Kiwi Steve in the NBA #4: Thirteen Jump Balls
Honestly, man, you write a full on article about how Steven Adams’ scoring doesn’t really matter and then the joker goes on a mini scoring streak. The point still stands (the point about points) but how about the timing of the fella?
More importantly he’s been rebounding excessively, dishing out his cheeky assists, and defending the lights out with a consistency that we hadn’t really seen from him in a Grizzlies jersey before. That’s all come at a time when the Grizzlies as a team have had this sudden explosion of form. Not a coincidence. Nine wins out of the last ten for Memphis has surged them up to fourth in the Western Conference with designs on getting even higher. Steven Adams has been a huge part of that. Ja Morant, on the other hand, has not. Because the most incredible thing about this run of form is that it’s immediately aligned with Morant’s sprained knee.
Across those ten games, the Grizzlies have:
The most rebounds in the league by almost three boards per game (50.2/g)
The most steals per game by almost three picks (11.8/g)
The most blocks per game (6.3/g)
The sixth best Offensive Rating (115.2)
The best Defensive Rating, including being the only team under triple figures (96.6)
The best Net Rating (18.6)
The best offensive rebounding percentage (34.1%)
The most points off turnovers (20.9), second-chance points (18.9), and fast break points (19.0)
They’re also second in points in the paint (55.6), the Spurs keeping them from the quadrilogy
Meanwhile they’re also giving up the fewest opposition second chance points (10.4) and the second fewer opposition points in the paint (37.8)
Their winning margins: 27 points, 7 points, 73 points, 7 points, 15 points, (lost by 8 points), 13 points, 7 points, 35 points, 10 points... for an overall differential of +186... from only ten games
They’ve been absolutely brilliant all of a sudden. Jaren Jackson is playing as well as he has all season. Desmond Bane and Dillon Brooks have stepped up further as scorers. Kyle Anderson’s had some lovely games off the bench. Steven Adams, of course, is in his best form yet with the team. You probably already noticed something about that list of standout stats: there’s a lot of defensive yarns in there. Offensively this team has varied from decent to great over this stretch but defence is where the major changes have happened. This team is playing hard and they’re locking it down.
Memphis had the worst Defensive Rating in the league (115.9) in the entire NBA prior to this hot streak and have had the best Defensive Rating ever since. It started with how well they’ve guarded the three-point line, a healthy Dillon Brooks no doubt helping on that front, and has stretched throughout the rest of the team from there. Blocks, rebounds, steals. And a starting front-court that is really starting to figure it all out as a combination...
Ja Morant is not a great defender. Him not being there has been a factor in this. However it’s a crazy notion to say that they’re better without their best player, this is more a case of the rest of the team realising they cannot rely on Ja for a couple weeks so they need to rally around his absence and do more themselves. Make up the difference through many hands making light work.
Morale of the story being that when Morant comes back there’s going to need to be flexibility both directions. Morant needs to adapt to what the lads are doing defensively without him and the lads have to find ways to still be as effective as they have been without Morant whilst integrating him back into the mix. It’s an exciting process. They’re doing this without their one surefire All Star. He’s gonna be back soon. Imagine what they can do if they can get it clicking with him.
As for Steven Adams, honestly, you have to think that a lot of this is as simple as him having played more games with these guys and learning where he fits in. Building chemistry. Making adjustments. The kind of stuff that makes the drastic assumptions that some people made about his fit with this team earlier on look absolutely ridiculous. NBA media is nuts. It’s a rat race to throw out these decisive takes as if a season isn’t a process where things get better as they go along, as though players can’t improve, as though tactics don’t change, as though rotations are always gonna be the same.
Coach Jenkins: “That was something we talked about when we acquired [Adams] in the summer and got to know him a little bit, studied the film, got him in early in the preseason, as he was building chemistry with his teammates. Obviously he’s an elite screener, you know, it frees up ball-handlers. The rolling ability. But the passing ability, the dribble hand-off ability, he’s just getting comfortable in our system. We try not to box anyone in or give them too much to do. We say just go out there and play. Here are the actions we’re trying to play out of, you make the right reads. More often than not he’s making the right read. I think it took him a little time to really get comfortable with his teammates. As teams are pressuring us he’s always making the right read, whether it’s setting a screen, getting out and slipping, or finding late passes. So it definitely diversifies our offence.”
Quite a bit going on in that quote but the key point is the coach literally admitting that it took some time for Adams to build this chemistry. And maybe he was a bit deferential while that was happening. Certainly the team was still trying to figure things out around him – it’s quite a young roster overall, Adams is literally the oldest guy to have taken the court for them so far. Two months older than Kyle Anderson. Dillon Brooks is third oldest at 26, here he is saying some nice things about Adams too...
Dillon Brooks: “Oh my God, it opened up our offence so much. Gives us easy baskets, gives us extra possessions and he's one hell of a player on defence. He's got great communication on both ends. He's been in the league for so long, he just understands it and his best trait is communication. You know, especially between me and him, we're on a great communication level and we understand each other. He just opens up the floor for us so much. I'm grateful to have him on our team. I know our coaching staff and our players are grateful. You know he's starting to finish now and get involved in the offence and he's a dangerous player. In the middle, he's our anchor and we put a lot on him and he's ready for the challenge every single night. And he's a warrior. You need that every single night and we are getting that every single night.”
That’s pretty emphatic. Reckon he probably knows what he’s talking about too, aye?
One Night In Miami
The Opening Tip
That was before the Miami game. Naturally he won the jump-tip there and then did the same against Dallas to maintain that streak. Then again versus the Lakers. And the Rockets. Suddenly this was a thing that people were talking about. One game followed the next and the streak kept on going. Eventually StatMuse decided that their twitter profile pic would be a Steven Adams cartoon until the day when the streak finally broke.
Eventually that day did arrive... but not before it became this sneakily fascinating game within the game. The jump ball is only a little formality to get the festivities started but there is value to it. Win the first ball and you get the first shot. You also get automatic possession to start the fourth quarter which can be pretty handy in a close game or when there’s a comeback in the works. If there’s value to it, then it’s worth making the most of it. Steven Adams arguably more than anyone else in the league makes the most of the value of an opening tip jump ball.
See, he’s not just good at winning them. This streak didn’t come outta nowhere. He’s the best player in the entire NBA at winning them. Have a look at some numbers via the aptly named Other Basketball Stats website...
There’s nobody else near him. Here’s what that looks like in number form, ol’ Funaki is winning 83% of these bad boys which is the best mark of anyone with more than three total attempts. 29 out of 35. Keep in mind that there are two guys who compete for each jump ball. One wins it and one loses it so the average success rate is, by definition, 50%. And Adams is at 83%. Bonkers numbers.
The streak ended against the Philadelphia 76ers the other day, topping out at 13 consecutive games. Unlucky for some (though it was 14 in a row for overall jump balls as he won one in-game vs the Lakers). It ended in strange circumstances too because first of all Joel Embiid was named to play but pulled out late after feeling some discomfort in warm-ups (he was already dealing a rib injury) and in his place came Andre Drummond. Embiid’s season average is 69% (29 attempts) while Drummond’s is 71% (14 attempts) so probably a negligible difference even if they’re both very good.
Adams went up against Drummond, elbow crooked in stance as always, and he flipped that sucker back with the quick trigger movement for what appeared to be number 14... but the ref wasn’t having it. Called him back for going too early and then Drummond won the retake. Adams then lost the tip the following game against Jusuf Nurkic too. Two in a row, damn.
Bit of a stitch up how that happened but okay, whatever. We’ll always have these thirteen tips...
Did you notice in that vid how the Memphis commentary team on Bally Sports seem to have this regular patter going on as they introduce the refs each game? Buzzy one. It’s the same every single home game.
Pete Pranica: “And Brevin as you well know we have three officials”
Brevin Knight: “And they showed up on time”
Pete Pranica: “They have been assigned by the NBA”
So that’s something. Also something is this Fred Katz article for The Norman Transcript in 2018 which actually goes into a bit of detail on this exact jump ball scenario. Because winning jump balls is not something that Adams all of a sudden got good at recently. He won the second most tips in 2017-18 too and it was during that season that these words were written detailing the extra lengths that Steve-o has gone to since the start of his career to gain this advantage...
“Each official throws a jump ball a little differently — even if most have general fundamentals. No other NBA referee, however, lobs them quite like veteran ref Ken Mauer. Instead of standing between the two players vying for the tip, Mauer shades off to the side and lofts them from an angle, an approach he switched to after taking an elbow to the face in the middle of a jump ball years ago. Even in those odd, non-replicable situations, Adams has the advantage — if only because he’s prepared himself to a degree many other players wouldn’t go. When he first came into the NBA, he watched film not just of players but also of officials.”
According to that piece, Adams’ will tell you that winning the jump ball is not a matter of height but a matter of reaction speed. Stacks up when you watch the clips back. He seems to take it more seriously than most for one thing. Gets set into that partial crouch nice and early and doesn’t flinch until it’s time to go. Once or twice in there he and the other dude have a false start reacting to each other but mostly it’s how you play the ref, it seems. Whatever it is, it’s working.
By the way, remember how Andre Drummond broke the streak? Well later in that game Steven Adams broke his soul in return...
SLAM DUNKS
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