With the Houston Rockets having just 22 games left in the regular season, it’s a good time to check in on the awards race across the league. Just last month, Kevin Durant and Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn were named NBA All-Stars, the first duo for the franchise since James Harden and Russell Westbrook in 2020.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, \u015eeng\u00fcn has fallen out of the All-NBA race despite averaging 20.5 points, 9.2 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game. His efficiency and scoring output simply aren’t enough to keep up with a league that has many talented players. That leaves Durant as the sole Rocket with a chance at the honor.<\/p>\n
The 37-year-old has shown once again why he just might be the most talented scorer of all time. At his age, he is putting up an astounding 26.3 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.5 assists a night on 51-40-89 shooting splits.<\/p>\n
Anything can change over the next month and a half, especially with the league’s threshold of only being able to miss 18 games to be eligible. But if the season ended today, where would the Slim Reaper rank on the All-NBA tracker with Houston holding the third seed in the Western Conference? Here are my predictions for all 15 players right now:<\/p>\n
All-NBA First TeamShai Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC), Nikola Joki\u0107 (DEN), Cade Cunningham (DET), Luka Don\u010di\u0107 (LAL), Jaylen Brown (BOS)All-NBA Second TeamVictor Wembanyama (SAS), Donovan Mitchell (CLE), Anthony Edwards (MIN), Kawhi Leonard (LAC), Jalen Brunson (NYK)All-NBA Third TeamTyrese Maxey (PHI), Kevin Durant (HOU), Jamal Murray (DEN), Jalen Johnson (ATL), Jalen Duren (DET)<\/p>\n
Other names that could sneak onto the list amid the 64-game threshold include Deni Avdija (POR), Devin Booker (PHX) and Karl-Anthony Towns (NYK). What remains clear is the top of the order; the second and third teams are more up in the air than anything, with such a talented pool of stars.<\/p>\n
Taking into account production and team success, you simply cannot completely lean on one over the other. Based on the All-Star and All-NBA teams over the last few seasons, it seems that voters favor standings, but only a tad bit more than production.<\/p>\n
Jalen Johnson, currently playing for the 31-31 Atlanta Hawks, is still nearly averaging a 20-point triple-double. Meanwhile, Jalen Duren is putting up a double-double, but isn’t cracking 20 points per game. This is offset by the Detroit Pistons sitting atop the Eastern Conference at 45-15.<\/p>\n
So Durant should be an All-NBA Third Team member if the season ended today. He is clearly carrying Houston’s offensive efficiency, while the Rockets are still a top-three seed in a crowded West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Houston Rockets having just 22 games left in the regular season, it’s a good time to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-516446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}