The beginning of the season for any sport can be somewhat of a revelation. Teams that are supposed bottom feeders show signs of life and teams that are expected to succeed trip and falter. It’s still very early on in this 82-game roller coaster of a season, but there are some takeaways from the first two weeks of NBA play. Let’s take stock in a few lessons that we’ve learned now that each team has played 6-8 games.
Lesson 1 – Putting stars together and assembling the perfect roster is not as easy as it seems.
Over the summer, the Cleveland Cavaliers garnered more media attention than any team by far thanks to the offseason spectacle that was dubbed “The Return of the King.” Later in the summer, they made a barn-buster trade and acquired all-start power forward Kevin Love from the Minnesota Timberwolves. People hyped this new big three of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love and predicted them to roll over the eastern conference. So what has happened? They’ve stumbled out of the gate and find themselves at 3-3 after dropping an opening night loss against a lackluster Knicks team. So what’s the deal? There is more to assembling a championship roster than lumping stars together. The best teams have players that compliment each other and run the offense fluidly. It’s no wonder that the Cavaliers are experiencing some growing pains. LeBron, Love, and Irving were fifth (29.8), eighth (27.8), and ninth (27.7) in player usage rating a season ago. Those numbers do not gel, but they’re great players, so they’ll eventually learn to play together. In fact, last night, they scored 118 points en route to a victory over the Pelicans. The Cavs find themselves in the weaker Eastern Conference, too, so they will be fine at season’s end.
Lesson 2 – Fear “The Brow”
Over the summer, reports came in of Anthony Davis bulking up. In the Pelicans’ first game of the season, he had 26 points, 17 rebounds, two assists, three steals, and nine blocks. Nine. Sure, that’s a bit of an outlier, but he has since only played one night out of six in which he has rejected less than three shots, bringing his average to a staggering 4.2 blocks per game, good for tops in the league. He is also first in rebounds per game, fourth in points per game, and fourth in steals per game. He has double-doubled in five of six games. To no surprise to anyone after reading this, he finds himself atop the player efficiency rating list. Watch out for him this season. He’ll probably wreck your favorite team. Unfortunately for Davis, the Pelicans find themselves in what is shaping up to be the most competitive division in the NBA. It’s still early, but two of the teams in the southwest have only one loss, and all five teams are .500 or above.
Mark my words. Anthony Davis is already a frontrunner for Defensive Player of the Year, and if the Pelicans can manage to make the playoffs, then he will be a legitimate MVP candidate. If the Pelicans claim the sixth seed or higher, he will easily be top three in voting and could even win it. This may prove to be difficult for them though, as any team that has Tyreke Evans or Eric Gordon has historically proven to be a black hole of success. The Pelicans have both.
Lesson 3 – For some reason, organizations are still producing those awful t-shirt jerseys.
Why? Why are they doing this?
Lesson 4 – Every team is just an injury or two away from ruin.
Lesson 4a – Even the NBA reserve players are way better than you and can see success if given the opportunity.
Last year, Oklahoma City was the second seed in the Western Conference. The Indiana Pacers were the first seed in the East. Both teams did not undergo many personnel changes during the offseason, but now find themselves at 2-6 thanks to injuries. For the Pacers, Paul George suffered a horrific compound fracture in his leg during FIBA play this summer and is out for the entirety of the 2014 season. David West has yet to play due to a nasty sprained ankle, and George Hill is out for a month or longer with a bad knee. On the Thunder side, Kevin Durant broke his foot and is out for at least the first 6-8 weeks of the season. In the second game of the season, Russell Westbrook broke his hand and is expected to be out 4-6 weeks. These along with other injury issues have left OKC depleted and running the floor with only two healthy guards on the roster at times.
We’ve seen some admirable play from a number of reserves. Chris Copeland, Lavoy Allen, and the undrafted Donald Sloan have put up some good numbers for the Pacers thus far this season. Meanwhile, the likes of Perry Jones (before his injury), Andre Roberson, and Sebastian Telfair have been gifted more playing time than anyone could have imagined prior to the year and are doing fairly well with it for the Thunder. Regardless of this, it’s tough to say whether either team will be able to recover and still make a playoff run.
Lesson 5 – Gregg Popovich still doesn’t care what you think.
Before the start of the season, many of the big shot analysts predicted the Spurs to repeat their NBA Finals victory. Now two weeks into the season, the Spurs find themselves 4-3. Coach Gregg Popovich isn’t worried. In a nationally televised primetime match up between the then undefeated Houston Rockets and the Spurs last week, Pop rested both Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. Neither played a single minute in this back-to-back game. You can question his motives all you want, but the greatest NBA coach of all time doesn’t give two thoughts to what your opinion is. He has some mastermind plan behind it all. The Spurs will be fine, and we’ll see more great things out of Pop.
Lesson 6 – The Toronto Raptors are for real.
Coming into the season, the Raptors were widely considered to be a default playoff team in the weak Eastern Conference. What we didn’t know was how good they would actually be. Two weeks in, they look like the best team in the East. They have the third best offensive efficiency rating (109.1), the seventh best defensive efficiency rating (100), and second in turnover rating (10.6). So how does this make them the best team in the East? Every team above them in each of those three categories is a Western Conference team save one (Milwaukee is second in defensive efficiency. More on that later). Kyle Lowry, DeMar Derozan, and Terrance Ross have benefited from starting a second straight season together, and they have the team executing on both sides of the ball. In their first dose of Primetime this year, the Raptors humiliated the Wizards 103-84. Don’t take them lightly.
Lesson 7 – The Grizzlies will never quit.
In the 2011-2012 season, Memphis claimed the fourth seed in the West. They next two years, the moved first down to the fifth seed and then the seventh seed. Were they to keep up the trend, they would find themselves watching the playoffs from home. So what’s happening? They’re 6-1. Sure, the schedule hasn’t exactly been the toughest so far, but this team of effort-guys are out there to prove that they still belong in the playoffs. They’ve found a couple of starters that they like in Courtney Lee and Tony Allen, Zach Randolph may never show his age, and Marc Gasol is playing great in a contract year. Together, they’ve put together a defensive efficiency rating of 94.8. They won’t quit.
Lesson 8 – Chris Bosh staying in Miami was the best thing that he could have done for his career.
Lesson 8a – Failing to sign Chris Bosh was the best thing that that could have happened for the 2014-2015 Rockets.
This summer, all eyes were on Miami and the free agency decisions to be made by the Big 3. Once LeBron announced that he was leaving for Cleveland, eyes fell on Chris Bosh. After reportedly coming close to a deal with the Houston Rockets to join Dwight Howard and James Harden, Bosh turned around and resigned with the Miami Heat. Now two weeks into his eleventh season, the veteran has reinvigorated his game and looks like an entirely different player when compared to the man he has been in Miami to date. After emerging from LeBron’s shadow, he has stepped into the role of a first-option stretch-four, and he is showing all of the doubters (myself included) that he is still one of the best power forwards in the National Basketball Association. He has posted 23.6 ppg, 10.3 rpg, and 3 apg. Him and his friends on the Heat are off to a 5-2 start, and they are out to prove that they can still make a playoff run without the King in town.
On the other side of the story, everybody thought that the Rockets got the extremely short end of the stick when they failed to sign Chris Bosh and then lost Chandler Parsons. Sure, they missed out on getting a fantastic new player and hanging onto an asset, but because they lost out on those two, they were able to complete a sign-and-trade deal with the Wizards for Trevor Ariza, who has proven to be the perfect compliment for Dwight Howard and James Harden. I’m sure they’re feeling plenty happy sitting at 6-1 to start the season having outscored each of their opponents by at least 11 points. Each player is taking on his roll, and as a result, the team just seems to be clicking. The defensive play has been outstanding (first in team defensive efficiency). Dwight Howard has come out performing like his usual self, and James Harden has come out playing like an MVP candidate (25.4 ppg, and 6.7 rpg, 7.1 apg). Ariza slides right in as that ideal 3-and-D guy. He’s shooting a cool .478 from three-point range. Terrance Jones has looked good. The Rockets will be just fine without Bosh.
Lesson 9 – The Golden State Warriors have the potential to be a downright terrifying team.
Through seven games, the 5-2 Warriors have scored 104.4 ppg. This isn’t too much of a surprise when you look at the team, as the Splash Brothers and Co scored 104.3 ppg throughout the entirety of last season. So what’s the difference? New coach Steve Kerr has the team off and running. Literally. They lead the NBA in pace of play and have a league-high .497 team field goal percentage. The huge drawback of this uptempo style of play is their turnovers. They have a league worst 20.3 turnover ratio. That means that they turn the ball over on over one fifth of their posessions. You heard me right. One fifth. If they can clean that stat up and protect the ball, they will be a force to be reckoned with.
Lesson 10 – Swapping Carlos Boozer out for Pau Gasol has almost been as important for the Bulls as the return of Derrick Rose.
The biggest story out of Chicago for the last few years has been the health of 2010-2011 MVP Derrick Rose. After playing 49 games over the last season, he finally found himself “back” in the lineup for the Bulls, but managed to sprain both of his ankles at once during the second game of the season. Woof.
This offseason, the Bulls went out looking for talent and found it in the form of 7’0 power forward Pau Gasol. Gasol has been huge for the Bulls in their 6-2 start. He has provided a stable, consistent inside presence for them as Joakim Noah has been in and out recovering from his summer knee surgery and with illness. Sure, Pau is getting up there in age and isn’t quite quick enough to keep up with some of the young guns that he is put against, but his jump shot looks smooth (shooting .491), and the Bulls are off to a hot start even with headline hog Derrick Rose failing to play in half of the games so far. You can bet the Bulls wouldn’t have been able to do this if they hung onto Carlos Boozer instead.
Lesson 11 – The NBA gets better and better every year at finding players with impossible-to-pronounce names.
Jonas Valanciunas was a fun name to learn. So was Mirza Teletovic. I feel like I just barely learned how to pronounce Donatas Motiejunas, but now you’re throwing Kostas Papanikolaou at me? Come on, NBA.
Lesson 12 – The Milwaukee Bucks could very well sneak themselves into the playoffs.
On the surface, the Bucks don’t look all that great sitting at 3-4. When we look deeper, we see that they are excelling on defense. It hasn’t been the most difficult schedule, per say, but they have held seven of eight opponents to under 100 points. The one game that went over 100 was an opening night overtime tilt against Charlotte. Milwaukee is also the only team to beat Memphis so far this season. Brandon Knight has been consistently fantastic, but for the most part, the offense has not been executing enough to compliment the stifling defense. If the young Bucks can maintain their second-rated defensive efficiency rate while improving on their offense over the course of the year as Giannis, Jabari, and Larry grow, they could sneak into the playoffs in the weaker Eastern Conference.
Lesson 13 – Darren Collison and Rudy Gay were the answer for the Kings.
Sacramento is 5-3. The arrival of Darren Collison and Rudy Gay seems to have helped the Kings to make sense of their roster and win some games. Collison, a very underrated point guard, has been distributing the ball well. Rudy Gay has been on fire to start the season (22.8 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 3.4 apg), and this has spaced the floor for DeMarcus Cousins, who has been putting together some MVP caliber play with 22.1 ppg, 11.1 rpg, 1.3 bpg, and 1.3 spg. As it goes, though, they are still the Sacramento Kings. I’ll believe that they’re good when I see this type of play sustained.
Keep in mind that all of these observations are made from a small sample size. The NBA season is long, and momentum can shift within the course of the season just as quick as it can within the context of a single game.
This should be fun.
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