Good for Diabate. He’s still a limited player with a very niche skill set, but he’s maximizing his opportunity with that skill set.
OK, so will not be covering Kobe Bufkin or Moe Wagner for the rest of the season barring some contractual machinations or something. They’re both out for the year, no updates upcoming.
Jett Howard “sprained his ankle”, which in injury-report-land can mean any number of things and any number of absence durations. He has missed the last three games, which basically coincide with the return with Paolo Banchero, so it’s hard to say what his role is in the current roster situation (still missing Franz and Jalen Suggs). The Magic have played 8 games since I last update, with Jett appearing in the first five, with that fifth appearance abbreviated due to the ankle injury. He played 16 mpg (18.5 if we ignore the game he was injured), scoring 9 points a game, highlighted by scoring 21 in…in a double digit loss in Utah. This scoring uptic came on somewhat improved shooting from inside the arc, but a continued struggle outside - 41% from the floor, 31% from 3. There were flashes here and there of him doing more than just shooting - two games with 4 assists and a game with 8 boards. Net, he still does remarkably little other than shoot (6.6% rebound rate, 8% assist rate) but maybe these are some glimmers of something more?
Caleb Houstan is, for now, sitting higher than Jett in the Magic hierarchy (even preceding Jett’s injury), getting a start in 5 of the team’s 8 games (losing the spot with Paolo’s return). He played 24 minutes per game in this spell, scoring 5.9 ppg on 31% from the floor and 30.2% from 3. It’s not quite as bad as it seems, as he only attempted 3 2-point FG’s, so that FG% is basically just his 3 point shooting. He had 1.6 rpg, and under an assist per game. Given that Jett shot marginally better, and neither really contribute anything from a rebounding or playmaking aspect, we can assume Caleb’s higher position in the rotation is a result of defense, but this seems like a pretty dire competition of two guys on the floor basically because they theoretically “can shoot”, but…are not making many of them.
Moussa Diabate spent most of the past 18 days in the G League, where he gets to be a double/double machine. He only played one game in the NBA - 2 points/3 boards and a steal in 15 minutes. More relevantly, the Hornets have traded Nick Richards, one of the two centers on their NBA roster, prompting Diabate’s return to the league. At this point, the team’s center rotation is the constantly injured Mark Williams as the starter with Moussa as the backup. Barring the team acquiring a big (why? this team is going nowhere), I’d expect to see a pretty solid amount of Moussa from here on out.
Franz Wagner obviously did not play, but said in an interview that his oblique tear is heeled, and that now it’s just a matter of improving his conditioning prior to getting on the floor. It will be interesting, given how much he popped in Banchero’s absense (and how the team has continued to struggle since Banchero’s return (1-4, with their last 3 games on the wrong side of 29, 27, and 13 points drubbings)), what his role looks like.
Jordan Poole largely continues to do well in a miserable situation. The Wizards went 0-10 since our last update (they last won on New Year’s Day). While Poole missed 3 games in this period with a tweak, he played relatively well when he was present - 21.1 ppg, 42% from the floor, 38.6% from three on a pretty high attempt rate (61% of his shots). His assist/turnover ratio got a little squirrely again (4.1 assists per game/3.7 turnovers), but this is also the third worst shooting team in the league from a raw FG% perspective, and a co-“star” (Kyle Kuzma) who just pulls a ton of absurd self-created twos, so…I mean…I don’t know. Most observers I pay attention to (I won’t claim to watch this team) have been largely complimentary of Jordan playing “real basketball” again after last year’s nightmare.
Caris Levert played all of the Cavs’ 8 games since last time, coming off the bench (he did start a win in Toronto when Donovan Mitchell sat). He scored 8.1 ppg, grabbed 3.75 rebounds, and handed out 3.75 assists - dishing 30 total to 11 turnovers. Levert’s playmaking has continued to be his best attribute, especially as his shooting (which has largely been at career high rates thus far) cools a little - 35.5% from the floor, 26.4% from 3. His maintenance of his career scoring rate this year was largely based on that torrid shooting - his attempts have been significantly down (4 less shots in similar minutes) largely because this Cavs team is healthier than in years past and has more bench scoring than before (Strus is on the bench after starting last year, Georges Niang, Ty Jerome, and Sam Merrill all take a decent number of shots). Levert is definitely in more of a play-making role and less of a scoring role than years past, but obviously still a major part of the rotation.
Tim Hardaway Jr. has had some big games in the Pistons’ best stretch of the season - 26 in a win over Portland, 27 over Toronto, and 25 in their recent loss to Indiana. Overall, he scored 16 ppg in 8 games (missing their loss to Golden State) on 45.5% shooting from the floor and 46.6% from three - a really strong stretch of shooting. As usual - not much else going on here, but his role this year is interesting. One would think that moving from the Western Conference 4 seed (and finals representative) to a significantly sub-playoff team would lead to an increase in usage and shots…but it’s actually been the opposite. Hardaway shoots 4 fewer times than last year (losing 2 3’s and 2 2’s) and his raw attempts are the lowest they’ve been since he was 23. His usage had fallen from a pretty consistent 22% in Dallas to 15% in Detroit. It’s not really PG driven - Cade’s total assists and assist% are basically mirror images of Luka’s last year - it’s mostly that a large part his “job” in Dallas is now being done by the absolutely unconscious Malik Beasley. That said - this is probably Tim’s best stretch this season, and an unqualified strong run of play.
The Heat’s season has obviously gone a bit off the rails, and unfortunately, Duncan Robinson’s play has sort of diminished. He’s scored 9 ppg in their last 10 games, which seems bad, but he still shot 38% from 3 and 55.5% from 2…he also still over 3 assists per game on marginal turnovers. So…the ratios and underlying stuff are still what you’d think, his minutes are in line (1 under his season’s average), he’s just getting 2 less shots than his season average. Hard to quite explain how zero of Butler’s responsibilities fell in his lap, but this seems to be the case!
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Should note:
In this span, the Wizards lost the Warriors by 8, a game they led for the first 30 minutes or so.
Poole scored 38 on 25 shots, 8/15 from 3. Given Schoeder’s struggles since coming to GS, I wonder how the Warriors folks are feeling about jettisoning Poole
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I’m pretty sure Jett did leave a game with an ankle injury.
EDIT: I see you did mention that.
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Moussa got some run today in a win over the Mavericks. He had 10 points, 2 boards (both offensive, of course) a steal and a block.
lol in retrospect I probably shouldn’t have written this on a day with so many day games
They backed up Draymond, which Poole understandably checked out that year. He didn’t do so well last season, but he got back to the level he played at before the GSW’s championship run. Poole would’ve helped the current GSW team more than Hield.
It may have made no difference whatsoever, but GSW has been done/ over/ washed ever since Green punched Poole.
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My son had the NBA on in the background today on an otherwise lazy holiday. I will remain perplexed why Luke Kennard has had the career he has had while Stauskas didn’t.
“44% career three point shooter” probably a lot of it
I’d say he’s slightly more athletic but it is interesting.
Franz goes for 20 in his return but Orlando still loses big.
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Woah, they lost to Portland? By 22? And only scored 79?
It was a horrific offensive performance
I watched every minute
Paolo was very bad but it went way beyond that
Like Franz didn’t play well (shot fine but little creation for others)
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it is, and I mean this as a compliment, incomprehensible to me how much NBA you seem to watch
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He watches on 1.5x speed
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Stress induced insomnia is a helluva drug
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Yeah, thought the same. Obviously Franz made some shots, but didn’t take on the creator role he had before he was injured. It’s going to be interesting to see how Paolo and Franz share the floor together - I’m not convinced it’s a good fit. But this Magic team is just a poor shooting team. Even guys that are supposed to be shooters suck. On the bright side, it looks like Tristan da Silva AKA evil Franz might be a nice pick. Interestingly, just saw that he’s actually a few months older than Franz.
Franz with 25 in the 4th against the Pistons
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Franz and Paolo both scored 32 and both had 7 dimes. my narrative suffers
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