Category: General NBA insight

General NBA insight

Former Bulls coach Jim Boylen speaks

The Bulls a few days ago said goodbye to head coach Jim Boylen. Although no one really knew when the move was coming, it isn’t a surprise that it did happen. Here’s NBC Sports Chicago reporting:

“I loved every minute of working for the Bulls, even the hard ones,” Boylen said in a phone conversation with NBC Sports Chicago. “And I invested myself fully in every aspect of the job.”

Until Friday. That’s when new executive vice president Artūras Karnišovas fired Boylen, ending his five-season stint with the organization that featured three-plus seasons as Fred Hoiberg’s associate head coach. Boylen’s tenure in the big seat concluded with a 39-84 record.

“Artūras was very respectful. I understand why he would want to have his own guy. I really enjoyed getting to know him and (general manager) Marc Eversley,” Boylen said. “I’ve got 13- and 15-year-old girls that miss their dad. So I’m going to do a little carpooling and just prepare myself for the next opportunity.” …

“Jerry and Michael (Reinsdorf) and (former executive vice president) John (Paxson) asked me to bring more discipline to the practice facility and practice floor,” Boylen said. “My marching orders were for us to practice harder, play harder and defend better.”

The Bulls finished this shortened season with a 22-43 record. The team has an intriguing young nucleus, but the team’s only reliable scorer is Zach LaVine. Players like Lauri Markkanen, Coby White, Wendell Carter Jr. and Otto Porter Jr. all have talent and potential, but it’ll take time — certainly more than one season — as well as a great coaching staff, to help the squad grow into winners.

Examining the virtual Raptor fan situation at Disney NBA bubble

At the NBA restart at Disney Wide World of Sports, fans aren’t in attendance at the game, except virtually, by use of video screens that show their faces at the game while they sit at home. It’s a cool thing. Here’s the Toronto Star talking about the virtual Raptor fan situation:

There are about 320 “seats” occupied by the visages of fans that, in the case of the Raptors, will be chosen from the team’s season-ticket base of about 15,000 when the playoffs begin later this month.

For now, team employees are working through the inevitable wrinkles in a process that’s brand new. But they expect to see regular “fans” at post-season games, meaning the likes of Superfan Nav Bhatia and global ambassador Drake might be there — so to speak.

“We’re seeing familiar faces on those screens, and who knows what it’ll evolve to here two months from now” when the Raptors may be playing for their second straight championship, Nurse said. “So I don’t want to discount the home-court thing quite yet.”

The fans have become a quirky sidebar to the actual games as the NBA tries different ways to guarantee spectator involvement.

I thought about suggesting adding more video screens and more fans, but the whole fun of being a virtual fan is that the virtual fan gets to see his or her face on the actual broadcast. If the video screens are high up in the air, away from the court, those fans won’t be visible on the TV broadcast, and that’s not as fun for them.

In other words, the NBA is doing this correctly.

A look at Utah Jazz lineup combinations in first NBA scrimmage

In NBA scrimmage action Thursday, the Suns beat the Jazz, 101-88. Donovan Mitchell got buckets in the loss, hitting 5-of-8 FG, including 3-of-4 three-pointers, for 17 points. It was the first game for either team in a long time. Here’s the Deseret News reporting on the various lineups the Jazz played around with:

The Jazz started the game with the expected unit of Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, Mike Conley, Royce O’Neale and Joe Ingles.

From there, more of the expected with Jordan Clarkson and Georges Niang being the first subs to enter the game and later Tony Bradley giving Gobert some rest. But, when O’Neale committed his fourth foul in the second quarter, Jazz coach Quin Snyder had to zag a little and go with a smaller lineup.

Mitchell, Conley, Clarkson, Ingles and Gobert closed out the first half. That lineup with Bojan Bogdanovic in place of Clarkson is a familiar one for the Jazz, playing a total of 236 minutes together during the regular season. With Clarkson instead of Bogdanovic, Thursday was the first time the group had played in a game together.

The Jazz will be without one key player for the remainder of the season: Bojan Bogdanovic, who had season-ending wrist surgery a few months ago.

Sixers center Joel Embiid has been working on his fadeaway jumper

Sixers center Joel Embiid is already a dominant low-post player, and per the report below he spent some of the NBA play stoppage time working on his fadeaway jumpshot. Here’s ESPN.com reporting:

In addition to his work on passing out of double-teams, Embiid said the other thing he’s been working on during the hiatus since the season was suspended on March 11 was his fadeaway jumper — and he is very pleased about its progress.

“My fadeaways look great,” he said with a smile. “I’ve been working on them the past 2½ months, six times a week, just trying to perfect my game in any ways that I can, and I’ve been happy about that. It is something I’m going to need a lot, especially when other teams double me every single possession. I can’t let that dictate the way I play.

“So, sometimes you have to make the right play, and sometimes pass it, and if I feel like I have an opportunity to be myself and dominate, then that’s a shot I’m going to get. So that’s what I’ve been excited about.”

If Embiid truly has developed a mean fadeaway, it’ll make him even harder to guard, and that’s saying a lot.

NBA scrimmage schedule, with TV listings for the scrimmages on NBATV

NBA scrimmages begin today, with different teams scrimmaging against each other. It’s sort of like the NBA restart version of a preseason.

They will be televised on either NBA TV or NBA League Pass. See below.

First, the complete dates, times and team matchups for the scrimmages:

THE NBA TV SCRIMMAGE SCHEDULE

These are the 16 scrimmages (games, basically) that will be televised on NBATV.

All times Eastern (ET).

Wednesday, July 22

Orlando Magic vs. LA Clippers (3 p.m.)

Washington Wizards vs. Denver Nuggets (5 p.m. — Tape Delayed)

New Orleans Pelicans vs. Brooklyn Nets (7 p.m.)

Sacramento Kings vs. Miami Heat (9 p.m. — Tape Delayed)

Thursday, July 23

Portland Trail Blazers vs. Indiana Pacers (3:30 p.m.)

Dallas Mavericks vs. Los Angeles Lakers (7 p.m.)

Friday, July 24

Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Boston Celtics (5 p.m.)

Houston Rockets vs. Toronto Raptors (7:30 p.m.)

Saturday, July 25

Los Angeles Lakers vs. Orlando Magic (Noon)

Miami Heat vs. Utah Jazz (4 p.m.)

Sunday, July 26

Philadelphia 76ers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (Noon)

Indiana Pacers vs. Dallas Mavericks (4 p.m.)

Portland Trail Blazers vs. Toronto Raptors (6 p.m.)

Houston Rockets vs. Memphis Grizzlies (8 p.m.)

Monday, July 27

Washington Wizards vs. Los Angeles Lakers (3 p.m.)

Utah Jazz vs. Brooklyn Nets (5:30 p.m.)

From http://www.insidehoops.com

Tuesday, July 28

Memphis Grizzlies vs. Miami Heat (2 p.m.)

San Antonio Spurs vs. Indiana Pacers (4 p.m.)

The latest test results on NBA players for coronavirus / COVID-19

Of the 346 players tested for COVID-19 on the NBA campus since test results were last announced on July 13, zero have returned confirmed positive tests.

In the event that a player on the NBA campus returns a confirmed positive test in the future, he will be isolated until he is cleared for leaving isolation under the rules established by the NBA and the Players Association.

Interview: Joe Ingles discusses idea of wearing headband

In the 2018-19 season, Joe Ingles started all 82 games for the Utah Jazz, averaging 12.1 points, 4.0 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game.

This season, he’s come off the bench in half the games he’s played, averaging 9.8 points, 4.0 rebounds and 5.2 assists, in 1.4 fewer minutes per game.

As for much bigger issues? World-changing issues? Championship-deciding issues? Here’s a video of Ingles discussing the decision to start wearing a headband:

It’s not yet clear how this will affect Vegas betting lines.

Rest assured, we will track this carefully, or maybe a little, or not at all.

Utah Jazz a Western conference team to watch in NBA restart

The Utah Jazz are a team to watch. At 41-23, good for 4th in the Western conference, they’re a main contender in the upcoming quest to send one of the Los Angeles NBA squads home earlier than desired in the playoffs. Here’s the Deseret News summarizing the Jazz situation as they settle in at the Disney NBA restart campus in Florida:

The Utah Jazz arrived at the NBA bubble on July 7, isolated in their hotel rooms for two days, then held their first practice in nearly four months. After six consecutive days on the court the team took a day off on Wednesday. On Saturday, they took their second day off from practice…

The Jazz have six more days before exhibition games begin, with their first scrimmage against the Phoenix Suns on July 23. It’s another week after that before the NBA season restarts on July 30…

The players showed up in great shape as far as conditioning goes but there’s still some fear about being ready for the burst movements in games and some of the things that regular weight training can help prepare the body for. This was a big concern of Donovan Mitchell’s leading up to the team leaving for the bubble and Mitchell has mentioned it as a concern even after going through practices in Orlando.

The Jazz went on wildly erratic runs this season, stringing together stacks of wins for a few weeks, and smaller streaks of losses for briefer stretches. It’ll be fascinating to see which squad shows up come playoff-time.

Return of Jusuf Nurkic big for Trail Blazers in NBA restart

As 22 NBA teams prepare to resume play later this month, the Trail Blazers are getting a key player back in action. Here’s NBC Sports Northwest reporting:

July 23 against the Pacers will be the first competitive game the Blazers have played since mid-March.

For Jusuf Nurkic, it will be the first time he is getting up and down the court against someone other than his own teammates since March 2018, when he suffered a broken left leg.

Even though the Bosnian Beast and the rest of the Trail Blazers starters will play limited minutes, Nurkic is excited about Thursday’s scrimmage against the Pacers.

“Just to play the game. I have no restrictions, so I’m feeling great, excited to play the game. I don’t know about that scrimmage, I think it’s more preseason style. We’re going to have jerseys on, so I don’t know why they call a scrimmage that. We televise it too, so I’m not sure about that. I think it’s just excitement… I’m really looking forward to playing.” — Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic

At 29-37, the Blazers sit 3.5 games behind the Western conference 8-seed Grizzlies. Portland will reportedly be without the services of Trevor Ariza, but getting Nurkic back could be a huge boost. He hasn’t played yet this season but in 2018-19 averaged 15.6 points, 10.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game.

Additionally, Zach Collins will also be active for the Blazers once again.

It’s an incredibly tight race just outside the West 8-spot. The Blazers have a 43.9% winning percentage, while the Pelicans and Kings are a 43.8%. We look forward to seeing what sort of effect Nurkic has for the squad.

Lance Thomas happy for opportunity with Nets at NBA restart

The Nets, with much of their top talent unavailable for the upcoming NBA restart, recently added forward Lance Thomas. Here’s the New York Post reporting:

The 32-year-old Thomas is thrilled to have the opportunity. The defensive-minded forward spent training camp with the Nets, but he was waived on Oct. 18. Nobody picked him up following four seasons with the Knicks. He stayed mostly at home in his New York City apartment due to the virus until June, but stayed in shape and had recently been working out at the NBAPA’s gym…

“Me, personally, I’m going to just be tenacious,” Thomas said. “Make open shots, do whatever the team needs me to do, probably guard the other team’s best player, do things that got me into the league, things that I enjoy doing. … I play the hand I’m dealt. I think myself being a player who’s been in the league you learn how to quickly adapt to any situation. Again, I’m ready for whatever comes my way.”

Thomas helps add depth, but the team’s likely biggest need may be scoring. But points may be hard to come by. Look for Nets shooting guard Caris LeVert, by far the best bucket-producer on the team who will be active during the league restart, to have a serious green light.