with Bayless, Rudy, Batum/Webster, Frye/Outlaw (for now), Przybilla, it seems like our 2nd unit is made to press. Maybe if we get another athletic 4 running the press with the second unit could become a decent option? Honestly, I think Aldridge was made to run the full court press.

Gladwell has adapted his analysis a bit for a non-basketball audience.

Also funny how Simmons declared Jordan’s competitors all as useless. Mhm, so if he had Kobe and LeBron as competitors, he would be the an even greater greatest of all times?

We should stop rewarding bad teams with high draft picks. He suggests a completely randomized draft lottery that includes all the teams. The Cavs have an equal chance of landing the number 1 pick as the Kings. Now that would be interesting and there would be serious incentive for bad teams to get better. And if a bad team couldn’t get better for a long time clearly the owner is terrible and needs to go (maybe even some teams would fold and the league would contract which could actually be a good thing).

I would tweak that idea slightly and give some preference to the worse teams in the lottery. Maybe a tiered system….the 5 worst teams have a greater chance at landing in the top 5 picks, the next 5 are weighted to 6-10, the next 5 are weighted to picks 11-15 and so on. Not quite enough “bad incentive” to tank or not worry about making a better team (as with the current system) but the bad teams get a shot at landing a good player to boost their chances. I think it would encourage much more pick trading because better teams tend to not need top picks. For example, would Cleveland or Boston need Rubio? Probably not. But the Cavs will probably need a replacement for Z pretty soon.

Will the Blazers be known as “inliers”? What about B Roy more specifically?

It worries me that Roy will always be overshadowed by the ridiculous stats that LeBron, CP3, Wade, etc. will be putting up.