Decoding NBA Evolution - From IST to Power Forwards and More

Welcome to the NBA Librarian Weekly, where we curate and summarize the best NBA content of the week.

In this week’s edition, we go heavy on the NBA’s in season tourney:

1. How the Lakers stopped the league's best offense in the IST

2. In-Season Tournament: Another Streaming Flop

3. The Difference in Myles Turner’s game: 2019 and 2023

4. The Death Of The Power Forward, & Who's Next...

5. Mikal Bridges is one of the best late-game options in the NBA

6. Zion Williamson reportedly refuses to prioritize diet and conditioning

7. Toughest Shot Takers in the NBA

How the Lakers stopped the league’s best offense

Notes:

The Los Angeles Lakers secured the first-ever NBA Cup by significantly slowing down the Indiana Pacers, the league's fastest team in the league and statistically the best offense in the NBA led by Tyrese Haliburton.

The Lakers' approach involved several key tactics:

1. Full Court Pressure on Haliburton: By picking up Haliburton full court, the Lakers disrupted the Pacers' usual fast-paced game. The video highlights how it’s a multi-second delay in the time the Pacers took to initiate their pick and rolls.

2. Switching and Wall Building: The Lakers effectively switched on defense and built walls in transition, always having a secondary defender to help after Tyrese got past the initial defender.

3. Trapping Haliburton in Pick and Rolls: And then when Tyrese got into action, he was trapped by Anthony Davis and his long wing-span forcing Haliburton to give the ball up to

Lot of great hustle plays highlighted in the video that led the Lakers to holding the Pacers to just 106 points and how this could be the same kind of threat the Lakers could have on teams in the post-season too. Thinking Basketball is always worth watching. Highly recommend.

In-Season Tournament: Another Streaming Flop

Link to article by Ethan Strauss

Everyone and their mother in the media has been talking about how much a success the NBA In-Season tournament has been. Highly competitive games, LeBron openly wanting to win it and elevating his play, the ESPN/TNT collaboration, championship and MVP trophy presentations. It had all the elements of a true sports spectacle.

Ethan Strauss offers a contrarian opinion though. Here it is summarized:

1. He compares the in-season tournament to movies. If a high budget movie has low turnout and ticket sales, then it’d be considered a failure - no matter how good the movie is.

2. All the hype has been from the media

3. Despite financial and logistical efforts, including advertising campaigns dating back to the summer, schedule adjustments, painting the courts specifically for the tournament and TV deals between major providers, the IST’s viewership was only marginally better than regular season games and that’s an overall net negative.

The article goes way more in depth on this view of the NBA's In Season Tournament, questioning its success based on viewership and the league's ability to attract new fans. Strauss challenges the sports media's approach to covering such events and suggests that a more financially-driven assessment is necessary to determine their true impact and success. Check it out!

Myles Turner’s game: 2019 v. 2023

Link to article by Caitlin Cooper

In a detailed analysis of Myles Turner's development, Caitlin Cooper highlights the significant changes in Turner's game, particularly when comparing two possessions separated by four years. The article, a free trial piece from Basketball, She Wrote, focuses on Turner's evolution through the lens of his performances against the Milwaukee Bucks in 2019 and a more recent game.

Key Points of Turner's Development:

1. Role Shift in Pacers' Offense: In the 2019 game, Turner was the lone big on the floor, a contrast to previous seasons where he often played alongside Domantas Sabonis or was mismatched defensively.

2. Comparison of Two Possessions: The analysis compares two specific possessions against the Bucks — one in 2019 and the other in a recent game. Both involve middle pick-and-rolls with Brook Lopez.

3. Turner's Improved Rolling and Scoring Efficiency: According to Second Spectrum data, Turner has increased his rolling actions per 100 possessions from 24.2 in the 2019-20 season to 35.4 in the current season. His scoring efficiency in these plays has also improved, contributing significantly to the Pacers' offense.

The Death Of The Power Forward, & Who's Next...

There have been many articles or features covering the changing of the power forward position in the NBA. I think what Rusty Buckets of YouTube did well was how he transferred that history into what’s next to be fossilized in the NBA. Some of the stuff that stuck out to me:

1. Early 2000’s was the era for dominant PF’s led by Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and Dirk Nowitzki - all top 10 players and all MVP’s. This era also featured other notable names like Amar'e Stoudemire, Chris Webber, Pau Gasol, and Chris Bosh, to name a few.

2. Now the more modern day PF is Jeremy Grant (funny enough, the prototypical PF in the 90’s was Horace Grant).

3. Power forwards are now bigger small forwards - started by LeBron James in Miami. And PF’s that were big enough to move to center and quick enough to still be out the perimeter was popularized by Chris Bosh and Draymond Green.

4. Power forwards that were too small to transition to the center position and didn’t have perimeter skills (David Lee, a little bit someone like Blake Griffin too) were phased out of the NBA.

5. The video argues the future position to be phased out is traditional scorers at the Shooting Guard position. Now dominant scorers that can also handle are essentially the Point Guards (Harden, Shai, Luka, even Booker this season).

As the game continues to evolve, we’re seeing a shift in the importance and roles of different positions. For instance, centers have maintained their relevance through players like Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid. Point guards have evolved into more dominant scorers, while shooting guards, traditionally bucket-getters, are becoming less central to team strategies.

The future of basketball might see a consolidation of positions into point guards, forwards, and centers, with less emphasis on traditional roles and more focus on versatility and adaptability. Rusty Buckets goes into all of this and way more in a full master class of this transition.

Mikal Bridges is one of the best late-game options in the NBA

Link to article by Evan Barnes

Mikal Bridges of the Brooklyn Nets is emerging as one of the NBA's top clutch-time performers. In a recent game against the Hawks, he made a game-winning 18-footer with under 2 seconds left. The article doesn’t really go into what defines as “clutch” but generally this can referred to as a close game that’s under 5 minutes left in the game.

Statistically, Bridges is performing impressively in clutch situations. He has the second-most field goal attempts in the clutch (behind Kevin Durant) and is shooting 55% on these attempts which is second in the league as well only behind LeBron James. In terms of overall total points, he’s only behind Trae Young and Damian Lillard!

The article goes more in-depth on quotes by coach Jacque Vaughn, highlights from other big game situations and even going as far back as the World Cup game for Team USA in the summer. The article even goes into some of his clutch mishaps

One thing is for sure, there will be more situations like this for the Nets this season and they’ll need Bridges to continue to produce if the Nets want to have a play-in spot (they’re currently 12-9 with the 8th spot in the East).

Zion Williamson reportedly refuses to prioritize diet and conditioning

Link to article by Brad Botkin

A significant topic of discussion emerging from the In-Season Tournament revolves around Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans. They suffered a blowout loss to the Lakers, with Zion scoring only 13 points. This performance reignited concerns, as clips resurfaced showing Zion barely jogging back on defense and appearing disoriented, even in their prior win against the Sacramento Kings.

Zion is notably out of shape, evident from comparing his current movements and body composition, especially compared to his college days where he was arguably the most athletic man on the planet.

A Pelicans beat reporter recently shared some concerning quotes:

Media members and former NBA players, Shaquille O’Neal and J.J. Redick, have also criticized the star for his lack of conditioning and apparent lack of motivation.

The article delves deeper into these quotes and includes multiple embedded tweets showcasing solo plays that highlight Zion's lack of effort and motivation in these games. All of this raises questions about Zion's future and his ability to lead the Pelicans effectively in such situations, especially as what the Pelicans had initially hoped (and still do) as the franchise player.

Cool NBA tweet of the week:

20 toughest shot takers in the NBA

Guys like Booker, Durant, Ingram, etc. aren’t a surprise for me. All of these guys are expected to create their own shots and are difficult shotmakers.

What really stands out to me are:

1. Seeing Ayton on the list. The dude benefitted a lot from easy buckets last year in Phoenix and is now on the list for players with the most difficult shot attempts. I’d be curious to see the difference between last season and this season for him.

2. Bobby Portis being on the list - feel like he’s all about put backs and three pointers.

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