Big Blue Huddle

Welcome to the talk PSU.  More the merrier.

Surprised none of us are banging on Waller of the Giants.  He may really become a security blanket for DJ.

St. Brown is so much better than I ever thought he'd be out of USC.  I had Jameson Williams last season and I will do it again.  He will be in his 2nd season following his ACL surgery.  Once his gambling penalty is iver, I expect him to dominate.  One Lions player already said he cant be covered by anyone on the team.

Trevor Lawrence is popular these days but I doubt he will generate 5 TDs from the run again and I dont think he runs as naturally as other QBs.  Plus his WRs dont wow me but his HC sure does.

Gibbs is going to be the feature back in Detroit replacing Swift.  With their passing game, I expect him to find holes

Quote from: Jclayton92 on July 14, 2023, 04:22:40 PMSt Brown in Detroit may be a legit #1 this year and miles sanders may get even more yards this year with a rookie in Carolina.

Also I am absolutely drafting Mingo the stud Wr that got drafted by Carolina as its really just him and Sanders in Carolina with Bryce Young so I think Mingo won't win ROTY but could be the reason Young does.

If Mingo is a day 1 starter that's a nice pick up as he'll slide through the draft.

Etienne just never seems to bust out.  I have loved him since Clemson and thought he'd be a great back immediately.  Injuries hurt obviously.

The team I may look hard at for players is Baltimore. A new OC should put some fuel in it and with the addition of Zay Flowers and OBJ, I've got to think Lamar lifts up with more prolific WRs.

Nick Chubb is a good call.  He certainly has the makings.  Are you worried about any wear and tear on him as he has been featured a fair bit?

What about Jonathan Taylor?  Such a stud yet Indy's passing game was so horrible defenses could focus in him.  Will Richardson have a good year as that will drive Taylor's success IMHO?

In 2022, I won my ESPN PPR League.  I loved my team.  Drafted well and made some very good in season pick ups.

Now it's 2023 and time to start thinking about players on our lists to keep an eye on or avoid.  We draft with a $200 budget so production per dollar is important.

QB

I am struggling this year to find an undervalued QB who may be on the rise.  One criteria I must have is that he must be able to run.  To win in a fantasy league you need a top 5 QB.  Jalen Hurts is on everyone's radar.  I had Justin Fields last year and he rewarded me late season.  He did it witht his feet more than his arm.  Will addition of DJ Moore really elevate his passing game?

RB - last year I finally drafted Austin Ekeler along with Miles Sanders.  I got great production out of my RBs.  I believe Bijan Robinson will get over drafted as Atlanta is much too dependent on a rushing game.  Does Saquon have enough left to be a RB1 with top 5 production (assuming he does not holdnout)?  Devin Achane is someone I am eyeing as a breakout player as I think Miami's passing game will open up opps for their rushing and nobody else on their roster impresses me enough as a RB.  Late season I picked up Isaiah Pacheco from the Chiefs and he was solid.  Tempted to keep an eye on him.

WR - I did not fall prey to spending a ton on Justin Jefferson or Jamar Chase and instead got nice value with CeeDee Lamb and some up/down with Mike Evans and Garrett Wilson but scored huge with Christian Watson in season signing.  My prediction this season is that Garrett Wilson will be under drafted but will explode now that he has Rodgers throwing to him.

Who are you watching closely for 2023 fantasy season?

Quote from: Bob In PA on July 11, 2023, 06:22:20 AMPhil: I think I agree with all that, although back then I wasn't paying too much attention to the events.

I don't know much about early days of computers, but I have read one or two books about the rise of the Internet.

As for types of people, I agree that there is a "genius" in coming up with an idea and a completely different type of "genius" in knowing how to hire people who are better than yourself to implement that idea.

Bob

Bob - i've been reading and listening to Ray Dalio who founded the largest hedge fund in the world, Bridgewater Associates.  I think you should check him out as I think you'd like how his brain is wired.  Brilliant man.  He said his company really took off in the early 1980s when he changed his mindset of implementing his ideas which he thought then were the best ideas but upon reflection realized that probably a third of his ideas were bad ideas.  He went to what he called an "idea meritocracy" at his company.  Best idea no matter who comes up with it.  He's a guy worth listening to.

Quote from: Bob In PA on July 09, 2023, 02:44:41 PMPhil: IMO you excel at coming up with interesting perspectives, and that is one of them.

I have no idea whether it's true, but I think there is at least some evidence of it.

I see Musk as exhibiting some tyrannical qualities. And he appears to expect people to push themselves as hard as he pushes himself, but yours is a broad statement, and I believe I lack sufficient info to agree or disagree.

Bob

Bob - the first time I thought about that was around 1989 when I heard Mitch Kapor (creator of Lotus 1-2-3, the predecessor spreadsheet software to Microsoft Excel) say that once he came up with the idea of Lotus 1-2-3 and built it and got the company running from a high growth stage to stabilization, he realized he was the wrong person to be running at the company at that point as a different mindset needs to run companies once stabilized then in high growth.  I've thought about that from that point on that few people have the talent to do both. 

Musk is an idea guy and much less an operator.  He gets itchy to move on to next season idea.  His ideas are usually very good.  He has not yet proven to me that any one of his products is much better than his competition.  Tesla got off to a good start by being way ahead of other car companies in terms of battery technology but other car companies have caught up.  His actual car suffers from a host of mechanical issues that make it inferior to other companies like Mercedes.  Musk is too much of a narcissist.

Zuckerberg created 1 amazing product Facebook but has not been able to create a 2nd transformational product however he's been very smart to offset that by making brilliant acquisitions (Instagram, WhatsApp) and integrated them into one company effectively.  As smart as he is, he gets myopic and bets heavily (aka to the detriment of his company) on ideas others dont see such as the Metaverse.  Zuckerberg is classic anti-social nerd brain.

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on July 07, 2023, 03:40:28 PMMusk gets kicked around for all of the reasons discussed, and fair enough, but the reality is that a lot of these guys are flawed. For example, people like to put Gates up on a pedestal but he's not some saint either. He cheated on his wife relentlessly and did god knows what in all his close personal associations and extensive dealings with Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted serial child rapist. If we are going after billionaires for less than savory behavior, he hardly deserves any sort of pass.

100% true.  Was only comparing based on love of media attention.

What anyone does privately is up to them.  I'm just dont want to see them always in the news.

What other previous wealthiest person in the world spends so much time offering up his opinion in the media?  Buffett, Gates, Arnault, Getty, etc never did.  People with a desire to seek a camera or microphone are IMHO flawed human beings.

Quote from: Bob In PA on July 07, 2023, 09:30:21 AMPhil: The obligations of a publicly-traded company versus a privately-owned company are completely different. There are duties (to make money) applicable to public companies that simply don't exist in private firms. Musk's point all along has been that Twitter was operating under the "pressure" of having to maximize profits that resulted in them operating the company in a manner Musk saw as "unfair" (whatever that might mean to him). As a private company, Musk is free to focus on his idealized (Utopian?) goal of a "worldwide communication facility" without regard to making a buck. Bob

Bob - I understand that he is free to do what he wants now that it is a private company.  My point is that Twitter was doing very well as a company and had a particular niche within social media that allowed it to dominate.  Musk is free to do what he wants but to lose so much value by destroying the foundation of the company does not seem like a smart move by a business man.

It would have been cheaper for him to build his own utopian social media platform.  Musk is more of a builder than operator IMHO.

Here is a factual statement.  Twitter is now worth only about $15 billion or a third of the $44 billion Musk paid for it. For a company with stabilized earnings that is horrible management to have done so in such a short period of time.

Quote from: madbadger on July 02, 2023, 08:50:15 PMHe's got $68 million tied up in shooting guards alone and no none of them are considered to be good shooters and we don't have a real small forward on the roster. I think things were so bad for so long that even a modicum of success blinds some of us to the awful construction of this roster. Did I mention our backup point guard really is nothing more than an undersized 2 guard? 

That modicum of success follows what 20 years of subpar play?  I'll take it.  You are right the roster is not perfect.  But, it continues to evolve. 

Quote from: Jolly Blue Giant on July 02, 2023, 05:54:15 PMThat 3rd pick might have been the best pick of the draft considering #1 pick Zion has been a bit of a bust, weight issues, injuries and lots of lost playing time, and now this issue with him and hookers. The #2 pick, Morant thinks he's Billy the Kid, carrying guns around, flashing them in crowds and getting suspended to go along with some obvious bad character flaws. At least RJ cares enough to stay in shape, is a gym rat, and isn't an embarrassment off the court. And he's only 23 years old with 4 seasons of NBA experience under his belt. His best is yet to come (knock on wood! LOL)

I think RJ is at his ceiling.  Good player but not an All Star and terribly streaky as a scorer.

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on July 02, 2023, 11:52:49 AMI like Leon Rose. I think he has shown a nice combination of restraint and tactical sharpness. There were people in this thread who were critical of the Jalen Brunson signing at the time, calling it an overpay, but in fact it was a superb signing. The Hart pickup was excellent. And I thought he showed commendable restraint in not going all-in on Donovan Mitchell, who is a great offensive talent but not a guy who is going to win you a championship (see the Cavs first round exit courtesy of us). Past regimes would have given Danny Ainge whatever he wanted to get that deal done (see the Mello trade).

The Knicks were an absolute five car pile-up when Rose was handed the team, and that had been true for nearly two decades. This was not an overnight fix. I will speak for myself, but I am pretty happy with the state of the team right now given where it was a few years ago. They're young, they're already pretty respectable, and they have a ton of assets. I like the direction the franchise is headed in.

100% agree and a nice summary

Quote from: madbadger on July 02, 2023, 02:16:51 AMMost of the heavy lifting was done by the previous regime. He had nothing to do with Randall, Barrett and Robinson. He gets credit for signing Brunson and acquiring Hart but he's also responsible for trading four first round draft picks away just to create enough cap space to make Brunson happen. Then again he wouldn't have had to do that if he had just drafted Haliburton in the first place.

He's drafted some nice young players in Grimes, McBride, etc.  Toppin was a fine pick but nobody expected Randle's career to have a huge resurgence that put Toppin in the bench.

He signed Thibs as coach who has done a nice job. 

He has amassed a lot of draft picks going forward.

Knicks have more flexibility than they ever have.

The previous regime drafted RJ at pick 3.  That tells you how bad they were to pick at 3.


Look at all the draft picks