Weganator

You can't, Mexico has strong voter id laws. http://www.snopes.com/mexico-voter-id/

Just in time for them to be a big draw for the new SE facility in 18 months or so. Also.. too hyped for a D League team here.

It's almost like nobody else cares

The Terminal 2

Mostly true, but don't sleep on the Jazz.

Not crazy about Okafor myself. I can see where you are coming from on the 'better than Gortat' train (I would say Greg Monroe is starting to get there too) but I don't like the idea of a first unit Post up big. Especially at the cost of defense. We are already starting to see the effects of 'only having one ball' with Porter being a paragon of efficiency and he is simply unable to get the ball consistently. I like Noel a lot, but those trade offers / future contracts are terrifying. I would honestly rather give Jan Vesely (really aren't that dissimilar when you get beyond the fact that we all hate EG) another shot for a quarter of the price at the cost of no assets next year. But seeing as how that won't happen, I'm a pass on both.

Simply put. Outside of maybe Kyrie (big if) I don't think any of the other East GM's would consider taking any of the other "all star" east guards besides John in a 1 for 1 swap.

The other thing to consider is the geopolitical effects of US hegemony when it comes to the military. We subsidize these nations healthcare systems by 1) allowing single payer nations to negotiate price controls, passing costs onto the US consumer 2) We are the dominant military force in the world and none of these nations need to spend (edit: self sustaining defense) money on their military because they know we will defend them. Most of these nations don't have the economies / tax bases to support a military needed in order to defend themselves because they are both too invested in social programs and have too stagnant of economies to grow / sustain such a force. If it weren't for the petrodollar, this system probably would have already collapsed.

I'm starting to think they honestly didnt expect to win either and just prepped for more obstruction. That and the primary complaints from each side about the ACA is that it doesn't go as far as they want (free market vs single payer) make it difficult to find common ground.

Haven't heard / seen a comprehensive plan yet. Saw Rand Paul talking a bit about some core concepts to reform: 1) Legalize low cost insurance policies (hurts preexisting / rarer afflictions) 2) Leveraging HSA's for individuals and creating more lax rules for sharing funds intra extended family (anti non familial / ostracized from family). Also the obvious someone needs money to fund it. 3) Can't remember the term / acronym for it, but basically a 'risk pool insurance' alternative. I saw a really virtue signalling version of one that was something like this: Christians join for coverage. Each month they pool approved medical expenses and split the cost as their 'premium'. They then had all sorts of stipulations about 'not funding unapproved actions'. #3 seemed interesting in theory but hate that example and how they pulled religion in. I think this helps with some of the problems, but weakens the original implementation in many ways.

@PeterMP the fact that those non compete deals don't violate anti trust at all is baffling. Almost literally creates a drug cartel for life saving medicine. I just rarely see scenarios where artificially removing competition (IE not a better product or service being the cause of competitors leaving) as beneficial to consumers. It's antithetical to the free market concept.

Enjoy Black Mirror a lot. Man in the High Castle is another very good show.

Really curious to see what happens with drug prices. Especially these 'older drug' monopolies that get set up as other companies stop making them (EpiPen, etc). Saw a couple week old article talking about how traditional big pharma is going out against these 'bad actors' in their industry. It's odd because the reason many of these companies backed out of production was to make more cholesterol meds, erection pills, and antidepressants. Generalizing a bit here, but Pfizer and stuff like that leave you to burn because it's not profitable for them to make these drugs, then lobbies government for reform when business set the price to try to do so (I won't deny these increases seem immoral, but I haven't seen their balance sheet) Would be really interested to see how those prices would adjust if major drug companies were encouraged or obligated to get back into making these currently monopolized drugs. Edit: the fact that easily taking market share by countering price gouging hasn't occurred yet is concerning.

Good example with many good points. I just wanted to point out that the difference is that you KNOW a security officer has a gun on them because it is their job to protect the area and they have a booth and uniform indicating that purpose. The point is that ANYONE could have a gun if it wasn't a gun free zone. Sure, you could probably just focus on the guy with the MAGA hat, but there is the whole 'anybody could be packing' threat that 'attacking the security officer' scenario doesn't cover.

Watching the game recorded now. Just saw McClellan make a PnR assist to Gortat in the 3rd. It dawned on me, that is the biggest change I have noticed in wings since Brooks took over. Beal, Oubre, and McClellan have all gotten way better this year at making the easy pass in the pick and roll. Beal and Oubre in previous seasons and McClellan in his preseason (+ summer league) play didn't seem to make that play. Just about 2 months into the season and it seems like the most tangible Brooks v Wittman change.

I almost replied last night when you were talking about the lack of depth for PF in the upcoming draft. http://www.basketball-reference.com/euro/players/jan-vesely-1.html FT percentage up to 65%. I don't get to see too much Fenerbahnce film outside of highlights, so idk if the FG% drop is from trying to post up more or trying to work on his mid range. But just based on flashes you would see as a Wizard and in Europe, I think he would be a real asset now that the NBA has been consistently drifting to small lineups. As a small ball 5 he could switch and stay with players on the PnR out on the perimeter and his length was always disruptive in passing lanes as well. If teams go too small, he is a reliable lob threat on offense. If teams go too slow, he can be a poor mans Gortat running the floor. The only concern IMO is that he cannot rebound well for the position at all. He would need to be out there with a lineup of plus rebounders for their position (Porter, Oubre, Beal, Wall, Sato?), but can't be out there with another space clogging big. Nicholson showed promise as a rebound gobbling stretch 4 in preseason, but that seems to have faded fast. Smith has moments where he could do it in a 'break glass in an emergency' kind of way, but that isn't something I would want to plan around. Keef would need a serious uptick in rebounding to be considered for long minutes unless you ran Otto at the 3 in full rebound gobbling mode. Edit: The big weakness with Vesely was he would get destroyed by any traditional post-up big, even if they were mediocre or terrible. That's why he gets trashed by Valanciunas, even the Jack Cooleys and Luke Harangodys of the world. But good positive coaching and using him in situations where he has the opportunity to look successful would have gone a long way for his confidence.

They keep advertising that 'group rate' for groups of 10 or more in desperation to get the stands filled. I'm not a fan of giving Ted gate revenue but they are trying to make it easier for someone to coordinate it.

I don't doubt there would be some scars about the arena and possibly the fans getting behind him. But in terms of situations where he would: 1) Likely run the type of system he requires 2) Have willing passers on the team to facilitate his offensive game (Wall, Porter, Sato?). 3) An opportunity with a dearth of big depth, needing to get younger and more athletic w/o the draft as a means to gain assets. 4?) His friend and running mate from the Czech National team. Edit: 5) The opportunity for EG to do some sort of "see it wasn't such a completely horrible pick" type of redemption move. (Note: I'm not an idiot, it was a terrible, terrible pick.) Probably won't happen still, but never is a strong word.

I'll go one step further and say I hope he comes back to the Wizards. I think he would fit in as a small ball Center nicely. He is a lob machine in the pick and roll (John wasn't nearly the passer then he is now and Ves wasn't exactly inspiring people to get lobs thrown his way) when he gets to play with space. He has done it in Eurobasket 2015 and with Fenehrbance (although he does play some PF for them). With his athleticism, he is faster than most bigs screening out in the high pick and roll and way taller and springier than most smaller players. He is able to use this to get balls that few athletes can, allowing him to finish at a high rate. He has shown over in Europe that his FT issues were mostly Randy and his short leash on development and not knowing what matchups to play him in. Not that he would ever be good, but he isn't Drummond bad, more like Nene . He is a natural athlete playing out on the perimeter due to his experience playing SF in his youth (passing, cutting, defending / switching the pick and roll.. the things Humphries failed to do out in space. When we were getting rocked by Atlanta in the playoffs last year because Gortat couldn't defend out in space, Vesely would have been a useful bench tool to counteract some of these issues. Here is a clip of him him hedging on the pick and roll out at the 3 pt line, then recovering to block his man at the rim off of a hockey assist pass. This next video has a few examples of his defensive skills (chasedown / help blocks and steals), but I am going to use it to show one particular play. This play (@ 1:04) highlights the disruptive nature that his length causes on the perimeter and with his okay handles and good speed for a 5, he is able to finish the play. It might have been shown in the video above, but if not, he also often cleaned up the glass in transition when John Wall would go 1 man fast break. People that watched a lot of 2011 Wizards basketball might remember that, but they might have tried to purge it from their memories. Now I don't mean this to be a gushfest, he is very clearly a flawed player or he would have found a way to make it work in spite of the system. His primary flaws are poor defensive rebounding for a 5 and post defense. The post defense deficiency can be seen in the following video vs a good nba post player: .. But the solution is you just take him off the court vs those guys. I believe that his defensive rebounding issues could be offset by a lineup that includes plus or average rebounders at our other positions.. something like Vesely/Morris/Porter/Oubre/Sato.

Exactly.. if for some reason a GM has his injury affect his decision in drafting him, he is a fool. Len isn't going to be a major contributor next season anyway, so the injury is a non factor.

I was really hoping it would be Singleton or Booker that goes. The way the Ves runs the court and passes for a big had me holding out hope that he could turn into a solid player for us. Don't get me wrong, he is incredibly raw and right now is either the worst or 2nd worst of those 3.. but I always thought if he bulked up a bit and got used to the position that he could be good.

Chicago Bulls Rumors ‏@chicagobullsbot Chicago Bulls have spoken to the Washington Wizards expressing interest in F Jan Vesely. (Source: Rumor Press) NOOOOOOOOOOO

Don't get me wrong.. he is an incredibly flawed player with a broken shot and I see no way of him ever developing into a competent NBA player... but solid pick and roll defense, boxing out (but not getting the rebound so that others can), setting screens, and motion / passing on offense helps. Most of those things don't record stats, but those are the reasons he has one of the high +/- numbers on the seasons with garbage stats.

Dray with the double double.. lets hope he can string a few games together and get some trade value!!