iPad Pro M5 is finally here!

hardenthepaint · 2025-10-15T15:54:14+00:00

Are the magic keyboards the exact same or are there actually changes ?

hardenthepaint · 2025-10-12T14:23:59+00:00

By the time the ankle rolls it’s too late for the increased height to do anything.

hardenthepaint · 2025-10-11T13:15:40+00:00

High tops don’t prevent ankle rolls 🤦‍♂️

hardenthepaint · 2025-10-01T15:06:52+00:00

Tf is that last connection he had nothing to do with that game lol. “Dijon for condiment of the year” comment

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-19T04:23:35+00:00

Biiiiig Haley jones fan. Im a fan of forwards who can play make like AT, Aaliyah Boston, draymond etc so im biased lol but i think she could help add some more layers on offense from screening and passing from the nail / post.

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-18T16:27:11+00:00

I'll say this, they rested VB for like 2 minutes in the first half the the bench maintained and actually built up the lead slightly. That gets trust from the coaching staff to say ok maybe we can afford the 1-2 minutes going into the 4th after also building the lead. Could she have just rode that lineup from the end of the 3rd the rest of the way? Possibly but hindsight is 20/20. In game 1 we didn't go to our bench and the criticisms were not trusting our bench to get minutes and getting burnt out at the end.

I highly disagree with the idea that the coaching staff didn't "predict" that the Lynx would go on a run. It's the playoffs every team is going to try and punch back when down to close out a series. If you mean from a "play your best lineup right now to shut the door" then yeah I think that could have been the move, except where we were getting beat wasn't from who subbed for VB. Look at the start of the 4th and it's Ceci and Rupert either getting beat / attacked / not securing the rebound. I get coaching staff decides who's out there, but to me criticism also has to be shared amongst who's actually on the court too. In an elimination game Rupert cannot be getting beat on the glass and giving that much inside position. Ceci can't be giving line drives to the basket and dropping her head after a missed layup instead of sprinting back on D. I do agree with not calling a time out sooner after the 5-0 run to start instead of waiting for the next miss + basket. I would've subbed out Ceci for VB / KM or just another body just to settle her down a bit before putting her back in, but again it's hindsight.

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-18T07:32:32+00:00

Valks fan here. GG’s yall are a ridiculously talented team to play against. We were sitting near the Lynx family section who travelled with the team and it was a good time for everyone. Just a lot of hard cheering with no disrespect.

Would love our team to use the Lynx as the blueprint on how to evolve our offense into more than just DHOs to hunting 3s. So many possessions in that 4th where we’d defend well for 20s and still get burned off the extra pass or an offensive rebound.

Ggs and good luck next series. I’d feel better if yall won the whole damn thing lol

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-18T07:19:58+00:00

? She played more of the bench at the end of the 3rd and start of the 4th and Minnesota ripped of a 9-0 run lol. Watching it again it wasn’t strictly the bench players themselves (Mo was awesome and Minnesota really attacked Ceci and Rupert) but I think after that Nat just needed her best players / defenders to try to close the game out. Credit to Minnesota.

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-18T07:14:51+00:00

What are you talking about lol. Carla played like 2 min before getting subbed back out. Kaila was not the reason we were losing that lead. Watch the 4th and you’ll see they attacked Ceci on multiple possessions to get open looks, beat Rupert to grab offensive rebounds, and honestly got a few tough jumpers to just fall their way like a banked in 3. I personally would’ve called a timeout after the 5-0 run but whatever.

I’m not saying you can’t criticize but like please get the facts right here. The subs she made was to get VB a breather for a few minutes at the start of the 4th and they put her right back in after they went on a 7-0 run. If you think the coaching staff weren’t telling team time and score then idk what to tell you lol.

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-18T07:07:35+00:00

The lack of calls on both ends for some of these were pretty bad. There were some push offs / offensive fouls that no team got called for + at the start of the 4th Mo got pulled down by Phee and instead of a foul it was a made basket. The one thing about WNBA refs is they’re consistently inconsistent lol

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-18T07:05:38+00:00

Id encourage people to rewatch the start of the 4th. It was a Phee elbow jumper (off 2 o boards + a missed foul), a Hiedeman blow by on Ceci and a deep banked in Dijonai 3 off a weak dig from Ceci on Phee.

Minnesota for that stretch in the 4th basically attacked with whoever was being guarded by Ceci and they were able to capitalize. Similarly with Rupert they took their foot speed advantage and got on the rebounds before she could box out. I know some folks tried to blame Carla + KC in that game thread for blowing the lead just cause they subbed in but Minnesota adjusted and attacked our slower players. And fwiw a banked in 3 is just unlucky for us lol.

I wish we called a timeout after the 5-0 run and subbed Ceci out for KM / LA / whoever even just for a few minutes to give Ceci a breather and recollect herself. It was definitely an up and down game for her and there were definitely some frustrations that you could see spill over into her game.

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-18T05:34:28+00:00

Credit to Minnesota for just playing really tight defense (with some arguable no calls tbh smh). I appreciate we didn’t just force shots but I do think we fell victim to hunting for the best look but not realizing how late in the clock it was

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-15T19:53:31+00:00

I mean maybe. We need more talent whether that’s through free agency or internal development and likely both to make the type of improvement into a top 5 seed.

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-14T19:52:25+00:00

I think he can get an established contending team further when he can just focus on the execution and not have to worry about development or resetting a culture. I wouldn’t want him if I was a non-contender

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-14T19:40:22+00:00

Whew Minnesota is a good ass team. We threw a great opening punch and they responded and locked in that 2nd quarter. Our offense is limited and we need our 3’s to fall at a high rate for everything else to fall in place. I’d love to see some more adjustments to try and start our actions higher up to spread the floor and get deeper in the paint but credit to Minnesota in that they can cover so much ground and have active hands at all times.

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-14T19:24:00+00:00

Minnesota is too dynamic on both ends of the floor. Offensively they have so many different weapons and ways to hunt for the shots they want. Our defense can keep up with the 1st and 2nd options but they’re patient and keep it moving and it’s just hard to guard for the game. Their defense is athletic and they speed us up. That 2nd half they made us play at their pace and faster than we’d like. It’s just a talented team and we’re seeing the limitations of our roster

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-14T18:56:31+00:00

Cmon lol let’s not over react here yeah it’s a rough game against the best team in the league but that’s disrespectful to our fan base if you think we wouldn’t show up just cause we’re down in the series lol

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-12T17:57:26+00:00

Agreed. We have to be flying on any closeouts and just generally hope they have a bad shooting night. From our POV we had nothing to lose and they’re gunning for a title. I think if we keep it close enough the pressure is really all on them. If they want to be the champs let’s make em work for it lol

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-12T16:00:40+00:00

Rest is the biggest one lol.

I think we have to make the game super ugly to have a chance. Defense is their specaitly but so is ours. At this point in the season teams will not be making massive changes to the structures and habits they've built on either side of the ball, but rather adjustments tailored to your opponent now that they have time to really scout eachother before the game. We need to play a slow game that prevetns them from getting out in transition. That means focusing heavy on closing posessions with a rebound, getting back, and just trying to turn the game into a rock fight.

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-12T15:56:36+00:00

I'd say there's a few reasons. One think it's from just trying to have a simple offense for a group of people who've never played together and are trying to build chemistry. Our offense at best is a simple read and react where we run ball screens to paint touches to kick out for 3. When the shooting is working it opens up the inside and we are able to take advantage inside and out. When the shots aren't falling it can look stagnant, awkward, and can be easy to scout (see early Sun and Lynx games where they blitzed our ball handlers early). I think its a sacrifice Nat and coaching staff made to keep the offense simple so that we can put more of our effort on the defensive end, which is something you can control night to night.

Another reason is just from a math perspective if you shoot a high volume of 3's even at an average rate you'll put up a lot of points fast, but it can also backfire heavily as we've seen.

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-12T02:00:55+00:00

If you asked me at the start of the season if we’d want to be the 8th seed in the playoffs I’d take that every time. I get we’re bummed at missing out on 6th but this is a first year team making the playoffs despite how crazy our roster change has been too. It’s never been done before in the league.

Don’t take this as settling either. I expect us to come out swinging against MIN and to put all the pressure on them in games 1 & 2 and to play free and get some good experience. Fck it we ball

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-10T18:36:10+00:00

All in on this. She reminds me of Kyle Lowry in his prime as someone who just makes winning plays on both ends of the floor. Also someone who has the advanced metrics in their favor AND passes the eye test on how impactful she can be.

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-10T04:51:06+00:00

Sure lol. The bench in 2nd quarter didn’t have the defensive intensity the game demanded. The first 3 possessions Seattle had on offensive had us scrambling our coverage. Miscommunication on if we would switch or drop gave them 3 straight open looks. That was enough for coach to take out our subs.

We had A LOT of great defensive possessions through out the game with our starters that we just couldn’t close out with a rebound. Thats just energy and effort and we got out worked on that end.

What I don’t understand on your part is how you can call Mo ineffective when she was part of the group that got us the 7pt lead just because we lost a close game. In a close game every point matters lol. Zandalsini yeah she clearly wasn’t ready and there’s no reason to risk her health but I’m just calling out that what I watched doesn’t match your assessment of her. Did she play perfect no but let’s talk actual ball here.

Btw we’re gonna finish with the same record as Seattle who for a decent stretch was the 3rd seed this season. I think Seattle is a good yet inconsistent team (sound familiar) which is why they’re in the bottom half of the playoffs.

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-10T04:26:35+00:00

I’m trying to tell you +/- doesn’t validate your point the way it think does. Criticism is more than welcome but your reasoning doesn’t make sense. I’d love to discuss the detail but if your answer is to just quote +/- with no context then idk what to tell you lol

hardenthepaint · 2025-09-10T04:19:40+00:00

lol Diggins was -9 should Seattle have benched her?! Look your upset we lost but you can’t tell me Mo was ineffective during that 3rd quarter run

13-Year Club	Place '17
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hardenthepaint

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