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QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Aug 10, 2012 -> 08:26 PM) Three of those 4 players aren't what they used to be (though all three are still very good). The other won't be ready to start the season and will need time once he's back on the court before he's back to being the MVP/DPOY force that he's been the last 4 years. Again, looks real good on paper. I just see a lot of potential issues (lack of depth, outside shooting, etc). The Thunder's core has been together for three years now and they've gotten better each year. I don't really care about the season, they might be a 4-5 seed but it won't matter. They need to pace themselves, obviously, but we are still talking about a team with: Kobe - 2nd in ppg Nash - 2nd in apg (on an AWFUL team) Howard - 1st in RPG Howard - 3 in BPG and then gasol.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Aug 10, 2012 -> 08:06 PM) I think they're just too damn old, even with Dwight. Kobe - 34, Gasol -32, Nash - 38, MWP - 33, Jamison - 36. Their bench is still below average. They'll be good, of course. But give me the Thunder's young legs and another year's experience over LA. But 4 players in your starting lineup are legit top 5 at their positions. That's incredible. Nash is away from phx staff, but when he gets to the playoffs? He's going to look 30 again.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Aug 10, 2012 -> 07:53 PM) Lakers still can't see the Thunder. We'll see. Lakers are a really bizarre team of personalities to throw together. It's going to be incredibly entertaining if it's spectacularly good or bad. On paper, I"d take the lakers for a year over this years OKC, but it's entirely possible the lakers never mesh/get really bad injuries.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Aug 10, 2012 -> 07:04 PM) Just from what I've seen in general of flagship state schools, Illinois has absurdly high in-state tuition. My (relatively small) scholarship at Indiana made it the same price UIUC would have been. They like to raise tuition because it makes them feel elite. They aren't concerned with the state as much as prestige.

I think playing into the Lakers hands with howard is he just had back surgery. Is he really gonna turn down a guaranteed extra year to sign elsewhere? I doubt it. Howard is such an awful person, though.

That is incredible. I imagine he probably did way more than anyone else would have done to get kicked off, but i still respect LSU for pulling the trigger.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 10, 2012 -> 05:46 PM) The other, unnoted big part of that surge is that state funding for higher education has been plummeting. This is only 1 state but it shows through 2011; there's a similar national trend. One thing I want to know, however, is is the funding actually dropping, or is tuition just rising so much that more and more needs to come out of pocket.

they won't clog the lane, but what they WILL do is when rose goes up and drives and misses, we will have 2 excellent rebounders getting the put back. BOOM DUNK CHAMPIONSHIP f*** we suck.

Yeah, still not impressed. Their earnings will be over 38k for the majority of their lifetime. I'm not arguing for law school, not doing law school was the only good school decision i've made. But, in the grand scheme of things these people will be better off than someone who didn't go to college. Again, I doubt the amount of legal jobs has gone down, there are just a lot more lawyers so they can't demand the salary they used to.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 10, 2012 -> 05:51 PM) There is a glut of lawyers, though. and yet I'd bet a large amount of them are making more than the 38k median wage.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 10, 2012 -> 04:42 PM) That's the conventional thinking that's no longer accurate. There was another article out there recently (yahoo finance?) that talked about the number of "good jobs" (doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc) Not quite: The report, by John Schmitt and Janelle Jones of the Center for Economic Policy and Research, defines "good jobs" as those where the worker earns at least the median wage - around $38,000 yearly - uses employer-provided health insurance and has some sort of retirement fund, either a traditional pension or a 401(k) account. This would mostly be accounted for in the loss of manufacturing jobs that had generous packages. Considering the explosion in healthcare, I really doubt there's less doctors jobs to go around. There could be quite a bit more if they allowed more into medical schools.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 10, 2012 -> 05:30 PM) Yup. Time to play for a draft pick. Ugh, but we aren't bad enough! We're going to be a 7-8 seed, which is AWFUL.

It's hard to put into perspective just how inconsequential the bulls are now.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Aug 10, 2012 -> 03:33 PM) That depends... It's ok to put yourself into debt for college *IF* you are going to college for something useful to the world around you. For example, going into debt to become a nuclear engineer is a bit different from going to be a ... psychologist. One of the two will probably have an infinitely easier time repaying their student loan debt. I get this, but also this idea that english degrees are worthless is pretty stupid. When you look at executives at companies it's incredibly common to see liberal arts degrees.

I was looking at a story about Roosevelt University in Chicago that seemed to encapsulate everything wrong with colleges right now. They were talking about how their tuition had gone up about 200% or something outrageous (probably less) the past 4 years and his quote was something like : "We realized that we were providing a lot more value than our tuition suggested, so we were just bringing the tuition up to reflect that" Your GOAL should be to provide more than your tuition.

Wasn't what Bynum said that he was going to test free agency no matter what? If so, you still have that 5th year nobody else can offer.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 10, 2012 -> 01:51 PM) See, this is why I have been so pissy this offseason. s*** like this keeps happening and all we have is "well, it didnt work out" Make it work out. Kupchak just said "Give me Dwight" and 3 other teams said "OK". And Kupchak didnt give a s*** that he was giving up a young and pretty good center. And he didnt care about the money, or the possibility that Dwight wont re-sign. He just did it anyway. The other deals were all point guards i didn't give a s*** about. Now Philly is probably better than us if Jrue and Turner keep progressing. But worst case scenario, you shed Deng, you get Bynum and he either signs or you have a lot more cap space.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Aug 10, 2012 -> 06:28 AM) This deal makes no sense for Orlando. At least New Orleans got Gordon and Rivers. I thought they might go for getting absolutely nothing back, but nothing all on expiring contracts. I do NOT get taking that package and money back. Start from scratch with a s*** ton of money and firsts? I GET IT! This package? NO f***IN CLUE

Really wish we were the sixers in this trade. Trade deng as iggy, get bynum ( I know it's not that simple, but basic principle), and trust that with the extra 5th year you can offer, you have a top3 PG and top3 C on your team. Now that I see how the trade ended up I'm really f***ing pissed.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 9, 2012 -> 10:04 PM) Yeah, dislocated. And that is the annoying kind of stuff that drags into the season Yeah that's brutal. That seems incredibly painful.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 9, 2012 -> 09:52 PM) i doubt the texans get past the first round. Johnson, Foster and Schaub all have to stay healthy(which hasnt been an easy feat), as does JJ Watt who has already hurt his elbow. He hurt his elbow?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 9, 2012 -> 09:41 PM) Mario Williams only played 1/3 of a season for them last year. Are you really worried that the bears might be playing the second half texans this year?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 9, 2012 -> 08:33 PM) I'm in this boat also, which means that either I'm wrong or that the Bears are going to beat some teams that look like challenges right now. I'm guessing we might see Houston be worse this year (from their peak with Schaub), due to Mario Williams being gone.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Aug 9, 2012 -> 07:34 PM) People are expecting Newton to develop and improve, they have a very solid running game (outside of Newton), they have a decent defense and are getting Jon Beason back from missing basically all of 2011. I think Carolina will be a pretty good team this year actually. I mean, maybe i'm wrong, but a 60% completion and 4000 yards passing is a lot to replicate. You often see NFL QBs that had good rookie seasons slide a bit the next year.

Re: Cam Newton, I think it's very likely you see a regression. Not a garbage player type regression, but a full summer of coaches to figure out his tendencies will have an effect.