Jett receiving a first half shift tonight with Suggs out on second game of back to back
Speaking of Jett, any close NBA watchers know whatās going on with Orlando? I thought they would be a sleeper finals pick but they have not started well.
- Suggs doesnāt play back to backs and is limited to 20 minutes a game. Heās extremely important to them.
- They havenāt incorporate Bane - he mostly stands in the corner and takes catch and shoot threes, rarely does pick and rolls, heās visibly unhappy.
- Paolo is the same guy he was as a rookie, no development.
- Their two main ball handlers - Paolo and Franz - are good secondary guys, neither can carry an offense.
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https://x.com/OrlandoMagic/status/1988075293274501378?s=20
Franz with the huge assist here for the game winner. 
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Danny Wolf got his first 2 NBA points tonight.
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Kobe Bufkin has apparently been picked up by the Lakers G league team
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With Braun injured, TIMMAY got the start for the Nuggets and he has 20 points in 22 minutes.
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Word is Braun is out for at least 6 weeks so his minutes will really go up
Heās been so good, hard to watch all these cheap vets they brought in and not think booth completely botched it trying to go with young role players the last 2 years
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Iām thinking that if the Beez news had come out sooner, the Pistons wouldāve brought THJ back. 
Danny Wolf is averaging 22 points on 48/39/80 splits in the G-League over four games. Also averaging 10.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 2.1 stocks per game as well.
Heās clearly the Long Island Netsā go-to option on offense so far, and has consistently been performing offensively since a rough start in Summer League.
Edit: for context I should add that his defense looks quite bad (probably worse than expected and especially at the 5), and he is still struggling with turnovers (as expected). Whether malpractice or not, I think thatās probably whatās holding him back from playing ahead of some atrocious bricklayers on the Nets who also donāt do anything else but are likely better suited to be role players compared to Danny.
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Apparently, the Cruise had him first and traded him:
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Danny Wolf has, as noted serveral times here, been spending some time in the G League, but has periodically also popped up on the Nets bench here and there. Since our last update, heās checked into 2 games, playing about 4 total minutes, making 2 free throws and grabbing a rebound.
Moussa Diabate has continued playing roughly half the teamās minutes off the bench (he did get one start in the past two weeks, playing 43 minutes in an overtime loss) at center, with production sitting similar to his seasonal averages over the past two weeks (6 games): 10.2 points, 9.3 boards (better than the first two weeks!) 4.7 of which are offensive rebounds. There are two areas that indicate some growth beyond the norm, but obviously the sample is two small to really tell if itās real yet - heās blocked 12 shots in the past 6 games, a marked increase, and handed out 10 assists (about double his career norm). The assist number is probably noise (on the season, his per 36 assists are flat), but the block rate seems to have legs - his per 36 shot blocking is double last year (2.4 vs 1.2) and his block rate is up from 3.2% to 5.8%. With his already prodigious offensive rebounding rate increasing so far from last year, and his shooting accuracy (on basically the same shot diet) going up as well, heās not really becoming a different player - heās becoming a much improved version of the player he was (in addition to the stats listed above, heās also shooting 77% at the rim so far, as opposed to 69% last year).
Caleb Houstan appeared in 3 of the Hawksā 7 games since our last update, but he DID end his trillion streak basically immediately. In 30.5 minutes across those three games, he went 3/7 from 3 and 1/3 from 2. Also, against the Kings he commited 3 fouls in 8 minutes, which is fun.
With both Paolo Banchero and Jalen Suggs suffereing some injury absences, Jett Howard got rotation minutes in 4 straight games, but DNPās the teamsā other 3. Howard made 5/13 from 3 (38.5%) and 2/6 from 2. That basically encapsulates his contributions here, but with Suggs missing so much times, if Howard remains the next guy up when he sits, heāll probably get more opportunities this year.
His teammate, Franz Wagner, continues to play well. In the past 2 weeks (7 games), heās averaging 23.7 points, 7.4 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and a tad over a steal per game. Heās shot 30% from three and 47.5% from 2, which isnāt the best efficiency but itās getting redeemed by taking 8.5 FTās a game and making 87% of them, lifting his seasonās true shooting% to 58% (about league average). His 3 point% so far is 34% - which would represent a lift, but obviously the past week has pulled that number down. āFranzās three point strokeā has been a matter of discussion since his freshman year at Michigan, so thereās no need to keep banging that drum, but his high volume compared with significantly below average accuracy leaves it as the skeleton key that shifts him from āvery goodā to āeliteā.
Jordan Poole has missed every game since our last update with a knee injury. Heās getting āre-evaluatedā in 2 days, whatever that means.
Lost amid the Pistonsā hot start is that Caris Levert for a number of reasons really hasnāt gotten on track. Heās missed four games with minor injury so far, and is currently nursing a mild ankle injury. When playing, heās been better in the past two weeks, however: 12.6 ppg, 5.2 assists in a little more than 20 minutes per game. Part of this is shooting 62% from the floor (not going to continue) and 47% from three (ditto), so the scoring volume will likely decline, but thatās in part to playing about 6-7 minutes fewer than his norm. Regardless, what the Pistons need from him more than scoring is playmaking, and that assist rate is pretty juicy. The main problem is just health, and potentially Daniss Jenkins eyeing his minutes.
Tim Hardaway Jr. knocked down 50% of his threes in the past two weeks and 47% YTD, so itās going well! He plays 60% of his minutes with Jokic, and those lineups net rating is +23 points per 100, soooooā¦yeah. Two gnarly ones are Hardaway, Jokic, Gordon, Murray, Watson (+43 per 100), and Hardaway, Jokic, Brown, Braun, Watson (+48 per 100). He is, on balance, actually +/- negative without Jokic (to be fair, everyone on this team is). Again - his job is to knock the ample open shots Jokic provides and he is doing it.
With all of Detroitās absences, Duncan Robinson has gotten an opportunity to diversify a bit. He averaged 4 assists per game in the last 2 weeks (7 games) after averaging 1 per game in the first 8 games. The 53% three point shooting is obviously a bit hot in this stretch, but itās hard to argue he could be doing much more in this stretch.
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You left out Livers againš„
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lol I used my last list as a template
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OK
Isaiah Livers has appeared in 9 of Phoenixās 15 games, and seems to be getting rotation minutes over the last three - clocking 12 minutes or more in each game, as one of the two forwards off the bench (along with Ryan Dunn). This wouldnāt appear to be injury-related - despite the rash of injuries throughout the league, the Suns really only have 1 player on the IR (Jalen Green), but those minutes seem to be going to Grayson Allen and Jordan Goodwin. Regardless, Livers is still existing within his remarkably low-usage role (his Detroit career ended with a laughable 12% usage, heās at 9% so far in Phoenixā¦so at least heās getting his cardio in running up and down the floor). His big use at the moment is not being a defensive turnstile and shooting a roughly positional average number of threes (close to 6 per 36), and has made 35.3% of those (heās a 35.7% career shooter). Heās only attempted 2 twoās this year (making them both). In other words - heās doing basically what he was prior to his injury. Itās a small role, but Iām sure I said something to the effect (with sadness) when he underwent this surgery that I thought his career was done, soā¦itās really cool heās back out there.
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I only watched, didnāt check stats but Franz was awesome tonight - had to be like 30+/5+/5+
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Well heās on my fantasy team, so I can report that he ended with 37 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists. 4/6 from three. 7/7 free throw. 13/19 from the field
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