Week 9 recap and Roze's 5 things

Conference Standings 

Eastern Conference

1 Cleveland Cavaliers 25-4

2 Boston Celtics 22-6

3 New York-Knicks 18-10

4 Orlando Magic 18-12

5 Milwaukee-Bucks 15-12

6 Miami Heat 13-13

7 Atlanta Hawks 14-15

8 Indiana Pacers 13-15

9 Chicago Bulls 13-16

10 Detroit Pistons 12-17

11 Brooklyn Nets 11-17

12 Philadelphia 76ers 9-17

13 Charlotte Hornets 7-21

14 Toronto Raptors 7-21

15 Washington Wizards 4-22


Western Conference

1 Oklahoma City Thunder 22-5

2 Memphis Grizzlies 20-9

3 Houston Rockets 18-9

4 Dallas Mavericks 18-10

5 Los Angeles Lakers 16-12

6 Denver Nuggets 14-11

7 Golden State Warriors 15-12

8 LA Clippers 16-13

9 San Antonio Spurs 15-13

10 Minnesota Timberwolves 14-13

11 Phoenix Suns 14-13

12 Sacramento Kings 13-16

13 Portland Trail Blazers 9-19

14 Utah Jazz 7-20

15 New Orleans Pelicans 5-24

Reaction 

With the NBA Cup games coming to a close their were some make-up games to be played and everyone in the NBA had Wednesday off. This lead to a 13 game and 12 game night on Thursday and Saturday with a lot of movement, particularly in the Western Conference. In the Eastern Conference the Cavaliers keep the top spot after the Celtics loss their game against the Bulls without Jayson Tatum. The Knicks overtake the Magic for the 3 seed in the East after picking up a pair of wins and the Magic drop their last 3 of 4. They've dealt with injuries to both Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner this season. The Bucks and Heat also surpasses the Hawks after Atlanta has dropped their last 4 games. The Bucks beat the Thunder 97-81 in the NBA Cup finals on Tuesday, however the stats from that game did not count towards the regular season. The Nets have dropped out of the playoff picture after trading away Denis Schroder to the Warriors. The others in the Eastern have stayed in the same spot. 

In the Western Conference the Thunder have opened a larger gap over the Grizzlies. They lost in the NBA Cup finals, but it doesn't count against them in the standings while having them keep their lead. The Grizzlies moved into 2nd place with by dismantling the Warriors, while the Mavericks lost to the Clippers. They were without Luka Doncic in that game. The Lakers have moved into 5th place after winning their last 3 games. Lebron James has been excellent since his return from foot soreness. The Nuggets avoid the play-in for now after dropping a game to the Blazers and the Spurs move into 9th after a 20 point win over the Blazers. Victor Wembanyama became the youngest player in NBA history with 2 10+ block games. The Phoenix Suns meanwhile have dropped out of the playoffs completely after losing to the Pacers and Pistons in their most recent games. If they do not make the playoffs it will be an absolute failure. The Kings also stay in the 12th spot while the Blazers, Jazz, and Pelicans bring up the bottom of the standings. 

News Recap 

Wednesday, December 18th 

Kobe Bufkin will miss the remainder of the season with season-ending shoulder surgery.

Onyeka Okongwu will miss at least a week with knee inflammation. 

Sunday, December 22nd 

Mo Wagner will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL. The Magic center has been solid off the bench for a team that has dealt with injuries so both are their stars this season. 

Isaac Okoro will miss at least two weeks with a shoulder sprain. 

Devin Booker will miss at least the next week with groin soreness. 

Roze’s 5 Things

1 How Important are Two-Way Wings?

A topic of conversation in the NBA is what is the most important position in a team and what is the best way to build a franchise contender. The obvious way to start would be to have an apex ball handler who is 6'6 "-6'8", which is the archetype many franchises are after. The problem is that they don’t grow on trees. However, There’s only availability for a maximum of 30 in the NBA. Now placing guys around these apex-ball handlers is the hard part. Enter the two-way wings. Typically they can be anywhere between 6’6-6’10 and have to be able to play defense and offense. Building around these types of players instead of apex ball handlers is now more likely. The Celtics and Magic are teams that come to mind. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Franz Wanger, and Paolo Banchero are all highly talented offensive players who are all more than average on the defensive end of the floor. These players being the center of the franchise or being a complementary piece around the apex ball handler is a type of player teams cannot have enough of. Take the Thunder for example, and more specifically Jalen Williams. Williams is 6’8 guards 1-4 and even 5 at times and handles the ball when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is off the floor. I only bring this conversation to light as watching him affect the game at both ends of the floor is such a weapon that teams often have or are after. The Celtics have probably the two best players in the NBA in this regard with Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown. Both can score at all three levels of the floor and can also defend 1-5. The Celtics cruised to their 18th championship last season with these two at the helm. Now, they also have great pieces around them that affect the game in similar ways to them just not to the extent they do. It’s also interesting when looking at this when teams draft. Teams are often after this archetype and hoping to find the next All-NBA caliber player with these intangible or at least project to have them. 

2 Buck's three-point shooting and defense

The Bucks were crowned NBA Cup champions as they defeated the OKC Thunder 97-81 in dominant fashion and the glaring stat and reason as to why they won was the three-point line. This wasn’t just a one-time thing either, they’ve been doing this over the last 15 games at a great clip. Some stats to put it in perspective. In the last 15 games, the Bucks as a team are shooting 42% from 3 on 36 attempts a game. The reason why the attempts are important is that they aren’t pressing and shooting more than needed. The offense running through Giannis Antetokounmpo means he’s going to have the ball in his hands a ton and take a ton of the shots at the rim. The important thing is as the team gears up to stop him on his drives he needs shooting around him to punish help-side defenders and do a good job of providing spacing within the offense. The Bucks are doing that and against the Thunder was a perfect example of it on the national stage. For people who have not seen the Bucks play, they are legit now. Erase everything about the team you saw the first 10 games of the year when they were 2-8 and at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. This is a new team that understands how they are going to play. In the last 15 games, Damian Lillard is shooting 38.9% from 3 on 9.4 attempts a game, AJ Green is shooting 42.7% from 3 on 5 attempts a game, Bobby Portis is making 47.7% from 3 on 3.1 attempts a game, Brook Lopez is shooting 44% from 3 on 4.8 attempts a game, Gary Trent Jr. is shooting 46.8% from 3 on 5.3 attempts a game, Taurean Prince is shooting 47.3% from 3 on 3.7 attempts a game. These are all rotation guys and Khris Middleton hasn’t even found his groove yet either. The defense has even taken a raise as well. On the year their defensive rating was 113 it’s now dropped to 111.3. Opponents are still shooting 37% from 3 against them, they aren’t scoring at the basket at all. They’re shooting 60% at the basket and a lot of that has to do with Lopez and Antetokounmpo defending the rim. Does the lack of wing defense scare me in the playoffs for them? Yes. However, if Antetokounmpo and Lillard are doing what they are doing in a playoff series they can beat anyone. Oh, and Khris Middleton hasn’t even found his rhythm yet, think about that. The Bucks are here to stay and contend. 

3 Nikola Vucevic has found an awesome niche for the Bulls. 

Nikola Vucevic is shooting the cover off of the basketball and it’s been awesome to see. He’s averaging 20.9 points per game, and shooting an absurd 59% from the field and 48% from 3 on 4.8 attempts a game. If you have not seen a Bulls game I suggest you do it, it is fast-paced, up and down, and it is awesome to watch if you like offense. They lead the league to pace and play faster than anyone in the league. Sure the defense sucks and they just try and outscore teams, but it has benefited Nikola Vucevic so nicely and has resurrected his career after the horrid shooting season he’s experienced the last two seasons. He’s shooting 59% from the field and an even more impressive 48% from 3 as previously mentioned. The cool thing is it is almost exclusively from above the break. Of his 123 3s attempted this season 113 of them are from above the break. He’s taken 3 threes from the right corner and 7 threes from the left corner. Most of these are coming from rolling on pick and rolls, spot-ups, and the best one trailing the fastbreak. On 73 spot-ups this year for Vucevic he is averaging 1.25 points per possession, and shooting 48.6% in these instances with an effective field goal percentage of 64.4%, good for being in the 84th percentile amongst all NBA players so far this year. In the pick-and-roll setting, he’s been in the most roll-man situations either popping or rolling to the basket. He’s averaging 1.26 points per possession in 127 of them so far is shooting 55.9% from the floor and has an effective field goal percentage of 64$ good for the highest field goal percentage amongst those with 125+ possessions. However, the best part of it all has been his trailing plays on the fastbreak. Oftentimes, bigs are getting stretched out trying to help the guards defend the fast break against Lavine, White, Giddey, and Dosunmu pushing the pace. Vucevic has been awesome at finding the pockets and creating long close-outs for bigs in this situation. He’s been getting wide-open shots at the top of the key and finding driving lanes with his shot fakes. He’s become as good with this little niche within the offense that it gives the Bulls, who are now 6th in offense with a rating of 116, another added layer of early offense that they love to run. 

4 The Blueprint to Beating the Thunder 

The OKC Thunder lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA’s second edition of the in-season tournament. In the loss, they shot 5/32 from 3, forced 17 turnovers, and had 11 fastbreak points. The blueprint of beating them is out there and there’s one of every team so it shouldn’t be a cause for concern, every team has off nights and the Thunder didn’t play well, however, it was noticeable they let go of the rope, figuratively. That’s the easiest way to see if a team’s spirit is broken and it was obvious in the game vs Milwaukee. It is a little discouraging considering this game felt like OKC’s way of introducing themselves on a national stage and winning a game with high-level stakes. However, something in the game emerged. A blueprint or rather the intangibles needed to beat the Thunder. The Thunder drive to the basket more than any team in the NBA. They lead to league in drives per game and the Bucks loaded up on protecting the paint. They showed hard help in the gaps on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams the entire game. They forced Lu Dort, Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso, and Ajay Mitchell to beat them from the perimeter on drives. This also forced the Thunder into some catch-and-shoot 3s an area they were 5/32 from 3 the entire game. Do I think they will shoot 5/32 from 3 again? The chances are low. However, The Thunder on pull-up 3s shoots below 30% from 3 as opposed to 37% on catch-and-shoot threes. The Bucks forced Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams into much more pull-up threes than they usually take instead of allowing them to get into the paint. This in part was due to incredible defense from Andre Jackson and AJ Green for nearly the entire game. Along with Taurean Prince and Gary Trent Jr. doing some things as well. The Bucks were also able to stay off of Alex Caruso, who shoots 26% from 3 this year, and over additional help on drives without compromising any part of their defense. The other part in addition to forcing them into pull-up 3s was the Bucks' turnovers did not lead to easy points often for the Thunder. The Bucks turned it over 17 times which is right on pace for the Thunder’s season average, but the Thunder only had 11 fast break points for the game. The Bucks' turnovers were dead-ball and allowed them to set up their defense. The Thunder thrive off of other teams' turnovers. They force a ton with their pressure and physicality on defense. They also wear teams down through their defense as well. Granted the Bucks hit a ton of tough shots, especially Damian Lillard, but the Bucks handled the pressure very well throughout the whole game. The Bucks through limiting the live-ball turnovers and forcing Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams into more pull-ups were able to handle the Thunder in their 98-81 NBA Cup final victory. They also offer a blueprint for other teams to try and have success against OKC. 

5 Are teams taking too many 3s? 

The NBA discourse topic of this week is the question above, which I find to be absolutely insane. Are teams taking too many threes? No, teams are not, and on top of that please do not do anything to move the 3-point line or anything like that. It would ruin the game and I think it would offer more problems than solutions. This past week I had the opportunity to watch the Miami Heat take on the Oklahoma City Thunder, neither team shoots a ton of threes compared to the league average, but I found myself thinking what’s the big deal? A long three in today’s game has almost the equivalent of a dunk in terms of energy and momentum swings and it with more points. Sure fans probably don’t want to watch a center or anyone that’s a lousy three-point shooter take a bunch of bad shots, but it’s a math game at this point. 3 is worth more than 2 and if you shoot 2s at a 50% rate it is similar to shooting 35% from 3. It allows guards to impact the game much more and allows Wings and Centers an alternate route to expanding their game. Plus it’s not like only 3s are being increased. Shots at the rim and free throw rates are up. The shot in this era today being eliminated is the long 2s. Sure when guys pump fake a 3 and then take a sidestep 3 instead of a mid-range 2 fans can complain I have no issue with it and at times I do think some players should take the pull-up 2, but wouldn’t you want a 35% chance at getting more points on a single possession. Think about it like this. A team hits three 3s to start a game and another team makes three 2s. The team that made three 2s is still trailing and at best on its next possession can only tie the game, without a foul on a three. Now if it’s a layup drill and your team is highly efficient making shots from 2 then take them it’s an advantage. But the notion that the 3-point line is destroying the NBA is ludicrous. The 2014-2015 Spurs ball movement was super fun to watch and the Warriors with Steph Curry bombing a ton of threes were super fun to watch, both teams did it in different ways. The Celtics today do a good job of combining those two attributes and making them super hard to guard. The Knicks play 5 out and have a 7-foot center shooting 45% from 3 while having the most efficient offense in NBA history. The notion the 3-point line is bad and taking away from the game I found pretty outrageous. I have zero issues with a team taking a ton of 3s, in moderation of course, but who cares. Players are now 6’6-6’8 being able to have a handle like a guard and shoot the ball from 30 feet and make it. We are in the most skilled and most talented era of basketball and it is only going to get better. Changing to a 3-point line won’t take this away, it’ll only diminish the fantastic product and game we call basketball.