Victor Wembanyama and Scott Henderson faced off in a showcase of two top NBA Draft prospects. They were every bit as good as advertised. ESPN was likely hoping for something dramatic when they arranged to televise an exhibition game between the G League Ignite and the French team Metropolitans 92 — featuring a matchup between Scoot
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NBA preseason stats are notoriously unreliable especially if there is only a game or two to draw from. But there are still important things to watch for. Just a handful of teams began their preseason schedules over the weekend and only the Golden State Warriors and Washington Wizards have actually played multiple games. But even
Over the past few years, no one has taken charges as frequently as Kyle Lowry. But as he heads toward retirement his charge record could eventually be in jeopardy. Amid all the hoopla of LeBron James moving up the career scoring list last season, another historic milestone was reached. On Dec. 19, 2021, Kyle Lowry
With a potentially loaded NBA Draft class looming, which teams are most likely to sacrifice the 2022-23 season for a brighter future? Gregg Popovich has a legacy of incredibly blunt comments and he was completely on brand during Spurs media day, saying: “Nobody here should go to Vegas with the thought of betting on us
Russell Westbrook seemed to indicate he’s willing to come off the Lakers’ bench this season. Could a 6th Man of the Year campaign be coming? In an interview with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski publish last evening, Russell Westbrook seemed to express an openness to come off the bench for the Los Angeles Lakers this season. Maybe that’s as
The back-cut is among the simplest but most spectacular plays in basketball. Gary Payton II and Bruce Brown are two of the best practitioners of this art form. There is something aesthetically captivating about the back-cut and the way it unfolds. Time slows for a second. From the bleachers or our couches, we can see
Ayo Dosunmu is one of a handful of second-year players who appears ready to build on a strong rookie season, heading for a big second year. Last year’s NBA rookie class was a revelation, with a three-way race for Rookie of the Year that went right down to the wire and a deep crop of
Becky Hammon led the Las Vegas Aces to a WNBA championship with largely the same roster as the year before. What can NBA teams learn from their evolution? On Sunday, the Las Vegas Aces won their first championship in franchise history, defeating the Connecticut Sun in four games. It was a fitting coronation for the
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. As Summer League winds down and the NBA offseason questions funnel to Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and, maybe, Donovan Mitchell, it’s time to step back and assess. As rosters
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The shadow of a Kevin Durant trade still looms over the NBA offseason and Adrian Wojnarowski added an extra dose of chaos last night with a report that the
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Several NBA rookies have already debuted in the smaller Summer Leagues run in Sacramento and Utah. But with the Las Vegas Summer League kicking off last night, we’re about
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The offseason got off to an unofficial start last night with news that the Houston Rockets had agreed to trade Christian Wood to the Dallas Mavericks for Boban Marjanovic,
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Player comparisons are an inevitable part of the NBA Draft conversation, a handy shorthand for communicating a large amount of information about a player’s physical tools, skills, possible NBA
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Trade rumors are heating up and there are a slew of big names that could be on the market, along with a handful of teams with high first-round picks
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Golden State Warriors struggled again in Game 3 and find themselves in an NBA Finals hole that may be even deeper than it looks. They’ve only been outscored
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The NBA Finals MVP conversation held an unusually large share of the conversation before this series started, largely because of Steph Curry. The future Hall-of-Famer has helped lead the
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Much has been made of the way the Warriors and Celtics NBA Finals matchup represents a high-water mark for a more traditional mode of team-building. For the past decade
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. A lot has been made, at least in some corners of social media, of the challenging paths the Warriors and Celtics have taken to the NBA Finals, at least
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning.’ The Golden State Warriors have officially won the West and the Boston Celtics have an opportunity to finish the Miami Heat tonight and take the East. With the NBA
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Eastern Conference Finals has rolled out with some bizarre statistical twists. Going into Game 4, the Miami Heat held a 2-1 lead despite outscoring the Celtics in just
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. From all indications, the first two picks in the NBA Draft are already locked in. It sounds like the Orlando Magic have already decided on Jabari Smith and the
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. This morning, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke news that Nikola Jokic had been selected as the NBA MVP, with an official announcement to come later this week. It was Jokic’s
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning.’ The Boston Celtics evened their series against the Miami Heat with a big Game 2 win, while the Golden State Warriors will be looking to keep the pressure on
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. You may have been smart enough to pick the Celtics and Mavericks winning their respective Game 7s on Sunday, eliminating the two NBA Finalists from last year. But chances
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. At first glance, it would be hard to place blame on Giannis Antetokounmpo for any of the Bucks’ offensive struggles in their 2-2 split with the Boston Celtics. He’s
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The 2022 NBA Draft Lottery will be held tonight, with a lot of interesting scenarios in play. The Houston Rockets, Detroit Pistons and Orlando Magic are tied for the
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning.’ The Miami Heat have already punched their ticket to the next round and the Warriors and Bucks could do so tonight. With the Conference Finals just days away, I
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Every team has the same goal on offense — score as many points as possible. But every team goes about that in a different way, using different patterns of
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning.’ The playoffs resume tonight after a rate night off. With every second-round series looking tight, I tapped in some of the best minds from The Step Back and FanSided’s NBA
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Clutch statistics, both for teams and players, are notoriously unreliable as predictors of future outcomes. They come with the requisite noise of small sample size, the context and style
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Even if Joel Embiid was fully healthy, the Philadelphia 76ers likely would have been underdogs against the Miami Heat. The Heat had the best record in the Eastern Conference,
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Utah Jazz are in trouble. They’ve split the first two games of their series with the Dallas Mavericks but Luka Doncic didn’t play for the Mavs in either
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Every NBA playoff series has now had a Game 1 and things mostly went according to script — five of the eight were decided by double-digits and we only
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Of all the shocking trends we’ve seen so far in the first round of the playoffs (and there have been more than a few) the New Orleans Pelicans splitting
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning.’ The second round of the playoffs will kick off this weekend, with the Timberwolves and Grizzlies as the lone first-round series still in progress. To break down some of
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Last week on The Whiteboard, I began the annual exercise of examining the offensive style of each team using the same NBA offensive style charts I’ve been building for
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Last week on The Whiteboard, I began the annual exercise of examining the offensive style of each team using the same NBA offensive style charts I’ve been building for
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning.’ The first round of the NBA Playoffs are moving quickly with several teams already facing elimination as soon as this weekend. To break down some of the biggest questions
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. In yesterday’s installment of The Whiteboard, I began the annual exercise of examining the offensive style of each team using the same NBA offensive style charts I’ve been building
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Hawks used a balanced effort to knock off the Hornets last night, with six different players scoring in double-figures and five players knocking down multiple 3-pointers. They’ll face
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning.’ The NBA Play-In Tournament wraps tonight, setting the final two playoff spots, with the postseason proper beginning Saturday and Sunday. To break down some of the biggest questions in
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The NBA Play-In Tournament kicked off last night with the Nets and Timberwolves advancing and seizing the No. 7 seed in each conference. Tonight, the Atlanta Hawks will take
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The NBA Play-In Tournament kicks off tonight with the Brooklyn Nets facing the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Los Angeles Clippers taking on the Minnesota Timberwolves. In each case, the
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The NBA Play-In Tournament begins tomorrow and the potential for chaos is everywhere. To break down some of the biggest questions in the NBA this week, I tapped in
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The 50-40-90 season is one of the rarest achievements in the NBA record books. It requires a player to shoot at least 50 percent from the field, 40 percent
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning.’ There are just nine days left in the NBA season and plenty of things still need to work themselves out. To break down some of the biggest questions in
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. As the end of the NBA season approaches playoff and award races are narrowing. In the case of MVP, that latest straw poll at ESPN indicates that we’re likely
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Rookie of the Year race has tightened and it seems likely that Evan Mobley, Cade Cunningham and Scottie Barnes will finish 1-2-3 in some order. While there may
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Eastern Conference playoff picture has come into focus. The Knicks and Wizards are all but eliminated leaving us with 10 teams locked in for the playoffs and play-in
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning.’ Award races are heating up, statistical achievements are falling left and right and the playoff picture is coming into focus. To break down some of the biggest questions in
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The NCAA Tournament shouldn’t factor into evaluations of draft prospects more than what each player has done across the rest of their season. But we all know the bright
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. There is a perception that the golden age of NBA big men was a distant era. Maybe the 1960s, when Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell were doing battle. Maybe
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Boston Celtics are one of the hottest teams in the NBA, 12-3 over their last 15 games and outscoring opponents by an average of 12.7 points per 100
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. On the surface, the most obvious link between the 60-point games for Karl-Anthony Towns and Kyrie Irving this week was their 3-point shooting — 7-of-11 for Towns, 8-of-12 for
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The NCAA Tournament starts this week shining the spotlight on, among other things, some of the best draft prospects in this year’s class. The consensus seems to be that
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. A seven-point win over the Los Angeles Lakers has Gregg Popovich is on the verge of making history. He is currently tied with Don Nelson with 1,335 career wins,
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Assists can be one of the noisest measures of statistical performance because they require to players to make it work. The creator who makes the pass is the one
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. As the playoffs approach, so do forks in the road and potential breaking points for several teams up and down the standings. To break down some of the biggest
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. There are a lot of different ways to win a game and, all things considered, most teams would probably prefer a blowout victory to grinding one out in the
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. After the 76ers’ acquisition of James Harden, the biggest question was how his ball-dominant style would mesh with Joel Embiid. Of slightly less visceral importance, was how Harden would
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Los Angeles Lakers have been slowly rolling towards chaos since fairly early in the season but the intensity has definitely picked up. Per 538, their odds of making
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. On Monday, Ja Morant put up his best performance of what had already been a remarkable season. He scored 52 points in a 13-point win over the San Antonio
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Coming out of the All-Star Break all eyes are on movement — fringe playoffs team trying to secure spots, fringe contenders trying to move up. To break down some
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. This week on The Long Two, Ben Ladner looked at the difficult decision the Blazers are facing at the trade deadline — whether or not to trade Damian Lillard.
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning.The 50-piece Giannis Antetokounmpo hung on the Indiana Pacers last night was noteworthy for more than a few reasons. It was the third 50-point game of his career and, on
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Most of the NBA is preparing to take a break for the All-Star festivities but everything else is popping off — awards races, budding rivalries, and more. To break
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. If you had spent much time reading scouting reports before the 2021 NBA Draft then you probably recognized the Golden State Warriors taking Jonathan Kuminga with the No. 7
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Ben Simmons for James Harden swap has been completed and the ultimate perception of the trade will be based on how each team performs over the next 18
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. NBA All-Star Weekend is just days away and will provide a welcome break for some teams looking to get healthy or integrate new pieces. For others, it may be
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Four teams got a jumpstart on the NBA Trade Deadline with a pair of massive Tuesday trades. The Sacramento Kings sent Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield and Tristan Thompson to
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. There is no hotter team in the NBA right now than the Memphis Grizzlies, who knocked off the Golden State Warriors Tuesday night to stretch their league-best win streak
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. We’re just four days away from the NBA Trade Deadline and we’ve already seen some dominoes fall with the Cleveland Cavaliers picking up Caris LeVert from the Pacers for
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. I was raised on the beautiful two-man synergies of John Stockton and Karl Malone, Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp, and Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire. There’s something magical about
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. NBA All-Star starters were revealed last night and the inclusion of Andrew Wiggins was really the only surprise. But as each roster gets filled out with reserves (announced Feb.
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Phoenix Suns have been winning a lot lately — their 10-point win over the Brooklyn Nets Tuesday night brought their current win streak to 11 games, the longest
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The decline of the post-up is well understood, although the degree to which it has led to adaptation rather than extinction doesn’t get enough attention. The post-up has, generally,
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. To really succeed a team needs to have multiple lineups it can rely on and depth has perhaps never been more important than this season, with the Omicron variant
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The NBA All-Starters will be announced tonight, with reserves to follow on Feb. 3. There are sure to be some surprises as the rosters are filled out but one
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Cavaliers kept rolling Monday night with a 95-93 win over the New York Knicks. It was a typical Cavs’ win — suffocating defense paired with well-rounded offense and
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Another night. Another win for the Golden State Warriors. Another rough shooting night for Steph Curry. He finished 18 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists in a 38-point blowout
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. P.J. Tucker’s NBA niche has always been about 3-and-D but his defensive impact and versatility have long been the more reliable half of that equation. For his career, he’s
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Ja Morant went off for 25 points in Monday’s big win over the Chicago Bulls and, in what has become a season-long trend, did most of his damage in
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Lakers are working through myriad problems right now but Russell Westbrook is the most obvious by far. In Wednesday night’s loss to the Sacramento Kings, he shot 2-of-14
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. It’s been a brutal season for the Boston Celtics, hammered again by injuries and COVID-related absences, struggling to keep themselves in the playoff picture and dealing with some apparent
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Lakers played on Sunday night, though I was not among those who tuned in. I was watching a movie instead. It was not
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. If you were to delineate contenders by statistical resumes alone, ignoring the noise of injuries and COVID-related absences, you’d really find just three teams this season, all in the
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Under Steve Kerr, the Golden State Warriors have continually broken offensive norms and shattered statistical benchmarks. The 3-point shooting gets the most attention but the imprints of their offensive
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. On Wednesday night, Stephen Curry put up his second-straight stinker, shooting 5-of-24 from the field and 1-of-9 from beyond the 3-point arc in a 17-point loss to the Dallas
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Offenses have, in general, had a tough time this season and it’s about more than the endless shuffling of lineups as teams navigate a surge in COVID cases and
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Cleveland Cavaliers are in a position almost no one expected them to be in at this point — 18-12, sitting at No. 4 in the Eastern Conference with
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. On Tuesday night, Steph Curry did the expected, making his 2,974th career 3-pointer to pass Ray Allen for the most all-time. Curry hit three more long-distance shots after the
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. On-ball pressure is just one piece of effective defensive play, and it can often be misleading — gambling and overly aggressive defensive at the point of attack can lead
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. It’s been more than a month since we last looked at the rookie class as a whole. Over that stretch, several rookies have continued to impress while Cade Cunningham
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Over the past few seasons, as teams have adopted extreme shot selection patterns and become increasingly intentional about promoting efficiency we’ve seen several historic marks. A team’s offensive efficiency,
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Los Angeles Lakers muddled their way to another loss Thursday night, against the surging Memphis Grizzlies. The final score was 108-95 and the way the Grizzlies rallied while
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. After getting a win against Phoenix last Friday to end the Suns’ 18-game win streak, the Warriors looked like they might have used up some extra energy. They followed
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Since the season began, any NBA trade rumors or fantasies have mostly been built around Ben Simmons and the ongoing fiasco in Philadelphia, or lingering pessimism about the Blazers’
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. If you are the kind of perverse sports fan who enjoys extreme blowouts, Thursday night must have been an absolute delight. The Grizzlies beat the Thunder 152-79 (a 73-point
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. On Tuesday night, the Phoenix Suns stretched their win streak to 17 games but picked up what was clearly their most important win of the season. By knocking off
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Last week, just before a short holiday hiatus, we took a traditional approach to power rankings, focusing on the best teams in the league. Today, we’re going to put
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. We’ve been playing around with power rankings for the past few Mondays on The Whiteboard, ranking things like MVP candidates, team defenses and most improved players. As most teams
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Boston Celtics dropped to 7-8 on Wednesday night after a 110-99 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. Jayson Tatum poured in 34 points but it was the sixth time
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. With Monday night’s 115-111 win over the San Antonio Spurs, the Phoenix Suns pushed their win streak to 13 games. That’s the longest win streak we’ve seen this season,
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Houston Rockets are not good. Like, really, really not good. Their record currently stats at 1-14 and they’ve been outscored by an average of 10.7 points per 100
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. We’re still months away from seeing an NBA MVP crowned for the 2021-22 season but individual campaigns have a way of codifying earlier, building momentum that sets the narrative
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. I’m not sure calling it ‘improbable’ even does justice to the Washington Wizards’ start. After Monday night’s win 105-100 win over the New Orleans Pelicans, they are 10-3 with
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Evan Mobley’s incredibly advanced defense has gotten plenty of attention in the early part of this season, including a detailed breakdown from Ben Ladner in last week’s installment of
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Tom Thibodeau is fed up. Trailing by 16 points against the Milwaukee Bucks Wednesday night, he benched his starters for the entire fourth quarter. After the game, he was
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. To be clear, the Oklahoma City Thunder offense is not good right now. Through nine games they’ve averaged just 98.0 points per 100 possessions, worse than any team but
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. With injuries to Markelle Fultz and a series of roster-clearing trades, Cole Anthony ended up with a lot of offensive responsibility as a rookie. His combined usage and assist
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The 2021-22 NBA season is still very young — most teams have only played about 10 games thus far — but we’re already starting to see separation among the
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Lakers’ bumpy start to the season got a bit bumpier on Thursday afternoon with the news that LeBron James would be out of the lineup with an abdominal
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The first few weeks of the NBA season are always dotted with breakout performers, players showing significant skill growth, or just taking advantage of new roles or opportunities. Over
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Miami Heat have looked absolutely dominant to start the season. Their only loss was an 11-point blip to the Indiana Pacers but their six wins include victories over
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Considering the unresolved messiness of the Ben Simmons situation, the Philadelphia 76ers have to feel very optimistic about their start to the season. They are currently 5-2, with wins
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. If the NBA season ended today, Miles Bridges would win Most Improved Player by an enormous margin. And honestly, you could make an argument that he’d belong in the
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. No. 1 pick Cade Cunningham has yet to take the floor for the Detroit Pistons but this season’s rookie class is already off to a very inspiring start. Six
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. One week into the NBA season and 23 teams have already taken their first L (or three of them in the case of the Thunder and Pelicans). The best
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Miami Heat began this season with legitimate championship aspirations and they got off to a strong start in their season opener, pounding the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks 137-95.
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The 2021-22 NBA season is exactly two days old, 26 teams have already played their first game and we’ve already seen a slew of monster performances. Between Tuesday and
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Even with a sample size of exactly one game, there are meaningful takeaways. Here’s what we learned about the Bucks, Nets, Lakers and Warriors on Opening Night. The Bucks
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The NBA preseason is officially underway and even a sample size of a single game we’re already seeing some rookies showing out against the increased level of competition and
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. In general, I tend to shy away from making preseason predictions about the NBA. I have no reason to think my insight or analysis is any more prescient than
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The NBA preseason officially got underway Sunday with two championship favorites — the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers — facing off. It’s tough to draw too many meaningful
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The WNBA playoffs kicked off last night with a pair of single-elimination games. The Chicago Sky pounding the Dallas Wings and the Phoenix Mercury barely survived without Diana Taurasi
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Ben Simmons (or someone in his camp) delivered another emphatic message to the Philadelphia 76ers yesterday through ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, saying he would never play another game for the
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. J.J. Redick, who announced his retirement Tuesday morning after 15 NBA seasons, will be remembered first and foremost as a shooter. His 41.5 career 3-point percentage is the sixth-best
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. I have to admit, I am fascinated by Basketball-Reference’s Hall-of-Fame probability model. If you’re not familiar with it, the model uses several key stats to measure the likelihood of
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The dwindling offseason was hit one with one more ripple when it was announced that John Wall and the Houston Rockets were working together to find a trade for
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Isaac Okoro is overshadowed by the depth of young talent on the Cavaliers roster, especially after an extremely active offseason for the team. But figuring out how to help
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Every NBA fan has their own formative players, not just the ones they loved or admired but the ones who opened their eyes to what basketball could be. Chris
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. This summer, Damian Lillard has repeatedly stated his commitment to winning with the Portland Trail Blazers but the obvious elephant in the room is the roster around him. The
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Tyrese Maxey burst out of the gate as a rookie, soaking up minutes as the Philadelphia 76ers tried to assemble a full roster around quarantines and COVID protocols early
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. On Wednesday, it was announced that the Memphis Grizzlies have planned jersey retirement ceremonies this season for both Tony Allen and Zach Randolph. These two jersey retirements, and the
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Damian Lillard is committed to the Portland Trail Blazers. He’s been repeating this fact for months, using different words and different degrees of intensity but the core message has
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Giannis is far from the first NBA player to add fluidity to the positional spectrum with a special composite of size and skill. Big men shooting 3-pointers had long
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The frantic rush of free-agent signings from the beginning of this month has given way to a steady progression of major contract extensions. Earlier this week Joel Embiid and
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. I happened to catch my first glimpse of statistical win projections for the 2021-22 season this morning, thanks to Kosta Medvedovsky and his DARKO system. There weren’t a ton
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. For 13 seasons, Russell Westbrook has been an object of endless fascination for NBA fans — his personality, his fire, his athleticism, his style of play, his stats, his
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Winning the NBA Summer League title isn’t the most prestigious honor but the Sacramento Kings, in the midst of a 15-year playoff drought, are probably thrilled to have won
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. This morning ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne broke the news that the Philadelphia 76ers were signing Joel Embiid to a four-year, $196 million supermax extension. Among the reported details — the
This Lakers roster is loaded with former All-Stars. When would this group have been at its hypothetical best and what does it mean for their championship hopes this year? In terms of historic accolades, the current Los Angeles Lakers roster is loaded. With the offseason additions of Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard and Russell Westbrook, they
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Los Angeles Clippers made the biggest move of their offseason on Sunday, sending Patrick Beverley, Rajon Rondo and Daniel Oturu to the Memphis Grizzlies for Eric Bledsoe (who
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The list of available NBA free agents has shrunk quickly. Kawhi Leonard is still out there but almost certainly going back to the Clippers. Dennis Schroder has solid numbers
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. NBA Summer League is our first real look at rookies against NBA-level(ish) competition, and there are a lot of ways they can impress. Some rookies generate buzz simply by
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. According to a Sunday story by Derek Bodner of The Athletic, for the 76ers “the goal is less to trade Ben Simmons and more to acquire Damian Lillard.” It’s a
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Los Angeles Lakers started the NBA Draft chaos early, agreeing in principle to a trade for Russell Westbrook before the draft even started. The deal would send Montrezl
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Over the next few weeks, NBA Draft picks will be made and dozens of players will be changing teams. But which potential moves will have the biggest effect on
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The NBA Finals are rapidly approaching but much of the rest of the league is already focused on the offseason and building fantasy blockbuster trades. The Warriors are reportedly
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The NBA Draft Lottery will be held tonight and if you’re anything like me you’ve probably spent a lot of time over the past week staring at the odds.
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Gerald Bourguet has more on the Suns’ Game 1 victory over the Nuggets from a Phoenix perspective but I think it’s worth highlighting again, just how much Denver is
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Mavericks have apparently settled on Jason Kidd as their next head coach. Setting aside the issue of an organization trying to repair a culture of unaccountability and sexual
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Both the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers saw their seasons come to discouraging ends on Thursday night. For the Lakers, an extended run of horrible injury luck
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. In yesterday’s edition of The Whiteboard, I mentioned how defensive matchups were fascinating variables to watch in Tuesday night’s games and it absolutely worked out. The 76ers made a
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Things seem to be going south in a hurry for the Indiana Pacers. On Tuesday, after an 11-7 start, they’ve gone 19-28 teetering on the edge of missing the
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Spurs have had some incredible offensive performances under Gregg Popovich but nothing tops last night’s 146-125 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. At an offensive rating of 142.3 points
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Western Conference play-in games kick off tonight with the Grizzlies and Spurs starting at 7:30 p.m. ET and the Warriors and Lakers at 10:00 p.m. ET. Whoever wins
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The NBA’s play-in tournament kicks off Tuesday and every team will need stars and role players to come up big. Here’s the secret weapon each team will count on.
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. If you think you’re tired of the LeBron James vs. Michael Jordan, GOAT argument, imagine being a retired NBA player. As your immediate relevancy fades, all you have is
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. DeMar DeRozan is 31 years old, what would typically be the end of a player’s athletic prime. He hasn’t made an All-Star team in the three years since he
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. The Oklahoma City Thunder have largely been overshadowed this season. Their brief offseason was highlighted by the departure of Chris Paul and additions to their absurd war chest of
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Defending Zion Williamson is, increasingly, becoming one of the most complex strategic challenges in the NBA. His size, agility and touch around the basket give him at least one
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Matchups are key in any playoff series but, as we saw Sunday, the Milwaukee Bucks and Brooklyn Nets might present the most interesting array of possibilities in the Eastern
The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. Nikola Jokic is in the midst of a remarkable, MVP-worthy season. His numbers have been impeccable and he’s even helped keep the Denver Nuggets afloat since Jamal Murray went