Basketball Insiders Week in Review 1/24

Zaza Pachulia Was a Steal for Mavs

By Alex Kennedy

When DeAndre Jordan decided to back out of his verbal commitment to the Dallas Mavericks and re-sign with the Los Angeles Clippers in July, most people felt bad for Mark Cuban and his organization. The saga was understandably frustrating, and it left them with a seemingly enormous hole at center.

Jordan’s flip-flop occurred nine days into free agency, meaning that notable big men like Marc Gasol, Brook Lopez, Greg Monroe, Tyson Chandler, Omer Asik, Robin Lopez and Kosta Koufos among others were no longer available for the Mavericks since they had already committed to other teams.

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Wall Still Losing Sleep Over 2015 Playoffs

By Joel Brigham

They say that when it comes to professional sports, the only thing that matters is a championship. Fans of certain teams may remember the bad beats or the occasional epic individual performance, but for the most part the basketball world at large only cares about which team finished on top. All those decades’ worth of teams that fell short don’t mean squat to history.

Sometimes, though, those bad beats are brutal. One ill-timed injury and a title contender gets relegated to those forgotten annals of NBA history. We’ve seen it over and over again—Dirk Nowitzki’s sprained knee in 2003, Kendrick Perkins’ torn knee ligaments in 2010, Magic Johnson and Byron Scott’s twin hamstring injuries in 1989. Every single time something nasty like that happens to a key player, a really good team’s title shot goes out the window, and that robs us all of the best of what could have been.

The most recent example of this was in the second round of the 2015 NBA Playoffs, when the rolling Washington Wizards saw a streak of big-time wins snapped at the hands of fate, which ironically took away the hand of John Wall.

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How to Measure Individual Defense

By Ben Dowsett

Decoding offensive performance on the individual level has always been exponentially easier than doing so on the defensive end of the court. There are just so many more available benchmarks for offense such as points, assists, shooting percentages and numerous other extremely simple ways of quantifying a player’s value on the floor. Even just using our eyes, it’s typically far easier to watch an offensive play and immediately determine who did a good thing or a bad thing than it is to make the same assessment on the other end.

Accurate judgements of defenders on an individual basis are still possible, but they require a bit more legwork and, more importantly, an understanding of just how complex NBA defense can be. Assigning praise and blame can be such an indirect and imprecise process on this end of the floor, where all five guys have to work together and a damning mistake can happen far away from the ball. But it’s better to try than not, right? Let’s take a look at a few of the best available ways to track defensive value and performance.

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Contract-Year Players Battling Injuries

By Lang Greene

Players in the midst of contract years are tough to evaluate. Some guys’ production increases exponentially when facing free agency, some remain consistent with their normal career patterns and some suffer production declines likely due to the stress of trying to perform for the next deal.

However, there is another group of players who have the misfortune of playing out their contract years while battling serious injuries. The question is, will their health issues materially impact their free agency this summer?

Let’s take a look at five guys who are battling injuries in the midst of a contract year:

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Time For a Trade in Orlando?

By Cody Taylor

For the first month of the season, the Orlando Magic had been rolling through their schedule. The team had jumped out to a 19-13 start and were sitting fourth in the standings in the Eastern Conference following their 100-93 win over the Brooklyn Nets on December 30.

Fast forward three weeks later, and the story has been the complete opposite. Through nine games in January, the Magic are 1-8 and they are coming off of last night’s embarrassing home loss to the last-placed Philadelphia 76ers.

For one reason or another, the team just hasn’t performed as well as they previously were. After experiencing several high points thus far this season, last night was by far rock bottom for a team that has playoff aspirations. It’s a reality check that the team may not be as close to competing as initially thought.

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Is Ricky Rubio in the Long-term Plan for Minnesota?

By Eric Saar

The Minnesota Timberwolves haven’t made the postseason since 2003-04 when Kevin Garnett was in his prime. Since then, they’ve peaked at 44 wins – in the following 2004-05 season. They couldn’t even sneak in with a franchise player like Kevin Love putting up monster numbers such as 26.2 points and 12.6 rebounds in his final season with the team in 2013-14. With him, they never even ended the season as a .500 team. However, the Love trade to the Cleveland Cavaliers and subsequent drafts have netted the Timberwolves a young core that looks to break that playoff drought in the next several years.

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Khris Middleton Becoming Go-To Guy for Bucks

By Jesse Blancarte

When the Milwaukee Bucks agreed to terms on a five-year, $70 million contract with Khris Middleton last offseason, many NBA fans scrutinized the deal. Part of the strong reaction was rooted in the fact that Middleton was drafted 39^th overall in the 2012 draft and was essentially a throw in as part of the Brandon Jennings-Brandon Knight trade with the Detroit Pistons. While Middleton made a name for himself last year as a very solid wing-defender and spot-up shooter, he was still an unknown to many casual fans.

Despite any immediate negativity the Bucks’ front office received, they were very comfortable paying Middleton $70 million over five years since the salary cap is set to explode after this season and most role players will be making roughly $10 million or more annually moving forward.

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