Ever since Rudy Gobert was permanently inserted into their starting lineup midway through the 2014-15 season, the Utah Jazz have routinely had one of the NBA’s top defenses. Making the best shots in the league less profitable for opponents is one of the most surefire ways to build a top defense, and Gobert is better […]
Just a few short days ago, the Los Angeles Clippers were well on their way to a second consecutive early playoff exit. The Clippers had blown a 3-1 second-round series lead to the Denver Nuggets in the NBA bubble last season — an embarrassing defeat that led to the franchise parting ways with former head […]
The Los Angeles Clippers started the fourth quarter of Game 7 against the Denver Nuggets in the 2019-20 playoffs down 8 points, but they had on the floor a premier playoff closer in Kawhi Leonard and a fellow superstar in Paul George. The two had won their minutes together during the playoffs and regular season […]
If you take a gander at the past few decades of NBA champions, you’ll see a lot of familiar names. The Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers traded titles for most of the 1980s, while the Chicago Bulls hardly turned it off for the next decade. And from 1999 through 2010, nine out of 12 […]
If they could, most NBA coaches would simply play their best players for 48 minutes a game, every game. After all, it’s the stars who largely drive team performance, and most teams are at their best when their best guys are on the floor. Of course, we know that can’t happen. The science of minutes […]