#NBA2015: Players to Watch Part Five

With the 2014-2015 NBA season beginning in fewer than 10 days, I found it just right to look at some players we should all keep tabs on. There are no-brainers like LeBron, KD, CP3, and James Harden, of course, but there are also many other characters on whom we should put the spotlight. In this first of five parts, we’ll take a look at some key guys for the Blazers, Kings, Spurs, Raptors, Jazz, and Wizards.

In our final post in this series, we take a look at a host young guys on the verge os stardom.

Nicolas Batum (POR) - The high-flying Frenchman had a great stint in the 2014 FIBA World Cup, averaging abotu 15 points, 3 rebounds, and 1 steal a game as France bagged the bronze medal for the first time in tournament history. One would think that his awesome showing would translate to better numbers this season, right? Yes, but that hasn’t happened just yet. As of this writing, Portland is 1-2 in the standings and Batum is putting up a pretty pedestrian line — 9 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals per game while shooting a career-low 35% from the field. If Portland is to, at the very least, duplicate its great postseason run from last season, then Batum will definitely have to flash the form he had in #Spain2014.

The NBA: Can the Wizards Make the Playoffs?

John Wall and Bradley Beal are the backcourt of the future for the Wizards.
Can they lead Washington into the playoffs for 2013-14? 

The Washington Wizards finished last season at 29-53 and were 9 games out of a playoff spot in the East. Their best players missed a ton of games due to injury. John Wall only played 49 games while Bradley Beal  and Trevor Ariza appeared in 56, Nene in 61 and AJ Price in 57 games.

There is no question that John Wall is their best player and the Wizards have determined that he is potentially their franchise player after giving Wall a 5-year, $80 million extension this past summer. Wall will be entering his 4th year and will be 23 years old by the start of the season. He wont be going anywhere.

In the 49 games that Wall played last season, the Wizards went 24-25. Consequently, the Wiz were 5-28 without him. Yikes. John Wall is not injury-prone (yet) but it's hard to say that he is durable after playing only 184 out of 230 games in his first 3 years in the NBA. Playing only 80% of their games was not good enough for a Wizards team that relied so much on John Wall to initiate and create offense for them. If he was healthy last season and played all 82 games, the Wizards could have won around 38-40 games which would have placed them at the 7th or 8th spot in the East.

Wall has gradually improved offensively each season and last year was his most efficient. He ended up playing only 32.7 minutes per game (down from 36 and 37 the past 2 seasons) but his scoring and shooting percentages were career-highs. His Player Efficiency Rating was at 20.91 (career-high) which placed him at 22nd in the league and ahead of Deron Williams, Chris Bosh, LaMarcus Aldridge and Dirk Nowitzki.

John Wall also improved his shot selection and his mid-range jumper was more dependable. He made 38% of his jumpers from 10-15 feet (up from 34% previous year) while his long twos from 16-23 feet went in at 37% which was up from 32% from the 2011-12 season. Sadly, his three-point shooting has been abysmal and non-existent. Wall made only 12 of 45 threes last season which was already an improvement from previous years.

Wall has a nasty crossover that can easily free him from a defender and he has one of the quickest first steps to the hoop. Wall can finish very well at the rim where he made 59% of his shots at close range while his floaters in the paint went in at a good rate of 43% . He likes to attack the paint to attract help defense which could free up his teammates for an open shot. Wall actually had a down year in assists at 7.6 but his turnovers improved. Getting more minutes and playing constantly with Bradley Beal and Martell Webster (42% three-point shooter) should give Wall a career year in assists next season.

Now, John Wall by himself cannot carry the Wizards to the playoffs. Bradley Beal needs to be healthy and ready to contribute once the opening tip begins. Beal had a solid rookie season and was rewarded with an All-Rookie 1st Team award despite only playing 56 games. Beal was arguably their 2nd best perimeter shooter (after Webster) who made 91 threes and connected on 210 jumpers at a success rate of 37 percent. Beal is also big and strong enough to guard the likes of Dwyane Wade, Joe Johnson, Dion Waiters and Gerald Henderson. He still needs to improve his footwork and positioning.

The Wizards drafted Otto Porter Jr. in the lottery from Georgetown. Porter has shooting range and was a decent three-point shooter in college. If he can stretch his shooting to the NBA's range, Porter will be a big boost to the Wiz. He also needs to bulk up and increase his strength because he is listed at 198 pounds which is too slim for a SF in the NBA.

Washington will still need their veterans to be healthy (Okafor, Nene, Ariza, Webster) while their new players (Al Harrington, Eric Maynor, Leandro Barbosa) are all expected to contribute. Their bench is littered with young guys (Jan Vesely, Kevin Seraphim, Chris Singleton) who can become solid role players when given the minutes.

Overall, the future of the Wizards relies on John Wall and his backcourt mate Bradley Beal. Wall needs to better his jumper and ideally include a three-point shot just to make defenders guard him from the perimeter. Beal needs to be more efficient with his shot selections and learn to move without the ball in his hands. They will make the playoffs if they remain healthy and continue to improve.

The NBA: Who is your 2012-2013 Rookie of the Year?

The New Orleans Hornets have 17 games left in the calendar. The Portland Trailblazers have 20 more regular season games and still have a reasonable shot at the Playoffs (yes, they still do, don’t be mean guys). Why should you care? Because the Rookie of the Year of the current season will come from either of those teams, unless Bradley Beal goes Rambo on everyone and makes like 10 treys per game. Of course, that won’t happen. One – Rambo can’t shoot threes, two – Beal doesn’t have explosive-tipped arrows, and three – nobody speaks like Rambo.

Seriously, though, who will be this year’s ROY? The top overall pick who has been just… okay, or the 6^th overall pick who’s gotten majority of the press? Or someone else? Or, actually, Beal himself?

Note: All of the following stats are from HoopsStats.com. They were taken on March 12, 2013.

Presenting the TOP FIVE Candidates for ROY, statistically speaking.

5. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (CHA) - 9.0ppg, 5.6rpg, 1.0bpg, 11.7 EFF

MKG had a reasonably good start to the year, but he hasn’t really broken out the way many people thought he could. IF the Bobcats get rid of both/either Ben Gordon and/or Kemba Walker, then MKG could be a bunker buster of a scorer. Also, the 1 block per game? N I C E.

4. Bradley Beal (WAS) - 14.2ppg, 3.7rpg, 2.5apg, 12.4 EFF

He’s the third-best scorer among all rookies behind Damian Lillard and (drum roll) Dion Waiters (still wondering why the Cavs took him so early?), but, as you can see, he doesn’t really do much else. There’s great upside between him and John Wall, but there’s also the a great possibility they will just be… mediocre.

When healthy and on-target, Bradley Beal is an
amazing scorer.
(Image by Rob Carr/Getty Images)

  

3. Andre Drummond (DET) - 7.3ppg, 7.5rpg, 1.7bpg, .592 FG%, 13.4 EFF

Drummond is second among all rookies in both rebounds and blocks, and owns the highest FG% among all newbies who play at least 10 minutes per game. All indications point to him becoming a potentially dominant defensive force for Detroit maybe as early as next season. That’s a good thing, especially since Greg Monroe loves to just score, and Brandon Knight, um, just got run over by DeAndre Jordan.

2. Anthony Davis (NOH) - 12.9ppg, 7.8rpg, 1.1spg, 1.8bpg, .507 FG%, 17.1 EFF

I love the fact Davis doesn’t receive much hype (currently), but he still does the dirty work. His per minute EFF is actually quite higher than the #1 guy on this list, but I doubt if he can sneak in more ROY votes. The simple reason is he just has been off-the-radar for so long. As far as top picks go, he isn’t terrible by any means, but he has just not been dominant. He’s certainly no Kwame Brown, but he also hasn’t been quite like Dwight Howard.

1. Damian Lillard (POR) - 18.9ppg, 3.2rpg, 6.4apg, 1.0spg, 17.3 EFF

He tops all rookies in scoring and assists. His team was in the West’s top eight for a considerable amount of time, and, frankly, he might be All-Star material next season (a handful might argue that he already is). Lillard has the inside track to be this season’s ROY. Tapos.

Is Damiam Lillard your ROY?
(Image by Eric Gay/AP)

It is worth noting that both Waiters and Thomas Robinson were chosen ahead of Lillard and yet both aren’t on this list. Waiters is actually right behind MKG in terms of EFF, but Robinson is way off… like Top 19 way off.

The NBA: January 2013 Rookie Ladder

With some teams nearing and some teams already past the halfway point (41-game mark) of the season, I felt it would be best to take stock of the 2012-2013 rookies and see where they stand. Many people feel Portland’s Damian Lillard has been, by far, the best of the lot, but a look at the freshmen’s most recent stats indicate that the Weber State product might not be as far removed from the rest of the competition as may be advertised.

Some rookies have remained quietly consistent (Anthony Davis), while others have really busted out in the last couple of weeks (Andre Drummond and Bradley Beal). Lillard, by virtue of his overall impact on the Blazers’ performance, might still have the inside track in the race for the Rookie-of-the-Year plum, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s way ahead of everyone else. On the contrary, the following numbers actually show that Lillard is no longer the top newcomer in the Association.

5 - Tyler Zeller (CLE) - 9.0ppg, 8.4rpg, 2.4bpg, .895 FT%, 14.4 EFF

The Tar Heel is making the most out of Anderson Varejao’s absence. The near-double-double average and eye-popping blocks-per-game stat are all mouth-watering for Cleveland fans, and these have cushioned the crunch of another “rebuilding” season in Ohio. For Fantasy NBA peeps, he might be a really nice pick-up, too!

4 - Bradley Beal (WAS) - 16.2ppg, .545 FG%, .636 3pt%, 15.4 EFF

One of my students swears by the Wizards, and Beal has become his second-most-favorite player (the first one is Jordan Crawford and NOT John Wall – go figure). The rookie has really come alive of late, and the Wizards have been awfully scary because of him. Washington has won 5 of its last 7 games.

Bradley Beal is making waves in the East, and seems to
be muddling up the ROY picture a little bit.
(image by Don Ryan/AP)

  

3 - Damian Lillard (POR) - 16.4ppg, 3.8rpg, 7.2apg, 15.6 EFF

One of my students believes Lillard is the runaway ROY. His numbers have dipped a bit compared to earlier in the season, but this does not diminish his stock one bit. He’s made Portland relevant again, and perhaps no other stat is as important as that. It’s a bummer, however, that they’ve lost their last 6 games.

2 - Andre Drummond (DET) - 10.8ppg, 7.8rpg, 2.2bpg, .742 FG%, 18.6 EFF

Detroit has won 3 of its last 5, and Drummond is a big reason why. Whereas Greg Monroe is the legit low post threat, Drummond is the high-flying complement who does the dirty work around the rim like collaring rebounds and blocking shots. And would you look at that field goal percentage – nearly 75%!!! That means that, for the past 5 games, the rookie has made about 3 of every 4 shots. Now THAT should surely turn some heads.

1 - Anthony Davis (NOH) - 12.8ppg, 8.6rpg, 1.2spg, 2.4bpg, .651 FG%, 21.2 EFF

The top overall pick hasn’t made a lot of noise outside of a couple of highlight reels every week, but that’s mainly because the Hornets suck (yes, even if they’ve won 3 of their last 5). Still, Davis, at least in terms of the numbers, is the bona fide most productive rookie out there every night. His numbers actually aren’t that far off from the rookie numbers of another top overall pick big man, Dwight Howard, who normed 12.0ppg, 10.0rpg, 1.7bpg, and shot 67.1% from the floor in his first NBA season. If I may be so bold, I’d advise the Lakers to actually ship Dwight to New Orleans in exchange for Davis. Now THAT’s straight up trade that’ll jettison the biggest crybaby in California in favor of, potentially, the most dominant force in the 2012 class.