Basketball Intelligence For 11/12/25, Part Two
Today's Best NBA Reporting And Analysis
TEAM-SPECIFIC
BKN: Demin provides bright spot as tanking Nets fall to Raptors
Brian Lewis, NY Post
BOS: Celtics play themselves into another close game vs. 76ers, and can’t play their way out
Adam Himmelsbach, Boston Globe
BOS: Four numbers that highlight Jordan Walsh’s breakthrough with Celtics
Chris Forsberg, NBC Sports
DEN: Nuggets are finally giving Nikola Jokic what he’s needed all along
Dan Favale, Nugg Love
This year’s Denver Nuggets roster was billed as the deepest ever assembled around Nikola Jokic. Through the first part of the regular season, it turns out this claim…undersold the supporting cast.
Denver’s bench players are a plus-5.8 points per 100 possessions so far. We would give you a list of every second-string group to match that net rating if we could. But we can’t. Because it doesn’t exist.
You’re reading this correctly: The Nuggets, statistically speaking, have the NBA’s most effective bench. That is a stark departure from how their top-heavy build last season, and the season before that, and also the season before that
GSW: Draymond Green: Doesn’t feel like Warriors committed to winning
Anthony Slater, ESPN
LAC: Clippers struggling to stick to their blueprint
Janis Carr, OC Register
OKC: How the young Thunder are building a dynasty
Tim MacMahon, ESPN
OKC: Chet Holmgren Among the NBA’s Leaders in ‘Points Erased’
Randall Sweet, Sports Illustrated
SAC: Doug Christie has pride, but not a functional roster
Sean Keane, Yardbarker
TOR: RJ Barrett is the Raptors’ low-maintenance scorer
Eric Koreen, The Athletic
WAS: Wizards Star Proving Dominant in Yet Another Category
Henry Brown, Sports Illustrated
Wizards’ ascending center is leading the field in an intriguing statistic.
LEAGUEWIDE
NBA’s best rookies so far in 2025
Stephen Noh, Sporting News
Monitoring six early NBA trends
Kevin Pelton, ESPN
Star NBA Players Who Might Need a Breakup
Eric Pincus, Bleacher Report
Thunder join Warriors, Bulls and Lakers on list of best starts by defending champs
ESPN
The NBA’s new All-Star Game format is so complicated
Ben Rohrbach, Yahoo Sports
BI Note: Ben is soooo right. Here is our comment from this morning’s BI, Part One: So the NBA finally comes around to a format somewhat related to the obvious one it was handed on a silver platter 5 years ago: U.S. vs World. But instead of making it a realistic facsimile of a real game, the Assn. persists in mucking it up with gimmicks. Even with that silliness, it should still be worlds (pun intended) better than the unadulterated gimmickry of recent years.