u/MaskedBirder

Giannis getting traded to the Heat was absolutely massive and certainly leaves a lot of questions for how this team will be. There's a lot to be desired in terms of half-court creation and perimeter shooting, but I think the Heat, even as currently constructed, possess the exact tools needed to counter the Knicks.

1. The Giannis and Bam frontcourt - the Knicks have faced a lot of teams in the playoffs over the years, but none of them have had a frontcourt as versatile, veteran, and strong as the Heat. Bam is very strong despite being shorter for a center, and he's very skilled at playmaking from inside the post. Giannis takes this to another level with his insane finishing at the rim, and while Anunoby and Towns are a solid frontcourt, facing a center as versatile as Bam and a devastating freight train in Giannis is a completely different story than any other frontcourt the Knicks have seen, even Victor Wembanyama, who struggled with strength and fatigue in their matchups. This is an even bigger problem because Mitchell Robinson is gone, meaning the Knicks' rim protection is far worse. They have no true rim protector. Towns can play well in stretches, but if he gets into foul trouble, Anunoby can't single-handedly protect the rim against Giannis and Bam both.

2. The Heat have extremely switchable defense - the Knicks on their title run relied on a ton of beautiful ball movement and generating looks for the open man. But the Heat have defenders who can guard multiple positions, while still ensuring the rim remains protected from drives. Having the ability to go five-out is a big weapon of the Knicks, but the Heat have several defenders who can guard 1-5 and take away the mismatches the Knicks try to exploit on defense. Additionally, switchable defenses are the perfect counter for Brunson. Brunson will always have his massive scoring games, but having multiple defenders to throw at him means he will have a much harder time establishing a rhythm, something he does gradually over a series before he has his biggest games. The Heat can throw a smaller guard like Davion Mitchell at Brunson, or even a big man like Bam and Giannis, without any issues to the rest of the defense.

3. The Heat have size and rebounding - this is huge counter to the Knicks. The Knicks love feasting on offensive rebounds for extra possessions, but the Heat have extreme size in Giannis, Bam, and Portis. Especially without Mitchell Robinson, the Knicks will struggle to get offensive rebounds, and even just rebounds in general, which hurts their offense by limiting those back-breaking possessions.

This is all under the pretense that Giannis is fully healthy for the entire series. What do you think about this matchup? While the Knicks should be the favorites and are an elite team, I think the Heat matchup well and counter in really big areas that the Knicks historically used to win.

That thing was a disgrace to the sport. Pure match fixing. Absolutely unacceptable in a professional sport. All the controversy about reffing, cheating, setup, king's move, flop press, this is far worse. Shameful that nothing has come of it. It's things like this that make me see modern arm wrestling not as a real sport but more of poorly-held events and meaningless rankings.

This is the match to make in my opinion. Any chance it happens soon? When do Ermes and Georgi plan to pull next?

Unfortunately, left-arm armwrestling wasn't as developed during the 2000s and 2010s, so we never really got to see the ultimate BITW clashes as clearly as on the right arm. Who do you really think has the highest peak we've ever seen? I wrote some top contenders that came to my mind and I'm curious what others think.

Travis Bagent
Just an unstoppable toproll with insane side pressure that you can't stop. Travis was one of the most beautiful toprollers at his best and he's crushed everyone he's faced, but he never faced Denis Cyplenkov in his career.

Denis Cyplenkov
Most people consider him to be the best. He dominated the landscape for his career, and we very rarely saw him get pinned. But we've never seen him face Travis, and we don't know how Denis' wrist would hold up against modern superheavyweights given that cupping is a known weakness of his.

Andrey Pushkar
Pushkar was one of the few who was always elite on both arms, but he always got destroyed by Denis. Pushkar also had a famous loss to Devon Larratt in the early 2010s. But Pushkar leveled up on his right, and maybe he got better on his left too.

Artyom Morozov
The full package. He can do anything: toproll, flop press, shoulder press, hook. And he's got insane endurance. His peak nearly beat Vitaly, but maybe Morozov could've won if he didn't get injured. Morozov has also defeated countless other elite left-handed arm wrestlers.

Devon Larratt
No joke on the left arm. Held his own against very strong versions of Travis Bagent and famously beat Pushkar in a supermatch. He even gave prime Vitaly a bit of trouble this year by forcing him into a flop press.

Vitaly Laletin (this could be different by Saturday)
Hasn't lost yet. Crushes opponents with a devastating toproll. Bad style matchup for the all-time greats in Travis and Denis, but he lost his wrist to a 50-year old Devon.

Alizhan Muratov (this could be different by Saturday)
Scary hook puller who's demolished everyone he's faced. Barely even struggles in rounds. But we haven't seen him versus the all-time greats, and while he's probably one of the best p4p arm wrestlers in history, it's hard to say he's the highest peak ever.

Many fans online aren't bought into the Sixers' recent moves. They are quick to say why things won't work, such as "there's only one ball", "they're too injured", "Knicks in 4", "superteams don't work". Look, there's no guarantee this team wins a championship. There are 30 teams in the NBA, and only one holds the trophy.

But the fact that the Sixers are being criticized and downplayed like this means one thing: people are scared of the Sixers. They're scared that the Sixers have LeBron James, Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown, VJ Edgecombe, and Joel Embiid. They're scared about the possibility that the Sixers could destroy their team. Instead of looking at why it could work, they're bending over backwards so far you'd think they were playing limbo.

I'm not trying to be arrogant or say that the Sixers are gonna crush everyone, I just find it disappointing that people aren't respecting their moves even a little bit. If it was the Celtics who assembled this roster, everyone would be glazing them and saying why they'll cruise to a championship and how they're one of the best teams of all time.

Point is: we as Sixers fans need to filter out what other fans are saying. We need to look at things logically, rationally, and not let the opinions of other make us angry. There will always be haters.

I'm not a Miami Heat fan so I don't know too much about them, but I've always been confused about why Adebayo never made All-NBA or won Defensive Player of the Year. Seeing how putrid Chet and Duren were in the playoffs made me surprised that Adebayo didn't get the same type of recognition just because he's on a lower seed. And if the Heat were the 1 seed in 2022, shouldn't he have gotten DPOY being the anchor for that team? Just some examples of inconsistency here and there. Is there a clear explanation? I feel like he should be getting more recognition as a player but hasn't for some reason.

I do not want this match at all right now. These two guys look unbelievable right now and Levan needs matches. Pitting them against each other would only ruin the hype for the loser. They should both be Levan's next two matches, and then they can face each other.

Ermes and Vitaly can face guys like Tsvetkov, Kamil, etc. for the next potential Levan matches to be set up. That way, Levan gets two clear opponents who have hype (300lb Devon and Morozov who he hasn't faced at all), and Ermes and Vitaly get matches we've never seen before either.

I just purchased a Guide TE211 Thermal Monocular with the hopes of using it to find birds during the night. However, I noticed that the "Red Hot" color palette doesn't display the color red unless something is extremely hot. It didn't show red for my face or body, or anything outside except for metal signs on the front of buildings right in the face of the sun. I also turned my sink water to the max heat, and the water did appear red. My guess is that the Red Hot setting only works in extremely hot things, and body temperature is too cold.

Those who have this device - what have you experienced? Is my product defunct? Or is this the normal temperature needed for the Red Hot display to point something out?

Let me start this off by saying I'm not a Knicks fan, I have no horse in this race. I just wanted to make a legit observation and analysis.

Jalen Brunson is a better player than SGA. I'm convinced of it. No "he's a better playoff riser", or "he's clutch", Brunson is straight up the better player than SGA, without any asterisks.

Brunson is an elite scorer who can score in so many different ways. Layups, midrange, three ball, you name it. He's so crafty and gets to his spots so well. He'll even cook elite defenders like Dyson Daniels. SGA on the other hand, is talented, but his game is so reliant on the whistle that it's laughable. He's always pushing off to get separation, and when he's not doing that, he's on the ground after getting a nonsensical call. Don't get me wrong, he has an awesome midrange, but he gets so much separation because of his favorable whistle. For all the talk about Brunson, he's a pure scorer and doesn't rely on the line at all to get his points - it's just tough shot after tough shot after tough shot. When I'm watching Knicks games, I see Brunson just taking over a game like a tornado you can't stop. In Thunder games, I see some smooth shots, but I don't get that "unstoppable" or "superstar feeling".

Ranking players goes beyond the stats and numbers.

What do you guys think?

Most people had the Knicks and Cavs as the top east teams to start the season. But we saw the Pistons win 60 games and make themselves known, and the Celtics develop their roster and snag the #2 seed with the return of Tatum. Teams like the Hawks, Hornets, and Sixers popped up as dark horses that could possibly make noise. Nobody really had any idea on how the east playoffs would go, especially with the Knicks and Cavs looking really shaky at points of the season.

After all the talk of "the east is wide open", the eastern conference finals ended up being the two teams people thought would be there in the first place. Interesting to think about.