Four Corners: Who's the second-best player in the East?

LeBron James is mad right now — very, very mad! — and the Cleveland Cavaliers have been struggling enough of late that they find themselves looking for answers in some very odd places. But even amid the relative turmoil of a 7-8 January — and, most notably, the fact that LeBron is leading the league in minutes and playing more than he has since leaving Miami, which was totally not the plan — the fact remains that the Cavs are the class of the Eastern Conference, and LeBron its clear best player, until proven otherwise.

Sometimes, though, it is nice to look away from seeming inevitability and focus on other things and people who are good. Who else is good in the East? Like, really, really good?

The topic for this week’s Four Corners roundtable: Who’s the second-best player in the Eastern Conference? Here’s who the BDL staff picked; let’s hear your choices in the comments.

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Jimmy Butler, Chicago Bulls

In the absence of leadership, a winning record, good cheer, and basic basketball tact, we bring you Jimmy Butler: Second-Best Player in the East.

At this point in his season, JB is best known for his significant role in the strife that has plagued the Bulls of late, part of the two-man chorus with Dwyane Wade that not only likes to chortle from the sidelines at Bulls shootarounds each day, but pitch an itch in the locker room after embarrassing losses to the likes of the Atlanta Hawks.

What was worrying in 2015-16, as an emerging Butler chafed alongside holdovers Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose, has now become obvious in 2016-17: Butler, at this point in his career, is not fit to lead a good basketball team. Mark Wahlberg told him he was a good boy, and it all went to hell after that.

With those failings in place, Butler is left to rely on a rather enviable batch of hallmarks. Name anyone in the East up to and including LeBron, and JB probably has their number in a one-on-one game.

His ball-handling outpaces Giannis Antetokounmpo in the half-court and in an individual battle, and it especially makes Paul George’s perimeter work pale in comparison. He has the length and sturdiness to outlast John Wall or Isaiah Thomas. His defense shames that of DeMar DeRozan, and what is Kyle Lowry if not a mini-Jimmy Butler?

(Goodness, I hope Kyle Lowry never reads this.)

Friday’s insipid, obvious showing in a similarly embarrassing loss to Miami (1-for-13 shooting, three points) following The Great Chicago Outrage dimmed Butler’s averages to 24.5 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.8 steals per game. But he remains a perfect amalgamation of all you’d want from a combination of the candidates for the East’s answer to Deborah Kerr.

You can write the Bulls off while still thinking they’ll make some noise this season. This group can still make the playoffs and take a team like the Cavaliers to seven games in the first round, in a series to which we’d all pay diligent and strict attention before completely forgetting that it ever took place by the time the Conference Finals start. The Bulls, and Butler, will be long gone by then.

Jimmy Butler is the reason why the Chicago Bulls get to talk out of both sides of its mouth. For better, or worse. — Kelly Dwyer

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John Wall, Washington Wizards

It can be frustrating to expect so much of a young player and see him fulfill enough of his potential to impress but not so much as to satisfy. For several years, Wall has been that guy. The No. 1 pick in the 2010 draft joined the Wizards as a potential franchise-changer, a point guard with the skills to be elite at both ends and the athleticism to help redefine the position. Yet Wall’s first six seasons featured enough injuries to derail his ascent, and he rated as merely very good, not great, despite making the Eastern Conference All-Star team in each of the three seasons before this one.

Wall now looks like the player he was always meant to be. After a rough start to the Wizards season, he has led a surge up the standings and into fourth place in the East, which would be the franchise’s highest finish since 1979. Wall has always been worth watching, but the maturation process has made him look like the best player on the floor on a consistent basis. He now knows how to change speeds, has a more consistent jumper, and produces in crunch time.

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The question now is how much better he can be. Wall is setting career highs in points (22.9), assists (10.3) and steals (2.2) per game, as well as field goal percentage (46.2 percent), usage rate (30.6 percent), and Player Efficiency Rating (23.5). Those are great numbers, but they also put him on the level of a perennial All-Star rather than one of the league’s handful of elite talents. Is this his ceiling? Or, at 26 years old, does he have at least one more jump still to make? — Eric Freeman

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Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks

​Honestly, we’ve covered the rise of the “Greek Freak” from inexperienced sensation to sensational experience so much that it feels like there isn’t much more to say. He’s a 6-foot-11 point forward who still leads his team in every major statistical category, submitting averages of 23.4 points, 8.7 rebounds, 5.5 assists, two blocks and 1.8 steals a night — numbers matched since the NBA began recording blocks only by a dude named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Giannis finished seventh in Most Improved Player voting in 2014-15 and third last year. He was our unanimous pick for this season’s award in December, and there’s still so much more room for him to grow into that freakishly long frame that he could very well be in the running again next year.

As he stands now, Antetokounmpo’s ability to get to and finish at the rim is almost unparalleled, and nobody his size creates more points in the passing game. (He generates nearly as many points per game via direct assist as Kemba Walker and Damian Lillard.) Defensively, his 7-foot-3 wingspan and ability to close out to the 3-point line in one stride creates all sorts of problems, everywhere, for opponents both big and small. All of this adds up to a Value Over Replacement Player that trails only Most Valuable Player favorites Russell Westbrook and James Harden.

And he’s 22 Greak Freakin’ years old. If his perimeter shooting catches up to the rest of his skills — and why shouldn’t it, considering his Sports Illustrated cover story detailed a rage that still keeps him in a church gym until all hours of the night after a disappointing performance — there’s nobody more capable of seizing the East throne from an aging LeBron, evidenced best by the 30-10-5-5-2 line he posted in a win over the Cavaliers earlier this season. — Ben Rohrbach

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Kyle Lowry, Toronto Raptors

To be honest, right this second, I agree with Eric. Once again healthy and in form, Wall is on a breathtaking run for the surging Wizards, pairing highlight-reel excellence with more subtle next-level playmaking to keep Washington’s offense humming while also serving as a disruptive on- and off-ball defender on the other end of the court. (And, if we were talking only one end of the court, it’d be awfully tough not pick the unstoppable Isaiah Thomas. That other end, though …)

Still, though, I feel compelled to give the nod to Lowry, who’s had a strong argument for Best Guard in the Conference for four years running and who continues to do more than ever, better than ever, for a Raptors team whose rise to NBA prominence has dovetailed pretty neatly with its point guard coming into his own.

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Lowry’s averaging a career-best 23.1 points, seven assists and 4.8 rebounds in 37.5 minutes per game, leading the NBA’s No. 2-ranked offense. Toronto has outscored opponents by 9.5 points per 100 possessions in more than 1,800 minutes with Lowry on the court this season, and been outscored by five points-per-100 in the 565 minutes he’s been off it. In terms of per-possession performance, the Raptors are the Spurs with Kyle Lowry, and the Suns without him. That’s some freaking difference.

Lowry’s playmaking, shooting and tough defense have made him the linchpin of two of the NBA’s 10 most dominant five-man lineups. Among groups that have played at least 100 total minutes, only two units (the Cavs’ starters with DeAndre Liggins on the wing and the Wizards’ starters) have outscored opponents to a greater degree than the unit of Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Jonas Valanciunas, Patrick Patterson and DeMarre Carroll, while the “Lowry And The Bench” crew (Lowry, Patterson, Cory Joseph, Lucas “Bebe” Nogueira and Terrence Ross) has roasted teams by more than 14 points-per-100.

He leads the East in 3-pointers made and attempted, shooting a blistering 42.9 percent from long distance on 7.7 attempts per night — both career highs. He’s fourth in the conference in assists and seventh in steals, and advanced stats love him; he’s second only to Chris Paul in Real Plus-Minus, trails only Harden in “RPM Wins” (an estimate of how many wins a player has directly contributed to his team’s total this season), and sits tied with LeBron for fifth in VORP, behind only Russell Westbrook, Harden, Antetokounmpo and Kevin Durant. And if you hate stats, and prefer to throw your support not behind players whose numbers look best on a spreadsheet but behind those who fight, scratch and claw for every inch of real estate on the court … well, just watch Kyle Lowry work through screens and go after loose balls sometime.

Right now, today, if I had to pick one Eastern Conference player to rely on to win one game and I couldn’t pick LeBron, I’d probably pick Wall. If I couldn’t, though, I’d be more than OK going into battle with Lowry, the kind of player who rarely generates jaw-dropping highlights, but who always makes Raptors fans feel like they’ve got a shot. — Dan Devine

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