The Bounce Newsletter 
| This is The Athletic’s daily NBA newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.
On this day in 2021, Steph Curry dropped 62 points. On this day in 2022, Trae Young scored 56. On this day in 2023, Giannis Antetokounmpo had 55. Somebody is going for big money tonight.
The Butler Said It
Trade speculation in Miami heats up again
Much has been made about whether or not Jimmy Butler will finish this season with the Heat (17-15). He helped revive this team into being a title contender, twice making it to the NBA Finals in 2020 and 2023. However, Butler – who was once classified as the new Mr. Heat Culture – hasn’t really been himself at all on the court lately. The 35-year old with a $52 million player option for next season wasn’t given an extension by the team this past offseason.
Recently, there has been reporting and then lots of rumors and conjecture about whether or not he wants to be traded – or even will be traded. His agent openly challenged reporting about Butler being open to a trade last month. Pat Riley issued a rare statement, saying the team will not trade Butler this season. Then, last night, Butler managed just nine points on six shots, four assists and two rebounds in 27 minutes during a 128-115 loss to the Pacers (17-18).
Jimmy Butler tells Heat he wants to be traded
After the game, we saw this exchange between Butler and a reporter in the postgame press conference:
Reporter: “What will fix it? What do you want to see happen to fix it?”
Butler: “What do I want to see happen? I want to see me get my joy back from playing basketball. And wherever that may be, we’ll find out here pretty soon. But I want to get my joy back. I’m happy, uh, you know, off the court. But I want to be back to somewhat dominant. I want to hoop. And I want to help this team win. Right now, I’m not doing that.”
Reporter: “Can you get your joy back here on the court?”
Butler: “Probably not.”
Well … that one is going to be hard to spin or refute! It’s worth watching the exchange because there’s a slight, sly smile that starts to creep over Butler’s face when he says the words, “wherever that may be…” during his quote. Butler is a very smart, calculated person when it comes to how he talks to the media, so he knows what something like this will do to the entire ecosystem of audience consumption, punditry and how people around the league view this situation.
Pat Riley on recent reports: Heat ‘will not trade Jimmy Butler’
He left enough wiggle room for himself while also making it very known he doesn’t want to be there. The rumors have been confirmed. We have less than five weeks before the Feb. 6 trade deadline. Now what kind of statement will Riley and the Heat make?
The Last 24
De’Aaron Fox did not get Mike Brown fired
🦊 Not his fault. Sam Amick writes that the Kings’ star point guard is not to blame for the coach’s firing. But is Fox out the door?
🏀 All-Star voting. First fan voting returns are in, and LaMelo Ball has more votes than Steph Curry? More than Luka Dončić!
✍️ Good Wizards? Alex Sarr is starting to show the potential he was drafted for. Always read David Aldridge.
✍️ Larry Bird and Nikola Jokić in the same sentence (or story), you say? Tony Jones has you covered with the rest.
🙏 Successful surgery. Pistons guard Jaden Ivey had surgery to repair his broken fibula. He will be re-evaluated in four weeks. Hunter Patterson examines what’s next for Detroit (15-18).
📺 Don’t miss this game tonight. Celtics (25-9) at Rockets (22-11), 8 p.m. ET on League Pass. There’s a decent chance Joe Mazzulla and Ime Udoka just arm wrestle on the sidelines the entire time.
📺 This could also be great. Cavaliers (29-4) at Mavericks (20-14), 8:30 p.m. ET on League Pass. Even without Luka Dončić, this should be a great game to nerd out on.
Bing Bong!
Knicks are on incredible run as OKC looms
I’m not sure how many people consider the Knicks (24-10) a viable contender. I think people respect this New York team and accept it as a good squad. But accepting a squad as good and believing it can win the championship are very different things. And the Knicks are worthy of your belief.
The Knicks are looking to change perceptions tonight when they face the 28-5 Oklahoma City Thunder at 8 p.m. ET on NBA TV or Fubo (try for free). OKC has the best defense in the NBA. It also has one of the best records in the NBA. And the Thunder are red hot, having won 13 straight. (We don’t count the NBA Cup final loss because the standings don’t count it, either.)
The Knicks are almost equally as hot, however, having won nine straight games to climb within a whisper of the No. 2 seed in the East. Since losing in Dallas back on Nov. 27, the Knicks have won 14 of their last 16 games. Most of their wins this season have been comfortable by the end of the game — seventeen of their 24 victories were by double digits. This is all mostly because the Knicks have the second-best offense in basketball. Some other data points and rankings:
- Second in both effective field goal percentage and true shooting percentage.
- Fourth in turnover rate.
- Third in field goal percentage, third in 3-point percentage and fourth in free-throw percentage.
- They have two of the NBA’s top 11 leading scorers in Jalen Brunson (25.2) and Karl-Anthony Towns (24.9 points).
It’s really difficult to beat this team’s offense. The Knicks are 14-2 in games where they’ve made 3-pointers at a 40 percent clip. But we expected they’d be able to shoot and score. Maybe the most encouraging part of this stretch is the improvement we’ve seen on defense.
In the first 18 games of the season, the Knicks were 10-8, had the league’s second-best offense and ranked 24th in defense. They were 25th in eFG allowed, 13th in opponent free-throw rate, 28th in turnover rate yielded and fifth in defensive rebounding.
In the 16 games since, the Knicks are 14-2, fourth in offense and a highly impressive third(!) in defensive rating. They jumped to fourth in eFG allowed, second in opponent free-throw rate, 15th in turnover rate allowed and 17th in defensive rebounding.
The Knicks got better at literally everything except for rebounding. It’s easy to have “defense” be the first word that comes to mind for a Tom Thibodeau team because of what he did as the lead assistant for the 2008 Celtics and in his time coaching the Bulls. Since leaving the Windy City, however, only two of his seven seasons before this year saw a top-10 defensive rating.
Granted, the Knicks have beaten the Wizards (twice, and one of those went to overtime), the Jazz, the Raptors and the Pelicans during this streak. They also knocked down Orlando twice, as well as Minnesota and San Antonio. But nine wins in a row is tied for the seventh-longest win streak in franchise history, and by beating OKC, they’ll push it to 10 and have a real chance to reach 14 straight when they host the Thunder in a week.
So … do the Knicks look like contenders to you? 🫵
Victor Wembanyama
Wemby’s career is already unmatched
This is a big weekend for Spurs savior Victor Wembanyama. Tonight, Wemby is going to play the Nuggets (9 p.m. ET), and it’s always fascinating to see how he matches up against Jokić, the best player in the world. It will also be Wemby’s 100th career game! We love round numbers, and that’s a milestone worth noting for him. The very next night, the Spurs play the Nuggets again, but it also just so happens to be Wembanyama’s 21st birthday.
If you’ve been reading The Bounce for a year or more, you know we’ve been pretty obsessed with his Wemby. He’s boggled our minds and doesn’t make sense. He makes you feel like you’re watching the game on a funhouse mirror at a carnival, rather than on a television. He towers over everybody physically, and yet he plays like a guard. Through the first 100 games of his career, the Spurs star has already separated himself from the all-time greats and what they did in their first 100 games.
How so, you ask? What a great question!
- Scoring: If he scores 21 points tonight, only Michael Jordan, Zion Williamson, David Robinson, Shaquille O’Neal and Dončić will have scored more in their first 100 games over the last four decades.
- Rebounding: If Wemby grabs at least four rebounds tonight, only nine players in the last 40 years will have snatched more boards in their first 100 games.
- Passing: He has more assists than Steve Nash through his first 100 games.
- Blocked shots: Only Manute Bol and Robinson have blocked more shots through their first 100 games, ever.
- 3-point shooting: Wemby has made more 3s than Steph Curry or Klay Thompson did in their first 100 games.
Yes, some of this can be attributed to the style of the game today or the evolution of how young players are used. You can couch this stuff however you want to. But at a certain point, we’re looking at a player who is doing things across the board that basically nobody else is doing or has done. His sophomore year has him averaging over 25 points, 10 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 3.5 blocks.
Wemby takes on patrons in chess at Washington Square Park in NYC
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did that twice – so did Hakeem Olajuwon. Neither of them were 20, 21 or in their second season, though. They achieved that feat in their late 20s. Also, neither of those guys shot 39.5 percent from 3-point range on over nine attempts per game! Some people are waiting to see Wemby win a title or an MVP or even make the playoffs before they’ll start accepting his greatness. My question to those people:
Why are you so obsessed with being late to this? He’s the most unique player we’ve ever seen and has been putting on a show. Pull up to it. Be on time.
📫 Love The Bounce? Check out The Athletic’s other newsletters.
(Top photo: Issac Baldizon / Getty Images )
