Jenksismyhero

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 11, 2016 -> 12:02 PM) I thought the line the minute they fired Thibs made one of the most coachable teams one of the most uncoachable was genius. I mean, that's just revisionist history. The team stopped listening to Thibs that last year. They were tired of him. I loved Thibs and what he did, but it was time for a change. I love how Haugh and others keep saying "we need change just for change!" while at the same time claiming change for change with Thibs was a terrible decision. Which is it?

You guys are nuts if you think Gar is going anywhere. The team is without 4 of its 6 most important players. Easy, built in excuse.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 10, 2016 -> 11:12 AM) Oh, you are only allowed to play hindsight when it works out? He was a more valuable asset and trade piece. They kept him assuming he'd be a PF of the future. He has no place as a PF so they are moving him to be a bad SF. That's their scouting and roster management. And he was linked in all sorts of trades including Love and Melo but those didn't work out. And again, after his first half season and even after his first season in total everyone thought he was a great stretch 4. He's had stretches. He makes terrible mistakes, but from a skill standpoint, he's still got it. Why are we calling him a bust after 1.5 seasons?

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 10, 2016 -> 11:09 AM) Niko is not a "great" move. Great moves at the least provide you with a good player. Niko is bad. Pau is a fine player. He was a very strange choice to fit on this roster, it created a weird carousel of rotations, and killed our wing/pg rotations. That was a bad signing of a good player. Hindsight.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 10, 2016 -> 10:30 AM) Another Gar signature move. If this team stayed healthy, or if this teamed played well enough, I could easily say, Gar you were right, the blame here was on Thibs. That was not the case at all. I don't know how anyone at this point can say they had no problem with the Bulls firing Thibs, but would find it wrong firing Gar and/or Pax. Does Jimmy Butler develop into the player he is without Thibs? You have to figure if he developed into the player under Hoiberg, Gar would be singing his praises, not leaking stuff to the press how most of the players didn't like playing for Thibs. The hack job they did on Thibs out the door, and the way the team has not done any better this year, should be a huge embarrassment to the organization. I agree 100% with this. Their handling of coaching is what deserves criticism. Handling of the roster, IMO, does not.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 10, 2016 -> 10:23 AM) One thing they could have done was not bring back the entire roster except Portis for Nazr and proclaim it a championship roster. You are saying the roster is flawed. GarPax didn't see it that way, and were willing to pay $9 million to show everyone the thing holding back the Bulls was their coach. To me, that's fireable. It isn't a championship roster if everyone is healthy, and to expect this particular group of players to be healthy is beyond crazy as well. Gar called it a championship roster. He should be held accountable to his words. Agree or disagree - they are/should be the lock for #2 in the east? I say that was the case, clearly, before the season started, with this roster. By definition then they were championship contenders. They'd be in the final four teams. They're one Lebron injury away from being in the Finals. Given what they're stuck with from s*** that happened outside of their control (Rose being made of glass and signing him to a max contract, fully deserved, right before he broke), that's literally the best you can do. And weren't they relatively healthy last year? And they should have won that Cavs series? I don't see what was wrong with GarPax saying this was a good enough roster when you could/should expect some development from Mirotic and McDermott in year 2 and you were already in the ECF, a Lebron buzzer beater away from going up 3-1.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 10, 2016 -> 10:04 AM) That doesn't mean they did well. I like all of the smaller pieces/role pieces the other top teams have acquired over the bulls. You guys are so literally minded. The bulls for 4 years now have relied on vet min PGs to back-up rose. It worked until it didn't. They committed their other small mid-money amount to Hinrich. That's a bad signing. They reserved their Boozer cap space to Gasol. Gasol has played well, but he was odd at the time and has clearly not worked out now. His style and position openly conflicted with our C Noah. It put a ridiculous amount of our resources to frontcourt, while our backcourt continued to thin out and become old, slow, or one dimensional. Who would you have signed instead? And that plan means you're basically giving up hope that Rose ever becomes a good player again. Up until last season, that would have been foolish, not to mention the FA nightmare of having an organization give up on a player after 1 or 2 injuries. Hurting their FA pull is the last thing they can afford given how low it is already. Also Gasol was a great pick-up. Dude's been an all-star each year he's been here. What more do you want? He doesn't fit the Hoiberg system but maybe Garpax was hoping he'd be enough of a piece to get past Cleveland and still have Thibs as a coach. Examples please. And the Heat got lucky a scrub in the D-League developed into a major player. And they didn't have to deal with a franchise player who is constantly hurt. Signing Gasol was a great move that argues against the "they don't make any good moves or sign good players!" complaint. Niko was just a miss. Through half of last season everyone and their mother thought he was a great find. I'm still not willing to give up on him either. He makes a lot of stupid mistakes, but he still has a ton of talent. It's been 1.5 seasons. Same with McDermott. His defense can improve and then he'd be a really solid contributor. And who are you drafting instead of McDermott? What need could have been filled. Go look at the players taken after him. A bunch of nobodies. As I've said before, given unlucky situation with Rose, they've been pretty hamstrung in what they could do. As Balta has pointed out, any moves they could have made to get better means you lose out on Butler or Taj or both. Other than some max free agent like Lebron or Melo WHO THEY TRIED TO ACQUIRE, they're not signing anyone as good as Butler now. So that's all a wash.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 10, 2016 -> 09:17 AM) Yes, that's the only problem with the bulls. Injuries. Like in the other thread, what should the Bulls have done? Not hope that McDermott and Mirotic panned out? Should they have scrapped those plans after one season? Or the injuries to Noah and Dunleavy? Was that really foreseeable? Or now Butler? I mean come on guys, this is 99% on injuries. The roster was never good enough to compete with GSW or SA or maybe even Cleveland. But given the circumstances, the roster was probably the best they could do with Rose still on the roster commanding 25 mil a year.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 9, 2016 -> 03:54 PM) There's a reason Thibs has shut up and not said anything. He knew the clown show would collapse under the tent. Thibs knew the roster would get crushed with injuries?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 9, 2016 -> 04:17 PM) I don't get what is so great about Chipotle. It isn't that good. There are so many dive type places I would rather go to that just blow it away. Give me a Taco Burrito King for starters. +1 It's fine, but it's not earth shattering. And certainly not worth the $10-12 they charge. I will say though, that their guac and lime chips are the bomb. I could eat that stuff all day.

I don't find this offensive at all, but I do laugh at the fact that if this were two men doing the same thing to a woman reporter, we'd never hear the end of it: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/d...e-a6849116.html

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 8, 2016 -> 02:32 PM) SportsCenter @SportsCenter Marshawn Lynch's agent confirms the Seahawks RB's plans to retire. Read a story today that he hasn't spent a penny of his paychecks from playing football. He's saved it all instead, nearly 50 million.

Meanwhile, investigation on a legit cheating scandal at North Carolina continues....

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Feb 5, 2016 -> 12:49 PM) I hate NCAA sports. To save face and recruiting in the future, they screw over the players on the current roster that didn't do anything wrong. I feel bad for everyone except Snider. Kharma b****! (half serious)

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 5, 2016 -> 10:50 AM) You are pre-inclined to believe such. In 08 she stuck with the individual mandate being necessary for healthcare reform (she was obviously right), she has stuck to the hyde amendment this year, and then pivots on things she is not as hardset on. There are worse things than a president being responsive to pressure from the base. FWIW: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/clinton-spendin...idates-combined

QUOTE (scs787 @ Feb 5, 2016 -> 12:14 PM) There's no way he gets a job next year right? Dallas, if only for the attention.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 4, 2016 -> 09:35 AM) I agree that Clinton and Gingrich were (or are) better. But I do think Obama is quite good - far better than his predecessor for example. And far better than most of the current Prez candidates in either party. I'm not saying he's terrible, but he's not good either. He doesn't have good pace and he's always got bad inflection. He constantly emphasizes the wrong word(s) in his speeches so they end up sounding all choppy.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 4, 2016 -> 09:10 AM) https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mar...02c9_story.html Marco Rubio is running scared https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-l...ters/?tid=a_inl That's the biggest hole in the Rubio candidacy...he doesn't have the ability to improvise and have that feel for different audiences that Bill Clinton and Obama were so good at sensing intuitively. Everyone is criticizing him for giving the same canned speech over and over again, and being the product of his speech writers. If you look at his policies, he's very much the same thing as GW Bush. Hard line/military interventionist, cutting taxes on the rich/supply side economics, God knows exactly where he stands on immigration at this point. Just like Obama, people are projecting their hopes/dreams/aspirations about what he and is and what he represents and I wonder if it another sort of trap that voters will quickly become disillusioned whenever a young/attractive "change" candidate comes along. Rubio's currently getting a huge advantage of looking "normal" or more palatable because of the constant comparisons with Trump and Cruz...the longer they stay in the race together and the other candidates who are/were legit possibilities are wiped out (Bush first, then Kasich and Christie depending on NH, my sense is Kasich can stay in this longer and will start to spend more and more time "mentoring" Rubio unless they absolutely just don't get along well), the better Rubio's chances of winning the nomination. Obama is not a good public speaker. He doesn't make a room laugh or feel comfortable based on off the cuff remarks. Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich were two of the best in that category that I've seen. Obama is a robot in comparison. It drives me nuts that people keep saying this.

Finished up the 2nd season of Peaky Blinders. So good. Can't wait for season 3 to come out.

Groce better not have a job in the morning.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Feb 2, 2016 -> 06:02 PM) Good thing the last four months prepared you, haha. Ha, truth.

What do you guys spend on that speed? I have 25mb service from ATT and it's $40/month.

QUOTE (3GamesToLove @ Feb 3, 2016 -> 08:22 AM) I've been paying ahead on my student loans, but found out that as a teacher I may be eligible for $5k in forgiveness in a couple years. What do I do? I've been paying ahead a decent amount, $100 over the minimum each month and also 1/2 of each of my extracurricular stipends. At that rate I'd be done with my payoff in about 5 years rather than 10. But I recently found out that by the end of my 5th year teaching (June of 2018), I could receive up to $5,000 in forgiveness from the government. At my current rate, my loans would all be gone at that time! What I've done for now is stopped paying ahead so much and started putting that extra towards my car instead. Once that's paid off, I think I'll start stashing everything that I was paying for that each month in savings, just in case something happens and I don't get the forgiveness, and can pay off the debt at that time anyway. Does this seem sound? I know the car debt isn't ideal because of the difference in interest, but if someone else is going to pay my $5,000 I'd like to let them! If you're confident you'll still be able to get that $5,000 (i.e., you're not going to change jobs), I'd stop paying the extra and apply that money towards other debt and/or save it or invest it. You're just throwing away money if you get that $5k in a few years and it covers way more than you actually owe. If it's a significant amount that you're "overpaying," the other thing you can do is change your repayment plan to income-based. Most likely the payment amount will be less than any regular repayment plan. Do the math and find out where would you be in June 2018 with the $5k in forgiveness paying that lesser monthly amount. Lastly, be sure to look up the $5k forgiveness requirements. My wife gets the non-profit forgiveness after 10 years and there are all sorts of requirements including the amount of qualified payments, that you contact a special office and get on a list so they know you're in that program, etc. Your servicing company should be able to help you with all of that.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 2, 2016 -> 02:55 PM) The CDC today confirmed a first documented case of a sexually transmitted version of this virus. So yeah, basically if you get sick in the first 2 weeks, head to a doctor and don't have sex during the period of sickness and that should basically cover everything. Sigh, there's no way my wife takes that chance. No sex for 4 months, yay....

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 2, 2016 -> 12:14 PM) But nobody is ever going to waste time and money on Wyoming's 3 EV's. A lot of time? No, but some time? Yes. We just had an election won by 5 electoral votes, so they're important. 600k votes out of 115 million is nothing. And I guess we disagree fundamentally that they're overrepresented. That was done by design. Every state gets 2 votes, regardless of population. When deciding matters of the entire country, to me that makes sense. The house compensates for population. True, Illinois is a bad example. No matter which system, downstate Illinois residents get the shaft when it comes to attention. I do think it'd be worse under a popular vote system though. Something like 10 million live in the chicago metro area, 2 million in the rest of the state. There's little incentive to campaign in the rural areas if we did it that way.