Forgettable NBA

Where burly bruising meets finesse finishing.

Many sanguine NBA fans in the early 2010s were confident that Sullinger would pan out. But conditioning concerns, and a fifth metatarsal injury, ultimately intervened with his NBA longevity.

Jared’s post game was a backet-to-the-basket/face-up amalgam, and conspicuously hinged entirely on his right hand. On the left block, he predictably swept across the split-line parallel to the baseline for a quasi-running hook. On the right block, it was a snug spin over his left shoulder for a righty teardrop. A brawny big relying heavily on touch rather than power.

Sully was a floor spacing big whose threat as a jump shooter was always more theoretical than it was in actuality (career 27.2% from deep). 23% of his career 2PT FGAs came on long twos beyond 16 feet (a so-so 42% on said looks). His shot profile, coupled with the corresponding inefficiency, put his quest for playability on the backfoot.

After an injury-addled 2016-17 season in Toronto, Jared was traded and waived. He headed to China and never looked back. His debut season in the CBA, Sully posted 30.4 PTS, 16.7 REB & 3.9 AST on .506-.362-.748 shooting splits. Jared is currently playing his 7th season in China boasting career averages of 21.2-12.4-4.1 on 35.7% from range. He won MVP in 2024.

The Box Score from the double featured Portland game:

Date: March 31st 2016
Score: Blazers 116 - 109 Celtics
Respective Records at this juncture: Blazers 40-36, Celtics 43-32

Interesting (and uninteresting) Statlines:
Al-Farouq Aminu - 28 PTS / 9 REB / 3 BLK / 11-19 FG / 6-11 3PT
CJ McCollum - 17 PTS / 5 REB / 8 AST / 8-19 FG
Gerald Henderson - 15 PTS / 5 REB / 5 AST / 6-11 FG
Damian Lillard - 14 PTS / 4 AST / 3-16 FG / 7-8 FT
Mason Plumlee - 11 PTS / 6 REB / 4 AST / 3-6 FG / 5-8 FT
Mo Harkless - 9 PTS / 10 REB / 2-7 FG
Allen Crabbe - 11 PTS / 3-6 3PT

Isaiah Thomas - 22 PTS / 6 REB / 6-21 FG / 4-7 3PT / 6-9 FT
Avery Bradley - 20 PTS / 8-18 FG
Jared Sullinger - 10 PTS / 10 REB / 5 AST / 4-8 FG
Evan Turner - 14 PTS / 4 AST / 6 Stocks / 4-8 FG
Jae Crowder - 13 PTS / 10 REB / 5-11 FG / 2-8 3PT
Amir Johnson - 12 PTS / 9 REB / 4-6 FG
Marcus Smart - 6 PTS / 5 REB / 4 AST

A virtuosic three-level attacker.

Jonathan Gibson’s basketball journey has been simultaneously topsy-turvy and riveting. Originally a Californian and a collegiate product of New Mexico State (Pascal Siakam’s alumni), his career began internationally in Turkey after his 2010 NBA draft hopes went unfulfilled.

After 5 seasons in Turkey, Israel, Italy, and China, he took the bull by the horns at age 28 during the 2016 Summer League after an invite from the Mavs (17 PPG in 25 mins). He survived the training camp crucible and mustered 17 games with Dallas over a 6 week stretch to start the 2016-17 season but was waived in December.

The following season, Boston onboarded him for the final week / 4 games of the regular season - though his Celtics tenure would not extend past that point. An NBA fling that totalled just 21 games (7-1-1 in 13 MPG on 42-37-72 splits). Even still, he showcased his offensive dynamism at every turn.

Gibson has spent the lion’s share of his basketball life in China’s CBA. Across 8 seasons, he has amassed 247 games with career averages of 30.2 PTS, 5.6 REB, 4.3 AST & 1.5 STL on .457-.390-.857 shooting splits. His best season came in 2015-16 where, in 36 contests, he averaged 42 PTS, 7 REBs, 5 AST & 2 STL on 4.9 made threes per game at a 41.3% clip. He has won a total of 3 scoring titles in China and Turkey.

I’ve harped on about what I call the “Small Guard Paradigm” before (notably with Kay Felder) - diminutive guards who the NBA discards solely because of their stature (or lack thereof) & establish themselves as premiere talents globally. Players whose game is predicated on speed and shot-making and have navigated the rigors of an overt size disadvantage throughout their hoops ascent.

Gibson fits that bill and is must-see TV. Like the Kay Felders, Bryce Cottons, Russ Smiths, & Carlik Jones’ of the world, Gibson is too quick, too skilled, and too dynamic for second-rate defensive schemes to contain without relinquishing single coverage and overloading in help to counteract them.

The NBA is an ever-crowded environment with an influx of talent annually, but it is gladdening that JG got his time in the limelight.

This might be my magnum opus (so far).

Final form Forgettability. It’s been months since I’ve hit you with a deluge of lowlights and rim-rattling misfires, but as MY Aotearoa brethren Six60 proclaimed, we can’t forget our roots.

It only made sense to expand the “Every FG of Player X extending/cutting the lead to Y” shtick to missed field goals, and who better to pilot its feasibility than the Lakerland departee himself. Serendipitously, there were exactly 23 instances of LBJ missing a FG while down 23 in the Lakers uniform.

These videos always feature a handful of comments lending far too much credibility to my technological acumen, stipulating that I use AI to neatly scrape and source each and every one of these clips. I can assure you that I am simply a man with a StatHead subscription and a willingness to take an extra 15-20 minutes out of my day to track them down.

I’ve been writing and making content on Court Hype - Ethan Ward 🏀🇳🇿 for the better part of a decade, suffice to say I enjoy the process just as much as the end result (although the ever-growing community we are building here is a splendid capstone to the hours spent behind the scenes). Commitment over convenience.

The Box Score from LeBron’s double-flubs in Phoenix (the second pair without the blindingly yellow floor):

Date: March 13th 2022
Score: Suns 140 - 111 Lakers
Respective Records at this juncture: Suns 54-14, Lakers 29-38

Interesting (and uninteresting) Statlines:
Devin Booker - 30 PTS / 10 AST / 4 STL / 12-25 FG / 4-10 3PT
Deandre Ayton - 23 PTS / 16 REB / 11-14 FG
Mikal Bridges - 18 PTS / 6 REB / 8-13 FG
Aaron Holiday - 12 PTS / 5 REB / 4 AST / 4-9 FG
Jae Crowder - 11 PTS / 5 REB / 4 Stocks / 3-8 3PT
Torrey Craig - 11 PTS / 8 REB / 5-8 FG
Cameron Payne - 9 PTS / 4 REB / 11 AST / 4-10 FG
JaVale McGee - 10 PTS / 4-4 FG

LeBron James - 31 PTS / 7 REB / 6 AST / 10-20 FG / 5-11 3PT / 6-7 FT
Carmelo Anthony - 18 PTS / 6-11 FG / 4-7 3PT
Malik Monk - 13 PTS / 4 REB / 4 AST / 5-10 FG / 2-4 3PT
Russell Westbrook - 13 PTS / 5-10 FG
Austin Reaves - 10 PTS / 4 REB / 2-4 FG / 5-6 FT
Avery Bradley - 9 PTS / 3-3 3PT
Dwight Howard - 2 PTS / 5 REB
Talen Horton-Tucker - 3 PTS / 1-8 FG

0-82 in 82-0 attempt No. 1 (may try the 41-41 challenge from now on if this team is winning 10 games💀)

The second coming of J-Rich.

I am almost a week late to the congratulatory J-Rich party following his official retirement from pro basketball on July 30th.

Josh orchestrated the type of career most young prospects strive for - 10 consecutive seasons, double-digit scoring, starter-status more often than not, the chance to play alongside some of the world’s mightiest studs.

Archetypally, Richardson is what I like to call an “On-Off Guard” (If could patent this term I would have done so already, but I certainly have receipts somewhere in the Court Hype - Ethan Ward 🏀🇳🇿 archivium) - an off-guard whose on-ball prowess exceeds that of your typical secondary ball handler. Initiative that goes far beyond straight-line drives and closeout attacks.

A 2015 second-round gem (in true Heat Culture fashion), J-Rich capped out at 16-4-4 during his age 25 season. He was thrown into the Playoff fire immediately as a rookie on the curiously competent, albeit seemingly jury-rigged, 2015-16 Heat that came within a game of the Conference Finals without Chris Bosh. A roster that included D-Wade, Iso Joe, Luolv Deng, Amar’e, Josh McBob, but we’ll save that for another day.

He quickly parlayed the A-list tutelage into a starting role and flourished under Spo until 2019. Single-season (and fewer) stints as a Sixer, Maverick, Celtic, Spur, and Pelican followed before a return to South Beach put a bow on his NBA odyssey.

The Box Score from the first game winner:

Date: January 7th 2018
Score: Heat 103 - 102 Jazz
Respective Records at this juncture: heat 22-17, Jazz 16-24

Interesting (and uninteresting) Statlines:
Josh Richardson - 14 PTS / 7 AST / 4 Stocks / 6-11 FG / 2-4 FT
Goran Dragić - 16 PTS / 6 AST / 6-18 FG
Hassan Whiteside - 14 PTS / 10 REB / 4 BLK / 5-11 FG
James Johnson - 13 PTS / 11 REB / 6-12 FG
Tyler Johnson - 16 PTS / 7-13 FG
Kelly Olynyk - 12 PTS / 4-8 FG
Wayne Ellington - 9 PTS / 3-6 3PT

Donovan Mitchell - 27 PTS / 12-25 FG / 3-10 3PT
Rodney Hood - 17 PTS / 7-16 FG
Thabo Sefolosha - 13 PTS / 6 REB / 3 STL / 4-4 FG
Derrick Favors - 11 PTS / 10 REB / 4-10 FG
Joe Ingles - 9 PTS / 8 REB / 3-7 3PT
Joe Johnson - 9 PTS / 7 REB / 4-8 FG
Ricky Rubio - 4 PTS / 5 REB / 6 AST / 0

Back when the mid-range still had its allure.

Jon Leuer was largely caught between eras. He successfully endured the 3PT revolution, quietly stringing together a handful of seasons as a trusty backup four, but never quite hung on long enough to reap the benefits. 36% of Jon’s career FG attempts came on 2PT jumpers beyond 10 feet. A statistical mark that a few short years later would have been emphatically rebuked for any low-usage big.

Leuer was an aesthetically rigid mover but deviously fluid north-to-south. While he did not exclusively make his muster below the rim, he certainly fell under the ground-bound umbrella. He was a halfcourt valve who predominantly made his living in slow-it-down, grind-it-out systems where he could operate on the margins - spotting up along the baseline, slinking into seams to hit the O-Glass, setting picks and fading high.

He entered the league a stretch four out of Wisconsin but wound up being deployed inside-the-arc, only firing more than 2 threes per game in a single season. Had he taken the professional plunge a decade later in the early 2020s, he mandatorily expands his range and slides to the five full-time.

Leuer’s shot diet emblematic of the mid-2010s Grizzlies ethos - a blue collar title-hopeful that tripled down on their identity and refused to remedy their dire 3PT shooting woes.

The Box Score from the second clip (shoutout to the all-too-often disparaged Brandon Knight):

Date: December 23rd 2015
Score: Nuggets 104 - 96 Suns
Respective Records at this juncture: Nuggets 12-17, Suns 12-19

Interesting (and uninteresting) Statlines:
Randy Foye - 31 PTS / 6 AST / 12-27 FG / 7-16 3PT
Darrell Arthur - 19 PTS / 10 REB / 3 Stocks / 9-14 FG
Will Barton - 17 PTS / 9 REB / 5 AST / 7-15 FG / 3-5 3PT
Nikola Jokić - 13 PTS / 9 REB / 5-7 FG
Kenneth Faried - 11 PTS / 6 REB / 3 BLK / 5-7 FG
Kostas Papanikolaou - 9 PTS / 5 REB / 4 Stocks / 2-6 FG

Brandon Knight - 21 PTS / 4 REB / 10 AST / 8-18 FG / 4-6 FT
Jon Leuer - 18 PTS / 10 REB / 9-18 FG
Ronnie Price - 20 PTS / 7-13 FG / 6-9 3PT
P.J. Tucker - 8 PTS / 13 REB / 3-5 FG
Eric Bledsoe - 9 PTS / 5 REB / 7 AST / 4 STL / 2-11 FG / 4-5 FT
T.J. Warren - 5 PTS / 5 REB / 2-7 FG

A smooth mover through and through.

The optics of Ray McCallum’s offensive game were always alluring. Dictating pace off-the-dribble and slinking inside the arc off ball screens and dribble handoffs, McCallum was as judicious as he was fluid.

Only 11% of his NBA field goal attempts came from elbow/nail range (10-16 feet), but it was a lever he could pull at a moment’s notice when afforded time and space to stop-and-pop. In this 10-pack alone he flashes a snake dribble, a Nash dribble, and the ol’ reliable one-dribble reset.

Ray last grazed the NBA hardwood at the ripe age of 24 - amassing 154 games over 3 seasons in a Kings, Spurs & Grizzlies uniform. He and Willie Green are the only players to make it to the league out of Detroit Mercy in the last 45 years - the same school that Antoine Davis represented when he came painstakingly close (3 points shy) to breaking Pete Maravich’s NCAA scoing record.

After 2016 training camp dalliance with the Detroit Pistons & averaging 18-6-7 in the D-League for the Grand Rapids Drive, McCallum took his talents overseas while returning to the minor league for intermittent stints. Since 2017, Ray has played in Spain, Turkey, China (where he logged a career-best 22-5-6), Israel, Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Greece, and most recently in Taiwan for the 2024-25 where he put up 17-6-6.

Date: March 20th 2015
Score: Kings 101 - 91 Hornets
Respective Records at this juncture: Kings 23-45, Hornets 29-38

Interesting (and uninteresting) Statlines:
Rudy Gay - 33 PTS / 9 REB / 4 AST / 11-20 FG / 2-5 3PT / 9-10 FT
Reggie Evans - 4 PTS / 16 REB / 2-5 FG
Derrick Williams - 13 PTS / 4-8 FG / 4-6 FT
Omri Casspi - 10 PTS / 5 REB / 4-6 FG
Jason Thompson - 8 PTS / 8 REB / 4-8 FG
Ray McCallum - 8 PTS / 4 REB / 1 AST / 4-9 FG
Andre Miller - 7 PTS / 7 AST / 3-6 FG
Ben McLemore - 9 PTS / 2-4 3PT

Gerald Henderson - 20 PTS / 5 REB / 8-16 FG / 4-5 FT
Kemba Walker - 18 PTS / 5 REB / 4 STL / 7-18 FG
Al Jefferson - 17 PTS / 5 REB / 3 Stocks / 8-18 FG
MKG - 13 PTS / 7 REB / 5-9 FG
Mo Williams - 9 PTS / 4 AST / 3-15 FG / 2-8 3PT
Marvin Williams - 9 PTS / 3-4 3PT
Cody Zeller - 1 PT / 6 REB / 4 AST
Lance Stephenson - 2 PTS / 1-3 FG

2 for 2 ✅

Who would you have picked?

Playgm5.app for those wondering 🙌🏼

A flying start for a high-flyer.

Jordan answered the bell as a greenhorn for the title-defending Dubs with stratospheric expectations. Like Pat McCaw the year prior (uncannily, they were both the 38th pick), his level of play inevitably drew palpable “here we go again” energy. Another 2nd-round diamond in the rough who held his own in the Playoff crucible.

Bell had the entire kit and caboodle as a proactive rim reader - quick slips, duck-ins, leak-outs, weaponizing open space with downhill force. Most importantly, he possessed the robust frame, directional agility, and athletic markers that typified a suitable frontcourt partner for Draymond.

While merely existing in a Splash Bros-centric ecosystem brings inherent advantages and spatial luxuries, truly thriving requires every pillar that comprises “Basketball IQ” as we know it - halfcourt sense, snap decision-making, rotational processing. Jordan could innately read-and-react, while his dexterity and verticality married up perfectly as a lob finisher.

Bell had his wings clipped in the rotation with Boogie’s arrival in 2018, then the injury-hellscape of the ‘19 Finals preceded the dissolution of the Hampton Warriors as we knew them.

Jordan had brief run-ins with 4 more teams (& a 1-game GSW comeback) in search of a new home. He has played in the G-League, China and Puerto Rico since 2022.

The Box Score from the first defense-to-offense sequence:

Date: October 23rd 2017
Score: Warriors 133 - 103 Mavs
Respective Records at this juncture: Warriors 2-2, Mavs 0-4

Interesting (and uninteresting) Statlines:
Steph Curry - 29 PTS / 8 AST / 4 STL / 7-15 FG / 2-10 3PT / 13-13 FT
Kevin Durant - 25 PTS / 8 REB / 6 AST / 9-15 FG / 4-6 3PT
Klay Thompson - 21 PTS / 9-16 FG / 3-9 3PT
Draymond Green - 10 PTS / 7 REB / 8 AST / 4-8 FG
Nick Young - 13 PTS / 4-7 3PT
Andre Iguodala - 9 PTS / 5 REB / 4-7 FG
Jordan Bell - 6 PTS / 4 REB / 3-3 FG

Wesley Matthews - 19 PTS / 3 STL / 7-13 FG / 3-7 3PT
J.J. Barea - 13 PTS / 8 AST / 6-14 FG
Harrison Barnes - 13 PTS / 7 REB / 6-15 FG
Dirk Nowitzki - 11 PTS / 7 REB / 4-12 FG
Dennis Smith Jr. - 10 PTS / 6 REB / 3-11 FG
Yogi Ferrell - 13 PTS / 3-5 3PT
Dwight Powell - 10 PTS

2X Speed Alert 😂

It’s been awhile since you’ve seen my face or heard my voice, but the draught is over. Figured I would sprinkle in some live run-throughs of the many NBA/basketball games out there in the online ether.

Out of my usual wheelhouse so will pick up the pace in future 💀 but practice makes perfect 🙏🏼

Drop any recommendations for other games to try (HoopGrids and 82-0/0-82 on the horizon) or any commentary content you think I should delve into 🙌🏼