Basketball Intelligence For 4/4/23

Today's Best NBA Reporting And Analysis

Basketball Intelligence

Apr 4, 2023

TEAM-SPECIFIC STORIES

BKN: Nets revive winning ways by shutting down opponents’ stars
Brian Lewis, NY Post

BOS: Q & A: Grant Williams
John Karalis, Boston Sports Journal

BOS: Inside a G League season: Journey to basketball’s crossroads with the Maine Celtics
Jared Weiss, The Athletic

CHI: Bulls are converting turnovers into ‘easy baskets’ better than any other team
Julia Poe, Chicago Tribune

CLE: Cavs are searching for ‘safety net’ with uncertainty surrounding Okoro’s knee and playoffs approaching
Chris Fedor, cleveland.com

CLE: What we learned about the Cavaliers this week
Jackson Flickinger, Fear The Sword

CLE: LeVert’s been difference-maker for Cavs’ defense
Dan Gilinsky, King James Gospel

DEN: Calvin Booth has the right vision
Harrison Wind, The DNVR

New to BI? Sign-up for a low-cost - $5/month or $50/year (that is 14 cents per day!)- paid subscription for access to the full BI newsletter, including the team-specific and league-wide stories sections as well as free agency news, draft insights, and takeaways from the previous day’s games. *** If you are a free subscriber, please consider upgrading to paid status, entitling you to the entirety of BI ***

DEN: Is Peyton Watson’s coming out party enough for rookie to crack Nuggets’ postseason plans?
Parker Gabriel, Denver Post

GSW: Ty Jerome knows what he proved with Dubs
Dalton Johnson, NBC Sports

GSW: How Draymond Green became a motivated autism activist
Daniel Brown, The Athletic

GSW: Wiggins nearing return - the Warriors need him
Duby Dub Dubs. Dub Nation HQ

GSW: Andrew Wiggins’ return: Don't count out the Warriors just yet
Scott Ostler, SF Chronicle

GSW: Wiggins’ return to Warriors is imminent — but is it too late?
Madeline Kenney, Mercury News

IND: Pacers mathematically eliminated but still competing
Dustin Dopirak, Indy Star

LAC: Why Russell Westbrook helps the Clippers more than he did the Lakers
Andrew Greif, LA Times

LAL: On the elasticity of the D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves backcourt
Alex Regla, Silver Screen And Roll

LAL: Max Christie considers his future, not his present
Dan Woike, LA Times

LAL: How Darvin Ham’s motion offense has improved the Lakers
Edwin Garcia, Silver Screen And Roll

LAL: AD Is Back, and So Is the Lakers’ Balance in Late-Season Playoff Push
Chris Mannix, Sports Illustrated

MEM: Ja Morant is taking measures to find the mental space to be the best he can be. Coverage around him has lacked empathy
Parker Fleming, Bluff City Media

MEM: What do the Grizzlies need from Morant?
Damichael Cole, Commercial Appeal

MIN: Timberwolves are out of sync, and it’s affecting everything and everyone
Jace Frederick, Pioneer Press

MIN: The old Timberwolves return just in time to put their playoff hopes in jeopardy
Jon Krawczynski, The Athletic

MIN: How Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert revitalized their two-man game in Minnesota
Jake Fischer, Yahoo Sports

NYK: Hartenstein’s Resurgence
Jonathan Macri, Knicks Film School

NYK: The Knicks are in the NBA playoffs … and are far ahead of schedule
Fred Katz, The Athletic

NYK: Grimes’ re-emergence paying off at perfect time as Knicks injuries mount
Jared Schwartz, NY Post

OKC: This Could Be the Start of Something Special in Oklahoma City
Seerat Sohi, The Ringer

PHI: It’s time for the Sixers to trust Paul Reed
Harrison Grimm, Liberty Ballers

SAC: Len making late-season push to join Kings playoff rotation
Tom Dierberger, NBC Sports

TOR: For all its miseries, the Raptors’ 2022-23 is headed to the postseason
Louis Zatzman, Raptors Republic

TOR: Raptors need a lot of help in season’s last week, and it is their own fault
Eric Koreen, The Athletic

UTA: Final Week Primer & More
Dan Clayton, Salt City Hoops

UTA: Q & A: Lauri Markkanen
Michael Scotto, Hoops Hype

LEAGUE-WIDE STORIES

Meet Caitlin Cooper, the NBA writer winning over fans and players alike by actually focusing on basketball
Stephen Noh, Sporting News

NOTE: Glad to report that, at BI, we’ve been linking to Caitlin’s wonderful work since 2017. If we have somehow missed any of her stories, that is our loss. We have also been honored to have her as a guest on our Unrestricted Area Podcast:

NBA Power Rankings: measuring success for all 30 teams
Zach Harper, The Athletic

Power Rankings, Week 25
John Schuhmann, NBA.com

MVP Award: Questions to Ask to Determine Winner Between Embiid, Jokic, Antetokounmpo
Matt Moore, Action Network

Who’ll win the messy West?
David Thorpe, True Hoop

Benn Mathurin and Lu Dort, two kids from Montreal, who made it out and remain close
Scott Agness, Fieldhouse Files

NBA and NBPA Reach CBA Agreement
Keith Smith, Celtics Blog

NBA CBA 101: Everything to know about new agreement
Sam Quinn, CBS Sports

The Southeast Division’s biggest storylines this season
David Aldridge/Kelsey Russo/Josh Robbins, The Athletic

Q & A: NBA agent Erika Ruiz
Jovan Buha, The Athletic

The Week That Was
John Hollinger, The Athletic

VYING FOR VICTOR

This Victor Wembanyama play has an NBA executive wishing his team had tanked
Jonathan Givony, ESPN

"The craziest thing to me is how effortless this looked for him -- we're talking about putting back your own miss off a step-back 3. ... Who even thinks about that?" one Western Conference executive said. "I was mesmerized just by the way he was handling the ball against a 5-11 guy and how fluidly he got into this step back. I certainly wasn't prepared for what happened next. ... He didn't even really have control of the ball, but his hands are so big he just guided the putback through the rim. From a biomechanics standpoint, that should all be impossible. We haven't even talked about the way he mapped out the court in real time instantaneously to even give himself a chance to put himself in position to make that play. The whole thing is unreal, and scary."
It's often said that the future No. 1 pick does something new and previously unseen virtually every time he steps on the court, but even he outdid himself this time, leaving some lamenting what might have been.
"Honestly, I wish we wouldn't have won so many games this year," the Western Conference executive said. "We're going to all regret not tanking every game to get this dude."