2020 End of Season / Playoffs

[Apollo]

I thought he said there were off-court issues but not necessarily locker room? When I read it, I heard personal issues or family or BLM.
Maybe some Chinese sweat shop is having child labour issues making his shoes?

When I hear "off-court" I think locker room. I mentioned the stress around families in my post and the revolutionary times of America. That's one possibility and that possibility can impact relationships in the locker room as well. When pressure is dialed up strained relationships can become worse, "me first" players can become more of a detriment, etc. The Raptors have a very clear and genuine strong comradery. They're built on a rock solid foundation and that becomes a huge advantage during difficult events. That's my point.

[LJ2]

They put Deion Waiters, JR Smith, Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo, Kyle Kuzma, and Shaqtin a Fool HoFer Javale McGee on the same team and people were actually excited because Lebron. That team has all time knucklehead potential, it's been politely said 'the Lakers don't have depth' but that's about it.

​​​I don't know what Lebron's talking about, but even going public with excuses, as oblique as they are, is not a good look at this point in the season.

Raps had their issues last year and said nothing till it was over - and even that was less than what Lebron's already said.

You still want media to talk more about the Raptors? This is the type of scrutiny media favorites are faced with....always under the microscope. Raps should be happy to be under the radar and only have to focus on the game

[Apollo]

They put Deion Waiters, JR Smith, Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo, Kyle Kuzma, and Shaqtin a Fool HoFer Javale McGee on the same team and people were actually excited because Lebron. That team has all time knucklehead potential, it's been politely said 'the Lakers don't have depth' but that's about it.

​​​I don't know what Lebron's talking about, but even going public with excuses, as oblique as they are, is not a good look at this point in the season.

Raps had their issues last year and said nothing till it was over - and even that was less than what Lebron's already said.

To me the challenge with playing for the Lakers is the expectations being far too high on role players, being under the microscope 24/7 in the MSM and the distractions caused by the off court happenings. They needed to go get talent to help LeBron and I love Magic Johnson, he's one of my favorite players all time but clearly he wasn't up to the task and when they replaced him it does not appear they scoured the world for the most competent executive, that was not top priority. So this is what they ended up with, a good looking NBA 2K20 roster.

Everything in general appears very non-committal outside of LeBron, who seems to have gone there more so for off-court reasons (or am I reading that wrong?). They wouldn't even give Lue a fair offer to coach and so they went with Frank Vogel, who can't feel very confident about his future and will be tossed under the bus when they fail. He's not their problem though.

[Apollo]

You still want media to talk more about the Raptors? This is the type of scrutiny media favorites are faced with....always under the microscope. Raps should be happy to be under the radar and only have to focus on the game

Nick Nurse has no shortage of media slights to bring into the locker room and present as motivational tools.

[planetmars]

Problem with the Lakers is that they put themselves on hold waiting out Kawhi's decision. There was a strong possibility that Kawhi was going to join the Lakers, and they didn't want to use up their cap space on role players until Kawhi committed. Once he went to the Clippers they pivoted and grabbed whoever they could.

At the end of the day they still had the best record in the West. Bradley not joining the bubble, and Rondo's injury really hurts.

As for the off court stuff.. that happens everywhere. I'm sure Lebron is used to that being with the Cavs for so long. Lots of dysfunctional players on those Cav teams back in the day.

[S.R.]

Counterpoints are that the Lakers do have this stuff going on but at the same time they've been the second best team more or less all season. Lebron's also had these questions heading into the playoffs in previous years and erased them all as soon as the postseason starts. I think we have to assume that happens again with him - until we get to the year when it finally doesn't.

Most likely WCF is still battle of LA, would be a real upset for either team to lose in the first two rounds. That showdown's a toss up, the Clippers are a tad overrated as a contender because Kawhi just won and the NBA has a lot of recency bias. I'm not sure either team has great answers for the other team's stars, but I can see Lebron and AD's size giving the Clippers problems at both positions. Clippers have some better role players but are currently having their own issues there, too. At some point the Clippers lack of reps as a team will have to catch up to them. They've basically tried to slap a championship team together and will have played a number of games as a whole roster that you can literally count on your fingers. No team has ever won chip like that before.

[LJ2]

Nick Nurse has no shortage of media slights to bring into the locker room and present as motivational tools.

Nurse - "Kyle, water is wet"

Kyle - "Challenge accepted"

[Apollo]

Counterpoints are that the Lakers do have this stuff going on but at the same time they've been the second best team more or less all season. Lebron's also had these questions heading into the playoffs in previous years and erased them all as soon as the postseason starts. I think we have to assume that happens again with him - until we get to the year when it finally doesn't.

Most likely WCF is still battle of LA, would be a real upset for either team to lose in the first two rounds. That showdown's a toss up, the Clippers are a tad overrated as a contender because Kawhi just won and the NBA has a lot of recency bias. I'm not sure either team has great answers for the other team's stars, but I can see Lebron and AD's size giving the Clippers problems at both positions. Clippers have some better role players but are currently having their own issues there, too. At some point the Clippers lack of reps as a team will have to catch up to them. They've basically tried to slap a championship team together and will have played a number of games as a whole roster that you can literally count on your fingers. No team has ever won chip like that before.

The Raptors are in the finals and its game seven in the West in the "Battle of LA". Who do you want, Clippers or Lakers? It sounds like the Clippers. That's also the best basketball story imaginable for this season in my opinion anyway.

[G__Deane]

When I hear "off-court" I think locker room. I mentioned the stress around families in my post and the revolutionary times of America. That's one possibility and that possibility can impact relationships in the locker room as well. When pressure is dialed up strained relationships can become worse, "me first" players can become more of a detriment, etc. The Raptors have a very clear and genuine strong comradery. They're built on a rock solid foundation and that becomes a huge advantage during difficult events. That's my point.

Got it. And I agree

[G__Deane]

As much as I want to see the Raps beat either LA team, it's only if they win since the "lebron beats Toronto again" or "Kawhi made the right choice" storylines would be painful. Toronto/Houston would be fun and Harden/Westbrook would become the new public-enemies-number-1.

[DanH]

I'm a little concerned that they haven't gotten Siakam going yet. Schedule is going to get tougher so not a lot of time to ease him into the lead scorer role we will need him to assume, if we want a long playoff run.

The good news is even when not really going yet, Pascal is still posting 17/7 on 56% TS% and a team best +18 per game. Agree there is room for improvement (especially in his playmaking which has been the slowest to come along) but he's still problematic in this state.

[LJ2]

The good news is even when not really going yet, Pascal is still posting 17/7 on 56% TS% and a team best +18 [I]per game[/I]. Agree there is room for improvement (especially in his playmaking which has been the slowest to come along) but he's still problematic in this state.

That's why he was such a great fit with Kawhi in the playoffs last year and would likely be a terrific Robin to any Batman. He posts great numbers without having to heavily impose himself. But, we will need him to be Batman this year.

[G__Deane]

That's why he was such a great fit with Kawhi in the playoffs last year and would likely be a terrific Robin to any Batman. He posts great numbers without having to heavily impose himself. But, we will need him to be Batman this year.

I kinda wish this was the year Giannis was available in FA....

[KeonClark]

I kinda wish this was the year Giannis was available in FA....

Most likely, we are meeting in the conference finals. I don't see a scenario where Giannis will jump to a rival that he either just beat, or got beat by

[chris]

Most likely, we are meeting in the conference finals. I don't see a scenario where Giannis will jump to a rival that he either just beat, or got beat by

that's where miami comes in.

beat bucks in round 2, giannis wants out but can't go to miami because it's a bad look.

two birds stoned at once