If I could be one NBA player for a day, I'd choose LeBron James. I'd want to experience what it's like to play at the highest level, lead a team, and perform in front of thousands of fans. It would also be interesting to see how he balances basketball, training, family, and everything else he does off the court. Getting to experience a day in his life would be unforgettable.

Is it more important to have one of the best players in the league, like a Shai, Giannis, Jokic, Curry etc

Or to have the best role players in the league like OG Anunoby, Aaron Gordon, Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Caruso etc

Naturally you need both, but which is more important?

If maybe Wemby goes down early because of his size/age and Harper/Castle are just in their prime when Wemby is past his ?

Good afternoon beautiful people. Recently published four stats:

• Offensive Load (LOAD) — inspired by Ben Taylor's intial aproximation now with tracked pot ast.
• Creation Turnover Percentage (cTOV%) — also inspired by Ben Taylor now with pot ast
• Usage-Weighted Relative True Shooting (UW-rTS)
• Points Added Above average (PAA/100)

LOAD

FGA + 0.555·FTA + potAST + 0.555·FT_AST

— volume of possessions that end via a player's own shot or shot created for teammate

CREATION% — LOAD can split into possessions ended by shooting vs by passing. Sister of USG

cTOV%

TOV / LOAD

— share of a player's offensive load lost to turnovers

Usage Weighted-rTS

usage% × relative TS%

— shooting efficiency scaled by volume.

PAA/100

2 × (TS% − lgTS%) × TSA/100

points scored above what a league-average shooter would have produced on the same attempts, per 100 possessions.

LOAD

this is the stat that started this whole binge. When I hear USG%, I think: how often is the ball in this player's hands? Not how often does their shot end the possession which is the actual definition:

Now USG is like this is for good reason. Doing it that way allows everyone on a team to have a summation. It allows the stat to sum to 100. With load, if you do an additive count of players on the team or even a starting five, you will get above 100%. As passing becomes tightly intertwined with shooting, double counting will happen. Though I don't think a stat like this needs to summate to a hundred, it can stand on his own relatively for comparison.

It also uses potential assists rather than just assists so players aren't punished for their teammates' conversion, simply measuring how often you are the catalyst for a shot.

LOAD — 2025-26 (n=166 qualified)

LOAD has value because it measures better via the box score, offensive hubs, rather than the most active shooters.

Who LOAD > just USG for seeing actual offesive resposibili

All-Time LOAD (tracking era, 2015–present)

cTOV%

With LOAD as a foundational stat, we can then see different offensive actions weighted or scaled by how much offensive responsibility a player has. In this case we have the amount of turnovers divided by the amount of generative possessions a player is responsible for.

The issue with Raw TOV% is that it divides turnovers by shots only, so it structurally punishes high-volume passers. cTOV% uses both shooting and creation in the denominator, measuring turnovers against true offensive workload

Safest seasons since 1998 (min 40 load)

A perfect case study for how cTOV is better than raw TOV is Chris Paul. Routinely ranked as average in terms of ball security if you just look at turnover percentage. Again it uses a tiny denominator of shots for a player who is much more pass-heavy than shot-heavy.

Prior art

To be clear improving USG and TOV are ideas that have been floating around the space for a bit. LOAD and cTOV are extensions of the beautiful work done by ElGee (Ben Taylor). Differences between the one that will be published on court-share.com/luma :

LOAD: instead of box creation as the creation input — (AST − 0.38·BoxCreation)·0.75 — it uses tracking data for Potential Assists (2014+), and a retuned free throw rate of 0.555 vs 0.44, as well as no TOV included in the formula (separated into cTOV only).

UW-rTS

This next stat is my favorite because it encapsulates what I set out to see. It was extremely simple. I didn't actually create it at all. I just merged two existing concepts. Usage Rate and Relative TS to fundamentally see the most efficient shooters scaled by volume in one number

UW-rTS best seasons since 1998 (top 15)

Curry is LOBOS, remember this is just an onball stat, doesnt take into account gravity

Simply his own shooting efficieny and volume prowess

Relative True Shooting is a great stat. Its only issue is that it can only be used as context. It doesn't tell you anything about the role of the player or what they're being asked to do.

RTS isn't able to separate a rim-running, low-usage bigs (2012 Tyson Chandeler at 12.46 rts on 12.6 usg) from 2012 Steph Curry's 12.34 on 31.4 usg) . It always needs to be shown alongside usage.

UW-rTS does this intuitively because it presents a number that takes into account the possession-by-possession production of the player. For every shot a player takes, they are taking a shot from someone else, more precisely, from a league-average shooter. Over a large sample of possessions, leading to real tangible effects on the score line and win columns

High-usage, high-efficiency players are rewarded far more than low-usage, high-efficiency players. On the flip side, high-usage, low-efficiency players are penalized far more harshly than low-usage, low-efficiency players.

UWRTS is probably the stat we want to use to quantify the balance between usage and efficiency, rather than the non-relative version. The non-relative version can be gamed by raw usage.

UW-TS correlates +0.956 with usage. (95%)

Compared to UW-RTS that only correlates +0.101. (10%)

I know this was a lot of writing. If you made it to the end, thank you so much. I'm very intrigued by the NBA and I'm creating a paper to go into some more details and validation I did on UW-RTS, its correlations, PAA per 100, all these other efficiency stats, and more intriguingly

The Kobe or more recenlty Brunson clause: where they may not be the most efficient, but whose raw shooting volume still provides value that would otherwise be lost if replaced by their teammates.

Full writeup: https://court-share.com/luma/blog/introducing-load

all of these stats except PAA per 100 can be found on my site: Luma Basketball Analytics

Not much going on in the sports world today and still a few weeks away from the start of training camp so just wanted to hear if anyone had any stories to share.

I'll start w/ some good experiences:

-Met Kevin Durant in 2012 at a Starbucks. He was super chill (at least at the time) and talked with me and my buddies for a few mins and even paid for our coffee and food.

-Met the Ball Brothers in Hawaii at a 24 Hour Fitness. Lonzo was more reserved but nice to all the fans, Gelo was a bit stand-offish, and Melo was still a kid but he was out of pocket saying crazy shit to everyone and talking even more shit to the randoms they were playing pick up with.

Bad experiences:

-This was in 2009 when I was still young and stupid in undergrad but I walked past Vladimir Radmanovic in Redondo Beach and said "what's up Space Cadet" and he told me to stfu and walked off. Looking back that was pretty stupid on my part but him being traded shortly after put a smile on my face lol

-2021-2023 lived in Brickell and would frequently see Jimmy Butler and his entourage at Grutman owned spots and out late at night. One night me and a group of guys ate at Komodo and were near Jimmy and his entourage + their girls and they weren't happy with some guys in our group being on their phones near them and would talk shit and try to physically intimidate my buddies. I actually commented about this when I first joined reddit and said I wouldn't be surprised if Riley traded Jimmy because the guy does not give a shit during the regular season and I would constantly see him out late until the early mornings lol

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/1LJeEDR96f

Shai was coming off his 1st 30+ PPG (62% TS) season while making 1st Team All NBA

Trae averaged 25/10 on 57% TS and made the All Star team

Interesting how their careers have gone since this point

Whenever two Porter Jrs. play one another, I propose the creation of the Porter Jr. Belt, which the winner gets to take home and proudly wear to future Porter Jr. matchups.

For a game to qualify as a belt match, both players must appear in the game. Playoff games count. Matches between two Porter Jrs. where neither is the current belt holder have no impact on the belt.

Kevin Porter Jr. is the current belt holder, having won this prized possession on February 25, 2026. He was also the inaugural belt holder, defeating Otto in the first-ever matchup between Porter Jrs. on October 30, 2019.

Belt history

Overall Porter Jr. records

Craig has the highest winning percentage in games where both Porter Jrs. played, belt and non-belt matches included. Kevin has never won a non-belt match, all 5 wins coming in belt matches.

Other interesting tidbits

• Sadly, Otto has never held the belt and did not participate in another belt match after the inaugural challenge.
• Throughout the history of the belt, Craig has held the belt for a cumulative 353 days, Michael for 794 days, and Kevin for 1,351 days and counting.
• Two Porter Jrs. have never both appeared against one another in the playoffs. Denver faced Golden State in the 2022 playoffs, but although Otto appeared in all five games, Michael missed the series because of a back injury.
• There have also been other Porter Jrs. in college basketball, but I could not find any instances of two Porter Jrs. playing one another:
  • Terence Porter Jr. played for Charleston Southern and Canisius between 2019 and 2024.
  • Damion Porter Jr. played for Tarleton State as a freshman last season.
  • Kareem Porter Jr. played for Division III Keene State as a sophomore last season.
• The next potential belt match is October 31st, with Craig and Cleveland challenging Kevin and Milwaukee.

Jaylen Brown’s words from his stream on Sunday: >“if you go back to when I signed, I had all the kids behind me and I announced that I want to build Black Wall Street, and I told y’all I was gonna commit and invest to the city and that’s what we did and that’s what I’m continuing to do even beyond that but I’m looking forward to expanding that out. I want other athletes to see that, I want other athletes to feel that. Because the people that are representing or the people that are around some of our most influential players are steering them away.

>They’re steering them away from being in their community, steering them away from helping the people in the situation they came from because there’s no benefit for these people that represent so they’re like pushing you away, it’s super weird. It take a real strong mind and some courage to even go against it, cause they labeled me and said I had a disease. They called me the smartest person in the room and all this type stuff for just trying to uplift my community and showing respect to the places I came from. That’s all I talked about since I was 18 years old is my community, where I come from, and how I can positively impact. Then they create these narratives saying I’m the smartest in the room, Colin Cowerd, to quote one of his sources, said I got a disease. Like these people are crazy bro.”

Kyle Kuzma’s tweet in response: >“i hear JB frustration but this ain't it.

>1 most handlers around players don't know the first thing about building a business. and that's on US. we put our people in positions of power they were never trained for and act surprised when it goes left. accountability starts in your own circle.

>2 "invest in your community" sounds good until you break down what it actually means. buying your cousin a barbershop isn't community investment, it's a bill you'll be paying forever. any real advisor will tell you that. It’s really only buying real estate commercially that makes sense…

>3 and let's be honest about scale. rebuilding black wall street was never and should never be on athletes. there's about 20 black billionaires in this country. have they ever sat at one table to do something massive? I’ll wait…..

>make great investments FIRST. stack real capital. then your second and third wave is when you do the massive things…with enough weight behind your name to pull the city, the state, real partners into it with you.”

Last season when OKC was eliminated in Game 7 the post about it on Reddit became one of the most upvoted in this subreddit’s history. Now I don’t think this was the most hated team ever, I chalk that up to the social media simply being more readily usable than ever before. But it got me thinking about who that specific team would be?

While looking at previous draft classes on wikipedia, I noticed that some years had many players who never played in the NBA. I was curious, so I went through and counted them. Since 1989, when the two round draft was introduced, 264 people were picked by NBA teams, and then never played. As can be believed, the overwhelming majority of these (257) were second route picks, but there have been 7 first round picks that never played at all, as well. (Although one of these is a recent player who had an injury and might still play).
The way Wikipedia lists them, I don't know which were never signed, and which might have been on a roster but never appeared on the court.
The number of picks who didn't play was pretty consistent from the early 1990s to 2017, with about 8-12 of each class not playing. In 2017, it peaked with 16 of the draft class, more than 25%, not playing, and then it has gone down to 2-6 per year not playing.
I also didn't go into the biographical details, so I don't know which picks didn't play due to "skill issues", and who might have been injured, or a foreign player who chose not to relocate.

The main thing I take away from this is just how incredibly competitive the NBA is. There are only 60 openings into the NBA a year, and effectively less than that, since usually 10 of those players didn't even qualify to play a minute of garbage time. (*although just as there are drafted players who didn't play, there are many undrafted players who did play).

hope on pickfolio.us trust. Fantasy leagues r actually so much fun join my league pls. I’m a send the invite ot soon go on the site tho make an account

Los Angeles Lakers vs. Washington Wizards - 3/26/2019

Broadcast list:

TNT (English)

unknown (Spanish)

Tencents (Chinese)

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7556446/2026/09/01/kroenke-sports-entertainment-acquire-angels-anaheim-mlb/?unlocked_article_code=1.91A.yhIb.UKX8I0y0SN3a&source=user_shared_article&smid=ta-ios-share

Arte Moreno has agreed to sell the Los Angeles Angels to Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke, ending Moreno’s longtime ownership of the Major League Baseball franchise and adding to Kroenke’s large portfolio of sports teams.

The deal, announced Tuesday by Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, pending approval by MLB’s owners.

________

So that’s where the Peyton Watson tax money went.

"I had this conversation with Dwight. He said, 'Man, I thought you didn't like me.' I said, 'Dwight, you wasn't paying attention. I love you. You did stuff that I couldn't do.' I wanted to make you mad."

"Because I contacted one of your teammates, Jamison. I was like, 'Is he soft?' He was like, 'No, he's not soft.' I was like, 'Okay. He's not soft. All right.'"

I wanted to get him so mad and so enraged that he played at a high level. But he didn't understand that. So a lot of times when I'm criticizing you as a player, it must mean I like you."

Full quote
"I do think it's somewhat interesting that he changed agents this offseason. He hired Aaron Mintz from CAA. This last year, Mintz executed the trade for Trae Young away from Atlanta. Walker Kessler trade away from Utah. And Sabonis just hired him. He wants to get out of SAC."

You might have heard of this idea already, in fact, credits to the original r/nba thread by hckgod91 (and the Grantland article that further popularized it): what if we trace an unofficial champion or "belt-holder" through the NBA season and playoffs, like a boxing championship belt, king-of-the-hill style tracker?

And slightly different from all the other trackers available out there, what if we started from the 1st NBA game ever, and we don’t reset the belt to the NBA champion at the end of each season?

I made a website just for this:

https://www.unofficialchampions.com/sport/nba

Background / Answering a silly Reddit question

As a passion project, and in an attempt to build my first, basic website, I tried taking on this task which seems complex but approachable. This idea always intrigued me, the above posts plus the Unofficial Football World Champion made me curious as to who the unofficial champion for the NBA is (and the other major NA sports too). In case anyone is wondering, I did use VSCode and Github CoPilot to do a lot of the coding.

What are rules for this? In general, I'm following how the NBA treats its own history. The first game ever is the Knicks vs Huskies, where the Knicks won, and that's our inaugural unofficial champion. The BAA is part of NBA's history, but the NBL and ABA aren't. The franchise stats, which I also maintain, follow the NBA's official treatment as well in terms of relocation and expansions.

Like in boxing, most bouts can count for a championship, but not exhibition matches. In the NBA, regular season, NBA Cup, play-in, and playoff games can count for this unofficial championship tracker, but not exhibition and pre-season games. Sounds simple right?

All 7,504 Unofficial Title Bouts and 1 big hiccup

The Knicks are the inaugural champion, then promptly lose to the Chicago Stags on the next day, making the Stags our 2nd unofficial champion. Tracing all of this to the current day should be easy enough?

Wellll.... On March 29, 1947, the Detroit Falcons beat the Toronto Huskies 66-63 (you can search this in the title bout section). Then they promptly folded, never to play another game again. So the original belt... is lost?!

Yes! There's no other way around it. Like in boxing though, if a champion retires with the belt, the title is vacated and a new championship bout is scheduled. For our NBA games, there are practically two ways to set our next champion:

1) Set the Falcon's next scheduled opponent as the new defending champion. We treat the Falcons as forfeiting the bout.

But problem with this: I can't find the Falcon's next scheduled game since it's 80 years ago. I imagine I'll have the same problem when I compile the other sports.

2) Choose the next NBA game as the next title bout.

Also sounds like an easy solution, except, there are two games played on March 30, 1947, and I have no way of finding the exact start time. So I simply have to choose between the two games, which are:

A) Boston Celtics vs the Cleveland Rebels, watched by a measly 2,000 spectators in Cleveland, or

B) Philadephia Warriors vs the New York Knicks, at Madison Square Garden, attended by 15,152 people.

I think it's obvious which game should be set as our next title bout. (If you're curious about the other game, and why it doesn't really matter in the long run, go to the Alternate Lineages section.)

And so we're off, no more lineage breaks for the rest of NBA's history. After 70,000+ official NBA games, we reach the end of the 2025-2026 NBA season.

Our unofficial champion today is...

The New York Knicks

We've come full circle, haven't we. The original belt may be lost, but the replacement belt has carried on since the first season. If you're wondering whether the season always ends with the NBA champion, no, it does not. Scroll down to the Disputed Champions section to see it yourself.

Some fun facts / Ending

• While they've never won an official NBA championship, these teams have carried the unofficial championship into the off-season: Pacers, Clippers (x2??), Nets, and the Timberwolves. Sorry Suns, Hornets, Grizzlies, Pelicans, Magic and Jazz fans.
• Every NBA franchise ever (30 Active + 15 defunct) have participated in a title bout! Only the pre-1950 Denver Nuggets and Waterloo Hawks have never held the belt.

• Every active NBA team has held the belt in the last two years, except... the Washington Wizards?! The Wizards last defended the title on November 15, 2021. After failing to defend the title 2 days later, they have lost 14 bouts in a row as the challenger.

• I've set up an API to pull new games directly. This should hopefully last for a long time and the website can auto update.

• I'm partially done compiling the NFL, then NHL will be next. As far as I can tell, no one has ever attempted baseball... but I will try.

• Open to any suggestions, and even new sports to compile after the big 4 are done.

Credits / TLDR

In addition to the above people, credits to a Kaggle user, Eoin A Moore, for a mostly complete list of modern NBA games played, as well as Basketball Reference of course, which filled in the remaining games of the early NBA period.

TLDR Starting from the first game ever, if we find the winner, then trace the next team to beat them, and so on, until you reach today, we have the Knicks as both the official NBA champion, and our Unofficial Champion. I list all 7,504 games for free on the website, plus a whole bunch of interesting stats and facts!

Source - https://www.eurohoops.net/en/eurocup/2003803/thanasis-antetokounmpo-joins-aris-bc/

Thanasis played in a total of 34 games for the Bucks last season, averaging 1.4 PPG in 4.4 MPG.

This of course is regular season only