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jokeroutsubs · 1 year ago

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An interview with Bojan Cvjetićanin and Nace Jordan in Jana magazine, published 10.10.2023. Featuring a very special shoutout! 😁

On the couch with Joker Out: about the big changes in their lives

Still good, sober boys

We’ll play this and then we’re off – to switch off

The time we have with them is tightly limited, but that’s appropriate for stars of their kind. They are the most popular musical group right now, and they’ve thoroughly conquered many hearts far beyond both Slovenian and Balkan borders. At sold-out concerts, Finns are swooning because of them, Poles, Serbians, Croatians and Spaniards are fainting, not to mention the girls back home. No one prepared them for this kind of craze, but they’re holding up pretty well – they’re still humble guys with good manners, which can (also) be seen in their polite greeting and relaxed chatting in front of their rehearsal space, a comfortable hideaway somewhere between Ljubljana’s warehouses with an unappealing blue door.

Floating into their sanctuary, you almost hit your head on a collection of hanging bras with various affectionate messages written on them. A few more steps, and we plop down on the couch with Bojan Cvjetićanin and Nace Jordan. Jan Peteh and Kris Guštin (damn, he’s tall!) are busy with another camera, and Jure Maček is nowhere to be seen.

How’s your health doing with your (as it seems if you look at the crazy number of concerts all around Europe) pretty exhausting life? How do you take care of your physical fitness?

Bojan: By working out.

Nace: Well, you and I work out, the others only do it a little.

Bojan: Well yeah, she asked us.

Nace: So: we work out a lot, we play badminton, I run, we go to the gym and hike, Bojan also does mixed martial arts.

You’ve found yourselves at a turbulent stage in your career, and like you’ve said before, you cannot be fully prepared for that. What about mental preparation? Do you have to pay extra attention to that or do anything you've never done before?

Bojan: Yes, we have to rest. We haven't had any rest ever since everything became much more intense. My mind and body are now really begging to switch off.

Nace: I agree. Just the other day, we were talking about how we haven’t truly rested since the pre-Eurovision performances. Two- and three-day trips don’t count.

So you’ll only be able to turn off for a bit, after your big concert in Stožice?

Bojan: That’s right. Well, we maybe planned our break a little poorly, because we’re going on a holiday together. (both start laughing loudly)

Nace: Everyone has the same stunned reaction that you did.

You really have to love each other and have a good time together, that’s all I thought. Can you reveal where you’re going?

Bojan: Far away, somewhere warm. As to whether us going together is smart, we’ll tell you when we come back. If we end up needing another holiday after this holiday, then we didn’t make a very wise decision.

Since you really hang out with each other so much, do you perhaps understand any better why some bands get into fatal quarrels or even break up?

Bojan: We definitely understand it a lot more. In a short time, I’ve realised that this rock and roll lifestyle presented to us by rock legends (myths, stories, Hollywood) is truly something that is untenable in the long term. If we look at all the most famous bands, they actually existed for a very short time.

Nace: And, as an interesting fact, most of them broke up while on tour.

Bojan: You can’t do rock and roll and be devoted to your music, concerts, travels, if you’re constantly under the influence of any substances (drugs, alcohol). You really can’t do that, because neither the human body nor the mind are made to withstand this kind of strain, sleeplessness, pleasure, dopamine. All those legends either died young or the bands broke up. Sure, they did a lot, left a permanent mark, but at what cost? We’ve realised that if we want to enjoy what we’re doing, we have to be sober, and you truly enjoy yourself a lot more if you’re sober and feel physically and mentally ready and cultivate friendships. I think that this way, we’ll remember a lot more after a few tours than many rock legends do in their longer careers. How much can you even remember if your brain isn’t even with you on the same stage?

I see that you’re drinking plenty of water, and we remember you, Bojan, from Eurovision, when you were walking around with a bottle of water and blowing into a straw. What was that for?

Bojan: It’s a technique to warm up your vocal chords, based on the principle of blowing into a slightly wider silicone straw in a water bottle. You blow into it, in the correct way and because of the water in the bottle, a negative pressure is created that puts your vocal chords into the most natural position and it works like a massage for them.

Did you discover this for yourself or was it recommended to you?

Bojan: I had never paid special attention to my voice before that, I’m not a trained vocalist, but luckily I naturally developed the correct technique. Otherwise I would’ve lost my voice long ago. So, on the stage, this mechanism luckily developed in a very positive direction for me, which was also confirmed by singing coaches and the doctor I went to for my vocal chords check-up. A phoniatrics specialist, a wonderful guy, helped me during Eurovision. Before the Eurovision performance, my voice gave in a little due to nerves, so I was constantly in contact with a doctor – and we didn’t even really know each other – who gave me advice over the phone. Then, at the first sound check, everything opened up and sounded like it should. It’s really interesting what happens with your voice, it gets incredibly affected by your mental state. Your vocal chords can be perfectly fine, but if your mind is not in the right place, your voice won’t work either.

I also went to get advice from singing coach Nataša Nahtigal, who really helped me a lot. I especially needed that preparation from a psychological point of view.

Did the other band members also need coaches for anything?

Nace: Me and Kris also visited Nataša, because at the beginning we thought that we’d be singing the backing vocals live on the Eurovision stage. So we also practised with her a few times. We also had rehearsals with a choreographer for the optimum stage performance.

We’re having this conversation five days before your biggest concert yet, in Stožice. Does that require any special preparation?

Bojan: It’s a special concert, because it’s the first time we’re encountering the organisation of something this big; it is, after all, the only arena in the country. It’s a lot for us, Magnifico also told us that he was kind of in the dark the first time, but now they’re acclimatised to it. It’s a different type of preparation: we have to prepare the show, the lights, the stage appearance …

Have you even internalised what you’ve managed to do, all the places and the number of people you’ve played to in the past few months (from Ireland to Great Britain, Finland, Norway, Belgrade, Zagreb, Vienna, and now in December, you've got Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona …)?

Bojan: I think that will be a task for the upcoming holiday. When things just keep happening, you’re in this cycle and don’t even really differentiate between one peak and another, so we need to come down a bit to start retroactively comprehending what really happened. Because it’s really wonderful. We were in cities and countries we’d never been to, and then we were there – to play our own sold-out concerts. We absolutely never thought anything like that would ever happen to us.

Nace: Often it’s only when I come home from this kind of tour that I think to myself: wow, look at where we were! We’re playing on a stage where world legends had played before us! Now, in the club in Helsinki, Foo Fighters and AC/DC had played there, among others. Any musician would wish to play there, let alone sell out that concert.

When you walk around these European cities where you have sold out your concerts, do people already recognise you on the street?

Bojan: It’s pretty bizarre, but now they’ve really started to. I think that on this Nordic tour there truly wasn’t any place we went to without at least someone recognising us – either on a train, on the street, in a restaurant, at the airport. Foreign fan culture is a little different, as they get prepared to meet us, in a way – for example, they know when we’ll be at the airport, and they wait for us with gifts, they don’t just come to take photos with us. They bring along our merch shirts, various things for us to sign, they give us gifts. Fans make a lot of things on their own – bracelets, dolls, there are a lot of drawings, crafts; I have two knitted Joker Out scarves at home.

Nace: In Finland we got a lot of knitted socks, hats …

Hand-knitted socks?

Bojan: Yes, with a Slovenian and Finnish flag, for example.

The Scandinavian youth are clearly well-versed in that.

Bojan: Let’s go, Slovenian youth, start knitting Joker Out stuff too! (laughter)

And what is it like to walk down the streets of Slovenia? Can you go to the store in peace?

Bojan: It’s nice to walk down the streets of Slovenia, but we truly always get recognised, that’s a fact, it’s not as inconvenient in stores as it can be when you’re out for drinks, when you constantly feel like someone is eavesdropping next to you.

How difficult is the rockstar life?

Bojan: It’s really nice – every time we’re on the stage, the audience rewards us with a really nice energy, you can’t compare that to anything else, but like any profession, ours has negative sides as well, with the biggest difference being that you’re constantly in the public eye. Very few things are truly personal – you also have a hard time judging for yourself what’s private and what’s not. It’s more of a mental game with yourself – that’s the hardest part of it all. As well as not sleeping, because you travel a lot.

Are there any big disappointments or unexpected things – perhaps that some fans get “carried away” or that not everyone is as well-intentioned as you thought?

Bojan: Absolutely! You suddenly find yourself not only belonging to a home crowd, but also becoming an internet hashtag. The internet has no limits, people have no reservations there, they hide behind a nickname. Each of us has definitely had a few of these moments that shocked us, that’s why we’ve started to pull back from social media.

That’s probably pretty tricky: for the sake of advertising and contact with fans, you have to be present on social media, but meanwhile you’re aware that you need to take a step back for the sake of your health. How do you stay on the safe side? What’s your strategy?

Nace: Primarily, we’ve all stopped reading Twitter, the comments … We have to maintain a certain distance.

Bojan: To be completely honest, I’d like to find someone who could handle my personal profile on social media. It also bothers me that you really waste a lot of time on social media and subconsciously create a lot of unrealistic expectations, because you’re constantly swiping through people’s perfect lives, faces and situations, it’s all quite absurd.

Do you want to influence teenagers in this area, to pass any important messages on to them?

Bojan: Yes, find some wonderful analogue way to follow us and delete your social media.

So, knit a Joker Out scarf or socks instead and listen to their music – that’s pretty analogue. Then, you can also do a charity auction of your fans’ knitwear.

Bojan: Exactly!

One small revolutionary move would also be if concerts or gigs at various parties started earlier. Us slightly more mature citizens also like to go to concerts, but we also like to go to bed a little earlier.

Bojan: I can say that after our Stožice concert, people will be able to be asleep by midnight. But actually, when we were abroad, we got used to gigs starting very soon – sometime between seven and nine in the evening – and the party is definitely not any worse because of that.

You say that you’re full of creative energy. Does your creative process continue under the covers too, do you have notebooks on your nightstand?

Bojan: All the ideas come to me just before I go to sleep. The most recent song Sunny Side of London also happened on the last day before we went to the studio – I couldn’t sleep and I came up with those base lyrics while in bed.

Even though your latest song is in English, due to most of your songs being in Slovenian, you’ve unintentionally become ambassadors of the Slovenian language as well.

Bojan: It was never our goal to become ambassadors of the Slovenian language, but we consciously decided to sing in Slovenian at Eurovision. It means a lot to us, and we hope that our fans will accept that we want to widen our listener base and that there will be some more songs in English because of that. I think that people all around Europe or even further singing twenty of our songs in Slovenian is already a lot, and shows that we’ve done our job. In the future, we’ll create in foreign languages a lot, but we’ll also stay loyal to Slovenian.

A lot of your TV appearances can be found translated to English on the internet. Is that your doing?

Bojan: No, the credit for that goes to a group of fans from all around the world called “Joker Out Subs”, who follow our videos and concerts and translate into quite a few global languages (recently even into Hebrew). They’ve already translated a huge amount of our content, and they do it voluntarily. They’ve also connected with each other in that way, and they’ve told us that 20 of our fans, who met online because of us, booked a house together for our concert in Amsterdam (in December). They’re all coming to the concert and they will stay there together.

Nace: A lot of people have connected like that because of us, which is very nice.

What’s it like at home? Is everything the same at home despite your stardom?

Bojan: Yes, it’s all the same – go mow the lawn!

Nace: I, for example, still drive my grandmother around to run her errands.

And your grandmother listens to your songs?

Nace: She’s definitely listened to some, but I doubt that she’s playing our entire discography. (laughter)

Bojan: Oooh, mine plays it every day, she goes through everything 150 times!

Have you made any changes to your menus?

Bojan: I’ve started eating vegetables – bowls (various healthy ingredients, served in one bowl), Nace got me into that.

Nace: Isn’t it nice to savour something together that’s healthy and that we all like? (Kris pipes up from the background, saying that Nace has gotten them all into Asian food.)

Translation of the captions on the photos:

1) The special friendship with Finnish Eurovision representative Käärijä continues. Together on Finnish stages in September.

2) Bojan loves Swedish girls, says the writing on his shirt.

Translation cr: Joker Out Subs

EDIT: to celebrate the JokerOutSubs shout-out, we prepared a giveaway for Tumblr! You can read more aboout it here!

#joker out #bojan cvjetićanin #bojan cvjeticanin #nace jordan

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anxious-witch · 1 year ago

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I forgot how chaotic Kris was in that video where they got drunk.

Jan: *kinda flirty, sending a kiss towards a camera *

Jure: *smiley, but mostly normal *

Kris, yelling at the top of his lungs: SSF!!!!

Bojan and Nace: *nowhere to be found*

#joker out #rio rambles #it's so fucking funny I'm dying

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calmasyoghurt · 6 months ago

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The joker out pride project.

It's late 2019 and Jure makes some new friends along the way. Also on ao3.

June 16th, prompt 15. Aphobia.

A lot has happened in the five years it's been since Jure found out about asexuality. It’s a really nice thing to know, that he doesn’t need to have sex. Now however, he’s even more sure that he doesn’t want it. Jure has tried it, two times to be exact. The first time was a one night stand he finally dared to follow through with. It had been with some girl he hadn’t really caught the name of over the loud music in a club. Maybe it had been Zara? Or was it Zala? It doesn’t matter, Jure won’t be seeing her again. The sex in it self had been quite bad. They’d both been drunk and everything had been sloppy. Jure wouldn’t have done it again even if it hadn’t been sloppy.

The second time had been with a guy that Jure met in the same gay bar he’d gone to a few years earlier. The guy had been really nice, and had taken Jure on three dates before he tried to get some. Jure had bottomed, and even though the feeling had been new, he hadn’t hated it as much as with that girl. The guy however, had noticed that Jure hadn’t absolutely loved it, and they hadn’t seen each other since then.

Going out is still a common occurrence in Jure’s life, but when he’s flirting nowadays, it’s simply to have fun or maybe to get a free drink. Today is one of those occasions. Jure is once again at the gay bar. It’s one of his favorite bars out of all the ones he’s been to since moving to Ljubljana. The music is good, the people are nice, and it’s easier to flirt your way to a free drink here.

Jure is talking to a guy at the bar. He probably had a name, but hadn’t told Jure what it was. The nameless man did however definitely have a thick wallet, and had already bought Jure two shots and a fruity drink. Soon enough he’d need to come up with an excuse not to go him with the guy. But not yet. The nameless man is so interesting. He’s telling stories about motorcycles and music, and Jure really wants to hear more, but the man has made a pause.

“So, how about we go home to mine?” he says after a while, and Jure mentally slaps himself for not getting out earlier.

“No thank you, not tonight” Jure says. The man does not listen.

“Oh come on, you flirted with me, you accepted drinks, you even listened to me talk. There’s no way this wasn’t what you wanted”.

“Well, I’m actually asexual, I don’t want the same things you want”. It’s the first time Jure says it out loud. For a second, he has time to be proud of himself. Then no-name-man starts talking again, and it ruins his own good mood.

“Asexual? What, are you one of those broken ones that hate sex? Or were you mistreated and became afraid of it? I won’t mistreat you, honey. I promise I won’t”. Jure is getting really uncomfortable now. It must be clearly visible. He tries to think of an answer, a way to defend himself. But he’s saved by something else, by someone else.

“Filip, there you are! Were the hell have you been, I’ve been looking for you forever!”. At first, Jure thinks the man that has appeared from nowhere is talking to the man with no name, but he’s looking straight at Jure when he speaks again.

“The others got a table over there, are you coming?”, and there is something in the way he’s looking at Jure that tells him that this man is trying to help. He’s offering a way out, and Jure gladly takes it. Luckily, no-name-man doesn’t follow them as the stranger starts to lead Jure across the room.

“I’m Jan by the way, and if your name is Filip I’ll lose my shit” says the man. There’s something about him that’s familiar.

“Nope, I’m Jure. No losing of shit on my watch��.

When they reach the table at which this Jan’s friends are seated, it clicks. At a gay bar of all places, Jure has found three of the five members of that boy band starting to gain popularity. The ones sitting at the table introduce themselves as Kris and Bojan, and Jure gets a feeling that they’re trying to hide the fact that they’re dating. Seeing how they seem to be holding hands underneath a table at a gay bar, they’re not doing the best job. The four of them end up talking for a while, Jure gets to tell the story about the nameless man, and then he tells them about his passion for music. When he tells them about his achievements with drumming, his three table mates all look at each other.

“Look, maybe I wouldn't be saying this sober, but we’re quite a new band. Not too long ago we had a bit of a break because of, let’s call it a small, internal conflict”. It’s Bojan who’s talking, and he shoots Kris a small glance when saying the last part. He almost looks apologetic when doing so. “We’re making our first album right now, it’ll be released next year. We don’t have time for more internal conflicts. Now, I’m not saying that we fight all the time, but if we needed to replace a band mate for some reason, at some point, then it would be good to have a backup. If you want, you can be our backup drummer”.

Jure wonders if all the members have a backup. He honestly doesn’t think so. But maybe whatever is going on with their current setup will resolve itself. Maybe he won’t be needed. But if there’s an opening, then Jure would love to join his three new friends in their band.

#joker out #jure maček #jan peteh #kris guštin #bojan cvjetićanin #jo pride project

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absolutebloodychaos · 1 year ago

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Writing prompt: Truck driver!Bojan x hitchhiker!jere idk after the Joker out vlog where Bojan sat behind the wheel of the tourbus someone said that he looked like a truck driver and since then I couldn't get this AU out of my head. If I had the patience to write a fic I would

Thanks so much anon for the request, I had a lot of fun writing this:)

Disclaimer: I have no knowledge of truck driving so if this doesn’t seem accurate it’s cause I made it up. Also the one bit of Slovenian is from google translate as I am trying to learn but I’m not very good at it so far and I don’t really trust my abilities just yet.

It was a dark Friday afternoon with grey clouds slowly filling the sky. Bojan was heading home after that day's drive and was ready to get there as quick as he could to relax with his dog and a shitty romcom as he did most Friday nights these days.

This trip had been to drop off a shipment of musical instruments from Port Koper to a music shop on the other side of the country.

Truck Driving was surprisingly not Bojan’s top choice of job. It wasn’t even in his top 5 choices but ever since uncle had died and left his family with a mountain of debt he had had to take up the job to try and pay the bills.

In an ideal world Bojan would have been a musician, touring the country with his friends, but instead he had to tour the country delivering instruments for other people to tour the country with.

It was with about 80 km left of the drive when Bojan noticed a man standing to the side of the road ahead with his thumb held out.

That was a bit strange as there weren’t usually many hitchhikers to be found in the Slovenian countryside.

But as Bojan was a nice person with quite a low sense of personal safety he slowed down and stopped his truck next to the man and wound down his window.

The sight he was met with was that of an attractive short man with dark hair, eyeliner, and fluro green nails.

“Živijo, ti lahko pomagam?” he said in Slovenian. When met with a look of confusion from the man he realised that he was probably a foreigner and didn’t understand the language.

“Hi, can I help you?” Bojan rephrased in English and the stranger nodded.

“Yes yes, I am Finnish.” the man said. That didn’t really explain why he was hitchhiking on a Friday afternoon in the middle of nowhere in Slovenia.

“Do you need a ride?” Bojan clarified, noticing that the short man looking up at him had the most piercing blue eyes.

“Oh, yes yes, ride, yes, I need ride now from nice truck man” said the man. Bojan was delighted by the way the other man talked with his strong Finnish accent and broken English.

“Well, hop in,” he said, intrigued to find out more about the stranger. “Wait,” Bojan said as the man grabbed the handle of the passenger side door. “What’s your name?” he asked the man.

“I am Jere, I am from Finland, '' he said before climbing into the passenger seat.

“Well Jere, why are you hitchhiking in the middle of Slovenia?” Bojan said with a side glance and kind smile as he started to drive again.

“I was with friends but they leave me by accident so now I here” Jere said with a bit of a sad look on his face.

Bojan was taken aback by the gut feeling he got to never see the other man sad again.

“Oh that sucks. I just realised that I never asked where you wanted to go,” Bojan said, remembering why the other man was with him.

“I stay in Lub-lubi-lubiana” Jere said, and Bojan found it absolutely adorable how he couldn’t pronounce the name of the city.

“You mean Ljubljana?” he asked and Jere nodded with a smile. “Yes yes, that one” Jere said and Bojan smiled back.

“That’s great cause I was heading there anyway” Bojan said, glad that they were going to the same place and glad that he wouldn’t have to say goodbye to the Finnish man too soon.

Throughout the drive he and Jere talked about a lot of things, why Jere was in Slovenia (he was touring as he was apparently a semi-famous rapper), why Bojan was a truck driver (Jere was very sympathetic when Bojan told him about his unrealised dreams about being a musician), what pets they had (both had dogs, this lead to an extensive debate about what was the best breed).

The drive was over too quickly Bojan thought as he saw the sign signifying that they were entering Ljubljana.

“I can’t really drive this truck through the city, I’m going to have to drop it off at the company, would you like me to drop you off here or if you stayed with me until then I could drop you off at your hotel with my car if you wanted” he said in a rush, feeling more nervous than he had since being a teenager.

“I would like that, the second thing,” Jere said with a shy smile. Bojan had to fight to stop a grin from appearing on his face, he was glad that he didn’t have to part with the Finnish man just yet.

“Okay then” he said, giving up on repressing the grin. “Okei” Jere said back with what Bojan decided was the cutest smile he had ever seen.

After he had dropped the truck off at the depot Bojan brought Jere over to his car and then drove him across the city to his hotel.

When they got there both Bojan and Jere were hesitant to get out of the car. “Look Jere-”, “Um Bojan-” they both started at the same time.

As their eyes met they both started giggling at the fact that they were both so nervous.

“I’m going to guess that you were probably going to say the same thing as me; that you don’t want this to be the last time we see each other” Bojan said hesitantly.

“Yes yes, I want to see nice truck man again,” Jere said, firmly nodding.

“Could I get your number?” Bojan asked and Jere happily obliged.

"Can I get yours too?" the Finnish man said and Bojan happily entered himself into the other man's contacts.

“I’m here for weekend” Jere said shyly when Bojan handed him back his phone.

"Why didn't you say so, I thought you'd be gone forever" Bojan said with a grin. Jere blushed and smiled bashfully, and Bojan wanted nothing more than too kiss him right there.

“Would you like to come over to mine then? Watch a movie, meet my dog?” Bojan said, then realising that it was incredibly forward of him as they had only known each other for a few hours.

“Okei!” Jere said with a thumbs up though and Bojan’s heart soared. “Okei,” Bojan said softly with a small smile as he put the keys back in the ignition and pulled back out into the evening traffic.

He was happy that he had made the decision to pick up a hitchhiker that day. He had a feeling he wouldn’t forget this Finnish man anytime soon.

#truck driver hitchhiker au #bojan cvjetićanin #jere pöyhönen #käärijä #joker out #joker out fanfic #joker out fanfiction

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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What the heck is wrong with the Jazz?

What’s wrong with the Jazz this season?

The Jazz have 4 big problems so far.

After three consecutive seasons where a top-3 defense in the NBA yielded postseason exits before the conference finals, the Utah Jazz made splashy offseason moves to shake things up. Mike Conley landed in Utah for a deal for role players and prospects. Then, the Jazz signed sweet-shooting wing Bojan Bogdanovic and dealt long-time big Derrick Favors.

Utah had finally pushed its chips to the center of the table to acquire the weapons to relieve Donovan Mitchell of his high-scoring demands. Jazz fans were happy. The franchise was talked up as a title contender. Trading in some defense for a boost in scoring was supposed make the Jazz scary.

But 24 games into the season, the Jazz have are 13-11, a distant No. 6 seed in the West, with some losses that have been ugly. Against top competition, Utah’s folded. In three straight games, the team lost to the Raptors by 20, Sixers by nine and Lakers by 25 points. The Pacers have blown them out by 19 points, the Clippers by 11. Opponents are outscoring Utah by .12 points per 100 possessions, a worse rate than the Magic, Pistons and Thunder. The Jazz aren’t very good right now. They might even be mediocre.

What’s going wrong?

The offense that was promised is nowhere to be found.

The Jazz added elite shooting in the offseason, yet it’s amounted to nothing. Utah’s scoring just 105.94 points per 100 possessions, six less than last season. That offense ranks No. 24 in the NBA in front of just the Magic, Grizzlies, Warriors, Bulls and Knicks.

Without Ricky Rubio, Utah’s as stagnant as ever with the ball. They average the fifth-fewest assists per 100 possessions per game in the league (21.2), and turn the ball over at the fourth-highest rate (16.3 per 100 possessions.) A lot of Utah’s offense is built with the hope that Mitchell would take a play-making leap, and Conley would be Conley, but neither is happening. They’re tough to watch.

Conley is averaging the second-fewest assists per 100 possessions of his entire career, all while his shot is fading. At 32 years old, he’s hitting his decline quickly, shooting a career-worst 37 percent from the field. His quick first step is lost, and because of it, he’s hardly getting to the rim, instead taking low percentage floaters. A career-most 23 percent of his shots are coming between 3-10 feet. He’s averaging 14 points on 13 shots. That’s Ricky Rubio numbers without the play-making.

Conley’s bad start could be salvaged by a Mitchell explosion, but that hasn’t happened. Mitchell is playing similar basketball to how he was a season ago, which was a modest improvement from a breakout rookie year. He’s scoring 25 points per game on 21 shots with nearly identical efficiency to last year (44 percent from the field and 36 percent from three). His shot selection remains questionable, as he’s taking 28 percent of his attempts between 10 feet out and the three-point line, a career-high. And his assist numbers have fallen by one dime per 100 possessions.

Yes, the Jazz are better when either of their lead guards are playing. Utah’s outscoring opponents by 5.6 points per 100 possessions when Conley plays than when he doesn’t, and 1.3 points when Mitchell plays. But those are the team’s top-two options. The Jazz can’t afford to be merely better when these two play. A shallow bench means their stars need to be dominant.

The Jazz’s lack of offensive identity is frustrating for one obvious reason

Utah’s struggles are especially maddening because they’re a great three-point shooting team. They sink 38 percent of their looks, fourth-most in the league. Problem is they don’t take many.

Utah ranks No. 20 in the league in three-point attempts per 100 possessions at 31. Six players are shooting 35 percent or better from range, including Bogdanovic’s 45 percent on seven tries per game, and O’Neale’s 45 percent on three tries, but they aren’t getting the ball enough.

The clunkiness of the offense is apparent. With limited playmakers to take the defense off-the-dribble, so many of the Jazz’s possessions go to waste. They average the fourth-most turnovers per 100 possessions, and fifth-fewest assists. With Conley struggling, Mitchell plateauing and Joe Ingles having a down, the ball hardly moves. Emmanuel Mudiay, Jeff Green, Georges Niang and Dante Exum aren’t the answers off the bench.

There’s a Rudy Gobert issue, too

The saving grace for Utah over the last few seasons, even in the midst of of ugly-looking offenses ,has been its defense. At the center of it all is the Jazz’s second-highest paid player, 7’1 Gobert, who is perennially wonderful protecting the rim, winning two Defensive Player of the Year awards in 2018 and 2019.

This year, teams have figured out Gobert’s weaknesses, and they’re exploiting them more than ever: he’s still a force down low, but struggles to defend in space. Laterally, Gobert doesn’t move well, and team’s are pick-and-popping bigs on him. Against elite teams, this has meant Marc Gasol or Al Horford stepping out and knocking down three-point shots.

And if Gobert chases to the three-point line, slashers seize an open lane for dunks and layups.

Two years ago, Utah was 6.7 points per 100 possessions better defensively when Gobert played than when he sat. Now, that line has moved to just .5 points per 100 possessions.

So what can Utah do?

The Jazz are locked in with big money invested in Gobert, Conley and Bogdanovic, and none of the three are likely to move. Mitchell should be considered mostly untouchable as he plays out the end of his rookie deal, and there’s little else left on the roster that’d command a big name via trade.

Utah should be a mid-season trade candidate though, looking to make some move to help their bench. Utah should eye a guard with play-making abilities. Maybe that’s DJ Augustin from Orlando or Ish Smith from Washington.

The season is also just 24 games young. Maybe Conley can bounce back. Maybe Ingles becomes the passer he was a season ago. Maybe Mitchell’s shot selection improves.

For right now, Utah’s on track to be the NBA’s most disappointing team though. In Conley, the Jazz made the trade we’ve been waiting for, yet it’s turned a worse product. Utah’s far from title contention right now. They’re on their way to another first-round playoff exit.

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flauntpage · 6 years ago

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The (Relatively) New Lineups We Can’t Wait to See

One of the great pleasures heading into every NBA season is generated by the new. From watching marquee free agents, draft picks, and trade acquisitions blend into an unfamiliar environment to closely observing how fixed cores will avoid an obsolete fate. Anticipation builds because change is constant, and nobody really knows what's going to happen until they take the floor.

Five-man lineups don't provide the clearest barometer, but they do help clarify how each team is choosing to adapt, whether their goal is to stay on top or climb the league's mountain. Here's a look at several different units that hold relevance heading into the 2018-19 season. Some are more obvious than others, but all of them deserve your attention.

Kyrie Irving, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Gordon Hayward, Al Horford

They’ve looked rough in the preseason—the Indiana Pacers and Chicago Bulls were the only two teams with a worse offensive rating—but of all the iterations in Boston, this exact grouping was built to dominate today's NBA with a comfortable foothold in its future. At worst, this is Death Lineup karaoke, with Horford as an older, calmer, better shooting/less nimble version of Draymond Green, Irving’s offensive wizardry hoisting the entire franchise to a higher level, and three interchangeable stars (either in the making or cemented) on the wing.

They can switch just about everywhere on the defensive end (a quality that’s especially helpful when the game spurts into open-court chaos) with five players who can create their own shot against opposing teams that try and defend them the same way. Everyone can shoot. Everyone can pass. Everyone has either made an All-Star team or has the potential to do so for years to come. We only saw this unit play five minutes last season. This year, the Celtics will only go so far as it can take them.

Chris Paul, James Harden, Eric Gordon, P.J. Tucker, Clint Capela

Much has been made about Houston's ostensible stumble through a momentous offseason. The loss of Trevor Ariza and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (two ideal complementary pieces), the addition of a teetering Carmelo Anthony, and associate head coach Jeff Bzdelik’s sudden retirement gave birth to a meditation on Houston’s staying power as a juggernaut. Most, if not all, of the discussion is little more than concern trolling.

At the end of the day, Houston will open the 2018-19 season with five of its most important players back from a 65-win team that could’ve/should’ve won it all. This particular group isn’t new, but it might as well be: Paul, Harden, Gordon, Tucker, and Capela have only registered 24 minutes. (In the 45 possessions they logged during the playoffs, Houston outscored its opponents by 15.6 points per 100 possessions.) The Rockets may blow this to bits with a mid-season blockbuster trade that includes one of these key contributors (likely Gordon and/or Tucker), but if they keep it together there won’t be a more effective or complementary collection of talent found in any one unit outside Golden State (and maybe Boston).

There are four back-breaking three-point shooters—two of whom double as first-ballot Hall of Famers and all-galaxy playmakers—surrounding a rim-rolling paint protector who gets notably better every year. In the final five minutes of a close game, how do you stifle this offense? Seriously. How do you attack a committed and disciplined defense that switches everything with above-average pieces at just about every position? Sure, they’re a little small—Ariza’s absence hurts most here—but all of them play larger and stronger than their height, thriving inside a system that emboldens them to behave like running lava.

Last season’s Rockets were one of the best teams to ever fall short of a title. In year two of the Paul-Harden era, they may be even better when it counts the most.

Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, DeMarcus Cousins

Deep analysis isn’t required here. Given the stakes, relevance, and staggering aesthetics, anyone not interested in seeing how Boogie Cousins (however healthy) fits in with the most impressive foursome in NBA history might as well quit the NBA for good.

Victor Oladipo, Tyreke Evans, Bojan Bogdanovic, Domas Sabonis, Myles Turner

My first thought was to have Thaddeus Young in for Sabonis, not knowing if Nate McMillan could find someone for his third-year big to defend in the last five minutes of a close game. But Young isn’t a good enough outside shooter to tilt the scale in his favor, so Sabonis gets the nod for being a superior passer who can really squeeze a defense from the post. Good luck out-rebounding the Pacers when this group is on the floor. It’s unclear how many teams will be able to combat Indy’s sheer size on either end when this lineup is on the floor.

Beyond having two centers share the frontcourt, what's most intriguing here is the absence of any one "true" point guard. Instead, Oladipo and Evans will complement each another on both ends, toggling back and forth as capable playmakers who can finish at the rim, knock down a pull-up three, and run an effective pick-and-roll with either Sabonis or Turner.

Oladipo is the breakout star and franchise jewel, coming off a season in which he won Most Improved Player and made an All-Star, All-NBA, and All-Defensive team. But let’s back up and examine Evans for a second. What a variable. Take a look at how his numbers compared to Oladipo’s last season. According to Synergy Sports, Evans ranked in the 86th percentile as a pick-and-roll ball handler and the 83rd percentile in isolation, doing his best on a Grizzlies team that was headed nowhere. Life will be even easier in Indiana, especially in this unit, where he may be the third (or even fourth) option. It’s hard to find a better spot for Evans at this point in his career.

Elsewhere, last season Bogdanovic made over 40 percent of his threes and posted a 60.5 True Shooting percentage (both career highs), while Turner is already one of the league’s most intriguing young bigs, a shot-blocking madman who can roll or pop. Bogdanovic will likely regress, but if he can at worst remain static while three others (especially Oladipo) display some growth, this unit will be a nightmare.

Dennis Smith Jr., Wesley Matthews, Luka Doncic, Harrison Barnes, DeAndre Jordan

This obviously won’t be seen until Barnes returns from his hamstring injury, but it could be worth the wait. The Mavericks have Dirk Nowitzki, but elsewhere they are fledgling. Smith Jr. and Doncic are the future. Barnes, Jordan, and Matthews are each within a few seasons of their respective primes. Together, they possess a dynamism that’s been missing from every lineup Dallas has put on the floor in over a decade.

If Jordan gobbles everything from the glass, can stay healthy, and still suck help defenders off the three-point line on hard dives towards the rim, so many of Smith Jr. and Doncic’s growing pains will fall into a safety net. If Barnes, in a contract year, doesn’t hijack the offense and lets part of his game selflessly revert back to the space it occupied in Golden State (this is wishful thinking but not out of line within the context of this unit), Carlisle’s system can be more fluid. And through it all, if Matthews can (hopefully) hold it all together as a grizzled veteran with the team's lowest night-to-night variance, there's no reason why this lineup can't close tight games and post a positive point differential.

Some of this logic requires a leap of faith, for sure. And so much of it is inspired by Doncic’s preseason highlight reel. But even if they aren't great, you won't want to miss them.

Reggie Jackson, Luke Kennard, Stanley Johnson, Blake Griffin, Andre Drummond

There’s a certain amount of nostalgic charm attached to a lineup like this. It features a jaunty point guard who’s supported by a sniper at the two and covered by an athletic wing, with a robust, true-number-one-option at power forward beside a mountainous center tasked with anchoring the defense. On the surface it screams old school, and that's why there are so many reasons to hate it. These five players were all in Detroit last season, but played just about zero minutes at the same time (only four possessions, per Cleaning the Glass). Aside from poor health, the reason why is obvious: There’s not nearly enough spacing or anything close to a defined pecking order on the offensive end, while exploiting them on defense shouldn’t be too hard, given their inflexibility.

But Drummond added a new dimension to his game last year. Stan Van Gundy placed him higher on the floor and let him showcase a passing ability that boosted his assist rate up to 14 percent—more than the sum of his previous three years combined!). Meanwhile, Griffin is uniquely dominant when healthy. Nobody his size rivals his vision or ball-handling ability. It helps form a frontcourt tandem that may be able to do more than tread water when accompanied by the right pieces.

It’s unclear if Detroit has those pieces, but Johnson is still only 22 years old, with the girth and quickness to defend four positions in a pinch. Jackson is two years removed from life as a slightly above-average point guard, and Kennard is the one cast member who can loosen up the floor when he doesn't have the ball. I don’t necessarily think this group will exceed its modest expectations, but the ceiling is higher than people think, especially with Dwane Casey at head coach, able to coagulate a defense that’s already good but can stand to be better.

Rajon Rondo, Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, Brandon Ingram, LeBron James

This is the exact opposite of the group seen above, with a degree of unconventionality that's both breathtaking and hardly a surprise to anyone who’s watched the NBA evolve over the past six years. I don’t know if it will be good, or if Luke Walton will even be willing to utilize Rondo and Ball at the same time—in tight space with no true center and only one recognizable spot-up threat—but please check your pulse if you're not curious to see how it'd do.

Why not experiment and see how far Einstein-level basketball IQ and absurd talent can take you? LeBron at the five isn’t a new concept, but as the league continues to downsize—a trend no other player is more responsible for—he’s positioned to take advantage in lineups that surround him with players who can see segments of the game develop before they actually do. They turn a defense's crack into a calamitous breach with next-level anticipation. Between LeBron, Rondo, and Ball, it's hard to think of another group that's ever unleashed so many innovative passers at the same time.

Hart and Ingram are here to enjoy it all, from beyond the arc and against awkward closeouts. Outside shooting is an issue throughout L.A.'s roster, but this group will invent ways to make it a non-issue—if they get a chance to play.

Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby, Kawhi Leonard, Pascal Siakam

As is the case for so many different teams, we don’t really know what Toronto’s best five is right now. But as NBA teams start to favor mischievous off-the-bounce slashers over 3-and-D statues, VanVleet has to be on the floor over Danny Green. A case can be made for Dorell Wright's wingspan in that spot, but Siakam, Lowry, Leonard, and Anunoby are more than enough to make this defense one of the league's best.

There's almost too much to like here. Leonard is at the four, with a mobile, 7'3" wingspan at center. Anunoby can't be left alone in the corner while Lowry and VanVleet wreak all sorts of havoc wherever they are. Picture an inverted pick-and-roll, with Leonard dribbling the ball as Lowry races up to blindside his man with a screen. How the hell do you guard that, with Siakam in the dunker's spot and deadly shooting along the perimeter? Few teams can. The Raptors are going to be so much fun.

The (Relatively) New Lineups We Can’t Wait to See published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

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symbianosgames · 8 years ago

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Visual puzzle game Hidden Folks has been compared to the Where’s Waldo? books a number of times since it came out in February for Steam and iOS. It makes sense: both task you with scanning large 2D scenes crowded with people to find a hidden target. But the comparison fails to acknowledge how much design work was required to take the Where’s Waldo? format and turn it into a compelling video game.

Hidden Folks is the first game Adriaan de Jongh has designed since the studio he co-founded with fellow Dutchman Bojan Endrovski disbanded in 2015. The studio, called Game Oven, allowed de Jongh to think about the thousands of social interactions we perform every day, and then design a game around one of them. The results were games that played unlike any before them, such as the awkward intimacy of finger-based co-op game Fingle, and the ballet-inspired dancing of two-player game Bounden.

At the time Game Oven was closing down, de Jongh wrote that it was due to the team being “at a point where we are in need of another vision for a beautiful game, but where we don’t have one, and don’t have the financial resources to find one and make one.” At around the same time, de Jongh stumbled upon the graduation exhibition of Dutch illustrator Sylvain Tegroeg, sending him on the path towards making Hidden Folks.

Tegroeg’s exhibit was a series of objects contained in glass globes called “Idea Globes.” But what de Jongh found himself staring at were the black-and-white drawings hanging behind the globes, in which he saw “worlds of tiny people doing everything and nothing at the same time, yet many little stories unfolding.” It gave de Jongh an idea that prompted him to jokingly tell Tegroeg that they should make a game together.

Tegroeg's "Idea Globes"

“We exchanged business cards, I checked out his website, thought ‘heck, let's give it a try’, stole some of his artwork from his website to make a prototype, emailed him and met up soon after that,” de Jongh says. “We were both surprised how cute the prototype was, and decided to put a bit more time into it together just to see where it would end up.” As it turns out, the pair spent the next two-and-a-half years expanding that prototype and tackling the unexpected challenges that came with it.

The most obvious difference between Where’s Waldo? and Hidden Folks is that one is a static drawing on paper and the other is interactive. What interaction introduces to the format that de Jongh and Tegroeg had to tackle is player expectation. “If we made one thing interactive, players almost automatically expected other things to be interactive as well,” says de Jongh.

This was an issue as Tegroeg was able to draw things much more quickly than de Jongh could program interactions for them, so making everything interactive would take far too long. A careful balance was needed.

“Every object we made interactive added an expectation to similar objects in the game, and making too many objects interactive would create the impression that everything was going to be interactive,” de Jongh says.

“An example of this player expectation would be the doors in the game: we started out making one openable door, but concluded from playtests that that one door created the expectation that all other door-like objects would also be openable.”

“Especially in the early stages of the game's development, we were overwhelmed by this desire of the player for everything to be interactive,” de Jongh says. “It took us maybe a whole year to understand how we could shape the game in a way that that no longer was a problem.”

The pair came up with two solutions. One was to add small, tutorial areas in between the bigger levels to teach players the basic interactions of each environment. In the introductory level to the city, for example, players learn that they can rotate satellite dishes, break bricks in certain types of wall, as well as pull garage doors up. Establishing this visual language with players sets their expectations and helps to eliminate frustration they might experience going in without that knowledge.

The other solution to player desire for interaction was to add sounds to absolutely everything. While that might still be a lot of work it’s nowhere near as much as animating everything. Plus, the sounds in Hidden Folks are entirely a cappella, meaning that creating them is cheap and easy.

“The first time I used my voice to add sounds to anything were some experimental videos my girlfriend had made,” says de Jongh. “The videos featured solely inanimate objects, and I added my voice to them in a way that gave them character. It was tremendously silly, but we laughed really hard at it and did it again with a few other videos later.”

De Jongh repeated the trick during a Global Game Jam and it ended up winning his team the Best Audio Award that year. “This was around the time Sylvain and I started adding more basic features to the game, and I borrowed some of the sounds I had recorded in that game jam for Hidden Folks,” says de Jongh. “I thought it was kind of funny. Sylvain thought so too, and we decided to stick to it.”

While making sound effects with his mouth proved economic, de Jongh also thinks of them as one of the two big sources of character and comedy in Hidden Folks. The clues that help players to locate each target within levels is the other source. Many of the clues contain jokes as they were made during collaboration: either while Tegroeg and de Jongh were designing the game’s world, or across the two evenings de Jongh spent with his friend Bram van Dijk having fun and writing clues.

“It would become obvious during playtests whether the jokes worked or not, and we rewrote the ones that didn't work or removed those targets entirely,” de Jongh says. “The lesson I learned from making many of the jokes in the game is that other people are way more funny than I am. Thank god for playtesters making this painfully obvious sometimes.”

The clues in Hidden Folks come in the form of written sentences that appear at the bottom of the screen when players click on one of the targets they’re after. They were considered necessary as the game’s illustrations are black-and-white, and therefore don’t have the luxury of color to help players scan the dense images. The main visual tool Tegroeg had to guide the player’s eye was contrast.

“The amount of blackness really determined how hard it was to distinguish the areas and objects. Think about thicker grass or the occasional denser pattern,” de Jongh says. “We often thought about diversifying how much contrast there was around the targets hiding in plain sight so that those had different levels of difficulty. Contrast also occasionally helps guiding people's eyes in distinguishing interactions with non-interactions, but this wasn't something we wanted to exaggerate as it would make discovering the interactions boring.”

De Jongh adds that the clues do more than deliver jokes and help players find their targets. He considers their third function to be one of the fundamental differences between Where’s Waldo? and Hidden Folks. “In Where's Waldo? you’re looking for specific graphics, whereas in Hidden Folks you are looking for a story,” de Jongh says. “On top of that, many of the targets in Hidden Folks aren't hidden in plain sight but require an interaction with the environment to become visible, and this adds depth to the stories of the targets as you as the player can be the driving force behind that story.”

What de Jongh is referring to is how the clues are designed to have a conversation with the game’s world. For example, one clue reads, “Salma has been waiting for more than two and a half hours to cross the street. Can’t the bus drivers see this is a pedestrian crossing?!” With that clue, players can search for a woman standing at a pedestrian crossing, but it’s not enough to find her, as they also have to click on a bus to make it stop at the crossing so she can get across the road - only at that point can players complete that target.

“Some clues would point at entire areas on the map, while other clues talk about specific objects that we would then make sure to be carefully placed somewhere on the map that would make sense to people,” says de Jongh. “We distilled a list of things to consider when adding new targets and hints, and tried to represent the different kinds of targets and hints throughout the game.”

Here is that list, courtesy of de Jongh, who adds that “there's probably more things we thought about but never bothered writing down”:

Targets:

target hidden in plain sight

target hidden behind a known interaction

target hidden behind an unknown interaction

target hidden behind a puzzle of interactions

target being very small

target hidden by having a different animation

target hidden by being the only one holding a specific object

target hidden by being in a different context

target hidden by timing

target hidden by bad contrast

target revealed by a sound

Hints:

hint pointing to one specific location

hint pointing to a small area

hint pointing to a large area

hint pointing to objects that are everywhere

hint pointing to a particular indicator

Out of the items in that list, the one that isn’t seen much of inside the final version of Hidden Folks is “target hidden behind a puzzle of interactions.” There are reasons for this. “We found out pretty early on in development that multi-interaction targets were extremely difficult for us to make [and to make visually indicative], and because of that super difficult for players to understand,” de Jongh says. For that reason many of them were abandoned.

Another type of challenge that was dropped from the final game is timed challenges. “The idea of those areas was that the camera was fixed to a walking character or a driving car, and you had to find things before they had passed by,” de Jongh says. “However, we decided to throw them all out just before the v1.0 build because it was simply too frustrating for most players having to replay the area twice or three times to find everything. We thought it would be a nice change of pace, but the areas just weren't as fun.”

However, one of these timed challenges has survived, and can be found in the third area of the game. You have to help a walking folk across treetops by moving objects out of the way. The previous version of this level let players fail but now the character simply stops in their path and waits for the player to clear the way if they’re not quick enough.

This version of the timed challenge fits in with the philosophy that drives all of de Jongh’s games and therefore Hidden Folks too. It’s a kind of folksy playfulness derived from physical games and the larger tradition of folk games. Those tougher challenges in Hidden Folks don’t play into that approach, hence they had to go. “Playfulness manifests in Hidden Folks by allowing you as a player to take your time and to tap everything with no penalty,” de Jongh says.

That philosophy is why Hidden Folks is a game that forgoes challenge so that players can find pleasure in searching canvases and making small discoveries. The few design elements it has are the result of rigorous playtesting and working towards a vision of a game that is as lighthearted as blowing a raspberry.

That said, de Jongh says that the new areas he’s currently making for Hidden Folks will shake it all up: “We plan to make more puzzle-like areas where you're not looking for targets but rather have to 'solve' the entire area.” The new levels will be larger and more complicated than anything seen in the game so far. His challenge now is to make sure Tegroeg’s illustrations remain sources of joy rather than exhaustion.

#IFTTT #Blogger

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madpicks · 8 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://www.madpicks.com/sports/nba/nba-trade-rumors-2017-every-important-update-one-place/

NBA trade rumors 2017: Every important update in one place

The 2017 NBA trade deadline is nearly here. Follow along with all the action here.

The 2017 NBA trade deadline is at 3 p.m. Feb. 23, but the league isn’t waiting to complete major deals. The biggest shock came when the Pelicans completed a blockbuster trade for DeMarcus Cousins hours after the All-Star Game.

The deal — which sent Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, Langston Galloway, a first-round pick, and a second-round pick to Sacramento — came seemingly out of nowhere and followed months of the Kings publicly denying interest in trading Cousins. In the days before the All-Star break, the Kings explored the market and found it to be more tepid than expected. Yet they took the Pelicans’ offer anyway, deciding they already traveled too far down the road of trading Cousins to turn back now.

It remains to be seen if the Cousins deal leads to other major trades. It looks like Jimmy Butler and Carmelo Anthony will stay put, but a lot can change in the final hours before the deadline. Here’s every trade that’s occurred, followed by every NBA trade rumor you need to know.

COMPLETED TRADES

DeMarcus Cousins trade to Pelicans

TO PELICANS: DeMarcus Cousins, Omri Casspi

TO KINGS: Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, Langston Galloway, 2017 first-round pick (top-3 protected), 2017 second-round pick

Serge Ibaka traded to Raptors

TO RAPTORS: Serge Ibaka

TO MAGIC: Terrence Ross, 2017 first-round pick (lottery protected)

Mason Plumlee traded to Nuggets

TO NUGGETS: Mason Plumlee, 2018 second-round pick

TO BLAZERS: Jusuf Nurkic, 2017 first-round pick (via Grizzlies, top-5 protected)

Miles Plumlee traded to Hornets

TO HORNETS: Miles Plumee

TO BUCKS: Roy Hibbert, Spencer Hawes

Kyle Korver traded to Cavaliers

TO CAVALIERS: Kyle Korver

TO HAWKS: Mike Dunleavy, Mo Williams, 2019 first-round pick

Ersan Ilyasova traded to 76ers

TO 76ERS: Ersan Ilyasova, 2017 first-round pick (top-20 protected)

TO THUNDER: Jerami Grant

Michael Carter-Williams traded to Bulls

TO BULLS: Michael Carter-Williams

TO BUCKS: Tony Snell

RUMORS BEFORE DEADLINE DAY

Feb. 20

Jazz quietly listening on Derrick Favors

Nuggets seeking first-rounder and pick swap for Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari

Rockets interested in Denver’s Wilson Chandler

Celtics still interested in Jahlil Okafor trade

Carmelo Anthony trade rumors are dying

Kings rejected Cousins-for-Andre Drummond swap earlier this season

Lakers refused to include Brandon Ingram in potential DeMarcus Cousins deal

Feb. 19

Celtics still interested in Danilo Gallinari, also looking into P.J. Tucker

Pacers shopping first-round pick to get Paul George more help

Lou Williams doesn’t think he’s going anywhere, despite lots of interest

Wizards interested in Lou Williams, Bojan Bogdanovic

Before deadline week

Sixers, Blazers nearly completed trade for Jahlil Okafor

Pistons, Magic talking Reggie Jackson trade

Jahlil Okafor rejoins 76ers after several trade options fell through

Bulls interested in trading for Jahlil Okafor

Nets, Pelicans discussed Brook Lopez trade

LeBron James sharply denies that he’s “willing” to trade Kevin Love for Carmelo Anthony

Vlade Divac denies that Kings will trade DeMarcus Cousins

Knicks are “determined” to trade Carmelo Anthony

Sixers in “deep discussions” about Jahlil Okafor trade to Pelicans

Clippers pursuing Carmelo Anthony trade

Knicks beginning to initiate Carmelo Anthony trade discussions

Cavaliers reject Kevin Love-Carmelo Anthony trade offer

Pelicans asked Hawks about trading for Dwight Howard

Hawks pull Paul Millsap off the trade market

Bulls listening to offers on Jimmy Butler

Hawks listening on Paul Millsap trades

#NBA trade rumors

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buddyrabrahams · 8 years ago

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Report: Nets actively shopping Brook Lopez, Bojan Bogdanovic

With by far the worst situation in the NBA in terms of both roster talent and future outlook, desperate times are calling for desperate measures from the Brooklyn Nets.

According to a report by Keith Smith of RealGM on Monday, the Nets are actively shopping Brook Lopez and Bojan Bogdanovic but have yet to find a return package to their liking.

Sources: The Nets have been actively shopping Brook Lopez and Bojan Bogdanovic, but have not found a package to their liking yet.

— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) January 30, 2017

Lopez and Bogdanovic are arguably the only two players of any real value on the air-thin Nets. We heard early in the season that Brooklyn might be open to at least moving Lopez, but now it looks like general manager Sean Marks is accelerating the fire sale ahead of the February 23 trade deadline.

Though the Nets are a league-worst 9-38 on the year, there’s zero motivation to just bottom out completely as they are not in control of their own first-round pick until 2019. Still, Brooklyn is clearly going nowhere with Lopez and Bogdanovic riding shotgun, so it makes to sense for them to cash in their chips in the hopes of acquiring any sort of long-term assets.

from Larry Brown Sports http://ift.tt/2kNdDBC

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absolutebloodychaos · 1 year ago

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Okay, sorry this took so long @hunters-angel but here you go:

Walking somewhat tipsily back from the club Jan was talking to Nace and Kris about the most recent cable saga he had at the gig earlier that week.

The band had spent the past few hours at a small club in Ljubljana and were heading home to rest and recover before the next gig they had lined up.

This was the first time in weeks that they had been able to relax and go out somewhere together and they had made the most of the time they had.

After about ten minutes of walking though, when Jan was searching his pocket for a cigarette he noticed that aside from his usual packet and lighter, his pocket was empty.

He searched through all the other pockets in his jacket and pants and found nothing else but his phone.

“Oh shit, shit shit shit.” he said, stopping in the middle of the footpath.

“What is it, Jan?” Nace asked, gesturing at the others to stop and wait for the guitarist.

“I left my keys in the club,” Jan said and at this point Bojan and Jure had turned around and walked back to join the others.

“Which club?” Jure asked. “Yeah, we went to like five tonight,” Bojan added.

Jan tried to remember which club he’d had the time to empty his pockets in but he wasn’t sure.

“I think it was the last one we went to” he said, running a hand through his hair, “cause I remember reaching into my pockets earlier and them still being there”.

“You sure it was the last one? Do you remember the last time you checked your pockets?” Kris asked, quickly taking on the role of chief ‘finder of stuff’ as per usual.

“I honestly don’t know man, I’ve had a few drinks and I’ve been mostly focused on relaxing tonight so like I haven’t been paying attention to much of anything.” Jan said after thinking about it for a minute.

“That’s okay Janči, we’ll just go back and look for them” Jure said, grabbing his arm and heading back in the direction of the last club they had been to.

The others followed and before long, they were back at the club. After a quick search though, it turned out that the contents of Jan’s pocket were nowhere to be found.

“I guess I left them in the last club then” he said and they all left, making sure to grab the rest of their stuff before heading to the next previous club.

“Okay Jan, try to check quickly cause if we have to go to the next club I still want to be back before it gets light outside” Kris said but with a kind smile so Jan knew that he wasn’t actually

too annoyed about what was happening.

Jan did quickly scour this club but his keys weren’t here either, there were just a bunch of drunk people trying not to fall off bar stools and a bartender who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there.

“On to the next club!” said Bojan, who looked suspiciously like he was enjoying the whole debacle.

The next cub they went to Jan was sure he had left his keys in. He found the table that he had been parked at for most of the time here and looked around and under it but found nothing.

He even asked the bartender if she had seen anything but she shook her head saying that she had been talking to her girlfriend for most of the night as this wasn’t actually a very popular club and therefore not very busy.

Her girlfriend however said that she had seen a tall person in a dark coat pick something up off of the table shortly after Jan and his friends had left.

He asked if she had seen where the person had gone and she said that she didn’t know if the person had stayed in the club but that he should still look around.

The advantage of this club being unpopular and not busy meant that it was very easy to scan the room for a tall person in a coat.

Jan looked around but the only people he saw that met that description were his friends.

“Dang, this was a bust” he said when he got back to them feeling a little let down.

“That’s okay,” Nace said, pulling him into a hug. “Let's get home before it gets too late to fall asleep.”

They all went back to Jan’s apartment but the moment they opened the door, they were surprised to see that the apartment had been covered in decorations and he saw Martin standing in the middle of his living room.

“Happy band anniversary!” yelled Jure the moment he got in the door. “What?” Jan said, feeling incredibly confused.

“It’s not the band's anniversary today, that was in May,” he said.

“Yeah but it’s the anniversary of Nace joining the band so like the anniversary of our family being completed.” the ex-bassist said as the others moved to join him.

“Why are we holding it at my house? How did you get in Martin? I’m so confused.” Jan sat down on the edge of his couch as his tipsy brain found it hard to get around the current situation.

“Where did you think your keys had gone, silly?” Bojan said, grinning as Martin held up the objects in his hand.

“I have to say, I honestly don’t know why we did this at your place but hey, tonight was fun wasn’t it?” Nace said at first looking a bit confused but then smiling.

“Yeah, I guess it was,” Jan said. It was a bit strange and he was probably a bit too tired to think about it too hard but the night had been fun and he was glad that they were all together now.

you'd really think there would be a way to retrieve deleted asks after all these years ;)

anywho, vague prompt: the guys are coming back from a night out, but! jan lost his wallet and there was Something Important hidden in it

Yeah ik, this has happened to me like three times already and it's super fucking annoying😡

Any specific requests for the Very Important thing or is that up to the author's interpretation? Also that sounds like a great prompt:)

#sorry i like ran out of motivation for like a few days #but its here now and i like it #the ending doesnt really make any sense but like ive gotten hardly any sleep so...#anyways #joker out fanfic #joker out fanfiction #joker out #jan peteh #kris guštin #nace jordan #bojan cvjetićanin #jure maček #martin jurkovič

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