If there is something deeply satisfying about watching Blake Griffin play these days- and to be clear, despite the gloomy overtones, there certainly is- it's the extent to which he's mastered his craft. Read more »

The past several weeks of NBA basketball have been scantly watchable, and it's primarily because of structural issues wrought by businessmen. Read more »

It's tempting to wonder what true freedom would look like for Zion Williamson, what he would do with his talents if he could apply them more freely, but that's a far-off fantasy. Read more »

As self-promotional as Jimmy Butler's whole shtick may be, it's hard to doubt that he genuinely does enjoy humiliating basketball players for the crime of not being up for the challenge he presents them with. This will reach a new height on a playoff run with Philadelphia. Read more »

You can have a good time watching a Magic game, and you can talk about what they are, rather than what they might be three years down the road. That's a small victory. Read more »

Jusuf Nurkić isn't Portland's best player, but he was perhaps the fullest embodiment of the Blazers' ideal: a solid professional performing a fair bit better than that descriptor suggests, a truly exciting if slightly inconsistent and limited talent. Read more »

Philadelphia's borderline delusional confidence is what makes them such a compelling team. Harris is a sweetheart, but Butler, Embiid, and Simmons are all brash and chippy and ornery. Read more »

Kyle Lowry has shown that it is possible to elevate all the right aspects in the business of putting a player's career first without sacrificing loyalty and contribution to the team. Read more »

Nikola Vucevic does everything well, just a shade less well, and a few shades less engagingly than his peers. Read more »

At the edge of NBA relevance, all Isaiah Thomas can do now is fight like hell to hold down a job. And he'll forever be aggrieved about what he didn't get. Read more »

LeBron James had a grand vision for himself when he chose the Lakers, but that got in the way of the day-to-day. Read more »

As everyone rightfully paid attention to the absolute insanity of the must-see James Harden watch-a-thon, it was guys like Kenneth Faried and Austin Rivers arriving in the night and immediately revitalizing a team that needed it badly. Read more »

The Celtics may have done everything right and ended up with a team that, due to reasons of personality and fit, simply doesn't hum like it should. Maybe they will never stop being merely theoretical. Read more »

The Kings provide a space where Harrison Barnes can operate at something like a happy medium, become the player he was meant to be rather than the one he and others have spent nearly a decade telling us he might become. Read more »

The Nuggets have discovered that surrounding him with shooters and cutters means double-teaming Nikola Jokic at any spot on the floor will be chaos for any kind of defense. Read more »

Myles Turner hasn't been an All-Star but he's a Defensive Player of the Year candidate and he's an archetype of the NBA's modern big man. Read more »

When we talk about the NBA being a players' league where the players appear to have more power than ever before, we need to be more conscientious of firstly, just how limited that power is relative to ownership and secondly, how few players we're talking about. Read more »