Jack Tien-Dana

New York

Writer at Freelance

Associate Editor at ClutchPoints

Two years away from being two years away. Words: @rollingstone, @realgm, @insidehook, @mensjournal

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Articles

Shai Gilgeous Alexander And Aura As The Currency Of Modern NBA Stardom - RealGM Analysis

1 week ago | basketball.realgm.com | Jack Tien-Dana

If the NBA’s central tension in the 2010s revolved around a desire to create space, the 2020s have been about finding new ways to exist within it. And so, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has established himself as the league’s Most Valuable Player by cementing his status as its purest hooper.
Lakers Exceptionalism Vs Mavericks More Toward A More Conventional Goodness - RealGM Analysis

Feb 8, 2025 | basketball.realgm.com | Jack Tien-Dana

How do you explain the inexplicable? Are the Dallas Mavericks’ new casino magnate owners exploding the team to strong-arm the Texas state legislature into approving the finest resort-casino that the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex has ever seen? Are they angling for a move to Las Vegas? Is it that, as they imply, Luka Doncic can’t stop eating and/or drinking? Or maybe it’s the “ultimate ego-trip” of “power hungry” Mavericks’ general manager Nico Harrison?
LeBron James Old Man Reinvention - RealGM Analysis

Feb 3, 2025 | basketball.realgm.com | Jack Tien-Dana

The most remarkable thing about LeBron James is that he’s still recognizably himself. Even if he’s not the best basketball player ever, he’s certainly the best 40-year-old basketball player ever. Forty-seven games into his 22nd season, James can do just about everything that can be done on the basketball court. He switches hands mid-air to throw down sidewinding dunks over guys who are younger than his NBA career; he’s added a running, one-legged pull-up three to his repertoire.
The Realest: Washington Wizards

Jan 10, 2025 | basketball.realgm.com | Jack Tien-Dana

If Washington D.C. is anything, it’s a monument to myth-making. Carved out of the Chesapeake’s fen and bogland in 1790, there’s no logical reason for the city to exist. It belongs to no state. There’s no broader cultural footprint—no one has a DC accent; no one hungers for DC-style cuisine. It’s a city that’s home to nearly a million people, but more, it’s a symbol of how money and power can create importance, not meaning. All of which is to say that the Washington Wizards are bad.
The Realest RJ Barrett And The Toronto Raptors - RealGM Analysis

Nov 22, 2024 | basketball.realgm.com | Jack Tien-Dana

RJ Barrett has lived a life of mosts. The son of the most powerful man in Canadian basketball, he became the country’s most celebrated youth prospect of his generation. During his one year at Duke, he teamed up with Zion Williamson to form the most exciting college basketball team in decades. And once the Knicks drafted him with the third pick in 2019, he became the most scrutinized player on the league’s most scrutinized team. Now, Barrett is mostly forgotten.
New York Knicks News, Rumors, Roster, Stats, Awards, Transactions, Depth Charts, Forums

Nov 18, 2024 | basketball.realgm.com | Jack Tien-Dana |John Wilmes

by Jack Tien-DanaWhile Jalen Brunson's sphere of influence has turned the Knicks into contenders, Julius Randle is why they could become champions. by Wes GoldbergTom Thibodeau has always loved to play his best players a lot of minutes, but he rarely plays small. This season, in order to fulfill the former, he will likely have to compromise on the latter.
The Realest: Cam Thomas And The Brooklyn Nets

Nov 18, 2024 | basketball.realgm.com | Jack Tien-Dana

In some ways, Cam Thomas is one of the best players in the NBA. Since joining the Brooklyn Nets in 2021 (since birth, really), Thomas has been an outrageous, unparalleled shot maker. Name a move–Thomas has it in his bag. The leading scorer in Oak Hill’s illustrious history and the youngest player in NBA history to score 40 points in three straight games, he spins in twisting layups from acute angles and nails preposterous fall-away jumpers from obtuse ones.
The Realest Cade Cunningham And The Detroit Pistons - RealGM Analysis

Nov 14, 2024 | basketball.realgm.com | Jack Tien-Dana

Last year, the Detroit Pistons lost 28 straight games, a single season NBA record. For each of the last six years, they’ve failed to win more than 25 games. Regardless of how hard they try or which doomed coach frowns on the sidelines, when the Pistons play basketball, they’re basically guaranteed to score fewer points than they concede. They are, definitionally, non-winners. Cade Cunningham, the Pistons’ star player and their best hope to escape the muck, is a winner.
The Realest: LaMelo Ball And The Charlotte Hornets

Nov 8, 2024 | basketball.realgm.com | Jack Tien-Dana

LaMelo Ball can be hard to take seriously. He treats the streets of Charlotte like Rainbow Road and makes incomprehensible decisions on what to tattoo onto his body; he’s the Lisan Al-Ghaib for teenagers with TikTok haircuts. Despite being just 23 years old, he’s been a weird kind of internet famous for nearly a decade, lending the sense that he’s not a real person. Just try to imagine LaMelo Ball going to the dentist or buying paper towels.
The Realest Trae Young And The Atlanta Hawks - RealGM Analysis

Nov 2, 2024 | basketball.realgm.com | Jack Tien-Dana

Over the last few years, Trae Young lost his mojo—his team has gotten worse; his numbers have felt emptier. Once the NBA’s terrifying pixie king, Young has never been able to reprise the same magic and verve that defined his breakout run to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2021. Even as the Hawks beefed up by trading for All-Star guard Dejounte Murray and hiring head coach Quin Snyder, the team stalled out, winning just 36 games last year and missing the playoffs for the first time since 2020.