In NBA going small and offensive, Orlando trying big and defensive

By Kurt HelinJul 10, 2018, 11:05 AM EDT

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LAS VEGAS — You can see the potential.

There was a moment Sunday night, in the first minute against Memphis, when Jaren Jackson — the best rookie through Summer League so far — drove the lane only to see Mohamed Bamba and Jonathan Isaac both rotate over into his path. The 6’11” Jackson changed his mind and decided not to go for the dunk and instead tried to throw an alley-oop to a baseline cutter. Bamba and Isaac both got up so high they blocked it anyway.

Here's Mo Bamba and Jonathan Isaac simultaneously blocking Jaren Jackson Jr. @OPPMagicBlog pic.twitter.com/WKiwhzimYE

— Chris Grenham (@chrisgrenham) July 9, 2018

“(Isaac) got the credit for the block? Aw, come on,” Bamba joked after the game. Together, Bamba and Isaac are averaging 5 blocks a game in Las Vegas.

It’s just Summer League, but Orlando is interesting for the first time in years because they have zigged when the league has zagged — come October they can roll out a lineup of Bamba, Isaac, and just-resigned Aaron Gordon and Jonathan Simmons. Under the guidance of new, defensive-minded coach Steve Clifford, the Magic can go big, long, and defense-first in an NBA leaning more toward the Warriors’ model of small and offense first.

“The potential between me and (Isaac) is unreal, I think in Summer League we’re starting to bridge that potential into production with the small things we do,” Bamba said. “I think we got three 24-second shot clock violations (against Memphis).”

“To tell you the truth, I don’t even think (their defensive play in Summer League) scratches the surface in terms of where Mo is going to be in a year or two years, or where I am going to be in a year or two years,” Isaac said of the team’s potential. “Physically, mentally, game wise, you throw in AG and all those guys we have on our team now, and I think we will be a defensive nightmare for a lot of teams.”

Other players on the roster, such as Gordon and Simmons, can fit right into this defensive mold. The team is long and can protect the rim, but the big men such as Bamba and Isaac are athletic enough to switch — or at least show and recover — on point guards off a high pick-and-roll. Against this size and length, getting to the rim is not going to be easy. Bamba’s length just eats up guys driving the lane.

Not on @TheRealMoBamba's watch. pic.twitter.com/83AaiP6rWf

— Orlando Magic (@OrlandoMagic) July 10, 2018

“That’s one of the things the league is going to — how hard can you make it (on drivers),” Magic summer league head coach Pat Delany said of what the team wants to do.

Isaac has been one of the standout players of Summer League so far, having gotten stronger in the past year, adjusting to the pace and style of the game, and just gotten healthy. Memphis’ Jackson has overwhelmed other young players he has gone against between both the Salt Lake and Las Vegas Summer Leagues, but Isaac held his own in that matchup, blocking shots and making life hard on Jackson. (To be fair, it was Jackson’s fifth game in seven days and he looked worn down at points.)

Isaac, about to enter his second NBA season, is one of the guys who looks ready to make a leap in games that matter starting in October.

🔨🔨🔨 J O N A T H A N I S A A C 🔨🔨🔨 pic.twitter.com/ZFOitUqFxm

— Orlando Magic (@OrlandoMagic) July 9, 2018

Bamba also has impressed, and not just with his defense — he is shooting 60 percent in Summer League and against Memphis showed a smooth stroke on a corner three that caught everyone’s attention.

Mo Bamba hits the corner triple!#NBASummer pic.twitter.com/ah8Vc4ZCYF

— NBA (@NBA) July 9, 2018

Mo Bamba opens Q3 with plays on both ends!#NBASummer pic.twitter.com/EVbSd2XOhs

— NBA (@NBA) July 9, 2018

It’s not all been smooth sailing for Bamba — Monday night No. 1 pick Deandre Ayton pushed him around physically, slowed Bamba’s offensive game, and got to the glass (Ayton had five offensive rebounds on the night). Phoenix players such as Josh Jackson found driving lanes because Bamba couldn’t help off Ayton. That said, the defensive potential of Bamba and the Magic was still on display in the game, as Bamba had five blocks — including an Ayton hook shot early in the game.

Bamba understands there’s a lot of work to do.

“I just have to establish myself as a roller, it really opens up a lot for our team, even if I don’t necessarily get the ball it opens up guys in the corner or in spots as teams adjust to how we are playing…” Bamba said.

“I want to be a guy who comes in and has an impact immediately. One of my goals is to be Defensive Player of the Year, one of my goals is to be Rookie of the Year. One of my long-term goals is to be walking across the stage to get a jacket with a Hall of Fame patch. There’s definitely some work to do in between there.”

Not some, a lot of work.

But in Orlando, this Summer League has provided hope — something in short supply in recent years. The Magic are going to be interesting, and worth watching, because they are staking out a course different from the way the league is trending.

And it just might work.

Raptors reportedly hire Grizzlies’ assistant Rajakovic as new head coach

By Kurt HelinJun 10, 2023, 5:56 PM EDT

Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images

Toronto is leaning into a first-time head coach, albeit one that has been ready for the chance.

The Raptors will hire Memphis Grizzlies assistant Darko Rajakovic as its next head coach, a story broken by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN and confirmed by multiple reports since.

ESPN Sources: The Toronto Raptors are finalizing a deal to hire Memphis Grizzlies assistant Darko Rajakovic as the franchise’s next coach. pic.twitter.com/AEPu64p2F2

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 10, 2023

Rajakovic, 44, is an assistant near the front of the line of guys who deserved a chance in the big chair, a guy considered a player development specialist. He started coaching at age 17 in his native Serbia — it’s a good week for Serbian sports — and came to the United States in 2012 to coach Tulsa in the G-League. He has since been on the Oklahoma City and Phoenix bench before joining Taylor Jenkins staff in Memphis.

Rajakovic replaces Nick Nurse, who led Toronto to its only championship in 2019 but was let go after missing the playoffs this season. Nurse has since been hired to coach Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers.

Toronto has been a team other franchises in the league are watching to see what direction it goes. Do the Raptors try to re-sign Fred VanVleet and Jakob Poeltl to win now by pairing them with Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby, Scottie Barnes and a versatile roster, or is it time to break it apart and look to a more Barnes-centric future? Does hiring a player development focused coach in Rajakovic hint at a direction?

There are a lot of teams around the league who would be interested in Anunoby and others if the Raptors decide to break things up.

Heat players talk bouncing back, making history with Finals comeback

By Kurt HelinJun 10, 2023, 2:16 PM EDT

Robby Illanes/NBAE via Getty Images

MIAMI — Kevin Love has been here before, down 3-1 in the NBA Finals and staring up at a seemingly invincible foe. Yet there he was, a couple of improbable games later, dancing with Stephen Curry out at the arc and contesting a shot that missed and sealed the Cavaliers’ historic comeback and title in 2016.

“We know that anything can happen. It has been done before, in a Conference Final and Final, I have been part of it before,” Love said after a Heat Game 4 loss on their home court that felt like a punch to the gut. “You really just have to take it one possession at a time. Forget the game. It’s just one possession, one quarter, half to half. Just get it done by any means necessary and figure the rest out.”

The Heat locker room was quiet after Game 4. With good reason. The Heat just had dropped two games at home, and in the second one of those they held Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray in relative check — with Jokić spending 5:15 of the heart of the fourth quarter on the bench due to foul trouble – and it didn’t matter. It felt like a game Miami had to have, but Aaron Gordon and Bruce Brown grabbed it for Denver. Miami looked like a team in trouble.

“I told the guys, feel whatever you want to feel tonight. It’s fine,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “You probably shouldn’t sleep tonight any amount of time. I don’t think anybody will. We have an incredibly competitive group. We’ve done everything the hard way, and that’s the way it’s going to have to be done right now, again.

“All we are going to focus on is getting this thing back to the 305. Get this thing back to Miami. And things can shift very quickly. It’s going to be a gnarly game in Denver that is built for the competitors that we have in our locker room.”

Resilience and relentlessness have been the Heat hallmarks this postseason, but those qualities are about to be tested like never before.

“We’ve seen a team come back from 3-0 firsthand,” Bam Adebayo said, referencing the Celtics near comeback on the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals (Miami won Game 7 in Boston). “So we just have to believe, and one game at a time.”

There was a 3-1 comeback in the 2016 NBA Finals, when the Cavaliers stormed back on Curry’s Warriors. However, that comeback required a cocktail of events to be shaken together: Draymond Green‘s suspension for Game 5 after kicking LeBron James in the groin, Golden State center and defensive anchor Andrew Bogut getting injured and missing the final games, LeBron playing at his absolute peak, and a legendary Kyrie Irving bucket.

Can Miami replicate that?

“It’s one game at a time. Now we are in a must-win situation every single game, which we’re capable of,” Jimmy Butler said. “Some correctible things we’ve got to do, but it’s not impossible. We’ve got to go out there and do it. We’ve got three to get.”

Celtics’ Grant Williams undergoes hand surgery as he enters pivotal offseason

Associated PressJun 10, 2023, 8:37 AM EDT

Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

BOSTON (AP) — Celtics forward Grant Williams had surgery Friday to repair a torn ligament in his left hand and is expected to be sidelined from basketball activities for the next two months.

The team said that Williams, 24, will need 6-8 weeks to recover following the procedure.

Williams averaged career highs in minutes (25.9), points (8.1) and rebounds (4.6) during the regular season. But each of those numbers fell during the playoffs as he slipped in and out of the rotation.

He is a restricted free agent this summer with interest from teams around the league.

Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said last week that he thinks Williams got caught in a numbers’ situation regarding his reduced playing time this season.

“He is a good player who was on a really deep team,” Stevens said. “With the addition of (Malcolm) Brogdon last year it was going to require that guys that had gotten a little more opportunity weren’t going to get as much. That obviously hit a few of our players. … But everybody around the league knows Grant can add value to any team.”

Three reasons Denver has a commanding 3-1 Finals lead over Miami

By Kurt HelinJun 10, 2023, 8:27 AM EDT

MIAMI — The Heat are on the NBA Finals stage because they are relentless. They never quit when things got hard in the postseason, they would just up their intensity and pressure their opponent.

When they cranked up that pressure on the teams with the two best regular season records in the NBA — the Bucks and Celtics — those teams melted. Miami was left standing.

Denver will not melt. They will not beat themselves.

If anything, the Nuggets are putting the pressure back on the Heat, which is why they are up 3-1 and in command of these NBA Finals after an impressive Game 4 win. The best example was when the Nuggets withstood more than five minutes in the fourth quarter without their two-time MVP (due to foul trouble) and didn’t miss a beat.

It feels like Game 5 in Denver could be a coronation of Jokić and the Nuggets. Here are the three reasons we got to this point, with the Nuggets one win away from the franchise’s first title.

1) Miami can’t score enough to hang with Denver

The Heat were always going to have to put up a lot of points to keep pace in this series — the Nuggets had a top-five offense in the league this season led by a two-time MVP. They were not going to be shut down by anyone and had just come off having an impressive 118 offensive rating against the best defense in the NBA after the All-Star break in the Lakers. Maybe Maimi could slow Denver some, but the Heat were going to have to put up offensive numbers like they did against the Celtics.

Through four Finals games, the Miami Heat have a 109.5 offensive rating. That is 3.8 behind their unimpressive regular season offense (25th in the league) and 9.2 below what they did against Boston. Or, look at it this way: The Heat had a 129.1 in its Game 2 victory, but 102.2 in the other three games, all losses (stat via John Schuhmann at NBA.com)

The Nuggets’ length across the board is clearly bothering Heat shooters inside the paint and out at the arc.

Outside of the fourth quarter of Game 2, nothing has worked the way the Heat wanted on offense. In Game 4, the emphasis was on playing downhill and getting to the rim, maybe getting Jokić in foul trouble.

“[Coach Spoelstra] definitely made it an emphasis to attack the rim, to really get to the rim, me and Jimmy, everybody included, really get downhill and make things happen,” Bam Adebayo said of his team’s Game 4 strategy.

Miami did as its coach asked and shot 14-of-18 in the restricted area. But look at the rest of the shot chart.

That’s a lot of red.

Jimmy Butler and Adebayo have put up numbers throughout the Finals but haven’t been efficient. Game 4 was the perfect example, the Heat All-Star duo combined to score 45 points, but they shot below 50%, 17-of-36, to get there. They have not been the force they have been in other series. Butler will never blame his sore ankle, re-aggravated in Game 7 against the Celtics, but he’s not showing the same lift or explosion he did last series.

Neither of the Heat’s stars are expected to space the floor, that shooting falls to the role players, but the Heat were 8-of-25 from 3 in Game 4. Gabe Vincent and Max Strus combined to go 0-of-7 from deep.

Spoelstra has to try something in Game 5, maybe start Duncan Robinson (5-of-7 on the night, shooting 3s and attacking closeouts) over Strus. There are other tweaks he can make. But at this point it’s really as simple as the Heat need to start finishing their chances, contested or not.

“All we are going to focus on is getting this thing back to the 305,” Spoelstra said. “Get this thing back to Miami. And things can shift very quickly,” Spoelstra said. “It’s going to be a gnarly game in Denver that is built for the competitors that we have in our locker room. By the time we are getting on that plane, all we’re thinking about is get this thing back to Miami.”

2) Miami can’t stop Denver from scoring

Through four games, Miami has a 119.6 offensive rating (and a +10.1 net rating in the series). That is an offensive rating close to Sacramento’s league-best throughout this season.

What makes the Nuggets so hard for the Heat or anyone else to stop is it’s not just one thing.

However, it starts with the Jokic and Jamal Murray two-man game.

In Game 3, that duo ran 32 pick-and-rolls and the two stars each had 30+ point triple-doubles on the night. Miami learned its lesson, and in Game 4, the Heat were determined not to let Murray get rolling and beat them. The Nuggets defense focused on Murray, blitzing him with the ball when he came off picks, pressuring even the inbounds after baskets, bringing double-teams on drives and doing whatever it took to get the ball out of his hands.

It worked on a superficial level, Murray had 15 points on 5-of-17 shooting in Game 3.

He also had 12 assists and no turnovers. His teammates stepped up and made plays.

“Jamal, regardless of what’s going on, he’s going to step up. He’s going to find a way to impact the game,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “The most impressive thing for me was he had 15 points tonight, and he was 5-of-17 from the field. But 12 assists and zero turnovers, and just kind of, all right, they’re putting two on me, let me make the right play. He did not get bored with making the right play. He did not say, I’m going to save us and try to carry the team. He just read the defense, made the right play, and trusted. That’s a big part of our culture is trusting one another.”

Murray’s teammates are the other key to this series.

3) Denver’s role players outplaying Heat role players. It’s not close.

Miami had a game plan and executed it. They completely sold out to stop Murray, while Bam Adebayo continued to battle and challenge Jokić. The two Nuggets’ All-Stars combined to shoot just 13-of-36 on the night.

But Aaron Gordon stepped up with 27. Bruce Brown scored 21, including 11 in the fourth quarter, taking over the offense in the clutch.

On the other side, Heat starters Max Strus and Gabe Vincent combined to shoot 1-of-10. Caleb Martin was better in Game 4, with 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting, but he’s not looked anything near the player who nearly won the Eastern Conference Finals MVP. The list just goes on.

“Every time we felt like we got it to six or eight, they were able to push it to 12,” Spoelstra said after Game 4. “That was certainly a frustrating part of the game…

“For the most part, I thought that that part of the game [Miami’s defense on Jokić and Murray] was okay. It’s the Gordon dunks or cuts; [Michael] Porter had a couple cuts; and then Brown, when Jokic was out, those drives and plays that were kind of just random plays, attacking plays, which he is fully capable of doing. Those were probably the most costly things.”

Malone had enough trust in Brown to give him the keys to the offense in the second half of the fourth quarter of Game 4.

“Bruce Brown in the fourth quarter was amazing,” Malone said. “He had I think 21 points, 11 of those were in the fourth quarter. They were giving Jamal so much attention that [we decided] let’s get Jamal off the ball, let Bruce make some plays. He was aggressive, got to the basket, made shots, and tonight was an impressive performance.”

Jokic was fired up for Bruce Brown's 4th quarter takeover 🔥 pic.twitter.com/56rOHygKm1

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 10, 2023

“When he did a step-back three, I wanted to punch him, but when he made it, I was so happy,” Jokić said.

Brown had a chance to step up because Gordon had been making plays and finishing all night long. He ended the night with a game-high 27. But it was the team aspect of the Nuggets, the variety of ways they can beat you — and the execution of those players under pressure — that has proven too much for the Heat.

“I thought Aaron Gordon was huge all night long,” Malone said. “He brought his hard hat tonight and was just a warrior on both ends for us. Nikola, he had another great game. And one of the best stats of the night was Jamal Murray had 12 assists, no turnovers. In a game where he was getting blitzed and bodies thrown at him all night long, did not have one turnover, and that’s just remarkable.

And the Nuggets are now, remarkably, within one win of an NBA title.

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1) Miami can’t score enough to hang with Denver

2) Miami can’t stop Denver from scoring

3) Denver’s role players outplaying Heat role players. It’s not close.

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