Yeah, I re-read your comment and edited after I realized I hadn’t completely addressed your concern about being on the hook for pay bumps in years 3 and 4. But yes, first round picks have separate year-3 and -4 options.

A top-8 lottery pick getting his year-4 option declined isn’t uncommon, but year-3 declines are…

Not sure how you’d measure it, but it feels like you might end up, at times, punishing teams for drafting the wrong guy high in the lottery.

I think Cash generally gets his due as one of the best GMs in the game. But it’s frustrating to see lazier fans just go with the flip “Yeah, it’s easy when you have the Yankees’ money” when it’s Hank’s cheapness that is creating the conditions for Cash to find these underrated gems you mention.

It’s still surprising…

Solving problems of bad ownership and an unfair labor playing field by doing away with the lottery, the draft, and the rookie wage scale is too drastic given that there’s only 10-12 players who are good enough to lead a championship team. Since the best free agents will base their decisions on teams’ recent…

I think a lot of these owners, especially new ones, think with their ego first and only learn about the league rules and norms second.

Tilman Fritatta of the Rockets is a good example: buys the team for $2B, and then immediately orders Morey to go below the tax even though they were the team with the best chance of…

I generally prefer Ebisu or Sapporo if drinking Japanese mass-market brews, but Asahi Black is really delicious. Kirin is not good.

And “sando” is fine, esp. if you’re talking about Japanese sandwiches like katsusando.

Yeah, the Market District near me (Giant Eagle’s attempt to mimic Whole Foods/Wegmans) has a huge beer selection, including Dogfish Head, Ommegang, Saison Dupont, Hoegaarden, all of which I would include ahead of some of their selections.

Hence, I recommend that they do this as a photo/video essay of all three…

Kate was an easy call, though John’s Two-Hearted selection was on point.

But “supermarket beer” is pretty contingent on the supermarket and its selection; I was surprised to see Fat Tire as a “supermarket” beer while there are other craft-y breweries that have plenty of supermarket distribution that weren’t selected.

I…

Not sure if you’re referring to the NFL, the NBA operates on a different business model where local TV deals account for a good chunk of their revenue. Having a good team and a competent front office business ops play a huge role in getting a good TV deal.

Plus, owners might not want to lose money on their teams, but…

Sad story in light of plenty of pieces in recent years (here, here, and here) about the financial pitfalls athletes face.

AP needs a good financial advisor to bring discipline to his finances and whip it into shape.

Agreed, both the lease/relegation proposals I quoted are unlikely to work.or legal and business reasons. I’m stumped as to what a solution might look like, but it’s clear that ownership and management is the real problem, not tampering.

This is a pretty neat cheat sheet, thanks! I’m not a fashionista, but I’ve become somewhat disappointed with some of my more recent purchases from J.Crew and would like to branch out a bit. But not being to know what to look for has always held me back.

Not sure if this ever happens, but blogs/vlogs that review clothes…

Focusing on the owners’ meeting overlooks an important point: how to improve ownership and management. Free agency showed that, if the money is right, the most desired players sign with teams that are well-run. KD, Kyrie, Kawhi, and Kemba didn’t sign elsewhere because the Knicks didn’t tamper good. It’s because Dolan…

Best left over fast food: cold-cut sandwiches, like the grilled lemon chicken sub on ciabbata I get at Wegmans. The pickles, oil/vinegar, and pepper in the sandwich basically re-marinates the chicken and if I forget and leave the sandwich out for an hour before putting in the fridge, the cheese will congeal and bind…

Because your head QB is dating a porn star.

For what it’s worth, if the shiny bits on your keyboard bother you, you can always look into keycaps made from PBT material--they take a lot longer to get shiny.  

I think you’re right on the trust point, but the stuff I read really seemed like Kawhi was being unreasonably non-communicative and difficult. It’s hard to say, I guess.  We really need a tell-all feature on this episode, like the one Baxter Holmes did for the Lakers.

I disagree. If you’ve been the main guy, it’s really hard to give up the reins, just look at LeBron...or any dad. Plus, what could be more epic than to be the best player/leader of three championship teams?

Kawahi also wouldn’t have been the official #2 because AD got there first and is fully embedded with…

...shouldn’t it be “falls ass-backwards?”

I think they reached out to Magic so they could create an excuse they could use, because everyone knows that any conversation with Magic will be blabbed in 15 minutes. Plus, you’re not going to learn anything new about the Lakers from Perd Hapley.