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What's the story?
After an NBA All-Star game that lacked any effort on defense, the NBA decided to shake things up and try a new format where the top two vote-getters would be the captains and draft their teams. Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today revealed one of the captains' (LeBron James) top four picks via Twitter on Sunday evening.
In case you didn't know...
The 2017 NBA All-Star Game was widely regarded as a disaster that ended up with a score of 192-182. Players didn't show much effort on defense, and that allowed Anthony Davis to break the ASG record for points with 52.
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The heart of the matter
LeBron took his NBA Finals nemesis over the past three years in Kevin Durant first and followed it up with one of the best power forwards in the game, a former teammate, and another big from New Orleans.
Durant is a no-brainer with the first pick as he is a definite top 5 player in the league. LeBron took Anthony Davis with his second pick, and the Pelican is having a great season as he's third in the league in scoring (27.4 PPG) and second in the league in blocks (2.12 BPG).
To further quell the rumors of animosity between James and former teammate Kyrie Irving, LeBron took the Boston guard with his third pick. Irving has led the team to the second-best record in the Eastern Conference after losing star guard Gordon Hayward six minutes into the season.
With his fourth pick, James took DeMarcus Cousins, who unfortunately was unable to play due to an Achilles injury that ended his season last month. To honor Cousins, David wore his jersey in the first series of the game.
What's next?
The NBA will be on a break until Thursday, February 22 when there are six games on the schedule, including a doubleheader on TNT when Washington takes on Cleveland and the LA Clippers take on Golden State.
Author's take
With the exception of Cousins, LeBron's picks panned out as they got the win. The biggest part was the guys he drafted played hard on defense on the final possession where they didn't even allow Team Steph to get a shot off.
