2018-19 NBA Season

[Truthteller]

Interesting fact, Deceptive Speed.

Wikipedia has listed 30 players not selected in the 2018 NBA draft that have played at least one game in the NBA. Of that 30, I only count 3 whites. All are American born and trained: Drew Eubanks (San Antonio), Duncan Robinson (Miami) and J.P. Macura (Charlotte).

So that's only 10% of all undrafted players to play at least one game, so far, are white. Not impressive. Shows how deep the Caste system is. Not only are whites screwed during the draft, they are absolutely snubbed after the draft. And it's not like the trio has been that good. All three are on two-way contracts. NBA teams, in total, are allowed 60 two-way contracts. So only three white rookies out of 60 is sad.

And it's not like the whites are really getting a chance to show much: Drew Eubanks has played 20 games (95 min), scoring a total of 39 points. Duncan Robinson, after a great Summer and pre-season, has played only 13 games (113 min), scoring a total of 31 points and his shooting percentages have been poor. J.P. Macura scored 4 points in one game.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_NBA_draft

 

[white lightning]

The New York Knicks are a very bad team but they are finally playing Mario Hezonja some quality minutes. He had a triple double tonight
for NY with 16 pts, 16 rebounds and 11 assists. The guy can dunk on anyone and he has a fine all around game. They have only been
playing him big minutes for around the last 10 games or so. He could easily be a starter and might develop into an all star if a team would
believe in him. Glad to see him shine at the end of a long frustrating season for the Knicks. Just like with Porzingis, they don't seem to appreciate
guys with talent that want to win. We shall see what next season is like but I doubt it will be any different.

 

[Truthteller]

Lakers guard Alex Caruso, who the clowns over at TNT (Barkley and crew) derisively refer to as "Ernie Johnson", just had an amazing night in a road win at the Staples Center, against the Clippers: 32 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists.

He did this starting in place of the wildly over-hyped Lonzo Ball, who has a NBA career free throw percentage of 43%, but is still seen as a rising star. Caruso is averaging almost 9 points per game. If he can reach 10 PPG, it will be stunning considering he was averaging 0.9 PPG on March 4th. Caruso is shooting over 46% from the field and over 53% from 3-point land for the season.

In the very informative article (in terms of breaking down his stats) below*, Alex Caruso is described as having the perfect bring-your-lunch-pail-to-work style, who makes up for his shortcomings with extreme effort. He is also praised for his ability as a bench cheerleader, constantly standing up and applauding teammates throughout the game.

* https://hoopshabit.com/2019/04/02/los-angeles-lakers-alex-caruso-should-be-lone-free-agent-retained/

By the way, check out this monster dunk by the nonathletic Ernie Johnson look-a-like/lunch-pail-tooting bench cheerleader: https://sportsnaut.com/2019/04/watch-lakers-alex-caruso-with-dunk-of-the-year-nominee/


P.S: Grayson Allen finally had a huge game, 23 points, 10-14 shooting from the field.

 

[white lightning]

P.S: Grayson Allen finally had a huge game, 23 points, 10-14 shooting from the field.

It's very hard to have a huge game when this immense talent it rotting away on the bench most of the season. What a waste of talent.
Glad to see him get a big game though. He went to the wrong team. We were all excited but Utah had other plans.

 

[Shadowlight]

Want to comment on the three posts above. In a season that has had its ups and downs it was really nice to see three "fringe" shooting guards have career games.

Not lost on me at least is the irony of Rex Chapman commenting on these players on the NBA channel. In the March Madness thread I eluded to Rex and this fixation I have had with soaring white shooting guards ever since Rex started playing.

Mario Hezonja is a player I have watched closely for ages now. I first heard about him as a young teen and I had him earmarked as the next Rex due to his leaping ability and all around athleticism. In a recent game he blocked a LeBron James shot to seal a rare Knicks win.

Like so many athletic white shooting guards before him, after getting drafted in the top ten in ,it has been a constant struggle for Mario as his playing time at Orlando was often erratic. But even there he had his moments.

Last night's game wasn't the first in his career where he exploded although I believe it was his first triple double. Hezonja is still only 24 so I am still holding out hope he can find his groove if not with the Knicks, somebody else. If he can facilitate like he did last night it will help offset his poor three point shooting. With his athletic ability it would be great if he could finally emerge.


Alex Caruso was known as an all around player at Texas A & M. Known as a superb passer and tough defender Caruso didn't put up enough points in college for the NBA to draft him. But he was always a very good run jump athlete and now having worked his way onto the Lakers roster last night he got to show off all of his skills. He is 25 and seems to me in a fair world should be given a chance to prove himself. Meaning securing meaningful minutes.

Side note ,Truthteller above mentions Lonzo Ball. I said it right here at the time of the draft he was an overrated stiff and people might forget but Ball was almost as hyped up as Zion back in his UCLA days. Along with his hot air father the Lakers blew it by drafting him and now look where the Lakers have landed.

I agree with White Lightening that Grayson Allen is too talented to waste his career away on the bench. Rex was chuckling in support of Allen during the highlights. Allen is only 23 too so we can't give up on him despite his overall dismal rookie season.


But of course we can only be cautiously optimistic at this point with all three players above. But sparks like last night give us some hope amidst the darkness.

Also of note last night the splendid Gordon Hayward is starting to turn up the heat. He has shot nearly 60% from the field in his last 5 games and has been on a tear the last two. Last night he went 9-9 and ended up with 21 points in 26 minutes.

The Celtics are a wild card. If Gordon continues to play like he has the past two games look out.

 

[Shadowlight]

What worries me about the three players above is unlike the 1980's I don't think nurturing young white players who have talent but need seasoning is much in the cards these days. I had referenced this earlier with Jake Layman of Portland who is being moved along at a snail's pace. But back in the day talented players like Detlef Schrempf were allowed to grow and improve over time. Eventually Schrempf became a star.

These days there is more of a focus on young black "talents" as budding white players often get rinsed out in the wash. From ESPN forward the publicity and marketing laser beam focus on young black "future stars" is blinding and often teams pay a penalty. Andrew Wiggins was billed as the next "Michael Jordan" and his Timberwolves team has been a non entity the entire time he has played there.

Also want to mention some Hall Of Fame inductees. Sidney Moncrief, the former Bucks star, deserved to get in. I remember when his Arkansas team played undefeated Indiana State and Bird in the NCCA tournament. He was a good defender and leader of those great Bucks teams.

But happy to see C Vlade Divac get in. I saw Paul Westphal play some, not a lot because I was very young but he always impressed me. Very acrobatic.

Also Bobby Jones, who was just being discussed in the March Madness thread. He was named to the all defensive team around eleven times and that is what he is known for best.

And even before my caste change I always rooted for Jack Sikma and his Seattle team. I remember their back to back finals battles with Washington where they each one a championship. Sikma was a terrific shooter and rebounder. A low post presence.

Former Celtics HC Bill Fitch was elected too. He was Bird's first HC and won it all in 1981.

 

[white lightning]

Hezonja blew up for a game-high 30 points in Sunday's victory, shooting a very respectable 12-of-21 from the field. Hezonja has been electric over the past three games. and for the last month or so overall.

If the Knicks have any brains they will keep him in the starting lineup heading into next season. The kid has all star abilty. Always has yet for some reason teams don't believe in him. Gee I wonder why?

His stats from tonights win were as follows:

Hezonja finished with 30 points (12-21 FG, 3-6 3Pt, 3-4 FT), six rebounds, five assists, and two steals in 36 minutes during Sunday's 113-110 victory over the Wizards!

 

[Shadowlight]

Really nice stats from Hezonja. More on him in a minute.

Last night I watched the entire Lakers game because Alex Caruso started and played big minutes. He is listed as 6'5" but doesn't seem long ,hence he seems shorter than that. I remember putting him on my Rex Chapman list when he was a high school prospect because of this all around athletic ability. His career at Texas A & M didn't go the way I envisioned but he was a stellar defender and passer. He was under the radar for much of his college career. His shooting was just OK and I figured I had seen the last of him after he graduated.

Moving on a few years he barely resembles the same player. Playing PG now he seems a lot quicker than I remember. He just missed out on what would have been a spectacular follow up dunk and later in the game went right at C Rudy Gobert, the longest toughest defensive C in the NBA, and he drew a foul. He went right up there with Gobert.

While his outside shot wasn't falling last night he did score on some shorter shots and driving lay ups on his way to an 18 point 11 assist night in a Lakers home win. Grayson Allen only played in a few spurts for Utah.

I came away very impressed and a little surprised because he wasn't a true PG in college. But he looks the part of a starting NBA PG. We will have to wait and see where this all turns out but he looks better than Lonzo Ball I can tell you that.

Mario Hezonja was the 5th pick in the 2015 draft and as I mentioned before I had been following him several years prior to that. The white Michael Jordan I used to think but that faded as reality settled in a year or two before the draft.

There was no other player from that draft which included Porzingis, a player I predicted right here at CF prior to the draft would become huge, that I cared about more than Hezonja. He was going to become what I thought Rex Chapman would have become. The high flying all star 2G.

In his fourth year now, like Caruso, Hezonja has been turning it up of late and we have no idea what it all means. Will the usually caste slanted Knicks show full faith in him next season or will he end up getting kicked around and drift on and off the bench. If not the Knicks will some other team start him and ride him out for long enough to see how he turns out?

You would like to think he has earned his spots and someone will give him a real chance to become a solid starter in the league. Athletically he is top echelon. Now that he has matured it is time to find out whether he is star material. Or at the least a solid starter type.

It is nice to see athletic white players ( not just some standstill shooters) like Caruso and Hezonja show late season flashes because both were just wasting away in no man's land.

 

[white lightning]

Dragon Bender of the Suns had a good game last night scoring 19 pts. The Suns gave up way too early on Alex Len who is starting for the Atlanta Hawks. Alex Len had 33 pts last night. The
Suns don't seem to let young players develop properly. Especially with certain players. Then they go and get Jimmer and don't play the kid. Why get him if your gonna have him rot on the
bench. Hoping they at least keep Bender & Jimmer going into next season and maybe they will play them more. I doubt it but you can always hope.

 

[Shadowlight]

Below is a Rex Chapman like wonder dunk from Mario Hezonja last night. Whoa!!!

https://www.nba.com/knicks/video/teams/knicks/2019/04/07/mario-hezonja-dunk-highlight-knicks-wizards

 

[Booth]

Alex Caruso had the dunk of the year the other night that even had King James scratching his nappy head. It was off a missed shot, he got the rebound and dunk it in one motion. Shoulda posted the video when I first saw it and I now can't find it. I hope someone can find it and post it.

 

[white lightning]

Alex Caruso had the dunk of the year the other night that even had King James scratching his nappy head. It was off a missed shot, he got the rebound and dunk it in one motion. Shoulda posted the video when I first saw it and I now can't find it. I hope someone can find it and post it.

Here you go my friend. Ask and ye shall receive. Epic dunk that had the crowd & players all pumped up!

 

[Booth]

Thanks, White Lightning . My words doesn't do the play justice.

 

[jacknyc]

Nice to see Allen, Leaf, and Kennard, who normally are on the bench, have big nights:

Grayson Allen 40 pts
Nikola Jokic 29 pts
TJ Leaf 28 pts
Luke Kennard 27 pts
Ivica Zubac 22 pts
Alex Len 20 pts
Dirk Nowitzki 20 pts
Jake Layman 19 pts
Boban Marjanovic 18 pts
TJ McConnell 18 pts
Bogdan Bogdanovic 15 pts
Ryan Arcidiacono 14 pts

 

[icsept]

Wow, Grayson Allen scores 40. I don’t understand why the Jazz had no use for their 1st round pick all season. Forget the scoring, he could at least have been an energy guy off the bench. Total wasted season. Kind of like his freshman season at Duke - he barely played all season then had his breakout in the NCAA title game.

 

[white lightning]

Wow, Grayson Allen scores 40. I don’t understand why the Jazz had no use for their 1st round pick all season. Forget the scoring, he could at least have been an energy guy off the bench. Total wasted season. Kind of like his freshman season at Duke - he barely played all season then had his breakout in the NCAA title game.

Regarding Grayson Allen and why they don't play him. For one reason. The league does not want too many white guards who jump out of the building as it disprooves stererotypes. I've seen it over and
over. Year after year. Allen could be a star. They made sure to trash him in college with the scandals and voting him the dirtiest player. Then he went to a team that didn't have any intention of letting him start. It's disgusting to watch guys with talent that sit on the bench night after night. The kid has all star potential. Always has had that ability but will the Jazz ever unleash it? I doubt it.

Look at the Suns who trade for Jimmer only to sit him night after night. What a joke. The league has improved slightly with a few more whites but it doesn't not want high flying white superstars.

 

[Freethinker]

Wow, Grayson Allen scores 40. I don’t understand why the Jazz had no use for their 1st round pick all season. Forget the scoring, he could at least have been an energy guy off the bench. Total wasted season. Kind of like his freshman season at Duke - he barely played all season then had his breakout in the NCAA title game.

The Jazz are going into a tough playoff matchup with the high scoring Rockets. Has Grayson shown enough at the end of the season, to carve out an important role off the bench in the playoffs? I think that will show if the Jazz are serious about letting him blossom.

 

[Shadowlight]

It got to a point a couple of years ago where I couldn't watch the NBA so it is a good sign that I have watched it more this season than the previous three or four. But we still don't know which way the wind will blow for players like Grayson Allen or TJ Leaf or Mario Hezonja or Alex Caruso or Jake Layman or Donte D or Pat Connaughton or Luke Kennard or Zach Collins and several other players who exist in the twilight zone. Meaning players who can't get ( in varying degrees) consistent meaningful minutes.

And what do all of the above players have in common? They are all athletic. A far cry from the white standstill shooter stereotype that has prevailed in people's minds over the years. At times back when it seemed teams loaded up on Steve Kerr ( I can't stand him) like shooters while the black players, who controlled the ball, were able to show off their "athletic" skills.

And I just don't see the patience for white players with some promise that teams used to show in the 1980's. Hell it took John Stockton four years before he was able to play meaningful minutes. Steve Nash took three years. But today with all the hype surrounding young black players and the entitlement that ensues I am not overly confident that current young white twilight players will ever get a chance to properly develop into starters and possibly, eventual stars.

From John Stockton to Detlef Schrempf, back in the day budding white talent was allowed to develop. And look what happened. Stockton became an all time great and Schrempf became an all star type.

But like in the NFL now, NBA basketball coaches don't command like they used to and are subject to the whims of their star black basketball "stars."

So while these intermittent great performances by young white players is encouraging I for one am not entirely convinced this will lead to a new era in the NBA where more white stars emerge.

The upcoming draft is as grim as it gets ( although I think college basketball might be better next season) so no relief in sight on that front but going into next season at least I have more reason to feel like something good might happen. That alone I guess is a victory when you consider how dismal everything seemed just a few years ago.

 

[Deceptive Speed]

With the 2018-19 NBA season officially over I thought I've give a quick run-down of the top leading white scorers! ive counted 22 whites in the top 100 NBA scoring charts, that number is up from 21 at the start of the season.

Rank/ Pos/ Name/ Team/ Avg
16. C Nikola Vucevic ORL: 21.8 ppg
20. SG/PG Luka Doncic DAL: 21.2
23. C Nikola Jokic DEN: 20.6
31. SF Danilo Gallinari LAC: 20 ppg
36. PF Lauri Markkanen CHI: 18.7
38. SG JJ Redick PHI: 18.2
42. SF Bojan Bogdanovic IND: 18.0
45. PF Kevin Love CLE: 17.3
56. C Jusuf Nurkic POR: 16 ppg
60. C Jonas Valanciunas MEM: 15.6
63.PF Nikola Mirotic MIL: 15.3
66. SG/PG Bogdan Bogdanovic SAC: 15.1
74. PF/C Domantas Sabonis IND: 14.1
73. C Steven Adams OKL: 14.0 (white/poly mix oftenly assumed as fully white)
78. PG Goran Dragic MIA: 13.9
81. SG Joe Harris BKN: 13.7
Tie 81. C Enes Kanter POR: 13.7 (Looks like a typical white Turk to me)
84. C Marc Gasol TOR: 13.6
88. SF Cedi Osman CLE: 13.0 ppg
90. PG Ricky Rubio UTAH: 12.7
96. SF Joe Ingles UTAH: 12.2
104. SF Gordan Hayward BOS: 11.6

 

[jacknyc]

Thank goodness for the European players. There are only 3 Americans in the top 100 - Reddick, Love, and Harris.

 

[Deceptive Speed]

Regarding Grayson Allen and why they don't play him. For one reason. The league does not want too many white guards who jump out of the building as it disprooves stererotypes. I've seen it over and
over. Year after year. Allen could be a star. They made sure to trash him in college with the scandals and voting him the dirtiest player. Then he went to a team that didn't have any intention of letting him start. It's disgusting to watch guys with talent that sit on the bench night after night. The kid has all star potential. Always has had that ability but will the Jazz ever unleash it? I doubt it.

Look at the Suns who trade for Jimmer only to sit him night after night. What a joke. The league has improved slightly with a few more whites but it doesn't not want high flying white superstars.[/QUOTE

Every time I turn on a sports show and they bring up the Suns almost all they'll talk about is when is a good time to unleash Jimmer?? Yet the seasons over now and Jimmer only played 1 game longer than 20 mins, while most nights he avg. about 5-10 mins of PT. So who would've figured when Jimmer played 22 mins vs the Jazz he had his best game back in the NBA. It was nothing special but he put up 11 pts, 1 asst, and 2 stls, thus proving he's worthy of more PT.

I sometimes feel like somebody up high with the NBA really wants Jimmer to fail in this league, because every time I've seen him play big NBA mins he looks like he's still on BYU! Anyways if I don't see Jimmer back next year I might drop the NBA altogether, however I think he will wether its with the Suns or as a spark plug scoring 2nd string PG for some team (think more rounded scoring Ryan Arcidiacono or TJ McConnell)

 

[white lightning]

One team that is fun to watch is the Pacers. They only have 1 white starter in B.Bogdonovic but have 4 whites out of their 10 players that play. So 40% isn't
too bad. Sabonis should be starting has he has all star potential and puts up amazing numbers off the bench. TJ Leaf and Doug McDermott also are on the team.
They have a tough first round playoff matchup against the Celtics. Boston has Gordon Hayward and Aaron Baynes. Good matchup to watch for those that like
to watch some basketball.

 

[Bucky]

Jokic recorded a triple double in a loss to San Antonio yesterday.

Steady Joe Harris chipped in 13 in a Brooklyn win yesterday as well.

Sad to see what injuries have done to Hayward..

Pat Connaughton had 10pts 8reb on 4of 6 shooting.

Luke Kennard scored 21pts for Detroit in theur 1st Rd blowout loss.

 

[Bucky]

Connaughton 18pts 9reb! 8 of 10 shooting.

 

[Shadowlight]

Even though he only averaged sixteen minutes a year third year C Jakob Poeltl played over thirty minutes last night as the Spurs took a 2-1 lead over Denver.

Poeltl scored 10 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. He was setting a ton of screens and it is worth mentioning he shot 64.5 % from the field this season.

Moving along slowly but it was encouraging to see him start and contribute. He left Utah too early in my estimation but I think he is finding his groove. A nice athlete for his size Poeltl is a team player who will do whatever they ask of him.

There was a point this season where it looked like Pat Connaughton was on the outs and Jake Layman was ascending.

Now Layman is laboring to get minutes and Connaughton is showing some spark.

Unless you are in a solid rotation players like Connaughton and Layman too often receive disjointed minutes off the bench and it is very hard to find a consistent groove when being yanked around like that.

Luke Kennard has had to deal with it too but it seems he is starting to get more comfortable.

Article in Sports Illustrated on the Celtics and they chart Gordon Hayward's shooting % which was pretty bad early on but has grown in leaps and bounds as the season has progressed. His stats might not reflect it but he is an essential piece of the Celtic's puzzle these playoffs.

And JJ Redick has found new life with the 76er's arguably playing his best ball late in his career. He went 5-9 from deep last night in a win.