Kevin Pelton
@kpelton
Assistant GM for Connecticut Sun (future Houston Comets). Using numbers to learn about the game.
Although the Timberwolves did not meet one of the criteria (37% shooting from 3-point range), yesterday's story on the formula for beating Oklahoma City proved more timely than I could have expected: www.espn.com/nba/story/_/...
Hello from Portland and my first NBA Cup game ever in person. The Blazers will clinch West Group C with a win tonight.
As I've often said, the modern NBA is dominated by international stars like Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Victor Wembanyama, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kyshawn George and RJ Barrett. (Incidentally, this is cumulative, so no Jokic because the Nuggets have played only one game.)
Final 2025-26 wins projections, updated from my story earlier this month (www.espn.com/nba/story?id...) with injuries and transactions during training camp.
In The House for Game 5 of Aces-Fever with the second spot in the WNBA Finals to be decided tonight.
Here at Blazers media day, where if you want to understand their offseason, team president of business operations Dewayne Hankins said Portland ranked fifth in the NBA in new season tickets sold this summer. Rookie Yang Hansen was just one part of that excitement.
Storm guard Lexie Brown declined to take questions about the WNBA during exit interviews, instead making a statement emphasizing that she's healthy after missing 28 games in 2023 due to what was later diagnosed as Crohn's disease and the last 24 games of 2024. Brown was available for 40 of 44 games.
In the context of the story, I'm referring to Brook Lopez's defensive peak, which was obviously several years ago. I was actually making the argument that Myles Turner is in fact a very good fit with the Bucks.
Here's how a Bucks blog aggregated that piece this week, more than two months after the fact:
The great @zachlowenba.bsky.social often refers to using "VORPs and SCHNORPs" in award evaluation. I put together a similar set of data for WNBA awards and wanted to share the top offense/defense ratings and overall wins above replacement from averaging four advanced metrics.
Was mentioned last night that the Storm clinched their 20th playoff appearance. That ties Seattle with Los Angeles and New York for most in WNBA history in three fewer seasons. Only the expansion Valkyries (1-for-1) have made it a higher percentage of the time than the Storm.
Sue Bird has mentioned Naz Hillmon's improvement as a 3-point shooter several times on her podcast and how she can't remember anyone making a similar jump. Hillmon has the most 3s (45) above her previous career total (1) in a fourth WNBA season or later on record.
Boy, have I got some news for this source about how the Luka Doncic trade went down!
I'd say the appropriate way to think about it is what if we ignore close games altogether and just look at record in games decided by six points or more. And that bears remarkably little resemblance to the actual WNBA standings.
The headline writers inevitably had to shorten things, but this is addressed in the story.
Visualizing WNBA single-game scoring by age in the wake of Dominique Malonga's back-to-back 20-point games as a teenager. Most American players don't enter the league until at least age 21 based on draft eligibility rules, so the youngest high scorers are all international players.
Made it to the Thomas & Mack Center in time for the showdown of this year's top two picks, where the other lottery pick on the court (Carter Bryant) has stolen the show with his on-ball defense.
I don't really buy the conventional wisdom that the Pacers will benefit if Game 7 is called tightly. Oklahoma City has won the five playoff games with the most total fouls across both teams, and the three Thunder Finals wins have had the most combined fouls in the series.
A little bit of a different look to this week's leaderboard of my wins above replacement player (WARP) metric on a per-game basis with Kayla McBride now eligible (and making 55% of her 3-point attempts) and Gabby Williams cracking the list as the Storm's top player thus far.
A familiar trio has reemerged atop the leaderboard for my wins above replacement player (WARP) metric on a per-game basis so far this WNBA season, but shout out to Allisha Gray up there with them. WARP is a box-score value metric. More explanation here: sonicscentral.com/warp.html
Ready for my 24th season of covering the Storm as they take on Phoenix in tonight's home opener.
Because the East semifinals upsets happened simultaneously, I don't think people have quite processed how shocking they were. Via SportsOddsHistory.com, they were two of the nine biggest playoff upsets in the 2000s by pre-series odds.
Was offline earlier today, but here were my final projections for WNBA teams this season based on opening night rosters and past NCAA/WNBA performance. Note that my lack of European translations means international rookies aren't included, which is an issue for the Mercury in particular.
Never forget that Bill Russell was different. This story of him blocking the shots of Slick Watts, Hall of Famer Dennis Johnson and Nick Weatherspoon as Sonics coach from Blaine Johnson's terrific "What's Happenin'?" took place when Russell was 43 and 8 years after his retirement.