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Hot°Takes | NBA Takes & Debates

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Hot°Takes — a basketball paper.
Takes you'll argue with. Research you can't.
Est. 2026

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Who You Got? Nº 06: Kevin Durant vs Dirk Nowitzki.

KD is the better player: four scoring titles, an MVP, two Finals MVPs, and this year he passed Dirk and then Jordan on the all-time scoring list. But whose career would you rather have?

Dirk was the ninth pick, lost the 2006 Finals and lost as the 2007 MVP to an 8 seed. He stayed, took pay cuts, and in 2011 put together the greatest title run of all time: a sweep of the two-time champion Lakers, a win over Durant, Westbrook and Harden, and a win over the Heat Big Three, with Game 4 played through a fever. One ring, one team, 21 seasons.

Durant got there faster. He was up 3–1 on the 73-win Warriors, lost, then joined them. Two titles. Then came the Achilles, and Brooklyn, Phoenix and Houston.

The greater player or the greater story? Comment 1 or 2 👇

#kevindurant #dirknowitzki #mavericks #nbahistory #basketball

📸 Dirk: Keith Allison / CC BY-SA 2.0 · KD: All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0 · YES Network / CC BY 3.0 · all edited by @hottakesbasketball

Hot Take: Darius Acuff Jr. wins Rookie of the Year.

Not Cam Boozer. Not Yaxel Lendeborg. The seventh pick. He’s a 6’2” point guard with a handle you can’t strip, pull-up range and one of the best passing games in the class. Vegas had him at +1200 before the season. Six games in, he leads every rookie at 26.3 points and 6.3 assists.

The start was ugly: 12 points on 5-of-24 in his debut, and an NBA-record 73 shots in his first three games. Then came 34 and 14 against New Orleans, and 38 with nine threes against Memphis. Sacramento has handed him the keys, and Flagg won this award last year on a 26-win team by leading the class in scoring.

Who wins ROTY? 👇

#dariusacuff #sacramentokings #rookieoftheyear #nba #basketball by @hottakesbasketball

Player in Focus Nº 05: Cooper Flagg.

Dallas has rebuilt everything around a 19-year-old. He’s a downhill driver who finishes with either hand, a connector who led the Mavs in points, rebounds, assists and steals (the first rookie to do that since Jordan), and a defender who’s everywhere. The one hole is the jumper: 29.5% from three and 28.2% on catch-and-shoot.

Then came April: 29.2 a game on 43% from three, with 51 on Orlando and 45 on the Lakers. Three games into year two he’s at 25 and 6 on 56% shooting. If that April shot is real, he’s an All-Star this season.

All-Star or not yet? 👇

#cooperflagg #mavericks #dallasmavericks #nba #basketball by @hottakesbasketball

Hot Take: The Blazers are a top-six team in the West.

The foundation was already there: Deni Avdija became an All-Star at 24.2 a night and Portland won the play-in. Now Dame is home after 16 months out, and Ja Morant is a different player.

At his peak, half of Ja’s shots came at the rim. Last season it was a quarter, and the floater was his most-used shot. In Memphis, with no help and 23.5% from three, it broke down. In Portland, with Dame and Avdija pulling the defence, the floater is a weapon. He’s shooting 58.8% and closed out the Lakers with a 12-footer.

3–0, 2–0 in close games, a 10-man rotation. If Dame and Ja stay healthy, the middle of the West is there for the taking.

Agree or disagree? 👇

#blazers #ripcity #jamorant #damianlillard #nba

📸 Erik Drost / CC BY 2.0 · All-Pro Reels / CC BY-SA 2.0 · all edited by @hottakesbasketball

The Strange Career of… Nº 02: Derrick Rose 🎙️

The Bulls had a 1.7% chance of winning the 2008 lottery. They won it, and took the hometown kid from Englewood. Three years later, at 22, he was the youngest MVP in NBA history.

Then came April 28, 2012. Bulls up 12, just over a minute left, and Rose was still on the floor. Torn ACL. Over the next two seasons he played 10 games.

New York. Cleveland. Minnesota, and a 50-point Halloween night. Detroit. New York again. Memphis. And this January, his No. 1 went up in the rafters next to Jordan’s.

The knee took the career he should have had. But it never took the one Chicago loved.

Agree or disagree? 👇

#derrickrose #chicagobulls #nba #nbahistory #basketball

📸 Keith Allison / CC BY-SA 2.0 · Susan Lesch / CC BY 4.0 · nikk_la / CC BY 2.0 · all edited by @hottakesbasketball

Hot Take: The Pacers are a top-four team in the East again.

Last season wasn’t a decline, it was an injury list. Haliburton’s Achilles, Turner leaving, Siakam missing most of a franchise-record 16-game losing streak, Furphy’s ACL, Toppin’s foot. They finished 19–63.

But the year without Haliburton forced the rest to grow. Siakam became an All-Star first option at 24 a night. Nembhard took over the point and set career highs. Now Haliburton, who led the league in points per pick-and-roll possession in 2024, slides back in on top.

Add Zubac, a 9+ rebound-a-season centre on a team that’s lived near the bottom of the league on the glass, and a Carlisle system that was 7th in pace and led the 2025 playoffs in assists. ESPN’s Tim MacMahon thinks they could have a top-five defence too.

The risk is health. Vegas has them at 43.5 wins. They’ll win 50.

Agree or disagree? 👇

#pacers #tyresehaliburton #nba #nbaeast #basketball

📸 Chensiyuan / CC BY-SA 4.0 · All-Pro Reels / CC BY 2.0 · all edited by @hottakesbasketball

Player in Focus Nº 04: Stephen Curry 🎙️

Year 18. He’s 38, signed until he’s 40, and he just turned down $20 million to stay in Golden State. But look at what’s around him: Butler and Moody are out until January, Porziņģis is away from the team indefinitely, their only healthy centre is 40, and they’re hard-capped with no way to add help.

Last season the Warriors were 9.5 points per 100 possessions better with Curry on the floor. He only played 43 games.

He’ll make another All-Star team. The only question is how far he can take them.

How far can the Warriors go this season? Play-in, playoffs, or further? 👇

#stephencurry #warriors #dubnation #nba #basketball

📸 Clément Bardot / CC BY-SA 4.0 · Noah Salzman / CC BY-SA 3.0 · Keith Allison / CC BY-SA 2.0 · El Viejas God / CC0 · all edited by @hottakesbasketball

Who You Got? Nº 05: Nikola Jokić vs Shaquille O’Neal.

Two completely different ways to be the best big man alive. Jokić was the 41st pick and runs an entire offence from the centre spot: three MVPs and two straight seasons averaging a triple-double. Shaq was the No. 1 pick, the most dominant force the league has ever seen, with four rings and a three-peat of Finals MVPs.

Skill or size? Comment 1 or 2 👇

#nikolajokic #shaq #nba #nbahistory #basketball

📸 Jokić: All-Pro Reels / CC BY 2.0, edited · Shaq: Keith Allison / CC BY-SA 2.0, edited by @hottakesbasketball

New series: The Strange Career of… Nº 01, Ben Simmons.

He was the No. 1 pick and Rookie of the Year. He made three All-Star teams before he turned 25 and was a unanimous All-Defensive First Team pick. On paper, he was on a Hall of Fame path.

Then he passed up an open dunk in Game 7 against Atlanta. He hit 34% of his free throws that postseason, then asked for a trade and sat out a season. Two back surgeries and three teams later, he was averaging 5.9 points. This year’s comeback with the Kings ended with a torn Achilles before opening night.

The injuries are real, but they’re not why this went wrong. His back only took what was left. The career ended the night he passed that dunk.

Agree or disagree? 👇

#bensimmons #nba #sacramentokings #nbahistory #basketball by @hottakesbasketball

Hot Take Nº 05: LaMelo is the piece Ant has been missing, and this is the year Anthony Edwards wins MVP.

Ant averaged 28.8 a night doing it all himself, until his knee went in the playoffs and San Antonio sent Minnesota home. Now he finally has a point guard who makes the game easy for him. Finch already says his preseason looks are “all super easy.”

Easier shots, fresher legs and more wins add up to an MVP season.

Agree or disagree? 👇

#anthonyedwards #lameloball #timberwolves #nba #basketball

📸 Photo 3: Erik Drost / CC BY 2.0, edited · All other photos: uncredited by @hottakesbasketball

VJ Edgecombe learned the game on Bimini, barefoot, shooting at a crate nailed to a post.
Last season he started all 75 games for Philadelphia as a rookie, averaged 16 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.2 assists, and made 35% of his threes. In the playoffs he became the first rookie since Tim Duncan to put up 30 and 10 in a playoff game.
Then the Sixers added LeBron James and Jaylen Brown. Some now call him the fifth option.
We’d call it an apprenticeship. LeBron is 41. When Philadelphia’s next era starts, it’s built around Maxey and Edgecombe.
Player in Focus no.03. What do you expect for VJ this season?
#nba #vjedgecombe #sixers #76ers nbarookies by @hottakesbasketball

Amen Thompson played more minutes than anyone in the NBA last season.
When Fred VanVleet tore his ACL before the season, Houston handed the offence to a 6’7” forward who had never run one. Amen started all 79 games he played and set career highs of 18.3 points, 5.3 assists and 1.5 steals. He also dropped 41 on Minnesota.
He was also the one player Houston refused to include in the Kevin Durant trade, and in September they gave him $208 million.
But every defence still plays him the same way: step back and dare him to shoot. He’s a 21.9% three-point shooter for his career. Last season he dropped out of the All-Defensive team, while his twin Ausar finished third for Defensive Player of the Year.
If he fixes the jumper, Houston has a superstar. If he doesn’t, they’ve paid max money for the best role player in the league.
Player in Focus no.02 Underrated or overrated?
#nba #amenthompson #rockets #houstonrockets #nbadefense by @hottakesbasketball