While we wait for Jaylen Brown and the Celtics to finish up their business and drift off into the quiet that is the post-summer league NBA, the league has been hitting us with some big stories. Here are my takes on some of the biggest stories around the association.
- Victor Wembanyama
Welcome to America, kid. The “build them up/tear them down” process is already in full swing with Wembenyama, who had one good and one not-so-good summer league game before getting shut down.
It’s obvious he has special skills. He has a great handle for a guy his size and he can block anything within 5 feet of him. His size and mobility make him a very obvious candidate for a very special career.
At the same time, he’s 19 and built like someone put a 6-6 guy on a rack and stretched him out another 9 inches. He can’t back anyone down yet and because he’s so focused on trying to bang in the post, his normally low dribble creeps higher and makes it easy to steal.
Right now, he’s a guy who loves to create his own shot because that's what he’s always done. I’m not sure he’s going to be able to do that at the NBA level … at least not right away … so the Spurs are going to have to work with him to open up other aspects of his game.
I will say that too many people are already judging him after two summer league games. He came over with so much hype, and so few people watched him before this, that too many people were guided into a “that’s it?” kind of assessment. Over the summer, people were declaring him a potential All-Star in his first season, now people are making up names like Raef LaFrench (which is hilarious, but unfair) to describe him.
He’s way too young and too green to judge. Not only that, he just played a full season that ended weeks ago, and he came straight to the U.S. for the draft and other business before heading into summer league. He was clearly not playing with a full tank of gas.
Which brings me to:
- The summer league spectacle
I think summer league has grown too big. I get why, but I also think it does some guys, like Wembanyama, a disservice.
These future stars are being set up to make a bad first impression. Instead of giving them a chance to get together with some of their coaches and new teammates to scrimmage, get a first taste of the NBA, and give their teams some new film on their young projects, these guys are being thrust into ESPN broadcasts where they pretend wins and losses matter.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun to see these guys right out of the gates. But there's no need to expose them to ridiculous scrutiny this soon. There's plenty of time for these guys to make impressions on their fan bases at home during the regular season. Putting all these ESPN folks in Vegas to debate their abilities when all they’ve had is a week of practice with a bunch of teammates they won’t have in October is a step too far.
But they're making money, and that's all that matters to them.
- In-season Tournament
If you want the full rundown on how it works, you can get it all here.
The short version is this:
The league has been split into six groups of five. In November, each team will play one of the other four teams in their group, with two games at home and two on the road. Eight teams will advance to the Knockout Rounds, with quarterfinal elimination games being played in the home markets Monday, Dec. 4 and Tuesday, Dec. 5. The semifinals and finals will be played in Las Vegas on Dec. 7 and Dec. 9.
The winning team gets the “NBA Cup” and all the players get $500,000 apiece.
Honestly, I’m not sure how this is all going to go.
It certainly will take some getting used to. I'm very curious to see how the schedule is going to be laid out. It seems like there will be some TBD games on there, so that makes things interesting. It seems like some teams won't play a full 41 games at home, so I assume that team will have to get reimbursed somehow by the league.
Like anything new, though, it will take some getting used to. It's entirely possible that in 5 years this will seem normal.
Whether or not it works out is kind of up to the players to take it seriously. The $500,000 payout is significant enough for guys to care, I think. I don't know how much they care about hoisting a cup in the middle of the season, but we'll see.
I'm just going to reserve judgment right now. I think it has potential, but it certainly will need some time and probably some tweaks to make it work.
- Expansion
The league is walking towards expansion in the relatively near future.
“We will turn to expansion once those media deals are done,” Adan Silver said at a meeting with the Associated Press Sports Editors. “It’s not a sure thing. But as I’ve said before, I think it’s natural that organizations grow over time. There’s no doubt that there’s enormous interest in this (Las Vegas) market.”
Seattle and Vegas are the apparent frontrunners to get a team, with Mexico City often being discussed as a possibility.
I think the league is ready for expansion. They can add those two teams to the Western Conference and move one of New Orleans, Memphis, or Minnesota to the East to give each conference 16 teams.
Give me New Orleans in the East, though I’m not sure I’d personally survive a second trip down there PLUS multiple potential trips to Vegas for a road game AND the mid-season tournament (though I would assume Vegas would no longer be used for that since it won’t be a neutral site anymore in this scenario).
I say do it. The league is healthy enough to expand now, so let’s get this process started.
- Damian Lillard/James Harden sagas
It’s fun to watch Miami folks scream at Portland for not accepting their mediocre package for Damian Lillard.
Lillard officially requested a trade this summer, and he and his agent have been adamant that their preferred destination is Miami, regardless of their actual leverage in this situation.
To his credit, Blazers GM Joe Cronin isn’t playing along with the request, saying “we’re going to do what’s best for our team. We’re going to see, you know, how this lands. And if it takes months, it takes months.”
Is it posturing? Maybe. Cronin is putting pressure on Pat Riley to find a third team and work some magic to get a bigger return. Riley is putting pressure on Cronin to accept his offer before Lillard makes life uncomfortable in Portland.
I don’t think Lillard wants to go to Blazers camp and start the season there and potentially get booed at home. I don’t think the Blazers want that either, so who blinks in this game of chicken? If Lillard opens up his list of options, then maybe another team will start to ramp up the bidding. If he doesn’t, then things could get weird in Portland.
Harden, meanwhile, appears ready to head back to Philadelphia. There is simply no market for him out there, and I’d love to see the Sixers play hardball with him.
The audacity to have the playoffs he did and still be pissed that the Sixers don’t want to pay him all the money in the world is incredible. How he could look Daryl Morey in the eyes and be upset that the team won’t give him a monster extension after he was a main reason why the Sixers couldn't get past Boston is outrageous to me.
Harden might be the least self-aware person in the NBA next to Kyrie Irving. He pouted his way out of Houston, bailed on Brooklyn and now is bailing on Morey again in Philly.
I hope the Sixers play some hardball here. If Harden remains on the team and they flop again, he’ll get no more than a mid-level exception next season in free agency. No teams are going to line up for an aging malcontent with a terrible playoff record.
The Sixers should dare him to get more. He won’t.
- Gregg Popovich extension
Pop and the Spurs agreed to a five-year, $80-million extension this week, making him the highest-paid coach ever -- $1.5 million more than Monty Williams got in Detroit.
I think the Spurs did this to make sure Popovich doesn’t go out as anything but the highest-paid coach in the game. I don’t know when he’ll retire, but now he can retire upstairs to a front office job when he’s done.
I don’t think he’ll coach all five years, but maybe the allure of turning Wembanyama into French Tim Duncan is too strong. Or maybe he just loves what he does, so who am I to tell him to quit?