Trade discussions are starting to pick up steam in the NBA as the trade deadline approaches on February 8 at 3 p.m. ET.
The Miami Heat executed a major trade on Tuesday, sending guard Terry Rozier to the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for Kyle Lowry and a protected 2027 first-round selection, with just over two weeks until the trade deadline.
The Indiana Pacers completed a significant acquisition of Pascal Siakam just last week in an attempt to surge ahead of their rivals in the Eastern Conference. Siakam will play with MVP candidate Tyrese Haliburton.
Will anything have an impact? Can Miami and Indiana catch up to the NBA’s elite teams with the help of these deals? Or will the Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Boston Celtics keep winning all three of their respective conferences?
This week’s standings for all 30 teams are shown here.
Note: Our panel (Kendra Andrews, Tim Bontemps, Jamal Collier, Andrew Lopez, Tim MacMahon, Dave McMenamin, and Ohm Youngmisuk) will rank all 30 teams from best to worst during the regular season in order to determine which clubs are playing the best basketball and which teams are most likely to contend for the championship.
It is almost a given that Jayson Tatum will be introduced on Thursday night as one of the three Eastern Conference frontcourt starters for the All-Star Game the following month. Tatum is more than worthy of the award, despite the fact that his numbers have decreased from the previous season. He is averaging 27-8-4 for a Celtics club that is among the top five in both offence and defence, and he has participated in nearly every game.
While Jamal Murray has improved his play in January, Nikola Jokic is still putting up MVP-caliber statistics. Murray is averaging 24 points and 7.1 assists while shooting 49.2% from the field in three games this month where he has scored 30 or more points. Murray is vying for his first All-Star selection. Murray faces tough competition at guard to make the Western Conference All-Star squad, but the coaches’ decision-making process will be made even more difficult if he continues to have scoring explosions like the 35 points he had in a victory over Boston on Friday and the 31 points he scored against Indiana on Tuesday.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored thirty points or more for the Thunder in their 42nd game of the season against the Timberwolves on Sunday. ESPN Stats & Information states that it’s the fewest games required for any player in SuperSonics/Thunder franchise history to attain the milestone. As of right now, only three SuperSonics/Thunder players have recorded 25 30-point games: Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, and Gilgeous-Alexander from a year ago, during their respective MVP seasons. When Gilgeous-Alexander scores at least 30, Oklahoma City is 23-8; when he doesn’t, the score is 7-5.
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