With another week in the NBA rolling by, so do more storylines surrounding the NBA.
Most notably from last week, it seems Giannis Antetokounmpo could be making a decision about his future in Milwaukee in the coming weeks, maybe even days. Since winning the NBA Finals in 2021, the Bucks have been a consistent playoff contender and have never finished a season with 35 losses or more.
In an offseason that saw the Bucks sign Myles Turner away from its divisional rival Indiana Pacers, the reinforcement of another quality player around Antetokounmpo should have more than assured the superstar of a winning season. Well, not quite.
Milwaukee sits at 10-15 and is the final play-in team as the 10th best team in the Eastern Conference. The three other play-in teams (Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks) are all 14-11. This is certainly not the way the Bucks would have thought the season would have gone for them.
But why are the Bucks 10-15? Because the team is just Antetokounmpo and Turner. Sure, Kyle Kuzma is a quality player, and Bobby Portis has had good games for the Bucks, but what else is there? There have been better teams surrounding Antetokounmpo and he knows that, too. He’s one of the best players in the league and makes any team other good team a championship-caliber team.
If he does choose to leave, which many around the league feel is likely, one of those good teams could be the New York Knicks or even the Los Angeles Lakers.
If Antetokounmpo does indeed request a trade out of Milwaukee, the season completely changes once he wears a different jersey.
Brooklyn Nets (6-17)
Results this week: 113-103 win at Chicago, 123-110 loss vs. Utah, 119-101 win vs. New Orleans.
Brooklyn has now on two games at home this season following a victory against the Pelicans, the worst team in the NBA.
The Nets also won back-to-back games for the first time this season after consecutive wins against the Hornets and the Bulls, with the win coming in Chicago.
Is this a turning point for Brooklyn? No, but these are games that the team should be winning, especially if these are teams that are worse record-wise in comparison to Brooklyn.
Winning three-out-of-four means this is some of the best Brooklyn basketball we’ve seen all season. One star to point out has been first-round pick Danny Wolf, who has been playing well off the bench this past week.
Wolf nearly had a double-double in the loss to Utah, scoring 17 points with nine rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench. Wolf also tallied 10 points with seven rebounds in 19 minutes in the win over Charlotte last week.
The team continues to be led by Michael Porter Jr., who has scored at least 33 points in the past three games while tallying a double-double with 10 rebounds in the win at Chicago.
New York Knicks (17-7)
Results this week: 123-117 loss at Boston, 119-104 win vs. Charlotte, 146-112 win vs. Utah, 106-100 win vs. Orlando, 117-101 win at Toronto.
One four-game winning streak ends, another starts.
After a loss to second-place division rivals Boston Celtics, the Knicks have strung along four more wins, including a very impressive victory against Toronto in the quarterfinal round of the NBA Cup on Tuesday.
While the first two wins in this new streak came against the Hornets and the Utah Jazz, teams that the Knicks should be beating, its tight win over Orlando, a team that has bested New York twice earlier this season, shows that New York is finding that consistency that it’s needed.
Jalen Brunson was again the star of the show against Orlando, coming up one assist shy of a double-double, scoring 30 points with nine assists. The starting players shined more in this game in the absence of Karl-Anthony Towns, who did not play due to left calf tightness.
Towns returned the following game for the NBA Cup match against Toronto and dominated, scoring 14 points with 16 rebounds. Brunson also scoring 20 of his 35 points in a shootout first quarter.
New York and Orlando will meet one more time in Las Vegas for the NBA Cup semifinals on Saturday.
Philadelphia 76ers (13-10)
Results this week: 121-102 win vs. Washington, 99-98 win vs. Golden State, 116-101 win at Milwaukee, 112-108 loss vs. Los Angeles Lakers.
Philly had all its big stars shine this week.
Tyrese Maxey had a great game against Washington, scoring 35 points with six assists and four steals.
VJ Edgecombe came up clutch against Golden State with a late three pointer. Maxey helped seal the win with a block just before the end of the game in what was a tight one-point victory.
Paul George had 20 points against Milwaukee while Quentin Grimes had 22 points off the bench. And while the Lakers defeated the 76ers over the weekend, Joel Embiid played quality minutes, scoring 16 points and collecting seven rebounds.
It was a good week for Philly and it seems the team is back on track after a few so-so weeks of team performances. There’s only 3.5 games separating the Knicks from the 76ers in the divisional standings and it would be worth keeping an eye if Philly can continue this kind of play.
