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yourmandevine.bsky.social
Dan Devine
@yourmandevine.bsky.social
34K followers 820 following 3.7K posts
I bomb atomically. Senior NBA writer, Yahoo Sports. Member, WGA East. He/him. | dan.devine@yahooinc.com | IG: yourdandevine
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yourmandevine.bsky.social
One of my first editors talked about Big Picture Guys and Stumble Over the Commas Guys — you needed the former to conceive of/go after big stories, and the latter to sweat all the details.

I am, for better or worse, a Stumble Over the Commas Guy. I think Joe is, too. www.nytimes.com/athletic/682...
Again, Mazzulla laughed. And again, truth sat behind his humor. “That’s probably the biggest area of personal growth, is defining that at times,” Mazzulla said. “I can make anything miserable. I can make a ride home with my kids after a game miserable. I can make a dinner with my wife (miserable). I can make anything miserable because I don’t see the joy side of it. So it’s something that I try to work on a lot.” What does provide Mazzulla with joy and fulfillment? “Unfortunately, it’s the misery at times,” Mazzulla said. “One, I feel a sense of joy and fulfillment first in my faith, obviously. But secondly, being in the trenches with the guys. Every night, just figuring out a way to win, going after it, learning from losses. I love the feeling of a win, but I kind of like the feeling of your back’s against the wall and we’ve gotta stick to the guy next to you and we’ve gotta double down on our practice, we’ve gotta double down on our mindset. That stuff is fun because you’re doing it with a group of people. And I think that kind of leads into a love aspect of, like, if you could be in an environment where you love the guy next to you and you’re willing to go after something bigger than yourself, I don’t think there’s anything more fulfilling than that. And that to me is where I feel the most fulfilled is being in the trenches with the guys.”
November 21, 2025 at 2:32 PM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
Wow — so he did!
November 21, 2025 at 3:23 AM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
Gotta say: an antler-based 3-point celebration by a Buck feels so obvious that I can't believe we hadn't seen it before now. Salute, Myles Turner.
November 21, 2025 at 3:19 AM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
Just watched Precious Achiuwa pop a 3 down by 28 and get nothing but glass, followed by the Kings not matching up in transition and giving up a corner 3 to Santi Aldama to go down by 31. Yeesh, Sacramento.
see, the vibe here is just feeling more and more like jail
November 21, 2025 at 2:33 AM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
Thinking about how we got to this F/M/K spot in the conversation on THE BIG NUMBER in April and ... stuff has just kind of stayed there
November 21, 2025 at 2:26 AM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
A fun little thing: As Bilal Coulibaly lines up this 3, watch Corey Kispert on the Wizards bench. Before the shot's even up, Kispert stands and starts clapping — because Marvin Bagley III caught it in the pocket and went across his body to the corner, a good read, tough pass and area of growth:
November 20, 2025 at 2:56 PM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
I was reminded earlier today about when Kevin Garnett talked about Hakeem Olajuwon's trash talk, and it improved my day considerably. I share it now with you, in hopes that it will improve yours.
November 20, 2025 at 1:51 AM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
I found myself feeling compelled to try to have a conversation with a couple of followers who popped into my mentions to shit on me about something, and then I remembered: I don't have to do that! I don't get paid more for doing it! A true Da Share Zone moment for this 43-year-old boy.
just walk out you can leave!!! if it sucks... hit da bricks!!!
November 18, 2025 at 4:19 PM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
Nobody expected the Wizards to be very good. Just how "not very good" they've been, though, is somewhat breathtaking. (Shouts out to @jadubin5.bsky.social.) yhoo.it/49YN9Zv
After the embarrassing loss to Brooklyn, the Wizards enter Monday’s action ranked 28th in offensive efficiency, 29th in defensive efficiency and 30th — dead last — in net rating, according to Cleaning the Glass. They are woeful in the half-court, whether scoring or defending. They are even worse in transition, ranking 28th in points per 100 possessions added on offensive fast breaks and 30th — again, dead last — in points-per-100 added by opponents on their transition chances. They’ve been able to limit 3-point attempts, ranking sixth in the share of opponents’ shots that come from long distance … but have been unable to prevent the most efficient shots in the game, with opponents taking nearly 34% of their attempts directly at the rim, fifth highest in the NBA. In an era when it seems like every head coach in the league is harping on the importance of winning the possession battle, the Wizards are losing it, night in and night out, to an almost unfathomable degree. They give up more offensive rebounds than they snag themselves; they allow more free throws than they generate for themselves; they turn the ball over way more often than they take it from the other team. Add it all up, as Jared Dubin does at Last Night in Basketball, and Washington is averaging 11.4 fewer possessions per game than its opponents — a deficit nearly twice as large as that of the team with the second-largest disparity (Milwaukee, -6.1). As it turns out, giving opposing teams way more scoring chances than you get, struggling to convert on yours and not being very good at preventing them from scoring on theirs is a one-way ticket to Yikesville. According to Dubin’s adjusted efficiency metrics, the Wizards’ offense has scored about six fewer points per 100 possessions than a league-average unit this season, and their defense has allowed about seven more points-per-100 than a league-average outfit. That adds up to an adjusted net rating of -13.4 points-per-100 — which would be the third-worst season of any team since the ABA-NBA merger in 1976, ahead of only the 1992-93 Dallas Mavericks, who finished 11-71, and the 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats, who finished 7-59 in a lockout-shortened campaign. Those teams finished with two of the five worst winning percentages in NBA history. That’s the deep water in which the Wizards have plunged — and, just a month into the season, it sure looks like they’re on the verge of staying sunk.
November 17, 2025 at 8:57 PM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
What perfect album came out the year you turned 16?
The cover of Elliott Smith's "XO."
November 17, 2025 at 6:11 PM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
Watching this Flagg drive-and-kick like Hubie Brown. "THEEEEEEERE you go."
November 17, 2025 at 4:15 PM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
A smooth couple of decades late to SUPERMAN: RED SON, but "what if the last spaceship out of Krypton landed in Soviet Ukraine instead" was a very fun premise for a Superman story.
November 16, 2025 at 3:06 AM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
Incredible anecdote from @yaronweitzman.bsky.social's A HOLLYWOOD ENDING, available wherever fine books are sold: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/736427...
November 15, 2025 at 12:33 AM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
Mentioned in the story that Adelman has decreased (slightly) Jokić's post touches in favor of working through him more up top: yhoo.it/4oDTQ7V

Makes it tougher to crowd him, easier to move into split actions/DHOs and, with such great spacing, kicks the backdoor open:
November 13, 2025 at 7:32 PM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
This makes me think, as many things do, of the Oscar-winning* film "Little Big League."

* citation needed
November 12, 2025 at 1:55 AM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
hardly anyone here is talking about Nico
November 11, 2025 at 6:56 PM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
Here's the kicker to what I wrote yesterday at Y! Sports about Nico Harrison, the Mavericks, and an untenable situation with an inevitable resolution: yhoo.it/4p18PZc
“Patrick Dumont went from blind faith in Nico to now weighing in on whether a star can come back from injury,” MacMahon said. That invites a follow-up question: If Dumont has reached the point of not trusting the way Harrison’s front office navigates something like a player’s return-to-play protocol — to say nothing of the evaluations, negotiations and decision-making that have led Dallas to sink like a stone in the standings — then why would he trust Harrison to steer the Mavericks through February’s trade deadline? Or, for that matter, through the 2026 NBA Draft — which, thanks to the Harrison-helmed moves that brought in Grant Williams, Irving, P.J. Washington and Gafford, will be the last time the Mavs have full control of their first-round pick until 2031? After Harrison made perhaps the most consequential trade in Mavericks franchise history, he explained it by saying that replacing the 25-year-old Dončic with the 31-year-old Davis “fits our timeframe." "If you pair [Davis] with Kyrie and the rest of the guys, he fits right along with our timeframe to win now and win in the future,” Harrison said. “And the future to me is three, four years from now. The future 10 years from now, I don't know. They'll probably bury me and [Kidd] by then. Or we'll bury ourselves." Forget about 10 years: If things don’t change drastically, and soon, we might be throwing dirt on his Mavericks tenure inside of 10 months. The lesson: Life can come at you awfully fast in the NBA … especially when you trade away a prime-aged superstar.
November 11, 2025 at 3:47 PM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
i screwed up the order
November 10, 2025 at 8:31 PM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
You know how I know I've been slacking on my basketball Internet? I *just* found out that Devin Booker has a Jack Skellington tattoo. Feels like something I would've written at least two blog posts about back in the day.
Jack Skellington tattoo! Jack Skellington tattoo!
November 7, 2025 at 2:31 AM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
Entering Wednesday, the Mavs were last in the NBA in offensive efficiency, by a lot. Their offensive rating when Flagg was at PG was in Process Sixers/7-59 Bobcats territory.

Last night, Kidd started D'Angelo Russell ... but kept the ball in Flagg's hands down the stretch:
November 6, 2025 at 2:19 PM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
ONLY THE BEST
Isiah Thomas and Jerome James. Two of the greats.
November 5, 2025 at 2:30 AM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
Rewatched Hart's minutes last night, and was struck by how much he seemed to be returning to the basics: attack the defensive glass, start the break, HB dive, finish when it's there, pass when it isn't.

You can make an awful lot happen that way:
November 4, 2025 at 6:41 PM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
Many things about the NBA have changed since last season. The main thing that hasn't, though, is that the Thunder look like one of the best teams we've ever seen ... even without having their full team together for a second yet. yhoo.it/4oRLWHI
After a 137-106 Sunday shellacking of the woebegone New Orleans Pelicans, the Thunder sit atop the Western Conference at 7-0 — the last undefeated team in the NBA. As they begin a four-game West Coast road trip in Los Angeles on Tuesday against the Clippers, they own the NBA’s best net rating, according to NBA Advanced Stats, just ahead of the Rockets, whom they beat on opening night. Thanks partly to a double-overtime double-nickel in an NBA Finals rematch against the Pacers, Gilgeous-Alexander is topping last season’s league-leading scoring mark, averaging 33.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 5.9 assists in 36 minutes per game. He’s on pace for a third straight season of 30-5-5 on 50% shooting — more than any player save for Michael Jordan and Giannis Antetokounmpo — and has balanced out a rough start from long distance (just 26.8% from 3-point range on nearly six attempts a night) by shooting a blistering 61.7% on 2-point shots, with career-best marks finishing at the rim, from floater range and on his patented midrange pull-ups. SGA remains the NBA’s preeminent source of dribble penetration, averaging a league-high 20.3 drives to the basket per game — the north-south engine of a Thunder offense that ranks eighth in points scored per possession despite a frigid overall start from 3-point land. He remains one of the game’s most devastating late-game offensive options, with twice as many points (46) when the score’s within five points in the final five minutes as the second-leading “clutch” scorer (Tyrese Maxey, 23). Entering Tuesday’s action, the Thunder — again — lead the NBA in defensive efficiency … and by, like, a lot. They’ve allowed 105.3 points per 100 possessions outside of garbage time, according to Cleaning the Glass; that’s 3.6 points-per-100 stingier than the second-ranked defense in the NBA, the Victor Wembanyama-led San Antonio Spurs. The gap between OKC and San Antonio is as large as the gap between the Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks, who rank eighth. The Thunder sit second in the league in steals, fifth in deflections, seventh in blocks, first in charges drawn and second in shots contested. They continue to rank among the league’s best teams at limiting shot attempts at the rim, getting back in transition and forcing opponents to play against a set half-court defense. All-Defensive stopper Luguentz Dort continues to subject the toughest covers the league has to offer to his physical and athletic brand of ball-hawking; Cason Wallace has opened the season by making a compelling case to join him, leading the NBA in steals and sitting seventh in deflections while checking opponents of all shapes and sizes.
November 4, 2025 at 4:39 PM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
A screenshot from THE LONELY ISLAND PRESENTS: THE UNAUTHORIZED BASH BROTHERS EXPERIENCE (2019) A screenshot from THE LONELY ISLAND PRESENTS: THE UNAUTHORIZED BASH BROTHERS EXPERIENCE (2019)
November 4, 2025 at 1:44 AM
yourmandevine.bsky.social
... you can also see that he's not quite there yet. (Which is fine! He is 18 years old and has never played point guard before!) yhoo.it/4oR9kVT
October 31, 2025 at 3:00 PM