As we close in on the All-Star break, I decided to take a step back, and re-visit some of the things I’ve loved this season so far. The Milwaukee Bucks have taken a sizable leap (as has Giannis), and look like the best team in the league right now, as they continue to steamroll the majority of their opposition. As well as the Bucks, the top-end of each conference looks fairly balanced, for what feels like the first time in a while. Gone are the days when LeBron and the Warriors would dismantle their respective conferences with ease- strap in, we’ve got a real playoff scrap on our hands this year.
There’s potentially even more to discuss on an individual basis too, as the depth of talent in the NBA seems to be getting bigger and bigger each year. I could write numerous sections on the loaded box-scores we’re seeing each night, the scores coming from all sorts of players. Just a few days ago, Buddy Hield had 43 off the bench, and on the same night, Eric Gordon scored 50! Add that to the usual suspects- James Harden, Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo, and we’re seeing quite a year unfold.
But the NBA, as we all know, is more than that. While I love LeBron and AD using games for alley-oop practice, and Giannis continuing his evolution as the most unstoppable player of all time, the NBA just has so many more layers. 30 teams produce a whole lot of stories, and I don’t know a league which is more interesting, dramatic, and downright petty than the NBA. It just has so much depth, so much to dive in to.
So that’s exactly what I’m going to do. 5 things that have turned my head the most this year (which was really, really difficult to narrow down, by the way).
The gritty AND fun Miami Heat
This Miami team is EXACTLY what Jimmy Butler has always wanted. He’s rode the ‘bad teammate’ chants for long enough, but has finally found a group of players that truly get him, and the methods he’s trying to preach. For what it’s worth, I never thought Butler was in any way a bad teammate, but he’s definitely been in the wrong situation for the last few years.
Bizarrely traded away from the Bulls, to the dumpster fire that was Minnesota, and finally the 76ers, who despite looking good on paper, a trio of Butler, Embiid and Simmons never ‘really’ felt like the long-term plan. Butler has perhaps dealt with situations in a slightly more aggressive manner than needed, but the point stands- Jimmy Butler is a 30 year old superstar, who is only now getting his own team the way he wants it.
Everyone knows Jimmy craves hard work and dedication, and demands it from whoever his teammates are. Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins were too ‘soft’ in Butler’s eyes, but this Miami team is anything but. At the start of the season, Butler continued his usual trend of turning up for workouts way ahead of time; practice began at 10am for Miami’s first day of training camp, and Butler promptly arrived at 3:30am. But the next day, he wasn’t alone. Centers Bam Adebayo and Meyers Leonard joined Butler for his early morning workout, with Leonard lauding their new ‘leader’ for his work ethic.
Leonard arrived last summer in a deal with the Portland Trail Blazers, a team who knows a thing or two about team culture- S/O Damian Lillard. Adebayo, on the other hand, is a player known around the league for his immense work rate, proven by his quick rise to a leading MIP candidate and first-time All-Star. Butler then roped rookie Tyler Herro into his workouts, and has since took Herro under his arm, becoming his mentor in many ways.
Each player, like every other on the the Heat, has contributed fairly and successfully. Bam, as mentioned earlier, is a first-time All-Star and is now the defensive anchor for this team. Rookies Herro and Kendrick Nunn have each been a pleasant surprise, both averaging upwards of 13 points, while sophomore Duncan Robinson is shooting the lights out, hitting treys at a clip of 43 percent! Derrick Jones Jr plays his role as a lengthy and athletic defender, Goran Dragic is the perfect man to run the second unit, hell they’ve even got Dion Waiters shooting well and buying in!
And then, there’s Jimmy Butler, the piece Miami have been missing, a superstar who can take them over the edge. The way Miami wins, it just screams ‘JIMMY BUTLER’. The way they hustle, they fight, toughing out wins they have no right in winning. Their home record, which is 21-3 (#3 in NBA), their new-found ‘culture’, they seem together and ready to win. And Butler’s fingerprints are all over it.
Butler is currently averaging 3.6 deflections a game (#6 in NBA), 1.8 steals (also #6 in NBA), and has a defensive rating of 106.5 (slightly down from recent years, but he also has to do less). On the offensive end, the stats may seem underwhelming for what Butler can do, at least on the scoring side of things. 20.3 points is fine however; the Heat aren’t a one-man scoring team, and don’t need to be. Butler is also averaging career highs in assists and rebounds, and his assist numbers are the thing’s that’s impressed me the most. We saw a little of ‘point Jimmy’ in Philadelphia last year, when Ben Simmons was out, and it’s something he’s very capable of doing. 6.3 assists per game this year, Butler is the main source of creativity for the starters, and does a superb job of getting everyone involved.
Butler will have a tough job shaking his reputation as a bad teammate, but he’s certainly doing himself favors in Miami; he’s become the team’s biggest cheerleader. In a recent interview, Butler was asked how it feels to be the teams ‘one star’. His response? “This is a team of one star? Who is that? Bam?” He’s formed a great relationship with Adebayo, as has he with most of his teammates. Dragic has spoken often of how much he enjoys being around Butler, Meyers Leonard is a regular supporter on social media, and we can’t forget the now infamous ‘Tyler Tuesday’s’ on Jimmy’s Instagram.
Simply put, the Miami Heat are perfect for Jimmy Butler, and Jimmy Butler is perfect for the Miami Heat. They are gritty, fun and most importantly, a serious contender to go all the way this year. Aside from perhaps pointing to the lack of big-man rotation, it’s difficult to pick out any weaknesses in Miami’s roster, they have shooting, length, defense awareness, a brilliant coach, and now, a superstar. Jimmy Butler can lead this team out of the East this year, and no one will enjoy the ride more than him. He’s finally found his home.
Year of the comeback stories
There are so many cool storylines about young players in the league right now- history is literally being made by rookie and sophomore players. Luka Doncic is playing like an All-NBA vet, Trae Young is 21 years of age and walking to 30 and 10 on a nightly basis, Jayson Tatum seems to have made that leap to a significant and capable number one option on a contending team. You drop a couple of years lower, and you get Ja Morant, leading a young Grizzlies team to the playoffs in year one, and Zion Williamson, who quite frankly is the most absurd athlete I’ve ever seen and probably will ever see.
However. This section is inspired by the other end of the spectrum- the old-heads, the guys who have been around the block a few times. Once ‘Father Time’ supposedly hits, your time in the NBA is usually up, and for Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard, this is what it looked like.
Melo was literally out of the league for almost a year. 10x All-Star Melo. NBA scoring champion Melo. Yes, three-time gold medalist, Carmelo Anthony, was without an NBA team from January 2019 to late November of the same year. And even then, the Portland Trail Blazers probably only signed him because of season-ending injuries to Zach Collins and Rodney Hood. The entire league was appalled, yet no one seemed to want anything to do with the former All-NBA forward. Many thought a link-up with LeBron James was the on the cards, but no call came, and the market seemed bleak for Melo, after disappointing in his previous stints with the Rockets and the Thunder.
But when Anthony got the call from Neil Olshey and the Blazers, he was adamant this was not a farewell tour. The Blazers, just a few months after making the Conference Finals, were under .500 and down to the bare bones; injuries had torn through this team, and the call to Melo seemed like desperation if anything else. They didn’t need something entirely specific from Melo, just to hit shots from the perimeter, and create some sort of offense in the front-court. He delivered.
I really cannot stress how impressive Anthony has been this year. To take a year out of the game, and retain that motivation to be great, is a rare, rare attribute. Melo told reporters on several occasions that he was waking up to workout without really knowing what he was working for, he had no idea if he was going to play in the league again. This makes his comeback all the more impressive.
Since returning, Melo has 15.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and an assist a game, shooting at a 41% clip from the field. Solid, solid numbers. Surprisingly, he has also been respectable on the defensive end, much improved from his lackluster effort in Houston a year ago. His effort has been very good, and has forced deflections and turnovers on a regular basis. He got his iconic moment too, a game-winner in Toronto which brought the house down on NBA Twitter for an evening.
It was like it was 2008 again. Game on the line, Melo did what he does best- gets to his spot, and just let it fly. This moment had the feel of an ‘I’m back” statement; Melo felt he was disrespected for a while by the league, and that he wasn’t signed for reasons “outside of basketball”. Shots like this, they prove that he has a place in the NBA.
And then, we have Dwight Howard, another aging star who seemed on his way out. Howard’s story was perhaps sadder than Anthony’s; Melo’s name was always around, and it was a consistent take that he should be in the league and playing. Howard didn’t really share this experience.
His time in Orlando proved to the world just how dominant and talented he was, as Howard earned All-Star honors, led the league in rebounding and blocks, and scooped up 3 NBA defensive player of the year awards. Howard’s Orlando Magic robbed fans of a Kobe vs LeBron Finals matchup; everyone wanted the Lakers and the Cavs in the finals, but it was a testament to Howard’s brilliance that he managed to stop the fairytale storyline. But after this, the big man never really seemed to get anything going. Injuries and chemistry issues soured his time in LA, and the story was similar at the Rockets. In the summer of 2016, he signed with the Atlanta Hawks, and this began a three-year spell of bouncing around the league’s basement, slightly unwanted, and not being treated like a player with the honors he does. But it wasn’t anything personal, Howard looked done! He had a limited impact in Atlanta, Charlotte and Washington, and at one point, was traded for Timothy Mozgov and picks, a deflating signal of how far he’d really fallen. But then, LeBron James came calling, and a intriguing reunion with the Lakers beckoned. For Howard, this was a shot at redemption.
His return to LA has had a feel-good factor to it from day one- Howard seems to have turned a corner, and his flourishing in his new role. His role now, the back-up center responsible simply for rebounding, finishing around the rim and defense, is probably not something he’d have been okay with a few years ago. But his change in mentality has saved his career, and Howard’s defensive presence is now a key part of the Lakers set-up, who currently have the second best record in the league.
Howard rebounds the ball, finish lobs from LeBron and Rondo (something that becomes extremely easy when you’ve got those two passing the ball) and sparking the bench with blocked shots and all-around hustle plays. This performance vs the Cavs has become a regularity, as the center has benefitted off of the Lakers culture.
Even the culture mentioned is linked to Howard; one of my favorite moments of the season came when Howard defended Kentavious Caldwell-Pope on social media, claiming the Lakers were a family. When asked why he did it, Howard’s response was simple.
“Because we’re a family. We talk about Lakers Nation, we talk about winning a championship, and we need everybody on the same page. KCP is my teammate, and he’s my brother. And he’s a part of this family.”
Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony have completely shifted the narrative that had been created, and revitalized their careers. Both of their accomplishments over the past year or so have been some of the most impressive I’ve seen in sports, because losing that drive, after you’ve achieved so much already, would be pretty easy. Yeh, they’d been forgotten a little, but both were Hall of Fame locks. Yet they fought their way back up, accepted their new roles, and continued to contribute in a league that had forgotten about them. Redemption stories come in at number 2 of things I’ve loved this season.
Beyond The Perimeter 
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