Wasn’t Zion Williamson the only NBA prospect worth tanking for this season (once R.J. Barrett and Cam Reddish fell short of expectations)? If you think that, you too have been hustled, scammed, bamboozled, hoodwinked, led astray.
Ja Morant is here to distract you from that awful NBA team you root for
We have that and more in Friday’s NBA newsletter.
David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
Ja Morant had his official meet-cute with the NBA fandom on Thursday as he led the Murray State Racers to a first-round win over Marquette. Morant is known as a wildly good scorer and a deft playmaker, and he showed it all on Thursday. He’s exciting in all of the right ways, and proved right all the good things smart draft analysts have been saying about him.
Morant will almost certainly be in the 2019 NBA Draft and is expected to be a pretty consensus No. 2 pick behind Williamson at this point. This is great news for fans of the worst NBA teams, because now there are two accessible reasons to root for inevitable losses the rest of the season! Knicks fans and Suns fans and Cavaliers fans and all the other fans don’t just have to focus on the odds of getting the No. 1 pick — now the Nos. 1 or 2 picks would be acceptable! This is a real boon.
This is a major unaccounted for benefit of the NCAA tournament for the NBA overall: every year, fans of teams doing everything in their power to be awful get distracted by the preview of the shiny rising stars they have a chance to claim by virtue of being awful. Forget about the NCAA paying players: perennial NBA losers like the Knicks should pay college players for vicariously giving their fans joy unearned by the Knicks themselves.
Scores
Timberwolves 106, Hornets 113
Nuggets 113, Wizards 108
Jazz 114, Hawks 117
Pistons 118, Suns 98
Mavericks 100, Kings 116
Pacers 89, Warriors 112
Schedule
All times Eastern. National TV games listed below, full weekend schedule here.
Friday:
Thunder at Raptors, 7:30, NBA TV
Saturday:
Sixers at Hawks, 7:30, NBA TV
Pistons at Blazers, 10, NBA TV
Sunday:
Spurs at Celtics, 7:30, NBA TV
Links
I wrote about LeBron James and the Lakers’ likely upcoming coaching search. James has never actually been under contract during a coaching search unless you go all the way back to 2005. That makes this super interesting.
Kelly Dwyer knows most basketball fans were probably watching the tournament and not the NBA on Thursday night, so the Friday edition of Behind The Boxscore is free. I really do recommend subscribing if you can afford it: the best email I open every day.
Random fact that will make you feel a little older than you should: Morant’s dad played high school ball with Ray Allen.
Great point by Rob Mahoney: once the Raptors start playing Kawhi Leonard as much as possible, they’ll be even better.
If you have to have a public tantrum and scream and flail to communicate effectively with your players, you aren’t doing your job, Tom Izzo.
It would appear that something untoward happened in Phoenix as Robert Sarver convinced elected officials to approve a subsidy to renovate the Suns’ arena.
Be excellent to each other.
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