2019 NBA Draft

The 2019 off season is on that could change the course of the NBA depending where certain Free Agents end up. Kevin Durant being the biggest free agent, will he stay with the Warriors, will he join Lebron and the Lakers, will he go to the New York Knicks with Kyrie Iriving and hopefully a great draft pick? If he leaves the Warriors and ends up on a new team the Warriors will obviously be a worse team, but will still have Steph Curry arguably a top 5 player in the NBA. They also have another free agent in Klay Thompson, who could end up leaving and join another team. Be specifically think he will end up with the Lakers if he does decide to leave, because he is from the area. Kawhi Leanard is another player people are looking at who could end up leaving his current team. Will he join the Lakers or the Clippers who are both in Los Angeles where he is from. Or will he stay the Raptors who are a great fit for him. Kyrie Irving contract is up after this season and recent information leaked that he is interested in meeting with the Lakers, after he stated that he apologized to Lebron for acting the way he did when they were teammates in Cleveland. All these questions will be answered this coming up summer.

But first comes the NBA draft, which will be held in Brooklyn, New York, at the Barclays Center home of the Nets who made the playoffs for the first time in 5 or 6 years. Everyone is expecting Zion the college prodigy from Duke to get drafted first overall. But who will get their name called after Zions. Will it be Ja Morant the explosive guard from Murray State who lead the country in assist, or will it be RJ Barret the number one player coming out of high school, who lead Duke and the ACC in scoring over Zion? Both of these talents have a lot of potential as both are extremely athletic, explosive in the open court, and both need to work on their jump shot. One is 6’2 and one is 6’8. One plays the point guard position one is a position less guard. I think NBA teams take whatever they are missing, for example if the Cavaliers or the Knicks get the second pick they will most likely take RJ, because they both have point gaurds of the future. If the Suns get the second pick I believe they will take Ja because they are missing a point guard to compliment Booker and Ayton.

The draft order in terms of greater odds to get the first pick are as followed: Knicks, Cavaliers, Suns, Bulls, Atlanta, Washington, Pelicans, Grizzlies, Mavericks, Timberwolves, Lakers, Hornets, Heat, and the Kings.

The Second Round

The opening round of the 2019 NBA playoffs was very exciting, It featured two upsets in game 1 with the Magic beating the Raptors on the road and the Brooklyn Nets beating the Philadelphia 76ers on the road. It also had heated rivalry between Damian Lillard and Russell Westbrook, where in the end Lillard got the underhand and lead his Trail Blazers team to win in 5 games over the Thunder. The Spurs almost pulled off the upset over the Denver Nuggets, but nobody who watches basketball would’ve been very surprised if it did happen due to the lack of playoff experience from the nuggets core and coach Popavich being on the Spurs side. Even though Harden disappointing in his match up vs Donovan Mitchell they still won the series in 5 games.

The second round is the most exciting it has been since before the Warriors dynasty started back in 2015. The Toronto Raptors will face the 76ers, the Bucks will play the Celtics, Blazers vs Nuggets, and the Rockets vs Warriors. The Raptors have the best big man in the league Joel Embid, but the Raptors have the best two way player in Kawhi Leanord. Giannis looks to get revenge on the Celtics who beat them in 7 games last year. Damian and CJ look to continue their hot streak and beat the up and coming Nuggets lead by Jokic and Jamal Murray. CP3 is healthy this series and looks to get his revenge on the back to back NBA champion Warriors.

These series will be very interesting I predict the Raptors will beat the 76ers because Kawhi will take over the game on both ends of the floor and will exploit the over rated defense of the 76ers. I say they win in 6 games in a close out game in Philly. The Celtics will beat the Bucks in 6 games due to the fact the Bucks best player can’t hit a wide open jump shot or make free throws. The x factors in this series are Gordan Hayward from Boston and the 3 point shooters of Milwaukee, if Hayward has a good series the Bucks have no chance, because of the Celtics depth and if the 3 point shooters can extend the floor and give Giannis room to attack they will have a shot of beating the Celtics in 7.

For the West if the Nuggets can contain the hot shooting of the best scoring backcourt in the league Dame and CJ they will have a good chance of getting the Blazers out of there in 5 or 6 games. But on the other hand if the bigs from Portland can contain the most skillful big man in the NBA Jokic who is one assist a way per game from averaging a triple double then the Blazers will have a good chance of winning the series, X factor for the Blazers is the big man and the x factors for the Nuggets are the guards of Murray and Harris. And the most anticipated rematch of the year is Harden and the Rockets vs Kevin Durant and the Warrios loaded team. If Harden can play an efficient game each game of the series and shoot around 45% or better, the Rockets have a shot of dethroning the Warriors. If the Warriors play their game and don’t let the guard combination of Harden and Paul go off at an efficient clip they will win this series in less then 6 games. The X factor for the Rockets is Chris Paul they need him to average at least 18 to 20 points per game. The Warriors x factor is the defense of Klay and Iguadola, if they can contain the Rockets guards they will win. My predictions are the Nuggets will win in 6 games because of their balance of scoring and sharing the ball. The Warriors win in 5 games due to the lack of efficiency from James Harden.

Stay tuned for my Conference Finals breakdown after each of the semifinal series end. Thank you for Reading!

Preventing Broken Agreements

In this blog we will be talking about how to prevent breaking agreements, specifically breaking agreements with yourself. To do so lets first talk a little bit about what an agreement is. According to google an agreement is, ” a negotiated and typically legally binding arrangement between parties as to a course of action.” In this case the agreement is not legally based, but it is between two parties. The two parties are you and your future self. Or it can be you and your self conscious. I say your future self, because you are telling yourself to do something to better your life in the future. For example, you can agree to lose 50 pounds within the year. You can’t just lose 50 pounds that day, you are talking to your future self. It can also be your conscious, because you are trying to set an agreement with yourself and accomplish that goal to make your self inside feel good and at ease.

In the book GTD, by David Allen he talks about three ways to prevent yourself from breaking an agreement with yourself. The first is to not make the agreement in the first place. He says,”one way to handle an in completion in your world is just to say no!” He also talks a little bit about lowering your standards, because people usually aim to high and can’t reach their goals. Being because they set goals that are not realistic and usually are’t measurable.

The next one is complete the agreement, which makes sense and is obvious. You can’t break an agreement if you just simply do it. Doing it will make you feel better in the end and will make you feel like you accomplished something. He says,”you actually love to do things as long as you finish them.” Which is very true everyone loves that feeling that comes after you know you just did something you set out to do, especially when you wanted to quit and did it instead.

The last one is renegotiating the agreement, which means for example if you set a goal to lose 30 points by the end of the month and you have never worked out a day in your life or eat junk food everyday and never touch vegetables a day in your life, that goal is really unrealistic. So instead of losing 30 pounds in one month, renegotiate and say you will lose 30 pounds in two or three months, or say you will lose 15 pounds in a month. He talks a little about when you set your mind on one thing, and all the sudden you now have two things set on your mind you can get stressful and frustrated. So instead of letting that get to your head think of a new plan and maybe lower your standards.

These three rules can help you live a better stress free life when it comes to completing and making goals. This is all from ‘Getting Things Done’ a book by David Allen that you can find on Ibooks, Amazon, Audible, or anywhere you get your books at.

Five Steps of Mastering Workflow

David Allen gives us five steps to master your workflow which are: capture what has our attention, clarify what each item means and what to do about it, organize the results, which presents the options we reflect on, which we then choose to engage with. Or to simplify it, capture, clarify, organize, reflect, and engage. These five steps can help you no matter what the situation or environment is.

Capturing what has your attention, whether that is using a notebook to write things down that is on your mind, recording it using a voice recorder, or using the in basket I talk about in my previous blog. Capturing things can relieve stress from your mind, because if you are a busy person with a million things to do every second of the day your going to be thinking of those tasks instead of enjoying your life. The things you capture can be small tasks like taking out the trash or emailing a client, or they can be bigger projects. They should always be things you need to do and not just a bunch of nonsense.

Clarifying or processing what it means. Clarifying the things you capture and deciding if they can be complete right then and there or is it actionable? If it isn’t toss it out, cross it off, or put it to the side for later. If it is actionable decide what the next action step is. Deciding the next action step should be something that is clear, such as if you have to write an essay, the next action step could be brainstorming a topic. The action step needs to be clear because it makes it easier to complete and not just procrastinate on it. It makes it easier because you know exactly what you have to do.

The third step is organizing and putting things where they belong. You need to put the action reminder in the right place. You don’t want to put a phone number of a client in the same place you put your schedule for your kids soccer season. Organizing makes it easier for you to find things and makes everything stress free, which is what this book is all about.

The next step is reflecting on what you need to do. You should do this step once a week at least. This step reminds you on what you need to do, what action comes next, and clears your mind.

The last step is simply engaging or doing what ever it is you are trying to complete. You can’t make it through all the other four steps just to not complete what you are seeking to finish. These five steps will make your life stress free and help you improve yourself day in and day out.

GTD Corralling Your “Stuff”

In chapter 5 David Allen talks about capturing and corralling your stuff. This is the chapter he talks about getting all your incomplete into the “in”. He says, “that’s the critical first step in getting to the state of mind like water.” This process can take up to 6 hours to complete depending on the person, it also can take up only an hour of your time. He gives you three very practical reasons to gather everything before you start clarifying it: “it’s helpful to have a sense of the volume of stuff you have to deal with; it lets you know where the ‘end of the tunnel’ is; and when you’re clarifying and organizing, you don’t want to be distracted psychologically by an amorphous mass of stuff that might still be ‘somewhere.’ Once you have all the things that require your attention gathered in one place, you’ll automatically be operating from a state of enhanced focus and control.”

The first thing to do when capturing your stuff is physically gathering your things. Look around the environment you are in and see if there are things that don’t belong there and put it in your in-tray. These things should be things that are “incomplete or things that have some decision about potential action tied to them.”

The next step is deciding what stays where it is. The four categories he gives us are: supplies, reference material, decoration, and equipment. Supplies are anything that you use on a everyday basis, like an IPAD, pens, business cards, stapler, folders, or your laptop. They can also be personal things like gum, breath mints, or tissues. Reference materials are things like restaurant menus, schedules, important phone numbers, or manuals. This category can also include books you read, dictionary, or magazines. Decoration category includes family pictures, art-work, to do list bored, calendar, or a clock. Equipment can be trash cans, chargers, printer, or furniture.

Being able to get rid of things you don’t need in that particular place can help clear your space of all the things that distract you.

You vs Your Mind

One of my favorite quotes from the book is, ” you can fool everyone else, but you can’t fool your own mind.” I believe everyone can relate to this quote, because everyone has that little voice in your head that is trying to tell you what to do and what not to do. Whether you believe this is God speaking to you or just your conscious speaking to you everyone has this happen to them. Mine always talks to me when my alarm goes off at 8 in the morning and I just want to hit the snooze button. This voice tells me to get up and get ready for the day, while my body tells me to lay back over and close my eyes. Most of the time I roll over and close my eyes, but sometimes I do listen to the voice and get up. Your mind always knows what is best for you and tries to lead you to making better decisions.

Has someone ever asked you how your doing and you tell them good, even though you know your having a bad day? This happens to us all, this is a great example of this quote. You might be able to convince someone of something, but your mind and body really knows what your thinking and feelings. This being because it is with you 24/7. Your mind is everything, being one with yourself, keeping yourself happy all leads to a happy mind, which leads to a happy self. Everyone can relate, because everyone has a mind. Some people’s are better functioning then others, some people who have mental issues probably fight with their mind each and every second of the day. Their mind might be telling them negative things to do, that does not mean that is not what you want. Your mind usually tells you what you want to do or have, but it can also tell you what you should do.

2 Minute Rule

David Allen gives procrastinators the ultimate success tool in his book “Getting Things Done,” called the 2 minute rule. Which essentially stats if it takes less then two minutes to do, do it right then and there. Also known as RIGHT NOW. This rule can help you complete little tedious tasks that are on your to do list, such as sending someone an email, cleaning a dish, taking out the trash, or simply going to brush your teeth.

This rule is something I literally think about every second of everyday. Most tasks I have to do I put in my notes app in my IPHONE, before I write it down in the app I think to myself will this take me longer then two minutes to do? Majority of the time it is a no, so I drop what I planned on doing and complete that task and never have to write it down in my app. Some tasks are as simple as: folding my clothes, paying a bill, sending an email, and printing out a paper. I think this rule is very important for students to master, because there are a lot of things we have to do throughout the week. So if we can eliminate some of those tasks as soon as we think about them or get them, that will make our lives so much easier.

I might even try implementing this before I go to bed. Like think of some stuff I have to do, or look at my notes app and see if there are tasks I have to do that I can just knock out right then and there. I am sure every time I were to look I would find something I can do in two minutes or less. I would even go as far to saying if it takes five minutes or less, or maybe even ten minutes if you have a ton of things to do. Everyone has at least 5 to 10 minutes they can spare throughout the day, to complete a task or two. Once you start doing this for a while you will find yourself having less things to do and not being so conscious of thinking about all the things you have to get done. This is something I struggle with, I am always thinking of what I need to do that is on my app, so I can mark it off and make my list smaller.

The two minute rule, by David Allen is something every person should add to their daily lives. Not just for people who have problems procrastinating or getting things done on time. This rule can help someone in high school or someone who is grown and owns a business.

The Zion Sweepstakes

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The 2018-2019 basketball season has been dominated by talks of a college player by the name of Zion Williamson. He is the most dominate player we have seen in college basketball in a long time. He averages 22 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 assist a game, all while shooting almost 70% from the field. He also dominates the defensive end with 2 steals and 2 blocks a game. Players think twice when going to the rim when Zion is on the floor, and if they do attack the rim they look uncomfortable or have to do a crazy finish. He even blocks 3 point shots so when get closed out by him on the perimeter use a pump fake or your shot might get thrown into the stands.

Many NBA teams are in the hunt for Mr. Williamson, including the Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers, and the New York Knicks. Right now the Knicks have the highest chance of getting him sitting in dead last in the NBA standings. They are also looking to sign two stars this summer in Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. After losing their European sensation Kristaps Porzingis in a trade to the Dallas Mavericks. Adding Kyrie could be a problem for new addition Dennis Smith Jr. who they got in the Mavericks trade as well as Deandre Jordan. Both Kyrie and Dennis are point guards who need the ball in their hands to score, coming off pick and rolls and scoring in isolation opportunities. Dennis Smith Jr. could cause trouble in the locker room after being traded to a team where he thought would be his, to most likely coming off the bench.

There are a lot of questions surrounding Zion potential in the NBA. We figure he will be good and have a lasting NBA career, but will he be worth the number one pick when his career is all said and done. These questions only loom because, we have never seen a player like him in the basketball world. People try and compare him to Charles Barkley, but Zion weighed more then 40 pounds then Charles. They also compare him to Blake Griffin, but Zion is 6’6, Blake is 6’10. There is no real comparison so we do not know his ceiling as an NBA player. We do know he has a ton of potential with all his athleticism and strength. He needs to develop a consistent NBA range jump shot, a mid range game, ball handling, and many skills a skillful NBA all star caliber player possesses. With his high motor and competitiveness we know he will succeed in the league we just don’t know how much.

The Last Stretch

There are so many questions to be answered during these last 23 games of the NBA season. Will Lebron and the Lakers make the playoffs? Will Harden continue his great season and continue his 30 point scoring streak? And who will win the MVP award? Lebron going from the east to the west has really shaken up the NBA and made it more entertaining to watch. The east has four teams that could easily fight to make it out the west and most likely challenge the loaded Warriors in the Finals. The Warriors though are yet the favorite again to win the championship for the third straight year. They added former all star Demarcus Cousins who was considered the best Center in the league before getting a season ending food injury. Since coming back from injury in late January he is averaging 14 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assist a game. Adding him gave them a dominant post scorer, which is something they have never had on their team in the past. His lack of quickness and length on the defensive end is made up with his toughness and ability to take charges.

Lebron and the Lakers had a rough first two months bringing in the New Year going 6-14. Making them tenth in the western conference and looking out of the playoffs. Before Lebron got hurt he lead them to the 4th seed, but after he got hurt their season went downhill. 17 of their last 23 games are against teams that will be in the playoffs, so their play will have to turn around or Lebron will not be playing in the playoffs come April, which will be the first time since his rookie year. They have been without their floor general Lonzo Ball who averages 7 assists a game. Hopefully they can get him back soon and get another creator other then Lebron on the court.

Unlike the Lakers James Harden and the Rockets had a great start to 2019 going 12-9. Harden averaged 32.9 points per game and scored 31 straight games with at least 30 points, which is second behind Wilt Chamberlain. Right now the Rockets are sitting at 34-24, which is 5th in the east and only two games back of the fourth spot. The fourth spot is owned right now by the Portland Trailblazers, which is one of the teams that handed the Rockets one of their nine losses. These two teams will most likely be facing one another in the playoffs, so they will be fighting for home court advantage in their first round match up for the rest of the season.

This year MVP race has gotten quite exciting between three great players in
Giannis Antetokounmpo , James Harden, and Paul George. All three have been lighting up the NBA box scores this 2018-19 season and will continue to do so for the remainder of the season. But who will come out on top? Giannis and the Milwaukee Bucks have the best record in basketball with 46 wins and just 14 losses, and he is averaging 27 points, 12 rebounds, and 6 assist a game, all while shooting 58 percent from the field. Harden as we talked about before is having a a great year leading the NBA in scoring with 36.3 points per game and adding 6 rebound and 7 assist to go along with all those points. Paul George on the other hand is 3rd in the west with the Oklahoma City Thunder and posting career highs in points, rebounds, and assist with 28 ppg, 8.1 rpg, and 4.2 apg. He also is a candidate for defensive player of the year averaging 2.2 steals a game which is top in the NBA, so he does it on both ends of the floor.

Do you think Lebron made a mistake going to the Lakers, who will win MVP, and will Harden continue his great 30 point scoring streak?

NBA All Star Weekend Recap

On February 15th, 26 of the NBA’s best players were all in Charlotte for All Star Weekend. The weekend also included some of the NBA’s young rising stars, who hope to be all stars in the their future. Friday started off with the celebrity game which featured: Famous Los (social media influencer), Ray Allen (former NBA player), Quavo (rapper) who won last years MVP in the celebrity game, Ronnie 2K (creator of NBA 2k video game), as well as some other players as well. Famous Los took home the most valuable player award after scoring 22 points and leading his team to a 82-80 win.

Charlotte also hosted the Rising Stars challenge which had players like, European sensation Luka Doncic, Kyle Kuzma, Trae Young, Donovan Mitchell, and Ben Simmons. The game sets it up so the best rookies and sophomores that are born in the United States play the best rookies and sophomores not born in the U.S. The game ended in a high scoring 161 for the U.S. and 144 for Team World. Team World was led by Ben Simmons with 28 points and Team U.S. being lead by Kyle Kuzma who had 35 and took home MVP honors.

Saturday night featured three events, the 3 point shoot out, the skills challenge and the dunk contest. The 3 point contest had top NBA snipers like favorite and previous winner Steph Curry, his brother Seth, 2018 winner Devin Booker, Damian Lillard, Joe Harris, and some other players. Joe Harris ended up defeating Steph Curry 26 shots to 24. The skills challenge featured Trae Young, Nikola Jocik, Jayson Tatum, Luka Doncic, etc. Jayson Tatum defeated Trae Young by hitting a half court shot before Trae Young could make his 3 point shot. Lastly was the Dunk Contest which had John Collins, Dennis Smith Jr, Hamidou Diallo, and Miles Bridges. Hamidou ended up beating Dennis Smith Jr in the final round with a dunk where he had his whole elbow in the rim and jumped over Shaquille O’neal.

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Sunday was the last day of All Star weekend, which is the day all the fans came to Charlotte for. To see all their favorite NBA players, and the best players in the league. Team Lebron faced Team Giannis, with 12 players from the East and 12 from the west. The captains drafted from the 24 player pool, in which Lebron took Kevin Durant with the first pick and Giannis picked Steph Curry with the second pick. Team Lebron also had Klay Thompson, Damian Lillard, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leanard, James Harden, Lamarcus Aldridge, Bradley Beal, Ben Simmons, Dwayne Wade, and Karl Anthony Towns. Team Giannis had, Joel Embid, D’Angelo Russell, Paul George, Kemba Walker, Blake Griffin, Nikola Jocic, Kyle Lowry, Khris Middleton, Dirk Nowitzki, Nikola Vucevic, and Russel Westbrook. Team Lebron was lead by Kevin Durant who won 178 to 164, Durant finished with 31 and the MVP. The games leading scorer was Giannis though who lead his team with 38 points but couldn’t pull out the win.

Next years All Star game will be played in Chicago, Illinois on February 16, 2020.