2022 NBA ALL STAR RESERVES

 The 2022 NBA All Star reserves will be announced Thursday February 3rd.

Here are my picks for All Star reserves.  Let me know your thoughts!!!! 

Eastern Reserves

1. Zach LaVine

2. Darius Garland

3. Jayson Tatum

4. Jarrett Allen

5. Tyler Herro

6. Jimmy Butler

7. Domantas Sabonis

8. LaMelo Ball ( Replacement for Kevin Durant due to injury)

Western Reserves

1. Devin Booker

2. Chris Paul

3. Karl Anthony Towns

4. Rudy Gobert

5. Donovan Mitchell

6. Dejounta Murray (My replacement for Draymond Green who will likely make it but not Participate due to injury)

7. Luka Doncic 

NBA ALL Star Fan Voting Did They Get It Right ?

 The fan voting for NBA All Star Voting on Saturday January 22nd and with the Fan voting ending I will examine who they would have voted in as All Star Starters and compared them against who I would have chosen. Lebron James was the highest vote getter and will be one of the Captains when they do the All Star draft. Kevin Durant received the most votes in the Eastern Conference and will be the other Captain. With that being said here is who the Fans would have voted as the All Star starters as of 1pm Saturday.

Western Conference 

Frontcourt

LeBron James (Captain)

Nikola Jokic

Andrew Wiggins

Guards

Stephen Curry

Ja Morant

Eastern Conference

Frontcourt

Kevin Durant (Captain)

Giannis Antetokunmpo

Joel Embiid

Guards

DeMar DeRozan

Trae Young

I agree with the Western Conference Starters based on fan voting. This would be Ja Morant’s Andrew Wiggins’ first All Star appearances. It is well deserved Ja is having a MVP worthy season. Also Wiggins is having a strong season with career highs in Field Goal and 3pt Field Goals percent. The fan vote to me will be the Western Conference Starters once the media and Players votes are factored in.

I am mostly in agreement with the Eastern Conference starters that the fans have voted for. I would just swap out Trae Young for Zach Lavine. Zach LaVine is having an amazing season and with him and DeMar DeRozan having the Chicago Bulls in Second Place in the Eastern Conference. LaVine will be a starter once the media and players' votes are counted. Overall the fans have gotten it right this year The Starters will be announced on Thursday January 27th. Next week I will give my picks of the 7 alternates for each Conference.  

Real Deal Power Rankings Week of January 15th

The season is about halfway and here are the Real Deal Power Rankings for the week of January 15th 2022.

1. Memphis Grizzlies 

The Grizzlies have won 11 of 12 games including 11 straight before falling to the Dallas Mavericks Friday night. Ja Morant has emerged as an MVP candidate. He is continuing to take that next step to Superstardom as he has improved on his 3 point shooting this year. The Grizzlies are an emerging young team who looks ready to take that next step to compete. Winning 11 of your last 12 games you will make the top spot . The Grizzlies are primed to stay in the top 5

2. Golden State Warriors

The Warriors proved they are still the best team in the league despite losing 4 of their last 6 games.

They dismantled the Chicago Bulls on Friday night and showed that the has tremendous amount of depth in their lineup. This includes them working Klay Thompson back into the flow of things and still have another reinforcement coming in James Wiseman within the next few weeks.

3. Phoenix Suns

The Suns are continuing to be that steady team in the West taking care of business. They are lead by All- Stars Chris Paul and Devin Booker. They are proving they are hear to stay and at the moment themselves and the Golden State Warriors are in a Tier above everyone else. It will be interested to see what teams will do to try to reach the levels of the Suns and Warriors.

4. Milwaukee Bucks

The Bucks are finally healthy are starting to be on the rise. They had a dominant win over the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night by more than 20 points. Giannis is playing great dropped a triple double on Thursday. Milwaukee is primed to make a run back to the Eastern Conference Finals.

5. Brooklyn Nets

The Nets big 3 is back together for road games and are looking well. After the All Star break I can see Kyrie playing home games, with the Nets having the willingness to pay the fines that would be associated with an non vaccinated player  playing going against the New York City Mandate. The fine is a max of 5,000 after 5th time they are found in violation. This would a minimal price for the Nets to pay especially when you take into account just on ticket sales alone,  they would make that money back easily each night even if the arena is only 50% full. The Nets will need to make a move at the trade deadline for a big man because they do lack size which is something the top echelon teams in the Eastern Conference have.

Welcome Back Klay

 Today Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors,  will be making his much anticipated season  debut after missing the last two seasons due to injury. It will be interesting to see how Klay looks in his first action since the 2019 NBA Finals. Klay is expected to start out on a minutes restriction of 18 to 20 minutes. 

The thing I will be looking for is to see how teams attack Klay on defense being that he is coming off of a torn ACL and torn Achilles that kept him out the past 2 seasons. In addition, how does Klay move on the court especially seeing how he comes off screens.

This should be a good game as they are taking the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have been one of the best surprises this season. I think this will be good for the Warriors as they aim to make another title run this season. Adding a great shooter of Klay’s  caliber will only make the Warriors even stronger. 

Glad to see Klay back on the floor and I am excited to see what he can do this season. I predict his stat line to be 12 points, 4 rebounds in his first game action. Welcome back Klay!!!

REAL DEAL Power Rankings For Start of 2022

 It's the start of 2022 and here is my Power Rankings for this week. The top teams have been relatively the same so far this year. The top two teams being the Golden State Warriors and the Phoenix Suns. The Chicago Bulls, Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks round out the top 5 as these Eastern Conference teams are showing their dominance in the Eastern Conference. It will be fun seeing what deals are made to give teams an advantage come the trade deadline in February.

1. Golden State Warriors

2. Phoenix Suns

3. Chicago Bulls

4. Brooklyn Nets 

5. Milwaukee Bucks