This Summer May Change the N.B.A. Forever

Stein: I decided to lead off by answering a basketball question because, well, this is a basketball newsletter. Even in the midst of an international crisis, our presumption here is that you want as much of the “usual” coverage as we can muster.

So …

Nurse certainly has the lead on my mythical ballot. The New York Times does not permit its reporters to cast official votes on year-end awards in any sport, but I agree with the case you laid out. The Raptors won 58 games with Leonard last season. No one pegged them to maintain a 59-win pace after he left and joined the Los Angeles Clippers in free agency and Toronto did not add anyone significant to try to replace him.

Yet as we typically see in the COY field, Nurse will face no shortage of competition when voting takes place — and, yes, I do expect awards voting to eventually go ahead, whether or not the N.B.A. season resumes. Nearly 80 percent of the regular-season schedule was completed.

Just don’t forget that Oklahoma City is on a 51-win pace after trading away Paul George and Russell Westbrook, which has to put Billy Donovan in top-three contention. Ja Morant, the runaway favorite for rookie of the year, gets most of the credit for the Memphis Grizzlies’ wholly unforeseen surge to No. 8 in the West, but Taylor Jenkins, the team’s rookie coach, has to be in the conversation, too.

Ditto for the Lakers’ Frank Vogel. Widely portrayed as a consolation prize after the team’s negotiations with Tyronn Lue collapsed last May, Vogel went into the coronavirus hiatus with the league’s second-best record (49-14) and a 5½-game lead atop the West over Doc Rivers’s Clippers.

The Lakers are ranked fourth in the league in offensive efficiency and third in defensive efficiency. Surprising as it is to see three teams in the top five in both categories — Boston and the Clippers join the Lakers on that short list, and Milwaukee is close (No. 6 on offense, No. 1 on defense) — I’d list Vogel as the strongest threat to Nurse given how well, amid much skepticism, he has acclimated to Lakerland.

Q: The N.B.A. will be hot this year because people are jones-ing for sports after not even a week. — @jeffster_ from Twitter

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/sports/basketball/nba-finals-coronavirus.html