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The Midpoint

The Bet was born in the summer of 2019, in the wake of the NBA's most ballyhooed free agency. Drafters sifted through the debris of that free agency, delicately weighing each team's talent level along with their longterm prospects. Savvy drafters considered contracts, chemistry and culture. Burning questions percolated the first two rounds of the draft: Had the LA Clippers really become the league's model franchise? Would the Process finally come to completion? Could James Harden and Russell Westbrook coexist? Would Kevin Durant return to full strength from a torn Achilles? How about Klay Thompson, coming off an ACL? Would Giannis choose to live his life in the Upper Midwest, or view the region merely as a frigid formative sojourn like this blog's author?  Two and a half years later, most of these questions have been answered. Some of those answers have been damning. Others have been inspiring. But like any good suspense, The Bet asks more questions than it answers. How
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Year Two

Five years is a long time. In the hyper-speed, attention-deficit 2020s, it's an eternity . Each NBA team will play four hundred or more games over the course of The Bet. Dynasties will rise and fall. Contenders will emerge and recede. Superstars will retire. Unknown teenagers will replace them. ACLs will rupture. Banners will hang. These facts are the broad strokes of the five-year canvas. It's the details that will clarify the picture. The slow reveal of these details should mount suspense as The Bet progresses. The twists and turns should lead to a satisfying climax. But one manager is threatening to snuff out the drama before the story reaches its halfway point. Like a breakaway bicyclist hunting a stage win, he's sprinted beyond reach of the trailing peloton. If the gap grows too large, the chasers will lose hope before the Bet culminates. Here's where the competitors stand early in Year Two:   6. Team Zaxel: Rockets, Pelicans,  Raptors, Pistons, Knicks   Is it a b

The Draft & Initial Analysis

There is nothing like the slow, tortuous sweat of a five-year bet. For all combatants, it begins with the optimism of personal conviction. It progresses into adversities and boons, some unforeseen by the selector, some unexpected by most and many that were predictable to none. Two years in, some bettors will have seen their prospects diminished, through misfortune or mounting evidence their selections were not as astute as they once believed. By the final year of the bet, attrition will reduce the contenders to half or fewer, facilitating an exhilarating climax for a chosen few and a morose gaze to the next bet for the rest. You'll all look back on this summer as the trailhead for your ascent to glory or descent into humiliation. The Draft 1. Sigal - 76ers The Philadelphia 76ers just got selected first of all NBA teams to win the most games over the next five years. I say this not to highlight this pick as outlandish, but to note the proof that The Process is complete. Th