30 Things I'll Be Watching on League Pass

Hit the jump for 30 Things I’ll be watching on League Pass. That’s one for each team in the second “half” of the season.

Atlanta Hawks

Onyeka Okongwu. He's averaging 13.8 points, 9.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.9 blocks in 29.2 minutes per game since taking over for Clint Capela as the starter. He's even staying out of foul trouble most nights. (He’s yet to have more than four fouls in any of those games.) Can he keep it up?

Boston Celtics

Jrue Holiday’s health and form. A lot of the Celtics being an unbeatable juggernaut depends on their being able to put five guys on the floor with zero weaknesses. When Jrue was hitting 43% of his threes last year, that was more viable. When he’s hitting 34%, it’s less so. He also missed the last five games before the break and he’s almost 35 years old. Injuries are something to watch out for — especially given that the Celtics will likely have to face the Knicks (Jalen Brunson) and Cavs (Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland) in the playoffs.

Brooklyn Nets

Did you know Brooklyn went 6-1 in its final seven games before the All-Star break? That stretch saw them beat some terrible teams, but also win back-to-back games over the Rockets. Their defense has been really good. So, let's keep an eye on that.

Charlotte Hornets

One of the only enjoyable things about the Hornets this season has been the Moussa Diabate experience. He’s probably not going to play as much now that Jusuf Nurkic is on board, because teams love deferring to guys who make a lot of money. But the Diabate minutes should still be pretty fun.

Chicago Bulls

(Scheduled post.) I guess I’m watching the play-in standings. Again.

Cleveland Cavaliers

As always, that fifth man. Max Strus, De’Andre Hunter, Dean Wade if he ever gets back on the court… Who is the best solution to the same problem the Cavs have had for three years running? And then in the playoffs, can the Mobley-Allen frontcourt hold up as well as it has during the season? That’s always an open question.

Dallas Mavericks

Frontcourt injuries and whether the fanbase truly enters open revolt.

Denver Nuggets

They won eight in a row before the break. Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. look like they’re rounding into peak form. Christian Braun has been far better than many expected. (Especially better than I expected.) The Russurgence, pre-injury, was real and spectacular. Can they jump into the 2-seed and then close the gap on the Thunder at the top of the conference?

Detroit Pistons

AUSAR THOMPSON. I’ve been all in on Amen from very early on. It’s been a bit of a slower burn for Ausar because of the blood clot he dealt with last season, but he has recently been showing signs that he, obviously, has a similar ceiling to that of his brother. He maybe doesn’t have quite the same handle or passing instincts as Amen, but everything else is there in spades. His last seven games before the break: 14.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and 2.1 steals in only 25.1 minutes a night. The Pistons are competent and fun, and he’s an important piece of the puzzle.

Golden State Warriors

Obviously, we have to watch what happens with Jimmy Butler. He got his extension, so he should be properly motivated to actually do Jimmy Butler things. So far, it looks like that’s the case. But you never know what’s going to happen with him. Does he suddenly decide he doesn’t want to shoot for four straight games? Does he develop a mysterious injury? And how combustible can things get with him and Draymond Green on the same team?

Houston Rockets

Can this offense come back to life? Across their final 10 games before the All-Star break, Houston had an offensive rating of just 109.1 — nearly 5 full points per 100 possessions worse than the league average. Prior to that, the Rockets were at a 114.8 offensive rating, which isn’t elite but is at least better than average. If they can’t get back to that level, their hope of real contention is probably over.

Indiana Pacers

The defense. Whenever Andrew Nembhard plays, Indiana defends at an elite level. That was true before his extended injury absence, and it’s been true since. How sticky is that? How sustainable is it? I suppose we’ll find out down the stretch of the season.

L.A. Clippers

As always, I am watching whether Kawhi Leonard can stay on the court. He was rounding into peak form just prior to the break. We know what he looks like at his best. We also know that Kawhi looking like he’s at his best is not something that tends to last very long. The ceiling of this team is incredibly high if he can be in the mix. If he can’t, I can’t take them all that seriously as Western Conference contenders.

Los Angeles Lakers

I wrote about this when covering the Luka trade:

The first thing I don’t want to hear is how LeBron and Luka can’t play together because they both need the ball. These are two basketball geniuses. They will figure it out. We’ve seen it before. Chris Paul and James Harden supposedly wouldn’t fit together. Those Rockets teams basically solved NBA offense for a few years. When you have guys that are this good, this smart, they will figure out the best way to work together. They just will.

Whether that means LeBron or Luka getting into the post more often, setting ball screens for each other, doing what-fucking-ever, they will figure it out. The Lakers will score, and do so at an incredibly high level. Put two shooters in the corners and get them a rim-rolling big man and let one or the other go to work. It will lead to buckets. It always does, for both of them.

That also plays into the long-term plan. In terms of basketball skill set, if not athleticism, there has never been a player closer to LeBron than Luka. The best way to build around them is basically the same. We’ve seen it throughout their careers. Rim-roller. Shooters. Let them be the offense.

Memphis Grizzlies

Ja Morant, duh. For so many reasons. Unfortunately, the first and foremost of those reasons is his health. He seemingly can’t play more than three or four games in a row without getting nicked up in some way. Maybe they’re just aggressively managing him to make sure he can compete for the entire playoffs. But we need to see him consistently on the floor before we are able to put the Grizzlies in the mix with the other true contenders.

Miami Heat

Kel’el Ware. He’s really fun! He’s also been really productive. Since permanently entering the rotation, he's averaged 10.8 points and 7.4 rebounds in 23.5 minutes per game. Since entering the starting lineup, he's at 11.5 points and 9.8 boards, 2.0 combined steals and blocks, in 30.1 minutes a night. Is he a true building block? We’ve got 29 more games to gather information on that.

Milwaukee Bucks

What the hell is this team, anyway? Is it a contender built around one of the two or three best players in the world? Is it a team that is simply too old and slow to truly compete, and is just taking one last gasp that won’t really go anywhere? I find it hard to count out a Giannis Antetokounmpo-led squad, but I am also left extremely cold when I watch these guys, who are too inconsistent to garner mention alongside the best of the best.

Minnesota Timberwolves

Can they avoid the play-in tournament? They’re 1 game back of doing so right now. The Nos. 5 through 10 seeds in the West are separated by a total of 3.5 games, though, so there is a lot of fluidity to who is going to wind up where.

New Orleans Pelicans

Trey Murphy is pretty much the only thing worth watching here at this point.

New York Knicks

How they deal with opposing teams guarding both Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns with wings and then switching their pick and rolls. Too often this season, they have been baited into mismatch-hunting and isolating deep in the shot clock. If they can’t find a better answer, they’re not going to go as far as they want to go.

Oklahoma City Thunder

Are they really this year’s version of last year’s Celtics, or of the 2015 Warriors? They are currently second all time in Adjusted Net Rating (behind only the 1996 Bulls), they’re so far ahead of schedule for a young team that they are breaking WAADE, and they’ve barely even had their full team on the floor together yet. It seems like they are a potentially historically great team but people don’t want to admit it to themselves yet. Are we going to look back in hindsight and think it should have been obvious to everyone how good they really are?

Orlando Magic

The Magic are 29th in offensive rating. They played a long stretch without Paolo Banchero, another without Franz Wagner, another without both, and another without Jalen Suggs that overlapped with all of those. But it’s not like Orlando has been able to score when all three of those guys were in the lineup, either. So, is there any way at all that they can juice their offense? I’m not sure I see it.

Philadelphia 76ers

The lottery standings and the surgical schedule.

Phoenix Suns

The Suns are below .500 and have a negative point differential. I don't care how talented they are; they're not very good. Can they turn that around and actually make a run at a playoff spot? Whether they do or not, this version of the team is probably dead. But it'll at least be interesting to see what happens if they can make a run at the play-in.

Portland Trail Blazers

Scoot Henderson. There have been some signs in recent weeks of the player so many draftniks told us was in there ahead of his being selected third overall behind Victor Wembanyama and Brandon Miller. And it’s not just because he’s been shooting better from the outside. He’s using his speed and his physicality in ways he didn’t for the first year and a half of his career, and he’s more locked in defensively. He got hurt right before the break but hopefully it’s not the kind of thing that either keeps him out long term or forces him to regress to the habits he formed before this more recent stretch of improved play.

Sacramento Kings

The Malik Monk-Zach LaVine backcourt and how it works with Domantas Sabonis. Three guys whose skill sets fit really well together, at least offensively, should be really fun to watch. And the other team is going to score a billion points, so that should be pretty damn fun, too.

San Antonio Spurs

I wrote about Wemby and De’Aaron Fox right after the trade:

I also like the fit in San Antonio better for Fox than I did in Sacramento. Domantas Sabonis is a guy who you want with the ball in his hands more often than not, and he’s largely going to operate either inside the paint or around the elbows. He stretched himself to beyond the three-point line more often this season, but defenses still don’t treat him as a major threat out there. He pairs better with guards who are heavy on dribble hand-offs and off-ball screens (like Malik Monk, or Kevin Huerter before he forgot how to shoot) than with someone like Fox, who belongs at the controls of a pick-and-roll heavy attack.

That, of course, is where Victor Wembanyama comes in. Wemby is both an elite floor-stretcher by volume, conversion rate, and reputation, and one of the best pick-and-roll dive threats in the game. He can create horizontal space for Fox with his shooting because he needs to be guarded way beyond the arc, as well as provide the vertical spacing element that opens up Fox’s distribution game. (You can obviously still put the ball in Wemby’s hands plenty often, but he also makes for a better secondary action guy than does Sabonis.)

Fox has his own shortcomings as an outside shooter, which could make for something of an awkward long-term fit with Castle if the latter never becomes a plus shooter, either; but Wemby, Vassell, and Harrison Barnes (or whomever replaces him in the future) will provide enough in the way of spacing for them to work just fine. And Fox is plenty dangerous once he gets a step or two inside the arc, so it’s not like he doesn’t need to be guarded at all when the ball is in his hands. Plus, we’ve seen over and over that if you give him a ton of space, he will just use it as a runway to get what he wants — being arguably the fastest player in the league with the ball in your hands helps that way.

Toronto Raptors

If Brandon Ingram comes back, then I’ll be looking at how he fits alongside Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley, the two guys who are also on long-term, big-dollar deals. If not, then it’s about Barnes and Quickley continuing to develop their two-man chemistry. They really haven’t gotten all that much of an opportunity to play together yet due to their various injuries.

Utah Jazz

They’re playing out the string and not caring all that much about what happens on the court, so I will treat them the same way.

Washington Wizards

The continued development of the kids. Bilal Coulibaly is currently the most interesting and impactful of the group, but Alex Sarr, Bub Carrington, and Kyshawn George have all flashed at times. The four of them seem like they’re going to start together with Jordan Poole the rest of the way, so they’ll have plenty of chances to show their stuff.