I want to try and find some smaller bands to see what their shows are like and to support them, any locals know whats up?

Thoughts are with you, we will all rise stronger!

By so awsome twist of fate I am in Phoenix while my boys were getting shut done and making there way to the superbowl. I'm not exactly well off in the money department though so I'm not going to the game but where are looking pats fans going to be next weekend. I want to make sure I go to the right bar with the best fans in the world. Any place like that?

There have been rumors of a possible expansion, so let’s imagine it does happen, but the NBA decides to only add one new team to the league (sorry Vegas), bringing back the beloved Seattle Supersonics. The Sonics are back babbyyyyyyyy!

Now the Sonics need to build their team from ground up, starting with the expansion draft, and following it with signing players in the off-season.

Here are some simplified terms of the expansion draft:

1. All 30 NBA teams will have the right to protect 8 players on their roster. Anyone on the current roster is protectable, including restricted free agents. If a restricted free agent is left unprotected by his former team, he is available for selection by the Supersonics, who would then hold his Bird Rights for the up-coming off-season. Teams will typically have 4-7 players unprotected. Unrestricted free agents can neither be protected from nor selected in the expansion draft -- they are essentially ignored.
   Players who are likely to be left unprotected by their former teams include aging, overpaid veterans, unproven bench players, players who do not fit in financially with their team, or who disrupt team chemistry.
2. The Sonics may only select 1 player per team.
3. The Sonics must work within 2/3 of the normal rules of the NBA salary cap, so there will be salary-related restrictions which apply to the team's selections. The team’s salary cap for the 2022-2023 season will only be 2/3 of the league cap (112.414 million), meaning 74.93 million. The minimum team salary is also 2/3 of the leagues' minimum team salary (101.173 million), meaning 67.449 million.
   The expansion draft occurs after the conclusion of the 2022 NBA Finals, but prior to the 2022 NBA Draft. The Sonics do not participate in the lottery, but automatically get the 5th and the 35th pick of the draft.
4. There are no restrictions on player positions during the draft.
5. The Sonics must select at least 14 players.
6. Here is a list of the players that each NBA team are, in my opinion, likely to protect, and a list of those who may be left unprotected (not all players are listed, but most of them, and all that have any chance of being drafted by an expansion team):

Atlanta Hawks:

Protected:

1. Trae Young
2. John Collins
3. Clint Capela
4. Kevin Huerter
5. De’Andre Hunter
6. Onyeka Okongwu
7. Bogdan Bogdanovic
8. Cam Reddish

Unprotected (Salary this year, Years left on the contract)

1. Jalen Johnson (2.6 million, 3 years)

https://preview.redd.it/gscgbxqmp8481.jpg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=862779d394317d5746fc6b557a715519b05779c4

*Edit: 29.1 and 29.2 Update notes have been added to the bottom of this post.

Bloons TD 6 v29.0, 29.1 & 29.2 - Update Notes!

Key New Features

• New Paragon Tower: Navarch of the Seas!
  • Bringing all 3 paths together under the command of a sharply dressed, market-savvy, pirate-code-adhering military arch-commander. No need for a bigger boat here.
  • We enjoyed bringing Navarch into the mix as it covers both military category and water-heavy maps. With an emphasis on boat farming, destroyer spam for early rounds, and pop farming with active use of hooks it makes it a very different and fun road to Paragon. Portable Lake spam in non-ranked games has also led to some good laughs.
• Co-op Lobbies 2.0!
  • We have condensed the UI flow of co-op lobby creation, allowing more options to be picked after creating the lobby instead. Number of slots, Map, Difficulty & Mode are now all instead chosen within the lobby itself.
  • Once made public, these elements cannot be changed, in an effort to prevent co-op teams coming together but then bailing if the host changed settings.
  • Along with this Local Join Lobbies will now display player profile/avatar/banner rather than the map, as these feel like more important factors in a local search situation now.
  • Co-op quick match buckets reworked into: Any game, Medium Game & Long Game. The removal of short/easy button is a response to players mostly choosing longer games and in the interest of encouraging players to try more options, even if they have to lean on and learn from their teammates. Short/easy games will still come up in Any searches, and players who want that can Create Match and make that public for other Any players to join.

New Awesome

• New Intermediate map: Quiet Street
  • Chill out and enjoy the holiday here! Doubles up Trophy Store tracks Winter Nights (new) or Sunset - Silent really well.
  • Might look easy but side by side paths can create pierce-through issues when you least expect it
• New Hero Skin: Ezili - Galaxili skin
  • And so she’s back, from outer space…
  • Galaxili’s vibe is very different from her main, we hope you enjoy the way she reaches for the stars
• New Achievements: Davids vs Goliath, So Spiiicey Ninja Kiwi, No Harvest, Student Loans, <redacted>
• New Trophy Store Items
  • Heroes: Psi Bison pet
  • M

Am stuck in quarantine, so decided to have a deep dive into NBA history and try to find the worst coach of each franchise.

Context:

- only full time coaches are eligible (no interims, no player-coaches)

- only their coaching performance will be assessed, not in any other roles (GM, President, etc.)

Alright, let's go!

Atlanta Hawks: Lon Kruger

Better college recruiter than NBA coach, Kruger's first season ended in a 25-57, and the second season 9 games out of the playoffs. Nonetheless, Kreuger offered a $125 refund to season ticket holders if the Hawks didn't make the playoffs during 2002-2003. The team went 11-16 before he was fired midseason.

Boston Celtics: Rick Pitino

"Fuck you Rick Pitino! Fuck you right in the eyeballs!" - Bill Simmons

Ignoring the fact that he traded Chauncey Billups away for half a bag of chips, Rick Pitino was a horror show as the coach. During his tenure he went 102-146, one of the worst in Celtics history. He also famously employed full court press for an entire regular season, and lost the locker room pretty quickly.

Brooklyn Nets: John Calipari (New Jersey Nets)

Another college coach that was bad in the NBA. Although he had some decent results, making the playoffs in 1998, his favoritism towards Sam Cassell soured the locker room atmosphere greatly. The team quit on him as they started the 1998-1999 season with a 3-17 record, Calipari was fired.

Charlotte Hornets: Paul Silas

Hornets/Bobcats franchise have had some pretty tough seasons, but Paul Silas is here mainly due to having the worst win percentage (7-59) in league history.

Chicago Bulls: Tim Floyd

Being the successor to Phil Jackson with 5% of the legendary 90s Bulls is no easy task, but Tim Floyd is still the worst Chicago Bulls coach. It was pretty difficult to look pass 13, 17, and 15 win season. In his 4th season in Chicago he started the season 4-21 before resigning.

Cleveland Cavaliers: John Bellein

The Cavs have had their fair share of terrible coaches, but Bellein is probably the worst of them. He had to apologise after a film session for saying his team was "no longer like a bunch of thugs", and had a pretty horrific .259 record.

Dallas Mavericks: Jim Cleamons

90s were a dark time for the Mavericks before the Dirk era. Cleamons and Quinn Buckner both tried to play the triangle, Buckner had a worse record, Cleamons had Jason Kidd and deployed the triangle, and then asked management to trade Kidd and go

Concept animation depicting a smart wind turbine's NFT's connection with the SafeMoon Ecosystem

Yesterday’s SafeMoon Sunday confirmed something I had suspected the team was working on for awhile regarding Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) within... as John called it in yesterday’s video... the Metaverse Development Experience (MDE). When they announced that the wind turbines introduced in the December Reveal video a week ago would be connected to NFT’s in SafeMoon’s ecosystem to generate dividends for its holders, my mind was at ease, as it had sufficiently melted a week ago when I initially speculated this after watching the video. Now, this post isn’t to pat myself on the back for correctly surmising an important piece of Operation Phoenix, but to outline the value proposition SafeMoon is offering in the crypto space through this effort, as I keep seeing posts and comments questioning why NFT's matter and that the team should be focused on the blockchain, exchange, etc.

Obviously the blockchain matters, and they're working on it. Almost everything featured in yesterday's SafeMoon Sunday video is predicated upon having our own blockchain ledger that the expanding ecosystem will live on. Presumably, the first turbine clusters SafeMoon will deploy will be in Utah. Perhaps on the roof of the new SafeMoon HQ. If wind conditions are favorable for permanent deployment there, this would be a genius PR move to have a crypto HQ running solely on renewable energy in an industry often mired with environmental dilemmas. Even cooler than that will be the fact that they’ll be paying their power bill in SafeMoon through their eventual blockchain as dividends to these wind turbine NFT holders. SafeMoon will inevitably buy the first turbines and test the ERC-721 NFT’s they mint and connect to the turbines for testing.

Wind turbines could be deployed in The Gambia or anywhere with additional functions beyond those outlined below.

MDE NFT Function
If executed properly, these NFT’s would essentially be: 1) a virtual lease for a share of a physical SafeMoon wind turbine. SafeMoon could make these function like modern timeshares where you: 2) only reap the rewards for a specified period of time— for example, two years, and 3) only **receive a portion of

Its that most wonderful time of the year again- the final rush of games in the college football season. One thing I’ve always loved about the bowl season is how it plays out like a really, really long fight card, with the undercard bouts kicking us off, rising up to bigger and bigger things and culminating in a blockbuster main event. Anyways, this is my personal decision on ranking the bowls based on impact, the caliber of teams, and the overall watchability and enjoyability that I think the game will have. Obviously I’m going to be 100% wrong on this, but I hope you enjoy anyways.

#42- MYRTLE BEACH BOWL (12/20 2:30, ESPN)

OLD DOMINION Monarchs (6-6) vs TULSA Golden Hurricane (6-6)

The selling point of this bowl is that both teams are coming in kind of hot- ODU won its last 5 after a 1-6 start, and Tulsa has won three in a row, including a season ending upset of SMU to allow the Hurricane to squeak in the bowls in the first place. The issue is ODU’s winning streak becomes a LOT less impressive once you see who they faced during it, and while its nice to see the Monarchs not give up and push through to the postseason, the fact is they’re likely the weakest team in this year’s postseason, and a definite underdog to Tulsa.

#41- NEW MEXICO BOWL (12/18, 2:15, ESPN)

UTEP Miners (7-5) vs FRESNO STATE Bulldogs (9-3)

Fresno State absolutely deserved better than this game, which is easily the most disrespectful pair-down of the season. UTEP has come a long way in just a couple of years from when they were the bottom-feeder in all of FBS, but they’re still a 7-5 team who got exposed after a downy-soft start to their schedule. If this is anywhere near close, its because Fresno lacked motivation.

#40- BAHAMAS BOWL

BOWL (12/17, Noon, ESPN)

MIDDLE TENNESSEE Blue Raiders (6-6) vs TOLEDO Rockets (7-5)

Toledo was just another MAC team in a year where the conference lacked any true standouts, but were so close to being something special, with four of their five losses coming by three points or less, including one to Notre Dame. MTSU on the other hand, was a team that never really stood out, other than a slight upset over Marshall, and just kind of got to six wins. Not exactly the biggest bang to kick off bowl season, but the weather should be nice.

#39- LENDINGTREE BOWL (12/18, 5:45, ESPN)

EASTERN MICHIGAN Eagles (7-5) vs LIBERTY Flames (7-5)

Hard to believe the Flames were 5-1 at one point, but came crash

##General Information TIME |MEDIA |LOCATION | BROADCAST| :------------|:------------------------------------|:-------------------|:-------------| 7:29 PM Eastern |Game Preview: NBA.com | Barclays Center | US: NBA TV | 6:29 PM Central |Game Matchup: NBA.com | Team Subreddits| Canadian: TSN| 5:29 PM Mountain|Play By Play: NBA.com| /r/suns | | 4:29 PM Pacific |Box Score: NBA.com | /r/gonets | | Reddit Stream (You must click this link from the comment page.)

https://preview.redd.it/o9uk78sj15a81.jpg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f1091943f38d99639dadf0dd3701325e4104e733

Bloons TD 6 v29.4 - Update Notes!

Fixes

• We've just pushed through a number of behind the scenes fixes to some background issues that popped up over the holiday break while we begin work on the next full update. There should be no difference for those who were not affected by these issues.

Bloons TD 6 v29.3 - Update Notes!

Fixes

• Only fix is some work around for the Navarch hooks causing invulnerable targets to be created in certain situations. (Apopalypse & Boss events) as well as a failsafe which should prevent it from being a problem if there is any issue. If anyone still had issues related to this in 29.3 please contact support with details

Bloons TD 6 v29.2 - Update Notes!

Fixes

• Resolved an issue with Collection Events visually not showing bonus rewards
• Resolved an issue with some profiles being too large to play co-op
• Dartling xx2 Powerful Farts should no longer override the damage types of top path & prevent them popping lead
• Resolved an issue with Lead Bloons interfering with 4xx Sub damage to other targets
• Churchill Lv17 should correctly increase damage with Armour Piercing rounds
• Resolved a crash with loading old saves and building Navarch
• Resolved missing sounds and FX on Psi
• Resolved missing sounds on Boomerang Monkey
• Resolved a crash when loading trophy store while offline
• Super Mines should no longer lose damage bonuses on mini-explosions when crosspathed
• Resolved some issues with off-screen UI being interactable
• Resolved a crash that could occur when resyncing on co-op with redeployment
• Resolved a crash that could rarely occur at certain height levels when creating a Navarch using Portable lakes

Bloons TD 6 v29.1 - Update Notes!

Fixes

• New Hero Sales fixed - we can do that now
• New Ice Monkey pet fixed - we can do that now
• Resolved a number of common crashes
• Resolved Challenge Editor now allowing you to scroll to the bottom
• Resolved 502 Glaive Lord not displaying the Candy Rangs cosmetic
• Resolved Acid Glue Gunners not dealing damage for the entire glue duration
• Resolved your owned medals not always displaying correctly in co-op lobbies
• Resolved a number of issues with the new Navarch, including save state problems & towers on the platforms not attacking
• Resolved an issue where going into freeplay then immediat

##General Information TIME |MEDIA |LOCATION | BROADCAST| :------------|:------------------------------------|:-------------------|:-------------| 8:59 PM Eastern |Game Preview: NBA.com | Fiserv Forum | US: ABC | 7:59 PM Central |Game Matchup: NBA.com | Team Subreddits| Canadian: Sportsnet| 6:59 PM Mountain|Play By Play: NBA.com| /r/suns | | 5:59 PM Pacific |Box Score: NBA.com | /r/mkebucks | | Reddit Stream (You must click this link from the comment page.)