#when preseason The Men were saying “he might not be too short if he adds some muscle!” i was like where. where do you want him to PUT IT

[balconyskeletons]

03.06.2024

[junker-town]

Baylor men’s basketball was a superpower hiding in plain sight

The best team won the 2021 men’s NCAA tournament.

The conversations about where the 2021 Gonzaga Bulldogs ranked in historical context were already taking place before the national championship game of the men’s NCAA tournament against Baylor. The Zags were the team on the brink of history, entering at 31-0 and one win away from becoming men’s college basketball’s first undefeated champion since Indiana in 1976.

Gonzaga had an All-American at guard in Jalen Suggs, at forward in Corey Kispert, and at center in Drew Timme. They also had an honorable mention All-American in Joel Ayayi and the best player from last year’s Florida Gators in Andrew Nembhard as their fourth and fifth options. There was solid depth behind that starting five, too. The numbers Gonzaga had amassed all season showed how talented this roster really was: it had the second most efficient offense the sport had seen since 2002, and it had the best adjusted efficiency rating in the same time frame, per KenPom. The defense was top-10 the entire year, too.

The last team that felt this dominant against its peers was 2018 Villanova, and we know that story ended with a national title. The last team that faced this type of historical pressure was 2015 Kentucky, and we know that story ended with an upset loss in the Final Four.

Anything can happen in a single-elimination tournament, and that’s why we love March Madness. This Gonzaga team just seemed too talented to fall. There was really only one thing that could stop them: a team on the other side of the bracket who was nearly as good all year.

It’s hard to remember now, but there was a time when Baylor looked like it might be poised to run the table, too. The Bears started the year No. 2 in the preseason polls, only behind Gonzaga. In their third game of the season, Baylor ran an Illinois team out of the gym that would eventually finish with a No. 1 seed. After the regular season game against Gonzaga, scheduled for Dec. 5, was canceled because of Covid protocol, the Bears’ flirtation with perfection began in earnest.

Unlike Gonzaga, Baylor would have to go through a gauntlet in conference play to get there. After a month in the Big 12, their record was still unblemished, with only Kansas and Texas Tech playing them within 10 points. The Bears were 17-0, and all the talk that applied to the Zags also applied to them.

Then Baylor had to pause for three weeks as the program was shutdown for Covid concerns.

The Bears looked shaky when they came back, but still edged out a struggling Iowa State team to move to 18-0. The next game against Kansas would be their first loss. As they moved into the conference tournament, Baylor’s defense looked a little shaky and their timing seemed off. It wasn’t all that surprising to see future No. 1 overall NBA draft pick Cade Cunningham and Oklahoma State knock them off in the Big 12 semis.

Baylor earned its top seed in the South region, but the draw wasn’t easy. A round of 32 game against the winner of Wisconsin vs. North Carolina was looming. A potential matchup with Villanova in the Sweet 16 would be difficult, even though the Wildcats were without injured starting point guard Collin Gillespie.

Was Baylor the team that threatened to go undefeated for more than half the season, or the one that looked vulnerable coming off the lay-off? If it was a legitimate question heading into the tournament, Baylor left no doubt on their own greatness as soon as it started.

Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images

It’s possible Baylor would have been making its second straight Final Four appearance if the world allowed us to have an NCAA tournament last year. Baylor was considered the second best team in the country all year in 2020, too, this time only behind Kansas. The Bears lost breakout center Freddie Gillespie to the pros, but the rest of the foundation of that team returned with another year of experience.

Jared Butler was entering his junior year coming off an All-American season. Davion Mitchell was back for his fourth season of college ball after being named Big 12 Newcomer of the Year. MaCio Teague was coming off a second-team All-Big 12 campaign where he proved he could thrive in a power conference after coming from the Big South. Mark Vital was returning for year five as a player who originally committed to the program way back in 2013.

There were reinforcements on the way, too. Adam Flagler, a 6’3 guard with a sweet three-point stroke, was eligible after sitting out last year as a transfer from Presbyterian. Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua was a bouncy 6’8 big set to join the rotation after transferring from UNLV. Matthew Mayer and Flo Thama were original Baylor commits who would provide depth on the bench as juniors.

Baylor had something that even the country’s best college basketball programs couldn’t dream about: experience and continuity. There were no teenagers in the rotation — 20-year-old Butler, with two years of starting experience already under his belt — was the youngest player getting minutes. Vital turned 24 years old just before the season started, and was the same age as a six-year NBA veteran like Devin Booker. Teague was 23 and Mitchell was 22. Baylor’s starting lineup was older than the Chicago Bulls’.

If the key to college basketball is to get old and stay old, head coach Scott Drew had mastered it. Now his Baylor team just had to prove that it could win where so many of Drew’s other talented teams fell short.

It’s probably true that any other coach in a power conference would have been fired for losing as many games as Drew did in his first three seasons at Baylor. It’s definitely true that no other coach in college basketball history had to face what Drew was up against.

If Gonzaga was supposed to be an all-time great team, what does that make Baylor?

When Drew was hired in 2003, Baylor was only months removed from one of the most tragic stories college athletics had ever seen. Bears forward Carlton Dotson murdered teammate Patrick Dennehy during an argument while firing guns near campus. Former head coach Dave Bliss tried to smear Dennehy as a drug dealer when the NCAA started poking around the program, which only made a horrible situation even worse. Baylor men’s basketball was the most hopeless job in America, but Drew took it anyway with relentless positivity.

It seemed like a miracle when Drew made his first tournament appearance in his fourth year, only the second for the program since 1950. As Drew turned the program into a sustainable winner over the next few seasons, the plucky upstart started to become the team that couldn’t breakthrough in March.

Baylor was the team that stubbornly stuck to a 1-1-3 zone defense even as it bled corner threes. It was the program that was upset in the first round of the tournament by No. 14 seed Georgia State when R.J. Hunter hit an instant classic buzzer-beater. It was the team that got upset by No. 12 seed Yale which prompted Taurean Prince the give history’s most sarcastic post-tournament press conference. It was the program that couldn’t reach the Final Four even after it started landing five-star recruits like Perry Jones III, Quincy Miller, and Isaiah Austin.

The Bears always felt like they were on the cusp, but could never quite get there. Baylor watched Villanova get its breakthrough after so many early tournament failures, then watched Virginia do the same thing. The program had the potential to get there, Drew just needed to find the perfect mix that had always barely eluded him.

Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Baylor found that mix this year. This was an elite team in every way, and one that always seemed built for March.

Guard play is so important in the NCAA tournament, and no one had better guard play than Baylor. Butler had the ball on a string as a handler and could drain a three-pointer off the dribble or from a spot-up. Mitchell had arguably the best first-step in the sport and could collapse the opposing defense in any situation. Teague was a true three-point threat who put together his fourth straight year of impressive marksmanship from beyond the arc. All could handle, pass, and shoot, and had games that complemented each other so well. The addition of Flagler gave them another deadly shooter on the bench.

No team in America made a greater percentage of their threes than Baylor at 41.3 percent. Only four teams were better on the offensive glass. The defense could get after you too even if their efficiency slipped following the Covid lay-off. Mitchell in particular was incredible at the point of attack, while Butler, Mayer, and Vital were active in the passing lanes. Baylor’s takeaway percentage ranked No. 4 in the country.

All of this played out in perfect fashion against Gonzaga in the title game. Baylor torched the nets from three by going 10-of-23 from deep. It dominated the offensive glass, led by Vital’s eight o-boards. The guards cut up a top-10 Zags defense so badly it had to switch to zone, which it had hardly played all year.

If Gonzaga was supposed to be an all-time great team, what does that make Baylor? Add in the blowout against a talented Houston team in the Final Four, and there’s plenty of evidence to support that the Bears were the team we should have been talking about in historical context all along.

Baylor just finished a run of going 54-6 over two seasons. It did it playing in a conference was rated as the second most difficult in the country both years by KenPom. Their closest game in March was a nine-point win over Arkansas in the Elite Eight. This was was as impressive as a college basketball team in this era can be.

Baylor won’t go down in history for an undefeated season. They never got the chance to try for back-to-back titles with this core because of the pandemic. If you watched them, though, you know how good they were. It doesn’t always happen in the NCAA tournament, but we can say it for sure this time: the best team won.

[goldenknightsnews]

Who Could Debut for Golden Knights in 2020?

Every new hockey season is full of opportunity. Some players will be looking to top a career-best point total, while others are looking to make their NHL debuts. Last season five players made their NHL debuts with the Vegas Golden Knights. Cody Glass (39 games), Nicolas Hague (38), Jake Bischoff (4), Gage Quinney (3), and Keegan Kolesar (1) were the players who got their shot last season. Additionally, Zach Whitecloud only had one game of experience prior to his mid-season call up. This year could bring much of the same, with such a promising group of young players waiting in the wings. Many things go into the decision to promote a minor league player. Injuries at the NHL level are the number one inhibitor. A dip in the play of a depth player and a desire to replace them, could also speed along a youngster’s development. Not to mention, exemplary play in the minor leagues could force a team into finding a spot for a surging player, on the big club. How long they stick is a whole different question. Was the benched or demoted player getting punished, receiving a wake-up call? How long will an injury last? Will trades occur? The questions continue to build. Only one thing can guarantee a NHL roster spot and that is production. You score, you play. You add value, you play. Coaches just want to win, right? Out of all the players who made their NHL debuts in Vegas last season, Glass arguably had the most successful one. That is no slight to a guy like Hague who was very solid and getting more comfortable by the shift, despite being saddled with two subpar defense partners. Glass was presented with more opportunity and he flashed the first-round talent he possesses. He also saw the need for some bulk, suffering a knee injury. By all accounts, he spent this past offseason putting on some muscle. He's been in Vegas, utilizing team facilities and doctors, looking to regain his roster spot and resume his profession ascent toward his first-round pedigree. Glass missed significant time to the injury. As a part of his evolution, former Head Coach Gerard Gallant slid Glass to the wing, with a roster packed with centers. A major caveat of playing wing is having an unforgiving wall and plexiglass at your side. As Brayden McNabb displays all too well, defensemen love to greet wingers at the blue line and staple them to that wall. Glass came up on the wrong half of an eye-opening collision with Jay Bouwmeester. If you’re a glass half full type - pun certainly intended - you tend to agree with promoting young, fast, talented players. Speed kills and the NHL has been moving in that direction for years. Pair that with the flat out creativity and skill possessed by these first-rounders and it’s hard to keep dynamic players down for seasoning, experience, and/or development. Looking forward, there are a couple Henderson Silver Knights who could conceivably make the jump to the NHL if a spot became available. Having reliable players on the “Black Aces” will be imperative with a minuscule camp and shortened season on the horizon. Keep scrolling for the Golden Knights’ biggest call up candidates for the 2020 season. Peyton Krebs: Draft Position: 2019 - 1st round, 17th overall Let’s get the obvious out there, Krebs is small, very small. In a 2019 media scrum discussing his Achilles injury, Krebs was the slightest of the bunch. His size could be a detriment and it will hinder him from sliding to the wing in a pinch. The Golden Knights have already crashed and burned in that regard with the similarly slight Cody Glass. Although there are Johnny Gaudreau types that succeed on the wing, it’s rare. None of that goes to say that Krebs can’t crack the NHL. He has out of this world talent and has produced at all levels of play. He was included on the Black Aces during this past playoff run and for good reason; the kid can play. He will follow an ascent similar to that of Glass, hopefully missing the injury portion. In a normal scenario, Krebs is at least a season or two away, but with expanded rosters and the AHL starting late, Krebs might once again find himself as a Black Ace. Path to a 2020 Debut: Krebs would need a few guys to underperform, have a huge camp, or benefit from the injury bug. In a creative move, he could slide right into Glass’ spot, if his injury woes resurface. They are two young men that project to play similar roles. Lucas Elvenes: Draft Position: 2017 - 5th round, 127th overall Elvenes is far from a shoot-first player, recording a mere 70 shots on goal in his first AHL season. Even still, the youngster led the team with 48 points (12g, 36a) in his 59 games played. He burst onto the scene with a goal and three assists in his debut, setting the table for a tremendous professional debut. Elvenes exceeded expectations and placed himself front and center in terms of call up options. Can 2020 be the year Elvenes makes his NHL debut and just as successfully? Path to a 2020 Debut: Ineffective bottom-six play or another season with a stagnant third line. Elvenes could be seen as a potential boost to the third scoring line if Alex Tuch struggles again. The Vegas Golden Knights need Tuch to regain his scoring touch and Elvenes’ distribution could help. Jack Dugan: Draft Position: 2017 - 5th round, 142nd overall A player who can turn out to be a diamond in the rough, Dugan had much success following his draft year at the NCAA level with 91 points in 75 games at Providence University. Dugan was a standout with his vision of the ice, passing ability, and sneaky shot. He’s tracking to start the season inactive until the AHL season starts in February, but he has an outside shot to become a Black Ace and practice with the big club. A shortened season cuts into his chances to crack the NHL this season, as the brass would likely prefer to see more than a month or two of professional tape before a recall. Dugan, like Glass could instantly boost a struggling Power Play, in the event he was called upon by Pete DeBoer and Co. This kid has scored everywhere he has played and has a bit of a mean streak to boot. He will be in the NHL, it’s just a matter of when. Path to a 2020 Debut: Like Elvenes, Dugan's best chance of a call up comes if the third line doesn’t produce for the Golden Knights. He’s a winger that could make an impact in a position they are relatively thin at. This roster is packed with centers and not guys who are particularly comfortable on the half wall. He’d also be a boost to the PP in the event the units struggle or if the Golden Knights suffer an injury to one of their top-four winger. Dylan Coghlan: Draft Position: Undrafted With Hague and Bischoff remaining in the way, Coghlan must make a massive impression on the coaches in camp, in order to crack this roster in 2020. While he is the most offensively gifted defenseman in the bunch - a need at the NHL level - his battle is surely uphill. Hague and Whitecloud both got considerable service time under their belts and Bischoff is looked at as a steady option on the back end. Path to a 2020 Debut: An injury to either of the two Golden Knights PP quarterbacking defensemen could necessitate promoting the young, dynamic shooter. She’s Theodore and Alex Pietrangelo will man the blue line with the man advantage from the jump. Coghlan’s talent with the puck could come in handy, if the team needed to boost to a healthy, but stagnant PP. Special Teams woes are nothing new to the Golden Knights and the NHL as a whole and this hypothetical could very well become a reality. As outlined previously, a number of factors go into these debuts, but every year there are at least one or two worth watching. This abbreviated season will be no different and might require more AHL support, with the challenges created by such a short training camp and/or preseason. The deeper the system, the better, for this go around. Here's some links to Like, Follow, RT, and Subscribe to! * Twitter * Facebook * Insta * YouTube * Podcast: The Vegas Hockey Buzz: A Golden Knights Pod

[flauntpage]

Let’s Cool the Jets on Mychal Kendricks

One of the more curious storylines from the 2016 Eagles season was defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz’s usage of Mychal Kendricks. Throughout the year, Kendricks only saw the field on 26% of the team’s defensive snaps, primarily because the Eagles’ defense spent the majority of their time in nickel or dime personnel packages which substitute additional defensive backs into the game in exchange for linebackers. Despite both sides wanting a change of scenery over the offseason, the Eagles were unsuccessful in their trade attempts for what feels like the seventeenth time in Kendricks’ short career.

Since then, Kendricks has had one hell of a preseason. Through three games, he has totaled four tackles, one of which was a very good read on a delayed tight end screen, a sack and a mind-boggling three interceptions.

However, despite this preseason outburst that has many fans thinking Kendricks and Schwartz have turned a corner together, don’t expect Schwartz’s usage of Kendricks to change all that much.

Kendricks deserves a ton of credit for the preseason he’s had. He has made splash play after splash play. But he has always been that type of player. He has never made this many big plays in such a short span of time, but when he did make plays, they were ones that people noticed. He is also a very good at creating pressure with the blitz and has above average speed which he uses to make plays out on the perimeter. Despite the splash plays that get him noticed, however, he is also known for often making fundamental processing errors and missing tackles because he is playing out of control.

I only had to look back at one game from 2016 (Week 5 versus the Lions) to find examples. The first one is a mental error. The Lions pitch the ball outside to Kendricks’ side of the field. Before the snap, they align two receivers in tight to the formation, an obvious sign that they could be looking to crack block the Eagles’ perimeter defenders. Kendricks doesn’t even notice them pre-snap, is unable to avoid the block, gets cracked down inside and causes a pile up when Nigel Bradham runs into his back. The alignment of the two receivers is something Kendricks has to be cognizant of.

The second is an example of him playing out of control and missing a tackle, something he does quite often, including in the preseason game versus the Packers. In this case, the Lions throw to Theo Riddick on an out route. Kendricks flies downhill out of control and misses the tackle in space. This play was a 3rd and 11, Riddick ultimately got within one yard of the first, the Lions then went for it, got the first down and eventually scored a touchdown on the drive. If Kendricks makes the tackle there, he forces a punt.

Lastly, for as quick and explosive as he is in a straight line, he looks like he’s wearing cinderblock cleats when trying to change direction. Here he is getting beat by Riddick on an option route for a touchdown. He probably sees Theo Riddick in his dreams.

So, Kendricks has his weaknesses but…

Aren’t good coaches supposed to cater to the strengths of their players?

A good coach should cater to his player’s strengths, but not for literally every player on the roster. Despite the criticism he has received stating the opposite, Schwartz has, in fact, catered to the strengths of the roster. The strength of this Eagles’ defense, by a wide margin, is the defensive line, and Schwartz’s entire 4-3 attacking scheme is built to capitalize heavily on that strength. On almost every play, the front four are set free to attack, which plays perfectly into their strengths as players.

To make that possible, though, Schwartz needs his linebackers to be extremely reliable against the run. When the defensive line rushes quickly upfield, it allows opposing offensive linemen to get right up into the faces of the linebackers. Therefore, Schwartz’s linebackers must either be big and physical enough to consistently defeat the offensive linemen in their face (think Jeremiah Trotter or Stephen Tulloch in his prime), or extremely instinctive and quick enough to avoid them altogether like Jordan Hicks. Kendricks is certainly not the physical, downhill type, and although I wouldn’t say he is bad in this area, he is nowhere near as instinctual as Hicks or even Nigel Bradham.

What about blitzing Kendricks?

Kendricks is a very good blitzer. He does a great job timing them, and is explosive attacking the line of scrimmage and has really good closing speed to finish on the quarterback. Theoretically speaking, Schwartz could try to work up some specialized blitz packages just for Kendricks, but at what cost?

Three wide receiver sets are, essentially, the new base personnel package for most offenses across the league, which means defenses spend most of their time in nickel. Given the amount of time the Eagles will spend with only two linebackers on the field, creating special packages for Kendricks becomes quite a challenge. First, it probably requires Hicks or Bradham to come off of the field. Is that really what we want? Kendricks is not a terrible player, by any means, but Hicks is one of the best young linebackers in the game and Bradham is really good in Schwartz’s defense. Is Kendricks really that much better than Hicks or Bradham as a blitzer? It is really worth taking one of them off the field just to let Kendricks blitz?

Even when the Eagles are in their base 4-3 personnel and Kendricks is already on the field, it is difficult to find a good opportunity to send him on a blitz. They will typically only bring the third linebacker onto the field when the offense comes out with two running backs or two tight ends. When this happens, there is a pretty good chance that the offense may run the ball. Not an ideal time to send Kendricks on a blitz considering that the front four are essentially blitzing too. Someone needs to stay back and clean up the mess that they make. Offenses will throw the ball out of these formations as well, but it is essentially a guessing game as to when they will.

All things considered, it’s much easier said than done for Schwartz to specifically cater to a player who only plays 26% of the snaps. There just aren’t that many opportunities when you break it down. It is also important to put Kendricks’ preseason performance in perspective. Two of his three interceptions were on tipped balls, and the third was thrown right at him. It’s a credit to him that he was in position to make those plays, because that in and of itself is valuable, but it’s not as if he is a completely different player than he has always been.

Kendricks’ Preseason Usage

In each of the three games thus far, Kendricks has been one of the last “starters” to come off the field. For a team that has been extremely cautious with the health of their starters, the theory that Kendricks might now be a key piece on this defense doesn’t exactly add up. In addition, in the opening drive of last week’s third preseason game versus the Dolphins, take a guess at who started the game in place of the injured Jordan Hicks? If you guessed Najee Goode, you are correct. Obviously, Kendricks and Hicks play two different positions and Goode is Hicks’ primary backup. But Kendricks is a far superior athlete to Goode and it’s at least a bit telling that Schwartz went with Goode over the better overall player. Schwartz is opting for reliability over the splash plays from the linebacker position because, in his defense, the splash plays come from the defensive line.

Kendricks is a good player, but his skillset is just not a great fit for the defensive system that Schwartz employs. It is easy to say that Schwartz should adjust the defense to fit the strengths of Kendricks, but, again, at what cost? NFL coaches are, if nothing else, smart men. Schwartz is one of only 32 NFL defensive coordinators in the entire world, and arguably one of the better ones. Fans may not always agree with his methods, but he has spent years developing and tweaking his system and beliefs to create what he believes to be the best formula for defensive success. Do we really want him to pivot away from the ideas he has spent years developing and refining just so Mychal Kendricks can blitz?

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Let’s Cool the Jets on Mychal Kendricks published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[junker-town]

6 NBA veterans who will bounce back after disappointing seasons

Dejounte Murray, Marvin Bagley III, and Mike Conley should all bounce back next year.

Don’t write off these NBA players yet. They will be better next year.

The most disappointing players in 2020 who will break out/bounce back in 2021

There’s something fascinating about players who exit a season having failed to meet the public’s expectations. They’re infuriating, but also strangely relatable in more alluring ways than a machine-like superstar ever could be. Who among us doesn’t know how it feels to let other people down?

In the NBA, disappointment materializes in different ways for different reasons. Some situations are straightforward while others are inexplicable. Maybe there was an unexpected injury or the sudden onset of father time, or a complementary teammate was traded, short-circuiting a role someone used to thrive in. It’s a fluid, ambiguous, performance-driven league. So often we never find the answers we’re looking for because they don’t exist. Progress is not linear or automatic, and the same melody that warbles through even the most impressive careers will inevitably get interrupted by a record scratch or two.

But there’s also half-cup-full good news: down years are almost always followed by an opportunity to make amends. This applies to every player who sputtered through the 2020 season that is written about below. Each one is positioned to bounce back in 2021/whenever regular season basketball is played again.

Marvin Bagley III

Context is everything, even when the introduction to your NBA career has been as rough as Marvin Bagley’s was. It’s not his fault the Sacramento Kings picked him ahead of Luka Doncic or even Jaren Jackson Jr. It’s also not fair to blame Bagley for breaking his thumb in the opener of his second season, then spraining his foot a couple months later. (When he reaggrevated that foot injury in late January, Bagley deactivated his social media accounts.)

Criticism is indeed warranted, though. When healthy, Bagley has not been efficient. He lacks an obvious position/role, doesn’t shoot threes, has as many blocks as assists, and remains a tad, shall we say, predictable with his left hand.

But it’s still too early to diagnose any firm limitations. The 21-year-old’s talent base is too extensive. To say nothing of his physical condition or confidence issues (almost every time he catches the ball on the wing his man begs him to shoot), it’s not easy to justify hype while learning the ropes of your adolescent NBA existence on one of the most dysfunctional organizations in professional sports.

Bagley has tried to plow his own lane in lineups that weren’t arranged to accentuate his strengths, already under two different coaches in two very different systems. That’s not easy, but riveting glimpses have already shined through the cracks; at some point Bagley will harness his absolute freak athleticism and blossom into the matchup nightmare he’s destined to be.

His second jump is second only to Zion Williamson’s, while his feet and wingspan were built to lock up taller guards and wings in isolation. If/when Luke Walton takes the seatbelt off this team and lets them run, Bagley and De’Aaron Fox will be a fireworks display in transition. He’ll eventually shoot more threes while continuing to take advantage of his size and length on quick duck-ins that highlight a soft touch few big men ever possess. There’s a monster lurking below the surface here. Even though his sophomore season was a total dud, do not sleep on a volcanic eruption in year three.

Mike Conley

Mike Conley was supposed to congeal a team that couldn’t overcome its own lack of individual playmakers in the playoffs every year. Instead Conley barely shot 40 percent from the field and struggled to define his place in an environment that was stylistically dissimilar from what he experienced in Memphis. Marc Gasol and Rudy Gobert are very different dance partners; Conley never found the right rhythm with Gobert, an awkward reality that chipped away at his confidence and gave birth to one too many over-thought floaters — a shot no point guard except Tyus Jones relied on more.

The Jazz are a good team, but worse on both ends with Conley on the floor. Their dominant starting lineup also had an identity crisis that nearly curdled as the season went along. Joe Ingles, Royce O’Neale, and Conley were yanked in and out of it despite the fact that Utah was 21-8 when their new point guard either came off the bench or didn’t play at all.

Now, it might be that Conley is simply on his way out. He’s a small 32-year-old weighed down by years of nagging injuries. But assuming Gobert and Donovan Mitchell are both in Utah next season, that doesn’t mean Conley can’t find comfort in a reduced role, running a second unit, finding myriad ways to contribute off the ball while expending more energy on defense.

The Jazz are smart. Going forward they won’t expect him to be the borderline all-star floor general they thought they were getting. Reducing Conley’s responsibilities could lessen any pressure he felt coming in as a marquee trade acquisition, now in a contract year, scrapping for the last payday of his career. In 2021, Conley also won’t be unfamiliar with his surroundings. If he lowers his usage and ups his efficiency while Mitchell makes another leap towards superstardom, the Jazz can still be one of the most feared teams in the Western Conference. Their ceiling drops a bit, but at least they know exactly what they have.

Dejounte Murray

Sometimes I wonder where the Spurs would be if Murray didn’t tear his ACL during a preseason game in 2018. The timing was brutal, an aborted takeoff that accelerated San Antonio’s decline. Think about what could’ve been.

Muray’s scene-stealing defensive anticipation at the tender age of 21 was worthy of genuflection. The way he popped his head over jostling big men to grab rebounds was game altering. Murray didn’t shoot threes, but would instead add colorful dimensions to a proud yet creaky team that needed the 98 mile per hour fastball he was all set to provide.

Single-handedly extending the Spurs’ era of prosperity was unlikely, but healthy Murray could’ve at least slowed their inevitable crawl towards extinction while clarifying their future. After he missed the entire 2018-19 season, the Spurs signed him to a four-year, $64 million extension anyway. What followed was an underwhelming, inconsistent campaign in which Murray only averaged 25 minutes per game on a mediocre squad that was outright bad with him on the court. Gregg Popovich treated Murray like Danny Green. The gloss was gone.

Meanwhile, I still have two feet pressed on the gas of Murray’s bandwagon. Whether the Spurs finally hit the reset button or trudge along with DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge for another year, my life savings are bet on Murray establishing himself as one of the better young guards in basketball. His jump shot came around this season (47 percent from the mid-range!) and my gut tells me all the struggle he endured over the past 19 months will only turn him into a more dangerous force than he’d otherwise be.

Aaron Gordon

An all-tantalizing first-teamer for at least the last four years, no player in the entire NBA does less with more than Gordon. Some of that’s on him, but not all of it; Gordon has struggled to find the right role while refusing to accept what the right role looks like. I go back to 2016 when Frank Vogel mistakenly said Gordon would be used like Paul George. That Magic team had structural limitations that were beyond Vogel’s control, but the statement placed Gordon’s career on a path of self-willed miscalculation.

He will never be an MVP candidate, max player, or someone who can singularly break down a set defense and create an efficient shot for his team. That’s all fine and less a criticism than an expression of reality. Gordon is not a bad player by any stretch, but for the second year in a row his PER, three-point rate, and scoring average were lower than the previous season. He jacked up 3.9 threes per game and made just 30.1 percent of them.

This is discouraging. But until Gordon’s body breaks down I will go to war believing he’ll have a signature playoff moment, be it a chasedown block, a fire drill possession where he scrambles onto four different players before stealing the ball, or a Cirque du Soleil-worthy open floor slam that seals a victory.

We have yet to see who Gordon can be on a track that can actualize his massive potential. If basketball gods do in fact exist, sooner than later we will. (Related: Can someone move him to Brooklyn for Spencer Dinwiddie already?)

Gary Harris

When in peak form, few are able to harass the opposing team’s most lethal perimeter threat like Harris. He’s a cat burglar with the instincts of a strong safety. Unfortunately, for the past couple years several muscles in his lower body have prevented Harris from merging those qualities with some of the explosive offensive production we saw earlier in his career.

I went in depth on Harris’ situation earlier this year, but TL;DR: injuries can’t alone absolve how bad he’s shot the ball. A lot of his struggle remains a mystery. That’s not good news, per se, but it also doesn’t close the door on Harris rediscovering who he once was.

Eric Gordon

Playing with Russell Westbrook is not like playing with Chris Paul. Eric Gordon had a ton of success with the latter partnership, but we’ve yet to really see him at his healthiest beside Westbrook. That’s a shame. The tidal wave of instant, unflinching Moreyball offense those two could generate at the same time more than justifies the team’s small-ball identity, where narrow canals have become gaping waterways; Houston posted a +10.7 net rating in the measly 93 possessions those three plus PJ Tucker and James Harden shared the floor. In my heart I believe that unit can stand nose-to-nose with anybody in the league during crunch time of a Game 7.

Of course, for that to happen Gordon would have to be the aggressive stud he was during last year’s playoffs and not the guy who shot 37 percent from the floor, 31 percent from behind the three-point line, and 54 percent at the rim in 34 games this season. Gordon missed about six weeks of action after having knee surgery in early November, and before the procedure his numbers were career-worst gutter sludge across the board. But none of his shooting numbers increased in the months after he came back, while lingering knee pain kept him in and out of the lineup.

The hope going forward is that an extended layoff will do his legs good and allow him to be 100 percent next year. Gordon is somehow only 31 years old, on the same timeline as Harden and Westbrook with a game that somehow doesn’t suck up the oxygen both all-stars require. In September he signed a $75 million extension that simultaneously made him a trade chip and someone worth holding onto — if for no other reason than Houston has enough talent to win a championship right now and Gordon’s seamless fit on both ends isn’t easily replaceable.

We live in an age of impatience, but if the Rockets are willing to stick with their current roster for at least 12 more months it could pay off in a big way. That calculation needs Gordon to resemble the Sixth Man of the Year winner he once was. Or even, at the very least, making more than 28 percent of the 5.8 catch-and-shoot threes he averaged this season. Bet on improvement. He scored 50 points on 22 shots (against the Jazz!) in January, then was hampered by recurring knee pain the rest of the year.

There’s plenty of great basketball left in Gordon, and nothing scarier than the day he, Harden, and Westbrook have an opportunity to thrive at the exact same time.

[junker-town]

There’s actually hope for the Bulls

The Bulls changed their process this offseason. Now they can change the results.

The Bulls reached a level of rock bottom they didn’t even know existed last season. Months after general manager John Paxson declared his team would not tank for a second year in a row, Chicago found itself firing its head coach in early December on the way to one of the least successful and most humiliating campaigns in franchise history.

The Bulls lost games by 56 points, 39 points, and 37 points all before the middle of January. They set a franchise record for fewest home wins with nine. The offense finished last in the league in three-pointers and second-to-last in efficiency. The defense finished as the worst the organization has ever seen. Their bumbling season made national headlines when newly installed coach Jim Boylen, in just his third game on the bench, pulled all five starters for the final 21 minutes vs. the Celtics resulting in the second biggest blowout of the decade. Boylen said he did it so his team would be fresh for practice the next morning, despite being in the midst of a stretch of three games in four days. The players revolted. Even the New Yorker was roasting them.

Paxson could feel the heat. He described local radio interviews as “interrogations,” he confessed to knowing when fans were organizing for a “Fire GarPax” night, he even acknowledged his critics might get their wish if the team’s slide continued. While he refused to set a baseline for success at the onset of the year, it sure seemed like Paxson privately believed this club would be better. Instead, they were the laughing stock of the NBA.

The issues were both of talent and scheme. After the Bulls were beat by 20 points against the lowly Atlanta Hawks in late January, Zach LaVine voiced his frustrations about the team’s style of play.

“Atlanta, bottom-five team just like us, we shouldn’t get blown out by them at all,” he said. “They were out there moving the ball, playing well with pace and that’s what we should be looking like and we have to get to that.”

The season ended with 22 wins. The only time they had ever won fewer games was during the four-year stretch immediately following the end of their ‘90s dynasty. The common thread is that in both instances the franchise had never felt further away from its seventh championship.

A hopeless situation looked even more dire when the Bulls fell all the way to No. 7 in the draft lottery, the third straight year they’d be picking there. With locally-born stars publicly shunning them and the front office saying no quick fixes were on the way, it felt like Chicago was ready to settle down at the bottom of the league.

It didn’t happen. Just a few short months later, the Bulls begin a new season as a trendy pick to make the playoffs. The roster has been overhauled and so has the coaching staff. Some are even picking Boylen for Coach of the Year. The same front office that fans so passionately wanted to be fired is now beating the market on free agents that should provide surplus win value.

The Bulls have climbed out of rock bottom, and might even be in the early stages of ascent. It’s all so foreign for long-time detractors of the front office that it’s hard to say with any confidence where it can go from here.

Photo by Randy Belice/NBAE via Getty Images

The Bulls had to change the process before they could change the results. The earliest sign it might be happening came when the team traded for Otto Porter Jr. in February. It was the first time Paxson had made a trade to outwardly improve the talent on the team since acquiring John Salmons and Brad Miller in 2009 ahead of an epic first round playoff series vs. Boston.

Chicago sent out Jabari Parker and Bobby Portis in the exchange, two shoot-first players who represented all of the organization’s worst impulses. Porter may have had a bloated contract, but he also had a history of being an analytics darling, twice finishing top-25 in the league in RPM. He provided stability at the Bulls’ biggest hole on the wing and gave them a much needed infusion of defense and shooting. The Bulls won six of the first eight games he played in.

The Bulls’ new worldview really took hold in free agency. Armed with more than $20 million in cap space and no delusions they’d be able to add a top-line star, Chicago instead targeted veterans who played both ends of the floor on short contracts that maintained cap space for a monster free agency class in 2021. It was a remarkable change of departure of their dubious recent history of wasting their money on empty calorie scorers meant to sell tickets rather than win games.

Thad Young was the first signing. The 31-year-old arrived with a reputation as one of the league’s best glue guys. Young was among the top forwards in steal rate and deflections. He had a history of making an impact on the offensive glass. He was also durable, missing only one game each of the last two seasons. He might not have been a go-to scorer, but he was the perfect complement for Chicago’s two young big men in Lauri Markkanen and Wendell Carter Jr.

Tomas Satoransky was next. The 6’6 point guard rarely got a major opportunity with John Wall in front of him in Washington, but upon becoming the starter he upped the team’s pace, improved their three-point shooting, and showed a measure of restraint and efficiency that Chicago badly needed. He was signed to a three-year, $30 million deal Washington declined to match. The Bulls had fleeced the Wizards again, just as they had done in the Porter trade.

Luke Kornet was the final piece. Though he spent most of last season buried deep on the Knicks bench, he proved himself to be a competent 7’2 stretch center in limited minutes, going off for more than 20 points in three different games. Only two players took over 65 percent of their field goals from three-point range and had a block rate of better than four percent last year: Kornet and Brook Lopez. He also finished as a top-100 player in RPM. The Bulls signed him for just $4.5 million over two years.

What was so jarring about Chicago’s free agency class was how out of character it seemed. A year earlier, the Bulls bid against no one but themselves for Parker at $20 million annually with designs of starting him at small forward. It was a plan bound to fail from the very start, even before he drew headlines for saying players don’t get paid for defense (in his case, he was right). His signing was so reminiscent of the Bulls’ decision to give Dwyane Wade, another Chicago native, a massive deal only two years earlier. In both cases, the Bulls were ridiculed the moment they gave out the contracts. This wasn’t second guessing from critics, it was first guessing.

For once, it appeared the Bulls had learned something from their mistakes. When it was over, it felt like the number of winning players on the roster had been doubled.

Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images

The Bulls didn’t just need better talent — they needed a better approach, too. It started to come to fruition when Chicago overhauled Boylen’s coaching staff, adding Nets assistant Chris Fleming and Rockets assistant Roy Rogers to the bench.

There has been a clear emphasis on improving where shots are coming from on the floor. A year ago, the Bulls finished with the fifth highest mid-range jumper frequency, per Cleaning the Glass, No. 20 in pace and No. 27 in three-point attempts per game. This year’s preseason represented a drastic change: the Bulls averaged 39.4 three-point attempts per game. They took more than 39 threes in a game once last season. The pace also noticeably shot up, as did the percentage of assisted field goals.

Instead of praying for internal improvement out of their young foundational pieces, the Bulls actually took the steps to put them in a position to succeed both schematically and personnel-wise this season.

LaVine had the best season of his career last year, but still found himself at the crossroads of a debate on production vs. impact. His defensive shortcomings should be minimized this season with better defenders like Porter and Young around him all year. His offense is going to take a big step up too if he continues his preseason focus of upping his three-point rate. As the Bulls finally get out in transition more this year, LaVine’s combination of speed and shooting becomes even more deadly. He should be an All-Star.

Markkanen and Carter remain a work in progress in the front court. The first step is staying healthy after both missed significant time last year. If they stay on the court, Chicago has a 7-foot sniper in Markkanen who should open driving lanes for others while developing his primary scoring potential. Markkanen is not the type of player who creates offense out of thin air — 68 percent of his fields were assisted last season — but he should be benefited by the Bulls’ putting an added emphasis on swinging the ball. Carter is a tremendous defensive prospect who was horribly misused on offense last year. Expect fewer post-ups and more chances to showcase his ability as a passer and shooter this season.

Rookie guard Coby White is even looking ahead of schedule. He finished as the preseason’s eighth leading scorer after catching fire from three-point range in Chicago’s finale. His speed is going to be an immediate difference-maker, but he’ll need to continue shooting well from deep to make an impact early in his career.

The Bulls changed their approach in one other notable way this season: they actually put expectations on themselves. Paxson said the goal for the team is to make the playoffs at media day. It would likely require at least an 18-win improvement. Last year, the Magic had the biggest single-season turnaround with a 17-win improvement, followed by the Bucks at 16.

Getting the No. 8 seed in the B-league conference is perhaps the least noble goal in the NBA, but it would note remarkable improvement for the Bulls. No one gets a Grant Park parade for being the last playoff seed in the East, but a run at it would temporarily pacify the fans as frustration with the front office was reaching a boiling point.

The Bulls still have so much room to grow. Gunning for the No. 8 seed will only feel good for so long. Going from terrible to maybe competent is one thing. Going from maybe competent to actually good is another. It’s on Paxson and long-time colleague Gar Forman to finally land a star in free agency two years from now. If nothing else, they learned a value lesson this offseason in what happens to perception when smart moves are made that add winning talent to the roster.

The Bulls appear to have done the impossible this season by drastically overhauling their process while keeping the same decision makers on staff. Will Chicago keep making sharp moves going forward or again find themselves giving into the tendencies that led to widespread criticism?

The Bulls are going to be fun this season. They might even be crash the playoff picture. Whether this is the first step in a climb up the NBA hierarchy or ultimately another stalled reboot is contingent on the Bulls proving they’ve changed for the better, forever.