Blitz

This might be two weeks too old, but go back in the first episode of season 5.B and look closely at the jacket Walt is wearing when he breaks into his house. There are a couple of scenes that show it in it's entirety. Keep watching for about 8 minutes until Hank gets back to his house after crashing into the yard. Take a peek at his jacket, there is a scene picturing him behind the kitchen bar which also shows the jacket entirely. They look pretty darn similar, and considering the jacket looks a tad large and tattered on Walt, it leads me to believe that they are the same. Does this mean Walt kills Hank? That Walt is near Hank when someone else kills Hank? Or maybe they are different jackets and I'm combing these scenes too much? Anyways, just food for thought.

Mavericks have also signed DeJuan Blair. I like the pickup. He'll fit better than Brand did because he is much more of a pick and roll than a pick and pop guy. I actually don't mind this Mavericks team. it is substantially better than last years' squad. Let Carlisle do his work with the guys and I could see us winning a playoff series.

Mavericks signed Samuel Dalembert. Automatically the second best center to play next to Dirk in his career.

Bynum signed with the Cavaliers. Heard the Mavericks will next pursue get turned down by Samuel Dalembert.

EDIT: Just saw Marc Stein say that neither Dallas nor Atlanta ever formally offered Bynum a contract. Guess he didn't impress anyone.

Devin Harris returns to the Mavs. 3 yrs/$9M

I don't really ''get'' why Cuban has gone for Devin Harris.

With José Calderón pegged as the starting PG, and with Larkin probably becoming 2nd to learn from Calderon I don't see where Harris would fit in.

He doesn't score as much as he did 6 years ago and he doesn't get as much assists as he did back then.

Granted, if there is one team that can revive a career it's with the Mavs, but you would think Cuban would rather throw those 3M a year towards a new center instead. Or at least try to get a swingman to cover VC and Shawn...

I've heard he'll see most of his playing time at SG. I don't know if he or Carter will start, but either way, he's a quality depth guy for both the SG and PG positions. He can't be much worse than Collison was last year.

As for the Bynum talk, I think the team that ends up giving him the most guaranteed money will get him. I've heard the Mavs could offer him a pretty lucrative deal, but completely protected with some injury clauses. I've heard Cleveland is willing to give alot of guaranteed money for a one year contract, like the Mavs offered Tyson Chandler before he left.

Devin Harris returns to the Mavs. 3 yrs/$9M

Would Josh Smith fit as a three? I haven't really seen him play much, but his size and willingness to shoot seems like it could be a fit at the three. That would be a massive rotation with Drummond-Monroe-Smith.

EDIT: Nevermind, you answered it as I was posting.

Chicago definitely needs the offensive help, even with Rose coming back. Hinrich would make a good backup to both Rose and Ellis, though. If they could manage to keep him, and let Nate walk, I'd do that. Marcus Teague showed he isn't ready to handle the offense while Rose is resting, which he should do alot of early in the season.

Calderon is a way better fit than Jennings would have been here. If we could get Asik, I'd like that move as well. We just don't have anything worth giving Houston, unless they make it a salary dump. Asik-Dirk-Marion-Carter-Calderon with Wright, Brand, Crowder, Larkin, Morrow and Beaubois is definitely good enough to make the playoffs. That squad could probably climb as high as 5, maybe even 4. Definitely not a title contender, though.

My reaction to some tweets indicating the Mavericks might go after Andrew Bynum with a four year contract:

For $12M? Smells like a power move to get Howard next.

Jefferson and Biedrins to Utah. No idea what they're thinking. GSW still has Bogut ($13M) and either Barnes or Thompson ($2-3M each) they can move to LA in a sign and trade.

Dwight Howard-David Lee-Andre Iguodala-Harrison Barnes or Klay Thompson-Steph Curry. That's a pretty wicked starting five. Bench will predicate how good the team will be, but if Jarrett Jack comes back along with Brandon Rush, and Draymon Green that's not a bad eight man rotation along with whoever else they get on minimum contracts.

I feel like between Dexter and Walter White, I want Walter White to get caught, or die, and kind of redeem his character in a way. Dexter, on the other hand, should just end completely dark by killing Deb or something.

New season starts in a week and a half. Anyone have thoughts/predictions? I'm not nearly as excited for this as I am for Breaking Bad Season 5b or Homeland Season 3, but I'll watch to finish it off.

Nothing really prompted it, I'm just a huge fan and can't wait for Django Unchained to release, not to mention The Great Gatsby. If you're avoiding Leo movies, you're missing out! Since I never really gave my favorite film, I'll choose Catch Me If You Can, but like someone else said his performance in The Aviator is probably his best to date.

I've purposely left a few off, and probably should have left a few more off. I'm looking at you Body of Lies and The Beach.

Might be a working theory, but Quinn did get shot, IIRC.

The offsetting penalties got changed because it was bullshit to call intentional grounding when the intended receiver is being held.

That hit wasn't clean, I was in the stadium and you could hear the helmets smack together. If it was so clean why were both players knocked out briefly?

None of those pass interference penalties were shaky, most of them were blatant. The first one on Ogletree happened right in front of me, he was essentially tackles before the ball was even thrown. There's a reason Joe Haden didn't get any called on him, because he actualy knows how to cover cleanly.

Cowboys being allowed as much time as they want? They got called for delay of game after the clocks went down!

I'm a Cowboys fan, but Joe Haden didn't get any penalties called on him cause he was sitting on the bench in warm ups. .

Get caught cheating. Make $8M.

Makes sense.

Reyes will get hurt and Johnson's nagging injuries will flare up. They'll both fit right in with Toronto's team identity.

Does anyone else feel this show is getting a little too predictable at times?

That first scene is so much more powerful after reading The Rise of the Governor. Not sure how much the comics cover, but dang.

HOW BOUT DEM COWBOYS???

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I didn't think this Mavericks team would 4-1 without Dirk and Marion. Scrappy bunch.

I'm pretty sure it does, but I am not 100% sure.

And I can totally believe that the military gets overwhelmed by the slow kind of zombies. Mass confusion/riots from the civilians, improperly done security checks (so the infected gets by, then comes from behind)...plus, it'd be pretty head to get a headshot every time when there are about 100+ walkers coming down on you.

Not to mention the knowledge of needing a headshot to kill a zombie wouldn't come until after the initial wave.

That isn't the topic at hand. The topic at hand is the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney. My preference would be for Star Wars to remain dead. But my preference would be for them to Pixar Star Wars rather than do a brooding update. Star Wars was made for a tween audience. Nolan is too dark, Whedon is acceptable but does leave his fingerprints all over anything he writes and Abrams AFAIK doesn't write anyway just produces/directs.

I don't really care who directs something, it's the same as saying 'OMG we could have Andrew Garfield as older Luke yay!' If it's going to happen I would much rather discuss who could write the script. Out of your three Whedon is the only possible option. Nolan is too adult/mopey unless we are suddenly rebooting for a different demographic to the originals (which I personally think would be a dick move).

I'm not a huge fan of the Nolan Batmans, but I don't think having him at the helm would be a bad move. The prequels are very kids oriented. The original three are more adult than those. Making the last three a darker tale seems to complete that trend if they go that way. I'm not saying they will do it or they should do it, but I do think it would fit thematically.

It would also fit because the original fans of Star Wars are no longer tweens. If you wanted to appeal to the Star Wars audience (I would say this most drastically hits the current age market of 25-40 year olds) the films need to be fit to do so.