In Part 2 of 3 of fishkorn’s Nba Preview, we Dig through the muck to locate those teams that managed to rise above their inferior talent to find success…and the other teams that had Dwight Howard.
(If you haven’t read Part 1, click here. Otherwise you’ll have no frame of reference here. You’ll be like a child who wanders in to the middle of a movie and…)
In Part 1 of the NBA Preview, we established that just by examining how many players a team landed in Sports Illustrated’s Top 100 list we could mostly predict (within about four spots either way) where they’d rank in the final regular season standings. Whether we looked at a team’s top six roster spots (Deep 6) or just their best three guys (Big 3), the numbers didn’t lie- you either were stacked and won…or you were the Sacramento Kings.
I say mostly because each year (dating back to the 2013-14 season) there was always a surprise team or two that bucked the trend; a team that all the pundits, all the talking heads, and all the bloggers (basically everyone outside the locker room) had left for dead, seemingly with no chance to elevate above their meager roster to have even a modicum of success. And yet, come April, that former basement dweller pushed forward for that eight seed, or perhaps it was a team that put it all together to grab that precious home court for the first time in ages.
Conversely, there were also a slew of underachievers- teams that had the gold key to the crapper (as the wise sage Will Darnell from John Carpenter’s 1983 film Christine once so eloquently put it) and still managed to find themselves lottery-bound.
Those are the the teams I’m interested in right now- the teams that cannot be explained using the Top 100 data we compiled. In other words, the compelling stories that kept me watching these past few years when facing the inevitability of yet another Cavs/Warriors Finals.
Why the interest?
Because I believe we’ll be better equipped to predict the outcome of the 2018-19 NBA season if we can pinpoint the traits that elevated teams like the 2014-15 Hawks, as well as those that made teams like the 2013-14 Nets D.O.A.
But before we get too deep into the weeds, we must define exactly what an outlier is, and of course we’ll do it in a numbers-driven, overly analytical, ‘too much time on your hands’ kind of way.
AN outlier is any team, either by their Deep 6 rank or their Big 3 rank, that landed 10 or more spots off from what had been predicted.
Is there some significance to the number 10? Nope. Below are some examples:
| Year | Team | Sum Rank | Dp6 Rank | Big3 Rank | Actual | Sum Acc | Dp6 Acc | Big3 Acc |
| 2014-15 | BOS | 29 | 29 | 29 | 16 | 13 | 13 | 13 |
| 2014-15 | HOU | 13 | 16 | 11 | 3 | 10 | 13 | 8 |
| 2014-15 | MIA | 12 | 14 | 10 | 21 | 9 | 7 | 11 |
As you can see, that Celtics squad was predicted by all indexes to be the 2nd worst in the entire league yet they ended in the middle of the pack at 16. But, how? And why was the Deep 6 particularly unimpressed with a fantastic 2014-15 Rockets crew? And what the hell happened with Miami’s Big 3 that year?
That’s what were gonna find out.
There were thirty-one such outliers over the last five seasons and we’re going to go over each individual case in excruciating detail. No, seriously. What you’ll notice is that sometimes it was quite obvious why a team’s final record didn’t jive with the roster make-up while with others it was in the minutiae.
So, without further ado, let’s begin with the most prominent disruptor to the Top 100’s predictability:
INJURIES
2013-14: Final Regular Season Standing- 25, Deep 6 rank-17, Big 3 rank-11
The first of several examples where the Big 3 is off solely to an injury to, you guessed it, one of a team’s best three players. Kobe went down early and often that year, finishing with only 6 games played. Even at age thirty-five, he was one of their best and it dealt a huge blow losing him for what amounts to a full season. Injuries to Pau (missed 22) and Nash (missed 67) didn’t help matters.
2014-15: Final Regular Season Standing- 21, Deep 6 rank-14, Big 3 rank-10
While I’ll openly admit I rooted hard against Chris Bosh when he was a member of the Heatles (from 2011 to 2014 I switched from being first the world’s biggest Mavs fan, to Thunder fan, then to two years of Spurs fandom) but once LeBron took his ball and went home, I found I no longer had such disdain for him. In fact, I remember working the NBA Trade Machine searching for ways to bring him to Detroit. Unfortunately for him, and the 2014-15 Miami Heat, blood clots derailed a still probably Hall of Fame worthy career. He managed only 44 games that year with Wade missing 20, as well. At the time SI’s 18th and 20th best, their injuries stopped the Heat’s season in its tracks.
2014-15: Final Regular Season Standing- 30, Deep 6 rank-20, Big 3 rank-21
Nobody expected big things from this Wolves team. The year before they were only mediocre, finishing a shade under .500, and that was with Kevin Love. Then they went and traded him to Cleveland for two former number ones (Wiggins-*yawn*, and Bennett-*yikes*) and Thad Young who they flipped mid-season for 5 games of a 38 year old Kevin Garnett. They might have been able to overcome all of that to be just an average bad team, but injuries to Kevin Martin (39 games missed) and Ricky Rubio (22) led to a year of pure unadulterated filth.
2014-15: Final Regular Season Standing- 14, Deep 6 rank-10, Big 3 rank-1
This team was top heavy, and when I say top heavy I mean like…
(searches ‘top heavy’ in Google for amusing photo…quickly closes browser)
umm…what I mean is that this team, almost more so than any in recent history, was loaded at the top of the roster but otherwise as thin as Christian Bale in The Machinist.
Losing Durant, the 2nd best player on the planet, for 55 games (not to mention only getting Westbrook and Ibaka for 67 and 64 games respectively) is going to torpedo any team’s season especially one relying on a ‘past his sell date’ Kendrick Perkins for almost 20 minutes a game.
2015-16: Final Regular Season Standing- 12, Deep 6 rank-25, Big 3 rank-25
This one is a little different. It was the lack of injuries that seemed to be the deciding factor in my Pistons not actually sucking in 15-16. Here are the games they got out of their starters; KCP-76, the lesser Morris-80, Drummxnd-81, Tobisan Ilyaharris- combined for 77 starts, and most importantly, Reggie Jackson, 79. Now you might say, “Jackson is the most important?” with that ‘Nick Young confused, dancing question marks around his face’ expression, but it’s true. Back in March, the fine blog Detroit Bad Boys chronicled the Pistons records with and without Jackson in the lineup since that 15-16 season. With him they’d been 63-52 (.547) and sans-Jax they were 47-66 (.415). He may not be welcome in Oklahoma City, but it sure is a welcome sight to Pistons fans when he’s out on the court.
2015-16: Final Regular Season Standing- 25, Deep 6 rank-10, Big 3 rank-12
Poor Anthony Davis. He’s been plagued with living out a modern version of the Kevin Garnett story…a generational talent wasting away his prime years in a small market with inept ownership. Usually it is a lack of NBA caliber teammates that drags his season down, but in 15-16 you could add injuries to the mix. He himself only played 61 games and the group of Holiday, Tyreke Evans, Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon missed another 127 combined. They did get 37 out of Kendrick Perkins (there’s that man again. Forget injuries, maybe he’s the link between all this underachievement) and 73 from Alonzo Gee (38 starts!), so that’s something.
2017-18: Final Regular Season Standing- 18, Deep 6 rank-8, Big 3 rank-8
In the very first game last year, Patrick Beverly literally ate Lonzo Ball’s lunch (I’m not misusing the term ‘literally’ there. He bullied that young man on the court so badly, I just have to assume that he also chased him all the way home to the Ball Mansion, waited outside all night for him to come out and then finally, when Lonzo emerged from the house in the morning with a brown bag lunch of meatballs, cheese balls and a refreshing Hi*Ball Sparkling Energy Water (Wild Berry, of course) that he ran up, snatched it out of Lonzo’s terrified clutches, and devoured it right there on site). When he went down with a knee less than a month later, it rendered a post-Chris Paul backcourt even thinner. Gallinari playing his usual 21 games didn’t help, either.
2017-18: Final Regular Season Standing- 29, Deep 6 rank-18, Big 3 rank-17
The 2017-18 season was one to, Conley, forget, in Memphis. First you had all the, Conley, drama between Marc Gasol and Coach Fizdale with eventually led to his firing early on. The, Conley, 23 million dollar man, Chandler Parsons played a whopping 21 games, and quite poorly I might add. All of it led to the 2nd worst offense in the, Conley, league and a mostly empty FedEx Forum. Oh, and did I mention Mike Conley, SI’s 18th best last year, only managed to play 12 games? 12 games= 22 wins. Take that for data!
2017-18: Final Regular Season Standing-17, Deep 6 rank-6, Big 3 rank-9
I’m not off the John Wall train, yet. I know everyone was up-in-arms when he showed up to Team USA Basketball camp this summer looking a little, say, greasier than usual. Bloaty, even. It was like he hadn’t slept in several days and was maybe, possibly filming a sequel to Supersize Me. Just look at the pic yourself. It’s right here. See, no big deal. He’s still one of the toughest to stop in the open court (and the 2AM Taco Bell drive-thru) and very much in his prime. So anyone who Beal-ieves the Wizards would be better without him, look at last year’s 17th ranked finish, a year that he missed 41 games, and think again.
THE LEAP
2013-14: fINAL rEGULAR sEASON STANDING-13, DEEP 6 RANK-29, BIG 3 RANK-29
For some guys, it takes a year or two for them to grow into their NBA body, or for them to mentally ‘get it’. Other times it may be the right system or the right teammates that brings a heretofore unknown greatness out of a guy. In any event, ‘the leap’ can have overwhelmingly positive effects on a roster. Five years ago the Phoenix Suns had it happen twice; with Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe. Dragic, SI’s 88th best prior to the season and 35th afterwards, was ridiculously efficient at roughly 20/6/3 and Bledsoe, 95th to 33rd, brought his dogged defense along with a 18/5/5 statline. If that ain’t a leap, I don’t know what is. While both have subsequently dropped in the rankings, there is no doubt the impact they had that one glorious year in the desert when the Suns managed 48 wins, a number they’ve failed to reach over the last two years combined. This year is trending up at least. Firing the GM a week before the season begins always helps. Just like firing the coach a week into last year’s campaign did, right Robert?
2013-14: final regular season STANDING-7, DEEP 6 RANK-19, BIG 3 RANK-12, 2015-16: Final Regular Season Standing-13, deep 6 rank-24, big 3 rank-24, and 2017-18: final Regular Season Standing-7, deep 6 ranking-17, big 3 rank-14
Thrice! the Portland Blazers have had players take ‘the leap’ to elevate their season to the next level. In 2013-14 it was Lillard who jumped from 47th to 22nd the following year with a solid 21/6/4 line. Aldridge and Robin Lopez made mini-leaps that year, as well. All told, it helped them go from 33 to 54 wins and a 4 seed.
In 2015-16 it was C.J. McCollum who leapt and, man alive! was it a monster! He goes from not ranked in 2014-15 to the 50th best guy in SI’s list due to a 21/4/3 (up from 7/1/1 the year before). The next leap he needs to make is on to the Pistons roster.
And finally, last year the leaper was Al-Farouq Aminu (unranked to 81st). Not a household name like McCollum and Lillard, but an important glue guy that adds depth and defense to a roster that still relies on Evan Turner for some reason. Nurkic jumped up a few spots, as well.
Come to think of it, Lillard jumped up a few spots those years, too. Maybe the lesson to be learned here is ‘don’t sleep on Dame.’
2013-14: final regular season STANDING-12, DEEP 6 RANK-23, BIG 3 RANK-23, 2015-16: Final Regular Season Standing-4, deep 6 rank-14, big 3 rank-16, and 2017-18: final Regular Season Standing-2, deep 6 ranking-10, big 3 rank-12
The Eastern Conference Blazers if you will, with Lowry playing the role of Lillard and DeRozan doing his best C.J. impression. DeRozan jumped from unranked in 2013-14 to 61st the next year with a 22/4/4 line that represented increases across the board from 12-13. Lowry went from 81st in the 2013-14 rank to 30th the following year based on a 18/7/5 line (up from 11/6/5 the year before).
Lowry made another leap in 15-16 going from SI’s 34th to 14th when he became much more of a scoring threat. He had over 21 pts/game that year compared to 17 the previous year. Not surprising, that’s the year the Raptors got real, dropping 56 wins for a 2 seed.
Last year, they were somehow even better adding up to 59 wins and a 1 seed. Like Portland, though, it was mini-leaps from some of the unheralded guys that threw off the SI list’s prediction. Fred VanVleet can be your Aminu stand-in for this comparison. He’s 94th after not being in the rank for 2018 and he brings a steady hand to a deep Raps bench.
Where the Blazers comp falls apart for Toronto is that, at this point, you can probably sleep on Lowry. At least a little nap.
2017-18: final Regular Season Standing-8, deep 6 ranking-25, big 3 rank-25
You know that Alonzo Mourning gif where it’s like he goes through the Kübler-Ross stages of grief in like 3 seconds. Here, this one.
That encapsulates the entire state of Indiana’s reaction to the Paul George trade except stretched out over several months. That pissed-off face ‘Zo makes at the beginning was the initial reaction Pacers fans had when learning the centerpiece of their return was Victor Oladipo. The nod and blink thing he does next was when Vic dropped 35 in a loss to his old team five games into the season. The acceptance, and dare I see agreeableness, that comes last was after Victor’s fourth 30 point game, a win over Cleveland in early December. When he dropped 47/7/6 the next night, their reaction would be akin to Alonzo jumping up on his seat, ripping his warm-up off and spinning it around, helicopter-style while screaming “yee-haw!” Dips was 77th on the SI list for 2017-18. He’s 20th now. 57 spots! Now that is a f@#*ing leap!
ROOKIES
2014-15: Final Regular Season Standing-15, Deep 6 Rank- 27, Big 3 Rank- 27
Famously, Golliver and Mahoney over at Sports Illustrated do not include rookies in their Top 100 List. I see the logic. Occasionally there is a no doubter like LeBron who comes along and is immediately impactful. But think back to how often that has actually happened. In semi-recent years you have Shaq, Duncan, A.I., Blake, Grant Hill…not many. More often, especially now with all the one-and-dones, guys show flashes but don’t make huge waves until 2 or 3 years in. In 14-15, Giannis was more the latter. His 13/6/3 with a block and a steal wasn’t taking the league by storm like those guys I listed but it was enough to elevate a moribund franchise to mediocrity and that is saying something.
2017-18: Final Regular Season Standing-5, Deep 6 Rank- 20, Big 3 Rank- 19
Ben Simmons’ impact was closer to that Hall of Fame crew, however. Obviously having 63 games of Embiid (9th this year compared to 41st last year) played a huge role in lifting from 28 wins and laughingstock status to 52 and legit threat to the Eastern Conference crown, but it was Simmons gliding around out there like a 6’10” Jason Kidd that really made them dangerous. Coming into now his 2nd season (Yes, Donovan. His 2nd season) he’s debuted at 26th this year which may actually be a tad conservative, especially if he learns to shoot.
COACHING
2013-14: Final Regular Season Standing-14, Deep 6 Rank-1, Big 3 Rank-5
Sports Illustrated was drinking that Nets Kool-Aid big time prior to the 2013-14 season. Just check out this magazine cover here. And why wouldn’t they have been? You had 2 Hall of Famers in Pierce and Garnett, another with a good chance in Johnson, an upper tier (or at least we thought he was still upper tier) point guard in D-Will, and a talented, complementary big in Brook ‘No My Middle Name’s Not Lyn’ Lopez. What could go wrong? Well, it turns out, everything. Garnett did a ‘Reverse Leap’ with his numbers dropping from 15/8/3 to 7/7/1. Yeesh! Pierce fell off, too, though not as precipitously (19/6/5 to 14/5/2) because that’s what old guys do. There’s no excuse for the dropoff that Deron Williams had though. He went from SI’s 24th to 45th the next year due to a loss of 5 pts/gm as well as 2 ast/gm. So how is all of this on the coach, you ask? Simple. That coach was Jason Kidd, a man who during this woebegone season once allegedly commanded a player to bump him along the sideline so that he may spill his drink to cause a stoppage in play. Judge for yourself.
I firmly believe a competent coach could have gotten more out of that roster, despite their declining ability. No doubt about it.
2014-15: Final Regular Season Standing-2, Deep 6 Rank-12, Big 3 Rank-14
While it seemed like this team came out of nowhere, in hindsight we probably should have seen it coming. Mike Budenholzer was able to manage a respectable season the year before coming in as a rookie coach and only getting 29 games out of his best player and leader in Al Horford. With Big Al healthy in 14-15, he was finally able to implement his selfless brand of ball and the team bought in, big time. In an ESPN interview¹ at the end of the regular season, Kyle Korver said, “”There’s this really fine line that some coaches don’t try to walk,” Korver says. “I feel like every coach is either really good at X’s and O’s or a really good personality manager, and there aren’t many coaches who know how to walk the middle. Bud? I’ve never seen a coach at any level who does it better than him.” That’s how you take a band of good but not great players and turn them into a 60-win juggernaut (that got swept in the Conference Finals rather unceremoniously I might add, but still…).
2015-16: Final Regular Season Standing-27, Deep 6 Rank-11, Big 3 Rank-13
The Tyson Chandler signing didn’t work out too well to say the least. He went from an instant double-double the moment he stepped on the court, to just a guy; a guy who goes for 7/9/1 with less than a block for the cost of a cool 13 million. So yeah, his ‘Reverse Leap’ played a role in the Suns’ suckitude, however Jeff Hornacek and Earl Watson proved to be a not so dynamic duo on the bench. Hornacek and his .286 winning percentage through 49 games were ousted for the upgrade? to Watson who preceded to win 9 of his 33 for a whopping .272 WP. Although, as I’m typing this, I feel like I should cut them some slack. Maybe the weight of the Suns’ blunders should have fallen on GM Ryan ‘Mc- I Donough What I’m Doing’ or, more likely our friend Mr. Sarver. Either way, leadership failed this young crew.
2014-15: Final Regular Season Standing-16, Deep 6 Rank-29, Big 3 Rank-29 2015-16: Final Regular Season Standing-8, Deep 6 Rank-28, Big 3 Rank-28
This one is really quite obvious. You would think that after a team went from 25 wins to 40, as the Celts did from 2013-14 to 2014-15, that Golliver and Mahoney may have been influenced by that improvement,and subconsciously over-inflated their ratings of the Celtics guys. How else could they have improved if not an infusion of talent? Lo and behold, you see their Deep 6 and Big 3 rankings were virtually unchanged from year to year. They went from no representatives on the ’15 list to 2 on the ’16 list; Isaiah Thomas at 88 and Amir Johnson at 89. Big Deal. Definitely not enough talent to end with the 8th best record in the league, even with Thomas’s improvement (his real explosion didn’t come until the next year). How can all of this over-achievement be explained…
I’m not one to heap praise on the hated Celtics, but this dude can flat out coach. Just look at how guys have fared since they’ve left the comfort of his bosom (Crowder, Bradley…Thomas). He’s the real deal and possibly the best hope at finally knocking the Warriors from their perch.
Wait… that would mean another Celtics championship and I certainly don’t want that. That’d be a real Scylla and Charybdis type dilemma there. You know, from Homer’s Odyssey? No, not that Homer. The ancient Greek poet. Forget it. How’s ‘rock and a hard place’ then? Whatever. My brain hurts.
LACK OF ALPHA
2013-14: Final Regular Season Standing-30, Deep 6 Rank-11, Big 3 Rank-21
Larry Sanders.
When Larry Sanders is your best player, you are in trouble. He was no alpha. He may not even have been a beta. He was a hustle guy who nearly averaged a double double with an obscene 2.8 blocks/game in 12-13 which garnered him SI’s 43rd spot for 13-14. For the next 2 seasons he played a total of 50 games due to injury and either not enough love for the game or too much love for the leaf (depending on what you read). So the fact that Milwaukee landed 5 guys in SI’s list for 2014 is kind of immaterial. Any team that claims even peak Sanders as their top guy is probably going to lose…a lot. Which the Bucks did. 67 times.
2013-14: Final Regular Season Standing-18, Deep 6 Rank-5, Big 3 Rank-15
Bud’s first season, the one where Horford missed a ton of games, probably was influenced by that injury as much as a lack of an Alpha Dog, but I feel that in the face of said injury, that’s where you need a guy to step up and pick up the slack. Who was gonna do that on that 13-14 Hawks squad? I love Paul Millsap, but he’s a complimentary star; a second, or probably more likely a third guy on a contender. Korver, Teague, Carroll? All betas, at best. The dude most alpha-y was probably Lou Williams, but he really didn’t embrace that aspect of his game until years later (specifically this past season. 22 and 5? You go, Lou!). This team was a bunch of nice guys biding their time until Horford came back and Budenholzer could fully implement his Spursian doctrine.
2016-17: Final Regular Season Standing-26, Deep 6 Rank-13, Big 3 Rank-22
As you can see, the index that was wrong with these alpha-less teams was the Deep 6. In all three cases, the Big 3 was reasonably close at predicting they all would suck, mainly because these teams lacked true star power. This 29-win Magic team was no different. Yes, they had 5 guys in the SI top 100, but their best player was Serge Ibaka (42nd on SI’s list) who was probably only 4th best on his far superior Thunder teams from years prior. The Magic’s other Top 100ers were Fournier, Vucevic, Biyombo and Aaron Gordon. The only way you’re sniffing .500 and an 8 seed with that group is if you have Pop, Stevens, Snyder or maybe Carlisle on the bench. Who’d they have? Frank Vogel. Yeah. 29 wins seems about right.
Which brings us to our final category……………..
DWIGHT HOWARD
2014-15: final regular season STANDING-3, DEEP 6 RANK-16, BIG 3 RANK-11, 2015-16: Final Regular Season Standing-17, deep 6 rank-7, big 3 rank-6, and 2016-17: final Regular Season Standing-3, deep 6 ranking-14, big 3 rank-20
“Ha, ha. Lame joke. Couldn’t find a way to end you blog post, so you pick on the easiest target there is.”
Right? That’s what you’re thinking. But before you accuse me of hot-taking my way to the finish line here, take a look at the numbers. In 2014-15, the Rockets were predicted to be fair-to-middling by our indexes, but performed like beasts, ending the season with the 56 wins. They won 9 of the first 10 games with Dwight on the court and 29 of the 41 total he played that year. That’s a winning percentage of .707 compared to 27-14 or .659 without him. I know, I know. Not really helping my argument here. But look deeper. Take out that 9-1 start, which was before he was in and out of the lineup, and they were 20 and 11 with him the rest of the year, or .646 (which, last time I checked, is less that .659). It may not look like much, but once they learned not to count on him, they played better, albeit marginally.
Don’t believe me? Look at the next year. He’s back in the lineup for 71 games (2 were missed due to suspensions). How’d they do with old Dwight back for the lions’ share? 41-41 and an 8 seed. And how about those 11 games Dwight missed? 7-4, or a winning percentage of .636 compared to the 34-37 (.479) they were with him. That good enough for ya?
“But what about that Rockets team in 2016-17, huh? Your precious indexes thought they’d be bad again but they went ahead and won 55 games and grabbed a 3 seed in the West? What do you have to say about Dwight now?”
It’s true. Dwight played 74 games that year and he only played a hand in 2 of the Rockets losses, November 5th and February 2nd, both to the Hawks. And you know why? BECAUSE HE PLAYED FOR THE HAWKS!
Which brings us to our final outlier…
2017-18: Final Regular Season Standing-20, deep 6 ranking-9, big 3 rank-16
Oh, Dwight. It’s like he’s the Bizzaro Midas. He left Houston for that Hawks team I mentioned, effectively taking Horford’s place when he bolted for Boston, and they lose 5 more games than the year before at 43-39 (but 5-2 when Dwight sits). And then he takes Charlotte’s money, 23 million dollars of it, and what do they do? Go 36-46 (1-0 Dwightless) and miss the playoffs. The same as the year before. Not a great return on that investment. And the thing is, it’s not like he’s bad when he’s out there on the court. A career line of 17 and 13 with a couple swats is nothing to sneeze at. In fact, if his name was anything other than Dwight Howard, I think people would think more highly of him. I don’t know if it’s his lackadaisical, kind of care-free approach that rubs people the wrong way, or maybe the presumed waste of potential, but a negativity seems to permeate his surround after a while. In Orlando it took several years, but since then he’s spent 1 season in L.A., 3 in Houston, 1 in Atlanta, 1 in Charlotte and now he’s in D.C. There’s gotta be something off about a Hall of Fame guy who keeps getting bounced around the league and wherever he does land, the promise of his talent fails to come through and deliver actual results. In fact, it often seems to have a decidedly opposite effect.
TL;DR
Basically, the rankings we compiled using SI’s Top 100 List will deliver fairly accurate predictions on a team’s future regular season success as long as you have no oddities regarding rookies/leapers, coaching, injuries or if your roster either lacks stars or contains Dwight “Superman” Howard (or if you prefer his other nicknames listed on Basketball Reference…”D12″ or the “Daily Double” both of which have been uttered by exactly zero people).
Tune in next week for the final chapter of Fishkorn’s 2018-19 NBA Preview where we do our best to tell you what’s going to happen this year…and probably fail miserably.
Sources: 1: http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/12740922/how-mike-budenholzer-system-turned-atlanta-hawks-one-nba-elite
Other credits: Dwight pic, Allison, Keith wikimedia. Red pic, BarbeeAnne, pixabay. Star, OpenClipArtVectors, pixabay. Zo, Kidd gifs, GIPHY.
Featured image- Piotr Siedlecki “60’s Swirl” https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=171174&picture=sixties-swirl. Dwight- Mecum, Scott- wikimedia.