Drew Peterson is showing signs of being able to create an enduring pro basketball career. Many people didn’t think he would get this far or last this long.
It has certainly been a wild ride for former USC guard Drew Peterson since his career in Cardinal and Gold came to an end. After playing his final game as a Trojan in March of 2023, Peterson was not selected in that year’s NBA draft. He briefly signed with the Miami Heat, but was quickly waived and assigned to their G-League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce. Peterson impressed during his time in Sioux Falls, enough so that the Boston Celtics signed him to a two-way contract last December.
Peterson spent the majority of last year with the Maine Celtics, Boston’s G-League affiliate. However, he did appear in three games for Boston during their run to the title and received a championship ring in October for his contributions.
With the Celtics dealing with injuries early on this season, Peterson has had the opportunity to get some legitimate minutes for the big league club. Against the Cleveland Cavaliers (in Cleveland) in a recent matchup of the Eastern Conference’s top two teams, Peterson played 25 minutes, by far the most of his NBA career to date. He impressed during his opportunity, scoring eight points while also recording four rebounds.
Two days later against the Miami Heat, Peterson once again saw significant action, logging 26 minutes. Again, he made the most of it, racking up seven points, seven rebounds, and an assist.
When the Celtics get healthy again, Peterson will likely find his way back to the bench, if not Maine. But his performances in recent weeks were an encouraging sign, and showed that he could have a legitimate future in the league.
The common refrain was that many casual league observers didn’t start paying attention to it until after the All-Star Break in late February. That’s because many NBA teams and stars don’t take the early portions of the season all that seriously themselves. You should compare November to April basketball yourself someday soon when you get the time. The difference is night and day.
So, here’s a tournament like the NBA Cup with fancy, temporary courts and gaudy jerseys designed to add an extra competitive edge to the part of the year when many squads are still clearly easing their way into the action.
Sounds simple and straightforward, right?
As we enter the knockout rounds of the 2024 NBA Cup, Silver and his cronies failed to account for a significant loophole in the proceedings. As it stands, the 22 NBA teams who don’t qualify for the knockout rounds essentially get almost a week off, just about six weeks into the regular season.
In effect, this schedule loophole directly contradicts what the NBA Cup was trying to prevent.
Look at the below schedule. The next non-NBA Cup game isn’t until Thursday, December 12! The overwhelming majority of the league already eliminated from this year’s Cup play is getting three, four, or even five days off right before the holiday season. And because the NBA is trying to center the remaining Cup teams with a bigger spotlight, it can’t meaningfully shift around the schedule to mitigate this gap. It doesn’t want non-Cup teams playing when the quarterfinals are happening.
We cannot underestimate how valuable this is to NBA players who play games every other night, play back-to-backs, and travel cross-country all the time.
None of them were born yesterday because they can see how the schedule shakes out in advance:
This isn’t to say that NBA teams want to deliberately miss their chances at winning the Cup. I’m sure some measure of the cash prize motivates many squads, especially those with younger players who have yet to earn lucrative contracts. They’re not going to stop trying altogether.
But put yourself in the shoes of a head coach or superstar for a second.
If it’s mid-November and your team is nursing some light injuries before an NBA Cup group stage matchup, are you really gonna go all out there when you’re trying to play the long game and compete in the spring for the Larry O’Brien Trophy?
If it’s mid-November and your thin-depth hopeful title contender team (like, say, the Denver Nuggets) is trying to get off to a good start by playing everyone heavy early-season minutes, maybe you look at the NBA Cup schedule and realize you get a built-in break that makes that bold, development plan easier to institute if you miss out on the knockout rounds.
If you’re a reigning champion like the Boston Celtics, why not get more rest now as you plan to play two extra months of basketball later this season? There are bigger fish to fry.
If you’re a veteran team with older stars like the Los Angeles Lakers or Phoenix Suns, wouldn’t you want a week of rest instead? Remember that if you go all the way, you’re also playing an extra 83rd regular-season game, which doesn’t count in the standings, either.
Oof.
Perhaps I’m being too cynical. Maybe NBA players care a lot more about the NBA Cup than I realize. I’m willing to hear arguments to the contrary.
But I’ve seen enough patterns from league organizations already to suggest they understand there aren’t any real consequences for failing to advance to the knockout rounds. (Not that there should be; that would be silly, too.) If anything, they know that if they fall short of the Cup early, they get a massive benefit of rest that is extremely rare within the context of the entire season.
This Cup schedule gap is something the NBA will, unfortunately, never be able to account for. I don’t think players and coaches want the league to figure it out, either.
Boston Celtics star and former Duke Blue Devil Jayson Tatum was featured in the most recent edition of Forbes 30 under 30.
The Duke men’s basketball program has produced many stars over the years, but not many are bigger right now than [autotag]Jayson Tatum[/autotag] of the Boston Celtics.
Tatum’s new deal, which he signed in July, included $314 million over five years, and Forbes estimated in his profile that he brings in $13 million per year outside of the NBA. Jordan Brand unveiled his third signature shoe in September.
Even outside of endorsement deals, the former third overall pick will be the cover star for NBA 2K25 after he recently starred in the Netflix documentary ‘Starting 5’ released in October.
Simply, Tatum has it made, and the former Blue Devil isn’t done yet, either.
Jaylen Brown’s talent deserved more respect from the Timberwolves announcers.
Sunday night in the NBA featured an awesome battle between the reigning champion Boston Celtics and title contender Minnesota Timberwolves. The Celtics prevailed 107-105 behind a strong shooting performance from perennial All-NBA forward Jaylen Brown (29 points), especially from behind the arc.
But if you ask the Timberwolves announcing crew, there’s simply no way one of the NBA’s best players could ever get hot. C’mon now.
As Brown made four 3s in an approximate two-minute span at the start of the game, the Minnesota commentators weirdly kept hammering how Brown was, actually, a limited shooter because of a poor start to the season. And even as he poured buckets in (Brown finished 7-of-10 from behind the arc), they just wouldn’t let this narrative about a proven veteran superstar go:
Minnesota's broadcast crew was having a hard time coping with Jaylen Brown's fast start today 😂 pic.twitter.com/YkM6OCinu7
Really, you would give a guy who has shown he’s a top-15-caliber player in the league an open 3-point attempt just because of a cold month to start the season (which happens for players all the time)?
Yeah, I don’t think any logical coach comprising a solid game plan would follow that line of thinking. I’d rather someone like Jaylen Brown didn’t shoot open 3s because I recognize that small sample sizes are a thing. He’s a career 36 percent shooter on high volume. He’s not someone you give open looks!
Brown caught wind of the Timberwolves’ announcers’ bizarre criticism and responded with a NSFW comment on Twitter. (Note: I have edited out a portion of his word choice.)
Good for Brown because he’s absolutely right. He understands that mini slumps happen all the time in a league with some of the best basketball players in the world.
Jayson Tatum came through again for the Boston Celtics on Saturday night, hitting a game-winning 3-pointer in overtime.
Former Duke basketball star [autotag]Jayson Tatum[/autotag] delivered for the Boston Celtics again on Saturday night, hitting a game-winning 3-pointer in overtime for a 126-123 victory over the Toronto Raptors.
Tatum, fresh off his first NBA championship with the Celtics last season, seemed to be waiting for teammate Jaylen Brown on a pick-and-roll play, but Brown fell to the floor after making contact with a defender. The former Blue Devil improvised, creating a small amount of space with a few dribbles before launching a shot from close to the midcourt logo.
It found its mark, and the home crowd at TD Garden erupted.
Tatum finished the game with 24 points, 11 rebounds, and nine assists. Toronto forward RJ Barrett, another former Duke Blue Devil, notched a triple-double for the Raptors with 25 points. 15 assists, and 10 rebounds.
The third overall pick from the 2017 NBA draft could be in line for a fourth straight All-NBA First Team nomination. Through 14 games, Tatum is averaging 29.7 points, 7.9 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 1.4 steals per game.
Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla might love the movie The Town, but he doesn’t seem all that moved by that being the inspiration for a Jeopardy! prompt.
“I could care less,” Mazzulla told reporters about the Jeopardy! moment before leaving the press table.
“What is a firm response?” would be the winning answer for any Jeopardy! contestant if they saw the Mazzulla clip.
To be fair to Mazzulla, his team dropped a tough one to the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday, so he might not have been in the mood to talk about it. At the least, we probably know what movie he’ll watch to cheer himself up!
Joe Mazzulla on becoming a part of a jeopardy question:
Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla was asked to give an update about 2024 NBA Finals MVP winner Jaylen Brown.
Effective communication is important between a coach and his star player, but apparently, it does not always come naturally for Mazzulla and Brown. Boston’s head coach wasn’t able to provide much information about the wing because, according to Mazzulla, they both mumble.
Brown has missed his last three games for the Celtics due to a hip injury, but Mazzulla didn’t actually add additional insights for reporters during his press conference.
Not the best week for the former Notre Dame players.
After winning their first game, [autotag]Pat Connaughton[/autotag] and the Milwaukee Bucks have lost every game since. Connaughton tried to play his part with five points and two rebounds in an Oct. 30 loss to the defending champion Boston Celtics. But he followed that by shooting 1 of 7 from the field in a three-point, three-rebound, two-assist effort against the Memphis Grizzlies on Halloween. He wound up averaging 2.7 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists a game over the course of the week.
[autotag]Blake Wesley[/autotag] did not fare much better over the past week with the San Antonio Spurs. He started out all right with five points and two rebounds in just under 13 minutes while losing Oct. 30 to the Oklahoma City Thunder. But he played only half that number of minutes over the next two games combined and didn’t register a single meaningful statistic. The result was a scoring average of 2.8 and a rebounding average of 0.8 over the three games.
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NBA teams are shooting more threes than ever before.
Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Prince J. Grimes.
What’s up hoops fans. The NBA season is a week old, and it feels so good to be back. To get a rematch of the Western Conference Finals on a random Tuesday night in October was just an absolute treat. We should never complain about getting to see some good bump.
However, one thing that stood out to me from the Dallas Mavericks’ win over the Minnesota Timberwolves was the combined 78 three-pointers the teams attempted in the game. It wasn’t necessarily an issue, as they made about 45% of them, but it did follow a trend that may be of concern depending how you like your hoops and who you root for.
Teams are shooting more threes this season than they ever have in NBA history.
On average, NBA teams are taking 37 3-pointers per game this season, which is two more than last season’s average — the largest year-to-year jump since 2019-20 if it holds. It’s an increase of 10 from just eight years ago and 15 more threes than teams were taking 10 years ago when the Splash Brothers won their first title together.
NBA teams are taking more 3s than ever this season
The increase makes sense. Threes are worth more than twos. Of course teams are taking more. Especially after seeing how it benefited the Warriors. The Celtics rode the league’s most attempts to a championship last year. The runner-up Mavericks attempted the second-most.
But smart basketball isn’t necessarily good basketball. And when it’s bad teams trying to cosplay as good teams, it’s not smart or good. Which gets to the heart of my issue.
There is more than one way to skin a cat. The Denver Nuggets won the 2023 championship attempting fewer threes than the league average. Same with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020. Those teams leaned into their strengths. Similarly, the Celtics shoot a bunch of threes because they’re really good at it. Yet, it seems more and more teams are simply leaning into 3-point shooting because the math makes sense. Doing so without the personnel to execute it, though, is fruitless, and ultimately just makes for some unentertaining basketball.
Unless you have a lineup full of All-Stars and legitimately good shooters — which most teams don’t — you can’t be the Celtics. And unless you have players who consistently break defenses down and get them out of rotation, many of those threes are contested and coming off little to no ball movement. In the words of Paul George, that’s a bad shot.
It’s a bad watch, too. Even when the shots are dropping like they were for the Washington Wizards and Chicago Bulls Monday when each tied franchise records for threes made in a game. Minus the ball movement, it’s not the most fun to watch when the good teams are letting it fly either. The games become too homogenous, robbing us of all the intricacies and skill that comes from good post play, a mid-range game or simply attacking someone at the rim and daring them to stop you.
I’m not the first person to make this point. Fox Sports’ Nick Wright went so far as to argue the NBA should change its rules after the Boston Celtics tied their franchise record for threes made on Opening Night.
— What’s Wright? with Nick Wright (@WhatsWrightShow) October 24, 2024
Bomani Jones also said the league needs changes in response to a tweet about how many threes one of the NBA’s best athletes, Anthony Edwards, is averaging through four games (13.3!). “When the game incentivizes Anthony Edwards to play like Klay Thompson, something needs to change immediately,” Jones tweeted.
I’m not sure the best way for the NBA to move forward, or if it’s even something the league needs to address. As it is today, I’ll still watch it. It’s also possible younger fans that grew up watching Steph Curry and Klay Thompson like this style of play. I fully acknowledge I could be old man yelling at clouds here. But I can’t imagine it doesn’t become a problem in the near future if the 3-point shooting continues to increase.
It’s also possible the potential problem corrects itself.
After decades of 3s being much more efficient than 2s in the NBA, teams have finally adjusted their shot profiles such that the 3s and 2s both generate nearly exactly 1.09 points per shot pic.twitter.com/b7LRj5bRVi
According to Sportico data reporter Lev Akabas, teams have finally adjusted their shot profiles so that threes and twos generate nearly the same amount of points per attempt. Hopefully that means we’ll see a plateau in threes soon. If so, enjoying the NBA may be a matter of your tolerance for about 74 threes per game — 37 each team.
Personally, I’m less invested in the number and more concerned about how teams are creating those shots, and what they’re doing when the three isn’t open. What I’m seeing from a lot of teams today isn’t my ideal brand of basketball.
Chet Holmgren vs. Victor Wembanyama
Daniel Dunn-USA TODAY Sports
Speaking of players taking too many three per game, 7-foot-3 phenom Victor Wembanyama is taking about six per game this season despite shooting just 22% on them. But if there’s one thing that might get Wembanyama to put the ball on the floor and attack the rim, it might be tonight’s game between his San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Or more specifically, his matchup with Chet Holmgren.
Wembanyama and Holmgren have somewhat of a rivalry brewing, Mike Sykes wrote, and it’s very competitive.
“COMPETITIVE. In all caps. The games are fun to watch. They both do things we’ve never seen anyone like them do on an NBA court. …
Chet and the Thunder walked away with two wins in their three matchups. But Wembanyama would usually walk away with a highlight or two that made you go, “Wow. Can’t wait to watch more of this for the next 10 years.”
So, look. Maybe this isn’t a rivalry now. But the more these guys see each other, the closer this matchup becomes the real deal.”
Although receiving a statue outside of the arena where an athlete created their legacy is one of the highest honors in sports, it isn’t always easy to get it right. Sadly, the statue built for Wade did not get a warm reception when it was unveiled.
His own reaction was fairly awkward and folks on the internet immediately turned it into the punchline of a joke, which is never a good sign.
