Bengals

Once upon a time, not too long ago actually, a college athlete transferring from school to school was an anomaly, mostly due to the fact that said player would have to sit out a year before joining a new team, with a penalty put in place to deter it from happening. Those days are over now, as a new system has been put in place that has resulted in over 1,000 names currently being in the NCAA transfer portal.&nbsp;
This has created much discussion and debate as to whether or not this is in fact a good system to have for college basketball.
There can be many determining factors for student-athletes having the desire to leave a university. &nbsp;For instance, they could be being mistreated by a coach, something that happens far more often than many are aware of. Maybe their families simply believe their son or daughter&rsquo;s talents would be better utilized elsewhere, or maybe they are homesick and want to go to a college closer to home due to that familial support for their mental well being. Or, if their coach leaves for greener pastures, it's because their commitment, comfortability and connection was with that coach who will no longer be there.&nbsp;
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Another rising phenomenon is a player at a smaller school who had a successful season or a big tournament run having the opportunity to transfer to a bigger school. Case in point, St. Peter&rsquo;s Doug Edert. His school had an amazing March Madness run, had the entire country rooting for the Peacocks as underdogs and made it to the Elite Eight (the first No. 15 seed to do so).
Edert's coach, Shaheen Holloway, left St. Peters soon thereafter to take a job with his alma mater Seton Hall. So why shouldn&rsquo;t Edert be able to leave to go to a bigger school with a bigger opportunity and platform? (Edert settled on Bryant University, by the way.)
This has been a very controversial topic from the moment it was implemented. Some hold the position that players should have the freedom to easily transfer schools in order to find the best fit for them (just like coaches do). Others believe that athletes should be required to &ldquo;honor their commitment&rdquo; to the school and retain the negative consequences of the past (i.e., sitting out a year or losing a year of eligibility) in order to deter this from becoming the widespread situation that it currently has become.
I sat down with two assistant coaches at Louisville, former Duke assistant Nolan Smith and former Maryland interim head coach Danny Manning, to hear their thoughts on this particular topic.
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Etan Thomas: What are your overall thoughts on the transfer portal?&nbsp;
Nolan Smith: "My initial thoughts were that, 'If a coach can leave a kid after they&rsquo;ve recruited that kid and promised him and his family that he will be their coach for the duration of his college experience, why shouldn&rsquo;t the players be able to?' But now, obviously you&rsquo;re seeing kids at different colleges and universities, and they&rsquo;re not sticking around for a long time, and you&rsquo;re wondering, 'Why isn&rsquo;t this kid staying?' So, a few things here: Kids, together with their parents, need to start making better decisions about the schools they&rsquo;re choosing. We&rsquo;re dealing with a lot of transfers here now, and we&rsquo;re seeing that a lot of kids are coming in beaten down mentally and emotionally. So if that&rsquo;s leading to the transfer, I have no issue with a player removing himself or herself from an unhealthy situation.
"But, I will also say, they need to do a better job of doing their homework first. Don&rsquo;t rush decisions. If you ask the questions that need to be asked and really do your homework on a lot of these coaches, you will know which coaches you need to stay away from no matter how much they wine and dine you while they&rsquo;re recruiting you."
Etan: I definitely agree with that. Some of these coaches present a false image of themselves and their program during recruiting, and the kid gets there and they see they were lied to. But like you said, that&rsquo;s where you have to do your homework. Ask around, research, ask the non-starters on the team how the coach treats them, ask former players... like, really research.
Smith: "Exactly, you have to do your research before. But also let me say this: Sometimes, parents and players don&rsquo;t have patience. They want everything to happen immediately and it doesn&rsquo;t always work like that. You know, sometimes there is a process. Some players come in with a preconceived notion that they should be one-and-done, or two-and-done, and things don&rsquo;t always work out according to your plan. Sometimes you gotta be patient and your time will come."
Etan: Did y&rsquo;all have a lot of transfers at Duke while you were there? I&rsquo;m trying to remember, because we had a lot at Syracuse. And all for different reasons, but a lot of turnover happening all over.
Smith: "We brought in a couple. We lost two kids who were playing a good amount of minutes their freshman year. It worked out for one of them; the other is basically playing the same amount of minutes he was playing with us and same position. But yeah, we were losing guys just like every other program &mdash; two to three a year I would say."
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Etan: Do you think it&rsquo;s getting almost like AAU where guys just leave situations regularly? And do you think that&rsquo;s good for the game as a whole?&nbsp;
Smith: "It&rsquo;s definitely becoming a fad. You see starters transferring. Or you factor in NIL deals (name, image and likeness) and a kid may be in a mid-major [school] averaging 20, and he could stay there and the next year maybe average 25 and improve every aspect of his game, but he can [also] transfer to a bigger market &mdash; an ACC or Big 10 school &mdash; and has the opportunity to get a bigger NIL deal in a bigger market, and I understand that as well. Not everyone will be turning pro, so capitalizing on their earning potential is their ceiling, so you have to factor that in as well."
Etan: That&rsquo;s a great point. Does it make it difficult to build your program when there is so much turnover?
Smith: "It&rsquo;s extremely difficult. Okay, so at Duke, we were planning on recruiting four [prospects], but then you have to factor in the two transfers, so now you&rsquo;re recruiting six. So you have to either go out and get a grad transfer or [use] the portal, so now you&rsquo;re bringing in six new guys to the team, so that&rsquo;s in essence starting over. I think lot of teams are going straight [to the] transfer portal. We saw in the tournament against Arkansas and Texas Tech, [we] we&rsquo;re playing some old veteran grad-transfer led teams. They were really good and really old. But I&rsquo;m sure there was a lot of team-building things they had to do with a whole new team."
Etan: Do you think that hurts the overall college game, or do you think that helps it?&nbsp;
Smith: "I think overall I would say yes [it hurts it] because teams are rebuilding every year; it&rsquo;s essentially AAU. And as a fan of the game, you&rsquo;re not getting to know the players and see them grow and really root for them because you&rsquo;re gonna have a whole new group of players the next season. Now, let me be clear, I am an advocate for athletes and them having the freedom and flexibility to move as they do choose. But, there are some aspects from a coaching standpoint and from a fan standpoint that does make it problematic."
Etan: I definitely understand that, and at the same time like you opened up with, it allows players not to feel trapped, so to speak, when they&rsquo;re with coaches who aren&rsquo;t who the players thought they were when they recruited them.
Smith: "Definitely, 100%. With all the problems and issues and concerns, it always comes back down to that. If these head coaches are not treating these young men and young women right, they need to have the freedom to leave. So much goes on that people have no idea about, of coaches abusing their power, literally tormenting players both mentally and emotionally, or playing mind games with them, holding their scholarship over their head or playing time over their head. So now, they can&rsquo;t do that because a player has the option to leave without penalty or repercussion, and they can no longer have that power over them so at the end of the day, it always comes back down to that."
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Etan Thomas: Do you think the transfer portal is getting out of hand? There are over 1,000 players currently in it.
Danny Manning: "Regardless of what anyone thinks about the transfer portal, the fact is it&rsquo;s here. And we have to now navigate with this being the new reality. It&rsquo;s a part of college sports, and it&rsquo;s going to be here whether people complain about it or not. I&rsquo;m a fan of the portal; there are a lot of things that do go into it. Of course, you have to do your research and see why a guy is transferring; you definitely don&rsquo;t want to recruit any problem players, but sometimes, things just simply didn&rsquo;t work out in their previous situation and they are looking for a better fit, a better opportunity. And there is something to be said about having the ability from a coaching standpoint to bring in a player who has some college experience who can help out your team immediately. I do think there are more people in the portal than there are scholarships available, but that&rsquo;s a whole 'nother issue."
Etan: Yes, that definitely is a problem. How does the portal help or hurt the recruiting process?&nbsp;
Manning: "Well, again from a coach's perspective, it helps. Let me give you an example. Back in the day, the recruiting process could drag on and on, but now with the portal, it widens the pool so it would be in the player&rsquo;s best interest not to drag his process out because that position has a higher potential of being filled. Of course, the top high school athletes may be in a different situation, but for the majority of the high school players, they can&rsquo;t let it drag out and enjoy the recruiting process and waste a lot of coaches' time when they aren&rsquo;t really interested in that particular school. So now, the pressure is turned up quite a bit on that player making his decision because the pool has widened with the addition of the transfer portal."
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Etan: So from the standpoint of you recruiting other players, you like it. But what about from the standpoint of you retaining your players and your roster? It seems like a lot of guys leaving are rotation players, starters even. Has that become problematic?&nbsp;
Manning: "Yes, that&rsquo;s definitely problematic, but that&rsquo;s part of what we&rsquo;re dealing with in this new reality of the transfer portal. There are players who are in pretty good roles and pretty good situations who feel that they want to be in better roles and better situations. And they have a right to exhaust those avenues. The days of putting together a college team with the mindset of when we were in school &mdash; of bringing in this high school player and this young player is going to develop and get better over time &mdash; that&rsquo;s almost out the window. We&rsquo;re putting together teams now like a professional organization on a year-to-year basis."
Etan: And you don&rsquo;t see it going backwards? Initially, I thought it was more that the NCAA decided to allow players the freedom to transfer without having to sit out because of COVID &mdash; at least that&rsquo;s what I thought. But you keep referring to it as the &ldquo;new reality&rdquo; or &ldquo;new normal.&rdquo; So you think it&rsquo;s here to stay?&nbsp;
Manning: "I do. I don&rsquo;t think they can backtrack at this point once they&rsquo;ve given it to them. They opened Pandora&rsquo;s box now, so that&rsquo;s why I keep referring to it as the new reality because college basketball as we once knew it &mdash; where a player transferring was an aberration &mdash; is no more. It&rsquo;s going to be the norm moving forward."
Etan: In your opinion, does the transfer portal make it harder for high school players due to the fact that, like you said in your beginning statement, colleges now have the opportunity to recruit an experienced player now? Does the portal hurt high school players?&nbsp;
Manning: "Definitely. For that reason alone. You&rsquo;re a college coach and sometimes you want someone who has already been through the rigors of college, who understands the academic piece and understands navigating all of the other responsibilities that you have to handle as a college athlete. A lot of times, it takes freshman a while to adjust to that process. They&rsquo;re away from home, they get homesick, freshman blues, but just overall adjusting to life on your own and handling your business. So the level of maturity is typically already there with a transfer player because they&rsquo;ve already been through it
"My advice to a high school kid who is being recruited and they feel like a college is a good fit for them, my advice to them is jump on your offer and claim it right away &mdash; because that portal changes the game. I know with social media high school players like to post and tweet that they received an offer from this school and that school and let the process drag out. Well, with the transfer portal, you&rsquo;re going to see high school players lose offers they once had, and a coach is going to call them and say that scholarship is no longer available because we decided to sign a player from the transfer portal because you were dragging your feet to make a decision. High school players need to understand that this is a business, and they need to treat it as such, and with the transfer portal, they&rsquo;re actually at a disadvantage, and that&rsquo;s just the reality of this new norm.
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Louisville assistant coaches Danny Manning and Nolan Smith share their thoughts on the polarizing NCAA transfer portal.

Louisville's Danny Manning, Nolan Smith discuss NCAA transfer portal

We have 23 more days left until the start of the 2022 NBA Playoffs.
As I mentioned in my <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/slowing-giannis-the-wall-still-the-way">last article</a>, to do my civic duty in aiding your preparation for basketball&rsquo;s second season, I have decided to spend the next month studying some of the NBA's biggest stars and (hopefully) prescribing some tips for how teams can try to slow them down this postseason.&nbsp;
​​But remember, these suggestions are only for slowing them down &mdash; because you can never truly stop the best of the best.
Now, without further ado: Kevin Durant.
While studying Durant&rsquo;s game for "<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-quest-for-the-best/id1582027495">The Quest for the Best</a>," one thing became immediately apparent to me: This dude is one of the best scorers that ever lived. And that isn&rsquo;t just me talking in aimless hyperbole. Just look at how he fares against some of the best non-big man scorers of all time (scroll right on mobile to view full table):
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 99.3304%; height: 110px;" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 26.6993%; height: 22px;">Player </td>
<td style="width: 37.0129%;">Points Per 100 Possessions*</td>
<td style="width: 35.6351%; height: 22px;">Relative True Shooting %*</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 26.6993%; height: 22px;">Kobe Bryant</td>
<td style="width: 37.0129%;">35.8</td>
<td style="width: 35.6351%; height: 22px;">+1.9</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 26.6993%; height: 22px;">Kevin Durant</td>
<td style="width: 37.0129%;">37.0</td>
<td style="width: 35.6351%; height: 22px;">+7.1</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 26.6993%; height: 22px;">LeBron James</td>
<td style="width: 37.0129%;">36.7</td>
<td style="width: 35.6351%; height: 22px;">+4.5</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 26.6993%; height: 22px;">Michael Jordan</td>
<td style="width: 37.0129%;">40.4</td>
<td style="width: 35.6351%; height: 22px;">+3.5</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
*Data Provided by Basketball-Reference
In the playoffs, after some bumps in the road early on (well-documented <a href="https://youtu.be/JJ4ub0dLFMU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>), KD&rsquo;s become nearly unstoppable &mdash; putting together four consecutive postseasons of at least 37 points per 100 possessions and plus-60% True Shooting (per Basketball Reference).&nbsp;
On top of all that, he&rsquo;s a sniper from the area of the floor most often-cited as one of the ideal <a href="https://www.theringer.com/2021/6/15/22534471/khris-middleton-kevin-durant-nba-playoffs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">offensive counters</a> for a playoff series:
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Kevin Durant is just casually hitting 54% of midrange shots (career-best) on 559 non-garbage time attempts. Per <a href="https://twitter.com/cleantheglass?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@cleantheglass</a>.
&mdash; Mat Issa (@matissa15) <a href="https://twitter.com/matissa15/status/1506682487497392130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 23, 2022</a></blockquote>

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So what the hell do you do with this guy? Well, if you ask known-Durant anatoginzer, Patrick Beverley, you give Kevin exactly what he is looking for: the <a href="https://youtu.be/ED1wFTKKlhM">mid-range</a>.
&ldquo;We got him inside the three a lot, those contested twos, you know he makes a lot of them, [but] those are the shots we want," Beverley said after Game 5 of the Los Angeles Clippers-Golden State Warriors first-round playoff series.
Notice how he said contested twos. For Durant, those attempts normally come in isolation. This season, Durant is shooting 53.9% on twos where a defender is within 0-4 feet of him (per NBA.com). This equates to roughly 1.08 points per possession (PPP), which is less than his output on more comfortable shots like the ones coming off a screen, in transition or from a spot-up. More importantly, it&rsquo;s meaningfully less than the average PPP of playoff teams from last postseason (<a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/league/summary?season=2020&amp;seasontype=playoffs&amp;start=10/1/2020&amp;end=10/15/2021">1.15</a>).
Of course, isolated incidents (haha, see what I did there) of contested mid-range jumpers can be a very healthy part of a balanced playoff diet, but in aggregation, the preponderance of those shots can chip away at a teams' efficiency in a meaningful way.
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I know what you are thinking, so why doesn&rsquo;t everyone do this to every star? Two words: rim pressure.&nbsp;
Normally, when you play stars uptight to hinder their three-point shot, the defenders are leaving themselves vulnerable to stampedes towards the rim. Guys like <a href="https://www.one37pm.com/strength/sports/donovan-mitchell-jazz-ceiling" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donovan Mitchell</a> and <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/at-a-certain-point-well-have-to-mention-ja-morant-in-the-mvp-race" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ja Morant </a>will burn you if you put your hands too close to the fire.
Unfortunately for Durant, he doesn&rsquo;t pose that same threat (particularly at this stage of his career), as only 14% of his shots come from that area (<a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/player/984#tab-shooting_frequency">11th percentile</a>).
Still, you can&rsquo;t simply just leave him on an island and let The Reaper reap (I only titled the article that because it sounded cool). There&rsquo;s a science to it.
Ideally, you want physical defenders with a stronger base who can jam Durant up and gradually wear him down through the course of the game. You want them to have a high motor, so they can harass him off-ball and avoid letting him get free for open looks. In the pick-and-roll, you want defenders fighting over the top of screens to prevent him shooting threes over the top, while the defending bigs <a href="https://streamable.com/7ozny5">drop deep</a> and invite the mid-range.
Lastly &mdash; and this the most important &mdash; when he puts you in his dreaded torture chamber, be ready to dance with the devil.&nbsp;
Before he even receives the ball, lean into him, make the catch difficult and don&rsquo;t let him get into his natural flow (more on that in a second). When he&rsquo;s got it, don&rsquo;t instantly initiate the double team. He&rsquo;s too good of a <a href="https://twitter.com/matissa15/status/1507049338291245070?s=20&amp;t=zfLXSk5llNn_GnPQ_uAhpw">passer</a> at this point. Wait until he&rsquo;s built up the conviction to score, then disrupt his rhythm in the middle of his motion.
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Think about offensive players as possessing an <a href="https://bringinginspirationhome.com/product/antique-balance-scale/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inner balancing scale</a>. One end of the scale contains their inclination towards scoring, while the other end houses their affinity for playmaking. Durant has improved leaps and bounds in the latter category over the years, but he&rsquo;s still a bucket-getter at heart. Take advantage of his predisposition towards that, and time your help accordingly.&nbsp;
It also helps that his Monstar-ish physical dimensions produce wild-body gesticulations that create easier opportunities to poke the ball free. His not-so-tight handles (29th percentile in turnover percentage) also make him a bit trepidatious to take dribbles in the paint, which partially explains why he so infrequently takes matters vertical (despite being quite <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/player/984#tab-shooting_accuracy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accurate</a> when he chooses to do so).
Overall, Beverley's strategy of more twos and fewer threes seems to be the way to go. In his 10 worst outings this season (based on <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/d/duranke01/gamelog/2022" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Game Score</a>), Durant has zero games where he hit 3 threes or more. Inversely, in his 10 best games, he has six such performances.
As with <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/slowing-giannis-the-wall-still-the-way" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Giannis</a>, Durant is too good not to have rebuttals of his own. Kyrie Irving is back to full-time employment, and together he and Goran Dragic can handle some table-setting responsibilities and allow Durant to work off of a bent floor. Whenever Ben Simmons is 100 percent, he and Durant will be absolute money in transition. And if teams ever send that too early, Durant&rsquo;s got a new Curry brother to bestow with easy looks.
Oh, and by the way, even if you somehow execute this gameplan to perfection &mdash; as the <a href="https://twitter.com/matissa15/status/1507051477474414595?s=20&amp;t=ow6VMlWzLdmiY6wqZOCN3A">Bucks</a> did in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals last season &mdash; there&rsquo;s a chance he drops 48 on your head.&nbsp;
If that happens, you just got to hang in the ring, withstand the haymakers as long as possible and pray to whichever omnipotent being you please that your efforts will ultimately be enough.
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Mat Issa dissects Kevin Durant's deadly skill set and puts together a strategy of how defenders can limit his offensive prowess.

How to slow down Kevin Durant: Let The Reaper reap

Deep down, everyone knew.
All of you knew once you finalized your picks: The half-ass research, the questions to your even less knowledgeable friends, the &ldquo;expert&rdquo; analysis &ndash; none of it was going to matter. Your bracket was going to be busted by the end of the night. You didn&rsquo;t know how, you didn&rsquo;t know by whom, but you had an idea that even on day one of the men&rsquo;s NCAA Tournament, your bracket would get cooked.
You probably just didn&rsquo;t know it would be by Saint ******* Peter&rsquo;s University &ndash; against Kentucky, at that &ndash; who won 85-79 in overtime, destroying the evening of bracket-builders, parlay-players and spread-bettors alike.
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PEACOCKS. WIN. <a href="https://t.co/Jf10r5zyb4">pic.twitter.com/Jf10r5zyb4</a>
&mdash; Saint Peter&rsquo;s Athletics (@SPUAthletics) <a href="https://twitter.com/SPUAthletics/status/1504634900875550723?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2022</a></blockquote>
If you don&rsquo;t know, Saint Peter&rsquo;s is a private Jesuit school in the middle of Jersey City, New Jersey. And if you&rsquo;ve ever been to the campus, you'd be even more surprised by this upset. Depending on who you ask, Saint Peter&rsquo;s could have either <a href="https://twitter.com/RyanFieldABC/status/1504645256586973185" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2,300</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/GaryGrumbach/status/1504634530338160642" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2,600</a>, or <a href="https://twitter.com/BryanAGraham/status/1504634903484375043" target="_blank" rel="noopener">3,500</a> students; either way, we know the University of Kentucky likely has 10x that, if not more.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
How's that bracket looking??<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StrutUp?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StrutUp</a>🦚 <a href="https://t.co/c5JXAN2kzb">pic.twitter.com/c5JXAN2kzb</a>
&mdash; Saint Peter's Men's Basketball (@PeacocksMBB) <a href="https://twitter.com/PeacocksMBB/status/1504664039338782721?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2022</a></blockquote>
The gap actually has nothing on the wage disparity between each team&rsquo;s head coaches. John Calipari reportedly banks in $8.5 million annually from Kentucky, which doesn&rsquo;t included bonuses of any kind. Shaheen Holloway was hired as Saint Peter's head coach in 2018, and he reportedly made less than $270,000 (including bonuses) in 2019. That means Coach Cal is paid 30x more than Coach Holloway before his first bonus check.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
St. Peter's men's basketball coach Shaheen Holloway made $266,344 in 2019, including bonuses paid and value of benefits, per school's most recent federal tax dox. John Calipari's basic pay from UK for this season -- not including bonuses, benefits and perks -- is $8.5 million.
&mdash; Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) <a href="https://twitter.com/ByBerkowitz/status/1504647038163726362?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2022</a></blockquote>
More on the financial side, <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/saint-peter-kentucky-win-marks-111130742.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a Yahoo Sports report says</a>, &ldquo;In the 2019-20 school year, the most recent season unaffected by COVID-19, Kentucky outspent Saint Peter&rsquo;s $18.3 million to $1.6 million in men&rsquo;s basketball, per the U.S Department of Education. In terms of both expenditures ratio and raw difference between budgets, that is the biggest disparity since 2007, as far back as data is publicly available... Kentucky outspends Saint Peter&rsquo;s in basketball by a multiple of 11.7, just edging out the 11.5 ratio from CJ McCollum and Lehigh&rsquo;s win over Duke exactly 10 years ago.&rdquo;
Furthermore, Kentucky reportedly spent over $138 million for its sports teams in 2020. Saint Peter&rsquo;s? Only $7.2 million.
We&rsquo;ve watched the University of Kentucky become a factory for producing countless pros. And it's not just the high-level NBA stars we see thriving in the league today like Anthony Davis, Devin Booker, Bam Adebayo and Karl-Anthony Towns. On opening night of the 2021-22 NBA season, <a href="https://ukathletics.com/news/2021/10/19/mens-basketball-uk-mbb-leads-nation-with-27-players-on-nba-opening-day-rosters.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kentucky had 27 alums on rosters around the league</a>. In their history, they&rsquo;ve had <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/colleges.cgi?college=kentucky" target="_blank" rel="noopener">125 players appear in the NBA</a> &ndash; a number that's sure to increase following the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2022 NBA Draft</a>. The Wildcats have potential 2022 lottery picks in TyTy Washington and Shaedon Sharpe, and a possible late-first-rounder in Oscar Tshiebwe, among other expected NBA prospects.
Kentucky has the most wins, highest winning percentage, second-most national titles, most national-title-game appearances (tied with UCLA), most NCAA Tournament appearances, most <a href="https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2021-07-30/these-college-basketball-teams-and-conferences-have-most-nba-first-round-draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first-round draft picks</a> and most NCAA tournament wins.&nbsp;
By the way, how many NBA players came from Saint Peter&rsquo;s program? <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/colleges.fcgi?college=stpeters" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Four. Just four</a>.
Bill Smith played nine NBA games in 1962. Harry Laurie played nine games in 1971. Elnardo Webster played 24 games in 1972. And Rich Rinaldi played 84 games between 1972 and 1974. That&rsquo;s it. Even Keydren Clark &ndash; who was the <a href="https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/keydren-clark-1.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NCAA's scoring leader in 2004 and 2005</a> while at Saint Peter&rsquo;s &ndash; didn&rsquo;t sniff the league after graduating in 2006.
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Four is also the number of NCAA Tournaments that MAAC Champion Saint Peter&rsquo;s has made in their history, with zero victories until last night. Their 85-79 win over Kentucky nuked all your hopes of a perfect bracket, and simultaneously reminded us why March is one of the best sports months on the calendar.
This only marked the ninth time in tournament history that a No. 15 seed knocked off a No. 2, and all of them have happened since 1991, including Oral Roberts taking down Ohio State &ndash; also in overtime &ndash; just last year. This one, because of the distinctions between the two institutions both in size, recruiting advantages, budgets and basketball history, could be the biggest upset we&rsquo;ve ever seen.
People love blue-blood programs, and in the case of Kentucky, love to hate them. But this is why people gather around TV screens this time of year, to see improbable stories like these unfold.
Others say they want the best facing the best with no upsets, and that&rsquo;s cool, but where&rsquo;s the enjoyment in that? If you only watch basketball for &ldquo;starzzzzz&rdquo; and &ldquo;hooperzzzzz,&rdquo; this probably doesn&rsquo;t excite you, but if this level of improbability can&rsquo;t resonate with you, why? That&rsquo;s strange. The fact is, in life, more people can and should be able to identify with the Saint Peter&rsquo;s element of this. Chances are, if you&rsquo;re reading this, you&rsquo;re closer to them than Kentucky, and that&rsquo;s OK. So don&rsquo;t be disappointed that Kentucky blew it. Embrace the uncanny underdog Peacocks from Jersey City, led by their badass head coach from New York City, who reminded you after the game, that it&rsquo;s just ball after all.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Q: &ldquo;Did you ever get nervous.&rdquo; Shaheen Holloway after No. 15 Saint Peter&rsquo;s upset No. 2 Kentucky in OT &ldquo;For what? It&rsquo;s basketball.&rdquo; <a href="https://t.co/t0odjVyGWb">pic.twitter.com/t0odjVyGWb</a>
&mdash; George Balekji (@GeorgeBalekji) <a href="https://twitter.com/GeorgeBalekji/status/1504637225685987342?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2022</a></blockquote>

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No. 15 Saint Peter's managed to beat No. 2 Kentucky in overtime. Bryan Fonseca explains why it may be the biggest upset ever.

Putting Saint Peter’s shocker over Kentucky in historical context

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) &mdash; Steve Kerr stepped outside Chase Center on a gray winter afternoon and stretched both arms out to his sides, lifting his chin as he breathed in the fresh air only a few hundred feet off San Francisco Bay.
A little while later the Warriors coach carefully climbed some steep metal stairs to reach the building's highest vantage point and took in a spectacular view in all directions &mdash; cargo ships in the water, the Bay Bridge beyond and the city skyline.
Kerr has grown to truly appreciate Golden State&rsquo;s arena even with all the emotions and fond memories from the franchise&rsquo;s longtime home of Oracle Arena, a venue long known as one of the most imposing in the NBA because of its deafening crowds. The team relocated ahead of the 2019-20 season then played the first four months of the pandemic-delayed 2020-21 season without fans.
&ldquo;This didn&rsquo;t feel like home for a long time because it coincided with all of our injuries, so you move into Chase, the team is wiped out, we&rsquo;re losing night after night, so the crowd&rsquo;s not into it,&rdquo; Kerr reflected. &ldquo;It was disconcerting. Oracle was familiar."
Kerr is still learning about all the hidden gems of Golden State&rsquo;s 2-year-old arena because he simply hadn&rsquo;t had time to explore the entire building until recently.
That&rsquo;s where the team&rsquo;s director of engineering, Ian McDoom, came into the picture to provide some behind-the-scenes knowledge of the 32-month project.
Now, the Warriors are gradually establishing a home-court advantage with hopes it will one day resemble what they used to have &ldquo;where you&rsquo;re returning to play at home it actually feels like a home game,&rdquo; Draymond Green said.
&ldquo;I think the Bay has always supported their teams no matter where they&rsquo;re located, Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Clara,&rdquo; said Mavericks coach Jason Kidd, a former college star at Cal in Berkeley. &ldquo;The crowd, when they start going, it&rsquo;s as loud as anywhere in the league. They definitely have a home-court advantage here.&rdquo;
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In two weeks, Chase Center will be home to the West Regional of the NCAA Tournament &mdash; the first major event there other than a concert or NBA game. It will mark the first time since the inaugural 1939 March Madness tournament at Treasure Island that San Francisco is a host.
McDoom is doing regular walkthroughs to make sure everything runs smoothly on college basketball's big stage.
&ldquo;How the arena turned out design-wise, fabulous,&rdquo; he said.
Kerr certainly appreciated seeing the spots that make Chase unique -- art elements at every turn, the concert entrance, music tributes and even a wall featuring the 2015 championship floor featuring hundreds of autographs where he finally found his own name among all the signatures.
At one point, he stopped to admire a large photo of his players hanging in one hallway and instantly returned to that moment seven years ago during his first season as coach when the Warriors captured their first championship in 40 years.
New visitors this March might marvel at the large murals, such as one outside featuring Stephen Curry eating popcorn, mosaics and other distinct art elements.
Kerr said he still misses that raucous, rocking scene from Oracle Arena.
&ldquo;The friendly confines as Ernie Banks used to say, Oracle, that&rsquo;s what it felt like to us,&rdquo; Kerr said. "Between the team&rsquo;s struggles and the pandemic last year, I think it took all the way until now to really feel like this was home. Maybe a month, a couple weeks into the season, we came out of the gates hot and fans were into it, it was like, &lsquo;All right, now this feels like home.&rsquo;&rdquo;
Golden State is gearing up for another playoff run that would be a first in this venue.
As the Warriors prepare for the stretch run, Kerr sometimes takes the team up to the ninth-floor Sky Bar with its picturesque views of the bay for a meeting or film session. The on-site practice facility has no windows.
&ldquo;With every building it takes time to develop a personality,&rdquo; McDoom said, strolling with Kerr along the main concourse level. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just taking that time to develop that personality and create that identity of the arena that thankfully we have a little bit more now.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Sure,&rdquo; Kerr said. &ldquo;It takes time.&rdquo;

The Golden State Warriors are finally starting to establish a homecourt advantage at Chase Center.

Warriors finally feel they have homecourt advantage at Chase Center

I'd like to get a quick thought off my chest.
Why do we dub the post-All-Star break games as the second half of the NBA season? It's an 82-game season, and every team in the league has played north of 50 games. That's simply not how math works?
Anyway, we&nbsp;are ramping up for the postseason push. As such, most of the storylines will center around the top of each conference. Contender talk, flaws, favorable matchups, buyout targets &mdash; all that Jazz.
We'll focus in on the Play-In races. As of now, the Washington WIzards (0.5 games back) and New York Knicks (3.5) are a mini-run away from overtaking the 10th-seeded Atlanta Hawks (or No. 9 Charlotte Hornets) in the Eastern Conference. The San Antonio Spurs (2.0), New Orleans Pelicans (2.0) and Sacramento Kings (3.5) are all within striking distance of the Portland Trail Blazers.
The teams at the bottom &mdash; firmly outside of the Play-In race, likely to jostle for better lottery odds &mdash; are going to get lost in the grand scheme of things. I get it from a "winning matters/is more fun" perspective, but you'll miss a lot of cool things if you completely disregard those teams.
Remember, for example, that Darius Garland averaged 18.8 points and 6.3 assists with a 57.0% True Shooting percentage after the All-Star break last season before getting shut down. The hints of his growth &mdash; slick interior feeds and a more aggressive trigger from deep (40.4% on 5.4 attempts vs. 38.4% on 4.5 attempts before the break) &mdash; were present if you peeped those games.
Related: We just watched him in&nbsp;the All-Star game.
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Every team at the bottom doesn't have an All-Star in waiting, but this is my plea to keep an eye on them. I'm here to give you a brief guide.
INDIANA PACERS &mdash; TYRESE HALIBURTON'S ON-BALL GROWTH
Haliburton serving as the blue-chipper to bring Domantas Sabonis to Sacramento wasn't on my bingo card. The early returns have led to super-charged offenses on both sides, so I'm not sure either team is too upset right now.
On the Haliburton front, he's enjoyed a near-unquestioned run as a primary ball-handler. He's averaging 20.8 points (.519/.452/.813 shooting splits) and 11.0 assists (3.5 turnovers) through his first four games as a Pacer, but even that undersells it a bit.
He has completely transformed how the Pacers play; their pace with Haliburton on the floor is roughly four possessions faster than their regular-season mark (97.95, 20th). You have to take that with a grain of salt &mdash; it's been a four-game sample &mdash; but watching this team blaze up the floor after misses&nbsp;and&nbsp;makes has been a startling shift.
The heightened pace makes it a little easier for Haliburton create advantages. Against an unset defense, he's able to manipulate his defender into screens, and reads second- and third-level defenders with ease. He's a darn&nbsp;good passer, and his ability to shoot off the dribble &mdash; he's <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/player/1630169/shots-dash/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">converting north of 40%</a> of his pull-up twos (44.1%) and&nbsp;threes (41.7%) this season &mdash; makes him a pretty dynamic weapon.
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There are some areas of growth present though. He's not particularly bursty, so he does occasionally require a re-screen (or two, or three) against top-notch defenders. His shooting has gotten good enough to where ducking under probably isn't a good idea; he still has some questions to answer against switches though.
Beyond that, keep an eye on how consistently Haliburton accesses the paint. His film is (still) littered with reps where he'll come off the screen and find an outlet once he reaches the free-throw line, versus taking an extra dribble or two in order to engage the big.
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STRAY THOUGHTS
<ul>
<li>Isaiah Jackson seems fun! He's already a dynamic roller and pairs well with Haliburton; the very, very early returns have been good &mdash; a whopping 1.4 points per possession on direct hookups, per Second Spectrum.</li>
<li>Buddy Hield is averaging 5.0 assists (1.8 turnovers) since becoming a Pacer. And this isn't of the "find a guy in transition" or "pass it to an open guy as part of a set play" variety. He's making, like, live-dribble reads. If that proves real, we need to start rethinking his offensive value (and how he fits a contender).</li>
<li>As someone who genuinely wasn't familiar of him until a couple of weeks ago, I want to see more of Terry Taylor. He's 6-foot-5 and stocky, and has averaged 13.6 points and 9.5 rebounds (!) since joining the regular rotation nine games ago.</li>
</ul>
OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER &mdash; TRE MANN'S SHOT CREATION
Tre Mann is fun.
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No, I mean&nbsp;really&nbsp;fun.&nbsp;
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You generally don't get this blend of ball-handling, shooting touch and footwork from a rookie guard. It's easy to get caught up in the aesthetic of this kind of shot creation, but I'm keeping an eye on it.
His shot profile is already wild. To this point, only 69.4% of his threes and 24.7% of his twos have been assisted on. It makes his overall three-point percentage (36.5%) a little more impressive; it also makes his two-point percentage (39.9%) wildly concerning. But hey, I'm interested in seeing if he can leverage his pull-up shooting into cleaner driving lanes.
STRAY THOUGHTS
<ul>
<li>He's overqualified for the stray thoughts section, but good lord is Josh Giddey good. Similar to Haliburton, how intentional he is about generating paint touches vs. early kick-outs is going to be key to his development as a high-level initiator. The fact that's been able to create (and rack up triple-doubles) to this degree with that question mark is a testament to how good he is.</li>
<li>Hey, the Thunder have the third best half-court defense in the NBA in 2022. My pal Mark Schindler <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/the-oklahoma-city-thunders-emerging-defensive-identity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recently wrote about it</a>. Let's see if it holds after the break.</li>
<li>I just... don't want Shai Gilgeous-Alexander shut down for the year like he was last season. I hope we see plenty of him, provided the ankle sprain isn't too severe. Provided he plays, have fun laughing at his weird drives and hope the jumper comes around. He's your "Garland to watch for" in this exercise.</li>
</ul>
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HOUSTON ROCKETS &mdash; KEVIN PORTER JR.'S PG EXPERIMENT
Porter's transition to point guard was something I wrote about as part of my <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/something-to-prove-kevin-porter-jr-at-point-guard-houston-rockets" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Something To Prove</a> series before the year. It's worth checking in on that.
First 13 games: 13.2 points (.375/.301/.644 shooting splits), 5.2 assists (4.4 turnovers)
Next 13 games: 11.6 points (.344/.360/.556), 6.5 assists (3.4 turnovers)
Last 13 games: 16.6 points (.481/.477/.600), 6.9 assists (2.8 turnovers)
Two quick things on that.&nbsp;
For starters, that second section of games is pretty split up due to him being in and out of the lineup. A poor roster context, plus inconsistent burn (in a new role!), is going to lead to some shoddy play.
Second, look at the relationship between assists and turnovers! The dimes are up, the giveaways are down. Beyond the numbers, you could see the gradual progression of Porter's processing.
The simpler reads were (and are) being made more quickly. He isn't as interior-focused, as he's gotten more reps reading the second level. Nearly 46% of Porter's assists have come via threes this season, way up from his 35.6% clip last year.
He's finally looking for the corners! About 14% of his assisted threes came from the corner in his first two seasons; that's up to 22.7% this year.
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Hopefully Porter is able to stay healthy so he can continue to get these reps. Even if he doesn't prove to be point guard material, this experience should make him deadlier in a secondary role moving forward.
STRAY THOUGHTS
<ul>
<li>Keep an eye on Jalen Green's progress as a downhill threat. A larger share of his shots have come at the rim since the turn of the year (34% in 2021, 42% so far in 2022, per Cleaning The Glass). His turnover rate on drives has been cut in half (14.1% to 7.0%)... but he's also passing at a less-frequent rate on drives (41.1% to 31%) during the same time period. It's gonna be fun watching him find that balance.</li>
<li>Can Stephen Silas find a way to supplement the Christian Wood/Alperen Sengun frontcourt he's been running with lately? The early returns haven't been great (minus-12.9 Net Rating in 523 possessions, per Cleaning The Glass). The most used trio around that pairing &mdash; Porter, Green and Jae'Sean Tate &mdash; has a pretty solid defense (108.1 DRTG) and a ghastly offense (96.0 ORTG) in 126 possessions. Keep an eye on this group with Garrison Mathews in place of Tate; it's only 25 possessions, but there *are* positive (plus-10.1) returns.</li>
<li>KJ Martin is fun, man. I'd just like to see him get more burn so we can see if the jumper is real. If he isn't the best weak-side rim-protector under 6-6 in the league, he has to be top-five.</li>
</ul>
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DETROIT PISTONS &mdash; CADE CUNNINGHAM'S FREE THROWS
Stop me if you've seen this scene play out.
Cade Cunningham runs a high ball-screen. His defender either gets caught on the pick, or tries to duck under, but fails to cut off the driving angle. Cunningham gains inside leverage, absorbs a blow, puts up a shot that rolls off the rim, and the play goes the other way.
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There are <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/drives/?Season=2021-22&amp;SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;sort=DRIVE_FTA&amp;dir=-1&amp;CF=DRIVES*GE*10:DRIVE_FGA*GE*5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">32 players</a> currently averaging at least 10 drives and 5 field-goal attempts on drives. Cunningham's 1.2 free-throw attempts via drive rank 25th; the players below him on the list:
1) Are point guards, with the exception of Tyler Herro (1.1 FTA)&nbsp;
2) Average fewer attempts at the rim than Cunningham does.
Cunningham has had to figure out how to win with drives &mdash; the pace + bump + shoulder nudge seems to be his ideal method of madness. But now he's up against the "rookies don't deserve calls" thing. It's as hilarious (for non-Piston fans) as it is perplexing when watching live.
STRAY THOUGHTS
<ul>
<li>It should be noted that Saddiq Bey is averaging 18-5-3 while shooting 37.4% from three on 8.4 attempts in 2022. He's absolutely&nbsp;flinging&nbsp;it and mixing in post-ups against smaller guys. Teams are very &mdash; almost disrespectfully &mdash; comfortable with switching against the Pistons since they don't have pure blow-by or deadly pull-up threats right now. That's led to a lot of mismatch hunting, and thus, Bey getting to put his shoulder into people. It makes for a rough watch at times, but the reps should matter down the road</li>
<li>Will Isaiah Stewart get back to shooting? Please? At least try it? Me and my homies miss second-half-of-2021 Beef Stew.</li>
<li>Killian Hayes is a good defender, darn it. Don't sell all your stock on him yet.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
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ORLANDO MAGIC &mdash; DOUBLE BIG LINEUP
This possession is going to live in my head for a long time.
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This is the Magic attempting to use their talented big-man duo of Wendell Carter Jr. and Mo Bamba together. It's a Double Drag look that flows into another screening action for Bamba to shoot off of.
In theory, opposing bigs should have trouble tracking across screens. It should be a unique way to stress defenses out. Instead, we get LUKA DONCIC playing DROP COVERAGE because he is not at all worried about the initial pop in Double Drag. Even with Doncic eventually fighting over and contesting the shot, the rest of the defense stays at home.
And this, my friends, is the center (you laughed, it's fine) of my intrigue with this group. Defensively, you see the upside. Two very good rim-protectors with enough mobility (especially in Carter's case) to switch up your schemes. Want to go back to the Chicago Bulls/Jim Boylen days trap with Carter? That's cool, because Bamba and his tree limbs are behind the action. Want to show Bamba high? That's cool, because Carter can clean up messes too.
The Magic are holding teams to 94.1 points per 100 half-court possessions with Carter and Bamba on the floor together, a mark that ranks in the 56th percentile. Their starting unit &mdash; Cole Anthony, Jalen Suggs, Franz Wagner, Carter and Bamba &mdash; is holding teams to an 87.3 offensive rating in the half court, a ridiculous figure.
But then there's the half-court offense, which is awful in that lineup (83.1) and generally awful with those bigs on the floor together (88.5). While Bamba (34.4% on 3.7 attempts) and Carter (32.1% from 3.6 attempts) are willing shooters from deep, teams don't fear them. They're able to shrink the floor, which is a bit problematic considering Suggs' shooting woes and Anthony's size issue.
I want to see if they can figure the offense out, because they are a joy to watch defensively.
STRAY THOUGHTS
<ul>
<li>On-Ball Franz has arguably been the most surprising development of this draft class; at the very least, it's the most suprising among rookies playing in the United States. He's a mean driver with plus-passing chops to boot.</li>
<li>You know who's still delightful? Robin Lopez and his array of sweeping hooks. Perfectly capable third big. I have no clue if he's going to get bought out, but he'll give you some low-post funk.</li>
<li>Aside from the shooting, keep an eye on Suggs defensively. I touched on it <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/dont-forget-about-jalen-suggs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in an earlier piece</a>, but he's a few on-ball tricks-of-the-trade away from being a gnarly defender.</li>
</ul>
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Nekias Duncan gives a guide for what to watch for among the non-playoff teams during the second half of the season.

Views from the bottom: What to look forward to from NBA non-contenders

The Utah Jazz have struggled with injury, teammate malcontent in the media and a porous defense (19th since the new year, per Cleaning the Glass) since the turn of the calendar. Donovan Mitchell has returned, helping to spark Utah's thus-far-undefeated February, but the problems that have persisted for multiple seasons loom large as the playoffs inch closer.&nbsp;
Prior to the NBA trade deadline last Thursday, the Jazz made their only in-season trade of the year, acquiring Nickeil Alexander-Walker as a part of a <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nickel-alexanderwalker-on-the-move-again-as-blazers-jazz-spurs-complete-threeteam-deal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">three-team deal with the Portland Trail Blazers and San Antonio Spurs</a>.
The Jazz really only had the flexibility to make one or two moves, as they're fairly locked into their roster with contention in mind. While Joe Ingles' season-ending injury likely impacted his trade value, the point stands that Utah's <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/grading-every-move-from-the-2022-nba-trade-deadline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">singular trade</a> was relatively confusing.
Alexander-Walker is an intriguing prospect &mdash; one that I hold in high regard &mdash; but he is not currently a player who routinely contributes positive on-court impact. In a vacuum, I love the Jazz adding a young player with upside to an aged roster (<a href="https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/news/lakers-oldest-nba-teams-entering-season/1gvfecopluvy71rmj43y8ezgtf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">third-highest</a> average-aged team prior to the trade). But, this is a squad that needs to make a deep run this season. They can't afford another second-round out organizationally, and recent reporting and rumblings further that notion &mdash; specifically this from <a href="https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/265668/Donovan-Mitchell-Rudy-Gobert-Relationship-Passively-Aggressively-Awkward" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ESPN's Brian Windhorst on the Hoop Collective</a>.
<blockquote>
"Donovan and Gobert, even though they're both under long-term contract, are under each other's skin. There's all kind of subtweeting and passive aggressive stuff going on."
</blockquote>
(Editor's Note: Mitchell has since denied that report. "No, no, no, no, no. We&rsquo;re good,&rdquo; Mitchell <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/sports/jazz/2022/02/04/donovan-mitchell-shoots/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said via The Salt Lake Tribune's Eric Walden</a>. &ldquo;I saw that [report] coming in this morning. Nah, we&rsquo;re good. That&rsquo;s just not true. Blatantly not true at all. We&rsquo;ve never had this stretch of losses in a row, so now&rsquo;s the time for all these things to come out, I guess. But it&rsquo;s like, &lsquo;C&rsquo;mon, bro.&rsquo; Nah, we&rsquo;re good.&rdquo;)
The Jazz ideally needed a wing or combo forward who could defend at the point of attack and not muck up the offense. Alexander-Walker is a combo guard who can spend time on the wing for sure, but is much more of a big guard than a wing due to some of his physical attributes and style of play.&nbsp;
Can he adapt his game to fill the gaps for Utah this season?
Alexander-Walker had a 24.9% usage rate in New Orleans this season (24% for his career), which would rank third in Utah's regular rotation; I'd be shocked if that carries over even remotely with the Jazz. Given how reliant Utah is on bending the defense initially and then continuous ball movement, there isn't a ton of wiggle room for another shot-creator.
This is where the fit gets wonky.
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Does Utah view him as a player who can become a connective, toolsy wing? Because I have questions if so! NAW hasn't been close to that role since his freshman year at Virginia Tech, the lowest-usage season in his last half-decade of basketball.&nbsp;
Offensively, he's much closer to Jordan Clarkson than Royce O'Neale.
He had a stretch last season that was easily the brightest of his career, showcasing the blueprint of his future offensive success. From March 21 to April 2 (7 games), he started for the New Orleans Pelicans and averaged 18.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists on 55.8% True Shooting. While the numbers were impressive, the on-court calculus to get there was telling.
<ul>
<li>54% at the rim (35th percentile per Cleaning the Glass)</li>
<li>56% from 4-to-14 feet (89th percentile)</li>
<li>41% from three (8.9 attempts per game)</li>
</ul>
Alexander-Walker really lacks much burst, so even with a hard closeout, creating separation can be an adventure.
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During that aforementioned stretch, he was GUNNING from deep, which opened up cleaner driving lanes. That goes without mentioning that Zion Williamson played the majority of that stretch, and Alexander-Walker &mdash; as well as every other player in New Orleans &mdash; really missed Zion Williamson's gravity offensively.&nbsp;
At his best, he's using his length and handle to his advantage, crafting his way to floaters, touch shots and extension finishes.&nbsp;
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His below-the-rim nature can really cause problems for him at the rim as well. Even with a good break or separation on the ball, any contact or obstacle around the rim can throw him off.
The path forward for him is ideally through quality shooting (he'll have much better looks in Utah), but finding ways to lean into his limitations rather than fight against them is easier said than done.
In all honesty, getting to the rim less may be better for him. His herky-jerky style and lack of balance at the moment lead to really difficult restricted area attempts; using his handle and honing in on playing at his pace and focusing on creating paint touches with guile seem like the most ideal ways for him to find efficiency.&nbsp;
It sounds counter-intuitive to lean into a harder shot profile, but it's the profile that's most available and benficial to NAW's game at the moment. The off-kilter rim drives can lead to some really rough turnovers and bailout grenade passes. He feels so sped up even though he's often the slowest player on the court.
I really want to see Utah's development staff drive him towards playing weird, because by all accounts, that's what Alexander-Walker is built for!&nbsp;
Defensively, the fit is better, but it's kind of like if you asked your school nurse for a band-aid and they gave you an Advil instead. It helps, but dude, you still need a band-aid to stop the bleeding.
The Jazz are in desperate need of better defense at the point of attack and on bigger wings, which is far from NAW's calling card.&nbsp;
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Bigger wings and forwards are not only unbothered by NAW, but easily shed him with any sort of power move. His high center of gravity is his nemesis on both ends of the hardwood.
I really enjoy Alexander-Walker's off-ball instincts and activity, but he has a tendency to overplay his hand and overhelp, leading to some off-kilter (a theme) close-outs. However, when he's able to use his length and crowd guards or smaller wings, he's adept at shading them to the rim. Giving ground isn't great, but if you have to, send the ball to help.
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Rudy Gobert is, uh, easily the best rim-protector and defensive player that NAW has ever played with. Merely staying solid on defense, making clean rotations, and slowing the ball even if not fully stopping it will help Utah's defense.
In a vacuum, I really like this trade for Utah. Taking a swing on a young player with intriguing flashes in need of a new environment is a fantastic idea. However, for a team that needed to refurbish its defensive identity and further cement itself as a true contender, the trade is confusing.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker should factor into the Jazz's main rotation, but barring significant change, it seems unlikely he makes a massive difference for them in the season when they arguably will need it most.&nbsp;
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The Utah Jazz added guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker prior to the trade deadline. Can he fill the gaps the Jazz have on either end?

Why the Jazz should lean into Nickeil Alexander-Walker's limitations

With the NBA trade deadline over and done with, the BasketballNews.com staff wants to share our thoughts on the moves that went down. Since Nekias Duncan thoroughly <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/grading-every-move-from-the-2022-nba-trade-deadline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">graded each and every trade from the past week</a>, we asked the rest of our team to react to the results of the ever-so-eventful week.
Yesterday, our staff shared their <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/roundtable-who-are-your-biggest-2022-nba-trade-deadline-winners" target="_blank" rel="noopener">winners of the 2022 NBA trade deadline</a>. Now, in&nbsp;our latest Roundtable, we asked our writers the following question:
Who are the biggest losers of the NBA trade deadline? 
Alex Kennedy:&nbsp;The Los Angeles Lakers feel like losers since they weren't able to make a trade when it's clear that changes were desperately needed. However, I'm not surprised that they weren't able to make a move given how their assets are perceived around the league. The Sacramento Kings stand out too. It&rsquo;s rare for a blockbuster trade to warrant such a one-sided response amongst people around the NBA, but every <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-decisionmakers-criticize-kings-trade-i-dont-get-it-at-all" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBA decision-maker I spoke to questioned the Sabonis-Haliburton trade for Sacramento</a> &mdash; mainly because the Kings traded away a 21-year-old budding star and didn't seem to improve all that much.
Spencer Davies: While Josh Hart is fun... I, uh, got nothing for the Portland Trail Blazers. Why not try out Nickeil Alexander-Walker with Anfernee Simons instead of flipping him to Utah? Simons handled the ball alongside his partner Gary Trent Jr. (extra thumbs down for that one; do you see what the man&rsquo;s doing to teams in Toronto?) quite a bit. Kudos to those who are gaining valuable experience &mdash; shout out to C.J. Elleby and Greg Brown Jr., not your fault &mdash; and those former lottery picks who are trying to stick &mdash; Justise Winslow and Dennis Smith Jr. With that said: This is considered a win-now roster that is retooled? Not quite. We&rsquo;ll see what interim general manager Joe Cronin does (if he&rsquo;s in charge, that is) with the oodles of cap space the team has created. Surely Damian Lillard is watching, though he has already voiced his thoughts on staying in Portland.
Mark Schindler: It's hard for me to not view Utah as the biggest loser at the deadline. I like Nickeil Alexander-Walker as a prospect, but he's had a very rough season and is a negative-impact NBA player at the moment. There's an intriguing foundation with him that Utah could unearth more of and help him build upon, but the issue is where the Jazz are right now. They needed immediate help defensively at the point of attack and the wing, yet NAW is not really that guy right now. Perhaps Utah envisions him being squeezed into a honed-in role, more focused as a connector and less as a shot-creator; expecting a change in wiring mid-season before a playoff run when this team NEEDS a deep run to succeed, is questionable. I'm hopeful for NAW, doubtful for this season.
Ethan Fuller: Both sides of that Mavericks-Wizards trade... lost? Kristaps Porzingis is not the type of upgrade to sway Washington's playoff hopes or convince Bradley Beal the future is in good hands. It also creates a logjam of ill-fitting bigs with Porzingis, Daniel Gafford and Thomas Bryant. Meanwhile, the Mavericks added a questionable fit of their own in Spencer Dinwiddie and didn't address the resulting needs in the frontcourt. I don't get why either side was motivated to get this deal done, and I question if either team meaningfully improved.
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Moke Hamilton: I think there&rsquo;s enough of the pie to go around. Both the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks have gotta be somewhat disappointed that they weren&rsquo;t able to do anything of significance, but I think the Lakers are probably the &ldquo;winner&rdquo; here. With LeBron James continuing to advance in age, they came into the season with championship aspirations, but as of right now, would have to play their way into the playoffs. The team still doesn&rsquo;t seem to have an identity and Russell Westbrook and Frank Vogel obviously have some issues they need to figure out. To be honest, I&rsquo;m also not too enthused about the Kristaps Porzingis deal for Washington. If he can stay healthy for them, then I&rsquo;ll feel differently, but at this point, he has to prove that he&rsquo;s worthy of the hype and the big contract he got from Dallas. I know the Wizards wanted to get away from Spencer Dinwiddie, but drama has followed Kristaps in each of his previous two stops. Now, he&rsquo;ll be Dallas&rsquo; headache.
Bryan Fonseca: I'd like to say us since we were deprived of the theater scenario where Brooklyn and Philly don't make the James Harden-Ben Simmons swap, but I won't. This could be Dallas or Washington because of what they actually did, but since that was one trade, we'll let them cancel each other out. Let's go with the Knicks and Lakers. I don't know how those teams just stand pat. The Knicks should've moved off a couple of guys, like Alec Burks and Kemba Walker, to gain draft capital and free up minutes elsewhere. And the Lakers, well ... yanno.
Evan Sidery: Not many teams stand out here, but one obvious one is the Washington Wizards. What exactly were the Wizards thinking with Thursday&rsquo;s acquisition of Kristaps Porzingis? Hopefully the Wizards truly don't believe Porzingis can keep Bradley Beal around long-term, but here we are. Porzingis is a great talent, but he's simply proven to be unreliable due to continuous injury woes. In D.C., Porzingis plays next to Beal and a lot of young, raw talent. The team-player fit here is just so confusing.
Mat Issa: The Bulls and Jazz are the two biggest losers to me. For the Jazz, the need for an upgrade at the perimeter defensively was pretty apparent, but instead, they only came away with Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who is a fine young player, but probably not a bonafide playoff stopper. For the Bulls, their inactivity hurts them here, as pretty much every other top-nine team in the conference did something to bolster their roster for the stretch run.
Justin Lewis: The Charlotte Hornets didn&rsquo;t do anything to improve their atrocious defense. Portland is in absolute shambles, moving quality rotation pieces for hypotheticals. The Dallas Mavericks were making strides and they blew it up for what?
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Who are the biggest NBA trade deadline losers? BasketballNews.com's writers shared their thoughts.

Roundtable: Who are the biggest losers of the NBA trade deadline?

Since the dawn of modern draft philosophy, NBA front offices have generally prioritized the untapped potential of younger prospects over the more apparent ceiling of an upperclassmen.
However, for every theory, there exists exceptions, and the league has fielded its fair share of outliers since the rise of the one-and-done era. Guys like Draymond Green, CJ McCollum, Jimmy Butler and &mdash; most recently, <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/desmond-bane-cementing-himself-as-essential-part-of-nextgen-grizzlies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Desmond Bane</a> &mdash; have massively outperformed their respective expectations and helped shed the stigma that comes with being an &ldquo;older&rdquo; draftee.
Enter Chris Duarte. The 24-year-old rookie has had an <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/ncaa-basketball-chris-duarte-oregon-ducks-dominican-republic-continues-climb-nba-draft-2021-prospects" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unconventional journey into the NBA</a>, but now that he has arrived, he has proven to be one of the better players in a stacked 2021 class.
So is he the next link in the chain of draft anomalies?
To find out, let&rsquo;s take a deep dive into the film to see what gives the Former Pac-12 Player of the Year a chance to be a high-level pro for a very long time.
Offense
Upon being selected with the No. 13 overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, Duarte was dubbed by ESPN's <a href="https://fieldhousefiles.substack.com/p/chris-duarte-then-isaiah-jackson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jay Bilas</a> as &ldquo;a poor man&rsquo;s Klay Thompson.&rdquo; And while he&rsquo;s right to some degree &mdash; Duarte&rsquo;s 35.5% from beyond the arc is mincemeat to one of the greatest shooters that ever lived &mdash; he's mostly missing the mark on offense because Duarte's versatility as a scorer is an entirely different tax bracket.
This season, Duarte has been unassisted on 51.7% of his twos and 22.1% of his threes, a healthy margin above Thompon&rsquo;s highest marks (44.4% and 9.2% respectively, per Basketball-Reference). Duarte&rsquo;s volume on unassisted shots is in part due to the injuries of lead guards like Malcolm Brogdon and T.J. McConnell, but it also speaks volumes about his juice as an on-ball scorer.
Not a supreme athlete or ball-handling maestro, much of Duarte&rsquo;s chops off-the-dribble can be attributed to his advanced footwork, which Indy Cornrows writer Caitlin Cooper (great <a href="https://twitter.com/C2_Cooper" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a> follow) raved about during her December appearance on <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/podcasts/the-dunker-spot" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Dunker Spot</a>:
<blockquote>
&ldquo;I love his footwork. It&rsquo;s so good. Like, the Pacers don&rsquo;t have other guys that can shoot off of a hedge or off of a switch [to] that type of degree.&rdquo;
</blockquote>
And she&rsquo;s one-hundred percent on the money. Duarte&rsquo;s gracefulness adds another dimension to his game and the Indiana offense. Just look at this clip from a film thread Cooper did on a Duarte game in January, where he buries a nasty mid-range jumper with none other than Klay staring at him from under the basket:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
2) Reverse pivoting out of a probe dribble without losing any balance or control on his jump shot. <a href="https://t.co/h4tRTzYUFF">pic.twitter.com/h4tRTzYUFF</a>
&mdash; Caitlin Cooper (@C2_Cooper) <a href="https://twitter.com/C2_Cooper/status/1484606298322833412?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Overall, his ability to act as an on-ball/off-ball hybrid offensively enables him to handle a relatively high scoring load (fourth in usage and sixth in points per possession among rookies) while also maintaining solid efficiency (No. 6 in <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2022_advanced.html#advanced_stats::ts_pct" target="_blank" rel="noopener">efficiency</a> among rookies).
One development many of us didn&rsquo;t see coming (myself included) is Duarte&rsquo;s effectiveness as a part-time playmaker. He&rsquo;s in the 55th percentile among pick and roll ball-handlers primarily because of his ability to navigate the floor and pinpoint the optimal play available.
In the next trio of clips, Duarte identifies two weak-side corner skips and one laydown dump-off at the rim (passes even <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/making-the-allstar-case-for-dejounte-murray" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dejounte Murray</a> himself struggles consistently making):
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Now granted, he still has plenty of hiccups when saddled into the head creator role (evidenced by his 31st percentile turnover percentage). But the flashes he shows are exciting, particularly when factored in with his promising profile as a scorer.
Defense
When scouting perimeter players on defense, you normally want to ask yourself three questions:
1) Are they staunch at the point of attack?
2) Can they guard multiple positions?
3) Do they create <a href="https://premiumhoops.org/2021/04/06/evaluating-nba-perimeter-defense-establishing-and-using-a-rubric/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">events</a> on defense?
For the first two questions, I&rsquo;d probably lean towards "No." Duarte is solid at the point of attack, but he can&rsquo;t really keep up with intense speed or overwhelming strength. And his versatility on that end of the floor grades second-last out of the 43 &ldquo;wing stoppers&rdquo; with at least 600 minutes (per BBall Index).&nbsp;
Where he does shine, though, is in his penchant for taking the ball away from the opposition. So far this year, his nearly 2% steal rate places him in the 72nd percentile at his position (per Cleaning the Glass).&nbsp;
His playmaking as a defender also exemplifies arguably the most important part of his long-term defensive value: team defense.
This is highly anecdotal, but when I went back and dove into the tape on Duarte, it seemed like every game, there was at least one instance where he&rsquo;d make a play that compelled the opposing team&rsquo;s broadcast to say something like &ldquo;right place, right time, Chris Duarte.&rdquo;&nbsp;
(Side note: Always watch the opposing team&rsquo;s broadcast of the player you&rsquo;re studying, unless you&rsquo;re scouting a Charlotte Hornets player.)
What these commentators are trying to convey when they use that overworked sports cliche is Duarte&rsquo;s knack for providing help at the nail, executing the one-pass closeout, zoning up two defenders on the weak side and intercepting passes for an electrifying pick-six.
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The Pacers' defense is abysmal, but it improves by 4.5 points per 100 possessions when Duarte&rsquo;s on the court (81st percentile) because of his <a href="https://www.indycornrows.com/2022/1/26/22900955/on-the-instinctual-play-of-chris-duarte">instinctual</a> play on that end of the floor. (Seriously, follow Caitlin!)&nbsp;
Conclusion
I realize that, up to this point, I haven&rsquo;t focused too heavily on Duarte&rsquo;s shortcomings as a player, and it&rsquo;s not due to a lack thereof. His playmaking is fun, but spotty. He lacks the necessary burst/verticality to be an elite rim finisher (34th percentile), and his defense will always be solid &mdash; just never mega-impactful for the reasons highlighted earlier.
With that said, I&rsquo;ve strayed away from harping on his limitations because those aren&rsquo;t the reasons you draft a player like Duarte in the first place. In fact, a lower-potential ceiling comes with the territory. You select prospects like him for the certainty they provide. The certainty of having someone who can enhance high-usage offensive stars by effectively playing off them while also never compromising the defense thanks to a propensity for schematic punctuality.&nbsp;
Players like that start meaningful games on championship teams. And if Duarte can manage that, he makes one hell of an argument for why you should draft older players.
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Mat Issa believes that Pacers rookie Chris Duarte is making a strong argument for NBA front offices to rethink potential vs. certainty.

Chris Duarte and the case for drafting older players

When 12-year-old Jayden Jones becomes overwhelmed by the idea of tackling his schoolwork, he remembers what Golden State Warriors guard Gary Payton II taught him.
&ldquo;Never give up.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Don't be afraid to ask for help.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Block out the bullies."
The Bay Area sixth-grader has dyslexia, severe attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and dysgraphia, a neurological disorder that can make writing difficult. At times, he feels completely intimidated at school. Payton's words help him.
The Warriors fan favorite spoke to Jayden and more than 80 other children with learning challenges in December during a video webinar as part of a Read to Achieve event, then the boy got to meet Payton at a recent home game.
&ldquo;I really appreciated it,&rdquo; Jayden said while sitting courtside at Chase Center on Jan. 18. &ldquo;He was really encouraging. He said it was hard and he got bullied. He said to ignore the bullies.&rdquo;
Payton understands, because he was that boy years ago. He endured similar lows to reach his recent triumphs with the Warriors and now share his experiences to try to help others.
&ldquo;Just because you learn a different way than everybody else doesn&rsquo;t mean you don&rsquo;t learn,&rdquo; said Payton, who was diagnosed with dyslexia at age 8. "You&rsquo;ve still got to fight through it. Once you find your way how to learn it, it becomes more clear and more positive.&rdquo;
Payton's mother, Monique Payton, used to require her kids to read 30 minutes every night, not always monitoring them during that time, and she didn't initially know of her son's challenges. It wasn't until Payton's second-grade teacher urged his parents to have him assessed for a learning disability that they realized the extent of it.
&ldquo;Little Gary would always mumble. I would say, &lsquo;Son, speak up, I can&rsquo;t hear you,&rsquo;" Monique Payton said. &ldquo;I would be so harsh, &lsquo;What are you saying?&rsquo;&rdquo;
So once he was diagnosed she felt terribly, yet she was determined for Payton to persevere. No more daily reading rules. They would adjust their expectations on some things.
His greatest struggles and frustrations as a boy were when he had to read in front of his class or a group. Everything got mixed up and &ldquo;my parents were so hard on me,&rdquo; thinking he wasn't doing enough to understand the work.
&ldquo;Some parents don't know about it early and then you're just really on your own,&rdquo; Payton said. &ldquo;You don't know yourself so you don't know why it's difficult for you to learn just like other kids in the class. We identified it and when we did, I got help. After that I understood that it's OK to ask for help."
When the Paytons moved to Los Angeles as the elder Gary Payton spent a season with the Lakers in 2003-04, Monique reached out to anyone of notoriety she could find who dealt with dyslexia &mdash; determined to show her son how far he could go in spite of it all.
She went to see &ldquo;Happy Days&rdquo; actor Henry Winkler.
&ldquo;I took little Gary to his office and he spoke to little Gary, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re not dumb, it&rsquo;s just a different way of learning,&rsquo;&rdquo; she recalled. &ldquo;He had people give him his lines because he couldn&rsquo;t read them.&rdquo;
Now, Payton is the one providing light for others.
The high-flying journeyman guard and defensive stopper overcame his struggles and a bumpy basketball road to stick in the NBA at last, shining alongside Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson.
The kids went wild when Payton hurried out to greet them with handshakes, to pose for photos or offer some encouraging words before that Jan. 18 game against Detroit where he met Jayden. Payton helped host a group with support from the grassroots organization Decoding Dyslexia California.
Lisa and Danny Neith, Jayden's grandparents and legal guardians, are beyond grateful. They're also optimistic Payton's involvement will bring much-needed awareness for continued strides in early intervention and universal screening that might help so many others facing similar challenges.
Other parents are also appreciative. Megan Bacigalupi <a href="https://twitter.com/meganbaci/status/1483878517473366019">posted a photo of her dyslexic 9-year-old son</a> Josh at a Dec. 23 game against the Grizzlies holding a sign thanking Payton that read, &ldquo;You're a role model for kids w/dyslexia!&rdquo;
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s so inspired after hearing (at)Garydwayne talk to Dyslexic kids and share his story!&rdquo; the mother said.
Stephen Curry can imagine what Payton's efforts mean.
&ldquo;It's all about whatever you represent, in terms of your upbringing and your experience in life. Everybody knows the amazing opportunities that basketball creates in terms of the platform that you have,&rdquo; Curry said. &ldquo;You've got to find different ways to use it. For him that's a great thing to do, to try to make an impact and be inspirational and maybe change the course of somebody's life in some way.&rdquo;
Jayden will probably forever cheer Payton.
The boy attends a special education school called Star Academy in nearby San Rafael and is being raised by the Neiths, who adopted him. Jayden &mdash; who won the raffle for a basketball signed by Payton that he keeps safely in his bedroom &mdash; wasn't diagnosed until "he was already way behind, years behind," his grandmother said.
&ldquo;This is big and huge for him to see somebody like Gary Payton. Jayden is just starting basketball himself as a beginner, so this is going to spur him on to know that he's not alone with the challenges,&rdquo; Lisa Neith said. &ldquo;We're just beyond the moon.&rdquo;

When 12-year-old Jayden Jones becomes overwhelmed by the idea of tackling his schoolwork, he remembers what Gary Payton II taught him.

Warriors' Payton shares stories of dyslexia to help children

Physical length and height seem to be what NBA draft darlings are made of these days. Coming into the league as a part of the 2020 class, Desmond Bane didn&rsquo;t have either. At 6-foot-6 and 215 pounds, the former TCU standout was more chiseled and built than lanky and wide.
Heck, that still rings true today... but here&rsquo;s the catch: It hasn&rsquo;t mattered one damn bit, and those old concerns are being put to bed with each lights-out performance and accompanying Memphis Grizzlies win.
&ldquo;It was obviously a question mark coming in. But you can't measure somebody's heart,&rdquo; Bane told BasketballNews.com over the phone. &ldquo;You can measure wingspan, you can measure hand-width, vertical, all that stuff. But you can't measure how bad somebody wants to accomplish something. So for all the people out there that said I wouldn't make it because of whatever reason, that's just [adding] more fuel to the fire.
Taken with the No. 30 overall pick and traded away by the Boston Celtics in the 2020 NBA Draft, Bane recently <a href="https://theathletic.com/3049343/2022/01/06/were-talking-about-wingspan-desmond-bane-was-overlooked-now-he-and-ja-morant-are-leading-a-memphis-revival/?source=nbatw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told the Athletic that he will not forget those that passed on him</a>. Following up on that, Basketball News asked him when he began counting.
&ldquo;Realistically, I didn't think that I'd be a top-10 pick,&rdquo; Bane said. &ldquo;We had a little bit of interest with Phoenix at 10; they had 10 or were going to trade back from 10 or whatever. But we had a little bit of interest there. So really once we started getting to 10 and a little bit beyond is when I started really taking notice."
Well, fast forward to now, and Bane isn&rsquo;t just on the verge of a breakout; he&rsquo;s already broken out. In one year&rsquo;s time, the bulky swingman has gone from a rookie figuring things out to an everyday starter, nearly doubling both his shot attempts (14.3) and scoring (17.7) averages. Somehow, someway, he&rsquo;s maintained an almost-identical 46.8% field-goal percentage despite a significantly increased usage rate (23.0).
"I learned a lot [from my first season]. I learned just how to be a pro first and foremost,&rdquo; Bane said. &ldquo;The schedule last year was grueling due to all the games being canceled and so forth, so I had to learn how to just continue my habits more than anything. Stack good habits on top of each other and let the good days stack up, and learn how to be a pro essentially.
&ldquo;I mean, last year I knew that I'd have a chance to play in the league for a while. I knew that I had a role that I could play in the NBA. But you know, after this year and how we've won and how I've played, I have different goals and a new mindset on how I can really impact not only our team, but the league."
Competing in his first game in nine days following a stint on the COVID health and safety protocol list on Wednesday, Bane scored 11 first-quarter points on 7 attempts and finished with 20 points total in a Grizzlies victory in San Antonio. However, despite that production, he noticed that his opponents were defending him a little differently than usual &mdash; a sign that he&rsquo;s gaining respect as a real nightly threat.
&ldquo;The Spurs were running a box-and-one on me. That's a testament to my hard work and how far I've come as a player,&rdquo; Bane said. &ldquo;Last year, I was a guy who was probably on the bottom of the scouting report, and [Wednesday night] teams are game-planning to take me out of the mix. So it's a good feeling, but also, new challenges ahead."
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The city of Memphis is fully embracing GRZ NXT GEN, and for good reason. The Grizzlies have built on their coming-out party a season ago with a 34-17 record, standing tall and in pursuit of the Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns for top playoff positioning. Recognizing that he&rsquo;s contributing to that success on both ends, along with developing as an individual in the process, is &ldquo;hard to put into words&rdquo; for Bane.
&ldquo;I'm a kid from a small town in Richmond, Indiana with 30,000 people, and now I'm playing on one of the best teams in the Western Conference, and playing a big part in that. So it's definitely something to be proud of,&rdquo; Bane said.
"I think [why it clicks] has to do with our culture, with our locker room. We don't have any egos. I mean, I think it starts at the top with Ja Morant, Jaren [Jackson Jr.], Dillon Brooks, myself &mdash; we're all on one agenda, and that's winning basketball games. Nothing really gets in the way of that mentality and that mindset. It's always about winning."
That includes when Grizzlies superstar Ja Morant went down with a significant knee sprain in late November. While many on the outside were expecting Memphis to drop down without the face of its franchise, the team responded by going 10-2 in his absence.
&ldquo;It was on all of us. Obviously my role changed a bit with Ja going down, but it was on all of us,&rdquo; Bane said. &ldquo;That's what stays true with us. That's the reason why we're in the position that we're in is because it's been a next-man-up mentality all year long.&nbsp;
&ldquo;We've had guys who were on two-way contracts previous to the year beginning step up and even play big minutes and earn themselves a full contract. So it's been great to see. But honestly, it hasn't been too big of a surprise given the culture and the guys that we have here in this program."
At first glance, the first thing you notice about Bane is his willingness to let the three-ball fly. Dating back to his high school days and his run in college with the Horned Frogs, he&rsquo;s always tickled the twine from downtown as a high-volume sniper (career 43.3% perimeter clip over four years at TCU).
Nothing has changed on the big stage, as Bane is drilling 41.9% of his 6.8 triple tries per contest. He can spot up on either elbow (&ldquo;definitely one of my favorite spots&rdquo;) or pull up with a quick side-step when he&rsquo;s in rhythm &mdash; in transition or in halfcourt. As to why he&rsquo;s been able to nail down his jumper so consistently, it just comes down to reps in his eyes.
&ldquo;I just put the time in. There&rsquo;s no other way to explain it,&rdquo; Bane said bluntly.
Don&rsquo;t dare put Bane into a specialist category though. He&rsquo;s been able to put more tricks of his trade on display this year, as he&rsquo;s found a balance between firing away from distance and putting it on the deck. He points to the experience he had at NBA Summer League, where he was featured more on the ball, and that carried into training camp and on.
And off the ball, he&rsquo;s as cunning as he is dangerous, often using his Mountain Man teammate Steven Adams as a catalyst for easy looks. Bane tends to sit back ever-so-patiently... until he burns his assignment on a curl for a quick mid-ranger or finds a hole in the defense to zoom-in from the perimeter to create a point-blank look, to which Adams will feed him.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Steven Adams- great pass Desmond Bane- great finish Memphis Grizzlies- great team <a href="https://t.co/5DAzDwq5D0">pic.twitter.com/5DAzDwq5D0</a>
&mdash; GRIZZ TIME&trade; (@WillisMemphis) <a href="https://twitter.com/WillisMemphis/status/1483184190518669313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 17, 2022</a></blockquote>

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According to NBA.com, <a href="https://go.nba.com/24ypw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Adams has the most assists to Bane</a> on the team with 58 helpers, and the second-year wing has made 58.1% of his shots off his passes.
&ldquo;We've got a great relationship,&rdquo; Bane said of Adams. &ldquo;He seems like he's always finding me &mdash; whether it's backdoor cuts or handoffs or whatever the case may be. Steve-O's a great teammate to play with... You obviously gotta use your mind and use your smarts to your ability. I watch a lot of film and study a lot of different players and just try to pick up on some of their tendencies that work [against] them."
There&rsquo;s also that Morant guy, who is right behind the Grizzlies big man with 52 assists to Bane. Those connections tend to be more of the draw-defenders-in-and-kick variety, which has worked like a gem almost instantly.&nbsp;
&ldquo;We've got a lot of chemistry,&rdquo; said Bane, who&rsquo;s also racked up a team-high 24 dimes to Morant in return. &ldquo;Last year, we just didn't really have those minutes on the floor together as much. We had Grayson [Allen], who was playing the majority of those minutes with Ja. But I feel like Ja and I's chemistry and relationship has evolved."
Morant&rsquo;s campaign to his first All-Star starter selection is well-deserved. He is the unequivocal head of the snake in Memphis, dancing, and spinning his way into crunch-time buckets like it&rsquo;s nothing. There is no taking away the magician-like capabilities of &ldquo;12&rdquo; when the chips are down, or when closing time arrives.&nbsp;
Believe it or not, however, it is Bane who leads the Grizzlies in clutch shooting by the league&rsquo;s standard metric (ahead or behind by 5 points with 5 minutes or less left in the game).
Albeit on less volume, the big-time shots from Bane fall 53.6% of the time. Going by those who have played at least 50 minutes and attempted at least 20 field goals total (min. 20 games), Bane <a href="https://go.nba.com/fufso" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ranks fourth in clutch-time percentage</a> behind Patty Mills, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and, unsurprisingly, Chris Paul.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
A career night for Desmond Bane! He came up clutch against the <a href="https://twitter.com/jazz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jazz</a> tonight to help the <a href="https://twitter.com/memgrizz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@memgrizz</a> pick up a great win ‼️ 28 Points (Career High) 4 Rebounds 4 Assists 4 3PTS 2 Steals 60% FG<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GrzNxtGen?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GrzNxtGen</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBA</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBATwitter?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBATwitter</a> <a href="https://t.co/KGObN1zTsc">pic.twitter.com/KGObN1zTsc</a>
&mdash; Vendetta Basketball (@VendettaHoops) <a href="https://twitter.com/VendettaHoops/status/1463043727694385159?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 23, 2021</a></blockquote>

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Self-described as &ldquo;hungry,&rdquo; delivering when the team needs it most has become second nature.
&ldquo;It's just basketball,&rdquo; Bane said. &ldquo;I've played in so many games throughout my career, been in so many different situations. I think I would credit my four years in college and just all the basketball experience that I had coming into the NBA is what kinda made me ready for these moments."
Bane should be adding another moment to his list in a few weeks at All-Star Weekend. He&rsquo;s <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/desmond-bane-believes-hes-most-improved-player-candidate-plans-to-win-3-point-contest-if-invited-190708203.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">already expressed his desire to be in the Three-Point Contest</a> (and to win Most Improved Player), but participating in the Rising Stars game would &ldquo;mean the world to me and my city.&rdquo; His ambitions don&rsquo;t just end there.
"I'm not a guy that really has like concrete goals. But I mean obviously, I'm a team-first guy and I want to be a champion before anything&hellip; Maybe becoming an All-Star at some point in my career &mdash; those are all things that I think are possible,&rdquo; Bane said.
If (or when) Bane ends up in Cleveland on the weekend of Feb. 18, he&rsquo;ll have the chance to link up with his former TCU teammate R.J. Nembhard, who is currently on a two-way contract with the Cavaliers trying to carve his own path.&nbsp;
Both Bane and Nembhard were teammates of Kenrich Williams, and the former recently tweeted about him: Without this dude, ain&rsquo;t no way I&rsquo;m in the league.&nbsp;
"Just seeing somebody accomplish what I wanted to accomplish,&rdquo; Bane said of what Williams means to him. &ldquo;When you think about the NBA, you think about as being something that is almost unattainable just because so few people get to do it and get to attain that goal. Him doing it at a high level now, seeing that [he's] kinda making a name for himself, making a career for himself is huge for me and my confidence."
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Perhaps it&rsquo;s the fact that all three of these guys played four years of college ball in Fort Worth. Williams was the first of the trio to get to the NBA despite being undrafted, and now, teams are coveting him at the trade deadline. Nembhard is the most recent to make it to the next level, but he too was not selected in the draft and has had to earn his keep on a two-way contract.
Bane is the lone member of that group to have made it as a draft pick. For whatever reason, upperclassmen tend to take a backseat to blue-chip prospects with potential and one-and-dones when it comes to the current landscape.&nbsp;
He thinks that his immediate impact on a winning team should help those more experienced at the collegiate level with NBA aspirations earn some more love with organizations when it comes to the draft process.
&ldquo;Everybody's situation is a little bit different, but I don't see why not. It all depends on where the organization's going. Everybody has a different timeline. Some people want younger guys to develop them, and some people want guys who are more ready that they can kind of plug-and-play. I wouldn't necessarily say there's a bias, but it's all about preference.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Usually guys are looking to hit home runs in the draft rather than singles or doubles."
Looking at what Bane has done on a consistent basis as quickly as he has, it&rsquo;s time front offices start going for those base hits in addition to knocking one out of the park.
Zach Kleiman and the Grizzlies have found that happy medium, and judging by this trajectory, Bane is about to cross home plate anyways.
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Spencer Davies chats with Grizzlies swingman Desmond Bane about his breakout second year and what his next goals are.

Desmond Bane cementing himself as essential part of next-gen Grizzlies

The NBA offseason is packed with entertaining events. In a matter of three or so months, the league undergoes free agency and trade season &ndash; and that&rsquo;s almost immediately after the Finals and the draft. And while everyone gets to experience all that is great about the NBA in a relatively short amount of time, it makes for a busy and pressure-filled time for NBA front offices &ndash; that can result in miscalculations.
The 2021 offseason had some abnormalities to contend with. The uncertain financial impact of COVID-19 and the free agent signings in the months leading up to free agency resulted in an underwhelming offseason.
Still, free agent signings and trades happened, even if it was on a smaller scale than normal. And what must surely result from NBA transactions? Regrettable transactions.
After seeing more than 40% of the season we can realistically judge the offseason&rsquo;s transactions with a modicum of accuracy. Sure, multi-year deals can&rsquo;t be graded in their entirety after less than half of a season, but slumps rarely persist for almost half a season, too. That leaves us in a gray area of sorts. Still, the impact of adding a player to a team&rsquo;s present and near-future salary cap is very real. So, after observing approximately half of a season, let&rsquo;s identify the worst deals of the 2021 offseason.
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Evan Fournier Sign-and-Trade to the New York Knicks
Entering this season, Fournier was widely seen as an above-average scorer and playmaker. He represented a relatively big upgrade from Reggie Bullock for the Knicks, providing much needed offensive versatility. So, while the pairing felt a bit off (given the Knicks defensive-mindedness), the four-year, $73 million contract seemed like only a minor overpayment.
Fournier kicked off his time as a Knick with a bang, scoring 32 points in an opening night win against the Boston Celtics &ndash; but the honeymoon was short-lived. Through 38 games, Fournier is averaging just 13.5 points with an Effective Field Goal percentage (eFG%) of 52.5%. Comparatively, he averaged 17.1 points in 2020-21 and 18.5 in 2019-19 with eFG% of 56 and 56.5 respectively. He&rsquo;s also shooting a near-career worst 38.1% on threes attempts.
The fact that the Knicks are in such hot water indicates a degree of buyer&rsquo;s remorse. So, while their future is still quite bright thanks to their younger players, their salary cap optimism has probably been muted. The fact that Bullock was lured away by the Dallas Mavericks for a three-year, $30.5 million contract only adds to the team's frustrations. And while that&rsquo;s a hefty contract, too, considering it&rsquo;s netted just 6.0 points per game on 28.7% shooting from deep, it&rsquo;s quite a bit less than the Knicks are paying Fournier. But Bullock aside, the Knicks might wish they could get a redo on this one (although maybe not quite as much, after Thursday night's career-high scoring effort from Fournier).&nbsp;
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Russell Westbrook trade to the Los Angeles Lakers 
Did anyone outside the Lakers&rsquo; front office really think this was a good idea? Westbrook is a dynamic, albeit polarizing, player who&rsquo;s produced some of the most amazing individual seasons we&rsquo;ve ever witnessed. But he was never a fit for the Lakers &ndash; and, namely, not a good fit alongside LeBron James.
On a positive note, Westbrook's contract is up after next season. So, the long-term impact is limited, even if he is still owed more than $90 million between this season and 2022-23.
But there is significant downside, too. Let's start with Westbook's play &ndash; it's not great. Westbrook's scoring (19.5 points per game), assists (8.1) and rebounds (8.1) are all down. So is his PER (15.9), which is the second-worst of his career. His turnovers (4.6) are still up and he's still struggling on threes (30%).&nbsp;
There's also the fact that the Washington Wizards are in the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference, and their depth has a lot to do with that. Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Montrezl Harrell are averaging at least 25.4 minutes per game. Harrell is actually posting a career-best 25.1 PER. The Lakers could use that depth. Just look at their top minute getters: James (36.9 per game), Westbrook (35.8) and Anthony Davis (35.4) lead the way. After the Big Three, it gets messy thanks in part to COVID. Talen Horton-Tucker gets 28.2 per game, Carmelo Anthony receives 27.1 and Stanley Johnson &ndash; who was just signed last week &ndash; is averaging 25.2. Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, Wayne Ellington and Austin Reaves are all averaging more than 20 minutes per game, too. Now imagine if they had a more talented rotation of role players&hellip;
Next, there are the rumors that the Lakers were in advanced talks with the Sacramento Kings about swapping Kuzma for Kings sharpshooter Buddy Hield instead. Hield-to-Los Angeles makes so much more sense. He&rsquo;s the type of player who does well in a catch-and-shoot role. Hield is shooting better than 40% on threes across his 424 game career. Plus, the Lakers would have kept Harrell and Pope, meaning that the 15th best long-range shooting team could have added a top shooter (while subtracting a seriously subpar shooter in Westbrook ). Not to mention, they could have hung on to two quality role players.
And finally, there&rsquo;s the reality of James&rsquo; age and career trajectory. James is still playing insanely well, especially for a 37-year-old. But let&rsquo;s be honest, it won&rsquo;t be that way forever. In all likelihood, he will show more signs of aging over the next season or so. Unfortunately, Westbrook being signed through the end of 2022-23 eliminates cap flexibility, meaning that additional help will be hard to find until 2023-24, at which point James will turn 39. That's not a great outcome for a team hoping to win at least one more championship with their current core.
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Duncan Robinson re-signs with the Miami Heat
As the NBA season approaches its midway point, the Heat are pretty much exactly where we thought they would be. They&rsquo;re currently in fourth place in the Eastern Conference, boasting the seventh-best defensive and offensive ratings. And Kyle Lowry has fit perfectly with Miami&rsquo;s culture. But one thing isn&rsquo;t working, Robinson &ndash; and it&rsquo;s surpassingly due to a lack marksmanship.
Robinson signed his first big deal this past offseason to the tune of five-years and $90 million. And while that&rsquo;s a lot of money, Robison&rsquo;s shooting touch nearly warranted it. He shot 40.8 percent on 8.5 long-range attempts last season and 44.6% on 8.3 attempts per game in 2019-20.
But Robinson has struggled to replicate such performances. He&rsquo;s shooting just 34.6% on threes this season, and he hasn&rsquo;t made up for his slump elsewhere. He's down to 79.3% on free throws after shooting 82.7% last season and 93.1% in 2019-20. And he&rsquo;s connecting on just 52.2% of two-point attempts, after shooting 61.4% last season and 66.7% in 2019-20.
Ultimately, the bounce back performance of Tyler Herro is overshadowing Robinson&rsquo;s poor play, and the law of large numbers will probably win out with Robinson bouncing back at some point. In fact, there is a glimmer of hope in that he shot 37.6% on threes in December, which is less than ideal but better than he did in October and November.
A five-year, $90 million contract sounds like a lot, but to be fair Joe Harris signed a four-year, $75 million deal in late 2020, and Davis Bertans signed for five years and $80 million. Ironically, both players have been mentioned as being available this season, but Robinson signed at the going rate for a great knock-down shooter. If Robinson can get his shot back, this deal becomes infinitely more bearable.
The fact that players are assets is an unfortunate truth of professional sports. Love them or hate them, if players underperform for long enough it will inevitably draw the ire of their teams. What happens from there varies from team to team, but the business of basketball wins out more than not.

Drew Maresca takes a look trades and signings from the 2021 offseason that some teams might rather take back.

2021 Offseason redos: Decisions teams wish they could take back

When looking through the NBA standings, one team continues to show no signs of slowing down as a team officially taking the leap forward to sustainable playoff contender. The Memphis Grizzlies are breaking through their ceiling ahead of schedule, thanks in large part to point guard Ja Morant taking the leap to superstardom in his third season.
Thankfully, basketball fans weren&rsquo;t robbed of what could&rsquo;ve been a special season from Morant early on in the 2021-22 season with what looked to be a more serious knee injury.
Six weeks ago, Morant landed awkwardly on his left knee resulting in a sprain. In real-time, it looked way worse when remembering catastrophic injuries in the past with lower extremities. Morant stutter-stepped on a drive to the rim, which caused a non-contact buckling of his knee. In his absence, Memphis stayed afloat in the Western Conference as their young core carried the burden, spearheaded by late first-round steal Desmond Bane, who continues to look the part of a perfect backcourt complement alongside Morant.
Memphis is 25-14, comfortably sitting as the No. 4 seed in the West. As Morant&rsquo;s ascension continues full steam ahead, it&rsquo;s time to realize how strong this Grizzlies team is positioned both now and long-term.
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Morant is the straw that stirs the drink on Beale Street in Memphis, but the Grizzlies are a team littered with enticing pieces fitting together seamlessly on the fly. Bane is averaging 17.4 points per game while carrying an above-average 58.5% True Shooting percentage, boosted by his three-point marksmanship.
Jaren Jackson Jr. is taking strides forward in Year 4 after losing a full season to his own knee injury suffered in the 2020 Orlando Bubble. He's averaging 16.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game.
After a short stint with the Phoenix Suns, De&rsquo;Anthony Melton has found a home in Memphis as an energizer third guard who brings endless amounts of two-way versatility. Dillon Brooks still remains as a key cog in the Grizzlies&rsquo; machine when he&rsquo;s been on the court this season, averaging 19.3 points per game himself.
The Grizzlies&rsquo; front office has consistently taken flyers on productive, high-upside college prospects and maximized on signing castoffs. Case in point with former Minnesota Timberwolves lottery pick Jarrett Culver. Memphis has continuously hit on second-round picks as well, with Xavier Tillman and Killian Tillie carving out roles. Last summer's No. 10 overall pick Ziaire Williams is working his way into the mix and could be a future asset to the Grizzlies&rsquo; successful rise in the West.
Add it all together and the Grizzlies are nowhere close to a mirage. If anything, they are just now beginning their climb in the Western Conference for years to come. Aided by a superstar in Morant, a valuable collection of successful young role-players who can fill multiple avenues of on-court value, stabilizing veteran presences like center Steven Adams, Memphis has hit the jackpot.
Morant has been everything the Grizzlies hoped for when they found their own lottery luck and jumped up to the second spot in the 2019 NBA Draft. Morant was a fast-paced, jaw-dropping offensive engine who provided endless highlight reel moments during his two collegiate seasons at Murray State. A meteoric rise in his sophomore season led to some even debating him alongside surefire No. 1 pick Zion Williamson.
Morant immediately showed during his rookie season how special of a player he was. Fast-forward to now, though, he&rsquo;s beginning to really take hold of being one of the best young lead guards in the Association.
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Morant is averaging 25.1 points, 6.7 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 1.4 steals while taking a superstar-esque jump from the perimeter, shooting 40.0% on three-pointers. It&rsquo;s resulted in Morant&rsquo;s True Shooting percentage skyrocketing to a career-best 57.7% this season. When Morant has been on the court, Memphis is 15-12. He&rsquo;s not only carrying this Grizzlies squad, but taking the leap in the process.
As a true three-level scorer with rare explosive burst to the basket, Morant is a gem in the backcourt. When comparing him around the Association, his unique scoring blend makes him a nearly unstoppable weapon to contain. After an adjustment period returning from his sprained left knee, Morant is averaging an eye-popping 33.2 points over his last five games.
The Grizzlies are winning with a superstar buoying their offense, but the defense is there in more consistent spurts as well. Memphis ranks No. 7 in offensive rating (111.7) while being smack dab in the middle of the league in defensive rating (108.7). It&rsquo;s a sustainable formula head coach Taylor Jenkins is firing off on a nightly basis, which makes Memphis a real threat to nab a top-five seed this season.
When the Grizzlies snuck into the playoffs last season after defeating Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors, it provided much-needed playoff experience despite a quick first-round exit against the top-seeded Utah Jazz. Memphis not only came back stronger with internal development success stories across the board, but they found their weaknesses and turned them into passable grades.
It will be very interesting to see what the Grizzlies now do with a month left before February&rsquo;s trade deadline. Will they make a win-now move to further bolster their chances of securing homecourt advantage in April? It&rsquo;s a serious discussion to be had and could continue during the upcoming offseason.
Everything is falling into place for Memphis after a few down years following the successful Grit &rsquo;N Grind era. Now, a new era of Grizzlies basketball is thriving, with a completely different identity built around fast-paced play and relentless offensive firepower. They have a full-blown budding superstar in Morant alongside multiple young players who are taking leaps to serious starting quality as well.
Welcome back to playoff basketball, Memphis. You won't be leaving anytime soon.

After a few down years, a new era of Memphis Grizzlies basketball is taking the NBA world by storm with no signs of slowing down.

The Grizzlies are the NBA's latest rebuild success story

PHILADELPHIA (AP) &mdash; Giannis Antetokounmpo had 31 points and 16 rebounds, Grayson Allen scored 25 points and hit a key 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter, and the Milwaukee Bucks held off the short-handed Philadelphia 76ers 118-109 on Tuesday night.
Bobby Portis added 19 points for the NBA champions, who played a day after celebrating the franchise&rsquo;s first title in 50 years with a trip to visit President Joe Biden at the White House. The Bucks won for just the second time in the last seven.
Tyrese Maxey scored 31 points for the 76ers, who played without four-time All-Star Joel Embiid for the second straight game. Embiid was one of four 76ers out due to the NBA&rsquo;s health and safety protocols, along with Tobias Harris, Matisse Thybulle and Isaiah Joe.
Seth Curry (left foot contusion) also sat for the 76ers, and Ben Simmons (personal reasons) hasn&rsquo;t played all season.
All of the absences led Philadelphia general manager Daryl Morey to tweet Tuesday afternoon that &ldquo;the hits just keep on comin&rdquo;
But the 76ers left the court in defeat to applause from the normally demanding home crowd, which recognized the strong effort put forth by a Philadelphia team that started Shake Milton, Maxey, Furkan Korkmaz, Paul Reed and Andre Drummond.
Philadelphia took its last lead of the contest on Maxey&rsquo;s bank shot that made it 102-101 with 5:43 left. Consecutive 3-pointers by Portis and Pat Connaughton put the Bucks ahead 107-102, and Allen all but sealed it with a 3 that put the Bucks up 114-107 with 1:30 to play.
The 76ers led by as many as 13 in the opening 24 minutes, when Milton&rsquo;s 3 made it 48-35 with 8:10 left in the second quarter. But the Bucks scored 21 of the next 27 and went in front on Allen&rsquo;s 3 with 2:12 to play before the break.
The Bucks pushed their advantage to eight early in the third on George Hill&rsquo;s follow shot, but Philadelphia didn&rsquo;t wilt. The 76ers went ahead 90-89 on Green&rsquo;s 3-pointer with 1:49 left in the third and finished the period in front 93-91 thanks to Drummond&rsquo;s tip of Maxey&rsquo;s miss with 1.5 ticks remaining.
Drummond had 17 points and 20 rebounds. Milton scored 20 points and Georges Niang chipped in 21.
WHITE HOUSE VISIT
Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer talked before the game about how much he enjoyed the Bucks&rsquo; visit to the White House.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an honor, special,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a great day for the organization, our players. Just a very historical place. You can feel it when you&rsquo;re in the building and when you&rsquo;re in the presence of President Biden. (Biden was) very, very kind and generous with us. It&rsquo;s a day all of us will remember. Just feel very honored to have been invited.&rdquo;
TRAINER&rsquo;S ROOM
Bucks: Khris Middleton (health and safety protocols) missed his fifth straight contest. &hellip; Brook Lopez (back soreness) hasn&rsquo;t played since the season opener and Budenholzer didn&rsquo;t have an update when asked about Lopez prior to the contest. &hellip; Donte DiVincenzo (left ankle recovery) hasn&rsquo;t played this season.
76ers: Harris missed his sixth straight contest, but Rivers said before the game that his health is improving. &ldquo;Tobias is doing a lot better,&rdquo; Rivers said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll say he&rsquo;ll be back sooner than later.&rdquo; &hellip; Thybulle sat for the third straight game and Joe missed his fourth in a row. Rivers wasn&rsquo;t as optimistic about their imminent return.
TIP-INS
Bucks: Improved to 1-1 on season-high, five-game road trip. &hellip; Won their sixth in a row against Philadelphia.
76ers: Reed brought the home fans to their feet with an emphatic block of Antetokounmpo with 4:03 left in the second quarter. &hellip; Maxey had 17 points in the first quarter, making 7 of 9 shots and 3 of 4 from beyond the arc. &hellip; &hellip; Hall of Famer and 76ers great Julius &ldquo;Dr. J&rdquo; Erving was in attendance.
UP NEXT
Bucks: At Knicks on Wednesday night.
76ers: Host Toronto on Thursday night.
___
https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP--Sports

Giannis Antetokounmpo and Grayson Allen led the Bucks past the shorthanded 76ers on Tuesday night, 118-109.

Antetokounmpo, Allen lead Bucks past short-handed 76ers

Former NBA scout and BasketballNews.com scouting advisor, Doc Martin, recently attended Overtime Elite&rsquo;s opening weekend at their brand new arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
Although Martin took notes on a number of the team&rsquo;s prospects, he was asked to focus on Jean Montero, who is currently ranked No. 16 on BasketballNews.com's <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2022 NBA Draft Big Board</a>.
Here is Martin's scouting report on Montero:
Jean Montero | Overtime Elite
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 96.0679%; height: 66px; border-style: none;" border="0">
<tbody>
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<td style="width: 41.0373%; height: 22px;">Height: 6-2</td>
<td style="width: 58.0126%; height: 22px;">Position: Guard</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 41.0373%; height: 22px;">Weight: 172</td>
<td style="width: 58.0126%; height: 22px;">Draft Day Age: 19.1</td>
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<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 41.0373%; height: 22px;">Wingspan: 6-4</td>
<td style="width: 58.0126%; height: 22px;">Nationality: Dominican Republic</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
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Roles: Three-Level Scorer, Crafty Finisher, Facilitator, Floor General, Primary Ball-Handler
Strengths: Jean Montero is the type of guard that can score, but doesn't always look to score. He has a presence and command on the floor, and plays at a really good pace. He handles the ball well enough to where he never seems to be in a rush with one or multiple defenders around him. Montero has the type of skill where he can see the action before it happens. He plays downhill in pick-and-roll actions and routinely makes the simple play, dropping pocket passes, throwing lobs to the rim for rolling bigs or firing skip passes to the wings lifting out of the corners. What I love most about Montero &mdash; which is similar to college and NFL quarterbacks &mdash; is that he's able to throw to teammates who are open, getting them easy buckets. He can finish with either hand, whether it&rsquo;s below or above the rim in transition. He plays unselfishly and advances the ball, and has solid shooting mechanics with NBA three-point range (and a few feet beyond).
Concerns: I would like to see Montero be a bit more disciplined defensively. There were several instances where guards were getting downhill just a bit too easily, mostly in the pick-and-roll actions.
Questions
<ul>
<li>Does he have the physical gear to defend elite NBA point guards?&nbsp;</li>
<li>There was no one at this event that could challenge him this weekend. How will he respond against equal or better competition?</li>
</ul>
Bottom Line: After watching Montero play this weekend, it's clear that he's Overtime Elite&rsquo;s best pro prospect for the 2022 NBA Draft. He plays the right way and gets all of his teammates involved. He brings a lot of intangibles to the table that would make any coach feel comfortable with him on the floor. It would be hard to get it wrong by selecting this young man.&nbsp;

After attending Overtime Elite's opening weekend in Atlanta, Doc Martin shares his takeaways from watching Jean Montero.

2022 NBA Draft: Jean Montero scouting report

The NBA announced in a press release today:
NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2021 &ndash; The NBA today announced an extension of its ongoing commitment to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with new programs designed to create greater opportunity for students and alumni, encourage economic advancement and further celebrate their rich traditions.&nbsp; As part of this partnership, the NBA will develop new programs and events focused on the HBCU community &ndash; specifically around professional development, career advancement and increased support and awareness for HBCU athletics and institutions.
The NBA is committed to supporting the growth of the next generation of leaders from the Black community.&nbsp; HBCUs &ndash; which produce 20 percent of the country&rsquo;s Black college graduates but only account for three percent of all colleges in the United States &ndash; have historically been under-resourced, averaging one-eighth the size of endowments of historically white colleges and universities.&nbsp; The NBA&rsquo;s programming will advance educational, career and economic opportunities in collaboration with HBCU networks, and will focus on three areas:
New Fellowship Program for Career Development
Launching in 2022, the NBA and its teams will offer a new paid fellowship program for undergraduate and graduate students.&nbsp; The program, which will be led by the NBA Foundation, will offer HBCU students the opportunity to gain real-life insights and professional experience around the business and operations of basketball.&nbsp; The students will work in positions at the league office and NBA and WNBA teams, and be matched with a league or team employee mentor as part of their experience.&nbsp; Applications for the program will open on&nbsp;<a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="http://careers.nba.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="http://Careers.NBA.com" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">Careers.NBA.com</a>&nbsp;in the coming months.
NBA HBCU Classic
Building off the success of NBA All-Star 2021, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) will once again highlight the HBCU community during NBA All-Star 2022 in Cleveland. The celebrations will be highlighted by a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) matchup between Howard University and Morgan State University men&rsquo;s basketball teams.&nbsp; The game will be played at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland on February 19, 2022 and will be broadcast live.
During NBA All-Star, more than $1 million will be contributed in support to the HBCU community through the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), UNCF (United Negro College Fund) and academic institutions.&nbsp; Additionally, HBCUs will be showcased through unique content, storytelling and special performances.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Additional Programming
The NBA, G League and Basketball Africa League will leverage their pre-Draft combines and showcase events for HBCU players, coaches and athletic trainers.&nbsp; These engagements will increase exposure and opportunities to pursue professional basketball careers.
The league will expand the NBA&rsquo;s targeted referee development strategy to leverage existing programs and focus on identification, training and educational opportunities for HBCU students and alumni in the officiating pipeline.
The NBA 2K League will host events on HBCU campuses to introduce students to careers in gaming and esports, creating pathways for students to pursue careers in the growing industry. HBCU alumni and Black entrepreneurs will partner with the league as part of the NBA&rsquo;s commitment to onboarding more minority-owned businesses as league licensees.
The NBA will air special alternate game telecasts this season featuring interactive enhancements on League Pass and will work with HBCU schools to provide special experiences around those select games.&nbsp;
These new efforts will bolster the league&rsquo;s support of HBCUs and their students through additional scholarship programs, business case competitions, mentorship, networking and internship opportunities with partners, teams, the NBA Foundation and other members of the NBA family.&nbsp; Former NBA Commissioner David Stern served as a founding member of the TMCF Board of Directors for more than 30 years.
NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer, Mark Tatum: &ldquo;The NBA family recognizes the storied and prominent role that HBCUs have played in our society for decades.&nbsp; We also recognize that within our commitments to increase Black representation across the league and grow the game, we can create educational, athletic and career opportunities through engagement with these institutions.&nbsp; Through continued collaboration with partners like TMCF and UNCF, our teams and members of the HBCU community, we look forward to expanding support of students and alumni in meaningful ways.&rdquo;
Howard University Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, Kery Davis: &ldquo;Howard University is incredibly proud to take part in the HBCU Classic during this year&rsquo;s NBA All-Star.&nbsp; The NBA and HBCUs are natural partners because of our rich legacy elevating under-represented communities and our shared passion for cultivating opportunities for people of color.&nbsp; We appreciate the NBA&rsquo;s commitment to supporting our institutions, and we are excited to showcase the on- and off-the-court talent and excellence that has come to define student-athletes from the MEAC and HBCUs.&rdquo;
Morgan State University Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, Dr. Ed Scott: &ldquo;As an association, the NBA should be commended for the foresight and willingness to address important issues surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion.&nbsp; The creation of the NBA HBCU Classic is a clear demonstration of the NBA&rsquo;s commitment to promoting HBCUs and showcasing the talented young men and women on our campuses."
Thurgood Marshall College Fund President and CEO, Dr. Harry L. Williams: &ldquo;We are pleased to continue our relationship with the NBA to build upon our commitment to our students, providing them with opportunities for learning, networking and collaborations.&nbsp; We both recognize there is a need for more minority professionals in the industry, and HBCUs have one of the strongest recruiting bases for talent.&nbsp; I appreciate the NBA creating space for our students while identifying meaningful opportunities that bring value to both the NBA and TMCF.&rdquo;
UNCF CEO, Dr. Michael Lomax: &ldquo;The NBA&rsquo;s focus on HBCUs and inclusion of the Black community is outstanding.&nbsp; We particularly appreciate the spotlight the league is providing to our member-institutions.&nbsp; All HBCUs deserve this kind of attention, as they have been underserved and under-recognized for decades.&nbsp; Thanks to support from the NBA, we hope many more doors of opportunity will open for the students HBCUs work so diligently to educate and graduate.&rdquo;

The NBA announced an HBCU Classic game between Howard and Morgan State.

NBA extends HBCU support, announces HBCU Classic game in February

Nekias Duncan breaks down all five teams in the Atlantic Division for his 2021-22 NBA season preview.

2021-22 NBA Season Preview: Atlantic Division

After a pandemic-induced hiatus, the NBA&rsquo;s Las Vegas Summer League returns. And with that comes the most electric small sample of inconsequential games on the league calendar.&nbsp;
The 2021 draft class will don NBA jerseys for the first time, and most of the 2020 class will finally receive a real training ground after missing out last season. With so much young talent descending on Las Vegas, every single team has multiple storylines to follow.
But fans also have the final few weeks of their summer to savor. So while I'll surely be watching as many games as possible, what teams should be considered appointment television? What rosters are chock full of prospects and intrigue?
Below are the eight "must-watch" teams of 2021 MGM Resorts Summer League, with a complete schedule included&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nba.com/summer-league/2021/vegas/schedule" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
Detroit Pistons
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Here&rsquo;s the Pistons&rsquo; Summer League roster <a href="https://t.co/oDl06KKiEF">pic.twitter.com/oDl06KKiEF</a>
&mdash; James Edwards III (@JLEdwardsIII) <a href="https://twitter.com/JLEdwardsIII/status/1423370122199248902?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 5, 2021</a></blockquote>

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As with every year of summer league, the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft immediately grabs headlines as a player to watch. And&nbsp;everyone&nbsp;expects big things from Cade Cunningham, who is largely considered to be one of the more polished prospects in recent memory.&nbsp;
However, it's not just Cunningham who makes this an exciting roster. Second-year forward Saddiq Bey joins the squad after landing on the All-Rookie First Team last season. Saben Lee turned heads as a second-round rookie. Killian Hayes is out to prove himself after injuries hampered the seventh overall pick of the 2020 draft. Sekou Doumbouya has some asserting to do as well, having yet to make a major leap since being drafted 15th overall in 2019.
You won't see Isaiah Stewart, Isaiah Livers or Chris Smith in action; they're&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/detnewsRodBeard/status/1423371634967257090" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly not playing due to injuries.</a>&nbsp;But there's simply so much talent and intrigue, even without those three. This could be a rare summer league team that could both win games and introduce the masses to some notable young players.
Houston Rockets
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🚀 Summer League roster is here! More info: <a href="https://t.co/nDED5Tfu0M">https://t.co/nDED5Tfu0M</a> <a href="https://t.co/q2wnObZApV">pic.twitter.com/q2wnObZApV</a>
&mdash; Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) <a href="https://twitter.com/HoustonRockets/status/1423752361252728835?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2021</a></blockquote>

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Until July 29, the Rockets had not made a first-round pick in the NBA Draft since selecting Sam Dekker all the way back in 2015. This year they picked not once, not twice, but four times in the first 24 selections.&nbsp;
All four choices &mdash; Jalen Green (the No. 2 overall pick), Alperen Sengun (No. 16), Usman Garuba (No. 23) and Josh Christopher (No. 24) will suit up in Vegas. They represent the future of the franchise and the first first-round picks by general manager Rafael Stone.&nbsp;
Don't forget about uber-athletic K.J. Martin, son of NBA veteran Kenyon Martin, and his quietly-successful rookie season, either. He could make some of the highlight-reel plays of the tournament.&nbsp;
Memphis Grizzlies
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The <a href="https://twitter.com/memgrizz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@memgrizz</a> today announced their 17-player roster for MGM Resorts <a href="https://twitter.com/NBASummerLeague?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBASummerLeague</a> 2021 in Las Vegas. <a href="https://t.co/rJ0HBn26Lf">pic.twitter.com/rJ0HBn26Lf</a>
&mdash; Grizzlies PR (@GrizzliesPR) <a href="https://twitter.com/GrizzliesPR/status/1424099014979555328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2021</a></blockquote>

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The Grizzlies might be my early pick as Las Vegas Summer League champs. Desmond Bane is frankly too good to be here. After making the All-Rookie Second Team last season and emerging as one of the better shooters in the entire league, Bane could eviscerate the younger opponents he'll face.
He'll be joined by three other 2020 draft picks in Xavier Tillman, Killian Tillie and Sam Merrill, who was recently acquired in the trade that sent Grayson Allen to Milwaukee. As far as summer league goes, this should be one of the more experienced squads in Las Vegas.
Toss in two first round picks in Ziaire Williams (No. 10) and Santi Aldama (No. 30) as well. Both were picked at least six spots higher than BasketballNews.com draft analyst Matt Babcock&nbsp;<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">predicted</a>&nbsp;before draft night. Time will tell if they were the right choices, but both can make a strong first impression at summer league. If undrafted rookie Yves Pons is doing&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/memgrizz/status/1423792346123145218?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stuff like this</a>, he's another one to watch.
Orlando Magic
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As expected, the Magic&rsquo;s NBA Summer League roster will include second-year guards Cole Anthony and R.J. Hampton in addition to rookies Jalen Suggs and Franz Wagner. <a href="https://t.co/lyACl7whtD">https://t.co/lyACl7whtD</a> <a href="https://t.co/q6aPtdx7vG">pic.twitter.com/q6aPtdx7vG</a>
&mdash; Josh Robbins (@JoshuaBRobbins) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoshuaBRobbins/status/1422196207372361740?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 2, 2021</a></blockquote>

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Orlando was one of two teams with multiple lottery picks in this summer's NBA Draft. Both Jalen Suggs (the No. 5 pick) and Franz Wagner (No. 8) will make appearances as two potential cornerstones for the franchise.
Suggs in particular should garner interest because he joins a crowded lineup of young, exciting guards in Orlando. Viewers will see two of the others in Cole Anthony and R.J. Hampton. How will the Magic balance minutes in the early going? Will any of the three separate themselves from the pack? How often will Orlando try a three-guard lineup?
Those are just some of the questions that first-year head coach Jamahl Mosley will eventually have to answer.
Golden State Warriors
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Warriors announce updated Summer League Roster ahead of the team's five-game slate at the MGM Resorts Summer League 2021 in Las Vegas: <a href="https://t.co/E1CKLAyd1I">pic.twitter.com/E1CKLAyd1I</a>
&mdash; Warriors PR (@WarriorsPR) <a href="https://twitter.com/WarriorsPR/status/1424098129180123138?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2021</a></blockquote>

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Are Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga ready to join a rotation with win-now expectations? That's the central question for Golden State ahead of summer league. Both prospects had rocky-yet-promising debuts in the California Classic. Moody dropped 19 points (7-for-18 shooting) to go with seven rebounds, while Kuminga logged 18 points (7-for-14 shooting) and three rebounds against six turnovers.
As the No. 7 pick, Kuminga is theoretically a long-term upside play. Moody (No. 14 pick) is typically viewed as a safer, more NBA-ready prospect, but he too is a one-and-done wing. Even as Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green push for a championship, these two shouldn't be forced into action. They'll grow at their own paces; summer league serves as a starting point.
Gary Payton II is the third player to focus on. According to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/warriors/what-andre-iguodalas-warriors-return-could-mean-rest-roster" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Drew Shiller of NBC Sports</a>, the Warriors have until Aug. 11 to waive the guard before guaranteeing $659,000 on his contract. We'll see how that plays out as Payton goes through the next 10 days.&nbsp;
Charlotte Hornets
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The Charlotte Hornets&rsquo; summer league roster featuring James Bouknight, Kai Jones and LiAngelo Ball, brother of Hornets star LaMelo Ball. More NBA from me: <a href="https://t.co/LGN9cVpeGP">https://t.co/LGN9cVpeGP</a> <a href="https://t.co/keKAzpdc9O">pic.twitter.com/keKAzpdc9O</a>
&mdash; Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheSteinLine/status/1422248415778455557?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 2, 2021</a></blockquote>

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The Hornets garnered widespread praise for their 2021 NBA Draft. Charlotte came away with a dynamic scoring guard in James Bouknight at No. 11, and then grabbed two high-upside talents in Kai Jones (at No. 19) and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/jt-thor-could-be-2021-nba-draft-diamond-in-the-rough-auburn-tigers-prospect" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JT Thor</a>&nbsp;(who is not in the above graphic but&nbsp;<a href="https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/charlotte-hornets/article253197298.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">will play</a>) at No. 37.
I'll be especially intrigued in seeing just how NBA ready Jones and Thor appear to be. The Hornets don't have to rush either prospect and could opt to send them down to their G League affiliate, the Greensboro Swarm. If they do flash skill at summer league, though, they could eventually become exciting targets for LaMelo Ball.
And speaking of Ball, his brother LiAngelo will probably have his best shot at making the NBA this week. His name alone creates another storyline to follow, as LiAngelo hopes to follow his two brothers into stardom in the Association.
Cleveland Cavaliers
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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cavs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cavs</a> have announced their Summer League roster. <a href="https://t.co/4rAzBB6KmZ">pic.twitter.com/4rAzBB6KmZ</a>
&mdash; Spencer Davies (@SpinDavies) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpinDavies/status/1422347397154344965?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 3, 2021</a></blockquote>

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Cleveland is the only team in the NBA carrying two top-5 draft picks into summer league. Evan Mobley &mdash; a unique blend of size, speed and skill and this year's No. 3 pick &mdash; is certainly the headliner. Mobley has a ceiling as high as any in this draft class, and this week will give the first glimpses at how Cleveland looks to optimize him.
The other is Isaac Okoro, who started all 67 of the games he played last season. His usage rate was low, though, and the fifth overall pick in the 2020 draft struggled with shooting efficiency as a rookie. He made just 29% of his three-pointers and had a true shooting percentage of just 51.4, which is relatively poor. He can demonstrate improvement in this setting while getting more touches and the chance to showcase his defensive prowess.
One other player I'd keep an eye on is Mfiondu Kabengele. The Cavs signed him outright in May after playing through two 10-day contracts. Kabengele is a 2019 first-round pick who never clicked with the Clippers, so this could be a good place to start fresh.
Toronto Raptors
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Raptors Summer League roster below! Moses Wright will no longer be with the Raptors in Vegas. Became uncertainty as other moves were made and he'll opt for a different situation. (Not uncommon.) <a href="https://t.co/lRcbGUWYrL">pic.twitter.com/lRcbGUWYrL</a>
&mdash; Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) <a href="https://twitter.com/BlakeMurphyODC/status/1423298986606223365?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 5, 2021</a></blockquote>

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Kyle Lowry's departure signals a new era in Toronto -- one currently centered around Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby. Though they've graduated from summer league reps, fans will get to see three more key pieces that could define the franchise's future.
Toronto caught most draft analysts off guard by selecting Scottie Barnes with the fourth overall pick, but make no mistake, Barnes is a versatile forward whose combination of athleticism and processing speed will be on full display in Las Vegas.
Though Precious Achiuwa is not listed above, the second-year center will <a href="https://www.nba.com/summer-league/2021/vegas/team/1610612761/raptors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">also be with Toronto</a>&nbsp;after coming over from Miami in the Kyle Lowry sign-and-trade. Although the league has reportedly opened a tampering probe against the Miami Heat, at this time, there&rsquo;s no reason to believe that Achiuwa won&rsquo;t be in uniform for Toronto.
Fellow 2020 first-rounder Malachi Flynn will likely run the summer league offense in hopes of staking his claim as the Raptors' third guard in the rotation.&nbsp;
Newly-extended Masai Ujiri will surely keep a close eye on the three prospects as he ponders the identity of Toronto's next iteration.
---
After a one-year hiatus, it&rsquo;ll be nice to have summer basketball back. And without question, these are the teams that I&rsquo;ll be keeping a close eye on.

The 2021 MGM Resorts NBA Summer League in Las Vegas begins on August 8, and some teams qualify as 'Must See' TV.

Who are the must-watch Summer League teams in Las Vegas?

I'm not sure who could've predicted this Eastern Conference Finals.
On one side, the Milwaukee Bucks are seeing the fruits of their switch-it-up labor. They've tinkered all year long in preparation of this postseason. They mollywhopped the Miami Heat in round one. They then snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, before snatching victory anyway in a seven-game slugfest against the Brooklyn Nets.&nbsp;
On the other side are the Atlanta Hawks, a team that didn't look playoff bound midway through the season due to injuries, roster instability, and coaching turmoil. The firing of Lloyd Pierce, and the subsequent hiring of Nate McMillan, jumpstarted their turnaround. They proved to be too prolific for the New York Knicks in round one, and too resilient for the Philadelphia 76ers in round two.
And so, here we are. Two teams with unique (and oft-hated) offensive engines. Two teams that have had a microscope on their head coaching jobs for different reasons. Two teams that haven't won a title in decades, both presented with the opportunity to make the Finals.
I&rsquo;m not a coach -- I'm just a pun-loving basketball fan with a hankering for film breakdowns. But instead of a traditional series preview, I decided to go into the basketball trenches and devise gameplans for both teams. The tone of this piece will be a little more informal, but it will still be informative (at least I hope).
Without further ado, let's look at how the Milwaukee Bucks will try to stop the Atlanta Hawks.
Defensive Matchups
Jrue Holiday --&gt; Trae Young
Pat Connaughton --&gt; Kevin Huerter
Khris Middleton --&gt; Bogdan Bogdanovic
Giannis Antetokounmpo --&gt; John Collins
Brook Lopez --&gt; Clint Capela
The core four + PJ Tucker lineup has performed well this postseason (plus-10.3 net rating in 133 minutes), though it may make sense to downsize with Connaughton in this matchup.
That unit has also worked well (plus-8.3 in 38 minutes), and having Connaughton on the floor may make it a little more difficult to hide Young on the other end. Connaughton has some value as a ghost screener, while Tucker is primarily used to space in the corner or lurk around the dunker spot for offensive rebounds.
Top Priority on Defense: Disrupt Early offense
The Hawks aren't a team that wants to play particularly fast. They rank in the bottom third of the league in seconds per possession off of missed shots and turnovers, per <a href="http://stats.inpredictable.com/nba/ssnTeamPoss.php?season=2020&amp;po=0&amp;frdt=2020-12-22&amp;todt=2021-06-20&amp;view=off&amp;sort=aotopdr&amp;order=DESC" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Inpredictable tracking data</a>.&nbsp;
Being okay with grinding down possessions doesn't mean they can't attack early.&nbsp;They'll mix in a variety of looks to keep you off-balance.
A favorite, and one that Bucks fans in particular should recognize: a quick-hitter in which a player receives an off-ball screen in the middle of the floor, then immediately flows into a pick-and-roll. Call it Middleton Action if you want. There's also a built-in hand-back option if the middle screen doesn't gain enough traction.
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"Pistol" action is also a favorite of theirs. Combining a guard screen (and flare) with an empty corner set-up can be incredibly difficult to defend.
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Ultimately, the Hawks remain the NBA's preeminent Double Drag team. Young trotting up the court with a pair of screeners waiting for him is a scary sight.
One screener, likely Capela, will dive the basket. The other screener -- mostly Collins, but sometimes the guards get involved -- will pop above the break or flare out to the wing. Young can hit the roller, hit the pop, get downhill for floaters, or make corner skips. It's a nightmare, really.
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No team ran more "double-pick" plays than the Hawks this season, per Second Spectrum tracking data. They generated a healthy 1.1 points per possession on those looks; that number ballooned to [checks notes] over 1.9 points per possession on 26 direct hookups against the Bucks this season. That is a small sample, but it gives you an idea of how deadly the Hawks can be.
Being able to contain those kind of actions will force&nbsp;the Hawks to play deeper into the clock. No matter the comfort level, that's still a tough diet to live on.
Hawks' Team Stats (and Atlanta's stats vs. Milwaukee)&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Offensive Rating: 114.3, 9th (113.2)</li>
<li>Half-Court Offensive Rating: 99.2, 9th (108.8)</li>
<li>True Shooting Percentage: 58.1, 10th (58.7)</li>
<li>Assist Percentage: 59.1, 18th (60.3)</li>
<li>Turnover Rate: 13.3, 10th (10.5)</li>
<li>Pace: 98.68, 22nd (98.67)</li>
<li>Free-Throw Attempts: 24.2, 4th (21.3)</li>
<li>Free-Throw Percentage: 81.2, 5th (81.3)</li>
<li>Three-Point Attempts: 33.4, 19th (36.0)</li>
<li>Three-Point Percentage: 37.3, 12th (38.0)</li>
<li>Offensive Rebounds: 10.6, 7th (6.0)</li>
</ul>
Hawks' Play Type Breakdown
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Defending Trae Young
How much is there to say about Young at this point?&nbsp;
His blend of scoring and playmaking chops are rivaled by a handful of players in the NBA. He's faced two strong defenses in the postseason, and neither was able to consistently slow him down. It's hard to scoff at 29 and 10, even with the efficiency taking a hit from the regular season (55.3 TS%).
Young struggled in his lone showing against the Bucks this season -- 15 and 9 with six turnovers, while shooting 3-of-17 from the field -- though that was an outlier performance based on the shots he took (and&nbsp; missed). He is absolutely good enough to shape this series in his image if he isn't pressured.
Major Key: Restrict his Airspace
There isn't a good answer for a guy like Young, particularly in ball screens. He's a fearless pull-up threat with range extending to darn-near half-court. The danger levels rise when he gets downhill.
He's the most prolific floater taker (and maker) in the NBA; per Synergy, Young led the NBA in points off floaters (332), edging out second-place Richaun Holmes (226) by 106 points.&nbsp;
Put another way: Young took 345 floaters, while Holmes and third-in-points Luka Doncic took 347 combined.
It's the ultimate Small Guy Weapon, made even more dangerous by the fact that Young's floater looks identical to his lob pass. Backpedaling defenders don't know whether to step to give a moderate contest, or hang back to take away lob passes.
Defending Young in ball-screens will have to be a 2-on-2 endeavor if possible. This may not be a deep-drop series. Young shot 3-of-17 in the regular-season meeting, but he missed a ton of makeable shots that, frankly, he didn't have to work super hard to get.
The gameplan will need to resemble what was seen in the semis against Kevin Durant. Lopez may not have to be above the three-point line like he was against those Durant-Bruce Brown pick-and-rolls near half court. As hot as Young can run as a pull-up shooter, he is not Durant in that regard.
However, the answer probably isn't hanging back a step or two below the free throw line either. Finding that middle ground would allow time for Young's defender (mostly Holiday) to recover.&nbsp;
We talk about "rearview contests" when it comes to point-of-attack defenders in drop coverage. It's important for guys to be able to recover and contest shots from behind, making the ball-handler squirm a bit.&nbsp;
Young has removed that from the table with his ability to stop-and-pop. Quibble about those foul calls if you want, but it's a smart (and legal) way to make him even more difficult to defend. If he gets you on his hip, you're pretty much done for.
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Again, infuriating. But again, smart and legal.&nbsp;
Instead of straight-line recovery paths, taking a different angle to end up on Young's side (instead of his hip) may be the best way to bother him. Peep this rep from Middleton.
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<div class="p-rich_text_section">With that plan, Young would have to go with a super unnatural shooting motion to lean in and draw fouls that way. He still could -- he's that slithery -- but it's at least extra work. That kind of extra work, with his usage, can add up over the course of the series.</div>
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If the deeper drop remains a default, that will not only put strain on Young's defender. It'll also require some extra help off the ball. You can afford to have Lopez deeper in the paint, the last line of defense, if there's someone who can throw off Young's cadence in the intermediate area. Timely digs from the perimeter will be key in this instance.
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Jeff Teague (I would hope there won't be any Teague in this series) gets lost in the sauce early, while Bobby Portis is dropping&nbsp;from&nbsp;the dotted line area. Tucker is able to bridge the gap by showing some help right as Young begins his gather. That can work on occasion; you just have to be weary of Young making kick-outs.
Something to consider: one way to cut off Young's rhythm could be to switch. That will depend on the personnel on the floor, as well as who Young's partner is in ball-screen actions.
(Quietly, this is the case to keeping Tucker in the starting lineup. Switching Young-Bogdanovic or Young-Huerter pick-and-rolls, whichever assignment Tucker draws, could put a dent into Young's mismatch hunting.)
In terms of the partnerships, switching the Young-Collins pick-and-roll should be worth considering. The two generated just 0.94 points per possession when facing a switch, well below their overall efficiency (1.06 PPP) per Second Spectrum.
Forcing Young to shoot over the outstretched limbs of Giannis may be a worthwhile gamble. Collins has been a menace on the block against guards (1.23 PPP), though Holiday is not your ordinary guard (0.88 PPP allowed on post-ups).
Defending the Shooters (Perimeter)
Lou Williams: Soft close-out
<ul>
<li>It seems counterintuitive based on his production. Williams shot north of 44% from three as a Hawk this season, though did so on low volume. The argument is that Williams, even at this stage, is more dangerous getting downhill (and grifting for fouls) than he is as a three-point marksman. Show him you're coming without getting too close to him; that could eliminate some of his pump-and-drive or pump-and-lean-in game.</li>
</ul>
Kevin Huerter: Hard close-out to his right hand
<ul>
<li style="text-align: left;">Huerter is a lights-out shooter, a career 38% marksman with volume and shot versatility. He can drain spot-up shots, convert on pump-and-sidestep looks, and is a willing relocator when the action is flowing elsewhere. Running Huerter off the line makes sense; doing so and forcing him to use his left is the optimal outcome. He already isn't a rim threat, and has oddly shot much worse on pull-ups when driving left.</li>
</ul>
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Bogdan Bogdanovic: Hard, but controlled close-out
<ul>
<li>Bogdanovic is an elite shooter with a high release point. He cares not for your contests; per Synergy, Bogdanovic ranked in the 91st percentile on "guarded" catch-and-shoot looks. That doesn't mean you don't try, but you also don't want to get sloppy. He absolutely has the playmaking chops to beat a rotating defense, and complements that with a more complete scoring arsenal than Huerter. Don't let him get busy.</li>
</ul>
Tony Snell: Hard close-out
<ul>
<li>Snell hasn't shot well this postseason, but he has long earned the pedigree of a high-level spot-up shooter. He also... doesn't do much else with the ball. Force him off the line and make him make decisions.</li>
</ul>
Defending the Shooters (Frontcourt)
Danilo Gallinari: Hard close-out
<ul>
<li>Gallinari can stroke it from deep (career 38.2% shooter on 5.2 attempts), and resides in the cares-not-for-your-contest division. Injuries and age have sapped a lot of his burst off the bounce; running him off the line and forcing him to beat you with drives, pull-ups, and tough turnarounds might be a reasonable bet.</li>
</ul>
Solomon Hill: Let him fire
<ul>
<li>Hill has shot above league average from three once in his career, and even that mark (36.8% in 2019-20) came on relatively low volume (2.9 attempts). He's okay from the corners (career 36.6%), but it's underwhelming considering a majority of those looks have been wide open. Muck up the action elsewhere.</li>
</ul>
John Collins: Soft close-out
<ul>
<li>At a certain point, the scouting report on Collins has to change a bit. We're now two years into Collins becoming a stretch option; he's drilled 40% of his threes over the past two seasons on moderate volume. He's shooting 39% in the postseason. His release is a bit slow so there's no need to blitz him, but he's at least graduated from "tip-your-cap-if-he-beats-us" status.</li>
</ul>
X-Factor: Bogdan Bogdanovic
Bogdanovic has been huge for this Hawks team all season, thriving as a secondary option and completely taking over games when he's rolling. To that point: Bogdanovic dropped 28-6-7 against the Bucks on April 15, then dropped 32 on them on April 25.&nbsp;His shot-making is a perfect complement to, and occasionally a cover for, Young.
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The issue is less about Bogdanovic's playoff mettle, and more about his health. He suffered a knee injury early in Game 6. It didn't keep him out of Game 7, but he was clearly hampered (four points on 2-of-8 shooting in 21 minutes).
This isn't a profound point, but the Hawks will need him to be at or near full strength to have a hope in this series. And to that point, pressuring Bogdanovic will go a long way to stifling Atlanta's half-court attack.
<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/scouting-report-how-the-hawks-can-stop-the-bucks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Check out Nekias' breakdown of how the Hawks should defend the Bucks.</a>

Nekias Duncan puts on his amateur coaching hat and puts together a game plan on how the Bucks should defend the Hawks.

Scouting Report: How the Bucks can stop the Hawks

The NBA today announced that Portland Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony, Sacramento Kings forward Harrison Barnes, Philadelphia 76ers forward Tobias Harris, Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday and Golden State Warriors forward Juan Toscano-Anderson have been selected as the five finalists for the inaugural Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion award. The new annual award, named after six-time NBA champion and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, recognizes a current NBA player for pursuing social justice and advancing Abdul-Jabbar&rsquo;s life mission to engage, empower and drive equality for individuals and groups who have been historically marginalized or systemically disadvantaged.&nbsp;
The finalists for the award were selected from an impressive pool of NBA team nominees who have upheld the league&rsquo;s decades-long values of equality, respect and inclusion.&nbsp; The finalists were determined by a selection committee&nbsp;composed of Abdul-Jabbar, notable social justice leaders, including&nbsp;Director&nbsp;of The&nbsp;Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport Dr. Richard Lapchick, student activist Teyonna Lofton, National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial,&nbsp;UnidosUS President and CEO&nbsp;Janet Murgu&iacute;a, Rise Founder and CEO Amanda Nguyen, and&nbsp;NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Mark Tatum.
Each finalist has selected an organization focused on advancing social justice that will receive a contribution on his behalf.&nbsp; The winner&rsquo;s selection will receive a $100,000 donation and the other four finalists will each receive a $25,000 contribution for a social justice organization of their choosing.
The winner will be announced prior to Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals on TNT.&nbsp; Below is more information about the finalists, including their respective efforts and selected beneficiaries, and additional details regarding the selection committee.
Carmelo Anthony, Portland Trail Blazers
A prolific champion in the social impact space, ten-time NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony has been unabashedly vocal on how systemic oppression, racism and police brutality not only dehumanizes Black people, but prohibits the progress needed for generations of Black people to thrive and progress as a community.&nbsp; He founded the Carmelo Anthony Foundation over 15 years ago as a vehicle for actionable change and social reform through a variety of outreach programs and disaster relief initiatives.&nbsp; In 2020, he served as guest Editor-in-Chief for Slam Magazine&rsquo;s Special Social Justice Issue and established the Social Change Fund alongside fellow NBA greats to focus on investing in organizations addressing critical and timely issues impacting the Black community including expanding access to voting and civic engagement, education, employment, housing, economic equity, and representation in leadership.&nbsp; Anthony currently serves as a board member of the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition.
His work isn&rsquo;t just limited to reform in criminal justice, voting or race spaces, but he also developed an incubator program focused on creativity and the arts. &nbsp;Through his STAYME7O banner, Anthony established the STAYME7O Propel Program in 2020 as a way to tap into the creativity of Black culture through fashion, art and design to develop intricate pieces that honor a vision of&nbsp;Black&nbsp;excellence and inspire a culture to create&nbsp;and move further, together.&nbsp; This spring, Anthony also announced Creative 7, his global, multi-platform content company through which he has been developing a robust slate of projects that&nbsp;speak to the evolution of the human spirit through adversity, social activism and compelling, entertainment-forward storytelling.&nbsp; Anthony has selected&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a href="https://portlandartmuseum.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://portlandartmuseum.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1623513737585000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFYpq9TrITwg2RQK9JSfagXue-t0A">Portland Art Museum&rsquo;s Black Arts and Experiences Initiative</a>&nbsp;as the recipient of his donation.
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Harrison Barnes, Sacramento Kings
Over the last year Harrison Barnes has provided meaningful support to youth, families and frontline workers in Sacramento, Dallas and Ames, IA, and&nbsp;has also been a vocal advocate for voter rights, addressing systemic racism and investing in Black youth.&nbsp; Leading up to the 2020 election, he emphasized the importance of civic engagement and voting through speaking engagements, a collaboration with&nbsp;<a href="http://be.woke.vote/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://Be.Woke.Vote&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1623513737585000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHAwEmxFv8NeaxPMFtB-l_sJn-Lgg">Be.Woke.Vote</a>&nbsp;and casting a ballot himself on National Vote Early Day at Golden 1 Center. As part of the NBA restart, Barnes dedicated each Kings game to a different organization supporting racial justice &ndash; including the Trayvon Martin Foundation, the Botham Jean Foundation, The Atatiana Project, Mothers Against Police Brutality, the Michael Brown Foundation, Tamir Rice Foundation, Champion in the Making and the African American Policy Forum &ndash; and contributed $25,000 to those created by the families of victims of police brutality and gun violence.
In October, he was named to the NBA Foundation&rsquo;s inaugural Board of Directors, helping to guide its effort to further economic empowerment in the Black community and in February, Barnes announced his partnership with Goalsetter, a Black-owned finance app that provides an education-first banking experience, to open saving accounts for 500 youth from Build.Black. in Sacramento and TL Marsalis Elementary in Dallas.&nbsp; He also launched a series entitled &ldquo;<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.instagram.com/tv/CMUxqkEDsNA/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link__;!!PMETyfE!ZDDKwXjBncNGIltP-I1zSE6Ocp2vfJKWWTXUKVKyHIWNUcYTGip-GFMF9cA$" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.instagram.com/tv/CMUxqkEDsNA/?utm_source%3Dig_web_copy_link__;!!PMETyfE!ZDDKwXjBncNGIltP-I1zSE6Ocp2vfJKWWTXUKVKyHIWNUcYTGip-GFMF9cA$&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1623513737585000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF-SR7hwbNVH-6HHGmJ4lIryH9TGA">Conversations with Harrison</a>,&rdquo; in which he speaks with nonprofit and community leaders, educators, athletes, elected officials and business leaders to promote their work and bring attention to their causes.&nbsp;&nbsp;Barnes has selected&nbsp;<a href="https://policingequity.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://policingequity.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1623513737585000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFWFky7NK3nNBPEqvlc34ZxZj_7Dg">Center for Policing Equity</a>&nbsp;as the recipient of his donation.
Tobias Harris, Philadelphia 76ers
As a longtime advocate for social justice, Tobias Harris has been particularly focused on eliminating racial inequities within school systems that have historically harmed young people of color.&nbsp; To date through the Tobias Harris Charitable Fund, he has awarded $2 million dollars to help move the needle on educational equity.&nbsp; This year, he awarded $300,000 to The Fund for the School District of Philadelphia to recruit teachers from HBCUs or diverse backgrounds &ndash; who are more likely to carry higher student loan balances following graduation &ndash; and provide relocation stipends to prevent barriers of quality Black teachers in the classroom.&nbsp; Harris also created the Tobias&rsquo; Top Teachers program, to assist in the recruitment and retention of Black male teachers by helping fund 55 professional development workshops and providing 800 new teachers with needed classroom supplies.&nbsp; Additionally, through his Lit Labs program that focuses on improving reading scores among students of diverse backgrounds, he distributed 30,000 books to 8,000 Philadelphia children to prevent summer reading gaps and helped improve the average rate gain for young scholars by 70%.
Throughout 2020, Harris used his voice and platform to speak out against systemic injustice and racism, marching in protest of police brutality, calling for reform while in the NBA Bubble and reflecting on racial injustice in The Players&rsquo; Tribune.&nbsp; With actionable change at the center of his efforts, Harris led conversations with teammates and helped launch the VOTE 76 initiative to encourage civic engagement. He was also named as one of two player representatives to the NBA Foundation board, which aims to create greater economic opportunity for Black youth through employment and career advancement.&nbsp;&nbsp;Harris has selected&nbsp;<a href="http://thefundsdp.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://thefundsdp.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1623513737585000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEN6_gT0lgvFAla4HBOTQRjOoC2zw">Fund for the School District of Philadelphia</a>&nbsp;as the recipient of his donation.&nbsp;
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Jrue Holiday, Milwaukee Bucks
A longtime advocate for social justice, this past year Jrue Holiday has focused on creating economic opportunity and empowerment in communities of color.&nbsp; Last summer, Holiday pledged the remainder of his 2020 NBA salary to create The Jrue and Lauren Holiday Social Justice Fund, which seeks to combat systemic racism and increase economic equality by providing funding and support to Black-led organizations and businesses.&nbsp; Earlier this season, the fund announced support for 25 nonprofits and historically Black institutions, as well as 23 Black-owned small businesses in Los Angeles, New Orleans and Indianapolis.
In the fall of 2020, Jrue and his wife, Lauren, also partnered with the Wisconsin Women&rsquo;s Business Initiative Corporation to identify small, women- and Black-owned businesses most in need of assistance.&nbsp; After reviewing grant requests, the Holiday family announced funding for seven local businesses in January: Amri Counseling Services, Carter&rsquo;s Quality Care, Hands at Home, Jamaican Season Island Restaurant, Kid&rsquo;s Kingdom, Legacy Home Health Services and The SW.&nbsp; Beyond financial support, the Holidays provide coaching for the JLH Fund grantees to expand funding opportunities and community engagement and work with Microsoft&rsquo;s Nonprofit Tech Acceleration for Black &amp; African American Communities so that all recipients can also receive technology and support services.&nbsp; In Spring 2021, the Holidays opened the second round of applications and surprised a young man&nbsp;battling sickle cell anemia with tickets to a Bucks game in efforts to support the young man and bring awareness to the disorder that disproportionately impacts Black Americans.&nbsp;&nbsp;Holiday has&nbsp;selected&nbsp;<a href="https://expowisconsin.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://expowisconsin.org/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1623513737585000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGx8YxmJHtj_VW8sgElmIMsNmoXcw">EXPO of Wisconsin</a>&nbsp;as the recipient&nbsp;of his donation.
Juan Toscano-Anderson, Golden State Warriors
Juan Toscano-Anderson, whose parents are Black and Mexican American, is focused on empowerment for Latino and Black communities and established the Journey to Achieve (JTA) Foundation to give back to youth and families of color in the Bay Area, Santa Cruz and Mexico.&nbsp; The Oakland native has continued to use his voice&nbsp;to advocate for&nbsp;social justice&nbsp;and equality&nbsp;in the Bay Area.&nbsp;&nbsp;Toscano-Anderson participated in the Warriors&rsquo; VOTERS Win campaign &ndash; a PSA to encourage Black and Latino citizens to vote in the 2020 election and fill out the census &ndash; and led two Walk in Unity events in Oakland, bringing people together to combat oppression, police brutality and social injustice.
To create opportunity and empower young people of color this past year, he has discussed biases with 6th&nbsp;grade students in San Francisco, spoken to more than 3,000 African youth about his journey and overcoming obstacles and supported Digital Nest, a local nonprofit focused on empowering Latinx professionals, in a live Q&amp;A where he discussed his childhood, basketball career and the pride he felt in playing with the Mexican National Team.&nbsp; In continued efforts to support the Latinx community, he addressed more than 2,000 people in Spanish at the D&iacute;a De Los Muertos Film Festival in Watsonville and purchased equipment and materials for&nbsp;Fundacion&nbsp;Unidos Por&nbsp;Chavinda in his family&rsquo;s hometown that provides medicine and food for senior citizens and supports development and life skills for youth.&nbsp;&nbsp;Toscano-Anderson has selected&nbsp;<a href="http://www.homiesempowerment.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.homiesempowerment.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1623513737585000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFxXidiTpSAFQ2VPJn9JsxFGb-Ucg">Homies Empowerment</a>&nbsp;as the recipient of his donation.

Carmelo Anthony, Tobias Harris, Jrue Holiday, Harrison Barnes and Juan Toscano-Anderson are the finalists for the annual award.

NBA shares finalists for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion award

If you search &ldquo;Marcus Zegarowski&rdquo; on Google, you will see &ldquo;Michael Carter-Williams&rsquo; brother&rdquo; in the top results.
Perhaps a fact known among basketball circles, but not likely quite as well-known by the greater public, is that Zegarowksi -- Creighton&rsquo;s leading scorer this season and a 2020-21 All-Big East First Team member -- is much more than an NBA Draft prospect in the shadow of the 2014 Rookie of the Year. Zegarowski was a steady force and a key leadership piece for a very successful Bluejays team this year, in one of the most competitive and deep conferences in America.
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A 6-foot-2 guard, Zegarowski hails from Hamilton, Massachusetts, which is about 40 minutes north of Boston. He comes from a family of basketball players; beyond the aforementioned Carter-Williams, his older sister Masey plays Division I at Bryant University, and his mother Amanda (Mandy) is a former collegiate player, as well as high school head coach.
Maybe the most important person in his career arc is his twin brother Max (a player at Division II Franklin Pierce and formerly Lynn University). The twin brothers played at Hamilton-Wenham High School, and led the Generals to a perfect 25-0 season and a Division IV state title during their freshman year. They then transferred together to Tilton School (NH), a New England powerhouse that was once the home of current NBA players Nerlens Noel, Terance Mann and Georges Niang. In their junior year at Tilton, the brothers led the team to the NEPSAC (New England Preparatory School Athletic Council) Class-AA Finals, but came up short; Marcus was named to the NEPSAC First Team. Heading into their senior year, they took the Rams back to the Class-AA Finals, this time winning 99-92 against St. Andrew&rsquo;s School (RI), a game in which Marcus dropped 24 points and took home NEPSAC Player of the Year for his efforts.
Upon his graduation, Zegarowski committed to Creighton University. It would be the first time in his life that he didn't play on the same team as his brother. In his freshman season, Marcus earned Big East All-Freshman honors, posting 10.4 points, 3.4 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game, while shooting 42.9% from three-point range. In the 2019-2020 season, Zegarowksi paired with Ty-Shon Alexander (currently on a two-way contract with the Phoenix Suns) for a potent 33 points per game combined, leading the Bluejays to a 13-5 record in the Big East (24-7 overall) and a first place finish. As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic dashed the team's postseason hopes, as they seemed poised to make a run in the 2020 NCAA Tournament.&nbsp;
With Ty-Shon Alexander moving on to the NBA, Zegarowski stepped into a larger leadership role for Creighton this season. Although his overall statistical profile was nearly identical to his sophomore year, he did cut down his turnovers and produced a two-point improvement on his individual defensive rating. Creighton went into March with a 22-9 record and a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Fresh off of averaging 16 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists per game during the Big East Tournament, Zegarowksi and Creighton faced No. 12 UC Santa Barbara out of the Big West. He rose to the occasion by posting 17 points and 8 assists, and was pivotal down the stretch, scoring or assisting on 7 of Creighton&rsquo;s 9 points with the Gauchos taking them to the brink.
Zegarowski only got better as the stakes became higher. In the Round of 32 matchup against Ohio University and fellow draft prospect Jason Preston, Zegarowksi scored 20 points while holding Preston to only 4 points on 1-for-10 shooting from the field. Against an undefeated Gonzaga, which was the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament field, Zegarowski went for an impressive 19 points.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been intrigued by Marcus Zegarowksi since last season," added Matt Babcock, BasketballNews.com's Lead NBA Draft Analyst. "Although he does not have physical tools that blow you away, he&rsquo;s a player that&rsquo;s hard not to like as he shoots the ball with range, provides toughness, and is just a good point guard overall."
Since the season ended, rumors have swirled about Zegarowksi&rsquo;s next move, but on Tuesday, Zegarowski put an end to the speculation over his future by declaring for the NBA Draft and indicating that he won&rsquo;t be returning to Creighton next season.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Bluejay forever 💙🙏🏽 <a href="https://t.co/fUJLcI1TxH">pic.twitter.com/fUJLcI1TxH</a>
&mdash; marcus zegarowski (@MZegarowski1) <a href="https://twitter.com/MZegarowski1/status/1382039277803016196?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2021</a></blockquote>

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"We will take him very seriously as a prospect. He is currently No. 39 on our 2021 NBA Draft Big Board,&rdquo; Babcock added.
I&rsquo;m really not sure which jersey Marcus Zegarowksi will don next season, but I&rsquo;m looking forward to watching him regardless of where he ends up.

Grant Aqui shares how Marcus Zegarowski's family has influenced his basketball career and details his impressive years at Creighton.

Aiden