Wiz @ Raps

[DogeLover1234]

It's not the fans. Like it or not, Masai put the edict out there and it's a championship or bust season - which means nobody is supposed to be happy just having a great regular season yet again. Yawn. With this team, specifically, I think fans are concerned because it looks dis-jointed so often, despite what appears to be superior talent, IQ & character. The execution can be way off, making us look like a low lottery team at times, and we really don't know if that problem is going to be ironed out in time for the playoffs. Gasol could be a key to that, which would confirm the fanbase's reason to have angst at where we are now, despite the superb regular season record.

We've seen this movie a few times before, so looking through the championship-or-bust lens, being not totally happy or satisifed where we are right now is a completely reasonable fan stance.

I totally agree, this team should be judged on playoff success and there is cause for concern. However, every good team goes through a lot of bad stretches and there is a lot of change to this team, especially on the fly to adjust to. Im not going to be super concerned until the stretch run after the all star break. Totally fair to be concerned mind you, I just don’t think the team has gotten much to go their way from injuries to shooting slumps to personal time off, its hard to say how good this team will be come may.

[Zak24gege]

No Kawhi tonite, knee.

[Jangles]

Kawhi is pretty soft... Want the guy on the team and it's better to be cautious, but damn.

[golden]

Kawhi is pretty soft... Want the guy on the team and it's better to be cautious, but damn.

DNP-Snow is the real reason. He gone.

[KeonClark]

DNP-Snow is the real reason. He gone.

Does he have to go through it to get to work?

[GLF]

Kawhi is pretty soft... Want the guy on the team and it's better to be cautious, but damn.

The thing is people keep saying this and then if he were to aggravate the injury more by playing to please fans y'all would be pissed because we would be fucked for the playoffs. We need him healthy for the playoffs. He can be as soft as he wants just as long as once playoffs arrive this stops. And I fully believe it will because he keeps talking about being ready for April May and June

[Jangles]

The thing is people keep saying this and then if he were to aggravate the injury more by playing to please fans y'all would be pissed because we would be fucked for the playoffs. We need him healthy for the playoffs. He can be as soft as he wants just as long as once playoffs arrive this stops. And I fully believe it will because he keeps talking about being ready for April May and June

If minor contact or a hard foul or a dive for a loose ball here and there is enough to be this precautionary about a guy who is 27 then is he even worth having around long term? Of course you want to be cautious but slaw has been pointing out the importance of chemistry with the team heading into this playoff run. Kawhi still looks like he's on an island on offence on way too many possessions.

[Zak24gege]

DNP-Snow is the real reason. He gone.

To me, he looks like he just doesn't want to be here - like he has checked out mentally. But WTF do I know...it' his actions and slumping look that has me concerned. Hope I'm totally wrong.

[slaw]

No thanks! Take a chance of making the knee injury worse so he's no good in the playoffs, or miss a largely meaningless game against the freaking Wizards... Hmm. Such a tough decision...

There's a difference between a guy sitting games at the start of a season coming off of a serious, long term injury the previous year and a guy not wanting to play in February cause his leg is sore. Sorry, suck it up princess. Every single player on that team has sore knees, backs, ankles, wrists, etc. and they are going to suit up. When your best player only plays when he wants it's a problem not only morale-wise but for team performance. Tick tock, tick tock, the season is running out, they've got a substantially changed roster in the last week and their most important player is still almost completely compartmentalized from the rest of the offence. But I'm sure it will all just magically come together in game 1 of the playoffs.

[Zak24gege]

Masai on Fan 590 6pm.

[Zak24gege]

Masai on Fan 590 6pm.

hinting about an announcement?

[Jclaw]

Kawhi is pretty soft... Want the guy on the team and it's better to be cautious, but damn.

This may sound crazy but it's possible he missed all of last season because of a bad knee. If that's the case and I'd sure be cautious if he had any knee soreness. It could be Brandon Roy type stuff (hopefully not)

[GOLDBLUM]

There's a difference between a guy sitting games at the start of a season coming off of a serious, long term injury the previous year and a guy not wanting to play in February cause his leg is sore. Sorry, suck it up princess. Every single player on that team has sore knees, backs, ankles, wrists, etc. and they are going to suit up. When your best player only plays when he wants it's a problem not only morale-wise but for team performance. Tick tock, tick tock, the season is running out, they've got a substantially changed roster in the last week and their most important player is still almost completely compartmentalized from the rest of the offence. But I'm sure it will all just magically come together in game 1 of the playoffs.

I'm glad at least your showing some optimism in your last sentence. That is, unless you meant to use the pink font.

Don't mean to be rude ....but you sound like the princess. The guy is a SUPERSTAR. Our first. EVER. He left his former team, a respected dynasty with the greatest coach of all time (apologies to the Red Auerbach fans in the house) because he didn't feel they took his health seriously. People were shaking in their boots here fearing he would never suit up for us. He has. We're winning, it's all happening. The only thing we need to do is keep him happy and healthy and ready to win when -- in his own words (approx) "It actually fucking matters." -- we do all that and MAYBE we have a chance at signing one of the premier players in the game long term and competing for a championship for YEARS to come, instead of diving back to mediocrity like some people here seem so eager to do. Sure, it's frustrating that we're not as cohesive as we'd like to be - yet. Being tied with four other teams for 2nd best odds to win the title is not quite as nice as being the only team with 2nd place odds. If I was Masai I'd be like an irritated parent with this line of talk though -- "I made you a beautiful effing dinner and all you do is complain." (... to be clear, I did not make you dinner.) Maybe our chemistry will never fully gel and we'll fizzle out part way along the road... that'd really suck. But better this path than mishandling Leonard and getting him hurt -- be it his legs or his princess feelings.

Totally respect your posts on a regular but people hammering this line of thinking is growing wearisome to me.

[Mitchell Duong]

The fan in me would rather see Kawhi play. He might only be here this year and it would suck to see him miss a quarter of it. Especially, when we're talking about chemistry, and the only way to get that is playing time in the era of no practicing.

I guess I'd rather see him go full bore in the playoffs. Hopefully, he does.

[Scraptor]

Oladipo kept playing on a sore knee and tore his goddamn quad tendon. You just don't risk it during meaningless regular season games. If if was an elbow or a shoulder then I might be a little less sympathetic but you don't mess around with knees and ankles.

Let's also not forget that the quad tendinopathy might lead to compensatory problems as his body gets used to the rigors of a full season back. I have no problem with Kawhi sitting whenever he feels it's necessary. It's his body, he can tell if something's not right better than any of us.