UTDD

I kind of want WVU to lose and miss the CG just so I can see Ehlinger somehow troll Grier with a Horns Down karma comment with him smiling with a Horns Up at Jerry World and Grier sitting "at home" somehow for proper karmic retribution.

It's only one game, but terrible cohesion by Golden State. Maybe they really need Curry back just for his stability and leadership alone.

Maybe so, and it's not like any other team out there in the West is looking like a strong # 2 right now, it's wide open.

Taking out their aggression from last year -- they needed this though on a number of levels.

Sure I get that too but I still think is he more scared of the challenge than excited for it. I guess we shall see.

I get that logically and agree for most people this all is very relevant and would be a motivator, but I personally am skeptical Durant is really wired to want to take on that much of a challenge. I hope he does want to drive his own legacy personally this way, but I really (at least at this point) doubt he is wired that way mentally.

NY is possible, so is LA. But the Knicks are probably believed by many players (and likely advisors/agents as well) to be a dysfunctional organization and Dolan isn't one that inspires confidence, so it's going to have to be a really good sell. I do think Fizdale is a good personality that likely can appeal to Durant on some level, so that helps. I personally don't think Durant is going to NY because I think he will perceive it as too difficult a lift to try and carry that team and I believe he is not wired that way to take that level of challenge on himself. He'd have to really believe Porzingis and one other big star complete the puzzle so to speak. I think he wants a more winning made situation right away where ever he goes which helps GS and of course to some extent the Lakers. I also have a hard time imagining it would be easy for Durant to leave a three peat team going for four in a new arena, but I do think it could happen.

LeBron is a much better player than Kobe, but I would guess he will never have the love and passion of Laker fans like Kobe. Even if he wins titles there.

That's really good for the Air Force. He's got support from somewhere/someone important.

That's amazing when you consider how much a passer LeBron is too. He may end up at the end of his career with a longevity similar to Kareem and a peak similar to Jordan. (2 players I currently have on my own basketball Mt. Rushmore all-time) Pretty good.

It gives Houston a great excuse to now start playing better and winning. Fair or not.

Green may also be the odd man out with salaries for GS if Durant stays too. He's up a year after Klay and Durant, and even with the real estate boon (side landlord business essentially) coming for the Warriors with their new master arena plan, it may not be enough to pay him with those kind of luxury taxes. They may decide to go with Jordan Bell and save some money. They could even try and sneak Cousins in (a big IF he works out and is healthy so this is unlikely) the following year and then let Green walk. If Durant does leave, even that might not guarantee Green getting paid the max. I'm a huge Green fan and would argue at times he is the second most important player for the Warriors, but I am not sure how good he will be with his mindset and game once he crosses 30 years old and 30-40 million dollars a year down the road might be a bad hit. I also don't blame Durant too much about the free agency stuff, and especially him recently saying he's thinking about the money. In my opinion, Golden State hasn't treated him 100% right in how they even joked about Durant needing to take a discount during their title celebration last time around but within a nanosecond had no issues with Curry getting a super max. I think it's fair if some fans are annoyed that Durant joined the team that was already 73-9 and that just beat him with OKC, but he's also one of the best players in the world and the Warriors should be acting accordingly and it seems like more recently they are realizing this and so that's a good change in my opinion to keeping him.

Only Golden State can stop Golden State but I think this isn't a big deal. Draymond didn't play it well, but the team isn't the same without Curry anyway, so not really a concern long-term.

Yeah, I tried it a little and got ANNIHILATED by this machine coming out of the ground in this quarry like area. Then I saw her play the same fight and she would use that scanner, slowdown shooting, and hopping on hard rocks and she barely even got hit and then I realized I didn't know how to play, lol. I really enjoy reading the logs about the prior world and what happened, I can see why this game got some hype.

Butler was a reasonable risk for the Sixers and I think Minnesota will regret not moving hard on Josh Richardson if they had a chance to get him earlier.

I'm legitimately curious. He seems like a great offensive mind to me and I can only judge him by what appears to be his talent level/roster and adjustments/schemes and so forth, but I do wonder why someone over 50 with his seeming talent is where he is right now.

Fair enough, but you can't only look at NCAA tourney results so heavily as obviously there is so much context and variables involved in assessing a coach. Using that sole argument to immediately dismiss three coaches isn't very deep without further context behind why they are/are not good coaches. I'd argue some fairly successful coaches with great talent and some NCAA success in the tourney are actually average to bad coaches versus some less proven guys in the tourney that have better maximized their situation. For Musselman, I just believe he is good coach that has excellent offensive acumen and that he could parlay that well into Big 12 play. I'm pretty sure for Weir I know about 1000% more about him because for one I know he has only been a head coach two full prior years so 1/3 is very misleading and outright wrong. It's his third season starting now, but as I said, he's not ready but I think he's got potential to be a good coach down the road and let's see if can rebuild the New Mexico program. I wouldn't chase Buzz Williams but not because of his NCAA tourney record. Shaka is recruiting well, but I can't believe anyone with real basketball acumen would argue he is a great tactician. It's pretty obvious, and so much so to me, I will never really argue the point as I think that's a waste of time. Whether Texas could get anyone else better IS a legitimate argument, and I don't know if there are a lot of good choices out there. Shaka himself of course had the one magical run, but he also was at a non-power 5 program with four straight seasons trending down for the most part with mostly a worse overall record, worse conference record, and less success year by year in the tourney going from 2nd round, 2nd round, then 1 and out, and 1 and out with those last two years being upset as the higher seed against a double digit seed. I'd also argue Will Wade might have done as good a job if not better with VCU after Shaka left considering the overall situation. I think Texas is not the kind of program that can easily hire someone with huge NCAA tourney success as it is and/or they wouldn't leave their program for a lateral or downgrade move, so I think you have to have some risk involved in hiring anyway. If Texas was a true blue blood, you can go after anyone but the basketball program is not the football program. I'm realistic enough to believe it will be very hard for Texas to crack into this group consistently but I do believe we can have a program that is challenging for the Top 10-15 consistently with an NCAA appearance annually with the threat to make the Sweet 16 every year. Maybe once in a while, we get a magical recruit/run/hot streak that cracks into the Elite Eight and beyond. Shaka's now 23-31 in Big 12 play. I don't think it's unfair to say that with the available talent during this run that 23-31 is disappointing. I think a legitimate worry is if another coach can recruit this well, but I'm not worried we could find another coach that can at least hit .500 in conference even if recruiting is not quite the same. I still am happy to give him more time this year and see if he gets better, but it's equally fair to critically evaluate his tenure so far as underwhelming.

The Lakers still have a lot of work to do but they should be encouraged by their play when LeBron is off the floor so far. LeBron's Achilles has always been free throw shooting late (which I believe impacts his desire to drive) so that is kind of always going to be there. It's one the very valid separators between Jordan and LeBron in all-time comparisons. Chandler and McGee are possible train wrecks but if you look carefully at McGee so far, I think he's been pretty good and Chandler is a decent enough 10-15 min guy that shores up a glaring weakness in the first set of games. Still some dumb mistakes from McGee, but I have to imagine the Lakers are thrilled with what they have gotten so far. I thought the team would look very flat and undisciplined especially on defense the first 20-25 games at about .500 or so and maybe pick up a little steam over the rest of the season to squeak near 50 wins. I still think that's about right as I believe they will be a better team at the end of the year than you are seeing now (if healthy) both from better familiarity and development and also LeBron starting to actually play harder.

Musselman would be a good choice to me, very good coach and you know the team would be trained and developed well over time. Very safe choice in terms of not risking wasting a roster with good talent on poor schematics. Another coach in the MW that is probably not ready yet for this kind of job but I like potentially maybe down the road for the right program is Paul Weir at New Mexico although still very unproven to me. Donovan would be great too. I can't think of any great college coaches that would realistically leave as a head of a program to come to Texas so you likely are looking at unproven but maybe very talented assistants and very few HC choices overall that are likely outside the power conferences.

If the offensive line improves a little going into next year, I am a lot more comfortable with the offense right now than I would have dreamed about two months ago.

My wife got Horizon Zero Dawn complete edition for I think $20 and messed around with it -- seems like a pretty beautiful world to explore.

Yeah I can buy that prediction as it seems really close.

Duke-Kentucky. Try and tune in here and there for updates but likely streaming both on separate devices.

I don't have enough power to give you +1000 on this...

Some brief thoughts for Senate: Dem: WV, MT, FL, NV in order of confidence GOP: ND, TN, MO, TX in order of confidence True toss-ups: AZ, IN Govs: GA: R, chaos and bad feelings FL: D, chaos and bad feelings