Will IT get suspended? Update : no suspension

[fairweatherfan]

Man, an awful lot of rationalization going around this thread. 

IT's slap reminded me of when Rafer Alston slapped Eddie House in the head in 09:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3OuzKpQ3jM

Or Z-Bo smacking Steven Adams on their way up the court a couple years back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrrwkewwQ2w

Rafer and Zach got suspended and I expect IT will too.  I'd be happy to be wrong though.

[celtics2030]

Man, an awful lot of rationalization going around this thread. 

IT's slap reminded me of when Rafer Alston slapped Eddie House in the head in 09:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3OuzKpQ3jM

Or Z-Bo smacking Steven Adams on their way up the court a couple years back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrrwkewwQ2w

Rafer and Zach got suspended and I expect IT will too.  I'd be happy to be wrong though.

Lol what do you expect from a Celtics board? The green colored glasses are on.

[Who]

Man, an awful lot of rationalization going around this thread. 

IT's slap reminded me of when Rafer Alston slapped Eddie House in the head in 09:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3OuzKpQ3jM

Or Z-Bo smacking Steven Adams on their way up the court a couple years back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrrwkewwQ2w

Rafer and Zach got suspended and I expect IT will too.  I'd be happy to be wrong though.

If Stern was still the commissioner, I would expect IT would be suspended.

Under Silver, I am not so sure. Not sure he is as much a strict disciplinarian as Stern was. 

[fairweatherfan]

Man, an awful lot of rationalization going around this thread. 

IT's slap reminded me of when Rafer Alston slapped Eddie House in the head in 09:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3OuzKpQ3jM

Or Z-Bo smacking Steven Adams on their way up the court a couple years back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrrwkewwQ2w

Rafer and Zach got suspended and I expect IT will too.  I'd be happy to be wrong though.

If Stern was still the commissioner, I would expect IT would be suspended.

Under Silver, I am not so sure. Not sure he is as much a strict disciplinarian as Stern was.

I think Silver would've been the commish for the Randolph incident.  IT's smack definitely wasn't as severe but it seems like a difference of degree, not of kind.

Anyway I desperately hope IT gets a pass, I just don't think it's likely or that it's some kind of outrageous idea, it's very consistent with how the league has applied the rules in the past.

[Drucci]

Man, an awful lot of rationalization going around this thread. 

IT's slap reminded me of when Rafer Alston slapped Eddie House in the head in 09:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3OuzKpQ3jM

Or Z-Bo smacking Steven Adams on their way up the court a couple years back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrrwkewwQ2w

Rafer and Zach got suspended and I expect IT will too.  I'd be happy to be wrong though.

I agree with your examples but on the other hand, you also have Dwyane Wade who managed to get away (no foul and no suspension) for that elbow on Stephenson : https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=28&v=BBVK0CDo8O0

[jbpats]

If you suspend IT you need to set the bar today by suspending Draymond Green for the body slam the night before..

You let Green off with a slap on the wrist you can't then turnaround and suspend IT for less. Schroeders acting amplified this "slap" also.

Disciplinary action needs to be consistent especially when factoring in the magnitude of how detrimental a player is to their team.

[kozlodoev]

FWIW, there is this:

Ben Rohrbach ‏@brohrbach  13m13 minutes ago
Former NBA VP of Operations Stu Jackson told @NBATV he believes it's clear Isaiah Thomas will be suspended for Game 4.

[manl_lui]

that's a very grey area in my opinion. What some people said, IT is not a dirty player, so he'll probably get a fine or some sort of slap on the wrist for that. But I am really hoping he will not be suspended

[crownsy]

It looks to me IT did it on purpose, but he didn't hit him hard enough to warrant a suspension.

The problem is the rule says you take the swipe, your done. "hard enough" doesn't come into it.

I'm hoping the NBA considers the totality of the circumstances, and by that I don't just mean "well, we make more money if it's a series"

It was quite clear, from the moment Schroinder checked in with the Hawks down big, that he had clear marching orders from the coaching staff to try to draw T's out of Isiah and also don't be afraid to walk the flagrant line on hard fouls with Thomas, to both (1) try to get him a T so he'll be less aggressive/ maybe we can get him a cheap second one and (2) if you  rattle him with hard/flagrant fouls, or put him out of the game, that's a great trade for us. 

[loco_91]

Wow. If that gets you suspended these days... 

[mahonedog88]

Something I posted in the story on this, but still applies here...

Windhorst now on ESPN with 4 reasons why he thinks it's "likely" that IT gets suspended
1.) He knows it’s ridiculous, but the specific contact in question can be interpreted as "closed fist" by the league

2.) Before the playoffs started, the league sent out a memo to all teams warning that they were gonna have low tolerance for plays like that, so that memo will be deemed the warning

3.) Reportedly the refs looked at the play at halftime and then later apologized to Schroeder saying "we’re sorry, we missed that one"

4.) Because of all of the controversy last year with this team with Love, Olynyk, JR Smith, and Crowder, they’re gonna want to set precedent that they were serious about that memo.

Given what Stu Jackson said, now Windhorst, how it’s one of the lead stories on ESPN.com…there’s like, a real possibility now that Thomas could be gone for game 4. I’m starting to convince myself now that it actually will happen, that way it’ll hurt a little less if they do announce it.

[hwangjini_1]

Man, an awful lot of rationalization going around this thread. 

IT's slap reminded me of when Rafer Alston slapped Eddie House in the head in 09:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3OuzKpQ3jM

Or Z-Bo smacking Steven Adams on their way up the court a couple years back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrrwkewwQ2w

Rafer and Zach got suspended and I expect IT will too.  I'd be happy to be wrong though.

geez, you watched these and think they resemble what IT did? we obviously have very different standards of what constitutes a "smack." 

[hwangjini_1]

Something I posted in the story on this, but still applies here...

Windhorst now on ESPN with 4 reasons why he thinks it's "likely" that IT gets suspended
1.) He knows it’s ridiculous, but the specific contact in question can be interpreted as "closed fist" by the league

2.) Before the playoffs started, the league sent out a memo to all teams warning that they were gonna have low tolerance for plays like that, so that memo will be deemed the warning

3.) Reportedly the refs looked at the play at halftime and then later apologized to Schroeder saying "we’re sorry, we missed that one"

4.) Because of all of the controversy last year with this team with Love, Olynyk, JR Smith, and Crowder, they’re gonna want to set precedent that they were serious about that memo.

Given what Stu Jackson said, now Windhorst, how it’s one of the lead stories on ESPN.com…there’s like, a real possibility now that Thomas could be gone for game 4. I’m starting to convince myself now that it actually will happen, that way it’ll hurt a little less if they do announce it.

adding to all this may be the fact that the refs last night let the game get out of hand and had to reign in some violent plays by issuing flagrant fouls. it was a physical game, more than it should have been.

[Redz]

How many more T's does he have before the automatic one game suspension?

[fairweatherfan]

Man, an awful lot of rationalization going around this thread. 

IT's slap reminded me of when Rafer Alston slapped Eddie House in the head in 09:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3OuzKpQ3jM

Or Z-Bo smacking Steven Adams on their way up the court a couple years back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrrwkewwQ2w

Rafer and Zach got suspended and I expect IT will too.  I'd be happy to be wrong though.

geez, you watched these and think they resemble what IT did? we obviously have very different standards of what constitutes a "smack." 

Like I said, the difference is in degree, not in kind.  All 3 are deliberate swings to the head area in a non-basketball play.  It's not like Alston's hit had any chance of causing injury either, but deliberate swings to the head get suspensions. 

So yes, they do "resemble" each other, in that they're the same type of play at different levels of severity.  And the NBA only seems to care much about severity when it comes to deciding how long to suspend for head hits on non-basketball plays, not whether to suspend.

And again, I'm not talking about what I want to happen or what I think is appropriate.  I'm talking about what the league is likely to do based on past incidents.  They're likely to suspend.  I hope they don't.