NBA Monthly: December Recap

Dude…

The holiday season is behind us and basketball is in front of us!! The NBA is in full swing now and teams are starting to separate themselves from good to bad to really bad. We’ve had plenty of ups and downs from championship level squads. Had some surprise teams that are looking to make a run towards the playoffs this season. Finally, we had a team lose 28 straight. The Dudes are going to recap the month of the holidays and our takeaways from December! So, grab a cold one, prop your feet up, and enjoy the monthly recap!!

PC

How do you lose 28 straight?-  Yes, the biggest headline for me from December was the Pistons losing 28 straight games. The most ever in NBA history. It’s absurd that 13 professional athletes that get paid millions of dollars can’t win 1 out of 28 games. They lost almost every game in December!!! How embarrassing is it as a franchise to have people watching your games not to see if you’ll win, but to see if you will continue to lose! The Pistons have had great draft picks the last few years. They took Cade Cunningham first overall in 2021. Then they took Jaden Ivey at 5 in 2022. Last year, they took Aushar Thompson at 5. YOU HAD 3 TOP 5 DRAFT PICKS AND LOST 28 GAMES!!??? I mean you’re professional basketball players for crying out loud! Monty Williams was leading Phoenix to a #1 seed in the west a few years ago, but can’t get these cornballs to play together. Eventually, they won a game. The Pistons now find themselves 3-31 on the season and all hopes of being a contender has already evaporated. Sure, you’re going to get another top draft pick, but that hasn’t helped you yet! Plus, this year’s draft class seems less talented than the previous ones. So, the Pistons have been bad since the mid 2000’s and continue to be one of the worst teams in the league. I wonder if Monty and Detroit will be able to figure it out because if not, it may be time to trade everyone and restart.

Shai and the mighty OKC Thunder- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has now established himself as a top 10 player in the league. If not top 5 currently. He is making people look silly out on the court. He’s averaging just over 31 points per game, 6 assists, and just under 6 rebounds as well. Jalen Williams has also made a jump from his rookie year in the NBA by establishing himself as the number 2 guy on the team. He’s averaging 17 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists per game. My pick for the Rookie of the Year award in Chet Holmgren, is making me look smart. He is one of the best “rookies” this year after sitting out all of last year with a foot injury. Wemby and him are neck and neck with each other for the award. The supporting cast in Josh Giddey, Lu Dort, and Isiah Joe are all impacting games. The roster is loaded with talent and as the number 2 seed currently in the west, they are proving to be better than they are supposed to be. What’s crazy about OKC is how good they are and how many future draft picks they still hold. OKC is my team of the month, and I don’t see this train slowing down anytime soon. Watch out Oklahoma, you may have the next big dynasty on your hands. 

Haliburton vs. the rest of the East-  Tyrese Haliburton is the new Paul George in Indiana. He is the leader of the 5th best team in the East currently. Now, that may sound low. However, Haliburton is the only star on this roster. He is averaging 25 points per game, 4 rebounds, and almost 13 assists per game. The next best player? Old Miles Turner averaged just about 17 points per game. If your second best player on your team is Miles Turner, you’re in a heap of trouble. No offense to Turner, it just if you look at the other number 2 guys in the East it's not even close talent wise. In Milwaukee, the number 2 guy is Damien Lillard. In Boston, Jalen Brown. In Philly, it’s Tyrese Maxey. In Miami it’s Bam Adebayo. I would take any of those 4 guys over Miles Turner in a heartbeat. The supporting cast hasn’t been crazy good either. Buddy Hield is shooting under 40% from 3 as the sharpshooter of the Pacers. Benedict Mathurin is continuing to progress into a starting role, but is still young and growing into a professional. Obi Toppin is a good role player, but not a great one. Without Haliburton, this team wouldn’t make the play-in tournament. Tyrese has been so good for Indiana, that they’ve beaten the Bucks 4 times already this year. Tyrese should be an All-Star starter, and he deserves all the flowers coming his way.

How6rd takeaways

Ja Morant is back and…the Grizzlies still need a lot more than that- After having a squad just two seasons ago that was deeper than ever when Ja Morant went out with an injury and even last season winning crucial games when Morant wasn’t in the lineup, they’ve struggled BIG TIME without him to start the year and now that he’s back the Grizzlies actually look like a competent NBA team. The biggest issue is that it’s clear that Ja Morant is still getting back to playing shape after being thrown right into the regular season with no prior in-game buildup to build his fitness back to pro level as all the other players have. Even with that he’s looked stellar being the leading scorer for the team in more games than not and him, Desmond Bane, and Jaren Jackson Jr have honestly had All Star-caliber seasons and are constantly the top three scorers in nearly every game they’ve played since Morant’s return. The problem is nobody around them has played anywhere near their level and for the most part everyone they have come off the bench can’t make open shots let alone smart ones. The GM in Zach Klieman has just depended on the “they’ve done well even with injuries so lets just hope for the best” tactic too far and after a rough start this year it may be time to completely revamp this team out of those three guys and think about the future before letting the big three’s time go to waste in their prime years.

The Clippers FINALLY have a scary “super team”- It seems like for years the NBA media has been hyping up the Clippers from the moment they got both Paul George and Kawhi Leonard to end up on the same team, but since then they’ve looked like a joke and even with a decent record a couple of seasons ago no one really was scared of them after a monumental choke in the bubble. This season they began with Russell Westbrook, Norman Powell, the two stars I’ve mentioned before and some solid role players around them looking to make another run of at least being a fourth or fifth seed in the west, but then they grabbed James Harden in a big trade that gave the 76ers a good group of role players in return. The start of Harden’s tenture wasn’t pretty at all going on a huge losing streak plummeting any momentum they started with and Westbrook accepted the role of coming off the bench just to seek some clarity, and it turns out that’s exactly what the Clippers needed as Harden began to find his role alongside Kawhi and PG13 and Russell Westbrook coming off the bench has given the team a huge spark when all those guys gotta come off the floor (and when Terance Mann can’t hit a shot to save his life). As Harden said before he might just really be “the system” as he’s came up huge in games individually for the first time since he was in a Rockets jersey and if “the other Los Angeles team” can actually get some solid production from both their lineup and bench this is a tough team for anyone to keep up with if anybody within Harden, PG13,and Kawhi get hot.

The Warriors are falling apart and the youth is fed up- After years of finding a way to have solid regular season success when Stephen Curry is on the floor it seems that this year isn’t the same story where he can make something out of nothing and the roster seems heated about it (no I’m not talking about Draymond he’s just fed up with players on the other team I guess). Steve Kerr has had a lot of success with the “core” of this squad in Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond for nearly a decade now alongside somebody that comes in clutch for them, but it seems like this time they haven’t found the one guy that is able to be that other guy…or so it seems. Steve Kerr has tried his best to get the more experienced players the most playing time and seems to have found a gem in rookie Brandin Podziemski but he doesn’t have an issue with the team as obviously he’s a rookie and doing just fine coming off the bench. The biggest issue is that Steve Kerr continues to keep his young talented players that were highly-touted prospects before coming into the league like Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga on the bench in crucial moments, when in reality they’ve proven they have produced better than the starters over them such as Klay and Andrew Wiggins. At the time I’m typing this Kuminga has finally had enough and expressed to the media that he isn’t happy about how Steve Kerr has handled him and with the way they’ve been struggling recently he’s got every right to be. Now making a tough situation even more awkward though the Warriors look to be completely all out of sorts on and off the court, as the Warriors front office/coaching staff have a decision to make whether they finally step out of their old ways and let the youth get important minutes or if they just ignore Kuminga’s statement and let them go elsewhere ultimately tanking the organization.