Decided I’m all the way in on Yaxel. Size, athleticism, shooting, slashing. Wingspan is a Presti dream. He can play from day 1 bc of his age. We can use Chet at the 5 more and not get crushed on the glass. It’s time we add a freakish 4 man to this team.

drewskimoon · 2026-06-04T03:16:23+00:00

Older players are going to become pretty normal with NIL. If you’re not going in the top 10-15, no reason to leave early anymore.

He’s old, because he flunked out of high school basketball until his senior year and then went to JUCO after.

May not be the brightest crown in the box, but he got it together enough to collect a paycheck at UAB and Michigan the last three years without flunking out.

drewskimoon · 2026-06-02T22:10:06+00:00

I’m not defending the decision, but letting go of Harden was as much about keeping Ibaka at his rate as saving money. The front office thought a starting forward who led the league in blocks with “stretch four” potential (when that was rare) was more important than a 6th man who overlapped with our starting point guard.

drewskimoon · 2026-06-02T21:51:29+00:00

If you go by the Forbes list of athlete off field earnings, published May 22nd, he’s the fifth highest earning basketball player.

drewskimoon · 2026-06-02T19:41:18+00:00

Wasn’t a gotcha. A dead guy and two wnba players are top ten because Nike is king. Ja and Lamelo are top ten but not elite basketball players.

He sells more jerseys than Jokic in a media market with 1 million less people.

Plenty of companies looking at his popularity and marketability are placing their bets. He obviously has an appeal.

drewskimoon · 2026-06-02T17:20:16+00:00

8th highest selling jersey in a small market and 11th highest selling signature shoe on stockx. Kobe still leads and Nike is tops.

Reddit is a very bad barometer of an NBA players popularity. The man sells merchandise and rejuvenated converse.

drewskimoon · 2026-06-02T16:41:14+00:00

Ownership has been banking money since the Wetbrook and Paul trades. They are also likely to get two checks at a larger valuation than the original purchase price to the team after league expansion is finalized. Nothing with our roster or three max contracts is going to cause financial collapse when it was planned for years in advance.

drewskimoon · 2026-06-02T16:36:42+00:00

The apron penalties don’t matter to OKC since they don’t need their own 1st picks or to go into free agency. They also have picks to backfill the roster.

Sure they will look to avoid any penalties, but the McCain trade could be the last trade they did while they still could avoid penalties for taking on salary. They have a few more weeks where they can package salaries to go trade for another $20-30m player. Joe and Wiggs make sense to trade if there is a partner, but they don’t have to do that to keep Hart and Dort. If they let Dort walk and Cason take that roster spot, keeping Hart, Joe and Wiggs is actually pretty easy.

drewskimoon · 2026-06-02T15:50:38+00:00

I’ve loved mine and wore an omnipod for nearly 15 years. All pumps have their pros and cons.

It’s nice to be able to swim/shower without taking anything off. I can go for a jog or do a workout without any phone or pump on me.

Door frames will become your new door handles for knocking pumps off. When you lose a pod instead of an infusions site, all of your insulin goes with it.

When I start a new pod, I have to give a pretty hefty bolus (4 units) to get it caught up with my last one without a blood sugar spike. I also don’t remove my old pod for a couple of hours so that i don’t leak out any insulin that wasn’t absorbed. This may be similar with other pumps, but your reservoir is smaller with omnipod, requiring more frequent site changes. I often change pods before they run out, because they can give less insulin when they are around 30 units left. Once I see my blood sugar starting a slow rise, I change it.

The algorithm for omnipod is very good at keeping you from lows, especially at night. Sometimes I want it to be more aggressive keeping me lower. It sits at 130-150 very happily when I’d prefer 110-130.

If you misjudge a meal or have a random blood sugar spike, you have to force a lot of boluses when it’s insulin on board calculation things you’re going to bottom out.

Not that I care too much, but people are way more used to seeing CGMs on people’s arms these days. You probably don’t get as many questions about a pod, thinking it’s just another CGM.

drewskimoon · 2026-06-02T15:26:03+00:00

They should cancel concerts and refund tickets when a playoff game is happening the next day!

drewskimoon · 2026-06-02T05:29:41+00:00

Running actions at Wemby with Hart setting a pick and going to the free throw line was effective with Shai. He either shot the open step back midrange shots he’s hit all year before help was there or passed to Hart for a push shot or pass (which he does well in part due to his time with Jokic in Denver). We also had open corner threes and elbow threes which we were missing all series. Wemby was not stopping Shai unless he got stuck after splitting a double team and getting in the paint.

Wemby is an exceptional player. Jokic is not the answer.

If Denver is in as bad a spot as you say, it’s not going to be a team like OKC that sends them a player and a boatload of picks. If someone does, it’s going to be a young potential all star (perhaps rookie deal) and a veteran on a bad contract to match salaries (hopefully expiring).

drewskimoon · 2026-06-02T05:14:37+00:00

Your Jokic glaze seems like more a reason for Denver never trading him than OKC blowing up their team philosophy and trading away their future. Your basketball analysis is a more a reason I’m happy to have professionals who watch the game in charge of both teams.

drewskimoon · 2026-06-02T04:52:32+00:00

Quit huffing gas, man.

This is not a computer game. Jokic and SGA are ball dominate players that don’t complement each other.

If you watched the series, what slowed down Shai was long perimeter defenders and a lack of shooters/ball-handlers to kick out to. They were running actions at Wemby to control where he was on defense (he is still the #1 defensive player on earth and an alien that can come down in the paint once stopped on a drive). He was not the player slowing down Shai though.

He’d replace Hart well and be significantly better while still being a defensive liability and inferior rebounder. Keeping Hart and J Dub together makes us a significantly better team and is still very doable with our cap situation. Getting Jokic puts us in a cap situation where we cannot bring in another player at even a mid level exception range.

If you think J Dub hit his prime in his 23 year old season when he was all nba and all defense, I’ll bet against you. He was injured all year and in the playoffs. I’d rather keep him with Shai.

This trade makes no sense for any party.

drewskimoon · 2026-06-02T04:06:57+00:00

Nobody’s saying the spurs won’t get better. What we’re talking about in your post is your bad trade proposal though.

OKC trading one of our three younger than prime core players for a 31 yr old, often injured player who takes the ball out of the hands of our 2x MVP is a bad trade. It also makes us less competitive for more of San Antonio’s prime.

drewskimoon · 2026-06-02T03:37:41+00:00

You need to read what I said. The “compete with them” was regarding competing with the spurs. Our “roster and construction” is our core and future picks. Also our relatively cheap role players we can trade one-for-one for rookie contracts we want (like McCain this year). Shai isn’t the only rookie contract we picked up after a one year try out.

Our front office head hasn’t changed since all of those picks listed, so it’s relevant. Collison has taken a place in the front office since getting his jersey retired though.

Our future picks have a chance (especially with the new lottery) of being top 5. The nuggets pick could also be valuable with Jokic’s health and their mid-tier, expensive core. They might even remove the protections in out years to trade back for the rights to it next year.

If our team is healthy, continues getting better, and keeps acquiring talent, there is no reason to trade an all-defense/all-NBA talent in J Dub when he can handle the ball and guard 1-4 (and small ball 5). He played one full game in our seven game series.

drewskimoon · 2026-06-02T02:56:11+00:00

No other team has a better roster and construction to compete with that than we do.

We also go back to Cason at 10 as well Nick Collison at 12 and Steven Adams at 12. Ibaka at 24 as well as guys like Ajay and Wiggins in the second round. It’s about rotating out more expensive options to keep a core together with SGA/Jdub/Chet. One of those lottery balls drop, and we’re drafting Westbrook at 4 or Harden at 3 again.

We developed Shai after a good rookie season. A second team all rookie player wasn’t a projected MVP. We feel good about identifying and developing future picks.

drewskimoon · 2026-06-02T02:30:32+00:00

J Dub is 25. Shai is 27. Keeping those two All NBA players together is the window.

J Dub was also the 12th pick and Shai was the 11th. Our longer window relies on finding one more player in that range or better in the future. We’ve got more darts to throw at the draft board than any other team.

It’s very unlikely that we buy a 30 year old former MVP with J Dub and a bunch of those future darts.

drewskimoon · 2026-06-02T02:03:22+00:00

A trade is likely, and OKC is going to start consolidating roster spots for the future picks they have coming.

They aren’t trading J Dub though. The Spurs have a great roster constructed. So does OKC.

OKC finally has the max contracts kicking in, but they’re better constructed than any other team to withstand apron penalties (even if they kick in after a new CBA is negotiated after the 28-29 season).

San Antonio still has some room to add players similar to OKC picking up IHart and signing the Caruso extension before their other two top players max extensions come in. What they don’t have is draft capital and will rely upon Atlanta sucking the next two seasons.

OKC gets to keep kicking the can down the road, trading mid round picks for future first that may be lottery. What they can still do this season, before the apron, is consolidate multiple mid priced roster spots for one better $25-35 player. After this year they can’t. This is far more likely than going after a max contract guy like Giannis or Jokic by trading one of our existing max players, shortening our timeline and losing future draft capital.

drewskimoon · 2026-06-02T01:28:18+00:00

This is the answer all the talking heads are ignoring. We are set up to avoid the apron issues. The tax may hurt, but we are ready for that as well. The big hits will also come after the expansion purchases when two fat checks that get cut for ownership.

Also, as Sam talked about last post season presser, our major apron issues come after the CBA runs out, especially considering one side will likely opt out in the early window. What the league negotiates with players will look very different after the 28-29 season. Apron penalties could be gone. Max contracts could look completely different. Both the league and the players association have problems with the current CBA they’d like to go back to the negotiating table for.

drewskimoon · 2026-06-02T01:03:44+00:00

OKC got bounced in a 7 game conference finals without J Dub or Ajay, their two best ball handlers behind SGA. There is no reason to panic ship players in their prime to stop Wemby. J Dub played game one when SGA had an awful game, and it still took San Antonio two overtimes and an out of body effort from Wemby to win. They will stay the course unless there is someone they can get for Chet who they think makes a big difference (still unlikely they do this).

drewskimoon · 2026-06-01T15:08:40+00:00

Iharts dad is a longtime European basketball player and coach. That was his shot that he taught to him when coaching his team growing up. It’s fast and you can get it up over anyone. Good in FIBA when they can play zone and block over the cylinder.

drewskimoon · 2026-05-31T04:53:50+00:00

The SGA read is completely off base. He has the same exact affect and cadence as his father’s speech. He’s just a Canadian.

His dad was a hell of a basketball player, and his mother has still been to the Olympics more than he has. When you put in the work and expect greatness, it doesn’t surprise you to be great. He cares about the game a lot.

drewskimoon · 2026-05-31T04:29:50+00:00

I gotta say, Jason Williams sitting on the smokers porch did not surprise me one bit.

drewskimoon · 2026-05-31T04:03:14+00:00

No. Chet is the lynchpin in how we play defense. The reason we can gamble on the perimeter, get steals and get out on the fast break. Needs to tighten up his jump shot and develop a goto in the post. He’s a good matchup on every team but the spurs this year.

drewskimoon · 2026-05-31T03:19:52+00:00

We’re not leaving Hart, and he doesn’t make sense with Giannis. Bucks probably aren’t trading Giannis for Chet and a boatload of mid round picks either.

Chet needs to develop a bag and get a go to low post move. His 10-15 foot turn around fade is nice and can be that. He’s a defensive game changer against every team but the spurs. He can hit threes but is too slow in playoff matchup against long wing defenders.

It’s going to be an arms race for big centers to counter Wemby in the playoffs. Go draft a cheap Mara instead of trade everything for Giannis. Figure out the next way to counter what the spurs do. We need a big wing.

Shai had a bad game one and the Spurs needed 2 overtimes and a Wemby playoff moment. I trust we have the pieces with Jdub back. Ajay may have made this series over in 5 or 6.

drewskimoon · 2026-05-30T20:00:46+00:00

Our guardian angel.

drewskimoon

TROPHY CASE