02-10-2021, 01:02 AM
(02-09-2021, 10:48 PM)mavsluvr Wrote: It would also be instructive to know how they caught the disease, although we may never learn that. I'm not saying it was anyone's fault, but they have kept it very quiet, and tbh, a certain laxity about the rules has been known to occur in the NBA context.
Definitely. On one hand, you want to be sensitive to the concerning, unfortunate and personal medical situation the players endured. Loads of people in all walks of life are getting sick, even those who are careful.
On the other hand, Carlisle, Luka and every other Mav told us repeatedly during training camp that the teams who handled COVID the best would have a leg up on this season, so I, for one, inferred they were taking that part of their mission extremely seriously. It’s difficult for me not to view this disaster as a failure, personally.
Hell, we’ve been talking a lot in recent weeks about whether or not Luka is a good leader, or whether the team is as tight as it was last season. Have we considered the possibility that some of the team has been angry with the guy or guys responsible for spreading the virus? Something just like that pretty much ruined Utah’s season last year, after all, and Gobert was almost traded as a result, according to some.
in any event, those three weeks were the extinction level event of the season, to me. Once that happened even the best case scenario for this year was destined to be underwhelming, and I’m not at all shocked that reaching the best case scenario has proved too difficult for a young team, to this point. It’s got to be tough to fight through this condensed schedule, increased testing and quarantine hassle and fanless arenas with no energy when you must first overcome the massive disappointment of knowing you’ve basically already thrown the top end of your potential away during the first quarter of the season.