Category: Research

DeMarcus Cousins has gone from All-Star to 10-day contract faster than any player ever

By signing to a 10-day contract with the Clippers this season, DeMarcus Cousins made a bit of history in the process.

As the saying goes: Life comes at you fast.

And that couldn’t ring truer than for a player like DeMarcus Cousins, who, as recently as 2017-18, was an All-Star for the New Orleans Pelicans being paid $18.1 million for his services that season.

At that point, Cousins was considered arguably the best big man in the basketball – if not the best, then certainly in the Top 3 – putting up over 25 points, nearly 13 rebounds and more than five assists per night, astronomical numbers for an individual player.

Now, Cousins was most recently forced to sign a 10-day contract with the Los Angeles Clippers. Cousins, an All-Star just three seasons ago and an All-NBA 2nd Teamer five seasons ago, can’t even get a standard contract right now without having to prove his worth first.

That insanely fast turnaround for Cousins is actually historic, as it makes the 30-year-old big man the fastest player to go from being an All-Star to signing a 10-day contract in NBA history, according to our research.

Of course, there are blatant reasons why Cousins’ fall from grace has been so swift and brutal.

Since that last All-Star appearance, Cousins has had a well-documented string of major injuries, including a torn Achilles and a torn ACL, two of the very worst injuries an athlete can suffer – and Cousins went through both within a two-year span.

Obviously, those ailments have sapped Cousins of a good amount of the otherworldy athleticism he once possessed at his size, and odds are, he’ll never return to the pre-injury form he once had.

Nevertheless, Cousins isn’t the only NBA player with a shockingly fast turnaround from an All-Star nomination to having to sign a 10-day contract.

Phil Chenier, a three-time All-Star in the 1970s as a member of the Washington Bullets, went from playing in the February 13, 1977 All-Star Game to signing a 10-day contract on January 21, 1981, a 1438-day turnaround caused by back problems Chenier went through that he could never truly bounce back from.

Even more recently than that, Isaiah Thomas played in the 2017 All-Star Game on February 19, 2017, and had to sign a 10-day contract 1,504 days later on April 3, 2021, with the New Orleans Pelicans, one that, like Cousins’, is still active at this moment.

That’s why it was so good to see both Cousins and Thomas perform well in their first games with their new teams this past week, as it’s impossible not to feel for those guys going from being NBA superstars one day to barely hanging around the Association the next, especially since the injuries they suffered were completely out of their control.

Life comes at you fast indeed.

Alberto de Roa contributed the research for this article.

The Nets could make history with star-studded lineup

HoopsHype breaks down the history being made by the 2020-21 Brooklyn Nets following their addition of LaMarcus Aldridge.

When the Brooklyn Nets came out as winners of the LaMarcus Aldridge sweepstakes on Saturday, the immediate thought that came into everyone’s minds was: Wow, this team is absolutely loaded with star-level names.

Whether it’s good for the NBA to have teams stack the deck like that is a discussion for another time, but what’s for certain now, following a bit of research on our part, is the fact that the 2020-21 Nets are making history with their star-studded roster.

With the addition of Aldridge, Brooklyn now has an astounding five players with at least six All-Star appearances under their belt in Aldridge (seven-time All-Star), Kevin Durant (11-time All-Star), James Harden (nine-time All-Star), Kyrie Irving (seven-time All-Star) and Blake Griffin (six-time All-Star).

That makes the Nets just the second team ever with a roster boasting five players with six-plus All-Star appearances. The first team to do that was the 2010-11 Boston Celtics, who we’ll talk about more in just a bit.

Even if you factor in that Aldridge and Griffin are no longer the players they were in their primes, it’s still a ridiculous feat for Brooklyn to put together a roster that loaded with stars. Plus, it’s not like the two big men are unplayable – they can still contribute at a high level as role players. What we’re getting at here is: The Nets will be scary come playoff time, health permitting.

This year’s Brooklyn squad can also say they have the most combined All-Star appearances on a single team (41) since the aforementioned 2010-11 Celtics.

If you recall, that Boston teams were led by their Big 3 – Kevin Garnett (15-time All-Star), Paul Pierce (10-time All-Star) and Ray Allen (10-time All-Star) – as well as Rajon Rondo (four-time All-Star), Jermaine O’Neal (six-time All-Star) and Shaquille O’Neal (15-time All-Star) in the final year of his career.

What makes this Nets team extremely unique, however, is the fact that their five six-plus-time All-Stars might actually see the floor together in a single lineup, something that Boston’s five All-Stars never did, since the two O’Neals played the same position.

To be exact, that means we could see an Irving-Harden-Durant-Griffin-Aldridge lineup at some point this season, all players with at least six All-Star appearances on their resume on the floor at the same time together, something that has never happened before in NBA history.

That’s legitimately insane and goes to show how truly loaded the Nets are right now, while also speaking to the problems with the buyout market as presently constructed.

That’s a conversation for another time, though.

Alberto de Roa contributed research to this article.

This is officially the shortest NBA offseason ever

Due to the obvious circumstances, the 2020 NBA offseason will be the shortest offseason in the league’s long history.

With the start of the 2020-21 NBA season officially announced as December 22, we can now confirm this will be the shortest offseason in NBA history. At just 72 days, it will be so by a margin of 55 days, beating the 2017-18 offseason, which was the previous shortest offseason ever at 127 days.

Prior to this year, the average length of an NBA offseason was 155.8 days, which goes to show just how quick the turnaround this year will be for players.

Luckily, 14 franchises haven’t played since March, so some teams will be geared up and ready to go for the start of the 2020-21 campaign, but for the 16 bubble teams, especially the two Finalists – the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers – this quick of a turnaround will likely affect how they use their veterans, particularly early on in the campaign.

Lakers guard Danny Green went so far as to speculate while on an interview with The Ringer that both he and LeBron James would miss as much as the first month of next season as they recover from the grind that was the bubble.

Though that might have been a bit of hyperbole from Green, don’t be surprised if this record-setting offseason leads to more cases of load management early on in the 2020-21 league year.

Lu Dort is the highest-effort defensive player in the NBA

Using average speed on defense in relation to speed on offense, we establish which players are running harder on defense and vice versa.

Just by watching your typical NBA game, one thing that immediately stands out is how some players simply try harder than others – be it by running faster, putting their bodies on the line for loose balls or anything else that requires high effort – on the less glamorous end of the floor.

And thanks to the advanced level of statistics that the NBA is gracious enough to share with fans and media on the league website, we can actually try and decipher which players are running harder on defense and which reserve their top-end speed for offensive purposes, which could have a lot to do with the roles given to them by their specific teams.

For clarity, this includes speed in half-court sets and in transition opportunities.

Checking out the rankings based on our research, the Top 20 players who run the fastest on defense in relation to their average speed on offense – we’re calling it the defense-versus-offense effort ratio – is filled with guys who are known for being high-energy point-stoppers, including the likes of OG Anunoby, Matisse Thybullle, Avery Bradley, Jevon Carter and the No. 1 finisher on the list, Oklahoma City guard Luguentz Dort, who has made waves defensively in his first year with the club:

There are a few surprises on the list, namely Enes Kanter, Hassan Whiteside and Kevin Porter Jr. who aren’t known for going all out on defense, but overall, this defensive effort ratio we created gives a pretty good indication of which guys may simply be trying harder on the point-preventing end of the floor than they are on offense.

Dort finishing No. 1 comes as no surprise to anyone who has closely watched the Thunder this campaign, as Oklahoma City veterans and coaches have raved about the rookie’s defensive effort. Steven Adams had this to say about Dort in early August after a game where the first-year guard made life difficult for LeBron James:

“‘He’s an animal. It’s all the small stuff. Making them start their offense at a later clock, which rushes them more. It’s all that small stuff that is so good. It will help out tremendously in the playoffs.'”

In Game 2 of the matchup between Oklahoma City and the Houston Rockets, we saw the level of impact Dort has on defense for the Thunder, as the Arizona State product pestered and hounded former league MVP James Harden all game long:

Harden finished the evening with a mere (by his standards) 21 points on 5-of-16 shooting, though with Dort guarding him, per NBA.com, he had just nine points, converting only one of his seven field-goal attempts in those possessions.

Teammates took notice of Dort’s impact on the defensive end for that contest:

Dort’s defensive chops already as a rookie give him huge upside on that end of the floor, and as long as he continues to play as hard on the point-stopping side of things as our defensive-effort ratio indicates, he’ll continue to see even more minutes for Oklahoma City.

The Timberwolves are still the unluckiest team in draft lottery history

Despite moving up in the draft lottery for the first time, the Minnesota Timberwolves are still the unluckiest team in the lottery ever.

Before Thursday night, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the team who will be on the clock first overall in the 2020 NBA Draft, had never moved up in the draft lottery.

They had taken part in the process 20 times prior to Thursday and stayed in the same spot nine times, moving down 11 times, which is tied with the Sacramento Kings for the most times a team has moved down in the lottery in league history.

That’s why Minnesota winning the lottery and landing the No. 1 overall pick was truly a momentous occasion for the organization.

This season, the Wolves finished with the third-worst record basketball at 19-45 and had a 14 percent chance of landing the top overall pick, the same as the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers. Golden State wound up with pick No. 2 while Cleveland fell to No. 5.

The one negative about this being the year Minnesota finally moves up in the lottery is that it occurred on a year that’s considered a relatively weak draft class without a true consensus top prospect. Many believe Anthony Edwards out of Georgia will be the guy at No. 1 while others think that distinction should go to big man James Wiseman, who played just three games for Memphis before being deemed ineligible by the NCAA and dropping out of school to prepare for the draft.

Regardless, there’s no doubt the Timberwolves will take the major victory anyway, as landing the No. 1 pick gives the franchise a ton of flexibility, be it to acquire their next franchise cornerstone to fit alongside Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell or to trade down for multiple assets.

What’s interesting is that even with the huge win in this year’s draft lottery, the Wolves still hold the honor of statistically being the unluckiest team in lottery history. That’s how bad their luck had been before this year.

Just ahead of them on the bad luck list are the Dallas Mavericks and the New York Knicks, who have each move down in the lottery six times.

With Minnesota moving up for the first time, that leaves just the Dallas Mavericks, the Detroit Pistons, the Denver Nuggets and the Miami Heat as the only teams who have never moved up from their pre-lottery position.

On the other side of the spectrum, the three luckiest teams in lottery history are the Philadelphia 76ers, the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Charlotte Hornets, who have moved up eight times and three times apiece respectively.

Not just Kawhi: Raptors have won more games than anybody else in the last five seasons

The Toronto Raptors are more than just their single year with Kawhi Leonard. The statistics over the last five seasons back that up.

The 2018-19 Toronto Raptors team was seen as the unit that finally got that franchise over the hump, turning them from perennial playoff fodder into a champion, mostly thanks to the exploits of one Kawhi Leonard.

And once Leonard departed last summer for the Los Angeles Clippers, many believed the team would take a step back again, likely no longer in the sphere of contenders.

As it turns out, that couldn’t have been more wrong.

The Raptors finished the odd 2019-20 campaign with an outstanding 53-19 record and a 73.6 percent win rate, No. 2 in the East record-wise and No. 4 league-wide in net rating (plus-6.1). That win percentage is actually the best in their franchise’s history, even better than in their championship-winning 2018-19 when they finished the year with a 58-24 record and a 70.7 percent win rate.

In hindsight, we probably should have seen this coming from Toronto, as it’s not like they were only good that one year Leonard was on the team. In fact, the Raptors have such a rich recent history that looking back over the past five seasons, they’ve won more games than any other team in the league.

Toronto’s 276 wins over the last five seasons ranks No. 1 in the NBA, just ahead of the Golden State Warriors’ 270 victories and a good distance ahead of the third-place Houston Rockets (258), fourth-place San Antonio Spurs (255) and fifth-place Boston Celtics (253).

Overall, it’s been an extremely impressive run for Toronto recently, and this year, they have the chance to prove that they don’t need a Leonard-level talent to extend their winning to the playoffs, too.

Guys like Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet have the chance to really cement their names in the history books with a good showing over the coming weeks.

The Blazers are the worst West playoff team record-wise since 1997

Per our research, the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference will have a losing record for the first time this century.

The Western Conference is usually known for being the most competitive one, where teams miss the playoffs with winning records while squads in the East qualify with sub-.500 records.

In 2019-20, however, that’s not the case.

Granted, the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 seed, the Orlando Magic, will reach the postseason this year with a losing record. But what makes this season unique is that their eighth-seeded counterparts in the West, the Portland Trail Blazers, have done the same thing.

That’s noteworthy because it’s the first time this century, dating back through the 2000-01 season, that a team from the Western Conference will make the playoffs with more games lost than won.

In fact, it’ll be the first time since 1996-97 that a team with a sub-.500 record will reach the postseason in the West. The last franchise to do so was the Los Angeles Clippers, who qualified for the 1997 postseason with a 36-46 record and a 43.9 win percentage. They would go on to be unceremoniously swept out of the playoffs that year by the Utah Jazz in three games with an average margin of defeat of 12.7 points.

This season’s No. 8 seed in the West won’t be quite that bad, as Portland finished with a 47.3 percent win rate, but even so, it’s surprising – and rare – to see a Western Conference squad reach the postseason with that mediocre of a record.

Of course, there’s a difference between this year’s Blazers and the 1996-97 Clippers, as Portland was without a key piece in Jusuf Nurkic until they got to the bubble. A healthy Nurkic likely makes the Blazers a winning team this campaign.

Instead, they make slightly dubious history.

LeBron James couldn’t have done all that in the West? Stats say otherwise

One of the go-to arguments for people trying to diminish LeBron James’ accomplishments during his career is that he spent much of it in East, typically the weakest of the two conferences this century. This has gnawed at LeBron himself a bit. Bro I …

One of the go-to arguments for people trying to diminish LeBron James‘ accomplishments during his career is that he spent much of it in East, typically the weakest of the two conferences this century.

This has gnawed at LeBron himself a bit.

“There was a lot of conversation about, ‘LeBron can do those things in the East, but if he ever came to the West, what could he do?’” James said this week when discussing the MVP race. “I heard all of that.”

From a statistical standpoint, there’s little merit to the argument. We checked James’ stats vs. teams in the East and West throughout his career and, in fact, his numbers are slightly better when playing against the franchises in the strongest of the two conferences.

Take a look:

The data in the second table is pretty significant considering he faced many mediocre teams in the Eastern playoffs, but only the cream of the crop in the Finals vs. Western Conference clubs – including all-time great squads such as Stephen Curry‘s Warriors and Tim Duncan‘s Spurs.

In terms of winning record, though, there’s a significant difference between his success against East and West. Per our research, he’s won 68.00 percent of regular season games vs. Eastern teams compared to 64.10 percent vs. those in the West.

It gets worse in the playoffs, where it’s 72.60 percent East vs. 36.73 percent West… though it would be hard to fault the guy averaging 28 points, 10 rebounds and eights assists for that.

Alberto de Roa contributed research to this report.

Orlando bubble rosters: Who’s new and who’s out

Due to COVID-19 and before the planned season restart on July 30, the NBA is giving players the liberty to not join their teams in Orlando no matter their reason with only minor financial ramifications. The league is also allowing teams to sign …

Due to COVID-19 and before the planned season restart on July 30, the NBA is giving players the liberty to not join their teams in Orlando no matter their reason with only minor financial ramifications.

The league is also allowing teams to sign replacement players if needed in order to fill their rosters ahead of July 30.

As such, there’s going to be – and already has been – a good amount of roster turnover in the Association before the season resumption.

Below, all of the changes on NBA rosters (via free agency, due to COVID-19 or something else).

BOSTON CELTICS
In: Nobody
Out: Nobody

BROOKLYN NETS
In: Tyler Johnson (free agent signing)
Out: Wilson Chandler (personal), Nic Claxton (injured), DeAndre Jordan (COVID-19 positive), Spencer Dinwiddie (COVID-19 positive)

DALLAS MAVERICKS
In: Trey Burke (free agent signing)
Out: Jalen Brunson (injured), Courtney Lee (injured), Willie Cauley-Stein (personal)

DENVER NUGGETS
In: Tyler Cook
Out: Nobody

HOUSTON ROCKETS
In: Luc Mbah a Moute (free agent signing)
Out: Thabo Sefolosha (personal)

INDIANA PACERS
In: Nobody
Out: Victor Oladipo (personal)

LA CLIPPERS
In: Nobody
Out: Nobody

LOS ANGELES LAKERS
In: JR Smith (free agent signing)
Out: Avery Bradley (personal)

MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES
In: Nobody
Out: Nobody

MIAMI HEAT
In: Nobody
Out: Nobody

MILWAUKEE BUCKS
In: Nobody
Out: Nobody

NEW ORLEANS PELICANS
In: Sindarius Thornwell (free agent signing)
Out: Nobody

OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER
In: Nobody
Out: Nobody

ORLANDO MAGIC
In: Nobody
Out: Nobody

PHILADELPHIA 76ERS
In: Ryan Broekhoff (free agent signing)
Out: Zhaire Smith (injured)

PHOENIX SUNS
In: Cameron Payne (free agent signing)
Out: Nobody

PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS
In: Jaylen Adams (free agent signing)
Out: Trevor Ariza (personal), Caleb Swanigan (personal)

SACRAMENTO KINGS
In: Corey Brewer (free agent signing)
Out: Nobody

SAN ANTONIO SPURS
In: Tyler Zeller (free agent signing)
Out: LaMarcus Aldridge (injured)

TORONTO RAPTORS
In: Nobody
Out: Nobody

UTAH JAZZ
In: Nobody
Out: Bojan Bogdanovic (injured)

WASHINGTON WIZARDS
In: Jerian Grant (free agent signing)
Out: Davis Bertans (personal), Bradley Beal (injured)

Basketball you can watch today: Nikola Mirotic vs. Euro powerhouse, draft prospect Deni Avdija and more

There’s nothing like NBA basketball, but if you want to get your hoop fix somehow there are some pro competitions underway around the world with a bunch of players you will recognize. These are today’s contests in Spain, Germany, Israel and China. …

There’s nothing like NBA basketball, but if you want to get your hoop fix somehow there are some pro competitions underway around the world with a bunch of players you will recognize.

These are today’s contests in Spain, Germany, Israel and China. All times Eastern. In parentheses, streams where you can watch the games.

SPAIN

9:30 am: Tenerife vs. Bilbao Basket (FTF Next)
Players of NBA interest: Former Laker Marcelinho Huertas, Wizards draftee Aaron White (Nets own his NBA rights), Hornets draftee Arnoldas Kulboka, draft prospect Dino Radoncic, potential free agent target Ondrej Balvin

12:30 am: Joventut vs. Unicaja (FTF Next)
Players of NBA interest: Draft prospects Arturs Zagars, Nenad Dimitrijevic, Joel Parra, former Maverick Gal Mekel, potential free agent targets Klemen Prepelic and Axel Bouteille

3:30 pm: FC Barcelona vs. Baskonia (FTF Next)
Players of NBA interest: Former NBA players Nikola Mirotic, Cory Higgins, Tornike Shengelia and Zoran Dragic, draft prospect Leandro Bolmaro

GERMANY

10:30 am: Ulm vs. Ludwigsburg
Players of NBA interest: Former Sun Archie Goodwin, Magic draftee Tyler Harvey (Grizzlies own his NBA rights), draft prospect Ariel Hukporti

ISRAEL

12:00 pm: Maccabi Tel Aviv vs. Maccabi Ashdod (Winners League TV)
Players of NBA interest: Draft prospect Deni Avdija, former NBA players Omri Casspi, Tyler Dorsey and Quincy Acy, potential free agent targets Elijah Brown and Scottie Wilbekin

12:10 pm: Hapoel Beer Sheva vs. Hapoel Holon (Winners League TV)

12:10 pm: Maccabi Haifa vs. Hapoel Tel Aviv (Winners League TV)
Players of NBA interest: Draft prospect Yam Madar, former Nugget Jordan Hamilton, potential free agent target Reggie Upshaw

2:10 pm: Hapoel Jerusalem vs. Maccabi Rishon (Winners League TV)
Players of NBA interest: Pistons draftee Deividas Servydis, former NBA players Jeremy Pargo, John Holland and Emanuel Terry, potential free agent target Alex Hamilton

CHINA

3:30 am: Zhejiang Lions vs. Shanghai Sharks (Youku)
Players of NBA interest: Former King Ray McCallum

4:00 am: Shandong Heroes vs. Tianjin Pioneers (Youku)

7:35 am: Guangzhou Long-Lions vs. Bayi Rockets (Youku)
Players of NBA interest: Former Timberwolf Marcus Georges-Hunt

8:00 am: Beijing Royal Fighters vs. Fujian Sturgeons (Youku)
Players of NBA interest: Former Nugget Ty Lawson, Grizzlies draftee Wang Zhelin

11:00 pm: Nanjing Monkey Kings vs. Qingdao Eagles (Youku)
Players of NBA interest: Former Pacer Joseph Young, former Grizzly Hamed Haddadi