Basketball is not a sport, it's a way of life.
The Raptors getting that good D, the Clips cruising, benching title hopes...
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Prepare to have your mind blown. After a 126-111 win against the Chicago Bulls Thursday night, the Los Angeles Clippers secured their 13th straight winning season. The Clips, who are still just one of ten franchises to have never won a title, along with Memphis, Utah, Charlotte, New Orleans, Brooklyn, Phoenix, Orlando, Minnesota, and Indiana, actually own the longest current streak in the NBA of consecutive seasons above .500. Even more surprising, of the teams with current streaks of winning seasons, Los Angeles is the only franchise in double-digits. Of the next four teams, Miami and Philadelphia still have some work to do to secure a winning season this year, as they sit at 36-30 and 37-30 respectively, but I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt that they’ll get there. Here is a closer look at what those streaks have looked like (e-mail readers, click to expand; all graphs are interactive and sortable once expanded):
Interestingly, these five teams are the only in the league who currently have streaks of winning seasons five or more years long. In Los Angeles’ case, their impressive run is now good for the sixth longest in league history. Here are the rest of the franchises who have racked up impressive runs of winning seasons in the NBA (e-mail readers, click to expand; all graphs are interactive and sortable once expanded):
Notes:
- Only Los Angeles and Milwaukee failed to make a finals during these runs. That early '80s Milwaukee team will go down as one of the great victims of circumstance as the East was a monster between the 76ers, the Celtics, and the Pistons. Those Bucks teams were as tough as nails, playing a brand of defensive basketball that was as good as anyone during the era; surprisingly, with Don Nelson at the helm, whose later teams were known for completely abandoning the notion of defensive competence. The ’81 Bucks won 60 games and the organization averaged 55 wins over the course of six seasons from ’81-’86. Milwaukee lost in the Eastern Conference Finals three out of four years ('83, ’84, ’86). Also, along with Kevin Johnson, I’m not sure there is a more glaring Hall of Fame snub—particularly with how diluted the parameters have become—than Alvin Robertson.
- I don’t care how few teams were in the league, the Celtics winning 11 of the 12 finals that they appeared in is just absolutely insane.
- The Spurs' sustained level of dominance was incredible, as they not only had the longest streak, but also narrowly beat out Russell’s Celtics for the best winning percentage during any of these runs.
I’m not sure how many of you know this, but my day job is as the Wine Director for a popular restaurant called Esther’s Kitchen here in Las Vegas, so the concept of aging a beautiful vintage for the sake of later enjoyment is something that I’m familiar with. I have been fortunate to sample some great years: a ’76 Dönnhoff Riesling, an ’83 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano, an ‘88 Chateau D’yquem, but I’m not sure any of them have aged as well as this KD-35 has in this ‘24 vintage. Kevin Durant, who is 35 years old, and in the midst of his 17th season, is playing just about as well as he ever has. It’s not that this is the best scoring version of KD; that was the ‘14 vintage when he averaged 32 points per game on the way to his MVP season with the Thunder. It’s not the best he’s ever been defensively; that would be the ‘17 vintage when he averaged career-highs in steals (1.1) and blocks (1.7) with the Warriors. But while those versions, and others, had extreme high notes of exquisite presentation, this KD is the most complete and refined version of the player that we have seen. To catch you up, Durant is averaging 28.1 points, on 52.6% from the floor, 42.0% from distance, while also chipping in 6.7 boards and 5.4 assists—both good for second on the Suns this season—while already having played his most regular seasons games (60) since the '18 season with the Warriors. While not quite as dominant an offensive player as he’s been at the peak of his powers, this has been KD’s best season in terms of combining his offensive and defensive efforts, as he has been easily the most consistent defensive presence—his 1.2 blocks per game lead the team—for a Phoenix squad that has struggled on that end of the floor. We’re Phoenix's record better—they are currently a reasonable 39-28 and sixth in the West—I think he would be a shoo-in for a first-team All-NBA slot. As it stands, he still has a very good shot, though I think Jayson Tatum will take that available slot due in large part to the Celtics' 52-14 record this season. But KD has been a force in Phoenix this year and deserves all the praise for how well he’s played this season.
Trades are fun. They shake up rosters, bring new faces to new places, and can change the entire direction of a franchise when executed properly, or improperly for that matter (Can I interest you in Ben Simmons?). This past trade season saw the moves of impactful players like Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby, and Gordon Hayward. So, while there were surely bigger deals that had more meaning, perhaps my favorite trade this season was the Detroit Pistons landing Simone Fontecchio from the Utah Jazz for what essentially amounted to a 2024 second-round pick. The 28-year-old Fontecchio, who is in his second season out of Italy, came to the Pistons to help with Detroit’s miserable perimeter shooting this season. And shoot he has. Since coming to Detroit, Fontecchio has increased his field goal attempts by 4.7 shots per game (from 7.2 to 11.9). While Fontecchio was having a good season with Utah, averaging 8.9 points per game on 45% shooting from the floor and 39.1% from distance, he has upped those numbers considerably across the board since arriving in Detroit, putting up 15.6 points on 48.6% and 43.6% respectively. Fontecchio is also being given more latitude to explore his offensive game beyond the catch-and-shoot role that he primarily played in Utah. With the Pistons, Fontecchio has decreased his catch-and-shoot frequency by 10.4%, utilizing more pull-ups and getting to the rim more often. In those 14 games, Fontecchio’s 15.6 points per game are good for third on the team in scoring (Cunningham – 22.1; Ivey – 15.8), while he’s leading Detroit in made threes per game (2.7) and three-point percentage (43.6%) over that stretch. Landing a player who has been as productive as Fontecchio has been at such a low price was a great piece of business for a Pistons front office that needed a win, but with Fontecchio set to become a restricted free agent, it’ll be interesting to see what the real price actually becomes for a player who has flexed a skill set at a size (6’8) that is always attractive league-wide.
There is no way to talk about Gradey Dick in shorthand that doesn’t foster chortles. So, get them out of the way and let’s dig into one of my favorite stories over the second half of this season. As the Toronto Raptors' year has worn on, and their playoff aspirations wore off, it has been nice to see their rookie forward finding the floor. After what could be kindly called an unceremonious beginning to his rookie year, in which he only appeared in 21 of the Raptors' first 42 games, averaging just 12.3 minutes per game, good for 29th amongst all rookies up to that point, Dick seemed like a player out of his depth. In that relatively brief time on the floor, the rookie from Kansas was scoring just 3.4 points on 30.1% from the field and 27.1% from three. The early struggles and mounting DNPs felt like they were threatening a bit of a lost season for Dick. Even when playing against lesser competition in the G-League, Toronto’s 13th pick in last summer’s draft continued to struggle, averaging 15.5 points per game on 43.6% from the field and a rough 26.9% from distance. The numbers were bad, the eye test was worse, as Dick looked sheepish and unconfident offensively—Dick didn’t attempt more than five field goals in a single contest over a 16-game stretch—while defensively, his lack of lateral quickness and slight frame do him few favors. But as the once wing-heavy Raptors traded away assets and lowered expectations, Dick has started to see an increase in both his playing time and confidence. Since January 20th, Dick has appeared in 25 games straight for Toronto, averaging a healthy 23.2 minutes per outing. And he has looked like a totally different player. Where he was passing up shots before, he’s firing away, and more importantly for a player whose style of play is never going to be predicated on athleticism, the game looks like it’s slowed down for Dick. Watch the way he now utilizes the pump fake to either side-step or step-in for a jumper off the dribble and you see a player who has started to see the game’s code. In Dick’s first 21 games, he shot a woeful 24.1% on any shots in which he put the ball on the deck, but in his last 24 contests, Dick has literally found the range, as he is now shooting a very encouraging 52.2% on two dribble attempts, meaning he's getting to the intermediate game, another positive sign for a lesser athlete. Dick has also been really good in the transition game, doing his work early to take advantage of defenders not prepared for his movement, which has led to him shooting 57.7% on attempts coming between 22-18 seconds in the shot clock. In these last 25 games, Dick is averaging 9.7 points, while shooting 46.8% from the floor and 39.6% from three. Nothing I have seen throws me from my original opinion of Dick being a dangerous shooter that will struggle with the physicality and athleticism at the NBA level, but it’s been good to see him figuring it out of late and showing that he has a place in the league.
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