Goeiedag, enchantée and welcome to this week's episode of Eight 2 Four presents: All-NBA Team of the Week. Lots has happened in the NBA this week, but nothing bigger than the news that we will see an All-Star game this year. Many of the players are not happy but for us, the audience, it is another highlight in this already special season. As soon as the rumour of an All-Star game started to spread, many players delivered All-Star performances. Only yesterday Nikola Vucevic had a monster double-double, 43 points and 19 rebounds in the Magics' victory against the Bulls. Kelly Oubre Jr dropped 40 points on Thursday in the Warriors' victory against the Mavs. Deandre Fox dropped 38 and 12 assists in the Kings' victory against the Pelicans earlier in the week. Embiid is continuing his MVP-level play, Jordan Clarkson is blowing away his competitors in the Sixth Man of the year competition and two rookies are putting up impressive performances night after night.
PICK #1
The first pick for this week's All-NBA team of the week is LaMelo Ball of the Charlotte Hornets. The rookie was picked third in the draft and has made an immediate impact on his team. In his first 23 games he has averaged just over 13 points, 6 assists and just under 6 rebounds per game. He really has been standing out with his amazing passes. His vision on the court is already elite, so early on in is career. On Friday, he ended up with 34 points and 8 assists in a loss against the Jazz, the number 1 team in the league right now. He is the youngest Hornet EVER to make 30 points in a game. He currently leads all rookies in the NBA in points scored, assists and rebounds. And he is only getting better.
LaMelo was one of the biggest question marks going into last year's draft. Most teams didn't want to take a chance on him, mainly because of his unorthodox road to the NBA. He moved to Lithuania when he was 17 to play among full grown men in the local league. After that, he came here, to Australia, to play a season with the Illawara Hawks. He had a good season here but left early, mainly due to Covid and injuries, causing enough doubt in NBA front offices on how good he actually is. The Wolves and the Warriors past on him, going for Edwards and Wiseman, but the Hornets were brave enough to draft him. Michael Jordan never says no to a challenge. Right now, it is paying off for Charlotte. LaMelo is playing the lights out and hopefully he can lead the Hornets, alongside Hayward to the Play-Offs.
In his first two months in the NBA, Ball is slowly winning people over. He had a difficult start to the season but is improving every game and is showing no signs of slowing down. This week he was awarded Rookie of the Month for the Eastern Conference and he proved this week that he deserved it with great performances against the Sixers and the Jazz. Obviously, he is not playing perfectly. His shooting needs improving and defensively, he is a disaster. Even his coach made a crack at him earlier this season that he needs to work harder in defense. But these are things that he can work on and get better at. Give him a few years and he'll get those aspects of his game right as well. The main thing that could ruin LaMelo's career, comes from a more personal corner. His dad, LaVar Ball, is famous for his outlandish statements and could jeopardize his son's career, if he is not careful.
PICK #2
The second pick this week is Tyrese Haliburton of the Sacramento Kings. Just like LaMelo, Tyrese has been really impressive so far this season and has been awarded Rookie of the Month in the West. Haliburton is a different kind of player than Ball, less flashy but a very solid and reliable player. Alongside Fox and Barnes, he has been working really hard to get this Kings team to some victories and it is working. The Kings look alright this season, they won't make it to the Play-Offs but they are not eve half as hopeless as people thought they would be. The Kings are a fun team and enjoyable to watch, which is an incredible achievement on its own based on previous seasons.
Haliburton was one of the outliers in last year's draft. He had the potential to get picked in the top five but ended up dropping to the 12th spot when the Kings took him off the board. According to his entourage that was because he only wanted to play for the Kings, which he confirmed this earlier this week when he said he really likes being there and enjoys playing for the franchise. It is working out well for Tyrese and the Kings ended up with the steal of the draft.
As the season progresses, Haliburton will get plenty of competition for the Rookie of Year award so don't expect him to win it. But he has proven to be a very reliable player that belongs in the NBA, and that is impressive for a player in his rookie year. The Kings sit just outside the tenth spot, which would get them into the Play-In game, and have recorded 2 impressive victories this week against the Pelicans and the Celtics. Haliburton was very important for the Kings in both games, scoring 21 points against Boston, and grabbing 11 rebounds against the Pelicans. If they can keep this streak alive, they could become a difficult hurdle for the other teams in West with Play-Off aspirations.
PICK #3
My third pick this week is a player that should have been part of this team every week for the last 18 years. LeBron James of the LA Lakers is the undisputed King of the league and the greatest player to have ever played the game. Or was that Michael Jordan? Let's not have that argument today. LeBron is averaging 25 points, and just under 8 assists and rebounds, showing no signs of slowing down at all. He dominated in a win against the Hawks and recorded his second triple-double of the season in a 21 point bow-out against the Nuggets. He is chasing another title, smashing NBA-records on his way there.
In the win against Denver, LeBron passed Wilt Chamberlain for third place in the All-Time Field Goals list. He is now the player with the most field goals in the NBA, behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone. Doing so received a lot of respect from his colleagues, they're all wondering the same thing: how is LeBron still getting better each season? It was clear last season and he is confirming it this season, he is now a fantastic 3-point shooter, shooting more than 40% from outside the arc. He keeps working on his game, proving to everyone that voted for Giannis as MVP last year that they were wrong. As long as he plays, LeBron is the MVP in this league.
After winning the title last year, the Lakers made even more improvements to their roster this season. They added Sixth Man of the Year, Montrezl Harrell, and runner up, Dennis Schroder to their roster and another big man with Marc Gasol. It's clear that they're still building on their chemistry and AD has not been playing nearly as good as he should be but LeBron is winning games for them early this season. The Lakers are 18 and 6 and sit just behind the Jazz in second spot in the West. They're cruising towards the Play-Offs and aren't scared of anyone. It will be up to the other teams to take this title away from LeBron this season, because the Lakers will be there at the end and they'll be ready.
PICK #4
The fourth pick of the week is Domantas Sabonis of the Indiana Pacers. He has been the engine behind the Pacers' success so far this season, averaging 21 points, almost 12 rebounds and more than 5 assists per game. Building on his All-Star season last year, he has established himself as cornerstone of the franchise and is ready to take his team further than a sweep in the first round of the Play-Offs, like against the Celtics 2 years ago and the Heat last year. Especially now Oladipo has moved on, there is nothing stopping Sabonis from being the Pacers' number 1.
He started the week with two double-doubles, he is up to 20 already this season. He scored 32 points in an 18-point blow-out against the Grizzlies and 33 in a loss against the Bucks. The Pacers are sitting quite comfortably in fifth spot in the East and should be able to make the Play-Offs easily. So far they've proven to belong to the six best teams in the East and they'll avoid that Play-In game, hanging over seventh and eight spot. As usual for the Pacers, it is likely that they'll meet with a tough component in that first round. Right now they would have to battle the Nets for a spot in the second round. But they are stronger now than when they pushed LeBron and the Cavs to 7 games back in 2018, who ended up going to the NBA Finals.
Sabonis is looking for his 2nd selection to the All-Star team. Knocking Giannis, KD or Embiid out of the starting line-up will be nearly impossible but he should be able to hold off the likes of Adebayo, Middleton, Drummond and Vucevic for a spot on the bench. But Indiana is a small market and bigger surprises have happened in the past. Sabonis might need to rely on the coaches' vote to make it to the All-Star game but he deserves to be there.
PICK #5
The final pick of the week is Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans. It took a while but Zion has arrived. This week, Zion has been dominating on the court and dominating the highlight reel. We've been waiting for this moment almost two years now. It is well known that Zion was on minutes-restrictions last year and never really got the chance to prove himself. When he finally did get a chance, in the bubble, it was disappointing and, so far, he has had a really slow start to the season. The haters were getting louder and louder, had the whole world overreacted to Zion's capability?
Look, let's not overreact, he still has a long way before we can actually speak of Zion as an incredible player but at least he is moving in the right direction. In the game against Phoenix, he made 28 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and at least 5 highlights. What's more is that he was strong defensively, giving him a whopping +37 in the plus/minus box score, and that is something that we haven't seen yet from Zion. Together with his buddy Steve Adams, together they grabbed 20 rebounds, 12 of those on the offensive end. The Pelicans are finally finding their groove and can start chipping away at the road to the Play-In game.
Zion reached another benchmark this week. He scored his 1,000th point of his career and he did it quickly. It only took him 44 games, beating just about any player, except Shaquille O'Neal by only 1 game. If Zion can mirror his career to the one Shaq had, he will be in for a wonderful ride. Now that his team mates are finding form, especially Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball, and the youngsters Alexander-Walker and Hayes are getting more confidence, the Pelicans are ready to take on the better teams in the West. Maybe not this season but if they keep building on this fresh foundation, they can help Zion break record after record.
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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