Is "Baller" Trademarked Yet?

We have reached a point in the NBA season where many people constantly debate who is deserving of several awards.  I personally find doing that silly during the season since it can change so drastically based on recent performances.  That said, I want to debate and consider something, so I am focusing on a topic I find much for fun:  the 2021 NBA Draft.  This year, there are 5 highly touted players expected to go near the top:  Cade Cunningham, Jalen Suggs, Evan Mobley, Jalen Green, and Jonathan Kuminga.  I am going to discuss, analyze, evaluate them, and discuss which teams in the lottery should consider looking into them. I do want to note that my scouting is not always 100% accurate; while this should go unsaid, people seem to retroactively criticize incorrect scouting reports and decisions and act like it is easy to predict success.  In recent history, I was incredibly high on Luka Doncic, Jayson Tatum, Ja Morant, and De’Aaron Fox, all of whom ha...

On April 15 th , LaMarcus Aldridge announced his retirement from the NBA due to a heart condition.  He opted to retire due to some health concerns stemming from an irregular heartbeat two weeks after making his Nets debut.  In his career, he was a 7 time All-Star, 5 time All-NBA, and was one of the best midrange-shooting big men I remember watching play, shooting 41.8% from the 10-16 feet range and 42.4% from the 16 feet-3PT range throughout his career while consistently shooting above 40%.  He averaged 19.4 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 1.1 BPG, and shot 81.1% from the free throw line.  While his FG% dropped a bit in the playoffs (49.8% to 45.5%), he still averaged 20.8 PPG and had 8.5 RPG.  While he was never an elite defensive player, I always felt like he was closer to average than a lot of people gave him credit for throughout most of his career (especially in Portland).  He had the misfortune of having the game change in the middle of his prime but remained an All-St...

This condensed NBA season has featured a high number of injuries, especially to notable players.  In this post, I am going to discuss what teams are in the most trouble with their current injuries.  While some teams have been impacted by recent injuries, I am only looking at players who are currently missing time or currently dealing with injuries.  I will focus on players who have an injury that has caused them to miss a substantial number of games.  I will also not discuss season-ending injuries that were sustained in the offseason or early in the season, so apologies in advance to leave off players such as Klay Thompson, Jaren Jackson Jr., T.J. Warren, Jonathan Isaac, Zach Collin, Thomas Bryant, Markelle Fultz, and Killian Hayes. All injuries are accurate as of prior to the games played on April 14 th .   All states come from Basketball-Reference.com. There is also a bonus regarding Daunte Wright’s murder.   1. Los Angeles Lakers Their two supe...

Now that March Madness is over and I finally have some time to write a blog post, I want to discuss March Madness.  In particular, I think it is more interesting to discuss the games that I got incorrect and the upsets than to discuss the games the games that several discussed at depth.  As such, I will focus on those. Overall, my bracket was decent.   I did not predict the winner correctly (as Baylor beat Gonzaga), but this was the first time that my champion even made it to the Final Four, something that resulted in more stress than previous years leading up to the game.   I accurately predicted several upsets (including the biggest first round upset in the tournament), but I still had several inaccuracies in rounds.   I got the two finalists right and finished 4 th in my work’s pool (if Gonzaga had won I would have finished first and if I had UCLA in the Final Four, which I initially had before having them lose in the Elite Eight, I would have been the run...