Los Angeles Clippers

Treats: This is essentially a dare-to-be great move made to maximize the end of Paul George’s prime and what should be the middle of Kawhi Leonard’s. James Harden may have lost a step and he will clearly need to get into shape, but once he’s in form he is still an All-Star guard who can create offense almost effortlessly. The Clippers now have their own version of a big three, something they will need if they hope to compete for a championship among the growing number of Western Conference powerhouses. In addition, they added toughness, rebounding, defense and a championship pedigree in PJ Tucker, who was included in the trade. It can be argued that Tucker is a vital accompaniment to Harden because he will make up for Harden’s defensive weakness and won’t require touches as motivation.

Tricks: This trade is not without risk for the Clippers, who take on a volatile, often cancerous defensive liability in Harden. For all of his offensive prowess, which promises to create space and open opportunities for George and Leonard, he comes with plenty of baggage that should give Clippers head coach Ty Lue pause. Could Harden be the missing piece for a Clippers championship? Yes, he absolutely could. Might he also be one of the reasons the team falls short of that goal once again. He also misses his share of games, an issue the Clippers already have in spades with their existing All-Star duo.

Philadelphia 76ers 

Treats: There’s a lot to like about this deal for the 76ers, and the best trades are those that benefit both sides equally. That’s not as easy to do when both sides are championship hopefuls, but in this case the Sixers did quite well. First, of course, trading Harden is addition by subtraction. Sixers GM Daryl Morey created a monster, as he did in Houston previously, and Frankenstein had to go. Losing Tucker is a blow, but the additions of Robert Covington (a known commodity in Philly), KJ Martin, Marcus Morris and Nicolas Batum give Sixers head coach Nick Nurse plenty of versatile veteran options in the front court and on the wing. As a bit of a chocolate layer over the peanut butter, all of the contracts acquired in this deal are expiring, so there is no impact on their long-term cap space heading into next summer.

Tricks: The hardest pill to swallow here may be that once again James Harden got his way. It’s challenging to understand why Morey has spent so much of his career doing Harden’s bidding, even to the detriment of his own team. After going through this in Houston in dramatic fashion, a nice trade to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Washington Wizards or Charlotte Hornets seemed to be in order. Nonetheless, he traded an All-Star and didn’t get one back, which is generally considered to be a bad move. There also is no sure replacement for Tucker, much less an upgrade, which should have been on Morey’s wish list. Covington and Batum were platooning at the four in LA, with neither putting up notable numbers. Then again, as in LA, neither is likely to see offensive plays run for them with so many potent offensive threats around them.

The Test Looms

Whether or not you’re a fan of the NBA’s kind of ridiculous in-season tournament, it begins later this week and will hardly prove and equal test for these new-look teams. For Harden and the Clippers it will be something of a baptism by fire, as the defending champion Denver Nuggets and the finally (finally!) healthy New Orleans Pelicans in their bracket. That’s not the case for the Sixers, who will be the contenders in a mix of the Eastern Conference’s middle-tier teams. The tournament does offer an immediate test for both of these teams and should give us a good idea of how to rate each of the deals in retrospect.

Bill Ingram is Executive Editor for The Hardwood Huddle, a new website coming soon from the creators of Back Sports Page. Bill has covered the NBA for more than 20 years.

From The Hardwood Huddle:

Retired NBA All-Star Shareef Abdur-Rahim has a transformative vision for the NBA’s G League, and he discusses it here in an exclusive interview with The Hardwood Huddle.

The Brooklyn Nets would like nothing better than for returning All-Star Ben Simmons to return to form and help them with a playoff push. Unfortunately, though it’s early, all of the offseason talk about Simmons’ readiness, the Nets need a great deal more than what they’ve seen early on.

The Boston Celtics aren’t the first team to see Kristaps Porzingis as a potential championship harbinger, but so far the talented big man has failed to deliver the trophy. Can he do it this time around, or might Boston be the last team willing to invest in KP’s potential?

The 2023-24 NBA season promises to bring significant changes to the balance of power in the Western Conference. While the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers have garnered the most attention, there is A Surprising Contender Rising in the West.

The Boston Celtics made a big splash by signing Jaylen Brown to an historic contract over the summer. It’s a move they almost had to make, despite the fact that the duo of Jayson Tatum and Brown has failed to yield a championship for the team. Facing another season of doing the same things and expecting a different result has the Celtics Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

When Philadelphia 76ers GM Daryl Morey brought James Harden back into the fold, he invited his new team down the same path that led to him stepping down from his last one. Now The James Harden Train Wreck Has Left the Station, and it may cost the Sixers Joel Embiid and Morey his job.

The Dallas Mavericks’ front office continues to build a team that even Mavs Fans For Life (MFFL) will have a hard time loving. Only an unprecedented season from the enigmatic Kyrie Irving can save them. Dallas Mavericks Betting on Kyrie Cryptocurrency.

Throughout the rebuilding process, New Orleans Pelicans GM David Griffin has made all the right moves. Nonetheless, the team is set to face another long season of disappointment. From the front office to the coaching staff, the players and the fans, the Pelicans Do Not Deserve Their Fate.

The post Plenty of Tricks, Treats in James Harden Trade appeared first on Back Sports Page.

First and foremost, we all know preseason should be taken with a grain of salt. Rotations are heavy on prospects, expected starters play limited minutes and the emphasis is not on winning or stats. Rather, the focus is on allowing coaches and front office personnel to make roster decisions before the regular season starts. Still, when a player who has missed as much time as Simmons has, the importance of even limited minutes in preseason action can’t be overlooked. 

There was, of course, a great deal of hype coming out of Simmons’ camp as well as the Nets’ front office over the summer. On the Nets side, it’s safe to assume some of that was geared towards perhaps finding a trade partner for the beleaguered point guard. Both injuries and mental health have made his absence more of a story than his presence after he began his career as a perennial All-Star. When he finally returned to the court last season, he was a far cry from that All-Star player, averaging just 6.3 points per game to go with 6.3 rebounds and 6.1 assists.

“I’m going to be better than I was,” Simmons told The New York Post recently. “My job is just to show up, perform, work my ass off and lead this team the right way. So it’s doing all the little things, and everything else takes care of itself.”

That’s certainly what the Nets are hoping as they prepare to pay him just under $38 million this season and a bit better than $40 million in 2024-25. The team has been through the ringer since building what they hoped would be an era of contention with Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden in the mix. That experiment fell apart faster than a Crumbl cookie leaving the Nets with Simmons as a consolation prize.

So far, not much of a prize, but Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn sees reasons for optimism.

“It starts with how he’s put his body in a position to perform. He’s done the work behind closed doors to have himself ready to play. And that helps yourself mentally,” Vaughn told The Post. “He’s in a pretty good place where he’s able to communicate with his teammates. It’s about winning. It’s about putting ourselves in a position to win ball games, and he can impact the game in a variety of ways.”

How much winning will the Nets do this season? That’s definitely up for debate. It’s hard to see them competing for a playoff berth above the play-in tournament because the Eastern Conference got even tougher from the top down. Still, if Simmons can bring it every night and regain his All-Star form, it’s not out of the question that the Nets, perhaps with a front court tweak, could prove to be one of the inspiring stories of the new campaign.

Bill Ingram is Executive Editor for The Hardwood Huddle, a new website coming soon from the creators of Back Sports Page. Bill has covered the NBA for more than 20 years.

From The Hardwood Huddle:

Retired NBA All-Star Shareef Abdur-Rahim has a transformative vision for the NBA’s G League, and he discusses it here in an exclusive interview with The Hardwood Huddle.

The Boston Celtics aren’t the first team to see Kristaps Porzingis as a potential championship harbinger, but so far the talented big man has failed to deliver the trophy. Can he do it this time around, or might Boston be the last team willing to invest in KP’s potential?

The 2023-24 NBA season promises to bring significant changes to the balance of power in the Western Conference. While the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers have garnered the most attention, there is A Surprising Contender Rising in the West.

The Boston Celtics made a big splash by signing Jaylen Brown to an historic contract over the summer. It’s a move they almost had to make, despite the fact that the duo of Jayson Tatum and Brown has failed to yield a championship for the team. Facing another season of doing the same things and expecting a different result has the Celtics Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

When Philadelphia 76ers GM Daryl Morey brought James Harden back into the fold, he invited his new team down the same path that led to him stepping down from his last one. Now The James Harden Train Wreck Has Left the Station, and it may cost the Sixers Joel Embiid and Morey his job.

The Dallas Mavericks’ front office continues to build a team that even Mavs Fans For Life (MFFL) will have a hard time loving. Only an unprecedented season from the enigmatic Kyrie Irving can save them. Dallas Mavericks Betting on Kyrie Cryptocurrency.

Throughout the rebuilding process, New Orleans Pelicans GM David Griffin has made all the right moves. Nonetheless, the team is set to face another long season of disappointment. From the front office to the coaching staff, the players and the fans, the Pelicans Do Not Deserve Their Fate.

The post Nets Need Less Talk, More Action from Simmons appeared first on Back Sports Page.

This week the boys follow up with the Western Conference, Zion’s issues, Warriors needs, Kings youth, Ja’s Future, Lakers rebuild, Wemby Watch and much more!

The post Hardwood Huddle: Breaking Down The West appeared first on Back Sports Page.

In this episode the boys welcome the president of the NBA G-League, Shareef Abdur-Rahim to the show to discuss the growth of the league, the prospects of growing content, the different programs the league offers, career highlights and more.

Bill and Randy break down the Eastern Conference and the Lillard trade as well.

Check out the show on all your podcast platforms and Backsportspage.com

The post Hardwood Huddle: Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Lillard Trade and The East appeared first on Back Sports Page.

The Milwaukee Bucks had other plans.

With Miami’s paltry offer centering around Tyler Herro failing to gain traction in the Rose City, the Toronto Raptors were believed to be the new frontrunners prior to Wednesday’s surprise announcement by the Bucks. Milwaukee landed Lillard in a three-team deal with the Phoenix Suns and Blazers, which also involved the oft-rumored Deandre Ayton heading to Portland for Josef Nurkic. For the full details of the trade, link here.

While it’s true Lillard’s agent insisted he was only interested in playing in Miami and Portland’s move set Jimmy Butler off on a social media tirade, this move is actually really good for all teams involved, none more than the Bucks. Not only did Milwaukee get an immediate upgrade at point guard, they did it without giving up either of their stars in Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton. With a new “big three” in place, Milwaukee can once again be considered the team to beat in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

First and foremost, Milwaukee gives Lillard a chance to play to his strengths without having to carry the weight of a franchise on his shoulders. His primary job will be to get the ball to Giannis, who can then either score or set up his teammates for open threes. Lillard’s prowess from behind the arc should be the perfect complement to a frontcourt that also features the re-signed Brook Lopez. It will be important for Lillard to spend a bit more time focused on the defensive end of the floor, where he has never been particularly effective. Since he won’t be shouldering the offensive load as singularly perhaps he will have some energy left to get between his man and the basket.

The second, and perhaps most important, factor for Milwaukee is that this move should silence the incessant talk about Giannis leaving town. Bucks GM Jon Horst went out and got the absolute best player available to improve the team, and if Lillard can stay healthy he might just help bring another championship to Milwaukee. Considering Giannis has only two years remaining on his contract (with a player option for a third), this move goes a long ways towards showing one of the best players in basketball that the grass is greenest right where he is.

The best trades benefit all teams involved, and this one does that. Phoenix gets a grittier big man in Nurkic and added depth, which they desperately needed after sending out quite a few assets in last year’s Kevin Durant trade. Portland lands a solid veteran point guard to help groom rookie Scoot Henderson as well as a bigger scoring threat at center with Ayton. The only real losers in the deal are the Heat, who now have just days to fill critical roster spots before camp, and they must do so after the free agent market has largely dried up.

Bill Ingram is Executive Editor for The Hardwood Huddle, a new website coming soon from the creators of Back Sports Page. Bill has covered the NBA for more than 20 years.

From The Hardwood Huddle:

Retired NBA All-Star Shareef Abdur-Rahim has a transformative vision for the NBA’s G League, and he discusses it here in an exclusive interview with The Hardwood Huddle.

The Boston Celtics aren’t the first team to see Kristaps Porzingis as a potential championship harbinger, but so far the talented big man has failed to deliver the trophy. Can he do it this time around, or might Boston be the last team willing to invest in KP’s potential?

The 2023-24 NBA season promises to bring significant changes to the balance of power in the Western Conference. While the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers have garnered the most attention, there is A Surprising Contender Rising in the West.

The Boston Celtics made a big splash by signing Jaylen Brown to an historic contract over the summer. It’s a move they almost had to make, despite the fact that the duo of Jayson Tatum and Brown has failed to yield a championship for the team. Facing another season of doing the same things and expecting a different result has the Celtics Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

When Philadelphia 76ers GM Daryl Morey brought James Harden back into the fold, he invited his new team down the same path that led to him stepping down from his last one. Now The James Harden Train Wreck Has Left the Station, and it may cost the Sixers Joel Embiid and Morey his job.

The Dallas Mavericks’ front office continues to build a team that even Mavs Fans For Life (MFFL) will have a hard time loving. Only an unprecedented season from the enigmatic Kyrie Irving can save them. Dallas Mavericks Betting on Kyrie Cryptocurrency.

Throughout the rebuilding process, New Orleans Pelicans GM David Griffin has made all the right moves. Nonetheless, the team is set to face another long season of disappointment. From the front office to the coaching staff, the players and the fans, the Pelicans Do Not Deserve Their Fate.

The post Is Milwaukee the Best Spot for Damian Lillard? appeared first on Back Sports Page.

Fast-forward 27 years and Abdur-Rahim is now serving as the president of the NBA’s G League. After playing for four NBA teams across 12 seasons, he became an assistant coach for the Sacramento Kings for two seasons, moved into their front office, served as GM for the Reno Bighorns, and then as Associate VP of Basketball Operations for the NBA.  He has a wide array of experiences to share with the young men coming into the developmental league, which makes him an ideal choice to head up the program.

“I think of those couple of days leading up to the draft where you and your family are traveling to the draft, sitting in the green room, that is the culmination of a lifetime of work and sacrifice,” Abdur-Rahim tells The Hardwood Huddle. “It’s a celebration of that time and I think you should celebrate it and enjoy it and reflect. The day after that, it’s work. When you’re drafted that high you really have a responsibility to the people who believed in you and drafted you that you go and try to be the best version of yourself. You want to be great, you want to achieve and you want to have success. I was looking up my peers, my contemporaries at that time were Kevin Garnett, Antoine Walker, Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury, Kobe Bryant – those were the guys who were drafted around the time I was, the guys I went against in high school, so you’re always trying to keep up with your peers. You also want to help your organization, and true professionals always want to keep getting better.”

Abdur-Rahim had a successful NBA career, individually, often averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds per contest, but he only made it to the playoffs once and that Sacramento Kings team lost in the first round of the 2006 postseason. It’s one thing to assemble talent, quite another to put it all together. 

“It wasn’t until I retired and started working in the Kings’ front office that I started to understand just how difficult it is to put teams together,” says Abdur-Rahim. “You have to have continuity between the front office and coaches and then some of the good fortune you need in drafting players, signing players and making trades – it’s not an easy thing at all. I enjoyed my NBA experience, but if there’s one thing I could have changed I would have played on better teams. I was drafted to an expansion team and the first five years was really just us trying to get over the hump of being draft picks trying to teach each other.”

It took a while for teams across the NBA to understand and embrace the opportunity represented by the G-League, though the San Antonio Spurs didn’t take long. The Austin Toros (now Spurs, also) ran head coach Gregg Popovich’s system to enable players to more easily transition when called to make the quick trip down I-35. Now more and more teams have figured out what a valuable asset a minor league team can be.

“I think you start with just trying to educate,” Abdur-Rahim says of the G League methodology. “You try to remember when you were younger and look at the pros and cons of all of these platforms. You can tell your story and engage with people in ways you couldn’t before. Now younger players are coming in with such potential, what and how you use your G League team has become even more important. There was a time when playing in the developmental league was seen as a negative and I think the Spurs really played a big role in changing that perspective. It starts with education, examples of guys who had success, and you try to share that with younger players while still recognizing that young guys are going to make mistakes. Education is so much what our league is about, in the G League, if you need time to mature and make mistakes, you can do those things in our league and have it not always be the biggest news.”

One of the biggest issues facing modern NBA teams is how to incorporate younger and younger players who have less and less experience playing basketball on a high level into a professional system. Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green is a perfect example. There’s no denying his talent, but even after a year with the G League’s Ignite he struggled with consistency over the first two years of his career. Meanwhile, the Rockets have been among the worst teams in the league because they have a roster full of high draft picks who weren’t immediate impact players. The hope is that the G League will be part of the solution as younger players are now being seen as professionals much earlier than has ever previously been the case.

“I think what we’ve seen in the NBA, the NFL, I think in a sense everything has become professional,” says Abdur-Rahim. “Young people are able to market themselves and make money and there are pros and cons and consequences to all of that. The great thing about the G League is that a young player can come into an NBA system and grow and develop at his pace. It’s similar to the NBA game. They’re being coached, developed and prepared to be in the NBA game and be productive at his pace. The example I use, from my draft class, is Jermaine O’Neal. For his first five or six years in the league he sat on the bench in Portland. He was behind great players like Clifford Robinson, Rasheed Wallace and Dale Davis, so it wasn’t until he got to Indiana that he got a chance to really play and that was his first time playing consistently and he became an All-Star and a great, great player. Kobe Bryant took a year or two before he became a great player. I think young people should have the option to make a decision with their family and do what they think is right. In the G League we have provided an option like that for young people to come and find success with that.”

Abdur-Rahim’s personal philosophy is about the notion of paying it forward, and that drives his vision for the G League. It starts with building a winning culture, one that not only grows basketball players, but also successful young men.

“When we talk about culture we talk about people, how we treat people,  how people respond to things within an environment,” says Abdur-Rahim. “We set standards that determine how players are guided and developed and nurtured on a daily basis. It’s like a living, breathing thing. We’re living and working in a professional environment, so there are some bare minimums we need from people as far as wanting to do well, wanting to be part of the group and wanting to contribute. Once you see that, you try to meet the person where they are and put resources, tools and people around them to help them grow and develop. I think that’s the great thing about the G League is that there’s a step you can take. In years past it was just college, you went to college and we knew freshman year was going to be rocky, then you worked during the summer and you would go from there. Now you have the G League, you have a system where it’s the same environment, coaches get to know what the players are about, and you can build. If there are bad habits or bad circumstances and you see that the person wants to achieve and grow then we establish the non-negotiables but also put the resources in place to help those kids grow.”

Part of those resources are designed to assure long-term success for G League players, not only in the NBA, but in life beyond the hardwood.

“For our players, and we will have 32 teams by the 2024-25 season, our players have access to the same resources as NBA players,” says Abdur-Rahim. “The players are unionized now and every team has an off-court development person to support player development, we even provide tuition reimbursement to help them with continuing education. For our younger group, the Ignite team, we provide tuition to go to college now or in the future and we spend a lot of time with them on the business of sports, financial literacy, media training, and community engagement. We have a whole curriculum for those younger players who are college age. We take it extremely seriously. I’m a firm believer in not only growing basketball players, but first you help the person grow and that process, speaking from personal experience, doesn’t stop. Who you are at 19 isn’t who you’re going to be at 25, or shouldn’t be, and that person isn’t who you are at 30 and so on. We want to be a part of that complete journey.”

Successful journeys begin with the right person leading the way, and retired All-Star Shareef Abdur-Rahim has the right mindset and experience to guide the G League as it seeks to prepare young players for the NBA’s big stage. The league has grown exponentially in popularity, and under Abdur-Rahim’s careful guidance we expect even more big things.

Bill Ingram is Executive Editor for The Hardwood Huddle, a new website coming soon from the creators of Back Sports Page. Bill has covered the NBA for more than 20 years.

From The Hardwood Huddle:

The Boston Celtics aren’t the first team to see Kristaps Porzingis as a potential championship harbinger, but so far the talented big man has failed to deliver the trophy. Can he do it this time around, or might Boston be the last team willing to invest in KP’s potential?

The 2023-24 NBA season promises to bring significant changes to the balance of power in the Western Conference. While the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers have garnered the most attention, there is A Surprising Contender Rising in the West.

The Boston Celtics made a big splash by signing Jaylen Brown to an historic contract over the summer. It’s a move they almost had to make, despite the fact that the duo of Jayson Tatum and Brown has failed to yield a championship for the team. Facing another season of doing the same things and expecting a different result has the Celtics Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

When Philadelphia 76ers GM Daryl Morey brought James Harden back into the fold, he invited his new team down the same path that led to him stepping down from his last one. Now The James Harden Train Wreck Has Left the Station, and it may cost the Sixers Joel Embiid and Morey his job.

The Dallas Mavericks’ front office continues to build a team that even Mavs Fans For Life (MFFL) will have a hard time loving. Only an unprecedented season from the enigmatic Kyrie Irving can save them. Dallas Mavericks Betting on Kyrie Cryptocurrency.

Throughout the rebuilding process, New Orleans Pelicans GM David Griffin has made all the right moves. Nonetheless, the team is set to face another long season of disappointment. From the front office to the coaching staff, the players and the fans, the Pelicans Do Not Deserve Their Fate.

The post Abdur-Rahim’s Transformative Vision for the G League appeared first on Back Sports Page.

When Dallas Mavericks Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki retired it left a gaping hole in their lineup. Dirk’s size and length in the paint, his knack for knocking down big threes and his versatility made him a hard act to follow. When the New York Knicks put Porzingis on the market, he seemed like the perfect solution for a team looking for a second star to pair with Luka Doncic. At 7’3”, KP averaged 10.6 rebounds per game for the Knicks while scoring 22.7 points in his third season and shooting just under 40% from behind the three-point arc. Those aren’t quite Nowitzki numbers, but they are darned close. 

The downside, of course, was that Porzingis missed the entire 2018-19 season due to an ACL injury and there were questions about how long it might take him to get back to 100%. That turned out to be a huge issue for Dallas, for though KP was able to give them 20 points and 9.6 rebounds per game while shooting nearly 35% from three, he managed to play in just 90 games in his first two seasons with the team. Without his consistent play, Dallas fell well short of their championship aspirations and even parted ways with long-time head coach and NBA champion Rick Carlisle. Midway through the 2021-22 season the Mavs declared the KP/Luka pairing a failure and traded him to Washington.

Is there reason to hope that KP might be a championship harbinger on this, his fourth team? Back Sports Page’s Matt Strout (@TheRealStrout) breaks it down.

The Celtics took a swing before the NBA Draft and traded Marcus Smart for Kristaps Porzingis. Porzingis brings to the team a more capable one-on-one scoring big man than they had during their Eastern Conference Finals and NBA Finals runs. Add in his shooting and rim protection, and you can see why Stevens thought he would fit. But in between the hours spent watching Porzingis highlights and Smart tributes was the ticking clock of Jaylen Brown’s extension. During that period, the reports from insiders saying Brown and the Celtics were “progressing” kept coming too. So, what was holding things up?  

The trade for Porzingis was only the first half of a tricky equation. Seemingly, the Celtics had gotten assurances from him and his representatives that he wanted to stay long-term in Boston. Long-term meant dolling out a two-year extension to Porzingis for $60 million. But wait, there’s more. Locking Porzingis up until 2026 meant that there would be an overlap between Brown, Porzingis, and Jayson Tatum’s possible extension with the Celtics. The financial outlook for the Celtics looked and felt messy at that moment. Add in the fact that teams are now severely penalized for going over the luxury tax and “super-tax” lines. Therefore, during that wait-and-see period, extending Porzingis felt like a hedge on their bets if they couldn’t agree with Brown. The thinking might have been, if they couldn’t get everything, why not maximize their chances for one year with KP?

While KP does check a lot of boxes for the Celtics, they will dearly miss Marcus Smart’s presence in the locker room as well as on the court. CelticBlog’s Noa Dalzell (@NoaDalzellNBA) breaks that down for us.

The willingness to part ways with Smart signals the front office’s confidence in Derrick White, and a desire to bolster the frontcourt in the Giannis-Jokic-Embiid era. 

White is coming off of a productive 2022-23 campaign, where he averaged 12.4 points per game on 46% shooting, including a career-high 38.1% from three, during the regular season. His numbers rose in the playoffs — he averaged 13.4 points on 50.5% shooting, including a team-best 45.5% from three. He also solidified his spot as a premier defensive guard, being named to the All Defensive Second Team and leading all guards in total blocks in the regular season.

But, filling Smart’s role as the veteran leader of the team could be difficult, particularly since Tatum and Brown have not been known to be the most vocal of leaders to date. With Grant Williams and Blake Griffin (most likely) also exiting this summer, three of the team’s loudest locker room voices will need to be replaced. And, at the end of the day, Smart is still a top-tier defender and playmaker. The main tradeoff with this trade is availability; Porzingis remains injury-prone, as evidenced by the case of plantar fasciitis that kept him out of the FIBA World Cup this summer.

The Celtics are hoping that this time around KP can get and stay healthy, bringing them the lethal frontcourt player they desperately need to match up with some of the elite big men standing between them and a championship run. If he can’t do that, Boston could and should be the last team to place such expectations on KP’s shoulders.

From The Hardwood Huddle:

The 2023-24 NBA season promises to bring significant changes to the balance of power in the Western Conference. While the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers have garnered the most attention, there is A Surprising Contender Rising in the West.

The Boston Celtics made a big splash by signing Jaylen Brown to an historic contract over the summer. It’s a move they almost had to make, despite the fact that the duo of Jayson Tatum and Brown has failed to yield a championship for the team. Facing another season of doing the same things and expecting a different result has the Celtics Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

When Philadelphia 76ers GM Daryl Morey brought James Harden back into the fold, he invited his new team down the same path that led to him stepping down from his last one. Now The James Harden Train Wreck Has Left the Station, and it may cost the Sixers Joel Embiid and Morey his job.

The Dallas Mavericks’ front office continues to build a team that even Mavs Fans For Life (MFFL) will have a hard time loving. Only an unprecedented season from the enigmatic Kyrie Irving can save them. Dallas Mavericks Betting on Kyrie Cryptocurrency.

Throughout the rebuilding process, New Orleans Pelicans GM David Griffin has made all the right moves. Nonetheless, the team is set to face another long season of disappointment. From the front office to the coaching staff, the players and the fans, the Pelicans Do Not Deserve Their Fate.

Bill Ingram is Executive Editor for The Hardwood Huddle, a new website coming to soon from the creators of Back Sports Page. He has been covering the NBA for more than 20 years.

The post Can Kristaps Porzingis Finally Deliver the Goods? appeared first on Back Sports Page.

Against this backdrop we have the current somewhat enigmatic situation in Portland. When the Blazers drafted point guard Scoot Henderson with the second overall pick it was assumed that it would spell the end for Lillard in red and black. A kind of silly cat-and-mouse game ensued, with Blazers GM Joe Cronin saying he wouldn’t trade Lillard unless he asked to be traded, Lillard saying he wasn’t interested in doing that, and the issued getting hit back and forth in the media in a manner that made professional tennis players dizzy. Eventually, Lillard finally did say he wanted to be traded, though in a somewhat half-hearted way, naming the Miami Heat as his preferred destination. Of course, Miami isn’t willing to offer Portland anything they’re interested in, so Heat President Pat Riley has been working the phones trying to find a third team to facilitate a deal.

One issue is that no one really wants to help Riley build another championship team, but there is another, somewhat stranger issue going on, as well. Portland isn’t really shopping Lillard and Lillard isn’t really talking about wanting to be traded, either. In fact, sources close to the situation told The Hardwood Huddle recently that internally the Blazers are talking about having Lillard mentor Scoot Henderson and Lillard appears to be OK with that. 

The only real downside to this scenario is that this will be the only thing the trade-crazy media will be asking about and talking about when training camp starts if Lillard is still in camp. That’s precisely the reason Oklahoma City Thunder GM Sam Presti pulled the trigger on sending James Harden to the Houston Rockets despite rebuffing their trade interest for months. No matter what the team might have done, the shark-like, ravenous jaws of the clickbait addicts would have made Harden’s status the only storyline every single day. 

Will that be enough to force Portland’s hand in the Lillard situation? Hopefully not, but it certainly would not be surprising. It would be interesting to see Lillard, with his attitude of hard work, loyalty and humility, mentor the team’s next potential franchise player.

From The Hardwood Huddle:

The 2023-24 NBA season promises to bring significant changes to the balance of power in the Western Conference. While the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers have garnered the most attention, there is A Surprising Contender Rising in the West.

The Boston Celtics made a big splash by signing Jaylen Brown to an historic contract over the summer. It’s a move they almost had to make, despite the fact that the duo of Jayson Tatum and Brown has failed to yield a championship for the team. Facing another season of doing the same things and expecting a different result has the Celtics Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

When Philadelphia 76ers GM Daryl Morey brought James Harden back into the fold, he invited his new team down the same path that led to him stepping down from his last one. Now The James Harden Train Wreck Has Left the Station, and it may cost the Sixers Joel Embiid and Morey his job.

The Dallas Mavericks’ front office continues to build a team that even Mavs Fans For Life (MFFL) will have a hard time loving. Only an unprecedented season from the enigmatic Kyrie Irving can save them. Dallas Mavericks Betting on Kyrie Cryptocurrency.

Throughout the rebuilding process, New Orleans Pelicans GM David Griffin has made all the right moves. Nonetheless, the team is set to face another long season of disappointment. From the front office to the coaching staff, the players and the fans, the Pelicans Do Not Deserve Their Fate.

Bill Ingram is Executive Editor for The Hardwood Huddle, a new website coming to soon from the creators of Back Sports Page. He has been covering the NBA for more than 20 years.

The post Forcing a Damian Lillard Trade? appeared first on Back Sports Page.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it played out. The following summer, James Harden’s contract became a huge distraction and led to him being traded to the Houston Rockets. Westbrook tore his meniscus in the first round and the Thunder lost to the Memphis Grizzlies in the second round without him. Westbrook came back with a vengeance in 2013-14 and the team made it to the Western Conference Finals to the eventual champion Spurs. Injuries, particularly to Durant, derailed them the following season and cost them head coach Scott Brooks. New head coach Billy Donovan guided them back to the Western Conference Finals where they lost to the eventual champion Golden State Warriors and then Durant left for that same Warriors team. The promising core was no more and they have been rebuilding ever since.

Throughout the process, GM Sam Presti hoarded draft picks and bided his time. Now it looks like the time has finally arrived for Thunder fans.

The first reason for such optimism is the play of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who just dropped 31 points, 12 assists and six rebounds in Canada’s FIBA win over a collection of his NBA brethren from Team USA. A few days earlier he also scored 31 points and grabbed 10 boards in a win over Luka Doncic and Team Slovenia, a game that had Doncic so frustrated that he was tossed.

“Congratulations to Canada, they played great,” Doncic said after the loss. “They have one of the best players in the world and it was really tough to guard him.”

“We play together, we play fast, we play tough, we’re pretty hard to beat,” Gilgeous-Alexander said to Sportsnet’s Arash Madani after the win. “We’ve just gotta keep imposing our will, imposing our identity on teams for 40 minutes and we’ll be alright.”

SGA’s play also has the attention of retired NBA All-Star point guard and Canadian Steve Nash.

“He has the game, the feel, the understanding of his responsibility in the moment,” Nash said after the win over Team USA. “It’s just a beautiful thing when you have a player like that in your arsenal.”

The Thunder’s rebuilding process has not been painless, but it could have been a lot worse. After all, they’ve only missed the playoffs for the past three seasons, and every step of the way measurable progress was made. Last season they were arguably one SGA abdominal strain away from making the playoffs as Josh Giddey, Lu Dort and Jalen Williams all took steps forward and helped the team make it into the play-in tournament. Now they have Chet Holmgren set to join the fray along with 2023 10th overall draft pick Carson Wallace, pieces who look like excellent additions to the existing core.

Make no mistake about it, the Thunder are for real, and with so many teams in the Western Conference faltering there’s every reason to believe they can contend this season. The Golden State Warriors have too many older guards and very little front court depth, the Los Angeles Clippers continue to rely on a critically flawed core, the Phoenix Suns undermined their own success when they acquired Kevin Durant, and the Minnesota Timberwolves haven’t figured out that Rudy Gobert and Karl Anthony-Towns aren’t an effective duo. All of those teams finished ahead of OKC last season and are unlikely to do so again this year.

The Los Angeles Lakers may have had the best offseason of any team in the West, while the Sacramento Kings and Denver Nuggets didn’t need any big tweaks. The Memphis Grizzlies have to figure out what’s going on with Ja Morant, but by acquiring Marcus Smart they do have insurance against catastrophe. Expect that to be the company Sam Presti’s squad is keeping in the standings by mid-season.

“Anything you put your mind to, you can do if you work hard enough,” said Gilgeous-Alexander after Canada’s win over Team USA. “That’s pretty much been my mindset all my life.”

That mindset might just be the difference between the Thunder being classified as a rebuilding team and them gaining respect as legitimate contenders in 2023-24.

From The Hardwood Huddle:

The Boston Celtics made a big splash by signing Jaylen Brown to an historic contract over the summer. It’s a move they almost had to make, despite the fact that the duo of Jayson Tatum and Brown has failed to yield a championship for the team. Facing another season of doing the same things and expecting a different result has the Celtics Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

When Philadelphia 76ers GM Daryl Morey brought James Harden back into the fold, he invited his new team down the same path that led to him stepping down from his last one. Now The James Harden Train Wreck Has Left the Station, and it may cost the Sixers Joel Embiid and Morey his job.

The Dallas Mavericks’ front office continues to build a team that even Mavs Fans For Life (MFFL) will have a hard time loving. Only an unprecedented season from the enigmatic Kyrie Irving can save them. Dallas Mavericks Betting on Kyrie Cryptocurrency.

Throughout the rebuilding process, New Orleans Pelicans GM David Griffin has made all the right moves. Nonetheless, the team is set to face another long season of disappointment. From the front office to the coaching staff, the players and the fans, the Pelicans Do Not Deserve Their Fate.

Bill Ingram is Executive Editor for The Hardwood Huddle, a new website coming to soon from the creators of Back Sports Page. He has been covering the NBA for more than 20 years.

The post Surprise Contenders in NBA’s Western Conference? appeared first on Back Sports Page.

Much has been made of the duo’s similar offensive skill set and lack of complementary skills, but at the same time, this is a core that was minutes away from taking a 3-1 lead in the 2022 Finals and a sprained ankle away from another NBA finals appearance last year. Tatum and Brown are 25 and 26 years old, respectively, and their potential can’t be capped at this point. 

The Celtics caused a stir over the summer by inking Brown to a history-making five-year, $304 million supermax extension. That seems like a lot for a player with no rings and who may not even be the best player on his team, but the Celtics had little choice. They either had to offer the extension or face the prospect that Brown could seek greener (cough, cough) pastures next summer. Once again, Noa Dalzell offers her perspective to the discussion.

This one was expected, much to the dismay of naysayers who have shouted ‘Jaylen Brown can’t go left’ all summer. The Celtics couldn’t have reasonably taken the risk of having Brown walk for nothing next year, nor was his trade value particularly high with only one year left on his current contract. While the ‘richest contract  in league history’ label may be hard to shake, at one point, Mike Conley was the owner of the NBA’s largest contract. Soon, a new crop of contracts will be signed, and Brown’s will no longer be so outstanding. The important thing is that Tatum and Brown remain bought into playing together, and as long as the Celtics have this dynamic duo, they are championship contenders.

At this point it’s probably useful to think of NBA contracts as monopoly money. Don’t get caught up breaking down how many homeless people could be fed and housed with $304 million, how many student loans could be paid off or how many state-of-the art schools could be built. Think of it as the cost of doing business in a league of millionaires run by billionaires. If you want to compete for a championship, it’s going to be expensive.

The real question now is whether or not the Tatum/Brown duo really is capable of winning a championship together. The Celtics’ historic investment in Brown puts a great deal of pressure on the squad to win now, especially with the addition of Kristaps Porzingis. On paper, the new trio has a great balance of front court firepower and back court lethality, but we’ve seen this paper before. The New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks also saw Porzingis’ skill set as potential championship material. The reason he didn’t help the cause in either place was due largely to the plague of the big man; he simply can’t stay healthy long enough to get it done.

None of this addresses the real elephant in the locker room. Namely, neither Brown nor Tatum has shown the ability to deliver when the stakes are highest. Losing in the Finals could have been that defining moment for Tatum, who has the annoying tendency of disappearing when his team needs him most. Brown appears to be the ideal set-up man, but he’s not Batman, he’s Robin. He’s Scottie Pippen, not Michael Jordan. He’s Rajon Rondo, not Paul Pierce. To date, Tatum has not proven that he’s Batman consistently, either.

There’s no question that Boston had to extend Jaylen Brown; the price tag was somewhat secondary in their consideration. Ideally, the new contract will bring fresh motivation to his game and perhaps he has another level to reach and that might be enough to propel the Celtics to the championship. After eight years in the league, however, that seems like a stretch. As things stand right now, Tatum and Brown are just the next in a long series of NBA duos who didn’t quite have the right DNA to win the last game of the NBA Finals. That is, of course, a difficult truth to accept.

Related:

In her new article, CelticBlogs’s Noa Dalzell asks if adding three-time champion Sam Cassell as the Boston Celtics’ lead assistant coach might be the move that instills a championship mentality in their squad. There is an argument to be made that without a player with championship experience in the mix the team will perpetually fall short. Check it out here!

From The Hardwood Huddle:

When Philadelphia 76ers GM Daryl Morey brought James Harden back into the fold, he invited his new team down the same path that led to him stepping down from his last one. Now The James Harden Train Wreck Has Left the Station, and it may cost the Sixers Joel Embiid and Morey his job.

The Dallas Mavericks’ front office continues to build a team that even Mavs Fans For Life (MFFL) will have a hard time loving. Only an unprecedented season from the enigmatic Kyrie Irving can save them. Dallas Mavericks Betting on Kyrie Cryptocurrency.

Throughout the rebuilding process, New Orleans Pelicans GM David Griffin has made all the right moves. Nonetheless, the team is set to face another long season of disappointment. From the front office to the coaching staff, the players and the fans, the Pelicans Do Not Deserve Their Fate.

Bill Ingram is Executive Editor for The Hardwood Huddle, a new website coming to soon from the creators of Back Sports Page. He has been covering the NBA for more than 20 years.

The post Boston Celtics Between a Rock and a Hard Place appeared first on Back Sports Page.