2021-22 NBA In-Season News/Transactions

wade boggs chicken dinner

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 26, 2005
30,486
This is exactly where I am. He was drafted for one reason and that is to make threes. I'd take the questionable defense and out of control play all day long if he was shooting 40% from three at a decent volume. His career 32% from deep is still SSS in my opinion, but the clock is ticking. If he truly can't shoot he'll be in Europe sooner rather than later.

I'm never falling for a Summer League performance again.
An has played 71 games in his career. If he had made 1 extra 3P every four games that he played, he would be shooting over 40%. Another way to look at it - he has missed 114 3P shots in his career (54-168). If one out of every 9 of those shots had gone in, he would be shooting 40%.

It's early. He hasn't shot much. And the biggest thing to me is that he hasn't gotten to that point where he expects his shot to go in. When he does, he'll hit them at a high clip. His mechanics are too good not to make them.
 

pjheff

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 4, 2003
1,296
An has played 71 games in his career. If he had made 1 extra 3P every four games that he played, he would be shooting over 40%. Another way to look at it - he has missed 114 3P shots in his career (54-168). If one out of every 9 of those shots had gone in, he would be shooting 40%.
What if he had missed 1 extra 3P every four games that he played or one more out of every 9 shots that he made?
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 26, 2005
30,486
Posted this in V&N but DC's vaccine mandate Executive Order is here:: https://coronavirus.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/coronavirus/page_content/attachments/2021-148 Vaccination Requirement for Entrance into Certain Indoor Establishments and Facilities.pdf

Interesting, there is no exemption for entertainers or athletes. (By way of comparison, NYC had an exemption for non-resident entertainers/athletes and BOS's order exempted entertainers/athletes without a resident/non-resident distinction.) If this stands, Beal (if not vaccinated) would not be able to play nor would Kyrie (among others). Super interesting.
 

Kliq

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 31, 2013
22,668
We all know it's Khris Middleton who we really need to worry about.
 

Cesar Crespo

79
SoSH Member
Dec 22, 2002
21,588
We all know it's Khris Middleton who we really need to worry about.
It's funny because I know fans of other teams who say "Whenever we play the Bucks, Middleton always goes off on us." I just laugh.

Seriously though, Middleton might be the most underrated player in the league. He's at least top 5. Good defender, lights out shooter, decent passer. 6'11 wingspan, 8'7 standing reach. He'd be amazing next to the Jays, but that's probably true of every team. He's plug and play. The Jays would work on any team but there would be questions on how they'd fit in with Player X. Is there anyone Middleton wouldn't work well with?
 

Kliq

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 31, 2013
22,668
It's funny because I know fans of other teams who say "Whenever we play the Bucks, Middleton always goes off on us." I just laugh.

Seriously though, Middleton might be the most underrated player in the league. He's at least top 5. Good defender, lights out shooter, decent passer. 6'11 wingspan, 8'7 standing reach. He'd be amazing next to the Jays, but that's probably true of every team. He's plug and play. The Jays would work on any team but there would be questions on how they'd fit in with Player X. Is there anyone Middleton wouldn't work well with?
Middleton, like Klay Thompson, is the perfect complimentary piece to a Top 5 player. They could slide into any good situation and be the perfect player.
 

radsoxfan

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 9, 2009
13,622
This isn’t surgical? I know UCL tears can heal on their own, but for a pro athlete that relies heavily on crisp and repeatable elbow motion, this seems optimistic.

BuT aint my field - maybe @radsoxfan or @DaveRoberts'Shoes can add more insight
If Paul George was a pitcher, then would be of much more concern. NBA players rely on repeated elbow motion but nothing like the valgus loading from throwing 90+ mph.

They will probably let it scar down for a month and hope that's good enough. I honestly can't recall an NBA player getting Tommy John UCL ligament repair. It's probably happened but if it has, super rare.

Worse case scenario is he lets it calm down for a month, it's still bothering him a lot, and eventually he needs surgery (hopefully in the offseason).
 

McBride11

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
22,109
Durham, NC
If Paul George was a pitcher, then would be of much more concern. NBA players rely on repeated elbow motion but nothing like the valgus loading from throwing 90+ mph.

They will probably let it scar down for a month and hope that's good enough. I honestly can't recall an NBA player getting Tommy John UCL ligament repair. It's probably happened but if it has, super rare.

Worse case scenario is he lets it calm down for a month, it's still bothering him a lot, and eventually he needs surgery (hopefully in the offseason).
I guess my concern / thought would be the scar limits ROM and throws off mechanics, even if the torque is clearly less than an MLB pitcher.

Agree haven’t heard of any NBAers, off the top of my head, getting TJS, but I also haven’t heard of many tearing the UCL either.

The following article found 6 players, from 2005 to 2015, that had UCL ‘sprains.’ So they don’t mention full or partial tears. 5 avoided surgery and missed anywhere from 24-86 days. The 6th was Jimmy Butler, who was the impetus of the article in 2015, that had a grade 2/3 tear at time of writing, but ultimately did not need surgery.

http://instreetclothes.com/2015/03/02/understanding-jimmy-butlers-ucl-elbow-sprain/

edit - I guess they don’t say (that I could find googling 4 articles) what grade his injury is. And apparently reading more he hurt it early december, came back and played some in late dec then went out. Some maybe it is not full tear.
I guess I just assumed full tear off the bat when reading the tweet. Oops
 

radsoxfan

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 9, 2009
13,622
I guess my concern / thought would be the scar limits ROM and throws off mechanics, even if the torque is clearly less than an MLB pitcher.

Agree haven’t heard of any NBAers, off the top of my head, getting TJS, but I also haven’t heard of many tearing the UCL either.

The following article found 6 players, from 2005 to 2015, that had UCL ‘sprains.’ So they don’t mention full or partial tears. 5 avoided surgery and missed anywhere from 24-86 days. The 6th was Jimmy Butler, who was the impetus of the article in 2015, that had a grade 2/3 tear at time of writing, but ultimately did not need surgery.

http://instreetclothes.com/2015/03/02/understanding-jimmy-butlers-ucl-elbow-sprain/

edit - I guess they don’t say (that I could find googling 4 articles) what grade his injury is. And apparently reading more he hurt it early december, came back and played some in late dec then went out. Some maybe it is not full tear.
I guess I just assumed full tear off the bat when reading the tweet. Oops

It's always tricky to extrapolate previous situations since "sprain" and "tear" are pretty vague and like you said often hard to know the grade based on most of the reports. In general I would be surprised if a scarred UCL created any significant issues with shooting mechanics, it's a totally different motion than pitching in which the UCL is uniquely stressed.

Once the acute swelling and inflammation calms down non-pitchers are usually OK with subacute healing elbow ligament injuries. It might bother them occasionally but it's unlikely to require surgery.

I have seen a lot of elbow dislocations in the NFL and college football players with basically every ligament (including the UCL) torn and even then they don't usually require surgery. Max Muncy in the MLB also did this recently and no surgery.

It would be very atypical for a non-pitcher to have a UCL tear and go immediately to season ending surgery. It would only be on the table in the unlikely scenario that non-op treatment doesn't go well, there is persistent instability, etc.
 

McBride11

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
22,109
Durham, NC
It's always tricky to extrapolate previous situations since "sprain" and "tear" are pretty vague and like you said often hard to know the grade based on most of the reports. In general I would be surprised if a scarred UCL created any significant issues with shooting mechanics, it's a totally different motion than pitching in which the UCL is uniquely stressed.

Once the acute swelling and inflammation calms down non-pitchers are usually OK with subacute healing elbow ligament injuries. It might bother them occasionally but it's unlikely to require surgery.

I have seen a lot of elbow dislocations in the NFL and college football players with basically every ligament (including the UCL) torn and even then they don't usually require surgery. Max Muncy in the MLB also did this recently and no surgery.

It would be very atypical for a non-pitcher to have a UCL tear and go immediately to season ending surgery. It would only be on the table in the unlikely scenario that non-op treatment doesn't go well, there is persistent instability, etc.
Awesome. Thanks
 

Jimbodandy

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 31, 2006
11,403
around the way
It's always tricky to extrapolate previous situations since "sprain" and "tear" are pretty vague and like you said often hard to know the grade based on most of the reports. In general I would be surprised if a scarred UCL created any significant issues with shooting mechanics, it's a totally different motion than pitching in which the UCL is uniquely stressed.

Once the acute swelling and inflammation calms down non-pitchers are usually OK with subacute healing elbow ligament injuries. It might bother them occasionally but it's unlikely to require surgery.

I have seen a lot of elbow dislocations in the NFL and college football players with basically every ligament (including the UCL) torn and even then they don't usually require surgery. Max Muncy in the MLB also did this recently and no surgery.

It would be very atypical for a non-pitcher to have a UCL tear and go immediately to season ending surgery. It would only be on the table in the unlikely scenario that non-op treatment doesn't go well, there is persistent instability, etc.
Thanks for this. Seems like the type of thing that could affect shooting mechanics for a while, but shouldn't materially impact ROM and ability to just shoot the ball. He might just have to get used to a working through the pain whenever he lets fly (or ignoring it).
 

radsoxfan

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 9, 2009
13,622
Thanks for this. Seems like the type of thing that could affect shooting mechanics for a while, but shouldn't materially impact ROM and ability to just shoot the ball. He might just have to get used to a working through the pain whenever he lets fly (or ignoring it).
Yeah definitely could be an adjustment period and an annoyance for awhile.

Another thing to mention is that the typical recovery period for a non-pitcher in the unlikely event he did end up with surgery is much shorter. Pitchers are a year+ as they have to ramp up with a very specific rehab.

Other athletes will be able to return much sooner so not a lot of risk to see how things go non-op first. Surgery early in the offseason wouldn't knock him out for the entire upcoming season like it would for a pitcher.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6942105/

Non-operative treatment with structured rehabilitation has demonstrated high rates of return to play following UCL injury in professional football [13], gymnastics [30•], and professional hockey [31•] when compared with baseball [28, 29]. The use of PRP has emerged as an adjunct treatment modality to accelerate and enhance the healing potential of UCL injuries;
 

NomarsFool

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 21, 2001
8,157
The CDC just changed their guidance to 5 days. It would make sense to me if all the leagues just followed the CDC instead of making up their own rules.
 

HomeRunBaker

bet squelcher
SoSH Member
Jan 15, 2004
30,096
The CDC just changed their guidance to 5 days. It would make sense to me if all the leagues just followed the CDC instead of making up their own rules.
I’m sure they will but give them a chance it’s been like an hour lol. The more we know each day the greater the chance there is even a protocol in the coming months.
 

The Social Chair

Member
SoSH Member
Feb 17, 2010
6,082
The 5 NBA Christmas games combined drew 9 million less viewers than the Packers game. Younger demos were brutal too.

I wouldn't be shocked if the NFL tries to run the NBA off of Christmas permanently. Figuring out how to schedule Wednesday or Friday games would be the only challenge.
 

Ale Xander

Hamilton
SoSH Member
Oct 31, 2013
72,430
Too many injuries and sicknesses. NBA needs to reduce the season to perhaps 74 games such that superstars play in a larger majority of them.
 

HomeRunBaker

bet squelcher
SoSH Member
Jan 15, 2004
30,096
The 5 NBA Christmas games combined drew 9 million less viewers than the Packers game. Younger demos were brutal too.

I wouldn't be shocked if the NFL tries to run the NBA off of Christmas permanently. Figuring out how to schedule Wednesday or Friday games would be the only challenge.
NFL can do whatever they wish to the NBA in a ratings war. Having said that, some of those lineups run out there this Xmas were flat out brutal. I hardly watched any NBA for this reason and clearly I wasn’t alone.
 

HomeRunBaker

bet squelcher
SoSH Member
Jan 15, 2004
30,096
Interesting, I thought he played well, but must be that they think they'll get a better guy as a buyout and don't want to pay the $ by cutting Cousins later
Has to be a ton of behind the scenes stuff as Cousins was very good in his on-court role last year and the Clippers couldn’t move on from him fast enough. Both teams also strangely had nothing but good things to say about him. Bizarre stuff.
 

Cesar Crespo

79
SoSH Member
Dec 22, 2002
21,588
Would not have guessed Derozan or Allen being where they are
I'd say Chicago was stuffing the ballot but Vucevic didn't get many votes.

He's the best or 2nd best player on the best team in the East. Shooting a career high .362 from 3, too. DeRozan's TS% has been pretty good the last 2+ seasons too.

.603, .591, and .584. I guess one could say he's "declining" but his career high before that was .555 and his career TS is .547. Even before the last 2+, I was a fan. I'm in the HRB camp that there's no way teams are actually worse with him on the court than off.

Chicago in some ways feels like the anti Boston. The team has average to above average passers at every position. They also lead the league in 3p% at .385, but are dead last in 3PA and 3PA/G. They are 3rd in FG%, 18th in FGA/G. 16th in FTA, 16th in FTA/G, 3rd in FT%.

C's are 24th in 3p% at .333, 12th in 3PA, and 12 in 3PA/G. They are 23rd in FG%, 12th in FGA/G. They are 4th in FT%, 9th in FTA, and 9th in FTA/G.

Makes me wonder how much better the team would be if you replaced one of Smart or Schroder with Ball. I doubt they'd be as good as the Bulls but they'd probably be closer to the 5 seed than out of the play in game. I think a player like Ball would also have in impact on Tatum's passing, and probably Brown's. It would remove some of the pressure on them to create for others and provide space.

Maybe more controversial, I think the team would be better with Zach Lavine than Jaylen Brown too. Though, lately, I've met little resistance putting Brown into the LaVine/Ingram group, and little comparing him to CJ McCollum. I fear Jaylen is too robotic to improve his playmaking in a significant way and that while he can improve significantly on D, it limits him there too. Still, he should be an average to above average defender even with those limitations. Not sure why he isn't.

I've suggested (as well as others) that he's focused too much on scoring at the sacrifice of his overall game. Hopefully this summer, he'll focus more on ball handling and defensive drills. Play making too, if he's feeling frisky. I think he needs to get the ball handling down before he worries about playmaking, especially since his vision is lacking as well.

If Brown qualified, he'd be tied for 13th in the NBA at 3.2 TO/G. You would have to go all the way down to 39th to find a player who averages less than 3 assists per game besides Jaylen. That is Jonas, who averages 2.4 APG/2.1 TO. Only 2 players in the top 60 in TO/G have less assists than TO. Towns is averaging 3.5 APG/3.6 TO, and Gobert at 0.8 APG/1.8 TO. Brown is at 2.6 APG/3.2TO. Of the top 30 players in TO/G, only 4 are averaging less than 4.5 APG. Towns, Edwards (3.5 APG/3.3), Tyler Herro (3.9APG/2.8 TO) Jayson Tatum (3.7 APG/2.8 TO).

Jaylen has 63 assists/77 TO this year. In his 5 seasons prior to this, Brown only had 2 seasons where he had more assists than TO. In 18/19, he had 100 assists/99 TO. Last year, he had a career high 195 assists and a career high 158 TO. For his career, he now has 654 assists/651 TO. I'm guessing there are very few players who average 20+ points a game with more assists than TO over the span of 5+ seasons. His last 10 games he has 29 assists and 43 TO. 1 game with 7 TO, 2 games with 6 TO, 1 game with 5 TO, 1 with 4. The other 5 he had 3. In his first 14 games this season, he had 34 assists, 33 TO.




On a side note: Draymond Green has a 31.5% TO% this year. In 2nd, Kyle Lowry at 20.8%. Wow. Last year, he was at 31.0%. Prior to the last 2 seasons, his TO% was 19.6. In 18/19, it was 26.8%, which was his 3rd worst. So the 3 worst years have come in the last 4 seasons. Prior to the last season +, his career TO% was 19.6%. Oddly enough, the Warriors lead the league in assists and are the 2nd worst in TO.
 

Cesar Crespo

79
SoSH Member
Dec 22, 2002
21,588
Out of players with 400+ minutes, Brown has the 2nd worst Assist/TO ratio among non centers. The worst belongs to Collin Sexton who has only played 11 games.

Only 2 players in the top 50 in points have more TO than assists as well. KAT (110 assists/111 TO) and Bojan (18.2 points, 61 assists/63 TO). KAT has 152 more career assists than TO. Bojan has 24 more career TO but has only averaged 14.5 points for his career. The last 4 he's at 18.3 PPG but has 489 assists and 484 TO. Granted, Brown's career average is 15.7 PPG but that's going to change.

edit: Back to the Bulls, Coby White's last 7 games: 17.6 points, 3.6 assists, 2.7 rebounds, .488/.469/.842 shooting. Up to 10.8 points, 2.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists on .423/.357/.750 shooting in 24.3 minutes for the year. Granted, he's only played 17 games. I think he's earned the role as the Bulls bench scorer the rest of the way.
 

ElUno20

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 19, 2005
6,055
Is there no game threshold for all stars? You shouldn't be on the ballot if you've missed over half your team's games.
 

NomarsFool

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 21, 2001
8,157
Interesting. Of little consequence, since he hasn't been playing. However, I wouldn't say he's been the worst player I've seen on the court for Boston this year.