How have the NBA's newly formed All-Star duos performed together -- and apart -- this season?
Three players selected to the 2022 All-Star Game (Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell and Dejounte Murray) changed teams via trade this past summer. In an atypical coincidence, all three landed with teams that already had an All-Star at their position: center Karl-Anthony Towns for the Minnesota Timberwolves, guard Darius Garland for the Cleveland Cavaliers and guard Trae Young for the Atlanta Hawks.
That created an interesting set of experiments as teams sought to pair the two stars, meaning less time with the ball in their hands for Mitchell and Murray and a move to power forward for Towns. It also created the opportunity for coaches to stagger their stars, keeping one on the court at all times to anchor second units.
Three weeks into the 2022-23 campaign, the three teams are in various stages of integrating their new stars, with injury and illness affecting those processes. With the help of data provided by NBA Advanced Stats, let's check in on all three All-Star pairings and what could be next for each.
Murray thriving, Young slumping in Atlanta
The Hawks have gotten the most complete look at their stars together. With Murray playing every game so far and Young the first nine before sitting out Monday, Atlanta had played just 33 minutes all season with neither guard on the court entering Wednesday.
As the Hawks had hoped, lineups with Murray and Young have thrived. Their net rating with both players on the court ranks in the 95th percentile of all qualified lineups leaguewide, per Cleaning the Glass.
Yet Atlanta hasn't exactly gotten there the way it had anticipated.
