By Vince Carter · Nov 10, 2026
The Table Was Set Before Tip-Off
Somewhere around the second week of November, the NBA turns into a cookout with no host. Nobody sent invitations, everybody showed up, and every plate is loud in a different way. Houston is still trying to figure out who stands at the grill when a fourth quarter gets tight. A seven-footer in San Antonio fixed himself a plate in the first half and went home early. A 19-year-old in Dallas ate a sandwich on the bench, walked back out and dropped 43. Golden State is passing the ball like it owes the building money. Miami can't agree on who guards whom. And across town, my Lakers are 10-2 with the most expensive problem in basketball: they win so much that nobody wants to hear what's broken.
That last part is why I sat down to write this. I recorded the episode Tuesday with a stat sheet full of highlighter and an opinion on everything, and I said plenty on the mic. What I couldn't do in real time was connect the dots, so this is the written version. The receipts are lined up, a few thoughts showed up after the mics went off, and the Lakers section goes somewhere the episode only hinted at.
If you came for barbershop ammo, jump to the section you need. If you came to argue with me, I respect that and I'll see you in the replies.
Houston Has a Fourth-Quarter Problem Nobody Wants to Name
Here is the version of the Rockets I'm comfortable defending: they're good, they're making the playoffs, and I wouldn't bet against them in a seven-game series with Kevin Durant on the floor. Here is the version that bugs me. When a game gets tight, this team still can't manufacture a clean look, and it happened again this weekend in Phoenix. Houston dug out of a 19-point hole, ripped off a 20-2 run to end the first half, and then watched Devin Booker hit nine straight in the fourth. Durant had the last shot to tie it from deep. It came up short.
The crunch-time numbers under that loss are what I'd screenshot. Durant is 4-of-13 in clutch minutes this season and hasn't recorded a single assist in them. Fred VanVleet is 4-of-7. Nobody else on the roster has taken more than three shots in those spots. Alperen Şengün, the best passer on the team by assist rate, is 2-of-3 and mostly watching. Durant told William Guillory at The Athletic that November reps are good for late-game execution. VanVleet's answer was shorter: get some stops.
Last year's Rockets played 45 clutch games, tied for the most in the league, and finished 22-23 in them. Against teams at .500 or better they were 12-16. Back then the excuses were easy to find, with VanVleet out for the year and Durant new to the building. Both of those are gone now, and the same habit is still here.
To me it comes down to tempo. Houston sits 26th in pace with a roster built to cut and run. Şengün, Tari Eason and Jabari Smith Jr. all play harder when they believe the ball is coming. Then the clock drops under five minutes, Durant and VanVleet slow the game to the speed they trust, and the young guys turn into spectators. I don't blame either veteran. Durant is still drawing about eight free throws a game on roughly 65 percent true shooting. VanVleet, 32 years old and a year removed from a torn ACL, is hitting 36 percent from three and protecting the ball. They're doing their jobs.
My complaint is the design. Şengün runs about a 26 percent usage rate with an assist rate in the mid-thirties, and when he's a hub at the nail, people cut hard and the shots find themselves. He isn't free, either. His turnover rate is around 15 percent, and he and Durant account for a little over a third of the team's giveaways. I'll take that trade, because a passer who reads the floor beats a heave at the end of the shot clock every night of the week.
The supporting cast hasn't helped. Amen Thompson is shooting 22 percent from three and Eason is at 25. Smith is at 46 percent on about six attempts, which won't last, but you feed that confidence anyway because you'll need him in April. Reed Sheppard sits at 50.9 percent true shooting through seven games. Marcus Smart's turnover rate is 19.2 percent, and he's at his best catching a swung ball and making the gritty plays, not choosing between two bad options. If Smart is running the second unit, the other stabilizer has to be on the floor with him.
I don't think Ime Udoka is wrong about everything. I do want to know who he thinks he's protecting by keeping the ball out of Şengün's hands when it matters.
Wemby Took a Nap, Flagg Took a Snack Break
I want to start with the minutes, because the points are only half the story. Victor Wembanyama went for 40 points, 11 rebounds and nine blocks in Phoenix on Monday, shot 15-of-19, had 22 at the half, and then spent most of the fourth quarter in a chair. Twenty-five minutes. ESPN says only one other player has scored 40 in under 26 minutes since they started tracking minutes in 1951-52, and that's Sleepy Floyd. If you're under 40, go watch the Sleepy Floyd tape. He earned the name.
The reactions were better than the box score. Booker said he'd never seen anything like it. Suns coach Jordan Ott said the scary part is that Wemby does it from all three levels. Then Wemby himself said he tries to save the physically amazing stuff for the amazingly difficult moments. Read that again slowly. A guy who just blocked nine shots in 25 minutes is telling you that was the easy version.
The quiet part of that win is how the Spurs got it done around him. Dylan Harper scored 14 in the third quarter after Mitch Johnson called a timeout to get him going, and San Antonio did it without Devin Vassell, who was out with a tight left abductor. That makes nine straight wins and a 9-2 record. Wemby also hung 52 and 24 on Dallas the Wednesday before. When your best player can win a game in three quarters, you get to bank minutes for May.
Dallas has a different kind of star problem, and I'm calling it a problem with a smile. Cooper Flagg played the fourth quarter of Sunday's blowout of Brooklyn from the bench, and a camera caught him eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich out of a little plastic bag. It was the second game in a row. He told people he's trying to add weight and muscle, so the menu is smooth peanut butter and grape jelly. Daniel Gafford, sitting next to him, chimed in that he gets the honey version.
Then Monday happened. Flagg dropped 43 on 16-of-25 shooting against Indiana, with 10 boards, six assists and three steals, in a 125-122 win. That's his fifth 40-point game. He's now at 25.9 points, 6.9 rebounds, 6.9 assists and two steals a night, and the only other player who matches those numbers in all four categories is Luka Dončić. The comparison everyone wanted to avoid is sitting right there, and I get why Dallas fans are trying not to say it too loudly.
Dusty May, who arrived from a national championship run at Michigan, said it's unbelievable that Flagg is doing this at 19. What I notice is the 12 assists against Brooklyn. A scorer who keeps making the extra pass at that age is rare, and that's what separates a hot streak from a franchise player. At 7-4, the Mavs are winning with a teenager who eats his lunch on the sideline like it's a nine-to-five. I love it.
Golden State Is Sharing, Miami Is Squabbling
The Warriors beat the Pelicans 138-87. Do the subtraction with me: that's 51 points, the biggest margin in the league this season and the worst loss in Pelicans history. Golden State has now won eight straight after an 0-3 start and sits at 8-3. That's the second-longest winning streak in NBA history after an 0-3 or worse start. The 2006-07 Mavericks won 12 straight after starting 0-4.
What I care about more than the final score is the passing. They had 37 assists in that game, their third straight with 30 or more, and they're 6-0 when they hit that number. Stephen Curry scored 25 in about 20 minutes, Yaxel Lendeborg added 23, and Curry slid past DeMar DeRozan into 16th on the all-time scoring list at 26,803 points. That came two nights after he dropped 41 in an overtime win over Orlando.
Then there's Jimmy Butler, who is rehabbing a knee and showed up in a coaching role with a clipboard. His full tactical report was a two-word instruction: pass the Steph. Lendeborg said Jimmy promised to get a technical for the guys and never delivered. Jimmy, if you're going to step up for your teammates, step up. And since you've been selling a $50 cup of coffee, I hope everybody in that locker room is drinking free.
The bigger picture is that the West keeps making a fool of anybody who said the East would be the stacked conference. Every team in West playoff position, play-in teams included, is over .500. You can't say that about the East.
Speaking of the East, let's talk about the Heat. Doc Rivers went on Bill Simmons' show and said Giannis Antetokounmpo doesn't necessarily have a super IQ and plays as one-way downhill force. He later told Andscape he meant feel for the game, texted Giannis an apology, and called it more of a compliment. Giannis's reaction after beating Sacramento was blunt: Rivers isn't his coach, and he was speechless. Rivers has since walked it back.
The real story is the team around that noise. Giannis said it plainly: right now, they don't trust each other. The numbers agree with him. Miami ranks 25th in defense and 20th in offense, and through 10 games they've been outscored by 53 points. Opponents get 20.5 open threes a game against them, the worst number in the league, and hit 39.4 percent of them. That's the third-highest in the league. Giannis blames late closeouts, and he's describing exactly what happens when a defender doesn't think anyone is behind him. They gave up 138 to the Lakers and 125 or more in four of their last seven.
The offense has the same disease. Miami runs the fewest on-ball screens in the league, 22.3 a game, and when they do run them, they're the most efficient offense in the NBA. Go figure. It reminds me of the Damian Lillard and Giannis pick-and-roll in Milwaukee, which everybody called lethal and which never quite happened. Giannis came over in a June trade, his free agency is looming, and Erik Spoelstra told the team the league isn't waiting for them.
If I'm in that locker room, I'm running a ball screen on the first possession tonight in Utah, and I'm changing a starter. The East has no runaway team, the defending champions are only 5-4, and Miami may never get a softer window to figure this out.
Kawhi's Knee, OKC's Shopping Cart and the Kid Who Won't Pass
Pinch me if you've heard this one. The Raptors say Kawhi Leonard will miss at least another week with swelling in his left knee. It started when he was scratched against Minnesota on October 27, tests showed no acute injury, and Toronto put him in a treatment and rehab program. Before that he played two games, averaged 19.5 points and shot 32 percent.
I'm not saying he's faking anything. I'm saying "no acute injury" means nobody can point to where the swelling is coming from, and we've watched this movie in Los Angeles. Kawhi plays when he feels close to perfect, and that's a perfectly human standard that happens to be impossible to build a roster around. His talent is tantalizing, and he won't let you enjoy it for long. I think Toronto is handling everything above board. It's still the same story.
One team that benefited from Kawhi's history is Oklahoma City, which holds a pile of picks from the Paul George trade. The Thunder are dealing with injuries to Jalen Williams, Cason Wallace and Chet Holmgren, and they just picked up Nick Clifford from Sacramento for two second-rounders, a 2028 pick via Utah and a 2030 pick via Minnesota. That takes them from 22 second-round picks over the next six years down to 20. Clifford went 24th in the 2025 draft, played 75 games as a rookie at 8.6 points on 41.8 percent shooting, and has fallen out of the Kings' rotation this season, averaging 1.6 points in 6.2 minutes over eight games.
It's a small move, and Sam Presti's small moves have a way of working. Clifford looks like an Oklahoma City type, cheap and young, with a defined role waiting.
He was never going to get shots in Sacramento anyway, because Darius Acuff Jr. is eating them all. The rookie guard had 32 points, five rebounds and 10 assists in a 114-108 loss to Miami on Sunday, then 22 and 12 against the Lakers. Through 10 games he's at about 26 points, 7.4 assists and 3.8 rebounds in 37 minutes. In his fifth game he put up 34 and 14 against the Pelicans, which made him the fourth player ever with 30 points and 10 assists in his first five games. The other three are Oscar Robertson, Isiah Thomas and Trae Young. After the Kings' first win on November 2, a 115-100 result over Dallas, he became the first rookie since Luka to put up 25, five and five in three straight games.
Domantas Sabonis grumbled early about shots, and Acuff's body language answered him pretty clearly. The tension has cooled now that Sabonis is a pick-and-roll partner. Acuff might be a bit of a gunner, but he's also a legitimate bucket-getter, and the double-digit assists show he can read the floor. Sacramento's season is going to be bleak in the standings. Just enjoy the development, and let the lottery help you build a nucleus around him.
The Lakers Are 10-2, and I Mean It When I Say Give Rob Pelinka His Flowers
I've been one of Rob Pelinka's harshest critics since he got the job, so understand what it costs me to type this: the offseason was excellent. The Lakers are 10-2, the best record in the league, and the cleanest proof came in back-to-back games when each star sat out one night.
Sunday in Detroit, Luka was out with back tightness, and when you carry a usage rate like his, I suppose your back should be tight. Austin Reaves stepped in and scored 43 in a 121-116 win. The next night in Atlanta, Reaves was sick and Quentin Grimes was out with a sprained finger, so Luka played and scored 32, which counts as an off night for him. Final: 124-114. That's three wins in three games with either Luka or Austin out, and both of the Lakers' losses came with both of them on the floor. Luka has also hit 50 twice, including 53 on Friday with a 61-footer at the halftime buzzer, and he's averaging 39.3 points a game. When I say MVP front-runner, I'm not being a homer. I'm reading the box scores.
What I loved more was how the Lakers handled the details. Walker Kessler had 12 points, 16 rebounds and three blocks in Detroit, then closed the game with a block on one end and an and-one putback on the other. For the season he's scoring 14.9 on about nine shots, all of them twos, grabbing 10.8 rebounds and blocking 2.3 a game, and opponents shoot 43.1 percent when he's the closest defender at the rim. Ziaire Williams, on a minimum deal, sits at 70.8 percent true shooting. Matisse Thybulle is hitting 39.2 percent from three on four attempts a game and is the one wing who shows up on the defensive stat sheet, with a steal rate of 4.1 and a block rate of 3.6. Jake LaRavia is the junkyard dog every good team needs, and Sandro Mamukelashvili had 23 points and eight rebounds in Atlanta, finishing plus-20 in a bench unit that scored a season-high 49.
Two cautions go with the praise. Williams has played nine games and 221 minutes, which is a small sample for a number that high. The Detroit game also had a guest star: Daniss Jenkins scored a career-high 31 with eight threes, one point better than the 30 he hung on the Lakers last time. Every time he sees purple and gold, he plays like he's been personally insulted. They also held Cade Cunningham to zero points in the first half and 14 for the night, and Reaves, after dropping 43, talked about cleaning up offensive rebounding and turnovers.
That is the tell for me. A guy who just scored 43 is picking apart the film like an assistant coach. Austin Reaves has the leadership thing now, and I'd bet JJ Redick has him on speed dial.
What the Lakers Actually Need, Ranked by How Much It Hurts
A 10-2 record can hide a lot of leaks, and this roster has three of them. I'll take them in the order I'd fix them.
Rebounding comes first. The Lakers average 40.3 rebounds a game, which is 29th in the league, and opponents average 41. On the offensive glass they grab 10.7 while giving up 13.5, and opponents recover 31 percent of their own misses compared with the Lakers' 28. Luka and Kessler together collect roughly 43 percent of the team's rebounds in about a quarter of the available minutes. Mamukelashvili works hard, but at 6-foot-9 and 230 pounds he isn't a shot blocker or a real anchor. If a possession ends and it's Luka or Walker or nobody, that's a structural problem.
Turnovers come second. The Lakers commit 16.8 a game and force 18.6, which is a fine margin, but Luka and Austin account for 44 percent of the giveaways. When your two highest-usage players are also your two biggest sources of turnovers, you'd better have a reason, and they do. Nine new players arrived through trades, the draft and free agency, and twelve games isn't enough time to learn where everyone stands when Luka is looking at the rafters and throwing a pass anyway. Everybody has to hold their spot until Luka's read tells them to go. Continuity should fix most of this, though I wouldn't promise all of it.
Perimeter defense comes third. The Lakers are second in the league in steals at 10.8 and third in blocks at 6.4, and they still rank 18th in defensive rating at 114.7. That gap tells the story. Opponents take 40.8 threes a game and make 37.6 percent. Thybulle and Kessler provide the activity, but Kessler is one man at the rim and Thybulle is the only wing showing up. The team needs more buy-in and more pressure on the ball.
The archetypes matter more than the names. For the on-ball pest, I'm thinking Anthony Black or a Dyson Daniels type, the guy who wrecks timing before the set starts. Daniels would help even if his own shot hasn't come around yet, and I'd worry about a Vanderbilt-type who looks away when he's open. For the rebounding wing, the PJ Washington and Tari Eason mold fits: a 3-4 who rebounds above his position and can live in the corner. I'm not asking the Lakers to go get those exact guys. I'm describing the shape of the hole.
The reality check is the part Laker fans won't enjoy. Houston isn't giving up Eason unless the offer knocks them over, and the thing that would knock them over is Austin Reaves, and nobody on this roster is trading Austin Reaves. Orlando isn't handing over Black either. The Lakers don't have the picks or the matching salary to chase a big deadline swing. If you're waiting for the move that changes the season, I'd lower the expectations now.
Two guards are also in the middle of rough stretches. Collin Sexton is at 10.3 points on a 25.5 percent usage rate, shooting 29.7 percent from three, with the worst box plus-minus in the rotation at negative 3.5. His assist rate of 20 percent and turnover rate of 11.7 percent are fine, and JJ Redick has already told him to slow down. Quentin Grimes is shooting 24.2 percent from three but gets to the line at a 52.3 percent rate, and I think he's pressing because he wants to prove himself to this market. Give them time. I'd rather build around players who care too much than the other kind.
Front-Office Notes From the Producer's Desk
The first thing that read flags is how the roster is built. Luka and Austin carry the cost and the usage, and nearly everyone else is a specialist on a small contract. That's an efficient design and a fragile one, because specialists look brilliant when the shots fall and ordinary when they don't. Ziaire Williams at 70.8 percent true shooting over 221 minutes and Matisse Thybulle at 39.2 percent from three are the numbers Vince quoted on the show, and a front office would file both as a high-water mark to plan around, never a baseline to build on.
The second point is about affordability. A front office judges a move by what it can actually pay for, and the Lakers have thin draft capital and little matching salary of real value. That rules out a blockbuster. It leaves the margins: a minimum-contract big, or a veteran wing who becomes available later in the season. The evaluator would shop for a profile, a wing who rebounds above his position and can pressure the ball without needing touches, and would not fall in love with a single name.
The third point is the one I'd tape to the wall. Don't hit a panic button, set checkpoints. Three numbers decide whether this is a settling-in issue or a design flaw: the share of turnovers coming from Luka and Austin, which sits at 44 percent now; the defensive rebounding rate; and the quality of the threes opponents take. If the turnover share drops by January without a roster move, the continuity argument holds up. If it's still 44, that's the roster, not the calendar.
That's the view from my desk, y'all. Back to Vince.
Where I Land
Here is my verdict, with no hedging. Luka Dončić deserves to be the front-runner for MVP. Austin Reaves is a legitimate All-Star, and if his efficiency holds, he'll flirt with Third Team All-NBA before the year is over. Rob Pelinka gets a strong grade for the summer. Kessler and Williams were home runs, Mamukelashvili was somewhere between a double and a triple, and LaRavia's revival has been a gift.
I'm also not going to pretend the holes are imaginary. A better rebounder, a real on-ball pest and a dependable backup big would all make this team harder to beat in May. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was a title contender around two ball-dominant guards who are still learning each other's habits. The pieces are in place. What we're waiting to see is whether they fit together under pressure.
So tell me where you stand. If the Lakers could only fix one thing before the deadline, is it the glass, the turnovers or the perimeter defense? Drop it in the replies, and send this to the one friend in your group chat who keeps saying the Lakers are a two-man team.
The full conversation is on the Front Runner Podcast Collective feed, wherever you get your pods. Keep your mind sharp, your heart open and your circle tight.
— Vince