20 Second Timeout is the place to find the best analysis and commentary about the NBA.
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Things We Learned from the Celtics' 120-117 Win Versus the Cavaliers
The Boston Celtics built a 21 point lead, withstood a 34-15 run over a seven minute span in the third quarter, and defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 120-117 in Boston to end Cleveland's season-opening 15 game winning streak. The 15-1 Cavaliers still have the best record in the NBA, 2.5 games ahead of the 12-3 Celtics. It must be emphasized that the Celtics won this game without the
services of Kristaps Porzingis, their starting center (and a 2018 All-Star)
who has yet to play this season due to a lower left leg injury. Assuming
that Porzingis makes a full recovery, adding him to the lineup bolsters
the Celtics at both ends of the court because of his rebounding, shot blocking/rim protection, and range shooting.
Jayson Tatum had a masterful all-around game with a team-high 33 points on 11-22 field goal shooting, a game-high 12 rebounds, and seven assists. Al Horford added 20 points and seven rebounds, Derrick White contributed 19 points, six rebounds, and five assists, and Jaylen Brown chipped in 17 points and a game-high eight assists.
Donovan Mitchell scored a game-high 35 points, Evan Mobley had 22 points and a team-high tying 11 rebounds, and Jarrett Allen scored 10 points while matching Mobley with 11 rebounds. Darius Garland dished for a team-high seven assists but he scored just eight points on 3-21 field goal shooting.
At the end of the 82 game regular season, each game counts the same in the standings, but anyone who follows the NBA knows that some games have a different feel not only for ardent fans but also for the players. "Statement game" is a cliche, but this was without question a measuring stick game for the Cavaliers to see how they stack up with the NBA champion Boston Celtics. Casual fans often call the NBA a fourth quarter league, but the fact is that the NBA is in many respects a first quarter league, because the first quarter sets the tone in terms of matchups, physicality, and general readiness to play. The Celtics jumped out to an 18-8 lead by the 5:36 mark of the first quarter, and they never trailed the rest of the way.
The Celtics shot 14-22 (.636) from three point range in the first
half, their best three point shooting half in the past 25 years. That
level of three point shooting is aberrational and unsustainable, and they shot 8-19 (.421) from beyond the arc in the second half to finish at 22-41 (.537) overall.
The easy hot take is that the Celtics beat the Cavaliers because of their tremendous three point shooting, and that the Celtics have a great chance to win the 2025 championship because they rank first in three point field goals made and first in three point field goals attempted. High volume three point shooting is lauded by "stat gurus" as the
most efficient offensive strategy, but the reality is that it is a high variance strategy, as I explained four years ago:
Offensive efficiency is not all that matters when trying to construct a
championship team: the three point shot produces much more variance
statistically than shots taken closer to the basket, meaning that a team
that shoots .380 from three point range may shoot .250 from three point
range in one game and then .510 from three point range the next game.
If a team shoots a high volume of three pointers then it will almost
certainly lose when shooting .250 from three point range, but that team
is not assured of victory even when shooting .510 from three point
range: a team that relies too heavily on three point shooting does not
have a backup plan to use when those shots are not falling, but that
team's opponents may be able to overcome giving up .510 three point
shooting by forcing turnovers, winning the rebound battle, and attacking
the paint for high percentage shots.
Last season, the
Celtics ranked second in defensive field goal percentage, second in
rebounding, and fifth in points allowed. In the article cited above, I
debunked the notion that high volume three point shooting defined the
success of the Golden State Warriors, the team that is most closely associated with the NBA's three point revolution in the past decade or so:
There is a false narrative that the Golden State Warriors proved that a
three point shooting team can win an NBA title. The Warriors proved
nothing of the sort. From 2015-2019, the Warriors ranked first, third,
first, third, and third in defensive field goal percentage; not only did
they have a backup plan if they suffered from cold three point
shooting: they had a primary plan, namely make it very difficult for
their opponents to score. Also, the Warriors did not become a
championship dynasty until they added Kevin Durant, who added deadly
midrange scoring (and, to be sure, another three point shooter) to the
three point marksmanship provided by Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
"Stat
gurus" often tout themselves as emotionally detached objective
analysts, but in fact they speak and behave as if they are members of a
cult that propagates rigid tenets regardless of what the
factual evidence shows (this is part of a larger societal trend of
"experts" who insist that their deeply held beliefs are correct even if
those beliefs defy not only common sense but also the facts). This season's Celtics have dropped to 12th in points allowed, 20th in defensive field goal percentage, and 21st in rebounding. The difference between the Celtics and many of the other teams that have low rankings in those categories is that the Celtics proved last season that they have the necessary personnel to rebound and defend at a high level; that being said, they must get to work in those areas, because they are unlikely to repeat as champions unless they reestablish their defensive identity and their paint presence at both ends of the court. In that regard, it is interesting to note that the
Cavaliers outscored the Celtics in the paint 60-36. If Garland had performed anywhere close to his usual standard, then the Cavaliers would have won even with the Celtics shooting an outlandish three point percentage.
The Celtics shot 18-35 (.514) in the paint, which
demonstrates two things: (1) when the Celtics attacked the paint they
were efficient, and (2) the Celtics
should attack the paint more often instead of relying so heavily on high
variance three point shooting. The 2025 championship recipe for the Celtics is (1) attack the paint more often than they are doing now, (2) shore up their leaky defense, and (3) utilize the three point shot effectively based on time/score/overall game situation as opposed to seeking to attempt at least 50 three pointers a game (a stated goal of Coach Joe Mazzulla, who has done a wonderful job overall but who seems a little bit too obsessed with three point shot attempts as an indicator of offensive efficiency).
We are already nearly 20% through the 2024-25 NBA regular season, so it
is not too early to at least make preliminary assessments of teams and
players. Here is something to clip and save: the 11-4 Oklahoma City Thunder currently rank first in defensive field goal percentage and second in points allowed, but just 23rd in rebounding. Will the Thunder's stout defense be enough to make up for their lack of size and their weakness on the glass? The Cavaliers are similarly weak in rebounding (24th) and they are not in the top 10 in defensive field goal percentage (12th) or points allowed (13th). We will know more about these teams after they have played a larger sample size of games, but these rankings and trends bear watching, because at this point neither the Cavaliers nor the Celtics are defending or rebounding at a championship level. By the way, the defending Western Conference champion Dallas Mavericks are flying underneath the radar with an 8-7 record but they rank fifth in points allowed, sixth in defensive field goal percentage, and 11th in rebounding, numbers that suggest they will finish higher in the standings than they are right now.
The above analysis should not be taken to diminish the value of Boston's win over Cleveland. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have already proven that they can lead the Celtics to victory against elite teams in a playoff series: their Celtics have won two Eastern Conference Finals (2022, 2024) and one NBA championship (2024). The Celtics demonstrated that they can defend and rebound at an elite level. In contrast, this version of the Cavaliers has yet to advance past the second round of the playoffs, and must prove that they are capable of beating elite teams in a playoff series.
Bob Love and Chet Walker were the starting forwards for Chicago squads that made six straight playoff appearances, a run of excellence that began just three years after the franchise was founded. The Bulls reached the Western Conference Finals in 1974 and 1975 only to fall first to the powerful Milwaukee Bucks led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and then to the soon to be NBA champion Golden State Warriors led by Rick Barry. Prior to that, the Bulls lost in the playoffs three years in a row to an L.A. Lakers team featuring Pantheon members Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West. Dick Motta, who later guided the Washington Bullets to the 1978 NBA championship, coached the Bulls from 1968-76, and the backcourt was manned by Norm Van Lier and Jerry Sloan, a great rebounding guard and defensive player who became a Hall of Fame coach.
In a 2015 20 Second Timeout article, I selected Love as one of the four best players in the Bulls' franchise history: "Love was the best player for some strong Chicago teams in the early
1970s, a top notch scorer who was also an excellent defensive player. As
a Bull, Love made the All-NBA Second Team twice (1971, 1972) and the
All-Defensive Second Team three times (1972, 1974-75). Love holds the
franchise single season record for minutes played (3482) and he ranks
third on the franchise's career scoring list behind Jordan and Pippen."
Love was a workhouse who averaged at least 37 mpg for seven straight seasons while playing in all 82 games three times, playing in 81 games once, and playing in 79 game once. He averaged at least 43.3 mpg in seven of his eight playoff series, and he was productive during those postseason minutes (22.9 ppg, 7.5 rpg). Love ranks fourth in ABA-NBA history in playoff mpg (43.9). In that era, there was no "load management"; players just figured out how to manage the work load.
A back injury ended Love's playing career in 1977. He briefly fell on hard times after leaving the NBA, and he took a job cleaning tables and washing dishes at Nordstrom. While working at Nordstrom, Love, who was nicknamed "Butterbean" as a child because of his love for butter beans, overcame a serious stuttering problem that caused him to shun interviews during his NBA career. He not only became Nordstrom's manager for health and sanitation, but he became an accomplished public speaker. Last year during a podcast interview, Love described his life after playing pro basketball as "a story of overcoming, of never playing the victim."
Sam Smith, who covered the Chicago Bulls for the Chicago Tribune before becoming a writer for Bulls.com, knows as much about the Bulls as anyone, and he penned a must-read tribute to Love, focusing not only on Love's playing career but also on his inner strength and his determined resolve to better himself after retiring from the NBA: "He'd often reflect in later years if he was going to be a dishwasher,
he'd be an all-star dishwasher like he was in college and the NBA. John
Nordstrom noticed the hard working former NBA star and arranged for
speech therapy. Having failed in programs before, Bob was reluctant. But
with a nudge from Nordstrom, Bob found a patient partner, learned the
mechanics of speech, practiced, and tried to figure out how it all
happened. He said as a kid he used to mimic a relative who stuttered."
Love's perseverance and work ethic should always be remembered.
Knicks Beat Sluggish 76ers 111-99 in NBA Cup Opener
The second annual NBA Cup began on Tuesday night as the New York Knicks defeated the Philadelphia 76ers, 111-99. OG Anunoby led the Knicks with 24 points on 11-16 field goal shooting, and Karl-Anthony Towns had a strong all-around game with 21 points, a game-high 13 rebounds, and six assists. Jalen Brunson had a quiet game (18 points on 5-15 field goal shooting, five assists, game-high six turnovers) by his lofty standards, particularly considering that he torched the 76ers for 35.5 ppg in the 2024 playoffs. Paul George led the 76ers with a game-high 29 points and a team-high 10 rebounds, and Jared McCain added 23 points off of the bench. Joel Embiid's season debut was a dud: 13 points on 2-11 field goal shooting, five assists, and just three rebounds. The Knicks outrebounded the 76ers 47-40, and outshot them from the field .494 (44-89) to .373 (.31-83).
Load management, tanking, and the proliferation of analytics-driven increases in three point shooting are three reasons that the NBA game is not as entertaining or interesting as it used to be. This Knicks-76ers game embodies much of what is wrong with the modern NBA: the 76ers are infamous for tanking to get Embiid, who they are now load managing in hopes of keeping him healthy for the playoffs, and these two teams combined to jack up 73 three pointers while making just 23 of them. Who wants to watch 50 three pointers clank off of the rim?
The NBA game used to feature above the rim play, midrange shooting, and teams running a variety of different offenses, but now the NBA game features teams jacking up as many three pointers as possible. The NBA game also used to feature more physicality; it is more entertaining to see a great player score when he is being defended toughly, as opposed to seeing the scoreboard light up while little to no defensive resistance is provided. The NBA All-Star Game has not only become a joke, but it has become a template for the regular season NBA as well. Players get paid more than ever to play less and compete less than ever, which leaves fans feeling justifiably turned off.
The talented but inconsistent Embiid is the poster child for the NBA's decline over the past 10 years or so. Embiid looked out of shape and rusty, and he was noticeably winded almost immediately after the game began. TNT's Stan Van Gundy make weak excuses for Embiid, arguing that Embiid is in shape and that nothing compares to playing under game conditions, but the sad reality is that Embiid has been in suboptimal condition for most of his career, which is likely a big reason that Embiid is injured so often. Embiid should have been able to do enough cardio work to be better prepared to play.
The 76ers' stated plan to rest Embiid and not have him play in back to back games will not help Embiid get in shape or work off the rust, so even if the 76ers qualify for the playoffs they will not be poised to make a deep run. The 76ers' newest "Big Three" has yet to play together in a game, as Tyrese Maxey is out with a hamstring injury, Embiid missed the first nine games of this season, and George missed the first five games of this season due to a bone bruise in his left knee.
Instead of giving NBA players even more money to compete for the NBA Cup, the NBA should limit or eliminate guaranteed salaries; if players did not get paid to sit out then they would be less inclined to do so, and if players who are not performing up to par could be cut without having a golden parachute then players would be incentivized to play hard. I understand that the Players Association would fight tooth and nail to preserve guaranteed contracts, but if the NBA continues to put a subpar product on the floor then it risks killing the goose that is laying the golden eggs.
The Lakers defeated the 76ers 116-106 on Friday night, but it is highly unlikely that either team will participate in the 2025 NBA Finals. The Lakers are 5-4, and on pace to win fewer games than they did last season. Other than taking the 2020 "bubble title", the LeBron James-led Lakers have been more about sideshows--capturing the 2023 NBA Cup before losing in the first round of the 2024 playoffs, signing Bronny James instead of trying to put the best possible player in every roster spot--than about contending for championships. In LeBron James' six full seasons with the Lakers, they have lost in the first round twice, and missed the playoffs twice, a track record that makes the "bubble title" look like an aberration.
The Lakers fired Coach Darvin Ham after going 47-35 last season, and it remains to be seen if his replacement J.J. Redick is the next Pat Riley. Redick mastered the obvious by making Anthony Davis the hub of the Lakers' offense--Davis scored a game-high 31 points versus the 76ers and he is currently the league's scoring leader--but other than that Redick's biggest early season move has been taking D'Angelo Russell out of the starting lineup prior to the 76ers game. Media members may try to fool the public into believing that this is some kind of strategic master stroke, but Redick could have put Bronny James--or possibly even some dude from the YMCA--in the starting lineup and the Lakers would have still beaten the injury-riddled 76ers, who are without the services of Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. Redick was a member of the media until fairly recently, and his former colleagues seem to be determined to treat him with kid gloves, but that will become increasingly difficult to do if the Lakers are still hovering around the .500 mark 30 or 40 games from now.
Redick publicly called out every Laker other than LeBron James for lack of effort before benching Russell, which creates some potentially interesting locker room issues. It is obvious that Redick's podcasting partner LeBron James hired Redick, and that Redick will serve as Lakers coach only as long as he curries favor with James--so when Redick calls out players he is speaking on behalf of James, which is problematic from the jump and becomes more problematic if Redick does not call out James when James' effort or execution are not up to par. The best coaches lead by challenging their best players, which then inspires the rest of the team to live up to that standard. The presence of Bronny James on the roster is a constant reminder that the Lakers make roster decisions based on LeBron James' whims, not winning, and calling out role players without challenging LeBron James will get old very quickly, particularly if the Lakers do not soon move up in the standings.
The 1-7 76ers are in even worse shape than the Lakers, and they face an uphill battle just to qualify for the Play-In Tournament. The 76ers still have more suspensions and fines than wins this season, and they have not advanced past the second round of the playoffs since Allen Iverson carried them to the 2001 NBA Finals. Daryl Morey prides himself on utilizing the kind of "advanced basketball statistics" that lead him to believe that James Harden is a greater scorer than Michael Jordan, and if Morey stays true to the "stat guru" way of thinking then his 76ers will tank the rest of the way, because "stat gurus" assert that the worst thing in the NBA is to be stuck in the middle; the 76ers have most definitely not "Tanked to the Top" but if they are not going to get a top playoff seed then the vaunted numbers so prized by "stat gurus" suggest that the 76ers should deliberately sacrifice wins for draft picks--but even the stat-obsessed Morey probably has enough sense to realize that the last thing that 76ers fans will tolerate now is more tanking on the heels of the infamous "Process" that yielded Embiid and a string of seasons ending in the second round of the playoffs (or earlier). Statistics--real ones, not the contrived "advanced ones"--indicate that a 1-7 team is more likely to participate in the Draft Lottery than the playoffs, but deliberately aiming for the Draft Lottery with Joel Embiid, Paul George, and Tyrese Maxey on the roster is unthinkable even for the unofficial king of the "stat gurus."
On Friday night, the 76ers got just nine points on 4-13 field goal shooting from Paul "I call myself Playoff P" George, who will collect more than $200 million from the 76ers during the next four seasons. The 76ers are paying Morey a lot of money to build their roster because they believe that Morey's use of "advanced basketball statistics" gives him a significant edge over his peers. It would be interesting to know which proprietary metrics persuaded Morey that it is shrewd to pay more than $200 million to a shooting guard in his age 34-38 seasons.
Cavaliers Own NBA's Only Perfect Record After Nuggets Silence Thunder
The Cleveland Cavaliers not only own the best record in the NBA, but they are enjoying their best start in franchise history after beating the New Orleans Pelicans 131-122 to improve to 9-0. Kenny Atkinson is the first coach in NBA history to start out 9-0 in his first season with a new team. Statistics through nine games of an 82 game season are classic "small sample size theater," but it is still noteworthy that the Cavaliers own the third highest scoring average (123.2 ppg) in a 9-0
start in NBA history, trailing only the 1960-61 Philadelphia Warriors
(126.8 ppg) and the 1990-91 Portland Trail Blazers (125.0 ppg). The 1961 Warriors featured Wilt Chamberlain, who led the league in scoring that season (38.4 ppg), and they finished second in the four team Eastern Division behind the powerful Boston Celtics. The 1991 Trail Blazers were led by Clyde Drexler (21.5 ppg) and they finished with the league's best record before being upset by Magic Johnson's L.A. Lakers in the Western Conference Finals; the Trail Blazers reached the NBA Finals in 1990 and 1992.
The Cavaliers rank first in the NBA in scoring, first in field goal percentage (.526), ninth in defensive field goal percentage (.456), and 11th in points allowed (110.6 ppg). One possible area of concern is that they rank just 23rd in rebounding (42.1 rpg). Last season, the Cavaliers ranked 20th in scoring (112.6 ppg) 12th in field goal percentage (.479), sixth in defensive field goal percentage (.463), seventh in points allowed (110.2 ppg), and 17th in rebounding (43.3 rpg). So, it would be fair to say that thus far their offense is much more efficient, and their defense is slightly less efficient. It is important to understand that Cleveland has beaten several teams that were bad last season and are unlikely to be good this season, including Detroit, Toronto, and Washington. The Cavaliers also have two wins against the struggling Milwaukee Bucks. A good case could be made that Cleveland's only "quality" win is at Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks--but even the Knicks, who were 50-32 last season, are just 3-4 so far this season.
In short, the Cavaliers have started the season strongly, but we will know a lot more about how good they really are after they play some tougher competition.
Donovan Mitchell led a balanced Cleveland attack with a game-high tying 29 points, but he had a lot of help. Jarrett Allen had 16 points plus a game-high 14 rebounds, Caris LeVert added 16 points, six rebounds, and six assists, Evan Mobley delivered 15 points, nine rebounds, and three blocked shots, and Darius Garland chipped in with 14 points and a game-high nine assists.
The Pelicans slipped to 3-6, and face a rough stretch because they are without the services of both of their injured starting guards, C.J. McCollum and Dejounte Murray. Zion Williamson scored a game-high tying 29 points, Jose Alvarado added 27 points, five assists, and three steals, and Brandon Ingram had 20 points, five rebounds, and five assists.
Oklahoma City owned the only other perfect record (7-0) in the NBA heading into Wednesday's action, but the Thunder fell 124-122 to the Denver Nuggets, who improved to 5-3. Russell Westbrook scored a game-high tying 29 points, grabbed six rebounds, and passed for six assists. Plus/minus numbers are interesting, but sometimes are "noisy" in small sample sizes, and this game is an example of Westbrook's plus/minus number (-14) not reflecting his impact. Westbrook scored or assisted on 15 consecutive points as the Nuggets
rallied from a 16 point deficit to beat a team that earned the number one seed in the Western Conference last season with a 57-25 record (beating out 57-25 Denver on tiebreaks) and is expected to be a championship contender this season.
Jalen Williams led the Thunder with 29 points, matching Westbrook's output, and he added 10 rebounds plus nine assists. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 28 points, six assists, and a game-high eight turnovers. Chet Holmgren scored 15 points and tied Williams for team-high honors with 10 rebounds, but he shot just 5-14 from the field.
Denver Coach Michael Malone praised Westbrook after the game: "And what I love about Russell Westbrook: 17-year vet, leopards don't
change their spots, but he is trying so hard to be disciplined. He's
trying to do the things we're asking him to do, and I appreciate that so
much. Because a lot of times at 17 years in, you are who you are. But
he cares, man. He is so invested in this team and what he's bringing to
this team, and he's so hard on himself. I can coach a guy like Russell
Westbrook any day."
Nikola Jokic finished with 23 points, a game-high 20 rebounds, and a game-high 16 assists. Those boxscore numbers look like typographical errors, but they are just one more chapter in what is shaping up to possibly be yet another MVP season: Jokic, who has won the regular season MVP in three of the past four
seasons (including last season), currently leads the league in
rebounding (13.5 rpg) and assists (11.0 apg) while ranking fourth in
scoring (28.8 ppg).
Justin Termine, the self-proclaimed "entertainer" who admits to not being a journalist,
has repeatedly trashed the Nuggets for their roster moves. It is
important to understand that part of his agenda is to elevate Jokic by asserting that Jokic has no help around him. I agree with
Termine that Jokic is the NBA's best player, but I disagree that it is
necessary to rip apart Jokic's supporting cast. The Nuggets just
beat the powerful Thunder without both Murray and starting forward Aaron
Gordon, who is expected to miss multiple weeks with a calf injury. Maybe this game is an aberration, but I think that Jokic, Westbrook, and company can hold down the fort until Murray and Gordon return.
The Nuggets rank fourth in the NBA in scoring (119.0 ppg), third in
rebounding (48.3 rpg), and fourth in assists (29.4 apg). They are not
good defensively, and must improve in that category in order to be a
playoff contender.
In Joel Embiid, Marcus Hayes, and How to Deal with Irresponsible Media Members, I discussed the locker room incident during which Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid threatened and then pushed Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes, and I stated that unless Commissioner Adam Silver "fancies the idea of NBA players teeing off on every media member who
they dislike he must suspend Embiid without pay for multiple games."
Embiid missed the first six games of this season due to injury and the Philadelphia 76ers have not indicated when he will be cleared to play, so the suspension will go into effect after Embiid is added to the active roster.
Daryl Morey was not an awful general manager in Houston, but an objective analysis of his record proves that he was not great, either. He took the reins in Philadelphia's front office in 2020, and during his tenure the 76ers lost in the second round for three straight years before falling in the first round last season. This season, the 76ers are 1-5 and Embiid has been suspended for more games than he has played. Throughout his career, Morey and his supporters have asserted that his use of "advanced basketball statistics" provides him a tangible advantage over his competitors; the reality is that the objective numbers--wins, losses, championships--prove that Morey has demonstrated no such advantage.
Joel Embiid, Marcus Hayes, and How to Deal with Irresponsible Media Members
Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes recently criticized Joel Embiid for missing so many games throughout his career--a factual and valid criticism--but Hayes veered from factual and valid to irrelevant and irresponsible when he asserted that Embiid's lack of professionalism dishonors Embiid's young son and the memory of Embiid's deceased brother.
Embiid played in just 39 of 82 regular season games last season, he has never played in more than 68 games in a season, and he has missed all five of the Philadelphia 76ers' games this season--but he was in the locker room after Philadelphia's 124-117 loss to Memphis on Saturday night, and he told Hayes, "The next time you bring up my dead brother and my son again, you are
going to see what I'm going to do to you and I'm going to have to...live with the consequences." Embiid and Hayes exchanged words, Embiid did not accept Hayes' apology, and then Embiid pushed Hayes on the shoulder/neck area. A 76ers' security official urged media members in the locker room to not report what Embiid had done, but Embiid declared, "They can do whatever they want. I don't give a ----."
The NBA is investigating Embiid's conduct, and the NBA will presumably consider not only that Embiid made physical contact with a media member but also that Embiid repeatedly stated that he does not care about the consequences of his actions. Embiid dared the NBA to punish him. When David Stern was the NBA's Commissioner, he would have accepted that dare, and levied discipline commensurate with the severity of Embiid's actions combined with Embiid's lack of remorse. It will be interesting to see how current NBA Commissioner Adam Silver handles this situation. One could joke that the appropriate discipline would be to force Embiid to play in games right now and to play in back to back games, but this situation is no laughing matter, and unless Silver fancies the idea of NBA players teeing off on every media member who they dislike he must suspend Embiid without pay for multiple games. It may be fun to joke about Kevin Durant punching Stephen A. Smith or LeBron James punching Skip Bayless, but if those things actually happened then the NBA would rapidly descend into a sideshow instead of being a professional sports league.
The fact that Embiid's actions are way out of bounds in no way justifies what Hayes wrote. Bringing up Embiid's deceased brother and Embiid's young son was not only cruel and heartless but it was also irrelevant: the issue that Hayes supposedly cared about is Embiid's professionalism, and that issue can and should be discussed without ever bringing up Embiid's family. Embiid has rarely if ever been in tip top physical condition during his NBA career, and it can reasonably be argued that this lack of professionalism--and not "luck," which is how Embiid explained his large number of missed games--explains why Embiid has been so injury-prone. If Hayes had stuck to discussing Embiid's history of missing games, not being in shape, and playing poorly in the playoffs then Hayes could have produced a timely, relevant column--but, instead, Hayes went for the cheap shot, the clicks, and the attention.
In short, Hayes showed that he is unprofessional, and lacks the judgment that should be a requirement for a columnist.
Unfortunately, Hayes is far from an exception. I have documented many examples of writers and TV commentators who often demonstrate their lack of professionalism.
Amin Elhassan and Zack Harper think that it is amusing to mock Bob Cousy and Russell Westbrook. It is fair to say that Cousy and Westbrook will be remembered as significant figures in basketball history long after Elhassan and Harper will be forgotten. A little humility, a bit of knowledge about basketball history, and a modicum of respect for sustained greatness are three traits that Elhassan and Harper lack.
Before parlaying his friendship with LeBron James into an opportunity to become coach of the Lakers despite having no coaching experience at the college or pro levels, J.J. Redick worked as a media member who repeatedly demonstrated his ignorance about basketball history, culminating in his disrespectful comments about Bob Cousy.
Stephen A. Smith and Kendrick Perkins regularly spout hot takes that are cold as ice and disconnected from reality. The problem is not just that many of their evaluations and predictions are wrong--no one is always right about evaluations and predictions--but rather that their evaluations and predictions have no logical basis. What qualifies them to be paid so much to pontificate about the NBA? The answer is that they are not hired to be journalists but--like Termine--to be entertainers, and their bosses apparently think that they are entertaining.
It is problematic that so many of the most prominent media members who receive credentials to cover the NBA do not even pretend to be qualified journalists. When Stern was the NBA's Commissioner, he would call out media members who did not have their facts straight and who acted in an unprofessional manner; this was not about censoring opinions, but rather about insisting that media members should be held to a professional standard.
Hayes is just the latest example of a media member who has been
blessed with an NBA credential despite lacking the judgment and
professionalism that should be a prerequisite for receiving such a
privilege.
One might argue that the public is receiving the media
coverage that it wants and deserves, but I would argue that media
outlets have a professional obligation to hold themselves to a high
standard regardless of what the public wants or expects. Contrary to
what Termine explicitly states and what many of his colleagues implicitly
accept as reality, it is possible
to be entertaining while also being informative and professional.
Jalen Rose was one of the few prominent commentators who would challenge Stephen A. Smith, Kendrick Perkins, Skip Bayless, and others when they made foolish and unprofessional comments--and we see where Rose's candor landed him: out of work.
It's your move, Commissioner Silver. Will you discipline Embiid sufficiently such that no NBA player will ever again make aggressive physical contact with a media member? Will you take a more active role in oversight of who receives NBA media credentials, and the ways that credentialed media members often sully the league's image and its proud history? Or will you attempt to sweep this Embiid/Hayes situation under the rug?
Raveling posted the conversation in 11 parts on YouTube. Here are the links, plus notes about each part:
Part 1:
Raveling concluded his introduction by declaring that Brown is regarded by acclamation as the greatest clinician in basketball history.
Brown recalled that when he was an assistant coach for Larry Costello with the Milwaukee Bucks, Costello had 11 different sets just to get the ball to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. "It was a mind-blowing experience" for Brown to learn Costello's offensive philosophies. Brown said that he developed the concise way of speaking that is a trademark of his broadcasting style from his experiences teaching at the Five-Star Basketball Camp when he made a conscious effort to be mindful that a coach/teacher must be aware of the attention spans of players/students.
Part 2:
Brown reminisced about his playing career at Niagara, and about his interactions with Larry Costello and Frank Layden, who later became successful NBA head coaches. Brown said, "I owe everything to Larry Costello," who hired Brown to be an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks, thus giving Brown his first opportunity to coach in the professional ranks.Layden was Brown's teammate/roommate at Niagara, and later served as one of Brown's assistant coaches with the Atlanta Hawks.
Part 3:
Brown recalled becoming a high school basketball coach, and realizing that his future would be in basketball, not baseball. Brown also discussed playing basketball for the Army's team, and playing basketball in the Eastern Basketball League, which at that time was stacked with NBA-caliber players who had been banned from the NBA because of their actual or presumed associations with point shaving/fixing games.
Part 4:
Brown discussed his experience coaching baseball, basketball, and football at the high school level.He said that coaching high school sports for about $17,000 a year was the happiest time of his life--but it is evident that he also wanted to make his mark at higher levels, and so he took a pay cut to $7000 a year to take his first college job at William & Mary before going to Duke as an assistant coach to Vic Bubas.
Brown talked with reverence about Al LoBalbo, who mentored him and many other coaches. Brown described LoBalbo as "the ultimate clinician," the progenitor of the "Ball-You-Man" defensive concept utilized by Bobby Knight and many other Hall of Fame coaches, and the biggest single influence on his life other than his father. Brown said that one great piece of advice that LoBalbo gave him was to never use a whistle as a coach, but to command attention and respect with his voice alone.
Part 5:
Brown talked about his experiences working at Five-Star Basketball Camp, and some of the greatest players from that camp who made it to the NBA--and some of the greatest players from that camp who got sidetracked and did not make it to the NBA. Brown recalled that he used to tell the campers that the coaches are not impressed by how great they may think that they are, because the coaches have already seen Moses Malone, Isiah Thomas, Michael Jordan, and many other future Hall of Famers, plus other highly talented players who went the wrong way due to drugs, alcohol, or having a bad attitude. Brown told the campers that they have to choose which way they are going in life.
Brown said that when he coached high school basketball he insisted that his players participate in other sports as well, for two reasons: 1) He wanted them to benefit from the wisdom of the other coaches; 2) he felt that playing multiple sports provided the maximum opportunity for players to earn college scholarships and thus get a free education. Brown cited a specific example of one of his high school basketball players who ended up getting a football scholarship after first balking at the notion of playing any sport other than basketball. Brown added that his personal experience was that baseball was his first love, and if he had been limited to just playing baseball then he would have never had the career in basketball that he had.
Part 6:
Brown talked about serving as an assistant coach along with Chuck Daly on Vic Bubas' coaching staff at Duke. Raveling noted that this is perhaps the only time that one college coaching staff had two future Hall of Famers serving as assistant coaches. Brown called Bubas "the most organized man that I've ever met in my lifetime." Brown said that Daly's mantra was "Shooting makes up for a multitude of sins." At that time, Duke struggled to recruit the elite athletes, and thus focused on recruiting players who were great shooters.
Brown noted that after working alongside Daly he made a point each time he coached a team to have one player who was a pure shooter who could not run, jump, or play defense, because it is possible to "hide" one such player but it is not possible to "hide" two of them on the court at the same time.
Brown did not receive any college head coaching offers during his time at Duke, and he was seriously considering going back to New Jersey to coach high school sports before he received a call from Larry Costello, who hired Brown to be an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks at $20,000 for the first year and $22,000 for the second year. What impressed Brown the most about coaching in the NBA was how hard the team's two best players worked: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson set a high standard of professionalism that everyone else then followed. Brown also praised Bob Dandridge as "one of the greatest small forwards to play the game at both ends of the floor." Brown said that after his tenure in Milwaukee, every time he became a head coach the first thing he did was gather his players around, tell them how hard Abdul-Jabbar and Robertson worked, and emphasize that the players can either do things the right way by working hard or else they can leave: "We will never fine you. You will always fine yourself for your lack of professionalism. I've been with two of the greatest ever. They worked, and you're going to work." Brown said that a coach has to set the tone early, and make the expectations clear.
Part 7:
Brown described taking his first head coaching job in the professional ranks, signing a three year deal with the ABA's Kentucky Colonels in 1974 for $45,000 the first year, $50,000 the second year, and $55,000 the third year. He said that his 1974-75 Kentucky team--featuring Hall of Famers Artis Gilmore, Dan Issel, and Louie Dampier--was by far the best team he ever coached. The 1975 Colonels won the ABA championship, storming through the playoffs with a 12-3 record.
Part 8:
After the Colonels were not part of the 1976 ABA-NBA merger, Brown became coach of the Atlanta Hawks. The legendary Ted Turner bought the team. Turner also owned the fledgling TBS network, and the Atlanta Braves. The Hawks had suffered three straight losing seasons, and they went 31-51 in Brown's first year with the team. Turner met with Brown after the season, told Brown that the payroll for the players would be cut from $1,400,000 to $800,000, and the team would be the worst team in the league for the next two years so that they could get the number one overall draft pick twice (this was before the NBA instituted the Draft Lottery). Brown described how Turner told him all of this while pacing back and forth in his gigantic office tossing a pen in the air that he kept dropping instead of catching! After Turner finished outlining his plan, he asked Brown, "What do you think?"
Brown replied, "How about if we try winning?" A stunned Turner asks Brown how the team would win on an $800,000 budget if the team lost on a $1,400,000 budget. Brown said that he needed to have total control of which players they brought into camp, and that the team would use a variety of full court presses based on the game situation. Brown led the Hawks to the playoffs with a 41-41 record, and in the next two seasons the Hawks went 46-36 and 50-32, winning the 1980 Central Division title. During that period Brown and his scouts scoured the country for overlooked players, and found gems such as Charlie Criss, a 29 year old 5-8 guard who had been playing in the CBA (the successor to the Eastern League, Brown's old stomping grounds) and with the Washington Generals.
Brown said that Turner did not know anything about basketball, but he gave Turner credit for not interfering with the way that he picked the players and coached the team.
Part 9:
Brown shared more memories about coaching the Hawks under Ted Turner, including the time when Turner offered Brown the opportunity to be the Atlanta Braves' manager! Brown thought that the idea was ludicrous, but he asked Turner what Turner planned to pay him to coach the Hawks and manage the Braves at the same time. Turner exclaimed that he would not pay Brown anything extra because if Brown did this he would be in the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Baseball Hall of Fame. At that point, Brown told Turner that they could not talk about this any more.
Part 10:
Brown coached the Hawks until 1981. Next, he became a color commentator for USA Network, which broadcast NBA doubleheaders (much like TNT has been doing for the past several decades). Brown then spent five years coaching the New York Knicks before enjoying a long career as a broadcaster first with CBS and then with TNT. Brown's New York teams were injury-riddled, but they reached the playoffs in 1983 (losing to the eventual champion Philadelphia 76ers) and 1984 (losing to the eventual champion Boston Celtics).
After TNT went under different management and reduced Brown's broadcasting role, Brown accepted an offer from Jerry West to return to NBA coaching in 2002 at the age of 69. Brown spent three seasons coaching the Memphis Grizzlies. Brown led Memphis to a 50-32 record in 2003-04, earning his second NBA Coach of the Year award (he won his first in 1978 with the Hawks).
Part 11:
Brown talked about being inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Brown said that he was "shocked" and felt humbled when he was first told that he would be honored. During the months after the April announcement until the enshinement ceremony, Brown reflected on his life and all the people who had helped him along the way, and tried to figure out how to include all of that into his speech. Here is Brown's Hall of Fame enshrinement speech:
Raveling concluded by asking Brown how he wants to be remembered. Here is Brown's reply:
"I always wanted to be referred to as a teacher. I wanted to be a person that you would think of as being organized and never cheated--whether it was 55 minutes of business law in the classroom, or whether it was a two hour practice, an hour and a half practice, a three hour practice, that we never cheated you in your time. I wanted them to always think that even though you might not like the approach, but that we tried to get them to reach their potential. If they would just think of me in that light, I would be very happy because basketball has taken me and my wife around the world. Basketball changed me from being a corner guy hanging out to having a major future. And then, through the clinics, and in the world clinics, and then when Jack Ramsay and I and Calvin Murphy and [Bill] Walton went to 25 countries for the NBA, we had a chance to affect a lot of FIBA national basketball teams...As we both know, it's no different than any other business that you're in: you've got to prepare, you never underestimate the audience, you never underestimate their IQ and how much they want. So you never talk down. You talk to them. What you're hoping for is for them to raise their game IQ-wise by your mistakes, by mistakes that you've made. And don't be afraid to tell them about your mistakes...I know a lot of people say Hubie's so intense, but that's why I go always back to those two guys, my Dad and Al LoBalbo." Brown paused for a moment and became teary-eyed before concluding, "They forced you to pursue excellence, and to never cheat the people that you're responsible for. That's what you're hoping for."
Victor Wembanyama Notches His Second Career 5x5 Game
Bouncing back from perhaps the worst game in his young NBA career--six points, eight rebounds, three blocked shots, two assists, four turnovers, and 1-5 field goal shooting in San Antonio's 105-93 Wednesday night loss to Oklahoma City--Victor Wembanyama had 25 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, five steals, and five blocked shots as San Antonio cruised to a 106-88 win versus the Utah Jazz on Thursday night. This is Wembanyama's second game with at least five points, at least five rebounds, at least five assists, at least five steals, and at least five blocked shots. I wrote about the exclusive 5x5 Club the first time that Wembanyama accomplished this feat, and I first referenced the 5x5 Club in my 2007 article about Pro Basketball's Greatest Ball Hawks.
As I noted in both of my previous articles mentioning the 5x5 Club, the NBA has only officially tracked steals and blocked shots since the 1973-74 season, and the ABA only started officially tracking steals and blocked shots in the 1972-73 season, so we do not know how many steals and blocked shots great players such as Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell amassed, nor do we know how many 5x5 games those players may have had.
Here is the updated list of known 5x5 games courtesy of Stathead via The Sporting News:
Player
Year
PTS
REB
AST
STL
BLK
George Johnson
1978
15
18
5
5
7
George Gervin
1979
21
5
6
5
5
Julius Erving
1979
28
7
10
5
5
Hakeem Olajuwon
1987
38
17
6
7
12
Hakeem Olajuwon
1990
29
18
9
5
11
Hakeem Olajuwon
1992
19
13
6
5
5
David Robinson
1992
29
9
5
5
10
Derrick Coleman
1993
21
10
7
5
5
Hakeem Olajuwon
1993
33
13
5
5
5
Hakeem Olajuwon
1993
24
19
6
5
5
Hakeem Olajuwon
1993
34
10
5
5
8
Vlade Divac
1995
19
12
8
5
5
Jamaal Tinsley
2001
12
9
15
6
5
Andrei Kirilenko
2003
19
5
7
8
5
Andrei Kirilenko
2003
10
12
6
6
5
Marcus Camby
2004
8
11
5
5
8
Andrei Kirilenko
2006
14
8
9
6
7
Nicolas Batum
2012
11
5
10
5
5
Draymond Green
2015
24
11
8
5
5
Anthony Davis
2018
12
16
6
5
5
Jusuf Nurkić
2019
24
23
7
5
5
Victor Wembanyama
2024
27
10
8
5
5
Victor Wembanyama
2024
25
9
7
5
5
Wembanyama already ranks third on the list of known 5x5 performers behind only Hakeem Olajuwon (six) and Andrei Kirilenko (three); these are the only three players known to have each authored more than one such game.
"A work of art contains its verification in itself: artificial, strained concepts do not withstand the test of being turned into images; they fall to pieces, turn out to be sickly and pale, convince no one. Works which draw on truth and present it to us in live and concentrated form grip us, compellingly involve us, and no one ever, not even ages hence, will come forth to refute them."--Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Nobel Lecture)
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"In chess what counts is what you know, not whom you know. It's the way life is supposed to be, democratic and just."--Grandmaster Larry Evans
"It's not nuclear physics. You always remember that. But if you write about sports long enough, you're constantly coming back to the point that something buoys people; something makes you feel better for having been there. Something of value is at work there...Something is hallowed here. I think that something is excellence."--Tom Callahan
