Zach Lowe’s Pure Poetry

I was already chomping at the bit for this season to start, but then Zach Lowe goes and writes something like this…

“The Nuggets have the best starting five in basketball — a masterpiece of team construction. In their second year together, they have a chance to reach that hallowed state of five-man nirvana only a handful of teammates ever experience — that transcendental dimension in which each player knows where he should be at this moment and the next, where they move in concert without always really understanding how or why. The ball zips ahead of the defense, always arriving exactly where and when it should.

The ethos flows from Jokic, an unrivaled creative genius who has more or less solved NBA offense. He is elite at literally every part of it, big and strong enough to leverage whatever advantage he might have against any defender in any location. When you think you’ve seen everything — every preposterous pass, every series of fakes and pivots in the post, that counter to your counter of his counter on the pick-and-roll — Jokic tosses in some new wrinkle…

…And there’s his partner in pick-and-roll devastation, the cagey and brilliant Jamal Murray. He’s making his first All-Star team. Book it. Almost like Manu Ginobili, Murray makes moves between dribbles — head bobs, shoulder shifts, standing up or crouching. It all has a purpose: nudging defenders an extra half-step the wrong way, opening the space he and Jokic need to make magic.

Can Michael Porter Jr. give more ballhandling and defense? He just turned 25 and missed almost two full seasons.

You want popcorn dunks? Aaron Gordon has you covered.

All hail the champs.”

Article for reference: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/38661818/nba-league-pass-rankings-top-10-watch-teams-2023-24