Betrayer

Award eligibility watch: Ausar now has 63 games over 20 minutes. You can also include a maximum of 2 games in the 15-20 minute range and he has those as well. He now qualifies for awards. Cade has 62 qualifying games (soon to be 63). He has zero games between 15-20 minutes, so he can't use that rule. There's an exception for players who suffer a "Season Ending Injury" that takes them out through May 31st. Cade also wouldn't qualify for that, which is silly because it shouldn't matter when the significant injury occurred. You can file a "Grievance" if the eligibility for awards could affect your next contract and you can prove the team stopped you from playing to save money. Obviously that doesn't apply to Cade. There's also an "Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge". From what I've read online it sounds like the "circumstances" aren't defined in the contract and it's left open, so this is the angle the team will likely try to take. I doubt it will work for an injury, but it's worth a shot. This is also the angle Luka will go for due to his child being born.

This is a silly move, imo. I just can't understand why you take this risk after everything you've worked for this season.

26-27: 58M 27-28: 62M 28-29 67M (Player Option) Paul George also has two more years at around 50M. Combined that about 70% of the cap. The also don't own their first round picks in 2 of the next 3 years (or something like that). Sorry, Philly. You're gonna be bad for a while.

Risacher might be re-living the Killian Hayes timeline.

If I'm JB, I'm resting Cade, Duren, and Stew this game. It's not worth risking suspensions or injuries against a team full of criminals that really has nothing to lose and would be happy to hit you a lit harder or goad you a little further in order to weaken a potential first round opponent.

I suppose the doctors know best, but it seems silly for him to play at all. He's not eligible for awards no matter what at this point and if he doesn't play in the regular season that's another week and a half off before the playoffs start. He can work his way into shape in the first round. Stew on the other hand hasn't played in forever and isn't dealing with an organ injury - I'd like to see him get a game in.

Maybe this will make the league look at the 65 game rule more closely. They won't do it for Cade, but for their anointed darling it should create some serious talk. I don't mind the spirit of the rule deterring players from "load management" but in it's current state there are a lot of problems with it. All League teams, legitimate injuries, salary ramifications, and so on.

Glad to hear Stew upgraded to questionable. Not gonna lie, the Tolu Smith signing had me worried.

I imagine Harris and Robinson will get some rest in the final 4 games. Duren might sit out one or two of them as well. No reason to rest Daniss, Holland, Huerter or anyone else. I doubt Ausar will rest since he's trying to qualify for offseason awards. I highly doubt we'll see Cade, but I wonder about Stew. Seems like it might be good to get him a game or two to get back in the groove. Of course, playing Stew and/or Duren in the Charlotte matchup seems like a bad idea after what happened last time. We don't need any suspensions.

That second half was so fun. Philly had 60 in the first half. They scored just 33 in the second half.

Anthony Bennett I'm guessing.

Totally agree. As much as I still scream at the TV for every tiny annoyance, this season has been a joy. Hell, I could just put on a game and watch Ausar play defense for 2 hours and I'm happy. It's insane considering they won 14 games 2 seasons ago and were one of the worst teams in league history - and they didn't do it by adding an All-Star. They did it by changing the coach, culture, internal development, and adding players around the margins. Truly remarkable stuff.

Terribly officiated game, but the Pistons pull it out. Great game from Jenkins and Ausar was everywhere as usual with 5 stocks, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists. Duren struggled a bit compared to his usual efficiency and turned it over way too much (5 of the team's 12 turnovers), but still had some nice moments. Huerter played well also. He just a solid all around player. Lavert was a team low -11 of course. JB still truckin on and giving him minutes although it was encouraging to see that he got less minutes than any of the other wings.

I think Ausar is still eligible. I think he has to play 20 minutes in all but 1 of our remaining games (or something like that). The sad part is most of the damage to Ausar's eligibility was done by JB. Way too many games where he just decided to play him less than 20 minutes.

I'd much rather choose one of those "1st round grades" at 21 than see what's left for me at 28. We get to draft a player that ranks higher on our board, it's as simple as that. Not sure how you can spin moving up 20-25% higher in a good draft as a bad or pointless thing. But I do agree with your other point. Accumulating more picks would certainly be nice.