It’s Friday in the NBA, and that means it’s time for … seven things I liked and disliked, from the James Harden blockbuster, to an already-ahead-of-schedule Victor Wembanyama to a different dynamic duo in Dallas.
Happy NBA season!
Jump to Lowe’s Things:
Harden on LAC | Wemby’s search for space
Giddey’s premiere skill | What’s up with the Bucks?
Sharpe’s breakout | Nembhard’s float game
Luka and Lively’s magic go all-in, again, for James Harden
The Clippers feel so much like a failure — having traded so much for three playoff series wins in four seasons — you sometimes forget the evidence is emphatic that for at least the first two seasons of the -Kawhi Leonard era, this was a championship-level team with both stars healthy.
Scoff if you’d like. The “if healthy” qualification applies to every team, and the Clippers wagered everything on two players whose bodies have betrayed them over and over. George’s injuries in L.A. have been more nagging and unconnected, but most of Leonard’s were isolated to his right leg and knee.
Both look healthy now as the Clippers have started 3-2 — with Harden yet to play a game. George is operating at peak boss levels: 29 points on 56% shooting and menacing defense all over the floor. Leonard doesn’t look quite as physically dominant, but he has been very good — even rushing up the floor more often as the Clippers take on Russell Westbrook’s end-to-end ferocity.
They could have won the title in both 2020 and 2021. They were healthy in the Orlando, Florida, bubble. Some teams thrived in that environment. Some teams wilted. The Clippers disintegrated, melting away against a Denver Nuggets team that was tougher and more resilient. The Clippers at that point had never made the conference finals, but they surrendered against Denver with the half-hearted arrogance of a team that assumed long playoff runs were its birthright. We’ll have other chances.
The next year might have been their best shot. The Clippers rallied to defeat both the Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz in the playoffs. The untested Phoenix Suns and sometimes jittery Milwaukee Bucks awaited. But Leonard tore his right ACL midway through the Utah series. He missed the next season; the Clippers missed the playoffs.
Last season was the first in which the evidence wavered that the Clippers were stone-cold contenders as long as George and Leonard were healthy. Leonard missed most of the first six weeks but roared to life over the final 45-plus games — looking like a top-five player again. Still: George and Leonard played only 38 games together. The Clippers in their shared minutes outscored opponents by 8.9 points per 100 possessions — very good, but not as otherworldly as that margin in their first two seasons. Other superstar duos — including Denver’s — lapped them. Just as Leonard amped it up to playoff gear, he got hurt — the right knee again.
Key supporting players aged to the fringes of the rotation: Nicolas Batum, Marcus Morris Sr., Robert Covington. The Clippers suddenly looked weaker at both the top and bottom of the roster.
This is why they showed interest in Harden from the moment he requested a trade on June 29, and why they eventually parted with three valuable draft assets — one unprotected pick and two swaps — and three rotation players for him when no other team would even return the Philadelphia 76ers’ calls. The Clippers’ brass was telling you what it thought about the team: We aren’t good enough to win four playoff series anymore, no matter what.
Are they now, with three of the highest-usage ball-pounders in the league in Leonard, Harden and Westbrook?
Harden is the ace shooter-playmaker the Leonard-George tandem has never had. He is a regular-season innings-eater who might insulate LA from play-in-tournament vulnerability if and when Leonard and George miss games. Leonard is the icy playoff terminator who can take over in the moments that have overwhelmed Harden.
P.J. Tucker is not an afterthought. He has a history of defending both Kevin Durant and Nikola Jokic at least credibly. He loves the postseason, when referees permit more grabbing and holding. Tucker might unlock the five-out, center-less lineups that have worked before for both the Clippers and some of Harden’s old teams. Norman Powell remains; he has hit at least 40% on catch-and-shoot 3s in five straight seasons and provides some downhill zip.
It is a jumble of talent, all Southern California basketball royalty, but there is so much to sort through. Welcome to the Last Chance Saloon — maybe for this iteration of the Clippers with every star on an expiring contract, Harden’s playoff legacy and more.
Does Westbrook come off the bench again after outperforming all reasonable expectations in a starting role? That seems the smarter move — to go with Harden, George, Terance Mann, Leonard and Ivica Zubac. It splits up the ball handlers, boasts more shooting and includes a practiced screen-and-dive option in Mann. (In fairness, Westbrook has set more ball screens as a Clipper.) Will Clippers coach Tyronn Lue go that route? Will Westbrook buy in?
(Tucker has been a starter for most of the past decade — the cleanest way to match his minutes with those of the No. 1 options he is tasked with guarding. But starting him now would mean two of Westbrook, Zubac and Mann coming off the bench — and that seems untenable. In George and Leonard, the Clippers already have two starters capable of taking the toughest defensive jobs.)
Westbrook has pushed the Clippers to play more at his pace. Harden is a slowpoke.
Harden and Leonard will both have to sacrifice some degree of control over the ball, the offense, and the pace when they share the floor. (Lue should stagger their minutes, but the team will rise or fall with them together.) Leonard has quietly tilted a little in that direction over the past two seasons, playing more off the ball at times. Both will have to take more catch-and-shoot 3s and screen for each other when matchups dictate it — when Harden screening for Leonard, or vice versa, might gift Leonard a mismatch.
Smart defenses will play with matchups in ways designed to tempt Harden into seizing the offense — into siphoning shots and plays away from Leonard and George. The Clippers can’t beat Denver and other top rivals with a bunch of 30-somethings playing your turn, my turn every possession.
Done right, this can work. It is very hard to hide weak or undersized defenders against three perimeter-oriented All-Stars. This revamped LA lineup — and that of the Phoenix Suns — is aimed squarely at Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. (Murray has built himself into a solid defender in most matchups. Porter has improved off the ball but is still vulnerable one-on-one in space.) The Clippers might still have one more move in them, having held on to their 2030 first-round pick.
But they have so much to iron out. One Leonard injury — even a two-week absence at the wrong moment — unravels the whole thing. George and Harden are no longer enough to carry the Clippers through a tough series without Leonard. Even at full health, the Clips cannot survive Harden quaking in the biggest games. Harden has to give effort on defense, too.
The Clippers have to find their identity — again. The Nuggets have absorbed theirs into their marrow. They play in winks and nods and raised eyebrows, orbiting the world’s best player — an unmatched offensive force — in knowing concert. Their new-look bench is expanding leads. Denver is the clear favorite in the West.
The Golden State Warriors look like a team in Game 40, not in Week 2. Bringing Chris Paul off the bench was always the right move. Paul is molding Golden State’s new five-man bench mob — Paul, Moses Moody, Gary Payton II, Jonathan Kuminga, Dario Saric — in his calculating image. Alongside the key starters, Paul has met Curry and the Warriors at their manic pace — while infusing some of his precision.
The Suns can match the Clippers in pure supernova talent; some of their stars are even under 30! The Los Angeles Lakers will figure themselves out. James always does. The Mavericks are undefeated. Other teams will rise.
The Clippers with this trade went from no chance to some puncher’s chance. If the goal is a title, I don’t think it will work; it just seems too disjointed, with too many questions. But the Clippers are better today than they were a week ago.
at point-forward and precisely one 3-point shooter — Devin Vassell — defenses care to defend outside of 20 feet. Wembanyama is playing mostly at power forward alongside non-shooting centers — Zach Collins and Charles Bassey. Those guys act as the main screen-setters, meaning Wembanyama begins possessions away from the ball.
Spacing is cramped, and none of the Spurs’ five starters has much experience organizing an offense. Things run more smoothly when Tre Jones enters.
Wembanyama is smart finding open creases. The Spurs run sets designed to catapult him into those pockets, including a bevy of cross screens under the rim. They free Wembanyama for catches, but then defenders swarm. When Wembanayama rolls, he sometimes almost collides with Collins — as all five defenders crowd the paint:
There is nowhere to go but up — literally. The Spurs’ offense is like an act of congested city planning: When there is no space left on the ground, build into the sky.
The Spurs are in the young, experimental stage. Gregg Popovich can start Jones again whenever he likes. They will spend the next years tweaking the talent around Wembanyama. Even now, the few minutes in which he has played center — 48 possessions, per Cleaning The Glass — have been comically effective for the Spurs.
, the league’s premiere sideline inbounder
Giddey is finding his place amid the young Oklahoma City Thunder’s rollicking start; he’s shooting just 40% on 2s, and his minutes are slightly down. It’s early, but those trend lines underscore that Giddey is a trickier long-term fit than either Jalen Williams or Chet Holmgren around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (aka the NBA’s Dean Malenko, the man of a thousand moves.)
Holmgren has exceeded the hype, raining 3s, twirling into layups and barricading the rim on defense. You were worried about Holmgren holding up at center? He doesn’t seem to care. He is trying his damndest to make sure the Rookie of the Year race is not a season-long Wembanyama coronation.
Identifying potential fit questions does not mean clicking on Giddey’s name in the trade machine. He’s very good already — the improvisatory connector every good team needs against elite defenses who smother the scripted stuff. He just turned 21; his wonky jumper — the main fit-related complication — is far from a finished product. (He needs to get more physical and attentive on defense.) Giddey and the Thunder have mastered all sorts of gambits to skirt defenses that try to clog the paint.
On a lighter note, Giddey is probably the league’s most adventurous and entertaining sideline inbounds passer. The Thunder have designated Giddey for this job, and have teammates zig-zag in wide-receiver-style routes while sideline QB1 scans for windows:
Yeah, that’s a nutmeg on the money to Isaiah Joe.
Look where the ball hits the floor:
On some of these, it almost seems like Giddey is playing his own game within the game — trying to thread smaller and smaller needles just to entertain himself.
Here’s a backdoor “Plan B” crossing route to Gilgeous-Alexander:
and Giannis Antetokounmpo have run 29 pick-and-rolls together with Lillard handling the ball — about seven per game. That’s almost nothing. Lillard often ran more in single games with Jusuf Nurkic and Enes Freedom. You can’t have the league’s deadliest two-man game if you barely have a two-man game at all.
The Bucks are minus-20 in 84 Lillard-Antetokounmpo minutes, with an offensive rating that would have ranked last among all teams by a mile last season.
It’s early. There has been more of a learning curve than anticipated for both superstars. Khris Middleton has barely played, and boy do you feel the drop-off from Middleton to every other Milwaukee supporting perimeter player. (The Bucks’ point of attack defense has been even leakier than expected so far.)
There’s also merit to exploring the breadth of the offense. How does a defense react to the Lillard-Brook Lopez pick-and-roll with Antetokounmpo in the slot — a threat to cut and dunk? What about when Antetokounmpo is in the dunker spot?
The timing on some of those actions is predictably off:
That looks scripted — Lillard drawing the trap and making the shorter pass to Malik Beasley, who has a cleaner angle to Lopez. Antetokounmpo appears uncertain about where he should be, and Lopez almost runs into him before somehow finagling an and-1.
Sometimes the Bucks flat lose the plot:
You have Lillard and Antetokounmpo there, and you toggle into a Beasley-Lopez two-man game — with Antetokounmpo hanging out, unguarded, 25 feet from the basket?
The Bucks are striking a fine balance introducing more Lillard-Antetokounmpo pick-and-roll while still letting Antetokounmpo indulge in some one-on-one play. (That said, Antetokounmpo’s pull-up 3s and isolation fadeaways feel almost like relics now with Lillard on board.)
, from the corners
Sharpe leads the Portland Trail Blazers in scoring, and he’s doing it efficiently — without forcing shots. He’s shooting well on 2s and 3s, and bouncing some nice pocket passes when he gets the chance to facilitate.
The Blazers are also making it simple by getting Sharpe the ball on the move, with an advantage. Take this bad boy:
The Blazers clear the left side and have Sharpe run off a pindown from the only non-shooter on the floor — Robert Williams III. Sharpe’s defender (the precocious Ausar Thompson) chases him over the screen as James Wiseman drops back off Williams. Sharpe flies right through Wiseman, who has to worry about the lob to Williams.
Take two:
Thompson ducks the screen. Sharpe and Malcolm Brogdon read that in an instant, and Sharpe fades outside for an easy triple.
Take three, though the Blazers flip sides and run a handoff instead of the pindown:
Thompson presses Sharpe, hoping to jump the handoff. Sharpe aborts and cuts backdoor. Williams hits him in stride. Boom: three baskets in three different ways over a two-minute span.
‘s float game
What a handy guy to have around. Nembhard can play on or off the ball, and he’s big enough to defend both guard positions. (Stephen Curry surely remembers Nembhard’s name.)
Nembhard can share the floor with Tyrese Haliburton and has effectively supplanted T.J. McConnell as Indiana’s backup point guard; Nembhard is slinging seven assists per 36 minutes and zipping some one-handed off-the-dribble lasers to Myles Turner on the pick-and-roll. (Nembhard is only 1-for-14 on 3s so far, and has to shoot better than his career mark — 33.6% — to be a heavy-minutes off-ball option on a good team.)
His floater is becoming a late-possession weapon:
Nembhard is good at pinning defenders to his hip and keeping big men off balance with change-of-pace dribbles. He can stop on one foot and is comfortable lofting that floater in traffic.
He has the size and craft to get it off one-on-one, even against elite defenders:
backward with a hard lefty dribble attack, crosses through the gap, burrows into Caruso’s chest and carves out room for that flick shot.
7. Luka Doncic and Dereck Lively II, making lob magic
The Dallas Mavericks’ 4-0 start has gone under the radar because they’ve played a cake schedule. They don’t seem to be sure who their fifth starter should be. But their offense is absolutely blazing behind Doncic, and last year’s mediocre Mavs went 15-16 against sub-.500 teams. In the West, every win matters. The Mavs aren’t quite this good, but they pass the early eye test. They’re solid.
The typical rookie ups and downs are coming for Lively, but he has stabilized the back line on defense and developed immediate pick-and-roll chemistry with Doncic. He is an elite offensive rebounder with a knack for quick-thinking kickout passes.
For years, Doncic’s game has begged for a lob partner with real size and hops. Doncic is the best kind of lob thrower: accurate and daring. He loves the challenge of a tight window. He invites some risk because he understands that even in this triple-happy era, a surefire 2 is the best shot in the game. He is uncanny putting the right amount of height and speed on his lobs.
Enter Lively, who can catch anything and finish with touch from odd angles:
What fun for Doncic. He aims that baby almost at the bottom left corner of the backboard, like a quarterback placing the ball where only his receiver can reach it. Lively does the rest with a buttery reverse.
The Mavs have outscored opponents by a massive 15.5 points per 100 possessions so far with Lively and Doncic on the floor. Opponents are shooting just 53% at the rim when Lively is the closest defender, per NBA.com. Doncic is defending with more vigor and going along with the Mavs’ faster pace. Keep an eye on Dallas.
