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Mitch Cumsteen

Burnt Ends
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Everything posted by Mitch Cumsteen

  1. One other thing... this came across my inbox. I can't remember if it was @Hate or @Kermit or someone else who had the Becky Hammond obsession, but here is your chance to get to know her better: https://www.tobincenter.org/beckyhammon You can upgrade to the meet and greet package for $100.
  2. They need to shut down Vassell as well. He looked really good last night. But fucking Keldon didn't even play and they still won. It didn't help that Halliburton sat out for Indiana. It also didn't help that Jordan Clarkson didn't play for Utah the other night. These next two games against Houston are beyond critical. They need to lose at least one of them and hopefully both. They're four games up on Charlotte in the win column. Win both against Houston and that number gets halved. And anything can happen in the last couple of weeks in the season when teams are resting players. It's obviously fine to be #3, but we sure as shit don't want it to come down to a coin flip with the Hornets for it. A couple of other notes: Sochan gets better and better each night. He's going to be an impact player in the league. He may not necessarily ever be an all star, but he's going to make winning plays on a winning team. Bright, bright future. I'm really digging what I'm seeing from Blake Wesley. The book on him before the draft was athletic as hell but raw. He's shown a real knack for heady plays and ball hawking. It's a shame he's spent most of the season injured. He's already a fucking nuisance on defense. He's shooting 50% from 3 -- which nobody would have predicted based on his college stats -- albeit in a very, very small sample size. He's quick as fuck. If/when he learns how to play more under control, he should be a nice player. If his 3-point shooting isn't a complete aberration, his floor is a plus level 3 and D guy. I think they nailed this draft with all three picks. It doesn't necessarily make up for them fucking up Samanic over Brandon Clarke, Vassell over Halliburton, or Primo over Sengun, but at least it's going in the right direction.
  3. They kinda need to make up their minds on whether we are this giant, evil, unstoppable power hellbent on destroying their perfect little SEC utopia, or if we're finally going to get our comeuppance and be put in our place by the likes of Alabama, LSU and Georgia.
  4. Assholes area going to win again if they keep this up. If they drop below Charlotte I'm going to lose my shit
  5. When you are looking for Kyrie Irving for leadership, you may want to very seriously rethink how things are going. Is Kyrie going to tell him to put more effort in on defense in between discussions about the earth being flat? Yo Luka, let me tell you about how important staying in shape is and while we're at it, here is my scientific exposition on the safety and efficacy of new medical products. Maybe he could explain to Luka how the holocaust didn't happen just like the fouls he complains about not getting, didn't happen. Maybe as a final lesson, he can teach Luka how to get paid time off for "mental fatigue" and then demand a trade in the most franchise-debilitating way possible. That's pretty much the last dude you want somebody listening to about anything. I thought Kidd was an awful hire from the get go. He was bad with the Nets and terrible in Milwaukee. The Bucks were a .500 team when he coached them and then won 62 games the following year after he was fired with essentially the same roster. That said, I thought the Mavs showed a ton of improvement on defense last season and he deserved credit for it. Regardless, that roster is deeply flawed. I don't think it matters that much who is coaching it. I don't think Kidd is their biggest problem, but he's certainly not elevating them.
  6. Yeah... they keep poking the SEC bear with their over the top bag game, Fisher shit talking Saban, throwing a public hissy fit to keep Texas/OU out of the conference despite their bringing hundreds of millions of dollars in extra revenue to their member institutions, making idiotic schedule demands, and then completely flubbing the NIL game for really no apparent reason other than their own stupidity. And then they complain that Texas is going to ruin the conference by making unreasonable demands and generally being a bad member and business partner. Uh, ok?
  7. He looked really good last night. Then again, I can't recall a time when he didn't. Granted, the Hornets were in a race to the bottom before Lamelo blew out his ankle but still... Phoenix is going to be a problem. Should be some really fun games down the stretch. They get Dallas for a KD/Kyrie reunion Sunday. They have two games against Denver, two against Sac, two against the Lakers (would be good TV if LBJ gets back), Golden State, Milwaukee, Philly and finish up the regular season against the Clippers. They are in 4th place right now, but only 3 games up on the 10th seed. There's going to be a lot of jockeying down the stretch and teams trying to get home court or avoid the play-in or just make the play-in. The end of the season should be a great ride in the west.
  8. I don't want to derail this thread any further when we can bag on what an idiot Ja Morant is, but I think there is one argument about someone being a "sure thing", and nobody ever really is, right? Anything can happen... injuries, mental breakdown, dying in a freak bathtub accident, whatever. That's par for the course. But there is also the notion that Wemby has the greatest upside of any prospect in NBA history. There has never been a guy with his combination of height, wingspan, athleticism, handles, shooting, shot blocking and just general feel for the game. Watch this shit. His highlight reel is a fucking joke. It's not hyperbole - he's the best prospect ever. Lebron and Duncan were more "sure things" and he could definitely end up being a bust, but this dude has the potential of operating on a completely different plane than anybody in the history of the game. So yeah... to me, he's worth the gamble of giving up the last few declining years of Steph Curry for a guy who could potentially make the NBA look like he's playing his 6 year old brother in Nerfhoop. And yes, it would have been worth the gamble of the Spurs giving up Tim Duncan in 2012 too. Again, neither franchise could or would ever do it, but yes. All day long. Twice on Sundays.
  9. I hear you... and that's why they won't and can't trade him. And let's face it, none of the teams in the Wemby sweepstakes would ever make that trade for Steph Curry, anyway. His value to the Warriors is much greater than to any other team, like Duncan was to the Spurs. The Tim Duncan/ AD trade is an interesting hypothetical. But the 2012 Spurs and the 2023 Warriors aren't exactly the same. The Spurs had the best record in the league and were steamrolling teams. They won something like 24 out of their last 26 regular season games that year, swept the first two playoff rounds and then won the first two games of the WCF before they inexplicably blew a 2-0 lead to the Thunder. They won 61 games the year before. Tony was still in the prime of his career and they had a budding young star in Kawhi. That team looked like a juggernaut. And Tim Duncan was playing on a contract with a massive, massive home town discount. I know the Warriors are the defending champs, but they look like they look like they are being held together with bubblegum and bailing wire. All of the Warriors core is on the wrong side of 30 (Steph 34, Draymond 32, Klay 32). Steph can't stay healthy, Klay has had two major injuries. They are about to make a huge decision Draymond's contract. All of them have huge cap numbers plus they just gave Poole a huge deal. I guess they can still put it together (Klay is playing by far at his best since returning from injury) and get healthy (Curry, Glove Jr) for the playoffs and make a run, but they appear to be much closer to the end of their run than the 2012 Spurs were. On this point, this was in the Athletic this morning:
  10. Yes but fuck the jazz. Always. The law of averages caught up with them. Now let's start a new streak.
  11. Curry is 34 years old and owed about $160 million until he's 38. I understand why GS wouldn't trade him, but they sure as shit should. Ant Man? If they feel like there's a decent chance of him bailing / demanding a trade, then absolutely. Otherwise... I think I would stand on that hand. Dude is only 21 and on a crazy trajectory. Cleveland would trade Mobley in a heartbeat I imagine. I about as big of a Mobley fan as you will find outside of Cleveland, but I would make that trade so fast it would make your head spin. Jokic is a no. Giannis is a no. Embiid is a no. All three of those guys are 27-28 and in their absolute primes. Tatum is only 24. He's a no. Luka, I might think about just because the roster construction is so fucked and he's got a big cap number going forward. Depending on what you do with Kyrie, you could reboot with a clean cap. You also have to put the chance of his demanding a trade into the calculus. KD is an interesting one, just because the new guy in Phoenix seems to be pushing all of his chips into the table to win today. Otherwise, they would be smart to trade a 35 year old with a history of leg injuries for the next big thing who may end up with a bunch of leg injuries. Dame and his contract? No brainer. Portland can't decide if they should be tanking with Dame. They would jump on that in a heartbeat. I like the Doms chances against them.
  12. I always hit up El Chaparral in Helotes. It's been forever since I was in Bandera though. The OST, maybe? It was never that great to begin with, but always seemed like the move while in Bantucky. Pretty good for breakfast, IIRC.
  13. AC Green's record of 1192 consecutive games played may be the most untouchable record in the books. Of course, he had his own method of "load management". https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nba/lakers-great-ac-green-explains-how-he-remained-a-virgin-his-entire-career
  14. I'm with you. I really want to see what a healthy Denver team does in the playoffs. I don't necessarily agree that they've gotten better defensively though. Murray and Porter are probably below average defensively. Gordon is probably league average. KCP and Bruce Brown are pretty good, but not elite. Reggie Jackson is fairly weak. Same with Thomas Bryant. I could see them having trouble matching up with some of the better perimeter offensive players in the west -- Ja, Steph, D'Aaron Fox, Booker, etc. Maybe not an entire series, but I do think about game-saving individual plays in the playoffs. Off the top of my head... Bruce Bowen blocking Chauncey Billups in the final minute of game 7. Lebron's chase down block on Iguodala. Or Tayshaun Price's chase down on Reggie Miller. Manu stuffing Harden. MJ stripping Karl Malone, going way back. More recently, Giannis blocking Ayton. Jrue Holliday locking down Chris Paul may be a better example of somebody's individual defense winning a playoff series. He completely swallowed him up and took Phoenix out of their game.
  15. I can't stand the zombie genre stuff either. I only made it through about 3 episodes of the Walking Dead before bailing. But this? It's a totally different animal. So good. I don't blame you for quitting on it but it's worth it to stick it out. I was very, very hesitant on this but I'm completely in. At this point, I'm just assuming any new character that they introduce and have any sort of emotional connection with is going to have a tragic death by the end of the episode. As soon as they got into the mall, you knew that Riley was toast. Agreed. It was definitely my least favorite episode of the series so far. I thought the mall scenes dragged on way too long and I wanted them to get back to Joel bleeding out.
  16. Jokic is incredible -- for sure my favorite guy in the league to watch. His mind for the game is absolutely next level. He beats you the way Magic used to beat you. There are 3-4 times a game where I end up pausing the game and rewinding it. Like this one from last night. I'm expecting the dribble hand off and he drops this to the guy slipping the screen and cutting to the basket. So good. I think he should win the MVP again. His teams have been snakebit by injury in the playoffs. I really hope that Porter and Murray stay healthy this year so we can really see what they are all about. Two things though: 1. I can't take anybody's offensive numbers seriously in today's NBA. It's almost like the steroid era in baseball when you're trying to put things into historical context. The game is juiced right now, not the players. They need to allow some sort of handchecking on the perimeter or maybe angle the three point line where the corner three is now a two or maybe actually enforce a moving screen? I dunno, but they need to do something. 2. I still think the game is going to slow down significantly when the playoffs start. They are going to allow more physical play. The guys are going to give better effort on defense and play with more intensity. So when it really matters, defense is going to matter. And Giannis is next level on defense. In a seven game series, I'm still taking Giannis over Jokic until proven otherwise.
  17. After last night, the kings currently own the highest net offensive rating in NBA history. The nuggets are #2. Celtics are #4. Every other team in the top 20 other than the 2019 warriors (#18) is from this season or 2021. The 1987 Lakers check in at #22 and the 1992 bulls at #25. Every other team is from the current era. I mean the fucking 2023 blazers with a 28-31 record have the 11th best offensive net rating ever. I'm not saying the NBA is broken, but the NBA is broken. People talking about LeBron's scoring record being untouchable? Not if the game keeps going in this direction.
  18. Coach on hotseat with the worst buyout in college football history that they can't afford, in year 5 goes 5-7 while losing at home to a really bad App State and then has a massive transfer portal exodus = about to go on Bama-like run. Once again, those arrogant damn t-sips are ruining everything for them. The truth, and they will never admit it, is that they need us in that conference so they can have someone to blame for all of their failures. The decade plus they've had in the SEC without Texas just wasn't enough time to prove that they are actually the problem and their own worst enemy. It's better for them that we come back so they can direct their ire outward instead of looking inward. The boogeyman is back. Act accordingly.
  19. They started 5-2. They're 9-44 since then. It's been amazing to watch. I don't think they win 3 more games the rest of the season. That home and home between the Rockets and the Spurs coming up is going to be for all the marbles. I won't lie to you. I like the Spurs chances. They have so much momentum. I'm not sure how you stop it. Beyond just how terrible their record is, they are posting the worst defensive rating in the history of the NBA and that was almost entirely before they traded the only guy (Poeltl) on the roster who was any sort of a shot blocking presence. Granted, part of that defensive rating is because of today's NBA - this year's Pistons are #2 all time, your Rockets are #3, Portland is #5, Utah, Charlotte and Indiana are #9-#11. So 7 of the worst 11 team defensive ratings in NBA history have been put up this year. But the Spurs are a full 2 points worse than any team in NBA history. The other numbers are just as horrifying. They have a -10.11 SRS, worst in the league by more than 2 points over the next worst team (Houston; -8.05). Off Rtg: 110.4 (28th of 30) Def Rtg: 120.7 (30th of 30) Net Rtg: -10.2 (30th of 30). Just an all time terrible team. I won't say the season has been a total loss, though. Sochan has proven to be a really solid pick at 10. Malaki Branham was a steal at 20. He's been averaging about 19 ppg in February. And even Blake Wesley has shown some flashes since he's come back from injury including him making Luka look stupid last night in a 26 point loss.
  20. This sixers grizzlies game is one of the best of the year. Absolutely bonkers with great play after great play.
  21. hoopshype has a consensus mock draft out (pre-Miller shenanigans) combining the rankings of ESPN, The Athletic, Bleacher Report, The Ringer, NBADraft.net, Sports Illustrated, CBS Sports, Yahoo, SB Nation, and USA TODAY’s For The Win. https://hoopshype.com/lists/nba-mock-draft-victor-wembanyama-scoot-henderson-brandon-miller-thompson-twins-jarace-walker-keyonte-george/ Here's what the current consensus lottery looks like: 1. Victor Wembanyama 2. Scoot Henderson 3. Amen Thompson 4. Brandon Miller 5. Ausar Thompson 6. Nick Smith 7. Cameron Whitmore 8. Anthony Black 9. Jarace Walker 10. Keyonte George 11. Cason Wallace 12. Gradey Dick 13. Jett Howard 14. GG Jackson
  22. Even for Aggies the "Texas came to the SEC hat in hand" line is rich. Help us SEC. You're our only hope. Please, please take us in off the streets and let us generate hundreds of millions of dollars in added revenue to your member institutions.
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