Connect with us

CULTURE

Lakeshow: 5 Things We’ve Seen from the Lakers This Season

Published

on

Lakeshow: 5 Things We've Seen from the Lakers This Season

Well, the lakeshow season has started and we’re starting to get a better idea of ​​where each team is. Admittedly, the Lakers have not gotten off to a champion-level start. However, before we hit the panic button on the entire season, there are lessons that we as the fans and they as a team can take from this first quarter of the season to improve. A championship is still very possible.

Defense Wins Championships

This is one area where the Lakers have actually excelled to begin the season. They are tied for fifth in the league for points allowed, at 90.6, and tied for first in the league for opponents’ field goal percentage at 41 percent. Mike Brown’s defensive emphasis has been paying dividends, and as long as that continues to be the focus, they will continue to be in competitive games.                                    

Kobe Still Has a Chip on His Shoulder

So, maybe the talk of Kobe retiring or at least losing several steps were a tad premature. Kobe has opened this season on a mission of retaliation against such claims.

Kobe currently leads the league in points per game, coming in at an even 30. He’s shooting 45 percent from the field, which is right on the level of Carmelo Anthony (40 percent), Derrick Rose (45 percent) and Russell Westbrook (45 percent). Kobe keeps himself very healthy and works hard to keep his body as young and fresh as possible. It shows on game day.

Maybe Bynum Can Stay Healthy…

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               I probably just jinxed him. Seriously, though, Andrew Bynum is easily one of the most “potential-filled” centers in the league and is also the one that no one wants to hear about great potential anymore. Fans simply want great from him. His injury-filled career has left all Lakers fans cringing any time he seems to land at all awkwardly coming down from a dunk or rebound.

Nevertheless, so far this season, Drew has been a nice healthy surprise. He has put up decent numbers, though still not enough to quell calls for Dwight Howard’s presence. Bynum needs to be more consistent with his play, especially focusing in on rebounding the ball and controlling the paint. With Pau Gasol still finding his way and  clearly not the player of years past, it’s time for Drew to step up and be a dominant center.

Andrew Goudelock Is a Baller

Maybe there is hope for life after Kobe. In the limited action the young player (affectionately dubbed “Little Mamba” by Bryant) has seen off the bench, he has impressed. In his last four games, he has been thrust into a greater role on the team due to injury, and he has not disappointed.

While averaging 20 minutes per game, he has put in 11.5 points per game on 50 percent shooting and a whopping 57 percent from downtown. He may be in line for even more minutes and a greater role in the offense if this keeps up. This kid has a bright future.

Kobe, You Can’t Do It All!

This is obviously still a work in progress. As he gets older, Kobe needs to continue to turn into a distributor. He continues to bark that he is primarily a scorer, but unless he can consistently drop 100 points per game, the whole team needs to be involved with the load. This is, of course, not all on him. His team needs to step up and prove they are worthy of touches.

But once again, Kobe is the MVP of the team, not just the leading scorer. If they can continue to jell on offense and pull together, don’t rule this team out.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CULTURE

  The Curse of Our Culture of Overpromising

Published

on

  The Curse of Our Culture of Overpromising

The root of many problems in our modern business world stem from the culture of overpromising. Here’s why.

We are going to change the world” is a slogan of many startups. Every product starts with an idea, and some ideas become so powerful that they conquer the minds of millions of people, including the most wealthy people in the world. Investors are willing to spend millions of dollars to be a part of something big. However, the most promising concepts often break into pieces when they reach the market, and even more, ideas forever stay on the paper or drawing desks.

Why does it happen? The root of this problem in our modern business culture — the culture of overpromising. This culture makes startup founders convey a sense of success way before they create the first prototype of their product. And this sense of future success is so powerful that it makes other people believe that it is true.

“Fake it till you make it”

A good story can convince investors to invest money in a promising new venture. The startup will use funds to grow, hire more people and increase its estimated value. Of course, the money will also be spent on research and development. But at this step , the startup is far from creating something tangible; it is still exploring the space. It uses techniques like fake doors and demo versions to measure the interest in the product. The problem with this approach: Those techniques can never be a replacement for a real product.

The longer a startup follows the “fake it till you make it” approach, the more expensive and dangerous its product development path becomes. We are all familiar with what happened with Theranos, a promising startup created by Elizabeth Holmes. But does her example stop entrepreneurs from pretending that they have innovative technology while they have only an idea? No.

I bet right now, we have dozens of well-funded startups like Theranos in Silicon Valley. Maybe not all of them are so hyped up and worked-on critical domains such as healthcare, but it is likely that the nice story that creates traction is their founders’ most valuable asset.

Good design helps to sell anything

Most startup founders understand the value of good design. Design is a powerful tool, and it allows product creators to convey positive emotions and feelings to users before they start using a product. We all love attractive things, and we even think that beautiful products work better.

Startup founders use design to create an illusion of finished products, and this illusion helps them sell their idea to an audience. The illusion can have nothing to support it. No functioning product. No real technology. It’s just a neat idea of ​​creating something big , but this idea is so compelling that it makes people believe that something truly magnificent is underneath it.

An idea is worth nothing, execution is what matters

Even the most creative idea is worth nothing unless it is well-executed. When it comes to the execution phase, you might easily find that your product or technology simply cannot be built. Maybe the technological base isn’t ready; maybe users aren’ t prepared to adopt the new product. That’s why not your idea, but your idea execution, is worth millions. Still, many founders pretend that they have something without having even the most basic product version validated with their target audience. Why does it happen ? Because there are still people that are willing to invest millions of dollars in something that might not ever be built.

Our society has adopted the “fake it until you make it” and “disregard the impossible” approaches. The idea that we all can build something that will change the world is a part of the modern American dream. And everyone, including the wealthiest people, shares this vision. Fear of missing out, not being a part of something big, not getting 10 times or 100 times return on their investment is what makes venture capitalists say “yes” to the craziest idea. That’s why there are still a lot of startups that have nothing more than just a nice story Yes. The post-pandemic world will likely change the way people create products. Economic recession will make investors count every penny, so having a nice vision and a lovely story won ‘t be enough to convince them to give you money. When the economy is shirking, people are less likely to trust words; they trust actions. Hype is no longer a driving force for investment.

The role of design will also change. The venture capitalist evaluation of a new product will be based not on how the product looks but on how it works. Having a working prototype and existing customer base will be on the top of the list during the investment discussion. Design due diligence will be carried out before the investment. So the role of functional design, a design focused on creating working products with good usability and clear business logic, will only get more significant.

Is the culture of overpromising a bad thing?

Yes and no. A culture of overpromising can be a good thing if done in moderation. Steve Jobs famously said, “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” But it’s important to understand that there are no shortcuts in the product design process. Every time you think that you have a groundbreaking idea that will change the world, you have to go through trials and errors to find that it’s true.

Related: The Dangers of Overpromising and Under-Delivering

Steve Jobs, who changed our world with the release of the iPhone, went through a long process of creating the first iPhone. And the design process started way before 2007 (the year the phone was released). The roots go back to the first Macintosh computer released in the ’80s, and the first concept of a portable device created by General Magic in the ’90s. That’s more than two decades of work for technology that eventually changed our world.

Dream big, and work hard to make it happen.

Entrepreneur Editors’ Picks

• This Founder Wanted to Infuse a Marshmallow With Chocolate, for a Better S’More. He Had No Idea How Hard That Would Be.

• Why Your Franchise Depends on Strong Unit Economics, and 5 Ways to Strengthen Them

• 3 Reasons Espresso Could Be Your Shortcut to Productivity (It Works for Elon Musk)

• Lessons I Learned After Everything Went Wrong in My Business

• How This First-Time Author Turned His Coaching Experience Into a No. 1 Bestseller for Kids

• The Future of Startups Lives Outside of Silicon Valley: Here’s Why

• The CEO of GoDaddy’s Secret to Creating a Culture of Experimentation

Continue Reading

CULTURE

Local woman gets donated space for her prom dresses

Published

on

Local woman gets donated space for her prom dresses

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WXOW) – In 2004, Judy Wolff began the Beautiful Butterfly Project Prom to help those who can’t afford a dress for that special dance.

“I started with one rack and then people started hearing that I was giving dresses to girls that needed them,” Wolff explained. “And then the people were seeing and hearing that I was taking donations and it just grew and grew and grew.”

And now, Judy’s inventory reaches almost three-thousand dresses and the donations don’t seem to be slowing down.

For Alethia Kenworthy, being able to find an affordable dress is something the whole community needs and having a resource like Judy’s collection is very fortunate to have.

“It’s amazing what her program does for so many kids in the area,” Alethia said. “I know she has people who come from Eau Claire also, who drive to come to see her and to help her and also to give dresses to her too. Because once you heard about it, you’re thinking ‘How many things do I have in my closet that I don’t really need anymore either?’.”

That many dresses requires a lot of space to store them.

Judy has been keeping them in three large storage units but it hasn’t been an ideal location for helping ladies, young and old, find and try on dresses.

“I needed a new building because the storage unit was not heat controlled,” Judy said. “So in the winter time it was really cold and then when it gets a little bit warmer the cement sweats and it was getting all the dresses wet and moldy. I had to throw away quite a lot of them.”

Alethia came to the rescue after seeing Judy’s post asking for help on Facebook.

Kenworthy is managing the building formerly known as the Wesley United Methodist Church and most recently as The Sanctuary on King. Recently acquired by Matthew Curtis of Choral Tracks, it is currently being renovated into a venue for fine arts and other events.

Noticing some space not earmarked for venue purposes, Alethia wondered if Judy could use it for her dresses.

“We’re not going to utilize the basement as far as I know,” Kenworthy explained. “It’s not going to be a place for performing so I just kind of chatted with my boss and floated the idea and he thought it would be a great idea! Then it happened.”

Judy now has three big rooms to organize her dresses but at the rate she’s growing she may need more space, which is not something she’s looking for after receiving such a gift.

Continue Reading

CULTURE

DNCE RETURN TO MAKE YOU “MOVE”

Published

on

DNCE RETURN TO MAKE YOU “MOVE”

Making a momentous return, multiplatinum group DNCE are back with their first official single in four years, the aptly titled “Move.”

Listen to “Move”—HERE via Republic Records.

It issues an invitation to the dancefloor with its funky strut, slippery seventies-style guitars, head-nodding bassline, and swaggering beat. Flaunting a fiery falsetto, frontman Joe Jonas shines with an undeniable and unshakable command on the chorus, “All I’m trying to do is make you get up out that chair and make you move!”

“Move is the song that convinced me DNCE had more music to release into the world,” says Joe. “I wrote it with my friend Ryan Tedder just for fun and immediately knew it was something special and needed the DNCE treatment! We can’t wait for everyone to hear it and perform it live.”

Earlier this year, DNCE teased their return by assisting Kygo on his boisterous banger “Dancing Feet.” It has already amassed over 38 million Spotify streams and over 6 million YouTube views on the music video. Of the track, Rolling Stone raved, “The song is a perfect reintroduction, a crisp, Eighties-inspired bop primed for all your dance-floor needs,” and Billboard noted, “Jonas growls on the infectious, horn-inflected chorus.” The Honey Pop summed it best, “The DJ and DNCE has just dropped what might just end up being the song of the summer.”

However, everything just sets the stage for more to come from DNCE.

Stay tuned and get ready to “Move” in 2022!

Continue Reading

Most Popular