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      Nets’ Spencer Dinwiddie Out Indefinitely With Torn A.C.L.

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonThe Warriors Are StrugglingVirus Upends Houston RocketsMarc Stein’s Fearless PredictionsThe Reloaded LakersAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyNets’ Spencer Dinwiddie Out Indefinitely With Torn A.C.L.Dinwiddie, who started at guard alongside Kyrie Irving, hobbled off the court Sunday in the third quarter with what was initially called knee strain.Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie, who partially tore his right anterior cruciate ligament on Sunday, also tore his left A.C.L. in college.Credit…Michael Dwyer/Associated PressDec. 28, 2020Updated 3:20 p.m. ETThe Nets’ first loss of the season Sunday night at Charlotte has proved especially costly, with the team announcing on Monday that Spencer Dinwiddie, who has been starting at guard alongside Kyrie Irving, partially tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and is out indefinitely.Early in the second half of the Nets’ 106-104 loss to the Hornets, Dinwiddie fell to the floor clutching his right knee after an awkward step in the paint as he passed the ball to Kevin Durant. The team said more details about Dinwiddie’s recovery are expected after surgery next week.Dinwiddie averaged 6.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 21.4 minutes per game in the Nets’ 2-1 start. The Nets routed Golden State at home and Boston on the road in its first two games before slumping to defeat against the Hornets, who had started 0-2 and are not expected to contend for the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. The Nets will be without Dinwiddie, Durant and Irving on Monday night against Memphis at Barclays Center, with Durant and Irving being held out for rest on the second night of a back-to-back.Dinwiddie, 27, averaged 20.6 points and 6.8 assists per game last year while Durant was sidelined for the entire season while recovering from an Achilles’ tendon tear and with Irving limited to just 20 games by various injuries. But Dinwiddie did not join the Nets in the bubble at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla., in July, missing the N.B.A. restart while recovering from Covid-19.He earned a spot in the starting lineup this season when the new Nets coach, Steve Nash, decided to deploy Caris LeVert as a sixth man, only to be felled by the second knee injury of his career. Dinwiddie tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during his junior season at Colorado.The injury Sunday occurred on a drive to the basket against Charlotte’s Bismack Biyombo. Dinwiddie hobbled to the Nets’ bench and, after some treatment, was soon ruled out of the game for what was initially termed a right knee sprain.“When Spencer is going, he can’t be stopped — his offensive game when he’s going downhill creating shots for others,” Jarrett Allen, Dinwiddie’s teammate, told reporters after the game. “And even off the court, everyone loves having Spencer around. His energy, just his personality, is great in the locker room.”Playing on what is regarded as one of the N.B.A.’s most attractive contracts, Dinwiddie can become a free agent at season’s end or invoke a $12.3 million player option for the 2021-22 season.Despite Nash’s lack of coaching experience and uncertainty about how Durant and Irving would mesh after injuries prevented them from playing together in their first season in Brooklyn, the Nets are widely billed as a championship contender — in part because they have one of the league’s deepest rosters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Our Altered View of Sports After 2020

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonThe Warriors Are StrugglingVirus Upends Houston RocketsMarc Stein’s Fearless PredictionsThe Reloaded LakersCredit…By The New York TimesOur Altered ViewThe coronavirus changed sports. But it also changed us. Will our connection as fans always be divided into a before, and an after?Credit…By The New York TimesSupported byContinue reading the main storyIt was all taken for granted, wasn’t it?Before 2020, sports were the one thing we could rely on. There could be wars or disasters or depressions, storms and loss and grief, but there was always an escape hatch. There would be games.There would be games on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons and pretty much some sort of diversion at all other times of the week. It was just that easy.Things were so certain that they printed team schedules on little cards for your wallet and on posters for the barroom walls, and they were gospel. Fans could look at the schedules months in advance and think, yep, I know where I’ll be that day. I know what I’ll be doing that night.That was part of the allure, right? The certainty of it all? We think we watch sports because we don’t know what will happen. We mostly watch because we do.We knew that the teams would show up. We knew the best athletes would be there, all at the appointed time.There would be order. It could be 82 games or 162 games or 16 games, and it would somehow lead to a champion decided through a system only decipherable to the faithful. There would be 60 minutes or 90 minutes or three periods or four quarters or nine innings, because there are lives to plan around these games and life isn’t a test-cricket match.There would be rules and uniforms and officials to keep things fair.There would be things to complain about, because that is part of the ritual, too, and just enough hope to maintain devotion. It is the hope that binds the ritual.Cruel, these diversions, taken away just when we needed them most.But that is the lesson of 2020, isn’t it? The reminder that losing a game is not the worst kind of loss. Not even close.But where do sports fit in now? Is it the same place as before?Scott McIntyre for The New York TimesStrange how innocent, even reckless, things can look in hindsight. There was a Super Bowl in February, and J. Lo and Shakira had a halftime dance-off.The Chiefs came back to beat the 49ers. The stadium was packed. Millions watched on television.Any mention of a “mask” referred to helmet design. “Social distancing” was not a phrase that made any sense.By March, the N.B.A. and N.H.L. were in midseason form. College basketball was headed toward madness. Baseball was at spring training. The Summer Olympics loomed.Spring is the season of expectation, and expectation was in full bloom.Do you remember where you were or who told you? There were signs, smashed into about a week that feels like it’s still going on.Matthew Stockman/Getty ImagesA tennis tournament at Indian Wells was canceled.An N.B.A. game was postponed, then another, then all of them. Basketball tournaments were halted between games.Baseball players were sent home. The Olympics said they’d try again next year.Just wait it out, like a storm. Give it a few days, a couple weeks. This will pass. Everything will soon be back to normal.It isn’t.It won’t be.Must the show go on?There were games to be played, money to be made. (People were dying.)Neville E. Guard/USA Today Sports, via ReutersPlans were concocted, undone and concocted again. (People were dying.)Maybe a short season here, a bubble there. (People were dying.) Everyone wear a mask and let’s get the players tested every day. (People were dying.)Sell cardboard cutouts of fans and pipe in some crowd noise. (People were dying.) Spare no expense and get it on television. (People were dying.)There will be playoffs and champions and winners and losers. (People were dying.)And when this season ends we will start the next season anew. (People are dying.)Where do sports fit in?If only the world were so simple. Fight a pandemic. Play the games, or not.But bubbles are not airtight from reality. There is violence on the streets. There are people bleeding, suffering, marching, dying.Yes, they matter.Pool photo by Phil NobleNow is the time. To kneel. To stand up. To speak. To hear. To vote.Wearing a mask does not mean hiding. Wearing a mask can be revealing.It can save lives.Or maybe change them.What does it mean to be a fan now?It is a simple question in a complex year.Maybe it means finding room for small pleasures. Maybe it means clinging to a sense of community. Maybe it means rituals that will not be broken. Not now.Do sports matter as much if the seats are empty?Felix Schmitt for The New York TimesCan the emotion and the meaning be pixelated and streamed into a million little devices and still bring people together?Cardboard cutouts and Zoom screens are two-dimensional stand-ins for the irreplaceable. What do we do now? Will we jam together in sweaty gyms and raucous arenas and huge stadiums again?Will there be crowded beer lines, hot dog vendors in the aisles, standing room only sections, side-by-side urinals?Will there be deafening roars and derisive chants and people insisting on doing the wave? Cap tips and curtain calls? Will there be those singular, unscripted moments when a building full of strangers, loosely knotted by rooting interest and colorful garb and jammed together between the cup holders, elbows to elbows, knees to backs, rise as one?Maybe. Maybe not like before. Maybe not again.There was a November game between two college football powers that encapsulated 2020 better than any other sports event. All season, including that weekend, games had been wiped out by coronavirus outbreaks and single positive tests. But not this one.Matt Cashore/USA Today Sports, via ReutersClemson played at Notre Dame. The Heisman Trophy favorite had tested positive for the coronavirus but still made the trip and stood on the sideline in a mask.About 11,000 fans were in the stands, because that somehow was deemed the right balance between safety and structure. The game went to double overtime. The home team won. And when it did, the fans rushed the field.It was familiar. It was galling.It was 2020.There’s always next year. That is what they say in sports when a team has run out of chances. It is part of the ritual, too, the grasp for hope that better days are ahead.There’s always next year. We probably said that last year, too, back when we took all this — the games, sure, but life itself — for granted.There’s always next year.Except this time, we know: Nothing is certain.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      N.B.A. Postpones Houston Rockets Game Because of Coronavirus

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesThe Stimulus DealThe Latest Vaccine InformationF.A.Q.AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyN.B.A. Postpones Rockets Game, an Early Test of the League’s Virus RulesMultiple positive or inconclusive coronavirus tests, and a health protocol breach, left the Houston Rockets with too few players to compete in their season opener Wednesday.The N.B.A. said James Harden of the Houston Rockets was “unavailable” for Wednesday’s game after violating health and safety protocols.Credit…Pool photo by Carmen MandatoDec. 23, 2020Updated 8:04 p.m. ETIn an immediate blow to the N.B.A.’s attempt to stage a season without the protection of a restricted-access bubble, league officials were forced to postpone the Houston Rockets’ season opener on Wednesday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder when the Rockets were unable to field the required minimum of eight players in uniform.On just the second night of the 2020-21 season, an announcement that the game would be postponed “in accordance with the league’s health and safety protocols” came less than three hours before the game’s scheduled tipoff in Houston. Three Rockets players, according to the league, had coronavirus tests that were either positive or inconclusive, leading to the placement of four other Rockets players in quarantine after contact tracing.In addition, one other Rocket (Chris Clemons) is injured and the All-Star James Harden was prevented from playing because of what the league termed “a violation” of its health and safety guidelines. The league later fined Harden $50,000 for attending “a private indoor party” on Monday; video began to circulate this week showing him at an indoor venue without a mask.The Rockets were one of six teams in the 30-team N.B.A. scheduled to allow reduced-capacity crowds into their buildings at the start of the season, which comes as the coronavirus wreaks its worst havoc yet across the United States. Commissioner Adam Silver said in a series of interviews on Monday that the N.B.A. was anticipating “bumps in the road along the way,” but being forced to order a postponement so soon illuminated the various complications it faces.Unlike the N.F.L. and college football, which have been besieged by their own coronavirus setbacks, the N.B.A. is trying to operate a contact sport played entirely indoors — outside of a bubble — with mere 17-player rosters and frequent travel amid an unyielding pandemic.The Coronavirus Outbreak More

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      Amar’e Stoudemire Is a Coach Now. But Don’t Call Him That.

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonNets and Clippers Win BigMVP: LeBron or Luka?The Reloaded LakersWill the Nets Reign?Assistant coach Amar’e Stoudemire of the Brooklyn NetsCredit…Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE, via Getty ImagesSkip to contentSkip to site indexAmar’e Stoudemire Is a Coach Now. But Don’t Call Him That.Stoudemire has reunited with his Phoenix Suns cohort of Steve Nash and Mike D’Antoni on the Nets’ staff. It’s weird to him, too.Assistant coach Amar’e Stoudemire of the Brooklyn NetsCredit…Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE, via Getty ImagesSupported byContinue reading the main storyDec. 23, 2020, 5:03 p.m. ETAs recently as late July, Amar’e Stoudemire was seemingly as far away as possible from joining the Nets’ coaching staff and a high-wattage reunion of Phoenix Suns alumni in Brooklyn. Stoudemire was still playing abroad — and helping Maccabi Tel Aviv win a 54th league championship in Israel.He didn’t know at the time that Steve Nash, the former on-court conductor of the Suns’ “Seven Seconds or Less” era, was a top-secret candidate to become the Nets’ new head coach. Like most connected to the N.B.A., Stoudemire also had no inkling that Mike D’Antoni — who had built a revolutionary offense in Phoenix around the Nash-and-Stoudemire combination — would soon pivot from coaching the Houston Rockets to becoming Nash’s offensive coordinator.For most of the summer, Stoudemire, 38, mostly wrestled with whether to keep playing. He was offered a new one-year contract by Maccabi soon after his performance (18 points and 7 rebounds) in the Israeli Basketball Premier League title game earned him most valuable player honors.Champions and MVP. #stayfocus #StayPostive pic.twitter.com/OySkZYr3yr— Amar’e Stoudemire (@Amareisreal) July 29, 2020
      “I never really thought much about coaching, to be honest with you,” Stoudemire said.That all changed in September after Nash, who played alongside Stoudemire for six seasons in Phoenix, was hired by the Nets as their head coach. Stoudemire reached out with interest in exploring his options to begin a post-playing career. Nash, who had also pitched player development roles on his fledgling staff to his former teammates Dirk Nowitzki and Raja Bell, made a similar offer to Stoudemire.“He’s just getting his foot in the door,” Nash said. “We wanted him to come in and share all the things that he learned from his experiences — but also to learn about coaching, video analysis, analytics and the front office.”Israel had “absolutely” become a second home, Stoudemire, a former Suns and Knicks player, said, after he immersed himself in Judaism over the past decade and then obtained Israeli citizenship in March 2019. That comfort level only added to the lure of playing one more season with Maccabi, but Stoudemire decided to give coaching a try, unsure as he was, even after 14 seasons in the N.B.A. and three playing in Israel and China, that he had reached an age he associated with the profession.“I just never liked the title Coach,” Stoudemire said. “There’s not a lot of swagger that comes with that title. I’m still not quite there yet. I’m still very young, and I like to feel young.”On the Nets’ organizational chart, Stoudemire has been officially named a player development assistant. He brings some experience to the role despite his ambivalence about the coaching label, having hosted a few Nike camps in his Suns and Knicks prime in which he worked briefly with future stars such as Blake Griffin, DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis.At Maccabi last season, Stoudemire also served as a mentor to the Israeli teenager Deni Avdija, who last month became the first lottery draft pick in his country’s history when the Washington Wizards took him with the No. 9 overall selection. Stoudemire, himself a former No. 9 pick in Phoenix, routinely urged Avdija, a versatile 6-foot-9 forward, to “get a triple-double every single chance he gets” and to “attack the rim with force.”Amar’e Stoudemire, right, was a mentor to the Israeli teenager Deni Avdija, left, who was drafted ninth over all by the Washington Wizards.Credit…Tolga Adanali/Euroleague Basketball, via Getty Images“We worked on a no-mercy mind-set,” Stoudemire said.Stoudemire “brings great energy,” Nash said, and can still participate in drills when needed. Nash called him “one of the first true small-ball centers” with much to pass on to modern big men. Nash and D’Antoni have often lamented that their groundbreaking Phoenix teams didn’t lean even harder on smaller lineups, rampant 3-point shooting and fast-paced play — all of which is much more accepted now than it was then. They were wildly successful but ultimately fell short of a championship.Beyond the practice floor, yet another Suns alumnus from that period — Nets General Manager Sean Marks — has given Stoudemire the latitude to sit in on management meetings to get a taste of front-office planning, scouting and recruiting strategies and integrating analytics with traditional coaching.“He has complete access,” Nash said. “We’re pushing him to be as involved as he wants.”“I get to learn from all departments,” Stoudemire said, “to see where I want my career to go.”The varied coursework feeds into a studious side that took hold of Stoudemire as his career progressed in the N.B.A. and blossomed in Israel, where he had two stints with Hapoel Jerusalem, Maccabi’s fiercest rival, before a January 2020 move to join the Tel Aviv club. Initially inspired to become a student of Torah after joining the Knicks in July 2010 and gaining more exposure to Judaism and its connections to his family’s heritage, Stoudemire enrolled at multiple yeshivas as a Jerusalem player to learn the religion’s Orthodox customs. He completed a formal conversion to Orthodox Judaism in August.Stoudemire observes the Jewish Sabbath (Shabbat) from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, keeps a kosher diet and became known in his Maccabi days for arriving at games in all-black Orthodox clothing rather than the trendy gear that has transformed player arena entrances in the N.B.A. into a virtual sport unto itself. Stoudemire, whose Hebrew name is Yehosaphat, said he would work with the Nets to determine the best way to maintain the same level of Orthodox Shabbat observance now that he is back in the United States, where businesses do not shut down on Friday nights as they largely do in Israel.“My time in Israel was amazing,” Stoudemire said. “It took me to another level of purifying myself and making me more mature. From the first day I got there to the last day to walking off with the M.V.P. trophy, it was simply a remarkable experience.”Nash said: “I really admire him. It’s not just our history and our relationship, but how open and inquisitive he is. Amar’e never feels like he’s fully formed; he’s always trying to learn more and do more. So when he showed interest, I said, ‘This is the kind of guy I want.’”Steve Nash, second from left, recorded his first coaching victory with the Nets in their opener on Tuesday night, a 125-99 win over the Golden State Warriors.Credit…Sarah Stier/Getty ImagesThe learning continues back on American soil: Stoudemire said he was taking online courses at the University of Miami in pursuit of an M.B.A. to augment his new job. One veteran coach who knows him well, though, thinks Stoudemire is more of a coaching natural than he even realizes.Phil Weber, known as Drill Phil for his player development work on D’Antoni’s staff in Phoenix, predicted that “players will immediately respect and naturally gravitate towards him.” Weber worked for years with Stoudemire on his shooting after their time together in Phoenix and said it would quickly be evident to the Nets “how much Amar’e cares and how personable he is.”The Nets’ Kyrie Irving said of Nash and the influence of so many former Suns: “Coming in with Mike D’Antoni, with Amar’e Stoudemire, they have been able to guide us to come together as a group.”Stoudemire emphasized, for the record, that he had not formally retired as a player. He likewise remains uneasy about Nets big men such as DeAndre Jordan and Jarrett Allen calling him Coach because the connotation, he said, “has kind of an older vibe to it.”Told that, on the flip side, being addressed in that manner could also suggest he had a higher level of wisdom, Stoudemire said, “I’ll take it.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      8 Fearless N.B.A. Season Predictions

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonNets and Clippers Win BigMVP: LeBron or Luka?The Reloaded LakersWill the Nets Reign?AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storymarc stein on basketball8 Fearless N.B.A. Season PredictionsHouston’s James Harden is widely expected to be traded soon. But Kevin Love? Zach LaVine? LaMarcus Aldridge? They could be on the move, too.The outlook for James Harden is now about when, not if, he will be traded from the Houston Rockets.Credit…Mark Mulligan/Houston Chronicle, via Associated PressDec. 23, 2020, 3:00 a.m. ETThe N.B.A.’s 75th season began Tuesday night with wins by the Nets and the Clippers. A new calendar year arrives in just nine days.The time, then, has never been more right to consult our crystal roundball for the usual batch of eight (almost) fearless predictions for what awaits in #thisleague in coming months:James Harden will be traded no later than Jan. 25 — two full months before this season’s trade deadline.The initial rumblings, at the start of Harden’s standoff with the Houston Rockets, suggested that a trade was unlikely to materialize until closer to the March 25 deadline. The Rockets were determined to first see if they could repair their relationship with Harden, then to leverage the two guaranteed seasons left on his contract on the trade market.More current rumblings indicate that tension within the Rockets is mounting each day Harden goes untraded. The Athletic illuminated some of that tension with a report Tuesday that Harden recently threw a ball in practice at Jae’Sean Tate, his new rookie teammate. Both sides now want to move on as quickly as possible. It’s time.I still regard Philadelphia as the most likely landing spot for Harden, largely because Ben Simmons most closely fits the description of the sort of building-block player Houston is holding out for in return. I’m also told that the familiarity between Daryl Morey and his Rockets successor, Rafael Stone, will outweigh any lingering ill feelings from Morey’s move to Philadelphia as president of basketball operations less than two weeks after he walked away from his Houston contract. I know Morey has said that Simmons is going nowhere. I also know Morey made similar statements about Chris Paul before he traded Paul to Oklahoma City for Russell Westbrook.The Heat let it be known this week that they are not actively pursuing Harden, which is a blow for the Rockets because Miami is one of those fearless teams with the oft-proven gumption to embrace an enigma like Harden in spite of the various red flags. The Sixers and the Nets, though, may not be the only other options: In recent days, it has become known that Toronto, Boston and Denver have also had exploratory talks with Houston.The Rockets will keep probing the market, as eager to move on now as the superstar they catered to for the past eight seasons.At least three of the following five players will be traded this season in addition to Harden: LaMarcus Aldridge, Aaron Gordon, Buddy Hield, Zach LaVine and Kevin Love. Maybe even all five.Love’s case is the most intriguing. He has $91.5 million left on his Cleveland contract with two more seasons after this one. Yet the flurry of contract extensions we’ve seen during the N.B.A.’s truncated off-season may encourage a team or two out there to sacrifice some future salary-cap flexibility to absorb Love’s deal, knowing that free-agent options will be more limited than anticipated.Both Aldridge and Gordon are interesting candidates with their shorter remaining contracts to slot in Boston’s $28.5 million trade exception, which the Celtics (depending on their willingness to run up their luxury-tax bill) can use to add absorb a huge salary in a trade.Kevin Durant will be first player in N.B.A. history to go from an Achilles’ tendon tear to Most Valuable Player Award candidacy.Kevin Durant’s game looked as fluid as ever during the preseason.Credit…Kathy Willens/Associated PressIn Tuesday’s New York Times, as part of a staff compendium of award predictions for the coming season, I went with Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks as my M.V.P. selection. As strong as Doncic’s case will surely be, I’ve been asking myself if I should have gone with Durant.It is super early in his comeback, true, and the Nets will be wary of overtaxing their star forward during the regular season. But Durant is shooting, moving and, yes, dunking as fluidly as we’ve ever seen a player post-Achilles’ tendon surgery.Even at 32, Durant looks highly capable of changing the devastating history of the most dreaded injury in the sport. Then again, Durant is one of the sport’s true offensive unicorns, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised.The Eastern Conference will earn your respect.I can’t claim to have invented the phrase, but I think I’ve been using “Leastern Conference” jabs in stories for almost 20 years. Even in recent seasons that produced a champion from the East, depth on that side of the N.B.A. has often been lacking.This season will be different. Although the West still has more teams that can credibly compete for a playoff spot, it appears that more challengers to the Lakers’ throne (starting with Milwaukee, Miami and the Nets) can be found in the East.Sorting out the East’s top seven, if the Indiana Pacers are indeed more dynamic offensively under new coach Nate Bjorkgren, should be complicated and fun.Finishing sixth in each conference will mean more than it ever has before.One of the best things about the N.B.A.’s play-in playoff round, beyond giving four more teams than usual a pathway to the postseason, is how much more value finishing sixth in the East or West holds.The No. 6 seed clinches a first-round playoff berth. The No. 7 seed slips into a four-team scramble that, in the worst-case scenario, could result in an early off-season. In the N.B.A.’s ongoing quest to make the regular season more meaningful (and watchable), this should help.The No. 9 or No. 10 seed in either conference would have to win two consecutive games to bump off No. 7 or No. 8 for a playoff spot.Game 1: The format calls for the seventh-place team in each conference seed to play No. 8, with the winner claiming the No. 7 seed.Game 2: The No. 9 seed goes up against No. 10. The loser is eliminated.Game 3: The loser of Game 1 faces the winner of Game 2. The Game 3 winner claims the final playoff berth, with the loser heading to the lottery.Got it?There will be All-Star balloting, like usual, even if there is no All-Star Game.All-Star festivities will be different this season, but we’ll still fight about selections and snubs as usual.Credit…Nathaniel S. Butler/NBA PhotosThe N.B.A. has already announced that its 2021 All-Star Weekend, which was scheduled to be held in Indianapolis, has been postponed to 2024 to give the Hoosier State another shot at hosting. Indianapolis last played host to an N.B.A. All-Star Game in 1985.I think the league, deep down, would like to arrange a simpler All-Star Game, just this season, if it made sense to do so. That, however, is a lot to ask in these coronavirus times — especially when a true midseason break of some sort is sure to be welcomed by players after the shortest off-season in history for most teams.Can you live with traditional All-Star balloting, coaches selecting the reserves and the usual Twitter fisticuffs over who got snubbed? I’m pretty sure we’re going to get all that.The Miami Heat will reach the N.B.A. finals again.This is going to be harder than it sounds if you remember the above warnings about the East’s top seven.It will be doubly difficult if you endorse the belief in some league circles that the Heat would not have advanced to the finals at Walt Disney World if not for some bubble anomalies, like the lack of travel and the absence of hostile environments on the road. Miami’s ever-demanding culture for players that puts so much emphasis on fitness and focus, as the theory goes, had its roster primed to cope better than anyone with the long bouts of isolation in the bubble and other mental-health challenges.I don’t buy it. I think the Heat have a worthy, versatile, defensive-minded team that orbits around Jimmy Butler and will be stronger this season as Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson develop. They beat the Lakers twice in the finals, remember, despite the injuries sustained by Adebayo and Goran Dragic.Miami was not a mirage.There will be a loud campaign for the N.B.A. to start cooking up a new all-time team, featuring 75 players as the league’s 75th birthday nears in June, to replace or update the league’s list of 50 greatest players named in October 1996, the league’s 50th season.And if I’m wrong and no loud campaign materializes, I will start it myself.The Scoop @TheSteinLineGrizzlies fans will have to watch Ja Morant from home for now.Credit…Brandon Dill/Associated PressCorner ThreeTrevor Ariza has probably been on your favorite team.Credit…John Raoux/Associated PressYou ask; I answer. Every week in this space, I’ll field three questions posed via email at marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com. Please include your first and last name, as well as the city you’re writing in from, and make sure “Corner Three” is in the subject line.(Questions may be lightly edited or condensed for clarity.)Q: The West is obviously going to have more than eight teams vying for playoff spots. Which teams do you think we can rule out now? — Natalie Anfuso (Wayne, Pa.)Stein: I totally understand why you’re asking, because it’s a difficult question to answer. If you’re looking to rule out teams completely, I would feel comfortable naming only Oklahoma City — and that’s just because the Thunder have aggressively embraced a rebuilding posture. It wouldn’t surprise me, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander running the offense and Al Horford and Luguentz Dort anchoring the defense, if even the Thunder proved to be a tougher out than expected.Every team in the West that finished eighth or lower last season has grander visions of this season’s ceiling. No. 8 Portland believes it will contend for a top-four seed after the acquisition of Robert Covington and some additional roster tweaking. Memphis placed ninth and is counting on a similar finish, at worst, purely through Ja Morant’s presumed improvement in Year 2. And No. 10 Phoenix is widely regarded as playoff material now after going 8-0 at the Walt Disney World bubble and then trading for Chris Paul.While outsiders await a potential trade that ships out a veteran like LaMarcus Aldridge, DeMar DeRozan or Patty Mills, No. 11 San Antonio is optimistic that the experience its younger players gained in the bubble will make the Spurs a playoff sleeper. No. 13 New Orleans is one of the more difficult teams to assess and figures to have a puncher’s chance to reach the postseason purely based on the track record of its new coach, Stan Van Gundy, and Zion Williamson’s promising preseason. Golden State, of course, is expected to bounce back from the league’s worst record (15-50) to contend for a playoff berth — even with Klay Thompson out for the season after he tore his right Achilles’ tendon in November.I have more confidence in Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell clicking and No. 14 Minnesota joining that mix ahead of No. 12 Sacramento, but the Timberwolves and the Kings have to be considered playoff long shots in a conference this deep. The Kings, remember, have missed the postseason for a league-high 14 consecutive seasons and, even with a revamped front office, left numerous rival teams stunned by their decision not to match Atlanta’s four-year, $72 million offer sheet to Bogdan Bogdanovic.Q: Maybe it wasn’t part of the wildest off-season ever, but Luke Ridnour had a wild week in 2015 — he was traded five times, if I remember correctly. Did he ever play for any of them? — Barron Hall (Chicago)Stein: Good follow-up question to our recent debate in this space about the proper amount of awe in response to the leaguewide frenzy of transactions in the days before and after the Nov. 18 draft. Ridnour was actually traded four times in a week in June 2015 — one trade more than Trevor Ariza was subjected to last month — but he never played for any of the teams involved.In fact, Ridnour never played in the league again after his stint with Orlando in 2014-15. He had a nonguaranteed contract worth $2.75 million for the 2015-16 season, which is why Ridnour kept being moved, but he decided to stop playing after Toronto acquired him from Oklahoma City in trade No. 4. The first three trades sent him from Orlando to Memphis, Memphis to Charlotte and Charlotte to Oklahoma City.Ariza is on the Thunder’s opening-night roster and, according to my old friends at HoopsHype, has been traded 10 times in his career — more than any other player in league history. Ariza is likely to be mentioned frequently as the potential recipient of an in-season contract buyout that makes him a free-agent target for contending teams like the Lakers, but who would be surprised if Oklahoma City finds a way to trade him again?Q: I honestly don’t know what normal is anymore, but the last five minutes of the Golden State-Sacramento game last Tuesday night were pure joy. All the rookies and reserves were playing their hearts out, Kyle Guy’s buzzer-beater gave the Kings a win, and Steve Kerr, Alvin Gentry and Luke Walton were all laughing through their masks. As a basketball-starved, 70-year-old woman, I enjoyed all of it. Bring it on! — Gigi CoeStein: You get the last word, Gigi. Let’s hope, as the regular season opens Tuesday night, that we have lots of scenes like the one you describe to dissect and savor.Numbers GameCharlotte’s LaMelo Ball has wowed with his passing. Not so much his shooting, yet.Credit…Matt Stamey/Associated Press6Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo last week became the sixth player to sign a so-called supermax contract extension, joining Golden State’s Stephen Curry, Portland’s Damian Lillard, Houston’s James Harden, Washington’s Russell Westbrook and Houston’s John Wall. Two marquee stars who were eligible to sign supermax deals with their former teams but declined: Anthony Davis (New Orleans) and Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio). Utah’s Rudy Gobert was also eligible for the supermax but signed a five-year deal on Sunday with the Jazz at roughly $23 million below the highest amount he could have received.3The supermax contract was introduced to help incumbent teams retain superstar players, after Kevin Durant left Oklahoma City for Golden State in July 2016, but Harden recently became the third of those six supermax recipients to request a trade. Westbrook has been traded twice since signing his supermax with Oklahoma City in September 2017. Wall signed his with Washington in July 2017 and was traded for Westbrook on Dec. 2 after both players asked for a trade.26.2Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball threw some of the best passes I’ve ever seen during the preseason — including a one-handed bounce pass against Orlando on Saturday with skip and bend that should be enjoyed over and over — but Ball, a rookie guard, is struggling as badly as feared with his shooting. Drafted No. 3 over all by the Hornets in November, Ball shot 26.2 percent from the field and 27.3 percent on 3-pointers in Charlotte’s four exhibition games.44.3With a career conversion rate of 44.3 percent, Philadelphia’s Seth Curry ranks second in league history in 3-point percentage behind Golden State Coach Steve Kerr, who was a career 45.4 percent shooter from long range. The Warriors’ Stephen Curry is sixth at 43.5 percent, behind Hubert Davis (44.1 percent), Drazen Petrovic (43.7 percent) and Duncan Robinson (43.7 percent).5,739We can’t forget that Stephen Curry, coming into this season, had attempted 5,739 3-pointers in his 11 N.B.A. seasons. That’s more than Kerr (1,599), his brother, Seth (1,007), and Miami’s Robinson (641) combined (3,247).Hit me up anytime on Twitter (@TheSteinLine) or Facebook (@MarcSteinNBA) or Instagram (@thesteinline). Send any other feedback to marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.comAdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Nets and Clippers Open N.B.A. Season With Big Wins

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonNets and Clippers Win BigMVP: LeBron or Luka?The Reloaded LakersWill the Nets Reign?AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyNets and Clippers Open N.B.A. Season With Big WinsThe Nets dominated the Warriors, and the Clippers staved off a comeback attempt by the Lakers. Kevin Durant and Paul George were the night’s stars.Paul George had a strong performance for the Clippers on Tuesday, with 33 points on 13-of-18 shooting.Credit…Harry How/Getty ImagesScott Cacciola and Published More