Loaded Chicken Sandwich

Yea it isn't a schtick. The just aren't at that level. Gianni's plays, first round exit. OG plays, 2nd round exit. Heat got worse? They'll get a healthy Butler and Rozier back. They'll still have Bam. Ware is gonna be a 1st team All-Rookie I think. Miami will piece together their band of misfits and be a Top 5 East squad. Boston is obviously #1. Knicks #2. Philly #3. Meaning the Pacers somehow have to go above Milwaukee, Cleveland, Miami and Orlando for a 4 seed and I don't see that happening. Milwaukee will be much better with a second year of Dame/Giannis/Middleton. That isn't questionable. Even with how bad Rivers is. And no, I don't watch ESPN. I never have a reason to.

Yes it matters because it has skewed fans view of the future. Where clearly the Boston, Philly, New York and Miami are still ahead. Milwaukee will be in a 2nd season of Giannis/Dame. Orlando is another year older. Cleveland is another year older. The playoffs this past season didn't say much about the future. It just showed that other teams couldn't win without their players.

Heat and Pacers.

Yea our best player missed the last two games against the Celtics. And missing Mathurin isnt the same as missing Gianni's/Dame or OG/Bogdanovic/Hart/Robinson and Middleton/Brunson being hurt. I don't know why Pacers fans don't like to admit we got insanely lucky.

Making the ECF on the opposite side of the bracket as Boston was like being the tallest midget. Pacers got lucky no one was healthy. Antetokounmpo didn't play at all, Dame missed games, Middleton was hurt. Knicks were missing half their team. Nembhard hadn't proven to be a $20M player. Simple as that. He's proven to be a $10-13M player.

I wouldn't have given him $20M a year but that's how it is nowadays and why the Pacers will continue being the Pacers.

International basketball has definitely gotten way better. But it isn't an excuse. Problems for the USA is the inability to put in a strict offense and defensive intensity. Coach K had it in 2008 and the only game they really had that was close was Spain. That 2008 team played defense and didn't play as much 1 on 1. They also had a dominant big(and insanely underrated and underappreciated) Dwight Howard, who 100% accepted just catching lobs and playing defense. They also took wearing the USA jersey seriously. Not sure the guys now take it as serious anymore. I think they need to really ramp it up defensively. And Embiid needs to go to the back on the line. Start AD and bring in Bam. And rebounding... Lordy the rebounding...

Need to quit trying to feed Embiid. He's been really bad in the exhibitions and he can't handle a double team to save his life. Whole team needs to lock in defensively and up their intensity. Need to go out and just absolutely whoop the snot out of teams.

He's a mid card talent at best. The other 3 need to go back to Japan wrestling or wherever they were.

And without any surprise... Smackdown ends the exact same way it has for 3 weeks now. So predictable and boring.

This morning was my last day of radiation treatment! Go back in 4 weeks for a follow up and back to Indy in September for another. Hopefully can move on from here!

Adidas basketballs are the absolute worst.

Am I the only one not upset about the schedule release? 3 games in the Battle 4 Atlantis and South Carolina. Good enough for me.

A lot of us said the results sucked.