PanchaMaestro
Studious
The fix was in for the Mavs. Save the flagship team for 10 years; the league sets them up for awhile. Its Ewing and the frozen envelope all over.
Basketball (NBA, College, International)
- Thread starter TheSameIdiot
- Start date
Justice
for Starhawk!
I used to gently laugh at people who claimed sports leagues were rigged but it's kind of hard to do that in this situation.
EnigmaticClarity
Studious
I've seen half a dozen players blow out an Achilles, and not once were they in any kind of ongoing pain other than when they tried to put weight on the foot. Kobe shot free throws after he tore his. I've heard it can be painful, but if that's what tore then his must have been particularly bad in some way.
Whatever the injury it was causing him intense and ongoing pain even with no weight on the leg, and whatever it was he seemed to clearly know his season was over since he was crying so intensely going to the locker room. My guess is something far more painful and easier for him to self-diagnose like a broken ankle.
He was alone on the court with no other players within 5 feet of him when it happened. All you could tell he was doing was shifting his weight from going in one direction to another where the ball went, and as soon as he changed direction he crumbled over in pain. The last time I saw someone in that much pain on a basketball court was back when Gordon Hayward broke his ankle in his first game with the Celtics.
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EnigmaticClarity
Studious
Nico Harrison tanked JUST enough to get Cooper Flagg. Everyone thought it was the worst trade in NBA history, but clearly he was playing 4D chess and made the right call.
I hope being injury-prone isn't contagious, because if it is the Mavs may add Flagg to their current first teamers from the All-Hospital team in Davis and Kyrie.
PanchaMaestro
Studious
I've blown my Achilles. I think the pain is contingent on the type and location of the tear. The main symptom is the ankle goes all wobbly and nonresponsive. Like you dunked a ML ankle only in hot water. You can often walk on it but that ankle joint is unresponsive. I couldn't drive my standard car home for sure. I did see his ankle sort of act like that. My tear was high from the muscle. I think the low ones from the ankle may be more painful. Didn't he say it felt like being whacked in the back of the leg with a machette? That's what it felt like. I was running the bases in a soft ball game and thought somehow a bat went flying and hit my leg.
It was an Achilles for Tatum. Different people have different pain tolerances. He also may have been screaming because he knew his season (and then some) was over.
I'm no Celtics lover, but this is a huge bummer. The league is at its best when its best players are healthy.
With Tatum goes my best hope for a team beating the Thunder. Damn.
I'm no Celtics lover, but this is a huge bummer. The league is at its best when its best players are healthy.
With Tatum goes my best hope for a team beating the Thunder. Damn.
puckace
Pensive
Yeah it's really unfortunate when the league's best players go down at anytime, but it's especially sad when it happens in the playoffs. These guys play all year to get here and then that opportunity is just gone. I feel bad for Tatum. I'm really disappointed to see Curry out as I think that would have been a great series. LeBron hurt his knee in the previous series. I think the NBA season is too long. They really need to look into ways to provide players with more rest between games. But they won't. Too much $$$ involved.
Are the Nuggets blowing these games down the stretch because OKC's defense is incredible or because Denver only has six guys and one is a 37-year-old Russell Westbrook? I guess we'll find out against the Wolves.
It's genuinely hard for me to talk about this series. I'm rooting against the Thunder as hard as I've ever rooted against anyone. It's eating at me that this team should be in Seattle. I have thoughts about Oklahoma having a team at all, but saying any more will get me in trouble.
Playing in the NBA is more difficult than ever:
theories, but this one is such a bizarre coincidence.
Did the league offer the Mavericks Cooper Flagg and AD to save the Lakers? Definitely not. But maybe.
It's genuinely hard for me to talk about this series. I'm rooting against the Thunder as hard as I've ever rooted against anyone. It's eating at me that this team should be in Seattle. I have thoughts about Oklahoma having a team at all, but saying any more will get me in trouble.
I'd be in favor of shortening the season, moving to 40-minute games, and returning the first round to a best-of-5. There's so much talent in the league now, but the NBA shoots itself in the foot when the players are exhausted in major playoff games or their best players go down with long-term injuries.
Playing in the NBA is more difficult than ever:
While I'm skeptical by nature, I honestly considered this today. I genuinely believe in zero conspiracy
theories, but this one is such a bizarre coincidence.
Did the league offer the Mavericks Cooper Flagg and AD to save the Lakers? Definitely not. But maybe.
puckace
Pensive
This all sounds reasonable. So of course none of it will happen. $$$
The Sonics should never have been allowed to leave for Oklahoma City. A travesty for loyal fans that is all too often repeated in all major sports leagues.
The Dallas lottery win does seem suspect at first glance. But I find it hard to believe the NBA would help an idiot like Nico Harrison or that they really care about the Maverick fan base.
PanchaMaestro
Studious
The very least they could do is lose all the extra games beyond their division / conference formulas. You should play the four teams in your division 4 times for 16 games, the ten teams in your conference but not division 3 times for 30 game and the fifteen teams in the other conference twice for a total of 76 games,
Other options is eliminate divisions. Play the fourteen teams in your conference 3 times each for 42 games & the fifteen teams in the other confernce twice for 30 games. A total of 72. This also eliminates the 2nd tie breaker for playoff seeding.
Other options is eliminate divisions. Play the fourteen teams in your conference 3 times each for 42 games & the fifteen teams in the other confernce twice for 30 games. A total of 72. This also eliminates the 2nd tie breaker for playoff seeding.
Pacers in 6
Thunder in 7
This could be the smallest market Finals of all time.
Thunder in 7
This could be the smallest market Finals of all time.
EnigmaticClarity
Studious
I wouldn't think anything about the Mavs winning the lottery if the Cavs hadn't just won it in 2014 with a similarly-low chance of winning of 1.7%. That's the year they drafted Andrew Wiggins and then LeBron came back home from the Heat a few months after his old team won that lottery, so LeBron's return being wrapped up in that lottery win has more conspiracy theory juice behind it than giving Flagg to the Mavs does. Yet I'm seeing so many more conspiracy theories this time...I guess social media is just spreading them faster now than it did back then.
Two teams winning the lottery with such low odds eleven years apart is quite an outlier. I really don't see a great reason for the league to manipulate the result in either of those teams' favor. I really don't like teams like the Mavs winning the lottery over the terrible teams though since they were already a top 10 team with Davis and Kyrie. I'd like to see no team having a chance of winning the lottery who isn't in the bottom five of the league.
Two teams winning the lottery with such low odds eleven years apart is quite an outlier. I really don't see a great reason for the league to manipulate the result in either of those teams' favor. I really don't like teams like the Mavs winning the lottery over the terrible teams though since they were already a top 10 team with Davis and Kyrie. I'd like to see no team having a chance of winning the lottery who isn't in the bottom five of the league.
EnigmaticClarity
Studious
The biggest story is the Pacers. If they can beat the Knicks then that's just an amazing feather in Rick Carlisle's cap. It's such BS that he had to leave the Mavs due to he and Luka not getting along, and his effect on the Pacers has been as clearly and undeniably massive as it was on those late 2010s and early 2011s Mavs teams.
Carlisle's ability to scrape out victories with less talent than his opponents is crazy. The 2011 Mavs were not better than the Thunder and Heat teams they beat that year, and the Pacers are not better than either the Cavs or the Knicks, so beating the Knicks would be another giant-slaying if they pull it off. And they've got a real shot against the Thunder if they make it that far.
The Timberwolves would need Edwards to actually become something akin to Jordan to get past the Thunder. He hasn't been great through the first two rounds, but if he raise his level of play and go toe-to-toe with SGA then that series could be extremely interesting.
I think the Wolves are a lot closer to the Thunder than they're given credit for. They don't have as many great players, but they have a ton of defensive versatility, and I trust Edwards and Randle to close a game more than SGA and Williams.
Would you put them in the top 10 without Flagg? I wouldn't.
- OKC
- BOS (pre-Tatum injury)
- CLE
- MIN
- NY
- IND
- DEN
- HOU
- LAL
- LAC
- GS
- DET
- ORL
