Hollinger: How to save the NBA All-Star Game; scouting Donovan Clingan, GG Jackson

Body it, and put it within the Louvre. The NBA’s All-Stars managed to mix for 100 factors within the first quarter Sunday evening, a blaze of glory that took solely 22 American minutes to finish and solely lasted that lengthy as a result of Kawhi Leonard had the temerity to commit a foul that despatched Tyrese Maxey to the road for 2 photographs. The 53-47 rating after one set the stage for a 211-186 last rating that made a mockery of the sport. In a sport with 397 factors, solely three fouls had been dedicated. Good job, good effort.

That has led to a variety of justified hand-wringing about one of many NBA’s marquee occasions descending into farce. On the identical time, we shouldn’t lose sight of the larger image: All the things about All-Star Weekend stays fairly good besides the precise sport (Disclaimer: I wasn’t in Indy this weekend; we had a number of others there who did a bang-up job.)

All-Star video games in different sports activities have had the identical drawback; the underlying challenge in every is that the gamers have grow to be too helpful to danger injuring themselves in an exhibition. Baseball’s Midsummer Basic is now restricted by the inherent danger to pitchers, the Professional Bowl is now a flag soccer sport, and the NHL All-Star Recreation is a sequence of three-on-three skates; Main League Soccer invited vastly higher gamers from Arsenal to smoke its stars final summer time.

Nonetheless, there ought to be methods to enhance this across the edges, and one of many methods is to alter the format to extra organically pull the plug on excessive ridiculousness.

GO DEEPER

NBA participant ballot: All-Stars pontificate on finest participant, staff and rule adjustments they need

The NBA has already solved this drawback, imagine it or not, because it confirmed earlier within the weekend. The beforehand farcical Rising Stars competitors has successfully been saved by altering it to 3 shorter video games with smaller groups and a goal rating, producing no less than a modicum of acceptable ranges of attempting and shortly Vaudeville hooking groups off the court docket in the event that they don’t through the goal rating. As a reminder of how issues was, the 2019 Rising Stars sport was solely 40 minutes and ended 161-144.

The NBA can two kill two birds with one stone by A) increasing All-Star rosters to 14 in every convention and B) splitting up rosters into 4 groups of seven, successfully copying the Rising Stars format for the Sunday evening spectacle. Small modifications may very well be made — a goal rating of 60 fairly than 40, maybe — however the big-picture thought is that the Rising Stars format is likely to be a extra workable and attention-grabbing method to conduct Sunday evening than attempting to have a 48-minute layup line.

Tips on how to cut up up the groups is a minor nuisance within the grand scheme of issues, and there are a bunch of how you can do it (A draft? A lottery?). Larger image, nonetheless, we’re unlikely to get something totally different subsequent yr simply by begging gamers to play protection. Shaking up the format to provide a number of shorter contests is the easiest way to protect curiosity and get a halfway-acceptable effort stage from the occasions.

Prospect of the Week: Donovan Clingan, 7-2 sophomore C, Connecticut

(Observe: This part received’t essentially profile one of the best prospect of the week. Simply the one I’ve been watching.)

My travels took me to Hartford, Conn., this weekend to see a showdown between No. 1 Connecticut and No. 4 Marquette within the, shall we embrace, well-preserved former residence of the Whalers at XL Heart. Whereas the journey down reminiscence lane of an genuine 1987 enviornment expertise was an sudden spotlight, the actual story was the play of the defending champion Huskies, who thrashed the Golden Eagles 81-53 on Saturday.

Donovan Clingan had 17 factors and 10 rebounds, persevering with a dominant season through which he has posted an totally absurd stat line: 36 factors and 19 rebounds per 100 possessions, two assists for each turnover, 65.8 % taking pictures and an 11.2 % block charge. His 35.4 PER is second in all of faculty basketball (trailing solely Purdue large Zach Edey); his BPM is fourth and his block charge is third amongst Energy-6 gamers. Clingan received’t flip 20 till this weekend and is having a completely dominant season for one of the best staff in school basketball.

I used to be speaking to a few scouts earlier than the sport about Clingan and Edey, the 2 behemoth huge males who determine to be probably the most distinguished school facilities within the upcoming NBA Draft, and going forwards and backwards over their professional potential. Each are large and might simply use their dimension to dominate a school sport, however I believe Clingan can have a a lot simpler time on the subsequent stage.

That’s as a result of, along with his dimension, Clingan can transfer. That differentiating issue ought to enable him to carry his personal on a extra spaced-out NBA flooring. Marquette tried repeatedly to stretch him out in pick-and-rolls and failed, with Clingan expertly enjoying a drop protection and utilizing his dimension to get rid of home windows for alley-oop passes over his head. Our C.J. Moore wrote about “Cling Kong’s” influence on Saturday’s affair, however I used to be extra involved with how his sport translated for the NBA.

What stood out to me, relative to many different outsized facilities, was Clingan’s end-to-end pace, which makes him a risk even early within the clock. Watch beneath, as an example, in one of many key factors of the sport throughout a 13-0 UConn run late within the first half. It begins when Marquette’s Oso Ighodaro (one other attention-grabbing huge man prospect on this draft cycle) settles for a weak sauce floater fairly than problem Clingan on the rim; as Connecticut will get the rebound, Clingan is behind all 5 Marquette gamers.

Nonetheless, he prices up court docket on a transition rim run and seconds later is on the rim slamming residence a dunk after a Marquette defensive mistake; at 7-foot-2 and 280 kilos, and coming close to the top of a half, that is spectacular stuff.

Clingan is pretty expert for his dimension too; he can shoot across the basket with both hand, makes good selections passing out of doubles and, regardless of his shaky foul taking pictures, has proven some nascent contact when he stretches out to the perimeter. Groups will even be digging on a foot challenge that brought about him to overlook time early within the season; it was a tendon, not a bone, however “foot” and “huge man” are phrase combos that make groups nervous.

Scouts will likely be over-indexed on UConn anyway within the upcoming weeks given the opposite seemingly execs on the roster and the chance of huge matchups (reminiscent of a rematch with Marquette within the Massive East event), so Clingan can additional cement his standing as a lottery huge man. In a draft class that’s weak on the high, he might even make a surge towards the highest of the board.

Rookie of the Week: GG Jackson II, 6-9 SF/PF, Memphis

(Observe: This part received’t essentially profile one of the best rookie of the week. Simply the one I’ve been watching.)

A one-and-done who was an afterthought within the draft after a tough yr at South Carolina, GG Jackson II went forty fifth within the 2024 NBA Draft however has made an impression through the Grizzlies’ injury-ravaged season, incomes his second TNT walk-off interview of the yr on Thursday by scoring 27 factors in an upset of the Milwaukee Bucks. The NBA’s youngest participant, Jackson turned 19 in December however posted three 20-point video games within the eight days earlier than the All-Star break. He hit a career-high six 3-pointers in opposition to the Bucks and is 18-of-36 from distance over his final 5 video games, averaging 21.2 factors per sport in that span.

Jackson isn’t shy about getting up photographs. Whereas not fairly as thirsty as his fellow teenage rookie Cam Whitmore in Houston (profiled per week in the past), he nonetheless averages greater than 10 area aim makes an attempt per help and thus is relying closely on correct taking pictures to help his worth. In that vein, how effectively Jackson’s latest sizzling taking pictures carries ahead will play an enormous position in his eventual success. Jackson has made 41.2 % of his 102 NBA 3-point makes an attempt however has no prior historical past of taking pictures this effectively from distance. He solely made 31.3 % of his 160 3-point makes an attempt within the G League, as an example, and 32.4 % of his 170 makes an attempt at South Carolina a season in the past. He shot 32.6 % on 46 tries in summer time league. He’s younger sufficient that it’s not wildly unreasonable to assume he obtained higher, however the pattern dimension is sufficiently small that it might simply be random noise, and his photographs nonetheless come off his hand spinning sideways.

The excellent news for Memphis is that Jackson doesn’t need to shoot like Stephen Curry to have worth. Jackson has a plus deal with for his dimension, and he’s sufficiently big to attain across the rim on offense, with the assistance of a nifty Euro step he’s developed. He additionally gives worth on the defensive finish with secondary rim safety (3.3 % block charge!) and strong rebounding. Thus, Jackson stands to have worth even when he’s only a meh 3-point shooter. So long as he can proceed refining his sport from the wildness of his season at South Carolina (38.4 % area aim taking pictures with a minus-7 Pure Level Score … yikes!), he ought to be capable of stick as a two-way ahead.

If that’s the case, he fills a very-important area of interest on the size-skill continuum for the Grizzlies, who’ve been trying to find years for a talented participant within the 6-7 to 6-9 vary who can straddle the 2 ahead positions. Between Jackson’s improvement and that of 2023 second-rounder Vince Williams Jr. the Grizzlies now have two wings with dimension on cost-controlled offers for the subsequent three seasons (Memphis and Jackson lately agreed to transform his two-way contract to a four-year commonplace roster deal), making it a lot simpler to soak up the costly extensions of Ja Morant, Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. whereas nonetheless fielding a aggressive staff.

Jackson is also, maybe, a useful lesson in how we consider high-usage younger gamers, as a result of we’ve seen this film earlier than just a few instances. Regardless of his youth, Jackson had a mammoth 30.8 % utilization charge on a horrid South Carolina staff final season, a determine that led the SEC regardless of his being the youngest participant within the convention. Primarily, he was taking no matter shot he wished and studying the exhausting means which had been the dangerous ones; he’s nonetheless on that journey now even with the Grizzlies, solely a lot additional alongside.