sturt

Nonsense. Two things can be true at the same time. And are. Not sure what exactly qualifies to you as "kick him to the curb," but use whatever other language you consider fair... the point was, they got rid of him, and not for anything of any value in return. That happened. And while I could quibble with some of it, I can accept the rest of your characterization in a general way. But none of that has anything to do with his good vibes while he was with Atlanta. You're conflating his candid disappointment after being traded with his professional positivity before being traded. And trying to reach a sellers' remorse conclusion, "Oh, he was a bad apple anyhow." Not rational. Be fair to John.

Shots fired. Lucidly... it's a reasonable standard if you're putting on the floor a rotation that is significantly different than the one you put on the floor previously... in other words, reason urges a person to think that if you're rolling out the NBA's only backcourt that features ASG-quality point guards, that on its own just might be evidence that some chemistry-time is going to be important. But wait, if you add on top of that, you're not going to have a player who the head coach regards as the "6th starter" because of knee surgery recovery?.... and on top of that still... the replacement going into the season is a newly-acquired 33 year-old whose offense and defense have done a cliff dive of-late? Dunno what to tell ya, but my Spidey sense is that there's just some persistent personal gripe embedded in the quip, given b_d history... no real interest in reason in the first place. Does your team have any of those kinds of considerations going into this season? That is, is there reason to reserve judgment? (For you guys/gals to judge. Not my problem. )

Not really interested in a deep dive on the question, but I wonder how much of a change it's going to be compared to what he would have had under Quin, now that Quin's installing his stuff fully instead of the hybrid that JC played under for the last of the season. It's been my impression that Hardy and Snyder share a lot of similar philosophy, but I could be assuming too much, dunno.

Among the most intensely revisionist history comments I recall reading anywhere in quite awhile... years, for sure... well, with the exception of the political realm, where it's practically an every day experience. Nahbabanah... a guy doesn't erase all of his good vibes by being candid after having been kicked to the curb by the team where he'd been by practically anyone and everyone's account at the time he was with the team the most consistently positive force, day-in-day-out, in spite of a lot of very-public headwinds to that. C'mon. The sellers' remorse, trying to find some way to actually feel even just neutral about selling your stock at an all-time low for the company, is understandable, but don't just make crap up.

It's not really practical, but in a perfect world (or, at least, the one in my head), you'd have the playoffs set up so that the number of games a team has to win is dependent on their record compared to their opponent's record. So, in general terms, let's say you had two teams that won exactly the same number of regular season games. Then, it's like it is already... whoever wins one more than the other. But in the case that one had won 10 more games than the other, if I'm Baseball Czar, I decree the worser team spots a win to the better team from the git-go... ie, the series starts 1-0 before a game is played. And in the case of 20 more games, same idea... but the series starts 2-0 for the better team before a game is played. (That doesn't work for Wild Card, of course, assuming they keep it the way it is... I've seen in my Twitter feed that Baseball Media Gods are not happy, so who knows.) And, yes, don't let the post fool you... it's just an academic thought experiment... and, yes, other than a spring training sampling of one game to see the pitch clock thing for myself, my rejection of Manfredball as a legitimate sport worthy of my attention remains.

Yeah. Um. People tell you whether to take them as serious adults. Or not. And I try to only let my time get consumed by engaging serious adults. I've found there is little point to engaging the others. There has to be, at least, the common ground shared that both sides want to come to some productive agreement/conclusion... as opposed to the very common social media want to just make everything another attempt at insult or bad comedy like almost all of us experienced when we were in middle school. Here's the thing. We all get to choose that (how we interact) for ourselves. It's not a matter of education, it's not a matter of sex, it's not a matter of age (ordinarily) around here. It's a matter of attitude. It's a matter of what we value. Pretty much those two, as far as I've ever been able to tell. Got nothin for you, Spud. Haven't had anything for a long, long time now. You've told me. Or, as someone with your attitude probably would prefer it... I got told. Either way.

(Don't think I ever suggested I wouldn't be back here on occasion, but just a whole lot less occasion. I will not be investing any emotion in this team for as long as Peter Antony Ressler remains the owner, but that doesn't mean a total void of interest in interacting with friends here regarding assorted topics as they arise. Things like Onyeka Okongwu, aka Fake Big O, attempting the NBA equivalent of a stolen valor campaign against an icon of both the NBA and the racial equality movement in the US do summon up some emotion... or like this revisionist history I've happened to see proposing that selling a stock at its all-time low is smart and, concurrently, yes, a team can get better by tossing a starting talent overboard for nothing in return. But that's different than being a fan, of course.)

On occasions when I visit to read and catch up, I suspect I'll be doing a lot of searches on "Bruno" and author: TheNorthCydeRises.

That sneaky Connor.

It was mixed. Yes. Absolutely. But lucidly, I agree with the affirmation that JC's regression could best be explained by his finger. So, when we see his scoring improve, that's addressing the primary concern. The other? That's most rationally explained by the new coach/coaching philosophies after the break. We can quantify that to some degree, too, because there was like a 7 point shift in offensive rating (~116 to ~123) and approximately the same shift in defensive rating. JC mirrored that, and it's indicative of significant differences in playing styles. I'm slow to be persuaded that there was any actual JC-centric reason for those other stats. I chalk that up to what he was being asked to do by his new coach.

Some friends of mine would do well to go to basketball-reference, bring up JC's page, and study his 2022-23 splits. There you will find, maybe to your horror, a trend... not so good early... much more Baptist-like late. But/and also, bear in mind the other changes to the team that we all well understand. Just sayin.

But they won't, nor a white man, or an Asian man, because of course the sensible people understand that none of those are actually an ape. And even though Micah Parsons seemingly would like to think there could be a black man... him... some day playing a Lion King, they won't make that movie either, because the story isn't about a man at all, but a lion. The concern falls apart once we dismiss ignorant people as being irrelevant. Same idea, said the other way, the concern only exists because we give ignorant people some status as being relevant. We're never actually talking about degrading anyone for being the king of the jungle or the eighth wonder of the world... exact opposite, actually... but if Fake Big O is going to be bothered by ignorant people, then fine, let him be bothered... people with no maturity and no scruples who have chosen to disrespect NBA royalty (you see what I did there)... and, hear this, of his own race who actually was among the pioneers in breaking down racial barriers (that's just a bonus, but a huge one)... are deserving to be bothered. G'nite.

Happy owner, happy life... that's what I always say.

Nah. It's enough even if I end up being the only one to use it. I'm not so naive as to think anything I personally do is going to force that to happen. So, I'm left to just be satisfied with my little re-balancing of justice here in my own corner of the social media world. I'm certain King Kong will see it anyway, which is great... until he blocks me.... hehehe.

I'm inclined to leave my options open and use either/or depending on my mood. In its own way "Fake Big O" is more disrespectful, actually, because there is no actual upside to ever being "fake" anything... whereas King Kong is only actually disrespectful as it would be used in a racist way... to illustrate, if it where so ubiquitously inflammatory, people would argue there should never be another King Kong movie... the normal every day way, King Kong is the imagery of strength and dominance (as we all realize). The only reason I even use it, in light of that fact, is that it apparently is something that bothers someone who should be more bothered by his own obtuse disrespect. But don't worry too much. I've not been around here much the last 100 days, and that's more likely to lessen than it is to increase. But I encourage others to use King Kong as they find it suits them for as long as Fake Big O continues to be an immature ass about it all.

(a) that's fine... I wouldn't expect you to... it's one of the luxuries of having given up on this team that I don't have any reason not to root against someone who openly and flagrantly disrespects a legend. (b) that's fine, too... I'm only going that far, of course, because I think Fake Big O has gone that far... if he feels it's fine to disrespect a legend, then I feel it's fine to be disrespectful of him, then... albeit, truly, it will always be too bad that that nickname has those racial overtones because it's a great nickname otherwise for an NBA center, just stating the obvious.

Of course you do. It's who you are. You wear it proudly, which is your right. Your right. Not "you're right." It's wrong, but it's good to live in a country where you can say what you want to say, as wrong as it may prove to be given further scrutiny by serious people. And. While it is true that almost all of my sports attention for the next several months will be consumed by my Cowboys, my Blackhawks, and coming next spring, some yet-uncertain USFL/XFL football team... and will just every now look to see how that hamster wheel is turnin over here for my Hawks friends... King Kong is going to be the one Hawk I'm actually going to be actively rooting against. I don't care. He's now come out and actively pushing this. It's not okay. It's shameful. It's disrespectful. It's thinking only of himself, which is another way of saying, it's immature. Look. I've said it countless times, but it's never more true than now. Oscar Robertson is too good of a person, let alone too good of a basketball player in his time, to have to share his moniker with any other NBA player, let alone one that, by any objective measure, should have to pay dearly merely to have the privilege of sniffing one of Real Big O's old moldy stinky jock straps. His name on many of his trophies says "Big O"... doesn't even say Oscar Robertson. We don't piddle around and wonder if anyone else should ever be okay to call some new kid "Dr. J"... but some of you will be more than happy to piddle around with Big O. Selfish. Sure, you don't owe Real Big O anything, and you owe Fake Big O some allegiance since he wears the red-and-orangey-yeller uniform. But no. That's wrong. Be mature and think. You do owe Real Big O something. You... like the rest of us who have enjoyed the NBA... owe Real Big O respect, because you owe the game respect. "Respect the game" cannot not mean anything less than respecting the game's legends. King Kong, it is, then. And the congregation said.... amen.

Hawksquawkers never could/can seem to unite on a correct spelling of their names. That's all. As you were.

Wut?

Well. My goodness, Jeff. What do you want? Roster improvement or solving the "impending luxury tax problem?" Be reasonable man. Where are your priorities. If the roster has to take another step back, okay then. Happy owner, happy life. That's what we always say.

Hockey is about to get exciting or me. Between that and the USFL/XFL spring football league, I think this is going to work out fine.

JC had a down season offensively overall, but his post-ASG numbers strongly suggested reason for optimism that whatever he was working through (suspected to be mainly his finger issue, of course), he was getting back to form, or something in that ballpark. If you couldn't afford to wait to see if the younger JC would reestablish himself, it begs credulity how one could be excited to pay the older PS for production that has been, except for the first 50 games of 22-23, very similar... if not worse in some ways even with including those 50 games in the calculations. Worse. You were... and still might be, who knows... ready to send out young talent in trade that would effectively nullify any net talent gain desired. Hope for y'alls sake the FO is able to resist temptation and avoid jumping the shark... and that Quin is able to keep as much of this group together as possible, to see what he can do with them.

If depth is your biggest strength right now, you're not in a good place, because you had more depth last post season and self-evidently were not satisfied with that depth. Effectively, on the court, the FO has dispatched a starter-level talent (bad), moved up a high-ceiling back-up (good), and have decided to count on a 2nd round rookie to pick up some of those minutes (bad)... and what minutes he doesn't pick up, seem likely to ask two SFs to also share some PF load, ie, who have never exactly excelled yet in their young careers in that role (bad and bad). Nah. Your biggest strength right now, as I'm seeing some saying... you have a head coach that is about as highly regarded and universally regarded as you ever see a head coach become in the National Basketball Association. The players are going to respect his decisions from the first jump ball, almost certainly, and fans are going to respect.... oh, well, who am I kidding... fans will only respect his decisions for a relatively brief honeymoon period, then if he doesn't meet expectations, he's going to be as toasted as the last guy... maybe just a slower burn, but a burn nonetheless. It's only too bad that he's not getting the chance to go to war with a stronger roster. But as I've said more than once, the Mighty Quin might just be that good. And yeah, Jalen, too. But here's what matters. Antony can be happy that there's some reason for hope as the season begins, and he's going to generate some revenue while at the same time not going to risk paying tax. He can be really happy given all that. So, he'll keep owning the team. And after all, isn't that what we all really want... you know what they say... happy owner, happy life. Or something like that.

North... cited RAPTOR. I'd looked it up months ago... believe I examined numbers and graphs of last 3 seasons. Camp, if you're suggesting there is an alternative explanation for why two starter quality talents were sent away in exchange for zero talent in return... in two consecutive off seasons... Have to say that's not like you.