Numbers Game: The NBA Midpoint
A statistical look at the first half of the 2023-24 regular season ... plus an explanation for why your Tuesday Newsletter Extravaganza arrived on a Wednesday
You will notice something immediately if you pay attention to the banners affixed to my stories: This Tuesday Newsletter Extravaganza is coming to you on a Wednesday.
There's a good reason for that.
The NBA witnessed both a significant trade and a coaching change on Tuesday. I wrote about the latter here:
Inside the Bucks' sudden dismissal of Adrian Griffin: This one, mostly, is on Giannis
It was exactly two weeks ago today that one of the most well-connected NBA insiders I know sent me an alarming rumble about the Milwaukee Bucks.
I then decided to push this newsletter from a Tuesday evening to a Wednesday release because, well, #whynot as Russell Westbrook would say. Sometimes I stick too rigidly to tradition even when there is zero clamor to do so.
The truth is that our January calendar was a bit wonky even before the Terry Rozier-to-the-Heat deal and then Adrian Griffin’s sudden dismissal in Milwaukee commandeered the NBA news cycle. Last Friday was actually the NBA’s official regular-season midpoint, as calculated so ably every season by NBA.com’s John Schuhmann, but our plan was always to wait until the next Newsletter Tuesday to highlight it.
Hopefully doing so on this Newsletter Wednesday will work for you … with Numbers Game moved from the bottom to the top of the file – LET’S GET CRAZY – so we can hit on a number (get it?) of this season’s major storylines from the first half.
How does 24 of these sound?
🏀 1
There has only been one in-season coaching change thus far: Milwaukee's dismissal Tuesday of Adrian Griffin.
🏀 30-13
Only other coach in NBA history has been fired in-season with a better record than Griffin's 30-13: David Blatt was 30-11 with Cleveland when the Cavaliers fired him eight years (and one day) prior.
🏀 1,156
Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid has scored 1,156 points in 32 games this season.
🏀 1,097
Embiid has logged 1,096 minutes in those 32 games played.
🏀 50.6
According to Mike Lynch of Basketball Reference, Embiid is averaging 50.6 points per 48 minutes this season ... which is something even Wilt Chamberlain has never done.
🏀 49.8
Chamberlain averaged 49.8 points per 48 minutes during the 1961-62 season, when he averaged 50.4 points per game overall, because he averaged more than 48 minutes per game that season (48.5).
🏀 6-2
Embiid is now 6-2 lifetime in head-to-head matchups against Nikola Jokić … but last played in Denver way back in December 2019. The Nuggets play host to the 76ers on Saturday night.
🏀 45
When Embiid rumbled for 70 points in Monday’s victory over San Antonio, followed by Karl Anthony-Towns’ 62 points in Minnesota’s loss to Charlotte, more than 45 years had passed since two players scored at least 60 points on the same day. It last happened on April 9, 1978, which was the final day of the 1977-78 season and the finish to the Greatest NBA Scoring Race We Never Saw: Iceman vs. Skywalker. Denver’s David Thompson scored 73 points that day. San Antonio’s George Gervin won the scoring title by answering with 63 points. As I’ve lamented a zillion times, including in the enclosed radio interview with Gervin from October, there is no TV footage of Thompson’s or Gervin’s brilliance from their showdown anywhere. It was the first major NBA moment that I really remember being mesmerized by as a kid.
🏀 3
Our three foremost nominees for the American-born player most likely to force their way into top five of MVP balloting: Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton, Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards and Boston’s Jayson Tatum. The five foreign-born players they’re competing with: Embiid (Cameroon), Jokić (Serbia), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada), Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece) and Luka Dončić (Slovenia).
🏀 5
There have been five trades already this season. James Harden to the Clippers on Halloween was the first, followed by OG Anunoby to the Knicks on Dec. 30, Marvin Bagley to the Wizards on Jan. 14, Pascal Siakam to the Pacers on Jan. 18 and Rozier to the Heat.
🏀 -11.1
Entering Wednesday's play, there were still two teams losing by an average of at least 10 points per game: Charlotte (-11.1) and Detroit (-10.6). That's down from four when I wrote a piece highlighting the issue here on Jan. 9 but would still represent a new single-season record. No previous NBA season has ever featured more than one team getting outscored by at least 10 points per game for an entire season.
🏀 2024
Don't forget that is widely considered a very bad season to be very bad given the very dire projections about the quality of the 2024 draft class in June. Some five months away from the draft, there is nothing close to a consensus No. 1 pick.
🏀 30
The Boston Celtics (34-10) were this season's first 30-game winners, reaching that milestone Jan. 13 with a victory over visiting Houston. Minnesota (30-13) was the first Western Conference team to get there.
🏀 20
The Celtics won their first 20 games at home before losing one. Even the 1985-86 Celtics who went 40-1 at home to establish an NBA record only got as far as 9-0. (San Antonio matched the record with a 40-1 home mark in 2015-16.)
🏀 12
Of the 12 previous teams to start a season 20-0 at home, only two went on to win the championship that same season: Chicago in 1995-96 and Philadelphia in 1966-67. Only three others, furthermore, reached the NBA Finals: Golden State in 2015-16, Orlando in 1994-95 and Houston in 1985-86.
🏀 6
One of the most oft-cited sayings of the season’s opening half: Boston has the NBA’s Best Top Six. (It’s comprised of Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Kristaps Porziņģis and Al Horford.)
🏀 46
The Lakers beat the Pacers in the championship game of the NBA's inaugural In-Season Tournament 46 days ago. Has anyone in your sphere brought up the In-Season Tournament lately apart from mentioning the Lakers' 8-14 struggles since winning it all?
🏀 28.5
San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama — still my Rookie of the Year favorite over Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren despite the Spurs’ 8-35 record — is averaging 20.3 points, 10.0 rebounds and a league-leading 3.2 blocked shots per game in just 28.5 minutes per game. Wembanyama turned 20 on Jan. 4.
🏀 7.2
There’s no getting around it: Struggling is putting it charitably for Trail Blazers rookie Scoot Henderson in Year 1. Henderson is shooting 36.5% from the floor, 29.4% from 3-point range and sports a miserly Player Efficiency Rating of 7.2. The league average for PER is 15.
🏀 6-2
It’s easy to forget that the 18-22 Warriors started 6-2 … with five of those six victories on the road.
🏀 17
Golden State’s Draymond Green has missed 17 of his team’s 40 games already through two suspensions.
🏀 9
Ja Morant’s season in Memphis, after a 25-game suspension to start, lasted only nine games thanks to a shoulder injury that required season-ending surgery.
🏀 25-7
The Clippers are 25-7 since losing the first five games of the Harden Era. (The Jazz also merit a mention here thanks to their 15-7 record since a 7-16 start.)
🏀 10-65
The Pistons, who you’ll recall began the season with visions of a run at an Eastern Conference play-in spot, didn’t just establish a new single-season NBA record for consecutive losses with 28 in a row after a 2-1 start. They posted a cumulative 10-65 record in the calendar year of 2023.
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USAB Player Poll
In case you missed it Tuesday, which would have been rather easy given everything else going on, USA Basketball announced a list of 41 players from which it will select its 12-man squad for this summer’s Olympics in Paris.
Here’s the full list:
USAB managing director Grant Hill acknowledged in a Wednesday conference call with reporters that Golden State’s two-time gold medalist Draymond Green was omitted from the list in the wake of his two suspensions this season totaling 17 games. Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey, Detroit’s Cade Cunningham and New Orleans’ Zion Williamson were also surprising omissions. Who else in your view should have at least made the list of 41 finalists?
(PS — USAB officials reserve the right to amend the list at any time and plan to select the 12-man final roster for Paris without conducting tryouts.)
Very surprised to see Jalen Williams omitted from USAB
Glad to see that Tyrese Haliburton’s greatness is not being blocked because of his atrocious defense. Let’s celebrate the greatness in players, not use some weakness as a weapon to keep accolades from worthy players.