A superstar is stealing from the enemy. A utility man is guarding everyone. And the champs are pulling dribblers out of hats.
Let’s open the notebook to run through three NBA trends that have caught my eye this past week.
Learning from losing
Anthony Edwards is stealing the superpowers of whoever defeats him.
Two years ago, his inspiration came from the Dallas Mavericks, the team that ousted his Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2024 Western Conference Finals. Edwards witnessed the Mavs’ guards, Kyrie Irving and Luka Dončić, roast the Wolves from deep. They had a skill that Edwards, only 22 years old at the time, didn’t yet.
He wanted to change that. So, he went to work.
By the start of last season, Edwards had integrated pull-up 3s into his repertoire, and in an extreme way. He hoisted more than 10 long-range attempts a game, sinking just short of 40 percent. Many of those came off the bounce. The skill became especially necessary after Minnesota renovated its roster just before training camp, replacing Towns in the starting lineup with Julius Randle. The trade cramped their spacing and closed up driving lanes for Edwards.
Defenses would now more commonly force Edwards into those pull-up 3s. After a summer of work, he could capitalize.
Then came another loss in last spring’s conference finals, when the Thunder showed him another way to disintegrate an opponent. No marksman is smoother from midrange than Gilgeous-Alexander, and OKC teammate Jalen Williams isn’t far behind.
Edwards added that skill to his list.
Throughout the summer of 2025, he worked on his midrange game, as The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski so beautifully chronicled at the start of this season. And the same level of improvement that showed from 3-point range a year ago is now popping up from inside the arc.
Edwards was shooting 46 percent on long 2-pointers, which cracked the NBA’s top 10 (among qualifying perimeter players) leading into Thursday night’s action. The guys ahead of him are the typical midrange feasters who come to mind when any basketball fan thinks about that area of the court: Gilgeous-Alexander, Dončić, Kevin Durant, Jalen Brunson, DeMar DeRozan and some others. None are surprises.
Except for maybe Edwards, who had never even shot league average on long 2s.
They come in all types of ways. Most of Edwards’ 16-to-20 footers are late-clock prayers that now have a significantly better chance of being answered. Sometimes, he beats a guy off the dribble, notices a big man waiting for him, then rises for a jumper. He’s more comfortable than ever spinning his back to the basket while outside the paint, shimmying for turnarounds or even pivoting into a face-up before leaning back for a fadeaway. His stepback is still his comfort food.
Just think, it’s all come because of the Thunder and the Mavs. Maybe the next time a team beats the Wolves, it should realize it’s creating a monster in the process.
Break in Cason emergency
Any time the Oklahoma City Thunder lose someone who seems irreplaceable, they get replaced. Chet Holmgren misses a minute, and Isaiah Hartenstein holds up the rim protection. Jalen Williams begins the year injured, and Ajay Mitchell evolves from unheralded rookie to essential second-year scorer and creator. Heck, the Thunder even have another Jaylin Williams, just in case.
The defending champs pull these guys out of hats.
Their latest development is more predictable. Some factions of Thunder world might even consider Cason Wallace’s recent outburst a delayed eruption that’s been bubbling since he broke out as a rookie two seasons ago. And yet, Wallace’s recent string of 20-point games isn’t just about the stats or even the context. It’s about how the points are occurring.
Wallace, like apparently everyone else on this roster, is capable of more than he’s been able to show so far in the league, where he’s been a standout defender and efficient shooter, but a modest eight-point scorer.
Neither Mitchell nor Jalen Williams has played since before the All-Star break. Reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander missed nine games, then sat Tuesday on the first night of a back-to-back against the Chicago Bulls.
Over these couple of weeks, the Thunder have turned the offense over to Wallace more than ever. He went for 20 points and 10 assists in a win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, dropped 27 on the Toronto Raptors and had 23 in the next game against the Detroit Pistons. When Gilgeous-Alexander sat during the back-to-back, Wallace scored 17 points in 29 minutes in Chicago.
“The thing that’s humbling for me over this time is you just never know when a guy is gonna peak and when a guy is gonna pop,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said.
But most important is Wallace’s decision-making. His pick-and-rolls are now procedural — and plentiful.
Since this breakout began on Feb. 22, Wallace is running 30.4 pick-and-rolls per 100 possessions, according to Second Spectrum. He was averaging 10.9 per 100 this season before this stretch. At only 22 years old, three years into his pro career, his experience is starting to show.
Wallace’s first look after dribbling around a screen is to the defender guarding the screener. When the opponent is in drop coverage, sagging back toward the basket, he attacks. Wallace is quick. If there’s space to build up speed, he takes it. Once he makes contact with the big man in drop, you can see him peer to the corner, checking if a help defender is approaching from there. If one is, Wallace sprays the ball to an open shooter. If he’s on his own, he deploys a crafty scoop layup that he can loft into the basket.
He beat up the Bulls on these types of play Tuesday. But only because Chicago mostly defended him that way.
Wallace has a read for every action. On one possession, he ran a pick-and-pop with Holmgren on the right side. Chicago shook up its strategy, pushing him to the sideline with Holmgren’s defender as his own man scrambled in for a double team.
Wallace didn’t panic. He just picked up his dribble and floated an overhead pass to Holmgren for an open 3.
Wallace is using his speed. He’s making every correct read. The Thunder, when healthy, employ approximately 972 creators. Add another one to the list.
The OG defender
Yield the floor to OG Anunoby, your defensive player of the week.
Just in the past few games, Anunoby has been the primary defender on the NBA’s most slithery scorer (Gilgeous-Alexander), on a typical, off-the-dribble wing (the Toronto Raptors’ Brandon Ingram) and on a quick-twitch point guard (the San Antonio Spurs’ De’Aaron Fox). He’s started other possessions on big forwards, like Toronto’s Scottie Barnes and the Bucks’ Bobby Portis. He’s bodied up centers, such as Holmgren and Milwaukee’s Myles Turner.
The Knicks are throwing him on anyone, and his success has been the primary driver behind the team’s. New York owns the NBA’s No. 1-ranked defense since Jan. 21.
Yes, the Knicks have benefited from good fortune during this stretch; as the notebook covered last week, New York is allowing opponents to shoot an unusually low percentage from 3, along with unsustainably cold shooting elsewhere. But this is now a 20-game stint of pestering Knicks defense — with no example better than during Sunday’s 25-point takedown of the San Antonio Spurs.
On that afternoon, Anunoby met his most difficult assignment of the week, the longest spear of asparagus ever to grace the NBA: Victor Wembanyama.
The Knicks mostly used their centers, Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson, to guard Wembanyama. But there’s a reason this 7-foot-4 stick figure is one of a kind. Throw a smaller player onto Wembanyama, and he can shoot over his defender with ease. Place a big man on him, and he can outmaneuver the defense.
The Spurs will run Wembanyama around screens that most 7-footers wouldn’t go near. Perimeter players will scamper to him and lay picks, only for him to curl around them. Those actions work especially well when a center is on Wembanyama, considering guys that size aren’t used to trailing potential scorers around screens.
In the second quarter, Robinson learned that the hard way. The Knicks center is one of the league’s more skilled defenders, but he couldn’t keep up with Wembanyama. A screen came for the Spurs’ All-Star on the left block, and Robinson got caught up on it. Wembanyama burst around it, received a pass and threw down a dunk.
The Knicks changed the matchup not long after, just to give Wembanyama a different look.
This time, the same play did not work — because of Anunoby’s tenacity.
Don’t just look at Anunoby’s fight on this play. Also, watch the Knicks’ team defense.
It’s no coincidence Spurs forward Harrison Barnes is the one to set the screen. Barnes’ presence means his defender, Jalen Brunson, is in the action. It’s a subtle way for San Antonio to go at one of New York’s weak points away from the ball.
But you wouldn’t know the Knicks were at a supposed disadvantage by the way they — and specifically Anunoby — defended here.
Anunoby is physical enough fighting around the screen from Barnes to stay attached to Wembanyama. The Knicks’ forward communicates with wing Josh Hart, who is manning Spurs guard Stephon Castle on the right wing. Hart sinks backward to bump Wembanyama, slowing him down for Anunoby. The Spurs create no separation, and thus no advantage.
So Wembanyama tries to open himself another way. He posts Anunoby up, but the 6-foot-8 New York wing fronts him on the opposite side, allowing no daylight for an entry pass. Wembanyama drifts back to the right side of the court, only for Anunoby to keep pushing him. By the time the Spurs’ star receives the basketball, he’s far outside the paint. All he can settle for is a difficult turnaround with Anunoby in his grill.
Clank.
The Knicks’ defense is 6.2 points per 100 possessions better with Anunoby on the court this season, according to Cleaning the Glass. Even the greatest players can’t find comfortable shots against him. With the assignments he’s received lately, that holds true no matter their size or skill set.