The Lakers are the first contender to lose a player, Avery Bradley. That's a big deal. Pushes Rondo into the starting lineup.
JR Smith isn't the defender Bradley is. The best move for them is to play Caruso more, but for some reason he doesn't play much. I could see Rondo taking most of Bradley's minutes. I wonder if Howard will also sit out.
The NBA is greedy as hell. So a couple of month back it would take only one player to test positive for COVID19 (Rudy Golbert) and the NBA season was suspended immediately. Now, a min of 4 player and counting has tested positive and they're still talking about resuming? Seriously? Are they riding on the money that much that they're willing to wait until more are tested positive and risking the player's health? The scary thing is that, those infected weren't even in Florida yet.
I actually lean more on the side of giving them a lot of respect for: Shutting it all down so abruptly (they were at the forefront) Silver backing Morey (China) Giving players the ability to opt-out
The difference between back then and now is that they have an actual plan. Whether people agree or disagree with the plan to move forward, the NBA has actually put a ton of thought into how to proceed in the safest way possible. Considering that the league has not kept track of the players once they suspended play, it should be of no surprise to anybody that some of these players would test positive. The whole reason for not starting play until end of July was for the anticipation that several players would test positive and would have to isolate. Come on guys, I understand some of you are upset and that the league should not push forward on the season re-start. I get that. There is a ton of uncertainty the next couple of years of our lives, but we can't live under the fear that it is not possible to operate if safety protocols are put in place. Of course this is about the money as well, it's not only for the owners, but for the players as well. Not everyone is James Harden/Lebron James/Chris Paul where they've made millions and millions of dollars playing this sport. You have many players that may only get one guaranteed contract in their entire career that may be just the minimum and this is a job to survive the next year. There are other players that blown all their money up to this point, so they may be living year to year. Ultimately, this is entertainment for us, but it's a job for them, a job they want to finish receiving the rest of their checks. This is a two way street. Although a true bubble will not be created, I don't think the plan the NBA has put forth is unreasonable. If more players test positive over the course of the season, then the plan can be re-evaluated at a later time (and season cancelled at that point). At this point, players coming back from wherever they came from, testing positive, should be of no surprise to anybody.
Dude is such a talent... Unreal to watch him come over from China and abuse the NBA on the Rockets that one year.
