Coach Spins' Clipboard: Cleveland's Chaos, Quentin Grimes & Josh Green
Plus.. the Kaangz are good, Jaylen Brown's handle, and Ben Simmons looking solid
Thanksgiving morning is always an important day in the Spinella household. After sending out the obligatory thankful text messages that come off to many as corny, I engage in what is now an annual tradition: I check the NBA standings page for the first time.
Not much of what I see there is ultimately surprising. I’m keenly aware of team records, who is doing well and who isn’t, and follow the league closely. But I wait until Thanksgiving morning to look at the standings because it’s hard to put the entire league into context until a certain sample size is reached. About a month in, we now know which losses are looking like bad losses, which stretches of the schedule were brutal, and who might be better (or worse) than their record indicates.
So what has caught my eye this Thanksgiving from a record standpoint?
Indiana (10-7) and Washington (10-8) have been off to hot starts and won enough games to get into the top-six in the East. But for as doom-and-gloom as Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls fans have made the start of the season seem, both teams are less than 2.5 games out of the six spot.
For all the Los Angeles Clippers (11-8) have been through injury-wise, they’re only a game back of the top spot in the West. Sure, that puts them in sixth place, but there’s plenty of season left for them to emerge as a top dog.
Portland (10-8) is coming back down to Earth. After their hot start, we expected a little more separation to be in place between them and the Golden State Warriors (9-10). National narratives have painted the champions as falling apart and the Blazers as supremely underrated upstarts. Expectations really are the driving force here, not results.
Checking the standings doesn’t mean it’s officially time to panic for teams at the bottom or not where they want to be. But we’re getting close. Either way, let’s dive into a few small factors that are behind those team’s records — or their pathways to keep getting more wins under their belt.
Sabonis, Sacramento & Sly Screening
The biggest takeaway from an early-season standings check: just how close to the top of the Western Conference the Sacramento Kings are! They’re 10-7, feature the top offense in the NBA, and have a point differential (+3.2) greater than the Utah Jazz (2.2), Memphis Grizzlies (0.2), and Denver Nuggets (0.2).
Two (relatively) newcomers are key to their resurgence on offense. First is Domantas Sabonis, the team’s leading dime-giver and the engine in the half-court that is creating open shots and mismatches all over the place. Sabonis is an All-Star. He isn’t scoring it at the same rate he did in Indiana, but averaging 17-11-6 on 58% shooting is pretty damn impressive.
The other piece for Sacramento is their hot-shooting, red-headed, headband bandit Kevin Huerter. Huerter is, somehow, shooting 50% from 3 on 7.4 attempts per game. That is so mind-bogglingly insane. Huerter gets a lot of open looks, makes the difficult ones, and is an invaluable part of their offense. Credit goes to the brain trust in the front office that envisioned an offense around the speedster Fox, a toolsy passing big in Sabonis, a movement shooter in Huerter and a bunch of big wings that can score or defend.
Perhaps my favorite micro detail about the Kings’ start is the subtle illegal screens or lean-ins that Sabonis has mastered. While the Kings run a dizzying amount of handoffs at the top of the key, Sabonis has learned how to master leaning into contact on Huerter’s man to help get the shooter open.
Sometimes he’s really subtle, leading Huerter open with the pass and sliding in the right direction to block off his trailing defender. Other times he makes a pseudo-attempt to get skinny and not set an illegal screen, really a mascarade for the official so that he can pick off his opponent.
The Kings are good! Sabonis steadies the offense, Davion Mitchell is a disruptor off the bench, Malik Monk has been solid, Keegan Murray rarely makes mistakes, and Fox is still above 40% from 3. The backup big man minutes remain a mystery and, after a hot start, the defense has fallen off a cliff where competitiveness alone cannot carry them.
Ultimately, it may not matter. The offense is operating at a blistering pace. As Fox and Huerter cool off a bit and regress to the mean, their results may drop a bit. But the Kings feel like a playoff team with all their talent and how cohesively it fits. By my measure, Sabonis is the connector that makes everything mesh. He’s tremendous.
Josh Green, Coming Alive
The Dallas Mavericks’ game is very simple: give the ball to Luka Doncic and let him cook.
Filling out their roster means surrounding Luka with the right types of players, mainly guys who can defend multiple positions and drill catch-and-shoot jumpers. When the Mavericks drafted Josh Green two years ago they envisioned him becoming this guy. After a six 3-pointer performance against the Denver Nuggets last week, it feels like Green’s spot in the rotation is here to stay and he will be that ideal 3-and-D wing for Doncic.
Green is a great example for young players everywhere on the importance of getting his feet set and body square pre-catch. His mechanics are looking more smooth this year than they did at Arizona or as a rookie simply because he’s getting into his knee bend just as the ball arrives. It creates fluidity in his stroke and consistency to get his shot off quickly.
Dallas is fourth in 3-point attempts league-wide. They expect their role players to have the ultimate green light and take these open shots. It becomes really important, therefore, for those role players to know how to relocate on the perimeter and find space from the defense.
Green had one read in the fourth quarter against the Nuggets to relocate around the top of the key next to a Spencer Dinwiddie drive. Green took the space as he needed and was textbook in how he got there, going north-south to get his momentum carrying him toward the rim and stopping his momentum on the catch to accurately drill a shot across his body.
Whether playing with Doncic or Dinwiddie, the Mavs under Jason Kidd have utilized many guard-to-guard pick-and-pops to try and create confusion or mismatches via switches. Opponents will hide their weakest defender on a shooter (or their smallest one) when the big-bodied Mavs go with Dinwiddie and Doncic at the 1 and 2.
If Green is covered by a guy that is believed to be a mismatch, Kidd will stick him atop the key, clear everyone else to the baseline, and have a series of pick-and-pops or guard-to-guard screens to try and formulate chaos. When an advantage occurs, the game becomes simple: take advantage and find the open guy.
Because of the scoring prowess that Doncic and even Dinwiddie command, the result is frequently an open shot for the screener atop the key.
By no means are the Mavericks the most talented team in the Western Conference. But they have a legitimate MVP candidate, an identity around him and a bunch of 3-point shooters. Green’s emergence solidifies depth and will help them a lot throughout the regular season.
Mobley Mismatch Mania
Cleveland is much better than we thought they’d be right out of the gate. IQ, skill and shooting really matter and help teams mesh pretty quickly. Immense credit to JB Bickerstaff for the work that he has done to make them an exciting tactical team and press different buttons.
One of my favorites was on display earlier this week against the Atlanta Hawks. Like nearly every team to play the Hawks, Cleveland tried to find ways to pick on Trae Young and either force switches or punish him for not switching by giving up and open shot. Because of the skill of Evan Mobley as a ball handler, Bickerstaff can customize the mismatch-hunting in a fun way.
Early in the first quarter, Mobley got a rebound and pushed up the floor. Darius Garland (the guy Young was guarding), would come down and set an empty side ball screen for Mobley. It’s a bizarro inverted pick-and-roll in transition that can be really impactful for the Cavs if they keep exploring it.