Hoosierhoopster

I’ve played some Apex, drop in and 100 miles per hour into getting your weapons and into the fight. Div is pretty unique in its combination of extremely detailed open-world PvE and PvP 3d person loot and shoot, along with build development and exotic c and named weapons. Definitely need friends or peeps to team up with though or it gets old fast, especially PvP

You are both a fun dad and a responsible dad - nice. My kids are older now, youngest just turned 17, but followed similar approach. I mean, computer gaming is amazing, would’ve been blown away if I’d had it as a kid (Google Orthanc, that’s the closest we had as kids lol), but they’re there for boredom and fun, not to leave kids glued to. pretty funny for me really, lawyer by day, pvp’er by night lol

Xbox — I haven’t gotten a PS yet but am planning on getting both of the new consoles when they’re released later this fall. I’ve played Siege but generally don’t play COD. Division, Division 2, and now Just trying out Rogue Company, I’m a PvP’er

Heard a study this morning that roughly 2/3 of colleges polled are not testing students regularly. I can say my son who is back at school is not getting tested by the school, but then he is attending class online despite being on campus, which also seems to be happening on a number of campuses so not sure how accurate the study is, but worth noting anyway. Colleges that are opening and having students attend classes should be testing with some kind of regularity, otherwise they are part of the problem.

You found my high school English composition?

My short list: All the President’s Men 3 Days of the Condor First Blood Finding Forrester Searching for Bobby Fisher Blue’s short list: Dumb and Dumberer

Love Being There. And a huge Peter Sellers fan, Return of the Pink Panther.... the book - Being There - is fantastic

Got a professional trimmer and a set of clippers in the spring when Covid started. Funny, all I do is set the trimmer on no. 1, almost a buzz cut — and I used to pay people $20 to do that for me? Lol

Nope, I was a kid n NewHampshire, Don’t remember much except friends going back and telling parents, I mean we knew which house it was

Happened to me as a kid, razor blade in an apple.

Billups could end up being really good just no way to know without taking the plunge. One thing for sure, he’s really well liked and respected by players, and he of course knows how to run a team on the floor at a championship level. Finch is kind of intriguing. He was the D League coach of the year. Knowing how well an assistant will do at the helm is still guesswork, but I’d take both over Joerger and of course the article seems to make him the front runner .... Come on Pacers do something different

Right, and I remember when he let Carlisle go, it was just odd. Of course Carlisle went on to win a championship in Dallas, and is one of the better coaches in the game. I am on record being disgusted with how Bird handled the P's in the last few years -- I do not think he's "stupid," he's sharp, but I do think his pig-headedness translated into a number of bone-headed and just outright stupid moves. It wasn't just the way he publicly treated PG -- he did the same thing to Hibbert and at a time when the team was trying to trade Hibbert. Why in the world would you publicly call out Hibbert when you're trying to trade him? He basically called Hibbert soft and weak and no longer relevant, while the team was trying to trade him. And as to West -- yes he brought West in, but it was Bird, and his treatment of Hibbert, that made West so angry he left a $12M offer on the table with the P's to join the Spurs for, as I recall, $1M. That was all on Bird. Bird is stubborn. It killed the team in his final years.

He was really good as a coach, of that Reggie team. He then made some good, and some bad, draft decisions. He then single-handedly deconstructed and ruined the Pacers. That's really not debatable. By the time PG left, he had -- literally -- no players around him that he started with. Bird either moved or lost every single player PG started with. That's pathetic. He is also the only coach I can think of who publicly ridiculed his star, PG, and while trying to force him to play the 4 -- bang against power forwards -- immediately after returning from his season-long absence and almost career-ending injury. That was incredibly stupid. It was also a result of his pig-headedness. And it led to his leaving, as PG was leaving. Then Pritch had to completely re-build the Pacers. My view on Bird isn't that he's a dumb man. It's that he basically ruined the team he had a role in building, and he became a pig-headed, stupid director of player ops. That's what he was.

Yes but then look at the playoffs. That's why Doc is out in Clipper land. He also owns by far the worst record of all coaches in losing playoff series, like this year, when up 3-1. That's an odd stat and not sure it really matters, but just looking at consecutive winning seasons only gets you so far.

Lol man PG left the P’s and Thunder not the other way around, both teams tried to keep him - of course - I hope you were kidding otherwise you’ve been living under a rock, lol. He did just have his worst playoffs by far, and with doc’s ouster there’s pretty clearly disfunction in Clipper land. I would be shocked if they traded him though, those one man fed rumors look ridiculous to me. If Woj were to say something that would be worth listening to. The current “chatter” is bs Absolutely agree it’s not Pritch’s fault, he’s done very well, and agree it’s the owners, before Pritch it was Bird who gutted the team, and it has also been the mediocre coaching. Building the team and the lack of it was Bird and the owners.

That falls into the "that depends" category for me. Dirk never left Dallas. He had multiple opportunities to do so (like Reggie before him in Indy, like Duncan with the Spurs). Guys like Dame, in Portland, another small market, have made it clear that have no interest in leaving their teams to team up with other stars. (Though, interestingly, Dame also recruited PG to join them in Portland, lol.) On the other hand, look at Unibrow. He's about to win a championship, by teaming up with LBJ, after spending years with the Hornets/Pelicans. Another small market team, but one that failed to surround with enough talent to win, so he left, to join LBJ and win a championship. And of course before him Durant left the Thunder, teaming up with the team that knocked them out the prior year, Golden State (a chump move in my book), so he could win a championship, and then he did. It depends on the players you're talking about. It depends on the organization and whether they're building right around the player.

OK here I am

And then they went on to 20 or so years of straight playoffs including after both Robinson's and Duncan's respective retirements. Sometimes I think talking to you is the equivalent of banging my head against a wall. YES YOU NEED TO DRAFT WELL - AND YES YOU NEED TO THEN ACTUALLY MANAGE YOUR TEAM COMPETENTLY INCLUDING BUILDING AROUND THE DRAFTED PLAYERS WITH OTHER STAR-LEVEL AND COMPLIMENTARY PLAYERS. The Spurs brought in developed guys like Manu (who was drafted in the 50s for crying out loud) and got the P's to draft Kawhi for them, and got Parker (late 20s in the draft) etc.. etc. etc. Compare the Pacers and their management decisions, Scott.

Lol that was even earlier and they had just bombed when, in 97 -- more than 20 years ago -- Duncan was drafted. That's kind of the point Scott.

Scott, San Antonio made the playoff for something like 20 straight years. They started with the Duncan draft pick. That was the start. Duncan was drafted in 1997.

It was repeatedly reported and confirmed, including by Kawhi, that he specifically requested PG. There are multiple stories covering it, including from the side of the both the Clips and Thunder as to how it went down. Couldn't care less what McIntyre says "just what I've heard." That stuff is bunk. The essentially sports article you link is based on McIntyre, and is purely speculative.

Your view here is slanted. First, fwiw, on PG you just ignored that Kawhi specifically demanded PG to the Clips as his requirement for joining the Clips. No, PG is not LBJ, no one is, but no also, arguably the best player in the League demanded PG, and only PG (no other named star), be on the team for him to go to that team. That should tell you something. Agree about Walsh generally, he was overall quite good. Man he made a mistake in going to the Knicks. But second, on the landscape changing, yes it changed to give more power to players over the years, but that started a long time ago. Really the Celtics putting together the team with Rondo, Pierce, Garnett et al. Was that guys wanting to play with their friends? No, it was stars being put together to create a Big 3. It's not just a bunch of buddies teaming up, it's the Big 3 (or Big 2 -- the Lakers) approach -- building a team around 2-3 mega stars. It's not just a bunch of friends, buddy buddy stuff. Calling players entitled and buddy buddy just misses the point man. That's just not it. Third, the small market thing only goes so far. San Antonio is a small market. The Bucks, small market. Frankly Golden State is basically a small market team. You absolutely need good draft picks to start -- Golden State killed it, the Spurs killed it -- but you also need management to build around the stars that you picked well in the draft. Again, Golden State and San Antonio killed it. Their management is top flight. The Bucks got enough around Greek Freak to have the best overall reg season record, but the holes in their depth of elite players showed in the playoffs. They're still a work in progress and they may very well lose Giannis. The Pacers? they did well with getting Vic and Sabonis, but now once again they're already losing a star in Vic. That's not the way you build a real contender. Management absolutely should be questioned. For that matter, they stuck with a mediocre coach until just now. Now they've fired him. Hopefully that's a step in the right direction.

I made a sandwich today. That about sums up my DIY expertise

the ratings just reflect the times, playoffs in an empty stadium, the bubble.

Yeah I understand -- I'm not trying to give you a hard time, it's just the reality of the NBA, it's largely a player's league, the stars have more pull than coaches (with exceptions such as Pop), and as franchises live and die depending on the quality of the players, management and coaches generally will take care of them. The P's maybe need to get with the times, or continue to be mediocre.