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We’ve gone over a lot of my horrible predictions in the NBA through the years. And while I got the score wrong because I figured the Patriots would be more competitive in their loss, I did get Kenneth Walker III correct as the Super Bowl MVP. Let me see if Jacob Robinson needs any help with our NFL newsletter, Scoop City. I’m not getting any answers from him.
Egregious tanking?
Are the Wizards shutting down AD?
The Washington Wizards have made big waves this season by trading for Trae Young and Anthony Davis nearly a month apart. However, the Wizards have yet to see Young hit the court (he’ll be re-evaluated for his quad injury after the All-Star break) and there are questions about whether we’ll see Davis this season. Chris Haynes reported on Friday that Davis is expected to miss the rest of the seasonwith hand and groin injuries. Remember, Davis is out for a couple more weeks with his hand injury.
On Sunday, Wizards GM Will Dawkins said he anticipates Davis making his Wizards debut before the end of the season.
“The plan for A.D. right now is to go back to Dallas and finish his rehab,” Dawkins told reporters in Washington before the Wizards’ afternoon game against the Miami Heat. “He has a really good team down there. Our doctors met with them, and our medical staff’s going to go down with him. So we want to keep that good thing going that he has.
“During All-Star break, he takes another visit for a doctor, and that’s a big appointment for us to kind of see where his progress is. After (the) All-Star break, he’ll return to D.C. and be here with the team.”
There are a couple of ways to take this. First and foremost, the Wizards could very well expect Davis to make his Washington debut between the All-Star break and April 12 when they play their final game of the season. Secondly, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Davis and his camp expect that to happen for a team that isn’t close to competing.
And if you want to add a third, more cynical viewpoint, it’s possible the Wizards feel the need to say this because of the league’s stance on all of this.
If Davis and/or Young don’t play at all after the Wizards acquired them, that’s going to fly in the face of the Player Participation Policy. The league will not be happy about such egregious tanking by sitting one or two All-Star players. Remember, Washington’s first-round draft pick goes to the Knicks if it falls to ninth or later. I would imagine Adam Silver gets asked about this kind of thing All-Star weekend.
The last 24
🐝 Killer Hornet. Kon Knueppel may have a baby face, but he’s much more competitive than his demeanor suggests. Our Mirin Fader has a great deep dive on the standout rookie.
⭐ Replacement made. Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will not play Sunday. Alperen Şengün was named an All-Star replacement.
🤯 Wait, what? The 3-point contest participants were announced this weekend. Damian Lillard is back!
🪣 Newest Buck. The Nets decided to waive Cam Thomas after the trade deadline. He’s joining the Bucks.
🏀 One-on-one! The Unrivaled League is going to have its one-on-one tournament. This is primetime viewing.
🏀 On campus. Time to catch up on men’s college basketball after the Super Bowl. Here’s CJ Moore’s latest top 25.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
NBA stock report
Won’t anyone think of the Pistons?
Every Monday, we walk right into the heart of NBA trends. We stand around in the middle of the floor, look up at the big screens with lots of numbers in green or red fonts and then assess whether teams are headed up or down. Let’s dive into the NBA Stock Market:
📈 Pistons (38-13). Why doesn’t Detroit get called the favorite in the East? The first-place Pistons have won 10 of their last 13 and have the best defense in the league during this stretch.
In that span, they’re allowing the lowest 3-point percentage and keeping opponents to just 32.8 percent. They’re forcing the third-highest turnover rate and converting it into the most points off turnovers per game at 24.8. They’ve allowed the fourth-fewest points in the paint. So … does anybody have them as the East favorite now?
📉 Nuggets (34-19). Nikola Jokić has been back for five games, but Denver is just 2-3. Its defense has been atrocious this past week.
Aaron Gordon is out for weeks with another hamstring injury. Then the Nuggets lost Peyton Watson with his own hamstring injury. We’re back to worrying about the non-Jokić minutes. In the last four games, the Nuggets are plus-8.0 points per 100 possessions in the 140 minutes he has played. In the 62 minutes he hasn’t played, they’re minus-20.4 per 100 possessions. Yikes.
📈 Celtics (34-19). Even though they got smoked by the Knicks at home on Sunday, the Celtics are still trending upward. They went 4-1 in the past week. It’s been all about the defense. They’ve allowed just 104.4 points per 100 possessions in this stretch, good for third in the NBA, and rank second in field-goal percentage and 10th in 3-point percentage allowed. They’ve also allowed the fewest points in the paint in the past week.
📉 Bulls (24-29). It was pretty clear at the trade deadline that the Bulls were punting on this season. Chicago reached a game above .500 and has since lost seven of eight. The Bulls are currently on a four-game losing streak. We’re going to see a lot of Nick Richards and Guerschon Yabusele minutes at center the rest of the season, if you’re wondering whether or not this is a blip.
📈 Bucks (21-29). Don’t look now, but the Bucks have won three straight! That’s without Giannis Antetokounmpo, which has been a rarity for this team. Remember, they’re 15-15 when the Greek Freak plays and just 6-14 when he doesn’t. Ryan Rollins is leading the way with 23.3 points per game on 45.8/46.2/80.0 shooting splits. Kevin Porter Jr. and Kyle Kuzma each had a couple of good games, but they also missed one. Thanks to AJ Green (15-of-33 from deep), the Bucks are killing it from downtown the past three games.
📉 Kings (12-42). Quick update: They’ve now lost 12 straight games. They have the Pelicans and Jazz before the All-Star break. A loss to New Orleans would equal their longest losing streak since 1990. Two losses would push it to the Cincinnati Royals days in 1971 and 1960.
(Check out the full NBA standings here, and read the extended version of the NBA Stock Report every Monday in my NBA Rewind.)
Weekend B.I.D.S.
Bam postered a teammate, Ant caught a body
We had two massive dunks from this weekend I wanted to highlight in the Bounce Dunk Index System.
The first one comes from the Heat’s dominant win over the Wizards. We don’t really get a lot of Bam Adebayo posters, despite him being so great around the rim. Maybe he doesn’t often have enough teammates to dunk on? Because in the second quarter, Davion Mitchell missed a jump shot, and Kel’el Ware made the mistake of going for the offensive board with Bam flying in.
Convulsion/jump scare: 10/10. It’s rare to catch a body on a tip dunk. It’s even rarer to have that body be your teammate. I leapt out of my seat.
Bench reaction: 10/10. They jumped up and had a visceral reaction to the dunk. Then they realized it was on Ware. It’s so funny.
Dunker reaction: 10/10. To flex and taunt your own teammate because you dunked on him is a perfect reaction.
Where is the damn replay? 10/10. We had to wait 15 seconds for the replay, but the Heat broadcast was focused completely on this and ready to show it again.
Witness protection scale: 10/10. I’d pay $100 for an unedited, live stream of the Heat watching this in the film room the next day. It doesn’t get better than this kind of witness protection necessity for the guy who got dunked on. And you know they were watching it as a team at halftime.
Total BIDS score for Bam: 50/50. Our first perfect dunk on the BIDS score.
The other dunk I wanted to score was also from Sunday. In the Timberwolves’ loss to the Clippers, Anthony Edwards added to his robust highlight reel. In the third quarter, Ant shook Derrick Jones Jr. on the left wing, saw Brook Lopez standing at the rim and decided to detonate on the soon-to-be 38-year old big man.
Convulsion/jump scare: 9/10. It’s a great one. Maybe if he cocked the ball back a bit more, it would’ve been a perfect score here. But it’s nearly perfect.
Bench reaction: 10/10. The guys are hyped, but Joe Ingles just points at Lopez as he runs down the floor. Can you get a taunting technical from the bench?
Dunker reaction: 9/10. It’s really good! He bumps into Kris Dunn on his way back up because he was yelling at his own bench in celebration.
Where is the damn replay? 10/10. We had to wait 32 seconds before play stopped with a Clippers timeout.
Witness protection scale: 9/10. Maybe you deduct a point because Lopez is 100 years old, but Ingles made sure we knew who got dunked on.
Total BIDS score for Ant: 47/50.