Essential Takes

Long term takes, theorems, or views that make up the basis of our website. They are the core ideas and beliefs we have about sports.

Every NFC Team’s Past, Current, and Potential Championship Windows In the 21st Century

This piece shows the window for each NFC team in the last 20+ years and what each teams’ current window is (if applicable) or could be (if things materialized). The starting point, duration, and ending point of a team’s championship window is usually determined by the key catalyst (a head coach, quarterback, collection of elite […]

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Every AFC Team’s Past, Current, and Potential Championship Windows In the 21st Century 

This piece shows the window for each AFC team in the last 20+ years and what each teams’ current window is (if applicable) or could be (if things materialized). The starting point, duration, and ending point of a team’s championship window is usually determined by the key catalyst (a head coach, quarterback, collection of elite

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Dispelling False Anti-Running Back Narratives

There are a lot of talking points about running backs in the recent decade that constantly get pushed by many media outlets and continue to be regurgitated by fans as if it is the Gospel. The issue with these anti-running back sentiment is that it involves takes that can be misleading, not accurate, or can

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Celtics Should Give Tatum and Brown at Least 4 More Seasons

People have looked at the Celtics the last few years, and many have come to the silly conclusion that they can’t win with this core, and that Brown should be traded or that Tatum isn’t “that guy”. Many of these people are either A) fans of other teams who stealthily want Jaylen Brown to be

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What an NBA player needs to win as a number 1 option

Look at some of the guy who have won rings: Jordan, LeBron, Magic, Bird, Kobe, Shaq, Giannis, Duncan, Hakeem, Curry, Kareem, etc. They each have experienced winning championships as a number 1 option. They all have things in common. We’ll explain what that is in a minute. Generally speaking, there are three fundamental components that

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Every era in the NBA has its Jobbers

In sports, there are always jobbers. (Sorry for basically repeating the title). We always discuss how competitive the league is nowadays and how there’s no way any player is going to win up to 4 or 5 championships. Then, 6 years pass by and one player already has 2 or 3, while the other competition

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Some Great Players Are More Impactful Than Others

In the NBA, a wide variety of players exist (even though they all shoot threes nowadays ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ). Many of these players have made a name for themselves by being incredibly skillful – think LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Anthony Davis, Wardell Stephen Curry – but despite all these players being great,

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Players That Didn’t Win Rings Usually Just Weren’t Good Enough

Many sports fans that watch the NBA and NFL often fall into 2 groups: those who generally use rings to judge players (they put a LOT of weight on rings), and those who generally don’t like to weigh rings as highly, and prefer to weigh stats much more. (In the NFL, this is usually pivoted

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Many “Playoff Chokers” Just Have Big Flaws

We had an article defining choking, that, in the last paragraph, acknowledged that choking could just be a sign of a player’s flaws. When a player has bad playoff performances, we call them a choker. We imply that the moment is too big for them, but it may be more accurate that they simply get

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The Exceptions to the Ring Greatness Theory

Here at TakeThis, we believe that rings are a reflection of a player’s greatness. That generally speaking, great players tend to win rings, and players that don’t win rings usually weren’t great enough. And as always, the key word is usually. There are always exceptions, which we outlined before: This is because any good theory

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Rings Greatness Theory: Rings Matter, and Define a Player’s Greatness

Generally speaking, rings are a reflection of a player’s greatness. (This mostly applies to the NBA, where an individual player does have a large, outsized impact on his team’s ability to win games, and also for NFL QBs, who also have an outlier impact on a team’s ability to win games.) We can call this

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Stats Do Not Tell The Whole Story

Statistics record information about what is happening. This person scored points, blocked shots, caught passes, etc. But they cannot be used exclusively to draw conclusions. They do not actually tell the whole story. This is because statistics – especially basic counting statistics – are inherently vague and blurry. They are not precise because they only

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