The NBA should not have been able to survive a four-month absence. By all logic, players should be out of shape and their timing should have rusted beyond recognition. But with most Orlando practice games on the books, we can safely say that basketball is back. Not the pale imitation many feared, but true NBA caliber basketball.
Teams are still missing key pieces. The eight planting games will be essential from a conditioning perspective. But the quality of basketball has been so high in these practice games that we can begin to draw meaningful conclusions about the upcoming season based on them. Below are five of the main conclusions from this weekend’s list of exhibition games.
Set sail for the island of waiters
The NBA lied to us. They told us they were building their bubble at Disney World, but watch the games. They are clearly taking place on the Island of Waiters. The Lakers’ response to their offensive bench problem dropped 12 points in the fourth quarter on Saturday to follow with a stellar debut on Thursday.
Those points also didn’t come in unstable heat control. The physique and ball handling that Waiters has shown in a Lakers uniform has so far been absent from his bench throughout the season. The Lakers have no shortage of shooters without the ball. Now they finally have someone who can create their own offense during the precarious minutes LeBron James needs to sit down. They’ve scored 105.2 points for every 100 possessions in those minutes this season, but if Waiters looks like this when the real games begin, their biggest weakness will have been fixed.
Andre learned to shoot … uh oh
The last time we saw Andre Roberson on an NBA court, he made only 22.2 percent of his 3-point attempts. So helpless behind the goal was Oklahoma City’s star defender that opponents resorted to not protecting him. Absolutely. They nominally hit him big, but really, they left him alone in the name of extra protection and help for the edge. Roberson was so good defensively that he still deserved more than to play, but arguably being the worst shooter in basketball creates certain limitations.
But apparently Roberson has been doing more than just recovering in the two and a half years he’s been away. “He’s shooting the ball better than he ever shot,” said teammate Abdel Nader. We scoff, and with good reason. “He’s shooting better than ever” lives up to “he’s in the best shape of his life” among basketball quotes that are almost never true. But Roberson made us look silly on Sunday.
The NBA’s worst shooter hit three consecutive points in the last minute of Oklahoma City’s scrimmage against Philadelphia to give the Thunder victory. Add your triple on your first scrimmage, and Roberson is now shooting 75 percent from behind the arc on these scrimmages. That is obviously not sustainable, but the confidence with which you are shooting is. Watch how calmly and quickly you lift the winner of the game with one hand to your face. Nader was not lying. Roberson has been working on his shot. If he can even get below average instead of terrible, based on everything he does, the Thunder are adding an incredibly valuable player.
Welcome to the 21st century, Indiana
The Pacers have a minimum score of 27.5 triples per game. During their two scrimmages, they took 31 and 33. There isn’t a huge gap … until you remember that the first scrimmage lasted only 40 minutes. It’s a small sample, but it equates those numbers to 48-minute games, and throughout the season, the Pacers would be ninth in the NBA in three-point attempts per game.
It is unknown how this will translate to Indiana’s healthy roster next season. Domantas Sabonis was just an All-Star. He will not go to the bank to attend to Indiana’s new small ball group. But with an apparently healthy comeback from Victor Oladipo and Aaron Holiday starting at Sabonis’ place, the Pacers seem like a whole new team, one potentially equipped to win a round or two. More importantly, it opens the door to a compromise next season. The Pacers have been remarkably successful without shooting in recent years. If Nate McMillan internalizes the offensive success this group is having enough to bring them to an average next season, the Pacers could be legitimate contenders.
The Raptors did it again.
Pascal Siakam should have been a fluke. Teams should not be able to consistently recruit raw athletes by the end of the first round and turn them into versatile stars. Siakam became an NBA player when he learned to channel that athletics into elite defense while simultaneously developing a 3-point shot and tighter grip.
Well … OG Anunoby entered the NBA as a strong defender. He hit more than 38 percent behind the arc this season. And now, he’s just doing things like this with the ball.
It makes sense. The NBA only had four months off. That’s the length of a typical low season. Young players would naturally return with new skills. But for Toronto to accomplish this with consecutive first-round picks is completely amazing. NBA teams scour the globe for versatile, even passable wings. The Raptors apparently create them out of thin air.
We miss you Nurk
It’s hard to find out what Terry Stotts possessed to start Jusuf Nurkic on the forward with Hassan Whiteside on Sunday. It stained their numbers a bit, as the crowded lanes led to a 4-by-13 night of shooting. But otherwise? Nurkic looked like his old self on Sunday with 17 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and the same defensive mobility he showed in his remarkable 2018-19 season.
The Blazers won’t make a sound in these playoffs. Your best case scenario is to catch seed number 8 and put out a first-round showdown against the small-sized humanless Lakers on your roster. Allowing Carmelo Anthony to defend LeBron James for seven games is the basketball equivalent of carrying a whale bat in a shootout. But a healthy Nurkic is essential to Portland’s future. So far, it seems like the Blazers have their center back in full force.
