NBA (and Raptors) 2024 Season

[The Big Chill]

Pretty stupid by Porter to do something so obvious that there were red flags all over it immediately, especially when he was on the verge of earning a contract.

You have to think these issues will be popping up far more often over the coming years though with how hard all pro leagues are pushing gambling.

[Paulie Walnuts]

He bet 54k and won 21k.

He gave info to someone to bet on him and they bet 80k and won 1.1 million but it was frozen.

He also bet on the Raptors to lose.

If you’re going to get banned for life at least go out swinging, all this for 21k.

[White Out 403]

Originally Posted by chemgear

Brought to you by Draft Kings.

This post should be showered in likes. Shame on CP

[bluejays]

What I love about this situation in general is for all the talk about social justice over the past few years, and doing the right thing, those same idiots are pilfering on every show on every sports station, something that is highly addictive, and not batting an eye doing so. Not only are there betting odds posted, most of these shows have long discussions around who you should be betting on, just as a side note. All in the name of money. Like it’s not foreseeable that a percentage of your viewers will be in a tough position. Another reason why you shouldn’t listen to corporate speak on doing the right thing. It’s all nonsense.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by bluejays

What I love about this situation in general is for all the talk about social justice over the past few years, and doing the right thing, those same idiots are pilfering on every show on every sports station, something that is highly addictive, and not batting an eye doing so. Not only are there betting odds posted, most of these shows have long discussions around who you should be betting on, just as a side note. All in the name of money. Like it’s not foreseeable that a percentage of your viewers will be in a tough position. Another reason why you shouldn’t listen to corporate speak on doing the right thing. It’s all nonsense.

I don't see how that relates to this situation. I don't really disagree with much in your post, but you still need to ban players who bet on their sport, especially when they are betting on their team to lose and taking actions to influence bets.

[bluejays]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

I don't see how that relates to this situation. I don't really disagree with much in your post, but you still need to ban players who bet on their sport, especially when they are betting on their team to lose and taking actions to influence bets.

I undoubtedly agree. And there’s no immediate connection to this situation in particular but anecdotally I hear a lot on public transportation and 20- something year olds, about betting on sports. The other day I went to the baseball game and a few around were talking about it. And they always tend to be under 30 or so. So even though I have control, and don’t do it much, it’s seemingly impacting young people more than perhaps originally thought. I know it’s anecdotal but I see it more and that’s not even my crowd of interaction. So I’m not surprised this happened. I went off on a tangent because this thread is the only place recently where there’s gambling talk but I think it’s part of the bigger problem with it being everywhere in sports on tv and it’s hypocritical of such shows to talk about harassment in sports and all these other things, then pilfer something that’s a terrible vice just for money. It’s mind boggling the vastness of the sports convo coverage. Now I’m seeing the impacts.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by bluejays

I undoubtedly agree. And there’s no immediate connection to this situation in particular but anecdotally I hear a lot on public transportation and 20- something year olds, about betting on sports. The other day I went to the baseball game and a few around were talking about it. And they always tend to be under 30 or so. So even though I have control, and don’t do it much, it’s seemingly impacting young people more than perhaps originally thought. I know it’s anecdotal but I see it more and that’s not even my crowd of interaction. So I’m not surprised this happened. I went off on a tangent because this thread is the only place recently where there’s gambling talk but I think it’s part of the bigger problem with it being everywhere in sports on tv and it’s hypocritical of such shows to talk about harassment in sports and all these other things, then pilfer something that’s a terrible vice just for money. It’s mind boggling the vastness of the sports convo coverage. Now I’m seeing the impacts.

That age seems to be drinking less than I did at that age... maybe a good trade-off in vices

I agree though. Even morality questions aside, it tends to kill the experience for me when they are selling the sport as a vehicle for gambling rather than the game itself.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by bluejays

What I love about this situation in general is for all the talk about social justice over the past few years, and doing the right thing, those same idiots are pilfering on every show on every sports station, something that is highly addictive, and not batting an eye doing so. Not only are there betting odds posted, most of these shows have long discussions around who you should be betting on, just as a side note. All in the name of money. Like it’s not foreseeable that a percentage of your viewers will be in a tough position. Another reason why you shouldn’t listen to corporate speak on doing the right thing. It’s all nonsense.

Yeah, I'm not even sure that the sportsbooks would view this whole event as negative publicity. People who already hate the presence of gambling in the presentation of the sport (myself included) are going to rail about how bad this looks for the league. But a lot of people who aren't informed about sports gambling are going to learn more about it from following this story, about how prop-betting works, and at least some of those people are going to be more likely to try betting than they were before. Now they aren't just tuning out the betting talk, they're more likely to listen to that betting banter because they're curious about it.

I know there's a lot of talk about why the NBA is taking such a hard stance on this compared to domestic violence. And the popular excuse is that this is something that directly involves the game, so it's something the NBA needs to police rather than leave to outside authorities. And I think there's at least some truth to that, but the other major reason: if you guys saw the statement from the NBPA on Porter, it was the most mild, 'entitled to due process' sort of speak, compared to the strong stance that they took on punishments domestic violence or Ja's gun offenses. Normally, the NBPA challenges the league on all sorts of player suspensions, and that makes it hard for the league to take a heavy hand. But this is something the NBPA is not going to challenge the league on, because sports-betting is a huge golden-goose for both the league and the players (now that the new CBA explicitly allows promotional deals between sports-betting agencies and players). I'm sure there were conversations between betting industry execs, the league, and the PA about what the correct response was going to be here that would allow them all to continue their extremely profitable relationship.

[octothorp]

Regarding the Poeltl trade; I still don't think it's an awful trade. If the Raptors had chosen to keep everything together instead of blowing it up midseason, they could have finished in the late lottery. Maybe even pushed for a play-in, especially if they did the OG trade to get Quickley and Barrett, and then kept Siakam and Schroder at the deadline. They could easily turn around and trade Poeltl on his current contract for a mid-teens pick this year if they wanted, similar to the value they gave up at the time of the trade.

It also absolutely makes sense to have a veteran C like Poeltl for a rebuild. It's really tough running a P&R offence without a good screening big, and Quickley will develop a lot better for having someone like Poeltl he can run P&Rs with, rather than doing that with a raw rookie C. His shooting leaves a lot to be desired, but his P&R and passing game are perfect for Darko's style of offense.

There were a lot of other moves that the organization made that I hated. It's been a long time since they've hit on a free agent... Schroder was actually a good value pickup in principle, but was the right guy at the wrong time. They arguably gave up on some guys too early. I was digging into some advanced stats on McDaniels the other day, and even knowing that he was bad, I was shocked at just how bad the stats are for him. (Literally one of the least efficient players in the entire league across several different types of shots.) Basically, they've had a lot of low-risk, medium-reward free agency signings over the past few years but have hit on absolutely none of them. And I'm highly skeptical they'll be able to get good value down the line for Brown and think he definitely should have been moved for the best offer available at the deadline.

The advanced stats for the starters together last year were decent, but the bench was a disaster. The advanced stats for Barnes, Barrett, Quickley and Poeltl together have also been really promising in a limited sample size, but the bench is in an even worse shape looking ahead to next year than at the beginning of this season.

So yeah, tough offseason ahead; I don't expect it to be really dramatic for the Raptors. Maybe a trade of Brown and some other end-of-rotation players like Boucher, but the return there is most likely going to be a bad-contract filler, plus a pick/prospect.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Nobody watching these playoffs? Mavs Clips today. Luka revenge series...

[Senator Clay Davis]

As much as it's been fun having the Knicks be a laughing stock for 20+ years, there is still nothing as good as the playoff atmosphere at the Garden.

[Hockey_Ninja]

I still can't believe what I saw at the end of that game. Crazy

[Strange Brew]

Incredible ending.

[Strange Brew]

Nurse whining that he called timeout twice and it was ignored. The first time he didn’t actually call timeout, second time they had already lost possession.

[trackercowe]

Why did they stop there? To confirm a clear three pointer.... or more likely to give the Lakers a rest without using a timeout.

[trackercowe]

Wow another amazing finish. Canadians coming up in the clutch on back to back nights.

[mile]

Siakam with 36 and 37 points in his first two games. Amazing what happens when you surround him with shooters.

I'll always root for him.

[bluejays]

Originally Posted by mile

Siakam with 36 and 37 points in his first two games. Amazing what happens when you surround him with shooters.

I'll always root for him.

I do like Siakam the player. But he was always going to be the perfect third option. The team more or less counted on him as being THE MAN, and he simply isn’t the guy to create his own shot night after night.

[Hockey_Ninja]

The Nuggets are just an efficient, cohesive group. No egos at all

[Hockey_Ninja]

Watching Kawhi now makes me happy that the Raps got healthy and hungry Kawhi in 2019