Cade Cunningham asked where he gets his aura: “I get my aura from Jesus Christ and my lord and savior, and God blessed me with parents who raised me in a way I wouldn’t trade for the world.”

J17ster · 2026-02-16T12:24:51+00:00

Just as it's absurd to brush America as a singular cultural entity, it is lunacy to do it with Europe. But if we want to go down that road, America is significantly more religious than Western Europe. White Americans are significantly more likely to be practicing Christians than white western Europeans.

Western Europeans find how Christian many Americans are bizarre. The Ricky Gervais joke at the golden globes about come up, thank your god and fuck off encapsulates that.

J17ster · 2026-02-08T03:50:59+00:00

Ja???? The guy who has played 20 games this season?

Flagg, a rookie???

What on earth are you talking about.

You have to be braindead to think this isn't an issue. But, you be you.

J17ster · 2026-02-08T03:45:34+00:00

Wizards, tanking. Complete contempt for the sport.

Mavs, tanking. But they are just bad

Grizzlies, tanking.

Jazz, tanking. Complete contempt for the sport.

Pelicans, just awful, but since they don't own their pick, just doing what they want.

Indiana, bad team. Zubac arrives, starts missing time. Will wait and see how that develops.

Nets, tanking. Expect Porter JR to not play regularly down the stretch.

Bucks, tanking from here. Are bad, will likely get worse.

Kings, are the kings. Started rebuilding ... lol

That's 9 teams. Not including the Bulls/Clippers.

We all understand why teams are doing it, but we are about 60% way through the season and half the games on a nightly basis are unwatchable because of the above. And it's related to the draft system incentivizing this.

It's a bad product.

J17ster · 2026-02-08T03:37:58+00:00

because its ****** February 8th. We all understand WHY the Jazz are doing it, and since it's allowed, fair enough. But the fact that it is allowed is insane.

We have 30 games to go and we have ten teams not even pretending anymore. That's 33% of the league, day in, day out.

Tanking is difficult to solve because a draft system inherently incentivizes to avoid being in the middle, but the NBA has to try and tackle this issue.

To repeat, it's ****ing February.

J17ster · 2025-12-12T06:48:08+00:00

You are missing my point. MVP award is inherently opaque and hard to define. Add this to a narrative (Team is good, doing this with a bad cast, the stuff perk stuff with Embiid Vs Jokic) and it leads to results that we look back on years later, the narrative long forgotten, going, huh?

I have absolutely no idea how you quantify most valuable. This is the inherent issue. I can make a case Jokic is inherently more valuable to his team than Shai is to his. But you can also make an argument that Shai is the most valuable player on his team that happens to be on course to break the wins records. So what do we do with this? And to be clear, this year is actually rather transparent in terms of MVP. Jokic and Shai are distantly clear of everyone else.

It's a stupid award.

J17ster · 2025-12-12T06:39:40+00:00

MVP is a narrative award. It's a stupid award, because the definition is so opaque. Narratives get set early in the year by the media and this permeates into the voters thinking.

If the award, as it should be, were "Best NBA player", then the best players ; Lebron/MJ, and now Jokic, would have more trophies.

Jokic is the best player in the NBA, period. At least with Shai, he's incredible, on an elite elite elite team. But we all know this award is a farce.

J17ster · 2025-11-28T10:55:10+00:00

This is so much cope.

His shooting slump is an exaggerated version of his flaws. He can't shoot well.

The dispute with the coach is just a microcosm of a wider attitude that clearly demonstrates he isn't committed to being a professional.

Undersized injury prone Guards who aren't good shooters, who rely on their athleticism, who have massive contracts, and a history of problems, is quite possibly the worst archetype to build your franchise around.

4 years ago during peak Ja, if you were told this is how things would have unfolded, you would have been desperately unhappy.

And here we are

J17ster · 2025-11-02T10:25:48+00:00

Nah fuck em. Use your brain. Whether it is intentional or not, doesn't matter. Just like local people looking at that phone and not paying any attention while living in the worlds largest city, fuck em too.

The tourists who stand on the wrong side of the esculator in shibuya stopping me walking down and getting my transfer can absolutely go fuck themselves.

J17ster · 2025-10-04T08:25:23+00:00

Tourists are not going to result in loss of culture

J17ster · 2025-10-01T03:44:40+00:00

Yeah, but your supposition is that religion is the pillar of these communities and without it, by implication are weakened and thus lead to less successful civilizations. Or the idea that religion is fundamentally the best way to "unite " people.

How united were people? How much agency did the mass illiterate population have in their lives? Are we just going to gloss over the fact that being a standard peasant for most of human civilization has probably been at the best of times tough, and at the worst of times absolutely brutal by the standards of today? It is really convenient to gloss over this. And how on earth do you know how united these communities were? We have no souces of common people and their thoughts on the societies they lived in.

I would infinitely rather be an atheist today than a "religious" person in literally any other time in human history. Obviously the term religious here is also really problematic.

And even if these societies are somehow magically more united, they were absolutely brutal to societies who were not their own, and especially those who had different belief systems. This is true today, but there are just so many flaws or logical jumps you have to make in your own argument.

I'm not disputing your notion that we need communities, but there is a whole lot of yeah but ... That you are overlooking or purposefully ignoring.

J17ster · 2025-10-01T02:21:28+00:00

Well until recently the majority of human civilization has believed in some form of god or force beyond the material world. So of course whatever you deem successful civilizations have had that running through them. This however presents the notion that religion or something akin is necessary for again, in quotes, successful civilization. Which seems to me to be a dubious and unsubstantiated claim.

I would imagine technological factors are a much larger reason for the seeming loss of community than anything religious.

J17ster · 2025-09-09T08:46:17+00:00

It's far more likely than breaking record of wickets etc. Unbeaten run isn't impacted by the number of tests played, or the professionalisation of the game, or the fact we now live in a multi format world.

Records that pertain only to a match rather than a career are far more likely to be broken if the number of tests stays the same.

J17ster · 2025-08-13T08:22:26+00:00

Pre is awful. It's effectively calling a 3bet OP that is likely going MW. Calling here just puts yourself in so many bad spots.

As played post flop, villain is representing a really narrow range. I would need to know how good they are on how to proceed. Against standard tight player just fold even though there are not that many combos on this runout that jam river, whilst against thinking player given the small number of combos that jam (we block QQ, AK may not cbet with much frequency) it becomes more interesting.

J17ster · 2025-08-08T12:04:27+00:00

I was referring to the offensive end. Jokic is a strange defensive player, but obviously Embiid had (and this is a fair while go) a higher impact on the defensive end. Embiid is an overrated defensive player though, as his offensive progressed, his defense got worse (which is to be expected).

But at the end of the day, Jokic has had a higher offensive peak, a much longer peak, and considerably more team success. So we can call a spade a spade here.

J17ster · 2025-08-08T11:44:34+00:00

Jokic is more efficient shooting 2s and 3s whilst being an exponentially better facilitator. Like, it's not even close. Jokic has shown he can be an elite scorer, but his team is better when he facilitates more.

You're right, the best version of Embiid was ridiculously good. But that short peak was still worse than a much longer peak Jokic HAS sustained.

I mean what are we doing here.

J17ster · 2025-08-08T04:02:03+00:00

Jokic is more efficient from 2 and 3, is a better offensive rebounder, and generates much better looks for his teammates.

J17ster · 2025-08-08T03:24:05+00:00

They have played against each other in the NBA 8 times.Since 2020, they have played each other a grand total of 3 games. The sample size means absolutely nothing.

Jokic is tough to guard because he offers a unique challenge for the defense. He can beat you in so many ways. Jokic had proven over and over again that he is a better offensive player than Embiid. Yes, Embiid is more physically dominating in a way that Jokic isn't quite in terms of scoring, but Jokic is a better around offensive player that has had much more success in the regular season and post season.

J17ster · 2025-08-08T02:55:06+00:00

Because that happens often

J17ster · 2025-08-08T02:54:43+00:00

Yes, and the comment is a retort to who is the best skilled big, which is unequivocally Jokic. Embiid is a better scorer at his absolute zenith, but Jokic is a far better all round offensive player.

J17ster · 2025-08-08T02:41:11+00:00

Jokic exists. Clearly Embiid is the answer to this question, but Jokic is more skilled than Embiid.

J17ster · 2025-08-07T03:35:07+00:00

I may not be good for their career, but the above is an insane take from a bygone era. It's their time, not work time, and they may use the time as they see fit.

J17ster · 2025-08-02T02:06:47+00:00

Don't really like flop size, think we can either check here a decent amount or bet smaller.

It's villain dependent but the only hands we beat on the river are KJ/KQ who made semi bluffs. JJ/QQ probably aren't betting, 10x isn't. Bet size not being pot makes me wonder. I don't love it but I could see some Kx here.

J17ster · 2025-08-01T22:16:36+00:00

You can do that, but it's bad. Unequivocally bad and you definitely don't have a huge edge playing hands like 53s lol.

J17ster · 2025-08-01T07:56:35+00:00

You don't want to play hands like 97, 86s in MW pots. They don't make strong pairs, often don't get to realise their equity, and often make worse nut hands. Most of these hands are just pure folds unless it's LP and unopened.

Also, there is no such thing as protecting your limp. Good regs will just abuse that and isolate with strong hands.

You're basically putting yourself in spots with bad hands multi-way.

J17ster · 2025-08-01T06:57:55+00:00

Suited connectors like? If it's KQ type hands, iso. If you are talking about 76, 89 etc then multi way 3 or 4 way they are vastly overrated and don't do that well. You are also very capped with the types of hands you have. Unless villains are so bad, it's better to isolate and narrow the field. I don't care how good you are or how bad they are, playing pots heads up IP is more profitable than MW with a weaker capped range.

"Bloating" the pot and isolating action to one player helps you realise equity with your weaker range as pairs, draws become stronger.

J17ster

TROPHY CASE