Jump to content

Mitch Cumsteen

Burnt Ends
  • Posts

    5,611
  • Joined

  • Days Won

    3

Everything posted by Mitch Cumsteen

  1. NBA win total over/unders are out: DEN: 54.5 BOS: 53.5 MIL: 52.5 PHO: 51.5 CLE: 49.5 GSW: 49.5 LAL: 48.5 MEM: 45.5 DAL: 45.5 NOP: 43.5 SAC: 43.5 NYK: 43.5 MIN: 43.5 OKC: 43.5 ATL: 42.5 CHI: 37.5 TOR: 36.5 ORL: 35.5 IND: 35.5 UTA: 35.5 CHA: 31.5 HOU: 31.5 SAS: 30.5 DET: 27.5 WAS: 24.5 Looks like Miami and Portland are off the board. Clippers, Nets and 76ers too. At first blush, I love Charlotte over 31.5. They won 27 last year with Lamelo only playing 36 games while actively tanking. They get Bridges back in a contract year and added Brandon Miller. Mark Williams improved a ton over the course of his rookie year, so he should be better in year 2. I'm assuming they get PJ Williams and Kelly Oubre back or get something of equivalent value in a sign and trade. Unless I'm mistaken, they didn't lose any significant pieces (Dennis Smith, Jr was actually good on d for them but still...). I don't see how they aren't five games better unless the injury bug bites them hard. Indiana also seems low to me. They won 35 last year with Halliburton missing 26 games and they should be improved too, adding Bruce Brown, Obi Toppen, and Jerace Walker, plus expected second year bumps from Mathurin and Nembhard. Not much faith in Sacramento apparently, going from 48 wins to projected 43.5. Milwaukee too, going from 58 wins to 52.5. I'd be tempted to bet the under on a few of the top western conference teams. The only outright tanking team will likely be Portland and a lot of the favorites (LAL, GSW, PHO, LAC) are old and injury prone. Beyond that... it's pretty amazing to me how balanced the league is right now.
  2. Why are we discussing this when we could be debating whether Kevin Durant is a true longhorn?
  3. Yeah but that would give vandy an unfair advantage.
  4. Ya know... Jimbo's not going to get up there and say what they're going to do and how they're going to do it, but everybody knows it's going to look exactly like it did before.
  5. So, Ime with his one season where he got schooled by Kerr in the finals, is a better coach than all these guys with hardware and longevity: Rick Carlisle - 22 years, 1 ring Steve Kerr - 10 years, 4 rings Ty Lue - 8 years, 1 ring Michael Malone - 11 years, 1 ring Nick Nurse - 6 years, 1 ring Frank Vogel - 12 years, 1 ring Ok. Gotcha.
  6. You may want to tap the brakes on that one. Ime Udoka has all of one total year head coaching experience on his resume. I'm going to need to see a little more than that to call him arguably the best coach in the NBA. The guy who replaced him in Boston is largely viewed as incompetent, but still won 6 more regular season games than Ime did. The way he left Boston is noteworthy and says quite a bit about the guy. That they didn't offer any resistance to him leaving says even more. From what I know of his reputation in San Antonio, none of the Boston stuff was surprising.
  7. This will be convenient for the SEC honchos to start scouting locations for when the conference office moves there.
  8. Are you serious, Clark? Fine, he deserves credit for drafting well but that tells about 1/10 of the story. It's his salary cap management and trading of all those draft picks that was so abhorrent. Does any of that sound familiar to what's going on in Phoenix right now? It's taken the Knicks the better part of a decade to get out from under all that. https://www.espn.com/new-york/nba/news/story?id=5261731 FYI that Utah pick was Gordon Hayward. And all that was at a time when the luxury tax was only punitive financially, and mildly punitive at that. And lest we forget how he drove the CBA, which had been around since 1946, into bankruptcy in less than two years. Your NBA takes are usually spot on, but you've got to be letting your love of Isiah as a player cloud your judgment of him as an executive. He's beyond incompetent and has shown zero signs of understanding even the most fundamental elements of salary cap management. And all the sexual harassment stuff, which you mentioned, should be a non-starter for pretty much any franchise, but especially in Phoenix fresh off running their owner for similar shit. Like I said, they have a small window. Durant will be 35 when the season starts and he hasn't been able to stay consistently healthy the last few years. Beal just turned 30 but his numbers have been on the decline for a few years now. Ayton is a bum on a bad contract they can't move. Good luck with all that. Look at their future draft capital after their most recent moves. It's an abject disaster. They better fucking hope Isiah is a drafting genius because they are going to be picking at the bottom of the first round and most likely, deep into the second. Good luck finding value with Denver's SRP next year. The NBA is going to have to revise the Stepien Rule to make the Ishbia Rule: 2024 First? YES — least favorable of their own, Washington (if 13-30) or Memphis Second? YES — Denver’s 2025 First? NO Second? YES — Pelicans’ 2026 First? YES — least favorable of their own, Washington (if not coveyed to NY in a separate deal) or Orlando Second? YES — least favorable of Detroit, Orlando or Milwaukee 2027 First? NO Second? NO 2028 First? YES — least favorable of their own, Washington, Philadelphia (if 9-30) or Brooklyn Second? YES (2) — Memphis’ AND Boston’s (if 46-60) 2029 First? NO Second? YES — Memphis 2030 First? YES — least favorable of their own, Washington or Memphis Second? NO
  9. I have the opposite reaction. It's one thing to mortgage the future, it's another to double and triple down on it, especially with two guys who are on the downside of their careers and an underachieving disinterested big. The fact that Isiah Thomas is allegedly pulling the strings behind this even makes me more skeptical given his history of taking a blow torch to everything he's ever touched since his playing days ended. Don't get me wrong, I like the guys they added for the minimum this off-season but they have a tight window and once it closes, it's going to be a long ass time before they can get it back open.
  10. Spurs getting more assets selling cap on an expiring deal. At least, I assume they are getting the better srp in this deal or giving up a protected one that never conveys. Payne may actually end up starting though. They have a lot of contracts now. They probably aren't done dealing.
  11. I just looked it up and SJR is actually 24. He’s four years older than Wesley. That’s actually very significant. He will be one of the older players in the spurs. Wesley has some physical gifts you can’t teach. I can’t imagine Rice is anywhere close to the same player he was four years ago. That’s a lot of reps between now and then. I actually watched the game because I’m sicko. SJR looked really good. He does a lot of the little connective things that don’t typically show up in the box score. Loved him at Texas and really hope he sticks with the Spurs. The spurs are in a bit of a weird place roster wise. They have so many young guys and projects with tons more picks coming their way. Like I said SJR is a rookie on a two way but he’s one of the oldest dudes on the team. Wemby 19 Sidy 19 Sochan 20 Barlow 20 Branham 20 Wesley 20 Champagnie 22 Bassey 22 Vassell 22 Mamu 23 Keldon 23 Rice 24 Collins seems like a haggard vet and he’s only 25. Thirteen dudes 25 and under is pretty ridiculous for an nba team. For right now, they have some time to let these guys grow and see what they have but at some point they are going to have to make some difficult decisions. Add all those picks and swaps coming their way and it gets even messier. Good problem to have I suppose, but they are going to have to get rid of some guys with real promise.
  12. He’s also like two years older than Wesley. But yeah, Wesley has been rough. He was a project to begin with and got hurt last season. I’m not ready to write him off completely but I don’t have much faith that he ever does much. He shows some moxie and defense, but his handle is way loose and decision making is bad. Combine that with his inability to finish in the lane and it’s tough to watch. The outside shot seems to have gotten better though.
  13. That would be just grand if you had those games plus Texas and Oklahoma still on your schedule. If you think byu and ucf carry the same kind of weight with the committee, good luck with that. Gundy is being a gigantic pussy but I promise OSU needs that game a lot more than OU does.
  14. Out of the 6 at large bids every year, I would be surprised if the Big 10 and SEC didn't have 5 of them. We saw what happened when Baylor or TCU should have gotten into the playoff over Ohio State... the committee flopped and the helmet team got the bid. And they went on to win the entire thing, btw. The SEC and Big 10 are routinely getting 2 of the top 4 now, and that's before OU, Texas, and USC jump ship. And the rest of the Big 12 is used to having Texas and OU lift their national perception while routinely scheduling as many patsies as they can. I have news for you -- that ship is setting sail come next year. No way in hell Oklahoma state is getting in if is even remotely close between them (with a pussy nonconference schedule) and the big name schools like OU, Texas, Georgia, LSU, Florida, Michigan, USC, Alabama, Penn State, Ohio State, etc. Sorry, it's just not happening. And being the solid #3 conference isn't really going to hold much water. The way it's going to look is: 1. SEC 2. Big 10 3-4. ACC or Big 12 (probably ACC - they have bigger name schools) 5. Pac 12 (or whatever it turns into) 6 Who cares / never heard of them
  15. When the Big 12 only gets one team into the playoff because their strength of schedule is dehydrated dogshit, Gundy may want that game back on the schedule. Until then, watch the fuck out Murray State.
  16. Even more lulz that they think their recruiting is on the upswing because Jimbo's time is freed up now that he's not in charge of the offense any more.
  17. The thing about Summer League is you have to view it through a certain lens because there are things that translate, and things that don't. I only watched a few minutes of Lively, but I was definitely impressed by things that should translate. First, for a guy that big, he can really run the floor. There aren't a lot of seven footers who can get from end to end as quickly as he can. He also is really, really active and aggressive going to the glass. Playing with energy and hustle is a definite skill. He will probably get into a lot of foul trouble early until he has a better grasp of how the game is officiated, but I definitely liked what I saw. He was hurt a lot at Duke so he was a bit of wildcard going into the draft. I thought he had massive bust potential, but I didn't realize how mobile and active he was. The more open NBA game definitely suits his skillset. I still don't know about his shot, but if he can even be marginally effective in the midrange to where he's not an offensive liability, then the Mavs are really onto something.
  18. 1. Whenever someone says it's not about the money, it's always about the money. I don't think it was the only factor, but it certainly wasn't a coincidence that Texas and OU bolted shortly after seeing that the new Big 12 TV contract was going to be a kick in the nuts. The dollars were certainly not trivial and falling further behind the SEC (and a second rate program like A&M, especially) wasn't going to fly. 2. I agree mostly with the notion about being affiliated with peers and our home schedule has been a joke for years, especially with our biggest game being played in Dallas every year. But beyond that, we were taking it in the ass on the recruiting trail from A&M screaming SEC at every recruit with Bama, LSU and Ohio State also raiding the elite talent in state. The conference affiliation was putting Texas at a distinct disadvantage. Back to back shitty coaching hires drove that point home -- a good coach would have run the Big 12 and been competing for playoff berths, which would have largely negated the conference recruiting disadvantage, but instead we got Chuckles the clown and Tommy Boy stepping on their own dicks at every turn. 3. Timing is everything. Texas wasn't about to wade into the cesspool of SEC cheating, but NIL changed the game. And you nailed it about the losses not counting as much. The playoff expansion takes the pressure off trying to go undefeated every year to win a national championship and you are always going to get the benefit of the doubt being in the SEC. 4. It also made a lot of sense to get A&M and Arkansas back on the schedule. No disrespect to Al, but nobody here really gets that fired up to play Iowa State or Baylor or TCU or Tech. Unlike most conference realignment moves, we actually gained more rivals and restored tradition back to the program and college football.
  19. Overly defensive to compensate for shortcomings obvious to the rest of the world but not himself? Check. Definite fit. Program history, like cheating out the ass? That's exactly what that program was built on. Check. Definite fit. Elite coast to coast recruiting? Motherfucker knows all the direct flights from College Station to New Jersey. Check. Definite fit. Culture building consisting of running a rogue, lawless program with no accountability? Check. Definite fit. Say what you will about Chin Pubes, he pretty much hit this one on the screws. A&M definitely has its man.
  20. Rolando's Super Taco just crushed my entire afternoon. Desperately need nap now.
  21. Texas has always had the target on its back as everybody's biggest game of the season. I didn't really think about it until now, but this is the last time ever that those bottom feeders get a shot at the big boss. Every one of those assholes is going to be going for it on fourth down 20 times a game like Tech did last year, fake punts, trick plays, running schemes that they haven't shown on film before. Every team in the conference will be pulling out all the stops in a final desperate act to end the series with a W. Couple that with the conference wanting to stick it to us on the way out the door and this season may be a little rougher than it looks on paper. We can't get out of this conference fast enough.
  22. With all due respect, nobody here ever wanted Brent Venables. Also... Fitz for sure deserves to be shitcanned over this but the skeptic in me sees a dude with a contract through 2030 who went 4-20 over the past two years and a school that just built a state of the art practice facility that realized, "Holy shit, we just got handed the world's biggest get out of jail free card. Let's play it."
×
×
  • Create New...