First to 7: The 7 most fascinating NBA teams. (Part 1)
Welcome to the First to 7. If you stumbled on to this page you have probably played pickup basketball in some form. Well, whenever someone asks “how many points are we going to?” I’m that guy who usually says “7” — at least nowadays since I’m older — thus, the title. Sometimes I can handle multiple games to 9, and I can play one, MAYBE 2 games to 11 before I’m out of breath, so if I want to get a good day of games in, multiple games to 7 is the best option.
Anyways, I will illustrate 7 points in whatever topic of basketball there is to discuss. College, Olympics, Overseas Hoops, and of course the NBA, my favorite of the 4 major professional sports.
The NBA season is approaching fast, especially now that the October 17th start time is a week earlier than normal. Coming off of what maybe the best off-season ever, fueled by an arms race between other teams just to catch up to the Death Star out in the Yay Area, there has been a crop of teams, good and bad, with intriguing rosters and story-lines that have risen from the dust that’s now settled.
*In no particular order*
7. The Brooklyn Nets
Since current GM Sean Marks and 2nd year coach Kenny Atkinson have taken over, The Brooklyn Nets, devoid of owning it’s own draft picks since 2014, have been doing the only thing a team in it’s position would do, take flyers on D-league players, trade away what good players they had(Thad Young in 2016, and Bojan Bogdanovic at the trade deadline)to get any type of first rounder, and taking on bad contracts in trades that included also receiving a high level prospect (D’angelo Russell) or a first rounder (Raptors 2018 first) in the deal.
Last year, head coach Kenny Atkinson installed an offense similar to the Houston Rockets in that the court will always be spaced out and threes will be aplenty, and the players took that message to heart. The team ranked 4th in three point attempts (2591) and 6th in makes (877) only problem is they ranked 26th in percentage (33.8%). Some if that play is out of necessity due to the lack of overall talent. They also went most of the season without Jeremy Lin, a good NBA player who was dealing with a pesky hamstring injury that limited him to 36 games. This year Lin looks healthy and in addition they have a few interesting prospects to track as they go through year two under Atkinson.
The Nets will struggle again this year, they traded away Brook Lopez, who continues to be criminally underrated and was the Nets best player, in the Russell trade. So they won’t have the stretch 5 that spaced the floor for them. They will have a hole at the center spot… Timofey Mosgov isn’t exactly good anymore and is on a shitty contract, a price they had to pay to get Russell, Tyler Zeller is not good either, and Jarrett Allen, the 22nd pick in this past draft, is intriguing with his size and length that he displayed at Texas, but is raw and unrefined.
The fascination lays with the Nets’ wings and guards, and Russell makes up about 50% of the intrigue for me. Having a new start could do wonders for him. Remember, during his rookie year he was caught up in the tornado that was the Kobe Bryant farewell tour, he had the Snapchat incident, and he was constantly in then-head coach Byron Scott’s doghouse for…quite frankly stupid reasons (or maybe tanky reasons). Then last season under current head coach Luke Walton, he showed flashes but floated in between being the 1 and the 2. NO CONSISTENCY. I wanted Russell in the 2015 draft (Sixer fan here) but Ihad a sneaking suspicion that the Lakers would draft Russell and I slumped in my chair the moment they did it.
This Nets’ offense should be tailor-made for his skills, a spread pick and roll player that can shoot, and will have spacing because of a spread floor with shooters. He also will have a coach who believes in him, and Lin will be the co-host to the offensive show. All these factors will provide a better environment conducive for Russell and his development. Not many top picks get traded to new teams that are facilitate a soft-reset, so to speak, but Russell has a new opportunity. By the way, he is still 21 years old.
The Nets also have other wings I’m intrigued by. I’ve been a Caris LeVert fan since his days at Michigan, the only problem was he was always hurt, but now that it’s his first summer in a while not having to deal with injuries, look for him to make a leap this year. Other questions like Allen Crabbe and his contract, and whether Demarre Carroll can at least gain back 50% of the player he was in Atlanta provide mystery that should draw attention to the Nets.
This is the last year where the Nets won’t have it’s own draft pick (Currently owned by the Cavs), and while they still have glaring holes in their roster, and the contracts they took on in trades could possibly hinder them down the line, that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to be an interesting league pass team.
6. The L.A Clippers
The Clippers will embark on it’s first season of the post-Chris Paul era following the trade of the Hall of Fame point god to the Houston Rockets. In return the Clippers received a poo-poo platter of NBA rotation players and a quality two-way point guard in Patrick Beverly (along with a first round draft pick!). 4 of the 7 players the Clippers got in return are on the roster and have provided the team with some depth that they have not had in a while. Sam Dekker is a quality rotation player that can play Small Forward or Small Ball 4. Montrezl Harrell can provide energy off the bench as a big man, Lou Williams will always be in contention for 6th man of the year thanks to his scoring punch.
The trade was followed up by acquiring Danilo Gallinari in a three team sign and trade, and then signing Milos Teodosic, who might already be one of the best passers in the league from day one, to a 2 year deal to come from overseas.
Teodosic already has put some of his insane passing on display.
The main reason the team is so interesting is because the current construct of the roster means that the team is unquestionably Blake Griffin’s team for the first time since 2010–11, which was his rookie year. Through various stretches Chris Paul has missed due to injury, Griffin has stepped in and played like an MVP candidate (he finished third in voting behind KD and LeBron in 2013–14), including one notable stretch from January 4th to February 9th in the 2013–14 season where he put up these staggering numbers:
27.4 Points per game
8.3 Rebounds per game
4.5 assists per game
56.4% FG (!!!!)
He reached another level in the 2014–15 playoffs to where he was clearly one of the best 3–5 players in the entire league during that stretch. In 14 games Griffin put up 25.5 PPG/12.7 RPG/6.1 APG/ on 51% from the field. Because of the lack of depth on the team that year, the team and more importantly Griffin, ran out of gas averaging 40 minutes per game during that postseason run.
Griffin, who signed a 5 year max deal over the summer, has always been one of the best passing bigs in the league and without Chris Paul pounding the ball most of the time, Blake will have the opportunity to take full control of the offense and maybe he can reach that MVP caliber level again. The only problem is health.
Blake has had a number of injuries to his legs, 6 to his left leg to be exact, along with minor surgery on his right knee last season, and when he returned his postseason was cut short by a right big toe injury that required surgery. Not even counting the stress fracture in his back, right elbow staph infection and a broken right hand from punching an equipment manager in the face, giving Griffin a five year max deal is certainly a risk but one the Clips had to make if their true goal was to stay competitive.
Gallinari, a good NBA player who can play Small Forward or stretch the floor as a play making small ball power forward, has also had health issues of his own the last few years. He missed the 2013–14 season because of a torn ACL and a botched surgery on the injury caused him to miss even more games in 2014–15. He also played 53 and 63 games in 2015–16 and ‘16-’17 respectively.
On paper this team looks like a playoff team, but can this team come together with all the new players acquired and more importantly, stay healthy?
5. Denver Nuggets
As ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz said on a recent Lowe Post podcast, the Nuggets have a lot of good NBA players and Mike Malone, who I think is a good coach is going to have fun trying to mix and match players as the Nuggets try to make the playoffs for the first time since it’s 57 win 2012–13 season.
It all starts with Nikola Jokic, whose passing skills as a big man — and really, as a player in general — invokes a mix of Arvydas Sabonis and Bill Walton.
Jokic showed flashes of his passing as a rookie in 2015–16, and last season The Nuggets tried to start Jokic and Jusuf Nurkic together but it simply could not work. Malone did away with that philosophy and decided to go with Jokic as the full time starter at Center starting on December 15th, 2016. From that point on the Nuggets had a 113.3 offensive rating, the best in the league. It was .4 points per 100 better than the Warriors….THE WARRIORS!!!Only problem was the Nuggets posted the worst defensive rating during that span (111.9).
The front office tried to address that this summer by signing Paul Milsap which was done through the aforementioned three-team sign and trade with the Clippers and the Hawks that sent Gallinari to the Clips. Millsap, who has been underrated by many, has been a top 20 NBA player for the last few seasons, but people who hardly watch The Hawks — and who can blame them, the Hawks can barely fill it’s own stadium with it’s own fans —consider that a fallacy even though it’s further from the truth. With the addition of Millsap the Nuggets have a bruising defensive force, even at 33 years old, and another great passing big to pair with Jokic. Couple that with the plethora of wings on the roster, this team is stocked with talent.
If you watched Jokic’s passing highlights above, you’ll notice a lot of those assists came off of cuts from Gary Harris, the fourth year shooting guard out of Michigan State who had a career year last season.
Harris averaged 14.9 points per game/3.1 rebounds/2.9 assists, while shooting 42% from 3 point range. He showed that he was a great off-ball, scoring coming off Spot-ups, Transition, and Cutting, ranking in the 92nd, 92nd, and 77th percentile respectively per Synergy. He is the perfect guard to play off of two passing bigs like Jokic and Millsap, so much so that the Nuggets are reportedly close to giving him a contract extension.
At the point guard spot Jamal Murray is battling Emmanuel Mudiay for the starting job. Mudiay has been a huge disappointment so far in his 2 years. He is only 20 years old but it’s has not been pretty. He can’t shoot (career field goal percentage of 39%, JESUS), he can’t finish in the paint (49.1% in the restricted area, and 29.1% in the non-restricted area of the paint) he turns the ball over too much, and isn’t much of a fit with the other players on the roster. It’s no wonder ageless wonder Jameer Nelson started a lot (Mudiay missed a few games but still).
Murray on the other hand is a much more intriguing prospect, he came out of Kentucky known as a three point shooter and a scorer, and showed flashes of ability to create for others, and while he only shot 33% from 3 his rookie year, his shot is clean, and repeatable, and with another year under his belt he should be able to show the type of shooter he can become.
My question is do the Nuggets even need a point guard? If I was coach Malone I’d just run my offense through the two talented passing bigs and let the dearth of guards and wings cut off the elbows, run splits/cutting off the post up, and from the top of the key. Jokic was allowed to push the ball up the court as a point center for gods sake, I’d just build my offense around the brilliance of the passing bigs.
While the Nuggets have questions with what to do with Kenneth Faried and Mudiay, and did some questionable things this summer — like signing Mason Plumlee to an insane contract, and trading the 13th pick — the Nuggets have a lot of talent to mix and match different lineups with, especially when you round out the wing rotation with Wilson Chandler, stretch-four Juancho Hernangomez, and incoming sophomore Malik Beasley, who is looking to finally get some minutes after spending his rookie year mostly on the bench.
Everyone and their mothers have the Nuggets as their sleeper team, but are they really a sleeper team if everybody is very much woke?… Sorry I tried to channel my inner Kyrie there.
Speaking of which……
4. Boston Celtics.
Even though I am a Sixer fan, I’m in fact not from Philly, however the Sixer fan in me has brought out my latent hatred for the Celtics. Even then, objectively speaking, this team has a lot of players that I like, and they went out and made a blockbuster trade this past summer for Kyrie Irving, after they pried Gordon Hayward, the summer’s top free agent, away from the Jazz.
The Celtics have a lot of moving parts, only four players are back from last season — Marcus Smart, Terry Rozier, Jaylen Brown, and Al Horford — and the front office notably traded away Jae Crowder, fan favorite Isaiah Thomas and hound dog Avery Bradley.
*Note: Celtics GM Danny Anige also traded away the beloved Nets pick, and while I made my fair share of Anige jokes, I’m actually in the minority in that he did fine in the trade. Was it a slight overpay? I mean, sure, you can say that, but you have to overpay sometimes to get the blue chip player that you want.*
Even though Isaiah Thomas had himself a historically efficient year on offense last season, he was due for a big payday in the summer of 2018, and at 28 years old, with a hip injury, and the fact that he is still 5'9 — sorry, love IT, but it’s true — it’s simply a risk the Celtics were not willing to take. Irving has 2 years left on a good deal for a player who has played in 13 Finals games, he is still only 25 and while the former and latter are terrible defenders, Kyrie is an upgrade (lol) from IT on that end of the floor.
I think there are only a few places Kyrie could’ve thrived in whatever role he was looking for after asking out of Cleveland and Boston is one them. With Brad Stevens emphasis on ball movement, Dribble Hand off plays, and having a pick and pop dance partner in Al Horford, you can easily see the ways Kyrie can succeed much like Thomas did. Not to make it sound like playing with LeBron James as the point forward is ever a bad thing, there will just be more diverse ways Kyrie can get the ball and have a chance to not only score, but make a play. I’m interested to see Kyrie in his new digs and whether he will succeed with his new opportunity.
The best player on the team however should be Gordon Hayward, he improved every single year he was in Utah. He has become an underrated defender and is coming off career numbers averaging 21.9 points per game/5.4 RPG/3.5 asts on 47/39.8/84 shooting splits in 2016–17 and his impact on offense came through different actions on various areas of the court.
Some synergy stats
As a Pick and Roll ball handler: .981 points per 100 possessions (87th percentile)
Spot ups: 1.143 points per 100 (84th percentile)
Off Screens: 1.122 points per 100 (83rd percentile)
Transition: 1.38 points per 100 (92nd percentile)
Cuts: 1.436 points per 100 (85th percentile)
These actions are all focuses in Brad Stevens’ system, and Hayward will thrive when put in these positions. He has also improved his play-making every year, and with the space and constant ball movement we could see Hayward reach another level.
One last thing that makes the Celtics interesting is that the team has moved further in the direction of position-less basketball. 2nd year player Jaylen Brown, 3rd overall pick Jayson Tatum, Hayward, Marcus Smart are all big wings with long wingspans and can theoretically switch everything on defense. We can’t forget about 37th pick Semi Ojeleye — a player that I wanted the Sixers to draft badly but went with Jonah Bolden instead at 36th — who is a player I believe can carve out rotation minutes early. Ojeleye also fits the mold of player the Celtics have been targeting the last few draft. 6'7, 235 pounds, with a 6–10 wingspan, and also shot 42% on 3’s in college on 4.9 attempts.
It also makes me wonder if Aaron Baynes, Marcus Morris, incoming draft and stash player Guerschon Yabusele, and Horford can rectify the putrid rebounding that has been associated with the Celtics the last few season. Maybe the bigger wings can help out? I still have my doubts.
The Celts will be at the top of the east with the Cavs and Wizards again, but with almost all rookies, 2nd year players, new free agents, and two new players via trade coming together, the question how fast can this all gel together? Brad Stevens has his work cut out for him.
*part 2 coming soon*
