NBA Second-Quarter Awards: Net...

Except for the Sacramento Kings, every NBA club has now played at least 40 games. According to NBA.com's John Schuhmann, more than 615 of the 1,230 regular-season games were completed as of Tuesday night. That means we've reached the midpoint of the 2022-23 NBA season, which can only mean one thing:

It's time to distribute some gear that is totally theoretical, transitory, and difficult to put on your mantel. It's time for Second-Quarter Awards, my dear friends. Before we begin, please keep in mind that these choices are not predictions of which players or teams will win the NBA's official awards at the end of the season.

Team of the Quarter: Brooklyn Nets

What a difference a couple of months makes. After opening the season 2-6 amid on-court dysfunction and off-court controversies, the Nets got healthier, stopped shooting themselves in the foot, and started shooting the lights out. In the process, Brooklyn righted the ship, saved its season and finally transformed into the devastating collective we’d hoped it one day might.

The Nets have gone an NBA-best 19-4 since our last check-in, outscoring opponents by 7.6 points per 100 non-garbage-time possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass — the league’s second-best net rating in that span, behind only the Grizzlies. Kevin Durant ascended to a ludicrous-even-for-him level of offensive efficiency, averaging 29.2 points per game while shooting 65% on 2-pointers (despite one of the toughest shot diets in the sport), 40.4% from 3-point land and 95.3% from the free-throw line. Kyrie Irving returned from suspension and fit snugly into his role as an offensive 1A, averaging 26-5-5 on 50/40/90 shooting splits.

Player of the Quarter: Nikola Jokic, Nuggets

I almost went with Durant, in acknowledgment of how transcendent he’s been during Brooklyn’s rise. I thought hard about going with Joel Embiid, who has missed a half-dozen games in this stretch, but who’s been absolutely sensational when he’s on the court, putting up just under 35-10-5 a night on 54/42/87 shooting while anchoring a near-top-five defense for the ascendant Sixers. I considered a repeat vote for Luka Doncic, who followed up his Q1 win by averaging 35-8-9 on .623 true shooting while effectively carrying the Mavericks to the No. 4 spot in the West.

Rookie of the Quarter: Paolo Banchero, Magic

Our first repeat winner! The No. 1 overall pick’s scoring efficiency has dipped a bit from his roaring start to the season, but 20.2 points on 42.2% shooting to go with 6.2 rebounds and four assists per game since returning from a left ankle sprain still leaves him as the top scorer in the rookie class, as well as a top-five rebounder and table-setter.

Banchero’s athleticism and fluidity leaped off the screen from his very first game; he wasted little time proving that he had the size, strength and agility to make an impact at the NBA level.

Defensive Player of the Quarter: Jaren Jackson Jr., Grizzlies

I wrote last month about how Jackson’s arrival after missing the first 14 games of the season rehabbing a surgically repaired foot had helped transform the Memphis defense from quotidian to contender-quality. Evidently, I was underselling it.

The Grizzlies led the NBA in defensive efficiency by a mile in Q2, allowing just 106.3 points per 100 possessions, according to NBA Advanced Stats. That’s 3.8 fewer points-per-100 than second place — the same distance as between the No. 2 Cavs and the No. 15 Timberwolves. (Strip out garbage time, as Cleaning the Glass does, and it’s nearly the size of the gap between second place and the No. 20 Pacers.) And they’ve been at their stingiest with Jackson on the floor, allowing a microscopic 102.3 points-per-100 with JJJ roving around, menacing ball-handlers and drivers all over the half-court, and blocking a metric ton of shots.

Reserve of the Quarter: Russell Westbrook, Lakers

I’ve got to be honest: I didn’t think it was going to shake out this way.

I wrote this summer about Westbrook coming to the moment of truth in his career that so many players, like spiritual antecedent Allen Iverson and erstwhile teammate Carmelo Anthony, had reached before him. It’s the point at which a superstar’s shine has dimmed enough that doing the same thing the same way is no longer sustainable, and he must either adapt to a new role — a smaller role, likely outside the starting lineup — or get left behind. I was somewhat skeptical that a player as proud and fierce as Russ would take kindly to that sort of suggestion.

Most Improved Players of the Quarter: Lauri Markkanen, Jazz; and Killian Hayes, Pistons

There were definitely people who thought Markkanen could be something more than he showed during his time in Chicago, a fits-and-starts tenure with three coaches in four seasons, none of whom really created a context in which the 7-foot Finn could quite find his niche. There were some who thought his stopover in Cleveland — a campaign that saw him prove he could credibly slide across all three frontcourt positions on defense while shooting at above-league-average efficiency for what looked like a playoff team before injuries scuttled the end of the season — augured brighter days ahead, too.

Biggest Disappointment of the Quarter: The Suns, setting

Jae Crowder wanting to go play somewhere else wasn’t great, because it’s never good to just remove a quality starter from your rotation, but it wasn’t the end of the world, because Cam Johnson was more than ready to step into his starting spot. Johnson tearing his meniscus wasn’t great, considering Phoenix’s lack of depth on the wing, but it wasn’t the end of the world, because Devin Booker was cooking.

Most Pleasant Surprise of the Quarter: The Kings, sticking around

I was bullish on the Kings heading into the season, writing and saying that, between the offensive upgrades they made on the wing and the arrival of experienced defensive head coach Mike Brown, I thought Sacramento had a pathway to a top-10 offense and maybe a league-average defense … which, in theory, would make it a playoff team. For most other franchises, that wouldn’t constitute much of a hot take; then again, other franchises don’t own the longest postseason drought in NBA history.