Over the weekend, the Thunder’s Jalen Williams was asked how he thought his team would fare against some of the other top teams from NBA history and of course, he was picking his team every single time like any active player would likely do.
But, given the Thunder’s historic start to the season and insane depth, I feel like it’s worth at least mentioning here…
Jalen Brunson – The Knicks will represent the East in the NBA Cup Finals on Tuesday but I wanted to specifically highlight Brunson who now has the third-most 30-point games (87) in Knicks history behind Patrick Ewing (203) and Carmelo Anthony (108). Brunson’s season-high 40pts propelled the Knicks to the NBA Cup Finals and has also made him a favorite for NBA Cup tournament MVP though I suspect he may have his eyes on a bigger prize.
The San Antonio Spurs – On Saturday the Spurs did something only one other team has done so far this season: beat the Thunder. It was a fantastic game that looked like a crystal ball into the next 10 years of Western Conference Finals. Victor Wembanyama returned from a 12-game absence to lead San Antonio but what I’m most impressed by is how loudly the young Spurs have announced their arrival. The team went 9-3 without Wemby and have looked like a poised, resilient team loaded with talent up and down the roster.
Joel Embiid – For the first time in awhile Joel Embiid appeared in two straight games. Playing Friday in a win vs. the Pacers and then Sunday in a losing effort vs. the Hawks. Embiid’s performances themselves have also been encouraging:
Friday: 39 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists in 32 minutes
Sunday: 22 points, 14 rebounds, 2 bocks in 30 minutes
On top of that, Philly also got one of Paul George’s best efforts as a Sixer (35pts, 7 3PM on Sunday) so things are certainly looking sunnier lately.
The Cleveland Cavaliers – Before the season it felt like the East was going to come down to the Knicks and the Cavs battling it out but unfortunately, Cleveland just hasn’t held up their end of the bargain. After dropping Sunday’s game vs. the Hornets, the Cavs have now lost six of their last seven and failed to score a single point in Sunday’s OT period. Donovan Mitchell looks gassed from having to do so much lifting in the scoring department while they just received news that Evan Mobley is likely going to miss the next month with a calf strain.
Last year’s Cavs were 64-18 on the year, this year’s team has already lost 12 games and would be a Play-In team if the season ended today. It’s stunning to see the inconsistency from what was one of the East’s most dependable rosters last season.
Jimmy Butler’s Warriors’ Tenure – We’ve hit a rough patch in the Jimmy Butler/Warriors relationship recently as Butler as been somewhat vocal about the team’s struggles.
But, he’s also been struggling so far this month, averaging 13pts/6r/4a. Those aren’t bad numbers but they’re also not “we gave you $60 million a year for this” numbers either. On Sunday Butler struggled from the field going 3-11 as the Warriors lost a close one to the Blazers despite Steph Curry scoring 48pts and hitting 12 3PT. Suffice to say Twitter was not kind.
The rest were extremely NSFW. Warriors fans are a little upset.
I’m even seeing people trying to say throw Jimmy into potential Giannis trades…
Really though, the Warriors at some point need to look at the insane level Steph is still playing at and figure out that this current team doesn’t have a championship ceiling. If a 48pt/12 3PM Curry performance isn’t enough to get you a regular season win over the Blazers, you need to go back to the drawing board guys.
The LA Clippers – Suffice to say, life has not been sweet over in Intuit Dome as the Clippers have struggled mightily this year. They currently sit at 6-19, just one win better than the lowly Pelicans (more on them in a second) and now it seems like things are just continuing to snowball. After losing an extremely winnable game vs. the Rockets, coach Ty Lue revealed the following day that the team’s practice had been cancelled in favor of just studying film. But it’s why that decision was made that is raising my alarm for this team.
While it could just be people were sick or something small like that, the Clippers haven’t been that lucky this year so I’m keeping one eye on them just in case.
The New Orleans Pelicans’ Front Office – It’s a bad time to be a member of the Pelicans’ front office because not only has the team only won five games on the season, not only has Zion already missed multiple weeks, but they don’t even have their own pick for next year’s draft. While Derik Queen has looked like a solid pick, they’re still losing quite a few games and will have nothing to show for it come draft time when their pick goes to the Hawks. Everyone knows it was a bad move but now from John Hollinger we got a report that New Orleans maybe didn’t even realize what they were doing in the moment.
“One of the things I’ve been told about this trade is that New Orleans didn’t even understand what it was trading. And that Atlanta had in its front office, because Atlanta had Bryson Graham in their front office who had just come from New Orleans.”
– John Hollinger via Hollinger & Duncan NBA Show
If that’s true, no one from this current regime should be safe. I’d consider firing them all at this exact moment honestly because mis-managing assets is exactly how they’ve ended up in the basketball purgatory they currently find themselves in.
ESPN released their latest 25 NBA Stars Under 25 list on Friday and there were a few names that really stood out to me.
Victor Wembanyama
Anthony Edwards
Cade Cunningham
Jalen Williams
Alperen Sengun – It’s insane to me that Sengun is still just 23 years old as he continues to develop a fantastic all-around game playing alongside one of the best ever in Kevin Durant. He’s boosted his assists up to a career-high 7 per game (4.9 is his career average) and has looked extremely comfortable creating for others, moving off the dribble, and doing anything else the Rockets need.
Amen Thompson
Evan Mobley
Cooper Flagg – I don’t know when Mavericks’ management finally realized they needed to stop playing Flagg as a point guard and let him be a point-forward combo guard but let me just say THANK YOU. This month Flagg is averaging 21 points per game to go along with five rebounds and three assists and he looks much more comfortable out there. It doesn’t hurt that Ryan Nembhard has exploded onto the scene to help give Flagg even better looks too. The only thing that he needs to continue to improve is his three-point shooting (22% in December, 25% on the season).
Chet Holmgren
Jalen Johnson – If he stays healthy there are going to be legitimate conversations in Atlanta on if Trae Young is expendable in a trade. Think about how crazy that would’ve sounded even just a year or two ago. This dude is the goods in every way.
Scottie Barnes
Franz Wagner
Paolo Banchero
Jalen Duren – A legitimate Most Improved Player candidate, Duren is so much fun to watch on a nightly basis. At just 22 years old he is poised to be a franchise pillar alongside Cade Cunningham for years to come. Pay the man!
Deni Avdija
Stephon Castle
Kon Knueppel
Dylan Harper
VJ Edgecombe – I love watching VJ Edgecombe play basketball. He is so much fun and him landing on the 76ers and being paired with Maxey and Jared McCain is incredible.
Dyson Daniels
Jalen Suggs
Alex Sarr
Josh Giddey
Ausar Thompson
Reed Sheppard – Imagine going from hardly playing your rookie year to now being thrown into the rotation on a team with legitimate title aspirations following a massive trade for Kevin Durant. Sheppard has responded big time, shooting 45% from three and giving Houston’s backcourt added relief in the wake of Fred VanVleet’s injury and Jalen Green’s departure.
Let me know who’s standing out to you on this list or who you’ve enjoyed watching most
– Cavaliers’ Evan Mobley to miss 2-4 weeks with calf strain
– Lakers’ Austin Reaves out “at least” 1 week with calf strain
– Jusuf Nurkić had time to roast this fan on Twitter
– Enjoy a funny moment between KD and Alperen Sengun
– Hawks’ Porzingis to miss at least two weeks dealing with illness
– Rudy Gobert leaves Wolves’ game Sunday in third quarter for personal reasons
– Kings’ Zach LaVine forced out of Sunday’s game with ankle injury
Only five games tonight so let me know what you’re excited to watch.
Pistons at Celtics
Raptors at Heat
Mavericks at Jazz
Rockets at Nuggets
Grizzlies at Clippers
Thank you so much for hanging out and checking out today’s HOOPS. I appreciate everyone reading this. More importantly, if you’re reading this I hope you had a great weekend and are doing okay to start the week. Take care.