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Future of Sports Commentary

Last night I tuned in to a great NBA matchup, the Milwaukee Bucks against the Boston Celtics. I watched the broadcast on TNT but my TV was muted. Instead, I had my tablet open as two guys on their couch did commentary for the game.

I think this is the future of sports coverage.

Danny LeRoux and Nate Duncan, broadcasting from their couch

Well maybe not exactly those two guys on their couch. But I think we will see more options for consumers. Last night I tuned in to the “#NBACast” show by Nate Duncan and Danny LeRoux. They also run my favorite NBA podcast Dunc’d On.

There are two categories of NBA games, national broadcasts and local broadcasts. National broadcasts are those on networks like ESPN, TNT, or ABC. There is one neutral commentating crew. Local broadcasts have two separate broadcasts of the game by each team’s crew. League Pass subscribers like me can still tune in to these. 

The announcers for national broadcasts are unbiased and more ‘prestigious’ in their field. As a pretty extreme NBA fan I find their commentary bland. Some announcers like Jeff Van Gundy often go on rants unrelated to the game they are announcing. This actually makes some sense. The average NBA fan follows their team and probably tunes in to one national broadcast a week. That game is their weekly lens into the NBA at large so they actually find some value in Van Gundy complaining about LeBron’s defense during a Toronto / Philadelphia game.

But it drives me crazy when I’m trying to watch a game and the announcers are on a completely unrelated rant. I know I’m not alone. Cue the “#NBACast”. It fits my style because they approach the game from an analytics mindset. They also take viewer questions using the chat feature of their online broadcast. 

Anyone can tune in to this show for free but you can subscribe to their Patreon to financially support them. I have been contributing $7 per month for a few years now. Between their show and podcast, I get well over 21 hours of content a month. I get more than $0.33 per hour of new NBA information. I particularly enjoy their summaries of games I missed (especially West Coast games that happen on weeknights) and their “15 in 60” segments throughout the season where they quickly run through the status of each team.

Duncan and LeRoux certainly aren’t perfect. Lots of people can’t stand their style and even as a big fan I have some complaints with them. But I enjoy having the opportunity to tune in to their commentary of an NBA game instead of listening to Reggie Miller or Mark Jackson. I hope we all get more options for how we consume our content.

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Update on NBA Game Log

Now that the NBA season is underway, I am using the NBA game log tool I built. This allows me to track the games I watch and the notes I take. I’m primarily interested in tracking how much I have watched of each team so I can keep an eye on the entire league.

This idea was included in my previous projects post. Last season I tracked the games I watched in a spreadsheet. So far this app is easier to use, especially for looking at the data as a whole, and adds the capability of logging notes. 

I built this app using the Javascript MEAN stack: MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, and Node.js. This was my most ambitious Javascript project to date. I have learned a lot, especially regarding API design. I’m proud of what I have built so far but have more I would like to do such as:

  • Better design and interface
  • Password reset for users
  • Different analysis dashboards, such as for a particular team or player
  • Customizable sharing options for different users

Anyone can create an account and use the app but I mostly built it for my NBA viewing and for my Javascript experience. 

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Pickup Basketball and Spontaneous Order

One of my favorite hobbies, pickup basketball, is a great example of a key libertarian concept: spontaneous order. While it is of a much smaller scale than the market economy, it shows how rules and norms evolve to peacefully resolve conflict without an authority figure.

Growing up, I played pickup basketball with my friends. You could resolve a dispute by running home to a parent, but this was an unpopular move especially as we got older. Since we all knew each other, it was relatively easy to coordinate our behavior. We also had repeated interactions so one unethical action could have long-standing effects.

When I went to Michigan State University, my roommate introduced me to the active pickup basketball scene on campus. I could go to the main recreation center and find a game to play at any time. There would be up to around 100 guys (and sometimes girls) looking to play on the 6 courts in the building.

While I never saw an official authority figure around, everyone seemed to know the rules. 

You may be thinking, it’s just basketball, what disputes are there to resolve? Don’t you all know the rules of basketball?

Well, here are a few questions you need to settle for pickup basketball. How long do games last? How are teams picked? How are fouls determined? 

At MSU, the first game of a session would last until a team had 15 points and repeated games would be to 13 (I have no idea where this rule came from, but everyone seemed to know it). Generally the winning team would have to win by 2 points, although on crowded days you might agree beforehand to forgo this requirement.

Picking teams generally went as follows: Everyone takes a three-point shot and the first two to succeed are captains. They then take turns picking players. After that, someone calls “next”. This means they are the captain of a team to challenge the winning team. If he has picked four teammates but someone else also wants to play, they get “next after”, which means captaining the next team to challenge the court’s winning team. 

Now for the hard part, how to fairly determine foul calls without a neutral referee. The offense calls fouls, but there are no free throws; the offense just gets another possession. Also, the instant a foul is called the ball is dead. If the ball goes in the basket, the offense gets another possession but misses out on the sure points. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. 

For unusually controversial disputes, you “shoot for it”. The person making a claim (for example, that the opposing player went out of bounds) takes a three-point shot. If it goes in, they win the argument; if they miss, they lose the argument.

I find these solutions interesting because they are examples of how through spontaneous order, strangers can solve problems without a central authority. We didn’t need a president or voting process. These solutions evolved through trial and error and they did a pretty good job of allowing people who didn’t know each other to play basketball. 

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End NBA Max Contracts

If I could change one thing about the NBA, it would be ending maximum contracts. 

The NBA collective bargaining agreement between the Players Association and team owners governs player contracts. There are many complicated rules including the maximum amount a player can be paid. Complicating matters further, this maximum amount depends on a number of factors such as seniority and all-star awards.

This means some players, the absolute superstars, cannot be paid market value by their team. They are still paid more than $30 million per season so there is no need to feel sorry for them. But teams that manage to land one of the best players in the league are able to do so at a discount. 

The Golden State Warriors pay Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant two of the highest salaries in the league, but both are likely underpaid given they are two of the five best players. If the Warriors were forced to pay market value for Curry and Durant, they would either keep one but not the other or effectively gut the rest of their roster.

Teams also have a maximum amount they can spend on their total team, called the salary cap. While some teams spend more than others, the difference between the rich and poor teams is much smaller than the difference in the MLB*, where there is no salary cap.

I’d like to get rid of the maximum value for individual contracts. Since teams that land a maximum contract player get that players’ production but pay a below-market rate, the team is effectively receiving a subsidy from the rest of the league. If you land a great player, your team is already doing fine. There is no need to subsidize it. 

If you’re worried about contracts getting out of hand, I’m fine with keeping the league-wide salary cap in place. That ensures teams are at least somewhat balanced in their total roster and spending power. 

Some NBA analysts expect a proposal to remove the maximum limit on contracts would be opposed by the players union. While lifting the restriction would help the small number of superstars, it would likely mean less money paid to the larger pool of average players. As a compromise, I would propose a tax and spend policy within the union.

As an example, the Lakers could pay LeBron James market value ($100 million?) and the union could have policies dictating that an overwhelming majority of James’ pay above $35 million (roughly the maximum contract right now) gets redistributed throughout the union. This may seem like the same outcome as the status quo. The difference is the Lakers would have less money available to spend on other superstars. 

Keeping team salary caps while lifting the ceiling on individual contracts would help competitive balance by using market forces. What’s not to like? 

(*) Technically the MLB has a “luxury tax” but it has mainly been limited to the Yankees, Dodgers, and Red Sox. The NBA has a luxury tax which is incurred more frequently.  

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Predicting the 2018-19 NBA Season

Just in time for the NBA season to kick off tomorrow, I have projected win totals for each team. Below you will find my predictions for each team alongside latest Vegas odds. I’ve also included the difference between my predictions and the Vegas line, as well as the absolute value of the differences. Below the tables you’ll find my team by team thoughts. Here’s to hoping I do better than last season, with a median difference between prediction and actual wins of 6.

Western Conference

  1. Golden State Warriors (55) I’m nervous with how low this prediction is, but there are two important factors to consider. First, the West is going to be a bloodbath this season. Only the Kings are outright terrible. Second, we have seen this team prioritize the postseason which makes sense given the injury history of stars like Curry and Durant.
  2. Houston Rockets (53) Their roster got a bit weaker. Also, last year they were gunning to show their dominance and win Harden an MVP. This year, look for them to also prioritize postseason health.
  3. Utah Jazz (49) The Jazz looked great last postseason and sophomore guard Donovan Mitchell should only improve. 
  4. San Antonio Spurs (48) Yes, I factored in Dejounte Murray’s season-ending injury. The question for the Spurs is what can they get out of DeMar DeRozan? 
  5. Oklahoma City Thunder (47) Simply getting rid of Carmelo should be a net positive for the Thunder. However, they have a few reasons for concern. First, Russell Westbrook relies heavily on athleticism but is turning 30 next month. Second, Andre Roberson has apparently suffered a setback in his injury recovery. Having Roberson on the court is essential to their defense which is essential to the Thunder being an elite team. 
  6. Minnesota Timberwolves (45) I took Jimmy Butler off the Timberwolves but I did not put him on another team, which will almost certainly create problems at season’s end. I also gave Wiggins a small boost to his production in the season before Butler came to Minnesota.
  7. Denver Nuggets (44) This is a nice young team with plenty of players poised to improve: Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Gary Harris. Having Paul Millsap back from injury will be a nice boost to possibly get them into the playoffs this year. If Jokic does not improve on defense, they could be in trouble.
  8. New Orleans Pelicans (43) The Pelicans looked phenomenal in the playoffs against the Trailblazers. They are basically bringing back that squad with an added Julius Randle, who should be a great addition.
  9. Los Angeles Lakers (42) Yes, right now I have a LeBron team missing the playoffs. By a game.  I could see them as high as fourth if you look at how tight these win projections are. I think we’re all curious how this team will look given how differently they are built than the LeBron Cavaliers. I think their recent pickups of Rajon Rondo, Lance Stephenson, and Javale McGee are suspect.
  10. Portland Trailblazers (41) I think Damian Lillard had a phenomenal season but it was also a career year. Look for him to regress a bit without any strong steps forward from the rest of this squad.
  11. Dallas Mavericks (38) Luca Doncic is going to be an NBA star, but this team is a few years away from competing. 
  12. Los Angeles Clippers (34) I’m still not sure how the Clippers performed as well as did last season and it’s possible I’m missing something here. But I don’t think this team is quite good enough to compete in an excellent Western Conference. 
  13. Memphis Grizzlies (33) The Grizzlies seem to think they’ll be competitive with Mike Conley and Marc Gasol healthy but I’m not so sure. My money is on this team struggling and then the front office breaks things up.
  14. Phoenix Suns (26) Another team operating under delusions of grandeur, they have some nice young players but will struggle for a few more seasons. Look for them to shoot themselves in the foot by making an ill-advised trade for a veteran point guard.
  15. Sacramento Kings (25) The Kings are bad. Marvin Bagley might be a good NBA player but I doubt he’ll be better than Doncic.

Eastern Conference

  1. Toronto Raptors (62) Take a 59 win team, swap out DeMar DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard, and remove LeBron from the conference. That sounds like 3 more wins to me. If Leonard’s injury is not resolved this won’t happen, but all signs indicate he will be ready to go this week. 
  2. Boston Celtics (55) One of my biggest problems last season was accurately predicting the performance of young players improving their skills. I attempted to tackle that with these young Celtics stars but I will not be shocked if they outperform this projection.
  3. Philadelphia 76ers (54) See my above comment given the number of young stars in Philadelphia. I’m not expecting great things from Markelle Fultz although I think he’ll be a positive contributor. It’s always fair to question the health of Joel Embiid, too.
  4. Indiana Pacers (51) So long as Victor Oladipo doesn’t serously regress, this team should be real good. Tyreke Evans is a great addition for them.
  5. Milwaukee Bucks (50) I am really struggling with how to appropriately factor in the huge coaching upgrade from Jason Kidd to Mike Budenholzer. Based on preseason games, which we should take with a grain of salt, Giannis Antetokounmpo looks like a leading MVP candidate.
  6. Washington Wizards (48) If there is one thing I feel confident predicting, it is that the Wizards will have locker room troubles. We have seen it before from teams lead by John Wall and it is basically guarantee when Dwight Howard comes to town. I’m curious to see how Thomas Satoransky compared to last year as a fill-in starter when Wall was injured. 
  7. Miami Heat (43) I am tempted to project the Heat trading for Jimmy Butler but that’s not looking like a done deal. The Heat look stuck in just-above-mediocrity. They have lots of good players, but not a single very good one. 
  8. Brooklyn Nets (39) I am feeling a bit uneasy about how I have the Nets. But it’s worth considering how most analysts love the Nets style, particularly their shooting profile, they just have lacked the talent to date. In a weak Eastern Conference, they have a chance to be competitive. 
  9. Detroit Pistons (35) Andre Drummond and Blake Griffin looked surprisingly good on the court together. But its still not a very effective roster makeup and they’re going to struggle to score. I’m not giving a boost for regular season master coach Dwayne Casey, who could push them at least into the playoffs.
  10. Charlotte Hornets (35) I want to see Kemba Walker on a roster where the second best player is better than Jeremy Lamb! 
  11. Cleveland Cavaliers (30) I don’t see how Kevin Love is a successful first option in today’s NBA. Minnesota Kevin Love was bigger and able to bully guys around in the post. After getting into shape to be a corner 3 threat for LeBron, this is going to be a rough adjustment. They also like a decent point guard which has a multiplying negative effect.
  12. Orlando Magic (27) The Magic are struggling. Who will win games for them? D.J. Augustin? Nikola Vucevic? They’ve got Aaron Gordon I guess. Oh and this factors in Mo Bamba as a decent rookie.
  13. Chicago Bulls (27) The Bulls have some reasons for optimism, just a few years into the future. They have made a number of poor decisions recently, such as picking up Jabari Parker and signing Zach Lavine for too much money.
  14. New York Knicks (27) I would have them a bit higher if Kristaps Porzingis was healthy. Until then, they’ll be relying on Enes Kanter (who looked surprisingly good last season) and Tim Hardaway Jr. Just not good enough. 
  15. Atlanta Hawks (25) Trae Young will likely have a handful of games where he goes crazy but for the most part he will struggle. I have John Collins and Alex Len as their best players. Yeah, they are going to be bad.

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Yoga

Everyone has regrets about high school. Maybe they should have studied harder. Maybe they should have spent more (or less) time with their friends. Maybe they passed up an opportunity they never got again. 

I wish I had done yoga.

I played football in high school. I lifted weights. I was in great shape, except I had lower back pain. It was most severe during football season, but hurt pretty much year round. 

I didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t severe and I really loved playing football. I thought back pain was just part of being a linebacker. 

People told me to stretch. I stretched with the team before practice, so I thought I was following this advice.

Some people told me to do yoga. I laughed at them. Me, do yoga? Isn’t that for girls? Don’t you have to convert to Buddhism? 

When I graduated high school and hung up my shoulder pads for the last time, the back pain softened. But it never went away. Throughout most of college I was still active, mostly playing basketball. While not as bad as football season, my back pain would flare up the day after a game of basketball. 

Three years ago I found something that really helps. Yoga. 

My wife Kelly was going to yoga classes here and there. While I had ignored previous suggestions to do yoga, the continued back pain five years after my last football game pushed me to consider joining her. And so I did.

The first class was exactly what I expected. I was really bad, inflexible and with poor balance. We had a moment of meditation at the end (which I hated at the time, but like yoga, I now have a more positive attitude). The class was nearly all female.

And yet, after about four classes, my back felt better! 

Personal experience combined with Googling showed me what I would have already known had I paid attention in my high school anatomy class. My back pain wasn’t really the result of trauma to my back and it couldn’t be relieved with lower back stretches. It is largely caused by tight hamstrings. I have really tight hamstrings.

A yoga class does wonders for getting me to stretch my hamstrings and other tight spots, like my hips. I try to go once a week. Doing yoga regularly doesn’t necessarily make me feel better, it just makes my body not feel tight.  That’s a little frustrating. But it’s worth it. And I wish I could go back in time to convince my high school self of it. 

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Projects

Here are some projects I’m currently working on and/or thinking about kickstarting:
A computer version of the Parker Brothers World Flag Game About The United Nations. This is a classic game for the Needham family, especially at our cottage. I’m working on this game as a chance to practice the Angular framework and possibly the full MEAN stack. I wanted to use a board game that, as far as I know, has not been digitized before.

An NBA game log tool. I watch a lot of the NBA and I try to go beyond watching solely the best teams. Two seasons ago I used a Google Sheet to track what games I watched to ensure I was getting a decent spread of all 30 teams. I want to make a tool to easily log which games I watch, how much of a game I watch, and my notes on what I observe. Additional features would include tagging and looking up notes based on individual players as well as a login system for multiple users. My instinct is to make this with the Flask Python framework.

An NBA lineup quick view tool. The official NBA website has a great tool for analyzing different lineups. I want to make a handy reference where people can quickly see the best and worst lineups in the league and for each team on the basis of offensive success, defensive success, and net success. You could in theory do this with the NBA.com site, but it requires a number of steps. I want to create a website that has this data already prepared for you. This would likely be a Flask project as well.

Reach out to Scott Sumner and discuss building a cryptocurrency linked to NGDP as he proposed here. The step I need to take between here and now is building a just-for-fun cryptocurrency as proof of competency.

Calculate which NBA player had the highest game score against each NBA team last season. I did this for the 2016-2017 season.
Track how accurate Pythagorean win projections were throughout the previous NBA season. This was my original goal in starting a weekly NBA blog. I have the data ready to analyze, I just haven’t followed through on it yet!

If you read this post and are interested in collaborating on any of these projects, email me! 

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Minnesota Timberwolves & poor management

The biggest story in the NBA is the broken relationship between Jimmy Butler and the Minnesota Timberwolves. While I don’t have enough information to truly know what is going on, from the outside it seems they are suffering from a failure of management. I see two clear problems:
  1. They gave Tom Thibodeau the foolish Coach & General Manager dual role. Setting aside whether these two workloads are too much for one person to accomplish effectively, they are somewhat at odds. Coaches should focus on making the most of a given season by winning each and every game possible. General managers should focus on maximizing the team in a longer time horizon. General managers can make smart decisions to prioritize the current season if it maximizes their long term overall. We have seen time and time again that combining these two roles ends in failure as franchises fail to manage their assets properly. 
  2. Owner Glen Taylor has been interfering with decisions to be made by the basketball operations team. I don’t know much about Taylor and he is probably smarter than I am. But I doubt he knows more about basketball than Thibodeau. The Timberwolves recently offered Andrew Wiggins, their third-best player, an overpayment of a five-year $150 million contract. While most NBA analysts agree this was a poor decision (Wiggins has had a negative Value Over Replacement Player in each of his four NBA seasons) it was Taylor who pushed this contract after asking Wiggins to promise to get better. Now, despite Thibodeau refusing to trade Butler, Taylor is pushing to make a trade. I suspect Thibodeau understands there is not a trade to be made that makes basketball sense for the Timberwolves while Taylor is reacting emotionally to Butler’s negative attitude. This is understandable but ultimately unwise. And if I were a Timberwolves fan I would be furious because it was the overpayment to Wiggins that likely started this rift, given Butler has said the dispute is over finances.
The Timberwolves will likely trade Butler for a poor return. The only other possibility is to not trade him and he remains on the team, unhappy, adding further friction to the locker room. While Butler is now clearly a problem, their woes stem from a failure of management.
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Why I’m Bullish on the NBA

Growing up, I played a number of sports but I was best at football. Football was easily my favorite sport a few years ago. In 2010 two things happened: I stopped playing football (because I graduated high school) and I became interested in the NBA.

Michael Jordan’s last season with the Bulls ended when I was 7. I remember that era, but just barely. While I played basketball for many of the years I was playing football I did not find the NBA very interesting.

When I started to gain interest in the NBA in 2010, not only were my hometown Bulls good again (lead by local kid Derrick Rose) but the league was fun to watch. Since then I have watched more and more of the NBA but less and less of the NFL. I’m not sure when the breaking point was, but basketball is unquestionably my favorite sport.

Here is why I’m bullish on the future of the NBA. Some are personal preference, some are just reasons to believe the league will succeed:

  • Personalities. NFL teams have around 50 players on their roster with 22 starters. The NBA have 15 man rosters with 5 starters. With fewer players on the playing field, each player becomes more important. It also becomes easier to follow the different players, their unique qualities, and their relationships with one another. 
  • Storylines. Check out this Slate article from the crazy stories of just last season. The #1 overall pick forgot how to shoot. Players confronting the opposing team (and former teammates) in their locker rooms after a game. A player tweeting out “I Dont wanna be here”. A player got suspended for throwing soup at an assistant coach. Someone on the internet figures out a general manager’s wife was using burner accounts to leak confidential information. Tell me, what other league has this many crazy stories?!
  • Player retention. The NBA has shaped their collective bargaining agreement to allow teams to retain players for the long haul. I’m not a huge fan of this personally, but it helps smaller market teams stay competitive. This improves league balance and national fan engagement.
  • International growth. NBA fandom in China skyrocketed when Yao Ming was a star for the Houston Rockets. There are a huge number of top NBA stars from abroad: Greek Giannis Anteokounmpo, Australian Kyrie Irving, Cameroonian Joel Embiid, Serbian Nikola Jokic, Latvian Kristaps Porzingas are all top 25 players. Interest in the NBA around the globe is only going to go up as more and more international players gain stature in the association.
  • Safety. I still love football, but at the end of the day basketball is clearly safer. This allows players to play longer, have healthier retirements, and encourages more kids to play. 
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NBA Players To Watch

We are less than two weeks away from the 2015-2016 NBA season! I think last season went down as one of the best NBA seasons of all time, certainly the best in my young memory. While this season will almost certainly be less exciting than last year, there’s a number of storylines, teams, and players to keep an eye on. Here are the Top 10 players I’m excited to watch this season. 
10: Kevin Durant I wouldn’t say I’m actually excited to watch Kevin Durant play for the Warriors, but I’m certainly curious to see how it goes. One thing we have learned about KD from this offseason is that he’s happy for things to be easy for him, so there is the possibility he has a personal dropoff and allows those around him to carry the load this season. But more than likely, the Warriors will torch the league even more than they did than last season.

9: Giannis Antetokounmpo The 6’11” Greek Freak will be playing Point Guard this season. The Bucks will likely struggle to even break .500, especially with Middleton hurt, but the Point Giannis experiment will be fun to watch. At just 21 years old, Giannis has as much potential as anyone in the league to win MVP in five years (around the age Durant was in his MVP season). 
8:  Nikola Jokic My description is Jokic is a lot like his game, short and sweet: he plays a quiet game but no big man passes like Jokic. 
7: E’Twaun Moore I have been of E’Twaun’s since he played for Purdue from 2007 to 2011. After a breakout year for my Bulls in his fifth year in the NBA, Moore landed a $34m contract with the Pelicans. While I’m sad to see him leave Chicago, I hope to see him have an even bigger year with a bigger role.
6: Anthony Davis Another contender for possible MVP winner in the next few years, Davis is the best all-around big man in basketball. Against the Pistons back in February Davis had 59 points, 20 rebounds, and 4 assists for the fourth-highest game score in regular season history. Yeah, this guy is worth watching. 
5: Joel Embiid After being drafted third overall in 2014 by the 76ers, Joel “The Process” Embiid is now recovered from a broken foot bone. Based on his preseason footage, he has the potential to go down as an all-time great player. Three things to watch with Embiid: How well does he develop as a player (less turnovers, smarter post play, does he become a real perimeter threat)? What effect does playing for Philadelphia have on his development in terms of his skills and mindset? Will injuries continue to plague him as has happened to so many other promising front court players? 
4: Karl-Anthony Towns The reigning Rookie of the Year, Towns and the Timberwolves will likely take a big step forward under the direction of Coach Tom Thibodeau. Towns and teammate Andrew Wiggins (his predecessor as Rookie of the Year) form an exciting core that could take the Western Conference by storm if the current Warriors core disassembles in the next few seasons.
3: Denzel Valentine Naturally I’m excited to watch a former star for my Michigan State Spartans drafted in the first round by my Chicago Bulls. Valentine has looked alright in summer league and preseason, getting to the rim at a decent rate but showing weaknesses defensively. It remains to be seen how the Bulls will utilize Valentine. Will he be a backup ballhandler when Rondo and Wade are on the bench? Or will he come in to provide outside scoring for the perimeter-challenged Rondo/Wade/Butler trio, considering he was a 44% 3-point shooter last season?
2: James Harden I think Harden is the most dominant offensive player in the NBA, even more so than Curry. He gets a bad rap for his poor defensive effort but I can’t blame a guy who has to carry nearly the entire offensive load for his team night in and night out. With Harden officially taking on more of a Point Guard role and the Rockets bringing in Coach Mike D’Antoni, an offensive juggernaut who can take Harden to another level, he should be a a highlight machine. This Rockets team will try to answer the question: How successful can you be as an elite offensive team but a terrible defensive team?
1: Russell Westbrook Hustle Bestbrook. Muscle Chestbrook. Knuckle Westbrick. Westbrook is the most exciting basketball player to watch because he gives 200% on every play, every night. But it isn’t always roses with Westbrook. He has a habit of making unwise gambles defensively or chucking up bad shots to try and take over a game. Live by the Russ, die by the Russ. After this offseason, I hope Billy Donavon can channel Westbrook’s passion towards an MVP season with the Thunder contending come the post-season. Regardless of how their season goes, Russ will be must-see TV this year.