Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Three Miracles of Saint Zenobius, Sandro Botticelli, 1500-05

The NBA announced it has renamed many of its major awards in honor of retired players. The MVP trophy, previously named after pioneering commissioner Maurice Podoloff, is now the Michael Jordan NBA MVP Award. No one is going to call it the MJ trophy, of course: we will continue to call it the MVP. Likewise with the Hakeem Olajuwon Defensive Player of the Year Award, the Wilt Chamberlain Rookie of the Year Award, the John Havlicek Sixth Man of the Year Award and the George Mikan Most Improved Player Award.

TANGENT: George Mikan gets Most Improved? How do you figure? Well, here’s the NBA’s official justification for that weird one:

“We are grateful that the NBA has recognized George’s career achievements with this honor,” said Mike Mikan, son of George Mikan #99, and the Mikan family.  “George is one of the best NBA players ever, but perhaps his greatest legacy is the one he has passed down to others through his legendary ‘Mikan Drill,’ providing generations of basketball players around the world with the tools to improve their game.”

Genius stuff. Knowing you should name an award after George Mikan but having no clue which one or why and then tying Most Improved back to the Mikan Drill: just incredible brain power. Kudos, seriously. END TANGENT

Anyway, none of this is the biggest news from the NBA’s trophy unveil. The biggest news is that the NBA has invented a new award, named after Jerry West. It’s the NBA Clutch Player of the Year Award. And after giving it some careful consideration, I think this new award is three dashes madness, one dash genius.

The NBA says head coaches will nominate a pool of players for the award, and then a media panel will vote on those candidates. We don’t know how many players will be nominated, how big that pool will be, and when all this will happen. This is different than the other major awards where the media selects from the entire eligible player base. In this case, there may be legitimate candidates that media members simply can’t select; I’m sure the voting members of the media will be totally fine with that.

This award instantly has the potential to be every bit as divisive as MVP and Rookie of the Year, which are eternally the most divisive awards precisely because a) they are seen as very important by fans, players and the media and b) there is no real criteria — it’s an extremely broad definition. Focusing on “clutch” production is a little more discreet, but the definition of “clutch” is all over the place and many analysts don’t believe it actually exists.

This is the second bit of madness in this recipe, after the odd voting structure: asking modern NBA media members to decide the Clutch Player of the Year is like asking a mixed group of believers and atheists about God’s greatest moment. Some of your voters simply don’t believe the premise!¹

More questions abound.

Is this going to turn into a trophy for whoever has the most buzzer beating game-winners? Because A.J. Griffin, step on up.

Is it going to go to the best overall player with a number of high-profile clutch performances, like a Damian Lillard or DeMar DeRozan? Do you get bonus points if the clutch performance is on TNT or ESPN?

Are voters going to get really technical and look at True Shooting percentage and assist/turnover rate in clutch minutes, and debate per-possession impact over gross production in the clutch? Will players with fewer clutch opportunities be dinged?

Are we going to have consensus on what “clutch time” means or accept the NBA’s statistical definition that plays are “clutch” when they happen within the last five minutes of a game with a scoring margin of five points or less? In the new three-point environment, is that really true? Shouldn’t it be a 6-point margin, really? And isn’t five minutes a little broad? Can’t we drill this down to two or three minutes?

Is Clutch Free Throw Percentage going to be added to our basket of artisan statistics that we should stay aware of? Are we quantifying clutch rebounds? CLUTCH SCREEN ASSISTS?!

What on Earth is going to happen to the first winner of the Jerry West NBA Clutch Player of the Year Award who has a high-profile clutch choke job in the playoffs? Will Twitter implode?²

And this is where we land on the genius of this award: it’s so bonkers a premise to institute right now that it’s almost certainly going to drive attention … which is the whole point of this entertainment enterprise. The next time A.J. Griffin finishes an improbable out-of-bounds alley-oop lay-up at the buzzer, we’re going to be talking about the Clutch award. The next time Keldon Johnson gets a game-saving transition block, we’re going to be talking about how to measure clutch defense. The next time Anthony Davis misses two free throws to cost the Lakers a chance to win in regulation, we’re going to be talking about the Clutch award.

There’s a beauty, an elegance in this: while MVP and other awards are built off of a body of work over 82 games (give or take 15), the Clutch award is built off of moments. It’s built off game-to-game stakes. That’s actually pretty cool. It’s a different type of award in that sense — an award that can, if done right, transcend pure quality and reflect the heart-racing, breath-holding moments that make the sport (and all sports) interesting and special.

This award is going to break some brains. The podcast meltdowns are going to be epic. But in the end, if it has fans celebrating the moments that are thrilling on a small scale and inconsequential in the big picture, that’s all for the better. That’s where the sport is at its best, anyway.

Scores

Kings 103, Sixers 123 — Second straight flat effort on the road for the Kings. They visit the Raptors and Pistons this week to wrap up this tough roadie. Philly is 3-1 since James Harden returned.

Warriors 111, Bucks 128 — We’re now more than a third of the way through Golden State’s season and the team is .500. The good news is that despite being No. 10 right now there’s basically no distance between the top 11 teams. And there isn’t exactly anyone in the West the Warriors should be straight-up afraid of: they are the reigning champs, after all. But you still don’t really want to face a home court disadvantage every single series and you definitely don’t want to have to mess around in the play-in.

Suns 97, Rockets 111 — The Suns are down bad having lost five straight games, and why that’s happening needs to be explored. But for now, this is a really touching moment between Stephen Silas, who lost his NBA legend father Paul over the weekend, and Monty Williams, who might be one of the most widely loved figures in the NBA, and who knows something about grief.

Bally Sports Arizona @BALLYSPORTSAZ

The NBA family is a strong one. Monty Williams shared a long embrace with Stephen Silas, son of the late Paul Silas, at the end of tonight's game.

3:29 AM ∙ Dec 14, 2022

---

376Likes37Retweets

Pelicans 100, Jazz 121 — Utah used a beastly third quarter to run away with this game and drop the Pelicans into a tie with the Grizzlies for the No. 1 seed in the West. Jordan Clarkson got those Helen Incredible genes somewhere in his family?

NBA @NBA

This Jordan Clarkson layup is 🤯🤯

NBA @NBA

WOW, Jordan Clarkson with an extendo lay! 🤩 Pels - Jazz live now on the NBA App 📲 https://t.co/1pomQZN8Pi https://t.co/ZUyRyvz1R1

2:38 AM ∙ Dec 14, 2022

---

3,152Likes354Retweets

Meanwhile, I’m not sure what any defender on the planet is really supposed to do. Walker Kessler is sagging off and standings a few inches taller, and Zion still just blows by him. If you’re going to say, “put your body on the line,” I don’t know, this kid’s a rookie, he would like to have a career I presume.

Celtics 122, Lakers 118 (OT) — So the Lakers were down 15 at the break, causing this hilarious exchange from the TNT studio crew.

NBA on TNT @NBAonTNT

Another Lakers update from the Chuckster 🤣

4:19 AM ∙ Dec 14, 2022

---

9,935Likes1,222Retweets

Boston extended its lead to 20 in the third. And then … the Lakers came back! They went on an 18-0 run and ended up with a double-digit lead in the fourth.

Unfortunately, they went on their run a little too early, because the Celtics had a run of their own. And then we ended up with a wild finish in regulation.

The Lakers were clearly out of steam, and Boston claimed the W in OT. Epic performances all around, though. Here are the full game highlights.

Schedule

All times Eastern.

Pistons at Hornets, 7
Warriors at Pacers, 7
Hawks at Magic, 7
Kings at Raptors, 7:30
Knicks at Bulls, 7:30, ESPN
Heat at Thunder, 8
Blazers at Spurs, 8
Cavaliers at Mavericks, 9
Wizards at Nuggets, 9
Timberwolves at Clippers, 10, ESPN

Be excellent to each other.