Preseason stats are for the birds.
Did you make all eight of your shots in an exhibition? Who cares? Did you commit six fouls in 10 minutes? Good thing no one paid attention.
But the trends, the style — that’s where NBA fans can learn about what’s to come.
Every once in a while, a pop of color will show up during the preseason. A young hopeful will arrive with a new dribble move or a new coach will implement a fresh offensive set.
The world has heard enough about offseason personnel changes, that Paul George is now on the Philadelphia 76ers or that the New York Knicks revamped their starting five. So let’s ignore the NBA’s major shifts and dive into what’s new in the actual games.
Let’s check in on five on-court themes that have caught my eye so far during the preseason:
The Hawks’ unrelenting pursuit of lobs
There is an extreme strategy underway in Atlanta. Whenever Jalen Johnson, who missed a chunk of last season, or Larry Nance Jr., who is new to the mix, is on the court, whoever has the basketball has no choice but to flip it near the rim and pray that one of them will corral it.
It is not a Hawks preseason game if it’s not littered with zealous lob attempts.
Occasionally, there is reason for the Hawks turning what could be a normal pass into a lob. Trae Young and Johnson are dynamic pick-and-roll partners — and had Johnson played enough to qualify a season ago, their chemistry could have been enough to win him Most Improved Player. If Johnson rolls off a screen as Young gets by his man with a defense on its heels, the alley-oop is coming. But that was always a given.
Now, the Hawks are no longer holding back — in the most glorious of ways.
If Johnson or Nance is on the court — lord forbid both of them at the same time — Atlanta will loft up passes from any angle, no matter how unconventional. They don’t even have to reach the general area around the rim.
Look at this unruffled lob Young tried for Johnson on a side pick-and-roll during their exhibition against the Indiana Pacers:
Only one minute later, he tried this one to Nance.
The Hawks’ lob addiction belongs to more than just the newly bearded Young, who is one tweed jacket away from looking downright professorial. Whoever runs Atlanta’s offense now scurries around screens with eyes at the rim like never before. The adjunct’s backup, Kobe Bufkin, is tossing them up, too.
The Hawks are deeper than people realize. Once the roster is fully healthy, they have three capable centers — Clint Capela, Onyeka Okongwu and Nance — along with five minutes-deserving performers capable of playing on the wing or at the four. Johnson is the future. No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher has had impressive moments during the preseason. Bogdan Bogdanović is a top bench scorer. The organization has been excited about Dyson Daniels’ defense since the moment it acquired him in the Dejounte Murray trade. De’Andre Hunter is under contract for three more years. Capela is the vet. Okongwu remains the up-and-comer. Nance adds an element of speed to the offense. None of Atlanta’s other bigs finds screens or moves so swiftly into a dribble handoff after receiving a pass.
That’s how the Hawks get those lobs.
Someone will end up out of the rotation. A consolidation trade, maybe more than one, could come. But one thing that’s appeared true so far: When the right guys are on the court, the Hawks will turn basketball into a game of jackpot.
Isaiah Stewart, center
Finally, after years of anticipation, it’s happening. Isaiah Stewart is playing center.
The Pistons, who stockpiled big men over the past couple of seasons, had wedged Stewart into power forward until now. But playing him alongside Jalen Duren, Marvin Bagley III or James Wiseman was never conducive to his success. Stewart may be the height of a four, standing at an immovable 6-foot-8, but he deploys the skill set of a five.
He doesn’t take defenders off the dribble — and power forwards nowadays can’t just stretch to the 3-point arc. They also need playmaking skills. Stewart will hit a 3 (he shot 38 percent last season) but isn’t threatening enough to force defenders to guard him. It cramps spacing, possibly the most pressing issue the Pistons dealt with during their slog to 14 wins in 2023-24.
But displace that shooting from the four to the five, and all of a sudden, Stewart can make backup centers more uncomfortable. His off-the-dribble game is acceptable for someone in that role. Playing the five accentuates his best defensive traits, too. Stewart may be small for a center, but he is a linebacker and can switch onto perimeter players.
Detroit’s defense was convoluted last season. Maybe it can play more on a string with a new coach, J.B. Bickerstaff, in town and with Stewart absorbing more minutes at the five, where he already looks more helpful than he did when the Pistons pushed him out of position.
The Suns’ defensive communication
Let’s stay in Michigan, where the Phoenix Suns just faced the Pistons at Michigan State and Cade Cunningham uncovered a red carpet.
Less than three minutes into the game, Cunningham ran a pick-and-roll on the right side of the court. But the two defenders in the action, Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, botched the assignment. Durant thought they were supposed to switch. Booker did not. The mishap gave Cunningham an unimpeded lane to the basket, which led to the decimation of Mason Plumlee, who had the audacity to contest the slam.
These are the gaffes Phoenix has to clean up, even if Durant and Booker, who have already played together for a year and a half, mishandled that play only a few minutes into their first exhibition. Come the games that matter, those mistakes have to go.
The Suns finished 13th in points allowed per possession last season, but they don’t have the rim protection to save them if the perimeter can’t squash dribblers. It appears that a rookie, Ryan Dunn, could help on that front. Dunn is already using his length to stifle the best of the best. Not many wings in existence can stay in front of a dribbler without crossing their feet, disallowing that guy from getting to the rim and poking the basketball out for a steal in the process. Dunn has already done that in the preseason.
He’s hitting his 3s, a question mark heading into the draft. If he can shoot well enough to play, Phoenix has help on the perimeter, along with Grayson Allen and Royce O’Neale. But it can’t commit those unforced errors.
The Minnesota Timberwolves swept the Suns out of the playoffs this past spring in part because of Phoenix’s self-inflicted wounds, which the Suns will have to do away with to climb near the top half of the Western Conference this season. (And Phoenix has a chance to get there after adding a couple of no-nonsense point guards this summer.)
They have a new coach who has encouraged a free-flowing offense. Mike Budenholzer will trim the pork. Phoenix finished 20th in defensive rebounding rate and 25th in turnover rate last season. Budenholzer-led teams never fall so low in those categories.
But to make noise, the Suns just have to eliminate the unnecessary mistakes, like when two veterans who should understand how to cover a Cunningham pick-and-roll veer the wrong way for no good reason.
Point DiVincenzo
Before fireworks between Donte DiVincenzo and Rick Brunson came sparks from the Knicks’ former guard. At halftime of an exhibition in New York, Timberwolves coach Chris Finch outlined some plays he believed DiVincenzo could edit come the third quarter. It took him only a couple of minutes to implement them.
Shortly into the period, DiVincenzo swerved right around a pick-and-roll with his former teammate, Jalen Brunson, guarding him, then cut left to the middle. This is a score-first guard’s ideal situation, pacing to the elbow with his defender behind him. Josh Hart was responsible for covering two Wolves on the weak side. DiVincenzo and his teammates recognized it.
Anthony Edwards relocated from the corner to the wing. DiVincenzo took his time with a dribble and found the All-Star, who rose for 3.
This is new for DiVincenzo — and not just because he’s been with the Wolves for only a couple of weeks. The big names in the Knicks-Timberwolves blockbuster included a couple of stars: Karl-Anthony Towns and Julius Randle. DiVincenzo was the third piece, the one who put it over the edge, a sharpshooter who drained the third-most 3-pointers in the NBA last season.
But Minnesota is banking on him doing more, one of many changes for a squad that will have to integrate Randle and iron out life without Towns. The Wolves could use DiVincenzo instead of Mike Conley Jr., one of the keys to their success a season ago, at the top of the offense.
DiVincenzo has always understood spacing, especially after earning a PhD in hooping during his one year alongside Stephen Curry. He became one of the league’s preeminent cutters last season, sometimes in the subtlest of ways. This was not just about scampering around screens or darting to the basket. Sometimes, while hanging in the corner he would realize that if he slid three feet right, it would open up a pass for him.
That’s court awareness, though a different type than he will need to show if he’s leading an offense, as the Wolves have him doing during the preseason.
“It all leads to IQ,” Finch said. “When he starts his attack, he has a pretty good plan of what his outlets are, what his plays are gonna be, his reads.”
Julian Strawther’s rim attacks
Strawther is not just a jump shooter — at least, that’s not the way he played during the Denver Nuggets’ first three preseason games.
The second-year wing has settled into one of three types of shots during October. He’ll spot up or pull up from 3; he’ll go all the way to the rim, where he has no problem bouncing off a defender and finishing layups at the funkiest angles; and he’ll lift off one leg a step away from the basket, lofting up a feathery floater that he’s even used to get and-1s.
Strawther had played in three preseason games heading into Tuesday night, and his mentality throughout each was apparent: attack at all costs.
The Nuggets are ping-ponging him all over the place. He’s the one deciding where to go once he receives the basketball. He’ll scramble around a dribble handoff with the option of rushing downhill or pulling up for a 3-pointer. He’ll mix up a defender off the dribble, then step back into a jump shot, never from mid-range. Every one of Strawther’s shots this preseason has been either a 3-pointer, a layup or a floater. The floaters come on the same types of drives that yield his ultra-physical finger rolls.
Denver needs this to continue.
The Nuggets watched Kentavious Caldwell-Pope walk during 2024 free agency, which opened up a spot on their perimeter. Christian Braun will start, filling in for the departed 3-and-D wing, but a domino effect follows. This team has always struggled, especially offensively, without Nikola Jokić on the court. Could Strawther be the one to prop up the offense in those moments?
He’ll receive the chance. And if he continues bouncing off whoever is in front of him on the way to the basket, he could show up as one of the league’s more improved players this season.
(Top photo of Donte DiVincenzo: Vincent Carchietta/Imagn Images)
