The Celtics finished in the top spot in Net Rating for the second straight season, while the Thunder jumped up from 28th to 14th to second. Read more »
Los Angeles Lakers Analysis
Ten-Year NBA Net Rating Rankings (Infographics For All 30 Teams)
The Biggest X-Factors Of The 2024 NBA Playoffs
Some names are bigger than others, but from Jaylen Brown and Luka Doncic to Donte DiVincenzo and Chet Holmgren, here are the 10 biggest playoff X-factors. Read more »
The Lakers And Bulls Need Each Other
A Zach LaVine trade is not an ideal scenario for either the Lakers or the Bulls- not now, and not after they potentially make this trade. But there aren't superior options on the table, or even on the horizon for two teams that need some humble reorganization. Read more »
We've Witnessed The Birth Of A New NBA Tradition
Here we are, at the start of something, which one of the greatest players of all time felt strongly enough about to make it an important conquest in his shockingly lengthy farewell cruise. Read more »
NBA's Top Wing Trios Ranked
We've ranked every team's wing corps from 1 to 30 based on the top three wings' production, upside and versatility. Read more »
A Pastless And Futureless State
You wonder if, given the choice, LeBron James would transform into his younger self. It would improve his championship odds, but his total understanding of the sport would diminish. Read more »
The Lakers And Nuggets, After Purgatory
Since their meeting in the 2020 bubble, the Lakers and Nuggets had two seasons lost due to key injuries. Denver is now a little older and at their competitive zenith while LeBron and A.D. may not have this good of a chance together again. Read more »
LeBron James, Millennial Superhero
As the Lakers overtook the Grizzlies, the most staunchly anti-LeBron minds of his generation warped in real-time, before us, into the Boomers they so gleefully mock. James is now a totemic mirror for elder millennials in a way that no other American athlete has been. Read more »
Ten-Year NBA Net Rating Rankings (Infographics For All 30 Teams)
The Celtics finished first in Net Rating ahead of the Cavaliers, who jumped up from 13th last season and 28th as recently as 2021. Read more »
Lakers Were Among Deadline Winners With Their Backup Trade
Not only did the Lakers end their experiment with Russell Westbrook, they also improved the team's depth and flexibility, held onto one of their coveted future first-round picks and laid the foundation for a more sensible path forward. Read more »
Ten-Year NBA Net Rating Rankings (Infographics For All 30 Teams)
The Suns jumped from 30th in the NBA in Net Rating in 17-18 to 29th to 18th in 19-20 to third last season and first in 21-22. Read more »
LeBron James Is Still Amazing
LeBron James' improbably persistent excellence is the undertold story of the Lakers this season, and it's hard to blame the broader basketball public for not being super interested. Read more »
Let's Ignore The NBA's Grumpiest Team Until April
The Lakers have told themselves they can beat the mundane task of the regular season, get into the playoffs at whatever-and-whatever, with nothing more than professionalism but the drudgery has already set in. Read more »
Twelve Characters: Russell Westbrook
Is Russ spitting nonsense when he says he's a Pau Gasol acolyte? Yeah, probably. But a tamed Russ, who is ferocious yet under his own control is an exhilarating concept. Read more »
The 2022 Lakers And Nets, And One Ring To Rule Them All
As the NBA transitions to a new era, a Lakers-Nets Finals could function as the capstone to a certain era of stars; one last hurrah for everyone old enough to remember when David Stern was still their commissioner. This would be a Super Bowl of sorts- a collision of legacies too rich to miss, too hyped-up to possibly escape. Read more »
DeAndre Jordan's Winnowing Of Choices
DeAndre Jordan may wish he could create a better set of options, be 27 again. Or maybe this is a fine time to get out. Read more »
The Opening Hours Of NBA Free Agency As Thirty Mission Statements
The advent of protracted trade demands and the play-in tournament and reshuffled lotto odds have conspired to incentivize goodness and punish intentional foulness. The NBA has pushed teams toward respectability. Read more »
Anthony Davis Satisfies Our Morbidity
Anthony Davis can be dominant, brilliant, unstoppable, invaluable. But we have also seen him tumble over and over and over. Read more »
Marc Gasol, Weather Maker
Marc Gasol offers the Lakers much needed equilibrium. A cool counterweight to the occasionally overwhelming aesthetics of tell-don't-show Laker grandiosity. Read more »
LeBron And The Art Of Self-Mythology
Fully 36 years old and nursing a high ankle sprain, LeBron James is into year two of his elder title contention phase with the Lakers, and his tendency to grandly narrativize everything he accomplishes has kicked into as high of a gear as we've ever seen from a player. Read more »
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