Goeiedag, enchantée and welcome to this week's episode of Eight 2 Four presents: All-NBA Team of the Week. All-Star weekend is over, the players had a break and we have started the last quarter of the regular season. Most teams have about 20 games left to play, it is crunch time, let the battle for positioning begin! There are quite a few players that we haven’t seen play all season. Obviously there is Ben Simmons and John Wall, who haven’t played a game yet this season for personal reasons, and Brook Lopez, who got injured in the first game of the season. But for this week’s show, we have selected 5 players, 5 potential All-Stars, who have missed every game so far this season due to injury. Hopefully we see these players return sooner rather than later, I know their teams have their fingers crossed! Get ready for your All-NBA Team of the Week!
PICK #1
Our first pick of the week is Jamal Murray of the Denver Nuggets. On April 12th last year, with only 50 seconds left on the clock, Murray tore his ACL driving to the basket. The Nuggets were playing the Golden State Warriors and were down by 7 points. They still had a shot to win the game and Jamal was taking his responsibility late in the game. He came off 4 games of rest due to knee soreness and had played pretty good so far in the game, racking up 17 points, 4 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals. With Nikola Jokic, Michael Porter Jr and the at that point brand-new Aaron Gordon, Murray was surrounded by high quality team mates. In fact, at that point, the Nuggets were an outsider to take out the Western Conference.
But Murray tore his ACL and was out indefinitely. The Nuggets still made it to the 2nd round of the Playoffs, but couldn’t get past Chris Paul and the Suns. A massive blow for a franchise who has been struggling to keep players healthy since then. Early in this season they lost Michael Porter Junior to a back injury and throughout the season a whole bunch of role players were missing due to smaller injuries. They needed a MVP-level Nikola Jokic to keep them competitive. And they got him! Joker is averaging 26 points, nearly 14 rebounds and 8 assists a game and has pushed the Nuggets to the 6th spot in the standings. Enough to avoid the Play-In games and only 3 games behind home court advantage.
If the Nuggets can recuperate Murray and MPJ before the start of the Playoffs, this team could all of a sudden become a powerhouse in the West. And rumours are circling that Murray could even return as early as the end of March. Murray is a fighter, someone who doesn’t give up and is ready for a challenge. I keep thinking back at the series between Denver and the Jazz in the bubble where Murray and Donovan Mitchell traded 50+ games almost every night. If we can see that Murray again in these Playoffs, alongside an MVP-Jokic, man, I don’t like the chances of any of the other teams. West or East.
PICK #2
Our second pick of the week is Victor Oladipo of the Miami Heat. Oladipo, an All-Star in his years at Indiana, was over the moon when he was traded last season from the Rockets to the Heat. It was a public secret that Oladipo always wanted to play in Miami, usually training there in the offseason. But he hasn’t been able to enjoy his trade very much because he got injured after only 4 games. The plan was to finish his contract off in Miami, playing exceptionally, and sign a massive deal with the Heat moving forward. Instead, he had to sign a 1-year minimum contract, taking a nearly $20M paycut. Oladipo hasn’t been able to prove his worth for Miami yet this season but that could be about to change.
It’s becoming more likely that Oladipo will return sometime soon. He is already taking part in vigorous workouts and running without a limp, according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. If he can return close to the All-Star level from his time with the Pacers, the Heat are sitting on a gold mine, with a potential starting line-up including Kyle Lowry, Jimmy Butler, PJ Tucker and Bam Adebayo. Add in Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, Max Strus and Caleb Martin and this Heat roster is really deep. Miami took little to no risk by signing Oladipo on the minimum, Victor however, has everything to prove this season.
Oladipo has a bad reputation around the league. He is incapable of staying healthy. This is his 9th year in the league and on average he only plays 50 games per season, that’s more than a third of the games every season he has to miss, mostly because of injuries. And this includes his rookie season in Orlando where he played almost every game throughout the whole season, only missing 2 games. The Heat are not relying on Victor to be the guy he used to be, but he could be the missing piece Miami needs to take things all the way this season. They’re one of the strongest teams in the East already and with a good Oladipo, they can be the best.
PICK #3
Our third pick of the week is T.J. Warren of the Indiana Pacers. We have to go back to the bubble for T.J.’s last decent stretch of games. The season following the bubble, he got injured 4 games in and hasn’t played since. That’s now 14 months ago. Everyone was very excited to see Warren after that stretch of games in the bubble. Over his 10 games in Orlando, including 4 playoff games, he averaged nearly 27 points per game, well over the 20 points per game he averaged for the whole of that season. He played at an incredible level, leading the Pacers to 4 out of 6 wins in the regular games, he sat out the last 2. He wasn’t good enough to deter Miami in the first round, but they went on to play the Finals against LeBron and the Lakers. No, nobody was surprised the Pacers were eliminated, but the future looked bright for T.J. Warren.
But, due to a stress fracture in his foot, we haven’t been able to see Warren since December 2020. His foot hasn’t been healing properly in that time, which extended his recovery but rumours around the Pacers franchise tell us that he might be returning sooner rather than later. Not that it really matters right now, with the Pacers not looking to qualify for the Play-In games. But adding T.J. to the current roster, with Tyrese Haliburton, Chris Duarte and Buddy Hield, can only be exciting for Pacers fans. Whether or not he will still be on this roster at the start of next season is to be seen, but in my opinion, I think he wouldn’t be a bad fit in Indiana’s starting five. And as a 28-year old, he can help the youngsters grow in the league.
Warren was never really destined to be a star in the league, a lot of people thought he might be a rotation player at best. But since he got drafted by Phoenix in 2014, Warren has improved every season, with as his professional peak, obviously, the bubble in Orlando in 2020. He was on track to become a very important player for the Pacers, alongside Brogdon, Sabonis and Oladipo, but since then everything has changed. Warren’s biggest problem now is that he is considered an injury risk, not really able to play through a whole NBA season. Considering he is in the last year of his contract and an unrestricted player next season, the biggest question for him is now, who will want to pay him? I sincerely hope that someone, the Pacers or anyone else, sees his value and takes a chance with him because I think we haven’t the last of Warren yet!
PICK #4
Our fourth pick of the week is Kawhi Leonard of the LA Clippers. Kawhi is the man made of glass. Not a year goes by without Kawhi missing a substantial amount of games. Not once has he played out a full season, the closest he ever got was in his sixth year in San Antonio, when he played a whopping 74 games, only missing 9 in the regular season, but he did miss 3 out of 4 games in the losing series against the Warriors in the second round of the Playoffs that year. Last year, Leonard partially tore his ACL in the second round of the playoffs against the Jazz. The Clippers did end up winning that series and played the Western Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history against Phoenix. And even though PG played fantastic in that series, without Kawhi, the Clippers never stood a chance.
Kawhi and PG moved to the Clippers in the 2019 offseason, and were supposed to be the magical duo that would break the Clippers’ spell and finally bring home a title. There would be a massive clash with the other powerhouse in LA, LeBron and the Lakers. We’re now closing in on 3 years later and, besides that Western Conference Final, the Clippers have nothing to show for their investment that cost them a lot of young players, especially SGA, and their draft picks. It is unclear whether or not Kawhi will return this season, and I can’t see PG return without him. But with both Kawhi and PG under contract until the end of the 2024-2025 season, they’ll have more opportunities down the road.
Especially if their front office keeps finding ways to surround their superstars. In the first couple of seasons it was difficult to get the right guys because of the contracts of other players but once Pat Bev, Harrell and Lou Williams were traded away, this Clippers team started to gel a bit more. Adding Norm Powell to the roster, just before the trade deadline, was a massive chess move, I’ve touched on this in a previous podcast. Even without their stars, this current Clippers roster is hungry to show that they are scrappy enough to win a few games in a Playoff series and get some experience for next season, when it counts. Because if the Clippers have a healthy Kawhi and PG in the Playoffs next year, they almost have to win. The pressure is on!
PICK #5
Our fifth pick of the week is Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans. There's a lot of bad news about Zion going around this week. It all started at the All-Star Weekend where new Pelicans recruit, CJ McCollum made a public statement, saying he hadn’t heard from Zion after being traded to New Orleans. This caused a massive stir around the league because CJ is not just any player, he is a borderline All-Star who is a huge addition to the team AND he is the president of the Players Association, meaning he fights for the players best interest and would be someone you’d want to keep as a friend. The fact that Zion didn’t even bother reaching out, although news is going around that he did in the meantime, he didn’t bother reaching out because he doesn’t care.
Then JJ Redick jumped in. JJ was a teammate of Zion in his rookie year and for the most part of Zion’s second season. Not only is JJ well placed to comment on the situation, he is also an experienced podcaster and knows how to bring across a point. He called Zion a “detached teammate”, something that completely fits the narrative that Zion doesn’t care. Since then, the rumour mill has been working overtime, and pretty much everyone who follows the league expects Zion to leave New Orleans sooner rather than later. The ink on the Ben Simmons-James Harden deal is not even dry yet and the NBA already has a new drama in the making.
But let’s focus on Zion himself for a minute. This guy is unique, he is nothing like we have ever seen on the court. He is almost a mix between Shaq and Kobe, the build of Shaq with the explosiveness of a young Kobe. In his young career so far he has played 85 games and is averaging nearly 26 points, 7 rebounds and over 3 assists per game. He proved himself to be nearly unstoppable in 61 games last season, breaking multiple records throughout the season. He had foot surgery during the offseason and his rehab has not been going well. At least, that's the official version. Whether or not this is a strategy Zion is using to force his way out, I don't know. Zion is now in year 3 of a 4-year contract, then he can become a restricted free agent. Or he can sign the qualifying offer, stay another year in New Orleans and become an unrestricted free agent. But either way, if his mind is made up, the Pelicans are better off trading him beforehand if they want to get something in return for their 2019 number 1 pick.
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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