Race for Ping Pong Balls

[RookieStar]

Appears the Magic won't have MCW on Friday. I know he's been a whipping boy on this board all year, but not having him is actually beneficial to the tank.

https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/basketball/news/magics-michael-carter-williams-out-with-sprained-ankle/

Hmmm can cole and rj out tank flynn and fvv? Im just hoping for a Birch revenge gane against wcj

[PrimeThyme]

The NBA honestly doesn't have any ground to stand on with this being a condensed season. Teams are just going to rest players, && it's hard to make a real argument against it. Hardly any fans are in the stands to begin with.

[MartinsIzAfraud]

The NBA honestly doesn't have any ground to stand on with this being a condensed season. Teams are just going to rest players, && it's hard to make a real argument against it. Hardly any fans are in the stands to begin with.

We’ll push for wins in the last 2 weeks while players are sat.

[thelead]

The NBA honestly doesn't have any ground to stand on with this being a condensed season. Teams are just going to rest players, && it's hard to make a real argument against it. Hardly any fans are in the stands to begin with.

Why does Lowry need to rest? He has played ONE game in over 2 weeks and hasn't played in their last 2... it's ridiculous than there is no justifying it.

[basketballRob]

I really think Chuma should rest for precautions. He's been playing a lot of minutes.

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[Nyce_1]

Appears the Magic won't have MCW on Friday. I know he's been a whipping boy on this board all year, but not having him is actually beneficial to the tank.

https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/basketball/news/magics-michael-carter-williams-out-with-sprained-ankle/

Yeah, with no one else to run the offense, it definitely helps the tank.

[basketballRob]

Cleveland plays Chicago a couple times in the next week, they could possibly overtake them. Chicago's schedule is brutal. I think they end up at 7.


https://www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/chi

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[PrimeThyme]

Why does Lowry need to rest? He has played ONE game in over 2 weeks and hasn't played in their last 2... it's ridiculous than there is no justifying it.

35 years old, tons of playoff miles under him including a semi-finals run last year that ended in them losing a game 7, condensed season, contract year, && he's dealt with injuries all season. It's pretty easily justified honestly.

Teams (both tanking and non) are going to do this the rest of the way and expect no repercussions.

[thelead]

Why does Lowry need to rest? He has played ONE game in over 2 weeks and hasn't played in their last 2... it's ridiculous than there is no justifying it.

35 years old, tons of playoff miles under him including a semi-finals run last year that ended in them losing a game 7, condensed season, contract year, && he's dealt with injuries all season. It's pretty easily justified honestly.

Teams (both tanking and non) are going to do this the rest of the way and expect no repercussions.

ONE game in 16+ days and almost a week since his last game. Your/their 'excuse' is BS and you know it. He's not 80 years old and will be looking for another contract this summer. He's not injured. 'Rest' is not an excuse. It's blatant tanking.

[Knightro]

I'm not convinced the Raptors won't win tomorrow anyway.

I have a sneaking feeling that Flynn, who has been excellent the last 8 games when he finally started playing, and VanVleet are going to make Anthony and Hampton's lives a living hell.

[PrimeThyme]

ONE game in 16+ days and almost a week since his last game. Your/their 'excuse' is BS and you know it. He's not 80 years old and will be looking for another contract this summer. He's not injured. 'Rest' is not an excuse. It's blatant tanking.

I do not believe the Raptors are tanking. That's where we differ. I have no reason to make excuses for the Raptors, I'm just trying to tell you the realities of the condensed season but you're not ready to accept it yet. Which is fine.

You're in for a long rest of the season, however.

[Knightro]

To the best of my knowledge, tomorrow's game is the first time the Raptors have actively rested multiple healthy players.

They have been playing their best guys major minutes up until now. Siakam and Anunoby have been playing 35 minutes a night.

[basketballRob]

To the best of my knowledge, tomorrow's game is the first time the Raptors have actively rested multiple healthy players.

They have been playing their best guys major minutes up until now. Siakam and Anunoby have been playing 35 minutes a night.

They give them every other game off. When they play, they're shorthanded and Nurse has to play them big minutes. Nurse is trying to win, but he's not making the calls on who plays. 100% of the Raptors fans think they're tanking.

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[Knightro]

They give them every other game off. When they play, they're shorthanded and Nurse has to play them big minutes. Nurse is trying to win, but he's not making the calls on who plays. 100% of the Raptors fans think they're tanking.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Most fans are pretty dumb for the most part.

Here's what I think happened.

I think the Raptors 100% expected to trade Lowry at the deadline. But they overplayed their hand and they got left holding the bag when Philadelphia and Miami went different directions trading for George Hill and Victor Oladipo.

At that point, with Lowry clearly not a part of their future, I think the team and player mutually agreed to basically stop playing him/play him a lot less. He's only played 2 games since.

But he's the only guy they've actively been sitting.

VanVleet, Trent Jr. and Bembry all appear to have had legitimate injuries. But beyond those three, everyone else has been playing.

Siakam has only missed 1 of the last 16.
Anunoby has only missed 2 of the last 16.
Boucher has played every game.

[KillMonger]

Toronto is tanking. We need to match that.

Read on Twitter

?s=19

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FFS

Not even trying to make it seem legit, these guys are healthy....I mean is it a coincidence that they are sitting pretty much all their key players against us tomorrow? trying to ensure a loss, and even then they still might win

[thelead]

They might as well just give every lotto team the same odds. If all these teams actually tried to win games, they would have roughly similar records to each other anyway. And if you can’t build a team that can win at least ~25 games in a season, you shouldn’t be rewarded better odds to land a transcendent player.

[Knightro]

They might as well just give every lotto team the same odds. If all these teams actually tried to win games, they would have roughly similar records to each other anyway. And if you can’t build a team that can win at least ~25 games in a season, you shouldn’t be rewarded better odds to land a transcendent player.

What I think would be fun would be a "play in" tournament at the bottom of the standings.

Take the 8 worst teams and do a single elimination tournament to determine final draft order.

So this year it would be...

Wolves v. Raptors - Rockets v. Wizards
Pistons v. Cavs - Magic v. Thunder

Since the worst 8 teams would all have a shot at the top pick, there would be much less tanking other than to staying in the bottom 8, but the teams vying to be in the bottom 8 would still be close enough to the top 10 the other way that they could sneak into the playoff play in with a hot streak late in the year.

Ultimately, it would reward winning over losing which is certainly something the NBA would want.

[KillMonger]

They might as well just give every lotto team the same odds. If all these teams actually tried to win games, they would have roughly similar records to each other anyway. And if you can’t build a team that can win at least ~25 games in a season, you shouldn’t be rewarded better odds to land a transcendent player.

What I think would be fun would be a "play in" tournament at the bottom of the standings.

Take the 8 worst teams and do a single elimination tournament to determine final draft order.

So this year it would be...

Wolves v. Raptors - Rockets v. Wizards
Pistons v. Cavs - Magic v. Thunder

Since the worst 8 teams would all have a shot at the top pick, there would be much less tanking other than to staying in the bottom 8, but the teams vying to be in the bottom 8 would still be close enough to the top 10 the other way that they could sneak into the playoff play in with a hot streak late in the year.

Ultimately, it would reward winning over losing which is certainly something the NBA would want.

I like this idea....certainly better than what we're witnessing now....some injuries? They may be legit....but i feel for a good amount of these guys "resting" if the game mattered they would be playing

[thelead]

They might as well just give every lotto team the same odds. If all these teams actually tried to win games, they would have roughly similar records to each other anyway. And if you can’t build a team that can win at least ~25 games in a season, you shouldn’t be rewarded better odds to land a transcendent player.

What I think would be fun would be a "play in" tournament at the bottom of the standings.

Take the 8 worst teams and do a single elimination tournament to determine final draft order.

So this year it would be...

Wolves v. Raptors - Rockets v. Wizards
Pistons v. Cavs - Magic v. Thunder

Since the worst 8 teams would all have a shot at the top pick, there would be much less tanking other than to staying in the bottom 8, but the teams vying to be in the bottom 8 would still be close enough to the top 10 the other way that they could sneak into the playoff play in with a hot streak late in the year.

Ultimately, it would reward winning over losing which is certainly something the NBA would want.

I like this idea....certainly better than what we're witnessing now....some injuries? They may be legit....but i feel for a good amount of these guys "resting" if the game mattered they would be playing

I’ve been giving this idea some thought as well. I like the idea but would likely need some tweaking for the likes of Chicago who could ‘tank’ their way into the bottom 8 and try to win the tournament to keep their pick.

[GelbeWand09]

After last night's impressive win and good play by the current squad, I am a bit worried about our lottery odds.

Less Bamba = Less tanking
Mo Bamba = Mo' tanking

We need our worst player back on the court and less on the injured list. We need his defense and rebounding skills to help us secure some losses.

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Our worst player is your golden boy. You should really stop doing your childish Bamba/Cole posts. There is a really high chance, Cole is gonna be more hated here than Bamba in 1-2 years when he takes a ton of shots away from our new toys, while being highly inefficient.
That you cant handle critic we see this season already when you vanish after every bad Cole game for days, despite his rookie puppy protection this year.