Deleterious

Good news. OKC won the title last year while only shooting 33% from three. Bad news. OKC shot 37% from three in the regular season last year. The Pistons are only shooting 34% this year.

Giannis is listed as questionable for tonight. Some people are already he will make his return tonight. Bill Simmons is saying Tatum will make his season debut on Friday.

Top 3 is Dybantsa, Peterson, and Boozer in that order. Recently saw Sam talking about the draft. He said for the first time in his career, he has over 30 first round grades. So it could be a deep draft. He has the Pistons taking some 6'2" guard that he calls the best shooter in the draft.

The Atlanta Hawks are holding a promotional night for Magic City. Not much of a pearl clutcher, but an NBA team holding a promotional night for a strip club doesn't seem right. It is kind of funny they are holding it the night they play Orlando.

They are both over a month away. But if the Iran situation is not solved by then, you would think Bahrain and Saudi Arabia would be cancelled.

There is a rumor that on Sunday, Aston Martin will take the formation lap and retire. Lack of engine replacement parts from Honda being the reason.

If you need a visual. See all the large hexagons in the midrange area? Do not crowd that area more for your guy.

I hope not. Teaching him a midrange jumper would be a bad idea. Never mind it's the least efficient shot in all basketball, It's where your star player makes his living. Don't put another body in that area and crowd his space. It also does zero to alleviate the spacing issues. Duren standing around 10-12 feet to shoot a jumper leaves his defender well within help distance of anyone driving. He needs to be out 25 feet drawing their big away from the hoop. 3 point shot only, do not teach him a midrange jumper.

His defense in the 2nd half was pretty crazy, even for him.

Good win against a bad team

Harris getting his good game out of the way early this month.

This is the most I've seen the Pistons run in a long time.

Robinson has had a rough go of it lately. 0 points with 3 minutes left in the third and had given up quite a few points to da Silva.

On pace to make two three pointers this game.

Tom Gores about to donate to the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave so the FBI clears Beasley.

If you challenge and they can't tell from watching 10 seconds of replays, just go with the call on the floor.

Guys like Trae Young and Ja should watch Jenkins play defense. You don't have to be 6'6 to play respectable defense.

Sometimesi think LeVert just does stuff to see if JB will bench him or not.

I also think Gores will pay the tax, but only for a year or two. It's not sustainable for much longer than that

Not a fan of burning a challenge 2 minutes into the game on a possession change. Even if you win it costs you a challenge and only have 1 left the rest of the game.

I would pay Ausar before Duren, but I wouldn't give him a max deal either. But a wing defender is much more valuable that a center that can't shoot. Ausar can guard the other teams best offensive player about 95% of the time. I think people really sleep on that skill. He can guard Jalen Brunson to Luka and everyone in-between. The few guys he can't guard are Victor or Jokic. But other than SA and Denver, Ausar will guard every other title contenders best offensive player.

Orlando is a great lesson on staying out of the apron. Next season with only 11 guys under contract, they are already in the 1st apron. By the time they fill out their roster they might flirt with the 2nd apron. They will be a first time taxpayer. All while being what? Maybe the 5th best team in the east? You basically have 2 maybe 3 years at that point before you have to break the team up and get back under the tax line. That Bane trade will go down as one of the dumbest trades of all time. Nothing against him, he is a nice player. But he isn't the player you trade away all your future draft capital for while putting yourself into the apron/tax area. If you do, you have to be making deep playoff runs every season or its a waste.