TWolves looking to put this game to bed and maybe the series
Randle has had a great series. Looks like that blockbuster trade worked out well for both teams
Be crazy if they meet in the finals.
I know itâs a different matchup, but as I said a week or so ago, I came away feeling a lot better about the Pistons. Iâm in the camp of not breaking up the young core to trade for a star. Let them play together next season and see where theyâre at.
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The money to pay guys $40 million/year has to come from somewhere. Professional sports seasons are never going to be shortened.
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I think he was just saying he is ok with players doing load management and maybe playing 60 out of 82 games.
NBA tries to prevent it because fans get mad when they buy tickets to take their kids to see Lebron and he sits out.
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if I were the Spurs today, Iâd be quietly cursing myself a little bit that I traded all that for Fox
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Looking at a guy like jokic who barely trains in off season and like never misses games, you have to wonder how much of this is due to the insane off season workouts most players do these days.
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I donât get how it could be harder now than it was in the 80âs or 90âs when players logged as many minutes in a more physical game and many (most?) teams flew commercial.
One thing that I can think of that did change since then is most of the players in that era wore high or mid-tops and now itâs low or mid instead. I donât know if thereâs any correlation. Tatum wears mids. KD was wearing mids. Kobe mids. DeMarcus Cousins mid. Brandon Jennings, looks like a pretty low cut. Billups was wearing a fairly high cut, though lower in the back. And Isiah Thomas had switched to a mid-top for the latter half of his career, which was ended by an Achilles tear.
Jennings and Cousins tore theirs well before the all-star break and Billupsâ came just before the break.
It could all be a coincidence since hardly anyone wears a high top anymore. But I doubt itâs because the players are logging more tough miles.
A commonality is that they all were players who logged a lot of minutes as starters. However, Iâm sure more starters suffer all kinds of injuries more often than bench guys because theyâre out of the court more with more opportunities to get hurt. A pinch-hitter also isnât likely to lead MLB in HRâs or HBPâs.
I love Jokic, and think heâs the best player in the league, but I think you see lots of these tendon and ligament injuries happening on âhigh-twitchâ moves under fatigue, and Iâm not sure Jokic has a single high-twitch fiber in his body.
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I donât think physicality really influences most of these. Itâs not like Dame or Tatum tore their achilles because they got nailed by somebody.
I think, given the space of the game, these guys need to cover far more ground far more quickly than they ever did before. I think a number of these are also cascade injuries - Durant had other lower leg injuries on the same leg prior to blowing his, same as Klay. Lillard had just rushed back from basically being sedentary for weeks.
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Feels like a more obvious answer than footwear is that players are just way more athletic and explosive than they were in the 80s and 90s which puts more stress on the body?
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In the scope of things, at least, I donât think Tatum is going to cost us much THIS playoffs. The Celtics were well on their way to losing last night, and at 3-1 were prohibitive underdogs in the series.
That said, a final four of Indiana, New York, Minnesota, and Denver would be pretty fâing wild (obviously, that Denver slot is a major toss-up still) given that three teams really dominated this regular season, and there is a pretty decent chance none of them make the conference semis.
Sort of pulling for Knicks/TWolves just because you rarely get such a clean âwho won the trade?â resolution.
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I was a little hesitant on the idea of trading for Fox for this exact reason. At the time, they were going to potentially have 3 lottery picks (and Chicagoâs pick would have ended up conveying based on last nightâs results). The philosophy all along has been to build like the Thunder by drafting a lot of positionally versatile players. It feels like adding some combination of Harper and two wings/forwards (Carter Bryant and Rasheer Fleming?) to the pre-Fox team would have opened the door to them being on their way towards having that type of core.
I think they felt legitimate pressure, real or not, to put a winning team around Victor ASAP given his size and the inherent risk that comes from him being that large of a human being. Iâm sure they also weighed the fact that not many players actually want to be in SA and Fox was happy to come to the Spurs.
Idk what they decide to do with the pick, but Givony floated the idea of them trading back. Would they consider trading back with Utah or Brooklyn if Lauri or Cam Johnson were involved? Then they could use 5/8 and 14 on two more wings/forwards? I believe that Harper is good enough that Iâd take him and worry about the fit later, but itâs an interesting debate.
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The only guys that make sense to me, from a value perspective, at that slot are Harper and Edgecombe. Harper is a hat on a hat there, and unless you really want to see VJ playing the three or something (I donât) he is as well.
Itâs sort of a bummer because I sort of think that four years from now, Harper and Edgecombe will be a lot better than Fox and Castle.
Given their roster build, a guy like Knueppel I think makes lots of sense as a fit, but I hate drafting for fit, and how much value will they get for dropping 2 slots?
In other news, I think âourâ Magic need to really pray Will Riley falls there as a shooter. I see the Bulls are getting mocked to Egor Demin, which, like, how many Josh Giddeyâs do we need?! I think one is too many!
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That and the wear and tear from AAU/EYBL ball has to take toll on their body. Wasnât there a study or an article stating that most playerâs knees and/or ankles are equivalent to people in the 40s/50s a few years ago? I swear there was an ESPN article about it or was that a Sinbad effect from my brain?
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I donât think Fox being on the team bears on their choice to take Harper at all. Harper is nearly a decade younger than Fox and you have Wemby.
This Spurs team needs talent. Castleâs median outcome still isnât obviously playoff starter and heâs the only guy who will be under 25 other than Wemby youâd guess will eventually be a league average player. Ending up with 5 and 8 puts you in pretty much the same spot from a âchance at a playoff starterâ perspective assuming Harper is a typical number 2. But heâs probably better than that.
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This is my thought. Ligaments and tendons donât grow and strengthen the same way as muscles. They will obviously get stronger, but when youâre adding muscle and more explosive movements with heavier weight, the tendons and ligaments are going to lag behind and be under more stress.
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I completely agree. As bullish as I am about Castle, heâs probably going top out as a really effective 6th man unless the jump shot really comes around. Having him on the team shouldnât prohibit them from taking a lead guard, especially since heâs probably more of a 2 with a chance to play the 3 with his build/physicality.
The Fox aspect is difficult bc they clearly have a plan to sign him to an extension, and that was likely a contingent factor in the trade. Is he worth $60M/year? Most likely not since heâs only been an all-star once in his career.
As you said, the Spurs need talent. Itâs unfathomable in my mind to pass on a lead guard with all-star potential unless that pick is part of a Giannis trade package.