You wouldn't know it from the way people talk about the New York Knicks' defense - or, frankly, f...

You wouldn't know it from the way people talk about the New York Knicks' defense - or, frankly, from how it looks on some nights - but they rank sixth in the NBA in points allowed per 100 possessions since the start of December.That's pretty impressive work from a team that starts limited defenders at both the one and the five, and it's a far cry from how the Knicks performed on that end of the court for the first six weeks of the season, after which they ranked 23rd.Their true talent level on defense probably lies between those extremes, which is illustrated by the fact that their run of success has merely pulled them up to league average. Still, it's notable when a team that's this good offensively proves capable of defending at a borderline top-five level for an extended stretch (even if that coincided with a pretty soft schedule). For the record, New York's 119.4 offensive rating is 7.3 points per 100 possessions better than league average, making it (for now) one of the 20 best relative offenses in NBA history, per Basketball Reference.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>It's a little reminiscent of what happened a couple years ago with the Denver Nuggets, a similarly fearsome offensive team - also built around a dominant guard-big pairing - that managed a <a href="https://www.thescore.com/nba/news/2544182">similar defensive turnaround</a> after a disastrous start. They too had to scheme around a center who was limited as a rim-protector and defender in space. They figured it out - albeit using different tactics than New York is using - and their improvements turned out to be sustainable, as they romped to the title with the league's fourth-ranked playoff defense. (Last year's West-winning Mavericks are another example, though their turnaround was powered by a couple of key midseason transactions.)That's not to say these Knicks will win the 2025 championship. For as extraordinary as he's been in his first year in New York, Karl-Anthony Towns is not Nikola Jokic. And maybe more to the point, the Knicks are playing in a conference that's a lot tougher (at least at the top) than the one Denver ripped through. Those Nuggets never had to contend with a team remotely comparable to this year's Cavaliers or Celtics. Or this year's Thunder, for that matter, which might be a consideration if New York can somehow overcome those daunting East foes.But just because the Knicks aren't favorites to win the title or even their own conference doesn't mean they don't deserve to be taken seriously as contenders. That might feel like an obvious statement about a team that's on pace to win 52 games and ranks fifth in the league with a plus-6.5 net rating halfway through the season, but it wouldn't be the case without their recent run of high-level defensive play. So let's examine where and how they've improved, and what those improvements mean in the big picture.When a team makes a sudden defensive shift in one direction or another, it's helpful to start by looking at their opponent shooting to gauge how much variance may be involved. In this case, the answer is some, but not a lot. Knicks opponents have shot 37% from 3-point range since the start of December, which is the 10th-highest mark allowed over that stretch. On long mid-rangers, however, opponents have shot just 29.5%, which is the lowest in the league by a mile. If their opponents had shot exactly league average from both those zones, the Knicks' defense would rank 10th during this period rather than sixth - still a considerable improvement from where they started the season.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765707/cropped_GettyImages-2182655945.jpg?ts=1737043296" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765707/w220xh124_GettyImages-2182655945.jpg?ts=1737043296 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765707/w320xh180_GettyImages-2182655945.jpg?ts=1737043296 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765707/w640xh360_GettyImages-2182655945.jpg?ts=1737043296 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765707/w768xh432_GettyImages-2182655945.jpg?ts=1737043296 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765707/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2182655945.jpg?ts=1737043296 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Scott Cunningham / NBA / Getty</figcaption></figure>They've made their biggest gains on the interior, and that starts with the man in the middle. Towns has been one of the five best offensive players in basketball this year, but after spending two seasons starting at power forward next to Rudy Gobert in Minnesota, his move back to playing the five full time posed some defensive problems for his new team. Namely, opponents shot 76.7% against him <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defensive-impact?CF=PLAYER_NAME*E*towns&amp;DateFrom=&amp;DateTo=11/30/2024">at the rim</a> through November. For reference, the highest percentage allowed by a qualified big man in the 12 years that NBA.com has tracked those numbers is 70.3%, conceded by Nemanja Bjelica in 2019-20. So, yeah, really bad.Since the start of December, though, that's come down to 61.1% - not great by any means, but passable enough that it won't sink a defense by itself. It's almost identical to Rockets center Alperen Sengun's season-long mark (61.6%), for example, and Sengun mans the five for the league's third-ranked defense. And New York's 107.1 defensive rating with Towns on court since Dec. 1 (down from 115.9 beforehand) is right in line with Houston's overall mark.The fact that Towns is no longer tissue paper on the back line is particularly important given the way New York has shifted its priority toward taking away threes in recent weeks, accepting an uptick in opponent rim shots as a consequence. After allowing the league's fourth-highest rate of 3-point attempts through November, they've allowed the third-lowest 3-point rate since, per <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/league/shots?season=2024&amp;seasontype=regseason&amp;start=12/1/2024&amp;end=10/15/2025#tab-defense_shooting_frequency">Cleaning the Glass</a>. In short, they're funneling more guys toward Towns at the rim, and he's doing a much better job of turning them away.The Knicks have experimented with up-to-touch and hard-hedging pick-and-roll coverages, but they've mostly deployed Towns in a deep drop. That's a bit of a departure from his last few years with the Timberwolves, who regularly brought him up higher on the floor to try to mitigate his limitations around the rim. Towns hasn't done a great job of containing the ball when he's played those more aggressive coverages this season, but maybe we'll see more of it when Mitchell Robinson gets back and the two bigs play together. We've seen it work on the rare occasions when Towns and Precious Achiuwa share the court.In the meantime, the Knicks have increased their emphasis on stunting aggressively from one pass away against middle pick-and-rolls to protect the Towns drop:<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765705/cropped_Screenshot_2025-01-16_at_12.16.08_AM.jpg?ts=1737042962" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765705/w220xh124_Screenshot_2025-01-16_at_12.16.08_AM.jpg?ts=1737042962 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765705/w320xh180_Screenshot_2025-01-16_at_12.16.08_AM.jpg?ts=1737042962 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765705/w640xh360_Screenshot_2025-01-16_at_12.16.08_AM.jpg?ts=1737042962 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765705/w768xh432_Screenshot_2025-01-16_at_12.16.08_AM.jpg?ts=1737042962 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765705/w1080xh607_Screenshot_2025-01-16_at_12.16.08_AM.jpg?ts=1737042962 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> TNT</figcaption></figure>Their conservatism means they don't force a lot of turnovers, but they don't allow many second chances either - and that's largely thanks to Towns, who's hauling in a league-leading 10.9 defensive boards per game. New York has a 73.8% defensive rebound rate with him on the floor (which would rank first in the league) and 70% with him on the bench (which would rank 23rd).The Knicks' early-season defensive wobbles weren't Towns' fault alone. They also had a lot to do with New York's other big offseason acquisition, a wing for whom they shelled out five first-round draft picks in part because of his defensive reputation. Mikal Bridges' reworked, funky-looking jumper attracted a lot of scrutiny at the start of the campaign, overshadowing his more worrisome decline on defense. He struggled badly with screen navigation and overall dribble contaimment, which were supposed to be his calling cards.Those struggles exacerbated Towns' limitations. Not only was the big man often left in tough one-on-two situations as a result, but he was also often forced into undesirable switches due to Bridges' inability or unwillingness to fight through screens.That's still happening more often than the Knicks would like like, but while Bridges still hasn't come close to the standard he set during his Suns days (and may never do so again), his on-ball defense has improved dramatically in recent weeks, especially his efforts in rear-view pursuit. Compare his passivity and the way he capitulated on screens against Tyrese Haliburton back in November ...<figure class="article-segment--video"><video poster="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765727/preview.png?ts=1737047047" loop="" muted="" autoplay="" playsinline="" controls="" onclick="if(/android 2.[0-3]/.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase())) { var sources = this.getElementsByTagName('source'); for(var i = 0, total = sources.length; i &lt; total; i++) { this.removeChild(sources[0]);}; this.outerHTML = this.innerHTML; }"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765727/animation.mp4?ts=1737047047" type="video/mp4"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765727/animation.webm?ts=1737047047" type="video/webm"> <div>Your browser does not support the video tag.</div> </source></source></video><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> FanDuel Sports Network</figcaption></figure>... to the way he pressed up, got skinny, and worked to stay in contact with Damian Lillard and Cade Cunningham this past week:<figure class="article-segment--video"><video poster="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765766/preview.png?ts=1737056590" loop muted autoplay playsinline controls onclick="if(/android 2.[0-3]/.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase())) { var sources = this.getElementsByTagName('source'); for(var i = 0, total = sources.length; i &lt; total; i++) { this.removeChild(sources[0]);}; this.outerHTML = this.innerHTML; }"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765766/animation.mp4?ts=1737056590" type="video/mp4"></source> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/765766/animation.webm?ts=1737056590" type="video/webm"></source> <div>Your browser does not support the video tag.</div> </video><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> MSG</figcaption></figure>Again, there are still some ugly possessions, and this recent version of Bridges still isn't the defender the Knicks probably thought they were getting. But simply not being a liability has gone a long way: His on-court defensive rating was 117.6 through November, and it's down to 108.8 since then.Early in the season, stalwart stopper OG Anunoby was stretched thin trying to handle his own assignments while also covering for Towns, Jalen Brunson, and Bridges.<figure class="article-segment--embed"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
OG Anunoby is such a damn good defender <a href="https://t.co/3jK4X85oNW">pic.twitter.com/3jK4X85oNW</a>— Jackson Frank (@jackfrank_jjf) <a href="https://twitter.com/jackfrank_jjf/status/1856761073661059340?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2024</a>
</blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></figure>Anunoby is still carrying an immense defensive workload, but he doesn't have to put out quite as many fires as he did back in October and November. He and the perpetually rock-solid Josh Hart are responsible for most of the team's event creation, averaging 4.3 stocks (steals plus blocks) and 5.9 deflections per game between them. They can both overhelp at times in pursuit of defensive playmaking opportunities, but the benefits of their activity level outweigh the downsides.Brunson is inherently limited at that end of the floor, but at least he has one defensive superpower: drawing offensive fouls. He's drawn 32 of them this season, which is 23 more than any other Knick and ranks second in the league behind only Toumani Camara.The Knicks have also gotten solid defensive contributions from their bench. That may be surprising considering that two of the three reserves who actually play real rotation minutes are 6-foot-2 and 6-foot-3, but Miles McBride and Cameron Payne have been genuine positives on that end - McBride with his feistiness at the point of attack, Payne with heady rotations and active hands digging down on drives. Achiuwa's return at the start of December relegated Jericho Sims to mop-up duty, and while Sims has excelled as a rim-protector (45.3% allowed at the basket), Achiuwa is a much more versatile defender.Whether the Knicks can sustain this defensive level as their schedule gets tougher is an open question. Ugly recent losses to the Bulls, Pistons, Thunder, and shorthanded Magic revealed fissures that hearken back to their early-season woes. The starters' trademark Tom Thibodeau minutes load may be catching up to them. They still don't have a great solution for Brunson getting hunted in crunch time (which was how the Pistons pulled away down the stretch of Monday night's game). Rim-protection will remain a concern until Robinson returns.But these Knicks weren't built to be elite defensively; they were built to be good enough on that end to let their overpowering offense carry the day, and over the last six weeks, that's exactly what we've seen. Doubts are warranted, but that's been a formula for major success in the recent past.Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

https://rich-content.thescore.com/content_cards/29853690/related

Knicks' quietly improved defense makes them look like contenders

It's not like we needed further proof the ascendent Cleveland Cavaliers are a force to be reckone...

It's not like we needed further proof the ascendent Cleveland Cavaliers are a force to be reckoned with. They <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3129495" href="https://thescore.com/news/3129495">proved as much</a> over the first 35 games of the season, going 31-4 with a plus-11.5 net rating and establishing themselves as one of the best offensive teams in NBA history.But Wednesday night's showdown against the equally impressive Oklahoma City Thunder - who were riding a 15-game win streak (in non-NBA Cup games) and coming off back-to-back victories over the two other Eastern Conference contenders in the Knicks and Celtics - was a measuring-stick game all the same. And the Cavs used that opportunity to demonstrate how much they've grown.Putting up a 127.7 offensive rating in a game in 2025 typically isn't news, but there's nothing typical about doing it against OKC. The Thunder came into the game allowing only 102.7 points per 100 possessions. Despite being without their best defender in Chet Holmgren since game 10, they own the best defensive rating relative to league average since the 1963-64 Celtics, per Basketball Reference.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>The Cavs, for their part, own the second-best era-adjusted offense of all time, behind only the 2003-04 Mavericks. But that alone guaranteed nothing against the Thunder. To wit, the Celtics and Knicks came into their own clashes with OKC this week as the fourth- and fifth-best relative offenses in history, and after those two games, the Thunder's defensive rating improved. Without Holmgren or Alex Caruso, they held New York's offense 13.1 points per 100 possessions below its season average, then lopped 25.6 points per 100 off Boston's average.No such luck against the rip-roaring Cavs, who produced the second-highest offensive rating against OKC this season and by far the highest in any game where the Thunder had one of their centers available. And that was despite Cleveland's best offensive player, Donovan Mitchell, scoring only 11 points on 3-for-16 shooting.The Cavs' leading scorers were Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, the two non-shooting bigs who so many people said couldn't function side-by-side in today's NBA, let alone dominate a historically elite defense. They combined for 46 points on 17-for-24 shooting, and Cleveland had a 134.1 offensive rating in their shared minutes. They combined for 21 rebounds, including nine on the offensive glass. Perhaps most importantly, they combined for 13 assists, with four being high-lows delivered to one another. Their short-roll playmaking was essential to countering OKC's aggressive pick-and-roll coverages, which frequently put two on the ball and pre-rotated low tags behind the play. Those coverages were a big part of the reason Mitchell and Darius Garland had underwhelming scoring nights, but it didn't matter because Allen and Mobley tore them apart on the back side. (As an aside: this was a game when you could really feel how much the Thunder missed Holmgren, and it would've been an ideal matchup for them to give their own two-big look a lot of run.) On top of making quick decisions and slick on-the-move passes in 4-on-3 scenarios, both bigs demonstrated their vastly improved ability to forcefully finish those plays over and around and through tagging defenders. <figure class="article-segment--embed"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yoNugHsCH3A?si=g_GhUvp54U0mFbWa" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></figure>On the rare occasions the Thunder relented and allowed Isaiah Hartenstein to switch onto the ball, they struggled to keep Mobley and especially Allen off the offensive glass. The two of them helped generate a five-shot possession in crunch time that ultimately proved to be the backbreaker for OKC. The possession started at the 2:03 mark of the fourth quarter, with the Cavs up two. It ended at the 1:07 mark with the Cavs up five, after Mobley drove right at Hartenstein's chest and finished a wrong-foot floater over him. It's hard not to compare how Allen and Mobley look now to how they looked back in their first-round series against the Knicks in 2023, the lowest moment for this iteration of the Cavs. New York defended Cleveland's pick-and-rolls very similarly to how OKC did, and the Cavs averaged 0.49 points on possessions finished by roll men in the series, with Mobley shooting 0-for-10 with two turnovers on that play type. He and Allen threw wayward lobs, flung up awkward hooks and floaters, or record-scratched and let advantages disappear. Less than two years later, they combined to shoot 15-for-17 inside the restricted area and dish seven short-roll assists in a high-profile game against the league's second-best rim defense (after their own).Of course, Mitchell and Garland deserve immense credit for creating a lot of those opportunities. While Mobley did a lot of his own creation (like the aforementioned iso bucket on Hartenstein, and a wicked bully drive on Jalen Williams a few minutes earlier that drew help and opened up a skip pass for a Dean Wade three), it was largely Cleveland's guards bending the Thunder defense out of shape. They did that with the latent threat of their pull-up threes, but also with their relentless dribble penetration, their sharp and proactive passing, and the incredible pace with which they ran the offense, both in transition and in the half court. Against a ball-pressuring defense designed to generate takeaways, they combined for three turnovers.Plaudits are also owed to Kenny Atkinson and his staff, who had their team extremely well prepared for what awaited them. They drew up brilliant play designs, layering their actions with scripted screens and cuts to turn OKC's help principles against them in a way no team's been able to do this season.The very first play of the game provided a glimpse of what was to come. The Cavs started out with a Garland-Wade pick-and-roll to get Cason Wallace switched off Garland, then immediately flowed into a Garland-Allen pick-and-roll while Wade cut through to the weak-side corner and Mobley lifted from corner to slot. Garland pocket pass, Allen kickout, Wade three. Things carried on in similar fashion, with multiple ball screens initiating Cavs possessions and baseline cuts often ending them. They frequently ran a high-horns action with ball screens on either side for Garland and Mitchell, confusing OKC's low help responsibilities. They found success starting Mobley in the weak-side corner and then having him cut behind the tag when Garland and Allen ran side pick-and-rolls. They used flare screens, hammer screens, and stampede cuts that made it almost impossible for the Thunder to help and recover. They created 33 rim shots and 14 corner threes, both numbers representing 100th-percentile volume.It was just one game, much is still to be determined, and no meaningful hardware is won in the winter (with apologies to the Bucks). But this contest was still illustrative of an important reality, especially on the heels of a game in which the Thunder suffocated the Celtics' offense with its five-out spacing and big-wing initiation: Despite the rush to mint that Boston blueprint as the ideal way to build a modern winner, and despite all the doubts about how successful a team led by two small guards and two non-spacing bigs can be, these Cavs keep showing that their own team build can stand up to any challenge.If nothing else, they should be convincing people to keep more of an open mind about the different paths to championship contention.

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How Cavs' historic offense cracked Thunder's historic defense

To cap our Eras project, we select and celebrate the immense achievements of the 25 most signific...

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The 25 greatest athletes of the last 25 years

When Brook Lopez arrived in the summer of 2018, he helped transform the Milwaukee Bucks and prove...

When Brook Lopez arrived in the summer of 2018, he helped transform the Milwaukee Bucks and proved to be the perfect frontcourt companion for Giannis Antetokounmpo. At one end of the floor, the two formed the bedrock of the best defenses in basketball, a pair of gigantic watchdogs prowling the paint and safeguarding the rim in their own unique ways. At the other end, Lopez's newfound role as a stretch-five opened up the court for Antetokounmpo's devastating rim runs.The Bucks strayed from their longstanding defensive identity last season following their offseason trade of Jrue Holiday for Damian Lillard, slipping to 19th after several years of top-five finishes. They looked old, slow, and disorganized. And the first three weeks of this season brought more of the same; the Bucks lost eight of their first 10 games while running the league's eighth-worst defense.That start feels like a distant memory now that the Bucks have won 13 of their last 16 games and leapt up to 13th in defensive efficiency. The most recent of those wins didn't even register in the standings, but it was easily the most impressive of the bunch - a 97-81 beatdown of the West-leading Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Cup final, with Khris Middleton in street clothes. And while contributions came from all over the roster - Lillard was awesome, Andre Jackson Jr. hounded Shai Gilgeous-Alexander up and down the floor, Gary Trent Jr. and AJ Green made timely shots and battled on defense - the standout performances came from the frontcourt tandem that's been bludgeoning opponents for the last seven seasons.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>With Chet Holmgren on the shelf, the Thunder didn't have the size to match up with Lopez and Antetokounmpo. They stuck center Isaiah Hartenstein on Lopez and used a rotating cast of wings - mostly Jalen Williams, Lu Dort, and Alex Caruso - to check Giannis. The Bucks responded by initiating a lot of their offense through him in the post. He went right through those smaller defenders for layups or free throws, and when the Thunder doubled him, he took advantage with some very sharp passing.Antetokounmpo finished with 10 assists, and that doesn't account for the hockey assists he picked up with post skips to the weak side, like the <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&amp;CFPARAMS=&amp;GameEventID=589&amp;GameID=0062400001&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;flag=1&amp;title=Lillard%2027%27%203PT%20Pullup%20Jump%20Shot%20(23%20PTS)%20(Trent%20Jr.%201%20AST)">one that got Lillard a dagger three</a> off a Trent swing in the fourth quarter. OKC built a wall against him in transition, but he did a great job countering that, too, including tossing a <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&amp;CFPARAMS=&amp;GameEventID=92&amp;GameID=0062400001&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;flag=1&amp;title=Portis%2027%27%203PT%20Jump%20Shot%20(3%20PTS)%20(Antetokounmpo%201%20AST)">slick live-dribble feed</a> to Bobby Portis for a trail three in the first. The Thunder basically had no answer for Giannis at either end, and watching them struggle to come up with one was a strange sensation because they usually have an answer for everything. You could see how the threat of his interior scoring sowed panic and threw OKC's defense out of its usually crisp help-and-rotate patterns. Here, for example, Gilgeous-Alexander and Hartenstein saw the post mismatch and decided to help at the same time, leading to an accidental triple-team that gifted Lopez an easy score:<figure class="article-segment--video"><video poster="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761298/preview.png?ts=1734546435" loop="" muted="" autoplay="" playsinline="" controls="" onclick="if(/android 2.[0-3]/.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase())) { var sources = this.getElementsByTagName('source'); for(var i = 0, total = sources.length; i &lt; total; i++) { this.removeChild(sources[0]);}; this.outerHTML = this.innerHTML; }"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761298/animation.mp4?ts=1734546435" type="video/mp4"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761298/animation.webm?ts=1734546435" type="video/webm"> <div>Your browser does not support the video tag.</div> </source></source></video><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> ESPN</figcaption></figure>That was one of two layups Lopez got by throwing the post entry to Giannis and cutting from the top, and Giannis got <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&amp;CFPARAMS=&amp;GameEventID=297&amp;GameID=0062400001&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;flag=1&amp;title=Antetokounmpo%202%27%20Alley%20Oop%20Layup%20(14%20PTS)%20(Lopez%201%20AST)">a lob finish of his own</a> when the two ran a similar action with roles reversed on the other side of the floor. Whether it was Blind Pig, 4-5 pick-and-roll, or basic high-low passing, their big-to-big synergy was on point. Lopez also shot 3-for-6 from long range and buried a pair of deep triples in quick succession to effectively put the game out of reach with Antetokounmpo on the bench to start the fourth.It was at the defensive end, though, that the two of them truly took over. The Thunder being completely unable to hit a three was the biggest hindrance to their offense, but they were also forced to rely on jump-shooting because they couldn't get anything at the rim with Antetokounmpo and Lopez patrolling the back line. They attempted just 18 shots in the restricted area (compared to 34 non-rim 2-pointers) and made just 10 of them.They also only got up 32 threes (compared to their season average of 40) because Milwaukee's perimeter defenders could press up and guide OKC's ball-handlers into the bear trap waiting for them inside. On a mid-range-heavy diet, Gilgeous-Alexander finished with just 21 points and two assists on 29 total used possessions. Williams finished with 18 and three on 23 possessions. The Thunder scored 31 points in the second half.At 36 years old, playing alongside an all-time great defender, and playing against one of the best defensive teams in NBA history, Lopez still managed to be the most impactful defender on the floor. When he wasn't <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&amp;CFPARAMS=&amp;GameEventID=496&amp;GameID=0062400001&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;flag=1&amp;title=Gilgeous-Alexander%20Bad%20Pass%20Turnover%20(P2.T8)">swallowing up drivers</a> in his typical deep-drop coverage, he was mixing things up with hard shows and even the occasional switch, proving plenty capable of hanging with OKC's guards:<figure class="article-segment--embed"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Milwaukee having Brook Lopez switch pick and roll in the second half. One of my favorite subplots of this season is Brook switching, seeing the drive and immediately spinning to get to the rim. <a href="https://t.co/9vIUDCCEyB">pic.twitter.com/9vIUDCCEyB</a>— Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) <a href="https://twitter.com/stevejones20/status/1869220405824872863?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2024</a>
</blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></figure>This play was subtler, but it was an incredible on-the-fly read from Lopez. He anticipated Gilgeous-Alexander's back cut against the top lock and swooped down to cut him off, forcing a mid-range miss on a play that probably creates a layup attempt nine times out of 10:<figure class="article-segment--video"><video poster="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761299/preview.png?ts=1734546414" loop="" muted="" autoplay="" playsinline="" controls="" onclick="if(/android 2.[0-3]/.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase())) { var sources = this.getElementsByTagName('source'); for(var i = 0, total = sources.length; i &lt; total; i++) { this.removeChild(sources[0]);}; this.outerHTML = this.innerHTML; }"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761299/animation.mp4?ts=1734546414" type="video/mp4"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761299/animation.webm?ts=1734546414" type="video/webm"> <div>Your browser does not support the video tag.</div> </source></source></video><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> ESPN</figcaption></figure>Most of the Thunder's pick-and-rolls were guard-guard actions designed to attack Trent or Lillard, but the Bucks survived those because of <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&amp;CFPARAMS=&amp;GameEventID=500&amp;GameID=0062400001&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;flag=1&amp;title=Wallace%20Bad%20Pass%20Turnover%20(P1.T9)">the help they got from their bigs</a> on the back side.Giannis spent the game guarding Caruso and Dort, and that allowed him to roam to his heart's content, mucking up drives and rim-rolls at every turn: <figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761293/cropped_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.38.12_PM.jpg?ts=1734545702" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761293/w220xh124_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.38.12_PM.jpg?ts=1734545702 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761293/w320xh180_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.38.12_PM.jpg?ts=1734545702 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761293/w640xh360_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.38.12_PM.jpg?ts=1734545702 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761293/w768xh432_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.38.12_PM.jpg?ts=1734545702 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761293/w1080xh607_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.38.12_PM.jpg?ts=1734545702 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> ESPN</figcaption></figure><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761294/cropped_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.37.10_PM.jpg?ts=1734545713" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761294/w220xh124_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.37.10_PM.jpg?ts=1734545713 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761294/w320xh180_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.37.10_PM.jpg?ts=1734545713 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761294/w640xh360_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.37.10_PM.jpg?ts=1734545713 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761294/w768xh432_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.37.10_PM.jpg?ts=1734545713 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/761294/w1080xh607_Screenshot_2024-12-18_at_12.37.10_PM.jpg?ts=1734545713 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> ESPN</figcaption></figure>He also spent the game making second-effort plays like <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&amp;CFPARAMS=&amp;GameEventID=473&amp;GameID=0062400001&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;flag=1&amp;title=MISS%20K.%20Williams%201%27%20Layup">this</a>. And this: <figure class="article-segment--embed"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Giannis SWAT. ❌ He's doing it all right now as the Bucks take a 13-point lead into the 4th... 🏆 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EmiratesNBACup?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EmiratesNBACup</a> Championship 📺 MIL/OKC on ABC <a href="https://t.co/2uAOfN0sd6">pic.twitter.com/2uAOfN0sd6</a>— NBA (@NBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1869223581214978201?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2024</a>
</blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></figure>Sheesh. He tacked on a couple more emphatic blocks for fun late in the fourth, as Milwaukee comfortably closed things out and won the second annual Cup. Giannis finished with a 26-point, 19-rebound triple-double that included five stocks. And he served notice (if his play over the last month hadn't already) that Nikola Jokic has company in the early MVP race.The victory, eye-opening as it might've been, doesn't erase the many genuine concerns about the Bucks' ability to meaningfully contend for the real prize this season. But when you see what their starting frontcourt is still capable of, and what they just did to a team that has a strong claim to being the best in the NBA, it's hard not to feel a tinge of optimism. If the two of them can keep playing (and especially defending) at this level, anything feels possible. Even for this aging, oft-shambolic team that's liable to leak oil on the perimeter.Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

https://rich-content.thescore.com/content_cards/29481655/related

The Bucks' frontcourt lets them keep dreaming

The Milwaukee Bucks, Atlanta Hawks, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Houston Rockets are in Las Vegas r...

The Milwaukee Bucks, Atlanta Hawks, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Houston Rockets are in Las Vegas ready to duke it out for the second annual NBA Cup. With the semifinals set to tip off Saturday night, here's one interesting player to keep an eye on for each remaining team.<h3>Middleton makes the Bucks make sense </h3>Khris Middleton has looked a bit rusty as a scorer since returning from double ankle surgery and making his season debut last week. He's on a minutes restriction that's kept him to 21 per night, he doesn't fully have his legs under his jumper, and he's been tentative as a driver, with just two of his 20 field-goal attempts coming at the rim. He's hit just five of those 20 shots and is averaging 7.3 points in his three games back after going scoreless in Milwaukee's win over Orlando in the Cup quarterfinals.And yet, it's hard to overstate how much Middleton's steady hand has helped connect the dots and smooth things out for a Bucks team that often looked shambolic without him. Just having another capable ball-handler and passer who can pilot the offense has been a huge boon, both with and without Damian Lillard on the floor. Having him as a co-creator will be all the more important with Lillard presumably being shadowed by Dyson Daniels in the semis. <div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/626698/cropped_GettyImages-2150115501.jpg?ts=1734042264" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/626698/w220xh124_GettyImages-2150115501.jpg?ts=1734042264 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/626698/w320xh180_GettyImages-2150115501.jpg?ts=1734042264 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/626698/w640xh360_GettyImages-2150115501.jpg?ts=1734042264 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/626698/w768xh432_GettyImages-2150115501.jpg?ts=1734042264 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/626698/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2150115501.jpg?ts=1734042264 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Ron Hoskins / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>For now, Middleton is coming off the bench and basically serving as the team's backup point guard. In that role, he's averaging 6.3 assists per game, or 10.9 per 36 minutes. Even with his aforementioned scoring struggles, Milwaukee has won his minutes by 19.1 points per 100 possessions, with a 128.8 offensive rating. Part of that can be attributed to how tightly Doc Rivers has tethered him to Giannis Antetokounmpo; of Middleton's 63 minutes, 61 have come with Antetokounmpo on the court. As such, 13 of his 19 assists have gone to Antetokounmpo, mostly out of the pick-and-roll.While Lillard and Antetokounmpo have refined their chemistry over time, Giannis' two-man game with Middleton has always been more effective. Reuniting the pair has allowed Antetokounmpo to relinquish some of his onerous initiating responsibilities and lean much further into play-finishing. When he plays without Middleton, 62% of his 2-point field goals are unassisted. When Middleton's on the floor with him, that proportion of self-created twos shrinks all the way down to 23%.At 33 years old and after multiple lower-body surgeries, Middleton obviously isn't the on-ball defender he once was. But he's still a smart team defender who helps on that end simply by being in the right place at the right time (something that can't always be said for Gary Trent Jr. or Taurean Prince). On two separate occasions in Tuesday's quarterfinal, he forced turnovers on back-to-back possessions with heady off-ball plays.In the first half, he picked off an Anthony Black skip pass while playing the weak-side zone and followed it up by sliding over to draw a charge on a cutting Wendell Carter Jr. In the second half, he stunted from the slot and stripped Black coming off a corner dribble-handoff, then on the next possession dug down for a steal on a driving Moe Wagner while playing on the bottom end of a 2-3 zone. He followed up both of those second-half steals by setting Antetokounmpo up for dunks at the other end.His scoring will come around eventually. For now, it's just great to see him back on the court, contributing in myriad other ways. <h3>Hartenstein fills in the blanks for OKC </h3>All the reasons the Thunder saw fit to shell out a big free-agent contract to Isaiah Hartenstein have been on display since the big man returned from a hand fracture three weeks ago, and they were there for everyone to see in the team's quarterfinal win over the Dallas Mavericks. The Thunder lost to the Mavericks in the second round this past spring after getting beat up on the glass and generally overwhelmed physically. On Tuesday night, it was the exact opposite. While Hartenstein wasn't the sole reason for that, he certainly had a lot to do with OKC turning the tables on Dallas, which included winning the offensive rebounding battle 17-7.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750257/cropped_GettyImages-2177954475.jpg?ts=1734042185" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750257/w220xh124_GettyImages-2177954475.jpg?ts=1734042185 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750257/w320xh180_GettyImages-2177954475.jpg?ts=1734042185 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750257/w640xh360_GettyImages-2177954475.jpg?ts=1734042185 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750257/w768xh432_GettyImages-2177954475.jpg?ts=1734042185 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750257/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2177954475.jpg?ts=1734042185 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Bart Young / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>Hartenstein, whose proficiency as a rebounder was a huge part of why he was acquired, hauled in five of those 17 O-boards, on top of all the pointy-elbowed work he did to limit second chances on the defensive end. Before he returned to the lineup, the Thunder ranked dead last in the NBA in overall rebound rate (46.3%). Their rebound rate with him on the floor (52.4%) would rank second. That's going to be pretty important in the semifinals against the Rockets, who happen to lead the league in that category.Hartenstein also showcased his defensive coverage versatility and rim-protecting chops, holding the Mavs to 1-for-5 shooting at the basket while also containing Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving on the perimeter with hard shows in ball-screen action. Blitzing Doncic is a dangerous tactic, but Hartenstein's mobility and back-line deterrence made it pay off. For the season, the Thunder's opponent rim frequency dips by 8.1 percentage points, per <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/player/4469/onoff#tab-opp_shooting_freq">Cleaning the Glass</a>. Among players challenging at least five rim shots per game, only six guys have allowed a lower percentage on those shots than Hartenstein (50.9%), and one of them is Chet Holmgren.At the offensive end, second-chance generation is just one way Hartenstein helps the Thunder. They take advantage of his passing chops by running a ton of Delay action through him at the top of the floor, which throws a different wrench at defenses after being largely absent from OKC's toolkit last season. He leads the team by a mile in frontcourt touches per game, averaging about 12 more than Holmgren was getting before his injury. And to the earlier point about their physicality shift, he brings a screening presence the Thunder previously lacked. For all his gifts, Holmgren has a hard time making solid contact without getting dislodged due to his slender frame and is often more interested in slipping than truly connecting.There's more than one way to create space as a big man. Holmgren does it by drawing opposing centers out of the paint with his jump-shooting ability; Hartenstein does it by laying lumber and wiping on-ball defenders out of the picture. The latter has proved just as beneficial as the former for lead guards Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams - especially for Williams, who's a bit more reliant on screens to create good shots for himself. Gilgeous-Alexander's true shooting percentage jumps from 61% to 63.4% with Hartenstein on the floor, while Williams' spikes from 58.8% to 60.6%.On top of making life easier for others, Hartenstein is an effective - if unconventional - pick-and-roll finisher. He has, without exaggeration, one of the five most accurate push shots in the league. He's taken 48% of his shots from floater range this season, the highest frequency for any qualified player, and made 52% of them. He's developed crackling two-man chemistry with Williams, whose tempo and patience help guide him not only into those short-roll floaters but into the occasional lob dunk. The two of them linked up for three alley-oops against the Rockets the last time the two teams played.Hartenstein's matchup with Houston's offensive fulcrum, Alperen Sengun, will be fascinating to watch at both ends and will have a lot to say about which team advances to the Cup final.<h3>Hunter leveling up for the Hawks </h3>Atlanta is the most surprising entry in the Cup's Final Four, and there's excitement building over a team that looks and feels different from its past iterations.A lot of that excitement centers on the Hawks' more novel components, from the outrageous defense being played by trade import Dyson Daniels, to the continuing evolution of young playmaking forward Jalen Johnson, to the encouraging two-way flashes shown by No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher. Quietly, though, one of the most important developments for the team this season involves one of its longtime holdovers: a post-hype wing who's finally fulfilling his potential while transitioning to a sixth-man role in his age-27 campaign.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758567/cropped_GettyImages-2187450894.jpg?ts=1734042098" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758567/w220xh124_GettyImages-2187450894.jpg?ts=1734042098 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758567/w320xh180_GettyImages-2187450894.jpg?ts=1734042098 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758567/w640xh360_GettyImages-2187450894.jpg?ts=1734042098 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758567/w768xh432_GettyImages-2187450894.jpg?ts=1734042098 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758567/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2187450894.jpg?ts=1734042098 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Scott Cunningham / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>De'Andre Hunter was once an intriguing two-way prospect in his own right, but as injuries piled up, his growth stagnated. Over five mildly disappointing campaigns, his defense waxed and waned, his jumper came and went, and more than anything, his offensive decision-making lagged behind. He did make some strides in that department last season, but this year represents a quantum leap by comparison. This is a considerably more assured, more decisive, more forceful version of Hunter than we've ever seen.It obviously helps that he's shooting 45% from deep, and it's fair to wonder how different things will look when that inevitably regresses. But it feels just as important that Hunter is letting those threes fly - or attacking the closeouts he's garnering - with conviction and without hesitation. Gone are the record-scratches and meandering dribbles to nowhere. In their place are stampede cuts and straight-line drives. His handle also looks more fluid on the rare occasions that he moves horizontally with the ball. The upshot is that he's not only taking a higher rate of threes than ever, he also has by far the highest free-throw rate of his career. He's almost entirely excised long mid-rangers from his diet; they account for just 6% of his field-goal attempts this season, less than half his previous career-low frequency. Pull-up jumpers in general make up just 23% of his shots, the lowest proportion of his career and down from over 30% each of the last two years. And he's shooting 71% at the rim, besting his career high of 64%.Add it all up, and Hunter is the NBA's leading bench scorer at 19.6 points per game (25.4 per 36 minutes) on 63.8% true shooting. He's still a maddeningly inconsistent defender, especially off the ball, and he's never going to be any kind of playmaker. But he appears to have settled into his ideal offensive role, and the Hawks are scoring 7.2 more points per 100 possessions with him on the floor. He's scored 20 or more points in seven of his last eight games, and against a Bucks team that's extremely light on perimeter defense, he should be poised to make it eight of nine.<h3>Brooks binds Houston's defense</h3>There are <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3152008" href="https://thescore.com/news/3152008">lots of reasons</a> the Rockets currently rate as the second-best defensive team in the NBA: their creative head coach, their army of young octopus-armed chaos agents, and their 6-foot veteran point guard. But Dillon Brooks, whose arrival last season kickstarted the transformation of what was then the league's second-worst defense, is still the glue that binds the structure together.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758470/cropped_GettyImages-2187778921.jpg?ts=1734066229" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758470/w220xh124_GettyImages-2187778921.jpg?ts=1734066229 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758470/w320xh180_GettyImages-2187778921.jpg?ts=1734066229 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758470/w640xh360_GettyImages-2187778921.jpg?ts=1734066229 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758470/w768xh432_GettyImages-2187778921.jpg?ts=1734066229 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758470/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2187778921.jpg?ts=1734066229 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Alex Slitz / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>"We're only as good as our one-on-one defense," Ime Udoka told <a href="https://www.theringer.com/2024/11/25/nba/houston-rockets-defense-ime-udoka">The Ringer's Michael Pina</a>, and for as dynamic and disruptive as Amen Thompson and Tari Eason are, the Rockets have no better one-on-one irritant than Brooks, whether he's manning up a point guard or a center. They allow 9.8 fewer points per 100 possessions with him on the floor, the largest differential on the team. Brooks isn't an event creator the way Thompson, Eason, or even Fred VanVleet is. He's more of an event preventer. His impact lies in the things that don't happen, the plays that don't materialize because of his ball denial and ability to stay stapled to ball-handlers' hips. He doesn't get many steals, but he'll still force turnovers by drawing moving-screen violations because he's adept at evading stationary picks.As such, the task of trying to corral the tornado that is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will largely fall to him in the semis. He did an admirable job of it in the teams' last meeting, which Houston won, despite SGA shaking loose for 32 points.Brooks has also been by far the most accurate 3-point shooter (38.1%) on one of the league's worst 3-point shooting teams. Against a Thunder defense that swarms the middle and concedes a ton of threes, the Rockets will rely on him to make them pay for their aggressive help. So, in short, he'll be central to what transpires at both ends of the floor.Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

https://rich-content.thescore.com/content_cards/29413848/related

1 player to watch on each NBA Cup semifinalist

It's hard to know how to evaluate the Golden State Warriors. After an offseason that marked somet...

It's hard to know how to evaluate the Golden State Warriors. After an offseason that marked something of a pivot with the departure of Klay Thompson, they got off to a rip-roaring 12-3 start, including a 3-0 record without Steph Curry in the lineup.Steve Kerr showcased the team's depth by running a 12-man rotation, which helped keep everyone fresh enough to execute a demanding new defensive scheme that smothered opponents. Draymond Green was his characteristically brilliant self in the middle of that scheme, Curry was lighting it up at the other end, and Buddy Hield was patching the Thompson-sized shooting hole in their lineup. But they've lost six of their eight games since then, prompting renewed concern about whether the team has enough talent surrounding Curry (who will turn 37 in March) to seriously contend while he's near the top of his game.Even with Green (who'll turn 35 a couple weeks before Curry) still proving capable of anchoring a top-five defense, and Andrew Wiggins bouncing back in a major way, the drop-off from Curry to the next-best player on the roster remains frightfully steep. Golden State's offense is 19.4 points per 100 possessions worse when he isn't on the floor, which is the second-biggest gulf in the league behind only Nikola Jokic's ludicrous 31-point differential, per <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/players?stat_category=onoff_efficiency">Cleaning the Glass</a>.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>That's why the Warriors, who reportedly pursued Paul George and Lauri Markkanen in the offseason, are once again on the hunt for a second star, according to <a href="https://x.com/ESPNNBA/status/1865126940589371686?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1865126940589371686%7Ctwgr%5Ed26f0f97996e8d9a413fcefdfb2e8f45c4f525d9%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sbnation.com%2F2024%2F12%2F7%2F24315146%2Fgolden-state-warriors-trade-rumors-stephen-curry">ESPN's Shams Charania</a>. Most players who signed offseason deals become eligible to be traded Sunday, so that hunt should begin in earnest soon.The front office's head is in the right place. Every season with Curry playing at this level is a gift that can't be taken for granted, and the Warriors have enough pieces to put together an appealing package. They have all their own first-rounders (apart from picks 21-30 in the 2030 draft), a bunch of movable midsize salaries (with five vets landing between $8 million and $13 million), and a quartet of talented young players in Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody, and Trayce Jackson-Davis. (Moody is poison-pilled after signing a rookie extension in the offseason, however, which could make trading him logistically challenging.) Kerr won't be going 12 deep in the playoffs, so it makes sense for the Warriors to try to cash in some of their depth with a consolidation trade.But are there any available and attainable stars who'd actually help pry the Warriors' championship window back open? Let's explore the small handful of options at the top of the market.<h3>Brandon Ingram </h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/744379/cropped_GettyImages-2068297274.jpg?ts=1733930840" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/744379/w220xh124_GettyImages-2068297274.jpg?ts=1733930840 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/744379/w320xh180_GettyImages-2068297274.jpg?ts=1733930840 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/744379/w640xh360_GettyImages-2068297274.jpg?ts=1733930840 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/744379/w768xh432_GettyImages-2068297274.jpg?ts=1733930840 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/744379/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2068297274.jpg?ts=1733930840 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>The Pelicans shopped Ingram in the summer as they failed to find common ground in extension negotiations, with some roster redundancies and a looming tax crunch bearing down on them. They're in the midst of a season from hell. It doesn't feel like a team needs to bowl them over with an offer in order to pry Ingram loose.The 27-year-old has gamely suited up and produced for a team that's been demolished by injuries, averaging 22.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 5.2 assists on solid efficiency while getting threes up at the highest rate of his career. But even before Ingram suffered a severe ankle sprain that's expected to sideline him for several weeks, there were reasons for the Warriors to be wary of pursuing him. While his ability to create off the bounce and shoulder a big scoring load would help, his ball-holding proclivities would be a tough fit with their quick-hitting motion offense.The Warriors do have experience folding in a similarly stringy wing with similar offensive tendencies, but Ingram is not Kevin Durant. (Plus, even Durant created some stylistic clashes with the holdovers of Kerr's system; it just didn't matter because those teams were so talented.) Though Ingram's a very good shooter, he doesn't generate a ton of off-ball gravity because of his aforementioned penchant for holding and probing rather than letting it fly off the catch.Ingram is also a shaky and often inattentive defender, which might make it challenging to plop him into a scheme that thrives on intense ball pressure and the ability to rotate out of trouble.Given Ingram's immense strengths and evident flaws, it's no surprise that he and the Pelicans can't agree on how he should be valued. With free agency a few months away, do the Warriors really want to sign up for that negotiating challenge? Ingram is a very good player, but acquiring him at this stage feels like more trouble than it's worth.<h3>Zach LaVine </h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/760105/cropped_GettyImages-1463498401.jpg?ts=1733929967" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/760105/w220xh124_GettyImages-1463498401.jpg?ts=1733929967 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/760105/w320xh180_GettyImages-1463498401.jpg?ts=1733929967 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/760105/w640xh360_GettyImages-1463498401.jpg?ts=1733929967 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/760105/w768xh432_GettyImages-1463498401.jpg?ts=1733929967 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/760105/w1080xh607_GettyImages-1463498401.jpg?ts=1733929967 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Michael Reaves / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>It seems like the Bulls have been trying to trade LaVine forever, but his contract (which has two years and $95 million left on it after this season), injury history, and reputation as an empty-stat merchant have been impediments. He and the Warriors could really help each other, though. As a sweet-shooting slasher who can thrive without the ball and in the open floor, he'd be a fantastic offensive fit.LaVine is shooting 43.2% from deep on 7.7 attempts per game this season and scoring 1.35 points per possession in transition. Consider the fact that the Warriors have outscored opponents by 25.1 points per 100 possessions with Curry and Hield on the floor together. Now imagine a turbocharged version of that pairing that supplements Curry with a comparable shooter and transition scorer to Hield, but with way more athleticism and off-the-dribble juice.Another big selling point is the driving and finishing ability LaVine would bring to a team that struggles to put pressure on the rim. Sending out Kuminga would arguably make that aspect of the deal a wash, but given LaVine's low trade value, the Warriors would probably be able to get him without even putting Kuminga on the table.Wiggins, however, needs to be outbound in basically any scenario for salary-matching purposes, and it's fair to wonder whether such an exchange would actually help the Warriors. It would represent a massive defensive downgrade and leave their small-forward corps extremely depleted. While they've shown the ability to insulate a defensively limited backcourt (they have a 92.5 defensive rating with Curry and Hield on the court), Wiggins is an important component of that insulation.Maybe the combined shooting and offensive firepower of a Curry-LaVine guard tandem would make it more tenable to play Kuminga at the three, which Kerr typically tries to avoid. But that's a big maybe, and there's no guarantee that this would put the team in a meaningfully better spot.<h3>Jimmy Butler </h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/760106/cropped_GettyImages-1237527306.jpg?ts=1733930890" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/760106/w220xh124_GettyImages-1237527306.jpg?ts=1733930890 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/760106/w320xh180_GettyImages-1237527306.jpg?ts=1733930890 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/760106/w640xh360_GettyImages-1237527306.jpg?ts=1733930890 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/760106/w768xh432_GettyImages-1237527306.jpg?ts=1733930890 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/760106/w1080xh607_GettyImages-1237527306.jpg?ts=1733930890 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Jed Jacobsohn / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>Now we're talking. Who knows how serious the Heat actually are about trading the man who's led them to three conference finals and two Finals appearances in the last five years. But with Butler able to opt out of his deal to become a free agent after this season, Miami is "open to listening to offers," according to <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/42878390/shams-charania-nba-pass-trade-intel-jimmy-butler-brandon-ingram-golden-state-warriors">Charania</a>. Golden State should be lighting up the phones.The 35-year-old Butler - who almost never shoots threes, tends to lapse into passivity on offense, and frequently misses time with injuries - is by far the best bet of all the available names to propel the Warriors back into legitimate contention. He's still a dogged defender - an absolute predator in the gaps. He and Green would wreak all kinds of havoc with their combined physicality, intuition, and unpredictability. (They'd also probably enjoy being psychotic competitors together.)At the offensive end, Butler could take some of the creation load off Curry's shoulders. Butler remains an excellent on-ball playmaker - a powerful driver and finisher capable of conjuring buckets out of thin air when the moment demands it. He's also an elite off-ball player despite his lack of 3-point gravity because of his ability and willingness to cut, screen, slip, roll, seal, and connect the dots as a passer on the move. He's shooting a career-high 59% from 2-point range this season, with a free-throw attempt rate that's double that of anyone on the Warriors.One of the smartest players in the league could undoubtedly fit into a read-and-react Golden State offense that demands quick and precise decision-making. Butler has plenty of experience working within an offense that flows out of delay and split action. His limitations as a shooter would make it tough to play him, Green, and a center at the same time, but we've seen Butler's Heat teams navigate similar spacing issues in the past using similar pass-and-cut principles. Besides, in the highest-leverage moments, the Warriors will probably roll with Green at center anyway. Butler would be an ideal wing to fill out those smaller lineups.His age and contract status are legitimate concerns, but the Warriors are (or at least should be) operating on Curry's timeline. Cobbling together the outgoing salary to match the $48 million Butler's making this season would be difficult but not impossible. As for what happens beyond this season, perhaps the Warriors could convince him to pick up his $52-million option for 2025-26 and forestall a long-term commitment. Or maybe they could go the Wolves/Gobert route and extend Butler at a lower average annual value than that option year.Whatever the long-term cost, Butler's short-term impact is probably worth it. He's a two-way playoff monster who'd give the Warriors a legitimate shot to win another ring before their Curry window closes for good. <h3>Ultimate dice rolls</h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/760107/cropped_GettyImages-2079446780.jpg?ts=1733930924" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/760107/w220xh124_GettyImages-2079446780.jpg?ts=1733930924 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/760107/w320xh180_GettyImages-2079446780.jpg?ts=1733930924 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/760107/w640xh360_GettyImages-2079446780.jpg?ts=1733930924 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/760107/w768xh432_GettyImages-2079446780.jpg?ts=1733930924 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/760107/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2079446780.jpg?ts=1733930924 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Layne Murdoch Jr. / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>Let's say the Warriors don't think the aforementioned options or any other players on the market move the needle enough. If they want to swing for pure upside, there are a couple of chronically injured players who might be attainable, and who - if they can somehow get and stay healthy - would raise Golden State's ceiling in ways no other available player can. I'm talking, of course, about Kawhi Leonard and Zion Williamson.By letting Paul George walk in the offseason, the Clippers showed they're ready to wash their hands of the injury-plagued Kawhi-PG era. They're off to an impressive 14-11 start without Leonard playing a single minute, and they'd surely love to shed the two years and $100 million remaining on his contract beyond this season. Taking that on would be a huge risk for Golden State, but think of the potential reward. Sure, Leonard looked like a shell of himself in the postseason and couldn't make it through Team USA's pre-Olympic training camp, but before that, he played 68 games and made the All-NBA second team. He's still a top-10 player in the league when healthy.Imagine Williamson running either end of a two-man game with Curry, like a souped-up Draymond with a jet pack instead of a backpack. Those two would be unstoppable together and outrageously entertaining to watch. Plus, the next three years of Williamson's contract are <a href="https://www.si.com/nba/2023/12/21/zion-williamson-contract-no-longer-guaranteed-final-three-years-clause">no longer guaranteed</a>, so if things didn't work out with the Pelicans star, the Warriors could cut their losses.Realistically, the Warriors won't acquire either player, but it's fun to dream on the possibilities all the same.<h3>Offseason targets</h3>Big-game hunting isn't the Warriors' only option; they could make smaller upgrades and keep most of their powder dry for the summer. There's risk in waiting until Curry's age-38 season to make their big swing, but if they decide they can afford to be more patient, a whole host of alternatives could open up.The Warriors could make another run at Markkanen, who's been a bit disappointing in the first year of his five-year max extension but shouldn't be judged on his performance for a blatantly tanking team. It would make sense to pursue him for all the reasons it made sense to pursue him last summer: He's a special offensive talent for a 7-footer, and he'd be an ideal complement to Steph and Draymond while also representing a bridge to the future.Barring that, maybe the Rockets will decide they want to build around the more athletic pieces of their young core and dispense with Alperen Sengun, who'd be a fascinating fit in Golden State. Pascal Siakam's been on the Warriors' radar in the past; maybe he'll pop up again if the Pacers' season keeps going poorly. Other stars will shake loose due to unforeseen circumstances.Their dream scenario is obviously a disillusioned Giannis Antetokounmpo pushing his way out of Milwaukee after another disappointing Bucks season, but that feels like a pipe dream at the moment. Even if he does demand a trade, it's hard to imagine Golden State putting together the winning offer. That won't stop Warriors fans from imagining the best shooter of all time joining forces with the best interior scorer in a generation for one last run at glory.Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

https://rich-content.thescore.com/content_cards/29394236/related

Which stars make sense as Warriors trade targets?

Just 20 months ago, the Houston Rockets were wrapping up a dismal 22-60 campaign, their third str...

Just 20 months ago, the Houston Rockets were wrapping up a dismal 22-60 campaign, their third straight season finishing in the Western Conference cellar. Now, they're tied for second place in a West that's more competitive than it's been in years, with a 15-8 record that includes a recent statement win over the conference's top team. Their defense has gone from second-worst to second-best in the NBA in that short time, and their net rating has improved from 29th to seventh.It's been an impressive turnaround, propelled by a great coaching hire, timely veteran free-agent signings, and tremendous internal growth. The question now is, how sustainable is the formula that's brought them so much success over the season's first six weeks? How good is this team, really? On defense, they're legit. Nothing feels fluky at that end, where an array of long, strong, versatile defenders work in unison to execute Ime Udoka's rock-solid scheme. The Rockets tend to switch one through four around center Alperen Sengun and usually have Sengun play a high drop when guarding ball screens. They also try to keep the big man out of ball-screen action by cross-matching him onto poor-shooting wings or guards, who are typically less involved in the offense and don't force him to account for as much space.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>That's important, because while Sengun <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/2833452" href="https://thescore.com/news/2833452">has improved a lot</a> defensively, he still has a hard time tracking both his man and the ball when guarding pick-and-roll. He's spent entire games this season guarding players like Josh Hart and Kris Dunn, sagging off them when they have the ball and providing roving help around the rim when they don't.The Rockets can structure their scheme and matchups that way because they've got a trio of wing defenders in Dillon Brooks, Amen Thompson, and Tari Eason who can defend point guards, centers, and everyone in between. Hybrid big Jabari Smith Jr. isn't as versatile as those three, in the sense that you wouldn't want him to start a possession defending a guard, but he's a capable switch defender who can handle those assignments in mid-to-late-clock situations.The same goes for guard Fred VanVleet at the opposite end of the positional spectrum; the Rockets won't intentionally cross-match him onto bigs the way they do with Brooks, but he's strong enough (and has good enough hands) that they're plenty comfortable with him switching onto a center and fighting to hold his ground while help shades over. <figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/759360/cropped_GettyImages-2187867258.jpg?ts=1733555289" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/759360/w220xh124_GettyImages-2187867258.jpg?ts=1733555289 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/759360/w320xh180_GettyImages-2187867258.jpg?ts=1733555289 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/759360/w640xh360_GettyImages-2187867258.jpg?ts=1733555289 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/759360/w768xh432_GettyImages-2187867258.jpg?ts=1733555289 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/759360/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2187867258.jpg?ts=1733555289 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Anadolu / Getty</figcaption></figure>Houston has the third-best rim defense in the league, and that's thanks not only to Sengun's improvement and adjusted role but also to the ability of the team's non-centers (Thompson most of all) to protect the basket. Remarkably, that extends all the way to their 6-foot point guard, whose impact as a low belies his stature. VanVleet's ability to simply be on time and absorb a midair bump has allowed him to hold opponents to <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defensive-impact?CF=PLAYER_NAME*E*vanvleet">56.8% shooting</a> at the rim on an average of two contests per game.Brooks is as sticky an on-ball stopper as there is. Eason and Thompson are space-eaters and gap playmakers of the highest order. Even Jalen Green, the ostensible weak link in the rotation, has made meaningful strides as a defender. Collectively, the Rockets are physical, disciplined, and connected, able to rotate on a string. They're as good as any team other than the Thunder and maybe the Warriors at applying ball pressure without getting burned on the backside. They force a lot of turnovers but don't foul a ton or give up many offensive rebounds. They surrender the league's lowest rate of opponent threes.The concerns about them all reside on the offensive end. This is simply a terrible shooting and finishing team from every area on the floor. They rank 26th in accuracy from 3-point range (on the league's fourth-lowest attempt rate), 21st from long mid-range, 28th from floater range, 24th at the rim, and 23rd from the free-throw line. Smith is their only starter shooting better than 50% from 2-point range, Brooks is their only regular above 35% from deep, and Thompson is their only rotation player with an above-average true-shooting mark.Add it up, and you have a team that ranks 29th in effective field-goal percentage and 25th in first-shot half-court scoring, per <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/league/context#tab-offense_halfcourt_putbacks">Cleaning the Glass</a>. The five teams that rank below Houston in that latter category are a combined 26-80 this season.Incredibly, the Rockets still have a league-average offense overall, thanks to a microscopic turnover rate (a feature of nearly every VanVleet team since he became a starting point guard) and a gargantuan offensive rebound rate. Their relentless glass-crashing, in particular, has a way of buoying them while wearing out and demoralizing their opponents. They're getting about six more shooting possessions per game than their opponents, the largest differential in the league, and they have a killer transition attack fueled largely by their excellent defense.If that formula sounds familiar, you might recall that the 2021-22 Grizzlies employed something similar to win 56 games, reach the second round of the playoffs, and put a decent scare into the eventual champion Warriors despite ranking 22nd in first-shot half-court offense.The difference, of course, is those Grizzlies had Ja Morant, and the Rockets don't have anyone in the same galaxy as an offensive engine. For that reason, it's hard to imagine them reaching those same heights. It's an apples-to-oranges comparison because Houston mainly flows through its center in the half court; Sengun ranks <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/touches?dir=D&amp;sort=FRONT_CT_TOUCHES">seventh in the league</a> in frontcourt touches, third in post touches, and fifth among centers in average time of possession. And there are benefits to <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/2883055" href="https://thescore.com/news/2883055">having a skilled big like him orchestrate the offense</a>. But Sengun isn't quite at the level where he can consistently create good shots for himself and his teammates by doing so.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/759361/cropped_GettyImages-2185657275.jpg?ts=1733555593" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/759361/w220xh124_GettyImages-2185657275.jpg?ts=1733555593 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/759361/w320xh180_GettyImages-2185657275.jpg?ts=1733555593 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/759361/w640xh360_GettyImages-2185657275.jpg?ts=1733555593 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/759361/w768xh432_GettyImages-2185657275.jpg?ts=1733555593 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/759361/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2185657275.jpg?ts=1733555593 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Logan Riely / NBA / Getty</figcaption></figure>His touch around the basket is pretty poor (he's shooting 58% inside four feet, a <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/player/4879#tab-shooting_accuracy">14th-percentile mark</a> for a big), and his floater game is only OK, especially considering how many of them he takes. You'd like to see him take the ball strong to the basket more often rather than falling back on his push shot when there's a defender in his path, though you can understand the aversion given his struggles as a finisher. He's a good passer, and often a stylish one, but his value as a playmaker is more about him acing low-to-medium-risk reads than about him finding imperceptible passing windows that can wrong-foot a defense's typical rotations.None of this is meant to knock Sengun, who's doing everything asked of him to the best of his considerable capabilities. It's just to say there's an element of necessity to how frequently the Rockets play through him, because of how lacking the team's perimeter creation is.Green's season may as well have picked up from where last February ended, as if his <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3048806" href="https://thescore.com/news/3048806">great March awakening</a> never happened. He's back to playing slightly out of control, attacking without a plan, and taking shots that aren't justified by his shot-making ability. He's improved as an interior finisher, but he's shooting just 32% from deep and an unthinkable 23% on non-rim 2-pointers. He has 62 assists against 60 turnovers. He simply hasn't looked like a capable lead guard this season.VanVleet has been the much more reliable backcourt option, and his two-man game with Sengun continues to be the staple food of Houston's offensive diet. But he's never going to be an efficient scorer inside the arc (his current 47% mark is actually a career high), which puts a lot of pressure on a 3-point shot that hasn't really been falling this year. His 38-point outburst in the Rockets' win over the Thunder demonstrated how good this team can be with high-end offensive guard play, but you aren't going to get anything close to that level of production from VanVleet consistently.Thompson is the team's most dangerous downhill attacker, cutter, and finisher, but as long as he's this limited as a shooter, he won't cut it as a high-volume initiator. Reed Sheppard might grow into that role one day, but the rookie looks overwhelmed and not entirely ready for the speed and physicality of the NBA game right now.The good news is, between their heap of intriguing prospects and surplus future draft picks and swaps, the Rockets are well-positioned to swing a big trade that helps them address this clear area of need. They've already reportedly poked around the idea of going after Kevin Durant, and the specter of Giannis Antetokounmpo shimmers somewhere on the horizon, but the target needn't necessarily be a superstar. Someone like Zach LaVine, for example, could help Houston's offense immensely while being shielded by the team's defensive infrastructure.A deal of that magnitude feels pretty unlikely this season both logistically and practically. Upsetting team continuity midseason rarely works out, and if the aim is to move Green, it makes more sense to wait until the summer anyway, when his recently extended contract won't be poison-pilled and will become much easier to trade.For now, the Rockets can enjoy the innocent climb after years in the basement. But expectations and pressure will start to ramp up if they continue along this trajectory. And for all their positive development stories, solutions may ultimately have to come from without rather than from within.Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

https://rich-content.thescore.com/content_cards/29357457/related

How real is the Rockets' rise?

Leave it to the Philadelphia 76ers to pull off an offseason in which they sign the best free-agen...

Leave it to the Philadelphia 76ers to pull off an offseason in which they sign the best free-agent wing on the market, extend their young All-Star lead guard, draft the current Rookie of the Year front-runner 16th overall, fill out the roster with established role players on team-friendly deals, and put all those pieces around a former MVP who scored like prime Wilt Chamberlain last season ... only to have the whole thing blow up in their faces in less than a month.The disconnect between the (ahem) process and the result feels fitting for a team that's been a mess of contradictions since Joel Embiid debuted some eight years ago. From Embiid's first full season in 2017-18 through the 2023-24 campaign, only three teams won more regular-season games than Philadelphia. All three (Milwaukee, Boston, and Denver) won championships in that period. The Sixers never made it past the second round.There were damaging decisions from three separate front offices along the way (the Markelle Fultz gambit, Mikal Bridges for Zhaire Smith on draft night, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6L3qmInqS0">Tobias Harris over Jimmy Butler</a>, the ill-fated Al Horford experiment, ditching Isaiah Joe). But for nearly every disaster, there's been a savvy pivot or countermove that's helped the Sixers wriggle out of the bind.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>When they pulled the plug on the Fultz project in just his second season, they traded him for a protected draft pick that - by the grace of the basketball gods and Mike Muscala - wound up delivering them Tyrese Maxey. After Ben Simmons' playoff vanishing act and passed-up layup heard 'round the world, they turned the disgruntled, psychologically and physically wounded pseudo-star into multiple productive seasons of James Harden.The Harden experience was a mixed bag, but he played like an All-Star for the better part of his Sixers tenure. That trade still rates as a perfect-50 slam dunk for Daryl Morey considering what's become of Simmons since then, even if Harden's desultory performances in playoff elimination games - and subsequent ugly divorce with Morey - left a bitter taste in everyone's mouths. And when that led to a second high-profile holdout in the span of two years, Philly managed to flip Harden, restock its barren asset cupboard with multiple first-rounders, and get off P.J. Tucker's contract in the process.Then this past offseason hit, and it felt like everything snapped into place; the full scope of Morey's vision and ambition came to fruition at last. His plan to preserve cap space - namely by declining to extend Maxey the previous summer and thus keeping only his small cap hold on the books - paid off when the Clippers willingly let Paul George walk into his arms, before Maxey signed a five-year extension with no opt-outs. With Embiid also agreeing to an extension, Philly had a snugly interlocking trio of stars - guard, wing, and big - nailed down through 2027-28.Welp, the Sixers are 4-14 heading into Tuesday's game in Charlotte, and their offseason maneuvering is starting to feel like another self-imposed straitjacket. Not only have Embiid and George missed 23 combined games because of knee injuries, but they've looked like shells of themselves on the rare occasions they've suited up. Maxey has missed a third of Philly's games with a hamstring strain himself, and hasn't proven capable of picking up the slack with his two co-stars hobbled or absent.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758522/cropped_GettyImages-2182664370.jpg?ts=1733177998" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758522/w220xh124_GettyImages-2182664370.jpg?ts=1733177998 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758522/w320xh180_GettyImages-2182664370.jpg?ts=1733177998 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758522/w640xh360_GettyImages-2182664370.jpg?ts=1733177998 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758522/w768xh432_GettyImages-2182664370.jpg?ts=1733177998 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758522/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2182664370.jpg?ts=1733177998 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Mitchell Leff / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>Rookie guard Jared McCain has been a revelation. He's flashed not only a terrific shooting stroke, deft touch from floater range, and slick handles, but an advanced feel for how to relocate and rotate on either end of the floor. That ought to have been the cherry on top of the sundae, another quality rotation piece unexpectedly emerging to complement a dominant core trio. Instead, McCain has arguably been Philly's best player on balance, which is a major credit to him but also a searing indictment of the rest of the roster.With limited flexibility after signing George, the Sixers assembled a supporting cast that looked perfectly acceptable on paper. Unfortunately, they have little to show for their work on the margins beyond the McCain pick and the sneakily great Guerschon Yabusele signing.Caleb Martin can't shoot or dribble, Andre Drummond can't protect the rim or hold onto the basketball, and Eric Gordon has been one of the league's worst regular rotation players. Kyle Lowry is still sound of mind but no longer of body, as evidenced by his 11% usage rate and second-percentile rim frequency. Kelly Oubre can be helpful as a cutter and on-ball defender, but he undercuts those positives with coverage mistakes, bricked threes, and neglected passing windows while driving headlong into multiple defenders.It all comes down to Embiid, though. He's the physical and spiritual embodiment of the team's contradictions, and indisputably the best player in NBA history to never make a conference final. He's simultaneously the reason to believe in and doubt Philly's ceiling, an all-consuming two-way force who may have reached a tipping point with his perpetually precarious health.Last time we saw him healthy, he was scoring more than a point per minute while dishing out assists at a career-high rate in a redesigned offense that flowed through him at the top of the floor. Embiid was well on his way to <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/2793961" href="https://thescore.com/news/2793961">a fourth straight top-two MVP finish</a> last season before tearing his left meniscus (for a second time) while trying to play through nagging soreness.Just a week before that injury, he dropped 70 points on Victor Wembanyama's head. Even when he returned in a diminished state two months later, the Sixers won their last five regular-season games with him in the lineup to bring their record to 31-8 when he played.As ever, he had a couple of stinkers in the Sixers' first-round loss to the Knicks. But he also had a 50-point game and finished as a plus-46 in the six-game series, despite developing Bell's palsy on top of his other physical ailments. And while he had some rough moments with Team USA in the summer, there were enough positive glimmers to suggest the <a href="https://x.com/VinceGoodwill/status/1840770680683409888">trimmed-down version</a> of him would be back to his dominant ways this season, especially with George joining the fray to take some of the offensive and defensive load off his shoulders.So much for that. Embiid sat out the first nine games of the season to rest his balky knee, and to serve a suspension for confronting a reporter who wrote a column insinuating that resting his balky knee indicated some kind of moral failing. Not much changed for the Sixers when he finally returned to the court. They lost their first three games with him back in the lineup by double digits, with Embiid shooting 12-for-37 from the field and registering a minus-38.He looked shockingly immobile defensively, point-switching even more than usual while sitting in an ultra-deep drop or a one-man zone. He was passive as a help defender and conceded offensive rebounds when he declined to risk collision chasing after loose balls.<figure class="article-segment--video"><video poster="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758557/preview.png?ts=1733195575" loop muted autoplay playsinline controls onclick="if(/android 2.[0-3]/.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase())) { var sources = this.getElementsByTagName('source'); for(var i = 0, total = sources.length; i &lt; total; i++) { this.removeChild(sources[0]);}; this.outerHTML = this.innerHTML; }"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758557/animation.mp4?ts=1733195575" type="video/mp4"></source> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/758557/animation.webm?ts=1733195575" type="video/webm"></source> <div>Your browser does not support the video tag.</div> </video><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> FanDuel Sports Network</figcaption></figure>Then, in his fourth game back, Embiid threw caution to the wind. He was aggressive offensively, bulldozing his way to 35 points (including a perfect 14-for-14 from the free-throw line) while moving around with newfound defensive verve. The Sixers lost to the Grizzlies by six, but only because they were minus-13 in Embiid's 13 minutes on the bench, with Maxey and George combining to shoot 4-for-19 from the field and 0-for-8 from deep. All things considered, it felt encouraging.Naturally, that effort landed Embiid right back on the shelf. He hasn't played since that game on Nov. 20. George also reinjured his knee in the loss and just returned a couple of days ago. The Sixers' would-be Big Three has spent six minutes on the court together.For all that, hope is not yet entirely lost. We've seen Embiid start sluggishly plenty of times, and he's always steadily played his way into MVP-caliber form by midseason. Even in the uninspiring four games he's played this season, you could see how much easier it was for the Sixers to generate good shots when they had a walking double-team in the middle of the floor. Their opponents also got all the way to the basket much less frequently with his hulking presence on the back line of their defense. Maybe this latest knee injury is different and he'll truly never be the same, or maybe with enough rest Embiid can actually peak in the spring instead of the winter for once.Maxey is still just 24 and still on an ascendent track as one of the most potent shooting/driving dual threats in the game. His playmaking has a very long way to go, but he didn't forget how to shoot and finish at the rim overnight. It's harder to make that case about the 34-year-old George, but he assuredly has more to offer than he's provided so far. And in McCain, Philly may genuinely have another All-Star caliber guard on its hands.It's easy to talk yourself into the Sixers pulling themselves together and snagging a play-in berth in a gong show of an Eastern Conference, whose 10-seed is somehow only three games out of their grasp. Heck, they're only five games back of a top-six seed and a guaranteed playoff spot. (Look how quickly the Bucks got back in the mix <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3122404" href="https://thescore.com/news/3122404">after a similarly dire start</a> to their season.) Alternatively, you can talk yourself into Philadelphia shutting Embiid down and tanking to preserve its top-six-protected pick ahead of a loaded 2025 draft.Make no mistake, this is still a hell of a needle to try and thread. For as optimistic as one might be about the future of the Maxey-McCain backcourt, questions will persist about whether two 6-2 guards can survive in tandem, no matter <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJCpTm-0bNQ">how strenuously Maxey objects</a> to being labeled small. Perhaps more pertinently, it'll be impossible to build a real contender around those guards if the wing and center that are supposed to make their jobs easier offensively and protect them defensively are chronically injured and/or underperforming their $50-plus-million annual salaries for the next four years.Does Morey have another Houdini act up his sleeve now that his best-laid plans have gone awry? Unlikely, but not impossible. And that's the most frightening thing about the current situation in Philly: not that it's hopeless, but that there's still juuust enough cause to be hopeful. Which feels like another way of saying there's still reason enough for the Sixers and their fans to wind up disappointed in the end. Again. Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

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For star-crossed Sixers, it's the hope that kills 

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Unpacking the wildest stats from the NBA's opening month

Early in the third quarter of a loss in Toronto on Thursday night, Minnesota Timberwolves center ...

Early in the third quarter of a loss in Toronto on Thursday night, Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert ducked in, sealed Raptors forward Scottie Barnes inside the charge circle, and called for an entry pass from Anthony Edwards. <figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/756899/cropped_rudyseal.jpg?ts=1732380206" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/756899/w220xh124_rudyseal.jpg?ts=1732380206 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/756899/w320xh180_rudyseal.jpg?ts=1732380206 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/756899/w640xh360_rudyseal.jpg?ts=1732380206 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/756899/w768xh432_rudyseal.jpg?ts=1732380206 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/756899/w1080xh607_rudyseal.jpg?ts=1732380206 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> TSN</figcaption></figure>But Edwards, who had drawn Raptors center Jakob Poeltl on a switch, decided against throwing the moderately risky pass over a 7-footer to his not-so-sure-handed teammate. Instead, as Gobert begrudgingly vacated the paint, Edwards attacked Poeltl off the bounce, drew help off the strong-side corner, and kicked out to Julius Randle for a pretty good look at a three. Randle clanked it off the heel, part of a 1-for-6 shooting night from deep.It was not the last nor nearly the most high-profile instance of Gobert being looked off on a deep seal that night. With five minutes to play and the game tied at 95, he once again had Barnes pinned underneath the basket. This time it was Randle handling up top with Poeltl defending him. And this time, when he didn't get the ball, Gobert decided to linger in the key out of protest, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/e9svhy/highlight_kevin_love_commits_an_egregious_three/">a la Kevin Love</a>. <div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div><figure class="article-segment--embed"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Rudy Gobert was upset Julius Randle didn't give him the ball and got a lazy 3 seconds call and Ant is pissed <a href="https://t.co/21nlIAjEmx">pic.twitter.com/21nlIAjEmx</a>— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) <a href="https://twitter.com/cjzero/status/1859791851974427104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 22, 2024</a>
</blockquote> <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></figure>Gobert's frustration was understandable, and the by-the-book Right Play for Randle in that situation was throwing the entry feed, especially with the shot clock in single digits. But expressing his frustration the way he did, in crunch time of a tie game, earned him a much-deserved dressing-down from Edwards. To make matters worse, Randle's reticence was validated two possessions later when he drove, drew late help, and threw a nifty laydown pass to the dunker spot that Gobert <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&amp;CFPARAMS=&amp;GameEventID=610&amp;GameID=0022400261&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;flag=1&amp;title=Gobert%20Lost%20Ball%20Turnover%20(P3.T15)">promptly fumbled for a turnover</a>.Those plays on their own obviously don't fully capture everything that's happening with this season's Wolves, who are undergoing some stylistic shifts in the wake of the trade that swapped Karl-Anthony Towns for Randle and Donte DiVincenzo on the eve of preseason. They do, however, feel like microcosms of the tension that seems to be burbling beneath the surface of their underwhelming 8-7 start, which now includes four losses to sub-.500 teams.Gobert's limitations are what they are, but there are still benefits to keeping him involved in the offense, and Towns served as a crucial conduit for that purpose. He would consistently feed Gobert in high-low actions, on the short roll, and out of 4-5 pick-and-rolls. Only Mike Conley threw more assists to Gobert last season, and on a per-game basis, Towns actually set him up slightly more frequently. Randle is assisting him about half as often. Kyle Anderson was also an effective intermediary who helped guide the ball in Gobert's direction, and he too is playing elsewhere this season.Meanwhile, Gobert and Randle are clearly still trying to figure out how best to complement each other. Randle's offensive output has been terrific in a vacuum; on a team that's increasingly jump-shot-heavy, his intention to get to the rim and free-throw line has been welcome. But between his different handedness, his less threatening 3-point stroke, and his greater proclivity for probing and driving, the shift to playing alongside him after sharing a frontcourt with Towns has required some adjustment for Gobert, just as teaming up with Towns did initially."They're different, but both really dominant in their own way," Gobert told me before Thursday's game. "KAT is obviously one of the best 3-point shooters in this league. Julius is a good 3-point shooter, but he prefers to put pressure on the rim and attack. He always tells me when he drives where he'd like me to be, for him to finish or to find me or find another teammate. It's been a great process, and I think we still have so much room to grow. "Chemistry doesn't happen overnight. I know what Julius likes to do, but obviously going through it in a game, learning how to space for him, being able anticipate what he's gonna do with the ball, those things take time. ... It's a lot of communication, things that come with going through a lot of different situations together, and building the automatics in." For now, the feeling-out period, coupled with a significant dip in Conley's effectiveness, is contributing to a career-low 12.9% usage rate for the Frenchman. What made the debacle in Toronto feel particularly disappointing was that it came directly on the heels of Randle and Gobert's most encouraging game as a tandem, a stirring comeback win over the Phoenix Suns in which Randle consistently linked up with his frontcourt mate on <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&amp;CFPARAMS=&amp;GameEventID=395&amp;GameID=0022400234&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;flag=1&amp;title=Gobert%201%27%20Alley%20Oop%20Dunk%20(8%20PTS)%20(Randle%206%20AST)">drives</a> and <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&amp;CFPARAMS=&amp;GameEventID=384&amp;GameID=0022400234&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;flag=1&amp;title=Gobert%201%27%20Cutting%20Dunk%20Shot%20(6%20PTS)%20(Randle%204%20AST)">short rolls</a>. It felt like progress."It was the first time he threw me multiple lobs in the same game," Gobert said. "And they were great lobs." The offensive adjustments involving the new frontcourt are just one small part of the Wolves' early-season malaise. For all the predictable choppiness that's come with mashing Randle and Gobert together at the 11th hour of the offseason, the team actually has a very healthy plus-8.4 net rating with the two of them on the floor. And Minnesota's offense on the whole has been better relative to the rest of the league than it was last year, up from 17th to 10th in efficiency. Though there's been some hand-wringing over the team's - and specifically Edwards' - sky-high 3-point attempt rate, that uptick has generally served them well. Edwards has been the league's most effective high-volume pull-up 3-point shooter this side of Steph Curry. The change in shot profile is also partly a natural byproduct of the Wolves' personnel changes - not just because there's less space to attack with Randle out there, but because Randle's a much more effective drive-and-kick creator than Towns was. To wit, he has almost triple the rate of 3-point assists that Towns had last season, with 37 in 15 games so far, compared to just 56 for Towns across 62 contests in 2023-24.The problem is that the offense - which continues to be plagued by turnover issues that Randle and Gobert have both contributed to - hasn't improved enough to offset a significant defensive downturn. The Wolves have slipped from first (by a considerable margin) to 12th on that end, some of which can be explained by the trade and some of which cannot.Randle has undeniably been part of the problem. Though the Wolves are more comfortable with him switching out on the perimeter than they were with Towns, he's been markedly less effective as a weak-side helper than his predecessor. He's prone to bouts of inattentiveness that result in him blowing box-outs, making late weak-side rotations, getting beat down the floor in transition, and especially giving up backdoor cuts.<figure class="article-segment--video"><video poster="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/756904/preview.png?ts=1732382810" loop="" muted="" autoplay="" playsinline="" controls="" onclick="if(/android 2.[0-3]/.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase())) { var sources = this.getElementsByTagName('source'); for(var i = 0, total = sources.length; i &lt; total; i++) { this.removeChild(sources[0]);}; this.outerHTML = this.innerHTML; }"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/756904/animation.mp4?ts=1732382810" type="video/mp4"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/756904/animation.webm?ts=1732382810" type="video/webm"> <div>Your browser does not support the video tag.</div> </source></source></video><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> TNT</figcaption></figure>Perhaps more importantly, exchanging Towns for Randle leaves the Wolves looking very small when Gobert's on the bench, which helps explain why they're surrendering 13.4 more points per 100 non-garbage-time possessions without him on the floor, per <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/player/1310/onoff#tab-team_efficiency">Cleaning the Glass</a>. For all of Towns' <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2024/11/18/24299280/karl-anthony-towns-new-york-knicks-offense-defense?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email">well-chronicled</a> defensive struggles in New York, he was <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/2833452" href="https://thescore.com/news/2833452">legitimately good</a> on that end last season, not just as the four playing next to Gobert but as the center next to Naz Reid in mixed bench lineups."Rim protection hasn't been what it was last year, for a variety of reasons, not just Rudy," explained Wolves coach Chris Finch. "Foul rate is up a little bit, rebounding's down, leading to more second-chance opportunities. "I think some of it (has to do with the trade) for sure, because last year when we had KAT playing at the four, we had found over a year-and-a-half the comfort level of doing a lot of different things there. Julius gives us a little bit more versatility in his ability to switch, but we lose size with our second unit, so second-unit rim-protection takes a hit. KAT had become pretty good in a lot of our schemes with our second unit as a rim-protector." The Towns-Reid frontcourt had a 110.9 defensive rating and a 66th-percentile defensive rebound rate, per <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/player/3696/lineups?season=2023&amp;on=4700&amp;off=1310#tab-four_factors">Cleaning the Glass</a>. The Randle-Reid frontcourt has a 122.5 defensive rating and a third-percentile defensive rebound rate. Against those lineups, opponents recover 34% of their own misses, take 39% of their shots at the rim, and make 69% of those rim shots.But to go back to Finch's assessment, the fact that he qualified it by saying the issue isn't just about Gobert is instructive, because it is partly about Gobert. His rim-protection clearly hasn't been as impactful as it was last season, when he won his fourth Defensive Player of the Year award. He's contesting a lower share of shots at the basket (though that owes somewhat to a schematic tweak) and is allowing opponents to shoot 58.9% on those rim shots, up from 52% a year ago, per <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defensive-impact?CF=PLAYER_NAME*E*gobert">NBA Advanced Stats</a>. Gobert's far from the only carryover Timberwolf who's experiencing a comedown on the defensive end, and many of the team's issues stem from what's happening in front of him. Apart from Nickeil Alexander-Walker, none of Minnesota's perimeter defenders have maintained their level from 2023-24. We haven't seen quite the same containment or rear-view pressure from Jaden McDaniels. Edwards has been less imposing at the point of attack. DiVincenzo's screen navigation has taken a step back from where it was with the Knicks. Conley is 37. Anderson's been missed here as well."Ball pressure's been good, but ball contain has been a bit leaky at times. It's been inconsistent," Finch said. "So when you add that up (with the diminished rim protection), it adds up to where we are."In general, the Wolves' coverages have also just involved a bit less connectivity and communication. Gobert's playing a higher drop in a lot of cases, and too often, the back-side help hasn't been there to provide cover. On this play from Thursday's game, Gobert stepped out on an Ochai Ogbaji dribble-handoff (which is questionable enough on its own, given that Agbaji poses virtually zero threat from mid-range or floater range), and no one committed to tagging Poeltl behind him:<figure class="article-segment--video"><video poster="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/756906/preview.png?ts=1732382387" loop="" muted="" autoplay="" playsinline="" controls="" onclick="if(/android 2.[0-3]/.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase())) { var sources = this.getElementsByTagName('source'); for(var i = 0, total = sources.length; i &lt; total; i++) { this.removeChild(sources[0]);}; this.outerHTML = this.innerHTML; }"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/756906/animation.mp4?ts=1732382387" type="video/mp4"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/756906/animation.webm?ts=1732382387" type="video/webm"> <div>Your browser does not support the video tag.</div> </source></source></video><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> TSN</figcaption></figure>When Finch says, "There are things that I see in our defense that we're just not as tight with now," that feels like the kind of thing he's referring to.None of this is damning this early in the season, and a lot of these issues were to be expected; teams that make big roster shakeups almost always struggle out of the gate. The Wolves know that as well as anyone, having gone through something similar in their first season after acquiring Gobert before coalescing into a powerhouse last year.Even with all the aforementioned issues, Minnesota isn't far away from being top 10 on both sides of the ball. These mostly feel like things that can improve with more familiarity, more focus, and greater clarity of purpose.Dumping the ball down to the big fella next time he has a guy sealed in the restricted area won't magically solve all the Wolves' problems. But as a gesture of good faith toward a player who, for better or worse, remains essential to what they do, it wouldn't be a bad place to start.

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The NBA may be a star-driven enterprise, but stars make up a small sliver of the league's player ...

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5 role players making star-level impacts this season

The Cleveland Cavaliers arrived at what felt like a crossroads this past summer. On the heels of ...

The Cleveland Cavaliers arrived at what felt like a crossroads this past summer. On the heels of an injury-marred roller coaster of a season in which only surface-level progress was made, and with the specter of Donovan Mitchell's free agency looming, some kind of directional adjustment felt possible, if not probable. Instead, the organization basically took a page out of the Yogi Berra quote book: When they came to the fork in the road, they took it.First, Mitchell agreed to extend his contract through at least 2026-27. His backcourt mate, Darius Garland, seemingly recommitted after reportedly<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5497268/2024/05/15/cavaliers-donovan-mitchell-darius-garland-jb-bickerstaff-future/"> </a> entertaining the possibility of pushing for a trade. And then the front office extended the jumbo frontcourt of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, locking in a core four that showed flashes of immense promise in two seasons but also encountered roadblocks because of fit issues and injuries (the latter led to them playing only 457 minutes together in 2023-24). The supporting cast around that quartet also remained identical. The one personnel change Cleveland made was on the sideline, where Kenny Atkinson replaced J.B. Bickerstaff as head coach.The hope was that better health from the core four, a few Atkinsonian stylistic tweaks, and some internal improvement (namely a <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3048813" href="https://thescore.com/news/3048813">Garland bounce back</a> and an offensive step forward from Mobley) would combine to jolt the team out of neutral. And so far they're batting 1.000 on those swing factors, which have coalesced into a 14-game season-opening win streak - the sixth-longest of its kind in NBA history. That start has been powered not only by Cleveland's reliably excellent defense (currently a top-seven unit for the fourth straight year) but by the most efficient offense in the league. This from a team that finished 16th in offensive rating last season and is yet to get a single minute out of would-be starting small forward Max Strus.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div><figure class="article-segment--embed"><iframe title="Fastest starts" aria-label="Table" id="datawrapper-chart-JDY39" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/JDY39/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="457" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}();
</script></figure>It can be foolhardy to buy too much into results at this juncture of the early season. Hot streaks happen. Heck, the Cavs had a stretch in which they won 17 of 18 games last season, and they still didn't feel much like contenders when all was said and done. They've played one of the softest schedules in the league to date, and they're riding some wildly hot 3-point shooting that's bound to cool off.That said, they've aced the handful of true tests they've faced, grinding out a crunch-time win over the Knicks and absolutely blasting the Lakers and Warriors. Maybe more to the point, the team looks and feels different than its other recent iterations, even though so many of its components are the same.As much as anyone or anything, the avatar of that change is a more empowered, more assertive, more forcecul, more fluid version of Mobley. This Mobley takes it upon himself to race the ball up the floor after snagging defensive rebounds, runs a handful of inverted pick-and-rolls every game, and generally spends more time piloting the offense, whether operating at the elbow or running delay from the top. Though his raw counting stats don't fully capture the extent of his role shift, his usage rate and average time of possession have both spiked, as have his drives and transition possessions.As I <a href="https://thescore.com/news/2883055">wrote about</a> last season, this is the way the NBA is trending, with increasingly skilled big men taking on increasingly prominent roles as teams recognize the cascading benefits of running more offense through them. Doing so not only facilitates all manner of dynamic off-ball actions, it can mitigate spacing issues by turning a non-shooter (in most cases) into a playmaker the defense has to account for. It also has a way of making life easier for guards like Mitchell and Garland, who get more opportunities to receive the ball on the move and in the flow, rather than being tasked with creating advantages from a standstill with defenses loading up on them. "If you have a guard and want to give him an opportunity to not be bottled up, figure out how to get him off that ball," Kings coach Mike Brown told me when I asked about his offensive system accelerating that trend.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/755553/cropped_GettyImages-2183940401.jpg?ts=1731707892" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/755553/w220xh124_GettyImages-2183940401.jpg?ts=1731707892 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/755553/w320xh180_GettyImages-2183940401.jpg?ts=1731707892 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/755553/w640xh360_GettyImages-2183940401.jpg?ts=1731707892 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/755553/w768xh432_GettyImages-2183940401.jpg?ts=1731707892 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/755553/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2183940401.jpg?ts=1731707892 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> David Dow / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>Garland and Mitchell are both spending roughly two fewer minutes per game with the ball in their hands, and neither ranks inside the top 30 in <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/touches?dir=D&amp;sort=TIME_OF_POSS">total time of possession</a> after they finished ninth and 13th last season, respectively. Incidentally, Garland is having by far his most efficient scoring season, and he and Mitchell both have the lowest turnover rates of their careers. Of course, that only really works if the big man assuming more of the on-ball orchestration is both a savvy playmaker and a legitimate threat to score. In that sense, what we're seeing here is really a marriage of developmental gains and coaching philosophy, with Mobley rising to meet Atkinson's challenge by tightening his handle, becoming a quicker decision-maker, and building up more strength and resilience as an attacker. You could say the same about the way the team as a whole is playing. After all, every coach comes into every season preaching the importance of sharing the ball, of playing with trust, continuity, and pace. How many of their teams actually wind up executing all those principles to a T? The Cavs have jumped from 22nd to 12th in offensive pace, most notably getting shots up more than a second faster after opponent makes, per <a href="https://stats.inpredictable.com/nba/ssnTeamShot.php?season=2024&amp;po=0&amp;frdt=2023-10-24&amp;todt=2024-06-17&amp;view=off">Inpredictable</a>. They're employing more guard screens, both in the aforementioned inverted actions for Mobley and in small-small pick-and-rolls. Atkinson's also tweaked the half-court spacing a bit by running more five-out sets. Initiating the offense via Mobley or Allen (the latter of whom is a better playmaker than his screen-and-dive reputation suggests) makes that alignment more tenable. But simply starting possessions with them spaced in the corner or weak-side slot rather than the dunker spot can complicate a defense's help points. It opens up opportunities for cuts and skip DHOs (another concept sweeping the league), with Mobley holding the threat of <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/2872869" href="https://thescore.com/news/2872869">the keeper</a> in his back pocket:<figure class="article-segment--video"><video poster="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/755664/preview.png?ts=1731766320" loop muted autoplay playsinline controls onclick="if(/android 2.[0-3]/.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase())) { var sources = this.getElementsByTagName('source'); for(var i = 0, total = sources.length; i &lt; total; i++) { this.removeChild(sources[0]);}; this.outerHTML = this.innerHTML; }"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/755664/animation.mp4?ts=1731766320" type="video/mp4"></source> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/755664/animation.webm?ts=1731766320" type="video/webm"></source> <div>Your browser does not support the video tag.</div> </video><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> FanDuel Sports Network</figcaption></figure>Even without Strus, the Cavs are running a full 10-man rotation, with no one playing more than 31 minutes a game. And their bench, led by Ty Jerome and a blistering Caris LeVert, has been dominating. Guys who've historically been one-way players, like Sam Merrill and Georges Niang, are battling hard and rotating with precision on defense. Dean Wade is Cleveland's only rotation player with a below-average true shooting percentage, and Dean Wade rocks. So, the Cavs are playing a bit differently, but they're also just playing a lot better. And let's be clear: they were already a very good team. They won 51 games and finished with the league's second-best net rating in Mitchell's first season in Cleveland, and then clawed their way to a top-four seed and a playoff series win last year despite disastrous health luck. And it's not like Bickerstaff didn't try to instill some of these same principles. It's that his rotation was stretched thin, Mobley wasn't ready, Jerome was sidelined with an injury rather than cooking opposing second units, and Garland was broken.That last point is probably the most important variable in this whole equation. Garland never got right last season after straining his hamstring on opening night and then breaking his jaw shortly after returning. His handle was noticeably looser - probably due to the <a href="https://x.com/bowser2bowser/status/1791130704048177336">loss of grip strength</a> that typically comes with jaw fractures - and he wasn't comfortable playing through contact, probably because he lost 15 pounds while drinking through a straw for weeks.This season, Garland's reminding everyone what a special talent he is: an elite shooter both off the bounce and the catch, whose passing vision and ability to maintain a live dribble in traffic help make Cleveland's two-big lineups offensively viable. Due in part to the schematic adjustment that has him initiating less, a much larger share of his threes are catch-and-shoots this year, and he's canning 49% of them. He's also shooting 66% at the rim (his previous career high was 59%) and a comical 71% from floater range. None of those numbers are sustainable, but the process that's helped produce them suggests a career year could absolutely be in the cards.A particularly encouraging sign is that he and Mitchell have recaptured the synergy of their first season together, after their fit looked janky and control of the offense often devolved into a tug-of-war last year. At the end of the day, the two of them are still the ones creating the vast majority of the advantages here. They're the reason Mobley and Allen rank second and third in the league in dunks, behind only Giannis Antetokounmpo.They can both thrive running their own transitional lineups alongside one of the two bigs, but unlike last season, the starting and closing lineups with both of them on the floor have also been elite. It helps that they're insulated by the league's best defensive frontcourt, but they're better defenders than they get credit for, especially with a healthy Garland back to playing with real physicality at the point of attack.Mitchell's contributions should not be forgotten in all of this. Not only because it was his commitment that paved the way for the Cavs to see how far this roster could take them, but because he's willingly loosened his grip on the steering wheel after a season in which he butted his way into the MVP conversation as the team's sole driver of offense for extended stretches. Despite conceding touches, his per-minute scoring average is right on par with where it's been the last two years, and it still feels like he has another gear to hit. When a good team has struggled in the past to get over the proverbial hump, there's always a knee-jerk impulse to scrutinize any ostensible signs of progress, and try to discern what those positive indicators portend in the big picture. In this case, that means speculating about whether these same-but-different Cavs are good enough to overcome the playoff foibles that have tripped them up the last two years. Given the ugliness of their first-round loss to the Knicks in 2023, and the unconvincing nature of their seven-game squeaker over the inexperienced Magic last spring, those questions are not only inevitable but valid. The thing is, those questions are also a total drag. Who wants to spend a magical run in November worrying about whether spacing is once again going to be a problem against dialed-in defenses in May? Or whether that one team with the playmaking power wings will be able to mismatch-hunt Cleveland's small guards to death? The Cavs will have their chance to provide answers in due time. For now, and for as long as this heater lasts, let's appreciate the simple pleasure of watching a complex puzzle snap into place, and indulge the possibility that constancy and introspection - rather than major disruption - can help you evolve into a better version of yourself.Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

https://rich-content.thescore.com/content_cards/29047677/related

How the Cavs changed everything while changing very little

The pelvic fracture Chet Holmgren suffered in the first quarter of Sunday night's showdown with t...

The pelvic fracture Chet Holmgren suffered in the first quarter of Sunday night's showdown with the Warriors, which will sideline the 22-year-old phenom for at least eight weeks, is a bummer for numerous reasons.First and foremost, the injury derails the sophomore season of one of the most exciting young players in the NBA - a guy who was arguably the early front-runner for Defensive Player of the Year - which feels especially dispiriting considering he lost his entire would-be rookie campaign to a foot injury two years ago. Secondarily, it makes things a lot more challenging in the near term for the league's most exciting young team, the Western Conference favorite whose defense <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3114004" href="https://thescore.com/news/3114004">flashed historic potential</a> while the 7-foot-1 Holmgren was part of it.With Oklahoma City Thunder centers Isaiah Hartenstein and Jaylin Williams also on the shelf for at least another couple of weeks, there are now zero available big men on the roster (depending on how you'd classify 21-year-old tweener Ousmane Dieng). Longtime small-ball five Kenrich Williams was finally able to make his season debut Monday night in a spirited win over the Clippers, but this is not how things were supposed to go for the Thunder. They came into the season sporting a new two-big frontcourt that figured to alter the contours of their playing style. Then Hartenstein broke his hand during preseason, and now OKC is consigned to playing micro-ball until he gets back. The tallest player in the starting lineup is 6-foot-6 point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>The good news is that even without a true center (or even anyone power-forward sized) in the mix, the Thunder are deep and super-talented and still have many ways of making opponents' lives miserable. If any team is set up to thrive playing small full time, it's OKC. That's partly because most Thunder guards and wings are huge for their positions, be they long and spindly like Gilgeous-Alexander, broad and brawny like Jalen Williams, or built like a brick shithouse a la Lu Dort. It's also because Mark Daigneault's inventive system has given those guards and wings a ton of experience doing things that typically fall under the purview of bigs, like screening and rolling in small-small actions or operating out of the dunker spot.Holmgren is one of the Thunder's best shooters, so it's not like their spacing will be better without him. They'll miss his cutting, interior scoring, pick-and-pop prowess, and trail threes in transition. But they'll still be a pain in the ass to guard, forcing defenses to cover acres of space with all their speed, relentless driving, off-ball movement, and unpredictable actions in which anyone on the floor can be a screener.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/747001/cropped_GettyImages-2121059017.jpg?ts=1731432753" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/747001/w220xh124_GettyImages-2121059017.jpg?ts=1731432753 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/747001/w320xh180_GettyImages-2121059017.jpg?ts=1731432753 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/747001/w640xh360_GettyImages-2121059017.jpg?ts=1731432753 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/747001/w768xh432_GettyImages-2121059017.jpg?ts=1731432753 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/747001/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2121059017.jpg?ts=1731432753 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> David Dow / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>The defensive end is where more cracks will appear in the Thunder's facade as they try to jerry-rig a functional structure without a big-man foundation. They surrendered 126.9 points per 100 possessions over their last two games (in which they played small-ball for 91 of 96 minutes), compared to 97.3 beforehand. And while the qualitative difference obviously isn't nearly that stark - their opponents shot the lights out from 3-point range in those two games after being frigid from downtown for the nine games prior - those numbers aren't meaningless.Process-wise, the Thunder will continue to fly around, pressure the hell out of the ball, jump gaps, and force a metric ton of turnovers. Monday's game, when they turned the Clippers over an astonishing 23 times, presented the possibility that they could lean even harder into that aspect of their identity since they now have one less bulwark - the elite rim protection that Holmgren alone provided - to rely on. At the same time, amping up the pressure is a risky gambit without Holmgren as a safety net.The consequence of the Thunder's constant pressure is that they allow the league's sixth-highest rate of opponent rim shots. But it's one thing to allow all those short-range attempts when their defense is backstopped by Holmgren's 9-foot-6 standing reach, and another to do so when their last line of defense is a 6-foot-something guard. Holmgren was contesting more rim shots per game than any player in the league before his injury and holding opponents to 42.9% on those shots. (Only Victor Wembanyama was better <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defensive-impact?CF=DEF_RIM_FGA*GE*4&amp;dir=A&amp;sort=DEF_RIM_FG_PCT">among high-volume challengers</a>.) OKC's defensive field-goal percentage inside the restricted area is nearly 10 percentage points higher with Holmgren on the bench, per <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/player/5091/onoff#tab-opp_shooting_fg">Cleaning the Glass</a>.OKC's coverage plan against both Steph Curry and James Harden was to either blitz or switch-and-double them, forcing the ball to shakier decision-makers who would be more liable to throw it away. Again, there's some sense in that, but consider this possession from Sunday's game against Golden State: <figure class="article-segment--video"><video poster="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/754974/preview.png?ts=1731432647" loop muted autoplay playsinline controls onclick="if(/android 2.[0-3]/.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase())) { var sources = this.getElementsByTagName('source'); for(var i = 0, total = sources.length; i &lt; total; i++) { this.removeChild(sources[0]);}; this.outerHTML = this.innerHTML; }"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/754974/animation.mp4?ts=1731432647" type="video/mp4"></source> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/754974/animation.webm?ts=1731432647" type="video/webm"></source> <div>Your browser does not support the video tag.</div> </video><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> FanDuel Sports Network</figcaption></figure>With Alex Caruso guarding the screener (Jonathan Kuminga), that could easily have been a switch, with no advantage conceded. Instead, the Warriors were able to counter the blitz by shorting the pick-and-roll, with Curry advancing the ball to Draymond Green, who immediately hit the diving Kuminga for a dunk. Isaiah Joe made a point of switching spots with the smaller Cason Wallace so he could be in low help position, and Gilgeous-Alexander even arrived (albeit a beat late) as a second tagger. They still didn't have a chance.Interestingly, the Thunder don't concede more rim shots without Holmgren on the floor. They aim to protect the rim by committee when they play small, with at least two and often three defenders converging on the paint to swallow up a driver or roller, rather than trusting Holmgren to handle those threats with minimal help. But what does happen when he's on the bench? They concede many, many more corner threes.It's not hard to understand the correlation: More bodies in the middle equals more open shooters on the perimeter. OKC's opponent corner 3-point attempt rate with Holmgren on the floor (8.6%) is equivalent to the sixth-lowest rate in the league; with him on the bench (14.8%), it's the highest by a mile, per <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/league/shots#tab-defense_shooting_frequency">Cleaning the Glass</a>.And for a team that struggled to rebound the ball even with Holmgren healthy, losing their best rebounder (until Hartenstein returns) makes it that much tougher to end possessions even when those open corner threes rim out: <figure class="article-segment--video"><video poster="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/754975/preview.png?ts=1731432917" loop muted autoplay playsinline controls onclick="if(/android 2.[0-3]/.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase())) { var sources = this.getElementsByTagName('source'); for(var i = 0, total = sources.length; i &lt; total; i++) { this.removeChild(sources[0]);}; this.outerHTML = this.innerHTML; }"> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/754975/animation.mp4?ts=1731432917" type="video/mp4"></source> <source src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/754975/animation.webm?ts=1731432917" type="video/webm"></source> <div>Your browser does not support the video tag.</div> </video><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> FanDuel Sports Network</figcaption></figure>It's still way too early to say whether the Thunder need to change anything, like dialing back their aggression or plucking a stopgap center off the scrap heap. They'll get burned by the long ball on some nights, but that doesn't mean their approach is wrong. Shooting is highly variable from game to game, but if you can consistently take possessions away from your opponents - as the Thunder have proven they can - that gives you an element of stability. It also gives you a major boost at the other end, since live-ball turnovers are the best way to generate efficient offense.So, yes, Holmgren's injury is tough for him, his team, and the NBA at large. On top of the short-term setback, it leaves the Thunder waiting at least two more months to get a look at the Holmgren-Hartenstein pairing. But in the meantime, OKC will continue to be one of the most stylistically unique teams in the league, and it will be fascinating to watch them respond to this challenge.Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

https://rich-content.thescore.com/content_cards/29007421/related

How will the Thunder navigate Chet Holmgren's absence? 

Anyone paying attention to the NBA season knows full well the precarious spot the Milwaukee Bucks...

Anyone paying attention to the NBA season knows full well the precarious spot the Milwaukee Bucks are in. Despite the aging team trading away virtually all of its long-term assets to contend for championships right now, Milwaukee has started the campaign 2-7, with bottom-10 marks on both ends of the court.We don't need to relitigate the moves that brought the Bucks here, or ponder the bleakness of their future. That's been done to death. Instead, let's do something different and try to find some glimmers of hope in Milwaukee.Here are a few reasons to believe this team can overcome a disastrous start and turn its season around. <div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div><h3>Reason No. 1</h3>Dame and Giannis look like Dame and Giannis<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/754168/cropped_GettyImages-2181588237.jpg?ts=1731106410" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/754168/w220xh124_GettyImages-2181588237.jpg?ts=1731106410 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/754168/w320xh180_GettyImages-2181588237.jpg?ts=1731106410 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/754168/w640xh360_GettyImages-2181588237.jpg?ts=1731106410 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/754168/w768xh432_GettyImages-2181588237.jpg?ts=1731106410 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/754168/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2181588237.jpg?ts=1731106410 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Mitchell Leff / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>Maybe the <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3048800" href="https://thescore.com/news/3048800">biggest question</a> for the Bucks coming into this campaign was whether Damian Lillard's underwhelming 2023-24 represented a brief blip brought on by chaotic circumstances or the new reality for a 34-year-old star in decline. If these first nine games are any indication, the answer is resoundingly the former. Even with a 1-for-12 shooting night on the ledger, Lillard is averaging roughly 27 points and seven assists on 63% true shooting.His 3-point shooting has rebounded, but more importantly, he's back up to 56% from 2-point range after dipping to 49% last season. Lillard's deadly pull-up game and absurd range may be his standout skills, but driving has always been his secret superpower, and he's reconnected with it this season. He looks nimble and explosive while attacking backpedaling bigs, and he's showcasing his refined finishing craft while shooting a career-best 67% at the rim. That, as much as his 37% mark on over nine 3-point attempts a game, is why Lillard's averaging 1.15 points per possession as both a pick-and-roll ball-handler (up from 0.99 last season) and an isolation scorer (up from 0.96), per <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/isolation?CF=PLAYER_NAME*E*lillard">NBA Advanced Stats</a>.There was never any doubt that Giannis Antetokounmpo would continue to be a dominant offensive force this season, but averaging 30-13-5 on elite efficiency can't be taken for granted. He's completely eschewed the 3-point line (having attempted just four triples across eight games), instead focusing on mashing dudes in the paint. Antetokounmpo's average shot distance (5.8 feet) is the shortest of his career, and his 12.6 shots per contest inside the restricted area are 3.4 clear of <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/shooting?DistanceRange=By%20Zone&amp;dir=D&amp;sort=Restricted%20Area%20FGA">any other player</a>. He's also leading the league in transition scoring for the seventh straight year, uncorking an array of full-extension layups and Statue of Liberty dunks on the break.Crucially, Lillard and Antetokounmpo are looking smoother in tandem than last season. They've gotten a better sense of each other's timing and rhythm flowing into and out of ball-screen action, and the Bucks are running more empty-corner pick-and-rolls and DHOs for them, which provides Antetokounmpo cleaner rolling lanes. He's also sharpened his short-roll decision-making when defenses send aggressive tags, <a href="https://www.thescore.com/nba/news/2757879">something he struggled with</a> at points last campaign.Milwaukee could still stand to run more inverted actions involving the two of them. However, their synergy looks improved when Antetokounmpo has the ball because Lillard has gotten better at forming up around his drives, while the two-time MVP has gotten better at looking (or <a href="https://x.com/Eurohoopsnet/status/1852979354369749316">no-looking</a>) for Dame on kickouts.<h3>Reason No. 2</h3>Offense can be a lot better<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/754328/cropped_GettyImages-2181866747.jpg?ts=1731106513" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/754328/w220xh124_GettyImages-2181866747.jpg?ts=1731106513 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/754328/w320xh180_GettyImages-2181866747.jpg?ts=1731106513 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/754328/w640xh360_GettyImages-2181866747.jpg?ts=1731106513 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/754328/w768xh432_GettyImages-2181866747.jpg?ts=1731106513 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/754328/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2181866747.jpg?ts=1731106513 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Grant Burke / NBA / Getty</figcaption></figure>Given the eye-popping production offered by the team's two stars, it wouldn't take much more than competent role-player contributions to make Milwaukee a top-10 offense. Unfortunately, the Bucks haven't gotten anything approaching competence from said role players, which is why they rank 22nd. Expect that to change, even if the supporting cast here is far from ideal.The gravity Antetokounmpo and Lillard carry, individually and collectively, creates a ton of quality looks for others. As such, the Bucks generate plenty of catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts. The problem is they rank 25th in accuracy on those looks, including 22nd on wide-open threes, per NBA Advanced Stats. They may not be an elite shooting team, but they should be a lot better than that, especially when you consider the guys who've gotten most of those clean threes are Gary Trent Jr., Brook Lopez, and Bobby Portis. That trio combined to shoot 45.2% on open triples last season (with Trent's 51.3% leading all players with at least 100 such attempts) but is at 27.7% this campaign, per NBA Advanced Stats.I'm burying the lede a bit here, but Khris Middleton's return will obviously help immensely on this front. Even if two surgically repaired ankles compromise his movement, it's impossible to overstate how helpful his shooting and secondary ball-handling will be for a team with those things in short supply. There's a reason Milwaukee has an offensive rating of 98.9 when Lillard's on the bench, compared to 115.3 with him on the court. That offensive rating was 115 last season when Middleton was on and Lillard was off. And when the two of them and Antetokounmpo all shared the court, it was 125.6.<h3>Reason No. 3</h3>Defense can be ... a little bit better? Maybe?<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/561469/cropped_GettyImages-1246165213.jpg?ts=1731106575" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/561469/w220xh124_GettyImages-1246165213.jpg?ts=1731106575 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/561469/w320xh180_GettyImages-1246165213.jpg?ts=1731106575 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/561469/w640xh360_GettyImages-1246165213.jpg?ts=1731106575 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/561469/w768xh432_GettyImages-1246165213.jpg?ts=1731106575 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/561469/w1080xh607_GettyImages-1246165213.jpg?ts=1731106575 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Todd Kirkland / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>I'm not going to mince words: Milwaukee's defense has been very bad, and the process hasn't been any better than the results.The Bucks' screen navigation might be the worst in the league. Lillard has always struggled with that, but Trent, Taurean Prince, and Pat Connaughton haven't been much better. (Trent has arguably been worse). The club signed Delon Wright to help in that department, but he's been ineffective.The inability to maintain contact around screens or apply any rearview pressure impacts everything the team does defensively. It means Lopez has to play higher up in ball-screen coverage than he's comfortable with, causing the Bucks to wind up emergency late-switching (or miscommunicating would-be late switches) quite a lot. It's also probably a big part of why they're playing so much ICE coverage, which is helpful because it's designed to prevent ball-handlers from using the screens but comes with drawbacks (like pulling a third defender into the action on the back side), and is easy to exploit if the on-ball defender doesn't actually force the ball to the sideline.So, what exactly is there to be optimistic about on this end? For one thing, Lopez is still one of the best back-line anchors in the game. He's holding opponents to 45.6% shooting at the rim, the <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defensive-impact?CF=DEF_RIM_FGA*GE*4&amp;PerMode=PerGame&amp;dir=A&amp;sort=DEF_RIM_FG_PCT">fifth-best mark</a> for players contesting at least four such shots per contest. And the Bucks as a team are doing a fantastic job deterring those shots, ranking second in the league in opponent rim frequency despite all the dribble penetration their point-of-attack defenders are conceding. With a starting lineup change that will help shore up the perimeter (more on that shortly), Lopez's paint protection could again carry the day.The same goes for Antetokoumpo, who hasn't been up to his usual defensive standards to start this campaign but hasn't seen much of a dropoff athletically. He should be expected to improve, just as he did over the course of 2023-24. Milwaukee's defensive turnaround in the second half of last season was less about coaching changes or scheme adjustments and more about Antetokoumpo shedding his weird malaise and re-emerging as the roving, space-devouring monster we'd come to know. We can acknowledge that he isn't quite the DPOY-caliber wrecker he once was while also believing he can be a more disruptive helper than we've seen through these eight games.For a veteran team, Milwaukee has made a staggering number of mental mistakes in the early going - blown low-man rotations, multiple defenders rotating to the same person, ball-watching leading to backdoor cuts, and lapses in focus leading to simple face cuts. No one has been exempt. Even with a couple of rotation players who could be deemed low-feel defenders, the team should be able to clean up a lot of that stuff, especially the breakdowns in the open floor.The Bucks aren't even giving up that many transition opportunities - 12th-fewest in the league, per <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/league/context#tab-defense_transition">Cleaning the Glass</a> - but they've been so bad at defending those possessions (allowing 141.8 points per 100) that their transition defense still ranks 28th. That may feel like a continuation of a trend from last campaign, but the club cleaned up its act after Doc Rivers took over, to the point that its transition D ranked inside the top 10 by season's end. We know the Bucks are capable of better.Milwaukee's struggles in that department are particularly galling considering it's punting on crashing for second-chance opportunities (ranking dead last in offensive rebound rate) for the sake of getting back in transition despite much of the league <a href="https://www.thescore.com/nba/news/2536613">rejecting the old orthodoxy</a> about that tradeoff. The team's also getting torched on runouts after makes, which are breakdowns that don't necessarily get logged as transition possessions. According to <a href="https://stats.inpredictable.com/nba/ssnTeamShot.php?season=2024&amp;po=0&amp;frdt=2024-10-22&amp;todt=2024-11-07&amp;view=def&amp;efg=off&amp;sort=adttsmk&amp;order=ASC">Inpredictable</a>, the Bucks allow the sixth-fastest opponent time to shoot following made baskets and the third-highest effective field-goal percentage on those possessions.Part of that is a natural consequence of being an older, slower team. Still, in many cases, it's just a basic lack of effort, awareness, and attention to detail. Maybe those issues will linger, but don't dismiss the possibility of them correcting themselves, especially if we see more of this guy ...<h3>Reason No. 4</h3>Emergence of Andre Jackson Jr.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/595690/cropped_GettyImages-1726501692.jpg?ts=1731106631" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/595690/w220xh124_GettyImages-1726501692.jpg?ts=1731106631 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/595690/w320xh180_GettyImages-1726501692.jpg?ts=1731106631 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/595690/w640xh360_GettyImages-1726501692.jpg?ts=1731106631 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/595690/w768xh432_GettyImages-1726501692.jpg?ts=1731106631 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/595690/w1080xh607_GettyImages-1726501692.jpg?ts=1731106631 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Stacy Revere / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>Maybe it's damning that one of Milwaukee's few causes for encouragement is a 23-year-old sophomore who barely looks at the rim on offense, has turned the ball over on 28% of his used possessions, and averages a foul-out every 38 minutes. But despite those flaws, Jackson has a chance to be a transformational role player for the Bucks, offering a sorely needed jolt of athleticism, ball pressure, and event creation. And it's notable that Rivers, who doesn't exactly have a reputation for trusting youngsters, relented as quickly as he did and plugged Jackson into the starting lineup in place of Trent.The Lillard-Trent backcourt clearly wasn't working, with the Bucks bleeding 122.2 points per 100 possessions in their shared minutes. Conversely, they've won Jackson's minutes by 5.3 points per 100, with a 104.5 defensive rating. He isn't a perfect defender - he can be overzealous, as his foul rate indicates - but you accept the tradeoffs for a guy who ranks sixth among qualified players in steals (2.9) and 10th in deflections (4.6) per 36 minutes. That's especially true for a defense that ranks 27th in forcing turnovers, which limits what could be a prolific transition attack. Jackson's the only guy on the team Rivers can count on to provide full-court pressure without getting blown by.He's only played 118 minutes, and his limitations could get exposed in a larger sample (as the kind of did against the Knicks on Friday night). Jackson has basically no track record as a 3-point shooter (29% in college, 37% on 59 total attempts in the NBA), and he doesn't trust himself as a finisher, with a bad habit of passing out of semi-contested layups in the dunker spot. But that doesn't mean he's without offensive utility. On top of the steals that can turn into transition jailbreaks, he's shown good cutting instincts, solid connective passing chops, and highly advanced screening craft for a wing.Rather than being marginalized when Middleton returns, Jackson could become even more valuable since the stuff he can't do on offense will matter less than the myriad micro advantages he can provide. When that happens, there's a good argument to be made that it should be Prince, not Jackson, who goes to the bench.Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

https://rich-content.thescore.com/content_cards/28964712/related

Searching for optimism in the Bucks' disastrous start 

It's too early in the NBA season to draw any sweeping conclusions, but we've seen enough to at le...

https://rich-content.thescore.com/content_cards/28927723/related

10 observations from the first 2 weeks of the NBA season

Obscured by the glow of Victor Wembanyama's historic performance Thursday night - in which he put...

Obscured by the glow of Victor Wembanyama's historic performance Thursday night - in which he put up 25 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, five steals, five blocks, and was a plus-43 in an 18-point win over a putrid Utah Jazz team - is the fact that the San Antonio Spurs sophomore's offensive development appears to have hit a speed bump.Let's qualify this by acknowledging that we're only five games into his age-21 campaign, he already has a 5x5 game on the ledger, and San Antonio's roster is far from optimally constructed around him (not to mention missing a couple of vital current players). This won't be an indictment of Wembanyama's present or future abilities, especially considering he's the front-runner for Defensive Player of the Year in just his second season.But at the other end of the floor, the way serious teams (sorry Jazz) have guarded him and the Spurs - and the extent to which he's struggled against those coverages - is a notable early-season trend.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>The 7-foot-4 phenom is regularly being defended by players nearly a foot shorter than him, and he hasn't done much to punish or dissuade the ostensible mismatches so far. Frequently, those matchups come about when teams switch his screening actions. Just as often, they're the result of teams using wings as his primary defenders. The likes of Dillon Brooks, Klay Thompson, Jalen Williams, and Alex Caruso have all more than held their own when tasked with stymieing the Frenchman. (The Jazz didn't do this, because the Jazz have no wings. So we'll ignore that game for now.)Wembanyama isn't scoring efficiently or even generating many high-value looks against the cross-matches and switches he's seeing; only 45% of his field-goal attempts have come from free-throw-line distance and in, and he's shooting just 30% on jump shots outside that range. Switches flatten out the Spurs' pick-and-rolls and make it harder for Wembanyama to dive to the rim. His average shot distance is currently 16.2 feet, per <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/wembavi01.html">Basketball Reference</a>, way up from 13 as a rookie. Even Kevin Durant shoots the ball from closer (14.3 feet) on average. Meanwhile, the smalls guarding Wembanyama aggressively attack his high dribble any time he puts the ball on the deck, leading to boatloads of turnovers.All told, the Spurs rank 29th in offensive rating, and they haven't been any more efficient with Wembanyama on the floor than on the bench. That defensive blueprint has been successful for a few reasons, some of which are attributable to Wembanyama and some of which are out of his control. Let's start by looking at what's happening around him.For one thing, opponents feel comfortable putting wings on Wembanyama because they feel comfortable putting their centers on Jeremy Sochan. The non-shooting forward is off to a great start as an interior finisher this season, but he still doesn't really stress opposing big men in space because of his lack of range and shaky off-the-dribble chops. Those centers can rove off Sochan and lurk as back-side helpers when Wembanyama gets fronted, there to deter him if he tries to make a move to the basket.Even when Sochan isn't on the court, defenses have plenty of shaky shooters and creators to choose from for cross-matching purposes; every forward but Harrison Barnes looks like a viable hiding spot right now. On top of their cross-matching options, opponents are happy to either shade help in Wembanyama's direction or outright swarm him when he catches the ball with a huge size advantage, knowing there's a good chance they won't get burned even if Wemby manages to <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&amp;CFPARAMS=&amp;GameEventID=390&amp;GameID=0022400125&amp;Season=2024-25&amp;flag=1&amp;title=MISS%20Johnson%2025%27%203PT%20Jump%20Shot">toss a perfect skip pass</a> to the weak side.<figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/752968/cropped_GettyImages-2179967291.jpg?ts=1730483571" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/752968/w220xh124_GettyImages-2179967291.jpg?ts=1730483571 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/752968/w320xh180_GettyImages-2179967291.jpg?ts=1730483571 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/752968/w640xh360_GettyImages-2179967291.jpg?ts=1730483571 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/752968/w768xh432_GettyImages-2179967291.jpg?ts=1730483571 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/752968/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2179967291.jpg?ts=1730483571 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Joe Murphy / NBA / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>And that's if the Spurs can even get him the ball in an advantageous position, which they're finding difficult without any real advantage creators who can tilt the defense away from him. (This is where they obviously miss Devin Vassell and Tre Jones, their best off-the-dribble shooter and creator, respectively.) For as good a passer as Chris Paul still is, he can't beat anyone off the bounce anymore, which makes it tough for him to find clean avenues to deliver Wembanyama the ball in the half court. It also means that when opponents switch the CP-Wemby pick-and-roll, which they do more often than not, there's very little concern about what Paul will do to the front end of that switch.So, the offensive ecosystem as a whole isn't exactly thriving. But we can't entirely let Wembanyama off the hook. Even acknowledging how young he is, how impactful he already is defensively, how high his offensive ceiling remains, and how many of these issues can ultimately be assuaged with better roster construction, this is a player who talks a big game and needs to start taking it personally when opponents try to undermine him with shoulder-height defenders.That starts with where he makes himself available to receive the ball. Right now, he's settling for too many perimeter catches, or allowing himself to get pushed out when looking to post up mismatches, which results in him having to either settle for long jump shots or try to create for himself out of face-ups. A 3-ball over a much smaller defender with a completely clear field of vision isn't necessarily a bad shot, but it's an outcome defenses will gladly live with given that Wembanyama's hit just 32% of his threes across 76 NBA games.Opponents will also live with Wemby trying to dribble his way to the basket against a smaller defender from 20-plus feet out. Wembanyama's handle is pretty impressive for a guy his size, but that size still puts him at an inherent disadvantage in that department because of how far the ball has to travel between his hand and the hardwood. He's turned the ball over on 19% of his possessions this season.He's logged 15 drives through five games, and on those drives, he's shot 0-for-3, committed three turnovers, drawn one foul, and passed for two assists, per <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/players/drives?CF=PLAYER_NAME*E*wembanyama&amp;PerMode=Totals">NBA Advanced Stats</a>. At times - especially during the game against the Thunder earlier this week - he can get discouraged by his inability to navigate the thickets of arms in the middle of the floor, or by his teammates looking him off rather than attempting risky post-entry passes, and start to disengage from the offense altogether.Long term, he needs to improve his duck-in craft, hone his swim move to create more space for those entries, and build a stronger base to carve out and hold deep position. Those things won't happen overnight. In the meantime, the Spurs need to find different ways to get him closer to the basket: Put him in motion more, have their guards set more off-ball screens for him (corner pins for curls, cross screens along the baseline), and give him more opportunities to catch the ball with some downhill momentum.Again, some of this is on the Spurs' coaching staff, some of it is on Wembanyama's teammates, and a lot of it is on Wembanyama himself. He can work to beat switches with hard slips or by rolling into deep seals. His teammates can trust him to catch the ball if they simply toss it up somewhere in his vicinity. The Spurs can hunt more early offense or simply run their half-court actions with more pace. (They rank 17th in average time to shot, including 24th after defensive rebounds and 30th after live-ball turnovers, per <a href="https://stats.inpredictable.com/nba/ssnTeamShot.php?season=2024&amp;po=0&amp;frdt=2024-10-22&amp;todt=2024-11-01&amp;view=off">Inpredictable</a>.)The bottom line: It should not be this hard to get the guy with the biggest catch radius in NBA history the ball near the rim. Even in a less-than-ideal offensive environment, better process is possible. For now, the blueprint for guarding Wembanyama and the Spurs has been drawn. It's up to him, and them, to tear it up.Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

https://rich-content.thescore.com/content_cards/28864839/related

The Spurs need to get more out of Wemby on offense

The 2024-25 season is about to begin, and as is the case every year, there are a handful of new f...

The 2024-25 season is about to begin, and as is the case every year, there are a handful of new faces in new places. A lot is riding on how harmonious the new marriages turn out to be. Here are the biggest questions facing some of the offseason's biggest acquisitions.(Note: This feature excludes Karl-Anthony Towns and Julius Randle, since we addressed many of the questions about how they'll impact their new teams <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3086016" href="https://thescore.com/news/3086016">here</a> and <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3084009" href="https://thescore.com/news/3084009">here</a>.)<h3>Paul George, 76ers</h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/749952/cropped_GettyImages-2178446710.jpg?ts=1729264712" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/749952/w220xh124_GettyImages-2178446710.jpg?ts=1729264712 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/749952/w320xh180_GettyImages-2178446710.jpg?ts=1729264712 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/749952/w640xh360_GettyImages-2178446710.jpg?ts=1729264712 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/749952/w768xh432_GettyImages-2178446710.jpg?ts=1729264712 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/749952/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2178446710.jpg?ts=1729264712 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images Sport / Getty</figcaption></figure>How much will he benefit from a scaled-down offensive role? <div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>George is stepping into a role that he hasn't played since his second season in the league some 13 years ago: When the Sixers are healthy, he'll be their third option on offense. You could argue he played that part on last year's Clippers after they acquired James Harden, but despite spending less time with the ball in his hands, George had a significantly higher usage rate than Harden did. This year, he'll undoubtedly have less offensive responsibility than Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey.Still, last season can be instructive in terms of what George might look like on a team with two superior creators. Alongside Harden and Kawhi Leonard, he had the most efficient scoring season of his career in terms of true shooting (61.3%), which included hitting over 45% of his catch-and-shoot threes. He ironed out a longtime kink in his game by posting his lowest turnover rate since his rookie season (just three per 100 possessions), and he enjoyed his healthiest season in five years. A tertiary role feels pretty ideal for the 34-year-old at this stage of his career.The question isn't whether George can complement the dynamic Maxey-Embiid duo - it's how good he can be while doing it. How quickly can he adapt to the specific movement rhythms that come with orbiting Embiid, a type of post operator he's never played with before? George's rim frequency has been declining (last year's 20% attempt rate was the second-lowest of his career), but does he still have the juice to get to the hoop consistently when he's driving closeouts or plunging into diagonal gaps off stampede cuts? Will a reduced offensive workload allow him to extend his run as an impact defender, considering what Philly will ask of him physically as a nominal 4 in most lineups?Perhaps the most important question: Will the lessened responsibilities help George loosen up in the postseason? Even if the extent of his springtime woes can be overstated (he was a playoff monster with the Indiana Pacers, as well as during the Clippers' 2021 conference finals run), he's had no shortage of high-profile letdowns. There's a fine line between deference and passivity, and George will have to walk that tightrope in one of the most important seasons of his career.<h3>DeMar DeRozan, Kings</h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750418/cropped_GettyImages-2177960405.jpg?ts=1729264814" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750418/w220xh124_GettyImages-2177960405.jpg?ts=1729264814 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750418/w320xh180_GettyImages-2177960405.jpg?ts=1729264814 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750418/w640xh360_GettyImages-2177960405.jpg?ts=1729264814 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750418/w768xh432_GettyImages-2177960405.jpg?ts=1729264814 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750418/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2177960405.jpg?ts=1729264814 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Melissa Majchrzak / NBA / Getty</figcaption></figure>Can he fit with the Kings' motion-based offense? Sacramento's breakneck offense took the NBA by storm in 2022-23, running defenses ragged in the open floor and spinning them in circles in the half court with a cyclone of dribble-handoffs, cuts, and off-ball screens. The Kings led the league in offensive rating that season en route to snapping their 17-year playoff drought. But despite having basically identical personnel and principles last season, they slid all the way to 13th.On paper, the formerly wing-starved Kings should ascend the league's offensive pecking order again after adding a six-time All-Star wing who averaged 24 points on above-average efficiency, dished 5.3 assists to just 1.7 turnovers, and finished runner-up in Clutch Player of the Year voting last season. But the game isn't played on paper, and DeRozan has to show he can fit into a movement-oriented system that already features two heavy-usage creators in De'Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis.DeRzozan's a terrific on-ball creator in his own right, and at times, Sacramento will rely on his ability to manufacture buckets out of thin air against a set defense. He's an underrated passer who'll create high-value shots for teammates. While he's played for slow-paced teams in recent years, he's always been a killer in transition. And his mid-range shooting and free-throw-drawing abilities will be boons to a team that finished 20th and 26th in those categories last season. In other words, there are a lot of ways he can be helpful, even if/when he's playing outside Sacramento's typical flow. A stylistic changeup might even benefit the Kings given how the rest of the league <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/2857314" href="https://thescore.com/news/2857314">caught up</a> to their fastball last year.That said, DeRozan needs to find a way to fit around Sacramento's other two stars (both of whom are better than him), which will require a lot of adaptation. His off-ball utility is inherently limited by his lack of 3-point shooting, and he's never quite done enough as a cutter or screener to compensate. It's one thing to sprint into a handoff or a curl (which DeRozan will do plenty), and another to sow confusion or divert help on the weak side when there's no guarantee he'll touch the ball. It's one thing to be a playmaker via probing drive-and-kicks, and another to make rapid connective passes rather than catching, surveying, and dribbling in place. The Kings as a team averaged just 5.6 isolation possessions per game (fifth-fewest in the league) last season; DeRozan alone averaged 3.6.He'll also need to sort out the crunch-time hierarchy with Fox (who won the inaugural Clutch Player award two years ago), lest the Kings' late-game offense devolve into a your-turn, my-turn tug-of-war. All of these offensive questions are essential because adding DeRozan will likely pull down Sacramento's defense after it quietly improved to league average last season.<h3>Dejounte Murray, Pelicans</h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750420/cropped_GettyImages-2176966435.jpg?ts=1729265109" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750420/w220xh124_GettyImages-2176966435.jpg?ts=1729265109 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750420/w320xh180_GettyImages-2176966435.jpg?ts=1729265109 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750420/w640xh360_GettyImages-2176966435.jpg?ts=1729265109 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750420/w768xh432_GettyImages-2176966435.jpg?ts=1729265109 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750420/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2176966435.jpg?ts=1729265109 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Derick E. Hingle / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>How well can he complement Zion? Like DeRozan, Murray is a ball-in-hand type of player joining a team with multiple other touch-needy stars. As the Pelicans' nominal point guard, Murray will have license to bring the ball up and initiate possessions more often than not. But he'll still need to defer to Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson and figure out how to make life easier for those guys when he doesn't have the ball.Since Ingram is on an expiring contract and New Orleans spent the offseason trying to trade him, it's fair to assume he's not part of the team's long-term vision, so complementing Williamson is a far more important consideration for Murray. That's something he could never really do for Trae Young in Atlanta. Across the pair's two seasons together, the Hawks were outscored by 2.6 points per 100 possessions with both of them on the floor - significantly worse than they performed when either guard played without the other, per <a href="https://www.pbpstats.com/wowy-combos/nba?TeamId=1610612737&amp;Season=2023-24,2022-23&amp;SeasonType=Regular%2BSeason&amp;PlayerIds=1629027,1627749">PBP Stats</a>.Williamson's obviously a much different - and far less ball-dominant - player than Young, but Murray can still learn from what didn't work in Atlanta. Namely, he needs to amp up his activity level; he stood around way too much when Young had the ball. Murray can make Williamson's life easier by creating initial advantages that provide his co-star with play-finishing opportunities, but Williamson will also serve as a <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3088182" href="https://thescore.com/news/3088182">de facto point center</a> a lot of the time. That means Murray needs to cut and relocate to provide Williamson with easy passing outlets when the defense collapses on him. It might also mean being a ball-screener in inverted actions, especially when he and Williamson are on the floor without CJ McCollum.One reason for optimism is that Murray leveled up as a 3-point shooter during his Hawks tenure; he went from shooting 32.7% on 4.3 attempts per game in his last season in San Antonio to shooting 36.3% on 7.1 attempts last year in Atlanta. He was especially solid off the catch, hitting 39.2% of those 3-point looks compared to 32% off the dribble. After a season in which he took an almost equal share of pull-ups and spot-ups, it would behoove him (and the Pelicans) to focus more on the latter. And as a virtually unparalleled downhill force with massive on-ball gravitational pull, Williamson should be able to create more clean catch-and-shoot looks for Murray than Young did.<h3>Klay Thompson, Mavericks</h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750421/cropped_GettyImages-2177872247.jpg?ts=1729265463" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750421/w220xh124_GettyImages-2177872247.jpg?ts=1729265463 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750421/w320xh180_GettyImages-2177872247.jpg?ts=1729265463 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750421/w640xh360_GettyImages-2177872247.jpg?ts=1729265463 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750421/w768xh432_GettyImages-2177872247.jpg?ts=1729265463 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750421/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2177872247.jpg?ts=1729265463 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Tim Heitman / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>How much defensive juice does he have left? Thompson has a chance to supercharge the high-powered Dallas offense, providing a wicked off-ball complement to the best tandem of on-ball creators in the game. But playing next to Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving also means taking on a lot of defensive responsibility, especially when the guy you're functionally replacing in the starting lineup (Derrick Jones Jr.) was the Mavs' No. 1 perimeter stopper - and a strong secondary rim-protector at that.During his Hall of Fame-caliber peak, Thompson was a quality defender at three or sometimes four different positions. As age and lower-body injuries have caught up to the now-34-year-old, that range of capabilities has been winnowed down to average defense at one-and-a-half positions. And the types of players he's currently capable of guarding (slower wings and smaller 4s) are the same types that the Mavs like to assign to Doncic.P.J. Washington has shown he can handle some 3s, and Doncic and Irving played some of the best defense of their careers en route to the Finals last spring, but certain matchups will still demand a lot from Thompson on the perimeter. Although he obviously won't be up to Jones' defensive level, just being competent should keep him on the floor in crunch time given how good the offense can be with him out there.If he can't clear that bar, Dallas has the option to use Naji Marshall in those closing lineups instead. That's pretty reassuring in terms of worst-case scenarios, but the Mavericks' ceiling feels a lot higher if Thompson can still defend well enough to consistently play in high-leverage situations.<h3>Alex Caruso, Thunder</h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750423/cropped_GettyImages-2176975200.jpg?ts=1729265574" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750423/w220xh124_GettyImages-2176975200.jpg?ts=1729265574 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750423/w320xh180_GettyImages-2176975200.jpg?ts=1729265574 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750423/w640xh360_GettyImages-2176975200.jpg?ts=1729265574 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750423/w768xh432_GettyImages-2176975200.jpg?ts=1729265574 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/750423/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2176975200.jpg?ts=1729265574 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Zach Beeker / NBA / Getty</figcaption></figure>Can he beat (or discourage) cross-matches? Caruso's biggest selling point is obviously his capabilities at the defensive end, where he's arguably the best, stickiest-handed guard in the game. He joins a team that just finished second in defensive efficiency and opponent turnover rate without him. There are zero questions about his fit on that side of the ball.It was the Thunder's offense that let them down in the playoffs - they mustered just 110.9 points per 100 possessions, down from 118.3 during the regular season - and that's where the intricacies of exchanging Josh Giddey for Caruso become more interesting. Giddey was a vastly superior ball-handler and passer, but his shooting struggles made him borderline unplayable in the second round as the Mavs cross-matched their centers onto him and kept those centers parked in the lane.Oklahoma City's addition of non-shooting center Isaiah Hartenstein will render the cross-match moot when he's on the floor - opposing centers will simply guard Hartenstein. When the Thunder look to go smaller with Chet Holmgren at the 5, however, Caruso's viability as part of those lineups may depend on whether he can make that coverage less tenable for opponents. Caruso shot 41% from deep last year and nets out at 38% for his career, but he's never been a high-volume 3-point shooter, and his accuracy has fluctuated wildly from season to season.Defenses don't necessarily pay attention to raw percentages when they're deciding who to roam off of, especially when choosing between letting a role player shoot or letting a guy like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drive the ball without aggressive help. A player's willingness to shoot, their versatility, and their release speed are more important considerations. Just ask Herb Jones (who shot 42% from three last season) or Isaac Okoro (who shot 39%) if their strong conversion rates changed the way playoff opponents reacted to them. Heck, when the Thunder pulled Giddey in the Dallas series, the Mavs were happy enough to move their centers onto 39% 3-point shooter Lu Dort.Caruso isn't the most willing or versatile shooter, but the Thunder will hope he can burn defenses that deign to cross-match him - not just by knocking down enough of his open looks, but also by involving himself as a screener (something Giddey wasn't particularly adept at). Caruso is the rare guard who will roll as often as he pops out of a ball screen, and myriad inverted pick-and-roll reps alongside LeBron James and DeMar DeRozan have helped him become a solid short-roll playmaker. That skill set should dovetail nicely with the Thunder's proclivity for small-small screening actions.Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

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The biggest questions facing the NBA's biggest offseason additions 

Dynasties have historically ruled the NBA, but we're in an era of nearly unprecedented parity tha...

Dynasties have historically ruled the NBA, but we're in an era of nearly unprecedented parity that's produced six different champions over the last six years. This coming season features another deep and diverse field of contenders. We're laying out reasons to believe in them and reasons to doubt them.Part 1 featured the <a href="https://thescore.com/news/3093497">Eastern and Western Conference favorites</a>. Part 2 examined the next tier of <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3096324" href="https://thescore.com/news/3096324">West contenders</a>. Last up, a crop of secondary contenders in the East.<h3>New York Knicks</h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/749482/cropped_GettyImages-2176275674.jpg?ts=1728660174" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/749482/w220xh124_GettyImages-2176275674.jpg?ts=1728660174 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/749482/w320xh180_GettyImages-2176275674.jpg?ts=1728660174 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/749482/w640xh360_GettyImages-2176275674.jpg?ts=1728660174 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/749482/w768xh432_GettyImages-2176275674.jpg?ts=1728660174 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/749482/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2176275674.jpg?ts=1728660174 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Brock Williams-Smith / NBA / Getty</figcaption></figure>Reasons to believe: The Knicks are looking at their best chance in decades of ending pro basketball's most famous drought. The Eastern Conference's second-best team a season ago added one of the most skilled offensive big men ever in Karl-Anthony Towns, as well as one of the best (and most malleable) two-way wings in basketball in Mikal Bridges.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>Towns' shooting and overall offensive skill set should give Jalen Brunson and Co. more room to operate than ever before. For a secondary scorer and floor spacer, it doesn't get much better than a 7-footer with a career mark of 39.8% from deep. Towns is an almost perfect offensive fit, capable of sleepwalking his way to 20 points while also warping opposing defenses without touching the ball.Though his defense can be a mixed bag, Towns' sheer size is more in line with traditional defensive centers, giving head coach Tom Thibodeau a feasible option to start the season while Mitchell Robinson remains sidelined.Bridges not only gives the Knicks another capable scorer, shot creator, and off-ball threat as a shooter, but also a second elite defensive wing to pair with OG Anunoby. In that duo, the Knicks are better equipped than anyone to slow the type of stars who will often serve as the opposing team's best players.As for New York's best player, Brunson's size and defensive concerns don't usually lend themselves to postseason success, but it's impossible to argue against the All-Star guard's playoff resume at this point. As a Knick, Brunson has looked plenty capable of being the type of superstar who can lead his team to the mountaintop, and he's never had a supporting cast this loaded.Reasons to doubt: For starters, Towns is still prone to bouts of tepid play, indecisiveness, and poor decision-making, especially in the season's biggest moments. The margin for error against Boston and the top of the East is too slim for the Knicks to survive the spring getting anything less than Towns' best.In addition, while New York's top six (the starting five plus Josh Hart) is as impressive and balanced as anyone's, the rest of the rotation is murky. Is Miles McBride ready to be the type of star reserve Knicks fans envision? Can a Thibodeau-led team that's now all-in on chasing a championship stay fresh and healthy enough to peak in May and June? The Knicks have used virtually all of their bullets constructing this star-studded squad, so they better hope so. - Joseph Casciaro<h3>Philadelphia 76ers</h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/749483/cropped_GettyImages-2175371845.jpg?ts=1728660286" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/749483/w220xh124_GettyImages-2175371845.jpg?ts=1728660286 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/749483/w320xh180_GettyImages-2175371845.jpg?ts=1728660286 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/749483/w640xh360_GettyImages-2175371845.jpg?ts=1728660286 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/749483/w768xh432_GettyImages-2175371845.jpg?ts=1728660286 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/749483/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2175371845.jpg?ts=1728660286 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBA / Getty</figcaption></figure>Reasons to believe: In adding Paul George to the duo of Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, the Sixers have constructed arguably the best and most balanced big three the league has seen in years. Rather than the awkward skill overlap and diminishing returns that often accompany big-name trios, Philadelphia's star guard, wing, and big man fit seamlessly together on both ends of the court. George will be the NBA's most overqualified third option. That should help him stay healthy and age gracefully after playing 74 games last season, his most in any campaign since 2018-19. But whether it's holding the fort when one or both of Embiid and Maxey are on the bench, on the shelf, or just underperforming, George is still capable of carrying his team on any given night. The 34-year-old averaged 22.6 points on a career-high 61.3% true shooting last season, becoming just the <a href="https://stathead.com/basketball/player-season-finder.cgi?request=1&amp;order_by=year_id&amp;year_min=1968&amp;qual=pts_per_g_req&amp;ccomp%5B1%5D=gt&amp;cval%5B1%5D=22&amp;cstat%5B1%5D=pts_per_g&amp;ccomp%5B2%5D=gt&amp;cval%5B2%5D=0.500&amp;cstat%5B2%5D=fg2_pct&amp;ccomp%5B3%5D=gt&amp;cval%5B3%5D=0.400&amp;cstat%5B3%5D=fg3_pct&amp;ccomp%5B4%5D=gt&amp;cval%5B4%5D=0.900&amp;cstat%5B4%5D=ft_pct">eighth</a> player ever to average at least 22 points while shooting better than 50% inside the arc, 40% from deep, and 90% from the free-throw line.On the other end, George's presence as a big wing defender will provide a measure of insurance behind the improving Maxey at the point of attack and an extra layer of resistance in front of Embiid, who remains one of the game's most fearsome rim-protectors. Essentially, the Sixers have taken a duo that already gave the team a top-10 floor on both ends of the court (when healthy) and added a third All-Star who happens to be one of the best two-way wings of his generation.If Embiid, Maxey, and George remain healthy – with their collective efforts easing the burden on all three – Philly is looking at its best chance at a title in the Embiid era. Reasons to doubt: Uh, have you watched the 76ers' Embiid era unfold? Some injury or unfortunate stroke of terrible luck will befall them. In addition, Embiid is good for at least a couple of playoff stinkers even when healthy, and George's postseason track record is less than stellar. This team only works if all three of its stars are healthy and playing their best, but there's little evidence (if any) to suggest that'll ever be the case from April through June.And that's before getting into the Sixers' concerning depth chart. Caleb Martin, Kelly Oubre, and Andre Drummond should be fine, but that still only gets them to six rotation players. Can Philly get enough from the likes of KJ Martin, Kyle Lowry, Eric Gordon, Reggie Jackson, Jared McCain, and Olympic standout Guerschon Yabusele? There are a lot of NBA names in that mix, but no surefire rotation piece for a team looking to contend in the spring of 2025. - Casciaro<h3>Milwaukee Bucks</h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/625324/cropped_GettyImages-1747073370.jpg?ts=1728660347" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/625324/w220xh124_GettyImages-1747073370.jpg?ts=1728660347 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/625324/w320xh180_GettyImages-1747073370.jpg?ts=1728660347 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/625324/w640xh360_GettyImages-1747073370.jpg?ts=1728660347 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/625324/w768xh432_GettyImages-1747073370.jpg?ts=1728660347 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/625324/w1080xh607_GettyImages-1747073370.jpg?ts=1728660347 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Gary Dineen / NBA / Getty</figcaption></figure>Reasons to believe: Just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the Bucks last season. They had a disastrous head-coaching hire, schematic mismanagement, and untimely injuries, and they still won 49 games on the strength of the league's sixth-best offense. The Bucks outscored opponents by 16.6 points per 100 possessions with their core quartet of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, Khris Middleton, and Brook Lopez on the court during the regular season. The fact that those four only shared the floor for 677 minutes was the biggest reason the team underwhelmed.Milwaukee very likely would've knocked off the Pacers - eventual Eastern Conference finalists - if not for those untimely injuries. Antetokounmpo missed the whole first-round series with a calf strain, and Lillard aggravated an Achilles injury that caused him to miss Games 4 and 5 and return hobbled for Game 6. After a choppy season, Lillard finally looked like vintage Lillard in that series, averaging 31 points on 64% true shooting and scoring an absurd 1.46 points per possession as a pick-and-roll ball-handler. We also got a glimpse of peak Middleton for perhaps the first time since his knee injury back in 2022.Antetokounmpo is still one of the three best players in basketball, a two-way monster who can break any defense as either a finisher or an initiator. Lillard could be <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/3048800" href="https://thescore.com/news/3048800">primed for a bounce-back campaign</a> after getting a proper offseason under his belt in Milwaukee. He and Antetokounmpo took a while to hone their <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/2757879" href="https://thescore.com/news/2757879">pick-and-roll synergy</a> last season, but it steadily improved as the campaign wore on; they could hit the ground running this time around. A healthy Middleton is a perfect third option. Lopez remains one of the best rim-protectors, savviest drop defenders, and one of the game's only legitimate stretch fives.The starting lineup is stocked with shooting around Antetokounmpo and should be a smidge more versatile with Gary Trent Jr. in Malik Beasley's place. Delon Wright and Taurean Prince were nice offseason depth additions that should help defensively, where the Bucks quietly improved from 21st to a respectable 13th after Doc Rivers took over for Adrian Griffin. It's not hard to imagine Milwaukee getting back into the championship mix with a stable bench presence and better injury luck come playoff time.Reasons to doubt: The short answer? This team is old, man. Lopez remains essential to propping up Milwaukee's deteriorating defense. He'll turn 37 this season. Lillard is 34 and coming off his worst offensive campaign in almost a decade. Middleton is 33 and coming off offseason surgeries on both ankles after separate lower-body injuries cost him 76 games over the last two years. Even younger, role-playing vets like Pat Connaughton and Bobby Portis have shown signs of decline.Antetokounmpo is ostensibly in his prime and is as good as ever offensively entering his age-30 campaign, but his defense has slipped in recent seasons. For what feels like the eighth year in a row, this team possesses troublingly little athleticism around him, especially on the wing. And there aren't really any young players waiting in the wings who can plausibly emerge to patch the obvious holes on this roster. We saw encouraging flashes from A.J. Green, Andre Jackson Jr., and Marjon Beauchamp last season, but nothing to suggest they're ready to contribute consistently.The Bucks' perimeter defense doesn't figure to be much better than it was last season. Lillard isn't going to get any stickier at the point of attack. Middleton isn't going to reverse his defensive decline. And Trent is a slight defensive upgrade over Beasley at best; he'll apply more ball pressure and create a lot more turnovers, but he'll make just as many off-ball gaffes that compromise the team's shell. Also, Trent is a more stationary shooter than Beasley without the same quick-trigger release off of movement.In short, Milwaukee's offense might be worse than it was last season, and there's no guarantee its defense will improve. Even banking on better health feels a bit like false hope given the ages and injury histories of the team's most important players. Considering how much better the rest of the Eastern Conference is shaping up to be this season and in the future, it may be time to accept that the Bucks' championship window has already closed. - Wolfond

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Title Tiers, Part 3: Cases for and against 3 East contenders

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Title Tiers, Part 2: Cases for and against 5 West contenders

Dynasties have historically ruled the NBA, but we're in an era of nearly unprecedented parity that's produced six different champions over the last six years. This coming season features another deep and diverse field of contenders. We're laying out reasons to believe in them and reasons to doubt them.First up, the two teams that stand above the rest in their respective conferences, including the defending champs.<h3>Boston Celtics </h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/738086/cropped_GettyImages-2158169755.jpg?ts=1728323159" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/738086/w220xh124_GettyImages-2158169755.jpg?ts=1728323159 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/738086/w320xh180_GettyImages-2158169755.jpg?ts=1728323159 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/738086/w640xh360_GettyImages-2158169755.jpg?ts=1728323159 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/738086/w768xh432_GettyImages-2158169755.jpg?ts=1728323159 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/738086/w1080xh607_GettyImages-2158169755.jpg?ts=1728323159 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Brian Babineau / NBA / Getty</figcaption></figure>Reasons to believe: It shouldn't take much persuasion to convince anyone why the team that just won 64 regular-season games, then strolled to the championship with a 16-3 playoff run, is a serious threat to repeat. The Celtics are bringing back everyone who played even an iota of a part in that historic campaign, with their top 11 minute-getters all returning for the title defense.<div class="the-score-article-ad-unit"></div>They still have the league's <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/2928288" href="https://thescore.com/news/2928288">pre-eminent wing duo</a> stirring the drink in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who are squarely in their primes as they enter their age-27 and -28 seasons. They still have the most airtight backcourt in the game with Jrue Holiday and Derrick White, both All-Defensive selections last year. And they still have a pair of centers in Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford who can space the floor at one end and protect the rim at the other.Boston remains the only team in the NBA that can create true five-out spacing with playmaking at every position, and it does so without compromising its elite and scheme-versatile defense. In short, the Celtics' best offensive lineups are also their best defensive lineups. That's a rare characteristic, and a big part of how they wound up finishing in the top two on both sides of the ball en route to the third-best net rating (+11.7) in NBA history.They crafted the most efficient offense of all time (and fourth best ever relative to league average), led the league in 3-point attempt rate, ranked second in 3-point percentage, and turned the ball over at the league's second-lowest rate. Eight players in the regular rotation posted true shooting percentages of 60% or above, and Porzingis busted switches as the best per-possession post scorer in the league.At the other end, their interchangeable army of brawny stoppers allowed them to switch and <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/2772064" href="https://thescore.com/news/2772064">cross-match</a> in whatever way they saw fit, and to double the ball less frequently than any other team. That matchup flexibility also allowed them to keep Porzingis and Horford on the back line and out of ball-screen action, which in turn led to the league's second-stingiest rim defense. Their flawless execution of Joe Mazzulla's inventive tactics short-circuited even the most <a data-in-app-uri="thescore:///news/2926239" href="https://thescore.com/news/2926239">potent offenses</a>. Porzingis will be on the shelf for at least the first two months of the regular season as he recovers from leg surgery, but all that matters is that he's healthy come playoff time. He played all of 165 minutes last postseason (eighth most on the team), and it barely slowed Boston down. With the rest of the band returning, why would this year's tour play out any differently?Reasons to doubt: OK, let's say Porzingis isn't healthy for the playoffs. How confident do you feel in his backups? Al Horford is a marvel of modern science, but eventually the wheels are going to fall off for the 38-year-old. (Right?) What happens if the Celtics are left to rely on the likes of Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman, and Neemias Queta? Depth on the wing is also a bit of a concern. In general, things get pretty shaky pretty fast once you get beyond Boston's vaunted top six.Sure, that didn't derail the team in last year's playoffs, but that had something to do with them facing a spate of badly undermanned and overmatched Eastern Conference foes before Porzingis returned in a limited capacity for the Finals. They almost certainly won't have as easy a path this time around.More broadly, I'm not sure the Celtics entirely put the concerns about their playoff offense to bed last spring. Against Dallas, the lone full-strength opponent they faced, they scored just 109.2 points per 100 possessions (which would've ranked 26th in the regular season) and had several stretches in which they devolved into meandering one- and zero-pass possessions. High-end playmaking is still a missing ingredient here, a major factor in those frustrating lulls. And they're still a little light on rim frequency (26th last season) and free-throw rate (25th), leaving them vulnerable to the whims of jump-shooting variance.In what figures to be a much more competitive Eastern Conference - and possibly a stiffer Finals test, if they get back there - the margin for error will be slimmer this year. - Joe Wolfond <h3>Oklahoma City Thunder </h3><figure class="article-segment--image"><img src="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/634492/cropped_GettyImages-1797513546.jpg?ts=1719402391" srcset="https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/634492/w220xh124_GettyImages-1797513546.jpg?ts=1719402391 220w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/634492/w320xh180_GettyImages-1797513546.jpg?ts=1719402391 320w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/634492/w640xh360_GettyImages-1797513546.jpg?ts=1719402391 640w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/634492/w768xh432_GettyImages-1797513546.jpg?ts=1719402391 768w, https://assets-cms.thescore.com/uploads/image/file/634492/w1080xh607_GettyImages-1797513546.jpg?ts=1719402391 1080w"><figcaption class="article-segment--image-caption"> Joshua Gateley / Getty Images</figcaption></figure>Reasons to believe: The Thunder look like a juggernaut, with few, if any weak spots to exploit. The youngest 1-seed and youngest playoff series winner in league history returns the same maturing and improving core that won 57 games last year, except with Josh Giddey replaced by Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein. In Caruso, a Thunder team that ranked fourth in defensive efficiency last season is adding arguably the game's best perimeter defender – an elite stopper who's also developed into a terrific shooter (40.8% from deep on 4.7 attempts in 2023-24). In Hartenstein, Oklahoma City went a long way toward plugging the team's most glaring need for interior size and rebounding help.Caruso and Hartenstein will bolster what was already a solid two-way supporting cast around the Thunder's young stars. With guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander now a perennial MVP candidate and All-NBA First Team-caliber superstar, plus wing Jalen Williams and big man Chet Holmgren on All-Star trajectories, the Thunder feel like an almost perfect team coming together at the perfect time.Oh, and should any mid-season reinforcements prove necessary, Sam Presti's front office still has more draft capital and trade equity than just about any other team. They may not be the defending conference champions, but the Thunder are the class of the West.Reasons to doubt: This team might still be just a little too green, with NBA history telling us young teams must take their postseason lumps for years before reaching the championship summit. As promising as the career trajectories of Williams and Holmgren are, are they ready to be the second and third options for a title team? Beyond that intangible question of experience, finding reasons to doubt Oklahoma City's championship mettle feels like grasping at straws. Then again, it's worth noting the Thunder's aggressive approach to defense - in which they surrender the league's highest rate of 3-point attempts from the corners while trying to force the ball out of opposing stars' hands - does leave them more susceptible to an outlier shooting performance. That was a big part of how a seemingly inferior Mavericks team eliminated OKC in the 2024 Western Conference semifinals. - Joseph Casciaro

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Title Tiers, Part 1: Cases for and against the East and West favorites

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Joe Wolfond

Features Writer

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Nick Faris

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theScore Staff

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Joseph Casciaro

Senior NBA Writer

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Jolene Latimer

Writer/Host

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John Matisz

Senior NHL Writer

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