NBA Season 2024-25

[SparzWizard]

The West is so good that the 8th seed is a .545 team while our East's 7th and 8th seeds are both sub .500 teams. Yeesh.

[Redz]

Does anyone know the specifics of the rule Utah got fined for for not playing Markannen?  What is the level of medical proof that a player is legitimately hurt or well enough to play?

[Who]

Does anyone know the specifics of the rule Utah got fined for for not playing Markannen?  What is the level of medical proof that a player is legitimately hurt or well enough to play?

They were sitting him against teams with bad records in order to try to lose them. And playing him agains teams with good records because they knew they would lose the game whether he played or not.

That is what I read anyway.

[Donoghus]

Does anyone know the specifics of the rule Utah got fined for for not playing Markannen?  What is the level of medical proof that a player is legitimately hurt or well enough to play?

Independent doctor.

From Yahoo.

The violation occurred when the Jazz failed to make Lauri Markkanen, a star player under the Policy, available for the team's game against the Washington Wizards on March 5 at Capital One Arena, as well as other recent games.

Not so coincidentally, Markkanen is available Wednesday night when the Jazz take on the Grizzlies. The escalation of fines for violating the Player Participation Policy climb fast: a second Jazz offense would cost $250,000, a third violation $1.25 million, a fourth violation $2.25 million.

Most of the time, discussion of the Player Participation Policy is focused on players being available for televised games. However, one section of the policy reads:

Teams must refrain from any long-term shutdown (or near shutdown) whereby a star player ceases participating in games or begins to play a materially reduced role in circumstances affecting the integrity of the game.

While the Jazz have listed Markkanen as out due to back issues for these nine games, an independent doctor reviews the medical records and determines whether the Jazz (or any team) is following the rules. In this case, the Jazz were just doing this to tank, which cost them.

[Who]

About a week ago, Giannis passed the 20,000 career points threshold. Impressive. He has 20k points, 8k rebounds, 4k assists and almost 1k steals (50 short) and 1k blocks.

Giannis just turned 30 earlier this season so he is going to have a number of seasons still to come where he is racking up big totals. 30k points, 12k rebounds, 6k assists, 2k steals, 2k blocks ??

-----------------------------------------------

According to StatMuse, there are 11 players all time with 20k points 8k rebounds 4k assists. Wilt, Hondo, Kareem, Barkley, Bird, K Malone, KG, Duncan, LeBron, Westbrook, Giannis. Already some impressive company for Giannis.

If Giannis can get to 10k rebounds which he surely will, that will remove Bird, Westbrook and Hondo from the equation. Down to 8 players.

If Giannis can get to 6k assists, only 3 of the 11 have done that. LeBron, Westbrook, Hondo.

The points are interesting. 9 of the 11 have over 25k. Only Barkley and Bird below that marker. Then you have Westbrook, KG, Hondo, Duncan in the 25,000 to 26,500 points range. The other 5 are all above 30k. Very good chance Giannis passes all those guys below 26.5k points.


Maybe 2k steals 2k blocks is too high an ask given Giannis' age. Lets trim it down to 1500 each. Only 2 players have ever done that - Hakeem & KG.

[Phantom255x]

LOL I think the NBA is getting sick of players load managing or resting now.

Utah was fined 100K for sitting out Markannen when he could have played some games recently. But now according to Shams, they are investigating the Thunder and Sixers as well for violating league's player participation policy. They are looking into Maxey and George's injuries/availabilities. And apparently a week ago OKC sat all five of their starters against POR, and NBA is investigating them on that. 

[SparzWizard]

Cavaliers devoured the Grizzlies tonight. Eeeesh.

[SparzWizard]

Shorthanded Lakers without LeBron, Luka, Hayes, Rui, DFS, Vincent are really hanging around with the Nuggets at Denver.

This should be a lopsided win for Denver but I guess not. I just don't see how the Nuggets will beat a healthy Lakers squad in a 7 game series.

[Phantom255x]

Yeah this is an impressive effort from the Lakers. Maybe this time around they have Denver?s number finally

[SparzWizard]

Yeah this is an impressive effort from the Lakers. Maybe this time around they have Denver?s number finally

Lakers up 108-105 with 6:40 to go. Wow

[SparzWizard]

Yeah this is an impressive effort from the Lakers. Maybe this time around they have Denver?s number finally

Lakers up 108-105 with 6:40 to go. Wow

Nice, Nuggets survived. Not good though if they barely hung on.

[Who]

Ant's shooting stats are starting to get impressive

44.2% FG% on 20 FGA
40.6% 3PT% on 10 3PTA

So if half his attempts are from 3, the other half are from 2 and he is shooting just under 50% on them at 48-49%. On top of that, Ant is shooting 83.5% from the foul line on 6 attempts a night. Another good shooting mark.

I am a bit disappointed an athlete like Ant is only getting to the line 6 times a night though. He should be trying for 8+ like SGA does. Like MJ did. I guess all those 3s make that difficult. I wish they would change the free throw rate stat from FGAs/FTA to (FGAs - 3PTAs)/FTA because you hardly ever get fouled on 3s. Ant's FTs to 2 point FGA look strong.

His TS% is 59%. A good but not great mark. League average is around 57.5%.

4.6 assists to 3.3 turnovers. Not great = especially for Minny who have no other primary playmakers. Conley too old and limited. Randle is the next best guy. Dillingham still strugglin for minutes. Other wings more basic passers. So they rely heavily on Ant for playmaking. Too heavily. They need to get him more help. He is not a point forward. He is a scorer who can pass some. Different thing.

[Donoghus]

This is pretty wild. 96% of PHI's payroll is hurt right now.

[Phantom255x]

There's a very real chance the Mavericks will have to forfeit games later this season. You need to have 8 available players in a game, and the Mavs are getting decimated by injuries. Exum the latest with a hand fracture.

[Donoghus]

There's a very real chance the Mavericks will have to forfeit games later this season. You need to have 8 available players in a game, and the Mavs are getting decimated by injuries. Exum the latest with a hand fracture.

Yeah, I saw Keith Smith tweeting about this earlier.  It's a wild situation.  They can't sign any two way contracts since we're past the deadline for that,  can't convert a two way to an open roster spot until April 10th and don't have any room to sign anyone under the first apron hard cap. 

Crazy scenario here.