5 Questions Following Monday's Games
Of varying importance, as usual
Monday provided a great slate of hoops. So let’s talk about it. Off we go!
1. What is Brandon Miller Capable of?
If you haven’t watched much Charlotte Hornets basketball recently, then congrats— I’m glad to hear that you’re prioritizing self-care in 2024. But in that case, you’re likely unaware that rookie Brandon Miller is becoming a bit of a monster. Sure a lot of his production is coming in ghastly blowouts but I don’t particularly care because very few 21 year-olds slither and glide across the court like this no matter their team’s record:
Miller scored 29 (11/19 FG plus seven rebounds) on Monday, his fifth 20+ point outing in seven games. What is he going to look like at 27 years old? Paul George for real? I’m not ready to go there yet — that’s six All-NBA teams after all… but check back in April and my tune might change because Miller’s trajectory appears to be a steep climb upwards. His rim finishing hasn’t been great this season (32nd percentile among wings) but that was always going to be a work in progress. And everything else is coming along quickly. Frighteningly quickly in fact. He’s already around league-average from the midrange, and gets there at a high rate (92nd percentile among wings in midrange attempts.) Getting there that much—which he often does on his own— signals to me a future high-volume isolation scorer.
Maybe projecting Miller’s ceiling a half-season into his career is unfair. What about his floor? Is there any world where he doesn’t become, at least, comparable to prime Khris Middleton? I can’t picture that world. And say that is where Miller tops out; that’s still pretty damn good. Pretty, pretty, pretty damn good.
2. Does Cleveland Need Wing Help After All?
This has been a very Cavs-centric newsletter the past few weeks huh? Sorry can’t help it! They’re playing great ball!
Cleveland beat LAC on Monday, 118-108, in a game that featured high-level basketball for basically 48 minutes straight and now the Cavs are 0.5 games out of third in the East thanks to Philly’s loss.
JB Bickerstaff has this team guarding its ass off. Donovan Mitchell looked liked a lockdown defender last night. Look at our man playing the passing lanes!
Throughout the season, I’ve wondered if Cleveland should try to nab a wing scorer on an expiring contract before the deadline, but I’m starting to think the combined services of Max Strus, Dean Wade and Isaac Okoro might be good enough after all.
I was pretty damn impressed with Wade and Okoro’s defensive efforts on LA’s Big 3, who provide a nightmare matchup for uhhhh every team in the league. Kawhi Leonard scored 30 (but had to work for it) and both Paul George and James Harden were neutralized all game (combined 6-19 FG).
I’m still not opposed to Cleveland grabbing a wing who can shoot threes consistently (hello Gordon Hayward) but the more I watch, the more convinced I become that this team can make noise as constructed.
3. Are the Lakers Cooked?
Short answer: probably.
Remember that Lakers double-OT win against Golden State on Saturday? Yeah, that was fun… though in hindsight it was really just two bad teams playing competitively because they’re both kinda bad, right?
LA crashed back to .500 on Monday thanks to Alperen Sengun (31/12/7) making a mockery of its defense and Jalen Green (34/12/7) finishing up his bi-monthly, incredible three game stretch.
I don’t think LA is awful— beating New Orleans or Dallas in a play-in game wouldn’t shock me, and maybe it can spring a first round upset by somehow matching up with the Kings and praying Sacramento happens to be on one of its weird off weeks— but I’m not gonna bet the farm on it.
The defense, which has been LA’s calling card for a few seasons, is ranked 15th (I think it can be better than that, but not by a ton) and still no one on the team shoots (28th in 3PM, 30th in 3PA). Even free throw attempts, which LA led the league in last season, have regressed. The Lakers are still seventh in that category, but even a slide that small can feel huge when all other forms of offense are unreliable night to night.
This team is currently 24-24 and that seems about right. Where do they go from here? I actually have no idea.
SIDE NOTE: HOW was Dillon Brooks not ejected last night? For this… OR THIS?
4. Can Ben Simmons Still be Helpful?
I had gotten so accustomed to Ben Simmons not playing that I made an audible noise of shock when I saw him on the floor for Brooklyn on Monday.
And I just about saw God when he started doing shit like this:
Simmons finished with 10 points (5/5 FG), 11 assists, eight rebounds, one block, one steal in 18 minutes. That is a monumentally impressive statline. And I’ve never been more confident in anything that he’ll post a 0-point, six rebound, five assist performance in the near future.
What can his role be on a good team? Is he just going to be an 18-minute a night guy who can create for others and makes good defensive plays semi-regularly? That’s a fine role to have, but… not a particularly satisfying outcome for a guy who (I think) is still supremely talented.
5. Was it Really All Adrian Griffin’s Fault?
I don’t think many lessons can be extracted from a road loss to Denver in January, except for, yeah, the Nuggets are still damn good and Denver is still a tough place to play. So Milwaukee shouldn’t panic for that reason… it should just panic for all the other reasons.
I sort of understand the Adrian Griffin firing. No one seemed to be getting along and the Bucks defense has been awful all season. But this idea of “he’s gone, time to start winning” that surrounds Milwaukee right now is odd because, like, they already were winning games. So now, in order to justify the midseason firing of your coach who was 30-13 in his first season (that happened by the way, for anyone hoping to get up to speed) is to win games and look good doing it. Because that was the whole problem, right? That Milwaukee often didn’t look convincing, even in games it won? Is Doc Rivers going to fix that problem?
What I’m Listening To: Cilvia Demo 10 Year Anniversary
Ten fucking years????
An exceptional anniversary release for one of the best rap albums of the century.
Sixteen year old Quinn is smiling. So is the 26 year old version. I’m old.
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