Game 68 of 82: Toronto Raptors @ Cleveland Cavaliers,

[KeonClark]

Why do we need Siakam to become Giannis if we have Kawhi? Giannis is one of the best players of the past 10 years..we just need Siakam to keep being Siakam. Wherever that takes Siakam. I believe in Siakam, without having to compare against Giannis

[planetmars]

Frickin embedding still don’t work... but at least it says everything i mean to share....

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Silver lining only for the Raptors: An Ibaka suspension will give them a not-insignificant luxury tax credit. <br><br>About $75K per-game (50% of 1/145th of his salary), which is about $261K after tax. Per game!</p>&mdash; Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) <a href="https://twitter.com/BlakeMurphyODC/status/1105293582649516033?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Just wanted to test this out:

[planetmars]

Awesome.. can embed tweets again.

[Zak24gege]

Hopefully Jeremy Lin barely plays when FVV come back. I can’t believe I wanted this guy. He’s been horrible.

What's the saying..."Be careful what you wish for..."

[G__Deane]

Giannis is a generational talent and one of the very top players in the game. Young and already a stud on and off the court. One of the best outlooks on competing, not looking to make friends on other teams, never hear him talk about his brand or the brotherhood being more important than his team. Doesn't feel he has to be seen wearing outlandish clothes or jewellry before the games, no hint of problems in his persoanl life, doesn't feel he needs a fake gangsta rep or a posse or movie/music/clothing line, never complains about Milwaukee or his teammates

.....love the guy.

[RandomGuy]

Is there really a concern that the bolded won't happen? I mean ... it basically already is happening, let's be real here. Lol

Fair point

[KeonClark]

Just wanted to test this out:

Bobby Webster sent the hit.

Ibaka rest, team save money, Ibaka take out anger on irrelevant team.

See Ibaka punch. See Ibaka sit. See Ibaka come back. See Ibaka score.

[Zak24gege]

It's tough to integrate players after the deadline. Most of the playbook is created in training camp. So Nurse plugging in Gasol to play like JV (for the most part - not all the time) makes sense to me.

But the good news is that Kawhi will be here next year. So we'll get a full training camp with Kawhi, Gasol and Lowry. And our team will be far more in sync next season when that happens. And that will really help when we try to win a back to back title.

I don't think I can watch a full year of an old, slow Gasol...It is too frustrating!

[Zak24gege]

Giannis is a generational talent and one of the very top players in the game. Young and already a stud on and off the court. One of the best outlooks on competing, not looking to make friends on other teams, never hear him talk about his brand or the brotherhood being more important than his team. Doesn't feel he has to be seen wearing outlandish clothes or jewellry before the games, no hint of problems in his persoanl life, doesn't feel he needs a fake gangsta rep or a posse or movie/music/clothing line, never complains about Milwaukee or his teammates

.....love the guy.

He is emerging as the next era...

[The Great One]

So this guy sounds like he has an obsession with Westbrook.

https://mobile.twitter.com/JonesyNBA...27730466439168

[KeonClark]

So this guy sounds like he has an obsession with Westbrook.

https://mobile.twitter.com/JonesyNBA...27730466439168

Just like DeRozan and the claw

[The Great One]

I also want to add, i just don't like this Cavs team, the Cavs and the Lakers are the two teams that i hate the most.

I'm going to be pissed if they win the lottery this year.

[KHD]

Technically, JV was held under 10 points in 11 of his 30 games here this season. He only broke 20 minutes in two of those games, though.

But Gasol is not the producer JV is and he should never have been expected to be. We're using him like he's a post scorer for some reason and it's going exactly as poorly as I'd have expected. Has the coaching staff never, like, watched Gasol play? He's very good, but he's not a scorer.

i'm not sure that this is actually true anymore.

[inthepaint]

i'm not sure that this is actually true anymore.

Well, not that I think this is necessarily who he is now, but last night Gasol looked very washed up. Just "good passing" alone can't keep you on the floor if the scoring, rim protection, rebounding, and defence in general are all poor like last night.

Silver lining here is that with Serge out he will get a blank canvas and plenty of time with Lowry on the floor. I really hope Serge is back for the OKC games though, those will be good playoffs level/environment type of games.

[Scraptor]

Well, not that I think this is necessarily who he is now, but last night Gasol looked very washed up. Just "good passing" alone can't keep you on the floor if the scoring, rim protection, rebounding, and defence in general are all poor like last night.

Silver lining here is that with Serge out he will get a blank canvas and plenty of time with Lowry on the floor. I really hope Serge is back for the OKC games though, those will be good playoffs level/environment type of games.

I read an article by a Grizzlies beat writer early this season that was an exhaustive look at how age has caught up to Marc (can't find it now). I was a little shocked because it was his home newspaper, and they were basically implying he was done and that the team should extract value from him.

Then he went out and put up a bunch of crazy performances--he had an 11 game stretch of 22/10/4/1.4/1.9 on 50/40/72--before getting hampered by nagging ailments. So I figured it was premature to write him off.

Now I think at his age and size the long grind of the season wears him down. Plus he is coming into a completely new system and having to mesh with new teammates.

I think we would be farther along in his re-development if Nurse had just picked a playoff rotation and stuck to it. Even if you want Marc/Serge to get used to both roles, give them a chunk of games rather than this 1 game starting, 1 game bench stuff.

Fortunately (ha) this Serge suspension may force Nurse's hand.