Wildcats

May 5, 2006. That was the last time the Sacramento Kings <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200605050SAC.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">played in a playoff game</a>. That contest took place 5,863 days ago.&nbsp; To put that into context: During that 2005-06 season, Chris Paul was a rookie and Bruce Bowen, who was born in 1971, was named to the NBA's All-Defensive First Team. Steve Nash won his second consecutive MVP award and Boris Diaw was named the league's Most Improved Player.
The Kings made history last month, the type of history that no organization wants to be known for. Sacramento, who finished the 2021-22 campaign with a 30-52 record, failed to qualify for the postseason for the 16th straight season, breaking the NBA record for the longest playoff drought. (The Kings had been tied with the Buffalo Braves and Los Angeles Clippers prior.)
So, while <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-draft-lottery-teams-who-should-trade-to-win-now-or-at-least-sooner" target="_blank" rel="noopener">many teams in this year's draft lottery</a> are rumored to be interested in potentially trading their pick, arguably no team is more motivated to add an established player (as opposed to an unproven rookie) in hopes of avoiding a return trip to the all-too-familiar lottery dais next May than the Kings.
As proof of their urgency to win now, the Kings shocked pundits back in February by trading away Tyrese Haliburton, one of the league's most promising young point guards, to the Indiana Pacers in exchange for a package that included Justin Holiday, Jeremy Lamb and two-time All-Star Domantas Sabonis.&nbsp;
Thus, it isn't shocking to learn that Sacramento, who jumped up to land the No. 4 overall pick in last week's lottery, is reportedly willing to wheel and deal if presented with the right offer.&nbsp;
<a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10036369-nba-draft-buzz-insiders-explain-why-chet-holmgren-makes-sense-at-no-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report</a>, "there's a strong belief among rival teams that Sacramento will explore trading the fourth selection, either out of the draft entirely for an impact veteran or down later in the lottery to net a contributing rotation player in the process."
The other issue likely factoring into the Kings' thought process is that the top tier of the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2022 NBA Draft</a> consists of three players (Jabari Smith, Chet Holmgren and Paolo Banchero), with a bit of a dropoff after those elite prospects. Nonetheless, "the uncertainty of the fourth selection could prompt eager teams to leap up to secure their prized prospect" which puts the Kings' front office in a "<a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10036369-nba-draft-buzz-insiders-explain-why-chet-holmgren-makes-sense-at-no-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">strong trade position</a>," per Fischer.&nbsp;
Additionally, Mike Scotto of HoopsHype recently <a href="https://hoopshype.com/lists/aggregate-nba-mock-draft-lottery-jabari-smith-chet-holmgren-paolo-banchero-trade-rumors/">reported</a> that NBA executives "are monitoring the Sacramento Kings" as a team that could trade their pick "in search of player(s) that can help immediately." Scotto added that after acquiring Sabonis, the Kings have "made it clear the goal is to end the franchise's playoff drought" and that "rival teams are keeping an eye on Sacramento to trade this pick."
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So, let's examine some deals that might make sense for both the Kings and a potential trading partner.
Detroit Pistons send Jerami Grant, Saben Lee, Isaiah Livers and a second-round pick (No. 46 overall) to the Kings in exchange for the No. 4 overall pick, Richaun Holmes, Maurice Harkless and Alex Len
Earlier this offseason, Sacramento general manager Monte McNair <a href="https://account.sacbee.com/paywall/subscriber-only?resume=260358905&amp;intcid=ab_archive">conceded</a> that the team needs to add players who can knock down shots and fit in alongside the franchise's cornerstones, Sabonis and De'Aaron Fox.
"I think shooting, we can clearly acknowledge, will be a huge priority," McNair declared. "Length, athleticism, versatility &mdash; we've talked about all that as well. Obviously, you want the whole package, but shooting will be a big priority for us."
Grant most certainly checks those boxes. During his two years in Detroit, he has averaged 20.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 2.0 made treys and 1.1 blocks per game. He has shot over 37% from downtown on 4.5 attempts over the past four seasons and is a versatile, plus defender. As a stretch-4, Grant &mdash; who just turned 28 and is in the heart of his prime &mdash; could conceivably fit in well in the frontcourt alongside Sabonis, who likes to operate on the low block and is a good passer from the post. Moreover, Fox-Grant pick-and-rolls would be difficult to defend.&nbsp;
The issue in this potential trade is that Grant has just one season left on the three-year, $60 million deal he signed in 2020. However, as long as Grant is traded before Aug. 9, he is eligible to sign an extension with his new team for up to $112 million over four years. After previously spurning the Nuggets to sign with the Pistons, we know that Grant is not afraid to join a team that hasn't enjoyed recent success. Would he be willing to commit to Sacramento long-term? If so, a Big Three of Fox, Grant and Sabonis might be talented enough to finally push the Kings into the postseason.&nbsp;
For the Pistons, they would add Holmes (a quality center on a team-friendly contract) and enter next month's draft with 2 of the top 5 picks, which would allow them to add a pair of promising prospects to a core centered around Cade Cunningham, Saddiq Bey, Isaiah Stewart and Killian Hayes. 
Washington Wizards send Kyle Kuzma and the No. 10 overall pick to the Kings for the No. 4 pick, Justin Holiday and Terence Davis
After a disappointing end to his tenure as a Los Angeles Laker, Kuzma bounced back with a very productive season for the Wizards in 2021-22. He averaged 17.1 points and 1.9 made three-pointers while setting career-highs in rebounds (8.5), assists (3.5) and blocks (0.9) per game. He led the Wiz in double-doubles with 24 (which ranked tied for the sixth-most among all forwards in the NBA). Adding Kuzma's offensive versatility would provide Sacramento with some much-needed depth at forward. In addition, the Kings would still have a lottery pick, dropping back just six spots, which would allow them to add another young asset to the roster.&nbsp;
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The Wizards would likely entertain such a deal if they fell in love with a prospect &mdash; such as Keegan Murray, Jaden Ivey or Shaedon Sharpe &mdash; whom they feel relatively sure won't still be on the board at 10.
Kuz has two years left on his current contract but can opt out in the summer of 2023. However, he will be eligible to sign a four-year extension for up to $70 million this October if his $13 million player option for 2023-24 is declined.&nbsp;
A similar package featuring one of the Wizards' other young forwards (Rui Hachimura, Deni Avdija or Corey Kispert) instead of Kuzma might also be feasible, depending on the value the Kings/Wizards place on the respective players.&nbsp;
Houston Rockets send the No. 3 overall pick and Eric Gordon to the Kings for the No. 4 pick, a (protected) future first-round pick, a 2022 second-round pick, Richaun Holmes and Justin Holiday
Is it possible that Sacramento views Smith, Holmgren or Banchero as talented enough to make a substantial impact as a rookie? If so, would the team be willing to pony up sufficient capital to move up one spot?
The Kings would snag one of this draft's three most prized prospects in this hypothetical scenario. The 7-foot Holmgren is one of the most versatile prospects to enter the draft in recent history. Banchero possesses a freakish combination of size, strength and athleticism. Smith projects as a lethal stretch-4 who could fit in nicely alongside Sabonis.&nbsp;
Gordon is a respected, established veteran with just one year of guaranteed money left on his contract. He shot a scorching 41.2% from three-point territory this past season, the second-best mark of his career.&nbsp;
Such a deal would make sense for the Rockets if they feel whichever of the top-tier prospects that falls to them isn't significantly better than the next highest-ranked player on their board. During a post-lottery press conference last week, Rockets general manager Rafael Stone said Houston is <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/status/1526739178557517824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1526739178557517824%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbleacherreport.com%2Farticles%2F10036145-rockets-open-to-trading-3rd-pick-in-2022-nba-draft-if-a-deal-makes-sense-gm-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">open to trading the No. 3 pick</a>.
"I'm definitely not gonna block them out," Stone <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26/status/1526739178557517824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1526739178557517824%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbleacherreport.com%2Farticles%2F10036145-rockets-open-to-trading-3rd-pick-in-2022-nba-draft-if-a-deal-makes-sense-gm-says">told reporters</a>. "If they wanna talk, I'm always available to talk... If it's the case that they're interested in doing something, we're always available to listen. If there's something that makes sense for both teams, something will get done."
Adding a quality young center in Holmes would give the Rockets leverage in negotiations with Christian Wood, or potentially enable them to trade him out of Houston.&nbsp;
New York Knicks trade Julius Randle and the No. 11 overall pick to the Kings for Harrison Barnes, the No. 4 pick and a second-round pick (No. 37 overall)&nbsp;
Randle playing alongside Sabonis could be viewed as a clunky fit, but Sabonis did play 80% of his minutes at center for Sacramento after arriving via the midseason trade. The pairing would undoubtedly be problematic defensively, but the duo would be dynamic on the offensive end. Over the past two seasons, Randle and Sabonis were 2 of only 4 NBA players to average double-digit boards and more than 5 assists per contest. (The other two players in this club were Nikola Jokić and Giannis Antetokounmpo.)
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After being named to the All-NBA Second Team in 2020-21, Randle's offensive inefficiency regressed dramatically this past season. In addition, <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/julius-randle-and-the-knicks-should-part-ways-this-summer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the relationship between Randle and Knicks fans turned toxic</a> at various points during the year. Yet, even in a "down year," he averaged 20.1 points, 9.9 boards and 5.1 dimes per game. A fresh start in California might help Randle regain his All-Star form. Also, he is under team control for at least three more years (he has a player option for 2025-26), which means the Kings wouldn't have to worry about their key players entering free agency anytime soon.&nbsp;
From the Knicks' perspective, this move would allow them to jump up and snag a highly-touted prospect, possibly combo guard Jaden Ivey, who New York was rumored to be interested in. And, <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/julius-randle-and-the-knicks-should-part-ways-this-summer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as I wrote last month</a>, moving Randle would enable the Knicks to insert Obi Toppin (who averaged 27.2 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.8 made three-pointers per game in April) into the starting lineup while also clearing Randle's contract off their books. Barnes will celebrate his 30th birthday next week, but is still playing at a high level and has just one year left on his current deal.&nbsp;
Atlanta Hawks trade John Collins and the No. 16 pick to the Kings for Harrison Barnes and the No. 4 pick
After signing a massive five-year contract worth $125 million last summer, Collins struggled with injuries and inconsistency in 2021-22. His disappointing production was one of the reasons Atlanta failed to meet lofty expectations this season. One year after advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals, the Hawks spent much of this past season below .500 and were easily eliminated by the Miami Heat in the first round.
Would they be willing to part way with Collins (and his contract) to jump 12 spots in the draft?&nbsp;
Much like the aforementioned Randle/Knicks deal, the Kings would have to decide if Collins could mesh with Sabonis and Fox.&nbsp;
Charlotte Hornets trade Gordon Hayward, the No. 13 pick and the No. 15 pick (via NOLA) to the Kings in exchange for Harrison Barnes, Maurice Harkless, Alex Len and the No. 4 pick
Attempting to determine Hayward's value league-wide is difficult. When healthy, he's been remarkably productive throughout his career. However, he's been plagued by injury issues and has missed 58 games since signing a four-year, $120 million pact with the Hornets in 2020. He has two years and $61.5 million left on his current contract, which also contains a 15% trade kicker.&nbsp;
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Tommy Beer highlights a number of possible trades that the Kings could execute to improve their roster this summer.

Breaking down 6 hypothetical trades for the Kings' fourth draft pick

The NBA Draft Combine provides many opportunities for prospects to shine, and the scrimmages are, at times, where selections are earned. With that in mind and the third scrimmage in the books, let's look into some notable prospect performances.
Andrew Nembhard, Gonzaga
Andrew Nembhard put his skills on full display this afternoon, posting 26 points and 10 points with his scoring punch and facilitation skills. He understands how to command the flow of a game and rarely gets rushed as the lead guard. After averaging 11.8 points and 5.8 assists at Gonzaga, the 6-foot-5 guard from Ontario looks to cement himself as a second-round selection in next month&rsquo;s draft.&nbsp;
John Butler, Jr., Florida State
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John Butler Jr. averaged only 5.9 points in his freshman campaign at Florida State but has many intrigued with his size, length and shooting potential. He measured nearly 7-foot-1 with a 7-foot-4-inch wingspan and scored 16 points in this contest. Butler has work to do physically, and it&rsquo;s unknown whether or not he&rsquo;ll stay in the 2022 NBA Draft, but he&rsquo;s making a name for himself as a next-level player.&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft/2022-nba-mock-draft/players/darius-days" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Darius Days</a>, LSU
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Darius Days posted 17 points and 8 rebounds on 3-of-7 from deep. At 6-foot-7 he&rsquo;s a bit of a small-ball 4, but he has a special combination of power and bounce. He carried a decent offensive load this season, which allowed us to see his scoring ability, both inside and out. Days is also an adequate defender and a tenacious rebounder. He continues to provide versatility and fill up the box score, so Days has a great opportunity to be a second pick in the 2022 NBA Draft.
Dominick Barlow, Overtime Elite
By posting 19 points on 7-of-9 from the floor, Barlow continues his strong showing in Chicago. He stands nearly 6-foot-10 in shoes, has a 7-foot-3 wingspan and registered a 34-inch max vertical. Barlow shows promise as a play-finisher and shooter, and continues to develop nicely. Great potential in the forward from New Jersey.
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Derek Murray highlights key observations from the third scrimmage of the 2022 NBA Draft Combine.

2022 NBA Draft Combine: Takeaways from Scrimmage No. 3

Luka Doncic and his teammates remind Jason Kidd a little of the last Dallas Mavericks team to advance in the playoffs.
The coach now was the point guard then when the Mavericks had split the first four games of the 2011 playoffs against the Portland Trail Blazers. He recalls people thinking Dallas might not even get out of that series.
Instead, the Mavericks won the next two games and never looked back. They swept the two-time defending NBA champion Lakers in the next round and ended up winning the title themselves by beating Miami in the NBA Finals.
This year, Dallas again started 2-2, then won two straight <a href="https://apnews.com/article/utah-jazz-dallas-mavericks-nba-sports-donovan-mitchell-fb5fd38fade2be4e78e6676d735f2eec">to get by the Utah Jazz with a 98-96 victory</a> on Thursday night. The current Mavericks don't have the experience and may not have the talent of his title team, but Kidd said they are a special group.
&ldquo;They truly believe, small or big &mdash; we&rsquo;re not very big &mdash; but they find a way to win and they have fun doing it,&rdquo; Kidd said. &ldquo;And hopefully this gives us confidence going against the best team in the NBA right now.&rdquo;
That would be the Phoenix Suns, the No. 1 seed after finishing 64-18 for the NBA's best record. They also <a href="https://apnews.com/article/phoenix-suns-new-orleans-pelicans-nba-sports-playoffs-70682f2d4f433976ed229522060672a8">wrapped up their series with a Game 6 victory on Thursday in New Orleans</a> and will host the Mavericks in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals on Monday.
&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re going to have to play our best basketball,&rdquo; Doncic said. &ldquo;They were in the finals last year, No. 1 team this year, so it&rsquo;s going to be really tough. The crowd really gets them going, so I think we&rsquo;re going to have to play our best basketball to beat them.&rdquo;
Doncic always plays well in the postseason, but it hadn't resulted in a series victory yet. The Mavericks lost to the Los Angeles Clippers in each of the last two years, even though he averaged more than 31 points in both.
The Mavs had to open this series without their All-Star, who missed the first three games with a calf strain sustained on the final day of the regular season. Once he returned, he averaged 29 points and 10.7 rebounds.
Unlike those previous series, when it appeared sometimes Doncic had to do it all alone, he shared the scoring load against the Jazz. Jalen Brunson followed his best NBA season &mdash; and set himself up to cash in nicely in the offseason &mdash; by averaging 27.8 points.
That came after he didn't play in the 2020 series and played poorly in the final four games last year as the Mavs blew a 2-0 lead.
&ldquo;Pretty much I&rsquo;m over the past two years,&rdquo; Brunson said. &ldquo;This year is different for me and looking forward to continuing it and trying to help my team win.&rdquo;
With Doncic, Brunson and midseason acquisition Spencer Dinwiddie, the Mavs' strength is their three-guard lineup. Still, Dallas rarely looks explosive offensively.
Instead, it's a defense that allowed 104.7 points, just behind Boston for best in the NBA, that carried the Mavericks to a 52-30 record and the No. 4 seed in the West. Now they'll see what they can do against the Suns.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to be a fancy group,&rdquo; Kidd said. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have a lot of big names &mdash; Luka&rsquo;s the one that gets the majority of the attention &mdash; but JB, Dorian (Finney-Smith) and Reggie (Bullock) and those guys really, truly believe in team, and that&rsquo;s what helped us win this series.&rdquo;

“I think we’re going to have to play our best basketball,” Luka Doncic said of the Mavericks drawing Phoenix in the second round.

Mavs move on to Suns, reminding Kidd a bit of their past

Blink and you might have missed it, but Jalen Brunson has already arrived on the national scene.
Not only has Brunson thrived with the Dallas Mavericks this season, he was also highly coveted prior to the 2022 trade deadline, with several teams expressing interest in the 25-year-old.
The New York Knicks were among the potential suitors, but a trade didn't come to fruition. However, New York is <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/06/26/ben-simmons-damian-lillard-how-knicks-can-acquire-new-pg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> interested in pursuing Brunson when he hits unrestricted free agency this offseason.
It's worth noting that Brunson&rsquo;s father is a former Knick and was the first client of team president Leon Rose. Brunson&rsquo;s father also served as Tom Thibodeau&rsquo;s assistant in Chicago and Minnesota &ndash; and the Knicks have long sought to fill their hole at point guard. Brunson&rsquo;s overall fit in New York is debatable; but regardless, the Knicks' interest will almost certainly drive up Brunson&rsquo;s price point.
But Brunson was already due for a big pay day after his terrific 2021-22 campaign. Last season appeared to be somewhat of a breakout year for Brunson &ndash; 12.6 points, 3.5 assists and 3.4 rebounds in 25 minutes per game &ndash; but he&rsquo;s demonstrated an even higher ceiling this season.
In 2021-22, Brunson is averaging 16.0 points, 5.2 assists and 3.7 rebounds in 32.1 minutes per game, starting in 46 of the Mavericks&rsquo; 64 games. He is shooting 38% on three-point attempts and a blistering 70% at the rim &ndash; and that's despite measuring only 6-foot-2. In his 46 starts, he's averaging 17.6 points, 5.7 assists, 4.0 rebounds and a steal on .500/.401/.835 shooting splits.
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Prior to entering the NBA, Brunson established himself as a top-tier player in college. He was named the AP National Player of the Year in his third and final season at Villanova, averaging 18.9 points, 4.6 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game &ndash; all while leading the Wildcats to a national championship. Despite leading the team in points and assists, Brunson was overshadowed by a few of his teammates &ndash; namely, Mikal Bridges and Donte DiVincenzo.
Brunson ultimately fell into the second round of the 2018 NBA Draft due to questions about his size and defensive shortcomings. He was eventually selected No. 33 overall by the Mavericks. He is one of only two AP National Players of the Year to slip into the second round since the award's inception in 1961. The other? Also an undersized point guard, who was drafted just one year before Brunson: Frank Mason III.
Mason played four seasons in the NBA, and never established himself as a fixture for any of his three teams. Brunson has been quite a bit more successful thus far.
Does this mean that Brunson can lead a team to contention, maybe even a championship? Possibly. Let&rsquo;s remember that he has benefited from playing alongside an oversized &ndash; and incredibly gifted &ndash; lead guard in Luka Doncic. But with Doncic out of the lineup this season, Brunson has been even better, averaging 19.9 points and 7.8 assists. While the Mavericks only won seven of their 16 games without Doncic this season, let&rsquo;s not be too hard on Brunson. Doncic is an incredibly special player, the likes of which very few players can replace.
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It should be said that <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/spencer-dinwiddie-thriving-with-mavs-after-messy-exit-from-wizards" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the arrival and fit of Spencer Dinwiddie</a> has the potential to complicate negotiations between Brunson and Dallas on a long-term deal. Brunson will reportedly look for a contract that's worth approximately $80 million over four years. What does Dallas do if he holds firm on that figure?
The thing about Dinwiddie is that he and Brunson have co-existed nicely. The Mavericks are currently 7-2 &ndash; with two wins against Golden State and one against Miami &ndash; in games where Dinwiddie and Brunson have shared the floor.
But Dallas is already way over the 2022-23 salary cap. Signing Brunson to an extension seriously restricts the Mavericks&rsquo; ability to make additional moves. And considering that Doncic and Dinwiddie are both on-ball playmakers, does Dallas really want to invest in a third guard?
But the argument for Brunson signing elsewhere is weakened by the fact that there will be very few teams with cap space. In fact, only the Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Orlando Magic, Portland Trail Blazers and San Antonio Spurs are projected to have cap room.
The Magic have too many guards as is, the Pacers just brought Tyrese Haliburton on board, and the Trail Blazers will probably work to keep Damian Lillard and Anfernee Simons. The Pistons showed interest in Brunson at the deadline, so maybe there&rsquo;s a match in Detroit. It&rsquo;s also worth mentioning that a lack of cap space does not prohibit prospective teams from potentially landing a player via a sign-and-trade.
Ultimately, Brunson could end up being one of the crown jewels of <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/2022-nba-free-agency-preview-ranking-the-top-10-guards" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the 2022 free-agent class</a>. He appears more than open to remaining in Dallas &ndash; but, according to ESPN&rsquo;s Tim MacMahon, money is a bigger priority than remaining with his current team.
Regardless of where Brunson ends up next season and beyond, he looks ready to take on a bigger role. If Brunson takes another step forward, $20 million per season could look like a bargain. But he could also struggle in a different system, with new teammates, coaches and surroundings. One way or the other, Brunson is a player who will be closely watched going forward. He's ready for the spotlight.&nbsp;
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Jalen Brunson's fortuitous breakout season should result in a significant pay day, but where will he play next season?

Mavericks' Jalen Brunson looks ready for the spotlight

March Madness is underway!
Across the country, teams are competing in conference tournaments and trying to punch their ticket for the NCAA Tournament. Selection Sunday is just three days away, and then the tourney starts next Tuesday.
If you missed any of the Day 1 action, here's a recap of what went down on Wednesday.
Tickets Punched
Colgate defeats Navy 74-58, Patriot League Championship
Jack Ferguson: 17 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals
Greg Summers: 18 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals
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SEC
Missouri defeats Ole Miss 72-60, faces No. 5 LSU
Kobe Brown: 16 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists&nbsp;
Matthew Murrell: 16 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists&nbsp;
Vanderbilt defeats Georgia 86-51, faces No. 6 Alabama
Scotty Pippen Jr.: 14 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals
Braelen Bridges: 15 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists
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Big Ten
Northwestern defeats Nebraska 71-69, faces No. 5 Iowa
Boo Buie: 16 points, 3 assists&nbsp;
Alonzo Verge Jr.: 21 points, 9 assists, 7 rebounds&nbsp;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗜𝗔𝗖 𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗦 😼 This is March ‼️<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoCats?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoCats</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/NU_Sports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NU_Sports</a> <a href="https://t.co/9dBLxaSHDW">pic.twitter.com/9dBLxaSHDW</a>
&mdash; Northwestern Basketball (@NUMensBball) <a href="https://twitter.com/NUMensBball/status/1501729758111019012?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Penn State defeats Minnesota 60-51, faces No. 6 Ohio State
Jalen Pickett: 22 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists
Jamison Battle: 19 points, 6 rebounds
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ACC
Virginia Tech defeats Clemson in OT 76-75, faces No. 2 Notre Dame
Keve Aluma: 19 points, 10 rebounds
PJ Hall: 16 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗜𝗦 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗖𝗛!!!! <a href="https://t.co/hBrAMmBl4P">pic.twitter.com/hBrAMmBl4P</a>
&mdash; Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) <a href="https://twitter.com/HokiesMBB/status/1501744888651653122?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Boston College upsets Wake Forest 82-77 in OT, faces No. 4 Miami (FL)&nbsp;
DeMarr Langford Jr.: 19 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists
Jake LaRavia: 21 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals, 3 blocks
Syracuse defeats Florida State 96-57, faces No. 1 Duke&nbsp;
Cole Swider: 28 points, 13 rebounds, 9-15 FG
Joseph Girard III: 16 points, 4 assists
Virginia defeats Louisville 51-50, faces No. 3 North Carolina
Jayden Gardner: 17 points, 4 rebounds, 7-12 FG
Maliik Williams: 11 opints, 13 rebounds, 3 steals, 3 blocks <img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/usatsi_17862474_lg.jpg" alt="" width="701" height="467" />
Big 12
West Virginia defeats Kansas State 73-67, faces No. 1 Kansas
Sean McNeil: 21 points, 6 rebounds, 7-10 FG
Nijel Pack: 18 points, 6 rebounds
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/usatsi_17863085_lg.jpg" alt="" width="701" height="467" />
Big East
Butler defeats Xavier 89-82, faces No. 1 Providence
Chuck Harris: 29 points, 2 assists
Simas Lukosius: 27 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 11-13 FT
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
DOWN GOES X‼️<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ButlerWay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ButlerWay</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Team124?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Team124</a> <a href="https://t.co/CAHgoom1CY">pic.twitter.com/CAHgoom1CY</a>
&mdash; Butler Basketball (@ButlerMBB) <a href="https://twitter.com/ButlerMBB/status/1501712938033463298?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2022</a></blockquote>

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St. John&rsquo;s defeats DePaul 92-73, faces No. 2 Villanova
Julian Champagnie: 26 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals
Javon Freeman-Liberty: 17 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists
Seton Hall defeats Georgetown, faces No 3. Connecticut
Jared Rhoden: 17 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists
Aminu Mohammed: 12 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/usatsi_17861107_lg.jpg" alt="" width="701" height="467" />
Pac 12
Stanford defeats Arizona State 71-70, faces No. 1 Arizona
Spencer Jones: 26 points, 6 rebounds, 6-12 (3PT)
DJ Horne: 21 points, 8-17 FG
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Heck of a comeback, <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordMBB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@StanfordMBB</a> 😳🤯 <a href="https://t.co/AqCzhETS30">pic.twitter.com/AqCzhETS30</a>
&mdash; Stanford Athletics (@GoStanford) <a href="https://twitter.com/GoStanford/status/1501697971083116544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Oregon defeats Oregon State 86-72, faces No. 4 Colorado
Jacob Young: 23 points, 11 assists, 6 rebounds
Jarod Lucas: 22 points, 2 rebounds, 6-10 FG
Washington State defeats California 66-59, faces No. 2 UCLA
Efe Abogidi: 19 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals
Jordan Shepherd: 16 points, 4 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 assists
Washington defeats Utah 82-70, faces No. 3 Southern California
Terrrell Brown Jr.: 22 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds
Marco Anthoy: 18 points, 2 assists
&nbsp;
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
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March Madness is underway! If you missed any of the Day 1 action, here's a recap of what went down during Wednesday's games.

March Madness: Conference tournament Wednesday recap

Haven't you heard? The Philadelphia 76ers are running roughshod over the NBA.
They're 3-0 since James Harden's debut, with a pair of wins over the New York Knicks and an opening dub against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Quibble about the competition level if you'd like, but the early returns are hard to ignore. Harden's on-ball brilliance has made life easier for his Cameroonian pal &mdash; and the inverse is true &mdash; while also slotting Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris into beat-the-tilted-defense roles.
The wildcard has always been Matisse Thybulle. He's earned his keep as a defensive menace &mdash; a jumpy lad with the ability to teleport whenever a pass or shot attempt is near. But he's been a ghastly offensive player throughout his career. He doesn't run ball-screens and isn't an isolation or post threat, and his perimeter shooting has given enemies the leeway to Tony Allen him off the ball.&nbsp;
The push-and-pull of his minutes &mdash; we need that defense, but good lord does he give opposing defenses an easy help outlet &mdash; has been, and is a story to track with the Sixers. Luckily, the early returns have been good on that too.
Thybulle is averaging 9.7 points during the Harden era, a modest number until you realize that the 29 points he's scored in this stretch is the second-best three-game mark of his season.&nbsp;
He's drilled nearly 38% of his threes (3 of 8), which is cool, but not nearly enough to shift how defenses refuse to guard him. What I've appreciated during this small sample, is how he's made himself useful &mdash; or if we want to give ol' Glenn credit, how the Sixers have used Thybulle &mdash; beyond three-point shooting.
Thybulle is doing his own work as a cutter. Whether it's 45 cuts from the slot, darts from the corner or roaming around the dunker spot (<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/podcasts/the-dunker-spot" target="_blank" rel="noopener">subscribe!</a>), Thybulle has made defenses pay for diverting their attention elsewhere.&nbsp;
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(Brief aside: I remain on the hill that cutting is a form of shot creation. It requires a read, it requires timing, it requires spatial awareness. I get that it takes two &mdash; which is why on-ball creation is more valuable &mdash; but there's something to be said about seeing space for the taking and, well, taking it.)
The real funky stuff is what Thybulle has done as a screener. Teams have toggled between hiding weak defenders or elite off-ball guys (wings or bigs) on Thybulle in an act of safety (weaker defenders) or cruelty (using elite roamers to muck up actions elsewhere).
To the former point, Thybulle's willingness to screen &mdash; and growing comfort as a roller or slip artist &mdash; is becoming a weapon. Harden has no trouble calling Thybulle into the fray to force a switch; Thybulle is beginning to learn the cadence of slipping in case the defense cracks.
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In terms of set pieces, the Sixers have been shredding teams with Chicago action &mdash; a pindown that flows into a handoff. If you want to get even more granular, they've been going with a variation of Chicago action &mdash; expertly dubbed <a href="https://halfcourthoops.substack.com/p/doc-rivers-steals-a-set-for-james?utm_source=url&amp;s=r" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"Delay Turn Chicago"</a> by Gibson Pyper (<a href="https://twitter.com/HalfCourtHoops" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@HalfCourtHoops</a>) &mdash; to get the Harden/Embiid two-man game going.
Thybulle is the "Turn" piece in this action, as his abrupt flip-and-screen kicks off the set.
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It's been three games, and it's a small sample, but the Sixers are scoring 1.88 points per possession on trips featuring a Thybulle screen per Second Spectrum. The Sixers also have a 128.6 Offensive Rating with the Harden-Embiid-Thybulle trio on the floor, <a href="https://www.pbpstats.com/wowy-combos/nba?TeamId=1610612755&amp;Season=2021-22&amp;SeasonType=Regular%2BSeason&amp;PlayerIds=201935,203954,1629680&amp;OnlyCommonGames=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">per PBP Stats</a>.
Yes, you read those numbers correctly.
As long as Thybulle can make lemonade (effective screens, timely cuts) out of his lemons (poor shooting, lack of ball skills), he'll slot in just nicely in this offense. And if he can find a role on offense, he'll definitely make his money on the defensive end.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
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Nekias Duncan breaks down the ways Matisse Thybulle is making an impact on offense in Philadelphia since the big trade.

Making the cut: 76ers' creativity elevating Matisse Thybulle's offense

Recently, a <a href="https://twitter.com/harrisonwind/status/1497303031133589506?s=21" target="_blank" rel="noopener">chart went viral</a> that showed each NBA team's local broadcast and how they have fared in terms of their average TV rating this season.
The Golden State Warriors (7.53 average rating), Cleveland Cavaliers (3.74), Philadelphia 76ers (2.72), Milwaukee Bucks (2.61) and Chicago Bulls (2.52) led the pack. Meanwhile, the Denver Nuggets (.19), Orlando Magic (.27) and Los Angeles Clippers (.55) finished in the bottom three.
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/fmd9k2yvqaavvp1_lg.jpg" alt="" width="629" height="611" />
But which markets have delivered the highest ratings for national NBA games across ABC, ESPN and TNT? A league source shared that information with BasketballNews.com, so here are the top-10 highest-rated markets for nationally televised NBA games so far this season:
1. New Orleans
2. San Francisco
3. Memphis
4. Raleigh-Durham
5. Sacramento
6. Los Angeles
7. Atlanta
8. Norfolk
9. Birmingham
10. Richmond
It's interesting to see New Orleans at No. 1 in national viewership, especially since the Pelicans' broadcast ranks 16th in terms of local ratings. (Similarly, the same applies to Atlanta and the North Carolina areas.)
Also, it's surprising that Norfolk, Birmingham and Richmond are in the top-10 considering they don't have an NBA team in their respective state. Virginia is known for having avid college basketball fans, but it's shocking to see two different Virginian cities ranked this high. This isn't some fluke either. If you look at <a href="https://twitter.com/AlexKennedyNBA/status/1116774114331701251" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the highest-rated markets for national NBA games during the 2018-19 season</a>, Norfolk was No. 1, Birmingham was No. 5 and Richmond was No. 8. These cities are consistently tuning in to NBA games.&nbsp;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Here are ESPN and ABC&rsquo;s top 10 highest-rated local markets for the 2018-19 regular season, according to the NBA: 1. Norfolk 2. Oklahoma City 3. New Orleans 4. Memphis 5. Birmingham 6. San Francisco 7. Raleigh-Durham 8. Richmond 9. Houston 10. Los Angeles A LOT of surprises!
&mdash; Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlexKennedyNBA/status/1116774114331701251?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 12, 2019</a></blockquote>

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It's also shocking to see how many smaller markets are listed here, including New Orleans (<a href="https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/nba-market-size-nfl-mlb-nhl-nielsen-ratings/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">50th-largest sports market</a>), Memphis (<a href="https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/nba-market-size-nfl-mlb-nhl-nielsen-ratings/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">51st-largest sports market</a>), Raleigh-Durham (<a href="https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/nba-market-size-nfl-mlb-nhl-nielsen-ratings/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">24th-largest sports market</a>) and Sacramento (<a href="https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/nba-market-size-nfl-mlb-nhl-nielsen-ratings/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">20th-largest sports market</a>).
Meanwhile, some of the biggest markets &mdash; such as New York (the largest market), Chicago (third-largest market), Philadelphia (fourth-largest market) and Dallas (fifth-highest market) &mdash; are nowhere to be found.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
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Which markets have delivered the highest ratings for national NBA games this season? Some cities in the top-10 will surprise you.

Which markets deliver the highest ratings for national NBA games?

Players like Andrew Wiggins make being a coach worth it.
The NBA&rsquo;s 2022 All-Star Weekend is in my hometown of Cleveland and even though I won&rsquo;t be there in person, I&rsquo;ll be paying close attention to the All-Star Game. I can&rsquo;t wait to see Wiggins take that court.
Being a coach can be a thankless job &mdash; long days, short nights and countless hours. Most of the time, coaches spend more time with their teams than they do with their families, and when things don&rsquo;t work out, we&rsquo;re usually the first to get blamed &mdash; whether fair or not. That&rsquo;s part of what makes it tough.
What also makes it tough is when you have players who don&rsquo;t want to be held to standards or don&rsquo;t want to work.&nbsp;
A good coach is supposed to push you and challenge you. A good coach is supposed to hold you accountable. And truth is, some players just aren&rsquo;t receptive to that&hellip;&nbsp;
But others? They&rsquo;re like Wiggins.&nbsp;
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I got to know him pretty well during our brief time together during the NBA Summer League in 2014, and I became a believer in him almost immediately.
Eight years later, I&rsquo;m going to be so proud to see him take the court as not only an All-Star from the Western Conference, but as a starter.
I first heard about Andrew when he was at Kansas, and I never imagined I&rsquo;d be one of his first NBA coaches &mdash; but that&rsquo;s how things worked out for us.&nbsp;
I was just coming off of my first season as an assistant with the Canton Charge, the Cavaliers&rsquo; G League affiliate. In May of that year, Cleveland won the draft lottery for the second year in a row (and third time in four years).&nbsp;
They had Kyrie Irving, who they picked first in 2011, and Anthony Bennett (selected first in 2012). Now, they had won the draft lottery again and were expected to select Wiggins first overall.&nbsp;
Me? I was fortunate to get the call to be an assistant coach for the Cavs in the Summer League. I was looking forward to it, especially to have the opportunity to help develop that young talent. I was still getting my feet wet as a coach, and when they did ended up picking Wiggins with the first pick, we were joined.&nbsp;
Andrew, believe it or not, made it easy for us.&nbsp;
With the hype surrounding him, it would have been easy for him to have an attitude or to have a big head or to not be receptive to being coached and pushed, but he was the total opposite. He was kind, patient and absorbed everything like a sponge. It was refreshing.
Even though I was an assistant coach, I worked with him a lot. I was constantly in his ear.
What I respected most about Andrew, and I&rsquo;m not sure I ever told him directly, was how he handled himself after LeBron announced that he was coming back to Cleveland. We had conversations about it, and I advised him &mdash; but he just handled himself like such an adult.
The main thing I tried to get him to understand was that there was going to be an adjustment period for him going from college to the pros and to not put too much pressure on himself. Focus on having fun and take your craft seriously. He did just that.
He was a rare combination of someone who was talented, gifted and confident &mdash; yet also calm, quiet and focused. That&rsquo;s not always the case with young players with promise.
Especially for those who have accolades and notoriety, those players can give off an impression that makes you wonder if they feel like playing in summer leagues or pickup games is almost beneath them. They don&rsquo;t give it 100% and don&rsquo;t seem like they&rsquo;re taking the lower levels of play seriously.
That wasn&rsquo;t Andrew.&nbsp;
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As a coach, you want the best for all your players, but there are some who you actually root for &mdash;&nbsp;whether it be because of their work ethic, their character or your personal relationship. And yeah, Andrew immediately became one of those players I rooted for.
In Vegas, after LeBron announced he was going back to Cleveland, Andrew immediately became the topic of discussion and rumors because everyone assumed that he would be traded for someone who could help LeBron win immediately.&nbsp;
During Summer League, he couldn&rsquo;t go anywhere without people asking him about the rumors, asking him if he was actually going to play for the Cavs and stuff like that &mdash; despite it all, he was so positive and upbeat. He remained focused on our common goal.
We had a few conversations about the situation and about his future in the NBA. I&rsquo;ll never forget Andrew&rsquo;s perspective. He considered himself blessed to be fulfilling his dream, and his sole focus was to become the best player he could be. He was looking forward to being LeBron&rsquo;s understudy and learning from him, but knew that it was possible that he wouldn&rsquo;t get that opportunity.&nbsp;
And if he got traded? He simply knew he was going to give it his all to become the best player he could be for that team that did acquire him.&nbsp;
Either way, he always wanted to be with his coaches in the gym. And he wanted us to push him. No wasted days.
I knew, even back then, that he was going to make it.&nbsp;
Attitude and humility &mdash; knowing that you&rsquo;ve got a lot to learn and taking what your coaches have to say seriously &mdash; that&rsquo;s a big factor when it comes to young guys becoming the best players they can be. And it often makes the difference between someone having a five-year career, and someone having a 15-year career.
Things didn&rsquo;t work out in Cleveland for obvious reasons, but Andrew developed nicely in Minnesota. There were a lot of questions about his drive and about his ability to fulfill his potential, and that probably contributed to Minnesota trading him to Golden State for D&rsquo;Angelo Russell.
At the end of the day, though, everyone lands where they&rsquo;re supposed to.&nbsp;
D&rsquo;Angelo is doing well in Minnesota with Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew looks like he just might be the piece that the Warriors need to get back on top.
The young Canadian kid, obviously &mdash; he&rsquo;s figured things out in San Francisco.
And you know what? I can&rsquo;t say I&rsquo;m surprised.&nbsp;
I&rsquo;ve believed in him since fate brought us together in Las Vegas back in 2014.
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James Posey discusses the experience he had coaching Andrew Wiggins back in 2014, and how the young man made him a believer.

Coaching Andrew Wiggins in 2014 NBA Summer League made me a believer

We've seen many claims for the East's best team this season.&nbsp;
The Bucks are last year's champions, and have won over 80% of their games when their Big Three (Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton) is available this year.&nbsp;
The Nets, Bulls and Heat have all had runs as the East's top seed despite myriad injuries &mdash; and in the case of the Nets, vaccine &mdash; absences. Even now, Miami and Chicago have the same record (37-21), with the Heat holding the head-to-head tiebreaker.
We can't forget the Cavaliers, an upstart bunch that had the East's best net rating through December 31. The Sixers have the best win percentage (72%) in the East since Christmas; related, Joel Embiid is averaging a league-leading 33.1 points (63.1 True Shooting percentage), 11.4 rebounds and 4.7 assists during that stretch.
For those counting, that's six teams that have or had "we're-playing-better-than-anyone-in-the-conference" arguments this season. Since the turn of the calendar, the Boston Celtics have submitted a strong case to be the seventh.
The Celtics have a conference-best 17-6 record in 2022. Their plus-13.2 net rating doesn't just top the conference &mdash; it's nearly three points better than the Phoenix Suns for the league's top mark.
Their defense, both overall (100.4 defensive rating) and filtered for half-court situations (85.9), is roughly&nbsp;four&nbsp;points better than anyone else's this year. The offense, once maligned for its lack of movement and underwhelming shot profile, is hovering around the top 10 in 2022.
There are caveats to throw out if you want to discount some of their statistical dominance. Chief among them are the key absences some of their opponents have faced. And trust me, the irony of dropping this piece after they mollywhopped the Sixers by 48 without their new addition, James Harden, isn't lost on me.
To that I counter:
<ul>
<li>You can only play who's in front of you.</li>
<li>Surely we're not pretending this Celtics group has been a beacon of health.</li>
<li>Even if you concede that they've gotten some&nbsp;injury luck, particularly in early/mid January, there are still structural things to be excited about with this team.</li>
</ul>
This is why the East should be on notice.
THE JAYS ARE ROLLING
Kinda has to start here, right?&nbsp;
A large part of the offensive clunkiness has boiled down to these two. Jayson Tatum went the first couple months of the season missing more jumpers than an abandoned trampoline park. Jaylen Brown staked his claim as the best Celtic early on, but tunnel vision still happened to hit him at inopportune times.
It was an odd problem; both players were good enough to be the focal point of defensive game plans, and both struggled to lift the guys around them &mdash; including each other. The flashbulb moment came when Marcus Smart (more on him later) essentially called them out for <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32530325/marcus-smart-calls-jayson-tatum-jaylen-brown-pass-ball-celtics-lose-third-straight" target="_blank" rel="noopener">not being willing ball-movers</a>.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
"Every team knows we're trying to go to Jayson and Jaylen," Smart said after the 128-114 loss to the Bulls. "Every team is programmed and studied to stop Jayson and Jaylen. I think everybody's scouting report is to make those guys pass the ball. They don't want to pass the ball."
</blockquote>
He did express optimism toward the end, capping his thoughts with this:
<blockquote>
"That's something that they're going to learn," Smart said. "They're still learning. We're proud of the progress they're making, but they're going to have to make another step and find ways to not only create for themselves but create for others on this team to open up the court for them later down in the game. It's something we've been asking them to do, and they're learning. We just gotta continue to help those guys do that to help our team."
</blockquote>
But the message was clear: we're not going to hit our level unless we can work together.
To that point, there's been a commitment to unselfishness by The Jays and&nbsp;a better environment being fostered by those around them. As my co-host Steve Jones Jr. has pointed out on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dunker-spot/id1547857052" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Dunker Spot</a>, the Celtics are doing a better job of leveraging their talents together to grease the wheels of the offense.
Sets like this have become more frequent.
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Smart sets <a href="https://medium.com/thebasketballactiondictionary/ram-13a8dc5f8f4e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a ram screen</a> for Al Horford, who then ghosts a screen for Tatum. With Julius Randle in a drop, that's a shot (or a pump-and-drive) for Horford if he wants it. Instead, the Celtics flow into an empty corner handoff with Brown to put further strain on the defense. RJ Barrett provides help at the nail, so Brown kicks it to Tatum. With Barrett off-balance on the recovery, Tatum is able to drive by and get a layup.
Another fave of mine: a Double Drag look with Brown or Tatum as the popper. Depending on the coverage, it either allows them to dictate a switch, or open up something with the roll man (Robert Williams III, Horford) since helping off of Tatum or Brown is typically a bad idea.
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Individually, we've seen passing growth from the Jays. Tatum is starting to thread the needle between being patient and decisive. He's slowing up enough to engage the big more in pick-and-roll, but firing darts outside if extra help appears. He's leading the Celtics in three-point assists (54) by a wide margin in 2022.
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For Brown, he's leveraging his scoring gravity to create open looks. He's more comfortable making interior reads right now &mdash; 51 two-point assists (34 at the rim), 35 three-point assists in 2022 &mdash; but that's okay. That his comfort and willingness (<a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/passing/?Season=2021-22&amp;SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;TeamID=1610612738&amp;sort=POTENTIAL_AST&amp;dir=1&amp;DateTo=12%2F31%2F2021" target="_blank" rel="noopener">5.5 potential assists</a> through Dec.31, <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/passing/?Season=2021-22&amp;SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;TeamID=1610612738&amp;sort=POTENTIAL_AST&amp;dir=1&amp;DateFrom=01%2F01%2F2022" target="_blank" rel="noopener">7.2 in 2022</a>) are growing is all that matters.
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THE GAP FILLERS
It would be one thing if Smart simply called for more ball movement earlier in the year. The (valid) criticism has aged well because he's taken more of that responsibility into his own hands.
He's done it in the traditional sense, using ball screens early in the clock to get downhill and get the defense scrambling. Smart has long been an underrated passer, so shifting him from off-ball spacer to tip of the spear has been productive.
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The Celtics are generating nearly 1.03 points per possession on trips that feature a Smart-led pick-and-roll in 2022 &mdash; a mark sandwiched between Devin Booker (1.03) and Darius Garland (1.01 PPP), per Second Spectrum.
What's fun is the inverse; that number rises to 1.23 (!!!) on possessions featuring Smart as a screener. That is the best mark in the NBA among 164 players that have set at least 75 picks this year. He's a rugged dude that can spring The Jays free or help them get mismatches, but he's also a good enough playmaker to make things click as a short-roll threat.
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Employing a similarly versatile skill set is newcomer Derrick White. The longtime Spur has fit in nicely so far, averaging 13-4-3 through three games as an overqualified sub.
He can kick off possessions with ball screens and create for himself or others. Off the ball, he can find cracks to attack as a cutter. He doesn't mind being used as a (ghost) screener.&nbsp;
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Robert Williams III has been a godsend for this Celtics group. He's their best athlete, making him a tremendous roll threat or offensive glass cleaner when he's locked in. Beyond that, Williams operates as a connector in Boston's half-court attack.
He isn't just a hand-it-off-to-the-top-dawg placeholder; the Celtics legitimately use him as a hub in Delay or Elbow sets. He's one of the league's best passers from the center position, opening the door for half-court randomness when necessary. And friends, the short-roll playmaking is coming along.
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Similar things can be said about Al Horford, sporting north of a 3:1 assist-to-turnover ratio since the year began. He toggles between roles: an elbow hub out of HORNS on one possession, a pick-and-popper on the next, then a pure spacer in the corner while his teammates get busy.&nbsp;
His on-ball usage has decreased as of late; after averaging <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/touches/?Season=2021-22&amp;SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;TeamID=1610612738&amp;sort=FRONT_CT_TOUCHES&amp;dir=1&amp;DateTo=12%2F31%2F2021" target="_blank" rel="noopener">nearly 12 more frontcourt touches</a> per game than Williams through December 31 (34.2 to 22.4), Williams has <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/touches/?Season=2021-22&amp;SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;TeamID=1610612738&amp;sort=FRONT_CT_TOUCHES&amp;dir=1&amp;DateFrom=01%2F01%2F2022" target="_blank" rel="noopener">usurped him in 2022</a> (26.1 to 25.8). But the beauty of Horford is that he can scale up when necessary.
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FLIPPING THE SWITCH
Alas, there's the defense &mdash; the lone constant of this group as they tried to find themselves.&nbsp;
To restate things from earlier, they have the best defense (100.4 defensive rating) by a wide margin in 2022. During this nine-game winning streak, that number has dropped to 95.5. If you want to go old school, they've held their opponents under 100 points in seven of their last nine games.
Scheme-wise, this is a switchy unit. They switch 26.9 picks per 100 possessions, the second-highest rate in the league behind the Miami Heat (27.2), per Second Spectrum. And on possessions featuring a Celtics switch in 2022, opponents are scoring just 79 points per 100 poss- SEVENTY-NINE POINTS PER 100 POSSESSIONS.
Between the Smart/Brown/Tatum triumvirate, the Celtics have three players who can defend up and down the positional scale. Horford has been surprisingly steady in space, and Williams has some fun tape in that regard. The other Williams, Grant, has been defending at a high level for most of the season too. Adding White to this group gives the Celtics a terrifying top-seven.
It's a unique blend of athleticism, length, strength and IQ. To the latter point, one of the joys of this team is watching them navigate mismatches. If, by some chance, you get them in a matchup they don't like, they're able to scram-switch their way out of it, or shrink the floor and dare you to beat them with skip passes.
Peep the early scram-switch here from Smart:
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Got the Payton Pritchard-on-Tobias Harris switch? No problem. You aren't getting a clean look.
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That's a pretty aggressive pinch on Harris, which highlights another strong suit of the Celtics: they absolutely strangle your half-court attack if you have a non-shooter on the perimeter.
Tatum is fine with helping at the nail because he doesn't fear Shake Milton from deep. White is tasked with "splitting the difference" between Milton and Matisse Thybulle, but sinks to pick up Paul Reed once Daniel Theis leaves to contest the shot because Thybulle doesn't scare anyone either.
Both Tatum and Smart thrive as off-ball roamers if they're "defending" a non-shooter. As The Ringer's <a href="https://twitter.com/KevinOConnorNBA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kevin O'Connor</a> pointed out <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2022/2/14/22932897/james-harden-ben-simmons-trade-76ers-nets" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in a recent piece</a>, they've experimented with Williams III doing the same thing.
This is a team that keeps the initial action in front. If it isn't a switch, they're going to be in drop. They've blitzed 13 screens in 2022, the lowest figure in the NBA. If they're going to send an extra guy to the ball, they're going to do it on their terms.
There are things to keep an eye on with this Celtics team. The ball and body movement has improved, but you won't confuse their half-court attack with the Suns'. Things can still bog down for them in fourth quarters.
Zooming out, the Celtics aren't stocked with great shooters. If all else fails, opponents can still attempt to muck things up for the Jays and dare The Others &mdash; Smart, White, WIlliams, Horford &mdash; to beat them from deep.
But for now, this a team that's humming &mdash; figuring things out offensively and restricting airspace defensively. Ultimately, they're a team other East contenders should start keeping tabs on.
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Nekias Duncan breaks down the Boston Celtics' hot run in 2022, and why they've been so effective on both ends.

The Celtics are humming, and East contenders should keep tabs on them

Nekias Duncan thoroughly grades every NBA trade from 2022 Deadline Week.

Grading every move from 2022 NBA trade deadline week

The 2021-22 NBA season has presented us all with its share of surprises, and chief among them is the Denver Nuggets.
The Nuggets entered last season with high expectations. They made it as far as the Western Conference Finals in the 2020 playoffs behind superstar-level performances by Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic &ndash; and their superstars continued their strong play into 2020-21. The Nuggets' future looked incredibly bright.
The team began the 2020-21 season much like they finished the previous one. But they didn&rsquo;t rest on their laurels. Instead, Denver made a major mid-season move, adding Aaron Gordon from the Orlando Magic. The Murray-Jokic-Gordon trifecta looked like it could be formidable.
Unfortunately, after winning 34 of their first 52 games, Jamal Murray suffered a torn ACL (in April), ending the team's hopes of contending for a championship. The Nuggets were eventually swept by the Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference semis.
Still, there is a lot to be excited about in Denver. Before losing time to a back injury, Michael Porter Jr. looked ready to live up to his potential, averaging 23.5 points per game in the team&rsquo;s final 18 games after losing Murray. After struggling a bit to find his place, Gordon has fit in nicely this season, averaging 14.5 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. And since Murray&rsquo;s injury, Jokic has solidified himself as a perennial MVP candidate.
But Murray is an integral part of the Nuggets&rsquo; success. They have been relatively successful so far in 2021-22 without Murray, of course. But if he returns, could the Nuggets make a push to snatch up home court advantage in the first round? They are currently 28-24, good for sixth in the West. Denver is only 1.5 games behind the fifth-seed Dallas Mavericks. Mavericks center Kristaps Porzingis has missed the past three games with a bone bruise in his right knee &ndash; he's notoriously injury prone, so any trouble he suffers should be taken seriously. A longer-term Porzingis absence will further hurt Dallas&rsquo; chances at holding its place in the playoff race.
Along the same line of thought, the Nuggets are also just 3.5 games behind the fourth-seed Utah Jazz &ndash; who just lost Joe Ingles for the season. And while Utah&rsquo;s Donovan Mitchell shot down rumors of a continued rift between himself and Rudy Gobert just the other day, there is probably something to the rumor, as it is not the first time its made its way into public discourse. Can the Jazz hang on without one of their key players and with their anchors allegedly feuding? Utah is just 3-7 in their last 10 so things don't look great there, either.&nbsp;
But without reinforcements, the Jazz and Mavericks are probably safe in their respective spots &ndash; but reinforcements might not be too far off. Both Murray and Porter Jr. have recently taken part in the Nuggets&rsquo; pre-game warmups. Porter Jr. was never given a strict timeline, but that fact that he&rsquo;s on the court so soon after a December surgery is a good sign for a pre-playoffs return. On the flip side, the NBA recently awarded the Nuggets a disabled player exemption, meaning that the league feels its highly unlikely he returns before June 15. So, maybe this one is a long shot.&nbsp;
There are pros and cons to Murray&rsquo;s recovery, too. Murray could be on track to return before the playoffs. ACL injuries typically require approximately one year on the shelf, and Murray&rsquo;s injury was suffered on April 12, 2021; the 2021-22 regular season ends on April 10 with the play-in tournament beginning on April 12.
Let&rsquo;s assume for a moment that Murray returns (and Porter Jr. does not). Prior to the injury, Murray was in the midst of his best professional season yet, averaging 21.2 points and 2.8 assists per game. He was shooting a career-best 40.8% on three-point attempts, and he was posting career-bests in PER (18.3), box plus/minus (2.0) and VORP (1.7), too. Will he be able to regain his pre-injury form? Will he perform as efficiently? The good news is that Murray is still only 24, so odds are decent that he returns to form. But doing so immediately would be a small miracle.
But Murray is so good that any sort of form on him is better than nothing at all, and the combination of Murray, Gordon and Jokic can be downright lethal. And while rushing players back is usually frowned upon, this is probably the ideal season to do so because there is a void in the upper echelon of the NBA. There is no super team this season. The Nets and Lakers are both struggling to regain consistency, and both of the Clippers&rsquo; superstars are out with injuries. The Grizzlies are a nice story, as are the Cavs; but when healthy, the Nuggets probably see themselves as a step above those teams. Right now, the Bulls, Heat and Bucks are the best the East has to offer &ndash; the Suns and Warriors are the class of the West. All five of those teams are exceptionally talented, but do any of them strike fear in the hearts of league executives like the Kevin Durant-Steph Curry Warriors did? Or like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh&rsquo;s Heat did? I think not.
With the increase in player movement, there&rsquo;s simply no guarantees for future seasons &ndash; and that goes for Denver&rsquo;s roster, as well as their competitors. If Murray can return to form &ndash; which is admittedly a big &ldquo;if&rdquo; &ndash; Denver&rsquo;s big three and its role players (e.g., Will Barton, Monte Morris, Jeff Green, Facundo Campazzo and Bryn Forbes) make up as formidable a roster as any.&nbsp;
The Nuggets are in the unfortunate position of seeing an opportunity in front of them, while having to weigh the significant risks involved with attempting to capitalize on it. Maybe Denver&rsquo;s leadership decides to punt on 2021-22 in hopes of returning everyone entirely healthy next season. But if things line up just so, the Nuggets could be in perfect position to be dark horse favorites this season.&nbsp;
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While no return date has been announced, can the Nuggets compete for a championship this season if Jamal Murray is back in action?

What if Jamal Murray returns to form THIS season?

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Three of the four California NBA franchises have now resided in the Sour Rankings for multiple consecutive weeks.&nbsp;
This might be the worst check-in to date. The Los Angeles Lakers, with a coach on the brink of getting fired, an avalanche of roster criticism and a storm of rumors, have taken the No. 1 spot in these rankings. Not far behind are the Sacramento Kings, who continue to let an attainable Play-In bid slip away while trade gossip engulfs their own headlines. And the L.A. Clippers, while battling admirably, approach a criticial franchise inflection point with this week's trade deadline.
It is wild on the West Coast, and don't expect things to calm down anytime soon.
If you're new to the Sour Rankings, here's a refresher: Unlike the typical "power rankings" that repeat themselves throughout sports media, Sour Rankings are a bizarro-world counter. These rankings highlight the top-10 most frustrating NBA franchises throughout the season, and they will be updated every week to match the twists and turns of the league.&nbsp;
This is not merely a bottom-10 of your typical best-to-worst power rankings. You will see championship contenders and playoff hopefuls mixed in with struggling squads. Teams well under .500 may never touch the Sour Rankings because they are on track with their respective processes. Injuries, drama, transactions and generally underwhelming play will earn you a spot on this list.
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The central question is ultimately this: How good should you feel about the direction of each franchise? Let's get going:
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Escaping the Sour Rankings:&nbsp;The Houston Rockets managed to sneak out this week after going 1-1 with a nice win over the Utah Jazz and a "good effort" loss to the Golden State Warriors. KJ Martin tallied 14 points, 3 assists and 2 steals in that Friday defeat off the bench. Also, a shoutout to Rio Grande Valley prospect Daishen Nix, who is putting up over 27 points per game for Houston's G League affiliate this month.&nbsp;
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10. Utah Jazz (30-17)
Expectations are high in Utah. This is a reigning No. 1 seed that needs to take the leap to legitimate title contender, and as of this recent stretch, the Jazz simply aren't there. Utah is 3-7 in its last 10 games with an 18th-ranked defense over the past two weeks. The Rudy Gobert slander is back, but as <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/rudy-gobert-has-a-point" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nekias Duncan wrote recently</a>, he's far from the main problem with this defense.
The Jazz are reportedly looking for <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/jazz-looking-for-wing-defenders-on-trade-market" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wing defenders on the trade market</a>, which could sorely help while teams run rampant against Joe Ingles, Bojan Bogdanovic, and even Royce O'Neale.
(Last week: unranked)
9. Los Angeles Clippers (23-25)
The Clippers and their injury-plagued roster keep battling, and went a solid 2-2 with close losses to the New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets this week. They've been a bottom-10 team on both ends recently, but are still solidly ninth in the West, so LAC remains in a limbo state ahead of the trade deadline.&nbsp;
If the Clippers are truly<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/clippers-reportedly-willing-to-discuss-majority-of-veterans-in-trades" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> willing to discuss most of their veterans in trade talks</a>, teams should be lining up to make offers for Nic Batum. The 33-year-old continues to be one of the league's most underrated complementary players. He's up to a career-high 64.9% True Shooting percentage and has been lights-out from beyond the arc while consistently taking tough defensive matchups.
(Last week: 9)
8. Portland Trail Blazers (20-26)
Anfernee Simons has almost singlehandedly given Portland joy. He's averaging 25.0 points and 7.2 assists per game in the month of January, while the Blazers have quietly gone a respectable 7-4 this month. Portland is now three games up on the Kings for the final Play-In bid in the West, and that should be comfortable breathing room given Sacramento's state right now.
The Blazers have 5 games in 7 days coming up, including matchups against Minnesota, Dallas and Chicago. If they can break .500 in that stretch, they might leave the Sour Rankings entirely.
(Last week: 2)
7. Atlanta Hawks (21-25)
Of course, the Hawks' best stretch of winning comes when trade rumors are swirling. Atlanta has taken its last four games, beating the Minnesota Timberwolves, Miami Heat and Charlotte Hornets this week. Trae Young is averaging 31.3 points and 9.0 assists per game during the streak while canning 47.6% of his three-pointers, so he's on fire.
Onyeka Okongwu has also blended in seamlessly with the starters while Clint Capela has been out. De'Andre Hunter is on track to the tune of 18.8 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. Is it too early to be back on the Hawks train?
(Last week: 1)
6. Boston Celtics (24-24)
Jayson Tatum's 51-point bombshell on Sunday essentially saved the Celtics from a potential No. 1 ranking this week. He now has the most 50-point games (5) in franchise history, and he is 22 years old (!!!). It's been a brutal year for Tatum, so Celtics fans certainly hope Sunday's performance was a spark.
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Jayson Tatum delivered for us tonight with a 51-point performance that fueled a 116-87 win over the Wizards. <a href="https://t.co/HcrvPH0UMP">pic.twitter.com/HcrvPH0UMP</a>
&mdash; Boston Celtics (@celtics) <a href="https://twitter.com/celtics/status/1485460341513498624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Meanwhile, the same team also went scoreless for seven crucial fourth-quarter minutes and blew a winnable game against Portland. In a 2-2 week, the Celtics move up by default against a struggling middle pack in the East. Perhaps a fully-healthy starting five is what the team has always needed.
(Last week: 3)
5. New York Knicks (23-24)
So the Knicks have a sneaky 10th-ranked offense and fifth-ranked defense over the past two weeks. I know it doesn't reflect much in the record (1-2 this week) or today's rankings, but I do think good things are slowly happening.
From what I've seen and read, the biggest gripe appears to be that Tom Thibodeau still won't fully unleash his young talent. Immanuel Quickley has started just 2 of his 43 games played. Quentin Grimes has maximized his bench role with quality two-way play. Miles "Deuce" McBride has graduated from the G League. There's a lot of excitement around these backcourt players in particular and the fans are hungry for more.
(Last week: 4)
4. Indiana Pacers (17-30)
The Pacers' state of affairs hasn't meaningfully changed for over a calendar month. So this time, I'm giving the floor to Justin Holiday, who has been a bright spot in dim places for Indiana. The eldest Holiday brother is shooting a scorching 42.0% from beyond the arc and averaging 13.4 points per game in January, while being one of the few plus perimeter defenders on the roster. He's another Batum-level role-player who, if I were GM of a contender, I'd heavily pursue before the trade deadline.
(Last week: 6)
3. Washington Wizards (23-24)
Fortunately, the Wizards don't seem all too concerned with <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/bradley-beal-likely-to-decline-player-option-team-has-not-talked-trade" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bradley Beal's likely free agency</a> this offseason. Unfortunately, their on-court slide continues after an 0-3 week with losses to the Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Raptors and Celtics. Washington started 10-3 and has since gone 13-21 with the league's 22nd-ranked offensive rating and 26th-ranked defensive rating. The Wizards have two more games this month and some extended time off before the schedule ramps back up in February.&nbsp;
(Last week: 8)
2. Sacramento Kings (18-30)
So the Kings are <a href="https://theathletic.com/3078346/2022/01/19/insiders-think-a-ben-simmons-deal-gets-done-plus-a-pulse-on-teams-desperation-factor-nba-trade-deadline-roundtable/?source=nbatw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> thinking about acquiring Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris from Philly and... I just don't know if that's how you get out of 15 years' worth of directionless mediocrity. They're both great players, but do they significantly raise the ceiling when the Sixers would get a haul in return?&nbsp;
Sacramento is 2-8 in its last 10, and this quote from the aformentioned report by Sam Amick sums things up nicely:
"The widely held belief is that this front office, with general manager Monte McNair in his second season after working for all those years with Morey in Houston, simply must do a deal of significance now. To no one&rsquo;s surprise, there has been a collective loss of faith in the prospect of this core evolving into a contender in the West."
(Last week: 5)
1. Los Angeles Lakers (23-24)
The Lakers' woes have been the talk of the NBA for the past week. I don't need to add anything because an article and a video clip will cover everything you need to know. Frank Vogel appears to be coaching for his job every game, and <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/the-lakers-have-put-frank-vogel-in-a-very-difficult-position" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as Alex Kennedy wrote, that's pretty brutal.</a> As for this roster, let JJ Redick explain:
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&ldquo;[The Lakers] are a bad team! &hellip; These are guys that are past their prime, that&rsquo;s the reality.&rdquo; &mdash;<a href="https://twitter.com/jj_redick?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jj_redick</a> <a href="https://t.co/VMzY26su1B">pic.twitter.com/VMzY26su1B</a>
&mdash; First Take (@FirstTake) <a href="https://twitter.com/FirstTake/status/1483497600623910913?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 18, 2022</a></blockquote>

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I'll ask: What is the best return we can reasonably expect from a package of Kendrick Nunn, Talen Horton-Tucker and a 2027 first-round pick?
(Last week: 7)
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The Lakers and Kings occupy the top two spots in this week's rankings.

NBA Sour Rankings: Collapses in California

NEW YORK (AP) &mdash; Miles Bridges made sure LaMelo Ball wasn&rsquo;t missed.
Bridges scored a career-high 38 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, leading the Charlotte Hornets to a 97-87 victory over the New York Knicks on Monday.
Terry Rozier added 22 points. He and Bridges combined to outscore the Knicks by themselves in the first half as Charlotte bounced back nicely from a loss to Orlando that ended its four-game winning streak.
Ball was ill but the Hornets didn&rsquo;t need their flashy point guard, with Bridges driving them to a strong start. He scored 28 points in the first half.
&ldquo;He was awesome tonight. High-level performance. His confidence, the spirit he played with, led us to this victory,&rdquo; Charlotte coach James Borrego said. &ldquo;I thought Terry controlled the game as well. Miles and Terry together controlled that game, but Miles was fantastic.&rdquo;
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Rozier had 17 in the first half, when Charlotte led 62-44.
Julius Randle and RJ Barrett each scored 18 points for the Knicks, who had their three-game winning streak snapped.
Ball was listed as questionable with an illness unrelated to COVID-19, but the Hornets said just before the start that he was available to play. Ball sat on the bench with his teammates to watch the impressive performances by Bridges and Rozier.
Bridges was 7 for 8 in the first quarter for 22 points. The Knicks barely outscored him, with Charlotte leading 34-23.
&ldquo;LaMelo, he usually brings that aggression for us and we go as he goes, so somebody had to pick up the slack,&rdquo; Bridges said. &ldquo;So I wanted to go out there and be aggressive from the jump and T-Ro started being aggressive and Gordon (Hayward), so it was like a domino effect.&rdquo;
Bridges started the second quarter on the bench and the Knicks immediately ran off seven straight points to get within four. The Hornets called time, put Bridges back in after barely a two-minute break, and quickly regained control.
Bridges had the last three baskets of an 8-0 run that extended the lead to 45-33, a lead that grew to 18 at halftime after Rozier made 3-pointers for their final two baskets.
&ldquo;I think if you look at, honestly, the rest of the game, especially in the second half, we played well,&rdquo; Barrett said, noting the Knicks held the Hornets to 35 points after halftime.
&ldquo;So it was really just that first half, especially that first quarter.&rdquo;
Bridges, who shot 14 for 20, made a 3-pointer late in the third that gave Charlotte its biggest lead at 86-63. He got the basket that tied his previous high of 35 in the fourth quarter with a spectacular baseline drive and reverse scoop that had teammates grinning.
TIP-INS
Hornets: Hayward scored 16 points. .... Bridges has seven 30-point games this season. He had three in his first three seasons. ... Kelly Oubre was out because of health and safety protocols.
Knicks: Point guard Kemba Walker missed his ninth straight game with a sore left knee. ... Coach Tom Thibodeau celebrated his 64th birthday. ... Mayor Eric Adams addressed the crowd on Martin Luther King Jr. Day before the game, saying that just as &ldquo;Dr. King wanted the ball in his hands&rdquo; during the civil rights movement, New Yorkers wanted it now to lead the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s win this for Team New York and Team America,&rdquo; Adams said.
HOT HALF
The Hornets said that Bridges was just the fourth Charlotte player in the last 25 years with at least 28 points in a first half, and two have come against the Knicks in the last two seasons.
Hayward also had 28 against New York in Charlotte on Jan. 11, 2021. Walker had 35 against Memphis on March 22, 2018, while Glen Rice had 28 against Phoenix on Feb. 19, 1997.
UP NEXT
Hornets: Visit Boston on Wednesday.
Knicks: Host Minnesota on Tuesday.
___
More NBA:&nbsp;<a class="" href="https://apnews.com/hub/nba">https://apnews.com/hub/nba</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a class="" href="https://twitter.com/AP_Sports" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://twitter.com/AP_Sports</a>

Bridges and Terry Rozier combined to outscore the Knicks by themselves in the first half.

Miles Bridges scores 38, Hornets beat Knicks without LaMelo Ball

NEW YORK (AP) &mdash; Miles Bridges made sure LaMelo Ball wasn't missed.
Bridges scored a career-high 38 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, leading the Charlotte Hornets to a 97-87 victory over the New York Knicks on Monday.
Terry Rozier added 22 points. He and Bridges combined to outscore the Knicks by themselves in the first half as Charlotte bounced back nicely from a loss to Orlando that ended its four-game winning streak.
Ball was ill but the Hornets didn't need their flashy point guard, with Bridges driving them to a strong start. He scored 28 points in the first half.
&ldquo;He was awesome tonight. High-level performance. His confidence, the spirit he played with, led us to this victory,&rdquo; Charlotte coach James Borrego said. &ldquo;I thought Terry controlled the game as well. Miles and Terry together controlled that game, but Miles was fantastic.&rdquo;
Rozier had 17 in the first half, when Charlotte led 62-44.
Julius Randle and RJ Barrett each scored 18 points for the Knicks, who had their three-game winning streak snapped.
Ball was listed as questionable with an illness unrelated to COVID-19, but the Hornets said just before the start that he was available to play. Ball sat on the bench with his teammates to watch the impressive performances by Bridges and Rozier.
Bridges was 7 for 8 in the first quarter for 22 points. The Knicks barely outscored him, with Charlotte leading 34-23.
&ldquo;LaMelo, he usually brings that aggression for us and we go as he goes, so somebody had to pick up the slack,&rdquo; Bridges said. &ldquo;So I wanted to go out there and be aggressive from the jump and T-Ro started being aggressive and Gordon (Hayward), so it was like a domino effect.&rdquo;
Bridges started the second quarter on the bench and the Knicks immediately ran off seven straight points to get within four. The Hornets called time, put Bridges back in after barely a two-minute break, and quickly regained control.
Bridges had the last three baskets of an 8-0 run that extended the lead to 45-33, a lead that grew to 18 at halftime after Rozier made 3-pointers for their final two baskets.
&ldquo;I think if you look at, honestly, the rest of the game, especially in the second half, we played well,&rdquo; Barrett said, noting the Knicks held the Hornets to 35 points after halftime.
&ldquo;So it was really just that first half, especially that first quarter.&rdquo;
Bridges, who shot 14 for 20, made a 3-pointer late in the third that gave Charlotte its biggest lead at 86-63. He got the basket that tied his previous high of 35 in the fourth quarter with a spectacular baseline drive and reverse scoop that had teammates grinning.
TIP-INS
Hornets: Hayward scored 16 points. .... Bridges has seven 30-point games this season. He had three in his first three seasons. ... Kelly Oubre was out because of health and safety protocols.
Knicks: Point guard Kemba Walker missed his ninth straight game with a sore left knee. ... Coach Tom Thibodeau celebrated his 64th birthday. ... Mayor Eric Adams addressed the crowd on Martin Luther King Jr. Day before the game, saying that just as &ldquo;Dr. King wanted the ball in his hands" during the civil rights movement, New Yorkers wanted it now to lead the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s win this for Team New York and Team America,&rdquo; Adams said.
HOT HALF
The Hornets said that Bridges was just the fourth Charlotte player in the last 25 years with at least 28 points in a first half, and two have come against the Knicks in the last two seasons.
Hayward also had 28 against New York in Charlotte on Jan. 11, 2021. Walker had 35 against Memphis on March 22, 2018, while Glen Rice had 28 against Phoenix on Feb. 19, 1997.
UP NEXT
Hornets: Visit Boston on Wednesday.
Knicks: Host Minnesota on Tuesday.

Miles Bridges scored a career-high 38 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, leading the Hornets to a 97-87 victory over the Knicks.

Bridges scores 38, Hornets beat Knicks without Ball

This is excerpt from Jon Finkel&rsquo;s new book &ldquo;Windmills &amp; Tomahawks: Nine Chapters on Dominique Wilkins,&rdquo; which is available Amazon <a href="https://amzn.to/3rmFUEs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> or as a PDF on Gumroad <a href="https://jonfinkel.gumroad.com/l/ztFyb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>. 
You know those moments in boxing matches when you can tell by the way a fighter is sitting in his corner that he&rsquo;s out of gas? His shoulders are rounded. He&rsquo;s sweaty but somehow dry-looking. His legs are heavy and far apart.
As his chest heaves and the trainer screams &ldquo;stick and move&rdquo; while smothering his eyebrows with Vaseline, the fighter stares straight ahead. He&rsquo;s not dazed, but he&rsquo;s not all there either. Then the bell rings and he rises, summoning the will to roll back into the ring.
This was Dominique Wilkins heading into the fourth quarter of game No. 81 of the 1985-86 NBA season. &rsquo;Nique was in a decimal-point duel with the Utah Jazz&rsquo;s Adrian Dantley and the Denver Nuggets&rsquo; Alex English for the season scoring title. Dantley was sitting at 29.83 points per game and English at 29.8, mere tenths of a point from crossing that magical 30-points-per-game threshold and, in this case, winning the scoring crown.
Dantley was, in today&rsquo;s parlance, a bucket. The guy averaged 30 points per game for four-straight seasons from 1981 to 1984. He&rsquo;d won two NBA scoring titles and had been in the top five several times. Alex English, a.k.a. &ldquo;The Blade,&rdquo; led the league in scoring in 1983. He, too, was a bucket.
What this means is that heading into the final few games of the &rsquo;86 season, &rsquo;Nique wasn&rsquo;t trading jabs with some chumps for the scoring title &mdash; he was battling heavyweight scoring champions.
Accordingly, he knew exactly where he stood heading into that 81st game against the New Jersey Nets. He knew what he had, and he knew what he needed to grab the scoring crown. The only people standing in his way were 6-foot-11, 250-pound Mike Gminski; 6-foot-9, 230-pound Jeff Turner; 6-foot-8, 250-pound Buck Williams, and the rest of the Nets frontcourt.
Didn&rsquo;t matter.
Throughout the &rsquo;86 season, Dominique Wilkins had seen a million defenders&hellip; and he&rsquo;d dunked &rsquo;em all. (h/t Bon Jovi).
He scored 32 in the season opener against the Washington Bullets and 40 in the fourth game against the Boston Celtics. He cruised at altitude through most of November, bouncing between 30-point games and 20-point games, and then hit the stratosphere starting in December. He had 10 games of 30 points or more from early December to early January, including this run from December 19 to January 7 with games of 29, 49, 35, 36, 32, 27, and 37 points.
The 49-point game came against the Houston Rockets, back when Hakeem Olajuwon was Akeem. The final bucket in that contest was a game-winning three-pointer with eight seconds left. It was a career high for Wilkins at the time, and it nudged him into third place in the scoring race behind English and Dantley.
&ldquo;If that&rsquo;s not an All-Star performance, I want to see the other guys in the league,&rdquo; Hawks coach Mike Fratello said.
After a two-game &ldquo;drought&rdquo; of scoring in the mid-20s following that game-winner, Wilkins laid the smack down in January, crushing defenses like Bruce Lee&rsquo;s fist through slabs of concrete. Bam. Bam. Bam.
Thirty-six against the Celtics.
Thirty-three against the Bucks.
Thirty-six against the Knicks.
Thirty-five against the Warriors.
Thirty-eight against the Nets.
The run included scoring 30-plus points in nine of 11 games and was capped off by setting the Arco Arena record with 43 points against the Sacramento Kings on February 13.
By early 1986, &rsquo;Nique was just about done polishing off his superstar CV. He&rsquo;d already won the dunk contest in &rsquo;85. He won the NBA&rsquo;s Player of the Month for January of &rsquo;86. He was named to his first All-Star game and scored 13 points in 17 minutes playing alongside his idol, Dr. J.
Check. Check. Check.
With two months to go, Wilkins was in third place in the scoring race behind English and Dantley, and to paraphrase Colonel Jessup in A Few Good Men, he wanted that scoring title&mdash;he needed that scoring title.
Everyone who followed basketball knew that Wilkins could dunk and score, but to officially be the league&rsquo;s best dunker AND best scorer &mdash; damn, that was rarified air. Up to that point, that distinction had been occupied by one man: Julius Erving. (Yeah, I know Dr. J&rsquo;s scoring titles were in the ABA&hellip; so what.)
And there was another wrinkle.
After winning a measly 34 games in &rsquo;85, the Hawks were staring down the barrel of a potential 50-win season, one of only a handful of times the franchise had a legitimate shot of reaching that number since the team moved to Atlanta.
Add it all up and, beginning on February 21, 1986, Dominique Wilkins cracked his knuckles, rolled his shoulders, bounced his head from side to side and went full Mortal Kombat on the entire NBA.
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/ns_lg.jpg" alt="" width="690" height="346" />
Thirty-point games were nothing. Thirty-five-point games became normal. Forty-point games seemed to happen every week.
One night he&rsquo;d drop 38 on the Pacers, and a few days later he&rsquo;d hit the Spurs for 36. In a rare home-and-home against the 76ers in early March, he dropped 32 in the first game and 37 in the second game.
Was he tired yet?
No.
Two nights later he pasted the Bulls for 42. It was a tight game, but the Hawks won 112-108, despite Chicago throwing everything at Dominique.
&ldquo;They were really pushing me inside and played hard,&rdquo; he said afterward. &ldquo;Those 42 points, yep, we needed every one of them.&rdquo;
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Seven days later, he hit up the Celtics for 42 in a tough loss. The &ldquo;L&rdquo; halted a feel-good winning run for the Hawks that mirrored Dominique&rsquo;s onslaught. The team had won 12 of 13 games since the All-Star break and was positioning itself nicely for a top playoff spot.
At the beginning of April, the Hawks were four wins away from hitting fifty, and &rsquo;Nique was neck-and-neck-and-neck with English and Dantley for the scoring title.
Both of his goals were in his grasp.
Could he go up a level?
Would he go up a level?
Yes and yes.
On April 4 and 5, the NBA scoring lead changed hands for the 17th and 18th times that season. English had been (barely) holding on to the top spot since February, but lost it when he had an off night against Sacramento and only scored 18 points. This dropped his scoring average to 29.62. On the same night, Dantley poured in 42 against the Clippers, raising his average to 29.75 and giving him the lead.
Meanwhile, Dominique smoked the Washington Bullets for 33 and 46 in back-to-back games. The 33-point game put him in second place with a 29.64 average and his 46-point effort put him in the lead for the first time all season with a 29.9 points-per-game average. He also set another arena scoring record, tying the 46 points that Elgin Baylor put up at Capital Centre 11 years earlier.
So, with four games to go, &rsquo;Nique was in first place by a fraction of a point and the Hawks had 47 wins. After scoring 28 in a loss to the Bulls, neither &rsquo;Nique nor his squad had any wiggle room left. It was do or die. Atlanta needed to win out to hit the magic number of 50, and &rsquo;Nique likely needed to score 35 per game (at least) to capture the scoring crown.
In game No. 80, Wilkins scored 37 points, including 12 in the fourth quarter, to help secure the win. With two games remaining, here&rsquo;s where things stood:
Hawks&rsquo; win total: 48
&nbsp;
Scoring leaders:
Wilkins: 29.93 PPG
Dantley: 29.78 PPG
English: 29.70 PPG
Now we&rsquo;ve caught up to where we started this chapter &mdash; game No. 81 against the Nets and their defensive bullies.
With the 50-win total in sight and the scoring title on the brink, Wilkins shifted his car into no-more-bullshit gear and eviscerated the poor New Jersey Nets.
He scored 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting in the first quarter, and by the end of three quarters he had 41 points. It was a scoring onslaught, but the game remained tight and the scoring race was tighter. When the buzzer sounded to start the fourth quarter, &rsquo;Nique shook off the fatigue and became a hoops version of Muhammad Ali, floating like a butterfly, stinging like a bee, and draining buckets. He reeled off nine points in less than five minutes, including a hard lay-up, a dunk off a pass from Spud Webb, and a few jumpers. This gave him a career-high 50 points.
He was on fumes, but he wasn&rsquo;t done.
He hit a powerhouse baseline slam to get to 52 and then a double-clutch reverse dunk that completely emptied his tank and gave him 54 points. After the dunk, you could see it on his face. He was cashed out. His adrenaline was gone. His legs were spent. He needed a break, and coach Mike Fratello took him out for a breather.
When he returned four minutes later, he was out of rhythm. Still, he managed three more points on a jumper and a foul shot, giving him 57 on the night.
It was a new personal best.
It broke the scoring record for The Omni (52 by Nate Archibald in 1973).
It tied Bob Pettit&rsquo;s franchise record from back in 1961 when the team played in St. Louis.
Most importantly, his record game helped give the Hawks their 49th win with one game to go and put Dominique firmly in the lead for the scoring title.
His scoring average was now 30.285, a few tenths of a point ahead of English and Dantley.
&ldquo;I tell you, all these guys were looking out for me tonight,&rdquo; Wilkins said after the game. &ldquo;They were really great to me. I can&rsquo;t tell you how much I owe them.&rdquo;
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As for how he felt?
First, he was exhausted, acknowledging that he was dead tired by the end of the game.
&ldquo;I had to come out,&rdquo; Wilkins said, joking that on a tired scale of one to 10, he was an 11. &ldquo;I was tired and trying too hard.&rdquo;
And yet, one game remained.
One game to get to 50 wins.
One game to secure his scoring title.
Two days later, the scoring title was Dominique&rsquo;s when both English and Dantley conceded and sat out their final games. After crunching the numbers, even if Wilkins had somehow scored zero points in his last game, Dantley would have needed 68 points in his final game to overtake &rsquo;Nique and English would have needed 70. Wilkins&rsquo; 81st-game output was too overpowering.
&ldquo;I never thought I would be this far ahead going into the last game,&rdquo; Wilkins joked.
Rather than a three-way battle for the scoring title on the final day of the season, game No. 82 against Indiana was all about the Hawks getting their 50th win. As he&rsquo;d done all season, Wilkins said, &ldquo;I got this,&rdquo; and continued his one-man assault on the NBA&rsquo;s defenses. By the time the Pacers looked up, &rsquo;Nique had 25 points at the half, putting him on pace for back-to-back 50-point outings. The Hawks won easily, 108-91, and with the franchise-tying 50th win in hand, he took his foot off the gas and finished with 34 points.
In the end, he won the scoring title by half a point.
He averaged 30.333 points per game, Dantley averaged 29.829, and English averaged 29.802.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll take it any way I can get it,&rdquo; Wilkins said after the game.
The season-long performance also earned one final commendation when Dominique finished second in the MVP voting to Larry Bird. Magic Johnson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Charles Barkley finished third through sixth.
***
This was an excerpt from Jon Finkel&rsquo;s new digital biography Windmills &amp; Tomahawks: Nine Chapters on Dominique Wilkins. Buy it on Amazon <a href="https://amzn.to/3rmFUEs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> or buy the PDF on Gumroad <a href="https://jonfinkel.gumroad.com/l/ztFyb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>. 
Finkel&rsquo;s books have been endorsed by everyone from Spike Lee and Kevin Durant to Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Cuban. His most recent books are 1996: A Biography and Hoops Heist: Seattle, the Sonics and How a Stolen Team&rsquo;s Legacy Gave Rise to the NBA&rsquo;s Secret Empire. You can follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/Jon_Finkel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

This excerpt from "Windmills & Tomahawks" by Jon Finkel explores how Dominique Wilkins captured the NBA scoring title in 1985-86.

Windmills & Tomahawks: How Dominique Wilkins led NBA in scoring in '86

It was Deandre Ayton's turn on Tuesday night.&nbsp;
The big fella led the Phoenix Suns with 24 points, while also grabbing 11 boards (6 offensive) and swatting a couple of shots away. While the Suns beat the Warriors by eight points, they outscored the Golden Crew by 16 points in Ayton's 34 minutes.
It would be convenient to frame Ayton's big night as a "he stepped up without Devin Booker" performance, though that wouldn't be entirely fair. Yes, Ayton's contributions on the interior helped after Booker sustained a hamstring injury in the second quarter, but Ayton didn't just fill the gaps.
He set the tone.
With Andrew Wiggins getting the Booker assignment, and Draymond Green taking on Chris Paul for switch-the-1-5-pick-and-roll purposes, it was up to Ayton to make that plan a bad one.&nbsp;
He won early by doing the little things. Hard screens and even harder rolls to the basket. Quick (and deep) seals against smaller opponents. Timely offensive boards. Nine of his 24 points, and 4 of his 11 rebounds came in the first quarter.
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Zoom out, though, and you see the beauty &mdash; and deadliness &mdash; of this Suns team. You have to worry about the three-level scoring prowess of Booker. There's Paul's playmaking ability and otherworldly mid-range shooting. And if you focus on taking those things away, you still have to deal with Ayton.
Tuesday night was a snapshot &mdash; a loud one, considering the opponent &mdash; of what the Suns have been during their 17-game win streak. Relentless. Calculated. Suffocating. Versatile. They often get a lot from a few, but they consistently get a little bit from everyone.&nbsp;
That's how <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/suns-win-over-warriors-another-crescendo-moment-for-their-incredible-rebuild" target="_blank" rel="noopener">you win 17 straight</a>. It's how you build a top-five half-court offense and&nbsp;defense, per Cleaning The Glass.
THE BALLING BACKCOURT
It starts with the duo of Paul and Booker, who seem to have struck a nice balance between lead duties. And by balance, I really mean that Paul is really commandeering this thing.
Paul has taken even more ownership of the offense; he once again leads the team in touches, and his overall time of possession has increased from last season. Booker has seen a decrease in both, an odd phenomenon on the surface considering Booker is ascending while Paul is, well, 37 years old.
Here's where we are this season, with last season's mark in parentheses.
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; height: 66px;" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 15.7351%; height: 22px;">Player</td>
<td style="width: 16.1356%; height: 22px;">Touches</td>
<td style="width: 19.607%; height: 22px;">Time of possession</td>
<td style="width: 20.0074%; height: 22px;">Avg. seconds per touch</td>
<td style="width: 19.2064%; height: 22px;">Avg. dribbles per touch</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 15.7351%; height: 22px;">Chris Paul</td>
<td style="width: 16.1356%; height: 22px;">75.7 (77.4)</td>
<td style="width: 19.607%; height: 22px;">7.5 (7.2)</td>
<td style="width: 20.0074%; height: 22px;">5.95 (5.56)</td>
<td style="width: 19.2064%; height: 22px;">5.29 (4.84)</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 15.7351%; height: 22px;">Devin Booker</td>
<td style="width: 16.1356%; height: 22px;">51.5 (56.2)</td>
<td style="width: 19.607%; height: 22px;">3.6 (4.0)</td>
<td style="width: 20.0074%; height: 22px;">4.14 (4.32)</td>
<td style="width: 19.2064%; height: 22px;">3.39 (3.52)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
The shift has worked for both parties. Paul is one of the best decision-makers of all time; he leads the NBA in assists (10.1) while only turning the ball over 2.3 times per contest. It's probably a good idea to let a guy like that direct the half-court attack, especially one with the diverse pick-and-roll attack Phoenix has.
Paul has continued to be the NBA's premier drop coverage beater. Play him too tightly, and he's slipping a pass to his big. Give too much grace to the big, and he's firing from mid-range; by the way, Paul is knocking down an absurd 52.1% of his pull-up twos this year. Send a third defender into the action, and Paul will slice you apart with skips to the corner.
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For Booker, the off-ball benefit has been two-fold. He doesn't have to carry a ridiculously heavy creation burden, and as a result, he also gets to take easier shots.
Booker's a madman when curling off of screens. Between the lifts from the baseline and flares above the break, Booker is often attacking with a head start. He doesn't have to spam dribble moves to free himself; he's generally within his wheelhouse with a dribble or two.
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With Booker operating more off the ball, he's also gotten to take more (and easier) catch-and-shoot looks. Not only is Booker draining a career-high 44.4% of his catch-and-shoot threes, this is the first time since 2016-17 that he's averaging more catch-and-shoot attempts (3.0) than pull-ups (2.8).
Coincidentally, Booker's overall three-point clip (40.3%, also a career-high) seems more in line with his actual shooting ability.
It's almost like shot diet matters when considering a player's efficiency.
NO BURNING BRIDGES
There's much to be said about Mikal Bridges' defense. Frankly, he should already have an All-Defensive team selection under his belt. He's certainly on pace to achieve the feat this season.
Only a handful of players have a tougher matchup difficulty &mdash; percentage of possessions defending high usage players &mdash; than Bridges does. He takes the toughest on-ball assignment virtually every night.
Among the players he's defended for at least 30 possessions, per NBA.com's tracking data: Damian Lillard, Trae Young, Stephen Curry, James Harden, LeBron James and Michael Porter Jr.
Big, small, bulky, lanky. Pull-up artists, pick-and-roll maestros. Silky jump shooters. Isolation masters. Mid-post powerhouses. You name it, Bridges has held his own against it at the very least.
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The real intrigue lies with how Bridges is being used offensively. His scoring is down a point this season, which coincides with a slight dip in three-point accuracy (39.1%, down from 42.5%). Volume is the real story; Bridges' three-point rate has dropped over 12 percentage points from last season.
He's seen a bump in both at-the-rim and mid-range (10-to-16 feet, per Basketball-Reference) frequency. As pointed out by tremendous Suns follow (and recent <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-the-valley/id1547857052?i=1000542454702" target="_blank" rel="noopener">guest of The Dunker Spot</a>) <a href="https://twitter.com/theIVpointplay" target="_blank" rel="noopener">David Kevin</a>, the Suns are using Bridges in place of Booker in some of their intricate pick-and-roll sets.
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With Booker set to miss the next few games with his hamstring issue, it wouldn't be a shock to see an(other) uptick in usage from Bridges.
MAN IN THE MIDDLE
And then, there's Ayton &mdash; figuratively and literally at the center of it all.&nbsp;
His physicality gives the Suns a much-needed boost in rim pressure, whether that comes with rim-running in transition, or rolling hard (and sealing) after ball screens. Ayton is converting a career-best 84% of his shots inside of 3 feet.
Ayton has been just as impressive defensively. While Bridges (rightfully) gets the love for his defensive aptitude, Ayton's combination of size and mobility allows the Suns to shapeshift when necessary.
The Suns don't run a strict drop system with Ayton. They play him way back in ball screens &mdash; this is a large human being, of course &mdash; to wall off the rim, then late/peel switch to keep the action in front. The block numbers aren't there (career-low 0.7) because of it, but neither are the fouls (career-low 3.1 per 36 minutes).
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Teamwide, the system works as designed. Only seven teams give up a lower share of rim shots than the Suns. Conversely, only four teams allow a higher share of mid-range shots.
It's not like teams have much success if they happen to get to the rim. Opponents are shooting just 50% at the rim when defended by Ayton, serving as the stingiest number of his career, and the 10th best mark in the NBA among players defending at least <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defensive-impact/?sort=DEF_RIM_FG_PCT&amp;dir=-1&amp;Season=2021-22&amp;SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;CF=DEF_RIM_FGA*GE*4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">four shots per game</a>.
It's hard to overstate how impressive the synergy is between the Suns' top four guys.
Paul's playmaking (further) unlocks Booker as a scorer; Booker's scoring chops tilts the defense in a way that makes like easier for Bridges. The combination of playmaking and shooting from those three gives Ayton ample room to roll into.
Defensively, Bridges and Ayton hold down the exterior and interior respectively. Paul is able to fill gaps as a helper and communicator; Booker is able to take the lesser of wing options when he wants, though it's worth noting his on-ball defense has graduated well beyond the "liability" range at this juncture.
And with those four gelling the way they do, life becomes even easier for The Others.&nbsp;
Cameron Johnson (39% on 4.8 attempts) and Landry Shamet (37.8% on 4.5 attempts) are able to bomb away from deep; Crowder fills that role as the fifth starter, and has rebounded nicely from a slow start (37.1% on 5.6 attempts in November). JaVale McGee has thrived alongside Paul in pick-and-roll. Cam Payne has been able to shake loose when sharing the floor with Booker in hybrid second units.
The Suns took the NBA world by storm last season, riding their momentum all the way to a Finals berth. You can quibble about some of the injury "luck" they faced among the way (as long as you do it for literally every other Finals team in league history), but their proficiency on both ends was hiding in plain sight.
They seem to be even better this year. With reasonable health, there may only be one team with a chance of stopping them from returning to the Finals &mdash; and they just beat them.

Nekias Duncan breaks down the Suns' two-way dominance and the reasons why they're rolling during their 17-game winning streak.

Stop sleeping on the Phoenix Suns

The first calendar month of NCAA action is drawing to a close, and there were no shortage of prospect fireworks throughout the early nonconference slate.&nbsp;
Freshmen like Jabari Smith and Kendall Brown have consistently turned heads with their play, while returning stars such as Jaden Ivey showed tremendous growth. Of course, Paolo Banchero and Chet Holmgren also dominate the conversation, culminating with their thrilling matchup on Nov. 26 in Las Vegas.
Matt Babcock was on hand for that game and many others. He and his scouting team recently updated <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener">our 2022 NBA Draft Big Board</a>. Babcock answered a few of my questions about his board and his observations so far.
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What has Paolo Banchero done to solidify his No. 1 ranking on your Big Board?
Matt Babcock: I have seen Banchero in-person twice this season &mdash; on opening night in New York at the State Farm Champions Classic, and then just recently in Las Vegas versus Gonzaga. He was terrific in both games. The main thing for me that gives Banchero an edge over Jabari Smith and Chet Holmgren is his ability to create offense on his own. Don&rsquo;t get me wrong, he has a well-rounded game, but his ability to get buckets is something teams can build around. I envision Banchero being a big-time scorer in the NBA.&nbsp;
What has inspired you to move Jabari Smith up to second on your Big Board?
Matt Babcock: I recently watched Jabari Smith in Tampa, Florida when Auburn played South Florida. He didn&rsquo;t even have a great game, but he showed his talent and I was blown away. He does just about everything I&rsquo;d want from a versatile stretch four. He shoots the ball extremely well with range. He&rsquo;s teased his ability to score on three levels, and I think he has the potential to become an elite switchable defender. From an upside standpoint, Jabari Smith might have the highest ceiling of any prospect this year.
Aside from Banchero and Holmgren, who else stood out to you from the Duke vs. Gonzaga matchup?
Matt Babcock: That game was unbelievable! I feel lucky to have been in the building. From a scouting standpoint, it was almost overwhelming because between the two teams, there were so many NBA prospects. However, one player that really stood out was Wendell Moore from Duke. I&rsquo;ve watched Moore since he was in high school. He&rsquo;s gotten so much better. I initially thought he was just a tough, slashing player. In that game in Las Vegas, he showed so much more versatility than he has in the past. He actually showed some point guard skills, which surprised me. It was also very clear that he is the leader of that team. I have a lot of confidence in Moore right now. We decided to include him on our most updated Big Board as an early second-round pick.&nbsp;
Duke&rsquo;s sophomore center, Mark Williams, made a major impact in that game, too. He&rsquo;s so big and really uses his length to be a great defensive anchor and finisher around the rim. He&rsquo;s trending up in my book for sure.
I also thought Gonzaga&rsquo;s point guard, Andrew Nembhard, showed well. He isn&rsquo;t the quickest player, but he has good size and is just a solid floor general. I think he&rsquo;s improved quite a bit.
What makes Kendall Brown one of the hottest early risers in the class so far?
Matt Babcock: I&rsquo;m very high on Kendall Brown. He has positional size and is about as good of an athlete as I&rsquo;ve ever seen. He&rsquo;s already producing at a high level as a freshman for a very good Baylor team. I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;s ever going to be a guy that&rsquo;s going to create a ton of offense on his own, but his elite athleticism and motor allow for him to make plays all over the court.
Which other freshmen have made significant impressions early in the season?
Matt Babcock: There are a lot of talented freshmen. Of course there are the players that we expected to be near the top of the draft, like Banchero, Smith, Holmgren, and Duren, but a few guys that have really caught my attention early on have been Moussa Diabate from Michigan, Max Christie from Michigan State, Matthew Cleveland from Florida State, and Bryce McGowens from Nebraska.
Which collegiate returners have shown significant growth from last year?
Matt Babcock: Coincidentally, the two names that come to mind first are both from the Big Ten: Jaden Ivey from Purdue and Keegan Murray from Iowa.
Ivey is a dynamic guard who is so athletic. He&rsquo;s a hawk on the ball defensively and is constantly attacking the rim with the ball in his hands. He&rsquo;s really improved as a playmaker, too. He&rsquo;s really an exciting player. Keep an eye out for his highlights.
As for Keegan Murray, he doesn&rsquo;t do one thing that blows you away, as his game is pretty simple. He&rsquo;s a stretch four who has a non-stop motor. The guy just makes things happen all game long by playing smart and hard. He&rsquo;s having an incredible season so far for the Hawkeyes. Murray is averaging over 25 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and a steal per game. At this point, I have a hard time envisioning him slipping too far in the draft, as I think a lot of teams could use him.
I was actually planning to see both of these players in-person later this week when their teams play each other Friday night at Purdue, but I couldn&rsquo;t fit it into my schedule, unfortunately. I need to lock in a couple of dates so I can see both of them sometime soon.
Who's a player you would like to see more from before conference play gets started?
Matt Babcock: My schedule really came together nicely this season. I&rsquo;ll have seen most of the real high-priority prospects by the New Year. I&rsquo;d say the area where I feel least confident, at the moment, is with international prospects. I&rsquo;m heading out to Europe for a couple of weeks in January, though, so I will have an opportunity to see a lot of top guys then. There are also some prospects playing in Australia, whose league is just getting going right now. I likely won&rsquo;t be traveling there this season. I don&rsquo;t even know if I could go if I wanted to. But it will be nice to get some fresh film to watch and get caught up on those prospects.
What other non-NCAA prospects have made strong statements recently?
Matt Babcock: I think G League Ignite players Dyson Daniels, MarJon Beauchamp and Michael Foster are all doing a nice job. Jaden Hardy hasn&rsquo;t been playing as well as I had hoped he would, but I think it&rsquo;s just a matter of time for him to work through the kinks and become more comfortable. Also, Scoot Henderson has been incredible since he came back from an injury. He&rsquo;s not draft eligible this year, but next year, watch out &mdash; he&rsquo;s coming!&nbsp;
I&rsquo;m also planning to go to Atlanta in the next couple of weeks to see Jean Montero and the rest of the players with Overtime Elite. I worked for Overtime Elite as a scouting advisor for about six months. I helped get their scouting operations in order and their initial group of players set. So in addition to seeing Montero and the rest of the players there, I&rsquo;m looking forward to seeing all of my former co-workers and their brand new arena.

Matt Babcock explains some of the updates to his Big Board and highlights some of the top prospects he's scouted.

2022 NBA Draft: Q&A with Matt Babcock on early-season risers

He crossed the half-court line with his eyes on the basket. Never one to shy away from a shot, Julius Randle surprised all in attendance when he turned to his right and started toward the middle of the floor.
Kemba Walker seized his moment.
The newest New York Knick cut to his left before receiving an underhanded scoop pass from Randle, who set a screen on Seth Curry. Already burned by Walker on a previous possession, Tobias Harris made what seemed to be a wise business decision &mdash; he sagged off of Walker instead of blitzing him.
Walker made him pay.
The veteran guard immediately recognized that he had enough space to launch a three-pointer, so he took what the defense gave him, and his shot found the bottom of the net. But this trey wasn&rsquo;t just any other shot, it was Walker&rsquo;s fourth consecutive make in a decisive stretch that saw the Knicks open up a 20-point halftime lead against Joel Embiid and his Philadelphia 76ers.&nbsp;
And it was the last shot he&rsquo;d hit before many in attendance began chanting his name.
As Walker was serenaded by the fans of his new old team, he gave the Knicks a cushion they were ultimately able to turn into a win.
If there was any lingering doubt, at this point, there wasn&rsquo;t any longer. With Madison Square Garden chanting his name, Kemba was indeed home.
&ldquo;It was the kind of moment I dreamed about when I was a kid,&rdquo; he&rsquo;d reveal after the Knicks broke a 15-game losing streak against the Sixers on Tuesday night.
And it was the kind of moment the Garden faithful envisioned when the news of Walker&rsquo;s return to New York was made public last summer.
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🔥 <a href="https://twitter.com/KembaWalker?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KembaWalker</a> (19 PTS, 5 AST, 5 3PM, 2 STL) powers the <a href="https://twitter.com/nyknicks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nyknicks</a> to a 3-1 record! <a href="https://t.co/1CPZp7NJNZ">pic.twitter.com/1CPZp7NJNZ</a>
&mdash; NBA (@NBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1453353323822780419?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 27, 2021</a></blockquote>

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New Yorkers aren&rsquo;t necessarily known to be patient people &mdash; not with pizza deliveries, not with the subway and not with professional sports. Walker, a native New Yorker, knows that quite well. That&rsquo;s why, according to a few of his teammates, he was particularly hard on himself with three fairly subpar showings in his first three games as a Knick.
Tentative and slow to react, the veteran point guard didn&rsquo;t resemble the same player who became known in the NBA for his timely cuts, change of direction and ability to knife his way into the teeth of an opposing defense.
But against Philadelphia, Walker looked spry and energized. At Madison Square Garden, he looked to be at home.
Truth be told, he looked... like Kemba Walker.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s how this league works,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s going to be nights where things aren&rsquo;t going your way. The best thing about this league is a day later, you have a game. It&rsquo;s all about how you come back.&rdquo;
Fine example.
As Tom Thibodeau continues on his crusade to make New York a contender in the Eastern Conference, last summer, the common belief between the coach and his front office was that his team suffered from the absence of an attack guard. In their first-round loss to the Atlanta Hawks last postseason, the Knicks' overreliance on both Randle and Derrick Rose simply caught up to them.
While one of the best reserve guards in the league, asking Rose to captain the team&rsquo;s offense for 35 minutes per night was a task that caught up to the veteran over the course of a physical playoff series, while Randle was proven to still have quite a bit of growing to do as a player. After some of the bigger names on the free-agency market landed elsewhere, the Knicks rebounded nicely by securing the services of Walker, and now, his potential redemption is inspiring.
By the time Walker&rsquo;s fourth game as a Knick had ended, it was quite obvious that it was really the first game that he looked like the guard the organization hoped it was getting. He scored a team-high 19 points to go along with 5 rebounds and 3 assists, and shot 7-for-15 from the field, including 5-for-11 from three-point territory.&nbsp;
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Obviously, in the grand scheme of things, one early-season win doesn&rsquo;t mean that much for the Knicks. But for Walker&rsquo;s confidence &mdash; and for the belief that he can be the missing piece that brings Thibodeau&rsquo;s puzzle together &mdash; it was a welcome sight.
By and large, the Knicks will only go as far as Randle will be able to carry them as the team&rsquo;s go-to scorer; but this season, he&rsquo;ll have plenty of help. The All-Star forward has begun to see the floor incredibly well and find teammates both on the interior and on the perimeter for easy looks. That includes Walker, who was assisted by Randle on three of his looks against Philadelphia.&nbsp;
The hope for Thibodeau was that Walker would be able to productively and seamlessly fit in with Randle and RJ Barrett, and if there&rsquo;s at least one conclusion to draw from Walker&rsquo;s early tenure with the Knicks, it&rsquo;s that he won&rsquo;t force his own will or personal agenda on the team. They&rsquo;ll be better for it.
Walker &mdash; much like he was in Boston &mdash; is willing to let others lead, and pick and choose his spots. At the end of the day, that&rsquo;s exactly what makes the New York Knicks dangerous. Already a productive team, the hope was that Walker would address some of the team&rsquo;s major weaknesses, and at least on one night, he proved to be able to do exactly that.
For the most part, the road to the NBA Finals is expected to go through Brooklyn and Milwaukee, and both Chicago and Miami are likely to have something to say about that.
But one old adage that holds true and seems appropriate in this moment is that the game isn&rsquo;t played on paper. Judging by what the Knicks have produced on the court over their first few games of the 2021-22 season, at a minimum, they are a team worth keeping an eye on.
With a noticeable pep in his step and a swag that was reminiscent of him at the peak of his powers, Walker led the Knicks to a rare victory over Joel Embiid and his Sixers.
If he continues to channel the Kemba Walker of old, it&rsquo;s completely fair to wonder where else he might be able to carry them to.

After getting off to a slow start this season, Kemba Walker came to resemble his old self, much to the delight of Tom Thibodeau.

Kemba Walker finally gave the Knicks a glimpse of what could be

Once Nate McMillan moved over to the head coach&rsquo;s chair in place of Lloyd Pierce, who was fired after a 14-20 start, the Atlanta Hawks soared the rest of the season, finishing 27-11.
With an immense amount of youthful talent spearheaded by superstar point guard Trae Young, who continues to take leaps every year of his career, Atlanta finally saw everything click together for a magical run to the Eastern Conference Finals.
There was urgency within the Hawks&rsquo; front office to have the 2020-21 season see real improvements, which included making offseason splashes with Bogdan Bogdanovic and Danilo Gallinari, and acquiring Clint Capela at the trade deadline beforehand. With the perfect blend of win-now veterans, ascending young prospects and a head coach providing accountability and structure, Atlanta&rsquo;s expectations for this season are sky-high.
Although the East saw vast improvements across the board, Atlanta nestles in nicely within the middle tier. Atlanta won&rsquo;t be challenging the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks or star-studded Brooklyn Nets, but there&rsquo;s some potential for them to push division-rival Miami Heat to the brink for the No. 3 seed.
The Hawks are now ahead of schedule in their rebuild, and a lot of it is due to how they have built splendidly around their point guard. Young is already one of the best pure players for his position in the Association, dicing up defenses as a scorer and facilitator. The soon-to-be fourth-year lead guard has always showcased his special talents &mdash; he broke out in 2019-20, averaging 29.6 points per game &mdash; however, the wins weren&rsquo;t stacking up before. It was a totally different story once the coaching change occurred. Atlanta rattled off wins thanks to its depth and starpower encompassed from Young.
Over the last two seasons, Young has emerged to true elite status in the NBA. He's averaged 27.5 points, 9.4 assists, 9.1 free throw attempts and 4.1 assists on an outstanding 59.2% True Shooting percentage. Only five players over that span joined Young, who amassed at least 27 points per game on a a 59+ TS%: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stephen Curry, James Harden, Kyrie Irving and Damian Lillard. That&rsquo;s an All-NBA, MVP-contender realm Young has thrusted himself into this early in his career. Now entering his age-24 season, Young could soon become a dark-horse contender to become an MVP, especially if the Hawks continue their sudden rise as a legitimate contender.
Outside of Young, Atlanta has done a fantastic job insulating their star&rsquo;s biggest strengths on top of fielding a well-balanced rotation. Since beginning their rebuild attempt around Young, Atlanta has added all of the following players via the draft: Kevin Huerter, De&rsquo;Andre Hunter, Cam Reddish, Onyeka Okungwu, Jalen Johnson and Sharife Cooper. There&rsquo;s not been one miss (yet) on that list. Obviously, we need to see Johnson and Cooper on the floor, which might not happen early on with Atlanta&rsquo;s depth, but Huerter and Hunter (and Reddish) have already proven themselves. On top of that, the Hawks have Okungwu, who figures to be an integral piece to the Hawks&rsquo; long-term puzzle once he recovers from labrum surgery.
Continuing to stockpile ample perimeter shooting and defensive versatility, Atlanta has the ideal archetype in place to continue realizing its upward trajectory. Young can carry a team on his own, which has been proven over the last two seasons, but how general manager Travis Schlenk has gone about building everything else around his star guard has been nothing short of fantastic.
When an organization presses all the right buttons via every acquisition avenue, success will soon follow. That&rsquo;s exactly what happened with Atlanta, who now has the pillars in place to build a sustainable winner upon.
Now with a budding superstar, high-upside prospects, proven veteran pieces, a capable head coach &mdash; plus a front office willing to take risks when necessary &mdash; the Hawks aren&rsquo;t going anywhere. How do they stack up for the 2021-22 campaign, though? Let&rsquo;s take a peek at their projected rotation:
Starters: Trae Young, Bogdan Bogdanovic, De&rsquo;Andre Hunter, John Collins, Clint Capela
Second Unit: Delon Wright, Lou Williams, Kevin Huerter, Cam Reddish, Danilo Gallinari, Gorgui Dieng
After McMillan took over, incredibly enough, the Hawks&rsquo; starters played zero minutes together until their deep playoff run. Even then, they only played five games together, spanning 98 total minutes due to Hunter&rsquo;s meniscus tear. Looking ahead to a full 82-game slate, the results look outstanding (health permitting) because Atlanta outscored its opponents by nearly 16 points per 100 possessions with that five-man unit (113.9 ORTG, 98.0 DRTG).
The bench is loaded to the gills with proven pieces as well, which doesn&rsquo;t even include Okungwu&rsquo;s looming return and two first-round rookies (Johnson and Cooper), plus veteran wing Solomon Hill. Atlanta&rsquo;s roster is capable of allowing every player to log minutes, which shows how well the team has done at building up their rotation. You will be hard-pressed to find many teams around the NBA who have a deeper roster than Atlanta&rsquo;s, which forecasts a rosy outlook for this upcoming season.
Will the Hawks be able to build off their shocking rise, or fall back down to Earth with disappointing results? I&rsquo;m betting on the former, because how the roster is built gives them ample leeway to survive the rigors of a full regular season.
The Hawks have a team capable of finishing, once again, with a top-five seed in the East. Now, with an offseason where they lost no key contributors elsewhere, all the ingredients are in place for a potential 50-win campaign.
Buy stock on the Hawks while you can &mdash; this is just the beginning for this organization returning to the ranks of contender status.

After a quick rise last season, the Hawks have the building blocks in place to realize their new status as a sustainable contender.

Hawks' well-balanced roster forecasts a real contender

The Little Guy From Bendigo doesn&rsquo;t quite roll off the tongue like Just A Kid From Akron, but like LeBron James, G League Ignite guard Dyson Daniels is trying to make his hometown famous.
It&rsquo;s apropos that Daniels is channeling his childhood hero, though his country neighborhood in Victoria, Australia is more rural and smaller than that of LeBron&rsquo;s well-known abode in Northeast Ohio. It&rsquo;s also located on another continent in another hemisphere, a place that many people in the United States have never heard about.
From news articles to funding to general support, Daniels has felt the love from his local community. So what better way to return the favor than to make it to the NBA?
&ldquo;I try not to take it as pressure, but I'm trying to do everything to get Bendigo and Australia on the map,&rdquo; Daniels told BasketballNews.com in a Zoom video interview. &ldquo;Just be the best version of me I can and do my best."
He&rsquo;s chosen to do that with the Ignite in America, as opposed to committing to college or signing with the popular National Basketball League Next Stars program close to home, a route he was extremely close to picking.
&ldquo;I was almost certain on it before I got offered to go play on the G League Ignite squad. I was almost certain on going to the NBL,&rdquo; Daniels said. &ldquo;That's obviously a very good pathway as well. We've seen it with [Josh] Giddey and a few other players.&nbsp;
&ldquo;But I think just the overruling factor was talking, having a few Zoom calls with [former Ignite] head coach Brian [Shaw] and [G League president] Shareef [Abdur-Rahim], and them telling us about the development you're gonna get on and off the court. You're gonna be busy all day doing basketball things and helping to get better life skills and stuff like that. But yeah, I think I made the right decision and I'm ready to get started."
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Just over a week ago, Daniels made the trek to America to begin a new chapter of his basketball journey in California. He&rsquo;ll be one of the standout prospects joining the likes of Michael Foster, Jaden Hardy, Scoot Henderson, MarJeau Beauchamp and Fanbo Zeng as a part of a highly-regarded Ignite squad.&nbsp;
In one of his first workouts following his arrival, Daniels got to exchange pleasantries with Jason Hart, the team&rsquo;s new head coach following Shaw&rsquo;s departure to the Los Angeles Clippers.
&ldquo;It was good to catch up with him,&rdquo; Daniels said. &ldquo;That's the first time I've ever seen him in person, but he believes in me. You've gotta earn your playing time, so when training [camp] starts, I'm gonna put in [the work] and I'm gonna make sure I earn it."
Fans and even front office decision-makers may be unfamiliar with Daniels and his skill set, as there&rsquo;s little film and box-score research that can be done on the 18-year-old. For some, that unknown factor might be cause for hesitation. Daniels, however, sees that as a golden opportunity to show what he&rsquo;s made of.
&ldquo;I try not to get in my head [and be] too involved in the mock drafts and things like that, but I guess being there, people haven't really seen me as much as some of the other guys,&rdquo; Daniels said. &ldquo;That's good for me, and I'm just here to show 'em that I'm gonna put in the work and try to get my name up top once they see me more. But yeah, ultimate goal is to go No. 1.&rdquo;
Daniels describes his game as &ldquo;unlike anyone else&rsquo;s.&rdquo; He doesn&rsquo;t model it after anybody, instead taking bits and pieces from multiple pros. Using his favorite NBA player, Russell Westbrook, as a blueprint, Daniels emulates a similar mentality. He likes to interrupt passing lanes and intercept the ball to get out into transition as his fellow Aussies, Ben Simmons and Matisse Thybulle, often do.&nbsp;
Defense leading to transition chances, he relays, is a signature tool in his arsenal.
&ldquo;That's how I generate a lot of my offense. I like to think of myself as just 'smart' defensively, being able to get steals, being able to guard 1-through-4, some 5,&rdquo; Daniels said. &ldquo;Get steals, play smart, rotate and generate offense then. But I'm a playmaker, I'm a big point guard, 6-foot-6, so I like to make plays off the dribble for my teammates and myself. Get into lanes and use my floaters is one of my keys.&rdquo;
Basketball News Lead NBA Draft Analyst Matt Babcock provided his own scouting report on Daniels:
Dyson Daniels has positional size, can create with the ball in his hands and is a terrific slasher and capable outside shooter. He has a lot of upside and is a high priority on our watch list for this upcoming season.
Once Daniels acclimates to the Ignite environment in Walnut Creek by getting to know his teammates and running through a few practices, he&rsquo;ll set more short-term objectives for himself. For now, he&rsquo;s been in the gym with trainer Jordan Lawley in L.A. to address some areas of his game that can be refined.
&ldquo;Just become a more consistent shooter, just tweaking a few things in my shot preparation that I need to do better,&rdquo; Daniels said. &ldquo;But I'm sure that's gonna come. It's come along nicely already. But that, and then tightening up my handle. I'm a bit taller [of a] point guard... some of those little guards can get in underneath you, so I'm sure that's what's gonna happen this year in the G League. Just tightening up my handle and being ready for anything are some things I'm trying to improve on.&rdquo;
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While he may have solid size and length now, it wasn&rsquo;t always that way for Daniels. Now at 6-foot-6, he argues that having to pick up skills when he was little helped him become the player he is now.&nbsp;
Daniels remembers being a small six-year-old kid playing point guard for a Division III team in a U-10 league, erratically sprinting on the floor and turning the ball over frequently. But from the day he touched a basketball, Daniels knew he was &ldquo;made for it.&rdquo; He would watch the NBA, NBL and any other hoop programming that would hit his television screen.
His father, Ricky, played two years at NC State and starred for the Bendigo Braves when he was younger. While his mom, Brikitta, has gotten Dyson right in terms of manners and keeping him in line, Ricky has helped Dyson from a young age in the backyard.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Both my parents have helped me a lot just to become the person I am,&rdquo; Daniels said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really good to have them and I get pointers off them... My biggest support system is my family, my close friends, close coaches and things that I have like that.&rdquo;
Daniels never stopped progressing, though, and began to make Division I teams in his pre-teens. Once that started happening, it caught the eyes of coaches near and far.
When he was 15, Daniels followed in his dad&rsquo;s footsteps by joining the Braves for a season at home in 2019. It was his first taste of semi-professional basketball, and matching up with bigger bodies was advantageous. But Daniels&rsquo; stock began to soar as soon as he moved to Canberra with the NBA Global Academy later that year.
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He&rsquo;s thankful for the entire staff, from NBA international director of basketball operations Chris Ebersole and content/program development lead Marie-Laurence Archambault in New York, to the coaches, trainers and everybody involved for the chance to be a part of the program. Competing in tournaments in Europe and America was paramount to his development, and he learned crucial off-the-court lessons in addition.
"I've changed so much &mdash; the person I am, the confidence I have now, the coaching that I was able to get there was phenomenal. We had the [Centre of Excellence] coaches as well. Going in there as well [at 6-foot-2], I was a little scrawny kid. Coming out, I've got a much bigger body... I had a huge growth spurt, 6-6. That helped me 'cause I was a point guard and already had those skills; it helped me, being 6-6, to still being a point guard.
&ldquo;So just building my body, building my life skills, building my basketball. They've helped me be able to see the floor better. I think IQ's something I've always had, but they've helped me to use it more and use it to my strengths. I've just learned so much from them.&nbsp;
Daniels is poised to become the second player in NBA Academy history to be drafted. The first was fellow Aussie Josh Giddey, whom he&rsquo;s been tight with since the duo&rsquo;s U-12 days playing for Victoria. They keep in touch and congratulate one another on their successes, so Daniels was thrilled when the Oklahoma City Thunder selected Giddey at No. 6 in the 2021 NBA Draft.
&ldquo;It was huge, man. I've known Josh for a while and seeing him put in the work when I was with him in the NBA Academy and then, get the opportunity to play in the NBL with the [Adelaide] 36ers and he excelled there, and he deserves every bit of it. It was really good seeing him [get drafted] and it was really good being able to play alongside him as well. That's my boy and I'm happy for him.&rdquo;
The progression for Daniels at the Academy paid off this past February, as the Australian senior national team brought him in to be a part of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers. In his only game, Daniels led the team over New Zealand with 23 points, 6 steals, 4 assists and 3 rebounds.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
🇦🇺 17-year-old <a href="https://twitter.com/DysonDaniels?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DysonDaniels</a> put on a show for the Boomers in their win over New Zealand <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FIBAAsiaCup?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FIBAAsiaCup</a> 📊 23 PTS | 4 AST | 3 REB | 6 STL <a href="https://t.co/5iuKo09tK7">pic.twitter.com/5iuKo09tK7</a>
&mdash; NBA Australia (@NBA_AU) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA_AU/status/1363271752948744193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 20, 2021</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

&ldquo;That was really big for me as well. Being able to play for the Boomers in the Asia Cup Qualifiers at such a young age, some people don't get that opportunity,&rdquo; Daniels said. So obviously to be able to play, but to be able to have a really good game, that got me world looks and it helped me get to [be noticed]. [I'm] grateful for the opportunity from Adam Caporn to be able to play for the Boomers."
His momentum didn&rsquo;t stop there, either. He was a critical contributor for the Boomers&rsquo; U-19 squad in FIBA Basketball World Cup play, averaging 14.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 2.3 steals over seven games.
Spending time with the Boomers, Daniels has developed a relationship with former NBA veteran Matthew Dellavedova. It&rsquo;s ironic because he remembers being eight years old attending a Peak event where both ended up doing basketball drills together. Fast-forward to today, and they&rsquo;re teammates representing Australia, and Daniels gets advice from the champion guard when he asks for it.
The Little Guy From Bendigo hasn&rsquo;t done too bad for himself, and the fun part has just begun. Daniels is preparing for his first season at the professional level, which is step one toward Daniels finding himself in NBA threads come this time next year.
&ldquo;I always want to be in the gym. I always want to be the best I can. I'm sure some people have them about 'em as well, but I don't want anyone to outwork me. I want to be the hardest worker there is,&rdquo; Daniels said.
&ldquo;It's a great feeling. I think in terms of feeling ahead of people, I wouldn't say I do. There's options for everyone that they can choose, like what they want to do with their careers and that. But choosing a professional career for me, I think was the right choice, and I'm ready for it. So yeah, I'm ready to get started and I'm very excited for it.&rdquo;

Spencer Davies chats with Dyson Daniels about the upcoming G League Ignite season, his development in Australia and more.