8 Biggest Storylines of the 2015 NBA Calendar Year
Here we come, 2016 NBA basketball.
But not before we bid a proper farewell to 2015 and all the conversational fodder it bestowed upon us.
Boiling down an entire year into just a few happenings is difficult. Some will say it's unfair. Others will maintain it's impossible. A select few will get irrationally angry.
So with the hope of addressing the disgruntled truther, pessimistic activist and unsteadily tempered populations, this "year in review" is presented with a disclaimer: These were not the only storylines worth following in 2015, just the biggest headline-hoarders—topics that really, truly, totally captured, and in some cases are still capturing, national attention.
Our best hits from 2015 will be presented in order of increasing importance for 2016, because we're cool like that. Plot lines that stand to have a major impact on the Association's landscape next year will be given special consideration, and anything that dominated discussions between Jan. 1 and now is up for grabs.
Another year of NBA action is just about in the books, and oh, what an active year it has been.
Honorable Mentions
1 of 9
Fans of unabashed volume, I've got your back.
Here's a brief rundown of some other hugely important 2015 storylines that just weren't hugely important enough to make the cut:
- LeBron James carries Cleveland Cavaliers to NBA Finals and almost wins series MVP...even though they lost.
- Kevin Durant and Paul George successfully return to MVP form following major injuries.
- Atlanta Hawks go undefeated for January 2015.
- Could the 2015 rookie class end up being better than the 2003 crop? (Yes.)
- Forthcoming salary-cap boom forces us to re-evaluate seemingly unreasonable player salaries: DeMarre Carroll, Tobias Harris, Wesley Matthews, etc.
- Goodbye, Memphis Grizzlies' championship window.
- Reggie Jackson plays his way into All-Star territory with the Detroit Pistons.
- The deconstruction of the Portland Trail Blazers.
- Surprisingly encouraging starts to 2015-16: Charlotte Hornets, Indiana Pacers, Orlando Magic.
- Surprisingly disappointing starts to 2015-16: Houston Rockets, Milwaukee Bucks, New Orleans Pelicans, Washington Wizards.
- DeMarcus Cousins and George Karl try to coexist.
- How bad is that Omer Asik contract? Really bad.
- How good is that Cory Joseph contract? Really good.
- Markieff Morris and the Phoenix Suns forget how to play nice.
- The Chicago Bulls offense unexpectedly implodes.
8. DeAndre Jordan's Mulligan
2 of 9
Back in July, shortly after the NBA's free-agency process began but before its moratorium period expired, DeAndre Jordan was ready to join the Dallas Mavericks.
And then, quite suddenly, he wasn't.
Securing a verbal commitment from the double-double and shot-blocking machine wasn't enough for Dallas to prevent Jordan from returning to the Los Angeles Clippers. Once members of his incumbent team received word that he was equivocating on his decision to leave, they put on the full-court press to ensure he would never don a Mavericks uniform.
What followed was very 2015.
Speculation ran rampant. Reports were filed. Emojis were tweeted. Fake, not-at-all real pictures from inside Jordan's house were posted.
Depending on the minute, the Clippers were either holding Jordan hostage until he chose Los Angeles over Dallas, or he was employing Jersey Shore-esque evasive maneuvers to distance himself from Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.
Jordan later offered some clarity on the matter in a video for The Players' Tribune, and ESPN.com's Ramona Shelburne and Tim MacMahon provided some first-rate behind-the-scenes perspective of their own. Still, much of what actually happened, away from the Twitter machine, will remain a mystery.
This isn't to say that Jordan is the first player who has struggled to make up his mind. (Dwight Howard, anyone?) But the way his return to the Clippers transpired was so unconventional—public yet private all at the same time—it will forever be etched in our memory.
That the Mavericks, despite losing Jordan, and the Clippers, despite retaining a borderline All-Star at Dallas' expense, are now on pace to win around the same number of games only adds to the wackiness of this entire soap opera.
Here's to Kevin Durant navigating free agency this summer without calling take-backs.
7. The Sixers, the NBA, the Process, Puzzling Twists and You
3 of 9
The Philadelphia 76ers' now-notorious "Process" has been dominating bar-stool debates, heated holiday table discussions, Twitter timelines and the general meme index since it began in 2013-14—in a can't-stop-won't-stop-but-want-to-stop-watching sort of way.
Losing to the extent the Sixers have, with the agreeable stance they've assumed, incites interest. They have lost 58 more games during general manager Sam Hinkie's reign than the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs have combined to drop.
That level of deliberate failure doesn't universally sell, but it does intrigue. And the Sixers are now more compelling than ever.
Co-owner Josh Harris appointed Jerry Colangelo, the chairman of USA Basketball, as the team's chairman of basketball operations. Loosely translated, and despite assertions to the contrary, this means the Sixers are, to some degree, abandoning their controversial Process.
"Don’t mistake this as a PR move or a consultation role," Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today wrote. "Philadelphia ownership reached out to Colangelo, [commissioner Adam] Silver assisted in the partnership and the 76ers hired Colangelo to rebuild the team faster than Hinkie."
It's true that the Sixers are a mess. There are now two players on the roster older than 25 following the acquisition of Ish Smith; two of Hinkie's top draft selections, Joel Embiid and Dario Saric, have yet to make their NBA debuts; two of his other defining prospects, Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor, cannot function together on the floor; and Philadelphia owns the record for the worst start in league history after beginning the 2015-16 campaign 1-30 (though it's since won its second game and is now 2-31).
But Hinkie has never peddled the idea of even a semi-instant turnaround, at least not publicly. Anyone with a working set of eyes understood the Process was, at minimum, a five-year project.
Bilking him of any control, let alone implicitly and wholly manipulating his vision, roughly halfway through his experiment doesn't make much sense. And, most importantly, it doesn't promise an expedited path back to respectability.
Head coach Brett Brown's extension, the addition of Mike D'Antoni to the coaching staff, the attempt to scour the market for veteran locker room presences—those decisions hold merit and can aid in advancing the Process without discarding it entirely. But after a rocky 2015 calendar year, the Sixers appear destined to invest in needle-nudging moves that pad their short-term win column while consigning them to long-term mediocrity.
Hinkie's initial Process, successful or not, was at least angling toward something bigger.
6. Kobe Officially Calls It Quits
4 of 9
Many assumed the 2015-16 season would be Kobe Bryant's last.
His contract is expiring. He hasn't played at a superstar level since 2012-13. The Lakers won't be in position to win him a sixth championship anytime soon.
Bryant's exit was almost a foregone conclusion. The only thing missing? A definitive announcement from the future Hall of Famer himself, which, knowing how much Bryant loathes being seen as anything less than a villain, wasn't supposed to come.
Until it did.
"This season is all I have left to give," he confessed in a poem for The Players' Tribune. "My heart can take the pounding. My mind can handle the grind. But my body knows it’s time to say goodbye."
Perception of Bryant's final go-around has since softened. He is still on pace to have the worst effective field-goal percentage—cumulative measurement of two- and three-point efficiency—of anyone during the three-point era to average 17 shots per game, and the 5-27 Lakers remain light-years outside the Western Conference playoff picture.
But Bryant's punchline of a season has now evolved into a farewell tour—a celebration of the player he used to be. In recent performances, he has found the energy and efficiency necessary to combat the inordinate number of unflattering Vines and stats that were invading social media.
There was a 22-point, six-assist outburst in a Dec. 15 win over the Bucks. And a 22-point, 9-of-16 shooting outing against the Rockets on Dec. 17. And then a 31-point, five-assist explosion during a Dec. 22 victory over the Denver Nuggets.
Little about Bryant's swan song is going to be pretty. Ebbing athleticism and a suboptimal Lakers roster will make sure of that.
Love him or hate him, though, Bryant is a basketball legend. And the official news of his exit forces us to reassess and reinterpret what we're watching, good or bad, great or terrible, even if only slightly.
5. Lasting Rise of 'Any-Sized Ball'
5 of 9
Contrary to what the term "small ball" implies, the NBA is not devaluing size.
It is most definitely, however, placing a premium on versatile talents who, irrespective of size, boast miles-deep skill sets. This includes bigs shooting threes, undersized players protecting the rim and logging heavy minutes up front, forwards acting as point guards and so much more.
In reality, then, the small-ball revolution is actually the "any-sized ball" insurrection.
Anthony Davis, the Pelicans' prized forward-center, has jacked 49 three-pointers so far this season after attempting 27 through his first three years combined.
Rookies Kristaps Porzingis and Karl-Anthony Towns, each of whom stands at least 7'0", were selected in the top four of last summer's draft largely because they project as shot-blockers who can also stroke triples.
Draymond Green, who has spent more than 90 percent of his minutes at power forward, is averaging almost as many potential assists per game as Stephen Curry—not to mention more than Mike Conley, Goran Dragic and Kyle Lowry, among plenty of other star point guards.
Golden State's most-used fourth-quarter lineup is an actual small-ball "Death Squad" that features the generously listed 6'7" Green at center.
Jae Crowder is a 6'6" wing who, on most nights, guards four different positions. He leads the Boston Celtics, the NBA's third-best defensive team, in defensive win shares.
Paul Millsap, a power forward by definition for Atlanta, does the job of every position. According to K.L. Chouinard of Hawks.com, he is the first player to ever eclipse 100 assists, 200 defensive rebounds, 55 steals, 35 blocks and 25 made three-pointers through the first 32 games of a season.
Any-sized ball is everywhere. It's real. And it's here to stay.
4. Race for Kevin Durant Becomes Obvious
6 of 9
Kevin Durant's impending foray into 2016 free agency quickly became a 2015 affair.
More than half of the league is expected to boast ample spending power once the salary cap jumps to $89 million in 2016-17, and any one of the many teams with maximum wiggle room must be considered a potential suitor. But certain organizations—some more so than others—have obviously tailored their decisions around Durant's availability.
The Wizards held off giving Bradley Beal a contract extension and did not impede their future flexibility by taking on any long-term salary. Neither the Mavericks nor Lakers doled out hefty deals after swinging and missing on last summer's primary free-agent targets.
The Rockets, headed by their ever star-starved general manager Daryl Morey, are right there with them. They gambled on a trade for Ty Lawson, but only after he agreed to remove the guarantee on his 2016-17 salary. Patrick Beverley, Corey Brewer and K.J. McDaniels were each brought back on movable deals, and Houston opted against offering extensions to Terrence Jones and Donatas Motiejunas.
Even the Warriors are joining in on the posturing fun. They waited on extensions for Harrison Barnes—albeit after offering him a four-year, $64 million deal that he rebuffed—and Festus Ezeli and have been enamored with the idea of entering the Durant sweepstakes since at least last summer, according to Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News.
Don't forget about the Oklahoma City Thunder, either. That's both an order and the same message Oklahoma City has been sending out to the NBA at large.
Luxury-tax implications led the Thunder to cut bait with James Harden ahead of 2012-13, and yet they dipped into their rainy-day fund last summer to match the four-year, $70 million offer sheet Enes Kanter signed with the Portland Trail Blazers. They fired longtime head coach Scott Brooks, who was with Durant from the beginning, first as an assistant in Seattle, then as the sideline chief in Oklahoma City. Durant was even elected into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in November.
None of this, from the Thunder's actions to various forms of restraint shown across the league, is a happy accident. Durant's future won't be decided until midway through 2016, but the battle for his services reached fever pitch in 2015.
3. Championship Contention Is Not for Everyone—Or Almost Anyone
7 of 9
Championship contention has always been reserved for the few. But over the last couple of years, mainly because the Western Conference has been flush with superpowers, the pursuit of the Larry O'Brien Trophy always seemed pleasantly crowded.
Now it feels decidedly empty. As Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes wrote:
"With a small subset of superpowers reigning over the chaos underneath, the NBA's Western Conference is different this year.
Gone are the days of seven playoff locks and a couple of hopeless, destined-for-disappointment outfits scrapping for 47 wins and the eighth seed. This season, we've got the San Antonio Spurs, Golden State Warriors and Oklahoma City Thunder thumping the competition as a half-dozen flawed squads mill around in the mess below.
"
You could sense this chasm growing toward the end of last season, when it became clear the Warriors would bow to nothing and no one. But the point to which it has widened is mind-boggling.
Putting Oklahoma City in the same class as Golden State and San Antonio is even a stretch. The Spurs and Warriors are neck and neck in net rating, with the third-place Thunder trailing second-place Golden State by 4.9 points per 100 possessions. An identical gap separates Oklahoma City from the seventh-place Toronto Raptors.
Since 2007-08, the Western Conference's average No. 8 seed has posted a winning percentage of 57.6—the equivalent of 47-plus victories over an 82-game schedule. Three of its currently playoff-bound teams are in line to miss that mark.
Meanwhile, it's the same ol', same ol' out East. The first-place Cavaliers aren't towering above the field, and the middle class is deeper. But Kyrie Irving only just returned and, as we saw during the 2015 Eastern Conference Finals with the Hawks, any imminent threats to Cleveland are to be taken with a metric ton of salt.
Maybe the Thunder make the leap from dangerous blip to legitimate threat. Perhaps the underachieving Clippers and Rockets get their acts together. A surprise candidate could emerge from the East.
For now, as the NBA prepares to rein in 2016, the championship field has never seemed smaller.
There are the Warriors, Spurs and Cavaliers, a crater-sized divide and then everyone else.
2. San Antonio: A Dynastic Free-Agent Hot Spot
8 of 9
A funny thing happened when San Antonio convinced LaMarcus Aldridge to join its merry band of championship-ring wranglers: The Spurs became even scarier.
Yes, those Spurs. The ones who have won five titles and recorded 125-plus victories more than any other team during the Tim Duncan era. They are scarier. And not just because they have Aldridge to play with and eventually succeed Duncan.
That's part of it, sure. San Antonio's championship window has been open since 1997, and it isn't closing anytime soon.
Kawhi Leonard and Aldridge will keep the team humming along after Duncan, Manu Ginobili and head coach Gregg Popovich retire, and the Spurs of today are surviving Golden State's run of dominance. It's them, not the historically great Warriors, who own the league's best net rating.
In setting themselves up for another decade's worth of sustainable success, the Spurs have found that the Association's free agents—its biggest names—are taking notice.
San Antonio is now a destination of choice. Aldridge doesn't eschew the comfy confines of Portland, hometown roots of Dallas and glitz and glam of Los Angeles if it's not. David West doesn't leave roughly $10 million on the table in Indiana for a bit part inside the Spurs' championship machine if it's not.
These Spurs have shown that they can win the sit-down meetings. That they can, and are willing to, tinker with their salary commitments to make the math work. That they can incorporate household talents into their selfless system.
Betting against the Spurs during the regular season and playoffs has long been a fool's game.
This year proved that underestimating them over the summer, as a poacher of superstars, is an equally futile venture.
1. Warriors Everything
9 of 9
Some souls are still uncomfortable with the 2015-16 Warriors being heralded as the best team to ever grace the hardwood.
Said people consist of career party poopers, those prone to yelling at clouds and mixing Metamucil into their morning oatmeal, and Ron Harper.
But here's a dirty little, terribly kept secret: These Warriors are the best team ever.
Look not only at their chances of breaking the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' record of 72 wins, but at their entire body of work dating back to even last season.
What the Warriors are doing isn't even remotely new—not for them. They are 71-11 since the calendar turned to 2015. They closed out last season going 42-10 from Jan. 1 on and are 29-1 to start 2015-16.
Laws of numbers, of unavoidable regression, do not apply to this team. Nothing does.
Curry is on track to break just about every offensive record imaginable and repeat as league MVP. Draymond Green has morphed into a full-blown megastar. The Warriors are almost immune to the ill effects of injury. Losing Harrison Barnes didn't prevent them from jumping out to the best start in NBA history. They don't miss a statistical beat when they sub out Andrew Bogut for Festus Ezeli.
Their Death Squad lineup of Barnes, Curry, Green, Andre Iguodala and Klay Thompson is outscoring teams by 66.5 points per 100 possessions—and has only scratched the surface of its potential with Barnes still working his way back from an ankle injury.
Want to beat the Warriors at their own fast-paced, positionless, outside-in game? You can't. Feel like trying to make them play your game? You can. On Christmas Day, the Cavaliers did, turning the matchup into a half-court slugfest.
And the Warriors still won.
These Warriors will destroy you at their game and beat you at your own. That's the reigning champions in a nutshell, and it's why 2015 will be remembered as their year.
Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com unless otherwise noted and are accurate leading into games on Dec. 28.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @danfavale.
