Murray and MPJ are back, and Denver scooped up defensive bodies in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown, who will allow Gordon to spend fewer reps on smalls. Pretty much all of that will change this year. The Denver Nuggets have also needed to overstretch him as a point-of-attack defender. prevented him from transitioning to full-on play-finisher. Denver has afforded him usage more befitting his skill set, but injuries to Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. Orlando tested him for the Paul George offensive gene. And his per-75-possession averages of 22.7 points, 12.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists looked like those of the old version of Love too.Īaron Gordon is hard to place, because we still haven’t seen him fully optimized. Last season, Kevin Love quietly posted his best box plus/minus since 2013-14 (his final season with the Minnesota Timberwolves). His raw numbers will take a hit this season, but Powell could still be the third-leading scorer for a squad with real championship aspirations. Norman Powell is a rock-solid starting-caliber shooting guard who's going to be a sixth (or seventh?) man for a loaded Los Angeles Clippers team. The Clippers' Norman Powell (Photos by Michael Gonzales/NBAE via Getty Images) If he can bring his three-point shot back up from 36.8 percent to near the 43.8 percent he shot two seasons ago, the Hawks will be a nightmare to stop. The Atlanta Hawks will get most of their offense through their guards, with Bojan Bogdanović the top reserve at either the 1 or 2. Tack on rock-solid rim protection, defensive mobility in space and passing, and WCJ should scoff at getting entombed behind more niche or unfinished talents like Dillon Brooks, Russell Westbrook, Josh Giddey, Terry Rozier and many more. He has touch away from the basket, including a neat little flip shot, and his accuracy on spot-up threes jumped above 38 percent after the All-Star break. Defenses were showing two and three bodies when he came off the roll. His screening and overall off-ball movement improved with Orlando. WCJ has a ton of north-south pep, can bring the ball up or go from stand-still to attack faster than someone such as Domantas Sabonis. And he was better than his predecessor, Nikola Vučević, who-mild spoiler alert-checks in dozens of spots higher. If he wasn’t the Magic’s second-best player last year, it’s because he was their absolute best. will probably make this ranking look silly by season's end. He’s eclipsed 40 points three separate times in his career. Injuries and inefficiency have limited Caris LeVert’s impact, but he’s shown game-changing scoring ability on a few occasions. He's still got some high-level three-and-D potential going into a contract year. The team won't win many games, but Clarkson will put up numbers.ĭe'Andre Hunter barely cracks the top 100, a spot he'll need to be in for the Atlanta Hawks to be one of the elite teams in the Eastern Conference. The Utah Jazz embraced the rebuild by trading Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, leaving Jordan Clarkson as one of the remaining go-get-it scorers. Utah's Jordan Clarkson (Vaughn Ridley/NBAE via Getty Images)
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