Wolverines in NBA - Restart Primer

There are 8 Wolverines getting ready to restart their seasons with the NBA relaunch Thursday night. For those of you who don't really follow the NBA, but maybe are looking for any good reason to watch any live sporting event, here's a little recapper of who and what Wolverines.

Caris LeVert - Brooklyn Nets

Finally healthy Caris could be making a pretty big impact over the next week or two. The Nets are currently without their biggest names, Durant and Irving. But beyond that they are woefully limited. Caris has stepped up in a big way, and it's not gone without notice.

While I feel like he's a great glue guy and would set up his world famous teammates well, I think next season and beyond with the Nets would be a waste of his talents. KD and KI are heavy usage and ball dominant players. There's simply not going to be enough ball to go around. My hope is that he showcases his talents and ends up cashing in on a team where he can be one of the top two players.

 

Jamal Crawford - Brooklyn Nets

Signed a couple weeks ago to the Nets, JC has a chance to play along side fellow Wolverine Caris LeVert. The Nets are bringing him along slowly as he hasn't played in about 15 months and is 40 years old. Crawford did not play in any of the preseason Nets scrimmages.

The Nets are fighting to hang onto the last spot in the playoffs. With a lineup ravaged by injuries and non-participating players, Crawford was signed to fill out the bench. We'll see how much meaningful time he registers.

 

Tim Hardaway Jr - Dallas Mavericks

At the beginning of the 19/20 season THJr was struggling to find his footing with the Dallas Mavericks. Shortly before the season was put on hold THJr was moved into the starting lineup and really found his footing, averaging 17 ppg. He's shooting around 40 from 3 on the season and in the preseason scrimmages, his shooting has been right near that. A lot of Timmy's resurgence can be attributed to the fact that everyone around Doncic improves.

If you're looking for a team to follow, the Mavs are a fun squad. Two Michigan players. Luca and KP are great to watch. 

 

Trey Burke - Dallas Mavericks

Burke has played in Rick Carlisle's system over the past couple of years. He was re-signed pre-restart to the Mavericks to help fill out their bench after Cauley Stein opted out of the bubble. 

Trey could get some minutes. He's a weird NBA player because he's small and he shoots mid-range jumpers. Small guards who shoot mid-range jumpers basically don't exist in the modern NBA. Which is probably why he's bounced around most of his career. In the Mav's last scrimmage Burke played 22 mins grabbing 9 points and 3 assists.

 

Duncan Robinson - Miami Heat

The best story in the NBA of recent note by far. We obviously all know D3's rise from a D-3 athlete to a B1G starter. He then spends some time in the G league before launching himself into national acclaim this year. Before the season ended he was on track to shatter some rookie shooting records (even after starting late). 

Now D3 is a major part of Miami's offense. Robinson hit five 3s in the Heat's first scrimmage back, so it appears that he hasn't forgotten how to shoot since March. My personal favorite was the fifth three.

 

 

Mo Wagner - Washington Wizards

This season Wagner split a lot of his minutes with Davis Bertans. Bert has opted out of the restart, but Mo is still going to be fighting for minutes with guys like Isaac Bonga. In a recent scrimmage with the Clippers Wagner looked particularly horrible. Wo looked lost on the court, and his defense was downright atrocious, he shot 1 for 7. That said, he's shown flashes of something that could be pretty good this year, but he's going to need to get a lot more consistent, and learn how to play some D if he wants to stay in the league.

 

DJ Wilson - Milwaukee Bucks

Wilson has a lot of unmet potential, and it's likely the Bucks will be giving up on him after this season unless something spectacular happens for DJ during this playoff run... and that's highly unlikely. Honestly, DJ has been in the best spot. A tall lanky guy who can shoot, get down low a bit, run the floor, should be the perfect guy to spell Giannis for 10 minutes a night. Best case scenario would be to play along side Giannis and help spread the floor outside. But none of that is a reality. Even though it looked good on paper Wilson just hasn't panned out.

 

Glenn Robinson III - Philadelphia 76ers

GR3 started the year with the wreckage team known as the Golden State Warriors. But he did what he was supposed to do, putting up solid numbers on a super shitty team. Way better than his recent stints riding the bench for 48 minutes in Detroit and Indy. GR3 was traded to the Sixers back in February.

For the Sixers he was still trying to find his groove before the season ended. He was averaging 8 points, 2 rebounds and an assist in around 18 minutes a game. If he can shoot and do some glue guy work he'll see more time. Right now he's working back into shape after a hip pointer last week.

 

 

From Thursday until Aug 14, each team in the NBA bubble will be playing 8 games. Some are vying to get into the top 8 teams per conference that will start the playoffs. Others are vying for seeding and to just get warmed back up.  Most games will be on ESPN, many on TNT the NBA Network. Here's a link to the TV schedule:

NBA TV SCHEDULE