NBA Season is Returning This Year!!!!!!!
- Thread starter DAHITMAN
- Start date
Welvin!!! 
Chris Paul on All-Star complaints: ‘The union has always got the full body of players in mind’
Several NBA players – LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo most vehemently among likely All-Stars – have objected to the league holding an All-Star game this year. Too often missing from the disc…
nba.nbcsports.com
Inching closer to 100 career trip dubs.
Lake Show.
I don't understand, why he's surprised about this....
I said it before and I will say it again. Fuck Utah. Every black athlete from Pop Warner to Pros should leave that God forsaken shit hole.
You haven't been paying attention. Zo been balling too despite Van Gundy dumb ass trying to fit a natural point into a 3 and d role. Zo jumper is wet af.
Nah, you've only just watched specific games
He's shooting 42% and 37% from three
So he's gotten to be an average shooter.
After watching Jordan stans be cordial and embrace the idea of Brady and Jordan being equals yesterday it can no longer be argued that "Michael Jordan is the GOAT" stans arent coons. A bunch of CAC worshippers just like MJ and Kobe. They never push back at WS, and only use the "brand" to bash Black men.
They told me AD was a top 5 player tho. If that were remotely true the meme wouldnt be remotely true.
Team Light Skin on BGOL speaks of AD as if he's Kareem Abdul Jabbar to diminish what he's doing.
AD is a great player, but its not like he is a former MVP or had already led a team to a Finals like when KD joined Golden State. Bron literally took this man to the promise land.
And on nights like last nite where he didnt play, Bron goes off gets the W, but its *crickets*
Soon as AD has a 40 point game it'll be "AD is the reason the Lake Show is winning"
Ive come to accept light skin NBA superstars are always proven no matter what on this message board.
After watching Jordan stans be cordial and embrace the idea of Brady and Jordan being equals yesterday it can no longer be argued that "Michael Jordan is the GOAT" stans arent coons. A bunch of CAC worshippers just like MJ and Kobe. They never push back at WS, and only use the "brand" to bash Black men.
Bron Bashers: Bron went to 10 NBA finals but he didnt win them all plus he played in the weak east!!!! MJ is GOAT because he went 6 FOR 6!!! GOATS have to go undefeated!!
TB12 Warriors: Going to 10 finals is GOAT alone!! So what he didnt win them all and he played in the worst division in football for 20 years!! All that matters is 10 times and a bunch of rings!!! He is GOAT over MJ!
The only GOAT of All Sports in Tom Brady is if he eats in a Jamaican restaurant.
When MJ is compared to LeBron, a Black American man, the stans demand perfection and spit venom for 10+ years to insist he's not in his "class"
The sports media says, OK Brady is GOAT puts a bunch of memes of Brady and Jordan standing together and the stans are silent.
Its the same reason the stans never compare or pit MJ against other owners, they are all white. Guarantee you if they were 2-3 other Black owners in the NBA, Jordan stans would start to brag about how good an owner he is and use his success to shit on the other Black owners. Its a boomer coon brand, completely worthless against WS. Hence, most Jordan is the GOAT stans dont acknowledge or speak of WS in the NBA.
They will tell you it dont exist and LeBron is more powerful than the owners. Coon shit x 1,000.
Why NBA legends are so impressed by Luka Doncic's game - Stream the Video - Watch ESPN
Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley and other NBA greats give high praise to Luka Doncic's style of play for the Mavericks on Watch ESPN, first streamed on Tuesday, February 9, 2021.
they are just gonna slurp this white boy dry, huh
Last edited:
@largebillsonlyplease now Luka Larry Bird....
cause he beat Steph
funny how that works out huh?
must be nice
www.espn.com
Luka Doncic earns Larry Bird comparison in Dallas Mavericks' win over Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
play
ADLearn More
:15
Feb 7, 2021
Give Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry an assist for bringing back Doncic's joy. Even in an empty arena, there's nothing that electrifies an NBA atmosphere quite like Curry cooking. That was certainly the case on Saturday, with Curry going 11-of-19 from 3-point range and swishing a flurry of silly shots, the kind that make you cackle out loud, en route to 57 points.
ADVERTISEMENT
Doncic gleefully accepted Curry's spectacular performance as a challenge. He responded with an outing that reminded a national television audience why this 21-year-old entered the season with the weight of MVP expectations, matching his career high with 42 points and dishing out 11 assists to lead Dallas to a thrilling -- and desperately needed -- 134-132 win.
EDITOR'S PICKS
If you didn't enjoy Saturday's contest, basketball probably just isn't the sport for you. Or perhaps you're just a bitter soul. How else to explain not smiling when you see Curry do an exaggerated shoulder shimmy on the half-court logo after draining a transition pull-up from there? How can you not appreciate the artistic beauty of the best shooter in NBA history dancing with his dribble before draining step-back 30-footers with a hand in his face?
"What Steph does is something unbelievable," Doncic said. "I just think every shot is going to go in when he shot it. It's unbelievable the way he plays the game, and it's enjoyable to watch, even if you're on the opposing team."
As Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said of Curry, "He's one of the guys that I'd pay a lot of money to watch play."
The NBA on ESPN and ABC
The NBA is back! Catch all the 2020-21 season action on ESPN, ABC and the ESPN App.
Wednesday, Feb. 10
• Hawks at Mavericks, 7:30 p.m. on ESPN
• Bucks at Suns, 10 p.m. on ESPN
All times Eastern
Doncic, who trails only Curry among guards in the All-Star voting early returns, is definitely another player to fit that category. It's not just Doncic's ability to stuff box scores -- he now has all six 40-point, 10-assist performances in franchise history, for example -- and create highlights that makes him worth buying a ticket or at least turning on the TV to watch. He is an entertainer with a rare flair for the moment, something he has in common with NBA legends that Carlisle has watched up close before.
"The basketball floor is his stage," Carlisle said of Doncic. "Guys like him -- and I was around [Larry] Bird; I was around Reggie Miller -- when there's another guy on the other team raising his game to the level that Curry was, you feel an obligation if you're that kind of player. I saw Bird do it; I saw Miller do it.
"You just dig deeper. You find a way to try to match the guy and try to match the guy for your team. And that's exactly what he did."
Luka Doncic rose to the challenge of outdueling Steph Curry and the Warriors in the Mavericks' win on Saturday. Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images
Doncic never allowed Curry to seize complete control of the game. There were certainly stretches when Curry was unstoppable, but Doncic kept responding. Case in point: the final 90 seconds of the second quarter, when Curry capped his 30-point half with a cutting layup and a couple of long 3s and Doncic swished a 3 sandwiched by a pair of pretty floaters, giving the Mavs an eight-point lead at the break.
Doncic, one of the league's lowest-percentage, high-volume long-range gunners, shot like a Splash Brother on Saturday night. He was 7-of-12 from 3-point range. And he got better as the stakes got higher, hitting 3 of 5 3s in the fourth quarter as the Mavs kept the Warriors at bay, the biggest giving Dallas a seven-point lead with 44.5 seconds remaining.
"His eyes lit up a little bit," Curry said. "He made some big shots tonight."
play
0:25
Doncic all smiles after hitting a deep trey
The Mavericks get the fortunate deflection after Tim Hardaway Jr.'s missed dunk, and Luka Doncic ends up with the ball and drills the deep 3-pointer.
Of course, a seven-point lead isn't safe with Curry in sizzle mode. Curry cut the Mavs' advantage to four points just seconds later by knocking down a 3 off a feed from Draymond Green (a point center who had his second consecutive 15-assist performance and who also is a pleasure to watch). Then, suddenly, it was a one-point game, after Curry danced and darted into the lane for an and-1 layup with 28.6 seconds left.
Imagine the pressure the Mavs felt in that moment, having lost 12 consecutive one-possession games, the third-longest such streak in NBA history, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
That streak, it's worth noting, included only regular-season games. You might recall Doncic putting the exclamation point on a playoff masterpiece by hitting a step-back 3 to beat the overtime buzzer in Dallas' Game 4 win over the LA Clippers last season. Doncic had a 43-point triple-double that night, when he was questionable due to a sprained ankle suffered about 36 hours earlier; it was a performance that eliminated any doubt that the youngster belonged in the discussion of the league's best.
play
0:29
Steph shimmies after pulling up and hitting from logo
Stephen Curry is feeling it as he is up to 41 points after hitting a 3-pointer from the Mavericks' logo at half court.
Back to crunch time Saturday night, the Warriors decided they weren't going to let Doncic seal this game by scoring, sending a double-team at him 30 feet from the hoop as the shot clock ticked down. Doncic accepted that challenge by taking advantage of the tactic, delivering a bounce pass to Maxi Kleber, who was left alone in the corner and hit the dagger 3.
"He's just very polished," Curry said, tipping his cap to Doncic. "He's shown that since his rookie year, and he's gotten better. And who knows how high the ceiling is for him?"
It will be fun to find out.
cause he beat Steph
funny how that works out huh?
must be nice
Rising to Steph's challenge, Luka Doncic puts on a show in Mavericks' win
How do you beat Steph Curry when he is sizzling from the floor? The Mavericks star stepped up with 42 points and clutch passing.
Luka Doncic earns Larry Bird comparison in Dallas Mavericks' win over Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
play
ADLearn More
:15
Feb 7, 2021
- Tim MacMahonESPN Staff Writer
Give Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry an assist for bringing back Doncic's joy. Even in an empty arena, there's nothing that electrifies an NBA atmosphere quite like Curry cooking. That was certainly the case on Saturday, with Curry going 11-of-19 from 3-point range and swishing a flurry of silly shots, the kind that make you cackle out loud, en route to 57 points.
ADVERTISEMENT
Doncic gleefully accepted Curry's spectacular performance as a challenge. He responded with an outing that reminded a national television audience why this 21-year-old entered the season with the weight of MVP expectations, matching his career high with 42 points and dishing out 11 assists to lead Dallas to a thrilling -- and desperately needed -- 134-132 win.
EDITOR'S PICKS
- Kerr on Curry's 57: 'He's never played better'
- What if Steph Curry took only easy 3s?
- Three big questions that will shape the NBA trade deadline
If you didn't enjoy Saturday's contest, basketball probably just isn't the sport for you. Or perhaps you're just a bitter soul. How else to explain not smiling when you see Curry do an exaggerated shoulder shimmy on the half-court logo after draining a transition pull-up from there? How can you not appreciate the artistic beauty of the best shooter in NBA history dancing with his dribble before draining step-back 30-footers with a hand in his face?
"What Steph does is something unbelievable," Doncic said. "I just think every shot is going to go in when he shot it. It's unbelievable the way he plays the game, and it's enjoyable to watch, even if you're on the opposing team."
As Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said of Curry, "He's one of the guys that I'd pay a lot of money to watch play."
The NBA on ESPN and ABC
The NBA is back! Catch all the 2020-21 season action on ESPN, ABC and the ESPN App.
Wednesday, Feb. 10
• Hawks at Mavericks, 7:30 p.m. on ESPN
• Bucks at Suns, 10 p.m. on ESPN
All times Eastern
Doncic, who trails only Curry among guards in the All-Star voting early returns, is definitely another player to fit that category. It's not just Doncic's ability to stuff box scores -- he now has all six 40-point, 10-assist performances in franchise history, for example -- and create highlights that makes him worth buying a ticket or at least turning on the TV to watch. He is an entertainer with a rare flair for the moment, something he has in common with NBA legends that Carlisle has watched up close before.
"The basketball floor is his stage," Carlisle said of Doncic. "Guys like him -- and I was around [Larry] Bird; I was around Reggie Miller -- when there's another guy on the other team raising his game to the level that Curry was, you feel an obligation if you're that kind of player. I saw Bird do it; I saw Miller do it.
"You just dig deeper. You find a way to try to match the guy and try to match the guy for your team. And that's exactly what he did."
Luka Doncic rose to the challenge of outdueling Steph Curry and the Warriors in the Mavericks' win on Saturday. Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images
Doncic never allowed Curry to seize complete control of the game. There were certainly stretches when Curry was unstoppable, but Doncic kept responding. Case in point: the final 90 seconds of the second quarter, when Curry capped his 30-point half with a cutting layup and a couple of long 3s and Doncic swished a 3 sandwiched by a pair of pretty floaters, giving the Mavs an eight-point lead at the break.
Doncic, one of the league's lowest-percentage, high-volume long-range gunners, shot like a Splash Brother on Saturday night. He was 7-of-12 from 3-point range. And he got better as the stakes got higher, hitting 3 of 5 3s in the fourth quarter as the Mavs kept the Warriors at bay, the biggest giving Dallas a seven-point lead with 44.5 seconds remaining.
"His eyes lit up a little bit," Curry said. "He made some big shots tonight."
play
0:25
Doncic all smiles after hitting a deep trey
The Mavericks get the fortunate deflection after Tim Hardaway Jr.'s missed dunk, and Luka Doncic ends up with the ball and drills the deep 3-pointer.
Of course, a seven-point lead isn't safe with Curry in sizzle mode. Curry cut the Mavs' advantage to four points just seconds later by knocking down a 3 off a feed from Draymond Green (a point center who had his second consecutive 15-assist performance and who also is a pleasure to watch). Then, suddenly, it was a one-point game, after Curry danced and darted into the lane for an and-1 layup with 28.6 seconds left.
Imagine the pressure the Mavs felt in that moment, having lost 12 consecutive one-possession games, the third-longest such streak in NBA history, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
That streak, it's worth noting, included only regular-season games. You might recall Doncic putting the exclamation point on a playoff masterpiece by hitting a step-back 3 to beat the overtime buzzer in Dallas' Game 4 win over the LA Clippers last season. Doncic had a 43-point triple-double that night, when he was questionable due to a sprained ankle suffered about 36 hours earlier; it was a performance that eliminated any doubt that the youngster belonged in the discussion of the league's best.
play
0:29
Steph shimmies after pulling up and hitting from logo
Stephen Curry is feeling it as he is up to 41 points after hitting a 3-pointer from the Mavericks' logo at half court.
Back to crunch time Saturday night, the Warriors decided they weren't going to let Doncic seal this game by scoring, sending a double-team at him 30 feet from the hoop as the shot clock ticked down. Doncic accepted that challenge by taking advantage of the tactic, delivering a bounce pass to Maxi Kleber, who was left alone in the corner and hit the dagger 3.
"He's just very polished," Curry said, tipping his cap to Doncic. "He's shown that since his rookie year, and he's gotten better. And who knows how high the ceiling is for him?"
It will be fun to find out.
Mark Cuban annihilates ESPN reporter after Luka Doncic criticism
ESPN reporter Zach Lowe recently took a shot at Luka Doncic on his podcast “The Lowe Post” and called Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic “one of the biggest whiners in the league.” Mavs owner Mark Cuban didn’t particularly like the NBA writer’s eye-raising claim. Asked to give his thoughts while appearing on VICE TV’s “Cari & Jemele Won’t Stick to Sports,” the billionaire business did not hold back in delivering his NSFW-filled response to Lowe.
Via Josh Bowe of Mavs Money Ball:
ESPN writer Zach Lowe made his assertions based on what he is seeing from Luka Doncic so far this season. The 2018-19 NBA Rookie of the Year has been very expressive to referees when he doesn’t get the benefit of their whistles, especially when defenses play him more physically.
Nevertheless, whether Lowe’s claims are true or not, it’s hard to fault Cuban here for defending his franchise superstar. Doncic takes the game very seriously and is very competitive. As Cuban alluded to, perhaps all of that is coming from his passion in playing the game of basketball.
Doncic has been playing at a high level in his 3rd NBA season, putting up averages of 27.2 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 9.4 assists. However, the former EuroLeague MVP has also gotten his fair share of criticism for his sub-par 3-point shooting through the start of the 2020-21 season. Through 22 games, Doncic is shooting just 29.6 percent from beyond the arc on nearly 7 attempts per night.
The Mavs haven’t been able to carry the momentum from a strong 2019-20 campaign, where they made the playoffs and gave the powerhouse Los Angeles Clippers a good fight in the first round of the playoffs. They are currently no. 14 in the Western Conference standings with a 9-14 record. Their most recent defeat came in the form of a 31-point drubbing at the hands of the Golden State Warriors.
@Picasso @ansatsusha_gouki @4 Dimensional @jack walsh13 @spider705
- by
Mike Cruz - February 5, 2021
ESPN reporter Zach Lowe recently took a shot at Luka Doncic on his podcast “The Lowe Post” and called Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic “one of the biggest whiners in the league.” Mavs owner Mark Cuban didn’t particularly like the NBA writer’s eye-raising claim. Asked to give his thoughts while appearing on VICE TV’s “Cari & Jemele Won’t Stick to Sports,” the billionaire business did not hold back in delivering his NSFW-filled response to Lowe.
Via Josh Bowe of Mavs Money Ball:
ESPN writer Zach Lowe made his assertions based on what he is seeing from Luka Doncic so far this season. The 2018-19 NBA Rookie of the Year has been very expressive to referees when he doesn’t get the benefit of their whistles, especially when defenses play him more physically.
Nevertheless, whether Lowe’s claims are true or not, it’s hard to fault Cuban here for defending his franchise superstar. Doncic takes the game very seriously and is very competitive. As Cuban alluded to, perhaps all of that is coming from his passion in playing the game of basketball.
Doncic has been playing at a high level in his 3rd NBA season, putting up averages of 27.2 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 9.4 assists. However, the former EuroLeague MVP has also gotten his fair share of criticism for his sub-par 3-point shooting through the start of the 2020-21 season. Through 22 games, Doncic is shooting just 29.6 percent from beyond the arc on nearly 7 attempts per night.
The Mavs haven’t been able to carry the momentum from a strong 2019-20 campaign, where they made the playoffs and gave the powerhouse Los Angeles Clippers a good fight in the first round of the playoffs. They are currently no. 14 in the Western Conference standings with a 9-14 record. Their most recent defeat came in the form of a 31-point drubbing at the hands of the Golden State Warriors.
@Picasso @ansatsusha_gouki @4 Dimensional @jack walsh13 @spider705
Mark’s a funny dude! And yea Luka does whine. I’m not sure if he’s one of the biggest but he whines
The league is in a bad state with the drawing of offensive fouls. One of his last games Luka leaned in to draw contact on a 3. Now I’m not exaggerating. He jumped and leaned into the defender so hard, that he fell and landed in the lane under the basket!
From the 3 point line!
Why NBA legends are so impressed by Luka Doncic's game - Stream the Video - Watch ESPN
Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley and other NBA greats give high praise to Luka Doncic's style of play for the Mavericks on Watch ESPN, first streamed on Tuesday, February 9, 2021.
thyey just gonna slurp this white boy dry, huh
because they know better than to criticize him
Exactly. Shaq got all the criticism in the world for the American born kids tho. Police ass nigga.
Ten NBA things I like and don't like, including this Brooklyn Nets experience
Feb 5, 2021
1. The Brooklyn Nets experience
The Nets are plus-4 in 155 minutes with their Big Three on the floor. They have scored a mammoth 118.7 points per 100 possessions in those minutes -- and allowed nearly as many.
The Nets before the James Harden trade were plus-72 in 185 minutes with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving together. They scored 117.7 points per 100 possessions in those minutes.
Their offense was already amazing. It's better with Harden, but there is a statistical upper bound. Meanwhile, their defense has collapsed. Depth and draft picks are gone.
On the surface, it is not worth all those players, picks, and swaps to upgrade from an all-world offense to an ultra-all-world offense. There are still kinks to work out, even as Steve Nash settles on a rotation that pairs Irving with Durant and lets Harden cook as a solo star on bench-heavy lineups.
Harden is the lead ball handler, as expected. Everyone is eating; the trio is averaging 86 points combined since the Harden trade. But there are possessions where two stand and watch the third -- suboptimal use of superstars. You feel the void of a low-usage playmaker in the Draymond Green mold, and of the roving Klay Thompson type who doesn't need to dribble.
And yet: Zoomed-out statistics do not win playoff series. It might not matter if the Harden/Irving/Durant trio produces the same offensive efficiency over thousands of minutes as the Irving/Durant/depth construction might have. In lusting after Harden, Brooklyn chased something that might never show up in aggregate statistics: the ability to create a good shot on the most important possessions, against the best defenses -- to be drought-proof, so potent in so many places it becomes untenable for opponents to play offense-only players against you. A third star is also insurance against injury to one of the first two.
It's still a huge bet. If you let me choose any theoretical Nets iteration, I'd take Harden, Durant, and depth/picks -- with Irving elsewhere -- by a hair over the current version. I might live the best of both worlds that way -- win now and later. To win the bet they made, the Nets almost have to win the title.
They need to play better defense. That will take time and effort. The Nets are switching a lot, which is fine and to Harden's taste. But Harden's Houston Rockets teams (among others) showed the distinction between switching because it is convenient and truly committing to a switching scheme everyone buys into. Rebounding is a structural weakness, though it's bizarrely refreshing how obvious it is when the Nets gang rebound with urgency.
These Nets merely have to be solid on defense. As I wrote upon the Harden deal, their model is something like the 2015-16 and 2016-17 Cleveland Cavaliers -- one a champion, the second even better but facing the misfortune of battling the first Durant-era Golden State Warriors team.
Both were scoring juggernauts who dialed up the defense enough when it mattered. I cannot wait to see if the Nets manage that -- and what their fully optimized offense looks like.
2. Gordon Hayward's decelerations
If Hayward has lost some oomph since his leg injury in 2017, he makes up for it with crafty footwork -- stop-on-a-dime decelerations, half-spins, and pivoty slides that pry open space for his midrange game.
Hayward usually jogs into that handoff and continues driving to his right. On this one, he appears to fake a cut down the middle -- coaxing his man, Khris Middleton, into dipping toward the paint and behind Cody Zeller. But it's a ruse! Hayward plants his right foot and bounces back into an open 3-pointer with Middleton stuck.
Hayward is averaging 23 points and sniffing 50-40-90 shooting while providing secondary playmaking and defense at both forward positions. He is exactly what the Charlotte Hornets envisioned, and he's living up to his four-year, $120 million contract. Pain might come in the back end, but the Hornets will live with that if Hayward brings stability now.
There is opportunity cost in using cap space on veterans who don't match your timeline, but that cost was probably not all that high for the Hornets. They are not a free-agent destination. They were slated before signing Hayward to have so much space this coming summer, it was almost inevitable they would do something damaging with it.
Ignore the money, and enjoy a really good player having a really good season after injuries short-circuited his prime.
3. Buckle up when Dame rests
The most perilous minutes in the NBA right now -- or at least until the Portland Trail Blazers (without Damian Lillard) walloped the Philadelphia 76ers (without Ben Simmons) on Thursday: the 10 or so when Lillard rests, leaving the Blazers to scrounge buckets without both their star guards. (CJ McCollum, Lillard's co-star, was enjoying a career season before breaking a bone in his foot.)
The Blazers are holding the fort while McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic recover from injuries. They are 4-4 in their last eight, having eked out wins against the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls to offset some blowouts. (They count the same in the standings!)
Lillard has done his part: 32 points per game since McCollum's injury on 48% shooting -- including 38% on 3s. Everyone in the greater Chicago area, including every Bulls player, must have uttered some profanity the moment Lillard picked up that loose ball in the waning seconds of Portland's buzzer-beating miracle win last Saturday. You knew that shot was going in. Had there been fans, we would have gotten one of those iconic mid-shot freeze frames memorializing thousands of people shrieking in terror.
The NBA on ESPN and ABC
The NBA is back! Catch all the 2020-21 season action on ESPN, ABC and the ESPN App.
Wednesday, Feb. 10
• Hawks at Mavericks, 7:30 p.m. on ESPN
• Bucks at Suns, 10 p.m. on ESPN
All times Eastern
Portland in this stretch has scored almost 120 points per 100 possessions with Lillard on the floor -- well above the Milwaukee Bucks' league-best offense. Portland averages about 103 points per 100 possessions for the season with Lillard on the bench, and that number was even worse during this eight-game stretch before the Blazers perked up in Philly.
The Blazers in those minutes are just trying to steal time. If they break even, or come close, they have a chance to win. They slow the game, let one of Rodney Hood, Carmelo Anthony, and Gary Trent Jr. go one-on-one, and hope turnover-free iso-ball manufactures enough points to keep the game in reach.
Trent especially has risen to the challenge. He's shooting 46% overall and 50% on 3s with Lillard on the bench, per NBA.com. He's fearless, with a smooth, old-school mid-range game.
Melo loves any excuse to get cookin', but he's down to 38.5% overall. Anfernee Simons is a mystery box.
Don't dismiss Portland, even with Zach Collins also out and Derrick Jones Jr. nicked up. Robert Covington has rediscovered his jumper. Above all else, Lillard, Terry Stotts, and the Blazers endure.
4. The next frontier for Michael Porter Jr.
As he cemented himself in the bubble as the third pillar of the Denver Nuggets' future, Porter showed a knack for duck-ins against guards:
Those didn't translate to more traditional post-ups, but they portended an apex predator wing who could exploit size mismatches in both directions -- the ultimate postseason weapon.
We have barely seen Porter play bully-ball this season. He looks uncomfortable with his back to the basket against smaller players:
Perhaps Porter has never really honed those skills. Maybe he's hesitant to test his back by banging into smaller defenders. He maintains an upright posture in general; he doesn't bend low for leverage.
Porter has recorded only 13 post touches in 11 games, per Second Spectrum data. They have barely produced any points. The best Porter can manage right now is facing up for long 2s.
That's not a bad option. Porter is tall enough to clear a foot of clean airspace on those shots, and he's a capital-S shooter. But it's not a shot Denver hunts, and that alone makes opponents comfortable stashing smaller guys -- Patty Mills above, Jordan Clarkson in recent Utah-Denver matchups -- on Porter.
Lineup construction amounts to balancing an equation: How many scoring threats can we play without compromising our defense? Porter not abusing the Clarksons of the world gives opponents leeway tilting lineups toward scoring.
It's so early. Porter is 22, in his second season. Denver might nudge him by giving him the ball at the center of the foul line, the whole court before him, instead of on the wings -- where the boundaries act as extra defenders.
But the Nuggets' window is now. In a half-court playoff slog, they need all the scoring options they can get.
5. The T.J. McConnell All-Star competition
McConnell's supernatural instinct for stealing inbounds passes reached its zenith in the Indiana Pacers' blowout win Tuesday over the Memphis Grizzlies. Midway through the first quarter, McConnell -- perhaps sensing the Grizz inbounder couldn't see him skulking near the top of the key behind two larger humans -- darted inside to steal one lazy inbounds. "He got him one!" Quinn Buckner screamed on the Pacers' broadcast.
Early in the fourth quarter, McConnell deflected Kyle Anderson's inbounds pass out of bounds -- forcing a do-over. McConnell averages 5.5 deflections per 36 minutes, behind only Matisse Thybulle, per NBA.com.
By this point, I was annoyed on behalf of the Grizzlies, who trailed by 21 and probably just wanted to leave. On the ensuing inbounds, McConnell invaded Ja Morant's passing lane, forcing Morant to toss the ball high -- and, by accident, off the basket support. Pacers' ball.
Ninety seconds later, after another Pacers basket, McConnell faked as if he would relent and jog to half-court alongside Morant -- leaving Xavier Tillman Sr. an uncontested inbounds to Anderson. Nope. McConnell ditched Morant, veered toward Anderson, and swiped the pass -- his third forced turnover on an inbounds in one game.
I mean ... even Pablo Prigioni is impressed.
McConnell is averaging 2.9 steals per 36 minutes, again second only to Thybulle. Only 24 players have snatched three steals per 36 minutes over 42 combined individual seasons, per Basketball-Reference. (Alvin Robertson had the most such seasons, with five. Buckner had three, so you understand his glee at McConnell's thievery.) Only two have pulled it since the end of the 1990s -- Tony Allen and Metta World Peace, once each.
McConnell is more than the cliched coach's son who compensates for middling athleticism with unrelenting hustle, though he is also that. He's an elite midrange shooter, dishing 10.3 dimes per 36 minutes. The Pacers, thinned by injury, boast a fatter scoring margin with McConnell on the floor; his selflessness and pace galvanize them the second he enters.
If we're going to have All-Star during a pandemic, let's introduce a new competition: two teammates inbound the ball against McConnell. Whoever does so the most consecutive times without turning it over donates $50,000 to charity.
6. The dogmatic refusal of long 2s
Teams are indisputably right to trade 2s outside the restricted area for 3s. But every ball-handling guard still needs a midranger and floater. Sometimes, there is no better shot around the corner:
Coaches have been on Delon Wright for years to shoot more jumpers. They mostly mean open 3s, but Wright told me before the season he knows he has to take more midrangers when the defense concedes them. We haven't seen that, though Wright has strung together some nice games of late.
Austin Rivers stopped shooting long 2s even before landing with the midrange-phobic Rockets in late 2018. Perhaps Blake Griffin's vicious impression of Rivers in floater mode from 2015 scarred him.
Longtime readers know I have a soft spot for Rivers. He got off to a hot start with the Knicks, but he's 30-of-81 over his past 12 games -- and 20-of-67 excluding a 25-point explosion against the Utah Jazz.
But this really isn't about Rivers and Wright. The shot clock is finite! Dare a midranger!
7. Malik Beasley is legit
One bright spot in another dreary Minnesota season: Beasley is a legit starter, and not an empty-calories scorer on a bad team. He has been Minnesota's best offensive player, and probably best player period, outside Karl-Anthony Towns.
Beasley is averaging 20 points and shooting 37.5% from deep. That's down from last season, but fine considering the volume -- almost nine jacks per 36 minutes -- and degree of difficulty required in a second-option (and sometimes first-option) role he won't play on a good team. Minnesota scores just 97.5 points per 100 possessions when Beasley rests, by far the lowest figure on the Wolves.
Beasley carried a rep as something of a gunner, but that hasn't proved true. He's a willing passer enjoying a mini-leap in playmaking. Most of that has come in the flow -- hit-aheads in transition, extra passes, simple reads that keep the machine churning:
Every team needs plus shooters who make snap decisions. And Beasley can run a workable pick-and-roll in a pinch:
Notice how he freezes the key help defender by turning his gaze toward Ricky Rubio before flicking that no-looker to Reid. (Reid is playing solid two-way basketball. I'm not emotionally prepared to discuss Rubio's performance.)
Beasley averages about 2.3 assists per game, a career high but nothing special. That's acceptable for a wing playing next to a ball-dominant point guard, and for a team that ranks in the bottom 10 in shooting percentage from every range. (Seriously: the Wolves are 29th on 3s and shots at the rim, and 27th on midrangers. If they finish last in all three, we are naming that The Minny.)
Beasley's defense is hit or miss, but he's turning into a success story for a franchise that needed one.
8. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, against the grain
Gilgeous-Alexander might have the NBA's hardest job, transitioning from hybrid guard on a playoff team to lead orchestrator amid a rebuild. The two veterans in Oklahoma City's starting five -- George Hill and Al Horford -- have missed 13 games combined.
Even when available, Hill and Horford aren't high-volume creators anymore. (Horford has attempted seven free throws all season.) With or without them, the burden on Gilgeous-Alexander is gigantic.
What a win, then, that he has been so efficient: 22 points on 51% shooting -- 37.5% on 3s, 57% on 2s -- six dimes, five boards, solid defense. He's in a virtual tie with Luka Doncic for most drives per 36 minutes, and Gilgeous-Alexander's drive-and-kick work has been fruitful considering the cast around him, per Second Spectrum. He has found a nice balance between shooting and passing.
Oklahoma City's offense approaches league-average production with Gilgeous-Alexander on the floor, and craters without him: 95 points per 100 possessions, nine below the league's clankiest team. That says something about Gilgeous-Alexander's untested backups and the Thunder's overall roster -- but also about how Gilgeous-Alexander has managed to lift that crew to respectability. (That said, keep an eye on Theo Maledon. He's got something.)
Gilgeous-Alexander is a slithery, arrhythmic player. One favorite quirk: his penchant for faking toward picks, and then bolting away from them:
That is a nasty in-and-out dribble. Only Morant and Lillard reject screens more often than Gilgeous-Alexander, per Second Spectrum.
Gilgeous-Alexander belongs in the All-Star conversation.
9. Respect Harrison Barnes
When the Dallas Mavericks traded Barnes to the Sacramento Kings for Justin Jackson and Zach Randolph (whom Dallas immediately waived), more than one team executive asked me the same rhetorical question: Is Barnes better than Jackson?
What they really meant was: Is Barnes' $17 million -- about the gap in their respective salaries then -- better than Jackson? Perhaps not, but he was obviously way better. The question revealed a problem in player evaluation not unique to Barnes, but perhaps best represented by him: defining players almost entirely by their salary, and not what they do.
The knock on Barnes since college is that he is too mechanical. That has mostly rung true. He has not been a natural playmaker.
But he's good -- a jack-of-all-trades who could help any team. He has been more than that for the surging Kings, who have won five of six to get to 10-11. Amid all the (much-deserved) hype for De'Aaron Fox and the preternatural Tyrese Haliburton, do not overlook Barnes' role in steadying Sacto.
He's shooting 41% from deep and bringing stout defense at both forward positions. Barnes has been a rock-solid 3-and-D guy most of his career. His size and strength have allowed the Kings to sing with a smallish lineup of Fox, Buddy Hield, Haliburton, Barnes, and Richaun Holmes; that group has blitzed opponents by almost 24 points per 100 possessions, and closed several wins. Among lineups that have logged at least 90 minutes, only the LA Clippers' starting five have a larger positive scoring margin.
This, though, is new for Barnes:
He is dishing 3.6 dimes per game, double his career average. He's seeing passes earlier, and making more advanced reads -- kickouts to the player one link further down the chain than the defense expects.
He maintains the pace of Sacramento's offense, and sometimes amps it up, with instant extra passes:
Need a pick-and-roll late in the shot clock? Barnes can do that -- or screen for one of Sacramento's guards. Want to exploit a mouse in the house? Barnes can do that, too.
Is Barnes what everyone thought he would be as one of the nation's most talked-about high school prospects? Is he producing $20 million of value? Maybe not. But he's damned good, and the Kings are happy to have him.
10. Dunked-on shows of respect
I love this:
Machismo code demands Rudy Gobert taunt Will Barton. Instead, Gobert pats Barton on the chest: I got you, but that was brave.
That might be the only appropriate reaction for Gobert. He is 6 inches taller than Barton; cramming over Barton from close range is no great feat. As the league's preeminent rim protector, Gobert knows challenging dunks means occasional posterization: valorous victimhood.
The reverse situation -- little guy mashing Goliath -- merits some taunting and visceral screaming. Even when the size matchup is more even, some dunks are so soul-crushing, all decorum should and does fly out of the window. But I enjoy the occasional show of respect for an act of basketball courage that risks humiliation.
LISTEN: Jerami Grant and Chris Webber on The Lowe Post
Feb 5, 2021
Zach LoweESPN Senior Writer
1. The Brooklyn Nets experience
The Nets are plus-4 in 155 minutes with their Big Three on the floor. They have scored a mammoth 118.7 points per 100 possessions in those minutes -- and allowed nearly as many.
The Nets before the James Harden trade were plus-72 in 185 minutes with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving together. They scored 117.7 points per 100 possessions in those minutes.
Their offense was already amazing. It's better with Harden, but there is a statistical upper bound. Meanwhile, their defense has collapsed. Depth and draft picks are gone.
On the surface, it is not worth all those players, picks, and swaps to upgrade from an all-world offense to an ultra-all-world offense. There are still kinks to work out, even as Steve Nash settles on a rotation that pairs Irving with Durant and lets Harden cook as a solo star on bench-heavy lineups.
Harden is the lead ball handler, as expected. Everyone is eating; the trio is averaging 86 points combined since the Harden trade. But there are possessions where two stand and watch the third -- suboptimal use of superstars. You feel the void of a low-usage playmaker in the Draymond Green mold, and of the roving Klay Thompson type who doesn't need to dribble.
And yet: Zoomed-out statistics do not win playoff series. It might not matter if the Harden/Irving/Durant trio produces the same offensive efficiency over thousands of minutes as the Irving/Durant/depth construction might have. In lusting after Harden, Brooklyn chased something that might never show up in aggregate statistics: the ability to create a good shot on the most important possessions, against the best defenses -- to be drought-proof, so potent in so many places it becomes untenable for opponents to play offense-only players against you. A third star is also insurance against injury to one of the first two.
It's still a huge bet. If you let me choose any theoretical Nets iteration, I'd take Harden, Durant, and depth/picks -- with Irving elsewhere -- by a hair over the current version. I might live the best of both worlds that way -- win now and later. To win the bet they made, the Nets almost have to win the title.
They need to play better defense. That will take time and effort. The Nets are switching a lot, which is fine and to Harden's taste. But Harden's Houston Rockets teams (among others) showed the distinction between switching because it is convenient and truly committing to a switching scheme everyone buys into. Rebounding is a structural weakness, though it's bizarrely refreshing how obvious it is when the Nets gang rebound with urgency.
These Nets merely have to be solid on defense. As I wrote upon the Harden deal, their model is something like the 2015-16 and 2016-17 Cleveland Cavaliers -- one a champion, the second even better but facing the misfortune of battling the first Durant-era Golden State Warriors team.
Both were scoring juggernauts who dialed up the defense enough when it mattered. I cannot wait to see if the Nets manage that -- and what their fully optimized offense looks like.
2. Gordon Hayward's decelerations
If Hayward has lost some oomph since his leg injury in 2017, he makes up for it with crafty footwork -- stop-on-a-dime decelerations, half-spins, and pivoty slides that pry open space for his midrange game.
Hayward usually jogs into that handoff and continues driving to his right. On this one, he appears to fake a cut down the middle -- coaxing his man, Khris Middleton, into dipping toward the paint and behind Cody Zeller. But it's a ruse! Hayward plants his right foot and bounces back into an open 3-pointer with Middleton stuck.
Hayward is averaging 23 points and sniffing 50-40-90 shooting while providing secondary playmaking and defense at both forward positions. He is exactly what the Charlotte Hornets envisioned, and he's living up to his four-year, $120 million contract. Pain might come in the back end, but the Hornets will live with that if Hayward brings stability now.
There is opportunity cost in using cap space on veterans who don't match your timeline, but that cost was probably not all that high for the Hornets. They are not a free-agent destination. They were slated before signing Hayward to have so much space this coming summer, it was almost inevitable they would do something damaging with it.
Ignore the money, and enjoy a really good player having a really good season after injuries short-circuited his prime.
3. Buckle up when Dame rests
The most perilous minutes in the NBA right now -- or at least until the Portland Trail Blazers (without Damian Lillard) walloped the Philadelphia 76ers (without Ben Simmons) on Thursday: the 10 or so when Lillard rests, leaving the Blazers to scrounge buckets without both their star guards. (CJ McCollum, Lillard's co-star, was enjoying a career season before breaking a bone in his foot.)
The Blazers are holding the fort while McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic recover from injuries. They are 4-4 in their last eight, having eked out wins against the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls to offset some blowouts. (They count the same in the standings!)
Lillard has done his part: 32 points per game since McCollum's injury on 48% shooting -- including 38% on 3s. Everyone in the greater Chicago area, including every Bulls player, must have uttered some profanity the moment Lillard picked up that loose ball in the waning seconds of Portland's buzzer-beating miracle win last Saturday. You knew that shot was going in. Had there been fans, we would have gotten one of those iconic mid-shot freeze frames memorializing thousands of people shrieking in terror.
The NBA on ESPN and ABC
The NBA is back! Catch all the 2020-21 season action on ESPN, ABC and the ESPN App.
Wednesday, Feb. 10
• Hawks at Mavericks, 7:30 p.m. on ESPN
• Bucks at Suns, 10 p.m. on ESPN
All times Eastern
Portland in this stretch has scored almost 120 points per 100 possessions with Lillard on the floor -- well above the Milwaukee Bucks' league-best offense. Portland averages about 103 points per 100 possessions for the season with Lillard on the bench, and that number was even worse during this eight-game stretch before the Blazers perked up in Philly.
The Blazers in those minutes are just trying to steal time. If they break even, or come close, they have a chance to win. They slow the game, let one of Rodney Hood, Carmelo Anthony, and Gary Trent Jr. go one-on-one, and hope turnover-free iso-ball manufactures enough points to keep the game in reach.
Trent especially has risen to the challenge. He's shooting 46% overall and 50% on 3s with Lillard on the bench, per NBA.com. He's fearless, with a smooth, old-school mid-range game.
Melo loves any excuse to get cookin', but he's down to 38.5% overall. Anfernee Simons is a mystery box.
Don't dismiss Portland, even with Zach Collins also out and Derrick Jones Jr. nicked up. Robert Covington has rediscovered his jumper. Above all else, Lillard, Terry Stotts, and the Blazers endure.
4. The next frontier for Michael Porter Jr.
As he cemented himself in the bubble as the third pillar of the Denver Nuggets' future, Porter showed a knack for duck-ins against guards:
Those didn't translate to more traditional post-ups, but they portended an apex predator wing who could exploit size mismatches in both directions -- the ultimate postseason weapon.
We have barely seen Porter play bully-ball this season. He looks uncomfortable with his back to the basket against smaller players:
Perhaps Porter has never really honed those skills. Maybe he's hesitant to test his back by banging into smaller defenders. He maintains an upright posture in general; he doesn't bend low for leverage.
Porter has recorded only 13 post touches in 11 games, per Second Spectrum data. They have barely produced any points. The best Porter can manage right now is facing up for long 2s.
That's not a bad option. Porter is tall enough to clear a foot of clean airspace on those shots, and he's a capital-S shooter. But it's not a shot Denver hunts, and that alone makes opponents comfortable stashing smaller guys -- Patty Mills above, Jordan Clarkson in recent Utah-Denver matchups -- on Porter.
Lineup construction amounts to balancing an equation: How many scoring threats can we play without compromising our defense? Porter not abusing the Clarksons of the world gives opponents leeway tilting lineups toward scoring.
It's so early. Porter is 22, in his second season. Denver might nudge him by giving him the ball at the center of the foul line, the whole court before him, instead of on the wings -- where the boundaries act as extra defenders.
But the Nuggets' window is now. In a half-court playoff slog, they need all the scoring options they can get.
5. The T.J. McConnell All-Star competition
McConnell's supernatural instinct for stealing inbounds passes reached its zenith in the Indiana Pacers' blowout win Tuesday over the Memphis Grizzlies. Midway through the first quarter, McConnell -- perhaps sensing the Grizz inbounder couldn't see him skulking near the top of the key behind two larger humans -- darted inside to steal one lazy inbounds. "He got him one!" Quinn Buckner screamed on the Pacers' broadcast.
Early in the fourth quarter, McConnell deflected Kyle Anderson's inbounds pass out of bounds -- forcing a do-over. McConnell averages 5.5 deflections per 36 minutes, behind only Matisse Thybulle, per NBA.com.
By this point, I was annoyed on behalf of the Grizzlies, who trailed by 21 and probably just wanted to leave. On the ensuing inbounds, McConnell invaded Ja Morant's passing lane, forcing Morant to toss the ball high -- and, by accident, off the basket support. Pacers' ball.
Ninety seconds later, after another Pacers basket, McConnell faked as if he would relent and jog to half-court alongside Morant -- leaving Xavier Tillman Sr. an uncontested inbounds to Anderson. Nope. McConnell ditched Morant, veered toward Anderson, and swiped the pass -- his third forced turnover on an inbounds in one game.
I mean ... even Pablo Prigioni is impressed.
McConnell is averaging 2.9 steals per 36 minutes, again second only to Thybulle. Only 24 players have snatched three steals per 36 minutes over 42 combined individual seasons, per Basketball-Reference. (Alvin Robertson had the most such seasons, with five. Buckner had three, so you understand his glee at McConnell's thievery.) Only two have pulled it since the end of the 1990s -- Tony Allen and Metta World Peace, once each.
McConnell is more than the cliched coach's son who compensates for middling athleticism with unrelenting hustle, though he is also that. He's an elite midrange shooter, dishing 10.3 dimes per 36 minutes. The Pacers, thinned by injury, boast a fatter scoring margin with McConnell on the floor; his selflessness and pace galvanize them the second he enters.
If we're going to have All-Star during a pandemic, let's introduce a new competition: two teammates inbound the ball against McConnell. Whoever does so the most consecutive times without turning it over donates $50,000 to charity.
6. The dogmatic refusal of long 2s
Teams are indisputably right to trade 2s outside the restricted area for 3s. But every ball-handling guard still needs a midranger and floater. Sometimes, there is no better shot around the corner:
Coaches have been on Delon Wright for years to shoot more jumpers. They mostly mean open 3s, but Wright told me before the season he knows he has to take more midrangers when the defense concedes them. We haven't seen that, though Wright has strung together some nice games of late.
Austin Rivers stopped shooting long 2s even before landing with the midrange-phobic Rockets in late 2018. Perhaps Blake Griffin's vicious impression of Rivers in floater mode from 2015 scarred him.
Longtime readers know I have a soft spot for Rivers. He got off to a hot start with the Knicks, but he's 30-of-81 over his past 12 games -- and 20-of-67 excluding a 25-point explosion against the Utah Jazz.
But this really isn't about Rivers and Wright. The shot clock is finite! Dare a midranger!
7. Malik Beasley is legit
One bright spot in another dreary Minnesota season: Beasley is a legit starter, and not an empty-calories scorer on a bad team. He has been Minnesota's best offensive player, and probably best player period, outside Karl-Anthony Towns.
Beasley is averaging 20 points and shooting 37.5% from deep. That's down from last season, but fine considering the volume -- almost nine jacks per 36 minutes -- and degree of difficulty required in a second-option (and sometimes first-option) role he won't play on a good team. Minnesota scores just 97.5 points per 100 possessions when Beasley rests, by far the lowest figure on the Wolves.
Beasley carried a rep as something of a gunner, but that hasn't proved true. He's a willing passer enjoying a mini-leap in playmaking. Most of that has come in the flow -- hit-aheads in transition, extra passes, simple reads that keep the machine churning:
Every team needs plus shooters who make snap decisions. And Beasley can run a workable pick-and-roll in a pinch:
Notice how he freezes the key help defender by turning his gaze toward Ricky Rubio before flicking that no-looker to Reid. (Reid is playing solid two-way basketball. I'm not emotionally prepared to discuss Rubio's performance.)
Beasley averages about 2.3 assists per game, a career high but nothing special. That's acceptable for a wing playing next to a ball-dominant point guard, and for a team that ranks in the bottom 10 in shooting percentage from every range. (Seriously: the Wolves are 29th on 3s and shots at the rim, and 27th on midrangers. If they finish last in all three, we are naming that The Minny.)
Beasley's defense is hit or miss, but he's turning into a success story for a franchise that needed one.
8. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, against the grain
Gilgeous-Alexander might have the NBA's hardest job, transitioning from hybrid guard on a playoff team to lead orchestrator amid a rebuild. The two veterans in Oklahoma City's starting five -- George Hill and Al Horford -- have missed 13 games combined.
Even when available, Hill and Horford aren't high-volume creators anymore. (Horford has attempted seven free throws all season.) With or without them, the burden on Gilgeous-Alexander is gigantic.
What a win, then, that he has been so efficient: 22 points on 51% shooting -- 37.5% on 3s, 57% on 2s -- six dimes, five boards, solid defense. He's in a virtual tie with Luka Doncic for most drives per 36 minutes, and Gilgeous-Alexander's drive-and-kick work has been fruitful considering the cast around him, per Second Spectrum. He has found a nice balance between shooting and passing.
Oklahoma City's offense approaches league-average production with Gilgeous-Alexander on the floor, and craters without him: 95 points per 100 possessions, nine below the league's clankiest team. That says something about Gilgeous-Alexander's untested backups and the Thunder's overall roster -- but also about how Gilgeous-Alexander has managed to lift that crew to respectability. (That said, keep an eye on Theo Maledon. He's got something.)
Gilgeous-Alexander is a slithery, arrhythmic player. One favorite quirk: his penchant for faking toward picks, and then bolting away from them:
That is a nasty in-and-out dribble. Only Morant and Lillard reject screens more often than Gilgeous-Alexander, per Second Spectrum.
Gilgeous-Alexander belongs in the All-Star conversation.
9. Respect Harrison Barnes
When the Dallas Mavericks traded Barnes to the Sacramento Kings for Justin Jackson and Zach Randolph (whom Dallas immediately waived), more than one team executive asked me the same rhetorical question: Is Barnes better than Jackson?
What they really meant was: Is Barnes' $17 million -- about the gap in their respective salaries then -- better than Jackson? Perhaps not, but he was obviously way better. The question revealed a problem in player evaluation not unique to Barnes, but perhaps best represented by him: defining players almost entirely by their salary, and not what they do.
The knock on Barnes since college is that he is too mechanical. That has mostly rung true. He has not been a natural playmaker.
But he's good -- a jack-of-all-trades who could help any team. He has been more than that for the surging Kings, who have won five of six to get to 10-11. Amid all the (much-deserved) hype for De'Aaron Fox and the preternatural Tyrese Haliburton, do not overlook Barnes' role in steadying Sacto.
He's shooting 41% from deep and bringing stout defense at both forward positions. Barnes has been a rock-solid 3-and-D guy most of his career. His size and strength have allowed the Kings to sing with a smallish lineup of Fox, Buddy Hield, Haliburton, Barnes, and Richaun Holmes; that group has blitzed opponents by almost 24 points per 100 possessions, and closed several wins. Among lineups that have logged at least 90 minutes, only the LA Clippers' starting five have a larger positive scoring margin.
This, though, is new for Barnes:
He is dishing 3.6 dimes per game, double his career average. He's seeing passes earlier, and making more advanced reads -- kickouts to the player one link further down the chain than the defense expects.
He maintains the pace of Sacramento's offense, and sometimes amps it up, with instant extra passes:
Need a pick-and-roll late in the shot clock? Barnes can do that -- or screen for one of Sacramento's guards. Want to exploit a mouse in the house? Barnes can do that, too.
Is Barnes what everyone thought he would be as one of the nation's most talked-about high school prospects? Is he producing $20 million of value? Maybe not. But he's damned good, and the Kings are happy to have him.
10. Dunked-on shows of respect
I love this:
Machismo code demands Rudy Gobert taunt Will Barton. Instead, Gobert pats Barton on the chest: I got you, but that was brave.
That might be the only appropriate reaction for Gobert. He is 6 inches taller than Barton; cramming over Barton from close range is no great feat. As the league's preeminent rim protector, Gobert knows challenging dunks means occasional posterization: valorous victimhood.
The reverse situation -- little guy mashing Goliath -- merits some taunting and visceral screaming. Even when the size matchup is more even, some dunks are so soul-crushing, all decorum should and does fly out of the window. But I enjoy the occasional show of respect for an act of basketball courage that risks humiliation.
LISTEN: Jerami Grant and Chris Webber on The Lowe Post
Last edited:
Shaq was loud and wrong about Donovan Mitchell. His unselfishness makes the Jazz a title threat.
Led by Donovan Mitchell, the Utah Jazz is attempting 41.6 three-pointers per game this season. (Rick Bowmer/AP)
By
Ben Golliver
Jan. 25, 2021 at 12:34 p.m. EST
This is an excerpt from Ben Golliver’s NBA Post Up weekly newsletter. Sign up to get the latest news and commentary and the best high jinks from #NBATwitter and R/NBA delivered to your inbox every Monday. Included in this week’s newsletter is a Q&A with Shea Serrano.
TNT’s Shaquille O’Neal sparked a kerfuffle Thursday with a pointed postgame question to Donovan Mitchell that prompted an awkward exchange.
“I said tonight that you are one of my favorite players, but you don’t have what it takes to get to the next level,” O’Neal told Mitchell, the Utah Jazz’s all-star guard. “I said it on purpose, and I wanted you to hear it. What do you have to say about that?”
Mitchell, who had just scored 36 points to lead the streaking Jazz to its seventh straight win, replied: “All right.” After a long pause that turned the tables back on O’Neal, Mitchell added: “That’s it. That’s it. Shaq, I’ve been hearing that since my rookie year. I’m just going to get better and do what I do.”
Online, Jazz fans erupted at O’Neal for his clumsy motivational query. In O’Neal’s defense, the coronavirus pandemic has limited media access at games, forcing the analyst and entertainer to play out of position.
AD
The Utah House of Representatives on Tuesday came to Mitchell’s defense, passing “House Resolution Honoring Donovan Mitchell over Shaquille O’Neal,” which poked fun at O’Neal’s free throw shooting percentage and “Kazaam,” among other things.
Ironically, O’Neal’s question to Mitchell got at the heart of Utah’s early-season success, which has been driven collectively rather than individually. The Jazz doesn’t need Mitchell to be a one-man army because it has constructed a high-efficiency attack around him that relies on scoring balance.
A year after Kobe Bryant’s death, the mourning and misery continue
Mitchell, 24, is averaging a career-high 24.3 points, but his numbers are virtually identical to last season’s. Even so, the Jazz (12-4) has responded to its first-round bubble exit by storming out of the gates with the NBA’s third-best record through Sunday. And after years of crafting a defense-first identity around Rudy Gobert, the Jazz boasts a top-five offense to pair with a top-five defense.
AD
Utah’s red-hot start owes largely to its historic three-point shooting and its deep commitment to perimeter offense. Through Sunday, the Jazz was attempting 41.6 three-pointers per game and making 40.3 percent. No team in NBA history — not even Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors or James Harden’s Houston Rockets at their peaks — has finished a season in the 40/40 club by attempting 40 threes per game and hitting 40 percent of them.
Utah’s efficiency will almost certainly regress, but the fact that it has climbed to these heights is a major development, given the franchise’s reluctance to shoot threes dating from the Jerry Sloan era. Utah ranked 15th or worse on three-point attempts every year from 2000 through 2017, often placing in the bottom five.
Quin Snyder’s 2014 arrival as coach and Mitchell’s 2017 draft selection changed that, although the Jazz still spent most of the past decade looking like dinosaurs in the modern era. While cutting-edge teams pushed the pace, constructed outside-in offenses and deployed small-ball lineups, the Jazz typically played slow, sometimes used lineups with two centers and lost to more prolific shooting teams such as the Warriors and the Rockets in the playoffs.
AD
This season, though, the Jazz ranks third in three-point attempts and second in three-point efficiency, thanks to Mitchell, point guard Mike Conley and sixth man Jordan Clarkson, who are averaging career highs for three-point attempts. While Gobert and backup center Derrick Favors remain non-shooters, virtually every other rotation player is a threat from beyond the arc. Utah’s favorite lineups feature four shooters, and Snyder’s egalitarian offense encourages ball movement and precise passing that set up higher-percentage catch-and-shoot opportunities. Six Jazz players are attempting at least four three-pointers per game, and five average at least two assists.
When things are rolling, the Utah attack can be a thing of beauty: The Jazz claimed its eighth straight win by smacking the Warriors, 127-108, on Saturday, scoring 77 points in the first half and jacking up 50 three-pointers on the night. Eight Jazz players hit at least one three, and six finished in double figures.
“They’re trying to win a championship right now, and I think they’re capable of doing so,” Golden State Coach Steve Kerr said. “The continuity is apparent right away. They execute their stuff beautifully. What’s different this year is that they’re hunting threes more quickly and more often. That’s given them an even tougher dynamic.”
NBA players should wait on vaccination and ramp up advocacy, experts say
O’Neal might be right that Mitchell isn’t capable of carrying a team to the promised land by himself, but the Jazz would be foolish to ask that of him. Utah’s path to upsetting superstar-driven teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers and Brooklyn Nets cannot rely on Mitchell outdueling LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard and Kevin Durant.
AD
Instead, Utah’s championship formula resembles the 2004 Detroit Pistons or the 2014 San Antonio Spurs, hoping that discipline, unselfishness and togetherness can create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. It might not work, but it clearly beats the alternative. O’Neal should know: His Lakers lost to the Pistons in the 2004 Finals.
Challenging Mitchell to raise his solo game misses the whole point of the Jazz, which thrives on its star guard’s willingness to buy into an offense that spreads the wealth at the expense of his statistics and fame. Snyder has praised Mitchell’s “focus on his efficiency and his decision-making,” and rightfully so. Mitchell’s commitments have modernized the Jazz and positioned it as a new threat to the two Los Angeles favorites in the West.
“When we shoot the ball well and defend,” Mitchell said Saturday, “we can be scary.”
Led by Donovan Mitchell, the Utah Jazz is attempting 41.6 three-pointers per game this season. (Rick Bowmer/AP)
By
Ben Golliver
Jan. 25, 2021 at 12:34 p.m. EST
This is an excerpt from Ben Golliver’s NBA Post Up weekly newsletter. Sign up to get the latest news and commentary and the best high jinks from #NBATwitter and R/NBA delivered to your inbox every Monday. Included in this week’s newsletter is a Q&A with Shea Serrano.
TNT’s Shaquille O’Neal sparked a kerfuffle Thursday with a pointed postgame question to Donovan Mitchell that prompted an awkward exchange.
“I said tonight that you are one of my favorite players, but you don’t have what it takes to get to the next level,” O’Neal told Mitchell, the Utah Jazz’s all-star guard. “I said it on purpose, and I wanted you to hear it. What do you have to say about that?”
Mitchell, who had just scored 36 points to lead the streaking Jazz to its seventh straight win, replied: “All right.” After a long pause that turned the tables back on O’Neal, Mitchell added: “That’s it. That’s it. Shaq, I’ve been hearing that since my rookie year. I’m just going to get better and do what I do.”
Online, Jazz fans erupted at O’Neal for his clumsy motivational query. In O’Neal’s defense, the coronavirus pandemic has limited media access at games, forcing the analyst and entertainer to play out of position.
AD
The Utah House of Representatives on Tuesday came to Mitchell’s defense, passing “House Resolution Honoring Donovan Mitchell over Shaquille O’Neal,” which poked fun at O’Neal’s free throw shooting percentage and “Kazaam,” among other things.
Ironically, O’Neal’s question to Mitchell got at the heart of Utah’s early-season success, which has been driven collectively rather than individually. The Jazz doesn’t need Mitchell to be a one-man army because it has constructed a high-efficiency attack around him that relies on scoring balance.
A year after Kobe Bryant’s death, the mourning and misery continue
Mitchell, 24, is averaging a career-high 24.3 points, but his numbers are virtually identical to last season’s. Even so, the Jazz (12-4) has responded to its first-round bubble exit by storming out of the gates with the NBA’s third-best record through Sunday. And after years of crafting a defense-first identity around Rudy Gobert, the Jazz boasts a top-five offense to pair with a top-five defense.
AD
Utah’s red-hot start owes largely to its historic three-point shooting and its deep commitment to perimeter offense. Through Sunday, the Jazz was attempting 41.6 three-pointers per game and making 40.3 percent. No team in NBA history — not even Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors or James Harden’s Houston Rockets at their peaks — has finished a season in the 40/40 club by attempting 40 threes per game and hitting 40 percent of them.
Utah’s efficiency will almost certainly regress, but the fact that it has climbed to these heights is a major development, given the franchise’s reluctance to shoot threes dating from the Jerry Sloan era. Utah ranked 15th or worse on three-point attempts every year from 2000 through 2017, often placing in the bottom five.
Quin Snyder’s 2014 arrival as coach and Mitchell’s 2017 draft selection changed that, although the Jazz still spent most of the past decade looking like dinosaurs in the modern era. While cutting-edge teams pushed the pace, constructed outside-in offenses and deployed small-ball lineups, the Jazz typically played slow, sometimes used lineups with two centers and lost to more prolific shooting teams such as the Warriors and the Rockets in the playoffs.
AD
This season, though, the Jazz ranks third in three-point attempts and second in three-point efficiency, thanks to Mitchell, point guard Mike Conley and sixth man Jordan Clarkson, who are averaging career highs for three-point attempts. While Gobert and backup center Derrick Favors remain non-shooters, virtually every other rotation player is a threat from beyond the arc. Utah’s favorite lineups feature four shooters, and Snyder’s egalitarian offense encourages ball movement and precise passing that set up higher-percentage catch-and-shoot opportunities. Six Jazz players are attempting at least four three-pointers per game, and five average at least two assists.
When things are rolling, the Utah attack can be a thing of beauty: The Jazz claimed its eighth straight win by smacking the Warriors, 127-108, on Saturday, scoring 77 points in the first half and jacking up 50 three-pointers on the night. Eight Jazz players hit at least one three, and six finished in double figures.
“They’re trying to win a championship right now, and I think they’re capable of doing so,” Golden State Coach Steve Kerr said. “The continuity is apparent right away. They execute their stuff beautifully. What’s different this year is that they’re hunting threes more quickly and more often. That’s given them an even tougher dynamic.”
NBA players should wait on vaccination and ramp up advocacy, experts say
O’Neal might be right that Mitchell isn’t capable of carrying a team to the promised land by himself, but the Jazz would be foolish to ask that of him. Utah’s path to upsetting superstar-driven teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers and Brooklyn Nets cannot rely on Mitchell outdueling LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard and Kevin Durant.
AD
Instead, Utah’s championship formula resembles the 2004 Detroit Pistons or the 2014 San Antonio Spurs, hoping that discipline, unselfishness and togetherness can create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. It might not work, but it clearly beats the alternative. O’Neal should know: His Lakers lost to the Pistons in the 2004 Finals.
Challenging Mitchell to raise his solo game misses the whole point of the Jazz, which thrives on its star guard’s willingness to buy into an offense that spreads the wealth at the expense of his statistics and fame. Snyder has praised Mitchell’s “focus on his efficiency and his decision-making,” and rightfully so. Mitchell’s commitments have modernized the Jazz and positioned it as a new threat to the two Los Angeles favorites in the West.
“When we shoot the ball well and defend,” Mitchell said Saturday, “we can be scary.”
I don't understand, why he's surprised about this....
I get it...
After the way they treat HIM he think it different
he HONESTLY thought they treat ALL black folk like that
Now he know different.
Utah parents drop Black history curriculum opt out request
Maria Montessori Academy in North Ogden experienced a public backlash after announcing plans to make participation optional.
www.nbcnews.com
Timberwolves' Malik Beasley sentenced to 120 days for gun threats
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Malik Beasley has been sentenced to 120 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to one felony count of threats of violence for pointing a firearm at a family.
Timberwolves guard Malik Beasley is sentenced to 120 days in jail after pleading guilty to threatening a family with a gun when they mistakenly pulled up to his house - but he can serve his time AFTER the season
- Minnesota Timberwolves guard Malik Beasley has been sentenced to 120 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to one felony count of threats of violence
- His attorney says the 24-year-old can serve his time after the season
- Beasley and his now-estranged wife Montana Yao were both facing fifth-degree drug possession charges stemming from the incident, but those are dropped
- On September 26, a couple was on a 'Parade of Homes' tour in Plymouth, Minnesota with their 13-year-old when they inadvertently pulled up to Beasley's
- As they decided to look for another home to view, a man matching Beasley's description allegedly tapped a gun against their car window
- As they drove off, they claimed they could see Beasley pointing his gun at them
- The rental Beasley was living in at the time of his arrest was previously listed for $2.2 million, and contains a basketball court, according to the Star-Tribune
PUBLISHED: 13:44 EST, 9 February 2021 | UPDATED: 17:10 EST, 9 February 2021
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Malik Beasley has been sentenced to 120 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to one felony count of threats of violence for pointing a firearm at a family who had mistakenly pulled up to his rental home in their car.
His attorney, Steven Haney, says the 24-year-old can serve his time after the season. Beasley received three years probation, during which time he's not allowed to use alcohol or elicit drugs, and he has been banned permanently from having firearms. He will also enter an anger-management program.
Beasley and his now-estranged wife Montana Yao were both facing fifth-degree drug possession charges stemming from the September 29 arrest, when police found marijuana at his home, but those charges were dropped as part of his plea deal, according to ESPN.
Haney told ESPN that Beasley's felony charge could be reduced to a misdemeanor at the end of his probation. There's also a chance that Beasley could spend his sentence between work release and home detention. For now, though, he's expected to serve his time sat a facility known as 'The Workhouse' at Hennepin County (Minnesota) Adult Corrections Facility.
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Malik Beasley has been sentenced to 120 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to one felony count of threats of violence for pointing a firearm at a family that had mistakenly pulled him to his rental home in their car. Beasley and his now-estranged wife Montana Yao (far right) were both facing fifth-degree drug possession charges stemming from the September 29 arrest, but those charges were reportedly dropped as part of his plea deal
On September 26, a couple was on a 'Parade of Homes' tour in Plymouth, Minnesota with their 13-year-old child when they inadvertently pulled up to a roped-off property being rented by Beasley. As they decided to look for another home to view, a man matching Beasley's description allegedly tapped a gun against their car window and told them to get off his property.
As they drove off, the couple claimed, they could see Beasley pointing his gun at them.
The couple then called 9-1-1.
Police arrived at Beasley's rental, where they found 835 grams (1.8 pounds) of marijuana, a 12-gauge shotgun, a handgun, and an automatic rifle, which matched the description of the one he allegedly pointed at the family as they drove away.
The search warrant for the surveillance cameras revealed that Beasley was seen retrieving the gun from the garage and returning it to a mudroom closet around the time of the alleged incident.
Furthermore, the couple was able to identify both Beasley and the gun, according to police.
The couple's rental home (pictured) was previously listed for $2.2 million, and contains a basketball court, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Yao claimed all the marijuana was hers, adding that she purchased it from a medical marijuana distributor. However, according to police, she was unable to name the location.
The reportedly estranged couple has a 1½-year-old son. Yao filed for divorce in December after Beasley was seen traveling with Larsa Pippen, the former wife of Basketball Hall of Fame Scottie Pippen.
The rental Beasley was living in at the time of his arrest was previously listed for $2.2 million, and contains a basketball court, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
Beasley became a restricted free agent following the 2019-20 season, but despite his looming legal situation, the Timberwolves still signed the former Florida State guard to a new four-year, $60 million contract.
The 19th overall pick in the 2016 draft by Denver, Beasley averaged 20.7 points in 14 games for Minnesota after being acquired in a trade with the Nuggets in February of 2020.
Beasley is the son of actors Michael and Deena Beasley, and his grandfather, John Beasley, is a veteran stage performer who also appeared in films such as Rudy, Little Big League, and The Mighty Ducks.
Similar threads
