This week we’re diving into the ugly state of the Brooklyn Nets, Reed Sheppard and valuing first-round picks, the Western Conference Playoff Picture, NBA officiating, and much more!
Months ago, JJ Redick got on First Take and went on a rant about the state of NBA media. The most notable quote was one that questioned the focus on big market teams instead of interesting stories:
He later contextualized these statements on his podcast, but the damage was done. For the days, weeks even, after this rant, the world of the NBA was awash with braindead discussions of casual vs hardcore, modern vs traditional, journalism vs entertainment.
And for better or worse, those conversations are not feasibly useful. Sports coverage is entertainment just as much as it is journalism now. We will be talking about the Lakers and Warriors today, just as we’ll be talking about Zion Williamson and the Pelicans figuring things out.
What I can guarantee, though, is that there are stories that need to be stared at not through a microscope, but through the eyes of someone who has been staring at a TV until their head hurts. Welcome to In the Loopus.
Let’s get to it.
The Nets Are Thrift Shops’ Worst Re-sellers
A few months ago, I started an adventure. After years and years of not being able to wear anything outside of t-shirts, sweatpants, and shorts due to my weight and monetary problems, I decided I was going to embark on a journey of self-improvement.
I was going to learn how to dress.
There have been finds and mistakes, most notably an $11 Ben Simmons jersey found at the Union Square Burlington, but the plunge has been made. It’s fun. I think I should make the League Fits All-Journalist Team (call my people if you’re reading this).
But, there has been one impediment in this process: re-sellers and the inflated prices they have brought to thrifting.
In that way, the Nets are the inflated resellers of the NBA.
Brooklyn is running a Ponzi scheme to nuke trade value pic.twitter.com/OWRM434PfJ
— will (@willceltics2000) March 17, 2024
The Nets spent hours at the bins, spent $15 a pound, and left the thrift with a ton of wings on good to great contracts. Now, they’re reselling them on eBay for ten times the price and holding when they don’t get the offers they way.
Mikal Bridges in the 1996 Bulls starter jacket. Cam Johnson is the Charles Barkley vs Godzilla limited edition t-shirt. Dorian Finney-Smith is the Vintage NOFX tour hoodie. Nic Claxton is the pair of Arizona Green Tea x Adidas Sambas.
Brooklyn has glanced at StockX and seen an expected price of $800, but failed to notice the most recent sale being four years ago.
The worst part is that they have completely reframed the market on 3-and-D wings. Other teams have heard the prices the Nets are asking for, and raising their own costs. Bridges is worth four first-rounders and a young player according to the Nets, so Gordon Hayward (way worse player) is worth a talented young player and a buried role player who has been a borderline star in a new location. Royce O’Neale is worth four second-rounders because that’s cheap in comparison to the two firsts that Brooklyn wants for Finney-Smith. Claxton might walk in the summer as an unrestricted free agent, but we need multiple valuable assets to move him.
The jokes at the Nets expense have been flying. It’s a team of all role players, it’s an experiment of proving the “imagine him with more touches” takes wrong or right, it’s an exercise to explore the Sisyphean nature of self-shot creation by a low usage option.
The Nets held all their assets — save the aforementioned O’Neale — this deadline and now go into the final stretch without being in distance of a Play-In Tournament appearance.
It’s not just a failure on the court, but a failure off of it as well. I understand they don’t have their picks because of the Harden trade, but as someone who goes to a lot of Nets games when they’re cheap, this is not a team worth watching.
The Nets are the DePop of the NBA. They are holding assets until they hit rock bottom, and refusing to sell to people that would feature them as a piece of the puzzle.
(Just let me have this Charles Barkley sweater man…)
Reed Sheppard and the State of the 2024 Draft
There is a real, non-zero chance that a player whose comparison is “taller George Hill” become the first selection in the 2024 NBA Draft. That’s no slight to George Hill, who was a quality starter and an even better reserve for 10 teams across 15 years; it’s just crazy to think of how different things are only a single year after the star studded 2023 class.
If Reed Sheppard goes No. 1 overall in the draft, it will be a message that front offices do not see the potential of any player in this class as worth more than a high quality role player.
There is no way Sheppard doesn’t at least become a decent player in the NBA. I simply refuse to believe that his blend of shooting and non-first option shot creation combined with his intelligence and effort on defense will fail to result in at least an okay NBA player.
But, this is not a conversation of taking a walk or swinging for the fences. It’s balking at those being the only options.
Alexander Sarr has a much larger upside. Rob Dillingham has more physical tools and is carrying a larger role in the same backcourt at Kentucky. Matas Buzelis is a similar level prospect with more intrigue as a creator, but is being mocked in the mid-lottery.
Years ago, we had a similar conversation in theory with Keegan Murray and Jaden Ivey. However, Keegan Murray was no single, and Ivey was no home run. Again, this is not a demonization of high floor prospects or even a comparison of Murray and Sheppard. I am just simply baffled at this. Teams picking early usually are not just looking for functional rotation players. Teams picking later also regularly throw away picks chasing upside. Teams picked James Wiseman and Hasheem Thabeet because they were big and ran hard and jumped high.
The improvement of draft prospect tracking has been a generally good thing. I mean, thank god we aren’t having first-round pick conversations about Zach Edey right now. But, I feel like we’ve lost track of the value of draft pick here. Picks are as valuable as what they may become. I am astounded at how those conversations have changed.
Lakers/Warriors Disaster-Class Shows Ref Problems
I’m told we’re waiting for a review
Still waiting… (RIP Sum 41)
Okay, now that we’ve wasted 20 seconds, one for each minute that Lakers fans spent last night, let’s talk about the two most talked about fringe play in teams in the NBA (see, sometimes my intros come back around).
The Golden State Warriors have saved their season behind an excellent return to form both on and off the court from Draymond Green. The leaps that the young players have taken cannot be discounted, nor can Steph Curry’s continued greatness, but it’s been all on Draymond. Howard Beck had an excellent column explaining the deep dive into Green, the person, that makes Green, the player, possible.
The Los Angeles Lakers, on the other hand, have been struggling in no small part to the lack of contributors up and down the roster, particularly the failure of every single free agent acquisition that was a part of “the league’s best offseason haul.”
So, after the refs spent a decade deciding one random call, it brought back my most strongly held NBA belief:
Everyone has a victim complex. Every fanbase thinks the world is against them. Every ref thinks the fans and players are out to get them. Every Twitter user thinks the call made was wrong.
There’s always going to be a big vs small market element to this conversation, but of the top five teams in free throw attempts per game, the Lakers are the only big market team (do we consider Philly a big market? It’s like the third-biggest market in the Northeast at best…) and are in that final spot.
Two things can both be true here. The refs are imperfect and there are calls that go against your team when they shouldn’t. Simultaneously, there are calls that go for you. The immutable fact is that refs are imperfect, and despite what you heard about Tim Donaghy, he’s not out to get you. The hope is, and always will be, that the errors offset.
Quite simply, deal with it.
And I agree with that.
What I don’t agree with, however, is how VAR in every one of its applications makes the game worse. Sunday’s disaster-class was just the latest reminder of that.
Playoff Check In
We have a new party leader, albeit no new parties in the West.
The top four remains the Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Los Angeles Clippers with only the Clippers absent from the game of musical chairs that is the race for the top seed in the Western Conference.
After the Nuggets defeated the Wolves in a thriller on Tuesday night, OKC and Denver are even atop the West, but the Thunder own the tiebreaker. Minnesota is one game back of those two, and four games clear of the Clippers, who, all of a sudden, are just half a game ahead of the New Orleans Pelicans. L.A. are actually closer to the Play-In Tournament (3.0 games out) than they are to the No. 3 seed.
The Pelicans have separated from the pack of play in teams, who have split into two definite sects: clawing to survive embarrassment and old team counting on experience. The Sacramento Kings, Dallas Mavericks, and Phoenix Suns, the six through eight seeds, are all either 8.0 or 8.5 games back from first. They are being unenthusiastically chased by the Lakers and Warriors, who are 11 and 12 games back, respectively. At this point, barring any insanity, the Play-In Tournament field will be two of the Kings, Mavs, and Suns along with the Warriors and Lakers. The Houston Rockets are 8-2 in their last 10, riding a six-game winning streak, and are just 2.5 games behind the Warriors for the 10 spot.
The last pack will remain un-noted, as they have been here all year. The Spurs, Jazz, Grizzlies, Trailblazers, and Rockets are all still here. Some show promise, some bring fear. But they’re here. They’re still here.
Story Pups
Keyonte George Finding a Rhythm for Jazz – I had so many thoughts to share, but they ended up going into the preview of the Jazz game. Basically, Keyonte George is flourishing from an increase in responsibility and a baffling 40% clip from deep in his last 15 games. The combination of George and Sexton should be overlapping and repetitive, but their combination of rim pressure and creation has somehow gelled.
Dalano “No Country For Cold Men” Banton – 8.5 minutes per contest. 3.2 points per game. What am I talking about? Well, last five games, averaging 32 minutes a night, Banton is putting up 15 points flat on 45/45/100 splits. He’s been insane. Is it sustainable? Probably not. That’s why it’s down here. Still a fun storyline to keep up with.
Rockets & Kings and What Comes Next – Grouping these teams together is going to infuriate Sacramento, but my point is not about the win column. Both of these teams have questions about sustainability.
For the Rockets, when do they get Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore more run? Does this offseason include a sale on failed draft picks, even if they’re improving (Jalen Green)? What made Ime Udoka’s defensive philosophy vanish?
For the Kings, it’s a more dire, less constructive question. What happened to Kevin Huerter? How much do you pay to extend Malik Monk? If the Kings crash out of the playoffs, how do they restructure the roster? Was not using the Harrison Barnes contract a mistake? How real is Keon Ellis? When does Davion Mitchell escape?
These two teams don’t have the questions the Atlanta Hawks (for example) have. They also don’t have the disfunction. But, they’re both struggling to flip the switch post/mid-rebuild. And that leads to choices, choices that I will find fascinating.
Zion – In shape, really good, pops off the screen, monster. Seriously, how is anyone surprised? He’s super good. The Pelicans are using him more as an on-ball threat and it has restructured everything. The team is loaded with smart decision makers and shooters. This is my sleeper to make a stretch run as a non-top-seeded-team.
Suns Regrets – I want to spend more time on this next week, but that Beal contract is looking awful rough…
Hero of the Week: NC State Men’s Basketball Team
God, I hate UVA. I hate them so much that I managed to win my group’s bracket last year because I was the only one to take Furman. I pulled the UMBC upset because, again, I am a UVA hater of epic proportion.
Well, NC State did me a favor by beating UVA. They also did way more than that.
️ NC State. Five wins in five days. Unreal.
Tuesday: 94-85 over Louisville
Wednesday: 83-65 over Syracuse
Thursday: 74-69 over Duke
Friday: 73-65 in OT over Virginia
Saturday: 84-76 over North CarolinaThis shot last night will go down as even more special than it already was: pic.twitter.com/qwcLNyvLt4
— Lukas Harkins (@hardwiredsports) March 17, 2024
Seriously, as great as it might feel to be winning all the time, winning as an underdog is sweeter. Preparation and execution are at a peak, and attitude is perfectly set between managed hatred and self-made-strength.
There’s always been beauty in that. We loved Cinderella runs, and that’s what March is for. We just managed to get our first a few weeks earlier.
So, pick that 15th seed to upset! Take every 12 over 5 seed matchup! Throw caution to the wind and bet it all on Long Beach State! Enjoy the magical moments that sports bring. But don’t gamble because that makes that joy turn into twisted pain so fast.