Is "Baller" Trademarked Yet?

On February 20 th , it was announced that the Houston Rockets and DeMarcus Cousins would part ways in order to go younger in their front court.   In particular, Christian Wood is expected to return from his ankle injury soon, which would allow him more playing time.   While initially implied that they would waive him, they guaranteed his contract, likely to try to find a trade partner.   This post will discuss the destinations that would either make sense for him or have been rumored to be trying for him. The teams that I think are most likely are teams that could use a center.   While he has been a mixed bag this year on both ends, there is still value.   He has struggled defensively in the pick and roll, but has been a plus defender and has defended bigs well.   On the other end, he has his worst career numbers per 36 minutes in most offensive numbers, but has been solid from shooting behind the arc and has been a solid playmaker for a big man.   W...

Yesterday (2/23) the reserves were named for the All-Star game.  Ultimately, my predictions I made were perfect for the West (7/7) but were a bit off in the East (4/7).  That said, that didn’t change the fact there were surprises, snubs, and plenty of questions regarding predictions.  In this post, I will list the All-Star teams before going through notable surprises and snubs.  As a note, I did not discuss any players who played fewer than 20 games (i.e. Jimmy Butler, C.J. McCollum, Ja Morant).   2021 NBA All Star Teams East Starters Bradley Beal, WAS, G Kyrie Irving, BRK, G Kevin Durant, BRK, F (Captain) Giannis Antetokounmpo, MIL, F Joel Embiid, PHI, C Reserves Jaylen Brown, BOS, G James Harden, BRK, G Zach LaVine, CHI, G Julius Randle, NYK, F Ben Simmons, G Jayson Tatum, BOS, F Nikola Vucevic, ORL, C West Starters Stephen Curry, GSW, G Luka Doncic, DAL, G LeBron James, LAL, F (Captain) Nikola Jokic, DEN, C Kawhi Leonard, L...

On Thursday February 18 th , the NBA announced the starters of the controversial 2021 All-Star Game.  While I didn’t make official predictions in the blog for the starters, I wasn’t surprised by the results (usually they end up being close to the fan results).  That said, I did make predictions for the reserves.  The reserves will be announced on the 23 rd (Tuesday) and there will be 7 from each conference (2 guards, 3 forwards, 2 wild cards). My predictions for the reserves are often accurate, but usually there are 8-10 All-Stars that seem to be locks.   Last year, when I predicted both the starters and reserves, I got all the starters correct and did well with the predictions; I got 10 out of 12 players right in the East (I predicted Nikola Vucevic and Bradley Beal and was incorrect about Bam Adebayo and I think Kyle Lowry) and all 12 right in the West (I also got that Devin Booker would be an injury replacement correct, but before I pat myself on the back too m...

Two former All-Stars in Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond have been publicly made available for trade by the Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers, respectively.  Both teams have announced that they will sit the players out while they try to find a trade (more on some controversy regarding in the Bonus section), but it isn’t guaranteed that they are traded.  In this post, I will discuss whether I think Griffin and Drummond have a shot to be traded and who might go after them.   Will Blake Griffin be traded? I think there is very little chance that he is traded.   He has played in 20 games and is averaging 31.3 MPG, but he has changed his style for this year to be largely off-ball and outside the arc and has been largely ineffective.   He only has 12.3 PPG (career low), 5.2 RPG, 3.9 APG, and 0.1 BPG (career low).   In comparison, his 2019 numbers (he was injured for most of 2020) were 24.5/7.5/5.4/0.4.   He also shooting more 3-pointers than 2-po...

On February 5 th , Kevin Durant was ruled out for a game due to Contact Tracing reasons; rather, he was until he wasn’t.  Part way through the game, the NBA ruled him eligible to play in the game; rather, they did until he wasn’t.  After playing a little under 20 minutes of the bench, he was declared ineligible again and did not take kindly to it:  his tamest tweet regarding the incident read “Free me”.  The issue with this situation is not that Durant was put in a bad situation, but rather that it shows that the league that initially handled the pandemic the best out of the major U.S. sports now has shown multiple situations of incompetence in their ability to handle it. I would like to start by giving the NBA some credit and cutting some slack.    I have previously written that I considered the Bubble to be a massive success for what they were trying to do:   finish an NBA season while preventing the contraction of Covid-19.   That said, they ...