Damian Lillard is trapped by his own myth- the loyal one, the fierce underdog- and attempting to square his actual desires with what he thinks he should be, for other people. Read more »

Ben Simmons is not subtle or syncopated. He is simply quiet. Powerful nerves, a lack of understanding, whatever it is. Read more »

Nikola Jokic is confounding, and six years into making work what seems like it shouldn't, his coronation is us coming into a still somewhat baffled understanding of his genius. How wonderful it is that such a weird player is so effective. Straight up dominant. Read more »

For the first time in a long while, the title race is wide open, without even familiar laundry to look for. Read more »

Anthony Davis can be dominant, brilliant, unstoppable, invaluable. But we have also seen him tumble over and over and over. Read more »

Billionaires have their own ideas about what's tacky and what might severely compromise the quality of play, but their taste is all that separates the league from becoming a total cash-grabby farce. Read more »

The guys that go into the Hall of Fame precede the current crop of players by a generation or several and their accomplishments have begun to acquire the smell of warehoused memorabilia. Read more »

The Jazz and Suns have established themselves as two different types of main character but they're both defined by a kind of improbability, an anxiety about whether or not what they've been so far reflects what they're truly made of. Read more »

For all his flaws, Nate McMillan knows basketball and he knows how to treat people. That's not something to be taken for granted. Read more »

Russell Westbrook does everything so rapidly and all at once that it's hard to make sense of it, so it is fitting that his decline should happen unevenly. Read more »

The Knicks are exploring the outer limits of what a not-great team can do when they play really hard every night. That counts for a lot, especially in a sleepy pandemic season. Read more »

It is lousy to watch a sulking and thoroughly bummed out former star imposing his dissatisfaction on everyone else, uncaring and unaware. Read more »

Stephen Curry is giving it everything he's got, as if these April games were playoff contests, and it's exciting to see how expansive he can get, how much blank space he can fill. Read more »

If Jamal Murray returns right, and nothing too drastic changes during this spell he's forced to miss, they can pick up right where they left off: in the thick of a championship hunt they just might come out of on top. Read more »

The Celtics are in trouble, and if it's not inescapable, its persistence does make it harder to escape, game over game, as the subpar performances pile up. Read more »

When Aaron Gordon is asked to carry a team, he looks terrible. For the first time, he's stepping into a role he might be able to handle. With any luck, he'll soon forget about those All-Star Weekend slights, just like everybody else already has. Read more »

Kyle Lowry was a nomad for most of his 20s, being dealt is nothing new to him, but his career represents an inversion of the typical star's arc. Read more »

Some extra appreciation is due for the guy who remains engaged as ever. It's been a year of death and debt and lost wages and fissuring sanity. Read more »

Blake Griffin has nothing left to lose, which isn't necessarily the same thing as having nothing left. Read more »

It's easy to be terrible, and it's easy to be a little bit better than that. It's aspiring to competency that can leave you disappointed, get you fired. Read more »