The 2019-20 NBA season is cruising along as the Feb. 6 trade deadline is just a few days away. Contending teams will be looking to add that final piece (or two) to push them over the top, while those franchises heading for a lottery pick may be looking to unload some pieces in an effort to acquire future assets and shed cap space. Also, the complete pool of All-Stars have been revealed, which means that the annual exhibition is almost here. Like every year, there are players who feel like they were snubbed, and others whose selection was considered questionable by fans.
Given all that is happening across the league's landscape, there's no shortage of hot topics to tackle. With that said, here's a look at some of the most interesting current narratives from the NBA season, and whether or not they're worth buying or selling.
Buy or Sell: Zion Williamson could still win Rookie of the Year
Zion Williamson looks like he's going to win a lot of hardware over the course of his career, but the Rookie of the Year Award won't be part of his collection. Since he made his debut last month, Williamson has lived up to the immense hype as he has quickly developed into a productive highlight machine for the Pelicans. However, he missed the first 44 games of his rookie campaign, and in that time, Grizzlies guard Ja Morant built up too large of a lead for Williamson to make up in the second half of the season (barring a major injury for Morant, of course, which no one wants to see).
Morant has been as good as Memphis had hoped after it made him the No. 2 overall pick in the draft last June. He's averaging 17.5 points, 7.1 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game, and looking like a future perennial All-Star. He also has the Grizzlies, currently eighth in the West, competing for a playoff spot; a position not many expected them to be in prior to the season's start. There's also recent precedent for a lack of games costing a player this very award. In 2016-17, Joel Embiid was statistically superior to Malcolm Brogdon, but Embiid only played in 33 games for Philadelphia while Brogdon appeared in 75 for the Bucks, and Brogdon went on the win the award. Williamson may well go on to be the best player from his draft class, but the fact that he missed the first half of the season -- while Morant has been playing well all season -- will cost him the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy.
Verdict: Sell
Buy or Sell: Bradley Beal should have been named an NBA All-Star
Wizards star forward Bradley Beal wasn't happy about not being named an All-Star this season for the third time in his career.
"I'm a little pissed off about it," Beal said of what he clearly viewed as a snub. "I know how I am, [so] I was kind of expecting it, honestly. It's disrespectful, but the real ones know [I'm an All-Star]. I'll just keep competing. I'm going to try to get my team in the playoffs for sure."
There are players that feel like Beal do every single season, but he does have a point. He's fifth in the NBA in scoring at 28.8 points a game (a career high for him), while also adding a career-high 6.3 assists, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.0 steals per performance. He became the first player since Dominique Wilkins in 1985 to average more than 28 points per game and not make an All-Star team. Sure, the Wizards have been bad, but it isn't Beal's fault. Plus, an All-Star selection is meant to be an individual accolade, not a team one.
Fans play a large role in selecting the starters, but Beal should have been a reserve at the least. If positional designations were removed for the selection process (as Devin Booker, another player who feels snubbed from this year's All-Star Game, has advocated for), Beal would have had a strong case to make it over Domantas Sabonis, or even Khris Middleton based on stats. As it stands, though, Beal was voted on as a guard for the game, in which case he should have at least made it over Kyle Lowry. Beal is averaging the same amount of rebounds per game as the Raptors guard, while also scoring over nine more points per game, shooting a better percentage from the floor, and also serving as his team's top offensive option. Lowry has had a solid season, and his team is obviously better than Beal's, but individually, Beal has been better.
Verdict: Buy
Buy or Sell: There will be a significant trade prior to the Feb. 6 deadline
With the Golden State Warriors' dynasty on hiatus for the time being, there are quite a few teams that feel like they have a legitimate shot at winning the title this season. The trade deadline represents their last opportunity to make a major move for their respective runs, and with that in mind, a significant deal, or two, seems likely. It doesn't necessarily have to include an All-Star, but it would include a difference-maker, and there are a lot of those potentially on the market. Guys like Andre Drummond and Derrick Rose have popped up in trade rumors, and such a player could potentially push a contending team over the top.
Drummond, specifically, has a $28 million player option for the 2020-21 season that he's likely to turn down in favor of a new deal in free agency. If the Pistons think that they will ultimately lose Drummond in free agency over the offseason, trying to recoup some value for him while he's still under team control makes sense. The Pistons entered the season with every intention of competing for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, but as a result of injury issues and inconsistent play they're currently in the 11th spot in the East, and they could be looking to shake things up. This means that Rose could be on the move too. Jrue Holiday, Justise Winslow, Robert Covington, Clint Capela and Andre Iguodala are other names to keep an eye on -- all players who can make a considerable impact on a new team.
Verdict: Buy
Buy or Sell: The Bucks aren't getting as much respect as they deserve
The Bucks have the NBA's best record. They're on pace to challenge the 70-win mark this season. They also have the league's reigning MVP in Giannis Antetokounmpo, and two All-Stars in Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton. However, despite their success, Antetokounmpo thinks that the Bucks still aren't getting the respect that they deserve on a national scale.
"I want to be honest. I feel like at times that we don't get as much respect and it's OK, we haven't earned anything, at the end of the day," Antetokounmpo said recently. Is he correct? Well, he's correct in saying that the Bucks haven't earned anything yet. In reality, Antetokounmpo himself has been getting plenty of respect, as illustrated by the fact that he won the MVP award last season, and could very well make it two straight years.
However, as a whole, the Bucks have proven to be a great regular-season team -- they had the league's best record last season, too -- but they have yet to parlay that into real postseason success. They lost in the first round of the playoffs in 2016-17 and '17-18 before falling in the Eastern Conference finals last season. People feel like they've seen this show before. To get the respect that Antetokounmpo is alluding to, the Bucks will have to prove that they are capable of advancing out of the East, at least. Until then, Antetokounmpo will continue to get a lot of individual respect, but the recognition that his team garners will be tempered.
Verdict: Sell
Buy or Sell: 76ers won't have home-court advantage in the playoffs
Heading into the season, many -- including head coach Brett Brown -- expected the 76ers to compete for the top spot in the East. However, with the All-Star break approaching the Sixers sit sixth, and 11.5 games behind the top-seeded Bucks. If the postseason began today, Philadelphia wouldn't have home-court advantage in any series; which is a concern considering the disparity between how well it has played at home (22-2) compared to on the road (9-17).
With impressive victories over the likes of the Bucks and the Lakers, the Sixers have shown that they can compete with the league's top teams, but barring a complete collapse on Milwaukee's part, the Sixers aren't going to catch up to the Bucks in the standings, and it will be extremely difficult for them to make up ground on any of the other teams in front of them in the conference unless they are able to improve their play on the road; something that they haven't shown the ability to do thus far. The Indiana Pacers, the team directly ahead of the Sixers in the standings, just got All-Star guard Victor Oladipo back for the first time all season, and the other teams -- the Raptors, Heat, and Celtics -- are all deeper, and have all been better, or at least more consistent than the Sixers to this point in the season.
The Sixers are still trying to jell and find a group identity after a major shakeup over the offseason, while it appears that those other contending teams are further along in the chemistry department. They've also all been better on the road than Philadelphia, and it seems unlikely that teams coached by Nick Nurse, Erik Spoelstra and Brad Stevens -- three of the game's most respected minds -- will suffer second-half collapses. Also, Brown has said several times that the Sixers are a team built for postseason play, which means that they'll prioritize health (i.e. resting Embiid and others sporadically) over playoff positioning for the remainder of the regular season, which will make it even more difficult for them to climb up the standings in a surprisingly competitive Eastern Conference.
Verdict: Buy
