SB Nation User Blog: ratbastird

OT - Court Rivals - 2008.08.21

ratbastird — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:24:02 -0000

First is the link to the last post to catch any smack you might have missed that has links to other past posts:

http://www.blazersedge.com/2008/8/15/594295/court-rivals-fantasy-game

Next up the other important links:

Google Player Attribute spreadsheet

Google League Standing Spreadsheet

http://www.courtrivals.com/

The Main Juice of the post:

Court Rivals, where BE teams beat up other BE teams. Currently teams are looking for new players, and currently JB is looking for other teams to talk smack too as they've gone off on a large series of wins.

Look for the smack talk to continue if they beat a team with 300 attribute points higher than them tonight.

If you're looking to join, simply post here and teams will be more than happy to take you on.

Playoffs:

I suggest we get our position placement this year, and 15 games into next year we start our play-offs. This lets us build up the attributes and works around the one challenge rule. Bring it BE teams!

Also... i changed the ranking system to be BE wins, and then attribute points, and then record against tied teams.

Games still waiting to be played for play off rankings:

BlazersEdgers: B-Edge Odenizers, Blazing the Edge
BEdgers: Blazing the Edge
Bedgers2: Blazing the Edge
Red Unit: Just Blaze
Just Blaze: Red Unit
B-Edge Odenizers: BlazersEdgers BEdgers
vERYkERRPLEX: DONE!!!
Blazing the EDge: BEdgers, Bedgers2, BlazersEdgers

Current Standings (need spreadsheet updated):

Bedgers—————————I (6-0) I (5874)
vERRYkERRPLEX————- I (5-2) I (5373)
Bedgers2————————-I (4-2) I (6154)
Just Blaze————————-I (4-2) I (5526)
Blazers Edgers——————I (1-4) I (5473)
Red Unit—————————I (1-5) I (5114)
Bedge Odenizers—————I (2-3) I (3829)
Blazing the Edge—————-I (0-4) I (3495)

Top Five Trained Player recognition award for duration of this post (meaning I won't be updating until the next post):

695 -- High Flyer ------------ Bedgers2
688 -- Jay Acer --------------- Red Unit
677 -- Point Guard ---------- Bedgers2
671 -- Jerryd Oden ---------- Bedgers2
662 -- LaMarcus Royden -- Bedgers2

Congrats on your excellence in training.

Note: If there are issues with the spreadsheet, feel free to volunteer to update and I'll catch you on the next court rivals post.

TEAMS NEEDING PLAYERS:

Currently no team is clambering for players, but if you're interested, post your name in this thread and I'm sure a team will find you. Hard workers are the most appreciated. After all, a new season of Court Rivals is beginning and there is some dead weight on a few of the teams that may be removed by next season if a hungry rookie is ready to come in and play.

Finally the disclaimer:

We're attempting to keep this to the minimal posts and only renew posting when the thread drops. We know this doesn't interest everyone, so if you're one of them, in the words of officer Barbrady "move along folks, nothing to see here".

OT - Court Rivals - 2008.08.19

ratbastird — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:59:22 -0000

First is the link to the last post to catch any smack you might have missed that has links to other past posts:

http://www.blazersedge.com/2008/8/15/594295/court-rivals-fantasy-game

Next up the other important links:

Google Player Attribute spreadsheet

Google League Standing Spreadsheet

http://www.courtrivals.com/

The Main Juice of the post:

Look for the smack talk to continue if they beat a team with 300 attribute points higher than them tonight.

If you're looking to join, simply post here and teams will be more than happy to take you on.

Playoffs:

I suggest we get our position placement this year, and 15 games into next year we start our play-offs. This lets us build up the attributes and works around the one challenge rule. Bring it BE teams!

Also... i changed the ranking system to be BE wins, and then attribute points, and then record against tied teams.

Games still waiting to be played for play off rankings:

BlazersEdgers: B-Edge Odenizers, Blazing the Edge
BEdgers: Blazing the Edge
Bedgers2: Blazing the Edge
Red Unit: Just Blaze
Just Blaze: Red Unit
B-Edge Odenizers: BlazersEdgers BEdgers
vERYkERRPLEX: DONE!!!
Blazing the EDge: BEdgers, Bedgers2, BlazersEdgers

Current Standings (need spreadsheet updated):

Bedgers—————————I (6-0) I (5874)
vERRYkERRPLEX————- I (5-2) I (5373)
Bedgers2————————-I (4-2) I (6154)
Just Blaze————————-I (4-2) I (5526)
Blazers Edgers——————I (1-4) I (5473)
Red Unit—————————I (1-5) I (5114)
Bedge Odenizers—————I (2-3) I (3829)
Blazing the Edge—————-I (0-4) I (3495)

Top Five Trained Player recognition award for duration of this post (meaning I won't be updating until the next post):

688 -- Jay Acer -------- Red Unit
679 -- High Flyer ------ Bedgers2
660 -- Point Guard ---- Bedgers2
657 -- Jerryd Oden ---- Bedgers2
628 -- Monty Everest --BlazersEdgers

Congrats on your excellence in training.

TEAMS NEEDING PLAYERS:

Finally the disclaimer:

Court Rivals Fantasy GAme Playoffs - 2008.08.15

ratbastird — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:37:34 -0000

New post to stay up top. Keeping at a minimum... blah blah blah... playoffs.

See notes and then play-off suggestions:

It is that time Court Rival fans, time for a new Court Rivals thread! I apologize to everyone that doesn't play court rivals and has no interest in this thread. We are doing our best to cut down on the amount of these that are created and try to maintain all the info in as few threads as possible. Thanks for your patience and understanding, oh and for being TomInHawaii.

Carrying on! Here is the latest Google Player Attribute spreadsheet which was updated on 8/6/08 by the kind and wonderful Jerryd Oden. If you have access and can update your team regularly it would be a great help, and reduce the work of one person.

In the latest BlazersEdge faux-league standings we have a Google League Standing Spreadsheet brought to us by the great Lamarcus Royden. Thanks guys!

OK full disclosure: I copied the first three paragraphs from the last court rivals thread. Continue discussion of all things Court Rivals here as the last one slipped way down the fanposts.

Also, if you want access to the Player Attribute spreadsheet, just tell me your email and I'll add you.

Here is my suggestion:

by myemic23

I say we just use the 8 teams we originally planned on. I wouldn’t mind my team getting a bye, but if we got 7 of the 8, might as well make it 8. Here is the condition though, any team who doesn’t accept or issue a challenge within a allotted amount of time, gets DQ’d. That means everyteam has to have 3 people prepared to accept the challenge if need be. However, since we didn’t complete interleague play, it seems unfair to award seeds based on solely our league record. Its really not an accurate indicator since it is incomplete, who knows how things might have shaked out for some of those teams that only played 3 or 4 games. So, I propose we award 1 one point for each of the three categories we decided to judge by, which were: 1)BE league record 2)rating 3)team attribute points. Here is what I think the seeding should be:

1)Bedgers—————————I (6-0) I (251) I (5430)
2)Bedgers2————————-I (4-2) I (235) I (5590)
3)vERRYkERRPLEX————- I (4-2) I (218) I (4758)
4)Just Blaze————————-I (2-2) I (194) I (5092)
5)Blazers Edgers——————I (1-2) I (134) I (5102)
6)Red Unit—————————I (0-5) I (184) I (4902)
7)Bedge Odenizers—————I (2-3) I (140) I (3533)
8)Blazing the Edge—————-I (0-3) I- (60) I (3203)

You can see that Bedgers beat every team below them in at least 2 categories, Bedgers2 beats everyone below them in 2 categories, kERplex beats everyone below them in two categories and just Blaze is no different. I think those top four seeds are locked, I don’t see how any of those teams could make a case to move up. I also think Blazing the Edge is pretty much a lock for the 8th seed, they don’t beat any of the teams in 2 categories. The 5,6 and 7 seeds required a bit more thinking for me. With my proposed scoring system, there is a snag. Of the 3 remaining teams, each team beats and loses to one team in 2 categories. I noticed that B-edge odenizers were the only team not to represent themselves here, so I figured they should just live with the 7 seed(they also have a major gap in training credits). Of the two teams remaining, Blazers edgers beats out Red Unit in two categories.

If nobody cries foul about their teams seeding or what I am proposing, I say we give each team until the 16th at 9:00pm (48hours from the time of this post) to attempt to issue the challenge. The other team that needs to accept will have until the 17th at 9:00 to get 3 teammates to accept the challenge. Every team needs to have someone say whether they issued the challenge, or tried to issue it but weren’t allowed to. Place those comments somewhere in this thread. If there are any teams after 48 hours that haven’t made a post here commenting that they challenged or attempted to, they are DQ’d That should help us see who is on the ball and who is slacking, and don’t forget to say what team you are representing. The only way to make this work is to have deadlines and DQ teams that don’t follow up on their end of the deal. If you snooze, you lose. In order to make sure you don’t get DQ’d, make sure you are checking in here and commenting as a record so everyone can see that you are attempting to challenge or attempting to accept. Remember, if you can’t get three teammates to accept a challenge after 72 hours, you will get DQ’d. If everyone is OK with this first stage, we can discuss how long to wait for the challenges to happen for each round. I suspect even if challenges are accepted, there will be instances where the game doesn’t play in time. We should develop a way to determine these outcomes if the game doesn’t play in X amount of time, and also what X amount of time should be for each round.

Let me know what you think, I would suggest recing this if you agree, and leaving a comment and suggestions if you don’t….

ROY > MJ

by myemic23 on Aug 14, 2008 10:17 PM MDT up reply actions 1 recs

Red uniform argument

ratbastird — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:39:16 -0000

I've resisted the come back of the red uniform. I love the black and red and I think we're one of the few teams in the league that does NOT have an ugly uniform. Even if I were out of state, I have a feeling I'd like this team just because I like the uniform.

However... there may be a very real reason to bring back the red.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080811/sc_nm/olympics_red_dc_1

Basically an article talking about how red makes the ref's biased.

Slow news day, and I thought it was interesting.

So, what do you think?

Poll

Would this sway you to pick the red?

Season ticket holders or want to bes...

ratbastird — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:56:47 -0000

I was calling about group tickets because I wasn't sure i'd be able to get in on the BE opening night group, and ended up emailing a sales guy there.

Awesome rep... Paul Rothchild is his name. Very responsive with the email and friendly guy to chat with.

Anyway, I'd been waiting for NEXT year to buy season tickets because I thought I might have one more year. Paul is saying there's a high likely hood that won't be the case.

Season Tickets are almost completely sold out. All that is left is white, and club. I just purchased the last three fuschia (had to because they came as a set... darn it). Some may drop those season tickets next year, but WHY if the blazers continue to improve? Everyone here from drexler and before knows a little about real blazer mania (not this silly "blazer mania is back" stuff), and thus you can imagine just how hard it will be to get tickets in the future. Particularly the season tickets to ensure PLAYOFF seating.

14000 seats are reserved for season ticket holders. The rest go to the groups and single ticket purchasers get what's left.

Next up for purchasing will be the groups who will likely buy out all the exciting games. The prediction by Paul was that the blazers will only have 300 level tickets left as singles for the best games and possibly even then there won't be a lot of single tickets.

If you're pondering or waiting, I'd suggest you give them a call and talk it over. Next year you might have a chance at them, but after that, they'll be gone and you may not even have a chance at next year. If you don't want club or the white section, you'll have to wait until next year to find out though.

Also, the blazers have a nice website that apparently lets you sell tickets for NO LESS than your purchase price. (not single ticket price). Frankly, that's how i hope to float the season tickets while i'm living in SLC.

Side note... yes I AM still interested in the blazer edge group for opening night. I'll just be selling my tickets to friends or online for large amounts of money to help fund this insanely expensive purchase i just did. (bolded as this was apparently missed before. I'll be selling my SEASON tickets to this game, not the BE. I want to be with a loud rowdy bunch of blazer lovers.)

Oh yeah, they do have single seats for single tickets AND you can space it out over 8 months which helps make it affordable.

Sorry if this has been posted before, but wanted to give people a heads up. If I hadn't called about forming my own group, i would have waited a year and I may have been out of luck.

I am now going to be one broke individual... hopefully those tickets sell or i'll be enjoying top ramen for quite a while.

What would it take for Greg to win Rookie and MVP?

ratbastird — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:44:29 -0000

I watched a video link on the Oregonian where a guy mentioned greg winning the Rookie and MVP award. It started me wondering... To start off, I know this is pretty much a pipe dream... but... what if and what would it take?

Without any new blazer news out there, I'm going to follow this thought. I'm not debating whether it can happen (too much), as it's highly unlikely, but lets talk and dream a little about what needs to happen. Frankly, I suspect that will throw a dose of reality on it, but anything is possible.

So, who's done this in the past? I think that's the first question:

Wes Unseld in 1969 and Wilt Chamberlain in 1960.

Wilt Chamberlain lead the league in both points and rebounds that year. Wiki link here.

Wes Unseld did it by joining a team with just 36-46 a year earlier. The Bullets rallied around 6' 7 250-pound rookie Wes Unseld and won a league-high 57 of 82 NBA games. Unseld was fifth in the league in rebounds and showed remarkable strength under the boards. Unseld also thrilled with his tremendous outlet passes, which drew comparisons to Russell and Chamberlain.

wiki link here

So it appears that the two ways to do this will be to dominate the stat categories or to greatly turn the team around. Even then there seems to be some hesitation to award rookies (see lebron james not winning yet despite getting his team to the NBA Finals)

Competition:

Lebron James
Kobe Bryant
Chris Paul
Steve Nash
Kevin Garnet
Paul Pierce

These seem like likely prospects assuming people are healthy. Also possible is Yao Ming, but I won't hold my breath on his health.

Winning with Stats:

Greg's most likely stats will be points, rebounds, and blocks. So, scoring leader top fives from last year:

Scoring

Lebron James 30.0
Kobe Bryant 28.3
Allen Iverson 26.4
Carmelo Anthony 25.7
Amare Stoudemire 25.2

Rebounding

Dwight Howard 14.2
Marcus Camby 13.1
Tyson Chandler 11.8
Tim Duncan 11.3
Al Jefferson 11.1

Blocks

Marcus Camby 3.6
Chris Kaman 2.8
Josh Smith 2.8
Samuel Dalembert 2.3
Dwight Howard 2.2

These are the guys that Greg would need to beat out in at least two categories if not three. Does Greg have 30 pts, 15 rbds, and 3 block averages in him? I don't see this happening in his rookie year and so I believe we'll need to take a look at the wins. I do think that Greg will need to be on the lower end of these stats, with the wins, to grab rookie and MVP.

Winning with wins:

If you take a look at Wes Unseld's team, they had a 21 point difference in wins. For us, that would mean we'd need to go from 41 wins to 62 wins this year. Unfortunately we'll also be adding Rudy and Bayless, and so I'd add another five wins... 67 wins.

Daunting, but frankly, I think it's more doable than Oden dominating every stat category in his first year.

So my grand conclusion, what will it take?:

I think that if Greg has 22+pts, 11+rbds, and 2+blocks and is the difference maker in five close games and takes the team from 41 to 67... then... I do believe we have a shot at being the third team and have the third player to win both rookie and MVP award within the same year.

Is that possible? ummmmmmm... anything is possible. Do not make me doubt my blazers for I shall not!

So what do you guys think? What will it take, and how likely do you think it is to happen?

Also... can we get some more news out here!!! I do not like the lack of blazer information! I hate it when I run out of things to read!

Vegas Summer League Delayed online game time thread

ratbastird — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:23:54 -0000

This is for those who are watching online and thus forced to be delayed from commenting by a good thirty minutes.

words words words

I have a monkey and you're all jealous

Oden is great.

My pants... they mock you.

HAHAHAHA

Words, thy numbers be done darn it!!!!

49, you suck!!!

okay... so...

WORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDSWORDS

neat... it blends for swords.

60... are you serious? That's only 60? LIsten you meat headed computing nimpapooper! I will use you for a toilet if you do not let me post... NOWWW

Vegas Summer League and Bedge Dinner

ratbastird — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:35:40 -0000

Vegas Summer League

Where can I stay?

I recommend this location:

Best Western McCarran Inn
4970 Paradise Road
Las Vegas , Nevada
89119-1206,United States
Phone: 7027985530
Fax : 7027987627

It's right by the Cox center and close to the strip. It's also fairly cheap for a hotel by the strip. I believe Hooters, NY,NY and the Mirage are also on the same street as the Cox center.

If you're looking for cheap and don't care how close you are:

http://www.hotels.com/ has been recommended by Clevelander among roses

When is it?

http://www.nba.com/summerleague2008/schedule_08.html

July 17

10:00 PM ET

Portland vs. Minnesota*

COX Pavilion - Thursday

July 19

10:00 PM ET

Portland vs. Phoenix*

COX Pavilion - Friday

I will be there on the two days listed above. The idea is to have Dinner with Blazer Edge folks on Friday 7.18.08 at 7pm.

What is the cost?

http://www.unlvtickets.com/eventInfo/spe/34/nba-summer-league-presented-by-ea-sports/

The cost is $20 per person for the full day at either center. Link above gives you more information.

What about the awesome blazers edge dinner which is the only reason I'm going?

Star Trek: The Experience

http://www.startrekexp.com/

We'll be eating at Quark's.

When is this awesome dinner?

Date: July18th (FRIDAY) 2008

Time: 7pm

RSVP

See above. Still don't know and will be based on availability of people coming into vegas.

Is anyone famous going to be there?

Dave has confirmed. Can you GET more famous?

Additional information?

Tips will be 19% automatic to the meals.

Food goes from $10-$30 depending on what you get. (salads are about 6 or seven and the menu is online if you go to the link)

Drinks are $8 ea but apparently look cool. Also, Ferengi's may try to buy your girlfriends. I'm going to see how much I can get

All ages

closes at 11pm

How about that cool museum and ride???

Rides start at Noon and run every 20 minutes. Stop at 8:30pm

Museum open from Noon-8:30pm.

Rides are little simulation shuttles that bump you up and down and provide a story.

I've been told the Klingon is the better and so see that last. I have no idea if that's actually factual.

You can go as often as you like as the tickets are day tickets not ride tickets.

Price: 37.99 online or $42.99 in person.

Vegas Summer League

ratbastird — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:46:22 -0000

Vegas Summer League

Where can I stay?

I recommend this location:

Best Western McCarran Inn
4970 Paradise Road
Las Vegas , Nevada
89119-1206,United States
Phone: 7027985530
Fax : 7027987627

It's right by the Cox center and close to the strip. It's also fairly cheap for a hotel by the strip. I believe Hooters, NY,NY and the Mirage are also on the same street as the Cox center.

When is it?

http://www.nba.com/summerleague2008/schedule_08.html

July 17

10:00 PM ET

Portland vs. Minnesota*

COX Pavilion

July 19

10:00 PM ET

Portland vs. Phoenix*

COX Pavilion

I will be there on the two days listed above. The idea is to have Dinner with Blazer Edge folks on Friday 7.18.08 at 7pm.

What is the cost?

http://www.unlvtickets.com/eventInfo/spe/34/nba-summer-league-presented-by-ea-sports/

The cost is $20 per person for the full day at either center. Link above gives you more information.

What about the awesome blazers edge dinner which is the only reason I'm going?

I haven't heard back on places to eat, and so I suggest this:

Star Trek: The Experience

http://www.startrekexp.com/

Let me know what you think!

You can take the monorail from the Best Western hotel. I plan on eating there one of the nights, so might as well make it friday.

Give me thoughts and feed back about eating at Quarks! I also plan on doing the rides and if you're all interested maybe we could do that together too.

Tentative time is 7pm, but I'll be looking for feedback as to the place and time. Most importantly, Dave, does that work with your schedule or does it need to be later?

When is this awesome dinner?

Date: July18th (FRIDAY) 2008

Time: TBD

See above. Still don't know and will be based on availability of people coming into vegas.

Is anyone famous going to be there?

ummm... dave? He has to be there as I'll be paying for his dinner. That was my contribution to his trip.

So what information do you need from us?

I'm so glad you asked!!!

How many of you are a hankering to go to the dinner?
Is Quarks a place that works for you?
Is 7pm a good time?
Dave, would other press members be able to attend and should the time be revised if that's the case?
If Quarks doesn't work, do you have another preference?
Are any of you interested in doing the rides as a group before dinner?

To sum it up

That's about all I have. Please be sure to respond back to me. The last few posts didn't have a lot of feedback apart from a few locals and one or two driving/flying in.

Items I'd like to cover, and this is long.

ratbastird — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:38:11 -0000

I'd like to go over a few items. There have been a few blogs that have vanished or gone off to lala land, and so I wanted to go over a few key items important to me.

Draft night moves and did we really get an awesome deal
KP and ethics
Firing Nate
The myth of the golden gut

Draft Night Moves and KP

One of the radio personalities brought up the point that he (don't remember which one on 95.5 the game) had higher expectations of draft day and asked if getting excited just because KP told them it was good.

I wanted to add my two cents here and question others as to what they thought.

Do people like trades just because KP tells them it's a good trade?

I think this is definitely possible. KP has earned our trust as a fan base and I think we could snag almost any player, and if KP tells us that the player is good, then a large majority of us will be come excited.

That said, Bayless has always been listed as a very good player and a top three or four talent. With the draft pick we had, it's INCREDIBLE we snagged him, but will he pan out?

I had also expected more activity and MAJOR moves.

Was this move as good as the hype or were expectations for more?

To be honest, I was expecting more. The move itself was EXCELLENT from two stand points:

We gave up NOTHING that we didn't need to give up anyway.
We got the most we could get from the draft without giving up any major pieces.

However, I have now dropped my win expectation down to 46-48 from 50-52. The reason being is that we... got... YOUNGER!!!

My initial response was "DANG IT!!! ANOTHER YEAR WE'RE BUILDING AND POSSIBLY NOT MAKING THE PLAY-OFFS!!!

I was upset. I really expected a move for Harris. He's young and would have provided experience. He was perfect for us. I'm ready for the blazers to make their move this year and that trade would have greatly helped us.

Instead we have another young guy who needs to learn the game and learn his place and who may not work out. It's always possible because rookies are unknowns.

So, that said, is Bayless worth keeping or should we trade again for Harris?

If you're only goal is to win this year and have a reasonable chance of winning in the years to come, then I say yes. If your goal is to create a dynasty over the next 10-15 years, then I say probably not. You take the higher risk/higher return to ensure that no team can tweak their team and beat the blazers. Consider it an insurance policy against injury to other stars.

Bayless is supposed to have a HIGH ceiling. If he reaches his potential (and likely will with the blazers), then he's worth it. There IS risk that he doesn't and then the blazers look pretty dumb for not going after Harris.

KP and ethics

Did KP break a gentleman's promise with other teams and did he tell Charlotte to draft DJ for him?

We can't really answer this because we were not there.

Is it okay to do break your word?

I'm going with a definite no here. It's not ethical and it strongly showcases that you're not a trust worthy person. I would actually turn in my blazer fan card if this were the case. There are SO many people in business that do what it takes to win in the short term and don't care who lose just so they win. I could and would never support a company or team like that. In my opinion it's a bad cultural trait to take on.

There were people in various threads brushing it off, but it's not a little thing. That is major and I don't care how much I like someone, I'm not going to excuse behavior like that. In all honesty, it's really making me ponder the election this year as well and which direction (if any) I'll be going.

Now, KP didn't have a deal in place, but mislead... still a little dirty, but if a GM is going to be stupid enough to do something like that, then it's their own fault.

Firing Nate

If the Blazers do not improve next year, should Nate be fired?

I looked around for this post but could not find it. My response is WHAT???

We've just taken on a young point guard WHY in the WORLD would we fire Nate? Why do we even need a scape goat if something doesn't go well?

Our team is still young and we'll still be inconsistent at times. We're STILL in the learning phase guys! I'll be disappointed if we don't continue improving and win 46-48 games, but I won't be calling for anyones head. I won't even be concerned if we come out at 41 again. I don't think that's entirely unexpected when you have a young team and get rid of some of the leadership (jack, jones). Management is tempering expectations and does not believe that we'll make the play-offs. With that in mind, they may make decisions to see what they have instead of flat out trying to win.

I see soooo many teams have knee jerk reactions like firing coach after a bad season and it doesn't work for me. Some teams have major injuries to key players, the team has a losing season, and the answer? Fire the coach? What good does that do you? You can only do so much with what you have.

Additionally... Nate is constantly learning and improving! He is sometimes slow to change, but I suspect this is because he wants to see if something is a fluke or if it really works. It's possible he's doing this because he knows he's learning as is the team and he has the luxury right now to experiment. Or maybe he's just slow to learn. Either way he constantly gets better.

Additionally, no team improves MORE after a timeout. That shows good coaching.

In my mind Nate should be fired if:

He loses the team so they don't follow him.
If he shows that he's reached the limits of his ability and can't continue to learn, improve, and get the team over the championship hump. (This takes a few years and includes a team that is healthy AND has experience).
He does something completely immoral
He is destroying the culture

The myth of the golden gut

Okay, this drives me NUT!!!

Paul Allen stated, in an interview, that KP has the golden gut. This drives me nuts because he DOESNT have a golden gut. That's like saying that basketball players succeed just because they have natural talent.

The fact is that KP AND basketball players put in hours and HOURS of hard work. KP's success comes from planning, developing a system to evaluate talent, and sticking to that system.

Calling it the golden gut is false, misleading, and worships KP without recognizing the hard work he AND his team are putting into it.

The End

That's really all i have on this one. I just wanted to point it out. The man works hard, works smart, and makes decisions that are generally good ones with his team.

Hope you enjoyed the reading, it wasn't too much of a rehash, and you didn't mind that I clumped everything up into one post because I couldn't find all the posts and because I'm sure you wouldn't want four more posts to bump the old ones off.