Goeiedag, enchantée and welcome to this week's episode of Eight 2 Four presents: All-NBA Team of the Week. The Jazz are absolutely steamrolling the competition, they are by far the best team in the league right now. Ben Simmons is claiming the title of Defensive Player of the Year, not only on the court but off the court as well. The Lakers need some depth because they're struggling without AD. Immanuel Quickley from the Knicks is throwing his hat in the ring for Rookie of the Year. Zion is an unstoppable monster, winning games for the Pelicans on his own, Booker and Sabonis make it to the All-Star team after all, and Miami with Jimmy Butler is going to be a Play-Off threat. These were some of the most notable moments of the past week around the NBA but, as usual, we'll zoom in on 5 of the best players of last week. This is our All-NBA Team of the Week.
PICK #1
The first pick of the week is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander from the Oklahoma City Thunder. The plan at the start of the season for OKC was simple, lose as much as you can but have fun doing it. The GM, Sam Presti, has build up an amazing collection of draft picks through trades the last few years. Between now and 2027 the Thunder could have up to 30 picks and this year alone, they could have 3(!) first round picks. The experts are saying that this draft is loaded with talent, so OKC wants to have high odds of winning that number 1 pick. To get high odds, you need to lose. Presti traded away most of his good players during the off-season, only holding on to Shai and the surprising Lou Dort.
The duo, nicknamed Canadian Thunder, have been playing really well this season. SGA has been averaging 23 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists per game and has improved tremendously since last season when Chris Paul was doing most of the heavy lifting for the team. Right now, they sit in 12th spot in the West and are in contention for the Play-In game positions. This week, in a win against the Spurs, he made 42 points, a career high for SGA. And Dort threw in the winning shot. That game has been the pinnacle so far for a fun OKC team. But Presti is a great GM and has made sure that they don't have enough talent on the team yet to upset too many of the better teams, like they did last season. SGA is surrounded by some other young talent and older veterans and they are all playing hard, trying to win as many games as they can. OKC is establishing a winning culture while losing, proving that tanking happens in the front office, not on the court.
SGA was one of the fringe players to make the All-Star team. He was in the conversation but didn't really stand a chance in a guard-heavy Western Conference. OKC will also miss out on the Play-In game this season, the busy second half of the schedule will be too much for the inexperienced team. But they have plenty of time, focusing on the future. With fresh talent coming in through the draft and with trading-genius Presti in the front office, OKC will fight their way to the one of the highest spots in the Western Conference within a few years. And SGA will be leading them into battle, when he will be one of the best guards in the league.
PICK #2
The second pick of the week is Malik Monk of the Charlotte Hornets. At the start of the season, Monk looked on his way out of Charlotte. The front office drafted LaMelo Ball, top-candidate for rookie of the year, and with Rozier, Graham and the Martin twins there was a lot of competition for a spot in the backcourt. Monk ended up at the bottom of the list and had to wait until the end of January before he could count on some decent playing time. But Malik was ready and on February 1st, in a win against the Heat, he made 36 points, a career-high, in an amazing performance off the bench. Since then he has played himself back into the good graces, and this week averaged nearly 25 points and 4 rebounds over 3 games, each time coming off the bench and playing less than 30 minutes.
On this show we have been saying that there is only one contender this season for the Sixth Man of the Year award, and that is Jordan Clarkson of the Jazz. He has been incredibly valuable for the Jazz, with high-scoring performances coming off the bench. No other player in the league is so important for their team. Insert Malik Monk, and his timing is perfect. The early-season hype around the Hornets was fading and they started to drop in the standings when they finally inserted him into the line-up. In February the Hornets are 6 and 6, and Monk has more than contributed to that record by leading the second unit off the bench. Now, he is not going to overtake Clarkson all of a sudden, but if he keeps playing this way, he will be in the conversation by the end of the season.
And that will be important for Monk, who is in his final year of his contract with the Hornets. He is lifting up his value now for when he has to sit around the table with MJ and the Hornets. It is safe to assume that he will want a bigger role within the organisation next season and he might not get that in Charlotte, so the chances are they'll want to trade him before his contract is up. By putting up amazing performances now, he might secure a trade to a team that needs a reliable scoring guard. Rumour has it, he might be used in a trade package to move John Collins from Atlanta to Charlotte.
PICK #3
The third pick of the week is James Harden of the Brooklyn Nets. At the time of recording, the Nets are on an 8-game winning streak and have only played 1 of those games with their Big-3. KD has missed all the other games, and Kyrie missed one too. That leaves us with James Harden, one of the most reliable players in the league. He is rarely injured, rarely misses games and plays fantastic every game. Except for the start of this season in Houston, when he wanted to get traded. Since his move to the Nets he is averaging 25 points, 11 assists and 8 rebounds per game. He has been scoring less than in his 9 years in Houston but his rebounds and assists are way up. James Harden is a great basketball player, maybe even the best one on this team.
That might be a bit of a reach because Kevin Durant is one of the best players to have ever played the game. But KD is coming back from a major injury and is struggling with other little ailments as well. Nobody imagined KD to return at the same level straight away and the Nets' hopes rested on Kyrie. Kyrie is a fantastic scorer but he is not the guy to build your franchise around, we saw that last season. Trading for James Harden is proving to be the best move that the Nets could have made. They are winning games while KD has the time to get back to his level by the Play-Offs. The Nets are now second in the East, only just behind the Philadelphia Sixers and have beaten some of the best teams in Western Conference on a five game road trip.
James has been selected for the All-Star team, no surprise there, and he might even be part of the MVP conversation towards the end of the season. People have short memories and might forget about his antics in Houston. Either way, Harden has enough personal accolades and he wants to win the title. The Nets are the best offensive team in the league but do they have the defense to win in the Play-Offs? That is the biggest question around the league right now. If the Nets can win the league without playing defense, it could change the way the game is played forever. And they can, they only need their Big 3 to have a crazy night once or twice per round. These guys are known to have multiple crazy nights per round. Right now, I don't see a team that can beat these Nets 4 times.
PICK #4
The fourth pick of the week is Kawhi Leonard of the LA Clippers. The Clippers last season were the biggest disappointment of the season. After making a lot of noise all year long, they los in the second round of the Play-Offs against the Denver Nuggets after being up 3 games against 1. Paul George was the main scapegoat for the Clippers but Kawhi bears a lot of responsibility as well. After winning the championship with Toronto 2 years ago, he claimed the crown of best player in the league and had a chance to set it in stone by winning 2 championships in a row with 2 different teams, he would have been the first superstar to achieve this. But he absolutely choked in the last game against the Nuggets.
Fast forward to today, the Clippers have quietly been winning games and have been playing well, besides a small hiccup against the Memphis this week. This season, Kawhi has averaged nearly 27 points per game, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. He is more involved in the game and is acting like a leader on the court. That is something that we haven't seen of Kawhi before. He has realised that he has to set the example for the rest of team and can't rely on his team mates to carry him. This was different for him in San Antonio and Toronto. Together with PG, the superstar duo is ready to redeem themselves in the Play-Offs this season.
To do that, they will have to go through the Lakers. Everyone anticipated a Western Conference Final between the two LA teams last season but that didn't work out. This season, a battle for LA has to happen. It might not be in the Western Conference Final if the Jazz keep up their form but their will be a confrontation along the way. LeBron versus Kawhi, that's a clash of the titans. They've met each other 12 times in the Play-Offs so far and Kawhi is up 7-5. LeBron is eager to catch up and make the statement that he is still the best player in the league. But Kawhi and his team are ready. This is their make or break season, there won't be a third chance to get there.
PICK #5
The fifth pick of the week is Jarrett Allen of the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was picked 22nd in the 2017 draft by the Brooklyn Nets and was going to be the cornerstone of the Nets together with D'Angelo Russell and Caris LeVert. Four years later, none of those guys play for the Nets anymore, we all know what happened. Allen ended up on the Cavaliers in the Harden-Nets trade, competing with Andre Drummond for playing time. He has won that battle, especially now the Cavaliers have announced that Drummond isn't playing anymore until he is traded. His minutes have gone up and he has achieved a double-double in every game since that announcement.
Not only that, but the Cavs are winning again. At the start of the season, before the trade, the Cavs were one of the better teams in the league, surprising everyone. The SexLand backcourt, Colin Sexton and Darius Garland, were winning games left, right and centre. They looked frisky and a potential outsider to make the play-offs. Then reality set in and the Cavs lost 10 games in a row in February to drop to the 14th spot in the East. But this week, they seemed to finally turn that around with a hard-fought win against the Hawks and an absolute blowout against the Rockets. Allen went crazy in this game, scoring 26 points and only missing 1 shot from the field, a career high. He also grabbed 18 rebounds in that game and was a +17 in the box score.
The Cavs have a bright future with Allen on the frontcourt and Sexton in the backcourt. Both are more or less the same age and it is a duo that can be build around. Experts have always said that Allen will have a great future in the NBA, and he is starting to show it now. If the Cavs can keep this core together and slowly put better pieces around them, they should be able to play for a place in the Play-Offs soon. They might even make it to the Play-In game as early as next season.
This is our All-NBA team of the Week. Thank you for listening and 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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