Basketball Insiders Week in Review 11/27

Chris Paul’s Quiet Motivation

By Moke Hamilton

Everything matters—every step, every turnover, every play and every point.

Chris Paul has known this since the beginning. And on this day, he treated a fateful possession in Game 4 of the 2016 playoffs in Portland in much the same manner. The attitude and motivation are what enabled a routine, meaningless play to have a tremendous impact on the way his career’s narrative, if it all ended now, would be written.

With a packed house of opposing fans, Paul sprinted up the floor, ball in hand. He took a dribble with his right hand, but feeling an unfamiliar pain, alternated dribbles with his left until—as usual—he found J.J. Redick for an in-stride jumper.

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Jonathan Gibson: From Unemployed to Leading Scorer

By Cody Taylor

Earlier this week, Jonathan Gibson was unemployed and looking for his next opportunity to play basketball. That opportunity came on Thursday when he signed with the Dallas Mavericks. Just two nights later, he would lead his new team in scoring.

Not only would Gibson lead the Mavericks in scoring, but his 26 points last night against the Orlando Magic would end up being a game-high between the two teams. The point guard out of New Mexico State made his NBA debut the night before in Memphis and scored 11 points.

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Pelicans Showing Signs Of Life

By Oliver Maroney

This season has been rough so far for the New Orleans Pelicans. Starting the year 0-8 and ranking near the bottom of many statistical categories, they looked destined for the lottery. Head coach Alvin Gentry was rumored to be on the hot seat even with key contributors like Tyreke Evans and Jrue Holiday out. Overall, it just wasn’t looking good for the Pelicans.

Even with Anthony Davis posting monstrous stat lines, the Pelicans weren’t having success on either end of the floor. They were playing close games with seven of their first eight losses coming by 10 or fewer points. But it just looked and felt disjointed as the Pelicans didn’t have a consistent second or third scoring option.

Since that winless streak of eight games, the Pelicans are now 4-2 against teams that are collectively 27-24. Two of the wins coming against an inconsistent Bucks team and an injured Celtics team, but the other two have come back-to-back with the help of Jrue Holiday.

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Most Hated NBA Teams of All-Time

By Joel Brigham

About a week ago, the Golden State Warriors threw a “Supervillain Party” at Stephen Curry’s place, which culminated in a group portrait by the pool taken via drone while in front of giant balloons spelling out the words “Super Villains” in giant, foil-wrapped mylar text.

It was weird.

Despite tapping into what would be the worst children’s birthday party theme possible outside of maybe “Broccoli Party” or “Vaccination Party,” the idea behind the gathering is pretty clear: the Warriors know that everybody outside of Oakland and San Francisco hates them this year.

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Most Efficient Short-Clock Scorers

By Jake Rauchbach

If you had your pick of anyone in the NBA to make a play with the shot clock winding down, who would it be? You might think Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, James Harden or LeBron James would be among your best options to hit a buzzer beater. However, going by this season’s numbers, none of these players rank in the top five for end-of-shot-clock scoring efficiency (less than four seconds). Curry is actually the only one of the players mentioned above who ranks in the top 10 in this category (coming in at eighth), per Synergy.

So which NBA players have been the most efficient in these situations this year? While the sample size is admittedly small since it’s still early in the season, some of the names may surprise you. According to the statistics, some of the league’s up-and-comers are the ones absolutely dominating in end-of-clock situations. It’s worth noting that these aren’t ideal scoring situations. End-of-clock points usually come when a possession has failed and a player simply has to create something out of nothing. Still, players who can turn these situations into positives are valuable and it’s an indicator of who can score in the clutch. Below is a list of the most efficient players who have at least 15 possessions in end-of-clock situations:

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Allen Crabbe Discusses Free Agency, Nets’ Offer, Blazers’ Core

By Michael Scotto

The Portland Trail Blazers have one of the best backcourt trios in the NBA with Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum and Allen Crabbe, but the group was almost broken up this past summer.

The Brooklyn Nets made a four-year, $75 million offer sheet to Crabbe as a restricted free agent, which Portland ultimately matched.

Crabbe recently visited Barclays Center, which would’ve been his home arena had Portland declined to match his offer sheet.

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Lakers Rebounding Sooner Than Expected?

By Jabari Davis

While many anticipated a quick turnaround from teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves, Phoenix Suns or even Miami HEAT this year, the Los Angeles Lakers (7-7) have actually gotten off to one of the better starts of teams currently undergoing a youth movement.

The potential was obvious, but given just how negative the trajectory of the franchise appeared to be over the past three seasons (just 65-181), there were still plenty of people openly questioning the direction and decision-making capabilities of the front office even as recently as training camp about a month back. The ‘healing properties’ of success when it comes to professional sports are unquestionable, but there appears to be the type of total team buy-in under head coach Luke Walton and his staff that leads one to believe this start is the foundation for the success to come.

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NBA’s Worst Summer Signings Thus Far

By Ben Dowsett

Every NBA summer is sure to produce its share of signings that look ridiculous, often from the moment ink is put to paper. It’s just the nature of the business, and while GMs obviously hope to avoid being the guy with the instant laughing-stock deal, plenty of teams deal with it from time to time – even the “smart” ones.

There’s another tier of albatross, though, that stinks up the joint even worse. These aren’t just guys who play badly on their new deals – those are common enough. These are guys who, through a combination of their play, contract and reputation, are actively undermining other important elements of the team. It’s not just that they’re performing negatively on the court; it’s that their performance is blocking an otherwise good thing from happening organically, and optics and locker room hierarchy stop their coaches from being able to do anything about it for fear of causing problems behind the scenes so soon after they were signed for big money.

It’s early and a lot could change, but two guys are already distancing themselves in the race for the Smelly Albatross Award at this point in the year.

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Victor Oladipo Finding Niche In Oklahoma City

By Susan Bible

One of the biggest surprises that occurred around last June’s NBA draft had more to do with a certain trade than with certain players being drafted. The Oklahoma City Thunder managed to pull off a trade of one of their key players, Serge Ibaka, for Orlando Magic’s Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova and rights to Domantas Sabonis, who was selected with the 11th pick in the draft.

The acquisition of 24-year-old Oladipo, the Magic’s second overall pick in the 2013 NBA draft, suddenly had fans excited about a new power backcourt duo with the athletic guard playing alongside starting point guard extraordinaire, Russell Westbrook.

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Is Anthony Davis Truly Invested In Pelicans?

By Lang Greene

To say the New Orleans Pelicans have fallen short of expectations since reaching the playoffs during the 2014-15 would be an understatement. If you’re looking to cast blame, you could easily point to their injury woes, head coaching change or roster upheavals.

The frustration of losing, especially in a smaller market, puts the microscope squarely on the Pelicans’ franchise player: Anthony Davis. The franchise has been here once before, during the Chris Paul era, and it ultimately led to a top-10 player forcing his way to Los Angeles.

So it’s perfectly natural, amidst all of the losses, that all eyes (and ears) are evaluating how Davis truly feels about his long-term future with the organization.

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Changing of the Guard in New York

By Tommy Beer

Tuesday’s game between the New York Knicks and Portland Trail Blazers at the Garden came down to the wire. There were over 20 lead changes, as momentum swung back and forth. The outcome wasn’t decided until the final possession, as the Knicks ended up pushing past and holding off Portland for a 107-103 victory.

One of the most interesting aspects related to the Knicks’ strong performance down the stretch on Tuesday was the lack of clutch contributions from Carmelo Anthony. In the second half, Anthony was just 2-of-12 from the floor and 0-of-5 from three-point territory. He didn’t score a single point in the fourth quarter, as he missed all three of his field goal attempts.

In years past, there was very little likelihood that the Knicks would have been able to register wins in close games without Anthony taking and making the vast majority of clutch shots. However, if Tuesday night was any indication, we are currently witnessing a changing of the guard in New York City.

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