Ten things I like and don't like, including a Love revival
— -- Let's bounce around the NBA again as we do each week.
10 things I like and don't like
1. Kevin Love, looking like himself again
Psst. Kevin Love is playing almost like Minnesota Love again -- you know, the guy most people in the league considered a top-10 player. He doesn't play as much, but the per-minute numbers this season are similar to peak Love. The Cavs work to get him post touches, and have him do lots of stuff beyond standing in the corner like a glorified James Jones.
I perked up when I saw Love drain this triple during another inevitable Cleveland win over the Drakes last week:
That looks very much like the gorgeous elbows-centric action Rick Adelman ran for Love in Minny. Love starts it with an off-ball screen for J.R. Smith, an innocent decoy with a nasty effect: Love's man, Pascal Siakam, has to spend a precious second patrolling Smith's cut toward the rim. That's all Love needs to mosey up to LeBron, snag a dribble handoff, and let fly before Siakim can recover.
Squint, and you see seen Kevin Martin and Nikola Pekovic flitting around Love on an ugly two-toned court:
Let's not exaggerate this. The Cavaliers still fall apart whenever LeBron hits the bench, and Love is still a third banana. He's dropping dimes at the lowest rate since his rookie season. He gets only about 3.5 elbow touches per game, the same as last season, and way, way, way, way down from the nearly dozen per game he'd snag with the Wolves. (The notion that he got more once Tyronn Lue took over for David Blatt is a myth.) He will spend a lot of time calling for the ball in the corner.
But even when he's just doing that, there is comfort in the knowledge that he can do more. There is a lot of truth to the idea that you could plug a bunch of one-dimensional stretchy bigs into Love's spot, save some luxury tax money, and lose very little production in the aggregate. The Cavaliers have investigated this in some depth.
Love is just better than those guys. Want Ryan Anderson instead, since he'll be content spotting up? Cool. He's a worse defender than Love, and he's not in the same universe as a playmaker.
Love is really good, and as these Cavs grow together, they should dust off more of Adelman's playbook.
2. Jamal Murray, wanting that ball
Murray is not shy, including in demanding the ball when he's open. But there is no Dion Waiters-esque greed in his requests, or shoulder-sagging despair if a Nugget teammate doesn't oblige. Murray is just so damn excited to be open, he can't help but express himself. He jumps, and claps, and hollers -- and if no one sees him, he'll zoom someplace else where he might spring open again.
There is a caffeinated joy to Murray's game. Mix in the brash confidence of a quick-release gunner, and you have the most exciting rookie outside Philadelphia.
3. Miami, going starless
The Heat barely have an NBA rotation right now, so it's hard to nitpick any of Erik Spoelstra's substitution patterns. But I get queasy anytime Miami plays with both Hassan Whiteside and Goran Dragic on the bench -- even if the numbers don't necessarily support my anxiety.
Miami has played opponents about dead even during those minutes, per nbawowy, and teams have destroyed them with both their stars on the floor. The "to stagger or not to stagger?" question is trickier than critics imagine. The Dragic-Whiteside pick-and-roll is the fulcrum of Miami's offense, so do you milk it by maxing out the minutes those two play together -- hoping to ride out some bench mob droughts with good defense? Or stagger them more, and see how each functions independently?
There is a ton of noise in all those early-season lineup numbers. It just feels rickety when Miami tries to magic up points without both its stars.
4. Larry Nance Jr.'s touch-pass rebounds
The first time Nance did this, I thought it might have been an accident. Then he did it again, and again, and it became clear the rebound touch-pass was a thing -- another way in which Nance thinks one step ahead of most players.
That is a genius alternative to a wild, no-chance-in-hell putback attempt falling out of bounds.
Nance has exceeded the Lakers' sunny Year 2 expectations, especially after knee issues nagged at him most of last season. He has been an explosive jack-of-all-trades for a five-man bench crew that outscored opponents by almost 10 points per 100 possessions -- a mammoth margin -- before injuries busted up Luke Walton's rotation.
Nance looks healthy and bouncy again; he's shooting a preposterous 81 percent in the restricted area,? fifth best among 271 players who have attempted at least 20 such shots, per NBA.com. He moves the ball, cuts hard, and generally does all the gritty things that make the people around him better.
He still needs to buff some rough spots. His jumper is unreliable, and he never gets to the line. Scouts drooled over Nance's vaguely Draymond-y ability to switch across multiple positions on defense, but he has been inconsistent chasing guards; lineups pairing Nance and Julius Randle have hemorrhaged points after a promising start.
Nance is just getting started in the NBA, but he's almost 24; the Lakers must hope for progress soon. If it comes, they'll have a clear starter-level player -- and some interesting bigger-picture choices.
5. Al Horford, full extension
Horford is still finding his way in Boston after missing almost half the season so far. He's been conservative picking his spots to score as he feels out his new teammates, and his defensive rebounding -- a team-wide crisis -- has sunk to a new low.
Horford has never been the most assertive player, but it feels like he's waiting to exert whatever level of assertion he'll provide for when Boston needs it. In the meantime, he's contributing in other ways. He's thrived in facilitator mode, and he's emerged almost out of nowhere as a premier shot-blocker.
Horford is rejecting 2.6 shots per game, double his career average, and he's been unnerving jump-shooters with mad dash full-extension close-outs:
Normally, only Anthony Davis-level super-athletes emerge from that far away to get a fingertip on long jumpers.
Horford has a knack for caulking gaps, and he's so adaptable, he can stretch different parts of his game (except rebounding, natch) depending on roster needs.
6. Sponsoring things that suck
Hold on a second while I close the screen door, ease myself into a tattered chair, crack a beer and yell at the impolite children on my lawn.
I get that we've lost this battle, but do we really need to sponsor every trivial event in an NBA game? In Utah, a law firm sponsors official in-game replay reviews. Seriously. While the referees huddle around a TV monitor, the giant overhead screen flashes a message: "Officials review presented by Siegfried & Jensen."
Official reviews suck! Everyone hates them! Sponsoring an official review makes me less likely to purchase your product! Can I just have a moment of peace and quiet?
7. Richaun Holmes, with touch!
For the normals: Richaun Holmes is an NBA player for the Philadelphia 76ers. He is their fourth-string center. When the other three centers are healthy -- and sometimes even when just two are -- he might not play at all. He's a little undersized in some matchups, and he has struggled horribly on the defensive glass for most of his two seasons.
But he's an athletic rim-runner who dabbles with a 3-pointer, and he has shown glimpses this season of a refined touch on floaters:
Even Andre Drummond-style dive-and-dunk guys need some bankable moves to escape crowds in the paint. Sometimes, you catch the ball too far from the rim to slam it. Sometimes, the next layer of defense is in your grill the moment you grab the ball.
Some smart team will try to poach Holmes from the Sixers' overcrowded frontcourt while it's still overcrowded. But Holmes has two cheapo years left on a Sam Hinkie Special, and the Sixers may keep him as a hedge against trades sending out Nerlens Noel (sooner) and Jahlil Okafor (later, provided Joel Embiid stays healthy).
8. The vanishing Ben McLemore
Remember Ben McLemore, 2013 lottery pick, selected over C.J. McCollum, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Steven Adams, and Giannis Antetokounmpo? The NBA is my obsession, and when the Kings started McLemore out of the blue against Dallas on Tuesday, my initial reaction was something like: "Hey, Ben McLemore! I forgot about that guy!" Kawhi Leonard murdered his soul in Sacramento's second game of the season, when he just straight-up grabbed the ball out McLemore's hands -- twice!
McLemore promptly went 3-of-11 in the Kings' win over the ravaged Mavs.
This is why trading DeMarcus Cousins would be so painful. The cupboard is bare. The Kings have whiffed on so many lottery picks. The jury is out on Willie Cauley-Stein (and his hands) and Georgios Papagiannis, but the (very) early returns don't suggest either is a foundational player. Sacramento owes various future picks to Chicago, Philadelphia, and Orlando.
Trading Cousins for a bounty of young guys and first-rounders would not give Sacramento extra bites at the lottery apple, or a half-dozen intriguing prospects. It would give them a ground-zero level amount of those things -- a normal amount. To trade a star and end up with that? Egads.
9. Ish Smith's careful snakery
Detroit hung in a little better than expected during Reggie Jackson's absence. The Jackson-Andre Drummond pick-and-roll constituted almost all of Detroit's offense last season, and without Jackson, negative nellies envisioned defenses stalling out the Pistons by ducking under every Drummond screen -- and daring Smith to brick away.
Opponents did that, of course. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes Smith zipped into the lane before his defender could slither around Drummond. Stan Van Gundy also diversified the offense, adding a ton of sets on which Caldwell-Pope flies up from the corner, grabs a dribble handoff and continues into a turbo pick-and-roll.
Smith also managed the offense with care, especially during a hot streak just before Jackson's return. He's sporting a minuscule turnover rate, and one way to survive on offense is to make sure you at least get a shot off every time down.
He's also chilled a bit, and added a crafty change-of-pace zigzag to his game:
Smith loves to "snake" the pick-and-roll -- NBA parlance for dribbling one way around a pick, and then quickly veering back the other direction. He even canned enough midrange jumpers out of this action to keep defenses honest.
Detroit is 12-12, with a league-average offense and a top-five defense. They would have signed up for that once Jackson's knee started aching.
10. Maurice Harkless, not harmless in the post
Harkless has emerged as Portland's most dependable wing beyond the star tandem of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. He's shooting a tidy 37 percent from deep on a career-high number of attempts, and playing with a palpable confidence. He doesn't need an acre of space to launch from deep anymore.
When Lillard and McCollum swing the ball to him, Harkless is attacking off the bounce with zero hesitation. He's even posting up smaller players, and he's been so good at it, the Blazers will look for him down low in a favorable matchup. He has a new mean streak to his game.
Harkless is 15-of-25 on post-ups so far this season after going 20-of-47 combined over his first four seasons, per Synergy Sports.
Harkless is a solid defender prone to blips of hazy confusion, but he does not look out of place as a heavy-minutes starter on a solid team. Not bad for a wayward soul Portland swiped from the Magic for free.
