Everything 2021 Tank

[Demographic Shift]

Tonite on "Who Wants It Less" aka Tank Watch

One for two last night.
The Kings who appeared to be a bigger challenge to get past for 7th won last night but have seemingly introduced the Pacers into the equation.

The Whiz... scrapped hard to the end but didn't have enough to win on the road against a fully stocked Bucks team playing to get homecourt in the second round against the Nets if thats how the first round plays out.


Games of Interest Tonight

The Bulls visit Charlotte Tonight is the return of Zach Lavine. He is a go according to NBC Chicago. Will he be effective ? Will he have gas in the tank or suck all the oxygen out of the roof of the building ? Doesn't matter. He is the Bulls best player and he gives them a better chance to win. The rest of the Bulls have been resting since Monday. The Hornets return home from Detroit firmly bolted into 8th place. They trail the Chowders by 2 games. Hayward is still out but Lamello Ball is back. Odds favour the Hornets tonight but not by much. Vegas has them as a 4 point fave. Go Bulls.

Atlanta is in Indy The scuffling Pacers host the Hawks tonight. Both teams are on the second games of a B2B. However Atlanta has to fly in for the game tonight while the Pacers got to drive home. The Pacers shit the bed last night against the Kings and heard about it from the coaching staff. A distinct lack of effort. Looking for a rebound tonight from the Pacers if only to salvage a bit of pride. FWIW its just hard to see a scenario like "off the floor, off the scoreboard off the backboard nothing but net " scenario for the Pacers to flame out.

Whiz in Tampa against the Raps.. The Whiz fly in from Milwuakee after losing at the FiServ centre by one for their second game of the B2B. Its a couple hour charter flight with a 5 star hotel waiting. Its not an 8 hour bus ride. Still its an edge for the Raps. The Whiz are rolling though. Winners of 13 of their last 17 games. Both the front office and the two key players Westbrook and Beal have seemingly made it a mission to make the post season play in tourney. The same cannot be said of the Raps. The Raps sit enough starters to force the coach to play deep rotation players at the start of the 4th Q where the raps subs get beat up. Expecting more of the same tonight.


As of the 1:30 NBA Injury Report filed by the teams

Bulls have both Lavine and Vooch listed as probable.
Hornets list Hayward , Miles Bridges OUT and Graham DOUBTFUL.

Raps list OG, Watson Boucher as OUT, Yuta as Doubtful and Trent Jr. as Probable. A fast moving knee soreness virus might afflict either of Kyle or Fred on the 5:30 report so stay tuned.
Whiz list Hachimura as OUT.

Atlanta lists Reddish and Hunter as OUT
Indy lists Brogdon, Lamb and the back up C as questionable. Turner .and Warren are listed as OUT.


Go Bulls !
Go Indy !

[planetmars]

Raps will most likely beat WAS, CHI and Indiana, if that last game is for all the marbles. All Raps need to do is go 1/3 from MEM, LAC or DAL. There's your 4-2 right there. Highly doable. Clippers could be resting Kawhi, PG or both and it's a done deal.

Pacers are done. Their problems have been publicly blamed on the coach, and certified by the inscrutable Woj. They have an excuse not to play hard or play together. The only game remaining in their schedule where they would be the favorites is VS. the Cavs. That's 1-6. I don't see where they are getting that second win.

They can get a fluke win like say if the Bucks rest everyone. But it will be tough for them.

It's not going to be easy, but if the Pacers go 1-7 and the Raps go 3-3, the Pacers will edge out. It's really more up to the Raptors than the Pacers IMO. I'm penciling only 1 win for them as well. Masai/Bobby might prefer to crap out the season and just not play Pascal and Kyle for half those games. 4-2 is doable for sure though.

Trent's cap hold is also on the line as well. I think he has 50 or so minutes to play (or one start) before his cap hold jumps. Will they try to avoid that? Or let him play?

[DanH]

They have 35 losses. We have 39. If we beat them in our remaining matchup we have the tie breaker.

So if they lose out (0-7) and end with 42 losses (0-7), we can afford 3 losses (3-3), so long as 1 of our wins is against Indy.

If they go 1-6, we can go 4-2 as long as we beat Indy.

If they go 2-5, we have to go 5-1 as long as we beat Indy.

If they go 3-4, we have to go 6-0.

Re-visiting this, since the Indy game is the final game, and either team can win the tiebreaker, there are actually a range of outcomes where that final game essentially becomes the 11 vs 10 play-in game, where the winner gets the 10 seed. We'll ignore Washington and Chicago for now and assume Washington gets in and Chicago doesn't.

I'll remove the Indy vs Raps game (so Indy has 6 games leading up to it and we have 5) and put it this way.

If, leading up to that final game:
Indy goes 0-6, Raps go 2-3 or 3-2
Indy goes 1-5, Raps go 3-2 or 4-1
Indy goes 2-4, Raps go 4-1 or 5-0
Indy goes 3-3, Raps go 5-0

... if any of those, the winner of the final game gets in.

[The Great One]

May 6 - Atlanta (B2B)
May 8 - Washington
May 10 - @Cleveland
May 11 - Philly (B2B)
May 13 - Milwaukee
May 15 - LAL
May 16 - @Toronto (B2B)

Other than the Cavs, all those teams also have something to play for. The Hawks want to finish in the top 4, Washington in the top 10, Philly and MIL are battling for homecourt advantage, the Lakers obviously want to finish in the top 6. And then there's the Raptors....

[KeonClark]

Y'all gonna get a nasty case of blue balls hyping yourselves up for this play in round

[DanH]

Y'all gonna get a nasty case of blue balls hyping yourselves up for this play in round

Any long term Raptors fan has endured far worse.

I'm not really even that hyped, the franchise is in better shape with a lotto pick. But to imagine they are dead and dusted at this point is I think a little too early. Even resting guys hasn't been foolproof to rack up enough losses to take them out of the picture.

[KeonClark]

Any long term Raptors fan has endured far worse.

I'm not really even that hyped, the franchise is in better shape with a lotto pick. But to imagine they are dead and dusted at this point is I think a little too early. Even resting guys hasn't been foolproof to rack up enough losses to take them out of the picture.

Yeah, we're on a torrid pace of 1 win in the last 5 games and 2 in the last 7. Nothing can slow these guys down!

[MixxAOR]

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...nate-bjorkgren

"He's just very different," said one league executive who has worked previously with Bjorkgren. "He's not a d--k; he's just completely out of his element as a leader."

"He didn't come in relationship-building in an easy way from day one," said one Pacers voice.

Bjorkgren's communication style has been categorized as aggressive and abrasive with players and members of the Pacers staff, from his front-of-the-bench assistants down to trainers and equipment personnel. That behavior was cited as the cause for one assistant coach's resignation.

"Typically younger coaches bring a more positive, spirited, encouraging behavior, not an antagonistic approach," said an assistant general manager.

yeah he gone lol

[golden]

Yeah, we're on a torrid pace of 1 win in the last 5 games and 2 in the last 7. Nothing can slow these guys down!

Break up the Raptors! Super teams are destroying the league.

[golden]

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...nate-bjorkgren



yeah he gone lol

According to reports, Nate was the most positive, encouraging, easy going guy when he was an assistant with the Raptors. Probably trying too hard to act like how he thinks an alpha leader should be like.

[slaw]

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...nate-bjorkgren

yeah he gone lol

Wow, not great having all that made public. That doesn't happen unless lots of people want you gone cause it not only reflects badly on him but on management for hiring him and not fixing this problem well before now. The line about Sabonis asking him to be nicer to the staff... that's embarrassing.

It's a good reminder though that not only do we not know much of anything about these coaches and players but even people in the league who haven't worked with them can be blindsided. Wonder if Pritchard ever phones up Nurse and says, what the hell is wrong with this guy?

[MixxAOR]

Wow, not great having all that made public. That doesn't happen unless lots of people want you gone cause it not only reflects badly on him but on management for hiring him and not fixing this problem well before now. The line about Sabonis asking him to be nicer to the staff... that's embarrassing.

It's a good reminder though that not only do we not know much of anything about these coaches and players but even people in the league who haven't worked with them can be blindsided. Wonder if Pritchard ever phones up Nurse and says, what the hell is wrong with this guy?

Crazy. I'm sure being a head coach was a goal and a dream but to get embarrassed like that must fucking suck.

[golden]

Crazy. I'm sure being a head coach was a goal and a dream but to get embarrassed like that must fucking suck.

A bit reminiscent of our Kevin O'Neill situation - you can't live that kind of reputation down. Nate might be done in the league. Unless Nurse takes him back (probably will), nobody in the NBA will touch him, even as an assistant. And he'll have to go coach college or overseas for a head coaching job.

[chris]

A bit reminiscent of our Kevin O'Neill situation - you can't live that kind of reputation down. Nate might be done in the league. Unless Nurse takes him back (probably will), nobody in the NBA will touch him, even as an assistant. And he'll have to go coach college or overseas for a head coaching job.

i wonder if nurse would hire him back? the part about him screening conversations people would get to have with nurse, without nurse's knowledge, had to have come from someone affiliated with toronto, or formerly affiliated (like an ex player). suggests that maybe not everyone here loves him either

anyhow, quite a different picture there from all the glowing quotes a few months ago.

[Demographic Shift]

Well the 5:30 Official NBA Injury Report is out and as shocking and as a complete a surprise to everyone as it can be....Kyle Lowry is listed as OUT.
Shocking.
Simply Shocking.