3 From Deep

January 3, 2026

‘3 From Deep’ New Year’s Edition

Happy New Year! I hope your holidays were filled with great company, food and many fond memories were created. So much has happened since Christmas in the NBA so let’s get the first 2026 ‘3 From Deep’ going:

1. ‘Oh no, NOT Jokic, too!’ Injuries to star players have been discussed ad nauseam over the past few seasons with the trend of some of the very best (Tatum, Haliburton, Kyrie, Lillard leading the high profile department) with innumerable other stars like Giannis, Anthony Davis (of course) and, again, an almost endless line of critical players missing chunks of time due to ankles, knees, pulls, strains, etc.

The collective gasp when Nikola Jokic went down with a knee issue was throwing gasoline on the IR fire. I literally think team executives, managers, coaches and teammates did not take a normal breath until the result of the MRI came back showing a strain with a 4 week initial window of recovery and re-evaluation.

This is terrible news for so many: The Nuggets, of course / The league as Jokic’s ridiculous level of play was creating a developing tsunami of a narrative (note the 56, 15 & 16 Christmas Game performance) about this never seen before type of season he was creating / Jokic as his 4th MVP was taking shape in spite of the also other-worldly season from SGA.

The threat to this award being deservedly given to the Joker is the rule put into effect by the NBA in 2023 that a player had to play in 65 games in order to be eligible. The irony is that the rule was put in place to discourage the ‘load management’ addiction teams and players were buying into which meant healthy players were ‘resting’ too much and therefore shouldn’t be rewarded come the ALL NBA designations. Double irony comes into focus because Jokic always played no matter what and never was part of the daycare mentality too many others took part in. Leaving us with the possibility that the MVP could be denied to him if he only played in 63 or 64 games. Unfair? Absolutely. Unavoidable? Maybe. Unfortunate? Disappointingly so.

Add on that Wemby has now had another scary moment against the Knicks and Jonas Valancuinas, Nikola’s heralded backup in Denver, went ‘AD’ and strained his calf in his first game as a starter in his place. The basketball gods are cruel…

2. Is San Antonio the best team in the NBA after defeating the historically hot starting OKC Thunder 3 times in 12 days? Nope! The Spurs then dropped 2 against Utah and Philadelphia, showing they are still learning and growing but extremely dangerous. They also provided interesting data for teams to compete with OKC. However, OKC is still the team to beat as they have been to the mountaintop and know what it takes to get there. The Spurs are perhaps a new version of the Thunder in that they have been built through surgical trades, excellent drafting over a period of years and a commitment to the patience required to let the results come through hard work. They made the NBA season a lot more interesting and the Thunder are no longer invincible.

3. NCAA athletics is in uncharted territory. The major sports are football and basketball and the landscape is like the buffalo stampede in ‘Dances with Wolves.’ There is nothing that is standing in the way of total anarchy and unpredictability as we move forward with NIL money, transferring with no consequences and now G League players being allowed to come and play college ball. The top 25 in men’s hoops are fantastic to watch but there are major issues that are going to need to be addressed as this has now settled into being true professional basketball and the notion of this being a platform for ‘student-athletes’ changing radically. U.S. government involvement is all but inevitable and that can never be good for anyone. We all hoped that time wouldn’t kill the ‘goose that laid the golden egg’ but many hear a lot of squawking behind the shed!

‘Hoop City with Paul Sir’ will return to Sports1440 and sports1440.ca on Saturday, January 10th, from 10am – noon. I look forward to getting back to talking hoops with you then.