All-NBA Team of the Week - Sneaky Winning Streaks

Goeiedag, enchantée and welcome to this week's episode of Eight 2 Four presents: All-NBA Team of the Week. It was an exciting week in the NBA, with the 2 best teams in the league facing off, twice! On Tuesday, the Suns beat the Warriors to take the top spot on the ladder, and they met again on Friday, where Curry put an end to the Suns franchise record-breaking winning streak. Next time these teams meet will be on Christmas Day, and who knows, maybe in the Conference Finals. We’ll have plenty more time this year to discuss these teams at length so we’ll leave it at this for now. Instead, this week we picked 5 players from teams that were able to put an impressive winning streak on the board themselves. Get ready for your All-NBA Team of the Week!

PICK #1

Our first pick of the week is Darius Garland of the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs looked like they were down and out. After losing Colin Sexton for the rest of the year and potential Rookie of the Year Evan Mobley for a couple of weeks to injuries, the Cavs lost 5 games in a row. They tumbled out of the Playoff spots and with a difficult road trip ahead of them, to Dallas, Miami and Washington, it seemed like they would drop even further down the standings. But they didn’t. Granted, they met those 3 teams when they were going through a bit of a rough patch themselves, but beating them all by double digits, nobody expected that! Add a quick win against Orlando to the tally, and the Cavs have won 4 in a row and have battled themselves back into the Playoff positions.

The type of basketball the Cavs bring to the floor is very team orientated and everybody plays an important part. Obviously Mobley has been incredibly important in his rookie year, and Jarrett Allen and Ricky Rubio have both played crucial roles in the wins as well. Even Kevin Love has been contributing positively from the bench. But the main driver behind the Cavs success has been Darius Garland. So far in his career, Garland has been mostly known as the second fiddle in the SexLand backcourt. Having to take a backseat to Sexton’s incredible scoring ability has sort of hidden Garland’s fantastic playmaking talents. But experts around the league have always said that Garland was the more reliable of the 2 and now that Sexton is injured, Darius is getting his chance to prove it.

In his third season, his stats have gone up exponentially. He’s making nearly 20 points per game and dishing out 7.5 assists, he’s been 15 and 5 for his career so far. Those stats have been boosted by his performance in the current winning streak, he has been shooting 54% from the field, 54 from deep and 90 from the line. These are incredible numbers and if he can keep this pace up, he could potentially be the 10th NBA player ever to achieve a 50/40/90 season, and put himself next to names as Larry Bird, Mark Price, Reggie Miller, Steve Nash, Dirk, KD, Curry, Malcolm Brogdon and Kyrie. Of course, the season is still long and a lot needs to go right for Garland to achieve this amazing feat and the Cavs don’t have the easiest schedule coming up with the Jazz, the Bulls and the Bucks. But the Cavs are winning, and for the first time in nearly 20 years, they don’t need LeBron to do it.

PICK #2

Our second pick of the week is Dejounte Murray of the San Antonio Spurs. Frankly, I am disappointed in the Spurs. They sit exactly where I expected them to sit at the start of the season, in 12th spot. Not really fighting for the Play-In games and not really tanking either. Why am I disappointed to have my prediction come through? Because I expect more from the Spurs as an organisation. It has always been Pop’s strength to get more out of a roster and exceed expectations. Of course, as usual, there are a few things in play that they can use as an excuse. The biggest one is that they played the least amount of games of everyone in the league. With only 20 games under their belt, they have played about 3 games less than the average around the league. If they happen to win those 3 games, they’re right in the mix with the Wolves and the Blazers for that 10th spot.

And it is not unlikely that they can go on a bit of a run, after winning 3 games in a row, against the Celtics, the Wizards and the Blazers. The next 2 games, against the Warriors and the Suns, could put a bit of a hold on their way up but after those 2 games they’re looking at the Knicks, who are struggling, the Nuggets twice, the Pelicans and the Hornets. All home games. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Spurs win all of these. But to win these, they need their main man, Dejounte Murray to be playing at his best. So far this season Murray has been fantastic, finishing with 10 double-doubles, including 3 triple-doubles in 20 games, only Westbrook and Harden do better. Without DeRozan and Aldrigde on the roster, Murray is now the go-to guy for the Spurs.

Murray has lifted his stats to 18 points per game, 8 rebounds and 8 assists. But he’s not only crucial on the offensive end of the court, he is a menace for many players on the defensive end as well. He is currently averaging 2 steals per game, putting him in the top 5 of players around the league. I’m a very big proponent of rewarding perimeter players in the Defensive Player of the Year race, and Murray is definitely one that needs to be considered for the award this season. Together with Keldon Johnson, Lonnie Walker and Derrick White, this Spurs team has a very young core. And because it is still early in the season, Pop has plenty of time to get this roster to surprise the competition and climb the ladder. My first point of reference for this team is the All-Star break.

PICK #3

Our third pick of the week is Jae’Sean Tate of the Houston Rockets. The Rockets have gone on a bit of a run, winning 5 games in a row. Of course, those include wins against OKC twice and the Magic this week but they also managed to sneak past the Bulls and Hornets last week. It seems like Head Coach Stephen Silas is finished losing, and is pushing his team to try harder. Funnily enough, it worked. The Rockets snapped a 15 game losing streak and have now won 5 games in a row, a historic run. No other team in NBA history has won so many games in a row after a 15 game losing streak. And that is the story of Houston, and any team with very young and inexperienced players in the NBA.

On this roster of potential superstars like Jalen Green, Kevin Porter Jr and Christian Wood, Jae’Sean Tate is an unlikely name to stand out. And yet, last week, Tate was one of the best players on his team, averaging nearly 20 points per game, 6 rebounds and 6 assists in his last 4 games. Much higher than his career averages. Then again, the 26 year old hasn’t had much time in the league yet to establish decent career numbers. This is only his second year in the league after adventures in Belgium and Australia. But he has made a name for himself now, with a career-high of 32 points against OKC on December 1st.

I thought it was important to point out the good the Rockets have brought to the NBA this week, because most of the news surrounding the team lately has been negative. It is all about John Wall not suiting up for the team, even though he could. After agreeing not to play until a trade was made, Wall has now changed his mind and wants to play. But the Rockets don’t want to let him play because they’re worried he will slow down the development of the younger players. What I don’t understand is how a great point guard will slow down the development of other players. It is the role of the point guard to set the table for these guys. If anything, it will speed up the process for these youngsters and, most importantly, they might win a few more games in the meantime.

PICK #4

Our fourth pick of the week is Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks had a difficult start to the season, mainly because of injuries. Khris Middleton missed 8 games, Jrue Holiday missed 6, Brook Lopez only played 1 game this season and is out indefinitely, Giannis himself missed 2 games already and is unlikely to play today’s game against Miami. Those are the guys that won Milwaukee the title last season, no wonder they started the season slowly. It was Giannis, along with Grayson Allen, that kept Milwaukee reasonably close to the Playoff positions early in the season, and since Middleton’s return, the Bucks are 8 and 1, sit in fifth and if they win against Miami, they jump to third.

It’s somewhat misleading that the Bucks only started winning since Middleton returned but it is 100% Giannis that pushes this team forward. Yes, they were not the most difficult teams they had to play, but Giannis still averaged 29 points per game over his last 9 games. Against the Lakers he had 47 points and against the Hornets he banked 40 points, including the game winner with only 2 seconds left in the game. He is averaging a double-double so far for the season, with 27 points and nearly 12 rebounds per game. If the Bucks can finish close to the top of the East, which they will, and Giannis can keep this level of play up, which shouldn’t be a problem, he will be the number 1 candidate to be the regular season MVP, again.

Giannis is the best player in the league right now. Yes, Curry and KD are two players that are a lot more visible and perhaps even more entertaining, but Giannis is so consistent and strong, he rarely has an off-night. And the Bucks have a reasonably easy schedule coming up, with only Miami, the Knicks, Boston and Dallas as notable opponents between now and Christmas. This team will quietly rise up in the standings and prepare themselves for the Playoff. I wouldn’t be surprised if they pull a rabbit out of their head around the trade deadline, but if they don’t, this team has a very high chance of winning back to back titles already anyway.

PICK #5

Our fifth pick of the week is Jaren Jackson Jr of the Memphis Grizzlies. How things can change. It was only a week ago that Memphis lost 2 games in a row, and lost Ja Morant to a knee injury for at least a couple of weeks. The Grizzlies were 1 game under 500, and very likely to drop out of the top 10. What followed was unbelievable, the Kings were beaten by 27 points, Toronto couldn’t stop them and then the unexpected happened. The Grizzlies beat OKC by 73 points. 73 points! That is the largest margin in NBA history. The Grizzlies were only 6 points short of doubling OKC’s total score. And the best player in all those games? You guessed it, Jaren Jackson Jr.

In those 3 games, Triple J averaged 23 points per game, shooting a whopping 61% from deep. This is exactly what the Grizzlies need from Jaren, especially now Ja is out. And it was about time too. After a pricey contract extension before the start of the season, Jackson hadn’t shown much up to this point. He was averaging less than 15 points over his first 19 games of the season, with an absolute low point against the Pelicans in November, finishing with 4 points in 22 minutes, making only 1 shot of 8 attempts from the field. But Head Coach Taylor Jenkins is patient with his big man, and kept giving him the confidence to find his game and it finally paid off.

Hopefully for the Grizzlies, this turnaround doesn't have anything to do with the absence of Ja Morant. If it turns out that both their young stars can’t play together, they’ll have a very difficult choice to make in the future. Last thing they want in Memphis is an Embiid-Simmons situation. But I don’t think it’ll go that far. Morant and Jackson are much more compatible than the Philly players, mainly because Jackson loves to shoot from deep and Morant loves to drive to the basket, they are not in each other's way. Between them, they’ll be able to cultivate a two-man game with an incredible ceiling. If they can make it work, these 2 are the future superstar duo of the league.

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!