{"id":1875495,"date":"2026-04-10T09:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1875495"},"modified":"2026-04-10T09:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:30:12","slug":"lamelo-ball-nickeil-alexander-walker-lead-my-nba-post-all-star-breakout-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1875495","title":{"rendered":"LaMelo Ball, Nickeil Alexander-Walker lead my NBA Post-All-Star Breakout Team"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

There\u2019s accepting your role, and then there\u2019s accepting that it will always<\/em> be your role.<\/p>\n

Take the Atlanta Hawks\u2019 Nickeil Alexander-Walker, for example. Former teammates and coaches say he blossomed with the Minnesota Timberwolves partly because he accepted his role as a secondary weapon rather than trying to be a high-usage scorer, something he struggled to do well when he came into the league in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

That part is totally true, but I\u2019m not sure Alexander-Walker ever accepted that was his ceiling. In his first year as a Hawk, he\u2019s showing why.<\/p>\n

The player who averaged 9.4 points per game with Minnesota in his sixth pro season has shockingly more than doubled that in Year 7. Yes, Alexander-Walker averaged 20.1 points per game in the first half of the season to help the Hawks offset the absence of Trae Young for all but 10 games, and he threw in stellar defense on top of it, quickly establishing himself as a Most Improved Player candidate.<\/p>\n

But then March came around \u2026 and Alexander-Walker really <\/em>took off.<\/p>\n

Atlanta has won 18 of its last 22 games, including a 15-2 mark in March that won teammate Jalen Johnson Eastern Conference Player of the Month honors. But the real story in Atlanta is the heater Alexander-Walker has been on over the last five weeks. Yes, the Hawks have taken advantage of a soft stretch of schedule, but can we talk about the fact that this dude hasn\u2019t missed a shot in over a month?<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

<\/span>
\n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n

I\u2019m only slightly exaggerating. In 18 games since March 4, Alexander-Walker is averaging 24.4 points per game with a 72.3(!) true shooting percentage. The leaderboard in this category is a bunch of centers who only shoot dunks and Alexander-Walker, who is bombing contested pull-up jumpers as the Hawks\u2019 second option behind Johnson and knocking down everything<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In that stretch, more than half of his shots have come beyond the arc, where he\u2019s made 49.0 percent of them, while also shooting 60.6 percent on 2s. It hasn\u2019t just been the Wizards and Nets of the world that felt his wrath: He dropped a career-high 41 points in a crucial win over the Orlando Magic and hung 36 on the New York Knicks in a tough loss Monday.<\/p>\n

These aren\u2019t catch-and-shoot fungoes he\u2019s hitting, either. Alexander-Walker has done a lot of his work on the ball and off the dribble, using his size and high release to cook defenders even when he hasn\u2019t cleanly beat them. He\u2019s taken eight 3-pointers a game in this stretch, mostly from above the break.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Quietly, he\u2019s also become a money foul shooter. Alexander-Walker shot 78 percent from the line in Minnesota a year ago; this year, he\u2019s at 90.2 percent for the Hawks and 94.6 percent in his torrid stretch since March 4. In other words, the player who might have been the league\u2019s Most Improved Player through the end of February is also arguably the league\u2019s most improved in-season<\/em> player since the start of March.<\/p>\n

Signed for the midlevel exception to be a third guard, he\u2019s instead had an epic breakout. If there were a Free Agent Signing of the Year award, he\u2019d claim that prize. (Atlanta has him on the books for just $29.6 million over the next two years before his 2028 player option.)<\/p>\n

That also makes Alexander-Walker the captain of my Post-All-Star Breakout Team. Here are 10 others who haven\u2019t received enough shine for how they\u2019ve played in the stretch run. (Stats and records are entering Thursday\u2019s games.)<\/p>\n

Darius Garland, Clippers<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s usually hard for high-usage players to adjust to a new team right away; even the best normally see their numbers take a hit, especially when they change teams midseason.<\/p>\n

Not Darius Garland. All of his stats are massively better with the Clippers than they were in his 25 games with Cleveland, virtually mirroring the All-Star numbers he put up in 2024-25. Obviously, Garland\u2019s full recovery from a toe injury has been a huge part of the story, but he\u2019s still outkicked his coverage even relative to previous seasons. In 17 games with the Clippers, Garland is shooting 45.8 percent from 3 on career-high volume, dropping 41.8 percent of his 2s and averaging more than two assists for every turnover.<\/p>\n

Garland\u2019s 62.3 true shooting percentage as a Clipper would be a career high, and he\u2019s doing so on career-best usage (30.3). All of this is hugely encouraging for a Clippers team that made an old-for-young swap (James Harden for Garland) in the hopes that Garland could replicate The Beard\u2019s prolific production. So far, the Clippers are winning the bet.<\/p>\n

\n

a.showcase-link-container {
\n display: flex;
\n gap: 20px;
\n flex-direction: column;
\n align-items: center;
\n padding: 20px 0px;
\n border-top: 1px solid rgba(150, 150, 147, 0.4);
\n border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(150, 150, 147, 0.4);
\n text-decoration: none;
\n color: #121212;
\n cursor: pointer;<\/p>\n

.showcase-link {
\n font-family: nyt-franklin;
\n font-size: 14px;
\n font-style: normal;
\n font-weight: 700;
\n line-height: 13.8px;
\n letter-spacing: 1.1px;
\n text-transform: uppercase;
\n }<\/p>\n

.showcase-link-image {
\n border-radius: 8px;
\n object-fit: cover;
\n width: 200px;
\n height: 150px;
\n margin: 0px;
\n @media (max-width: 600px) {
\n width: 120px;
\n height: 120px;
\n }
\n }<\/p>\n

.showcase-link-inner-content {
\n display: flex;
\n flex-direction: row;
\n gap: 16px;
\n width: 100%;
\n }<\/p>\n

.showcase-link-text-content {
\n display: flex;
\n flex-direction: column;
\n gap: 20px;
\n justify-content: center;
\n @media (max-width: 600px) {
\n gap: 8px;
\n }
\n }<\/p>\n

.showcase-link-title {
\n font-family: nyt-cheltenham;
\n font-size: 24px;
\n font-style: normal;
\n font-weight: 500;
\n line-height: 120%; \/* 24px *\/
\n letter-spacing: 0.01px;
\n text-overflow: ellipsis;
\n overflow: hidden;
\n display: -webkit-box;
\n -webkit-box-orient: vertical;
\n -webkit-line-clamp: 3;
\n @media (max-width: 600px) {
\n font-size: 16px;
\n }
\n }<\/p>\n

.showcase-link-excerpt {
\n font-family: nyt-imperial;
\n font-size: 16px;
\n font-style: normal;
\n font-weight: 400;
\n line-height: 139%; \/* 19.46px *\/
\n color: #323232;
\n text-overflow: ellipsis;
\n overflow: hidden;
\n display: -webkit-box;
\n -webkit-box-orient: vertical;
\n -webkit-line-clamp: 4;
\n @media (max-width: 600px) {
\n font-size: 12px;
\n line-height: 121%;
\n }
\n }
\n}<\/p>\n

.showcase-link-inputs {
\n .showcase-link-input {
\n width: 100%;
\n font-size: 1rem;
\n background-color: white;
\n margin-bottom: 12px;
\n }<\/p>\n

.showcase-link-indent {
\n margin-left: 25px;
\n }<\/p>\n

option {
\n width: 100%;
\n }
\n}<\/p>\n

@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
\n .native-mobile a.showcase-link-container {
\n background-color: #121212;
\n color: #f0f0ee;
\n .showcase-link-excerpt {
\n color: #c4c4c0;
\n }
\n }
\n}<\/p>\n

\/\/ Remove all onclicks on imgs for apps to prevent image zoom on click
\n document.querySelectorAll(‘.showcase-link-image’).forEach((img) => img.removeAttribute(‘onclick’));<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
\n \"Darius<\/p>\n
\n
\n Darius Garland knew his Cavaliers days were numbered. Now, he\u2019s embracing L.A.\n <\/div>\n
\n In an exclusive interview with The Athletic, Garland opened up on his journey to the Clippers and how Dave Chappelle shaped his future.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Gui Santos, Warriors<\/h2>\n

Golden State\u2019s midseason contract extension<\/a> for Gui Santos is already looking like a screaming bargain (three years, $15 million, with a 2028 player option). That came with a bit of extra trade maneuverability from Golden State\u2019s side. (Santos\u2019 extension puts an extra $4.5 million in tradable salary on the Warriors\u2019 books, which in turn assures they have enough outbound salary to execute a potential Giannis Antetokounmpo trade without waiting on any other players to make decisions on player options or sign-and-trades. While Santos can\u2019t be traded until Aug. 28, a deal could be agreed to long before then.) But the primary motivation was Santos\u2019 seamless fit in the Warriors\u2019 cutting, moving offense.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In his third pro season, Santos has added enough skill and sanded down the rough edges to the point where he\u2019s moved beyond \u201cscrappy hustler\u201d to \u201ckey rotation piece.\u201d He\u2019s become a much more aggressive offensive player and gets most of his shots at the rim, which is why he\u2019s shooting 65.3 percent inside the arc; Santos is also one of the best passers at his position (5.4 dimes per 100 possessions) and a respectable shooting threat.<\/p>\n

Since the All-Star break, Santos has started 20 of the Warriors\u2019 22 games and averaged 16.4 points, 5.8 boards and 3.9 assists, and his efficiency (60.8 true shooting percentage) hasn\u2019t suffered. That makes Santos yet another hit on a late Warriors draft pick (he was selected 55th in 2022), and on a team waging annual battles against the tax-apron dragons, his locked-in salary looks like a major plus.<\/p>\n

LaMelo Ball, Hornets<\/h2>\n

Stop the presses: LaMelo Ball has played 70 games this season! That alone would be a story after he averaged just 35 a year over the previous three seasons.<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s also gained steam as the year has worn on. Following a sluggish start and early-season trade rumors, Ball has keyed the Hornets\u2019 shocking surge into the postseason. He leads the NBA in offensive rating since the break, with the Hornets scoring a torrid 127.9 points per 100 when he plays. This is more notable because the Hornets\u2019 offense stagnates without him, and that\u2019s been the case all season; Charlotte scores just 110.4 points per 100 in the non-Ball minutes.<\/p>\n

The eye test also looks kindly on Ball; his formerly sluggish defensive habits have improved noticeably. He\u2019s also shown more craft as a short-range finisher than we\u2019ve seen in previous seasons, especially with decel steps.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t heard him get a lot of shine for end-of-season honors, but Ball has played enough games to be eligible (!) and should be a candidate for Third-Team All-NBA.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n Saddiq Bey has bounced back nicely from his torn ACL. (Darren Yamashita \/ Imagn Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Saddiq Bey, Pelicans<\/h2>\n

Welp, the \u201cJordan Poole\u201d part of the Jordan Poole trade hasn\u2019t worked out so well \u2026 but the Saddiq Bey piece could hardly have gone better.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

After missing all of last season with a torn ACL, Bey has quietly been a revelation in New Orleans after the Wizards sent him and Poole there in the offseason for CJ McCollum. If the league still had a Comeback Player of the Year award, Bey would be a shoo-in. The 6-foot-8 forward has played 72 games and started 64 of them, and what was already an impressive resurgence has gone to another level since the All-Star break.<\/p>\n

Post-break, Bey is averaging 20.0 points per game and shooting 40.0 percent from 3, while dialing his usage rate way past his previous career highs. He hung 42 on the remnants of Utah\u2019s roster and has eleven straight games with at least 15 points.<\/p>\n

For the season, Bey\u2019s 17.2 PER and 57.9 true shooting percentage mash his former bests, recharging a career that has seemed stalled out even before the injury. Best of all, for a Pels team that has major cap and tax issues, Bey is a solid starter on the books for just $6.4 million next season \u2026 a figure that almost offsets the $34 million in dead money on Poole.<\/p>\n

Precious Achiuwa, Kings<\/h2>\n

In honor of Canada\u2019s finest songstress<\/a>, isn\u2019t it ironic that the exclamation point on Precious Achiuwa\u2019s career resurrection came in his 28-point, 19-rebound eruption at Toronto that may have fatally wounded Toronto\u2019s hopes of getting the East\u2019s fifth seed?<\/p>\n

The former Raptor, who wasn\u2019t even on a roster at the start of the season, ended up in Sacramento after the Kings realized they forgot to sign any power forwards in the offseason. And as the Kings\u2019 season went off the rails, Achiuwa\u2019s career got back on track.<\/p>\n

For those of you who haven\u2019t been watching a lot of Kings games the past several weeks, Achiuwa is averaging 15.7 points and 9.3 rebounds on 59.6 percent true shooting since the All-Star break. No, seriously. In that time, the Kings have been shockingly competent when Achiuwa plays (just a minus-3.0 net rating) and mercilessly thrashed when he sits (minus-19.1).<\/p>\n

Suffice it to say that I don\u2019t think Achiuwa will be unsigned on opening day of 2026-27. Because Sacramento signed him to a one-year deal with no options for next season (but still allowed him to do irreparable harm to its draft position by staying in the lineup), Achiuwa will be an unrestricted free agent who, at 26 years old, should get a lot of attention.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Matisse Thybulle, Trail Blazers<\/h2>\n

You may have missed this because Matisse Thybulle missed all but four games in the first half of the season, but he\u2019s been back for 24 games and doing his post-impressionist sleight-of-hand tricks as well as ever.<\/p>\n

Thybulle has posted an unbelievable, incomprehensible 5.9 percent steal rate in his 454 minutes, which would nearly double that of the league leader in this category, Detroit\u2019s Ausar Thompson. Meanwhile, despite playing on the wing, Thybulle also has a 2.7 percent block rate that would rank in the league\u2019s top 30 if he had enough minutes. Between the two categories, Thybulle remains the NBA\u2019s \u201cstocks\u201d gawd; his combined 7.6 percent rate is the best of any non-center and nearly matches his career-best from his second season in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

To underscore this, consider that Thybulle is only averaging 16.2 minutes per game, yet has still recorded at least one steal in 25 of his 28 appearances. And he\u2019s not just padding his steals rate on reckless gambles, either. The Blazers sport a microscopic 99.5 defensive rating in his minutes, compared to 115.0 when he\u2019s off the floor.<\/p>\n

File this away if the Blazers manage to squeeze into the playoffs. Thybulle remains as disruptive a defender as any player in the sport, and he\u2019s entering his free-agent year.<\/p>\n

Jaylin Williams, Thunder<\/h2>\n

The last thing the league needs is another Oklahoma City developmental success story. Welp, I\u2019m afraid I have some bad news.<\/p>\n

On Feb. 25, I went to Detroit and watched a Thunder roster that was resting most of its stars take on the Pistons; the Thunder lost, but I was stunned to see Jaylin Williams finish with 30 points and 11 rebounds. Sure, that was an outlier, but it was less \u201cout\u201d than you might think. He scored 29 in a key win over the Denver Nuggets and put up a 17-6-6 line on the Chicago Bulls.<\/p>\n

Since the All-Star break, especially, Williams has been launching 3s with confidence, operating slick dribble-handoffs with his guards and taking charges with his usual aplomb. (Williams has drawn 17 charges in just 1,277 minutes this season, according to pbpstats.com, which is the highest rate in the league.)<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Williams\u2019 top five scoring games and top seven rebounding games have all come since the beginning of February. Some of that is due to minutes and opportunity, but he\u2019s also been way more efficient: Since the All-Star break, he has a true shooting percentage of 70.7. This isn\u2019t just a tiny smattering of attempts, either: He\u2019s a scorching 62-of-129 (48.1 percent) from 3 since Feb. 1.<\/p>\n

Williams has long been regarded as a high-character leader who has unusual juice in the locker room for a young, third-string center. But now he\u2019s something teams like even more: a character guy who can play. Williams\u2019 three-year, $24 million extension that kicked in this season looks like another smart move by the Thunder.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n Paul Reed gives Detroit a better option than many as a third center. (Mike Watters \/ Imagn Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Paul Reed, Pistons<\/h2>\n

Like I wasn\u2019t going to mention this.<\/p>\n

Do you realize how good B-ball Paul has been in the second half of the season? He\u2019s shooting 61 percent since the All-Star break, averaging a \u201cstock\u201d every 7.5 minutes and scoring at a high enough rate that he\u2019s been able to hit double figures in fewer than 20 minutes nine times since Feb. 1.<\/p>\n

For the year, Reed would rank seventh in the NBA in PER if he had enough minutes to qualify. By BPM, he\u2019d still be 11th. It\u2019s not like he\u2019s padding the numbers against other teams\u2019 backups either. In 10 games as a starter, he has a plus-10-per-100 net rating and a Thybulle-esque 37 \u201cstocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Theoretically Detroit\u2019s third center, Reed is better than 90 percent of the league\u2019s backups and a fair number of the starters and is signed for the mere sum of $5.6 million for next season. Isaiah Stewart\u2019s return may see him consigned to a limited role in the postseason, but if he\u2019s called into service, keep an eye on Reed making a big impact.<\/p>\n

Ty Jerome, Grizzlies<\/h2>\n

Wahoowa! Between injuries and, um, \u201cinjuries\u201d (tank you very much), it\u2019s been a brief season for Ty Jerome. But when he played, he was a revelation, showcasing all the skill that made him such a tough cover in Cleveland despite his not-exactly-daunting footspeed.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Jerome only played 15 games, but he averaged nearly a point a minute when he played. Yes, a point a minute: He played 22.6 minutes per game and scored 19.7 a game, devastating opponents both with his funky floater game inside the arc and his 42 percent 3-point shooting from beyond. Did I mention he also averaged more than three assists for every turnover?<\/p>\n

Between all that, Jerome\u2019s 25.7 PER for his small season sample is in superstar territory. Obviously, we can\u2019t quite expect that <\/em>for a full season, but if he\u2019s healthy next year, Jerome can make a massive impact in Memphis (or elsewhere).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s accepting your role, and then there\u2019s accepting that it will always be your role. Take the Atlanta Hawks\u2019 Nickeil Alexander-Walker, for example. Former teammates and coaches say he blossomed with the Minnesota Timberwolves partly because he accepted his role as a secondary weapon rather than trying to be a high-usage scorer, something he struggled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1875495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1875495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1875495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1875495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1875495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1875495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1875495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}