UTDD

Yeah, his advanced stats are frankly obscene right now. I might tweak this dependent on record of course later, but I'd probably go # 1 Jokic, #2 Embiid, # 3 Durant, and # 4 LeBron. I think Durant won't suffer as much with the Curry narrative and he's coming back from an injury, so despite the three stars, there is possibly a good narrative to vote for him. (and yeah, narrative matters for the actual voters, which is why Giannis could replicate the exact same stats and even a little better, but he has no shot to win this year) I think narrative will help LeBron too, so Jokic and Embiid should try and get the best record they can for the team. Boston's record is too poor for Brown I think, but yeah, he's played great this year.

Out of all the people I know under 30 that actually own a home, I would say more than half are doing something very social media oriented or independent creative type work (Twitch/Youtube/Instagram/Patreon) on their own. I can't even argue with those that don't see the value of going 100k+ in debt for a degree with poor income prospects. A few of the others just got good degrees (engineers, video game dev related work) that allowed pretty good incomes fairly early if you got a little lucky.

From a pure scoring skillset, I have him right up there with anyone that has ever played the game. I always hate trying to be fair and even rate UT players, but I feel like for me he is going to end up when it's all said and done roughly #11-15 all-time. I also kind of thought KD could get a lot of the GS legacy stuff off his back a little with multiple titles with Brooklyn, and that might still be the case even though they have Harden now. (This Brooklyn team is very talented, but they are not the 2017 Warriors, who I'd argue was one of the best teams ever.)

On paper, KC looks great. They also seem like a bad matchup for Tampa Bay. But at this point, I can't really ever write off Tom Brady. He didn't exactly close out the game masterfully for a lot of the second half, but he did when it counted. So while I think KC should win, I definitely won't be shocked if they get beat. This should be a fun one.

When you have an all-time QB and don't give him a shot to tie the game...

Packers are clearly the better team to me, but if I was a Packers fan, I'd never be totally comfortable going against Tom Brady in a critical game either. Rodgers I think really needs this game to solidify his already great legacy. He's truly an amazing talent, but 1 Super Bowl win and being 1-3 in championship games versus 2 SB wins and 2-3 is a pretty big jump. I think the Packers could win this pretty easily if they can protect Rodgers in the pocket.

The reality is that Nash probably doesn't get hired at all without the blessing of certain players so I think they had their chance to shut that down. Nash just needs to learn how to manage his roster and improve as best as he can for this season and beyond.

If Denver had a better record right now, I'd have to vote Jokic for MVP as of today. He's had a really great start. I think he's #1 in OWS, WS, W/48, BPM, OBPM, # 2 in DBPM (#1 in offensive BPM and #2 for defensive BPM is not a very common combo to my knowledge), #1 PER, #1 VORP. His VORP of 1.7 is a large gap ahead of some of the other superstars like KD/LeBron/AD (1.0), Kawhi/Embiid (0.9), Curry/Giannis (0.8). Not that any one stat should be taken as so conclusive, but you can't ignore how good he has been so far this year. I think he's even averaging a triple double or very close to it from the center position just to add to everything else. But they might need to be a Top 3ish team in the West for him to have a shot, and I don't know if he can maintain this high level of play all year. He's always been great, but not this great.

Just caught the end so no context how the rest of the game went, but it looks like I missed a fun one. Wow, Green/Harris 9-12 from 3 checking box score, now that's getting it done, wow! Harden getting them some great looks? (Harden to me is sometimes underrated as a play maker because of his scoring, and I definitely think he should dominate the ball the most with Durant off ball and Kyrie kind of playing a small SG in a sense at times.) I hope these two teams meet in the playoffs.

Err, am I seeing those hand signals correctly with I think three of them?

My honest thought is...I don't know. But from a pure value perspective, they didn't have to give up Dinwiddie (injured but still for down the road good) or Harris. Allen is a big loss for them, but hard to pass up getting Harden. I guess we'll see. Underrated aspect on this trade too is that OKC owns a few Houston picks down the road that might have gotten more valuable now.

Well sure, but they have added urgency with the Lakers matchups. Most teams don't have a chance to actually compete for a title, the Nets do.

I don't agree that he is a very good defender (just to be fair I would equate very good as a Top 20ish defender in the league) but pretty solid, but I do agree it's very unfair to lump him in with Kyrie and Harden. I think Durant for the most part (except I think two years maybe) correctly has been on zero All-NBA Defensive teams his entire career, but he's looked very healthy this year. Harden and Kyrie on the other hand haven't really shown much in their careers, and I don't expect that to change.

Wow. The only thing I know for sure is that I think the Cavs did great to get Allen. He's only 22 years old, and I think he's going to continue to improve. He'll always be a good influence and story hopefully for St. Stephens. I really wonder how Harden and Kyrie will coexist well with how they both play, but it's hard to pass up the chance to get three players of this caliber on the same team. But now they have three non-elite defenders and DeAndre Jordan (who was rightfully benched for Allen) in their starting lineup. But man, they should be fun to watch and their offense should be pretty scary. They'll want to add a backup big, and they might want to try and get another wing defender. I really wonder if Philly passed on a deal, and what it was to have some kind of comparison, but we might not find out.

I have faith that the true guardians of whatever black projects/secrets of the universe are out there took one look at Trump and rightly decided this President wasn't getting a briefing.

Now you have the sister public b-day party video the NBA is looking at while he was away from the team. He's basically almost guaranteed to miss this entire week, which now would add up to a decent chunk of games. The Nets need him if KD wants him, but I bet they are nervous right now. It's a long time ago from his amazing run in 2016, and the Celtics doing better without him multiple times, and in particular his putrid four games against the Bucks in the playoffs made this a kind of prove it year to me. He was doing great on the court early on this season, but this isn't a great look right now. I mean, he's a 50/40/90 type of offensive player, so that's damn good but...

I think he's just being smart and trying to get in on the action.

There's something to some of the anti-Steph stuff with some in the NBA. Kind of a corporate darling, and certainly some jealousy out there and even racial undertones. I even think some of the treatment of Steph by the media/fan base, and even the Warriors organization drove Durant away (maybe not the main reason, but likely part of it) from the Warriors, although that was a losing battle for him. Curry will always be like Derek Jeter with Durant being Alex Rodriguez for the Warriors fan base. (to me a reasonable parallel with A-Rod coming to the Yankees) I think LeBron has been the best player in the league for quite a while, but I definitely think one can at least argue that Steph might have been the best player in the league in 2016. He certainly put up an offensive season that was just incredible. I also think children especially can enjoy pretending to be him in ways that isn't quite the same with these super tall/long athletes that seem otherworldly. Even bright young kids at a certain age can know they aren't that kind of body, but Steph is so much more accessible for say fantasy roleplaying/scenarios on the court that way.

I don't what to feel other than I am glad Herman is gone. I'd take a small chance that Sark is the answer versus being quite sure Herman can't get it done here. But, it's not enough of a hire to engage my pocketbook again. Definitely a wait and see for at least a year or two.

I thought my app was misreporting for sure. 77-27, holy...

I just have to laugh at this kind of trolling. What kind of sad and pathetic life one must have to actually take the time to do this as their mental stimulation/entertainment. It says a lot more about one's own pathetic existence than anything else. But it's always nice to feel some schadenfreude about another pitiful human being out there. Well done.

I know this will be lost a bit, but the two players I were watching the most were Durant and Wiseman. I think Wiseman actually looked pretty decent for his first game. I'm definitely curious how he develops over the season. The Nets looked fantastic, but never wise to judge too much from one game and a lower quality opponent. But nothing I saw changes much as to what I thought they could do this season...very bullish on their prospects this year. Just stay healthy, be committed to being solid defensively, and avoid Kyrie madness/drama, and they're good to go.

Well this is going to be fun soon for those of us that know A&M people...

I objectively just don't buy that ND is a Top 4 team, but I also know what that means...

I think Houston at minimum would be nuts not insisting on LeVert, Allen, and Dinwiddie plus, and I think I would rather have those three than Harden all things considered. This is a really good team. They are deep and their pieces fit well together. Their only worries to me are mostly health, a little bit Kyrie's head/focus, and perhaps they might have a hard time being a truly elite Top 3-4 defensive team. But they were 9th in defensive rating last year, and they have some good pieces. If things break right, I think they can win the East and contend with the Lakers competitively.