{"id":2446743,"date":"2019-07-25T03:45:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T09:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=309962"},"modified":"2019-07-25T03:45:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T09:45:00","slug":"writing-switch-jumping-through-hoops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/writing-switch-jumping-through-hoops\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing Switch: Jumping through hoops"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Basketball\u2019s offseason season is in full swing, with a number of big trades and free agent signings shaking up the NBA\u2019s landscape. This week we\u2019re doing a throwback to the first topic we did together because, one, we wrote a column of hot takes at the beginning of last season and it would be weird to not give y\u2019all any closure; and two, we couldn\u2019t find the time to sit down long enough to write what we actually wanted to, so we\u2019re heaving up this buzzer beater. We realize nobody in Aspen really wants to hear about basketball, but as our mantra goes, \u201cnobody reads this anyway,\u201d so here ya are.<\/p>\n

With that out of the way, Sean, who are your top 10 all-time ballers?<\/p>\n

SB:<\/strong> In the spirit of \u201cChapelle\u2019s Show\u201d: Lillard, Lillard, Lillard, Lillard and Lillard. (Technically it\u2019s a top 10 but ranking players is like ranking bands or food. Everybody\u2019s tastes are different. Also, if I have to spend any more time debating Michael Jordan or LeBron James, I\u2019m going to heave this computer off the Pass.)<\/p>\n

I would ask you the same but I\u2019m sure it\u2019s a mix of pre-injury riddled Wizards, so spare the readers your sad fandom that\u2019s featured more years with Ernie Grunfeld than without. Of the players you\u2019ve watched in your life, give me your top 5 least favorite, which will probably just be post-injury Wizards.<\/p>\n

BW:<\/strong> My least favorites list only has one Wizard \u2013 former No. 5 pick and complete bust Jan Vesely, who I guess actually won MVP in some overseas league. I also have that horseface MFer Kelly Olynyk, Zaza Pachulia and Vlade Divac. For some reason I have it out for the hulking white guys; is that what a Freudian slip is? Better add James Harden because watching him crash to the ground and shoot 28 free throws every game gets pretty obnoxious.<\/p>\n

If you could add or change any basketball rule, what would it be?<\/p>\n

SB:<\/strong> The rule I would add is open-court continuation. There\u2019s nothing worse than a fast break ending before it even starts with a ticky-tack foul and then is slowed more by the mandatory clear-path review.<\/p>\n

Soccer has an advantage rule which allows refs to acknowledge the foul while letting play continue. For example, a defensive player steals the ball and just before the offensive player wraps him up, he throws the ball to a teammate leaking out who finishes (preferably with a dunk). The game continues and the guy who tried to stop the break is assessed a foul. And the threat of flagrant fouls\/ejections would keep guys from spear tackling to stop the ball.<\/p>\n

How would you end \u2014 or marginally disrupt \u2014 tampering? Because it\u2019s hard for the rule to be enforced when the players are doing the recruiting instead of management.<\/p>\n

BW:<\/strong> In a word, I wouldn\u2019t. Tampering is awesome, and with sports gambling becoming legal and embraced by the league, there\u2019s no way to ensure Kelly Oubre doesn\u2019t miss that free throw on purpose. Which is great because I always take the unders. Now that there\u2019s some parity in the NBA with more dynamic duos instead of a couple superteams, GMs should be able to use anything out of the \u201cMad Men\u201d playbook to get an advantage. Is that what they do on \u201cMad Men,\u201d just drink and scheme all day? I\u2019ve never watched it but those are two of my favorite activities. It feels great any time you\u2019re able to pull a sneaky one over your opponent, especially when you know they\u2019re trying it, too. Half the free agents are on a new team one minute after communications are allowed? Surprise!<\/p>\n

With all the top Americans bowing out of the FIBA World Championships, do you think you\u2019ll get an invite, and if so, will you accept?<\/p>\n

SB:<\/strong> Are you talking about the Irish national team or \u2026 ? No, I wouldn\u2019t accept. You do realize that even terrible basketball players are better than any normal person (See: Vesely, Jan; Two-time All-EuroLeague first team). Even though self-proclaimed hater-of-running Nikola Jokic probably couldn\u2019t finish in the top 50th percentile for an Aspen 5K, he would make me look like those sacrificial lambs thrown to Hot Sauce on the AND1 Mixtape Tour. Shit, I wouldn\u2019t even try to run with those guys. No one wants to be on the wrong end of House of Highlights.<\/p>\n

We buried the lede, though. The Nuggets came within a couple missed free throws and a C.J. McCollum midrange dagger of the Western Conference Finals. What\u2019s their ceiling overall? Not just next season.<\/p>\n

BW:<\/strong> Oh that\u2019s right, you\u2019re not a naturalized citizen yet (or naturalized at anything). This is what my insults sound like when I\u2019m writing sober. Ugh, what a way to live.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets are going to be a perennial playoff team for as long as Jokic and Jamal Murray are on the squad, and I can envision that being a long time. Also they hold one of the biggest wild cards in the league in Michael Porter Jr., who was supposed to be a top-three draft pick a couple seasons ago but slipped late to Denver after he became injured. It\u2019ll also be fascinating to see if 7\u20196\u201d Bol Bol\u2019s knees are already worse than his father\u2019s. I probably would\u2019ve gone for Tacko Fall (who is on the All-Name Team behind Admiral Schofield), though, if I\u2019m dead set on the gigantism factor.<\/p>\n

Well, we\u2019ve made it most of the way through (we\u2019re almost done with this, right?) without mentioning Zion Williamson. How many calories do you think the Big Z intakes per day? Are the Pelicans going to sneak into the playoffs this year?<\/p>\n

SB:<\/strong> The West is going to be about as loaded as Zion after he figures out what Caf\u00e9 Du Monde is. If he (and a couple other phenoms) get in LeBron post-Germany visit shape, the fight for the eight seed is going to be vicious. We\u2019ll see how the Baby Lakers \u2014 Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and Lonzo Ball \u2014 do now that they\u2019re real boys, free from the King\u2019s strings. My guess is it\u2019s a Dallas Mavs 2018-19 situation where they\u2019re right about .500 until fading late due to an injury or rookie fatigue.<\/p>\n

Of these four players, which one scares you the most if they reach quarter-life crisis Aspenite form: Jokic, Joel Embiid, Luka Doncic, Zion?<\/p>\n

BW:<\/strong> Doncic is one white European dude I don\u2019t despise, and that\u2019s probably because he\u2019s my new doppleganger. He\u2019s got the same haircut as Gordon Hayward, my ex, but he\u2019s a little fatter and has two working feet. He seems a little more lively, as well. All qualities I search for in a look-alike.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m nervous Zion will be too overweight to keep that shoe-explosion knee healthy all season, so my ROY pick is gonna be, hmm, Rui Hachimura.<\/p>\n

Who do you have the best chance of beating in a boxing match (or MMA if you\u2019re feeling courageous)?<\/p>\n

SB:<\/strong> What? Between Rui and Zion? That\u2019s about as relevant a question as \u201cWho is Rui Hachimura?\u201d As far as who is your doppleganger, it\u2019s clearly Ricky Rubio. Jesus haircut, any excuse to rock a man bun and no jumper. It\u2019s so spot on, I\u2019m surprised Ice Cube hasn\u2019t tried to get you to join the Big 3. And on that note, this is mercifully over (unless Ben feels insulted by the Rubio jab and tacks on a response calling me the Liangelo Ball of the Gasol family).<\/p>\n

To use more basketball terms, sorry for punting this week; we can\u2019t always bat 1.000. sbeckwith@aspentimes.com<\/a> bwelch@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Basketball\u2019s offseason season is in full swing, with a number of big trades and free agent signings shaking up the NBA\u2019s landscape. This week we\u2019re doing a throwback to the first topic we did together because, one, we wrote a column of hot takes at the beginning of last season and it would be weird […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2446743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 23:46:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446743\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}