Basketball Insiders Week in Review 10/2

Paul Battling for 76ers Roster Spot

By Alex Kennedy

During NBA Summer League, it’s no secret that many players like have a good time. After all, many of these prospects are in their late teens or early 20s and this is the first time that they get to experience anything close to the NBA lifestyle. In fact, for some it’s the only time.

In July, Las Vegas clubs are often full of very tall men wearing NBA warm-ups (players love donning these out in public since they’re extremely comfortable and, more importantly, let everyone know, “Oh, yeah, I play for the team. No big deal…”). Even for unknown players who are just on a Summer League contract, it’s relatively easy to get V.I.P. treatment and free drinks at a club by playing the NBA card. Many players know this and enjoy their time in Las Vegas.

However, some players want nothing to do with the extracurricular activities and treat Summer League like a business trip. Take Brandon Paul, for example. At 25 years old, he played in both the Orlando Summer League and Las Vegas Summer League this year, and he entered each event with one thing on his mind: Earn an NBA contract.

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All Eyes on Top Prospect Markelle Fultz

By Joel Brigham

Here’s a story that probably sounds familiar: An extremely talented guard tries out for his high school’s varsity basketball team but fails to make it, providing him with the drive he needs to eventually thrive on that same varsity high school team his junior and senior years, en route to transforming into one of the best players in the country.

You’re expecting this story to end with the kid playing for Dean Smith at the University of North Carolina and then transitioning into the single greatest basketball player of all-time, but that’s not who this is about. This is about University of Washington freshman Markelle Fultz, who absolutely is not Michael Jordan but could very well be the No. 1 overall selection in the 2017 NBA Draft.

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Ranking the NBA’s Top 10 Point Guards

By Tommy Beer

This week, the good folks here at Basketball Insiders are embarking on the unenviable task of ranking the top-10 NBA players at each position.

First up, we tackle the point guards.

Such rankings inevitably generate much debate, so please let your own opinion be heard in the comments section below.

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Executives On The Hot Seat

By Steve Kyler

No one in the NBA revels in watching their peers getting fired. However, in an industry where results and progress matter, the clock is always ticking for decision-makers. There are a few NBA executives who need their respective teams to do well this season or they could find themselves on the outside looking in. Here are a few of the notables that will enter the season on the proverbial “hot seat.”

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Leonard Ready to Put ‘Nightmare Year’ Behind Him

By Oliver Maroney

Meyers Leonard hasn’t been able to catch a break since being drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers. As a 7-foot-1 center who can shoot the three and spread the floor, you’d think his transition from Illinois to the NBA would’ve been smoother. But it’s been difficult overcoming the high expectations of being a lottery pick (11th), along with being in a city housing only two major professional sports teams.

Coming into last season, Leonard was approaching his biggest year yet. In a contract year with a chance to prove himself as the Trail Blazers’ starting center, Leonard decided to bet on himself in hopes of landing a big contract.

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Players Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind

By Lang Greene

This week, the Basketball Insiders team will be providing you with a series that ranks the top 10 players at each position.  The top 10 point guards in the game was released earlier in the week and there could be a case made for Phoenix Suns guard Eric Bledsoe being worthy of consideration.

However, Bledsoe missed a significant portion of the 2016 season and this likely led to him being excluded from consideration. The NBA is truly a “what have you done for me lately” league. Today, we’ll explore some players who are arguably top 10 talents at their respective positions but aren’t going to get the love this week – largely due to their inactivity.

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Ranking the NBA’s Top 10 Shooting Guards

By Moke Hamilton

Just a few years ago, it seemed that the shooting guard position was fairly shallow. Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Ray Allen and Vince Carter led the way, while others merely hoped to eventually carve out a niche for themselves.

My, how times have changed.

A steady influx of above-average shooting guards has made the position fairly deep. The prospect of ranking the league’s top 10 players at the position seems easy enough until one actually begins sifting through numbers, statistics and tape and trying to figure out the impossible. Declaring a player to be “better” than another is largely a subjective task. Some would anoint one player based on their statistical accrual, but if a talented player is getting numbers on a team that isn’t going anywhere, does that truly make him a better player than someone who excels playing within a successful team’s offense?

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Leap Year: The Utah Jazz’s Charge at Contention

By Ben Dowsett

Within the NBA and sports around the world, development is very rarely linear. Players aren’t flowers in soil, expected to grow and thrive at generally incremental rates so long as they’re tended to properly; the unpredictability and raw number of variables involved in the process make it far more complex. Most guys improve or decline at exponential rates, especially at the beginning and end of typical career arcs. Forecasting when, why and how much these changes will kick in is among the toughest tasks out there for league decision-makers.

The same reality exists for teams – particularly developing teams on the rise. Everyone in this position wants to emulate the Oklahoma City Thunder, whose bottom-up rebuild went so well that they neatly jumped from awful to bad to good to great in what may as well have been a hopscotch line – but it’s almost never this simple. Roadblocks are common somewhere along the line. Teams often reach a ceiling they simply can’t bust through.

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Magic Counting On Serge Ibaka

By Cody Taylor

For much of his career, Serge Ibaka has played behind superstars like Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and even James Harden with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He was never counted on to be one of the team’s top scoring options. The highest he’d ever finish in scoring among Thunder players during his seven seasons in Oklahoma City was third, which was three seasons ago behind Durant and Westbrook.

That could potentially all change during Ibaka’s first season with the Orlando Magic. It seems a bit premature to determine who will ultimately lead the Magic in scoring in 2016-17, but it’s something worth exploring when looking at this roster.

The Magic were very aggressive this offseason, with defense becoming a top priority. Ibaka was acquired in a draft-night trade that sent Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova and the rights to Domantas Sabonis to the Thunder. Orlando was seeking a defensive-minded veteran and got exactly that with Ibaka.

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Kevin Garnett Takes on a New Role

By Jesse Blancarte

When Kevin Garnett announced his retirement, fans and people around the NBA were preparing for the 15-time All-Star to walk away from the league and stay out of sight at least early on. That would be a perfectly reasonable choice for someone who has spent more than half of their life playing in the NBA. However, Garnett had other plans.

Garnett has spent the early part of training camp with the Los Angeles Clippers and his former coach Doc Rivers. No, Garnett doesn’t seem interested in signing up for a final run at a championship, but he does look eager to share his knowledge and experience with younger players who grew up watching him dominate the league.

The obvious beneficiaries of having Garnett around are the Clippers’ big men, including DeAndre Jordan, Blake Griffin, Brice Johnson and Diamond Stone.

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