The NBA Play-In Tournament starts in an hour or so, and to those of you inclined to deridingly call it the NIT of the NBA: You’re stupid and you’re wrong. Speaking proportionally, teams in the NIT are Division I’s equivalent of roughly the fourth, fifth, and sixth-best teams in the NBA. You want an NBA equivalent of the NIT? Watch the Western Conference Finals if this goes chalk. Dumb bastards. (If you didn’t call it that in a deriding tone of voice, we’re still cool, and you aren’t stupid. You were just misinformed.)
Last year, we built an NIT Alumni database for NBA postseason teams. It was a little incomplete, but we’re using it anyway, and we’ve updated it to account for players not involved in last year’s postseason. Going off of that—with the acknowledgement that we may be missing a few guys and a plea to let us know if we are—here’s who we think is involved in the NBA Play-In Tournament that also played in the NIT:
Miami Heat: Jamal Cain
It’s only Jamal Cain for the Heat, who upgraded their roster from last year’s (which didn’t feature a single NIT alum) but not by enough. Cain was a role player for the 2018 Marquette team which made the quarterfinals. The Heat can’t even play him, since he’s on the two-way deal.
These guys are screwed.
Atlanta Hawks: Dejounte Murray, Garrison Mathews
If the Hawks want to win the title, they’re going to get Garrison Mathews onto the court. The man is an NIT legend, having dropped 44 in Lipscomb’s 2019 quarterfinal win in Raleigh (arguably the best NIT game ever), 34 in the Final Four win over Wichita State, and 23 to go with eleven rebounds in the second round takedown of UNC-Greensboro. Garrison Mathews might be the best basketball player alive, at least offensively. Play him, Quin Snyder. Play his ass.
Dejounte Murray played in the 2016 NIT, and he averaged 25 but he missed a lot of shots against San Diego State in Washington’s second round loss.
To go with these two, Bruno Fernando inexplicably missed the 2018 NIT with Maryland and Donovan Williams was a role player on Texas’s 2020 team which lost in the Virtual NIT championship. They at least were close. They at least were close.
Minnesota Timberwolves: Jordan McLaughlin, Taurean Prince, Jaylen Nowell
The Timberwolves lost four NIT alumni over the last twelve months, and now everyone’s punching things. Shaking my head. Shaking my disappointed head.
The Wolves do still have Jordan McLaughlin, who scored 26 in the classic USC/UNC-Asheville/Andy Enfield/Bill Walton game and notched double doubles in both the Trojans’ NIT games that year. They also have an NIT champion in Taurean Prince, even though Prince didn’t play in all five of those games, and they have Jaylen Nowell, who played in 2018 for Washington but wasn’t overwhelmingly good.
Overall? Let’s see who they’re playing. There’s experience here, but probably not enough to go far.
Los Angeles Lakers: Scotty Pippen Jr., Malik Beasley, Troy Brown Jr., Shaquille Harrison
The Lakers have four guys who’ve seen NIT action, most notably Scotty Pippen Jr., who tore it up last year during Vanderbilt’s surprise run to the quarters. Unfortunately, Pippen—like Cain—is on a two-way deal because the NBA is run by idiots. LeBron probably thinks the Mavericks are an NIT-quality team. This is why you go to college, kids.
Malik Beasley was solid for Florida State in two games in 2016, Shaquille Harrison and Troy Brown Jr. were fine for Tulsa and Oregon in two games apiece in 2018. I think I’d take the T-Wolves, but if the Lakers somehow end up in the Finals against the Heat, you know who to pick.
Toronto Raptors: Pascal Siakam
O.G. Anunoby kind of played in the NIT—he was on the 2017 Indiana team that lost to Georgia Tech while Hoosiers administrators explored witness protection options for Tom Crean—but he was hurt, so he didn’t actually play in it. Similarly, Ron Harper Jr. played in the Virtual NIT in 2020, but Rutgers lost to Colgate in a heartbreaker and that all happened on an excel file on Joe’s computer, so not many recognize it as a real NIT appearance. Also, the two-way deal again. Lot of NIT alums on two-way deals. Weird. Can’t figure out why that is.
That leaves Pascal Siakam, who recorded a double double for New Mexico State in their 2016 first round loss but took a lot of usage to get there. Not a great situation for Canada’s only basketball team.
Chicago Bulls: Alex Caruso
Carlik Jones would have played in the 2021 NIT if Louisville was not entering into years of utter dejection, but Louisville was entering into years of utter dejection, so he didn’t. that leaves our guys with only Alex Caruso, who is awesome but was not that awesome for Texas A&M in 2015 when they made the second round. Should have given him more run.
New Orleans Pelicans: Naji Marshall, Herbert Jones, Josh Richardson, Dereon Seabron, Kira Lewis Jr.
Strength in numbers here for New Orleans, and this isn’t even counting Jaxson Hayes, who has an NIT ring from 2019 but didn’t play because of injury and definitely not draft concerns associated with that injury.
Naji Marshall is the legend here, having grabbed 21 rebounds against Toledo in Xavier’s 2019 opener, a stat line I’ve checked many times to confirm it really happened. He averaged 19.5 across the Muskies’ two games, and if you remember, Xavier played the national champions to overtime and only lost by two in that tourney. Marshall missed a lot of shots in that game, but it’s hard to make the NIT if you don’t miss shots.
Herbert Jones had a decent game in Alabama’s 2019 loss to Norfolk State, but he probably should’ve eaten his matchup alive, and he clearly didn’t because Alabama lost to Norfolk State. Josh Richardson played in two NITs for Tennessee, but he doesn’t jump off those box scores and I haven’t watched the tape yet from those three games, which happened before my NIT blogging career bloomed. Dereon Seabron was a role player for NC State in their 2021 trip to Denton and Frisco. Kira Lewis Jr. had a bad game for Bama in that Norfolk State loss. Unfinished business for him and Jones?
Oklahoma City Thunder: Kenrich Williams, Lindy Waters III, Jalen Williams, Isaiah Joe
It is disastrous that Kenrich Williams is out for the Thunder. Hard to think of a more impactful injury in recent sports history, and I’m a Joe Kelly blogger in the offseason. Horrible.
Kenrich Williams, for those who don’t know their basketball, is one of the best players in NIT history. In TCU’s run to the 2017 national championship, the man notched at least a double double in every single game. Once, he got a triple double. This man is going to be in the basketball hall of fame one day, whether that requires me stealing the keys or not.
Jalen Williams also had a double double in all of his career NIT games, but that’s just one game, because Santa Clara lost to Washington State in their opener last year thanks in part to Williams missing a ton of shots from the floor.
Lindy Waters III and Isaiah Joe weren’t bad in their NITs, but neither made a huge impact, and neither made the Final Four.
The bottom line? Even with Kenrich Williams out, this isn’t the worst roster. I would presume that what we’ll see is the Pelicans trying to play Naji Marshall for 48 minutes tomorrow night to see if he can get 30 boards, but I like the Thunder’s chances.
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Play-In Tournament picks, then, based on all of this?
Well, the Heat are losing out, so in the East it’s the Hawks and then either the Bulls or Raptors. I’ll take Caruso over Siakam. At least Caruso won an NIT game. Pascal Siakam will never, in his entire life, be able to say that.
In the West, the Thunder should take advantage of that Alabama history on New Orleans and get through to play the loser of the Lakers and Timberwolves, whom we’d guess will be the Lakers based on Jordan McLaughlin’s pedigree and Taurean Prince knowing what it takes to win a title. In that Thunder/Lakers game, it’s close, but I’ll take the Thunder. Jalen Williams might not always make shots in high-pressure games, but he at least knows how to take them, and the man can get boards.
Hawks over Heat, Bulls over Raptors, Bulls over Heat.
Timberwolves over Lakers, Thunder over Pelicans, Thunder over Lakers. Two 10-seeds into the Playoffs. From there? We’ll check in on the other twelve rosters on Saturday, when the full bracket’s set.
