And football also has the most rigid salary cap restrictions, which allow/force teams to stay within range of each other in spite of market size. Baseball has no salary floor and a very soft cap, basketball has a floor and cap but allows teams to exceed the cap infinitely to keep their own players.
Are we all agreed that the Nets, without Irving or Harden, have no realistic chance to win the series now? I know that anything can happen. We all know that. But if things stay the way they are injury-wise, the Bucks are super heavy favorites now. Anyone care to disagree?
Wasn't the primary question since before the season started whether the Nets' Big Three was going to be healthy and able to stay on the court together? Because on paper that Big Three is the best in the league, most would agree, and they were a popular and betting favorite to win it. But the questions were: how will Durant be coming off Achilles surgery? Will he be at the same level as before? And then Kyrie staying healthy.
Ironically, the biggest question mark, that being Durant's recovery and return to form, has been answered emphatically in KD's favor, while the most durable of the three, that being Harden, has struggled with injuries. Meaning the Big Three was not on the court much this year, and not at all in the playoffs, at least not yet. Thus, other narratives matter now that probably wouldn't have mattered much had the Big Three been able to stay healthy together.
It might also be a good idea for Milwaukee to put someone other than Jrue Holiday on Kevin Durant. Holiday is 6'3" and Durant shoots easily over guys 6" taller than he, or more. Whaddaya think coach? Maybe try a bigger guy who could maybe sorta kinda bother some of KD's shots once in awhile?
Jokic got all ball and barely touched the guy’s nose, if at all. There was a wind up and a big swing, but it was a basketball play and very nearly clean. Given everything, he definitely should not have been given a flagrant 2 and ejected.
The Nets will lose in six if Kyrie or Harden don’t come back. It will still be tough if one of them comes back, they will win if both of them come back, at least the series versus the Bucks.
I’m no Sith, but those are absolutes. Absolute opinions anyway…
Last edited by kidA; 06-14-2021 at 01:58 PM. Reason: Typo
My recollection before the season started were more along the lines of... Will Kyrie be a locker room cancer? How will Harden's iso-ball fit in? There's only one ball, how are these three going to play together? How much drama will these three divas generate? There were many on this forum asking those types of questions.
I'm not a demographer and I didn't stay in a Holiday Inn last night. So, I'm spit-balling here. But for years our friends in the census bureau considered Raleigh and Durham as part of the same SMSA. Until the two cities started developing their downtowns and all of a sudden the concept of the Triangle SMSA went bye-bye. Note that if we combine these two, we have an SMSA with a population about that of the Cleveland SMSA.
And people who live in the Triangle think that the live in a region in which they work, shop, dine, drink, go to concerts and so many other things in a region. I've lived in the neighborhood since my freshman year at Duke in 1968 and if anything, the integration of this multi-county region seems stronger than ever.
And, as an aside, how does North Carolina not have a major-league baseball team, either in Charlotte or in the Triangle?
Back to your regular programming.
There could have been some embelishment on the part of Payne, but that's hard to determine. Likewise for Jokic, it didn't seem like he was being malicious, but we can't read his mind. Before leaving the court, Jokic went over to Payne and said a few words, which I assume was an apology, so I give him that for good sportsmanship.
Another way to look at market size is to look at the TV market. Cities like San Diego and San Antonio have smaller TV markets than cities with larger populations.
https://mediatracks.com/resources/ni...rankings-2020/