wm72

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Capitalism! Free market!

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We should try that in America one day instead of the crony corporatism we have.

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Has Virginia not made money in taxes from Amazon?

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I only know what I've read and that is Amazon's promise was around 25k jobs paying over $150k and they've only made it to 7k now and have been cutting jobs instead of adding recently.

I'm sure there are other advantages in Amazon attracting other tech businesses to Arlington but it hasn't really been the economic "home run" promised. Very mixed reviews.

Also, different areas need different things. As someone who lives in Brooklyn and has a business somewhat near what would have been the Amazon corridor, I'm not sure an Amazon tech corridor would have addressed the main problems in any way.

In this Queens/Brooklyn border area, there's already head turning development and growth.

the main issue for most who live and have businesses there is Private Equity gobbling up all the retail space (and much residential) and claiming a "market value" for retail space that far exceeds what any real displaced business could/would pay to cook their books.

The area already has an rapidly exploding population of young professionals making good money and rent prices skyrocketing.

I'm no financial wizard but "growth" can often mean big profits for far flung investors without a direct benefit to the area that's growing. Strip mining.

A tech corridor in what's already one of the most competitive, fastest growing real estate markets in America didn't necessarily mean solving what the actual issues here are.

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My point was that AOC didnt want to give tax breaks to Amazon. They then chose to move their HQ to another state and now NY will miss out on any taxes from Amazon.

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I know. I was saying there's currently complaints across the aisle in Virginia that the sweetheart deal they gave Amazon has been a net negative so far so it seems like AOC (among a lot of others) may have been right to not kowtow to them.

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Remember when AOC didnt want Amazon move to NY state because she wanted to repurpose the roughly $3 billion in state and city tax incentives the state was offering?

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Just read an article about the Amazon Headquarters that went to Virginia instead and so far failing to come anywhere close to meeting proposed/promised jobs to the area.

Amazon and a Mercedes factory are two very different examples.

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I like coach May. Seems like a decent guy, and he found success within the existing system and by playing by its rules. I gotta give him credit.

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The problem isn't the teams taking best advantage, it's obviously the rules.

Every other pro sport constantly employs rules to prevent complete roster musical chairs through collective bargaining. They do so because they learned that it both diminishes fan interest and that someone will always blow up the market in any given year to create an unsustainable financial model.

If college football and basketball don't find a way to do that things will continually escalate.

I can easily imagine the next trend being agents putting groups of 3 or 4 top players together and shopping them to the billionaire that wants to pay the highest for an almost guaranteed Final Four.

Mine was $5.42 for mid grade in Brooklyn this morning. I don't drive a lot though so it doesn't make much difference to me.

My brother has a small trucking business in Alabama. That's where the gas prices really mean hundreds of dollars a week difference.

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So you’re not a believer?

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Many people who profess to believe every religion are actually better described as agnostic.

It's why they can ignore all the directives of their various religions they find inconvenient.

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agree with a few of the above posters. I feel like this offense has hit it's ceiling without a legit BIG MAN. Hell, even as much as Sherrell has improved this year he spends as much time at the top of the key as he does inside.

It's like we play with 4 guards and one center. I don't GAF if a real power forward or legit center can hit a 3. This team needs a Charles Oakley type of inside man that will rebound like a mad man and maul your arse if you come inside HIS paint.

I'm not downing Oats and this team probably over achieved, especially given that we lost 17 ppg when we needed it most. I hope Nate retires here because when 3s are falling and the boys are defending we can beat anybody.

However, when they are not we can lose to anybody because the current structure doesn't give you a backup plan.

Be interesting to see what the roster looks like next year because half of the roster isn't legit SEC caliber players and we all know that.

Roll Tide. It was a damn good year considering what Nate had to work with.

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You actually are downing Oats in the sense that Sherrell at the arc for picks, rim runs and no big man camped out in the lane is the crux of his entire offensive philosophy.

When Oats talks about getting bigger, he means Noah Clowney or Grant Nelson types at the 4 (big guy that plays on the perimeter but can rebound on both ends and guard big men). He means another option at center like Bediako/Cliff (who will still stay around the arc for screens and rim runs on offense) and options at the 3 like Brandon Miller or Amari Allen that have enough size when we face teams like Duke and Michigan whose playmakers are 6'7")....

What's not going to happen unless we swap head coaches with Tennessee are bigs posting up and clogging the lane.

It's still going to be "like we play 4 guards" just that a couple of the "guards" will be taller and more physical.

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From everything I've seen, 15m is the minimum for a top 10 team next year. frick a new contract for Nate, I'm sure he'd rather have more Nil.

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I'm sure that's the case with Oats rather having more NIL than a raise given a choice between the two.

I'm not sure how accurate any NIL info really is but it is clear that a team like Michigan this year spends considerably more.

To get a player like Yax (#1 rated transfer everyone wants) doesn't just mean paying Yax that money but means you have to bump up your returning star players more than otherwise.

If we had signed Yax, no any way not to have Philon on a similar deal --as a NBA lottery prospect that's already proven what he can do at the highest level.

Then you have returning starters that you need to bump up some too or they have same attitude we have towards our cell phone companies when they offer new customers 1/3 the price we're paying.

I wouldn't exactly call it "bargain hunting" but it does seem that our NIL budget may prohibit blowing up the team "wage structure" for one of the 10 or so top ranked transfers.

On the bright side, the system Oats has in place is getting many players to choose Bama over teams likely offering more and we're consistently better than almost anyone paying in our range.


Sorry for the long post but I'll add that last night Michigan really committed to defending and frustrated us in the second half last night, they're one of the 2 best teams in country but we were still just hitting 3 more open shots from it being dead even going into the last 2 minutes.

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Michigan trying to play Bama’s game instead of playing bully ball. I hope it continues.

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Yeah, they wanna play showtime with Alabama and thats not where they have the advantage.

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Why Kansas? That’s probably the toughest blue blood basketball job out there. Midwestern school in the middle of nowhere, sparsely populated state with no local recruiting base although they recruit nationally, in a tough league…I may be wrong, but it just feels like Kansas basketball is one bad hire away from following Nebraska football down the road to has-been status.

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People are saying Kansas is the bigger threat mainly because they're more likely to focus on Oats as a main target.

I personally wouldn't want to live in Kansas but Lawrence is a pretty decent college town. Many people wouldn't necessarily wanna live in Tuscaloosa either.

I have no idea if Oats is really drawn to blue blood programs but local recruiting base doesn't really matter for basketball the way it does for football.

Kansas is certainly a basketball first blue blood with tons of support. They're only a bad hire away from being like North Carolina now and needing to fire that guy and hire someone else more than subject to falling off the map.