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Question for all the rookies: what players do you model your game after, and what players do you think you are similar to in terms of play styles on both ends? Dylan Harper: All the big guards that resemble the same size as me. I'd say Shai, Cade Cunningham, James Harden, Luka Dončić. We are all around the same height. Just how they control the game, the pace. How they can score and a little bit of everything. On advice I have for a lefty is to work on your right hand too, because a lot of teams are going to force you to go right, even though you're a lefty.
In the wake of a recent federal investigation into former Detroit Pistons guard Malik Beasley on allegations of gambling related to NBA games and prop bets, Silver said that legalized sports gambling was still preferable to the alternative. "If my choice were legalized sports betting vs. illegal sports betting, I still think a legalized structure is better," Silver said. "What we're seeing now in some of the investigations you're referencing is operational data, which causes in many cases, betting companies or independent agencies who are overseeing this betting activity to raise flags and say what's happening here? "I think the issue is if you didn't have that legalized structure, what would otherwise be going on that went undetected?"
Pablo Torre: One source I spoke to who was close to several of Malik Beasley's current and former NBA teammates immediately told me when I asked if he had heard anything about the gambling issues, quote, "He's a dumbass. I believe everything." End quote. So that's not enough. We had to keep digging.
And what I'm told is contrary to Shams Charania’s reporting, is that Terry Rozier has not been cleared of any wrongdoing, only that his name came up in the existing federal investigation. And this relates directly to why Moose is this character that we're focusing on, because Freemoose_NBA speaks to the federal investigation, which clearly is also still ongoing. Right. On that day, the same day that Terry Rosier News drops, this guy, Freemoose_NBA, tweeted something that was even more provocative because on that day, he posted, quote, "First was Jontay, then was Rosier, next you'll hear about capital M, four asterisks, capital B, and then six asterisks." The symmetry of the rule of three. Jontay, Rozier, M****** B*****. This guy, Freemoose_NBA, posted another tweet right after that one and said there's another current player who's going to have a report come out about them next. Won't say the name, but they play on the Pistons right now. This is the first documented mention by anyone anywhere that Malik Beasley was going to come up as part of this investigation.
At which point it became clear that Moose_NBA, Twitter's Malik Beasley Profit was more than just Facebook friends with alleged Jontay Porter co-conspirator Ammar Awawdeh. Moose was his relative, his cousin. This is where it takes us back now to the legal documents as we try to connect all the dots here. Right. So, generally observing the following in the Jontay Porter legal documents, quote, "A relative of the defendant, Ammar Awawdeh, whose identity is known to me, placed a $10,000 parlay bet through betting company one on the under for player 1's three-pointers, assists, and steals." It goes on to talk about how the relative won $85,000, netting a profit of $75,000. And so just saying that Ammar Awawdeh in terms of the information he was sharing, who he was bringing in to the thing he was already caught up in. We don't know which family member it is. They're anonymous according to federal prosecutors, but family is literally mentioned in the federal investigation a number of times.
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I had to follow up with Mustafa to make sure he had his story straight on this. So I asked him again. You did not get information on Malik Beasley from Ammar Awawdeh who was part of the Jontay Porter case? No. Like I said, I got it off of Reddit. Do you have that Reddit forum that you got it from that you could show me? I could probably find it. Yeah. Would you be fine with me searching it and then getting it to you on Twitter? Yeah. Yeah, that'd be great. All right, we'll do that one. Despite the evidence from his own posts and his own brags to having a connection to someone in this he claims zero knowledge and that he got it from he got it from Reddit. Yeah, he said he got it from Reddit. Uh, and it was public. And after I hung up with Mustafa Omar, who promised me to hit me back on Twitter and send that Reddit post that would clear him of all of this and just say, "Hey, they had it. It wasn't me." What happened next was I logged back into my Twitter account and I DM'd him back a reminder being like, "Hey, uh, yeah, if you can just grab that Reddit post and send it back to me." Bloop. I got an error message and that error message said message not sent. Sending direct message failed. I thought my internet was down or that he turned off his DMs, but nope. Nope, guys. He had shut down his account at 1237474849 lowercase a.
Olden Polynice: "It's a preseason game at Michigan State against the Pistons. I'm in Seattle. So, I just made a basket. As he takes the ball out of bounds he pops me. I was like, "Oh, what?" (…) As he hits me, I just walk up and ‘Pow!’ him with the shoulder, cracked him dead in the face. All you see is blood splatter everywhere. He goes down. My shoulder. I threw that. I didn't throw a punch. I threw the shoulder right at him. I just got close, ‘Pow!’ Cracked it. You could hear it and everything. Throw me out of the game. The league ended up rescinding the fine because the referee thought I threw a punch. They never saw a punch, so it looked accidental. He goes down, blood everywhere. I'm like, ‘Ha!’ The mask was because of me.
Coty M. Davis: “Every single one had some sort of crazy finish.” Duncan Robinson shares his thoughts on playing against the #Pistons during their resurgence last season.
Grant Hill feels the Pistons can take it even a step further entering next season now that the young core has some playoff experience. “J.B. Bickerstaff, the job that he did, Trajan Langdon the general manager, some of the free agents they brought in last summer and then the young players, Cade Cunningham establishing himself as an All Star," says Hill. "It's just a remarkable season. They took a big step last year. I think they have a chance to take another step."
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The Italian wing revealed in the interview that after he arrived in Detroit, he received an unexpected sign of respect from one of the best players in the league, Kevin Durant. "I was just got traded to the Pistons, and one of the first few games that I played with Detroit was against Phoenix, where Kevin Durant was playing at that time", Fontecchio explained. "During a break in the game, Durant came up to me and told me, "we tried everything we could to get you here, but we couldn't do it". It was a great show of respect from a champion of the game and it made me realize how much he thought of me".
Coty M. Davis: Trajan Langdon on the addition of Caris LeVert: "The special thing about Caris, you can plug and play him with just about everyone... I am confident that J.B. (Bickerstaff) is going to find a good role for him." #Pistons
Michael Scotto: The Detroit Pistons signed No. 37 pick Chaz Lanier to a four-year, $8.79 million deal, league sources told @hoopshype. The first two years are fully guaranteed ($3.52M total). There’s a third-year trigger date and fourth-year team option. He won the Jerry West Award at Tennessee. pic.x.com/01xZQspoDn
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