HookEm

I admit I was wrong about Westbrook. I thought he would merely be below average, not the worst player in the league (adjusted for his usage).

But a big part of that tournament success is because he is a really good regular season coach. If you go in as a 1 seed, you better win AT LEAST two games or you have really F'ed up. With two wins, you just beat at best a top~70 team (probably worse actually) and a top-35 team. Congrats, you must be a great tourney coach. Rick's best 10-year period was 2002 - 2011. If you view his tournament success as achieving or failing vs. the expectations of his seed, you get the following: 2002 - 6 seed - 2 wins (over-achieved) 2003 - 1 seed - 4 wins (met expectation) 2004 - 3 seed - 2 wins (met expectation) 2005 - 8 seed - 0 wins (failed) 2006 - 2 seed - 3 wins (met expectation) 2007 - 4 seed - 1 win (failed) 2008 - 2 seed - 3 wins (met expectation) 2009 - 8 seed - 0 wins (failed) 2010 - 4 seed - 1 win (failed) 2011 - 11 seed - 0 wins (failed) So you have one year where he beat expectations vs. 5 where he failed. That isn't a great tourney record IMO.

I don't see people making excuses for Draymond. More just noting that Poole is an idiot.

I grew up in a small town. Nobody attacks Christians like other Christians.

Still nailed it!

I opened this thread expecting it to be an assault on Christians… and it is!

Regardless of what it was like in the past, the Big 12 is about to get a lot weaker IMO. If you look at last year, the worst Big-12 team according to KenPom was West Virginia at #66. And 7 / 10 were in the top-35 nationally. There were zero games easy games. Was anyone remotely relaxed about playing WV or K-State, even at home? And you had to play ALL the extremely good teams twice. Now, they add much easier games against #58 BYU, #101 Cincinnati and #104 UCF. And because they will probably be in divisions, you may only have to play Kansas, Baylor, Houston or Tech only once. In the future SEC, it will be so much easier only having to face Kentucky or Tennessee or Arkansas once. Pomeroy had the following rankings at the end of the 2022 Season: Future Big 12 had: #2 Houston #3 Kansas #4 Baylor #7 Texas Tech #26 TCU #34 Oklahoma State #43 Iowa St. #58 BYU #61 K-State #66 West Virginia #101 Cincinnati #104 UCF Future SEC had #6 Kentucky #9 Tennessee #12 Auburn #15 Texas #18 Arkansas #21 LSU #28 Alabama #33 Aggy #49 Mississippi State #59 Florida #64 Vanderbilt #99 South Carolina #108 Mississippi #137 Missouri #219 Georgia Future Big 12 still looks a good bit better. Most of those teams have fans that are passionate about basketball. Not so much in the SEC.

I admire the SEC in football. But the Big12 is a vastly better basketball conference in my opinion. This is a big downgrade for hoops.

I think the Nets could win 60 games. (They could also win <40 games). But if they actually get it together and play team basketball, I think they have the most talented roster in the NBA. They have people who can create. They have tons of shooters. Imagine this lineup... PG - Kyrie SG - Seth Curry SF - Joe Harris PF - Durant C - Ben Simmons There isn't a team who could trot out more great shooters and have the team make sense like this. Even though it is small ball, you still have two solid 6'10 players on the floor. People mock Ben Simmons shooting, but 61% FT is still in the same range as Looney (60%), Wiggins (63%) and Draymond (66%). 61% is terrible for a point guard, but acceptable if he is playing the Draymond role. Then off the bench they have TJ Warren, who could score 20 points on any given night. Nic Claxton should continue to improve and played decently last year. I'm sure he will start most of the time. Royce O'Neale and Markieff Morris (who I hate) should add toughness. Patty Mills can lead the 2nd unit and also brings shooting. Cam Thomas will also be improved. This is also a team that could play great defense. Imagine this lineup: Ben Simmons, Royce O'Neal, Kevin Durant, Markieff Morris, Nic Claxon. That is a nasty defensive team. Ultimately this is a team with 3 potential All-NBA players - all still close to their prime. I think they get past their issues and have a good season.

They should probably replace that with Lincoln Riley.

The answer is Aggy and it isn’t close. Also hate TCU. Annoying rich kids are annoying. I’m not a big ACU fan for a variety of reasons. Them beating us in the tourney was a low point in sports for me. I like Tech. Always loved them putting it to Aggy. Have a bunch of Tech relatives and am from the panhandle. I also like the hoops rivalry with them that has developed. They HATE us for taking Beard. When we go to the SEC, I hope they find a good home. I also like Rice and their antics.

Dude had flair.

Anybody have a good source of links to live streams of NFL games? PM if so.

The 2013 draft class was trash. In most drafts, you can get good role players or better with picks in the 20+ range. Here are some key players drafted 20+ from the 2014, 2015, 2016 classes: 2014 #41 - Nikola Jokic - 2x MVP 2014 #25 - Clint Capela - 2021 rebounding champ 2014 #39 - Jerami Grant - 21 pts, 4.4 reb last 2 years 2014 #46 - Jordan Clarkson - 2021 6th Man of Year 2014 #38 - Spencer Dinwiddie - 21 pts, 6.8 ast in 2020 2014 #27 - Bogdan Bogdanovic - All rookie, 152 starts 2014 #30 - Kyle Anderson - 248 career starts 2014 #33 - Joe Harris - 249 career starts -------------------------------------------------------- 2015 #32 - Montrezl Harrell - 2020 6th Man of Year 2015 #22 - Bobby Portis - 14.6 pts, 9.1 reb, 2021 Champ 2015 #46 - Norman Powell - 21 pts last year, 2019 Champ 2015 #40 - Josh Richardson - 306 starts 2015 #30 - Kevon Loony - 150 starts, 3x NBA Champ 2015 #37 - Richaun Holmes - 160 starts 2015 #31 - Cedi Osman - 181 starts -------------------------------------------------------- 2016 #27 - Pascal Siakam - 2X All-Star, NBA Champ 2016 #29 - DeJounte Murray - 1x All-Star, STL champ 2016 #36 - Malcolm Brogdon - 2017 RoY, 20 pts, 6 ast last 2 years 2016 #20 - Caris LeVert - 18.4 pts, 4.7 ast, 4.1 reb last 2 years 2016 #32 - Ivica Zubac - 227 starts 2017 adds: Jarrett Allen (22), Kyle Kuzma (27), OG Anunoby (23), Derrick White (29), Josh Hart (30), Don't get me wrong, I still think Utah could have gotten better picks for Mitchell, but they will have so much volume that at least a few of them should hit. They also should be able to combine picks and trade up.

Agree 100%. Mitchell to the Knicks would have been great for Utah and terrible for the Knicks.

I love this trade for Cleveland. They were in no man’s land of being an 8 seed in the playoffs for the near future. Now they have a legit shot to win it all. This team is like some of those Pistons title teams. No GREAT players (yet) but just about everyone could be really good for their position. The pieces fit, they have good contracts and they are young. Utah would have been better off trading him somewhere where the pics could be good. Somewhere Mitchell would be “the man” and the team would still suck. Like Sacramento or NYC. Or a team with aging stars like the Nets. Cleveland has too much talent for those pics to amount to much. Something like Ben Simmons and a ton of pics would have been better for Utah. Then revive Simmons and trade him too. Then wait for the Nets to implode at some point.

That house has a lot of my pet peeves. Top of the list is a huge two story living room with no place to put a TV. Worthless room. Also hate master BR (oops I mean owners suite) that is overly huge. Just seems out of scale and a huge wasted space.

If somebody pushes my kid down some stairs and the school has the video, I'm watching that video. Full stop. Why do they get information about an assault on my kid and I don't get to see it?

I was at the Spurs vs Heat Finals game when the AC went out. That was an experience. Also was at a high school state championship game at the Erwin Center when a kid threw in one from half court to win the game. On his birthday.

Meh. All the stars do it these days, and have for a while. If you land a superstar and don't keep them happy, most will do exactly the same. Kobe threatened to leave and had one foot out the door before they brought in Pau Gasol. Anthony Davis forced a trade with the Pelicans and would have sat out to force a trade Paul George forced a trade from the Pacers and then basically did it again with OKC Harden completely quit on both the Rockets and the Nets. Kawhi quit on the Spurs and then was a known mercenary with Toronto. Ben Simmons sat out a whole season to get traded from Philly LeBron had a history of 1-year deals to keep leverage. He also got a lot of coaches fired That is just off the top of my head. Durant may mouth off and voice his displeasure, but the dude would never fake an injury or sit out a season.

Durant’s main issue is that he is about to be 34. If he was 26, teams would be giving away their whole franchise to get him. It is really as simple as that. Has little to do with his attitude or his perceived toxicity or his skill set.

As an outside observer, I'm not a HUGE fan of the Gobert trade, but LOL this is a terrible, terrible comparison. First, they play different positions. But mainly, it completely misses the huge benefits that Gobert brings. 3.7 blocks is in another universe from 0.5 blocks. 65% FG >>> 41% FG. 19.6 rebounds >>> 9.2 reb. Gobert is a 3-time DPoY. It seems people are missing this fact. He immediately raises the floor of the T-Wolves. Over the last 35 years, almost ever DPoY has ended up winning a title at some point in their career. And those that didn't usually had multiple finals appearances: Michael Cooper - 5 Titles Michael Jordan - 6 Titles, GOAT Mark Eaton - Multiple Conference Finals Dennis Rodman - 5 Titles David Robinson - 2 Titles Hakeem Olajuwon - 2 Titles Dikembe Mutombo - Multiple NBA Finals Gary Payton - 1 Title*, Multiple NBA Finals Alonzo Mourning - 1 Title*, Multiple Conference Finals Ben Wallace - 1 Title Ron Artest - 1 Title Marcus Camby - NBA Finals Kevin Garnett - 1 Title Dwight Howard - 1 Title*, NBA Finals Tyson Chandler - 1 Title Marc Gasol - 1 Title Joakim Noah - Conference Finals Kawhi Leonard - 2 Titles Draymond Green - 4 Titles Giannis Antetokounmpo - 1 Title Marcus Smart - NBA Finals Most of these guys were still contributing at a high level into their mid-30s. Gobert also helped the French team win bronze in the 2020 Olympics and knocked off the USA in the 2019 FIBA championship. I respect the T-Wolves for taking their shot. KAT is one of the softest bigs I have ever seen. That doesn't matter anymore. He can float around the perimeter shooting 3s. Gobert can man the middle. Time will tell whether this was a stupid trade or not, but I'm going to give it at least a season to see how everyone plays together.

Look, we all know KD isn't sitting out for the season. He isn't built like that. And he doesn't want to go somewhere that trades ALL their assets for him, because he wants to compete for a title. I've thought all along that staying in Brooklyn was probably the most likely outcome. The thing is, if KD really wants a title, staying with the Nets is his best option anyway. People get hung up on the fact that they got swept, but those games were CLOSE. Game 1: 115 - 114 Game 2: 114 - 107 Game 3: 109 - 103 Game 4: 116 - 112 That is 18 points total. Adding Ben Simmons, who has played at an all-NBA level, could easily overcome those 18 points - and now you are talking a Nets sweep. Kyrie also stunk it up in Game 3 and 4. I wouldn't trade Kyrie either. They are only going to get pennies on the dollar for him. Run it back and try to win a title and turn this thing into a redemption story. Embrace being the most unlikeable team in the NBA. F it, be the villain.

Nah, it was at Restaurante La Cazuela del Marisco. A block or two east of Margaritaville. I actually stayed at Margaritaville back when it was a locally owned place.

Only reason I could ever see to have an app would be to leave the meat in an ice water bath when I leave for work. Then sometime in the early afternoon, fire it up in time for dinner. But honestly I could never see myself doing that.