Pumas

The Sixers have already fielded offers for Ben Simmons but continue to hold a stance that they will only trade him for an All-Star caliber player. They most recently turned down a deal with the Pacers that included Malcolm Brogdon and a 1st round pick.
Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/JDumasReports/status/1410976218740973568" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jason Dumas via Twitter</a>
ANALYSIS:&nbsp;Simmons has been among the hottest names in the rumor mill since underwhelming in Philadelphia's second round loss to the Atlanta Hawks. Still only 24, Simmons averaged 14.3 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6.9 assists per game in the regular season. Brogdon had a great year himself in Indiana, averaging 21.2 points, 5.9 assists and 5.3 rebounds per contest.

The Sixers will reportedly only trade Simmons for an "All-Star caliber" player.

Sixers turned down Malcolm Brogdon, first-round pick offer for Ben Simmons

In advance of the 2020 NBA draft, top prospect LaMelo Ball has signed a multiyear shoe deal with Puma, immediately becoming a key face of the brand at just 19 years old.
"I am really excited to be joining the Puma family," Ball said. "I believe the brand is the perfect partner for me because Puma will allow me to just be myself. I want to be 100 percent authentic, whether that's playing basketball or showing off my personal style, and that's what I want to do with Puma."
Source: <a style="color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/30114551/potential-nba-top-draft-pick-lamelo-ball-signs-puma" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nick DePaula of ESPN</a>
ANALYSIS: LaMelo Ball is figured to be a top three pick in the 2020 NBA draft. Aside from a few standout players, this year's draft class is not very deep in talent and that is why the Timberwolves have been rumored to be <a style="color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-rumors-minnesota-timberwolves-trade-first-overall-pick">shopping their first overall pick</a>. Nonetheless, LaMelo Ball has a very high ceiling and his exciting play will draw in plenty of fans for a franchise.
After the fallout of family owned Big Baller Brand, LaMelo Ball will join Puma for his on and off the court apparel. Puma has made some noteworthy signings recently in the NBA as they try to reinvent their presence in basketball.

Potential top pick LaMelo Ball has signed a shoe deal with Puma ahead of the 2020 draft.

LaMelo Ball strikes shoe deal with Puma

The article was initially published on BasketballNews on April 6, 2022.
Anyone else love going back and looking at old box scores and falling down afternoon-long rabbit holes, or am I the weirdo?
You might&rsquo;ve read the headline and either recalled this event actually happening, or are befuddled at how such a thing could take place, even in that NBA.
This article, published on April 6, 2022, marks 25 years since the Del Harris-led Los Angeles Lakers held Jim Cleamons and his Dallas Mavericks to 2 points in the third quarter of a regular-season game.
The contest was held at the LA Forum, where a 50-24 Laker team met a 22-53 Mavs squad with two weeks remaining before the playoffs started. Staples wasn&rsquo;t that big yet, and Crypto didn&rsquo;t exist. (Some might say it still doesn&rsquo;t, but you can fight about that amongst yourselves.)
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A large-ass, Biggie verse-having, All-Star center named Shaquille O&rsquo;Neal had been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/14/sports/injury-to-o-neal-is-a-blow-to-lakers.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">out with a knee injury</a> suffered that February, which he returned from five days later. Something tells me, if you made it here, you&rsquo;ve heard of him. Also on the Lakers, quite famously, was a talented rookie named Kobe Bryant, who had been playing regular rotation minutes at 18 years old, but wasn&rsquo;t yet Kobe.
The Mavericks had traded a controversial-but-talented point guard in Jason Kidd earlier in the season &mdash; along with Tony Dumas and Loren Meyer &mdash; to the Phoenix Suns for a package highlighted by Michael Finley, Sam Cassell and A.C. Green. They also dealt Jamal Mashburn to the Miami Heat several weeks later for Kurt Thomas, Sasa Danilović and Martin M&uuml;&uuml;rsepp.
And right before the deadline, Dallas rerouted Cassell as part of a five-man package including Jim Jackson, George McCloud (who wound up on the Lakers retroactively), Eric Montross and Chris Gatling for Shawn Bradley, Khalid Reeves, Robert Pack and Ed O&rsquo;Bannon &mdash; famously the Most Outstanding Player of the 1995 Final Four, and <a href="https://www.primerus.com/business-law-articles/ed-obannon-shines-a-light-upon-student-athletes-right-of-publicity-624201.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">killer of EA's NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball video game franchises</a>. This move not only cemented Dallas&rsquo; rebuild, but it officially made way for a <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/mavericks/2018/06/06/flashback-jamal-mashburn-on-what-really-happened-between-jason-kidd-jim-jackson-and-toni-braxton/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Toni Braxton-less future in Texas</a>.
The Mavericks, <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DAL/1997_games.html">who came in as losers of 10 straight heading into this game</a> &mdash; a lengthy skid that never saw the team score more than 92 points &mdash; went into Hollywood and started Pack, Finley, Green, Bradley and Derek Harper. Without Shaq, the Lakers began with Derek Fisher, Eddie Jones, Jerome Kersey, Corie Blount and Sean Rooks, who played a game-high 43 minutes (33 over his season average).
<a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/199704060LAL.html">The Mavericks led 30-17 after the first quarter and 51-37 at halftime</a>. The teams combined to attempt 12 threes in the first half, which most teams would typically combine to do in a quarter today. The Mavericks shot 21 of 44 from the field and outrebounded the Lakers 24-16 while holding L.A. to 12 of 32 shooting.
Bryant and Robert Horry went a combined 2 of 9 off the bench, and Rooks had logged 10 points and 7 boards to that point. Harper and Finley combined for 25 points on 9 of 15 shooting, while Bradley had 9 points and 9 rebounds.
Okay, now let's get to why you&rsquo;re here.
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Not only did the Mavericks score 2 points in the entire third quarter, but the points came from a pair of Harper free throws with 1:51 left in the quarter. So it took over 10 minutes to even get on the board in this period.
Anyway, the Mavericks shot 0 of 15 from the field for the quarter and missed all 4 of their three-balls. They also had 9 turnovers and only made one substitution over the entire 12 minutes, removing Pack for Sa&scaron;a Danilović about halfway through the third. That meant Green, Harper, Finley and Bradley were each a minus-25 for the quarter, and Pack was a minus-20.
For good measure, the Mavericks third quarter could be summed up like this:
<ul>
<li>Points: 2</li>
<li>Fouls: 3</li>
</ul>
The Lakers outscored the Mavericks 27-2 and still just led 64-53 after three. L.A. shot 10 of 17 in the quarter, made 5 of 7 triples, only needed to pull down 8 rebounds and turned the ball over just twice.
The Mavs outdid their horrific third quarter only 48 seconds into the fourth with two layups. They even cut their deficit to as close as 7 points in garbage time before the Lakers pulled away with a 87-80 win.
Fisher scored 21 points &mdash; not even close to a career-high for him &mdash; but to that point, his highest point tally had been just 14. In fact, the 21 points would remain a career-best mark for Fisher until he netted 26 points on March 13, 2001 in a win over the Boston Celtics four years later.
Sean &ldquo;2019 Bam Adebayo&rdquo; Rooks ended the night with 15 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 blocks. Bryant logged about 22 minutes off the bench, netting 13 points on 3 of 9 shooting, also finishing with 3 steals and going a perfect 5 of 5 at the free-throw line.
Harper led the Mavs with 18 points on 6 of 15 shooting. Finley only put up 9 shots in over 34 minutes of play. The next time he put up just 9 shots in that many minutes? <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200203310WAS.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">March 31, 2002</a>.
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So, what ended up happening to these two teams? Glad you asked!
The Lakers finished 56-26 and fourth in the Western Conference, sweeping the Kenny Anderson, Isaiah Rider, and Rasheed Wallace-led Portland Trail Blazers in Round 1. Then, in the West semifinals, L.A. fell to the No. 1 seed Utah Jazz, who eventually lost to the Chicago Bulls in the 1997 NBA Finals. The Lakers still had a few more years of Harris before Phil Jackson eventually came to clean things up prior to the 1999-2002 three-peat era.
The Mavericks finished 24-58 and were actually still fourth in the Midwest Division among seven teams, completing 1996-97 with only the sixth-worst record in the league. Unfortunately, they didn&rsquo;t own their own draft pick, but fortunately, the Celtics &mdash; who had it at No. 6 &mdash; used it on Ron Mercer, so it wasn&rsquo;t an egregious miss.
Tracy McGrady did go No. 9 overall, and the Mavs did settle on Kelvin Cato at No. 15, but they landed with a kid named Dirk Nowitzki in the 1998 NBA Draft after another 20-win season.
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Bryan Fonseca revisits when the Mavericks only mustered a measly 2 points in the third quarter against the Lakers.

Revisiting the time the Mavericks scored just 2 points in a quarter

HOUSTON (AP) &mdash; The transfer portal. Name, image and likeness deals. Sixth-year seniors. Conference realignment. The ever-shifting prospects of the one-and-done rule.
The once semipredictable ground that underpinned college basketball has been changing at lightning speed over the past 24 months, leaving coaches and their bosses scrambling to adjust to whatever comes next.
The NCAA Tournament closes out Monday when UConn plays San Diego State, and will go down as one of the most unpredictable ever. Unanswered is the question of whether the shifting landscape in college sports was the reason for all bracket madness or simply background noise for an event that is always hard to handicap.
Either way, things are changing and coaches are trying to adjust on the fly.
&ldquo;These might be some of the greatest challenges we&rsquo;re facing with the portal and NIL and just lack of direction and rules and regulations,&rdquo; said Mark Few of Gonzaga, a perennial powerhouse that has reached the Sweet 16 in eight straight seasons.
The four teams that made it to Houston &mdash; Florida Atlantic and Miami saw their seasons end Saturday &mdash; got here in part because they adapted quickly. All four added players from the transfer portal, some of whom were given an extra year of eligibility due to the pandemic, and some of whom were lured by the promise of sponsorship money under the loosely regulated NIL system.&nbsp;
Very few coaches want to go on record saying that allowing players to earn money through NIL or to freely move around in a billion-dollar business that imposes no such restrictions on the coaches themselves is a bad thing.
Few also want to touch on the bottom line of conference realignment, which is placing familiar schools in strange places &mdash; Texas in the Southeastern Conference and UCLA and USC in the Big Ten &mdash; in the service of generating more revenue.
And none want to be painted as dinosaurs who don&rsquo;t believe players should share in the game&rsquo;s considerable financial windfall.
Some, however, concede they are uneasy about the implications of all this.
&ldquo;I wish someone would understand the effect of the system,&rdquo; Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said. &ldquo;The story is the number of kids who have been adversely affected by the climate as it is today.&rdquo;
Hamilton is not the only coach concerned by a recent NCAA study that showed 43% of Division I athletes who enter the transfer portal &mdash; taking advantage of their newfound ability to switch schools without having to sit out a year &mdash; end up without a place to play.
&ldquo;Is it great that 43% of young people decided to remove themselves from an experience of a lifetime?&rdquo; said UMass coach Frank Martin. &ldquo;People talk about a lot of the great things happening for young students now, but nobody really talks about that.&rdquo;
Now, the one-and-done rule, which used to be considered one of the biggest destabilizers in college sports, is barely a blip on the radar. For most of the past year, the NBA had made it a priority to eliminate the 17-year-old rule from the upcoming collective bargaining agreement. But that got scuttled at the last minute, and the rule will remain.
&ldquo;However it all shakes out, what I want is whatever is best for the kids,&rdquo; said Kentucky coach John Calipari, who for years has embraced the one-and-done system.
Calipari said he&rsquo;s more concerned about &ldquo;27-year-olds playing against 19-year-olds.&rdquo;
&ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s an issue that we&rsquo;re going to have to deal with that we&rsquo;re totally avoiding,&rdquo; he said.
The extra year of eligibility granted because of COVID-19, combined with redshirt years being handed out for varying reasons, has, indeed, extended some players&rsquo; careers into their mid-20s.
Exhibit A: Since the NBA trade deadline last month, the Houston Cougars, who came into the tournament as a No. 1 seed and were ousted in the Sweet 16, had a starting five that was older than the starters for NBA&rsquo;s rebuilding Houston Rockets.
Exhibit B: Including 25-year-old guard Adam Seiko, San Diego State has four key contributors who are in their fifth or sixth year of college.
The NCAA is taking somewhat of a passive approach to all of the issues. It has largely refused to get into the regulation of NIL deals, instead leaving it to state governments to decide. Last week, Congress held the latest in a series of hearings that resolved nothing, even as the NCAA asks for a national standard.
&ldquo;I think one athletic director said that the only truth about NIL is that everybody lies,&rdquo; the NCAA&rsquo;s new president, Charlie Baker, said in a brief interview at the Final Four.
Baker would like to see the creation of a registry of contracts, financial literacy programs for families, a certification process for agents and a uniform standard contract for NIL deals.
For now, though, NIL and the portal have produced a free-for-all.
It played out at FAU, where coach Dusty May said some of his players were being approached while the team was in the middle of its run.
In another instance, after a run to the Sweet 16 last season, Maryland&rsquo;s women lost five players, including two who made it to the Final Four with their new teams this year. (The Terps still made the Elite Eight this year.)
Before the tournament started, Belmont women&rsquo;s coach Jamey Givens, whose Bruins missed the tournament after upsetting Oregon in the first round, last year put a fine point on it, tweeting good luck to all the teams in the tournament &mdash; &ldquo;except for those who have been actively recruiting off our roster all spring.&rdquo;
Martin, a former high school math teacher who got fired at South Carolina five seasons after reaching the Final Four, has long leaned into the importance of athletes getting an education. He is also a realist and an optimist, trying to thread the needle in a rapidly changing landscape.
&ldquo;For the most part, we tend to be fairly intelligent people who adapt,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and we&rsquo;ll figure it out, and we&rsquo;ll adapt, and we&rsquo;ll grow.&rdquo;

The once semipredictable ground that underpinned college basketball has been changing at lightning speed the last two years.

As Final Four closes, basketball on unpredictable ground

In January, the NBA and NBPA launched <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nba-all-world/id1632344574" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBA All-World</a> &ndash; an officially licensed geolocation augmented-reality basketball game with Niantic, the creators of Pok&eacute;mon Go.&nbsp;
Just like with Pok&eacute;mon Go, users are encouraged to explore neighborhoods around the world and encounter today&rsquo;s NBA stars. Users can challenge the NBA players one-on-one, add them to their team, level them up and compete to become the ruler of real-world courts, while also collecting gear from well-known brands (such as adidas, Puma and Todd Snyder).
BasketballNews recently caught up with Marcus Matthews, the senior producer of NBA All-World. Prior to joining Niantic, Matthews spent the last few decades working on various sports video games including the original NBA 2K, NFL 2K, NHL 2K and NBA Action 98.
In this Q&amp;A, Matthews opened up about the inspiration for the game, lessons that Niantic learned from Pok&eacute;mon Go, the future of video games, advice for anyone who wants to work on video games and more.
How did this idea come about and what was the inspiration behind NBA All-World?
Marcus Matthews: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been at Niantic for about two years now and the inspiration for the game came from our CEO, John Hanke, who is an avid basketball fan. He played high-school basketball in Texas and he&rsquo;d play pick-up regularly in college at Berkeley, and even now since he joined Google and Niantic. At NBA All-Star Weekend, we had a couple of pick-up games with Hanke and other employees. Overall, he&rsquo;s a huge basketball fan. And with Hanke&rsquo;s experience with Google Earth and map-based, location-based gaming, he was always just trying to find a way to bring his love and passion for basketball to this new platform. My background in sports games goes back more than 20 years including being the senior producer on the original NBA 2K and NFL 2K on the Sega Dreamcast. I&rsquo;ve always tried to look at the cutting edge with sports games and not just copy what&rsquo;s already here, but try to move the industry forward.&nbsp;
&ldquo;So when I heard about this opportunity, I was like, &lsquo;Wow, this is amazing.&rsquo; Here we are with this new way of gaming, of turning the real world into a gaming board, literally, and that&rsquo;s the future: connecting the real world with digital bits and integrating them and having all of these novel experiences. And I was like, &lsquo;Nobody has done that in sports. This is an opportunity to once again create a ground-breaking sports gaming experience.&rsquo; And those kinds of opportunities only come around every blue moon, with the right technology, funding, resources and team. And I was like, &lsquo;Yeah, let&rsquo;s jump in. Let&rsquo;s see what we can figure out.&rsquo; So I came in and it was in gestation for probably about a year or two before I got there. My role was just to bring that sports-gaming, basketball experience and merge that with what was already existing, so we could create a novel experience.&rdquo;
When Niantic created Pok&eacute;mon Go, it was a huge success and introduced AR games to a lot of people. Since this game is similar, were there any lessons that you all learned from Pok&eacute;mon Go that helped you while working on NBA All-World?
Matthews: &ldquo;Absolutely. Pok&eacute;mon Go was an absolute overnight success, but there were still some challenges that they ran into. We wanted to make sure that we took the good learnings (from Pok&eacute;mon Go) and try to avoid upfront the negative learnings that come with building something outdoors. Probably the biggest challenge of building any kind of outdoor experience is trying to break that obvious habit of just playing games where you&rsquo;re at. It&rsquo;s not a console, it&rsquo;s mobile, so you have access to the whole world and environment right there on your screen. And our game isn&rsquo;t really a screen-only experience, so we were just trying to get users out of the habit of just doing everything on the screen. We&rsquo;re really trying to connect real-world places with authentic experiences for your player. If there&rsquo;s a bank or ATM in your area, you can go get money for your player in our game. If there&rsquo;s a shoe store near you, you can go get shoes for your character. If there&rsquo;s a clothing store or department store near you, you can go get apparel, shirts and pants for your player. If you&rsquo;re out and about, you want to remember to open up this game because there may be some unique things out in the world that may not be available at your home or your job. There are different things you may discover. That&rsquo;s the main thing: (helping users understand that) it&rsquo;s a whole new way of interacting with the world. We really want to enhance and improve users&rsquo; experience by tying real-world locations to virtual-world locations. We just think that&rsquo;s so novel, so different and so new. I think that&rsquo;s going to be the foundation of a lot of games moving forward.
&ldquo;And the other biggest challenge that we had was probably just the randomness of the real world. With traditional games, when you lay out a world or environment, you have total control over where every object goes and how users are going to interact in it. We had to kind of abstract that out, like, &lsquo;Okay, well we&rsquo;ve got this city that has a lot of real-world game objects that we can use. But when you&rsquo;re in the suburbs or rural areas, there are fewer items for us to tag and for you to interact with &ndash; whether it&rsquo;s a court or a shoe drop or a boost or an energy or an arena pass. Now, we&rsquo;ve got to get a little more creative. How do we balance out the experience for people who live in different kinds of environments in terms of density? We&rsquo;ve been learning a lot and pulled a lot from Pok&eacute;mon Go on those items like real-world game boarding, how to (get) our players out into the world and how to balance that all out. There was definitely a lot that we learned from our other games.&rdquo;
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NBA All-World hosted some real-world events at All-Star Weekend like a pick-up game and meet-up, where attendees were able to access special content and drops in the game. In the future, I could see this becoming a cool way to reward users who attend NBA games and events. Are you planning to do more stuff like that in the future?
Matthews: &ldquo;Absolutely! That&rsquo;s an automatic in the playbook that we&rsquo;re going to use because that&rsquo;s what makes our game different &ndash; the fact that you can play our game in the world and you can get unique experiences. We can control the drops, and we can allow the user to do all kinds of cool things that you wouldn&rsquo;t normally be able to do in other locations. We want people to go outside and explore and game, so the more live events we can host and get people to engage in, the more powerful it&rsquo;ll be for our game and our audience.&rdquo;
Do you think these augmented-reality games are the future of video games? What do you see as the future of gaming?
Matthews: &ldquo;That&rsquo;s an awesome question. I think it is by far the most realistic, tangible new area of gaming. I think Pok&eacute;mon Go is a perfect example of what can be done because it can be well-monetized and create a great experience that literally hundreds of millions or even a billion people can enjoy. I really feel like AR is proving to be the next wave. But just like there were only console games before mobile games came out, console games are not going away (even though) mobile gaming is growing into its own thing. I think this will be like the third big wave or area of gaming, so we&rsquo;ll have console gaming, more mobile gaming and then this area that&rsquo;s going to expand over the next decade around exploration and connecting digital to the real world, and gaming is going to lead that charge. There will be other apps and experiences that will fall out of that, but the big, main utility that makes business sense is going to be gaming and it&rsquo;s going to become its own vertical. I don&rsquo;t see (AR) replacing anything or eliminating the other categories, I just think it&rsquo;s going to be its own thing alongside the other existing categories.&rdquo;
I know the game is still relatively new, but what&rsquo;s been the reception from the audience?
Matthews: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been actually pleasantly surprised with the initial media response and consumer response. We've been in the top five on the app stores for free-to-play sports games and we have a 4.8 rating in the app stores. There are numerous things and features that are coming in the future, and we&rsquo;re going to make a big push for next NBA season to really round out the experience, but we&rsquo;re very, very pleased with the initial response. For me, I think the biggest thing is that people realize that the sports-gaming world is different from the Pok&eacute;mon world. We&rsquo;ve made a game that was organically built from the ground up around basketball fans and basketball players, and we&rsquo;ve made that world work. It&rsquo;s not just a straight copy of another game; we&rsquo;ve built this game organically and from the ground up around that.
"And the beauty of basketball is that A) it&rsquo;s played outside and B) it&rsquo;s naturally played in groups of friends. Our game does both very well. When I was growing up in Jacksonville, FL, as a kid, me and my friends would walk to the neighborhood park and go play basketball for a few hours in the summer and hang out. Now, my son does that with his friends. But now, not only is there an opportunity to play real basketball, you can also play this game while you happen to be at the court and see what&rsquo;s around and maybe gain some new players. What we&rsquo;re hoping to do is get people, especially kids, back out to real-world courts to play not just our game but also real basketball. That would be the ultimate impact that I hope this game could have.&rdquo;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Are you ready to ball? Get into the gameplay of NBA All-World in episode 2 of &ldquo;Beyond The Game.&rdquo; <a href="https://twitter.com/nbaallworld?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBAAllWorld</a> 🏀 <a href="https://t.co/6Q55ogVuAR">pic.twitter.com/6Q55ogVuAR</a>
&mdash; Niantic (@NianticLabs) <a href="https://twitter.com/NianticLabs/status/1617684389089136641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2023</a></blockquote>

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

You mentioned that some new features will be rolled out next season. Can you share any new features that are coming or things that you hope to add to the game?
Matthews: &ldquo;We have a lot of things on the list, but it&rsquo;s too early to say (when they&rsquo;ll be added) in the second half of the year, so I don&rsquo;t want to get into any specifics. We&rsquo;re working through all of the feedback and different ideas that didn&rsquo;t make it at launch. But one feature that we&rsquo;re going to ramp up before next season that&rsquo;s going to be a major push is camera-based AR experiences in the game. We&rsquo;re going to have some things coming down the pike later on this year that are going to expand what I like to call our &lsquo;basketball theme park.&rsquo; This is a platform that can be built on top of, so just like Disney World, we&rsquo;re always going to be expanding the experiences in our park. This game is really a virtual-world game at its core, so we&rsquo;re going to be adding on more pieces and just building on the experience as we go.&rdquo;
This is Niantic&rsquo;s first officially licensed sports game. Are there any plans to launch similar games with other sports leagues?
Matthews: &ldquo;I mean, I wouldn&rsquo;t rule out any expansion of this sports-gaming experience that we developed. To your point, expansion could include other sports. Right now, we&rsquo;re totally focused on making the basketball experience as great as possible, but we&rsquo;re definitely open to future opportunities and expansion.&rdquo;
I saw that Karl-Anthony Towns, Jordan Poole and other players were part of the game&rsquo;s launch. What has been the response or reception from NBA players?&nbsp;
Matthews: &ldquo;I think they&rsquo;re interested. Games like 2K and Madden have been around for 20+ years and the players who grew up on those are always looking for the next thing, and everyone was aware of Pok&eacute;mon Go and its success. So, yeah, Jordan Poole, Karl-Anthony Towns and those guys have been really interested in how their player looks, what their player&rsquo;s moves are, when we&rsquo;re going to update it to add more moves, so they&rsquo;re really interested in the world and how they&rsquo;re represented. Today, not only do people care about their real-world representation, they really care about their virtual representation. They want to make sure that the player looks and moves like they move. We&rsquo;ve gotten really good buy-in (from players) and I&rsquo;m very confident that as we add onto this game, we&rsquo;re going to get more and more players engaging and wanting their likenesses and movements to be part of the experience. And that&rsquo;s the beauty of this, it&rsquo;s a system that&rsquo;s set up to scale and be built upon, and we&rsquo;re going to relish that.&rdquo;
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You&rsquo;ve had a very successful career and worked on some incredible games. What advice would you give to someone who wants to work on video games?
Matthews: &ldquo;I give talks at high schools and colleges about breaking into the video-game industry and I went to Georgia Tech, even though Atlanta isn&rsquo;t known as a video-game hub. But ever since middle school, I was coding with friends and trying to make games on my own. When I got to college in the early &lsquo;90s, there wasn&rsquo;t any kind of video-game major or anything like that. This was actually before the internet really kicked in. But I was really passionate about making games, it was just something innate in me. So whenever I had a class project or assignment that was flexible, I would try to do it around video games. In my spare time, I would start designing sports video games because I love sports, I love games and technology. I would just play around with my own gaming ideas. Luckily, in Atlanta, there was an education games company there, so after I graduated, I figured, &lsquo;That&rsquo;s close enough. I&rsquo;d rather do that than be a consultant or an engineer at a plant or something.&rsquo; So I went with my passion; I didn&rsquo;t know where it was going to take me. Then, after work, I&rsquo;d just work on my own sports-game designs and I started working on a prototype with some friends.
"This is an entertainment business, so it&rsquo;s kind of like movies and music where you kinda have to do short films or demos to showcase your talent. And when people see that, they see that you can help them. So I was working on my designs and saw that there were some weaknesses with the current sports games. They didn&rsquo;t feel like the folks who actually played sports were programming and designing them. So, I did a lot of work and then got lucky. A friend of mine went from IBM to Sega and a couple years later, they needed a sports producer and he reached out: &lsquo;Hey Marcus, I know you&rsquo;ve been working on these sports-game designs and doing all of this stuff on the side.&rsquo; I sent my resume to the head of sports and got flown out for an interview. We talked for two-and-a-half hours and I told him everything that was wrong with the games and how I would improve them, and two weeks later, they hired me.
"But it took five or six years or more of working on designs on my own time and just diving into the space and waiting for the right opportunity. I was going to all of the conferences back then like GDC (when it had just started) and E3 and just networking to try and get that big break. It&rsquo;s a tough business to break into &ndash; especially being in Atlanta &ndash; but you have to do the extra work. Don&rsquo;t think you can just go to school, get your degree and then work on sports games. It&rsquo;s going to take more than that &ndash; whether you&rsquo;re an artist, a programmer, a producer or a designer.&rdquo;
<a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nba-all-world/id1632344574" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBA All-World</a> is available now in the app store and it's free to play.

NBA All-World senior producer Marcus Matthews opens up about the game, lessons from Pokémon Go, the future of gaming and more.

NBA meets Pokémon Go: Inside the augmented-reality game NBA All-World

Since Nike made the decision to end its relationship with Kyrie Irving and <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-nike-employs-adl-tactics-as-they-officially-drop-kyrie-irving-etan-thomas-torraine-walker" target="_blank" rel="noopener">discontinue his signature shoe</a> after he shared the documentary "Hebrews To Negroes," many brands have reportedly reached out to his camp to attempt to lure him into joining them &mdash; Adidas, New Balance and PUMA to name a few.&nbsp;
During a postgame conference while discussing being a shoe company free agent, the lone company Irving has publicly acknowledged as a possibility was SIA Collective. In addition, he explained that he is not in a rush and wants to take his time to find the right place so he doesn&rsquo;t duplicate a similar situation as the one he had with Nike, who he referred to as &ldquo;that other brand.&rdquo;&nbsp;
&ldquo;Number one, I&rsquo;m in no rush to make any business decisions right now&hellip;. I just want to take my time," Irving said on Dec. 28 after the Brooklyn Nets' win over the Atlanta Hawks. "In terms of SIA Collective &mdash; great brand, great brothers, great operation team behind the scenes. But again, I'm looking for a home where we can build a huge marketplace and I can have some ownership, and that takes time to build. So I&rsquo;m willing to stay patient, but work with people that are willing to work with me.
&ldquo;SIA Collective has been a great brand to converse with, but I don&rsquo;t want to settle with one. I think I just want to keep my options open, look for ownership and enjoy the free agency for a little bit. It&rsquo;s been a long time coming, and then, I think there are a lot of details that are going to come out in the future about what was actually going on. And I think once my platform is created, when I can do that, then we'll share that. But shout out to SIA Collective and everybody that's been recruiting me during the process. I&rsquo;m appreciative. But I&rsquo;m definitely not going to go back into a similar contract that I was in &mdash; or any type of situation or circumstance that I was in or similar to what I was at &mdash; with that other brand.&rdquo;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Kyrie Irving was asked about his sneaker free agency &amp; touched upon what went wrong with Nike "There are a lot of details that are going to come out in the future about what was actually going on. I'm not going to go into a similar contract I was with at the other brand" <a href="https://t.co/K8AUxOEXnh">pic.twitter.com/K8AUxOEXnh</a>
&mdash; Nets Videos (@SNYNets) <a href="https://twitter.com/SNYNets/status/1608333645558816770?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 29, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Since then, many have been asking: Who is SIA Collective, and what are they about?&nbsp;
On <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/podcasts/the-rematch/episodes/basketballnews-com-episode-62-devlin-carter-talks-his-desire-to-partner-with-kyrie-irving,-owning-his-own-brand,-fashion,-more" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the latest episode of the The Rematch</a>, I had the opportunity to sit down with the founder of SIA Collective, Devlin Carter, who founded the company in 2019. SIA Collective, which stands for Somewhere in America, is an independent, Black-owned shoe and apparel company.
Almost immediately after Nike dropped the Nets star, Carter took to social media to make a public plea to Kyrie to sign with SIA Collective instead of Adidas or PUMA or New Balance or any of the other companies that have reached out following the Nike divorce. The main theme of his pitch is that he is open to offering Irving the very ownership that he expressed is his desire. In Carter's words: "When you have that nobody can drop you because they don&rsquo;t agree with something you do or say.&rdquo;&nbsp;
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During our interview, Carter detailed his meeting with Kyrie&rsquo;s entire team, and expressed why he feels SIA Collective would be the perfect fit for Irving.
Etan Thomas: So, you <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cly41bVvJvZ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">made the video</a> initially after Nike decided to essentially drop Kyrie Irving making the plea to him to consider joining SIA Collective, and the response from the video was that a lot of people in the community started tagging Kyrie in your video to try to connect you with Kyrie, so walk us through what happened after that point.
Devlin Carter: :Sure. So after I made the video, I got a DM of Kyrie&rsquo;s agent Shetellia Riley Irving saying, 'Hey, send me an e-mail at your earliest convenience.' So I sent the e-mail and they responded asking when I was available for a Zoom call. I responded, 'Whenever you guys are, I&rsquo;m open. Whatever y&rsquo;all want (laughing). We can do it right now if you want.'
"So we had it scheduled for Friday &mdash; not this Friday that just passed, but the prior Friday. So we had that set up, and in between that meeting, I also sent them a shoe that we&rsquo;ve been working on called the EVO Bounce, which is a performance basketball shoe. So I sent them some images of it. I had my photo shop guy mock it up in a Brooklyn Nets design and put a No. 11 on it. And (Shetellia) hit me right back and asked, 'When could you get us this shoe?' So I explained to them that, right now, we were in the sole process. So we&rsquo;re making the sole and adding the technology to it, but I said, 'As soon as we&rsquo;re done, I&rsquo;ll send you as many samples as you need.'"
Etan: So they had a quick response?
Carter: "Yes, and I can tell by how quickly they responded that they liked the design of the shoe. That&rsquo;s one thing that I don&rsquo;t have any issues or concerns about is my ability to design a dope looking basketball shoe for Kyrie. So then, from there, we had the meeting on the Zoom call, and it&rsquo;s me, his agent Shetellia Riley Irving, Kyrie&rsquo;s dad (Drederick) and another gentleman who is Kyrie&rsquo;s brand manager. So we&rsquo;re all on the Zoom and Shetellia is quarterbacking the call. And she tells the gentlemen to tell me about themselves, so basically, they&rsquo;re pitching me. And I&rsquo;m thinking, 'Wow, I think I should be pitching myself to y&rsquo;all.'"
Etan: Right, right, but they&rsquo;re telling you about who they are.
Carter: "Yeah. So Kyrie&rsquo;s dad &mdash; super cool, super down to earth. He&rsquo;s telling me how he worked in finance and is from the Bronx. And the brand manager told me how he started with Kyrie and (how) he used to work with Nike, but left Nike to work solely with Kyrie, and how he helps his sister (Asia) with her branding and whatnot. And Shetellia tells me how she worked at BET and launching Power 105.1 (in New York). And then, they asked me how I started, my whole background in fashion design. Then, they started pitching questions."
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Etan: What were some of their questions?
Carter: "One of their questions was how long have I been doing this. They asked about my company and our sales, and I told them that I started in 2019 and we&rsquo;ve done over $40 million in sales really without any advertisement at all. I feel like spending money on advertisement doesn&rsquo;t really reach your core, and she liked that concept as well.&nbsp;
"They also asked me about technology, if I had any patents on technology. And I said, 'Right now, we actually do have a new foam that we&rsquo;re developing and it&rsquo;s just about done, so we&rsquo;ll be putting a patent on that.' But then, I was just honest with them and said, 'Listen, no matter what technology I design and I patent, (China companies) are going to steal it if they want to steal it; they steal Nike&rsquo;s stuff all the time. That&rsquo;s just the way it works. But I told (Irving's team) one thing you will not have to worry about is technology, and whatever he wants his shoe to feel like and whatever he wants in there, we can do it.&nbsp;
"Here&rsquo;s the thing &mdash; these avenues and all of this stuff have never been open to us. Because an athlete has always been just an endorser. So Nike&rsquo;s not going to take you to their factories and say, &ldquo;Yeah, this is where we get our air cushion and 'This is this and this is that, this is such and such who runs the factory and you can e-mail him at any time with any adjustments you want to make.' They&rsquo;re not going to want to give you that level of say in your signature shoe. They&rsquo;re going to keep that gate closed to you."
Etan: Right, and that was actually a thing because Kyrie reportedly wanted a say in the design of his shoe at Nike.
Carter: "Right, and I told them, 'I can open that gate for you.' My whole pitch with them at the end of the day was... I said, 'Listen, I&rsquo;m not doing this for the money. I&rsquo;m set for life. I own real estate, I&rsquo;m good, my kids are good. I&rsquo;m not doing it for that. I&rsquo;m doing this for the message that it sends. This is transcending if we could make this happen.' And who better to do this than a player like Kyrie? Because at the end of the day, Kobe [Bryant] wanted to do something like this. He wanted to start Mamba Sports; he did not want to be signed with Nike forever because he opened his eyes and saw that there was a better way to do this &mdash; ownership vs. being an employee.&nbsp;
Etan: Interesting. I didn&rsquo;t know that.
Carter: "Yeah, and it&rsquo;s not that only Nike can do this stuff. Look at D-Wade (Dwyane Wade) with Li-Ning; their shoes are outperforming Nike&rsquo;s shoes. Nike does not possess a monopoly on superior technology or anything. Technology is simply monetary, meaning anybody can get the technology if they have the money. The shoe just needs to be a good foam, you need to have a good shank plate and a good lockdown. That&rsquo;s really all a basketball shoe really needs, but we can take it to that next level and add the extra cushion and add the extra foam and add the custom orthotics. We have the capability to do all of that. But again, because we&rsquo;ve never been privy to this information, to us, it seems so foreign."
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Etan: I posted on social media that Adidas and PUMA and New Balance have reached out to Kyrie for potential sponsorship deals, and I posted it alongside an <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-nike-employs-adl-tactics-as-they-officially-drop-kyrie-irving-etan-thomas-torraine-walker" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article I wrote for Basketball News</a> called, "Nike Employs ADL tactics as it officially drops Kyrie Irving." I tagged you in it, and I saw in the comments section that a lot of other people were tagging you in as well. You responded in the comment section:
<blockquote>
If you just want an endorsement deal&hellip;..then sign with whoever will pay you the most, but as soon as you say something they don&rsquo;t agree with, it&rsquo;s goodbye. But if you really wanna make a change and create a movement &hellip;.ownership is the only way.
</blockquote>
Can you expound on that?
Carter: "Basically, that&rsquo;s saying: Once you take that check, you&rsquo;re just an employee. There&rsquo;s no power in taking that check. These are the times where you take a chance. I&rsquo;ll explain that in my own story.
"I was in the military. I had already done 11 years. Most people who serve in the military, once you pass 10 years, you don&rsquo;t get out of the military because you only need two more transfers, then you get your retirement. But in my 11th year in the military, I was doing the custom shoes. I&rsquo;m going to the post office with 10 boxes of shoes that I customized for people, making... say $4,000 off of those custom shoes that I did. I&rsquo;m in the line and I&rsquo;m looking at the mail clerk. I&rsquo;m looking dead at him and he looks miserable, and I asked myself... there&rsquo;s no way that when he was a kid, he told his mom, 'I&rsquo;m going to grow up and I&rsquo;m going to sell stamps for a living.'
"No, that&rsquo;s just what life brings you, curveballs. You do what you gotta do to make ends meet, and much respect to everyone who is in a position where they have to do that. I didn&rsquo;t want to be someone who said to my kids, 'You can chase your dreams, you can be whatever you want, but I didn&rsquo;t do it. I didn&rsquo;t chase those dreams, I stayed at a job that I really don&rsquo;t want to do, but it pays the bills, I&rsquo;m comfortable, so I&rsquo;m going to stay here.' I didn&rsquo;t choose that. I started SIA Collective. I have the freedom I have always wanted, and I have never struggled. In fact, I am making more money than I have ever made in my life.
"Now, relating this to Kyrie &mdash; you&rsquo;re already set for life. What&rsquo;s another $11 million a year &mdash; which is what Nike paid him last year &mdash; going to really do for you when you can easily make that, and much more, as an owner of your own shoe and not be muzzled? Ownership vs. being just a worker. Without ownership, if he goes to Adidas, New Balance, PUMA or whoever, it will just be the same as his Nike experience. If you say or do something they don&rsquo;t like, they&rsquo;ll drop you.
"We should encourage looking outside for answers, that&rsquo;s all Kyrie was doing. The seeking of knowledge should never be punishment, but In order to really be free, ownership is the only way, and Kyrie can have that with SIA Collective."

Etan Thomas interviews SIA Collective founder Devlin Carter about his behind-the-scenes pitch to Kyrie Irving and his team to collab.

SIA Collective's Devlin Carter details meeting with Kyrie Irving’s team

Kansas has cracked The Associated Press women&rsquo;s basketball poll for the first time in nearly 10 years after a huge win while South Carolina remained the unanimous No. 1 team.
The 22nd-ranked Jayhawks routed then 12th-ranked Arizona by 27 points on the road to break into the AP Top 25 released Monday.
The top five teams remained the same with the Gamecocks followed by Stanford, Ohio State, Indiana and Notre Dame in voting by a 28-member national media panel.
Virginia Tech was sixth and will host the Fighting Irish on Sunday. Fellow ACC schools North Carolina and N.C. State were seventh and eighth.
UConn, which is beset with injuries, fell three places to ninth after losing at Maryland on Sunday. The Terrapins climbed five spots to 15th. UCLA moved up three spots to 10th.
Kansas, which is 9-0 for the fourth time in school history, last was in the poll on Jan. 14, 2013, when the Jayhawks were 23rd. They&rsquo;ve been on the rise the last two years, finishing 21-10 last season for the program&rsquo;s first 20-win season since 2012-13. Kansas lost to Stanford in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year.
&ldquo;We have 11 returners and four starters back from last year&rsquo;s team so there were high expectations going into this year,&rdquo; Kansas coach Brandon Schneider said. &ldquo;We learned a lot in the NCAA Tournament. We just tried to upgrade our schedule in the non-conference. I feel like we&rsquo;re a group that is pretty bought in on the defensive end right now. Still a ton of room for improvement on the offensive end.&rdquo;
Schneider said he will address with his team their being ranked. The Jayhawks host Tulsa on Friday.
&ldquo;More in terms of the trappings of complacency, and we&rsquo;re still in the non-conference,&rdquo; Schneider said. &ldquo;We need to feel good about it in terms of the program&rsquo;s validation. I think we talked about being a program on the rise and that the trajectory of our program is headed in the right direction.&rdquo;
RISING UTES
Utah moved up to No. 13, the school&rsquo;s best ranking since the Utes were 12th in 2008. Utah &rsquo;s best ranking ever is 11th in 1998. The team opens Pac-12 play on Wednesday against Colorado.
TIP-INS:
Arizona fell to 20th after its loss to Kansas. ... Michigan fell five spots to 19th after losing to Toledo. ... Iowa State, which dropped four spots to 14th after falling to rival Iowa, will face No. 25 Villanova on Sunday in the Hall of Fame Women&rsquo;s Showcase game. ... Columbia received votes in the AP poll for the first time in school history. The Lions have wins over Miami and UMass, who made the NCAA Tournament last season.
MILESTONE
Maryland coach Brenda Frese had a memorable week, earning her 600th victory in a buzzer-beating win over Purdue on Thursday. Her team then beat UConn for the first time on Sunday, also giving the coach her first victory against the perennial powerhouse. Frese coached at Ball State and Minnesota before taking over at Maryland in 2002. She&rsquo;s 601-173 in her career.

Kansas has cracked the top-25 for the first time in nearly 10 years after a huge win while South Carolina remained unanimous No. 1.

South Carolina tops women’s AP Top 25, Kansas cracks poll

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) &mdash; It&rsquo;s almost like Miami coach Jim Larra&ntilde;aga wrote the script. A game against his alma mater, one win away from a milestone few have reached.
That&rsquo;s the scenario on Saturday.
Larra&ntilde;aga and Miami take on Providence in the opening round of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament in Uncasville, Connecticut &mdash; with the Hurricanes&rsquo; coach, and 1971 Providence graduate, entering with 699 career wins.
&ldquo;People talk about milestones,&rdquo; Larra&ntilde;aga said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been at this a long time. I enjoy the coaching. If I get to my 700th win, I&rsquo;m hoping it will be this season. I hope I don&rsquo;t have to coach another year to get to it. Only got one more to get; I&rsquo;m assuming I&rsquo;ll get there at some point. But quite honestly, it&rsquo;s more about this team trying to play its best basketball on Saturday at 4 o&rsquo;clock against a very fine opponent.&rdquo;
When Larra&ntilde;aga &mdash; who is in season No. 39 as a head coach &mdash; gets there, he will become the 34th Division I men&rsquo;s coach with 700 wins on his official NCAA resume, and the ninth active coach on that list. Iona&rsquo;s Rick Pitino likely will be next; he needs 15 more to officially reach 700.
At 73, Larra&ntilde;aga shows no signs of slowing down. Miami won 26 games last season and reached the Elite Eight, falling there to eventual national champion Kansas, in Larra&ntilde;aga&rsquo;s deepest postseason run since taking George Mason to the Final Four in 2006. This season&rsquo;s Miami team has opened with three double-digit wins, and a win over Providence would move the Hurricanes to 4-0 for the first time in the last four years.
&ldquo;Coach L, obviously, he&rsquo;s been doing this for many years,&rdquo; Miami guard Bensley Joseph said. &ldquo;I feel like it&rsquo;s just instilled in his mind, what he preaches, what he wants from us players and his message to us is very on-point, very understandable. However many years Coach L goes, he just doesn&rsquo;t want to stop. Basketball is instilled in his mind. He loves the game. He loves us players. He wants us to be great at life and on the court.&rdquo;
Larra&ntilde;aga&rsquo;s career started when he was 27, hired at Division II American International. He won his first game, 84-66 over UMass-Boston.
The game has changed quite a bit since then. Larra&ntilde;aga hasn&rsquo;t.
Guests at practice are greeted with handshakes from every player. Practices begin with some inspirational words, not always said by Larra&ntilde;aga either. The tenets of Miami basketball &mdash; &ldquo;the 10 habits,&rdquo; he calls them &mdash; are repeated. It sets a tone, and the Hurricanes get to work.
&ldquo;We do it every day,&rdquo; Joseph said. &ldquo;Coach L is like a teacher to us. I love learning from him.&rdquo;
Larra&ntilde;aga still ranks among Providence&rsquo;s career scoring leaders. The short shorts, replete with metal belt buckle, of that era send his grandchildren into hysterics when they see the photographs. But his game was no joke; he had a 20-point, 15-assist, 12-rebound triple-double when he was there, though some of the details of that game escaped him until reminded about it this week.
He&rsquo;s also 0-2 against Providence (3-0) as a coach. Those losses have not been forgotten.
Larra&ntilde;aga&rsquo;s first time coaching against Providence was in the championship game of the 1989 Fleet Basketball Classic. The other was a matchup in the 2014 Brooklyn Hoops Holiday Invitational.
The first one, Larra&ntilde;aga and Bowling Green led by 10 with 6 1/2 minutes left, only to get outscored 15-3 the rest of the way and lose 81-79. The other, Miami fell apart in the second half and lost 76-62.
But weirdly, had either of those games gone Larra&ntilde;aga&rsquo;s way, he wouldn&rsquo;t have had the chance that now awaits. He&rsquo;d have No. 700 already.
&ldquo;I think beating Providence anytime in basketball is a big accomplishment,&rdquo; Larra&ntilde;aga said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s not about my wins. It&rsquo;s about this year&rsquo;s team.&rdquo;

When Larrañaga — who is in season No. 39 — gets there, he will become the 34th Division I men’s head coach with 700 wins.

For Miami’s Jim Larrañaga, a milestone 700th win awaits

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) &mdash; Bob Huggins looks over his revamped roster at West Virginia and already likes what he sees from some newcomers.
&ldquo;The ball goes in,&rdquo; Huggins said. &ldquo;The ball actually goes in. It&rsquo;s great. It&rsquo;s more fun to watch that.&rdquo;
West Virginia finished 16-17 last season and lost 10 players, mostly to the transfer portal, including the top four scorers. The Mountaineers were last in the Big 12 and had the league&rsquo;s worst shooting percentage, scoring defense and rebounding margin.
The only returning player with significant playing time is guard Kedrian Johnson, who started all but two games. Yet several incoming transfers have spent plenty of time on the court.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a chance to be good. Not good but really good,&rdquo; Huggins said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got more guys I think who can score.&rdquo;
Guard Erik Stevenson is at his fourth school and has already taken on a leadership role.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the alpha of the group,&rdquo; Huggins said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s just so competitive. He raises the level of our practice because of his competitiveness.&rdquo;
Stevenson started every game at South Carolina a year ago, averaging 11.6 points, after stints at Washington and Wichita State. Forward Tre Mitchell averaged 8.7 points and started 17 games at Texas. He also started 43 games at UMass.
&ldquo;They&rsquo;re guys who are going to be a lot more comfortable. They&rsquo;ve played in very competitive leagues,&rdquo; Huggins said. &ldquo;If anybody ought to be ready to go, it ought to be those guys.&rdquo;
PERSONAL ACCOLADES
Despite the forgettable end to the 2021-22 season, it&rsquo;s been good ever since for the 69-year-old Huggins, who was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last month.
And the accolades aren&rsquo;t done. Huggins enters the season with a 916-399 career record. With his 921st win he&rsquo;ll pass Jim Calhoun into third place all-time among Division I coaches, behind only Jim Boeheim of Syracuse and recently retired Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.
TRANSFERS GALORE
West Virginia lost forward Jalen Bridges to Baylor, guard Sean McNeil to Ohio State and forward Isaiah Cottrell to UNLV. The trio averaged a combined 25 points per game. Top scorer Taz Sherman used up his eligibility.
Forward Emmitt Matthews transferred back to West Virginia from Washington, where he&rsquo;s reunited with childhood friend Stevenson. Huggins also signed ex-Iowa guard Joe Toussaint and three junior college transfers.
&ldquo;They all came here to play,&rdquo; Huggins said. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s been really good from a competitive standpoint. It&rsquo;s a really good group of guys.&rdquo;
EMMITT&rsquo;S RETURN
A year ago Matthews left West Virginia after three seasons. He said he barely saw his parents when COVID-19 restrictions were in place during the 2020-21 season.
When Washington was holding its Senior Night ceremony, Matthews said he closed his eyes and imagined being back in Morgantown, where he said a player&rsquo;s last home game is treated as &ldquo;the highest thing in the world.&rdquo;
&ldquo;I love everything about being here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The fan base. Just the way we play, the style of play. How loud the Coliseum gets when you got a sold-out game. The roads trips when you go places and the fans at the other schools hate you because you&rsquo;re the hardest-playing team in the nation. Those kind of things is stuff that&rsquo;s always stuck with me since the first year that I was here, and I just love that.&rdquo;
DEFENDING THE RIM
Jimmy Bell gives the Mountaineers a beefy presence in the paint at 6-10, 285 pounds. Mohamed Wague, at 6-10 and 225 pounds, is agile and the team&rsquo;s best shot blocker, Huggins said. Both are junior college transfers. In addition, Stevenson, Matthews and Mitchell averaged more than four rebounds per game last season.
THE SCHEDULE
West Virginia opens the season at home Nov. 7 against Mount St. Mary&rsquo;s. The Mountaineers will play Purdue in a Thanksgiving weekend tournament where they also could meet No. 2 Gonzaga and No. 7 Duke. There also is a Jan. 28 home game with No. 15 Auburn. The Big 12 opener is Dec. 31 at Kansas State.

“We’ve got a chance to be good. Not good but really good,” Bob Huggins said. “We’ve got more guys I think who can score.”

West Virginia revamps roster under newly minted Hall of Famer Huggins

Puma has signed 18-year-old rapper and basketball player, Flau'jae Johnson, to a shoe deal.
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BREAKING: Puma has signed two-way star <a href="https://twitter.com/Flaujae?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Flaujae</a> to a shoe deal. 👀👀 The 18 year-old rapper and All-American basketball player will begin her freshman season this fall at LSU. <a href="https://t.co/kBp17F5IYt">pic.twitter.com/kBp17F5IYt</a>
&mdash; Nick DePaula (@NickDePaula) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickDePaula/status/1567876994154766336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 8, 2022</a></blockquote>

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Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/nickdepaula/status/1567876994154766336?s=21&amp;t=6RoCM8mSlJB4qpdCzL05Kw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nick DePaula</a>
Flau'jae is an All-American, LSU true freshman, signed to record label Roc Nation, and is now signed to Puma on a shoe deal. She's been combining music and basketball for years and now gets to add fashion to the mix.

Flau'jae Johnson and Puma agree to a shoe deal.

Puma signs LSU guard, rap artist Flau'jae Johnson to shoe deal

DAYTON, Aug. 2, 2022 - Blue Collar U&rsquo;s TBT debut came to a screeching halt with a semi-final loss to Team 23 last summer. This year, the University of Buffalo alumni squad left no doubt as to who TBT&rsquo;s best team was.
Nick Perkins led the way with 19 points, and five players reached double figures for Blue Collar U, which never trailed en route to an 89-67 victory over Americana for Autism in TBT's 2022 $1 million, winner-take-all TBT championship game. Blue Collar U received the $1 million prize via Zelle during the team's postgame celebration.
C.J. Massinburg scored 18 points, Wes Clark added 17 and Lamonte Bearden had 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting for the victors, who captured their first TBT title. Blake Hamilton had 11 points, eight rebounds and a game-high five steals.
&ldquo;[Winning TBT] means everything,&rdquo; said Massinburg, who was named the tournament&rsquo;s MVP. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why we play. It&rsquo;s one thing to play with a team of talented guys that somebody just put together. We can hold each other accountable, and that gave us the competitive edge.&rdquo;
Clark, who was named to the All-Tournament Team and has never lost in nine TBT games, scored 14 of his 17 points in the first half.
&ldquo;These guys give me so much confidence&hellip;and make me feel above the world,&rdquo; said Clark. &ldquo;The compliments are more to [my teammates].&rdquo;
Montell McRae, who made the final dunk in the Elam Ending to capture the title for Blue Collar U, received a $10,000 bonus for making the championship-winning shot in a pair of Pumas.
The core of Blue Collar U won three Mid-American Conference titles in four years, and the team grew close to the city of Buffalo, which continues to heal from this spring&rsquo;s fatal supermarket shooting. Of the 13 players on the roster, 10 of them have one of the victims&rsquo; names on the back of their jersey, while the remaining three say &ldquo;Buffalo Strong.&rdquo;
The city of Buffalo rallied around Blue Collar U as TBT continued this summer, and watch parties were commonplace in western New York on Tuesday night.
&ldquo;This means everything for Buffalo,&rdquo; said Massinburg. &ldquo;I know that we&rsquo;ve got a lot of support. A lot of fans were watching. Our phones are going crazy right now. The city was behind us.&rdquo;
Tuesday's championship game capped TBT's ninth year. TBT&rsquo;s attendance for this year's event grew 60% over its previous record (set in 2021), and ticket revenue is up 30% from its previous record as well (also 2021). Nine games from four different locations in 2022 cracked TBT&rsquo;s top 15 all-time game attendance list, including games in Wichita, Dayton, Charleston (WV), and Albuquerque.
Blue Collar U improves to 10-1 all-time in two TBT summers and cleaned up this summer&rsquo;s awards as well. Massinburg (15.2 ppg) took home the MVP award. Clark and Perkins join Massinburg on the All-Tournament team. Guards Scoochie Smith (Red Scare) and Chris Warren (Florida TNT) round out the All-Tournament squad.&nbsp;
Blue Collar U becomes the fourth straight alumni team to win the TBT title, joining Carmen&rsquo;s Crew (The Ohio State University, 2019), the Golden Eagles (Marquette University, 2020) and Boeheim&rsquo;s Army (Syracuse University, 2021). College alumni teams have won five of the nine TBT titles. Overseas Elite leads TBT with four titles (2015-2018).
Blue Collar coach Adam Bauman took home the Coach of the Year award, while Americana for Autism&rsquo;s Griffin Taylor was named the GM of the Year.

It was an 89-67 victory for Blue Collar U over Americana for Autism in TBT's 2022 $1 million, winner-take-all TBT championship game.

Buffalo's Blue Collar U wins The Basketball Tournament's $1 Million prize

Combining elements from each of the previous LaMelo Ball drops, PUMA Hoops is releasing its latest MB.01 style: the MB.01 Be You.
"The MB.01 Be You is a striking culmination that&rsquo;s as rare as its creator," says PUMA's press release. "The style features vibrant colors and patterns and an array of next-level details including the Not From Here DNA seen throughout Melo&rsquo;s collection in overdrive.
"Complete with the latest PUMA Hoops technology featuring NITRO Foam in the midsole for superior responsiveness and comfort while remaining lightweight -- perfect for high-energy, explosive playstyles. The silhouette also includes a specially engineered knit upper made with breathable monomesh for a supportive but ultra-lightweight feel and full coverage engineered traction with non-slip rubber for enhanced durability and traction."
Retailing for $125, the MB.01 Be You will be available starting Friday, July 29, at <a href="PUMA.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PUMA.com</a> as well as the PUMA NYC Flagship store, Foot Locker and Champs Sports.
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/376813_01.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="750" />
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/376813_01_bv.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="750" />
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<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/376813_01_sv02.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="750" />

Combining elements from each of the previous LaMelo Ball drops, PUMA Hoops is releasing its latest MB.01 style: the MB.01 Be You.

PUMA releasing new style of LaMelo Ball's MB.01 signature shoe

PUMA Hoops is releasing its latest women&rsquo;s collection: Desert Sky, which was created in collaboration with six-time WNBA All-Star and Phoenix Mercury guard Skylar Diggins-Smith.
"The capsule collection, which serves as Skylar&rsquo;s first drop with PUMA, features bold graphics and a color palette inspired by the sunrises and sunsets of Phoenix, Arizona. While the footwear and apparel pieces emanate the bold energy for which she&rsquo;s known," per PUMA's press release.
"The Desert Sky capsule represents an intimate picture of Skylar&rsquo;s balance in life, sharing pieces that bring an easy style to hardcore moments on the court and comfort in soft, unwinding moments at home. The pieces fuse basketball culture with fashion, making a strong style statement for duality and versatility."
The Desert Sky capsule collection includes the TRC Blaze Court Desert Sky Sneaker as well as a jersey dress, t-shirt and basketball shorts.
This collection will be available starting Tuesday, August 2, (Skylar&rsquo;s birthday) at <a href="http://puma.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://puma.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1659168623426000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3g1zGyrX3FDmavr4mdIQ24">PUMA.com</a>&nbsp;and retailing for&nbsp;$45-$125.&nbsp;
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/shoe22.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="931" />
&nbsp;

PUMA is releasing its latest women’s collection, Desert Sky, created in collaboration with six-time WNBA All-Star Skylar Diggins-Smith.

PUMA Hoops, Skylar Diggins-Smith release Desert Sky collection

TBT Record 71 Players with NBA Experience and 29 Alumni Teams to Compete
Jimmer Fredette, Projected 2023 Draft Top-10 Picks Ausar and Amen Thompson Highlight Field of 64 Competing for $1M Prize on ESPN
The Basketball Tournament (TBT) &ndash; the $1 million, winner-take-all, summer basketball event broadcast live on ESPN networks today released the bracket for this year&rsquo;s tournament. For the fifth year in a row, all games will feature TBT&rsquo;s Elam Ending&reg;.
Now in its ninth year, TBT 2022 will feature 71 players with NBA experience and 29 college alumni teams, both of which are TBT records. The field will once again feature 64 teams squaring off in a single-elimination format and will be supported by longtime partners PUMA, Zelle, and E&amp;J Brandy.&nbsp;
The field will be split into eight regions played over two weeks in July. Seven of those regions will be headlined by alumni teams, while the eighth regional will be played at Rucker Park&rsquo;s legendary Greg Marius Court in New York City.
One team from each region will advance to the quarterfinals, which will be split between Wichita, Kansas (July 27) and Dayton, Ohio (July 28-29). Dayton will also host TBT&rsquo;s semifinals (July 30), as well as TBT&rsquo;s $1 million winner-take-all championship game (Aug. 2).
&ldquo;This year&rsquo;s field is electrifying,&rdquo; said TBT founder and CEO Jon Mugar. &ldquo;Nine years ago, we set out to be the home for high stakes, open-to-all basketball, pitting people against one another from all walks of life. This year&rsquo;s field demonstrates how far we&rsquo;ve come. It is exceptionally diverse and talented. I can&rsquo;t wait to see what team wins six straight games.&rdquo;
The full TBT 2022 schedule includes:
Regional Host Cities
&nbsp; &nbsp; Omaha, Neb. &ndash; headlined by Omaha Blue Crew (Creighton) &ndash; July 16-19
&nbsp; &nbsp; New York City, N.Y. (Rucker Park) &ndash; headlined by Marcus Smart&rsquo;s YGC &ndash; July 16-20
&nbsp; &nbsp; Albuquerque, N.M. &ndash; headlined by The Enchantment (University of New Mexico) &ndash; July 28-21
&nbsp; &nbsp; Wichita, Kan. &ndash; headlined by AfterShocks (Wichita State) &ndash; July 22-25
&nbsp; &nbsp; Syracuse, N.Y. &ndash; headlined by Boehiem&rsquo;s Army (Syracuse) &ndash; July 22-25
&nbsp; &nbsp; Charleston, W. Va. &nbsp;&ndash; headlined by Best Virginia (West Virginia) and Herd That (Marshall) &nbsp;&ndash; July 24-27
&nbsp; &nbsp; Cincinnati, Ohio &ndash; headlined by Zip &lsquo;Em Up (Xavier) &ndash; July 24-27
&nbsp; &nbsp; Dayton, Ohio &ndash; headlined by Red Scare (Dayton) &ndash; July 24-27
Championship Week Schedule&nbsp;
&nbsp; &nbsp; Quarterfinals &ndash; July 27 (Wichita), July 28-29 (Dayton)
&nbsp; &nbsp; Semifinals &ndash; &nbsp;Saturday, July 30 (Dayton)
&nbsp; &nbsp; $1 Million, Winner-Take-All Championship &ndash; Tuesday, Aug. 2 (Dayton)&nbsp;
Highlights of this year&rsquo;s tournament include:&nbsp;
- New Look Boeheim&rsquo;s Army Set to Defend TBT Title &ndash; Boeheim&rsquo;s Army, who after seven years finally won its first TBT championship, is set to defend its title in Syracuse this summer. First-time TBT participants and Syracuse alums Tyler Ennis, Rakeem Christmas, and Marek Dolezaj join a core that includes TBT legend D.J. Kennedy, who is seeking his sixth TBT title, and DeAndre Kane, who is going for his fifth.
- TBT Steps Outdoors at World Famous Rucker Park &ndash; TBT will be playing games outdoors for the first time in the event&rsquo;s history this summer at New York City&rsquo;s famed Rucker Park. The event, in partnership with Chick-Fil-A Tri-State and the NBPA, will be free and open to the public. Headlining the regional are YGC, a team backed by Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart, and Skip To My Lou, named after and coached by former NBA player and streetball legend Rafer Alston.
- Jimmer Fredette Joins The Money Team &ndash; 2011 National college player of the year and NBA Draft lottery pick Jimmer Fredette will return to TBT this summer as a member of Floyd Mayweather&rsquo;s The Money Team. A quarterfinalist in 2021, The Money Team&rsquo;s roster also includes three other players with NBA experience: Trevor Booker, Jeremy Evans, Charles Jenkins, and Xavier Munford.
- Overtime Enters TBT&rsquo;s First Draft-Eligible Team &ndash; Media brand Overtime will enter its first TBT team, Team Overtime, which is slated to include four 2023 draft-eligible prospects from their new professional pathway program Overtime Elite. Twins Ausar and Amen Thompson, both projected top-10 picks in the 2023 NBA Draft, will be joined by former five-star recruit Jazian Gortman and four-star recruit Jaylen Martin on a roster with several veteran professionals, including former NBA player Malcolm Thomas. Team Overtime will be competing in the Omaha Regional.
- Rivalries Renewed &ndash; Two brand new sets of bitter rivals could be facing off in TBT this summer. Xavier Regional headliner, Zip &lsquo;Em Up (Xavier Alumni), will be joined by crosstown rival Nasty Nati, a Cincinnati alumni team whose roster includes former first-round pick Jacob Evans. The Enchantment, a New Mexico alumni team, and Panamaniacs, a New Mexico State alumni team, will go head-to-head in the first-round of the New Mexico Regional in a battle for in-state supremacy. Best Virginia, the West Virginia alumni team, and Herd That, the Marshall alumni team, could both finally get their long-awaited matchup in the second round of the West Virginia Regional. Stillwater Stars, an Oklahoma State alumni team starring Markel Brown, will go toe-to-toe with Big 12 foes Air Raiders, a first-year Texas Tech alumni team composed mainly of their 2019 NCAA Tournament Runner-Up team that includes former first-round pick Zhaire Smith.
- Sideline Cancer&rsquo;s Big Offseason &ndash; TBT&rsquo;s runner-up in 2020 and a quarterfinalist in 2021, Sideline Cancer is gearing up for a championship run. They&rsquo;ll add Mike Daum, the NCAA&rsquo;s seventh leading scorer all-time, 16-year NBA veteran C.J. Miles, and former Iowa State star Diante Garrett to take some of the scoring load off explosive guard Marcus Keene.
Free Throws&hellip;
<ul>
<li>TBT&rsquo;s &amp; Puma&rsquo;s innovative 33-point contest, which pits two shooters head-to-head where the first to make 11 threes advances, will return. The final eight shooters who advance out of TBT&rsquo;s regional locations will compete live on Thursday, July 28 live on ESPN2 for a $33,333 grand prize. Winner-take-all.</li>
<li>NFT project Gutter Cat Gang has entered a TBT team in the Omaha Regional in collaboration with Kyle Hines, the most decorated American in European basketball history.</li>
<li>Notable boxer and Cincinnati native Adrien Broner&rsquo;s AboutBillions team will compete in the Xavier Regional for the first time.</li>
<li>Prominent content brand Friday Beers will make their first foray into TBT&rsquo;s field in 2022, taking over longtime TBT franchise Armored Athlete.</li>
<li>India Rising, TBT&rsquo;s first team of players entirely of Indian descent, will be competing in the Syracuse Regional. Their roster includes former Stanford big man Josh Sharma, and one time G League Ignite prospect Princepal Singh.</li>
</ul>
Tickets for all TBT game days and events are on sale now at www.thetournament.com. For more information, please contact <a href="mailto:info@thetournament.com">info@thetournament.com</a>.
About The Basketball Tournament
The home of the Elam Ending&reg;, The Basketball Tournament has grown from a unique idea among friends to one of the most exciting and engaging events on the summer sports calendar, with worldwide exposure on ESPN and events across the country - culminating in a winner-take-all $1 million game. Every year it attracts some of the best players in the world. For more information on TBT&rsquo;s ninth season, visit www.thetournament.com

Now in Year 9, TBT will feature 71 players with NBA experience and 29 college alumni teams, both of which are TBT records.

Record 71 players with NBA experience headline 2022 TBT event

NBA shot charts are a bit like handprints.
Each player's shot chart has its own quirks, but for many examples, if you know the player, you can generally guess the outline of the chart when you look it up. Luka Doncic's heatmap will have a heavy dose of above-the-break threes and paint shots. Kevin Durant has two arcs around the three-point line and the elbows. P.J. Tucker is confined almost entirely to the corners, and Robert Williams III sticks to the restricted area.&nbsp;
Shot charts can also make you wonder. That happened for me this week when I checked in on Immanuel Quickley, who has surged in recent weeks even as the New York Knicks continue their bumpy season. Quickley is posting 14.4 points per game since the All-Star break and shooting 41.7% from long range with an eye-popping 64.2% True Shooting percentage. Here's how he's doing it (via Cleaning the Glass):
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/img_7134_lg.jpg" alt="" width="475" height="434" />
Rim pressure has been a question mark for Quickley dating back to his college days at Kentucky. He maneuvers into the paint with relative comfort &mdash; but look at the gap at the rim. The second-year guard rarely gets all the way to the hoop despite his length and apparent positioning. He has attempted just 56 shots within 4 feet of the basket this season, but has tried 137 shots in CTG's "short mid-range" zone (between 4 feet and the free-throw line).&nbsp;
This puts Quickley in very interesting company. He one of eight NBA players (min. 800 minutes) to attempt less than 15% of his shots at the rim, but more than 20% of his shots in the short mid-range, according to Cleaning the Glass (scroll right on mobile to view full table):
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 18.1409%;">Player</td>
<td style="width: 17.0729%;">% of FGA at rim</td>
<td style="width: 22.5467%;">% of FGA at short-mid</td>
<td style="width: 14.4026%;">FG% at rim</td>
<td style="width: 18.5414%;">FG% at short-mid</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 18.1409%;">Chris Paul</td>
<td style="width: 17.0729%;">5%&nbsp;</td>
<td style="width: 22.5467%;">33%</td>
<td style="width: 14.4026%;">64%</td>
<td style="width: 18.5414%;">53%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 18.1409%;">Marcus Morris</td>
<td style="width: 17.0729%;">9%</td>
<td style="width: 22.5467%;">28%</td>
<td style="width: 14.4026%;">56%</td>
<td style="width: 18.5414%;">48%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 18.1409%;">Immanuel Quickley</td>
<td style="width: 17.0729%;">12%</td>
<td style="width: 22.5467%;">25%</td>
<td style="width: 14.4026%;">57%</td>
<td style="width: 18.5414%;">42%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 18.1409%;">Mike Conley</td>
<td style="width: 17.0729%;">14%</td>
<td style="width: 22.5467%;">33%</td>
<td style="width: 14.4026%;">52%</td>
<td style="width: 18.5414%;">43%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 18.1409%;">Kevin Durant</td>
<td style="width: 17.0729%;">14%</td>
<td style="width: 22.5467%;">35%</td>
<td style="width: 14.4026%;">75%</td>
<td style="width: 18.5414%;">52%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 18.1409%;">Tyus Jones</td>
<td style="width: 17.0729%;">14%</td>
<td style="width: 22.5467%;">42%</td>
<td style="width: 14.4026%;">62%</td>
<td style="width: 18.5414%;">48%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 18.1409%;">Khris Middleton</td>
<td style="width: 17.0729%;">15%</td>
<td style="width: 22.5467%;">25%</td>
<td style="width: 14.4026%;">65%</td>
<td style="width: 18.5414%;">44%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 18.1409%;">Devin Booker</td>
<td style="width: 17.0729%;">15%</td>
<td style="width: 22.5467%;">28%</td>
<td style="width: 14.4026%;">66%</td>
<td style="width: 18.5414%;">43%</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
From a pure math perspective, it feels like these shot diets are inefficient. All eight see their shooting clips decrease with this slight movement away from the basket, and they post much better at-rim rates even while they're not elite finishers (except Durant). And unlike the whole mid-range vs. three-point discourse, there's no change in point value at stake.
Yet, Durant, Booker and Middleton are some of the best bucket-getters in the NBA. Paul and Conley have carved up opposing defenses for over a decade. Underwhelming rim pressure is clearly not a death sentence for scorers as long as they can maximize their chances. Quickley is starting to do that.
Since the All-Star break, the 22-year-old is hitting on 62% of his attempts at the rim and 49% of his short-mid-range shots without major changes in frequency. He's shooting 54.3% on drives to the basket, a respectable 15th out of 72 players with at least three driving shot attempts per game.
What's helping him is the almighty Immanuel Quickley Floater that he has practically trademarked.
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More pistol action, here we see that RJ/IQ chemistry. When RJ is the primary initiator IQ is able to revert to his more natural role; secondary creator/spacer. Look at the attention RJ draws. IQ pumps his way past a Danny Green close-out to set up his floater. Scope the Obi cut. <a href="https://t.co/V3c0ImA0h6">pic.twitter.com/V3c0ImA0h6</a>
&mdash; The Strickland (@TheStrickland) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheStrickland/status/1499437563785920517?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 3, 2022</a></blockquote>

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An effective floater is simply a deadly weapon in today's pick-and-roll-heavy game. If guards beat a switch or aggressive screen coverage, they have the floater at their disposal before help can arrive. The threat of a running shot can freeze roll-man defenders and open up lobs.&nbsp;
Quickley is knocking down 45.8% of his 131 floaters this season, according to NBA Stats, and is up to 57.6% post-All-Star break. Compare that to Trae Young (46.0% of 335 attempts in 2021-22), perhaps the most devastating floater assassin in the league. This shot helps Quickley compensate for a lack of downhill speed and strength.&nbsp;
The floater also points toward another high-IQ (heyo!) trait: foul-drawing. Quickley has become elite with this, and <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/in-defense-of-fouldrawing-a-gift-not-a-grift" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as Nekias Duncan detailed</a>, that's a good thing. He's been hacked on a whopping 19.9% of his shots coming out of the break per Cleaning the Glass &mdash; more than any other combo guard in the NBA. About half of those drawn fouls have come in the short-mid-range zones.
On the season, his 10.3% drawn-shooting-foul rate is in the 85th percentile at his position. It pays off; Quickley is canning 90.6% of his free throws.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Immanuel Quickley has been studying film on Trae Young, Steph Curry, and Chris Paul to help strategically get calls: "I'm not consciously trying, but if I see someone out of position, I try to get 'em" <a href="https://t.co/8NdSYpM2sO">pic.twitter.com/8NdSYpM2sO</a>
&mdash; Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) <a href="https://twitter.com/sny_knicks/status/1505026547434020867?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 19, 2022</a></blockquote>

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(Darth Sidious cackle)
Floaters and fouls don't mean Quickley is becoming the next Trae. He still has to improve his reads when he's in the paint, and attack instead of leaning on the floater as a crutch. But there's a blueprint here, and his blistering perimeter shooting only crescendos the excitement.
Much of the positivity surrounding Quickley's offensive fit was dampened earlier this season by his long-range slump. He shoulders a heavy load of pull-up attempts; over 30.7% of his total shots are pull-up threes. After some time off, Quickley has returned to a heat wave (scroll right to view full table):
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 12.4305%;">Season Segment</td>
<td style="width: 12.4305%;">Pull-up 3P Freq.</td>
<td style="width: 12.4305%;">Pull-up FG%</td>
<td style="width: 12.4305%;">Above-the-break Freq.</td>
<td style="width: 12.4305%;">Above-the-break 3P%</td>
<td style="width: 12.4305%;">Catch-Shoot 3PT Freq.&nbsp;</td>
<td style="width: 12.4388%;">Catch-Shoot 3P%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 12.4305%;">Pre-All-Star</td>
<td style="width: 12.4305%;">36.6%</td>
<td style="width: 12.4305%;">31.9%</td>
<td style="width: 12.4305%;">51.0%</td>
<td style="width: 12.4305%;">32.5%</td>
<td style="width: 12.4305%;">21.4%</td>
<td style="width: 12.4388%;">33.0%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 12.4305%;">Post-All-Star</td>
<td style="width: 12.4305%;">30.7%</td>
<td style="width: 12.4305%;">43.6%</td>
<td style="width: 12.4305%;">44.1%</td>
<td style="width: 12.4305%;">41.1%</td>
<td style="width: 12.4305%;">16.5%</td>
<td style="width: 12.4388%;">38.1%</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Quickley is clearly locked in from beyond the arc, and those slight decreases in three-point frequency correspond to an approximate 10% rise in shot frequency within 10 feet of the basket. It's still not all the way at the rim, but it is more IQ Floater territory. Quickley has a history of shooting proficiency through various levels of his basketball career. Though I won't bank on him being one of the best pull-up threats in the game, I do think this is a sign of growth versus a flash in the pan.
Before we wrap this up, I'd like to highlight a great thread from Ben Ritholtz at Knicks Film School:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
🎞🏀Knicks Film Thread🏀🎞 Featuring analysis by <a href="https://twitter.com/BenRitholtzNBA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BenRitholtzNBA</a>. Todays Lesson: Quick in the Paint Tracking IQs progress through the lens of his last 6 games. Roll the Tape! 1/12) The IQ from last year had one way to access the paint: PNR ➡️ get defender on back ➡️ floater. <a href="https://t.co/MEOAzTDRMO">pic.twitter.com/MEOAzTDRMO</a>
&mdash; Knicks Film School (@KnickFilmSkool) <a href="https://twitter.com/KnickFilmSkool/status/1506141343172767744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 22, 2022</a></blockquote>

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I recommend you watch all of the clips, but to summarize, Ritholtz is pointing out how Quickley is slowly improving his overall paint presence and outgrowing the reliance on the floater. It may be Quickley's go-to, but it can't be the standalone in his bag. Quickley has seriously fleshed out his handle, and can change direction at better speeds to get to his shot, catch a defender for a foul or create a lane. And I'm not even touching on the facilitation chops, which have flashed serious promise as Quickley continues to assume more on-ball responsibilities.
Quickley will regress at least slightly from his current scorching three-point rates. Would it be nice if he had a more forceful presence at the rim and a consistent mid-range jumper? Definitely. The point is his current shot diet &mdash; floaters, free throws and far-away threes &mdash; can be the foundation for a high-level scorer. As Quickley develops, those pillars should open up new ways for him to impact the Knicks' offense.
THE OUTLIERS (a.k.a. other random interesting numbers I found in the void):
<ul>
<li>How are the league's best offenses maximizing efficiency? Daniel Bratulic mapped out the top eight teams' playtype data. Transition and spot-up points seem to be popular:</li>
</ul>
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In the latest episode of <a href="https://twitter.com/AthleticNBAShow?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AthleticNBAShow</a>'s Nerder She Wrote, folks mentioned that the top teams are playing in a very diverse way. I tried to capture that through some radar charts displaying their preferences based on the play type. <a href="https://t.co/4SsJ6vZgRr">pic.twitter.com/4SsJ6vZgRr</a>
&mdash; Daniel Bratulić (@daniel_bratulic) <a href="https://twitter.com/daniel_bratulic/status/1506006295354171393?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 21, 2022</a></blockquote>

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<ul>
<li>SIS Hoops is back at it with another great informational table. Kevin Durant and DeMar DeRozan are taking full advantage of their green lights:</li>
</ul>
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Some of the most confident players in the league, here&rsquo;s who has the greenest lights when it comes to getting shots off despite heavy defense early in the shot-clock: <a href="https://t.co/5U44nidVAJ">pic.twitter.com/5U44nidVAJ</a>
&mdash; SIS Hoops (@SIS_Hoops) <a href="https://twitter.com/SIS_Hoops/status/1506683542905962502?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 23, 2022</a></blockquote>

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<ul>
<li>Going back to the leaders in driving FG% since the All-Star break &mdash; how about this top three: Jordan Poole (68.0%), Kevin Durant (67.3%) and Josh Hart (63.0%).&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
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Immanuel Quickley is averaging 14.4 points per game with a 64.2% True Shooting clip since the All-Star break.

NBA Stats Notebook: Immanuel Quickley's unusual shot diet can work

Across the country, teams are competing in conference tournaments and trying to punch their ticket for the NCAA Tournament. Selection Sunday is almost here, and then the tourney starts next Tuesday. Here's a recap of Friday's slate.
Games of the Day
Texas Tech def. Oklahoma 56-66 - Big 12 Semifinal The Sooners have been on the bubble for quite some time and, after a big win against Baylor, we&rsquo;ll have to wait and see what this loss does to them. They fought tooth and nail after being down 14 points in the second half, and even took a 54-52 lead with 3:05 to play. Clarence Nadolny hit a free throw to make it 56-54 and the Red Raiders held on from there. Great game.
Saint Louis def. St. Bonaventure 57-56 - A10 Quarterfinal Saint Louis held a nine point lead with 9:35 to go, but the Bonnies went on a run to take a one point lead with 1:24 remaining. Gibson Jimerson hit a jumper with 0:17 on the clock that would end up being the game-winner. Big win for the Billikens as they advance to the A10 Semifinals.
UAB def. MTSU 102-98 in 3OT - CUSA Semifinal In a thriller, the largest lead for either team was just seven points. With a 62-62 score after regulation, the two teams headed to overtime, in which Donovan Sims hit a clutch free throw to send it to double-overtime at 69-69. It would take another overtime, but Jordan Walker and co. finally sealed the deal at 102-98, keeping the team's dream alive.
Dayton def. UMass 75-72 - A10 Quarterfinal In the second half of this one, neither team led by more than five points as it went down to the wire. DaRon Holmes II made a jumper with 51 seconds remaining that gave Dayton a 69-68 lead, and they took it home from there. Holmes II would end with 28 points in a strong outing.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/usatsi_17876491_lg.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" />
Duke def. Miami (FL) 80-76 - ACC Semifinal The Canes led for a good part of the first half, but it was tied at 36-36 going into the break. Duke held a 69-65 lead with 2:09 to play and from there it was a free-throw game for the Blue Devils. Keels, Moore Jr., and Griffin knocked them down and were able to seal the deal. They advance to the ACC Championship.
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The Upsets, the Madness
Indiana def. Illinois 65-62 - Big Ten Quarterfinal The Hoosiers entered this game, once again, heavy underdogs with only a 29.2% chance of winning. They kept the first half competitive and trailed by only two points at the break, but turned on the jets and had a 5 point lead in just under 10 minutes to play. Indiana is still considered a Bubble Team, but along with yesterday&rsquo;s win, they should be more comfortable.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/usatsi_17876690_lg.jpg" alt="" width="452" height="548" />
Michigan State def. Wisconsin 69-63 &nbsp;- Big Ten Quarterfinal As a true bubble team, this was a huge win for Sparty. They advance to the Big Ten Semifinals thanks in large part to Marcus Bingham Jr. and his stellar performance. Marble II and Hoggard both provided sparks off the bench in the win.
Virginia Tech def. North Carolina 72-59 - ACC Semifinal After leading by six points at the break, the Hokies really opened it up halfway through the second half. Keve Alume posted 18 and Darius Maddox scored 20 huge points off the bench in the win. They move on to the ACC Championship and hope to put a bow on this amazing run.
Creighton def. Providence 85-58 - Big East Semifinal Creighton absolutely handed it to the No. 11 team in the nation. They led by 15 points at the break and only grew their lead as the game went on. With four players in double-digits scoring, it was a balanced attack from the get-go. Great win for the Bluejays.
Texas A&amp;M def. Auburn 67-62 - SEC Quarterfinal The Aggies have had a solid season, but I doubt many people saw this coming. Tyrece Radford and Quenton Jackson had big moments and now they are (likely) a lock for the NCAA Tournament. They will face Arkansas in the Semifinals.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/usatsi_17874929_lg.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="300" />
Standout Performances
Jordan Walker (UAB): 40 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists
Keegan Murray (Iowa): 26 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists
Xavier Castaneda (Akron): 26 points, 4 rebounds
Michael Ertel (UAB): 26 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists
DaRon Holmes (Dayton): 28 points, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks
Jordan Wright (Vanderbilt): 27 points, 6 rebounds
Noah Fernandes (UMass): 26 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals
Jesse Zarzuela (Coppin State): 27 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals
TyTy Washington (Kentucky): 25 points, 3 rebounds
Kameron McGusty (Miami FL): 24 points, 7 rebounds
Holland Woods (Grand Canyon): 24 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals
Deandre Dishman (MTSU): 23 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists
Kofi Cockburn (Illinois): 23 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks
Geo Baker (Rutgers): 23 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists
Brad Davison (Wisconsin): 23 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists
Teddy Allen (New Mexico State): 25 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists
Au&rsquo;Diese Toney (Arkansas): 22 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists
Jermaine Samuels (Villanova): 21 points, 12 rebounds
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/usatsi_17878061_lg.jpg" alt="" width="445" height="366" />
2022 NBA Draft: Prospect Watch
Keegan Murray (Iowa): 26 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists
TyTy Washington (Kentucky): 25 points, 3 rebounds
Ochai Agbaji (Kansas): 22 points, 3 rebounds
AJ Griffin (Duke): 21 points, 7 rebounds, 4-6 3PT
Jabari Smith (Auburn): 17 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks
Jaden Ivey (Purdue): 17 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks
Walker Kessler (Auburn): 16 points, 9 rebounds, 4 blocks, 3 steals, 2 assists
Tari Eason (LSU): 15 points, 3 assists, 3 steals
Johnny Davis (Wisconsin): 11 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists
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Derek Murray takes us through Friday's conference tournament results, as bubble teams battle for an NCAA tourney spot.

March Madness: Conference tournament Friday recap

March Madness is underway!
Across the country, teams are competing in conference tournaments and trying to punch their ticket for the NCAA Tournament. Selection Sunday is almost here, and then the tourney starts next Tuesday.
If you missed any of the Day 2 action, here's a recap of what went down on Thursday.
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Games of the Day
Indiana def. Michigan 74-69 &mdash; B1G Second Round
With 11:03 remaining, Michigan led 60-43 and appeared to be in complete control. The Hoosiers would go on a 20-2 run and took the life right out of the Wolverines, completing the comeback by winning 74-69. Trayce Jackson-Davis led all players with 24 points and 4 blocks in a stunner. Indiana faces No. 1 Illinois next.
Texas A&amp;M def. Florida 83-80 in OT &mdash; SEC Second Round
This one was wild. The Aggies dominated all afternoon and held a 9-point lead with 1:07 to play, but the Gators went on a 12-3 run of the next 50 seconds to tie it at 70-70, forcing the game into overtime. They stayed deadlocked at 78-78 with 1:10 left in overtime when Hassan Diarra hit a triple with one second on the clock to win 83-80. A huge win for a true Bubble Team in A&amp;M.
Arizona def. Stanford 84-80 &mdash; Pac-12 Quarterfinals
The largest lead either way today was 7 points &mdash; in a game where Stanford was given a whopping 5% chance of victory. The Cardinal took a 75-74 lead with just over three minutes to go, but the Wildcats had answers. Kerr Kriisa exiting with injury is important to monitor, but Christian Koloko led the team with 24 points as Arizona survives and advances.
Miami (FL) def. Boston College 71-69 in OT &mdash; ACC Quarterfinals
Kam McGusty led the Canes with 16 points in the nail-biter, as they avoided the upset in overtime. Only one basket was scored in the final 2:30 of the contest &mdash; a Jordan Miller layup that sealed the deal. A big save by Miami.&nbsp;
Villanova def. St. John&rsquo;s 66-65 &mdash; Big East Quarterfinals
The Red Storm let a 17-point second half lead slip away to end their season. Villanova was carried by its starting five, with only 7 points coming from the bench unit. Caleb Daniels led the way with 19 points and 7 rebounds. Justin Moore added 15 points of his own.&nbsp;
Toledo def. Central Michigan 72-71 &mdash; MAC Quarterfinals
In a game where the largest lead was 7 points for each team, Toledo held on for the 1-point win. Harrison Henderson scored with 20 seconds remaining to make it 71-70 Central Michigan, but a RayJ Dennis layup with 10 seconds left would seal the deal. Setric Milner Jr. led the way with 22 points for the Rockets. It's a big win for Toledo who currently projects a No. 13 seed.
Providence def. Butler 65-61 &mdash; Big East Quarterfinals
This one was back-and-forth from the tip, as the teams traded leads the entire contest. Tied at 55 with 3:06 remaining, Simas Lukosius hit a big pair of free throws for Butler to take the lead, but Al Durham hit a huge triple with 43 seconds to go for the Friars to take a 61-59 lead. Durham would follow with a dunk at the end of the game to seal the deal at 65-61. Despite the loss, it was a hard-fought game by the Bulldogs.&nbsp;
Wyoming def. UNLV 59-56 &mdash; Mountain West Quarterfinals
The Cowboys held a 9-point lead in the second half, but allowed the Rebels to fight their way back into it. Xavier DuSell hit a huge three with 30 seconds, and then, Brendan Wenzel iced the game with a pair of free throws. A great game from UNLV&rsquo;s Bryce Hamilton comes up just short.&nbsp;
Akron def. Buffalo 70-68 &mdash; MAC Quarterfinals
This was a fight from start to finish. Led by Ali Ali&rsquo;s 19-point effort and a pair of Greg Tribble free throws with four seconds remaining, the Zips survive and advance. They will face No. 1 seed Toledo on Friday afternoon in the MAC semis.
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The Upsets, the Madness
Oklahoma def. Baylor 72-67 &mdash; Big 12 Quarterfinals
The Sooners took the lead with 11:51 to play and never gave it back. With a balanced offensive attack of five players in double-digits, Oklahoma shocked the Bears. Jacob Groves led the way with 15 points, while Marvin Johnson provided 12 off the bench.&nbsp;
Vanderbilt def. Alabama 82-76 &mdash; SEC Second Round
Bama led by 10 points at the break but Scotty Pippen Jr. and Co. had other plans. Vandy roared back to take a 68-67 lead with 4:26 to play, and was able to hold the Crimson Tide off the rest of the way. Jordan Wright hit a pair of free throws late to ice the game, and the Commodores advance. Pippen Jr. ended with 26 points and 7 assists.
TCU def. Texas 65-60 &mdash; Big 12 Quarterfinals
The Horned Frogs had a win probability of 29.3% entering this one, and that&rsquo;s all they needed. After being down 40-20 in the first half, TCU did a complete 180 and outscored the Longhorns 45-20 the rest of the way. Mike Miles and Co. are setting themselves up well, and will take on the Kansas Jayhawks in the Big 12 semis.
Penn State def. Ohio State 71-68 &mdash; Big Ten Second Round
The Nittany Lions were given a 24.2% chance of winning today, and they did just that behind Sam Sessoms' 18 points off the bench. Jalen Pickett also had a huge game with 16 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Penn State moves on to play No. 3 Purdue.&nbsp;
Grambling def. Southern 60-58 &mdash; SWAC Quarterfinals
Led by Tra&rsquo;Michael Moton&rsquo;s 12 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists, Grambling took the lead with 10 minutes left in the game and never gave it back. The Tigers will face Texas Southern next.&nbsp;
Tulsa def. Wichita State 73-67 &mdash; American First Round
The Golden Hurricane had four players with 10 or more points, including two with at least 20. After an 11-19 season, this was a nice win for Tulsa as it tries to make a late push in the conference. Tulsa will move on to face No. 2 SMU.&nbsp;
Portland State def. Southern Utah 77-65 &mdash; Big Sky Quarterfinals
The Vikings entered this game under .500 on the season, but put up 77 points on 51.9% shooting from the floor. They held Southern Utah to a lowly 36.8% from the floor and are able to advance.
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/usatsi_17868177_lg.jpg" alt="" width="571" height="414" />
Standout Performers
Noah Fernandes (UMass): 29 points, 7 assists
Spencer Jones (Stanford): 28 points, 8 rebounds
Jimmy Boeheim (Syracuse): 28 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists
Keegan Murray (Iowa): 26 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal
Grant Sherfield (Nevada): 25 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds
Joel Murray (Long Beach State): 25 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds
Trayce Jackson-Davis (Indiana): 24 points, 8 rebounds, 4 blocks, 10-17 FG
Wendell Moore Jr. (Duke): 26 points, 8 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 block, 1 steal
Nate Watson (Providence): 26 points, 7 rebounds, 9-14 FG
Scotty Pippen Jr. (Vanderbilt): 26 points, 7 assists
Tristen Newton (East Carolina): 26 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists
Jordan Walker (UAB): 26 points, 5 steals, 3 rebounds, 3 assists
EJ Liddell (Ohio State): 25 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks
Orlando Robinson (Fresno State):&nbsp;25 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists
Christian Koloko (Arizona): 24 points, 9 rebounds, 10-12 FG
Dillon Jones (Weber State): 23 points, 11 rebounds, 3 steals
Julian Champagnie (St. John&rsquo;s): 23 points, 9 rebounds, 4 steals, 3 assists
Jaime Jaquez Jr. (UCLA): 23 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals
Prentiss Hubb (Notre Dame): 23 points, 5 assists
Zyon Pullin (UC Riverside):&nbsp;23 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds
Amadou Sow (UC Santa Barbara): 21 points, 16 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks
Bryce Hamilton (UNLV): 22 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists
Mahki Morris (Abilene Christian): 22 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds
Chuba Ohams (Fordham): 20 points, 16 rebounds, 2 steals
Darien Jackson (Tulsa): 20 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks
Brady Manek (UNC): 21 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists
Malique Jacobs (Kent State): 21 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists
Kowacie Reeves (Florida): 21 points, 6 rebounds
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/usatsi_17866936_lg.jpg" alt="" width="381" height="272" />
2022 NBA Draft: Prospect Watch&nbsp;
Keegan Murray (Iowa): 26 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal
Wendell Moore Jr. (Duke): 26 points, 8 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 block, 1 steal
EJ Liddell (Ohio State): 25 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks
Orlando Robinson (Fresno State):&nbsp;25 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists
Christian Koloko (Arizona): 24 points, 9 rebounds, 10-12 FG
Jaime Jaquez Jr. (UCLA): 23 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals
Tari Eason (LSU): 19 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks
Justin Lewis (Marquette): 17 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals
Ochai Agbaji (Kansas): 18 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals
Trevor Keels (Duke): 14 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists
Jabari Walker (Colorado): 18 points, 16 rebounds
Iverson Molinar (Miss. State): 19 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists
Julian Champagnie (St. John&rsquo;s): 23 points, 9 rebounds, 4 steals, 3 assists
Collin Gillespie (Villanova): 14 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists
David Roddy (Colorado State): 13 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks
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March Madness is underway! If you missed any of the Day 2 action, here's a recap of what went down during Thursday's games.

March Madness: Conference tournament Thursday recap

When the Golden State Warriors won the right to the second overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, the prevailing sentiment was that the rich were getting richer.
And as he nears his 2021-22 season debut, Wiseman may end up being instrumental in determining whether the Warriors can truly hit the jackpot.
According to Dieter Kurtenbach of the Bay Area News Group, Wiseman <a href="https://twitter.com/LockedOnDubs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">will return to the lineup</a> for the Warriors on March 1 when the team opens up a four-game road trip in Minnesota. For Golden State head coach Steve Kerr, the second-year big man will probably be a sight for sore eyes.
During his rookie campaign, Wiseman had some flashes of brilliance, but his first stint was cut short after he suffered a torn meniscus last April. Now, about 10 months later, Wiseman will be joining a club that has since seen Steph Curry return to being an MVP-caliber contributor and Klay Thompson return to its lineup looking as strong as ever.
Andrew Wiggins has become an All-Star, while Jordan Poole has become one of the league&rsquo;s most effective reserves. From Jonathan Kuminga to Gary Payton II to Otto Porter Jr., the Warriors have gotten consistent, high-level production across the board.
But what&rsquo;s even better for Wiseman is this: He represents what is perhaps the only glaring need on the club &mdash; depth up front.
For the sophomore, opportunity knocks.
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With Draymond Green still on the shelf due to a nagging back injury, Kerr has gone to smaller lineups, with Kevon Looney remaining the only true 5-man pivoting the paint for the club.&nbsp;
But as serviceable as Looney has been as the team&rsquo;s starting center, his lack of a scoring punch on the offensive end has been one of the few weaknesses that the team has had. Despite being one of the league&rsquo;s top defensive teams, the Warriors' relative mediocrity on offense has been apparent in some of the close contests they&rsquo;ve lost this season.
Fortunately for Golden State, that&rsquo;s the area where Wiseman has shown the most upside.
And fortunately for him &mdash; unlike during his rookie season &mdash; he will have the luxury of playing off of the likes of both Curry and Thompson. Wiseman won&rsquo;t be the focus of any opposing team&rsquo;s scouting report, and that is what will help him quickly become a difference-maker for the Warriors.
As a rookie, in just 21.4 minutes per game, Wiseman managed to score 11.5 points and grab 5.8 rebounds per contest. More impressive, though, was the fact that he connected on just under 39% of his shots that came from beyond 16 feet of the basket.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s hard to imagine him not being the beneficiary of more open looks playing with a relatively healthy club. With his size and athleticism, he will give Kerr a type of big-man weapon that hasn&rsquo;t been at his disposal during the Warriors&rsquo; dynasty run, and that&rsquo;s with all due respect to Andrew Bogut.
Looney is the only player on the team&rsquo;s roster to appear in all 59 Warriors games this season, and he&rsquo;s started each and every one of them. He himself admitted to being a little beat up and he, more than anyone else, was looking forward to the break.
In comes the 20-year-old savior.
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Some quick hitters from James Wiseman's presser Wednesday morning: -The 5on5 scrimmage -The procedure in December -Frustration of rehab -Weight room work -Value of patience -Staying off Social Media -Hobbies outside of hoops <a href="https://t.co/lpYJGagOnz">pic.twitter.com/lpYJGagOnz</a>
&mdash; Jason Dumas (@JDumasReports) <a href="https://twitter.com/JDumasReports/status/1494031835369594883?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 16, 2022</a></blockquote>

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As always, the Western Conference playoffs will be incredibly competitive. But the Warriors will enter play on Feb. 24 with the league&rsquo;s top Defensive Rating (104.8) and third-best Net Rating (plus-7.0). With only 23 games remaining on their regular-season schedule, they trail the Phoenix Suns by 6.5 games for the conference&rsquo;s top seed. It would take a relative collapse on the part of the Suns for them to yield the position to the Warriors, but with <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/chris-pauls-absence-could-actually-benefit-suns-longterm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chris Paul set to miss the next 6-to-8 weeks</a>, the possibility can&rsquo;t be completely dismissed.
In most instances, the most highly-touted young players don&rsquo;t get drafted into situations where they&rsquo;ll be flanking future Hall-of-Famers still in their prime or joining rotations with championship aspirations. And when they have in the past, those players haven&rsquo;t usually been afforded the opportunity to play meaningful minutes during the chase.
Wiseman is original in that sense.
As a prospect, it&rsquo;s difficult to not be excited by his size and potential, and for the Warriors in particular, he fills one of the few needs on the team&rsquo;s roster.
Usually, teams that are 42-17 don&rsquo;t end up adding difference-making pieces with fresh legs this late in the season. Golden State, though, will soon receive that infusion.
Already considered the cream of the West, the rich will indeed get richer.
To the tune of a 7-foot big man with an impressive offensive repertoire, Steph Curry, Steve Kerr and the rest of organization remain hopeful that Wiseman can help them cash in.&nbsp;
After being selected with the No. 2 overall pick less than two years ago, the timing seems just right; he&rsquo;ll now have every opportunity to make good.
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Moke Hamilton writes on James Wiseman's impending return to the Warriors and how unique his opportunity will be.

Long-awaited return of James Wiseman will fill Warriors’ only void

After first signing with Puma in 2018 to help relaunch its basketball category, Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton has landed a multiyear footwear and apparel endorsement deal to continue his partnership with the brand.
"It's pretty lit. It's truly a blessing as well," Ayton said. "The reason I signed with Puma from the beginning, is I wanted to be different."
Source: <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32952007/phoenix-suns-center-deandre-ayton-lands-puma-extension-charitable-focus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nick DePaula of ESPN</a>
ANALYSIS: DePaula went on to report that, "the new deal, negotiated by agent Nima Namakian of Innovate Sports Group, is expected to place Ayton among the league's top-three highest paid athletic brand endorsers at the center position. Puma has been finding its footing in the hoop space after a nearly two-decade hiatus from landing any NBA endorsers, and Ayton has long had an affinity and familiarity with the company."
DePaula added that a key component of Ayton's new Puma extension will be designating a sizable budget allotment for community activations and giveback events.
"We're a giving family. Growing up, you're not coming to my house without leaving with a full belly,"-Deandre Ayton (via ESPN).

According to ESPN, Suns center Deandre Ayton has signed an extension with Puma, with the deal featuring a 'charitable focus.'

Deandre Ayton re-ups with Puma, new deal features a 'charitable focus'

PUMA has announced a multiyear endorsement deal with 17 year-old, five-star prospect Mikey Williams &mdash; making him one of the youngest basketball athletes to sign with a global footwear company.
Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/boardroom/status/1453727543341694985?s=21">Boardroom</a>
ANALYSIS: Williams joins an exciting growing group of emerging talent at PUMA in LaMelo Ball, RJ Barrett, Michael Porter Jr., and Terry Rozier. The young guard has blazed a trail in the new era of name, image and likeness deals for high school and college athletes. Williams previously became the first high school basketball player to ever sign with a professional sports agency when he <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/mikey-williams-signs-with-excel-sports-to-pursue-nil-endorsement-deals" target="_blank" rel="noopener">joined Excel Sports this summer</a>.

PUMA has announced a multiyear endorsement deal with 17 year-old, five-star prospect Mikey Williams — making him one of the youngest basketball athletes to sign with a global footwear company.

5-star prospect Mikey Williams signs endorsement deal with PUMA

The <a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/charles-barkley-on-winning-the-mvp-over-michael-jordan-no-1-he-didnt-deserve-it-michael-should-know-better/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-stringify-link="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/giannis-antetokounmpo-shares-why-he-doesnt-associate-or-practice-with-other-nba-players-in-the-offseason/" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">following article</a>&nbsp;first appeared on&nbsp;<a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="http://basketballnetwork.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="http://BasketballNetwork.net" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">BasketballNetwork.net</a>:
The 1992-93 season was Charles Barkley&lsquo;s year. The Philadelphia 76ers traded him to Phoenix, and Sir Charles finally felt like he had a team he could lead to the NBA title. A lot of people think he became a better player with the Suns, but Barkley himself disagrees. He actually feels he was a worse player in Phoenix compared to Philly.
&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t elevate anything. I was a much better player in Philly," Barkley <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sports/2021/07/27/charles-barkley-talks-team-usa-winning-mvp-michael-jordan/5381584001/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in an interview with USA Today Sports this past July</a>. "What elevated me was Dan Majerle and Kevin Johnson. My numbers were not nearly as good as they were before. I had five or six better years in Philly, but we didn&rsquo;t have great teams. But when they gave me Dan Majerle and Kevin Johnson, I was like, &lsquo;I can take on anybody now.&rsquo;&rdquo;
And he did. Coached by the late, great Paul Westphal, Barkley led Majerle, Johnson, Richard Dumas, Danny Ainge, Tom Chambers, Cedric Ceballos, Oliver Miller and Co. to a Western Conference-best 62-20 record. From the moment he got there, Barkley knew they needed to be great because Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls would be waiting for them in the Finals. Majerle credits Chuck for making the team believe they had a chance against the Bulls, and the main reason for that was simple &ndash; Chuck believed he was better than MJ.
&ldquo;I got everybody together at the beginning of the season. I said, &lsquo;Guys, we&rsquo;re going to play the Bulls for the championship. We&rsquo;re going to win the West because I&rsquo;m the best player in the world,'" Barkley <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sports/2021/07/27/charles-barkley-talks-team-usa-winning-mvp-michael-jordan/5381584001/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. "'Michael Jordan is great, but he has more help than me. But I&rsquo;m the best player in the world and I got you guys. We&rsquo;re going to go to the Finals and we&rsquo;ll see what happens.&rsquo;&rdquo;
The Suns got off to a decent start, winning 5 out of their first 7 games &ndash; then the Bulls came to town. Barkley knew Jordan would use every opportunity to plant the seed of doubt into their heads. This may have been a November game, but it mattered for what would happen in June. The Bulls won by 17, and Barkley wasn&rsquo;t happy.
&ldquo;I remember the Bulls came to Phoenix and they smoked us," Barkley <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sports/2021/07/27/charles-barkley-talks-team-usa-winning-mvp-michael-jordan/5381584001/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recalled</a>. "I remember going crazy after the game and saying, &lsquo;Guys, that&rsquo;s the team we&rsquo;re going to play in the [expletive] Finals. I know that [expletive] Michael Jordan. He sent me a message, &lsquo;You better bring more next time.&rsquo; I remember that night in the locker room. I was throwing stuff. I said,, &lsquo;Guys, I told ya&rsquo;ll we were going to play that team in the Finals and ya&rsquo;ll are out here messing around. We&rsquo;re not even on their level yet.&rsquo; Then, we went on a 12-game winning streak after that. Then, we became the great team that we were.&rdquo;
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At the end of the regular season that year, the Suns were the best team in the NBA with 62 wins. Barkley averaged 25.6 points, 12.2 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game. He may have had &ldquo;five or six better years in Philly,&rdquo; but he never took as many shots as he did that year. With 18.1 attempts per game, Barkley let everyone on the team know that he could take responsibility when the lights shone the brightest. Barkley's performance that year earned him the regular-season MVP, and that didn&rsquo;t sit well with Jordan.
But the Suns forward didn&rsquo;t care.
"No. 1, he didn&rsquo;t deserve it. We had the best record in the NBA. Michael should know better," Barkley <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sports/2021/07/27/charles-barkley-talks-team-usa-winning-mvp-michael-jordan/5381584001/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. "There were years he was the best player in the NBA, probably three years before he won MVP, but the Bulls team was no good. The MVP has always gone to the best player on the team with the best record. It has nothing to do with best player."
Barkley was right about the Finals &ndash; MJ and the Bulls were waiting for them there. The Bulls won 4-2 and completed their first three-peat. Did it happen because MJ was better than Barkley, or because he had more help? That's for fans to decide.
But with the way he played that season, it&rsquo;s no surprise Sir Charles was full of confidence.
He was the MVP.
Check out more articles from BasketballNetwork.net <a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Charles Barkley opened up on a number of topics with USA Today this past July, including his 1992-93 MVP season and Suns' tenure.

Charles Barkley talks winning 1992-93 NBA MVP over Michael Jordan

Donovan Mitchell scored 37 points and the Utah Jazz forced nine straight misses down the stretch to outlast the Los Angeles Clippers 117-111 on Thursday night and take a 2-0 lead in their Western Conference semifinal series.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
🕷 Spida. 4 straight 30-point Playoff games. Another level. 37 PTS 4 AST 6 3PM 43.6 FPTS<a href="https://twitter.com/utahjazz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@utahjazz</a> up 2-0. <a href="https://t.co/V2JD40mLBV">pic.twitter.com/V2JD40mLBV</a>
&mdash; NBA Fantasy (@NBAFantasy) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBAFantasy/status/1403216921575792644?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 11, 2021</a></blockquote>

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Mitchell clinched the game with a driving shot with 43 seconds remaining but then appeared to hurt his leg slightly on a foul by Paul George with 10 seconds to play. He made one of two free throws after hobbling to the line.
The guard is the first Jazz player with at least 35 points in back-to-back playoff games since Karl Malone in 1988.
Jordan Clarkson scored 24, including six 3-pointers, while Joe Ingles had 19 points and Rudy Gobert contributed 13 points and a career playoff-high 20 rebounds.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Joe Ingles made some BIG-TIME plays in the <a href="https://twitter.com/utahjazz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@utahjazz</a> dub, including this 👌 19 PTS | 4 AST | 4 3PM | 30.8 FPTS <a href="https://t.co/mUZs8JnsuQ">pic.twitter.com/mUZs8JnsuQ</a>
&mdash; NBA Fantasy (@NBAFantasy) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBAFantasy/status/1403215881631682565?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 11, 2021</a></blockquote>

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Reggie Jackson led the Clippers with 29 points and George had 27. Kawhi Leonard scored 21 points but managed just two in the fourth quarter.
The series shifts to Los Angeles on Saturday for Game 3.
Once the Clippers took their only lead at 101-99 after consecutive 3-pointers by Jackson, the Jazz forced nine consecutive misses to power a 14-2 run that was capped by Ingles' 3-pointer to make it 113-103 with 3:07 to play.
In the second half, the Clippers mixed multiple coverages and cut off the passing lanes that usually garner the Jazz clean 3-point looks and Jackson got hot.
Mitchell scored 27 first-half points &mdash; the most by a Utah player in the last 25 years &mdash; to spark the Jazz to an early lead and then a late second-quarter push to boost Utah to a 66-53 halftime lead.
Mitchell shot 11 of 16 in the first half and did the same in the second half of Game 1. He tallied 59 points on 22-of-32 shooting over those four quarters.
The demonstrative Mitchell has said he wants to conserve energy with the exceptional physical demands of the playoffs, but he couldn&rsquo;t help showing emotion one some of his spectacular finishes.
Mike Conley missed his second game after injuring his hamstring late in the Utah-Memphis series finale but the Jazz have now won six straight playoff games.
Jackson scored 16 points in the third quarter and the Jazz finally started missing shots against an active Clippers zone. Their 21-point lead shrunk to four when Marcus Morris drove the lane and flipped in a leaning shot to make it 82-78. The Clippers made their comeback without Leonard, who sat most of the period with four fouls.
For most of the game, the Clippers looked for Gobert whenever they ventured into the lane and resorted to double-pumps and odd angles on the shots at the basket that weren&rsquo;t blocked by the long-armed Frenchman.
Leonard, George and Patrick Beverley were among the Clippers that shadowed Mitchell in addition to throwing double-teams at the Utah guard well beyond the 3-point line.
Instead of going small, the Clippers countered Gobert with DeMarcus Cousins and Ivica Zubac, who was hampered with foul trouble in the first half.
TIP-INS
Clippers: After posting the league&rsquo;s all-time best free throw percentage in the regular season (83.9%), the Clippers made 20 of 23. &hellip; Jackson&rsquo;s 16 third-quarter points were the most he&rsquo;s scored in a single quarter in the postseason. &hellip; LA outscored Utah in the paint 42-32.
Jazz: Coach Quin Snyder and owner Ryan Smith presented Gobert his third Defensive Player of the Year Award before tipoff. &hellip; Ingles got a flagrant foul for an arm to the head of Beverley after the Clippers guard fouled him early in the fourth quarter. &hellip; The Jazz made 20 3-pointers (on 39 attempts) to set a franchise playoff record.

Donovan Mitchell scored 37 points and the Jazz forced nine straight misses down the stretch to outlast the Clippers 117-111 to take a 2-0 series lead.

Donovan Mitchell has 37, Jazz beat Clippers 117-111 for 2-0 lead

The 2021 Tampa Bay Pro Combine is in the books. The inaugural event featured 41 prospects competing in 5-on-5 games, which were streamed for NBA executives and scouts. Several players have already earned NBA workouts after shining at the TBPC.&nbsp;
Here is the All-Combine-Team, which was determined by the event&rsquo;s coaches and organizers:
&nbsp;
D'Mitrik Trice, Wisconsin, Guard
18.0 PPG, 7.0 APG, 4.3 3PG, 1.5 SPG, 52.0 FG%, 55.0 3PT%
&nbsp;
D.J. Funderburk, N.C. State, Center
15.0 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 1.5 3PG, 0.7 TOs, 49.0 FG%, 46.0 3PT%
&nbsp;
Hasahn French, Saint Louis, Forward
9.0 PPG, 10.0 RPG, 2.8 APG, 1.0 BPG, 1.0 TO, 47.0 FG%
&nbsp;
Joel Ntambwe, Texas Tech, Forward
20.0 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 2.3 APG, 1.3 SPG, 49.0 FG%, 42.0 3PT%
&nbsp;
Jordan Goodwin, Saint Louis, Guard
18.0 PPG, 10.0 RPG, 4.5 APG, 2.3 SPG, 1.8 TOs, 42.0 FG%
&nbsp;
Justin Gorham, Houston, Forward
16.0 PPG, 11.0 RPG, 4.3 APG, 1.8 TOs, 49.0 FG%, 46.0 3PT%
&nbsp;
Micah Potter, Wisconsin, Forward
18.0 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 2.3 3PG, 0.5 BPG, 1.2 TOs, 52.0 FG%, 36.0 3PT%
&nbsp;
Obadiah Noel, UMass Lowell, Guard
14.0 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 2.3 APG, 0.7 SPG, 48.0 FG%
&nbsp;
Quade Green, Washington, Guard
16.0 PPG, 5.8 APG, 5.3 RPG, 1.3 SPG, 41.0 FG%
&nbsp;
Ryan Daly, Saint Joseph's, Guard
16.0 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 3.8 APG, 1.0 SPG
&nbsp;
Terry Taylor, Austin Peay, Forward
18.0 PPG, 12.0 RPG, 1.5 SPG, 1.8 TOs, 51.0 FG%
&nbsp;
Troy Baxter Jr., Morgan State, Forward
17.0 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 1.8 BPG, 1.0 SPG, 52.0 FG%
&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/2021-tampa-bay-pro-combine-recap-the-statistical-leaders-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Here are the complete stats from the Tampa Bay Pro Combine.</a>

The Tampa Bay Pro Combine announced the All-Tournament-Team, which was determined by the event's coaches and organizers.

Tampa Bay Pro Combine: Announcing the All-Tournament Team

The Tampa Bay Pro Combine has announced the professional draft prospects that will be participating in its inaugural event.

Tampa Bay Pro Combine announces roster of pre-draft prospects

Kelly Oubre Jr. is desperately trying to play in the postseason, but he&rsquo;s still experiencing significant pain in that wrist.
Source: J<a href="https://twitter.com/JDumasReports/with_replies?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1393293735912349696%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfgate.com%2Fwarriors%2Farticle%2FWarriors-Kelly-Oubre-Jr-playoffs-Memphis-Grizzlies-16178651.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ason Dumas of KRON-TV Sports (Twitter) </a>
ANALYSIS: <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/warriors/article/Warriors-Kelly-Oubre-Jr-playoffs-Memphis-Grizzlies-16178651.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Head coach Steve Kerr told a local sports radio that</a>, "It's one of those injuries that's been lingering. It's been a real shame, because I know how much he wants to be out here with his teammates." In his first season with Golden State, Oubre Jr. is averaging 15.4 points and 6.0 rebounds in 30.7 minutes per game.
The Warriors face the Grizzlies this afternoon, in a game which will decide who gets the 8th seed ahead of the NBA's play-in tournament.

Warriors' Kelly Oubre Jr. (wrist) is still in significant pain as the Warriors get set to enter the play-in tournament.

Kelly Oubre Jr. (wrist) still in 'significant' pain, hopes to play in playoffs

One of the perks of covering the NBA is that you get to attend a ton of games, so you're bound to witness some wild moments firsthand. Our writers have been covering the league for many years, so we asked:
What's the craziest NBA moment that you've witnessed in-person?
Alex Kennedy: For me, it has to be Ray Allen's clutch three-pointer in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals. During the fourth quarter, my boss and I were sitting in the media area and figuring out our travel plans. If the Spurs won, the series was over and we'd fly home the next day; if the Heat won, we would need to stay in Miami for Game 7. With 28.2 seconds remaining, the Spurs went up by five and my boss, Steve Kyler, booked our flight home for the following day. He assumed the series was over! Shortly after, Chris Bosh grabs the rebound, Allen hits the shot and everyone was stunned. After the game, talking to Bosh, Allen and their teammates was a lot of fun; everyone immediately realized that they had just been part of something really special and historic. And, fortunately, we were able to reschedule our flight!
Spencer Davies: With the exception of seeing Kevin Durant nail a three over LeBron James to win his first championship (and subsequently repeating the shot over JR Smith in the following Finals), I would be lying if I didn&rsquo;t say LeBron&rsquo;s 2018 playoff run as a whole. There were two times -- Game 5 vs. the Indiana Pacers and Game 3 vs. the Toronto Raptors -- where The King nailed game-winners at the final buzzer. The first occasion, LeBron actually came up with the block on Victor Oladipo&rsquo;s layup and then&nbsp;knocked down the three out of the inbound (Indiana likely wins that series without it). With the second, LeBron ripped Toronto&rsquo;s soul right out of its heart with a full-court drive up the left side of the floor, threw up a 16-foot floater and banked it in as his body was going toward the baseline to give the Cleveland Cavaliers a commanding 3-0 lead. Just absolutely ridiculous moments to witness in person, especially having to withhold your thoughts being at the media table.
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Moke Hamilton: I'm so blessed to have covered seven NBA Finals and seen some truly incredible moments at Madison Square Garden, both as a young fan and a pro covering the league. Like in 2003, when Latrell Sprewell set the single-game record for most threes made without a miss (he shot 9-for-9). Years later, I saw the late, great Kobe Bryant score 61 and saw Carmelo Anthony top that by scoring 62. I covered Linsanity. And I saw some crazy things covering the Atlantic Division some years ago. But truth is, I think the craziest thing I ever saw was Ray Allen making &ldquo;the shot&rdquo; in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals; I had the good fortune of witnessing that piece of history live. I think what&rsquo;s more crazy about the shot itself was the amount of blunders the Spurs made in the final minute of that game. From missed free throws to blown coverages to failing to box out, the team that&rsquo;s always credited for its fundamentals couldn&rsquo;t close out a game they needed and they lost both Game 6 (and the ensuing Game 7) as a result. That outcome was crazy and it was only possible with Allen&rsquo;s shot, so I&rsquo;ve gotta go with that.
Imman Adan: Raptor fans booing Vince Carter&hellip; while he was still on the team. I&rsquo;ve been to many games that saw fans in the Scotia Bank Arena (formerly: Air Canada Centre) boo Vince Carter, but none like this. It was a cold autumn night, November 20, 2004, and the Toronto Raptors were in the midst of getting their derri&egrave;res flamb&eacute;ed by the San Antonio Spurs. A dejected Carter looked like he&rsquo;d rather be anywhere else than on the court when boos began to rain down. Eventually, head coach Sam Mitchell put Carter and fans out of their misery by benching him. This miraculously allowed sophomore Chris Bosh to lead a 19-point comeback, with the Raptors outscoring the Spurs 33-9 in the fourth quarter to win, 96-91. Now, this is far from the craziest NBA story, but it was a pivotal game in Raptors history -- a franchise-changing moment that signified a shift in leadership from Carter to Bosh.
Jonathan Concool: This is a tough one, but I&rsquo;m going to go with the November 20, 2010 game between the Los Angeles Clippers and New York Knicks. This was Blake Griffin&rsquo;s rookie year and it was still early in the season, so no one really knew how good this Griffin kid was since he had just missed the previous year due to injury. Well, I&rsquo;d like to think this is the game when the whole world got to know Griffin. Griffin had two literal jaw-dropping dunks during this matchup with the Knicks. One of them, Griffin was on a fast break against Knicks forward Danilo Gallinari and he spun into a monster slam on Gallinari in the open court. The other (more famous) one is, of course, the Timofey Mozgov poster, which will live on for eternity. Being in the arena to witness those dunks was truly an unforgettable experience.
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Kelsea O'Brien: Norman Powell&rsquo;s <a href="https://youtu.be/uao0ZZ8r52s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Game 5 dun</a>k against the Indiana Pacers in his rookie season. I was behind the basket when it happened. It was my birthday. It was electric -- a total tectonic, cultural shift for the Raptors (who went on to win the game).
Nekias Duncan: I went to a Heat-Bobcats (yes, Bobcats) game during the 2011-12 season. I was still early in my writer phrase, so this was simply a &ldquo;Hey, I want to watch the Heat&rdquo; experience. Anyway, with around three minutes left in that game, Chris Bosh ISO&rsquo;s at the top of the key. He pumps, drives, then <a href="https://youtu.be/l0yIQUUXJ8o" target="_blank" rel="noopener">jams over DJ White</a> for an and-one. It was one of the best dunks I&rsquo;d ever seen in a live setting, and also terrifying because Bosh landed so awkwardly that I was sure he&rsquo;d broken a leg or torn his groin or something.
Chris Sheridan: The craziest moment I have ever seen came when Shaquille O'Neal attempted a foul shot. The ball hit the rim so hard that it actually bounced over the basket stanchion. I challenge anyone to try to replicate that happenstance, and I would love to see a video of it happening. I am unable to find the video, but I saw it with my own two eyes.
Ethan Fuller: Tacko Fall's&nbsp;preseason debut against the Charlotte Hornets was unlike any game atmosphere I have ever witnessed in person. The crowd was thundering when Brad Stevens motioned for Fall to jump in with nine minutes left. It's the loudest I have experienced TD Garden -- and it was a&nbsp;preseason&nbsp;game. Two guys were wearing taco suits! Truly a bizarre, awesome, mythical game to be at.

We asked our BasketballNews.com staff to share the craziest NBA moment they witnessed firsthand.

Roundtable: What's the craziest NBA moment you've witnessed in person?

Fran Fraschilla discusses his upbringing, coaching career, transition to broadcasting, fatherhood, whether he'd coach again, and more.

Fran Fraschilla Q&A: 'If someone wants to take a chance on me, I'd consider coaching again'

There&rsquo;s a good chance that your favorite NBA player has spent time in the gym with skills coach Chris Brickley. After all, many stars have trained with Brickley or participated in his open runs in New York. That includes LeBron James, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Carmelo Anthony, Joel Embiid, Kawhi Leonard, Donovan Mitchell, Chris Paul, Jaylen Brown, Devin Booker, CJ McCollum, Trae Young, Russell Westbrook, Victor Oladipo and D&rsquo;Angelo Russell among others.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s also possible that your favorite artist has hooped with Brickley, considering Travis Scott, Chris Brown, Justin Bieber, J. Cole, Quavo, Meek Mill, Trey Songz, Lil Durk, YG, Russ, Sheck Wes and Jack Harlow have shown up to work out or play in pick-up games.
Brickley was a walk-on at the University of Louisville who then made the transition to coaching. After working as an assistant coach at the college level for several years, he joined the New York Knicks as their director of player personnel. Since leaving the Knicks to train players individually, Brickley has become one of the biggest basketball influencers in the world, with over 1 million followers on Instagram and his own ESPN+ show (&ldquo;Declared&rdquo;). He&rsquo;s also a brand ambassador for a number of companies such as PUMA, Lids and, now, BODYARMOR.&nbsp;
Brickley just recently partnered with BODYARMOR, becoming their latest ambassador. He joins an impressive lineup that includes Harden, Mitchell, Young, Ja Morant, Christian McCaffrey, Mike Trout, Kyler Murray, Mookie Betts and Naomi Osaka among others.&nbsp;
BasketballNews.com caught up with Brickley to talk about his career, his famous pick-up games, his stint with the Knicks, his BODYARMOR partnership and much more.
You were the New York Knicks&rsquo; director of player personnel before leaving to train players independently. How is your job different when you&rsquo;re running your own training business versus working for an NBA team?
Chris Brickley: I would say that being part of a team, the goal is to win games. You have players come in and out. I was with the Knicks for a few years and we went through 40-to-50 different players. Now, having my own business and doing the training, I know I&rsquo;m going to have [the same player] - whether it&rsquo;s Donovan Mitchell or whoever - for five, six, seven years. It&rsquo;s kind of like a long-term thing and you&rsquo;re really invested in these players. They&rsquo;re not going to get traded and you don&rsquo;t have to worry about contracts and stuff; I&rsquo;m just worried about getting them better. That&rsquo;s kind of what I like to do at this point, just lock in with the player and build a relationship with them and develop their game&hellip; I just stay locked in to what I do. I wake up in the morning, I talk to the players, I watch games, I do what I need to do in terms of my partnerships, I go to sleep and then it repeats.
Would you be open to working for an NBA team again if the circumstances are right?
Brickley: Yeah, maybe in the future. Right now, I&rsquo;m super happy where I&rsquo;m at. But maybe down the line. I wouldn&rsquo;t X it out.
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Fans don&rsquo;t get a chance to see most of these offseason workouts aside from a few clips on social media, so what are some of the biggest misconceptions about NBA training and the work that players put in?
Brickley: You don&rsquo;t necessarily expect people to know how hard these guys work; they aren&rsquo;t going to brag about it. But for sure, to be in the NBA and especially to be successful in the NBA, you need to have a different type of work ethic. It&rsquo;s not just playing games. It&rsquo;s not just doing workouts either. It&rsquo;s watching film, it&rsquo;s what you take, it&rsquo;s what you drink. For example, this BODYARMOR partnership that we&rsquo;re about to announce, what these guys put in their body [matters]. It&rsquo;s about being mindful in every single thing that you do - from drinking the right thing to eating the right thing to watching enough film to doing recovery and so on. It&rsquo;s much more than just basketball.
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How did the BODYARMOR partnership come together?&nbsp;
Brickley: I&rsquo;m super excited about it. I think it just makes sense since BODYARMOR is kind of on the rise as a company. They&rsquo;ve been on the rise; they have everybody from Donovan Mitchell to James Harden to Trae Young - it&rsquo;s a really good roster of guys. I&rsquo;d like to think that my company and what I&rsquo;m trying to build is on the rise too. We&rsquo;re both grinding to become the best in our fields. I know one of BODYARMOR&rsquo;s goals is, by 2025, to be the biggest sports drink in the game. For me, my goal is to be the biggest trainer in the game. It made sense and I&rsquo;ve always been a big fan of BODYARMOR and I&rsquo;ve always drank it, so it&rsquo;s very organic.
What advice would you give to aspiring trainers?
Brickley: That&rsquo;s a good question. First, you need to be passionate about the game of basketball. You have to be willing to understand that you might work for 10 years and not make much money. Things might not really get moving [for a while], so you have to be willing to make sacrifices. You have to be willing to sacrifice your time, sacrifice going out and partying, and things like that. Because, first and foremost, if you want to be a trainer, you need to put your time toward your players. If you don&rsquo;t have any players, how are you going to be a trainer? So you need to dedicate your time to the players and show the players that you&rsquo;re always there for them any time. Do they want to watch film late at night? Do they want to work out early in the morning? Whatever time they want to watch film or work out, I&rsquo;m going to be ready. It&rsquo;s just a big sacrifice. And you won&rsquo;t see results for a while. That&rsquo;s something that I&rsquo;d want to explain to a young trainer: Don&rsquo;t think that you&rsquo;re going to sign deals or get rich or anything like that, just be in it for the love of the game.
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You&rsquo;re basically on call 24/7. You&rsquo;ve talked about how Carmelo Anthony sometimes wants to work out at 2 a.m. and you never say no. Do guys often reach out in the middle of the night? And what is that like, being on call all day and night?
Brickley: Yeah, all the time. Living where the gym is, it&rsquo;s a good thing and it&rsquo;s a bad thing. Guys know that [I&rsquo;m always there]. Sometimes, guys will be on the road during the season&nbsp; - especially pre-quarantine - and they might play the Knicks or the Nets the next night and while they&rsquo;re in town, they want to get some work in at my gym in New York City, at The Summit.
I read that you and Carmelo got close because you would give him honest feedback and constructive criticism after games. I feel like a lot of stars appreciate that since most people in their life won&rsquo;t say those things. How has that honesty helped your relationships with players?
Brickley: I think you need to be, I think that&rsquo;s how the relationship builds. There&rsquo;s no relationship that&rsquo;s based off of, &ldquo;Hey, good job! You&rsquo;re the man! Good job! Good job!&rdquo; You&rsquo;re never going to build an organic relationship like that. I think you need to give constructive criticism and you need to explain to them what the real deal is. Like, &ldquo;You didn&rsquo;t play as hard as you should&rsquo;ve tonight,&rdquo; or maybe, &ldquo;You need to work on your pull-up off the left and work on finishing with the right.&rdquo; You can&rsquo;t just start the relationship like that, obviously, but as you get closer to someone [you can be honest]. That&rsquo;s what I do, and I think giving constructive criticism works. It shows them that you&rsquo;re paying attention and that you want to help them get better as a person and as a player, and I think they take a liking to that. And that&rsquo;s when you can get to work.
You&rsquo;re known for having star-studded pick-up games in your gym. What&rsquo;s the craziest pick-up game you&rsquo;ve witnessed? Is there a certain game that stands out?
Brickley: Yeah, I&rsquo;ve had a few legendary ones. When COVID isn&rsquo;t in the way, there are legendary ones every summer. If I had to pick, I&rsquo;d go with this one from 2017. KD had just won [the championship] and he beat LeBron. That happened and then literally two months after that series, LeBron and KD flew in and they played against each other. They were guarding each other, picking each other up full-court. There was a whole bunch of tension in the gym because they literally just got done playing against each other for the championship, and now they were playing in this private run against each other. That&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ll never forget. There were like 15 NBA guys there: Melo, J.R. Smith (who was also playing in that series), Enes Kanter (who, at the time, had beef with KD), Hamidou Diallo (who was in college at the time). There were all types of funny storylines.&nbsp;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
An incredible run today. One of the best open runs of all time? You decide. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AcademyBasketball?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AcademyBasketball</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RelentlessPursuit?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RelentlessPursuit</a> <a href="https://t.co/bNeHpgG11r">pic.twitter.com/bNeHpgG11r</a>
&mdash; Academy Basketball (@__TheAcademy) <a href="https://twitter.com/__TheAcademy/status/897552027005456386?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 15, 2017</a></blockquote>

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I&rsquo;ve talked to a number of players and trainers about which position takes the longest to develop in the NBA. A lot of people have said that big men take the longest since they need to get bigger, develop lower-body strength and they are basically boys among men when they first enter the NBA. Do you agree that big men take the longest to become significant contributors?
Brickley: Yeah, especially because for big men, the game has changed. The game has evolved even since I was coaching in the NBA. It&rsquo;s tough to be a big man who just catches the ball on the block and turns and shoots. If that type of game was in, then Enes Kanter would be an All-Star since he&rsquo;s shooting like 60%. That&rsquo;s just not how the game is now. You need to be able to dribble a little bit and shoot threes and pick-and-pop and knock down mid-range shots. It&rsquo;s rare to see teams dribble down and throw the ball into the post; nobody really plays through the post now. Being a big - a real big, a seven-footer - you need to develop a little more [than other positions]. You might be really good at rebounding or you might be really good defensively - there might be one thing that you&rsquo;re really good at - but it&rsquo;s rare for a big to come into the league being able to shoot the three, dribble (for dribble handoffs), finish around the rim and play defense. As a big, you need to do a whole bunch of things, so I think it always takes some time.
Yeah, someone like Kanter would&rsquo;ve been dominant 20-30 years ago.
Brickley: Yeah, 100%.
You have a bunch of players who work hard, but is there a certain player who has really impressed you with their work ethic and hunger to improve? Is there anyone specific who stands out?
Brickley: Off the top of my head, I would have to say Donovan Mitchell, who&rsquo;s also with BODYARMOR. I&rsquo;ve worked with him since, shoot, 2015. I worked with him back in his college days and just to see his [improvement]... People were like, &ldquo;He might go first round, he might go second round; we don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo; I saw him work through that and then have an amazing rookie year and still continue to work out at 6 a.m. every morning. Then, he comes back and has another great year and he&rsquo;s back in the summer and still wants to work out at 6 a.m. every morning. Then, he becomes an NBA All-Star! Through all of these amazing things that he&rsquo;s done, he hasn&rsquo;t lost an ounce of motivation. When the offseason comes, he&rsquo;s texting me, &ldquo;Ready to go at 5 a.m.? Ready to go at 6 a.m.?&rdquo; His work ethic is crazy. When I see that he&rsquo;s an All-Star and has his own sneaker and has his deal with BODYARMOR, it just makes sense. He deserves it all.
What are your thoughts on how Donovan and the Jazz have played this season? It&rsquo;s been pretty incredible.
Brickley: I think he&rsquo;s playing great, and they have the best record in the league. I think [credit] goes to their coaching and Donovan&rsquo;s leadership, and the way they play - the way they move the ball, the way they play defense. It seems like they&rsquo;re playing faster this year. It&rsquo;s going to be interesting once the playoffs come because there are a bunch of really good teams. Right now, the Jazz look really good.

NBA skills coach Chris Brickley opens up about his star-studded pick-up games, his career, his advice for aspiring trainers and more.

NBA skills coach Chris Brickley: 'My goal is to be the biggest trainer in the game'

The Minnesota Timberwolves have managed to be the center of the NBA universe twice in a three-day span.
On Friday night, Anthony Edwards converted a poster dunk -- yes, <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-dunks-poster-posterized-dunktionary-nekias-duncan-slam-putback-flyby-fastbreak-transition-lebron-james-vince-carter-blake-griffin-shaq-gerald-green-demar-derozan-larry-nance-jr-jayson-tatum" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an actual poster</a> -- with remnants of <a href="https://youtu.be/gOcdOF04-wk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">McGrady-on-Bradley</a> shining through. The dunk was so nasty, the conversation around it turned into a philosophical debate about single-game analysis and what really matters.&nbsp;
On Sunday night, the Wolves fired head coach Ryan Saunders. The move itself wasn&rsquo;t a shock; even within the context of injuries and COVID woes, a league-worst 7-24 record following a 19-45 campaign the year before doesn&rsquo;t inspire much confidence. Beyond bad and/or unavailable personnel, the process on both ends of the floor screamed, &ldquo;This needs to be shaken up, and quickly.&rdquo;
The hiring of Raptors assistant Chris Finch is one worth being optimistic about. He&rsquo;s long been regarded as one of the best offensive minds in basketball; heck, the Wolves interviewed him for the head gig before eventually hiring Saunders after the 2018-19 season. The existing history between Finch and the Wolves, specifically team president Gersson Rosas -- the two worked together in Houston as part of their then-D-League affiliate -- takes away some of the awkwardness of a hmm-that-was-quick coaching search.
While it&rsquo;s fair to feel uneasy about the <a href="https://twitter.com/Dame_Lillard/status/1363704821497298945?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">optics of the hire</a>, the bottom line remains: this is a team in need of major overhaul. They have a generational offensive talent in Karl-Anthony Towns that they need to build around in an effective manner.
Towns recently expressed his desire to build a legacy in Minnesota, but he&rsquo;ll need help. The clock is ticking, and the Wolves don&rsquo;t necessarily have, say, Blazers-esque front-office competency to fall back on and feel super comfortable banking on Towns being their Damian Lillard. Here&rsquo;s how the Wolves should go about building this thing out.
UNLEASH QUARTERBACK KAT
Making sure your best player gets a healthy amount of touches isn&rsquo;t a profound analysis. At this point, it isn&rsquo;t as simple as getting Towns the ball: the Wolves need to reconfigure their thoughts on what Towns is.&nbsp;
He isn&rsquo;t just a talented three-level scorer; he has the scoring gravity and, more importantly, the passing chops needed for him to operate as a primary initiator. I mean this solely in terms of usage: the Wolves have to treat Towns more like Nikola Jokic and less like Nikola Vucevic.
<a href="https://twitter.com/C2_Cooper">Caitlin Cooper</a> of Indy Cornrows, the Indiana Pacers&rsquo; blog for SB Nation, wrote <a href="https://www.indycornrows.com/2020/10/6/21501224/how-chris-finch-could-invert-the-pacers-offense-with-continuous-spacing">a fantastic piece</a> detailing Finch&rsquo;s offensive philosophy. Though it was written within the context of how his hiring could juice the Pacers&rsquo; offense and maximize the talents of Domantas Sabonis, many of those points are applicable to the Wolves and Towns.
The major theme of that piece, and what&rsquo;s important to gather in relation to a shift in usage for Towns, is the inversion of the offense. To put it simply: instead of primarily using actions that feature guards feeding Towns down low, Towns should be the primary initiator, stretching defenses from above the break to open up possibilities for everyone else.
We know what Towns brings to the table as a scorer. He&rsquo;s drained at least 40 percent of his threes in each of the past four seasons -- a 41.1 percent clip on nearly five attempts over that span. He&rsquo;s a sniper with his feet set, but adds another layer of terror by being able to fly off pindowns.&nbsp;
Per Synergy, Towns has graded in the 86th, 74th, 59th, and 81st percentile as a post scorer. His blend of touch, strength and footwork are rivaled by only a handful of players in the league.
Towns&rsquo; passing ability just hasn&rsquo;t been tapped into enough. Some of that starts with his actual placement in the offense. Towns has ranked 38th (3.6), 28th (3.6), 33rd (3.3), and 43rd (2.5) in <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/touches/?sort=ELBOW_TOUCHES&amp;dir=1&amp;Season=2020-21&amp;SeasonType=Regular%20Season" target="_blank" rel="noopener">elbow touches per game</a> over the past four seasons. For reference, Jokic, Sabonis, and Marc Gasol have taken turns leading the league during that stretch with double (and sometimes triple) the volume.
What&rsquo;s frustrating is that the Wolves have hinted at different actions that highlight Towns&rsquo; scoring gravity and passing ability.
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/kat-blind-pig.gif" alt="" width="706" height="AUTO" />
This is a variation of &ldquo;blind pig&rdquo; action -- a pitch to a high-post hub as another player cuts off of him simultaneously. It&rsquo;s about the pass -- you have to have a certain level of timing and touch to pull this action off -- but it&rsquo;s also about the placement. Towns being stationed just inside the arc brings Dwight Powell above the free-throw line. You can quibble about Powell being caught flat-footed instead of being more on his toes, but the recovery angle is tougher because of how high he&rsquo;s brought out. Ricky Rubio isn&rsquo;t even an explosive athlete, but with him catching the pass with a full head of steam, there&rsquo;s no time for Powell to turn and affect the shot.
If you want a more traditional example of an elbow touch, try this possession on for size:
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/kat-horns.gif" alt="" width="702" height="AUTO" />
It&rsquo;s a HORNS alignment. Nothing fancy, but it&rsquo;s important to note the positioning of LaMarcus Aldridge. He&rsquo;s basically in Towns&rsquo; jersey. As Malik Beasley &ldquo;ghosts&rdquo; the back-screen for Juancho Hernangomez and cuts, the paint is completely exposed.&nbsp;
What&rsquo;s special about Towns is that, though he can execute these sorts of sets, there&rsquo;s an improvisational aspect to his game just waiting to be explored.
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/kat-fake-cross%2C-manipulation.gif" alt="" width="706" height="AUTO" />
The Wolves are setting up a cross-screen underneath the basket to get Towns a post-up. Towns reverses course on the fly, rejecting the screen and lifting up to the wing. Nerlens Noel has to take the road less traveled to get there; Towns pumps, drives, then finds Jaden McDaniels after reading the &ldquo;tag&rdquo; from Reggie Bullock.
The Wolves are an odd case to where they&rsquo;ve taken the &ldquo;right&rdquo; shots -- only the Rockets (82.8%) and Raptors (77.3%) have taken a <a href="https://www.pbpstats.com/totals/nba/team?Season=2020-21,2019-20&amp;SeasonType=Regular%2BSeason&amp;StartType=All" target="_blank" rel="noopener">larger share of their shots at the rim or from three</a> than the Wolves (76.4%) over the past two seasons -- but the offense has still been terrible. The first step to correcting that issue is leveraging the full breadth of Towns' skill set. Shots at the rim and threes are inherently valuable, but you still have to create quality looks from those areas.
PULLING THE PLUG EARLY
&ldquo;Towns and D&rsquo;Angelo Russell have only played five games together! The Wolves don&rsquo;t really know what they have in them yet.&rdquo;
It&rsquo;s a common, somewhat reasonable counter to the dire straits the Wolves find themselves in. You can&rsquo;t call an experiment a failure if you haven&rsquo;t had the opportunity to test it out.
[taps forehead]
I&rsquo;m not sure how hot of a take this is, but I&rsquo;d argue the Wolves have seen enough. In the case of Russell, he&rsquo;s young (25), but not young enough to where we don&rsquo;t have a handle on his strengths and weaknesses. There&rsquo;s still room and time for him to grow, but we have the template: a pull-up artist with good passing vision that doesn&rsquo;t pressure the rim, and a poor defender with limited upside.
Russell has utility, but it&rsquo;s fair to question if he&rsquo;s truly a core piece you want to build with long-term. The &ldquo;poor defender with limited upside&rdquo; bit may seem harsh, but the Wolves want to build a winner around Towns at a certain point. That means thinking about what this team will look like in a playoff setting. Within that context, having Russell at the point of attack in end-of-game scenarios is problematic for obvious reasons.
About that utility: the bulk of Russell&rsquo;s value comes on the offensive end. He&rsquo;s a slithery guard in high ball-screen situations with an ability to pull-up from just about anywhere. When he&rsquo;s rolling, he&rsquo;s able to leverage the threat of his shot to sling cross-court dimes when the defense rotates early.
In a world where Towns soaks up more playmaking usage, how valuable is Russell to the offense? When you add in the context of Malik Beasley further establishing himself as a stationary and movement shooter, the downhill fire that Edwards brings and the borderline destructive nature of Russell&rsquo;s defense, what exactly is the argument to him being QB2 on the Wolves&rsquo; core list?
To be clear, the defensive fit for Russell is a much more pressing issue than the offensive fit. And while I understand the Wolves don&rsquo;t have to choose between two of the Russell/Edwards/Beasley triumvirate, there may be diminishing returns with keeping Russell long term.
It&rsquo;s hard to imagine there wouldn&rsquo;t be teams that could talk themselves into a shot creation upgrade: Philadelphia, Dallas, New York and Memphis come to mind. There are some workable &ldquo;young secondary ball-handler + defensive pieces&rdquo; deals to be had if you fire up your local trade machine.&nbsp;
STEPPING UP
Minnesota will need to up its level defensively, figuratively and literally. Though we&rsquo;ve seen stretches of improvement, Towns remains a less-than-ideal backline anchor. The Wolves mostly deploy him in drop coverage, keeping him near the rim to contest shots and clean the glass.
The issue is that Towns still struggles to navigate the gap while dropping. Too often, he&rsquo;s caught dropping back too far and giving up easier intermediate shots (you want long twos in an ideal world), or he&rsquo;s lunging at the ball-handler and giving up an easy pass behind him.
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/kat-bad-drop.gif" alt="" width="706" height="AUTO" />
You can see what Towns was thinking: &ldquo;My guy got caught; I need to take away the elbow jumper!&rdquo; He seemingly had no faith in McDaniels (No. 3) providing &ldquo;nail&rdquo; help to either take away a potential pull-up or contest it. The result was Towns taking himself out of the play.
At this point, I&rsquo;m interested in seeing the Wolves take the opposite approach: bring Towns to the level of the screen or have him hard hedge. Force some activity.&nbsp;
The Wolves now have a pair of versatile forwards -- McDaniels and Jarred Vanderbilt -- that provide real value as weakside rim protectors. To draw on the Jokic/Nuggets example from earlier in the piece: McDaniels or Vanderbilt would be Minnesota&rsquo;s version of Paul Millsap in this scheme. You can afford to put two to the ball, in pick-and-rolls or on drives if you have this kind of explosiveness behind you.
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/mcdaniels-swat.gif" alt="" width="706" height="AUTO" />
We have enough evidence that Towns isn&rsquo;t capable of anchoring a defense right now. If he can&rsquo;t navigate space and make reads on the fly, simplify his job and surround him with length and athleticism so there&rsquo;s less to navigate.&nbsp;

Nekias Duncan dives into how the Wolves can maximize Karl-Anthony Towns' underutilized skill set on both ends of the floor.

Reshaping the Timberwolves in Karl-Anthony Towns' image

A lot of people criticize and ridicule LaVar Ball. In fact, he&rsquo;s been called every name in the book: a helicopter parent, a smotherer, an exploiter of his own children, a media whore, a terrible businessman and just an overall jerk. He&rsquo;s been described as overbearing and detrimental to his kids&rsquo; careers, as well as sexist and misogynistic.
However, he also put both Lonzo and LaMelo in position to be top picks in the NBA Draft. Lonzo was the No. 2 overall pick in 2017 and it&rsquo;s very possible that LaMelo will go No. 1 in this year&rsquo;s draft. LaVar always believed in them, maybe even more than they believed in themselves. He prepared them, supported them and set them up for success on and off the court.&nbsp;
Let&rsquo;s go back to the beginning. LaVar began preparing his children almost from birth. They have told this story many times, but they started training shortly after learning to walk. They did push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups. They hopped onto steps or furniture around the house. They did sprints in the street and ran up hills. He put a court in his backyard and ran them through drills. He recruited other neighborhood kids to come work out and play in scrimmages against them. They would hold training camps regularly. Again, this was while they were still learning their ABCs.
The three brothers - Lonzo, LiAngelo and LaMelo - were very talented. LaMelo was the youngest and LaVar always challenged him to compete against kids who were four or five years older than him. On the AAU circuit and in high school, he played alongside his older brothers and this fast-tracked his development.&nbsp;
Then, LaVar did something that had never been seen before. He took a completely unconventional approach with LaMelo, pulling a then-16-year-old LaMelo out of his high school so that he could play professionally in Lithuania. He joined a team called Vytautas Prienai alongside his older brother, LiAngelo, who was 19 at the time. This gave them the opportunity to compete against grown men in a professional league with a history of producing NBA players.&nbsp;
LaMelo became the youngest American to play professional basketball overseas. The media was critical of this decision and skeptical of whether it would actually help the teenagers. But LaVar ignored all of the doubters and stuck to his plan.&nbsp;
He also began teaching his sons about business, marketing and the importance of ownership. They capitalized on their popularity by creating their own brand (Big Baller Brand) and LaMelo became the first-ever high school player to have his <a href="https://twitter.com/bigballerbrand/status/903299440349396992?s=21">own signature shoe</a>.
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/lamelo1_lg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="AUTO" />
LaMelo was achieving things that were unprecedented for someone his age. Then, LaVar took LaMelo&rsquo;s talents to Australia to play for the Illawarra Hawks of the National Basketball League (NBL). He signed a two-year contract in Australia and in his first game, he finished with a double-double of 12 points and 10 assists. He continued improving and a few games later, he had a career-high 32 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds in an overtime win, becoming the youngest player in NBL history to record a triple-double.
The next game, he registered another triple-double with 25 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists, making him just the fourth player in NBL history to record consecutive triple-doubles. He was putting on a show and quickly became one of the league&rsquo;s most dominant players.&nbsp;
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He even had the business savvy to <a href="https://www.sportscasting.com/lamelo-ball-could-possibly-own-his-australian-basketball-team/">attempt to buy</a> the team after the season. And although he wasn&rsquo;t successful in his bid to buy the team, he impressed many people with his ambition and business acumen (which was taught to him by his father).&nbsp;
Now, every 2020 NBA mock draft has LaMelo as a top pick. In fact, many mock drafts have him going No. 1 overall. Jonathan Givony of ESPN <a href="http://insider.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/30280664/nba-draft-intel-latest-top-picks-trades-lottery">reported</a> that multiple NBA front officers are "under the assumption" that LaMelo will go first overall on Nov. 18 (either to the Minnesota Timberwolves or to a team that trades up to select him).
I would say that LaVar did a great job with LaMelo.&nbsp;
Now, don&rsquo;t get me wrong: A father&rsquo;s job isn&rsquo;t solely to get his children to the NBA. And just because your children make it to the league doesn&rsquo;t mean you were a great parent. A parent&rsquo;s top responsibility is preparing their child for life. And there&rsquo;s much more to life than basketball.
This brings me to this past summer when LaMelo, Lonzo and LiAngelo were <a href="https://lonzowire.usatoday.com/2020/05/31/watch-lamelo-ball-news-lonzo-liangelo-protest-george-floyd-black-lives-matter-chino-hills-instagram/">on the front lines</a> of the Black Lives Matter protests in Chino Hills following the murder of George Floyd. And who was right there to give the Ball brothers support and guidance? Their father. During a <a href="https://castbox.fm/episode/A-Big-Baller-Father's-Day-(ft.-Lavar-Ball)-id2962974-id278164184?country=gb">podcast appearance on &ldquo;Say Less</a>,&rdquo; talked about the protests and the message he gave his sons when they were deciding whether to join in.
&ldquo;As far as all the political preference of any player or anybody, man, stick to your thing and do your thing. I explained to my boys on certain situations, &lsquo;I get it. I get the protesting and I get that.&rsquo; But I said, &lsquo;Be careful out there.&rsquo; Because you have to understand what a protest is. What I mean by that&hellip; When you want to be political about a lot of things, you got to go the full route. Don&rsquo;t do it [for just] 20 minutes or two days. Out of all the protestors, they&rsquo;re only taking pictures of the celebrities. But let me ask you this: What were you doing before that protest? Did you protest some other things? Or was you out spending and making your money until now [and you&rsquo;re showing up now so] we can be visible?
&ldquo;You got people out there with videos and masks on just showing that they was there but they ain&rsquo;t really about that. Because you can&rsquo;t be about it for no one week. You got to do some other things in your life if you want to take that political stance and you want to be in that lane. Don&rsquo;t work all your life to be a basketball player and you ain&rsquo;t went to one council meeting and all of the sudden you got this voice and now you want to be like, &lsquo;I want justice, I want peace.&rsquo; So guess what? The people&rsquo;s that&rsquo;s done that, leave it to them. Let them do what they do and you can support that your own way.&rdquo;
To me, that sounds like good advice from a good father. This led Lonzo to <a href="https://lonzowire.usatoday.com/2020/11/01/lonzo-ball-lavar-black-lives-matter-george-floyd/">tell reporters:</a>&nbsp;"I&rsquo;m proud of my dad for stepping in there and showing support for the movement. He&rsquo;s definitely a powerful black figure in today&rsquo;s world, so anything he says is going to get out there and I&rsquo;m glad he&rsquo;s supporting the right message.&rdquo;
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/lamelo12_lg.jpg" alt="" width="771" height="AUTO" />
This is, of course, contrary to what is often written about LaVar Ball. But just because something is written doesn&rsquo;t make it true.&nbsp;
CBS reporter Reid Forgrave <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/lavar-ball-is-a-lot-of-things-but-a-bad-father-doesnt-appear-to-be-one-of-them/amp/">provided some context</a> to the time when LaVar went on Colin Cowherd's show and told Cowherd's co-host, Kristine Leahy, to "stay in your lane." This caused social media to explode and jump-started the vilification of LaVar Ball. But context is important:
According to Forgrave, &ldquo;Leahy was doing a television segment on Ball and his basketball-playing sons, and here's what she said: &lsquo;All three sons, they're being forced to do it. They're being told, 'You will start basketball at age six,' just like Lonzo told us. And whenever you asked him a question, I think [Lonzo] said, what, five words? He looks terrified whenever he's talking. He looks genuinely afraid.&rsquo;&rdquo;
I don't know about you, but if anybody said that about me and my child, I'd blow my top. LaVar clearly went into that interview primed to disrespect someone &ndash; not women in general, as his "stay in your lane" comment was unfortunately interpreted, but Leahy specifically. Because she had attacked his family. To me, the most relevant part of Ball's diatribe wasn't "stay in your lane." It was what he told Leahy when she asked why he had a problem with her.&nbsp;
"My problem is, you are a hater," he said.
I remember when Richard Williams, the father of Serena and Venus, was protective of a then-14-year-old Venus when a reporter was questioning her confidence in herself. Williams interrupted the reporter to protect his daughter, just as any good father would.
"You've got to understand that you're dealing with [the] image of a 14-year-old child,&rdquo; Williams said. &ldquo;And this child is gonna be out there playing when your old ass and me are gonna be in the grave&hellip; Let her be a kid. She answered with a lot of confidence; leave that alone!&rdquo;&nbsp;
Just as LaVar was criticized, so was Richard Williams.&nbsp;
(It&rsquo;s funny how that same criticism is rarely distributed to the protective Mama Bear figures that run rampant through youth sports. Anyone involved in youth sports has seen overprotective mothers create absolute mayhem on soccer fields and volleyball courts like you wouldn&rsquo;t believe. I actually had a mother run on the floor when her baby fell down, push past the medical people, fuss at everyone to give her baby some room and actually carry her son in her arms to the sideline when all he did was bump knees with someone. But I digress...)&nbsp;
But the looming question surrounding LaVar Ball is this: Is he so overbearing and overprotective and outspoken that teams should shy away from his sons altogether?
I asked New Orleans Pelicans color analyst Antonio Daniels about LaVar since he spent much of last season around him and his son, Lonzo, on the Pelicans.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always given LaVar credit for being present, motivating and pushing his sons towards success,&rdquo; Daniels said. &ldquo;I think people feel like Zo and Melo are the only success stories, but all three of his boys were put in a position to have their college paid for. That&rsquo;s success right there. His methods may be somewhat suspect, but we can&rsquo;t argue with the results.&rdquo;
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/lonzo_lavar1_lg.jpg" alt="" width="791" height="AUTO" />
Has Antonio personally witnessed LaVar creating any distractions or publicly criticizing coaching strategies or demanding more playing time for Lonzo or anything like that?&nbsp;
&ldquo;Not at all,&rdquo; Daniels said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;d sit right behind us in the arena. He was super quiet and never said a word. He and his family cheered like everyone else. I literally didn&rsquo;t hear a word from LaVar all year. There were zero distraction from him the entire season.&rdquo;
It appears as though every move LaVar Ball makes is calculated and for a purpose. He knows when to be quiet and stay in the background. And he knows how to promote his product and to get people talking. He knows how to market himself, his sons, his reality show and his brand. Most recently, even his reaction to LaMelo signing with Puma got the media talking. He seemed furious, which created a buzz and got people to tune in. That&rsquo;s just great marketing and the show is in its sixth season, so obviously they&rsquo;re doing something right.
Earlier this year, Lonzo opened up about his current relationship with his father.&nbsp;
&ldquo;We had a couple rumblings here and there, but everything got squared away,&rdquo; Lonzo told <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29883967/lonzo-ball-looking-lead-my-career-signs-klutch-sports">ESPN&rsquo;s Malika Andrews</a>. &ldquo;When your son gets older, they&rsquo;re going to butt heads with their dad, and that&rsquo;s what I did for about a year and a half. But everything is cool now.&rdquo;
LaVar had a similar comment when asked to respond.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s always been his own man,&rdquo; LaVar <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29883967/lonzo-ball-looking-lead-my-career-signs-klutch-sports">stated to ESPN</a>. &ldquo;As a father, all I can do is guide him. I&rsquo;m not going to take a lesser role. I am going to be his father, and that&rsquo;s it.&rdquo;
LaVar Ball has been accused of being loud, obnoxious, rude, dismissive, uncouth, offensive, discourteous and so on. But tossing these adjectives into an ever-spinning media echo chamber to somehow arrive at the conclusion that LaVar must also be a bad father is baseless. There simply aren&rsquo;t any facts or evidence to support that claim.

With LaMelo Ball projected to be a top pick in the NBA draft (just like Lonzo), it's hard to argue with LaVar Ball's results, says Etan Thomas.

You can’t call LaVar Ball a bad father

Update: ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski says after a productive meeting, Doc Rivers has emerged as "a serious candidate" for the Philadelphia 76ers' head coaching job. Rivers spoke with Sixers general manager Elton Brand on Wednesday.
Source:<a href="https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1311692854025236483?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Adrian Wojnarowski on Twitter</a>
Update: Source: Doc Rivers is currently with the Sixers brass and will watch Game 1 of the NBA Finals with them. A job offer is expected to follow soon.
Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/JDumasReports/status/1311464015894253568" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jason Dumas of Kron4News (Twitter)</a>
Original report: According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the 76ers and Doc Rivers are expected to meet locally in the team's hometown.
Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1311330150273998851?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shams Charania on Twitter</a>
ANALYSIS:&nbsp; We knew it wouldn't be long before Rivers found himself back in the head coaching conversation; in just three days, he's already drawn interest from multiple teams. The Sixers have been looking for answers and a new voice, and with superstar talent in the building, the former Los Angeles Clippers leader looks like he will be signing with Philadelphia, according to sources.
Rivers had met with the 76ers earlier Wednesday and apparently the talks went well as they are now likely to offer Doc a job later tonight.

In just three days, Rivers has already drawn interest from multiple teams.

Saint Joseph's (IN) Pumas