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[24 Oct 2009|04:28am] |
NBA Power Rankings.
1. San Antonio Spurs*
2. LA Lakers*
3. Cleveland Cavaliers*
4. Orlando Magic*
5. Boston Celtics*
6. Dallas Mavericks*
7. Denver Nuggets*
8. Atlanta Hawks*
9. Chicago Bulls*
10. Washington Wizards*
11. Phoenix Suns*
12. Portland Blazers*
13. Utah Jazz*
14. NO Hornets*
15. LA Clippers
16. Toronto Rap*
17. Houston Rockets
18. SONICS
19. Philly Sixers*
20. Detroit Pistons
21. Miami Heat
22. GState Warriors
23. NY Knickerbockers
24. Minnesota TWolves
25. NJ Nyets
26. Charlotte 'Cats
27. Sacramento Queens
28. Memphis Grizz
29. Milwaukee Bucks
30. Larry Bird overvalues whitey
* = playoff team as listed
This was a tough process. The NBA is all about matchups (see Magic/Cavs 2009 playoffs). However, there's a clear top 5 with two from the West and three from the East and any one of them could make the finals depending on injuries/playoff matchups.
Let's start with Dallas. Yeah, high, I know, but not having a crazy pregnant incarcerated fiance has to be worth 5-10 wins for Dirk. The core is still solid, they added Marion to a team with a legitimate MVP, the decade's best PG, and solid center who can harass bigs more than any team below them. Ego issues aside, this is the most solid "non-contender" in my book.
I hate having to put the Rockets, Clippers and "Sonics" out of the playoffs, but I couldn't rank anyone in the West above them low enough to allow them in. This is why I'm somewhat in favor of a seeded NBA tournament. These teams could honestly be 6 seeds in the East. Even though this goes against my seeding, I predict one of these 3 teams will replace one of the top 8 seeds as I have in the West and it will likely be do to injury (if Roy or Paul goes down for an extended time, for example).
The Pistons might sneak into the 8 spot again but I don't count on it. Then again, who guessed the Nuggets could be so good last year? Anything is possible.
Basically, there's a solid 12 teams we know will be lottery picks next year, with a couple in doubt. Maybe Detroit or Miami get in, or one of the three Westerners I put above. Past that, barring trades/injuries, I feel absolute(-ly no) confidence in these picks.
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[11 Jul 2009|04:30am] |
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Seu Jorge - Life On Mars |
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Sometimes you fall and hope there's a hand to help and sometimes you have to realize there will never be a hand to help you up. I fell real hard and there's no help in sight.
I suppose it's time to get up on my own and brush the dust off. Fuck.
I love that no one reads this crap anymore. It's invigorating.
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[10 Jul 2009|04:12am] |
Was watching IFC earlier. Conclusions were made.
The Life Aquatic is my favorite Wes Anderson film.
Kevin Smith movies get worse with aging.
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[06 Jul 2009|03:16am] |
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I'm gonna vomit when I see Sheed in Celtic green.
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[19 Apr 2009|04:48am] |
I was awful close to posting a photoshopped pic of a friend with the caption of "High Times" until I remembered he's soon going into law and I'm not a bad friend.
So instead just make that mental image and lawl.
Related, I can't wait for public officials in the next 5-10 years to start regretting old facebook pics.
Lastly, happy birthday Jess! Sorry I did not make it out last night :(
I was looking for a pic of you and I but couldn't find one (although I do have some polaroids kicking around somewhere I need to find). So here's you kicking it at the old place.
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[13 Apr 2009|10:51pm] |
I fucking can't wait until April (in the D) is over.
Seriously, fuck you FSN.
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[16 Mar 2009|02:34am] |
For once I'm actually going to record something in here that is of real substance, as opposed to some youtube video or my thoughts on the NBA
My aunt died on Friday. She had been battling cancer for approximately a year. It was a sudden turn, she had been doing well for a while but it ended up being worse than expected. Her name was Connie.
Growing up, I didn't know her well. She knitted me an afghan when I was a youngster that I took when I left my house and moved to Kalamazoo. It's my only material link to her. My grandfather died in the 70's before I was born and my grandmother was her stepmother. There was always a bit of bickering between them that growing up I was only loosely familiar with. There was an awkwardness that I was aware of but never understood. She was one of the strongest women I've ever met. She was also my mother's best friend. I was never particularly close with her, but I always felt a strong bond despite that. Only now do I regret not making a greater effort through the years to know her better. I always felt one day we'd become friends, but the cancer hit harder and faster than I thought and I missed that opportunity.
Connie moved to San Francisco years ago to run her own PR firm. I remember her talking about meeting Dwayne Johnson, The Rock, when I was in high school. I thought that was really cool. She also started a shelter for battered women in Milwaukee where she grew up. Out of all of my relatives she was the one I most aspired towards and I never let her know that. She is certainly missed by me and anyone who had the pleasure of knowing her. She was a good, strong, and compassionate person and I would do well to be half the person she was.
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| Who Watched The Watchmen this weekend? |
[09 Mar 2009|02:47am] |
Here's my quick mini-Watchmen review.
Not bad.
That's the best summarize I can offer. I went into this film with absurdly low expectations. This was fed to me from the trailers, my knowledge of Zach Snyder's previous flicks (300, bad, Dawn of Dead, pretty okay), and friends' opinions who had read the comic. After reading the critical reception combined with all these factors I was almost prepared to completely ignore the film, as Alan Moore would likely have hoped, and not seen it at all. But I did and here's what I thought.
Two large issues for me. The first was the style in which it was shot. I knew this would be an issue going in. Snyder likes to film his movies with a "cool" quality. CGI laden action and stop-slow-fast motion cinematography bothers me. I knew that would be an issue and was prepared for it. What I was not prepared for was how pretty the movie was. This was to the film's benefit and detriment. You can film something and have it look good, but this sacrificed a certain amount of grit. Watchmen isn't as well illustrated as other comics and graphic novels, but it had an edge that this film failed to relate. All of the gore seemed to be almost contrived, almost seemed to beg to look dark when it wasn't. To draw a loose comparison, and this is the first thing that comes to mind, Saving Private Ryan. This is a film that hits you when you see the gore, the war, the underlying contempt mankind can have toward each other and disgusts you. The graphic novel made me feel that but the violence in this movie did not. There were many poignant moments within the novel that struck a chord with me that lacked when I saw on screen. Both of these movies had some terrible moments, but The Watchmen fell flat with it's violence and it didn't have anything to do with the fact that one was a complete fabrication while the other was a historical work of fiction. The Watchmen had an ability to dig into you but did not in it's film form.
Issue number two, and this gets into what the film lacked. Much has been made of the lack of the "Black Freighter" storyline from the film. For those whom don't know, it's basically a self sustained comic book written into the graphic novel, telling a story that someone in the graphic novel is reading. It's really intriguing, although I didn't like it as I was reading the novel. However, by the time I was finished reading I really appreciated it. You can tell the story without including this, but one important character is the man who owns the shop where the young lad is reading the story. This man is almost completely left out of the movie and I felt he was far too important to not give note to. He gave the non-superhero, every day average Joe perspective to the goings-on of the story. This newspaper vendor allowed a break every so often to give the audience a personal and relateable perspective that gave a greater amount of credence to what was going on as it was happening. The lack of this type of character really hindered the film and he should have been there.
There's other ommissions and errors within the film. These other things were minor to me, though, and the film did do other things well. The ending was cleaned up and I liked the changes. The soundtrack worked with me more than it didn't. Overall, the movie told the story well but without lacking the subtle nuance that the novel did. Harking back to my first point, the movie failed to paint a disgusting world as well as it needed to. It failed to frighten and horrify. The movie didn't give you that pit in your stomach that the graphic novel did. So on these aspects it failed.
But it wasn't bad. It entertained. It entertained me, a reader, and friends who were non-readers of the graphic novel. So it succeeded there, and that's about the best an "un-filmable" film could do.
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[20 Feb 2009|01:11pm] |
Hold onto your balls.
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[04 Feb 2009|03:01am] |
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Hammersmith, yeah, it is soooooo fucking good
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[28 Dec 2008|04:12am] |
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I missed you, WoW.
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[24 Dec 2008|08:18pm] |
Comedy Central's commercial break interlude summed things up nicely.
Happy Holidays.
Enjoy the anniversary of whatever crazy magical thing you people think happened around this time of year.
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[06 Dec 2008|04:40am] |
This will take you ten seconds.
Go to google. Type "Find Chuck Norris" and click I'm Feeling Lucky.
Also, enjoy how the ending of my favorite movie would have been had it been made in 1983 instead of 1993.
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[03 Nov 2008|11:16pm] |
Here's why Joe Dumars is the smartest man in basketball. Allen Iverson. This is a great deal. Great, great deal. I love Chauncey, and McDyess has been one of my absolute favorite Pistons since he came to Detroit and everyone should know that. So it's really sad to say goodbye to those guys but, we're getting Allen Iverson. We're getting rid of the clog in our frontline that was giving minutes to Sheed, Amir, Dyess, Maxiell, Kwyame, and Herrmann. Too many players for not enough minutes. We were deep, we still are deep.
Then there's A.I. Now why would the Pistons and their team first attitude pick up a superstar? Because we need one. We've been beaten by Duncan, Wade, LeBron, and KG/Pierce. Our defense couldn't shore up for our offense like it did in 04 the past 4 years, it hasn't gotten better, so let's try getting a super star to put the ball in the bucket. And why not The Answer? He's been completely dissatisfied in Denver (averaging under 13 shots a game in this early season). I caught a little of a Denver/Clippers game a few days ago. I've been getting a free preview of NBA league pass but it ends tonight. I think I need to drop the $170 on it. It's like a window to heaven in my television when I get off work at night. Any game, thanks please. ANYWAY so I'm watching this Clips Nugs game and AI has it in cruise control as the Nugs are getting creamed. The most interesting part is the ads I'm catching off the local feed (L.A. Fox Sports) about how we need to vote for traditional marriage values' restoration. Well all of the sudden, Baron Davis goes down, then AI drops a couple shots in and realizes Denver actually might win the game. He goes into 2001 MVP mode and it's like he's possessed and scores 20 points in the final 20 minutes including overtime to win it.
The point is, this is the AI we're getting. He has never been on a team this good, this established. Sure the Nuggets were talented, but they weren't any good. And sure he made the finals, but it was on a terrible team that got terribly exposed, possibly even swept if I remember correctly. So he'll take a lot of shots, yeah, and some bad ones, but he gives us a chance to win now. As good as we were with Chauncey and Dyess, I don't think anyone including those in that locker room honestly felt a championship was in sight this season.
So that's that. And that's not even the best part of this deal. This is what really makes Joe D. Joe Genius. We had to put Dyess and Samp into the deal for money purposes. Dyess had 2 years at $6.8 mill per and Chauncey 4 at $11. Samb had 1 a 700k. This is to make up for AI's contract at $20.8. But his is a 1 year deal as opposed to the multiyear deals, especially Chauncey's big chunk. All that money tied up will be free when we dump AI after this year (and we will, maybe even if we win a championship). Combine that with Sheed's expiring deal this year. That's $13.9. That dumb Kwame trade we made? One year, $4 million. Walter Herrmann who nobody likes (I love him)? One year two mill.
So let's add this up. At the end of this season, assuming AI, Sheed, Kwame, and Herrmann go, we clear out roughly $40,700,000 of our cap. That's astro-fuckingridiculous-nomical. Now we could use that to go after someone this summer Boozer, Artest, Marion, Andre Miller, or Lamar Odom. Or we could be thrifty and take all that space and basically save it. Sure we'd sacrifice our season next year, but we'd have enough cap space to potentially sign two players to max deals. Basically, get two super-duperstars. And here's some players who are unrestriced free agents in 2010: Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Ray Allen, Tyson Chandler, Manu Ginobili, Richard Jefferson, Joe Johnson, Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Redd. Oh yeah, and LeBron James. And we could possibly sign two of them to those 20 mill max deals.
I fuckin love basketball.
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[03 Nov 2008|02:58am] |
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I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who came out or called or texted or emailed me to wish me a happy birthday. That's all, it means a lot, thank you. I'm incredibly lucky to have a lot of amazing and wonderful people in my life.
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| NBA Flavor! |
[27 Oct 2008|04:40pm] |
I've been slacking on my NFL rankings. But here's the NBA season starting picks!
If you want weak sauce power rankings go to Marc Stein's testicle lacking picks.
1.Lakers - Solve this Odem dilemma, then give them the title. Best player in the league, best supporting cast, arguably best coach.
2.Celtics - Losing Posey is going to hurt them. Really! I can't see them winning it again, but then again I couldn't see it last year.
3.Hornets - Let's see how they do now that they aren't surprising anyone. I'm going to say CP3 can handle it. Shocking, I know.
4.Pistons - Maxiell looked so good this preseason. He just needs more patience when he gets the ball in the post. Chauncey did not so much....
5.Jazz - What a good team. AK47 hurts them because he's been sliding now and isn't the player he was 2 years ago.
6.Spurs - They're still the Spurs. They'll churn out 50 wins and get booted it the second round. This is their last good chance to win with Duncan, so maybe that who solidifying their dynasty will push them further than I think.
7.Cavaliers - Still an identity crisis on this team. Fire Mike Brown, hire Avery Johnson. That wasn't a joke.
8.Suns - If Steve Nash doesn't get a ring don't feel too bad for him. He used to fuck Elizabeth Hurley.
9.Magic - Can Hedo be as good as he was last year? Or is he the NBA's Derek Anderson?
10.Trail Blazers - If I didn't love the Pistons so much I'd adopt this team. Or if my city got fucked over and lost a 40 year old franchise that won an NBA title I'd adopt this team (sorry again, Seattle).
11.Hawks - They play hard and last year wasn't a fluke. Unlike a lot of teams, they don't face an identity crisis. Good players, good coaching, and they don't play dumb so they can beat more talented teams.
12.Rockets - Remember that great Rockets team that played so good through last spring? Giving minutes to Yao and Artest will not help that team.
13.Mavericks - They are really close to being a bad team. Give more minutes to Bass.
14.Heat - Dwayne Wade was the best player in the Olympics. Everyone forgets that Wade alone gives you a lot of wins. Stein put them 23. He's an idiot.
15.Warriors - Why did you have to leave BDavis? I want this team to be higher than this.
16.Raptors - O'Neal is a bad influence on your team. Bosh is a great one. I probably have them too low. Or exactly right. I don't know what to make of this team.
17.76ers - Elton Brand won't be Elton Brand MVP candidate of a couple years ago. High expectations, not a great team.
18.Wizards - This same team hasn't been able to beat the Cavs for 3 years and it just keeps staying the same and paying the same players more money. It's like they're content to be the #5 seed in the east. I say this is the year they really slip.
19.Nuggets - The worst defense in the league last year had the league's best shot blocker and lost him. They're going to give up 140 points a game.
20.Bulls - I guess 20? Who knows what this team will look like in 5 months. Trades trades trades.
21.Nets - This team could surprise people but I'm saying no. For now.
22.Grizzlies - They're going to be one of the best lottery teams. It's sad that's their cap.
23.Kings - Would Kevin Martin actually be an all star on a good team? I'm not sure.
24.Knicks - I like D'Antoni and hope that this team is fun to watch instead of fun to laugh at.
25.Clippers - Chris Kaman has an awesome blog and went to CMU.
26.Bucks - If Bill Simmons were their GM I'd put them like 10 spots higher.
27.Bobcats - Fire Michael Jordan because he has no idea what he's doing.
28.Pacers - Fire Larry Legend because he has no idea what he's doing.
29.Wolves - Kevin Love is gonna get so much ass in Minneapolis. He's that gumpy frat boy every cabin dwelling Gopher fan always wanted to screw while still wearing galoshes.
30.Apparently there's another NBA team but I don't want to talk about them.
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