Is "Baller" Trademarked Yet?

While watching the games on opening night, I took some chicken scratch type notes about a bunch of things before turning it into notes with actual stats and proper information.  I didn’t do this much last year, but I hope to do this more this season.  I included observations about both games, the Bucks vs. Nets and Warriors vs. Lakers.   Bucks beat Nets 127-104 ·          The Bucks looked like a team that was ready to play and cohesive while the Nets didn’t.   The fact that the Bucks attempted 21 more field goals (105-84) speaks volumes. ·          The Nets didn’t seem to play that hard in transition at points.   There were two plays in particular where Nic Claxton was lazy getting back on defense, resulting in a Grayson Allen 3, and another a few plays later where James Harden walked back on defense. ·          The game was close in terms ...

To commemorate the start of the regular season, I have my predictions for the regular season standings and playoff results.   As a note, I will have more in depth analysis with each team coming later this week; in the meantime, I just have my predictions here. Regular Season Standings East 1.        MIL 2.        BRK 3.        BOS 4.        MIA 5.        ATL 6.        PHI 7.        CHI 8.        NYK 9.        CHO 10.    IND 11.    WAS 12.    TOR 13.    CLE 14.    DET 15.    ORL   West 1.        PHO 2.        UTA 3.        LAL 4.     ...

These are my predictions for the NBA Awards, end of the year teams, and All-Star nominations.  For most of the awards, I included the top 10 with the exception of MVP (15) and Coach of the Year (8, as I thought 8 stood out above the rest).  For the end of the year teams, I also included an honorable mention team and 5 others to watch.  For the All-Star teams, I included 11 additional players for the East (10 to watch and 1 to fill in if one player doesn't play) and 10 additional players to watch in the West. As a note, these are not who I think should win the awards, but who I am currently predicting will be favorites. MVP 1.       Giannis Antetokounmpo, MIL, F 2.       Luka Doncic, DAL, G 3.       Damian Lillard, POR, G 4.       Kevin Durant, BRK, F 5.       LeBron James, LAL, F 6.       Nikola Jokic, DEN, C 7.  ...