I want to thank you all for helping me know my meme, since I've been lagging in that department for a couple decades. Only yesterday Five Alarm Freddy taught me "I like turtles", and today DDD replaced it with Klay's superior "Sea Captain" response. Incidentally, is Klay a one-man meme generator, or what?
Jan 27, 2022Liked by Eric Apricot, punk basketball
At the hospital with the wife, twin girls on the way. Wife was not very receptive to my suggestion of “Waylon” and “Willie” as names. Maybe “Steph” and “Klay”?
For someone who would have been named Russena [a combination of my parents' names] I will offer no names. Just - if you think it's a really good idea but it's really not ... don't. [The name I did end up with I have had to spell to 95% of people all my life and have come up with a couple of fun aliases for restaurants, as a result.]
"The spirit animal for this era is Draymond Green, a 6-7 forward with the strength and length to play center in “small” lineups but the mobility, hands and IQ to switch on any player 1 through 5. It’s harder to evaluate careers in mid-stream, but it’s safe to say Green will go down as one of the all-time great defenders, and certainly one of the smartest ever. His current tally stands at six NBA All-Defensive selections and one Defensive Player of the Year award, but he’ll surely add to that. Green led the league defensive BPM twice and is leading again this season, while his career mark ranks third all time."
He doesn’t say very much more about Green. Aside from saying how smart he is and how many awards he has, he doesn’t analyze what makes Green unusual. He then ranks him two down from Gobert in the top 25 all-time defenders.
Love the way it starts with an illustrative example of how hard it is to find defense in the stats, with the two Houston vs. Memphis plays. Very smart article, kind of a shame it's paywalled (that $12 bargain was absolutely worth it!) and the average fan won't be able to enjoy it. Hopefully pundits are a bit more likely to be subbed and maybe it'll open the eyes of one or two regular writers.
Still won't change the opinions of people who don't watch the games, but hey. It's something.
Their conclusion (drop is NOT caused by replacement players) is flawed, imo. But...
----
They also had some other interesting things regarding the advantage of availability of rotation players vs. opponents' availability.
Teams with the most advantage over the course of the season (ie. they had more of their regular rotation players while the other team had fewer):
PHX, CLE, TOR, BOS
Teams with a disadvantage:
LAL, OKC, POR, ATL
Dubs were about even but at a slight disadvantage overall (but their methodology is a little messed up: it's based on minutes played this season... so Klay did not count as a regular rotation player).
Am I crazy or was last game the first time it felt like Klay “fit” (to use a popular term on this site today) in terms of personality integration? Like, it seemed he was having fun with the other guys and they were having fun with him.
I think he’s been having fun with the guys fineness off court as best we can judge these things, but it’s a while other meaning of “fit” when someone threads a behind the back pass to you for a highlight dunk. That often really advances a relationship. I’ll bet the locker room after or the next shoot around were quite friendly
Not crazy. There were some post-game questions about that and I think the general consensus was that everything just felt in rhythm for Klay... nothing forced...
For sure. He had a couple misses where it seemed like he didn’t get his legs “under him” which makes me think he’s still got a few more levels to climb over and above just getting in better and better game shape.
Jan 27, 2022·edited Jan 27, 2022Liked by punk basketball
Sooo, I'm in a rec league and we recently just started our new season. In any case, we came back this season ready to make our mark and win those yearlong Great America passes . . . only to realize that the team that beat us in the finals had replaced their worst player with a center who is 6'5 that proceeded to dominate the squad they were facing.
I'm starting to realize how teams felt facing the Warriors. This shit aint fair lmao!!!
If he's just flat out good -- welp, pray for the best!
Otherwise, you might have some success by playing semi-dirty (nothing that risks injury of course). Elbows in the ribs, tugging his jersey, generally impeding his progress, shoving him randomly, etc. are a lot harder to see and notice (by the refs) when he's a lot bigger than you :)
...tugging on shorts is much more effective than tugging on jerseys. ever try and jump when someone has a grip on your shorts? also, stepping on toes works.
(I had a lot of this done to me when I was playing Intramurals and a guy on the basketball team played, which seemed super unfair...)
We're definitely going to pull out all the stops. Right now, in our group chat, we're thinking of doing a 2-3 zone to protect the inside since me/the other guard are pretty good defenders so we can probably hold our own in the perimeter. And yeah, you best bet there is going to be some extracurriculars lmao.
Is he a stretch big or a bruiser? Fairly easy to counter both ways if he's just an average joe basketball player and doesn't have elite athleticism. It wouldn't matter regardless if you guys just rain 3s all season. The best defense is to make your opponent cry by hitting 20 3s
He's mainly a bruiser, but he showed that he can hit from three as well (just doesn't choose to do that). As for whether he's just flat out good, admittedly its a one game sample size, but he was looking real good.
As for the second part, I agree! All of my other teammates are three point shooters while I play a point forward role! Who knows, maybe we'll catch fire!!
There's loads I would do if I had the unilateral power to make changes. The best solution is probably implementing some sort of divisions structure with a D1 and a D2. This would introduce relegations and promotions into the structure - teams cannot tank as that would mean going down to D2 and losing out on money. Obviously, this isn't feasible as team owners would never agree to it.
Another solution would be to reverse the lottery odds for non-lottery teams (i.e. the team that finished 9th in the conference is going to have the highest odds of winning the lottery in the conference). This doesn't fix tanking per se (some teams in the 6-8 range might want to tank for #9 in this case), but it does significantly decrease it as:
- Tanking for #9 is a much harder thing to do than tanking for last as tanking for #9 requires balancing winning and losing.
- Tanking when you're in the playoff hunt is significantly harder to pull off for most GMs as fans usually want to be in the playoffs.
This solution also has the added benefit of increasing the value of mid-tier players again rather than the current salary structure that is pervasive across the league (max contracts and minimums with few mid-tier contracts).
Another solution (which Adam Silver might be more amenable to) would be having an end-of-season tournament before the playoffs between non-playoff teams where the winners get the higher lottery odds (or even the high draft picks straight up, though that might lead to slight conflicts of interest). Again, this incentivizes winning rather than losing, which is the fundamental problem we're trying to solve.
As for superstars don't want to play in Charlotte or OKC, I understand that. However, you don't need to have superstars to be a fringe playoff team or a mediocre team. Building a competent team is enough - the Pacers have been competent for a gazillion years without any superstars apart from PG13 briefly. So have the Spurs in recent years.
And yes, these solutions are far from perfect (and probably have multiple 2nd and 3rd degree consequences which I cannot think about right now). But are they better than the status quo? I would strongly argue yes when about 5 teams are tanking in a season in a 30 team league (and that number strongly increases as we near the end of the season). It is my firm belief that there are very few negatives (if any?) for the NBA that are worse for the overall product that 5 teams trying to lose every night.
The promotion and relegation thing doesn’t really work. Look at European football. Some teams yo yo. With enough investment some stick on the higher league. But it’s still the same teams winning every year. Which is a similar problem to your pacers example. Is that what fans want? To support a team with no hopes of a championship but win around half their games? It’s not what I would want.
You're comparing 2 fundamentally different things. European football doesn't have parity because the players are free to sign with the best teams from an early age (or the best teams can simply buy up the best players due to no salary contstraints). Teams consolidate talent and create monopolies (say in the Bundesliga) or oligopolies (say in the Premier League) because they can simply consolidate all the best talent from the other teams. That is not the case with the NBA due to the draft (players can be retained for about 8 years with the team that originally drafted them). None of that changes with any of the above proposed solutions.
And why wouldn't the Pacers have any chance of winning a championship (at least any less so than right now)? They can get the 9 seed or win the tournament (they're incredible at being mediocre) and after that they can get the #1 pick. The best way to rebuild for small market teams is through the draft - that doesn't change. The only difference is that you need to achieve some measure of competency before getting good lottery picks.
Good ideas, and yes very many consequences for each.
My emotionally favorite ideas are relegation (the real solution and will never happen due to monopoly) and just having a lottery with flat odds for the entire league (get rid of the owner welfare system).
Lottery with flat odds is also good by me (it's better than what we have right now at least). The biggest thing is to reduce the perverse incentives which promote losing for a lot of teams.
How about a hybrid of the GLeague route that Kuminga took except that after a season players earn “pro” designation and can sign wherever the hell they want.
Yeah, having player be draft eligible for D2 (or a repurposed G-League) could be a possibility. They get paid a year earlier and have much better development opportunities (being full-time basketball players in a good league rather than college athletes). As for sign wherever they want, I'm in favor of that from a human perspective, but that would lead to superteams in LA (x2), New York (x2), Miami etc. Parity would be destroyed by something like that. I'd still be in favor (because humans should be able to live where they want to live), but I would guess a significant majority of fans wouldn't.
But it's obviously never going to happen lol (or at least not anytime soon).
I just want sports teams to try to win games. Is that too much to ask lol?
I'm kind of the GP2 of my roster in that I'm pretty athletic (can almost dunk). Though tbh, I really modeled my game after Rondo (passing first pg/great defense but can't shoot for the life of me).
Wait, is this true? Has anyone read Origin of Species? I'm referring to DDD's claim, "Remember that when Darwin talked about “survival of the fittest” he was referring to ‘fit’ like a puzzle, not ‘fit’ like doing pushups." If so, I never knew that! But I'm only 56...
1. That is some TURGID writing. I'm referring to Darwin as linked. Good God, it's a wonder anyone bothered to read it all the way through. 2. I understand that "fit" as in puzzle applies, but that does not prove that "fit" as in "pushups" does NOT apply. That's a logical fallacy of some sort. I mean, I've always understood the "puzzle" meaning to apply, but I thought that the other meaning also applied.
Being physically the strongest or biggest or most "fit" applies in that it is one of almost countless evolutionary strategies to be able to replicate as a species. In some situations the "fittest" was the "fittest". In some cases being the smallest or most cooperative, or best at hiding or some other approach is the "fittest" in the Darwinian sense. So while many approaches apply in my understanding in no way is being physically strong the primary evolutionary survival technique of species across the board. For much less turgid writing on evolution for us non-scientists I liked stephen J gould back in the day.
Also, there are different ways to be fit and to be strong. Both are imprecise terms. And regardless of what Darwin wrote out understanding of evolutionary theory has progressed since he wrote that. So I’m not even sure his definition really matters at this point. But fitness in the running a long way, being strong, jumping high etc etc way is not really a part of natural selection. It really is as simple as being best suited to your environment to reproduce offspring that also survive long enough to reproduce. No one would accuse a sloth of being “fit”.
Thank you, of course that makes complete sense. But it makes me think that an important way to think about it and perhaps a good way to teach evolution is “most fitting adaptation *for now*.” Because I don’t know about others, but I can certainly get tempted into a tautological/permanence way of thinking, like “giraffes evolved long necks to eat leaves up high and that not only served them as they adapted but they will always be like that because hey that’s what a giraffe is and conditions will never change.” This relates to a static view of nature which in turn can be highly problematic when big change problems like climate change are considered. I suspect there’s a lot of implied thinking out there that goes something like “Since nature has always done just fine, all the birds and bees will always be fine, just doing their thing.” Troubling.
yes - even the term "survival of the fittest" didn't originate with Darwin's OOS - it was, originally, a term applied to Darwin's theory - which is saying what adaptation is the best fit to survive/replicate.
This whole thread is one of those things that validates why I spend time on this site. On any other sports site the topic would never have come up and certainly wouldn't have gotten educated responses without devolving into some ad hominem responses. It's like a separate internet existing somewhere else. Like http9 or something
Yup, and this right here is why I think that even in a saturated market of sports content that the "Nation HQ Model" really does offer something different. Sports aren't just for "dumb jocks!"
We can't be the only fan base out there who enjoys this sort of sports community, right? Right???
The team pieces that are not seen or usually talked about like trainers, physio, back bench coaches seem to be playing a huge role in this year’s run, all of the changes to playing time and sitting guys out has a unique feel to it compared to other seasons and across the NBA, I wonder how much of Looney’s transcendence on defense, rebounding and now even FTs is a result of the Org’s investment in coaches
Whenever Milojevic is mentioned or interviewed it's usually about Wiseman but on at least two separate occasions, I remember Milojevic adding "and Looney, too" without being prompted. So I have to believe he's been working his magic with Loon too...
My question is not January, but February and beyond. Tell me now if he's gonna go 1 for 10 the rest of the year, because I would need to fetch my blankie.
Dray talks KD's recruitment with JJ Redick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3_BDHSl8UM
I want to thank you all for helping me know my meme, since I've been lagging in that department for a couple decades. Only yesterday Five Alarm Freddy taught me "I like turtles", and today DDD replaced it with Klay's superior "Sea Captain" response. Incidentally, is Klay a one-man meme generator, or what?
ok friends, Game Thread for All star announcement (plus I crammed some stuff about the Wiseman update about not getting any more updates)
https://dubnationhq.com/p/game-thread-all-stars-and-warriors?justPublished=true
> Wiseman update about not getting any more updates
haha... if we hear no updates about a tree in the forest, does the tree even exist?
If the tree is big enough you can just see it from town.
votes?
Should we run the game thread early to go along with the All Star announcement?
Hodor!
Yes
Totes! We all need to be around to celebrate All-Star starter GPII!
Yes please 😀
Let's do it!
At the hospital with the wife, twin girls on the way. Wife was not very receptive to my suggestion of “Waylon” and “Willie” as names. Maybe “Steph” and “Klay”?
When they bathe you can call them the Splash Sisters
Oh my, congratulations! What a wonderful, miraculous time for you and your wife. All love!
Congratulations!! Wishing you all the best!!
For someone who would have been named Russena [a combination of my parents' names] I will offer no names. Just - if you think it's a really good idea but it's really not ... don't. [The name I did end up with I have had to spell to 95% of people all my life and have come up with a couple of fun aliases for restaurants, as a result.]
Congrats! Jordan would be a good choice, and works for boys and girls!
Congrats! If you are a Kevin Durant fan, may I suggest Katie?
Careful! I reccomend being very sneaky when watching the game tonight..
I tried to get little Draymond approved last go around, but alas...
CONGRATULATIONS!
And we welcome to the world your kids Markieffa and Marcusa
Congratulations! I hope you’re wife is doing ok.
When we had our baby girl, my work colleagues were suggesting Draymonda 😂
Little baby Draymonda entering the world, screaming "AAAAAAND ONE! (more to the family)"
Just choked on my drink...
🤣
Stephanie and Kaylee it is!
Klaylee
does this make me an uncle?
If these are your first, GOOD LUCK!
Oh yeah... gonna need a lotta luck with twins regardless. ;-)
if they mostly fight each other Five Alarm should be OK
They will invariably use their wonder twin powers against their parents (and siblings).
they’re at least a Two Alarm
Stephanie and Klaymentine?
Mazel tov!
yooo congrats Freddy!! Being a parent is the best! Hoping everything goes well!
Congratulations!!!!
Draymond already prepping for the next stage in his career…
https://www.nba.com/news/draymond-green-signs-exclusive-multiyear-deal-with-turner-sports-inside-the-nba
He will be in tonight’s show
Hopefully not a signal re: his playing career
I highly doubt that.
He will be in the warriors postgame show, so I hope we win!
Probably in D-Wade's seat after what happened on Tuesday, lol
What happened on Tuesday?
Wade apparently dropped an MF on air.
And we're expecting Dray not to do the same thing? Might be like Roy Kent (for you Ted Lasso fans)
Dray's a professional, please
Ah yes I remember hearing about this from someone but missed it live on air.
Nice article in the Athletic about the best all-time defenders: https://theathletic.com/3093939/2022/01/27/nba-75-a-history-lesson-on-defense-and-ranking-the-25-best-defenders-of-all-time/?source=rss
"The spirit animal for this era is Draymond Green, a 6-7 forward with the strength and length to play center in “small” lineups but the mobility, hands and IQ to switch on any player 1 through 5. It’s harder to evaluate careers in mid-stream, but it’s safe to say Green will go down as one of the all-time great defenders, and certainly one of the smartest ever. His current tally stands at six NBA All-Defensive selections and one Defensive Player of the Year award, but he’ll surely add to that. Green led the league defensive BPM twice and is leading again this season, while his career mark ranks third all time."
He doesn’t say very much more about Green. Aside from saying how smart he is and how many awards he has, he doesn’t analyze what makes Green unusual. He then ranks him two down from Gobert in the top 25 all-time defenders.
Love the way it starts with an illustrative example of how hard it is to find defense in the stats, with the two Houston vs. Memphis plays. Very smart article, kind of a shame it's paywalled (that $12 bargain was absolutely worth it!) and the average fan won't be able to enjoy it. Hopefully pundits are a bit more likely to be subbed and maybe it'll open the eyes of one or two regular writers.
Still won't change the opinions of people who don't watch the games, but hey. It's something.
OT: theathletic put out an article with fancy graphs to explain the 3P% drop this season
https://theathletic.com/3092515/2022/01/26/which-nba-teams-have-been-impacted-most-by-replacement-minutes-are-covid-absences-the-reason-for-low-3-point-rates/?source=dailyemail&campaign=601983
Their conclusion (drop is NOT caused by replacement players) is flawed, imo. But...
----
They also had some other interesting things regarding the advantage of availability of rotation players vs. opponents' availability.
Teams with the most advantage over the course of the season (ie. they had more of their regular rotation players while the other team had fewer):
PHX, CLE, TOR, BOS
Teams with a disadvantage:
LAL, OKC, POR, ATL
Dubs were about even but at a slight disadvantage overall (but their methodology is a little messed up: it's based on minutes played this season... so Klay did not count as a regular rotation player).
Anyone else having weird trouble "hearting" some comments?
Yes
I only heart my own and that’s working out fine
Yeah. I "hearted" your comment, but for some strange reason it just didn't stick ... ;)
Ya gotta mean it!
What? No ironic hearting?
Yeah. Refreshed the page and it worked out just fine!
Cool thanks
Am I crazy or was last game the first time it felt like Klay “fit” (to use a popular term on this site today) in terms of personality integration? Like, it seemed he was having fun with the other guys and they were having fun with him.
I think he’s been having fun with the guys fineness off court as best we can judge these things, but it’s a while other meaning of “fit” when someone threads a behind the back pass to you for a highlight dunk. That often really advances a relationship. I’ll bet the locker room after or the next shoot around were quite friendly
Not crazy. There were some post-game questions about that and I think the general consensus was that everything just felt in rhythm for Klay... nothing forced...
For sure. He had a couple misses where it seemed like he didn’t get his legs “under him” which makes me think he’s still got a few more levels to climb over and above just getting in better and better game shape.
Definitely felt like he wasn't pressing as hard or so focused on getting his shot ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
And pressing and forcing shots could alienate other guys a bit. Even if they understand why he was doing it.
Sooo, I'm in a rec league and we recently just started our new season. In any case, we came back this season ready to make our mark and win those yearlong Great America passes . . . only to realize that the team that beat us in the finals had replaced their worst player with a center who is 6'5 that proceeded to dominate the squad they were facing.
I'm starting to realize how teams felt facing the Warriors. This shit aint fair lmao!!!
I didn't realize the league had started back up. I guess my team lost my number or something.
If he's just flat out good -- welp, pray for the best!
Otherwise, you might have some success by playing semi-dirty (nothing that risks injury of course). Elbows in the ribs, tugging his jersey, generally impeding his progress, shoving him randomly, etc. are a lot harder to see and notice (by the refs) when he's a lot bigger than you :)
...tugging on shorts is much more effective than tugging on jerseys. ever try and jump when someone has a grip on your shorts? also, stepping on toes works.
(I had a lot of this done to me when I was playing Intramurals and a guy on the basketball team played, which seemed super unfair...)
> tugging on shorts
Haha, yea probably! Stepping on toes might violate my "risks injury" part though. I've had toe nails fall off......
We're definitely going to pull out all the stops. Right now, in our group chat, we're thinking of doing a 2-3 zone to protect the inside since me/the other guard are pretty good defenders so we can probably hold our own in the perimeter. And yeah, you best bet there is going to be some extracurriculars lmao.
You aren't trying if you're not pushing the limits of what's allowable
Is he a stretch big or a bruiser? Fairly easy to counter both ways if he's just an average joe basketball player and doesn't have elite athleticism. It wouldn't matter regardless if you guys just rain 3s all season. The best defense is to make your opponent cry by hitting 20 3s
He's mainly a bruiser, but he showed that he can hit from three as well (just doesn't choose to do that). As for whether he's just flat out good, admittedly its a one game sample size, but he was looking real good.
As for the second part, I agree! All of my other teammates are three point shooters while I play a point forward role! Who knows, maybe we'll catch fire!!
Channel the inner GP2 in you and swarm him. Make his life hell! Make him scared to catch the ball!
> a center who is 6'5 that proceeded to dominate the squad they were facing
Sounds like "not an average joe".
TBF I consider anyone that's never played organized sports past the high school level to be an average joe... but if he did... good luck!
Don't worry, just tank for four seasons and I'm sure one of your high draft picks will pan out.
What?
It's incredibly sad that this is the optimal way to proceed for about 1/2 the league.
What are you gonna do? You can't force superstars to want to play in Charlotte or OKC.
There's loads I would do if I had the unilateral power to make changes. The best solution is probably implementing some sort of divisions structure with a D1 and a D2. This would introduce relegations and promotions into the structure - teams cannot tank as that would mean going down to D2 and losing out on money. Obviously, this isn't feasible as team owners would never agree to it.
Another solution would be to reverse the lottery odds for non-lottery teams (i.e. the team that finished 9th in the conference is going to have the highest odds of winning the lottery in the conference). This doesn't fix tanking per se (some teams in the 6-8 range might want to tank for #9 in this case), but it does significantly decrease it as:
- Tanking for #9 is a much harder thing to do than tanking for last as tanking for #9 requires balancing winning and losing.
- Tanking when you're in the playoff hunt is significantly harder to pull off for most GMs as fans usually want to be in the playoffs.
This solution also has the added benefit of increasing the value of mid-tier players again rather than the current salary structure that is pervasive across the league (max contracts and minimums with few mid-tier contracts).
Another solution (which Adam Silver might be more amenable to) would be having an end-of-season tournament before the playoffs between non-playoff teams where the winners get the higher lottery odds (or even the high draft picks straight up, though that might lead to slight conflicts of interest). Again, this incentivizes winning rather than losing, which is the fundamental problem we're trying to solve.
As for superstars don't want to play in Charlotte or OKC, I understand that. However, you don't need to have superstars to be a fringe playoff team or a mediocre team. Building a competent team is enough - the Pacers have been competent for a gazillion years without any superstars apart from PG13 briefly. So have the Spurs in recent years.
And yes, these solutions are far from perfect (and probably have multiple 2nd and 3rd degree consequences which I cannot think about right now). But are they better than the status quo? I would strongly argue yes when about 5 teams are tanking in a season in a 30 team league (and that number strongly increases as we near the end of the season). It is my firm belief that there are very few negatives (if any?) for the NBA that are worse for the overall product that 5 teams trying to lose every night.
The promotion and relegation thing doesn’t really work. Look at European football. Some teams yo yo. With enough investment some stick on the higher league. But it’s still the same teams winning every year. Which is a similar problem to your pacers example. Is that what fans want? To support a team with no hopes of a championship but win around half their games? It’s not what I would want.
You're comparing 2 fundamentally different things. European football doesn't have parity because the players are free to sign with the best teams from an early age (or the best teams can simply buy up the best players due to no salary contstraints). Teams consolidate talent and create monopolies (say in the Bundesliga) or oligopolies (say in the Premier League) because they can simply consolidate all the best talent from the other teams. That is not the case with the NBA due to the draft (players can be retained for about 8 years with the team that originally drafted them). None of that changes with any of the above proposed solutions.
And why wouldn't the Pacers have any chance of winning a championship (at least any less so than right now)? They can get the 9 seed or win the tournament (they're incredible at being mediocre) and after that they can get the #1 pick. The best way to rebuild for small market teams is through the draft - that doesn't change. The only difference is that you need to achieve some measure of competency before getting good lottery picks.
Good ideas, and yes very many consequences for each.
My emotionally favorite ideas are relegation (the real solution and will never happen due to monopoly) and just having a lottery with flat odds for the entire league (get rid of the owner welfare system).
Lottery with flat odds is also good by me (it's better than what we have right now at least). The biggest thing is to reduce the perverse incentives which promote losing for a lot of teams.
How about a hybrid of the GLeague route that Kuminga took except that after a season players earn “pro” designation and can sign wherever the hell they want.
Yeah, having player be draft eligible for D2 (or a repurposed G-League) could be a possibility. They get paid a year earlier and have much better development opportunities (being full-time basketball players in a good league rather than college athletes). As for sign wherever they want, I'm in favor of that from a human perspective, but that would lead to superteams in LA (x2), New York (x2), Miami etc. Parity would be destroyed by something like that. I'd still be in favor (because humans should be able to live where they want to live), but I would guess a significant majority of fans wouldn't.
But it's obviously never going to happen lol (or at least not anytime soon).
I just want sports teams to try to win games. Is that too much to ask lol?
I'm kind of the GP2 of my roster in that I'm pretty athletic (can almost dunk). Though tbh, I really modeled my game after Rondo (passing first pg/great defense but can't shoot for the life of me).
I'm in the 40th year of my 1 month shooting slump.
Lord have mercy on your next opponent .. time to come out of the slump, Steph Style!
You need to find a 6'6" ringer. Otherwise...
SOB, I really wanted those Great America passes!!
Wait, is this true? Has anyone read Origin of Species? I'm referring to DDD's claim, "Remember that when Darwin talked about “survival of the fittest” he was referring to ‘fit’ like a puzzle, not ‘fit’ like doing pushups." If so, I never knew that! But I'm only 56...
1. That is some TURGID writing. I'm referring to Darwin as linked. Good God, it's a wonder anyone bothered to read it all the way through. 2. I understand that "fit" as in puzzle applies, but that does not prove that "fit" as in "pushups" does NOT apply. That's a logical fallacy of some sort. I mean, I've always understood the "puzzle" meaning to apply, but I thought that the other meaning also applied.
Being physically the strongest or biggest or most "fit" applies in that it is one of almost countless evolutionary strategies to be able to replicate as a species. In some situations the "fittest" was the "fittest". In some cases being the smallest or most cooperative, or best at hiding or some other approach is the "fittest" in the Darwinian sense. So while many approaches apply in my understanding in no way is being physically strong the primary evolutionary survival technique of species across the board. For much less turgid writing on evolution for us non-scientists I liked stephen J gould back in the day.
Also, there are different ways to be fit and to be strong. Both are imprecise terms. And regardless of what Darwin wrote out understanding of evolutionary theory has progressed since he wrote that. So I’m not even sure his definition really matters at this point. But fitness in the running a long way, being strong, jumping high etc etc way is not really a part of natural selection. It really is as simple as being best suited to your environment to reproduce offspring that also survive long enough to reproduce. No one would accuse a sloth of being “fit”.
Thank you, of course that makes complete sense. But it makes me think that an important way to think about it and perhaps a good way to teach evolution is “most fitting adaptation *for now*.” Because I don’t know about others, but I can certainly get tempted into a tautological/permanence way of thinking, like “giraffes evolved long necks to eat leaves up high and that not only served them as they adapted but they will always be like that because hey that’s what a giraffe is and conditions will never change.” This relates to a static view of nature which in turn can be highly problematic when big change problems like climate change are considered. I suspect there’s a lot of implied thinking out there that goes something like “Since nature has always done just fine, all the birds and bees will always be fine, just doing their thing.” Troubling.
I’m pretty sure the long necks thing is so they can be in a pack but be spread out and see each other.
You lost me at "doing pushups"
yes - even the term "survival of the fittest" didn't originate with Darwin's OOS - it was, originally, a term applied to Darwin's theory - which is saying what adaptation is the best fit to survive/replicate.
yeah it's for sure a real thing.
Source: am hella nerdy
> which suggested that organisms best adjusted to their environment are the most successful in surviving and reproducing.
https://www.britannica.com/science/survival-of-the-fittest
sometime, you learn a new word when reading my stuff, sometimes, it's a new evolutionary concept!
... but usually neither. Smooches
lmao, on those days, hopefully we'll at least have a cool picture for ya?
This whole thread is one of those things that validates why I spend time on this site. On any other sports site the topic would never have come up and certainly wouldn't have gotten educated responses without devolving into some ad hominem responses. It's like a separate internet existing somewhere else. Like http9 or something
Dubnet
I remember it being like that back from the GSoM days. So wonderful it has lived on here.
hey, any thread incorporating “ad hominem” is worth a read 🤓
Yup, and this right here is why I think that even in a saturated market of sports content that the "Nation HQ Model" really does offer something different. Sports aren't just for "dumb jocks!"
We can't be the only fan base out there who enjoys this sort of sports community, right? Right???
The team pieces that are not seen or usually talked about like trainers, physio, back bench coaches seem to be playing a huge role in this year’s run, all of the changes to playing time and sitting guys out has a unique feel to it compared to other seasons and across the NBA, I wonder how much of Looney’s transcendence on defense, rebounding and now even FTs is a result of the Org’s investment in coaches
Whenever Milojevic is mentioned or interviewed it's usually about Wiseman but on at least two separate occasions, I remember Milojevic adding "and Looney, too" without being prompted. So I have to believe he's been working his magic with Loon too...
totally
ok, it's official, the worst shooting month of Steph's professional career
But the month aint over yet!
> @ESPNStatsInfo
Stephen Curry is shooting 36.5% from the floor this month.
It would be the 1st time in his career he shot under 40% in a calendar month (min. 100 FGA).
My question is not January, but February and beyond. Tell me now if he's gonna go 1 for 10 the rest of the year, because I would need to fetch my blankie.
Yup... he's got 3 games left. If he shoots over 50% on 20 attempts/game, he'll get over 40% for the month. But I don't really see that happening.
When he hits his first three, he should stop shooting threes and just shoot twos.
Timberwolves stats:
Offense:
9 in points scored!!!! (111.0)
15 in points in paint (45.8)
7 in fastbreak points!!!!!!!! (14.0)
21 in offensive efficiency
24 in shooting % (44.1%)
22 in three point % (34.3%)
16 in two point % (52.3%)
3 in off. rebound % !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (26.1%)
29 in def. rebound % (74.7%)
24 in total rebound % (48.9%)
24 in opponent blocks (5.3)
18 in opponent steals (7.6)
11 in assists (24.4)
28 in turnovers (15.1)
Defense:
18 in points allowed (109.9)
8 in opponent points in paint!!!!!! (44.0)
27 in opponent fastbreak points (14.0)
12 in defensive efficiency
12 in opponent shooting % (45.0%)
8 in opponent three point % !!!!!! (34.0%)
14 in opponent two point % (52.3%)
2 in blocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (5.9)
5 in steals!!!!!!!!!!!! (8.8)
23 in opponent assists (25.2)
1 in opponent turnovers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (16.9)
It’s been a long relationship at this point, but dang if I don’t wake up every morning loving this team.
But by the end of the second quarter…
GT generally is one hour prior to the listed tip off time