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Want To Confuse An NBA Defense? Have A Guard Set A Ball Screen.

Picture a pick and roll in your mind’s eye. What do you see? If you’re of a certain age, you probably see grainy images of John Stockton working his way around a screen from Karl Malone, sizing up the defense and waiting until exactly the right moment before delivering a pinpoint pass to The Mailman. […]

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Russell Westbrook Or Chris Paul?

In our latest installment of NBA Stat Battle, senior sportswriters Neil Paine and Chris Herring try to decide if James Harden’s new (well … newish) teammate, Russell Westbrook, is an upgrade over his former backcourt partner, Chris Paul. The Paul-Harden Rockets never quite figured it out, advancing only as far as the Western Conference Finals […]

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It Could Be Now Or Never For James Harden And The Houston Rockets

Listen to enough NBA Media Day interviews, and you’ll start to think it’s the first day of school after summer vacation. Reporters routinely ask players what they did during their time away, and players in turn talk about the weight they’ve lost, the muscle they’ve gained, or the skills they’ve tried to bolster. James Harden […]

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Our Way-Too-Early Projections For The 2019-20 NBA Season

The NBA, it is often said, has no offseason anymore — and so, we are determined to keep pace. That’s why we have already reloaded the FiveThirtyEight NBA prediction model to include updated projections and probabilities for the 2019-20 season, three months before the regular season actually tips off. Because the NBA never stops. What’s […]

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