2020-2021 MAVS NEWS: Archived

[LukTheShadow]

Very true, but not one of them matters even a little bit if Luka isn't up to being what we all decided he was at various points last year. This team is moving forward under the paradigm that he's a franchise player. Everything is being built around him. That's a lot of responsibility, and none of us here put it on his shoulders. 

I'm sorry - I know he's just a kid, but being in shape is the least of the obstacles he'll have to overcome to get to where he believes he's going. That's just how it is.

Well, his production on the court is not bad at all beside his nonathletic look. He's going on on his own preparatory path and there is no indication that he is not making progress. Maybe, maybe he’s been preparing himself according to his body-tailored program since his 15th, 16th, maybe. Maybe, as every year, this year he is timing his best overall form for the time when it will be the most important, maybe. However, it is a fact that in all his previous seasons his way of preparation has never failed as well as it is true that this year's rehab cycle was interrupted prematurely and it is fact that he was late with the preparation for the new season. Our opinions may differ but in no way do they affect its fat or muscle lining at all. He is doing well, no worries from me watching him.

At the moment, I am much more concerned about the league's inability to manage the epidemic with the whole budget and resources available and not, as it seems now, just the opposite.

[Mavs2019]

As dumb as that rule sounds on the surface, limiting guests to 2 on the road is surely far more restrictive than unlimited family and friend exposure at home. They're not in a bubble, after all. And the NBA has absolutely zero legal right to demand that non-employees take medical tests.

IMHO, the question has always been how they'll respond to infections as they inevitably happen rather than cling to the idea that all infections can be prevented through strict top-down control. We're about to find out, and I'm hoping for the NBA to set a good example.

It does not only sound dumb. People from LA for example are under stay at home orders, but players from the Lakers and Clippers are flying Corona spreaders, who are allowed two contacts per city they visit. Geez. LOL this is basically the NBA releasing horny rich young attractive singles from local lockdowns to fuck their way through the whole country. I mean wow. Even the NFL seems to be smarter than that. I assumed the rule was "airport, hotel, hotel food, play, hotel, hotel food airport" not "airport, hotel, sex party, local restaurant, play, hotel, airport".

[WillE]

Play outside on a 65yard* long court? 

*adjusted for 12 more players on the field on a 9 times bigger soccer court.

Fine - I only chose the soccer example because of bigger economy and audience. 

But as you're implying that it's a different sport then just look at European Basketball. The national leagues as well as the Euroleague are consistently playing. Now a believer that it should be possible also for the NBA to ensure an uninterrupted season?

[Mavs2019]

Fine - I only chose the soccer example because of bigger economy and audience. 

But as you're implying that it's a different sport then just look at European Basketball. The national leagues as well as the Euroleague are consistently playing. Now a believer that it should be possible also for the NBA to ensure an uninterrupted season?

Well the EPL had to postpone league games as well. Teams like Aston Villa had to play a cup game with their whole youth squad, because the whole senior squad was under covid protocol, so it happens there, too.

Nevertheless the moment I read about this "two guests"-rule it was over for me. That´s simply not feasible. That means the whole protocol is basically useless.

Also Maxi played against the Magic last night, tests positive after the game and less than 48 hours later all the Magic players are out there playing the Bucks. Hmmmm.

[Aussiebballer]

It does seem like they are only doing 50% required and hoping the other 50% won't cause issues.

But besides reducing the number of games massively, like down to 1-2 a week not sure what the can do.

Seems like they are very reliant on the rapid tests before games and just hoping for the best.

[F Gump]

At the moment, I am much more concerned about the league's inability to manage the epidemic with the whole budget and resources available and not, as it seems now, just the opposite.

Lots of unrealistic expectations in this thread and others.

* You cannot "manage" a virus after it is released and now exists in the natural world. NBA choices are the same as for the rest of us - isolate inside some sort of bubble, 24/7, until the virus has run its course (whether by infection, by vaccine, or both) and has mostly died down, or risk being exposed (with some inevitably going to catch it).

* If the NBA (players and owners alike) want the money, they have to play the games somehow. 1080 of them, that's apparently the magic number. They know that. That's driving the unwillingness to stop games when a team loses a few players to covid.

So what else could the NBA do besides what they are doing?

* There is nothing about the game of basketball that offers any way for players being immune from catching or spreading the virus. Small court, players right on top of each other for the entire game, minimal clothing, it's a recipe for exposure and spreading.

* They could play inside a bubble, isolated from everyone except each other for 6 months, but the response of those who did Orlando for just one month was a desire to never do that again. Everyone despised it, including reporters, coaches, staff.

* So the NBA has players who live in their homes with families or loved ones, have whatever normal life exposure people have, come to work for games, travel from city to city, adding more exposure, and then mix in games with a set of players who all have done the same. A couple days later, they do a mixer with another set of players who all have brought their own risks of exposure. 

With all of that, covid is going to happen. When some player catches covid, they aren't villains who  did bad things and need to be managed better. When the league has teams playing games, they aren't villains by having ignored ways to make basketball a covid-less world.They're all in a frustrating no-win world right now, and trying to make the best of it somehow. Kinda like the rest of us.

[luka_skywalker_77]

You can't manage what was never made to be managed. The world hasn't found a way to contain this so what make you think a sports league could...

Humans...

They are trying and that's the best you can do. 

[Mavs2019]

Lots of unrealistic expectations in this thread and others.

* You cannot "manage" a virus after it is released and now exists in the natural world. NBA choices are the same as for the rest of us - isolate inside some sort of bubble, 24/7, until the virus has run its course (whether by infection, by vaccine, or both) and has mostly died down, or risk being exposed (with some inevitably going to catch it).

* If the NBA (players and owners alike) want the money, they have to play the games somehow. 1080 of them, that's apparently the magic number. They know that. That's driving the unwillingness to stop games when a team loses a few players to covid.

So what else could the NBA do besides what they are doing?

* There is nothing about the game of basketball that offers any way for players being immune from catching or spreading the virus. Small court, players right on top of each other for the entire game, minimal clothing, it's a recipe for exposure and spreading.

* They could play inside a bubble, isolated from everyone except each other for 6 months, but the response of those who did Orlando for just one month was a desire to never do that again. Everyone despised it, including reporters, coaches, staff.

* So the NBA has players who live in their homes with families or loved ones, have whatever normal life exposure people have, come to work for games, travel from city to city, adding more exposure, and then mix in games with a set of players who all have done the same. A couple days later, they do a mixer with another set of players who all have brought their own risks of exposure. 

With all of that, covid is going to happen. When some player catches covid, they aren't villains who  did bad things and need to be managed better. When the league has teams playing games, they aren't villains by having ignored ways to make basketball a covid-less world.They're all in a frustrating no-win world right now, and trying to make the best of it somehow. Kinda like the rest of us.

 Yeah that´s a nice speech. You should work PR for the NBA.

Fact remains, if somebody at Google or your local hairdresser tested positive for COVID, they´d have to self-isolate at home for 14 days and all their co-workers, who had close contact would be asked to do the same. They would not be allowed to fly across the whole country and continue their job and private life like nothing happened.

The NBA basically got a special exemption from the government to continue their business (which obviously doesn´t work as home office, but also is not system critical that it can´t be shut down), so to me that means you do everything to comply with the general rules. For away games this means airport, hotel, game, hotel, airport, and not some exempt activity like having sleepovers with professional mattresses. The NBA/NBAPA negotiated this without any regard for public safety or the special privilige they have been granted. They just want their money.

Then I´m sure the local business store owner would like to have his money, too. They still shut his ass down, and to me a restaurant and this food thing has a stronger argument to be system critical than a basketball game. Other people have to make a lot harder sacrifices. Millions lost their jobs. People became homeless over this. So if the NBA/NBAPA is then acting very lackadaisical about their covid rules, it just looks bad imho.

[Arioch]

Fact remains, if somebody at Google or your local hairdresser tested positive for COVID, they´d have to self-isolate at home for 14 days and all their co-workers, who had close contact would be asked to do the same. They would not be allowed to fly across the whole country and continue their job and private life like nothing happened.

Not sure what world you're living in. In the real world, if your local hairdresser can get out of bed without hacking a lung out, she's slapping on a face mask and going to work because otherwise she doesn't have money for groceries this week. In the real world, manufacturing (and food processing plants) tell people to stay home if they're sick--right up until production slowdowns start to hit profits and then it's 'don't ask, don't tell' and we won't have to lay you off. In the real world, plenty of people who've exposed to COVID get on a plane every day, and no one is (or really can) checking to make sure that doesn't happen.

Yeah, if you have a salaried job at a big corporation like Google then your legitimately told to go home (or stay home) and quarantine for the full recommended time span. And maybe some states are actually applying strict rules. But that's definitely not the case in Texas. And while the NBA is full of millionaires (and billionaires when we include the owners), the NBA itself is like an hourly worker--if they don't play games, the league doesn't have income.

[Hypermav]

https://www.mavs.com/Matching/?utm_campaign=marketing&utm_medium=organic&utm_source=instagram&utm_content=mavs_matching_010721

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25 seconds was my best.

[LukTheShadow]

LukTheShadow Wrote:
At the moment, I am much more concerned about the league's inability to manage the epidemic with the whole budget and resources available and not, as it seems now, just the opposite.

Lots of unrealistic expectations in this thread and others.

* You cannot "manage" a virus after it is released and now exists in the natural world. NBA choices are the same as for the rest of us - isolate inside some sort of bubble, 24/7, until the virus has run its course (whether by infection, by vaccine, or both) and has mostly died down, or risk being exposed (with some inevitably going to catch it).
...
...

Wow what a debate which I could comment with ease but let’s talk about basketball, which was my intention from the start and I didn’t express that enough detailed in the sentence quoted above. I apologise for that.
There was a talk about Luka's physical fitness and I personally think most of the Mavs challenges lies elsewhere. They are a young team by years and miles, beside individual players progress they have to learn how to compete as a team by doing it. After slowly start they have shown nice team game progress but the process is now interrupted. And I'm sad about that. That’s really bad for learning path of our team.
It is the same of course for all other teams that are/will be affected by the NBA Covid security protocol, but the fact is that the older teams will overcome such challenges with much smaller loss. And it’s possible that some teams won’t be affected at all.
The NBA is not life, it is a game. BB competition of 30 teams. The foundation of regular games is equality of rules and conditions for all participants. In my view NBA security protocols and rules of the game during pandemic do not pursue this goal on its best. No one needs to agree with me but my opinion is that managing an epidemic within any collective sports game is not easy but I have trust and expectations to the NBA that they could do it better than it shows now.

[Halfnir]

But as you're implying that it's a different sport then just look at European Basketball. The national leagues as well as the Euroleague are consistently playing. Now a believer that it should be possible also for the NBA to ensure an uninterrupted season?

Euroleague has it's cases as well: https://www.euroleague.net/news/i/awur8v...id-19-news

What they are doing better is less contact between players/benches, less bench-celebrations, hugging, high-fiving, etc. But this is more a cultural thing in european basketball than stricter covid rules alone. Still, i agree the NBA could be stricter in this regards.  

However, it's almost impossible to not spread the virus within a basketball team once it is attracted by a player the first time with daily training sessions, a game every other day and lots of traveling.

[Luka_Magic]

Dallas currently boasts the 4th best defensive rating in the league. Gotta love seeing a good plan come together.

[omahen]

https://twitter.com/townbrad/status/1349...wcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbleacherreport.com%2Fdallas-mavericks

[Mavs03]

https://twitter.com/townbrad/status/1349...wcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbleacherreport.com%2Fdallas-mavericks

I was wondering are the 4 Mavs players that have apparently tested positive with COVID, do we know which players they are?  To this point, we know about Brunson, DFS, and Richardson.  And apparently Maxi.  I was under the assumption that one of the players from the Brunson, DFS, and Richardson group was positive and the other two fell under the contact tracing category.  Are there other players that we don't know about?

[Kammrath]

https://twitter.com/CallieCaplan/status/...7702921228

[Kammrath]

https://twitter.com/townbrad/status/1349097782901166083

[Kammrath]

https://twitter.com/TheSteinLine/status/...5511748608

[StepBackJay]

REVENGE GAME.

Hey Charlotte, remember when you spanked us? Well we got KP NOW.

[MFFL OLD]

Powell on Covid list now