Rookie Wire looked at the NBA through games played on Thursday and ranked each team from worst to first.
The calendar has flipped to 2024, and teams in the NBA have started to hit their stride after stringing together some impressive performances on the court of late.
The past week of action has seen some of the championship contenders pick up key wins, proving how dangerous they can be. Other teams around the league have seemingly struggled of late and have fallen down the standings some.
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The collective basketball community is also getting a clearer picture of the players approaching All-Star status after the league released the first batch of voting results on Thursday. The list featured some of the usual candidates and some newcomers.
To make further sense of it all, Rookie Wire looked at the NBA and ranked each team from worst to first. We will return each week and provide our latest assessment of the best teams and those that are rising.
New York Knicks wing Quentin Grimes was floated as a potential Chicago Bulls trade target.
As the Chicago Bulls continue to traverse one of the weirdest seasons in recent memory, the NBA trade deadline will be an important market. The Bulls began the season 5-14 but have somehow managed to turn things around. They’re now fully in the mix for the Play-In Tournament and could look to make some big-time moves at the deadline.
Zach LaVine could be first on the list of players to be traded, but perhaps the more intriguing storyline to follow will be if the Bulls decide to push forward or completely tear things down. Or maybe they could look to be somewhere in the middle.
Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report recently suggested that the Bulls target New York Knicks wing Quentin Grimes in a potential trade.
“If the Knicks have another splash trade in them, Grimes feels like one of the more logical candidates to be involved,” Buckley wrote. “If the Bulls can elbow their way into that swap, they should try to be his landing spot. He’s a hard-nosed defender with a low-maintenance offensive game built around efficient shooting and sound decision-making.
“He could handle a significant role in the rotation right now and still be capable of more down the line. In other words, he could be a supporting piece with this core and perhaps help grow the next nucleus with Coby White, Patrick Williams and Ayo Dosunmu.”
At just 23 years old, Grimes’ shooting has a chance to help the Bulls compete for a Play-In spot right now, but he’s also the type of player who could still grow and improve in Chicago.
After the Chicago Bulls’ 116-100 loss to the New York Knicks, Billy Donovan credited Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle.
Despite sitting at the bottom of the Play-In Tournament race, the Chicago Bulls have sneakily been one of the better teams in basketball over. the past few weeks. Led by Coby White and DeMar DeRozan, they’ve made a small push. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get the job done on Wednesday night against the New York Knicks.
The Bulls ended up losing by a score of 116-100 to the new-look Knicks, who just added OG Anunoby in a trade with the Toronto Raptors. However, it was Julius Randle who ended up leading the charge for New York, outdueling DeRozan and White, who led the Bulls in scoring.
After the game, Bulls head coach Billy Donovan credited Randle and Jalen Brunson for leading the way for New York.
“We had opportunities to make some plays and we didn’t make enough, and Randle and Brunson really played well down the stretch,” Donovan said via ESPN. “We just couldn’t convert enough of our opportunities.”
Randle ended the night with a game-high 31 points to go along with six rebounds and four assists while shooting 13-of-23 from the floor and 3-of-7 from distance.
Meanwhile, Brunson put up 31 points, three rebounds, and 13 assists while shooting 13-of-22 from the field and 4-of-9 from distance.
DeRozan led the Bulls in scoring with 28 points, while White put up 26 of his own.
In addition, Andre Drummond and Isaiah Hartenstein battled it out on the glass, finishing the game with 16 and 21 rebounds, respectively.
Chicago will head into their Friday night contest against the Charlotte Hornets looking to bounce back with a win.
Josh Hart wants to play a new position…quarterback.
New York Knicks wing Josh Hart made a hilarious mistake while passing the ball during a victory over the Bulls on Wednesday.
Hart took the ball up the court in transition and had a 5-on-4 advantage for a fastbreak. But he got a little carried away and rather than throwing the ball to one of his teammates, he threw the ball way into the stands for a turnover.
It was a hilarious blunder to see the ball travel so far into the stands like a foul ball in baseball. It was funny on its own but even funnier when you saw his reaction to what happened.
After the game, Hart posted a meme on Twitter of this silly possession. Instead of a basketball court, the background of the photo was changed to a football field and suddenly everything made a lot more sense.
Hart looked a lot like a quarterback thinking some variation of the meme: “Screw it, my receiver is down there somewhere.”
Anunoby made his debut for the Knicks on Monday during a victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves, one of the strongest teams in the West. Although it was his first game, he finished with 17 points (7-of-12 from the field, 3-of-6 on 3-pointers) while adding six rebounds and two steals.
After the game, Knicks guard Jalen Brunson called his new teammate a “perfect” fit for this New York roster. While it was a small sample size, it provided insight into the role Anunoby will play for his new team.
On the offensive side of the ball, Anunoby was mostly used as a catch-and-shoot floor spacer who used off-ball screens and someone who finished cuts at the basket. But it was on the defensive side of the floor where he mostly proved his value.
Timberwolves coach Chris Finch summarized it well: Anunoby can defend star guard Stephen Curry during one game and star big man Joel Embiid the following match and have similar success against both.
OG Anunoby begins his first game as a Knick guarding Anthony Edwards – exactly the kind of player he was acquired to go up against.
During his first game in New York, for example, Anunoby exemplified that perfectly. The wing defended Anthony Edwards for 32.9 partial possessions and switched on to Karl-Anthony Towns for 10.5 partial possessions.
Edwards scored 8 points when he was defended by Anunoby on Monday. For comparison, Edwards scored 9 points on 20.4 partial possessions guarded by Josh Hart and 11 points on 7.6 partial possessions defended by Julius Randle.
Anunoby held Edwards to 24.3 points per 100 possessions during this game, which is significantly better than what the Minnesota star is averaging (36.9) this season. It was hard to ignore his defensive presence whenever he was on the court.
It was a significant upgrade for New York to have Anunoby for this matchup.
When the Knicks faced the Timberwolves earlier this season, Quentin Grimes drew the assignment against Edwards. Grimes’ defensive matchup difficulty has ranked in the 99th percentile or higher both this season and last, per BBall-Index.
Now, he won’t have to do that as Anunoby will take on such tasks. Even when it’s not Edwards, like Grimes did, we already know that Anunoby will step up to guard the best player on the opposing team.
Both this season and last, Anunoby has also ranked in the 98th percentile or better in defensive matchup difficulty. But his overall defensive impact is far higher than what we have seen from Grimes.
For example, per DARKO, Anunoby grades out far better than Grimes in the defensive catch-all metric D-DPM.
Last season, via dunksandthrees.com, Anunoby had the highest overall D-EPM (Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus) among those who played at least 26 minutes per game. He also led the league in steals and he earned NBA All-Defense Second Team.
While he isn’t having the same type of impact this season, he still has one of the most unique intersections of defensive positional versatility and matchup difficulty.
Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau had concerns about playing two smaller guards and he didn’t want to play Brunson and Quickley in the backcourt at the same time.
Anunoby, at 6-foot-8 with a massive 7-foot-2 wingspan, addresses those problems and will provide the length and versatility desired on the perimeter. His presence is a relief to Grimes and his offensive usage rate is low enough that he won’t take the ball away from Brunson, who is the most capable floor general and engine for New York.
This trade already looks like a win for the Knicks, who will eventually need to agree to terms on a long-term contract with the former NBA champion.
The New York Knicks made quite the splash on Saturday morning, acquiring small forward and defensive specialist OG Anunoby from the Toronto Raptors for two players and a draft pick.
It may seem strange the two division rivals were so quick to make a deal, but it works out well for both sides as the Raptors get to retool on the fly while the Knicks continue to make a playoff push.
Heading back to Canada is Toronto native RJ Barrett along with Immanuel Quickley — the latter of whom appeared to learn about the deal the same way the rest of us did: from an Adrian Wojnarowski post on X/Twitter.
Shortly after Woj broke the news, Knicks players began posting as if this were all brand new information they were hearing for the first time.
It’s tough to find out this is how your team is moving you, but it’s unfortunately commonplace these days. The newsbreakers move too quickly in this league.
An inter-division trade is sending a two-way star back to the New York Knicks
The New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors are shaking things up with an inter-division trade on Saturday morning.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Raptors are sending OG Anunoby to New York for a package including Immanuel Quickley and Toronto-native RJ Barrett.
It’s not a surprise to see the Raptors move major pieces and attempt to retool at this point in the year. Toronto is 12-19, last in the Atlantic Division and already falling behind in the race for the postseason play-in games. The Knicks, meanwhile, get another star player on an expiring contract to pair with Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle.
Rookie Wire looked at the NBA through games played on Thursday and ranked each team from worst to first.
With the calendar set to flip over to 2024, the NBA is through two-plus months of action on the court behind some incredible play from the top players in the game.
The first half of the season has seen most of the championship contenders establish themselves as the front-runners to win this year. Other teams who’ve had surprising starts this season find themselves right there alongside the favorites, too.
To make further sense of it all, Rookie Wire looked at the NBA and ranked each team from worst to first. We will return each week and provide our latest assessment of the best teams and those that are rising.
Perhaps the biggest concern right now is that head coach Tom Thibodeau insists on playing RJ Barrett over 24-year-old guard Immanuel Quickley. Even though Barrett was selected third overall in the 2019 NBA Draft and has shown flashes of potential, it is Quickley who has contributed more to winning for New York.
This was exemplified when the Knicks lost to the Thunder, 129-120, on Wednesday. Barrett finished with 14 points (5-of-14 from the field, 1-of-7 on 3-pointers) in 29 minutes while Quickley (7-of-10 FG, 4-of-5 3P) was a lot more efficient and productive with only 24 minutes played.
When asked about having RJ replace IQ late in the fourth quarter, Thibs says it was due to matchups and b/c OKC has length/size. Says “everyone needs to sacrifice.” pic.twitter.com/98kcxhyzzg
Here is more explanation in this story from Fred Katz (via The Athletic):
“Thibodeau has shied away from specificities whenever asked about Quickley’s minutes, instead reiterating more generally his points about sacrifice. But he looks at the lineup data. He has said various times that point differential per possession is the ‘most important’ statistic.”
In that case, what do the numbers tell us? It is worth noting that the best lineups for the Knicks feature Quickley playing alongside Brunson, Julius Randle, Josh Hart and either Mitchell Robinson or Isaiah Hartenstein.
New York has outscored opponents by 7.1 points per 100 possessions during the 447 minutes that Quickley has appeared without Barrett so far this year. Meanwhile, per PBPStats, the Knicks are getting outscored by 4.2 points per 100 in the 484 minutes when Barrett has appeared without Quickley.
Dating back to the 2020-21 campaign, including the playoffs, the contrast is even more striking. New York has a net rating of plus-10.4 with Quickley but no Barrett and a net rating of minus-4.3 with Barrett but no Quickley.
While it is important to have as much height and length as possible on the court, the advanced analytics also suggest that Quickley is a more impactful player than Barrett.
We pulled visualization to compare and contrast how the two players have fared in two of the most trusted advanced analytics, Estimated Plus-Minus and Daily Plus-Minus.
Both suggest that since the start of his professional career, Quickley has maintained the edge by a fairly wide margin.
This isn’t necessarily an indictment on Barrett, who is one of the highest-paid players on the Knicks and is signed to a four-year deal worth $107 million.
Instead, playing more with the second unit could potentially benefit Barrett.
Per 100 possessions, he has scored an additional 3.6 points and 1.3 assists during minutes he has not played with Brunson relative to when they have played together. His usage rate has also spiked from 24.9 percent to 30.0 percent during these minutes, per PBPStats.
A change of his role would give him more opportunities to lead New York’s offense rather than playing more off-ball. Barrett has struggled on spot-up possessions and when his shot is contested, his catch-and-shoot jumper isn’t falling.
Quickley, who was the runner-up for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year last season, does well in the second unit. But if the Knicks are going to make a serious run in the Eastern Conference, he should play in the starting lineup instead of Barrett.
The trio of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren highlighted the win.
Gilgeous-Alexander totaled 37 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. Williams scored a career-high 36 points. Holmgren added 22 points, five rebounds and four blocks.
The duo of Williams Holmgren combined for 27 fourth-quarter points to close the win.
Meanwhile, the Knicks were led by Julius Randle, who had 25 points. Jalen Brunson had 24 points and seven assists.
Let’s look at some of the best photos from the Thunder’s nine-point win over the Knicks.
