The Opening Tip

• The No. 1 pick already looks like an NBA All-Star
• There’s another NBA disaster being shadowed by Kyrie Irving 
• The scoring boom continues

1. The Timberwolves got Ainge’d again

Only in a trade engineered by Danny Ainge could the following happen: 

• Team A trades the best player in the deal to Team B for a haul of solid players and a cataclysmic amount of draft capital, then Team A gets way better and and Team B gets worse. 

Team A = Utah, led by Danny Ainge, who traded Rudy Gobert to Minnesota (Team B).

The Jazz are (unexplainably) 9-3 and the No. 1 seed in the West. 

• FiveThirtyEight predicts them to win 48 games, and they have the fourth best net-rating in the league a few months after trading Gobert and Donovan Mitchell away for as many as 12 combined first-round picks.

The Timberwolves are 5-6 with a negative net-rating a summer after going all-in as all-in gets. 

• Probably more troubling than the record is the chemistry, though: KAT’s already called out Anthony Edwards; Edwards is getting Harden’d and shading KAT and Gobert for clogging up the lane; and their assistant coach is openly questioning the team’s effort. 

There’s long been a hush-hush memo among GMs not to deal with Danny Ainge.

Minnesota, which handed Kevin Garnett to him and the Celtics 15 years ago, never got it. 

[READ: Everything is stinky in Minnesota]

2. Daily GIF: Give him ROY already

Paolo Branchero’s numbers 11 games into his NBA career: Nine 20-point games, back-to-back 30-point games, a 23.5 PPG average.

Best of all … the Magic aren’t winning. They’re 2-9 and in as good a position as any to steal Victor Wembanyama in next year’s draft.

3. Trivia time

Luka Doncic is currently averaging 36 PPG. Five players ever have averaged 35-plus over an entire season. 

Who are they?

Answers at the bottom.

4. The luckiest man (currently not) in the NBA

Kyrie Irving, Miles Bridges, Ime Udoka, and other PR nightmares have given fortunately-timed shade to one of the stranger stories in recent NBA history involving Josh Primo and the Spurs.

Catch up: Primo, the Spurs No. 11 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, was mysteriously waived on Oct. 28. 

• A day later, news leaked that Primo’s release ‘stemmed from multiple alleged instances of him exposing himself to women.’
• Last week, we learned the Spurs’ former psychologist was suing Primo and the team; Primo for exposing himself to her nine times and the team for failing to do anything. 

From ESPN:
 

Kyrie’s idiocy is stealing headlines right now, but this story won’t go away for the Spurs, Primo or the victim. 

5. The NBA’s current PPG leaders

There is no doubt about it: We are amidst the type of scoring boom that hasn’t happened since the 1960s, when there were more Dicks and Dons than defensive specialists. 

• Seven players are currently averaging over 30 PPG. The most in one season is five (in 1961-62) and 36 times there have been zero.
• It’s unlikely we’d end up with all seven keeping this up, but Luka Doncic in particular has a chance at a truly special scoring season, considering Dallas’s second best player is (take your pick) and his usage rate is currently third all-time.

6.  Quick Hits

• Ballsack Sports is now verified on Twitter. 
• Ime Udoka will not be the next coach of the Nets. 
• Kawhi Leonard is out indefinitely. 
• Orthodox Jew Ryan Turell made his G-League debut on Monday. 
• The Knicks are the most extraordinarily average team of all-time. 
• Kyrie Irving and Adam Silver met yesterday. 
• ICYMI, here are the six conditions Irving must meet before he can return. 
• Sixth-man Russell Westbrook has been playing out of his mind. 
• The Kings got *hosed* on Monday against the Warriors.

7.  Reads

• Father time is chasing down LeBron [The Ringer]
• Dejounte Murray looks like the running mate Trae Young needed [FiveThirtyEight]
• Kyrie Irving lit a flame. The NBA, top to bottom, watched the fire spread. [Washington Post]

Trivia answer: Wilt, MJ, Kobe, Harden, Rick Barry.