Another of my "weekends" is gone and I can't pinpoint anything I did with it.
53 thoughts on “June 12, 2015: BAH”
R. I. P. country music Hall of Famer Jim Ed Brown, from cancer at age 81.
NBA last night.
Pumpkins. Pumpkins everywhere. Lots of guys turned into pumpkins last night for Cleveland. JR Smith and Shumpert have given the Cavs nothing much this series and last night it was less than that. Delly forgot for a second that he was an undrafted free agent. The reminder came in the form of that game last night.
The Warriors did some things right to get this series even and re-take control of it. First of all, they didn't let LeBron beat them. They got the ball out of his hands, but part of that I think was Cleveland's (puzzling) design. Maybe they felt that LeBron needed to rest some on offense. Fine. But, they got away from slowing the pace. Cleveland didn't do everything they could to stop the Warriors from running and GSW took advantage.
LBJ took a hit to the head that resulted in some nasty lacerations and he admitted to a headache. Concussion? Maybe. Concussion protocols? No. The league should have checked him out. Bogut got nailed to the bench for all but three minutes, just enough time to level a few hard fouls, including the one on LBJ that caused a nasty fall. Bogut has been worthless in this series. Meanwhile Mosgov went off. The Cavs need to punish GSW for not playing Bogut, but to a certain extent they did, but the rest of the GSW front line came alive last night and they were the difference. I really didn't think that that was possible. But, make no mistake, it was previous no-shows Barnes and Green and the newly resurrected David Lee who made the difference. Oh, and also GSW's MVP of this series: Andre Iguodala. AI has been GSW's best overall player in this series by plenty and he had a monstrous game on both ends of the floor last night. Thompson and Curry were pretty quiet, but AI roared like a lion.
As I stated last night, co-sign on Iguodala.
The small lineup helped the Warriors push pace. They also pressured LeBron more to get the ball out of his hands earlier, rather than letting him pound, pound, pound, then run downhill to the rim to score or dish to Mozgov for a dunk.
If it had been me, I probably would have gotten Mozgov another ten or so post-ups. Dude was great again, and playing against midgets. I will give Delly some slack -- he looked gassed pretty much all night. Game 3 took too much out of him and he just hadn't recovered enough. The lack of bench was too much to overcome.
The other guy who deserves kudos from GSW is Sean Livingston. Dude has elevated his profile considerably in these playoffs. Last night he was outstanding (+25 in +/-, 7/8/4 with a block and a steal in 25 minutes).
Delly's problem must have been the lack of caffeine.
I thoroughly enjoy watching curry (and the Warriors in general), and already wanted them to win it all because aesthetics, but man, the Iguodala story is one of the more fun stories in a Finals in awhile. He's a lot of fun to watch.
I also really want GSW to win this thing due to crappy franchise jealousy. I don't think it's right that a team as poorly run as the wolves should luck their way into the finals like this.
I also really want GSW to win this thing due to crappy franchise jealousy. I don't think it's right that a team as poorly run as the wolves should luck their way into the finals like this.
Yea, until 3-4 years ago, GSW had been on a pretty pathetic run since Don Nelson had his power-conflict with Chris Webber.
But that piece...typical Bill Simmons blow-hardery. I love how it starts with the story about Joe Lacob being booed...for trading Monta Ellis for Andrew Bogut, the very trade that set the franchise on its current path. Bogut has been dominated by the Cavs' scheme in this series, but he was very instrumental in getting them to this stage. And unloading Ellis was instrumental in creating the Splash Brothers.
That's a good argument?
(Man, I do not miss his writing one bit.)
The Warriors missed the playoffs 29 times in 35 years … the Warriors won four playoff series total in 34 years … the Warriors haven’t made the playoffs for two straight seasons since 1977 … the Warriors haven’t made the Conference Finals since 1976 … the Warriors haven’t had an All-Star since 1997 … the Warriors have earned spots at 16 of the last 17 lotteries (impossible but true) … the Warriors have made 22 top-14 picks since 1985 (including 11 in the top eight and five in the top three) …
I stand corrected. They have been great!
But that pretty much reads as "the Warriors were poorly run for 35 years, then a new owner took over and now, other than a bad coaching decision (which they fixed before it could ruin the franchise), they are relatively well run."
That's what I said EXACTLY. [note: that was sarcasm] And I quote:
Yea, until 3-4 years ago, GSW had been on a pretty pathetic run since Don Nelson had his power-conflict with Chris Webber.
Nobody here is disputing the fact that GSW was bad for most of the 1980s and 1990s.
the thing is, MOST NBA franchises are bad. Everyone is looking for a Magic or Larry or Michael or Shaq to turn the franchise from crappy to great. So you do things like draft Ndubi Ebi or whatever the hell his name was. Or Dirk. It's called "gambling for resurrection." It usually does not work.
Or you could be like the Bucks all those years under Don Nelson: good, but not good enough to make a finals, and not bad enough to get a high lottery pick to carry you to greatness.
I wasn't responding to you. But, okay, non-Clipper NBA division, Warriors pretty much the worst for almost four decades.
The idea that Cleveland, who had pretty good teams in the 1990s and mid-2000s is somehow more poorly run historically than the Warriors is hard to justify. After the 1975 season until when the article was written, the Cavs made the playoffs 17 times. They've been a helluva lot better than the Warriors over the last 40 seasons. That was the point that I was making.
Am I correct? Or not? Yes, GSW has turned the ship around, thanks in no small part to the T-Wolves who passed on Curry twice right before the Warriors lucked into him. I like the Warriors. I like that they put it together. But to pretend that they didn't suck and weren't poorly run for a very, very long time is a fantasy.
The original point by cheaptoy was that he didn't like a crappy franchise winning because he's jealous. I'm saying that when it comes to crappy franchises, it's hard to top the Warriors historically, non-Clippers division.
the Price-Nance-Daugherty Cavs were excellent. And, of course, the Cavs lucked into LeBron.
Using the same yardsticks I used below, during 1976-77 to 2010-11, the Cavs had 18 winning seasons (7 50+ seasons), 3 sub-20 seasons and 6 seasons in the 20-29 zone. Extending to the current year, that's 19 winning seasons (8 50+), 3 sub-20 and 8 in the 20-29 zone. They've made the playoffs 18 times (including the current season) since 1977 (inclusive of 1977) and lost in the first round 10 times.
the Milwaukee comparison: Kareem left after the 1974-75 season. From 1976-77 forward: 19 winning seasons and 2 41-41 seasons (8 50+ seasons), 1 sub-20 season and 5 20-29 seasons (one was a strike year where they went 28-22). They made the playoffs 22 times and lost in the first round 11 times. They made the conference finals 4 times (three times from 1982-83 to 1985-86).
My point was that I didn't like a team as crappily run as the Wolves winning before them, it had nothing to do with historical success. Dan Gilbert has owned the team since 2005 and, other than striking gold with LeBron, then failing to surround him with anything competent (sounds familiar), his ownership has seen the drafting of Anthony Bennett #1 overall (and other horrors.)
In other words, over the last 3-4 years, the Cavs have been run like the Wolves and got absurdly lucky multiple times (of which only one of those magical lamps has paid off) and the Warriors have been run closer to the Spurs and it's paying off.
I think it's unfair to say that only one of those magical lamps paid off when they parlayed Bennett and Wiggins (that was a pretty good pick) into Kevin Love. They also hit on Tristan Thompson in the Irving draft. Plus they did a pretty good job of shoring up the roster in mid-season when everyone in the league knew that they needed to. Plus, go look at the Bennett draft. That was the worst draft in a very long time. The top two players by win shares in that draft are Rudy Gobert and Mason Plumlee. But, yeah, Bennett was bad choice.
So, their three overall #1s were Irving (a superstar), Bennett (a bust in a terrible draft), and Wiggins (a potential superstar). You might remember that they took Irving even though he'd only played a few games at Duke due to an injured foot. They could have gotten spooked by that and taken Derrick Williams, but he had to come and ruin our lives.
Yea, I think Stick's assessment of their recent drafts is fair.
When journalists judge draft choices retrospectively they almost always do so by cherry-picking with the benefit of hindsight. That's seriously disingenuous.
the Bennett pick was panned at the time as a reach, but looking at the next four picks (Oladipo, Porter, Cody Zeller, Alex Len), only Oladipo looks, retrospectively, like he "deserved" to go first. The best pick in that lottery will probably end up being Antetokounmpo at 15. When lots of other teams also whiff, that's not really evidence of bad management. They also got Sergey Karasev at 19, whom they included in the Jarrett Jack/Tyler Zeller deal for a future pick and rights to some foreign players, so that remains an open question about return value (although it looks pretty bad so far).
In 2012, they took Dion Waiters at 4. The next 5 picks were Thomas Robinson (bust), Damian Lilliard (stud), Harrison Barnes (evolving into a possible star), Terrence Ross (decent player) and Andre Drummond (star). Deep draft, in which the Cavs erred, but didn't exactly bust the way the Kings did with the very next pick. They also took Jared Cunningham at 24. He's a decent role player, which is about all you can expect from the bottom third of the first round.
In 2011, they got the first pick and took Kyrie, which looks like a brilliant selection, and Thompson at 4, which is starting to look ok after smelling very bust-like for two years. Valanciunas (good player) went 5th, then Jan Vesely (bust), Bismack Biyombo (bust-ish), Brandon Knight (good PG) and Kemba Walker (good PG). Kyrie, Kawhi (15th), Klay (11th), and Valanciunas (5th) are probably the best players in that lottery.
In 2010, they had no draft picks, and LeBron made The Decision.
Let's look at some other personnel moves by the Cavs since The Decision in 2010.
July 2010: Traded Sebastian Telfair and Delonte West to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Ryan Hollins, Ramon Sessions and a 2013 2nd round draft pick (Jeff Withey was later selected). That's a small win.
October 2010: Waived Danny Green. That's a loss, although, to be fair, it took him a full season before he found his game in SA.
Feb. 2011: trade Jamario Moon and Mo Williams to the Clippers for a first-round pick (Kyrie!) and the corpse of Baron Davis (quickly waived). HUGE win.
June 2011: Traded JJ Hickson to Sac for Omri Casspi and a future 1st-round pick. A push.
March 2012: Traded Christian Eyenga and Ramon Sessions to LAL for Jason Kapono, Luke Walton, and two 1st-round picks (Jared Cunningham and Nemanja Nedovic). Small loss.
June 2012: Traded Jae Crowder, Jared Cunningham, and Bernard James to Dallas for Kelenna Azubuike and Tyler Zeller. Loss.
Jan. 2013: Traded Jon Leuer to Memphis for Wayne Ellington, Josh Selby, Marresse Speights and a future 1st-round pick. Push.
July 2013: Signed Jarrett Jack as a FA. Should have been a huge win. Didn't really turn out that way. Signed Andrew Bynum as a FA. Flyer that failed.
Jan. 2014: Traded Bynum, a 2014 1st-round pick, and two 2nds for Luol Deng. Big win.
Feb 2014: David Griffin becomes GM
Feb 2014: Traded Earl Clark, Henry Sims and two 2nds to Philly for Spencer Hawes. Meh.
June 2014: Traded Alonzo Gee to Charlotte for Brendan Haywood and Dwight Powell. meh.
July 2014: Three-team trade, losing Tyler Zeller, Jarrett Jack, Serey Karasev and a protected 1st, getting a 2nd and rights to three foreign players I've never heard of. Loss.
August 2014: signed Mike Miller and James Jones. Wins.
August 2014: Three-team trade, losing Anthony Bennett, Andrew Wiggins, and a trade exemption, getting Kevin Love. Win, so far.
Jan. 2015: Three-team trade, losing Dion Waiters, Louis Amundson, Alex Kirk and a 2nd and got JR Smith, Iman Shumpert and a protected 1st from OKC (used a few days later in the Mozgov deal). Win.
Jan. 2015: Traded two protected 1st-round picks to Denver for Mozgov and a 2nd. BIG win.
Feb. 2015: Signed Kendrick Perkins. Meh.
Yes, I forgot to mention that the Kyrie pick was received in a trade from the Clippers. They got lucky to go #1 overall, but they improved their odds by trading for a pick in the lottery. That's a real big deal. The post-Decision regime has been pretty good and not at all like the T-Wolves. For example, they gave Kyrie the max deal for max years. I can think of someone who didn't do that with a star player.
The Perkins deal was a head scratcher. I figured that spot was going to go to Ray Allen, who would have been enormously valuable in this series. Apparently, though, Ray had had enough.
Alright, alright, there not as poorly run as I thought.
There's till the domestic abuse video to root against them for, at least.
In my defense, I couldn't bring myself to wade through that piece of Simmons.
I did it for you. You are welcome. You owe me a beer.
In my defense, I was correct.
Amazingly, Simmons seems to have forgotten that the Clippers were also in the NBA during that time.
from 1977 (the first year after Jack Ramsey left the Braves) to 1991, the Clippers' franchise made the playoffs zero times. They then made it two straight years under Larry the Vagabond (peaking at 45 wins). Then twice more during 1994-2011. From 1976-7 to 2010-11, they had exactly three winning seasons (and one 41-41 season). And 8 seasons with fewer than 20 wins. And 9 more seasons with 20-29 wins.
The Warriors were pretty bad, but the Clippers were much, much worse.
From 1976-7 to 2010-11, the Warriors had 10 winning seasons (2 50+ win seasons), three with fewer than 20 wins (all in the 4 years between 1997-8 and 2000-1) and 8 with 20-29 wins. Extending to this year for comparability, 13 winning seasons (4 50+), 3 sub-20 and 9 with 20-29 wins. 10 playoffs (including the last three), losing in the first round 3 times.
the Washington franchise is a contender. They were in back-to-back finals (winning one) in 1977 and 1978. Since then: 10 winning seasons (including the last two years; zero 50+ win seasons), three sub-20 seasons and 10 in the 20-29 zone. They made the playoffs 14 times (including the last two; 16 if you include those first two years for comparability), but lost in the first round ten times.
The Nets entered the league in 1976-77, coming off an ABA title. Since then, 14 winning seasons (including two of the last 3; 1 50+ season), 4 sub-20 years and 10 in the 20-29 zone. They made the playoffs 19 times (including the last 3, but 4 times with losing records and once with a 41-41 record) and lost in the first round 12 times.
In the same period (1976-77 to date), the Warriors made the playoffs ten times (including the last 3; never with a losing record) and lost in the first round 3 times.
I'm not sure if you caught that the Simmons piece was written in 2012, so none of the very recent history had happened yet.
Yes, that's why my comments started out as couched in the "up through 2010-11 season" frame. He was even more wrong then than he is now, with the rejuvenation of both the Warriors and the Clippers.
Saw an article talking about how, shocker of shockers, Steve Kerr actually lied about switching to the small lineup. Oh my! He purposely fooled those poor Cavaliers. Seriously, if Blatt wasn't prepared for the Warriors to go to their small lineup to start the game, he should be immediately fired. Based on how the game started, I would say the "surprise" change to the starting lineup had little bearing on the game.
I will give Shumpert this: that is one very impressive hairdo.
Not here
Any takers to watch the USA match tonight? Kick off is at 7.
I would totally be in if I lived in the great state.
Nil-nil draw. Rapinoe was the best player on the pitch. Each had one or two really good chances but failed to convert.
Why wasn't Alex Morgan starting?
She's coming off a hamstring injury.
Ah.
Can't remember which day it appeared here, but I appreciated the conversation that free, phil, and some others had about dealing with the loss of loved ones. It does get a bit easier as the years go by, but it will always give you pause. My brother E-2 passed away 14 years ago today. He'll be on my mind all day. I'll probably listen to some Keith Jarrett (one of his faves) and drive past some of his projects.
You are in our prayers.
Best wishes, E-6.
I like English beer and all (although to be perfectly honest, we do it better), but it costs me my company a fortune, and many, many trips to the bathroom, to get a buzz in this country.
Inference? Is that one of these new-fangled high-techy things you kids have now?
The Twins are surprise contenders this year, and they’re open to acquiring a middle-of-the-order hitter, possibly an outfielder, Heyman writes. They could also seek relief help.
a middle of the order hitting outfielder WOULD be relief help
R. I. P. country music Hall of Famer Jim Ed Brown, from cancer at age 81.
NBA last night.
Pumpkins. Pumpkins everywhere. Lots of guys turned into pumpkins last night for Cleveland. JR Smith and Shumpert have given the Cavs nothing much this series and last night it was less than that. Delly forgot for a second that he was an undrafted free agent. The reminder came in the form of that game last night.
The Warriors did some things right to get this series even and re-take control of it. First of all, they didn't let LeBron beat them. They got the ball out of his hands, but part of that I think was Cleveland's (puzzling) design. Maybe they felt that LeBron needed to rest some on offense. Fine. But, they got away from slowing the pace. Cleveland didn't do everything they could to stop the Warriors from running and GSW took advantage.
LBJ took a hit to the head that resulted in some nasty lacerations and he admitted to a headache. Concussion? Maybe. Concussion protocols? No. The league should have checked him out. Bogut got nailed to the bench for all but three minutes, just enough time to level a few hard fouls, including the one on LBJ that caused a nasty fall. Bogut has been worthless in this series. Meanwhile Mosgov went off. The Cavs need to punish GSW for not playing Bogut, but to a certain extent they did, but the rest of the GSW front line came alive last night and they were the difference. I really didn't think that that was possible. But, make no mistake, it was previous no-shows Barnes and Green and the newly resurrected David Lee who made the difference. Oh, and also GSW's MVP of this series: Andre Iguodala. AI has been GSW's best overall player in this series by plenty and he had a monstrous game on both ends of the floor last night. Thompson and Curry were pretty quiet, but AI roared like a lion.
As I stated last night, co-sign on Iguodala.
The small lineup helped the Warriors push pace. They also pressured LeBron more to get the ball out of his hands earlier, rather than letting him pound, pound, pound, then run downhill to the rim to score or dish to Mozgov for a dunk.
If it had been me, I probably would have gotten Mozgov another ten or so post-ups. Dude was great again, and playing against midgets. I will give Delly some slack -- he looked gassed pretty much all night. Game 3 took too much out of him and he just hadn't recovered enough. The lack of bench was too much to overcome.
The other guy who deserves kudos from GSW is Sean Livingston. Dude has elevated his profile considerably in these playoffs. Last night he was outstanding (+25 in +/-, 7/8/4 with a block and a steal in 25 minutes).
Delly's problem must have been the lack of caffeine.
I thoroughly enjoy watching curry (and the Warriors in general), and already wanted them to win it all because aesthetics, but man, the Iguodala story is one of the more fun stories in a Finals in awhile. He's a lot of fun to watch.
I also really want GSW to win this thing due to crappy franchise jealousy. I don't think it's right that a team as poorly run as the wolves should luck their way into the finals like this.
Exactly which franchise are you talking about? Because there's a pretty good argument for the idea that GS is the worst run franchise of the past 40 years.
Yea, until 3-4 years ago, GSW had been on a pretty pathetic run since Don Nelson had his power-conflict with Chris Webber.
But that piece...typical Bill Simmons blow-hardery. I love how it starts with the story about Joe Lacob being booed...for trading Monta Ellis for Andrew Bogut, the very trade that set the franchise on its current path. Bogut has been dominated by the Cavs' scheme in this series, but he was very instrumental in getting them to this stage. And unloading Ellis was instrumental in creating the Splash Brothers.
That's a good argument?
(Man, I do not miss his writing one bit.)
I stand corrected. They have been great!
But that pretty much reads as "the Warriors were poorly run for 35 years, then a new owner took over and now, other than a bad coaching decision (which they fixed before it could ruin the franchise), they are relatively well run."
That's what I said EXACTLY. [note: that was sarcasm] And I quote:
Nobody here is disputing the fact that GSW was bad for most of the 1980s and 1990s.
the thing is, MOST NBA franchises are bad. Everyone is looking for a Magic or Larry or Michael or Shaq to turn the franchise from crappy to great. So you do things like draft Ndubi Ebi or whatever the hell his name was. Or Dirk. It's called "gambling for resurrection." It usually does not work.
Or you could be like the Bucks all those years under Don Nelson: good, but not good enough to make a finals, and not bad enough to get a high lottery pick to carry you to greatness.
I wasn't responding to you. But, okay, non-Clipper NBA division, Warriors pretty much the worst for almost four decades.
The idea that Cleveland, who had pretty good teams in the 1990s and mid-2000s is somehow more poorly run historically than the Warriors is hard to justify. After the 1975 season until when the article was written, the Cavs made the playoffs 17 times. They've been a helluva lot better than the Warriors over the last 40 seasons. That was the point that I was making.
Am I correct? Or not? Yes, GSW has turned the ship around, thanks in no small part to the T-Wolves who passed on Curry twice right before the Warriors lucked into him. I like the Warriors. I like that they put it together. But to pretend that they didn't suck and weren't poorly run for a very, very long time is a fantasy.
The original point by cheaptoy was that he didn't like a crappy franchise winning because he's jealous. I'm saying that when it comes to crappy franchises, it's hard to top the Warriors historically, non-Clippers division.
the Price-Nance-Daugherty Cavs were excellent. And, of course, the Cavs lucked into LeBron.
Using the same yardsticks I used below, during 1976-77 to 2010-11, the Cavs had 18 winning seasons (7 50+ seasons), 3 sub-20 seasons and 6 seasons in the 20-29 zone. Extending to the current year, that's 19 winning seasons (8 50+), 3 sub-20 and 8 in the 20-29 zone. They've made the playoffs 18 times (including the current season) since 1977 (inclusive of 1977) and lost in the first round 10 times.
the Milwaukee comparison: Kareem left after the 1974-75 season. From 1976-77 forward: 19 winning seasons and 2 41-41 seasons (8 50+ seasons), 1 sub-20 season and 5 20-29 seasons (one was a strike year where they went 28-22). They made the playoffs 22 times and lost in the first round 11 times. They made the conference finals 4 times (three times from 1982-83 to 1985-86).
My point was that I didn't like a team as crappily run as the Wolves winning before them, it had nothing to do with historical success. Dan Gilbert has owned the team since 2005 and, other than striking gold with LeBron, then failing to surround him with anything competent (sounds familiar), his ownership has seen the drafting of Anthony Bennett #1 overall (and other horrors.)
In other words, over the last 3-4 years, the Cavs have been run like the Wolves and got absurdly lucky multiple times (of which only one of those magical lamps has paid off) and the Warriors have been run closer to the Spurs and it's paying off.
I think it's unfair to say that only one of those magical lamps paid off when they parlayed Bennett and Wiggins (that was a pretty good pick) into Kevin Love. They also hit on Tristan Thompson in the Irving draft. Plus they did a pretty good job of shoring up the roster in mid-season when everyone in the league knew that they needed to. Plus, go look at the Bennett draft. That was the worst draft in a very long time. The top two players by win shares in that draft are Rudy Gobert and Mason Plumlee. But, yeah, Bennett was bad choice.
So, their three overall #1s were Irving (a superstar), Bennett (a bust in a terrible draft), and Wiggins (a potential superstar). You might remember that they took Irving even though he'd only played a few games at Duke due to an injured foot. They could have gotten spooked by that and taken Derrick Williams, but he had to come and ruin our lives.
Yea, I think Stick's assessment of their recent drafts is fair.
When journalists judge draft choices retrospectively they almost always do so by cherry-picking with the benefit of hindsight. That's seriously disingenuous.
the Bennett pick was panned at the time as a reach, but looking at the next four picks (Oladipo, Porter, Cody Zeller, Alex Len), only Oladipo looks, retrospectively, like he "deserved" to go first. The best pick in that lottery will probably end up being Antetokounmpo at 15. When lots of other teams also whiff, that's not really evidence of bad management. They also got Sergey Karasev at 19, whom they included in the Jarrett Jack/Tyler Zeller deal for a future pick and rights to some foreign players, so that remains an open question about return value (although it looks pretty bad so far).
In 2012, they took Dion Waiters at 4. The next 5 picks were Thomas Robinson (bust), Damian Lilliard (stud), Harrison Barnes (evolving into a possible star), Terrence Ross (decent player) and Andre Drummond (star). Deep draft, in which the Cavs erred, but didn't exactly bust the way the Kings did with the very next pick. They also took Jared Cunningham at 24. He's a decent role player, which is about all you can expect from the bottom third of the first round.
In 2011, they got the first pick and took Kyrie, which looks like a brilliant selection, and Thompson at 4, which is starting to look ok after smelling very bust-like for two years. Valanciunas (good player) went 5th, then Jan Vesely (bust), Bismack Biyombo (bust-ish), Brandon Knight (good PG) and Kemba Walker (good PG). Kyrie, Kawhi (15th), Klay (11th), and Valanciunas (5th) are probably the best players in that lottery.
In 2010, they had no draft picks, and LeBron made The Decision.
Let's look at some other personnel moves by the Cavs since The Decision in 2010.
July 2010: Traded Sebastian Telfair and Delonte West to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Ryan Hollins, Ramon Sessions and a 2013 2nd round draft pick (Jeff Withey was later selected). That's a small win.
October 2010: Waived Danny Green. That's a loss, although, to be fair, it took him a full season before he found his game in SA.
Feb. 2011: trade Jamario Moon and Mo Williams to the Clippers for a first-round pick (Kyrie!) and the corpse of Baron Davis (quickly waived). HUGE win.
June 2011: Traded JJ Hickson to Sac for Omri Casspi and a future 1st-round pick. A push.
March 2012: Traded Christian Eyenga and Ramon Sessions to LAL for Jason Kapono, Luke Walton, and two 1st-round picks (Jared Cunningham and Nemanja Nedovic). Small loss.
June 2012: Traded Jae Crowder, Jared Cunningham, and Bernard James to Dallas for Kelenna Azubuike and Tyler Zeller. Loss.
Jan. 2013: Traded Jon Leuer to Memphis for Wayne Ellington, Josh Selby, Marresse Speights and a future 1st-round pick. Push.
July 2013: Signed Jarrett Jack as a FA. Should have been a huge win. Didn't really turn out that way. Signed Andrew Bynum as a FA. Flyer that failed.
Jan. 2014: Traded Bynum, a 2014 1st-round pick, and two 2nds for Luol Deng. Big win.
Feb 2014: David Griffin becomes GM
Feb 2014: Traded Earl Clark, Henry Sims and two 2nds to Philly for Spencer Hawes. Meh.
June 2014: Traded Alonzo Gee to Charlotte for Brendan Haywood and Dwight Powell. meh.
July 2014: Three-team trade, losing Tyler Zeller, Jarrett Jack, Serey Karasev and a protected 1st, getting a 2nd and rights to three foreign players I've never heard of. Loss.
August 2014: signed Mike Miller and James Jones. Wins.
August 2014: Three-team trade, losing Anthony Bennett, Andrew Wiggins, and a trade exemption, getting Kevin Love. Win, so far.
Jan. 2015: Three-team trade, losing Dion Waiters, Louis Amundson, Alex Kirk and a 2nd and got JR Smith, Iman Shumpert and a protected 1st from OKC (used a few days later in the Mozgov deal). Win.
Jan. 2015: Traded two protected 1st-round picks to Denver for Mozgov and a 2nd. BIG win.
Feb. 2015: Signed Kendrick Perkins. Meh.
Yes, I forgot to mention that the Kyrie pick was received in a trade from the Clippers. They got lucky to go #1 overall, but they improved their odds by trading for a pick in the lottery. That's a real big deal. The post-Decision regime has been pretty good and not at all like the T-Wolves. For example, they gave Kyrie the max deal for max years. I can think of someone who didn't do that with a star player.
The Perkins deal was a head scratcher. I figured that spot was going to go to Ray Allen, who would have been enormously valuable in this series. Apparently, though, Ray had had enough.
Alright, alright, there not as poorly run as I thought.
There's till the domestic abuse video to root against them for, at least.
In my defense, I couldn't bring myself to wade through that piece of Simmons.
I did it for you. You are welcome. You owe me a beer.
In my defense, I was correct.
Amazingly, Simmons seems to have forgotten that the Clippers were also in the NBA during that time.
from 1977 (the first year after Jack Ramsey left the Braves) to 1991, the Clippers' franchise made the playoffs zero times. They then made it two straight years under Larry the Vagabond (peaking at 45 wins). Then twice more during 1994-2011. From 1976-7 to 2010-11, they had exactly three winning seasons (and one 41-41 season). And 8 seasons with fewer than 20 wins. And 9 more seasons with 20-29 wins.
The Warriors were pretty bad, but the Clippers were much, much worse.
From 1976-7 to 2010-11, the Warriors had 10 winning seasons (2 50+ win seasons), three with fewer than 20 wins (all in the 4 years between 1997-8 and 2000-1) and 8 with 20-29 wins. Extending to this year for comparability, 13 winning seasons (4 50+), 3 sub-20 and 9 with 20-29 wins. 10 playoffs (including the last three), losing in the first round 3 times.
the Washington franchise is a contender. They were in back-to-back finals (winning one) in 1977 and 1978. Since then: 10 winning seasons (including the last two years; zero 50+ win seasons), three sub-20 seasons and 10 in the 20-29 zone. They made the playoffs 14 times (including the last two; 16 if you include those first two years for comparability), but lost in the first round ten times.
The Nets entered the league in 1976-77, coming off an ABA title. Since then, 14 winning seasons (including two of the last 3; 1 50+ season), 4 sub-20 years and 10 in the 20-29 zone. They made the playoffs 19 times (including the last 3, but 4 times with losing records and once with a 41-41 record) and lost in the first round 12 times.
In the same period (1976-77 to date), the Warriors made the playoffs ten times (including the last 3; never with a losing record) and lost in the first round 3 times.
I'm not sure if you caught that the Simmons piece was written in 2012, so none of the very recent history had happened yet.
Yes, that's why my comments started out as couched in the "up through 2010-11 season" frame. He was even more wrong then than he is now, with the rejuvenation of both the Warriors and the Clippers.
Saw an article talking about how, shocker of shockers, Steve Kerr actually lied about switching to the small lineup. Oh my! He purposely fooled those poor Cavaliers. Seriously, if Blatt wasn't prepared for the Warriors to go to their small lineup to start the game, he should be immediately fired. Based on how the game started, I would say the "surprise" change to the starting lineup had little bearing on the game.
I will give Shumpert this: that is one very impressive hairdo.
Not here
Any takers to watch the USA match tonight? Kick off is at 7.
I would totally be in if I lived in the great state.
Nil-nil draw. Rapinoe was the best player on the pitch. Each had one or two really good chances but failed to convert.
Why wasn't Alex Morgan starting?
She's coming off a hamstring injury.
Ah.
Can't remember which day it appeared here, but I appreciated the conversation that free, phil, and some others had about dealing with the loss of loved ones. It does get a bit easier as the years go by, but it will always give you pause. My brother E-2 passed away 14 years ago today. He'll be on my mind all day. I'll probably listen to some Keith Jarrett (one of his faves) and drive past some of his projects.
You are in our prayers.
Best wishes, E-6.
I like English beer and all (although to be perfectly honest, we do it better), but it costs
memy company a fortune, and many, many trips to the bathroom, to get a buzz in this country.Another piece on Municipal Vexicology, focusing on Texas.
ID the AU
Which Twins former/current/future player signs his name like this on his letters to mom?
How did you see one of his letters to his mom?
by inference
Inference? Is that one of these new-fangled high-techy things you kids have now?
a middle of the order hitting outfielder WOULD be relief help
Torii Hunter suspended two games for strip-down ejection
Wardrobe malfunction. He was supposed to be rending garments, a la Nick "Shredder" Punto, but they came off too easily.
Liberty!
Buster Posey just broke up a no-hit bid after 6.1 by drilling a one-hopper of the D-back's pitcher's leg. Ouch.
Hooray! My flight home this morning is already delayed by two hours! No idea why, but thanks American!
The positive is that I don't have to worry about how long security might take, but yeah.