Goeiedag, enchantée and welcome to this week's episode of Eight 2 Four presents: All-NBA Team of the Week. It’s All-Star weekend! One of the many highlights for us, the fans, and a well-deserved break for anyone involved in the NBA. Every year, the league is trying to expand the festivities by doing new things and this year is no different. The All-Star Captains, LeBron and Giannis, get to pick their teams on the court, just before the start of the game. That means we’ll see locker room shenanigans, played out live in front of us. I can’t wait! Overall, it’s going to be a great weekend and I’m looking forward to all the events: the Rising Stars, the Saturday night events and, of course, the big game itself. But before we dive into the craziness, we can’t forget that we saw some proper basketball too earlier in the week. In this week’s show we touch on 5 players that have helped their teams make a run up the standings and turn their teams into Playoff contenders. I’m Peter Peake and this is your All-NBA Team of the Week!
PICK #1
Our first pick of the week is Jrue Holiday of the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks have the longest winning streak in the league currently, with 12 in a row, and have only lost 1 game in their last 15 games. Obviously, Giannis is the main driver behind this streak, he averaged over 33 points per game in the last 12 games, and that includes his 2 points against the Bulls, a game he had to leave 10 minutes in because he injured his wrist. Milwaukee has pretty much closed the gap to the Boston Celtics at the top of the standings and are looking like the number one candidate to take this all the way. Behind Giannis stands a tough team, led by All-Star guard Jrue Holiday.
With the absence of Khris Middleton for most of the season so far, Holiday had to carry a much bigger load in the offence to help Giannis and he was happy to do so. Holiday is playing one of the better seasons of his career and he’s averaging 19 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists per game. He’s taking more shots every game, especially from deep, and is more present around the boards. He struggled a bit himself to stay on the court earlier in the season but he hasn’t missed a game since early January. He played an important role in the Bucks’ winning streak, especially in the game against Boston, where the Bucks needed Holiday to go for 40 points in an overtime win against Boston’s bench.
And that brings us to a little worry I have for the Bucks. In this stretch of wins, they have played a whole bunch of teams that were missing players: the Nuggets without Jokic, the Pelicans without Zion and Ingram, the Clippers without Kawhi, the Celtics without 4 of their starters, the Lakers without LeBron. Some of these games were easy wins, others were battles. Now, obviously, the Bucks are still building towards their peak and are not exactly at full strength yet themselves, but they still have a way to go to become clear favourites in the East. Then again, if you’re the second best team in the league and not even at your peak yet, doesn’t that make you one of the favourites anyway?
PICK #2
Our second pick of the week is Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns. Talk about a season turnaround. It wasn’t even two months ago that the Suns were down and out. Devin Booker was sidelined for ages with a groin injury, Chris Paul was in and out for pretty much the whole first half of the season and the Suns started to plummet down the standings. Championship aspirations gone and the narrative around the Suns was to trade away Chris Paul and start building towards next season around Booker. Then, as you all know, a bomb went off in Phoenix. New owner, Mat Ishbia, put his foot down and brought KD to Phoenix. All of a sudden, the Suns are again one of the favourites to take out the Western Conference.
KD still has to sit while he’s recovering from his knee injury but with Paul almost back playing at the level we expect from him and Booker back in the fold, the Suns have started to climb the standings already. They’ve won 11 of their last 15 games and are 3 out of 4 in Booker’s games. In those games he averaged nearly 23 points per game in restricted minutes on the court and it’s clear that he’s still looking for his form. In the first game, against Indiana, he took 9 shots from deep, shooting it at 30%. That was followed by a game against the Kings where he only scored from up close or the mid range. He made 32 points without even attempting a 3. Then against the Clippers, in a loss, he stepped back behind the arc again and attempted 6 shots, only making 1. Once Book gets more consistent again, Phoenix will only get better and better.
Currently sitting in fifth in the West, the Suns have some time and wiggle room to climb the ladder. They’re only a game and a half behind the Kings in third and even the Grizzlies, who have a 5 game lead on the Suns, are still within reach. The Nuggets are the clear favourite to take out that number 1 spot, but all places below, from 2 to 12 are still wide open. And because the West is so open, it was always possible that a team who made the right moves at the trade deadline, all of sudden could become a clear favourite in the West. Obviously, I still want to see them all together on the court first, but if KD, Booker and Paul can stay healthy throughout the Playoffs, and find each other on the floor, they’ll be a very interesting team to watch.
PICK #3
Our third pick of the week is Kawhi Leonard of the LA Clippers. The Clippers are the biggest unknown in the league this year. Their biggest starts, Kawhi and Paul George, have struggled to stay on the court. Paul George has already missed 17 games this season and Kawhi is already up to 27. But there is some consistency to the madness for the Clips. Since early January, PG has played most games and Kawhi is on a 5 games on, 1 game off schedule. And it’s paying off. The Clippers are taking advantage of the fact that the West is so close. They’re quietly climbing up the standings, sneaking into 4th spot over the Suns and the Mavericks. And they’re only a game behind Sacramento.
Over 34 games so far this season, Kawhi’s averaging 22 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists per game. Not exactly the stats of an NBA superstar, especially looking at his peers this season. But Kawhi has always been a player who keeps things quiet during the regular season and then turns it on during the Playoffs. And I have no reason to believe things will be different this season. He’s starting to play regular games with big minutes. He’s still avoiding the back-to-backs but just seeing him on the court so often is promising for the Clippers.
It would be unheard of that a team, where the stars play so little during the year, would be able to actually win the title. The Clippers are banking on this concept and I believe that this is their do or die year. Both PG and Kawhi have had plenty of time to rest and get healthy this season, so when the Playoffs come around, there are no excuses. If they can’t do it this year, for whatever reason, the experiment has failed. Whether the Clippers front office agrees, remains to be seen, but I don’t believe that owner Steve Ballmer will just keep pumping money in these 2 guys without anything to show for.
PICK #4
Our fourth pick of the week is Julius Randle of the New York Knicks. The Knicks are surprising me, I didn’t expect them to be as solid as they are. They’re currently sitting inside the top 6, and trending upwards. At this point it is likely they’ll end up in the 4-5 Playoff match-up, most likely against the Cavaliers, and they’ve beaten the Cavaliers twice already this season. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The Knicks bringing in Jalen Brunson has proved to work. I never doubted Brunson’s talent, but I didn’t believe he would be able to lift the Knicks to where they are now, especially after last season. Randle looked like he was never going to be able to walk into Madison Square Garden again, after a horrible season and plenty of bad interactions with Knicks’ fans.
But that all seems to be forgotten now. Randle is averaging just under 25 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists per game. He hasn’t missed a game yet this season and is back to being an Eastern Conference All-Star. With Brunson and RJ Barrett, he is surrounded by quality back court players and with Mitchell Robinson, Quentin Grimes and Immanuel Quickley, the Knicks also have a few potential stars in their ranks. And with Josh Hart, the Knicks now have the ideal Thibodeau-player on their roster as well. Randle is the vet on this team and has to lead this team into the Playoffs.
And with 5 wins out of their last 6 games and Randle averaging a double double in that stretch, he is doing just that. The Knicks are finding good form just in time, because they have one of the toughest schedules left, still seeing the Celtics twice before the end of the season. They seem ready to take on what’s ahead of them, they have a stable base. And it seems like forever that the Knicks have been in this position. If they do get into the Playoffs, they’ll be able to make it really difficult for a team to get out of the first round. Then regroup in the offseason and improve again going into next season. Are we really getting close to seeing another competitive Knicks team? I almost can’t believe it.
PICK #5
Our fifth pick of the week is Jarrett Allen of the Cleveland Cavaliers. They have arrived, there is no other way to look at the Cleveland Cavaliers. I thought they would have needed another year to confirm it but they didn’t need it. With Donovan Mitchell, the Cleveland Cavaliers are a top team in the Eastern Conference. They’re not quite good enough to compete with the Bucks or the Celtics but they’re not far off. Before their game against Philly late in the week, they had the second longest winning streak in the league, behind the Bucks. And one of the reasons they’re playing really well, besides Mitchell, is Jarrett Allen.
He’s averaging just under a double double for the season, with 14 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. Allen weighs on a defence, because he’s such a threat to grab offensive rebounds and finish them. And putting him next to Evan Mobley, another talented tall player for the Cavaliers, makes him extra dangerous for Cleveland’s opponents. The twin towers are very compatible, because Mobley can spread the floor, leaving Allen room in the centre to do what he does best. Between the 2 of them, they’re a menace on both ends of the floor and they are the backbone of the success of this team.
And success is absolutely what Cleveland is chasing. They are a top 4 team in the East, something they haven’t been able to do without LeBron since the early to mid 90s. But Cleveland has put themselves on the map. With Mitchell, Darius Garland, Mobley and Allen, they have a young core, Mitchell is only 26, that they can build around. With some careful planning by the front office, this team can be competing for the title within a year or two. They have sped up their timeline by bringing in Donovan Mitchell and they can’t slow down now. I strongly believe that the Cavaliers are only 1 piece away and guess who could opt out of his contract by the end of next season to make a grand return to Cleveland to finish his career?
This is our All-NBA team of the Week. Please share our podcast and give us 5 stars. If you have any questions, you can contact the show on eight2fouroffice@gmail.com. Thank you for listening, ballers out!
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