Ti’s Four-Point Play: NBA Brothers in Arms
By Ti Windisch
Hey there. Welcome to Ti’s Four-Point Play, my weekly column here at HoopsHabit. Each week, I’ll be exploring four interesting ideas all connected through a central topic. If you missed last week, I covered some of the NBA’s biggest surprises this season. This week I’m more interested in brotherhood than anything else.
The Golden State Warriors have dominated (almost) everything in the NBA this year–even press coverage. And rightfully so. Led by the Splash Brothers in Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, the Warriors have been outstanding and an absolute joy to watch.
But just because Steph and Klay are the biggest brothers in the association right now doesn’t mean that there aren’t others. We’re not talking literally here: everyone knows about the Gasol brothers, the Morris twins and the Dragic brothers. As fun as those families are, they’ve certainly been covered already.
But other sets of figurative brothers really aren’t talked about at all. It’s about time that changed. So in this week’s issue of Ti’s Four-Point Play, I’m going to cover four other sets of NBA brothers that need some recognition.
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There are the Smash Brothers, the Nash Brothers, the Trash Brothers and the Cash Brothers. Although the Splash Brothers are a backcourt, that was not a requirement for these four NBA families. Instead they were chosen based off of being teammates combining for the most (or least) of a certain stat.
There are four different teams represented here: two in the East, and two in the West. There are certainly more brothers to be found out there than just these four sets. There may even be a mini-family on each and every NBA team. But for now we’ll focus on these four sets of brothers.
Without further ado, let’s find out who the most smashing set of teammates in the NBA are this season.
The Smash Brothers – Giannis Antetokounmpo and Greg Monroe
The NBA’s Smash Brothers are the two players who do the most scoring within five feet of the rim on the same team. With Greg Monroe third and Giannis Antetokounmpo eighth in made field goals in that range, they’re the Smash Bros, all right.
And really, it should be no surprise Milwaukee is home to the Smash Brothers. The Bucks are 27th in three-point shots made per game, and although they don’t score much compared to the rest of the NBA, they still put up nearly 96 points per game. Those points have to come from somewhere, and more often then not they’ve come right at the rim.
A large part of why the Bucks are 10-18 this season is their lack of real spacing, which makes it easy for other defenses to clog the lane and keep players like Monroe and Antetokounmpo away from the rim. Despite their opposition’s best efforts however, the Moose and the Greek Freak are still the NBA’s best duo at getting inside.
Both Monroe and Antetokounmpo are currently shooting over 60 percent on those close-range shots, meaning they’re two of the best 20 players to take at least five shots within five feet per game. The Bucks may not be winning many battles right now, but at least they’re doing well at scoring in the paint.
Monroe and Antetokounmpo are brothers through a shared love for smash-mouth basketball, but what about a pair of teammates who enjoy more finesse at times?
The Nash Brothers – Draymond Green and Stephen Curry
The Nash Brothers are the two players in the NBA who have the most assists per game on the same team. These two get their name from Steve Nash, one of the best NBA point guards in NBA history. Nash is one of only five players in the 10,000 assist club, so one could say he’s fairly synonymous with great passing.
Surprisingly enough, one of the Splash Brothers is present in this family too, as Stephen Curry joins Draymond Green near the top of the assists per game leaderboard. Even more surprisingly, the reigning MVP is not leading his own team in assists! Green holds that honor, and thus is the older of the two Nash Bros.
These two combine for a whopping 13.3 assists per game–not too shabby considering one of them is a starting power forward, and the other leads the NBA in scoring. Both Green and Curry would be talented players without their passing ability, but having that extra edge is what sets Golden State apart from other teams.
Although he may rub many opposing teams the wrong way, nobody can deny just how great Draymond Green has been all over the court this season. Green is tied for the NBA lead in triple-doubles with four, and recently recorded a 5×5 game, which hadn’t been done since 2012.
Playing the majority of his minutes at power forward and center and still managing to be seventh in the association in assists is remarkable. There just haven’t been many players throughout NBA history that have had the kind of varied skill-set Green does.
Curry obviously works miracles with his shot and distribution skills as well, but without Green’s versatility there’s no way Golden State would be quite this good. Luckily for Warriors fans, they don’t have to choose between one or the other–they get both of the Nash Brothers.
These Warriors are some of the best players in the entire association. These next players are…not.
The Trash Brothers – Roy Hibbert, Nick Young, Kobe Bryant and Lou Williams
The Los Angeles Lakers are really bad this season. So bad, in fact, I couldn’t pick just two of them to be the NBA Trash Brothers (the teammates with the worst net rating in the association this season).
For this family, rookies and sophomores were discounted–many young guys struggle at first, and young players like Jahlil Okafor and D’Angelo Russell aren’t really trash.
But these four of Russell’s teammates have been. Roy Hibbert, Nick “Swaggy P” Young, Kobe Bryant and Lou Williams are the second through fifth-worst players in the NBA according to net rating, respectively. Only Aron Baynes has been worse than this set of quadruplets in the last few months of 2015.
Really, the whole Lakers roster might be eligible for Trash Brother status. Brandon Bass, one of the few other Laker veterans to get playing time, is seventh-worst in the association. Things are pretty bad in Los Angeles, but at least there are some promising young players who aren’t (yet) Trash Bros.
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Unfortunately though, right now the Trash Brothers run things. With their Trash Cousin Brandon Bass, Hibbert, Young, Bryant and Williams have been steadily getting blown out of the gym most nights. Tank Commander and honorary Trash Daddy Byron Scott must be thrilled with the results he’s gotten thus far.
Hopefully as early as next year the Lakers actually start relying on their young, exciting talent. As fun as it is for fans of other teams to watch the storied Los Angeles Lakers struggle, it’s not good for the NBA for teams to be as bad as the Lakers and 76ers have been for long.
Talking too much about the 2015-16 Los Angeles Lakers can be depressing. Luckily, there are some NBA players who have millions of reasons to stay happy.
The Cash Brothers – Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade
The Cash Brothers are the two NBA teammates who make the most money this season, combined. Thanks to Dwyane Wade getting a huge one-year deal in the offseason, that honor belongs to he and Chris Bosh on the Miami Heat.
With Bosh earning just over $22 million and Wade making $20 million on the dot, these two must not worry too much about who covers the bill when they go out to eat together. Both Bosh and Wade have had long, successful careers, and they have the bank accounts and ring collections to prove it.
Obviously neither of these players is focused on the former more than the latter, but it must be nice to get rewarded by a franchise with the kind of massive contracts that were given to Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. They’ve in turn rewarded Miami with stellar play for many years in return for the big bucks the two stars have received.
Of course the version of the Heat that included LeBron James was better than the teams anchored around just Bosh and Wade, but Miami has continued to add good pieces and form quality teams around their high-priced franchise players.
The Cash Brothers will probably be a different set of teammates on a different team this time next season considering the massive salary cap jump and Wade’s deal expiring yet again, but who knows.
For now, the important thing is that Bosh and Wade are getting the biggest checks out of any teammates this season. The fact that their names rhyme with Posh and Paid might just be a coincidence, but it sure is fitting!
Next: Every NBA Team's Star Wars Counterpart
That’s all for this article, but I don’t think these are all of the NBA families out there. There are a whole lot more words that rhyme with Splash…maybe I’ll have to go through even more NBA brothers at some point.
If you can think of any great families that I’ve missed, feel free to send me a tweet or leave a comment below!