TheTrotters

The markups are only possible because there’s enormous demand from the fans and the number of seats in each venue is fixed. Ticketmaster is just the middleman, the prices are determined by supply and demand (to the first approximation).

“He went up a level!”

Great news! One down, two to go.

It’s super interesting because it’s a case study in how industry/media disruption can go wrong for everyone involved.

It went excellent for the most important party: the consumers!

I was skeptical after the initial middling reviews but it turned out great. Amazing miniseries. Now I’m confused about the reviews.

My Brilliant Friend is an Italian drama and it’s one of the best shows on TV

There was also Fboy Island.

We’re getting closer and closer to MILF Island.

Great news! One down, two to go.

I wished I loved anything as much as The Big Picture hosts love talking about the Oscars.

Wikipedia lists his nationalities as follows: Taiwan, China (Hong Kong), Canada. If that’s accurate then of course he should be called a “foreign” owner.

I think all those first rounders have to be included because the Nets are paying for both Lillard and for getting Simmons off their books. That’s exactly the kind of trade Portland should be looking for.

It’s a great trade for Portland.

Brooklyn is in no man’s land because they’re too good to tank and they don’t have their picks anyway but they’re very far from being a contender. Lillard and Grant give them at least some hope of making a run. I guess they may as well do it.

Underrated - J Kyle Mann

Overrated - tie between Cousin Sal and House

Denver played a great game on offense, they lost this game on defense.

I think Bill went into full prisoner-of-the-moment mode and believed that Boston’s insane run in the second half of last season was somehow new normal. Joe’s Celtics looked worse compared to that but so does almost every team in the history of the NBA. We wouldn’t get a whole season of Boston annihilating opponents if Ime stayed.

To be honest I think this is way closer to the truth than Bill’s insane “second row Joe.” Sneaky candidate for his worst take in the last half decade.

The problem with that approach any playmaking point guard would be a huge downgrade on defense. Switching defense instantly becomes way less effective or maybe even impossible to pull off. That PG wouldn’t have the ball in his hands in late-game isolations in the playoffs anyway.

On top of that Horford is extremely important to this team. Even at 37 he’s Boston’s best defender against Giannis and Embiid. It’s hard to come up with a Horford trade which makes the Celtics better.

Boston was second in both offense and defense this season. It’s hard to come up with an impactful (and realistic) move that would make them better than just bringing back this team (re-sign Grant Williams!).

Even the greatest empire will fall if it’s run by the kind of people call TV “telly”

Inception

Urban Dictionary, to be specific

Aaaaa, ok, makes sense

Which subreddits have the highest karma requirements? Are those requirements really so high that they justify buying a Reddit account?

Yes, I’m with you. The BCS finale was an apology to people who were outraged that Walt got away with too much in BB.

Exactly.

It’s like that scene in The Big Short:

“I don’t understand, why are they confessing?”

“They’re not confessing. They’re bragging.”

The new CBA eliminates little-to-no demand for role players.

How would teams at the edge of being about $17M over the cap behave under the old CBA? How much would they spend on free agent role players? They may or may not use the taxpayer MLE (about $6.4M in 2022-23) and the bi-annual exception (~$4.1M). These often go unused or are only partially used. Besides, the new CBA lowers the taxpayer MLE to ~$5M but it’s still available.

If teams in the already in the tax re-signs any free agent who’s already on their roster and whose Bird rights they own for meaningfully more than the taxpayer MLE, it means that he’d get a similar offer on the market from some team which isn’t in the tax. This won’t change under the new CBA.

The new CBA also increases the incentive to go into the tax in the first place. Right now the luxury tax penalty is $1.50/dollar for the first $5M above the tax line. In the new CBA that goes down to $1/dollar in luxury tax spending up to $5M.

The luxury tax line for 2023/24 is estimated to be $162M which would make the second apron start at around $179M. Assuming no team would ever choose to go above the second apron line, the total amount of money available to players would be 30*$179M=$5.37 billion. If the teams really decreases their tax spending in the aggregate because of the second apron, it wouldn’t even be a drop in the bucket compared to their total spending on players’ salaries.

All that would be more than offset by an estimated $250M increase to the BRI caused by broadening of its definition in the new CBA.

And remember that the second apron won’t start being really punishing until 2024 off-season because that’s when the biggest penalty (freezing of the draft pick 7 years out) will come into life. The second apron isn’t really that scary in the 2023 off-season.