It’s on the NBA’s players to fix the NBA All-Star game
The NBA All-Star Game — and All-Star weekend as a whole, honestly — is supposed to be one of the best celebrations in sports.
It’s a time when the biggest names of the game of basketball from the past, present and future all come together in one place. It’s an extremely special time for the NBA.
The 2023 All-Star weekend absolutely didn’t feel like it, though. Fans made that abundantly clear by, well, actually not watching the game.
According to data from Paulsen’s Sports Media Watch, the game’s viewership reached record lows over the weekend. Sunday’s contest only saw 4.59 million viewers across TNT and TBS, which was a 27 percent decline from last year according to their data and the steepest decline since the 2000 All-Star game.
“Ratings declined 29% and viewership 27% from last year’s All-Star Game (3.1, 6.28M). While All-Star Game viewership has been trending down, this year’s declines are the steepest for the game since 2000 — the first All-Star Game after a one-year hiatus due to the 1998-99 NBA lockout.”
There are a few factors at work here. The first one is pretty obvious: There was lots of star power missing from the game.
Kevin Durant and Steph Curry were both out from injury. Giannis Antetkounmpo and LeBron James left the game early with injuries of their own. Those are huge losses. That star power is a big part of what brings people to All-Star weekend. Without it, the game can certainly be a tough sell.
The players participating giving the bare minimum effort certainly didn’t help either. People tuned the game out because they had absolutely no reason to tune in. No one wants to watch a “glorified layup line,” as Jaylen Brown described it.
This is a big deal, though. The All-Star game is a huge selling point for the NBA when the league has its television rights negotiations. TNT is reportedly ready to walk away from the league. The league is looking for $50 billion to $75 billion combined from TNT and ESPN in their upcoming television deal, Front Office Sports reported.
It’s a long shot that this actually happens — the NBA is still growing and has an incredible social reach. But the NBA still needs to give its television partners some incentive to stick around. These numbers are not that.
There’s no easy fix for this. You can’t just continuously rule change this lack of effort away. It always resets back to square one.
The only way this changes is if the players — quite literally — make an effort to change it. It’s on them. We’ll see if it happens.
The brother of Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo has decided to stay with the Los Angeles Lakers for one more year.
Everyone is wondering whether the reigning two-time Most Valuable Player of the NBA will agree to a supermax contract with his current team, the Milwaukee Bucks, as he looks to continue to push his legacy in the National Basketball Association. Coming from the streets of Athens, it would be safe to assume anything, but Giannis’s legacy is already doing work without him lifting one of his bigger than life legs.
Giannis’ brother Kostas has agreed to a deal with the Los Angeles Lakers as a two-way player. Of course, having Giannis’ brother is an intriguing proposition but being in a position to have a source close to Giannis telling him about the Lakers organization and lore can’t hurt.
Kostas Antetokounmpo has signed a two-way contract to return to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Kostas is likely not going to be the key piece to move Giannis from one team to another. But what he is, is a vessel, not unlike Kentavious Caldwell-Pope when he came to the Lakers a few years ago. And the Antetokounmpo’s look to be their own family, much like the family of Klutch Sports.
Each week, HoopsHype’s staff gives Top 10 candidates for this year’s Most Valuable Player award. Which stars have stood out thus far?
Each week, HoopsHype’s staff gives the Top 10 candidates for this year’s Most Valuable Player award. Of course, with the season coming to a halt due to the coronavirus outbreak, these might be the final rankings for the season, which would help the No. 1 player’s case.
Which stars have stood out? Here are our latest MVP rankings:
Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
10. CHRIS PAUL, OKLAHOMA CITY
Last week’s ranking: Unranked.
When the Oklahoma City Thunder’s offseason trades went down, shipping out Russell Westbrook and Paul George and netting them Chris Paul and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (among more players and a ton of draft capital), most expected them to become a fringe playoff team in 2019-20 – if that. Instead, at the point the season was suspended, the Thunder sit at 40-24 and No. 5 in the West with the league’s No. 11 net rating (+2.5). A lot of that has to do with Paul’s play this season. Not only are his raw metrics – 17.7 points, 6.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game – impressive, but the future Hall-of-Famer has been one of the most clutch players in basketball on the year, hitting a league-leading 46 field goals inside the final five minutes of games with the score within five points, and shooting 53.5 percent from the floor in those “clutch situation”, the sixth-best mark in the NBA this campaign. His contract going forward may be ugly, but Paul is proving this year he’s still got plenty left in the tank.
Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
9. JIMMY BUTLER, MIAMI
Last week’s ranking: No. 10.
One of just six players putting up a 20/6/6 stat line this season, Jimmy Butler’s addition has catapulted the Miami Heat from missing the playoffs last year to the East’s No. 4 seed in 2019-20 with a Top-10 net rating (+3.0). Unlike in his past stops, Butler seems happy in Miami and has proven to be a great leader for the Heat’s group of young and hungry up-and-comers. Butler recently joined former teammate JJ Redick’s podcast and somewhat opened up about what led to his summer departure from the Philadelphia 76ers. Apparently, a lack of clear leadership was at least part of the problem:
“Hell yeah, it was difficult. It was so different, and on any given day, me as a person, as a player, I didn’t know who the f— was in charge. I think that was my biggest thing. I didn’t know what the f— to expect whenever I would go into the gym, whenever I’d go into the plane, whenever I’ go into the game. I was like: ‘Man.’ I think I was as lost as the next m———–. […] There was so much going on on every given day, I was like yup, guess I’m just here to work I didn’t know who to talk to.”
And that’s how Philadelphia’s loss became Miami’s enormous gain.
Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
8. NIKOLA JOKIC, DENVER
Last week’s ranking: No. 6.
After an extended strong stretch of play, Nikola Jokic experienced a pretty big slump over the last five games prior to the suspension of play, averaging just 12.4 points and 10.8 rebounds while hitting just one of his 13 three-point attempts in that stretch. Of course, as we’ve seen over recent years, the Denver Nuggets will only go as far as the big Serbian will take them, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the team went 2-3 over that run of play, including embarrassing losses to the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers.
Craig Mitchelldyer-USA TODAY Sports
7. DAMIAN LILLARD, PORTLAND
Last week’s ranking: No. 7.
It’s been an up-and-down season for the Portland Trail Blazers, but that’s not Damian Lillard’s fault, as the five-time All-Star has been excellent on the campaign as a whole, averaging 28.9 points (No. 5 mark in the NBA) and 7.8 assists per game (No. 6 mark league-wide). Even despite Lillard’s excellence on the campaign (the Blazers are 8.9 points per 100 possessions with Lillard on the floor), however, Portland currently sits outside of the Western Conference playoff rankings, 3.5 games behind the Memphis Grizzlies for the all-important eighth seed.
Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
6. KAWHI LEONARD, LA CLIPPERS
Last week’s ranking: No. 8.
The Los Angeles Clippers are 7-1 over their last eight games, with the lone loss coming against one of the league’s elite teams who we’ll get to talk about at length in just a bit. Over that stretch, Leonard was averaging 24.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.8 steals per contest while shooting 51.1 percent from the floor and 84.2 percent from the foul stripe. Leonard has looked as explosive as he has all year recently…
…and with both he and Paul George finally fully healthy at the same time, the Clippers have looked like a different level of beast over the past few weeks.
Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
5. LUKA DONCIC, DALLAS
Last week’s ranking: No. 5.
There’s no doubt that Luka Doncic is posting arguably the greatest age-20 season in league history, with averages of 28.7 points (No. 6 in the NBA), 9.3 rebounds and 8.7 assists (No. 4) per outing. Doncic is the only player in league history to put up a 28/9/8 stat line prior to their age-21 season, and he’s doing it in the tougher Western Conference, where he has the Dallas Mavericks sitting No. 7 overall with a 40-24 record. Outrageously impressive stuff by Doncic, which makes it scary when you realize the best is still ahead for him.
Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
4. JAMES HARDEN, HOUSTON
Last week’s ranking: No. 2.
Prior to the Houston Rockets’ last game before the league suspension, James Harden had been in a pretty big rut, averaging 25 points nightly but shooting 31.7 percent from the floor over a five-game stretch where Houston went 1-4 while being outscored by 45 points. Harden bounced back in his last game, scoring 37 points on 11-for-19 shooting, but that porous run of form was enough to knock the bearded 2-guard out of the Top-2 of these rankings for the first time in a while. It’s had its bright spots, but the Rockets’ super small-ball experiment has had its bouts of inconsistency, too, and they’re seemingly affecting Harden more than they have Russell Westbrook, who has been on fire for over a month now.
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
3. ANTHONY DAVIS, LA LAKERS
Last week’s ranking: No. 4.
As if Anthony Davis wasn’t already performing at a high enough level, the big man is also on a hot streak from three, hitting 42.2 percent of his outside looks over his last 10 games, eight of which were wins for the Los Angeles Lakers. Add that hot outside shooting to his 26.7 points, 9.4 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game and Defensive Player of the Year-caliber point-stopping, and you have one of the most effective two-way players in basketball at the moment. Even so, Davis actually gave a different player credit when asked about league MVP for this season…
AD on ppl who don't think LeBron is MVP: "They need to watch the last two games. I mean, what he’s been able to do: taking on matchups defensively, leading the pack offensively, making the right plays, you don’t see that from a guy who is 17 years in the league."
LeBron James made a major statement towards MVP, winning back-to-back games against the Milwaukee Bucks and the player coming up No. 1 on our list before then beating Leonard and the Clippers two days later. In those two outings, James averaged 32.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 8.5 assists per game while shooting 50 percent from the floor and converting 82.8 percent of his 14.5 nightly free-throw attempts. As far as storylines go, James having the season he’s having at 35 years old while leading the Lakers to the second-best record in basketball will go a long way in MVP voting – if and when that time comes.
Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
1. GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO, MILWAUKEE BUCKS
Last week’s ranking: No. 1.
Of course, storylines and talking points only go so far when determining league MVP, as we must weigh statistics and team records more heavily than the typical water-cooler talk. And on the year, Antetokounmpo blows everyone away when you look at those factors. Not only are his raw statistics – 29.6 points, 13.7 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 1.0 blocks nightly – out of this world, but in the catch-all advanced metrics, Antetokounmpo beats James in every single one, most of them by a pretty big discrepancy. Oh, and the Bucks have the league’s best record at 53-12 and net rating (+10.7) by a wide margin. If we’re just looking at the numbers and not at other outside factors like age or national TV performances, Antetokounmpo is still comfortably the frontrunner for league MVP this season.
You can follow Frank Urbina on Twitter: @FrankUrbina_.
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James looked like he was in feel-it-out mode in the first game against the Milwaukee Bucks back in December.
The basketball world will have their eyes fixed on Los Angeles and Staples Center tonight as the two best teams in the NBA do battle for the second and final time in the regular season. Back on Dec. 19, the Bucks beat the Lakers in Milwaukee by the score of 111-104, with the Bucks holding the normally potent Lakers offense to just 104 points.
So while I usually save such effort for the postseason, I went back to watch the December match-up to see what to look for, what could be different and how the Lakers can earn what would easily be their best win of the season.
The Relentless Connectivity of the Bucks defense
The Bucks are running away with the NBA’s best defensive-rating by a country mile. Their current 101 defensive rating is four points better than the No. 2 ranked team in the league, the Raptors, and nearly five points better than the No. 3 ranked Lakers defense.
While Toronto relies on constant creativity and the Lakers have the talent to lock teams down for stretches, none of them have the relentless connectivity that the Bucks show on every possession. Even an early possession in the game warrants this hard close out from Brook Lopez on Kentavious Caldwell-Pope after LeBron finds him with an outlet pass. Plays like this and effort like this help Lopez’s legitimate case to make an All-Defensive team and also shows why the Bucks defense works on basically every level.
[wpvideo gF8ofDT3]
Part of this also helps when LeBron himself has the ball. Look at all of the eyes on LeBron, let alone Wesley Matthews being inside his shirt on the drive.
The Bucks defense is elite for a reason but no NBA team is perfect, even though Milwaukee’s defense is pushing that limit. There is one avenue that the Lakers didn’t explore as much against Milwaukee last time and it will be interesting to see if the Lakers go to it tonight.
Will LeBron bring out the deep 3-pointers on the Bucks dropping scheme?
For the last three seasons, LeBron James has become more and more comfortable expanding his range from the 3-point line. But in going back to watch the first game where LeBron finished with 21 points and a triple-double, I came away wondering if LeBron had put his best game out there.
In the early going, it appeared that James was in learning-mode, almost like he is in Game 1 of a playoff series. And the shot-charts validated my observation as he took only one 3-point shot of 29-feet or longer against the Bucks. James has been shooting those shots more often since the Bucks game, taking over half of his 28 deep 3-point attempts since the calendar changed to 2020. James is 11 for 29 (39 percent) on those deep ones in 2019-20. So not only do teams have to think about it, it’s often been a devastating shot.
Will the Lakers bigs set screens higher to take advantage of the Bucks big men dropping back in the pick and roll? Can they set better screens on Wesley Matthew or whoever is guarding LeBron on the ball? For all of the other shooters on the Lakers, nobody on the team is equipped to create their own deep 3-point looks like LeBron is. If LeBron is going to put cracks in the defense, with as how great Milwaukee’s interior defense is, he’s going to have to do it from deep.
Should James force the Bucks defense to creep up, that could make things easier for Anthony Davis, who had a tough 11 for 25 night that included him going 0 for 6 from 3. The Bucks also give up the most corner 3s in the league, so Danny Green, who hit 7 3s in the last meeting, should still get plenty of looks.
Will Giannis stay hot from 3 against the Lakers? And will the other Bucks role players make them pay if he doesn’t?
The Lakers, while not as great as the Bucks as a team defensively, also have plenty of size in the middle to try and disturb the reigning MVP at the rim. To answer that size, Giannis had the best 3-point shooting game of his career in the Dec. 19 Milwaukee win. Antetokounmmpo was five of 8 from 3 in the game while he also got multiple 3-pointers from Wesley Matthews, George Hill, and Milwaukee’s other All-Star Khris Middleton.
Middleton only took 10 shots in the last game but still shot 50 percent, while Giannis lit it up from the outside. If Giannis struggles to make his 3-pointers, Middleton is plenty capable of creating his own offense. But the key for the Lakers will be trying to keep Giannis contained while also being turned into the rest of Milwaukee’s great 3-point shooters.
The NBA released the latest returns and the Los Angeles Lakers star is in line to become a captain of the game for the third straight year.
After the early returns indicated a changing of the guard in the All-Star voting, the newest returns released by the NBA on Jan. 9 shows that the love for LeBron James is still as strong as ever.
After trailing both Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetkounmpo in the first voting returns, LeBron is now the leading vote-getter in NBA All-Star voting for 2020. If the results hold at this pace, James will be a captain in the All-Star Game for the third straight season. Although the fan vote accounts for only 50 percent of the All-Star voting results, the two captains will be selected by the player with the highest vote total in each conference.
According to the NBA, James has a lead of over 81,000 over Doncic in the Western Conference. Giannis Antetokounmpo, on the other hand, increased his lead to become the captain from the Eastern Conference for the second straight seasons.
As for other Lakers, Anthony Davis looks like a lock to start alongside his teammate LeBron as Davis currently had 3.1 million votes, trailing only Doncic and James in the West. Dwight Howard also remains in the top-10 in All-Star votes while the Alex Caruso gag continues to get even funnier, with Caruso moving into sixth place among guards for All-Star votes.
Below are the full top 10 for backcourt and frontcourt for each conference.
Boston Celtics wing Marcus Smart, despite standing at just 6-foot-4, has done a phenomenal job defenders players much larger than he is.
Boston Celtics wing Marcus Smart, despite standing at just 6-foot-4, has done a phenomenal job defending players much larger than he is.
The 25-year-old made All-Defensive 1st Team last season but has taken another leap forward with a bigger role this year. His ability to switch on to centers has been a focal point of Boston’s defensive identity and something that allows coach Brad Stevens to use his five-man lineups in a different way than almost any other team in the league.
We looked at all of the opponents that Smart has guarded so far this season, then isolated just the players who are classified as big men by Cleaning the Glass.
Based on this research of 146 possessions, Smart has allowed just 16.3 points per 70 possessions. These players are shooting 36.7 percent from the floor on 30 attempts.
For example, look at when Dallas Mavericks’ Kristaps Porzingis attempted three post-up attempts against Smart on November 12. The 7-foot-3 big was not able to convert any, however, despite the ridiculous size mismatch.
The largest workload came when he guarded Kevin Love for a total of 31.1 possessions during the game Boston played against Cleveland on November 5.
While Smart was guarding Love during the third quarter, the five-time All-Star was left completely flabbergasted to the point where he was forced to take an undeniably bad pass.
Smart, however, tipped the ball and forced a turnover that Robert Williams was able to recover. The guard leads his team with 2.8 deflections per game so far this season. Last season, he recorded more total deflections (228) than all but just one player in the Eastern Conference.
But even more impressive was when the Celtics played the Bucks early in the season on October 30.
Smart matched up against the reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo for 16.9 possessions. The superstar scored just five points and managed only two attempts from the floor. That means Smart held the Milwaukee sensation to less than half of the field goal attempts Antetokounmpo has taken against all other defenders.
Antetokounmpo had three turnovers, was impacted by his defensive presence all game and he even ended up tumbling to the floor amidst a brief scrap with Smart.
Watch Marcus Smart on D… picks up Bledsoe on the cross match, switches onto Giannis, fronts to prevent the entry pass, Milwaukee turnover. This won't go down as a turnover Smart forced, but it's a turnover Smart heavily influenced. pic.twitter.com/Tf6AL4u3u8
Here is what the scrappy defender said after the game, which was a rematch of the Eastern Conference Semifinals (via NBC Sports):
“Every time I’m boxing him out, he’s trying to throw me out the way. It lets me know he’s frustrated, I’m getting to him, especially when he’s not getting to the ball, or he’s not getting to the rim, or he’s not getting the shots that he usually gets.”
Smart also forced New York Knicks star Julius Randle into a frenzy and picked his pocket on the perimeter, creating a transition opportunity for the Celtics.
Other notable matchups against bigs for Smart include his strong showing against Dario Saric. The Phoenix Suns starter took four shots (including a three-pointer) when guarded by Smart but missed all of them.
Another highlight was when the 6-foot-4 wing was able to record a block over 6-foot-11 big man Moritz Wagner in a game against the Washington Wizards.
Smart offers Boston a grittiness that Stevens can trust against and he has played a crucial role in their hot start and placement atop the standings in the East.
