kungfoodude

I think it will come back but to be honest, it probably can't be every year. Eventually it will lead to injuries and then questions will arise. As a Canes fan, I would have been FURIOUS had any of our guys gotten knocked out for the season and jeopardized our Cup chances. I care absolutely nothing about the US winning that tournament in comparison to the Canes winning the Cup. One is neat, the other is why I am a season ticket holder.

The new cap rules make it more difficult to simply outspend and create super teams, actually. We are in the infancy of the impacts but most observers expect there to be somewhat of a shift in league behaviors.

Well the league average from behind the arc was absolutely abysmal in the 80's and most of the 90's. That's literally why you remember it that way. Stats nerds in the 2000's led to a big increase in volume but the overall shooting percentages from behind the arc have steadily risen over time. That's the biggest individual difference between those eras. The players now on average are insanely more talented than they were then. At the superstar level, they have been relatively static but the average roster/role player is head and shoulders better. To an extent, it has made the game "boring" because it's not really rare to see good perimeter shooters. It's common.

Yes, but that was how they accomplished it. They made it MEAN something. Have you ever seen an NHL All Star game? It's fuging unwatchable.

The traveling is ludicrous. They need to fix that. The flopping has been cleaned up for a while because they had to start suspending players over it. This is literally years old, which tells me you haven't watched in a long time.

I mean....the NHL just did this too. The NFL turned the Pro Bowl into just a series of games. The MLB had to make some playoff implications for the All Star winners. All the sports had to do this because ultimately it doesn't make sense to try hard for exhibitions that are utterly meaningless.

That's honestly a better question. If you could take one player OR coach, who would it be?

I mean....CMC was here with Cam and DJ for a spell. This would currently be the worst roster he has ever been on in his NFL career by a massive margin.

Neither Barkley nor even a healthy CMC would move the needle much for us. Those are guys that impact teams that already have impressive overall offenses and defenses, so they can perform the complimentary roles that make them actually valuable. We should know that specifically because CMC almost never moved the needle on bad Panthers team after bad Panthers team. Ask Giants fans about that with Saquon.

I would generally disagree. You see a lot more load management than previously but that is because being healthy in the playoffs is such a key factor. Different philosophies in that regard than previous generations. Baseball really doesn't matter until at least halfway through the season. I am not gonna say they don't play hard but the physical demands are infinitesimal in the MLB in comparison to basically any other major pro sport. People dislike all the shooting these days but that's a direct correlation with how much the overall skill level of the average NBA player has drastically risen over the past 15ish years. There are other aggravating factors, certainly, but that is the biggest one in terms of playing style differences. So many of the guys from the 80's and 90's wouldn't even be able to play in the modern NBA at all. The biggest problem the NBA has with the American market(they are the only US sport that has any real international appeal or interest, minus the NHL) is that they are so steadily corrupt and fix the systems against the small market teams. Well, you eventually lose a big chunk of the league viewership/potential viewership in the process. Take the very obviously fixed NBA draft lotteries. Superstar and upper tier star players rarely want to play for small market teams, nor can they usually afford to pay them. So how do you expect them to possibly compete in that environment?

A lot is being based off all our FA moves and all our draft moves being home runs. Last season, that was FAR from the case on both counts. Not unusual. Hopium is in peak supply after the offseason and pre-TC.

Eh.....if you look at the roster itself it still as the bones of a bottom 10 defense. A lot has to break the right way for that not to be the case. But, the measuring stick needs to be OBVIOUS improvement and OBVIOUS moves in the right direction. If that does not happen, Evero has to go.

To be fair, the NBA is built on an extremely solid foundation. The NFL's foundation is built on sand.

I will say that the NBA lottery has been so obviously corrupt for years that it is disgraceful.

NFL tanking is a front office phenomenon, not an on field phenomenon.

I was thinking the same. Wallace is still pretty raw.

I don't think Jones and Wonnum are gonna exactly be stiff competition. If he can't beat those guys, he isn't likely to be ready to play.

I mean, fug the catch radius, he actually has high caliber hands and has been consistently productive in his career. For those reasons alone, I have no idea why this is even a real argument. Certainly XL could really improve or Tmac be a bust but I think those are unlikely things to BOTH happen.

fug the Craps. Let's send them streaming for the exits early in Washington.

Yeah, this is a completely goofy argument. XL was basically a 2nd rounder for a reason.

Actually the biggest criticism of Burns was usually that he generated lots of pressures(top 10 more than once) but he was rarely able to finish.

I agree. I think Umanmielen will end up being the better pass rusher.

Seeing him in the limited time that I have. I am just not convinced he is going to develop the way we want him to. To be fair, I didn't view him as a high caliber prospect in the first place. I am fine being wrong about it, all the better for us. I do think the selection of Tmac at 8 says quite a bit about how they view him too.

Yeah, I was just not a fan of the value there. I think he will be a better version of YGM.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/draft2025/story/_/id/45025476/2025-nfl-draft-ranking-rookie-year-impact-mid-late-rounders Full disclosure, was not at all a fan of this pick in the 2nd BECAUSE I generally view him as being very limited in his pass rush ability. That said, he does have the makeup to be very capable of replacing Clowney, long term.