 To channel my inner-most fandom, it's time to fire up the trade machines. Anthony Davis has reportedly asked for a trade from the New Orleans Pelicans, ending his seven-plus year tenure with the franchise. After Davis made it evidently clear he would not sign any extension with the Pelicans, super-max or otherwise, there was no reason for the Pelicans to fight this request. Davis will be traded, and this will be his last season in a Pelicans jersey.
The question becomes: Are they going to deal him at the trade deadline? Only ten days exist between the trade deadline and the Davis request, giving the front office a short amount of time to negotiate a deal that might be the biggest reshaper for the franchise and the make-or-break to what keeps them in New Orleans. No pressure. There are many factors at play in the trade saga, so here are a few tidbits to consider, as well as a few trade partners that make sense, for GM Dell Demps and the Pelicans front office.
0 Comments
This article is a facsimile of an earlier version published on The Basketball Writers (TBW), which recently closed its doors. Sometimes the most effective weapon is the one your enemy expects least.
In a league over-saturated with the pick-and-roll, how do NBA offenses still find wrinkles that make the action effective? It's often via legitimate unguardability, like James Harden and the scorching hot streak he's on for the Houston Rockets. Or, effectiveness can come from action prior to or after the ball screen that disrupts a normal defensive rotation. The even more unheralded answer? Scarcity of a commodity. That is, how infrequently does a pick-and-roll combination occur? High volume creators find ways to the top of opponent scouting reports, draw reps during walk-throughs, and even the focus of everyone on the court. Most are deserving of that volume: They are great creators in ball screens, the team's best option for offense, or both. Think back to the John Stockton and Karl Malone days of the 90s, where ball screens were reserved for the team's best creator and best finisher. Offenses have evolved beyond that; now the skill sets of all professional players include the pick-and-roll game. Emerging from that evolution is a series of highly-efficient, low-volume ball screen options that are as unorthodox as they are infrequent. Big-to-big combinations, inverted actions with posts as the ball handlers and traditionally one-dimensional shooters utilizing their gravity in new ways. Let's celebrate the uniqueness of three pick-and-roll combinations that are checking all those boxes and creating offense at a highly efficient rate: This article is a facsimile of an earlier version published on The Basketball Writers (TBW), which recently shut its doors.  While the San Antonio Spurs climb out of the huddled Western Conference mess and prove themselves a viable bunch, they remind us of their overall talent:
First-ballot Hall of Fame coach Gregg Popovich; a world-class ownership group and front office; two All-NBA players in DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge; solid, dependable veterans like Rudy Gay, Patty Mills, Marco Belinelli, Dante Cunningham and the returning Pau Gasol. Great teams have players who exceed at their role. Beyond their star power, the Spurs have always gotten auxiliary players to not just buy into a supporting spot, but thrive within it. Young guard Bryn Forbes is fourth on the Spurs in scoring after entering the season with low external expectations. Derrick White has been a terrifying perimeter defender and a strong slasher. But no player embodies playing their role more than Davis Bertans. On Monday, January 7th, a few teams made auxiliary moves to either trade contracts they did not want, cut non-guaranteed contracts the day before they become guaranteed, or keep those contracts on board and solidify their roster. With the NBA trade deadline only a month away, these moves signal the types of options available for each team moving forward.
Below is a quick check on each NBA team and the situation they find themselves in moving forward: This article is a facsimile of an earlier version published on The Basketball Writers (TBW), which recently closed its doors.  Despite the fluctuations and depressions in the market, now is not the time to sell your Trae Young stock.
If someone told you before the year that Trae would be shooting only 28 percent from 3 and still scoring more than 15 per game, you would think they were lying. Yet here we are, bumping through the doldrums of early January, and Young is doing just that. A large part of the pessimism comes from Young's now lifelong connection to Dallas Mavericks rookie Luka Doncic thanks to the draft night trade involving the pair. The Slovenian is running away with the Rookie of the Year race, and the Atlanta Hawks will forever be ridiculed for giving up an opportunity to grab a bona fide superstar. (Shades of "Marvin Williams over Chris Paul" will never subside either.) Still, Trae is playing well despite the ATL struggles and his poor outside shooting. The sniping will come around—this much we know after watching Young at the University of Oklahoma. What we see besides his scoring is what makes him a player whose stock is ready to explode soon. This article is a facsimile of an earlier version published on The Basketball Writers (TBW), which recently closed its doors.  On the surface, the Orlando Magic do not have a ball handler other teams fear in the pick-and-roll. Elfrid Payton is long gone, and the Magic haven't had an All-Star guard on their roster since Jameer Nelson a decade ago.
Opponent scouting reports won't highlight ball screens as a major point of attack or key in on individual players. Human nature can kick in and almost make Steve Clifford's team seem like a breather in between opponents with star guards that create a high volume of offense. It is true: the Magic do not have a single player that dominates the ball and facilitates everything for them. Instead, they have five players averaging between three and five assists per game this season. No other team has more than four players with at least three dimes per game that has played at least thirty games on the season, according to Basketball-Reference. Only the New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Hornets and Los Angeles Clippers have an assist leader with fewer assists per game. Instead of playing through a single playmaker and facilitator, they pick apart opponents through an equal opportunity offense. Thus far, Clifford's play calls revolve around leading scorer Nikola Vucevic acting as a stretch-5 at the top of the key. By far their best player, Vucevic has been outstanding this season, averaging 20.3 points, 11.9 rebounds and 3.7 assists on 53 percent shooting. More impressive still, Vooch launches nearly three triples a game and is shooting close to 38 percent from deep. Clifford's offense places Vucevic 25 feet from the rim and often reverses the ball through him to at least start plays—similar to what the Denver Nuggets do around Nikola Jokic or the Boston Celtics with Al Horford. Opposing bigs are then sucked out of the lane to guard his effective three-point range, and a series of cutters around him help dizzy the other four defenders. A talented passer with great feel, Vucevic finds all the breakdowns that result from guard-to-guard screens near the corners. He delivers the ball on time and on target to those cutters surrounding him: |
Adam SpinellaHead Boys Basketball Coach, Boys' Latin School (MD). Archives
September 2021
Categories |
RSS Feed
