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
What’s popping, folks? Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks so much for reading this morning.
There’s something about the Detroit Pistons that just doesn’t feel right. It’s not just that they’re bad — and, yes, they’re unbelievably bad. But it doesn’t feel like this team should be this bad. Not at this point, anyway.
For context on how bad the Pistons are we have to go back to Oct. 28 when Detroit beat the Chicago Bulls. Since then, Detroit has lost 16 straight games including one to the 3-win Washington Wizards. We’re talking “worst duo in the NBA” Washington Wizards, folks. That’s bad.
The Pistons quite literally went winless through the entire month of November. They’re the 13th team in NBA history to do so, per CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn. The last team to do it was the Process-era 76ers in 2014-15, who actually managed to go winless in an entire month three times that season.
READ MORE: Here’s how much you would’ve made betting against the Pistons in No-Win November
The Pistons shouldn’t be this bad. Detroit started the season actually trying to win games. The team has a talented player in Cade Cunningham who we all thought would maybe take a leap this season and a proven coach in Monty Williams who has coached in an NBA Finals. This mix should work.
But the talent just doesn’t mesh, man. Williams seems like a dude who doesn’t want to be there, which makes sense considering he rejected the Pistons’ initial offer before the team threw a bigger bag of money at him.
Cade is talented, to be sure, but he’s just not proving himself to be a great shotmaker. It doesn’t help that he’s being trotted out with starting lineups like this one.
Our five#DetroitBasketball | @kia pic.twitter.com/9wzwJxuhGm
— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) December 1, 2023
There’s talent on the roster, but none of it meshes. It’s hard to place the blame on any one player here.
Things are bad. And they probably aren’t getting much better anytime soon. Sorry, Pistons fans. I thought it’d be better this year. But, hey. Look on the bright side. If this keeps up, maybe there’s a legitimate shot at Cooper Flagg to end your perpetual rebuild…in 2025.
Man. That’s rough.
Rookie Ladder 2.0
Last time we checked in with you on our way-too-early Rookie of the Year rankings, Victor Wembanyama had a slight lead on Chet Holmgren for the top spot.
That lead is no more, per the latest from FTW’s Bryan Kalbrosky.
After some star-quality performances from Holmgren, he’s now squarely at the top of the ladder. For now, anyway.
Here’s more on Holmgren:
“He leads all rookies in catch-all metrics like DARKO’s Daily Plus-Minus (DPM), Estimated Plus-Minus (EPM), Box Plus-Minus (BPM), Player Efficiency Rating (PER), Win Shares (WS) and HoopsHype’s Global Rating.
Holmgren already ranks second-best among all NBA players in the all-in-one defensive metric (D-DRIP) this season, per Stats Perform. The big man ranks second-best in the catch-all metric Defensive Estimated Plus Minus (D-EPM) as well, per dunksandthrees.com.
On the offensive side of the floor, meanwhile, we are seeing Holmgren taking jumpers off the dribble and beating his defender on isolation possessions. He is gaining ground against Wembanyama in the eyes of oddsmakers, too, as he continues to exceed expectations on both sides of the ball.”
It’s still plenty close and there are other rookies like Jaime Jaquez and Ausar Thompson who’ve made plenty of noise. But the battle between Chet and Vic will be epic. Buckle in, folks. We’re in for a treat.
Everything we know about Mav Carter’s sports betting snafu
Maverick Carter might be in some trouble. He admitted to federal officers in an interview back in 2021 that he bet thousands of dollars on sports through an illegal bookie, per The Washington Post.
You’re probably asking “wait, why is this a big deal? Isn’t sports betting legal now?” That reaction totally makes sense considering the circumstances. But there are some things here that do make this report a bit troubling.
Don’t you worry. Prince Grimes has answers for you here on why this matters:
“However, where Carter’s admission is a bit troubling is that he didn’t go through one of the legal avenues to place his bets. He did it through an illegal bookie, which makes you wonder what exactly he was trying to hide.
NBA policy bans players, team and league officials from betting on NBA games, and the NBPA bars agents from betting, but there aren’t rules prohibiting managers from betting. So unless Carter was attempting to place bets from a state where betting isn’t legal yet, which is entirely possible, he didn’t have to do this through Nix, unless…”
That “unless” is a question: Was Carter betting on Lakers games? That’s where some major ethical questions come up. This story is fascinating.
READ MORE: Prince Grimes has everything we know about the situation so far. LeBron James has also responded here.
Shootaround:
— Angel Reese reminds the world (and Kim Mulkey) that she is human, too. Meghan L. Hall has more. This is brilliant stuff.
— This beef between Kevin Durant and Adidas is so perfect. Thank you, Anthony Edwards. This is a gem.
— Mitchell Robinson is rooming with his former high school coach and it’s the sweetest thing. Bryan Kalbrosky explains why.
— Let LeBron James go be a dad if he wants to. I wrote about this in The Morning Win today. Make sure you subscribe if you haven’t already.
That’s a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for reading today. I hope you enjoyed it! Have a fantastic weekend. We’ll chat again on Monday. Peace.
-Sykes ✌️