Community Shootaround

A majority of the teams in last year’s lottery have received an immediate boost from their draft picks. While it remains to be seen whether any of these players will be considered superstars during their careers, there was clearly plenty of talent at the top.

That has led to a spirited chase for the Rookie of the Year award. There are plenty of worthy candidates, so with fewer than 20 games left on regular-season schedule, let’s take a look at their credentials:

• Cade Cunningham – After a slow start, Cunningham has established himself as a player the Pistons can build around. He leads all rookies at 16.3 PPG and ranks second in assists (5.1 per game) and fourth in rebounds (5.8). During crunch time, coach Dwane Casey has put the ball in Cunningham’s hands, trusting that the top pick in the draft will deliver.
• Evan Mobley – The Cavaliers have been the league’s biggest surprise and a lot of that success can be attributed to the addition of Mobley. He’s fifth among rookies in scoring (14.6) and first in rebounding (8.2) and blocked shots (1.7). The No. 3 selection in the draft has lived up to his billing as the draft class’ top big man.
• Scottie Barnes – Barnes leads all rookies in minutes per game (35.4), showing coach Nick Nurse’s trust in him. He’s fourth among rookies in scoring (14.9), third in rebounding (7.6) and tied for third in assists (3.3). The fourth pick in the draft should be a fixture with the Raptors for many seasons.
• Josh Giddey – A bit of an unknown after playing last season in Australia, Giddey has displayed the ability to rack up triple doubles on any given night. The Thunder guard leads all rookies at 6.4 APG. He’s also seventh in scoring (12.5) and second in rebounding (7.8).
• Franz Wagner – The eighth pick in the draft, Wagner ranks second among his peers in scoring (15.6 PPG) and 3-point shooting (37.2%). He’ll continue to be a matchup problem for Magic opponents.
• Jalen Green – Like Cunningham, Green had some early shooting struggles but has come on strong. The Rockets guard and No. 2 overall selection has moved into third place (15.3 PPG) on the scoring list. He’s also advancing as a playmaker, contributing 15 assists in the last three games.
• Herbert Jones – While his counting stats are not as impressive as more heralded prospects, Jones has become a defensive stalwart for the Pelicans. The second-round pick is averaging 30.1 MPG while often being assigned to the opponent’s main offensive threat.

That leads us to our question of the day: Who is your current selection for Rookie of the Year and what makes him stand out among all other first-year players?

Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.

Suns head coach Monty Williams is currently the favorite to be named the NBA’s Coach of the Year in 2022, according to the oddsmakers at Bovada and BetOnline. With a 49-10 record, Phoenix has been 6.5 games better than any other team in the league this season, so Williams certainly has a strong case for the award.

Still, he’s hardly the only coach who is a viable candidate to be named Coach of the Year, especially if the Suns stumble at all during Chris Paul‘s absence in the next few weeks. Based on current betting odds, Bovada and BetOnline both view J.B. Bickerstaff, Taylor Jenkins, and Billy Donovan as the coaches besides Williams who are the strongest contenders for the award.

The Coach of the Year vote often comes down to which team exceeded its preseason expectations most significantly, especially if that club dealt with injuries or other adversity. With that in mind, Bickerstaff should be a popular pick. His Cavaliers are 35-24 despite losing Collin Sexton and Ricky Rubio to season-ending knee injuries and having several other rotation players deal with various health ailments. Cleveland was widely viewed as a lottery team entering 2021/22.

Jenkins’ Grizzlies have also blown away the expectations fans and league observers had for them in the fall. Projected to be roughly a .500 team after sneaking into the playoffs a year ago, Memphis has already reached 41 victories in just 61 games and comfortably holds a top-three spot in the West. While Ja Morant has emerged as a bona fide star, the team’s supporting cast isn’t exactly loaded with household names, which may earn Jenkins some extra votes this spring.

Finally, Donovan’s Bulls were considered a fringe playoff team by oddsmakers last fall — their over/under figure of 42.5 wins was tied with Indiana and New York for seventh in the East. The club has been impacted by injuries throughout the season and was one of the teams hit hardest by COVID-19 in the winter, but still holds the conference’s top seed with a 39-21 record.

Erik Spoelstra of the Heat, Steve Kerr of the Warriors, Doc Rivers of the Sixers, and Chris Finch of the Timberwolves are among the others who could merit Coach of the Year consideration, especially with strong late-season finishes.

We want to know what you think. Is Williams the right pick for Coach of the Year at this point, or do you view Bickerstaff, Jenkins, Donovan, or someone else as a stronger candidate? If the season ended today, who do you think would – and should – win the award?

Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts!

There will be plenty of attention over the next two months regarding the race for the top seeds in each conference. Several other teams will be aiming for one of the three bottom seeds.

While the lottery odds were changed a few years ago, it hasn’t discouraged tanking. The teams that finish with the three worst records have a 14 percent chance of getting the top pick.

That strategy paid off for the Pistons last season, as they rested several starters in the final weeks of the season and wound up with the second-worst mark. They won the lottery and drafted the consensus top pick, Cade Cunningham.

The Rockets, who lost their way to the worst record, still got the second pick and chose Jalen Green.

Lo and behold, those same two teams are well-positioned for a top-three pick again this year, though there’s more mystery which player will go No. 1. Auburn’s Jabari Smith, Gonzaga Chet Holmgren and Duke’s Paolo Banchero are currently the top candidates.

The Magic entered the All-Star break with the worst record, with the Pistons and Rockets just “behind” them in the race for the bottom. However, another team or two could crash the tanking party. The Thunder, Pacers, Kings, Pelicans and Spurs have also won fewer than 40 percent of their games, though New Orleans must convey its pick to the Trail Blazers if it’s between No. 5 and No. 14.

Speaking of the retooling Blazers, it’s conceivable they could go on a long losing streak, though with 25 wins in the bank it would difficult to drop near the bottom. The Pacers, who also went into rebuild mode, could be another prime candidate for a nosedive.

That leads us to our question of the day: Which three teams do you foresee finishing with the worst records this season and gaining the best lottery odds?

Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.

When Ben Simmons was pushing for a trade out of Philadelphia prior to the 2021 season, multiple reports indicated that Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey was holding out for a deal that netted his team a star.

The thinking was that even if no team was willing to proactively shake up its roster in the fall by trading an All-Star player for Simmons, it would only be a matter of time before a player of that caliber became disgruntled with his current situation and asked for a trade. When that happened, Morey and the 76ers wanted to be ready to pounce.

While Morey faced some criticism at the time for his stance, it was a defensible one — in recent years, the NBA generally hasn’t made it more than a few months before a star player shakes loose. Sure enough, in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline, whispers of James Harden‘s discontent in Brooklyn grew louder and louder, culminating in the deadline-day blockbuster that sent Harden to the Sixers and Simmons to the Nets.

The Simmons and Harden situations are just the latest examples of the superstar wanderlust that has dominated the NBA for at least the last half-decade. Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, Russell Westbrook (twice), Paul George (twice), and Harden (twice) are among the players who have requested – or demanded – trades to new teams within the last five years.

Taking into account the NBA’s recent history, it’s probably safe to assume that another star player will be angling for a trade before the end of 2022, whether that takes the form of a private request to the team or an ugly public standoff.

As Howard Beck of SI.com writes in his article on the subject, speculation among team executives has focused on players like Pelicans forward Zion Williamson, Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell, and Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard.

All of those players have said the right things publicly, but a June report claimed that Williamson’s family wanted him out of New Orleans, and there has been plenty of chatter about Mitchell’s relationship with teammate Rudy Gobert being a warning sign in Utah. Lillard, meanwhile, seriously considered his future last summer and remains committed to Portland for now, but with the team in retooling mode, it’s possible he’ll eventually try to win a title elsewhere.

Those aren’t the only stars worth keeping an eye on. Wizards guard Bradley Beal can be a free agent this summer, and Washington isn’t exactly close to championship contention. Irving can also reach free agency in 2022 and his union with the Nets seems less stable than it did a year ago, in part due to his inconsistent availability due to his vaccination status. Even Lakers star LeBron James has raised eyebrows lately with comments about his future and his apparent frustration with L.A.’s deadline inactivity.

It sometimes only takes one down year, one short-lived postseason run, or one bad relationship to convince a star player to ask out, so it’s certainly possible that other players we haven’t mentioned could become unhappy with their current situations in the coming months — at this time last year, we certainly didn’t expect Harden to be seeking another trade so soon.

With all that in mind, we want to know what you think. Which star(s) will be the next to push for a trade? How soon will it happen, and how many stars might we see change teams this summer?

Head to the comment section below to weigh in with your thoughts!

Give the Kings some credit — at least they’re consistent.

Just when it looked like the franchise was on the upswing, the team has produced another disastrous season. Despite all the lottery picks dotting the Kings’ roster, they’re destined to miss the postseason party for the 16th consecutive season.

The latest dumpster fire is raging out of control. They’ve lost five straight and 10 of their last 12 games, including a 53-point thrashing by the Celtics on Tuesday, to drop 14 games below .500.

A coaching change from Luke Walton to Alvin Gentry backfired, as the team only got worse after it let Walton go.

Not surprisingly, Sacramento has been involved in more trade rumors than any other team. The latest one floated around is that the Lakers might have some interest in Buddy Hield.

The Kings have seemingly been trying to trade Hield virtually since he signed an extension that runs through the 2023/24 season. It was also reported on Friday that they’ve pulled out of the Ben Simmons sweepstakes due to Philadelphia’s overwhelming demands.

The Kings were reportedly considering offering Tyrese Haliburton, Hield, Harrison Barnes, and two future first-round picks in exchange for Simmons, Tobias Harris, and Matisse Thybulle. Another report later indicated the Kings want to build their roster around Haliburton and De’Aaron Fox and weren’t interested in taking back Harris in a Simmons deal.

The Kings have also reportedly told Fox he wasn’t going anywhere, though that could be just posturing at this point. They’ve also been linked to other hot names on the trade market, such as Domantas Sabonis, Myles Turner and Jerami Grant.

In any case, it’s hard to imagine the Kings not doing something significant in the next two weeks.

That leads us to our question of the day: What players should the Kings target prior to the trade deadline? And which players do they need to shed to turn their fortunes around?

Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.

Last season marked the debut of the NBA’s Play-In Tournament, where the seventh and eighth seeds in each conference compete for the No. 7 playoff spot, and the ninth and tenth seeds compete to play the loser of the seven/eight match up, with the winner earning the No. 8 spot.

In other words: seven vs. eight — winner advances to playoffs as seventh seed, loser plays the winner of the nine vs. ten matchup. Nine/ten winner vs. seven/eight loser — winner advances to playoffs as eighth seed. So the ninth and tenth seeds need to win two consecutive games in order to advance.

In the West last season, the Lakers defeated the Warriors in the No. 7/8 matchup, advancing as the seventh seed, while the Grizzlies defeated the Spurs in the No. 9/10 matchup and then beat the Warriors to advance as the eighth seed.

In the East last season, the Celtics defeated the Wizards to advance as the seventh seed, while the Pacers defeated the Hornets in the No. 9/10 matchup but then lost to the Wizards, so Washington was the eighth seed. Ultimately, all of the seventh and eighth seeds fell in the first round of the playoffs last season.

This season, the current Nos. 7-10 seeds in the West are the Lakers (23-23), Timberwolves (22-23), Clippers (23-25) and Trail Blazers (19-26). Only two games (four losses) separate the No. 9 Clippers from the No. 6 Nuggets (23-21). The No. 5 Mavericks (26-20) are also within reach, but the top four seeds have separated from the pack.

At the bottom-end of Western play-in contention, less than three games separate the No. 10 Blazers from the No. 11-13 seeds, the Pelicans (17-28), Kings (18-30) and Spurs (17-29).

The East is extremely competitive this season, as the No. 7 seed Hornets (26-20) are only three-and-a-half games out of first place, so the top end of the standings are very much in flux. The Nos. 1-6 seeds all have between 26 and 30 wins and 16 and 19 losses, a separation of just three games.

There’s another distinct cluster in the standings, with the current Nos. 8-12 seeds all within three games of each other. Those teams are the Raptors (22-21), Wizards (23-23), Celtics (23-24), Knicks (23-24) and Hawks (20-25). (The Celtics lead the Wizards 91-69 on Sunday at the time of this release.)

We want to know what you think. Who will make the Play-In Tournament this season in both conferences? Are there any clear-cut favorites? Who will advance as the seventh and eighth seeds? Will any teams currently in the top six in either conference drop down?

Head to the comment section below to share your thoughts!