Tuyen's Blog

Warriors... PLEASE make this trade...

The Golden State Warriors have made it clear to the New Jersey Nets that they want more than just Brook Lopez if they are going to get Monta Ellis in return.
via sports.yahoo.com

I don't understand why the Warriors would not do a straight-up Lopez for Ellis deal. Yes, Monta is a phenomenal scorer but he also costs $11M a year for the next 3 years whereas Lopez is at $3M and $4M for 2012 and 2013. But money aside, talented 7 foot centers don't come along every day. Especially ones that can easily become 20pt/10rb guys. A shooting guard's performance can more easily be replaced. Think of it this way, would you rather have a starting five of Curry/Ellis/Wright/Lee/Biedrins or Curry/Klay/Wright/Lee/Lopez? Klay may be 40% of Ellis in terms of production (and improving) but Biedrins is about 10% of the production that Lopez would give you (and falling). Make. The. Trade.

Don't read too much into Jeremy Lin's performance against the Heat

Just as people shouldn't consider him the second coming of Nash, they also shouldn't call him a flop because of tonight's game versus the Heat.  It is the Heat we're talking about, at their home.  Plus, no other Knicks player fared that much better.  Baron Davis, Lin's backup, went 0-7 for goodness sake.  I almost think this is a good thing he got thumped.  It exposed some big holes in his game that were glossed over when the team was winning (he can't go left, still needs to cut down the turnovers, etc).  I have no doubt Jeremy Lin will learn from this experience and make himself a better player.  He's just too smart and dedicated to do otherwise.

Best $25 an iPhone designer could spend @Glyphish

I'm currently working on a new iPhone app and starting to understand how difficult it is to build something that is both good looking and also simple to understand/use.  There are so many small nuances to consider since there isn't a lot of real estate with which to get your point across.  One of the most maddening things to get right are icons.  People don't realize how difficult it is to build great looking icons from scratch.  There are only a handful of apps that I consider beautiful and even among those, I have issues with the icons.  After revision after revision of icons from my designer, I started to scour the web for examples of good icons.  To my chagrin, the answer was staring me right in the face - Glyphish.  Here was an extensive set of beautifully designed icons that are so simple and yet so clear in what the icon is supposed to represent.  How good are these icons?  They're used by little known companies like Google, Twitter, and a small phone manufacturer called Apple.  The best part of it?  $25 for a full pro license that doesn't require attribution and can be used in an unlimited number of projects (free version requires attribution, doesn't include Retina Display version of icons).  I've seen icon sets costing four times as much that are no where near as clean and well designed.  Kudos to Joseph Wain for creating these and providing them at a ridiculously cheap price.

Oh, and his $10 set of background images are well worth it, too!

Forget what I said earlier about Warriors trades...

In his first start of the season, Udoh had a career-high 19 points to go with eight rebounds and led the Warriors past the Los Angeles Clippers 104-97 on Monday night.
via sports.yahoo.com

One game does not make a trend. But man, what a game. Ekpe Udoh's first start of the season was an eye opener and he did it against legit big men. Going up against Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan (ironically, the big man the Warriors went after in the pre-season) and occasionally Kenyon Martin, Udoh held his own. More than anything he looked gassed because he's usually playing reserve minutes. Here's hoping he gets another start and can build on this.