Ja Morant, Memphibians, pointing a hand rifle at the peaceniks bench Tuesday night. Morant has been suspended twice for a total of 33 games by the NBA for brandishing a real gun in public.
The reactions of Draymond Green and Steph Curry:
Tatum 4/17 (2/9) 15 points. He is capable of going 8/8 (4/6) 20 pts in 4Q alone.
I am so tired (USMLE) that I wasn't even following until a friend texted me, "heat beating the beans?" I checked the sore above and then went back in my coma. Twenty mins later I texted back "I guarantee that in like 3 mins they are capable of erasing it all and being in front. It's 58-76 now, 8:04 3rd. So call me a liar.
To Dr. Leticia, the first member of D-2's chat buddies to take, and PASS USMLE Step One.
💐🍾🥂🎁
It occurs to me that the "Wheel" offense is the exact counterpart to the zone defense:
*Updated 9:23 pm
9:58
a premium on space and movement, not bodies; moving in sync in the same direction as five interconnected pieces, similar to the lever-operated soccer games in bars. Or like tiki-taka in real soccer; developed and installed to mask individual talent deficiencies, consequently minimizing individual excellence.
Because of all of the above, and in particular that last, instantiated in star Ja Morant, the "wheel" as played at St. Josephs, Maine and played in Memphis with the instruction of a former St. Joe's player and acolyte, apparently is out down South. As is the acolyte, Noah LaRoche, and the head coach, Taylor Jenkins, who it appears was a forced convert to the wheel.
This is the result of another couple of hours spent reading and thinking about the wheel.
A few other notes from reading and cogitating:
I confess that I didn't know anything about Memphis' offense until Jenkins' firing. There is plenty of ink on Memphis' early season success with the shiny new wheel, but the ink had not penetrated to my subterranean level. And that early season success did not transfer to the second half. Which wont of success, and Morant's complaints about the wheel, directly led to the axing of Jenkins, LaRoche, and another assistant, Patrick St. Andrews. The "Grizzlies" are 3L (0-2 under new head man Tuomas Iisalo, and 3-7. They were 26-15 at the half-way mark. They are 18-16 since.
The reasons for Memphis' second half dip in results are pretty straightforward: They played one of the easiest schedules in the first half, a substantially more difficult one in the second half; defenses got book on the new offense and adjusted; and one other, mentioned by at least one Memphis player, physical defenses. Again, the tiki-taka analogy. I have always believed that you should mass pressure on tiki-taka, play man-to-man, rush the man with the ball into passing before he's ready and before the octagon gets set, disrupt the passing lanes. Tiki-taka, like the wheel, is a movement and spacing offense. So, for example, what the "Knicks" did was put a body on every "Grizzlie", bump them, keep them from getting where they want to go, in this way prevent the elegant player and ball movement of the wheel.
One thing is still fuzzy for me. Is Tuomas Iisalo a wheel coach or a pick-and-roll coach? On the one hand Iisalo was hired with LaRoche and other wheelies; he "played a pivotal role in implementing" the wheel in Memphis, was one of two (with LaRoche) "architects"; he coached in Europe where the wheel spins more freely (and where the game is less physical); Ja Morant "hates" Iisalo's offense. However, other reports style Iisalo as "partial to the pick-and-roll who drills his teams in those concepts like a sergeant." Unless Iisalo is a PnR guy, why would Memphis' GM fire LaRoche, fire Jenkins, and promote Iisalo if he was a wheelie?
Understanding it more now, I am not surprised, nor chagrined, that the wheel evidently has gone flat in Memphis. I don't like the zone defense in the NBA, one reason for which is the "democratization" of the game, i.e. the leveling of individual talent. The wheel is a zone offense that tethers more stars to earth. I am not surprised that as simple an NBA tactic as playing bully ball would cause the wheels to fall off. The surprise is that so fragile a system was attempted at all at this level where the adage is "no autopsy, no foul."
As the Wheel Turns (or doesn't) in Memphis.
Steph had 19 in the first quarter. Looks like he hasn't triplicates that.
*He has duplicated it (38 pts).
The "Heat" have won five straight. Yeah, but. All but Golden State had awful records, and Peaceniks were without Steph Curry. Well, we lost to awful teams during our 10L, namely Queens and Male Cows. These 5L have not been lucky squeakers, either. All by d.d, an average of 20.4 pts.
I put nothing past New Miami. Of course, we will be underdogs at Worldchampbeans tomorrow night. Of course, we will probably lose. Just saying, I don't put a dub past us. Then we have the tilted Memphibians, coached by a Fin, in the Bus, the Male Deer, coached by a Doctor, also in Bang Bus, the diseased Seven Foot Sixers, under care of a Nurse, same place. We conclude the season in Wind, at Disgruntled Pelicans, and home to Lizards. I say we will go 6-1, finish 40-42, .488. Not good, first time we will have had a losing record since 2018/19. But. That win percentage decimal would be good enough for seventh place right now, where we have finished before. And an 11-1 finishing kick? Pretty damn impressive considering we had 10L in March!
OKC led by 43 in this game.
I read a while back that other elite teams don't fear OKC, or The Next Dynasty as I call them. Huh, I thought. I was genuinely perplexed. Then I read like the first paragraph of the article. Because they haven't won anything yet. Actually, the franchise has never won anything. They've always been very good, hell, they had Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook when they were young on the same team. That was 2011/12 and they made the Finals, where they were favorites. They lost 4-1 to the...Miami "Heat". So, then I got it. Like Boston before last season, until you win it all, you can't win it all. The "Thunder" have never won it all.
Jordan Poole has 35 on 10/18 (7/14. Jordan's taking Pelle 1, 2, 3 do you get it?
15 games played, 11 not and,
The 36-year old, decade-long target of Pat Riley left PHO's loss against Cow Town unable to put weight on his left leg.
A trade for KD would be a grave mistake for New Miami.
randin Podziemski drops 27 in Warriors' blowout
You think I'm making that up, don't you?
Trump threatens bombing if Iran does not make nuclear deal
"If they don't make a deal, there will be bombing," Trump said in a telephone interview. "It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before."
3:18 pm
Trump won’t rule out seeking a third term in the White House, tells NBC News ‘there are methods’ for doing so9:58 am:
A friend wrote,
Amazing
This signal scandal which I think is a nothing burger has actually stuck to Trump and co
I don’t get why
Of all the awful shitty things they have done this is the one that sticks
Once again telling me my political instincts absolutely suck and I have no idea wtf people are thinking
Me: i think signal a beeg deal
Friend: Of all the intentional awful evil destructive things they are doing this was a mistake and if they had simply acknowledged it as such maybe this dies
But it’s not like Mr Goldberg exited the chat and called his friends in Yemen and said “ we are coming”
Splain why this has legs
Me: i allow we have overchoice, and i don't know that it has legs with the public since i don't talk to like people. however. but. a mistake? the natl sec adv chose the channel, the war plans were disseminated by waltz' choice to goldberg and they were published in entirety. goldberg DID give them to houthis. that's a little big deal, but again i don't know what normal people think. it's a bigger deal in wh bc waltz said he didn't know goldberg and turns out they have some "relationship" that even goldberg won't give details on. which is weird. and trump hates goldberg. but. maggie haberman wrote that even within those shadowed halls waltz will likely survive with trump.
1,700 Now Dead in Myanmar Quake
Trump Will "never take military force off the table" to Acquire GreenlandNUUK, Greenland Appropriate venue.
8:42 a.m.
Un Trump congressthing Elsie Stephanik
Trump congressthing Elsie Stephanik
Trump UN Elsie Stephanik
Trump Un UN Elsie Stephanik
Trump congressthing Elsie Stephanik
