Skip to main content

Finding a good baby carrier is like finding a good man...

It takes a lot of time and you have to go through a lot of bad ones. Before I had a baby, I thought the simplest way to figure out what kind of gear I would need was to read reviews on sites like Baby Gear Lab and Baby Center (if only parenting were this simple.) As ergo was consistently named one of the best carriers, I felt fortunate when my sister-in-law re-gifted me her never used ergo carrier. Unfortunately, my baby did not feel the same way. I quickly discovered why the ergo was never used by my sister-in-law. Whenever I put my baby in the ergo, he cried. Not cute little kitten squeals, but full on pterodactyl type shrieks. So desperate was my little one to escape from the ergo that he would arch his back and use his feet to launch himself off of me in some kind of deranged baby suicide attempt. There was nothing ergonomic about the ergo for my baby or I, so we moved onto the baby k’tan. I loved my baby k’tan – it was soft, comfy, easy to put on and oh so cuddly. It rem

The Brooklyn Nets 2018 NBA Summer so far

Image result for nets

It's been a long time since I've posted anything and to be honest I wasn't planning on writing a blog post anytime soon.  However, as a Nets fan I wanted to share my thoughts with other Nets fans and see if the feeling is mutual in regards to this year's off-season.

In my opinion I felt that the Nets should address their greatest issue which was rebounding.  If you look at last year's team statistics the Nets are ranked pretty well in rebounding.  However, if you watched the games and review the advanced statistics they rank 25th in rebounding percentage.

In many of the games I felt that the Nets played solid enough defense to force missed shots in the earlier parts of the games.  However, they could never clear the boards and were forced to play extra defensive possessions against teams.

A large part of this is because the Nets bigs couldn't clear the boards due to their size.  However, if they did have size like Mozgov, they were unplayable because they would get pick and rolled to death by opposing offenses.

Nonetheless, I say all that to say that in my opinion their off-season goal should be to focus on rebounding.

So just as a quick recap.

1) Nets started their off-season by trading for Dwight Howard and Timofey Mozgov and a second round pick in 2021 from the Hornets.

Analysis: This reminds me of when the Texans and Browns traded Brock Osweiler and a second round pick.  Howard and Mozgov were essentially a salary dump move and the Nets gained a pick for their trouble.  The Nets then bought out Howard and released him.  I like this move because Mozgov wasn't contributing, and Howard would not fit into the roster as it is currently constructed.  The starting center position belongs to Jarrett Allen and he needs the space to thrive.  In summation, the Nets gain an extra pick that can be used to draft a player or used as leverage for later on

2) Nets trade Jeremy Lin and 2025 pick and get draft rights to Isaia Cordinier and a 2020 second round pick.

Analysis:  The excellent play of Spencer Dinwiddie this year and the progression of Russell has made Lin obsolete.  Essentially, one of the three had to go, and it is probably best that it was Lin.  As for Cordinier, I don't know much about him except that he was a stow away for the Hawk for the past two years and it looks like it will remain the same with the Nets, with a possibility of never seeing him ever.  So in essence this was a salary dump.  In my opinion this was a good move.  Russell and Dinwiddie played well last year and deserve the opportunity to lead the first team (Russell) and the second team (Dinwiddie), as well as playing side-by-side with one another.  I think having Lin around would've been an awkward triangle relationship, so in short this was a good chemistry move.

3) Nets trade Isaiah Whitehead and get back Kenneth Faried, Darrell Arthur, protected 2019 first round pick, and a 2020 second round pick.

Analysis:  I was never big on Whitehead so it wasn't a big deal to see him move on.  Faried can be a solid player, but his numbers and appearances last year were not good.  The picks are definitely a nice addition.  Arthur is negligible as a player.  The pick next year is a top 12 protected pick, which I don't think it will be because I think the Nuggets will be in the top 50% of the league.  In summation, I think the trade was good because all they gave up was Whitehead who wasn't going to be in the rotation anyways for two picks and a potential contributor in Faried who can help out in the rebounding department. 

4) Nets sign Shabazz Napier to a two year deal for an undisclosed amount of money.

Analysis:  I don't know what to make of this signing.  I do think if they wanted a third point guard in the rotation then they should have kept Lin.  To me, this is a wait and see type of an event.

Overall the off-season has looked promising so far.  The Nets are a rebuilding team and have stockpiled picks (7 picks next year), salary cap space in 2019 (8 free agents), and a young core in Russell, Allen, Hollis-Jefferson, and Dinwiddie.  I think the front office is putting the team in position to be successful in a few years while giving the opportunity for the aforementioned four players to thrive in their position and cement their jobs before this rebuild goes into full swing.

Thank you for visiting and for reading the post.  Please feel free to comments or message on your thoughts and feelings on the team!!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

9 Core Values to Help Disciplined People to Steadily Build Wealth

This post is for people who are self-disciplined and looking to invest money outside of their employer sponsored retirement plans.  It is also for those who are aspiring to find ways to generate passive income. As an educator in New York City, we are provided an employer sponsored 403-b called the Tax Deferred Annuity (or TDA for short).  For more information on it, I wrote about some of my observations about educators and retirement in an earlier article called A little bit goes a long way.  For those who are not familiar with TDA, it offers a variety of investment options but the most promising is the guaranteed returned fix rate for UFT members at 7% annually, and 8.25% for all other members. The maximum contribution that an individual can make is $18,000 for the year, which is similar to a traditional IRA for everyone else. If you find yourself in a unique situation where you still have money to invest then I would like to share some of my own ideas that I have put into p

Influence People

Today we continue exploring Dale Carnegie's book How to Win Friends and Influence People.   The first part of this two series post was on How to make friends which you can check out by clicking the link below: How to make friends The other portion of this text is about influencing people.  If you'd like to read all the points that Dale Carnegie suggests, wikipedia does a nice job of laying it out in an easy to read format in the link below. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People While Mr. Carnegie lists out twelve key points to winning people over to your way of thinking, I'd like hone in on a few of his points that in my opinion are the most important.  I think because these points feel so counterintuitive that it becomes difficult to understand how these points could be valid. Nonetheless, I would like to share my thoughts with you on these few ideas and pair them with a brief anecdotal.  Then you can be the judge and determin

7 Key Traits Required For Stock Selection.

In Chapter 14 of Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor, he focuses on the 7 items for defensive stock selection. In the preface, this chapter is highlighted by Warren Buffett as one of the keynote chapters, and therefore the reader should pay special attention to the advice that Graham offers. For those who are unfamiliar with Benjamin Graham he was a former fund manager, professor, and is considered the father of value investing.  Value investing is a strategy where stocks are purchased at less than their intrinsic value.  Intrinsic value in layman's terms is the amount the company is worth (Assets - Liabilities = Worth). By the way, the equation above is not the actual method for finding intrinsic value, it is just a gross oversimplification of what it means.  I would also like to note that intrinsic value is different than the stock price.  The stock price is what the market is valuing the company at, but it may not reflect its intrinsic value. For example:  L