Basketball

Subterms

    More stories

    • 125 Shares99 Views

      in Basket

      One Year Later, Rudy Gobert Is at Peace. And Thriving.

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonVirus Hotspots in the N.B.A.LeBron and Anthony DavisThe N.B.A. Wanted HerMissing Klay ThompsonKobe the #GirlDadAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOne Year Later, Rudy Gobert Is at Peace. And Thriving.The Utah Jazz center’s positive test for the coronavirus began a cascading shutdown of American sports. But with a huge new contract and a dominant team, he has moved on.Rudy Gobert is averaging 14.2 points, 13.1 rebounds and a career-high 2.7 blocks a game. Credit…Kent Smith/NBAE, via Getty ImagesMarch 10, 2021Updated 9:24 p.m. ETIt was not a time in his life, understandably, that Rudy Gobert is eager to revisit. No one wants to be connected so closely to the day that the N.B.A., suddenly infiltrated by the coronavirus, suspended its season.Gobert, though, is realistic. He constantly sizes up situations in his rim-protecting role for the Utah Jazz. He understands better than most that there are some things even a supreme shot-blocker can’t swat away.So he has known for some time what was coming this month. Copious coverage of the unhappy anniversary was inevitable, ready or not, one year removed from Gobert’s positive test for the coronavirus on March 11, 2020. It was the thunderbolt that led to the postponement of Utah’s game in Oklahoma City that night and, some 90 minutes later, an abrupt announcement that the 2019-20 season was being placed on hiatus “until further notice.” The novel coronavirus had been thrust to the forefront of major team sports in North America.It was the sort of unforgettably seismic event that forced Gobert, during a virtual interview session just hours before he played in Sunday’s 70th N.B.A. All-Star Game, to field multiple questions asking him to look back.“Those few weeks, those few months, were really tough,” Gobert said softly. “I’m just blessed to be able to be here today to enjoy this All-Star Game — and to be healthy.”The focus should be back on basketball soon enough and Gobert, this March, is clearly in a good place. Despite his modest 14.2 points per game, and winding up as the last of 24 players selected when LeBron James and Kevin Durant chose the All-Star squads, Gobert can stride into Utah’s one-year-later practice session on Thursday knowing he has never been a more effective two-way player.There is a case to be made that Gobert, because of his impact at both ends, is the foremost catalyst for Utah’s league-best record (27-9) halfway through the regular season. Gobert, 28, ranks No. 239 out of nearly 500 players in usage rate; only 17.3 percent of Utah’s plays on offense involve him when he’s on the floor. But his tireless screen-setting, with the constant threat he poses to dive to the rim for dunks, opens things for Utah’s increased emphasis on the 3-point shot.The Jazz are on pace to become the first team in league history to make 17 3-pointers per game. Ryan Smith, Utah’s rookie owner and a lifelong Jazz fan, called Gobert “one of the most selfless players in the league” for the space he creates.“He does so much,” Smith said, “that no one sees.”It’s a scouting report no one could have filed 12 months ago, when Gobert lost any semblance of anonymity. Two days before he tested positive, Gobert made a show of touching several microphones on a press-room table. It was an ill-fated attempt to lighten the mood on the first day that reporters, limited by a new N.B.A. rule to promote social distancing, could not hold their microphones near Gobert’s face as they asked him questions. When the video was replayed, over and over, after Gobert’s positive test, his actions were widely interpreted as cavalier behavior that mocked the severity of the coronavirus.In an Instagram post, Gobert apologized for what he termed “careless” actions and said he “had no idea I was even infected.” The N.B.A. was largely praised for reacting so swiftly to Gobert’s positive test — in what many billed as the moment, along with the subsequent suspension of the season, that the coronavirus threat became real for many Americans — but the fallout made Gobert a villain on top of his status as the N.B.A.’s Patient Zero.The Jazz have the N.B.A.’s best record and Gobert’s intimidating defense and efficient offense have played a huge role in that. Credit…Steph Chambers/Getty ImagesWhat followed were those tough “weeks” and “months” that Gobert referenced before making his second consecutive All-Star appearance. Yet by year’s end, Gobert had rebounded so emphatically that he signed a five-year, $205 million contract in December, just days after Smith was approved as Utah’s new owner. It is the richest deal in league history for a center and ensured that Gobert’s 2020 produced a dizzying swirl of emotions.“It was definitely a tough year, not just for me, but for everyone,” Gobert said. “A lot of things happened. A lot of unexpected things happened. But I believe that every tough moment is a learning experience. I think the most important thing is to try to make positive out of the negative, and hopefully that’s what I’ve been able to do.”Said Smith: “It was hard for him to be the first, but if you ever dive deep into that day in Oklahoma, no one knew what to do. People were calling me when I was still a sponsor, saying: ‘How do we get the team out of here, how can we get a plane?’ The organization was literally in the most uncharted situation that we have been through.”Gobert’s lows and challenges consumed several months. His bout with the coronavirus included a temporary loss of taste and smell. The microphones episode and a positive test for Donovan Mitchell, Utah’s All-Star guard, exacerbated long-simmering tensions between the two, which lingered until the season restarted at Walt Disney World in July.Gobert, Mitchell and the franchise faced another setback when the Jazz were stunned by the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs after taking a three-games-to-one series lead. Some around the league wondered if Utah would break the duo up via trade. Yet Gobert insisted that just being in the N.B.A. bubble — and, for him, scoring the historic first basket of the restart — instilled him with “the feeling that the world was still spinning.” He and Mitchell have since rebuilt their relationship to the point it has become a running joke among Jazz players that various media reports described the union as “unsalvageable” last April.“You watch those two guys play now and that’s a long time ago, literally and figuratively,” Utah Coach Quin Snyder said of past tensions.To gain further distance from the crushing Denver series, Mitchell signed his own lucrative contract extension in November. The pair’s deals are worth a combined $400 million and Gobert, the No. 27 overall pick in 2013 who spent time in the N.B.A.’s developmental league as a rookie, has lived up to it with perhaps his best all-around play (13.1 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game).“Signing the contract doesn’t put more pressure on me,” Gobert said in a telephone interview on a recent drive home from practice. “In people’s minds, maybe it changed their perception about me, but no amount of money is going to add pressure to what I put on myself.“I’ve had a target on my back for many, many years now — for multiple reasons. When you win multiple defensive player of the years, people just try to come at you. So I’ve had that mind-set already.”Gobert, who stands 7 feet 1 inch and has a 7-foot-9 wingspan, also has a kindred spirit nearby when he needs counsel. Mark Eaton, the 7-4 center who played for the Jazz for his entire 11-season career, remains a fixture in the community and has become a sounding board for Utah’s modern-day defensive anchor.Their relationship was once described as “unsalvageable,” but Donovan Mitchell and Gobert have worked through any issues. They have committed to stay in Utah long term.Credit…Rick Bowmer/Associated PressThey bonded a few years back when Eaton introduced Gobert to a fellow Frenchman, David Folch, who designs bicycles with 36-inch wheels for tall riders. Gobert purchased his own bike and soon visited Eaton’s Park City home for a 7-footers-only ride — and, later, a visit to what Eaton called “the shrine my wife put up in our house” of mementos from his Jazz career. Gobert spotted Eaton’s two Defensive Player of the Year trophies from 1984-85 and 1988-89 and announced that he intended to continue the tradition.“Now he has two of his own,” Eaton said.Praise was slow to come during Utah’s hot start, even when the Jazz ripped off a 20-1 stretch that featured 18 double-digit victories, but Gobert has learned to live with that, too. His succinct answer for skeptics who say that the Jazz have to prove themselves in the playoffs to validate their many regular-season feats: “They’re right.”When given the chance, he also refused to fire back at the Hall of Fame center Shaquille O’Neal, who has been repeatedly dismissive of Mitchell and Gobert on TNT — especially regarding Gobert’s contract.“I have a lot of respect for his career,” Gobert said of O’Neal. “He’s one of the guys that, growing up watching basketball, we all looked up to. But now he’s an entertainer in a way, so he’s doing things, saying things. If I start taking personal everything that’s been said about me, it’s going to be a long year.”Gobert said he would take a similar approach to cope with the likelihood that his connection to March 11 is something that he’ll always be asked about.“People only know what they’ve seen and what they’ve been told about me,” he said. “I’m not really worried about what people that don’t know me think about me.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 88 Shares169 Views

      in Basket

      On the Road Again at All-Star Weekend

      by

      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyMarc Stein On BasketballOn the Road Again at All-Star WeekendPlenty of stars expressed concern about playing in the All-Star Game, but it proved to be an important trip for Nikola Vucevic and for a columnist eager to resume traveling.For Nikola Vucevic of the Orlando Magic, the All-Star festivities were a chance to reconnect with a few friends. He played 19 minutes in the game and finished second in the skills competition. Credit…Dale Zanine/USA Today Sports, via ReutersMarch 10, 2021, 9:00 a.m. ETSunday’s 70th N.B.A. All-Star Game was repeatedly described as one almost all of us could have done without.The almost disclaimer got thrown in for people like Boran Rajcic, Stefan Vulevic and the Orlando Magic’s Nikola Vucevic. Like the league’s broadcast partners at Turner Sports, and the historically Black colleges and universities that gained so much from the weekend, Vucevcic and his close friends savored the experience.Vucevic and fellow All-Stars were allowed to bring up to four guests into the bubble environment that the N.B.A. conceived in Atlanta in hopes of staging Sunday’s competitions safely and hushing the naysayers who feared that the one-day format could devolve into some sort of superspreader event. After deciding with his wife, Nikoleta, that it would be wiser for her and their two young children to stay home this year, Vucevic figured he would be commemorating the second All-Star appearance of his career as a party of one.Rajcic and Vulevic wouldn’t let it happen.Rajcic drove to Georgia from California and made stops in Phoenix and Dallas along the way to register the requisite league-mandated negative tests for Covid-19 at official N.B.A. team testing facilities. Vulevic drove in six hours from Virginia to double the size of Vucevic’s fan club. So moved by those efforts, Vucevic arranged to stay over Sunday night before returning to Orlando — unlike the many All-Stars who left town immediately after the game by private jet — to maximize his time with the guys.Time together had to suffice as the primary source of entertainment, since they were posted up in a downtown hotel that, per N.B.A. rules, those cleared to enter were not allowed to leave.“I actually had a pretty nice balcony with my room,” Vucevic said. “We just hung out, played music, caught up.”Rajcic, who was the best man in Vucevic’s wedding, and Vulevic were adamant that they had to be in Atlanta, whatever it took, to make the most of what might prove to be the high point of Vucevic’s trying season. Vucevic, at 30, is producing career-best personal numbers so robust that he earned an All-Star spot despite injury-ravaged Orlando falling to 14th in the Eastern Conference at 13-23. A 6-foot-11 Montenegrin center, he is averaging 24.6 points and 11.6 rebounds while shooting 41.2 percent from 3-point range, which explains why the Boston Celtics — who openly covet a big man with shooting range — are mentioned often among the multiple playoff teams interested in acquiring Vucevic before the March 25 trade deadline.I was not aware of a room-with-balcony-option at my Atlanta hotel, but I could understand the pull Rajcic and Vulevic felt to make the trip. Before boarding a Georgia-bound flight last Friday night, I hadn’t left my Dallas base to attend an N.B.A. function of any kind since leaving the Walt Disney World bubble last September. This assignment struck me as the must-see occasion to end that drought. I was convinced of it despite the unappetizing prospect of pandemic air travel and knowing that the mere 50 members of the news media that would be credentialed at State Farm Arena, compared with the usual 1,000-plus that the league credentials, would get nowhere near the players or the floor like we ultimately did in the Disney bubble.When I strolled the streets surrounding the Atlanta Hawks’ home on Saturday afternoon, there was zero All-Star energy in the air and, unlike a typical N.B.A. production, very little signage to signal what would be happening Sunday night. Sunday’s walk to the game was even more disorienting, thanks to a police presence in the area that completely cleared out the arena’s perimeter. Maybe the N.B.A. and Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Atlanta mayor, were unable to dissuade locals and out-of-towners from congregating at unaffiliated parties thrown Friday and Saturday night as they had hoped, but by game day it was very much the closed-to-the-public, made-for-television event that the league intended.I knew going in that I would be granted access to a decent seat in a confined section of the arena behind one of the baskets and little else, but I’m glad I went. If the game was going to go ahead, after LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, James Harden and various other stars had all spoken out so forcefully against the league’s intentions to stuff three days’ worth of All-Star festivities into a one-night Turner bonanza, I felt a responsibility to get there as well and see as much as I could with my own eyes — just in case something went badly askew.Those superspreader fears were apparently averted when Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons were kept isolated from the other All-Stars after it was discovered that before leaving Philadelphia they had been exposed to a barber who had tested positive for Covid-19. The announcement that Embiid and Simmons were being pulled from Sunday’s game stoked a fresh round of apprehension and resistance among players, but my sense was that most participants came away appreciative of the experience.“There’s obviously a big balancing act, and I know Adam Silver tried to articulate that throughout this process, and obviously us as players, we have reactions to everything that happens because it’s our world and we’re living in it,” Golden State’s Stephen Curry said. “I still had a great time out there.”Credit…Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images“There’s obviously a big balancing act, and I know Adam Silver tried to articulate that throughout this process, and obviously us as players, we have reactions to everything that happens because it’s our world and we’re living in it,” Golden State’s Stephen Curry said. “I still had a great time out there.”Portland’s Damian Lillard added: “It had to be done, and we got it done. We showed up and did what we needed to do.”Whether All-Star 2021 really was or wasn’t a must is the point on which this whole debate hinged. Perhaps you will recall how succinctly Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers summed it up in early February.“We all know why we’re playing it,” Leonard said then. “There’s money on the line.”I, too, thought the risks taken to preserve Turner’s projected windfall of up to $30 million, on top of the untold millions that the N.B.A. and its players avoided losing through an outright cancellation, were ill-advised. Yet I must concede, with hindsight, that it’s a stretch to parrot the line that routinely dismisses the All-Star Game as “just” an exhibition. TNT treats it as the jewel of its annual N.B.A. coverage, bigger than any single playoff game on its air, while Silver said the league was expecting a global television audience of more than 100 million people, along with more than a billion social media views and engagements.No mere exhibition game generates that sort of hoopla. All-Star games don’t count — except that the N.B.A. can rightfully say they do.Like everything else in the league (and the world) these days, it’s complicated — and often inherently risky over the past year. Few understand that better than Silver, who is back in New York now for what could be another nervy week as the 400-plus players who were not in Atlanta gradually return to their teams. Coming out of a break is when the N.B.A. has typically had a surge in positive Covid-19 cases.It likewise figures to be a week filled with somber reflection given Thursday’s looming one-year anniversary of the N.B.A.’s shutdown in response to the coronavirus outbreak. I interviewed Silver recently for a one-year-later project that ran in Monday’s editions of The New York Times, which featured Silver sharing some of his thinking and takeaways from March 11, 2020.“When I made that decision that night to shut down, I thought of it more as a hiatus, because it was a realization that however long we’re shut down, we need to put in place a whole new set of protocols to deal with this emerging virus,” Silver said in last month’s interview. “It wasn’t so much that, all right, the world has stopped.“At that moment,” Silver said, “I did not have a sense that we would be having this conversation almost a year later and we still would not be back to business as usual.”The 70th All-Star Game, however you felt about it, was the latest illustration of exactly that. It became such a divisive issue because business as usual has been replaced by pandemic life for longer than most of us ever imagined.The Scoop @TheSteinLineMarch 8There is optimism within the Lakers that they will get strong consideration from Andre Drummond if Drummond ultimately leaves the Cavaliers via buyout, league sources say.Cleveland’s preference, of course, remains trading Drummond elsewhere before the March 25 trade deadline.March 6The NBA has sent out roughly 200 letters with cease-and-desist orders to various party promoters in the Atlanta area that have used the league’s All-Star logo and event name in connection with unaffiliated events scheduled this weekend, league spokesman tells ⁦‪@NYTSports⁩The most notable aspect of the letters, of course, is that they suggest there are at least 200 parties going on in the area this weekend after Atlanta Mayor @KeishaBottoms urged the local citizenry not to hold All-Star events when the NBA is not interacting with the public at allThis newsletter is OUR newsletter. So please weigh in with what you’d like to see here. To get your hoops-loving friends and family involved, please forward this email to them so they can jump in the conversation. If you’re not a subscriber, you can sign up here.Corner ThreeImmanuel Quickley is off to a promising start for the Knicks, but Obi Toppin is still adjusting to the speed of the pro game.Credit…Pool photo by John MinchilloYou 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.(Responses may be lightly edited or condensed for clarity.)Q: You recently wrote an article about the surprising New York Knicks. Knicks fans are excited about Immanuel Quickley, but this Knicks fan is puzzled about the play of Obi Toppin. What is your sense of the hype he got when drafted and the reality of his play to date? — Rich Helfont (Port Washington, N.Y.)Stein: The hype hasn’t helped Toppin’s cause, but the Knicks’ circumstances have changed since draft night in November, too. No one expected Julius Randle to play at an All-Star level. Toppin was drafted as a potential Randle replacement by a front office that suddenly finds itself trying to determine whether Randle’s glorious half-season makes him a cornerstone player they have to keep.I thought there was a decent chance that the Knicks would take Tyrese Haliburton at No. 8 rather than Toppin, but they felt a greater need in the frontcourt, with RJ Barrett projected to be a more significant contributor to the Knicks’ future than Randle.The most troubling aspect of Toppin’s slow start is that, at age 23, he was thought to be more N.B.A.-ready than most rookies. Even Derrick Rose, whose recent return to the Knicks has clearly helped Toppin when they play together, mentioned recently that Toppin is still adjusting to the speed of the N.B.A. game. The ultratight turnaround from draft night to the start of Toppin’s first N.B.A. training camp, with no summer league, appeared to snuff out the supposed experience edge.Q: Is there any concern about dilution of the N.B.A.’s brand due to the oversaturation of the alternate jerseys teams wear every year? The recent orange-versus-red clash between the Hawks and Thunder seemed like a humorous, and unfortunate, result of league guidelines that allow teams to wear clashing colors instead of the traditional light-versus dark contrast. Is anyone at league headquarters worried that the Lakers wearing blue on another team’s blue court, or Miami dressing like the Pittsburgh Steelers or cotton candy on any given night, or Milwaukee wearing two shades of blue that have never been part of the Bucks’ aesthetic cheapens the history of these teams and the league? — Michael McAfee (Austin, Texas)Stein: As a fellow traditionalist, I decided to let your whole rant run, even though I suspect you knew the answer before you sent in the question. The league and its teams clearly hold no such concerns about printing an array of new jerseys every season. It must be profitable or they wouldn’t do it.If it were up to sappy me, of course, teams would all be wearing what they wore in the 1970s and 1980s (when applicable) and Mitchell & Ness would remake and market everything the Buffalo Braves wore from 1973-74 through 1977-78. But I, like you, clearly am not the target audience for today’s jersey manufacturers.I will say, though, that I really do like the San Antonio Spurs’ new Fiesta scheme. That’s pretty much the lone modern design I am drawn to.Q: If a replacement All-Star gets replaced, does it go in the record books that they made the All-Star team? — @RivelBrian from TwitterStein: Excellent question about precisely the sort of record-book minutiae that this newsletter cherishes.I checked with the league office and, yes, Phoenix’s Devin Booker will be recorded as an All-Star for the second successive season, even though he was chosen as a replacement for the injured Anthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers and then had to be replaced by Utah’s Mike Conley because of a sprained left knee.Conley thus exits the Best Player To Never Earn All-Star Status debate, leaving behind the likes of 1980s (and 1990s) stalwarts Derek Harper, Ron Harper, Rod Strickland, Byron Scott and Cedric Maxwell, along with Jason Terry and Lamar Odom from the more recent past, and Portland’s CJ McCollum as the most deserving current veteran player.Booker will surely carry a chip into next season even with the league now recognizing him as a two-time All-Star, because he was an injury-replacement selection both times after being snubbed by Western Conference coaches two seasons in a row. McCollum, in his eighth season, was also playing at an All-Star level when he sustained a fractured left foot on Jan. 16.Numbers GameWith Deandre Ayton anchoring the team’s defense and Devin Booker and Chris Paul thriving on offense, the Phoenix Suns are one of just two teams ranked in the N.B.A.’s top-ten in both offensive and defensive efficiency. Credit…Ronald Martinez/Getty Images2As the second half of the season begins with two games on Wednesday, only two teams rank in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency: Utah and Phoenix. The Jazz, at No. 4 in both categories, are the only team in the league that ranks in the top five in both. The Suns are No. 8 in offensive efficiency and No. 3 in defensive efficiency.99.4After two consecutive seasons in which pace leaguewide crept past 100 possessions per 48 minutes for the first time since 1988-89, that figure is down ever so slightly. Entering Wednesday’s play, teams are averaging 99.4 possessions per 48 minutes, according to Stathead.3The Lakers, Clippers and Nets are the only teams in the 30-team N.B.A. that have not had a game postponed this season according to the league’s health and safety protocols. The league had to postpone 31 games during the season’s first half because at least one team could not field the requisite eight players in uniform as a result of positive tests for Covid-19 or, more frequently, because of issues with contact tracing.6Only five of the six actually played in the All-Star Game after Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons was sidelined by the N.B.A.’s contact tracing rules, but this season’s six All-Stars listed as left-handers tied a league record: James Harden (Nets), Julius Randle (Knicks), Domantas Sabonis (Indiana), Simmons (Philadelphia), Zion Williamson (New Orleans) and the late addition Mike Conley (Utah).14Leave it to my trusty friends at Stathead to be able to dial up the history that shows there were also six lefties in the 1973 All-Star Game in Chicago: Tiny Archibald (Kansas City-Omaha), Dave Cowens (Boston), Gail Goodrich (Los Angeles Lakers), Bob Lanier (Detroit), Jack Marin (Houston) and Lenny Wilkens (Cleveland). Yet it must be noted that All-Star rosters swelled from 12 to 14 from 1970-71 through 1972-73, when the N.B.A. briefly stipulated that each team in the 17-team league had to be represented in the All-Star Game. The 1973 game in Chicago was the league’s last of three in a row with 28 All-Stars rather than 24. Fan voting for the five starters began in 1974-75.Hit me up anytime on Twitter (@TheSteinLine) or Facebook (@MarcSteinNBA) or Instagram (@thesteinline). Send any other feedback to marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 163 Shares199 Views

      in Basket

      Meyers Leonard Will Be Away From Heat ‘Indefinitely’ After Use of Anti-Semitic Slur

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonVirus Hotspots in the N.B.A.LeBron and Anthony DavisThe N.B.A. Wanted HerMissing Klay ThompsonKobe the #GirlDadAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyMeyers Leonard Will Be Away From Heat ‘Indefinitely’ After Use of Anti-Semitic SlurLeonard, a reserve center for the Miami Heat, lost gaming sponsorships after a video emerged of him using the slur while playing a video game on the livestreaming site Twitch.Meyers Leonard, right, during the 2020 N.B.A. finals. This season, he had played only three games and was expected to miss the rest of the campaign after having shoulder surgery.Credit…Kim Klement/USA Today Sports, via ReutersSopan Deb and Published More

    • 100 Shares159 Views

      in Basket

      Blake Griffin Agrees to Sign With the Nets

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonVirus Hotspots in the N.B.A.LeBron and Anthony DavisThe N.B.A. Wanted HerMissing Klay ThompsonKobe the #GirlDadAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBlake Griffin Agrees to Sign With the NetsA six-time All-Star, Griffin will be another big name on a Nets team stacked with them, but he has appeared in only 38 games since the 2018-19 season.Blake Griffin, right, has struggled since the 2018-19 season, when he made All-N.B.A. third team.Credit…Michael Dwyer/Associated PressMarch 8, 2021, 9:55 a.m. ETBlake Griffin, a six-time N.B.A. All-Star, is expected to sign a contract with the Nets on Monday, a person familiar with his plans said.The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the deal publicly. Griffin became a free agent on Sunday after clearing waivers.The terms of the contract were not disclosed.The deal adds another big name to a stacked Nets team, but it also carries some risk. Griffin, 31, had one of the best years of his career in 2018-19, when he made the all-N.B.A. third team, but his production has significantly slipped since then as a result of injuries. This season, Griffin struggled in 20 games for the Detroit Pistons, averaging 12.3 points on 36.5 percent shooting and 5.2 rebounds.There’s also a question of fit: Griffin’s best attributes have been his scoring and passing abilities. He has never been known as a defender. The Nets are already the best offensive team in the league with three players who dominate the ball: James Harden, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.Even so, Griffin, if he can recapture any of his play from his All-Star years, will make the Nets even more formidable. The Nets are 24-13 and second in the Eastern Conference behind the Philadelphia 76ers. They have won 10 of their last 11 games.Griffin was drafted first over all by the Los Angeles Clippers in 2009 but he missed the 2009-10 season because of a knee injury. He then became a sensation known for his high-flying dunks and charismatic personality. He made the All-Star team in his first season and helped revitalize the Clippers. In 2018, after more than seven seasons with the team, the Clippers traded him to the Pistons. This season was Griffin’s fourth in Detroit. The Pistons are rebuilding while Griffin is in the twilight of his career, so the two sides went their opposite ways.Griffin and his new Nets teammate James Harden have combined for 15 All-Star selections.Credit…Carlos Osorio/Associated PressLast season, Griffin played only 18 games because of knee soreness, and his production (15.5 points, 35.2 percent shooting) was well below his career averages (21.4 points, 49.5 percent). This year, though, Griffin has at least appeared healthy but it has not translated to on-court production.One of the most notable moments of Griffin’s career was a dunk over a car at the 2011 dunk contest. While now a part of N.B.A. lore, it also underscores a truth about Griffin’s career. He dominated in highlight reels especially during the regular season, but hasn’t had much playoff success. He has never been on a team that made the conference finals. Joining the Nets gives him the best opportunity in his career to do so.“The individual awards and these things are fine, and I’m appreciative of them, but I just want to win,” Griffin said in January. “Not making it to a conference final, yeah, it does gnaw at me. Not to the point where I’m losing sleep over it. But that’s the main goal — I want to win.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 100 Shares99 Views

      in Basket

      Giannis Antetokounmpo Couldn't Miss at the All-Star Game

      by

      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyon pro basketballGiannis Antetokounmpo Was the All-Star Who Couldn’t MissA 16-for-16 night highlighted a game that many players didn’t really want to play.While Giannis Antetokounmpo banked in a couple of 3-pointers, most of his damage came at the rim.Credit…Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, via Associated PressMarch 8, 2021Updated 9:23 a.m. ETATLANTA — Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks unintentionally banked in two of his three 3-pointers. He took 11 shots in the first half, and five more in the second half, without missing one. He also made a priceless memory with his infant son before the game even started, leaning down to Liam Antetokounmpo at courtside for some quick ball-handling work as the opening tip approached.When the N.B.A.’s 70th All-Star Game was over Sunday night, Antetokounmpo seized the game ball without waiting for anyone’s authorization, cradled it with his left hand and collected the Kobe Bryant Trophy as the occasion’s most valuable player minutes later. It was, at least for Antetokounmpo, about as perfect as an All-Star Game gets.That the sentiment could be applied to even one participant at State Farm Arena was a grand surprise given how the N.B.A.’s All-Star Sunday started. Weeks of unease and second-guessing about the league’s decision to summon 24 players from 18 teams to Georgia for an All-Star Game, in the ongoing clutches of a pandemic that caused 31 game postponements in the first half of the season, seemed to be validated some eight hours before tipoff, when it was announced that Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers would not be allowed to play.Antetokounmpo had a sweet moment on the sideline with his son Liam.Credit…Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesExposure in Philadelphia to a barber who had tested positive for the coronavirus caused Embiid and Simmons to be barred from playing, even though their coach, Doc Rivers, said both players tested negative on Sunday in Atlanta. League officials thus had to be relieved, at night’s end, to see Antetokounmpo so giddy about his 35 points on 16-for-16 shooting — albeit almost all of that from at-the-rim range — and to hear the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James speaking so excitedly about the rare opportunity to play beside Golden State’s Stephen Curry.As the captain of the victorious Team LeBron, James benched himself for the second half of a 170-150 victory after scoring a modest 4 points in 13 minutes. He spent the rest of the evening encouraging Portland’s Damian Lillard (32 points) and Curry (28) to “back up further and further to shoot,” as James explained via his Twitter feed. Lillard and Curry duly drained eight 3-pointers each, including back-to-back flings from halfcourt to close out a 60-point second quarter (yes, 60) that looked laughably effortless.It was a marked change in tone from the afternoon, when the Nets’ James Harden, among numerous players dismayed by the Embiid and Simmons developments, said this All-Star Game had essentially been “thrown upon us.” James, remember, called the concept a “slap in the face” a month ago, explaining that he and many other players had been led to believe they would get an All-Star break free of basketball after the league postponed its originally scheduled 2021 All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis to 2024.The uniforms used Sunday night were those designed for Indianapolis, inspired by an old Pacers scheme from the 1980s in yellow and blue, adding to the night’s “forced” feel — to use another Harden description. No matter how many times Commissioner Adam Silver has insisted that the league’s motivations for staging the game were to reward its global fan base and bring a needed spotlight to historically Black colleges and universities, as much as the obvious “economic factors,” this was one instance where players voiced more (and louder) skepticism than members of the news media.“All in all, obviously the league did a hell of a job of being able to put this together still,” James said afterward, withholding any further criticism. He had just improved to 4-0 as an All-Star captain, helped along by the stunning array of M.V.P. candidates he drafted (Antetokounmpo, Curry, Lillard, Denver’s Nikola Jokic and Dallas’s Luka Doncic), as well as the absences of Embiid and the injured Kevin Durant, the other team’s captain.“There’s always a lot of back and forth on these different decisions, but once guys get here, I think they’re grateful for it,” said Chris Paul of the Phoenix Suns. Paul, of course, doubles as president of the National Basketball Players Association and is James’s close friend, which made for an uncomfortable month after James was so forceful in initially questioning the wisdom of holding even this scaled-down version of All-Star Weekend.To try to make this venture as safe as possible, league and union officials agreed that the players would spend no more than 36 hours in Atlanta, flying in and out via private jet and maintaining the daily coronavirus testing that has governed the season so far. Traveling parties were required to check in at the league’s hotel by 7 p.m. Saturday and then stay at the hotel until departing for the arena Sunday afternoon, with an array of private postgame flights scheduled Sunday night. Players were allowed to bring up to four guests. Teams were allowed to send three club representatives with them — one each from the athletic training staff, team public relations and team security.LeBron James gushed on Twitter about finally getting a chance to play a game as Stephen Curry’s teammate rather than his rival. “Well overdue and I loved every single second!”Credit…Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesThe idea, Silver said, was to create a “mini bubble” and keep everyone granted access to the league’s inner sanctum away from the bustling nightlife that swirled around them. League officials were well aware that many Atlantans had shown little interest in heeding recent pleas from Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to stay home and treat this as the made-for-television event that the N.B.A. intended. The N.B.A., in fact, was moved to send roughly 200 letters containing cease-and-desist orders to local party organizers who used the event name or logo to promote unaffiliated events across the weekend, according to a league spokesman.Beyond the $20-plus million that Turner Sports was projected to generate in advertising and sponsorship revenue through Sunday’s broadcast, estimates for precisely how valuable this substitute All-Star experience would be for the N.B.A. have been difficult to come by. It was widely reported late last year that starting the 2020-21 season during Christmas week rather than mid-January would result in a $500 million revenue gain. No such projections have been released in connection with the All-Star Game, but one league insider with a firm grasp of money matters told me last week that just keeping a valuable partner like Turner happy, by preserving the network’s most valuable N.B.A. content of the year, was worthy of any trouble.Fake crowd noise was pumped in to amplify the understandably modest buzz generated by an invitation-only crowd of 1,500. TNT likewise had concerns of its own to contend with, competing for viewers against Oprah Winfrey’s interview on CBS with Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.Commissioner Adam Silver said of the game, “It would have been a bigger deal not to have it.”Credit…Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesSilver insisted at a news conference on Saturday that he had weighed it all before deciding that “we should do it for our fans and for our business” once the league “got to the point where we felt we could do it safely.”“For me,” Silver said, “it would have been a bigger deal not to have it.”Atlanta’s previous All-Star Game, in 2003, when the Hawks’ home was known as Philips Arena, was Michael Jordan’s final All-Star Game. This one will take its own place in league history, thanks to the unusual circumstances, but Silver proposed that “maybe it should be judged when people are looking back as to what this meant to them as opposed to what some of the initial reactions were.”Maybe.“It was more fun than I thought it would be,” Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics said.Lillard, who on another night might have wrested M.V.P. honors from Antetokounmpo with his repeated splashes from 40 feet and beyond, said: “It just didn’t have the All-Star Weekend feel, just because it was so quick, it was so quiet, it was empty. But I think once we got on the floor, that was like the only time it snapped into like, ‘This is the All-Star Game.’”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 138 Shares179 Views

      in Basket

      Two Players Out of N.B.A. All-Star Game Because of Virus Protocols

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonVirus Hotspots in the N.B.A.LeBron and Anthony DavisThe N.B.A. Wanted HerMissing Klay ThompsonKobe the #GirlDadAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTwo Players Out of N.B.A. All-Star Game Because of Virus ProtocolsPlayers were again questioning the decision to stage an exhibition amid the pandemic after Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers were ruled out of Sunday’s game in Atlanta.Joel Embiid, left, had been named to his fourth All-Star Game. Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans was set to replace him in the starting lineup.Credit…Matt Slocum/Associated PressMarch 7, 2021Updated 9:07 p.m. ETATLANTA — The N.B.A. All-Star Game was rocked just hours before tipoff on Sunday when the league announced it would sideline Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers after they had contact with an individual who was confirmed to have tested positive for the coronavirus.Numerous top players in recent weeks had questioned playing the exhibition at all during a pandemic, and some eight hours before the game’s scheduled 8 p.m. start, Embiid and Simmons were ruled out — with the league also saying their removals would have no impact on other All-Stars or 76ers Coach Doc Rivers and his staff.Their participation would not be affected, the league said, because those people “were not exposed to the individual in Philadelphia” before traveling to Atlanta. The Sixers’ staff earned the right to coach the team captained by the Nets’ Kevin Durant because Philadelphia held the East’s best record at the All-Star break.The news broke as numerous players were conducting video conference interview sessions from their hotel rooms. Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards, Paul George of the Los Angeles Clippers and the Nets’ James Harden were among those who responded by again questioning the wisdom of staging an All-Star Game amid a pandemic, as LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and other stars had last month.“I don’t want to say we didn’t have a choice, but it’s in our C.B.A., and our C.B.A. says there has to be an All-Star Game every year,” Beal said of the league’s collective bargaining agreement. He added that “there’s still guys” with reservations, and he counted himself among that group.George said he “personally didn’t agree with the game.” Harden described Sunday’s events, which were to include a 3-point contest and a skills competition before the game and a dunk contest at halftime, as “forced.” James, who is captain of one of the teams, called the situation “very unfortunate” and said “it’s all something that we thought could possibly happen.”The N.B.A. flew the All-Star participants to Atlanta on private planes from their cities and required them to stay inside the league’s official hotel Saturday night — preferably in their rooms — after checking in by 7 p.m. Players were permitted to bring up to four guests, but it was not immediately known how many guests accompanied Embiid or Simmons. The players traveled on separate planes and without other 76ers personnel, according to two people briefed on the situation who were not authorized to discuss it publicly.Before arriving in Atlanta, Embiid and Simmons were exposed to a barber in Philadelphia who has since tested positive for the coronavirus. The Athletic first reported their exposure, which was confirmed by the two people. Having both registered negative coronavirus tests on Sunday, Embiid and Simmons returned to Philadelphia on separate private planes before the All-Star game began, the people said.The first scheduled team meetings to bring players from the two All-Star teams together were not until Sunday at State Farm Arena. Both teams were scheduled to meet with Adam Silver, the N.B.A. commissioner, and Michele Roberts, the executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, within three hours of the opening tip. The schedule called for All-Star participants to leave Atlanta via private transportation immediately after the game.Ben Simmons was selected to his third consecutive All-Star Game.Credit…Matt Slocum/Associated PressEmbiid, a prime Most Valuable Player Award candidate this season, had been selected to his fourth All-Star team and was to start at center for Durant’s team. Simmons, making his third All-Star team after being voted into the game as a reserve, was selected by James. Rivers chose Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans to start in Embiid’s place, but the league did not pursue replacements for either player with only hours remaining before the opening tip, opting for 11-man All-Star rosters instead of the usual 12.The 2020-21 regular season started on Dec. 22 after last season, delayed four months by the coronavirus pandemic, went all the way into October and required three months on a restricted-access campus at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla., to complete.In November, the league postponed its traditional All-Star Weekend, giving Indianapolis hosting rights in 2024 instead of this year. But the N.B.A. never ruled out the prospect of resuscitating a game for 2021. The league then hatched the idea to hold several All-Star events on one day, closed to the public apart from 1,500 invitation-only guests, and staged in Atlanta so Turner Sports could broadcast it all in its backyard.Silver said in a news conference on Saturday that “economic interests” were a factor in going ahead with a scaled-down version of All-Star festivities, but he also said that tremendous global fan interest had motivated the league just as much. League officials have said that a specific projection for revenue generated Sunday could not be immediately pinpointed, but various industry estimates have forecast Turner to make more than $20 million in advertising and sponsorship revenue through Sunday’s broadcast.The league, having worked closely on the plans with Roberts and Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul, the president of the players’ union, also dedicated its All-Star festivities to promoting awareness of historically Black colleges and universities, pledging to donate at least $3 million to those institutions as well as communities of color affected by the pandemic.“It’s my job to look out for the overall interest of the league,” Silver said on Saturday. “As I said earlier, I haven’t made it a secret out of the fact that economic interests are a factor. I’ll add, though, when I say ‘economic interests are a factor,’ it’s less to do with the economics of one Sunday night on TNT in the United States. It has more to do with the larger brand value of the N.B.A.“We feel we’ve struck the appropriate balance here, looking out for the interests of everyone involved,” Silver said.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 150 Shares99 Views

      in Basket

      Why the Nets May Be the Most Feared Team in the N.B.A.

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonVirus Hotspots in the N.B.A.LeBron and Anthony DavisThe N.B.A. Wanted HerMissing Klay ThompsonKobe the #GirlDadAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOn pro basketballWhy the Nets May Be the Most Feared Team in the N.B.A.At the midpoint of the season, the Nets are clicking, whether or not all three of their big stars are on the floor. That’s good for them, and frightening for all other contenders.The Brooklyn Big Three — Kyrie Irving, James Hardin and Kevin Durant — have worked out better than expected this season.Credit…Jed Jacobsohn for The New York TimesMarch 6, 2021, 12:00 p.m. ETSo it turns out that when you put three elite players together in their primes, the result is some elite basketball.The Nets’ grand experiment combining Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant and James Harden in one on-court souffle is a work in progress. But at the halfway point of the season, the Nets may be the most feared team in the league. They are 10-1 in their last 11 games and 17-7 since trading for Harden in January.In some ways, it is a challenge to draw any lasting conclusions from the Nets’ first half, in the same way it would be to assess Thanos’s powers early in the Marvel universe films. They aren’t fully formed.The most jarring data point is that the Nets have barely scratched the surface of their super trio. Durant, Irving and Harden have played together in only seven games, as a result of nagging injuries and rest. The Nets are 5-2 in those games. One of those losses — a close one against the Toronto Raptors — was with Durant coming off the bench.All three are playing some of the best basketball of their careers, and they have barely been able to do it together. It’s possible that being apart is what has allowed them to thrive. Even so, the Nets are just a half-game behind Philadelphia for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.The Nets are title favorites right now. In recent history, trios featuring multiple Most Valuable Player Award candidates have won titles (the Durant-era Golden State Warriors, the LeBron James-led Miami Heat). And there is a legitimate argument to be made that these three are the most talented threesome in N.B.A. history.Here is a look at what to expect from the Nets in the second half of the season and what they’ve done right so far.The Rich, as Usual, Might Get RicherBlake Griffin is on his way to being a free agent after reaching a buyout agreement with the Pistons.Credit…Carlos Osorio/Associated PressThe way that championships have been deemed by the public (and the media) to validate a player’s career incentivizes talented players to join already talented teams, even for lesser roles. This often shows itself in midseason when productive players get bought out and land on contenders to try to chase a championship.The trade deadline is March 25. Two players on the Nets’ radar are surely Andre Drummond of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who is on track to become one of the greatest rebounders in league history, and Blake Griffin of the Detroit Pistons, who is one season removed from one of his best years. The Pistons announced Friday that they had reached a buyout agreement with Griffin, and the same could happen for Drummond in Cleveland.The Nets are likely to be serious contenders for their services, and that of other players who could be on the move because of their age and their team’s priorities, such as Al Horford and George Hill of the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder are in the middle of a youth movement.The Nets are in a position where they don’t have to give up anyone. They just have to be patient. (And even if they wanted to, they don’t really have many attractive trade pieces, especially with Spencer Dinwiddie injured.)A Happy Harden Is Sad News for OpponentsHarden facing the Golden State Warriors last month.Credit…Jed Jacobsohn for The New York TimesIn Harden’s eight games with the Houston Rockets this season, it was clear he was not putting in the effort. He was often jogging, uninvolved in the offense and otherwise lethargic.But it goes to show you: Sometimes being petulant pays off. In Brooklyn, Harden has been motivated and, as a result, exceptional. In 23 games, Harden is averaging 11.4 assists (on pace for a career high and to lead the league), shooting 49.7 percent from the field and 42.2 percent on 3-pointers. Harden would be a top M.V.P. candidate right now if not for the stellar play of Irving and Durant.He has flowed seamlessly with Irving on and off the ball, often creating easy opportunities not just for role players, but also for Irving, who has thrived in the shooting guard role.Since the Harden trade, the Nets have had the league’s best offense, without the team’s stars playing all together much.And this isn’t surprising for a team with Harden and Irving, but the Nets are near the top of the league in isolations. When you have so many elite scorers, as Coach Steve Nash does, you have the luxury of letting them go to work and break down defenses one-on-one.What to watch out for with Harden is whether his conditioning will cause a drop-off later in the season. But for the first time in a long time, Harden won’t be expected to carry an entire offense by himself, so it may not matter.The Nets’ Defense Is Bad — and That’s OK?Luka Doncic of the Mavericks put up 27 points against the Nets last month. Dallas shot 52 percent.Credit…Wendell Cruz/USA Today Sports, via ReutersBefore Harden arrived, the Nets were 13th in defense. Not great, but just above average. With Harden, the team’s defense has tanked, all the way to 26th, among the worst in the league. Even over the Nets’ recent 10-1 stretch, the defense was still below average.Some of this can be chalked up to injuries. Durant is the team’s most versatile defender, and he has missed roughly half the season and hasn’t taken the floor since Feb. 13 because of a left hamstring strain.So can a team with a bad defense win the championship? Yes, actually. But it’s rare.The 2015-16 Cleveland Cavaliers had the 10th-best defense, as did the 2005-6 Miami Heat. Those are still above-average, if not elite, defenses.A truly bad defensive team that won a championship was the 2000-1 Los Angeles Lakers, led by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. That team was 22nd. Incidentally, the year before, when they also won the championship, the Lakers led the league in defense. Go figure.The Schedule Looks PromisingThe Knicks, hovering around .500, are part of the Nets’ start to the second half.Credit…Pool photo by Brad PennerThe Nets will start the second half with a fairly soft schedule: 11 of their first 20 games will be against teams below .500. Of the other nine contests, four are against the Boston Celtics, the Miami Heat and the Knicks, three teams hovering around .500.The Nets’ Big Three should be able to use this time to jell, at the expense of less-talented teams.The Role Players Are Getting It DoneThe Nets have gotten production from all over the roster.Credit…Jed Jacobsohn for The New York TimesIt’s easy to keep all the attention on the stars, but Sean Marks, the general manager, has also assembled a solid surrounding cast.Jeff Green, the 34-year-old veteran, has been a bargain. He has started 16 of his 33 games this season and averaged 9.5 points per game on a career-high 50.7 field-goal percentage. And he is also shooting 42.2 percent from 3, which is essential to take pressure off the Nets’ main scorers. He is the kind of player who knows his limits and rarely makes mistakes. Green also has 72 playoff games under his belt, including a trip to the finals — experience that should come in handy in the spring.Joe Harris is also having a career year, fresh off landing a big contract. He is shooting a whopping 50.6 percent from 3-point range. That is ridiculous. Last year, no one finished above 46 percent. In fact, no one has since Kyle Korver in the 2009-10 season.Bruce Brown has been a revelation for the Nets, both as a fill-in starter and otherwise. He is averaging 8.6 points per game and 59 percent shooting. In his last six games, he is averaging 18 points, which has helped fill some of Durant’s absence. He dropped a career-high 29 points against the Sacramento Kings on Feb. 23.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 100 Shares179 Views

      in Basket

      The Knicks Are Like Blink-182. Let Us Explain.

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonVirus Hotspots in the N.B.A.LeBron and Anthony DavisThe N.B.A. Wanted HerMissing Klay ThompsonKobe the #GirlDadAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyon pro basketballThe Knicks Are Like Blink-182. Let Us Explain.Hot in the 1990s and early ’00s. A source of joy and pain for a wildly devoted fan base. An unexpected resurgence. Yep, the parallels are there.“As a team, we all really support each other,” Knicks guard RJ Barrett, left, said.Credit…Pool photo by Sarah StierMarch 5, 2021, 5:35 p.m. ETIn the 1990s and early 2000s, Blink-182 was huge. With songs like “What’s My Age Again?” and “All the Small Things,” the rock trio’s blend of pop punk and unapologetic juvenility propelled them to an influential stature in American culture, with a loud, dedicated fan base.Hang with us for a second. We know you’re here to read about basketball.Then, in 2005, the band disappeared for a while, returning in 2011 with its first album since 2003. It was a flop; internal acrimony hurt the recording process. Next came “California,” in 2016, an album met with low expectations because of the past acrimony and the likelihood that this band, like many before, would struggle to regain its mojo after so many years away.Except the album turned out to be great, a success that fired up the fan base. The music felt fresh while still offering enough of what made the band so popular in the first place.The cover for the Blink-182 album “California,” which was released in 2016.If that sounds familiar, and not just because you learned to play the guitar riff in “Dammit,” you just might be a Knicks fan watching the team make a serious run this year for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.The Knicks are Blink-182.They are 19-18, a half-game behind the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. And fans are optimistic. “Yelling outside Madison Square Garden” optimistic. “Spending a bunch of money on coronavirus tests just to attend a game” optimistic. It seems like ages since the Knicks have had this much excitement. Except we must now remind you that the Knicks were 18-18 not so long ago, in the 2017-18 season, and then the wheels fell off.That can happen this season, too. But the feeling around these Knicks is different.“As a team, we all really support each other,” said RJ Barrett, the team’s starting guard. “Always happy for each other. Whoever’s night it is, we’re always cheering. We really like each other off the court.”So midway through the season, is this team for real? Enough to make the playoffs? Or will this season go the way of 2017-18, when they won only about a quarter of their games after the All-Star break?Here’s a look at what to expect from the Knicks in the second half of the season.A Tougher ScheduleThe Knicks have had one of the easiest schedules. They are last in strength of schedule, a measure of the difficulty of a team’s opponents, but the second half stands to be harder. Coming out of the All-Star break, three of the Knicks’ next four games will be against finals contenders: the Nets, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Philadelphia 76ers. When only a handful of games are separating the fourth seed from the 11th seed, those games are crucial. There’s also a brutal road trip in May that will take the team to Denver, Phoenix and Los Angeles, where they will play the Lakers and the Clippers.Julius Randle’s DominanceJulius Randle is leading the Knicks in total points, rebounds and assists. The only other players doing that for their teams are Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks), Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets) and Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks).Forward Julius Randle is leading the Knicks in points, rebounds and assists.Credit…Craig Mitchelldyer/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThat’s a heavy load that Randle has to carry night in and night out. He’s also top-three in the league in minutes played. Randle is only 26, but you have to wonder if fatigue will become a factor in the second half.RJ Barrett’s Stephen Curry ImpersonationRJ Barrett is undoubtedly having a better year than he did his rookie season, but it has still been a strange one. In December, he shot a terrible 12.5 percent from 3, including an 0-for-8 performance against the Toronto Raptors. The next month, Barrett raised his percentage to a passable 35.1 percent. In February, though, Barrett turned into an elite shooter at 47.4 percent from outside. Oddly, it’s inside where Barrett struggles the most, sometimes forcing midrange shots.He doesn’t take many 3-pointers — only 3.3 a game — but if Barrett remains a legitimate weapon out there, it will help the Knicks offense, which is below average.Frank Ntilikina Is Coming in From the ColdFrank Ntilikina, who the Knicks drafted eighth over all in 2017, hasn’t worked out as expected. His minutes have waned, and he hasn’t shown he can be a consistent scorer. But on Tuesday night, in his first start of the season, Ntilikina broke out for 13 points. New York Knicks guard Frank Ntilikina has played in only nine games this season.Credit…Daniel Dunn/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe performance inspired euphoria among Knicks fans. It spurred several memes and a donation to charity from overjoyed devotees on Reddit.File this under “Possible Correlation, Not Causation”: Ntilikina has played in only nine games this season. In two of them, he entered in garbage time when the Knicks were well on the way to losing. But in the other seven, all of which Ntilikina played at least 11 minutes, the Knicks are 6-1. This includes the game on Thursday night against the Detroit Pistons, when he scored 9 points in 13 minutes.It’s a limited sample size, but Ntilikina might be earning himself more playing time in the second half of the season. He’s hitting his shots (61.9 percent from 3) and has always been a tough defender. He even had a game-sealing steal against the Indiana Pacers at the end of February.Alec Burks and Julius Randle of the New York Knicks fight Nikola Vucevic of the Orlando Magic for a rebound at Amway Center in February.Credit…Alex Menendez/Getty ImagesDE-FENSE! [Clap, Clap] DE-FENSE!The Knicks are the second-best defensive team in the league, which isn’t surprising, because Coach Tom Thibodeau has long been known as a defensive wizard. The last time the Knicks had a top-five defense was in the 2011-12 season. Incidentally, the team made the playoffs that year in another shortened season.To give you an idea of how much more offensive-minded the N.B.A. is today: In 2015-16, the Knicks had a better defensive efficiency than they do this year, but they were just the league’s 18th-best defense. It’s not a question of teams simply playing faster and scoring more points either, since efficiency factors in pace. Offenses are just better now, especially with the focus on the 3.Can Immanuel Quickley Start? Please?The Knicks often struggle offensively, yet one of their best offensive players doesn’t get much playing time.An early victory of the Leon Rose-era Knicks is the play of Immanuel Quickley, who was selected 25th in the draft last year. He is having an impressive rookie season, averaging 12.2 points, while shooting 38.1 percent from 3. His floaters are a thing of beauty. He’s one of the few players on the Knicks, outside of Randle, Barrett and Derrick Rose, who can break down a defense. On top of that, he is automatic from the free-throw line, shooting better than 94 percent.Immanuel Quickley is an active defender and automatic from the free-throw line.Credit…Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesQuickley plays less than 20 minutes a game, and it’s high time for that to be increased for a team as offensively challenged as the Knicks. He’s also an active defender and a strong communicator. He’s undersized and is still learning, but he has a better defensive rating than Barrett and Mitchell Robinson — two players who have been lauded for their defense. (Defensive rating is a measure of how many points the team gives up with you on the floor, extrapolated for 100 possessions. It’s an imprecise measure, and is affected by who is also on the floor with you.)Elfrid Payton has been the starting point guard for most of the year. But his poor shooting causes spacing issues, particularly for Randle. Quickley is arguably the team’s second-best offensive player. It’s worth giving him more time.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More