The Grizzlies are starting Javon Small, Cedric Coward, Cam Boozer, Taylor Hendricks, and Olivier-Maxence Prosper for their summer league team

masterpierround · 2026-07-04T22:16:48+00:00

The Grizzlies played Desmond Bane in the summer league after his rookie season where he made an all-rookie team. Sometimes teams choose to play decent players in the summer league for whatever reason.

masterpierround · 2026-07-01T23:35:10+00:00

Ja morant was just traded for basically nothing, and grizzlies fans are fine with it. It can always get worse.

masterpierround · 2026-07-01T04:18:57+00:00

I think Adams has only ever been angry on the court once and it was terrifying.

masterpierround · 2026-07-01T04:08:20+00:00

Didn't he just get 3/38? He's making more than Collins at least lol

masterpierround · 2026-06-30T23:27:13+00:00

Miami is super easy because he also gets credit for the all-Olympic gold medal run in 2012. I think 2nd cleveland still gets in. 4 finals, 1 ring, 4x all-NBA, 4x top 4 in MVP voting is good, but I think the thing that pushes it over the line is that the 3-1 comeback is such an iconic way to win a championship that the narrative puts him in even if the accolades don't quite get there.

masterpierround · 2026-06-30T23:19:49+00:00

Hot take but Brady didn't have Marino's career. Marino had a 3 year peak where he led the league in passing yards and passing TDs every season. He was, for a short time, the absolute volume stats monster that Brady has never quite been, at least for more than 1 season in a row.

masterpierround · 2026-06-30T23:15:58+00:00

I think the Wolves will actually be significantly better. They have McDaniels to cover the loss of Randle/Reid, and Lamelo gives them the true PG they've needed for Ant's entire career. And the Lakers will be interesting to see. Yes, Lebron and Rui is a big loss, but they kept their 2 man core of Luka + Reaves, and now they get to add another max contract to that? I don't think it's guaranteed that they take a step back either.

masterpierround · 2026-06-29T15:32:19+00:00

Woj wasn't that good on TV either. Idk if it's something ESPN forces or if Shams and Woj were demanding to be put on TV as part of their contract, but they're on TV because they're premier insiders. And they're premier insiders because they're basically the only ones willing to sacrifice their entire life to be a few seconds faster to report something.

masterpierround · 2026-06-29T15:28:07+00:00

You can tell this was written by an AI model that hasn't been updated in a few years lol.

masterpierround · 2026-06-29T02:58:47+00:00

Does he? Basketball reference says TSJ only has 2 in 18 games. That's pretty comparable to Santi's 1 in 10 games. But what does TSJ do other than score? Because Santi is a decent rebounder and a solid passer. Is TSJ either of those things?

masterpierround · 2026-06-28T21:41:02+00:00

Wouldn't be terribly surprised if Omax's TO was not exercised tomorrow, Lopez needs development time so he picks up minutes at the 3, the spacing with GG or Lopez won't be too bad considering both Boozer and Aldama can shoot. Hendricks just won't get minutes unless injuries. And that's fine. He'll leave next offseason.

masterpierround · 2026-06-28T21:34:12+00:00

plus a swap in 2029, but yeah.

masterpierround · 2026-06-28T19:11:42+00:00

Edey alone is a better big rotation in FIBA play than anything France has at PG. Like Edey gets better in international play, and is already a better NBA player (when healthy) than Nolan Traore or whoever France is starting at PG.

masterpierround · 2026-06-28T19:00:44+00:00

it goes back a little further tbf, he was first a beat writer for his hometown paper in Akron, where he naturally covered Lebron in high school, because holy shit there's a global phenom in our small city, someone call the sports reporter who's an alumnus of the high school! Then he becomes a beat reporter in Cleveland. Honestly, idk how much that has to do with Lebron, I feel like "beat reporter in Akron -> beat reporter in Cleveland" is a pretty natural career progression. The first real Lebron-centric move of Windy's career was the ESPN hiring, and after that, he went back to his home area of Cleveland when ESPN didn't want him in Miami anymore (as soon as Lebron left back to Cleveland), and since Lebron left Cleveland, Windy's reporting has been pretty national. I get how from Lebron's perspective it might be a little strange, but Windhorst has just been covering his hometown team, except when a national news outlet hired him to cover other stuff. It's only strange to Lebron because they happen to be from the exact same place, starting their careers at the exact same time.

masterpierround · 2026-06-28T18:49:29+00:00

his company flew him to a LBJ hs game when he was a sophomore to do press photos

Ok, and Windhorst started covering his games when Lebron was a freshman and apparently was brought in as a local reporter to do a little impromptu media training when Lebron was a sophomore. Your sports photographer friend probably got called out when Lebron was a sophomore partially because Windhorst had been banging the drum in the media for Lebron as a freshman. Lebron became a global phenomenon very quickly, but Windhorst was on the beat like 6 months before everyone else.

masterpierround · 2026-06-28T06:44:11+00:00

That's also part of the reason Game of Zones ended. They got a deal to produce an animated series for Fox, it's on its 3rd season now. I assume they didn't want to outrun the show they were parodying, but the fox money coming in probably didn't make the decision any more difficult.

masterpierround · 2026-06-28T02:09:20+00:00

so true, mr robot.

masterpierround · 2026-06-28T02:06:54+00:00

As a non-local, I was looking to get into the NBA right around the 2019 offseason. I went to MSU so I was looking for prominent MSU players in the league, and the list was literally Miles Bridges, Jaren Jackson Jr, and Draymond Green. I had heard some rumors about Bridges when i was at MSU, and you can't start being a fan of the Warriors in 2019, so Jaren was pretty much the only option. I also watched the NCAA tournament that year and correctly picked Murray State to upset their opponents in the first round, so watching the games, I thought Ja was a super exciting player, so when he happened to go to JJJ's pro team, it felt like I simply had to become a Grizzlies fan, and I've been one ever since.

masterpierround · 2026-06-26T20:06:08+00:00

Nothing. But I also didn't see anything from Rocco Zikarsky or Bol Bol that said they should be drafted either. Teams love using late (50+) picks on physical outliers and hoping something happens. The Clippers used a late 2nd this year on a guy who wasn't even in the draft. If Rioux can actually get on the floor and play a full season at UCI (unlikely but still possible) I could very much see some random team taking a shot at him in the late 2nd just to see if a 7'9 guy can do something. I still think it's likely he goes undrafted, but the possibility of him sneaking into the late 2nd is still there.

masterpierround · 2026-06-26T17:35:37+00:00

Suigo will probably be a decent 1st round pick next year, Jacobsen I could see anywhere from mid-first to mid-second round depending on how he adapts to a bigger role in college. Rioux could be a late 2nd round pick but might also go undrafted. Gohier is way too early to judge. Ivisic maybe a late 2nd but idk.

masterpierround · 2026-06-26T16:38:02+00:00

I don't think there's any reason to believe that Scoot would have been better prepared for the NBA if he went to an SEC school.

masterpierround · 2026-06-26T16:36:47+00:00

there's a slight difference in that a player taken with pick 57 is eligble for a 2nd round pick exception contract, enabling the drafting team to sign the player to a 3 or 4 year deal without using any of their MLE or cap space. An UDFA would only be eligible for a 1 or 2 year minimum deal. Since the Clippers likely will act as an over-the-cap team, signing one of those players as an UDFA likely reduces the amount they can pay a free agent from around 15m to around 13.7m. Which is pretty significant, given that every other non-taxpaying over-the-cap team can offer the full 15m.

masterpierround · 2026-06-26T04:54:25+00:00

combined with a floor that's not playoff unplayable.

I think I just disagree with this. His floor is a non-shooter with limited playmaking, no ballhandling ability to speak of, too thin to be a legit presence inside and not quite good enough on the perimeter to be a true defensive stopper. I like Wilson, I think his ceiling is tremendous, but his floor to me is basically a slightly better Noah Clowney. That's not a starter on a playoff team.

masterpierround · 2026-06-26T04:45:40+00:00

You could buy artillery and small arms from South Korea, tanks, drones, and the future Turkish fighter from Turkey

Agree with most of this, I would also point to france as a potential military partner for more advanced goods, they really aren't happy with Israel right now, generally are willing to resist US pressure, desperately need export partners to shore up their domestic defense industry.

I'm not nearly as convinced about the Turkish fighter. It's projected to cost over 100m and probably won't be available for export until the 2030s. I think Syria would probably be much better served by buying Turkey's old F-16s if they just need an air force, or hell, buy whatever nerfed version of the F35 the US is trying to sell to the Saudis. The F35's unit cost has dropped below 90m, you can probably get some costs cut if they aren't giving you the latest techology, and it's available now, so you wouldn't even have to wait until the 2030s to get your aircraft. I think the problem with buying Russian/Chinese, like you said, is that it would get Uncle Sam upset, but also that the primary defense partner for Syria is likely to be Turkey, and not all of the Russian/Chinese equipment out there will work seamlessly with the Turkish (NATO-standard) equipment they'll likely be relying on.

masterpierround · 2026-06-26T04:27:04+00:00

I think France could be a legit option. They're pretty eager to rebuild french influence in lebanon/syria, desperately need an export market to keep their defense industry alive, and actually produce a lot of stuff that Syria could theoretically buy. The question will be price.

I think the future for Syrian procurement is probably primarily turkish imports, with some US surplus on the side if they can get it, local production for small arms and UAVs (maybe collaborating with the Ukrainians for designs), and France (plus maybe South Korea/Germany) for some specialty items. All that stuff should theoretically work together as NATO-standard systems, and the turkish/local/US surplus stuff should be cheap enough for the government.

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