NBA Week 11 conclusions: Jimmy Butler will earn MVP votes; Bradley Beal will be an All-Star

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Is Minnesota Timberwolves star Jimmy Butler playing the best basketball of his career? Should the Cleveland Cavaliers be concerned about the Brooklyn Nets' (relative) success?

Week 11 of USA TODAY Sports' Jumping to Conclusions explores some of the league's most intriguing questions at the turn of 2018.

Jimmy Butler will get (well-deserved) MVP votes

Don’t look now, but Tom Thibodeau’s grand plan is working in Minnesota. And if this keeps up, his favorite wingman will wind up earning MVP votes along the way.

Six months after the Timberwolves’ president of basketball operations/head coach convinced his former Chicago Bulls associates to trade him the 28-year-old, three-time All-Star, Butler is leading the sort of groundbreaking effort that deserves the highest praise.

“He’s changed our culture,” Thibodeau said so simply in a recent story chronicling Butler’s impact in the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Jimmy Butler scores a season-high 39 points as @timberwolves take home the OT thriller! pic.twitter.com/GXoAqtieUh — NBA (@NBA) December 28, 2017

During this latest stretch in which the Wolves – who hold the league’s longest playoff drought at 13 seasons – have won 11 of 15 games …

Butler — averaging 37.3 minutes, 21.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.9 steals for the season — has team highs in minutes (38.6) and points (26.9) to go with 5.5 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.9 steals. Center Karl-Anthony Towns, who has also been stellar, is second in scoring during this stretch at 19.7 points per game.

Minnesota's defense has been 14th in defensive rating (106.1 points allowed per 100 possessions), this after it was just 23rd in the first 23 games (107.9). Butler, by all accounts, is the tone-setter on that end.

A Timberwolves team that had so much promise last season with its young core is, thus far, 12 wins better than this point in the 2016-17 campaign that was Thibodeau’s debut (12-26). (Amick)

Bradley Beal will be an All-Star

Beal, who has never made an All-Star team, was a victim of the numbers last season. Isaiah Thomas, Kyle Lowry, John Wall and Kemba Walker all made it as reserves, along with Kyrie Irving and DeMar DeRozan as starters. While Irving and DeRozan should remain starters this season, Beal will join Victor Oladipo as first-timers in the All-Star Game. His shooting percentages, 44.7% from the field and 36.5% from the three-point line, are actually slightly down from last season, but it shouldn’t matter. He’s been the Wizards’ most consistent player, and he kept them competitive with John Wall injured. Not to mention, there are few other obvious backcourt selections from the East. Already with a career-high 51-point game under his belt this year, Beal (averaging 23.4 points per game on the season) had 39 in Sunday’s win over Chicago, 17 of which came in the fourth quarter.

“Brad’s an All-Star,” coach Scott Brooks said. “I thought he was an All-Star last year.” (Singer)

Brad Beal scored 51. We got a big win in Portland. Let's watch highlights!#WizBlazers #DCFamily pic.twitter.com/7EMAAqCPaj — Washington Wizards (@WashWizards) December 6, 2017

Paul George won't know if he wants to join the Lakers until the playoffs are over

It’s Paul George week in Los Angeles, with his Oklahoma City Thunder (20-17) playing at the Lakers on Wednesday night and the Clippers on Thursday night. Yet while the four-time All-Star is just six months away from the free agency choice that we’ve been talking about for so long now – George to the Lakers, right?! – this isn’t the foregone conclusion that so many have suggested. Even with the Thunder’s struggles.

George reminded us of that much during his session with reporters on Tuesday, when his extensive discussion about living in the moment should have made Thunder fans happy because, well, that means there’s still plenty of hope on the blue-and-orange horizon.

“You’ve got to be grateful in every moment, and that moment for me is starting again with this (Thunder) group,” George the Philosopher opined. “Being out there with ‘Melo (Anthony), with Russ (Westbrook), the talent that we have, you know – again – you’re in that moment. You’ve living in that moment, and it’s crazy to think where we can get to the more we build. We’ve only been together for a couple of months. You’ve got to think of the bigger picture when it comes to a situation like this.”

George, who grew up in the Southern California town of Palmdale, has never hid the fact that he would love to play for his hometown Lakers (most notably when he sparked the trade to Oklahoma City last summer by telling Indiana Pacers management that he would likely sign with the Lakers in free agency). But as he told USA TODAY Sports at the start of training camp, when he said he could envision Oklahoma City being “somewhere I can call home for years,” the desire to win a title will supersede any and all other factors.

Make no mistake, George is likely gone if the Thunder wind up becoming first-round fodder in the playoffs. But even after dropping their last two games to Milwaukee and Dallas, the Thunder have won 12 of their last 17 and find themselves just 3 ½ games away from having home court advantage in the first round of the postseason (Minnesota, at 24-14, is currently fourth in the West). Translation: Stay tuned to this Thunder season and what it means for George’s future. (Amick)

The Nets pick isn't as valuable as it once was

The hallowed and unprotected 2018 Nets pick, now in the hands of the Cavaliers, had been the subject of trade rumors for years before Boston decided to move it this past summer. Certainly the prospect of acquiring Kyrie Irving was enticing, but it’s possible Celtics general manager Danny Ainge was more willing to move it because he anticipated it wouldn’t be as valuable the longer he held onto it.

Translation: The Nets weren’t going to be as bad as once predicted.

Entering Wednesday night, the Nets are 14-23, which is tied for the eighth-worst record in the NBA. And that’s without Jeremy Lin and D’Angelo Russell for the majority of the season. Even though it might not yield a top-five pick, the Cavs still value it immensely, both as insurance in case LeBron James leaves as a free agent or as supplementary support should he stay. The Cavs, average age 30.1 years, have the oldest roster in the league. The draft is believed to have significant drop-off after the first six or seven prospects, so as long as it doesn’t land any lower, the Cavs should feel good about their asset. It just might not be as valuable as it once was. (Singer)

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