NBA ROUNDUP: Why it was smart & dumb to sign KD, a love letter to Joel Embiid, the Nuggets have an all-star game starter? And more

     Welcome all. I have finally arisen from my holiday hibernation, and I'm back to spread the good word of basketball gospel to the people. 

     We are now into January, which means we are five months away from another Cavaliers-Warriors finals matchup (three cheers for super teams!). But before we are faced with this inevitable outcome, lets bask in the abundance of beautiful basketball being played this season. We saw Javale McGee's reputation shattered for the trillionth time at the hands of a levitating Andrew Wiggins, Russell Westbrook has upheld his Oscar Robertson-esque triple double average, and Rajan Rondo now has beef with an entire organization for two consecutive years! What a time to be alive. As much as these moments have adequately appealed to the hoops fan in me, there are a few subjects surrounding this season that I find to be most intriguing and deserve more exposure. Thus, I present a mid-season NBA round up.

The Golden State Warriors are both ridiculously stupid and ingenious at the same time for signing Kevin Durant

     Only in my brain will there be a paradoxical argument about basketball that can somehow make sense. Please allow me to proceed to drop (what I find to be) knowledge. Kevin Durant, former league MVP and greatest scorer of our generation (our future argument over that claim can come another day), took his talents to South Bea-, sorry, force of habit, to Oakland and the Golden State Warriors on July 5th, 2016. Not only did the Dubs add a once-in-a-lifetime free agent who could elevate the fortunes of any franchise, but this same Warriors team also happened to post a record-breaking 73 wins while running the most efficient statistical offence in league history. The ultimate super team became even super-er. Durant signed a two year deal, worth $54.3 million with a second year opt-out clause that could effortlessly throw him back into the open market this summer (#KDBreakTheNBA2017).

     While $27 million seems like a fair price tag in today's market for KD, Golden State's air-tight salary cap situation forced them to liquidate a variety of noteworthy assets. This purge saw key contributors to the Warrior's historic 2015-16 season skip town, including starters Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut, both whom relocated to the Dallas Cubans. In fact, the Dubs lost a large conglomerate of the core that brought them within one LeBron James chase down block from back-to-back titles. Below is a chart of the pre-Durant Warriors rotation, broken down in minutes per game. Asterisks mark a player that is no longer with the team.

     Those who were victims of the KD cleansing accounted for 43% of the minutes coach Kerr allocated per game. Now, I'm no math wiz, but that is almost HALF of their rotation. As much as basketball pundits advertise that the big three of Curry, Thompson and Green are enough to vault a team into championship contention, it should be noted that the rest of the players listed were extremely efficient contributors to the team. The same team that only lost 9 GAMES. The same team with the greatest offence to ever touch hardwood, and a #1 ranked defence. This 11-man rotation was a well-oiled, versatile basketball machine unlike anything ever before seen. Yes, they lost in the finals, but it doesn't discredit them as the greatest regular-season team in history, and a team that made it to game seven of the NBA finals. If I haven't implied it enough, let me put this in explicit terms; this TEAM was REALLY,REALLY GOOD. 

     Objectively, there are very few reasons to disband such a deep, dominant core. It made next to no sense to drop nearly everything the Dubs had been working towards since 2009 (Curry was the first major piece drafted to join the team at that time). The Warriors were the sexiest team in basketball. They shot teams out of the gym on a nightly basis while suffocating them defensively. Barnes perfectly fit the complimentary starting 3-and-D role he had. Bogut, while hobbled by injury issues, is still a strong rim & pick-and-roll defender, and is one of the best passing bigs in the league. Ezeli held down the paint for the bench, while playing with extreme intensity and energy on the glass. Barbosa is a lightning bolt with a wicked three point shot and surprisingly passable defence. Rush, like Barnes, was an efficient wing with veteran defensive savvy. Speights averaged nearly 12 points  and three rebounds in seven minutes per game, which means he'd be scoring 60 and pulling down 15 boards a night with starter minutes (all sarcasm intended; still very efficient numbers). Now, let's take a look at this season's rotation. Asterisks mark a player that was not on last year's squad.

     This is where things get confusing, but bare with me. Of the original 43% of the core minutes that the Warriors lost in order to financially secure Kevin Durant's services, KD accounts for 38% of those lost minutes. This means that the Dubs are tasking one player with covering over a third of their lost core. Kevin Durant is a hall-of-fame player, but it would be substantially more difficult to have one man fill in the the equivalency of three rotational spots. After all, basketball is a team sport. Just to make matters worse, the makeup of the new bench unit is noticeably worse than year's previous. They simply lack the firepower, defensive prowess and chemistry to match the former best second unit in the association. I think that it is also fair to claim that having two ball-dominant scorers (Durant & Curry) could potentially present ball movement issues, witnessed first hand in a recent embarrassing blown game against Memphis

     Play nice, boys.

     This evidence would suggest that the Warriors made a grave mistake inking Durant, and its true. From this standpoint, the Dubs goofed. I repeat, signing Kevin Durant was dumb.

     Hold your horses. Don't rush to scrutinize this. I am aware that the Warriors currently hold the best record in the NBA and just completely smoked the defending champion Cavaliers last night (albeit LeBron got the last laugh in the end).

     By no means has Golden State regressed from their previous dominance over the entire league. The Warriors are very good, Kevin Durant included. If we look at this situation as a black & white conundrum, the 2016-2017 Golden State Warriors signed KD and are (record-wise) the best team in the association. Therefore, the signing of Kevin Durant has unequivocally benefited the team. In fact, signing him was brilliant. 

     What? Conflicting opinions are always confusing, but allow me to explain. NBA teams utilize the off-season to draft, sign, and trade for available players. Successful summers for NBA teams generate players who have the ability to fix a weakness in order to create a better overall squad. Last season, the Warriors lacked a prominent hole in their roster, if any at all. After all, they did finish with a 73-9 record (if you still don't understand how difficult that is to achieve, re-evaluate your fanhood). In their historic 3-1 finals collapse to the Cavs, one fatal flaw was exposed; insufficient frontcourt firepower. The Cavaliers front court tandem of LeBron, Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson and Channing Frye took a proverbial turd on their Golden State opponents. Yes, Draymond Green is an all-NBA player, premier point forward/defender, and infamous kicker of groins, but even he could not stop the onslaught of versatility and dominant play on both ends of the floor. Andrew Bogut's solid rim protection and key playmaking involvement in the offence couldn't come close. Frye and Love consistently torched the Warriors bigs on the perimeter, and, along with James and Thompson, obliterated Golden State on the glass. The Warriors singular glaring weakness was the Cavaliers themselves. In order to overcome the Cavs, there was a clear necessity for a proven frontcourt scorer; who better slated to fill the part than a 7-footer who can guard all five positions, score at will from anywhere, and transcend a franchise to contention? Cue KD.

     In essence, the process involved in bringing Kevin Durant to the Golden State Warriors weakened them for the daunting regular season, but also presented a much better matchup against the Cavaliers - The one team they couldn't close out. They fixed a major weakness, but also birthed a new one. So, it makes them better AND worse? Yes, it does. 

Nikola Jokic deserves to be in the NBA All-Star game - As a starter?

Real footage captured of Demarcus Cousins after reading this

     Before everyone gathers at my door with torches and pitchforks, here me out. I am not proposing that Demarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis are unworthy of representing the West as starting bigs in the upcoming All-star game. I am also aware that the NBA voting process does not designate between positions, rather it is divided between front court and back court. This argument is more a case for another option to consider when you place your ballot for All-Star 2017.

     If you haven't watched the Denver Nuggets play this season (you definitely haven't), you're missing out on the best kept secrets in the NBA: Nikola Jokic. It may have taken head coach Mike Malone nearly three months to materialize a successful rotation, but when he did, he unleashed a force the league hasn't seen before. Peering at Jokic's season stats won't blow anyone away by any standards, but if you look at his last 10 games along with a general overlook of his performance since being put in the starting lineup, you'll notice his dominance over his peers.

     What immediately stands out are those assist totals. What is even more blasphemous is that Jokic, a center, has lead the Nuggets in assists per game in their previous 12. This Nuggets lineup includes pass-first, pick & roll ball handlers Emmanuel Mudiay and Jameer Nelson, yet it is Jokic who trumps all. Watch as Jokic effortlessly throws laser-accurate passes with perfect touch - He literally throws his passes around his gigantic defenders. No looks, hook passes, baseball passes, behind the back dribbles in transition (while keeping his head up!) and an overhead flip pass? Wow.

     Don't forget 10 rebounds, 24 a game at a 62% clip, and a consistent 25.31 Player Efficiency Rating (PER), good for 13th in the entire league; better than Kyle Lowry, Steph Curry and fellow big Joel Embiid.  Where does he stack up to the West's best bigs? Below are their season averages

Anthony Davis, Pelicans: 28.8 PPG 12.1, REB 2.2 AST, .501 FG%, 28.32 PER

Demarcus Cousins, Kings: 28 PPG, 10.1 REB, 4.4 AST, .459 FG%, 26.85 PER

     R-E-L-A-X (for all my Aaron Rodgers fans out there). I am completely aware of the statistical advantages Cousins and Davis post. I am also aware of the fact that Cousins and Davis are substantially better basketball players than Jokic. What needs to be understood is that Cousins and Davis represent the upper echelon, the cream of the crop of western conference bigs, and Jokic has nearly reached that number from a statistical standpoint - in his second season. According to Basketball Reference grading system, Jokic's overall offensive efficiency rating is the highest of any rookie or sophomore since 1973, the first year such stat was calculated. What is it that has made Jokic so effective? For 21 years old, he is already a master out of the high post. He has become so dominant in this Draymond Green-esque usage that coach Malone has developed Denver's entire offence around it, and it works. Through simple handoffs and screens, Jokic can quickly get to the perimeter to open up space in the paint for guards to get open. Once he possesses the ball he becomes an instant threat simply based on his ability to hit any player at any spot on the court with pinpoint accuracy. Nuggets wing Gary Harris was asked about Jokic's playmaking ability, and said

"He [Jokic] has such a great feel for the game. When he has the ball everyone wants to cut because they know he'll make the pass"

      When was the last time anyone heard of a center who invokes constant motion from his players to this extent? Demarcus Cousins only invokes the feeling of fear in his teammates, and Anthony Davis inspires his teammates to pitch a tent and roast marshmallows beyond the three point arc while he operates. By no means has Denver been a team with willing cutters either - Ball-dominant wings like Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler scarcely move at all off the ball, and the remaining rotational players hovered around the three point arc before Jokic's passing prowess was recognized. His ability to draw bigs out to the perimeter allows the guards to freely generate motion and legitimate ball movement. Refer back to his highlight tape and one will find that Jokic has even brought the ball up the court for Denver, and its worked. Has Jokic done enough to cement himself among the same standard as the best point-forwards in the league as a center? First off, as long as LeBron James plays basketball (which is safe to assume will be for an extended period of time), he will never be the best. However, at 21 he has already proven his status as a premier playmaking big in the association. As evident from his 24 points per game at over 62% from the floor, he is also extremely effective as a low-post scorer for Denver, enhancing his already dangerous versatility in a half-court set. His aggressive play-style merged with a slick handle forces opposing bigs and help defenders to pay extra attention, opening up the floor. Whether I have influenced you to the point of voting for Jokic or not, I do expect you to spend substantially more time watching Nuggets basketball. The 2016-2017 Denver Nuggets do not deserve overwhelming exposure on a national scale for their play, but Nikola Jokic presents a basketball anomaly that does deserve such. Nikola Jokic #NBAVote.

A letter to the NBA's crown prince of the process, Joel Embiid

     In the current state of the NBA, analysts, fans and overall pundits alike spend an unwarranted amount of their time looking to classify players into cookie-cutter representations of what the 'contemporary' league looks like. While young studs like Kristaps Porzingis and Giannis Antetokounmpo have established themselves as players in an entire class of their own, Joel Embiid has become somewhat of an NBA unicorn; on, and off the hardwood. Before we begin to glamorize his involvement with the self-centered, neo-liberal entitling machine known as social media, it is only fair that we give Embiid's work on the court the credit it deserves. 

     The Process, Embiid's brain child, has finally begun to develop into a tangible, seismic shift in the Philadelphia 76ers play. Before fans were able to witness the meteoric transcendence of 'The Process', Joel Embiid led a career shrouded in intrigue, impracticality and injuries. Embiid broke the navicular bone - the same bone Yao Ming & Bill Walton broke - in his foot just months away from the 2014 draft, causing him to undergo a relative free fall to the third overall pick (most projected Embiid as a top pick, with the potential to elevate a franchise [They got this one right]). It would take Embiid a full two seasons to escape basketball purgatory in the sense of watching Philadelphia 76ers games from the bench; he didn't even get the chance to play for the league's worst, he had to watch the them. Embiid somehow kept his sanity by proverbially nose diving into the forefront of basketball culture, majoratively regarded as a distraction to players (will touch back on this later). Most couldn't conceptualize a positive outcome for Embiid's scenario, but come October 26th, 2016, the NBA would bare witness to the birth of The Process. 

     Embiid immediately flashed signs of superstardom upon touching the floor. In his first real NBA action, Embiid dropped a cool 20 points, collected seven boards and swatted away two shots. Quite the debut for a previously labelled injury bust. In the following months since, The Process has already cemented his status as a premier starting big man in the NBA, despite the same nagging foot injury  keeping him on a 25-minute restriction. If one were to recognize the undeniable factors concurring with Embiid's play, it would cultivate the legend of The Process even more. Despite his injury issues, despite playing for the Simmons-less Sixers (try saying that ten times fast), despite playing on a substantial minutes restriction, and despite being only 22 years old, Embiid still manages to average 20 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks and a 24.14 Player Efficiency Rating. Did I mention he's shooting nearly 34% from beyond the arc? Scary. Joel possess a smorgasbord of skills that are extremely effective from the low post, high post and beyond the three point line. He has also vastly enhanced the play of his counterparts, evident in the 76ers play of late. Philly has won nine of their last 11, ten of which Joel Embiid consecutively posted at least 20-plus points. The last Sixer to do that? Allen Iverson. 

     When was the last time you witnessed 76ers fans even remotely into a ball-game, let alone shaking the building with TTP chants. 

      Regardless of the stunning on-court performances, it is the personality of Embiid that fully embodies the hype surrounding him. Contemporary athletes across all sports are scrutinized heavily for the way in which they carry themselves beyond the game, most being ridiculed for expressing typical human characteristics. Jose Bautista & Bryce Harper feuded with baseball legends and fans alike over the "Make Baseball Fun Again" campaign, and most are only aware of Metta World Peace because of his name and his ability to double as a quote machine as opposed to his play. Embiid represents the ideal relationship between athlete and celebrity. He doesn't use his play as a platform to impose ideologies like a Harper or Bautista, and doesn't use blatantly bizarre behavior to further his career like a World Peace. Embiid's character is transparent. What we get on Twitter is what we get on the court, and vice versa. On a countless number of occasions he has appealed to his crowd on the hardwood and on the keyboard. I could spend a week & a half listing and examining Embiid's hilarious cultural presence, but we have all seen just how amusing his antics online can become. By doing so, he has brought a level of childish amateurism to a primarily robotic, professional sport. However, it has not damaged the institution, it has aided it. Embiid is able to balance his youthful personality with an on-court maturity far beyond his age. He is basketball's first legitimate rockstar since Shaq. The only difference between the two is that Embiid has the tool of social media to further showcase his goofy personna, which has benefited him immensely, almost transcending him to a level of ball-y-hood (extremely forced pun, I'm aware) that nobody has reached before. He is an enjoyable player as well as person to watch, and generates much more exposure as a tangible asset for the NBA. At this point, its fair to say that Embiid has established himself as the most un-established entity (you can't categorize this guy) in the league (what is it with me and oxymorons?).  In one half a rookie season, Joel Embiid has almost - give it a few more years - risen to a state of basketball nirvana whilst embodying all that fans adore in sporting culture. How is that for a 22-year old Cameroonian with a bad foot? And by the way, Rihanna, would it kill you to shoot this guy a DM?

     With undying love for Joel Embiid, The Process, and all that is good in basketball, I remain amateur basketball blogger Jesse Burrows. Here are some quick hitters to close things out.

Could we see a 12-week Kyle Korver Renaissance?

This trade was not a Millsap-related liquidation of assets. J.R. Smith is on the shelf for four months. The Cavs needed an adequate shooter to fill his spot until he returns. Until then, Korver goes from an adequate sniper-friendly system in Atlanta (pin-downs, hand-offs at the elbow, etc) to the most shooter-friendly lineup in the association (don't @me, Warriors fans) in Cleveland (drive & kicks to the corner from LeBron & Kyrie). Korver is only two years removed from an extremely rare 50-50-90 shooting season, and is now in a potentially deadly 12-week marriage with the Cavs. 

Harden and Russ - Who wins MVP?

These numbers are ludacris. Russ is putting up Big-O numbers, and Harden looks like a more ball-dependant, bearded version of Steve Nash. Both teams would be at the top of the lottery without their respective superstar; No two players better epitomize 'most valuable' than Russ & the beard.

Giannis is a top-10 NBA player 

23.7 PPG, 5.6 AST, 8.7 REB, 2.1 BLK, 1.8 STL, 28.36 PER

A 6'11 point guard putting up these numbers? Speaks for itself.

This could be Dwayne Casey's last chance with the Raptors

Players aren't buying into his defensive philosophy. Can never properly utilize Jonas Valanciunas and probably never will. Almost cost the team Kyle Lowry a few years ago. Sure he's a good coach, trained by a great basketball mind in Rick Carlisle, but he has a finals-caliber team (if coached right) for the second consecutive season. If no more progress is made, it is plausible to envision a new head coach in Toronto come next season.

NBA

---

Written by

JesseBurrows1

Boy Meets Sports

Sport Media student. Basketball addict. Other Sports are cool too.

---