Articles by Mat Issa (135)
Key Highlights: Deni Avdija is playing the best basketball of his career this season He’s made massive improvements to his 3-point shooting, drive game, and ability to generate free throws Avdija has the outline of a future superstar role player Over his last four games, fourth-year forward Deni Avdija is averaging 28.3 PPG, 11.5 RPG, […]
After guiding the downtrodden Phoenix Suns from the abyss back to basketball relevancy, Monty Williams was let go by the team after his second consecutive Western Conference Semifinals exit. However, his efforts in Phoenix didn’t go unnoticed, as the Detroit Pistons threw a bag at Williams in the hopes that he could revive their franchise […]
The 2019-20 NBA Season may be the craziest year in the league’s history. The reason for this is that the league shut down on March 11, 2020, over safety concerns caused by the COVID-19 virus. It remained this way for nearly four months until the NBA resumed play in Orlando, Florida, in what is now […]
The Dallas Mavericks were one of the most active teams during the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline. One of those moves involved parting ways with Grant Williams (and a lightly protected first round pick) in exchange for PJ Washington. It’s sad to see players go. But at the end of the day, the NBA is a […]
In recent days, much has been made about Usher and his rock-solid performance in Super Bowl LVIII (before you try to Google search it, “LVIII” is number 58). Particularly, the fact that Usher orchestrated his fantastic Super Bowl halftime show for free. But Usher isn’t hurting for money, especially with how great his bet on […]
Throughout his career, Dallas Mavericks’ superstar Luka Doncic has been praised as an offensive prodigy. Unfortunately, also during that stretch, he’s been downgraded and (sometimes) harshly criticized for his effort on the other side of the ball. However, this season, Doncic has put up arguably his best season to date, and there are some convincing […]
Key Highlights: In the playoffs, depth increases your floor. But to unlock that championship ceiling, you need your own version of the “Death Lineup.” 18 of the last 20 NBA Champions have had a regular season lineup featuring most/all of their best players, that has played at least 300 non-garbage time possessions together, and posted […]
Key Highlights: The Boston Celtics are a great team, but they need to add some more physicality to increase their chances at a title Isaiah Stewart gives them the physicality they need, at a price that they can afford Boston has the kind of team that can mask Stewart’s weaknesses As we get close to […]
Key Highlights: Basketball, like all aspects of life, is cyclical. And as a result, trends are constantly going in and out of style The giant centers we see in the 1990s/2000s were dying down in the 2010s, but it seems like they are making a comeback In the 1990s/2000s (and today) the best centers are […]
Key Highlights: In sports, we use archetypes to help us understand player skill sets, but sometimes, those categorizations can be overly simplistic Jarrett Allen’s skillset goes beyond that of conventional norms for traditional centers Jarrett Allen is a better scorer, passer, and switch big than other traditional centers In sports, we use archetypes to group […]