The HoopsHype Daily: Enjoy your Christmas by perusing through these good holiday reads

Need a breather from spending every second with family? Check out these fun holiday reads, as well as some of our best stories of the year.

CHRISTMAS DAY GAME HISTORY: The NBA provides us with what to look forward to in today’s batch of exciting Christmas Day action while giving us a brief history regarding some of the best moments/feats/stats in Christmas-Day-game history.

BEST CHRISTMAS GAMES EVER: There have been some insanely fun showdowns on Christmas, both between teams that would eventually face off in the finals as well as between competing MVP candidates. Check out some of the best Christmas Day games ever here.

HIGH SCORERS ON CHRISTMAS: We break down which players have the highest scoring performances in Christmas-Day history. Not in the mood for reading? In that case, you can flip through the gallery version of that article instead. You are welcome.

HOW CHRISTMAS DAY BASKETBALL STARTED: Learn about the fascinating history behind how Christmas Day became a sacred holiday not just for the religious, but for the basketball aficionado as well.

WAIVED ON CHRISTMAS: At the end of the day, the NBA is a business, and that means even Christmas won’t stop the machine from spinning. Here is the lengthy list of players who have been waived on Christmas.

😞 Sorry, Jeff Green, who became the latest victim of this sad trend.

BEST NON-CHRISTMAS HOOPSHYPE CONTENT: Below, check out some of our favorite articles from this season thus far.

TRADE SZN PICKING UP STEAM: 🔮 There are a few franchises that immediately come to mind as potential Kevin Love suitors, primarily teams on the second (or third) tiers of their respective conferences in need of scoring and rebounding. We broke down four such situations here.

ALDRIDGE TRADE VALUE: The Spurs are having a rough year, one that could lead to them shipping away some of their veterans. We spoke to various NBA executives to determine what seven-time All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge’s trade value might look like.

BACK TO THE EAST? Per The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor, Orlando has expressed interest in Spurs swingman DeMar DeRozan. We take a look at his potential fit there.

HOLIDAY ON THE BLOCK? Jrue Holiday is the type of player who would fit in just about any situation, particularly on playoff-caliber teams, and we broke down four situations where he’d make a lot of sense if he were to get traded.

ONE PORTLAND OPTION: Just because the Blazers don’t want to add long-term salary to their books doesn’t mean they’re going to be totally silent on the trade market. One solid option for Portland could be Thunder swingman Danilo Gallinari, who is on the last year of his contract. We broke down the potential fit here.

PARSONS SPEAKS OUT: We had a nice conversation with Chandler Parsons, who opened up about the injuries he’s suffered and the idea that he’s the most overpaid player in the league. Parsons told us: “I think anybody with a brain in my situation would have taken the contract. Should I have predicted that I was going to be hurt and took less or took half the money? That’s psychotic. Now the contract is what it was and, obviously, I didn’t live up to it.”

💰 Can’t say he’s wrong. Parsons is on the final year of a four-year, $94.4 million contract; he’s the 45th-highest paid player in the league this season.

CARUSO OPENS UP: Alex Caruso used to be a regular basketball fan with a twitter account, following his favorite players and keeping up with the latest news. Now, he’s one of them, which he finds surreal.

AGGREGATE MOCK: We have the latest aggregate mock draft for 2020, where we take all of the top prognosticators and average them out to see where the top prospects are projected to be selected.

T-REX ARMS: We ranked active NBA players by the worst wingspan-to-height ratios. Most of those players having something in common, but we’ll let you guys figure out what it is.

LAMELO-CENTRIC POD: Bleacher Report’s Mirin Fader joins Alex Kennedy to discuss the two weeks she spent with LaMelo Ball in Australia, including an interesting tidbit about his deteriorating relationship with his brother Lonzo.

BAD TEAMS, GOOD PLAYERS: We compiled a list of the players with the most points scored on losing teams throughout league history. We were somewhat surprised to see Pete Maravich rank pretty high on the list.

SALARY QUIZ: WHO’S THIS NBA PLAYER? 🤔

Click here for the answer.

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