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There’s so much chaos happening in the NBA that I don’t even have the space for a proper college basketball championship section. So I’ll go over it quickly here. Geno Auriemma made up some stuff about why he was rude to Dawn Staley before he apologized without actually apologizing to her. Then Staley’s South Carolina squad got destroyed by UCLA as the Bruins took home their first NCAA women’s title. Tonight, Michigan and UConn play for the men’s title. April Madness!
Passing the Buck
NBA investigates Giannis-Milwaukee dispute
Giannis Antetokounmpo is not happy with the Milwaukee Bucks. No, this isn’t about some trade request ignored or gone awry. The Bucks have been hoping to lean into whatever tanking can benefit them at the end of this lost season, and that would mean Giannis not playing anymore. Considering that the Bucks have been eliminated from the Play-In, that makes sense.
Except to Giannis. He wants to play, and now they’re in dispute over this exact issue. This is what he said before not playing in Friday’s loss to Boston:
“You know who you are dealing with. So for somebody to come and tell me to not play or not to compete, it’s like a slap in my face. So, I don’t know where the relationship goes from there.
“I’ve never seen a case of a player saying, my caliber of player, that’s like — I’m saying it publicly — I want to f—ing play. You know what I’m saying? I don’t think I’ve seen this. So, if there needs to be an investigation, great. There should be. I don’t know. There should be. Until we figure something out.”
As The Athletic’s Eric Nehm noted, the league has been investigating this issue, and the players’ association has previously issued a statement about Giannis being healthy and the Bucks denying him the opportunity to hit the court. The league has looked into this issue and said the facts between the two sides are in dispute:
“The investigation has found that the Bucks scheduled Giannis to work out last week in three-on-three scrimmages as part of his return-to-play process, but he declined to participate,” the NBA said on Saturday. “There is a disagreement as to whether the team requested that Giannis participate in a group workout earlier this week, and the league is continuing to monitor the situation.”
Bucks coach Doc Rivers has played it politically in his public comments, saying no change in Giannis’ status has been relayed to him. He said those decisions come from management. If only there was a way to ask management or Giannis about his status? Unfortunately, Doc simply doesn’t appear to have access to those parties to ask them.
If you want to put on your tin foil conspiracy hats (and you know I love to do that), this is kind of the perfect way to begin a breakup with the franchise if you’re Giannis. He’s struggled a lot with figuring out the trade situation this season and played dumb at times. He’s been adamant that he is loyal to the team and his teammates. He’s also said he can’t control what his agent talks to the Bucks about. My guess?Sometime between mid-June and mid-July, he’ll be traded.
The last 24
🔥 Big Man Battle. Nikola Jokić and Victor Wembanyama had a showdown. Give me seven games of this.
🏀 Can’t look away. On the other end of the spectrum, the Wizards and Nets played a tankathon special. Our David Aldridge couldn’t help but take it all in.
🏀 Still magic. Steph Curry returned on Sunday. He reminded us why the Warriors can’t give up on this.
⚠️ Broken ankles alert. Donovan Mitchell was so mean to the Pacers. He dropped two defenders with one move.
🏀 More NBA chaos. Daryl Morey has made his stars angry before. Now Joel Embiid is mad at him.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
Lakers hamstrung
Reaves, Luka might miss playoffs
The end of this Lakers season is going about as poorly as it possibly can. That may seem odd, with L.A. winning 17 of its last 21 games, but it suffered two major injuries in a 43-point loss to the Thunder last Thursday. We went over the Luka Dončić hamstring injury a bit on Friday, but we now know it’s a grade 2 strain. According to injury expert Jeff Stotts, the average time missed with this injury is 35 days. The playoffs begin in 12 days. That’s not great for the Lakers.
Luka might be going to some extreme lengths and distances to figure this out, however. He traveled to Europe this weekend after consulting with his team and the Lakers medical staff to seek an expedited remedy to this hamstring injury. What does that mean? I have no idea. Does Europe have special hamstring treatments? Is this the same as guys going to Turkey to get a new head of hair? I don’t know! I just know the news got even worse for the Lakers.
That’s because the team also announced that Austin Reaves has an oblique injury and is expected to miss four to six weeks. Again, the playoffs begin in 12 days. The troubling thing about these injuries is Dončić and Reaves were both hurt in the first half of that loss to the Thunder. Both players were cleared to return for the second half. By the way, the Lakers were down 82-51 to the best team in the NBA at halftime. I’m not sure exactly what they were going for. Lakers coach JJ Redick said it’s the team’s job to extend the playoffs long enough for these guys to get back in the lineup. Good luck with that.
One more note: The Luka injury makes him ineligible for awards this season, as he only played 64 games. His agent Bill Duffy said they plan to appeal the 65-game rule for an “Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge” option. Their argument would be that the two games he missed for the birth of his child should grant him the exception. Ballots are due in like a week, so we’ll see if this works.
ROY Push
Cooper Flagg finishing strong
For weeks, the Charlotte Hornets’ Kon Knueppel has been the betting favorite for the Rookie of the Year award. He’s been tremendous all season. However, the last two Mavericks games have completely shaken those odds. Cooper Flagg went for 51 points on Friday against the Magic and followed that up with 45 points against the Lakers on Sunday.
Flagg joined Wilt Chamberlain as the only rookies in NBA history to have 95 or more points in the span of two games. Yes, Wilt did it five times in his rookie season, which is just absurd on so many levels. Flagg is on a heater, though, after really struggling to be efficient in his previous 15 games since returning from a mid-foot sprain. He’s now averaging 20.8 points with 47.2/29.3/81.6 shooting splits. He adds 6.6 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game too.
A week ago, Knueppel was the betting favorite at -200 and Flagg was +145 for the award, per BetMGM. Now, Flagg is the favorite at -225, and Knueppel is +150.
Knueppel is averaging 18.7 points on 48.1/43.0/86.2 shooting splits, along with 5.3 rebounds and 3.4 assists. Only four rookies have averaged 18 points or more on 60 percent true shooting or better: Magic Johnson, Bill Cartwright, Adrian Dantley and Zion Williamson. Knueppel would have the highest true shooting of the bunch at 64.0 percent.
He’s also played in 78 games, while Flagg has played in 65. Knueppel has also played 258 more minutes than Flagg while doing it on a team actually playing for something. All this could be factored into splitting hairs between Flagg and Knueppel. The No. 1 pick is certainly making one loud, final push for the award, however.
NBA stock report
Hawks and Rockets are flying high
Every Monday, we walk right into the heart of NBA trends. We stand around in the middle of the floor, look up at the big screens with lots of numbers in green or red fonts and then assess whether teams are headed up or down. Let’s dive into a truncated NBA Stock Market with the link to the full version at the bottom:
📈 Rockets (49-29). Most of the Rockets’ six-game winning streakhas come against an easy schedule. However, Houston has needed the wins, and it now can grab home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs because of it. Alperen Şengün is averaging 21.8 points in 31.5 minutes during this stretch on 57.6/50.0/72.7 shooting splits. He has 40 assists and just eight turnovers in those six games.
📉 65-game rule. The injuries to Cade Cunningham, Anthony Edwards and Dončić are going to put a lot of pressure on the 65-game minimum threshold for awards. These guys have real injuries this season. Ant dealt with a hamstring injury and a knee injury that cost him time. Cunningham’s lung collapsed. Luka has dealt with various leg and hamstring issues this season. And they won’t be eligible for awards because the NBA is doubling down on this rule instead of fixing it.
📈 Hawks (45-33). The Hawks have won four in a row and 18 of their last 20. They were 18-21 when they traded Trae Young to the Wizards. Atlanta is 27-12 since the trade. It was 18th in offense and 16th in defense before the deal. Since, the Hawks have improved to 12th in offense and seventh in defense.
📉 Competitive basketball. On Friday, we might have seen the worst full slate of NBA games in any regular season. The only game that ended in a single-digit margin was the Kings’ 117-113 win over the Pelicans. On average, the margin of victory that night was 24.4 points. It was the biggest average margin of victory on any day with at least eight games in NBA history.
The tanking problem is even worse than you think, our John Hollinger writes.
(Check out the full NBA standings here, and read the extended version of the NBA Stock Report every Monday in my NBA Rewind