The Step Back has been born from the aesthetics and traditions of the Hardwood Paroxysm Basketball Network. In the past, Hardwood Paroxysm has produced a massive stand-alone season preview. This year, that preview effort has been rolled up into the launch of The Step Back.
The Step Back’s writers and illustrators have prepared a hefty deep-dive into each team, built from multiple smaller sections. This year’s theme is television comedies and each section is named after some of our favorite sitcoms. For links to all 30 teams, as well as details about the focus of each section, check out our guide on how to read this preview.
Community
By Philip Rossman-Reich (@OMagicDaily)
What do you do when you have reached the top of the mountain? When the curse is broken and the never-ending quest ends? What happens when a team, a player and a city come down from the euphoria of a victory long awaited? Where do they go from there?
LeBron James wrote in his essay that he was coming home to deliver a championship to his home city. His Miami sabbatical done, he was determined to deliver to his hometown what so many stars, superstars and teams failed to do.
Cleveland has its championships. Now what?
While the rest of the NBA made major changes in the wake of the influx of cash, the Cavaliers stood pat (probably too much since J.R. Smith was still unsigned heading into training camp). They are going to try to run back their championship team. That makes them underdogs again, but still the guys at the top of the mountain.
Cleveland’s greatest enemy this season remains themselves. The only bit of success the Cavaliers can experience is winning that championship again. They will have to find their own motivation throughout the season to make this one a success.
Once again, it does not seem the Eastern Conference will produce a worthy adversary. The Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics are good teams, but it is hard to see either of those teams taking the step up to compete with them. The Cavaliers again may have a walk to the Finals. And that will mean the test is really with themselves to defend their championship.
Pat Riley, the former LeBron James mentor, often talked about the Problem of More. When a team experiences success, it becomes contented and does not play with the same edge as before. Dynasties find a way to fight through this, but they experience their own struggles.
LeBron James has experienced dealing with this problem. His Heat won back-to-back titles. But this title is different. This was the pinnacle of his career and the fulfillment of his promise. What does he do from there? How does he — how does his team — push for something more? The Cavaliers reveled in everyone doubting them. Do they find that same motivation?
The Cavaliers are the defending champions. Everyone will gun for them. Maybe nothing has changed then. LeBron James always got his opponent’s best shot.
But as James know, heavy is the head that wears the crown. To retain that crown is more difficult than to attain it once — just as the 73-win Golden State Warriors. No championship is ever easy. Even when it seems inevitable. No trip to the Finals is ever easy.
With the mission accomplished and contentedness sneaking in, do the Cavaliers fight for a title once again with that same edge and determination? Can they withstand those challenges again? Do they really want to?
The Cavaliers will chase a championship again. There is no where else for them to go. But they will have to do so without the weight and determination that long Cleveland title drought provides. Will that keep their edge sharp?
Seinfeld
By Wes Goldberg (@wcgoldberg)
LeBron James walked into the arena for Game 7 of the NBA Finals wearing a dad hat embroidered with the Kermit sipping tea meme, a not-so-subtle jab to his doubters saying “haters gonna hate, I’m gonna wear hats.”
After the Finals win, LeBron walked around Cleveland wearing the same hat, holding the trophy and wearing an “Ultimate Warrior” shirt — a pointed troll on the team they beat in the finals. Shortly after, the hat got an update, replacing the tea with the Larry O’Brien trophy.
Cleveland had gone 52 years without a championship before LeBron and the Cavaliers beat the Warriors in the Finals, coming back from a 3-1 deficit. It seemed the Sports Gods were finally smiling down on The Land, and maybe they were. And if they were, well, they saw LeBron parading sure-fire jinxes right in their faces.
It’s a fact: trolling is the easiest way to accumulate bad karma. Personally, I’m not against trash talking, or celebrating, or even light trolling. I like it. But I’m not the sports gods. They don’t like that. We have years, decades, centuries even of evidence. Just ask Napoleon. Or Terrell Owens.
Still don’t believe me? The Warriors won 73 games and had a 3-1 lead before their cockiness finally got the best of them. Cocky doesn’t sit well with the basketball gods, and LeBron had custom-made apparel for the sole purpose of being cocky.
“But wait, Wes, Cleveland went more than 50 years without a championship. The Sports Gods surely won’t punish them again.” Oh, yeah? Have you seen the Cleveland Browns quarterback situation?
The Sports Gods show no mercy, and you could argue that the Cavaliers used up their good karma in the Finals. Look, the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead. You know how many times a team came back from that kind of deficit in the Finals before Cleveland did? Never! Zero times! I’m not taking anything away from the Cavs, but it just says something about how special it was. How unrepeatable.
And what happened after they did it? The Warriors got Kevin Durant in one of the great I-see-you-and-I-raise-you moves in history! Steve Kerr told Zach Lowe on his podcast that even he doesn’t think Kevin Durant signs with the Warriors if they win the championship.
Did Durant watch those Finals, then see the joy LeBron, his arch-rival, had when he paraded through the streets? Does he one day want to celebrate a championship with a tattoo of Kermit drinking from the Larry O’Brien trophy on his other thigh? Absofrigginlutely. Now the Warriors have the most talented roster ever assembled and seem poised to win this championship, and plenty more.
So by winning, LeBron very well could’ve ended Cleveland’s chance at another championship. Isn’t that the most backwards thing you’ve ever heard of? And you mean to tell me Cleveland still isn’t cursed? Will it be 50 more years?
Since I’m not the Sports Gods, I have no way of knowing these answers. I just know that these are questions.
Perfect Strangers
by Matt D’Anna (@hoop_nerd)
Ten Word Analysis: It’s always better than it looks when you have LeBron.
TeamSPACE charts are based on mapped clusters of shot activity. These areas are affectionately called Hunting Grounds, because they are the areas on the court where a player hunts for shots — and successfully scores most often. TeamSPACE takes the Hunting Grounds of all five players in a lineup and puts them on the court together — because, you know, they have to share that physical space, and there is only one ball.
In the past, it was one color per player; which meant that blending colors represented overlapping spaces for shot activity. But this time around, these are not your ordinary TeamSPACE shot maps. Each lineup is analyzed in the aggregate — one color! — and that unit is compared that unit to the rest of the league. So you will see a persistent red layer on every chart, highlighting the league’s Hunting Grounds from last season. The most prolific locations should come as no surprise: the paint, the corners, most of the top of the arc, and a couple of dabs at the foul line and top of the key.
So…how were these lineups chosen for each team? In the past, it’s been about projecting the starting lineup, estimating the most used lineup, or even designing the “most favoritest” lineup. This year? It’s the these charts represent the “most interestingly feasible” lineups….what? That’s a loaded phrase, so let’s unpack it a bit.
The goal is to identify the collection of five players on a team that could potentially play together, and if they did, the offensive results could be glorious. Ideally these lineups aren’t too far-fetched, but also slightly off-kilter and confusing to an opposing defense. While this type of analysis is not conducive for assessing defense, somewhat reasonable decisions are attempted to be made. So while it’s tempting to just put all the best shooters together…how realistic is it (outside of Houston, at least)? And, full disclosure: I favor some stretch in my lineups. It not only provides plenty of high-octane potential, but getting stretchy is also on par with current league-wide trends.
Each TeamSPACE chart has a couple of other sitcom-related features:
Family Matters: You’ll notice a series of Jaleel White’s across half court. Each lineup is scored on a scale of 0-7 Steve Urkels for how well it matches league-wide trends. Remember, there’s seven league Hunting Grounds (right corner three; at the rim; left corner three; foul line/top of the key; right wing; middle 3pt; left wing). A lineup gains points for matching each area; it loses points for messy excess shot activity.
Odd Couple: “Most interestingly feasible” is obviously debatable, so in order to account for some of those decisions, you’ll see Oscar and Felix on each chart. Often, there are players that are in the lineup…and maybe/probably they should not be. They get the Oscar label. And, there are those players that are out of the lineup…and maybe/probably should be included. They are the Felix for their team.
And briefly, a word about data. These strange visual displays are based on last season’s shot data, weighted by made buckets — so rookies and season-long injuries are sadly excluded. This analysis is nothing without the help of Darryl Blackport, and the research materials available atBasketball-Reference and NBA.com. Further, these charts feature some of the best logo re-designs I could curate from the ol’ Information Superhighway, including Dribbble.com and Pinterest. I made none of the logos; I merely selected some of my favorites. Enjoy!
Everybody Loves Raymond
By Matt Rutkowski (@MontaWorldPeace)
I’ll be honest. I’m a LeBron James mark. For the unfamiliar, “mark” is a wrestling term for “reasoned, dispassionate observer.” So as a LeBron mark, I’ll say with purest objectivity that he is the most likable person on the Cavaliers, if not the NBA. He’s cool, and nice, and good at basketball.
That’s about it, but Narrative is important. Let’s start with the low point.
Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, no wait, yeah, actually six years ago LeBron made a decision. He joined Dwyane Wade’s Miami Heat in hopes of building a dynasty. The most irritating talking point in the world (“Michael Jordan never would have-”) dominated any LeBron discussion, and James went from generally beloved to villain overnight.
Something great happened to LeBron in his first year on that team. He lost. He lost in a very gratifying way to people who wanted him to lose. Again, Narrative is important. The “I hope LeBron loses” story got a nice conclusion. Pissy angst was satisfied. Villain LeBron was slain, and the rest of LeBron was freed up to start telling a new, better story.
LeBron reclaimed quite a bit of love the following couple of years. He won and then won again. He took shots against the claim he wasn’t clutch. He took down the upstart Thunder, put on his “ugly look” against the Celtics, and was the best player on the court in possibly the most dramatic NBA Finals turnaround ever. People tend to like winners, and LeBron was winning.
Then he lost again. Then he decided again.
But this time he Decisioned with Narrative on his side. This time when he left his really good team and he did it quieter. There was no gloating or shock value. He did it when his team seemed to be on a decline as opposed to gearing to reach a peak. He did it to go home.
Coming home is good. I like home. I’m there now. I’m a big fan. Mom and Dad, if you’re reading this, hi! Thanks for letting me live here. I’ll talk to you later.
LeBron’s return was a happy thing too. A lot of the fury of years ago was undone. The ashes of the burnt jerseys had long blown away. The Cavaliers had the potential for not one, not two, not three, not four…
But Narrative demands sacrifice. It’s not earned if it’s easy, and heroes have to earn. Injury. Blatt. Steph. Loss.
2015 was
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And then 2016 was redemption. LeBron took the crown and the trophy last year. He cried. Cleveland cried. Hometown boy made good. Everyone but Kobe Bryant fans celebrated him. There’s no one better, and no better way for the story to end.
Now Narrative has led LeBron to be the best player in the NBA, a winner in a historically winless city. He has achieved, and now we’re in the part of the hero’s journey that isn’t told. The part where everything is okay, and something else has to happen.
I don’t know what will happen. It hasn’t happened yet. We’re still in the interim. For the summer his story was held in stasis. He gets to be at the very top for a bit more.
Boy Meets World
By Trevor Magnotti (@IllegalScreens)
Young players usually struggle to find a place on elite teams. There are the occasional development projects who earn playing time early on, but for the most part, an established veteran core is not going to require the services of a rookie or 10-day contract player in their rotation. These teams are usually at an elite level due to a combination of talent and depth, and they aren’t going to want to give extended minutes to a player who will be making mistakes, because that detracts from their immediate goal.
It would be reasonable to assume, then, that Kay Felder and Jordan McRae will not spend too much time on the floor for the Cleveland Cavaliers this season. Felder, the 54th pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, is 5-8, and comes from mighty college powerhouse Oakland University. McRae, meanwhile, was the 58th pick of the 2014 NBA Draft, and spent the majority of the last two years in the D-League. A year ago, he was cut from the Philadelphia 76ers training camp roster. He couldn’t make a team that went on to win 10 games, and now he plays for the defending champs.
The Cavs probably will not need both McRae and Felder to play major roles this year. However, both could end up being extremely valuable to their championship defense, due to the team’s point guard situation. The Cavs do have Kyrie Irving, a rather good NBA point guard, and that LeBron fellow to help fill in. But Kyrie has a significant injury history over his five-year NBA career, missing at least 20 games in three of five seasons. What seems like a solid point guard situation could become extremely tenuous without Matthew Dellavedova around.
McRae and Felder could potentially shore that up. These aren’t your average late-second round picks. Felder, while short of stature, has a vertical leap of 44 inches to overcome that, and he’s shown the potential to be both a scorer and distributor during summer league. Defensively, he might be a little overwhelmed, but with Irving in the fold, defense clearly isn’t the highest priority at the point guard position for Cleveland. McRae, meanwhile, showed in the final game of the 2015-16 NBA season (36 points, four rebounds, seven assists) that he can take charge in spots if needed, and his size (6-6) and shooting ability will allow him to get some spot minutes at the two as well.
Neither are going to be stepping into a quality starting lineup any time soon, of course. But with LeBron James, perhaps the best non-point guard distributor ever, the Cavs have the luxury of allowing both to play to their strengths for short stretches, filling in as accessory pieces if needed. The hope in Cleveland is that if Mo isn’t cutting it, or Kyrie gets injured, at least one of Felder or McRae can step in and provide depth in a pinch. Normally, a team like Cleveland shouldn’t have to rely on guys like these two. However, given their skill sets and the possibility of need, the Cavs could dole out big minutes to young players — and have it work out pretty well.