if you can't guarantee a full end of the season why would you put yourself at risk just to play out a fraction of the games left.
At risk for Coronavirus or injury?
Lillard said he would be with the team but not actually play. I get it and wouldn’t
want to play either. I probably would though. If none of this happened and this was a normal season, I imagine Lillard would still play those final games if the Blazers were eliminated from playoff contention even with a minutes restriction. A potentially shortened offseason complicates things. There’s talk of postponing next season to December.
Semi-related: Some analysts are in favor of just scrapping the season because the champion will always have an asterisk next to it. Yes and no. There’s an asterisk for sure, nothing like this has ever happened before, but the championship counts. Each team has already played more than 3/4 of the full schedule.
Shaq brought up the 1999 lockout shortened season. First, Shaq is just bitter he got swept by the Spurs. If the Lakers won that year, he would say it totally counts. Second, if anything, I imagine it’s
harder to be off for three months in the middle of the season and come back to play in front of no fans. I think they should try to get to at least 70 games. The playoffs are going to be a shitshow if teams don’t get some run in first.