Lauri Markkanen among most improved

One thing I’m annually thankful for when spending Thanksgiving back east? That frosty November chill one receives whilst dashing outside to harvest the local paper of record. (Today’s: The Washington Post. Tomorrow’s: The Bucks County Courier Times.)

Come Thanksgiving week, I would take a shallop across the bay to acquire a tactile newspaper.

Something about the smell of newsprint, combined with my cold weather-triggered asthma, fires my youthful appetite for what awaits within the back page of a tactile sports section. For therein lies the lagniappe every local paper provides: its generous bounty of NBA box scores.

But with wicked-heartfelt apologies to Dr. Naismith, we play fantasy basketball in a post peach-basket age. An age where voicing a day-old stat emblazons a manager with a scarlet G…for “geriatric.”

In this new world, with a few keystrokes, the web may gather an automated cornucopia of any and all necessary statistics. From minutes played to usage rate, collated, condensed, and pressed — like apples from the orchard — into any configuration we require.

(You get it. I love Thanksgiving. I’ll stop now.)

So why do box scores retain such allure? Speaking for myself, three goals:

1. to imprint a Cliff’s Notes on the story of every game
2. the dopamine burst I get when I see players defying and surpassing hot-take expectations
3. signs that a player is beginning to add a new stat to his fantasy portfolio

It’s one of my favorite aspects of the waiver-wire hunt; being first to see faint signs a player is permanently adding an extra steal, 3-pointer, etc. to his per-game averages. Circumstances in the NBA undergo constant change.

Any single move in a news cycle’s cascade of trades, injuries, coaching changes, rotational tweaks, and new systems could give a player a chance to show something new in his toolbelt.

It starts with an extra block. A steal. A couple of additional assists. A few bonus trips to the free throw line. Soon… said player starts to provide that extra production regularly. That added stat becomes a trend.

Then in time, it becomes an expectation. The higher slot on the Player Rater stabilizes. Said player’s elevated fantasy reputation ossifies into a new normal.

For this writer, my box-score panning for added stats…