Goeiedag, enchantée and welcome to this week's episode of Eight 2 Four presents: All-NBA Team of the Week. We’re less than 10 games away from the end of the season. Let the debating about individual prizes begin! Who will win the MVP? Who is Most Improved? What 15 guys will fill the All-NBA teams? But we can’t forget that there’s still some basketball being played around the league and some important basketball. The East is still wide open, all positions can still change, from 1 to 10, and even the Knicks are mathematically not eliminated yet. In the West we’re looking at a three legged race for the 9th and 10th spot between the Lakers, Pelicans and Spurs, all within 2 games of each other. For our team this week, we picked 5 high performing players on 5 high performing teams. Get ready for your All-NBA Team of the Week!
PICK #1
Our first pick of the week is Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns. The Suns are the best team in the league, they are the favourites to come out of the West and, really, they should be everyone’s favourite to win it all. They are the only team this season that have consistently performed on a high level. Even when Chris Paul hurt his right thumb just before the All-Star break, the Suns kept winning. Consensus around the league was that the Suns would drop some games and potentially lose some ground on their competition in the West. Since the All-Star game their record is 12 and 4, they are 9 and 1 in their last 10 games and they have won their last 7 games. They have clinched the Western Conference, with 8 games left to play. The Suns are the best team in the West and by extension, the league.
The key behind the Suns’ success this season, is more than even Devin Booker. He has taken another step forward and is now playing like a true MVP contender on this potential Championship-winning team. He will not be in the mix for the MVP, because of the crazy season Jokic, Embiid and Giannis are playing, but he clearly has taken over the mantle from Chris Paul. Paul will still be crucial for the Suns in the Playoffs and potentially future seasons but Booker is now THE guy on this team. This season, he’s averaging 26 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists per game and in the 3 games he played this week, he averaged 36 points and 7 assists per game. If he can keep these scoring numbers up in the Suns’ last 8 games, he might come close to challenging LeBron for the scoring title this season.
Now that the Suns have clinched the number 1 spot, we can start looking at who might be their challenger. As it stands right now, it will most likely be a battle between the Clippers and the Pelicans. I’m sure the Suns would rather play the Pelicans, a team that has battled all year long and will probably start the Playoffs pretty tired, comparable to the Grizzlies last year. Because we’re still not 100% sure whether or not Paul George and Kawhi will play for the Clippers in the Playoffs. If the Suns happen to see the Clippers in the first round, I wouldn’t be surprised to see those 2 superstars on the floor, just to avenge last year’s elimination. Either way, the Suns should be able to cruise through the Western Conference, relatively speaking. Their biggest challenge will wait in the NBA Finals, my guess will be a rematch of last year’s finals.
PICK #2
Our second pick of the week is Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks have been trash this season, compared to last year. They’re only just creeping into the top 10, and only because the Knicks have been even worse than them. All year I have been waiting to add Trae Young to our All-NBA Team of the Week, because even though the Hawks are not doing well, Trae has been amazing this season. This week I finally caved and added him to my team even though the Hawks fail to put together 2 decent games of basketball. In fact, it was quite an embarrassing week for Hawks’ basketball. They lost a close game against the Pelicans, barely made it against the Knicks, only because of another colossal collapse of the New Yorkers in the fourth quarter, their trademark this season, and were beaten to a pulp by the lowly Detroit Pistons. Luckily, they managed to regain some of their composure with an impressive win against the Curry-less Warriors.
But, like I said, Trae has been playing a fantastic season so far. He is averaging 28 points, 9 and a half assists and nearly 4 rebounds per game. These are some of the best numbers in his career, not quite like his career season in 2020 but close. But what’s more impressive is that he is shooting more accurately than ever. He’s more efficient from pretty much any spot on the floor than ever and that has allowed him to lead the league in total points made AND most total assists made this season. Only Jayson Tatum comes close in points made, and maybe Chris Paul can challenge him in the assists department in this final stretch of games. Given Trae’s size, and his wingspan, it makes it all the more impressive he’s such an offensive powerhouse.
The main reason the Hawks are so bad this season is because of their defense. They’re the 5th worst team in the league in defensive rating. They weren’t great defensively last season, but at least they were league-average. This season they are just plain horrible. The four teams lower than them are all chasing a lottery pick. If you take into account that the Hawks are the team that allows the least amount of turnovers per game in the league, it really shows that they just can’t stop anyone in half court basketball. Considering they were Easterm Conference finalists last season, when half court basketball dominates in the Playoffs, it is unbelievable to see where the Hawks are now. It seems like they have taken one step forward last season to take 3 back this year. I don’t see the Hawks make it through the Play-In games, and the front office and coaching staff will need to make some tough choices next season, because Trae is definitely not the problem in Atlanta.
PICK #3
Our third pick of the week is Desmond Bane of the Memphis Grizzlies. Really, I could have picked any Grizzly player, it doesn’t really matter because they’re all playing so well. This week, a very interesting stat started to flow around about the Grizzlies, especially now Ja Morant is out again. The Grizzlies are 16 and 2 without their best player, Ja Morant. Yes, a lot of those games were against weaker teams, but if you’re the second best team in the league pretty much any team is a weaker team. There are very little excuses that can be used against Memphis this season, they are just having a truly amazing year. Ja will probably walk away with Most Improved at the end of the season, and Jaren Jackson Jr should be in the mix for Defensive Player of the Year, he is playing incredibly. The way he defended Durant in their clash on Wednesday, that was a fantastic battle.
But let’s go back to Desmond Bane. Picked 30th in the 2020 draft, this guy can tell you exactly everyone that was picked before him and he is on a mission to show all 29 franchises they made a huge mistake letting him drop down the board. He is averaging 18 points per game and so far this season he is guaranteed to make at least 3 3’s per game of 7 shots. That’s shooting at an incredible clip, making him the third most efficient three point shooter in the league this season. Only Cam Johnson from the Suns and Luke Kennard from the Clippers shoot more efficiently, but they don't shoot the same volume as Bane. Of the ten most efficient 3point shooters in the league right now, only Lonzo Ball has attempted more 3’s per game than Bane, but that’s only a small sample size of 35 games in comparison to Bane’s 70. He’s nowhere near the total of Stephen Curry, who has made 285 3’s so far this season, but with his 209 3’s made for the season, Bane sneaks into the top 10, and obviously, he needed to attempt a lot less 3’s to get to these numbers.
Needless to say that Bane’s shooting numbers are off the chart. It is just one aspect of this Grizzlies team that makes them so strong. Looking at the Playoff standings right now, they’ll be matching up with the winner of the Play-In games, which most likely will be the Timberwolves or the Nuggets. Neither team will be an easy first round for the Grizzlies, the Timberwolves have been able to beat them twice already this season and the Nuggets could get their injured stars back. But this Grizzly team is not scared of anyone and will take on their challenges one step at a time, with a Western Conference Finals matchup against Phoenix as their main goal, or even more, who knows? An interesting little nugget for the Grizzlies too, is that if the Lakers fall outside the top 10 in the lottery, the Grizzlies get the Lakers draft pick, which would give them 3 picks in the next draft because they have control of the Jazz pick as well. Imagine the power they would have with 3 picks to add another talent to this already incredibly talented roster.
PICK #4
Our fourth pick of the week is Miles Bridges of the Charlotte Hornets. The Hornets are going to play in the Play-In games, and they deserve it. In their last 10 games, they are 7 and 3, with wins against Atlanta, Dallas and Utah. Not the easiest of games to win, against teams that are still trying to secure their own positions on the ladder. A tough loss against the Knicks on Wednesday is the only stain on a very impressive stretch of games. And they’ve done it all without their main guy, Gordon Hayward, who’s been out with an ankle injury since early February. Terry Rozier, LaMelo Ball and Kelly Oubre have all shown flashes of greatness this season but the one guy who is performing on a high level each and every game, is Miles Bridges.
Bridges is averaging 20 points, 7 rebounds and almost 4 assists per game and he is up in pretty much every possible statistic in comparison to his first 3 seasons in the league. If Ja Morant needs some competition in the Most Improved category, Bridges is definitely a name to be thrown around. Especially this week in the game against the Jazz, he was incredibly important for the Hornets, banking 26 points and 11 rebounds. Together with LaMelo, this duo could grow in one of the most lethal offensive duos in the league. They’re both already in the top 25 of players with most points made in the NBA this season. As they get more efficient as they get older, these guys will be a menace around the league.
It seems unlikely that they’ll climb the ladder before the end of the regular season, even though they’re only a game and a half behind the Nets. That means they’re now in a battle with the Hawks for who will have home court advantage in that all-important do or die 9 vs 10 match up. I’m not sure if it matters, because the Hawks can be such a difficult team to beat on the night, but so are the Hornets. It will be a difficult game for both teams, with a game against the Nets, the Raptors, the Cavs or even the Bulls as a reward for the winner. But I believe that for the Hornets this season anything that happens is just a bonus and next year is when they’ll really start putting some expectations in place.
PICK #5
Our fifth pick of the week is Robert Williams III of the Boston Celtics. Nobody should disagree if I say that the Celtics are the best team in the East right now. They have only lost 6 of their last 40 games. That puts them at a similar winning percentage as the Suns. If it wasn’t for their rough start to the season, the Celtics would sit comfortably at the top of the Eastern Conference standings. We’ve already touched on Jayson Tatum’s brilliance in 2022, and his potential MVP bid if the C’s can finish at the top of the ladder in previous podcasts. Today, we’re going to focus on the pieces around JT, and in particular, Timelord.
Williams’ got his nickname in his first season by showing up late for pretty much everything. Danny Ainge gave him the nickname and it stuck. But Timelord has come a long way from that first season. Not even cracking 10 minutes per game, averaging 2.5 points and 2.5 rebounds per game. Now, 4 years later, he has started every game he played in, is averaging about 30 minutes a game and contributes almost a double double to every game. He clicks with the other big guy on the floor, Al Horford, and is finally growing into the player he was predicted to be at the draft. He is a defensive powerhouse, a menace under the boards, grabbing rebounds and blocking shots.
Right now, this Celtics team is the number 1 candidate to take out the Eastern Conference. With 8 games left to play, they’re only a game behind number 1 seed, Miami. They’re 9 and 1 in their last 10 games and have won 5 games in a row. With games against the Wolves, Raptors, Miami, Pacers, Wizards, Bulls, Bucks and Grizzlies, this team can’t cruise to the finish line. But they’re heading into the Playoffs in good shape and if they can win most of these games, they’ll be scorching hot. And if the standings stay the same as they are now, it looks like they could be avoiding teams like the Bucks and Philly until the Conference Finals. The road is open for the Celtics and the time is right.
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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