Goeiedag, enchantée and welcome to the first episode of Eight 2 Four Presents: All-NBA Team of the Week. It has been a busy week in the NBA with plenty of surprises, teams are starting to find their form and rookies outperforming expectations. Before diving into the 5 players of the week, I wanted to give a special mention to a few guys that just missed out of this week's team.
Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Malcolm Brogdon and Domantas Sabonis. These four guys look like they'll lead their teams, the Celtics and the Pacers to a higher seeding than most people expected. Payton Pritchard and Tyrese Haliburton, both rookies have put some impressive performances on the court. Especially Pritchard has proven to be a steal for the Celtics early on. Lastly, John Wall has been playing very well on his return from a huge injury. Hopefully he can keep this level of play up and help push Houston to one of the top seeds in the West (as long as James Harden stays).
PICK #1
My first pick of the week is Stephen Curry, 3x NBA Champion, 2x MVP and 6x All-Star. Steph is without a doubt the greatest shooter in NBA history and this season, more than any other, people are counting on him to prove it, again, for the Golden State Warriors. With Klay Thompson out for the season and Draymond Green missing the first 4 games of the season, Curry finds himself surrounded with young, talented players but none of them have proven anything on the court when it really counts.
After a rough start to the season with big losses against Brooklyn, Milwaukee and Portland, critics were quick to condemn the Warriors to another lottery season and Curry was tarred with "just not good enough to do it on his own". It seemed like nobody took into account that this was basically a brand new team. The only players on the starting 5 in the first game of the season against Brooklyn that had played together last season were Paschall, a rookie, and Wiggins, who only played 12 games for the Warriors after his trade. Of course, Curry was part of the team but he didn't play any more than 5 games due to injury.
Fast forward to the start of this week, when the Warriors hosted Portland for the 2nd game in a row, and Curry went off to silence his critics. With a career-high of 62 points he single handedly willed his team to victory. "Cue the Jordan Meme" was his response after the game. It was his way of telling the world that he is not ready yet with this season and he will find a way to get his team to the playoffs. He backed it up with another great game against the Kings, making 30 points.
Unfortunately for Steph, he will need his team mates to step up when it counts. In the first game against the Clippers, the defense simply focused on Curry, taking him out of the game completely. Wiggins had an ok game but Oubre was nowhere to be found. Steph will get his team to the playoffs just on skills alone, he proved that in the 2nd game against the Clippers, but to get through that first round, his team mates will need to show us all they are more than potential stars.
PICK #2
My second pick for the All-NBA team of the week is Caris LeVert. In his 5th season in the NBA, all with the Brooklyn Nets and possibly one of the main contenders for the Sixth man of the Year award. LeVert started this season of the bench, which is understandable having Kyrie Irving and Spencer Dinwiddie in the rotation above you. His numbers so far have been solid, much like last season, but 3 games stood out to me so far: the game against Memphis towards the end of 2020, the game against Philly last Thursday and again against Memphis on Friday. Not coincidentally the 3 games that he started and the Nets played without starts Kyrie and Kevin Durant.
Ignoring the first 2 games of this season, the Nets have been fairly flat. When they play, KD and Kyrie have been fantastic but more at padding their stats than playing great team basketball. Considering their schedule and quality, the Nets haven't won enough games so far this season. Of course, we can't expect miracles as both KD and Kyrie are coming back from injuries, and much like the Warriors, will need time to get things running smoothly.
And that brings us back to Caris LeVert, who is not disappointing when his star team mates are unavailable. The first 2 games he started, he finished with a double-double and the last one, against Memphis, he finished with 43 points. He runs the offense, scores and lets his team mates score. The Nets are more frisky and fun when LeVert runs the offense and the whole team contributes to the end result.
Of course, friskiness doesn't win championships and the Nets will need Kyrie and KD if they want to go all the way. But for now, during the regular season, I'd like to see more of Caris LeVert.
PICK #3
My third pick is Keldon Johnson, a second year player and the living proof of a potential revolution at the San Antonio Spurs. Last season, the Spurs heavily relied on their star players Demar Derozan and Lamarcus Aldridge and they got nowhere. On the surface, not much has changed for the Spurs going into this season but deep inside the franchise, a revolution could be brewing. The younger guys have been playing hard and well, especially Dejounte Murray and Keldon Johnson.
I could have picked Murray for this week's team, mainly because he has better numbers, but Johnson's performance to me was more impressive because it was more unexpected. He's been putting up big numbers and grabbing plenty of rebounds. And he still has plenty of upside because he will only improve as he gets more playing time.
Aldridge and Derozan are not on their way out, yet. They have realised their game needed adjusting and, to their credit, that have both starting to shoot more 3's this season. But the Spurs need to think about the future and they might change things in the team, quickly. Right now is the moment to get some value for both stars if they decide to blow it up. The Spurs are not famous for wild trades but it is time, during this already weird season, for a revolution. It will only help the younger guys to grow quicker with more responsibility on the court.
PICK #4
My fourth pick for the All-NBA team of the week is Julius Randle of the New York Knicks. The 26-year old completely changed under new coach Tom Thibodeau and is averaging a strong double-double early in the season.
The Knicks are good, which is probably the biggest surprise early in this season. RJ Barrett is finally playing like the Top-3 draft pick that he is, Austin Rivers is absolutely killing it off the bench, smoking the Jazz with 14 straight points in the 4th quarter on Wednesday. But the main man for the Knicks has been Julius Randle. Under Thibs, Randle has been playing more minutes, averaging 22 points, passing much better and he is grabbing 12 rebounds per game.
Thibs is known for physical teams that focus on defense and it has been working well for Randle. Last season he looked sluggish and outright lazy at some times, but this year he is showing grit and hustle. By playing this way, he allows his team mates to get better as well. He is setting the pace, alongside Rivers, and the young core is happy to follow.
The Knicks' schedule hasn't been extremely difficult so far but with wins against the Bucks, Pacers and the Jazz, they have been winning games nobody expected them to. The next 2 weeks will give us a better idea where the Knicks really sit but if they can keep this level of play up, they will be in contention for that play-in game in the Eastern Conference. My only question is whether or not Randle will still be part of the team if they do make that play-in game. I have a feeling that the front office might trade him now his stocks are sky-high.
PICK #5
The final pick in this week's All-NBA team is Joel Embiid. The big man from Philly has been a beast on defense and putting up decent numbers on the offensive end at the same time. Philly has started the season better than anyone else. Their schedule has been pretty easy so far but they have dominated pretty much every game. Even in the 2 games they lost, they seemed to have taken a night off, on purpose, to give themselves some rest in a busy schedule. They can turn it on whenever they want to.
Embiid is the engine behind the team so far, averaging 24 points and 12 rebounds this season and he is dominant on the defensive end. The fit with Ben Simmons is much better this year with both players looking really comfortable on the court. The new players in their rotation are proving their value as well, especially Seth Curry who is shooting almost 60% from 3.
That takes us to the next problem for the Sixers. Curry has tested positive for Covid-19 and because of Health and Safety regulations, it looks like he will be dragging plenty of other players with him into quarantine. At the time of recording, the Sixers had to face-off Denver with only 7 playable guys. Yet again, the Sixers are facing dramas outsides of their control that will influence their game on the court. Hopefully they can keep it together and come back even stronger.
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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