrations, town hall meetings, voter drives, among other tactics of non-violent protest. I believe it is our best shot, even if it won’t be easy.

Sitting round singing songs ’til the night turns into day
Used to sing about the mountains but the mountains washed away
Now I’m singing all my songs to the boy who won my heart
He is only eight years old and it’s a real fine way to start

still stuck behind the desk…hoping someone, somewhere is out there roaming the streets, doing cool shit and having fun…

if you are – let me know please…that way i can imagine being someone else, somewhere’s else for a minute 🙂

after work gonna head out and pickup the godson, figure out what’s for dinner (no mystery there – mcdonalds or panda express seems to be the usual request)…get home, watch spiderman homecoming for about the millionth time (i’m just glad it’s not shark boy and lava girl anymore – although not that terrible a movie once you’ve memorized each scene and line)…and, just wait to see what tomorrow brings…doing laundry and cleaning bathrooms most likely…

Nor were the near two decades of civil rights post-war activism which gave us the 1964 Voting Rights Act a fantasy.

Gee, it’s almost like that was achieved in small steps, some might call them… increments. I mean it only took what, like 100 years?

Listen, I want single payer healthcare too, but I’m not so starry eyed for some politician that I think there’s going to be some instantaneous solution because of the sheer awesomeness of the man. It’s going to be a hard fought battle, and if I do get single payer healthcare in my lifetime, it’s not going to be because Bernie fucking Sanders somehow mobilized his grassroots supporters. It’s going to take a lot more than that.

Your answer in the above post is like a caricature of what a Bernie Sanders supporter says. Only Bernie can get the miracle done, but when he does, it’s going to be BAM! Instant gratification. Because incrementalism is for suckers. Bernie will get that shit done yesterday.

It’s not gonna go down like that. Not even close.

There are multiple examples in American history where popular movements have pressured governments to act in accord with popular will.

Such as the temperance movement. Or the Klu Klux Klan. And have you ever heard of Shays’ Rebellion? Or taken a look at public polling on issues like immigration enforcement or abortion restrictions?

For my sake, I pray Bernie gets the Democratic nomination so I can see the entire the American political establishment eat a big bag of salted dicks and be forced to support Donald Trump.

MIke

c’mon now räz, i know you ain’t as old as most folks here think – i bet you up to something good…out with a friend, good meal, catching a show, or, who knows maybe chilling with a drink staring up at the stars somewhere nice…

I do respect you guys commitment to actually trying to discuss party politics, because I’m completely done with that. I just assume the representation model will always fail no matter what, even though it’s obviously the only one we have that is realistically possible, so I tend to bother less than I should I guess.

Gee, it’s almost like that was achieved in small steps, some might call them… increments. I mean it only took what, like 100 years?

LOL small steps? The origins of the modern African American Civil Rights movement took place after WWII and the span of a generation the federal government had to send actual National Guard troops to desegregate schools in the deep South after Brown v. Board of Education put pressure on Eisenhower to obliterate decades of “separate but equal” policies legally codified under Plessy v. Ferguson. And Brown v. Board of Ed was only possible because of major civil litigation and open non-violent resistance from activists who openly broke the fucking law to force the issue of desegregation, which most New Deal liberals didn’t want to touch with a ten foot pole, into the laps of the federal courts and the White House. It was only after various civil rights groups protested the issue, when the fear of violence on the streets with riots across the country took hold, that politicians actually took the “incremental” approach of pushing the Voting Rights Act to avoid a threat of a revolution.

Look, it’s clear you’re a smart guy but you’re effacing history with a lot of moderate nonsense here, decontextualizing the radical nature of past historical struggles. There is only one candidate here who even recognizes a theory of grassroots progressive change, and it isn’t Elizabeth Warren, no matter how much she appropriates its language. And his coalition is just the latest in a larger continuum of popular protest against neoliberal capitalism run amok ranging from the anti-globalization movements of the late 1990s, the anti-war movements of the 2000s, the Occupy Wall-Street movement of the early 2010s. Progressives finally have someone with a legitimate shot of winning the White House. He isn’t perfect. But we can work with him.

Do you forsee the Millennials taking a break from Instagramming their matcha toast, and spending a couple of decades in the streets getting their heads cracked in because they’re that passionate about single payer healthcare? Because I really honestly don’t. So maybe the comparison to the Civil Rights Movement is not really all that apt.

And I’m absolutely not buying the “only Bernie can fix this” nonsense. It takes a lot of chops and discipline and team playing and compromise and political skill to get a massive, society-changing piece of legislation passed, and those traits are not things that appear to be in Bernie Sanders’ toolbox.

You’re WAY overestimating the size, scope and intensity of the Bernie Sanders “revolution.” He’s running like second or third in Democratic primary polls despite 100% name recognition. There is not a massive groundswell of support for him, it’s pretty much the same people who supported him last time when he fell short, except this time there are several serious challengers instead of just one.

Such as the temperance movement. Or the Klu Klux Klan. And have you ever heard of Shays’ Rebellion?

Or the Tea Party movement. Or the Evangelical movement. Yeah, right-wing popular movements exist and have done more to change our political environment the past few decades because Republicans don’t hesitate to mobilize popular sectors of their base.

For my sake, I pray Bernie gets the Democratic nomination so I can see the entire the American political establishment eat a big bag of salted dicks and be forced to support Donald Trump.

I wouldn’t be surprised at this outcome either.

c’mon now räz, i know you ain’t as old as most folks here think – i bet you up to something good…out with a friend, good meal, catching a show, or, who knows maybe chilling with a drink staring up at the stars somewhere nice…

Just chillin tonight, bruh.

JK I agree but I also think it’s fair to say that Bernie ’16 is the reason why half the Dem crop is supporting some version of universal health care.

I just assume the representation model will always fail no matter what, even though it’s obviously the only one we have that is realistically possible, so I tend to bother less than I should I guess.

I’m not a particular fan of it myself, but I don’t think we should give up on it either. I’d prefer more direct democracy but like you said, we have to be realistic.

Do you forsee the Millennials taking a break from Instagramming their matcha toast, and spending a couple of decades in the streets getting their heads cracked in because they’re that passionate about single payer healthcare? Because I really honestly don’t. So maybe the comparison to the Civil Rights Movement is not really all that apt.

I just pointed you to a situation in this country, in Puerto Rico, where a grassroots protest of Millennials there just booted out the goddamned governor. BTW, the Occupy Movement was Millennial led. So is the Sunrise movement which occupied Pelosi’s office. So were the Dreamers whose picket-lines, sit-ins, and hunger strikes forced Obama to act on the undocumented immigrant situation.

JK I agree but I also think it’s fair to say that Bernie ’16 is the reason why half the Dem crop is supporting some version of universal health care.

I fully agree with this and I’m thankful for it. He deserves credit for it. Some of his supporters have an adolescent fanboi type obsession with him like he’s their favorite member of One Direction or something. Miss me with that shit already.

Oh, I forgot the Black Lives Matter movement. That’s Millennial led too. So is Fight for 15.

BTW, the Occupy Movement was Millennial led.

The Occupy Movement, which achieved what exactly before everybody got bored and went home? You’re proving my point for me. That’s supposed to sell me on Millennial commitment to ideals, and their ability to follow through on things? It’s eight years later and the POTUS is Donald Trump. That one kinda didn’t pan out. Wall Street is still doing okay.

The biggest problem with health care in this country is that it is so expensive, for example much more so than in Canada,, None of the proponents of government paid health care in the Democratic debates wanted to talk about this. They just waved their hands and said you’ll get more than you pay for in extra taxes, which of course can’t be the case for everybody. I don’t think the country can afford universal health care long term, as much as I’d like to have it, unless something is done about the cost.

I fully agree with this and I’m thankful for it.

Yes, so thankful you’re supporting the his primary opponent who ran against single payer healthcare as late as 2012 and has now (conveniently) found God on the issue now that it’s a popular progressive agenda item. Isn’t it amazing how some politicians have these changes of heart when its politically expedient?

They just waved their hands and said you’ll get more than you pay for in extra taxes, which of course can’t be the case for everybody.

Warren specifically said the wealthy can expect to pay more.

Healthcare costs so much here because it’s profit driven. Of course things are going to cost more when every player involved at every stage of the game is trying to make a buck, and the consumers (sick people) have zero leverage. Most sane countries recognize that not every institution in society has to be run for profit, some things are actually better off socialized, like prisons, schools and yes, the healthcare system. We don’t have that here simply because the uber-rich are very good at conning the rubes.

Someday the Boomers will die off, and the society that is someday run by the geriatric Gen Xers, graying Millennials and pushing-40 Gen Z’ers will be a big improvement.

The Occupy Movement, which achieved what exactly before everybody got bored and went home? You’re proving my point for me. That’s supposed to sell me on Millennial commitment to ideals, and their ability to follow through on things? It’s eight years later and the POTUS is Donald Trump. That one kinda didn’t pan out. Wall Street is still doing okay.

Actually, the opposite is the case – the problem wasn’t Millennial commitment – it was a lack of commitment from within institutions of political power, particularly from the Obama White House ( the shill actually asked them not to demonize finance workers) and a Republican dominated Congress, which circumvented its progress. And this actually makes my point: which is the the need for a President who will work with progressive activists to enact change. The abolitionists needed Lincoln. The traded unionists needed FDR and Truman. The civil rights activists needed Kennedy and Johnson. And, conversely, these presidents needed those activists in order to secure coalitions that allowed them to occupy office.

But aside from this point, to answer your question, the Occupy Movement, which happened in 2011-2012 was the precursor to the huge wave of progressivism which took over the 2016 Democratic primary during the Sanders campaign. Every time Bernie rails against the “99%” he’s appropriating the discourse that movement laid down, and it’s still being used to articulate policies which most Americans want like higher taxes on upper income earners, capital gains, and health care reform.

Yes, so thankful you’re supporting the his primary opponent who ran against single payer healthcare as late as 2012 and has now (conveniently) found God on the issue now that it’s a popular progressive agenda item.

Right, that corporate whore Elizabeth Warren, secret Reagan lover and a person who is not Bernie Sanders. Only Bernie can save us! Without Bernie we are doomed! Everybody else sucks! This is not cult-like behavior at all, it’s just the truth, Bernie Sanders is the only one and true savior of America!

You’re a one-note song.

Every time Bernie rails against the “99%” he’s appropriating the discourse that movement laid down,

Every time Bernie rails against the “1%” in favor of the “99%” he’s appropriating the discourse that movement laid down…

Right, that corporate whore Elizabeth Warren, secret Reagan lover and a person who is not Bernie Sanders. Only Bernie can save us! Without Bernie we are doomed! Everybody else sucks! This is not cult-like behavior at all, it’s just the truth, Bernie Sanders is the only one and true savior of America!

You have a mistaken understanding of my critique of Elizabeth Warren every time you raise Bernie Sanders. First off, he’s irrelevant to a critique of her record. If Bernie ceased existing tomorrow I still wouldn’t support her because, unlike you, I took the time to vet her past. You bringing him up to discredit my criticisms of that record are a red herring. If I decide to vote Green Party tomorrow, I still would doubt her intentions for reasons I’ve outlined several times here before. If you want to vote for Elizabeth Joanie Come Lately that’s your business. But I am not going to sit here and pretend she’s something she’s not

Secondly, you can check out everything I’ve wrote about her and see it is all true. She was a registered Republican as late as 1996 meaning she implicitly supported Reaganism until a Third Way neoliberal like Bill Clinton triangulated so hard right that moderate Republicans like her switched Democrat.

Lastly, and most importantly, the issue isn’t that I am such a fan of Bernie’s policies – they’re actually to the right of what I ideally prefer. If we were in a Western European nation like Germany or France, he’d be considered a center-left candidate, not a progressive one. The issue is that I am skeptical of most every other major candidate in the Democratic Primary and I choose him as my compromise candidate because I am convinced of his long-term commitment to instituting some brand of Social Democracy in this country which is as far left as most Americans are willing to go..

Someday the Boomers will die off, and the society that is someday run by the geriatric Gen Xers, graying Millennials and pushing-40 Gen Z’ers will be a big improvement.

Sez you…. lets see how well this bunch of self important twits can keep their freedoms…..

Unlike the Ralph Naders of the world, Bernie broke through and was a very serious primary candidate as an independent who usurped the Democratic liberal wing and might have won the nomination if the DNC wasn’t in the tank for Hillary. Elizabeth Warren may have more appeal these days than she did in 2016 and mightbe a more formidable candidate in a general election, but there’s no denying that she benefitted enormously from Bernie laying the groundwork.

Personally, I’m not a supporter of either one, but I like many of their ideas as visions to hope for. In this cycle, pragmatic and incremental is the way to go. Let’s get a couple of supreme court justices under our belt and then we can worry about universal health care.

Hey, my Mom and Dad are Boomers and they’re the coolest people around. Long may they live.

They’re Bernie Sanders supporters, actually, my Mom and Pop. My dad has all sorts of Bernie swag, you should see the bumper stickers on his Nissan Leaf. He lives in South Florida in a very blue county (Broward) but all of his friends who are his age are Trumpers, which annoys him to no end.

They’re not dead-ender sycophants though, and they’ll happily vote D if (when) Sanders is not the nominee.

For my sake, I pray Bernie gets the Democratic nomination so I can see the entire the American political establishment eat a big bag of salted dicks and be forced to support Donald Trump.

I prefer my bag of dicks unsalted thank you very much Mike…. high blood pressure and all you know…..

Where’d my freedom to own a fully-automatic machine gun go? What Demo-crap libterd thought of taking that essential liberty away?

Bring back the days when I could legally beat my children and kick an undesirable out of my town by way of the debt-slavery prison. I miss the Golden Age of Freedom. Make America Free to Execute Mentally Disabled Convicts Again!

Where’d my freedom to own a fully-automatic machine gun go? What Demo-crap libterd thought of taking that essential liberty away?

I bet the citizens of Hong Kong wish every citizen there had a fully automatic weapon right about now with The “People’s Army” camped at the border …..

Healthcare costs so much here because it’s profit driven.

JK, you are sort of agreeing with me. Since no one promoting single payer is saying anything other than it will just pay the incredibly high prices that already exist, it’s clear that it will be very expensive. And of course, they say we will raise taxes only on the rich because they know that almost no one thinks of themselves as rich. So one expects they will actually be the one to pay the new taxes when a candidate phrases it that way.

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