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 »

Utah's system is reliable and, save for a few instances of especially inspired passing, as predictable as the math it tends toward. Safe money lies with teams who play above-average defense while also maximizing three-point volume and efficiency. Read more »

Maybe it's okay that Ben Simmons isn't going to be a devastating all-around scorer, because he brings to the floor an abundance of other qualities that help you win basketball games. Read more »

The timing is odd but Gersson Rosas probably actually wanted Chris Finch instead of Ryan Saunders all along and now they half a weird season left to start figuring out what's next. Read more »

Blake Griffin has looked like a shell of himself, failing to prop up a young and inexperienced Pistons team. But there might be a late career role player in there if he can find the right situation. Read more »

As things are currently set up, franchises have immense control over what players are allowed to do- where they can work, how they work, what they can say, even what they do in their limited spare time. For every James Harden in the league, there's many more Andre Drummonds. Read more »

The COVID inflicted NBA season has been a sloppier, more austere, less predictable and ideal product than the one that we're used to. Hopefully the experience shows the league ways to do things better afterwards than they were done before. Read more »

Player power is still hard-won and selective. Yet as ever, there is a limit to what the league can concede and the grief Karl-Anthony Towns is playing through shows that no player, regardless of their abilities, can stop the machine from mindlessly moving forward. Read more »

With Stephen Curry on his own again, he is unleashed in a way he hasn't been since the 2015-16 season, and though nothing can match the fever dream of that year, there's something thrilling about watching him try. Read more »

Kevin Garnett is less burdened by his own agenda, lives less firmly in his own fermenting bitterness. And he simply likes the sport more than Shaq does, so he's more apt to hand the younger generation its due. Read more »

Unlike the peak of the Warriors' era, the emerging championship contenders of today seem not to be bent in any consistent direction. It is time, instead, to build different kinds of flying that make the sport a more marvelous stew of style. Read more »

The most you can ask of a young player, if they're not immediately awesome as so few are, is for them to illumine new possibilities. Anthony Edwards, James Wiseman and LaMelo Ball are certainly doing that during their young careers. Read more »

For as skilled and capable with the ball as he is on offense, Evan Mobley might be even more special and a perfect fit for this era on defense. Read more »

Neither Shaq or Charles is a true analyst, but that much more rare thing: they are entertainers. That is what they're paid for, and also the basis for a steady team in a media field that's in constant turnover elsewhere. Read more »

A younger John Wall could have done some serious damage in a league like this. As it stands, the increased spacing and rapid action are helping him do a decent impression of his old self. Read more »

While the league liked to talk about the Bubble as a public service of sorts, a comforting sign of normalcy in trying times, little rhetoric of that type has arisen this year. There's no use pretending anymore. Read more »

The wildness of Collin Sexton's play is becoming more of a stylistic affectation than something you worry about. Read more »

A singular mix of past and present, of talent and narrative, the new Brooklyn Nets are an entity too dense for one moment, and will require years of observation and unpacking to comprehend. Read more »

Jerami Grant was certain to receive the reps to try and grow into a bigger role, but he's done even more than that. Grant has exceeded expectations. Read more »

When you have topline players like Kyrie, Durant, and Harden, you don't need much other than they not self-combust in a typhoon of neuroses, ego, bickering, and mental-emotional cataclysm. Read more »