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Believe it or not, I was in a movie! Or is it a true documentary? Or is it both? Check out “Memes and Nightmares” on Hulu! It’s from the NBA Twitter 🐐, Josiah Johnson.
The uncertain future of Gregg Popovich
Legendary Spurs coach Gregg Popovich suffered a mild stroke back on Nov. 2, only a handful of games into his 29th season patrolling San Antonio’s sidelines. He hasn’t been back since. Over the weekend, our old friend Shams Charania reported Pop, 76, is not expected to return this season and that his future is uncertain.
This is consistent with what The Athletic’s Joe Vardon wrote a month ago, when the Spurs played the Pacers in Paris. Back then, Spurs executive RC Buford made it clear there wasn’t a prediction either way about whether the coach would return:
Legendary San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is “attacking his rehab with the same resilience” after suffering a stroke in November that he’d shown on the bench, Buford said, but his return to the team this season remains in question.
“His improvement continues to get better, (but) I don’t know that we have any way to judge the clock,” Buford said. “Predicting what’s to come is just a function of where Pop’s rehab goes.”
First and foremost, the obvious concern here is Popovich’s well-being moving forward. If he never coaches again but is healthy, we’re all good here. Secondly, Pop doesn’t have to come back to coaching to prove anything. He’s accomplished everything possible and is arguably the best coach in NBA history. He has the most wins and is tied for the third-most championships.
Even if he had only a minor stroke, that’s still a major life event. I’ve been wondering how Popovich could come back to such a stressful and physically/mentally difficult job.
The Spurs’ news in the last week has reminded the NBA world how fragile life can be. Victor Wembanyama is out for the season with a blood clot in his shoulder, but we have some optimism that he’ll be fine and that it won’t end his career. Now, there’s this reminder of what Pop went through and what it could mean for his professional future. Regardless of what comes next, he has been an exceptional example of excellence in his profession and empathy as a human.
Did Los Angeles unfairly rescind trade?
😱 Lakers trade drama. Mark Williams and his agent say he didn’t fail his physical. Did the Lakers have cold feet?
🎨 A must-see. This basketball court in Paris has redefined a neighborhood. It’s pure art.
🏀 A popular new tactic? The Euro-stop is as prevalent as any move in the NBA. Thank you, Nemanja Bjelica? 🤯
🏀 Your true 3-point king. Nikola Jokić should be the league leader in long-range accuracy. Heaves are sinking his percentage, though.
📺 Don’t miss this game tonight. Timberwolves (31-27) at Thunder (46-10), 8 p.m. ET on NBA TV and Fubo (try for free). This is the second night of a home-and-home back-to-back!
📺 Two hot teams. Nuggets (37-20) at Pacers (32-23), 7 p.m. ET on League Pass (basketball fans, get it here!). Indiana is on a back-to-back with the task of stopping Jokić.
Maybe this rookie class isn’t so bad after all?
We haven’t had many games since the All-Star break ended, which makes a weekly update of the NBA Stock Market a little tougher. But we can still check in on big-picture thoughts!
📈 The floor of this rookie class: Even though I’m still very doubtful we have any stars in this current rookie class (fourth overall pick Stephon Castle, maybe?), we are starting to see a lot of guys look like they can be definite rotation players on good teams. Of the top-10 picks, only Reed Sheppard (drafted third overall), Ron Holland (fifth), Tidjane Salaun (sixth) and Cody Williams (10th) look inconsequential so far. Here are some first-rounders outside the top 10 who look like legitimately good role players for hypothetically good squads moving forward:
That doesn’t even include Jaylen Wells (39th overall to Memphis), Ajay Mitchell (38th to OKC) and Quinten Post (52nd overall to Golden State) in the second round.
📉 Me believing in the Knicks this season: It’s time to let the dream go, at least for me. I’ve envisioned the Knicks finding enough continuity and health to challenge both Cleveland and Boston in the East. This team flat-out can’t defend beyond the arc, though. New York is the worst in the league at it. When the Knicks win games, they’re still the seventh-worst team at defending the 3-point line. And nobody gets lit up in losses like the Knicks. They give up 44.9 percent from deep. Typing this, I initially forgot the decimal point in their number, and it still looked correct based on their defensive performance.
📈 Amen Thompson, Rockets: Since the calendar turned to 2025, Thompson has played 22 games. He’s averaging 16.8 points, 9.6 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.9 steals and 1.5 blocks during this stretch, while making 54.0 percent of his shots. If we play the game of extrapolating that over an entire season, it’s been done only five times in NBA history. Kevin Garnett did it twice. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Alvan Adams and DeMarcus Cousins (48-game season) did so once.
📉 D’Angelo Russell, Nets: Russell has struggled with making shots since his return to Brooklyn in the middle of the season. He’s hitting just 38.1 percent overall and 31.8 percent of his 3-pointers. He’s playing only about 24 minutes per game, so his 13.8 points and 5.8 assists don’t look as eye-popping. And the Nets have been playing good basketball lately, even as Russell has been even less efficient (35.3 percent from the field, 27.1 percent on 3s in February).
📈 Philly protecting its first-round pick: The Sixers (20-36) are currently in the bottom six of the league standings. That comes after Brooklyn beat them on a buzzer-beater tip-in Saturday, and yes, Joel Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey played in that game. These Sixers might be bad enough to not have to openly tank to keep their pick from going to OKC. They should shut Embiid down and do what they can to get his knee ready for next season.
📉 Nets embracing the tank: They’re currently 11th in the East. The Nets (21-35) are only a half-game behind the Bulls (22-35) and playing some really good basketball. That’s what makes them trending down so concerning. It’s great for their pride but terrible for their lottery chances. The Nets are in search of a future star, and this is the draft to end up with a top-five pick. Their tanking has been non-existent most of the season, and that won’t help them land Cooper Flagg or one of the Rutgers phenoms.
This weekend had everything from the NBA
Here’s a peek behind the curtain for the six people who will find this interesting! Generally, there’s too much basketball on the weekend to catch you up with a single section in a Monday Bounce. So, I try to tie in themes from the weekend to the NBA Stock Report and use some of those results as keys for recent trends.
However, so much happened this week that needs to be talked about that I figured we could do a crash course here. It won’t cover everything. I won’t tell you the results of every game. But we can do a fun quick-hitter for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
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(Top photo: David Dow / Getty Images )
