2020 End of Season / Playoffs

[DogeLover1234]

Man, was rewatching a random game against the Thunder in late December; they mentioned the Clips trade for George. Wow, it reminded me how much the Clips have invested in the short term. Even with team friendly deals accross the board they will have no cap space for a while, nor will they have many useful picks for the foreseeable future. Id say they are favorites this year, but i dont think id bet any team with the risk someone major misses a series with covid. Between LAL staying contenders, GS getting healthy (+ first overall pick), young teams like Dallas or New Orleans progrssing and an unexpected jump from one of a random team I’d take the field over the next couple years and thats just in the west. Not that I have any sympothy for them but man these next 3 months will be wild for Clips fans.

[LJ2]

Man, was rewatching a random game against the Thunder in late December; they mentioned the Clips trade for George. Wow, it reminded me how much the Clips have invested in the short term. Even with team friendly deals accross the board they will have no cap space for a while, nor will they have many useful picks for the foreseeable future. Id say they are favorites this year, but i dont think id bet any team with the risk someone major misses a series with covid. Between LAL staying contenders, GS getting healthy (+ first overall pick), young teams like Dallas or New Orleans progrssing and an unexpected jump from one of a random team I’d take the field over the next couple years and thats just in the west. Not that I have any sympothy for them but man these next 3 months will be wild for Clips fans.

My wish list for this years' playoffs:
1. Raptors win it all and show the NBA world it wasn't all Kawhi
2. Clippers lose and show the NBA world that Kawhi needed the Raptors as much as they needed him.

Still love Kawhi, but him winning this season with the Clippers will give the talking heads in the US all the reason they need to put an asterisk on last years win.

[KeonClark]

My wish list for this years' playoffs:
1. Raptors win it all and show the NBA world it wasn't all Kawhi
2. Clippers lose and show the NBA world that Kawhi needed the Raptors as much as they needed him.

Still love Kawhi, but him winning this season with the Clippers will give the talking heads in the US all the reason they need to put an asterisk on last years win.

Yeah I'm actively cheering against the Clippers

[007]

Yeah I'm actively cheering against the Clippers

I hope that Kawhi does well, but that the rest of the team (especially George) shit the bed

[007]

A second team (Nashville) has dropped out of the MLS tournament. The good news is that nearly all the positive tests have been from just those two teams, and the tournament itself has gotten underway

[KeonClark]

A second team (Nashville) has dropped out of the MLS tournament. The good news is that nearly all the positive tests have been from just those two teams, and the tournament itself has gotten underway

good thing soccer sucks

[Hotshot]

Interesting stuff from former Rap T.Ross

[inthepaint]

My wish list for this years' playoffs:
1. Raptors win it all and show the NBA world it wasn't all Kawhi
2. Clippers lose and show the NBA world that Kawhi needed the Raptors as much as they needed him.

Still love Kawhi, but him winning this season with the Clippers will give the talking heads in the US all the reason they need to put an asterisk on last years win.

The narrative that a championship can somehow be 'won' by a single player is way overblown. While it became clear these past years that teams winning it all almost always have a top 5ish player in the roster, it has also become clear that these top players need a strong, well coached roster around them to do it.

You need a team. In an era of "player empowerment" and marketing of individual star power over the team, I think people in the media got carried away thinking this is all of a sudden an individual sport. Ball don't lie though. To win a championship, a million things need to fall in the right place, and that includes many things outside the top player. Some recent examples of top players that didn't get close to winning (due to the rest of the team):

1. LeBron James 2018-2019 Lakers
2. All Anthony Davis Pelicans teams
3. Most of Durant's OKC teams
4. Harden's teams
5. 16-17 and 17-18 Giannis's Bucks (the teams coached by Jason Kidd)

Kawhi is a heck of a player, but he's also always had elite, high BBIQ point guards, centres and coaches around him all his career (Prime Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, Gregg Poppovich, Kyle Lowry, Marc Gasol and Nick Nurse). We'll see about this year, but if the Clippers don't make the finals, we can add Kawhi's 2019-2020 Clips to that list too. Same goes for the Giannis 2019-2020 Bucks.

[G__Deane]

Yeah I'm actively cheering against the Clippers

Anyone but the LA's for me. Would like to see the Bucks eliminated too, especially if we do it
But screw the lebron's and Clippers ....

[slaw]

Anyone but the LA's for me. Would like to see the Bucks eliminated too, especially if we do it
But screw the lebron's and Clippers ....

Reading and listening to Bucks fans last year soured me so much on that organization. I used to have a soft spot for that team but not anymore. Clippers and the machinations they pulled last year with Kawhi turned me off them permanently. Will never wish that team well. And, of course, Celtics suck.

[Rudy Bargnani]

Sounds like Kawhi not travelling with team to bubble initially and will follow in a few days. Keep our eye on that. He’s so cautious with his health would not shock me if he bailed or if he’s more concerned about COVID then other players. Pure speculation on my part.

[slaw]

Interesting stuff from former Rap T.Ross

It's funny, I did a search for NBA and there are a few articles about how the players don't like the bubble food, etc. but then you go to the articles and there isn't a single player complaining about anything. Again, no one is cheering for this to fail harder than the sports media.

I've stayed at the Grand Floridian and it is a very nice hotel. The Yacht Club isn't quite as nice but it is still decent. The Grand Floridian hosts V&A which is a 5-star restaurant and I had one of the best meals of my life there, plus, there are two or three other really good restaurants at the hotel. It may not be the penthouse at a Ritz but these guys have it just fine.

[chris]

It's funny, I did a search for NBA and there are a few articles about how the players don't like the bubble food, etc. but then you go to the articles and there isn't a single player complaining about anything. Again, no one is cheering for this to fail harder than the sports media.

the sports media in general is highly invested in this working out, no? sports media is a content factory for which there is no content without sport. shitloads of money and jobs are on the line for them too, i would think.

[slaw]

the sports media in general is highly invested in this working out, no? sports media is a content factory for which there is no content without sport. shitloads of money and jobs are on the line for them too, i would think.

It's counterintuitive but a lot of the sports media hates sports or at least holds them in contempt.

[chris]

It's counterintuitive but a lot of the sports media hates sports or at least holds them in contempt.

i don't know if i buy that. i think it's probably true of the old school guys on the beat working for papers that are on their last legs (hello doug smith!). people with journalism degrees who ended up writing about sports because that's where the paper stuck them rather than what they're passionate about.

but i think that's a pretty small percentage of the sports media in general.