Copyright The Boston Globe
In Utah, the Jazz are still enduring a rebuild and likely headed back to the lottery, but the hope is the process is in its latter stages. They selected 19-year-old Ace Bailey with their 2025 first-round pick (fifth overall) along with Cody Williams (2024, 10th overall) and Taylor Hendricks (2023, ninth overall) to build a foundation. But these young kids not only have to develop, they have to learn how to win — avoid accepting the consistent losing without resistance and emerge as better team players. The league is filled with players who can score and pile up numbers, but those numbers don’t result in winning. The challenge is for young players to not only turn into All-Stars but turn into winners. In Boston, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum were drafted into a winning environment with veteran players. Some players aren’t that fortunate, and there’s a process to teaching those prospects how to win — especially when they can be rewarded with rookie max contracts just for personal performance. For example, the Hornets paid LaMelo Ball $203 million over five years and he’s yet to play in a postseason game. “I think when development is talked about like, ‘Hey I’m just here to get better every day.’ It’s very focused on me, I,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said. “We’re a team. This is team sports. You want to win. So think there’s development of my ability to contribute to winning. It’s probably not talked about enough, the development of us as a group, trying to develop into a winning team and not just my stats getting better so I get individual reward. Because I think when development is seen as, ‘Hey, we’re just here to get a little bit better every day,’ the result doesn’t impact you. And I don’t want that to go numb on the team. “I said [the other day] that I think it’s really imperative with our team because who they are in the arc of their career. All of your young players are still on rookie scale contracts, so they haven’t gotten ‘paid’ yet.” And while the lure of a rookie extension can serve as primary motivation to improve, the league does reward players who have never won anything. Now in the case of Ball, incentives were added to his contract for team success, but he is still making over $40 million a year with no promise of pushing the Hornets to the postseason — and he isn’t alone in enjoying the league’s riches with no team success. “Whatever their deals are after their rookie scale deals, you get paid and then you are actually told you’re rewarded for what you did before,” Hardy said. “The scope of those contracts, you get the rookie scale max and then you get the lower ones and it’s still more money than you’ve ever seen. When you get rewarded for not winning, it’s hard to tell yourself that winning is the most important thing. I just got rewarded for not winning. “I want our team to focus as a group on trying to compete every night to win. It doesn’t mean we’ll win every game but the intent is to win. The intent is not, ‘Hey we’re taking the court tonight at TD Garden to get better.’ No, we’re trying to beat the Celtics. We will or we won’t. We’ll get together, watch film as a team, and then on the off-days we try to improve certain elements of individual play and team play.” Hardy astutely pointed out the collective bargaining agreement provides generational wealth in the second contracts for first-round picks who meet or exceed expectations. So after that goal is accomplished, incentive could become an issue for certain players focused mainly on personal achievement. “The game humbles you some; there are results that happen out there that will give you feedback,” Hardy said. “But within the team construct, you can coach, you can teach, you can explain, you can show film, you can show stats — but sometimes the only way to really teach is minutes. Bobby Knight had one of the greatest rants ever about what the bench does to your brain. It’s true. If you don’t play, that’s when you realize I need to change my behavior. But it’s hard to when you just get to play because you can say it all you want, but again the reward system is a little bit screwed up in that sense. “I’m lucky I have a group of young men that understand and that have humility and take responsibility. We’re a young group growing together. I’m a young coach. We’re trying to make sure our collective mindset every night is on the right thing.” In Washington, Wizards coach Brian Keefe is in the position of preparing his young players for the future. The Wizards have seven first-round picks on their roster with two seasons of experience or less. They are not built to win now or perhaps even next year. The hope is adding a maximum free agent with their salary cap space this summer can expedite the winning process. But Keefe still is relegated to coaching a team that is likely going to get pounded on most nights and focus on growth, development, and taking the proper steps. That’s difficult. “To me, you’re learning about the process of how to win,” he said. “We’re all competitors here. We want to win, too. We’re not different than anybody else. But learning what it takes to win, that’s the most important thing that we’ve taken approach to here. How do we build consistent habits? The things that are going to lead to sustainability. That’s what we focus on here. “We’re not skipping any steps. Putting one step in front of the other and stacking days, building blocks, those are the things we focused on. We have a great group that wants to do that, very lucky that we have a great scouting department that has guys who want to play and want to get better at their craft. “So our gym is an environment where guys want to improve. And that’s what we focus on and we think that’s going to lead to consistent work because that’s where we want to be and nothing will deter us from our steps that we’re taking.” Oklahoma City was the league’s last undefeated team before losing Wednesday to the surprising Trail Blazers. Even without All-Star Jalen Williams, who is recovering from wrist surgery, the Thunder have established themselves as the best team in the NBA. The emergence of former second-round pick Ajay Mitchell along with the constant prowess of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has made it the most intimidating team because of the waves of talent. The Thunder played a poor first half Tuesday against the Clippers but then outclassed their opponent in the second in a 126-107 win. Despite their youth, the Thunder have enough experience and savvy to win on nights when they are far from their best. “We know it’s a long game,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We’ve had a bunch of games under our belt, and we understand that the average swing in the NBA game is like 30 points or something like that, 20 something points. The games are never over, especially with [it being] that early. Just have to chip away, just got to get the car back on the road we call it, and start to do the things that help you gain a lead and erase the deficit. “That’s all we focused on. That’s all we talked about at halftime. We felt we were in a pretty good spot. It felt like the worst half of the season so far, only down one, I think, so we knew we had a shot.” As the Celtics learned the hard way last season trying to defend their title, games against the defending champions are like Super Bowls to the opposing team. There won’t be nights where the Thunder won get the opponent’s best, and that type of nightly pressure takes a toll. “They have 82 games, and they get a chance to win all 82,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Now it doesn’t work like that more often than not, but we understand the opportunity in front of us, and we sum it up just trying to attack it every day. Try to, no matter where we are, no matter what we accomplish, no matter what we getting accomplished, no matter if we just won or lost, just trying to get better. And I think that’s the formula that’s helped us get to where we are today. Obviously, win a championship, have the start we’ve had this year, or have so far this year, no matter what we’ll focus on getting better. “And if you do that, you’ll look up and eventually be where you want to be, no matter what it is. But this team does a great job prioritizing that as individuals and as a unit, and good things happen to us because of it.” The Heat have struggled for years to score. A strong defensive team for decades, Miami’s inability to pile up points is one of the reasons why it lost the NBA Finals to the Nuggets three seasons ago. And the Heat have continued with a style that resulted in nothing more than first-round playoff losses the past two years. This season, with a healthy Andrew Wiggins, the addition of Norman Powell from the Clippers, and the decision to bring former first-round pick Jaime Jaquez off the bench for scoring punch, the Heat entered the weekend ranked eighth in the NBA in these three statistics: total points scored, field-goal percentage, and 3-point percentage. All of these numbers have been reached without star guard Tyler Herro, who has been out following ankle surgery. Powell — acquired for the bargain price of Kyle Anderson, Kevin Love, and a 2027 second-round pick — adds a polished scorer and strong long-range shooter. He returned from a hamstring injury to help the Heat edge the Clippers, 120-119, in his return to Los Angeles last Monday. Powell missed the Heat’s loss against the Lakers the night before but willed his way on the floor against his former team. Trading Powell allowed the Clippers to acquire John Collins and sign Bradley Beal, but it’s debatable whether that deal makes them better. “Very satisfying, especially when we go back and look at how we were able to compete in that second half,” Powell said of the win over the Clippers, when he had 21 points in 28 minutes. “That 24 minutes was our brand of basketball, the way we were able to come out in that third quarter and build the lead. “[That’s] a very good team they got. Great experience, guys who have been in close battles, tough battles. They were able to make a run, tie the game back up, but I like our composure. Everyone talks about how young a team we are, but we stay composed, trust one another, and are able to get the stops that we needed, and make the plays on the offensive end to give us the win.” Injuries limited Powell to 60 games last season and a hamstring issue has caused him to miss three of the team’s first eight games. The Heat historically take a cautious approach to injuries, but Powell pushed to return on the West Coast trip. “Honestly, whenever I’m faced with injuries or obstacle or challenge, I try to look at the bigger picture,” Powell said. “Take it one day at a time and be in the moment. That’s what I did with this. I wanted to come back a little earlier. They have to save me from myself sometimes, take it slow — but when they cleared me I was ready to go. “I know a lot of people had a lot of emotions going forward. I just told myself to lean into it, not shy away. Continue to be present, no matter what was going on. Whether I had a good start, a bad start, whatever, stay the course, stay even-keeled, and work the game, and we were able to get the win.” The Heat also have been helped by a completely engaged Andrew Wiggins, acquired during last season’s trade-deadline period in the Jimmy Butler deal. Wiggins has been strong so far in the early season from the field and 3-point line, and he’s always been a plus defender. “I feel like (improved play) comes with chemistry and growing in the team,” said Wiggins, who averaged 17.0 points on 53.4 percent shooting (38.9 from 3) in his first eight games. “Training camp is a big part of that — that’s prime when you’re going through hard times to get where you’re at now. You kind of build that foundation in training camp, and now we have to keep building on it.” Kevin Durant appeared to make a social media remark about Jaylen Brown’s issues with staining opponents with his hair pomade during games against the Knicks and Pistons. And Brown shot back with a quip about Durant. But Durant told the Globe that was not him that made any remark about Brown. “That’s probably fake,” he said. “It’s crazy out here. You [have to] keep your eyes open.” Durant also offered his feeling about the city of Boston and those decade-long rumors about eventually playing for the Celtics. Before he signed with the Warriors in 2016, Durant invited the Celtics brass to visit with him in the Hamptons during his free agent tour. “It’s always a team I respected, a city I respected. The fans always showed up and showed out every time I played here. That’s probably about it. There’s been a lot of rumors about me coming to play here since college, actually. But I never really felt too much of an attachment here. I always had fun competing up here, though.” … The Nets are 1-7 and allowing 124.5 points per game, second worst only to the Wizards — prompting coach Jordi Fernandez to express frustration about motivating his young players to defend. The Nets are expected to be right back in the draft lottery, fielding a team littered with rookies and unproven players. The acquisition of Michael Porter Jr. was supposed to add legitimacy to the franchise, but so far they’re being pounded on a nightly basis. Fernandez is starting 19-year-old Ben Saraf at point guard and he’s struggling offensively, beginning the season missing 20 of 26 shots and 10 of 13 3-point attempts. Point guard was going to be an issue in Brooklyn, and they allowed D’Angelo Russell and Dennis Schröder to leave in the offseason … The Grizzlies may have a Ja Morant problem after he said following the Nov. 1 loss to the Lakers that the coaching staff benched him for key stretches of the second half. He repeatedly told reporters to ask the coaching staff about why he was pulled from the game in key stretches. Grizzlies coach Tuomas Iisalo took over for the fired Taylor Jenkins because of his offensive principles. But it seems the mercurial Morant has issues with the lack of pick-and-rolls, which is his specialty.
