The Whiteboard: Totally mundane things we’re missing about the NBA right now

The Whiteboard is The Step Back’s daily basketball newsletter, covering the NBA, WNBA and more. Subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning.

If things were normal, we’d be about two-weeks deep in the NBA playoffs right now. Some first-round series would have already ended, the dominant teams parked and waiting for their next opponents, while surprisingly competitive series rolled towards thrilling conclusions. We might have seen a game-winning shot, maybe some emotions boiling over to feed next year’s rivalries. We’d have seen a handful of spectacular performances from the stars we expect them from, and certainly one or two eruptions from formerly dormant role players. We would have had dunks and step-back 3s and beautiful feats of athletic artistry.

As the novel coronavirus pandemic rolls on, now more than six weeks past the suspension of the 2019-20 NBA season, fans are missing these moments of visceral amazement and raw emotion. But the numbing absence of basketball has us pining for the mundane and banal as well. We’re missing late-March matchups headlined by D.J. Augustin and Kris Dunn. We’re missing Dennis Schroder dribbling the ball off his leg and out of bounds and Chris Paul playing up contact on defensive screens, drawing non-shooting fouls. We’re missing slow panning shots of the Warriors bench and wondering who the heck half those guys are.

We’re missing 9-point, 6-rebound, 1-block performances from Myles Turner where after the game you look at the box score and can’t actually remember a single play he made. We’re missing simple high-fives as one player subs in for another and the Utah Jazz jerseys, not those brilliant red and orange City Edition ones, just the regular old home whites. We’re missing Dejounte Murray driving the lane and kicking it out to LaMarcus Aldridge, two steps inside the 3-point line. We’re missing that silly thing where someone throws Carmelo Anthony an entry pass and then he kicks it back out and reposts, calling for the ball in the exact same spot he had it in three seconds ago.

We’re missing Stephen Curry not missing free throws and Jevon Carter driving and not shooting. We’re missing perimeter defenders not pushing up on Ricky Rubio and JaVale McGee not thinking about whether the shot is on its way down before he swats it into the third row. We’re missing Charles Barkley mispronouncing someone’s name and rolling our eyes when Bruce Brown hits a pull-up jumper and Mark Jackson shouts “mama, there goes that man.”

We’re missing people in the stands staring straight ahead, not realizing they’re on the jumbotron and B-level celebrities sitting courtside and getting some timeout airtime. We’re missing the one guy wearing a Lakers’ jersey in every visiting arena and Hassan Whiteside slipping the screen, eagerly calling for the ball before he actually made contact with the defender or did anything to actually create space for the ball-handler. We’re missing Doc Rivers standing silently as his eyes kind of get bigger when there’s a call he doesn’t agree with.

Get well soon, NBA. We miss you. All of you.

#OtherContent

“Yurtseven is arguably the most skilled player in the NBA Draft.” That’s an intriguing quote Rip City Project got from an NBA scout about Omer Yurtseven, who sounds more and more like a sleeper to pay attention to.

51 days since the last game, Dan Devine rounded up the latest on what plans for the resumption of the NBA season could and should look like.

Our latest Mock Draft has LaMelo Ball headed to the Minnesota Timberwolves, an intriguing scenario if you like offense and the idea of just trying to outscore everyone as opposed to actually stopping them.

“I realized right away, I mean the very first practice in training camp in October 1988, this dude’s a different breed.” Will Perdue is on the latest episode Da’ Windy City podcast discussing the pros and cons of playing with Michael Jordan.