2018-19 NBA and Raptors thread

[jayswin]

Like I said earlier, it's not a true sport by definition. It blurs the line between sport and entertainment. It's a storyline league, and they've actually done quite well marketing themselves that way.

On top of that the league is not on the up and up in terms of officiating. Similar to when you find one mouse in your house there's likely a lot more - when you have to admit that an NBA final was fixed by a ref, it wasn't one bad apple.

Officials are likely in gambler and underworld pockets on a pretty big level. Toronto will never be part of the NBA storyline, and likewise they're likely not part of reffing fixes either.

[jayswin]

And it's SUCH an easy game to fix for a ref, which is why the underworld likely targets it for big money. If you're noticing a string of terrible calls to get a team a win that's likely on the more difficult end of the spectrum of changing a game if you're a ref.

It's such a momentum game that usually just a couple quietly misplaced calls at the right time can send the right team on their way.

[bluejays]

I don't think it's underworld fixing as that would be a colossal scheme, but rather a league looking to build on storylines. Anyway, it'd probably be pretty easy to do a study and see abnormalities such as variation between refs in point differential in the games they've officiated and what the boxplot looks like (ref to ref), one plot showing the differential the last say, 7 minutes of the game, down to the last 1 minute of the game. Or you could look at the number of calls in the game by them in the last 6 minutes person to person. You'd probably see an irregularity. Something like that written as an expose would really put the league on their feet to not conduct themselves like this anymore. It's really annoying to watch.

[jayswin]

I don't think it takes much for the underworld to be involved in sports betting. They don't have to control the entire league, it would just be having certain refs on the take. I mean it's literally already happened to the point of the NBA having to publicly admit it.

That was just what was caught.

[Senator Clay Davis]

It's still early, but strange days indeed.

[octothorp]

Other than GSW looking beatable most nights (which you can excuse with Steph out), the biggest disappointment to me has been the Jazz. Boston, Houston, Washington, you could see warning signs that they might underperform out of the gates. But I really thought that the Jazz would be right near the top of the West. They're just 2-5 at home so far, and last year they lost only 13 at home all season despite injury woes for much of the year. Now they're losing to the Kings, at home, when fully healthy?

[octothorp]

Schedule definitely turns for the Raptors now: beginning with the game against Memphis tomorrow, 10 of their next 12 against teams above .500, including GSW twice and Denver twice (the road games against both those teams being part of a 4-game west-coast swing that also includes Portland and the Clippers), plus Milwaukee, Philly, and Indiana.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Honestly might be the best fit in the history of endorsement deals: Boring, high quality player endorses boring, high quality shoes.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1067837588763885568

[octothorp]

Seems like it might be a small positive for Toronto's odds of keeping Kawhi? Prevents the scenario where another brand gives him a dumptruck full of money as long as he's in a major US market; while NB is probably overjoyed to have a player of his calibre and is going to avoid pressuring him about such decisions. Meanwhile, it also reaffirms that Kawhi just doesn't give a damn about the supposed prestige things (like Nike deals or maybe playing for iconic teams) that other basketball players care so much about.

[Hockey Fan #751]

Originally Posted by octothorp

Seems like it might be a small positive for Toronto's odds of keeping Kawhi? Prevents the scenario where another brand gives him a dumptruck full of money as long as he's in a major US market; while NB is probably overjoyed to have a player of his calibre and is going to avoid pressuring him about such decisions. Meanwhile, it also reaffirms that Kawhi just doesn't give a damn about the supposed prestige things (like Nike deals or maybe playing for iconic teams) that other basketball players care so much about.

It's also a good message around the league that, hey, you can get pretty good endorsement deals by playing in Toronto.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Hockey Fan #751

It's also a good message around the league that, hey, you can get pretty good endorsement deals by playing in Toronto.

Hey you can get pretty good endorsement deals if you're a top 5 player in the league heading into a whirlwind free agent frenzy for your services.

[jayswin]

Wow, what a horrid call at the end of the half. Durant just drops the shoulder, clear offensive foul. They don't call the offensive and do call the raptors. Raptors were looking to close out strong, ref completely swung things with one well placed call.

Raptors will be in tough to hold them off now. What a frustrating league, as the game was really fun to watch. They always gotta do it though.

[jayswin]

Nice, Raps proved me wrong coming out hot in the third. Funny stat from the broadcast

Trips to the line so far tonight: Raptors 8, Durant 8.

[jayswin]

Uh oh, Warriors starting to hit threes, Raptors missing threes. That'll be game over if that continues. Khawi with a monster night so far. Lowry killing us with missed threes.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Get JV off the floor. He has to be the most useless defensive player in the league.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Jesus Christ. Get JV the hell off the floor.

[TheAlpineOracle]

JV off the floor and we get some D and rebounds.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Wow KD is a beast. Should have fouled before he got over the three point line.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Durant might get to 60 with OT.

[TheAlpineOracle]

What was Leonard thinking there?