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The Pacer draft pick is not surprising since RC is coach. I mentioned before but he does not like baby sitting kids. He prefers the older mature players from the draft. I know he took Luka but he is from a different planet and had 5 plus years experience as pro at age 19. Smith Jr was an example of what he doesn't like but he played him since they were tanking so lived with trying to develop him like all tanking teams do with the kids.

I don't know. I really like Adams to the Griz. He'll set crushing picks for Morant and IMO, is far more agile and physical on the defensive side of the ball the ball than V. IMO, Morant won't get knocked to the ground with Adams around. With Zion, Adams was probably tasked with getting out of way offensively. now he can go back to what he did in OKC. V can at least shoot some perimeter shots and allow zion to play more in the paint and not cause spacing issues. IMO, NO is heading for a top contender for the 1st pick in the draft for 2022 and V will be back on the market before the trade deadline. He has an expiring deal so will be a nice pickup for a playoff contender.

I know Garvey played his final 5 years with the Padres but I certainly don't think of Garvey when i think of the Padres.. I think winfield, colbert, Hoffman and Gwynn. Now Tatis.

Went to the Padres/Nats game in San diego on the 5th. I am glad to see them doing good snce they lost the Chargers. That place rocks when they are good. Nats beat them but had great seats behind home though we landed a table in the bar just a few rows up behind our seats.

We now have the Cleveland Guardians. Seems close to Indians replacing the In with a Guar. Now the WTF NFL team needs to get their team named for 2022. If they follow the Cleveland model maybe they can be the Porkskins instead of the Redskins. They already have the Hogs.

Yeh they messed up on Robinson but they got tolan for Pinson. To bad Tolan hurt his knee. Was never the same. Wasn't Joe Morgan and Cesar Geronimo throw ins to Billingham and menke for Lee May and Helms. That trade worked out well. They also got George foster from the giants for Frank Duffy. I think things primarily worked out well for their trades overall when building the Big Red Machine. After that era, meh.

I expected you were just throwing out the spurs as an example and meant to mention it when typing up the response. Thanks for adding that in.

That kind of fits what Carlisle does. There may be a player he desires that will require moving up. Wonder if it could be Mitchell who is 22 years old and would probably contribute immediately. If he can't get that done he probably doesn't want to baby sit and develop the others and would prefer to trade for a vet.

The Mavs have no draft picks. I was hoping they could target Jericho SIMs as an undrafted FA but apparently he tore it up at draft camps. IMO, he has unlimited defensive potential and incredible agility. I'd like to see the Mavs make a move to get a 2nd rounder and draft him. He is a project offensively but improved his skills on that side in college. Still along way to go but maybe not as a rim runner. Maybe they can trade Brunson for a draft pick. I don't think they could get high enough to get Mitchell. I like Ayo from Illinois and Greg Brown. I like Greg Brown more than Kai Jones. Whatever teams drafts him will have to get a handle on his maturity but he is far more physical for the NBA than Jones, IMO. Brown just seems undervalued a lot from a talent perspective and I'm expect it is because of his attitude.

I donn't know that the Spurs would trade White for Schroeder. I would not. White is locked into a pretty decent contract and Schroeder is going to look for some money. If Schroeder is even better it is not by much and Murray is the main PG there. Schroeder would have to agree to a S&T. Besides the money he probably wants a starting gig. Also, Harrell is likely to opt out and be a FA so unlikely the Lakers can S&T him. He'd have to opt in to a 9 mil deal. Now DeRozan is maybe likely to leave Spurs as a FA. He could be a S&T candidate to send the Suns. Unlike the Warriors who have a lot of assets, lakers don't seem to have much after Lebron and AD to make big deals. They are a contender as is so just getting the pieces to fit around those 2 should be enough. Spurs would probab;y rather go the FA route than take what LA has to offer after their 2 big stars. Since Knicks mentioned, I think in past CP3 has been rumored to like to play in NY. Maybe Thibs has them stable enough to be an attractive option again. I think their cap situation is pretty good for being a major player in free Agency like the 2 LA teams were a couple years ago when Lebron and Kawhi were making their moves. I also think Kawhi had some interest but just don't seeing him leaving LA. Could NY work out a way to get those 2 and add them to Randle, Robinson and Barrett. As good as Randle was last year, they can even get out from under his 19 mil deal. Only 4 mil is guaranteed.

I don't think RC is interested overhauling the team for bunch of young players and picks. They had been dangling the draft pick it seems. I don't think he would buy into joining a team that was a rebuild. He made it known that he doesn't want to baby sit kids when in Dallas. Eventually they had to but Luka and Brunson seem the only 2 rookies he has had much patience with. One is a superstar and the other doesn't make mistakes and plays at a high IQ level. Had the Mavs not got Luka they'd still be rebuilding so they got a bit lucky there. He did go after a deal for Haliburton last year but they couldn't get it done so maybe if there is a player he likes maybe they target that player. RC loves Brunson who is a nice offensive player but horrid defensively. Might they trade pick 13 for Brunson? RC often claimed they got a first round caliber player in the 2nd round.

Did Holiday carry the ball after that steal and before Bookers foul wasn't called? I know a lot of carry's, palming whatever get over looked but that looked really blatant. I thought the officiating was pretty bad in the 4th. don't remember earlier bad calls. I had a block in a Texas Instruments company league game. Our team was up 1 and it was the last play of the game. Not only was it the game winner, we went undefeated that season and won our only title in like 8 tries. Usually we were 2nd thru 5th place team in 8 team leagues. That was one of my 2 great moments during that 1989 summer season. Does anyone remember the Tayshawn Prince block? I expect most don't want to or was this not recent enough.

So baseball maybe wants to ban the shift. Are they going to paint stripes that fielders have to stand between. I am against banning the shift and making players hit the ball into the holes. Make the pitchers throw a lot of pitches. They should remove 7 inning DH's and the runnuer on 2nd in extra innings. I'd rather games just end in a tie after 9.

I don't disagree with that but I think there was plenty good with the 70's that came before the TV revolution that had it been a decade later would have done just fine. Big O on the bucks with some guy named Lew. When the royals were in cincy that was going to be my team. Big O and Jerry Lucas though that was late 60's. Then they moved. I like watching Knick broadcast time to time just because of Walt Frazier. The Wilt/West Laker team that won 33 straight. The Suns/Celts Finals in a David vs Goliath produced one of the best Finals games ever. That ABA/NBA game. Dr. J amazing people taking flight from the FT line for a dunk.

Meanwhile, Team USA loses again.

I thought the early 70's was good. Bucks, Knicks, Lakers, Celts, Bullets, Bulls and Warriors were all decent. I really liked the Sloan/Love bulls teams. Those teams and the pacers in ABA and Dr. J worked for me. Once the Bulls fell short in 75 and the Celts won in 76 it was pretty bad until Bird/Magic.

I have been on vacation in California and not watching the finals. I'll probably start watching closer now. I have been able to DVR all the Copa and Euro matches and watched them instead during vacation. The injuries factored in so much that I do not believe we are seeing the best teams. This year has been a disaster with Murray (Nugtz), AD (Lakers), Kawhi (Clips), Harden and Kyrie (Nets), all going down. At least the Suns and bucks were both teams you could put a bet on to win it all but without all those injuries they probably go down long time ago to lakers and Nets at full strength.

Playoff CHris Paul? There is a first for everything. I hope the Suns and his hammy hold up this year. At least they had a magical season but reality is they would hve been gone in round 1 had it not been for injury to AD. This will truly go down as the Season of Survival. IMO, the Lakers, clips, Jazz, Philly and Nets are all better than what is left in these playoffs had they been healthy. Maybe Denver too with Murray. I'd say the Bucks but man their low IQ basketball makes it hard for me to believe they'd win it all with the massive amount of injuries. I was rooting for them because Giannis put the drama to rest about his max contract and just signed it. I expect he is gone now too even they manage to win the Hawks series.

Why are we listening to the ESPN halftime crew when Alice Cooper is playing in the background? Can we just watch the Alice Cooper concert?

He doesn't need to force his way out if he's a free agent. He may be over protective but I don't feel that he forcing his way out.. I don't think he walks from a prime chance at a title without a good reason (injury). I don't trust Skip Bayless either. The media needs something to talk about with a lack of marquis FA's. We know Kawhi won't talk even to say he's staying. So the media can play this up until he signs to stay. If he has surgery then that will be good indicator he is really hurt.

I don't see an issue with Kawhi getting opinions from his doctors. Is Penny leaving Memphis to coach the Magic.

Seems Tyler Herro will be available. Was he a bubble wonder? https://www.nbcsportsedge.com/edge/basketball/nba/player/51044/tyler-herro

Mavs were 3 seed and had same record as Lakers who were the 2. They had a rash of injuries in January where I think they lost 7 in a row or 7 of 9. Would have to that up. Actually they won a strange 7 game series vs the 6 seed blazers in round 1 then swept defending champ Lakers before OKC (4 or 5 sseed) and Miami. I think that is the year the Griz as an 8 seed took out the #1 seed spurs. They were not the favorite for title but they were far from mediocre. I think they got predictions as a sleeper from some. Chandler, Dirk, JET, Kidd, Marion. Caron Butler was on that team and blew out his knee. The ball movement on that team was incredible. Barea was great in the playoffs. Cuban thought he was some genius because of the new CBA coming and read the market wrong. He didn't want to pay maybe the 2nd most important player on that team in Chandler. He thought the Mavs would be able to get Howard or Deron williams by out smarting other front offices.

Well having one of the best if not the best bigs in Sabonis on PnR's with the best PnR coach in RC will be a good start towards an identity. How does Brogdon run the PnR. If Levert turns into the star he sometimes looks like, I think the Paces have a really good team that can make some noise. Just be healthy.

I thought Spurs title teams had incredible ball movement. The Mavs title team did too.