Goeiedag, enchantée and welcome to this week's episode of Eight 2 Four presents: All-NBA Team of the Week. We have arrived at the business end of the Finals. Game 5 has just finished and it was an absolute thriller. The Bucks started the final quarter up by 10 but let the Suns come back right at the end, with some horrible free throw shooting. Booker and Paul tried to take advantage but, in the end, the Bucks steal home court. They get to travel back to Milwaukee up 3-2, with the chance to finish this in front of their fans. Who had Bucks in 6? Not me, and I still don’t. I think this series will end up with 7 games but I do think that the Bucks will take it. The Suns will give it their all in Game 6, and save their series but won’t have anything left for that final game. That is my prediction. Anyway, while we wait for the true scenario to play out, in this week’s episode we go back to the 5 best players in these Playoffs that didn’t make it to the Finals. It’s been 2 weeks since we’ve seen anyone else play and that’s a good time to revisit some of the best moments of the Playoffs. Get ready for your All-NBA Team of the Week.
PICK #1
Our first pick of the week is Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks. What Booker is doing right right now in the Finals, Trae would be able to do the same thing. The leap he has taken this year, even just these last couple of months, is incredible. Up to recently, Trae combined traits from Steph Curry and James Harden. The half court shooting and drawing fouls but he was never able to really convert it into an important part of his team’s winning strategy. But that has changed. His shot selection has improved and his ability to get to the line is among the best in the league. Not only is he actively contributing to his team’s wins, he is the driver behind the Hawks’ success. Coach McMillan unlocked Trae and this mixed roster of future star role players and quality veterans, for which he was rewarded with a new contract. And the result was beyond what we could have imagined.
The Hawks made it to the Eastern Conference Finals, beating the Knicks and Philadelphia on their way there. Clint Capela was fantastic under the boards, an injured Bogdanovic did more than his share, Gallinari and Williams lit up off the bench, Huerter was a revelation and John Collins and Trae Young absolutely starred in their first Playoff run. Trae Young averaged almost 29 points per game and was only half an assist short of handing out 10 assists per game. These 2 guys looked like they were not going to be able to share a locker room earlier in the season but right now, they are the future of this Hawks’ team. I’m very excited to see what they will bring to table next season.
PICK #2
Our second pick of the week is Kevin Durant of the Brooklyn Nets. KD and the Nets were literally only a toe away from making it to the Finals themselves. Yes, if they did beat the Bucks, they would still have to go through the Hawks before making it to the Finals but for the sake of this podcast, let’s just pretend that would have been a formality. If KD’s shot would have been behind the line, he would now be in the running for his third Finals MVP. He has really willed his team as far as they could go, with Kyrie injured and Harden unable to run properly. It all fell on KD and he almost made it happen. Not only is that in itself incredible, this guy did it on his return from a career-ending injury. UN-BE-LIEVEABLE.
This postseason, he nearly averaged a double double, with 34 points per game and just under 10 rebounds a game. And in those games he nearly played every minute, averaging over 40 minutes per game. In the first round, Brooklyn had very little trouble with Boston. KD still had the support of Harden and Kyrie and Boston could really only count on Tatum to do anything. With a fantastic performance, Tatum willed his team to 1 win in this series but Brooklyn moved to the second round very easily. Against the Bucks they lose Harden in the first minute of the series but still manage to go up 2-0. Later on they lose Kyrie as well and KD still wills his team to a 3-2 lead with an incredible Game 5 performance. The series goes to a Game 7 in which KD is a big toe away from eliminating the Bucks from deep. Instead, the game goes to overtime and KD has run out of steam. Brooklyn will return next season, possibly stronger and hungrier than this year. WATCH OUT!
PICK #3
Our third pick of the week is Kawhi Leonard of the LA Clippers. Just a quick sidenote, I was really battling to choose between Kawhi and PG, who was fantastic once Kawhi was out. But Kawhi was playing on another level before his injury. He was locked in to win everything this year and nobody was going to be able to stop him. He went down in Game 4 of the Conference semifinals against the Jazz and obviously didn’t return afterwards. We now know why he didn’t but at the time, everyone thought he could have returned at any time. At that point, he was playing better than during his winning run in Toronto. He was making over 30 points per game, and added 4 assists and 7 rebounds. He had single-handedly eliminated Luka in a nail biting first round series and was on track to do the same to Mitchell and Gobert. And then he tore his ACL, or partially anyway, and had secret surgery.
It has been reported by ESPN and The Athletic that Kawhi was upset with the Clippers’ medical staff. Apparently, they didn’t want to get him into surgery straight away, hoping that he might be able to return at some stage during the Playoffs. Kawhi and his own medical crew had different plans and had the surgery done anyway. It is still unclear what will happen with Kawhi during the offseason. If he is unhappy, he will not hesitate to leave LA, just like he did when he was in San Antonio and Toronto. But on the other hand, LA (or San Diego) is where he wants to live so if there’s any doubt in Kawhi’s mind, he might just stay put and give it another chance. As usual, he puts his franchise under a lot of pressure by not communicating with anyone. I have no idea what next year will bring for either the Clips or Kawhi Leonard and I wouldn’t even want to guess.
PICK #4
Our fourth pick of the week is Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz. Mitchell almost made it through 2 Playoff Rounds on an injured ankle. He missed the last 16 games of the regular season due to an ankle sprain that made him miss Game 1 against the Grizzlies. He returned in Game 2 and gradually built up until he exploded for 45 points against the Clippers in Game 1 of Round 2. But he wasn’t right. You couldn’t see it while he was playing but after every game his limp became worse and worse, needing help walking off the court in the last few games against the Clippers. And yet, he was still the best player on the court in both series. Unfortunately for Mitchell, his teammates struggled to show up to the party.
Mitchell averaged 32 points per game, and even though you could see he lacked some explosiveness, his game was nearly perfect. He shot 43% from deep and finished at nearly 50% at the basket. Even with Mitchell not quite at 100%, this Jazz team should have been able to make the Conference Finals. When Kawhi left Game 4 injured, the Clippers should have been an easy target. But 2 incredible performances of Paul George in Game 5 and Terrence Mann in Game 6 sealed the exit for the Jazz. Bogdanovic did what he could and Ingles and Clarkson tried to step up, but it wasn’t enough. And the Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert proved that he is great during the regular season but he is not a Playoff player. The Jazz have some thinking to do this offseason, but chances are they will just run it back. Again.
PICK #5
Our fifth pick of the week is Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets. I chose Jokic over Embiid for the last spot on this week’s Team of the Week, simply because the Nuggets shouldn’t have made it this far. Once Jamal Murray was injured, their season should have been over. On top of that, they lost PJ Dozier and Will Barton during the postseason and Michael Porter Junior was’t completely fit either. The first round against Lillard and the Blazers should have been their final stop for the season, but an implosion on the Portland team that will lead to Lillard’s exit, let Denver see it through to the second round and a match up against the Phoenix Suns.
During the regular season, Jokic nearly averaged a triple double. Something he couldn’t repeat in the Playoffs, his assist total dropped drastically. That’s because he had no-one to throw it to. Over 10 games he averaged nearly 30 points a game, more than 11 rebounds a game and 5 assists. But those figures don’t do any justice to the way Jokic played on the court. He did everything for the Nuggets and the only reason this team got so far in the Playoffs is because he was double or even triple teamed, giving his teammates plenty of space to get up some shots. Hopefully they can recover Murray fairly quickly next season because this regular season MVP needs to be playing in the Finals next year!
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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