^{Almost a year ago, I had the chance to ask Duane Klueh a few questions. Klueh, who played in the NBA for the Denver Nuggets and the Fort Wayne Pistons from 1949 to 1951 and was the first John Wooden-coached player in the league, is the second-oldest living professional basketball player and turns 98 today. I figured, in celebration of that, today would be a good day to share some snippets of our conversation.}

On his initial thoughts on joining the Denver Nuggets as a rookie, a team that opened the season 0-15:

"I recall very little of the first game vs. Tri-Cities, but I have a clipping from a newspaper with a box score, et cetera. How exciting it was to be playing basketball again! We definitely had rebounding and defensive weaknesses from the start."

On the Nuggets financial troubles and his trade to the Pistons:

"December '49 or January '50... the day we were told that our salaries were not coming on a timely basis, I knew I could not stay. My son was born late September of '49 in Denver and my wife required steady income. Salaries were to be sent during post-season barnstorming in Colorado and Wyoming. I told the front office of my decision. Soon after, I received a call from the Fort Wayne Pistons organization, who now had my contract. They were coming to play Denver the next day or so. Bringing my uniform and shoes with them, I met them around noon at the hotel and received my gear, and at the fieldhouse that night, we won the game and I left the next morning with Fort Wayne's team. My wife and son left a few days later!

On his thoughts joining the Pistons:

"I welcomed the trade to the Pistons. First class organization. Better travel arrangements, highest daily allowance for meals on the road in the league. [Pistons founding owner] Fred Zollner would accompany the team occasionally on trips East. Avid bridge player, which seemed to be the game the entire team played on road trips. He also might take the team to dinner after winning a game on the road... Both he and [General Manager] Carl Bennett, plus coach and radio announcer all traveled with the team."

On the league's expulsion of teams in the 1950 offseason:

"As to the shedding of teams, and players, prior to the '50-51 season... the second year of the NBA... I'm not aware that players were concerned about it, except the fact that it was 40-some team jobs gone! I noticed rosters added and subtracted players a bit more than last year."

On integration:

"Integration was inevitable... most players had gone through that at their respective colleges... perhaps not... well, NOT the South, and most looked forward to that change."

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From author interview with Duane Klueh.

The trade deadline is fast approaching and the words buyer remorse will be said once again some teams will make great trades some will make epically bad trades which player that is either on your team currently or that is on the block you don't want to see on your team anymore? ( say more then just a name describe why)

GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS vs Detroit Pistons

Time: 7:00PM PST

Location: Chase Center, SF CA

Broadcast: NBCSBA

Line: GS -10.5

Projected Starters

Roster

Head Coach: Steve Kerr

Injuries/Roster Notes

GO DUBS!

Another very solid night for me, Loading up on the mavs was key once we got that news on luka. I do wish i waited for the magic news and im kicking myself for not doing it because i usually always play for late news like that. Hope you all had a great night tonight <3

If discord is something you are interested in, Will have a link below where i have in-depth content going over each slate, player pools for cash and gpps, cores and much more.

Edit: PP vid -

Edit: nemb and bruce out. wings still just darts for me. tj is solid value now

Edit: gonna have some value with embiid most likely out

Edit: love oubre, love maxey, really like morris, like pat bev, like batum, house/springer playable

Since 1985 there’ve been 7 NBA teams based in California and Texas. The last time the Western Conference Finals didn’t have a Californian or Texan team in it was when Seattle beat Utah in 1996. Let’s go deeper. During this run these 7 teams combined for 16 of 27 championships. In the same time frame, the rest of the conference has only made it to the NBA Finals 5 times (1997, 1998, 2012, 2021, 2023) and the Nuggets last year were the first of these teams to win a championship since the introduction of the 3 pointer. In fact since 1997, there’ve been 7 WCFs where both teams were from CA or TX. Why does this matter? It’s just odd, and I thought it’d be worth pointing out.

I'm not much of a basketball fan but I feel like it's definitely possible if they keep up their current pace

He doesn't start but he stands out as someone with potential once he gets run. Great size and skill.Once Ballo leaves I see Krivas will start and blossom. I see him taking a leap. How NBA ready he is I don't know.

He is an NBA All-star. He is the Magic's MVP. He is clutch AF! That win was FIRE!

Today ESPN still chose to show a game with to sub-.500 teams (Mem vs. LAL) instead of making a change and telecasting LAC vs. NO. Two teams with over .500 records and both on a 4-game winning streak with good enough start power (Harden, Kawhi, PG, Zion, Russ).

Another interesting point is that when expanded to 7 games (since Christmas Day); Hartenstein is the only player in top 10 of both Blocks and Steals.

The traditional statistics are finally starting to agree with the advanced statistics. He really is living up to his nickname: Hartenstein's monster

Sources:

If the Pistons winning percentage were to hold for the entire season, their final record would be projected at 7-75.

Dejounte, Bogdanovic, Capelle, Hunter all available.

As a GM who has both Okongwu and Jalen Johnson on his team, I'm very excited about this news. Okongwu's break out year that we've been waiting for two years could finally come. I think we can expect Duren-like performance from Okongwu if he starts and gets 30 minutes.

Since returned from injury, Jalen Johnson averages 18 points 10 rebounds with 1.2 steal, 1.2 threes in 32/mpg.

I think something like 20 points 10 rebounds 2.5 stl/blk with decent percentages totally possible if these players get traded.

There is still a month left until the trade deadline and of course nothing is certain, but the Hawks are currently behind the Bulls in 11th place, and it doesn't look like much will happen. It makes much more sense to go for a rebuild.

What do you guys think?