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NBA Changes 2015-16 Season


Josh.0

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Hinkie, by contrast, is an educated and serious person who is operating on a scientific basis in order to realise a long-term vision.

I think this is what sticks in my craw more than anything, this fetishization of education and intelligence as cornerstones of infallibility.

Fetishisation? Infallibility? Those are some impressive leaps that you've taken there. Education and intelligence provide neither a guarantee of success nor an immunity from criticism. Still, these qualities in someone do make for very good reasons for putting confidence in that person. I'll make that bet every time.

It's good for the Sabres that their turnaround took place so rapidly. But Hinkie never promised such a quick result to his bosses at the Sixers. And they hired him anyway, knowing that they were signing up for a multi-year project.

We're only in year three of the Hinkie programme. It is just too early to render judgement. If, after three more years, the Sixers still haven't seen any benefit, then it would be reasonable to think about pulling the plug.

But, as of now, it is important to realise that what we are seeing is part of the plan, and that this is precisely what the team signed up for when they hired him.

Not sure how education and intelligence play in to being the GM of a sports team. Negotiating contracts and dealing with the salary cap? Sure. But evaluating talent and building a team? It's freaking sports, not NASA. There's plenty of meat headed oafs that know basketball better than any bean counter could, and there's no college that offers degrees in evaluating someone's defense.

The only thing being smart accomplishes is outsmarting yourself. the only thing more dangerous than actually being smart is not being smart but thinking you are.

Wilt already made the important point that dealing with the intricacies of the league's salary and roster rules requires a great deal of intelligence. But, more generally, what being intelligent and being educated brings a person is the understanding of the applicability of statistics and probability, and the fact that basketball and the draft (like everything else in the macroscopic universe) can be modelled with statistics.

It is true that there are many not-formally-educated people who know the sport of basketball intimately; however, the job of running a team over the long haul is less a matter evaluating the talents of any one player than it is a matter of harnessing probabilities in one's favour. For this reason, the most important skills needed to be a GM come from a college education, and not from having played or coached the game.

The backlash against Hinkie is nothing more than a manifestation of the ugly anti-intellectualism that runs like a virulent disease through the American public. It's the same impulse that led baseball's troglodytes to dismiss Bill James for so long. Fortunately, the baseball world has increasingly accepted sabermetrics and the new way that it uses statistics. Perhaps one day a similar modern understanding will come to basketball; and those people who would bring in a Jerry Colangelo to thwart Hinkie will be figures of derision, just as Joe Morgan and his ilk have rightfully become.

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Why is this an either/or proposition? You can be a former player and still do a great job as GM (Danny Ainge), you can be a college dweeb and not run your franchise into the ground (Daryl Morey).

Back to the uniforms: My Celtics are killing me right now. For one, wish the black trim alts got ditched when the gray ones came into place. I can only handle one terrible alt set at a time, and they've hardly worn the regular green aways that were just updated last season. On that note, take a look at this photo from last night and try to figure out who the teams are:

davis_bosind11_spts.jpg

Showcasing fan-made sports apparel by artists and designers

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Hinkie, by contrast, is an educated and serious person who is operating on a scientific basis in order to realise a long-term vision.

I think this is what sticks in my craw more than anything, this fetishization of education and intelligence as cornerstones of infallibility.

Fetishisation? Infallibility? Those are some impressive leaps that you've taken there. Education and intelligence provide neither a guarantee of success nor an immunity from criticism. Still, these qualities in someone do make for very good reasons for putting confidence in that person. I'll make that bet every time.

It's good for the Sabres that their turnaround took place so rapidly. But Hinkie never promised such a quick result to his bosses at the Sixers. And they hired him anyway, knowing that they were signing up for a multi-year project.

We're only in year three of the Hinkie programme. It is just too early to render judgement. If, after three more years, the Sixers still haven't seen any benefit, then it would be reasonable to think about pulling the plug.

But, as of now, it is important to realise that what we are seeing is part of the plan, and that this is precisely what the team signed up for when they hired him.

Not sure how education and intelligence play in to being the GM of a sports team. Negotiating contracts and dealing with the salary cap? Sure. But evaluating talent and building a team? It's freaking sports, not NASA. There's plenty of meat headed oafs that know basketball better than any bean counter could, and there's no college that offers degrees in evaluating someone's defense.

The only thing being smart accomplishes is outsmarting yourself. the only thing more dangerous than actually being smart is not being smart but thinking you are.

Wilt already made the important point that dealing with the intricacies of the league's salary and roster rules requires a great deal of intelligence. But, more generally, what being intelligent and being educated brings a person is the understanding of the applicability of statistics and probability, and the fact that basketball and the draft (like everything else in the macroscopic universe) can be modelled with statistics.

It is true that there are many not-formally-educated people who know the sport of basketball intimately; however, the job of running a team over the long haul is less a matter evaluating the talents of any one player than it is a matter of harnessing probabilities in one's favour. For this reason, the most important skills needed to be a GM come from a college education, and not from having played or coached the game.

The backlash against Hinkie is nothing more than a manifestation of the ugly anti-intellectualism that runs like a virulent disease through the American public. It's the same impulse that led baseball's troglodytes to dismiss Bill James for so long. Fortunately, the baseball world has increasingly accepted sabermetrics and the new way that it uses statistics. Perhaps one day a similar modern understanding will come to basketball; and those people who would bring in a Jerry Colangelo to thwart Hinkie will be figures of derision, just as Joe Morgan and his ilk have rightfully become.

Semi-colons, "macroscopic universe," anti-intellectualism, and virulent! It's thesaurus bingo!

I don't think hating smart guys has anything to do with being anti-Hinkie. For me, it's more anti-cynicism. Yes, you can tank a franchise year-after-year and stumble upon the new LeBron James and be the 2003-2010 Cavs (who won nothing), or you can sign good players, draft wisely without relying on number one draft picks and rethink playing style and be the 2014-2016 Warriors (who might win 70 games and a second title). Six others teams could have drafted Steph Curry, 10 teams Klay Thompson, and all the other teams could have drafted Draymond Green.

The Hinkie approach to team-building is the same as swinging for a home run in baseball every time you get to bat. You might hit a home run (or a grand slam), but you're more likely to strike out. It's actually kind of a less-smart way to team development -- if you make an active decision to lose (i.e., not win) after each NBA draft, you get to spend the whole season trading away anyone useful. Being bad is easier than being good.

1 hour ago, ShutUpLutz! said:

and the drunken doodoobags jumping off the tops of SUV's/vans/RV's onto tables because, oh yeah, they are drunken drug abusing doodoobags

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davis_bosind11_spts.jpg

This picture is the perfect representation of what's wrong with NBA uniforms today. It's getting to be hard to want to watch.

The NBA has become the wild west of uniforms. There's absolutely no rhyme or reason as to why or when teams wear which uniforms. Also, as much as I love Hoosiers, the Pacers wearing uniforms to honor a fictional team is just dumb.

White home, colors away. Maybe one alternate. Throwbacks for certain games (where both teams wear them!). That's it!

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CYt3cVVWkAAuvfj.jpg

Hey, look, color on color. Is this going to be the norm in the future?

IMO that instance could be excused - the Raptors and Magic were in London, so it was an away game for both teams.

On a Raptors uniform related note, did you guys here listen to Kyle Lowrys interview with Zach Lowe from a few weeks ago? He mentioned that the Raptors were going to go all out black/gold rebrand for their colours/uniforms. DeRozan and Lowry were asked for their input - DeRozan wanted to keep the current "Canadian colours" and so the OVO rebrand was reduced to an alternate.

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CYt3cVVWkAAuvfj.jpg

Hey, look, color on color. Is this going to be the norm in the future?

IMO that instance could be excused - the Raptors and Magic were in London, so it was an away game for both teams.

On a Raptors uniform related note, did you guys here listen to Kyle Lowrys interview with Zach Lowe from a few weeks ago? He mentioned that the Raptors were going to go all out black/gold rebrand for their colours/uniforms. DeRozan and Lowry were asked for their input - DeRozan wanted to keep the current "Canadian colours" and so the OVO rebrand was reduced to an alternate.

Wow, thank god DeRozan spoke up.

And on an unrelated note, does anyone else think it's weird that the Kings haven't officially revealed their Pride set? I think that's the only new set that hasn't been revealed yet.

8bVWNl7.png.df4b40fc8bee1fb7b4442d7fc55c

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Around this time every year(Jan-March) we usually start hearing rumblings of new uniforms for next year (2016-17 season).

Anybody else surprised it's been quiet with rumored rebrands or new uni's for next year?

Considering any rumors would be filled with sleeved, "Pride" or unis with logos on them, I'm sort of glad.

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Never understood the importance of this list since it only accounts for NBA.com sales and nothing else.

There's literally a half dozen popular online apparel shops and combined with the brick and mortar outlets scattered in strip malls and actually malls all over the country, how accurate are the figures from just one source. 

Maybe it's simply like how exit polls work in that it can be extrapolated to represent a majority of what sells.

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On 1/14/2016 at 1:38 PM, TaylorMade said:

The NBA has become the wild west of uniforms. There's absolutely no rhyme or reason as to why or when teams wear which uniforms. Also, as much as I love Hoosiers, the Pacers wearing uniforms to honor a fictional team is just dumb.

White home, colors away. Maybe one alternate. Throwbacks for certain games (where both teams wear them!). That's it!

 

I KNEW it was an NBA game as soon as I saw this game on TV as I walked into a bar, but still needed to do a double-take.  I was all, that's the Hickory uni, but then all of a sudden, for whatever reason, I thought that maybe it was a high school or college game being played at Boston TD Garden.  Took an extra closer look to verify before I walked away.  I like the Hickory mismatched unis if used infrequently, but the combination of that uni and the gray worn by the Celtics was just too much for me to process.  The only thing worse would be red vs. orange, or, I'm sure, white vs. silver or gray.  It's coming.
http://thenewyorkknickspodcast.com/2013/11/17/knicks-vs-hawks-11-16-13-game-recap/

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On 1/14/2016 at 9:35 AM, Digby said:

Why is this an either/or proposition? You can be a former player and still do a great job as GM (Danny Ainge), you can be a college dweeb and not run your franchise into the ground (Daryl Morey).

Back to the uniforms: My Celtics are killing me right now. For one, wish the black trim alts got ditched when the gray ones came into place. I can only handle one terrible alt set at a time, and they've hardly worn the regular green aways that were just updated last season. On that note, take a look at this photo from last night and try to figure out who the teams are:

davis_bosind11_spts.jpg

Good lord, is that an awful matchup. What's really sad is that the throwbacks of a fictional high school arguably look better than the Boston freaking Celtics.

 

The most successful franchise in NBA history decked out in bizarre silver uniforms with sleeves, versus an actual NBA team wearing fictional high school jerseys. The NBA is a dumpster fire in terms of uniforms right now...

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On 1/22/2016 at 7:48 PM, sayahh said:

The only thing worse would be red vs. orange, or, I'm sure, white vs. silver or gray.  It's coming.
http://thenewyorkknickspodcast.com/2013/11/17/knicks-vs-hawks-11-16-13-game-recap/

 

Guess what? The Bulls wore gray tonight on the road against the Cavs who decided of all times to wear their normal white uniform.

bSLCtu2.png

 

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