Jenksismyhero

Too much on his plate I guess - banging Paulina Gretzky, winning big golf tournaments, making millions, etc. Although seriously the dude apparently has a coke problem.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 03:17 PM) Pacers, Nuggets, Phoenix, Memphis and Portland all have good management and built those teams largely with only 1 top 5 pick and then finding gold in 8-15. But none have been in the Finals in the last 10 years. Tanking would have been a better management move. I see the tanking as a good move from management's perspective. They're trying to get to a point where they can contend for a championship. And the only way you do that is getting a couple of all-star, super-star quality players. It's incredibly difficult to sign those guys, so you have to draft them. It makes no sense to waste money on a bad team with one all-star player. It's not getting you anywhere.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 03:03 PM) There are small market teams that are managed well that do contend with deep teams. If you have good management, you can contend in the NBA. If you have bad management, all the draft picks in the world won't save you. They "manage" well by backing into hall of fame/superstar caliber players though. It's not like they're making shrewd moves to compete. And they rarely win, win. The Pacers are a well run organization but they needed Reggie to get to Finals, and they needed Paul George and no Derrick Rose for 2 years to get to the ECF the last two years.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 02:54 PM) Also basketball is just different with one player being so important to future of the franchise. And that's part of the problem too. There are too many teams out there with not enough talent. Cut 10 teams from the league and the "superstar" player becomes less important. Teams that are good all around could still contend.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 02:48 PM) You want every team trying to be good. It's no fun to watch a league where half the teams are disappointed when they win The 10 teams tanking this season were going to suck regardless. No one was going to watch them play even if they tried. The Pelicans "tried" and no one watched them and they have the next superstar on their roster.

QUOTE (CrimsonWeltall @ Jul 31, 2014 -> 02:41 PM) Why reward teams for intentionally being bad? Why should fans be subject to watching teams that lose on purpose? Because it's not really a reward for being bad purposefully, it's a reward for being bad period. No 50 win team is tanking the next season to get another playoff piece. The teams that tank are teams that aren't going to be very good anyway. Philly tanking next year is a smart move on their part because there's no way they're making the playoffs. So why NOT tank? Why waste money on FA's and trades only to get marginally better but still be awful? That makes no sense. And to Lowe's point, under most of the proposals you're still not stopping the incentive to tank. Even if your chances of getting a top 3 pick are slightly less than they are now, you're still going to go for it. You're not going to add a bunch of money to your roster because you now have an 11% chance to get the overall pick instead of 16.5%. I like the idea that if you're in that 7-10 range, you have a mini-playoff and the "winner" automatically gets a top 3 or 5 pick. That makes sense. But scrapping the system altogether to screw the s***ty teams over even more doesn't make much sense.

So, I just read Zach Lowe's piece on the lottery. (http://grantland.com/the-triangle/struggling-to-reinvent-the-nba-draft-lottery/) I gotta say, I'm not sure why "tanking" is that big of a deal and why the lottery system needs to change. Isn't it a good idea that if your team sucks you should get the best choice of players so that you don't suck anymore? And if you're the best team you shouldn't get a high pick that will only add to your dominance? And let's not pretend like teams that suck for multiple years in a row come out with super teams. Charlotte hasn't. Cleveland hasn't. I'm not sure any team has. edit: 2 seconds after I posted this I thought about the Thunder. I guess they sucked and got Durant and Westbrook at 2 and 4. I think they're an outlier though.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 30, 2014 -> 05:56 PM) People are trying their best to say things that make it sound like more than fluff. Not just "he looks good," but he looks amazing and better than before and his game is going to the next level yada yada To a certain degree though, it IS surprising that he's playing as well as he is. He's apparently been dominating all of the guards so far, especially defensively.

1) let the wife do it 2) let the dishwasher do it 3) if 1 and 2 fail, i do the one sink full of soapy water, wash with a sponge/rag full of soap, rinse method.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Jul 30, 2014 -> 06:35 AM) Yesterday was day 1 of the Bar Exam. It was fine, but afterwards the "biggest debacle in bar exam history" happened. What? You were able to type out the exam? I had a freakin blue book. I was lucky to pass on legibility alone.

I'm shocked. http://mashable.com/2014/07/30/obama-healt...om-Tw-main-link

La Grange is nice. Great schools. Great downtown area with some Chicago quality restaurants. And easy commute on Metra. You could probably rent a house for under 2k. There are a couple multi-unit condo buildings within walking distance to the train and downtown area too. No idea what rent is like there though.

"Do. Your. Job."

I wish. My wife has to drive to Rush. No feasible option for mass transit. I think anything decent in Indiana is going to be way too far of a drive for her.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 01:54 PM) Indiana's tax caps prevent the taxes on your primary residence from going above 1% of your property value. If you have a $150k house, you can't pay above $1500 annually for property taxes. Sigh, that'd be nice.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jul 29, 2014 -> 11:38 AM) I never lived there, just visited when my Cubs fans friends insisted. I went through an entire era of my life doing the club/bar scene on the north side/downtown -- and it was a huge waste of money, and nothing good came of it. 1997-2003 or so... So advice I give the childrens these days is to save your money, that scene sucked then, and it sucks now. And my complaint was the same -- but there was so many of them it was impossible to avoid. Well sure, looking back it's a waste of money, but in the moment it was a great time. At least it was for me.

Y2HH - when was the last time you live there? I lived in Wrigleyville from about age 24 to 28 (so 2005-2009ish). I didn't notice it being any more expensive than any other neighborhood in the city. If you want to waste your money, you can do that. If you want to buy a couple of cheap beers and burgers, you can do that too. My only complaint about the area was the douchey frat boys, which seemed a little more concentrated there. But you'll learn pretty quickly where those morons hang out and you'll ignore those bars like the plague.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 28, 2014 -> 06:19 PM) How many thousands of dollars would you turn down if all you had to do was kiss a man and perhaps simulate some humping? A lot. I'll defend your right to do it, but it disgusts me.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 28, 2014 -> 04:20 PM) So yeah, I'd say that holding it against him in casting is entirely fair based on what you've told me. How exactly? He played a straight character one season and he came back to work the next and he was suddenly gay. Pretty big change, and most likely something that wasn't told to him when he auditioned for the role.

You guys have any other western suburbs courses to recommend? I was thinking about playing Ruffled Feathers or Waters Edge. There's too many private courses out where I live. Damn rich people.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jul 28, 2014 -> 03:10 PM) back in the day it was a solid course, had a lot of players on it. Over time they have overbooked and undermaintained it. You know it wasn't terrible. The greens and fairways were in good shape. The little creeks and ponds were full of algae/moss/god knows what, but that's more of an aesthetic thing. The bunkers aren't great, but i've seen a lot worse (Fresh Meadows comes to mind...just cement now). It's a nice little course. Easy holes that you can get birdie or par without much effort, even if you screw up a drive or 2nd shot. Some doglegs where you can really screw yourself if you get in the trees. But they do tend to have a LOT of older guys who bring their wives and/or they overbook. So it does get backed up pretty quickly. I've played there three times this year and this was the first time my round was over 4 hours. But it's been a common complaint over the years. But still, for the price, it's worth it.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Jul 28, 2014 -> 03:06 PM) Nice deal. I don't know anything about GolfNow except for that TV commercial. Looks like it pops up some discounts? Yeah, the closer to the day you want the better usually. And you can often get twilight discounts (or better) much earlier in the day.

Carriage Greens in Darien. Reserved through GolfNow the morning I was going to play for a noon tee-time.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 28, 2014 -> 02:40 PM) Really? So basically it really is the "he didn't ask enough questions about the role he auditioned for" setup? Read a bloody script before you take a job. He signed up before last season, when his character was with a woman. This season the character's "secret" of being a gay vampire came out. So its entirely possible he didn't know. (Sadly my wife and I still watch this awful, awful show).

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 28, 2014 -> 11:47 AM) No, this was an anniversary trip, the kids were with my wife's parents. But I can tell you there would be plenty for kids to do. The Milwaukee Art Museum (which is pretty cool by the way), has a bunch of kid-focused exhibits, and does little classes during the day right in the galleries that any kid can just jump into. They do drawing and painting and stuff. And next door to the MAM is a Discovery museum that is heavily kid-focused, lots of interactive exhibits, etc. So it would work well with kids too. Sounds good. We're always trying to find more and more day trips/weekend trips to engage (and exhaust) my 2 year old.