So basically championship or bust approach, where bust is the most likely scenario. The chance of a team with 3 high $$ players and not much else ain’t probably making it to the finals healthy, but a team with 2 high $$ players a little deeper isn’t probably gonna win anyways.

Most of the info I have is from listening to Ringer podcasts, so take that for what it is worth; but it appears between Davis’s trade kicker and the dead money from Deng, they don’t really have enough salary $$ to go for another star or go for depth.

That is pretty much the MO for every team construction. Rockets/76ers/Raps/etc have engaged in variant of mortgaging their future to put stars on their roster. Harden/Paul was prob the best combo, except now Paul is old and their window is pretty much over. But that is what they were signing up for, so whatever. Even the Warriors are in an interesting spot. Do they reup on everyone and lock into Steph/Draymond/Klay, which prob has a couple decent years at a ring?

Basically you need to extract surplus value from contracts, which comes from rookie deals or max players, which makes low end max players really really bad signings, since you're basically paying market rate for the biggest and longest contract possible with zero surplus value. The Lakers are already gonna pick up enough extra value with Bron/AD, they just need to not totally wet the bed on the rest of the roster and get lucky.

See the Celtics for a cautionary tale on how to totally **** up a rebuild. Somehow Ainge has two players that will prob get maxed before they can contend, zero chance at a ring before, and uh... yeah... They're pretty ****ed.

So I had some sort of stomach bug for a few days and didn’t eat very much and lost some weight and am at 170 again.

It is funny how much energy we put into mostly unsuccessful weight loss strategies, when getting stomach flu is so successful. I wonder if there is some sort of ethical untapped weight loss strategy here.

As an aside it also forced me rest my irritated shoulder, which got a lot better in the interim. Did a bench workout yesterday, and although the workout itself wasn’t an all time great, shoulder was mostly fine.

I don’t know if the Celtics really did anything wrong. If they had had some better injury variance (for example Lebron and Durant getting injured last year instead of this year) maybe they win last year.

And if it wasn’t for all the tampering maybe they would have had a better chance of getting Davis or someone else. It seems the way the NBA is going, as far as team building, it is all about players/agents recruiting each other (aka tampering), and Celtics didn’t have the right players/agents to make it work.

Did a Press/Trap Bar DL workout yesterday

Press worked up to 145x5 and that was hard. I seem to have stalled here. I have been lifting on and off for a long time, with pretty consistent programming when I am on, and this is the first time I have ever stalled at such a low weight. I guess at come point we just have to chalk it up to (slightly) lower body mass and older age and say it is what it is.

Trap Bar DL

Worked up to 325x5. The lift itself was fine from a RPE standpoint. Probably a 6.

But I got really light-headed immediately after and my lower back started to get that uncomfortable pump feeling. The uncomfortable back pump was like welcoming an old lost friend, but the light headedness was definitely a new feeling I didn't particularly enjoy. I mean obviously the cause is reduced blood flow to the head under the pressures employed. But it wasn't something that ever troubled me before, certainly not at such a "light" weight, so I don't know what to make of it exactly.

Sitting back supported dumbbell press

Worked up to 75s x 8, which is pretty consistent with what I could do when my standing press strength was much higher. Interesting how losing weight/old age seemed to have affected my standing press more than sitting back supported.

I mean, Hayward is the obvious issue. He's a fringe rotation player on a championship roster who is getting maxed. The Warriors dealt with this before, but they're a massive lucksack as well.

Disagree on your interpretation of tampering which is pretty limited. (This is like people who neckbeard on how intentional fouls are called in the last 2min of a game. k whatev.)

Light headedness is worrisome tho. I'd just make a note and move on. Def need to keep an eye on it tho.

Maybe I press more than 145 at some distant point in the future.

Yeah. I mean I am not the first person who ever got light headed doing a "heavy" squat or deadlift set before; but this happening at such a "light" weight that never bothered me much before seems problematic. Between this and the lower back pump probably best just to dump deadlifting altogether, and monitor if I start developing light headedness from any other exercises.

--As far as tampering, I am probably misapplying that term and trying to use it too broadly. Probably saying the Celtics don't seem to have adjusted their strategy to account for player empowerment is more accurate. Any early predictions for Lakers season O/U? 55? 60?

While dumping exercises seems pretty bad, sometimes gotta be done.

I understand what you're trying to convey. My issues with the Celtics is that they signed a bunch of A- stars who would've been great with their young pieces, but didn't convert their hoard into a top 5 player who can win them a ring. Keep in mind they were taken by a ****ty Bucks team to 7 games as well, so "they were sooooooooooooo close" is kinda meh IMO. Also there is a solid amount of neckbearding about their two young wings being able to lead them to the promised land for a decade.

While they are in a much better spot than the Lakers in terms of future assets, they're currently slotted in at like 4th/5th out of the East before any FA nonsense goes down, and could easily just be a backend playoff team for several years while Tatum/Brown get expensive. Lakers are literally title faves, despite their GM being unable to do basic math or hire someone to do it. smh. I'd say they'll coast 53.5 maybe?

Warriors aren't scary at all. Easy Davis/Bron PnR over Draymond/Curry. Can pickup some vet min Tyronn Lue clone to run Box and 1. Clippers maybe with Leonard and whatever else? Rockets are pretty much capped out, but get interesting if they get Butler. Nugs? Thunder? (lol, Westbrook is not a top 10 player, maybe lower depending on some roster construction elements.)

Have been working out some, but nothing really log worthy. My left shoulder is still sore, so I guess whatever I did was serious. Have just been working around it and doing a little rehab and very slowly getting better.

Also, I had some blood work done just because I hadn't in a few years. Everything in normal range but LDL, which is high. 150. HDL is normal, which is actually bad, because you kind of want it to be the opposite, but it is what it is. The only disclaimer I will make is apparently you aren't supposed to drink alcohol a couple days before the test, but I didn't know and did drink and lied about it to the lab techs because I didn't want to have to reschedule.

I am pretty lean and active, and eat clean, so don't really think it is a diet/exercise issue. So I guess it is genetic. The only thing I could really do to improve things is probably take Niacin or statins, but I doubt that is recommended since I have no other risk factors, so will probably do nothing.

Bump

Well, you can call it whatever you want to. I think there is at least a large dose of how your posts are going to be perceived and then a dollop of can't help yourself.

I mean, you complain about getting banned, so you seem to not want that. However you also aren't willing to adjust what you post (although it could simply be too late for this to make a different, I have no idea).

So if your posts are a win-win then then stop complaining about getting banned? It does seem to honestly bother you (getting banned), or at least it did. So, if you are getting banned then allegedly 2p2 overall is losing when you post and you are also losing. If my lose-lose impression misses the mark and it really is win-win then it's all good .

Maybe...I dno. I assume, practically speaking, he'd rather live in a world where he preferred the majority of the BS. I mean, there is philosophical discussions and then there is what do you actually do and how do your beliefs govern your behavior - you know, things that actually are happening and actually impact yourself and others (to some small or large effect). I doubt Bakker or you truly feel/believe it's completely inconsequential. People who feel that way probably just commit suicide.

Yugo,

If you truly think your advice to jdock, which boils down to "just say what the people in authority want you to say in the way they want you to say it and you won't get banned anymore", is at all useful, compelling, or compatible with his worldview, I'm going to have to express confusion as to how you function day to day. The subtext underlying much of what he posts is that he thinks he shouldn't have to; that his musings are offensive to many for various reasons is neither here nor there, I don't think.

I am not sure it bothers me that much to get banned. And I dont actually complain all that much. For the most part I just take it in stride, take some variable amount of time off, and then try to start posting again.

At some level it probably amuses me to get banned, because it confirms my biases. It does bothers me when I can't take a day/week/month/whenever off and then come in and start posting again. Because I do enjoy posting/interacting (for the aforementioned reasons).

Well, you can accept morality and social norms are more or less arbitrary, and still choose a certain moral framework (take a side) because it seems to work the best for everyone.

For example, I believe the entire BLM movement is arbitrary and capricious, but I would have less of a problem with it if I felt it was moving society in some workable, productive direction. I just don't. It seems to be just making everything worse. If I am pleasantly surprised, and it does make things better, then great.

That doesn't mean I don't accept that systemic prejudice isn't a real thing and our society couldn't be sensibly reformed.

As a counter example, I find most of the arguments for why abortion is moral to be severely lacking and involving a lot of cognitive dissonance. But I also think that having a method for safe, legal abortions is certainly better than the alternatives, so I am much more sympathetic towards having legal abortions.

And to be honest, if my life had played out differently and I was put in a position where having a child of mine aborted was a rational choice, I could see a world where I would have supported that choice.

Monte,

I understand he isn't likely to take a different course of action. However, he should either do something like what you say or quit 2p2 completely or not let getting banned bother him in the slightest. What he does now is a stupid amalgamation of these things. So every so often I reach out to see if I can help. I kind of enjoy doing so (to a degree).

My day-to-day seems to be going alright. General life fatigue (greatly influenced/enhanced by COVID related strain(s)) is my biggest complaint. The fatigue is almost all internally generated by myself. Unfortunately, thinking that doesn't really seem to be the "one simple trick" for all of my worries and responsibilities to magically melt away.

Ok, so it seems you don't think the BLM movement is productive and I assume do not support it.

Do you believe there are systematic issues for Black people in the US? If so, do you think addressing them is a good idea or you don't feel it's possible to do so productively?

So would your stance be that you think it's wrong for someone to have an abortion. However, you think it should be legal and can imagine some alternate reality where, even thinking it is wrong, you could have ended up making that choice?

Sorry to hear about the anxiety; hopefully it improves. Stay safe up there.

I'll get to everything else, but have to do some work first. (and set some DFS lineups for tonights MNF game)

Anyways, real briefly seeing as this is ostensibly a H&F log, in the last 7 months having no access to a gym (as they are all still closed in the Peoples Republic of California) I have settled into a new H&F normalcy, which involves:

* Intermittent fasting. No calorie consumption between 8 pm- 12pm (minus coffee with a little bit of creamer in morning)
* Occasional pushups, pull-ups, situps, jogging

About once a week I do ~300-400 pushups; 60-80 pull-ups and a sit-up routine. Also jog 2-3 miles about 3-4x/week.

All of this has facilitated me to sculpt my body into a 175 skinny fat physique, which means except for my arms being a little smaller you couldn't tell any difference at all if I am wearing a t-shirt, and barely any difference nude. Such is the realities of natty, declining T, ectomorph middle age life in the age of Corona.

Sounds like an improvement than wasting all that time in a gym!

Not to speak for our problematic son, but how much more explicit of a statement does he need to make?

It's hardly exploding his point that people assign their perceptions of what his beliefs must be based on their feelings and not his words when he literally answered the question in the post Yugo originally quoted.

How about them Lakers!

Game 2 was pretty great. Reminded me of that Horry 3 against Sac, which was definitely one of the high points of my Laker fandom. This wasn't quite as good for me as that one, but it was close.

A quick look-in on jdock right now:

Big lol at melkerson bandwagon jumping on Lakers. I go back to AC Green, this guy remembers Robert Horry. Lol.

And then montecore will come back with what about clippers? But I always liked clippers too. Charles Smith one of my favorite players.

Too bad 76ers mostly irrelevant since Dr J and Moses. Geez, even that was before my time. And now they gonna get blown up again and time to start the Process again.

I am still planning on getting to everything, including Lakers talk.

Anyways, this message is for Monte mainly. I was skimming the POG politics thread (not sure why, since they moved on from me already, which is perfectly fine).

And there is actually a biology based explanation for why males in many mammalian species, including humans, have more variability in outcomes and behavior. And that is due to variable mating strategies.

For most mammalian species, including humans, the vast majority of females mate, and are the primary caregivers of children; so given this reality a less variable, less risky life strategy preference would be optimal, which could have been selected for and evolved over the last couple hundreds of thousands of years.

For males, on the other hand, in "naturally" polygynous species (including humans) there is fierce competition where only a small % of males reproduce at all, so more risky, variable behavior/outcomes to give yourself the best chance to mate is +EV from a game theory perspective.

DNA evidence indicates that pre-historically for every female ancestor you have you have 0.5 male ancestors, which is actually fairly high for a polygynous mammalian species. Of course, social institutions (aka "the patriarchy") has manipulated circumstance in the extreme recent short term so a much higher % of males can mate than is found under "natural" circumstance (for good or bad).

This evolutionary explanation would also explain why males generally exhibit more risky behavior, both physically and financially (eg. much higher propensity to start a business or try to invent something).

That isn't to say there isn't also very likely social reasons overlaying possible biological reasons why males may have higher variability (including possible higher IQ at the extreme tail end).

I am pretty sure DP made this post right after they got Davis and hadn't really filled out the roster yet. This take actually aged pretty well, all things considered. Although I can't imagine anyone would have guessed Rondo would be the effective 3 point shooting PG to spell Lebron (at least so far).

But yeah, Go Lakers.