raw

It's funny because I've heard plenty people raving about Fields' arm.....From his pro day at Ohio St to the people at training camp. But I feel like he doesn't have a super impressive arm. Not meaning that as a knock as I think he's definitely got an NFL caliber arm and it's certainly good enough, but I always thought his arm was more Deshaun Watson than a complete arm cannon like Jay Cutler had and guys like Josh Allen have. I've heard people say, "haven't seen the ball come out with this much zip since Cutler" and I don't think Fields has that level of arm. Again, which is completely fine.

It took a week's worth of practices, but there are finally whispers everywhere you look about Fields being more than the Bears even hoped for. The Riddick quote. The report from fans attending camp. The people who say they have contacts in Halas Hall. There's just something different about Fields and everybody seems to know it but nobody is saying it too loudly because they're afraid of getting ahead of themselves.

The OL injuries are interesting. It's never good to have OL injuries, and it's not good when they're not guaranteed to be good to begin with. But it is at least encouraging that the Bears have 5-6Mil in cap space (depending where you look) and the Bears actually have NOT signed anyone. That shows me they aren't too concerned about the OL health long-term. It does suck that your rookie LT has 0 snaps in practice after a week though, especially when they said he would practice yesterday. I doubt he's ready for the first preseason game, but not in danger of him missing any real time just yet.

Stealing first base? It’s called a dropped third strike Then still him saying, "you do that a lot in baseball" means he chose the right sport because apparently he struck out a bunch. Also, side note.... dropped 3rd strikes in little league destroys me. My son's team once struck out 20 kids in a 6 inning game this past season and they actually turned 4 outs in the field that game. They had two 5-strikeout innings that they pitched.

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Shaky the first day whereas Dalton looked crisp. Looking better and more comfortable in subsequent days. That's the gist of what I've seen. Fields hasn't been bad by any accounts, but Dalton seems to have been the better QB on the first 2 days. I've read Fields has been better the last 2. Reports are about what you expect. Dalton has leadership, solid command of the offense, helping out Fields whenever he can. Fields is fearless (throwing into tight windows) and showing strong arm talent, while at times holding onto the ball a little bit longer than desired.

I don't know if the Blackhawks are trying to be good or bad, but they will definitely be different this coming season. Trust the process? Probably not.

You COULD make it work, but getting a wing (or 4 if keeping PWill at the 3) is probably a priority over Rose. However, Rose Lavine Lonzo PWill Vuc Not a bad 5 to close out games if PW takes a nice leap. Lonzo has enough size to make it work. Would feel a lot better about that 5 if one was a legit shooter. 4 of 5 can knock down a shot from time to time, but as much as I love Derrick, I'd prefer a spot shooter as the 5th guy down the stretch.

Miller was clearly on the block all off season. Sucks they couldn't get much for him. Hopefully they replace his roster spot with someone like Steven Nelson. Wish Miller got a chance to play with a good QB for a change, but there was very little chance/incentive to sign him longterm after this year anyway. And he's still not getting that good QB in Houston, most likely.

Anyone know anything about Simonovic? I see he's listed as a C, but I've seen highlights and he's seems more like a SF/PF hybrid. Kinda like what Lauri was supposed to be. Doesn't seem like he'll get much money so that shouldn't be an issue. Wonder how much they expect of him as far as the rotation. If they expect him to be in the rotation, that could effect the roster spots of guys like Thad and what they do with Theis.

https://twitter.com/friedgehnic/status/1414644136460828676?s=21 It's done.

Not sure if this was directed at me but I tend to believe the person making racism claims. But when guys like Shaq, Robert Horry, Barkley, and so on claim that Scottie is being ridiculous with a comment like the one in question it makes me think Pip is off base, especially when he's out doing product promotion. Not directed at you at all. More so to the people writing articles to go out the way to discredit Scottie (granted, none on here, but I've seen them on Twitter). Pippen is definitely full of horsefeathers, but the response shouldn't be to point out all the times Phil has NOT been racist. The burden should be on Phil Jackson to defend himself (if he even cares to) or on Scottie to backup his claims. Not for a 3rd party, who either doesn't or barely knows either of them, to decide if the claims are legit or not.

It happens all the damn time and it’s so frustrating. Had a conversation yesterday with a mutual on Twitter who said he didn't see anything wrong what Rachel Nichols said and explained he didn't think it was fair that people were labeling her a racist because of it. I explained why what she said was racist (not that she was a racist) and that he was a hypocrite because he took exception with a white woman being called racist but didn't take exception with a black woman being stigmatized as unworthy of her position with someone saying she got it because of race. Meanwhile, Maria Taylor is a 6'2 former D1 college basketball player and Nichols is a 5'2 non-athlete.

Phil Jackson is probably not racist. But it doesn't really sit right with me that people with no close knowledge of the situation or a personal relationship with neither Pippen or Jackson go out of their way to defend the person called racist and make the accuser prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt like racism is a criminal offense being tried in court.

Which means there's no way in hell he did NOT know he was coming into a no-hitter, as he was extra amped in a 4-0 game.

Pujols in particular looked way overmatched. Yeah he was way behind on the fastballs Hes just now swinging on strike 3. Sent from my SM-A115AZ using Tapatalk

Not a prediction but I follow this guy on Twitter. And this is not a thing he does. https://twitter.com/bearcub712/status/1408248331206369280?s=19 Sent from my SM-A115AZ using Tapatalk

No No. Cubs are 1-0 this year when they give up 0 hits! Sent from my SM-A115AZ using Tapatalk

I've been kind of assuming they'll be a playoff team next year. Probably wrong of me but LaVine has improved every year so far. Him and Vuc for a full year will be enough for a 6-8 seed IMO. Williams improving and I have faith they'll get a PG. Lavine is kinda recruiting Lonzo, but he won't be cheap or without options. I do think AK will pull off something. My bold prediction is a trade for Malcolm Brogdon. Sent from my SM-A115AZ using Tapatalk As a Pacers fan reading this you piqued my interest. What do you think the Bulls would be willing to give up? My only warning is that even though I may want to go backwards a little bit, the Pacers don't, and their hiring of Carlisle makes that even more clear. They won't make a deal unless they think it makes them better next year. Yeah, Carlisle hire may make a trade less realistic. And I have no idea what the Bulls would trade. Their only bargaining chips are Thad Young's expiring contract (came from Pacers so doubt they'd want him back), Markannen in a sign-and-trade (redundant with Sabonis?), and Coby White (not sure Bulls want to trade him). Probably have to have a 3rd team involved.

Growth from Pat Williams and acquiring a PG would push them into playoff territory. Probably not enough to get them past the first round but Knicks fans had a lot to be excited over this year and unless you get another true superstar you usually need to crawl before you run They need some more shooters and big improvement on defense. How realistic are the chances of getting Lonzo? I've been kind of assuming they'll be a playoff team next year. Probably wrong of me but LaVine has improved every year so far. Him and Vuc for a full year will be enough for a 6-8 seed IMO. Williams improving and I have faith they'll get a PG. Lavine is kinda recruiting Lonzo, but he won't be cheap or without options. I do think AK will pull off something. My bold prediction is a trade for Malcolm Brogdon. Sent from my SM-A115AZ using Tapatalk

Zach, hang out with Dame and Beal and try to convince one of them to force a trade to Chicago.

Zach, hang out with Dame and Beal and try to convince one of them to force a trade to Chicago.

I actually wouldn't be surprised to see the superteam thing go away in a couple years. Could have LeBron retiring, which is a huge reason for superteams (him orchestrating some and some being created simply to beat him). Especially if the Clippers and Nets fail to win again next year, and you have the Bucks, Suns and Hawks all in the final 4 teams without superteams. I think you could see players taking the opposite approach and getting with teams where they are the unquestioned star who the team is built around, because the last 3 years has shown (Warriors injuries, 76ers, Clippers, Nets, 2021 Lakers) that a superteam falls apart if all the stars aren't healthy and/or playing at an elite level. The depth just isn't good enough because it has to be depleted to get stars. I don’t completely disagree. But you think a non-superteam could handle losing their only star and competing? Regardless if your star(s) aren’t healthy in the playoffs, you’re not going anywhere. Brooklyn lost 2/3 stars and still almost got past Milwaukee. It’s all luck on health. No, that wasn't the point I was making. But using the Nets as an example. KD not winning a title this year is probably based on the fact that Kyrie and Harden got hurt. So, KD may see this and be like, "my ring depends on someone else staying healthy". He obviously has the talent to lead a team to a title as the unquestioned star. Brooklyn might have won that series (and still be title favorites) if they never did the Harden trade and they held onto Jarrett Allen, Taurean Prince and Caris LeVert and they were healthy. So if he goes elsewhere he just has to bet on his own health instead of putting risk that 2 other guys are taking care of their body enough to get thru 82 games plus 4 rounds of playoff games.

It's a really weird season. Lots of injuries due to short offseason for some plus the condensed season. If LeBron and AD are healthy, or maybe even if Klay doesnt miss the entire season, you probably see the usual suspects winning in the playoffs. If Kyrie and Harden are healthy, they almost certainly get past the Bucks and continue the superteam trend. But maybe we're headed to an age of parity similar to the mid-70's NBA. The Raptors winning the title is still incredible to me and now seeing 4 teams left that all have 50+ year championship droughts including 2 teams that came out of nowhere without top 10 players...just really unexpected for the NBA. I actually wouldn't be surprised to see the superteam thing go away in a couple years. Could have LeBron retiring, which is a huge reason for superteams (him orchestrating some and some being created simply to beat him). Especially if the Clippers and Nets fail to win again next year, and you have the Bucks, Suns and Hawks all in the final 4 teams without superteams. I think you could see players taking the opposite approach and getting with teams where they are the unquestioned star who the team is built around, because the last 3 years has shown (Warriors injuries, 76ers, Clippers, Nets, 2021 Lakers) that a superteam falls apart if all the stars aren't healthy and/or playing at an elite level. The depth just isn't good enough because it has to be depleted to get stars.

That would be a good and fun idea. But my favorite idea is just starting the season with Fields. I actually think Nagy is going to do this [expletive]. He already had this mapped out for Mitch when he was the backup last year. Of course Mitch injured himself on the very first play and was out multiple weeks but I’m sure Fields will be just fine. I'd be OK with it, if it's done for the right reason. If Fields isn't comfortable with the entire playbook and has certain things that he does well but you can't build an entire offensive gameplan around those things, then it makes sense. But nothing about Fields leads me to believe that will be the case. He transferred to Ohio St in January, threw TD passes in the April spring game, and completed 72% of his passes and accounted for 5 TDs in his first game in August. So, I have no doubts the guy who eats, sleeps and breathes football can't have this offense as close to mastered as possible from April to September with reps in rookie, mini, and training camps, and preseason games while not having to worry about a college courseload.