GAME05

Not sure why you'd trade Middleton when the team is the second-best team in the East. I could see the Lakers targeting Middleton if they can't get Kawai. A lot of other really good FAs out there next year, but they're all a lot more ball-dominant, which probably wouldn't work with LeBron. Kawai would be interesting to have in Milwaukee if Middleton and Bledsoe leave. I mean, if you're a guy who just wants to play ball and doesn't like all the drama and media attention, Milwaukee would be perfect.

An offensive/QB-type HC makes the most sense to me. Pettine has done at least a decent job by all accounts and maybe GB wants to limit how much turnover they have, so a QB-type HC would be more inclined to keep him and not clash. Plus GB obviously prefers to keep head coaches around a long time, so a QB-oriented guy would not only help Rodgers but would get to mentor the third HOF QB we have in a row after Aaron.

Burnzy, I thought you were just making a demand until I saw the news again.

A lot of teams in the NFL with bad kickers. I don't think we could really do better than Crosby. It was a 49-yard FG into the wind on a rainy day, after all.

Wow that last-second call by the Bears to go to OT was incredible.

What's the point of firing MM now if we're already basically out of the playoffs? Not like any new coach would suddenly change things for the better mid-season. MM suddenly going for more 4th downs this game and last. Guess he's trying to prove something. But yikes, how do you not destroy Arizona at home in bad weather when you're against a bad rush defense?

Ray Rice didn't get a second chance. Granted, he was nearing 30. Maybe an individual team would be willing to deal with the PR hit, but I'm sure the NFL as a whole won't.

Call against Mudiay when it wasn't a foul, and then a no-call on Bledsoe's drive when it was. But all-in-all the Bucks have a way of letting off the gas when they're leading to start the 4th. They start jacking up 3s without really setting up an offensive set.

Instead of moving your own piece, each player sits there and demands that everyone else move their piece for them.

I love watching Maker play, but I think the biggest thing holding him back is his lack of aggressiveness. On defense he kinda just stands there and hopes the ball goes to him instead of fighting for it. On offense he stands still and either shoots the open shot or immediately passes it. Late in the game last night he was about 6' open with Lopez closing on him. Maker is a decent ball-handler and really should have driven around Lopez to the basket. Thon just has no confidence in what he's capable of. He plays soft. Another 30 lbs. of muscle isn't going to change that.

Just volunteer to be the DD every time you go to the bars. Still get to go hang out with friends and free soda all night!

A Rodgers trade is still fun to think about, even though we all know it would never happen. It's just the ideal of being able to trade a player at a good value instead of paying a 40-year-old $30M per season to be mediocre. Though I suppose a lot of the thought depends on if you think the Packers will get back to contending in the next couple years or not. But since mid-round draft picks and even free agency doesn't usually mean a 180, I have my doubts things will drastically change for the better. The team is just missing 3-4 star players as a whole. Though I don't think it'd be the Raiders to make the trade. They're prepping for two years and their move to Vegas, so why spend now for a QB who would languish for two years? I see a team more like Jacksonville, who would give us young players in place of top picks; or the Redskins, who can't possibly think that Alex Smith is going to take them anywhere. But with all that in mind, why don't the Lions trade Stafford? They've been a rebuilding team for forever yet with a very good QB. It seems mostly like hanging on to him and they're one of those barely-playoffs-never-great teams stuck in the middle.

"nothing burger" came from a Project Veritas undercover video where the undercover journalist talked to a higher-up anchor of CNN about their coverage of president Trump, and the CNN anchor said that all the Russia-Trump stuff was a "big nothing burger". The Veritas video came out maybe four months ago when the Russia stuff had only recently hit and CNN was covering it pretty much 24/7.

It's really a best-case scenario to be smart enough to have a job that would pay you six figures shortly after college and then have no speedbumps along with way like kids and layoffs. And if you're in a place like NYC the cost of living is so much higher. I'm starting to think along the lines of good investments for when this money train finally comes off the rails. I have to do my research on it, but I'm thinking along the lines of a trailer-park REIT or Dollar General.

Defense notwithstanding, the only real difference between Snell and Korver is that fans have accepted Korver won't light up the stat sheet each night.

Buherle, Puig and a top Dodgers' prospect for Yelich and Braun.

You're both suckers. I'm counting on the government to provide me with everything I need.

I went with a few different kinds of chili powder. Shouldn't have added the ketchup as it added just a little bit of sugar I didn't want. But all in all it was good. Not bad for my first time making chili. Boss was just playing around, but visibly voted for himself and then gave me the opportunity to vote for him, but I'm not that much of a kiss-up.

I'm in a chili cookoff against the boss on Tuesday. Originally the winner would get nothing, and that's stupid. So I suggested the loser has to wash the winner's vehicle. I ordered fancy spices 2+ weeks ago, but they're not going to show up on time. I usually just wing cooking, but this time I was going to follow a recipe from a world cookoff winner, but I guess now I can't. So now I'm thinking I'll use some vodka to help the tomatoes along with some Korean chili flakes (not hot).

I keep reminding myself that this is just the 8th game under a new coach, with a new offensive and defensive scheme. Barring injury, there's no reason the Bucks shouldn't get better and better as the year goes on and they start to understand the system better. I also wonder if Lopez is going to find a way to get more involved. I do find it curious that Thon is basically not playing yet. Maybe he has some big holes in his game that I really haven't noticed yet (besides his bulk, I suppose), or maybe Bud is treating him more like a rookie, who has to prove himself in training yet before he sees more time. Though I'm guessing more toward the end of the year we'll be seeing more of him. Still, somewhat surprising as he would seem to be the ideal type of player in this offense as a guy who can be fast, can clear the lane quickly yet give quick supporting defense, and can also hit the 3. I suppose I could say the same thing about DJ Wilson, but I have much less hope for him. What to do (if anything) with Bledsoe, extend Middleton?, I think Brogdon will be a FA, what changes does he make this season, etc. At least I have more confidence in the decision making these days. Seems pretty clear Middleton is the obvious #2 on this team, and is the perfect compliment as a pure shooter to Giannis' driving ability. And if you're going to be a 3-point shooting team, you can't get much better than Middleton. But with Delly and Henson still on the books for another year, it would seem that the only available move would be to not re-sign Bledsoe and use his money for a Middleton raise, with whatever leftover money going to some Lopez-like guys who would take a one-year deal. Seeing that the Suns have our first-round pick, it's hard to see us having any trade capital for someone to take a Delly/Henson expiring contract from us. Maybe that money goes to Brogdon and we just take a one-year step down in talent.

Isn't Josh Jones filling the other safety spot, though? Why was it guaranteed Dix wouldn't have been re-signed? So maybe one of our firsts next year has to be spent on a safety?

"Rule #1" by Phil Town is a favorite book of mine. There's a lot of "Get rich in minutes per day!" nonsense he peppers in throughout, but all in all it's a good intro on analyzing a company and evaluating its value vs. list price. Dataroma is a great website I like to use, which tracks the buys and sells of $100M+ investors since they have to report them to the SEC. There was a study done by UNLV which tracked Warren Buffett's buys and sells for 30 years when they first became public. If you just copied him and bought that stock at its highest price that day, and then sold it when the sell again became publicly available, at the worst sell price that day, you'd still have had a return of 20%. On the site I don't like to use the investors who own a lot of companies because they're more active than I want to be, but instead follow the folks who only own a few companies because they are more buy-and-hold people. I also like to use Graham Number calculators for an initial quickie valuation. I'll also note which I've probably done on this thread before, that oftentimes public libraries have subscriptions to financial sites. For Town's book you need 10-year data, and free places tend to just give you 5 before they want money. But I go through Middleton's library and use their subscription to Morningstar at no cost to me.

I have a hard time with any "never given a chance" argument. If you've got the talent you'll be given the chance. The Packers don't draft three RBs in one draft if they think they've got a star RB already on the roster. The only players asked to switch positions are the ones who aren't quite good enough to stick at their current one.

No reason to cut Montgomery right now because it's talent you otherwise wouldn't have. And one mistake is one mistake unless he actually had a history of ignoring advice, which I don't think there is. The message sent if he's cut could also be one where the other players become too afraid of ever making a mistake or even being creative. But heck, I thought MM was pretty well done some weeks ago, so this does nothing but cement that opinion. He'd need an NFC Championship appearance to keep his job at this point. Ned Yost was fired not as much for total-season performance but for one terrible, terrible game of stupid decisions. But even if you want to look at total season, are the Packers performing above their ability level? It'd be pretty tough to say yes.

Jaguars are in a rough position that they really need a QB but they're too good to get a high draft pick. What's worse is there are no big QB prospects in the draft this year. Maybe there's a promising backup somewhere they can trade for to compete with Bortles.