Hoops Tonight - Midseason All-NBA Teams: How Kevin Durant, Steph Curry & LeBron James stack up

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at the volume. Happy Monday, everybody. I hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend. My wife and I spent the weekend moving. We are veterans of the moving game. We've done it nine times since her and I met back in two thousand fourteen, including across the country twice. Um. What's funny is, no matter how many times I do it, it literally never gets any easier. It's a complete, in total pain in the ass every single time. But there's

a light at the end of the tunnel. On Friday, We're going on our first ski trip of the season. Skiing is my second favorite thing to do in the world, behind basketball, so I'm very excited for this time of year, finally going to get the skis on snow for the first time. This weekend. We are halfway through the NBA season. Most teams have played around games. Um, I love doing the game breakdowns. I love that cadence that we normally have during the week, but we're gonna take a break

from that this week. We will do an instant reaction video on Thursday night when Boston plays Brooklyn. At least that's the plan as of right now. We'll see when we get closer, because I know that Kevin Durant injury is a little bit of a factor there. But the rest of this week, we're gonna be focused on mid season, kind of like zooming out and taking a look at the league. So today we're gonna do all NBA teams.

Tomorrow we're gonna do the other awards, so like m VP, Defense, Player of the Year, Rookie of the the Year, most Improved, things along those lines. Wednesday, we're gonna do, uh, look at just how I would rank the contenders at this point in the season, kind of like a power ranking slash, putting the teams into tears based on the new information we have, now that we have a half season's worth of games under our belt. And then later this weekend I'll have it recorded before I go out of town.

But later this weekend we're gonna have a video where we go over the five biggest questions going into the second half of the season. So this is a good week to zoom out and get a feel for what's going on throughout one half of the NBA season. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribed to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason

lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements. And then last but not Leasta, For whatever reason, you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, you can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight. All right, So here's how I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna go from the first team to the third team, and then at the end, I'm gonna list for you guys the guys that I considered for the teams that didn't actually make it.

And there are three specific picks that I've viewed to be very difficult decisions, and we'll do a little bit deeper dives when we get to those specific players. So the way I organized it because I thought we had three really solid center prospects this year. In terms of options for the All NBA Team, typically the All NBA Team gets convoluted because we have forwards that clearly played guard, like, for instance, Lucas kind of a forward, but for all

intents and purposes, he's an NBA guard. They usually UM are are functionally using him the way that any other team would use a point guard. So I'm gonna consider him a guard. But we're not gonna put any forwards in the center position because I think we have three legit centers that are clearly playing like top fifteen players in the league this year, and they deserve consideration at that center spot. So we're not gonna do any jankie

stuff with this centers um in this particular list. So it's gonna be guard, guard, forward, forward, center for all three teams uniquely this season. I think that makes sense. So first team at guard, I have Luca don Chees. This year, He's averaging thirty four nine and nine on shooting, having a bad defensive season, but his offensive workload is so huge that you know, honestly, it's hard to expect

him to devote any resources there. And then honestly, like they need him to play that style for this team to have any chance to win. And what's crazy is there's like a tone and tenor surrounding the Mavericks and Luca this year that's kind of negative. Like they're twenty three and eighteen, which is actually pretty solid, but we talk about them like they're a team that hovers around five hundred. We're critical of Luca because we don't like the way he is. He in a helio centric style.

Not me, but a lot of people around the league have been critical of his play style this season. I tend to think that it's literally their best chance to win games because of the way the roster is put together. And I also strongly believe that Luca would cater his game to acquiesce to another star should that situation and

ever rise. And really, when you look close, guys, the Mavericks are twenty three and fourteen when Luca plays, because they're oh and four when he doesn't play, three and fourteen. In this NBA, with all the talent there is around the league, with the talent limitations that that Mavericks roster has, that's truly remarkable stuff from Luca this year. He's shooting thirty eight percent on seven hundred and nine pull up jumpers because he's taken so many jumpers in that short

to mid range. He's also up to up over one point zero five points per possession on post ups, ices and pick and rolls. He is a one man offense. It's not pretty, it can be stagnant, it can be ugly sometimes, but it's damned effective. And in a stacked NBA, they're strongly over five hundred when he plays, clear cut first team All NBA guy to me, alright, second guard on the first team, I put Donovan Mitchell averaging four and five on sixty three true shooting on dribble jumpers.

That's the large part of what's working with that offense, and it's something that is perfectly complimentary to what Cleveland does because they have Jared Allen and Evan Mobile in the front court. Evan Mobile is still not a consistent shooter, so they don't really have a ton of spacing, so it's steady pick and roll and they desperately need somebody that can knock down pull up jumpers at a high rate.

That's what Donovan Mitchell gives them, particularly from three, which is something like it's but from an effective field goal percentage it's drastically higher than that because of how good he is at pull up three point shots, and so that that complimentary fit has actually made him a legit MVP candidate this year. The calves are twenty four and twelve when he plays, and they're thriving on offense despite

that lack of spacing. And he's not a great defensive player, but he has enough physical tools as an athlete to help with contested rebounds or two an easier defensive responsibilities, like on ball responsibilities, he can do enough to at least not be detrimental to a great extent to that defense. Um he's been an outsid any offensive engine all season.

They're averaging one point one three points per possession out of Donovan Mitchell pick and rolls including passes, and one point zero six points per possession in ISO clear cut first team All NBA guard. Obviously, in a perfect world, you put another guard, another forward up there, Like if we're being Jankie and I can do three guards on the second team and three forwards on the first team, then I'd move Jayson Tatum up. But if we're sticking

true to positions. You gotta go with Donovan Mitchell there at guard. Alright, the first team All NBA fowards first, I have Kevin Durant thirty points, seven rebounds, five assist, sixty true shooting, driven by an astonishing fift on pull up jump shots. You know that is you know, pull

up jump shooting is the most difficult shot in basketball. Um, it's the shot that all defenses forced you to take because they want to take away the easier shots, right, driving kicks too easy, three point shots, shots at the rim easier, you know, uh, catch and shoot opportunities. They're trying to avoid that as much as possible. So the coverage is dictated towards allowing pull up jump shots to take away that those other things away. That's the trade off.

And so when you have a guy that can be knocked down in those in those specific shooting situations, it's immensely valuable in the m b A. What's crazy with Kevin Durant is he's hitting those at in efficiency. That literally doesn't make any sense. He's hitting him more efficiently than a lot of guards do at the rim. He's shooting fifty this year on pull up jump shots and then we're gonna talk about this, talk about this a

lot more when we get to Kyrie. But that's specifically ultra valuable to Brooklyn because they have to play a couple of non shooters often, like they're playing Ben Simmons and Nick Claxton, both just under thirty minutes a game, so there's a lot of overlap when those guys are on the court together. And if you're gonna thrive with two non shooters on the court or one non shooter at the court at all times, you're gonna need guys

that can comfortably shoot over the top of defense. And Kevin Durant is the best in the world at hitting those jump shots uh off the Drew Bill over defensive players. He's also gonna make an All Defense team this year.

I watched a lot of film this morning on on Brooklyn's defense, because you know, I'm so intrigued by how they've been so dominant after such a bad start to the season, And it really comes down to this a ton of switching, but not in an unnecessary way, like when teams set got screens or sloppy screens, they'll stay home, they'll chase over the top um when they get a switch onto a guard in the post. They always pre

help with shell drill. So like let's say, for instance, that Kyrie Irving switches out to a player on the perimeter and they immediately walk him down to the post. Nick Claxton's probably gonna be guarding a player on the week side of the floor. He will be in help side, almost directly under the rim. Then as the post entry is happening, he'll run and guard the post player, and as the post entry is happening, Kyrie will sprint out

to guarden at Claxton's guy. So it's a really smart switching scheme that doesn't switch when they have to saves their switched defenders out of post mismatches that they don't like. In a huge heavy part of what makes this all work is when they stagnate teams and force them to ice so they don't want to iso Kevin Durant because he's so long. They don't want to isso Nick Lackson. Sometimes they do, but he does pretty well on the perimeter.

So those guys are in help all the time. And Kevin Durant in particular has done an outstanding job helping at the rim with his length in athleticism. He will make an All Defense team this year if he stays healthy. Obviously, he's been ruled out with this MCL sprain, but the intel this morning was that it's not very severe and they're expecting him back in less than a month, so it should not impact his defense, his All Defense voting, it should not impact his m v P voting all

that much. He's also been the best pick and roll ball handler in the league this year, and in my opinion, if the season stopped today and we were just focused on the basketball that was played by the basketball players in this season, not counting the playoffs, he's been the best player that I've seen on both ends of the floor this year in terms of total impact on winning. The other first team forward to have is Jana Santana Compo. This was my first really tough call of these All

MBA teams. It was either him or Jayson Tatum Um. And again, as I said earlier, if we're fudging the positions, then I'd put Tatum in over Mitchell, and I'd go with three guards on the second team. But at that forward position, I had to choose between Janice and Tatum, and there's some weird metrics with your honest that don't look good, Like, for instance, the Bucks have only a plus three point to net rating, uh so they're outscoring teams by only three point two points per one hundred

possessions when Janice is on the floor this year. That's not very good compared to a lot of the other best players in the league, especially the ones that are on good teams. UM below six true shooting for the first time since two thousand eighteen, that's really weird. For your honest, he's just eighty four for three D and thirteen outside of the restricted area, which is just twenty percent.

So even though he's having an other worldly season at the rim, everything away from the rim, he's missing basically three out of four times, which is kind of problematic at this point, but I keep coming back to the supporting cast, like with Drew Holiday missing as much time as he's missed, with Chris Middleton missing basically being entirely unavailable this entire season. As a result, this team is

extremely weak in spot up shooting. The Bucks score less than one point per possession on spot up possessions, which is twenty two in the n b A, so teams are really loading up on Jannice, so he's having to take more perimeter jump shots than ever. His individual defender has more leeway to press up into his airspace, which makes those into tougher shots. It's just an extremely high degree of difficulty for Johannice, and in spite of all of that, he's still producing at an extremely high level.

And the Bucks are only two point five games back of Boston, so Janice has had a better I think he's a better player overall. He has that championship resume that adds legitimacy. He's working with less talent because I think Boston has the best roster in the league, and yet the Bucks are just two and a half games back of the Celtics. So I ended up giving the

nod to Janice for that first team forward. But like I said, Jayson Tatum has been one of the five best players in the league this year, and he would have that guard spot if we were fudging the positions. Um At center, Nicola Yoki legit m VP candidate for the third year in a row, eleven and ten on

six true shooting. The Nuggets are twenty five and eleven when he plays, He's only missed three games, so he's been very available, and the Nuggets are twenty six points per one possessions better when Yoki is on the floor versus when he's off. And the big thing with Yokich and you know, Yoki is one of the most polarizing players in the NBA. Like, I feel like I'm pretty

in the middle. There's a lot of people that think he's worse than I think he is, and there's a lot of people who think he's better than I think he is. There's kind of a pretty heavy Yoki is the best player in the world crowd, and then there's a pretty heavy like Yokich is such a bad defensive player that he's actually, you know, nowhere near to the

level of the top players in the league. There's those kinds of guys that are, uh that on the other side of the spectrum, I'm pretty much in the middle. I think he's, you know, top five or six player in the league. I think he's probably the best offensive player in the league, if not in that conversation with Steph and defensively, I don't think he's very good and I think he can be targeted. I think that's a differentiator.

But I do think that that gets overplayed when people are ranking him compared to some of his peers around the league. And I think the reason why he's so polarizing is how easy he makes the game. Look. We've talked about this a lot on the show, but Nicola Yoka just constantly targeting the easy opportunities that present themselves on the basketball court. And he's not a guy that will put up six or seven highlight level shots to rescue possessions over the course of the game. He does

have rescue possessions. He can hit nifty one like fade aways or crazy high difficulty hook shots over great defense. He can do that stuff, and he doesn't get enough credit for that stuff that he deserves more credit. But overall, he does have a very easy and simplistic approach to the game, which I think is smart and it's what makes him so damned defective, and that kind of thing I think goes over a lot of basketball fans heads, and so as a result, I don't think he gets

the appropriate credit that he deserves. But he clearly is the first team All NBA center through half the season, all right. Moving on to the second team guard f Curry, I think he's been the second best player that I've seen this year overall. If you if you just took the minutes that they've played during this season, Kevin Durant has been the best player I've seen this year. Steph Curry has been the second best player that I've seen

this year. He probably would be first team All NBA right now if it wasn't for the injury in that Donovan Mitchell spot. He is having a bit of a down defensive season. He's had some bad defensive games in a way that I think Kevin Durant has been better on that end of the floor this year, and obviously he just has the physical tools to have more impact there. So that was why I'm giving Katie the nod in terms of who's the best player I've seen this year.

But Steff is having an all time great offensive season thirty points, seven rebounds, seven assists, sixty seven percentury shooting, which is just amazing. He's the second best pick and roll ball handler in the league to run at least two hundred behind Kevin Durant, and the Warriors offense scores hundred and twenty one points per one hundre possessions when he's on the floor, just one oh eight when he's off the floor, So still one of the best offensive

engines in the NBA. Alright, So the second guard for the second team for all NBA. This was my second really tough call. I had to choose between Kyrie Irving or Shay gil Just Alexander. I went with Kyrie Irving, but I want to explain because I do think s g A right now is a better basketball player overall. However, Kyrie I think is providing more winning impact, more value to his team right now. Like we talked about earlier, the Nets are playing Nick Claxton and Ben Simmons big minutes.

They're both playing almost thirty minutes a game. They've been on the floor together this season for seven hundred and fifty four possessions, and the Nets are plus four net in those possessions four points positive per one possessions. That's really solid when you factor in severe spacing concerns with those types of lineups. At any given moment, they either have two or one of those guys on the floor that teams are able to help off of, right, and

so this team is not a good spacing team. They do have a lot of shooting in the perimeter, but interior wise, there's always help defenders around the rim. So have guys that can consistently rise up and hit pull up jump shots over the top of defense is vitally important. That also gives them the flexibility to play like a defensive minded guard like Edmund Sumner, even though he can't shoot, you can put him out there for you know whatever

it is, seventeen twenty minutes a night. Because of all the pull up shooting you have with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, that whole roster construct fundamentally works with Kyrie in a way that I don't think it necessarily would

with Shakils Alexander. Shay is a solid pull up jump shooter, but Kyrie is eight per cent better in effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots because he's a bit better from two, but he's much much better on pull up three point shots, which obviously brings a ton of efficiency. It's actually become one of Kyrie's go to shots of late, especially in uh in clutch situations. And so you know, in Shakils Alexander, he's making five shots

a game in the restricted area. So like he is very reliant on spacing and those pick and pop bigs like MIKEA Mscala and shape in Alexei Pokachevski to play for okay, see, those are vitally important to opening up the paint for Shade to get where he needs to go on the floor. Kyrie and Uh and Uh Kevin Durant in their ability to consistently shoot over the top allows them to play non shooters in the in the

front court. So as I'm zooming out, Shea is a little better player in terms of overall impact on a winning team. I mean, we're talking about the second best player on the second best team in the league. I think he pretty clearly is Uh is good enough to be that second team All NBA guard twenty five and five on six true shooting. I also think he's having a much better defensive season than say John marae itt Um and again, like I said, uniquely makes the nets

roster more functional. So I've got Kyrie Irving as the second team second guard alright, first forward on the second team, Jayson Tatum. I talked to you guys earlier about why I had you Honese over him, so I won't go any further into thatt eight and four this year on

true shooting. Still an outstanding defender, but he has had some bad games, like I like that Denver game was a really annoying one for me because it was another opportunity for the Celtics to send a message, and Justin Tatum just mailed that game in defensively, especially in his off ball possessions. Yokis caught him sleeping a bunch of times. It's kind of disappointed in him there. Um that said,

still a bona fide m VP candidate. Just Johannest and Katie are better right now and I think they deserve those two spots second forward on the second team Lebron James So Anthony Davis went down on December six, and since then, Lebron has been playing arguably like the best player in the world. It's either him or Yokis. Over the course of the last month or so, Lebron and

Yokis have been a step above everyone else in the league. Uh. Since Anthony Davis went down, Lebron's averaging thirty four points per game, eight rebounds, seven assists, fifty from the field, true shooting, and the Lakers managed somehow over that span to go eight and five despite severe personnel limitations. They do not have a backup center that they trust that they can play. They do not have any perimeters or shooting. It's basically Lebron, Thomas Bryant in a bunch of guards,

and they are winning games. Now they're getting contributions. Dennis Schroeder is playing really well, Thomas Bryant's playing really well. Russell Westbrook is having his second significant good stretch of basketball u uh in this season. All those guys are playing well, but Lebron is the guy functionally makes it work on the defensive end of the floor. He makes up for so many size related issues because of his ability to guard, contest, grab contested rebounds. Again, I encourage you.

One of my favorite Lebron things that you guys have to start paying attention to when he's playing that a lot of people miss is the contested rebounds. Watch a three ball goes high in the air, There's two centers down there jumping, and here comes Lebron towering over everybody to tap the ball to Dennis Schroeder. Something along those lines.

Watch Lebron in contested rebound situations. That is how he as basically a wing can functionally replace a good percentage of front court athleticism in size in those defensive rebounding situations. He's also been playing really good help defense over the course of this recent stretch. Lebron, it's it's it's truly bizarre, how reliably great he's been on a night and night out basis in his twenty season. I did have a little bit of a run in with uh Cuffs, the

legend Lebron's friend on Twitter on Saturday night. He got after me because I was critical of Lebron earlier in the season. And I have to say this every year to Lebron fans because they can't handle it. To make it simple, I am a big Lebron fan. He's my favorite player. He's the reason why I got into the league. Why the reason why I got into basketball. I was raised on football and baseball, and watching Lebron got me to fall in love with this game, which in turn

has paid for my schooling and become my career. I owe everything to Lebron getting me to fall in love with basketball. So yes, I have a great deal of attachment there. That's why I decided to cover the Lakers when I got into this industry. It's why we talked about a lot of Lakers on this Know I'm a fan of Lebron, but I at least try, even though I do have my biases, I at least try my best to be as objective as possible. So I'm not going to analyze based on what I feel about a

player in the grand scheme of things. I'm gonna analyze based on the way they're playing in the actual basketball games that are actually taking place. So early in the season, Lebron wasn't good, not compared to his standard. He's been much better as of late. So how has this show looked When I've talked about Lebron? What was it like early in the season when he was struggling. I'd point out that he was struggling. I'd also point out he's sick,

he's dealing with the foot injury. I would point those things out, but I would also say, he's just not playing well. Now, what's happening. He's healthy? What did I tell you guys earlier in the season. I'm like, if he can get his rhythm, if he can play fifteen games in a row and not get hurt, I believe his legs will get underneath them and he'll take off. That's exactly what happened. So even when he was struggling, I predicted that he would get better. I just was

pointing out the simple fact that he was struggling. And I will continue to do that with every single player. You guys know, Russell Westbrook is probably my least favorite player in the entire NBA, and and rooting for a Lebron James team is extremely frustrating. With Russell Westbrook on the roster. What have I done when Russ has played well this year? I've pointed it out because it's just true.

I'm about at the core. I love basketball, and and when I see Russ do good basketball things that lead to a team that I root for to win games, of course I'm going to acknowledge that. And so I always think that's funny and it and I get it. It's Lebron's friend. He's got to come to his defense. But like, if you were a Lakers fan and you were critical of Lebron early in the season, you were right.

You weren't wrong, you weren't being you weren't being dishonest, you weren't hating, you were simply pointing out what was happening on the basketball court. UM. On the season, Lebron eight and seven true shooting since the groin injury, which is now a twenty one game sample size, so over a fourth of the season, Lebron is averaging eight and

seven on shooting. Just unbelievably ridiculous stuff. And for the season the right around five hundred when he plays despite a d missing a ton of games, and all the general roster issues which we've talked to death on this show. UM, I think he's a clear cut second team forward and as of this exact moment in time, he's playing like a top three player in the world. Center for the second team. Joe l em bat ten and five career high sixty true shooting. Talked about Janice and his shooting

outside the restricted area earlier. Check this out. Joel Embiad is one seventy three for three outside of the restricted area this season. That's now we talked a lot about how important that is as it pertains to his playoffs success.

Joe Embiad is not a great passer, so as teams packed the paint on him in his especially his face up ISOs in terms of backside help, it's more important than ever for him to be able to knock down those perimeter jump shots, especially when he gets into the postseason. And this is his best perimeter sho eating season, and

I'm really curious to see if that translates. So I'm very excited for this playoff run for Joel Embiid because if he shoots this well from the perimeter, they are going to be extremely difficult to beat, Like they are going to be every bit as talented and have a legit chance to beat Milwaukee, Boston, Miami, Cleveland, Brooklyn, anybody Phil He's got a chance if Joel embid is gonna

shoot that well. He's been the fourth best isolation player in the league this year to run at least a hundred possessions at one point one six points per possession. He's been the third best post player in the league to run at least a hundred postops at one point one eight points per possession, and he's been the fifth best roleman in the league to run at least one roman possessions at one point one five points per possession.

And then on the other end of the floor, he's completely anchoring the fourth best defense in the league, and if you really look close, they're playing batist thigh bowl a little bit more frequently. Now, he's a very good defensive player. Tobias Harris is underrated, but there's a lot of minutes being played by you know, Tyrese Maxie, who's having a better defensive season but still is not very good. James Harden better defensive season, is still not very good.

You know, Shake Milton's out. There's a lot of guys that are playing. George's neeting is another one. There's a lot of guys that are bought leeway on the defensive end of the floor because of what Joel emb Joel Embi does as a back line rim protector. He's our second team center all right, third team guard. Shake Gildas Alexander best combination of rim scoring and pull up shooting in the NBA. He's tent and pull up shooting percentage among players who take at least five pull up jump

shots per game. He's also twelve and restricted area makes per game at four point five that is the most among all the guards in the league, including John Morand. So he's finishing at the rim more frequently in the NBA games than John morant Is. That's how crazy is is a downhill threat. The only players that are ahead of him, the eleven players that are ahead of him and restricted area makes are all centers, guys who basically

function as centers, like Aaron Gordon. We've talked about how he basically functionally runs the center in their offense as like a dunker spot guy. And then the Aliens lebron Zion and Janice those are the only guys that are ahead of Shake Gils Alexander at the guard position in rim finishing for the season thirty five and six. On shooting, He's a solid defensive player with good length to bother shooters. He's a little fin that's his big weakness on defense

right now and for the season. The thunder are basically even when he plays, and then they lose big time in all the minutes when he's off the floor. Definitely been one of the top six cards in the league this year. Second guard for the third team All NBA.

This was my third and final super tough call. It's either gonna be Devin Booker or John Morant and it will probably be job by the end of the season because Devin Booker is dealing with this growing injuries, probably gonna miss at least another few weeks, maybe even more. But at this point in time, Jah has only played four more games. And I'd like to give book Or some love here because I don't think he's going to

get the love at the end of the season. So at this point, halfway through this season, let's take some time to appreciate Devin Booker. He I actually think he's been a better offensive engine when you actually factor it. Like I used to think the Sons had the most talented roster in the league after the Stars, but injuries have really piled up. Chris Paul has completely declined and he's no longer the same player that he was in

the playoffs before the Dallas Maverick series. Um Cam Johnson obviously huge loss in perimeter shooting at that forward position. Jay Crowder obviously with the trade request, has taken himself out of the lineup. In totality, the team's roster has lost a good amount of talent through injuries and age with Chris Paul, and despite that, the Sons have a one two offensive rating with Devin Booker on the floor and a one oh seven offensive rating when he's off

the floor. That's the same type of split we were seeing with Steph Curry. That's the type of impact he has on that Son's offense. I also think he has more variety. I think John can get a little repetitive with his high I so high pick and roll attack. Devin Booker is a lot more versatile and the spots in the where he can attack, he's a little more patient. I actually John Morant is a more productive passer in the way that his downhill presence creates tons of opportunities

and with his heliocentric style to rack up assists. But in terms of really high level reads, I think Devin Booker is pretty close to where John Morant is, and so I do think he gets nowhere near enough credit for what he does as a passer in this league. And then honestly, Devin Booker is just a much much better defensive player right now. It will eventually, like I said b Jaws spot as we get towards the end of the season and games played becomes a bigger factor.

But I want to show love to Booker here five and six for the season on fifty nine percent try shooting, eighteen and eleven are the Sons when Devin Booker plays just two and ten when he doesn't alright first forward position on the third team. Jalen Brown seven and three on fifty percent true shooting, very good pull up shooting season on six attempts per game. That's eighth in the league among players who take at least five per game.

To give you an idea, Jayson Tatum is making just thirty two percent of his pull up jump shots, so Jalen Brown is literally fourteen percent better on pull up

jump shots this year. In the Jayson Tatum He's also having an underrated playmaking season compared to what you'd expect from Jalen Brown inn pick and rolls this year, where Jalen Brown has passed out of it, the Celtics have scored ninety eight points, which is that overall is contributing to him in pick and roll to the tune of one point one points per possession, which is sixteenth in the league out of a hundred and twenty six players that have run at least one hundred pick and rolls.

So better pick and roll passing has led to him being one of the best pick and roll ball handlers in the league, and he's still a very good defensive player. It's a similar type of season to Jayson Tatum, like when he's locked in, he's very good, but he's just having too many nights where he mails it in. That's been an issue with the Celtics and their arrogance all season.

But he's the second best player on the best team in the league, absolutely deserving and of an All NBA selection to this point, Sorry, I've been dealing with allergies the last like four or five days. It's driving me and saying somebody somehow identified it and our Saturday morning video, but it's just been the sniffles in congestion NonStop, which has been so much fun with me trying to move

my entire life again. Alright. Second forward on the third team Zion Williamson seven and five on six century shooting eight point two restricted area makes per game, which is second in the league behind Just Nice. Having a very good passing season. Teams are really loading up in the paint when Zion is getting ready to ISO or post up um, and he's particularly doing a great job of

finding three point shooters in those sets. He's passed out of postops and ISOs a hundred and fifty seven times this year for a hundred and sixty two points, which is very good, up over a point per possession. And he's made significant improvements as a defensive playmaker. Now he's got a long way to go on a possession by possession basis and his ability to uphold a defensive scheme

by being reliable and always in the right spot. However, he's starting to make more defensive plays jumping into passing lanes, blocking shots at the rammer on the perimeter. Those are like impact momentum types plays. They are valuable. It's more valuable to be consistent on a possession by possession basis. That's why he's still a below average defensive player in totality, but those improvements as a playmaker are a good start and it goes to show you what he can be

capable of when he mixes those two aspects together. The Pelicans are seventeen and two when Zion plays, and there are seven points per one hund possessions better when he plays than when he's off the floor. Will be fun to see Zion Williams and make an All NBA team, which just needs to rest up this hamstring and get healthy alright. Center for third team ll NBA. Bam at a Bio had a rough shooting night against Broken last night. I think he was just five for fifteen from the field.

But he's having the best scoring season of his career. He's averaging a career high twenty one point four points per game on fift t shooting, shooting in the short midrange that's from ten to sixteen feet. Those are those little shots he's like I said in our breakdown of the heat the other day, he's always trying to get to the middle of the floor, regardless of which block

he's on or which elbow he's facing up from. But when he gets to the middle, he's so good shooting those fadeaway jumps shots over both shoulders extremely accurately, and that's turned him into a score in a way that he's never been in his career. This is the most important development with Bam two and sixteen points on Twitter

and twelve postops and ISOs. So when you ask Bam in a set defense environment in the half court, with no advantage to create his own shot for himself or for his teammates, he's getting over a point per possession. That's huge, and that's a vital contribution to an offense

that desperately needs someone to specifically provide that service. And then on the other end, he's still one of the better defensive anchors in the league because of his ability to protect the rim and help or pick and roll, and also his ability to switch out onto perimeter guards and wings, which he's one of the best bigs in

the league at that specific skill. Uh, the heat in general for the season are six points better per one Hunter possessions offensively when he's on versus when he's off, and three points better defensively when he's on versus when he's off. So that's a nine point swing in total value when Bam at a bios on versus when he's off, which is m VP level stuff. I think he's clearly the best center in the league that's not named Joel

Embiid or Nickela Yokis so in summation really quickly. First team guards Luca and Donovan Mitchell, first team forwards, Kevin Durant Janice, first team center, Nicola Yokich, Second team guards Steph Curry and Kyrie Irving. Second team forwards Jayson Tatum and Lebron Second team center Joel Embiad, Third team guards Shade gil Just Alexander and Devin Booker. It's like a third team forwards Jalen Brown and Zion Williamson. Third team center Bam at a Bio. These were the eight players

that did not make my cut. So these were players that were in consideration that did not make the list. At the guard Damian Lillard, John Morant, de Mar de Rose and Deer and Fox forwards Pascal Siakum, Laurie markin In and Jimmy Butler. And then the center, it was a toss up for me between a D and BAM. But AD has just missed too much time and BAM has been too good. I do think it has been better when he's been healthy. But a D has been the fourth best center in the league this year in

total contribution. Al Right, guys, that is all I have for today. We'll be back tomorrow with the other awards like MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie the Year Most Improved. Wednesday, we're gonna be doing like a power ranking style Tier of Contender tears uh Thursday instant reaction to net Celtics as of right now that that might

get canceled because of Kevin Durant. I'll let you guys know, and then later in the week we're gonna be doing our five biggest burning questions of the second half of the season. As always, I appreciate you guys support and I will see you tomorrow. Volume