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Lions Height: NBA mid-season titles, including chin takeover of MVP parade
After years of decline, the chin position provides the top two candidates for the MVP who also leave LeBron behind and leave the entire league looking for solutions.
Ravitz concludes the half of the NBA season with a parade of the top ten and one unsurprising team that took over almost all the other titles
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Nikola Jukic
Joel Ambide
LeBron James
Kevin Snyder
Julius Randall
Assaf Ravitz
Saturday, February 27, 2021, 12:00 p.m.
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He's inside, too, barely.
Harden (Photo: GettyImages, Christian Petersen)
Every year re-surprises how fast we get to the middle of the regular season in the NBA, so probably in a shortened season.
The upcoming All-Star break also marks a midpoint this year, with some teams indeed approaching 36 games out of 72 and others having to complete games.
It’s time for mid-season totals, with an emphasis on the most exciting MVP race in many years.
The improvement in medicine allows players to stay close to the peak both deep into the fourth decade of their lives and even after serious injuries, leading to five of the six title winners in the last nine years being in the midst of a great season alongside some young immigrants.
I'm not sure you can recreate ten players with such an impressive season as ten mid-season standouts.
In the rest of the degrees there is a dominance of one group not particularly surprising.
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Everything except MVP becomes a disappointment.
Doncic (Photo: GettyImages, Tom Pennington)
10. James Harden (Brooklyn)
The biggest surprise following the trade that could change the face of the league is the speed with which Harden has adapted to the new situation and taken on a new role.
At Brooklyn Harden is first and foremost a coordinator, who takes far fewer shots than usual and utilizes his rare abilities to run teammates.
A lot of situations that used to end in a difficult shot end this year in a last minute delivery to a player whose guard has already prepared for the shot, Harden keeps reading the pitch and thinking right until the last minute of the move.
Accordingly, most of the shots he does take are good, which bounces his percentage to 49.2 from the field and 42.2 from three, both career highs.
9. Kevin Durant (Brooklyn)
If Durant had played more than 19 games he would have been ranked much higher.
The good news for the Nets is that KD looks like KD, like the player before the Achilles tendon rupture, his numbers in Brooklyn are even more impressive than those of Golden State.
While Harden is the center and Kyrie Irving is the scorer guard, Durant is the player who knows how to create points without touching the ball much, thanks to coming out of blockages and quick and deadly moves.
He is also expected to be the most important defensive solution to most of the threats in the East, and the ability to take on less on offense will help him focus on neutralizing rival stars.
Durant has demonstrated the ability to adapt to very different teams, and seems to have no problem finding his place in the Hunts' trio as well.
8. Luka Doncic (Dallas)
After one of the greatest rookie and sophomore seasons in history, anything but a true MVP campaign in which he leads Dallas to the top tier was considered a disappointment for Luca.
So this half season is kind of a disappointment.
Doncic did not reach the season at the height of his physical abilities, occasionally he looked rusty and for the first time he looked nervous and expressed displeasure with the team around him.
In the disappointing half of the season Luca provided 28.5 points, 8.4 rebounds, 9 assists, a few games of more than 40 points and a few big money-time moments, including a fresh winning basket.
This is currently his minimum, and what's scary is that he definitely seems to have another step or two to climb, maybe even this year.
phenomenon.
Lillard (Photo: Reuters)
7. Damien Lillard (Portland)
It's starting to get tough to filter, and it's pretty amazing that two of the remaining seven players will have to stay out of the big five.
Lillard once again had to carry an injured team, this time he lost for extended periods his two sub-stars - CJ McCollum (who opened the season wonderfully until he was injured) and Yusuf Norkic.
The assisting team is deeper this year, although the much-anticipated upgrade in defense refuses to come.
Lillard has brought to new heights the ability to rise in money time, allowing him to lead Portland to sixth place in the West even though three teams ranked lower have a higher net rating (and two more very close).
Time is one of the most spectacular events of the first half of the season.
6. Yannis Antocompo (Milwaukee)
The MVP in the last two years has not faded significantly, his numbers are almost identical to those two years, but Milwaukee is less impressive in the regular season and that is enough to keep him out of my top five.
While the Bucks' offense, quite quietly, is close to Brooklyn at the top, the rest of the league seems to have figured out how to deal with Mike Bodenholzer's defense, how to take advantage of its shortcomings, which this year are even more pronounced due to less impressive defensive staff.
Yannis was the MVP thanks to his dominance on both sides, this year he does not affect Milwaukee's defensive game in the same way.
5. Kwai Leonard (The Clippers)
The breakup against Denver in the bubble allows the Clippers to conduct themselves quietly and with very few expectations during the season, to develop and accumulate victories on the way to the second balance in the league.
The group looks like its star: not shiny but very efficient and devoid of obvious drawbacks.
Kwai comes to work almost every night, scoring 26.9 points on 51.2 percent from the field, 39.2 percent from three and 87.6 percent from penalties, handing out 5 assists, an excellent guard and generally a winner.
A machine that only becomes more efficient with each passing year.
Turns out he's still at his peak.
Kerry (Photo: AP, Jeff Chiu)
4. Steph Kerry (Golden State)
He is back!
We did not know what to expect after a season in which Steph hardly played and in a team much less good than he is used to, but very quickly it turned out that he is still at his peak.
Kerry joins the list of players whose numbers are not very different from their MVP seasons, with the only difference being that there are slightly more days in which he does not hit.
He scores almost 30 points on 48 percent from the field, 41.5 percent from three (less than usual) and 94.1 percent from penalties, he had 62 and 57 points this year, he is improving his ability to get closer range points and he is still the scariest player For defenses in the league as he moves without a ball.
After a period of acclimatization, Steve Kerr finds the right crews and Golden State gets better as the season progresses.
3. LeBron James (The Lakers)
King James' 36-year-old MVP campaign has been hit in the past two weeks, with the Lakers starting to struggle to win without Anthony Davis.
But this period only slightly diminishes the admiration for this natural phenomenon.
LeBron somehow finds ways to get better in his 18th season in the league as well, this time as a player who works better than ever without the ball, letting Davis and Dennis Schroeder take the reins and using them to create comfortable shot and penetration situations.
Of course, this happens alongside the usual dominance whenever he really feels like it, the feeling that he is always the smartest player on the floor and the defensive work that has characterized him in the regular season for the past two years.
He can still win the title, but he will not exhaust himself for it.
Finds new ways to get better.
LeBron (Photo: AP)
2. Joel Ambide (Philadelphia)
After years of waning in the importance of this position, right now the fight for the MVP is first and foremost between two chins.
Ambide is the league’s top post monster, and this year he added to that an improvement in shooting from all ranges, extorting offenses at a historic pace and upgrading his fitness to become a scorer who has no logical way to stop.
29.6 points on 51.6 percent from the field, 40.5 percent from the three and 85.8 percent on penalties on 11.7 shots are all career highs.
While his defense is a bit overrated in my opinion, he is still one of the most important defensive chins in the league and plays an important part in the Sixers' defense being ranked in the top 5 in the league.
A group that wants to cross the East must have a solution for Ambide.
The promise is finally fulfilled.
Ambide (Photo: GettyImages)
1. Nikola Jukic (Denver)
It is strange to choose an MVP from a team that is ranked eighth in the West, but the differences starting from fifth place are minimal.
Denver again suffers from many absences that make it difficult for it to maintain stability, but in its good old days it looks no less frightening than any team in the league.
Jukic is the most important player in the first half of the season despite his team’s balance sheet because his impact on the game is the biggest.
He has become the dominant attacking player in the league, a central axis around which everything is built.
His ability to do everything makes him an unstoppable player this year: he is the best moral chin in history, a perfect post player, a perfect pick n 'roll player and an excellent outside scorer.
His stat line is marvelous: 26.9 points on 56 percent from the field, 41.9 percent from three and 87.7 percent from penalties, 10.9 rebounds, 8.4 assists on 3.3 turnovers and even 1.7 steals.
But even this line does not convey the dominance and brilliance of this one-time player.
A group that wants to succeed in the West must have a solution for Yukic.
Disposable shine.
Yukic (Photo: AP)
The rest of the degrees
Coach: Kevin Snyder (Utah)
The easiest choice of all midfielders is for the coach of the team that made a hostile takeover of the regular season.
Utah plays basketball that borders on perfection, with teamwork and coordination at the highest level.
Snyder believes in the cumulative advantage approach and this year his team implements ideally: every pass and every penetration is purposeful, builds the next move, every player knows how to take advantage of a small advantage and increase it a little more until you get a good shot, no one sticks the attack And committed to it.
Snyder is reaping the fruits of years of work and something unusual will have to happen to take away that title this year.
Without him, there might have been an intriguing fight between Greg Popovich, who is quietly building another interesting team in San Antonio, and Tom Thibodeau, who somehow made the Knicks a senior defensive team.
Defensive Player: Rudy Gover (Utah)
Until his injury, Anthony Davis was a leading contender for that title.
The Lakers defense is ranked first in the league thanks to team work, but Davis is its central axis.
Miles Turner also has a case in season with 3.4 blocks per game and a sense that he is everywhere in the point zone.
But Gover is the defensive anchor of the second defensive team in the league.
His familiar presence in color allows outside players to press opponents and avoid help in pick n 'roll.
He has improved his handling of outside shots (but will have to prove it in the playoffs as well) and other than the intended MVP no one gets along with him.
The undisputed candidate.
Kevin Snyder (Photo: GettyImages, Ronald Cortes)
Sixth Actor: Jordan Clarkson (Utah)
Okay, the trend is clear.
Jazz has no player among the top ten, but it is a trained team, with great defense and also with a quality bench.
Joe Ingles and Derrick Favors provide quality and playing wisdom every night, but the main performer on the bench is Clarkson.
The scorer who came from Cleveland in the middle of last season fitted in great and only upgrades as time goes on, he takes part in the great team game and knows how to create shot situations and score hard shots in the few cases where the offense gets stuck.
Clarkson leads the league substitutes with 18.1 points per game, including 3.2 threes per game at 37.5 percent.
There are a few other nominees for the title, but this year Clarkson is best performing the role of the classic sixth player: the scorer who comes off the bench and can change games on his own.
Also noteworthy: Chris Bushay, Shake Milton, Patty Mills, Montreux Harle and who will star in the next paragraph.
Rookie: Tyrese Haliberton (Sacramento)
This is a duel between two very impressive players, which seems to last throughout the season.
Lamelo Ball settles for second place because it took him a little over a month to get into things, but in the last 14 games he has provided 20 points per game in not bad percentages, 6.2 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 1.9 steals.
Lamello looks like a player that the game comes to him very easily, he reads moves at the highest level and has the tools to do whatever he wants.
Haliberton, on the other hand, opened his strongest and then stepped up.
He plays with the maturity of a veteran player and provides Sacramento with one of the most effective statistics in the league: 13.2 points on 49.4 percent from the field, 2.4 threes on 43.3 percent, 5.4 assists on 1.5 turnovers.
From the moment the season opens we wait for the creative guard that Sacramento chose in 12th place to go down to the ground, that his adventurous style will lead to losses, that his weird shot will stop coming in, but that does not happen.
The Kings finally have a bull hit in the draft.
Also noteworthy: Emanuel Quickley, James Weissman, Sadiq Bay.
Everyone is waiting for the fall, but she just does not come.
Haliburton (Photo: GettyImages, Michael Reaves)
The improving player: Julius Randall (The Knicks)
A Knicks player is a candidate to win a personal title?
When did this last happen?
The Knicks' favorite season is mostly based on defense, while most of the time Randall is the team's entire offense.
A talented player whose disadvantages far outweigh the advantages Randall has become an All-Star leading a team to the playoffs with his own hands.
He serves as a point forward and delivers career highs on points (23.2), threes (1.9), threes (41.6, a 14 percent jump from last season), penalties (80.8), rebounds (11) and assists (5.5).
He will have a not-so-easy fight from Zack Lavine, another unexpected All-Star with a huge improvement in shooting percentages from any range, and also Metri Roger who thrives alongside the many ball-carriers in Charlotte, but Randall’s reversal makes the least sense.
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