I have nothing against Lillard. I’m not sure that contract is ever going to look good when you get to the last 2 years of it.
My reference to the Clips being “pitiful” is that, in nearly a half-century of existence (first in Buffalo, then in San Diego, before settling in L.A.) that team has never made it past the conference semifinals. That’s pretty bad. Naaaah - I’m not gonna “sugar coat” it - that’s REALLY bad. (plus there was the matter of G.S. blowing that 30+ point lead against the Clips in Game 2 of that series. One of the least foreseeable outcomes of all time in a sports contest, I am sure)
He’s only 28 and is in tremendous physical condition and is a team leader that is the envy of most coaches. Anything can happen, of course. In four years he’ll be 32 and maybe looking at getting out of the game before his skills seriously degrade. He’ll be so freaking rich that he won’t need to continue to take the inevitable toll that pro sports inflicts on a player in his 30s. Right now, he’s a big fish in a small franchise. Why give that up to maybe end up just another shooter on a team loaded with them?
For once it’s nice top see the Raps win a game with something called depth, as Kawhi brings in only 19 points. I have no problem if he has more “weak” games like this if it means the whole team can rally to be competitive. Ibaka definitely made his presence known.
Cool that we actually have a series now.
Maybe, but his current contract doesn’t end for two years after this one. He will be 31 when he starts his supermax and the history of guards aging well isn’t a great one. Aside from that, you need to give CJ McCollum and Nurkic a raise at the exact same time. That doesn’t give you much room to fill out a roster. Is this core going to win you a championship? Maybe, but I highly doubt it, they just got through on a weak draw. If Portland fans are happy giving him the deal fine. I think it’s a huge mistake unless he threatened to request a trade. Otherwise what’s the big hurry?
Unless you were being sarcastic. I can’t always tell.
If he signs the rumored supermax extension, $191M / 6 years, he’d be locked in until he’s 34. Portland can build a winner around that.
Good points. They really need a better player on the wing. Harkless and Aminu are good defenders, but they are nearly useless as shooters and ball handlers. Tying all the money up in those three means the team may stagnate.
What an odd game. Norm Powell hiked up 18 shots. This year he averaged eighteen MINUTES. Hell, Chris Boucher and Jeremy Lin even got to play a couple of minutes, and I’d forgotten what Chris looks like. If you’d told me Kawhi would have just a so-so 19 point game by his standards - still, four steals, the guy is good when he’s bad - I would have bet good money they lost. Instead they blew the Bucks away. 120-102 is really complimentary to Milwaukee.
But, now we go back to Milwaukee. The Bucks only have to hold serve.
The trouble is, I’m not sure I want Portland to get rid of him, they are solid. I just think doing it now is stupid. I wish the teams had more options, I guess. I’m not against paying him, say, 30, he’s really good. I just think the supermax is a problem in general and it being so much against the cap, maybe see how he’s holding up in a year.
Ideally you pay him less dollars per over more years (say 210 for 7 - I know you can’t). I’m curious what happens during the next CBA.
Hey, the Raptors are 6-1 in games that Lin gets into. Clearly he needs to play more. 
Leonard defended well, but it was Siakam (spelling?) that shut down the Bucks at critical moments. The Bucks played pretty well, but Giannis looked a little lost at times — and it would be nice if someone guarded Van Vleit.
Being in Wisconsin, I’m hoping the Bucks can still pull it off, but if Toronto wins the series (looking rather likely now, though far from guaranteed), I won’t be too upset. I like Toronto, too — the city, the country, the team — and I’ve long hoped to see them do this well.
More on the Bucks: Brogdon has played really good offense (and he’s a good defender) since returning from his injury, and George Hill has been a steady presence off the bench…but what’s up with Mirotic? I thought he was supposed to be better than this. Just not meshing with their style of play, or what?
The Bucks should have had Brogdon starting from the beginning of the series, and yeah, after a while I was going - “just give the ball to Mirotic”. Van Vliet needed a half-decent game, with 21 points, considering his overall play-off performance has been ass. Luckily Lowry’s “it hurts on everything” sprained thumb and Kawhi’s leg issue didn’t seem too apparent, and hopefully those injuries won’t flare up. Lowry mentioned he won’t be able to get properly treated until after the play-offs, so surely it’ll get worse the more he plays, so - a concern.
The Raptors never gotten this far - winning a third game in a conference final.
Double overtime again in game six back in TO.
FVV now up to 33% from the field for the playoffs. Two games earlier he was at 26%. Nick Nurse is one patient mf. I’m glad I stopped having ‘favorite’ sports teams in 2008 after the Brewers ended their playoff drought.
First of all, I hate these “North” jerseys. They’re ugly and it’s not like a throwback historical reference, just a Nike ploy to sell merch.
Second of all, Toronto’s help defense when Giannis wants to take 2 giant steps to the bucket from outside the 3 point line was, at times, awesome. If you crowd the lane he will sometimes forget that he can kick it out to a shooter and instead just kind of get lost.
Really! I watched last night’s game. It was the first I’d seen of either Toronto or Milwaukee in a long time. I’m checking out who the Warriors will play next.
I have no idea what those North jerseys were about. Seems stupid.
Lin is a human victory cigar for the Raptors, like Tracy McGrady was for the Spurs in 2013.
As wiki sums it up:
And, as Barkis mentioned - merch.
Definitely not a fan of them, either, especially the white ones with gold chevron. I can be lawnchairey about that stuff - even the Chinese New Year jerseys I wasn’t crazy about either.
Hopefully Drake will try to sneak up from behind and massage Mike Budenholzer’s shoulders tonight.
The Raptors did it! 100-94
Was surprised to learn that the Raptors (which I nearly typed as the Ratpros) still have homecourt advantage over the Warriors. They’ll need every bit of it.