‘3 From Deep’ Edition #1 – 2026
The new year has begun with some tectonic shifts causing a reading of about 7.7 on the Richter Scale. Here’s your Geology lesson for the day: The Mt St. Helen’s explosion in 1980 had a reading of 7.8 which is the equivalent of 500 megatons of TNT (and that is not the sports network!)
The point is that NBA seasons evolve meaning stuff is happening!
1. Air Out of the Thunder Balloon: Regular seasons are marathons, not sprints, as the saying goes. Along the way, teams, like athletes, may ‘cramp up.’ The San Antonio Spurs gave the Thunder a major charlie horse with their 3 consecutive wins but I don’t think anyone thought this would lead to a bit of an unraveling taking place. A loss to a resurgent Suns team is not a huge stretch over the course of a long season but a 27 point drubbing at home by the lowly Hornets? That is a head scratcher that was followed up by a squeaker with another non-powerhouse, the Utah Jazz. Here is a key point: They haven’t looked like the same team defensively and their offense has become even more SGA dependent. One of my observations has been that SGA is great in virtually every aspect of the game but the Thunder seem to be increasingly prone to standing and watching as opposed to moving off his attacks. The marathon notion stays relevant, however, because the Thunder have a couple of important pieces recovering from injuries so there should be brighter days ahead.
2. Speaking of ebbs and flows: – The Knickerbockers are struggling; teams are defending Brunson harder and KAT’s body looks a bit haggard – The Celtics are surging. Jalen Brown has been the best player in the league over the past few games especially since Jokic’s injury – The Spurs have been sputtering. Wemby is back and they should stabilize as long as he stays healthy. I think they play the most people on their roster consistently, BTW. Smart move for a young team to give game experience through the season to see who will be the most playoff ready – Portland is really fun to watch and are approaching .500 after a very slow start to their season. Avidija is producing triple doubles with some regularity and has led them to 4 straight wins including W’s over the aforementioned Spurs and the Rockets. Are they a threat to get to the play in spots? Their talent says possibly and there has been steady growth this season – The T-Wolves are now beating good teams with some regularity. Their bench is very thin but the top 6 are really good.
3. Trae Young is a Wizard and Atlanta didn’t get much for him. This isn’t ‘Luca-Trade-Bad’ as McCollum is still very good and Kispert is a solid bench piece. I don’t think that was the point of the trade, however. This was more addition by subtraction. The Hawks were winning without Young and seriously struggled with him so they will now see if they can get back on track. More importantly, they now have financial flexibility that puts them in an enviable position to shore up their ranks for next season. GM Onsi Saleh, who hails from Edmonton’s Ross Sheppard High School, is turning heads with his deal making acumen. – The anticipated sweepstakes for Giannis’s services seems to be a toothless tiger right now. Trading big pieces like this ain’t what it used to be. Luca’s deal cast a dark shadow on such moves plus the trend of surgical trades and building through the draft and development have become noteworthy trends. One more note on the G.F.: He is a loyal guy and his roots are deep in Milwaukee for his entire family. This is not your typical situation and he is not your typical superstar. I hope he is a ‘one jersey player’ for the Bucks!
‘Hoop City with Paul Sir’ returns to Sports1440, sports1440.ca and YouTube on Saturday from 10am – noon. We have a great show as we talk WNBA & the Toronto Tempo, the epic U of S Huskies match-up with the U of A Pandas (How often do you get #1 vs. #2 in the country in our city?) nad then we will do a Deep Dive with 2 local hoops legends on the NCAA season and ALL of the goings on in this fast changing landscape. NBA drafted players in college hoops? We will break it down for you.
Yours in basketball,
Paul
