Round 15 is down so let's get straight into it.
All numbers are courtesy of Spatialjam.com and jordanmcnbl.com (particularly those pertaining to play types).
20. Daniel Johnson (Adelaide 36ers)
Last week: unranked
Johnson replaces Nathan Sobey (and beats out Sek Henry) for a spot inside the top 20.
Whilst this column always appreciates Sobey's defensive hustle, his up-and-down production (caught amidst the changing game-to-game needs of the Bullets), and his inconsistent attacking forays (perhaps the cost of their bigs siphoning touches away) matter.
To be fair, some trademark Sobey incisions into the lane against the Breakers did yield open looks at the rim for his teammates. Still, it's hard to argue that the ferocious intent has been a consistent in-game trademark this year.
Johnson, on the other hand, has displayed a more consistent streak of late - with Jerome Randle and Eric Griffin around, it appears that we may have to reconfigure the usage expectations of Johnson.
Johnson's numbers in the new year don't appear to have changed much, but his playmaking has increased - he's averaging three assists in the new year to go with his 17 points.
19. Terrico White (Perth Wildcats)
Last week: 19
17 points (6-of-12 shooting), three rebounds, three assists and three steals against the Hawks on Friday, and a more active performance from White - a stark reversal of form from his efforts against the Bullets.
His night was perhaps reflected in one first quarter possession, where he was back in transition and batted a pass away from Tim Coenraad (Coenraad's fumble helped) to break up a transition basket.
18. Chris Goulding
Last week: 20
Chris Goulding's rediscovery of offence (26 points, including 6-of-11 from downtown)
captures the inconsistency of United: Just as Goulding is rounding back into form, Melo Trimble is in the middle of a confusing trough.
This is the second week in a row where we have seen a Goulding post up - what is going on?
Goulding's defence has regressed to the point where it's an issue: Watch that first defensive possession in the second quarter against the 36ers.
17. Mitch McCarron (Melbourne United)
Last week: 16
Against the 36ers on Saturday night, it was another typical do-everything type of game for McCarron. He is a connector in the offence as a secondary playmaker; he's a calming influence when the offence gets too helter-skelter.
Which is fine, but there are times where he just needs to shoot it. Not pass up a good look in the hopes of a better one (that's not happening if you're not puncturing the defence).
16. Melo Trimble (Melbourne United)
Last week: 10
Trimble's confusing (and very sudden) freefall continues. It just feels like he has a multitude of things on his mind as he navigates each possession. The game just looks hard.
Trimble's struggles might also highlight the larger point of United's offensive issues; they have ranked last in assist rate all season.
One of the preseason challenges highlighted was the blending individual talent into a coherent machine (on both ends), and that just has not happened.
Credit Trimble on defence though - his struggles on offence have not bled into his defensive effort.
15. Scotty Hopson (New Zealand Breakers)
Last week: 15
Hopson's game is loud; raw counting numbers are easy to for people to digest and can shield one from warts.
And that appears to cloud many a judgement.
If you're a staunch Hopson stan, watch the defensive sequence from the 8:06 mark of the first quarter against Cairns that ultimately leads to an uncontested bucket for D.J. Newbill.
That's Exhibit A of a multitude of Hopson's defensive snafus that ultimately add up, courtesy of egregious ball watching and taking shortcuts on defence. Or how about allowing Newbill the free passage for a thunderous dunk in the second quarter? Or failing to get back early in defensive transition to end the first half, leading to yet another layup for Newbill?
His defence against the Bullets was not great - check the 5:35 mark of the second quarter as an example.
That eye-watering 10 turnover mark against the Taipans was the culmination of playmaking burden that's probably skews too high, and the cost of a very shaky handle (we've written about this before too). He also literally - LITERALLY - moon walked out of bounds in one crucial late-game possession.
Sure, appreciate Hopson's scoring - every team needs some scoring punch - but don't wilfully disregard some of the costly stuff that he needs to be better in. Scoring doesn't matter if you leak points the other way.
14. Eric Griffin (Adelaide 36ers)
Last week: 17
Griffin may have overtaken Shawn Long as the most angry, brooding dude in the NBL. That makes him the perfect fit for the pugnacious 36ers.
A measure of his aggression: He got himself to the free throw line 13 times. He finished with 21 points (6-of-8 shooting), 11 rebounds, one assist and one block.
That chasedown block of Chris Goulding also speaks volumes about his defensive hustle. This column always rewards two-way play - that's winning basketball.
13. Cam Oliver (Cairns Taipans)
Last week: 11
Aside from the easy-to-remember highlight dunks, it was a shaky round for Oliver.
missed some easy looks - that happens. But what is inexplicable is the lack of defensive alertness when coming out of a halftime break.
Oliver had canned two late triples in the first half against the Kings to keep the Taipans within distance. Yet he was dragged early in the second half by Mike Kelly, after four straight defensive blunders.
First, he allowed a straight blow-by by Jae'Sean Tate to open the half, including the ignominy of slipping on the decal (hazards) and watching Tate cram the ball as he toppled. Next defensive possession, he watched Casper Ware layup the ball next to him, unencumbered. Next, Andrew Bogut finished an alley-oop over him.
That was followed by being stripped of a defensive rebound by Tate, with the possession finishing with a Bogut layup. Timeout.
12. Nick Kay (Perth Wildcats)
Last week: 14
Kay's 14-point (5-of-8 shooting), 10-rebound and four-assist performance against the Hawks may have highlighted the greatest strengths of Nick Kay: Pure effort and basketball IQ.
On top of playing facilitator, he defended Darrington Hobson, AJ Ogilvy, Tim Coenraad and even Daniel Grida. It is amazing how smarts and effort can elevate a player above supposedly more athletic opponents.
His game is the definition of quiet excellence.
11. Andrew Bogut (Sydney Kings)
Last week: 12
Bogut and Dan Kickert have essentially combined like Voltron to lock down the centre position: One is a defensive savant who keeps the machine humming on offence, whilst the other is a flame-throwing outside shooter who is no longer a traffic cone on defence.
Bogut's performance was blighted somewhat by some careless turnovers, but that was something that afflicted the entire team, to be honest.
10. Jerome Randle (Adelaide 36ers)
Last week: 13
Randle destroyed United in the midrange, closing the game in the fourth quarter with pull-up after pull-up to finish with 23 points (10-of-19 shooting), three rebounds and four assists.
He's now at 49.5 percent from his comfort zone.
Randle is so metronomic that there's very little game-to-game difference in production and methodology.
Randle's not exactly the greatest defender, but much like John Roberson, he tries. He does not abandon that side of the floor.
9. Lamar Patterson (Brisbane Bullets)
Last week: 9
In the match up of high-scoring wings, Patterson prevailed over Hopson, bludgeoning the Breakers inside - all eight of his field goals were inside the arc.
Whilst Patterson's shooting was so-so, his all-around game (including his underrated defence, when he's engaged) is a notch above.
Before his 0-of-3 shooting from deep against the Breakers, Patterson had quietly improved his three-point shooting to 33 percent for the season - not great, but no longer bad.
8. Shawn Long (Melbourne United)
Last week: 8
It feels pertinent to ask this question now as we head into the back straight of the regular season, especially with United dragging themselves uphill in the slog of the playoff race: Can Shawn Long be your best player on a title team?
Early in the game against the 36ers, he and McCarron defended the Anthony Drmic/Obi Kyei dance perfectly - Long was able to occupy that in-between space of cutting off Drmic, without losing Kyei. Long ended up batting the attempted pass away (we wrote about his steal rate last week).
He's capable, but he's still erratic on that end of the floor.
7. Jae'Sean Tate (Sydney Kings)
Last week: 7
Tate opened the second half with a straight-line dunk, after Cam Oliver slipped on those pesky decals.
It was his sheer will (on both ends) that propelled the Kings in fending off the Taipans' furious third quarter charge. He is switch-proof on defence and is almost an automatic bucket once he gets into the paint - for himself or for his teammates. His motor is insane.
Is it conceivable that Jae'Sean Tate is the Kings' most important player?
6. D.J. Newbill (Cairns Taipans)
Last week: 6
Newbill must have scored his easiest 20 points (on 13 shots) this season against the Breakers - he had at least four open layups, courtesy of Scotty Hopson.
It was a masterclass of efficiency, of inserting himself when needed, combined with defensive diligence. Basketball can be so simple when you do the fundamentals well
He averaged three steals for the round. This is turning into one heck of an individual season by Newbill.
5. John Roberson (South East Melbourne Phoenix)
Last week: 4
It was a strangely passive Roberson in a must-win game against the bottom-feeding Hawks. Roberson took only two shot attempts in the entire first half, which was the number of turnovers he had.
Credit Sunday Dech and Angus Glover - Glover was particularly disruptive - for refusing to allow any airspace outside the arc for Roberson.
In a bizarre development, it was in fact Kendall Stephens, along with Ben Madgen, who kept the Phoenix afloat.
4. Casper Ware (Sydney Kings)
Last week: 5
Preseason (and even in-season) talk about how loaded the Kings were on the offensive end. Erm. To date, that couldn't be more off the mark.
The Kings came into the round with the second worst three-point accuracy in the league. It's not all on Ware, but he's a part of it.
Three triples in the first quarter against the Taipans - he was 4-of-10 for the game, which represents a strong return based on his season averages.
Like Scott Machado, his turnovers are spiking of late.
3. Mitch Creek (South East Melbourne Phoenix)
Last week: 2
Ironically, Creek's only two baskets in the first half against the Hawks were both three-pointers, as he battled foul trouble and an odd, sudden inability to finish in the paint.
Creek did not start the second half, and his stop-start insertion (due to the aforementioned management of foul trouble) seemed to sap away any rhythm.
Creek was 1-of-7 from inside the arc.
2. Scott Machado (Cairns Taipans)
Last week: 3
Machado, a supreme set-up merchant, continues to up his scoring of late. Since Boxing Day, he's averaged 20 points, up from 14.8 points before that mark.
That uptick in scoring does not mask a recent sloppiness. Machado continues to puke out turnovers of late - he averaged a staggering 6.5 giveaways this round. That's a problem to monitor.
1. Bryce Cotton (Perth Wildcats)
Last week: 1
Cotton paced the Wildcats in their destruction of the Hawks with 23 points (including 7-of-13 from downtown), four rebounds, six assists and four steals. He continues to refine his two-way play.
His reputation will always defined by his scoring, but we've argued before that he is a good defender (not a great one). That matters when you're discussing the best players in the league - the prism to view Cotton should no longer be one that skews only towards offensive production.
Friday night's game against the Hawks only served to reinforce this further.