Joe Wolfond
theScore
Toronto, ON, Canada
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Past articles by Joe:
The Pelicans are perpetually in limbo
Every team in the NBA has a perceived "ceiling" that fans and prognosticators believe they're capable of reaching if only everything would coalesce at the right time. That requires health, first and foremost, but it also means finding connectivity, rhythm, and a run of collective shot-making.Those high-end outcomes feel a lot more plausible for some teams than others. Some, like the Los Angeles… → Read More
Dame is better than ever, but the Blazers are stuck in quicksand
Damian Lillard's nuclear 71-point explosion Sunday night was jaw-dropping and somehow not all that surprising. The second-highest regulation scoring output of the 3-point era was the culmination of a long-simmering hot streak that's seen Lillard incinerate almost every defense he's come across.It was his second game this season with at least 60 points, his third with at least 50, and his… → Read More
Ranking the West's contenders after a wild NBA trade deadline
The NBA's 2023 trade deadline has come and gone, with the balance of power in an already condensed Western Conference upended over the last week. In the past five days, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving moved from Brooklyn to separate West contenders, D'Angelo Russell replaced Russell Westbrook in Laker Land, the Warriors reacquired Gary Payton II, and almost every team in the postseason mix got… → Read More
NBA trade deadline: Breaking down every major deal
The NBA trade deadline was Thursday, Feb. 9 at 3 p.m. ET. Below, theScore's NBA feature writers, Joseph Casciaro and Joe Wolfond, break down every significant deal.Three early blockbusters were analyzed in detail in their own posts - tap the links to see the full breakdowns: Mavs roll the dice on Kyrie Lakers shed Westbrook, Wolves swap PGs in 3-teamer with Jazz Suns go all-in for KD as Nets… → Read More
Examining the Lakers-Wolves-Jazz trade from every angle
Before it was completely overshadowed by the Kevin Durant megablockbuster, the Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Utah Jazz hammered out a fascinating three-teamer that could work out nicely for everyone involved. Let's break it down, team by team. Lakers Acquired: D'Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, Jarred VanderbiltTraded: Russell Westbrook, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Damian Jones, 2027… → Read More
Are the Clippers a sleeping giant or a paper tiger?
When the Los Angeles Clippers' current nucleus came together on a fateful July night back in 2019, it felt like a seismic event, and not just because it coincided with a literal earthquake in the L.A. area. By pairing the superstar wing tandem of Paul George and Kawhi Leonard - the latter of whom was just three weeks removed from a championship run that culminated in Finals MVP honors - the… → Read More
Trends to watch: The pick-and-roll is being inverted
We're been looking at stylistic trends that are beginning to take hold in the NBA, and could define the league in 2023. For our final entry: the rise of inverted pick-and-rolls. Previously: The resurgence of offensive rebounding | The viability of tall ball | 3-point vs. interior defense Ball-handlers continue to get bigger around the NBA.Scan the league landscape and you'll find it dotted with… → Read More
Trends to watch: The delicate balance between interior and 3-point defense
Now that it's 2023, we're looking at some stylistic trends that could define the NBA in the calendar year to come. Today: the tricky balance of rim defense and 3-point defense. Previously: The rise of offensive rebounding | The viability of tall ball There are plenty of reasons why offensive efficiency is at an all-time high, and one of the most frequent causes you'll hear cited is the… → Read More
Sorting out the muddled morass in the West
While the Denver Nuggets and Memphis Grizzlies have separated themselves at the top of the West standings, the rest of the conference is as condensed as ever. More than halfway through the season, only two games separate the West's 6-through-13 seeds.That's eight teams, all within spitting distance of a locked-in playoff spot, and all at risk of tumbling out of the play-in picture entirely. At… → Read More
Trends to watch: Is tall ball the wave of the future, or a passing fad?
Now that it's 2023, we’re looking at some stylistic trends that are starting to take hold in the NBA and could define the league in the calendar year to come. Today: the viability of tall ball. Previously: The rise of offensive reboundingIf the latter half of the 2010s in the NBA was defined in part by a fixation with small ball, the early part of the 2020s has represented something of a… → Read More
Should we believe in the Nuggets' defensive turnaround?
Back on Dec. 14, the Denver Nuggets claimed a piece of NBA history by scoring a modern-day record 98 paint points en route to a 141-128 win over the Washington Wizards. The game perfectly encapsulated the Nuggets at that point in the season: They couldn't be stopped, nor could they get stops. Afterward, head coach Michael Malone acknowledged the incredible offensive achievement but in the same… → Read More
Trends to watch in 2023: Why offensive rebounding is back in style
Now that it's 2023, we’re looking at some stylistic trends that are starting to take hold in the NBA, which could define the league in the calendar year to come. First up: offensive rebounding. It's no secret the NBA's offensive environment is completely bananas right now. There are a thousand plausible explanations for that, but here's a very simple one: teams around the league are not only… → Read More
The Raptors are at a crossroads. Or are they?
It was never going to be easy for the Toronto Raptors to build on or even sustain their improbable, unconventional success from last season. In the offseason, the front office largely stayed true to the team-building vision that prioritized (and perhaps over-indexed on) length and positional flexibility, which once again left the Raptors light on guards and big men. This is to say, it once again… → Read More
Curry's injury presents an opportunity for the Warriors to find themselves
Is it too early to say the Warriors' title defense is dangling by a thread? We're nearly 40% through the regular season, and the defending champs are below .500, with a 3-14 record on the road. They're sitting right on the Western Conference play-in bubble, as close to being overtaken by the 13th-place Thunder as they are to jumping into the top six. Stephen Curry, who's improbably played some… → Read More
Aaron Gordon has shaped himself into the perfect Nuggets role player
When the Denver Nuggets acquired Aaron Gordon at the 2021 trade deadline, he looked like the final piece of a rising power's title-contending puzzle. Upon arriving, he immediately abandoned the misbegotten attempts at star-level self-creation that defined the latter years of his Orlando tenure, and morphed into the elite role player he was always destined to be.He sliced his average touch time… → Read More
How much has the Lakers' recent play changed their trade calculus?
Ever since the Los Angeles Lakers' offseason concluded with Russell Westbrook and both their tradeable first-round draft picks still in tow, the team has been stuck in something of a holding pattern. Structural change felt inevitable once it became clear early last season that the Westbrook acquisition was a flop, but there hasn't been a straightforward blueprint laying out the shape that change… → Read More
Can the 76ers sustain their improved defense when the starting backcourt returns?
On the heels of yet another second-round flameout, the Philadelphia 76ers came into this season facing heightened pressure and lofty expectations. The front office helped inflate those expectations in the offseason by re-signing James Harden to a team-friendly deal, bolstering the defense around Joel Embiid, and adding the kind of toughness and grit that Embiid insisted the Sixers needed… → Read More
How far can the Kings ride their blistering offense?
The Sacramento Kings' streak, at long last, is over. I'm talking, of course, about their seven-game win streak - the franchise's longest in nearly two decades! - that was snapped Wednesday in Atlanta on the second night of a back-to-back. But perhaps a few months from now we'll get to say the same thing about that other streak: the run of postseason whiffs that stretches back to 2006.In a league… → Read More
It's up to the T-Wolves' backcourt to make their new frontcourt work
There were plenty of good reasons for the Minnesota Timberwolves to invest heavily in a two-big frontcourt featuring Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert, a yin-yang pairing of 7-footers who each excel in exactly the ways the other is deficient. The Wolves saw other teams succeed by going big amid the NBA's downsizing trend and surmised that they could do the same.Things haven't quite gone as… → Read More
Brook Lopez's interior defense remains the Bucks' secret sauce
Arguably the biggest concern for the Milwaukee Bucks coming into this season was the age and health of their starting center. Brook Lopez has been integral to everything the Bucks have done - especially defensively - since he signed as a reclamation project for the bi-annual exception back in 2018. His arrival coincided with the hiring of coach Mike Budenholzer, and Budenholzer immediately set… → Read More