Welcome to the NBA Hater Report: A breakdown of some of the players, teams and trends around the league that are drawing the ire of yours truly. If you’re not a fellow pessimist, proceed with caution.
Luka laying bricks for Lakers
Look, the Lakers have won five straight with Luka in the lineup, 12 of 14 overall, and the defense has been off the charts as they’ve rocket-shot all the way into the West’s No. 2 seed, so let’s keep this all in proper perspective. But … have you seen Dončić’s shooting numbers since he arrived in L.A.?
Through eight games with the Lakers, Dončić is shooting 27% from 3 and 39% overall. Last Thursday, he made just one of his nine 3s against the Timberwolves and even that was a prayer.
Dončić wasn’t having a great shooting season with the Mavericks and that has continued with the Lakers. He’s clearly finding his footing, though. He’s making some unbelievable passes and has meshed almost perfectly next to LeBron James, who is taking advantage of a lighter playmaking burden to tick up what anyone would already call a pretty impressive defensive season. The Lakers have won Luka’s 254 total minutes by 43 points (more than five point per game). So again, let’s keep this in perspective.
But it’s something to watch as the Lakers are now entering into honest title-contending conversations, and at that level, everything gets scrutinized. Dončić is awesome even when he’s not shooting hyper efficiently, and the good news is he’s working his way to the free-throw line over eight times a night. Still, sub-30% from 3 isn’t going to cut it in the playoffs, let alone in the deep rounds. Let’s hope he gets this on track.
The invisible Jimmy Butler
Jimmy Butler famously rations his scoring, often saving his bursts for late in games. Since he’s been with the Warriors, he has overtly deferred to Stephen Curry. Early on, Butler was ramping up his aggression in the non-Curry minutes and late in games, and even when he wasn’t shooting he was consistently forcing the defense to react to his cuts and drives.
Recently, however, Butler has turned way too invisible for the guy who’s supposed to be Curry’s superstar wingman. Over his last three games, Butler has averaged eight points on eight shots, down from 20 PPG over his first five with the team. The Warriors needed 56 points from Curry on Thursday to beat the Magic because Butler only had five.
And again, it’s not just the scoring. It’s the overall aggression, or lack thereof. Through his first six outings with Golden State, Butler averaged 12.2 drives per game. Over the last three, that number has been cut nearly in half to 7.5 per game, with his total frontcourt touches dipping by 10 from 43 to 33 per game.
That matches the eye test, as there have been way too many possessions going by without Butler having any sort of impact on them. Just his presence is worth something, no doubt, as it’s an occupied defender at all times at least. But that’s not enough. Whether Steve Kerr needs to design some more stuff to get the ball to Butler in his go zones, or Butler simply needs to pump up his own initiative, the Warriors need more from him if they’re going to truly compete in the playoffs.
Suns are embarrassing
Kevin Durant said the Suns “embarrassed ourselves” after a 116-98 loss to the Timberwolves on Sunday, but let’s be honest: The Suns, given the highest payroll in the league, have been embarrassing themselves for quite some time now. They’ve lost 11 of their last 14 games and are four games back of the final play-in spot.
Barring a minor miracle over these last five weeks, the Suns are headed to the lottery without a lottery pick. In fact, the Suns don’t fully control any of their own first-round picks through 2031 (they’re all swaps for the rest of the decade and no pick in 2031).
Durant feels like a good bet to be traded this summer, so the Suns should be able to restock at least some of their future-draft cupboard, but that’s a loss-cutting move in itself. Phoenix gave up Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson and five first-round picks (one swap) to get him in the first place. There is no way they are going to come close to bringing that much value back for a soon-to-be-37-year-old Durant this summer.
In the meantime, Devin Booker is saying the Suns don’t talk enough while his coach, reportedly, is saying that Booker talks too much. This was supposed to be an honest superteam, and instead it’s gone up in flames in just about every way imaginable.
Tatum too quick to taunt Cavs
Jayson Tatum got a little ahead of himself in Boston’s showdown with the Cavaliers on Friday, when he decided to taunt the team with the best record in the league with a “get the f–k outta here” gesture early in the first quarter.
Tatum, as you can see in the clip, was feeling himself because he had just buried a corner 3-pointer to put the Celtics up 25-3 barely four minutes into the game, and one would be safe to deduce that his message ran deeper than this particular game.
He was telling the Cavs that the fun is over, that they’ve had their little regular-season run but now that the serious stuff is starting, they do not belong — not in Boston’s arena, not in Boston’s class, and certainly not in the top-tier title conversation.
The Cavs outscored the Celtics by 29 points from that moment forward and won the game 123-116 to all but lock up the East’s No. 1 seed. With just over 20 games remaining for each team, the Cavaliers own an eight-game lead over Boston in the loss column.
Of course, Boston is only concerned about the postseason, where, if seeds hold, it will meet Cleveland in the conference finals. Perhaps Tatum will think twice next time about trying to upstage, or outright dismiss, its most threatening conference opponent.
Paul George keeps killing Sixers
With Joel Embiid officially out for the season, the Philadelphia 76ers officially have just one thing to play for over the next five weeks: a top-six draft pick. Why? Because if their 2025 first-round pick lands outside the top six, they lose it to Oklahoma City. Entering play on Tuesday, the Sixers have the league’s seventh-worst record, meaning, if the ping pong balls bounce as they statistically should, they would currently forfeit the pick.
This is a long way of saying the Sixers have no incentive to win games from here on out, which made it all the more amusing that they ended a nine-game losing streak by beating the Warriors on Saturday, and the clinching mid-range bucket came from Paul George with 44 seconds to play.
I just find it so funny, or at least ironic, that when the Sixers have needed George to play well all season in an effort to win games he’s been a massive disappointment relative to the max contract the Sixers handed him (which is looking like a potentially catastrophic decision on the part of Daryl Morey), but now that they need to lose games George suddenly decided to make the shot that potentially kept them from doing that recently as well.
George finished with 17 points in this game, right about his average for the season, so he was typically underwhelming overall; it was Quentin Grimes with 44 points and Guerschon Yabusele with five 3-pointers who did the bulk of the damage. But again, George could’ve missed that shot and at least kept a Philly loss in play.
It isn’t to suggest he should’ve missed the shot. Players play to win even when organizations prefer to lose. It’s just funny that George made the shot that the Sixers certainly wouldn’t have minded him missing when he’s missed so many shots this season they would’ve loved for him to make.
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