Opinion
There’s a changing of the guard happening at a rapid rate in the NBA this season.
The young stars are taking over. Correction, the young stars have taken over.
Jayson Tatum, Ja Morant, Zion Williamson, Devin Booker, Trae Young and Donovan Mitchell have joined Giannis Antetekounmpo, Luka Doncic, Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic as the players who will be the MVP contenders this year and for the foreseeable future.
Older stars like LeBron James and Chris Paul are no longer exerting their dominance, Kevin Durant is doing his best to drag a ramshackle Brooklyn team to respectability while James Harden, Russell Westbrook and Kyrie Irving are for the most part living off their reputation rather than their on-court deeds this season.
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Portland guard Damian Lillard has again been restricted by injuries while Kawhi Leonard sightings are becoming rarer by the DNP-Rest day while his LA Clippers comrade Paul George’s at the tail end of his career prime.
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
It’s no surprise that Tatum’s Celtics (18-4) have the best record in the league given his red-hot form of 31.6 pints, 7.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists.
Despite Anthony Davis showing glimpses of his prime years of a few seasons ago, LeBron’s simply no longer able to drag a mediocre team into the playoffs on his own and the Lakers are two elite players and filler on the rest of their roster.
At 8-12, they’re definitely not a lost cause but unless they can trade Westbrook for a decent haul, they’ll be play-in fodder.
The team that is the wildcard in this cross-generational transition period is the reigning champion Golden State Warriors.
Steph Curry celebrates a three-pointer. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Steph Curry is nudging his career-best season average of 32 in 2020-21 whit his 31.4 clip this season to be in the MVP debate yet again.
He’s notching a career-best seven rebounds per game (which probably says more about his Warriors teammates) and his second-best assists rate (seven per game) but Golden State are smack bang in the middle of the road at 11-11.
Klay Thompson is entering the final phase of his career while Draymond Green is also showing signs of decline.
Simmons injury nothing to worry about: The bad news is Ben Simmons is out with injury but the good news is this time he should only miss a few games, not an entire season. Simmons tweaked a calf strain earlier this week against Orlando, just when he was starting to get somewhere near his former All-NBA form. Nets coach Jacque Vaughn is confident he will be back next week.
Jock’s a better bet than Bismack: Phoenix coach Monty Williams has scaled back Boomers centre Jock Landale’s game time the past couple of weeks to give Bismack Biyombo more burn. That ain’t the answer. Biyombo has promised a lot and delivered little in his stints at Charlotte, Toronto and Orlando.
Give the young fella a run, Monty. It’s hard to say the coach’s methods overall aren’t working, irrespective of who’s his back-up centre. Phoenix have set aside all the craziness from last season’s epic playoff failure and disgraced owner Robert Sarver to be 15-6 and in top spot in the West again.
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(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Daniels making most of opportunities: Rookie Aussie guard Dyson Daniels is having to scrap for every minute of court time in New Orleans despite being the No.8 selection in the draft.
With the Pelicans getting the jump early on Toronto in a blowout win on Thursday and with CJ McCollum (rest), Brandon Ingram (toe) and Naji Marshall (illness) out and Herb Jones limping off with an ankle injury, Daniels got 31 minutes, his most for his debut season. And he didn’t disappoint, hitting six of nine shots on the way to 14 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.
Surely Ime Udoka has coached his last game at Boston: With the Celtics well out in front at 18-4, any concerns about coach Ime Udoka’s season-long suspension and being replaced by unheralded rookie Joe Mazzulla have been put to bed. It will be interesting to see, legally, what the Celtics can do because Udoka will probably expect to return to his former role next year unless he can find another gig elsewhere.
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