Patrick Bateman

This has already been put to bed.... JFC. The writer who put it out there was joking around and wanted to see how many trolls would latch on to it. The most common and believable rumor was Cooper wouldn't get vaccinated and he wasn't the same after he got COVID down the stretch. That really pissed off Jerrah. If Watson was playing all year, Amari would probably catch 90 balls, have over 1000 yards and score around 10 TDs and miss 2 games. In a run first offense.

He's most likely going to show out on a talentless team too. Opportunity to trade him high in a year before the extension even kicks in. It should be ugly. It's only summer league, but we looked pretty devoid of talent and Miami signed our best player off our summer league squad. lol!

The new rules…. Yikes. Still have to match. Find a taker next summer if they can’t do it in 48.

Gonna guess they have a deal they like but want to see where this lands. This also puts stress on Phoenix to work out a KD deal quickly. They probably will match so they have that asset to ship out if they can't agree to a trade quickly. And I don't really understand shipping out Sabonis and now Turner for Ayton, but Indy gonna Indy.

They should if they can get 2 or 3 first round picks. I don't really understand what the Knicks are trying to do..... but I haven't understood them since Ewing was center.

FWIW...... Not the summer league outing we would have preferred, but not a huge deal.

Uhm...... that's not good. Not good at all.

2/15 from Primo. 1/6 from Branham. 7/20 for Wesley. Ugly, ugly performance for the Spurs Summer League squad.

Posting this because it just came up in my feed. Here's one of my favorite highlights with old man Timmah. I remember watching this game in real time and couldn't get over how Tim just totally busted Demarcus mind. Just blew it up. Mind you, this is Cousins at the peak of his powers and thinking he's getting the better of Tim, as Tim just subtly and robotically pounds him down to powder. 38 years old and taking the supposed best young post player to school...... BTW, Spurs won. Even the Kings announcers are laughing because Cousins is doing nothing but offensively fouling.

I would do the first part. I think that gets you back to a badass front line...... They still need another shooter or two so I'd ask for Curry back with KD, but if I"m the TWolves and you KD would accept it, that may be a decent deal. KAT goes back to putting up huge lines on shitty teams.

So, this and other posts of yours have painted that this was done because the TWolves were really good at offense and mediocre to below average at defense and adding an excellent defensive 5 should improve the latter while not impacting the former. I'm unsure it's going to work out the way you see it, because its pretty simplistic. And I agree with you, you can get those picks back, namely when you're forced to trade Ant because he's demanded a trade. I hope not, because the NBA needs more small market success stories, not less, and that's the dude there. I think we were waiting for KAT to emerge as the guy, but I don't see it happening. He's a 2nd guy. Ant needs to be that alpha dawg to get them where they want to be. I really want to see his development..... This is a good post. Why did the TWolves average the most points last year? Not because they were insanely efficient, but because they pushed the pace higher than everyone else. In short, they were top 5 in FGA and #1 in 3PA, but only 12th in eFG%. Utah on the other hand, 10th in OPPG but 22nd in pace. 2020-21, when they were at their best, 3rd in the league in OPPG, 18th in pace. Utah still had a pretty decent offense, they simply were efficient. In short, Utah's key was a good defense at a middling to low pace which used a lane feeder design and they were efficient on offense, specifically shooting 6th in the league in 2020-21. That's not how Minny plays. Are they going to get more efficient on offense shooting the ball? Probably a little when you play big but your pace will plummet. And will KAT continue to bomb away from 3 as much? Probably because he'll be forced outside, but is that a good thing defensively? Again, Utah played a feeder style defensive system, trying their best to switch enough in spots to keep Gobert in the lane or near enough to protect that rim and come over and contest. Utah actually played a small ball lineup with Bogs at 4. He's a natural 3 and nobody is going to confuse him as a traditional post player. How is Minnesota going to design their defense? Can KAT keep up with small ball lineups he'll be asked to play on the perimeter? It'll be interesting to see. Frankly, because of spacing, I don't necessarily see this working unless you had a great PG and floor general..... you do not. TWolves were a pretty decent team last year. They were expected to win 48 games last year. Now, they'll have to re-engineer both their defense and offensive systems. Will this lead to more wins? Again, possibly. Could I see a 50 win season? Yes, that's possible, but in the playoffs, when the scheming goes up and they pull Rudy out on the perimeter and have KAT iso at the top of key, will that work defensively? Or will you have to do what Utah was forced to do in certain spots and bench Gobert? I like Rudy more than most around here, but the fit is odd and strategically, the TWolves don't get the benefit of the doubt..... they don't deserve to. They'll have to put up and show out.....

No doubt he was working on his game and part of that was being a playmaker, so maybe the 5 assists. I disagree about not needing these few games. He absolutely needs to be there and more reps. We're all excited about his potential but he was one of the worst players, statistically, in the NBA last year. I keep seeing posts and input that we're going "give him the keys", and I'm like.... dude needs to prove he can play in the league first. I think he can but he's got a long developmental cycle ahead. I expect Vassell to make a big jump too.

Saw a few highlights..... Primo has gotten big. Probably grown an inch or two and has started to fill out. Physically, he has developed. And it's only one game in which I didn't see all of it so maybe from someone who did. I love his shooting efficiency and he was big in the 4th. But he played 30 minutes against guys who are roster cut lines for the most part and he had 20 points and 5 assists with 3 turnovers. But he had 0 fucking rebounds and 0 fucking steals. That type of line is what Lonnie would put up and I hated it. Make your presence known everywhere and not just scoring and ballhandling. I really don't know how you play 30 minutes and don't run into 1 rebound in a glorified scrimmage. Wesley has kind of an ugly, hunched over game but he looked like the best player on the court. Branham is smooth and I love how he understands angles. Will need to do more. Again, 1 summer league game so not much to glean from it except Primo looks like a dude now, not the skinny fuck from last year, and that's a huge deal.

Portland loves them some Dame, but that's the point..... He probably just doomed the franchise to upper mediocrity his whole career. Maybe they could make a run this year but the light is dimming on them. Portland must be going all in that it was the abdominal issue which made his play noticeably worse last year and with the kind of reduction, that would make some sense. But I just can't see how a 35 years old Dame will be anywhere close to 35% of the their cap, which is what this extension is...

There is a high probability this is Zeke's last year with the Cowboys unless he takes a huge pay cut. Let's hope we can get a full season of health. The only other thing I don't like is I don't feel like we have a great 3rd RB because as much as I like Pollard, I don't think he can carry the load by himself.

If this isn't already, it has the potential to be the worst contract in basketball very very soon. He'll need to rebound big time.

Toronto has been rumored to say no with anything with Barnes in it. Siakam/OG and picks is the offer I've seen bantered about.

Well, he's right..... that could change. That also couldn't change. Aliens could land tomorrow too. I do think looking at our roster and cap situation, we're going to take a bad expiring contract or two for draft picks at some point this year. But what would the Nets get if they traded Kyrie away? Lakers only have so many draft picks. They already traded a ton away. I mean guys like TGT are jags. Would the Nets want a Jakob's ladder? Why? How would that help them? I understand looking at places that could take Westbrook, but the issue becomes.... what do the Lakers really have to offer?

Scottie Barnes, Fred Van Fleet, Trent Jr, Precious, Thad Young and then whatever free agents came over for the minimum. I don't think it looks that good either but depends on how good Barnes can be in his 2nd year.

The only thing I can come up with is what you hit on. PATFO liked him for few weeks he was on the club last time and they're actively shopping Jakob's ladder. I think Gallo's dead money can get up to 12.5. Dieng was expected to be the vet minimum so like 2m. Floor is dead on so we'll be taking on some bad money at some point. I like it. Developmental front court guy that can shoot a little. Proto-typical 4 in today's guy who can play some small ball 5. Has to get tougher and play a better D but if he can stay out of Pop's doghouse, he could be a solid 8-9th guy in a rotation in a year or two. The 4/5 is exactly the position we've been woefully shallow at the last few years relying first on Rudy Gay to play 4 and then Keldon, who's too small. Obviously if we move Jakob, he gets minutes along with Dieng. Low risk, solid reward move. If he sucks, so what? Solid.

Why? JFC.

Think most consider it more of a lifetime achievement award for SoaW. But yea, it's still a pretty damn good performance. Worst for Al: Gigli? Tom Hanks: Best: Saving Private Ryan (Forrest Gump very close 2nd) Worst: Bonfire of the Vanities Oh, and Tom Cruise wasn't bad in Interview with the Vampire, OP. For those that read the book, he was actually pretty spot on. Brad Pitt was pretty terrible in it though.

It also had all sorts of production issues and pretty much fired its directors with only a few weeks of shooting remaining. It had terrible terrible buzz and then coming off TLJ, fans had some justified concerns. I don't think anyone was sold on Alden either.... I don't think he was bad, but that's a role they probably shouldn't have been looking for a nameless guy. Should have hired someone with some skins under their belt, even as a younger actor.

This is a dude we should pick up...... Off waivers. Dude can play a little.