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UTDD

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Everything posted by UTDD

  1. I think that is the worst play call I have ever seen in my life when it counted -- not sure how you don't give your QB a chance to either run or pass. Wow.
  2. Zion has a better handle than I thought after watching him. I think his immediate NBA skill that will translate well is rebounding -- he looks very quick off the ground and his vertical is obviously elite to say the least. His athleticism and unusual height/weight combo doesn't really garner many good NBA comparisons, but maybe guys like Larry Johnson and Charles Barkley are somewhat in the neighborhood. I think he's the best pure athlete I can recall since LeBron although I am sure I am forgetting somebody. Lot of good NBA talent on Duke this year...as usual I suppose.
  3. Manchin and Flake will never be the deciding vote. It's really all down to Murkowski and Collins.
  4. UTDD

    Cruz vs Beto

    So my 97 year old grandmother (she can still drive a golf cart slowly and cognitively all there still!) up in Sun City/Georgetown who has never voted Democratic in maybe 50+ years told me yesterday as the kids saw their great-grandmother that she was voting against Cruz because she thinks he looks like a rat.
  5. It's a tough vote for a few Republican Senators. I wonder if privately they just wish Kavanaugh could be quickly pulled for Barrett or Hardiman.
  6. Yeah I buy this and agree with what is likely to actually happen, I am only really speaking to how I would vote personally based on their NBA careers. I think Parker (and Gasol to a lesser extent) are what I would call maybe Tier 3 or 4 Hall of Famers. (Top 100 player as a floor, but clearly not in the Top 30 or better as a ceiling)
  7. If Texas doesn't have a losing turnover margin, I think they will win. I've never felt confident about a game there, but this year I am 80% confident with only mistakes being the major concern.
  8. I agree with what you think will actually happen, and I also generally agree with this thought process for most of what I would call the country club/corporate faction of the Republican party, but I also believe there is a smaller faction within the party that truly wants to change the law (I'll call it the Pence wing even though that is not entirely accurate) at all costs. I think this is also true of the immigration debate in that it's a good political issue for a lot of the party but that a smaller faction is extreme on the issue. To be fair, I also suspect this was true of the Democrats in roughly 2010 with immigration as well in that they could have really turned up the heat on it with the control they had but maybe didn't for political gain.
  9. I'm wondering this big time now. I have always thought Thomas and Gorsuch were certainly conservative in their principles and analysis, but not too political in the worst way, but I really wonder with Kavanaugh. I had wondered whether he could end up slightly more moderate than it seemed when he actually got on the Court, but I do not really feel that way anymore. I think this entire process has definitely damaged the Supreme Court as an institution as the entire point of the judiciary on one level is that it is apolitical (we know in the real world it has some impact but at least the analysis is guided this way as much as possible) in a good way.
  10. The court will shift some with Kavanaugh there, but I do believe Roberts will shift slightly on some crucial cases that will end up 5-4 in ways even Kennedy might not have voted at times. Robert's ACA ruling was very telling in how specific cases might break and I think at least for abortion (at least at its core the issue of fundamental right of privacy under the 14th) he won't go all the way, although you certainly could see further chipping away at it. I think Roberts was actually a solid choice for Chief Justice considering how he was nominated and by whom all things considered.
  11. I think if two one loss teams come out of the SEC championship game, both could make it absent multiple undefeated teams.
  12. I thought Fallout 4 started too slow (although I liked the very start with vault exit) and the Minutemen stuff was not the best start, but over time I think it had a lot of good content. The best thing about FO4 is that like Skyrim there are some pretty good mods to make the game a lot more fun. I didn't like the dialogue style as a lot of times it just felt like 4 variations of the exact same choice and FO3 had a lot more depth in dialogue. New Vegas had better dialogue as well, but the combat in FO4 is vastly better than both of the others in my opinion. Still, it was a cool world and it easily gives you hundreds of hours of play so it's a good value to me for sure. What the studio does next with Starfield is the interesting question for me right now.
  13. Oklahoma doesn't exist for me until next week. Worry about Kansas St first. A 4-1 start going into that game being honest is better than what I would have expected at the start of the year, so I hope it comes to pass.
  14. Honestly, I feel bad for anyone close to him that has to live with him day to day. You don't have to be a psychiatrist to glean that this kind of behavior likely translates to a very bitter and unpleasant person that is not happy in life for whatever reason. VY moving on and both writing the letter and coming to grips with his own failings in the past is exceptionally good for him whether anyone responded or not, and I am pretty confident he is the happier person right now, which is all that counts frankly.
  15. I think Tony Parker is pretty easily in the HOF, but I wouldn't vote him first ballot because I don't think was nearly that dominant. He made four All-NBA teams in his career, but never a single 1st team All-NBA team, zero All-Defensive teams, and he was never clearly a Top 3-5 player in the NBA for multiple years, which is kind of where I personally view a first ballot standard. In contrast, Duncan was I think ten times first team All-NBA (not to mention multiple other years at second team All-NBA), eight times first team All-Defensive, the other accolades of course. I think first ballot is at minimum Top 30-40ish player all-time and I think Parker isn't close to that standard personally. For another modern comparison, maybe the difference between Pau Gasol and Dirk in that I think both are HOFs, but Dirk is first ballot and Gasol would not be for me if I was voting.
  16. Why would three women risk so much under penalty of perjury and of course outright public scrutiny for this situation? Either they are telling the truth, one or more is true but one or more is false, or everything is false but possibly somehow they are getting some other type of motivation to come out? It's hard for me to fathom that everything is a lie but on the other hand I can't see how much evidence might exist at this point now either absent corroboration.
  17. If I am Minnesota I am trying to offer Dieng and Butler for Whiteside, Josh Richardson, and Adebayo. Bam is locked in two more years and Richardson four and best of all, Whiteside has a team option so they can free up cap space and dump him after this season or get him cheaper. They get rid of Dieng who has three more years locked in so that also frees up their space and they can let Teague go too if the price is not good. I don't think Miami wants to give up Bam but Minnesota should try. Minnesota's fatal flaw right now is they have a max slot used up for a talented player with a terrible heart, brain, and motor for the game of basketball (Wiggins) and there is nothing they can do about that right now.
  18. Clemson could have been really nasty and informed Bryant after he played five games, but it worked out for Bryant in a way. I think Clemson loses the A&M game without him, but I also think it's possible Lawrence by the end of the year will be a better player than Bryant would be at the same time. I'm not sure Lawrence is better right now but he's clearly an elite talent that was a huge five star recruit for QB for a reason.
  19. I think it might make some teams try and use a little more depth at times to preserve players staying on the team and on the macro level, you may see some teams actually lose some critical depth if they handle their players poorly. It's so hard to say as it's so new and it opens up possibilities that for the most part are giving players more empowerment and the ability to try and control their own future a little better than in the past.
  20. This is the article I read a while back on this -- haven't heard of anything changing... https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2018/06/12/there-are-no-npcs-in-fallout-76-only-other-players-and-robots/#5a25f48641c9
  21. I'm on the fence as I think Bethesda is really good at world building and narrative, but this is kind of a different direction for their studio. Having no human NPCs is a negative to me as I would have loved to have some kind of cool "hub" area/town with NPC traders and quest givers (maybe even a seedy bar, etc) where players can just chill, role play, trade, etc. I think the initial launch will likely be riddled with server issues, but that it will later stabilize and become a better game after 3-6 months. I think I would seriously be looking at this right about when something like Anthem is coming out or so.
  22. Daniels is really good, he is making a couple of tough NFL throws that not too many college QBs can master even after a few years. He just needs some time to continue to develop and USC should be good to go at that position for a few more years.
  23. I honestly don't know if other NBA teams have great policies or not -- every HR/legal department is different but you would hope organizations this large would be on top of this type of thing. I tend to think truly good leadership will translate to good standards more often than not, so having a few key executives with the vision and foresight to ensure the brand (team) is not in danger is of paramount importance. I am sure every team has some sort of policy but the issue is whether the policy is great (or not) on paper, and how it actually translates to solving actual issues that may arise. Let's not forget other things have come up in the past as well (for example Thomas with the Knicks) here and there. I still think the NBA could have taken this as a PR opportunity to commit somehow to all NBA teams following a very good set of uniform guidelines for reporting/standards that are somehow based on specific metrics that are recommended best practices by the appropriate organization(s) (experts in this area) to nip this issue in the bud in a big way (plus the positive PR both helps the league long-term and deflects the attention on reporters possibly investigating other teams and/or employees of other NBA teams coming out with their own stories more easily). The NBA certainly doesn't need to do this at all, but it would be very proactive and aggressive in ensuring maximization of their long-term brand.
  24. Marvel clearly planned ahead with multiple films and years of connected stories and made everything tie together even with very distinct films and different heroes, etc. Star Wars clearly did not have a good plan for their new trilogy and having one director set up a bunch of story-lines and then the next one completely deviating in a disconnected way with his own take and the director replacements, etc. They should have had a complete trilogy planned with all three laid out right from the start and planned accordingly.
  25. I don't think it's fair to compare Sterling to Cuban in that Sterling clearly initiated his own personal conduct in a way that was a danger to the entire NBA if something was not done swiftly. The players themselves would have revolted (this is a huge factor that made the owners act) and harmed the NBA owners with no action, and that (unfortunately in some ways when you think about it) is not the case with this situation at all. I think the actual harm of Dallas' workplace is much worse than Sterling's comments with real victims, but Cuban himself didn't conduct himself that way. I think Cuban's very strong level of cooperation with the NBA investigation and quick changes in the organization (new CEO a very big one) saved him from losing a draft pick or being suspended for some time this season. I do think the NBA missed a real golden opportunity to showcase a level of commitment to this issue for example creating a new campaign aimed to target these issues with say an NBA task force (even a new executive position perhaps just for this issue at the NBA) and set of guidelines and standards signed by all NBA owners in unison for all NBA teams with new reporting standards and many other changes that could have been a great PR move for them. The NBA has always been so superior to the NFL in being proactive with many issues, but I think they missed a good chance here.
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