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Community Shootaround: Best Team In The East

December 24th, 2022 at 12:45pm CST by Luke Adams

When we took a closer look at the Western Conference earlier this week, we pointed out that the No. 1 seed had changed hands many times this season, with eight different teams holding it at some point and five of those clubs spending at least six days as the West’s top team.

That hasn’t been the case in the Eastern Conference, where the Celtics and Bucks have essentially shared the top seed all season. According to Basketball-Reference, Milwaukee held it from October 24 to November 13, Boston had it from November 14 to December 17, and the two teams have traded it back and forth during the past week.

Milwaukee and Boston have made a strong case to be considered the East’s most serious championship threats. The Celtics have been especially impressive, posting the NBA’s best offensive rating (116.6) and net rating (+6.0) while getting an MVP-caliber performance from Jayson Tatum. They’ve also spent most of the season playing without their best rim protector, Robert Williams, and could have an even higher ceiling now that he’s back.

The Bucks have stuck right there with them though, buoyed by the league’s third-best defense and an MVP candidate of their own in forward Giannis Antetokounmpo. Like Boston, Milwaukee has gotten off to a strong start despite playing shorthanded — All-Star forward Khris Middleton has been limited to seven games and has struggled mightily in those appearances, so the Bucks could presumably reach another gear if and when they’re fully healthy and firing on all cylinders.

Both the Celtics and Bucks have been up and down in recent weeks, however. Boston has lost five of seven games and actually has the NBA’s worst offensive rating (107.0) during the month of December. Milwaukee has lost four of its last seven.

As the East’s leaders have struggled, several other would-be contenders have closed the gap at the top of the standings, starting with the Cavaliers. The offseason addition of Donovan Mitchell has helped Cleveland take a step forward this season, while the frontcourt duo of Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley has led the NBA’s best defense (107.2 rating).

Cleveland’s +6.0 net rating is tied with Boston for the league’s best mark. The Cavs also have a pair of victories over Boston under their belts already this season and beat Milwaukee on Wednesday, proving they can hang with the East’s top clubs.

Meanwhile, two teams expected to be title contenders before the season began have been on fire lately after getting off to sluggish starts — the Nets have won eight games in a row and 12 of their last 13, while the Sixers are riding their own seven-game winning streak. Brooklyn is now within two games of the East’s top seed, while Philadelphia is just three games out.

The Nets’ offense has looked in recent weeks like the well-oiled machine that we thought it could be, as they comfortably lead the NBA with a 120.4 offensive rating in December. Kevin Durant has played some of the best basketball of his career, Kyrie Irving is staying out of the news and playing great basketball following his return from an eight-game suspension, and Ben Simmons is looking a whole lot more comfortable on both ends of the court after a concerning start to the season.

Somewhat surprisingly, Philadelphia has been most effective on the defensive end of the ball, trailing only the Cavs with a 108.3 defensive rating, but James Harden and Joel Embiid have been clicking on offense lately too. In a win over the Clippers on Friday, Embiid racked up 44 points while Harden had 21 assists. The offense should take another step forward once Tyrese Maxey returns from a foot injury.

The East’s top five seeds look like the best bets to come out of the conference, but we should also mention the Knicks (18-15), who have the East’s best net rating (+10.2) in December, along with the Hawks (17-16), Pacers (17-16), Heat (16-17), and Raptors (15-18), who are lurking in play-in territory for now.

We want to know what you think. Which team do you expect to finish the regular season holding the East’s No. 1 seed? Will the same club represent the conference in the NBA Finals, or will another team make a deeper playoff run? Do you consider the East to be as wide open as the West, or are there fewer real title threats here beyond the top few seeds?

Head to the comment section below to share your thoughts!

Rivers: Maxey "Making Great Progress"

December 23rd, 2022 at 7:58pm CST by Rory Maher

Sixers head coach Doc Rivers isn’t confident that Tyrese Maxey will return for Sunday’s matchup against the Knicks, but he provided an encouraging update on Friday, per Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer. “He’s making great progress,” Rivers said. “[He] had a great workout [Thursday], so he’s close.” The third-year guard has been sidelined since November 18 after suffering a foot fracture.

Sixers Notes: Melton, Maxey, Tucker, Harden

December 23rd, 2022 at 9:06am CST by Luke Adams

When the Sixers gave up a first-round pick and Danny Green‘s expiring contract for De’Anthony Melton, they knew they were getting a strong defender who could make a three-point shot, but the former Grizzlies guard has given them “more connective tissue in the half court” than they might have expected, writes ESPN’s Zach Lowe (Insider link).

Melton’s play-making and screening ability has been valuable for Philadelphia, according to Lowe, who notes that the team has scored an average of 1.2 points when a Melton screen leads directly to a shot. That’s 17th among 244 players who have set 50 such screens, Lowe writes, citing Second Spectrum. The 24-year-old has also handed out a career-best 3.3 assists per game.

Melton’s presence has helped the 76ers withstand injury absences for James Harden and Tyrese Maxey in the early part of the 2022/23 season. Despite not opening the season as part of Philadelphia’s starting five, Melton has made 20 starts in 27 appearances so far.

Here’s more on the Sixers:

Given how well the 76ers have played with Melton in the starting lineup (they have a 13-7 record in those games), there has been some speculation about the possibility of bringing Maxey off the bench as the leader of the second unit when he returns from his foot injury. Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice.com considers the case for making such a move, but ultimately concludes that it’s probably not in the team’s best interest.
In his latest mailbag for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Keith Pompey also argues against making Maxey the sixth man once he’s healthy. Pompey’s mailbag explores several other topics, including whether the Sixers’ three-year, $33MM+ investment in P.J. Tucker will turn out as poorly as the four-year, $109MM deal they gave Al Horford in 2019 — given the relative size of the two deals, Pompey believes there’s no comparison between the two, especially since Horford was never a good fit, while Tucker is beginning to show overall improvement in his role.
In his first seven games back from a foot injury, Harden has averaged nearly 39 minutes per night. However, head coach Doc Rivers isn’t concerned about the former MVP’s heavy recent workload, per Noah Levick of NBC Sports Philadelphia. “I’ll guarantee you, by the end of the year, you’ll look at his numbers and they’ll look great,” Rivers said. “It’s a whole year. That’s why we can’t overdo things when guys have a three-week spike in minutes and all of a sudden we’re overreacting to that. You don’t. We’ve been low on guards, and so guys have to play minutes. And James is one of those guys that can handle minutes. But by the end of the year, his minutes will be down.”

Sixers Notes: Harris, Reed, Milton, Embiid

December 22nd, 2022 at 8:03am CST by Arthur Hill

After spending most of his career as an isolation scorer, Sixers forward Tobias Harris concentrated on improving his catch-and-shoot game over the summer to provide a complementary weapon to Joel Embiid and James Harden, writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. The results have been impressive, as Harris is thriving in the role and the Sixers have reeled off six straight wins. He scored 17 points in 21 minutes Wednesday, two days after sinking a game-winning three-pointer against the Raptors.

Harris is averaging 17.1 points per game this season, which is his lowest mark since being acquired in a trade nearly four years ago. But he’s shooting 42.2% from beyond the arc, which would be the best figure of his career.

“I know that if you threw me out there two years ago, I wouldn’t be able to do it and get going because that wasn’t the mentality for me, catching and shooting really fast,” Harris said. “At first it was tough, but now I kind of changed my mentality toward it and just said like, ‘OK, if that’s the case and situation, how do you be the best at it?’”

There’s more from Philadelphia:

Montrezl Harrell has reclaimed the backup center role from Paul Reed, who has fallen out of the rotation over the past two weeks, Pompey states in a separate story. Reed, who saw just four minutes in Wednesday’s rout of the Pistons, acknowledges that he needs to play better. “You have to handle it like a professional,” he said. “I understand that I have areas that I need to improve on. I ain’t trippin’. I just know I have to get better so I’m putting in the work every day, and I know it’s going to pay off.”
Shake Milton‘s improvement gives the team four rotation-level guards and could lead to some interesting decisions when Tyrese Maxey returns from injury, according to Rich Hofmann of The Athletic. Hofman expects coach Doc Rivers to use more three-guard lineups when the roster is healthy with some mixture of Maxey, Harden, Milton and De’Anthony Melton.
In an interview with Cassidy Hubbarth of ESPN, Embiid rejects the idea that he and Harden aren’t ideal complements to one another. “I don’t know where that’s coming from because last year when we got him, we just kept dominating teams,” Embiid said.

Injury Updates: Hachimura, Zion, Maxey, Wiggins

December 21st, 2022 at 7:36pm CST by Arthur Hill

After missing more than a month with a bone bruise in his right ankle, Wizards forward Rui Hachimura is expected to play Thursday, tweets Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. The team announced that Hachimura, who has been out of action since November 18, will be available for the game at Utah.

Hachimura was originally diagnosed with ankle soreness, but an MRI revealed the bruise. Head coach Wes Unseld Jr. offered an encouraging progress report on Hachimura last week, saying he had started one-on-one contact work.

Hachimura’s return is welcome news for the Wizards, who had lost 10 straight games before winning Tuesday night in Phoenix. Washington is 12th in the East at 12-20, but the club is starting to get some of its rotation players back after a string of injuries. Bradley Beal returned Sunday after missing two weeks with a hamstring issue, and Delon Wright should be back soon after being sidelined since October 25 with a strained hamstring.

There’s more injury news to pass along:

Pelicans forward Zion Williamson has been placed in the league’s health and safety protocols and will miss Thursday’s game against the Spurs, according to Christian Clark of NOLA.com. Clark notes that Williamson was able to play 40 minutes Monday, but he wasn’t at practice today. New Orleans also plays on Friday and may be facing an extended stretch without Williamson and Brandon Ingram, whom coach Willie Green has already confirmed will miss both games.
Sixers coach Doc Rivers told reporters tonight that Tyrese Maxey, who has a broken bone in his left foot, is improving, but there’s still no set timetable for him to return, tweets Kyle Neubeck of The Philly Voice. “We will see him at some point,” Rivers said. “I just don’t know when.”
Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins may be targeting Christmas Day to try to return from a right adductor strain, tweets Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Wiggins is sitting out tonight’s game at Brooklyn, along with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Donte DiVincenzo and JaMychal Green.

And-Ones: OT Target Score, G League, Korkmaz, Bitadze

December 21st, 2022 at 11:56am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA G League has been experimenting this fall with its overtime period by using a variation of the “Elam Ending,” as Kevin Pelton writes for ESPN. Instead of following up regulation with a two-minute overtime period, G League teams have played to a target score — the first team to score seven points in overtime wins the game.

The NBA has used the Elam Ending in its All-Star Game in recent years and could explore the idea of adjusting its own overtime periods if the G League experiment gets positive feedback. As Pelton notes, the idea of playing to a target score in OT holds appeal because beginning from a tie makes the concept simpler, and it could help avoid prolonged double- or triple-overtime games that result in players logging heavier minutes than teams would like.

If the NBA were to adopt an Elam Ending for overtime, it would likely have to increase its target score to about 11 points to better approximate its five-minute overtime period, Pelton adds.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Alex Kenendy of BasketballNews.com spoke to NBA G League commissioner Shareef Abdur-Rahim about several topics, including whether the league plans to experiment with any other rule changes and whether expansion to international markets besides Toronto and Mexico City is in the cards.
Following an investigation into a confrontation between Turkish and Georgian players at a EuroBasket game earlier this year, FIBA announced discipline for a handful of the players involved, including Sixers guard Furkan Korkmaz and Pacers center Goga Bitadze. Both players were fined and have been placed on a three-year probation period for international competition. If they commit a similar offense during that probation period, Bitadze would be suspended five games and Korkmaz would be suspended for three.
In an Insider-only feature for ESPN.com, Bobby Marks takes a look at the trade restrictions, trade assets, and trade targets for all 30 NBA teams.

Atlantic Notes: Harden, Harris, Sixers, R. Williams, Raptors

December 17th, 2022 at 3:41pm CST by Rory Maher

James Harden says he was at a “low point” after the Sixers were eliminated in last season’s playoffs by the Heat. Being traded twice in two seasons, dealing with significant injuries, and a couple of tough playoff losses left him “drained and deflated,” according to Yaron Weitzman of FoxSports.com.

“The whole two years was a low point. I’ve never really had to deal with something like that,” Harden told Weitzman recently. “My body, mentally, physically … It was a lot going on. I mean, basketball is everything to me.”

The former MVP guard discussed a number of topics with Weitzman, including his reluctance to do interviews (“People will take the smallest thing that I say and basically screw it up and then it becomes a problem“), his desire to have his career be remembered in a positive light (“I’m one of the people that changed the game of basketball. Honestly, the only thing that I’m missing is a championship“), his offseason work to avoid future injuries, acclimating with the Sixers, adjusting his game as he gets older and plays alongside another ball-dominant star in Joel Embiid, and his relationship with the back-to-back MVP runner-up, among others.

When asked about his struggles in playoff elimination games, Harden admits his results have been mixed — but says it’s not entirely on him.

“I’ve had a few bad games in close-out games. Not all of them have been bad,” he said. “Quite frankly, a lot of the times our team wasn’t good enough to compete for championships, if you want to be honest. There’s only so much I can do.”

Weitzman’s feature is worth checking out in full if you’re interested in Harden’s career.

Here’s more from the Atlantic:

Sixers forward Tobias Harris was ruled out for Friday’s victory over the Warriors due to back pain, writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. It was Harris’ third missed game of the season, and it’s unclear what his status is going forward.
In another story for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Pompey writes that the city’s Chinatown residents continue to be adamantly opposed to the Sixers‘ arena proposal, and recently voiced their displeasure at a contentious meeting. “People are very frustrated about the developer continuing to promote their proposal without thinking about Chinatown people’s anger,” said Wei Chen, the civic engagement director of AAU.
Celtics big man Robert Williams made his 2022/23 season debut in Friday’s loss to Orlando. As Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe relays (via Twitter), Williams admits he was a little nervous before the game. “I felt great. The nerves were getting me pretty bad before the game. We (bleeping) lost. We gotta bounce back from that,” he said.
The Raptors have fallen to 13-16 after dropping Friday’s nail-biter to the Nets. According to Doug Smith of The Toronto Star, the team’s front office is displeased with the up-and-down start to the season, and are keeping a close eye on how players respond while evaluating the roster ahead of February’s trade deadline.

Sixers’ Rivers Expects Maxey To Miss At Least Two More Weeks

December 16th, 2022 at 7:33am CST by Luke Adams

When word first broke that Tyrese Maxey had broken a bone in his left foot, reports indicated that he was expected to miss about three or four weeks. However, with the four-week mark arriving on Saturday, the Sixers guard still isn’t close to returning, head coach Doc Rivers said on Thursday.

“Whatever he has to do, he’s nowhere near it,” Rivers said, per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. “So I would say he’s out at least, I don’t know, for at least a couple more weeks.”

Rivers had previously told reporters that he hoped Maxey would be able to practice this week, but the 22-year-old hasn’t been able to do any real on-court work yet.

“Nothing is the answer,” Rivers said on Thursday when asked what Maxey was able to do. “I mean, he can shoot. He can run a straight line, but that’s it.

“… He can sprint straight; he just can’t cut or he can’t stop. So it may get better in three days or five or six days. But I don’t see that happening. This is an uneducated guess, but I just can’t imagine him playing any time soon.”

Maxey, who has been sidelined since November 18, played in Philadelphia’s first 15 games of the season before missing the last 12. The team has held its own without him, going 7-5 in his absence despite also being without Joel Embiid and/or James Harden for some of those games.

Maxey appeared to be taking another step toward stardom prior to the injury, averaging a career-best 22.9 PPG, 4.4 APG, and 3.5 RPG on .462/.422/.738 shooting in 36.4 minutes per contest.

Trade Rumors: Sixers, Bogdanovic, Quickley, Bamba

December 14th, 2022 at 3:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Every trade deadline features at least a small handful of deals that are exclusively about money rather than players, and this season’s deadline likely won’t be any different, writes Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report. Pincus suggests the Sixers are one team worth keeping a close eye on for a possible financially motivated trade.

Philadelphia is just barely over the luxury tax line, so moving a player like Jaden Springer or Shake Milton to sneak under that threshold would save a ton of money for the team. Not only would the Sixers avoid paying a small tax bill in that scenario — they’d also be one of the non-taxpayers that receives a portion of the league-wide tax payments at season’s end. Pincus has estimated that each non-taxpayer will get a share of about $17MM, based on the current tax projections.

Here are a few more highlights from Pincus’ latest look at the trade market:

Although the Pistons‘ front office has downplayed the likelihood of a Bojan Bogdanovic trade, Pincus hears from “well-placed” sources that Detroit may simply be waiting for an offer with a “suitable” first-round pick. Presumably, a suitable first-rounder would be one that doesn’t include heavy protections and has a chance to land in the teens or higher.
While there has been no indication they’re pursuing him, some rival executives think the Mavericks should be targeting Knicks guard Immanuel Quickley, Pincus writes.
Pincus identifies Magic center Mohamed Bamba as a possible trade candidate to watch, since his role has declined due to Paolo Banchero‘s arrival and Bol Bol‘s emergence. Bamba’s 2023/24 salary is non-guaranteed, so his two-year, $20.6MM contract is relatively team-friendly.
The three-team trade talks the Suns had with the Bucks and Rockets about a possible Jae Crowder trade expanded to include the Warriors, who are among the teams with interest in Crowder, says Pincus. However, nothing came of those discussions.

Rivers Hopes Maxey Can Practice Later This Week

December 14th, 2022 at 2:01pm CST by Luke Adams

Sixers head coach Doc Rivers said on Tuesday that he hopes Tyrese Maxey is able to practice with the club later this week, though it’s not trending that way for now, tweets Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice.com. Maxey, recovering from a left foot fracture, has been doing some running and shooting, but hasn’t yet been able to fully practice.

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