Cole Miner

Lowry was so dumb.

No one is really playing above potential either. Most teams in the league had good young players moving in the right direction. It was far and away the toughest year to pick playoff teams since both conferences had 12 or 13 teams in the discussion. The only 2 teams that are way off where you'd expect are Houston and New Orleans. New Orleans makes sense because of the injuries. The team I am most impressed with so far is Dallas. Since Brett Brown took over as coach in 2013-2014 the Sixers have had 32 players start a game which is absurd. I went through every team and just as you'd expect the worst teams all had the higher total. Dallas was the only exception among teams that were playoff teams in both seasons. They've had 27 in that time. Just damn good coaching to keep plugging guys in and keep winning. This was the full list. Sixers 32 Lakers 29 Kings 28 Heat 28 (A lot of those were from resting guys in 13-14) Knicks 27 Mavs 27 Cavs 27 Bucks 26 Wolves 26 Nets 26 Nuggets 24 Rockets 24 Pelicans 23 Celtics 21 Spurs 20 Pacers 20 Hornets 19 Grizzlies 19 Magic 19 Wizards 18 Jazz 18 Thunder 18 Suns 17 Hawks 17 Bulls 17 Pistons 17 Blazers 16 Clippers 16 Warriors 15 Raptors 14

www.caulifloweralleyclub.org/rip-nick-bockwinkel/ Flair mentioned the other day on his podcast that he was in bad shape.

Spurs are shooting 29% and have a 12 point lead.

They are a high volume 3 point shooting team. Shooting less than 30% on 3PA. They are also incorporating a new player that is also a handler. Takes time sometimes. Remember the Cavs were 19-20 last year. I don't pay much attention to records at this point. 2010-2011 Cavs and 2013-2014 Sixers are tied with record long losing streaks of 26 games. Both finished 19-63. Both were 5-5 after 10 games.

They've had a really brutal schedule. Clippers twice, Golden State, Houston and San Antonio already. They also played Memphis and Phoenix without Cousins. Hard to blame Karl for not doing well with that schedule. That said I don't think he's a good fit for the team. If they could talk someone like Thibodeau into talking over it would make sense. Cousins, Koufos and WCS is one hell of a starting point for a defensive minded coach. McLemore is a pretty solid defender too and Karl is turning him into something that needs salvaged before it is too late. I liked the Kings as an 8th seed contender right up to the point I watched them in the preseason and realized they are going to be using Cousins on the perimeter. Negating the potential benefit Rondo could have had on Cousins main flaws.

Yep means as much as being King of the Ring. Appropriate actually that Barrett and Sheamus have tagged up recently.

One of McCoy's best moments

That was quite a meltdown by Portland. They were shooting 60% for the game going into the 4th quarter.

Same Hinkie was hired in the summer of 2013. That's not really a long time. Look at what we had when he took over. The team was completely ravaged from the Bynum trade when he took over. Players- Jrue Holiday, Spencer Hawes, Evan Turner, Thaddeus Young, Jason Richardson, Kwame Brown, Moultrie, Lavoy Allen Our draft Picks: Had our 2013 pick 2014 was owed but lottery protected, 2015 draft pick was owed but lottery protected, 2017 draft pick was owed. So he took over a team with marginal talent that if they made the playoffs we wouldn't have any draft picks to get better. Blowing it up and starting over was the only sensible choice due to the picks. From that mess this is what we have now. 1. Nerlens Noel- A stat sheet stuffing defensive player of the year type talent. Really good passer and rebounder. Lacks the touch to ever be a great shooter most likely. 2. Okafor- Never will be a great defender but he can be an Amar'e Stoudemire type offensive player. By that I mean production not play style. Okafor does have some ridiculous length though if he can learn to use it. 3. Dario Saric- A great competitor that has excelled at every level even when physically outclassed. Due to his very high basketball IQ and great fundamentals. His passing, vision, and handle are all elite for his size. I do think that his athletic limitations make him a better fit as a point forward off the bench. His best case scenario is as a Detlef Schrempf type. He reminds a lot of people of Boris Diaw. 4. 76ers 2016 first round draft pick 5. LA Lakers 2016 first round draft pick. Top 3 protected. 35% change of getting it if the Lakers have the worst record in the league 6. Miami Heat 2016 first round draft pick 7. Oklahoma City 2016 first round draft pick 8. The right to swap draft picks with the Sacramento Kings in the 2016 draft. Giving the Sixers 2 shots at the top pick if Sacramento misses the playoffs. 9. The right to swap draft picks with the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 with the OKC or Miami pick. Warriors are too good of a team for this to matter but I mention it anyway. Might move a slot or two depending on what OKC does. Not counting on it. 10. 76ers 2017 draft pick. Remember they traded this in the Bynum trade. Got it back swapping Saric and Payton. Gutsy move I think. 11. Also have the right to swap draft picks with Kings in 2017 12. A future first from the Kings. Likely 2018. If the Bulls haven't received their pick from them yet the Sixers will instead get the Kings 2019 pick unprotected. 11. Robert Covington- Very good shooter. Long term more likely a bench piece but an important one with his 3 point shooting. I could see getting value for him in a trade at the deadline this year. 12. Nik Stauskas- 2014 8th overall pick. I thought he was drafted too high. He has play making ability though. His shot hasn't been falling but the potential to be good is a bit higher than I expected. Needs to get in synch with his teammates. 13. 13 is the appropriate spot. One of the 3 best prospects of the last 10 years prior to his injury. Along with Anthony Davis and Greg Oden. Including Oden is appropriate too as well. 14. Christian Wood- A projected mid to late 1st round pick that fell out of the draft. Which is never good. Very athletic and a good shooter. Must be a complete asshole to fall out completley. No expectations of him but a good project piece. 15. Jerami Grant- Great athlete, good defender. No real offensive game. Likely a career back up for his defense only. 16. Tony Wroten- Free agent after this year. Deadline trade bait as well. 17. Hollis Thompson- Shot 40% from 3 first 2 years of his career. Typically there are 25-30 players in the NBA that shoot that high of a % at a high volume. That is all he is though a spot up 3 point shooter. 18. Kendall Marshall- Back up quality point guard. Hits a decent % of his 3s. 19. TJ McConnell- Back up quality point guard. Much better player than I was expecting. Good decision maker and passer. Don't expect more than that but he could end up surprising people. The difference already when is in or out of the game is huge. There is a legitimate chance that next years team will have 4 2016 first round draft picks added to it as well as Dario Saric and Joel Embiid. I think there are a lot of chances to get better. Certainly more than when he took over. We're not really even behind the pace. We have a lottery pick starting from the last 3 drafts in Noel, Stauskas and Okafor. I forgot we also have an obscene amount of cap room. I don't think that matters all that much though with the rising cap. At least not immediately. If teams keep overpaying for marginal talent a couple years down the line it will cost them someone good.

1. Mr Bungle- Carry Stress in the Jaw Lucky Start. Favorite song of theirs. 2. Ween- Golden Eel Haven't listened to Ween in a long time. Song is on their best album, IMO, The Mollusk. 2 stoner songs to start. 3. Helen Humes- Be Baba Leba I wasn't familiar with this song. I have tons of compilations I haven't listened to. A swing jazz song. She sounds good. Good song. 4. Rick James- Superfreak I was worried this was MC Hammer at first. 5. Fleetwood Mac- Tell Me from the Start This is from the early days of the band when they were a blues group. Short laid back song. 6. The Kinks- All the Day and All the Night I would have preferred something from Arthur. Had that number 1 I believe on the 60s album project. 7. Latimore- Let's Straighten It Out This was number 1 on the R&B chart in 74 for a short amount of time. Not much of a fan. Just don't think the lyrics are a great fit to the music. 8. Burl Ives- A Little Bitty Tear Early 60s country pop from a compilation. Not much to say about it. By the numbers. 9. Lindsey Buckingham- Soul Drifter I like this song and I like the album Out of the Cradle. Early 90s I believe. 10. Donald Fagen- Maxine I can listen to Fagen/Steely Dan pretty much any time. This song was in my regular listening rotation years ago. 10 songs with no blues. Surprising. Fleetwood Mac was a blues band at the time of the 1 song though. Wouldn't consider that track blues though.

Well at least at this point he would just be a bonus. I know logically I should just write him off. I still hold out hope though. Since Illgauskas had a similar issue for 2 straight seasons. Illgauskas is cool and went and visited him at the hospital after the surgery. Plus he would just be a junior in college right now. One of the Doctor's that did the 2nd surgery also did Durant's surgery. He said Embiid's foot was in better shape than Durant. They all said it looked a lot better than what they were expecting. On Durant's foot they used a substance to graft it which they were going to do with Embiid as well. Ended up just using his own bone because the condition it was in was good. Maybe the lack of pain was a good sign as well. Ming and Walton were at a disadvantage when they had their issues with their feet. They both have arched feet. Also the issues were discovered much later. Hopefully it isn't a repeat of Oden. Oden, Roy and Aldridge are the ultimate what could have been. They were 52-10 when all 3 of them played together. It will probably be in the Insider section once he does knowing ESPN. Yeah there are a lot of issues a team can have with players. Not being able to get a free agent because your big turned out to be a franchise player isn't a bad one. It would be nice if they had his bird rights though for extra roster flexibility. They are limited in what they can do trading as well. I don't remember the exact details but I remember reading last year if their first round pick in the 2015 didn't go to Philadelphia they wouldn't be able to trade a first round pick for a while. Worth it though. At the very least Winslow will be a great defender.

The posts HERE on the Cowboys forum are something else. Hardy is the victim. My favorite line "she had the opportunity if she was truly innocent."

Yeah they aren't in a good position since they don't own Whiteside's bird rights. If they don't pay him someone else will. Worth more than Thompson and Kanter and they got paid. I'm not sure how attractive of a destination that team would be without him. Bosh will be 32, Dragic is turning 30. Wade will be 35.

Ralph Sampson was IMO. Back injury killed him but before it happened he was a freak. Dragan Bender might have more upside than Porzingis. He will get compared to Porzingis a lot but it isn't really fair. They have similar height and weight, and are both European, but the comparison ends there. All I'll say about Bender is that anyone that wondered what a 7'0" plus Andrei Kirilenko would look like might just get to find out soon enough. I'm trying not to remember he exists at the moment but Embiid is, or should I say was, really athletic for someone 7'2" in shoes. Fast, explosive, with rare body control and coordination.

Nets really only have 1 choice. Let things play out this season and try and rebuild using cap space in the off-season. They will have money to spend. This season is a loss. If they were worried about giving Boston too good of a pick they shouldn't have agreed to buyout Williams.

They are screwed. In 2017 Boston can swap with them and they don't owe it outright. Just highly unlikely Boston is bad enough to still get value. All signs point to the 2017 draft being 2003 quality.

Was watching it. Wizards deserve to lose that lead. Want to kill your momentum? Have Drew Gooden and Kris Humpheries jack up 3 point shots.

I wonder if Chip Kelly's Mariota fetish is still ongoing. Might call and try and trade himself to them.

I thought you guys might be replicating SVG's Orlando teams if Drummond's defense went up a notch. Tonights game looks impressive since the 3s weren't dropping and the team hit only 50% of their free throws. Pulling out those kind of wins should give you a lot of optimism.

Really sucks not getting the first pick this year. Towns is a beast. Legit franchise player to build around for them.

OKC and Orlando playing in a game of the year candidate. Going into double overtime.

Well, I want to do something for you, Well, I wanna do something for you I'll do anything in the world I can I want to do something for you, If I can. Well you can't do nothing for me, Well you can't do nothing for me. I don't care what ever you say, You can't do nothing for me. You understand? I'll buy you a strip of land, I'll buy you a strip of land, Yes, I'll buy you a strip of land, I want to do something for you, If I can. I don't want a strip of land, I don't want no strip of land. Man, I don't want nothing in the world you got, You can't do nothing for me. Understand? I'll buy you a house and home I'll buy you a house and home Yes I'll buy you a house and home Want to do something for you If I can I don't want no house and home I don't want no house and home Man I don't want nothing in the world you got, You can't do nothing for me, You understand? I'll buy you a diamond ring, etc. I don't want no diamond ring, etc. I'll buy you a chevrolet etc. Don't want no chevrolet etc. I'll buy you a sedan Ford etc. Yes, I'll take a sedan Ford, Yes, I'll take a Sedan Ford, Thought I didn't want nothing in the world you had, But I will take a sedan Ford

Exactly.

They are one of the teams in the west with a legit shot at a title. Not really underestimating them. There just happens to 5 teams of that quality.