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winterromanov · 6 years

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look at where we’ve been (through time) - bechloe fic

based on a prompt from @isthemusictoblame who wanted a bechloe first date (round about). i really hope u like it xx

“Is it possible to actually, like, shit yourself from nerves?”

Beca scrutinises her reflection in the bedroom mirror for about the millionth time in the last hour, checking and double checking that she’s put enough concealer on that giant fucking zit that’s magically appeared overnight, quelle surprise. Maybe she should burst it. Would bursting it make it better or worse?

“Yeah,” Amy replies from across the room, flicking another page in her copy of Extreme Fishing. Beca stares back at her in the mirror, horrified. “Wait—did I say yes? I meant no. I definitely meant no. That’s happened to nobody, ever.”

Beca doesn’t exactly feel reassured. “Jesus Christ. What if I shit myself?”

“Wear extra absorbent underwear.”

“Amy, I’m going on a date. I’m wearing my sexiest underwear.”

“By sexiest underwear, do you mean your boxer shorts with the little dog faces on them? Because I’ve rummaged through your stuff enough times by now to know that they’re literally the only kind you own, you turnip.”

Okay, so that’s another thing she needs to add to her list of inappropriate things Fat Amy does to Beca’s shit when she’s not paying attention. Beca opens her mouth, but no words seem to come out. This happens a lot around Amy. She’s actually run out of reactions. Her jaw swings open and closed like a door on a loose hinge, until Amy finally looks up from her weird magazine.

“What?” Amy shrugs, “If you do want actual sexy underwear, ask Stacie. She gave me some great catalogs. The stuff is really cheap and barely worn. Honestly. The elasticity in this thong I got was pretty—“

“Please be quiet,” Beca interjects quickly, deciding to terminate that line of enquiry immediately, because the elasticity of Amy’s dodgy thongs is not something she wants to hear about right now. Suddenly self-conscious, Beca looks under the waistband of her tights, wondering what underwear she’s actually thrown on. “And for your information, my pants actually have cat faces on them today, so…”

“Oh, even worse,” Amy says dramatically, faceplanting her bedspread. “Nobody likes cats, Beca.”

Beca sticks her tongue out to Amy in her reflection. “Nobody likes you.”

“That right? I’m sure if you talked to Philippe, aged twenty-four, from Illinois, because that dude really liked those photos I sent him—“

“Can you actually speak like, one sentence without grossing me out?” Beca says exasperatedly. She tugs at where her shirt tucks into her skirt, wondering if it looks better in or out, or whether it fucking matters at all what she’s wearing. She’s never cared all that much before. “Anyway—who the fuck from Illinois has a name like Philippe?”

“I think he had a fetish for French stuff,” Amy says, like that’s totally normal, “He kept trying to get me to do weird things with garlic and this one time he sent me this video of him eating a snail. Like, a wild, free-range snail he’d found in the street.”

“That’s insane!”

“I know, right?” Amy seems to agree, “I was like, dude, but some seasoning on it at least!”

There’s silence, because Beca’s lost enough of her sanity already, and she’d ideally like to keep some of it intact for the rest of the evening. She decides to leave the shirt loose and wanders back over to her side of the room, reaching out for her phone. At the top of her notifications tray there’s a snapchat from Chloe. With a half-smile, Beca swipes it open.

It’s a picture of Chloe. Specifically, Chloe’s newly-shaved legs in a pair of the sexiest, patent-leather stilettos she’s ever seen, and Beca almost has a gay heart attack right there and then. The caption reads just for you!!! with alternating heart and fire emojis—god, she’s so fucking whipped, and it’s just the first date. God knows what she’s going to be like when she actually sees Chloe in person.

“You’ve got that face on.”

Beca’s cheeks flush bright pink as she quickly shuts off her phone and throws it on the nightstand. She pats her hair, trying to make it look like everything’s totally normal and not like she almost had an orgasm looking at a freaking photograph. “What are you talking about?”

“That face I always pull whenever Philippe sends me a pic of his huge French dick. Sort of like…” Amy opens her mouth wide, her eyes inflating twice their normal size, a hand pressed on her heart for effect. “You’ve got that face on. Has ginger sent you a tit-pic?”

“What?” Beca squeaks, “No!”

“Oh my god, has she sent you a cli—“

Beca throws a pillow at Amy to silence her, who takes the shot like a champ, collapsing onto her bed a la being-shot-by-a-flying-burrito style. “Dude. If you say one more word, I’m hacking into your email and cancelling your Extreme Fishing subscription.”

“Feel free,” Amy shrugs. She rolls up her copy and expertly aims it into the trash, where it sits amongst tampon wrappers and unfinished classwork. “I was ripped off. That magazine has nothing in it about how to fool stupid old men into thinking you’re a part-time Victoria’s Secret model and trauma surgeon online and loads about how to entice carp using natural bait. What the fuck?”

Beca nervously pads back over to the mirror, where the aforementioned zit is currently throbbing painfully and looks way redder than it did a few minutes ago. She groans loudly. “Oh my god. I look a mess. This is the first date I’ve had in months in and my whole body is totally not co-operating.”

Amy sighs, finally moving her ass from her bed and walking up to behind where Beca stands. “For the record, I don’t think you have to worry about what you look like whatsoever.”

“Really?”

“I mean, yeah, that zit on your chin is about the size of Pluto,” she supplies unhelpfully, “But Chloe doesn’t care about that shit. She only cares about seeing you—she’s mushy like that. You could rock up in a garbage bag and she’d be like wow, that bitch is hot, I wanna bang her right now.”

Beca smiles a little. Sure, Amy’s not the most eloquent of speakers when it comes to relationships and emotions and all that, but it does make her feel a bit better about the whole thing. She does have stupid underwear on and a huge spot and a ladder in her tights but Chloe has seen her at four am, vomiting over the toilet after slamming too much tequila. She’s seen her sobbing into a milkshake in the middle of the day after breaking up with Jesse. She’s seen her during finals week when she didn’t wash her hair for a whole seven days. That girl has seen her at rock bottom, yet still wants to take her messy, uncoordinated ass on a date.

“But, Beca,” Amy suddenly says in a real solemn tone, tearing her away from her thoughts, “You have to let me pop that zit.”

Beca darts away from Amy’s vicinity like that superhero from one of those stupid comicbook films Jesse loved—you know, the one with the silver hair that runs really fucking fast, but she can’t remember the name because her head is full of way more important stuff than superheroes—and throws her hand up, grabbing a hockey stick (that belongs to neither her or Amy) and using it as a makeshift cattle prod as Amy follows her around the room like a serial killer.

“You,” Beca swipes at her with the hockey stick, “Are not going anywhere near my face.”

“Come on, Beca, I’ve watched so many YouTube videos on it, I can pop them like a pro—“

“I’m leaving in literally ten minutes. I’m not letting you and your huge monster hands anywhere near my tiny face.”

“What will hurt more—me popping that zit right now for no payment, or Chloe’s look of horror when she sees the start of a mountain range emerging across your chin?”

“You just said she wouldn’t care!”

“Let’s face it, you’d have to be blind not to care about a zit that size and Chloe happened to mention to me the other day that she has perfect twenty-twenty vision. On her driving test she read a sign from a whole mile away, unbelievable, right?”

“Amy, that’s bullshit, you—no! NO! GET AWAY FROM MY FACE! HOLY SHIT, AMY!”

-x-

The whole date thing actually was unintentional. As in Beca didn’t start the day thinking she’d end it securing a date with Chloe Beale. Even though that wasn’t, like, something she thought about pretty much all the time or anything.

They’re sat on the balcony that juts out of Chloe’s attic room, their legs dangling into the abyss, watching as the hazy orange sky blurs into black. Chloe’s just been on her eighth unsuccessful Tinder date of the new year and Beca wonders why she keeps going back to that fucking app, especially when there’s so many people she encounters in her day-to-day that are actually kind-of nice and not ugly or creepy that would be desperate to date her and treat her like she deserves. Because she does. Deserve better. Much better than weird thirty-year-old cashiers with BO and a penchant for rushed sex in uncomfortable places.

“And then he got his dick out,” Chloe says dramatically, complete with hand gesture to make sure Beca completely understands, “Like, right there, in the middle of the restaurant?”

Beca snorts, taking a sip of beer. She passes the bottle to Chloe, who takes a generous swig, wiping her top lip. “Men are weird.”

“They are,” Chloe agrees, nodding sagely, “They totally are. Maybe I should swear off them. Go on a man detox or something.”

“Not a bad idea,” Beca says, like her motives aren’t totally selfish, “It’s kind of what I’ve done. After, you know, Jesse. I just swore off everything.”

Chloe sighs softly. Her arm reaches out and wraps round Beca’s shoulder and she finds herself melting into her, warm and soft jarring with the cold night air. “Still hurting about that, huh?”

“Not really. It’s just—I don’t think I’ve ever been on a good date, and that really put me off? I don’t know what’s wrong with me half the time. Because Jess—he was really nice and considerate and actually liked me, but every time we went out there was this voice going we could just do all this at home.”

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” Chloe states plainly, resolutely. She takes another drink. “What floated his boat sank yours. You were stranded at the harbor while he sailed off. You’re the captain of your own ship, Becs. And maybe you didn’t have room for another sailor.”

Beca murmurs a laugh at the excessive nautical metaphors, but Chloe’s always like this when she’s a bit drunk, verbal diarrhoea all over the place. It’s adorable. “But I do want another sailor on my, uh, boat?”

(It’s really too bad that Chloe’s looking over the balcony and down onto the lawn, because then she would’ve seen the conviction Beca looks at her with, like she’s the only person in the whole wide world that Beca would even dream of being with right now and any time ever. They’re surrounded by stars and Beca’s fucking looking at her like she’s the brightest of them all, and Beca can’t believe what a sap she’s becoming.)

“Maybe you just need a good date,” Chloe says, “And I’m, like, the queen of dating.”

Beca suddenly sits up, narrowing her eyes a little. “Is this you asking me out?”

Chloe shrugs, trying to hide her smile and failing catastrophically, because maybe this is the point she’s always wanted to reach too. “Sure. And it’ll be the best date in the world, I can assure you.”

Beca laughs, a delirious and slightly drunken giggle in the back of her throat. She clamps a hand over her mouth. “Sorry. I just can’t believe that this is happening.”

Chloe grins, leaning across and pressing a sloppy kiss to Beca’s cheek. Warmth explodes in Beca’s chest and she fights the urge to kiss her back, while she’s in this happy drunken bubble, because she’ll so regret it a few hours later when the buzz has worn off and she’s lying in bed, mapping the cracks in the ceiling.

“You’re my favourite captain,” Chloe says, her words slightly slurred, “You’d be such a bad-ass pirate. I can totally imagine you with a hat and a parrot and those big puffy pants all pirates wear.”

“You’re my favourite captain too,” Beca murmurs, “Because, like, there can be more than one captain.”

(The conversation has kind of lost its way, but it’s nice, and Beca would’ve stayed out there all night drinking beer with Chloe Beale if it didn’t start freaking raining seconds later. Fucking bitch weather always out to kill her vibe. And she totally does not scream that at the sky or anything.)

-x-

Chloe picks her up at seven thirty. Which is weird, considering they live in the same house.

“You didn’t need to ring the bell,” Beca says incredulously, Chloe stood on the doorstep. She’s wearing an off-the-shoulder floral dress that cuts just above her knees, a denim jacket and the same shoes from the photograph she sent earlier. She’s a fucking goddess. “You literally live here. You have keys.”

“I know, but the thought of someone picking me up for a date always gets me really excited, you know?” Chloe says, “I mean the surprise is kind of spoiled because you already know which car I drive, but I do have a brand new playlist I created on Spotify in preparation, and that kind of thing gets you way more excited than cars do.”

Admittedly, Beca is curious, and the effort is really touching so she lets the initial weirdness slide. “As long as there isn’t any Taylor Swift, I’m totally yours, dude.”

Chloe lifts her head. “I can’t promise that. She does have some non-breakup songs that completely fit the occasion. You look beautiful, by the way.”

The compliment is so honest and pure that it knocks some of the air out of Beca’s lungs, because Chloe just called her beautiful, and it’s the first time in a long time that she’s heard that from someone who actually means it (and who she wants to mean it). Chloe just called her beautiful on their doorstep in the most normal day in March, with a giant red splodge on her chin where Amy admittedly popped her zit successfully, and Beca wonders if she might end up remembering this day for the rest of her goddamn life.

“You look great too,” Beca says, which is an understatement, but whatever. “Now, where are you taking me?”

It turns out Chloe has booked a table at a really posh restaurant in the city, which makes Beca feel a little uncomfortable because she’s the kind of girl who is happier with takeaway pizza and sweatpants, but she trusts Chloe and her instincts. They end up at the top of a really tall building surrounded by glass and from their table they can see across the whole of Atlanta, beautiful and illuminated by artificial light. Before she sits Beca presses a hand against the window, waving at the world below.

“You like it?” Chloe asks, standing next to her. Their reflections blur, merging into one another, like for a moment they’re the same person. “Someone I used to work with recommended it to me. Told me it was like you were on top of the world.”

Beca grins; she’s on top of the world, but it’s not all because of the view.

-x-

Surprisingly, Beca doesn’t actually hate the date. For brief, dark seconds she imagines Jesse is the one sat in the chair opposite and her stomach turns, tangled with nerves, scared she’s going to do the wrong thing or say something stupid or embarrass herself in front of her boyfriend. But she blinks and there’s Chloe, grinning and talking madly, and she’s not anxious at all.

(Fuck you, Amy. Shitting has been avoided, absorbent underwear aside.)

They do cute couple-y things like hold hands across the table and share dessert and make other diners uncomfortable. It doesn’t bother her. It’s not new knowledge to her that some people are yet to be dragged into the twenty-first century. She lets Chloe chat the evening away, because listening to Chloe talk is like her favourite song over and over and over again.

When the waiter drops the extortionate bill Beca doesn’t want the night to end. Luckily, Chloe has no plans to.

“Do you wanna see something awesome?” she says, lips curled into a mischievous smile, and Beca would be a grade A idiot to say no to something like that.

“Oh, absolutely.”

-x-

Apparently Chloe knows the security guard who watches over the Atlanta Aquarium. All she does is flutter her eyelashes at the guy stood at the front desk while she’s outside and the doors creak open, letting the two of them in. She grabs Beca’s hand and pulls her through corridors of eerie, dark tanks, illuminated by pale blue lights. She finally stops at a tank that takes over a whole back wall, fish of all shapes and sizes and colours drifting together right in front of them. It’s completely silent, other than the whirr of filters, bubbles rising to the surface.

“For the record,” Beca says, quiet and breathless, “This is the kind of shit that only ever happens in John Green novels.”

“I love John Green novels,” Chloe replies, and when Beca turns, she’s somehow fished a whole bottle of rose wine from somewhere in her jacket. Beca just shakes her head out of disbelief. “Want to get drunk in an aquarium with me?”

Beca untwists the cap, taking the first drink. “As if you even had to ask that question.”

They sit down on the floor a few meters away from the glass and pass the bottle between them, toes of their shoes touching the tank. Beca watches as a fish doused in bronze swims out in front of them, face touching the glass. She lazily points out in front of them. “That one looks like you.”

Chloe snorts. “What, because it’s red?”

“Yeah. It’s red. Like you.”

“In that case,” Chloe leans out, clumsy fingertip landing where a near-microscopic fish internally lit up by a flash of electric blue sits unmoving. “That one looks like you.”

“Well, it’s a good job I’m no longer sensitive about height jokes. You lose.”

Chloe brings the bottle to her lips, taking a sip before speaking. “You know… I meant what I said earlier.”

Beca brushes a strand of her hair away from her face. “About what?”

“That you look beautiful,” Chloe answers matter-of-factly. Beca’s heart stops. “I just think—like, sometimes you need telling. That you are. Beautiful, I mean. I don’t think you believe it.”

Beca half-remembers some line Jesse used on her in freshman year, something about being halfway to his standard of beautiful, and how it didn’t really bother her at the time but after the breakup it kind of gnawed at her, like she was the person she is now because of him and what she thought he wanted. But Chloe… she’s never expected her to be anything, to look like anything. She just wants her to be Beca, whether that’s with the earspike or not, and maybe it took her too long to realise that. Jesse was nice, sure. But there was always this extra layer of expectation with him. Like—she wasn’t quite perfect, to him, and he was trying his hardest to make her that way.

She doesn’t want to be the perfect girlfriend. She likes being messy and nervous and a bit out of control, sometimes. And Chloe gets that. Chloe has always got that.

Beca takes a long drink, refusing to meet Chloe’s eye. She watches the fish, a beautiful, messy rainbow of colours and movement, and how that’s a bit like the Bella’s, this crazy group of crazy girls that somehow all work. “You know, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about—what would’ve happened to me, if you’d never violated me in the showers that day. Like where would I be right now, without the Bella’s? And without… well, you.”

Chloe shrugs nonchalantly, but Beca feels her shoulders tighten. “I don’t know, Becs. I don’t tend to dwell on what ifs. I like the here and now.”

Beca smiles into the bottle. “Yeah, I mean, the here and now is pretty good.”

“Yeah?” Chloe smiles back. Her feet reach out, her toes tapping against Beca’s. “I think it’s pretty good too.”

-x-

“Can I tell you a secret?”

“Go for it, dude.”

“I was… really nervous about tonight. Like, really nervous.”

“What? Really?”

“Yeah. Totally skitzing it. I rang up Aubrey in a total panic. Luckily she knocked some sense into me. You know what she’s like.”

“…What did Aubrey say? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“She said get a grip Chloe, this is Beca Mitchell we’re talking about, she might think she’s God’s gift but she’s really not that special.”

“Geez. She doesn’t live and let die, does she?”

“No, no, but—she also said that out of everyone, she’d never seen anyone make me so happy, so you mustn’t be all bad. Mostly, but not all.”

“…I make you happy?”

“Of course you do, weirdo. Before you rolled into my life there was, like, a huge Beca-shaped hole in it. Only I didn’t realise it was Beca-shaped at the time, but if I had that would’ve been a really weird coincidence, right?”

“Huh. Yeah. Right.”

-x-

(It’s weird, because there’s always been a hole in Beca’s life too, and it’s the kind of hole that’s made her feel completely and utterly empty for so many years, and when Jesse didn’t fill it she thought there was something seriously wrong with her. But then Chloe—she slipped in so effortlessly Beca didn’t even realise, and it knocks her for six, because an actual person has made her feel actually complete for once in her turbulent life and it happened so naturally that it passed her by, passed her perfectly, and everything is suddenly right.)

-x-

They finish the night where it all started. On Chloe’s balcony.

The wine is long gone but Beca knows where Jessica hides her secret stash (in the gap behind the fridge, FYI, she’s really not that stupid, Jess) so she brings back two full bottles, drops one in Chloe’s lap. She has no idea where the rest of the girls are but there’s music, bassy and loud, coming from the Treble’s House—a party she’s missing out on, perhaps, not that she cares.

“I think I’ve realised something,” Beca says, plonking herself down next to Chloe, their knees touching. Chloe lifts her head up as if to say oh? “Yeah. I don’t think I actually hate dating.”

“Oh!” Chloe squeals excitedly, “Have I officially converted you?”

“Oh, no, not at all,” Beca says, killing Chloe’s high with a grin when she looks like a wounded puppy, “No, it was great, I loved it. But—I’m thinking, maybe it wasn’t the dating I hated? Maybe it was the… company, I wasn’t happy with.”

Chloe grins quietly, staring down at her knees, where Beca’s hand rests on her own. Her fingers reach across, cover them, and Beca clings on like a lifeline. “What about now?”

“This company,” Beca says, raising their intertwined hands, studying them carefully like she’s working them out. She nods resolutely. “I think this company is kind of alright.”

It would be just wrong for Chloe not to lean across and kiss her.

-x-

“By the way, that picture you sent me was, like, smoking hot.”

“Oh, you liked it?”

“Chlo, Amy thought I was looking at porn, that’s how much I liked it.”

“Well… there’s plenty more where that came from.”

“There better be. You know I’m only dating you for sexy photos, right?”

“Yeah. Totally. I knew that was a given the minute I asked you out.”

“Good. I’m glad we’re on the same page. It would be a bit embarrassing if we weren’t.”

“Good.”

“Awesome.”

“Cool.”

“…Should we kiss again?”

“That sounds like a great plan.”

“Awesome.”

#pitch perfect #pitch perfect fic #fanfiction #bechloe #bechloe fic #beca x chloe #beca mitchell #chloe beale

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dreamedofyou · 6 years

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85 Questions Tag

I got tagged by @janiedean, so here we go. :)

~~~~~~~~~~

rules: Answer these 85 questions and tag 20 people.

~~~~~~~~~~

— what was your last…

1. drink: water 2. phone call: my sister 3. text message: also my sister 4. song you listened to: uuuhhh, I don’t actually remember, because the last time I listened to a song was when I had the radio on (so it must have been some random pop song) 5. time you cried: again, I don’t remember, but it was either at a movie/tv show (and if not, it was when my grandma’s dog died a few months ago)

— have you ever…

6. dated someone twice: I mean… Idk if it counts, but after my last boyfriend and I broke up, we were kind of on-again-off-again for a bit there, so… I guess I did? 7. kissed someone and regretted it: no 8. been cheated on: not that I know of 9. lost someone special: yes (I’ve had people in my family die, but also I’ve “lost” friends in the sense that we simply grew apart/lost touch in time) 10. been depressed: if you mean whether I had clinical depression, then no 11. gotten drunk and thrown up: nope, I never get super drunk (it’s just not my thing), I only drink up until I’m tipsy and that’s enough for me

— fave colours

12. blue 13. purple 14. green

— in the last year have you…

15. made new friends: I don’t think so 16. fallen out of love: no 17. laughed until you cried: whenever I laugh really hard, I am the embodiment of the cry-laughing emoji, so yes, I’ve done that plenty of times last year xD 18. found out someone was talking about you: yes, my ex-classmate from high school 19. met someone who changed you: don’t think so 20. found out who your friends are: nope, because I’ve known who my true friends were for years 21. kissed someone on your facebook friends list: on the mouth, no

— general

22. how many of your facebook friends do you know irl: I rarely friend people on there that I don’t know irl, so I know like 95% of them (at least in passing) 23. do you have any pets: yes, a parrot (he’s a parakeet, named Riki) 24. do you want to change your name: no, I’m perfectly fine with my name 25. what did you do for your last birthday: I just celebrated it at home with my parents first and then went to visit both of my grandmas for a little celebration as well 26. what time did you wake up today: it was almost 11 am… don’t shame me, guys 27. what were you doing at midnight last night: I think I was in bed, watching Youtube videos on my phone (and chatting with @vera9) 28. what is something you can’t wait for: right now, just to finish my master’s degree (I seriously can’t wait for that shit to be over) 30. what are you listening to right now: nothing 31. have you ever talked to a person named tom: one of my best friends is named the Slovenian version of Thomas, so yes xD 32. something that’s getting on your nerves: when people use their phone during a movie (either in theatres or when we’re watching at home), it’s one of my pet peeves 33. most visited website: idk, but it’s probably a toss-up between Youtube and Tumblr 34. hair colour: brown 35. long or short hair: long 36. do you have a crush on someone: not on anyone irl I’m afraid 37. what do you like about yourself: idk, I feel like I try to be nice, understanding and open-minded (unless you’re hateful, because I have no tolerance for people like that) 38. want any piercings: no, it’s not really my thing 39. blood type: I honestly have no idea xD (I mean, it’s somewhere in my medical records, but hell if I know that stuff by heart) 40. nicknames: don’t really have one, people just call me by my name 41. relationship status: single 42. sign: virgo 43. pronouns: she/her 44. fave tv show: guys, I can’t choose this stuff, because it keeps changing, but at the moment it’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine 45. tattoos: don’t have any and I don’t really want them (I do think they look pretty and/or cool, though) 46. right or left handed: lefty here 47: ever had surgery: yes 48. piercings: I only have the standard earring holes 49. sport: I barely do any sports myself, but I love watching a whole bunch of them (winter sports in particular) 50. vacation: idk what I’m supposed to answer here?? I love travelling in general and I plan on doing a lot more of it when I’m able. my last (mini) vacation was a few weeks ago at a mountain resort with a friend for the weekend 51. trainers: trainers/sneakers are my favourite type of shoes, so I wear them A LOT and I own a few different ones

— more general

52. eating: I love eating home-cooked meals and I eat a lot (too much probably OTL) 53. drinking: I mostly just drink water throughout the day, but in the colder months I love tea (hate coffee, btw) 54. i’m about to watch: I need to get started on the second season of Jessica Jones 55. waiting for: I guess this kind of ties in with my “I can’t wait for” answer, but I’m waiting to finish my damn degree -__- 56. want: again, I want to finish my degree (and then get a job) 57. get married: yes, if I met the right person 58. career: I’d love to be a translator, but there’s no job openings, so… that’s not looking too well as a career path. I’m finishing a pedagogical degree right now, so I’ll be able to teach as well, which is probably what I’ll end up doing, but we’ll see

— which is better

59. hugs or kisses: both are good, but if I have to choose, I’m going with hugs right now 60. lips or eyes: eyes 61. shorter or taller: don’t particularly care either way tbh, but I’ll go with taller for the sake of choosing 62. older or younger: same as the previous answer (don’t mind either way) 63. nice arms or stomach: I’ll go with arms (I’m generally not into overly-muscular people irl though) 64. hookup or relationships: definitely relationships (I’ve never been a hook-up person, I just can’t do it) 65. troublemaker or hesitant: at this point I feel like I’m more hesitant than a troublemaker and I think I’d prefer that in another person too

— have you ever

66. kissed a stranger: on the mouth, no 67. drank hard liquor: yes 68. turned someone down: yes 69. sex on first date: no (I need to be in a relationship with someone to sleep with them) 70: broken someone’s heart: maybe some of the people I turned down? 71. had your heart broken: yes 72. been arrested: no 73. cried when someone died: yes 74. fallen for a friend: I wouldn’t consider it that, because the last time that happened I was like 10/11 and I wouldn’t call any of the people I had a crush on “a friend” exactly, just someone I hung out with/played with (and like… I was a kid, so I wouldn’t call it “falling in love” either, just a childhood crush)

— do you believe in

75. yourself: most of the time 76. miracles: not in the sense of “omg it’s god/magic/whatever”, but if we’re talking “that was such a lucky coincidence/rare but scientifically explained occurrence” then yes 77. love at first sight: love at first sight no, but attraction at first sight yes (I just don’t consider that “love” yet) 78. santa claus: lol what is this question even. does anyone over the age of 8 believe that SANTA CLAUS actually exists? 79. angels: no

— misc

80. eye colour: brown 81. best friend’s name: I don’t feel comfortable sharing the names of some of my best friends on here (since they’re not on Tumblr), but someone who is on here is Vera :) 82. favourite movie: just like with tv shows, this changes for me constantly, and I can’t choose right now 83. favourite actor: right now it’s Andy Samberg, I just… love everything about him (B99 is great, I love his TLI stuff (the movies and the albums), his type of comedy is my thing, and also I just love him as a person) 84. favourite cartoon: if we’re counting anime, then Fullmetal Alchemist takes the cake for sure (as for western cartoons I’ll always have a soft spot for Kids Next Door because not only was it a really good show, but it formed me as a person and I met so many people through that show, including the aforementioned Vera) 85. favourite teacher’s name: hmm, I have a few teachers I really liked, so I’m gonna pick one randomly out of those – Veronika (one of my college professors)

~~~~~~~~~~

I’m not gonna tag 20 people (I don’t even think I have that many mutuals tbh xD), but here’s five: @vera9, @whereisyourpippinnow, @steelinmystories, @soaringshawna, @phil-the-stone. And if any one of my followers who sees this wants to do it too, feel free. :)

#about me #tag

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amtushinfosolutionspage · 6 years

Text

The Outlet Pass: Sniping Smart, the Merciless Rockets, and a Fultz Do-Over

1. Your Monthly Reminder That 32-Year-Old LeBron James Can Still Be The Scariest Defender Alive

Every possession tells a story. And like any collection of stories, some are more exciting, meaningful, and memorable than others. If we were power ranking the NBA’s by the thousand each week, what happened at the end of Cleveland’s seventh straight win would rank somewhere in the top five.

The action begins with consternation. Instead of crowding the strong side as Kemba Walker and Dwight Howard run their pick-and-roll, Frank Kaminsky should stand over on the opposite wing. His presence doesn’t let Walker attack Kevin Love, as Kyle Korver essentially walks into help position without having to move.

Walker dribbles over to the empty space himself, but can’t shed LeBron James, who cuts the All-Star point guard off and forces him to reverse it back to Jeremy Lamb. Walker’s thought bubble as soon as he gives it up reads “pass it back right now!” but Lamb decides to jack up a wild three instead. It clangs off the rim, and Dwyane Wade flies in out of nowhere to punch it away so the clock can expire.

Instead, it serendipitously lands in Walker’s hands with exactly one second to go. Here’s where James turns into the alien we all know him to actually be. Watch the clip again and focus on the closeout. The universe’s best basketball player—still, in his 15th season!—somehow sprints in from the paint, leaves his feet and doesn’t come close to committing a foul. Walker’s shot has about no chance of going in, and Cleveland wins.

James doesn’t bring this much intensity to every possession but that’s perfectly understandable given his age and offensive duties. When games are on the line, he’s a security blanket unlike any other. Throw him at the opposing team’s most devastating weapon and watch him neutralize it in real time.

2. Marcus Smart Always Knows The Score

There is no non-All-Star I enjoy watching more than Marcus Smart. He makes the phrase “rock solid” feel so inadequate. Nothing gets past him. Nothing seeps through him. Smart not only turns little things into big things, he’s makes them worth the price of admission. You know what you’re getting when Smart enters the game. He never stops moving, from box outs—where he often looks like he’s surfing—to assaults on the offensive glass.

Unless the Boston Celtics are able to combine Semi Ojeleye and Terry Rozier into one human being, letting Smart walk as a restricted free agent would be a mistake.

I’m not here to point out that the same people who ignore a good glass of water can’t appreciate Smart’s value, or admonish those who’re allergic to his shooting numbers and use them to bookend any argument about his worth. That’d be petty. (But these people are wrong.)

According to NBA.com, Smart’s three-point percentage when the scoring margin between both teams falls between zero (aka it’s tied) and 10 points, is 37.6 percent (26-for-69). When the margin is higher than 10 points, it drops to seven percent (2-for-28!). So, in layman’s terms, to quote the great Shaquille O’Neal, Smart will make his threes when they matter. (To make this even spicier, Smart is 2-for-26 when the Celtics are ahead by at least 10 points. Those shots don’t not matter, but, like, when you have the best defense in the league and are up double digits maybe missing a three-pointer isn’t the end of the world).

Moving on, here’s a clip of Smart nudging Boston’s odds for victory in a positive direction. His defense appears improvisational even though he’s a really an actor who memorized the script 10 minutes after it was first handed to him.

After Ojeleye and Rozier switch the screen, Smart notices the mismatch and quickly directs Rozier out of the lane so Aron Baynes can match up against Marreese Speights and Smart himself can defend Orlando’s pick-and-roll after they reverse the ball. This particular sequence isn’t rare—Boston’s defenders regularly stamp out self-inflicted mismatches before an offense can attack it—but it’s overlooked nonetheless.

It’s no coincidence that the Celtics are outscored by 0.2 points per 100 possessions when Smart is on the bench, and outscore opponents by 11.2 points per 100 possessions when he plays—a 12-point difference exceeded only by Al Horford.

3. The Houston Rockets Are Going to Win The Title

Let’s break this bold statement down into a few separate categories, shall we?

A. James Harden is a Samurai

So, yeah, Harden is once again the most valuable player in the league, and arguably its most impressive and dominant singular offensive force. The guy is regularly throwing pocket passes between his freaking legs, canning contested step-back threes, and paying no mind to a rule change that was essentially designed to hamper his game and keep him from the free-throw line.

Try and read this sentence out loud without taking a breath: Harden currently leads the league in points (per game average and total), assists (per game average, rate, and total), threes, free-throw attempts and makes, usage, Win Shares per 48 minutes, and Real Plus-Minus. He’s a one-man avalanche off a high screen and has unofficially made more “there’s nothing we could do” baskets than anyone in the league. It’s getting to the point where I could list half a dozen fake stats about Harden’s season and you’d have to believe them all. Like, he’s launching 11 threes a night and making over 40 percent of them. How is that real?

For those who’re curious, here’s the long list of players in NBA history who’ve been as efficient as Harden currently is with a usage rate of at least 36 percent. (Spoiler: There’s only one player on it.) Remember last year, when he should’ve won MVP and led the Rockets to 55 wins and the third-highest point differential in the league? Houston outscored opponents by 6.3 points per 100 possessions when Harden was on the floor. Today, his net rating is over twice as high (+13.0!).

This season has so far been Harden’s very own Bitches Brew, a valiant rhythmic experimentation that’s blowing people’s minds. If he somehow keeps this up, we won’t forget it anytime soon.

B. Chris Paul’s “Evolution”

The word evolution is in quotes because Paul is 32 years old and fundamentally the same icon he always has been. But that isn’t to say he isn’t adapting to/enjoying life in Mike D’Antoni’s revolutionary bubble.

Over the last two seasons, 37 percent of all the shots Paul launched were long twos. Right now, in Houston, that number is 10 percent. Ten. Per. Cent. Paul’s presence is about so much more than where he gets his shots up from, though.

During a recent win against the Grizzlies, he screamed at his teammates to huddle up after gifting Clint Capela with an and-one opportunity. On Wednesday night against the Indiana Pacers, he saw Victor Oladipo huddled in the paint and screamed at the referee until a three-second violation was called. The guy’s personality is borderline-domineering (in a good way?); he effortlessly dictates the tempo that nine other players will experience whenever he’s on the court.

In the second quarter of a recent blowout win against the Denver Nuggets (amazingly Paul’s home debut in a Rockets uniform), the first-ballot Hall of Famer spent the entire 24-second shot clock marionetting Denver’s defense from a few feet in front of half-court, directing Capela to abandon a ball screen and stand near the baseline before waving P.J. Tucker on a loop—dragging Nikola Jokic from the corner to the opposite block, up near the free-throw line.

With three seconds left, Paul crossed away from Tucker, zipped past his man and kissed a runner off the glass. It was fine art. Two plays later, he did this:

How do you devise a strategy against someone who can cut through you both in slow motion and the blink of an eye? Paul’s usage and shot efficiency are down, but those will bounce back. More importantly, when Harden isn’t on the floor and Paul is, the Rockets have outscored opponents by 34.3 points per 100 possessions. That is a Mt. Kilimanjaro number.

In Paul’s first season with the Los Angeles Clippers, back in 2012, their pace with him on the floor was 91.6. Right now Houston’s is 102.4. It took D’Antoni zero seconds to realize staggering his two best players was the way to go, and Houston is settling into a seemingly unbeatable routine where Eric Gordon will sub Paul out in the first and third quarters at about the five or six minute mark and then put him back in at the start of the second and fourth quarters to conduct a bench unit while Harden rests.

Through it all, the Rockets’ offense has yet to skip a beat.

C. The Tucker, Trevor Ariza, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute Threesome

Houston’s offense makes opponents lose the will to live. Its defense prevents them from breathing. In the 140 minutes this aforementioned trio has shared the court, the Rockets have allowed just 96.2 points per 100 possessions—aka they play like the best defense in the league. It’s a like-sized versatile group that can hang with four or five positions anywhere on the floor.

Each is smart and long. They know, as help defenders, when to cut off drives and slide into the opposite corner to pick off passes. They clog lanes, move on a string, and, of course, switch at will.

D’Antoni has yet to really experiment with a lineup that doubles down on that versatility by adding Harden and Eric Gordon into the mix (that group has only played five minutes all season), but when he does Houston should hit an even higher plane. Most of them (i.e. Harden, Gordon, and Tucker) are strong enough to switch onto heftier opponents, leverage their low center of gravity, and let help defenders stay home. If they need to double, they’re fast enough to do so, rotate, and swarm.

4. Russell Westbrook’s Free-Throw Routine is *Kisses Tips of Fingers Emoji x Infinity*

I have no fresh opinions about Westbrook outside the belief that Oklahoma City’s struggle isn’t primarily his fault. This team’s collective hardship will either wash away or smash into a dead end that was constructed by a predictably disagreeable combination of Type A on-court personalities. Carmelo Anthony should bend to Westbrook’s strengths and not the other way around. Paul George is too anodyne for his own good.

But I digress! A personal takeaway that’s unrelated yet still very enjoyable whenever I watch the Thunder play has been the air purification exercise that doubles as Westbrook’s free-throw routine. For those unaware, last month Westbrook complained about the NBA’s new rule prohibiting players from straying behind the three-point arc in-between their free throw attempts. This threw Westbrook off and was, according to him, a good explanation as to why he missed 12 of this season’s first 28 shots at the line.

The drama ended up being drama for drama’s sake (Westbrook has made 77.1 percent of his free-throws since those comments were made), but his routine remains gold. The reigning MVP has long calmed himself down with a deep breath before he shoots, but this year, for whatever reason, it feels at least 10 percent more theatric; he reminds me of Frank Costanza pleading to a God he doesn’t actually believe in. Serenity now. Serenity now.

It’s reason number 97,483 why I love the NBA.

5. San Antonio’s B-Team

The silver lining from any long-term injury that sidelines a superstar is the opportunity for others to up their duty, minutes, touches, and, most importantly, show what they can do. That’s what’s taken place with Kawhi Leonard in San Antonio, where several youngsters have spent the early part of this season assuming a larger role than they expected.

LaMarcus Aldridge and Rudy Gay still lead the team in usage, but 21-year-old Dejounte Murray has been able to run San Antonio’s primary and secondary offense—though that could end now that Tony Parker is back, looking spry as ever—Bryn “Sparty” Forbes has time to shine as a mutated cross between Danny Green and Patty Mills (while being about half a decade younger than both those guys), Kyle Anderson is second on the team in minutes and has started every game while posting career highs per 36 minutes in every meaningful category. (It’s sort of like the youth movement going on in Toronto, except far less intentional.)

San Antonio has a negative point differential whenever Aldridge, Pau Gasol, or Green take a seat, but they still have no business holding the NBA’s eighth-highest net rating or a league-average offense. Leonard’s absence could’ve crippled this team.

Photo by Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

Instead, they’ve instilled confidence in young role players who won’t look like a deer in the headlights when games really start to matter. This past month and a half was a blessing. Gregg Popovich probably loves it.

(Quick aside: Whenever a defender has to switch a screen and go from defending Mills to Anderson, it’s almost like trying to catch up with 100 mile-per-hour gas during your first two at-bats and then having to whack at a knuckleball pitcher in the sixth inning. The adjustment a defender must make sliding between those two must be so much harder than it looks.)

5. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson’s Silent Improvement

Before he sprained his ankle on Sunday in Memphis—a game in which he got chewed out on the floor by Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson for getting beat on a baseline drive by JaMychal Green—Rondae Hollis-Jefferson was having a miniature breakout season. If the first thing you think when someone says his name is “athlete who can’t shoot threes” that’s still very true. But RHJ has upped his aggressiveness and efficiency this year, spending more time in the frontcourt and even moonlighting as a small-ball five on occasion.

While he’s still bashful beyond the arc (particularly from the corners), Hollis-Jefferson has become more confident and effective taking slower bigs off the bounce, and either pulling up from 10 feet or displaying refined touch at the rim. He enjoys taking defensive rebounds the length of the floor, seeing how far his man is willing to backpedal, then springing into an open jumper. Sometimes Brooklyn will feed him the ball at the right elbow, simulate a dribble hand-off, and then let him sledgehammer through a momentarily-fazed defense with his left hand.

Here’s how this year’s shot chart compares to last season.

Photo via NBA.com

Gross. And now…

Photo via NBA.com

Better!

Hollis-Jefferson’s post game has been a pleasant surprise, as well. According to Synergy Sports, he ranks in the 92nd percentile, with post-up opportunities nearly doubling from last year’s output. It’s a herky-jerky combination of spin moves, step backs, and physical force. Defenders who give him space to shoot have been punished by his steadily improving accuracy.

He probably won’t ever be a stretch four, and that can be frustrating for teammates who don’t have the space they’d like when he’s on the floor (the Grizzlies abandoned him in the strongside corner a few times in David Fizdale’s final game). Brooklyn has a bottom-10 offense when he’s in the game and are right around top-seven when he sits, but it’s still fun to see someone carve out their own niche and push their own limitations without falling off a cliff.

Hollis-Jefferson isn’t firing up incoherent long twos anymore. He’s attacking within comfortable pockets, and, in the process, improving. Whether or not he can have a positive impact on the Nets, let alone a playoff team, remains to be seen. But he’s still only 23 and clearly interested in getting better.

6. A Brief Check Up on Malcolm Brogdon

It’s been nine games since the Milwaukee Bucks traded for Eric Bledsoe and demoted the reigning Rookie of the Year to the bench. Since, their offense has been terrible with Brogdon on the court, whether he’s sharing the floor with Bledsoe or Giannis Antetokounmpo.

These numbers don’t exactly line up with the eye test—Brogdon remains an above-average catch-and-shoot threat—whose efficiency has yet to make a significant dip despite him assuming a more influential offensive role—and he’ll dunk on your face even if you’re paying attention—but are worth monitoring.

(Brogdon, Giannis, Bledsoe, Khris Middleton, and Tony Snell have only played seven minutes together. This is probably Milwaukee’s best five-man unit until they figure out what to do at the center position.)

7. Is Miami Unlucky or Bad?

The Heat are a tricky team to pin down. Coming off a season in which they limped from the starter’s block and ended with a flurry of peak Mike Tyson uppercuts, are they good, blah, or bad? Right now they rank 22nd in point differential (according to Cleaning the Glass) with a poor offense that turns it over and doesn’t get to the free-throw line. Kelly Olynyk is probably their best big man right now—though an obvious case can be made for Hassan Whiteside, especially after Miami was blown out by the New York Knicks without him on Wednesday night—while Tyler Johnson, Justise Winslow, and Josh Richardson can’t make anything.

But how much of their struggle is due to bad luck? Richardson and Johnson will (probably) shoot the ball better than they have, and despite generating a ton of corner threes—as in, more than anybody else in the league, and more than they created during the Heatles Heyday—nobody can knock them down.

This sentence sounds imbecilic, but Miami is pretty imposing when it makes shots. They ended Boston’s win streak and crushed the Minnesota Timberwolves in back-to-back contests. When they don’t make shots, they’re a horror show; the Heat tip-toed past the woeful Chicago Bulls with seven points in the opening quarter on Sunday afternoon.

Defensively they’re stout, just outside the top 10, allowing the fewest “wide open” shots in the league. But opponents are still draining 37.6 percent of their threes (likely an unsustainably high number) and having surprising success in transition. If everything regresses, they’ll make the playoffs and scare whoever they face in the first round. If not, humongous changes could be headed Miami’s way.

8. What If Philadelphia Didn’t Draft Markelle Fultz?

Every person who agrees chewing food before you swallow is a good idea also thinks labeling Markelle Fultz as a bust four games into his NBA career is idiotic. Now that we understand each other, let’s imagine a world where the Philadelphia 76ers did not draft Fultz with the first pick, and instead selected one of the many impressive rookies who’re currently thriving elsewhere.

Fultz might not be a bust (if he’s a 6’4” DeMar DeRozan, fantastic!), but he also may not be the best fit within Philly’s hierarchy, as a long-term third option behind Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. Now that we know Simmons can run an elite offense and defend all five positions, what’s required by his side may not be what Fultz brings to the table. Philadelphia doesn’t need another offensive star. They need complementary studs.

Let’s look at five options Bryan Colangelo might consider instead if given a chance to do it all over again.

Photo by Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports

1. Jayson Tatum. The obvious first choice given his two way impact on the Eastern Conference’s best team, Tatum does splendid things without the ball and is currently shooting 47.8 percent from deep. Picture him in a switch-happy defense beside Simmons and Robert Covington. Envision Philadelphia’s second unit with him as its eventual first option, able to prop the offense up whenever Simmons and Embiid need to rest. He’s only 19 years old. This is all so horrifying to think about.

2. Kyle Kuzma. He’s 22 and was selected with the 27th pick. So what. Kuzma has scored more points than anybody in his class, can shoot threes, function inside flexible lineups, and make life easier for Philadelphia’s two franchise players by coupling his off-the-bounce pep with a natural understanding of his responsibilities. He’s a consummate role player, which is exactly what the Sixers need. (Dario Saric is great, but slot Kuzma at the four in their starting lineup and…yikes.)

3. Lauri Markkanen. I’m not sure Markkanen’s career could possibly be more pleasant beside any other big man. Use him as a stretch four with Embiid, and a backup center who’s surrounded by shooters, and the possibilities are endless.

4. Josh Jackson. I thought about placing Jackson in the two hole but am still a tad unsure about his long-term willingness to accept a stunted role. Shooting is also a serious drawback. But this dude can really pass the ball, and in two years Philly could have four All-Defensive-caliber contributors between him, Simmons, Embiid, and Covington. He also possesses undeniable confidence. On one play earlier this week, he pushed the ball in transition, forced a one-on-two finish over Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng, then scored at the rim. If the Sixers could harness that fearlessness, they’d without argument have the most promising young core in the league—if they don’t already.

5. Donovan Mitchell. I like Mitchell a lot. His overall efficiency is lying in a dumpster because Utah has asked more from him offensively than is probably fair, but defensive intangibles, off-script flair, and underrated vision make him a nice choice.

(If this list was eight players long, I’d go with Jonathan Isaac, Luke Kennard, and O.G. Anunoby, in that order.)

9. Myles Turner is LaMarcus Aldridge 2.0

Myles Turner has touch, unselfish tendencies, and enlightening physical tools. Myles Turner does not ignore any one of these things when he plays basketball, and that is why Myles Turner, a budding franchise stanchion, will enjoy multiple All-Star appearances and more than one max contract.

His pick-and-pop game is such a ridiculously advantageous tool for the Indiana Pacers, able to lure even the smartest bigs just a step in the wrong direction to unbolt driving lanes for Victor Oladipo and Darren Collison.

His step-up screens are next level, and his willingness to pass when doubled in the post or right after he grabs an offensive rebound, is special. Somehow shooting 60 percent on long twos and 44 percent beyond the arc, Turner has had a few moments this year where he does something that a player his size simply shouldn’t do. Calling him a “unicorn” would be trite, but one of the sport’s top shot blockers shouldn’t look so comfortable running the floor to knock down a corner three.

Once he realizes just how physically dominant he can be—most notably on rolls to the rim in which he double-clutches in mid-air for no reason—Turner will become the best player on a playoff team. Until then, he’s only 21 years old with boundless two-way talent and an incredibly bright future.

10. Fastbreak Layups Are a Gateway to Superstardom

A completely arbitrary, borderline nonsensical belief I have is that in order to be a first option on an elite offense, there must be 100 percent confidence in a player’s ability to finish a fast break with either a dunk, layup, or trip to the free-throw line every single time exactly one defender stands in his way. It sounds dumb, but, in my head, is also a scientific fact.

This is one of the few situations in any game where nothing—not teammates, scheme, the scoreboard, the clock, etc.—matters except one player’s will to score over another. It’s primitive, but riveting. Think about every offensive superstar in the league and ask yourself how confident you are in their ability to finish in the open floor when only one guy is between them and the rim. How many are on that list?

Mine is constantly shifting and normally about eight or nine players long; Ish Smith might be the most recent addition.

11. Lonzo Ball is Inspiring Broadcast Genius

During a recent game against the Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls play-by-play man Neil Funk said Lonzo Ball had “the touch of a blacksmith” and it was just about the most insulting yet clever description of a player I can remember hearing on television.

Ball is probably the worst shooter in the league, but he does so many other things at a high level. His deflections, offensive rebounds, and measured decisions in the open floor are appreciated. Ball might not be a star, but he’ll have a long career making everyone around him shine.

The Outlet Pass: Sniping Smart, the Merciless Rockets, and a Fultz Do-Over syndicated from http://ift.tt/2ug2Ns6

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flauntpage · 6 years

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The Outlet Pass: Sniping Smart, the Merciless Rockets, and a Fultz Do-Over

1. Your Monthly Reminder That 32-Year-Old LeBron James Can Still Be The Scariest Defender Alive

Every possession tells a story. And like any collection of stories, some are more exciting, meaningful, and memorable than others. If we were power ranking the NBA's by the thousand each week, what happened at the end of Cleveland’s seventh straight win would rank somewhere in the top five.

Instead, it serendipitously lands in Walker’s hands with exactly one second to go. Here’s where James turns into the alien we all know him to actually be. Watch the clip again and focus on the closeout. The universe's best basketball player—still, in his 15th season!—somehow sprints in from the paint, leaves his feet and doesn’t come close to committing a foul. Walker’s shot has about no chance of going in, and Cleveland wins.

James doesn’t bring this much intensity to every possession but that’s perfectly understandable given his age and offensive duties. When games are on the line, he's a security blanket unlike any other. Throw him at the opposing team's most devastating weapon and watch him neutralize it in real time.

2. Marcus Smart Always Knows The Score

Unless the Boston Celtics are able to combine Semi Ojeleye and Terry Rozier into one human being, letting Smart walk as a restricted free agent would be a mistake.

3. The Houston Rockets Are Going to Win The Title

Let’s break this bold statement down into a few separate categories, shall we?

A. James Harden is a Samurai

For those who’re curious, here’s the long list of players in NBA history who’ve been as efficient as Harden currently is with a usage rate of at least 36 percent. (Spoiler: There's only one player on it.) Remember last year, when he should've won MVP and led the Rockets to 55 wins and the third-highest point differential in the league? Houston outscored opponents by 6.3 points per 100 possessions when Harden was on the floor. Today, his net rating is over twice as high (+13.0!).

This season has so far been Harden's very own Bitches Brew, a valiant rhythmic experimentation that's blowing people's minds. If he somehow keeps this up, we won't forget it anytime soon.

B. Chris Paul’s “Evolution”

With three seconds left, Paul crossed away from Tucker, zipped past his man and kissed a runner off the glass. It was fine art. Two plays later, he did this:

How do you devise a strategy against someone who can cut through you both in slow motion and the blink of an eye? Paul's usage and shot efficiency are down, but those will bounce back. More importantly, when Harden isn’t on the floor and Paul is, the Rockets have outscored opponents by 34.3 points per 100 possessions. That is a Mt. Kilimanjaro number.

In Paul’s first season with the Los Angeles Clippers, back in 2012, their pace with him on the floor was 91.6. Right now Houston’s is 102.4. It took D'Antoni zero seconds to realize staggering his two best players was the way to go, and Houston is settling into a seemingly unbeatable routine where Eric Gordon will sub Paul out in the first and third quarters at about the five or six minute mark and then put him back in at the start of the second and fourth quarters to conduct a bench unit while Harden rests.

Through it all, the Rockets' offense has yet to skip a beat.

C. The Tucker, Trevor Ariza, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute Threesome

Each is smart and long. They know, as help defenders, when to cut off drives and slide into the opposite corner to pick off passes. They clog lanes, move on a string, and, of course, switch at will.

4. Russell Westbrook’s Free-Throw Routine is *Kisses Tips of Fingers Emoji x Infinity*

I have no fresh opinions about Westbrook outside the belief that Oklahoma City’s struggle isn’t primarily his fault. This team's collective hardship will either wash away or smash into a dead end that was constructed by a predictably disagreeable combination of Type A on-court personalities. Carmelo Anthony should bend to Westbrook’s strengths and not the other way around. Paul George is too anodyne for his own good.

It’s reason number 97,483 why I love the NBA.

5. San Antonio’s B-Team

LaMarcus Aldridge and Rudy Gay still lead the team in usage, but 21-year-old Dejounte Murray has been able to run San Antonio’s primary and secondary offense—though that could end now that Tony Parker is back, looking spry as ever—Bryn "Sparty" Forbes has time to shine as a mutated cross between Danny Green and Patty Mills (while being about half a decade younger than both those guys), Kyle Anderson is second on the team in minutes and has started every game while posting career highs per 36 minutes in every meaningful category. (It’s sort of like the youth movement going on in Toronto, except far less intentional.)

Photo by Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

Instead, they’ve instilled confidence in young role players who won't look like a deer in the headlights when games really start to matter. This past month and a half was a blessing. Gregg Popovich probably loves it.

5. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson’s Silent Improvement

Here’s how this year’s shot chart compares to last season.

Photo via NBA.com

Gross. And now...

Photo via NBA.com

Better!

He probably won’t ever be a stretch four, and that can be frustrating for teammates who don’t have the space they'd like when he's on the floor (the Grizzlies abandoned him in the strongside corner a few times in David Fizdale’s final game). Brooklyn has a bottom-10 offense when he’s in the game and are right around top-seven when he sits, but it’s still fun to see someone carve out their own niche and push their own limitations without falling off a cliff.

6. A Brief Check Up on Malcolm Brogdon

These numbers don’t exactly line up with the eye test—Brogdon remains an above-average catch-and-shoot threat—whose efficiency has yet to make a significant dip despite him assuming a more influential offensive role—and he'll dunk on your face even if you're paying attention—but are worth monitoring.

(Brogdon, Giannis, Bledsoe, Khris Middleton, and Tony Snell have only played seven minutes together. This is probably Milwaukee's best five-man unit until they figure out what to do at the center position.)

7. Is Miami Unlucky or Bad?

The Heat are a tricky team to pin down. Coming off a season in which they limped from the starter's block and ended with a flurry of peak Mike Tyson uppercuts, are they good, blah, or bad? Right now they rank 22nd in point differential (according to Cleaning the Glass) with a poor offense that turns it over and doesn't get to the free-throw line. Kelly Olynyk is probably their best big man right now—though an obvious case can be made for Hassan Whiteside, especially after Miami was blown out by the New York Knicks without him on Wednesday night—while Tyler Johnson, Justise Winslow, and Josh Richardson can't make anything.

This sentence sounds imbecilic, but Miami is pretty imposing when it makes shots. They ended Boston's win streak and crushed the Minnesota Timberwolves in back-to-back contests. When they don't make shots, they're a horror show; the Heat tip-toed past the woeful Chicago Bulls with seven points in the opening quarter on Sunday afternoon.

Defensively they're stout, just outside the top 10, allowing the fewest "wide open" shots in the league. But opponents are still draining 37.6 percent of their threes (likely an unsustainably high number) and having surprising success in transition. If everything regresses, they'll make the playoffs and scare whoever they face in the first round. If not, humongous changes could be headed Miami's way.

8. What If Philadelphia Didn't Draft Markelle Fultz?

Let’s look at five options Bryan Colangelo might consider instead if given a chance to do it all over again.

Photo by Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports

(If this list was eight players long, I’d go with Jonathan Isaac, Luke Kennard, and O.G. Anunoby, in that order.)

9. Myles Turner is LaMarcus Aldridge 2.0

His step-up screens are next level, and his willingness to pass when doubled in the post or right after he grabs an offensive rebound, is special. Somehow shooting 60 percent on long twos and 44 percent beyond the arc, Turner has had a few moments this year where he does something that a player his size simply shouldn't do. Calling him a "unicorn" would be trite, but one of the sport's top shot blockers shouldn't look so comfortable running the floor to knock down a corner three.

Once he realizes just how physically dominant he can be—most notably on rolls to the rim in which he double-clutches in mid-air for no reason—Turner will become the best player on a playoff team. Until then, he's only 21 years old with boundless two-way talent and an incredibly bright future.

10. Fastbreak Layups Are a Gateway to Superstardom

Mine is constantly shifting and normally about eight or nine players long; Ish Smith might be the most recent addition.

11. Lonzo Ball is Inspiring Broadcast Genius

Ball is probably the worst shooter in the league, but he does so many other things at a high level. His deflections, offensive rebounds, and measured decisions in the open floor are appreciated. Ball might not be a star, but he'll have a long career making everyone around him shine.

The Outlet Pass: Sniping Smart, the Merciless Rockets, and a Fultz Do-Over published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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viralleakszone-blog · 6 years

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What to expect from Samsung’s next Galaxy flagships

http://www.viralleakszone.com/what-to-expect-from-samsungs-next-galaxy-flagships/

What to expect from Samsung’s next Galaxy flagships

iPhone X, mwc, S9, Samsung, Samsung Electronics, samsung galaxy, smartphones

It’s that time of year again. Samsung is getting ready to unpack some shiny new high end smartphones at the world’s biggest mobile confab. And Android fans are getting ready to cheer.

The viralleakszone team will be on the ground at MWC in Barcelona in two weeks’ time to bring you all the news. But if you’re wondering what Sammy’s got cooking ahead of the official Galaxy unboxing, read on…

S9 and S9+ unpacked

While most major Android smartphone handset makers are skipping a flagship launch at MWC 2018 — perhaps feeling the pinch from shrinkage in the Chinese smartphone market — Samsung most definitely is not. Not this year.

The world’s biggest smartphone maker by marketshare is expected to unbox the Galaxy S9 and S9+ at the show.

Indeed there’s a pretty gigantic clue to that in the invitation for its pre-MWC press event — in the shape of a purple-hued number ‘9’…

Samsung’s timing means the S9 and its phablet-sized S9+ fellow are being outted about a month earlier than last year’s S8/S8+, when it switched to a post-MWC launch in New York.

Some have suggested Samsung felt the need to move up the S9’s reveal by a month after Apple skipped an iPhone digit with its fall unboxing of the iPhone X (and iPhone 8/8Plus). Although that theory doesn’t really hold water, given Samsung has debuted new Galaxy flagship(s) on the eve of the MWC conference for years — and consistently so, until 2017.

Last year was the anomaly. And that beat-skip can be explained by it falling behind its usual release schedule after the Note 7 recall — and the subsequent pressing need to spend time making changes to its product safety processes after having such high profile problems with, er, exploding batteries.

Samsung is clearly hoping to put all that mess behind it now. And how better to project a ‘business as usual’ message than by returning to its usual pre-MWC global stage for the S9 launch?

And things are looking pretty good for Samsung to hog the hardware limelight at MWC 2018: Huawei, its main Android phone challenger in global marketshare terms, isn’t expected to launch much, having announced its own Paris-based press event for late March.

While the Nokia-branded upstart HMD can’t — surely — hope to tug on the nostalgia heartstrings twice in a row and pull another retro mobile phone trick this year.

Camera capabilities in focus

Of course Samsung is hoping its new smartphones grab attention on their own merits. And it’s drawing explicit attention to the camera as the eye-catching upgrade here.

In many ways this is a curiously quaint kind of premium smartphone marketing message. And not just because of the subtle allusion to film photography in the shape of the graphic. But because of how much engineering attention has already been lavished on smartphone cameras over the past decade. And how high the premium bar has consequently gotten.

A truly reimagined smartphone camera would have to have real superpowers — like being able to shoot through walls. Which would also be horribly weird and disturbing. So happily no one is expecting the S9 to be able to do that.

Apple’s iPhone X is a better explanation for Samsung’s teaser that the S9 camera will be “reimagined”, given Cupertino’s top-of-the-range iPhone packs dedicated depth sensors for powering augmented reality experiences via the camera lens — such as face masks and animated emoji that can track facial expressions.

The iPhone X also features a new biometric authentication method which relies on capturing a facial biometric using the same TrueDepth camera unit.

So Samsung trying to do more with sensing hardware to chase Apple’s lead here seems probable.

That said, judging by leaked device images — obtained by trusted smartphone leaker Evan Blass (see below) — the S9/S9+ don’t appear to be packing any additional sensor hardware up top vs last year’s S8/S8+.

Last month Samsung did make some noise about its latest smartphone chipset, explicitly touting the potential for the silicon to power similar experiences to what Apple has done with the iPhone X — writing that “through depth sensing” the chipset could be used to “scan a user’s face in 3D for hybrid face detection”. So, well, [insert thinking emoji face here].

Another possibility: Samsung could use an engineering workaround that combines multiple existing biometrics (i.e. the S8’s face + iris scanning systems) to try to up its game vs Apple’s FaceID. This has been rumored.

And that approach might make most sense for the S9, given Apple has not yet pushed the TrueDepth camera across all iPhones. Indeed, the iPhone X’s sensor-packed notch remains iPhone X only. And so do associated iOS features — like Animoji and FaceID.

Given that premium gating by Apple, Samsung could be spying an opportunity to build some ‘animojish’ flashy and fun camera features that work across its S9 flagships — even if its FaceID competitor isn’t yet ready for the prime time.

(And — a little more fuel — a Blass source claims the S9 will include a selfie mode with “animated avatars kinda like animoji”.)

Apple also used the opportunity of a major sensor upgrade on the iPhone X to ditch the home button and switch to a more gesture-heavy user interface on the device. Which, in some ways, is unfortunate as it has bifurcated the iPhone UI. (Something Cupertino will presumably move to unify again in future.)

Samsung was ahead on killing the home button, having removed the physical key on last year’s S8 to maximize screen real estate. Though it didn’t go all in on swipe-based navigation. Instead it added a virtual touch-sensitive button with haptic feedback at the bottom of its otherwise near-edge to edge display.

It will therefore be interesting to see whether Samsung decides to entirely remove that usability crutch on the S9. And, indeed, there have been a few rumors of a new, S9-only user interface incoming.

On the other hand, a major break with interface convention would really demand a more radical hardware upgrade than Samsung appears to have in the pipe here. So we wouldn’t bank on any overly sweeping interface changes landing here.

Look, no notch!

Blass got his hands on the above leaked images of the S9 and S9+ late last month. He’s since posted a few more (see below).

An immediate takeaway from looking at these is there’s no notch on the S9/S9+. The notch being the shaped sensor unit that takes an unfortunate bite out of the iPhone X’s screen.

Indeed, the sensor configuration on the leaked S9 images looks identical to the S8. So if Samsung is squeezing more sensing hardware into that slender space at the top of the phone it’s not obviously doing so.

(For the record the iPhone X’s TrueDepth camera unit contains: An infrared camera; a flood illuminator; a proximity sensor; an ambient light sensor; a dot projector; and a 7MP camera, as well as housing a speaker and microphone. While the S8’s bevy of front sensors includes an SVC LED; a proximity sensor (detector) & light sensor; a proximity sensor (emitter) and Iris LED — the latter powering an iris scanning biometric feature.)

The visual design consistency between the S8 and the S9 heavily suggests Samsung doesn’t yet have sensing hardware to directly challenge the capabilities of the iPhone X’s TrueDepth camera.

And the company’s own PR specifies that its aforementioned top-of-the-line chipset hardware does also need depth sensing hardware to be able to power 3D face scanning “for hybrid face detection” (which then enables “realistic face-tracking filters as well as stronger security when unlocking a device with one’s face”, as Samsung sells it).

So unless it’s managed to radically miniaturize the necessary depth sensing hardware on the S9, shrinking it to fit into pretty much the same S8 form factor — and at a time when it was also retooling its smartphone processes with a focus on safety concerns — then a comparable FaceID-style face-unlocking feature seems unlikely to be about to be unpacked.

Though Samsung may still manage to drum up a few animojish flourishes using the sensors it has been able to bake in.

So get ready to cue up your jokes about the S9’s ‘invisible notch’.

The other glaring design point of note is there isn’t really anything new in the look of the S9 vs the S8. Unless you could the fuchsia-ish shade of purple/lilac.

Design wise it’s essentially more of the same, curved screen edges — love ’em or hate ’em! — and all.

And talking of more of the same, we reckon Samsung won’t do an Apple and will keep the 3.5mm headphone jack on the S9/S9+.

Why? Because why look a rival’s gifthorse in the month and pointlessly squander an unexpected competitive advantage. Courage be damned.

Sticky fingers

Moving on, Blass also got his hands on some rear shots of the S9/S9+ and associated components — which show a fingerprint reader in a newly positioned location right underneath the rear camera(s). Which would certainly be a welcome tweak on the awkward S8 side-of-camera placing.

So — depending on your view — Samsung is taking a ‘cake and eat it’ biometrics approach vs Apple, which simply doesn’t offer iPhone X owners the option of using a fingerprint biometric (they can either choose to register a robust, depth-mapped facial biometric, or do without biometric authentication entirely).

Or Samsung is not entirely confident in the robustness of its own facial biometric authentication systems — which have previously been shown to be pretty trivially fooled. Hence retaining the fingerprint scanner is helpful because it offers an alternative option for users not comfortable with the company’s iris or face scanning systems.

In security terms at least, Apple appears to be making the iPhone X’s dedicated sensing hardware count. (Unless you happen to have an identical evil twin.) So Samsung keeping the fingerprint reader alive also fits with the notion of the S9 being more of a stopgappish, iterative upgrade than a major step change for its smartphone strategy.

On the plus side, at least these phones aren’t going to force you to face unlock if you don’t want to.

Blur when you want it

Another takeaway from Blass’ leaked images: The S9+ does have one very visible camera hardware difference vs the S9 — it’s packing two rear camera lenses. At long last!

This fits with widely reported rumors that Samsung is finally adding dual cameras to its flagship smartphones — having initially brought the hardware feature to its premium phablet, the Galaxy Note 8.

As with the Note 8, the S9+’s dual lenses will be used for enhanced photography depth effects — such as bokeh (where a subject gets crisply picked out against a pleasingly blurred backdrop), on account of the stereoscopic data that the two lenses can gather.

And for boosting low light photography — a perennial challenge for smartphone cameras, with camera sensors having to be squeezed into such small spaces.

On the Note 8, Samsung also uses the dual cameras for other stuff too — like a photo feature that can capture additional imagery outside the framed composition.

The bottom line here is it’s playing necessary catch-up. Apple introduced dual cameras to the iPhone line up back in 2016, on the iPhone 7 Plus. So Samsung definitely needs to close the gap.

A video version of the S9 invite which it tweeted last month emphasizes bokeh by fading out in a blur of glory. The animation also hints at a super slow-mo video capture feature — another widely reported rumor which we’re expecting will be stood up.

Samsung’s oddly worded claim that the S9 launch will “change how you experience everything” could be an allusion to camera-powered AR features or a hint — as has also been widely rumored — that the S9 will have a mechanically variable aperture too. (Or else, well, it’s just some horribly overreaching PR.)

What’s the point of a variable aperture? It allows a camera to switch between different focal lengths by controlling the amount of light entering through the lens — literally by expanding or contracting the hole through which it enters.

Which in turn allows for greater control over the look of photos/videos by being better able to adapt to different shooting conditions. So, again, the promise is improved smartphone photos/video, including in low light conditions.

But, as with all the expected features, we’re talking ‘welcome improvements’ and ‘nice-to-have enhancements’. Not a smartphone with X-ray vision.

Don’t get too excited — yet

All in all, we’re expecting Samsung to have a few nice extras up its sleeve for the S9/S9+. But its next Galaxys look more like they’re playing catch up — and doing the usual bit of beefing up (expect processor and battery upgrades too, of course) — than shooting for smartphone fame.

But — but! — if you’re hankering for a more radical Samsung smartphone upgrade in 2018, well, other rumors are available. Even though MWC 2018 probably isn’t going to be the event where Sammy finally unboxes its very-long-slated-in-the-R&D-works foldable smartphone (though the company did say, as recently as last month, that it plans to release foldable phones in 2018). If it does, well, Samsung has been keeping that powder very dry indeed.

Nor — we’re fairly sure — will the company be pulling out its intended iPhone X killer in Barcelona. Though, again, it might have ‘one more thing’ on that front later this year.

#iPhone X #mwc #S9 #Samsung #Samsung Electronics #samsung galaxy #smartphones

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