That's making the assumption that its players' decisions to sit. It isn't in the vast majority of cases. Most of the time its the training staff under orders from management/owners. Its just a nice thing for the owners to make it look like its "those bad, lazy, entitled players that just dont want to play" so fans can side with them when the CBA comes up.
Yeah the hype about this kid is overdone. Taking established superstars, even aging ones, from a team that is built for a deep run all for the hope that he lives up to the hype and manages to stay healthy would be a tough sell for me.
That doesnt even take into account the non-basketball related stuff like you mention. If GSW dumps Steph for a rookie the long term blowback on the franchise would be enormous!!
Load management, in most cases, is not player driven. Teams want fans to think that so they can side with management when the next work stoppage comes about. Just like the whole concept of making player salaries public info.
Meh, I'm not only about rings but that ASG was disgusting. I dont want playoff defense or hell even reg season defense but SOME defense is too much to ask???
There is absolutely no reason this shit should be tipping at 8:30 PM on a Sunday night. If they want to start that late move everything back a day and make the game on Saturday. Between 3PM and 5PM is the sweet spot for a Sunday tip.
I thought he was gonna pick Lauri there. I surely would have just for the fuck of it.
I get what you are saying but he was having a great yr early. Like 6MOY good. Then for whatever reason to completely fall out of the rotation is rough. he hasnt played in 12 straight gms so its pretty clear they've moved on from him. Let him move on too if he still feel likes he can play and contribute. They probably would have traded him if they could have got someone to take on his salary anyway.
Its actually more that KD willfully chose to hitch himself to Kyrie. He had to know at least some of the crazy he was getting into with him and he still chose to do it. Kyrie had already burned two different teams by this time so it wasnt like KD was blindsided.