The NBA’s Preseason is finally over. Naturally, then, it’s time to rank some teams.
Continue reading “Projecting the 2021-22 NBA Standings”
Tag: Jayson Tatum
Julius Randle, the Most Improved Player of Game 2
Note: this post was originally published for The Strickland. Give them a click!
Julius Randle has not been himself.
The Knicks’ newly minted star put up just 15 points in each of Games 1 and 2, the first time all season long he scored 15 or fewer in back to back games. He clearly hasn’t looked himself, and whether it’s the Hawks or himself, somebody has been in his head. However, midway through game 2, Randle made some concrete adjustments that could change the course of the series – or at the very least, force the Hawks to go back to the drawing board.
The first half of Game 2, however, wasn’t it.
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Game 1 of Season 2: RJ Barrett’s 2020-21 Debut
Note: this post was originally published for The Strickland. Give them a click!
When asked in The Strickland’s preseason roundtable what Thibs’ most frustrating lineup trend would be, I said “Elf/guard/RJ/Randle/Mitch is my nightmare, and not because I don’t like RJ and Mitch, but because I do! These guys need the opportunity to not only play with spacing and show the front office whether or not they can be pieces on a winning team one day, but also grow with their current young’uns as much as possible. I’d rather see RJ come off the bench than stand on the wing and watch Elf/Randle buddy ball, or drive to the rim into seven help defenders at once.”
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No All-Rookie? No problem: Projecting RJ Barrett’s future
Note: this post was originally published for The Strickland. Give them a click!
The third pick in the 2019 NBA draft failed to make an All-Rookie team.
However, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Knicks fan that was significantly disappointed by RJ Barrett’s rookie season. Though he didn’t exactly light up the league immediately like Ja Morant or Zion Williamson, RJ showed a little bit of everything in what was a significantly featured role for the Knicks. Operating at an incredibly high volume, he filled up the stat sheet like few other rookies in the league – and few veterans on his own team:
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Optimizing the Best NBA Expansion Team
Assuming league recovery post-COVID-19, an expansion team (or more) in the NBA feels like more of a “when” than an “if”. Growing team valuations, marketable superstars, and worldwide interest has turned basketball into the sport of the future, and there are plenty of places that could use a squad (looking at you, Seattle).
Atlantic Division Preview: Last Year’s – and Potentially This Year’s – NBA Champs
Welcome to the sixth of the Corner Three 2019-2020 NBA division-by-division season previews. In each of these previews, we use RJ Garcia’s player-by-player ratings (based on on/off metrics and career trajectory) and per-game minutes projections (taking into account potential minutes lost to injury) to project overall team quality for the upcoming season. RJ and Derek Reifer also provide their own analyses and commentary to provide any context and additional insights.
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Who, Why, and In How Long: Round 2 of the NBA Playoffs (East)
The first round hasn’t been made best-of-5 yet, so it played pretty much according to script. In the East, that is. The Warriors have dilly-dallied, and the Nuggets have had trouble closing out the Spurs.
With some help from my co-host RJ Garcia, we already broke down round 1. Now, things get a lot more interesting. The big 4 in the East finally clash, after months of well-deserved anticipation. How do we see things shaking out?
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The Sixers Aren’t Superman, but their Kryptonite is Green
Boston and Philadelphia.
Perhaps the two most historic American cities; one with a football team named the Patriots and the other with a basketball team named after the year the Declaration of Independence was signed. One who traded for Jayson Tatum, and one who traded for Markelle Fultz. The NBA’s two Atlantic Division (because I guess that’s technically a thing) rivals have had an interesting pair of seasons: the Celtics had championship aspirations from the start, and despite a disappointing, drama-filled run, they stayed put at the trade deadline; the Sixers have made multiple huge win-now moves and effectively capped off their long, arduous Process.
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What the Pelicans are Waiting For
To the dismay of many, but mostly Magic Johnson and LeBron James, Anthony Davis is still a New Orleans Pelican.
What is Anthony Davis Worth?
It’s official: Anthony Davis has requested a trade.
One of the consensus top-5 players in the NBA changing teams, especially with still a year and a half left on his contract, has the potential to make huge waves within the NBA. Could he team up with LeBron James on the Lakers? Could he go to the East and shift the power balance between the conferences? Anything is possible at this point, as it’s likely 29 GMs are currently awake, coffee in hand (except for Danny Ainge), constructing packages for the Pelicans’ big man.
Corner Three 