Pilots

Chiles Center

Nekias Duncan previews the Central Division for the 2021-22 NBA season.

2021-22 NBA Season Preview: Central Division

Exciting finishes and clutch performances highlighted EASL Game Day action on October 23, as teams from across Asia battled to gain an edge in the group stage.
New Taipei Kings 97, Macau Black Bears 109&nbsp;
The Macau Black Bears delivered a stunning upset, beating the New Taipei Kings on the road in a tightly contested matchup.&nbsp;
Despite both teams dealing with short rotations&mdash;each bringing only nine players&mdash;Macau took control from beyond the arc, shooting a remarkable 51.5% from three (17-for-33).&nbsp;
Jeantal Cylla led the way, posting a game-high 32 points with impressive efficiency, hitting 12 of 18 shots and grabbing six rebounds. Jenning Leung also contributed to Macau's deep shooting success, going 5-for-8 from three.&nbsp;
This historic win marks the Black Bears' first EASL victory, positioning them as a potential dark horse in Group B.
Taoyuan Pauian Pilots 91, Suwon KT Sonicboom 70
In another hard-fought game, the Taoyuan Pauian Pilots managed to narrowly defeat Suwon KT Sonicboom, with key plays in the fourth quarter sealing the victory.&nbsp;
The Pilots executed a balanced offensive strategy, with contributions from multiple players, allowing them to pull away late and secure their first win of the season. Sonicboom&rsquo;s efforts, led by Rayshaun Hammonds, fell short despite a strong start and a high-scoring performance from their leading scorer.
The October 23 games provided thrilling moments and showcased each team's resilience as the EASL group stage continues to unfold.

Exciting finishes and clutch performances highlighted EASL Game Day action on October 23.

EASL Game Day #3 recap: Macau Black Bears and Taoyuan Pauian Pilots Capture Victory

PASAY CITY, PHILIPPINES &ndash; The KT Suwon Sonicboom defeated the San Miguel Beermen on their home floor, 87-81, in the East Asia Super League&rsquo;s (EASL) tip-off event at the Mall of Asia Arena here on Wednesday night.
The Sonicboom trailed by 4 at halftime, 39-43, but unleashed a huge third-quarter run to take the lead and then sustained it in the 4th quarter when the Beermen tried to make a late run in the game.
The Koreans were led by American import Rayshaun Hammonds who had 39 points and 14 rebounds, while team captain Heo Hoon added 17.
Beermen import EJ Anosike led the charge for the home team with 34 points, including 23 in the first half as Suwon head coach Song Young-Jin praised his ability to score and made the necessary adjustments to stop him in the second half.&nbsp;
&ldquo;We were unable to stop [Anosike] in the first half after he torched us for 23 points, so we did the necessary adjustments in the second half by switching another man &ndash; a bigger defender on him to limit his production and that&rsquo;s how we survived them and won the game,&rdquo; the Korean head coach said.
The Sonicboom will move to 1-0 and face Taiwan&rsquo;s Taoyuan Pauian Pilots at home on October 16 while PH reps San Miguel aim to bounce back and grab their first win in their next scheduled game on November 13 still at home against the Taoyuan Pauian Pilots.

The KT Suwon Sonicboom defeated the San Miguel Beermen on their home floor, 87-81, in the EASL Tip-Off event at the MOA Arena.

EASL: Suwon KT Sonicboom beat home team San Miguel to start 2024-2025 campaign strong

This article is from a press release from the East Asia Super League
East Asia Super League (EASL) unveiled its schedule for the upcoming 2024-25 Season, posting 34 matchups across the region to decide East Asia&rsquo;s club basketball champions. The EASL 2024-25 Season will tip off October 2, 2024 with an expanded Group Stage running until February 12, 2025; followed by the four-game EASL Final Four championship weekend of March 7-9, 2025.
The Group Stage will feature several marquee double-header events, including the EASL Tipoff&nbsp;opening games at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila on October 2 pitting San Miguel Beerman vs. KT Sonicboom, followed by Meralco vs. Macau Black Bears; and EASL&rsquo;s Mid-Season Classic in Macau on December 11 matching up Taoyuan Pilots vs. KT Sonicboom and Macau Black Bears vs. New Taipei Kings.
EASL just last week announced its expansion from 8 to 10 teams with the addition of new entrants Hong Kong Eastern and the Macau Black Bears. The EASL, leagues, and teams all aligned that the round-robin home-and-away Group Stage would increase from 24 to 30 games.
The five Group A teams are B.LEAGUE champion Hiroshima Dragonflies, Korean Basketball League (KBL), runner-up Suwon KT Sonicboom, P. LEAGUE+ runner-up Taoyuan Pauian Pilots, Philippine Basketball&nbsp;Association (PBA) Commissioner&rsquo;s Cup champion San Miguel Beermen, and the HKSAR champion Hong Kong Eastern. The five Group B teams are B.LEAGUE runner-up Ryukyu Golden Kings, KBL champion Busan KCC Egis, P.LEAGUE+ champion New Taipei Kings, PBA Philippines Cup champion Meralco Bolts, and Macau SAR champion Black Bears.

EASL unveiled its schedule for the upcoming 2024-25 Season, posting 34 games to decide East Asia’s club basketball champions.

EASL releases schedule for 2024-2025 season

The East Asia Super League (EASL) has taken a step further to its growth by adding two teams from Hong Kong to increase its member teams to 10 for their upcoming 2024-2025 season.&nbsp;
Hong Kong Eastern and the Macau Black Bears will compete in the East Asia Super League 2024-25 Season, in a major expansion of East Asia&rsquo;s professional club basketball championship. Home games will be played in both Macau and Hong Kong for each respective club, bringing the top competition to the Greater Bay Area.
EASL had a great inaugural season with 8 pioneering teams, featuring squads from Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and the Philippines. Next season, the entry of the Hong Kong teams increases the pool of teams to 10, an all-time high for the young and upstart league.
Basketball fans in East Asia are set for a Champions League between the region&rsquo;s best teams on a scale never seen before. The addition of Hong Kong Eastern and the Macau Black Bears increases the number of competing teams in the EASL 2024-25 Season from eight to ten teams and ramps up representation from Greater China.&nbsp;&nbsp;
The Hong Kong and Macau sides will face off against the best teams from Chinese Taipei, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines, to decide East Asia&rsquo;s champion.
Eastern is one of Hong Kong&rsquo;s most storied teams and is the reigning domestic champions. The team won their third domestic A1 Division title in 2023. They are also a two-time winner of the Asean Basketball League (2016-17 and 2023).
Eastern have been placed into Group A for the 2024-25 Season Group Stage, in which they will play against B.LEAGUE champions the Hiroshima Dragonflies, Korean Basketball League (KBL) runners-up the Suwon KT Sonicboom, P. LEAGUE+ runners-up the Taoyuan Pauian Pilots, and PBA Governor's Cup Champion San Miguel Beermen.
Macau Black Bears were formed in 2018 as Macau&rsquo;s first-ever professional team. The team is the reigning Macau basketball league champions and has also represented the region in the ASEAN Basketball League and The Asia Tournament.&nbsp;
The Black Bears have been placed into Group B for the 2024-25 Season Group Stage, in which they will play against B.LEAGUE runners-up the Ryukyu Golden Kings, KBL champions the Busan KCC Egis, P.LEAGUE+ champions the New Taipei Kings, and PBA Philippine Cup champions the Meralco Bolts.

The East Asia Super League (EASL) has taken a step further to its growth by adding two teams from Hong Kong.

EASL expands to 10 teams after adding teams from Hong Kong

Just days after announcing that they are parting ways with Frank Vogel, the Phoenix Suns have announced they will be signing Mike Budenholzer to be their new head coach.
The Suns and Budenholzer reportedly agreed to a 5-year, $50 million deal <a href="https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/1789060298638307690">according to The Athletic&rsquo;s Shams Charania.</a>
After just one season with the team, Phoenix now dismisses Frank Vogel after a disappointing 2023-2024 season. The Suns finished 6th seed in the West with a 49-33 record but got swept in the first round, 4-0, by the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Now, Phoenix pivots into a tactician on the sidelines to call the shots for their superstar trio Bradley Beal, Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant.
Budenholzer, a two-time Coach of the Year winner with the Milwaukee Bucks, will take over the team immediately to try and reform its identity. Budenholzer has been known as a very solid offensive coach and it will be interesting to see how he tinkers with all the firepower at his disposal.&nbsp;

After announcing that they are parting ways with coach Frank Vogel, the Suns have announced they will be signing Mike Budenholzer.

After firing Frank Vogel, Phoenix Suns sign Mike Budenholzer as head coach

Charlotte Hornets head coach Steve Clifford is expected to step down from his head coaching position to take a front-office role with the franchise, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Clifford, 62, has led the Hornets to a 45-112 overall record in two seasons, which have been riddled with injuries to young players LaMelo Ball and Mark Williams.&nbsp;
According to sources, new Charlotte owners Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin were open to bringing him back as coach next season, but Clifford thought he wasn't prepared to commit to the year-round grind of head coaching for the 2024-2025 season. He will coach them for their final 7 games.
Clifford informed his players and staff on Wednesday of the decision, which will allow the Hornets to immediately start searching for a new head coach for next season.
Among the league&rsquo;s assistant coaching candidates expected to be considered in the Charlotte process are Jordi Fernandez (SAC), Charles Lee (BOS), Chris Quinn (MIA), and Kevin Young (PHX).
Coaching the Hornets next season will be appealing following the emergence of 2023 no.2 overall pick Brandon Miller with the impending return of Ball and Williams. All three players would be paired with the new players acquired from this year&rsquo;s trade deadline as well as the projected lottery pick in next season&rsquo;s draft as the organization pivots to a new era of winning basketball under their new ownership.

Hornets head coach Steve Clifford is expected to step down from his head coaching position to take a front-office role with the franchise.

Steve Clifford to step down as Charlotte Hornets coach at end of season

The Portland Trail Blazers and NBA G League announced that the Blazers have acquired the right to own and operate an NBA G League team that will play in the Chiles Center on the University of Portland&rsquo;s campus in North Portland.
The team name and branding (as well as the front-office and coaching staff) will be announced at a later date, but the team is expected to debut in the 2023-24 season. With this announcement, the NBA G League expands to a record 31 teams for the 2023-24 season.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited to welcome Jody Allen and the Trail Blazers ownership group to the NBA G League family,&rdquo; said NBA G League president Shareef Abdur-Rahim. &ldquo;The NBA G League continues to grow to meet the developmental demands of NBA teams, and today&rsquo;s announcement is further proof of the value the league provides to the NBA every day. I can&rsquo;t wait to watch the team tip off at the Chiles Center next season.&rdquo;
&ldquo;It was very important to our organization to enter the G League with an affiliate here in Portland and strategically strengthen our dedication to player development,&rdquo; said Blazers general manager Joe Cronin. &ldquo;I would especially like to thank Jody Allen, who is aligned with Dewayne Hankins and myself, to make it a priority to have this team ready for next season as it will serve not only as a developmental tool for players but also for aspiring coaches and staff while we continue to be a mainstay in the community as a whole.&rdquo;
To finish the 2022-23 NBA season, nine players on the Blazers had NBA G League experience: Ibou Badji, John Butler Jr., Chance Comanche, Drew Eubanks, Keon Johnson, Skylar Mays, Justin Minaya, Anfernee Simons and Jeenathan Williams. Since the NBA G League was established in 2001, Portland has called up a total of 20 players, including 13 over the last two seasons. The Blazers have assigned 27 players to the NBA G League for development or injury rehabilitation, while Portland assistant coaches Jonah Herscu, Steve Hetzel and Roy Rogers spent time coaching in the G League.
"Entering the G League with a team of our own will increase development in numerous areas,&rdquo; said Blazers president of business operations Dewayne Hankins. &ldquo;Not only will this team be an asset for developing young talent on the court, but developing talent off the court as well. We&rsquo;ll be leaning into an innovative approach that will improve all aspects of our business across both teams. With the team launching at the University of Portland, we&rsquo;re excited to continue engaging with the North Portland community.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Pilot Nation is thrilled to welcome the Trail Blazers G League franchise to their home on The Bluff,&rdquo; said&nbsp;University of Portland president Robert D. Kelly, PhD. &ldquo;UP has a rich and storied athletic tradition, and we couldn&rsquo;t be more excited to continue that tradition by hosting this new franchise on our beautiful campus. I am grateful to our friends from the Portland Trail Blazers and our Athletic Department staff for making this wonderful partnership happen, and I can&rsquo;t wait for the inaugural season to begin!&rdquo;
The NBA G League is a proven developer of NBA talent while also acting as the league&rsquo;s research and development laboratory, testing out innovative rules now used at the NBA level, including the Coach&rsquo;s Challenge and the 14-second shot-clock reset rule.&nbsp;
Currently, more than half of the players on NBA rosters have G League experience, while six NBA head coaches spent time honing their craft in the G League. In addition, half of the first-round picks in the 2022 NBA Draft played games in the G League this season.

The Portland Trail Blazers have acquired the right to own and operate an NBA G League team starting next season.

Blazers launch NBA G League team that they'll own and operate

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) &mdash; D&rsquo;Andre Gholston hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Missouri a stunning 86-85 victory over No. 6 Tennessee on Saturday night.
With 4.2 seconds left in the game and the Volunteers (19-6, 8-4 Southeastern Conference) leading 85-83, Santiago Vescovi missed a free throw. His second attempt was waived off when Tobe Awaka committed a lane violation, setting up a final chance for the Tigers (19-6, 7-5).
Gholston took the inbounds and dribbled up the court before taking an off-balance contested 3-pointer from about 30 feet that swished through the net at the buzzer for the win. He was mobbed by his teammates after hitting the shot.
Tennessee came back from a 17-point deficit early in the second half and led the last 7:11 of the game.
NO. 3 ALABAMA 77, AUBURN 69
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) &mdash; Rylan Griffen scored 16 points, Mark Sears added 15 and Alabama held off a big challenge from its in-state rival Auburn.
The Crimson Tide (22-3, 12-0 Southeastern Conference) remained the only Power 5 team without a league loss. Sears and Griffen helped Alabama overcome an off shooting performance from star Brandon Miller, who had 13 points but missed all seven 3-point attempts.
Wendell Green Jr. had 16 of his 24 points in the second half for Auburn (17-8, 7-5).
STANFORD 88, NO. 4 ARIZONA 79
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) &mdash; Spencer Jones scored all 18 of his points in the second half for Stanford and played a key role in neutralizing Pac-12 leading scorer Azuolas Tubelis, as the Cardinal stunned Arizona.
Stanford (11-14, 5-9 Pac-12) beat a ranked team for the first time this year and a top-five team for the second time in two seasons. Arizona (22-4, 11-4), hoping to stay a half-game behind UCLA for the conference lead, had a seven-game win snapped.
Courtney Ramey scored a season- and game-high 26 points for Arizona. Tubelis was held to four points and did not have any rebounds.
Stanford&rsquo;s Michael O&rsquo;Connell scored a team-high 22 points, helping the Cardinal outshoot the Wildcats 61% to 46% from the field.
NO. 5 TEXAS 94, WEST VIRGINIA 60
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) &mdash; Sir&rsquo;Jabri Rice scored 24 points in just 17 minutes in Texas&rsquo; win over West Virginia.
Texas (20-5) remained in first place in the Big 12 at 9-3, while West Virginia (15-10, 4-8) lost for the sixth time in its last seven games against the Longhorns.
Rice, a guard who transferred this season from New Mexico State, was nearly perfect. He converted 5 of 6 field-goal attempts, including 4 of 5 3-pointers and all 10 free throws.
Emmitt Matthews led West Virginia with 13 points.
NO. 8 VIRGINIA 69, DUKE 62, OT
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) &mdash; Armaan Franklin scored 23 points, including a 3-pointer with 39 seconds left, to lift Virginia over Duke in overtime.
Kihie Clark added 16 points and Ben Vander Plas 13 for the Cavaliers (19-4, 11-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), who won despite a 9 for 22 performance from the free-throw line.
Duke (17-8, 8-6) seemed poised to win when Kyle Filipowski drove on the final play of regulation and two defenders contested his shot. The officials initially whistled a foul, but waved it off after a lengthy review. Jeremy Roach led the Blue Devils with 16 points.
NO. 9 KANSAS 78, OKLAHOMA 55
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) &mdash; Jalen Wilson scored 18 points, and Kansas rolled past Oklahoma.
Wilson, who entered the day leading the Big 12 with nearly 21 points per game, bounced back from a two-point outing against Texas on Monday.
Dajuan Harris scored 16 points and Kevin McCullar added 13 for the Jayhawks (20-5, 8-4 Big 12).
Jalen Hill scored 14 points and Otega Oweh added 11 for the Oklahoma (12-13, 2-10). Grant Sherfield, who leads the Sooners with nearly 17 points per game, was held to 10 on 4-for-14 shooting.
NO. 10 MARQUETTE 89, GEORGETOWN 75
WASHINGTON (AP) &mdash; Kam Jones, Oso Ighodaro and Tyler Kolek each scored 14 points to lead a balanced scoring attack for Marquette in its win over Georgetown.
Olivier-Maxence Prosper had 11 points and Chase Ross added 10 for Marquette (20-6, 12-3 Big East), which moved into first place in the conference.
Jay Heath scored 18 points to lead last-place Georgetown (6-20, 1-14), which has lost five straight after ending their league record 29-game conference losing streak on Jan. 24.
OKLAHOMA ST 64, NO. 11 IOWA ST 56
AMES, Iowa (AP) &mdash; John-Michael Wright scored 19 points and Oklahoma State rallied past Iowa State.
The loss was the Cyclones&rsquo; fourth in five games.
Bryce Thompson added 12 points for the Cowboys (16-9, 7-5 Big 12) in their fifth straight win.
Aljaz Kunc scored 13 for Iowa State (16-8, 7-5).
TEXAS TECH 71, NO. 12 KANSAS STATE 63
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) &mdash;De&rsquo;Vion Harmon scored 20 points, including a crucial driving basket in the final minute, as Texas Tech upended Kansas State.
The Red Raiders (13-12, 2-10 Big 12) held the Wildcats to two field goals in the game&rsquo;s final four minutes.
Kansas State (19-6, 7-5) edged as close as one point throughout the second half, but Tech answered with key baskets to maintain the lead. The Wildcats were led by Markquis Nowell&rsquo;s 18 points. Desi Sills added 12 points.
NO. 14 BAYLOR 72, NO. 17 TCU 68
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) &mdash; Adam Flagler scored 28 points, with 16 in a row for Baylor during the stretch when the Bears overcame a 10-point deficit in the second half and then held on to beat TCU.
LJ Cryer had 23 points for the Bears (19-6, 8-4 Big 12), who on Jan. 4 at home against TCU blew a 17-point lead in an 88-87 loss. They have won nine of their last 10 games.
Damion Baugh had 16 points and 10 assist for TCU (17-8, 6-6).
NO. 15 SAINT MARY&rsquo;S 81, PORTLAND 64
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) &mdash; Logan Johnson had 34 points, six rebounds and six assists as Saint Mary&rsquo;s handled Portland on the road.
Alex Ducas added 18 points and six rebounds for the Gaels (22-5, 11-1 West Coast Conference) and Aidan Mahaney contributed 10 points and five assists.
Kristian Sjolund led the Pilots (13-15, 5-8) with 12 points, and Juan Gorosito and Tyler Robinson each added 10 points.
NO. 18 INDIANA 62, MICHIGAN 61
Trayce Jackson-Davis had 28 points and 11 rebounds, Jalen Hood-Schifino scored 21 points and Indiana held on for a win over Michigan.
Freshman Jett Howard was short on a 3-pointer just before the buzzer, leaving the Wolverines without a point for the final 5:12.
The Hoosiers (18-7, 9-5 Big Ten) trailed by 11 in the first half and for much of the second, but went ahead for good with 2:58 left when Hood-Schifino made two free throws for their last points.
Michigan (14-11, 8-6) fell to 0-4 against teams in the AP Top 25, losing each game by five or fewer points.
Hunter Dickinson scored 16 points, Kobe Bufkin had 14 points and Howard added 12 for the Wolverines.
NO. 19 MIAMI 93, LOUISVILLE 85
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) &mdash; Nijel Pack scored 22 points in Miami&rsquo;s win over Louisville.
Five days following its dominant 22-point home win over Duke, Miami (20-5, 11-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) could not shake off the conference&rsquo;s last-place team until Pack&rsquo;s 3-pointer with 2:44 remaining made it 82-72. Pack shot 8 of 14, including 4 of 9 on 3-pointers.
Isaiah Wong and Norchad Omier finished with 21 points each and Jordan Miller added 10 for the Hurricanes, who are 14-0 at home.
El Ellis scored a career-high 33 points and had five assists while Jae&rsquo;Lyn Withers finished with 18 for the Cardinals (3-22, 1-13).
ST. JOHN&rsquo;S 73, NO. 20 PROVIDENCE 68
NEW YORK (AP) &mdash; David Jones scored 16 points and AJ Storr added 15 for St. John&rsquo;s, which beat Providence.
Joel Soriano had 10 points and 13 rebounds for the Red Storm (15-11, 5-10 Big East).
Bryce Hopkins equaled a career best with 29 points for the Friars (18-7, 10-4).
NO. 22 NORTH CAROLINA STATE 92, BOSTON COLLEGE 62
BOSTON (AP) &mdash; Jarkel Joiner scored 26 points and D.J. Burns Jr. added 18 with 10 rebounds to lead North Carolina State over Boston College.
Terquavion Smith scored 17 points for the Wolfpack (20-6, 10-5 Atlantic Coast Conference), giving him 1,000 points for his career.
Quinten Post scored 20 points for Boston College (12-14, 6-9).
NO. 23 CREIGHTON 56, NO. 21 UCONN 53
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) &mdash; Trey Alexander scored 17 points to lead Creighton past UConn after the Huskies had what would have been a tying 3-pointer erased on video review in the final seconds.
Creighton (17-8, 11-3) is a half-game behind Big East-leading Marquette with its eighth straight win. The Huskies (19-7, 8-7) lost for the first time in four games.
Adama Sanogo had 17 points and 10 rebounds for UConn.
ILLINOIS 69, NO. 24 RUTGERS 60
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) &mdash; Coleman Hawkins scored 18 points and Illinois held Rutgers scoreless for more than 10 minutes in the second half to rally for the win.
Illinois (17-7, 8-5 Big Ten) trailed 47-41 with 14 1/2 minutes left before Hawkins&rsquo; 3-pointer started a 19-0 run. Hawkins hit four consecutive shots &mdash; including a 3 &mdash; and gave the Illini the lead for good at 48-47.
Rutgers (16-9, 8-6) missed 15 straight shots during its drought.
NO. 25 SAN DIEGO STATE 82, UNLV 71
SAN DIEGO (AP) &mdash; Adam Seiko scored all 18 points on 3-pointers and Matt Bradley added 17 points for San Diego, the Mountain West Conference front-runner that beat UNLV for its third straight win and seventh in eight games.
The Aztecs (20-5, 11-2 MWC) buried the Runnin&rsquo; Rebels in a blizzard of 3-pointers and slam dunks, including during a 14-0 run midway through the first half, to sweep the season series and top UNLV the fifth straight time. Keshad Johnson scored 11 of his 14 points in the game&rsquo;s first 6 1/2 minutes and Nathan Mensah had 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Elijah Harkless scored 24 for UNLV (16-9, 5-8) before fouling out with 2:05 to go. Keshon Gilbert added 19 for the Runnin&rsquo; Rebels, who didn&rsquo;t get their first assist until two minutes into the second half.

A recap of Saturday's action in men's college hoops includes numerous upsets in the top-15.

Three-pointer at buzzer lifts Missouri over No. 6 Tennessee

WASHINGTON (AP) &mdash; Russia freed WNBA star Brittney Griner on Thursday in a dramatic prisoner exchange, as the U.S. released notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout but failed to win freedom for another American, Paul Whelan, who has been jailed for nearly four years.
The swap, at a time of heightened tensions over Ukraine, achieved a top goal for President Joe Biden but carried a heavy price.
&ldquo;She&rsquo;s safe, she&rsquo;s on a plane, she&rsquo;s on her way home,&rdquo; Biden said from the White House, where he was accompanied by Griner&rsquo;s wife, Cherelle, and administration officials.
The deal, the second such exchange in eight months with Russia, procured the release of the most prominent American detained abroad. Griner is a two-time Olympic gold medalist whose monthslong imprisonment on drug charges brought unprecedented attention to the population of wrongful detainees.
Biden&rsquo;s authorization to release a Russian felon once nicknamed &ldquo;the Merchant of Death&rdquo; underscored the escalating pressure that his administration faced to get Griner home, particularly after the recent resolution of her criminal case and her subsequent transfer to a penal colony.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also confirmed the swap, saying in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that the exchange took place in Abu-Dhabi and that Bout has been flown home
Russian and U.S. officials had conveyed cautious optimism in recent weeks after months of strained negotiations, with Biden saying in November that he was hopeful that Russia would engage in a deal now that the midterm elections were completed. A top Russian official said last week that a deal was possible before year&rsquo;s end.
Even so, the fact that the deal was a one-for-one swap was a surprise given that U.S. officials had for months expressed their their determination to bring home both Griner and Paul Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive jailed in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government has said are baseless.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve not forgotten about Paul Whelan,&rdquo; Biden said. &ldquo;We will keep negotiating in good faith for Paul&rsquo;s release.&rdquo;
Whelan&rsquo;s brother David said in a statement he was &ldquo;so glad&rdquo; for Griner&rsquo;s release but also disappointed for his family. He credited the White House with giving the Whelan family advance notice and said he did not fault officials for making the deal.
&ldquo;The Biden Administration made the right decision to bring Ms. Griner home, and to make the deal that was possible, rather than waiting for one that wasn&rsquo;t going to happen,&rdquo; he said.
In releasing Bout, the U.S. freed a a former Soviet Army lieutenant colonel whom the Justice Department once described as one of the world&rsquo;s most prolific arms dealers. Bout, whose exploits inspired a Hollywood movie, was serving a 25-year sentence on charges that he conspired to sell tens of millions of dollars in weapons that U.S officials said were to be used against Americans.
The Biden administration was ultimately willing to exchange Bout if it meant Griner&rsquo;s freedom. The detention of one of the greatest players in WNBA history contributed to a swirl of unprecedented public attention for an individual detainee case &mdash; not to mention intense pressure on the White House.
Griner&rsquo;s arrest in February made her the most high-profile American jailed abroad. Her status as an openly gay Black woman, locked up in a country where authorities have been hostile to the LBGTQ community, infused racial, gender and social dynamics into her legal saga and made each development a matter of international importance.
Her case not only brought unprecedented publicity to the dozens of Americans wrongfully detained by foreign governments, but it also emerged as a major inflection point in U.S.-Russia diplomacy at a time of deteriorating relations prompted by Moscow&rsquo;s war against Ukraine.
The exchange was carried out despite deteriorating relations between the powers. But the imprisonment of Americans produced a rare diplomatic opening, yielding the highest-level known contact between Washington and Moscow &mdash; a phone call between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov &mdash; in more than five months.
In an extraordinary move during otherwise secret negotiations, Blinken revealed publicly in July that the U.S. had made a &ldquo;substantial proposal&rdquo; to Russia for Griner and Whelan. Though he did not specify the terms, people familiar with it said the U.S. had offered Bout.
Such a public overture drew a chiding rebuke from the Russians, who said they preferred to resolve such cases in private, and carried the risk of weakening the U.S. government&rsquo;s negotiating hand for this and future deals by making the administration appear too desperate. But the announcement was also meant to communicate to the public that Biden was doing what he could and to ensure pressure on the Russians.
Besides the efforts of U.S. officials, the release also followed months of back channel negotiations involving Bill Richardson, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a frequent emissary in hostage talks, and his top deputy, Mickey Bergman.
Griner was arrested at the Moscow&rsquo;s Sheremetyevo Airport in February when customs officials said they found vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage. She pleaded guilty in July, though still faced trial because admitting guilt in Russia&rsquo;s judicial system does not automatically end a case.
She acknowledged in court that she possessed the canisters, but said she had no criminal intent and said their presence in her luggage was due to hasty packing.
Before being sentenced on Aug. 4 and receiving a punishment her lawyers said was out of line for the offense, an emotional Griner apologized &ldquo;for my mistake that I made and the embarrassment that I brought on them.&rdquo; She added: &ldquo;I hope in your ruling it does not end my life.&rdquo;
Her supporters had largely stayed quiet for weeks after her arrest, but that approach changed in May once the State Department designated her as unlawfully detained. A separate trade, Marine veteran Trevor Reed for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot convicted in the U.S. in a cocaine trafficking conspiracy, spurred hope that additional such exchanges could be in the works.
Whelan has been held in Russia since December 2018. The U.S. government also classified him as wrongfully detained. He was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison.
Whelan was not included in the Reed prisoner swap, escalating pressure on the Biden administration to ensure that any deal that brought home Griner also included him.

“She’s safe, she’s on a plane, she’s on her way home,” Biden said from the White House, accompanied by Griner’s wife, Cherelle.

WNBA star Griner freed in swap for Russian arms dealer Bout

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) &mdash; Mark Sears had 24 points, five rebounds and five assists, and No. 18 Alabama sent top-ranked North Carolina to a second straight loss with a 103-101 victory in a quadruple-overtime thriller on Sunday in the third-place game of the Phil Knight Invitational.
Jahvon Quinerly scored 21 points for the Crimson Tide (6-1), who knocked off the top-ranked team for the first time since upsetting Stanford in the 2004 NCAA Tournament. Charles Bediako had 14 points, 16 rebounds and three blocks.
North Carolina (5-2) wasted a big game for Caleb Love, who had 34 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three steals. Armando Bacot finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds, and R.J. Davis had 19 points and nine rebounds in the second four-overtime game in North Carolina history. The other was a victory over Tulane in 1976.
Alabama forward Noah Clowney took a hard fall on a dunk attempt four minutes into the first half and had to be helped off the court. He did not return.
NO. 6 GONZAGA 88, XAVIER 84
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) &mdash; Julian Strawther scored 23 points, including 10 in the final 4:07, and Gonzaga beat Xavier in the third-place game of the Phil Knight Legacy men&rsquo;s tournament.
Each of Gonzaga&rsquo;s starters scored in double figures. Drew Timme and Anton Watson had 16 points apiece. Nolan Hickman finished with 14, and Rasir Bolton had 13 points and six assists.&nbsp;
Jack Nunge scored a game-high 25 points for Xavier (4-3), and Colby Jones had 22.
Strawther&rsquo;s 3 put Gonzaga (5-2) back in front at 76-75 with 3:18 to go. Watson then converted a floater, and Strawther made another 3 to make it 81-75 with 1:39 left.
NO. 24 PURDUE 75, NO. 8 DUKE 56
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) &mdash; Zach Edey had 21 points and 12 rebounds, helping Purdue beat Duke in the championship game of the Phil Knight Legacy men&rsquo;s tournament.
Fletcher Loyer scored 18 points for Purdue (6-0), and reserve Caleb Furst finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
The 7-foot-4 Edey was 7 for 13 from the field and 7 for 8 at the line. He was named tournament MVP.
Duke (6-2) shot 36.2% (21 for 58) from the field. Tyres Proctor scored 16 points for the Blue Devils. Kyle Filipowski and Jeremy Roach each had 14.
Ethan Morton had a steal and a dunk to help Purdue open a 58-41 lead with 15:37 left in the second half.
NO. 12 MICHIGAN STATE 78, PORTLAND 77
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) &mdash; Tyson Walker scored 15 points, and Michigan State topped Portland in the fifth-place game of the Phil Knight Invitational.
Pierre Brooks made all four of his 3-pointers and scored 15 points for the Spartans (5-2). Joey Hauser added 14 points and seven rebounds. A.J. Hoggard had 12 points and nine assists.
After outscoring Michigan State 13-2 in the last three minutes and getting eight points in less than 30 seconds to make it 78-77 with 40.5 seconds to play, Portland rebounded a Spartans miss with 8.1 seconds to go. The Pilots got the ball inside to Tyler Robertson and his shot rolled off the rim, and a desperation putback by Juan Sebastian Gorosito wasn&rsquo;t close.
Robertson had 16 points, nine assists, seven rebounds and two steals for the Pilots (5-4).
NO. 13 AUBURN 65, SAINT LOUIS 60
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) &mdash; Wendell Green Jr. scored 22 points, and Auburn reeled off 11 straight in the closing minutes.
The Tigers (7-0) rallied from a five-point deficit over the final five minutes, starting with back-to-back drives by K.D. Johnson and ending with Green&rsquo;s scoop shot in traffic.
The Billikens (5-2) missed six straight shots before Yuri Collins&rsquo; drive with 20 seconds left. Then Jaylin Williams turned it over with an errant inbounds pass.
But Gibson Jimerson missed a long jumper for Saint Louis and Green went 1 for 2 at the line.
Auburn closed the game on a 12-2 run.
NO. 19 UCLA 81, BELLARMINE 60
LOS ANGELES (AP) &mdash; Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored a season-high 27 points, and UCLA got the win while playing without leading scorer Jaylen Clark.
Clark sat out for the first time this season because of a non-COVID-19 illness. The junior is averaging 15.7 points and 7.7 rebounds.
Freshman Adem Bona added 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field in his highest scoring game so far.
Bellarmine freshman Ben Johnson led the Knights (2-5) with 20 points. Curt Hopf added 16 points.
The Bruins (5-2) stretched their lead to 20 points in the second half.
NO. 20 UCONN 71, IOWA STATE 53
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) &mdash; Donovan Clingan had 15 points and 10 rebounds, powering UConn to the Phil Knight Invitational championship.
Tristen Newton scored 13 points for the Huskies (8-0), who went 20 for 25 at the free-throw line. Alex Karaban and Andre Jackson, Jr. each had 10 points.
Osun Osunniyi led Iowa State (5-1) with 14 points. Tamin Lipsey had 12 points and Jaren Holmes finished with 11.
Iowa State closed to 53-48 on Holmes&rsquo; 3-pointer midway through the second half. But Karaban made a 3 and a dunk, and Newton&rsquo;s jumper made it 60-48 with 7:13 remaining.

A recap of a busy Sunday for men's college basketball highlights a thriller in Portland for third place in the Phil Knight Invitational.

Sears, No. 18 Alabama top No. 1 North Carolina in 4 OTs

MOSCOW (AP) &mdash; A Russian court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner of her nine-year prison sentence for drug possession, a step that could move her closer to a possible high-stakes prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington.
The eight-time all-star center with the WNBA&rsquo;s Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medalist was convicted Aug. 4 after police said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow&rsquo;s Sheremetyevo Airport.
Griner, 32, was not at the Moscow Regional Court hearing but appeared via video link from a penal colony outside the capital where she is held.
At her trial, Griner admitted to having the canisters in her luggage but testified she packed them inadvertently in her haste to make her flight and had no criminal intent. Her defense team presented written statements saying she had been prescribed cannabis to treat chronic pain.
The nine-year sentence was close to the maximum of 10 years, and Griner&rsquo;s lawyers argued after the conviction that the punishment was excessive. They said in similar cases defendants have received an average sentence of about five years, with about a third of them granted parole.
While upholding the sentence, the court said Griner&rsquo;s prison time will be recalculated to reflect what she has already served in pre-trial detention. One day in pre-trial detention will be counted as 1 1/2 days in prison, so she still will have to serve about eight years in prison.
Griner&rsquo;s lawyers Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov said in an email that they were &ldquo;very disappointed&rdquo; with the decision because they still believe &ldquo;the punishment is excessive and contradicts to the existing court practice.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Britthey&rsquo;s biggest fear is that she is not exchanged and will have to serve the whole sentence in Russia,&rdquo; they said. &ldquo;She had hopes for today, as each month, each day away from her family and friends matters to her.&rdquo;
They said they had to discuss with Griner what legal steps they should take next.
Griner&rsquo;s arrest in February came at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington, just days before Russia sent troops into Ukraine. At the time, Griner was returning to play for a Russian team during the WNBA&rsquo;s offseason.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the decision &ldquo;another failure of justice, compounding the injustice of her detention,&rdquo; adding that &ldquo;securing her release is our priority.&rdquo;
Before her conviction, the U.S. State Department declared Griner to be &ldquo;wrongfully detained&rdquo; &mdash; a charge that Russia has sharply rejected.
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement that U.S. President Joe Biden &ldquo;is willing to go to extraordinary lengths and make tough decisions to bring Americans home.&rdquo;
The WNBA Players Association said the ruling was &ldquo;further verification that BG is not just wrongfully detained -&ndash; she is very clearly a hostage.&rdquo;
Reflecting growing pressure on the Biden administration to do more to bring Griner home, Blinken took the unusual step of revealing publicly in July that Washington had made a &ldquo;substantial proposal&rdquo; to get Griner home, along with Paul Whelan, an American serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for espionage.
Blinken didn&rsquo;t elaborate, but The Associated Press and other news organizations have reported that Washington has offered to exchange Griner and Whelan for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who is serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. and once earned the nickname the &ldquo;merchant of death.&rdquo;
The White House said it has not yet received a productive response from Russia to the offer.
Russian diplomats have refused to comment on the U.S. proposal and urged Washington to discuss the matter in confidential talks, avoiding public statements. But some Russian officials have said a deal is more likely once appeals have been exhausted.
In September, Biden met with Cherelle Griner, the player&rsquo;s wife, as well as her agent, Lindsay Colas. Biden also sat down separately with Elizabeth Whelan, Paul Whelan&rsquo;s sister.
The White House said after the meetings that the president stressed to the families his &ldquo;continued commitment to working through all available avenues to bring Brittney and Paul home safely.&rdquo;
The U.S. and Russia carried out a prisoner swap in April. Moscow released U.S. Marines veteran Trevor Reed in exchange for the U.S. releasing a Russian pilot, Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was convicted in a drug trafficking conspiracy.
Moscow also has pushed for the release of other Russians in U.S. custody.
One of them is Alexander Vinnik, who was accused of laundering billions of dollars through an illicit cryptocurrency exchange. Vinnik was arrested in Greece in 2017 and extradited to the U.S. in August.
Vinnik&rsquo;s French lawyer, Frederic Belot, told Russian newspaper Izvestia last month that his client hoped to be part of a possible swap.
The newspaper speculated that another possible candidate was Roman Seleznev, the son of a Russian lawmaker. He was sentenced in 2017 to 27 years in prison on charges from a hacking and credit card fraud scheme.
&mdash;-
AP Basketball Writer Doug Feinberg in New York contributed.

A Russian court rejected an appeal by U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner of her nine-year prison sentence for drug possession.

Russian court rejects Brittney Griner appeal of her 9-year sentence

In 2020, the Phoenix Suns firmly planted themselves within the NBA as a sustainable contender. Following the addition of Chris Paul, Phoenix ended its 11-year playoff drought with a miraculous Finals appearance.
The 2021-22 campaign was supposed to be the crescendo moment for an instant rebuild that was stuck in neutral before the arrival of general manager James Jones and head coach Monty Williams. All season, Phoenix was dominating opponents, putting on historic efficiency clinics in clutch-time situations that vaulted the team ahead of everyone else. However, a near-worst-case scenario occurred when Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks delivered a knockout blow in the Western Conference semifinals.
How it all ended was a look-in-the-mirror moment for the Suns, one that has brought some ripple effects to their current roster and long-term situation.
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From an off-court perspective, majority owner Robert Sarver will soon sell his stake in the organization following a year-long suspension. Early evaluations lean toward the Suns soon becoming the NBA&rsquo;s most expensive team from new ownership buy-in. Before this occurred, restricted free agency involving 2018 No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton brought some icy feelings, which included internal tension between he and Williams after their Game 7 bench spat. Ayton admitted that the two didn&rsquo;t speak to each other after the season ended, which somehow lasted into training camp.
Ayton signed a lucrative four-year maximum offer sheet with the Indiana Pacers, but the Suns matched it within mere minutes; this situation bears watching well into the season. Phoenix&rsquo;s summer flirtation with Kevin Durant, who had the Suns as his preferred trade destination, will only linger until it&rsquo;s finally resolved one way or another by July.
Jae Crowder is also away from the team, as his trade request has been granted. Crowder was expected to take on a reduced role in favor of Cameron Johnson, but the veteran forward wasn&rsquo;t receptive to the idea.
The Athletic&rsquo;s Shams Charania recently reported that the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/jae-crowder-and-suns-working-towards-trade" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Atlanta Hawks are a top candidate to acquire Crowder</a>, but Phoenix won&rsquo;t simply make a deal to get the starting-caliber wing off their roster. Phoenix&rsquo;s intention is to improve their depth in any Crowder transaction, which could happy soon with the regular season on the horizon. Evidenced by the Suns&rsquo; <a href="https://nba.nbcsports.com/2022/09/24/reports-suns-push-for-jarred-vanderbilt-derailed-bojan-bogdanovic-trade/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pursuit of Bojan Bogdanovic (prior to the Detroit trade) and promising young Utah Jazz forward Jarred Vanderbilt</a>, monitor that framework as any potential outline for a deal moving forward.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
The Hawks are interested in acquiring Jae Crowder, an ideal fit on the wing surrounding Trae Young. <a href="https://t.co/QvlgQUKQY7">https://t.co/QvlgQUKQY7</a>
&mdash; Evan Sidery (@esidery) <a href="https://twitter.com/esidery/status/1579494085534306307?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2022</a></blockquote>

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

Mining through the chaos is an all too familiar occurrence in Phoenix that is creeping back into its most successful era since Steve Nash piloted Mike D&rsquo;Antoni&rsquo;s 7 Seconds or Less offense in the mid-2000s. Questions have been persistent all offseason about the Suns after their postseason embarrassment. 
Is the window closing on Phoenix and their realistic championship hopes?
With the Suns&rsquo; core pieces now entering their primes &mdash; led by soon-to-be 26 year old shooting guard Devin Booker &mdash; that would be a strong bet against consistent internal improvement. Booker has now fully established himself as one of the NBA&rsquo;s best scorers. Mikal Bridges was runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year, and will now be empowered to take more scoring looks this season. Johnson adds much-needed sharpshooting and floor-spacing capabilities while holding his own on the other end of the court. Ayton will also be relied upon as more of a scorer this season since Paul will be going into his age-37 season.
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The biggest questions around the Suns persist from the looming Crowder trade, which will leads right into the second-unit depth. Currently, Phoenix&rsquo;s primary bench rotation consists of Cameron Payne, Landry Shamet, Torrey Craig, Jock Landale and Dario Saric. Saric&rsquo;s return from a torn ACL suffered in the 2021 Finals helps bring back a connective piece, but it&rsquo;s a lot of pressure on Payne and Shamet to bounce back from subpar campaigns. In turn, the consistent theme of Paul and Booker maintaining their elite status as a backcourt will be of utmost importance in 2022-23.
The Western Conference is only getting stronger around the Suns. The defending-champion Golden State Warriors aren&rsquo;t going anywhere anytime soon. The Denver Nuggets are finally at full strength with the impending returns of Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. alongside two-time MVP Nikola Jokic. The Dallas Mavericks and Memphis Grizzlies continue their climb up the ladder thanks to their young stars. Also, the New Orleans Pelicans easily stand out as a team ripe for a major leap thanks to Zion Williamson&rsquo;s return.
This season, we will truly find out whether the Suns&rsquo; hopes to finally win a championship will be one left in the rear-view mirror, or if it becomes even more of a potential reality with their current core.

Has the window closed on the Suns' championship hopes? Lingering questions need to be answered one way or another this season.

Suns enter prove-it season amid drama, lingering questions

DALLAS (AP) &mdash; Luka Doncic didn't really have time to get out of playing shape after leading Slovenia at the EuroBasket tournament coming off a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/golden-state-warriors-dallas-mavericks-nba-sports-295f852415ba2ca337d8b768ec4ac3f0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trip to the Western Conference finals</a> with the Dallas Mavericks.
Therefore, the topic on the eve of training camp was how to ease the young superstar into the NBA season, quite the contrast to a year ago when Doncic was criticized for appearing to be out of shape as the Mavericks started slowly.
Doncic's break after EuroBasket was longer than he would have hoped, with the defending champs from his home country losing a shocker to Poland in the quarterfinals.
Still, that wasn't quite two weeks ago, as opposed to almost two months in 2021 after Doncic carried Slovenia to the semifinals as a first-time Olympic qualifier in Tokyo.
&ldquo;We're going to start a little light,&rdquo; coach Jason Kidd said. &ldquo;Luka loves to play basketball, and so he's ready to go. We want just to start slow. This is a marathon, and he just got done playing.&rdquo;
Analyst Reggie Miller questioned Doncic's conditioning on national TV during a loss to Brooklyn last December, and a 10-game absence because of injuries and COVID-19 soon followed.
When Doncic returned for the first game on the 2022 calendar, the Mavericks had just started a 36-12 finishing kick that carried them from under .500 to the fourth seed in the West playoffs.
Dallas knocked off Utah in the first round despite Doncic missing the first three games with a calf strain and blew out defending West champ Phoenix on the road in Game 7 in the second round before losing to Golden State in five games in the conference finals.
&ldquo;Hopefully we don't start like last year,&rdquo; Doncic said. &ldquo;But it's not how you start. It's how you end. It was a good run. Not the best, obviously, but it was a good run.&rdquo;
In his first season, Kidd coached Dallas beyond the first round for the first time since he was the point guard on the Dirk Nowitzki-led team that won the 2011 title.
Now the Mavericks have to figure out how to make another run without Jalen Brunson, the point guard who surged from backing up Doncic to starting alongside him and playing a huge role without him in winning two of three against the Jazz.
Brunson decided he wanted a leading role similar to what he had in winning two NCAA titles with Villanova. A second-round pick in 2018 when Doncic was drafted third overall, Brunson signed with the New York Knicks in free agency.
Doncic didn't have Spencer Dinwiddie in his backcourt to start last season, and finished it with shooting guard Tim Hardaway Jr. sidelined by a broken foot. Both will have to help fill the Brunson void, along with 3-and-D specialist Dorian Finney-Smith.
&ldquo;I'm happy to try to co-pilot with a top five, probably, player in the NBA and try to improve on last year,&rdquo; said Dinwiddie, acquired in a midseason trade that sent Kristaps Porzingis to Washington. &ldquo;I think we have the talent to do that.&rdquo;
The Mavericks have a retooled frontcourt with free agent pickup JaVale McGee and Christian Wood, who was an expected starter after being acquired in a trade with Houston but now appears to have a sixth-man role after Kidd said McGee would start.
&ldquo;This is a different team,&rdquo; Kidd said. &ldquo;C-Wood can score the ball, JaVale can roll with the best of them and we all know Luka's playmaking. Don't know if we're going to try to create 40 (3-pointers) like we did in the playoffs because that's what we needed to do to win.&rdquo;
CHEERING SECTION
The dynamic of the cheering section will change with Hardaway's return from injury. He and Theo Pinson led the boosters from the bench in the playoffs in such a way that the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/golden-state-warriors-dallas-mavericks-nba-sports-stephen-curry-171b1c7a09da7d977562ad6162c49102" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBA fined the Mavericks three times</a> for violating rules of bench decorum during the postseason.
The third fine came after the Warriors threw a pass out of bounds in the direction of the Dallas bench when Pinson was wearing white, similar to Golden State's home jersey. The league tightened the bench rules during the offseason, giving officials the option of penalizing teams during games.
&ldquo;We had a little &lsquo;Miami Vice&rsquo; action going on on the bench,&rdquo; Hardaway said. &ldquo;The NBA made a rule after us, so we must have been doing something right.&rdquo;
KLEBER CONTRACT
Maxi Kleber, who broke out of a lengthy shooting slump to key a Game 2 victory that sparked the first-round win over Utah, enters his sixth season with the Mavericks after signing a $33 million, three-year extension.
Kleber&rsquo;s Dallas tenure could push a decade, but he&rsquo;d still have a ways to go to match the other longtime Maverick from Wurzburg, Germany. Nowitzki set an NBA record by playing all 21 seasons with the Mavs.
&nbsp;

Following changes in the offseason, Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks are gearing up for a run deep into the NBA playoffs.

Doncic on short rest as Mavs seek replay of deep playoff run

In his "Blazing the Trail" series, Mat Issa analyzes Penny Hardaway as a dual threat and how he stood out from other point guards.

Blazing the Trail: Anfernee 'Penny' Hardaway, the floor giant

The Kremlin warned Thursday that a possible prisoner swap with the United States involving American basketball star Brittney Griner needs to be negotiated quietly without fanfare.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that Washington had offered Russia a deal that would bring home Griner and another jailed American, Paul Whelan. A person familiar with the matter said the U.S. government proposed trading convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for Whelan and Griner.
Asked about the U.S. offer, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied that prisoner swaps were typically negotiated discreetly behind the scenes.
&ldquo;We know that such issues are discussed without any such release of information,&rdquo; Peskov told reporters during a conference call. &ldquo;Normally, the public learns about it when the agreements are already implemented.&rdquo;
He emphasized that &ldquo;no agreements have been finalized&rdquo; and refused to provide further details.
In a separate statement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Russian and U.S. officials have conducted negotiations about possible prisoner exchanges and &ldquo;there has been no concrete result yet.&rdquo;
&ldquo;We proceed from the assumption that interests of both parties should be taken into account during the negotiations,&rdquo; Zakharova said.
Blinken&rsquo;s comments marked the first time the U.S. government publicly revealed any concrete action it has taken to secure Griner&rsquo;s release. The two-time Olympic gold medalist and player for the WNBA&rsquo;s Phoenix Mercury was arrested at a Moscow airport in mid-February when inspectors found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage.
In a sharp reversal of previous policy, Blinken said he expects to speak with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss the proposed prisoner deal and other matters. It would be their first phone call since before Russia sent its troops into Ukraine.
Russia has for years expressed interest in the release of Bout, a Russian arms dealer once labeled the &ldquo;Merchant of Death.&rdquo; He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012 on charges that he schemed to illegally sell millions of dollars in weapons.
Griner&rsquo;s trial on drug charges started in a court outside Moscow this month, and she testified Wednesday that she didn&rsquo;t know how the cartridges ended up in her bag but that she had a doctor&rsquo;s recommendation to use cannabis to treat career-related pain.
The 31-year-old has pleaded guilty but said she had no criminal intent in bringing the cartridges to Russia and packed in haste for her return to play in a Russian basketball league during the WNBA&rsquo;s offseason. She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of transporting drugs.
On Wednesday, Griner testified that a language interpreter translated only a fraction of what was being said while she was detained at Moscow&rsquo;s airport and that officials told her to sign documents, but &ldquo;no one explained any of it to me.&rdquo;
Griner also said that besides the poor translation, she received no explanation of her rights or access to a lawyer during the initial hours of her detention. She said she used a translation app on her phone to communicate with a customs officer.
Her arrest came at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington ahead of Russia sending troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. Griner&rsquo;s five months of detention have raised strong criticism among teammates and supporters in the United States.
The Biden administration has faced political pressure to free Griner and other Americans whom the U.S. has declared to be &ldquo;wrongfully detained&rdquo; &mdash; a designation sharply rejected by Russian officials.
Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan, was sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges in 2020. He and his family have vigorously asserted his innocence. The U.S. government has denounced the charges as false.
Washington has long resisted prisoner swaps out of concern that they could encourage additional hostage-taking and promote false equivalency between a wrongfully detained American and a foreign national regarded as justly convicted.
In April, however, the government struck a deal to trade U.S. Marine veteran Trevor Reed for jailed Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko.&nbsp;

The Kremlin warned a possible prisoner swap with the U.S. involving Brittney Griner needs to be negotiated quietly, without fanfare.

Kremlin poker-faced on US swap offer to free Griner, Whelan

President Joe Biden spoke Wednesday with the wife of detained WNBA player Brittney Griner, who is on trial in Russia, to reassure her that he is working to win Griner&rsquo;s freedom as soon as possible, the White House said.
Biden&rsquo;s conversation with Cherelle Griner followed Brittney Griner&rsquo;s personal appeal to the president in a handwritten letter from the basketball player the White House received on Monday. In the letter, Griner said she feared she would spend forever in detention in Russia and asked Biden to not &ldquo;forget about me and the other American Detainees.&rdquo;
Griner has been detained in Russia for four months and is currently on trial, accused of possessing vape cartridges containing cannabis oil.
The call was placed as Griner&rsquo;s family has become more aggressive in pressuring the Biden administration by speaking out about her case, including through Brittney Griner&rsquo;s letter to the president and several television interviews by Cherelle Griner, who said she did not think the government was doing enough to bring her wife home.
&ldquo;The President called Cherelle to reassure her that he is working to secure Brittney&rsquo;s release as soon as possible, as well as the release of Paul Whelan and other U.S. nationals who are wrongfully detained or held hostage in Russia and around the world,&rdquo; the White House said in a statement. &ldquo;He also read her a draft of the letter the President is sending to Brittney Griner today.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Biden offered the family his support and committed to making sure they receive &ldquo;all possible assistance&rdquo; during the administration&rsquo;s pursuit of Brittney Griner&rsquo;s release, the White House said.
Vice President Kamala Harris also spoke with Cherelle Griner.
Griner, 31, is in the midst of a trial in Russia that began last week after she was arrested on Feb. 17 on charges of possessing cannabis oil while returning to play for her Russian team. She could face 10 years in prison if convicted of large-scale transportation of drugs.
The trial was scheduled to resume Thursday. Fewer than 1% of defendants in Russian criminal cases are acquitted and, unlike in U.S. courts, acquittals can be overturned.
Cherelle Griner told &ldquo;CBS Mornings&rdquo; in an interview Tuesday that it was &ldquo;disheartening&rdquo; to her that she had yet to hear from Biden during her wife&rsquo;s detention.
A representative for Cherelle Griner did not immediately respond to a text message from The Associated Press. Cherelle Griner was scheduled to speak publicly Wednesday night at a rally in Phoenix organized by Brittney Griner&rsquo;s WNBA team.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday that Biden &ldquo;has been clear about the need to see every American who is wrongfully detained or held hostage abroad released, including Brittney Griner.&rdquo;
&ldquo;This has been top of mind for the president,&rdquo; she said. Jean-Pierre added that Biden is updated daily on the status of efforts to win freedom for Brittney Griner and other Americans the U.S. government believes are being wrongfully detained in Russia and elsewhere.
Representatives for Brittney Griner on Monday shared excerpts from her letter to the president.
In one, she wrote, &ldquo;&hellip; As I sit here in a Russian prison, alone with my thoughts and without the protection of my wife, family, friends, Olympic jersey, or any accomplishments, I&rsquo;m terrified I might be here forever.&rdquo;
The letter was delivered to the White House on the Fourth of July, which Brittney Griner said is a special day for her family.
&ldquo;On the 4th of July, our family normally honors the service of those who fought for our freedom, including my father who is a Vietnam War Veteran,&rdquo; the center for the Phoenix Mercury said. &ldquo;It hurts thinking about how I usually celebrate this day because freedom means something completely different to me this year.&rdquo;
Griner&rsquo;s supporters have encouraged a prisoner swap like one in April that brought home Marine veteran Trevor Reed in exchange for a Russian pilot convicted of drug trafficking conspiracy.
Russian news media have repeatedly speculated that she could be swapped for Russian arms trader Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year sentence on conviction of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and providing aid to a terrorist organization.
Russia has agitated for Bout&rsquo;s release for years. But the wide discrepancy between Griner&rsquo;s case &mdash; involving alleged possession of vape cartridges containing cannabis oil &mdash; and Bout&rsquo;s global dealings in deadly weapons could make such a swap unpalatable to the U.S.
Others have suggested she could be traded along with Whelan, a former Marine and security director serving a 16-year sentence on an espionage conviction that the U.S. has repeatedly described as a setup.

Joe Biden reassured Cherelle Griner that he is working to win Brittney’s freedom as soon as possible, the White House said.

President Biden tells Cherelle Griner he’s working to get Brittney home

Brittney Griner has made an appeal to President Joe Biden in a letter passed to the White House through her representatives saying she feared she might never return home and asking that he not &ldquo; forget about me and the other American Detainees.&rdquo;
Griner&rsquo;s agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas said the letter was delivered on Monday. Most of the letter&rsquo;s contents to President Biden remain private, though Griner&rsquo;s representatives shared a few lines from the hand-written note.
&Prime;&hellip;As I sit here in a Russian prison, alone with my thoughts and without the protection of my wife, family, friends, Olympic jersey, or any accomplishments, I&rsquo;m terrified I might be here forever,&rdquo; Griner wrote.
&ldquo;On the 4th of July, our family normally honors the service of those who fought for our freedom, including my father who is a Vietnam War Veteran,&rdquo; the Phoenix Mercury center added. &ldquo;It hurts thinking about how I usually celebrate this day because freedom means something completely different to me this year.&rdquo;
The two-time Olympic gold medalist is in the midst of a trial in Russia that began last week after she was arrested on Feb. 17 on charges of possessing cannabis oil while returning to play for her Russian team. The trial will resume Thursday.
Fewer than 1% of defendants in Russian criminal cases are acquitted, and unlike in U.S. courts, acquittals can be overturned.
Griner&rsquo;s wife, Cherelle, said Tuesday morning she has not had any direct communication with President Biden since the letter was delivered to the White House.
&ldquo;I still have not heard from him and honestly, it&rsquo;s very disheartening,&rdquo; Cherelle Griner said on CBS Mornings.
The White House National Security Council confirmed the White House has received Griner&rsquo;s letter.
&ldquo;We believe the Russian Federation is wrongfully detaining Brittney Griner,&rdquo; NSC spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said on Monday. &ldquo;President Biden has been clear about the need to see all U.S. nationals who are held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad released, including Brittney Griner. The U.S. government continues to work aggressively &ndash; using every available means &ndash; to bring her home.&rdquo;
Cherelle Griner said for Brittney to reach out directly to Biden is an indication of just how afraid her wife is about what&rsquo;s next.
&ldquo;BG is probably the strongest person that I know. So she doesn&rsquo;t say words like that lightly,&rdquo; Cherelle said. &ldquo;That means she truly is terrified that she may never see us again. And you know I share those same sentiments. ... I&rsquo;m sure she was like, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m gonna write him now because ... my family has tried and to no avail. So I&rsquo;m going do it myself.&rsquo;&rdquo;
Griner pleaded with Biden in the letter to use his powers to ensure her return.
&ldquo;Please do all you can to bring us home. I voted for the first time in 2020 and I voted for you. I believe in you. I still have so much good to do with my freedom that you can help restore,&rdquo; Griner said &ldquo;I miss my wife! I miss my family! I miss my teammates! It kills me to know they are suffering so much right now. I am grateful for whatever you can do at this moment to get me home.&rdquo;
Griner has been able to have sporadic communications with family, friends and WNBA players through an email account her agent set up. The emails are printed out and delivered in bunches to Griner by her lawyer after they are vetted by Russian officials. Once the lawyers get back to their office, they&rsquo;ll scan any responses from Griner and pass them back to the U.S. to send along.
She was supposed to have a phone call with her wife on their anniversary but it failed because of an &ldquo;unfortunate mistake,&rdquo; Biden administration officials.
Griner&rsquo;s supporters have encouraged a prisoner swap like the one in April that brought home Marine veteran Trevor Reed in exchange for a Russian pilot convicted of drug trafficking conspiracy. The State Department in May designated her as wrongfully detained, moving her case under the supervision of its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, effectively the government&rsquo;s chief hostage negotiator.
Griner isn&rsquo;t the only American being wrongfully detained in Russia. Paul Whelan, a former Marine and security director is serving a 16-year sentence on an espionage conviction.
___
Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

Brittney Griner has made an appeal to President Joe Biden in a letter passed to the White House through her representatives.

Brittney Griner sends letter to President Biden pleading for his help

The energy in The Bay was palpable, a crowd starved for its team's first Western Conference Finals berth since 2019. The dominant rule of this Golden State dynasty had been rudely interrupted by a once-in-a-generation global pandemic, a slew of untimely injuries and a superstar migrating across the country to skyscraping lands. Even the Chase Center flooring glimmered in anticipation.
The only thing that gleamed more was the twinkle in the eye of the Warriors' team defense.
The Warriors faced a new challenge in the West Finals, going from containing the quick-twitch athleticism strewn across the Memphis Grizzlies' roster to now containing the pick-and-roll craftsmanship of Luka Doncic, arguably the best player of the 2022 postseason. Luka's a nightmare to deal with, to say the least. He can attack your bigs or smalls on switches in isolation. He makes passes that only a select few across the globe can make should he even gain the slightest bit of an advantage. Most of all, he's a true-blue three-level scorer, geared up with step-back threes, post-ups with Dirk Nowitzki-legged fadeaways, sikly floaters and elongated layups at his disposal.&nbsp;
Containing a player of that ilk is not as simple as just throwing one perimeter player his way and hoping for the best. And while Luka's primary defender, Andrew Wiggins, did an admirable job on Wednesday of holding Doncic to 4-of-10 shooting, it was Golden State's medley of defensive coverages that kept Dallas at bay during the 25-point evisceration.&nbsp;
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Steve Kerr's crew threw out six different coverages in the first half &mdash; blitzes, hedge-and-recovers, a shallow drop coverage, pick-and-roll switches, a 3-2 zone and even a Box-and-1 &mdash; to stifle Dallas' second-ranked playoff half-court offense to a crawl. Golden State's coordinated chaos worked effectively, as Dallas put up just 78.8 points per 100 possessions in the half-court during Game 1 (10th percentile, yikes!), well below the 101.3 Offensive Rating that Dallas normally averages in this setting.&nbsp;
We'll touch on a few of those coverages momentarily, but it was Golden State's zone looks that were particularly interesting. The Mavericks haven't seen a ton of zones this postseason, especially coming off a series against the Phoenix Suns that featured mostly drop coverage or the occasional switch with Deandre Ayton manning the middle.
Interestingly, Golden State aligned its 3-2 zone so that Stephen Curry was atop the formation, meaning that he was typically Luka Doncic's primary defender. This goes against conventional thinking; normally, you'd expect the Warriors to hide Curry in the corners on one of Dallas' non-threatening options (think: how Miami deployed Duncan Robinson and Tyler Herro in the 2020 postseason) instead of guarding the best mismatch-hunter on the floor. The Warriors, however, felt confident about shuttling defensive possessions to Curry at the point-of-attack, trusting their superstar to <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/stephen-currys-defense-continues-to-shine-for-the-warriors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">utilize his best defensive attribute</a> &mdash; his quick hands&mdash; to frustrate Maverick ball-handlers.
Of course, it helps with Wiggins and Draymond Green situated at the nearby wings, able to sink down and contain should Doncic bullrush his way past the slighter Curry. That's exactly what happened during this first-quarter possession below; Curry bothered Doncic's dribble by sticking in an arm, and when Doncic gathered himself and prepared his attack, Wiggins provided assistance at the nail to erase the driving lane and coerce the kick out. Jalen Brunson, of course, misses the spot-up three (a trend on Wednesday night), and Golden State gets its desired result from the 3-2 zone.
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There's some irony in the Warriors &mdash; the same team that once complained about Toronto's "junk defenses" in the 2019 NBA Finals &mdash; throwing out Box-and-1s to fluster Dallas' heliocentric offense. And yet, a minute later, Golden State busted out that janky look, with Curry, Jordan Poole, Green, and Otto Porter Jr. spread across the lane lines to form the "box," and Wiggins smothering Luka from basically the mid-court line.
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When Maxi Kleber comes to set a screen for Doncic, Poole and Wiggins trap Luka and use the sideline as a third defender to force the pass. Dallas hot-potatoes the ball across the perimeter, frantically searching for a vialble option, and eventually the Mavs are left with a 27-foot three from Kleber. A result the Warriors will live with.
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The Mavericks mustered up just 18 total points in the first quarter, which effectively set the tone for the rest of Game 1. Looking ahead after the brutal loss, it begs the question: Where can the Mavericks go next?
Well, there's the obvious answer, for one: Make more friggin' threes. Duh. The Mavericks whiffed on 37 of their 48 total outside looks, with some of those misses being <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT-vnjKYwf0&amp;ab_channel=MattBrooksNBA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pretty dang brutal</a>. But there's more to the game than just blindly hoping for better results.
Thinning Out the Hedges
As mentioned, one of the coverages that Golden State threw at Luka was hedging and recovering on pick-and-rolls. Typically, this was done when Doncic and the Mavericks looked to target Curry in screening actions. Dallas would have Curry's defender &mdash; Reggie Bullock in the first clip; Spencer Dinwiddie in the second&mdash;set a screen on Luka's defender, Wiggins.
Rather than having Curry switch outright onto Doncic, Steph would instead jump out toward the 6-foot-8 ball-handler to buy Wiggins time as he recovered back to his assignment. Though it goes in, a tightly contested step-back three &mdash; which Luka is shooting just 32.1% on in the postseason &mdash; is a result the Warriors can stomach, especially with one of its smallest defenders (Curry) involved in the play.
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Thus, going at Curry with a slew of straight pick-and-rolls wasn't particularly profitable in Game 1. Golden State is too experienced, too disciplined and too even-tempered to be caught off-guard by opponents repeatedly targetting its superstar. After all, that's been the game plan since, what, 2015? Steph is well-versed in evading such narrow offensive game planning.
But Dallas has some unexplored avenues.
One such way could be to mix in more slips to the rim. Below, after Golden State pre-switches to initially neutralize the Doncic-Bullock pick-and-roll, Luka calls for a second screen from Brunson to bring Curry into the fold. When Steph hedges, Brunson then cuts to the rim instead of flaring out to the perimeter. And although the possession is smothered by Draymond Green audibling a switch with Curry and playing some free safety (goodness was he ever incredible in Game 1!), Dallas was able to get two feet into the middle of the paint to make decisions.&nbsp;
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Flipping the angle of the screen at the very last second, which is something the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/grizzlies-flattening-out-the-warriors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Grizzlies did against the Warriors</a> in the second round, is a counter yet to be tested by the Mavericks' offense. When Dallas did elect to re-screen in Game 1, it was only because the initial screen failed to connect.&nbsp;
Dallas could also add some intricacy to its pick-and-rolls by forcing Golden State to navigate secondary screens. Screen-the-screener (STS) plays were, once again, something the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/memphisminnesota-game-5-was-a-masterclass-in-playcalling-wizardry" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Grizzlies tinkered with</a> in the earlier rounds of the postseason, and forcing Curry to navigate an off-ball screen before being dragged into a ball-screen for Luka could put him behind the play, thus throwing off the timing of his hedge.
All Doncic needs is a moment of hesitation to create for himself or others, so mixing in each of the following&mdash; re-screens, slips to the rim, ram screens and/or STS plays and straight pick-and-roll&mdash;to keep the Warriors on pins and needles could prove to make the difference going forward.
Sniffing Out the Proper Switches
So yes, scoping out Curry on pick-and-roll-induced switches didn't go as planned for Dallas in Game 1 given his comfort level with hedging those plays into oblivion; but that's not to say that Dallas failed to get any sort of traction when Golden State swapped assignments after ball screens.
Here's something that should keep Mavericks fans up at night: Dallas was hunting the wrong Warrior guard. Poole was tested by both of Dallas' secondary and tertiary options (Brunson and Dinwiddie), and he looked like a fish out of water on switches. Collectively, Dinwiddie and Brunson went 2-for-3 from the field when defended by Poole in Game 1.
Dinwiddie is both too tall and too quick to be even slightly bothered by Golden State's prolific 22-year-old, and Brunson's veteran craft left Poole stumbling. Jalen's portfolio of pump-fakes, B-Boy dancer pivots and up-and-unders was one hell of a handful for the third-year player.
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Even when Golden State attempted to hide Poole with hedges, he just wasn't disciplined enough to masterfully pull off this coverage with regularity. Here, he "shows" (or hedges) way, way too high up the floor against Brunson, who has yet to burn Golden State with pull-up threes, and Poole ends up getting flamb&eacute;d in isolation.
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Dallas' one-two punch of Doncic and Brunson also got off some pretty clean looks when served up Kevon Looney on a platter. Look, Looney had himself one hell of a Wednesday evening and was maybe the Game 1 MVP, but his lateral mobility was tested by Dallas' lead options. Take a look for yourself:
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Dallas should continue to hammer this home in the series. Though it's admirable that Looney feels empowered to pick up individual creators of Doncic and Brunson's ilk so high up the floor, his hip flexibility doesn't afford him the requisite oomph when changing directions on either player's array of dribbling moves. Doncic found relative consistency in forcing Golden State rotations and passing to open shooters after beating Looney off the dribble; Brunson, meanwhile, danced and jitterbugged his way to his spots to go 3-of-4 when defended by the Warriors' starting center.
It's integral that Dallas continues to exhaust Curry by involving him in a never-ending loop of pick-and-rolls. The more mileage put on his body defensively, the better. But there's also some value in getting some easy ones against guys like Looney and Poole.
Other notes:
<ul>
<li>Testing Klay Thompson, still fresh off two major injuries, is inherently not a terrible idea. Doing so by posting him up and allowing him to use his strong base and 6-6 frame, however, is not so brilliant. Doncic wasn't able to gain any ground against Golden State's sturdy wing, and the Mavericks would be better suited having the bursty Dinwiddie or even the guileful Brunson go at Thompson in space.</li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li>Speaking of Brunson, how often he can make Golden State pay via pull-up threes should be a major theme in the West Finals. Golden State regularly went under ball-screens against Brunson, daring him to shoot, and he responded with a whole bundle of record-scratch moments. Brunson has shot a combined 30.4% on pull-up three-pointers in the regular season and the postseason on just 105 total attempts, and if he continues to feign at chucking them up when the defense drifts underneath screens, Dallas' offense will sludge itself to death.</li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li>The Mavericks are one of those teams where you just wish they'd incorporate a little more movement into their offense. Dallas leaves food on the table with screening actions on the weak side of the floor, and it allows the low man to stay engaged when helping over should Doncic (or Brunson or Dinwiddie) discover a crack in the defense. That's particularly problematic against a team like the Warriors and Green, a hellish secondary defender to tangle with. Notice how Golden State preoccupies Luka, the low man in the clip below, with screening action between Wiggins and Thompson. When Looney slips to the rim, Doncic is late on his rotation because of the ensuing traffic on the weak side.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
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It'd be great if Dallas could incorporate some of&nbsp;that&nbsp;stuff into their pick-and-roll heavy offense.
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Matt Brooks goes in-depth to break down what the Mavericks can improve on offensively against a stout Warriors defense.

How the Warriors' defense flummoxed Dallas, and where the Mavs go next

The Phoenix Suns gave Evan Sidery a behind-the-scenes look at the their organization and what it takes to run an NBA franchise.

Inside look at the Suns' rise: The making of an elite NBA organization

Rookie big man Evan Mobley scored a season-high 30 points and Darius Garland had 24 points and 13 assists, sending the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 120-111 overtime victory against the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night.
Isaac Okoro added 20 points, including two free throws to open the extra period. Cleveland never trailed after that.
The Cavaliers hold a 1 1/2-game lead over Toronto for the sixth playoff spot in the East.
Ivica Zubac had 24 points, 14 rebounds and four assists, and Amir Coffey scored 19 for the Clippers, who had only nine players in uniform. Los Angeles shot 1 of 10 from the field in OT, with Nicholas Batum making a 3-pointer to pull within 110-109.
Cleveland scored the final seven points on Okoro's dunk, Lauri Markkanen's 3-pointer and two free throws by Markkanen.
The Cavaliers won for the fourth time in 12 games and welcomed back Caris LeVert, who had 11 points in his return from a sprained right foot that sidelined him for a month. All-Star center Jarett Allen missed his fourth straight game with a broken finger on his left hand.
All-Star point guard Garland buried a 3-pointer with 1:20 left in regulation to give Cleveland a 106-103 lead, but Zubac answered with a layup and Coffey made 1 of 2 free throws to force OT. Coffey missed a 23-footer at the buzzer.
Cleveland began a five-game homestand, its longest of the season, over an eight-day span. Ten of its final 15 regular-season games are at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
The Clippers, who have played an NBA-high 71 games, completed a stretch of five in seven days. Starting point guard Reggie Jackson and starting power forward Marcus Morris were given the night off.
Kawhi Leonard (right knee surgery) has not played this season for Los Angeles, while Paul George (right elbow ligament tear) has been sidelined since Dec. 26 and does not have a projected return date.
Clippers coach Tyronn Lue, who piloted Cleveland to its only NBA championship in 2016, was embraced by Kevin Love during a first-quarter timeout. Love is the only remaining player from that team.
Los Angeles held a 57-56 advantage at the break behind 11 points apiece from Coffey and rookie Brandon Boston Jr. Mobley had 12 for the Cavaliers.
EIGHT IS ENOUGH
The Clippers are solidly in eighth place in the West, placing them in the play-in tournament. Lue said being &ldquo;cemented&rdquo; in the spot allowed him to rest Jackson and Morris. &ldquo;If we were close to being out of the playoffs, these guys would all play,&rdquo; Lue said. &ldquo;Reggie didn&rsquo;t want to sit, but playing him wasn&rsquo;t the smart thing to do. It was fair to give them the night off, especially after (winning 106-102 in Detroit on Sunday).&rdquo;
TIP-INS
Clippers: F Robert Covington (personal reasons) missed his fifth straight game, but will rejoin the team in Los Angeles and is expected to play Wednesday. &hellip; G Norman Powell (left foot fracture), two-way G Jay Scrubb (right foot recovery) and rookie G Jason Preston (right foot recovery) were inactive. &hellip; The Clippers wore their San Diego-era, light blue, orange and white throwback jerseys.
Cavaliers: F Dean Wade (right knee soreness) and G Rajon Rondo (right ankle sprain) were inactive. Rondo has missed 12 games with various right leg injuries since being acquired from the Lakers in a Jan. 3 trade. &hellip; G Collin Sexton (left knee surgery) is out for the season. &hellip; G Dylan Windler and two-way G RJ Nembhard were recalled from their G League assignments with the Cleveland Charge.
UP NEXT
Clippers: Host the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night.
Cavaliers: Host the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night.

Rookie big man Evan Mobley scored a season-high 30 points and Darius Garland had 24 points and 13 assists to lead the Cavs.

Mobley scores season-high 30 as Cavs beat Clippers in OT

The Phoenix Suns are 49-12, hold the best Net Rating in the NBA (plus-8.6) and boast a top-three offense and defense (per Cleaning the Glass). They have a six-and-a-half game lead on the No. 2 seed Warriors and a seven-game lead on the fast-approaching Memphis Grizzlies &mdash; the second- and third-best teams in the NBA by record.
Chris Paul (get well soon) continues to orchestrate high-level offense like few have in the history of the league. Devin Booker is in the midst of perhaps his most complete season as a pro (this is Year 7?!).
Mikal Bridges is en route to an All-Defense nod, some dark-horse Defensive Player of the Year buzz and has made <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/mikal-bridges-leap-offensively-is-vital-for-the-phoenix-suns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">real strides as a scorer</a> in 2022. In spite of contract weirdness in the offseason, Deandre Ayton continues on as a pillar of efficiency, a king of quick 10-footers and the central figure in Phoenix's defensive construct.
This team has the juice and a special air about them, arguably even more so than the charmed team that made the Finals last summer.
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I've seen Star Wars Episode III at least 30 times in my life (it came out on my ninth birthday and has been a staple ever since; sue me). There's something extremely grounding and soothing about that movie for me that I don't find replicated often in media. I feel the same bewilderment and joy watching the Battle of Coruscant unfold every darn time, like I'm still that awestruck kid at Regal Cinema 15 years ago. Order 66 still breaks me each rewatch, we don't need to talk about it!
The Suns are my NBA comfort watch, much like that film. If I've gone through a particularly grimey stretch of Indiana Pacers play, I can flip on the Suns on League Pass once the West Coast tip-off starts and bask in the ambiance of fantastic basketball.
The offensive sets flow and pop. Defensive rotations are crisp and timely. The consistent stability of Phoenix draws me in, and it's third-year forward Cam Johnson who is central to that stability.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Cam Johnson since Christmas (27 games) 14 points per game on 48.9/43.3/94 splits 6.3 threes per game 66.3% true-shooting <a href="https://t.co/TAoOULOO7n">pic.twitter.com/TAoOULOO7n</a>
&mdash; Mark Schindler (@MSchindlerNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/MSchindlerNBA/status/1498737179811532802?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Paul is going to slice up the court with nifty passing, and Booker will dazzle with his shot-making. But Johnson is the kind of player who, if you watch a team casually, might not pop... at least not in the way a star might.
Yet, that quietness is what makes Johnson such an integral player. Once you get in tune with the Suns, the silence is audible when he's not on the court.
At its core, the term/archetype "3-and-D" loses the essence of what makes a player unique; Johnson's role certainly runs parallel.
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He paints the corners, canning 48.0% of his attempts from the wings, per Cleaning the Glass (89th percentile).
Johnson is a legitimate shooter off of movement, and his gravitational pull is acknowledged in full by defenses; he rates in the bottom third of Basketball Index's openness-rating metric, tracking how open a player's attempts are on average.
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Out of players taking 3 or more threes per game this season, Johnson is fifth in the NBA in three-point percentage (43.2%). We know about the shooting, but it's the foundation of his game! It's what he was most marketed for as a prospect, but it unlocks the remainder of his offensive skill set in a way that the box score cannot encapsulate.
Johnson isn't an adept ball-handler, but he's competent for his size. Along with his tremendous perception of advantages and court awareness, he's able to knife into lanes that are made available to him. Give him a step on the catch, and he might not beat you to the rim, but he's going to keep the initial push of the offense going and flowing.
Since he's entered the starting lineup post All-Star Break with Paul out, he's doubled his assists per game (1.5 to 3.7), but that's more of a highlight of what he's always been capable of &mdash; just exacerbated with higher usage.
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Attacking off the second side, he's phenomenal at driving east and west, hitting cutters or bigs in the dunker spot or floating in the paint with a dump-off or drop-off pass.
Johnson flows in and out of secondary ball-screens and handoffs if a primary action is denied. He often has to kill his dribble before he can get to the rim, but his quick actions and relocation buoy his lack of burst and keep the offense in equilibrium.
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He's also pretty darn good as a post-entry passer, and has developed some nice chemistry with JaVale McGee, finding him routinely (Shout out to JaVale, what a season from him).
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Johnson's even flashed some eye manipulation, toying with the defense in a way that I certainly wasn't ready for; the defense was not either!
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It sounds simplistic, but a player like Johnson who thrives operating off of others is essential to sn offense. Being able to put the ball on the floor and make positive decisions while maintaining the defense's attention as a shooter eases up life to a degree for Booker and Paul.&nbsp;
When he does his job, it's not always noticeable, as mentioned above. When backups with different skill sets fill in, there's an "Oh, yeah, I get it now!" type of realization. (And that's not Torrey Craig or Ish Wainwright slander, but rather "Cam Johnson is awesome" praise!)
Johnson was really solid defensively last year, but it's felt as though he's taken smaller steps this season and grown into a more consistent positive.&nbsp;
Johnson won't often lock down opposing wings as well as Mikal Bridges does, but he excels in a team scheme. He's been better at the point of attack and man-to-man than anticipated pre-draft.
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Cam Johnson is so good at using his length to contest and tip the ball without fouling Always has his arms up and doesn't really flail at all There were pre-draft lateral quickness concerns, but being big and knowing how to play big has made him into a plus defender <a href="https://t.co/5L8mKc4oEJ">pic.twitter.com/5L8mKc4oEJ</a>
&mdash; Mark Schindler (@MSchindlerNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/MSchindlerNBA/status/1487848232176820227?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2022</a></blockquote>

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While he doesn't have a massive wingspan (6-foot-10), you will rarely see Johnson with his arms down. He's so good at keeping himself square and angling, riding out drives on a ball-handlers hip, keeping vertical and using his length to contest and crowd.
This possession is a microcosm of why I enjoy Johnson as a defender.
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He fights through the screen fairly well for someone with his size and frame, but my favorite part is that he never loses contact with DeMar DeRozan. Tony Bradley doesn't fully set the screen for contact (it feels somewhere between a slip and a legit screen), but that would be enough to deter many point-of-attack defenders, creating some separation.
Johnson has a hand on DeRozan at all times, making it extremely difficult for DeRozan to both feel comfortable and step into one of his patented pull-up twos after snaking into space. Johnson simply doesn't provide that space by maintaining contact and always being in pursuit.
He works in tandem with McGee, shading DeRozan to the baseline before he pivots out and then posts up.
Is Johnson flat-out stopping DeRozan on the perimeter? No, but he's simply being solid and continually getting the most out of his tools. Staying solid is an art, and Johnson is the artist, with timely rotations, good communication (a Phoenix staple) and apt activity on switches.
While Kevin Love and Tyler Herro will rightfully garner most of the votes and consideration for Sixth Man of the Year, Cameron Johnson deserves a mention and a down-ballot nomination (even if he starts the remainder of the year, he'll meet criteria).
As he likely remains in a larger role with Paul out for the foreseeable future, enjoy the Cam Johnson experience, appreciate the little things he does that deserve highlighting,and soak in the rays of a great Suns team.
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The Suns are surging, building the best record in the NBA with a comfortable cushion; quietly central to that is Cam Johnson.

Cam Johnson, the art of staying solid and the Suns' stability

Late in the second quarter of a January game between the Philadelphia 76ers and Houston Rockets, Joel Embiid is operating from his comfort zone of the left block. He faces up, drives baseline and transitions into a shot, but doesn&rsquo;t quite find the edge to finish inside.&nbsp;
As he pivots back toward the hoop and away from the baseline, Garrison Mathews is there to offer a soft double-team. A hook shot is still available for Embiid and would be a fine decision. He&rsquo;s taller than both Mathews and his primary defender, Christian Wood. Extending over the top would present a clean release.&nbsp;
But after Charlie Brown Jr. cuts to occupy Kevin Porter Jr., Furkan Kormaz, a career 36 percent three-point shooter, is wide open. So, in one swift motion, Embiid spins, stares down Brown to dissuade Porter from closing out and delivers a no-look pass to set up Korkmaz.&nbsp;
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Korkmaz missing badly is a trivial matter. That&rsquo;s not a pass Embiid likely dishes out a year ago, nor is it one he likely makes at any stage of his career prior to this season. Late arriving help like the type Mathews brings would routinely bury him.&nbsp;
Nowadays, the seven-foot center is playing the best basketball of his career, in part because he&rsquo;s processing the game better than ever. Philadelphia is 22-9 when he&rsquo;s in the lineup. Once a middling 16-16 squad, the 25-17 Sixers have won nine of their last 10 and are just 2.5 games back of the top seed in the East.&nbsp;
Embiid isn&rsquo;t the front-runner for MVP, and he might not even finish top-three if voting was finalized today. He is, however, among the six-man race of superstars vying for the award, and perhaps nobody has been playing better basketball than him since early December.
Over his last 18 games, the big fella is averaging 30.6 points, 10.3 rebounds, 4.4 assists (2.9 turnovers), 1.2 steals and 1.2 blocks per game on a 64.4% True Shooting Percentage. For the year, he&rsquo;s averaging 27.2 points, 10.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists (2.9 turnovers), 1.4 blocks and 1.1 steals on 60.1% TS.
After finishing second in MVP voting last season and registering 28-10.5-3-1.5-1 on 63% TS across 11 playoff games, Embiid has returned as an improved player to reach unexplored heights.&nbsp;
The most discernible growth is his composure, control and discretion offensively, which often manifest in his playmaking. His 24.3% assist rate is a career-high, while his 11.5% turnover rate is a career-low, according to Cleaning The Glass. Those numbers aren&rsquo;t always a worthwhile proxy for passing ability, but they&rsquo;re illuminating and relevant with Embiid.&nbsp;
For years, he&rsquo;s been capable of whirling skip passes from the post to corner shooters. He incorporated them on a consistent basis last season, yet was still prone to succumbing against double-teams and struggled to find teammates on the interior. This year, the skip pass remains valuable and he&rsquo;s diversifying the reads in his arsenal.&nbsp;
Embiid has developed nifty synergy with Matisse Thybulle roaming the dunker spot. He keeps his dribble alive against double-teams and avoids them altogether more regularly. In years past, help would come and he&rsquo;d be neutralized, unsure of how to proceed and prone to shying away from the defense, desperate for some sort of counter.&nbsp;
Even if he&rsquo;s not entirely infallible, those moments of complete ineptitude are a relic. He&rsquo;s built upon last season&rsquo;s improvements to become an exceptionally high-level passing center who organizes the offense and picks apart defenses with skill, flair and feel.&nbsp;
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More than ever before, he&rsquo;s simply aware of how much pressure he applies on opponents and how to parlay that into effective offense for everyone. Previously, he had a tendency to make decisions based solely upon his individual defender and the best way to score against them.&nbsp;
Shifting his approach to identify the positioning of everyone on the floor and act based on that perspective has facilitated his maturation. Trouble used to arise when the opposition sped up his decision-making. That rarely transpires anymore. Teams don&rsquo;t really deter Embiid from his first option. If they do, he calmly moves onto a secondary plan, a critical facet in his rise from All-NBA superstar to MVP-caliber superstar.
While a portion of all this was prevalent last season, Embiid also benefited from the best midrange shooting campaign of his career, which masked some of the longstanding issues in his offensive style.
According to Cleaning The Glass, he shot 47% from midrange, six points higher than his previous career-best. This season, he&rsquo;s back down to 41% but is a more complete, impactful offensive player, and has combated that regression with a retooled means of scanning the court. His TS% is 4.4 points above league average, the second-best mark of his career behind last season&rsquo;s 6.4 points above average.&nbsp;
Without Ben Simmons around, Embiid&rsquo;s become the team&rsquo;s de facto transition energizer. After a rebound, he&rsquo;s empowered to ignite grab-and-go sequences or simply flow into the normal offense, whether it&rsquo;s a dribble handoff, high-low action, post-up or off-the-bounce jumper. Some of these occurrences happened in 2020-21, though their frequency has seen a major spike this year.&nbsp;
He boasts dexterous footwork, nimble body control and the requisite handling chops to pilot the break. As it turns out, most defenders have zero interest in being an obstacle between the hoop and a 7-foot, 280-pound point guard barreling downhill.
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Arguably the most vital component of Embiid&rsquo;s 2020-21 transformation was the diversification of his scoring repertoire. He significantly expanded his pull-up game and emerged proficient at commonly initiating offense from spots other than mid-post. That remains true.&nbsp;
According to Synergy, in 2018-19, he set a career-high with 13.4% of his half-court offense being derived from off-the-dribble jumpers, though only generated 0.783 points per possession on those shots. Last season, he eclipsed that career-high at 18.8% and generated 1.013 PPP. This season, he&rsquo;s up to 25.1% frequency and 0.992 PPP.&nbsp;
With savvy footwork that implies a drive is imminent, he&rsquo;s masterful at creating space for jumpers against defenders. His shot fake is incredibly lethal. He&rsquo;s even canned 34.2% of his pull-up triples (13 of 38).&nbsp;
There are vast avenues for Embiid to score. Leading the break. Deep seals inside -- he&rsquo;s shooting a career-high 72% at the rim, per Cleaning The Glass. The classic post touch. Pick-and-pop threes. Attacking from the perimeter as a driver. Free throws (.592 free-throw rate, second-best of his career).
He knows what he wants, which ranges far and wide, and how to pursue it. Flustering him into suboptimal decisions is a landmark achievement. Compared to his early years, and even in general, the dude is just so dang patient. That development has done wonders for him.&nbsp;
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Embiid is not the lone Sixers starter riding a career year. His ball-screen buddy, Seth Curry, has joined him in that regard, averaging 16.3 points on scintillating 63.8% TS.
Most of the credit goes to Curry. He&rsquo;s a wicked good shooter raining fire all over the floor. Some of it, though, should be attributed to Embiid&rsquo;s refined screen-setting. For years, he opted to go through the motions of a pick and avoid physical contact. Far from the most glaring issue with Philadelphia&rsquo;s offense, it still played a role in the struggles.&nbsp;
This season, he&rsquo;s committed to springing free guys like Curry with his screening. Not every possession is perfect, but there&rsquo;s significantly more good than any year prior. He&rsquo;s legitimately stonewalling some players and Curry is reaping the benefits by way of a silky jumper.
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The most remarkable part of everything he brings offensively is how defensive-oriented he was entering the league. He&rsquo;s always been a very good defender, but dating back to 2017-18, has saved a little something for the playoffs. That may still be the case, though he&rsquo;s playing the best regular season defense since his rookie year right now.&nbsp;
Between his own enhancements and seven games of trial by fire against the fearsome Trae Young-Clint Capela-John Collins trio, it felt like Embiid refined his pick-and-roll coverage substantially last season. Bouncy lob threats still expose his lack of vertical explosion at times, but he&rsquo;s learned to exquisitely engage the cat-and-mouse game of guarding ball-handler and roller.
He excels at baiting drivers into tossing lobs before retreating to alter or block shots. His positioning and recognition of proper angles in drop coverage are clinical. Philadelphia has broadened its pick-and-roll defense since assistant coach Dan Burke arrived last season, so Embiid is also asked to play at the level of the screen, trap and hedge at times as well, especially the last of those in recent weeks.&nbsp;
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Not only has Embiid showcased his merits and technique in pick-and-rolls, but he&rsquo;s also been supremely active as a general rim protector. In the Sixers&rsquo; impressive win over the Heat on Saturday, he almost entirely shut down the paint for them and extinguished (ha, get it, heat, fire) their crunch-time offense.
Miami was quite timid to challenge him and Philadelphia&rsquo;s perimeter defenders were empowered to run shooters off the arc, knowing Embiid loomed behind, waiting to reinforce their efforts.
Although most games haven&rsquo;t been that extreme, he executes necessary rotations to influence plays inside the paint. His verticality is masterful and a 280-pound frame means winning the strength battle is a nonstarter for most contestants.&nbsp;
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As a rookie, Embiid produced a gaudy 5.1% block rate, one counteracted by 6.9 fouls per 100 possessions. Over the years, he&rsquo;s become increasingly calculated and that evolution has coalesced in 2021-22.&nbsp;
While he persists as a defensive menace, his block rate sits at a career-low 2.2% and he averages 3.8 fouls per 100 possessions. In fact, he hasn&rsquo;t fouled out of his past 101 games, and hasn&rsquo;t even tallied five fouls over his past 38 outings. All this despite the Sixers&rsquo; perimeter defense being much worse than last season and inconsistent on the whole.
The Sixers have the NBA&rsquo;s sixth-ranked defense since Embiid returned from COVID on Nov. 27. That largely stems from him flying around the floor, quarterbacking everyone with vocal communication and avoiding costly penalties (2.6 fouls a night over that 22-game span).
Philadelphia doesn&rsquo;t solely lean on him defensively. His 36% usage rate is a career high and ranks fourth league-wide, according to Cleaning The Glass. Most of its offensive goodness originates with him.&nbsp;
These aren&rsquo;t new trends during his Sixers tenure; they&rsquo;ve long demanded he captain them on both ends. Yet the rate at which Embiid is succeeding in such a complex, burdensome role feels unprecedented for him.
His scoring is elite. His passing is very good. His defense has been stellar. He&rsquo;s a do-it-all superstar elevating his game to another level and asserting himself into the thick of the MVP discussion for the second consecutive season.&nbsp;

Joel Embiid has made noticeable improvements across the board in a dominant 2021-22 campaign.

Another career year from Joel Embiid has him back in the MVP race

Isaiah Stewart plays hard. <a href="https://streamable.com/ihig1a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Really hard, in fact</a>. It&rsquo;s unmistakable whenever he&rsquo;s on the floor. This is not the type of &ldquo;hard&rdquo; to which the majority of NBA players adhere. There are few around the league whose motors are constantly discernible in the fashion Stewart&rsquo;s is. He is always aiming to make his presence felt, seeking out some manner to imprint himself.
Last year, that approach was quite beneficial and earned him an All-Rookie Second Team berth. Only a handful of rookies cobbled together more impressive campaigns. The Detroit Pistons have an excellent young prospect whom they should be highly encouraged about. Long-term, there&rsquo;s a decent chance he emerges as the best center from the 2020 class, despite being the third one off the board in November (fourth, if you classify Obi Toppin as such).
In 21.4 minutes per game, Stewart averaged 7.9 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks on 59.7% True Shooting (.553/.333/.696 split). Across 34 post-All-Star Break games, the 20-year-old gathered steam, averaging 10.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.5 blocks on a 60.8 TS% (.551/.345/.700 split).&nbsp;
As a rookie, Stewart was a superb defender. The Pistons were <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/team/1610612765/onoffcourt-advanced/?sort=DEF_RATING&amp;dir=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">6.1 points better defensively</a> with him on the court, and he ranked in the <a href="https://dunksandthrees.com/epm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">88th percentile in Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus</a>, the latter of which was third among first-year rotation guys (apologies, Paul Reed).&nbsp;
Already, he&rsquo;s a technician in drop coverage against pick-and-rolls. He routinely positions himself in ideal spots, staying at home with his man when needed or delaying the ball-handler&rsquo;s decision-making until the point-of-attack defender recovers. With active hands, he stunts at initiators to kill their dribble and recognizes when to peel back to rollers.&nbsp;
His fluency as a pick-and-roll defender belied his first-year status and is truly impressive. At his peak, he&rsquo;s going to be one of the NBA&rsquo;s best ball-screen antagonists because he&rsquo;s proficient at baiting the offense into acting as he prefers. That is what premier defenders do.&nbsp;
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Flanked predominantly by insufficient perimeter defenders, he was also thrust into many help-side rim protection circumstances and performed admirably. According to NBA.com, as the primary defender, Stewart held players 6.4 percentage points below their average on looks within 6 feet of the hoop, which placed him 30th among 85 players to contest at least four such shots a night.&nbsp;
To juxtapose Stewart with his contemporaries, James Wiseman held players 0.4 percentage points below their average, while Onyeka Okongwu held players 1.8 percentage points below their average. This statistic is by no means teflon, but it does, in some capacity, help underline how well the former Washington center performed in year one.&nbsp;
His proclivity for unceasing activity aids him in these efforts. Although he only stands 6-foot-8, his 9-foot standing reach &mdash; a serviceable measurement &mdash; shines through around the cup and is amplified by timing and awareness.
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We received it in spurts last season, largely over the second half of the year, but I&rsquo;d also like to see Detroit further explore Stewart&rsquo;s viability as a switch big. Both Cade Cunningham and Killian Hayes are good point-of-attack defenders, and Jerami Grant offers versatility as well. Mixing up the coverage to gauge the volume, style and caliber of matchup he can handle on switches is a worthwhile endeavor as the Pistons embark on another rebuilding stage with the hopes of establishing more clarity in 2021-22.
The early indicators from year one are rather emboldening, too. Mobility is a critical factor in his pick-and-roll exploits. That remains the case in examples that skew closer to one-on-one contexts. His lateral quickness is exceptional for a big man, and the swiftness with which he flips his hips to answer changes of direction is phenomenal. Assessing these gifts through a playoff lens for Detroit is a bit premature, but defensive versatility is vital in that department (see, the Bucks of Milwaukee, most recently). Stewart has laid the foundation to meet that criteria.&nbsp;
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Isaiah Stewart rocks, man. <a href="https://t.co/iwMaDjmXjV">pic.twitter.com/iwMaDjmXjV</a>
&mdash; Jackson Frank (@jackfrank_jjf) <a href="https://twitter.com/jackfrank_jjf/status/1438554487610744838?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2021</a>
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A few warts persist defensively for him, though. His aggression tends to result in high foul counts. He averaged 6.2 fouls per 100 possessions last season, and he&rsquo;s prone to biting on shot fakes or sly dribble moves. This is exactly the sort of blemish that can be exhausted with development, but it&rsquo;s something to monitor as he looks to assume a grander minutes load this year.&nbsp;
Despite massive gains as a vertical athlete (more on this later), he is hindered at times. If he is not prompt in his rotation, the slow load-up period enables scorers to shoot before he&rsquo;s ready to stamp his mark. In conjunction with an adequate, yet nonetheless suboptimal, 9-foot standing reach, he&rsquo;ll find himself a step or two slow as a defensive anchor on occasion.&nbsp;
As his defensive role scales up alongside his minutes, I&rsquo;m curious to see if this becomes a more prevalent concern. Technique and timing are the lifeblood of defensive success, but physical tools carry importance, too. Stewart&rsquo;s margin of error is simply smaller than other centers with superior athletic traits.
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Essentially from the outset, Stewart distinguished himself defensively; however, the starkest development that occurred between December and May was offensively. Early in the year, he would barely glance toward the rim when the ball was in his hands; any time he had the ball outside of 3 feet from the hoop, he was searching for a release valve. By the last week of April, he was absolutely launching threes and hunting shots as if he were a premier floor-spacer. Over his final eight games, he took more than four triples six times. It reached the point where he was even eliciting hasty closeouts and countering with <a href="https://twitter.com/jackfrank_jjf/status/1391809821469396994?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ball skills like these</a>, which would&rsquo;ve been unheard of in December.
Peering further out, his three-point rate leaped from .034 before the All-Star Break to .221 afterward, including .400 during the aforementioned final eight games. He even experimented with some <a href="https://streamable.com/yzwyjc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">face-up scoring</a>, which is probably his most likely path to any sort of self-creation equity.&nbsp;
Cautiously interpreting post-All-Star Break runs from young dudes on lottery-bound teams is prudent, but this was a guy who glaringly changed the way he approached his role and how he viewed scoring opportunities. His numbers beyond the arc and at the charity stripe aren&rsquo;t sterling indicators &mdash; but examine other statistical hints and the chances of him becoming a legit stretch big crystallize.&nbsp;
He shot 77.4% from the line in college on more than twice his rookie sample (199 vs. 92). According to Cleaning The Glass, he converted 53 of his 104 mid-range attempts (51%) last year. Plus, that post-All-Star jump in three-point volume is meaningful and salient. Stewart only logged 20 three-pointers in 32 collegiate games, a total he matched across his final four games of 2020-21. Believe in the jumper &mdash; because he clearly does.
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The longball wasn&rsquo;t the lone example of his striking in-season development. As a screen-and-roll threat, he grew substantially. He never really found the proper cadence to match Delon Wright and Derrick Rose&rsquo;s tempos, but figured out how to succinctly transition from pick to dive by midseason, and offered his ball-handlers a reliable finishing option. The screening itself is still being refined, but he&rsquo;s also entirely willing to re-screen or flip the angle to suit initiators.&nbsp;
Once Stewart discovered the screen-and-roll dance, his improvements as a vertical athlete really announced themselves. Hayes consistently sought his play-finishing services, and Stewart exhibited a propensity for big-time slams. The difference between his explosiveness in college versus the NBA is startling. Rarely do players enjoy these evolutions.&nbsp;
Compare this:&nbsp;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Isaiah Stewart just has such little vertical explosion without significant load time. He should be able to finish this over the smaller defender: <a href="https://t.co/8EU4E44RCV">pic.twitter.com/8EU4E44RCV</a>
&mdash; Jackson Frank (@jackfrank_jjf) <a href="https://twitter.com/jackfrank_jjf/status/1251946706154827776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 19, 2020</a></blockquote>
... With these clips. The strides are jarring.
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Issues are present when there isn&rsquo;t much of a runway from which to build upon and jump. Despite the table being set for the majority of his interior finishes, he only shot 64% at the rim and ranked in the 35th percentile among big men (per Cleaning The Glass). He still struggles to propel himself off the ground amid traffic; that hamstrings his ability to extend over the top and invites shot-blockers to ply their trade against him.&nbsp;
To be clear, 64% around the rim is not inherently poor. That&rsquo;s 1.28 points per shot; you want those to be the result of an offensive possession. That is excellent efficiency. Between the leaping setbacks and seemingly poor hands that cause him to fumble some passes, there are just certain hurdles for a 6-foot-8 center who doesn&rsquo;t sport moon boots as sneakers.
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This is why the jumper feels so critical for Stewart&rsquo;s offensive ceiling. He is not a particularly dynamic roller and effectively passing on the move feels well into the distance developmentally. Emerging as a legitimate pick-and-pop who periodically dives into the paint rather than vice versa is the utopian outcome of his maturation.&nbsp;
Reaching a threshold where he&rsquo;s one of the league&rsquo;s better stretch centers is quite plausible, too. How the Pistons deploy him, Jerami Grant and Kelly Olynyk in ball-screen actions alongside their youthful initiators this season will help illuminate what they deem as his consummate path in that regard.
Stewart&rsquo;s motor captures the attention of basketball diehards. It explains aspects of his alluring skill set, such as his masterful offensive rebounding (10.8% rate, 79th percentile, per Cleaning The Glass) and some of his defensive intrigue. Track him long enough, though, and his motor becomes merely the pilot to draw in viewership.&nbsp;
His defense is much more than effort and suggests a highly impactful peak down the road. The baseline of a complementary offensive game has been established. He&rsquo;s a notably better athlete after one season in the NBA, making significant progress in flexibility and vertical pop.
The 2020 draft is not even a year removed from history, but it&rsquo;s clear that Isaiah Stewart does not just have a motor. He plays hard &mdash; and he&rsquo;s a darn good player while doing so.

Jackson Frank analyzes how Pistons big man Isaiah Stewart developed over his rookie season on both ends of the floor.

Isaiah Stewart provides plenty of intrigue beyond his motor

The 2021-22 NBA MVP race figures to be a dynamic one throughout the regular season. In Las Vegas, five players stand out from the rest with realistic odds to stay in discussions from October through April: Luka Doncic, Joel Embiid, Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Stephen Curry. These five categorize into the same group who hold odds under +1000. It&rsquo;s a tier signifying not only their projected individual accolades, but also team success in the upcoming year.
Diving deeper into the numbers, which of these five would be the smartest to wager on as we get closer to the regular-season opener in six weeks? Let&rsquo;s dive into it all below.
LUKA DONCIC: +380
Entering his fourth season, Doncic is head-and-shoulders above the entire pack in MVP odds. Nearly doubling whoever is behind him, there&rsquo;s plenty of buzz about an upcoming leap from Doncic in 2021-22. After averaging 27.7 points, 8.6 assists and 8.0 rebounds on a 58.7% True Shooting percentage, Doncic could be in line to increase those numbers across the board.
Dallas made no splashy moves, unless you consider re-signing Tim Hardaway Jr. and veteran wing Reggie Bullock on a three-year deal as such. Hardaway and Bullock will help Doncic make magic happen, and further the case of why he&rsquo;s such a triple-double threat on a nightly basis. Having adequate floor-spacers and versatile defenders around Doncic makes his job much easier. The Mavericks have those tools at their disposal, plus the obvious wildcard in Kristaps Porzingis. If Porzingis can improve under new head coach Jason Kidd to be a No. 2 option, the burden on Doncic lessens to where he won't wear out late in the season.
If Dallas flirts with a 50-win count, Doncic will stay at the top of MVP odds throughout the season. Doncic stocks for seasonal awards are going to the moon right now, and it shouldn&rsquo;t be a surprise if the Slovenian phenom averages a 30-point triple-double throughout the upcoming campaign. Just for reference, the only player in NBA history to average that historic threshold was Oscar Robertson in 1961-62.
JOEL EMBIID: +700
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How the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/ben-simmons-sixers-destined-for-a-rare-winwin-breakup" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ben Simmons situation</a> sorts itself out over the next few months will directly coincide with Embiid&rsquo;s MVP candidacy. At this point of his career, Embiid is one of the most dominant bigs in the game. Seemingly taking over games on both ends whenever he pleases, Embiid has mastered the art of modern-day bully ball.
What makes the +700 odds enticing is how Embiid operated without Simmons in the lineup last season. In the nine games Embiid played without Simmons, he averaged 31.6 points and 10.0 rebounds. When Simmons was alongside Embiid for the other 42 outings, Embiid&rsquo;s points average dipped to 27.8. Simmons clogs the painted area for Embiid, who has shown to thrive even with the lack of floor spacing from his young co-star. If Philadelphia trades Simmons for more three-point shooting, Embiid is destined to put up some monster MVP-esque numbers.
Similarly to Doncic, Embiid averaging 30-plus points shouldn&rsquo;t be ruled out. And for centers, it&rsquo;s a truly rare feat. The last big man to average at least 30 points over a full season was Moses Malone in 1981-82. Overall, here&rsquo;s the entire list of bigs to pull of this absurd statistic: Wilt Chamberlain, Walt Bellamy, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bob McAdoo and Malone. If Embiid puts his name on the list 40 years later while also piloting the Sixers to an impressive season, he&rsquo;s actually a really solid MVP bet at +700.
KEVIN DURANT: +700
The one factor working against Durant in the MVP discussion, who I think once again proved he&rsquo;s the best player in the NBA during the playoffs, is his age. Nowadays, players over age-30 to win the MVP is a rare occurrence. Since 1990, here&rsquo;s the shortlist for 30 or above MVP winners: Magic Johnson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone and Steve Nash. Durant is one of the best scorers in the modern era, and he&rsquo;s nowhere close to exiting his prime even after a potential career-altering torn Achilles suffered in the 2019 NBA Finals.
If Durant continues the positive momentum we saw during the Brooklyn Nets&rsquo; playoff run, where he almost singlehandedly defeated the future NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks without James Harden and Kyrie Irving, he&rsquo;s a prime candidate to buck the trend and bring home his second MVP award.
Brooklyn figures to be the best team in the league when it comes to overall season record. If the Nets dominate their competition en route to a 60-plus win campaign, the narrative is there for Durant to claim the top individual accolade in the Association.
GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: +800
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The resume already in place for Antetokounmpo entering his age-27 season is absolutely incredible: NBA champion, Finals MVP, two-time MVP, five-time All-Star, five-time All-NBA member, Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player &mdash; the list continues to get longer. Just now entering his prime, Giannis could eventually put together one of the most illustrious careers we&rsquo;ve ever seen in basketball. And with the Bucks reloading to chase back-to-back championships, everything is in place for Antetokounmpo to make a significant push for this year's MVP.
The Bucks and Nets will battle atop the Eastern Conference this season. Whoever ends up finishing as the No. 1 seed could directly correlate to who has the MVP edge between Durant and Antetokounmpo.
From an all-around standpoint, there might not be a better player in the league right now than Giannis. Stuffing the stat sheet with dominant fashion for an elite team will always keep him in the MVP discussion. Over the last three years, Giannis&rsquo; averages are why he&rsquo;s become one of the best players in the NBA today: 28.4 points, 12.4 rebounds, 5.8 assists, 1.8 steals, 1.2 blocks, 63.0 TS%.
It&rsquo;s a super risky idea to rule out the Greek Freak in season-long awards. There&rsquo;s a probable outcome where he continues his future Hall-of=Fame trajectory to even higher levels we&rsquo;ve never seen before.
STEPHEN CURRY: +800
Last season&rsquo;s leading scorer finally has a healthy team surrounding him. Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors figure to be a factor once again in the loaded Western Conference &mdash; thanks in large part to the long-awaited return of his Splash Brothers compadre Klay Thompson.
If the Warriors can take the leap back to elite status in the West in 2021-22, it will likely be due to Curry going supernova once again. Curry averaged 32.0 points, 5.8 assists, 5.5 rebounds and 1.2 steals on an incredible 65.5 TS% last season. It shows just how unique Curry is, and why he&rsquo;s changed the way the modern era operates. Curry helped change the game as it is today. In order to topple MVP favorites like Doncic, Embiid, Durant and Antetokounmpo, he will need to repeat that brilliance on an even higher level. It&rsquo;s a tall task to ask of Curry, but doubting his ability to pull it off as he ages is a foolish exercise.
A Golden State bounce-back campaign will keep Curry in the MVP chatter throughout the 2021-22 season.

How do the top-five MVP candidates for the 2021-22 season stack up? Evan Sidery analyzes which favorite is the best bet to wager on.

NBA MVP Odds: Analyzing the top-5 candidates in 2021-22

Once listed as the <a href="http://www.espn.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/playerrankings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">top recruit in the Class of 2022</a> in ESPN's Top 100, Emoni Bates announced last week that he would be reclassifying into the Class of 2021.
According to multiple reports, Bates has <a href="https://usatodayhss.com/2021/emoni-bates-reclassification-final-four?fbclid=IwAR1v9HawRlpAHvLriI_O1T_rpLZeTjU9Dc_AapZ47qCFR1aHCNffS0DTRAI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cut down his list</a> to the NBA G League Ignite, Memphis, Michigan State, and Oregon.
With plenty of options to choose from now in amateur-to-pro preparation, it is becoming a new trend for elite high school athletes to bypass the development that the high school level could provide for their games. And while the traditional college route has been gaining traction with top high school recruits due to the NIL decision by the Supreme Court, Bates has been open to going the professional route straight out of high school.
The Athletic&rsquo;s Brendan Quinn reported in March that Bates will in fact take his talents to the G League and seek the &ldquo;most lucrative deal the G League can muster&rdquo; prior to turning pro after the fact.&nbsp;
24/7 Sports writer Jerry Meyer wrote in <a href="https://247sports.com/Player/Emoni-Bates-46056542/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">his scouting report of Bates</a>: &ldquo;Extremely thin but has great length for such a skilled player. Plays with strength, though, and doesn&rsquo;t avoid contact... Quick twitch athlete who moves feet well and is quick off the floor. Elite three-level scorer. Has deep range off catch or dribble. Can score in a multitude of ways... Handles well, has plethora of moves and can attack either direction. Has a feel as a passer. Dangerous offensive rebounder. Good defensively when focused. Has defensive versatility. Elite, elite prospect."
Already signed to the G League Ignite is five-star recruit Jason Hardy, whom CBS Sports <a href="https:%20//www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2022-nba-mock-draft-paolo-banchero-to-thunder-chet-holmgren-to-magic-among-way-too-early-projections/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">predicts to go No. 4 in the 2022 NBA Draft</a>. The team also rosters five-star guard Scoota Henderson &mdash; another top-10 prospect &mdash; and five-star power forward Michael Foster.
With the addition of Bates, the G League Ignite could be well on their way to forming a "Fab Five" by landing the best prospects at each position, which could be the growing trend amongst top high school recruits in the near future.
It&rsquo;s important to note that, because Bates doesn&rsquo;t turn 19 until January 2023, he would not be eligible for the next year's draft. However, he won't be alone, as the Ignite signed Scoota Henderson for two years since he reclassified as well (and also won&rsquo;t be draft eligible until '23).
Now, here's a little bit about the G League Ignite: &nbsp;
In year one, the G League Ignite experiment proved to be a great success, as three players were selected during the 2021 NBA Draft. The Houston Rockets selected Jalen Green with the No. 2 overall pick, the Golden State Warriors selected Jonathan Kuminga with the No. 7 overall pick and the Milwaukee Bucks selected Isaiah Todd at No. 31 (he was later traded to the Washington Wizards).
That trio is now a trendsetter, as top high school recruits will likely feel much more comfortable following in those footsteps of pursuing this alternate path to the NBA and bypassing the traditional NCAA route.&nbsp;
However, this route isn&rsquo;t for everyone, but rather a small subset of the creme de la creme. Each of these three players was a five-star high school recruit in 2020 before joining the Ignite, so it&rsquo;s not for everyone. Still, it does provide a viable option for that special elite-of-the-elite group who choose not to opt for the traditional college route.
The NBA maintains its controversial age limit of draft-eligible athletes, requiring them to attend college for at least one year (one-and-done rule), so the need for an alternative is tremendous.&nbsp;
The mastermind behind the G League Ignite program is former NBA player Shareef Abdur-Rahim. He installed this experiment with the overall mission of providing &ldquo;NBA Draft readiness and growth of professional life skills.&rdquo;
The G League Ignite compensates players for their services (unlike the NCAA) and prepares them to be a professional athlete &mdash; both on and off the court &mdash; while playing with and against NBA veterans or other professional leagues. The program teaches the young men about what it takes to be a professional, and it includes courses on media training, financial literacy training and Zoom sessions with former NBA veterans to prepare them for what they are walking into.
For years, the National Basketball Players Association has attempted to do something similar in a crash course for a weekend for incoming NBA rookies, but what Abdur-Rahim has done is expand that training into a year-round program. So with financial backing of Commissioner Adam Silver and the NBA, we have had the birth of a true NBA developmental team.&nbsp;
To discuss this further, I had<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/podcasts/the-rematch/episodes/basketballnews-com-episode-30-g-league-ignite-head-coach-jason-hart-talks-evan-mobley,-ignites-draft-success" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> the opportunity to catch up with Jason Hart</a>, the newly-named head coach of the Ignite and my former teammate at Syracuse University.
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Etan Thomas: ​Coach Jason Hart, how are you doing, sir?
Jason Hart: ​Good man. Glad to be here. How you doing, man?
Etan: ​I'm good. My point guard for four years at Syracuse University and the new head coach of the G League Ignite, I want to say big congratulations to you.
Jason Hart: ​Thank you, man. Thank you. It's an honor to be here obviously with you, but also excited to get a chance to coach at the professional level.
Etan: ​So I know this is something you've been wanting to do for a long time and you have had this love for coaching for a long time. So just talk to me about how excited you are about this opportunity.
Jason Hart: ​Well, I'm super excited. I got into coaching obviously to give back and stay connected with the game. College was where I wanted to be. It has always been a dream of mine to be a college head coach. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. And when the opportunity presented itself in the G-League, I jumped on it and I'm happy to continue my coaching career, obviously at a higher level.
Etan: ​So let's get into the G League Ignite, a lot of people don't really understand the setup. They've been signing top prospects to play against G League veterans to prepare them for the NBA draft and the Ignite are based in California, and they're expected to play more of a traditional G League schedule this coming year. But talk to everybody about how it actually works.&nbsp;
Jason Hart: ​So the G League Ignite was created by Shareef Abdur-Rahim a very good friend of mine dating back from our days in Sacramento. Obviously, he's the president of the G League. And so this team was formed to keep our high school basketball stars from taking their talents overseas when RJ Hampton and LaMelo Ball went to Australia to play. It was an idea that was created for high school players who are good enough and who we think are good enough to have a chance to go to the next level, stay and develop in somewhat of a farm system, hone their talents against not only G Leaguers, but draft-pick kids who are playing for the Lakers or the Clippers and take the time to develop those guys, and then they go and get drafted in June.
​It was also formed to help these young men become pros off the court as well. It's a transition from high school, from them eating candy before the games to now understand how to take care of their bodies and get their minds mentally prepared to play against professionals. So it's more of a hands-on approach with 18-year-olds who have a high skill set, high level of talent and putting them in a position to succeed, and then surrounding them with veterans who are going to show them the ropes of the NBA lifestyle, of the NBA, and being able to push them in moments in the games to get them uncomfortable outside of their box. Also academically you have a scholarship for when you want to go back to school, there&rsquo;s a pilot program through a few universities particularly Arizona State. And they can go to school and get their degree if they want to choose that route as well, but they have an academic piece too. And then also they get paid a handsome amount of money for basically a season. But it's not for everybody. It's not for kids who need more time to develop in college, but it's for special-types-of-talent kids. Jalen Green, Jonathan Kuminga, those two are two of the players that played in the league.
Etan: ​One person that comes to mind is Winfred Walton. I think he would have been fantastic for a program like this. People don&rsquo;t understand how good he was, people forget. Let's talk about him for a minute, because when we got to Syracuse, it was right after John Wallace and Cuse In The House and they had just played in the championship game. So, you had John Wallace, you had Otis Hill, you had, Jason Cipolla, they were all on the court. So we come in there young, you know, fresh out of high school. And Fred went in there and was like, let's play us against y'all. You remember And pointed to us the other freshman. John Wallace said y'all not ready for that yet, and Fred was like whatever we're ready. Let's go. So it was me, you, Rock, Ramel Lloyd, Leshaun Howard and Fred.
​We had like our own Fab Five, to be honest with you. It&rsquo;s just that Fred didn't work out and had to leave and Rock transferred. But we had a crew. Talk about that when we scrimmaged them because they had just come back from playing in the national championship game, right, against Kentucky. And Fred was going to work.
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Jason Hart: ​Fred, like you said, he was a next-level of talent. Obviously, he had a chance to go out of high school and get drafted, but the G League Ignite program would have helped him because it would have allowed him to obviously be paid, but he was an elite talent. His body was already developed. He would've been able to do that. And we would have had him in a structured environment where we can watch his every move, mental aspect of the game and see that his dreams come true. But definitely, he was elite. He would have benefited from this program, but also he could have gone straight out of high school. He was that good. And his confidence was crazy. I think his game was more mature obviously than ours. He was special. I remember the school gave him No. 44. And they crossed out 44. So nobody could touch it. So that tells you how special he was coming in.&nbsp;
Etan: ​So I want to talk about that game though, because that game, he was going to work on John Wallace.&nbsp;
Jason Hart​: Well, Fred was bigger than J Dub. John was maybe 6-8, 6-9, for sure. Fred was 6-10 and a half, 235 [pounds] at 18 years old. So I remember the game and John Wallace was coming off a high, maybe one of the better players in the entire country for college. And so I remember man, we played them and Fred kind of gassed that game up. And we was like, okay, well we gotta play them. But you know what? That mindset right there, they don't do that anymore. In the college game they don't play pickup anymore versus the older guys and our guys, our generation now is suffering from let's just do skill work all the time. And so how we pulled ourselves up, we used to play pick up all the time. That doesn't happen anymore. Especially at the college game. It's more we set up appointment times to where we can do all skill work. And amongst the players, they don't like to do pickup anymore.
Etan: ​That's crazy, but going back to the G League Ignite, they had two players in the draft taken with Jalen Green going to Houston and Jonathan Kuminga going to Golden State, and both still have tremendous upsides. So with them having this success that they had going the route of going to the G League Ignite team as an alternative to going the college route or going overseas and hearing the announcers gush over them, the way that they did. Do you think that this is now going to really open the flood gates for high school players to really do the same, the top, top high school players?
Jason Hart: ​I think it just gives them another option. Obviously, they have the G League experience. You have the Overtime [Elite], it's another high school league that they formed. And they're getting paid out of that as well. I just think that with those two guys, obviously being that it was the inaugural season and they were able to get drafted so high. I think it gives the top-level players, an opportunity to come showcase their talent versus pros and being able to be coached and putting their environment to where it's going to help them succeed on and off the court. College is not for everybody. Like we just said, if Winfred didn't have to go to college, he probably would have been in the pros and had a 10-year career. So I think given our kids, the culture, the basketball coaching options to help them be successful. And that's what it's designed to do. And hopefully, it attracts more talent and it keeps this thing going.
Etan: ​I don't think attracting the talent is going to be a problem you know, to be honest with you,
Jason Hart: ​It's getting the right ones and then giving the kids just options. And so when you have options in life and you make the right decision, it obviously leads to a bright future.
Etan: ​That's definitely true. So, you said that you hope that they give you know, keep attracting talent. I don't know the rules, you know what I mean? So I don't want to, if you're not supposed to mention anything or how they do tampering, I don't even know how the rules are. So if you're looking at, you know watching high school now, who are some guys that you think could make that jump you know, to go to the G League route? Not saying that you're recruiting them to come to you or anything. I just want to make that clear for all that you know, NBA compliance people, whatever, not asking that. And that's not what coach Hart is saying. Just who are some people who could make that jump now that you see?
Jason Hart: ​Well, I'm not sure how the rules are set up, but we are actively recruiting the players that go to the power five schools, the elite schools. And so I don't know if we can say the names because they're not signed to us. It's just like a kid getting recruited to UCLA or Duke. We can't promote a player that's not signed to us. But when we are recruiting, we are sitting next to the Kentuckys and the Kansases. And it's not more of a being a threat, but obviously it's just options. And so your favorite top high school players, international players, 18, 19-year-old, same thing. It's a wide margin of players, of areas we try to cover. And obviously, we are looking for the top youth talent in high school and overseas.
Etan: ​So you are able to go to the top. So say like, we just had the EYBL Peace Jam Fest. You're able to go there and just right next to the coaches?
Jason Hart: ​I'm at the NBA Top 100 camp right now.
Etan: ​In Orlando.
Jason Hart: ​Yeah. And Rod Strickland &amp; Shareef Abdur-Rahim were at Peach Jam.
Etan: ​Got you. So it's the same you're at the same places.
Jason Hart: Yes, same places. I don't want schools to be like, man, they [are] trying to steal our players. That's not the goal. That's not, the intent is to give options for those who don't want to attend college and have the ability and confidence about themselves that they're ready to be professionals at an early age.
Etan: ​I definitely agree. So now as far as players going into the G League, and this is the part where I'm going to be really interested in to see how that develops &mdash; because I think that the NIL change will help some players in making the decision who are in a tough financial home situation and want to go pro for that reason. Well, now it will say, okay, well now I can make some money and take care of my family and stuff like that while I'm in school. I think that will help keep some guys in college a little bit longer. But more so about the G League and I don't want to, you know, I touched on the point earlier, but I want to keep on it because with these two high draft picks, in my opinion, I think it has to be the thought of every top high school player out there that if they did it and they hear the announcers gushing over them, the way that they did, they went number two and number seven.
So now they're like, okay, I could definitely do that. And I think it's going to open it up even more so where y'all might have to even be turning guys away, like, okay, we can't take any more high school guys. Or we're going to even open up another team up to the same thing. I think that many high school guys are going to grow up to be going this route. Do you agree with that?
Jason Hart: ​I totally agree. And during the draft, the G League Ignite team got a lot of positive remarks. And like I said, it's an option for players who have the ability and are ready. It&rsquo;s not for everybody, I can&rsquo;t say that enough. But I think those two guys obviously being the trend-setters and Isaiah Todd was another player that was drafted. Trend-setters in terms of the new age where we living in. I mean, this is something that was unprecedented being at this team was formed last year. And to have two lottery picks with the first seven picks and then another one at No. 31, it's definitely going to open the flood gates, but it also has to be a right fit. And it has to be something that you're willing to sacrifice and learn and be willing to accept coaching. But, you know, Hey, come join the G League, if that's your goal. And I'm saying it on your show. It's a win-win for all and hopefully, we can keep this thing going and make this team a destination for the elite talent.

Etan Thomas writes about Emoni Bates' reclassification and the route he may take, and also speaks with G League Ignite head coach Jason Hart.

Is the G League Ignite the best option for Emoni Bates?

One week from now, we will know who is playing in the NBA Finals. It appears it will be the Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns, but we should have learned by now to never count out the resilience of the Los Angeles Clippers.&nbsp;
And the Atlanta Hawks? Just ask anyone from Philadelphia or New York whether that team should be underestimated.
This is somewhat uncharted territory for Adam Silver and the NBA, who have grown accustomed (along with all of us) to having all eyes glued to LeBron James or Steph Curry at this point of the season.
Also, our NBA body clocks are saying &ldquo;draft, draft, draft.&rdquo; But due to the pandemic, we've all had to readjust to this slightly different schedule. So the end of the Finals are still quite a ways down the road, the draft and free agency are going to happen at the end of the July and beginning of August, respectively. The Olympics are looking like a walkover for a <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/jerami-grant-to-join-team-usa-james-harden-to-withdraw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">loaded Team USA</a>... but we have seen that movie before, and the ending is not always a certainty. FIBA competition usually takes care of that.
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No matter which two teams make the Finals, though, it will be the first time in a long time (or ever) that the Bucks, Clippers, Suns and/or Hawks got that far.
So let&rsquo;s refresh everyone&rsquo;s memory. Or, let&rsquo;s fill in the younger generation on what folks in the four finalists' cities have endured over the years.
PHOENIX SUNS
The Suns are one victory away from making the championship round for the first time since 1993, back when Charles Barkley was playing against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. It was the summer before Jordan decided he wanted to change professions and become a Major League baseball player.&nbsp;
The Bulls won Game 1 and Game 2 in that 1993 series, and battled in a classic Game 3 that went three overtimes before the Suns won and chopped the series lead down to 2-1. Chicago won Game 4 at home, but the Suns took Game 5 in Chicago (the format was 2-3-2 at the time) and the series returned to Phoenix for Game 6 on June 20. The Bulls were going for a three-peat under Phil Jackson with a roster that included Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Bill Cartwright, Horace Grant and John Paxson. Barkley was flanked by Dan Majerle, Tom Chambers, Kevin Johnson, Cedric Ceballos and Danny Ainge.
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Barkley and Jordan were friendly, but the edge in competitive streak was in favor of Jordan. Back then, fraternization on off days was common, and Barkley and Jordan were fewer than two years removed from being teammates on the original Dream Team. The way the story has been told, Jordan took Barkley out to Majerle&rsquo;s bar on the night of June 19 after everyone traveled, and the drinks flowed freely... except the drink of choice for Jordan was water.
Then, on the night of June 20, the Bulls were ahead by eight entering the fourth quarter, but then went cold. In the first 6:09 of the fourth, the Bulls didn&rsquo;t score. They committed three shot-clock violations in that span, and Phoenix was ahead 98-96 with 14 seconds left. But the Bulls had the ball, and Grant found John Paxson open at the three-point line for a shot that Paxson drilled. Prior to that, all nine of the Bulls&rsquo; fourth-quarter points had been scored by Jordan. Phoenix had the final possession, but Barkley rolled to the basket off the inbounds play and Phoenix did not get the ball to him. Instead, Kevin Johnson attempted a runner from the lane just before the final buzzer, and Grant blocked it. Game over. Bulls 99, Suns 98. And Phoenix has not hosted an NBA Finals game since.
MILWAUKEE BUCKS 
The Bucks are up 2-1 on the Hawks now after Khris Middleton was Mr. Everything last night in Atlanta except for being Mr. Airball, an award that will be retired in honor of Giannis Antetokounmpo for what he has been doing from the free-throw line the past few seasons, but especially this postseason. These teams will be back at it Tuesday night, and hopefully the referees will be briefed, too, on allowing a player shooting a three-point shot to have enough space to land without turning an ankle because an official was too close. Are there enough ace bandages in "The A" to wrap Trae Young tightly enough to give the Hawks a chance to even this series? Or is Milwaukee advancing to the Finals as a fait accompli currently maneuvering speed bumps?
Whatever the case, the Bucks are favored for good reason, and if they make it to the Finals, it&rsquo;ll be the first time it's happened for that franchise since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar&rsquo;s sky hook was a lethal weapon. That was back in 1974, before Kareem decided he did not like living in Milwaukee following a 4-3 loss to the Celtics in the Finals and forced a trade to the Los Angeles Lakers, a maneuver for which he was never forgiven in the city where Mike Budenholzer now calls the shots. The Bucks last won a title in 1971, and have not been back since despite being led at different times by Ray Allen, Glenn Robinson and Giannis, Middleton and Malcolm Brogdon, among others.
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They dropped four straight in the Conference Finals three years ago against the Toronto Raptors, and they went out in seven games in 2001 against Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers. All of the sports glory in the state of Wisconsin since then has belonged to Aaron Rodgers and Frank Kaminsky, and all those years of losing have been drowned out by beer, cheese, frozen custard, bratwurst and beer. The last time the Bucks won, the team was a member of the Western Conference and the Brewers were still adapting to the American League following the franchise&rsquo;s move from Seattle, where they were known as the Pilots. Al McGuire and Marquette provided a couple years of glory, but aside from the accomplishments of the Packers, there has not been much to celebrate.
But losing is never permanent unless your favorite team is the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Bucks are halfway to breaking through the organization's three-and-a-half decades of frustration. So stay tuned.
LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS 
Ahead of a win or go home scenario in Monday's Game 5, Kawhi Leonard is once again unable able to play, and could be more seriously hurt than the franchise has let on. There are reports out there that he needs knee surgery and is upset with the Clippers' medical staff; one would think the league office would order the Clippers to provide some clarity on this matter, since Leonard is a pretty good basketball player whose health is a determining factor in whether Steve Ballmer&rsquo;s team has a snowball&rsquo;s chance in hell of being championship material.
The Clippers have never been to the Finals, before or since relocating to California from Buffalo, spending 1978-1984 in San Diego. They blew 3-1 leads in the conference semifinals in 2020 (to Denver) and 2015 (to Houston), and went out in six games against Oklahoma City in 2014. There is only so much that Paul George can do without his fellow superstar teammate, and if Leonard is truly done and legitimately unhappy in L.A., the offseason unrestricted-free-agency market just got a heck of a lot more interesting.
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Before they were the Clippers, they were the Buffalo Braves and joined the NBA as an expansion franchise in 1970 along with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Portland Trail Blazers. Their Hall-of-Famers included Bob McAdoo and Ernie DeGregorio, and in one of the most interesting pieces of NBA cameo trivia, they had Moses Malone for a grand total of two games before trading him to Houston for a pair of first-round picks.
In 1975, the franchise made it to the conference semifinals, but were defeated by the Washington Bullets. Since then, the Clippers have a franchise history that everyone in the NBA outside of Minnesota can laugh at. Except Clippers fans, of course. And those poor folks deserve either our pity or our sympathy. But to Clippers fans and Timberwolves fans, we can only say: &ldquo;The Cubs eventually won, okay?&rdquo; Perhaps that will help.&nbsp;
ATLANTA HAWKS 
Dominique Wilkins was a heck of a hooper and had one of the greatest nicknames in the history of professional sports: &ldquo;The Human Highlight Film.&rdquo; But he never appeared in a single NBA Finals game, and his only championship came with Panathinaikos in 1996 when the &ldquo;Greens&rdquo; won the Euroleague championship.
The Hawks franchise has not won a title since 1958 when they were based in St. Louis, and they reached the Finals in 1960 and 1961 only to lose to the Boston Celtics. The closest they came since then was 2015, when they reached the Conference Finals but were swept by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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The Hawks are closer now than they have ever been, but when your entire team gets outscored by a single player in a single quarter (Khris Middleton had 20 points to the Hawks&rsquo; 17 in the fourth last night), you really have to dig deep for resiliency &ndash; although we would not put anything past Trae Young at this point. At the very least, the Hawks have two games remaining. In the first round, they bounced back from a Game 2 loss in New York and won the next three. Atlanta was down 2-1 against the Sixers last round and gutted out that series in seven games, winning three times on the road. The team has a terrific mix of young and old, and Nate McMillan has worked wonders with these guys.
A victory in Game 4 would turn this into a best-of-3, and we already know that hostile arenas do not faze them. Middleton had the hot hand in Game 3, and who is to say that Bogdan Bogdanovic or Kevin Huerter or Danilo Gallinari cannot be that type of player for Atlanta sometime in the coming week? Count the Hawks out at your own peril. Knicks fans and Sixers fans will tell you not to take them lightly.
We've got a big week ahead of us. Let&rsquo;s hope it brings more good stories than bad.
But the only thing we know for sure is that one of these four franchises will eventually end a very long drought.&nbsp;

Chris Sheridan refreshes everyone's memory and fills in the younger crowd on what folks in the four final teams' cities have endured over the years.

Sheridan: A history lesson is in order as the NBA Finals draw near

Hi, hello, and welcome to yet another edition of Roaming The Baseline! This will be a weekly endeavor where I point out some things that caught my eye: a hot or cold streak from a player, a developmental flash, a well-run play, a funny tweet, who knows? There will be film -- it&rsquo;s me, so of course there will be film -- but this will also be a bit looser. It&rsquo;s an extension of my Twitter feed, if you will.&nbsp;
With that said, let&rsquo;s roam the baseline.
DEMAR DEROZAN IS LEADING THE CHARGE
The Spurs kicked off April with a five-game losing streak. A post-All-Star break slide was somewhat expected due to the strength of their schedule. A 26-point loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, however, wasn't part of the plan.
So there they were, reeling in the middle of a tightly contested play-in battle. And here they are now, winners of seven of their last 10 games. They're closer to the sixth seed (2.5 games back) than they are to 11th (4.5 games ahead).
If you're doling out praise, it has to begin with DeMar DeRozan. He's been playing All-Star-caliber basketball all season long, providing his usual brand of mid-post purity and rim attacking. He's especially perked up during this 7-3 stretch for the Spurs, averaging an efficient 25 and 8.
He marches to the beat of his own drum, offering up-fakes and pivots whenever the song needs a little juice.
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The combination of touch and footwork are only rivaled by a handful of players in the league. He has all the tricks of the foul-drawing trade. And because he's such a threat inside the arc, defenses have to shift to cut off his space.&nbsp;
What do you do when your counters are countered? Well, you counter those countered counters.&nbsp;
For DeRozan, that means making a leap as a playmaker for the third or fourth year in a row. He may not cause perimeter jump-outs as often as the Steph Curry/Damian Lillard/Trae Young division, but he's able to leverage his driving prowess to create similar passing windows.
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The glass ceiling on a primary that doesn't threaten from deep has been talked about ad nauseam. I've been guilty of it. We get it.
Let's just get back to basics with DeRozan: this dude is really freaking good at basketball.
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DARIUS GARLAND, PULLING UP
Young man's got some sauce to him.
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This feels straight out of Madden '07 to me. Instead of putting Ryan Arcidiacono on his hip, Garland slithers under him like he flicked "up" on the Highlight Stick. <a href="https://youtu.be/JYotsNmfM3g?t=22" target="_blank" rel="noopener">You know the animation</a>. With Arcidiacono's momentum carrying him forward, Garland decelerates while retreating with a behind-the-back dribble, then flows immediately into a triple.
This. Is. The. Way.
Since the All-Star break, Garland is averaging a shade under 20 points while posting a 57.8 True Shooting percentage. The aggression has been the big key for him. He's taken 126 threes in 23 games since the All-Star break; he took 125 in the first 28 games of the season. A 43% clip on 5.5 attempts is dope for a 23-game sample. The funny part is that he's still&nbsp;leaving some food on his plate.
With Garland more willing to fire, defenders are creeping up a tad bit more. That's allowing him to get into the paint more often. Those paint touches are allowing his passing chops to shine through more clearly.
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This campaign has been a bit of a mess for the Cavs because of their injuries (and the occasional <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-news-something-has-got-to-give-with-kevin-love-cleveland-cavaliers-koby-altman-discipline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kevin Love lash-out</a>), but Garland figuring out that he can get to his shot just about whenever he wants may be the biggest development of their season.&nbsp;
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THE OTHER SIXTH MAN OF THE YEAR CANDIDATE
Joe Ingles is not having a very fun stretch. Over his last three games, he's shooting 32.4% from the field (1-of-5 from two, 10-of-29 from three). He's taken four free throws in that stretch, making half of them.
Meh.&nbsp;
With that cold patch, Ingles now has a True Shooting percentage of... wait, hold on... am I reading this correctly?
Ingles IS STILL POSTING A 70.0 TRUE SHOOTING PERCENTAGE. That's No. 1 among all players, and there's a significant gap between Ingles and runner-up Jarrett Allen (68.4).
Jordan Clarkson has felt like the frontrunner for the Bench Scorer of the Year Sixth Man of the Year award all season. I'd simply like to pose this question to you: why?
Clarkson has been a tremendous spark off the bench, though he's started to slide a bit with his jumper. Ingles has been lighting it up from beyond the arc all season, while also adding value as a passer and multi-positional defender. He can fill gaps -- on both ends of the floor -- in a way that Clarkson flat-out can't.&nbsp;
12-4-4, a 70 TS%, and solid defense across two-and-a-half/three positions on the best team in the league. What's not to like? What is the case against Ingles aside from points?
It is 2021, man. I think we should be a little past sorting the points-per-game section for bench players and handing out the award that way.&nbsp;
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THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO "HMMMM"
<ul>
<li>Let's continue to keep an eye on Luka Doncic in one-on-one situations. We know he loves the stepback, and how hot-and-cold it has run throughout his career. He's leaning more into his post game, a fun counter when he's matched up against like-sized or smaller defenders. He's generating 1.13 points per possession on post-ups (passes included) this season, the seventh-best mark among 49 players with at least 75 post-up possessions.</li>
<li>Ja Morant is shooting 41.4% from three-point range on moderate volume in April. He ain't that, but as my podcast co-host <a href="https://twitter.com/stevejones20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Steve Jones Jr.</a> pointed out on this week's episode of "<a href="https://twitter.com/NekiasNBA/status/1386679481709080576?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Dunker Spot</a>," he does look a lot more comfortable navigating against "under" coverage. Give any player with that level of IQ the same look over and over, and he's bound to beat it.</li>
<li>Guess who leads the Raptors in fourth-quarter scoring over the past two weeks? If you guessed any of the usual suspects -- Pascal Siakam (5.4), OG Anunoby (3.6), Fred VanVleet (2.0), or Kyle Lowry (1.3) -- you'd be wrong. The rookster Malachi Flynn is not only leading them in scoring (5.8), but he's doing so efficiently (47/46/92 shooting split). Another "got some sauce to him" guy to keep an eye on moving forward.</li>
<li>Kendrick Nunn (and just about every other guard) missed Monday night's loss to the Chicago Bulls, but the Heat have been getting the goods from Nunn as of late. He's averaging 16-4-3 while shooting 42% from deep since Victor Oladipo has been out. There's a real argument to be made that he's been Miami's best guard this season; you can quibble about what that means for Miami, but it's a timely development for Nunn as he enters an offseason where he <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/several-teams-tried-trading-for-kendrick-nunn-prior-to-deadline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">may be pretty coveted</a>.</li>
<li>The Warriors are 2-2 and have been outscored with Stephen Curry on the court since <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/steph-curry-on-if-hes-the-mvp-i-gotta-be" target="_blank" rel="noopener">he said he should be the MVP.</a> He's still played pretty well (28.5 points with a 46/39/87 split), but the timing of the dip is pretty funny.</li>
</ul>
PLAYS I LIKED
Hit 'Em With the Flex
It's always a good time when teams flow out of Elbow Series. Toss the rock to your high-post hub and let him play quarterback. It's a LeBron staple, a Jokic staple -- really any frontcourt player who can hit a cutter. This was a fun one from Toronto.
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Just tremendous work on the flex action from OG Anunoby and Fred VanVleet. Anunoby sets up RJ Barrett with a filthy juke; VanVleet lays the lumber and&nbsp;hooooolds it,&nbsp;freeing Anunoby for the flush.&nbsp;
Going Wide in Brooklyn
An effective way for teams to get busy in (early) transition is to have a big set a high, off-ball screen around the middle of the floor. It's tough enough for defenses to match up in transition; doing so while trying to navigate a screen and a player flying downhill off the catch can be darn-near impossible at times.
I always think of the Milwaukee (Khris Middleton, specifically) when I see these early screens, but this was a good rep from the Nets.&nbsp;
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The Suns are in drop coverage due to Frank Kaminsky being their 5. They don't want to switch him, so he's hanging back while eyeing Blake Griffin. Griffin sets the screen for Kevin freakin' Durant; it's fair to say the Suns have no intention of switching Kaminsky onto him.
That leaves four eyes on Durant and a whole lot of space for Griffin to pop into. Easy money (sniper).
Early Chaos
Nothing says "we're young" like doing just about everything at 150 MPH. They turn a simple HORNS Flare look into a scramble drill.
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There is&nbsp;a lot&nbsp;going on here. Darius Bazley (#7) essentially ghosts the initial screen as Theo Maledon pivots to his right. The Celtics switch that ghost screen, but still find themselves trailing the action due to how quickly the Thunder are moving.&nbsp;
We get a quick pitch from Maledon to Aleksej Pokusevski, all while Moses Brown is "chasing" the ball to flow into a quick-hitting pick-and-roll. The Celtics can't switch&nbsp;that&nbsp;one -- Semi Ojeleye gets bumped by Brown -- and that allows Poku to waltz into a pull-up.
THE READING LIST
There is plenty of high-level basketball content out here if you know where to look. I wouldn&rsquo;t be where I am as a writer without reading a ton of Zach Lowe or Chris Herring or Caitlin Cooper or Mirin Fader or, well, you get the point.&nbsp;
Anyway, here are some -- not all, but some! -- of the stories I&rsquo;ve read this week that I think you should check out. Their Twitter handles will be linked under their names, so click and follow if you don&rsquo;t already.
<a href="https://twitter.com/AlexmRegla" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alex Regla</a> on Talen Horton-Tucker's <a href="https://twitter.com/AlexmRegla/status/1385250226638770178" target="_blank" rel="noopener">downhill dynamism</a>.
<a href="https://twitter.com/FredKatz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fred Katz</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/davidaldridgedc">David Aldridge</a> tag-teamed on a <a href="https://twitter.com/FredKatz/status/1386687635364753412?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Robin Lopez breakdown</a>.
<a href="https://twitter.com/seeratsohi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Seerat Sohi</a> waxes poetic on how <a href="https://twitter.com/seeratsohi/status/1385321563159810054?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Steph Curry's magical run makes us feel</a>.
<a href="https://twitter.com/RobMahoney">Rob Mahoney</a> on why the Milwaukee Bucks <a href="https://twitter.com/RobMahoney/status/1385234420555124736?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shouldn't be slept on</a>.
<a href="https://twitter.com/MirinFader" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mirin Fader</a> with <a href="https://twitter.com/MirinFader/status/1385237454894952450?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a tremendous feature</a> on Rockets rookie Jae'Sean Tate.

In Nekias Duncan's weekly notebook, he shares things that have caught his eye. He breaks down players, teams, plays, stats, etc.

Roaming the Baseline: DeMar DeRozan, Darius Garland, Joe Ingles, more

On "NBA Top Shot Weekly," Rudy Gobert discussed Utah's title hopes, the Jazz's chemistry, the future of NBA Top Shot and much more.

Rudy Gobert Q&A: Jazz's title hopes, NBA Top Shot, more

The NBA G League's players' union has begun shaping its Interim Executive Committee, and longtime South Bay Laker Andre Ingram will serve as union president. Fellow Laker David Stockton will serve as Vice President, and G League Ignite's Isaiah Todd is the Secretary-Treasurer.
Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1318281149182021632" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shams Charania via Twitter</a>
ANALYSIS: The most prominent name here is Todd, who is one of the pilot players for the G League's professsional pathway team. Todd enters the pro ranks as a five-star high school player and will be a central piece of upstart Ignite, joining top prospects including Jalen Green, Jonathan Kuminga and Daishen Nix on the squad.

Andre Ingram, Isaiah Todd and David Stockton will serve in leadership roles for the Interim Executive Committee.

Portland Pilots