Andrew Schlecht and Alex Speers discuss the week of NBA Basketball, Who was SNUBBED from the All Star Game, 6th Man of the Year Odds, a surprise team update, the best and worst lineups, and much more. Then they are joined by Jay King of the Athletic to discuss the Boston Celtics and if they are close to overcoming their slump, how good Tatum has been, and what’s up with Jaylen Brown’s shooting. Then the boys play a fun edition of Andrew vs. the Beat, a trivia game where Andrew is pitted against a beat writer.Host: Andrew Schlecht and Alex SpeersWith: Jay KingExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio/Video Editor: Jake Kleinberg Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What are the biggest All-Star snubs this week?
Andrew, the top story this week is I'm sick, so if my voice sounds weird, I apologize. The top story in the NBA this week was the announcement of the All-Star Reserves. In the East, we got Jalen Brown, Pascal Siakam, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, Kate Cunningham, Damian Lillard, and Tyler Hero.
Now, that is three All-Stars for the Cleveland Cavaliers, which is the fourth time in franchise history that they've had three All-Stars in the same season. Now, in the West, we've got Anthony Edwards, Anthony Davis, James Harden, Jaron Jackson Jr., Alperin Shingun, and Jalen Williams, a.k.a. J-Dub.
This is James Harden's first All-Star appearance since 2022, his 11th overall, which ties him with Steph Curry for fourth most among active players. Wow. of the All-Star Reserves always brings with it cries of snubbery. And this year was no different.
One of the biggest snubs was King center Damanis Sabonis, who is averaging 21 points per game with 14 and a half rebounds and six and a half assists. He's been a big part of Sacramento's turnaround this season, bringing them back from the depths of despair and firmly into the play and race.
Unfortunately, anytime something good happens to the Kings, anytime there's a whiff of good vibes, the universe must unleash all hell on Kings fans. And this week that came in the form of a report from multiple reporters saying that the Kings were listening to trade offers for guard De'Aaron Fox.
Now, Fox has been with the Kings since he was drafted in 2017, made an all-star game in 2023, helped the Kings break their 16-year playoff drought. Fox has made it known that he wants to go to San Antonio to play with Victor Weminyama. But our own Sam Amick reported that the Kings have heard from over half the teams in the league about Fox's availability.
Now, another popular all-star snub was Trey Young, who was averaging close to 23 points per game, to go along with a league-leading 11.4 assists per game. Now, the Hawks were having a nice season, Andrew. They peaked at around 22-19. They were the sixth seed just a couple weeks ago. Similar to the Kings, however, there's more drama in Atlanta than just a snub.
Since hitting that 22-19 mark, the Hawks have lost seven in a row, tumbling down to the ninth spot in the East. And to make matters worse, it was announced this week that Hawks forward Jalen Johnson has a torn labrum in his shoulder. He's going to miss the rest of the season.
Johnson was having an awesome season, averaging close to 19-10-5, and was one of only six players in the league to average at least one three, one steal, and one block per game. Can you name the other five, listener? I will give you until the end of this sentence. Again, that is one steal, one block, and one three per game. The other five are...
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Chapter 2: Which teams are on a winning streak right now?
Brutal. From that, let's go to our BetMGM line of the week, Al. Brought to you by BetMGM. And this week, I want to talk about the six main of the year race here, which is... Looks like Peyton Pritchard has this like going away. He's a minus 165 to DeAndre Hunter, who's second, who's a plus 240. And then Amin Thompson's plus 700. Then on down to the winner of last year's Nas Reed plus 1200.
And Peyton Pritchard has been awesome this year. I think we don't really talk much about it with Jay King later, but his season has been amazing. He's averaging 14 points per game, 3.6 rebounds, three and a half assists per game, shooting 41% on seven and a half attempts per game.
Peyton Pritchard, who is probably a guy that people just thought of as probably a third-point guard, has become one of the better players in the league. He's averaging more points per game than Jared Allen, Klay Thompson, Nas Reed, Amin Thompson, Russell Westbrook. I mean, players that are getting a ton of shine this year.
And Peyton Pritchard, while he is leading in the six-man-of-the-year vote here, it is interesting. I just don't hear a lot about him. He's had a spectacular season. He's really grown as a player. And a guy that, like... asked out of Boston not that long ago, you know, has really turned things around with his team and has had a great season.
So I just wanted to kind of highlight Peyton Pritchard here.
Yeah, I was surprised, Andrew, that you didn't bring up that Bradley Beal is on this list at a plus 10,000. Why did you not mention that? Do you want that? You want those odds for Bradley Beal? No, I mean, I think the only other interesting one is Amin Thompson, just because you can feel a momentum building with just people talking about him in general.
And I think there will be a desire to reward that in some way. Yeah. You know...
i don't we both don't really like most improved player for a second year yeah um so this might be the one although he's starting but he's not he's gonna start though he has to start the rest of the season you know that's the thing like he's played he's played 44 games he started 17 so he's already close to like tipping those scales towards starter minutes so
They cannot start Jabari when he comes back. They just cannot do it. They've got to bring him off the bench. To me, he's the number one prospect on the team to develop. You have these other guys... that are already really good on the team, including Jalen green.
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Chapter 3: How are the Boston Celtics performing this season?
I think looking back, the fact that neither of us took Franz Wagner, who he didn't make the All-Star game, but if he had been healthy, obviously would have made the All-Star game. Yeah, no question. That was bad on us. I don't think I would have ever guessed Tyler Hero. I mean, that final spot where I took Kobe White, that would have been a great place to take Tyler Hero.
I wasn't even thinking of Tyler Hero, to be honest with you. And then Evan Mobley, that would have made sense. I think we were a little let down by Evan Mobley last year. It scared us off, but that would have been a good pick as well.
Also, I just don't think we thought that the Cavs were going to get multiple All-Stars either. True. And if it was, it was probably not going to be him. We probably thought it was just going to be Mitchell.
Yeah, for sure. Another update, a surprise team update. Now, Andrew, a few weeks ago, I got a DM from a listener named Zach McCartney. Now, Zach has created a surprise team tracker. Shout out.
surprise team tracker website now if you're watching on youtube i'm going to bring this up on the screen so you can check it out so if you're a new listener before every season we try to predict who the surprise team will be and what that means is that it's a team with an over under below 36 who wins at least 10 more games than their over under and zach has built a beautiful website where at any moment during the season cool
you can go and see what each team's status is. So, for instance, right now, the only team that is currently on pace to be a surprise team is the Detroit Pistons, who are five games ahead of the pace needed. They're plus five, meaning they're currently on pace to win 15 more games than they're over under. Now, Andrew, your selection, the Atlanta Hawks, they are currently nine wins off the pace.
God, this last stretch just killed it.
Just killed it.
It did.
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Chapter 4: What are the best and worst lineups in the NBA?
Hey, Andrew, I just got a stat texted to me live, Andrew. Seriously? Okay, let's hear it. Who would you guess in the month of January, minimum 30 attempts, who has the top pull-up three-point field goal percentage?
Oh, wow.
Obviously, it's going to be someone crazy. Yeah, it's got to be somebody strange. It's got to be somebody strange. I don't know. Kyrie Irving? Shout out to Blake who sent this to me. It is none other than Scoot Henderson, 51.5% in the month of January.
Isn't that wow? That seems cool and completely unsustainable. We'll see, Andrew. It's not March. January is a real month, okay? So you have to accept it. That's true. That's true. It's not March. Yeah, I would definitely not believe it if this was March.
Okay. Favorite player. Now, my favorite player this week. Another all-star snub, perhaps, depending on your opinion. Tyrese Maxey of the Philadelphia 76ers. Now, it's been a rough year for the Sixers and Maxey somewhat, who has struggled at times to carry the load for the Sixers team.
He is averaging a career-high 27.1 points per game, but his three-point shooting, which has kind of been his calling card, down under 34% on the season. Yeah. But... He's steadily been getting better this season and is currently on an absolute heater. This week, in four games, Maxie averaged 33 points per game, shooting 53% from the field.
This was all part of a four-game winning streak for the Sixers. They saw them pick up some legitimately big wins. including their biggest win of the season, three-point win over the Cavs. In a game against the Lakers, Maxie had 43 points, two off his season high. Now, he's been asked to do a ton this season.
If you just look at his usage over the last four seasons, it's jumped from 20 to 23 to 27 to now 30%. And if you take out garbage time, that usage goes up even higher to 32%. And it felt like that was a little too much for him early in the season, but it's starting to feel like he's getting more comfortable in that role. He's been great in January.
You know, it's been a mostly miserable season for anyone associated with this team, but there finally does seem to be like something for Sixers fans to cheer about. They still haven't passed the bulls. However, they are like tied with them in the standing. So I expect that the Sixers will move into that 10th spot sooner rather than later. Um,
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Chapter 5: What is the latest on the NBA trade deadline?
Question number four. Sam Houser takes 85.5% of his shots from three. Among players who have played at least 25 games, only three players in the NBA have taken a larger percentage of their shots from three. How many can you name? You get one point per correct answer. You could get three points here. Wow.
Am I allowed to look at the standing, like pull up my phone and look at the standing so I can see the teams just to remind me of which teams are out there? Who plays in the NBA? Who is in the NBA? I promise I'm not cheating right now other than looking at the standing. I just need to see which team plays in the NBA. To remind me of, so, okay. I'm looking at Boston.
No, there's no other player on Boston who does that. New York, I'm going to say no. Philly, no. Toronto, no. Brooklyn, probably not. Cleveland? Let's go all 30, baby. I'm going to go with Merrill. That is correct for one million. Wow, your strategy is working. We got Merrill. Milwaukee. A.J. Green might be a possibility, but that's not an answer yet. Okay. I'm going to go to Indiana. Indiana.
Indiana, probably not. Detroit, no. Chicago, they get them up. They really get them up, but I don't know. They're trying to. They have anybody. Miami, Duncan Robbins. Duncan Robbins has added some twos to his game lately, so I'm going to say no there. Orlando, this is... All right, let me look at the West. I don't think anyone else in the East, other than maybe A.J. Green, is on this list.
So you got one possible name? Lakers? No. Clippers? Probably not. Phoenix? Phoenix could have, like, some random bum who does that. Like, just a role player next to KD and Booker. Damn it! Okay. Okay.
You want this so bad. I do.
Has Klay Thompson morphed so much that he's there too? Have his twos gone down? Probably not. He's got more to his game than that. San Antonio, no. New Orleans, probably not. Okay, see, this is hard. I'm going to go with A.J. Green. That is correct for another point.
Wow. Jay, one more. You're doing great. You're making this long answer worth it.
I need to find the other one.
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Chapter 6: Who should be considered for the Most Improved Player?
Number one. Okay, this is a very special question because this is the first ever Slam & Jam listener-submitted question. This question comes from listener Nicholas Boonstra, who emailed me this question. Jason Tatum, averaging a career-high nine rebounds per game. Who was the last Celtic to average double-digit rebounds in a season?
And as a bonus, you can get a bonus point if you can name the season that they did it. Oh, my gosh.
Okay. Double-digit rebounds in a season. Yes, who was the last Celtic to average double-digit rebounds in a season? Oh, my gosh. This makes me think it's got to be a long time ago then.
Because maybe you don't know Nicholas's game. Maybe he's, he's fooling you. Maybe it was very recent.
I know. I know. Cause my mind goes to one guy, but I don't, I don't know if he played enough. I'm going to go time Lord, but I feel like that's wrong.
Andrew, that is incorrect, which means Jay, you can steal.
So I, I've been covering the team since 2012, 2013 and, I don't know if anybody that I've covered has ever averaged double-digit rebounds.
I just had another name pop in my head that I will guess if Jay doesn't guess them.
Al Horford probably hasn't. He's never been a super high rebound total guy. Yeah. These are going to be long answers for me because I've got to properly do this. I've got to beat the cheat is what I have to do. Beat the cheat.
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Chapter 7: What are the potential playoff implications for the Clippers?
Yeah, you would think in that first season. Yeah, he averaged 9.2 in the first season in Boston.
9.2 in the first season. Wow. So close.
Okay, Jay, the board is yours.
I'm going to go five.
Question number five. Jason Tatum is averaging nearly 27 points, nine rebounds, and five and a half assists per game among active players who has had the most 27, nine, and five seasons in their career where they averaged at least those marks. 27, nine, and five. Active player.
So the obvious answer is LeBron, but I feel like nine might have been like a little too high there. Yeah. Like he was always like 27, eight and eight. Right. Yeah. It could be. But who else would average numbers like that? Nobody. Maybe Russ. Russ or LeBron? I have to lean LeBron. I know this is going to be wrong, but maybe it's right, but also it's probably wrong.
Okay, so that's your final answer. LeBron is my answer.
That is incorrect. Andrew, you have a chance to steal.
I knew it. He never got to nine. He didn't get to nine enough.
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