You can implement a system that wouldn’t change the payout to incoming players at all. So continuing to bang on the “vets won’t give up money to rookies” is kind of silly. And the owners aren’t scared of paying the players to actually play. They’re okay with the money they have to invest in a roster. The issue is that…

I know what you’re saying. And you’re wrong. It’s not the players blocking this, it’s the owners. And you even acknowledge as much with your comment about LA and NY getting all the players and Utah suffering. That’s a beef for management and fans, not players. You could implement a system where the current rookie…

You’re applying abstract theory without actually considering how the NBA works. This isn’t the NFL. There’s no hard cap. So increasing the amount of money that rookies can make isn’t going to impact how much vets earn. Relatively few players are signed into cap space. Most guys are playing on rookie deals, minimum…

Which is exactly what I said. If you have cap room, you can sign rookies to whatever you can afford. Over the cap, and you get a rookie exception, which would be capped. Maybe have it so that the size of the exception is inversely proportional to your win-loss record. And the idea that “everyone” would go to LA or New…

That money would have to go to new players either way. You still have to pay draft picks. So whether new teammates are drafted or signed, it wouldn’t make a difference. It’s not going to impact salaries for players already in the league. And the issue with rookies for a team like GS isn’t the raw cost of a rookie,…

The players union would do this before the owners would. Institute a system where rookies are just free agents, and you’d probably see some teams skipping rookies altogether and stocking up on vets. Of course they wouldn’t do it every year. You have to replenish at some point. But if you’re a team like the Warriors,…

I’d like to hear his thoughts on Underground then.

“While Confederate’s producers have hired two black writers (Malcolm Spellman and Nichelle Tramble Spellman, on whom Packer declined to comment), Packer and McGruder have enlisted the “appropriate historians to make sure we are telling the story in an accurate and responsible way,” Packer said.”

How can you speak so knowledgeable about a show that hain’t been filmed, cast or even written? I understand people being anxious about the show, but we’re reacting to a premise. It’s probably three years from ever getting in air.  You’re trying to deny people the right to pursue an idea. There’s something incredibly…

No, he isn’t. Like I said, Sexton spent months travelling with Trump and reporting on his rallies. His point was that he was pursuing the Trump/Russia story, as I’m sure dozens of reporters were (and still are). At no point did he suggest that this was his story to break. And he credits the NYT team for their work. If…

I’ve been following Sexton for a while now, probably close to a year. He did a lot of reporting from Trump rallies. This piece is pretty unfair to him. He’s never represented himself as anything other than an independent reporter. You’re treating him like a con man because other folks dropped in on his timeline, saw…

That’s a fair reading, but I don’t think you can discount the fact that Durant/Westbrook was never a great fit. I put a lot of that on the way Russell plays. There isn’t a lot of space in his game for anyone else. That’s not a great a trait in any player. It’s especially bad in a point guard, and even worse when that…

The problem is Russ thinking he can address those changes by just assuming more responsibility. Losing Kevin and Serge meant that they needed to become a different kind of team and learn to utilize what pieces they had. They didn’t. They just got Westbrookier.

And the second best player in the world now plays for another team because he and Russ had obvious issues playing together, despite their denials.

People criticized Scotty Brooks’ system too. I tend to believe that Russ IS the system, and thus the problem. He plays this way because he wants to. That’s why it kills me when people say, ‘If he had better teammates...” He had the second best player on the planet and barely wanted to give him the ball. He doesn’t…

Any argument against Kawhi that hinges on him being a “system player” is horseshit. You know what the Spurs “system” is? Passing the ball. That’s it. They’re not running magical plays that other teams haven’t figured out. Pop’s a good coach, but he hasn’t mastered the art of multidimensional screen and roll plays that…

This is a strawman. When people say, “What about defense?”, they’re not saying defense > offense. They’re saying defense matters. It’s not either/or. It’s about which guy is impacting both ends (phrasing.).

DAMMIT. That was supposed to be win MVP without winning 50 games.

It’s odd that people see his usage/Assist% as a case FOR Westbrook. That’s just a function of no one else touching the ball. Which is kind of why Durant is in Golden State. Also, wins matter. In fact, going back 35 years or so, it’s pretty much the first filter. The last guy to win MVP without winning MVP was Moses,…

Giving the award to Russ would go against a good chunk of NBA history, which says guys on sub-50 win teams don’t win MVP, regardless of how pretty the stats are. The Thunder are looking at 46-47 wins and the 7th seed in the West, which means a first round loss to the Spurs or Warriors. Meanwhile, Leonard, Harden,…