20 Second Timeout

Russell Westbrook's Legacy is Defined by His Work Ethic and His Elite Productivity

Russell Westbrook's catchphrase is "Why not?" and his career is defined not just by that boundless optimism but by the fierce work ethic that justified his faith in himself. Westbrook retired on Wednesday after a tremendous 18 season career, announcing the decision in a social media post that began, "Sometimes you don't even know when you've already watched the end. You had to be there. And now it's over." The post included a video of Westbrook's highlights narrated by Michael B. Jordan. Westbrook silently walked through an unfinished Museum of Unspoken Answers while wearing a shirt that reads "Don't Rock With What They Say" on the front and "Why Not?" on the back. Westbrook reportedly had offers to play this season from the Sacramento Kings--the team he played for last season--and the Washington Wizards (one of his former teams), but he decided to leave the game on his terms.

Make no mistake, Westbrook can still play--and he is not playing at a veteran minimum salary level, either. Last season,Westbrook averaged 15.2 ppg, 6.7 apg, and 5.4 rpg for the Sacramento Kings in 64 games. Those numbers ranked 59th, 13th, and 67th in the league. He averaged more assists than regular season MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, more rebounds than Tobias Harris (the starting power forward for the number one seed in the Eastern Conference), and more points than Nikola Vucevic, Jaden McDaniels, and Mikal Bridges. Westbrook ranked first on the Kings in assists, fourth in scoring, and fourth in rebounding (minimum 300 total rebounds). 

Early in the season, he passed Jason Kidd for most career rebounds by a guard. Westbrook and LeBron James are the only players in pro basketball history who have scored at least 25,000 points and dished for at least 10,000 assists. Westbrook ranks fifth in ABA/NBA history with 10,351 assists, and 16th in ABA/NBA history with 27,176 points. He is the all-time leader in triple doubles in a career (209) and a season (42 in 2016-17). Westbrook led the league in triple doubles in six seasons (2015-19, 2021), he led the league in assists three times (2018-19, 2021), and he won two scoring titles (2015, 2017). He won the 2017 regular season MVP plus two All-Star Game MVPs (2015, 2016); unlike many of his peers, he played hard in All-Star Games. Westbrook and Oscar Robertson are the only players who averaged a triple double for an entire season, a feat that Robertson accomplished once (1961-62; he averaged an aggregate triple double for his first five seasons), and that Westbrook did four times (2017-19, 2021). Westbrook earned selection to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.

Westbrook reached the top of the game but--unlike many NBA superstars--he was not highly recruited out of high school. He eventually landed at UCLA, and after two years as a Bruin he worked his way up to being the fourth pick in the 2008 NBA Draft by the Seattle Supersonics, who moved to Oklahoma City before the start of the 2008-09 season. Westbrook averaged 15.3 ppg, 5.3 apg, and 4.9 rpg as a rookie to finish fourth in Rookie of the Year voting behind Derrick Rose, O.J. Mayo, and Brook Lopez.

In his third season, Westbrook earned the first of nine All-Star selections and the first of nine All-NBA Team selections after averaging 21.9 ppg, 8.2 apg (ninth in the league), and 4.6 rpg. The Thunder improved from 23-59 in Westbrook's rookie season to 50-32 in his second season to 55-27 in his third season while making the first of four Western Conference Finals appearances in a six year span. By that time, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook had formed one of the best duos in the league. In 2011-12, Durant made All-NBA First Team, Westbrook made All-NBA Second Team, and James Harden won Sixth Man of the Year as the Thunder advanced to the NBA Finals before losing 4-1 to the Miami Heat. 

The Thunder seemed poised to become the NBA's next dynasty, but that iteration of the squad did not reach the NBA Finals again. Harden refused to accept sixth man status, so the Thunder shipped him to Houston before the 2012-13 season. The Thunder did not miss a beat without Harden, finishing first in the Western Conference with a 60-22 record with Durant (All-NBA First Team) and Westbrook (All-NBA Second Team) leading the way. However, disaster struck in the second game of the first round as Houston's Patrick Beverley crashed into Westbrook, tearing Westbrook's right meniscus. The Thunder still beat the Rockets 4-2, but without Westbrook they lost to the Memphis Grizzlies 4-1 in the second round.

Westbrook did not miss a game in his first five seasons but his right knee did not completely heal prior to the 2013-14 season, and he played just 46 games in that campaign. Westbrook hit his stride down the stretch, averaging 26.2 ppg, 7.0 apg, and 6.0 rpg in six April games. Westbrook maintained that high level of play in the postseason, averaging a then playoff career high 26.7 ppg, 8.1 apg, and 7.3 rpg as the Thunder advanced to the Western Conference Finals before losing 4-2 to the eventual NBA champion San Antonio Spurs. 

Many media members make no secret about playing favorites, and it was evident early in Westbrook's career that he was not on the favorites list. In 2014, I prophetically asserted that he was poised to inherit Kobe Bryant's dual status as best guard in the NBA and underrated superstar:  

Kobe Bryant has been the best guard in the NBA for the better part of the past decade or so but an Achilles injury knocked him out of the 2013 playoffs and caused him to miss most of the 2013-14 regular season before a broken leg sidelined him for the remainder of the current campaign; he made the 2013 All-NBA First Team but his reign as the league's top backcourt performer is likely over, even if he returns to action next season. Bryant has been underrated for most of his career, with critics sniping at his alleged selfishness and foolishly suggesting that the L.A. Lakers were better off when Bryant shot fewer times even when Bryant was at the height of his powers, leading the Lakers to championships while also setting various individual scoring records. There are many reasons that the Lakers have sunk to historic lows this season but the biggest single factor is that Bryant played in just six games.

One player seems poised to fill both of Bryant's roles--best guard in the NBA and vastly underrated superstar: Russell Westbrook. Westbrook helped lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to the best record in the Western Conference last season (60-22) after playing a major role in the Thunder's run to the 2012 NBA Finals but the Thunder's 2013 championship hopes were dashed when Houston's Patrick Beverly wiped out Westbrook's knee during the first round of the playoffs; sans Westbrook, the Thunder struggled to eliminate the mediocre Rockets before getting blasted 4-1 in the second round by a flawed Memphis team that was promptly swept by the San Antonio Spurs. 

By 2015, Westbrook had firmly established himself as an elite player while foreshadowing the triple double dominance that would define his career:

Westbrook has already earned four All-Star selections and three All-NBA Second Team nods but in the second half of this season he has taken his game to a new, almost unprecedented level. Westbrook averaged 31.2 ppg, 10.3 apg and 9.1 rpg in February, joining Oscar Robertson as the only players in NBA history to average 30 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in a calendar month (minimum 10 games). During a five game span starting February 24, Westbrook ranked in the top five in the league in scoring (38.2 ppg, first), assists (9.8 apg, third) and rebounding (12.4 rpg, ninth).

He also became just the fourth player in NBA history to have at least three straight 40 point--five rebound--five assist games. Elgin Baylor did this for four straight games in 1960-61, while Michael Jordan (1988-89) and Wilt Chamberlain (1963-64) did it for three straight games each. Baylor also did it for three straight games during the 1962-63 season.

Westbrook has performed at a high level throughout the season and he is the only player in the league who ranks in the top five in scoring (27.3 ppg, first), assists (8.3 apg, fourth) and steals (2.1 spg, third).

Westbrook's critics say that he shoots too much, that he is selfish and that he does not play a winning style of basketball but the Thunder's record states otherwise. The Thunder are 30-19 with Westbrook this season (.612 winning percentage), including 12-5 since February 1 as the team began making a late playoff push despite being without the services of 2014 NBA MVP Kevin Durant for much of that time (the Thunder are 6-4 in the most recent 10 game stretch that Durant has missed). The Thunder are just 5-10 (.333 winning percentage) without Westbrook (that record includes some early season games that both Durant and Westbrook missed).  

In 2014-15, Durant suffered a foot fracture and played in just 27 games as the Thunder posted a respectable 45-37 record but lost a tiebreaker for the eighth and final playoff berth. With Durant sidelined most of the season, Westbrook won his first scoring title (28.1 ppg) and finished fourth in MVP voting.

The last hurrah for the Durant-Westbrook duo happened in the 2016 Western Conference Finals. The Thunder raced to a 3-1 lead versus the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors before the record-setting 73-9 Warriors won three straight games to return to the NBA Finals. Westbrook finished fourth in MVP voting that season, while Durant was a distant fifth, and Westbrook made the All-NBA First Team while Durant made the All-NBA Second Team. 

After shooting 1-7 from the field in the fourth quarter of a game six Western Conference Finals loss at home before losing game seven 96-88 on the road, Durant decided that he preferred to flee Oklahoma City to join the Warriors instead of accepting the challenge of trying to beat them. 

Westbrook reacted not by complaining or demanding a trade but by signing a two year contract extension at a time when the franchise was in a vulnerable state. Over the next three seasons, Westbrook solidified his elite status while keeping the Thunder relevant, starting off with a record-setting 2016-17 season during which Westbrook became the only player other than Oscar Robertson to average a triple double for an entire season. The MVP voters have often been wrong in the past several decades, but I noted that they got it right when they selected Westbrook in 2017: 

Westbrook won his second scoring title (career-high 31.6 ppg), he ranked third in assists (10.4 apg) and he finished 10th in rebounding (10.7 rpg, an unprecedented average for a 6-3 point guard). Westbrook tallied three 50 point triple doubles, setting both the single season and career records in that category.

Westbrook's amazing individual numbers directly correlated with his team's success. He broke Oscar Robertson's single season record by notching 42 triple doubles and the Oklahoma City Thunder went 33-9 in those games, compared to 14-26 in the remaining games; a 33-9 record projects to 64-18 over a full 82 game season, while 14-26 projects to 29-53. Essentially, when Westbrook played at a historically great level he elevated the Thunder to elite status but when he was "merely" good the Thunder were the equivalent of a Draft Lottery team. The Thunder's relative performance when Westbrook was on the court compared to when he was off the court told the same story: with Westbrook on the court, this flawed roster could compete with just about anyone but take Westbrook out of the game and the Thunder morphed into the league's worst team by far. 

His critics note that Westbrook did not win an NBA title, but the reality is that Westbrook's teams often outperformed reasonable expectations, and his MVP season epitomizes that: the Thunder with Westbrook leading the way sans Durant were much better than anyone could have reasonably expected. 

The way that Westbrook's historically great individual performance impacted team success is the most underrated aspect of his career. As David Aldridge recently noted, Westbrook's teams posted a 153-56 record in his 209 regular season triple double games. That .732 winning percentage is equivalent to a 60-22 record for an 82 game season, and such high level team success refutes the notion that Westbrook was chasing individual glory at the cost of his teams; his teams would have not won nearly as many games if Westbrook had not played with such heart and if he had not been so productive. 

In 2019 after Westbrook logged just the second 20-20-20 game in pro basketball history, I placed not just this accomplishment but Westbrook's overall dominance into historical perspective:

Russell Westbrook is on the verge of clinching his third straight season of averaging a triple double--an unprecedented feat that is, inexplicably, largely being ignored--and he is doing so with style: during Oklahoma City's 119-103 win over the L.A. Lakers on Tuesday night, Westbrook posted 20 points, 20 rebounds and 21 assists, just the second 20-20-20 game in pro basketball history. As you probably would guess if you did not know, Wilt Chamberlain was the first player to accomplish this, with 22 points, 25 rebounds and 21 assists in Philadelphia's 131-121 win over Detroit on February 2, 1968.

After Westbrook's jaw-dropping performance, Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas--serving as a TNT commentator during the "Players Only" telecast--said that in an era of great point guards Westbrook is not mentioned enough. Thomas also declared that Westbrook is the "most dominant" point guard of this era. That is true. No other point guard is equally dominant as a scorer, rebounder and passer the way that Westbrook is. Westbrook can match anyone in the league bucket for bucket as a scorer, he rebounds better than most centers and he has become the league's best playmaker, defying the critics who used to say that Westbrook was a shooting guard masquerading as a point guard.

The best thing about Westbrook, though, is the thing that we should be able to take for granted about pro athletes but is in fact an increasingly rare quality: Westbrook plays hard, all the time. He would agree with Jeff Van Gundy's oft-repeated statement that the idea of "load management" is a load of something else...

I understand--but don't accept--that media coverage of basketball is largely driven now by hype and memes and highlights and tweets, but how many NBA players are actually better at playing basketball--at scoring, rebounding and passing--than Russell Westbrook?

After the Thunder lost in the first round for the third straight year, they traded Westbrook to Houston, reuniting him with his former teammate James Harden. The Rockets lost in the first round in the 2020 "bubble" playoffs, and then they sent Westbrook to the Washington Wizards for John Wall. 

Oscar Robertson's career triple double record stood for nearly 50 years--longer than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's career scoring record that LeBron James broke. After Westbrook surpassed Robertson during the 2020-21 season, I placed this feat in historical context:

It is important to understand Robertson's rightful place in basketball history in order to appreciate what Russell Westbrook has accomplished and how great Westbrook is. Westbrook's 28 points, 21 assists, and 13 rebounds in Washington's 125-124 loss to Atlanta on Monday night broke his tie with Robertson on the career triple double list, and established Westbrook as the all-time triple double king. Robertson's record stood for the vast majority of NBA history up to this point, and even with the increasing number of triple doubles we see today it may very well be 50 years before anyone surpasses Westbrook's final total; the second highest ranking current player, LeBron James, has 99 triple doubles. A player could play 72 games a year for 10 seasons, have a triple double every four games, and still not match Westbrook's current total; the high level of durability and productivity necessary to perform like Westbrook does is vastly underrated. 

The fact that the transcendently great Nikola Jokic is likely to pass Westbrook on the career triple double list next season speaks to Jokic's elite status more than it diminishes the value of Westbrook's accomplishment. Jokic currently has 198 career triple doubles, and the next active player on the list is LeBron James (125), followed by Luka Doncic (90). James is not going to approach Westbrook's total, and Doncic's triple double pace has slowed significantly in the past two years, making it unlikely that he will catch Westbrook.

Westbrook averaged a triple double (22.2 ppg, league-leading/career-high 11.7 apg, career-high 11.5 rpg) in his lone season with the Wizards. I am only being slightly hyperbolic when I say that leading the Wizards to the playoffs while averaging a triple double is sufficient to earn Hall of Fame induction for Westbrook, but it should be emphasized that the Wizards did not make the playoffs in the two years prior to Westbrook's arrival and have not made the playoffs in the five years since they traded him to the L.A. Lakers. 

Perhaps the nadir for Westbrook's career was when LeBron James and his media sycophants attempted to make Westbrook the scapegoat for all of the Lakers' problems. It is worth noting that after James led the Lakers to the 2020 "bubble" title, he led the Lakers to just one Western Conference Finals, one second round loss, three first round losses, and one non-playoff season. During Westbrook's lone full season with the Lakers, he played in a team-high 78 games while James was eighth on the team with 56 games and Anthony "Don't Call me 'Street Clothes'" Davis was 11th on the team with 40 games played. I cannot recall another situation during which the team's two best players missed so many games but somehow the team's failure to perform well is supposedly the fault of the team's third option. 

Hubie Brown--who is perhaps the greatest NBA game analyst of all-time--praised Westbrook's play with the Lakers even in a loss: "I'm happy for him. He never quit on himself. He keeps playing hard...He knows that he is going to get hit (driving to the hoop) but he punishes himself because he wants to win the game...He took over this game in the third quarter, and you love to see it because that is who he is. You can knock him, you can say you don't like him, but he plays hard and he earns his money every night."

In marked contrast to Brown's objective take on Westbrook, Amin Elhassan and Zach Harper propagated the unfounded notion that Westbrook is a selfish player who allegedly stole rebounds from his teammates. In 2019, I critiqued this stubbornly held assertion in Are Rebounds Fungible?: 

Last season, Westrbook led the Oklahoma City Thunder in rebounding (11.1 rpg, 10th in the league) and the team ranked second with 48.1 rpg. The Thunder ranked sixth in rebounding differential (+2.4), which means that their high rebounding totals are not just related to pace; they outrebounded their opponents on a consistent basis.

This season, Westbrook plays for the Houston Rockets. If Westbrook were "stealing" rebounds from his teammates, then one could reasonably expect that his former team's rebounding prowess would not decline much in his absence, and that the next best rebounder on his former team (Steven Adams) would increase his rebounding average. Instead, through 24 games (30% of the season) the Thunder rank 25th in rebounding (43.0 rpg) and 23rd in rebounding differential (-2.4). Adams is averaging 9.4 rpg, essentially the same as his 9.5 rpg average last season.

Meanwhile, last season the Rockets without Westbrook ranked 28th in rebounding (42.1 rpg) and 27th in rebounding differential (-3.4). This season, the Rockets with Westbrook rank third in rebounding (48.0 rpg) and ninth in rebounding differential (+1.8).

The numbers show that after losing Westbrook the Thunder went from being an elite rebounding team to being a poor rebounding team, while after adding Westbrook the Rockets went from being a poor rebounding team to being an elite rebounding team. Yes, there have been other personnel changes for both teams--particularly the Thunder, who also lost Paul George--but if rebounds were fungible and if Westbrook were really just "stealing" rebounds it is unlikely that his old team and his new team would have swapped places in terms of their rebounding rankings.  

Westbrook concluded his career by playing a little over one year with the L.A. Clippers followed by single season stints with the Denver Nuggets and the Sacramento Kings. During his brief time in Denver, Westbrook and Jokic set a record by becoming the first teammates to each have a triple double in the same game twice in the same season.

Westbrook's career provides a valuable prism through which to view how narratives are constructed and propagated. A major reason that the quality of media coverage is so poor is that there are low barriers to entry to become a member of the media: 

Westbrook is an all-time great being covered by hacks who accuse him of padding his stats by "stealing" rebounds, a false notion that is unsupported by the numbers. Justin Termine admits that he is "an entertainer, not a journalist," and after listening to him I agree that he is not a journalist but I question how entertaining he is. Termine recently asserted that Westbrook has spent his career accumulating individual statistics that do not correlate with team success. Termine calls himself a basketball historian, but he apparently does not realize how rare it is for a team to reach the Western Conference Finals four times, as the Oklahoma City Thunder did (2011, 2012, 2014, 2016) with Kevin Durant and Westbrook leading the way. Westbrook was an All-NBA Team member in three of those four seasons, and would have made it in all four had he not been limited to 46 games in the 2014 season (he averaged 26.7 ppg, 8.1 apg, and 7.3 rpg during that playoff run to reaffirm his All-NBA status). 

It is notable that Hubie Brown--who Doug Collins correctly called the "gold standard" for NBA commentators--consistently praised Westbrook even when other media members like Amin Elhassan and Zach Harper took unwarranted shots at Westbrook.

A major cause of the low quality of media coverage is the low barrier to entry for the profession, a topic that I have mentioned before but is worth discussing in greater depth. I speak from personal experience because I spent seven years as a credentialed reporter in NBA media rooms, so I saw firsthand how news is gathered, how narratives are manufactured, and how often incompetent media members ask ridiculous questions. Before I became a credentialed reporter, I devoted myself to learning the NBA game, learning pro basketball history, and honing my writing skills, but I found out--to my horror--that obtaining credentials and getting writing assignments has much less to do with what you know than who you know. This is in marked contrasted to other professions and endeavors. For example, in the 1990s, I was an ACE-certified personal trainer, in 1995 I earned the U.S. Chess Federation's Expert title, and in 2016 I became an actively licensed attorney. 

To become a certified personal trainer, you must pass a certification exam.

To become a chess Expert (top 3% of all chess players in the United States), it is necessary to earn 2000 rating points in officially sanctioned tournaments.

To become an actively licensed attorney, you must score high enough on the LSAT to be admitted to law school, you must graduate law school, and you must pass the bar exam. To maintain actively licensed status, you must earn continuing education credits. 

You cannot become a certified personal trainer, a chess Expert, or an attorney based on your connections; to achieve each of those status levels, you must meet objective standards. 

In contrast, anyone who knows the right person can show up at a sports event as a credentialed reporter. There is no education requirement and no competency requirement.

The false perceptions and narratives about Westbrook's time with the Lakers may have damaged his value toward the end of Westbrook's career, but Westbrook also faced the same reality that many NBA veterans are dealing with now: the league's salary structure is focused on highly compensating the elite players combined with cost control for young players and low salaries for aging veterans. Westbrook proved long ago that he can perform at an MVP/All-NBA Team level for teams that make deep playoff runs, and he also showed that he could raise the floor of a moribund team like the Wizards. The notion that Westbrook somehow damaged his legacy by playing for several teams in his last few seasons makes as little sense as the assertion that he "stole" rebounds from teammates. Vince Carter glided into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a first ballot selection with a resume that is not half as good as Westbrook's: Carter did not win an MVP, a scoring title, or an assists title, he never made the All-NBA First Team and in his final seven seasons he played for four teams while averaging more than 10 ppg just once. Those facts are not cited to belittle Carter but rather to point out the absurdity of the comments that are made about Westbrook. 

In an era during which the NBA developed a lot of collective bad habits--including overreliance on three point shooting, the rise of load management, and as many as a third of the league's teams tanking--Westbrook stands out as a player who attacked the hoop to score, rebound, and pass, who loathed missing games, and who would not dream of doing anything other than trying 100% to win every game. 

The NBA is worse off without Westbrook and the example he set.

Labels: Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, James Harden, Kevin Durant, L.A. Lakers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Russell Westbrook, Sacramento Kings, Seattle Supersonics, Washington Wizards

posted by David Friedman @ 12:50 AM

12 comments

Oklahoma City Thunder Outlast Houston Rockets 125-124 in Opening Night Double Overtime Thriller

Hearing John Tesh's "Roundball Rock" as the NBA returned to NBC for the first time since 2002 brought back a flood of nostalgic memories, foremost among them the Chicago Bulls' twin three-peats (1991-93, 1996-98) culminating in the legendary "Last Dance" 1998 championship season. There has been a lot of hype about the revival of the NBA on NBC and, at least on Opening Night, the game lived up to the hype as the 2025 NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Houston Rockets 125-124 in a double overtime battle featuring plenty of drama and plot twists. If this was a Western Conference Finals preview--and it is way too soon to say that it was--then we are in for a treat next May.

Before the game began, the Thunder received their championship rings and raised the first championship banner in Oklahoma City history. The Thunder's rings feature a unique ring within a ring design; championship rings have become so big and gaudy that they are not practical to wear, but each of the Thunder's championship rings contain a smaller ring inside that is personalized for each player and small enough to be worn comfortably.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning Finals MVP, regular season MVP, and scoring champion, overcame a slow start to lead the Thunder with 35 points while also grabbing five rebounds, and tying three teammates with a team-high five assists. Chet Holmgren added 28 points and seven rebounds. The Thunder were without the services of 2025 All-NBA Third Team selection Jaylen Williams, who is recovering from offseason surgery on his right (shooting) wrist, but they received an unexpected boost off of the bench as Ajay Mitchell poured in 16 points in just 15 minutes. Cason Wallace contributed 14 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. Isaiah Hartenstein only scored six points, but he had a team-high nine rebounds and five assists. Fan favorite Lu Dort was the other Thunder player with five assists, and he played 45 minutes, second most for the Thunder behind Gilgeous-Alexander's 47.

Alperun Sengun scored a game-high 39 points, snared 11 rebounds, and dished for a game-high seven assists. He often overpowered Alex Caruso in the post, and Caruso--a key defensive player for the Thunder--finished with a game-worst -15 plus/minus number. Kevin Durant had 23 points and nine rebounds in his Houston debut, and he was booed lustily by an Oklahoma City crowd that has not forgiven him for fleeing a championship contending team to join the Golden State Warriors in 2016. Amen Thompson had 18 points, five assists, and four turnovers before leaving the game with a leg injury in the first overtime. He had a team-worst -11 plus/minus number as the starting point guard in place of the injured Fred VanVleet. Thompson is bigger, faster, and more athletic than VanVleet but also not as savvy in terms of running a team and controlling pace. 

The Rockets trotted out the tallest starting lineup since the NBA first tracked starting lineups in the 1970-71 season: Amen Thompson (6-7), Kevin Durant (6-11), Jabari Smith, Jr. (6-11), Alperen Sengun (6-11), and Steven Adams (6-11). Adams, a former Thunder player who the fans cheered when the starting lineups were announced, had a game-high 13 rebounds as the Rockets bludgeoned the Thunder 51-39 on the glass. The modern NBA is supposedly all about playing small, pace and space, and jacking up three pointers, but the Rockets nearly beat last year's champions with a big team despite shooting just 11-39 (.282) from three point range. Losing the turnover battle 21-11 nullified Houston's rebounding advantage, and if the Rockets can clean that up then their defense and rebounding will make them very difficult to beat and very uncomfortable to play against. The Thunder uncharacteristically had five turnovers in the first quarter after leading the league in fewest turnovers per game (11.7) and most turnovers forced per game (17.0) last season, but in the final 46 minutes the Thunder only had six turnovers.

In four full quarters and two overtimes, neither team outscored the other by more than four points in a quarter or an overtime. The Rockets enjoyed a 57-51 halftime lead, using a balanced attack featuring three double figure scorers. Gilgeous-Alexander had just five first half points on 2-5 field goal shooting. NBC's Jamal Crawford made an interesting point near the end of the first half, stating that the Thunder are built for Gilgeous-Alexander to be the leading scorer and look out of sorts when he is not. I have often made a similar point about elite scorers in general, noting that they have a responsibility to score a lot; their high volume shooting is not selfish, but is necessary for their teams to be successful. 

A halftime interview is not usually worth mentioning in a game recap, but most halftime interviews don't feature Michael Jordan, who said that he wishes he could take a "magic pill" to play basketball again, which is reminiscent of remarks he made during his Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame speech in 2009: 

This is not fun for me. I don't like being up here for the Hall of Fame because at that time your basketball career is completely over. I was hoping this day would be 20 more years, or actually go in when I'm dead and gone. Because now, all along...you always [could] put shorts on and go out and play. Now, when you get into the Hall of Fame, what else is there to do? This is kind of a love-hate thing for me--great accomplishment, great respect that everybody's paying, but for me, I always want to be able to have you thinking that I can always go back and play the game of basketball, put my shorts on. As long as you have that thought, you never know what can happen...Am I? No. But I'd like for you to think that way. Hall of Fame, to me, is like, 'OK, it's over and done with, it's pretty much done, you can't ever put a uniform back on.' It's totally the end of your basketball career. But it's a great accomplishment. I don't walk away from it. But I never envisioned myself really wanting to be up here so quickly. I wanted it to be when I'm 70 years old, 80 years old. I'm 45 and I still think I can play. You guys don't know if I can or can't but at least I've got you thinking that way. 

Jordan told NBC's Mike Tirico that he agreed to be interviewed--NBC plans to show the interview in installments over the next several weeks in an obvious attempt to boost ratings--because he feels an obligation to give back to the game by providing his observations and wisdom about basketball and competition. Jordan made it very clear that he would much rather be playing than talking about playing, and he said that he misses the competition. More than 20 years after he retired, being a basketball player is still a core part of Jordan's identity. This should not surprise anyone who followed Jordan's career, or anyone who gets an adrenaline boost not just from competing but from winning; if you are that kind of person, it is difficult to find anything to replace that feeling. That is what is so fascinating about the direction that Kobe Bryant seemed to be taking as a retired player, because he appeared to find other ways to express himself beyond playing; it is a shame that Bryant's life (and the lives of all of the passengers in that doomed helicopter, including his daughter Gigi) was cut short before he could explore all of those other aspects of life. 

Next week's installment of the Jordan interview will focus on his thoughts about load management and about why it was so important to him to play all 82 regular season games. I don't expect to be surprised by Jordan's thoughts on this topic, but I hope that after Jordan explains why playing every game is important that today's players take his approach to heart.  

The Rockets built a 63-51 lead on Thompson's layup at the 10:13 mark of the third quarter, but by the end of that quarter the Thunder had trimmed the margin to four (79-75), setting up a competitive fourth quarter during which neither team led by more than six points. Durant split a pair of free throws with 9.5 seconds remaining in regulation to put the Rockets up 104-102, leaving the door open for the Thunder to tie or even win. Gilgeous-Alexander, the master of the midrange game that is despised by many "stat gurus" but essential for winning in the playoffs, drilled a pullup jumper to tie the score with 2.6 seconds left. The Rockets called timeout before inbounding the ball to Sengun, who missed a jumper as time expired.

The Thunder jumped out to a 110-104 lead in the first 1:24 of the first overtime, but the Rockets reeled them in and tied the score on Sengun's putback dunk with 8.8 seconds remaining. After Gilgeous-Alexander missed a jumper with 2.2 seconds left, Durant grabbed the rebound and clearly signaled for a timeout. The only problem was that Houston did not have any more timeouts. Had the officials recognized Durant's request with time left on the clock then the Rockets would have been assessed a technical foul and the Thunder would have had a chance to take the lead at the free throw line. However, time just ran out, after which Oklahoma City Thunder coach Mark Daigneault approached the officials and angrily asked why they did not call a technical foul. The NBC crew never got a definitive explanation regarding what happened; play by play announcer Mike Tirico merely noted that the officials had never acknowledged Durant's signal, without questioning how it is possible that an official standing right next to Durant could not have noticed Durant's signal (and, presumably, Durant also verbally requesting a timeout). 

The second overtime was as closely contested as the rest of the game, with neither team leading by more than three points. At the 1:15 mark, Durant drove to the hoop, drew Hartenstein's sixth foul, and hit a shot while he was falling down. Durant made the free throw to put Houston up, 122-120. Gilgeous-Alexander answered with a smooth stepback jumper, and then he split a pair of free throws after Houston turned over the ball. Durant missed a three pointer, but the Rockets retained possession and Durant passed to a cutting Sengun for a layup that put the Rockets up 124-123 with just 11 seconds remaining. Durant guarded Gilgeous-Alexander on the final possession, and played good defense before fouling him with just 2.3 seconds left. Gilgeous-Alexander hit both free throws to provide the final margin.

A Thunder win with Durant fouling out on the play that gave the Thunder the lead is undoubtedly a perfect ending for Oklahoma City fans. Both teams competed hard, and both teams made many nice plays at both ends of the court. My only quibble would be that 67 combined missed three pointers is not efficient basketball no matter what the "stat gurus" say, but teams regularly jacking up 30, 40, 50 or more three pointers appears to be a permanent feature of the sport now. We have all heard that "Three is more than two," but it is worth pointing out that "Two is more than zero," and that 67 possessions in this game ended with zero points on shots from 23 feet, nine inches and beyond. For the modern NBA, though, this was a very high level game, and it was enjoyable to watch.

Anyone who understands the NBA knows that it is foolish to read too much into one game, particularly the first game of a long regular season; after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar hit a game-winning skyhook in rookie Magic Johnson's first NBA game, Johnson celebrated and Abdul-Jabbar casually informed him that there were 81 more games to go (and Johnson told him that if he hits a shot like that 81 more times then he will celebrate 81 more times, but that is a different story). Nevertheless, even though it is way too soon to draw definitive conclusions, we can make a few observations about both teams. The Thunder were sluggish offensively at first, primarily due to Gilgeous-Alexander starting slowly and Williams not being in the lineup, but after they fell behind by double digits they woke up and found a way to win despite not playing their best and not having their second best player. After Williams returns, the Thunder will be much better at both ends of the court. The Rockets' size and physicality challenged the Thunder, and will challenge most teams in the league. Sengun looked as good as he has ever looked even though the Rockets lack a true point guard and are still figuring out how to fully integrate Durant into the offense (he had just nine points after halftime). It will be very interesting to assess both of these teams after a larger sample size of games.

Labels: Alperun Sengun, Amen Thompson, Chet Holmgren, Houston Rockets, Kevin Durant, NBA, NBC, Oklahoma City Thunder, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

posted by David Friedman @ 2:20 AM

5 comments

Evaluating The Athletic's The Basketball 100, Focusing on the Top 15

David Aldridge and John Hollinger plus The Athletic staff are listed as co-authors of The Basketball 100, a book that ranks in order the top 100 players in pro basketball history. David Aldridge is one of the few modern NBA journalists who I respect: he writes well, and his takes are reasonable, even if I don't always agree with him, although I would say that I agree with him most of the time. In his Introduction to The Basketball 100, he declares, "If you truly love the game, you appreciate its history, and the stars of the early era, from George Mikan and Bob Cousy to Bob Pettit and Dolph Schayes. They were not plumbers and firemen; they were the best athletes of their generation, men to be respected." That last comment is a direct--and deserved--shot fired at J.J. Redick, who demeaned Bob Cousy because, in Redick's shameful words, Cousy played against "plumbers and firemen."

Although Aldridge's statement provides hope that the book will speak truth to power, there are reasons to be skeptical about the book as well. Aldridge talked about the book on a podcast with Bomani Jones, and Aldridge mentioned that while doing research he was surprised to learn that Dave Bing suffered an eye injury as a child that left him with blurred vision. I wrote about Bing's childhood eye injury in my 2007 Basketball Times profile of Bing, and I was not breaking news when I mentioned that fact, so it is surprising that a veteran NBA journalist did not know this--which is not to say that Aldridge is required to read my articles or to know every fact about every player, but rather that it is becoming increasingly evident that even among the best journalists there are very few (if any) who have truly immersed themselves in basketball history the way that I have done for more than 40 years. I often disagree with what others say about basketball players past and present simply because I am working with a much deeper set of facts and context than they are. That may sound arrogant, but anyone who takes the time to read even a fraction of the several million words that I have written about basketball can independently evaluate my knowledge of basketball history.

In his chapter about Bing, Aldridge asserts (p. 16) that Bing's single season scoring record at Syracuse stood for 23 years until Sherman Douglas broke it--but anyone who is familiar with basketball history does not have to consult Syracuse's record book to know that (1) Bing still holds that record, and (2) Douglas does not even rank in Syracuse's single season scoring top 10, never mind ranking first. It is disappointing to find such a glaring mistake in a book that touts itself as a definitive source for player rankings; if the writers, editors, and proofreaders employed by The Athletic do not know basic facts then why should readers place value on the book's player rankings?

Hollinger is one of many "stat gurus" who talked his way into various media jobs and even an NBA front office position by asserting this his proprietary statistic--Hollinger calls his PER, and other "stat gurus" have other proprietary statistics that they tout--is the best way to evaluate and rank basketball players and basketball teams. The concept of intelligently using statistics to objectively evaluate and rank basketball players sounds great, but in practice the use of "advanced basketball statistics" far too often results in ludicrous conclusions such as James Harden is a better scorer than Michael Jordan, and tanking is the best way to build an NBA team (never mind the fact that the data shows that tanking does not work). Utilize "advanced basketball statistics" in theory and you will build the best basketball team ever; utilize "advanced basketball statistics" in the real world and you will build the Philadelphia 76ers, who have not advanced past the second round of the playoffs despite hiring two of the most famous "stat gurus"--first Sam Hinkie and then more recently Daryl Morey--to run their basketball operations. The most incredible thing about Morey is that he has managed to stay employed as the main person running basketball operations for first the Houston Rockets and now the Philadelphia 76ers despite his pedestrian resume.

Not content with making money from hawking PER, Hollinger created a new "advanced basketball statistic" for The Basketball 100: GOAT points. I will spare you the details of how GOAT points work, because it can be summarized the same way that most such systems can be summarized: the system's creator arbitrarily selected the numbers that matter most to him, arbitrarily assigned weights to those numbers, and then declared that this is the best way to objectively rank basketball players. Everyone should want to find just one person who loves him or her as much as "stat gurus" love James Harden. The Basketball 100 ranked Harden 34th all-time--which is absurdly high--but Hollinger's GOAT points place Harden 13th, just ahead of Oscar Robertson, six spots ahead of Hakeem Olajuwon, seven spots ahead of Jerry West, eight spots ahead of Nikola Jokic, nine spots ahead of Giannis Antetokounmpo, 14 spots ahead of Stephen Curry, and 15 spots ahead of Julius Erving. Harden has had more "concert tours" than those all-time greats and he perfected the "Harden"--signifying a game during which a player has more turnovers than field goals made--but those are the only categories in which Harden should be ranked ahead of Robertson, Olajuwon, West, Jokic, Antetokoumpo, Curry, Erving, or anyone else who legitimately belongs on such a list.

Aldridge, Hollinger, and various staff writers divided the task of writing the book's chapters, with each chapter focusing on one player. In the first chapter by Hollinger--a discussion of Dave DeBusschere, who is ranked 97th on the list--he refers to the 1969 New York Knicks appearing in the Eastern Conference Finals (p. 20), but the NBA did not begin conference play until 1970 (the 1969 Knicks played in the Eastern Division Finals). Perhaps that may seem like a minor typographical error, but a major project featuring numerous editors, writers, and proofreaders should have a very small number of errors, particularly regarding facts that are easy to verify. 

Those are not the book's only easy to verify errors. Kelsey Russo writes that Jerry Lucas "was the first player in American basketball history to win a title at every level--high school, college, an Olympic gold medal, and the NBA" (p.144). Bill Russell accomplished that feat prior to Lucas. Zach Harper's disjointed and rambling account of Robert Parish's career asserts that Parish is one of six players who played in at least 1300 games and "averaged at least 16 points in each of their 17 seasons" (p. 174). Parish averaged less than 16 ppg in 11 of his 21 seasons. Harper also credits Parish with a career field goal percentage of .542 (.537 is the correct number), groups Parish with players who averaged at least 10 rpg during their careers (Parish averaged 9.1 rpg), and states that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's career field goal percentage is .562 (.559 is the correct number). It is not clear why giggling while Amin Elhassan bashes Bob Cousy and Russell Westbrook qualifies Harper to analyze Parish's accomplishments specifically or basketball history in general.

I am not going to do a page by page analysis/refutation of this 737 page book, so I will limit my primary focus to comparing the book's top 15 players with the 14 players in my basketball Pantheon while along the way discussing the merits of adding a 15th player to my 2008 list.

Here is my Pantheon, with players listed in chronological order:

• Bill Russell
• Elgin Baylor
• Wilt Chamberlain
• Oscar Robertson
• Jerry West
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
• Julius Erving
• Larry Bird
• Magic Johnson
• Michael Jordan
• Shaquille O'Neal
• Kobe Bryant
• Tim Duncan
• LeBron James

Here are the top 15 players in The Basketball 100, listed according to the book's rankings:

1. Michael Jordan
2. LeBron James
3. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
4. Bill Russell
5. Magic Johnson
6. Wilt Chamberlain
7. Shaquille O'Neal
8. Tim Duncan
9. Larry Bird
10. Kobe Bryant
11. Hakeem Olajuwon
12. Stephen Curry
13. Oscar Robertson
14. Kevin Durant
15. Julius Erving

The lists have 12 players in common. The differences are that The Basketball 100 omitted Elgin Baylor and Jerry West while including Hakeem Olajuwon, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant. Curry and Durant had not yet entered the NBA when I selected my Pantheon, and Olajuwon just missed the cut for my Pantheon, so I will examine Olajuwon's career first before discussing if Curry and Durant should replace Baylor and West or if the Pantheon should be expanded much like the NBA's Greatest Players List expanded from 50 players in 1996 to 76 players in 2021. 

In my first Pantheon article, I explained the criteria for inclusion in the Pantheon: "The players in basketball's pantheon display both durability and a high peak value, which I would define in the following fashion: durability means sustaining a long career (at least 10 years) at or near the top of the game and peak value refers to the top level that the player reached, even if he stayed there only briefly in the midst of a longer career during which he performed at a lower but still exceptional level."

The unfortunate aspect of explaining why a particular player is not in the Pantheon is that such a discussion can seem disrespectful toward the player in question. It should be noted that I have already examined in detail why Olajuwon deserved to be a first ballot Hall of Famer, so suggesting that he ranks in the top 25 all-time instead of the top 14 or 15 should not be seen as a negative.

Olajuwon won two NBA Finals MVPs, two Defensive Player of the Year awards (1993-94), and one regular season MVP (1994). He earned six All-NBA First Team selections (1987-89, 1993-94, 1997), made the All-Star team 12 times, led the league in rebounding twice (1989-90), and led the league in blocked shots three times (1990-91, 1993). Olajuwon's Houston Rockets reached the Western Conference Finals four times (1986, 1994-95, 1997) and advanced to the NBA Finals three times (1986, 1994-95), winning back to back NBA titles in 1994-95. Olajuwon had at least 100 steals and 100 blocked shots in 12 seasons, tying a record set by Julius Erving; in 11 of those seasons, Olajuwon had at least 200 blocked shots, easily making him the career leader in "100/200" seasons. 

Much of Olajuwon's reputation is based on leading the Rockets to back to back championships, and dominating 1995 regular season MVP David Robinson in the 1995 Western Conference Finals. Those are superb accomplishments, but it is worth noting that overall in head to head competition Olajuwon and Robinson posted comparable statistics while Robinson's teams won 32 out of 48 games.

I am not a big fan of playing the "What if?" game, but when evaluating Olajuwon's career it is fair to ask if he would have won a championship had Michael Jordan not retired from the NBA for nearly two full seasons during Jordan's prime. Jordan's decision should not be held against Olajuwon--who can only outplay the players and teams in front of him--but it is pertinent to wonder about Olajuwon's two titles in light of the fact that in his other 18 seasons he managed just two appearances in the Western Conference Finals and only one appearance in the NBA Finals. With the exception of Oscar Robertson, Pantheon members routinely made deep playoff runs--and Robertson's Cincinnati Royals often had to contend with either Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain in a small league with highly concentrated elite-level talent. 

Selections to the All-League (ABA or NBA) First Team and top five MVP finishes are two quick ways to assess the combination of high peak value with durability; this does not mean that I selected my Pantheon based on those awards, but it means that the players who I selected often received those honors in recognition of their greatness. With the exception of Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell, every member of my basketball Pantheon earned at least eight All-NBA/All-ABA First Team selections. Chamberlain and Russell fought each other for that honor throughout the 1960s, with Chamberlain making the All-NBA First Team seven times and Russell earning three selections (including one before Chamberlain entered the NBA)--but Chamberlain finished in the top five in MVP voting 10 times (winning the award four times) and Russell finished in the top five in MVP voting 11 times (winning the award five times). Elgin Baylor finished in the top five in MVP voting seven times, Jerry West and Shaquille O'Neal each did so eight times, and every other Pantheon member did so at least nine times. Without exception, each Pantheon member was a legitimate MVP candidate for the better part of a decade, and some Pantheon members were legitimate MVP candidates for longer than a decade.

Olajuwon made the All-NBA First Team six times, and he finished in the top five in MVP voting six times. Olajuwon was a great player, but he was not quite a Pantheon-level player; the Pantheon players had longer runs of MVP/All-NBA First Team level dominance, and in general their teams had more playoff success (with the exception of Baylor, Robertson, and West, but those three players were the best at their positions for a solid decade). Instead of ranking Olajuwon 11th all-time, I would place him somewhere in the top 25.

Recency bias works in favor of Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant; younger fans may barely remember Kobe Bryant, let alone Michael Jordan and the great players who preceded Jordan. It has become increasingly popular to assert that Curry is one of the 10 greatest players ever, and Durant is often mentioned as one of the 10-15 greatest players ever--but, for the reasons listed below, I would not rank Curry or Durant ahead of any of the players in my Pantheon, nor am I inclined to expand my Pantheon to include either of them. As is the case with Olajuwon, ranking Curry and Durant in the top 25 all-time should not be considered disrespectful; using the same standards that I have consistently used, Curry and Durant just don't quite make the Pantheon cut.

Labels: Elgin Baylor, Hakeem Olajuwon, Jerry West, Julius Erving, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Pantheon series, Stephen Curry

posted by David Friedman @ 1:41 AM

10 comments

Rockets Acquire Kevin Durant From Suns in Exchange for Dillon Brooks, Jalen Green, and Six Draft Picks

The Houston Rockets acquired Kevin Durant from the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the 10th overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, and five second round draft picks, but the transaction will not become official until July 6 when the NBA's new year begins*. Last season, the Rockets earned the second seed in the Western Conference with a 52-30 record before losing 4-3 in the first round to the Golden State Warriors; the Rockets were strong defensively, but they ranked just 21st in the league in field goal percentage (.455), and they shot .446 from the field in their playoff loss to the Warriors. The Rockets expect Durant's elite scoring and solid playmaking to provide a major boost to their anemic offense.

There is no disputing Durant's talent and productivity. The 2014 regular season MVP and two-time NBA champion/two-time NBA Finals MVP (2017, 2018) is a four-time regular season scoring champion (2010-12, 14) and five-time playoff scoring champion (2011, 2013-14, 2016, 2019) who ranks eighth in ABA-NBA regular season career points (30,571) and seventh in ABA-NBA playoff career points (4985). Durant owns the sixth highest ABA-NBA career regular season scoring average (27.2 ppg) and the fourth highest ABA-NBA career playoff scoring average (29.3 ppg). Durant, who turns 37 in September, averaged 26.6 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists in 62 games last season while becoming the ninth member of pro basketball's 30,000 point club. The future Hall of Famer has averaged at least 25 ppg while shooting at least .500 from the field and at least .400 from three point range for three straight seasons, the longest such streak in ABA-NBA history.

Despite Durant's success, he has rarely seemed happy--let alone content--during his long and distinguished career. He fled Oklahoma City for Golden State in 2016 after leading the Thunder to game seven of the 2016 Western Conference Finals versus the Warriors, and then he orchestrated a move to Brooklyn in 2020 after winning two championships with the Warriors.  

After Durant forced his way from Golden State to Brooklyn, I discussed his perpetual dissatisfaction:

There is a clear pattern here. Durant never feels happy or satisfied, no matter how much those around him cater to his needs and his expressed wants. The Thunder built their team around Durant, but he left; the Warriors embraced Durant from day one, built their team around him, but he left despite having the most successful all-around seasons of his career. Durant's comment that Golden State could not "alter anything in my basketball life" is odd, unless he values his individual honors and achievements over team success: he did not obtain ultimate team success until he joined a team that had already won a title just two years before he arrived...

Durant may win multiple titles in Brooklyn, or he may not win any titles. He may reestablish himself as an elite player after missing a full season due to a significant injury, or he may never return to his old form. Based on past experience, though, one thing seems certain: he will not be happy--and that is sad. 

Durant played just 129 games in three seasons with the Nets before forcing his way to Phoenix, where he played just 145 games in three seasons. Durant enjoyed his greatest team success in Oklahoma City and Golden State, and he has had very little team success since leaving the Warriors. Between 2011 and 2019, Durant played in the Western Conference Finals six times, played in the NBA Finals four times, and won two titles; his Warriors reached the 2019 Western Conference Finals but he did not play due to injury, returning for one game in the 2019 NBA Finals before rupturing his right Achilles, causing him to miss the rest of the 2019 NBA Finals plus all of the 2019-20 regular season. Since leaving the Warriors, Durant has not reached the Conference Finals, he has advanced past the first round just twice, and he missed the playoffs last season. His post-Golden State resume includes a 2-4 playoff series record, and a 10-18 record in playoff games, including being on the wrong end of two first round sweeps.

It is understandable why the Rockets believe that acquiring Durant will improve their chances to win a title; they are already a big, physical, defensive-minded team, so adding a two-time champion who is an elite scorer seems to make their roster complete--but Durant has only made deep playoff runs when he was 30 or younger and playing alongside a dynamic, MVP-caliber guard (first Russell Westbrook, then Stephen Curry). Durant is seven years removed from his last deep playoff run, and the Rockets do not have--and do not seem likely to acquire--a dynamic, MVP-caliber guard.

Barring significant injuries, the Rockets are likely to win more than 50 games, and they should not lose again in the first round--but, beyond that, their future is less clear. Drama and discontent follow Durant, so it is premature to assume that the Rockets are a lock to reach the 2026 Western Conference Finals. The best case scenario is that Durant's efficient shooting opens up the floor for Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson, and Fred VanVleet and that Durant is willing to buy in to Houston's gritty defensive style--but the worst case scenario is that within two years Durant is unhappy yet again and forcing his way out of town.

* July 7, 2025 update: The Durant trade has been consolidated into a record-setting seven team trade, with these terms, per NBA.com:

The Rockets receive:

Kevin Durant

Clint Capela

The Suns receive:

Jalen Green

Dillon Brooks

Khaman Maluach (No. 10 overall)

Rasheer Fleming (No. 31 overall)

Koby Brea (No. 41 overall)

Daequan Plowden

2026 second-round pick

2032 second-round pick

The Nets receive:

2026 second-round pick

2030 second-round pick

The Warriors receive:

Alex Toohey (No.  52 overall)

Jahmai Mashack (No. 59 overall)

The Hawks receive:

David Roddy

2031 second-round pick

Cash 

The Lakers receive:

Adou Thiero (No. 36 overall)

Cash 

Timberwolves receive:

Rocco Zikarsky (No. 45 overall)

2026 second-round pick

2032 second-round pick

Cash

Labels: Brooklyn Nets, Dillon Brooks, Houston Rockets, Jalen Green, Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix Suns

posted by David Friedman @ 3:00 PM

14 comments

Knicks Fire Their Most Successful Coach of the Past 25 Years

"You're timing stinks. We've just made a billion eight for the second year in a row. That's three and a half billion in the past two years. But mark my words, Henry. You may never see a billion eight again. And do you know why? Because you don't know how the f--- we made it in the first place." Lee Iacocca to Henry Ford after being fired by Ford

A family run business can hire and fire on a whim. That is how Ford Motor Company operated under Henry Ford II, which is how Lee Iacocca ended up at Chrysler, where he revitalized a company that had seemed to be on the brink of imminent collapse; meanwhile, Ford Motor Company's market share gradually declined after the Iacocca firing. Iacocca had a lot to do with Ford Motor Company's success in the 1960s and 1970s, but job performance had nothing to do with Henry Ford II's decision to fire Iacocca. 

What does this trip down automotive history memory lane have to do with the NBA? Tom Thibodeau just coached the New York Knicks to their most successful season in the past 25 years--the culmination of three straight years of improved regular season records--but that was not enough to save his job when James Dolan decided to fire him. Much like Henry Ford II ran Ford Motor Company as a family business (never mind the existence of a supposedly independent board of directors), Dolan runs the Knicks as a personal fiefdom where he can declare "Off with their heads!" on a whim. 

The Knicks steadily improved during Thibodeau's tenure, and before this season began no reasonable person would have said that reaching the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals would constitute failure, let alone be a fireable offense. The Knicks went 21-45 in the COVID-19 abbreviated 2019-20 season, and then went 41-31 in Thibodeau's first season at the helm. After slipping to 37-45 in 2021-22, the Knicks went 47-35, 50-32, and 51-31 in the next three seasons, advancing to the second round in back to back years before reaching the Eastern Conference Finals this season.

Prior to hiring Thibodeau in 2020, the Knicks had missed the playoffs for seven straight seasons under six different coaches. The Knicks have had 13 head coaches in the 24 years since the departure of Jeff Van Gundy in 2001.

Do you see the pattern? The one constant is James Dolan, who has owned the team through all of this turbulence; the general managers change, the coaches change, the players change, but Dolan is always there, presiding over the chaos. 

Firing excellent coaches is a trademark move of a dysfunctional franchise. Sensible reasons to fire a coach include underperformance relative to reasonable expectations, declining performance in the absence of extenuating circumstances, or the availability of a superior coach. Those reasons are not applicable to Thibodeau and the Knicks. 

Bashing excellent coaches is a trademark move of media members who do not understand the sport that they cover. The correct way to critique a coach is to focus on a specific coaching decision, provide evidence demonstrating why that coaching decision was suboptimal, and then suggest an alternative coaching decision that would have been better, supporting that alternative with evidence. Media members do not do this for a simple reason: they are not capable of doing this. The barriers to entry for some fields are quite high: to become an attorney, you must first get a high LSAT score, then you must graduate from law school, and then you must pass the bar exam; to become a chess master, you must achieve a rating in timed, competitive play that exceeds the ratings of 99% of competitive chess players. To become a media member, all you have to do is know someone who knows someone who likes you, and that is why media members who could not coach their way out of a paper bag with a machete are paid to intone solemnly (or yell bombastically) about how they would coach a team much better than a career professional coach would.

The prevailing media-driven narrative that Thibodeau did not use his bench enough is as lazy as it is stupid, and the people who propagate that nonsense fail to explain (1) who specifically Thibodeau should have played more minutes, (2) who specifically Thibodeau should have played fewer minutes, and (3) what evidence exists to demonstrate that making those moves would have produced a better outcome than losing in the Eastern Conference Finals.

When I critique a coach, I provide specific evidence-based reasons for that critique. For example, when Kevin Durant entered the NBA and Seattle Coach P.J. Carlesimo declared that he would move Durant from forward to guard, I expressed skepticism: 

Durant has not played one minute of regular season action in the NBA, yet even though he has been advertised as a great inside player his coach already wants him to switch positions. Carlesimo clearly wants to spare Durant from being pounded in the paint but the move to the backcourt will lead to other problems. To the best of my knowledge, Durant has never played guard; now he will have to learn how to do so against the best guards in the world. Also, from what I saw in the summer league, Durant has a very high dribble and is not a great ballhandler, so he will be a turnover waiting to happen if he is relied upon to do a lot of dribbling.

Durant clearly needs to put on some weight but that will be true regardless of which position he plays. I think that he and Seattle would be better served if he takes his lumps at his natural small forward position where he will at least be in the comfort zone of playing in areas of the court that are familiar to him.

The Seattle franchise subsequently moved to Oklahoma City and replaced Carlesimo with Scott Brooks, who immediately shifted Durant back to forward, a decision that I praised: "Moving Durant to small forward is a big step in the right direction that I predict will pay noticeable dividends, possibly as soon as the end of this season." The rest is history, as Durant assembled a Hall of Fame career as a forward; he averaged 20.3 ppg on .430 field goal shooting in his one year as a shooting guard, and in the next 16 seasons he never averaged less than 25.1 ppg and he never shot worse than .462 from the field.

A few years later, Carlesimo was coaching the Brooklyn Nets and Thibodeau was coaching the Chicago Bulls. The teams met in the first round of the 2013 playoffs, and I predicted that Chicago would win: "This series features a huge coaching mismatch. TNT's Kenny Smith says that if a team loses by more than five points then blame the players but if it loses by less than five points blame the coach; the games in this series figure to be low scoring and close and I trust Chicago's Tom Thibodeau much more than I trust Brooklyn's P. J. Carlesimo; this is not just about in-game adjustments but also about elements of preparation that give one team an edge over another." Sure enough, Chicago--which had won 45 games during the regular season while Brooklyn had won 49 games--won that series, 4-3. After the series, I distinguished coach evaluating from coach bashing:

Coach bashing is a favorite media pastime but most media members do not have a clue how to determine if a team is well coached or poorly coached. I respect all NBA coaches tremendously and I fully realize that even a bad NBA head coach knows more about basketball than the vast majority of coaches at any other level of the sport; [George] Karl is a very good NBA coach but he seems to be better suited for rebuilding teams/coaching underdogs than he is at extracting the maximum out of 50-plus win teams. Carlesimo was an excellent collegiate coach and he served as an assistant on Gregg Popovich's San Antonio staff so Carlesimo obviously has a very good basketball mind--but as an NBA head coach he has not measured up well in comparison with the best of the best, a category in which Thibodeau clearly belongs.

When I critique coaches like Carlesimo and Karl I am not trying to suggest that I know more about basketball than they do or that I would be a better NBA head coach; in other words, I am not acting like Bill Simmons. I am just doing my job as an NBA analyst by pointing out that, as much as Karl and Carlesimo know about basketball, there are other coaches who are demonstrably performing at a higher level.

Media members do not like to admit being wrong and it is interesting to see the lengths some of them will go to in order to avoid such admissions. Simmons used to regularly bash Doc Rivers' coaching acumen but now Rivers is widely recognized as a great coach so Simmons had to stop degrading Rivers--but did Simmons admit that he was wrong? Of course not! Simmons' story is that Rivers has evolved into being a great coach. Rivers won the 2000 Coach of the Year award in his first season as an NBA head coach after leading the "heart and hustle" Orlando Magic to a 41-41 record with Darrell Armstrong, John Amaechi and Chucky Atkins as the top three players in the rotation. Has Rivers become a better coach in the intervening 13 years? I am sure that he has; I hope that anyone who does something for more than a decade becomes better at it--but the idea that Rivers was a terrible coach who then became a great coach is absurd. Simmons was dead wrong about Rivers and he should just admit it. 

After retiring from the NBA, Brian Scalabrine has played several one on one games versus regular people who assume that because he was a bench player in the league and is now a retired player they have a chance to beat him--but Scalabrine routinely dominates these players, and he has correctly stated that he is closer to LeBron James' level than any of those players are to his level. Similarly, the worst coach in the NBA is closer to Phil Jackson's level of basketball understanding and acumen than any media member is to the worst coach's basketball understanding and acumen. In other words, media members should approach their craft with humility and with the goal of trying to learn more about basketball strategy--but that does not generate hype or TV ratings, so basketball fans will continue to be subjected to empty minds with large mouths loudly proclaiming "hot takes" devoid of cold logic.

Labels: James Dolan, Jeff Van Gundy, Kevin Durant, New York Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder, P.J. Carlesimo, Scott Brooks, Seattle Supersonics, Tom Thibodeau

posted by David Friedman @ 10:32 PM

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Kevin Durant is the Ninth Member of Pro Basketball's 30,000 Point Club

The Memphis Grizzlies built a 19 point lead and held on to defeat the Phoenix Suns 119-112, but the headline story from that game is that the Suns' Kevin Durant joined the elite 30,000 point club by making a free throw with 1:11 remaining in the third quarter. Durant finished with a game-high 34 points on 12-18 field goal shooting. Ja Morant scored a team-high 26 points as the Grizzlies improved to 36-17 while dropping the Suns to 26-27. The Grizzlies have the second best record in the Western Conference, while the Suns are fighting just to earn a berth in the Play-In Tournament; the Suns are yet another example of how the "Big Three" model of instant team building fails more often than it succeeds.

Durant is the 30,000 point club's ninth member, and the first new member since LeBron James became the eighth (and youngest) member in 2018, one year after Dirk Nowitzki joined. Before we reflect on Durant's excellent career, it must be emphasized that it is shameful that the NBA and its media partners call Durant the 30,000 point club's eighth member, ignoring the fact that Julius Erving scored 30,026 points. ABA numbers should be counted offiically by the NBA, just like the NFL officially counts AFL numbers. Erving was just the third player to score at least 30,000 points, and he was the first "midsize" (6-7 or under) player to accomplish the feat; nearly 40 years after Erving retired, the only other "midsize" players who have scored at least 30,000 points are Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Ignoring Erving's accomplishments and statistics skews the ubiquitous conversation about the greatest players of all-time; Erving is often left out of that discussion, but he deserves to be prominently mentioned. Erving starred in the ABA for five years before enjoying a spectacular 11 year run with the Philadelphia 76ers. He made the All-Star team in each of his 16 professional seasons, he never played for a losing or non-playoff team, and he is the only player to win an MVP award in both leagues. Erving won four regular season MVPs, three championships, and two Finals MVPs; he did a lot more than just score, but he was also one of the greatest, most consistent scorers of all-time, with scoring averages ranging from 20.0 ppg to 31.9 ppg in his first 14 seasons.

Durant is unlikely to join James in the 40,000 point club, but he has come a long way from being a skinny rookie who was played out of position at guard before blossoming in his second season after being shifted to his natural position of small forward. Durant spent his prime years at small forward but as his body developed and the league began favoring smaller lineups he became a devastating weapon at power forward, stretching the floor while not being afraid to attack the hoop. Durant had a high, loose dribble as a young player but he developed into an effective ballhandler. He did not average at least 4 apg until his sixth season, but he averaged at least 4 apg in each of the next 12 seasons. Durant won four scoring titles, and he posted two 50/40/90 seasons that exemplify how complete his scoring repertoire is: Durant is renowned as a midrange assassin, but he also posts up, drives to the hoop, drains three pointers, and not only draws fouls but shoots his free throws at an elite (.882) clip. Like Erving, Durant has an all-around game, and an impressive list of accomplishments, including two Finals MVPs, two championships, and one regular season MVP.

Six of the nine members of the 30,000 point club are in my Pantheon (an asterisk denotes that the player is in my Pantheon):

                               Pro Basketball's 30,000 Point Club 

1. LeBron James* 41,623 

2. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar* 38,387 

3. Karl Malone 36,928 

4. Kobe Bryant* 33,643 

5. Michael Jordan* 32,292 

6. Dirk Nowitzki 31,560 

7. Wilt Chamberlain* 31,419 

8. Julius Erving* 30,026

9. Kevin Durant  30,008

Labels: Dirk Nowitzki, Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain

posted by David Friedman @ 3:25 AM

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Suns Spoil Clippers' Home Opener in New Arena

The Phoenix Suns built a 14 point first half lead, fell behind by 10 points with just 6:13 remaining in the fourth quarter, and then rallied to beat the L.A. Clippers 116-113 in overtime, spoiling the Clippers' home opener in Steve Ballmer's new arena. Kevin Durant led Phoenix with 25 points while also posting a team-high seven turnovers. Bradley Beal scored 24 points on 8-12 field goal shooting, and poured in seven of the Suns' 13 overtime points. Devin Booker had a quiet game (15 points, six assists) by his lofty standards. Tyus Jones did an excellent job in his debut as the team's starting point guard, finishing with 11 points, a game-high tying eight assists, and no turnovers. The Suns squandered many late leads last season due to poor execution down the stretch, so slotting Jones in as the starting point guard is meant to solve that problem, and if this game is any indication then that plan will work out well.

This game was a microcosm of James Harden's career: he filled up the boxscore with empty calories, and he disappeared when it mattered the most. Harden's game-high 29 points, game-high 12 rebounds, and game-high tying eight assists will make every "stat guru" drool, but it is worth noting not only that Harden had a -4 plus/minus number but also when and how he accumulated his numbers, because the great Bill Russell used to emphasize during his time as a CBS commentator the importance of when a player puts up his numbers. Harden was a no-show in the first half with four points on 2-11 field goal shooting as the Suns built a 47-39 halftime lead, forcing the Clippers to expend energy playing from behind. Then, he erupted for 16 points on 5-9 field goal shooting in the third quarter as the Clippers outscored the Suns 35-25 to take a 74-72 lead heading into the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter with the game up for grabs, Harden had eight points on 3-7 field goal shooting with a team-worst -7 plus/minus number. 

The Clippers led 99-90 with 3:52 remaining in the fourth quarter, and then Harden did his thing: he missed a 30 foot three pointer, he missed a floater, he turned the ball over, he missed a layup, and he fouled Durant on a three point play that gave the Suns the lead for the first time in the fourth quarter. Harden then tied the game with a stepback jumper and gave the Clippers a brief lead by hitting a pair of free throws before Durant's fadeaway knotted the score at 103 with 21.2 seconds remaining. Harden missed a floater that could have won the game, and in overtime he did not score a point or deliver an assist. Harden once said that he is not a system player but he is "The system" and that is true if he means that he is "The system" for falling behind early, squandering late leads, disappearing in overtime, and putting up "concert tour" field goal percentages in playoff games.

Unfortunately for the Clippers, their hopes will ride or die with Harden, because two-time NBA Finals MVP (2014, 2019) Kawhi Leonard is out indefinitely with a knee injury. It is becoming increasingly evident that the issue with Leonard is not so much that he is intentionally engaging in load management but that rather he just cannot stay healthy. 

In contrast, the Suns have a much sounder foundation, as they are relying on two-time NBA champion/NBA Finals MVP Durant, supported by Booker and Beal, who are excellent as the second and third options respectively. The Suns replaced Frank Vogel, who is an excellent coach, with Mike Budenholzer, who led the Milwaukee Bucks to the 2021 NBA title.

Labels: Bradley Beal, Devin Booker, James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, L.A. Clippers, Phoenix Suns, Tyus Jones

posted by David Friedman @ 11:14 AM

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Stephen Curry's Late Three Point Barrage Leads Team USA to 98-87 Olympic Gold Medal Game Win Over France

"What is easy is seldom excellent."--Samuel Johnson

Stephen Curry scored a team-high 24 points--including 12 points in the final 2:47--as Team USA held off a resilient France to win 98-87 and earn a fifth straight Olympic gold medal game victory. The 11 point final margin belies how competitive this contest was. Team USA was clinging to an 82-79 lead with 3:09 left in the fourth quarter after Victor Wembanyama's putback dunk, but then Curry hit four three pointers in a 2:12 span to save the day. Curry had a game-high +20 plus/minus number and five assists. In the first four games of the Olympics, Curry scored just 29 points and he only shot 5-20 (.200) from three point range, but in two games of medal round play versus Serbia and France he tallied 60 points while shooting 17-26 (.654) from beyond the arc. 

Kevin Durant--who started for the first time for Team USA in 2024--added 15 points, four rebounds, and four assists. He is the first American male basketball player to win four Olympic gold medals. Devin Booker also scored 15 points, and he had six rebounds, three assists, and the game's second best plus/minus number (+18). 

LeBron James capped off an excellent Olympics with another great all-around performance, scoring 14 points, grabbing six rebounds, and dishing for a game-high 10 assists. He joined Curry and Booker as the only players with double digit plus/minus numbers (+17). James averaged 14.2 ppg, 6.2 rpg, and 8.5 apg in the 2024 Olympics, earning MVP honors for the event. James headlines an Olympics All-Star Five that includes Curry, Victor Wembanyama (France), Nikola Jokic (Serbia), and Dennis Schroder (Germany).

No other American player scored in double figures, but Anthony Davis had an impact with eight points, a game-high nine rebounds, and a game-high four blocked shots.

Only four Team USA players played at least 20 minutes: James (32), Durant (31), Curry (30), and Booker (28). Derrick White and Tyrese Haliburton did not play. Haliburton never had a significant role for Team USA, but White ranked sixth on Team USA in minutes played during pool play before falling out of the rotation in medal round play.

Joel Embiid started at center alongside James, Durant, Curry, and Booker, but he finished with just four points in 11 minutes. He did not make a field goal, and he spent much more time on the bench inciting the French crowd than on the court contributing to the win. His decision to play for Team USA instead of France turned out well for him, and he can thank Curry, Durant, James, and Booker for adding a gold medal to a trophy case that is otherwise bereft of team championships. Considering his lack of productivity versus France, it would have been hilarious if the fans had chanted at him in French the familiar taunt that is directed toward players who are helping the opposing team at least as much as they are helping their own team: "He with us!" 

Victor Wembanyama scored a game-high 26 points on 11-19 field goal shooting. Guerschon Yabusele muscled his way to 20 points on 6-14 field goal shooting. Nando De Colo was the only other French player who scored in double figures (12 points). Evan Fournier runs hots and cold as a shooter, and in this game Team USA held him to eight points on 3-10 field goal shooting. France's rotations and substitution patterns were interesting, to put it mildly. Nic Batum played 25 minutes--third most on the team--despite having a plus/minus number (-20) that was -11 worse than any other French player. He led France in rebounding (eight rebounds) and assists (four) so he was productive, but when he was in the game France hemorrhaged points. In contrast, Rudy Gobert played just 12 minutes despite having a +3 plus/minus number. Plus/minus numbers can be noisy in small sample sizes, but Gobert had a positive impact with his defense, rebounding, and screen setting, so a case could be made that he earned more playing time.

In the past several years, France has consistently proven to be a worthy opponent for Team USA. Team USA beat France 87-82 in the gold medal game of the 2020 Olympics (played in 2021) after losing to France 83-76 in the first game of pool play. France also defeated Team USA 89-79 in the 2019 FIBA World Cup.

This game proved to be no different, as it was competitive from the jump ball until the final buzzer.

James opened the scoring with a two-handed fast break dunk, and Wembanyama answered with a three pointer. Team USA led 12-11 at the 4:52 mark of the first quarter when the first substitutions were made, including Davis checking in for Embiid, and Fournier and Gobert entering for France. Tatum checked in for Durant at the 4:12 mark, when the score was still 12-11.

Team USA led 20-15 at the end of the first quarter while holding France to 1-9 three point field goal shooting, and Team USA extended that margin to 24-17 on two inside baskets by Davis. France countered with an 8-0 run to go up, 25-24. James put Team USA up 26-25 with a driving layup, but Team USA was not able to pull away. Yabusele cut Team USA's lead to 40-36 by posterizing James and then completing the three point play after James was called for a blocking foul. Team USA countered with a Curry three pointer followed by Booker's fast break layup and free throw after being fouled on the drive. Team USA led by double digits (46-36) for the first time. Yabusele's layup off of a Wembanyama feed just before the halftime buzzer trimmed Team USA's lead to eight, 49-41. 

Yabusele led France with 15 first half points, while Wembanyama had 13 points, five rebounds, and two assists. Booker was Team USA's only double figure scorer (13 points). James had seven points, five rebounds, and two assists. Team USA shot 9-20 (.450) from three point range in the first half while holding France to 3-16 (.188) three point field goal shooting.

Team USA began the third quarter with a 7-2 run in less than two minutes, and eventually widened the lead to 14 points (61-47), but just when it seemed like Team USA might pull away, Wembanyama hit a three pointer to pull France to within 65-56 at the 4:05 mark. After a timeout, both teams had multiple empty possessions before Fournier's three pointer cut Team USA's lead to 65-59. James answered with a three pointer to put Team USA up 68-59, and Team USA soon pushed the lead to 72-61, but France scored five points in the final 23 seconds to trail just 72-66 heading into the fourth quarter. Team USA had seven turnovers in the third quarter.

Curry did not score in the first 7:13 of the fourth quarter before pouring in 12 of Team USA's 26 fourth quarter points. Team USA led 80-69 with less than seven minutes to go but could not sustain their double digit lead. For most of the fourth quarter, Team USA's offense featured sloppy ballhandling and missed shots, and France had outscored Team USA 13-10 in the final stanza before Curry heated up.

Team USA won the rebounding battle 37-33, but committed 17 turnovers compared to France's 13 turnovers. The key, as is often the case for Team USA in FIBA competitions, was that Team USA held France to 9-30 (.300) three point field goal shooting. As a bonus, Team USA shot 18-36 (.500) from beyond the arc. Curry did most of the long range damage with his 8-12 three point field goal shooting. 

Winning a gold medal under any circumstances is a tremendous accomplishment. Team USA was the prohibitive favorite and in the end they got the job done--but it is worth remembering that Team USA's roster included four members of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team (James, Durant, Curry, Davis)--and this was almost certainly the last Olympics appearance for at least three of those four players. If Team USA needs that kind of overwhelming talent advantage on paper just to beat Serbia and France in very competitive games, then what foundation is Team USA building--either on this roster, or on the U19 and younger teams--for future FIBA success?

Curry's end of the game three point heroics were incredible--he zigged and zagged through France's defense like a video game character--but this is not a sustainable recipe for FIBA success because (1) this is almost certainly his last FIBA competition and (2) no one else can do what he did. If Team USA's formula for future FIBA success is going to be "Keep the game close and have one dude go ballistic for two minutes from three point range" then Team USA is going to struggle to win more gold medals versus countries that play team ball instead of hero ball. The formula for sustained FIBA success for Team USA is putting together a roster that plays stifling defense and then turns those defensive stops into transition scoring opportunities. It is fine--but not necessary--for some of those transition scoring opportunities to be three pointers, but the four late three pointers that Curry made are a testament to his individual greatness, not great game planning or ball movement.

As a Team USA fan, Curry's awesome late game shooting was exciting, but as an analyst/historian I wonder what is Team USA's plan for the future. 

Labels: 2024 Olympics, France, Guerschon Yabusele, Joel Embiid, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Team USA, Victor Wembanyama

posted by David Friedman @ 10:06 PM

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