Is "Baller" Trademarked Yet?

Every year, there are several players who have impressed or intrigued me for a variety of reasons.  This year, there have been several who aren’t stars who I have been interested in and would like to talk about.  I am breaking this up into 2 parts, the first discussing players above 25 and the second discussing players 25 and below.  I included 10 players and 5 honorable mentions, focusing on players who have not been All-Stars for a couple seasons.  All stats are according to Basketball Reference and are accurate prior to the games played on 11/28.   LaMarcus Aldridge, BRK While the Nets have been a storyline for players not playing or struggling, something has to be said about how well Aldridge has played in a supporting role.   He has averaged 13.8 PPG in 22.1 MPG and averaged a career-high 58.0% from the field, largely due to his 60.9 2P%.   While it would be intuitive to think he is attempting more field goals at the rim to reach his career...

Since the start of the season, there have been several stories in the NBA that have seemed to dominate the news cycles ranging from massive stories to ones I don’t care about.  In this post, I discuss several, including 3 I find interesting, 1 I find funny, 2 I forgot about that came up again, 3 I’m sick of, and 2 I consider non-stories, grouped into 7 categories.   A Case of Anti-Player Empowerment Since the start of the season, Ben Simmons, Kyrie Irving, and Zion Williamson have seemingly been the stories of any given day in the NBA.   Simmons has requested a trade from Philadelphia and has gone about it in probably the wrong way at any given moment, Irving has refused to get vaccinated when there is a mandate for all NYC employees to, and Williamson has seemingly been at odds with the organization since his rookie year and is now injured.   Most claim each of these are player empowerment, but all of them are the opposite in my opinion, as they will likely re...

After the first couple weeks, I have chosen 5 teams I consider surprise success stories and 5 I consider disappointments and discussed 3 notes on each that stand out.  All stats come from Basketball-Reference and all stats and records are accurate prior to the games on November 3 rd .   Chicago Bulls, 6-1 I had the Bulls finishing 7 th , though I thought they would have their difficulties early.   They have been playing better on both ends than I expected so far. 1. Everybody knows their roles already. Their top 2 options are DeMar DeRozan and Zach Lavine (averaging 19.1 and 18.0 FGA respectively), and then Nikola Vucevic (15.1) and Lonzo Ball (10.7).   Each of those 4 are averaging at least 4 assists per game as they have rotated who took control of the ball.   The remaining players are all operating off the ball and have taken smart shots (all with eFG% of at least 50%) and have operated to their strengths on both ends.   The most important thin...