#And by golly they better have different stats/abilities

[angstandhappiness]

FUN FUN FUN

Please papa SEGA, let Sonic have more than 2 pairs of slick kicks.

[miximax-hell]

Guess who fixed SAI! And just in time for the BEST @inavember day--miximax day!!

It sure has been a while since my last proper post, so I wanted to bring something nice to the table. I sinned by first showing the idea of Tetsukado’s miximax with Tsunami through crappy doodles, so I think I owed you all a proper post about him, final design and all. So, here it is! He’s a tricky one to draw in general terms, but not too bad compared to other people. In fact, his might be one of the less convoluted designs... It’s cool for a change.

Anyway, more about TetsuTsuna’s powers under the cut!

Well, all goes once we’re under the cut, so let’s make use of that! How are you all doing? I’m rather tired, but still okay, all in all, because my internship is going well! For those who didn’t read my latest update, I’m currently working as a scriptwriter for a local videogame company, which is a dream come true~ My boss just congratulated me for a work well done, so I have no complaints there. =u=

Also, all this hype made me want to complete the very first Inazuma game once and for all, and I actually managed to do so! ...Somehow! Ura Zeus are some overpowered bastards with an extremely high level (in the European version, at least--I know it’s different in the Japanese one, although I don’t know exactly how different), but I eventually managed to score five goals against them without receiving any. It only took 20+ victories, haha-- Gosh, levelling up in that game is painful, and facing level 90 enemies with level 50-60 players is not a walk in the park... But all is well that ends well! I hope you guys have been having fun too. So, without further ado, let’s get straight to the point.

Golly, it’s been so long since my last time explaining someone’s powers that I don’t even remember how it works, so please bear with me, ha ha. For the sake of keeping things simple, let’s pick up from where we left off last time.

As you may recall/have just read, I left a couple of cliffhangers in that post, so let’s cover them. I first explained why no one from Inazuma Japan would truly benefit from Tsunami’s aura, but I made sure to specify that Kabeyama and Hijikata would be the worst candidates to mix with him, unlikely as it may seem when you think about how much both of them share with Tsunami. The reason why is probably very clear for those of you who are familiar with the games, but let’s explain it for those who either couldn’t know or simply didn’t make that connection. No shame there. uvu And, in order to do so, we must talk about the first hissatsu Tetsukado would get from miximaxing with Tsunami. It’s a personal favourite of mine.

The first and main hissatsu Tetsukado gains is the excellent Whale Guard! Whale Guard is Tsunami’s game-exclusive signature move, as he has this technique in every game of the original trilogy and in all of his incarnations within those games. It’s a really cool block technique and, objectively, the one that would be the most useful to Tetsukado, since he’s a defender and all.

Now, Whale Guard is awesome, but it’s a combo hissatsu for two people. And not just for any two people. No, sir. To perform this technique, Tsunami must ride a character who has a large body and use him as a boat while the field gets flooded. Among all the players in the team, the only ones Tsunami can rely on to do this are Kabeyama and Hijikata. Therefore, what’s the point of giving Tsunami’s aura to someone who won’t even be able to use Tsunami’s hissatsus, since their role is to be ridden and not to ride someone else? (Man, that sounds WRONG, but bear with me.) Characters with a large body can’t call the whale in the game, and I take it as part of the challenge to keep things accurate to canon not only in terms of story, but in terms of gameplay and mechanics too. So, on top of all the reasons i explained last time, this automatically excludes them both from getting Tsunami’s aura too.

This, however, leads us to the next front I left open: can Tetsukado really bring out Tsunami’s true potential even if he is playing with Earth Eleven and Kabeyama and Hijikata aren’t there? The answer, as I said last time, is obviously yes! Despite not having them around, Tetsukado can always rely on someone else to help him, and that is no other than good ol’ Kusaka! While body shapes in GO aren’t as precise--nor restrictive--as they were in the first trilogy, it’s obvious that Kusaka has a rather large and muscular body, (kinda) similar to Hijikata’s. Kusaka could easily serve TetsuTsuna as a boat/surfing board/whatever while he does his whale-calling thing. And they aren’t too far apart within the field either, so it’s even more viable than Endou using The Phoenix or something crazy like that. ww (But I still love how extra Endou is when he goes all the way to the opposite goal to shoot. You go, baby boy.)

Anyway, that’s about it for unsolved questions, so let’s ask ourselves some new questions now! The most obvious one being, “What’s TetsuTsuna’s second hissatsu?” The answer will probably make people frown, but I couldn’t care less. *+*+*

Let us not forget what Tsunami is known for: being super over-the-top and shooting despite a defender. So, like it or not, Tetsukado needs to get a shot hissatsu or this miximax would be absolute poop. So, Tsunami Boost or The Typhoon? SCREW THEM BOTH--SPARKLE WAVE ALL THE WAY!!

...I’m surprised I can still talk when so many people have just jumped at my neck and ripped it off with their bare teeth, but I’ll use the last minutes of my life to explain why Sparkle Wave is a far better option in this case even though Tsunami Boost or The Typhoon are much more signature-ish than it.

First of all, let’s remember that my adored sister @ishidoshuuji used to call me “Champion of the Unloved.” I just can’t help but fall for those things no one else likes or cares about. I HAVE AFFECTION ISSUES AND THIS HITS ME CLOSE, OKAY. And, obviously, Tsunami Boost and The Typhoon are far, FAAAR more popular than Sparkle Wave. After all, those were used a gazillion times, while Sparkle Wave was only used a single time in a movie that no one seems to have watched. And that’s exactly what I’m going at: Sparkle Wave is still completely unexploited! Tsunami’s other techniques have been used plenty of times and are all worn out by now, but Sparkle Wave is nice, new and shiny. Why should we repeat old formulas when we have new ones to explore? That’s much more interesting. And come on--I thought we were all always starving to see new techniques!

The second reason is that Tetsukado has miximaxed with adult Tsunami. Yes, Tsunami Boost and The Typhoon were Tsunami’s signature moves, but that was when he was a teenager. Tsunami is now an adult and, as an adult, he didn’t use Tsunami Boost or The Typhoon. He used Sparkle Wave. Only and exclusively Sparkle Wave. Like it or not, in terms of anime canons, aka what most people move within, Sparkle Wave is adult Tsunami’s signature move. His only move, in fact. ww So it only makes sense that adult Tsunami would grant Tetsukado the ability to use his new signature move.

And last, but by no means least, is the fact that adult Tsunami used Sparkle Wave over his old hissatsus. The fact that he did this means Tsunami developed a new technique at some point, his strongest one yet, and started using it by default instead of the old ones. Therefore, and obviously, giving Tsunami Boost to Tetsukado would be a completely pointless nerf, since it’s obviously inferior at this point and Tetsukado is miximaxing precisely because he wants more power. As such, it only makes sense to borrow the strongest technique you can possibly get, right? There is a difference between being confident and being stupid, if you know what I mean. ww

Yes, I know most people won’t be convinced, but these are my arguments. And they’re more than good enough for me, thankfully. ww So, moving on!

(Also, Minna Ike Ike! is a close third. I loved the idea of TetsuTsuna getting this, but there isn’t room for everything, and actual hissatsus are always more exciting. Too bad.)

To finish with the whole issue of hissatsus, let’s talk about which of Tetsukado’s own techniques would get boosted thanks to Tsunami. For once, this is pretty easy and straightforward. ...As you know from that stupid pun, it’s obviously Dead Straight. After all, the fact that Tetsukado has a technique like that is part of the reason why he and Tsunami are such a great match! Tsunami is known for his shot techniques, after all.

Also, Dead Straight is a shot hissatsu, but one that can be strategically used from Tetsukado’s position--that is, much like Tsunami’s techniques. Yes, Tsunami Boost and Sparkle Wave are long shots while Dead Straight is a block shot, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s rather unusual for defenders to have shots--and ones that can be used imaginatively, no less! The combination of both will give Tetsukado a ton of resources, and that’s precisely the point of this project to begin with.

To end this rant, it’s interesting to see how Tsunami will change Tetsukado’s natural abilities/stats. We know from the anime that Tsunami is the super excited and swift kind, but he’s also fairly strong. Tetsukado is much more muscular, but his footwork is--obviously--impressive too, although he can’t match Tsunami’s natural speed. They are kind of opposite, really. ...Or are they?

What the anime canon pretends to say is not so supported by NUMBERS, aka my favourite thing ever. A quick look at Tetsukado’s and adult Tsunami’s stats in Galaxy will tell us that, hey--Tsunami happens to be TWICE AS GOOD AS TETSUKADO AT KICKING! Ain’t that fun! In fact, Tsunami is better than Tetsukado in every single sense, save for Block and Stamina. However, the difference isn’t always all that noticeable, so it doesn’t make sense for TetsuTsuna to be much faster than normal Tetsukado when Tsunami is only 5 points better than him. However, more noticeable differences, like the aforementioned kicking capabilities, do make a great difference here--especially since Tetsukado will be shooting much more than before now. This is especially useful when combined with Dead Straight, which can block opposing shots and even reflect them if the user’s kick stat is strong enough. How convenient, huh! ...Oh, and his technique goes up too? Might be useful to get some advanced hissatsus going, but that’s not very relevant plot-wise, I’m afraid lmao

All in all, TetsuTsuna’s main perk and niche within this team is the fact that he’s bringing back everything Tsunami once was and multiplying it by adding Tetsukado’s own natural abilities to the mix: a terrific stamina, new shots to make better use of Tsunami’s awesome kicking stat and, of course, his fantastic Soul! Fairly straightforward, I know, but very much needed all the same. We all wanted Tsunami back, and no one wanted him back as much as I did. Not to mention that, as I said last time, it has SO much plot potential. Oh, God.

...If only I had a plot. rip.

[junker-town]

Why the Bucks don’t miss Malcolm Brogdon, at least not yet

The Bucks aren’t missing Malcolm Brogdon yet.

Milwaukee is doubling down on everything that makes them great, at least so far.

The 2018-19 Milwaukee Bucks won 73 percent of their games while outscoring opponents by a league-leading 8.6 points per 100 possessions. You know what happened next. The Bucks lost four straight to the Raptors after winning the first two games of the Eastern Conference Finals, then refused to go deep into the luxury tax to retain Malcolm Brogdon, a key player in their starting lineup. If you’re a Bucks fan, you’ve probably read more critiques of that decision than you can count.

Yet sans Brogdon, the 2019-20 Bucks are 21-3, an 88 percent win rate. They’ve outscored opponents by nearly 13 points per 100 possessions, putting them even further ahead of the rest of the league. They won back-to-back games by more than 40 points, then demolished the Los Angeles Clippers, a preseason title favorite, by 28. I’m no genius, but those numbers seem better than last year.

This should lead to a series of obvious questions:

Was Brogdon’s importance to the Bucks overstated?

Was he actually a “luxury,” as managing partner Marc Lasry suggested before the season?

Forget finances: did the Bucks actually make the right basketball decision to let him go?

Was all the haranguing about the timing of his departure — right before a certain important international sensation could decide to leave a quaint little American town of nearly 600,000 people — a waste of time?

The honest answer to all of those question is that we don’t know yet. Before the season, I suggested the Bucks wouldn’t really miss Brogdon until the postseason. We, of course, have not reached the postseason and won’t for some time. Brogdon is also having an all-star caliber season for the Pacers, having transferred the direct, attacking style that served him well off the ball in Milwaukee into an on-ball role in Indiana. Watching him and screening savant Domantas Sabonis change speeds in the pick-and-roll is a basketball nerd’s dream.

And yet, the Bucks have been significantly better than they were at any point last season even without Brogdon. If he was so important to their success last year, why have they improved? And if they’ve improved this much, doesn’t that mean he really was a luxury?

Broadly, the Bucks have improved for two related reasons: their defense is somehow better, and their star is somehow better. Without Brogdon, their strengths have become super-duper-duper strengths.

Last year’s Bucks allowed the fewest points per 100 possessions in the league. They did so using a simple formula: shut off the rim, don’t foul, and don’t get caught in rotation. Oddly, they allowed a higher percentage of three-point shots than any other team in the league, which is usually a sign of a bad unit. But in Milwaukee’s case, it was by design. They made the rim a no-fly zone, so most of those threes were relatively harmless above-the-break ones like this.

Brook Lopez (and Antetokounmpo to a lesser extent) correctly received most of the credit. It looks easy to raise your arms as high as possible near the basket, but there’s a reason you don’t see zillions of Brook Lopezes around the league. It’s hard to be that big and have that much upper-body strength with athletic marvels jumping into your chest.

Still, the Bucks’ defensive strategy isn’t exactly the most complicated to diagnose. So how are they allowing four fewer points per 100 possessions this year? Why are teams shooting just 53.6 percent at the rim against them this year, nearly four percentage points lower than last year’s league-leading mark?

There are many factors. Lopez has somehow improved as a rim protector, falling less often for ball-handlers fakes.

The addition of Lopez’s brother Robin has also given Milwaukee a second towering statue around the basket.

But there’s another factor at play: better perimeter defenders playing in Brogdon’s place. Brodgon is far from a slouch, but he’s not as big as Wesley Matthews or as quick as the bench duo of Donte DiVincenzo and Pat Connaughton.

Matthews, a veteran’s minimum signing this summer, has fit in seamlessly with the Bucks’ ethos. Milwaukee allows just 96.3 points per 100 possessions with him in the game — to make an admittedly crude comparison, they allowed 102.7 per 100 with Brogdon on the floor last year. He’s bigger, more physical, and savvier than anyone the Bucks had last year, giving them another option against the Leonards of the world.

Last year, the task of stopping these players fell to Khris Middleton or Brogdon, which sapped their offensive energy (especially in Middleton’s case). Now, it’s Matthews’ job, and Leonard in particular saw the difference.

DiVincenzo and Connaughton are excellent alternatives against the quicker guards that Brogdon used to check. Their ball pressure is a delight to watch, and DiVincenzo in particular looks like a shutdown corner when playing passing lanes.

Together, those three players make the Lopii look even better. Last year, the Bucks were good at funneling drivers to the rim with enough pressure to limit their leaping ability. But Matthews, DiVincenzo, and Connaughton are even more superior clamp defenders that stay even more attached to their man’s hips on pick-and-rolls.

In different ways, against different kinds of offensive players, they ensure Milwaukee’s elite rim protectors aren’t forced to leave the hoop and get exposed in space. Brook Lopez gets credit for stoning Ivica Zubac at the rim, but Matthews made it easier by nipping at Leonard’s heels so he couldn’t finish the drive.

Brogdon did that stuff well, but not as well as Matthews, DiVincenzo, and Connaughton. And while he’s much more versatile on the other end, Milwaukee’s offense is doing just fine anyway. That’s largely because Antetokounmpo has somehow taken on more responsibility.

For years, we’ve wondered what might happen if Antetokounmpo finally developed a jump shot to go along with his incredible power game. Y’all, it’s happening. He’s up to 32 percent on threes this year while taking five a game, nearly double his career high in attempts. As I noted a couple weeks ago, his shooting form is smoother. Watch the difference on these two shots.

Defenses would still rather have Antetokounmpo shoot from the perimeter than drive, but he’s now good enough from out there to at least be honored. He even sometimes fools some dummies into biting on his pump fake!

His shooting improvement holds up from mid-range and on turnarounds on the block. Teams are honoring those shots, which allows Antetokounmpo to go through his man for layups and dunks from a standstill position rather than always having to attack on the move.

These two left-box post ups against Defensive Player of the Year candidate Jonathan Isaac illustrate Antetokounmpo’s skill development. On the first one, Isaac absorbed Antetokounmpo’s body blow and backed up to bait Antetokounmpo into shooting over him. Totally understandable, yet Antetokounmpo obliged with this nifty jump hook, a new-ish tool in his arsenal.

Two minutes later, Antetokounmpo caught the ball in the exact same spot. This time, Isaac, took a step toward Antetokounmpo, trying to body him off the spot from which he just got beat. Big mistake, because Antetokounmpo just plowed through him for a dunk.

Does Isaac do that if he hasn’t experienced Antetokounmpo besting him with a jump hook? I doubt it. That’s how possessing a deeper set of offensive tools makes a star’s strength even stronger.

Antetokounmpo’s offensive improvement has little to do with Brogdon’s departure, unless you believe Brodgon somehow held the MVP back. But if replacing Brogdon with Matthews and DiVincenzo while retaining Connaughton and George Hill improves the defense without any offensive drop-off, maybe it was a good basketball decision after all?

Well, maybe. Getting stronger at your strengths doesn’t alleviate the fear that your team is too predictable in a tight playoff series. It always helps to have offspeed pitches no matter how many extra miles one adds to their fastball. Do the Bucks have enough variety without Brogdon around?

To me, DiVincenzo’s development is the key to further threading the needle. He’s no Brogdon on offense, but he’s shown flashes of providing some of the playmaking, shooting, and direct driving that Brogdon did last year. The Bucks would be wise to coax more of this out.

The Bucks also have the two draft picks and the trade exception they received for moving Brogdon to Indiana to flip for an upgrade if they decide they need it. (If only they could trade those things for Malcolm Brogdon!).

But they could also do nothing and be in as good a position as they were with Brogdon. Remember, they dominated two playoff series with him injured last year and were a bounce away from going up 3-0 in last year’s East Finals. Further improvement from Antetokounmpo plus a more stifling defense might be the formula necessary to break through. If so, perhaps Brogdon really was a luxury player.

We won’t know for sure until June. Until then, it’s worth at least considering the possibility they were right to let him go.

CLOSEOUT OF THE WEEK

Three-point shooting is essential, yet there’s no good stat that credits defenders for the essential act of preventing a three-pointer from being taken. We must reward these efforts.

Four Lakers stopped potential open transition threes here. You love to see it.

REBOUND JOUST OF THE WEEK

Last year, I wrote about the rising trend of teammates fighting each other for defensive rebounds. These moments usually end harmlessly, but occasionally, they can cost a team. Here’s to over-aggression!

The real MVP of this clip is Hornets play-by-play man Eric Collins, who has a knack for conveying the exact level of joy or (more commonly) frustration that Hornets fans feel in the moment. GOOD GOLLY is a call for the ages. Perfect for a moment trivial, yet frustrating during an attempted comeback.

(Shoutout to the legend John Hollinger for flagging this joust.)

[mohammedhrf5451-blog]

Full Moon As Well As Unlawful Act Spikes.

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[theabbystabby]

Please papa SEGA, let Sonic have more than 2 pairs of slick kicks.