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The DeAnd'Rankings: Season 2, Volume III

Remember when last season took a 5 month break, gave 8 teams an 8-month offseason, put a bunch of teams into a fan-less quarantine, allowed players to opt out of the end of the season + playoffs, played games in mid-afternoon, squished the schedule, and we thought "this is the weirdest season the NBA is ever gonna see?"

Well, this year is already weirder. Between Harden finally getting dealt, Kyrie Irving disappearing for personal reasons and then word getting out that he's basically just hanging out and not playing basketball, the Toronto Raptors playing all of their home games in Tampa, multiple teams having 5+ players out at a time due to COVID, games being canceled, half the season not getting scheduled at all yet, the Knicks and Cavs winning games early in the season, the growing realization that the NBA stats-people are giving out assists for almost any play where someone passes the ball to another player within the 24-second shot clock, seeing scoring outbursts from guys who are only playing because their team was at the minimum threshold for active players, and Ben Simmons somehow getting worse on offense, this season has been bizarre beyond belief. And it's probably going to get weirder. 

But if we can focus on the positives for just a minute: We are once again seeing LeBron hold off the effects of time (side note, he's playing in back-to-backs. Do we think this is because he wants to play as many games as possible in order to pursue all-time records? It's gotta be, right?). We're seeing LaMelo Ball live up to the hype. We're seeing Kevin Durant look like Kevin Durant again. We're seeing Myles Turner blocking 4+ shots per game while the Pacers wreck teams. And of course, like always, we're seeing more than half the East have a losing record. 

Despite all the insanity - and there's FAR more than what I've listed above - this is a pretty cool NBA season so far. Yes, you have to accept the occasional blowout, but you also get to see the thrill of Miami taking a top-tier (and healthy!) Philadelphia team to overtime in a game where the Heat needed Max Strus to play 24 minutes off the bench. Max Strus played well! He is in his 2nd year in the NBA and has never had a contract that wasn't a 2-way deal. Gabe Vincent, also a 2-way player in his 2nd year, started that game for Miami and scored 24. The Heat even had the lead with 10 seconds left in regulation, but a Joel Embiid pull-up jumper sent it to overtime.

This season is still cool guys, I promise.

With all that behind us, let's see what the Committee has to say about this week's DeAndres.


The DeAnd'Rankings: Season 2, Volume III

4. DeAndre' Bembry

Not much to report here. Bembry has slipped to the bottom of the pack both in the DeAnd'Rankings as well as in the Raptors' rotation. If contact tracing leaves the Raptors wildly short-handed he may get some run, but otherwise it's not looking good.

3. DeAndre Jordan

It's getting really tight in the 1-2-3 race around here. DJ was looking like a clear 3rd place when he was effectively benched last week, and then Brooklyn traded their best center (and their 3rd best player and 2 other guys and 400 or so draft picks) for James Harden, which means DJ is back to getting starter minutes? It's very confusing. In any case, he did have a nice game in that lag game between the trade and Harden's arrival, so maybe he still has some bounce? He can rim-run for Harden and get rebounds, and that's really all they need him for. He could move up in the next couple of weeks.

2. De'Andre Hunter

The Hawks have a good one, as it turns out. Hunter is a really solid wing player on a team that is loaded with wing players. He's going to benefit a little from the Bogdan Bogdanovic injury, but outside of that his rebounding and defense are continuing to improve. The only thing he's missing is shot-creation ability, but it looks like it's coming. Also if he would've gone 3-7 from deep instead of 1-7 against Charlotte last week, that could've been enough to bump him up to #1. It's that close.

1. Deandre Ayton

Ayton lands at #1 almost by default this week. He laid an egg against the god-awful Wizards, but he also had a 3-game stretch of 16, 13, and 14 rebounds, and he's grabbed at least 2 offensive boards every game after the 1st of the season. Deandre Ayton is not the guy I would've expected to fall victim to "there's only 1 ball" this season, but that seems to be where he is so far. It'll come around, I'm sure, and until then he'll just keep snatching up rebounds and running the floor. 


2020-2021 SEASON STANDINGS

4. DeAndre' Bembry - 3 points
3. DeAndre Jordan - 7 points
2. De'Andre Hunter - 9 points
1. Deandre Ayton - 10 points

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