Goeiedag, enchantée and welcome to this week's episode of Eight 2 Four presents: All-NBA Team of the Week. Most teams have played their first ten games of the season, and even though it is still a small sample size, we are starting to see some patterns happening. Last year’s conference finalists are struggling to get going, some superstars are nowhere close to their normal levels, high-energy and defensive teams are rewarded by the new rules and some of the younger teams are surprising us. This week we have picked 5 high-performing players from 5 teams that each have their own internal struggles, but are surprisingly strong on the court. Get ready for your All-NBA Team of the Week!
PICK #1
Our first pick of the week is Seth Curry from the Philadelphia 76ers. It always storms in Philadelphia, and this season so far has had plenty of ingredients for a perfect storm, with the Ben Simmons saga, Joel Embiid complaining about knee soreness since opening night, Tobias Harris, Isaiah Joe and now Matisse Thybulle who had to enter Health and Safety protocols, Sixers fans have enough reasons to start panicking about their team. And yet, at the time of recording, the Sixers are on a 5 game winning streak, minutes before facing off with the Bulls for the second time this week. The main reason Philly keeps winning? You guessed it, Seth Curry.
The younger Curry brother has been tearing it up on the court so far this season, shooting well over 50% from deep. In fact, he is leading the league in 3pt percentage, with 53%, averaging almost 3 made threes per game. That is almost 9 points per game guaranteed for Curry, but he is averaging double that so far this season. He’s been getting more minutes on the court and more freedom in his play. For Seth, the absence of Ben Simmons has been a blessing in disguise, and he is finally getting the opportunity to show the world that he is just as good a shooter, if not better, than his brother. The Sixers will rely heavily on Curry’s shooting this season, and it seems like he is ready for it.
The Sixers are on top of the East early on this season, and considering their main competitors for that top spot are struggling early on, the franchise can be very pleased. The issues the team is going through is not affecting them on the court, and everybody is happy to step up and do their part when others are unavailable. Everyone expected the Sixers to struggle early in the season and once the Simmons-mess is cleaned up, they could start playing catch-up. Well, if they can secure a decent package for Simmons, and keep up their current pace, this team could well be a potential Eastern Conference Champion. And that is not what I expected before the season.
PICK #2
Our second pick of the week is Donovan Mitchell from the Utah Jazz. After a difficult first week of the season for Mitchell, sort of, he has completely turned it around in the second week, leading the Jazz to the best record in the league early on. He is averaging nearly 25 points per game and he still needs to lift his 3pt percentage. Once he does that, he will have taken another leap in his development. And the Jazz need Mitchell to take another leap, if they finally want to get somewhere in the Playoffs. The last 2 years, the Jazz have crashed out early and this has to be the year they finally go all the way.
The Jazz are famous for being a great regular season team, and with Mitchell playing the way he is, he is my sleeper pick for MVP. But, much like the Bucks in previous seasons, it won’t mean much if they can’t convert in the Playoffs. So far, this roster has not been able to hold on to series leads with a massive collapse against Denver in the bubble, losing 3 games in a row after being up 3-1 and against last year, losing 4 games in a row after 2 wins, against a Kawhi-less Clippers team. To make matters more interesting, this is the last season that the Jazz don’t have to pay the repeater tax yet. Next year will be the third year the Jazz are paying the luxury tax, and that means they’ll have to pay the repeater tax on top of it. Unless they make some changes to their roster next offseason.
Long story short, this is the last chance this roster has to prove that they can go all the way. If they don’t do it this year, the Jazz will need to start making some difficult choices on how to surround Mitchell in the future. But for now, Jazz fans have nothing to worry about, as long as Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, Mike Conley and the rest play their best games, the Jazz will sit at the top of the West by the end of the regular season. And right now, that is all that matters.
PICK #3
Our third pick of the week is Paul George from the LA Clippers. Without Kawhi Leonard, this Clippers team was always going to rely heavily on Paul George for wins. They have good role players on this team, but none of them are of the calibre of PG and Kawhi. Terrance Mann and Reggie Jackson do what they can to support PG and Luke Kennard is shooting 3’s at a great percentage but the Clippers have looked pretty average so far this season. It has taken some pretty impressive performances from PG to get his team over the line. And that is what they will need from PG this year, an MVP season.
So far, he is averaging nearly 28 points per game, more than 10 points more than Jackson, who is the second best scorer on the roster right now. And PG is leading his team in more than just points per game. He grabs the most rebounds in the game, he leads in assists and in steals too, averaging 3 steals per game. He has led his team to 3 wins in a row for now, but with OKC and the Timberwolves twice, it would have been worrying if the Clippers had lost one of these games. Losses against the Warriors, Memphis and Portland has shown us already that this Clippers team will likely hover around the Play-In games this season.
If we would just pick out the worst case scenario for the Clippers, and assume that they will miss the Playoffs this year, there would be a silver lining. It would guarantee that extra rest that Kawhi always likes after returning from an injury. It would also allow PG to recover from what will be a brutal regular season. I would not be surprised if these guys will throw the towel in halfway through the season if this is a likely scenario. But on the flipside, for PG this could be his only chance to actually win that MVP title he has wanted for so long. If he can lead this team to the Playoffs, he will definitely be in the conversation this year.
PICK #4
Our fourth pick of the week is Kevin Durant from the Brooklyn Nets. KD is the best player in the league right now. Forget LeBron, forget Giannis, forget Steph, forget DeRozan, who is absolutely killing it on his new team. KD is the man. He is leading the Nets, who are playing without their 2 other superstars. Kyrie has his reasons and Harden, well, who knows what is going on with James Harden this year. Between him and Lillard, you would think that the Monstars have returned to the NBA to avenge their Space Jam legacy after the Goon Squad fiasco. Anyway, I’m getting off track. Harden is not playing well, Kyrie is unavailable and KD, KD is a beast.
He is leading the league in scoring, averaging over 28 points per game, and leading his teams to 4 wins in a row, after a rough start to the season. The Nets are now 6 and 3, only a game behind the Sixers who are on top of the East. But, of course, KD is not doing it on his own. He is getting help from his bench unit, led by a reborn LaMarcus Aldridge and Patty Mills, who is still holding on to his form from the Olympics. He is shooting at a higher percentage than Joe Harris, who is not allowed to do anything but shoot 3s.
Much like Philly, this team is dealing with a lot of outside problems that can influence a team on the court. If they can keep winning early on, they won’t have anything to worry about once the train is back on the rails. If they end up losing a lot early on, it will be a scramble to get to a good Playoff spot. KD knows this and he will play hard early on. Once Harden finds his form and Kyrie finds his way back into the roster, they will have to take over to give him a break. Personally, this team is still my number 1 pick for the NBA title this season. When everything clicks, they have just too much firepower for other teams to deal with.
PICK #5
Our fifth pick of the week is Jarrett Allen from the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavaliers are a solid team with possibly the rookie of the year on their roster. We knew this at the start of the season but to actually see them at a plus 600 win percentage after ten games, is a bit of a surprise. Especially because none of the players really stands out on the court. This is truly a team performance, and an impressive one on all counts. They have 7 players averaging double digit points per game so far this season, and number 8 sits at 9.9 points per game. The mix of young talent and experienced vets is working better this season than any season before.
Number 2 pick, Evan Mobley, is really showing his capabilities early on, making a case for Rookie of the Year. And the SexLand backcourt is still proving to be highly effective. Lauri Markkanen is showing that he does fit into the rotation and Kevin Love, yes that same Kevin Love as last season, seems slightly more interested to be on this roster. But of all these guys, the main man this season has to be Jarrett Allen. The $100 million man is leading the charge, finishing with a double-double in each of his 3 last games. That’s 5 out of 10 games already this season.
Allen sits at nearly 15 points per game and 11 rebounds per game and is a hassle for every opponent under the boards. He has made it his mission to put himself among the best big men in the league and the 23-year old is well on his way. He is not worried about losing his position to a high-quality rookie, instead he is trying to prove that he fits alongside him so that both guys have a future on this team. The Cavs were one of the teams that experts saw falling apart before the start of the season but so far, this team is overperforming. Nobody knows where this Cavaliers team will finish the season, but at the very least we can already say that this team is happy to fight for every result. It would be great to see these guys compete in the Play-In games and, who knows, maybe they can pull off a little stunt and nab that final spot in the Playoffs.
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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