Winning and Losing

Posted September 2, 2025

By Alec Marcus

Truthfully, I don’t have all the answers for what makes an NBA championship team.

I’ve never been inside an NBA locker room or worked for an organization, and admittedly I’m not an encyclopedia of all 79 NBA Finals series. But on the surface, like many of us, I can understand what makes a successful NBA team. I mean basketball is a pretty simple game at its core, right?

2 baskets, 94 feet apart. 1 ball. 5 players on each side at a time. Score on your opposing basket and prevent scores on your basket. Offense, and defense.

A team with a strong offense and a strong defense should outscore its opponents more times than not and thus become a winning team. One should be able to take from that logic that a team with a top offense and a top defense will outscore its opponents more frequently and win even more games, thrusting them well into contention for the league championship.

That’s my topic for discussion in this piece.

Given NBA basketball is a timed game, you can say the field for performance is limited to just those 48 minutes of play. If we were to theorize that offense and defense have equal weights for a team’s performance (surely a discussion for another day), you could envision their offense and defense as two circles – sort of like pie charts.

The highest-performing teams would be strong enough to fill both of their pies for the 48 minutes of play, giving them both a winning offense AND a winning defense.

For reasons outside my field of study, I can’t say that I know for certain why some NBA teams are deliberately ignoring this logic. Ignoring the basic principles of its game and just focusing on winning one side of the equation.

I’m not here to rip into those teams ad nauseam, but I am here to uncover their biggest mistakes and their oppositions’ great success, with careful consideration for the players. Because in the NBA, when you’re allocated any number of the 48 minutes, you can either be a winning player or you can be a losing player, and it may not even be your fault…

On the All-Star level, there’s not a more polarizing player for this discussion than Trae Young.

Young continued to prove himself as an offensive superstar this season, leading the league in assists (11.6) and finishing top-15 in scoring (24.2 points). With the freedom to be the pass-heaviest and shot-heaviest player on the Atlanta Hawks, Young was surely a winning player for them on offense. Though it’s no secret the undersized and relatively-grounded Young offered next to nothing on the other end – a blatant losing player for them on defense.

This is where you would make that argument (some of you so passionately want to make) that Trae Young isn’t a winning player, because he is giving up all the points on defense that he gives to his team on offense. Yet from a player-first perspective, Young would say his defensive drawbacks are limited because of the players sharing the court with him.

Enter Dyson Daniels – the best defensive guard in the NBA. The Hawks’ Young-Daniels backcourt paired a top-of-the-line offensive guard with a top-of-the-line defensive guard, emphatically filling both their respective pies. And since Daniels was admirable as both a complementary scorer and playmaker, the Hawks’ offensive pie became over-filled, giving the team a net-positive or winning backcourt.

If their frontcourt and bench can also be winning units, the Hawks will win lots of games and find themselves in the playoffs.

On the supporting star level, let’s look at two breakout performers in 2025 with Austin Reaves and Christian Braun.

Reaves made his biggest leap yet as a highly-productive offensive player (20.2 points and 5.8 assists) and as a respectable defensive player. Once the Lakers resolved their bleeding point guard situation with superstar Luka Doncic, Reaves gave them a very over-stuffed offensive pie. Only when the Timberwolves exposed the void within the pair’s defensive pie did Luka spend an entire offseason working on his conditioning, in his quest to help the Lakers to a winning backcourt they did not have.

Braun doubled his offensive output (15.4 points) in his first season as a starter. Given his top-of-the-line efficiency (58.0% shooting), he set him and Jamal Murray up to have another healthy offensive pie. Similarly the pair’s shortcomings on defense showed in back-to-back seven-game series, forcing the Nuggets to make substantial changes to its frontcourt since they’re married to their flawed Murray-Braun backcourt.

As for complementary players, few shined brighter than NBA Finals combatants Aaron Nesmith and Lu Dort.

Nesmith was top-of-the-line efficient on offense (50.7% shooting, 43.1% from 3-point), and his toughness on the defensive end made him an above-average piece there as well. In a half-game role, his proficiency and high-energy makes him a winning player altogether. The offensive inferno and defensive force that was his Indiana Pacers made Nesmith one of the highest-performing players per-minute in the NBA, fueling their joint trip to the NBA Finals this past June.

Dort was top-of-the-line dominant on defense (First Team All-Defense, 4th in Defensive Player of the Year voting), and his elite floor spacing (2.4 3-point makes on 41.2% shooting) make him a commodity on the other half. As a starter held to just under 30 minutes per contest, his lockdown D and dependable three-pointer make him another winning player altogether. The two-way powerhouse Oklahoma City Thunder helped make Dort one of the highest-performing role players in the NBA, leveraging his limited skills into an NBA championship.

Bench players are often overlooked for their contributions, just ask Ty Jerome and Russell Westbrook.

Jerome was one of the highest-performing Sixth Men in the league (12.5 points in only 19.9 minutes), though his efficiency (51.6% shooting, 43.9% 3-point) made him a truly elite bench player. Throughout his playing career he has always played best with a defined role as combo floor general/spark plug, and that’s exactly what his Cleveland Cavaliers have called on him to be. As an off-the-bench performer, Jerome can easily be described a winning player who practically covers the reverse unit’s offensive pie all by himself.

Westbrook produced so much output as a Sixth Man (11.4 points, 5.2 assists, 3.9 rebounds) that his Denver Nuggets eventually called on him to be their regular fill-in starter, something they were likely aiming to avoid when they signed him for a veteran’s minimum. Historically he has been berated for not being a complete player with shaky shooting and erratic defensive play, but those problems no longer jeopardized his team’s chances coming off-the-bench and playing just half the time. Westbrook became a winning player, making countless plays on both ends to make headway with each reserve unit’s pies.

Helping the Sixth Men out are specialists who provide chunks for at least one of those pies, players like Naz Reid and Steven Adams.

Reid cashed in this summer after another superb season as a bench scorer (14.2 points on 46.2% shooting, 37.9% 3-point). The 6’9” and husky center has had far greater success as an offensive weapon than as a viable rim protector, positioning him best as stalwart Rudy Gobert’s complement rather than his frontcourt partner. The Minnesota Timberwolves have converted Reid into a highly-sought-after winning player, who did a lot to stuff the reserve unit’s offensive pie while still leaving room for others to perform.

Adams received a late-season extension for his profound impact as a defensive stopper (5.6 rebounds, 0.5 blocks in just 13.7 minutes). The 6’11” hulking center stood out as a fearsome rim protector who didn’t offer much of anything with his post-up game, positioning him best as post-up star Alperen Sengun’s complement, rather than his frontcourt mate. The Houston Rockets established Adams as their winning center off the bench, who in a quarter’s time did enough as a rebounder and shot-contester to make meaningful contributions to the reserve unit’s defensive pie.

Alright, that’s enough pie for now.

It is also worth noting that some groups performed extraordinarily well when a batch of winning players compounded on one another.

Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso, and Kenrich Williams were all winning players as defensive specialists, who together made the Thunder’s strong defense a truly disruptive force. Taurean Prince, A.J. Green, and Gary Trent Jr. were all winning players as shooting specialists, who when paired with the game-breaking Giannis Antetokounmpo made the Bucks’ offense lethal in spurts. Cam Whitmore, Tari Eason, and Amen Thompson were all winning players in some capacity, who in conjunction made the Rockets bench a top-of-the-line crew.

As I mentioned earlier in this truly player-first piece, players are not always at fault for their underperformance. We’ve seen how it takes both the correct amount of minutes and a fit surrounding cast to create winning opportunities for a player, even if they’re not a well-rounded player. Those not so lucky because of poor coaching or roster building were subjected to losing opportunities this past year, even if they were some of the most talented players in the entire NBA.

Underperforming All-Stars in 2025 include Devin Booker, Bam Adebayo, and Domantas Sabonis.

Booker took massive step backs in terms of shooting proficiency (-3% field goal and -3% three-point shooting) in a year which he stood to actually take a step forward. His Phoenix Suns offense was set up for disaster with no suitable point guard or gifted center. Booker became an infamous losing player even next to Kevin Durant with below-average shooting relative to his shot diet and well-below-average defense in the halfcourt.

Adebayo was a regressor too with worse offensive output (-4% field goal shooting, -1.2 points) once it was finally his time to be the top guy. His hard-leaning defensive Miami Heat team had little cohesion offensively, with a first-time point guard and no consistent outside shooting. Adebayo was made out to be a losing player with a flawed scoring game away from Jimmy Butler, and his defensive even took a dip as well.

Sabonis took a considerable slip as a playmaker (-2.2 assists) at a time when he had been getting MVP consideration. He played on the miserable Sacramento Kings team with awful shooters and no rim protection. Sabonis was positioned to be a losing player with capped offensive upside as a second scorer and capped defensive performance as the de facto shot contester.

As for supporting stars, few big-names underperformed like DeMar DeRozan and Paul George.

DeRozan was one of those inept floor-spacers on the Kings (32.8% 3-point shooting) making life difficult for Sabonis in the driver’s seat. Conversely Sabonis and gus same shooting-challenged teammates were especially troubling for the small forward’s game, who made his money as a attacking scorer inside the three-point line and at the rim. DeRozan was set up to be a losing player in his massive 35.9 minutes per game without the spacing he needed to perform, and the 35-year-old didn’t add anything to help the team’s defensive woes either.

George was downright dreadful in his lackluster 2025 campaign for a myriad of reasons (-5.6 points, -4% shooting, -6% 3-point). The Sixers badly needed a secondary star to replace Joel Embiid and the $200 million man fell flat on his face, clearly with the intention to not play that role anymore. George’s wildly inconsistent and underwhelming offense made him an obvious losing player over 32.5 minutes per contest, who really only performed well on the defensive end.

Speaking of big salaries, the discussion surrounding losing opportunities is greatly concerning when it costs NBA players tens of millions of dollars, and that very well coudl be the case for complementary players Gradey Dick and Jerami Grant.

Dick entered the starting lineup and alarmingly took a step backward with his proficiency (-1.5% field goal shooting, -1.5% 3-point) despite getting more run with better players. The sophomore would likely argue that his Raptors teammates didn’t give him any help with no consistent point guard play, no offensive center, and a well-below-average shooting frontcourt led by Scottie Barnes. Dick at just 21-years-old became a losing player in the starting lineup with subpar offensive output to go along with his absentee defensive game.

Grant fell way down the team’s priority list and it resulted in much worse performance over the season (-6 points, -8% field goal shooting, -4% 3-point). The Trail Blazers began to shift their focus to developing Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe despite the costs, leaving their highest-paid player without any rhythm in an increasingly-crowded frontcourt. Grant became one of the most obvious losing players in basketball with god-awful efficiency, and with it washed up most of his effort as a previously strong defender.

For Sixth Men to hurt must be legitimate malpractice, but that’s precisely what happened with Cole Anthony and Jonathan Kuminga.

Anthony came alive with several 30-point outbursts and enjoyed much more run as a spot starter, however he was held to career-lows in minutes (just 18.4) and points too (9.4, first time ever not in double digits). The Magic leaned heavily into the weak shooting of Jalen Suggs and Anthony Black for their point guard play, costing the fifth year spark plug ample opportunity to heat up and take over games. Anthony was made to be a losing player because his time with the ball was minimized to a career-low and he was already prone to lapses between his standout defensive plays.

Kuminga became a playoff star after a season marked by disassociation from the coaching staff, forcing falloffs in key shooting metrics (-7% field goal, -2% 3-point, 8% free throw). The Warriors were playing Gary Payton II, Quinten Post, and Trayce Jackson-Davis far more willingly, signaling to the rest of the league they were frustrated with the fourth-year’s development and intensity. Kuminga is merely a losing player for the fact he took better shots away from specialists, on a team that particularly needed to be efficient there.

But it is worse when complementary players are so ineffective that they make you question why they weren’t specialists to begin with, and that was the case this past year with Tyus Jones and Keyonte George.

Jones took a painful step backward when he suffered in his first regular stint as the point of a competing team (-4% shooting, -1.8 points, -2.0 assists). The Suns planned for sky-high offense with the famously-sharp distributor feeding a trio of all-time scorers, however that was far from what took place, which was more of the team scoring by committee without that historically-shrewd efficiency. Jones was very much a losing player as a starter so now he’s resorting back to his all too familiar specialist bench role, one that had originally made him a top performer in his class.

George was one of the most unstable performers in the NBA, barely altering his efficiency despite an uptick in usage (+0.00% field goal on +3 shot attempts, +1% 3-point on +2 shot attempts). The league-worst Jazz had been intrigued by the high scoring potential from their second-year guard, only until his wildly up-and-down shooting did they firmly plant him back in the reserves. George was a distant losing player as a starter who could find similar success to Jones, as a scoring specialist coming off the bench who soon could be pacing his peers.

Just as some groups performed very well when a batch of winning players compounded on one another, the opposite is also true when several losing players further inhibited one another.

Coby White, Zach LaVine, and Nikola Vucevic for all their success offensively as Bulls starters were clearly losing players on defense, combining to let up endless blow-by’s and crushing any chances of the team making the playoffs. Suggs, Black, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Wendell Carter Jr. were all losing players offensively for the Magic, complicit in holding back Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero from greater shooting seasons and likely more wins. Vasilije Micic, Nick Smith Jr., and Tidjane Salaun were all losing players together taking too many bad shots on the Hornets bench, instead of deferring to more savvy veterans.

No matter how much talent you might have on your NBA roster, you will only perform the best if you meet the game’s crucial components by having a strong offensive team and strong defensive team. The manner for meeting those criteria is putting your players in winning situations. The most important factors for doing so are measuring their skill and effort, weighing their proficiency with regards to minutes, and placing them in groups with a favorable supporting cast in order to maximize their individual game.

The only way to truly overcome that logic is to have a bona fide megastar, someone who alters the scales on both ends and contributes enough at an elite level to mask the faults of their teammates. That is why the Murray-Braun backcourt can be winners playing with Nikola Jokic, why the Thunder’s average offense can be winners playing next to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and why the Warriors middling performance on both ends can play out like winners beside Steph Curry.

Since those players are few and far between, the best way to project the next wave of winning players and losing players is to see who changed out uniforms in the offseason. The Cam Johnson-Michael Porter Jr. swap is a perfect example of NBA teams turning losing players into winning players.

The Nuggets weren’t getting enough output and defensive effort on a regular basis to move forward (no pun intended) with the MPJ-Aaron Gordon full-time frontcourt, and had actively been looking for a way to change it out for something more consistent and routinely committed. The Nets weren’t getting enough offense in general with their frontcourt and badly wanted to change it out for higher upside plays. Cam Johnson as a Nugget now paired with Aaron Gordon beside Jokic should certainly be enough to fill both frontcourt pies, whereas Michael Porter Jr. joining the Nets is at the very least a tremendous lift for any of the team’s offensive pies.

The Jordan Poole-CJ McCollum trade is another example of a good trade, one that aims to strengthen two emerging groups.

The Wizards were trying to put together a safer offensive attack, willing to sacrifice a high ceiling for a more consistent scorer. The Pelicans were conversely trying to load up on ammunition, allowing themselves to be more susceptible to off nights if it meant they would play host to more outbursts. McCollum brings Washington much closer to a healthy offensive pie beside the young Bub Carrington, and Poole helps New Orleans to potentially a healthy offensive pie by covering all aspects with the efficient slasher Dejounte Murray.

In free agency, several newcomers are due to become winning players too.

Anticipate John Collins to re-emerge as a winning player for the first time since his Hawks days, helping stuff both the offensive and defensive pies beside two-way superstar Kawhi Leonard in the Clippers frontcourt. Expect Myles Turner to become a truly winning player on the defensive sliding in to make plays beside Giannis Antetokounmpo in the Bucks frontcourt. And imagine Jordan Clarkson returning to greatness as a much-needed winning Sixth Man in the Knicks shallow bench.

I don’t foresee Dennis Schroder’s defense helping Zach Lavine to a winning backcourt on the Kings, nor do I predict Kelly Oubre Jr. offering enough of the good stuff offensively beside Paul George to form a winning frontcourt on the Clippers. And most of us believe that Deandre Ayton was signed to be a winning offensive center with Luka and LeBron James, rather than being a rim protector who could stuff the Lakers’ defensive pie.

The difference between winning and losing in the NBA is meeting or not meeting the most crucial components of the game. The Western Conference Champion Thunder were an elite defense with a strong offense, whereas the Eastern Conference Pacers were their exact opposite asn an elite offense with a strong defense.

Both teams were successful filling up their two pies from the backcourt to the frontcourt to the center position down to the bench unit. And because of that, each of their groups were capable of winning sixteen playoff games for the ultimate prize: the NBA championship.

Easy as pie.

The Dangerous Precedent

Posted August 19, 2025

By Alec Marcus

One of the most thrilling postseasons in recent memory featured two interim head coaches, first-time head coaches as a matter of fact. While these would ordinarily be viewed as stellar achievements, they were really the byproduct of two of the most jarring dismissals in NBA history.

The Memphis Grizzlies fired the winningest coach in franchise history, Taylor Jenkins, with just nine games to go in the regular season. At the time, Jenkins had his Grizzlies fifth in the Western Conference with a 44-29 record. But team general manager Zach Kleiman decided a change needed to be made, executing the latest in-season firing of a head coach since 1981, when Hubie Brown was shown the door after a 31-48 mark.

As shocking as the move was, it was soon upstaged by Nuggets president Josh Kroenke who fired his franchise’s winningest coach, Michael Malone, with just THREE games to go in the regular season. At that time, Malone was also 15 games over .500 with a 47-32 record. Kroenke similarly believed a change was imminent with the postseason around the corner, showing general manager Calvin Booth the door the same day.

In neither case did the switch-up lead to magical runs of interims going all the way like Ty Lue and Pat Riley had; Tuomas Iisalo’s Grizzlies fell to the Thunder in 4 straight First Round games and David Adelman’s Nuggets were blown out in a Game 7 Semi-Final to the same team.

Their predecessors, Jenkins and Malone, had been fired for very different reasons…

Down in Memphis, Jenkins had allegedly been on the hot seat for over a year following a disappointing showing in their 2023 upset by the Lakers and a miserable 2024 campaign muddied with injuries and Ja Morant’s gun-flashing suspension. A change in offensive scheme suggested by the front office was unpopular in the locker room, especially with Ja, even though it did help the team to a much better record. In early February, Jenkins had the Grizzlies with the 2nd-best record in the West, topped only by the league-leading Thunder.

When the Grizzlies started to slide, a time in which Ja missed several games to injury, Jenkins’ seat started to heat even more. The team dropped four of five and with just nine games to go before playoffs, Jenkins was let go, with Kleiman citing “a lack of direction” and “need to act with urgency” as the reasons behind his decision.

Those statements are particularly jarring since the only direction Jenkins had the team heading was up, with Jaren Jackson Jr. emerging into an offensive star and home court advantage regained after an apparent down season. And Jenkins couldn’t have met the front office’s wishes with any more urgency after upping the team’s scoring from league-worst to 2nd-best and team pace from 16th all the way to 1st year-over-year.

The team’s defense and talent pool were the reasons for Jenkins’ late-season “struggles”. The guard rotation of Morant, Desmond Bane, and Luke Kennard could be identified amongst the softest defensive backcourts in the league, and nobody in the rotation outside those three and Jackson Jr. averaged over 12 points per game.

Jenkins had no choice but to utilize a deep bench since few players could generate profits with starter minutes (typically 30 or more per game). His small-market front office was incapable of recruiting better talent and drafting more gems. And nearly all the rotation assembled for him was under 27-years-old, with 28-year-olds Kennard and Brandon Clarke being the team’s default “veterans”.

By and large, the biggest reasons for Jenkins’ failure to keep the Grizzlies charging were the recurring absences and stunted development of star Ja Morant. The sixth-year pro has frequently sat out due to injury, though 33 of his 126 missed games over the past 3 years were because of two separate gun-related incidents stemming from social media. After career-best 49.3% field goal and 34.4% 3-point shooting marks in 2022, Morant has combined to shoot 46.2% from the field and just 30.5% from deep since.

Jenkins was doing everything right – winning games, reviving the offense, guiding Jackson Jr. to his second All-Star game – and still the front office believed he ultimately couldn’t get them to the next level. Jackson Jr’s oft-absent co-star had begun tuning out the best coach the team ever had, but the front office (fascinatingly) still wanted to go to battle with Ja at the helm. And a few weeks later, Morant and the Grizzlies were sent home by the Thunder in 4 games.

Out in Denver, Michael Malone was battling his own front office, specifically general manager Calvin Booth. Nobody thought Malone, the third-longest tenured head coach at the time, was on the hot seat but EVERYBODY knew he was hot in terms of frustration. Despite a top-4 record in the West and sheer-brilliance from Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets were losing games late in the season they’d typically win.

Malone was routinely appalled with the players’ lack of effort on the court and commitment off it, stating his players weren’t watching film and trying to improve. He didn’t hide it from the media and he couldn’t hide it from the public when the Nuggets went on a 11-13 skid after the All-Star break. Whatever chances The Joker, posting career-best marks for scoring and assisting, had of winning his fourth MVP were lost by the end of March.

Right when Malone’s Nuggets dropped their fourth straight game on April 9th, he and his combative general manager were each sent home, something Josh Kroenke had apparently been trying to do for several weeks but claimed he couldn’t during their nine-game win streak. If April 9th seems like a puzzling date, it’s because it is – the NBA Playoffs tipped off in SIX DAYS. Kroenke evidently wanted to unite the troops before the postseason tournament, painting Malone and Booth as enemies of the state and thus setting up the team to play together, freely, and with passion.

I mean that’s just lunacy…while it’s true that Malone and Booth’s contentious relationship selfishly soured the inner workings of the organization, all the way down to the NBA court, it’s no reason to gut a championship-winning coach less than a week before his chance to right all his wrongs. The driving force behind the turmoil between Malone and Booth was that Booth was not signing nor retaining veterans for Malone’s rotation, including the players that helped them win the NBA title such as Bruce Brown and Jeff Green.

Those are reasonable asks from a fiery veteran head coach who knows he and the team’s core, can win the NBA title. Booth likely argued that the team’s cap table was full since Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon each deserved contract extensions, to which Malone might have replied has he seen Porter Jr. play defense and asked why $42 million of his funds was going to Zeke Nnaji and Dario Saric. Malone allegedly believed the Booth was doing so deliberately so he’d have no choice but to fill out his rotation with Booth’s draft picks.

Malone’s vented frustration had to be targeted at his young players including Porter Jr. and any of Nnaji, Peyton Watson, Julian Strawther, and Jalen Pickett. He would have much rather have surrounded the best player in the world in his prime with more Russell Westbrooks and DeAndre Jordans, veterans on team-friendly deals chasing a championship.  

And the worst part about it all is Malone didn’t get to coach in the playoffs where he could play who he wanted and sat who he wanted, an opportunity to prove himself right. The majority of Nuggets who were tired of Malone’s tirades won out and had to be feeling better about their future on the team, that is until they were trounced by the Thunder in a 32-point Game 7 blowout and heard The Joker might leave Denver if the cap table got too strenuous. Michael Porter Jr. was even traded, to Brooklyn.

This purpose here is to illustrate the dangerous precedent that has now been set for NBA coaches, that even if you are successful, you can still have the rug pulled out from under you in the untimeliest and most unexpected manners. What Kleiman and Kroenke said almost in unison is that winning games is NOT the be-all-end-all and anyone can be fired at the drop of a hat, even a championship-caliber coach and the winningest coach in franchise history.

We can’t know everything going on behind the scenes, but we can easily perceive making such a sudden change so late in the game as baffling. A new voice isn’t always a fresh voice; both Tuomas Iisalo and David Adelman were leading assistants under the Jenkins and Malone likely instructing the same concepts with less fury. There was nothing fundamentally different about how the teams played afterwards other than their dependence on top players in the playoffs, and in the case of the Nuggets, a laughably over-dependence on Jokic in the playoffs.

We shouldn’t be too concerned with who gets to stay or who goes because ultimately the organizations are free to act with their own discretion and choose who they want to run their team, literally. However, we should be concerned with the notion that any coach can be fired at any given time.

If these instances were to continue, NBA players will continue to be entitled while their salaries keep skyrocketing, fans will lose interest and faith in their home market teams because of constant turnover, and the NBA product will suffer with more frequent changes in schemes.

This is NOT the same as what happened to Mike Brown and Tom Thibodeau this past year who were fired from their respective head coaching roles with the Kings and Knicks. Brown was fired in December and Thibodeau in June after repeated failures to significantly improve their teams’ chances at the title. They were each afforded opportunities that they didn’t act upon and finally the front office felt the only thing they could do was to remove them, and most within the league community agree.

Perhaps this is an important point of discussion since the NBA already has a coaching problem: seven of the last nine Coach of the Year winners have been fired, including Brown and Thibodeau. NBA coaches don’t gradually get worse, NBA teams are merely impatient, and now they appear mind-bogglingly-impatient so much so that they would fire coaches 15 games above .500 and mere weeks before the playoffs began.

Mark Daigneault and Rick Carlisle just coached their teams to the NBA Finals. They are…I can’t believe this is real…the fifth- and seventh-longest tenured coaches in the league already, each hired in the 2020’s. The Thunder once 24-58 and the Pacers once 35-47 willingly endured a long process and it ultimately drove them to conference titles this year. Those aren’t outlier examples, those are teams that followed the same formula that have built long-standing powerhouses like the Spurs, Heat, and Celtics.

We believed the Grizzlies and Nuggets to be admirable, competent organizations too that didn’t let emotions and short-sightedness get the best of them, but they did. They both believed the team’s ceiling to be capped because of some losing streaks in March, a disturbing realization for their fans and the league community.

If I’m Ime Udoka, Jamahl Mosley, hell even Coach of the Year Kenny Atkinson, I’d be very worried about my job security as head coach because an overwhelmingly positive record in the regular season and giving in to front office demands apparently aren’t enough anymore.

The norm may become an absolute championship-or-bust mentality year-to-year, and what’s truly sad and almost inexplicable is there is no guarantee you will even get the opportunity to coach for that championship when the time comes.

Toying With Fate

Posted June 23, 2025

By Alec Marcus

After the final page was written on the turbulent 2025 NBA season, I find myself seriously taken aback from merely viewing the usual game of thrones to viewing the game of sport.

It felt absolutely gut-wrenching watching a player, in enemy territory, on the literal biggest stage of their life, suffer in pain, lying on the battle field, and robbed of a chance to forever change his life. Robbed of culmination and completing life’s work.

How can one’s heart not go out to the player lying on the court and quite visibly shaking his head and saying aloud, “No! No! No! No! No!”, breaking down physically and mentally and emotionally all at once? To no longer be there for his brothers and not fighting for his coaches, the last thing you want to see as a fan of sport.

It was the untimeliest event of the most unfortunate kind for a basketball player: an Achilles tear. In simpler terms, no more running, immediately, and for a long time. I wish for him a good recovery.

So, this injury uniquely stings not just because of the place – an NBA Finals Game 7 – and not just because he’s the leader of the team. This was Tyrese Haliburton, the player who took the NBA world on a heart-stomping joyride with unforgettable moment after moment.

Haliburton has just completed one of the most iconic, improbable, and unthinkable playoff runs in the league’s history. I mean there are underdogs, there are upsets, there are lifetime defying moments. And then there’s what Haliburton pieced together over these last four rounds of war.

The layup past Giannis Antetokounmpo that buried the Bucks and sent the Greek Freak’s future into orbit. The three-pointer over Ty Jerome that sank the Cavaliers down 2-0 and on a miserable road trip to Indiana.

The bouncing back-iron ball of buffoonery that saved the Pacers from a Game 1 loss and eventually cost Thibs his job. And the one that absolutely-got-away jumper to steal Game 1 in a place where teams go to die.

All on the end of the most resilient (and laughably-late) comebacks the NBA has arguably ever seen. All buckets, and all knives to the heart, often to sour endings for the live audience.

The slithery, shoulder-launching Haliburton unforgivingly snaked himself and the Pacers all the way to the Game 7 of the NBA Finals. The build-up and the unlikelihood and the sometimes pathetically-orchestrated shots that kept falling and falling and falling and falling made him look less a playoff hero and moreso a villain.

But the cockiness, taunting, and even family involvement, made Haliburton into a bully.

The Pacers, as far as their NBA tenure goes, have never shied away from crunch-time shot-making because of Reggie Miller. One of the all-time heartbreakers, miracle makers, and never-die underdogs gave small-town Indiana something all the money or fame in the world couldn’t buy: delivering at the buzzer.

Hali 2025 was that encapsulated into eight weeks. And how fitting (or more commonly-heard in New York, infuriating) that Reggie was there beside him for TNT’s Curtain Call. Defeating the arch-nemesis Knicks no less.

It was Haliburton and the Pacers routinely cutting check after check after check after check that they had zero interest in ever actually paying. Poetically, they just wanted to take the money and run, until they heisted their way to the Larry O’Brien trophy. 

Everyone around the world and everybody inside Oklahoma City was well-aware that in a potential make or break situation last night, Haliburton was golden. Unbeatable. Perfect. And that principle was edged into stone after seeing a game winner in that same city, on that same floor, in Game 1.

One small problem, a high calf strain.

He must have been told the calculated risk of playing point guard in the NBA Finals against the league’s top defense on a high calf strain, and naturally he went for it.

Breaking to the basket hard in the first quarter after a sweet 3-for-4 start from 3-point range, Haliburton sought to cut another check. And then the alarm sounded. His right leg buckled, showing what us now well-versed viewers know to be an Achilles tear.

Haliburton would no longer have the opportunity to use his late-game witchcraft to steal the title should he have needed it. Instead, the fate he’d been so eagerly toying with stepped into play, to take him out.

There was generally a good sense that he was going to take that calculated risk and play through the calf strain, and it’s a universally praised effort as far as the NBA world is concerned. But the foundation of his artwork, the prideful manner of his executions, and the brash banter following his bad-boy deeds made him a bully, to which the basketball gods intervened.

Haliburton and the Pacers had already been blessed by higher-power intervention in their previous bouts, like when Damian Lillard fell injured for a second straight year, or when Jalen Brunson broke his hand in an elimination game at the Garden, or the Cavs’ 3 All-Stars each missing a game or two with lower half ailments.

As sadistically evil as some of those shots felt, from Milwaukee to Cleveland to New York to Oklahoma City, fate finally swung back with a horrid twist.

2025 Regular Season Grades – Western Conference, Part 2

Posted May 8, 2025 

By Alec Marcus 

(B-) Could’ve Been Better 

Denver Nuggets

The Nuggets endured an offseason cap crunch that cost them their best defender Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the first player from their championship lineup to exit and in turn dropping them down from the West elite. Nikola Jokic was spectacular this year ranking amongst the top of the league in major categories like scoring, assists, and rebounds, however the team’s record was underwhelming and ownership decided to boot coach Mike Malone and general manager Calvin Booth. The Nuggets were easily the best paint team in the league ranking first in field goal percentage and two-point field goals, though they struggled mightily preventing field goals, 3-pointers, and assists.

The Joker’s ninth season was easily his best, backpacking the team on the offense end with both scoring and playmaking while anchoring the team in rebounds as well, leading to some gaudy stat lines like a 61-point triple-double and the first 30-20-20 game in league history. It helped engineer an extremely-efficient season from Christian Braun, more traditionally strong shooting seasons from Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., but most importantly the Joker helped revive Russell Westbrook into one of the game’s most productive spark plugs. Rookie-contract players like Julian Strawther, Jalen Pickett, and Peyton Watson filled out the rotation but without much consistency, dragging down a defense missing much of Aaron Gordon and backcourt strength.

The firing of the team’s all-time wins leader Michael Malone was shocking though better illustrated by the team reset that also canned Calvin Booth; both exits showed ownership’s belief that the team fell out of title contention, and a 7-game First Round battle with the loveable loser Clippers clearly supported that notion.

Memphis Grizzlies

The Grizzlies rebounded strong on both ends with a returning Ja Morant and batch of new young players, topping the league in pace to fuel a top-10 offense and defense. Even though a ton of production was saturated amongst their top 3, their organization felt they weren’t playing at their best firing their own head coach Taylor Jenkins with just nine games left to play. The Grizz were dominant ranking top-3 in points, field goals, free throws, rebounding, and blocks, though there were warning signs defensively in preventing three-pointers and fouls.

Jaren Jackson Jr. made his return to the All-Star game with a stellar offensive season that saw career-high marks in field goals and 3-pointers made, clearly benefitting from the 50-games played by Ja Morant. Desmond Bane showed significant growth as a secondary playmaker, sliding back into a third option role with while leading the team’s 3-point department. And the shrewd-scouting front office found two of their season starters in the rookie draft, selecting the monstrous paint protector Zach Edey and then the shot-happy Jaylen Wells.

This was a typical season from Memphis although Morant left a lot to be desired missing 32 games, costing the team a shot at 50 wins and potentially their best coach in recent memory, and they had to succumb to another Play-in Tournament before rival Oklahoma City ripped them to shreds in a four-game sweep.

San Antonio Spurs

The Spurs suffered all season long with a string of bad luck that cost them their head coach and best player, crushing their hopes for a campaign in which the team had legitimate playoff aspirations. Gregg Poppovich suited up for just a handful of games due to effects stemming from a stroke last spring, forcing Mitch Johnson to command a team that would also lose Victor Wembanyama to blood clots, right when they made a splash trade for All-Star De’Aaron Fox. Obviously the Spurs were a top shot-blocking unit with Wemby and launched a ton of three-pointers due to the larger-than-life threat in the paint, however they struggled to rebound without him and could not hold down the three-point line most of the year.

Wembanyama was willing his way to an All-NBA season with a sky-high block rate and more confidence on the other end, a magnificent campaign brought about the brilliance of Chris Paul, who started all 82 games for the first time in 19 years. Stephon Castle harnessed all the energy in the backcourt beside him, playing determined on both ends on his way to the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award. The double-point backcourt and the alien-like center created strong shooting seasons for all of Devin Vassell, Harrison Barnes, and new spark plug Julian Champagnie.

Even with Pop on the shelf, the Spurs were increasingly optimistic once they landed Wemby’s new tag-team partner De’Aaron Fox at the deadline, but the good times were short lived and now a new era is officially underway with interim coach Mitch Johnson now stepping into Pop’s enormous shoes.

(C) No Man’s Land 

Sacramento Kings

The Kings felt equally hopeful about their playoff aspirations once they acquired former Spur DeMar DeRozan, except their offense was putrid in the first third of the season leading to the firing of Mike Brown, the unanimous 2023 NBA Coach of the Year. Kings great Doug Christie stepped in and led an admirable turnaround of the struggling team, though the rotation’s disfigurement encouraged their star De’Aaron Fox to seek a trade to another team. The Kings fell to a bottom-10 3-point unit, were amongst the bottom in defensive plays, and they allowed opponents to light them up for a league-best three-point percentage.

It’s understandable why “The Fox” wanted to leave for brighter pastures with Kevin Huerter and Keegan Murray completely tanking their shooting strokes, Domantas Sabonis exerting all his energy on the offensive end, and Malik Monk sporadically taking over off the bench. DeRozan did provide the third scoring option Sacramento desperately needed, just not in terms of outside shooting either. Fox’ exit netted DeMar’s former partner Zach LaVine, who was superb offensively and saved their 40-win benchmark.

We have no idea where the Kings go from here since the Lavine-DeRozan tandem has already proven to be ineffective and they’re attached to the hip of a budding Hall-of-Famer in Sabonis, but they badly need an influx of shooting and rim protection even if Christie is the right man of the job.

(D+) Year of Development 

Utah Jazz

The Jazz, unlike the predecessors on this list, had no expectations of making the playoffs when the season began, instead electing to use the 2025 campaign to develop more talent. However, a 14-win decline couldn’t have been what management was hoping for even if they did aspire for a high lottery pick. The Jazz were the worst defensive team in the NBA with nobody pushing steals or protecting the paint on a regular basis, and they were disastrous protecting the ball and manufacturing assists.

Lauri Markkanen did not look like the savior from last season, instead it was John Collins who starred offensively in his first time as a three-man. Walker Kessler did try his best to contribute to winning by leading the league in offensive rebounds and ranking amongst the top in blocks. Utah’s problems really stemmed from a trio of scoring guards like Keyonte George and Jordan Clarkson who were alarmingly inefficient, as was lottery pick Cody Williams who might have been the worst player in the NBA this season.

Collins and Collin Sexton did recuperate some value as consistent scoring threats though they shouldn’t be considered building blocks; those will surely come in subsequent drafts to help the likes of Isaiah Collier and Kyle Filipowski.

New Orleans Pelicans

The Pelicans quickly fell into the “developmental camp” with injuries hampering three of their star players. Brandon Ingram missed extensive time with a shoulder issue before being traded to the Raptors, Zion Williamson missed stretches with more lower-half injuries, and Dejounte Murray immediately suffered a wrist injury only to come back and tear his Achilles. The Pels, playing G-League basketball most of the season, were an awful defensive team allowing a ton of damage from beyond the arc and the league’s highest opponent field goal percentage.

Trey Murphy was one of the only bright spots in NOLA this year, coming out of his shell as a scorer and secondary playmaker. Rookie Yves Missi likely earned himself a place on the All-Rookie Team with strong-armed rebounding and mean shot-blocking. A ton of players donned the Pelicans uniforms this year since they were easily the most injured team in the Association, and it was rookies Jordan Hawkins and Antonio Reeves who made the most of rare opportunities to contribute early.

The Murphy-Williamson frontcourt may be more effective than the one built with Ingram, however we continue to miss out on the superstar play from the former top pick whose injuries repeatedly cost this talented team from the playoffs.

(D-) A Harsh Reality 

Dallas Mavericks

The Mavericks had an abominable season for the ages deciding to trade Luka Doncic in February for oft-injured superstar Anthony Davis, in a move general manager Nico Harrison described as one that positions them better in the short-term and going forward. Instead, Davis immediately injured his shoulder and a tired Kyrie Irving tore his ACL with an increased workload, together crushing the team’s championship hopes. Luka’s 22 games as a Mav didn’t factor a ton into their season ranks, which showed they give up a ton of baskets near the paint and were a pretty miserable rebounding team.

Kyrie Irving was traditionally excellent shooting the ball this year and he received a big uptick in scoring once Luka left town, though that ultimately proved to be his downfall. First-year Maverick Klay Thompson and P.J. Washington had similarly strong shooting seasons though without much consistency, and the same could be said for Spencer Dinwiddie and new Mav Max Christie. The front office looked like fools with their traded Doncic and Quentin Grimes erupting elsewhere, though they received a ton of praise for Naji Marshall who checked a ton of boxes and starred after the All-Star break.

As I’ve said before, Harrison and Co. failed to account for their co-stars’ significant injury histories, and next year they’re going to have a very difficult time generating offense without Kyrie or Luka; their harsh reality is that their offense next year won’t come close to being championship caliber and their defense will falter at times.

(F) The Rock Bottom 

Phoenix Suns

The BIGGEST loser of the 2024-25 season was the Phoenix Suns in an absolute landslide, wasting a year of Devin Booker’s prime and one of the last remaining years of Kevin Durant as a leading man. They were abhorrent on the defensive end with no shot impactor in the paint and their offense played a crawling pace with too many guards looking for the right pass. The Suns did excel with shooting efficiency and manufacturing assists, leading to very little opposing blocks, however their lack of size and athleticism came to light in preventing three-pointers, picking pockets, and securing rebounds.

36-year-old Kevin Durant was truly in the midst of an MVP-caliber season with outstanding effort on offense and defense, all for not because of a down year for Devin Booker. Bradley Beal was surprisingly strong but clearly out of position as a small-ball three, as was Tyus Jones on a team badly needing to protect the basket. Jusuf Nurkic was pathetic in likely his last stint as a starting center, 34-year-old Mason Plumlee was a sad excuse for a stopper off the bench, and Grayson Allen lost a ton of his appeal since he was minimized to a reserve role.

This is one of the worst roster constructions I can remember and Vegas must be swimming in cash because of their 48.5 wins preseason bet mark, and I do feel bad for the since-fired Mike Budenholzer because he had to navigate one of the softest backcourts and frontcourts ever assembled.

2025 Regular Season Grades – Western Conference, Part 1

Posted April 22, 2025 

By Alec Marcus 

(A+) You Crushed It! 

Oklahoma City Thunder 

The Thunder became the seventh team in NBA history, and the second in 30 years, to win at least 68 games. OKC had the 2nd-highest net rating in league history (bested by only the legendary ’96 Bulls), they were the league’s top defensive unit by a wide margin even with Chet Holmgren missing s months, and they were also a top-3 offensive team with an array of scorers and fastbreak excellence. Pure dominance from beginning to end with records of 11-2, 30-5, 44-9, 60-12, before eventually finishing 68-14. 

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was nothing short of spectacular on both ends as the scoring champion with shutdown defense. “J-Dub” Jalen Williams emerged into the league’s top Robin and earned his first All-Star accolade. Isaiah Hartenstein quickly proved to be the perfect answer for their rebounding troubles, rookie Cason Wallace made impacts right away as a regular starter, and the pair of Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins had staggered eruptions.

They should be considered the championship favorite; this is their second straight season with the 1-seed in the West.  

 
(A) Round of Applause 

Houston Rockets 

The Rockets, similarly to the Pistons, leapfrogged past the Play-in Tournament for an outright Western Conference playoff berth, in glorious fashion. Coach Ime Udoka has done it again with another 50-win campaign built on defensive intensity and a myriad of scorers. In fact, the Rockets generated the most field goal attempts in the league by being the best rebounding team in the NBA and forcing a ton of opponent shots near the rim. 

Another fourth-year Jalen Green took an important step forward as a winning offensive player, providing a hefty dose of 3-pointers on career-high efficiency and penetrating halfcourt offense off the bounce. Alperen Sengun made his first All-Star team with clutch low-post wizardry and glass cleaning prowess. However the biggest ingredient for their success was the meteoric rise of Amen Thompson, a blazing slasher with alien-like athletics and devastating defense force. 

The Rockets have their work cut out for them in the First Round facing their recurring rival Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors, and with both teams running deep, Houston will need to make its 3-pointers to stay ahead, a department in which they struggled in 2025. 

(A-) Life is Good 

Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers had the greatest in-season improvement of any team in recent memory once they acquired Luka Doncic out of the blue weeks before the Trade Deadline. “The Don” provided a badly-needed jolt for a Lakers offense that had been dragging along in the post and through a 40-year-old LeBron, a jolt that was strong enough to develop a third star and inspire the team’s defense. They were already one of the 10 most efficient offenses that got to the free throw line before they took off from 3-point range.

In Year (…checks notes…) 22, LeBron was still superb generating offense and took his defense to another level when another primary ball-handler arrived, one that was actually feared. Doncic was magical from downtown and helped his teammates get wide open looks, bringing out the best in Rui Hachimura and rekindling his chemistry with Dorian Finney-Smith. And the Lakers made the Mavericks pay for not inquiring about Austin Reaves, who was freed up to cut and carry the offense when the co-stars needed a break.

The Lakers are piecing together rim protection with Jaxson Hayes-size Scotch-tape and some scrappy players trying to shine with hustle plays, though Doncic raised their ceiling enough already to re-enter the championship picture; the ultra-deep Timberwolves led by an alpha in Ant-Man and the Stifle Tower will put that ceiling to the test early and often.

LA Clippers

The Clippers chose the one-man band over paying Paul George this summer and are playing competitive games in the new Intuit Dome because of it. James Harden was emphatic on offense from Game 1 and successfully turned the team’s assets into nationally recognized players, in doing so generating a top-half offense and defense. The Clippers were 6th in shooting percentage, 7th in 3-point percentage, 8th in opponent shooting, and 10th in defensive rebounding while being top-3 in the league in steals.

Harden had the media considering Norman Powell for the All-Star team, encouraging the scoring guard to launch whenever he felt like, and by season’s end they were talking about Ivica Zubac as a potential All-NBA player and Defensive Team candidate. Zubac was a wrecking crew in the paint and gained supreme confidence as a scorer being fed from Harden, like so many have in the past. Kris Dunn got his chance to be a menace on the perimeter, Derrick Jones Jr. thrived in another high-floor offense, Bogdan Bogdanovic exploded inside the hot passing perimeter scheme, and Kawhi Leonard was aggressive after a long absence to start his season.

Once Kawhi came back the Clippers were full speed ahead with a rotation of efficient bucket getters, shooters, and lane closers, always on the attack and hungry without the George clog, but the championship grit of the Nuggets will test the new set of stars.

Minnesota Timberwolves

The Timberwolves listened to all the noise surrounding Karl-Anthony Towns and sent him packing for players that aligned with their new identity, one made up mean defense and a flurry of 3-point shooting. Anthony Edwards finally took the bull by the horns and became a limitless scorer, morphing into one of the best outside shooters in the game who grew stronger channeling his teammates to do the same. The Wolves were top-5 in 3-point takes and makes and marksmanship, they owned the paint by preventing rebounds, and they held down the perimeter just as easily as they lit it up.

Ant-Man was so lethal from downtown, making and taking the most shots from downtown of anyone in the league, that you wouldn’t have noticed the best shooting center of all-time wasn’t around. No Wolves fan cared once Naz Reid checked in with his 2 triples a night, they especially didn’t care for KAT when his counterpart DiVincenzo bought in to his bench role, and they were too caught up in a flashy pair of rookies and a NAW breakout to miss his flare. Julius Randle did just enough of everything, in between two terrifying frontcourt defenders, to help a team that wanted to win playing from downtown.

The sacrifice of the twin 7-foot lineup (which ranked 1st in defense in 2024) proved fruitful in the end in that it truly made Edwards one of the league’s most feared scorers and it diversified its scoring makeup away from the inconsistent KAT, however the Timberwolves may miss their big-time scorer when they face off against the twin genius lineup of Luka and LeBron’s Lakers.

(B+) Fans are Happy 

Golden State Warriors

The Warriors would have warranted a magic eraser if the ink on their report card from January would’ve dried, but it didn’t and the Jimmy Butler acquisition wiped away their horrific offseason and put them in serious contention for a playoff spot. Steph Curry had been wasting away a year of legendary career by being the trigger-happiest outside shooter on a losing team until alpha entered the starting lineup, in turn empowering a locker room full of hustle players and 3-point assassins. The Dubs finished the year top-5 in triples made, team assists, team steals, team offensive rebounds, forcing turnovers, limiting shot attempts, and even opponent free throw percentage.

Steph and Dray were right back in their respective rhythms when the front office flipped a Harrison Barnes-esque stabilizer in Andrew Wiggins into a Klay Thompson-like playmaker in Jimmy Butler. Brandin “Pods” Podziemski and Moses “Mody Mooses” Moody each became weapons with regular crunch time minutes, Gui Santos became an opportunist like so many of their role players have in the past, and Quinten Post was a lightning rod who caught the attention of Curry and made good on it. Ultimately Jimmy saved the Warriors’ season by getting his teammates to buy in a bit more and listen to their masters.

Steve Kerr likely deserves more credit considering the fans are thrilled to have their old Steph and Draymond back and in the playoffs, except now their rival Rockets are loaded with enough intensity to squash their spirit.

(B) The Right Direction 

Portland Trail Blazers

The Trail Blazers revived their small market appeal from a decade ago displaying one of the truest forms of development in the NBA this year. First-time head coach (of any team) Chauncey Billups answered a lot of skepticism with an admirable 15-win turnaround, powered by a deep rotation and some elements from his Pistons peak: guard aggressors and verticality. He instructed his young Blazers to be confident, attack the glass, and stay tight on shooters, with the team rankings ninth in shot attempts, second in offensive rebounds, and top-five in preventing threes.

Deni Avdija was the best performer leaning into the all-around skill he was drafted with, Anfernee Simons acted quick with his dependable 3-point stroke, and Deandre Ayton showed teams he was still adamant on getting his numbers. Next in line behind them was Shaedon Sharpe seeking activity of his own, Scoot Henderson determined to make a statement in Year 2, and Donovan Clingan comfortable using his size in the second unit. Someone deserving of his own sentence was Toumani Camara, a forward from the Damian Lillard trade who made a name for himself taking charges and hitting arc shots as a glue piece.

Nobody can complain from where Blazers were a year ago as a 61-loss team, in fact their over-under odds this year had them at just 21.5 wins, and now the Blazers have the very achievable goal of reaching the Play-In next year, and who wouldn’t bet on a Chauncey Billups team in that format?

2025 Regular Season Grades – Eastern Conference, Part 2

Posted April 19, 2025 

By Alec Marcus 

(B-) Could’ve Been Better

Atlanta Hawks

The Hawks’ tenure with Dejounte Murray finally ended last summer and many thought the same would come for Trae Young, following another early end to their season and the first pick instituting a new era. However Young remained with the team and posted the best playmaking numbers of his career, thanks to an emerging star and three new faces in the starting lineup. The Hawks were amongst the top-6 in scoring and assists as usual, though they turned the ball over plenty and allowed opponents to shoot very well from the field, with bottom-3 marks on field goal and 3-point percentage.

Trae dished out the most assists of his young career, which would have been great if not for the worst shooting season since his rookie year, still proving Young’s production comes with a heavy caveat (and then there’s the defense). By midseason the Hawks came to terms with not being ready for the Finals push so they dished out the breaking out De’Andre Hunter as well as Bogdan Bogdanovic for a new crop of reserve players. The defense had been doing okay with Jalen Johnson making plays and Dyson Daniels picking pockets, but the front fell apart when Johnson tore his labrum.

The Hawks may have been turned into Jalen Johnson’s team had he stayed healthy so that’s the main reason why this year could have been better, though we have to like the new foundation comprised of Daniels, Johnson, rookie Zacharie Risacher, and Onyeka Okongwu heading into next year.

(C) No Man’s Land

Chicago Bulls

The Bulls had a whirlwind of a season in 2025, after dealing DeMar DeRozan to Sacramento they then offloaded Zach Lavine’s contract to them too. From then on they finally seemed set on nosediving to the bottom for a top pick, however a Josh Giddey renaissance kept them afloat with a shot in the Play-in Tournament. The mediocre-as-mediocre-can-get Bulls took and made a zillion threes and secured a bunch of defensive rebounds except they were toasted on the defensive end unable to stop opposing guards.

Giddey exploded in the second half taking full command of the offense and getting his best teammates the ball, like Coby White who shot his way to a career-high scoring average. Chicago also spent much of its time with rehabilitation projects like Kevin Huerter, Zach Collins, and Lonzo Ball, inhibiting both their prospect and chemistry developments. When they did at long last decide to give Matas Buzelis a real opportunity, he flourished flying to the hoop and getting an edge putting up shots on defenders.

The Bulls may have fallen too in love with Giddey’s game to commence another teardown (and one is needed) and it’s fair to argue there’s no confidence this team is heading in a positive direction, after dealing both its All-Star players and finishing with the exact same record: 39-43.

Miami Heat

The Heat deserve far more patience given the Jimmy Butler trade saga that completely nuked their team’s season. Butler was uncharacteristically conservative on the offensive end before demanding a trade, once it was evident the 35-year-old wasn’t receiving a long-term extension, and after that the Heat played with a broken wing and could only muster up whatever scoring Tyler Herro could bring them. The Heat had their worst season finish in a decade to no fault of their defense; they were bottom-3 in pace with a makeshift offense, they didn’t get to the free throw line nearly as much, and they would not score the second chance points that made them so resilient.

Tyler Herro was relieved after three years in oblivion to receive the keys to the kingdom and make his first All-Star team, with the most productive season of his six-year career. Kel’el Ware quickly proved to be a steal looking like a raw version of Wembanyama with standout athleticism and shot-blocking. And that’s as fun as things got because of an underwhelming Bam Adebayo, ice cold Terry Rozier, and next to no high-end scoring from the wing after Andrew Wiggins.

The Heat desperately need to find another offensive anchor and the Cavs series will prove it, given its clear Adebayo and the other prospects on this team are limited, or else they’ll continue to claw their way to a middling record.

(D-) A Harsh Reality

Brooklyn Nets

The Nets erased any remnants of the Big 3 era once they dealt Kevin Durant’s trade counterpart Mikal Bridges to New York, starting a miserable first year for rookie coach Jordi Fernandez. Brooklyn might have fared a tad better if Cam Thomas played more than third of the season though they were generally hopeless without a true focal point, frontcourt threat, or point guard. The Nets were bottom-five in pace, offensive rating, field goal percentage, opponent field goal percentage, rebounding, and blocks.

Things were so disorienting in Brooklyn that Ben Simmons made his way out, opting to save whatever heart he has for the cross-coast Clippers. Cam Johnson didn’t relish the opportunity to erupt due to his team-first nature and commitment to high-efficiency, Nic Claxton is coming along much slower than his predecessor Jarrett Allen, and a trio of youngsters (Keon Johnson, Ziaire Williams, and Jalen Wilson) showed no rhythm from downtown and minimal defensive grit despite being allocated a ton of minutes. The biggest loser was D’Angelo Russell booted from LeBron’s Lakers, and while he was thrilled to return to the city that molded him into an All-Star, D’Lo was ice cold perhaps taking too many shots on a toddler-esque team.

The Nets need a savior more than any team in the NBA and will need to hit on its boatload of draft picks if they want to return to the playoffs quickly, as we’re closer to seeing an overhauled starting lineup than seeing the same faces attempting to build something constructive.

Toronto Raptors

The Raptors were, on the surface, gutted by injuries but the more likely explanation for missing the Play-in Tournament would be a year designated for roster assessment…and tanking. The only winner from the Raps this year was RJ Barrett who would’ve flirted with the All-Star nomination had the team performed better beside him, but ultimately this team did not put up points like most young teams should. They were bottom-3 in 3-point attempts, 3-point makes, free-throw percentage, and they fouled the most of anyone.

Toronto is still dead set on Scottie Barnes as the face of their franchise even though he’s quite feeble as a scoring threat, with virtually no 3-point shot nor grace around the rim. Gradey Dick actually took a step backward in his second season despite playing with the starters, a slew of rookies like Ja’Kobe Walter and Jonathan Mogbo shot horribly, and Immanuel Quickley spent a ton of his potential breakout season on the shelf, suiting up for just 33 of 82 games. The front office did swing for and re-up with Brandon Ingram as a much-needed piece for their offensive planning, although he’s missed about as much court time of any star in his prime.

Who is saving the Raptors from obscurity because they seem just dandy to develop G-League players in the North, and there is no sense trying to make the playoffs anytime soon if they continue to evade the 3-point line.

(F) The Rock Bottom

Charlotte Hornets

The Hornets, stop me if you’ve heard this one before, did not receive a full year out of LaMelo Ball and bested their 61 losses in 2024 with 63 in 2025. Injuries to him and their other cornerstone players should be what defines the season in Charlotte, but the fact remains this organization is incompetent building any sort of culture and is fine going to battle with journeymen every night. Buzz City shot the worst and scored the least in the NBA this year, they could not get to the charity stripe, they were bottom-five in assists and steals with a putrid backcourt, and there was no communication as opponents set up shots from deep.

LaMelo posted the worst year of his professional career jacking up a ton of threes and floundering near the basket, but the real tragedies were not being able to offload Mark Williams’ injury concerns and Brandon Miller missing more than half the season with a broken wrist, given Williams had a trade lined up with the Lakers and Miller was hungry to ascend the scoring ladder. Miles Bridges took over and showed out in spurts though he was very inefficient and clearly found his ceiling. And players such as Josh Green, Cody Martin, and Nick Smith Jr. received way too much playing time for their dreadful production.

The most bizarre locker room in the NBA, one housing Seth Curry, Taj Gibson, and Elfrid Payton at the end, is helpless without an experienced coach or adequate batch of veterans, and there will only escape this pit of despair if they draft someone with leadership and competitive juice.

Philadelphia 76ers

The Sixers, preseason +1400 to win the title with an over-under of 50.5 wins, were burned at the stake for their crimes to competitive sports, losing 58 games for the first time since the Sam Hinkie days. The out-of-shape ogre Joel Embiid was initially missing back-to-backs before undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery, Tyrese Maxey shot threes under his fingers fell off (and they did, figuratively), and huge-money signing Paul George was absolutely awful given the price tag. The Sixers’ season from Hell saw them rank dead last in rebounding and opposing field goal percentage, departments typically held down with Embiid, and they were bottom-five in scoring, assists, and 3-point percentage.

Things of course were not be their best with Joel on the shelf and it’s a real turning point for their MVP monster; he perhaps may never be the same again apart from missing time, indicated by his over-lackluster shooting. Maxey was generally picking up the mess left by George whose thin-skin and soft-nature was reminiscent of Ben Simmons’ struggles, and it’s been over a decade since the $200 million man was this ineffective. Philly’s dead cap situation caused them to suit up 30 different players, most unrecognizable like Ricky Council IV, Justin Edwards, and Adem Bona, and things would’ve been extremely bleak if not for the brilliant stretches for Jared McCain and Quentin Grimes.

There’s no way out for the 76ers who were so blinded by their championship aspirations that they completely overlooked their hobbling superstar and failed to assess their top target’s shortcomings; they are old and defenseless and without any sort of continuity.

2025 Regular Season Grades – Eastern Conference, Part 1

Posted April 17, 2025 

By Alec Marcus 

Usually I am a bundle of joy when looking back on the NBA regular season, however 2024-25 proved to be an outlier. I’ll remember it for the year that several ownership groups were so impatient that they set their franchises back several years. 

Luka Doncic getting booted from the Dallas Mavericks with an injured calf, one that took an untraditional amount of punishment after an NBA Finals run directly followed by an Olympics. Playoff-regular coaches Taylor Jenkins and Michael Malone working all year long to have the rug pulled from under them before the postseason tournament. There were brutal injuries to rising stars like Paolo Banchero and Jalen Johnson, that disgusting Jimmy Butler departure from the heralded Miami Heat, and lots of putrid basketball from the likes of the Hornets, Nets, Jazz, Raptors, and so on. 

Now there were three teams that won 60 games this year, the first time that has happened since 2009. Oklahoma City as a matter of fact won 68 of them! While them and Cleveland (64 wins) and Boston (61 wins) are orchestrating perfect symphonies, from the front office all the way down to the 15th man, those win totals can illustrate there was a lot of terrible team basketball being played across the Association. 

Six teams lost at least 56 of 82 games, five of the eight Play-In teams had a losing record, and for the first time since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976 a team won its division without a winning record: the 41-41 Orlando Magic of the Southeast Conference (also made up with Atlanta, Miami, Washington, and Charlotte). 

The NBAL Newsletter I began writing a few months ago put me in lockstep with each organization’s performance like I never had been before. So I can assure you these team grades will be more informative than merely a record or stat sheet. 

And yes, I’ll be critical, hopefully at my most engaging.

Here are the 15 Eastern Conference team grades for the 2025 regular season, in order of grade:

(A+) You Crushed It! 

Cleveland Cavaliers 

The Cavaliers were the main story from the 2024-25 season due to a massive turnaround on the offensive end. New head coach Kenny Atkinson was the engineer of it all encouraging Darius Garland to take more shots, Evan Mobley to take command of the frontcourt, and more than a handful of bench players like to let it fly. The league’s top offensive unit was 1st in scoring and 2-point percentage, 2nd in field goal and 3-point percentages (as well as 3PT makes), and top-3 in limiting turnovers. 

The fourth-year Mobley emerged into an All-NBA player and defender taking on top guards, forwards, and bigs. It enabled twin tower Jarrett Allen to stay healthy for all 82 games as well as slam home shots at the league-best rate (70.6%). The Cavs also sported the top guard rotation in the NBA with Donovan Mitchell dominating and Ty Jerome a superb reserve, and a midseason swing for De’Andre Hunter paid major dividends in the second half. 

If the Cavaliers start the playoffs as hot as they did the regular season, when they were 15-0, they will coast through the first two rounds and be ready to outscore the Champs. 

Detroit Pistons 

The Pistons took two ENORMOUS steps forward, more than tripling their win total from last season when they were arguably the worst team of the 21st century, in doing so jumping from obscurity and bypassing the play-in tournament for an outright playoff berth! Fired for seemingly holding back those Cavaliers, J.B. Bickerstaff revived his standing in a major way as well as the Pistons’ offensive performance. The catalyst was another fourth-year breakout in “Motor-“ Cade Cunningham, who was brilliant heading the team’s scoring and passing. 

Detroit feared nobody thanks to an elevator-like head coach, strong defense anchored by Jalen Duren, and a clear offensive gameplan headed by Cade and shooters. Oftentimes weighing down competitive teams, Tobias Harris and Tim Hardaway Jr. were terrific in their perfectly-defined roles to space the floor and hit their scoring number. And Malik Beasley was flat out heroic drilling 319 3-pointers mostly off the bench…incredible. 

The gritty and lethal Pistons are staring up the bracket at the prolific and potentially over-confident New York Knicks, with a chance to take another giant step forward by winning their first playoff series since 2008. 


(A) Round of Applause  

Boston Celtics 

The Celtics lost their top ranking in the Eastern Conference though they were still able to come away with a 60-win season, the first time the C’s won 60+ in back-to-back seasons since the Boston Three Party. It was business as usual for the defending champs who ranked top-5 in offense and top-5 in defense. For the second straight year they attempted and made the most 3-pointers in the Association, they were amongst the leaders in blocked shots, and they did a fantastic job taking care of the ball per usual. 

Jayson Tatum will likely be First Team All-NBA for the fourth consecutive season, and while he took a step back with regards to his proficiency, he was superb finding teammates en route to a career-best assists per game average. Jrue Holiday and Jaylen Brown had their typical bouts with injuries, but Kristaps Porzingis stepped up in a major way with the best 3-point shooting season of his career. And as lethal as Derrick White was from downtown this year, the most dangerous was runaway Sixth Man of the Year favorite Payton Pritchard, who was fifth on the team in scoring and second on 3-pointers made. 

The reigning champs took a bit of a dip in terms of scoring, something that could prove troubling in a matchup against the Cavs, though they should still be considered the favorite to come out of the East given their experience and two-way greatness; they lucked out drawing Orlando in the opening round who sports one of the worst and youngest offenses in the league. 

New York Knicks 

The Knicks reloaded the gas tank after running out of juice in the playoffs and put together another remarkable campaign, winning 50 games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the Ewing days from 1992-1995. They took a significant risk trading away their former savior Julius Randle and fan favorite Donte DiVincenzo for the oft-criticized, uniquely-skilled Karl-Anthony Towns. The move for a floor-spacing and elite scoring center quickly paid off as the Knicks were top-5 in offensive rating, field goal percentage, free-throw percentage, 2-pointers made, and turnovers not committed. 

Not only did Towns add a sizable shooting threat that New York hadn’t seen since Kristaps Porzingis, he took the heavy offensive burden off Jalen Brunson’s shoulders, potentially elevating him to First Team All-NBA status. Josh Hart continued his selfless play with several career-high marks across the board, leading to a franchise record for triple-doubles, and leading the league in minutes per game. In fact, the Knicks starting lineup played the most minutes together of any lineup, relying on newcomer Mikal Bridges in a 5-man combination that coasted the Knicks to 51 wins.

The Knicks feel like they should have been in the Eastern Conference Finals last year so anything less than that goal, after such drastic turnover in the offseason, would feel like a step backward and the 3-point happy Pistons will be set on attacking the Knicks’ susceptible D in the opening round.   

(B+) Fans are Happy

Indiana Pacers

The Pacers had another traditionally strong regular season, sitting comfortably above the Play-in Tournament with an outright Eastern Conference playoff berth. A full year with Pascal Siakam helped the coaching staff balance the team’s offense and defense, something the team desperately needed to accomplish in 2025. The Pacers were top-ten in steals and blocks and 3-point defense along with their 2-point and overall field goal efficiency.

Myles Turner was perhaps the greatest overperformer, evolving from a talented scoring big to a real 3-point assassin, while learning to play with another defensive stalwart in Siakam. Tyrese Haliburton, while he didn’t take the step towards superstardom that most fans expected, still turned in another strong offensive season with efficient shooting and playmaking. Secondary and tertiary scoring was abundant with players like Bennedict Mathurin, Obi Toppin, and Jarace Walker providing sparks.

The Pacers, as fortunate as they were last year, drew the same Bucks team with the same hand tied behind its back, however Indy will need to prove they still have the same flare that made them a tough beat in last year’s tournament.

Milwaukee Bucks

The Bucks did not have their usual fun season in 2025 dealing with injuries, suspension, and cap casualty. They lost Damian Lillard for several points including deep vein thrombosis, lost Bobby Portis for 25 games due to accidental steroid intake, and ended Khris Middleton’s twelve-year tenure on the team trading him to Washington for a rebounding lift in Kyle Kuzma. However Giannis Antetokounmpo and the arsenal of wings carried them on both ends, together shooting a league-best mark from 3-point range and holding teams to a bottom-5 field goal percentage.

Speaking of Giannis, this was probably the most aggressive he’s ever been on the offensive end, steadfast on going to the hole and getting his teammates to heat up. A threesome of A.J. Green, Gary Trent Jr., and Taurean Prince were all lights out from 3-point range, each drilling at least 1.5 3’s per game on over 41% outside shooting. And late-season contributors Kevin Porter Jr. and Ryan Rollins ignited the team’s offense when it was time to clinch a playoff spot.

The Bucks are far from happy facing their arch nemesis Pacers without Damian Lillard healthy for the start of the series, for the second straight season, though the Deer are far more lethal from deep than last time.

(B) The Right Direction

Orlando Magic

The Magic did not have the same…magic…as they did last season though that’s largely attributed to injury. Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner missed a combined 58 games, and things derailed quickly with Jalen Suggs out 47 games. One thing Orlando could bank on was its elite defense; they were first in blocks, first in limiting threes, first is preventing field goal attempts, and second forcing turnovers.

Their new big money signing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and rising star Goga Bitadze made the kinds of stops and plays the Magic weren’t ordinarily used to. It was nice to see sophomore Anthony Black receive the minutes yielded by Suggs, though I must say Suggs’ physicality did more harm than good. Paolo and Franz were having breakout offensive seasons although they needed to take a ton of shots to do so, as it was all the offense the Magic could muster without its top point guard.

I can see the Magic following the Pacers’ model and trying to balance out their gameplan for the better, but presently their biggest challenge is the Boston Celtics, a team that can outscore Orlando in its sleep.

Washington Wizards

The Wizards are the first team on this grading list to not make the playoffs, nor the Play-in Tournament for that matter; in fact these Wizards finished dead last with an 18-64 record, however they meet the criteria since they’re moving in the right direction. Now this is the first time in a LONG time the Wizards are going forward and that’s two-fold, in that they’ve gotten rid of Bradley Beal and drafted better…much better. Their defense was pretty helpless however their youth showed up on the other end, ranking top-10 in 3-point attempts and middle-of-the-road in makes.

Jordan Poole had a far more respected season in Year 2 upping his downtown efficiency and hitting clutch shots, and once the Wiz decided to kick out the unserious Kyle Kuzma, several of their young players grew into their shell. Justin Champagnie and Corey Kispert each blossomed with the same tool kits that made them collegiate stars, and a trio of first round picks shined bright as cornerstone players. Alex Sarr looked very fluid in halfcourt play (though he definitely took too many of those three-point attempts), Bub Carrington became very comfortable finding his shot attempts, and Kyshawn George fired away as a confident run-and-gun wing.

The Wizards won’t make any real noise until they find true defensive players, however their prospects on offense are promising and they align with the way the league is trending, built on size and three’s and a do-it-all center.

Part 2 coming soon…

The Gold Standard

Posted April 16, 2025

By Alec Marcus

Last Monday, the Denver Nuggets fired head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth.

The decision was made by team president Josh Kroenke and made with just three games left in the regular season. It is the latest a head coach has been fired since 1981, when Hubie Brown was also fired after 79 season games.

As far as firings go, and “hot seats”, these moves were ice cold especially considering the Nuggets were less than two weeks out from playoffs. Perhaps the Memphis Grizzlies put that option on the table when they sent head coach Taylor Jenkins packing a few weeks prior, with just nine games left to go in his team’s season.

It’s being reported that the Nuggets had their mind made up about Malone for months and only recently came to terms with sending Booth out along with him, setting the table for an organizational reset. It was no secret in executive circles that Malone and Booth did not see eye-to-eye during their time together, with Booth wanting his young draft picks to receive more minutes and Malone wanting more veterans to fill out his rotation.

On this matter, it’s hard for me to not side with coach Malone. The Nuggets are strongly committed to chasing the NBA title, a second after their triumph against the Miami Heat in 2023, and Malone didn’t have enough adequate pieces to make that happen. After 36-year-olds Russell Westbrook and DeAndre Jordan on the depth chart, Malone really only had players on rookie contracts at his disposal, most in their second or third season.

Booth’s counter to that argument would be that 80% of his funds to work with were tied up in just four players: Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, and Michael Porter Jr.. Who outside of the Nuggets front office, locker room, fan base, or the city of Denver for that matter would argue that those four weren’t essential to the championship core?

And herein lies the issue, that slowly in the midst of another brilliant MVP-caliber season from The Joker, that core was beginning to lose its ground. Quietly, the Nuggets fell to a bottom-10 defensive unit, a far cry from their 8th-ranked defense in 2024 and middle-of-the-pack defense in their illustrious 2023 championship season. It could be argued that Aaron Gordon missing 30 games due to leg injuries hurt their frontcourt strength and perhaps the team was missing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in the starting lineup more than they originally thought.

I would understand if Booth had wanted to retain players like the aforementioned “KCP”, Bruce Brown, and Jeff Green but was priced out by the ownership’s desire to lock up its quickly successful frontcourt. It would come at a price as we now know on the defensive end in years to come. The Nuggets ended up playing out 2023-24 with Caldwell-Pope and then inked Gordon to a four-year, $113 million extension once the former signed a big money deal with the Orlando Magic this summer.

Of the four members of the current championship core, Gordon was the only one acquired by Calvin Booth, oddly enough from the Magic. He was obviously a big supporter of Gordon and he was right to be, as Gordon appeared to be the sizable piece literally and figuratively to get the Nuggets over the hump. As members of the title team started to dissipate, it was evident Gordon would need to be the defensive anchor of the team.

Without that anchor the Nuggets played small in the second half starting Westbrook beside a backcourt of Murray and Christian Braun, leaving the hard-leaning offensive forward Michael Porter Jr. to protect Nikola Jokic’s back side, on top of the rest of The Joker’s responsibilities. Jokic was magical after the All-Star Break though was exhausting himself on both ends of the floor, particularly after Murray’s nine-game absence with his ownleg injury. Even with an MVP player, the Nuggets were simply outmatched, losing 13 of 24 including 4 straight before the final week.

That’s when Kroenke and Co. had enough and dismissed both Booth and coach Michael Malone; that four-game skid was the ammunition they had been waiting for. There was no guarantee that new coach David Adelman, another son of an NBA coach, would remain in charge following the season. The Nuggets simply didn’t believe Malone could bring them their second championship and decided to shake things up, aiming to loosen the team from the pressure imposed onto them and seemingly create a scapegoat for their losing ways.

That…is nonsensical.

Even if Michael Malone was no longer able to get in the ears of players, the younger ones who he claimed didn’t watch film or listen to guidance, expecting the players to maintain order with an interim coach during the most crucial part of the year is not wise. There cannot and will not be a eureka moment that will solve all of the team’s problems in a couple of weeks, even if this David Adelman is the biggest Drill Sergeant the league has ever seen.

We’ve seen instances where interim coaches have great success such as Tyronn Lue and Pat Riley, but they were afforded much more time to get in the ears of players and institute new systems and earn the trust of the locker room. By removing Malone from the equation at the most critical juncture is putting the Nuggets at a monumental disadvantage.

This is the playoffs, where you need coaching practically at every dead ball. The atmosphere is intense, pressure mounts. Pressure doesn’t just go away because the coach is fired and all bets are off. The Nuggets fans expect a competitive run since they’ve won it all just two years ago and they have the best player on the planet.

As if the situation wasn’t dire enough, Michael Malone is only NBA head coach Jokic, Murray, and Porter Jr. have ever known! He is also the winningest coach in the small market franchise’s history and it feels like a real gut punch to the Nuggets fan base.

In fact, he’s the only championship coach the Nuggets have ever known! And he’s not even getting the opportunity to prove himself right, now that the roster is finally healthy.

When those 1981 Hawks fired coach Hubie Brown before the final week, it was probably much less of a news story because the team was 31-48. They were clearly heading in another direction. Conversely the Nuggets were 47-32 at the time of Malone’s firing and are entering the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season.

I know the Malone-less, and Booth-less, Nuggets won each of their last 3 games including their 50th win on the season, in doing so securing the 4th seed and avoiding the Play-in Tournament. However, they have another thing coming in these playoffs when rookie coach Adelman will need to shorten the rotation and trust players he hasn’t built a trusting relationship with.

If you’re looking for any sense of reason behind this decision, it’s that the Kroenke family has a high mark for measuring success as well as a championship pedigree. Team owner Stan Kroenke has won three sports championships in this decade alone between his Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Rams, and Colorado Avalanche.

Once his son Josh felt the Nuggets were no longer considered a contender, he acting as team president let go of Malone and Booth. And as foolish as it may sound, the family deserves some patience for their choices.

Clearly they did not want to hear any excuses about injuries or cap space. They get the best players and they expect winning to follow.

They’ve instituted their gold standard and they won’t accept anything less.

Battle Stations

Posted March 14, 2025

By Alec Marcus

With a little over a month to go in the 2025 regular season, I continue to be astonished by these Cleveland Cavaliers.

Honestly I thought about writing this piece a while back, when they executed a 15-game win streak early and were on a historic pace for regular season victories. But now that they’ve engineered a *second* 15-game win streak, I know I can’t wait any longer.

Today, the LeBron James-less Cleveland Cavaliers are in 1st place with a 55-10 record, on pace for an unthinkable 69 wins. How unthinkable? They are mostly sporting the same starting lineup as last year when they only won 48 games and suffered 34 losses. They had to claw to trounce the “mighty” Orlando Magic in seven games to win their first playoff series since the 2018 Conference Finals.

The Cavs had done a wonderful job rebuilding post-LeBron…the second time around…with a shot-swatting double-big frontcourt and a dazzling playmaking point guard. They were able to acquire their new leading man via trade and were primed to start the climb up the Eastern Conference.

But what the 2023 Knicks and 2024 Magic learned was that the makeup of the new Cavaliers wasn’t all that formidable. Their guards were small, their bigs were one-dimensional, their bench lacked substance, and there was only one true threat to minimize. They could be perceived as the best of the second-tier teams in the East.

The Cavaliers did advance to the Semi-Final round thanks to a furious second half in Game 7, and they went on to steal one from the eventual champs on their home court. Those efforts and the slow yet steady progress the team had been making was enough for the front office to hand out multi-year extensions to three of their “Big 4” this past summer. However those players would be moving forward without their head coach, J.B. Bickerstaff who was canned last May following their series loss to Boston.

He would be replaced by Kenny Atkinson, who last coached the Nets in 2020 and built a reputation for playing with pace and using a deep bench. His philosophy appeared to align with that of the front office, who was deeply invested in the team’s quick offensive guards and had built a familiar bench unit year-to-year.

I can’t imagine the front office, the new coach Atkinson, nor the players knew how fast things would turn around, and how drastically. The best way to summarize their catapulting to the very top of the East (and the NBA as far as records go) is that the Cavaliers are operating less like a band of brothers and more like a carefully-coordinated platoon.

The main issue I think we all shared with the Cavaliers “Big 4” was that they were log jamming themselves offensively. Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell play both parts shot creator and playmaker, and neither had a distinguishable strength from the other, though they did share a weakness in that they were targeted defensively. Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen did not possess repertoires for scoring beyond lobs and post-ups, and it seemed they were jockeying to be the singular frontcourt star.

This season, Atkinson has his court pairings playing symbiotically to perfection.

Mitchell is yielding to Garland in terms of playmaking, allowing the younger guard to facilitate more freely and hunt his own shots on the floor. It has enabled a career-best shooting season for Garland (47.7% from the field, 41.1% from beyond the arc), and he’s been far less antsy with the ball (career-low 2.4 turnovers per game). On the flip side Mitchell is taking a higher percentage of his shots from 3-point range, benefitting greatly from the looks and cooking from Garland (38.4% 3PT as opposed to 36.8% the year prior), and conserving his energy to take over and close games just as he did a few weeks back in Boston.

Allen is yielding entirely to Mobley, allowing his young court-mate to elevate into the star he was promised to be. Mobley is playing with a renewed sense of confidence shooting career-highs 12.6 field goal attempts and a staggering 2.9 3-point attempts per game (just 1.2 long-balls on-average last season) to score a career-best 18.6 points per contest. It’s also easy to overlook Mobley’s increasing role as a playmaker, something the skilled Allen has given up so Mobley can become the dual-threat required for superstar status.

“JA”, averaging his lowest points per game since 2021, has sacrificed the most shares yet it has done wonders for him and the Cavaliers. He is anchoring one of the top defenses in the NBA and shooting a career-best (and always applauded) 70.0% mark from the field. A player like Allen, entering his prime as a former All-Star and perennial Defensive Player of the Year contender, willingly giving up his mainstream appeal is something rarely seen from players of his caliber nowadays, particularly bigs.

But the true secret to the Cavs’, and Atkinsons’, success has been one of the top bench units amongst playoff teams, in which players have defined roles and don’t have to worry about inconsistent minutes.

The standout has been Ty Jerome, an NCAA Champion with the University of Virginia who has had anything but a defined role to start his pro career. Playing on his fourth team in six seasons, Jerome has finally eclipsed the 50-game mark and is playing fantastic basketball averaging 11.9 points, 3.3 assists, and 1.2 steals in just 19.6 minutes per game while casually shooting 50-40-90 (50.4% field goal, 43.8% 3-point on 3.5 attempts, 90.2% free-throw). Part of the brilliance of Atkinson is recognizing the leadership and winning ways of Jerome, and instead of punishing him for his limitations is empowering him to be the floor general of his own unit.

That unit has those familiar faces that Cleveland prides themselves on and encourages the same back such as sharpshooter Sam Merrill taking 86% of his attempts behind the 3-point line, Dean Wade comfortably launching over 80% of his attempts from deep (oftentimes in the starting lineup), Craig Porter Jr. as a small-time spark plug, and as always Tristan Thompson as an on-demand glass cleaner.

Caris LeVert and Georges Niang had complemented Jerome wonderfully and led a scary deep arsenal of highly-efficient three-point shooters. However the Generals of this new brigade recognized the opportunity to upgrade their assets at the Trade Deadline, deciding to flip the sweet-shooting LeVert and Niang for the surging all-around scorer De’Andre Hunter from the Atlanta camp. Hunter was very much in the running for the Sixth Man of the Year award in the first half, though he’ll serve much better as an elite weapon in the back pocket of an elite lineup.

And that notion only came about following Max Strus’ ankle sprain, which cost him six weeks of games. Strus probably shouldn’t worry about losing his starting spot because his archetype as a volume shooter suits his teammates well. While Hunter is more polished as a scorer and shoots well from deep, Strus is a better starter because he always generates spacing and a barrage of 3’s with a propensity to get hot.

This all stems from the beauty of Kenny Atkinson building his rotations and a front office headed by Koby Altman understanding how to construct a team, a real team where everyone has a role to play to perfection. They recognize that starters don’t have to be burned into the ground, that bench units can win games and are essential powering through 82 games, and there really is a strength in numbers.

The 2025 Cavaliers are restoring my faith in coaching, front offices, and role players at a time when so many coaches are made scapegoats, front offices don’t know basic principles, and role players can never shake their desire to be starters. Perhaps I’m most fortunate the organization realized that Isaac Okoro shouldn’t start NBA games nor play 20 minutes in them.

This 55-10 Cavs team doesn’t have a 25-point per game scorer but it does run 12 players deep regularly. The new symbiotic starting lineup and equally strong reserve unit are the #1 scoring (122.7 PPG) and #1 3-point shooting team (39.0%), the 2nd-most efficient offense (49.4% team shooting), and top-rated overall offense in the Association. They are also top-3 in not committing turnovers, top-10 in team assists, and make the 2nd-most 3-pointers per game of any team (16.1) while playing a top-6 pace.

As spectacular as the Garland-Mitchell-Jerome trio is, you don’t win 55 of 65 just by generating offense…the Cavs defense is also rated top-5, is 4th in the league in defensive rebounding, 3rd in the league protecting the rim, and does a good job limiting fouls. The only rooms for improvement are blocking shots (the double-big lineup ranks in the bottom-5), and preventing offensive rebounds (where the team sits in the lower-half).

The NBA was already dominated by its MVP mega-powers, though the modern NBA is entirely unapologetic about its favoritism towards major markets and superstar allegiances. And yet, here’s a team in “cursed” Cleveland, Ohio with a coach nobody took seriously absolutely steamrolling the entire league, with four playmakers, three-pointers, two ferocious rim protectors, and one certified bucket. They drafted and traded for all their best assets and only entered the open market to sign grade-A complementary pieces.

Too often NBA teams think they’re one star away from being a contender or don’t have enough shooting to compete in the playoffs, when the reality is coaching matters and roles need to be relished and sacrifices must be made and it takes a village, or in this sense, an army.

Cleveland has Sergeants all specialized in a particular trade, Privates all playing with unparalleled confidence, and a Commander committed to balance on both fronts. Winners of their last 15 games, their last loss being February 4th, they are marching toward the 70-win mark that would position them as one of the greatest teams of all time. They are the third-likeliest team to win the NBA title at +525.

The Cavaliers have embraced their battle stations. Are they ready for war?

Dancing with the Devil

Posted March 7, 2025

By Alec Marcus

What an absolute train-wreck the Dallas Mavericks are right now.

A little over a month ago, the reigning Western Conference Champions were patiently waiting for their superstar to return from injury and primed to ascend back up the ladder of title contention. But today, the Mavericks sit just one game over .500 in 10th place and will soon miss out on the Play-in Tournament.

I think we’re all tired talking about the Luka Doncic trade. Nico Harrison and Company clearly wanted to put those glory days in the past and we won’t stop them, especially after Luka and LeBron just fired off an 8-game win streak together that catapulted the Lakers into 2nd place.

But if we backtrack to this time last month, there was much more optimism surrounding the Mavericks’ camp. They still had a superstar on the perimeter and were pairing him with another superstar in the paint, they had the makeup of an elite frontcourt defense with a trio of towering centers, and they had a rotation comprised of several scoring options.

And then the smoke cleared.

Anthony Davis, Luka’s trade counterpart, suffered an adductor strain (thigh injury) in his Mavs debut and hasn’t stepped back onto the court since. With no other high-octane shot creators on the roster, a substantial burden fell onto Kyrie Irving’s shoulders, and that my friends is what we call a “recipe for disaster”. 

Prior to the Doncic trade, Kyrie was averaging 24.3 points per game on stellar 48% shooting and 41.5% from 3-point range. Afterwards, his shooting efficiency dipped to 45% and he was sporting just a 35% clip from beyond the arc, with only 2 more points on his scoring average to show for it.

Yes, those dropoffs are expected when you lose your tag-team partner. However, what Harrison and Company failed to take into account (and this is becoming a very lengthy list mind you) is that Kyrie Irving as a top option was always doomed to fail.

They’ll say that Kyrie operating all by himself wasn’t the idea even though they seriously fugged the math when trading for Anthony Davis.

I will give AD his flowers; he played a career-high 76 games in the 2023-24 season and returned to his prime All-NBA/Defensive form. But no superstar outside Kawhi Leonard has had a more challenging time staying on the floor.

Since Davis’ peak 2019-20 season when he won the NBA title, he has suited up for just 36, 40, 56, and now 43 games sans that 2024 “breakout”. Nearly all of his ailments have been to his lower-half whether it be his knees, ankle, foot, or currently his adductor.

Nobody outside of that Mavericks front office believed a future with Luka was bleaker than a future with a superstar that has an ambulance driver in his Contact favorites. 

It was inevitable that at some point Kyrie would have to carry the load by himself, and what a truly gut-wrenching and puzzling statement that is.

Irving hasn’t reached the 70-game mark since his last year in Cleveland, where he was entrenched as the second option during their time at the top. He played 60 and 67 game seasons during his two years in Boston, one of which he missed the entire postseason due to injury. And he played…oh it’s worse than I thought…20, 54, and 29 games in his “full” seasons in Brooklyn.

On Dallas he finished out a 60 game season in his first year, then 58 in his second year, and just when it seemed like he made headway, Irving’s third season came to a screeching halt when he tore his ACL this past Monday. He’ll finish with 50 games played, meaning that’s six consecutive years he’s played less than 61 games.

As much as Mavericks’ management would like to believe this tear was a freak incident and attribute it to more bad luck, it’s the furthest thing from it.

Kyrie Irving…*taps microphone so everyone in the crowd can hear*…indisputably cannot be the number one option on a team…ever. It has nothing to do with his skill, it has everything to do with his…ailments.

These shortened campaigns from Irving have not always been because of injury.

There was the season he was forced to miss several home games due to the New York City vaccine mandate at indoor workplaces. There was the season he missed a handful of weeks because he refused to denounce his antisemitic beliefs, leading to a team-imposed suspension.

But, most of them are due to injury…There was the season he underwent shoulder surgery right after the All-Star Break mainly because his Nets had fallen apart without Kevin Durant to save them. There was the season I mentioned earlier in which he had two procedures on his knee in March, forcing him to miss his first Celtics playoffs. And if you don’t remember, he was inactive most of December 2023 and two weeks in late January 2024.

The point is you have to be a complete degenerate (and that’s what Nico Harrison has become) to think a Kyrie Irving-Anthony Davis pairing, where Irving is the focal point, would last. I know the Mavericks were doing everything to win in this 2-3 year window winding out their primes, but the duo made it just one game together so far…one (1).

Kyrie Irving is radically unreliable, even beyond this most recent renaissance. We’ve seen it time and time again, this guy can’t stay healthy or stay out of trouble for consecutive seasons.

That ACL tear, while it wasn’t gruesome, was a direct result of not having a co-star beside him. Harrison and Co. did the math and even with Davis’ injury risk, they still liked Klay Thompson and P.J Washington as ball-handling shot creators and had supreme confidence in their supporting cast. Both of those elements were already proven false.

Nico Harrison and the Dallas Mavericks were dancing with the devil and they’re about to realize its severe consequences. In this case, the devil was the belief that a marriage with Kyrie Irving as its top star without Luka Doncic would be profitable, when it was always a colossal mistake.

Kyrie is not durable, not capable of being a leader, and has never been able to lift up a franchise all by himself. I’m having a bit of fun with the “devil” monicker because Irving was a Duke Blue Devil, but even that lasted just *nine* games because of, you guessed it, an injury.

When you’re ready to dance, go dancing with the stars instead, those dependable and unfathomable megastars instead.

That’s what the Lakers always do.

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