Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Springtime, Claude Monet

Did anyone imagine the Chris Paul trade would go this well for the Phoenix Suns?

After a resilient win over the L.A. Lakers on national TV on Tuesday — a game in which LeBron had one of his strongest scoring nights of the season — Phoenix sits in the No. 2 spot in the West, percentage points ahead of the Lakers and ahead of the Clippers, Nuggets and other contenders. The Suns have the second best winning percentage in the entire league, behind only the Utah Jazz.

This was an awful weird game. The Lakers are down some players (Anthony Davis, Kyle Kuzma, Marc Gasol) due to injury and protocols. The Suns lost Devin Booker in the third quarter to an absurd ejection (see below). Monty Williams ended up riding Dario Saric and Abdel Nader (!) the entire fourth quarter. Chris Paul took four shots and six free throws all game. And the Suns beat the defending champs.

That’s just the thing. Booker is great. CP3 is great. Both will be playing in the All-Star Game on Sunday. But the team has legitimate NBA players behind those two stars. That’s what we saw blossom last season — talent around Booker — and it’s all coming into full bloom this year.

Deandre Ayton still has a long way to go to reach his potential, and he’ll never be the best player from the 2018 NBA Draft. But he’s a productive, useful center in the modern NBA. His defense is where he has the most promise (why couldn’t he be as good as Joel Embiid on that end?) and room to grow (he’s nowhere close to that level — though it’s hard to fault him much given Phoenix has a top-10 defense). He’s the Suns’ fourth best player, or at least the fourth most important. It suits him right now.

Mikal Bridges is a stud, a new wave Shawn Marion who fits on a Chris Paul team so perfectly it’s scary. He takes only the shots he can make (mostly catch-and-shoot threes and rim dives) — almost always on a set-up from CP3 or Book. (98.5% of Bridges’ threes are assisted, per basketball-reference.com.) When you’re a talented young player starring alongside two ball-dominant guards, playing the way Bridges does is a huge asset.

That said, it’s important to have other players who can create a shot when necessary. Like, you know, when one of your two offensive stars gets ejected for bounce passing the ball too aggressively to a ref. Dario Saric has been out as much as he’s been in this season after suffering COVID-19 followed by an ankle injury. But his performance against the Lakers shows his value as a tertiary scorer and playmaker off the bench. In limited minutes this season, he’s actually Phoenix’s No. 2 scorer on a per-minute basis behind only Booker and has a robust 26% usage rate on high efficiency scoring (60% True Shooting). Again, he’s played only about 300 minutes so the jury’s out. But being a Gallinari-type player off the bench is mighty helpful both to survive the minutes Booker and/or CP3 sit and to potentially open up more aggressive closing line-ups against teams Ayton will have trouble against (Lakers when A.D. is back, Clippers).

Nader had a big night on Tuesday, but Cam Payne has been really solid backing up CP3 this season. Jae Crowder has had a tough shooting season but you trust him (to the extent you trust 3-and-D role players) in the playoffs. Cam Johnson is still finding his way in a supplemental reserve role, but you don’t hate the minutes he’s on the floor. The one area that scares you a bit is the center depth behind Ayton. It’s just Frank Kaminsky. Outside of him, you’re playing Johnson or Saric at center (probably advisable in some endgame scenarios and even bench minutes with one of CP3 or Booker out there) or finding spot minutes for rookie Jalen Smith. The Suns could probably find some ease with a Dewayne Dedmon type (or hell, a Plumlee) to come off the bench over Kaminsky. But we’re nitpicking now.

The reason I went through all those players? Those are the players the Suns front office determined could support a really good Booker/CP3 team based on the assets available at hand. And they were right! The Phoenix Suns front office was right. There haven’t been many instances over the past decade where you could say that. Now that we can, it’s worth saying it. Phoenix looked its roster and cap sheet, determined it could make a real team out of it if it landed CP3 at the cost of Kelly Oubre, Ricky Rubio and a future first and WAS RIGHT.

Will the Suns do anything in the playoffs? We’ll see. The West is tough. Phoenix might draw the Nuggets or Mavericks in the first round if the current standings are any indication. But at this juncture, the CP3 trade has been an incredible success and it’s worth commending the Phoenix front office for making the bold decision to move on it. The Suns are relevant for the right reasons for a change. That’s real progress you can’t knock for this franchise.

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Scores

Grizzlies 125, Wizards 111 — Memphis slides back above .500. Ja Morant went bonkers. What a tremendously fun player.

Clippers 112, Celtics 117 — Kawhi Leonard was ruled out late with back spasms, but that’s still a quality win for a Boston team that needs them. Good ol’ Kemba Walker vs. Reggie Jackson duel!

Hawks 94, Heat 80 — The New Coach Bounce is unstoppable. (Well, the Wolves lost their New Coach Bounce game, but the Wolves would be different, wouldn’t they?) This was an 86-possession game. Welcome back, Nate McMillan!

Knicks 93, Spurs 119 — Spurs are five games over .500, folks. This is a playoff team.

Nuggets 128, Bucks 97 — Very nice W for Denver, who have claimed three straight victories and seem to have escaped their purgatory around and under .500 to start the season. Nikola Jokic with the extremely chill 37-point triple-double. His 50th triple-double overall. Second center after Wilt to reach that milestone. He’s 26 years old.

NBA @NBA

Nikola Jokic becomes the third-fastest player in NBA history to reach 50 career triple-doubles! 37 PTS | 10 REB | 11 AST | @nuggets W

March 3rd 2021

174 Retweets1,404 Likes

Suns 114, Lakers 104 — What an incredibly soft ejection of Devin Booker. Officials’ statement should simply be “oops, my bad.”

Bleacher Report @BleacherReport

Devin Booker gets ejected after bouncing the ball at a ref 👀

March 3rd 2021

1,165 Retweets14,384 Likes

League Pass Cupdate

The Spurs keep cranking out wins. Is it going to come down to San Antonio and Oklahoma City?

I know I said I’d have the second half schedule outlook by now. That was a lie. Next week!

Schedule

Two more days until the break. Ten games scheduled for Wednesday — I’m not really clear how the Raptors are going to put a team together, though? — with an ESPN doubleheader. All times Eastern. League Pass Cup action denoted with a 🏆.

Pistons at Raptors, 7
Pacers at Cavaliers, 7
Jazz at Sixers, 7 — watch this over James Harden trolling the Rockets, if you can
Nets at Rockets, 7:30, ESPN
Hawks at Magic, 8 🏆
Hornets at Timberwolves, 8 🏆
Bulls at Pelicans, 8
Thunder at Mavericks, 8:30
Warriors at Blazers, 10, ESPN
Lakers at Kings, 10

Links

Brilliant, well-done piece from Rob Mahoney on how NBA veterans read room service menus. Robin Lopez hates salads as much as he hates mascots. What are you teaching these dudes, Stanford? That said, I definitely relate to the Snickers bar dilemma. Also, someone’s got to tell Melo that green tea isn’t an herbal tea.

I don’t know Candace Parker (obviously) so I don’t want to claim to read her face. But this feels like she is flabbergasted that she has to explain to Shaq why NBA teams switch so much in pick and roll coverages now. Anyways, Dwyane Wade’s comedic timing is perfect.

gifdsports @gifdsports

Candace Parker making Shaq look real dumb while talking about modern pick-n-roll basketball

March 3rd 2021

1,569 Retweets8,911 Likes

The Athletic has a group effort post-mortem on the Lloyd Pierce era in Atlanta. ($) I’ll say that winning solves (or at least quells) a lot of the ego stuff. The Hawks ain’t winning, so it builds to a crescendo. #analysis

Multi-year deal for Nneka Ogwumike in Los Angeles, ensuring the Sparks remain relevant.

Will Leitch on the future of athlete activism.

This is cool: two-way players will have their 50-game limit lifted and will be eligible to play in the postseason.

SB Nation put together a list of the 50 best women’s college basketball teams of all-time.

Did UCLA really turn down MJ?

Shocker: the Rockets will retire James Harden’s No. 13.

Eager to see what More Than a Vote and the NBA put together to focus on voter suppression at the All-Star Game.

I haven’t listened yet, but I’m looking forward to digging into the 2004 episode of the new Dream Team Tapes podcast from Diversion Podcasts, hosted by Jack McCallum and J.A. Adande. They have interviews with Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony about what happens in Athens.

Speaking of looking forward of things, I can’t wait to read Nick Greene’s new book How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius, now available. Here’s the blurb: the book “deconstructs the sport from top to bottom and then puts it back together again, detailing its intricacies through reporting and dozens of interviews with experts. These experts, however, are a diverse group: wine critics weighing in on LeBron's ability to delegate on the fly, magicians analyzing Chris Paul's mystifying dribbling techniques, cartographers breaking down Steph Curry's deadeye three-point shooting.”

David Fleming on a 17-year-old Kobe’s legendary Lakers pre-draft workout.

Tim Bontemps on Celtics problems.

Seth Partnow at The Athletic with a deep dive into the surge of 20-point scorers. ($)

Be excellent to each other.