Weekly NBA Wrap With The Mid Range Jumpers
MVP watch
Top 5
- Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors, 22.9ppg, 8.0apg, 5.0rpg)
- Marc Gasol (Memphis Grizzlies 19.9ppg, 8.2rpg)
- James Harden (Houston Rockets, 26.8ppg, 6.7apg, 5.8rpg)
- Anthony Davis (New Orleans Pelicans, 23.8ppg, 10.5 rpg, 2.9bpg)
- John Wall (Washington Wizards, 17.2ppg, 10.3apg, 4.4rpg)
Notable Mentions
LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers)
Damian Lillard (Portland Trailblazers)
Jimmy Butler (Chicago Bulls)
As we near the All-Star break the MVP contenders are becoming clearer. I'm comfortable saying Stephen Curry is my MVP so far as what he and the Warriors have achieved so far has been impressive. The selfless play by the Warriors is fun to watch and allows Curry to get good looks of screens and dictate their offense with ease. He’s putting up solid numbers and leading the NBA’s best team so far. John Wall is ascending up the ladder with some impressive play and in my mind doing as good a job as any other point guard not named Steph Curry. The ball is in his hands a lot and he’s doing a good job currently leading the league in assists.
Adding to my notable mentions are Damian Lillard and Jimmy Butler. Both players have stepped up this year and are leading their teams in scoring. The Blazers and Bulls are currently going well and are comfortably sitting near the top of their respective conferences largely due to the play of these two.
Standouts
Atlanta Hawks
The Hawks are still hot currently on a league best seven game win streak and are now three games ahead in the East and two games off the Warriors for the leagues best record. While your average punter may not be able to name many Hawks players they are playing a nice style of basketball that is clearly going very well. As I said last week they won’t go unnoticed anymore so start getting used to hearing the names - Teague, Millsap, Horford, Korver, Carroll and Sefolosha as they are the ones everyone is chasing in the east.
Teams On The Rise
Atlanta Hawks
Charlotte Hornets
Golden State Warriors
Denver Nuggets
Teams On The Slide
New York Knicks
Minnesota Timberwolves
Orlando Magic
Cleveland Cavaliers
Performance Of The Week Thus Far
Klay Thompson 40 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists (14/25FG, 6/11 3PT)
Play Of The Week
This could be the shot of the year. You’ve probably already seen it but this shot was incredible. Trevor Booker claims he practiced it growing up so it wasn’t just a fluke. In addition this shot was made with 0.2 on the shot clock and they say it takes 0.3 to catch and shot perfectly, so Booker pulled off one of the only shots possible just nobody knew it was coming !
Steven Adams Watch
7.5 ppg , 7.3 rpg, 24.4 mins per game
Steven Adams has had a quiet few weeks after his hot run over the Christmas period. His minutes have leveled out often due to being in foul trouble, however he has still contributed on both ends. Adams has been good for around seven rebounds with around two coming on the offensive end. The Thunder themselves have cooled off a little and have gone 5-5 in the their last ten and are currently sitting 10th in the West. They made a good trade for scorer Dion Waiters, who can certainly play ball but his character is questionable and the result of the trade could go either way. Fortunately the Thunder gave up next to nothing so hopefully for Thunder fans it will work out.
Storyline Watch/Random thoughts
Trade season
I really enjoy trade season as you never really know what's going on until its all said and done. Rumors fly for every team and often while the numbers add up it often feels like one team gets the short end of the stick. Take the Cleveland, New York and Oklahoma City trade for example. Cleveland get JR Smith and Iman Shumpert and Waiters for two benchwarmers, a protected first round pick and a second round pick. The Cavs and Thunder get good players while it seems the Knicks get nothing. It’s all about planning and for the Knicks they are looking to rebuild and open cap space to entice big name players to a big market. When you look at it on paper it doesn’t add up, however they have a plan and it's just not based around winning now. It wouldn’t surprise me if a few more trades like this go down as one team looks to win now while the others look towards the draft and beyond.
NBA Players Resting Up
The physicality of the NBA I think is starting to take its toll. The conditioning of players is being monitored a lot more and I think in general franchises are taking more care of minutes from their superstars. I think this lends itself to a better game as we’re seeing teams benches having a greater impact in the outcome of games. It didn’t begin with the Spurs winning last season but in my mind the game itself is better to watch as we move away from isolation basketball. While you want to see the superstars playing 40 odd minutes a game and 82 games a year the reality is these guys need to look after their bodies as really the lifespan of a NBA career isn’t that long for your average player. I’d rather see all the superstars playing big minutes when it counts than seeing them get run ragged for stats and to earn to odd W.