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Everybody be safe tonight, and we’ll celebrate another year of basketball greatness in 2025!
New Year’s Resolutions!
Twelve NBA resolutions for 2025, and one for us
Sick of making bad decisions about life, money, relationships or just where you buy your produce? Well, tomorrow is the start of a new day and a new dawn and, most importantly, a new year! A lot of people use the Jan. 1 calendar turn to start changing their lives, and it sticks sometimes!
What better way to ring in the new year tomorrow than to throw down some resolutions to follow. I’ve got six for teams in the East and six for teams in the West. I’ve also got one for us at the end!
Eastern Conference resolutions
- Knicks (23-10): Make Karl-Anthony Towns double his 3-point volume so he’s taking 10 per game instead of five.
- Magic (20-14): For the love of God, do whatever exercises and training you have to do to protect your obliques. We want to see Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner back!
- Bucks (16-14): Do not let Giannis Antetokounmpo start shooting jumpers. We’re all enjoying the Shaq version of him too much.
- Hawks (18-15): Please, just don’t be the Hawks again. You’re over .500 this late into the season, and it’s fun. Please, keep doing the good stuff.
- Heat (16-14): Spice up the trade deadline. Trade Jimmy Butler. Bring some absolute chaos into the mix. You don’t want to give him that next contract anyway.
- 76ers (13-17): “Get healthy and stay healthy” is too obvious. I want to see the Ben Franklin 2002 NBA All-Star Game figure brought in as the mascot.
Western Conference resolutions
- Rockets (21-11): Go trade for Butler before the deadline. I need a Butler-Ime Udoka tandem.
- Lakers (18-13): Make the big trade. Stop pretending you have two timelines to care about. Move the picks for another significant player.
- Timberwolves (17-14): Move Julius Randle to the sixth-man role and start Naz Reid at the four. It’s time to maximize the offense around Anthony Edwards.
- Spurs (16-16): Don’t let Victor Wembanyama go a single game the rest of the year without taking 20 shots. Feed him like he’s the gluttony victim in “Se7en.”
- Warriors (16-16): Get Steph Curry some help. This is ridiculous. Go get him Jimmy Butler. Move on from Jonathan Kuminga to do it. You don’t have two timelines. You have now. (Yes, we’re telling multiple teams to acquire Butler. Figure it out.)
- Blazers (11-21): Scoot Henderson has been hoopin’ like crazy lately, and I want to see as much of him and Shaedon Sharpe as possible in the fourth quarter.
And one for us!
You can already see this coming, but please let’s focus on the basketball on the court and stop collectively talking about TV ratings every four days. The product is really good right now. It can be better, but the basketball on the floor is worthy of our attention and conversation.
Just a reminder, there won’t be an edition of The Bounce tomorrow as we recover from the night before observe the holiday! I’d also recommend carefully watching the basketball on Wednesday as … players might be “observing the holiday” despite being on the court, as well. Celebrate safely and Happy New Year!
The Last 24
The King just won’t quit
👑 How long?! The now-40-year-old LeBron James apparently thinks he can play another five to seven years at a high level. Do you agree?
🏀 Thunder roll. In a poll from The Athletic assessing all front offices in sports, OKC ended up with the best score. Results here.
📺 Don’t miss this game tonight. Timberwolves (17-14) at Thunder (26-5), 8 p.m. ET on NBA TV or Fubo (try for free). It’s Anthony Edwards (23 years old) going up against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (26). That’s all you need.
📺 Before you head out for NYE. Cavaliers (28-4) at Lakers (18-13), 9 p.m. ET. LeBron tries to knock down a Cleveland team that seemingly can’t lose.
A Different Dallas
Mavs are built to survive without Luka … for now
Back on Christmas, the Mavericks (20-13) got hit with a big injury on a day that was supposed to be a showcase for the reigning Western Conference champions. Luka Dončić left the game after 16 minutes on the court after taking what looked like a bad step. It wasn’t really a contact injury, and you fear the worst when that happens. Luckily, it’s “just” a calf strain, and the team announced it’d be without its best player for at least a month, after which he’ll be re-evaluated.
Dončić missing one month from Dec. 27 (when the timeline was announced) would mean the Mavericks playing at least 17 games without him. They’ve already played three of those outings, beating the Suns (15-16) on the road, losing on the road to the Trail Blazers (11-21) and then losing to the Kings (14-19) last night. Against Portland, Dallas was missing Naji Marshall and P.J. Washington due to suspension. They missed Marshall (suspension) in Sacramento, but Kyrie Irving (shoulder) was also absent for that game.
In years past, this may have been time to panic for the Mavs, who are trying to stay above the Play-In fray in the West. This team is actually built to withstand an injury like this, though. Let’s take a look at the previous two seasons when Dončić was on the floor versus off the floor.
The numbers below are net ratings, which is the plus/minus of a player per 100 possessions to adjust for different paces:
- 2022-23: Plus-2.1 in 2,390 minutes on the court | Minus-3.4 in 1,596 minutes off the court
- 2023-24: Plus-5.8 in 2,624 minutes on the court | Minus-4.3 in 1,317 minutes off the court
- 2024-25: Plus-9.9 in 785 minutes on the court | Plus-1.8 in 804 minutes off the court
In the 2022-23 season, the Mavs were 33-33 when Dončić played and just 5-11 when he missed games. In 2023-24, they were 46-24 when he played and 4-8 when he sat. So far this season, the Mavericks are 13-9 when their best player suits up. But when he’s been out, they actually have a winning record. Dallas is 7-4 when he’s missed games this season.
A big part of surviving the non-Dončić minutes and games is having Kyrie Irving in the mix. He’s played in nine of the 11 games his teammate has missed. In those situations, Irving is averaging 26.1 points, 5.7 assists and 4.5 rebounds with 41.6/37.7/96.8 shooting splits, and the Mavericks have a plus-39 point differential with him on the court. It’s not just Irving, though. Spencer Dinwiddie has scored in double figures in nine of those 11 missed games and cleared 20 points a couple times. Throw in Klay Thompson and Quentin Grimes, and the Mavs have the depth to handle Dončić being out.
If we keep his expected absence at 17 games, they have 14 games left. The schedule is pretty tough, but nine of those games are at home. The Mavs are 10-5 at home this season. It won’t be easy for Dallas to survive. It can’t lose many other players. But general manager Nico Harrison has built a team that is no longer completely dependent on its leading scorer being there. It should give Dončić time to heal, which could give Dallas the opportunity to compete for a title once again.
Beef Court!
Tyler Herro vs. Amen Thompson: Kerfuffle style
You may have seen a little tussle between Tyler Herro and Amen Thompson over the weekend, during the Heat’s 104-100 victory over the Rockets. Herro capped off another good game as he continued an excellent season, finishing with 27 points, nine assists and six rebounds. Thompson came off the bench for five points, five assists and five rebounds in 32 minutes.
The incident happened with 35.7 seconds left in the game and the Heat up five with the ball. As the teams were getting set for an inbound play, Thompson and Herro became entangled. They had each other by the jerseys before Thompson tossed Herro to the ground like a bag of mulch:
Look at Terry Rozier run in from the sideline (he was inbounding) to jump right on top of Thompson. Thompson, Rozier and Herro were ejected from the game, along with Jalen Green, Ime Udoka and Rockets assistant coach Ben Sullivan. There was some trash-talking after this incident, and it carried on into the postgame comments. You know what that means. It’s time to head to Beef Court to settle this!
The case for Thompson: The internet was definitely on his side early in this one. When you win the physical altercation by throwing a grown man so easily to the ground, it’s going to get a lot of attention. Thompson, 21, is still a young player in this league, and he’s trying to establish himself as a tough defender, which he’s really good at doing. And, to his credit, it did look like Herro hooked Thompson’s arm right before the do-si-do’ing happened.
It’s worth noting that Kevin Love has been roasting this interaction on Instagram, which I think is a point in Thompson’s favor.
The case for Tyler Herro: First and foremost: The Heat won the game, and Herro was probably the main reason. The 24-year-old lit up Thompson and his teammates. Then, when the fracas got separated, Herro continued talking trash to Thompson, saying he lost and to go home before smiling at him. When asked in the locker room what happened, this was the quote from Herro to reporters:
“Guess that’s what happens when someone’s scoring, throwing dimes, doing the whole thing. I’d get mad too.”
He did a better job of playing, winning and trash-talking in this entire ordeal. Is that enough to win the case?🧑⚖️ Verdict: It is! You can’t lose all aspects of the altercation outside of tossing the guy to the ground and end up winning this Beef Court. The court sides in Herro’s favor, but we’ll see how this escalates when they play again on March 21.
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(Top photo: Alex Goodlett / Getty Images )
