Betrayer

Cade and Luka both got approved for their Extraordinary Circumstances Challenges. Both are eligible for awards.

Orlando or Charlotte. Basically, do we want our players injured or suspended?

NBA couldn't have asked for a better start to the post-season. Both of those games were really good, tight matchups, with drama all the way until the end. That said, I have no idea how the refs don't review that cheap shot by Ball. He should've been ejected from the game. During a dead-ball you can look at a previous three pointer to make sure the guy was behind the line, but you can't review a potential hostile act that takes out a team's best player? That's insane.

Agreed, the later rounds are rough. I love the first couple round where there are multiple games on every night and I'm glued to my tv.

I really wanted NYK in our bracket. CLE is a pretty bad matchup for us. I think that's going to be a tight second round series that could go either way.

Award eligibility watch: Ausar now has 63 games over 20 minutes. You can also include a maximum of 2 games in the 15-20 minute range and he has those as well. He now qualifies for awards. Cade has 62 qualifying games (soon to be 63). He has zero games between 15-20 minutes, so he can't use that rule. There's an exception for players who suffer a "Season Ending Injury" that takes them out through May 31st. Cade also wouldn't qualify for that, which is silly because it shouldn't matter when the significant injury occurred. You can file a "Grievance" if the eligibility for awards could affect your next contract and you can prove the team stopped you from playing to save money. Obviously that doesn't apply to Cade. There's also an "Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge". From what I've read online it sounds like the "circumstances" aren't defined in the contract and it's left open, so this is the angle the team will likely try to take. I doubt it will work for an injury, but it's worth a shot. This is also the angle Luka will go for due to his child being born.

This is a silly move, imo. I just can't understand why you take this risk after everything you've worked for this season.

26-27: 58M 27-28: 62M 28-29 67M (Player Option) Paul George also has two more years at around 50M. Combined that about 70% of the cap. The also don't own their first round picks in 2 of the next 3 years (or something like that). Sorry, Philly. You're gonna be bad for a while.

Risacher might be re-living the Killian Hayes timeline.

If I'm JB, I'm resting Cade, Duren, and Stew this game. It's not worth risking suspensions or injuries against a team full of criminals that really has nothing to lose and would be happy to hit you a lit harder or goad you a little further in order to weaken a potential first round opponent.

I suppose the doctors know best, but it seems silly for him to play at all. He's not eligible for awards no matter what at this point and if he doesn't play in the regular season that's another week and a half off before the playoffs start. He can work his way into shape in the first round. Stew on the other hand hasn't played in forever and isn't dealing with an organ injury - I'd like to see him get a game in.

Maybe this will make the league look at the 65 game rule more closely. They won't do it for Cade, but for their anointed darling it should create some serious talk. I don't mind the spirit of the rule deterring players from "load management" but in it's current state there are a lot of problems with it. All League teams, legitimate injuries, salary ramifications, and so on.

Glad to hear Stew upgraded to questionable. Not gonna lie, the Tolu Smith signing had me worried.

I imagine Harris and Robinson will get some rest in the final 4 games. Duren might sit out one or two of them as well. No reason to rest Daniss, Holland, Huerter or anyone else. I doubt Ausar will rest since he's trying to qualify for offseason awards. I highly doubt we'll see Cade, but I wonder about Stew. Seems like it might be good to get him a game or two to get back in the groove. Of course, playing Stew and/or Duren in the Charlotte matchup seems like a bad idea after what happened last time. We don't need any suspensions.

That second half was so fun. Philly had 60 in the first half. They scored just 33 in the second half.