Mock Draft Monday: Should LaMelo Ball's foot injury be a concern?

                                          (Credit: Getty Images) 


Earlier this month, it was announced by the Illawara Hawks of the Australian NBL that LaMelo Ball would miss four weeks due to a foot injury. ESPN/Draft Express' Jonathan Givony provided more details back on December 8th:

"Ball suffered a bruised foot in practice with the Illawara Hawks of the Australian NBL last week and was prescribed to rest by a foot specialist he visited, which will likely keep him out of action until January...Ball will rehab his injury in Australia and is expected to make a full recovery and continue to play for the Hawks as they close out the regular season in mid-February." 

On the surface, this injury doesn't seem like a big deal. Given the injury happened towards the beginning of this month, Ball should be back in the next week or two. It seems like both he and the Hawks are being precautious. Both for the sake of his NBA career and for the sake of their season. It certainly isn't anything that should cost him any time come NBA training camp in the fall of 2020.

At the same time, missing these four weeks gives NBA teams less opportunities to watch him play and more importantly, he'll enter the NBA draft with this injury on his resume. Even though it doesn't seem like a big deal, NBA teams factor in everything when it comes to picking a player. You can bet they'll be asking him about his foot and doing their due diligence on that. Will it cause him slide in the draft? Probably not, but you never know. He could also suffer another seemingly minor setback that casts more seeds of doubt in the minds of NBA teams.

Overall, Ball's injury as I said isn't something to worry about. At least not right now. But it is something to be aware of when looking ahead to the 2020 NBA draft. All these little things matter. Especially when there's so much money and expectations on the line with each pick.

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Saturday Slam: The Houston Rockets would be crazy to trade Russell Westbrook

                                         (Credit: David J. Phillip/Associated Press) 


Rumors have been swirling about the 21-10 Houston Rockets possibly trading Russell Westbrook. I don't know what the basis of these rumors are, but let me just say that if the Rockets did make such a move, they would be crazy to do so.

For starters, they just got Westbrook. They're not even half-way through their first season with him. It's way too early to tell whether or not he'll be the desired upgrade over Chris Paul that they were hoping he would be. When the whole reason for why you got him was to possibly win a championship, it would be foolish to trade him before you even play one playoff series with him.

Secondly, Westbrook is playing pretty well, averaging 24.1 points, 8.1 rebounds, 7.1 assists, and 1.5 steals per game. Those are very good numbers. It's not like he's stinking up the joint. He's bringing his hard hat to work every day and for the most part is doing everything one would expect from him.

Finally, the Rockets are right in the mix for the top seed in the Western Conference, just three games back of the 24-7 Los Angeles Lakers. If the Rockets were hovering around .500 and looking like a team that might miss the playoffs, maybe it would make sense for them to pull the trigger on such a move. Given they have a 67.7% winning percentage and are in the mix for the top seed in a very competitive Western Conference, it's hard to see a good reason for them to blow things up.

All of this is to say that the Rockets would be crazy to trade Russell Westbrook and I don't put much stock in these trade rumors. No situation is perfect and there's always going to be second guessing about offseason moves. But with how things are going, the Rockets don't have much reason to second guess the addition of Westbrook, making rumors of him being being traded likely ridiculous.

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Wednesday Windmill: The Philadelphia 76ers gave the Milwaukee Bucks coal for Christmas

                                         (Credit: Eric Hartline/USA TODAY Sports) 

On Christmas Day, the Philadelphia 76ers put the wood to the Milwaukee Bucks, defeating them 121-109. The 76ers hit a franchise record 21 3-pointers as Joel Embiid (31 points & 11 rebounds) and Tobias Harris (22 points) led the way. The 76ers improve to 23-10 while the Bucks fall to 27-5.

If you follow the NBA, you know the 76ers are good, so seeing them win against the Bucks at home shouldn't come as a shock. What is surprising though is the way in which they won. The 76ers aren't known to be much of a 3-point shooting team, so to see them go wild like they did from beyond the arc took everyone by surprise. Especially the Bucks.

As an extension of that, seeing them win so convincingly was surprising. Had they won by five points or fewer, one might even say that's what we should expect from a quality team playing at home on Christmas. But for them to dominate the Bucks and blow them out is another matter.

Even though this is just one game, the 76ers definitely sent a message to the Bucks and the rest of the Eastern Conference that they are a force to be reckoned with. That if they play like this with more regularity, they might represent the East in the NBA Finals.

Touching quickly on the Bucks, this game is disappointing, but nothing to get overly upset about. If you're them, you have to chalk this up as a bad game that you'll learn from. The Bucks have the best record in the NBA and should feel confident in their body of work. They also have the best player in the NBA in Giannis Antetokounmpo and are still the odds on favorites to win the East. No reason for them to freak out. Just move on to the next game and do a better job defending the perimeter.

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Tomahawk Tuesday: The Denver Nuggets are Mannheim Steamrolling into Christmas

                                         (Credit: Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images) 


As we head into Christmas Day, the Denver Nuggets have the hottest winning streak in the NBA, having won seven games in a row. They're now 21-8 and currently second in the Western Conference behind the 24-6 Los Angeles Lakers. On Christmas Day, they'll look to make it eight wins a row as they have the 8-23 New Orleans Pelicans coming to town. That game will close the NBA's five-game Christmas Day special.

Considering what we saw from the Nuggets last season, their success shouldn't be a surprise. They have five players scoring in double figures and two legitimate All-Star level players in Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic. When you combine that kind of balance with All-Star talent, you have a recipe for success.

The only question for the Nuggets is whether or not Murray and Jokic are both ready to lead a team to a championship. They've proven their worth in the regular season but are still yet to prove their worth come playoff time. Like all young duos, they have to go through the fire and have their breakthrough moment. While their moment hasn't come yet, I have a feeling it's coming soon.

If you are tempted to skip out on Christmas Day's Nuggets/Pelicans game because it isn't as flashy as Lakers/Clippers, please reconsider your decision. The Nuggets are playing really good basketball and are putting themselves in a good position to get home court advantage through much of the NBA playoffs. If you're going to be sitting around the television Christmas night, please turn on the Nuggets and see basketball being played the right way. You won't regret it.

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Mock Draft Monday: Is it risky for James Wiseman to pull out of school?

                                          (Credit: AP Photo/Karen Pulfer Focht) 

Rather than accepting his suspension and returning to the Memphis Tigers in mid-January, James Wiseman has made the decision to withdraw from school and formally declare for the 2020 NBA draft. In my previous post on Wiseman (which you can read here), I wrote that Wiseman's NBA draft stock shouldn't be affected by his suspension. However, I was still assuming that he would return to school and give NBA scouts a chance to see what he can do.

By withdrawing from school, Wiseman is banking on his physical profile and overall potential doing the work for him to get picked in the top two of the 2020 NBA draft. The thought process is that playing in college only bears the risk of injury and that there's no upside in staying. Is that really true?

The answer is complicated. If you are certain to go #1 or #2 in the upcoming NBA draft, it's hard to argue against pulling out of school, training on your own, and avoiding the risk of injury. However, the key lies in being certain that you'll go #1 or #2. If your draft stock is more fluid, then it becomes trickier.

In the case of Wiseman, he appears to be right on the border. NBADraft.net has him projected to go #2 at the moment, but he could slide down to #3 behind LaMelo Ball or even out of the top five if a couple guys in college (e.g. Dayton's Obi Toppin) really ball out. By sitting out this season, Wiseman is denying himself a chance to showcase himself against those guys and that could come back to haunt him on draft day.

The other issue of course is what teams will think of him for pulling out. Does it show a lack of competitive fire? Are they certain he'll play hard for them if he gets bruised up a bit in his rookie year? Will he instead want to sit out and avoid ruining his chance at a more lucrative contract down the road? Some teams may think that, which once again could hurt him.

To quickly sum this all up, is it risky for James Wiseman to pull out of school? The answer is yes, but if he feels confident enough in his skill set to get picked #1 or #2 in the 2020 NBA draft, it's worth it. Why risk getting injured and seeing your draft stock fall from #2 to #10? Worst case, Wiseman falls to #5 or #6, but that's like a doomsday scenario. In all likelihood, he's going at least #4. On top of that, he was already facing a suspension and would only be able to play for like 6 weeks. Wiseman is making the right move. I just hope he's making it while also calculating the risks that come with it.

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Saturday Slam: Adam Silver's mid-season tournament idea makes no sense to me

                                         (Credit: USA TODAY Sports)


One of the more interesting stories floating around the NBA right now is commissioner Adam Silver's goofy idea of a mid-season tournament involving all 30 teams in some sort of round robin format that turns into a knockout tournament. The prize? $1M for each player on the winning team.

On the surface, it seems like a cool idea. I mean, who doesn't love tournaments, right? The problem with this tournament idea though, is it just doesn't make sense. How would it fit into the regular season standings as a whole? Would winning it guarantee a playoff spot? If not, why care? The NBA is all about June and winning the NBA Finals, something that this tournament doesn't seem to really fit into.

Adam Silver seems to think that having a tournament for the sake of a tournament is a good idea and I'm here to tell you that it isn't. Tournaments need to have meaning. Especially at the pro level. A cash prize isn't enough to give a tournament meaning.

Instead of adding a mid-season tournament, the NBA needs to look at tweaking the league format that they already have. For starters, eliminate conferences and give every team in the NBA a more balanced travel schedule. The Timberwolves, Thunder, Pelicans, and Grizzlies all have brutal travel schedules as the eastern most teams in the Western Conference. If you eliminate conferences, you could give those teams a travel schedule that is more fair and less imbalanced. I mean, the Timberwolves make three or four trips to Los Angeles every year and just one trip to Milwaukee. That's stupid.

As an extension of that, by eliminating conferences, that means the NBA could adopt a top-16 playoff format, making it so that the best teams in the NBA regardless of conference make the playoffs. A lot of fans have been pushing for this for a while and would totally embrace this change. It would create more playoff matchup possibilities and reward the better teams, creating a better playoff experience.

Another idea for the NBA is to do a tournament before the season starts and include teams from all across the globe. Add teams from Europe, China, Australia, New Zealand, and other parts of the world into one big maddening pre-season World Series of basketball kind of thing. Something like that might get eyeballs. If you're going to go creative, go creative to the max and really have some fun.

Lastly, the NBA can make the season more exciting by reducing the number of regular season games and the number of playoff games. Going back to best-of-five in the first round would be a great place to start. If each game had more meaning, that alone would make the season better.

Unless Adam Silver goes wild and adopts something like my World Series of basketball idea, he would be wise to look at more minor modifications to the season like eliminating conferences and going back to best-of-five in the first round of the playoffs. Sometimes less is more and simpler ideas are better.

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Wednesday Windmill: Are the Indiana Pacers a healthy Victor Oladipo away from winning the East?

                                          (Credit: Andy Lyons/Getty Images) 


On Tuesday, the Indiana Pacers defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 105-102 at home, improving to 19-9 overall and 6th in the Eastern Conference. As has been a staple of theirs over the years, the Pacers have a pretty balanced scoring attack with five players scoring in double figures: Malcolm Brogdon (19.1 points per game), T.J. Warren (17.8 points per game), Domantas Sabonis (17.7 points per game), Jeremy Lamb (14.6 points per game), and Myles Turner (11.1 points per game). When you have so many different weapons, you're a very difficult team to stop both at home and on the road.

That all said, the Pacers appear to be lacking at least one additional weapon, which is where Victor Oladipo comes in. Oladipo hasn't played all season due to a knee injury and it remains unclear when he'll return. His absence is nothing small as he averaged 18.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, 5.2 assists, and 1.7 steals per game last season. He's their best player on paper.

The good news for the Pacers is that so far at least, they're playing really well without him. They're on pace to make the playoffs and are keeping themselves within striking distance of a top four seed in the East for when he returns. Assuming he does return this season and is able to play like his regular self, this Pacers team just might make a run at the Eastern Conference crown.

What makes Oladipo so good is that he's a complete two-way player. It's not just the points. It's the rebounding, the assists, and the steals. He does a little bit of everything and knows how to get it done on both ends of the floor. Guys like him are invaluable and truly make a difference on their teams. He's the kind of player every coach wishes that they had.

When talking about which teams could come out of the East this year, don't sleep on the Pacers. They're already one of the better teams in the league and are still awaiting the return of their best player. That should have everyone in the East on notice.

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