Westbrook is expected to start Friday’s game against the Sacramento Kings, with Terrance Mann rejoining the second unit, according to The Athletic Clippers reporter Law Murray. And his sixth man odds have already began to tumble.
Russell Westbrook 6th man of the year odds this season:
November 5th: +5000 November 15th: +140 January 24th: -140 February 16th: +600 TODAY: +1100
At BetMGM, Westbrook’s +1200 odds are still far better than all but three players, but they’re now a distant fourth to the top three, including his new Clippers teammate Norman Powell at +375.
Malcolm Brogdon is the runaway favorite for the award at -190 odds, taking the top spot right around the trade deadline when Westbrook was dealt to Utah. Tyrese Maxey is third at +450.
If Westbrook plays well in his new situation, he’ll likely remain a starter, which means every bet on him to win sixth man of the year went up in smoke when the Lakers decided they needed a change. That would be good for Westbrook and his future in the NBA, but bad for his bettors.
There’s always the outside chance he stinks as a starter, goes back to the bench where he thrives again, and puts himself back in the conversation. Which means his current odds are a steal. That’s not a scenario I’m willing to bet on though.
The four-time Grammy Award-winning artist attended a game on Tuesday evening between the L.A. Clippers and his beloved hometown team, the Toronto Raptors. Kawhi Leonard and Norman Powell played for the Raptors.
Leonard and Powell won an NBA championship while playing for the Raptors in 2019. Leonard was named NBA Finals MVP and he then signed with the Clippers during the offseason. Powell was traded to the Blazers in 2021, then again traded to Los Angeles last trade deadline.
After the game, meanwhile, Leonard met up with Leonard and Powell and the Clippers posted photos on Instagram of the interactions.
They captioned it “Kawhi and Norm with a fan” and it was a nice use of a classic joke format. It was a harmless post and one that Drake easily could have ignored.
Drake, however, chose not to ignore it and instead posted that the franchise needs to “win a ring” as his reply. The Clippers have never won an NBA title.
In fairness, meanwhile, the rapper was given an official championship ring when the Raptors won the title in 2019 due to his role as a team ambassador.
Drake, of course, would not have a championship ring if it were not for Leonard — who is now employed by the Clippers. It doesn’t seem fair for the rapper, who has never played professional basketball, to point fingers on this one.
A look at some player props ahead of Friday’s play-in games.
The NBA’s Play-In Tournament has a way of keeping viewers on the edge of their toes. We all were invested on Tuesday, whether it was Anthony Edwards bringing the Minnesota Timberwolves home down the stretch of Tuesday’s game against the LA Clippers, or Kyrie Irving’s perfect three quarters against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
But the stakes are higher now â it’s literally “win or go home” for everyone on Friday night, and things are already getting interesting.
For Cleveland, how will Jarrett Allen look in his likely return from a broken finger? Will Bogdan Bogdanovic test out his sprained ankle for Atlanta? And which Clipper is going to fill in for the recently ruled out Paul George (health and safety protocols)?
Friday’s play-in game will be as intense as any matchup this year for Portland fans
Only one playoff spot remains out West and the New Orleans Pelicans and LA Clippers are getting ready to go to battle for it. The irony? Their postseason fates are about to be decided by a bunch of guys who wore the same uniform a couple of months ago.
CJ McCollum, Larry Nance Jr., Robert Covington and Norman Powell were all in Portland back in February, stuck in the mud for a Trail Blazers organization that was mired in NBA mediocracy â a team consistently not good enough to make a push for the playoffs, but not bad enough to make the draft lottery.
CJ McCollum, Larry Nance Jr., Norman Powell, and Robert Covington all started the season with the Trail Blazers.
All will compete against each other on new teams for a chance at the last spot in the Western Conference Playoffs. pic.twitter.com/Fm0weInmOc
Portland made sure it wouldn’t miss out on a top pick this year, shipping McCollum and Nance to New Orleans while Powell and Covington went to the Clippers.
All parties have had success.
The Pelicans, behind McCollum, are a win away from their first playoff appearance since 2018. Both Powell and Covington are combining to make the Clippers a potentially tough first-round matchup if they can get by New Orleans. And the Blazers completed a shameless tank in order to keep their upcoming first-round draft pick
But the bigger success comes in the form of the eighth and final playoff spot. Besides watching former Blazers go toe-to-toe for a postseason spot, there’s surprisingly a lot of rooting interest in this game for the Blazers.
Should the Clippers win, Portland will receive an additional first-round pick (via New Orleans), but if the Pels win, the pick stays with them.
Who could have known just how much power a couple of February trades would ultimately have on the league?
Norm Powell and Robert Covington vs. CJ McCollum to decide if Portland gets a second first-round pick or not.
Here’s why you should bet on the Clippers to win the West.
Ladies and gentlemen, you should bet on the LA Clippers (+2000) to win the Western Conference championship. Right now.
Hear me out. Paul George’s elbowed is healed and he’s looked like his usual self in his recent return to the court. And with Norman Powell set to return to the lineup this Wednesday against the Phoenix Suns after sitting out with a broken foot, is a championship push out of the question?
Maybe. Maybe not.
They’ll have to first get past the play-in tournament to actually secure a spot in the 2022 playoffs. Additionally, there’s the rust and lack of game reps with one another, which matters â ask the 2019-20 Clippers. And then comes the potential task of having to dethrone the reigning Western Conference champion Phoenix Suns, or potentially outplaying the dangerous No. 2 seeded Memphis Grizzlies.
Los Angeles Clippers guard Norman Powell — out since Feb. 12 with a broken foot — plans to make his return vs. Phoenix tonight, sources tell ESPN. A final decision on his availability will come after pre-game warmups. Another significant Clipper headed back before the playoffs.
But, it’s possible. We saw a similarly undermanned Clippers squad a year ago upend the West’s No. 1 seed before going six with the Suns. Their roster is better this time around, with the additions of Robert Covington, Norman Powell and Isaiah Hartenstein.
I’m a believer, but I understand those names might not move the needle for everyone. At least, not enough to pull a first-round upset over the teams with the two best records in the NBA. I get it.
But perhaps the name Kawhi Leonard will change some opinions. I’m not here to say one way or another if Leonard gives it a go this season post-ACL surgery. But I do find it strange that last month before a national television game against the Warriors, the Clippers randomly had Kawhi do a pregame workout on the court in front of the public. What was the point?
Oh, and he’s doing some on-court stuff at the practice facility.
Regardless of how much you allow yourself to believe in the Clippers’ chances at coming out of the West, this is about risk-reward. LA currently has +2000 odds (at Tipico Sportsbook) to win the West, which are numbers that may move by the time Norman Powell gets a few games in. Those will assuredly shorten if the Clips make the playoffs and the Fun Guy eventually comes back.
The dip is all but over, so now’s your last chance to jump on.
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This was supposed to be a down season for the Clippers, wasn’t it? I mean, typically after a team loses it’s star player for the season they completely fold their hand and tank for a year.
It wasn’t just one star for the Clippers, either. Not only did they lose their biggest star in Kawhi Leonard for the season with his torn ACL, but they’ve also lost Paul George for an indefinite amount of time with a shoulder injury. This team should clearly not be good.
Yet, here they are in the thick of things as the West’s 8th seed despite not having any star power to work with. And they just got a bit better.
Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, The Clippers traded Eric Bledsoe, Justise Winslow, Keon Johnson and a future second-round pick for Norman Powell and Robert Covington.
This is a straight-up fleece for the Clippers.
Not only did they get the best player in this deal, but they didn’t give up much of anything to get him. And they’re going to be so good in, both, the long and the short-term because of it.
The duo shifts focus beyond the deadline for Boston in a recent article.
While there is plenty of reporting about trade rumbles at this time of the season — just a few weeks ahead of the 2022 deadline for teams to exchange players with each other — there is also no shortage of speculation about which players ought to be dealt to which teams, too.
And given the Boston Celtics are widely seen to be among the NBA’s most active franchises on the 2022 NBA trade market, it should not surprise to see plenty of such speculation. Some are even extending the window of projection beyond the deadline to include potential offseason moves.
Not all such prognostication is created equal, however, and those with an intimate knowledge of how front offices run ought to be considered a little more closely.
Report: Atlanta Hawks discussed swapping Marcus Smart for Kevin Huerter, Cam Reddish; will take âsignificant valueâ to move Boston guard https://t.co/9zBVav2pSz
The Portland Trail Blazers have long had a strong duo in Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. But can Larry Nance Jr. be their missing link?
The Portland Trail Blazers have long had a strong duo in Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. But can Larry Nance Jr. be their missing link?
Earlier this offseason, the Trail Blazers acquired Nance in a three-team sign-and-trade deal that sent Derrick Jones Jr. to the Chicago Bulls and Lauri Markkanen to the Cleveland Cavaliers. When most people saw the transaction, they likely first thought about the implications for Markkanen. After all, the Finnish-born 24-year-old was selected in the lottery by the Chicago Bulls just four years and he is a seven-footer who can absolutely stroke from beyond the arc.
But the addition of Nance for Portland may end up having a bigger impact than anything else that happened in the trade. Nance was one of the most impactful and most versatile defensive big men in the league. Almost no player at his position records steals more often and he is also constantly among the leagueâs leaders in hustle stats like deflections.
However, it is his passing that stands out as the biggest addition for Portland.
Craig Mitchelldyer-USA TODAY Sports
As noted by Bleacher Reportâs Grant Hughes, Nance is the only active big man with a career steal rate above 2.5 percent and a career assist rate above 11.0 percent. Here is what John Hollinger said of the transaction at the time (via The Athletic):
“He makes a great offensive partner with Lillard in particular, as Nance is a top-notch passer who excels making plays out of traps and âshort rollsâ â something that happens often with bigs playing with Lillard.”
Under former head coach Terry Stotts, the Trail Blazers ranked last overall in total passes per game both last season and the season prior. They finished with the worst overall mark in assist percentage in 2020-21 and in the year before as well.
ChaunceyBillups, who will take over for Stotts as head coach, has stressed that Portland will increase its ball movement next season.
Nance, whose assist percentage has ranked in the 80th percentile or better among players at his position in each of the past three seasons (per Cleaning the Glass), can play a huge role in that mission. Dan Devine offered some context (via The Ringer):
âNance is a canny passer, dishing assists on just over 15 percent of his teammatesâ baskets in that three-season span; only a dozen bigs have boasted a higher assist rate in that stretch. Heâs a ball mover with good touch and vision, capable of finding shooters in transition, making high-low feeds to the paint, feeding the post, operating as a dribble-handoff hub from the elbows, and acting as a release-valve option on the short roll in the screen game.â
The big man is someone who can provide a ton of value as a playmaker in pinch post actions. His passer rating ranked as one of the three best on the Cavaliers. But he was never able to truly maximize that role during his time in Cleveland due to the personnel that surrounded him.
For example, during the past couple of seasons, Collin Sexton was the player who most frequently finished possessions playing the two-man game, often running dribble handoffs with Nance.
Unfortunately, however, Sexton averaged 0.62 points per possession on dribble handoffs in 2019-20. That actually ranked as the worst overall mark in the NBA among the 79 players who finished at least 35 opportunities on these actions, per Synergy.
Larry Nance Jr. told me that he hopes to "play the Draymond Green role" on the Blazers.@Larrydn22: "Thereâs only one Draymond Green. He's ridiculously talented, and I think the world of him and his game. I try to model myself in that mold." https://t.co/dfep3mKlYQ
Nance set Sexton up, sure, but the guard was unable to knock them down.
But that likely wonât be as big a problem on Portland. He recently told Alex Kennedy why he thinks he will take another step forward as a playmaker next season (via Basketball News):
âIâm thinking more so about playing hand-off ball in Cleveland and I got to do a lot of that with the guys I played with there, but itâs just a whole different layer of difficulty to guard when youâve got Dame and CJ flying off that thing. Iâm just really excited to see how we work together. ⌠Iâm excited for the DHOs, the handoffs and just being able to impact the game without being required to have the ball so much. Everybody has a skill set and that is not mine, so itâs great to be around guys that do have that in their skill set.â
Even before Nanceâs arrival, Portland had no trouble scoring on their dribble handoff actions. McCollum (2.2 ppg), Lillard (2.1 ppg) and Norman Powell (2.0 ppg) each finished among the six most prolific scorers on handoffs in the West, via Synergy.
Similarly, among all teams in the Western Conference, only the Golden State Warriors were more efficient on all handoffs than the Trail Blazers were (1.00 PPP) in 2020-21. Golden Stateâs appearance atop that particular leaderboard is no coincidence considering that three-time NBA champion Draymond Green anchors the handoff actions for the Warriors.
Even as far back as during his rookie campaign in 2016, Nance declared himself a point forward and he has consistently compared himself to Green.
Watch what Lillard was able to do when he played alongside Green for Team USA at the Olympics this past summer:
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) July 11, 2021
Nance’s comparison to Green is not just entirely self-serving, though.
As recently as earlier this year, for example, coach JB Bickerstaff (who worked with Nance on the Cavaliers) told Cleveland.com that he believed the former Wyoming standout could âhelp facilitate moreâ and that he âhas the same skill setâ that allows Green to become a playmaker in broken floors.
Nance can make similar reads whenever he catches the ball on the perimeter. Whenever his sharpshooting teammates Lillard and McCollum to sprint his direction before he can dump it off.
The big man has legitimately impressive court vision for his position and should be a legitimate asset for an offense that has historically struggled with ball movement. His presence should be an overwhelmingly positive one for Portland so long as he stays healthy.
With the NBA playoffs underway, the biggest stars are playing under the brightest lights to separate themselves before the free agency market opens this offseason.Â
With the NBA playoffs underway, the biggest stars are playing under the brightest lights to separate themselves before the free agency market opens this offseason.
Of course, executives around the league always have tough decisions to make about who they plan to re-sign as well as who they plan to pursue or let walk during free agency. But with postseason play, some of those hard choices are becoming easier to make.
As part of our ongoing series at HoopsHype, we are looking at whose free agency stock has gone up â and down â over the last several games.
There’s also a deal we’re about to talk about: the Toronto Raptors sent guard Norman Powell to the Portland Trail Blazers, giving Damian Lillard’s team another big weapon off the bench to add into the mix, while the Raps ended up with a good return.
And, as we’re doing with all the major trades of the day, we’ll hand out some grades on this deal. Let’s break it all down for you:
