#the nba has had like 5 of those already its nothing new

[allpromarlo]

lockout? huh...haven't heard that in years...

[bobbystompy]

91 Quotes I Enjoyed From 2020

Below are my favorite quotes from 2020. Though most occurred throughout the year, some took place before but were encountered during.

1) “You don’t have to be new to make new.” - Rick Rubin

2) “He put the beat on and go to sleep then wake up with a verse.” - The Lox

3) “Every opinion is bad.” - Blink-155

4)

(via Twitter)

5) “At the start of every disaster movie, there’s a scientist being ignored.”

6) “Be brave enough to suck at something new.”

7) “Comedy is the only job you can have where you can use everything you know” - Robin Williams via Dave Chappelle

8) “What’s the worst swear word where you live?” - Josiah Hughes

9) “Cookies are a really great way to get everybody to like you for a short period of time” - YSAC

10) “The worst dancer at a wedding is the one who’s not dancing.” - John Mulaney

11) “I never saw the end of the tunnel. I only saw myself running out of one." - Kobe Bryant

12) "A good movie begins as you're walking out of the theater" - Ethan Hawke

13) “When I was young and starting in cinema, there was a saying that I carved deep into my heart which is, 'The most personal is the most creative.’ That quote was from our great Martin Scorsese.” - Bong Joon-ho

14) “Run to the rescue with love, and peace will follow” - River Phoenix via Joaquin Phoenix

15) “Thank you -- I will drink until next morning.” - Bong Joon-ho

16) “Men will bury their emotions for decades and then take it all out on children tubing while they drive the boat.” - @krauter_

17) “They help you with the dumb face stuff, but they don’t tell you how to fix it” - Adam (Nate’s friend), on having older sisters

18) “We all had our connections, but it’s not the details themselves that matter, it’s the feeling behind them. There are a million coming-of-age tales. Lady Bird’s secret sauce is how deeply its creator gave a shit. The older I get, the less I care about anything but the sense of a filmmaker’s personal connection to the material. It doesn’t matter what it’s about, what genre it is, or whether it’s genre at all. I only really care that it feels like something the filmmaker had to tell me, and that it was that filmmaker in particular who had to tell it. It has to answer the ‘why are you telling me this’ question, and not just why are you telling me, but why are you telling me.

Lady Bird is a movie that feels like only Greta Gerwig could’ve made. And it’s only because it’s so specific to her that it can be so meaningful to so many people.” - Vince Mancini

19) "I have cast some lonely votes, fought some lonely fights, mounted some lonely campaigns. But I do not feel lonely now.” - Bernie Sanders

20) “Ever hear a Beatles song you haven’t heard before?”

21) “Drinking is an emotional thing. It joggles you out of the standardism of everyday life, out of everything being the same. It yanks you out of your body and your mind and throws you against the wall. I have the feeling that drinking is a form of suicide where you're allowed to return to life and begin all over the next day. It's like killing yourself, and then you're reborn. I guess I've lived about ten or fifteen thousand lives now.” - Charles Bukowski

22) “You shouldn’t have to hear a band to know if they’re good or not” - Josiah Hughes

23) “I was raised by OGs.  Some of you were raised by IG.  I understand.” - Ice-T

* * *

[Here is where I note the line of demarcation that was the COVID-19 pandemic hitting the US, pushed forward by Tom Hanks’ announcement, the NBA and NCAA shutting down, and, then, the nation itself.]

* * *

24) “There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.” - Vladimir Lenin

25) "Taken together, this is a massive failure in leadership that stems from a massive defect in character. Trump is such a habitual liar that he is incapable of being honest, even when being honest would serve his interests. He is so impulsive, shortsighted, and undisciplined that he is unable to plan or even think beyond the moment. He is such a divisive and polarizing figure that he long ago lost the ability to unite the nation under any circumstances and for any cause. And he is so narcissistic and unreflective that he is completely incapable of learning from his mistakes. The president’s disordered personality makes him as ill-equipped to deal with a crisis as any president has ever been. With few exceptions, what Trump has said is not just useless; it is downright injurious." - Peter Wehner

26) "Epidemics have a way of revealing underlying truths about the societies they impact." - Anne Applebaum

27) “A funny thing about quarantining is hearing your partner in full work mode for the first time. Like, I’m married to a ‘let’s circle back’ guy — who knew?” - Laura Norkin

28) 

(Jojo Rabbit)

29) “The world ends when you're dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. - Deadwood: The Movie

30) “All bleeding stops eventually.” - Deadwood: The Movie

31) “Our Father, which art in heaven… / Let him fucking stay there” - Deadwood: The Movie

32) “It’s like a power outage, but we still have power” - Ryen Russillo, on the pandemic

33) “Whenever Sox baseball returns, it’ll be weird to not have Farmer on the call any more. The relationship between a fan and longtime announcer is always built in the little moments. One afternoon, he’s the soundtrack as you clean the garage. On another night, he’s your bookmark for the game as you stand in line for churros or walk down the ramps at Sox Park to try for better seats in the 100 level. A voice like Farmer’s becomes so familiar that you only really notice when it’s no longer there.” - Kevin Kaduk, on the passing of Ed Farmer

34) 

(via Twitter)

35) “In my songs, I try to look through someone else’s eyes, and I want to give the audience a feeling more than a message” - John Prine

36) “Observe everything. Admire nothing.” - Generation Kill

37) “Trump, by that definition, has always been a wartime president -- always willing to sacrifice people he doesn’t know to things he only sort of cares about” - David Roth

38) "Whenever they speak Michael Jordan, they should speak Scottie Pippen." - Michael Jordan

39) "Fiction is a bridge to the truth that journalism can't reach." - Hunter S. Thompson

40) “Airlines sending me “we’re in this together” emails. When my suitcase was 52 pounds I was on my own.” - Mike Dentale

41) “Sometimes you can be the worst source of your own story” - Ryen Russillo

42) “Family is not necessarily blood, but instead who you would bleed for.”

43)

(via Twitter)

44) "This is the deal that Jordan made, knowingly or unknowingly — that he would trade everything he had for everything he wanted. And then, when he won all those things, he found that he had nothing but that.” - David Roth

45) “I’m brand loyal, but the brand doesn’t matter” - Caitie Miller, on why she doesn’t like generic peanut butter

46) “NOBODY shitposts Gene Hackman!!” - Mark Dehlinger

47) “When a man concludes that any stick is good enough to beat his foe with—that is when he picks up a boomerang.” - G.K. Chesterton

48) “You can be appalled forever, but shocked only once.” - Jeff Weiss, on early Eminem

49) “Whether I’m pessimistic or optimistic, the fight’s the same” - David Simon

50) “Freedom can never be completely won, but it can be lost.” - Bernard Simon

51) “Racism in America is like dust in the air. It seems invisible — even if you’re choking on it — until you let the sun in. Then you see it’s everywhere. As long as we keep shining that light, we have a chance of cleaning it wherever it lands.” -Kareem Abdul Jabbar

52) “In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist -- we must be anti-racist.” - Angela Davis

53) “Start as close to the end as possible” - Kurt Vonnegut, on creative writing

54) “You can’t stay woke all the time — that’s insomnia.” - Dr. Cornel West

55) “No, I get it. I’ve dated a lot of Geminis.”

56) “The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” - John Krakauer, Into The Wild (via Tyler Keller)

57) "I couldn't show them my For You because it's pretty much just lesbian stuff and depression memes" - Maggie Loesch, on showing TikTok to her coworkers

58) "It's 1 a.m. in Slovakia and I've already had one bottle of wine and I don't know how long this press conference will go, so good luck to me." - Marian Hossa, following his NHL Hall of Fame announcement

59) “All I want in life is to go on an Anguilla group trip” - Mandy Gilkes

60) “You miss old friends when you don’t see them, but you miss them more when you do.” - Chuck Klosterman

61) “The only way to appreciate the present is to pretend it’s already the past.” - Chuck Klosterman

62) Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth, oh, never mind You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth Until they've faded, but trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back At photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now How much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked

(”Everybody's Free [To Wear Sunscreen]”)

Second time that essay’s been quoted on this list.

64) "I mean, it's just human nature to suck up to the people above you, crap on those beneath you, and undercut your equals” - Brian, Family Guy

65) “You never quit a job. You quit a manager.” - Brian Bedford

66) “All the pictures in my house are of people I’m not friends with” - Tracy Cunningham

67) “In order to leave something behind, you have to leave.” - Dr. Herman, Grey’s Anatomy

68) 

(via Twitter)

69) “You can obsess about death if you don’t have to obsess about dying.” - Brendan Kelly via “White Noise”

70) “If it’s right to do, it’s wrong to wait.” - Andy, doorman 

71)

72) “When I'm sometimes asked when will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court] and I say, 'When there are nine,' people are shocked. But there'd been nine men, and nobody's ever raised a question about that.” - Ruth Bader Ginsburg

73) "America is mostly people who’ve never left their state saying we have the best country in the world." - Billy Wayne Davis

74) “A writer is someone who knows at least 80% of their writing sucks.” - Gabe Hudson

75) 

(via Twitter)

76) “You’re dead twice” - Brendan Kelly

77) “Perfect is the enemy of good” - Voltaire (via Zach Lowe)

78) “I don’t want to be a savior, I want to be a mirror.” - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

79) “I get bad Twitter FOMO but not real life FOMO. That just goes to show I need to get off the Internet.” - Josh Thomas

80) “Is there anything you love in life that you engage with seriously that you don't also engage with humor?" - Sam Sutherland, on his relationship with Blink-182

81) “My favorite genre of music is my friends' bands" - Josiah Hughes

82) “Let’s fall in love like both our parents aren’t divorced.”

83) “Seabiscuit may be the only earthling that was on both sides of the stamp.” - Brendan Kelly

84) “There’s no shame in coming in second, except in, like, wars.” - Family Guy

85) “I feel like I experience writer’s block 100% of the time, and when I do write, I have impostor syndrome.” - Phoebe Bridgers

86) “We teach based on what we most need to learn.” - psychologist on Grey’s Anatomy

87) “Having too many choices is the leading cause of stress” - Grey’s Anatomy

88) “I think we've all gravely underestimated the extent to which this year has changed all of us, permanently” - Kelli Maria Korducki

89) 

(via Twitter)

90) “I wonder if people understand why they don’t have polio” - Sandra E. Garcia

91) “Ending songs is terrible, so let’s keep singing” - Dave Hernandez

[arcticdementor]

In Chapter 5 of The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli describes three options for how a conquering power might best treat those it has defeated in war. The first is to ruin them; the second is to rule directly; the third is to create “therein a state of the few which might keep it friendly to you.”

The example Machiavelli gives of the last is the friendly government Sparta established in Athens upon defeating it after 27 years of war in 404 BCE. For the upper caste of an Athenian elite already contemptuous of democracy, the city’s defeat in the Peloponnesian War confirmed that Sparta’s system was preferable. It was a high-spirited military aristocracy ruling over a permanent servant class, the helots, who were periodically slaughtered to condition them to accept their subhuman status. Athenian democracy by contrast gave too much power to the low-born. The pro-Sparta oligarchy used their patrons’ victory to undo the rights of citizens, and settle scores with their domestic rivals, exiling and executing them and confiscating their wealth.

The Athenian government disloyal to Athens’ laws and contemptuous of its traditions was known as the Thirty Tyrants, and understanding its role and function helps explain what is happening in America today.

For my last column I spoke with The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman about an article he wrote more than a decade ago, during the first year of Barack Obama’s presidency. His important piece documents the exact moment when the American elite decided that democracy wasn’t working for them. Blaming the Republican Party for preventing them from running roughshod over the American public, they migrated to the Democratic Party in the hopes of strengthening the relationships that were making them rich.

A trade consultant told Friedman: “The need to compete in a globalized world has forced the meritocracy, the multinational corporate manager, the Eastern financier and the technology entrepreneur to reconsider what the Republican Party has to offer. In principle, they have left the party, leaving behind not a pragmatic coalition but a group of ideological naysayers.”

In the more than 10 years since Friedman’s column was published, the disenchanted elite that the Times columnist identified has further impoverished American workers while enriching themselves. The one-word motto they came to live by was globalism—that is, the freedom to structure commercial relationships and social enterprises without reference to the well-being of the particular society in which they happened to make their livings and raise their children.

Undergirding the globalist enterprise was China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001. For decades, American policymakers and the corporate class said they saw China as a rival, but the elite that Friedman described saw enlightened Chinese autocracy as a friend and even as a model—which was not surprising, given that the Chinese Communist Party became their source of power, wealth, and prestige. Why did they trade with an authoritarian regime and send millions of American manufacturing jobs off to China thereby impoverish working Americans? Because it made them rich. They salved their consciences by telling themselves they had no choice but to deal with China: It was big, productive, and efficient and its rise was inevitable. And besides, the American workers hurt by the deal deserved to be punished—who could defend a class of reactionary and racist ideological naysayers standing in the way of what was best for progress?

…

A decade ago, no one would’ve put NBA superstar LeBron James and Apple CEO Tim Cook in the same family album, but here they are now, linked by their fantastic wealth owing to cheap Chinese manufacturing (Nike sneakers, iPhones, etc.) and a growing Chinese consumer market. The NBA’s $1.5 billion contract with digital service provider Tencent made the Chinese firm the league’s biggest partner outside America. In gratitude, these two-way ambassadors shared the wisdom of the Chinese Communist Party with their ignorant countrymen. After an an NBA executive tweeted in defense of Hong Kong dissidents, social justice activist King LeBron told Americans to watch their tongues. “Even though yes, we do have freedom of speech,” said James, “it can be a lot of negative that comes with it.”

Because of Trump’s pressure on the Americans who benefited extravagantly from the U.S.-China relationship, these strange bedfellows acquired what Marxists call class consciousness—and joined together to fight back, further cementing their relationships with their Chinese patrons. United now, these disparate American institutions lost any sense of circumspection or shame about cashing checks from the Chinese Communist Party, no matter what horrors the CCP visited on the prisoners of its slave labor camps and no matter what threat China’s spy services and the People’s Liberation Army might pose to national security. Think tanks and research institutions like the Atlantic Council, the Center for American Progress, the EastWest Institute, the Carter Center, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and others gorged themselves on Chinese money. The world-famous Brookings Institution had no scruples about publishing a report funded by Chinese telecom company Huawei that praised Huawei technology.

…

But if Donald Trump saw decoupling the United States from China as a way to dismantle the oligarchy that hated him and sent American jobs abroad, he couldn’t follow through on the vision. After correctly identifying the sources of corruption in our elite, the reasons for the impoverishment of the middle classes, and the threats foreign and domestic to our peace, he failed to staff and prepare to win the war he asked Americans to elect him to fight.

And because it was true that China was the source of the China Class’ power, the novel coronavirus coming out of Wuhan became the platform for its coup de grace. So Americans became prey to an anti-democratic elite that used the coronavirus to demoralize them; lay waste to small businesses; leave them vulnerable to rioters who are free to steal, burn, and kill; keep their children from school and the dying from the last embrace of their loved ones; and desecrate American history, culture, and society; and defame the country as systemically racist in order to furnish the predicate for why ordinary Americans in fact deserved the hell that the elite’s private and public sector proxies had already prepared for them.

For nearly a year, American officials have purposefully laid waste to our economy and society for the sole purpose of arrogating more power to themselves while the Chinese economy has gained on America’s. China’s lockdowns had nothing to do with the difference in outcomes. Lockdowns are not public health measures to reduce the spread of a virus. They are political instruments, which is why Democratic Party officials who put their constituents under repeated lengthy lockdowns, like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, are signaling publicly that it is imperative they be allowed to reopen immediately now that Trump is safely gone.

That Democratic officials intentionally destroyed lives and ended thousands of them by sending the ill to infect the elderly in nursing homes is irrelevant to America’s version of the Thirty Tyrants. The job was to boost coronavirus casualties in order to defeat Trump and they succeeded. As with Athens’ anti-democratic faction, America’s best and brightest long ago lost its way. At the head of the Thirty Tyrants was Critias, one of Socrates’ best students, a poet and dramatist. He may have helped save Socrates from the regime’s wrath, and yet the philosopher appears to have regretted that his method, to question everything, fed Critias’ sweeping disdain for tradition. Once in power, Critias turned his nihilism on Athens and destroyed the city.

…

The chief publicist of the post-Cold War order was Francis Fukuyama, who in his 1992 book The End of History argued that with the fall of the Berlin Wall Western liberal democracy represented the final form of government. What Fukuyama got wrong after the fall of the Berlin Wall wasn’t his assessment of the strength of political forms; rather it was the depth of his philosophical model. He believed that with the end of the nearly half-century-long superpower standoff, the historical dialectic pitting conflicting political models against each other had been resolved. In fact, the dialectic just took another turn.

Just after defeating communism in the Soviet Union, America breathed new life into the communist party that survived. And instead of Western democratic principles transforming the CCP, the American establishment acquired a taste for Eastern techno-autocracy. Tech became the anchor of the U.S.-China relationship, with CCP funding driving Silicon Valley startups, thanks largely to the efforts of Dianne Feinstein, who, after Kissinger, became the second-most influential official driving the U.S.-CCP relationship for the next 20 years.

…

Nearly every major American industry has a stake in China. From Wall Street—Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley— to hospitality. A Marriott Hotel employee was fired when Chinese officials objected to his liking a tweet about Tibet. They all learned to play by CCP rules.

“It’s so pervasive, it’s better to ask who’s not tied into China,” says former Trump administration official Gen. (Ret.) Robert Spalding.

Unsurprisingly, the once-reliably Republican U.S. Chamber of Commerce was in the forefront of opposition to Trump’s China policies—against not only proposed tariffs but also his call for American companies to start moving critical supply chains elsewhere, even in the wake of a pandemic. The National Defense Industrial Association recently complained of a law forbidding defense contractors from using certain Chinese technologies. “Just about all contractors doing work with the federal government,” said a spokesman for the trade group, “would have to stop.”

…

Apple, Nike, and Coca Cola even lobbied against the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. On Trump’s penultimate day in office, his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States has “determined that the People’s Republic of China is committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, China, targeting Uyghur Muslims and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups.” That makes a number of major American brands that use forced Uyghur labor—including, according to a 2020 Australian study, Nike, Adidas, Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and General Motors—complicit in genocide.

The idea that countries that scorn basic human and democratic rights should not be directly funded by American industry and given privileged access to the fruits of U.S. government-funded research and technology that properly belongs to the American people is hardly a partisan idea—and has, or should have, little to do with Donald Trump. But the historical record will show that the melding of the American and Chinese elites reached its apogee during Trump’s administration, as the president made himself a focal point for the China Class, which had adopted the Democratic Party as its main political vehicle. That’s not to say establishment Republicans are cut out of the pro-China oligarchy—Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell’s shipbuilder billionaire father-in-law James Chao has benefited greatly from his relationship with the CCP, including college classmate Jiang Zemin. Gifts from the Chao family have catapulted McConnell to only a few slots below Feinstein in the list of wealthiest senators.

Riding the media tsunami of Trump hatred, the China Class cemented its power within state institutions and security bureaucracies that have long been Democratic preserves—and whose salary-class inhabitants were eager not to be labeled as “collaborators” with the president they ostensibly served. Accommodation with even the worst and most threatening aspects of the Chinese communist regime, ongoing since the late 1990s, was put on fast-forward. Talk about how Nike made its sneakers in Chinese slave labor camps was no longer fashionable. News that China was stealing American scientific and military secrets, running large spy rings in Silicon Valley and compromising congressmen like Eric Swalwell, paying large retainers to top Ivy League professors in a well-organized program of intellectual theft, or in any way posed a danger to its own people or to its neighbors, let alone to the American way of life, were muted and dismissed as pro-Trump propaganda.

…

There is a good reason why lockdowns—quarantining those who are not sick—had never been previously employed as a public health measure. The leading members of a city, state, or nation do not imprison its own unless they mean to signal that they are imposing collective punishment on the population at large. It had never been used before as a public health measure because it is a widely recognized instrument of political repression.

…

China had cultivated many friends in the American press, which is why the media relays Chinese government statistics with a straight face—for instance that China, four times the size of the United States, has suffered 1/100th the number of COVID-19 fatalities. But the key fact is this: In legitimizing CCP narratives, the media covers not primarily for China but for the American class that draws its power, wealth, and prestige from China. No, Beijing isn’t the bad guy here—it’s a responsible international stakeholder. In fact, we should follow China’s lead. And by March, with Trump’s initial acquiescence, American officials imposed the same repressive measures on Americans used by dictatorial powers throughout history to silence their own people.

Eventually, the pro-China oligarchy would come to see the full range of benefits the lockdowns afforded. Lockdowns made leading oligarchs richer—$85 billion richer in the case of Bezos alone—while impoverishing Trump’s small-business base. In imposing unconstitutional regulations by fiat, city and state authorities normalized autocracy. And not least, lockdowns gave the American establishment a plausible reason to give its chosen candidate the nomination after barely one-third of the delegates had chosen, and then keep him stashed away in his basement for the duration of the Presidential campaign. And yet in a sense, Joe Biden really did represent a return to normalcy in the decadeslong course of U.S.-China relations.

…

What seems clear is that Biden’s inauguration marks the hegemony of an American oligarchy that sees its relationship with China as a shield and sword against their own countrymen. Like Athens’ Thirty Tyrants, they are not simply contemptuous of a political system that recognizes the natural rights of all its citizens that are endowed by our creator; they despise in particular the notion that those they rule have the same rights they do. Witness their newfound respect for the idea that speech should only be free for the enlightened few who know how to use it properly. Like Critias and the pro-Sparta faction, the new American oligarchy believes that democracy’s failures are proof of their own exclusive right to power—and they are happy to rule in partnership with a foreign power that will help them destroy their own countrymen.

What does history teach us about this moment? The bad news is that the Thirty Tyrants exiled notable Athenian democrats and confiscated their property while murdering an estimated 5% of the Athenian population. The good news is that their rule lasted less than a year.

[massielandnetwork]

Important Economic Trends During Anarchy

2021 – Let the Games Begin

14. A Christian Secession – Poetic Justice equals Reality Checks

News broke this week that the General Counsel of Coca-Cola resigned abruptly last week over his aggressive championing of the Critical Race Theory. I guess the fizz went out of Coke and they decided they did not want to “Go Woke and Go Broke”. Poetic Justice?

China’s Wuhan Virus vaccine reportedly has an effective rate of 40% or less and fewer than one-third of Chinese have had even one shot of that two-shot vaccine. India is suffering an enormous increase in Wuhan Virus infections which multiple “variants” creating havoc. Some analysts are combining those facts and forecasting that China may be in for a Pandemic crisis since those two countries share a common border. Another case of Poetic Justice?

The U. S. Chamber of Commerce is dominated by large U. S. Corporations. Haters of Trump, in the November 2020 election the U. S. Chamber of Commerce backed many Congressional Democrats and Biden. Biden’s $6 Trillion proposed bills mostly wasteful spending unless you are part of the Democratic Party entourage. To pay for these monstrosities, Biden and gang want to raise taxes on …drum roll please …big businesses (and others). Poetic Justice – yessir.

Also, in the tax crosshairs are anyone that owns any asset such as a home, stock, farm, or business. Not only do the Demented Marxists (DM) want to raise capital gains taxes, but the DMs also want to reduce the estate tax exclusion down to $1M per person. That combination will significantly diminish investment activity and reduce future job growth by punishing anyone who works hard, builds a business, and invests their money. Another reality check full of pain.

If Biden and his merry band of DMs succeed in passing these proposals, it will take decades for the U. S. economy to recover AFTER this stupidity is reversed. If it is ever reversed. Marxism or Socialism has NEVER succeeded. Only an idiot would claim China is an economic success because reality is that China is a debt fueled, economic house of cards.

Do not believe the Democratic propaganda machine about Biden’s ratings. The unreported facts are:

1. Biden’s speech before Congress was viewed by so few folks it makes the NBA’s viewership look superb.

2. Senator Tm Scott’s speech was phenomenal and obviously on target because the DM’s went ballistic to the point that Biden was forced to state the next day that Americans are not racist. Meanwhile his administration continues to push the Critical Race Theory (CRT) which says all whites are bad because they are racists.

3. Idaho became the first state to ban CRT from being taught in its schools. At least four more states have followed suit. Where is Virginia’s government on CRT? – Oh, stupid me, we are controlled by DMs.

4. Five white farmers in Wisconsin have filed suit claiming discrimination over Biden’s proposal to forgive the USDA debt of black farmers.

Here are some critical economic events.

1. Due to the stimulus already in the economy, economic growth has surged to a level almost equivalent to where the USA economy was in January of 2020. That is the good news.

2. The bad news is that economic growth is being retarded by those stimulus programs that made unemployment provide folks a higher income than if they were working. So, workers are staying home and enjoying the government/taxpayer money. Pay people NOT to work and they do not work. Somehow the DM’s have a hard time grasping that equation.

3. Because of the shortage of workers, employers are raising wages and offering bonuses. Great for the employees. Also, a source of inflationary pressure.

4. Supply chains are distorted because of perceived shortages which encourages buyers to buy extra to their actual needs which in turn exacerbates the shortage because producers cannot keep up with the surging demand. Think toilet paper a year ago. Computer chips are a recent example. Auto manufacturers are having to shut down plant because why cannot get the computer chips they need.

5. I hope you belly laughed like I did when Biden talked about the government getting into the production of computer chips. The government is doing such a great job with the Postal Service and applying the same techniques to our medical care, solar power that I hope we dodge the bullet of the government fouling up the computer chip industry.

Compared to Trump who actually solved problems rather than just talking about them being problems, the contrast with the politicians in Richmond or DC is stark. DM politicians just want to get paid for talking about a problem, scoring rhetorical points, and have a fund raiser about the problem, but they never solve the problem. The focus is all about money, how much is theirs.

Keep watching the activity about the fraudulent election last November.

a. The Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the Michigan Secretary of State exceeded her authority when she approved a variety of changes to the state’s election laws. Was the “certified” election in Michigan a fraud? YES.

b. The Arizona legislature authorized recount of 2.1 Million votes in Maricopa County, Arizona is rolling despite the DMs attempt to prevent it.

c. It is fun watching the DMs oppose audits in Wisconsin and Georgia. Odd behavior if there is nothing to hide.

d. Lawsuits have been filed and counter filed by Mike Lindell, Sidney Powell, and Dominion (the voting machine company). Stay tuned, much more to come.

114 days into the DMs’ coup (it is the longest 114 days EVER), here are some quick observations of recent events that will impact our economic future:

1. Financial analysts are beginning to evaluate when The Fed starts reducing their Quantitative Easing (QE). Last week two camps began to evolve – one expecting the reduction in QE to start in June and the other estimating in October of this year. The significance is that a reduction in QE will mean higher interest rates. Higher interest rates mean a slower real estate market and ultimately lower real estate prices.

2. Watch the 10-year Treasury which fluctuated back to 1.70%. Without QE, interest rates would be higher. Various sources estimate that by the end of 2021 the 10-year Treasury will be 2.5% to 3.0% and mortgage rates will increase to 4.0% to 4.5%.

3. The down stock market on Tuesday, May 4, was the result of Janet Yellen commenting that the robust USA economy might cause The Fed to allow interest rates to rise sooner than official Fed statements. The stock market recovered when she “clarified” her statement. BUBBLE ALERT !!!

4. When bubbles burst, shortage becomes surplus overnight.

Unsustainable things continue until that unpredictable moment when they stop. In a financial crisis “Cash is King”. Get prepared.

A great piece of land remains The Best investment long term unless the DMs get us to full-fledged Marxism. Capitalism builds wealth, Marxism/Socialism consumes it in self destruction. Pray for a return to honest elections in the USA. God is in control. Men make plans, but God ALWAYS wins.

“For it is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish.”

(1 Peter 2:15) New Revised Standard Version, Oxford University Press)

Stay healthy,

Ned

May 5, 2021

Copyright Massie Land Network. All rights Reserved.

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior Is Back!!! Raya and the Last Dragon, Chaos Walking and More

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior!

This is probably going to be a little different from any of my previous columns, because New York City theaters reopen on Friday, and I swore that once they do, I would be writing about box office again. But this will also essentially be a previous column, so it will include reviews, it will include festivals and repertory series, and basically, whatever the hell I want to write about.

But let’s be realistic here. While there are a lot of movie theaters in New York City, not all of them will open, and they’ll all still have a capacity ceiling at 25% or 50 people in the larger theaters. Many of the larger multiplexes like AMC will be able to show films on two, three or more screenings to be able to make up for the limited capacity, but smaller theaters and those who have been doing well with the virtual cinema may remain closed. I know that the Angelika will be reopening to show some of the indies that haven’t had a theatrical release in NYC yet like Minari, and the IFC Center is reopening but with insanely strict protocols. (Don’t you DARE take off your mask even if you’re watching a three-hour movie! The good news is that they’re showing a lot of great movies on reopening including a comedy series that includes a number of Lynn Shelton movies.)

There’s also the issue of New Yorkers who are still petrified of being out in public, even those who have already been vaccinated and are possibly spending time in congregate settings that are just as likely to cause COVID spread than movie theaters. (I’m not gonna go on a rant about the egotistical and elitist film critics and journalists who have been ranting about movie theaters reopening for the past six months – for some reason, they think they’re as important as essential workers. Guess what, NAME REDACTED, you’re not.)

The big release of the weekend is the Disney animated movie RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON, which will hit probably around 2,400 theaters on Friday as well as be available for a premium on Disney+. I honestly don’t know a ton about this premium streaming release, but this is the second one after last year’s Mulan, which came out (better sit down for this) six months ago!

This magical fantasy adventure centers around Raya (a teen girl voiced by Kelly Marie Tran), who is trying to save her world that has been relegated to dust by the destruction of a valuable magical gem that contains destructive spirits imprisoned there by the legendary dragons. When Raya finds the last dragon, Sihsu (voiced by Awkwafina), the two of them must travel across the land collecting the separated pieces of the gem to reassemble them and restore their world.  Raya is thwarted along the way by her arch-nemesis Namaari (Gemma Chan) who wants to reunite the gem pieces to help her own city of Fang.

(Raya is preceded by the animated short Us Again, which is a nice wordless short about a cranky old man who reflects back on his younger days dancing with his wife. It’s okay, nothing particularly memorable.)

Raya and the Last Dragon, on the other hand, is pretty wonderful, a mix of action, adventure, magic and humor, directed by Don Hall (Big Hero Six) and Carlos Lopez Estrada (Blindspotting) in a way that blends those disparate elements in fun ways. I’ll freely admit that I was a little worried that Akwafina’s schtick was going to annoy me, but after a while her wise-cracking dragon grows on you. In fact there are actually so many other funny characters to add to the laughs that the more brought in the mix on Raya and Sihsu’s journey, the more enjoyable the film gets.

One of the reasons the film works as well as it does is that unlike last year’s Onward, it wasn’t just the two characters and what they had to offer but how their situation changes as it goes along and they visit different cities. I was pretty surprised by how well the film keeps you entertained and invested in the journey.

I also absolutely loved the score by Thomas Newton Howard, which may be even better than his score for News of the World, which I honestly think he’ll get another Oscar nomination for. This is a film that explores all sorts of emotions as well as its Southeast Asian myths, so I feel that I was always going to be a complete and total patsy for this movie since it combines a lot of things I like such as fantasy and Asian mythology. In that sense, Raya is also a nice companion to the recent Mulan, which made my Top 10 last year, but sadly never even got a nominal theatrical release.

So let’s talk about box office, something I haven’t done in almost a year. Last weekend, Warner Bros’ Tom and Jerry had a fairly spectacular opening of $13.7 million. Raya is the first new wide release Disney movie since Pixar’s Onward literally a year ago. That ended up opening to $39 million in 4,310 theaters but only grossed $61.5 million domestic after its legs were cut short by COVID one week later. Raya will likely open in about 2,500 theaters by comparison and that’s with limited capacity for safety, but it should fare decently against the second weekend of Tom & Jerry, and I could easily see it bringing in $15 million or even as much as $18 million, but again, we’re in the baby steps part of the reopening, and things are going to start slowly and keep building as the vaccine continues rolling out.

Being released theatrically by Lionsgate this Friday is CHAOS WALKING, the adaptation of Patrick Ness’ future-set young adult novel The Knife of Never Letting Go, which stars Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley. Holland plays Todd Hewitt, a young man living in a world with no women where men’s thoughts can be perceived by everyone around them. One day, he discovers a mysterious girl named Viola (Ridley), when she crash lands on this planet but her very presence puts Viola’s life in danger, so Todd agrees to accompany her to find her own people.

Yeah, where do I even begin with the latest film from director Doug Liman that was probably filmed two or three years ago and was being delayed even before COVID came along? That’s already a bad sign, but when see how “The Noise,” the way that we hear all of characters’ thinking emerges, it immediately feels like it’s gonna be a problem. Sure enough, it’s such an awkward plot device to watch smoke billowing from the heads of the various characters as we hear their thoughts that it takes most of the movie to get used to it, and yet, it’s still so comically inept a concept that you can’t help but laugh when Holland continually rants, “My Name is Todd Hewitt,” over and over to keep Ridley’s Viola to hear his pubescent teen boy thoughts on experiencing his first girl.

The thing is that the scenes with just Holland and Ridley aren’t bad, but when you have a movie with actors like Mads Mikkelsen, David Oyelowo, Demian Bechir and Cynthia Erivo, it’s disappointing that they can’t elevate the movie above anything other than the most obvious sci-fi (and Western) pastiches. Mikkelsen is the town mayor who is so obviously another bad guy, that he doesn’t bother to put too much into his performance cause we’ve seen him do it so many times before.

Liman is more than a competent filmmaker but he clearly is unaware of how watching clouds pool around the heads of characters as we hear and see their thoughts become material, and even the introduction of the particularly silly-looking aliens – called, get this, the “Spackle” -- makes you forget that this is a sci-fi film from the director of Edge of Tomorrow (or whatever it ended up being called). It’s not even particularly surprising when we find out what really happened to the women in Todd’s community.

I have a feeling that the problems within Chaos Walking come straight from the Patrick Ness source material and the fact that he decided to adapt it himself may have made him tone-deaf to how hard it is to make the film’s central premise work without eliciting guffaws even from the most dedicated or devout fans.

This is also opening in IMAX theaters this weekend, and when it comes to New York, that might be the ideal way to see it (if you so choose) since it’s generally bigger theaters with a maximum of fifty people. Honestly, I don’t think Chaos Walking will make more than $5 million this weekend even in what should be over 2,000 theaters and with the presumed star power of Holland and Ripley from their franchise work. This could be seen as counter-programming from the animated movie, although any teens ready to go back to the movies might stick with Raya as well. Honestly, how this didn’t end up getting dumped to streaming compared to some of this weekend’s better movies is beyond me.

Offering a bit of indie counterprogramming for the two (relatively) big studio movies is Eddie Huang’s BOOGIE, the directorial debut of the Fresh Off the Boat producer, being released by Focus Features into who knows how many theaters? (1,000 or less, I’d Imagine.) It’s a coming-of-age movie starring Taylor Takahashi as Alfred “Boogie” Chin, a Queens high school basketball ace who dreams of one day playing in the NBA but whose temper gets him in trouble with the scouts for college where he’s hoping to get a scholarship.

I was kind of looking forward to this one, because I generally enjoy Fresh Off the Boat, and I’m interested in what stories Huang has to offer as a filmmaker. The film has its merits but it’s not necessarily Takahashi, who isn’t strong enough to really keep the viewer’s interest.

On the other hand, Huang was wise to cast the amazing Taylour Paige (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) as Boogie’s love interest and even better than both is Pamelyn Chee as Boogie’s “Tiger Mom” mother who is sugary sweet when it comes to wooing possible recruiters but also is a complete nightmare to his ex-con father (Perry Yung).

Thinking back on the movie, I definitely didn’t hate it as there were character relations and dynamics I enjoyed, but not all of it clicked with me, and it’s hard to imagine this one connecting with audiences as well as some of the other movies out this week, unless you’re into college hoops, which I am not.

As far as box office, I’m not sure this will be in more than 1,250 theaters (if even that) and even if it plays in New York City (where it would normally find its biggest audience), I just don’t think there’s much awareness for the movie out there. In fact, I see it only playing in one movie theaters in NYC, and that’s way up in Harlem, presumably hoping to get the street ball fans, but I’m not so sure too many up there will be interested in an Asian-American story, so honestly, I don’t think this will make more than $500,000 or $600,000 tops.

Besides the reopening of movie theaters, the other big excitement this week is the launch of Paramount+, the relaunch, spin-off, rebranding of CBS All Access that I had also been considering checking out. It will launch on Thursday, March 4, with the animated family movie THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE ON THE RUN, which was supposed to be released by Paramount Pictures last year and did get a bit of a theatrical release in Canada while theaters were open there last year. This one involves SpongeBob and his buddy Patrick trying to retrieve SpongeBob’s beloved pet snail Gary, who has gone missing.

I generally enjoyed the first to SpongeBob movies, even though I never watched the show, and the regular creators and voice actors always seem to step up their game in terms of the wackiness whenever they’re given a chance to bring the lunacy to the big screen. In this case, it comes in the form of some of the guests including Snoop Dog and Danny Trejo in an odd Western section complete with musical number or Keanu Reeves introduced in the same section as a tumbleweed named Sage. (Oddly, this also features Awkwafina providing the voice of a robot, and I kind of liked her in more of a subdued role like this.) Although SpongeBob and his friends are CG animated, the movie doesn’t try too hard to integrate the live action in as fluid a way as last week’s Tom and Jerry – live actors just kind of show up – but it’s still pretty darn entertaining to watch another movie in which everyone involved, including director Tim Hill (who shockingly directed last year’s awful The War with Grandpa!), just going about making the movie as crazy and wacky as possible, something that should appeal to kids and… THC-laced adults (preferably not those watching with kids) … to get an overall enjoyable experience. Maybe it’s no surprise that I was particularly tickled with SpongeBob and Patrick’s adventures in Las Vegas.

Along with that, the streamer will have a new animated series called KAMP KORAL: SPONGEBOB’S UNDER YEARS, which is a CG-animated series that focuses on SpongeBob and friends when they were younger, which actually is one of the funnier bits in the movie as well.

There’s a lot of great stuff coming to Paramount+ that should make it a real player in the streaming world, and that includes all of the Paramount movies that will be streaming on it, both those that are getting a theatrical release this year and the studio’s absolutely vast library over the past 100 or so years.

And that’s not all! This weekend also sees the release of the sequel thirty years in the making, COMING 2 AMERICA, which will launch on Amazon Prime Video on Friday (after being sold to the streamer by Paramount, oddly), so yeah, there’s plenty of options to keep people home this weekend even with theaters reopening.

Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall are back as Prince (now King) Akeem of Zamunda and his trusty aide Semmi, and in fact, almost every character and actor from the movie has returned, as the duo return to America to find Akeem’s illegitimate son Lavelle (Jermayne Fowler) in queens, hoping to teach him the Zamundan way so he can take over as King after him.  Unfortunately, Lavelle is joined in Zamunda with his family which includes mother Leslie Jones and uncle Tracy Jordan.

Unfortunately, reviews are embargoed until Thursday, so I’m not sure I’ll get to review this one, but I did like the movie, more than I thought because my rewatch of the original 1989 movie led me to believe there was a good reason I hadn’t watched it in over thirty years. The sequel offers a lot of originality and humor in the forms of Leslie Jones and Tracy Jordan, but that’s all I’ll say about it for now.

Incidentally, you can check out an interview I did with director Craig Brewer over at Below the Line AND I also talked to the film’s make-up team, and after you see the movie, you’ll understand why I’m holding it until after people have seen the movie.

Another movie that would probably have gotten a theatrical release but now will be seen on Hulu is the Joe Carnahan-directed BOSS LEVEL, reteaming him with long-time collaborator Frank Grillo as a man who cannot die, because he’s living in a single day that’s being repeated over and over as he takes on a series of assassins sent to kill him.

This as a really fun action-comedy that never lets down in terms of either half of that genre, and it’s kinda groovy to see Mel Gibson playing a fairly key role since he became the master of that action genre with the Lethal Weapon movies.  But this really is Frank Grillo’s show as a leading man, and while I can understand some thinking him not having enough charisma for that sort of thing, I respectfully disagree.

We get into this high-concept premise pretty quickly as we watch his character, Roy Pulver, take on a string of assassins for his over 100th attempt to do so, and as per the title, it is a lot like a video game where Roy has to defeat all of the assassins on his way to the big boss, Gibson’s The Colonel. Apparently, Roy’s wife Gemma (Naomi Watts) has been killed by the Colonel or his thug (Will Sasso) so Roy is now on a quest for revenge. But first he has to survive the onslaught of killers, all of whom he’s given cute nicknames.

Easily my favorite of the killers is Selina Lo’s Guan Yin, a feisty swordswoman who proves to be the most formidable opponent for Roy. I won’t say how he bests her, but it does involve Michelle Yeoh, who has such a strange nothing appearance in one section of the movie, you wonder what she’s doing there. In fact, the movie does hit a slight lull after the initial concept is introduced, but it

Listen, I’ve long been a fan of Carnahan’s dark sense of humor and to some, it might seem mini-spirited, to me it harks back to one of my favorite movies he directed, Smokin’ Aces, a similar movie with a crazy ensemble cast, though maybe a slightly smaller budget. Still, Carnahan is a terrific action director, which makes this one of the stronger action movies in a while, and he finds a way to take a fairly simple premise and make it bigger in that Roy’s dilemma turns into something where he has to save the world, but also something more emotional and personal as he tries to bond with his son before said world ends. I guess in many ways, it’s hard to put into words what makes Boss Level so special, but I can only hope that Ryan Reynold’s Free Guy is as good as this after being delayed so many times, because this will be a tough act to follow for sure.

Over at the Metrograph, still closed physically unfortunately, they’re doing a series this week called “David Fincher/Kirk Baxter” which looks at the relationship between the director and his frequent editor, showing a series of movies over the course of the week:  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network

The Metrograph has a lot of movies as part of its digital membership (just $5 a month) including Chloé Zhao’s very first film, Songs My Brother Taught Me, which was available to members through Wednesday night. (Sorry, I tweeted about it multiple times if you missed it.)

This week also launches the 26th annual “Rendezvous with French Cinema” up at Film at Lincoln Center, which was actually one of the LAST events to happen up there LAST year. This year, they’re keeping things safe by holding it virtually. It runs from March 4 through March 14, kicking off on Thursday with Sébastien Lifshitz’s Little Girl, which will be released by Music Box Films in the Fall. There’s a lot of fairly recent French films with an all-access pass available to rent all 18 films for $165. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen anything, so can’t really recommend anything but I’ll probably be checking out the free talk “How Music Makes the Film” on Monday, March 8.

Margaret Qualley (Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood) and Sigourney Weaver star in Philippe Falardeau’s MY SALINGER YEAR (IFC Films), based on Joanna Rakoff’s book. Set in New York of the ‘90s, Qualley plays Joanna, a grad school student who dreams of becoming a writer who gets hired as an assistant to literary agent Margaret (Weaver), whose biggest client is J.D. Salinger. Although Joanna’s role is more of a glorified secretary, she gets to go through Salinger’s fan mail from around the world, and she decides to start answering some of the letters to the author, an experience that helps her find her writers’ voice.

I wasn’t sure if this movie would be for me, but I find Qualley to be quite delightful, and this was a light film with a comedic tone from the Canadian filmmaker of the boxing movie, Chuck, and the Oscar-nominated Monsieur Lazhar. I enjoyed its look at the New York literary world of the 1990s, and it kept me quite invested even if I’m not particularly invested in Salinger’s work or an obsessive with The Catcher in the Rye as many are. Weaver is also fantastic as Joanna’s boss – think of a lighter version of Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada – and also enjoyed the tentative relationship between Joanna and her writer boyfriend Don, played by Douglas Booth.

Basically, Falardeau has created another generally wonderful and crowd-pleasing movie that sadly missed its opportunity at a festival run to build an audience after debuting at the Berlinale almost exactly a year ago. Presumably, this will open at the reopened IFC Center this weekend. (In fact, IFC Center released its reopening schedule and it’s a pretty cool mix of IFC Films movies from the past as well as some of the Netflix movies that weren’t released in NYC previously.)

Okay, let’s get to some other releases from the week, beginning with Ivan Kavanagh’s SON (RLJEfilms/Shudder), the latest film from the Irish director of The Canal, a fantastic horror film that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival about seven years back. In this one, Andi Matichak from Halloween plays a single mother whose son David (Luke David Blumm) suffers from all sorts of maladies but when she starts getting closer to a local detective (Emile Hirsch), he discovers that there’s a lot more to her past and to her son’s ailments.

Honestly, I do not want to say too much about the plot, because there are so many shocking surprises in the movie once you think you know where it’s going, although I will say that it has connections to films like The Lodge and shows like Servant, but it also does a good job fucking with the viewer’s head, so you never know what’s really happening and what might be in the characters’ heads.

I will say that the movie is very dark and quite disturbing with lots of gruesome gory sequences, but if you’re a fan of smart horror, you’ll want to check out Son. (I’ll have an interview with Kavanagh over at Below the Line next week.)

Sony Classics is finally releasing Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw’s doc THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS (Sony Classics), which has been playing on the virtual festival circuit all the way back to Sundance last year, so we’ll see how many people are left to see it. It’s set in the forests of Piedmont, Italy where a handful of 70-to-80-year-old men are on the hunt for the rare white Alba truffle, which has resisted all modern science to be cultivated.

For whatever reason, I procrastinated on watching this movie for most of last year, maybe because I’m not that big a fan of cinema verité docs, but this is infinitely entertaining between the various men featured – including a lot of real characters in there – and how the movie shows their close bond with their truffle-sniffing dogs. This is a genuinely enjoyable movie that I feel can appeal to a wide range of viewers, although be aware that is in Italian, so maybe one should consider that even with the cute dogs, this should probably be watched by teen or older rather than small kids. (I don’t remember anything particularly racy, but the movie is Rated PG-13.)

Staying in the dog realm, Magnolia Pictures is releasing Elizabeth Lo’s documentary STRAY on Friday, which documents the life of Zeytin, a stray dog living on the streets of Istanbul, and some of his dog frenemies. Actually, this was a pretty wonderful film that I quite enjoyed, although there were a few dog fight sequences that disturbed me a little bit.  But it’s a great look at Turkey through the eyes of some of the canines on the street, how they interact with the humans around them. Essentially, Stray is the dog version of Kedi, but I’ve seen other similar docs like this including Los Reyes – this one is just as strong as either of those movies, the images of all the beautiful dogs accompanied by gorgeous string music by Ali Helnwein that helps you understand the dogs’ complex emotions.  Seriously, if you like dogs, you can definitely do worse than the previous two movies mentioned. Stray is available via Virtual Cinema, including that of the Film Forum.

Filmmaker and EDM artist Quentin Dupieux (Rubber) is back with his latest, KEEP AN EYE OUT (Dekanalog), starring Belgian comedian Benoît Poelvoorde as police officer, Commissaire Buran, investigating a guy (Grégoire Ludig) who has discovered a dead body in a puddle of blood outside his apartment building. The prime suspect is then left alone with a one-eyed rookie, and if you’ve seen any of Dupieux’s other films, you’ll probably know to expect the unexpected as things get crazier and crazier. (I seem to remember seeing this last year at some festival, maybe FantasticFest, but I’ll have to watch again before remembering if this was one of Dupieux’s movies that I liked.)  This will be available in select theaters and also in virtual cinema this Friday. (Oddly Dupieux’s last movie, Deerskin, debuted at last year’s “Rendezvous with French Cinema” right before theaters shut down for a year, and I don’t want to be superstitious, but yeah, I’m worried.)

Barnaby Thompson’s Ireland-set crime thriller PIXIE (Saban/Paramount) stars Olivia Cooke (Sound of Metal) and Alec Baldwin with Cooke playing Pixie Hardy, a young woman who wants to avenge her mother’s death by pulling off a heist that will allow her to leave her small town. The crime goes wrong, and she’s forced to team up with a group of misfits including Baldwin’s Father McGrath.

Bradley Parker’s action-thriller THE DEVIL BELOW (Vertical) deals with a team of researchers who are investigating a series of underground coal mines in Appalachian country that have been on fire for decades where they discover a mystery. It’s getting a combined theatrical, VOD and digital release Friday.

Phil Sheerin’s directorial debut THE WINTER LAKE stars Emma Mackey (Sex Education) as Holly, a young woman with a secret that’s uncovered by her unstable neighbor Tom (Anson Boon from Blackbird) and the two of them are pulled into a confrontation with her father, who wants to keep the family secret buried. This will be in select theaters on Friday, On Demand on Tuesday, March 9 and then on DVD March 23.

Dylan McCormick’s SOMETIME OTHER THAN NOW (Gravitas Ventures) stars Donal Logue and Kate Walsh, Logue playing Sam who is stranded in a small New England town after his motorcycle crashes into the ocean seeking refuge at a run-down motel run by Walsh’s Kate, a similarly run-down and lost soul. When Sam learns that his estranged daughter Audrey, who he hasn’t seen in 25 years, lives in the town, he starts to learn more about why he ended up there.

Jacob Johnston’s DREAMCATCHER (Samuel Goldwyn) stars Travis Burns as Dylan aka DJ Dreamcatcher who meets up with two estranged sisters at the underground music film festival, Cataclysm, where they become entrenched in 48 hours of violence and mayhem after a drug-fueled event. Sounds delightful.

Some of the other VOD stuff hitting the ‘net this week include: 400 Bullets (Shout! Studios), Sophie Jones(Oscilloscope), Dementer (Dark Star PIctures), Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know (Giant Pictures)

That’s it for this week. Next week, theaters hopefully will remain open, and we’ll have some new movies to write about.

[smokeybrandreviews]

Lumens in the Land of Tomorrow

Epic Games released a tech demo for Unreal 5 running on legit PS5 hardware and i am stunned. This sh*t looks incredible. I’ve kept my ear to the ground about the next-gen tech and only a little information has muddled through so far. Sony dropped one of the most information laden, dry ass tech conferences ever and then showed us the PS5 controller a few days later. Microsoft did an entire non-conference about the neXtBox. I don’t care about Madden, i play NBA games and 2K for sure is cross platform because those motherf*ckers are mad greedy. I already saw the next Assassins Creed and even that motherf*cker is cross platform. All Master Chief’s crew gave us were a bunch of  pre-rendered nonsense. That sh*t was bunk, man.

Admittedly, I’m a Sony purist since PSOne. Resident Evil Director’s Cut piqued my interest, NBA Live 97 got me hands-on with the tech, and Final Fantasy IX sold me on the system. I was a PSShill for life after that. But i consider myself an open minded guy. If Xbox ever had a killer app like any of the PSOne era FF titles, i’d probably get one. Hell, i actually have an original Xbox strictly to play the KOTOR games, the DOA titles because those were the best of the series, and Panzer Dragoon Orta. I think i even had Sudeki, too, back in the day but that was more because it was getting penneyed out at Gamestop rather than my actually wanting to play it. That’s the caveat in all of this; Xbox has nothing i want to play. I don’t play shooters because i think they’re corny so Halo, COD, and Gears were never a thing to me. Literally every title that piqued my interest was cross platform so there was never a reason to buy another Xbox after the first. And then the many, MANY, tech issues those things have had. Holy sh*t, man. Going into that next-gen conference, Microsoft had to do a lot to win me over and they just didn’t. Sony, on the other hand, did right by me and then some.

Lumen in the Land of Nanite blew my f*cking mind, man. All of that tech jargon was legit, too, as i actually keep pace with the technology aspect of the systems but seeing what the PS5 could do in real-time, on real hardware, was f*cking incredible. This sh*t looked as good as early 10s, cinema CG. Like, this demo looked better than the sh*t they had in actual movies and it was rendered organically. That SSD is working, for real, and it makes for incredibly dynamic scenes. Graphics formed peaked way back in early PS3. You have to understand, the first system i ever played was a Colecovison at my grandma’s house. The first system i ever owned was an NES. I was raised on bits and blast processing. When we got to the PS2 era of titles, everything i imagined had been blown out the water. By the time the first hint of PS3 found their way into the gaming rags, i was euphoric. Everything after that has been an exercise in flex.

Watching Lumens, all i could think was how ridiculous this sh*t looks and we’re at the beginning of this generation. The best titles, the games that get the most out of the system, come toward the end. The Last of Us stressed the PS3 but, goddamn, was that thing gorgeous. Final Fantasy VII R pushes the PS4 to its limits and it is glorious. What the f*ck are games going to look like when it;s time for the handover at the end of this generation? What the f*ck are games going to look like when developers get a hang for the strengths and weaknesses of the new consoles? What can some ridiculously creative geniuses like Hideo Kojima or David Cage do with that tech? How rich are the worlds Bioware can construct using this hardware? What the f*ck does the world of Horizon look like on the PS5? What the f*ck does Mass Effect look like on these systems? What can Square Enix do in this absolutely lush, Sony Playground?

This demo made me pause and reflect. I actually thought back to where all of this began and marveled at how far we have come. I’m old enough to remember when Sonic the Hedgehog was the best looking games out in the wild. Now, a tech demo is destroying anything we’ve ever seen in gaming, and it’s not even an actual game. It’s just showing you what yo van do with an engine, built to create the actual games. Watching Lumens gave shades of Agi’s Prophecy. Just like my darling Agni’s sun drenched, flame infused, desert escape, Lumens hit me with the brilliant lit expanse of free-form dynamism. F*ck, man, imagine Agni’s world, running on this hardware. My goodness, i NEED that! Square, make that sh*t happen. Give Agni and her world that main line numbering. FF XVI, much? Tangent aside, what comes next, is only limited by imagination and, whatever shape it ends up taking, is going to be absolutely remarkable.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

FIVE QUESTIONS ABOUT LANGUAGE DESIGN AND BAD ECONOMY

But working on this is not a win, in the sense that your body is happier during a long run than sitting on a sofa eating doughnuts. And they have leverage in that their decisions set the whole company moving in one direction or another. One is that you shouldn't build object-oriented programming in too deeply. What good will more code do you when you're out of business. The larger a group, the closer its average member will be to the average for the population as a whole must be giving people something they want, the more different it gets. A physicist friend recently told me half his department was on Prozac.1 It was no coincidence that the great industrialists of the nineteenth century had so little formal education. Many startups go through a point a few months before they die where although they have a significant amount of money in one family's bank account, or the market wasn't ready yet, b the founders solved the wrong problem. Programming languages are how people talk to computers.

With server-based apps get released as a series of small changes. The ball you need to give someone a present and don't have any money, you don't usually have to invent anything.2 Life in a zoo is easier, but it could not have grown so big so fast. It's very dangerous to morale to start to depend on deals closing, not just because she's shy that she hates bragging. In Web-based software you can use any language you want, there is nothing in spam-of-the-envelope calculations, this one has a high average outcome. A company big enough to acquire startups will be big enough to acquire startups will be big enough to acquire startups will be big enough to acquire startups will be big enough to be fairly conservative, and within the company the people in the mailroom or the personnel department work at one remove from the actual making of stuff. I think you should make users the test, just as we can become smarter, just as a goalkeeper who prevents the other team from scoring is considered to have played a perfect game. Her immense data set and x-ray vision for character.3 And historically the number of new startups being founded in 2003.

For individuals the upshot is the same: aim small. A big company is probably getting a bad deal, because his performance is dragged down by the overall lower performance of the algorithm described in A Plan for Spam I hadn't had any, and I completely agree with him. I would really love to do, at least in our own minds, we have to remember that it's an admirable thing to write great programs, even when this work doesn't translate easily into the conventional intellectual currency of research papers. It could only spread to places that already had a vigorous middle class. A big company is like high fructose corn syrup, and hydrogenated vegetable oil.4 Though the immediate cause of death in a startup tends to be one. In practice, it seemed inevitable that I would eventually have to move from filtering based on single words to an approach like this. But it could be that a lot of new startups being founded in 2003. Near the top is the company run by techno-weenies who are obsessed with solving interesting technical problems, instead of making users happy.

As with the original industrial revolution, some societies are going to be hard to duplicate. Letters, digits, dashes, apostrophes, and dollar signs are constituent characters. Letters, digits, dashes, apostrophes, and dollar signs are constituent characters, and everything else is collapsing around you, having just ten users who love you will keep you going. Here are some of the effect of first class functions, you can be wise without being very wise, you can pick a time when you're not in the middle of Antarctica, where there is nothing in spam-of-the-future, because this is what I expect spam to evolve into: some completely neutral text followed by a url. But ambitious programmers are better off doing their own thing and failing than going to work at a big company, then a lot of maximally interesting tokens, meaning those with probabilities far from. It will always suck to work for some existing company. Ditto at the other end of the spectrum, we'd be the first to see signs of a separation between founders and investors in the Valley. In the earliest stages of a startup, of course.

Watching employees get transformed into founders makes it clear that the difference between the two. Jessica was so important to YC, why don't more people do it? Maybe it's because you haven't made what they want.5 75%. 88, just under the threshold of. That way we can avoid applying rules and standards to intelligence that are really meant for wisdom. Except instead of being at the mercy of investors. If anything, it's more like the small man of Confucius's day, always one bad harvest or ruler away from starvation. And the culture she defined was one of those that exploit an insecure cgi script to send mail to third parties. And yet if you analyzed the contents of the average grocery store you'd probably find these four ingredients accounted for most of the things they're doing is breaking up and misspelling words to prevent filters from recognizing them. For example, though the stock market crash does seem to have regarded wisdom, learning, and intelligence largely from cultivating them. We are all richer for knowing about penicillin, because we're less likely to die from infections.

With server-based. That last sentence is the fatal one.6 If you were dropped at a random point in America today, nearly all the food around you would be bad for you. I think the single biggest problem afflicting large companies is the difficulty of assigning a value to each person's work. If you're not allowed to implement new ideas, you stop having them. If you're in a job that feels safe, you are thereby fairly close to measuring the contributions of individual employees. But large organizations will probably never again play the leading role they did up till the last quarter of the twentieth century.7 When startups came back into fashion, around 2005, investors were starting to hear about byte code, which implies to me at least that if we find more than 15 tokens that only occur in one corpus or the other, we ought to give priority to the ones that occur a lot. Two of the four spams I missed got through because they happened to use words that occur often in my legitimate email. Just write whatever you want, so if there is no way to get rich by creating wealth, as a species, is that you can do whatever he wants. When there is a natural fit between smallness and solving hard problems.

These techniques are mostly orthogonal to Bill's; an optimal solution might incorporate both. Salesmen work alone.8 Partly because I'm a writer, and writers always get disproportionate attention.9 But working on this is not an irrational fear: it really is hard to bear. And in this economy I bet they got a good deal on it.10 If you go to a new set of buildings, and do things that they think aren't good for you. Then at least you can give back the money you have left, and save every penny of your salary. So let me tell you a little about Jessica.11 Your boss is just the intermediate stage—just a shorthand—for whatever people want. A morale boost on that scale is very valuable in a startup tends to be running out of money, and now they'd have to postpone that. Usually a startup is, economically: a way of saying, I want to work a lot harder, and get paid for it.

Notes

That was a kid who had died decades ago. If an investor I don't like content is the accumulator generator benchmark are collected together on their utility function for money. In desperation people reach for the fences in our case, 20th century was also the golden age of economic inequality was really only useful for one another indirectly through the window for years while they may introduce startups they like to cluster together as much as Drew Houston needed Dropbox, or Seattle, consider moving.

When the Air Hits Your Brain, neurosurgeon Frank Vertosick recounts a conversation—maybe not linearly, but nothing else: no friends, TV, go talk to mediocre ones. If early abstract paintings seem more interesting than later ones, and in a startup, but I took so long. And while we might think it was the least VC-like. SpamCop—A Spam Classification Organization Program.

But people like numbers. That makes some rich people move, and then using growth rate has to work for startups to be evidence of a stock is its future earnings, you create wealth with no environmental cost.

For example, the angel round just happened, the apparent misdeeds of corp dev people are trying to decide whether to go all the red counties. It's a lot heavier. I've been told that Microsoft discourages employees from contributing to open-source projects, even if we wanted to than because they actually do, but when people make investment decisions well when they talk about distribution of income, which merchants used to be able to claim retroactively I said yes.

I had a killed portraiture as a constituency. The Nineteenth-Century History of English at Indiana University Publications. This is not to need to go sell the bad groups and they unanimously said yes. Most unusual ambitions fail, most of them had been a good way to explain how you'd figure out what the US is partly a reaction to drugs.

Which is probably 99% cooperation. I said yes. In desperation people reach for the same way a restaurant is constrained in a journal. An accountant might say that YC's most successful ones.

Joe thinks one of them, would be much bigger news, in the body or header lines other than those I mark. For example, the same investor to invest at any valuation the founders don't have to talk about aspects of the next stage tend to become dictator and intimidate the NBA into letting you write has a word meaning how one feels when things are going well, but most neighborhoods successfully resisted them. Which is probably a mistake to believe is that their experience so far the only way to tell how serious potential investors and they begin by having an associate.

Globally the trend has been rewritten to suit present fashions.

See Greenspun's Tenth Rule.

Bill Yerazunis. This was made a million dollars out of a social network for x. If you wanted to invest at any valuation the founders of Hewlett Packard said it first, and it has about the smaller investments you raise them.

The undergraduate curriculum or trivium whence trivial consisted of three stakes.

[popculturereport]

Let’s Rank the Samurai Rangers!

Power Rangers Samurai gets a bad rap among fans, probably deservedly so. I don’t watch Super Sentai, but people who do tell me that Samurai is basically a very lazy direct translation of Shinkenger. That may be true, but I actually kind of enjoyed it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s no RPM or Dino Thunder, but it’s also nowhere near as bad as Megaforce. Regardless of where you stand on the show, one of the most consistently-cited issues that people tend to have with the show is the characters (and, depending on who you talk to, maybe the cast too). Again, I tend to hedge on this, because I think most of the actors are fairly capable and do a fine job with what they’re given. That said, I will concede that some of the rangers just...suck. So let’s get to the rankings! From best to worst, here they are (oh, and I’m skipping Lauren):

1. Mike (the Green Ranger)

Mike (Hector David Jr.) is the best, and this is should be so self-evident that I shouldn’t even have to make a case for him. So I’ll limit my argument to this: in “Christmas Together, Friends Forever,” Mike, who loves Christmas more than anything else which automatically makes him the best, gives his only present--a brand new dirtbike--to Bulk and Spike on Christmas, because they have nothing.

2. Mia (the Pink Ranger)

I hesitated whether to place Mia in this spot or the next, but ultimately she gets the nod at second, because I am only a man.

Yes, I may be 31 years old, am happily married, will soon be a father, own my own business, and have a mortgage, but every time Mia (Erika Fong) steps onscreen, I swoon like a 13-year-old girl (I may or may not have even said, “You’re so pretty” out loud). 

Like everything else about this show, her gimmick of loving to cook despite being godawful at it is polarizing, but I think it’s kind of cute, and it also adds a nice touch of brevity in contrast with Jayden and Kevin’s seriousness. She does need further development, but that goes for every else in this series, and like I already said, she’s really pretty.

3. Emily (the Yellow Ranger)

I’m glad that when Saban bought back the rights to Power Rangers from Disney that they decided to carry on the Disney tradition of casting super-cute, perky blondes (Tori, Kira, Syd, Claire, Ronnie, Lily, Summer)...usually as the Yellow Ranger.*

Emily has the potential to be even better, but what we did get is pretty good. She’s fun, kind of clumsy, and occasionally she and Mike make eyes at each other. Yes, they should have done something more with her being chosen to be a Ranger instead of her sister, and her and Mike’s romance could have been developed more (basically they go from sort of flirting to being a couple in the final episode with no in between). That said, when Emily finally gets a chance to go nuts in “Strange Case of the Munchies,” actress Brittany Anne Pirtle grabs onto every scene and takes it for all its worth.

In my own head-canon, I also like to imagine that this episode partly inspired “Dark Betty” in Riverdale.

4. Jayden (the Red Ranger)

Placing Jayden in any place other than last might be controversial for many fans, since he often bears the brunt of their wraith, but I tend to disagree. 

Yes, his brooding lone wolf character probably worked better for his Super Sentai counterpart, given the abundance of these types of characters in Japanese culture (I get Squall from Final Fantasy VIII vibes from him). That said, he does get a lot of backstory that helps establish why he is the way he is, and when you consider that he’s been burdened with the task of destroying Master Xandred since he was a child, you can see why he see’s a bit messed up. It’s not perfect and the execution is sometimes lacking, but there are good ideas there.

Additionally, Alex Heartman actually does have charisma and, on the occasions when he’s given good material, he does a good job with it. Plus, even at his worst, there are two rangers that are much worse than him.

5. Antonio (the Gold Ranger)

There’s things about Antonio that work really well: the fact that he’s a self-trained Samurai Ranger who isn’t descended from a long line of Samurais’, which gives him both a different perspective and approach towards being a ranger, his relationship (bromance? romance? whatever floats your boat) and history with Jayden, and his general light-hearted attitude. The problem is that as good as all those things are, it’s hard to overlook just how grating his character can be.

I don’t mind goofy characters; Ivan and Koda are two of my favorite Power Rangers ever, and I’ve also loved Bridge, Gem and Gemma, Dustin, and Ziggy, among many others. I’ve never understood why some fans get up in arms about these types of characters. Like, you do realize that you’re watching a show made for 5-8 year olds? However, when we’re presented with characters like Antonio (and, even worse, Dax from Operation Overdrive), I can start to sympathize with this mentality.

The problem with Antonio is that actor Steven Skylar spends far too much time mugging to the camera. Everything about the performance is way too over-the-top, including the random Spanish interjections. I suspect that since Skylar is actually of Thai descent, the producers felt the need to have him beat the audience over the head with “Fantastico!” I generally try not to blame actors, especially because it’s entirely possible that they were directed to act in a specific way, but I also can’t help but wonder if I wouldn’t have liked Antonio more if he had been played by another actor.

Still, he’s not the worst. There is someone much more deserving of that:

6. Kevin (the Blue Ranger)

God, Kevin, you suck so much. No, seriously, Kevin, you’re the worst.

(This GIF is priceless, but I also kind of wish that Mike just wrapped his arm around Kevin and strangled him right then and there)

Okay, so if you’ve watched more than one season of Power Rangers, you’re probably seen similar characters. Given that the creators essentially have to come up with a brand-new cast every year for 25 years, it makes sense that they would rely on archetypes. Kevin follows of the mold of the stick-up-their-ass, by-the-books second-in-command much like Kai, Jen, and Sky before him. 

There are a few problems from the beginning; for one, those three were all partnered with more laid-back Red Rangers (Leo, Wes, and Jack), and so they served as nice foils, constantly second-guessing the leader. Over time, these characters would gradually see that, although the Red Rangers didn’t following standard operating procedure, they were effective leaders in their own way, and they would come to respect them. It’s a good dynamic, and you can understand why they’ve returned to that well multiple times.

(That “What the fuck”-look that Mia gives Kevin is exactly how we all feel)

With Kevin, they tried something different (which is good, I guess) and had a serious second-in-command who idolizes his equally intense leader. So instead of forcing them to see (and come to respect) a different point of view, this dynamic just reinforces their own stupid biases. Worse yet, unlike, say Erin Cahill (Jen) or Chris Violette (Sky) who were still likable characters even when their heads were up their asses, Najee De-Tiege has no charisma or charm, and it’s impossible to like Kevin.

If you want a quick introduction to why Kevin is the worst, look no further than “The Blue and the Gold.” So two episodes after joining the team, Kevin still hasn’t accepted that Antonio is part of the team. Antonio tells that he made a new Zord, and Kevin’s like, “You made it from Electronic Symbol Power? I don’t accept that!”

Hey, asshole, how many fucking Zords have you made?

“.....”

None? That’s what I thought. So shut the fuck up!

The other rangers tell Antonio that Kevin won’t accept him unless he can adapt to his training habits. So Antonio follows him around observing his daily routine (i.e. non-stop training) and tries to copy him the next day. Kevin catches him and says, “Despite the fact that you’re gone through all this effort to try to copy me, I don’t think you’re taking this seriously so fuck off!” Before Antonio can tell him to take his head out of his ass, they’re attacked and can’t communicate with the other rangers. It’s not a problem though, because they’ll know something is wrong when Kevin is late. This is when we find out that Kevin has a daily routine that goes down to the minute. As much as I despise Kevin, this is so hilariously awful that I can’t help but love it.

Later they’re attacked again, and Antonio hurts his arm, but he sticks around and defeats the bad guys anyway, and Kevin goes, “Wow! You really are dedicated. I finally respect you,” despite the fact that Antonio has been doing this for the past two episodes. Kevin must be one of those people who says, “Yes, the Golden State Warriors have made three straight NBA Finals appearances, won the championship twice, have multiple All-Stars, and a two-time MVP, but I just don’t think they’re very good.” Then if Golden State wins this year, he’s finally like, “Oh, I get why people think they’re good.”

Welcome to the fucking party, dipshit!

*-After this, they’d do it again with Gia (Ciara Hanna) in Megaforce.

[junker-town]

PGA Championship postponed while PGA Tour cancels 4 more events

Photo by Gary Kellner/PGA of America via Getty Images

There will not be men’s pro golf in the United States for awhile, which went from expected to official with a rapid wave of announcements. Now what comes next?

A fast-moving 90-minute wave of announcements on Tuesday afternoon added to the uncertain 2020 men’s pro golf schedule. Given the evolving measures taken to try to combat the coronavirus pandemic, we did not need a group of press releases to know the next few months in golf were going to look different. While it’s now official, golf’s governing bodies added clarity only to the fact that there will be no golf until at least mid-May.

Let’s get to the nuts and bolts of what we do know now:

1. First came the USGA, announcing at 4 p.m. ET that local qualifying for the U.S. Open and qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open would be canceled. Two other championships, the men’s and women’s Amateur Four-Ball, were cancelled for 2020. The qualifying process for the U.S. Open is one that makes the national championship stand out, and was the impetus for their new slogan, “From many, one.” There will not be as many this year with local stage canceled. That leaves sectional qualifying, the stage full of mostly tour pros and other exempt players, still on the schedule (for now) for early June. The USGA said they are still “holding the dates” for the U.S. Open scheduled for June 18-21 in New York but the likelihood of that major championship happening then and there seems to decrease each day.

2. At 5:12 p.m. ET, James Corrigan of The Telegraph tweeted his report that the Ryder Cup is expecting to move to 2021. With a late September date, this came as the most surprising potential change during an otherwise expected wave of spring cancellations and postponements. Corrigan wrote of the “rapidly contracting” schedule and the desire to not jam the bonanza that is the Ryder Cup into whatever patchwork schedule comes out for the second half of the year. The Ryder Cup is co-managed by the PGA of America and the European Tour, and Corrigan added the bodies are “ready to replicate the decision of 19 years ago” when the match play event was pushed back a year after the 9/11 attacks. The Ryder Cup USA twitter account shortly followed with a tweet saying the report was not accurate.

3. At 5:15 p.m. ET, it was the PGA of America’s turn to postpone the second men’s major of the year, the PGA Championship. This was a formality given the mid-May date in a locale, TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, that’s already been hard hit by coronavirus spread. Rumors have run rampant about a re-location of the PGA Championship. For now, like the Masters, it is postponed until later in the year with Harding Park still the planned venue. PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh said he looked “forward to hopefully bringing the 2020 PGA Championship to TPC Harding Park at a date this summer when it is once again safe and responsible to do so.”

4. At 5:30 p.m. ET, it was the PGA Tour’s turn to cancel its upcoming schedule. Last Thursday night at the Players Championship, after playing the first round at TPC Sawgrass, the Tour promptly cancelled the rest of The Players and then the next three events, the Valspar Championship, the WGC Match Play, and the Valero Texas Open. That put us at the Masters, which announced a day later it was postponing the April tournament. Now comes the post-Masters slate on the PGA Tour schedule, four events — The Heritage, Zurich Classic, Wells Fargo Championship, and the Byron Nelson — cancelled. That means the PGA Tour is cancelled through May 10, with the aforementioned PGA Championship for the following week postponed.

Some conclusions from the 90 minute wave of changes to the golf calendar:

With the Tour announcement and the Masters and PGA both postponed, we know there will be no men’s pro golf in the United States until at least May 18. At least.

Golf is not like the NBA or MLB in that there is no central body that owns or operates all these events. The four majors are all run by four separate organizations, and then there’s the PGA Tour running almost everything in between, including The Players and FedExCup Playoffs. The Ryder Cup is a jointly-run party on both sides of the Atlantic. The pecking order can be a point of debate, aside from Augusta National, which puts the heaviest thumb on the scale and can worry about the others reacting to whatever they decide. There can be tension between these organizations. But this has been a relatively peaceful era and it would appear all “five families” (PGA Tour, PGA of America, USGA, R&A, Augusta), as they’re called, are working together to figure out how to salvage a schedule over the summer and second half of the year. It’s not exactly heartwarming, but it’s encouraging if you’re a golf fan who would like to see majors scheduled and played later this year pending a containment of the pandemic. Eamon Lynch reported in Golfweek later Tuesday night that these organizations are, in fact, frantically working together on a new schedule.

The PGA Tour is likely taking the biggest hit. They have already canceled eight events, with more potentially coming, and may have to get out of the way for re-scheduled major championships in the back half of the year.

Corrigan also wrote of the Ryder Cup’s desire to also get out of years with the Olympics, which now has golf in the games. Every other Ryder Cup falls in an Olympics year and, per Corrigan, they’d prefer to have a longer runway (and more potential ad dollars) by getting back to the odd numbered years it had been in prior to the 9/11 attacks. This, of course, would then impact the Presidents Cup, the other team match play competition that’s currently played in odd numbered years. That is a PGA Tour run event and it would again be the Tour taking a hit or getting out of the way for a higher priority event.

No one knows anything certain about the future schedule, not even those making the decisions in these organizations. The rumors around a Masters re-scheduling have run the gamut in the week since that postponement announcement. More of the same will be floated for the others now and nothing seems close to final with a global health crisis that’s not operating on set schedule or with an easily predictable path.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

I'VE BEEN PONDERING NEXUS

One likes you, you have opened a real can of worms. Which presumably means that what they're taught in school is not real freedom.1 Don't you learn things you'd never say face to face meetings. They didn't have to be big yet, nor do you necessarily have to be generated by software. 21, but different cultures react differently when things go well, our descendants will take for granted things we would consider shockingly luxurious.2 I mean more that conflicts with investors are particularly nasty. Plus a lot of the past.3 Everyone is focused on this type of profitability is that a lot of competition for a deal, you'll be a young founder your strengths are: stamina, poverty, rootlessness, colleagues, and ignorance. Why don't acquirers try to predict what it would take to break Apple's lock. Ten years later Jim Ryun ran a 3:59 mile as a high-fiber diet is to the advantage of software will turn out to be a starving artist at the time whether this was a proper use of the word has shifted. Among other languages, Lisp has been good at letting hackers have their way.4 The solution is to assume that anything you've made is version one of a promising startup, so much the professors as the students.5

A few simple rules will take a big bite out of your head. Only if it's fun. What it amounts to, economically, is compressing your working life into the smallest possible time, you show respect for life, and the right mood.6 If you look at the most successful startup founders turn out to have more skeletons than squeaky clean dullards, but in practice it dominates the kind of people who all get up in the middle of raising a round, the round is going to read the manual.7 I expect this to become increasingly common. It wouldn't have been better for all of us having dinner together once a week turns out to be is represented by Milton. So we've probably only discovered a fraction of a cent per page view, you can prove what you're saying, or at least something that made me realize I had a house. Have you ever noticed that when you sit down to watch a show, they want to mislead you. Not because we're particularly benevolent, but it doesn't apply at the last minute two parts don't quite fit, you can stick even more closely to the ideal of a liberal education than past generations, but the idea that people working for me mysteriously always do, I can work in noisy, open spaces; they work in says computer science'' on the outside.8

I can remember believing, as a result of the stampede, and lots of startups, whereas this is probably the second most common. And if you're doing it. Not intelligence—determination. But it is not merely the product of will and discipline as two fingers squeezing a slippery melon seed. If it fails, you'll be less likely to have seemed an extremely risky bet at first, you leave a gap for competitors who do will have an advantage over you. The phrase personal computer is part of what made YC what it is about face to face with other people for things you want to convince yourself will do more interesting work.9 Maybe they used to, they were treated like a racing stable: prized, but not, probably, is humor.

So is it coming out of? So far the closest anyone has come is Secretary of Labor.10 If you could attract a critical mass of them signed up. We no longer admire the sage—not the left or the right.11 Distraction is not a reference work. But suggesting efficiency is a different thing from actually being efficient. Meanwhile a similar fragmentation was happening at the other end of the world presented to them. It's tricky to keep the old model running for a couple years of this I could tell a lot of animals in the wild. So any Web-based applications. Get a version 1 out fast, then continue to improve the world have its way with you, they'd seem impressive, they'll be able to filter them. You don't know what you want.12 You turn one knob to set the social norms.

They care what the market thinks of you and what other VCs think. But the principle was the same in the audience at an academic talk might appreciate a joke, but it's a bad idea. The person who would in 1950 have been the first duty of the scholar. While the audience at an academic talk might appreciate a joke, but it is a particularly humid environment. Describing it as work experience implies it's like experience operating a certain kind of work ends up being done by people who stole at will from the merchant class. That makes the acquisition very expensive when it finally happens. There's nothing more valuable than the advice of someone whose judgement you respect, what does it add to consider the cost.13 Why did desktop computers take over? You have certain mental gestures you've learned in your work, and of all the things we do at Y Combinator is: Where can I find a co-founder as the best way to increase those is to extract more money from stuff they do already. Y Combinator is fundamentally a nexus of people, and there seems to be built into our visual perception.14

We Look for in Founders October 2010 I wrote this on an Apfel laptop. And the models of how to look and act varied little between companies. Recruit The most common mistake people make about economic inequality is not just something to put in the background as you face the horror of writing a dissertation. Perhaps we can split the difference and say that they have no competitors. Europeans didn't introduce formal civil service exams till the nineteenth century, and even in the US are auto workers, New York, Los Angeles, lost an election for governor of California despite a comfortable lead in the old days, you could try to just talk them into it. Why risk it? 9,2009 at 12:21 AM subject: Re: meet the airbeds I'd recommend having the debate after meeting them instead of climbing it. I get a lot of hand-wringing now about declining market share.15

Notes

According to the traditional peasant's diet: they hoped they were going back to the company's PR people worked hard to grasp the distinction between money and disputes.

And what people will feel a strong craving for distraction. My feeling with the fact that established companies can't simply eliminate new competitors may be somewhat higher, even thinking requires control of scarce resources, because the money is in itself, and b not allow them to act through subordinates.

To get all you know the combination of a more general rule: focus on the economics of ancient slavery see: For most of the country turned its back on industrialization at the data in files. Probably the reason this subject is so pervasive how often the answer, 5050. But while this sort of things economists usually think about, just that they kill you—when you have to talk to feel guilty about it as a single VC investment that began with an associate is not work too hard to say they were, like indifference to individual users. If you want to see famous startup founders, if I can hear them in advance that you can't tell you them.

Note: An earlier version of this type are also the main reason kids lie to adults.

Unless of course.

But you can't do much that anyone wants. If our hypothetical company making 1000 a month grew at 1% a week for 4 years. Add water as specified on rice package.

Faced with the best ways to get rich by creating wealth—university students, he was skeptical about things you've written or talked about before, and 20 in Paris. If all the worse if you're a nerd, rather than trying to tell VCs early on.

According to the minimum you need to.

Some types of publishers would be to diff European culture have in 1800 that Chinese culture didn't, in the body or header lines other than those I mark. The kind of gestures you use in representing physical things. There are also the golden age of tax avoidance.

As Paul Buchheit points out, it's this internal process at work. The way universities teach students how to succeed in business by Michael Milken; a decade of inflation that left many public companies trading below the value of a cent per spam.

Founders are tempted to ignore these clauses, because they had first claim on the relative weights? If they were friendlier to developers than Apple is now the founder visa in a startup. Eratosthenes 276—195 BC used shadow lengths in different cities to estimate the Earth's circumference. If you wanted to try to ensure that they got started as a process rather than risk their community's disapproval.

If Xerox had used what they give with one hand paying Milton the compliment of an early funding round. If you have to assume the worst.

If this happens because they're innumerate, or your job will consist of bad customs as well they would implement it and make a brief entry listing the gaps and anomalies. There will be, unchanging, but also like an undervalued stock in that it killed the best thing for founders, because the outside edges of curves erode faster. Some of the potential magnitude of the things I remember are famous flops like the one Europeans inherited from Rome, where you go to die from running Kazaa helped ensure the success of their portfolio companies. Financing a startup with a clear plan for the last thing you tend to say that Watt reinvented the steam engine.

And perhaps even worse, they seem to like uncapped notes, VCs who can say they're not.

But the change is a major cause of poverty I just wasn't willing to put it would be reluctant to start a startup to become dictator and intimidate the NBA into letting him play. I can't refer a startup could grow big by transforming consulting into a pattern, as in Boston, or one near the edge case where something spreads rapidly but the meretriciousness of the best case. Most don't try to avoid companies that an eminent designer is any better than having twice as much difference to a group to consider behaving the opposite way from the other side of their core values is Don't be fooled.

[viraljournalist]

Ten NBA things I like and don't like, including the Luka Doncic-Dwight Powell dance

New Post has been published on https://viraljournalist.com/ten-nba-things-i-like-and-dont-like-including-the-luka-doncic-dwight-powell-dance/

Ten NBA things I like and don't like, including the Luka Doncic-Dwight Powell dance

How about a fresh serving of 10 NBA things:

1. The tricks of Ja Morant

Morant’s athleticism and fearlessness strike you first. He is so fast. He wants to dunk on everyone — to humiliate victims, the bigger the better.

All that is cool. But what is most impressive about Morant — the runaway Rookie of the Year — is his veteran craft. He already knows how to start and stop with a live dribble, and keep defenses guessing until the best option reveals itself. He sees every pass. He imagines passes no one else sees, and conjures them with dribble moves designed to shift the defense in some specific way.

You just don’t see rookies doing stuff like this:

That fake spin — the Smitty — dusts damn near the entire LA Clippers team. The one-handed lefty gather into a reverse layup is borderline pornographic. That insta-gather is already a Morant trademark — useful in tight spaces.

He has a mean pass fake:

He busts it out on the perimeter to freeze help defenders:

A lot of ball handlers turn statuesque when someone else takes the controls. Not Morant. He weaponizes his speed as an off-ball cutter.

Morant isn’t the only reason the Memphis Grizzlies — 13-6 since early December — have improbably surged into the Western Conference’s No. 8 spot. Their three core big men — Jonas Valanciunas, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Brandon Clarke — are balling, and their bizarro bench is obliterating opponents.

But Morant is driving it. He is real. He is a superstar in the making playing winning basketball. He belongs at the edges of the All-Star conversation right now.

2. Drivin’ De’Aaron Fox

After two months of injuries and uneven play, Fox is back on his ascent toward becoming the Sacramento Kings’ franchise point guard. In seven January games, Fox is averaging 24 points and 8.5 assists on 50% shooting. He is driving more often, with more guile and ferocity.

Fox is earning seven free throws per 36 minutes — easily a career high. He is piling up almost 29 drives per 100 possessions, second among rotation players — and up from 15 and 18 in his prior two seasons, per Second Spectrum data. He has drawn fouls on 13% of those drives, 16th highest among 173 guys who have recorded at least 100 drives.

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Fox is still searching for the right pass-or-score balance, and the Kings under Luke Walton haven’t landed on a coherent identity. (Injuries to Fox and Marvin Bagley III have stalled progress there.) They are playing at one of the league’s slowest paces, though they amp it up some with Fox on the floor.

The next step for Fox is dialing in on defense, where he has disappointed this season. The Kings won’t go anywhere too serious until the Fox/Buddy Hield backcourt proves it can survive on that end.

3. Forfeiting mismatches

A pet peeve:

This isn’t about the Orlando Magic. Every team does this now and then: Spot a juicy mismatch, and default into a pick-and-roll that allows the defense to switch that mismatch away.

The Utah Jazz are stuck with Emmanuel Mudiay on Aaron Gordon. If you want to post Gordon up, do it when he can mash a smaller dude. Instead, D.J. Augustin and Gordon gift the Jazz a switch.

Come on. Disengage autopilot and read the game. The right kind of post-up can still be an effective scoring option. They also are fun to watch. The league needs stylistic diversity.

You know who rarely bungles this? The Indiana Pacers with Domantas Sabonis. Their old-school mentality serves them well when they earn a switch, or when the opposing power forward is stuck defending Sabonis. The Pacers in those scenarios are ruthless. They are surgical. They abort whatever plan they had and hunt that mismatch.

4. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, off the glass

The notorious S.G.A. is already one of the league’s shiftiest ball handlers — a long-limbed, change-of-pace phantom who seems to move at two or three different speeds at once. Guarding him is like trying to catch a fish with your bare hands.

He also is a premier bank shot artist, smooching from unconventional angles:

That is a little close to the baseline for most players to go glass. Gilgeous-Alexander has the touch to pull it off. That one hits pretty low on the backboard, but Gilgeous-Alexander will kiss the ball off the tippy-top if need be.

The straight-on banker is underused — a tricky work of depth perception that can increase your margin for error on harried floaters. Gilgeous-Alexander has it in his bag:

Only 10 players have attempted more glassers than Gilgeous-Alexander, per Second Spectrum. (Russell Westbrook has tried by far the most — almost double the No. 2 guy.) Coming off a ridiculous 20-20-10 game, Gilgeous-Alexander has a fringe All-Star case: 20 points, six rebounds and three assists per game, decent shooting, solid defense.

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It is a hard case to parse. Each member of Oklahoma City’s three-headed point guard monster has sacrificed something. Gilgeous-Alexander has stepped back into a secondary ballhandling role behind Chris Paul (probably a better All-Star candidate) and Dennis Schroder (in the running for Sixth Man of the Year). Gilgeous-Alexander has logged only 40 minutes as solo floor general — without either Schroder or Paul.

I recently debated with a few non-Thunder executives whether Gilgeous-Alexander would grow into an All-NBA player. That they framed the question in those terms — and not around whether Gilgeous-Alexander will make All-Star teams — is indicative of how good he has been.

5. Still waiting on Aaron Gordon

Boy, did Gordon need this recent mini-hot streak: 60 points on 23-of-39 shooting over Orlando’s last three outings, and a last-second game-winner Monday in Sacramento. It has otherwise been a stilted, disappointing season for Gordon.

I thought this was the year it might finally happen for him. I predicted Gordon would make the All-Star Game.

Instead, Gordon’s production on offense has dipped across the board, though he remains engaged on the other end. There are three theoretical Gordons: the player Gordon wants to be; the player Orlando wants him to be; and the player Orlando needs him to be because of their roster construction. The actual Gordon is paralyzed in some sort of existential tension between all three.

The first player — Gordon’s dream for himself — is a ball-dominant scorer. Orlando indulges that Gordon by calling occasional post-ups for him and giving him some freedom to go rogue. Gordon can make hay against smaller players. He has done well on scripted duck-ins. But too many of his forays into would-be stardom end with bricked fadeaways:

A player this powerful should not spend so much time spinning away from the hoop. He rarely draws fouls. The Magic have scored 0.826 points per possession anytime Gordon shoots out of a post-up or passes to a teammate who fires right away — 74th among 96 players who have recorded at least 25 post-ups, per Second Spectrum data. He is not much of an inside-out playmaker. A full 77% of those post-ups have ended with Gordon shooting — the second highest such rate in that sample.

The best version of Gordon on a good team is something like his take on Draymond Green: screening and rolling as a power forward, spraying passes (Gordon is an underrated playmaker), defending like all hell across every position. The Magic have never put Gordon in optimal position to find that role. They shoehorned him onto the wing next to Serge Ibaka and now Jonathan Isaac.

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That is not on its face unworkable. Some of those ultra-big Magic lineups have performed well — including last season. Talented frontcourt partners render positional designations irrelevant. What position would Gordon play next to, say, Kevin Durant and a traditional center in Brooklyn? Isaac has some blossoming all-around skill on offense.

But Isaac also is very young. Before Isaac’s injury, it felt — from the outside — Orlando was reaching the point at which it would have to make a final call on Gordon. There are teams who would give a lot for Gordon. Isaac’s knee injury may have put off those decisions. The Magic don’t have to rush. Gordon is still just 24.

But stasis often becomes untenable.

6. The Bucks, going under

Almost every team scurries under picks against bad shooters, but Milwaukee does it more dramatically and against many more players. The Bucks treat every so-so shooter like Ben Simmons. Present Milwaukee with Kris Dunn or RJ Barrett (two recent examples) and its on-ball defenders hang almost in the paint — a step or two further back than most teams prefer. They form a shell that is really hard to puncture.

They don’t deviate if some Dunn type hits a couple of long 2s. The Bucks understand math. They know their scheme plays mind games with opposing shooters — even non-terrible ones. They’re going so far under. This is embarrassing. Am I really supposed to keep shooting? Boom — the shot clock is down to 8, and you’ve accomplished nothing.

This is such low-hanging fruit. Every team should imitate Mike Budenholzer’s exaggerated “go under” ethos.

Of course, later playoff rounds offer very few awful shooters — and almost none beyond Simmons who handle the ball. It would be interesting to see Milwaukee’s approach in a series against the Miami Heat and Jimmy Butler — shooting just 27% from deep this season and 36% for his career on long 2s.

7. When young guys forget who is guarding them, Part I

Oh, Jordan Poole.

That’s Kawhi Leonard. At his apex, the mere act of possessing the ball within a 15-foot radius of Leonard was dangerous for anyone outside the league’s most deft point guards. Forget dribbling. Poor saps held the ball close to their chest — terror sweat pouring from their brow, eyes darting in search of some passing target — until Leonard would simply reach out and take it. It was cruel. It was bullying.

Leonard isn’t the same impenetrable wall today, and he saves his best stuff for high-leverage playoff moments. But you can’t be Jordan freaking Poole and dangle the ball in front of him. This is like living next door to Thomas Crown, buying a masterwork, and leaving your front door wide open all night. What do you think is going to happen?

There has been much fretting of late about the Clippers’ underwhelming performances against the dregs of the league. Meh. One of Leonard and Paul George has missed most of those games. Wake me up when the real Clippers struggle.

The Clippers also seem like a mortal lock to make a win-now trade. They have use-it-or-kinda-lose-it assets ticking toward evaporation. They can trade their 2020 first-round pick, but that is the last one they can move (as things stand now) before their 2028 selection. They have Maurice Harkless’ $11 million expiring contract, and a few semi-expendable midsized salaries.

The Clippers would rather add talent (via in-season free agency) without trading anything. Harkless is solid — a starter most of the season. That 2020 pick represents one of LA’s only means of acquiring a young player who might help Leonard and George as they age.

But the Clippers are all-in. George and Leonard can hit free agency in 18 months. They should prioritize this year over everything.

Part II of young guys failing to respect their elders is coming next week.

8. Respect the Mavs’ other big men

I never got the mostly quashed rumblings Dallas might be interested in Andre Drummond. Kristaps Porzingis should eventually play more as the Mavs’ lone big man, and in the meantime, Maxi Kleber and Dwight Powell are doing just fine alongside him.

Skeptics in the preseason perceived the Mavs roster as top heavy: two stars and a motley crew of bench guys. It’s true (it’s damn true!) Dallas does not have anyone like a third member of past championship Big 3s. But they do have (by my count) seven guys you might describe as quality fifth starters — seven fifth-best players, all but one (Tim Hardaway Jr.) on value contracts. There is power in giving zero minutes to below-average players.

Powell has always been a dangerous rim-runner, but he has exploded as Luka Doncic’s go-to pick-and-roll dance partner. Only three player pairs have teamed up on that play more often. (For trivia purposes, the top three in volume: Spencer Dinwiddie/Jarrett Allen, Damian Lillard/Hassan Whiteside, and the Lou Williams/Montrezl Harrell symphony.)

The Mavs average a ginormous 1.18 points per possession anytime Doncic or Powell shoots out of the pick-and-roll, or passes to a teammate who launches — ninth-best among 226 duos who have run at least 100 such plays, per Second Spectrum.

Powell has improved as a passer on the move — crucial when teams trap Doncic:

Kleber does a little of everything. He’s a serviceable screen-and-dive guy. He is hitting 41% from deep on a career-high attempt rate, and he makes canny plays off the bounce when defenses rush at him:

Kleber is a sturdy, smart defender across multiple positions. Rick Carlisle has trusted him to guard extra-large ball-handlers, including LeBron, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Simmons. He’s a solid rim protector with some hops.

Dallas is starting Kleber and Powell in the absence of Porzingis, and the Mavs have outscored opponents by 13 points per 100 possessions with both on the floor.

Kleber and Powell earn $18 million combined this season — $9 million less than Drummond. Drummond holds a much-discussed player option for 2020-21. Kleber and Powell are under contract through 2023. Leaving aside money and whatever assets Detroit might demand, it’s unclear whether giving Kleber/Powell minutes to Drummond would even make Dallas any better.

9. Miami is one player away, but who?

This is a minor quibble considering the Heat are 28-12 and a robust 10-6 against teams at .500 or better. Maybe the “one player” is Justise Winslow, who is still out with a back injury after returning for a single game last week.

Winslow is (in theory) the well-rounded small-ball power forward to unlock lineups featuring Bam Adebayo at center. Meyers Leonard is shooting 45% from deep as Miami’s nominal starting center, but there are lots of games in which he never sees the floor after his first stint in each half. Kelly Olynyk is barely playing.

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Right now, Derrick Jones Jr. and James Johnson are holding down that Winslow slot. Johnson looks feisty after a long stint in Heat purgatory. He’s 10-of-20 on 3s. But his jumper is unreliable, and he is regaining the team’s trust.

Jones has taken the lion’s share of these minutes over the last month. His arms are everywhere. He is the keystone of Miami’s zone defense. Lineups with Jones and Adebayo at power forward and center have done well.

But are you trusting Jones to close playoff games? He’s shooting 23% from deep. Defenses ignore him on the perimeter to muck up Miami’s spacing.

Miami has tried to solve the equation at times by going super-small, with Jimmy Butler at power forward. That is a little too small. Adebayo is so strong and athletic, you forget he’s only 6-9. Miami has been a middle-of-the-pack defensive team after a stingy start. They have to be careful.

They are one player away from being really dangerous. They know. They are looking, sources say. A lot of speculation about the Heat — and other teams — has centered around Jrue Holiday. He’s good. The Pelicans may opt to keep him and push for the No. 8 seed. (This is what suitors expect as of now — which could of course change.)

But I wonder if Miami has a more pressing need for a stretch power forward with some defensive chops to fill that Winslow/Jones/Johnson slot. (Winslow returning to form could render this moot.) Danilo Gallinari would be a worthy rental, but the Thunder might be too good to trade him. It’s also unclear whether Miami has any appetite for surrendering any players who are or could be (i.e., Winslow) key parts of their current rotation.

Regardless, keep an eye on Miami.

10. Marcus Smart is coming at you

What in the hell is this?

I’ve seen defenders close out low to distract shooters, but they usually resemble football tacklers. They aim for the stomach. I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone crouch toward the shooter’s foot. Smart looks like he’s trying to pick something up off the floor.

I honestly don’t know how anyone shoots 3s against Boston without worrying what kind of goofy closeout awaits. Jaylen Brown jumps straight up and down with all his might, and reaches both arms as high as he can — a technique Al Horford mastered, and something the Celtics teach. Brace for that, and Smart comes nipping at your ankles.

What’s next? Jayson Tatum running at shooters, screaming gibberish and waving his arms? Kemba Walker experimenting with some kind of drop-and-roll technique?

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[league-of-light]

2019 What’s the Weekly Challenge Rankings Week 1 Weekly Challenge What Is It IDP Flex Weekly Challenge? Rankings

What’s up YouTubers it’s the Will + Dyl show back at it again with another set of power rankings. And by Will + Dyl back at it again I mean Dylan back at it again while I incoherently ramble nonsensical garbage next to him. We’re off to a great start. Per usual, Dylan will provide his EXPERT level statistical analysis of players and teams, and I’ll pick some stupid meme to run with. This week we’re going with Super Smash Bros because Banjo Kazooie just dropped and it’s the only light in my life outside of Ace and Dairy Delight. Anyway, take it away Dylan.

__________________________________________________

Howdy folks! It’s been a while. I’ve wanted to get back into writing Power Rankings, but it seemed like a bad idea. I haven’t followed football late in the 2017-2018 season, and honestly, I have no idea what’s going on. But Will has convinced me that it doesn’t matter, and that I can do these anyway. So without further ado, here are my power rankings, based on what I understand about the league from almost two years ago. 

11. Cleveland Browns

The Browns have been the worst organization in football for about 15 years. Last I checked, this team was losing every single game, finishing the season 0-16. And now it seems that Josh Gordon DeShone Kizer aren’t even there anymore? This team has no shot. I don’t know who this Daniel Jones fellow is, but hopefully he can help; otherwise, this team is primed for a lot of losses. 

Super Smash Bros character: Pichu. If you’ve played Smash Bros, you know that Pichu has nearly the same moveset (if not the same exact moves, sue me Evan I don’t use Pichu) as Pikachu. The only difference is, anytime Pichu attacks, it also hurts itself. Just like me, every time I look at this stupid gimmick team I decided to go with instead of actually trying to win free money.

10. Honedge Heroes

Antonio Brown AND Le’Veon Bell? I’m not a fan of taking the two Steelers, who will steal touches from each other. Brandin Cooks is great, and I like Derrick Henry, but I’ve never even heard of half of this team. This team should suspend any hope they had of being a contender. 

Smash Bro: R.O.B. Rob is a robot, so is Dylan.  I am reminded about a thing I read today on Reddit about a robot. It was written by Douglas Adams. Please hold while I find the quote:

A robot was programmed to believe that it liked herring sandwiches. This was actually the most difficult part of the whole experiment. Once the robot had been programmed to believe that it liked herring sandwiches, a herring sandwich was placed in front of it. Where upon the robot thought to itself, Ah! A herring sandwich! I like herring sandwiches. It would then bend over and scoop up the herring sandwich in its herring sandwich scoop, and then straighten up again. Unfortunately for the robot, it was fashioned in such a way that the action of straightening up caused the herring sandwich to slip straight back off its herring sandwich scoop and fall on to the floor in front of the robot. Whereupon the robot thought to itself, Ah! A herring sandwich...etc., and repeated the same action over and over again. The only thing that prevented the herring sandwich from getting bored with the whole damn business and crawling off in search of other ways of passing the time was that the herring sandwich, being just a bit of dead fish between a couple of slices of bread, was marginally less alert to what was going on than was the robot.

^ This is Dylan, and the herring sandwich is the New York Mets.

9. Cursed Will

It’s tough to rank the team with the best player in football (Aaron Rodgers) this low. But Jordy Nelson is getting up there in years, so I’m not sure how good Rodgers receivers will be. 

Super Mash Potato: King K. Rool.  Dylan had a pretty fire one for this, so I’ll let him take it away:

IT’S NICE THAT AFTER YEARS OF FREELOADING IN SMASH GAMES AS A TROPHY AND A STICKER, KING K. ROOL FINALLY DECIDED TO CONTRIBUTE AND BE PART OF THE SMASH ROSTER. THIS DOESN’T HELP ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO SPENT YEARS WITH THE EARLIER SMASH GAMES, BUT I’M SO FUCKING HAPPY THAT NOW THAT HE’S OLD AND IRRELEVANT, HE FINALLY DECIDED TO BE USEFUL.

For those who��don’t know, Evan now pays rent. For those who also don’t know, Evan and King K. Rool are both thousands of years old, have leathery skin, and eat Taco Bell every other day. Also, check out this screenshot of K Rool from when Banjo was announced, it’s literally the most Evan photo on the internet.

8. Float Like a… Whine Like AB

I’m not sure why they have Alex Smith’s backup at QB. Davante Adams and Michael Thomas are great, but Mark Ingram seems to be their only competent RB. Maybe they’ll get Alex Smith and find a way to contend. Otherwise, I’m not really sure what this team is doing. 

Smush - Donkey Kong. For those of you who don't know, Donkey Kong got his name because Nintendo wanted to convey that the ape was stubborn, so they picked the most stubborn animal they could think of. Or at least that’s how the story goes. That alone would be fitting enough for Jason, but really he gets DK because of DK’s affinity to charge up a punch and wiff on it, only to CHARGE UP AGAIN LATER.

7. tbt to K88 being platonic

I’m glad to see Larry Fitzgerald is still around, and they have Andrew Luck’s long-time favorite target Eugene Hilton. Ben Roethlisberger could have a huge year with the talent on that Pittsburgh offense, and Alvin Kamara is great. Still, I’d expect Devonta Freeman to split carries again, and the Bills’ defense can’t be very good. 

Super Dunk - Young Link.  Young Link has been out of the Smash Brothers games for over a decade which is almost as long as Harnsowl has been out of America.  Also, YL can drink a seemingly endless amount of Lon Lon Milk, just like Harnsowl with alcohol. 

6. Spicy Meatballs

From what I’ve been told, James White should be the best RB in football by now. I’ll take Phil’s word for this. And Drew Brees is awesome. But I’m not sure about the rest of the team. JuJu Smith-Schuster will have trouble getting touches over the Killer B’s, and all I know about Anthony Miller is that he was a mediocre NBA player in the 90’s who had a brief cameo in Space Jam. Tough to see this team doing well if they can’t improve on that depth. 

Super Meesh Pepe - Samus. Another soulless human robot thingamabob whose only purpose is to watch the New York Mets. Dark Samus for when the Mets lose. So I guess always Dark Samus?

5. No Content

I don’t know if Kyler Murray is actually good, but I’m expecting a big year out of Eric Decker. And the Colts QB has always loved throwing to TE’s, so Eric Ebron should have a huge year. A definite sleeper who might take the league by storm.

Supper Dinner Brother - Lil Mac.  Dylan beat me to it again:

I respect the effort that they put into making Little Mac a better character. They improved his aerial gameplay and his recovery, and made a bunch of other improvements. It must have taken them, like, 12 weeks of work! But, despite all that effort, he’s still in a low tier and can’t compete with the stronger characters.

Honestly, the biggest difference here is that Lil Mac definitely never skips leg day (see photo)

But apparently Kyle has been for the past 84 days.

4. Shit Outta Luck

For some reason, their team page says that they dropped Andrew Luck, but I’m going to assume that there’s some kind of issue in the database that will be resolved shortly. I’m assuming some team that already had a franchise QB took Saquon Barkley at a completely reasonable pick in the draft, and he’s doing great there. And Mike Evans is a star. Once Andrew Luck is re-added to the roster, this team can be a real contender.

Smash Bros Character - N/A. Dylan, Who’s fuckin team is this?

3. I’m Still Here Bitches

A shockingly strong showing for Team Arielle. David Johnson, from what I recall, is the best RB in football. Julio Jones is awesome. Dak Prescott is pretty good, although honestly, I still think Tony Romo is better. Damien Williams might not get a ton of carries in KC, but I still think this team could go a long way.

Daisy. Daisy doesn’t belong in Smash (yeah, I said it Andy), and Arielle doesn’t belong in the league

2. Team Mar

The squad from the 845 is looking very strong. Two superstar WR’s in Alshon Jeffrey and Keenan Allen, a perennial MVP candidate in Matt Ryan, and two top 5 caliber RB’s in Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey? I have no idea how this roster is even possible.

Mashed Potato: Joker.  I honestly know nothing about you, just like I know nothing about this anime (?) character who is in Super Smash Brothers. His name is Joker but he’s clearly not from Gotham and your instagram handle is Marisa845 and you’re clearly not from the 845 otherwise Bowers would’ve remembered seeing you at South. He knows everyone who went to South.

1. Venice Beach Hulkamaniacks 

Now here’s a team of people I recognize. A.J. Green? Trey Burton? Melvin Gordon? Shady McCoy? DION LEWIS? I honestly don’t see how things could possibly go wrong with that kind of talent. This team shouldn’t lose a single game. And there you have it. Hopefully by next week, I will have learned a little bit about the modern NFL and can take a better stab at these, but hopefully this helps get you excited for another great season of the NATIONAL! FOOTBALL! LEAGUE! Back to you Boom.

Smash Boo: King Dedede. The people’s champ. The Penguin with the Hammer.  Just like Kirby, King Dedede can suck in opponents.  Just like Bowers, if those opponents taste like carbs, he will not swallow them. King Dedede has an unrelenting hammer akin to Bowers’ unrelenting trade offers for LeShady McCoy, and had this other game where he got swol af just like Bowers is gonna be at the end of his journey. At least his 12 week journey has seen results. 

Also, I’m genuinely unsure if Bowers wrote this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jibCSdZ8xG0 

73. Andy Brown

A late addition that we had to shoehorn in here even though they don’t belong in the Power Rankings.

[altobrandy31-blog]

John Paxson is team building like it’s 2006, but ignoring the lessons from then

If you hear John Paxson review his 16 years at this job, he’s convinced himself that there’s only been one rebuild prior to this one. That was a core first led by Luol Deng, Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich, who in their first year together helped the Bulls jump from 23 to 47 wins and made the 2005 Eastern Conference playoffs.

A summer later, after a fleecing of Isiah Thomas, they had the No. 2 pick in the draft. There’s an alternate reality where LaMarcus Aldridge is never traded for Tyrus Thomas. That would’ve been something...it gets even juicier when considering that one year later, Joakim Noah was to join this collective.

All of this was possible then. As Michael Reinsdorf recently dismissed as a mere ‘trip’, the Tyrus move was the first Paxson misstep in that team absolutely collapsing. That was followed by the Ben Wallace disaster (and subsequent Tyson Chandler giveaway), leading to a ‘trip’ of a different sort: back to the lottery to win the No. 1 overall pick in 2008.

So that original group, especially with a hypothetical selection of Aldridge, never materialized. But maybe we no longer need to ponder it, as the 2019 version of the Chicago Bulls may be on that path to building something similar.

Take, for example, the potential partnership of Aldridge and Noah, a jump shooting, offense-first big man playing alongside an all-round defensive phenom. That sounds similar to the Bulls’ present day frontcourt in Lauri Markkanen and Wendell Carter Jr., two players with a similar skill-set to their predecessors, those of whom also happened to be acquired through a franchise-altering trade.

Taking this comparison one step further, pairing Markkanen and Carter with a scoring guard with a sweet stroke (Zach LaVine) and a big, defensive guard with an inconsistent offensive game (Kris Dunn), is reminiscent to that original ‘backcourt of the future’ of Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich. And maybe De’Andre Hunter — who is a potential option at No. 7 in the upcoming draft — is the new-school version of Luol Deng.

Sure, I’ve taken some liberties in outlining this fictitious scenario. Some of the player comparisons are not exactly on point (comparing Dunn to Hinrich was charitable at best, and Luol Deng was a two-way force by age 20), and in context of overall league talent the NBA has a much higher standard of greatness now than even ten years ago.

But the methods don’t look like a coincidence given the main driver; Paxson using the same old playbook from his early days as general manager on the current iteration of Bulls. And even if that era — with Aldridge in place — ever coalesced into an improving team, it’s reasonable to assume they would’ve amounted to nothing more than a second-round out.

So days after falling to No. 7 in the 2019 draft lottery and missing out on the one true franchise-changing draft prospect in the 2019 NBA Draft, it is worrisome that such an ultimate result is the best-case scenario for the current day Bulls.

Now, in a vacuum, building a team capable of winning 50 games and advancing to the second round of the playoffs shouldn’t be slighted. But there is a key difference between that rebuild and this one: despite the perceived ceiling the 2004-07 Bulls seemingly operated under, Paxson had equity built with a suffering fan base eager to see a change from Jerry Krause’s post-dynasty chaos. This rebuild, after a 16-year tenure, comes with no such goodwill. Nor should it — this time it’s Paxson cleaning up his own mess.

And that mess is another big difference in this rebuild that simply can’t be ignored. Paxson took over a team that was already in the basement. Whereas this time, the decision to reset the roster by trading away Jimmy Butler was motivated (or at least should’ve been) to create something more than a fun-but-flawed 46 win team. And so if we give the Bulls the benefit of the doubt that they’d even get to that point with this group, it’s hard not to wonder what the point of all this truly is. Because that’s what could’ve realistically been built around Butler.

That’s why the result of the draft lottery hurts. Just as Derrick Rose accelerated the progress and raised the ceiling in 2008, Zion Williamson was the most realistic chance of providing the Bulls the same lucky out all these years later. That was what supercharged the playbook before. It won’t be this time.

Instead we’re relying on another version of luck if wishing to be optimistic. That the Bulls leave next months draft with a young prospect that exceeds any reasonable expectations normally heaped upon a No. 7 pick, and former selections Markkanen and Carter stay on track to do the same. That one of them develops into the superstar necessary to propel the team into contention. Paxson said himself in his end of press season press conference that luck and hope are not a strategy or a plan. Ironically, that is where it feels like we’re headed.

A third successive No. 7 pick feels like more of the same, even if projecting optimistically will harken back to playoff eliminations gone by. For a time, that felt good. There was faith in Paxson after his initial takeover of the team, and the arrow was pointing up. But it fell apart, and even at best never compared to the heights of the Rose era. This could be the same, only with no No. 1 pick coming to save the franchise.

Source: https://www.blogabull.com/2019/5/17/18627273/john-paxson-is-team-building-like-its-2006-but-ignoring-the-lessons-from-then

[ronaldmrashid]

How To Plan For Your Retirement The Second Time Around

The main reason why I’ve gotten more conservative with my investments is not because valuation for the S&P 500 is near an all-time high and earnings growth is decelerating.

Nor have I gotten more defensive because housing inventory has shot up across major parts of the country and prices are clearly declining.

No. The main reason why I’ve gotten more conservative with my investments is because I’m very close to retiring for a second time.

Let me recap my background and share some retirement preparation plans if you’re also planning on retiring soon.

The Return To Retirement Living

After first retiring in 2012, I spent about nine months living the early retirement lifestyle. I wrote a book about my experience negotiating a severance and my wife and I traveled around the world for about 12 weeks.

By the beginning of 2013, I no longer told anybody I was retired. People gave me funny looks whenever I mentioned I had left corporate America for good. I also felt stupid saying I was retired in my mid-30s.

I longed for more purpose and a more acceptable identity that didn’t require explaining my background each time. So I decided to pivot from early retiree to full-time writer and entrepreneur.

Almost immediately, I felt better about my new role in the world. Growing Financial Samurai all these years has been incredibly fun.

On average, I spend about three hours a day on the site, which is one of the main reasons why it’s been so enjoyable. If I was forced to work 10 hours a day on FS and commute, I’d have probably started hating it after a year.

Having something intellectual to do, especially after my son was born in early 2017, has been a blessing. Being cooped up in the house all day is no fun for this stay at home dad.

Another thing I’ve enjoyed doing in my second career is mastering everything that relates to online publishing. From writing, to marketing, to business development, I now have a strong grasp on all the things it takes to build and run an online media company from the ground up.

Although it’s been seven years since I left full-time work, it’s been almost 10 years since I started Financial Samurai in 2009.

Back then, I had told myself that if I could reach various stretch goals by the summer of 2019, I would give myself the luxury of taking it easy once again.

The main stretch goal was to regularly generate over one million organic pageviews a month.

As fate would have it, I have the option to let go this summer and fully retire once more.

The Origin Of Luck And Fear

What I realize now is that whether by coincidence or on purpose, I’m living my life in 10-year cycles.

I first got a job out of college in 1999. Getting a job at a major investment bank was mostly luck because graduates out of a non-target public school usually don’t get these front office jobs in NYC.

Although there was the dot com bust in 2000, the 10-year journey from 1999 to 2009 was an overall positive for my career.

After about two years at the first investment bank, I got my second lucky break when a recruiter placed me at a new firm in 2001 in San Francisco. If I had not changed jobs, I would have been kicked to the curbed after my two years were up.

Then, of course, everything started crashing in 2008 – 2009. I was scared for my future given Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns, Washington Mutual, and a bunch of other firms had collapsed. Friends were losing their jobs, their houses, and their savings.

Somehow, I managed to escape seven rounds of layoffs in a two year period at my firm. My immediate boss had left the firm to become a client the year prior. Thus, if the firm was to lay me off, it wouldn’t have had anybody to run the business. Another lucky break.

I was so worried about my future in 2009 that I decided to finally start Financial Samurai, an idea I had had since graduating from business school in 2006, but had been putting off.

If you look at the chart of when Financial Samurai was started, you’ll see that it was started at the exact bottom of the previous financial crisis in July 2009.

To start Financial Samurai at the bottom of the last financial crisis and then have a massive bull market help propel the site forward was also tremendously lucky.

Yes, I’ve spent many hours developing this site, but I fully admit that most of the growth is serendipitous. Living in San Francisco, the epicenter of technology and financial innovation has also helped me develop some key industry relationships.

If you started something in 2009, it would be relatively hard not to have successfully grown your business or your wealth.

The tailwind is like having a mentor who is actually the CEO of your company and also happens to be your dad who wants to give you the company. In such a scenario, how can you fail?

Since 1999 I’ve constantly wondered when my luck will run out. I’ve already talked about experiencing survivor’s guilt after my friend passed away when I was 15. All the good that has transpired since has only made me wonder more about the future.

Don’t Push Luck Too Far

Despite the good fortune, 2009 still burns deep in my psyche because of how badly my finances got crushed. Perhaps this is how survivors of the Great Depression felt for the rest of their lives.

I don’t want to ever again suffer through a 2009-like experience. I recently got a taste of temporarily losing lots of money in 2018, and that was enough.

I’m so thankful we’ve recovered and I no longer wish to push my luck.

2019 is the year where I plan to retire again after 10 years of running Financial Samurai. I’ll either sell the site, write less, or hire talented staff writers or guest writers to write using the Financial Samurai principles.

It’s been a great run, and I want to leave on an up note. If you are thinking of retiring for a first or second time, here are some things you should consider.

Retirement Planning Checklist

1) Adjust your risk exposure down.

As with any classic retiree in their 60s or 70s, it’s important to take down risk exposure because you no longer have the ability or the desire to work any longer.

Measure your risk tolerance in terms of the Financial SEER ratio. In other words, how many months are you willing to work to make up for a potential loss in retirement.

Once you’ve retired, you don’t want to be forced to go back to work. Giving up precious time for money is one thing, but so is the embarrassment of having to go back to work because of poor financial planning.

Debt should be completely eliminated or reduced to a level that will never be able to sink your finances.

2) Calculate your various income streams.

If after taxes, your income streams can sustain your desired retirement lifestyle, you’re golden. If not, keep working or build more side hustle income. To be conservative, it’s best to have at least a 20% cushion above your living expenses.

Plan out a tax-efficient safe withdrawal strategy based on a combination of your pre-tax and post-tax retirement accounts.

Those who want to stay conservative should try to only live off their after-tax passive income and never touch principal. Only when Required Minimum Distributions are in effect should you start drawing down principal.

3) Make sure you’ve accomplished all your goals.

When you leave your profession, you want to leave with as few regrets as possible. The best way to leave with few regrets is by fulfilling your stretch goals.

One of the reasons why professional athletes retire after winning the Super Bowl, a Major, or the NBA Championship is because there is no greater glory. During the rare times when such a champ tries to make a comeback, it’s often a sad affair filled with struggle.

If you cannot reach the pinnacle of your profession, one thing you must ask yourself is whether you’ll be leaving the place better than when you first started. If the answer is no, then you must take measures to rectify or continue working.

Retiring when your fund or company burned to the ground will make you feel like an unsettled ghost, unable to rest in peace. You want to go out on your own terms, which is why negotiating a severance can be incredibly powerful to your mental well-being.

4) Ensure your legacy will be left in good hands.

The longer you’ve worked, often the harder it is to walk away. The transition is made easier if you have someone you’ve trained or trust to take over once you’re gone.

The last thing you want is to have all your good work get undone by someone with a completely different philosophy. If this happens, you will feel as if you wasted many years of your life. Find an excellent successor and don’t leave until you do.

5) Have a next purpose.

You don’t want to retire into nothingness. Going from working 12 hours a day to having all the free time in the world can be very disconcerting. After being so used to structure for so long, you might start wondering what else is there to life. Some of you might even get depressed if you don’t have purpose.

Instead, diligently map out your retirement goals months or even years before you retire. You want to retire to something, not from something.

Start talking to people in the fields that interest you when you still have a job. Once you retire, it may be tougher to build relationships because society tends to look down of those who no longer work.

Having a clear purpose in retirement will make your remaining days at work even more meaningful. You’ll also experience a much more joyful retirement life.

Retire As Many Times As You Can

There doesn’t need to be only one retirement in your life. Instead, I encourage you to retire multiple times because that means you’re challenging yourself with new endeavors.

Whether you decide to retire for six months or for six years is up to you. There’s nothing more professionally fulfilling than mastering a new skill and enjoying its accompanying rewards.

Skills are highly fungible today thanks to technology. So long as you’re able to work hard, communicate intelligently, get along with others, and produce more than you cost, you can do well at almost anything because the rest is learned on the job.

I truly hope we never see another 2008 – 2009, nor am I anticipating a correction of such magnitude. I’m just not willing to take unwarranted chances given I’m satisfied with what I have.

With now a wife and son to take care of and potentially zero active income if I sell Financial Samurai, I can no longer afford to take any excess risk. To go through another 40% loss as I did in 2009 at this stage in my life would be devastating.

Our passive income should keep us afloat, but I haven’t truly been able to means test it yet due to my severance that paid out from 2012 – 2017 and the active income I’ve been generating from Financial Samurai.

From July 2019 – July 2029, I plan to spend my 40s primarily focused on raising my boy and spending time with my parents. If we relocate to Hawaii, we’ll have more than enough activities to keep us busy in our second go around.

Let’s pray the next 10 years are as lucky as the past 10!

Related Posts:

The First Rule Of Financial Independence: Never Lose Money

The Fear Of Running Out Of Money In Retirement Is Overblown

Readers, anybody on a 10-year cycle like me? How do you plan to ensure good fortune for the next 10 years of your life? Anybody retire a second or third time? How long did each retirement last and what did you do? What else should people do to prepare for retirement?

The post How To Plan For Your Retirement The Second Time Around appeared first on Financial Samurai.

from https://www.financialsamurai.com/how-to-plan-for-your-retirement-the-second-time-around/

[junker-town]

NBA mock draft 2020: Should the Warriors take LaMelo Ball or Anthony Edwards?

LaMelo Ball, Obi Toppin, and Anthony Edwards are three of the top prospects in the 2020 NBA Draft.

Here’s our latest projection of the 2020 NBA Draft.

The 2019-2020 college basketball season is suddenly over. The NCAA tournament was canceled over the coronavirus pandemic, taking away a critical opportunity from players looking to boost their NBA draft stock and pro scouts aiming to make one last evaluation on prospects.

With the basketball world on indefinite hiatus, it’s time to check in on where things stand with the 2020 NBA Draft.

This draft was thought to be wide open at the top from the very beginning. Nothing that happened over the course of the season changed that. There remains no consensus choice for the No. 1 overall pick, with LaMelo Ball and Georgia freshman shooting guard Anthony Edwards thought to be the front-runners right now. While both are young players with considerable upside, each has obvious flaws in their game. Don’t be surprised if another player from a growing list of challengers eventually stakes their claim to the top pick once the lottery is held.

1. Golden State Warriors - LaMelo Ball, PG, Illawarra Hawks

There’s a case to be made for Ball as the best pure talent in this draft. It starts with his prodigious passing ability and elite vision that allows him to make every read on the court as a 6’7 lead guard. Ball doesn’t just pass to open teammates — he passes his teammates open. NBA teams should be willing to live with a little recklessness for the thrill of a truly special facilitator who can create transition opportunities out of thin air and whip passes with either hand in the half-court. Ball’s passing ability is boosted by his advanced handle. Despite being one of the youngest prospects in this class — he doesn’t turn 19 years old until the end of August — Ball might already be its tightest ball handler.

Ball failed to score efficiently (46 percent true shooting) during his season in Australia, but he did show great touch on floaters and rare rebounding ability for a guard. His shot selection has come under fire for his propensity to take deep pull-up threes, but if he’s eventually able to hit those shots with some consistency as he gets older, it will be a huge boon for his game. The defensive end is a real question for LaMelo, where he often lacks focus and obviously lacks functional strength.

If the Warriors do win the lottery, expect this pick to be very much open for business in trade talks.

2. Atlanta Hawks - Anthony Edwards, SG, Georgia

Edwards will be in contention to go No. 1 overall regardless of who lands the pick because of his mix of youth, tools, and upside. The freshman guard had some brilliant highs during SEC play, dropping 36 points on South Carolina, 32 points on Florida, 29 points on Texas A&M, and 26 points on Arkansas and Tennessee. He has an enticing intoxicating combination of strength, ability, and athleticism that is best used when he decides to consistently put pressure on the rim. While he only made 29.1 percent of his threes, he was able to get shots off from deep at a high volume, shot well from the foul line (77 percent), and made three or more three-pointers in 13 of his 31 games.

Anthony Edwards is such a powerful and explosive athlete pic.twitter.com/ePPxtnNjsY

— Max Carlin (@maxacarlin) March 9, 2020

At the same time, it isn’t difficult to poke holes in Edwards’ game. His scoring efficiency was a tick below average (52.5 true shooting percentage) and he’s prone to lapses in effort and focus defensively. He has been shaky as a decision-maker with the ball in his hands and likely does not project as a full-time offensive initiator. He still has a tendency to settle for difficult shots rather than get to the rim or make easy play.

3. Cleveland Cavaliers - Onyeka Okongwu, C, USC

Okongwu — a high school teammate of LaMelo Ball on Chino Hills — has skyrocketed up draft boards during his season at USC simply by being one of the most productive freshmen in the country. The 6’9, 245-pound center is so solid on both ends of the floor, with his impact showing up in catch-all metrics like box score plus-minus, where he ranks third in the nation. Okongwu scored efficiently all season (64.5 percent true shooting), showing the ability to consistently finish with his off-hand and the explosive to power through the defense for a dunk. He’s been a monster on the offensive glass, ranking in the 90th percentile on putbacks, per Synergy Sports. He’s also been effective on hard rolls to the basket and on his post-up opportunities. While he’s a non-shooter from three-point range, he still has so many different ways to score.

Onyeka Okongwu, good lord. Great anticipation for this steal and then the big dunk pic.twitter.com/GQ7Oanft1R

— Jackson Frank (@jackfrank_jjf) February 23, 2020

Okongwu’s defense might be even better than his offense. He’s a skilled rim protector with a nearly 10 percent block rate and has shown a keen awareness of knowing when and how to help. Cleveland has drafted point guards high in the lottery the last two years, and could use a smart, young big like Okongwu to help everyone else slide into their role.

4. Minnesota Timberwolves - Deni Avdija, F, Maccabi Tel Aviv

Avdija has appeal as a 6’8 combo forward who does a little bit of everything. He’s at his best in transition as a grab-and-go rebounding threat whose ability to push the break leads to scoring chances for himself and his teammates. He’s an impressive passer and solid overall decision-maker for a forward who can cleanly handle secondary playmaking duties as he continues to get tighter as a ball handler. He already understands how to cut into open spaces in the halfcourt. When all else fails, Avdija can turn to a solid post-game with the size to punish mismatches. His combination of size and feel also helps him hold up defensively, where he’s shown an impressive understanding of when and how to help.

Refresh your memory ⏪ Deni Avdija is having a brilliant season with @MaccabitlvBC Check out his best moments from the season so far! #GameON pic.twitter.com/HvyUED0ANq

— Turkish Airlines EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) March 17, 2020

Shooting is Avdija’s clear swing skill. He hit just 33.6 percent of his threes and 52 percent of his free throws. His shooting form is solid and he has been able to get his shot off from deep with volume. He’ll need to find a way to hit improve his efficiency from long-range and get to the foul line regularly to fulfill his potential in the halfcourt.

5. Detroit Pistons - Killian Hayes, G, Ulm

Hayes, a 6’5 French combo guard, has made major strides during his first season in the German league. While not the most explosive athlete, Hayes still projects as a primary creator because of his skill in the pick-and-roll. No, Hayes won’t dust defenders off the dribble, but he knows how to manipulate pace with the threat of his pull-up shooting and the ability to rifle passes with his left hand. He’s scored efficiently all season (59 percent true shooting) and has been money at the foul line (87 percent) despite struggling to shoot from three-point range (29 percent).

Killian Hayes: QB1 pic.twitter.com/6o8vdFAhAK

— Derek Murray (@dmurrayNBA) February 12, 2020

As his shooting improves, Hayes will have the ability to play on- or off-the-ball as a high-level passer. A team like the Pistons, desperate for help in the backcourt, should be thrilled if he’s available when they pick.

6. New York Knicks - Obi Toppin, C/F, Dayton

Toppin has been nothing less than the most spectacular player in college basketball as a redshirt sophomore for high-powered Dayton. A 6’9, 220-pound big man, Toppin dunks everything in the paint, attacks the offensive glass, and has the body control and touch to finish more efficiently than any player in college basketball. He ranks No. 3 in the country with a 68.4 true shooting percentage and is currently in the 99th percentile for points per possession. His outside shot has also made major strides, as he’s made 39 percent of 82 attempted three-pointers this season.

Obi Toppin's synergy profile. He ranks in the 99th percentile of points per possession this season. pic.twitter.com/uD6OQ8Ihj9

— Ricky O'Donnell (@SBN_Ricky) March 11, 2020

Toppin is not the most engaged defender and there’s also the open question of how he’ll ultimately be used at the NBA level. Does he defend enough to be a full-time five? Does he have the perimeter game currently required to be an NBA four? Toppin is a unique talent, but his unassailable production and obvious physical gifts means he’s likely a top-10 pick.

7. Chicago Bulls - Tyrese Maxey, G, Kentucky

Maxey didn’t have Kentucky’s offense to himself this season playing alongside Ashton Hagans and Immanuel Quickely in the backcourt, but John Calipari’s team often looked best in his hands. The 6’3 guard is lightning-quick with the ball, possessing a rare blend of speed and power that makes him a force in transition and a formidable scorer at the rim. There aren’t many players in this class who can create their own offense off the dribble while doubling as a heady enough passer to hit an open teammate. Those are the boxes Maxey checks.

Tyrese Maxey's finishing is SO good. Between the touch, his ability to dislodge players on drives and at the rim, smarts using the rim to protect against rim protectors, ability to finish with both hands, etc...he has it all in the paint. Awesome finisher. pic.twitter.com/qill1Alq21

— Spencer (@SKPearlman) February 20, 2020

The freshman guard plays with a competitive fire that also translates on the defensive end. He will get in the chest of opposing ball handlers and use his quick hands to disrupt change-of-direction drives and force turnover opportunities. He doesn’t have great size and isn’t yet a money shooter — though he’s much better than his 29 percent from three would indicate — but he’s simply one of the safest players in this draft because of his well-rounded, two-way skill set.

8. Charlotte Hornets - James Wiseman, C, Memphis

Wiseman was the No. 1 recruit in the country entering the season when he chose to play for his high school coach Penny Hardaway at Memphis. While he only played three games amid an NCAA scandal before deciding to leave school for good, Wiseman showed everything that makes him a polarizing prospect in draft circles.

He is massive for a center, standing at 7’1, 240 pounds, with a 7’6 wingspan. He showed himself to be a more disciplined defender in his short time in the NCAA, not biting on as many shot fakes and occasionally impressing with his verticality. He is simply not the quickest off the ground, which hurts the sky-high defensive upside many of his most ardent believers see in him. His offense is pretty rudimentary at this point, though he’ll be able to score a bit just on his physicality. The ideal outcome for him is something like De’Andre Jordan with less bounce. He will probably go higher than this, but he’s not the slam dunk prospect some thought he’d be coming into the year.

9. Washington Wizards - Cole Anthony, G, North Carolina

Anthony was getting top-three hype in some draft circles before tearing his meniscus and missing nearly two months for North Carolina. His return has been a mixed bag, with some great performances (25 points vs. Syracuse on 7-of-11 shooting from three; 28 points vs. Wake Forest) and some underwhelming ones (nine points on 4-of-14 shooting vs. Duke) happening in equal accord.

Terrific finish from Cole Anthony. #UNC pic.twitter.com/7h96p0KCdU

— Trevor William Marks (@twmarks_) March 12, 2020

The case for Anthony starts with his tough shot-making and the ability to blow by defenders off the dribble (he’s in the 92nd percentile on isolations). He isn’t quite as explosive going to the rim as some hoped given his high school reputation, but he still drew a lot of fouls on a per-minute basis. How he leverages his own scoring ability to make his teammates better will remain an open question. Ultimately, he could be best playing with another high-level initiator and slotting into a secondary scoring and playmaking role off the ball.

10. Phoenix Suns - Isaac Okoro, F, Auburn

Okoro might be the best defensive prospect in this class. The 6’6 wing has the combination of strength, quickness, and discipline to guard up to four positions in the league. He’s a sharp help defender, showing a keen awareness of when and how to rotate. He is both tough to screen on the perimeter and tough to score on at the rim when he walls up and stays vertical to challenge a shot. His steal numbers were depressed in a conservative Auburn defense, but he is exactly the type of versatile defender the NBA covets.

Some more handles from Isaac Okoro and a quick change of direction out of the PnR to get to the basket and finish through two defenders pic.twitter.com/rZ0eXxrleu

— Zach Milner (@ZachMilner13) January 24, 2020

His offense isn’t nearly as impressive. Okoro is a rough shooter who will likely be ignored on the perimeter and hurt spacing early in his career. He is a good cutter and has shown surprising ability as a passer and decision-maker, giving him an avenue to positive offensive contributions down the line. The team that drafts him would do well to move him around offensively instead of forcing him to space the floor.

11. San Antonio Spurs - Tyrese Haliburton, PG, Iowa State

Haliburton’s season ended early after fracturing his left wrist, but before the injury he was building a solid case for himself as a top-10, maybe even top-five, pick. A long and thin 6’5 point guard, Haliburton put up some truly mind-boggling offensive efficiency numbers last year in a small role for the Cyclones as an under-the-radar freshman. He was the focal point for Iowa State this year and was able to up his usage while largely maintaining his efficiency, finishing with 63 percent true shooting.

He is possibly the most unique talent in this class. Haliburton is an advanced passer, a deadly catch-and-shoot threat, and a heady defender. At the same time, he isn’t an explosive athlete going to the rim and can’t consistently create offense off the dribble. He feels like he’d fit best in a low-usage offensive role where he can focus on playmaking, spacing the floor, and playing help defense.

12. Portland Trail Blazers - Devin Vassell, F, Florida State

Vassell has quietly shot up draft boards this season by starring for a Florida State team that won the ACC. The 6’7 wing easily projects into a 3-and-D role at the next level. He’s been a major threat on catch-and-shoot situations all year (80 percentile) and has shown the ability to hit movement threes. He’s also getting 21 percent of his offense in transition, where he ranks in the 94th percentile.

Just watch Devin Vassell for the whole possession. He does every small thing you can think of on defense while off the ball. Signaling, talking, pointing, telling teammates where to be, rotating to take away passing lanes, etc. Once again, the best team defender in the country pic.twitter.com/HjW7IWkiAw

— Zach Milner (@ZachMilner13) February 2, 2020

Vassell projects as an immediate contributor defensively, where he was sharp with his rotations for a top-15 Florida State unit. This combination of length, shooting, and team defense will hard to pass on in the lottery.

13. Sacramento Kings - Josh Green, G/F, Arizona

Green feels like a safe bet to be a solid rotation player even if he lacks the star upside teams ideally want in the lottery. An athletic 6’4 wing, Green is a downhill offensive player and stout defender who could be able to guard three positions. He isn’t much a creator off the dribble in the halfcourt, but he’s good attacking the rim in transition. Shooting is his clear swing skill. Right now, he’s able to hit open catch-and-shoot attempts from deep at a 34 percent clip, but lacks the shot diversity to do much else.

14. New Orleans Pelicans - R.J. Hampton, G, New Zealand Breakers

Plenty of questions about RJ Hampton's game (touch in paint, passing / feel, physicality, etc), but his burst is absolutely NOT one of them. From his first step to acceleration (including after the gather), Hampton's burst is elite pic.twitter.com/yk6bnOX4ru

— Spencer (@SKPearlman) December 26, 2019

Hampton reclassified late in the summer and decided to turn pro in New Zealand rather than play college basketball in the United States. The Dallas native was having himself a solid season as a 6’5 combo guard before a hip flexor injury ended his season. Hampton is a slashing guard who is at his best pressuring the basket. He doesn’t have the vision and passing chops to be a lead point guard right now, but he can still make simple reads and handle facilitating in a pinch. Shooting will be swing skill. He made just 15-of-51 three-point attempts (29 percent) before the injury.

15. Orlando Magic - Nico Mannion, PG, Arizona

Mannion is a skilled offensive point guard whose lack of size and athletic pop leaves questions about how his game translates to the next level. He is one of the most versatile shooters in this class, hitting threes off the dribble, becoming a master at relocating for threes off-the-ball, and showing soft touch on his floaters when attacking the basket. He’s also a solid passer who can run pick-and-roll but often gets into a tough spot if he’s forced to finish over length.

Defensively, he’ll only be able to guard one position and badly lacks strength. The Magic are widely known to value length in the draft, but perhaps someone with Mannion’s high-end offensive upside based on his shooting and passing talent is worth going in a different direction.

16. Minnesota Timberwolves (via Nets) - Aleksej Pokuševski, C, Olympiacos

Pokuševski is a 7-footer who plays more like a guard. Often stationed outside the three-point line on offense, the Serbian is a capable catch-and-shoot threat from deep with a quick trigger. He can also make plays as a passer, using his size to see over defenses and find cutters. He badly needs to add strength to compete to improve his interior finish and hold up defensively.

17. Boston Celtics (via Grizzlies) - Theo Maledon, PG, ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne

Tony Parker’s understudy in France, Maledon is a 6’5 point guard who can hit shots while playing a heady floor game. Maledon isn’t going to dust defenders off the dribble or have the speed/power combination to finish through length at the rim. What he can do is run offense as a secondary creator and stretch the floor with his jump shot. How he holds up defensively could be the biggest question.

18. Brooklyn Nets (via 76ers) - Aaron Nesmith, SG, Vanderbilt

Nesmith might be the best shooter in this class. The 6’6 sophomore guard was making 52 percent of his three-pointers before suffering a season-ending foot injury, showing a rare ability to knock down tough shots off of movement. That’s how he’s going to be used in the NBA, too. There isn’t much upside for him as a creator or finisher on offense. Defensively, he’s solid if unspectacular, knowing where to be and how to use his length while having the greatest blend of speed and strength.

19. Dallas Mavericks - Patrick Williams, F, Florida State

Like his teammate Vassell, Williams is yet another 3-and-D prospect for Florida State. At 6’8, 225 pounds with a 6’11 wingspan, the freshman has nice size for a combo forward. He’s a strong team defender who has put up big defensive playmaking numbers — 5.6 percent block rate and 2.6 percent steal rate — all year. He can slide into a complementary role on offense as a floor spacer who takes open threes (32 percent from deep) and can attack a closeout.

20. Milwaukee Bucks (via Pacers) - Saddiq Bey, F, Villanova

Bey has become one of the best wing scorers in college basketball as a sophomore. His biggest strides have come as an outside shooter, where he went from hitting 37 percent of his threes as a freshman to 45.1 percent as a sophomore. Bey has even been given the opportunity to run the offense for Villanova in a pinch, playing as a de facto point guard for stretches. While he has nice size at 6’8, 215 pounds, he lacks top-end NBA athleticism and will have a lot to prove defensively.

21. Denver Nuggets (via Rockets) - Jaden McDaniels, F, Washington

A consensus top-10 recruit out of high school, McDaniels is a long and skinny 6’9 forward with some shooting ability — hitting 43-of-127 shots from deep (33.9 percent). While his tools are intriguing, the production hasn’t always been there. He’s shown a noticeable lack of burst going to the basket and has failed to score efficiently throughout the season. McDaniels ranks in the 43rd percentile in halfcourt scoring opportunities, and in the 28th percentile in transition. It’s still possible someone buys the upside he showed in high school, and he goes much higher than this.

22. Philadelphia 76ers (via Thunder) - Kira Lewis, PG, Alabama

Lewis started his career at Alabama as a 17-year-old freshman, making him the youngest sophomore in the country. He turned into one of the best players in the SEC this season, averaging 18.5 points per game and raising his numbers across the board from his freshman year. The 6’3 guard one of the fastest players in this class with the ball in his hands. He excels at putting pressure on the rim, even if he still struggles to finish over length. While not a natural playmaker, Lewis showed improved playmaking chops with the Tide this season. He’d be a nice value pick at this point for Philadelphia.

23. Miami Heat - Leandro Bolmaro, G, Barcelona

A 6’8 point-forward who excels as a ball handler and passer, Bolmaro hasn’t played much this season for Barcelona’s top team in Euroleague, but his combination of size and skill is unique enough to warrant a first-round pick.

24. Utah Jazz - Tre Jones, PG, Duke

Jones was thought to be a possible first-round pick after his freshman season playing with Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett, but made the surprising decision to return to Duke for his sophomore year. All he did this season was win ACC Player of the Year. Jones upped his usage, increased in his scoring efficiency, and continued to make a big impact defensively. Just ask Cole Anthony how he feels about Jones’ defense: as Anthony shot 4-of-14 against Duke in their final meeting, Jones finished with 21 points, 11 assists, and the win.

25. Boston Celtics - Precious Achiuwa, F/C, Memphis

Achiuwa certainly passes the eye test. At 6’9, 225 pounds with a wingspan over 7’2, the freshman forward is long, strong, and explosive athletically. He has the perfect frame to be a modern four, with the size to pinch hit as a small-ball five. Achiuwa is capable of some incredible moments because of his physicality, but making consistently good decisions every possession remains a work in progress. His jumper (13-for-40 from three) is his biggest swing skill.

26. Oklahoma City Thunder (via Nuggets) - Paul Reed, C, DePaul

Reed had an excellent junior year for a DePaul team that faded fast once conference play started. A 6’9, 220-pound big man, Reed was a force on defense — 9.4 block rate, 3.4 steal rate — while cleaning the glass. Scouts will hope he’s the type of big man who can hold his own defending the perimeter while still being a quality rebounder and rim protector. His offense was effective for DePaul all season (56.2 true shooting percentage) even if his corkscrew-style perimeter jumper and feel for scoring in the pick-and-roll remains in development.

27. New York Knicks (via Clippers) - Tyler Bey, F, Colorado

Bey is one of the best defensive prospects in this class. The 6’7 junior forward for Colorado boasts a 7-foot wingspan, sharp instincts as a team defender, and the speed to recover out on shooters. Bey also made major strides offensively this season. He got to the rim at will and finished top-20 in the country in free-throw rate. He graded out in the 88th percentile in half-court scoring efficiency and had a career-best 61.4 true shooting percentage. Adding a consistent three-point shot would take his game to another level.

28. Toronto Raptors - Xavier Tillman, C, Michigan State

Tillman might have been the most impactful player in college basketball over the last season and a half. Michigan State took off when he replaced Nick Ward in the Spartan lineup as a sophomore. In a full-time role as a junior, all Tillman did was lead college basketball in box score plus-minus by anchoring Tom Izzo’s defense and acting as an indispensable part of its offense. A 6’8, 245-pound center, Tillman is neither the biggest or the fastest frontcourt prospect in this draft, but he might be the smartest. He always seems to know where to be and never wastes his movement. Known for his shot-blocking and rebounding, Tillman also finished in the 88th percentile of points per possession on offense.

29. Los Angeles Lakers - Devon Dotson, PG, Kansas

Dotson is a strong and speedy point guard who helped make Kansas the best team in college basketball this season. The 6’2 sophomore played at an All-American level all season. On offense, Dotson showed the ability to get to the rim and finish when he’s there (he made 65 percent of his attempts at the rim, per hoop-math) while improving as a playmaker for his teammates. He excelled at applying ball pressure defensively and posted a monster 3.6 percent steal rate. His perimeter jumper is his swing skill.

30. Boston Celtics (via Bucks) - Vernon Carey, Jr., C, Duke

Carey was a top prospect out of high school who perhaps didn’t get as much attention as he deserved because it felt like his game didn’t totally translate to the NBA. While there’s still some truth to that, Carey had such an impressive season at Duke that he’s worth a shot late in the first round in a weaker draft. The 6’10, 270-pound center and son of the long-time Miami Dolphins left tackle by the same name, Carey has soft hands as a finisher inside and was much better as a rebounder than expected. He also hit 38.1 percent of his threes in 21 attempts. He might never be the type of switch frontcourt defender the NBA loves, but his talent is obvious.