Get help to make life better
Life Scholar • World Philosopher
Art Curator • Tech Strategist
Human Being • Sport Analyst
Here are my predictions for the 2025-2026 NBA standings, ranked by western and eastern conferences. I think the western conference in particular may be as hard to predict as ever this year.
Western Conference
- 1 - Oklahoma City Thunder
- 2 - Denver Nuggets
- 3 - Los Angeles Clippers
- 4 - Memphis Grizzlies
- 5 - Dallas Mavericks
- 6 - Minnesota Timberwolves
- ----
- 7 - Houston Rockets
- 8 - Phoenix Suns
- 9 - San Antonio Spurs
- 10 - Golden State Warriors
- ----
- 11 - New Orleans Pelicans
- 12 - Los Angeles Lakers
- 13 - Sacramento Kings
- 14 - Portland Trail Blazers
- 15 - Utah Jazz
Eastern Conference
- 1 - Cleveland Cavaliers
- 2 - New York Knicks
- 3 - Milwaukee Bucks
- 4 - Toronto Raptors
- 5 - Philadelphia 76ers
- 6 - Boston Celtics
- ----
- 7 - Indiana Pacers
- 8 - Miami Heat
- 9 - Orlando Magic
- 10 - Charlotte Hornets
- ----
- 11 - Atlanta Hawks
- 12 - Detroit Pistons
- 13 - Chicago Bulls
- 14 - Washington Wizards
- 15 - Brooklyn Nets
- Barrett - Bench - 30 MPG 2025 vs 32 MPG 2024
- Gradey - Start - 24 MPG 2025 vs 30 MPG 2024
- Barrett scores as 6th man, Gradey shoots
- Barrett in for Gradey, SF when Ingram out
- Agbaji/Murray/Walter can start some too
- Walter bench PG when Barrett bench
Raptors Lineup And Depth Chart 2025
I appreciate the gusto if this is purely experimental, but I think the design, function, and placement of this separate bottom toolbar in the Music app may be the single worst UI change in macOS 26.
Suggested Changes
- Move and merge the full toolbar back to the top
- Stay in same place when queue or lyrics selected
- Make volume popup from toolbar and have mute
- Collapse volume popup when clicked second time
- Don't blur song title and info when mouse over
- Move star icon to the toolbar and always show
- Make all icons including playback the same size
- Move shuffle to right of playback, left of repeat
I still dislike transparent elements, color changing elements, floating elements, and moving elements in UIs. Imagine if light switch on wall was see-through so hard to see, changed colors so hard to recognize, was covering part of TV, and was in a different spot all the time.
Because of the importance of shooting in NBA today, I see a potential alternative vision to success for Raptors in the short-term, with Ingram All-Star at 26 PPG, Quickley All-Star at 23 PPG, Dick at 16 PPG, Barnes All-Defense at 16 PPG and 9+ APG, passing to great shooters.
Steve Ballmer focusing on the company he invested in and Kawhi received money from being fraudulent seems like a big misstep. When a billionaire invests big money in a company I'm not thinking "poor guy was scammed", I'm thinking he was part of fraud and so it appears much worse.
Here are my contrarian Top Raptors lists. I put more emphasis on a player's full career and statistics, their likely contribution to winning if they had been on a good team, but still partly considering winning and having an impact while with Toronto.
Ranking The 10 Best Raptors Of All Time - YouTube
- Ulrich Chomche
- Gradey Dick
- Ja'Kobe Walter
- Collin Murray
- Alijah Martin
- Jamison Battle
- Jamal Shead
- Jonathan Mogbo
Notes
- I like great 3PT/FT shooters
- Defense great IF can shoot
- Think Chomche will shoot
NBA Scouts Rank The Raptors Prospects - Raptors Republic
When people say things like "This NBA team could finish 7th but not 5th", it doesn't make sense to me logically. In 24-25 West 3-8 was 2 games apart, in 23-24 East 2-8 was 4 games apart, in 22-23 West 4-10 was 3 games apart, in 21-22 East 6-10 was 3 games apart, etc.
I wonder if the rumor about a MacBook with a new 12.9" screen size might actually be a new M-Series or M5 MacBook Air size and design, with the rumored budget A-Series MacBook being a separate device coming another time in either the current 13.6" design or former 13.3" design.
Budget A-Series MacBook Design
J-Dogs - Jamal (Jam), Ja'Kobe (Ja), Jamison (Jame), Jonathan (Jon), and Jul'Rich (Jul) are all dogs on the court who play defense, work hard, have fun, play together, and put up a fight no matter who they face.
Catching Up With The Raptors Sophomores - YouTube
Here's the lineup and depth chart that I think the Raptors should go with for the start of the 2025-26 season, given the current roster.
Lineup
- PG - Quickley - Walter - Shead
- SG - Dick - Agbaji - Battle - Temple
- SF - Ingram - Barrett - Roddy/Lawson
- PF - Barnes - Murray - Mogbo
- C - Poeltl - Chomche - Mamukelashvili
- 2W - Chomche, Martin, Hepburn
Notes
- Dick in starting lineup for catch-and-shoot 3PTs
- Barrett on the bench for ball handling and scoring
- Walter on the bench for more shooting over Shead
- Chomche on the bench for defense and development
- Barnes plays some small ball 5 for shooting, often to finish
- Murray/Barnes do ball handling for bench that guards lack
New Crew Value - 2025 Rebuild vs. 2013 Rebuild
- PG - Quickley 26 > Lowry 27 / Walter 20 > Vazquez 28
- SG - Dick 21 > Ross 22 / Agbaji 25 > Salmons 34
- SF - Ingram 27 = DeRozan 24 / Barrett 25 >> Patterson 24
- PF - Barnes 24 >> Johnson 26 / Murray 20 >> Hansbrough 28
- C - Poeltl 29 < Valanciunas 21 / Chomche 19 >> Hayes 30
- Much more youth and potential to grow better into future
- Top young draft picks already in place over decent veterans
- Team is young so will need/play veterans more if playoffs
I think it's best to name products using the actual release date in which a product is released, so with Apple's upcoming operating systems I would name them using the current year, such as iOS 25 instead of iOS 26 if it's released in 2025.
I wonder if it might be better if we encouraged women and eventually made it a common practice for women to keep their last name when married and throughout their whole life, and also possibly have girls take the last name of the woman and boys take the last name of the man.
What
- Women simply keep their last name if they get married, and all life
- Men also still keep their last name if they get married, and all life
- Girls take the last name of the woman or one chosen parent?
- Boys take the last name of the man or the other chosen parent?
Why
- Women wouldn't need to feel they are changing their identity
- Women would have a consistent name and identity throughout life
- Women could also potentially carry on their name with girl children
- Men who do not want children may be less pressured to do so
- No more extra work, paperwork, or changes to have to deal with
- No long hyphenated names that we would have to deal with
July 29, 2025
I would guess that the most likely scenario is the M-Series MacBook gets a redesign first, possibly as a 12.X" device with M5, and then the budget A-Series MacBook gets the "old" 13.6" design. Second most likely is just a budget 13.3", but that design is quite old and colorless.
- M5 will be built on 2nm GAAFET
- M5 uses hybrid bonding chiplets so CPU is 2nm
- M5 MacBooks come out in late 2025
- M5 MacBook Air is Mini-LED, maybe new size/design
- iMac and Mac Mini skip M5, wait for M6?
- Next iPad Pro uses 2nm A-Series Pro?
Here are the potential draft picks and players that I like for the 2025 NBA draft.
May 15, 2025 - Version 1.0
Primary - Great, draft for my team
- 1st - Flagg, Bailey, Bryant, Wolf, Fleming
- 2nd - Coward, Shulga, S. James
Secondary - Great, draft for some team
- 1st - Jakucionis, Essengue, Gonzalez, Clifford
- 2nd - Markovic, Lanier, Yang
June 19, 2025 - Version 2.0
Primary - Great, draft for my team
- 1st - Flagg, Bryant, Coward, Fleming, Wolf
- 2nd - Shulga, S. James, Tonje
Secondary - Great, draft for some team
- 1st - Bailey, Jakucionis, Gonzalez, Essengue, Clifford
- 2nd - Lanier, Markovic, Yang
Here's one potential trade and draft idea for the Raptors this offseason, which might be one way to help accomplish a possible big picture overall strategy and lineup configuration that is also suggested and outlined.
May 22, 2025 - Original
Rockets
- Poeltl
- Agbaji
- Shead
- Mogbo
Raptors
- 10th Pick - 2025
- J. Smith
- Sheppard
- 2nd Round - 2026 & 2027
Raptors Draft
- 9th - Bryant or Coward
- 10th - Wolf or Fleming
- 39th - Shulga or S. James, Tonje or Lanier
Raptors Free Agent
- Horford (3PT + FT + Experience)
- Lopez (3PT + FT + Experience)
- T. Bryant (3PT + FT + Young)
- Looney for now (Rebounding + Pass + Exp)
- Capela for now (Rebounding + Screen + Exp)
- Drummond for now (Rebounding + Size + Exp)
Rockets Lineup
- VanVleet - Shead - Holiday
- Green - Agbaji - Free Agent
- Brooks - Thompson - Whitmore
- Sengun - Eason - Mogbo
- Poeltl - Adams - Free Agent
Raptors Lineup
- Quickley - Sheppard - Shulga
- Ingram - Dick - Walter
- Barnes - Bryant - Battle
- J. Smith - Barrett - Boucher
- Free Agent - Wolf - Chomche
Team Improvements
- Rockets get better older winning players, ball handling, passing, defense
- Rockets get a center who works well with VanVleet and UofH Shead
- Rockets can move Sengun to PF to focus on offense, maybe Green to 6th
- Raptors get better potential and young players to continue growing
- Raptors get shooting potential with Sheppard, Bryant, Wolf, Shulga
- Raptors can move Ingram, Dick, or Barrett to SG with Agbaji gone
Raptors Overall Strategy
- Get great or best 3PT and FT shooters that are not Barnes and Chomche
- Barrett plays more than Smith as 6th man bench scoring and handling
- Proper positions by having Barrett be only one playing out of position
- Better rebounding with players big and long at positions except Barrett
- Find best or great shooters at all positions who can defend, even center
- Play small if/when needed for best/all shooters, sacrificing size sometimes
Raptors Players Strategy
- Quickley, Ingram, Barnes, Barrett handle ball, pick and roll, spot up 3PT
- Smith, Dick, Bryant, Sheppard cut, move, and stretch for open 3PT shots
- Barnes, Wolf, Chomche also set screens, double passing to 3PT shooters
- Quickley, Sheppard, or very best 3PT shooters you want shooting the most
- Walter and Chomche promoted to bench in the future for better defense
- Shulga and Battle can be used when more shooting and offense wanted
June 19, 2025 - Updated
- I'm not certain I'd take Wolf, risk with lower defense and athleticism at C
- But, I think Wolf will be really good for someone and may be best at C not PF
- If Raptors did have 9th and 10th I might even take both Bryant and Coward
- I think trading for an additional first round pick makes sense, if not 10th pick
- Since neither player is a center, maybe Bryant/Coward and Fleming instead
- Or maybe Jabari Smith would play backup center for now, but not perfect
- Barrett could move into the starting lineup, but bench maybe too young
- Maluach and Essengue are intriguing, but my focus is also on great shooting
Raptors Path Forward 2024
Here is a partial wish list of features for a redesigned MacBook Air or Mini in late 2025 or later. While not currently rumored, I feel it might even make sense to redesign it before the MacBook Pro redesign for various reasons.
- Smaller - Redesign with smaller ~12.7" "mini" screen
- Matte - Nano-texture display upgrade option available
- Storage - 16 GB memory and 512 GB storage standard
- Wireless - Wi-fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 custom wireless chip
- Screen - New oxide TFT screen with 120Hz refresh rate
- Notchless - iPad style rounded bezel design without notch
- Touch - Touchscreen as all mobile devices should have
- Apps - Force all iPad/iOS apps to allow being installed
MacBook Air Smaller Sizes Guess
Admire living things like people, friends, animals, and nature, while simply making use of material things like stuff, things, tools, and technology.
