The NBA says it is investigating an accusation that Oklahoma City Thunder guard Josh Giddey had an improper relationship with an underage girl.
In a since-deleted post, an anonymous social media user said a girl who is seen with Giddey in videos and photographs was a high school junior at the time. The social media account has since been deactivated.
Giddey, an Australian citizen, turned 21 in October.
“We’re looking into it,” Michael Bass, an NBA spokesman, said Friday.
Giddey had no comment when questioned Friday at practice. “Yeah, I mean, I understand the question, obviously,” he said. “But there’s no further comment right now.”
Josh Giddey of the Oklahoma City Thunder during the first half of an NBA game against the Phoenix Suns at Footprint Center on Nov. 12 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Getty Images
When asked again, he said: “I get the question guys. I completely understand you guys want to know about it. But just for right now, I don’t have anything to say.”
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said it was a personal matter and that he had no comment.
Giddey is averaging 12.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists for an Oklahoma City team that is off to an 11-4 start.
A first-round pick in 2021, Giddey was named to the All-Rookie second team that season. Last season, he averaged 16.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 6.2 assists. At the World Cup this summer, he averaged a team-high 19.4 points for an Australia team that went 3-2.
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OKLAHOMA CITY — Sixty minutes before the marquee game for Tuesday’s In-Season Tournament slate, the NBA’s newest tall boys are dribbling. Victor Wembanyama is near center court, going through his legs and back again, television cameras following, a team security member shadowing. Chet Holmgren simultaneously sits courtside, several minutes early for his scheduled warmup time, mindlessly yo-yoing beneath his knees.
Most rookies warm up sooner, before fans even enter the arena. Veterans choose first, after all, and slots nearer to the game’s start go quickly. But these two are different. They’re starters, cornerstones and the league’s very future. First-year bylaws don’t apply in the same way to them, not even for traditionalist franchises like their own.
On Tuesday, Wembanyama and Holmgren’s first regular-season showdown was, at least narratively, a dud. Holmgren’s Oklahoma City Thundertrounced Wembanyama’s San Antonio Spurs, 123-87. Neither gargantuan big man, despite all their guard-like abilities and futuristic promise, cracked double-digit scoring.
Now, they’re the league’s two Rookie of the Year favorites playing 469 miles apart from each other. That juxtaposition has only been strengthened by each players’ franchises, who chose them for the same reasons each has used to build their respective identities.
“Everything does feel the same, especially in the way they treat you,” said Doug McDermott, who joined the Spurs two years ago after previously playing a half-season with the Thunder. “They truly do put a lot into everything (beyond) basketball.”
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San Antonio is the league’s most storied small-market franchise. From its ABA roots to its dynastic NBA success, it has had several No. 1 overall picks define its existence. Wembanyama is the latest, an impossibly long 7-4 anomaly from France who desperately hoped to join them before the lottery even determined this summer’s draft order.
Oklahoma City has none of that history. It arrived just 15 years ago, a bullrush into this sport’s consciousness not unlike the state’s very founding. It quickly experienced rapid success, thanks to players the franchise also drafted high. But Holmgren, who missed his initial season due to injury, is the highest draft pick since the franchise’s move from Seattle. While he might not have Wembanyama’s buzz, nor the dedicated security personnel, what he represents is similar.
In many ways, these franchises are more alike than different. The similarities are more than than their status as small markets, more than their mutual reclusiveness, more than their draft-first team-building strategies and, now, more than the two centers who represent not only the league’s future, but their own. It’s only right they’re only separated by a long afternoon’s drive on Interstate 35.
Sam Presti, the general manager for Oklahoma City’s entire existence, has been the architect behind the Thunder’s rise. He held one other job within the NBA beforehand: A seven-year stint as an assistant general manager with the San Antonio Spurs, which taught him much of what he has since carried over.
“It probably spawned a lot of cultural expectations for our environmental philosophy based on what (Presti) saw in San Antonio,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “That obviously had a huge influence on him professionally.”
Within the context of this league, San Antonio has been old money, more akin to a Fortune 500 company with a name and reputation that needs no explanation. Their rings and their trophies speak for themselves. This is the league’s model franchise, one which has defied geographical disadvantages and unavoidable market restrictions to win, and win, and win again.
Compared to them, Oklahoma City is the tech startup that boomed. It arrived not with Tim Duncan and Kawhi Leonard, basketball fundamentalists who fit their media-averse ethos, but Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, replete with lensless-framed glasses and backpacks as fashion statements. The Thunder were an invented concept taken from another city, one which had to earn its place — and, with the league’s best winning percentage since their arrival, they subsequently have.
They both have revered traditions which each franchise makes visible within their walls. San Antonio’s is a quote from Danish-American journalist Jacob Riis, put just outside the team’s locker room in the language of every player on their roster. This year, it’s been added again in French.
“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it — but all that had gone before.”
Oklahoma City’s cultural marker is in their practice court, a gleaming place where even the grass outside, McDermott recalls, is artificially green. After every practice, the basketballs in the racks that line the courts are rotated so that their Wilson logos face outward. It evokes the same sort of repetitious consistency of Riis’s quote, one by which both franchises want to define themselves.
But these two franchises are not the same, and they’ve veered away from each other again with their respective big men. Wembanyama and Holmgren could represent the league’s next rivalry, but that’s not what’s on the players’ minds.
“I have literally never thought about that,” Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said when asked if this game might represent the start of something. “Maybe in a couple weeks, I’ll have an answer for you.”
Truthfully, it’ll take quite a bit longer than that. Oklahoma City, despite reaching the playoffs more recently than San Antonio, is further along its development curve. Holmgren has been tasked with fitting into the franchise’s core which Gilgeous-Alexander leads. Wembanyama has arrived at a Spurs franchise that’s asking him to lead theirs.
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And if these franchises reach their lofty heights, they’ll be different because of these two players, too. When Holmgren faced Wembanyama in the preseason, it was Wembanyama who flexed after powering through him on an and-1 layup — and Holmgren who pointed out on social media afterwards that it probably should have been a foul, saying, “The headbutt is an unstoppable move fasho.”
These franchises are adapting to their stars, a mutual assimilation that goes in both directions. “I don’t want to have a road map (for Wembanyama),” Gregg Popovich said before the game. “I need to learn where he feels best on the court.” He’s relinquished control because Wembanyama hasn’t arrived to fill some Duncan-like hole, but to create his own presence.
Even beyond Wembanyama, San Antonio has embraced change: fiesta-colored jerseys cycling into the team’s gray-and-black garb; a new general manager, Brian Wright, who has made more trades since taking over in 2019 than predecessor R.C. Buford ever did. Wembanyama is taking them into a new era, one which might not look quite like San Antonio once did.
Presti, once described as a man with a recurring haircut appointment on his calendar, is equally adaptable. Those around him talk about how he cycles through non-basketball obsessions — book genres, meditation, music producers — with passion. Holmgren may well change him, and the Thunder, in the same manner that the Thunder’s identity has been molding Holmgren.
And while that identity initially shared and may have been inspired by some of San Antonio’s genetic coding, it’s long moved past that.
“He’s not doing well because he was in San Antonio, but because he’s brilliant,” Popovich said. “What (Oklahoma City) has done is not about the DNA of San Antonio, but what Sam has done.”
Wembanyama and Holmgren hardly guarded each other in Tuesday’s game, with one first half exception where Holmgren backed down his French counterpart. Wembanyama, who had been stretching out to reach shots previously deemed unblockable, couldn’t touch Holmgren’s turnaround jumper. The Oklahoma City crowd buzzed, poised to prove its Loud City moniker. Here it was, the moment they had come to see.
Holmgren’s jumper rattled out. The arena sighed. The game finished with all of its anticipation for these two players’ first clash unrealized.
It’s not yet time for these two, not yet, not until they continue growing into who they are — and take their franchises along with them.
The 2023-24 Nike NBA City Edition uniforms were unveiled last Thursday. NBA fans will be treated to another season where alternate uniforms, according to Nike, continue to “represent the stories, history and heritage that make each franchise unique.”
The uniforms are now in their seventh season with the NBA, and they have been a big hit in the past. Home teams will wear the uniforms throughout the NBA In-Season Tournament, which tipped off last Friday and will run until Dec. 9.
The big question: How does this year’s collection of uniforms look?
The 30 Nike NBA City Edition jerseys for the 2023-24 season.
The unveiling gave The Athletic’s team of Jason Jones, James Edwards III and Kelly Iko an opportunity to discuss the jerseys in depth. The trio conferred about all 30 City Edition jerseys and came up with its own power rankings. The writers ranked each team using a scoring system where 30 points were given to their favorite jersey, all the way to one point given to their least favorite. This explains the numbers in parentheses next to each writer’s name below.
Which jersey was the collective favorite? Here are the rankings and the writers’ thoughts of each, starting from worst to first.
(All images are courtesy of Nike and the NBA)
The Wizards jersey pays homage to the 40 boundary stones of the original outline of the District of Columbia.
Edwards (5 points): This makes me want a Mountain Dew Baja Blast from Taco Bell.
Iko (2): Have you ever chewed, like, five Skittles at once and looked at it? This is that. Come on, y’all.
Jones (1): There’s a lot going on here. Doesn’t really work for me.
This jersey was made in collaboration with Brooklyn artist and designer Brian Donnelly, known professionally as KAWS.
Jones (7): The artwork for “Nets” is supposed to give a graffiti vibe. I wish it would have leaned more into that, especially with this season occurring as hip-hop celebrates its 50th anniversary.
Edwards (6): I’m all for trying to be creative and different; you take a risk when you do that. But the Nets took a risk, and they failed. Miserably.
Iko (1): It’s actually fitting that this was inspired by KAWS’ “Tension,” because that’s exactly the type of headache I get from looking at this for too long. This is a bad jersey. It’s actually baffling because KAWS makes some really dope art.
The triangle-shaped word mark is a reminder of the throwback design after the team moved from Minneapolis in the 1960s.
Jones (10): A mash between the early and modern Lakers. Not a big fan of the triangular shape of “Los Angeles,” but I understand its ties to the early days of the Lakers in the city. What would have been wild would have been something lake-related. That would have stood out more than another black jersey.
Iko (5): What’s going on in Los Angeles? I get it, Laker Nation rides hard for its team, but when I go to the store, I’m not thinking about the triangle offense. It could be worse though … like Brooklyn’s.
Edwards (4): I don’t really care about the reasoning for the placement of “Los Angeles.” It looks bad. Horrific. It’s like someone went to JOANN Fabrics and tried to make a custom Lakers jersey but ended up not measuring the width of the jersey correctly. For such a historic franchise, I expected better.
Memphis’ jersey prominently features the “MEM” logo that has been seen on the waistbands and collars of past uniforms.
Iko (15): I once got lost on Beale Street trying to get to FedExForum in Memphis. These give me the same confused vibe. The font is a cool idea, but it wasn’t executed well enough. Back to the drawing board.
Jones (3): The Grizzlies had my favorite City Edition jersey last season. Not so much this year. It’s basic. Doesn’t have the same personality as last season when the jersey screamed Memphis swagger.
Edwards (2): Someone on social media said the Memphis jersey is a QR code to see the actual jersey, and I can’t stop laughing. Horrible.
GO DEEPER
NBA City Edition 2022-23: Every alternate jersey ranked from 29(?) to 1
Indiana’s jersey has a street-art look resembling the murals and signs throughout Indianapolis neighborhoods.
Edwards (13): I don’t mind this, because it’s different without being too extra. The color combination is obscure, and while it doesn’t make any sense to me in terms of a connection to Indianapolis, it’s not an ugly jersey. Middle of the pack for me.
Iko (6): There is way too much going on. These are a mess.
Jones (2): When I think of Indiana, I don’t think vibrant, which is what this jersey is. I’ve been to Indianapolis plenty of times, but this just doesn’t connect with the city for me.
Heat fans are all in on “Heat Culture,” which this jersey proudly acknowledges.
Iko (10): “Heat Culture” is one of those things that should be said and understood, not displayed on the front of a jersey. Miami has so many more things to offer as a city that could have been used with these jerseys. Missed opportunity.
Jones (9): Nothing “Miami Vice”-related? No vibrant colors? A red-and-black jersey seems pretty simple. Adding “Heat Culture” is a nice touch, but when it comes to Miami, I prefer the “Vice” theme.
Edwards (3): I don’t think saying “Heat Culture” is as corny as most people do, but a jersey that says “Heat Culture” … yeah, that’s corny.
Denver’s jersey shows “5280” across the chest. A mile is 5,280 feet. Denver’s the “Mile-High City.” This one is pretty easy.
Iko (14): This might have ranked higher if pickaxes were on the front and the mountains were on the back. They also could have done without the “5280” slapped across the middle. Three and four numbers on the front of a jersey is for AAU. Distracting.
Jones (8): I’m still not sure how I feel about “5280” across the chest. I understand the significance, but how many numbers do you need on the front of a jersey? It takes away from the Denver skyline in the background.
Edwards (1): Whoever came up with this jersey should be suspended (with pay, of course). I’m sorry. I like Denver as a city, and I love the Nuggets, but these are comically bad. Some players will have six numbers on the front of their jerseys when Denver wears them. Six.
A black jersey with purple and highlighter-green accents gives a vibrant look for a New Orleans team representing a vibrant city.
Edwards (12): Do these glow in the dark? If not, that’s disappointing.
Iko (12): Somehow, some way, I blame (Pelicans writer) Will Guillory for these.
Jones (4): The perfect jersey to wear around Halloween.
Oklahoma City’s jersey aims to celebrate the city’s community art and appreciate the landscape of the Sooner State.
Edwards (20): I like the color combinations, as well as the font of “OKC.” I’m a fan of these.
Jones (5): This scheme matches the “Love’s” patch. Maybe that was intentional. The orange jumps out, but it’s pretty simple overall.
Iko (4): This makes me think of McDonald’s. These are pretty blah, but they might look better framed.
This jersey was designed in collaboration with Los Angeles-based artist Jonas Wood. “Clips” recreates the team’s word mark from the 1980s.
Edwards (17): I wanted to knock it down some points for being so basic, but the ugliness of some other jerseys made it hard to penalize the Clippers for not trying.
Iko (7): Did Marcus Morris make this as a parting gift? Morris averaged 12 points as a Clipper. This is that, but in jersey form: I came to work and I did the job that was asked of me.
Jones (6): Nothing too fancy with this. No cool backstory or details in the description. Just a plain “Clips” jersey.
“Chicago” printed vertically on the jersey, coupled with “Madhouse on Madison” on the jock tag is set to remind Bulls fans of the old Chicago Stadium days.
Edwards (15): I ended up with them in the middle of the pack because I don’t like the placement of “Chicago.” It should be a little bit lower. That messed it all up for me.
Jones (12): The intent is to be a nod to the old Chicago Stadium of the early 1990s. “Chicago” down the front of the jersey reminds me of the shooting shirts worn by a young Michael Jordan. It’s not the most imaginative, but it works.
Iko (3): I understand the reference to Chicago Stadium from the ’90s, and I’m sure the locals really draw to the style, but I’ve never been a fan of the vertical lettering. It just makes for an awkward space in the middle.
A collaboration with lifestyle brand Kith helps the Knicks celebrate the teams from the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Jones (11): There’s a lot going on here. Pinstripes. Doubling up on “New York.” The black down the side. Just a lot.
Iko (11): I feel like the Knicks have had a version of this every year for the last 10,000 years. It’s like the printer lagged out.
Edwards (9): A drunk version of a Knicks jersey. That’s all I got.
The Hawks use lowercase font and a “Lift as we fly” mantra to set the tone for this year’s City Edition jersey.
Jones (15): Nothing will top the MLK jersey for me. I like the blue on this, but it’s pretty basic compared to some of the previous versions.
Edwards (14): They’re fine. They’re middle of the pack to me, which might not say a lot because there are some absolutely horrendous City Edition jerseys.
Iko (13): Maybe it’s the combination of the lowercase font on these and the peachy color that throws me off, but it just seems OK. There’s no story or anything that really speaks to me. It’s fine — nothing more, nothing less.
The Spurs jersey pays homage to Hemisfair, the 1968 World’s Fair. It’s a retro look that values the heart of downtown San Antonio.
Iko (19): I didn’t expect the Spurs to go with the white base, but this will look really dope under the arena lights. Also, Ricky’s Tacos in San Antonio is the best place many have never heard of.
Jones (14): Would I wear this one? Probably not … but I like it. It’s very San Antonio. It definitely fits the city.
Edwards (10): The lettering is cool. That’s about it. This is too basic.
The Warriors jersey embodies San Francisco and its history of cable cars. The “San Francisco” word mark goes uphill as cable cars would around the city.
Iko (18): San Francisco is a unique city, from its transportation system to landscape. That matches the lettering of these jerseys. I’ve ridden through the streets for years, and each time, the hills surprise me. The black on the jersey also is really emboldened, if that makes sense.
Jones (17): The more I look at it, the more I like it. The cable car design of the “San Francisco” lettering works. The simplicity of the design with hints of the cable car history makes this a nice alternate jersey.
Edwards (11): The idea was cool, but the execution is meh to me. It’s an OK jersey with awkward lettering. Not the best, but not the worst.
Toronto’s jersey features a gold background and bolts of electricity as pinstripes. “We the North” is above the jock tag.
Iko (20): Sweet threads. I love the cultural melting pot Toronto is, and that is reflected in the making of this jersey. These will be a hit in the city.
Jones (20): The gold and lightning accents make this one of the Raptors’ best jerseys. “We the North” also reminds everyone that Toronto truly is an international city.
Edwards (7): I don’t like gold uniforms at all. Just a personal preference. I love Toronto, though. It’s my favorite North American city. However, hard pass on the jersey.
Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Leon Bridges inspired the Mavericks jersey. Bridges, a Fort Worth, Texas, native, has his signature on the jock tag.
Edwards (21): I want to first shout out Erykah Badu while we’re on the topic of Dallas and R&B. Legend. This jersey is one of the better ones simply because of the font, colors and simplicity. It’s clean, and it pops. Hard to not like this.
Jones (13): Tapping into the R&B history of the region makes for a cool backstory. The jersey itself is pretty simple, but the details via the input of Leon Bridges are a nice discussion point.
Iko (16): I was actually curious about how and where Dallas would draw inspiration prior to these coming out. Leon Bridges is awesome, especially tied with the city’s history of R&B (shout-out to Tevin Campbell). For some reason, I keep thinking about Michael Finley when I see these.
The state known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” features blue water tones through most of the jersey with “Minnesota” across the chest in white.
Iko (26): Loooove these. The way the white dissolves into the blue gives a chilling effect. My mind immediately jumps to rapper Lil Yachty: “Cold Like Minnesota.”
Jones (19): This gives off calm and soothing vibes, perfect for the Land of 10,000 Lakes. If the Timberwolves ran back the Prince alternate versions every year, I’d be happy, but this is a nice bounceback after last season’s version.
Edwards (8): I guess I’ll be Debbie Downer here. These are mid, at best. Everything is smooshed at the top — the change in color, the number, “Minnesota” and the sponsors. I don’t love how small “Minnesota” reads. These would be lower for me if it weren’t for some of the nastiness that we’ve already talked about.
In addition to having “Buzz City” across the chest, this Hornets jersey celebrates Spectrum Arena, as well as the Charlotte Mint, the first U.S. branch mint.
Iko (21): You can never go wrong with teal and blue, and I really like how they incorporated the hornet influence. I can almost see Baron Davis crossing someone over in these. Nice work.
Jones (18): Charlotte’s colors are some of the best in the league. I’m digging the gold touch, too. Much better than last season’s edition.
Edwards (16): I agree with Jason. The Hornets have some of the best colors in the league. Hard to mess that up. These are clean, not too much.
The Celtics mesh their traditional green with a wood grain pattern, paying respect to the city’s long history of furniture making.
Edwards (22): If you’re not going to be creative, then keep it clean. Boston did. For my Michigan people, this jersey looks like an ad for Vernors.
Iko (17): Maybe I’m in the minority, but I actually like the blending of the white on the front with the wood grain texture on the sides.
Jones (16): Who knew Boston had a history of furniture making? I sure didn’t. The wood coloring on the side is also a nod to peach baskets, the part of history I would expect.
The Kings jersey gives flashbacks of the 1968 Cincinnati Royals. The various crowns above the jock tag add a nice touch.
Edwards (26): I’m going to sound like a hypocrite here, because the lettering doesn’t bug me nearly as much as the “Chicago” on the Bulls uniform, even though it’s just as high up the jersey. I think it’s because of the different colors. It breaks it up a little bit. These colors go together well. It’s sleek and clean.
Jones (22): I’d be in favor of the Kings rocking this full-time. We need something that connects the Kings to their history with Oscar Robertson, and this jersey works.
Iko (8): This is another one that James and Jason probably like, but I just can’t bring myself to it. Maybe it’s the width of the “Kings” stripes, but there’s a lot going on for me. I do like the colors, though.
Celebrating Milwaukee’s Deer District is the theme with this year’s Bucks City Edition jersey. Milwaukee went with a blue and cream colorway.
Jones (25): Another winner for the Bucks in the City Editions. The blue pops, and the cream “wave” is a nice touch. I’m just glad they didn’t go for a black jersey.
Edwards (23): I like the colors, especially the cream design across the middle and down the side.
Iko (9): I’m definitely in the minority with these. I love the historical connection to water used here, but really … using the arch as an ode to Fiserv Forum? Didn’t the arena open, like, five years ago? Not a fan.
The Trail Blazers pay homage to the late Dr. Jack Ramsay, who coached the team to its only NBA title in 1977. Ramsay was known for wearing plaid in Portland.
Jones (24): The plaid in honor of Dr. Jack Ramsay makes this a winner. It’s subtle, but it’s a great look. The Blazers kept it simple, but the history is in the details.
Iko (23): Black is always a good default, and the Blazers did well with these. You don’t have to go for a home run all the time: A simple base hit will suffice.
Edwards (18): Hard to hate it, easy not to love it. The plaid inside the lettering is a nice touch, visually and in terms of the backstory.
With “City of Brotherly Love” across the chest, the Sixers jersey is inspired by the Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia’s famous farmer’s market.
Edwards (25): I’m a sucker for navy blue, red and white. Those three colors go together so well for me. I also really like the font on the front. Two thumbs up.
Iko (22): It’s always hilarious hearing Philly associated with love, having spent quite a bit of time at 76ers games. But, really smooth color transition here, and the lettering is neat.
Jones (21): Navy blue was a good play for the red and white. The Reading Terminal Market lettering also is a great addition. I’m always going to like seeing “City of Brotherly Love” on a jersey.
The Rockets chose to honor the University of Houston’s Phi Slama Jama and Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, two hometown heroes, with their jerseys.
Iko (24): If you’re not from the city, you probably won’t get the cross reference between the University of Houston and the old Rockets teams, but this is a classic blend. This will sell like hotcakes at the Galleria.
Jones (23): Phi Slama Jama gets some love with this design. Had to look up the shooting shirts worn by the University of Houston during Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon’s college days to truly appreciate the design. Going with “H-Town” across the chest is a nice touch.
Designed to resemble a suit of armor, the Magic jersey is Navy with silver outlining and incorporates the franchise’s star in place of the A in “Orlando” across the chest.
Iko (30): My favorite. T-Mac. Penny. Shaq. Türkoğlu. All Magic legends, just like this jersey. It’s nostalgic. It’s smooth. It’s fire. This is how you do it. Take notes, Brooklyn.
Jones (28): Going navy blue with the chain-link stripes feels like a modern version of the early Magic jerseys — which I like. The star for the “A” in Orlando is placed perfectly and will look good on the court.
Edwards (19): I agree with the fellas. A modern twist on a ’90s basketball kid’s favorite jersey. Good job, Orlando.
Cleveland’s jersey, from the font to word mark to patterns, shows love to its thriving performing arts center, considered the largest outside of New York.
Iko (27): These are really dope. There’s intricate detail around the edges, and using the gold to highlight Cleveland’s theater scene is exactly the type of historical tidbit we never hear about. Awesome stuff.
Jones (26): These jerseys work best when I learn something new. I had no idea of Cleveland’s connection to theater until learning about this jersey design. Cleveland has the largest performing arts center outside of New York? Wow. It’s simple, but the details make this one nice.
Edwards (24): I didn’t know that either, Jason. Shout-out to the Cavs. It’s basic, but it’s done well. Good story. Definitely a top City Edition jersey.
Utah’s jersey gives flashbacks of the jerseys from the late 1990s and early 2000s. It features the familiar mountain range across the chest.
Edwards (29): The Karl Malone/John Stockton-era jerseys are some of my favorites of all time, and this is a great tweak of those. Give me any purple on a jersey. These aren’t as good as the Jazz uniforms from the ’90s — those are some of the best ever — but they are nice.
Iko (28): Can the Jazz keep these forever? These are perfect. It’s not too much mountain for Utah fans, I don’t think, and the purple rocks.
Jones (27): I’d take these over what the Jazz normally wear. The purple is perfect. The skyline works in paying homage to the best teams that played in Utah. I move that the Jazz stick with these jerseys.
The jersey draws from the energy of the “Bad Boys” era. The jersey also honors Hall of Fame coach Chuck Daly with a “CD2” logo above the jock tag, his signature below it.
Jones (30): One of the worst things from the late 1980s/early ’90s was that the Bad Boy Pistons didn’t play in black uniforms. Alternate jerseys weren’t the thing back then, but if they were, these would have been perfect. And how would anyone not like the crossbones here? The uniform captures the essence of the era perfectly.
Edwards (30): These are clean. The connection to the “Bad Boys” era makes sense. It’s different from what the Pistons have done in the past. Well done. Very well done.
Iko (25): I’d think Bill Laimbeer would rock these passionately. Everything about these screams Detroit Pistons basketball from back in the day — tough as nails, sleek and dark.
Phoenix’s jersey reflects the city’s Hispanic culture, and the “El Valle” logo across the chest celebrates lowrider culture.
Iko (29): It takes real talent to make purple and pink go together. These are the jerseys that make people smile. Well done.
Jones (29): I love foreign languages on jerseys; the Suns hit a home run with this design. I also love the acknowledgement of lowrider culture. The design puts me in a custom ’64 Impala on a sunny day that’s bouncing down the street on switches.
Edwards (28): Purple is my favorite color. I also like pink and teal. So, yeah, I’d be first in line to grab this if I were a Suns fan. Also, like Jason, I’m a fan of foreign languages on a jersey.
GO DEEPER
NBA lineup changes: Who’s the same? Who’s different? Are rotations here to stay?
(Illustration: Sam Richardson / The Athletic; photos courtesy of Nike and the NBA)
What time is it? That’s right … it’s time to make some outlandish statements that people will look back on next spring and cackle hysterically.
OK, that’s not actually the goal, but it is certainly an occupational hazard. Prognostication makes fools of us all; there are just too many things we can’t possibly have seen coming. Thank goodness for that, actually, as sports would be pretty boring otherwise.
That won’t stop me from trying, though. With the regular season starting next week, now is the time to gaze into my extremely hazy crystal ball and make some calls for what will happen in the coming months. In particular, the goal is to make some calls that might go against the tide and are actually, y’know … bold. For instance, “Nikola Jokić will make the All-Star team” is a defensible prediction that likely will come true but doesn’t really clear the bar for this particular exercise.
A bolder prediction, on the other hand, would be something unusual or unexpected. Like, say, predicting that something that hasn’t happened in two decades might happen this season. That would be a rookie — a true rookie — making the All-Star team. The last rookie to make it was Blake Griffin in 2011, but he was in his second season under contract with the LA Clippers after missing his entire first campaign. A fresh-from-the-draft rookie hasn’t made the squad since Yao Ming was voted in as a starter in 2003.
We can qualify that even further because Yao only averaged 13 points a game that season and was voted in despite production that clearly paled next to the other potential options. (To be clear, Yao deserved his next six selections. Just not that year.)
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The 24 biggest questions for the NBA season: Nuggets repeat? Wembanyama not ROY?
To go back a bit further, to the last time a just-drafted rookie both made the All-Star team and had numbers that truly warranted his inclusion, one would need a full quarter-century. And, what a coincidence … that player happened to be Tim Duncan, in 1998, in his first season as a San Antonio Spur.
Well, 25 years later, I’m going to go out on a limb and say a top overall pick of the Spurs will once again make the All-Star team … and will make it on merit.
Don’t let one bad summer league game get you twisted: Victor Wembanyama is as unique a basketball player to ever enter the league, a rim-denying giant at one end with a guard’s mentality and skill set at the other. You thought Kristaps Porziņģis was a unicorn because he could shoot 3s at his size? Well, picture the same package except with genuine ball skills and the ability to play out of the pick-and-roll.
I watched Wembanyama twice in Vegas last year and announced several of his French games for the NBA app; in every single one, he did something absolutely mind-blowingly unique, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody do that before” type stuff. He was far and away the best player in a good overseas league at the age of 18.
Here’s the crazy part: His preseason has been way better than that. Wembanyama seems to have made significant improvement both in his capability as a ballhandler and in his end-to-end speed (it helps when you can Eurostep to the rim from the 3-point line without needing to dribble), producing cascades of easy baskets for himself and those around him.
While his French tape showed flashes of this, he’s been able to do it with greater consistency in the more open floor of the NBA and shown marked improvement in his reading of the court and playmaking. Through two preseason games entering Wednesday night (I know, but humor me), the top pick in the draft has averaged more than a point per minute on 71.4 percent true shooting, blocked four shots and dissuaded countless others from being attempted and compiled a 33.9 PER.
I had thought Wembanyama might need a year to get his NBA sea legs before we really saw his impact. To hell with that. He’s already quite clearly his team’s best player and is likely good enough to lead the Spurs to a win total that may make them slightly uncomfortable. It’s becoming more and more apparent that he’s going to end up with an All-Star-caliber stat line that could, at the very least, put him on the short list for selection.
Victor Wembanyama could very well flex his way right into the All-Star Game this season. (Sarah Phipps / Associated Press)
Here’s the other part: The Western Conference is laden with star talent, but as a frontcourt player, Wembanyama should have an advantage. Other than Jokić, all of his main rivals for those spots have the words “if healthy” permanently attached as suffixes to the end of their names. Between LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, Zion Williamson and Kevin Durant, surely at least one and possibly several will miss the festivities in Indy this February.
Other players will be in the mix too, of course — Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr. and Utah’s Lauri Markkanen made it last year, for instance, and Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns is still here — but between the shock and awe value of Wembanyama’s play and the likelihood of injury replacements on the West roster, he has a great chance of making the team even if he isn’t voted in as a starter.
Wemby on the All-Star team is my first bold prediction, but it’s not the only one. Here are some more for the coming season:
No coaches will be fired before the All-Star break
Any prediction involving job security in the NBA coaching profession is a daring high-wire dance above a fiery lava pit, but this might be the season to pull it off. The league’s coaching roster looks as stable as it has in some time; while you can imagine seats getting hot in a few places with a slow start, there’s also the undeniable fact that recent turnover has been so high that there are relatively few long-tenured coaches remaining to get the ax.
Do you know how many coaches have been on the job since before the pandemic year? Four! That’s it! Those are the league’s four “made men,” championship-winning coaches Gregg Popovich, Erik Spoelstra, Steve Kerr and Michael Malone, who have a combined 59 seasons with their current teams. They’re not going anywhere.
Meanwhile, 13 teams have a coach in either his first or second season, which would make them unlikely to be dismissed so quickly. Five others are in Year 3, when the pressure normally increases, except four of those clubs are rebuilding and have limited expectations this season. Add it up and, for 21 of the league’s 30 teams, an early-season coaching change seems hugely unlikely.
Again, this profession isn’t exactly renowned for its stability — last season’s first coaching change (the Nets’ Steve Nash) happened on Nov. 1! — so this prediction may end up looking hilarious come February. For the moment, however, we seemingly enter the season with almost unprecedented stability in the league’s coaching ranks.
Minnesota will win a playoff series for the first time in 20 years
That’s right, I have a second thing that hasn’t happened in 20 years that I’m predicting will happen in 2023-24. Good things to happen to the Timberwolves? Have I lost my mind?
Thus far, the preseason focus has been on other West locales — the world champion Denver Nuggets, the reloaded Phoenix Suns and the recent champions in Golden State and L.A. — while the Wolves haven’t garnered nearly as much attention. However, they quietly played well over the second half of last season, going 26-19 after the turn of the new year, and I’m projecting them to land one of the top four seeds in the West.
If that happened, it would be the first time since their conference finals run with Kevin Garnett in 2004. In the only other three playoff appearances for the Wolves since then, they’ve been first-round roadkill as the West’s seventh or eighth seed.
While it’s a little early to pencil in who might be their first-round playoff opponent, the Wolves would have home-court advantage in the first round based on their projected finish, and, particularly if they get the No. 3 seed or higher, would be in a historically strong position to advance.
Additionally, there doesn’t seem to be any particularly compelling reason to bet against Minnesota once it reaches the postseason; the Wolves have the requisite inside-outside weapons in Anthony Edwards and Towns, their potential top-seven playoff rotation looks strong and, besides Towns, the team has strong individual defenders. Will this be the season we see Minnesota play in May?
Because he’ll be the only player eligible for the award! I kid, slightly, but the league’s new 65-game requirement for most of the major awards may knock some fringe MVP candidates out of the running. (Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo finished third last season with 63 games played; Memphis’ Ja Morant finished seventh while playing 57 in 2021-22; and Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid finished second while playing just 51 of the 72 games in the shortened 2020-21 season.)
More seriously, and in keeping with the theme of bold predictions and not regurgitating chalk, I expect the award to come down to Jokić and Tatum in April. There’s an obvious risk in my saying Tatum will win since Jokić enters the season as an overwhelming favorite, which is the blowback from a league-wide sentiment of mea culpa for not giving him the trophy a year ago.
However, Tatum’s durability may give him a leg up in MVP voting despite the fact that he’s not perceived as the best player in the league. He nearly led the league in minutes a year ago and is young enough at 25 to again take on a big playing time load. Additionally, Boston could easily end up with the best record in the league and may do so by several games. As the team’s best player, Tatum almost automatically becomes a leading candidate.
Finally, it’s entirely possible Jokić treats the regular season with a bit less urgency — much as he did in the final month last season — while he tunes up for the games in May and June that truly matter. (On the flip side, Denver’s bench may be so bad that he doesn’t have the luxury.) A Nuggets finish in the middle of a crowded West pack would also dampen his quest for MVP No. 3, and that’s definitely in the cards too.
Nikola Jokić and Jayson Tatum will have to play at least 65 games this season to remain in MVP consideration. (David Zalubowski / Associated Press)
The West will regain dominance over the East
The East had a better record than the West for the second straight season in 2022-23, ending up with 22 more wins. That’s been a rarity over the past three decades; the West has been vastly superior nearly every season since Michael Jordan retired, culminating in the 2013-14 season in which identical 48-win seasons got Toronto the No. 3 seed in the East and earned Phoenix a ticket to the lottery in the West.
The NBA’s three best records also belonged to the East last year, and that part may hold up … partly because the depth of the West is so strong that it will be difficult for any individual team to push its win total much into the 50s. Nonetheless, the unusually tame regular seasons from expected West powers last season are unlikely to be an enduring feature; the Lakers, Warriors, Wolves, Clippers and Suns all figure to add several wins compared to 2022-23, while at the bottom of the conference, the 60-loss Rockets and Spurs could both be vastly improved. Only Portland will take a step back in the West.
OK, this prediction needs a bit more time to breathe and might not really come to fruition until next summer. Still, watch the Clippers, especially if they start slowly. Yes, LA is still all-in on winning and will cut another massive luxury-tax check to the league (their estimated penalty right now is a cool $100 million), and the Clippers could easily add to that figure if they end up trading for Harden.
Nonetheless, this season is a clear pivot point for the team, thanks in part to a new CBA that makes life much harder for teams that spend past the second luxury-tax apron, where the Clippers currently reside. After this year, teams in that position can’t aggregate salaries in trades or take back more money than they sent out. They also can’t use cash in trades, use their midlevel exception, sign bought out players or wear sneakers. Staying over the second apron next year would also result in their 2032 first-round pick being frozen and, if the payroll didn’t come down in future years, ultimately pushed to the back end of the draft.
All this is happening right at the point when Steve Ballmer is surely questioning his ROI on the huge luxury-tax checks; over the past two seasons, his team is 86-78 and has won a single playoff game.
Two other timeline items stand out: First, the Clippers’ new Intuit Dome arena is set to open next year, and second, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard can become free agents this summer. You’ll note that you’re not hearing much about contract extensions for either player right now.
The Clippers still owe future draft picks to the Oklahoma City Thunder through 2026, so it’s not a blow-it-up scenario as much as a scaling back. They have scenarios in which they could bring back Leonard and George while still skirting the second apron … or perhaps, dare we say it, even staying below the first apron and using their entire midlevel exception to balance out the roster.
Still, this looks to be a tricky dance. Ballmer is willing and able to pay virtually anything for a winner, but the league has never punished expensive rosters like this. Waiving Eric Gordon this June seemed like the first salvo in an organizational rethink about the merits of blasting money out the firehose under the new CBA.
Consider this partly a bet on Tyrese Maxey’s talent and partly a bet against Harden playing a significant role in Philly this season. If Harden is going to either be traded or behave so badly that the Sixers wish they had traded him, then Maxey should be the obvious beneficiary in terms of touches and shots.
Maxey averaged 20.3 points per game last season, but the number ballooned to 24.8 in the 13 games he played and Harden didn’t; that latter average would have placed him 15th in the league.
His other arrows are pointing up too. Maxey won’t turn 23 until November and is still figuring out how to weaponize his proficient 3-point shot (41.4 percent career) with more off-the-dribble attempts and how to parlay his blazing first step into more free-throw attempts. He’s an 85.8 percent career foul shooter but only attempted 3.8 free throws per game last year. That number should only rise as he gets more on-ball reps and figures out the dark arts of foul grifting.
Note that Maxey should also be highly motivated to produce this season, as the Sixers have held off on signing him to a contract extension to preserve 2024 cap space. With a good year, he’ll be able to sign for the Maxey-mum (sorry) next summer.
Denver’s Jamal Murray might be the most obvious first-time All-Star pick in a while, coming off a fabulous postseason that signified his full recovery from a torn ACL in 2021. He posted a 21.6 PER in 20 playoff games, or about a quarter of an NBA season (or half of one if you’re a Clipper); those numbers alone would get him in range of selection, and keep in mind they were posted against playoff defenses. Presumably, life will get easier for him when we add some Blazers and Wizards back into the mix.
As for Brunson, he missed the team a year ago while fellow Knick Julius Randle made it, but the playoffs may have been the tipping point in a swap of leading men in New York. Yes, Randle’s injuries were a factor, but Brunson averaged 27.8 points in the playoffs while taking by far the most shots on the team (over 20 a game). Moreover, those playoff stats were a continuation from the second half of the season: After a slow start, Brunson averaged 27.8 points per game after Jan. 1. Entering his age-27 season, Brunson, it would seem, is primed for a career year.
The Knicks are likely to get one rep in the game if they’re again among the top seven teams in the East when the voting happens, and if so, it seems more likely the choice would be Brunson this time around.
While we’re here, apologies to the Grizzlies’ Desmond Bane and the Nets’ Mikal Bridges, two other players I think will post strong resumes that get them serious All-Star consideration. It’s hard for me to pull the trigger on predicting them to make it unless there is a rash of injuries to elite backcourt players in each conference, especially with Brunson and Murray claiming spots.
The Bulls will blow it up
Consider this a prediction in two parts: First, that the Bulls won’t be good enough to justify keeping the DeMar DeRozan–Nikola Vučević–Zach LaVine band together any longer, and second, that they’ll break out the dynamite at the trade deadline. The key here is timing: DeRozan is a free agent after the season, so the Bulls need to either cash in their stock on the high-scoring 34-year-old forward or sign him to an extension.
Moving off him would be the necessary first step in a process that would likely see the Bulls deal LaVine and Vučević as well, although LaVine has four years left on his deal and thus might be shopped more profitably at the draft in June.
Historically, the Bulls haven’t been fans of tanking, and their first choice will (and should!) be to see how many games this nucleus can win. However, this particular decision might already have been made for them, as the endgame has seemed apparent ever since the seriousness of Lonzo Ball’s knee injury became clear. Chicago can either forge ahead with an expensive, not very good team with limited flexibility, or the Bulls can start over and hope they get lucky in the loaded 2025 and 2026 drafts.
Taylor Jenkins will win NBA Coach of the Year
This has nothing to do with who I think the best coach is (Spoelstra, duh) but rather my reading of the trend lines of the history of this award, which skews heavily toward the biggest surprise in the top third of the standings.
Based on my projections for the coming season and the comparative amount of buzz about the teams I have slated for winning records, the three most likely candidates would seemingly be Jenkins in Memphis, Darko Rajaković in Toronto and J.B. Bickerstaff in Cleveland. (Grizzlies alumni represent!) Boston’s Joe Mazzulla would be a strong candidate too, especially if the Celtics end up with the league’s best record by several games, as I suspect they might.
Nonetheless, Jenkins has the best ingredients in his favor for winning: Nobody is expecting all that much from his team, the Grizzlies are actually pretty good, and there’s a built-in narrative (“Didn’t have Ja Morant for the first 25 games and still …”) ready and waiting. Additionally, the margins in the West are tight enough that the Grizzlies don’t really need to overachieve much to get people’s attention, as I’m projecting a 50-ish win total might be enough to top the conference.
Kevin Durant and the Suns will look to advance in a stacked Western Conference. (Craig Mitchelldye / Associated Press)
Phoenix won’t have the West’s best record but will make the NBA Finals
I would take the field over any individual team in the West, and there’s a risk in making any prediction at all given that several contenders will likely make in-season moves to reshape their rosters. Seven teams have at least a somewhat realistic shot of advancing out of this pool, and that number could expand if a team in the middle class decides to get frisky with an all-in trade.
Nonetheless, right now, I like the playoff version of the Suns better than anyone else in a warty contender field. By the spring, Phoenix will hopefully have figured out some of the balance in its three-headed Bradley Beal-Devin Booker-Kevin Durant monster, and it’s quite possible the Suns will have used another trade chip or two to get more size and depth.
Ultimately, it will come down to Phoenix and Denver, most likely, regardless of which round they end up meeting — much like last year when their conference semifinal series was effectively for a place in the NBA Finals. This time around, I like the Suns’ answers off the bench much more than the ones they came up with a year ago, and I like the Nuggets’ quite a bit less. At the margins, I think that tilts the advantage slightly Phoenix’s way … even with Denver undoubtedly having the best player.
Boston will outlast Milwaukee in the East
The thing about Milwaukee getting Lillard is that it also allowed the Celtics to turn Malcolm Brogdon into Jrue Holiday. Holiday, of course, is about the best antidote to Lillard that mankind has come up with so far, dating to the 2018 series with the New Orleans Pelicans when Holiday harassed Lillard into 35 percent shooting in a four-game sweep.
That said, the Bucks present some real problems for Boston. The Lillard-Antetokounmpo two-man game threatens to be the best in the entire league, and the Bucks certainly can surround it with enough shooting. Dealing with Antetokounmpo might require heavy doses of an aging Al Horford, especially with Robert Williams gone to Portland, and Milwaukee’s dynamic duo also is one that could expose Porziņģis defensively.
There’s also some risk in choosing Boston here based on how the past few postseasons have gone, where the offense too easily degenerates into isolation-heavy slogs with Tatum and Jaylen Brown playing your-turn my-turn. (The Celtics also seem to lose all their mojo at the mere sight of Miami Heat jerseys, but that might not be a factor this season.)
However, that’s where Porziņģis can really help. His ability to punish switches by posting up shorter players is an option that Boston simply didn’t have last year, and it could be a real factor against the postseason switching defenses that have tended to gum up Boston the last few years.
I’m excited just thinking about this series … but I think the Celtics will prevail slightly in the end, much as they did in the second round two years ago.
Boston will beat Phoenix in the NBA Finals
Boston vs. Phoenix would be an incredible Finals because it would involve the Suns’ eternal quest for a first crown against the Celtics’ hope of raising an 18th banner, which would once again give them a leg up on the Lakers on the all-time list. Of course, it would be a first of sorts for Boston as well, as the Celtics haven’t won since 2008 and the current Tatum-Brown-Horford core has yet to get over the final hump.
It seems risky to pick Boston to win four straight playoff series despite the Celtics’ imposing defense and impressive top-seven rotation for the postseason. Historically, the postseason has been about having That Dude, and only a few teams have managed to get to the mountaintop with more of an ensemble cast. Tatum is one of the best players in the league, but he hasn’t yet shown himself to be a playoff cheat code on the Jokić/Curry/Kawhi level.
On the other hand … Boston just has so many ways to hurt you that Tatum doesn’t have to play at an exalted level for the Celtics to win the title. Two years ago, they were up 2-1 on Golden State in the Finals, for instance, before succumbing in six games. Curry was the best player in that series and Tatum only shot 35 percent, yet the Celtics were still in it.
Again, the Porziņģis acquisition potentially looms large, especially if he can hold up on defense, because it allows the Celtics to punish some of the switching schemes that so badly stagnated them in previous postseasons. At the other end, Boston is also one of the few teams with enough elite perimeter defenders to not sweat matching up against Beal, Booker and Durant at the same time. In the end, the Celtics’ defense is good enough that I worry less about the offense.
So, book your hotels for Boston in June, print this out and file it away and prepare to laugh uproariously when 50 things we couldn’t possibly have imagined reshape the season in totally unexpected ways. That’s the beauty of sports, but I’ll keep trying to get this hazy crystal ball to give me a few tips.
(Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; photos: Maddie Meyer, Paras Griffin, David Dow / Getty Images)
The NBA’s 180 on load management is giving me whiplash.
Five seconds ago, every available piece of science the NBA told us it had in its possession from its teams said – screamed – the same thing: players not only needed more time off but that the league would be derelict in its partnership with its players if it didn’t align with teams, whose data said: rest.
The league cut way back on back-to-back games. Many teams eliminated morning shootarounds, as they were viewed as disruptive to players’ sleep patterns. Every team had a “Director of Very Important Sports Science and Cutting Edge MahnaMahna” and scores of eager data collectors. Wearables tracked every waking moment of every player, what they ate, and when. Cameras high above each arena tracked every movement of every player on the court.
“Before, it was a given conclusion that the data showed that you had to rest players a certain amount, and that justified them sitting out,” NBA executive vice president of basketball operations Joe Dumars told national media in a conference call Wednesday.
“We’ve gotten more data, and it just doesn’t show that resting, sitting guys out correlates with lack of injuries, or fatigue, or anything like that. What it does show is maybe guys aren’t as efficient on the second night of a back-to-back.”
Dumars’ words echo those of Commissioner Adam Silver, as he introduced the league’s new “Player Participation Program” that was approved by the league’s Board of Governors last month.
“Honestly, that’s what I’d been told as well, that it was the science,” Silver said. “I think it may be why the league didn’t become involved maybe as deeply as we should have earlier on. Part of the discussion today was about the science, and frankly, the science is inconclusive.
“I think in the case here, that part of the commitment here from the league office is we are putting together a group of team doctors and scientists and others and trying to better understand it. One thing I want to make clear: The message to our teams and players is not that rest is never appropriate. And realize, there’s a bit of an art to this, not just a science.”
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Load management has frustrated NBA, fans and TV partners. But will new rules help?
Now, the NBA has a lot of smart, smart people in its sports medicine department. The department, led by Dr. John DiFiori, helped create the Orlando Bubble in 2020 out of thin air – and, more or less, pulled it off. It then created a comprehensive return-to-play program for the following season that was lauded by other medical people for its thoroughness and honesty about how to deal with COVID cases when and if they occurred. The league had extensive and continuing dialogue with the Players’ Association, before, during and after the two sides hammered out the newest Collective Bargaining Agreement about these kinds of issues. It’s a partnership.
And during all of this, the NBA’s position was consistent: the science, the science, the science tells us so.
Just eight months ago(!) this is what Silver said during All-Star Weekend in February, in Salt Lake City: “I hesitate to weigh in on an issue as to whether players are playing enough because there is real medical data and scientific data about what’s appropriate. Sometimes, to me, the premise of a question as to whether players are playing enough suggests that they should be playing more – that, in essence, there should be some notion of just get out there and play. Having been in the league for a long time, having spent time with a lot of some of our great legends, I don’t necessarily think that’s the case.
“The world that we used to have where it was just, ‘Get out there and play through injuries,’ for example, I don’t think that’s appropriate. Clearly, I mean, at the end of the day, these are human beings – many of you talk to and know well – who are often playing through enormous pain, who play through all kinds of aches and pains on a regular basis. The suggestion, I think, that these men, in the case in the NBA, somehow should just be out there more for its own sake, I don’t buy into.”
And now … forget all of that?
To be fair, Silver has said, multiple times over the last few years, that he was concerned about the effect of load management on the league’s fans, who were increasingly paying to attend games in which no one they hoped to see play had on a uniform. And it became especially hard for the NBA to push teams to push their players to play after COVID reached our shores, though the league’s $100,000 fines instituted in 2020 for teams that group rested players was limited to nationally televised games.
The league also clearly leaned into, let’s say, encouraging its players that more participation was warranted by tying a minimum games played requirement for many of its individual awards going forward.
But at every turn, the league dropped back to its default position: We’re following the data.
So, are we to believe the science turned on a dime? Since February?
Did NBA players skip the line in the evolutionary process this spring, and suddenly grow a third lung, that now gives them greater breathing capacity? Have they been enhanced, like Grace in Terminator: Dark Fate, now better able to withstand the grind of an 82-game season, after not being able to go on past game 65 or so without congealing?
And, coincidentally, I’m sure: the data changed that quickly just as the league is reaching a key moment in its discussions with its current and potentially new media partners on a new rights deal, to replace the expiring one in 2025? Or, did the networks and/or tech companies vying to air or stream NBA games in the near future say, with justification: “For our eleventy billion dollars we’re spending to buy these rights, you damn sure are gonna make sure that Giannis and Steph and the Joker suit up on the regular”?
I’m not saying it’s the only consideration for TV/tech companies — who don’t know that they’re scheduling the Lakers back-to-back when they make their schedule requests; they don’t see the full 82 until you or I do. But it’s hard to believe they don’t push hard on that particular action item with the league’s media committee.
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Let’s talk load management: Is it a problem? How do we know it works?
For the last decade-plus in the NBA, it’s been all about the numbers, all about the data, all about the science, even as the league (he noted, quietly) implemented both a Play-In tournament after the 82-game regular season, and before the two-month-long playoffs, and will now have an in-season tournament during the 82-game season, which will add an 83rd game to the two teams that make the in-season tournament final.
Rest, but play a little more, too, so that the regular season actually means something – and so we have another package to parlay into another sweet revenue stream.
The numbers ruled. And so, midrange jumpers were now stupid; rebounds no longer mattered. Big men who got in the way of all the driving and kicking were anathema; we only want rim runners now. And teams’ medical staffs all erred on the side of caution, to try to head off stress injuries and similar maladies before they got worse, by sitting players as much as possible. The days when players, proudly, would play all 82 games because that was what was expected of them were dismissed as Codger Thinking, ridiculous clinging on to the old days by old people who didn’t understand that they were shortening their careers by playing in meaningless games. (It wasn’t as if players back in the day didn’t deal with mental health issues as well.)
The NBA seems to want everyone to forget.
What’s more likely: All the teams’ data for the last half-dozen years has suddenly been discovered to be irreparably, incontrovertibly wrong? Or, the league went along with that data, ignoring those who said “Wait; Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and Isiah Thomas and John Stockton and Karl Malone and Patrick Ewing all suited up as much as possible, year after year, and didn’t fall apart,” because it didn’t want to push back against alleged “modern thinking”? That it couldn’t take a position of “Well, we trust our players,” because someone would present a paper at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference calling such thinking outdated? That it had to justify what every team, from its hedge fund CEO ownership on down, was now saying was “best practices?”
Dumars, one of those codgers, said Wednesday: “Obviously everybody’s not going to play 82 games, but everyone should want to play 82 games. And that’s the culture that we are trying to reestablish right now.”
Whatever the process the NBA used to go back to the future, I’m glad it did. It’s all right to keep some old-school thinking along with the new jack intel.
Fans can’t be guaranteed they’ll see the league’s top stars when they buy tickets; legit injuries happen. But if the league leaves it up to teams to make close calls on player health, the teams will protect their investments, every time. And I know enough about most players to know that, given the choice, they’ll opt to play. Whether out of ego or incentives or genuine care about the fans who pay top dollar to see them, they want to suit up.
That’s how you make the regular season more meaningful.
(Photo of Adam Silver: AAron Ontiveroz / The Denver Post via Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — With star teammate Stephen Curry sidelined, Klay Thompson kept shooting and took care of the offensive load the Golden State Warriors were missing without their reigning NBA Finals MVP.
Thompson scored 42 points with a season-high 12 3-pointers, Jordan Poole added 21 points and career-best 12 assists starting in Curry’s place, and the Warriors beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 141-114 on Monday night.
“It was a beautiful game to watch him play,” Draymond Green said of Thompson.
“… We needed it. It’s been a while since we had a blowout win. It’s good to get this one, especially first game with Steph out. It was good to start off on this foot and try to create some momentum.”
Thompson sat down for the night to a roaring ovation with 4:41 left to finish 15 for 22 from the floor and 12 of 16 on 3s. Thompson now has eight games with 10 or more 3-pointers, second in NBA history behind Splash Brother Curry’s 22.
“This is a confidence booster for sure to play without him, but to see the performance of the team, amazing individual performances we got,” coach Steve Kerr said. “It was a feel-good game for a lot of people and that just really fuels everybody. Hopefully we can keep that going.”
Andrew Wiggins scored 18 points in Golden State’s first game since losing Curry to a left leg injury late in the third quarter of Saturday’s win against Dallas — and the Warriors went 26 of 50 from deep without the league’s career 3-point leader.
They also didn’t let down late as has been a concern and frustration recently for Kerr.
“That was fun, that was probably the most fun I’ve had watching our team all year,” Kerr said.
Thompson had 27 points at halftime, going 10 of 14 from the floor and 7 for 9 on 3-pointers as the Warriors led 60-53. Poole dished out five assists in the opening quarter, then helped Golden State start the third on a 19-7 burst to pull away for their eighth straight win in the series.
“I thought Jordan was magnificent, one of the best games I’ve ever seen him play. He just was so under control,” Kerr said.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 20 points, Aaron Wiggins added 19 and Tre Mann had 18 off the bench for the Thunder. Josh Giddey contributed 15 points, eight assists and seven rebounds as Oklahoma City struggled in the opener of a road back-to-back coming off a franchise-record 153 points in Saturday’s home win over Houston.
TIP-INS
Thunder: G Lu Dort sat out again after he missed Saturday’s game with a strained right hamstring. … The Thunder were outrebounded 45-36. … Oklahoma City dropped to 9-17 on the road, 3-10 vs. the West. The Thunder have lost four in a row on the Warriors’ home floor.
Warriors: Poole had his first double-double of the season and third of his career. … Golden State is 7-5 without Curry, who was previously sidelined Dec. 16-Jan. 7 with a shoulder injury. “We’ve already been through a stretch without Steph and handled it pretty well, so we’re confident we can do that again,” Kerr said.
ROLLINS SURGERY
Warriors rookie guard Ryan Rollins is set to have surgery Wednesday for a broken pinkie toe in his right foot and he will likely miss the rest of the season.
Golden State acquired the draft rights to Rollins from the Hawks, who selected him 44th overall in the second round.
He played in 12 games for the Warriors and 19 for the G League Santa Cruz team, where he averaged 19.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 25.6 minutes.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma City’s top scorer was out, so everybody pitched in to make things work.
Josh Giddey scored a season-high 25 points and the short-handed Oklahoma City Thunder blew out the NBA-leading Boston Celtics 150-117 on Tuesday night.
Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who ranks among the league’s leaders with 30.8 points per game, sat out with an illness. Without him, the Thunder set a record for points since the team moved to Oklahoma City from Seattle before the 2008-2009 season. The previous mark was 149 points in 2013.
Lu Dort scored 23 points and Jalen Williams, Tre Mann and Isaiah Joe each added 21 points for the Thunder. They shot 59.2% from the field.
It was a record-tying performance. Including playoffs, it was the 18th time in NBA history that a team had five players score at least 21 points in a game. The most recent instance was also by Oklahoma City, when Steven Adams, Danilo Gallinari, Chris Paul, Dennis Schröder and Gilgeous-Alexander did it against Minnesota on Dec. 6, 2019.
“I just think we’ve got great players and great people,” Mann said. “Guys who don’t really care who gets the credit.”
The Thunder hadn’t won a game by more than 16 points and the Celtics hadn’t lost by more than 16 this season. Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said the result came from his team’s approach.
“I told them after the game, I want them to realize what got it going, which was we had a great practice yesterday, came into the game with great focus on both ends of the floor, what we had to do, and that’s what allowed us to have fun tonight,” he said. “And we can’t lose sight of that.”
Oklahoma City took advantage of the fact that Robert Williams, one of Boston’s primary rim protectors, was out managing his injured left knee. The Thunder made 38 of 58 shots inside the 3-point line.
“You have to play with a sense of humility every night knowing your opponent wants to beat you,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “We have to match that, and we didn’t. We got outplayed in every aspect of the game.”
Jaylen Brown scored 29 points for Boston, and Jayson Tatum added 27.
The Thunder led 74-54 at halftime behind Joe’s 17 points on 6-for-9 shooting. Oklahoma City shot 57% in the first half. The Celtics trailed big, despite Brown’s 18 points in the first half.
A 10-0 run put Oklahoma City ahead 90-63 just over three minutes into the second half, and the game was never close after that. The Thunder scored 48 points in the third quarter — the most ever for an Oklahoma City team in a quarter — and shot 67.9% in the third to lead 122-91 heading into the fourth.
Oklahoma City’s largest lead was 37 points.
“Late in the second quarter, they sort of put their head down, Boston did, and they got to the line and they were trying to play through us and they were just trying to like jam their way back into the game,” Daigneault said. “And we needed to stand in there in order to fend that off. And I thought the guys did a really good job of that.”
TIP-INS
Celtics: Mazzulla and G Marcus Smart attended the Oklahoma State-West Virginia game Tuesday in Stillwater and sat together. Smart played college ball for Oklahoma State and Mazzulla played for West Virginia. Oklahoma State won 67-60. … Smart was called for a technical in the second quarter and ejected in the third for berating an official.
Thunder: Even Oklahoma City’s fans were hitting shots from deep. Johnnie Durossette, a 20-year-old from Muskogee, Oklahoma, made the MidFirst Bank halfcourt shot during a timeout to win $20,000. … F Aaron Wiggins scored 17 points.
AT HOME
The Celtics had their shootaround at the Oklahoma City facility where Celtics F Blake Griffin’s AAU basketball program practices. Griffin is from Oklahoma City and he played college ball at the University of Oklahoma.
UP NEXT
Celtics: At Dallas on Thursday night.
Thunder: At Orlando on Wednesday night.
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The top of the Eastern Conference looks about as expected — with Boston and Milwaukee currently neck and neck for the lead.
Those fast starts have been anything but routine, however.
The Celtics suspended their coach before the season even started, but under interim choice Joe Mazzulla, they’re now on a seven-game winning streak and have the best record in the NBA. The Bucks won their first nine games, but recently they’ve had to deal with Giannis Antetokounmpo’s occasional absences. They’ve won two of three when he’s been out.
“It just shows our depth and how good of a team we truly are,” Milwaukee’s Brook Lopez said recently. “Coach (Mike Budenholzer) — he said before, it’s like, it’s kind of exciting. Giannis gets to rest, refill his cup, and we get a chance to get better and see what we’re like without Giannis on the court, and get better in that way.”
The Celtics (11-3) and Bucks (10-3) don’t play each other until Christmas. For now, these two teams — who played a stirring seven-game playoff series in the second round last season — are bringing a bit of normalcy to the standings. That’s been largely absent in the West, where Golden State is muddling along under .500 while Utah and Portland are around the top of the conference.
The Celtics went to the NBA Finals last season in Ime Udoka’s first season as coach. Then he was suspended for at least this season for violating team rules by having a relationship with a female staffer within the organization. Mazzulla took over and has the team rolling. Boston routed Nikola Jokic and Denver 131-112 on Friday. On Monday night, the Celtics rallied from a 15-point deficit to beat Oklahoma City 126-122.
After falling just short of a title last season, Boston looks tested and ready to contend again.
“These guys have been through a ton, and it helps them in a game like tonight where they really don’t have it going, and then they’ve got to turn it on on both ends of the floor and they did,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said after Monday’s game. “So credit them. They went and got that one.”
Boston is No. 1 in the league in offensive rating, and Milwaukee is No. 1 in defensive rating. The first time the Bucks played without Antetokounmpo this season was a little over a week ago against Oklahoma City. Lopez scored 25 points, Bobby Portis had 21 rebounds, Jrue Holiday had 13 assists — and Milwaukee held the Thunder under 100 points to win by 14.
“I think we all knew obviously that we’d all have to chip in,” Lopez said. “Pretty much everyone came on, had an impact.”
These are the stretches that test a team over the course of an 82-game season, when injuries or just normal wear and tear leave a star player unavailable. That win over the Thunder gave Milwaukee a 9-0 record, and since then, the Bucks have played twice more without Antetokounmpo, who has dealt with left knee soreness.
The Bucks split those two games. Ironically, they’ve lost the last two games they’ve played with Antetokounmpo, including Monday against Atlanta.
Still, they’ve shown they can win without their biggest star. Another team that’s done that of late is the Washington Wizards, who have won four straight despite playing all of those games without Bradley Beal, who went through health and safety protocols.
The last game Beal played in was Nov. 4, a 42-point loss to Brooklyn. Coincidentally, that was also the first game for the Nets following Kyrie Irving’s suspension. Irving was suspended after posting a tweet with a link to a documentary that includes Holocaust denial and conspiracy theories about Jews. The Nets said they suspended him in part because he wouldn’t say unequivocally he has no antisemitic beliefs.
Brooklyn looked downright dysfunctional while losing six of its first eight games. Coach Steve Nash was replaced after the team’s seventh game, and then — with Jacque Vaughn serving as acting coach — Irving scored just four points in a loss to Chicago.
But since then, Brooklyn has won four of six, all without Irving — and the Nets decided to keep Vaughn as their head coach going forward. His team isn’t surging quite the way Mazzulla’s is, but Brooklyn is hopeful it has found the right leader after an ugly start to the season.
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Follow Noah Trister at https://twitter.com/noahtrister
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
In partnership with Nike and the NBA, all 30 teams around the league today unveiled their 2022-23 Nike NBA City Edition uniforms, which represent the stories, history and heritage that make each franchise unique. These are intended to honor the inherent bond between, court, community and culture.
“The 2022-23 Nike NBA City Edition uniform collection showcases the unique history and culture behind NBA teams, their cities and their shared bond with NBA fans around the world,” said Christopher Arena, Head of On-Court and Brand Partnerships at the NBA. “These uniforms are the culmination of a collaborative effort between Nike, NBA teams and the league as we continue our commitment to highlight the local icons and narratives intertwined with our teams and cities that have helped define this league.”
For the Oklahoma City Thunder, this year’s uniforms are all about honoring the people of Oklahoma. The design elements represent a collective experience that is unique to Oklahomans.
Oklahoma City Thunder City Edition
Zach Beeker, Oklahoma City Thunder
Across the chest, the jersey boldly says “Thunder”, which symbolizes the unifying nature of Thunder Basketball, from the panhandle to the Ouachita National Forest. Since coming to Oklahoma over a decade ago, the Thunder have truly made an impact on the community and economy of the entire state.
Oklahoma City Thunder City Edition
Zach Beeker, Oklahoma City Thunder
The Oklahoma Standard badge lays inside in the uniform over the heart and is also displayed on the jersey’s bottom right corner.
Oklahoma City Thunder City Edition
Zach Beeker, Oklahoma City Thunder
Oklahoma City Thunder City Edition
Zach Beeker, Oklahoma City Thunder
Down the side of the jersey and shorts, a bold panel is featured, which celebrates the common ground of Oklahoma’s iron-enriched, red soil. According to the Thunder, this is the perfect symbol of their strength, perseverance, and resilience. Along this panel are seven thin blue stripes that represent all 77 counties across the state of Oklahoma.
Oklahoma City Thunder City Edition
Zach Beeker, Oklahoma City Thunder
Oklahoma City Thunder City Edition
Zach Beeker, Oklahoma City Thunder
These 77 counties in the state are also symbolized on the belt buckle. Together, the blue stripes and belt buckle are a tribute to all Oklahomans and embody Oklahoma’s statewide bond.
Oklahoma City Thunder faculty Edition
Zach Beeker, Oklahoma City Thunder
“The City Edition uniform honors Oklahomans at their core,” said Brian Byrnes, the Thunder’s senior vice president of Sales and Marketing. “Whether an Oklahoman by birth or choice, we are inspired to believe work conquers all. We are a people who are always pushing onward and striving for better. The colors and design of this uniform are a tribute to our foundation, the ground we all walk on and the qualities we all share, including selfless service to our community and fellow citizens.”
These new uniforms will be worn every Friday night home game this season, as the franchise will host “City Nights”. This will be a unique game night experience for all fans. The first City Night and the debut of these new uniforms will take place this Friday, Nov. 11 in a contest against the Toronto Raptors.
DALLAS, TX – OCTOBER 29: Luka Doncic #77 of the Dallas Mavericks reacts after a collision against … [+] the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first half of the game at American Airlines Center on October 29, 2022 in Dallas, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
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The Dallas Mavericks can’t close games. Most recently, Dallas saw a 16-point lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder with 5:41 to play in the fourth quarter evaporate before their eyes. The Mavericks lost in overtime, 117-111
This season, a similar scenario has played out in Dallas’s three losses. They build a lead, take their foot off the gas and find a way to cough up games. If the Mavericks cannot develop a closing instinct soon, they will continue to squander away opportunities.
“You just look at [how] we got great opportunities, but we’re just missing shots,” Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said after the Thunder loss. “We’re not playing any defense, and that’s a big part of our problem. No matter who is closing the game, if you don’t get stops or if you just let the ball drive, and if you don’t protect the paint, it’s hard in this league.”
Kidd went with a lineup of Luka Doncic, Spencer Dinwiddie, Reggie Bullock, Dorian Finney-Smith and Christian Wood for the final 3:42 of the fourth quarter. Coming into the game, Wood, who Kidd is determined to keep in a Sixth Man role, had only played eight minutes with this group.
Despite a small sample size, in those eight minutes, the lineup had an offensive rating of 138.9 and a defensive rating of 100. Those numbers didn’t translate against Oklahoma City as the Thunder closed the final minutes of the fourth quarter on a 17-2. Kidd wasn’t impressed with the outcome.
“We didn’t go with Timmy [Hardaway Jr.] tonight. We left C-Wood out there with that group, and it didn’t go well on either end, and that’s something we got to be better at. I think we worry about offense, but we took command of that game, and with six minutes left, it started to go the other way. We just didn’t finish.”
The lineup that closed the game has now played 12 minutes together this season and has an offensive rating of 103.8 and a defensive rating of 134.8. Kidd quickly pointed out that playing Wood in the losing lineup didn’t work, but Wood wasn’t the only problem for Dallas.
Despite stuffing the box score with his second consecutive triple-double, notching 31 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists, Luka Doncic played poorly. After turning in some quality defensive performances this season, Doncic appeared checked out on that side of the ball.
However, he still had an opportunity to win the game in regulation but missed the 17-foot fadeaway jumper. He finished the night, fouling out in overtime, with a plus-minus of minus-25. He was on the floor for the entire Thunder run to tie the game in the fourth and take the lead in overtime.
“It’s on me,” Doncic said. “I didn’t lead the team. I didn’t make shots. That game’s on me. I didn’t do what [was] needed to do to win.”
Losing close games this early is becoming a disturbing trend. The Thunder aren’t pushovers, having beaten the Los Angeles Clippers twice a week, but they aren’t contenders. Neither are the New Orleans Pelicans when Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram and Herb Jones. Still, the undermanned Pelicans similarly knocked off the Mavericks.
Even the loss to open the season against the Phoenix Suns was terrible. While the Suns look primed to return to the postseason, the Mavericks led for 41 minutes and choked up a 22-point lead.
If there is one late-game success Dallas can look to, it’s their 129-125 overtime win against the Brooklyn Nets. While the Mavericks shouldn’t have let the game get to overtime, they were able to assert themselves in the extra frame and find a way to win.
The season is still young, and it’s clear that Kidd is still tinkering with the lineups, working from his script to see what does and doesn’t work. But sooner rather than later, he will have to put together a product on the floor that can build and hold leads rather than consistently throw them away.
“When you look at early in the season, we have had leads in the fourth, and we give them away,” Kidd said. “It’s something we got to look at. We look at a different lineup closing the game; it just didn’t go well.”
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – JULY 05: Chet Holmgren #7 of the Oklahoma City Thunder looks on during a NBA … [+] Summer League game against the Utah Jazz at Vivint Arena on July 05, 2022 in Salt Lake City, Utah. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images)
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The Oklahoma City Thunder took a huge step in the right direction this summer when they selected Chet Holmgren with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. A true cornerstone talent, the 7-footer was set to immediately start at center for the rebuilding Thunder and form a young, rising trio alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey.
However, his rookie campaign has been pushed out a year following a season-ending foot injury suffered at a pro-am event over the summer. A Lisfranc injury to his right foot will keep Holmgren out for the entire 2022-23 season.
On a positive note, there’s a good chance that this injury won’t affect him once fully recovered. This has emerged as a fairly common sports injury with a high success rate upon return to action.
While Holmgren won’t be taking the floor this season, there’s still a huge opportunity for him to improve leading up to his NBA debut at the start of the 2023-24 campaign.
Just days after his foot surgery, the Gonzaga product had already started putting in work. He had began lifting weights for upper body strength and shooting a basketball, which was completely fine as long as he didn’t put weight on the injured foot.
“I can pretty much work out anything that’s not putting weight to my foot,” Holmgren told the media at a recent presser.
One of the main things the No. 2 pick needs to improve on to reach his ceiling is adding weight and strength. While he won’t be able to put an emphasis on his lower half and base in the near future, this is a great opportunity for him to start eating the right way and focus on strengthening his upper body and gaining weight.
Holmgren is wise for a 19-year-old and has the right mindset as he continues his recovery journey.
“Recovery is going great,” Holmgren said during training camp. “I just want to take it one day at a time and really maximize my time.”
The 7-footer disclosed that even though he wasn’t necessarily a part of the Thunder’s practices during camp, he was at the facility from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day cheering on his teammates, evaluating from the sideline and then ultimately putting in his own work on the side.
It’s important for Holmgren to stay close to the team over the next year so that he can learn his teammates, the Thunder system and what it’s like to play at the NBA level.
“It’s great to be able to learn and get better in any capacity that I can,” the rookie said during camp. “I’m trying to soak up the knowledge of how things are done around here so when I get back in there I can seamlessly plug myself in.”
Although he was on a scooter for several weeks following his foot surgery, that didn’t hold Holmgren back from working on his craft. He’s an extremely hard worker and still found ways to work on his shot in preparation for next season.
It’s important to note that Holmgren won’t be traveling on every road trip with the team this season, which allows him to maximize his time ensuring a speedy and successful recovery.
“He’s going to be able to reallocate his time,” said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault. “He’s not playing in games, which is a huge amount of your time. Not only in the weight room, but in a holistic way.”
With that in mind, he did travel to Minnesota for Oklahoma City’s home opener against the Timberwolves, visiting his home state to see friends and family. This was one of our first looks at Holmgren working out on the court still in a boot, but without his scooter.
It’s incredible to see a 7-footer as smooth as Holmgren take one-legged fade shots from all over the court during his recovery. While he’s not able to undergo full workouts with both feet, it’s clear he’s still able to work on certain moves and add to his offensive repertoire this early in the process.
This isn’t the first time an elite talent and high draft pick has missed their entire first NBA season. Guys like Joel Embiid and Blake Griffin were put in similar situations due to injury and turned out just fine.
In fact, Holmgren spent time this summer before suffering the injury in the gym working with Embiid. After having surgery, he was in contact with both Embiid and his training staff getting advice about what he could to do continue improving and be a better player when this is all over.
“It’s always great to look at something and know it’s been done before. It’s not some impossible feat,” said Holmgren when asked if he’s looked at players like Embiid and Griffin as analogs for his own situation.
Even off the court, a huge part of getting acquainted to the NBA is learning to be a professional when games aren’t happening. During the grind of an 82-game season, there’s a ton of travel and other commitments all season long.
The veteran of the team is center Mike Muscala, who’s also a Minnesota native and will be a key mentor for Holmgren this year. When asked about how the rookie can improve this season while injured, Muscala had good insight.
“Just to be around the teams. Be around the practices and the games,” said the 31-year-old. “He’s a smart guy and has a high level of awareness. I think just to soak it all in. Watching film. Being in the weight room.”
The life of an NBA player is fast-paced and something no player entering the league at Holmgren’s age has ever experienced.
“It just comes down to putting my mental energy towards it and becoming a professional off the court,” said Holmgren.
Outside of learning to be a professional, Holmgren is also becoming a true student of the game. In fact, Daigneault called him a “film junkie” at Media Day, saying the 7-footer is already to the point where he is cutting his own film.
This recovery program is all a completely new scenario for Holmgren, who hasn’t been injury prone in the past. Despite having a slender build all of his life, he’s been durable and this is the first major injury of his career.
“I’ve never had a serious injury in my life, so I had nothing to base it off of or compare it to,” said Holmgren.
Regardless, the Thunder have a great plan in place with their new unicorn prospect. As he improves physically over the next year and soaks in what it’s like to be a professional and play in the NBA, don’t be surprised when Holmgren comes out next season and looks like one of the best young players in the entire league.
“As good of a player as he is and as excited as we are about him, he’s an unfinished product,” Daigneault said recently. “He’s got a long way to go in a lot of different areas. He knows that, it’s part of the reason why we love him. He’s gonna invest himself in those areas and set himself apart as far as he can for when the ball is back in his hands.”
We’re about a year out from Holmgren’s regular season debut, but he’s doing all of the right things to set himself up for success when that day comes.
MIAMI, FLORIDA – JANUARY 15: Isaiah Joe #7 of the Philadelphia 76ers shoots a jumper prior to the … [+] game against the Miami Heat at FTX Arena on January 15, 2022 in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
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The 2022-23 NBA season kicks off on Tuesday night, with the Oklahoma City Thunder slated to have their first matchup on Wednesday against the Minnesota Timberwolves. As such, the official 15-man roster was finalized today as final personnel decisions were made.
Entering training camp late last month, there were 19 players with full-time contracts on the Oklahoma City roster. While it appeared there was going to be a roster crunch with four players battling for one spot, Thunder GM Sam Presti got creative.
For starters, he traded away the four players that were ultimately going to be competing for that spot to the Houston Rockets and Atlanta Hawks. In a pair of deals, Oklahoma City traded away Theo Maledon, Vit Krekci, Ty Jerome and Derrick Favors and in return landed David Nwaba, Sterling Brown, Marquese Chriss and Trey Burke when it was all said and done.
Brown was waived immediately, while Chriss and Burke never joined the team and Nwaba played in a just few preseason contests before being waived.
What’s interesting is that none of the original four players entering camp nor the four players that were traded for over the last few weeks ended up landing that 15th and final roster spot. Instead, it was Isaiah Joe who earned that spot.
After being waived by the Philadelphia 76ers over the weekend, the sharpshooting guard signed a three-year deal with Oklahoma City. The former second-round pick is still just 23 years old and will have a real chance to compete for minutes later in the season.
His deal is reportedly worth $6 million over three years, which is fully guaranteed year one, non-guaranteed year two, and includes a team option year three.
With Joe taking that final roster spot, the final 15-man roster was put into place.
Darius Bazley
Ousmane Dieng
Luguentz Dort
Josh Giddey
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Chet Holmgren
Isaiah Joe
Tre Mann
Mike Muscala
Aleksej Pokusevski
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl
Aaron Wiggins
Jalen Williams
Jaylin Williams
Kenrich Williams
Furthermore, Eugene Omoruyi and Lindy Waters III are on two-way contracts in Oklahoma City.
One player that made the roster but didn’t get the contract extension he was eligible for is forward Darius Bazley. A Klutch Sports client, the 6-foot-9 prospect had until today to agree upon an extension, but now will play out the 2022-23 season in Oklahoma City before becoming a restricted free agent next summer.
Now that the roster is set, the Thunder will travel to Minnesota for their opener against the Timberwolves on Wednesday.
It’s time for our silliest preseason tradition: The 11th (how???) annual League Pass Rankings, a watchability scale to help you avoid wasting time on things like, “Wait, has this team actually ordered its players to tie their shoes together as part of its Lose-A-Rama for Victor Wembanyama campaign?”
These are not power rankings! They are derived from a formula Bill Simmons found scrawled on parchment paper inside a glass bottle that washed up on the shores of Malibu.
Teams are scored 1-10 in five categories:
ZEITGEIST: When you talk about this team at parties, do people slink away?
HIGHLIGHT POTENTIAL: Do you linger on games in case a superstar does something amazing?
STYLE: Where are they on the continuum from “Golden State Warriors beautiful game” to “Julius Randle just took four jab steps and launched an 18-footer”?
LEAGUE PASS MINUTIA: All the little things that mean too much to damaged die-hards: announcers, court designs, uniforms.
The Jazz aren’t really a basketball team after detonating the Donovan Mitchell–Rudy Gobert-Quin Snyder-Making-Amazing-Faces era. They are an airport waiting area for players, only those players have to play together a bit because the NBA mandates the Jazz field a team instead of working together “Ocean’s Eleven”-style to rig the lottery.
They are the NBA Spider-Man Pointing meme of shoot-first combo guards: Jordan Clarkson, Collin Sexton, Talen Horton-Tucker, Nickeil Alexander-Walker. Lauri Markkanen and Malik Beasley aren’t exactly prime John Stockton, either. Poor Mike Conley can bring the ball up, pass it once and head into the stands for a drink. (I am excited to watch Sexton again. He averaged 24 points on 47.5% shooting two seasons ago, and purists dismissed it because the Cleveland Cavaliers stunk and Sexton’s a blah passer. Putting up those numbers is not easy. Sexton plays with classic little guy bravado, flinging himself inside for rebounds and going at larger superstars as if they should be scared of him.)
We are only one year removed from the Utah broadcast team shrieking at Rudy Gay’s debut as if the Jazz were getting prime Karl Malone. I can’t wait to hear how the Jazz are not really tanking, how dare anyone suggest it, the honorable caretakers of this community treasure would never allow that toxin to infect your beloved Jazz Men.
The new uniforms are a crime against NBA art:
The black and yellow ones are high school gym class-level. Why is a team with such a rich color palette going all-in on black? The white ones are passable only because the Jazz note — a perfect piece of sports art — is front and center, but they’ve even sullied that by removing the blue, yellow and green in the note head in favor of (yup) black.
The new court at least has the smoky white-gray shadow of that note along the sidelines.
The Pacers are one trade from challenging the San Antonio Spurs as frontrunners for the league’s worst record. They fall behind the Spurs here only because of the “zeitgeist” category; winning five titles buys San Antonio gravitas, especially when their last tank job kick-started that dominance.
Tyrese Haliburton is more entertaining than the entire Spurs team. He operates two steps ahead of defenses, and takes joy in passing. He gets off the ball early instead of hunting assists. When Haliburton is on the floor, the ball flies. He celebrates assists more loudly than baskets. You will sometimes catch Haliburton shouting with glee as his big man is about to cram one of his feathery lobs. (Haliburton and Isaiah Jackson are a fun alley-oop connection.) He might lead the league in assists.
Indiana’s young (and raw) bigs seemed to catch Haliburton’s spirit; the Pacers had the ball shifting side-to-side. Terry Taylor is the most ferocious offensive rebounder you don’t know. He will Kool-Aid Man through four guys to snag a second chance.
T.J. McConnell must be furious Jose Alvarado seized his throne as the king of the back-court sneak steal. I expect McConnell to respond by wearing a Hamburglar mask and hiding in the stands.
Chris Duarte bobs and weaves behind screens with liquid veteran guile. Bennedict Mathurin is a blast of athleticism for a team that ranked 27th in dunks. There’s plenty of room on Aaron Nesmith Island!
28. SAN ANTONIO SPURS (21.5)
The Spurs were for so long the League Pass nerd team: Manu Ginobili driving Gregg Popovich mad with thread-the-needle passes; Boris Diaw’s roly-poly, spinning, shoulder-checking drives; Kawhi Leonard snatching the ball from people. They birthed the Spursgasm, and raised the sport to perhaps its stylistic zenith in 2013-14.
Welp.
Can I interest you in the Low-Risk Point Guard Sibling Olympics between Tre and Tyus Jones? What about Point Josh Primo? Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell should develop into really good support starters, but it’s hard to hone your secondary playmaking on a team this light on first-option types to bend defenses — even if Popovich will have everyone sharing and moving. (Vassell is the biggest draw — a potential 3-and-D monster who has flashed ball-handling chops.)
At least Jakob Poeltl free throws have drama; he has hit below 50% over three seasons, and that will be a big deal if Poeltl — a fine player — ends up on a playoff team again.
Jeremy Sochan is fun, and leads three 2022 first-round picks who should see minutes.
Is this the best non-fiesta jersey in Spurs history — maybe the best, period?
I love that spur jutting out of the “X” in that new “SATX” wordmark. That gorgeous pattern down the sides is rendered in the style of Mexican serapes. The Texas state logo is a nod to the team’s origins as the Dallas Chaparrals in the American Basketball Association.
This 50th anniversary court, though …
The gold doesn’t go, and the center-court logo looks as if someone draped a carpet over the big spur.
27. OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER (21.5)
They’d be at least three spots higher with Chet Holmgren healthy. Without him, the roster is a morass after the strange-but-cool Shai Gilgeous-Alexander/Josh Giddey/Luguentz Dort trio. I mean this in a good way: It is really hard to find a perimeter trio with almost zero overlapping skill among them.
Giddey is the tall genius passer who dares long-range, no-look lasers with zero margin for error. Dort is the brick wall who lofts ceiling-scraping 3s and bulldozes inside. Gilgeous-Alexander is the ungraspable phantom, everywhere and nowhere at once as he slithers into the lane — different limbs seemingly operating at different speeds, and moving in different directions.
Good luck distributing minutes beyond that. If you’re chasing wins, you’d play Kenrich Williams and Mike Muscala. Then there are at least seven young guys who merit time — including three of the first 34 picks in the last draft.
Aleksej Pokusevski has shown hints that he’s a basketball player, not just a gangly novelty. He has vision, and a knack for blocking shots. (Does he think you get more points if jumpers go in at higher velocities?) Tre Mann is crafty. If a Darius Bazley corner 3 hits the side of the backboard, does it make a noise? (Don’t sleep on the Thunder hiring Chip Engelland — longtime assistant coach and shooting guru for the Spurs.)
A juicy subplot: midtier playoff teams cannot afford losses to the Wembanyama Brigade. Those can be the difference between No. 6 and the play-in. The Thunder signaled doom for the Los Angeles Lakers last season with two massive early comeback wins.
The broadcast is less propaganda-y than it once was. Progress!
26. Washington Wizards (24)
The cherry blossom uniform is the best thing to happen to this franchise since the Charlotte Bobcats took Michael Kidd-Gilchrist No. 2 in 2012. They should give these uniforms a no-trade clause.
The team with perhaps the most blah art collection of the last 15 years — this is the first season they’ve used multiple courts! — nailed every detail: the soft-pink; the gradual shift to gray on the shorts; the stenciled flowers dripping down the sides.
Gandalf is back!
After years of ignoring their kooky wizarding heritage, the team is tiptoeing into some semi-ironic hipster embrace of it. It took me years before I realized the contrast between the wizard’s white beard and black cloak formed a “W.” (I might have problems.)
Oh, the team! The Wiz could push for a high-end play-in spot, or skid early and Avada Kedavra themselves into the Wembanyama sweepstakes.
For a team that has been under-.500 since 2018, they have few (if any) young prospects you are dying to watch. Deni Avdija is a heady ball-mover who enjoys defense — remember when he started forming an “X” with his forearms after stops? — but needs to do more on offense. Rui Hachimura was empty calories last season; he has a lot to prove in the final year of his rookie contract.
Kyle Kuzma was awesome across the board, and elevates NBA fashion. Bradley Beal is one of the league’s most artful three-level scorers — a sleek blend of old school and new school. You often hear how Beal can’t be the No. 1 guy on a title team, but who cares (other than Wiz fans who can recite his salary cap hit in 2027)? How many such players exist? Beal is a star, and would look incredible as the second-best player — and maybe No. 1 scorer — on a great team stacked with defenders. (In other news, the Wiz had a three-year window in which they could have traded Beal for a gazillion draft picks.)
The funniest random NBA streak is Orlando’s 10-season run ranking 20th or worse in points per possession. That is Dimaggio-level consistency in offensive incompetence. I really hope they are 20th on the last day of the season and go all-out for 19th.
I think we are on rebuild No. 3 post-Dwightmare? This one might take. Paolo Banchero is the offense-first fulcrum the Magic have searched for this entire decade — an all-court hub with the passing and shooting chops to lift his teammates. Franz Wagner is an ideal secondary wing — all heady cuts and snappy passes, with the touch and ball-handling guile to take the reins mid-possession. Wendell Carter Jr. is only 23, and he’s already a decent starting center. They should land another high pick in this draft.
Cole Anthony plays as if he thinks he’s the best player on the floor, and I love it. He’s a solid backup and spot starter.
Everything else is a mystery. Unless Wagner becomes an every-possession point-forward — that seems a stretch — the Magic still need a perimeter orchestrator. What, exactly, is Jalen Suggs?
Jonathan Isaac’s return sometime between now and 2030 would introduce some ultra-modern lineup combinations. Can you go giant, with Wagner and all three of Isaac, Banchero and Carter? What about the center-less front-court of Wagner/Isaac/Banchero? I will never give up on Chuma Okeke!
The broadcast trio of David Steele, Jeff Turner, and Dante Marchitelli is tremendous. They have fun without degenerating into shrill homerism.
24. CHARLOTTE HORNETS (24.5)
This is the floor for a team featuring one of the league’s most inventive passers in LaMelo Ball; Eric Collins’ rapturous play-by-play; Kelly Oubre Jr. talking trash to everyone in earshot; and some of the league’s best and most immediately identifiable art. (Here’s hoping they bring back the mint shade they unveiled two seasons ago; the Hornets can own that.)
This alternate court is another hit:
That all-purple silhouette of a scary-looking Hornet leaps off the screen. The stinger theme echoes along the sideline, and on the outside of the “H” and “S” of the accompanying jersey:
The half-basketball with turquoise lining is the rare instance where dividing the circle by color works.
The Hornets played fast and ranked No. 2 in dunks last season, but almost half those dunks belonged to Miles Bridges and Montrezl Harrell. Steve Clifford teams typically don’t play fast, or experiment with the funky “nothing else is working, let’s try this?” zone defenses James Borrego cooked up.
(Clifford is a really good coach. Even so, we have not spent nearly enough time discussing how hilarious and perfectly Hornets it is that Charlotte hired one coach — Kenny Atkinson — only for him to bail once he got a look inside, and then turned to the coach they fired four years ago.)
Pairing Clifford with a chaos agent like Ball will either result in an untenable tug-of-war or a healthy meeting in the middle. (Clifford has little choice but to play a pile of unproven young guys.) I’m curious how Ball finds his footing in slowed-down, half-court sequences — what moves and passes he leans on, how he incorporates teammates.
Terry Rozier has canned an inexplicable number of clutch jumpers over the last two seasons. There is something mesmerizing about watching Mason Plumlee decide, “Screw it, I’m going to unleash this reeeeeeaaaally slooooooowwwww spin move from the foul line. It’s my time to live, baby!” Did you know Plumlee switched to shooting free throws lefty last season? That happened!
23. NEW YORK KNICKS (26.5)
The Knicks played at the league’s second-slowest pace, and their games featured tons of free throws. Their starting five was unwatchable, unless you enjoy Julius Randle, RJ Barrett and Mitchell Robinson bumping into each other. The rollicking bench shocked them to life, and if the basketball gods are kind, we will see more Barrett alongside Obi Toppin and Immanuel Quickley. (You never know when Toppin might stage his own in-game dunk contest.)
Toppin is a quick-twitch ball-mover, and Quickley went up two levels as a playmaker last season. Isaiah Hartenstein will have the ball popping, and stitch the bench together. If Robinson isn’t on point, we might see Hartenstein finish games.
Jalen Brunson should restore order and spacing to the starting five. The Knicks boast Mike Breen and Clyde Frazier, Madison Square Garden’s theater lighting and a pristine royal blue court. (I will drop them one spot if they introduce more black-and-orange art. You are the Knicks of New York freaking City. Do not be Team Halloween!)
I would like an in-game feed of Leon Rose and slouching, hangdog James Dolan sitting next to each other in silence, only the Knicks would never risk accidentally broadcasting Dolan shouting back at fans urging him to sell the team. (The camera might also catch them frowning at Tom Thibodeau’s refusal to play Cam Reddish.)
The potential for cranky Randle turning against the fans again adds to the comedy score.
22. HOUSTON ROCKETS (27)
On the one hand: Houston ranked first in dunks and second in pace, and features a bunch of telegenic young players. Jalen Green goes from zero to 100 in a nanosecond, and hunts bodies at the rim. He can also slow down for smooth midrange pull-ups — a nice break from Houston’s dunks-and-3s credo.
How do you even describe Alperen Sengun? He attempts such unusual feats of pivotry that you sometimes wonder if he traveled even though you just watched him shift both feet three times without dribbling. Was that so weird, it was somehow legal? Sengun could carry the ball 20 steps and still be astonished the referees whistled him for traveling.
He sometimes pass fakes to no one — literally to empty space — just to get defenders leaning into that void. Is it genius or madness?
On the other hand: Houston fouled the bejesus out of everyone and gagged up one of the highest turnover rates in recent history; its style of play — young guys running and gunning — lends itself to raggedness.
Tari Eason will clean up the defense. He is here to lock victims up. Jabari Smith Jr. brings some preternatural polish.
Do Derrick Favors and Maurice “I’m coming for Ish Smith’s record” Harkless ever wonder, “Wait, what city am I in?” It hurts the comedy score that Eric Gordon is too professional to write “Trade me!” on his shoes a la Chris Morris.
Boban Marjanovic cameos are always welcome. Every move Garrison Mathews makes — kicking his legs out on jumpers, running smack into picks — carries a hint of danger. Every team needs a Jae’Sean Tate.
21. SACRAMENTO KINGS (27.5)
This is too low for Sacramento.
You never know when the #KANGZZ might appear in-game. Example: Remember when NBA Twitter kicked into Conspiracy Theory mode because Vivek Ranadive sat courtside between the general manager he had recently fired (Vlade Divac) and Divac’s replacement (Monte McNair)? Because it was the Kings — with their “Game of Thrones”-style power structure and habit of hiring coaches before GMs — anything was possible.
In describing that bizarre scene, Jason Jones of The Athletic recalled Ranadive tweeting happy birthday to Jimmer Fredette (whose selection at No. 10 in 2011 after a nonsensical trade down is another #KANGZZ moment) “while negotiating a buyout [with Fredette] at the same time.” Even the tweet in question has a hidden #KANGZ treasure:
Ranadive is making the “hang loose” gesture in front of another photo of him flashing the “hang loose” gesture.
Anyway, Team Play-In-Or-Bust should be a fast-paced scoring machine built around the already sophisticated De’Aaron Fox-Domantas Sabonis two-man game. They are a natural match: opposites in build, but tethered in craft and wink-wink IQ. Sabonis might flip the angle of his screen two, three, four times, and Fox shifts in sync with each move. Sabonis can brutalize switches, push in transition and even run the occasional inverted pick-and-roll.
Malik Monk is a show, Kevin “Red Velvet” Huerter adds shooting and underrated playmaking, and Keegan Murray intrigues. I will miss the Haliburton-Richaun Holmes lob connection, but Holmes’ push shot — the best of its kind — carries on.
The algorithm is angry Miami discontinued its instantly iconic “Miami Vice”-style jerseys.
The Heat are a sneakily hard sell for casual fans. They were 28th in pace and 26th in dunks, and they foul a lot. Watching Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry, and Bam Adebayo make magic in tight spaces is an acquired taste. You have to really pay attention to notice all the smart cuts, shoulder fakes, give-and-gos, and slick interior passes that make Miami’s half-court offense hum — when it hums.
Lowry gets them moving with overzealous full-court hit-aheads. I’m excited to see what Tyler Herro does as a permanent starter. He became over-infatuated — with the team’s encouragement to some degree — with becoming a high-volume pick-and-roll ball handler at the expense of some catch-and-shoot 3s. He should recalibrate 15% or so in the direction of Klay Thompson.
There is something beautiful and almost contradictory about Jimmy Butler’s bruising game. He doesn’t just plow into people. He’s violent and physical, but never reckless. In a blink, he can transition from a burrowing drive into a stop-on-a-dime jumper that drips with surprising softness. He brings the same balletic ferocity to his off-ball cuts. (Butler might be the league’s most underrated cutter.)
The flip side of self-serious #HeatCulture is that there is almost nothing funny — unintentionally or otherwise — about the Heat.
19. PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS (29)
There is nothing in basketball like an avalanche of Damian Lillard 3s. In Portland, the buzz builds as fans realize: We might see one of those nights. It reaches a euphoric crescendo when one final 30-footer forces a timeout, and Lillard, scowling, stares and nods at the crowd in his house.
On the road, you hear fear — really hear it. It starts with low murmuring: Uh oh. As the streak unfolds, the noise morphs into a sort of collective shriek that begins when Lillard pauses mid-dribble as if he might launch.
For the first time in ages, the Blazers have surrounded their star with some oomph: Josh Hart rampaging end-to-end; Nassir Little testing the limits of his game; Anfernee Simons flicking 3s and hunting tin; Gary Payton II rim-running and committing felonies on defense; the unknown of Shaedon Sharpe.
Simons might have the league’s prettiest floater; he pogo-sticks into the clouds, above reaching defenders, and flips that baby from all angles.
Chauncey Billups might have to start from scratch on defense after last year’s blitzing scheme failed.
The Blazers have the best team name, and maybe the best top-to-bottom art. This floor is close to seizing my No. 1 court design spot from the Lakers:
A few teams have experimented with differently colored painted areas. That contrast works better on the boundaries — as the Blazers have done here. The pinwheel might be the best logo in U.S. sports; whoever decided to extend the striping from the center-court pinwheel onto each sideline deserves a big raise.
Lillard planted the pinwheel smack in the center of the new jersey he helped design — and echoed its striping down the sides:
More teams are trying jerseys showing only their primary logo — no wordmark at all — and the pinwheel is well-suited to that. The Blazers were smart to render the numbers in white instead of black.
18. CHICAGO BULLS (30)
This an eight-spot drop from last year, reflecting Lonzo Ball’s importance as Chicago’s fast-break engine and the connective tissue between the disparate styles baked into the roster.
I was gobsmacked watching from courtside last November as the Bulls ran circles around the Lakers at Staples Center. LeBron James didn’t play, but Chicago’s blowout win was so emphatic, his absence seemed almost immaterial. The younger, bouncier, cockier Bulls looked as if they were playing a different sport. They passed and cut and jacked 3s ahead of the Lakers. Ball and Alex Caruso terrorized L.A. on defense. The Lakers quit. The Bulls danced.
That team vanished six weeks later, and has never returned. It got slower, more predictable, over-dependent on DeMar DeRozan’s graceful but somewhat repetitive midrange game. Zach LaVine is the best dunker since Vince Carter, but wings don’t dunk often enough to warp viewing habits; Lavine dunked 62 times in 67 games. (Derrick Jones. Jr. might literally jump over someone at any moment.)
If LaVine cans one or two fading step-back 3s — he’ll do that from the corners too! — definitely stick around. A high-degree-of-difficulty swish-fest may be coming.
Nikola Vucevic is a footwork artist on the block, but playing alongside LaVine and DeRozan marginalized that part of his game and turned him into a run-of-the-mill pick-and-pop shooter; Vucevic averaged eight post touches per 100 possessions, second-lowest of his career, per Second Spectrum.
Ayo Dosunmu and Patrick Williams offer the appeal of the unknown, and how they develop — and how fast — is of immense importance to a team that could be trapped in upper-class mediocrity. Williams’ career could spin in an unusual number of directions; the Bulls might even spot him minutes at center.
Adam Amin and Stacey King keep the broadcast light-hearted, and lose nothing when Jason Benetti fills in. The logo, court, and jerseys (other than anodyne black alternates) are top-notch.
17. TORONTO RAPTORS (30)
Some fans are concerned about strategic homogeneity — every team playing spread pick-and-roll, chasing the same shots. That concern is overblown, but there is an easy antidote: Watch the positionless, avante-garde basketball experiment unfolding in Toronto!
The Raptors’ rotation amounts to Fred VanVleet and several tall people who can do lots of things on offense and guard everyone on defense. They leverage their length in ways you’d expect, and some you might not: switching, playing wacky zones, bombarding the offensive glass, and posting up size mismatches. They do the unthinkable on defense: allow lots of 3s (basically) on purpose, confident their speed and preposterous arms make for frightening closeouts. (Only Matisse Thybulle has blocked more 3s than Chris Boucher over the past three seasons.)
Playing mismatch ball can be laborious; Toronto possessions after made baskets lasted 18.3 seconds — highest in the league, per Inpredictable. But even the grueling nature of its half-court offense runs counter to trends in a way that makes it appealing.
Scottie Barnes — 6-9 point-whatever — is the perfect foundational player for this ethos, and might soon grasp the superstar tools to lift Toronto’s offense from the muck. He seemed to play last season in second gear, digesting the speed and dimensions of the NBA before pushing the throttle. By the playoffs, he appeared to have a better understanding of how good he could be.
Pascal Siakam is a fine all-around No. 1 option, and VanVleet is that greater-than-his-statistics guy you appreciate more the longer you watch him. Every seemingly innocuous move — every cut, dribble, wink, shoulder fake — opens a few inches of space, and those inches eventually add up to an open shot.
You never know where that first Precious Achiuwa dribble might lead — everything from a dunk to a pass into the fifth row is in play — but his transformation into a stretch center changed Toronto’s offense.
The announcers, court, and red-and-white jerseys are all great. The pitch on Jack Armstrong’s “Get that gah-bage outta here!” call somehow gets higher every season. Thumbs down to the alternate black-and-gold look.
16. DETROIT PISTONS (31)
Cade Cunningham has that rare Luka Doncic-style ability to find life in places where possessions often die — in the extended paint with a live dribble that doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, against a set defense.
Cunningham is strong enough to keep pushing, tall enough to see everything. Most of all, he’s smart enough to know how every pivot and twist might manipulate the defense. One lunge inside from a help defender, and zip — the ball finds a shooter. Once Cunningham refines his touch around the rim, every possibility will open up.
Jaden Ivey’s lightning-bolt drives might form the perfect duality alongside Cunningham’s patient game. Corralling the Pistons could someday be like facing consecutive pitches from Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson.
Bojan Bogdanovic widens the floor. Saddiq Bey should find the right water level in his game. Don’t mess with Isaiah Stewart. Beef Stew should shoot more 3s, and he’s the keystone to Detroit’s switch-everything defense. Jalen Duren is a high-flying, rim-munching backup center who might even share the floor with Stewart in short stints.
The rest of the bench is a bit of a mystery.
There’s also this:
Was anyone yearning for the return of the 1990s teal and flaming horse? Do fans like these now? Is the affection ironic or genuine? Do teal and red mesh? The flaming exhaust pipes and “DP” corner logos are kinda cool.
The new black jerseys — with fat striping as a Bad Boys call-out — are a bust. Black has been every team’s “whatever” alternate for a decade, and the blocky, outlined black lettering looks generic.
I do like Detroit’s two main courts, with the edges of a basketball along each sideline echoing the central logo:
15. LA CLIPPERS (31.5)
The Clips are about as entertaining as it gets for a slowish team that lives on jumpers and rarely flies above the rim. Paul George glides in a way that makes everything (except dribbling through traffic) look effortless.
There is majesty — power, strength, rigid up-and-down precision — to Kawhi Leonard’s pull-up game. Leonard showed two seasons ago that he can still dial up peak Spurs-era sharktopus mode on defense, and there is no wing player alive who instills the same level of panic as Sharktopus Kawhi. He is the rare weakside help defender who dictates terms — vibrating on his toes, arms spread fingertip to fingertip — in that netherworld between a corner shooter and the big man rumbling down the lane. Even the best ball handlers freeze at the sight of that menace: Is Kawhi’s guy open? Oh, wait, Kawhi is gonna apparate into that passing lane. What about the lob inside? Could he snatch that too? Overthink, and Leonard has already won.
If that Leonard is back when it counts, the Clip are in the inner circle of contenders.
John Wall, Norman Powell and Terance Mann are the jolt of head-down, north-south speed this team needs. (The Clips are so deep, a lot of preseason analysis has skirted past Powell. He is a critical variable, and should finish lots of games.) The Clips will play five-out, centerless lineups, and every game will teach us something about which perimeter trios work best around Leonard and George.
You know your art is dull when no one notices the difference between your primary court and the “special” alternate:
This is shockingly low for a 64-win team with a layered pick-and-roll attack, potential for drama with Deandre Ayton, and the return of the classic purple sunburst jerseys.
Phoenix even amped up the pace last season, unusual for a Chris Paul team. Devin Booker is a vintage scorer, with his velvety leaning midranger and a sneaky-nasty post game. He and Paul rain old-school fire. Paul’s maximize-every-edge perfectionism can be irritating — the rip-through is coming the second Phoenix enters the bonus — but it’s what makes him who he is.
(It also results in on-court disagreements, one of which gave us the iconic fake-laughing meme. That thing transcends basketball. Try it out in your life. It’s a great way to end those exchanges of small talk with long-lost high school classmates you don’t really like.)
It is so satisfying when Paul kicks that fastidiousness and decides to preen — showing off fancy yo-yo dribbles, or nutmegging someone just because he feels like embarrassing them.
The young guys will stretch themselves; Cameron Johnson piled up 20-plus-point games last season, and Mikal Bridges has dabbled with quick-hitting duck-ins. (Bridges’ defense is a show. He envelopes people — the rare wing defender so long, he can block his own guy’s shot before the ball really escapes the shooter’s hand.)
But we’ve seen and enjoyed this movie enough for now: Paul and Booker snaking their way to midrangers from the right elbow, the Suns’ steadfast defense forcing those same shots on the other end. They are Team Bizarro Shot Selection.
The algorithm underestimates how interesting it will be watching Trae Young and Dejounte Murray figure out how to amplify each other. There could be hiccups over the first 20-plus games. Will Murray make enough catch-and-shoot 3s? Will Young play off the ball, like, at all?
The variety is welcome. Young can do almost whatever he wants against any pick-and-roll scheme. We know about the 3s ands floaters (and foul-baiting flails), but Young still doesn’t get enough credit for his next-level anticipatory passing. He sees everything early, and can make almost any pass — including long lefty slingshots and other across-the-floor reads off-limits to most 6-1 guards.
Still: Too much of anything gets redundant, and Murray offers a reprieve — plus the ability to float across huge chunks of space on defense.
Young’s lob passing makes Atlanta a perennial top-10 dunk team. John Collins gets way above the rim and finishes with panache and power. Onyeka Okongwu is a two-handed thunder dunker. Okongwu will be a starter sooner than later; he and De’Andre Hunter are the biggest X factors for the Hawks now.
Young leaning into WWE-level villainy is great television. Bogdan Bogdanovic punctuates hot streaks with sumptuous snarling trash talk. Aaron Holiday is a little cinder block who attacks the rim with the aggression of someone a foot taller.
12. CLEVELAND CAVALIERS (32.5)
We’re in the range where every team feels too low, and this will indeed end up low for the Cavaliers. Between their four stars, Cleveland has something for every fan. Donovan Mitchell supplies the highlights; he is a hunched blur, attacking along sharp diagonals and seeking to inflict pain at the rim. Jarrett Allen fears no dunker at the summit. Darius Garland is all staccato craft and demoralizing ultra-long 3s. Evan Mobley is getting ready to show the breadth of his game. They all complement each other.
I have never liked the Cavs wine-and-gold scheme, but their creative team has produced a clean new jersey set:
Both shades are muted in a pleasing way. The Cavs found a spot — on the left side of the shorts — where their gigantic “C” stands out without dominating. Turning the “V” in “Cavs” into a basket is a nice homage to the Mark Price/Brad Daugherty era.
They’ve cleaned up the court too, refilling the painted areas and erasing the shaded city skyline:
We need another Ricky Rubio–Kevin Love reunion tour. Remember how unhappy Love seemed as the lone championship holdover on a rebuilding team? That story almost never ends with said veteran sticking around to enjoy the fruits of that rebuild, and it’s remarkable Love is here and happy.
J.B. Bickerstaff proved last season that he is willing to buck convention: ultra-big lineups, Mobley lording over the top of zone defenses, copious amounts of Dean Wade.
For reasons I can’t explain, I enjoy how Robin Lopez sits on the floor in the corner instead of on the bench.
John Michael and Austin Carr are a nice mix — the serious one and the silly cackler. Keep an eye on Michael at the broadcast table, standing and leaning and crouching to keep eyes on the action. He does not want to watch through a monitor.
11. PHILADELPHIA 76ers (33.5)
Joel Embiid guarantees a top-12 finish here. Few athletes have ever combined so much grace, power and high-IQ feel. On three straight possessions, Embiid might: rain in a soft midranger; then obliterate someone on the block and dunk them through the floor; and finally pump-and-go from the arc, Eurostep around one sucker, and kiss in a falling layup.
The James Harden-Embiid two-man game was so potent, Embiid so effective scoring off Harden’s pocket passes, defenses resorted to desperate and dangerous counters: Should we, umm, not even leave Embiid and just let Harden drive almost to the rim — and then swarm from one of Philly’s shooters? We get to see a whole season of that cat-and-mouse-and-beard game. (They lose points for how many free throws they generate. It’s a slog.)
Tyrese Maxey takes over when Harden rests, but he’s almost more fun playing off Philly’s two stars. He waits along the arc, like a sprinter in the starting block, primed to catch a kickout and fly through the diagonal crease Harden has unlocked.
Matisse Thybulle teleports on defense. He is way over there, and then suddenly and implausibly, he is blocking your shot. There is a feast-or-famine element to almost every Philly reserve. You can’t look away.
Philly a top-four art team. Kate Scott and Alaa Abdelnaby are talented enough that they don’t have to resort to homerish propaganda. It hurts the credibility of the overall product.
I appreciate referees for allowing Montrezl Harrell to do pull-ups on the rim after dunks. I’d watch a broadcast that just zooms in on P.J. Tucker making life miserable for opponents.
