There’s been lots of talk the past week on what it means to be the face of the NBA… this was of course started by LeBron James take on the matter. While my choice is not to aggregate crazy hot takes on the major stuff, there are plenty of platforms and personalities designed to do that, but I would say it did make me ponder the idea that we are still a very old-head type of league. Not that there aren’t young stars ready to move up to the upper echelons of becoming sports icons and stars, in example the face or faces of the new NBA; players like Anthony Edwards, Ja Morant, SGA, Luka, Wemby, Tatum… and even guys like Cade Cunningham and Chet or who knows, there is plenty of talent the next five to ten years to ultimately take the mantel. But it just feels like LeBron, KD, Steph, Harden and the rest of the old guard (even Westbrook is having a good year) are not ready to give up the limelight just yet and still remain the faces of the NBA for now and the near future. When will this dynamic change? I mean, we are seeing some of it this year (not with LeTimeless) but Steph and Harden are prime examples of being less than the sum of their past, but still major contributors to their teams, still showing flashes of their peak performances. Steph, of course, has been on fire since Butler arrived, KD just dominated an entire fourth quarter to get the Suns a 20-point comeback win against the Clippers. And of course we have the Clippers bouncing back last night against the Pistons with 50 points from James Harden.
The future is bright, but not quite here yet. In the meantime though, enjoy the greats while they’re still here, because I can tell you from my fandom starting in the mid-80’s, we ain’t never seen this class of NBA talent last this long in the league and still producing at a high level. Simply a treat and as you can see, get quite sentimental about it. It’s okay to have emotions!
And speaking of emotions… is Payton Pritchard even allowed to score more than 40? Both him and Derrick White set career highs in points, Pritchard with 43/10/5 and White with 41/3/2.
Ever since the Lakers beat the Nuggets, we’ve been seeing similar defensive sets against Nikola Jokic. If you haven’t been watching (it happens this time of year, I know!), the Lakers, and now other teams have basically sent two-three guys at him in varying ways with physicality and contact… pretty much what you’d see against Shaq back in the day, and it’s shown up now in his FGA dip. There’s also been some rumblings that Jokic may be nursing an injury, but let’s be honest, everyone is nursing something at this point in the year. I’m nursing my ulcer, just as an example… just Clippers things.
And it might be recency bias by mentioning Russell Westbrook above, he did just go 25/5/3/2/2… As for the SGA check-in, he went 41/2/8 on 14/25 FG against the Grizzlies, which brings him to 34.8/5.1/7.1 with 1.5 steals and 1.1 blocks since the All-Star break.
Oh, and quick LeLuka check-in, he’s doing just fine now, checking out of last nights game with 30 points, 8 rebounds, 15 assists, 1 steal and 1 block, good for a +37. Mavericks on the other hand, continue their depression tour, allowing a combined 66 points, 18 rebounds and 9 assists against 26 minutes of Giannis and Dame. Mavs also only have three bench players currently. Crazy to think where this franchise was nine months ago… definitely a “Hello Darkness, my old friend” type of scenario.
Jay is a longtime Razzball everything who consumes an egregious amount of Makers Mark as a vehicle to gain wisdom and augment his natural glow. Living in the D.C. area, he also likes spending time visiting the local parks and feeding lettuce to any turtles he encounters, including Mitch McConnell.
