League Pass Thoughts: Three notes from around the NBA
The Suns' multi-guard lineups, Jeremiah Fears's growing craft, and the Nets' hand-off identity.
Congrats to the Knicks on winning the NBA Cup.
As the league slows down a bit this week, I wanted to bounce around the NBA with some things I’ve been seeing. Let’s dive in.
The Suns are unusual and well-coached
Phoenix is rolling out some funky lineup combinations. In a recent heated, thrilling loss to the Lakers, they went stretches of the game with Devin Booker as their primary matchup for LeBron. The trade-off: they get to play multiple slick-shooting guards that flitter around the court and screen for each other.
Grayson Allen is a classic movement shooter, but one who plays more like a point guard every game. Collin Gillespie is a bona fide connector, shooting 42 percent from three. Devin Booker is their failsafe isolation scorer and has always been active off the ball.
They start all three of those guys, and Dillon Brooks — the nominal power forward — functions like a guard, too. Brooks will set up near Booker on the wing and launch threes when his defender sinks away.
The effect is greater than the sum of its parts. Everybody drives downhill off closeouts.
The Suns are an innovator in the emerging world of pick-and-roll distractions. Like many teams now, they have guys swap places or run the baseline during pick-and-rolls. They’re trying to confuse the defense and make sure there’s always only one guy on the side of the court where the dribbler is going.
It works because everybody makes quick decisions and their centers, Mark Williams and Oso Ighodaro, are strong lob threats and finishers.
They still grade out as an average offensive team; Booker hasn’t had a great shooting season, and they rely a little too much on Brooks isolations. The bench is a little up and down. (Shoutout Jordan Goodwin, who’s been good for them.) But the Suns are fun to watch and play with juice every night.
Jeremiah Fears is the real deal
Fears deserves your attention. While Derik Queen deservedly has been getting the attention as the Pelicans’ stud rookie, Fears has been kicking into gear lately.
I’ll just invite you to watch this highlight reel.
The thing about Fears is how in control he looks with the ball. He’s able to speed up and slow down with precise, offbeat footwork. He knows what he’s capable of and seems to run through those options in his mind in an instant.
This was my favorite play from his recent performance in Chicago:
He makes Kevin Huerter think he’s trying to use Karlo Matkovic’s screen. But right when he baits Huerter into cheating over, he pounds the ball between his legs and launches the other direction.
Just like that, he’s left Huerter and Nikola Vucevic out to dry. This is veteran craft and an exceptionally tight handle, combined with quick-trigger athleticism. And even better, he gets all the way into the paint before launching an on-time pass to the perimeter.
That is a really impressive play. Fears is averaging 16.5 points and 4.5 assists in December.
The Nets have something going
Don’t look now, but the weird, rookie-stacked Nets are up to seven wins!
That’s not nothing, considering how young and raw this team is. I’m sure Nets fans would prefer that their five first round picks be more involved in this relative success, but they’ll have to take what they can get. (Danny Wolf has been spicy lately, in fairness.)
Brooklyn destroyed the poor Bucks on Sunday. On offense, they run an endless supply of dribble hand-offs built around Michael Porter Jr. Importantly, it’s not just their centers acting as hubs for these plays. They also use slick-passing wings like Terance Mann and Noah Clowney.
As a result, they can use Nicolas Claxton as a mobile screener:
They have a nearly endless supply of variations. A lot of teams run basic “horns” set plays, where two guys set up at the elbows. The Nets are taking that concept and milking it for all it’s worth.
It’s smart. Porter Jr., who’s been hitting everything, exists to run these plays, and it’s what he did for years around Nikola Jokic. It lessens the burden on young guards like the struggling Egor Demin, the bricky shooting Tyrese Martin, and … well, they don’t really have other guards. Cam Thomas is injured, Ben Saraf is in witness protection, and Nolan Traore has barely played. (I do like Drake Powell’s impact as a defender.)
The Nets play hard on defense. Clowney has been a borderline revelation. There’s a limit to what they do, but I appreciate that they have an identity.