By Neil Paine, Chris Herring and Kyle Wagner
Welcome to The Lab, FiveThirtyEight’s basketball podcast. On this week’s show (Jan. 4, 2018), Neil, Chris and Kyle discuss Isaiah Thomas’s debut with the Cleveland Cavaliers after recovering from a hip injury he sustained last season. Next, DeMar DeRozan of the Toronto Raptors is putting up ridiculous numbers this season — but he’s one of the only ones. After a 2016-17 season that saw blowout wins and notable individual performances, this season is off to a much less explosive start. What happened to those absurd stat lines? We investigate. Plus, a small-sample-size segment on Andre Drummond.
Here are links to what was discussed this week:
- Keep an eye on our 2017-18 NBA predictions, updated after every game.
- Deadspin’s Lauren Theisen noted that it seems DeMar DeRozan can shoot threes now.
- Last year, Neil took a look at the league’s crazy stat lines.