Everything Playoffs

[Apollo]

People who say "write that down" are douchey

KD still douchey confirmed

[KeonClark]

Sounds like Durant had his mind made up last week:

https://www.si.com/nba/2019/06/11/nb...nicks-warriors

People who say "write that down" are douchey

KD still douchey confirmed

[Apollo]

Sounds like Durant had his mind made up last week:

Last week, Durant responded to rumors that opposing teams have been plotting ways to sell him on joining them in free agency by telling Yahoo Sports, "I can't be recruited. Write that." (Chris Haynes, Yahoo Sports)

https://www.si.com/nba/2019/06/11/nb...nicks-warriors

[Apollo]

From Chuck:

"Yes there is somebody to blame — the Golden State Warriors for putting KD out there," Barkley said. "Listen, that was not right.

"If you go back and look at the last two weeks, the article comes out (saying), 'KD's worst nightmare: the Warriors winning without him.' Then you come out and read another article (saying), 'the Warriors are really not happy KD won't risk his Achilles, they're frustrated with KD.' Now this man has to be feeling some type of way. ...They shouldn't have put that man out there."

"I don't think you can ever leave it up to a player," Barkley said. "Players always want to play. I think if you ask any rational (former) player, to put a guy who hasn't played basketball in over a month into Game 5 of the Finals, and have some type of movement around the day before, I don't think that's fair to (Durant). You saw the result. It's Game 5 of World championship. He hasn't played real basketball in over a month. That's unfair to put him in that situation. The proof is in the pudding."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...ry/1421485001/

[S.R.]

Not trying to be glib S.R., but why is that clear? How do you know he wasn't told approximately that and just still wanted to play? I'd imagine the staff entirely would've informed him of the level of risk he might be taking. You think they just said, "Yup, you're good, have at 'er!" ... ?

Yeah it is just an assumption that if the initial injury increased his risk at all to pop an Achilles, I don't think he would have tried coming back. It doesn't make sense for anybody, not him or the team.

[inthepaint]

Nick's understandably taking a lot of flack for the timeout he took.

One thing on my brain that I haven't seen exactly articulated ... we've been taking care of Kawhi's health literally every possible step of the way this year. On one hand, that timeout 100% fucked our momentum and swung the game. On the other hand, to see KD go down and to know that Kawhi is definitely not 100 and then coming up to what could be the final, leave it all on the line push for victory, I hold some forgiveness for NN looking to get Kawhi a breather. You can say we let Curry and Klay catch their breath and roast us, and that's the truth, but better that than to have Kawhi pull up lame and end his season the way Durant ended his. Sure, it's an outlier of a situation that that would've happened, but I imagine on some even unconscious level, that was Nick's thinking. Not excusing it, just saying, not gonna crucify him. And we still have two more opportunities to deliver. I'm ok with kid gloves right to the finish line if it a) brings us a championship and b) convinces Kawhi that, unlike some other franchises, management and the coaching staff 100% has their players health and best interests in mind.

I hear what you're saying GB, but imo you don't "give the guy a breather" when he's on a personal tear swinging the momentum in your favour on a championship game. Just my take. Let the other team call a time out. Kawhi was in rhythm, physically and mentally ready to seize the moment. That's quite different from KD who dropped from a parachute in the finals without having played for a month.

That said, like someone mentioned earlier, that's actually not too big of blunder because the Warriors, seeing the momentum swing, were about to call a time out on the next possession anyway. What's a much bigger blunder to me is why we did not call timeout with 15 secs to give the team a high % ATO play to win the championship. I think Nick knows that though, and dwelling on it is pointless.

I feel the next game they will play a very responsible road game, with low turnovers, not allowing big GS runs, valuing every possession and will close it out.

[MixxAOR]

wtf

[Kagemusha]

Durant could have both Achilles torn and he’s still getting the max from every team that can offer it.

At the moment, technically, there are 32 players set to earn max money in 2018-19. Here they are, listed by the team who’s paying them that money:

• Stephen Curry, Golden State: $37,457,154
• Chris Paul, Houston: $35,654,150
• LeBron James, LA Lakers: $35,654,150
• Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City: $35,350,000
• Blake Griffin, Detroit: $31,873,932
• Gordon Hayward, Boston: $31,214,295
• Paul George, Oklahoma City: $30,560,700
• Mike Conley, Memphis: $30,521,115
• James Harden, Houston: $30,421,854
• Kevin Durant, Golden State: $30,000,000
• Al Horford, Boston: $28,928,710
• Chris Bosh, Miami: $26,837,720
• Otto Porter, Washington: $26,011,913
• Nikola Jokic, Denver: $25,467,250
• Andrew Wiggins, Minnesota: $25,467,520
• Anthony Davis, New Orleans: $25,434,263
• Bradley Beal, Washington: $25,434,262
• Andre Drummond, Detroit: $25,434,262
• Joel Embiid, Philadelphia: $25,250,000
• Hassan Whiteside, Miami: $24,434,262
• Kevin Love, Cleveland: $24,119,025
• Marc Gasol, Memphis: $24,119,025
• Chandler Parsons, Memphis: $24,107,258
• Harrison Barnes, Dallas: $24,107,258
• Kawhi Leonard, Toronto: $23,114,066
• LaMarcus Aldridge, San Antonio: $22,347,015
• Kyrie Irving, Boston: $20,099,189
• Jimmy Butler, Minnesota: $19,841,627
• Enes Kanter, New York: $18,622,514
• Wesley Matthews, Dallas: $18,622,513

https://hoopshype.com/2018/10/25/nba...max-contracts/

would you pay KD more than you would Kawhi?

[slaw]

Not trying to be glib S.R., but why is that clear? How do you know he wasn't told approximately that and just still wanted to play? I'd imagine the staff entirely would've informed him of the level of risk he might be taking. You think they just said, "Yup, you're good, have at 'er!" ... ?

Jalen Rose was talking today about the media and fan pressure to play and how people were maligning his character. You know that Durant scours social media, so you also know he heard all of the talk about how he was a quitter, etc. I think he wanted to play. I think the team wanted him to play. I think the organization wanted him to play. And I think the doctors and staff employed by that team felt pressure to give the 'right' diagnosis or the organization would find other doctors. As for second opinions, yes, that's an option. But a lot of these high profile guys rely on referrals from sports teams. If they keep telling those teams the worst news possible, then they stop getting referrals.

I'm not maligning all doctors here or suggesting that they are acting in bad faith or even negligently, I am just saying that a lot of this stuff is very nuanced and there might be several possible answers that are all defensible. When the pressure is there to come through on one side or another, it's not that hard to talk yourself into something, especially if the player is also telling a story that fits.

[Demographic Shift]

One team that I imagine is exiting the Durant sweepstakes right now is the Lakers; they're in win-now mode, and if Durant's 1-2 years getting back to full health, that's not going to work with their timelines or salary situation. I think there's definitely the possibility for a team like the Knicks to swoop in with a five year max where a lot of teams are going to balk because of the timeline or the uncertainty.

One place it does create a problem right now is that he needs to make his decision about opting out (which is now no longer a clear best decision) before free agency, and he's now less certain about what offers he's going to get. I expect teams like the Knicks to do their best to skirt the tampering rules to make it known that this injury doesn't change any of their plans regarding Durant in the offseason.

One team thats got to be wondering just what they did to merit their uninteruppted 30 year status as dog excrement in the NBA are the fabled New York Knicks....

They traded away a psuedo star player in the Zinger for cap space with the idea they would be able to land one kevin durant... and now... well now they once again look to be pretty much screwed....

They will draft RJ Barrett and I guess that helps.. but RJ as good as he might be .. is unlikely to be as good as Durant is in the here and now or maybe ever.....

The Meccas season ticket holders must be wanting to cut their wrists.

[GOLDBLUM]

No matter who cleared him and the fact that Durant had a say (or the primary say), obviously the medical diagnoses was completely off.

The original injury, a lot of people thought that was for sure an achilles. GS was so vague about it, some kind of strained calf? But clearly nobody told Kevin Durant "Hey, if you come back early, there's a ___% chance you tear your achilles in two and miss a year of basketball." But this happened pretty much as soon as he tried to actually plant and push off on that leg. I mean he was just kind of cruising around the floor before that taking jumpers. GS can cry all they want and all the kumbaya speeches are out in full force, but the main culprit here has to be the misdiagnoses/inaccurate assessment of the risk of an early return, and that's 100% on the team's medical staff.

Not trying to be glib S.R., but why is that clear? How do you know he wasn't told approximately that and just still wanted to play? I'd imagine the staff entirely would've informed him of the level of risk he might be taking. You think they just said, "Yup, you're good, have at 'er!" ... ?

[GOLDBLUM]

Nick's understandably taking a lot of flack for the timeout he took.

One thing on my brain that I haven't seen exactly articulated ... we've been taking care of Kawhi's health literally every possible step of the way this year. On one hand, that timeout 100% fucked our momentum and swung the game. On the other hand, to see KD go down and to know that Kawhi is definitely not 100 and then coming up to what could be the final, leave it all on the line push for victory, I hold some forgiveness for NN looking to get Kawhi a breather. You can say we let Curry and Klay catch their breath and roast us, and that's the truth, but better that than to have Kawhi pull up lame and end his season the way Durant ended his. Sure, it's an outlier of a situation that that would've happened, but I imagine on some even unconscious level, that was Nick's thinking. Not excusing it, just saying, not gonna crucify him. And we still have two more opportunities to deliver. I'm ok with kid gloves right to the finish line if it a) brings us a championship and b) convinces Kawhi that, unlike some other franchises, management and the coaching staff 100% has their players health and best interests in mind.

[S.R.]

No matter who cleared him and the fact that Durant had a say (or the primary say), obviously the medical diagnoses was completely off.

The original injury, a lot of people thought that was for sure an achilles. GS was so vague about it, some kind of strained calf? But clearly nobody told Kevin Durant "Hey, if you come back early, there's a ___% chance you tear your achilles in two and miss a year of basketball." But this happened pretty much as soon as he tried to actually plant and push off on that leg. I mean he was just kind of cruising around the floor before that taking jumpers. GS can cry all they want and all the kumbaya speeches are out in full force, but the main culprit here has to be the misdiagnoses/inaccurate assessment of the risk of an early return, and that's 100% on the team's medical staff.

[GOLDBLUM]

I think second (independent) opinions might catch on now. Kawhi got one and was slandered in the media and tossed under the bus by teammates. KD didn't and was seriously injured.

Yeah, this whole thing is extremely vindicating of Kawhi’s previous situation.

[Apollo]

I think second (independent) opinions might catch on now. Kawhi got one and was slandered in the media and tossed under the bus by teammates. KD didn't and was seriously injured.