welcome to NBA Star Power Index: A weekly gauge of the most talked about players in the league. Inclusion in this list is not necessarily a good thing. NBA world attention. This is also not a ranking. Players listed are in no particular order. This column will appear weekly throughout the regular season.
If this isn’t Russell Westbrook’s rock bottom, how much worse could this be? He opened the season with a 28% shooting percentage. He’s 3-12 and 1-1. After an effective opening his night, he’s 26 for 4 in his last two games. clippers He then said he played “solid” because he tried as hard as he could.
BREAKING: The NBA is not about trying. It’s about producing.
Each glass cleaning lakers Playing without Westbrook, LeBron James and Anthony Davis lead their opponents by 13.2 points per 100 possessions, but with Russ added to the mix they lose 7.1 points per 100 possessions. The Lakers net he’s swinging the ratings the wrong way by over 20 points.
You can create all the small sample rationales you need. This is it, and it’s been this way for a long time. Westbrook is no longer a good NBA player.In this particular Lakers situation, he’s even worse. Happy about that. That’s what it is. The Lakers like their $47 million players to wear plain clothes. Like it or not, this is the biggest story in basketball right now. What, if anything, is Rob Pelinka going to do about this mess he created?
Ja Morant Grizzlies 3-1, the best player in the league so far. He leads the league with over 35 points per game he has. He went 49 against Houston. And get this: Morant has shot 3 to 60 percent so far, and we’re not talking about the low volume, he’s the best out of his four games in Memphis. In three games he attempted six of his threes. He’s 20 to 12 overall. If Morant shoots 3 where he’s past 37%, he’ll be a frontrunner for MVP as long as he’s healthy.
Damian Lillard was named Western Conference Player of the Week after averaging 34-5-3 in Portland’s first three games. In his final five minutes of the win against the Lakers, Lillard returned to Clutchway and scored his 12 of Portland’s 18 points. The next night, Lillard multiplied his 31. nugget Still, it was nice to force-feed a red-hot Anphanie Simmons in the third quarter as Portland pulled off a four-game winning streak to start the season. and energy. Portland couldn’t have gotten off to a better start.
Jayson Tatum averaged 34 points, 8.3 rebounds and 3 assists in Boston’s 3-0 start and was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week. He multiplied his 35 on opening night in Philadelphia, and on opening night he multiplied by 40. magicTatum values pace and grabs rebounds to run. His shot completion percentage is 55% overall, and his 63.0 effective field goal percentage is tops among all forwards, according to Cleaning the Glass.
Most promising numbers to date: At least seven free-throw attempts per game, averaging eight free-throw attempts per night, up from 6.2 last season. Tatum still doesn’t ride downhill as well as Jaylen Brown, but according to CTG, he finishes within 4 feet of him in 76% of his clips, in what is considered a high frequency of his career. Emphasis on attacking the rim.
James Harden scored 66 points in his first two games. He averaged just under 27 points and 10 assists with his 48-37-95 shooting his split, but with the Sixers he’s only converted to a 1-3 record. A lot of that is down to Joel Embiid. But there are things to consider. Is it best for the Sixers to become an offense that relies too heavily on Harden?
Harden averaged 88.5 touches per game last season after being traded to Philly. This season, that number has reached almost 98. He is averaging 9.3 seconds in control of the ball per possession he has, up from his 8.7 seconds last season. It’s hard to argue against running offense as often as Harden plays when he’s playing this well, but he’s alienating Tobias Harris and PJ Tucker and potentially incapacitating Tyrese Maxie. there is a risk of becoming at his downhill speed.
Despite his continued effortless defense, this start is great for the offensive Harden. Not so much for the Sixers as a whole. See how or if this dynamic changes when Embiid returns to dominance at night.
Paolo Banchero’s 27 points against Detroit was the most points scored in his NBA debut by a No. 1 overall pick since Allen Iverson’s 30 points in 1996. Decades away from his 25-5-5 NBA debut, following in the footsteps of LeBron James and Grant Hill.
Banchero followed suit with 20 points against Atlanta, 23 against Boston and 21 against New York, making him the first rookie since Grant Hill to score 20 or more points in his first four games. This guy is an offensive player as sophisticated as you’ll find at age 19. Orlando is an effective point guard on offense. he’s 6ft 10. Franz Wagner Shark. Magic is definitely fun.
Banchero also reaches the free throw line like a seasoned veteran. His 9.3 charity attempts put him third overall in the league, alongside Kevin Durant. At his size, his ball skills are too much to deal with. Again, a great deal of sophistication from such a young player.
Once you understand all the layers of this situation and how long he’s been on the shelf, the indisputable facts remain. Ben Simmons is a complete shell of what he used to be, Net I hoped he would. His defense should be his calling card on this team. Brooklyn has the worst defense in the league by a good margin.
Simmons, meanwhile, is averaging six points or less per night and has fouled in two of his three games. Brooklyn’s starting five saw him trail by 25 points in 37 minutes and record an abysmal 95.7 offensive rating for him. This could be directly related to playing Simmons alongside another non-shooter named Nick Claxton.
Even with a swarm of other shooters Brooklyn could deploy, the spacing wouldn’t survive with these two on the court together. But where’s Brooklyn’s rim protection and rebounding? Understanding how to deal with pacing clamps is always difficult. But when he’s not doing any of those things, it becomes nearly impossible.
Devin Booker definitely did or said something to sarcasm Klay Thompson, who was ejected for the first time in his career on Tuesday in Phoenix’s victory over Golden State.
Booker isn’t too worried about dust. He then said he was just paying homage to Thompson, reminding everyone that when he came out of Kentucky, it was Klay Thompson that he wanted to model for his game.
So far, Booker has done a very good Thompson impression of 3 to 48 percent. WarriorsBooker became the first player in sands He has scored 30-plus points in three of the team’s first four games, averaging 32.5 points per night early on.
