Hoopistani on... Basketball Babas!

I love the NBA Playoffs more than I love most things in my life.

Real life is filled with little daily challenges, like bargaining with the auto-wallah, or worrying about the elections, or making sure I don't crack my laptop's motherboard again. But the NBA world is the tonic for all the pains, and there is no better amrit for long life like the postseason.

And this time, thanks to the help of Nation of Sport, I was able to crank up my playoff-enthusiasm to the next level. Earlier this week, I joined the NoS YouTube programme 'Basketball Babas' - as the third 'Baba' alongside Jonathan Rego and Ashwin Gopinath - to sit down for nearly two hours and discuss the long road ahead for each team in both conferences. In this special two-part episode, we spoke about each of the eight first-round matchups, made our predictions for which teams will work their way to the Finals, and even imagined the best-case narratives for each of the 16 teams to possibly win the 2019 title.

So please watch, comment, shout, murmur, share... and enjoy the playoffs!

Part 1: Eastern Conference



Part 2: Western Conference

India's NBA G-League player Amjyot Singh has joined the Wisconsin Herd

If you're an Indian basketball fan feeling particularly prepared to jump on a new G-League bandwagon, it's time to join the herd.

The Wisconsin Herd, to be exact. Amjyot Singh, the Chandigarh-born Indian basketball star who as been in the NBA G-League for the past 1.5 years with the OKC Blue, announced that he was officially signing with the Herd with an Instagram post on Thursday. The Herd are the G-League affiliate of the Milwaukee Bucks, who currently hold the best record in the NBA. The team is based out of Oshkosh in Wisconsin.

View this post on Instagram

Excited for the new beginning and opportunity #wahegurumeharkare🙏

A post shared by Amjyot Singh Gill (@amjyot.gill) on Feb 14, 2019 at 7:27am PST

Singh, 27, saw his role limited in just six appearances with the Blue this season, and hadn't suited up for them after November. He's only the second Indian to play in the G-League, following Satnam Singh, who played two years for the Texas Legends. Amjyot is averaging 2.5 points and 0.86 rebounds in 36 total G-League games played since last season.

Singh is a 6-foot-8 forward who rose in recent years to become one of the top players for India's national basketball team. He has been the team's leading scorer in most major international tournaments over the past six years, and also played professionally in Japan's Development League for a season.

While the Blue are riding high and stand 2nd in the Western Conference, the Herd's record is only 9-26, at the bottom of the East. Despite this, the new opportunity could open up more playing time for Singh, who will likely be backing up Herd's power forward Michael Qualls for the rest of the season.

Now that he'll be playing in the same franchise-umbrella as Giannis Antetokounmpo, would it be too wild to imagine a team featuring both the 'Greek Freak' and the 'Sikh Freak' in the same line-up? Singh, and his Indian basketball family, will be hoping that this dream to become a reality!

India's Amjyot Singh and Indian-American Gokul Natesan both selected late in 2017 NBA G-League Draft

The NBA G-League draft is a marathon, including four rounds and over a 100 picks from a selected pool of players who all have the opportunity to taking a small step to their hoop dream through the NBA's minor league. One of the players waiting in this pool was Indian basketball superstar Amjyot Singh, who had tried and failed at last year's G-League draft, and returned to the United States again last month with renewed zest to prove his worth to coaches and scouts.

But on draft day on Saturday, October 21, as time passed, one pick turned to the next, and the final round of selections came close to its conclusion, it seemed that Amjyot was going to be let-down once again

In true clutch fashion, however, Amjyot got a game-winning play just before time expired. With the 103rd pick of the afternoon (the 25th pick of the fourth and final round), the Oklahoma City Blue - an affiliate of the NBA's OKC Thunder - selected Amjyot Singh! With this pick, Amjyot became the second Indian player to be picked by the G-League (after Palpreet Singh last year) and the third Indian to be selected into the NBA universe (after Satnam Singh was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks in 2015).

If Amjyot passes his physical, he will have the opportunity to join the Blue in their training camp roster. The selection doesn't guarantee that Amjyot will actually play for the team. G-League squads can release their draft picks at any time - last year, Palpreet only lasted with the Long Island Nets for a week before he was released.

Amjyot is one of India's most talented basketball players, one of the national team's "Big Three" along with Amritpal Singh and Vishesh Bhriguvanshi. For the past five years, he has been India's most consistent scorer on the international stage and helped India to many high-profile victories. Amjyot played professionally in Japan's Summer League and Development League a few years ago and is an accomplished international 3x3 basketball star.

Originally from Chandigarh, the 6-foot-8, 25-year-old forward was India's captain and leading scorer at the recently-completed FIBA Asia Cup in Lebanon. Amjyot was trained at the Ludhiana Basketball Academy in Punjab and played domestically for IOB (Chennai), Punjab Police, and the Delhi Capitals of the UBA League.

The top pick of the 2017 draft on Saturday was Eric Stuteville, who was picked by the Northern Arizona Suns.

The Indian diaspora have another important reason to celebrate the 2017 G-League draft. Just a few picks before Amjyot, the Canton Charge (affiliated with the Cleveland Cavaliers) selected Indian-American Gokul Natesan with the 97th pick (Round 4, Pick 19), a swingman who had starred for the Colorado School of Mines last season in NCAA Division II. Natesan is from California, and his parents originally immigrated to the United States from Tamil Nadu. He finished 2016-17 season in the All RMAC (Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) First Team and as the RMAC Academic Player of the Year. He led his team in minutes, scoring (18.5 ppg), and assists (4.1 apg) while leading the Mines to the NCAA D2 Elite 8 stage for the first time.

The journey forward is still going to be long and arduous for these two players, but their selection shows the continuing improvement and visibility of Indian basketball players from home and abroad. Hopefully, they can carve a path for many more to follow in their footsteps.

2017 SLAM Top 50: Paul George, No. 9

In a new role on a new team, Paul George is in position to reach his lofty goals.

This article was first published in my #SLAMTop50 contribution for SLAMOnline.com on October 4, 2017. Click here to read the original piece.

Four summers ago, I interviewed a 23-year-old Paul George at an NBA carnival in China. It was the ‘NBA Nation’ in Wuhan, a fan-event in the most populous city in central China featuring basketball clinics, Pop-a-Shot games, and the Phoenix Suns Dance Team. The main event, however, was George. Then a rising star for the Indiana Pacers, PG was coming off a breakout 2012-13 season where he won the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award, became an All Star for the first time, and was named to the All-NBA Third Team. But just months before, his magical season had ended in heart-breaking fashion as the Pacers went down to the Heat in a memorable seven-game Eastern Conference Finals.

In going up against the best in the League, George had gotten his first whiff of success, and he sounded confident when he told me that his rise to superstardom was just getting started. “I’m nowhere close to getting what I want to achieve,” he said, reflecting on his NBA journey so far. “But I think I’m taking the right steps and going in the right direction. I can see myself being an MVP in the League. I think, if I’m not in contention for an MVP award, or leading my team to the Championship, then I think I’d be selling myself short as a player. In the near future, I wanna have the MVP award, be on the Olympic team, be a perennial All-Star, hopefully First-Team All-NBA as well.”

But sometimes, even the best laid plans of a super-athletic swingmen can go awry. A year later, George suffered a horrific compound fracture on both bones of his lower right leg during a 2014 FIBA World Cup scrimmage in Las Vegas. The setback virtually cost him an entire season of progress and raised questions if he could ever soar towards greatness again.

It put his ‘Wuhan Checklist’ on hold. MVP award? Nope. Championship? Not close. First Team All NBA? Nah.

But by 2015-16, George bounced back with a bang, playing 81 games and averaging career highs in scoring and assists. Last summer, he fulfilled his wish of playing in the Olympics and helped bring back a Gold medal from Rio. In 2016-17, he continued his rampage and boosted his scoring output to a career-high 23.7 points per game. The ‘perennial All Star’ wish had also been fulfilled. George put up an unstoppable performance in last season’s playoffs with 28 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 7.3 assists over nearly 43 minutes per game. Just like in the old days however, it was that old foe—LeBron James—that proved to be the thorn in PG’s side, and the Cavaliers swept the Pacers in the First Round.

Despite the loss, George’s comeback from the career-threatening leg injury was complete. Even if he doesn’t have quite the athletic hops he did in his younger days, PG has matured into a better scorer and smarter defender.

But with a drastic change of scenery, he will now find himself evolving into an exciting new role: George was traded over the offseason to Oklahoma City to join reigning MVP Russell Westbrook, not long before OKC pulled off another heist and presented Carmelo Anthony to the explosive Thunder mix, too.

He may no longer be the first option, or on many nights, even the second option on offense. But as the ideal two-way player who can be an elite perimeter defender, an offensive threat, and effect the game without the ball in his hands, George could have the Thunder soaring this season. None of that confidence I saw in Wuhan has wavered. George is still gunning for that MVP trophy. With Westbrook and ‘Melo by his side, he has said that the Thunder have the feel “of a championships team.”

Playing in a different NBA jersey for the first time in his career, this isn’t going to be the 2013 “Rising Star” PG, or the 2015 “Hobbled with Injury” PG, or even the 2016-17 “Bounce Back To Scoring Stardom” PG. The OKC version of Paul George will be something we’ve never seen before. Still only 27, we are going to see PG enter his prime years, a superstar in a new role. A man on a mission to complete his checklist.

Most Valuables

Harden? Westbrook? Kawhi? Who deserves to win the impossibly-close MVP race this season?

This article was first published in my column for Ekalavyas.com on April 4, 2017. Read the original feature here.

The first definition of ‘value’ on my Dictionary app tells me that the word means ‘relative worth, merit, or importance’. Notice ‘relative’ as the operative word: there is no singular answer to “What, or Who, is Valuable?” For me, an afternoon chomping down on a dozen mutton fried momos is probably of higher value than it’s to you. It’s all relative.

There are a lot of individual awards given by the NBA every year, but the one that truly matters is the MVP. The Most Valuable Player. Basketball is a team sport and, rightfully so, the most-celebrated achievement every season is the NBA Championship. Nevertheless, the MVP award is a celebration of the individual who truly stamped his greatness on to the season, and did it better than his competition. Relative to the rest of the great players, he was the greatest.

I’ve long been intrigued, concerned, amused, and even sometimes angered by the definitions of MVP. The intrigue is added by the fact that each one of us can have our own definitions. My plate of momos might be your masala-dosa. They can all be right answers depending on the angle we choose to define them. Is the most valuable player the one with the best statistics? Is he the best player on the best team? Is he the player who best defined the narrative of how the season unfolded? Is he, as per the ‘eye-test’, simply the most-talented player, no matter what his team or individual numbers might say?

Here is my definition: the ‘Most Valuable Player’ is the one player whose absence would make the biggest difference in the final standings of the league. This player isn’t just the best stats guy or the best player in the best team: he is a combination of all factors that affects both his team and the rest of the league more than any other player.

In recent years, at the end of the regular season, the hazy race has usually become clearer and the favourite for the award stood out over his worthy challengers. In 2012 and 2013, the Miami Heat finished back-to-back in top two of their conference and had the game’s best talent LeBron James getting the best stats, leading to consecutive MVP awards. In 2014, MVP Kevin Durant led the league in scoring while carrying the Oklahoma City Thunder to second place in the Western Conference while his superstar teammate was injured. In 2015, Stephen Curry edged out James Harden to win MVP as the best player in the best team (67 wins!). In 2016, Curry doubled down, leading the league in scoring and in all the advanced metrics to make the Warriors the best team again, breaking the All Time wins record (73), and becoming the game’s only-ever unanimous MVP. There was no argument in Curry’s case: from every definition of ‘value’, he was the most valuable.

12 months later, things couldn’t be more different. With only a few weeks left before the end of the regular season, we are amidst an MVP race for the ages, forcing us to employ all of our relative intelligence, reasoning, definitions, and experience. A number of truly-deserving candidates stand out, and a win for any singular one will automatically signal a major snub for the losers. Let’s take a closer look, in last-name alphabetic order, at the top contenders.

James Harden

The case for: The Rockets lost Dwight Howard and restructured their squad with Harden as the point guard and shooters to complement his style. The result has been an epic success: after finishing at the 8th seed last year, Houston has improved to third this season with a .689 winning record. Harden has been magnificent, leading the league in assists and scoring the second-most points per game in the NBA to make the Rockets the league’s highest-scoring team. Harden has had 20 triple-doubles this season and numerous 50-point games. Unlike the teams with a better record than them, Houston are the only one being carried by a single elite player.

The case against: We have to nit-pick to find weaknesses in Harden’s MVP candidacy. Such as the fact that he is in ‘only’ the third-best team this season, and that, despite his own gaudy averages, Russell Westbrook is putting up even better individual stats (more on that later). And of course, there’s the defence; as great as Harden has been offensively, he’s a sieve on the defensive end and the Rockets as a whole are a below-average defensive team.

LeBron James

The case for: LeBron fans, after his superhuman performance over the unanimous MVP in last year’s Finals, can only point to what they believe to be the given truth: ignore the distractions and crown the most-talented player as the most-valuable one. This season, James has evolved his game to become an even more-rounded player, averaging a career-high 8.8 assists to go with 8.4 rebounds and 26 points. Despite their recent dip, the Cavaliers are still one of the best teams in their conference; they are terrible when he is off the court.

The case against: This is not a legacy award, it’s an award for a player’s performances in this season, and LeBron’s “potential” to be better than his competitors shouldn’t count unless he is “actually” better. And as good as he has been, he has simply not matched the statistical output of some of the other contenders. His team has underachieved (“only” 0.644, despite being stacked with the talent they have) and he has missed six games so far. Head to head, he has been outplayed by many of the contenders listed below.

Kawhi Leonard

The case for: Just a couple of games behind Golden State Warriors for the league’s best record, the Spurs are a true title contender, and Kawhi Leonard has been chiefly responsible for their success. Leonard is his team’s best offensive player and one of the top 10 scorers in the league. He also happens to be the best perimeter defender in the NBA. There is no better two-way player in the world. Leonard’s MVP campaign rests on being the best player in almost the best team.

The case against: He is almost there, but not quiet. His team is second-best, his statistics are good, but in comparison to others in this list, not great. And he relies on the NBA’s most-efficient system to blossom. The Spurs might not have been a great team without Leonard, but they would still be pretty damn good.

Russell Westbrook

The case for: This dude is averaging a friggin triple-double while simultaneously leading the league in scoring!!! Westbrook could be the first since Oscar Robertson to average a triple-double all season and beat Robertson’s single season record (he’s already on 40). No single player carries a heavier burden on his shoulders every night. His efforts have carried a Durant-less Thunder to an impressive playoff spot, battling for fifth or sixth in the West.

The case against: At the current rate, the Thunder are heading for a sixth-place finish in the West with about 48 wins. This is simply not good enough: my belief is that the MVP of every season needs to come from a true title contender, and Westbrook has been a great player in an average team. His maximalist style of play and high usage rate has made the Thunder a one-man team to a fault.

The verdict

This is an impossible race and can’t be truly determined until the very last day of the season. All of the contenders have played at an unimaginably high level, and the shortlist didn’t even mention players like Isaiah Thomas, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and John Wall, all of whom have turned heads with their stellar play.

My answer might change day to day, or even hour to hour, but on this moment in time, I sniff gingerly towards James Harden. Ask me if I’ve changed my mind tomorrow.

Playoff Mahabharat

A deeper look at the NBA armies competing for supremacy on the basketball battlefield.

This article was first published in my column for Ekalavyas.com on May 5, 2016. Click here to read the original feature.

Photo courtesy: Ekalavyas. Graphic art by Nitin Jerath

Sometime around three thousand years ago, the sage Ved Vyasa set out to right probably the longest poem ever written, an epic of mammoth proportions which eventually went out to become of the most important stories ever told: the Mahabharat. It was a tale of the Kurukshetra War between the Pandavs and the Kauravs, and of so much more. Since then, there have been numerous retellings of the story, including regional Tamil versions, an Indonesian version, a Kawi version, the memorable Amar Chitra Katha comic series, big screen adaptations like Kalyug and Rajneeti, and of course, the memorable TV series in the 80s’.

Allow me another modern take on one of India’s oldest stories, but with a slight remix. Allow to me replace the five Pandavs with five positions on the basketball court, the Kurukshetra battlefield with the hardwood court, Krishna’s sage advice with scholarly coaching from Popovich and Kerr, and Arjun’s blazing arrows with long-range three-point bombs.

Here is NBA Playoffs Mahabharat!

Vyasa may not have realized it when he wrote or narrated the Mahabharat (probably sometime around 400 BC) but in the heroic winning squad of the Pandav princes, he also created the perfect basketball starting five, adopted about 2300 years later by Dr James Naismith. Six years ago, Siddarth Sharma wrote an entertaining piece on SportsKeeda about his fantasy Mahabharat team. But here are how the five Pandavs would’ve lined up for me:

• Yudhistir, the eldest of the brothers, was the most mature and virtuous leader, the point guard of this powerful squad. Without Yudhistir at the helm, this team could potentially have turned out to be a bunch of “me-first” gunners. Like Jason Kidd in his prime, you could’ve counted on Yudhistir to be the pass-first leader and an extension of Coach Dronacharya on the court.
• Arjun, the most talented brother, perhaps the greatest archer of All Time, was obviously the unstoppable shooting guard on the team, capable of hitting the long threes but also talented with skill to beat his man off the dribble. He was ambidextrous too, a skill that can definitely help on the basketball court – just ask James Harden or Manu Ginobili.
• Twins Nakul and Sahadev were the youngest brothers and known to be great swordsmen. Their ability to play their role (not everyone can demand the ball on a court, right?) made them a great small forward-power forward punch who play defence and contribute offensively when required.
• The man in the middle, the team’s center, was obviously Bheem, the giant among the brothers, the mightiest and strongest of the brothers. From everything we know about him, it’s clear that he was the Shaq of this team: just throw the big man the ball inside and he would either slam it in or help create for his teammates. I cannot comment, however, if he would survive a Hack-A-Bheem and nail free-throws at a high-enough percentage.
• The former teammate: Karan. Oh, you didn’t think I was going to forget my namesake, did you? Karan’s story is perhaps the most fascinating in the Mahabharat, as he was the eldest Pandav who ended up being raised by the Kauravs and ultimately, fought for them. Karan was the Pandav who got traded to a rival squad; when the two teams met in the post-season, you could be sure that the five brothers brought their A-game against this complicated rival.

If the NBA season is entire war, the playoffs become the most intense, crucial part of the battle, sort of like the basketball answer to the Kauravs’ Chakravyuh that foiled Abhimanyu. Each level of the Chakruvyuh gets more intricate, deeper, more difficult, just like each round in the NBA playoffs. Only 16 teams survived the regular season to step into the Chakravyuh.

Now, just eight remain.

Golden State Warriors: The Warriors have played all season perfected to The Art of War, winning with both dominance and virtuosity, as if Lord Krishna himself was on their chariot reciting the Bhagwad Gita en route to the 73-9 record. In the Mahabharat, Krishna urges Arjun to strike down Karan when Karan’s chariot wheel gets stuck in the mud. But for the Warriors, the opposite seems to have happened in the First Round of the playoffs: after a season of dominance, their ‘Arjun’ – Stephen Curry – hurt his ankle and his knee, and it seemed that the wheels had been removed off of their title chase. But a meek First Round opponent (Houston) and injuries elsewhere (Clippers) have kept the Warriors optimistic. For now, the likes of Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and co. are good enough to carry Golden State to the Conference Finals. But they’ll need Curry and his expert marksmanship to return if they hope to survive the Chakravyuh again and repeat as champs.

San Antonio Spurs: If the NBA has a Dronacharya, a teacher-par-excellence, it’s the Spurs’ Gregg Popovich. Drona was teacher to both Kauravs and Pandavs and a master of advanced military arts. Popovich is an ex-army guy and his coaching tree extends all over the NBA. The famous test of Dronacharya challenged young warriors to maintain focus amidst distractions. Only the best of the best pass this test, and in San Antonio, Popovich fosters only the most disciplined, focused group of players. After Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili, Pop’s new favourite pupil is Kawhi Leonard, who probably only speaks in vedic chants. This team won 67 games this season and have a defence as impenetrable as the armour that Lord Indra gave Karan. But they face a mammoth task in trying to stop the double-headed monster thundering towards them from Oklahoma City in Round 2.

Oklahoma City Thunder: Imagine if Arjun and Karan, instead of being on different sides, actually joined forces (like Shah Rukh and Salman eventually did in Karan-Arjun). Now imagine the growth of a double-headed force so strong that nobody – including Krishna or the other Pandavs/Kauravs – could contain it. Then you have the Thunder. Like the barrage of magical arrows on the battle-field from the Mahabharat TV series, the Thunder have the ability to rain offense and destroy opponents with the unstoppable skills of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. They look like a team of destiny, but alas, like Yudhistir and his love for the game of dice, they too have some weaknesses: namely, defence and crunch-time offense. The Thunder have at times looked incapable of stopping opponents, and the Durant-Westbrook duo becomes uncreative with their offensive plays in close moments in the fourth quarter. The next round will test their intellect and patience: they have enough talent to win on the battlefield, but do they have the wits to defeat the Spurs’ intellect at shatranj?

Cleveland Cavaliers: After losing in a game of dice to the Kauravs, the Pandavs are sent on exile for 13 years. During this time, they experience many adventures, learn lessons, hone their craft, become better warriors physically and mentally, and finally, return to their kingdom. Cleveland’s King – LeBron James – also left his kingdom and took his talents in exile to South Beach. With a couple other ‘brothers’ in exile in Miami, he went to four consecutive Finals, won two championships, and returned a stronger warrior mentally than ever before. A year ago, the prodigal son of Cleveland returned to the Cavaliers and was ready for the inevitable war. With no other challengers ready to match their firepower of LeBron, Irving, and Love, Cleveland is set to be the likely Kurukshetra battle-ground for the NBA Finals again. But will LeBron finally bring glory to his kingdom?

Atlanta Hawks: If the talents of all five Pandavs were equal, with no superstars (Arjun, Bheem) and no role-players (Nakul, Sahadev), they would come close to achieving the selfless equality of the Hawks. Remember, this is the team that, a year ago, found all five of their starters be named Players of the Month in the East. This year, after a slow start, the Hawks revved up their defence to elite level and rose past Boston in the First Round. Will they be able to stop LeBron’s yearly march to the NBA Finals in the East?

Portland Trail Blazers: In the Mahabharat’s Sauptik Parv (Book of the Sleeping), there is a mass slaughter of the Pandav army, most of whom are killed in their sleep. The battle comes down to just seven warriors on the Pandav side and three for the Kauravs. The Trail Blazers know a thing or two about suddenly losing all of their army; this past offseason, they lost four of their five starters to free agency or trade, leaving behind just Damian Lillard. But they didn’t stop fighting: Lillard continued to develop into stardom and CJ McCollum became the NBA’s Most Improved Player. Now in the Second Round, it will be Portland’s chance to ensure that they can fight strength in their surviving members against Golden State.

Miami Heat: Who remembers the Lakshagrah chapter in the Mahabharat? Shakuni, Duryodhan and Dusasan plotted a sneak attack on the Pandvas. They built a palace out of like lac and ghee and then arranged for the Pandavs and the Queen Mother Kunti to stay there, with the intention of setting it alight. However, the Pandavs received a forewarning from Uncle Vidur, and with a miner’s help, were able to dig a tunnel and escape to safety. The Miami Heat have been set alight multiple times the last few years, too, with the departure of LeBron James, the illness of Chris Bosh, and the effort to incorporate a new set of players for a sudden restart. But they have a wise uncle too – Pat Riley – who was able to rebuild a strong squad around his strongest Pandav, Dwyane Wade. Despite the near destructions, this team is still alive and contending in the 2016 playoffs.

Toronto Raptors: When the war is over, the Pandavs travel up north to the Himalayas, aiming to club Mount Sumeru before their descent to heaven. Out of all the teams in the NBA, it seems like the Raptors – the team up North in Canada – have taken the longest time to take their first steps to ascent towards the NBA peaks. Toronto won their first playoff series in 15 years against the Pacers in Round 1. But can DeRozan and Lowry help them ascent even higher?

Hoopdarshan Episode 29: 10 Big NBA Playoffs Questions with Zyman Marzuki

As the NBA Playoffs move into the Second Round, Hoopdarshan moves onwards too, keeping a keen eye on the final eight teams competing for the 2016 NBA Championship. On Episode 29 of India's finest basketball podcast, hosts Kaushik Lakshman and Karan Madhok are joined by NBA superfan and Karan's friend Zyman Marzuki to break down TEN BIG QUESTIONS for the NBA Playoffs.

Is Tim Duncan truly a Robot? Kevin Durant or Russell Westbrook? Can anyone in the East stop the Cavs? And yes, our thoughts on which team will go all the way to the title... Listen for our predictions, hypotheticals, and bad jokes.



Hoopdarshan aims to be the true voice of Indian basketball, and since we're such hopeless fans of the game, it will become the voice of everything basketball related we love, from the NBA to international hoops, too. On every episode of Hoopdarshan, we will be inviting a special guest to interview or chat to about a variety of topics. With expert insight from some of the brightest and most-involved people in the world of Indian basketball, we hope to bring this conversation to a many more interested fans, players, and followers of the game.

Make sure to follow Hoopdarshan on Soundcloud or search for 'Hoopdarshan' on the iTunes Store! Auto-sync Hoopdarshan to your preferred podcast app NOW!

Hoopdarshan can be found on...

• - iTunes: Hoopdarshan 
• - Hoopdarshan on Soundcloud 
• - On Twitter: @Hoopdarshan 
• - Facebook.com/Hoopdarshan 

A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Counting down the top 10 must-watch players for the 2015-16 NBA Season

This feature was first published in my column for Ekalavyas on November 6, 2015. Click here to read the original article.

The new NBA season brings with it a new set of intrigue, drama, ambitions, and storylines. Basketball is first and foremost a team game, but in the NBA, it is the individual stories that truly elevate our sense of connection with the league and bring fans back thirsting for more. We obsess over the legacies of great players, we cringe when they come up short, sob when they’re injured, celebrate when they return, and scream in delight when they finally win a championship.

In a league full of must-watch personalities and stories, there are a few that stand head and shoulders above the rest. This is the league within a league of extraordinary gentlemen. Keep your eyes peeled for the intrigues, twists, and turns that these individuals traverse through for the next six to eight months. This isn’t a ranking of the NBA’s best players (you can find my contribution on this season’s SLAM Top 50 for that!); this is a ranking of the stories you can’t afford to miss.

10. Andrew Wiggins

A week ago, I made an outlandish prediction on the Hoopdarshan NBA Preview podcast that the Minnesota Timberwolves – the NBA’s worst team last season – will climb to eighth seed in the West. It’s the sort of dumb risk that could potentially rob me of all my crumbs of credibility and have a multitude of trolls destroying my online life. Or alternatively, it could make me look like a foreshadowing genius. There were a lot of reasons for my Wolves overrating: Ricky Rubio has returned healthy, Kevin Garnett – in perhaps the last season of his storied career – is shouting advice and blocking your practice shots. Number one pick Karl-Anthony Towns started the season looking like a completed project already. The supporting cast of Kevin Martin, Zach LaVine, Nemanja Bjelica, and Nikola Pekovic looks half-decent.

But the biggest reason for my projected T-Wolves jump is second-year swingman and reigning rookie of the year Andrew Wiggins. Every season, there seems to be one player that takes the leap from being a ‘prospect’ to a ‘superstar’ (see: George, Paul or Butler, Jimmy). I believe that Wiggins will take that leap this season. Wiggins has the talent to become one of the top wing players in the league and his ability on the defensive end ensures that he always earns ample playing time. As the season progresses, watch for Wiggins to blossom into a better player, realize the limitlessness of his own talents, and unleash hellfire on to the rest of the league. The future is very, very bright.

9. Kevin Love

Who is Kevin Love? Is he the slightly chubby rookie who was deemed tradeable on 2008 Draft Night for OJ Mayo? Is he the same guy who defied critics to become the NBA’s Most Improved Player in 2011? Is he the person who wins rebound titles, three-point shootouts, and averages 26 and 12 for a season? Or is he only a numbers-monger, a classic good player on a bad team, high on stats but low on overall impact for a winning team? Is he a top 10 player in the league? Or is he a star who may never lead a team to the playoffs by himself?

Last season was Love’s chance to answer these questions once and for all. He was traded to the Cavaliers in exchange for Andrew Wiggins to join LeBron James’ return quest to finally bring a championship to his homeland. Instead, team chemistry (fitting out instead of fitting in) and a playoff injury (thanks for nothing, Kelly Olynyk) suspended the answers a little longer. Love’s first season for the Cavs was forgotten. Now, as he returns healthy and loaded with an extension to his contract, he will once again attempt to answer those questions. Is he overrated? Underrated? Overpaid? Underpaid? A perennial loser? Or a champion?

8. Derrick Rose

The youngest-ever MVP, a force of nature who brought intensity and pound-for-pound toughness to evoke memories of Allen Iverson, a player of passion and fury, and a Chicagoan in every sense of the word. Two and a half years ago, it seemed that Derrick Rose was heading to a legacy of greatness, en route to becoming one of the top players of the decade. And then came the injuries: the ACL tear, the torn meniscus, the hamstrings, and even the recent orbital fracture. Rose seemed curse, and off the court, his comments and controversies suddenly turned this much-loved young star into a figure of pity and annoyance.

He’s back (again). He’s 27. He’s rusty, but he’s healthy. If you’re a Rose fan, you’ve probably been jilted so often by his almost-comebacks that even you don’t believe them anymore. It doesn’t matter, because it seems that Rose never stopped believing in himself. So he’s back, now as perhaps the second-best player in his own backcourt (after Jimmy Butler), but the one player in the one team with a real opportunity to shake up the LeBron Dynasty in the Eastern Conference. He’s back on the court to aim for his top once again; whether he succeeds or he fails, it’ll definitely be a lot of fun to watch him try.

7. Tim Duncan

What more does the NBA’s greatest power forward ever, the most accomplished player in the league since Michael Jordan, have left to prove? Duncan has won five NBA titles in six Finals appearances over the past 16 years, been a three-time Finals MVP, a two-time MVP, a 15-time All Star, and has won over 70 percent of NBA games in an astonishingly dominant 18-year stretch. Now in his 19th season, as ever in the Spurs’ jersey that has become synonymous with his name, Tim Duncan returns as one of the NBA’s oldest players (39) for perhaps one last shot at the title.

While the keys to San Antonio’s destiny now rest firmly in the hands of Kawhi Leonard and new signing LaMarcus Aldridge, my eyes will be on Duncan as he approaches the end of the road. By the end of the NBA season, Duncan would’ve turned 40. He would’ve played a smaller role for the Spurs than ever before, but he would still be around schooling ignorant young’uns in the post offensively or positioning at an elite level defensively. The future is unclear, but if this is indeed the living legend’s final NBA season, it will be fascinating to see him lay everything on the line for one last hurrah.

6. Anthony Davis

On Grantland (RIP), Zach Lowe called Anthony Davis ‘Mr Limitless’, a perfect moniker for a 22-year-old superstar who is both the present of the league and its future. Davis is booming with talent, and is easily the NBA’s most valuable trade chip right now. He’s big, he’s athletic, he’s uber-talented, and he’s healthy. He finished the previous season with one of the highest PER’s of All Time and he’s still got over a decade of dominance left in him. Last season, he averaged 24.4 points, 10.2 rebounds, and a league-best 2.9 blocks per game. He could only get better.

Watching Davis test his limits will continue to be one of the most intriguing storylines of the season. His future is an empty slate, and he has the potential of filling it up however the need be. Will he become a Duncan prototype or the new-generation Garnett? Will he dominate the post or the perimeter? Will he be the NBA’s leading scorer or the Defensive Player of the Year? Will he be all of the above? The options are limitless.

5. Kobe Bryant

After 19 years in the NBA (longest ‘one team, one player’ tenure), five championships, an MVP award, 17 All Star games, Olympic triumphs, popularity on every corner of the globe, and that one night he scored 81, The Black Mamba is now 37 and transformed into more myth than man. Gone are the days when he challenged to be the league’s finest and carried his team into title contention. Now, Kobe is one of the NBA’s creaky senior citizens, coming off a couple of injury-plagued seasons, and is further plagued by the rebuilt of the team around him.

This was not the way that one of the game’s greatest ever players hoped to ride into the sunset. Will this be Kobe’s last season in the NBA? And if so, what will be the last basketball entry into our box-full of Kobe memories. For better or worse, his thoughts and actions both on and off the court have shaped NBA history over the last two decades and inspired multitudes around the world. Even in a season of potential despair, fans shouldn’t miss their last chance – maybe – of watching Kobe fight against the inevitability of Father Time.

4. Russell Westbrook

Watch him play with the fury of a rabid dog on a mission to destroy every breathing soul in his path. Watch him post 40-point nights back to back to back like it’s a savage stroll in the park. Watch him do that while also setting triple-double records. Watch him average 30-point triple doubles for an entire month. Watch him be the human equivalent of ‘basketball cocaine’, a one-man force of nature that descends upon helpless opponents like a tornado. Watch him run past opposing elite point guards as if they were nothing but scared matadors. Watch him score 50. Watch him challenge for the NBA’s scoring title. Watch him when he plays like an MVP. Watch him scream at the top of his lungs. Watch him for his emotional outbursts. Watch him for his athletic prowess. Watch him dunk, watch him shoot, watch him block, and watch him pass. Watch him make game-winning shots. Watch him challenge for a title.

Just watch him.

3. LeBron James

The story has been told multiple times. Small town boy becomes the top draft pick of his home-state squad, a suffering team in a city with a history of failure but expectations of success. Soon enough, the small town boy becomes the best player in the game and gives that team an outside sniff of that ever-eluding success. But he becomes disenchanted by his near-misses and leaves the small town to team up with better players in a bigger city. He is hated, he is booed, he loses; he is loved, he is adored, he wins. And then, four years after his own success played out as a mirror opposite to the failures of his home team, he returns home.

LeBron James – he of four MVP awards, two championships, five consecutive Finals appearances, and an early spot booked in the pantheon of basketball’s greatest – returned to Cleveland last season to share his talents with the place he calls ‘Home’ and bring a title to the Cavaliers. Branded as one of the greatest even as a teenager, LeBron has lived up to most expectations and answered nearly every question asked of his career – except one: can he bring an NBA title to Cleveland? Once again, reloaded with Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving on his wings, he will try to achieve his lifelong mission. With his own legacy and the legacy of the Cavaliers on the line, this mission will be one of the stories of the NBA season.

2. Stephen Curry

Last season, many called him lucky, despite the fact that he broke shooting records without breaking a sweat, led his squad to 67 wins on a historically great point differential, defeated every other member of the All NBA team in the playoffs, and won an NBA championship. He sat atop the NBA throne, but many believed that this throne had been given away, not earned.

‘Many’ are wrong. Stephen Curry is one of the finest players in the NBA, and he just happens to be in his absolute prime right now. Single-handedly, Curry’s shooting, dribbling, and passing sprees have the ability to entertain and devastate with equal measure. NBA defences don’t yet have an answer for him, and by the looks of his early season success, no solution seems forthcoming. Curry deserved his MVP award and rapid rise to stardom last season, and going forward, he deserves to be in the conversation of the greatest players of the current era. Every Warriors game should be circled as must-watch TV for the rest of the year. This is a team aiming for 70 wins and another title, led by a player with the ability to score 70 if the night is right. Need I say more?

1. Kevin Durant

Kevin Durant is one of the NBA’s top players right now with the skillset of becoming one of the greatest ever. He had already confirmed his place next to LeBron as the most devastating force in the league before turning the dial all the way up to 11 in the 2013-14 season. Durant made that year his fourth scoring title (32 ppg) while also amassing 7.4 rpg and a career-best 5.5 assists per game. He shot over 50 percent from the field and largely in the absence of Westbrook and carried the Thunder en route to an MVP award. Last year was supposed to be a continuation of his growing prowess, but a Jones fracture put a pause to the ascent and placed uncertainty over his future.

Now, Durant’s career stands at a tipping point. He’s 27, and has come up short of his ultimate goal due to youth or injury every year. He’s also in his contract year and has been silent about his future in Oklahoma City. He’s playing for a new coach in the toughest Western Conference pile-up in years. Next summer, he’s going to be the NBA’s biggest free agent since 2010 LeBron. And meanwhile, his own teammate could challenge him for an MVP trophy. Early shines this season show that Durant is still a wizard on the court (pun intended) as he returns healthy back into the Thunder lineup. This season will define the path for the rest of his career. And this is why he’s the biggest story of the 2015-16 NBA season.

Hoopdarshan Episode 19: NBA 2016-16 Season Preview with Vishnu Ravi Shankar

Good news: the 2015-16 NBA season is here! Better news: you get to hear three Indian accents break down the top storylines across the league to build your appetite. Hosted by Kaushik Lakshman and Karan Madhok, the new episode of Hoopdarshan features Vishnu Ravi Shankar, the co-founder of Indian basketball website Ekalavyas. Take a listen for our breakdown of the Thunder, Cavs, Spurs, Warriors, Bulls, Clippers, Satnam Singh, DeMarcus Cousins, and the sad fates of our own favourite teams. Finally, we offer our final predictions for MVP, the top individual awards, and eventually, the 2016 NBA champ.

Shankar and his law-school colleagues launched Ekalavyas.com a few years ago and it stands as one of the top sources of for Indian basketball news today. Shankar hosts his own podcast called 'NBA on Ekalavyas', has covered national and international basketball events all around India, and secured interviews with foreign and domestic basketball players for Ekalavyas in recent years.

Starting with each of our favourite teams (Mavericks, Knicks, Lakers), we move on in Episode 19 to talk about the top storylines of the upcoming season, including Durant's return for the Thunder, Aldridge's fit with the Spurs, LeBron's quest to bring Cleveland a title, the Warriors' quest to be respected as reigning champions, the Clippers quest to be successful villains, the Bulls' prospects under a new coach, and more. We also digress into a couple of #ManCrush moments (Kawhi, Boogie, Rubio, Mirotic, Hezonja) and make infallible (or perhaps totally flawed) end-of-season predictions. Listen in and prime yourself for the upcoming season!



Hoopdarshan aims to be the true voice of Indian basketball, and since we're such hopeless fans of the game, it will become the voice of everything basketball related we love, from the NBA to international hoops, too. On every episode of Hoopdarshan, we will be inviting a special guest to interview or chat to about a variety of topics. With expert insight from some of the brightest and most-involved people in the world of Indian basketball, we hope to bring this conversation to a many more interested fans, players, and followers of the game.

Make sure to follow Hoopdarshan on Soundcloud or search for 'Hoopdarshan' on the iTunes Store! Auto-sync Hoopdarshan to your preferred podcast app NOW!

Hoopdarshan can be found on...

• - iTunes: Hoopdarshan 
• - Hoopdarshan on Soundcloud 
• - On Twitter: @Hoopdarshan 
• - Facebook.com/Hoopdarshan 

Outside, Looking In: NBA All Stars who stayed home for the post-season

“The regular season is where you make your name. The playoffs you make your fame.”

Unfortunately, more than any recent year in memory, a number of stars stopped shining this year even before the playoffs began. By the time the field of 16 of the playoffs was set, an astonishing seven current NBA All Stars were sent home on an early vacation. The NBA is about team-play, but this is also a league of superstars, and – due to injury or team conditions – many of those superstars haven’t been playing meaningful basketball in the most important time of the year. Here are the NBA All Stars who have spent the postseason on the outside, looking in.

Check out my full feature on SportsKeeda.

Too Many MVPs

As the NBA season reaches its climax, who’ll win the crowded MVP race?

This article was first published in my column for Ekalavyas on March 11, 2015. Click here to read the original post.

There are essentially two types of races in every walk of life. The first type is really not a race at all but a massacre, a dominant performance by one individual far and above ahead of all competitors. The second type is the real contest, a neck-to-neck battle between several individuals which is decided only in the final moments.

In recent years, the race to the NBA MVP has been less of a contest and more of a one-man show, with one individual ultimately stamping his dominance over the narrative of an entire regular season. Despite early competition, LeBron James always ended up with the lion’s share of the votes as MVP in four of the last six years. Kevin Durant won 95 percent of available first-place votes en route to last season’s MVP award. Even Derrick Rose’s MVP campaign four years ago was almost a thunderous sweep, as he took 113 of the possible 121 first-place votes in 2011.

But, with about a month to go to the end of the 2014-15 regular season, a curious thing is happening with the NBA: unlike past years, there has been no single alpha dog to rise on the top of the pile. Usually, the MVP race is competitive and debatable till the mid-way point of the season, after which a clear most valuable player emerges on the court and in the mind-set of the fans and media. But, even midway through March, the race this year is still a genuine neck-to-neck contest, with five legitimate challengers emerging from all over the league.

There have been various reasons for this. Until last year, the league’s best players were divided into two talents: those who were named LeBron James and Kevin Durant, and those who were not. The NBA had a lot of great players, but KD and LBJ were great on a historic level. It had seemed as if it would take several more years before someone other than these two would win the MVP award. This season, however, with LeBron starting slow in Cleveland and Durant playing less than half of the games due to injury, other, younger superstars are breaking the duopoly.

A new world order of young stars has arisen in the league, like Stephen Curry and James Harden, who have mastered the art of dominating from the perimeter in unique fashions. This is a league where more three-pointers are being attempted and made every season, and the abilities of Curry and Harden to deftly create the three-point shot for themselves and others is leading to direct success for their teams.

But LeBron James’ all-around brilliance in the last few months is proving that it is never wise to count down the four-time MVP. LeBron is shooting up the MVP charts even as his primary contender in recent years – Kevin Durant – has reeled to injuries this season. Durant’s absence has left the door open for his teammate Russell Westbrook, who has steadied the ship over in Oklahoma City with mind-blowing basketball all season.

None of the players above can afford to take a breather, because out in New Orleans, 21-year-old phenom Anthony Davis is making some history of his own and hoping to crash the future into the present.

As we get closer to the season’s end and playoff seedings become a top priority, expect the MVP contenders to up the ante even further to deliver for their teams. The next five or six weeks are going to provide a breathless race to the finish as a multitude of stars sprint the final lap to stake their claim at the Most Valuable Player award.

Here are the top five contenders, in order of whom I believe has the best claim at the throne right now. Coincidently, all five of these players rank in the top five on the NBA’s scoring list, leading their teams by example on the offensive end every night.

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James Harden: In recent years there has been so much chatter about what Harden can’t do that we have forgotten all the brilliant things that he is actually capable of. Let’s face it: Harden is a relatively poor defender and can spoil the purists of basketball aesthetics by his penchant for flaying and drawing fouls on the opposing end. Harden is averaging 27.1 points per game (second in the league), 7.1 assists, and 5.8 rebounds per game, all of which are career-highs, and he has the NBA’s third-highest PIE rating (19.0). He has helped lead the Rockets to a 43-20 record, third-best in the Western Conference at this point.

It is the team success, and Harden’s responsibility for it, that is most remarkable and the strongest argument for why Harden has been more valuable than any other player in the league this season. The Rockets have won over 68 percent of their contests and have done so with Dwight Howard only playing in 32 games. Harden has the league’s best Win Shares, meaning that he has contributed more to adding a number of wins for his team than any other player in the NBA.

Stephen Curry: For the majority of the season, the Golden State Warriors (50-12) have been the NBA’s best team, although the Atlanta Hawks have been neck-to-neck lately. GSW’s success can be largely attributed to the continuing dominance of Stephen Curry, who is enjoying one of his best seasons as a pro with averages of 23.8 points (fifth-best in the league), 7.7 assists, and 4.4 rebounds per game. Curry is also leading the NBA in steals (2.2 spg) and is second in free-throw percentage (90.3 %). Calculating a net rating of the difference a player makes per hundred possessions on both ends of the floor, Curry ranks atop all the players in the league – as a matter of fact, the top five in this statistic are all Warriors! Curry is also ranked fourth in Player Efficiency Rating (18.0) in the NBA.

The Warriors are loaded with talent. Klay Thompson blossomed into an All Star this season, Draymond Green is playing like a Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) candidate while Andrew Bogut mans the middle next to him. Harrison Barnes is back on a road to steady development, and their two highest-paid players – David Lee and Andre Iguodala – are coming off the bench. This team is among the NBA’s best in both defensive and offensive rating. While a lot of credit should to go to the deep pool of talent that surrounds him, Curry is the engine that makes the system run from the point position, creating for himself and others with considerable ease.

LeBron James: Around mid-January, LeBron James returned after taking off eight games, the longest stretch of games missed in all of his career. Until then, the ‘King’s’ return to Cleveland had been questionable, as the team struggled around mediocrity and LeBron looking mortal for the first time in about half a decade. But the rest was exactly the refresher James needed: since his return, James is back to his best, averaging around 27 points, 7 assists, and 6 rebounds per game, and leading the Cavaliers to 21 wins out of 26. With his help, the Cavs (41-25) are shooting up the East standings and are close to securing second place in the conference.

LeBron has set a high standard for his performances, and even his brilliance is starting to look regular. Through the course of this season, he’s averaging 26.0 points (third-best in the NBA), 7.3 assists, and 5.8 rebounds. With Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love on his side, the Cavs are loaded, and the relative weaker East has given the team and LeBron time to find their rhythm. That rhythm seems to be strumming along beautifully now and LeBron will be hoping that he can stake his claim at a fifth MVP trophy.

Russell Westbrook: We may not survive to see a supernova explode close in front of our eyes, but in Russell Westbrook, we just may have the closest thing. There is nothing in the league like Westbrook, who is playing with an unmatched fierce intensity every night and keeping the Thunder in playoff contention out in the cut-throat West, even in the absence of Kevin Durant. After his career-best 49 point performance vs. the 76ers, Westbrook officially became the league’s leading scorer with a career-high 27.4 points per game. He’s also averaging 7.1 rebounds (career high), and is top five in the league in assists (8.3 apg) and steals (2.1 spg), PIE rating of 19.2%, and countless mean scowls per game. Westbrook has the NBA’s best assist percentage too, meaning he’s creating more often for his teammates than any other player in the league. After his unbelievable 49-16-10 night, he became the first player to collect four consecutive triple-doubles since Michael Jordan.

The only reason that he isn’t a clear MVP favourite is the performance of his team. The Thunder are 35-28 at this point, finding themselves eighth in the West, with the chasing Pelicans tethering right behind them. MVP awards are rarely considered for players struggling for their playoff survival, even though the team has a much better record in the games where he has played (30-18). If Westbrook can help the OKC rise further up the conference – and remain more valuable than his returning teammate Durant – he may well hijack the MVP trophy this year.

Anthony Davis: And before anyone else becomes comfortable, here come ‘The Brow’ to crash the party. It’s true, the Pelicans (36-29) are fighting for a playoff spot right now, but the only reason that this otherwise sub-standard roster finds itself in contention is the 21-year-old prodigy in the middle. Davis is enjoying a monster year, posting the league’s highest PIE rating (19.6) while posting a PER of historical greatness (31.66). He’s scoring 24.5 ppg (fourth-best in the league), leading the lead in blocks (2.8 bpg), and changing the game on both ends of the floor.

Like Westbrook, the numbers are eye-popping and the contributions to win-shares by the player are worth consideration. Unfortunately, also like Westbrook, Davis can’t be seriously considered as a front-runner with a team not in the post-season. But if the Pelicans can finish the season strong (they’ve won 9 of their last 11) and sneak into the playoffs, I believe that Davis definitely becomes a dark-horse contender to become the youngest-ever MVP in history.

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So when the votes are counted at the end of the season, who will win this wacky race? The smart money would be to bet on the players on higher-ranked teams like the Warriors (Curry), Rockets (Harden), or Cavaliers (James). But don’t count out the chances of Westbrook and Davis if they continue to post monster individual performances and help their respective squads make a dramatic late-season surge.

While the eventual outcome remains difficult to predict, one thing’s for sure: with James Harden, Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, and Anthony Davis all playing at a mesmerizingly high level, nearly every night in the NBA for the remainder of the season can provide us with a heroic performance. Brace on tight for greatness!

Clearing the Deadline cobwebs: The best players traded on the NBA’s record trade-deadline day

In the biggest trade deadline day in NBA history, 37 players moved in 11 trades across the league. 16 of the NBA’s 30 teams will enter the last half of the season with a roster change, including some dramatic moves that could boost various title aspirants. With the number of multiple team trades, draft picks offered, protection on future draft picks, and the reshaping of rosters, it was difficult for even the staunchest NBA follower to clear the cobwebs and find where their favourite players landed or how their favourite teams have reloaded. Here is my countdown of the top ten players who have moved to new teams.

Click here to read my full feature on SportsKeeda

Missing the Point

We might be in the golden era of superstar point guards. But are most NBA teams still missing the point? I look back at recent NBA history to see the team that has gotten it right - San Antonio - and how most high-scoring PGs have taken away from a winning system, instead of contributing to it.

Click here to read my full feature on SportsKeeda.

Return, Reload, Repeat: Predictions for all the drama ahead for the 2014-15 NBA Season

In many ways, there is no better day then Opening Night for an NBA season. For one day, everyone is equal. Every team – whether it’s the San Antonio Spurs or the Philadelphia 76ers – will start with the same record: 0-0 and LeBron James will be as close to an MVP award as Hasheem Thabeet. All slates are clean and all the canvases are empty. Starting tomorrow, every team and every player will get a chance to paint in their own destinies.

But once we look past the fog of change, refreshed outlooks, and optimism, what do we see? Here are my predictions for the 2014-15 NBA season, where I predict that – after the reloading and the returns – the final winner will be a repeat performance.

Click here to read the full feature.

Oxymoron: Russell Westbrook is Basketball’s Walking Contradiction

This feature was first published in 131st edition (2014 - No. 10) of SLAM China magazine. Here is my original English version of the story.

There goes Russell Westbrook, grabbing a rebound, sprinting frantically down the floor, and expertly dropping the ball into Kevin Durant’s hands for an easy two points.

There goes Russell Westbrook, turning an easy pass into a turnover.

There’s Westbrook taking and missing a contested, ill-advised three-pointer, when two of his teammates are wide open for better shots.

And now, here he is attacking the basket, getting to the free-throw line, and tying the game to take his team into overtime.
In overtime, there goes Russell Westbrook converting a tough lay-up to give the Thunder the lead in Game 6 of the Conference Finals, with his team facing elimination against the Spurs, and just two and a half minutes remaining on the clock.

But with 42 seconds left in the Thunder’s season, there is Westbrook attempting another go-ahead shot, only to see it blocked by the outstretched hands of Kawhi Leonard. The Thunder never get a chance again, and the game, the series, as well as their season, ends less than a minute of basketball time later.

Welcome to the complete Russell Westbrook experience. A scorer in the guise of point guard. A passer in the guise of an athletic shoot-first player. Called selfish for not creating enough for Kevin Durant. Called selfless for taking a step behind the spotlight of Durant. Loved by many and hated by a lot. Welcome to the world of the most complex and polarizing star in the NBA today.

The above moments – all from Game 6 of the 2014 Conference Finals – offered all aspects of the Russell Westbrook experience. They showed the jaw-dropping moments and the frustrating ones. Westbrook was the player who helped the Thunder get this far but also the player who made several mistakes to hurt his own team. It was his unpredictable play and his fighting spirit that kept his team in the game until the last seconds. But it was also the same unpredictable style that many blame for the Thunder’s lack of cohesion.

So who exactly is the real Russell Westbrook?

To close followers of the game, the story is by now very well known. Explosive guard out of UCLA is selected with the fourth pick in the 2008 draft by the Seattle Supersonics. Before he can play a minute for his home team in Seattle, the entire team picked up and relocated to Oklahoma City to become the Thunder. For Westbrook, a defensive specialist in college, there seemed to be no set position on the offensive end. He shot the ball too much for a point guard, but dribbled too much for a shooting guard. Is he a scorer or a creator? An offensive force or a defensive specialist?

The team began their first season in Oklahoma City 3-29 and finished with just 23 wins. But there is hope.

A year later, the core of young players lead the Thunder to a dramatic turnaround and compiled a 50-win season. They lost in the First Round of the playoffs after giving some headaches to eventual champions Lakers. A season from then, Westbrook made his first All Star appearance and began to legitimately find his name among the NBA’s top players. His numbers rose across the board and his team shot up to the Western Conference Finals.

But with a rise in prominence there is also a rise in notoriety. For every staunch supporter, there was now a vocal critic. As he rose in the spotlight, the glare also revealed his weaknesses. His inability to be pigeon-holed by position or style. His passion overtaking his sensibilities. But it is the same passion that made him special. And so the two opposing forces pull him in different directions, giving birth to an exciting, yet unpredictable NBA talent.

A year later, at just 23, Westbrook and the Thunder were in the NBA Finals. The pendulum swung the other way again, as the next season, Westbrook got hurt in the playoffs and his team couldn’t make it past the Second Round. And a few weeks ago, we saw them lose to the Spurs in an overtime loss in the Conference Finals, closing the chapter of yet another season unfulfilled.

This is the Russell Westbrook that we know today. The three-time All Star, the three-time member of the All NBA Second Team, and one of the best guards – positions be damned – in the league today. This is the Westbrook that has made his team one of the strongest and most-feared in the league.

Are we forgetting something? Or someone?

The story of Westbrook so far is impossible to tell without the story of Kevin Durant. That same Kevin Durant who was the Sonics’ original building block before Westbrook was drafted and the team became the Thunder. The same Durant who has led the league in scoring four of the last five seasons, while also somehow morphing into one of the most efficient shooters of our time. The Durant who came into the league with promise of becoming a game-changer, and then has gone on to deliver on that promise by a young age. The Durant who justifiably won the NBA’s MVP award this season.

Westbrook’s own legacy is complicated by the man with whom he shares the court. Both players need each other to thrive in the NBA, but most experts believe that, ironically, they are not suited to play together at all. Their styles clash. One is the quiet, efficient assassin, with the capability of turning any system into a winning system. The other is the turbo-charged monster, whose command on the ball becomes the system itself.

Westbrook is sorely missed when Durant fails by himself, but he is blamed when the Thunder fail with the two on the floor together. Durant earns high praise – deservedly – for OKC’s successes, but praise for Westbrook is reserved more for his possession-by-possession brilliance instead of his impact on the entire game.

There are two divergent schools of thought with Westbrook. The ‘Let Westbrook be Westbrook Team’ believes that a player of his prodigious talents shouldn’t be caged in with traditional definitions of NBA positions and tactics. He was the only player in the post-season to be top four in both scoring (26.7 ppg) and assists (8.1 apg). Beyond the stats, he motivates his team with his much-needed passion. Durant is the ever-constant working engine, the remixed Tim Duncan for the new generation. But Westbrook is the fire that can ignites the team in ways Durant’s quiet style rarely does. Westbrook may or may not be a great point guard, but there is no doubt that he’s a great player.

But there is the other school of thought which believes that, for Thunder to finally turn their championship potential into actual championships, the ball has to go through Kevin Durant more often and there needs to be a quick-passing system of offense around him, which could only happen with a diminished role for Westbrook. For Durant and his other talented teammates like Serge Ibaka to reach their full offensive potential, they need a true point guard to set plays, find the open man, and keep the ball moving. Despite his talents, Westbrook is not that player. He is prone to taking more shots than Durant, many of which are ill-advised. He is prone to turnovers or turning a blind eye to open teammates. He is prone to doing the very things that make him great, and the same things that make him a problem. He is prone to ‘Being Westbrook’.

In the Second Round of this year’s playoffs, the Thunder faced the Los Angeles Clippers, and Westbrook went directly against the man who currently serves as the model citizen of their position. Although he was suffering with minor niggles, Chris Paul is widely regarded as perhaps the best point guard in the league, a true team-first player who helps to make his teammates better, rarely turns the ball over, leads by example, and can be a devastating scorer when the moment calls. The Thunder got the best of the Clippers in the series, but Paul could be a reminder to Westbrook of how effective he could be if he honed his energy and intelligence in the right direction.

Westbrook and Durant are still young players with the primes of their careers in front of them, but their window of opportunity won’t last forever. With their talent, they will be expected to challenge for championships for years to come. But, the question once again comes around to their co-habitability. The two superstars make for a great team together, but can they truly make an NBA champion?

The onus will be not only on the two stars to redefine their gams to make the most of each other’s abilities, but also on the team’s coach to get more creative with his offensive sets to create easier scoring opportunities for all the players on the court. Having Westbrook as a starting point guard for any coach is a challenge, but the challenge can reap huge rewards if his skills are harnessed the right way.

The complete Russell Westbrook experience is a rollercoaster, delighting and disconcerting from one possession to the next. He gambles on defense, but can be a menace defensive when he is dialed in. He takes too many shots, but is unstoppable when those shots start falling. He commits too many turnovers, but he can attract defensive attention away from his teammates and help create shots for others. He’s a superstar who is accused of taking shots away from the league’s MVP, but he is also someone who makes life easier for the same MVP.

Westbrook has the potential of becoming something special: a new generation hybrid player, with the skill-set and ability that we have never seen before. He’s nearly there, and his on-court evolution from this point on will determine his legacy. Will he always struggle to find the balance between a scorer and a passer? Or will be become that perfect scoring and passing hybrid, the first player with a real chance of leading the modern NBA in both points and assists after Tiny Archibald did it in 1973?
In his emotional MVP speech, Kevin Durant saved his note for Westbrook for the very last among his teammates. And it was for good reason. Despite the apparent differences between them, the two are as close as any teammates in the league, and are determined to grow and succeed together.

“I don’t take it for granted,” Durant told him in his speech, “There’s days that I just wanna tackle you, and tell you to snap out of sometimes. I know there’s days you wanna do the same thing with me. I love you man… A lot of people put unfair criticism on you as a player and I’m the first to have your back, man, through it all. Just stay the person you are… You made me better… You’re an MVP-caliber player. It’s a blessing to play with you.”

Durant’s words of support for his prodigious teammate say it all. Westbrook is imperfect, and he and Durant are imperfect together. But they make each other better. And for the foreseeable future, the camaraderie that they have among each other is unlikely to be broken off. So all they have left to do is try and make it work, to try and fit the imperfect pieces of the puzzle into a perfect result.

The Thunder couldn’t get that perfect result this season. By the time Game 6 of the Conference Finals ended in an overtime loss to the Spurs, they found themselves outclassed by a savvier, more balanced squad. Westbrook ended up with 34 points, eight assists, seven rebounds, and six steals. He made 17 of his 18 free throw attempts. But conversely, he only made eight of his 23 attempts from the field, turned the ball over seven times, and was in foul trouble throughout. He helped his team a lot, but also hurt them a little.

It was yet another see-saw night from the league’s walking contradiction. But once the creases can be straightened and rough edges sharpened up, Westbrook can live with the contradictions if he starts walking towards a championship.