The 2019-20 NBA season is (almost) back, but NBA players are already in full swing when it comes to their on-court kicks. With no fans to watch and no NBA arenas hosting games, players’ sneaker choices will have to be seen by the few lucky ones that are in attendance. Before we officially get back to games in a couple of weeks, we wanted to make a quick Top 10 list of the best sneakers in the “Bubble” so far. It’s been quite some time since we’ve done a list regarding the current kicks scene in the NBA, but your usual suspects are back like they never left.
Jordan Brand athletes continue to don new P.E.’s of the Jordan XXXIV’s. Nike athletes are coming heavy with the Nike Kobe 5 Protros, almost as if they had P.E. colorways stashed away for months. New signature sneakers have been debuted in the Bubble as well, with Donovan Mitchell sporting his second signature shoe, the D.O.N. Issue #2 and PUMA athletes debuting the long-awaited RS Dreamer – the signature sneaker of J. Cole. LeBron James has been mixing it up with low and high versions of his 17th signature model, along with a particularly eye-catching colorway. Look below for our list of the Top 10 #BubbleKicks to see which athletes are returning to form in the most heat.
Happy Wednesday! The countdown until NBA basketball is just about two weeks away and fans who have been fiending for live, professional sports will finally get their wish 15 days from now on July 30. And since we’ve only god 15 days left until the season picks back up, today’s team clocked in at 15 is the first playoff-qualifying team to appear on our Bubble Breakdowns.
The Orlando Magic are an anomaly. In what many prophesized to be a year of recession for a team that’s unlikely to do any major climbing in their conference after being ousted in the first round of last year’s playoffs by eventual champion Toronto, these Orlando Magic sure do pack some moxy. Sitting at eighth in the East with the increasing probability of improving their seasonal mark as the (un)official hosts of the Orlando bubble, the Magic have proven time and time again that what Steve Clifford has brewing only spells good fortune for the organization’s growth.
Magic General Manager John Hammond has been around the block for a while, and knows a thing or two about winning. Just in case you’ve been forgetful of his track record, he was a perpetrator in the decision to draft some guy by the long name of Giannis Antetokounmpo a while back in 2013, all while sculpting the balanced, size-abundant Bucks roster awash with three-level scorers.
Current Milwaukee GM Jon Horst (last year’s executive of the year) has Hammond first in line to thank for the foundation of the roster he’d help to finalize, now with those very Bucks perched atop the East with title contention on their mind this year.
And truthfully, we’ve started to grow accustomed to witnessing this trend of rebuilding franchises hiring prospective executive board members with exceptional eyes when it comes to drafting and scouting, because when you’re pretty good at your job, other businesses and organizations catch wind of your success rate.
We’re seeing it now with the Bulls hiring former Nuggets GM Artūras Karnišovas to be their Vice President of Basketball Operations, who made the decision to take Nikola Jokic on the same draft night that Antetokounmpo was selected back in 2013, as this normalization of rebuilding teams making the first step toward playoff contention by hiring credible employees has become lockstep.
But while the Magic haven’t really had that main slugger as a true No. 1 All-Star caliber talent, you could say they’ve been on this trend before it went mainstream.
Assessing this year, Steve Clifford’s Magic were on the cusp of making it back to the playoffs for a second-straight year, up until the March 11 suspension happened as a result of the anxieties surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. They’re five games under .500 but are primed to touch the postseason under the effective and not-so-flashy play that garners attention from social media handles.
They’ve had a solid roster to lean on all season, and while they’ve flown under the radar, they’ve really grinded it out on the defensive end and along the way have learned to accentuate each other’s offensive skillset the more they’ve gotten to play this year.
The mantras of grind and work ethic ring through the walls of the AdventHealth Practice Facility, extending from executives and coaches to the players. They’ve worked with what they have, haven’t lamented over shortcoming, and have produced effectively. It’s been a life code for John Hammond to live by, and surely by now its rubbed off on the infrastructure of his organization.
A roster with the likes of All-Star big man Nikola Vucevic, Evan Fournier, Aaron Gordon, Terrence Ross, D.J. Augustin, Markelle Fultz, Jonathan Isaac (who was lost for the season in January with a knee injury but could possibly be a go for Orlando’s resumed season), James Ennis III and Mo Bamba don’t look all that menacing on paper, but they’ll give you a physical four quarters on any given night.
Not only have they posted a top-10 defensive rating among the other 29 teams in the league, but they’ve pieced it together on the offensive end, with the 5th-highest Assist-to-turnover ratio (1.90) in the entire league and the third-least amount of turnovers (12.1 tov.) per game.
Tied for 4th in the NBA with 5.7 blocks per game… watch the best blocks from the @OrlandoMagic this season so far!
They started the year 3-7 but kept their head down and worked, maintaining control of the eighth seed in the East. For their work, they’ve been rewarded as they have one of the more favorable schedules for the season’s resumption.
Even better: Al-Farouq Aminu is all healed up from his meniscus injury sustained back in January, Evan Fournier is recovered from an injury to his right elbow, and certain parts of this Magic team like Markelle Fultz and Terrence Ross were getting into a good rhythm up until the hiatus, which they hope to expand on as the abridged season tips off in two weeks.
Ross was on a tear in the 10 games prior to the Magic having their season put on hold, averaging 22.2 points per contest. The former Washington Husky posted two 30+ point performances in the span of two weeks, the first against Minnesota at home in which he dropped 33 off 52 percent shooting, and the second being a season-high 35 dropped on Southeastern rival Miami’s heads on the road just six days later.
And as for Markelle Fultz, it seems like the former No. 1 overall pick back in 2017 has found his home and a place to not only grow his game but harvest some self-confidence and comfortability, something that he wasn’t quite able to obtain in such a city so critical of minor infractions like Philadelphia.
Factor in the fact that he has a point guard’s coach like Steve Clifford to navigate him through the process of learning how to be a franchise point guard, while also progressively giving him tidbits on how to be comfortable with the fact that the franchise’s success is largely incumbent upon his shoulders.
Positive reinforcement can go a long way and it looked like the DeMatha product needed it after having his psyche affected by constantly hearing the downtalk from an array of Philly media members who condemned his place in the professional rankings due to his inability to remain healthy and mentally intact due to those peculiar shoulder complications, which devastatingly changed his jumpshot.
Clifford provide it in substantiality, and with the guidance of veteran presence coming from Ross and D.J. Augustin, Fultz has been one of the breakout stars in the NBA. He might even be up for nomination for the Kia Most Improved Player award. This year, he’s shown fans as to why the Sixers couldn’t say no when they were on the clock with the first-overall pick three years ago. An ode to the era of wingspan-endowed guards that are long enough to guard multiple positions and score at will both inside and outside, Fultz is a phenomenal athlete that’s threatening on and off-ball.
He has such a natural fondness for utilizing that length to finish over defenders within two feet of the iron, or pull up from deep or mid-range as a pick-and-roll ball handler. His shooting stroke could use some work as he is still a work in progress, but he’s earned a starting spot as Clifford elected to have Augustin come off the bench in the favor of giving Fultz more reps in a starting spot.
But the Magic’s team MVP has to be Nikola Vucevic, right? I mean, how can he not? As the team leader in points (19.5) and rebounds (11.5), Vucevic has earned All-Star honors during this two-year period that’s seen a spike in productivity by his Magic. And just like any system that becomes spacious enough when there is a big man dynamic enough to not only be a brick wall when setting screens but a two-way threat that pops the three-ball like it’s second nature, he has become a luxury for this team that further plots their course to a respectable playoff run.
Some key wins for this Magic squad include one of their wins against teams .500 or better in their victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on January 15, sealed with two clutch layups by Markelle Fultz in the game’s waning minute. Fultz posted a triple-double in the most impressive win of the season, putting up 21 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists as the Magic snapped LA’s winning streak at nine games.
Their other key victory came on March 10,a day prior to the league suspending its season. Orlando was down 17 in the FedEx Forum, with yet another loss against a playoff team looming over their heads like an inescapable dark cloud.
And then, Terrence Ross happened.
The Magic two-guard would proceed to score 18 of his 24 points on the night in the fourth quarter, capping off what could be the most gratifying win of the season as the Magic were on a three-game winning streak, with momentum all but squandered as the hiatus halted everything.
Another moment from the season: (Another) infamous Aaron Gordon snub at the 2020 dunk contest. It seems as if the Orlando Magic might be cursed in the nationally-televised festivities of All-Star Saturday.
Or…it’s rigged…
Considering that they haven’t won a dunk contest since 2008 when Dwight Howard put on the Superman cape and “flew” from the free throw line, Aaron Gordon had the chance to avenge his loss in 2016 during that all-time dunk showcase against Zach LaVine, but thanks to another defeat at the hands of longtime Magic rival Dwyane Wade who served as a judge during the contest, Gordon would be given the score of a “9” after dunking over 7-foot Tacko Fall from the Boston Celtics.
Aside from that forgetful misjudgement, Orlando’s season’s had plenty of ups to counter the downs, meaning they should have all the optimism in the world heading into the Bubble.
Orlando’s Roster For Season Resumption: Good times are ahead for “The Magic Kingdom’s team”
Nevermind their 7-26 record against teams .500 or better. This Magic team means business, and they play as hard as you could imagine any team fighting for their collective playoff lives.
Though undersupplied at pure superstars and bucket getters that can get theirs within isolation situations, this Magic team can still compete with ferosity on any given night, with much of their offense coming by way of their defense. Tough for ball handlers to get by, both Evan Fournier and Markelle Fultz man the frontcourt.
Fournier (18.8 ppg., 2.6 rpg., 3.2 apg., 1.1 spg), a former first-rounder out of France back in 2012, has taken over the role of being one of the reliable scoring options for a team that’s not too loaded offensively. He is shooting 45% from the field in his career, and 38% from three.
The Frenchman is a skilled guard who uses his strength and handle within the flow of the offense to effectively create his shot, and with the help of Fultz (12.1 ppg., 3.3 rpg., 5.2 apg.) and his ability to get to the rim both off cuts and off the dribble, it’s difficult for any opposing defense to stop the Magic’s backcourt.
At the Forward spot, it’s impossible to ignore the significance of Aaron Gordon’s continuosly improving game. His athleticism, explosiveness and dexterity to finish with both hands consistently was an already molded skillset the moment he walked in the NBA. Injuries have always plagued the former Arizona Wildcat, though he walks into Orlando with little ailment, ready to go.
Evident in what may have been his best stretches of games in his career, Gordon (14.4 ppg., 7.6 rpg., 3.7 apg.) went on a tirade after his disappointment in the Chicago dunk contest, posting averages of 15.4 points, 6.8 assists while shooting 47.7 percent from the field. To cap off his February, he dropped 27 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished 4 assists against the Brooklyn Nets on a career-best night for the six-year veteran.
In the other Forward spot lies James Ennis III (6.8 ppg., 4.1 rpg., 1.1 apg.), picked up in the trade deadline in a deal with Philadelphia. The scoring guard/wing hybrid has been a journeyman of sorts, now playing on the eighth NBA team in his career (well ninth, if you count the Perth Wildcats in the Austrailian National Basketball League). Though given a limited opportunity to showcase his expertise, he’s a pure shot creator and helps to stretch the floor with his 41.2 field goal percentage and 30.3 shooting percentage from deep.
He returns to the team after reportedly recovering from the Coronavirus, and looks to get right into team drills the moment he is given the ‘OK’ to do so.
Nikola Vucevic (19.5 ppg., 11 rpg., 3.7 apg., 0.9 bpg.) is the last starter for Steve Clifford’s Magic. As mentioned earlier, he’s not only a strong rebounder and unheralded pro that’s only earned one All Star selection in his career, but one of the more game-breaking offensive juggernauts in the NBA. As great as his footwork and strength are when he is on the block, he too can alter the way defenses play him with his ability to shoot the three-ball, with his fairly-efficient 32.9 three-point percentage.
Orlando has one of the more well-rounded rotations of all 22 teams heading into the bubble to restart the season. Starting off with former starter D.J. Augustin (10.4ppg., 2.2 rpg., 4.6 apg.), who openly accepted his relegation to the bench in favor of letting Markelle Fultz start over him, Augustin is an experienced scorer who, though undersized, has the potency of taking over an entire offense, and especially so since he was the starter to begin the season. While running Clifford’s halfcourt sets, rarely does he ever turn over the ball, usually opting to the be the lead scorer when needed.
Alongside him is the established perimeter scorer Terrence Ross (14.8 ppg., 3.2 rpg., 1.2 apg.). He is an explosive leaper and slasher with a scorer’s mentality who also assists the Magic with his high energy on the defensive end, and he is just as capable of handling his business when it comes to scoring in 5-out sets.
Additionally, in the second unit lies talented wing Wesley Iwundu (5.3 ppg., 2.5 rpg., 1apg.) who is slightly consistent from deep with his hard-to-contest seven foot frame, but can certainly improve in his role as a 3-and-D wing, shooting at 31.3 percent. Forward/center hybird Gary Clark is also within the second shift of players, as he is a tenacious defender that can affect shots with his 6’6 frame. He is another 3-and-D piece who can draw out bigs to the perimeter as he shoots a little over 37 percent from three-land.
Lastly, first-rounder out of Texas and 7-footer Mo Bamba (5.5ppg., 5 rpg., 0.7 apg.) is a fan favorite who is known for being tree-like when guarding the rim, averaging 1.4 blocks per contest. In his second season, Bamba has also added a proficient three ball to his library, shooting a fiery 35.6 percent.
Other rotational pieces in Cliffords lineup include Michael Carter-Williams (7.2ppg., 3.3rpg., 2.4 apg) a talented point guard who, just like Fultz, is an advanced slasher with the amenity of legth and wingspan benefitting while standing at 6’6, center Khem Birch (3.8 ppg., 4.5 rpg., 0.8 apg.) who is a gifted shot blocker that is a hard-working glass cleaner when boxing out opposing bigs on the boards, and the returning Al-Farouq Aminu (4.3 ppg., 4.8 rpg., 1.2 apg.), who is an exceptional defender that uses his wingspan to his advantage while also finishing authoritatively at the rim as a dynamic roll man.
This roster can win some games during their (literal) eight-game homestand, and with the schedule they have, they’ll have the best chance of keeping their eighth seed in the East.
Looking at Orlando’s place in the East, and their official schedule heading into the bubble as the season restarts on July 30, it looks to be in their favor in terms of overall difficulty. Take a look.
Sure, there are some games here that are easier than others, but keep in mind that even though Orlando can lose their seeding, it’ll be entirely reliant on the others above and below them (Brooklyn, Washington) to catch up to them as well.
To start off, they’ll do battle with a team that is seeded higher than them in the seventh-seeded Brooklyn Nets, who yesterday may have lost another player in Michael Beasley and continue to be undermanned going into Orlando. After that game, they’ll play a Kings team that isn’t going to be without any of their core pieces, making up what should be an even and competitive matchup. A duel with the Pacers is up next, and the Magic’s gameplan may alter depending on the decision of Victor Oladipo and whether he wants to play or not. To finish off the first half of the schedule, they’ll have to play the Toronto Raptors, the team they were able to steal a win from in the first round of last year’s Eastern Conference playoffs.
To kickoff the second half, they’ll have two difficult games against Boston and Philadelphia. Orlando has yet to beat Boston this year, but Markelle Fultz was able to exact revenge on the team that let him go earlier in the season. They’ll finish the season going against the Nets one more time, and conclude their regular season with one final home game against Zion Williamson’s New Orleans Pelicans.
Within the two years that John Hammond has been an executive for the Magic (2018 to 2020), he’s shown that this franchise is a work in progress franchise.
But if their potential visit to the postseason for consecutive seasons for the first time since the Dwight Howard era is an indication of anything, this “process” is nearing its completion, sooner rather than later.
We’re making quick strides on getting through this countdown, and since we’re officially at 16 days until the official NBA restart, let’s not make haste and talk about the next team on this list: the resilient New Orleans Pelicans.
How better could the scenario of Orlando get for a young, adaptive Pels team? They’re healthy down the board, perhaps have the easiest schedule among non-playoff qualifying teams, and have the phenom Zion Williamson to lead the charge. What could go wrong?
New Orleans’ Season In Review (28-36, 10th In West)
A season that never really got out of the blocks with all issues pertaining to injury woes now turns into a plausible campaign that can boost this Pelicans team into playoff positioning with an extremely favorable schedule.
Call it what you will: a conspiracy of the NBA playing the favoritism game prioritizing Williamson’s skills and the Pelicans’ potential to ease them into the playoffs. Or how about a plan laid by current General Manager David Griffin going as scheduled in the first year of the post-Anthony Davis era.
Nawlins’ team is finally finding its way in an uber-competitive Western Conference and just before the hiatus, they had racked up eight wins in a span of 13 games, looking more and more fearsome the more they play with one another. Now, with an opportunity to capitalize on that momentum built up during the regular season, this Alvin Gentry coached team overflowing with potential now has the golden opportunity to snatch the eighth seed from the Memphis Grizzlies.
And it wasn’t just the delay of Williamson’s debut that slowed the team’s start for this season, but missed time from the likes of Jrue Holiday, Brandon Ingram, JJ Redick, and Lonzo Ball garnered some difficulty in getting some crucial wins for a team that’s needed them down the final stretches of the season. The starting lineup of Ball-Holiday-Hart-Ingram-Favors looked like how any transitional rebounding team would look: talent-deficient, defensively inefficient, and still learning how to play with one another with only a quarter of a season under their belt.
And yet, this new Pels team, pieced together as a result of the eye-opening trade that sent Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Josh Hart, Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, and the Lakers’ first-round pick, was able to squeeze out a total of 17 wins. That number would drastically improve after the debut of rookie sensation Zion Williamson, who in his debut against the San Antonio Spurs on January 22 scored 21 points off the bench in a minutes restriction, and scored 17 straight points in one of the most electric starts to a professional career that you will ever see.
And then the Zion onslaught on the entire NBA began. In just the duration of a few weeks and 19 games, this lowly Pelicans team, predetermined to meet another fate of another lottery pick year, has made even the highest of teams on the league’s totem pole shake in their shoes. They’re on the Grizzlies’ heels, only 3 1/2 games behind them and with the way Williamson has been playing, you’d like to think it’s only a matter of time until the Pelicans completely catch up to the rest of the qualifying eight in the Western playoff chart.
Averaging a monstrous 25.9 points off 61 percent shooting, the 19-turned-20-year-old has proven himself to be an intimidating finisher at the rim with poised body control and an elite, soft touch within 3 feet. The lefty’s game is a blend of the modernization of the NBA big and the past eras of forwards in the league: A swift and powerful slasher who focuses not only on in-paint footwork but utilizes his strength of outside shooting every now and then to stretch the floor.
Conversely, this Pels team has rallied around their rookie sensation, as the numbers from their integral parts have vastly improved. There was a time not too long ago when we all thought Lonzo Ball to have the league’s most horrendous jumper, inefficient as it was aesthetically unpleasant. In the period of New Orleans’ 19 games with Williamson on the floor, Zo upped his assist numbers with his new Pick and Roll partner, and got hot in the past 13 games, shooting 46.2 percent from deep with 14.2 points per game to add to that impressive statistic.
But arguably the most impressive player on this Pels team has to be their unsung hero and lone All-Star, Brandon Ingram. He may not garner much attention from the national media, since it looks like Zion is hogging that up, but the former Laker that’s found new pastures in less-pressurized environment like New Orleans has proven that he is a force to be reckoned with out on the wing. In what will probably be a Kia Most Improved Player award year that will launch Ingram into the next level of superstardom, the Duke standout has played the best ball of his career, averaging 24.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists.
Additionally, Ingram’s confidence is glowing, evident in his willingness to want to isolate more and get buckets on his own. Shooting 38.7 percent on three balls on for a combined field goal percentage of 46.7 percent has made Ingram the true No. 1 scoring option for New Orleans. Inconsistency was the biggest curse against the former No. 2 overall pick in 2016, but he’s adjusted in a new atmosphere where he can allow his game to grow gradually without the pressure of being the do-it-all wing scorer in a large market like LA.
Some key wins in the season for this young, impressionable team weren’t just capped off by the thrilling opening to an NBA career for Zion on January 22. The Pels beat down the Memphis Grizzlies 139-111 in a statement win that tightened the Rookie of the Year race between former AAU teammates Williamson and Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, while also letting the Grizzlies know the Pelicans were not to be toyed with.
Some other wins that the Pelicans had this year:
Brandon Ingram scoring a career-high 49 points in a New Orleans win over Utah that snapped a 10-game win streak by the Jazz, in what was a retribution over Ingram missing a game-winning layup as a result of a missed call when Jazz center Rudy Gobert fouled him at the buzzer of their last matchup.
Or the win against the Denver Nuggets on Christmas where, before they even had Zion suit up in uniform as the rookie was healing up from a meniscus tear, the 8-23 Pelicans managed to defeat the #2 seeded Denver Nuggets 112-100, which served as a motivator for a young Pelicans team still without their best player.
There have been a large sum of memorable moments for a Pelicans team that has accomplished so much in such a short amount of time. Throughout the year, many speculated that they were going to lie down and continue to restock for the future, but now that they’re only five games from making it to .500, those speculations are out of the window as playoff visit aspirations now make their way through the doorstep.
New Orleans’ Roster For Season Resumption: The scheme and schedule is set for this pelicans team to perform, and execute they must.
To put it bluntly…It will be the Pelicans’ own doing that screws up their chances of making the playoffs with such a favorable outlook on their trip to Orlando. They have all the pieces. They have the perfect, spaceous scheme set in stone. And they have arguably the most prolific rookie to grace a floor since LeBron in 2003. It will be really difficult to mess this up, especially when, as a team, don’t have to worry about major injury to not a single member of their players.
The decision of Alvin Gentry’s status is up in the air, in relation to the health risk of traveling to the Orlando bubble in the wake of the rising cases of COVID-19 in Florida, but if all is well for the Pelicans head coach, expect a full-strength organization to potentially blow the roof off of the Orlando bubble on their way to qualifying for the eighth seed.
In the starting lineup, expect to see the starting five of Lonzo Ball, Zion Williamson, Jrue Holiday, Brandon Ingram and Derrick Favors to be rolled out for a majority of their games during the restart. As the starting guard, Lonzo Ball (12.4 ppg., 6.2 rpg., 7 apg., 1.4 spg.) has been selected as the main guy to run Gentry’s offense as a pass-first perimeter scorer and occasional slasher. In such a spaced-out floor awash with wings who can all create off the dribble, he’ll be assisted by his backcourt companion Jrue Holiday (19.6 ppg., 4.9 rpg., 6.9 apg., 1.7 spg.), who you could make the case as their best on-ball defender.
Though he is usually assigned plays ran for him at the two position, he can occasionally direct the offense at the point as well. His natural shot-creating ability has been a skill coveted by the Pelicans during the Anthony Davis days, and he’s seamlessly meshed into this new-look Pels team with his assets coming into the benefit of this young team with his play and veteran leadership.
Alongside Zo and Jrue will be team MVP Brandon Ingram (24.2 ppg., 6.2 rpg., 4.3 apg.) who is easily the purest shot creator on the team. Once things break down, or whenever the Pelicans go 5-out, Gentry will likely give the stretch forward his space to take defenders one-on-one to either make his own shot from deep, within the mid-range or at the rim, where his attempts are likely to be finished at with his 6’7 frame.
Williamson is another threat to set screens and roll, slash, collapse the defense and find shooters around the arc. When the Pels’ halfcourt defense gets stops and steals, there’s very little in this world that can stop the unstoppable force that is a churning Williamson when he gets within five feet of the paint. Which is frightening, of course.
And lastly in the starting lineup lies Derrick Favors, the former big for the Utah Jazz who turned out to be an efficient piece for New Orleans this season. Averaging a little over nine points, 9.9 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and one block per game, he’s slid into the center position with efficacy, utilizing the role as an active roll man, defensive anchor, energetic rebounder and break starter.
The Pelicans’ second and third units will play a huge role in determining how many wins they will get in Orlando. Starting off with backup shooting guard and top-tier marksman JJ Redick (14.9 ppg., 2.6 rpg., 2 apg., 45.2 3PT%), hasn’t missed the playoffs once in his caree and his role focuses on being the integral catch-and-shoot perimeter sniper we know him to be.
Accompanying him in the backcourt will be Josh Hart (10.2 ppg., 6.5 rpg., 1.6 apg.), another Laker export who can both run the 1 and 2 as a primary ball handler, corner shooter and pick and roll defender. That same backcourt can go three deep, with guards Frank Jackson (5.6 ppg., 1.4 rpg., 0.8 apg.) and Nickeil Alexander-Walker (5.1 ppg., 0.2 rpg., 2 apg.) running the same responsibilites.
For the reserves in the frontcourt, Italian shooter Niccolo Melli (6.8 ppg., 3 rpg., 1.3 apg.) will be at the power forward spot to be a perimeter lockdown man and scorer from deep. Behind him will be Kenrich Williams (3.8 ppg., 5.1 rpg., 1.5 apg.), who may not be as an efficient scorer from deep but bolsters their rim protection efforts with his 0.6 blocks per game off the bench. It’s clear that Alvin Gentry formulated this roster to be filled to the brim with shooters, as his other forward in E’Twuan Moore (8.6 ppg., 2.4 rpg., 1.4 apg.) is known for his spot-up shooting abilities.
That second unit will also contain rookie center Jaxson Hayes (7.5 ppg., 4 rpg., 0.9 apg.) out of Texas, New Orleans’ second first-round pick who has been the source of energy off the bench as a lanky defender who can guard three to four positions, lengthy shot blocker and roll man.
Likely to split minutes with him will be another Duke standout on this Pelicans team. Former first-round pick Jahlil Okafor (7.6 ppg., 4.2 rpg., 1.3 apg.), who is experiencing a second wind for his career, has proven himself capable of defending guards on the perimeter as well as useful under the basket as a low-post scorer.
Again, the roster is all here, and the schematics are all set for this Pelicans team to succeed with an easy schedule. Now, they just have to get the job done in this abridged season.
The conspiracy theorists are all out and about talking about how easy the Pelicans have it during this eight-game schedule. And, though a lot of prognosticators make gripping points, the games still have to be won by the Pelicans at the end of the day. But as favorable as the Pelicans’ schedule is, they might be right.
Barring their battle against the Clippers, this schedule can all but certainly land the Pelicans in the postseason. Starting out with a game against the Utah Jazz and their shaky defensive gameplan, Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram look to do damage against a team that, if they do qualify for the eighth seed, could likely see them at some point in the playoffs.
A battle with Kawhi Leonard’s Clippers is next, which in reality could be a toss-up considering how well the two teams match-up with one another. After that game will be the final matchup between the Pelicans and Memphis Grizzlies takes place, as Ja Morant and Zion Williamson have the bragging rights of ending the Rookie of the Year award debate on the line. They’ll finish their first-half of the season with a game against another team gunning for the eighth seed in the Sacramento Kings.
The final half of their season starts against an undermanned Washington Wizards team that is still gritty enough to force a close game against them and soon after that, Zion gets his final rematch of the year against those San Antonio Spurs he debuted against. They get one more shot at the Kings after that before ending their seeding schedule against the host Orlando Magic.
The NBA set it up for Zion’s Pelicans to wreak havoc on the war path toward the eighth seed, but like the other 21 teams in the bubble, there are no wins on paper. It’s more than doable for this team coached by Alvin Gentry, but execution and sticking to to the task at hand will ultimately be the answer to whether or not the Pelicans get back to the postseason for the first time since 2017.
Sunday evening Laker Guard Rajon Rondo suffered a broken right thumb. Rondo is set to have surgery sometime later this week but is expected to be back to return to basketball activities in six to eight weeks.
Rondo has had a history of hand injuries in the past missing time for the Lakeshow back during the 2018-19 season. Rondo underwent separate surgeries to repair a fractured third metacarpal in his right hand and a torn ligament in his right ring finger.
The absence of Rajon Rondo will have an interesting impact on the Lakers. Rondo’s absence means new additions and other reserves will inevitably get more minutes. Rondo is averaging 7 points per game and 5 assists while playing an average of 20 mins per game this season for the Lakers.
The Lakers will now be looking more to the reserves of Alex Caruso, Quinn Cook, J.R Smith, and Dion Waiters to bring production to the Laker second unit. All Laker guards are capable of producing on the offensive end but in a different way from what Rondo brings as a playmaker and leader. Offensively the Lakers reserves are still capable of keeping this team at the top of the western conference heading into the playoffs. With new additions such as Dion Waiters and J.R Smith who do not have much experience playing with the current roster, it might benefit them to have more time to get comfortable in the Lakers offense.
The Lakers who are already in Orlando without their best on-ball perimeter defender in Avery Bradley now will not have Rajon Rondo for six to eight weeks. The Lakers may struggle defensively without Rajon Rondo not only will they be missing another solid on-ball defender but he is also a veteran who they signed to be around come playoff time to help the team down the stretch. Based on the timeline, Rondo should be able to return to action sometime during the playoffs, assuming the Lakers continue to advance.
Continuing on our countdown list, we’ve officially reached day six for the bubble breakdowns, and this list is heating up quickly. Just yesterday, we mentioned the second of four teams who are within the tight clench in pursuit of the eighth seed in the West, and today, the third team within reach of the eighth seed needs little introduction. In fact, this team, decimated by injuries in 2019-20, was a participant in the Western Conference Finals just a season ago…
We expected Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum’s Portland Trail Blazers to take that next leap into superstardom with little in their way to stop them in the West. A trip to the conference finals for the first time since 2000 during their 2018-19 campaign signified the true arrival of Rip City onto the landscape of championship contenders and for a while, many speculated if Portland was next in line to advance to a franchise-first NBA Finals as a result of their progress.
Lillard and McCollum were projected to be the league’s most destructive backcourt with the Golden State Warriors essentially taking a year off while they let Klay Thompson heal from his ruptured ACL suffered in the Finals against Toronto, and a healthy Blazers team with all of their missing pieces including Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins was ready to see their championship window opened.
That wouldn’t be the case at all as the season progressed.
Portland started the season with a plethora of questions ranging from who would step up in the place of Jusuf Nurkic, who suffered an infamously gruesome leg injury in March of 2019. Portland has been without four of their best big men and throughout the season, have been forced to plug-in reserves who wouldn’t otherwise be factored within the minutes plan into critical roles at the four and five.
A starting frontcourt composed of Nurkic and Collins molded into Hassan Whiteside and Nassir Little as the season’s gone by. And now, the Blazers find themselves fighting for their collective playoff lives in the NBA bubble. Sitting at 9th in the West, a massive regression and a rather one-sided effort from the likes of Damian Lillard compared to his adversaries pits the Trail Blazers in a tough predicament heading into Orlando.
It’s been a frustrating year for Terry Stotts, to say the least. Injuries have piled up, making his combination of starters, second and additional units a little difficult to piece together. And while Lillard is putting on a historic season, so much of Portland’s issues have stemmed from a variety of causes.
For one, they’ve been abysmal on the defensive end, ranking 27th in total defensive rating. So don’t let that statistic of them leading the NBA in blocks as a team with 6.2 blocks per game confuse you.
One reason as to why they’ve underperformed on defense has to do with their lack of consistent rebounding. Even after trading for Hassan Whiteside to provide a temporary fix to their lack of board presence in the wake of not having Nurkic, Portland currently ranks 27th in the defensive rebounding statistic.
Additionally, while some of the best perimeter lockdown guys in their rotation were placed on the injured reserve as players like Rodney Hood went down early in the season to an injured Achilles tendon, others like Gary Trent Jr. and Anfernee Simons have answered the call in Stotts’ complementary units off the bench. Trent, the Blazers’ 21-year-old, 2nd-year two-guard off the bench earned an opportunity due to those injuries as and he showed improvement as the season progressed. Over a 19-game stretch from January 18 through March 2, Trent averaged 13.5 points on an effective field goal percentage of 60%.
For an offense that’s needed a third scorer at the guard spot, Trent has risen up in a way that no one predicted. As an above-average 3-point shooter (38.8%), he has not only complemented the Blazers’ guards offensively with his sniping from deep but has helped tremendously in his ability to stretch the floor as an off-ball scorer.
So much so, that his shooting from deep has benefitted others within the offense, none more so than Carmelo Anthony, the newly-acquainted Trail Blazer acquired in November to counter Portland’s injury woes. Right out of the gate, Anthony resembled his younger self, averaging 22.3 points per contest on an effective field goal percentage of 62.7 percent with his new team during a three-game winning streak. In his first game, Melo dropped 19 in dazzling fashion as his Blazers secured a 136-119 home rout of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
For a moment, it felt like both Lillard, McCollum and this new-look Blazers team finally turned the corner, finally equipping their third piece. But up until the hiatus, they’ve submitted a subpar record of 20-25 even with Melo in their lineup.
Now, a majority of those losses had to do with the latter: a bevy of injuries to integral parts of the team, defensive inefficiency, inconsistency from starters on offense, and a struggle on the glass. What hasn’t been a thorn in Portland’s side was the tremendous play from Damian Lillard. An effort so good that the five-time All-Star was graced with the honors of being the cover athlete for NBA 2k21 because of it.
To put it into perspective just how groundbreaking Damian Lillard’s 2019-20 season is to Blazers fans, take this scenario into consideration: I’m going to throw out two players at you, and as you compare and contrast the two players, I want to see if you, the reader, can take a guess as to who’s stats these are while looking at the similarities by the time I reveal these statistics.
The first player has a season where he averages 30.1 points per game, 6.7 assists per game, 5.4 rebounds per game off a field goal percentage of 50.4, a 45.4 three-point percentage, 3.3 turnovers per game and a 90.8 free throw percentage.
The second player has a season where he averages around 28.9 points per game, 7.8 assists, 4.3 rebounds, 2.9 turnovers per game, a 45.7 shooting percentage from deep, a 39.4 three-point percentage, and an 88.8 free throw percentage.
YouTube/6Man
Here’s a little hint: one of these players was voted as an MVP at multiple points in his career…
Did you get it yet? Nah? Alright…here’s the answer.
YouTube/6Man
The year that Stephen Curry posted up this stat line was the year he became the first player in NBA history to unanimous MVP in 2016. This was also the season that we all know his Golden State Warriors went 73-9.
It’s wild to think that Lillard this year is putting up similar, almost identical numbers to that of Curry’s repeating MVP season this year, but his 29-37 Blazers are in such a funk that it will be hard for them to get out of. Fortunately, with the way that Lillard had been carrying these Blazers, they’re within the perfect position to challenge for the eighth and final seed.
The Blazers are just 10-21 against playoff teams this year. But four of those 10 wins (Ws against the Pacers, Rockets, Lakers, and Jazz) came in the span of seven days, part of the stretch in which Lillard was playing at a nearly extraterrestrial level.
Whether it was his career-high 61 points dropped on the Golden State Warriors with 10 assists and seven rebounds on January 20, that Pacers game on January 26 (the emotional game played by the Pacers the day of Kobe Bryant’s passing) that Dame dropped 50 points with 13 assists while shooting 60.9 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from deep…
…or the 36-point performance against Houston one night later…
…or the electric 48-point-10-assist supershow he put on in front of a Staples Center crowd during Kobe’s memorial game against the Lakers…
…or his epic 51-point-12-assist night against Utah in a back-to-back…the Weber State product made legendary strides in the Winter.
Lillard became the first player since Kobe Bryant in 2007 to have more 50+ point games in a stretch of seven days or more. This would warrant a fifth All-Star selection from the Blazers’ superstar guard, but he wouldn’t be able to play in the game due to a hip injury.
His season has been so prolific that it wouldn’t be surprising to see him land some MVP votes once the season concludes.
Per NBA.com’s Senior Stat Analyst Jon Schuhmann – “His 36.9 minutes per game lead the league and he’s one of three players in the top six in both points (28.9, fifth) and assists (7.8, sixth) per game. His true shooting percentage of 61.9% is a career-best mark and the third-highest mark among 40 players with a usage rate of 25% or higher.
His ability to shoot off the dribble is one of the league’s most dangerous weapons. Lillard has an effective field goal percentage of 55.3% on pull-up jumpers, the best mark among 139 players who have attempted at least 100. He ranks second with 13.5 pick-and-roll ball-handler possessions per game and the 1.14 points per possession he’s scored on ball-handler possessions is the best mark among 56 players who have averaged at least five per contest.
The Blazers have the league’s third-biggest differential between their winning percentage in clutch games (16-13, .552) and that in non-clutch games (13-24, .351), and Lillard has obviously been their go-to guy down the stretch. He’s tied for the league lead with seven baskets (on 12 attempts) to tie or take the lead in the final minute of the fourth quarter or overtime.”
If he keeps this up in Orlando with consistent rebounders and rim protectors around him, Portland has a great shot of reaching the playoffs for another year.
Portland’s Roster For Season Resumption: Logo Lillard can only do so much, but now it’s up to his healthy supporting cast to carry the rest of the load.
After everything mentioned, Damian Lillard is the true MVP of this team, undoubtedly. But, no one man goes unassisted in getting a team above-.500. Therefore, the returns of elite rim protectors and stretch bigs Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins must help complement the vaunted backcourt of Lillard and CJ McCollum.
It’s imperative of them to do so, considering that, like any other team, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
One of the more consistent starting lineups in the NBA belongs to Terry Stotts’ Portland Trail Blazers. With Dame and C.J. McCollum (22.5 ppg., 4.1 rpg., 4.3 apg.) taking heed of the second-highest scoring backcourts in the league, the forward spots are a bit up in the air. Regular starter Trevor Ariza is taking this time off to tend to some prior family obligations and won’t be present for the Orlando games.
So, Carmelo Anthony (15.3 ppg., 6.3 rpg.,1.6 apg.) is the likely starter at the small forward spot for Portland with Mario Hezonja (4.8 ppg., 3.4 rpg., 0.9 apg.) and Jaylen Hoard (2.9 ppg., 2.5 rpg., 0.3 apg.) possibly sharing minutes with Rodney Hood being out for the season. With Jusuf Nurkic all healed up and ready to go, he and Hassan Whiteside (16.3 ppg., 14.2 rpg., 1.2 apg., 2.5 bpg.) will split reps at center.
Though Whiteside will still have starting minutes, this will give the bench some balance. Currently, it is yet to be seen how many minutes Caleb Swanigan (3 ppg., 4.7 rpg., 1.4 apg.), Wenyan Gabriel (2.4 ppg., 2.1 rpg., 0.3 apg.) and Moses Brown (1.2 ppg., 1.6 rpg., 0.1 apg.) get in the Orlando rotation.
2nd in the NBA with 6.2 blocks per game… watch the best blocks from the @trailblazers this season so far!
It will take some time for Nurkic to get used to the pace of NBA action with a year sitting on the bench. But when he’s on the floor, you’re talking about one of the most intimidating, bruising big men in all of basketball. Standing at 7 feet tall, the Bosnian Beast was averaging 15.6 points, 10.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.4 blocks per gameup until his untimely injury just weeks until the team’s deep playoff run in 2019.
Also, getting Collins back helps in bunches, especially since he hasn’t set foot on an NBA floor since October when he injured his shoulder against Dallas. Up until he got hurt, the Gonzaga Bulldog was averaging a little under 10 points a game with 4 rebounds and 2 assists per contest. Of course, those minutes will gradually increase with a bigger sample. Collins was known for his skill as a shooter and rim protector, characteristics scouts find perpendicular to the model of crafting a championship roster in the modern NBA when scouting big men.
Once Zach Collins sits down, expect trusted rookie and former UNC standout Nassir Little to get some burn as well as up the tempo with his ability to push the pace in the open floor. Occasionally, the power forward has shown tendency to pop the three-ball, shooting a 23.7 percentage from deep. Otherwise, he’s a solid roll man and athletic, lengthy defender who is capable of holding his own out on the perimeter.
Finally the guard position will fluctuate in terms of productivity and overall effectiveness. Rookie Anfernee Simons (8.8 ppg., 2.3 rpg., 1.5 apg.) has been a surprise this year and will split minutes with Gary Trent (7.7 ppg., 1.7 rpg., 0.9 apg.) as shot creators and scorers off the catch.
Reminder: if this roster stays healthy, this is a dangerous team. But their strength of schedule will be the ultimate factor in determining if they are able to keep their position in the West and challenge the Grizzlies in a play-in tournament after the seeding games end.
In comparison to the other four teams duking it out for the final playoff spot in the West, things won’t be as peachy attaining that eighth seed for the Trail Blazers. At least, that’s what their schedule – the sixth hardest schedule for the NBA restart among 22 teams – says.
Do remember that this Blazers team has only won 10 games against playoff-bound teams all year, and even if healthy in their frontcourt, there’s no guarantee they’ll escape with a victory in each of their games. That’d usually be a non-issue…if you only had like three or four games against teams with winning records.
Problem is, Portland is now forced to go against a playoff-qualifying team in every game they suit up for in Orlando.
Starting off with the Memphis Grizzlies on July 31, they have a shot to actually get within a game of the eighth seed with a win. After that, they’ll try to exact revenge on Jayson Tatum (who dropped 36 on their heads in the last matchup) and Jaylen Brown’s Boston Celtics, who hold the third seed in the East. The battle of the two highest-scoring backcourts in the NBA takes place soon after, as Dame and CJ will play James Harden and Russell Westbrook’s Houston Rockets one game later. Soon after that, they conclude the first half of their schedule with a game against Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets.
Things don’t get easier in the second half of Portland’s schedule. Starting out with a game against the Kawhi Leonard and Paul George-led Los Angeles Clippers, Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid’s Philadelphia 76ers await soon after. They finish their seeding schedule with games against Luka Doncic’s Dallas Mavericks and Caris LeVert’s Brooklyn Nets.
As if things could get any harder for the Portland Trail Blazers, there they have it. But if there’s anyone that looks adversity in the eye, and discerns it to help his teammates work toward the common goal while also answering the call to showing the most equinamity under tension, it’s Damian Lillard.
And it’ll take a team effort, for sure. But when it comes down toit, the Blazers only go as far as their superstar at the guard spot. And if the Blazers are to get to the playoffs for the sixth time in a row, it’ll have to be Dame Time, all the time.
It’s another day that we inch closer to the restart of the NBA season, and that means it’s time to add another edition of the Bubble Breakdowns into the countdown. It’s day five of our countdown and since we’re 18 days away from the official resumption, it’s time to add team No. 18 to this list.
Today’s squad headed to Orlando: the San Antonio Spurs.
After 23 long years of continuous playoff qualification and repeated success produced by Gregg Popovich, who would’ve thought that the Spurs would have ever been caught in this predicament. While jockeying for position in a tight clinch with four other teams battling for the eighth and final seed in the West, the Spurs face the imminent danger of missing out on the postseason for the first time since 1997 if they don’t get within four games of challenging for the final playoff as they’ll be unable to force a play-in tournament.
San Antonio’s Season in Review (27-36, 12th in West)
Much of San Antonio’s difficulties this year could have very well stemmed from an archaic playing style that prioritizes utilizing the area within the arc as primary spots to score, evident by the Spurs shooting the 28th most amount of threes of any team in the NBA. The Spurs lost eight games in a row from Nov. 9-22, and why is that losing skid significant, you ask? Former Spurs head coach Bob Hill, the guy who was canned before Gregg Popovich, was the only Spurs head coach in franchise history to have a worse losing skid than the five-time champion head coach back in 1996, the year he was let go.
And as we can all recount history, the next month Gregg Popovich – the team’s general manager back then – fired Hill and assumed responsibilities as the coach. San Antonio finished 20-62, won the NBA Draft lottery and selected Tim Duncan with the No. 1 overall pick. So it’s practically a full cycle of karma that you could say the Spurs organization is undergoing.
Now, two decades later, 71-year old Popovich is experiencing a downturn of the same sorts: the harrowing reality of a lottery pick year ensuing as a result of not adapting towards the league-wide trend of following analytics, refusing to transition his coaching methods to conform to the successfully-proven methods of pace and space, pick and roll, motion offense that allows the current archetypal players to flex their strengths in the open court, and not having enough star power other than their two All-Stars in DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge.
And by the way, Aldridge is going to miss the rest of the season due to a procedure done on his left shoulder. Replicating his productivity while on the bubble of the eighth seed doesn’t’ show a whole lot of good for this Spurs team.
But let’s get real for a quick second: we all predicted that the Spurs would get in the mesh of things in such an arduous West either one way or another. And we’d all have this presumptive picture in mind that playoff seeding for one of the most classy and functional organizations in all of sports would be stapled in the playoff picture somehow.
I mean, it’s just the collective ordinance of things: A Gregg Popovich-coached team based off of proper usage of fundamental, boring and non-pizazz type of scheme that produces mightily come postseason time when it’s usually up to unheralded (albeit most of the time, international) prospects to fit like puzzle pieces with their three-to-four integral team members to take down some of the West’s biggest powers, even though they themselves lack the household name-worthy talent.
But it seems the old device of tradition that Popovich has favored for more than 20 years has run its course, and though it’s brought championship gold to the table five times, there are too many things holding the Spurs back from hitting that championship potential, and really it doesn’t just boil down to their lack of significant talent. Derrick White, DeJounte Murray, Marco Bellinelli, Patty Mills, Jakob Poetl, and others are solid, pure playmakers in a Popovich-led offense, which in itself bellies its own definition.
Leading the NBA in % of PTS from mid-range (17.3 PPG) … watch the @spurs' best buckets from mid-range territory of the 2019-20 season so far!
But even if the Spurs rank 11th in the NBA for total offensive efficiency, it’s the fact that Pop’s maverick-like attitude when it comes to his playcalling just isn’t in accordance with the modern NBA anymore. Also, keep in mind that the Spurs are still one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA, with their 24th-ranked defensive efficiency (112.8).
They’ve struggled to score around the perimeter and, go figure, have been even worse trying to guard the perimeter as well. Both Aldridge and DeRozan didn’t have the best season trying to stop versatile wing scorers from burning them from deep, and it seems that the rest of the team has followed their lead.
However, they’ve started in the trending upwards of improvement to troubleshoot some of these issues, like sending Demarre Carroll, one of their worst defenders, to the Houston Rockets and subsequently giving more minutes to the athletic Lonnie Walker IV, their esteemed second-year two-guard out of Miami that the organization has been so high on all year.
One key moment that signified an impending future that could be focused around Walker this year was San Antonio’s huge double OT win over Houston at home. James Harden’s Rockets took a commanding 16-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, and Popovich put Walker on the floor to see what he could do in what looked like a night of learning and reflection for a Spurs team that was down on their luck. Walker would then go on to drop 19 points in the fourth quarter and force overtime, leading up to a 28-point night and coming-out show for the guard, who came off the bench to spark his team to victory.
There have been moments this year that have reminded us of just how potent a Spurs team has always been when you throw them into the fray of a stacked Western Conference. Who could forget the Clippers matchup inside the AT&T center on November 29, when San Antonio fans booed and jeered ex-communicated Spur Kawhi Leonard in 107-97 statement victory?
Or the other emotional moments when time overlapped itself, as assistant head coach Tim Duncan took over as Head coach for a night when Coach Pop couldn’t be in the building for “personal reasons” during a 104-103 home win against the Charlotte Hornets, and when the era of the dominant Big Three came to an official end on November 11 when San Antonio hung the legendary jersey of Tony Parker into the rafters with assistant coach Duncan and Pop watching with admiration from afar.
The Spurs are well within the fold of making the postseason and extending one of the most impressive streak of playoff visits in all of sports, but will have to rely on integrating some new play styles and rigidity on the defensive end if they’re serious about it.
San Antonio’s Roster For Season Resumption: The post-big-three era in SA isn’t off to a great start, but a regrouping and playoff qualification is “doable”.
To put it neatly, it’d be comparing night and day assessing this roster and comparing it to playoff-ready teams in years past. It’s still weird to consider that not that long ago, San Antonio was the one team out West that no one dare wanted to go up against during any round of the postseason, but that was years ago.
Then again, it’s not all that bad when you take a gander on just what Coach Pop will roll out on the court come later this month.
Having your starting lineup consist of DeRozan and Aldridge is still threatening, no matter how two-dimensional DeRozan’s game may be, and no matter how many years Aldridge is past his prime. DeRozan, their dynamic slashing shooting guard who is in his second season as a Spur, is averaging a solid 22.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game. But the problem of him not opting to pop the three has hurt the Spurs in multitudes.
His only three this season was against the Clippers in a 10-point win, as he still hasn’t factored in the three-ball into his game, all because of his choice not to do so.
“I just don’t shoot ‘em. It’s not a matter of I can’t shoot ‘em, just never shoot them. But whenever I get the opportunity, I am going to shoot them. I don’t mind missing, I don’t mind whatever. It’s just a matter of me shooting ‘em,” DeRozan said in a press conference after his Spurs beat the Clippers back in December.
As for Aldridge, the 34-year-old big man was a throwback to the old interior bigs that shrunk defenses but didn’t exactly create enough space for their other four teammates to operate with off-ball. And while he wasn’t the same type of player dating back to his days as a Trail Blazer, LMA was still a doozy to stick within the mid-range. He averaged 18.9 points and 7.4 rebounds in 33.1 minutes per game this season and replacing his value is something that doesn’t look like something that the rest of these Spurs will be able to do on paper.
But that doesn’t mean they should be counted out.
“He’s definitely going to be a loss as far as the team with his leadership, scoring, and stuff like that,” Lyles said. “I think everybody is going to be able to step up – me particularly,” said Trey Lyles, a former Kentucky Wildcat and first-in-line substitute for Aldridge once the season resumes in Orlando in an interview with Jeff Garcia from NBC News 4 in San Antonio.
“I’ve had to endure some of his minutes and I think it’s shown in a positive way,” he said.
More views from last night's first practice in Orlando 📸
And he may be right, to an extent. He’s shown flashes of him being able to carry the weight when LMA isn’t on the floor, as shown during his matching of his longest career-streak of 20-plus points with 20 points and six rebounds against Indiana on March 2, as well as his grabbing of a career-high 14 rebounds against the #1 seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the East.
If Pop needs him to stretch the floor at the four, he also showed that he is a capable 3-point shooter making four 3-point shots in three games. Alongside him in the Spurs frontcourt is that of Jakob Poetl (5.3 ppg., 5.3 rpg., 1.8 apg.), another lengthy big that is efficient around the rim shooting an impressive 61 percent, but has missed five games over the course of the season due to a knee injury. His knee is fine, as reported, and he is likely to see a bump in total minutes on the floor as the starting center.
In the backcourt, the Spurs expect to roll out the duo of starting guard DeJounte Murray (10.7 ppg., 5.8 rpg., 4.1 apg.), Bryn Forbes (11.2 ppg., 2 rpg., 1.7 apg.) and alongside him as a starter at the two slot. Pop will likely bump up DeRozan to play Small Forward to disguise his looks in the halfcourt.
As it goes for the bench, Gregg Popovich will rely on off-ball scorer and swingmen Patty Mills (11.7 ppg., 1.6 rpg., 1.8 apg.), Lonnie Walker IV (5.6 ppg., 2.2 rpg., 0.9 apg.) and Marco Bellinelli (5.8 ppg., 1.7 rpg., 1.2 apg.) to provide energy and an offensive spark for the second unit, Small Forward Rudy Gay (10 ppg., 5.4 rpg., 1.7 apg.) to be the old isolation scorer he’s always been within the system, and rookie forward Keldon Johnson (4.6 ppg., 1.9 rpg., 0.7 apg.) to stretch the floor with his own three-ball and provide length on the perimeter defensively. Also, backup center Chimezie Metu (2.9 ppg., 1.6 rpg., 0.4 apg.) will see a rise in minutes as the rotation shifts.
As mentioned yesterday, it’s a toss-up when comparing Sacramento and San Antonio as to who will have it harder in Orlando. But off of the strength of schedule, the Spurs have a slight advantage when it comes to an easier schedule.
In fact, their first game is against those very Kings who have that 1.5-game advantage over them to kick off their Orlando restart. Soon after that, they have the team that they and four other teams are gunning at for the eighth seed in the Memphis Grizzlies, which should be a competitive matchup since how well the two teams match up with each other. Two games later, San Antonio has run-ins with three-straight playoff-seeded teams in the lengthy 76ers, the always-threatening Nuggets, and the defensively-sound but somewhat undermanned Utah Jazz.
To finish off their schedule in Orlando, they’ll have to play Zion Williamson (who exploded against them for 21 and 17 in the fourth quarter of their last matchup) again, and hope they can squeeze another win against the New Orleans Pelicans. After that, they’ll have one final Battle of Texas in a duel against the Houston Rockets and then another game against Utah to close out the Orlando resumption, while letting the chips fall where they may.
Orlando could mean either one of two things at the end of the abridged season: a trying effort that will end with the incentive of keeping the playoff streak alive, or the realization of the reality that the Spurs must be forced to start from scratch in order to rebuild for the next generation of Spurs to make their mark.
