It sure LOOKS like Paolo Banchero might have traveled on this cool game-winner.
Paolo Banchero looks the part of a future NBA superstar. And after his heroics at the expense of the Detroit Pistons on Saturday night, it’s hard to argue against this possibility for the first-time All-Star.
There’s just one problem: the NBA world seems to believe Banchero traveled on his awesome game-winning shot. Let’s unpack this.
In the final few seconds, the court is cleared for Banchero to make a move one-on-one on Detroit’s Jalen Duren. When Banchero tries to get space on the baseline, it almost looks as if he’s jumping to the left without dribbling. That, by definition, would be a travel and automatic turnover.
Of course, Banchero’s move only likely looks illegal in the heat of the moment. As explained below, Banchero is allowed to make a full gather move to the left as he hasn’t actually established his pivot foot.
That would mean no travel, a clean play, and a big win for a Magic team fighting to solidify itself in the Eastern Conference playoff standings. (Orlando will probably need more shooting to do it.)
Lotta people calling this a travel so let's break this down in SLO MO.
Even under a microscope we can see a gather + two foot jumpstop. At this point either foot can be lifted to establish the other as the pivot. Paolo's right foot slides slightly but that's no issue. Clean play… https://t.co/Cs1Nwi9rTYpic.twitter.com/NeYubruPSj
Tosan Evbuomwan, who went undrafted last year out of Princeton, will reportedly sign a two-way contract with the Pistons.
Tosan Evbuomwan, who went undrafted last year out of Princeton, will reportedly sign a two-way contract with the Detroit Pistons, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Evbuomwan, who is from England, joined the Pistons for the NBA Summer League last year and averaged seven points, four rebounds and 1.3 assists in three appearances. He went through training camp with the team and started the season in the G League with the Motor City Cruise.
The 23-year-old is averaging 15.1 points, 8.6 rebounds and 3.9 assists on 34.7% shooting from 3-point range in 29 games with the Cruise. He produced five 20-point games, including a season-high 24 points, 17 rebounds and four steals on Dec. 21.
The Detroit Pistons are signing F Tosan Evbuomwan on a two-way contract, agent @georgelangberg of GSL Sports Group tells ESPN. Evbuomwan — an undrafted rookie out of Princeton — has played with Detroit and Memphis this season. pic.twitter.com/WnOSjAz9er
Evbuomwan signed a 10-day contract with the Memphis Grizzlies on Jan. 30 and a 10-day contract with the Pistons on Feb. 12. He is averaging three points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists on 33.3% shooting from 3-point range in five appearances.
The Pistons were able to sign Evbuomwan to a two-way contract after they converted Stanley Umude to a two-year contract. They will also have Jared Rhoden and Buddy Boeheim signed to two-way contracts after a series of recent moves.
Evbuomwan emerged as a productive player this year in the G League and was rewarded with a two-way contract. He will be able to continue his development with the Pistons and Cruise.
Pacers sophomore Bennedict Mathurin was unanimously named MVP of the 2024 NBA Rising Stars game to lead Team Jalen to the championship.
Indiana Pacers sophomore Bennedict Mathurin on Friday was unanimously named MVP of the 2024 NBA Rising Stars game to lead Team Jalen to the championship in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Mathurin produced 18 points in the opening game as Team Jalen defeated Team Tamika. He had four points, two assists and one steal in a 26-13 win in the final over Team Detlef, which consisted of seven of the top players in the G League.
While Mathurin did the bulk of the scoring in the semifinal round, Dereck Lively II had six points and Jordan Hawkins and Jalen Williams each chipped in five points in the final. Williams drained the game-winning 3-pointer to end it for Team Jalen.
The event featured four seven-player teams competing in a three-game tournament for the third straight year. The two semifinal games were played to a target score of 40, and the championship game was played to a target score of 25.
The pool of players for the game consisted of 11 rookies, 10 second-year players and seven players from the G League. The players from the NBA were selected by assistant coaches and the players from the G League were selected by the league office.
The four teams were coached by Hall of Famer Pau Gasol, Indiana Fever legend Tamika Catchings and former Pacers standouts Jalen Rose and Detlef Schrempf, who led the G League team.
Rookie Wire took a look at the top first-year players over the last two weeks of the 2023-24 season.
The regular season is past the trade deadline and approaching NBA All-Star Weekend, with the top players in the game set to compete in various events in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The crop of rookies continues to perform well this season, resulting in some remarkable performances of late. Led by Victor Wembanyama, Chet Holmgren, Brandon Miller, Scoot Henderson and others, they have captured national attention and have been fascinating at times.
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The class will be represented in the Rising Stars game, as 11 first-year players will participate in the revamped exhibition. Including 10 sophomores, and seven players from the G League, the game will feature the top up-and-coming players.
To make sense of it all, we looked at the best recent performances of these first-year players and ranked them in the Rookie Wire Power Rankings. The rankings are not for Rookie of the Year purposes but to illustrate the best players week to week.
The Lakers got themselves an easy win over the Pistons on Tuesday to improve to three games over .500.
Coming off three full days of rest, the Los Angeles Lakers looked to continue building momentum against the Detroit Pistons. They had won four of their last five games, and they’re looking to make the same late-season run they enjoyed last year.
Detroit has the NBA’s worst record, but it came in playing slightly better of late, having won four of its previous nine games, and in the early minutes of this game, it was competitive. However, the home team quickly flipped the switch and changed the complexion of the contest.
The Lakers made 10 shots in a row in the first quarter to take control, and they held a 71-48 lead at halftime. They were getting out and running with ease, and the ball was moving around fast, as they had 20 assists in the first half. Los Angeles lost some steam in the third period but still led 99-79 with 12 minutes left, and it glided into a no-sweat 125-111 victory to improve to 29-26 on the season.
Its offense, which has been producing at an elite level lately, was solid. The team shot 51.2% from the field and 40.0% from 3-point range, but it also got the job done defensively by holding the Pistons to just 41.7% overall shooting.
The Lakers will now fly up to Salt Lake City to take on the Utah Jazz before they will have seven consecutive days off for the All-Star break.
In the first quarter of Tuesday’s Lakers versus Pistons game, Austin Reaves made a spectacular pass to LeBron James for a fast-break dunk.
The Los Angeles Lakers had been off since defeating the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday, but they returned to work on Tuesday versus the Detroit Pistons.
The Pistons have the NBA’s worst record, but they had won four of their last nine games and were competitive against L.A. in the opening minutes.
However, that’s when the Purple and Gold turned it on. The team went on a heater to take a double-digit lead, and it produced some highlight reel-worthy plays.
After a blocked shot by D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves came down on a fast break and delivered a behind-the-back pass to LeBron James for the dunk.
Reaves’ shooting has been up and down this season, but he dished at least 10 assists in two of his last three games, and he is averaging 5.4 assists a game on the season.
Here’s all you need to know ahead of Tuesday’s Lakers versus Pistons game.
The Los Angeles Lakers host the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday, and if you’re wondering how you can watch the action live, you’ve come to the right place.
The Lakers have a bit of momentum on their side. They have won four of their last five games and six of their last nine, which has given them a 28-26 record and ninth place in the Western Conference.
Their offense, which has been a sore spot for them all season, seems to be humming lately — in their last 15 games, of which they have won nine, they averaged 123.3 points a game, which is third in the NBA during that span. In fact, they also shot 39.8% from 3-point range during that period of time.
Detroit has an 8-44 record, which is the worst mark in the league. It is 25th in offensive rating and 29th in defensive rating, and it seemingly has nothing to play for, other than perhaps extra balls in this year’s draft lottery.
This will be the second and final meeting between these two clubs this season. Los Angeles won the first matchup in Michigan by the score of 133-107 back on Nov. 29.
Some of the most interesting names include Spencer Dinwiddie and Kyle Lowry.
NOTE: This story was originally published on Feb. 8 and was updated.
The 2024 NBA trade deadline has passed and hoops fans saw a splattering of deals that could potentially shake up the race for the title.
But it isn’t just trades that potentially could impact the championship odds. After the deadline, once the dust settles, several contenders around the NBA typically make moves to add free agents from the buyout market as well.
Even though buyouts are unlikely to make a dramatic change for teams with legitimate title aspirations, these moves around the edges are still fascinating to follow for those who follow the league most closely.
Due to the CBA, per Yossi Gozlan, players with salaries above the $12.5 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception cannot sign with teams above the first tax apron. Those teams are the Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, L.A. Clippers, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, and Phoenix Suns.
Players who meet those thresholds are mentioned below in italics. They are permitted to sign with any other team. All players must sign with a team by March 1 to become eligible to make postseason rosters.
Otherwise, let’s take a look at some of the most notable names to emerge:
Detroit still isn’t good. But considering where the bar was? This is a lot better.
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 Mike Sykes
Happy Friday, folks! Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you’ve had a more exciting week than the trade deadline did. Talk about a nothingburger.
Enough about that, though. I want to take a second to show some love to the Detroit Pistons, man.
It wasn’t that long ago that we were all making fun of this team for, well, to be bluntly honest, being the worst basketball team we’ve ever seen. The Pistons were so bad they even made the Process-Era 76ers look decent and that team was trying to be bad. It got to the point where we were scraping the schedule to find wins for Detroit. That’s what 28 straight losses will do for you.
If you watch today’s Pistons, those days feel like centuries ago. This is a completely different team. It might…it might even be a good one?
Ok. No. This team is still pretty bad. I got caught up in the hype a bit there. But it’s undoubtedly a much better outfit than it was before. Detroit is 4-4 in its last eight games with wins over Charlotte, Oklahoma City, Sacramento and Portland. Two of those are playoff teams! In the West!
Where’s this bump coming from? Well, some of it is addition by subtraction. Players like Isaiah Livers and Killian Hayes who hurt Detroit offensively have been removed from the rotation via roster transactions.
But, most of it is this: Jaden Ivey has been awesome. Over his last eight games he’s averaging 20.1 points per game while shooting 49 percent from the field and 59.5 percent from 3-point range (!!!!). Is this going to last? Absolutely not. Those are outrageous shooting splits. But it’s very clear that Ivey is a pretty good NBA player and it also makes you wonder why his coach kept him on the bench for so long.
Cade Cunningham has returned from injury, too, and has continued to play pretty well without needing to be the absolute bell-cow on offense for Detroit. You add all that together and you get a pretty competent team. That’s an encouraging sign for Detroit.
Iowa guard Caitlin Clark greets fans after defeating Cleveland State.
Iowa fans picking a fight with Sheryl Swoopes feels like a pretty big mistake. That’s turned into a fight with the entire fandom of women’s basketball at this point.
Folks are roasting Iowa fans for wearing “Don’t be a Sheryl” t-shirts after Swoopes issued a fair critique on Caitlin Clark.
The critique isn’t what triggered this, though. Instead, it Swoopes getting some numbers wrong on Clark’s career. It was an honest mistake but one that probably should’ve been corrected. Instead of allowing room for that, though, Iowa fans got a bit disrespectful. And now the backlash is here.
“Sheryl Swoopes is a Hall of Fame WNBA player. She’s accomplished so much in her career (four WNBA championships, three MVP Awards and six All-Star selections, among other accolades) that she’s considered one of the best to ever do it. Understandably, her thoughts on the game are very different than most people.”
Look, man. Sheryl Swoopes is free to critique who she wants. It’s one thing to say she’s wrong. It’s another thing to come out and disrespect her the way Iowa fans did.
Swoopes is one of the greatest players women’s basketball has ever seen. We should all want to be as good at literally anything as Sheryl Swoopes is at basketball.
Iowa fans, y’all need to go back to the drawing board. This ain’t it.
The Knicks did well for themselves here by adding some veterans.
The New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons were two of the busiest teams at the 2024 NBA trade deadline.
New York moved on from Quentin Grimes and Evan Fournier, two players they were long rumored to have on the market, for immediate scoring help from Alec Burks and Bojan Bogdanovic (who is averaging more than 20.0 points per game for the third time in the NBA).
Even though Grimes showed promise early in his NBA career, Burks and Bogdanovic are two veterans who can step on the court and help the Knicks contend in the Eastern Conference this season.
While more moves could come for both teams before the deadline, let’s get into these trade grades on this specific deal:
