The Grip -- Mon, 12.18.17

Mike D'Antoni is a happy man

December 18, 2017

12.18.17

J.S.: While our absence was unexplained, your mind these past two weeks was probably elsewhere. One of us was basking in the glow of a new culture in a far away land.

S.E.: J.S. was on vacation and I can’t design. Sucks, too, we were on a pretty nice roll.

J.S. Right. What did I miss?

S.E.: *Deep breath* Victor Oladipo is an all-star, the Thunder are a month from trading Paul George, the Bulls have won five in a row, LeBron James has never been better than this past month, Steph Curry is hurt, and Tom Thibodeau is running an eight-man rotation in December. Also….  

LAST NIGHT'S SCORES

Toronto 108, Sacramento 93Pacers 109, Nets 97Detroit 114, Orlando 110Cleveland 106, Wizards 99

 The Rockets are rolling  

Of all the blockbuster trades that happened in the offseason, none seem to be coming to fruition better than Chris Paul to the Rockets.

It’s worth noting that this is very much a one-sided victory, with the Clippers being in complete shambles and all.

Meanwhile, the Rockets have the best record in the league at 24-4, have won thirteen straight and haven’t lost a game that Chris Paul has played in.

All of this is happening because James Harden and Chris Paul decided to play nice. While both are averaging more than nine assists per game, Paul relinquished the offense to Harden, who’s averaging an absurd 31.6 per game, compared to Paul’s average in the mid-teens.

Plus, the role players -- Eric Gordon, Ryan Anderson, Clint Capela, et al -- are a D’Antoni-ball’s dream.

(Capela can thank Paul and Harden when he tells his friends that he is the league leader in field goal percentage.)

Their achilles heel is, obviously, going to be the defense. They allow 104 points per game (15th in the league) and any smart basketball fan knows that you need good defense to win in the playoffs.

But watch one quarter of a Rockets game and you’ll see that they don’t care too much about anything other than the next open three. They play with a swagger and confidence reminiscent of the seven-seconds-or-less Suns -- they know they will out-score their opponents. And when you average 115 points-per-game it’s a fair assumption.

When D’Antoni revolutionized pace-and-space with those Suns, the league was different. The rules favored big men and low scores. Things have changed. Maybe this could be the year D’Antoni breaks through.

 The Thunder have a decision to make  

It seems objectively clear at this point, with a 14-15 record, that Paul George is going to be gone after this season.In a vacuum, the trio in Oklahoma City is not yet a disaster. Please, give it more than 29 games. But this is no vacuum, and George is not a patient diplomat. He is a mercenary, sent from Indiana to Oklahoma City to keep his foot on the win-now-or-else pedal.The Thunder aren’t winning now. And if they don’t pull off an 18-2 run over their next 20 games, the clock will be ticking on G.M. Sam Presti to flip George before he walks for nothing, much like another former Thunder small forward.Remember -- the trade deadline is earlier this season, on Feb. 8, and, with LeBron James playing like maybe the greatest player of all-time, the pressure on Cleveland G.M. Koby Altman to go all-in will be immense.Paul George for Tristan Thompson and the Brooklyn Nets 2018 pick? Don’t rule it out.

  • LeBron James passed Larry Bird for 6th place on all-time triple-double list. But, as Sirius XM’s Justin Termine pointed out, Legend got his in much less time. 

  • The Celtics have cooled down a bit, but are still atop the Eastern Conference with a 25-7 record. Look at the efficiency of their top-four guys.

  • Kendrick Perkins is in the G-League, yes, it’s true. Here are some highlights.

  • LiAngelo and LeMelo Ball are off to Lithuania. Did that make your eyes bleed?

  • ANDRE DRUMMOND FREE-THROW WATCH: The Pistons (17-13) have cooled down, but the Penguin has not! He is shooting 62.3 percent from the line.

  • TANK WATCH: The Bulls have shot themselves in the foot by winning a lot, and it’s all thanks to that guy who got punched in the face. Currently, the Hawks (6-23) are the best at being the worst.

  • Learn about the real workhorse of the Warriors, Mr. Eric Housen, who does everything from buying each player’s shampoos to transporting their luggage to sitting in on team huddles."Housen, 44, whom everyone calls E, is a behind-the-scenes force for the Warriors, who have employed him — with the exception of one season, when he followed Chris Mullin to the Indiana Pacers — since 1985, when he started as a ball boy. He was in seventh grade."To read more, Tap Here.

  • Here is a very good description of what the youngest Ball brothers are up to. The town they are playing in is rural, the gym tiny, the coach a freelance meat salesmen who works from the trunk of his car. [Tap Here]

  • ESPN churned out the obligatory Joel-Embiid-eating-to-start-the-story feature. It was OK. Readable. Not great. See for yourself. AT LEAST, it didn’t ACTUALLY start with Embiid “picking at his blueberry scone while whispering prose about his team in the 2018 NBA Playoffs.” Ugh. [Tap Here]

  • Disney just acquired Fox Sports Networks which means anyone with a WatchESPN login might be able to watch locally broadcasted games from 16 teams (notably the Cavaliers, Thunder, and Spurs). Fingers crossed. [Tap Here]

  • The Ringer checks in on how the underwhelming draft class of 2016 has been doing in the 2017 season. [Tap Here]

  • This is disguised as a podcast by Adrian Wojnarowski with guest Bob Myers, G.M. of the Golden State Warriors. But it’s actually a self-help miracle. Two uber-successful men at the top of their respective professions dig into the fountain of hard work. It may change your life. Or maybe one of us was just hallucinating on his seven-hour drive to New York City for Thanksgiving. Either way, give it a listen. [Tap Here]

A LOOK AHEAD

The grooving Portland Trailblazers visit the underperforming Minnesota Timberwolves to fight for fourth place in the West. 8 PM EST.