Welcome to The Blocked Content, a website born from the thought “how hard can it be to run a sports website?” Turns out, quite. Once upon a time I used to spend hours curating my MySpace profile, crafting html code so that my top friends showed up just right.Now I feel like a caveman trying to get WordPress to work. If it’s not drag and drop these days, I don’t want to know about it.
For those unfamiliar with previous articles, the philosophy of The Blocked Content is that no take is too hot and objectivity is overrated. With 30 teams playing at least 82 games, there’s piping hot rhetoric to be found in every corner of the league. Sourced from a near-constant consumption of basketball and an unhealthy desire to watch underperforming teams; The Blocked Content will keep you up to date with the NBA, a league full of the greatest athletes and even greater characters.
This is a continuation of a series previously published elsewhere which follows the ups and downs of the NBA season, with a few hot takes along the way. Previous articles in this series are available here. In celebration of the launch of The Blocked Content and as proof that I’ve been correct at least once this season, now feels like a good time to look back on some old takes and take stock of the season so far.
Week 1: Ja Morant is about to take over the league
Back in the early days of the season, I wrote that Memphis could take the 6th seed on the back of Ja’s continued improvement. Come January and Memphis are so much better than a 6th seed, sitting 4th in the West at 30-15 coming off the back of an 11 game win streak recently snapped by the awakening Mavericks.
Things looked dire for Memphis when Ja went down with what looked like a terrible knee injury at the end of November, just before covid ran rampant through the rest of the squad. If Memphis went on a slide from that point it would have been understandable, but they refused to fail when many other teams would have fallen apart. In 12 games without Morant, they only lost 2. In their last 25 games, they have only lost 5. Their 11 game win-streak included wins against the Nets, the Suns and the Warriors. I don’t need to tell you how impressive that is.
Ja has become an expert at putting his defender in jail, keeping them on his back after a pick action and creating a mismatch with the screener’s defender. When that happens, which is often, Ja often has a driving lane and eyes for the hoop, where he’s already an elite finisher. Adding to Ja’s pick and roll dominance has been Steven Adams superb work as the screener, where he’s added a wrinkle which is at once perfectly within the rules but also should be made illegal.
You can see it here: Adams sets a screen on Brown, Ja gets in front of Brown and drives to the basket with Brown stuck behind him, then Adams sets a screen on his own man, Griffin. Within a metre of the basket, Ja has no obstacle between him and the rim and basically a guaranteed two points.
Maybe you counter this by having Adams’ man hedge the screen and try to clog the lane, but then Ja has a slower defender on him and multiple passing options. I don’t like to get too deep into the X’s and O’s but I’ve been thinking about this play for about 2 weeks now and it might just be impossible to defend.
Memphis are getting contributions from basically their entire roster, Desmond Bane has gone from a solid 3-and-D corner shooter to an on-ball threat off the dribble, all while carrying two of the juiciest arms this league has to offer. With Bane, Tillman and rookie Ziaire Williams all carving themselves roles in the team, Memphis are two years ahead of how you would expect them to develop. Their oldest player, Adams, who has been in the league for ages, is only 28.
The 6th seed is an insult to Memphis and the 4th seed is starting to look like it’s not enough either. Some people are even labelling them a contender and, after the last month, it’s pretty hard to argue with that. One thing I know is that I want no part of a Golden State – Memphis playoff series.
Pre-Season: the Bulls are no better than a 6th seed
In my own defence, this was in a pre-season article strictly based on hot takes, but I was absolutely a Chicago doubter heading into this season. I admit, I was one of the fools who laughed about Demar DeRozan’s contract and Zach LaVine’s former inefficiency.
As far as I’m aware, the readership of The Blocked Content, or at least the NBA group chats I’m in, skews heavily towards Bulls fans, all of whom were unhappy when I bagged their team relentlessly in the off-season and wrote off their hot start. I receive a weekly DM from a particular mate of mine with not much more than “no bulls this week”, and to him I say: Bulls this week.
I am prepared on this occasion to accept that I was wrong and this team is really fun; but I maintain that there’s an alternate timeline where this team doesn’t work. Somewhere out there DeRozan, Vuc and LaVine aren’t Tobey Maguire, Tom Holland and Andrew Garfield punching on together, but are a collective of Ben Affleck’s Daredevil, George Clooney’s Batman and Jared Leto’s Joker throwing haymakers in the dark. It is hard to believe Derozan and Lavine, two scoring focussed guards who both take 30 shots a game, could get along so well.
My mind was changed by DeMar hitting countless game winning shots, including two buzzer-beating game winning threes in two consecutive days; becoming the first player to ever do it. Lavine spent the last few seasons dragging his teammates through three quarters, only to become the sole focus of the defense in the fourth quarter, either running out of puff or having to hit ridiculous shots over multiple defenders. Now, the two play off each other perfectly, sharing the limelight and the weight of the offense whilst making themselves comfortable as the number 1 seed in the East.
On top of all that, Lonzo is proving that the flashes of potential he showed when playing for structurally unstable franchises were more a product of his environment than a lack of talent. He’s probably the single best passer in the league, to the point where his teammates move off-ball without obligation, knowing if they can get even halfway open, Lonzo will get them the ball. Caruso is apparently coming back in the next few days, bringing back some welcome back-court defense.
Chicago were the first team to be properly devastated by COVID, having at least 10 players out at all times throughout December and, despite this, managed to improve their position in the standings. It’s hard to see a healthy version of this team doing any worse.
Bulls fans: I’m sorry, your team is good and you deserve to be happy about it.
Week 7: Pack your bags Ben, you’re headed to Portland (and other Simmons articles)
I’m sick of the Ben Simmons cloud hanging over this season and I no longer care if he’s traded or not.
After worrying endlessly about the guy who should have been the future of Australian basketball, I don’t have any time left for Simmons and his antics. Josh Giddey is the new shining light and we must all gather around him.
I hereby undertake not to write another word about Ben Simmons until he steps on a basketball court and plays for a professional team. I will make no predictions and I will not read any speculation. I’m going cold turkey.
Pre-Season: Atlanta have announced themselves as a top team in the East and are a chance at the Finals
I’m just going to take a moment to marinate myself in the depth of how incorrect this take was. Why did I say “I’m really high on this Hawks team and I can’t see a reason to doubt them”?
The Hawks haven’t won a home game since November. I’m leaving that sentence on its own.
(update: two hours after publication, the Hawks beat the Bucks at home, but the point stands that such a long gap between home wins isn’t the sign of a good team)
On their way to that disgraceful sentence, Atlanta has blown so many leads in the fourth quarter of games that I’ve actually lost count. What’s worse is the amount of times they’ve gotten out to a big lead in the first half which evaporates in the third quarter when they completely take their foot off the pedal, only to turn to Trae in the fourth and demand that he make clutch threes to save them.
Atlanta are 17-25, good for 12th in the Eastern Conference and are a complete joke defensively, sitting at 28th in the league after giving up over 130 points 4 times in the last month. There’s a glimmer of hope left for this season as Atlanta are still the second ranked offense, but it doesn’t matter if you score 115 every game if the other team scores 120.
I want to believe that Atlanta can turn this around. When Trae Young is your best player you go into any single game with the confidence he can win it for you, but Atlanta’s problems feel worse than skin deep. This is melanoma territory, it requires surgery.
Week 3: The Lakers have handed the keys to their offense to a drunk driver
I’m calling it early for the most loved/hated franchise led by the most loved/hated superstar – they’re done. You might say that’s a bad move considering I spent part of this article apologising for going too hard against the Bulls too early, but I refuse to learn.
The Lakers always get the latest time slot whenever they play at home, which means their games don’t finish until 3 or 4 in the afternoon. For the sake of watching more basketball I end up tuning in – what am I supposed to do? Work? This team sucks and I hate watching them. They’ve been playing the same offense all season and still look like no one has a clue where they’re supposed to stand.
The Christmas game really proved that this team sucks and is beyond saving. Things started poorly for LA when Brooklyn got out to a comfortable 20 point lead in the first half, causing me to switch back to the cricket indefinitely. Of course, LeBron gets his team back in the game and it’s tied up with about 1 minute to go. Following some back and forth between James Harden and Lebron, Brooklyn has a two point lead with about 20 seconds left in the game and Russell Westbrook has the ball in his hands. It’s criminal that anyone but LeBron was touching the ball for the Lakers, but Russ without the ball is the equivalent of taking a player off the court.
Russ had a clear path to the basket with an open lane and the Laker’s off-ball movement had given LeBron space on the perimeter for an open 3. The red carpet was rolled out for Russ to make a shot to even up the game or make a pass and claim the lead. But of course, when presented with options in a late game situation, Russ always takes the worst one. So, Russ goes full-biscuits into the lane and attempts a dunk, which he stuffs awkwardly against the rim, scoring no points and turning the ball over, basically ending the game. It was so bad that I’m still thinking about it nearly a month later.
The past few games have gone so badly for the Lakers that LeBron just tweeted an apology to their fans, but you can’t even blame LeBron for this – as much fun as it might be. Every game, the rest of the team fuck everything up, LeBron tries to save them and they ultimately let him down. He’s 37 years old and leading the team in scoring. Thirty seven.
Anthony Davis was supposed to be out for 4 weeks with an MCL sprain, but his joints have taken a beating more than his 28 years of life should be able to give, so who knows when he’ll be back. Davis isn’t an instant fix for the Lakers problems, he’s looked lackluster all year and is quickly falling behind the elite big men he was supposed to be the vanguard of. Is he better than Jokic or Embiid? Not this year, not even close.
I’m ready for the argument that Russ is actually playing well and I’m just a hater, because Russ is averaging close to a triple double or he’s good for your NBA fantasy team or maybe you think the fact Russ has more turnovers than made baskets isn’t such a bad thing, but I’m prepared for that.
There is literally no correlation between Russell Westbrook’s personal stats and any recognisable playoff success – not once has his team advanced further than the first round of the playoffs when he’s averaged a triple double. This goes as far back as the OKC – Jazz first round series in Donovan Mitchell’s rookie season. Do you remember when Mitchell was a rookie? I don’t, because it was a million years ago!
I don’t mean to suggest that success in the NBA is only measured in championships, but it’s definitely measured by whether you can make it past the first round and when you’ve got LeBron on your team, it’s championship or bust.
So it’s goodbye to another year of LeBron’s career for basically nought. It’s hard to feel sorry for him, knowing that he turned down trades for Demar DeRozan and Buddy Hield to assemble this bum team, but I actually do. The elder statesman of the league still has the ability to win a title and it’s being wasted by the guys he fought against in the early days of his career.
I don’t see a scenario where this team pulls it together and proves me wrong, but if they do I’ll consider a note of regret for this take, no more apologies.
Is it weird that the first article for a new website is a retrospective? I’m unsure, but at least it gives you an idea of where The Blocked Content stands, from an ideological perspective. Normal week-to-week articles will recommence soon, but I wanted to take the time to evaluate whether I’d been desperately wrong all season, and I think I’m at about .500, so good enough for a playoff spot.
If you think I’m desperately wrong or unfair or callous, please send me a DM.