THE NERD REPORT
Nerds around town: Comicpalooza week, Disney news and the floods are back
May 8, 2019, 6:47 am
THE NERD REPORT
Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio, Sports and Wrestling. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio show at www.nerdthugradio.com!
Hey Nerds!
Hump Day! That's right, bust out the booty pics, the bad jokes about camels and embrace the week, cause it's halfway over. Wednesday!!
Cancer sucks, we all know that. We all know someone dealing with and fighting against cancer and we all know the toll it can take on them and the effect it can have on their life both physically and financially. Cancer is a hard and expensive disease to fight and because of that Crits for Cancer is uniting nerds to help fight it. Let's all take a second, click here and let's work together to fight cancer. Some proceeds from that shirt go directly to Crits to help them in their battle against the big C. #NerdsUnite
If you aren't going to Comicpalooza you are missing so many awesome and amazing things, including the college eSports championships. They will be having the championships at Comicpalooza this year for Overwatch, Hearthstone, Starcraft 2 and Street Fighter V, so get excited. Also they'll be having tournaments going on for people to compete in so that's nice, I'm registered in an NBA 2k tournament on Friday and my little brother is booked in a Super Smash Bros tournament as well, I'm going for the fun and the chip, you know what I'm saying? Seriously, how could someone not be super excited about Comicpalooza? Come get your nerd on with everyone else in Houston this weekend!!
Big news coming out of yesterday's Disney Movie Studio plans. They announced their plans with the last bit of Fox movies and then moved over to new business so to speak, New Mutants has pushed back again to early 2020 now, this poor movie has all kinds of people in it including Arya Stark herself as Wolfsbane and yet… no one will see this movie for a long time. Also Disney canceled the long planned but never really happening Gambit movie with Channing Tatum attached, basically he wanted to do what Ryan Reynolds did with Deadpool for Gambit, except no one else wanted that. They also made some HUGE announcements, including 8 new Marvel Film Dates and 5 new Star Wars dates and they pushed Avatar back a year. Disney is in the business now.
If you're a CW Arrowverse nerd you already know that they have announced that this will be the final season of Arrow. With Legends of Tomorrow always seeming to be on the edge of being cancelled or picked up, this at first seemed like a bad omen for those fans because maybe it meant that these shows had run their course on CW and perhaps as an independent universe away from the DC Streaming service. But now with the announcement of a Batwoman season staring Ruby Rose, the fans can relax. It's looking like next year the line up will be Black Lightning, Supergirl, Flash, Batwoman and Legends of Tomorrow, that's pretty exciting. While I'm not a huge fan of the shows overall, I don't like the tone and the 90210 feel of the various shows, I totally dig that this whole cohesive universe exists and these characters interact and crossover and have a great cohesive world to play in. That's a very cool part of it because it's the thing that made comics cool way back in the day and I'm glad to see comic book shows embrace it as well.
On a personal note, yesterday during those ridiculous rains, my entire street flooded in less than two hours of rain fall in the middle of the day, and my car had water seep in. This is such a pain in the ass, seriously, now I am going through the process of drying everything out and dealing with that, it's not fun. Plus I feel like you never get it all the way clean again, I dunno, it's just one of those annoying things where you have no one to blame and there isn't anything to do but go out there and just get it taken care of. I think I like it more when there's someone to yell at.
I'm going to jump out and wish you guys a great Wednesday and remind everyone to be kind to each other and try a little harder to have a great day! I'm coming back Thursday and we'll be bringing more good times your way. Feel free to check out my digital short story The Wilson House or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help fight cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio or support our Patreon Page. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.
While the rolling Astros have a week of possible World Series preview matchups against the Phillies and Cubs, it’s the Rockets who made the biggest local sports headline with their acquisition of Kevin Durant. What a move! Of course there is risk involved in trading for a guy soon to turn 37 years old and who carries an injury history, but balancing risk vs. reward is a part of the game. This is a fabulous move for the Rockets. It’s understood that there are dissenters to this view. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, including people with the wrong opinion! Let’s dig in.
The Rockets had a wonderful season in winning 52 games before their disappointing first-round playoff loss to the Warriors, but like everyone else in the Western Conference, they were nowhere close to Oklahoma City’s caliber. While they finished second in the West, the Rockets only finished four games ahead of the play-in. That letting the stew simmer with further growth among their young players would yield true championship contention was no given for 2025-26 or beyond.
Kevin Durant is one of the 10 greatest offensive players the NBA has ever seen. Among his current contemporaries only Stephen Curry and Nikola Jokic make that list. For instance, Durant offensively has clearly been better than the late and legendary Kobe Bryant. To view it from a Houston perspective, Durant has been an indisputably greater offensive force than the amazing Hakeem Olajuwon. But this is not a nostalgia trip in which the Rockets are trading for a guy based on what he used to be. While Durant could hit the wall at any point, living in fear that it’s about to happen is no way to live because KD, approaching his 18th NBA season, is still an elite offensive player.
As to the durability concern, Durant played more games (62) this past season than did Fred VanVleet, Jabari Smith, and Tari Eason. The season before he played more games (75) than did VanVleet, Dillon Brooks, and Alperen Sengun. In each of the last two seasons Durant averaged more minutes per game (36.9) than any Rocket. That was stupid and/or desperate of the Suns, the Rockets will be smarter. Not that the workload eroded Durant’s production or efficiency. Over the two seasons he averaged almost 27 points per game while shooting 52 percent from the floor, 42 percent from behind the three-point line, and 85 percent from the free throw line. Awesomeness. The Rockets made the leap to being a very good team despite a frankly crummy half-court offense. The Rockets ranked 21st among the 30 NBA teams in three-point percentage, and dead last in free throw percentage. Amen Thompson has an array of skills and looks poised to be a unique star. Alas, Thompson has no credible jump shot. VanVleet is not a creator, Smith has limited handle. Adding Durant directly addresses the Rockets’ most glaring weakness.
The price the Rockets paid was in the big picture, minimal, unless you think Jalen Green is going to become a bonafide star. Green is still just 23 years old and spectacular athletically, but nothing he has done over four pro seasons suggests he’s on the cusp of greatness. In no season has Green even shot the league average from the floor or from three. His defense has never been as good as it should be given his athleticism. Compared to some other two-guards who made the NBA move one year removed from high school, four seasons into his career Green is waaaaaay behind where Shae Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards, and Devin Booker were four seasons in, and now well behind his draft classmate Cade Cunningham. Dillon Brooks was a solid pro in two seasons here and shot a career-best from three in 2024-2025, but he’s being replaced by Kevin Durant! In terms of the draft pick capital sent to Phoenix, five second round picks are essentially meaningless. The Rockets have multiple extra first round picks in the coming years. As for the sole first-rounder dealt away, whichever player the Rockets would have taken 10th Wednesday night would have been rather unlikely to crack the playing rotation.
VanVleet signs extension
Re-signing Fred VanVleet to a two-year, 50 million dollar guarantee is sensible. In a vacuum, VanVleet was substantially overpaid at the over 40 mil he made per season the last two. He’s a middle-of-the-pack starting point guard. But his professionalism and headiness brought major value to the Rockets’ kiddie corps while their payroll was otherwise very low. Ideally, Reed Sheppard makes a leap to look like an NBA lead guard in his second season, after a pretty much zippo of a rookie campaign. Sheppard is supposed to be a lights-out shooter. For the Rockets to max out, they need two sharpshooters on the court to balance Thompson’s presence.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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