11 Takes: Our Favorite Things about the New NBA Season
11 Takes: Our Favorite Things about the New NBA Season
NBA Substack on the best things so far
We asked 11 leading NBA voices on Substack:
Your favorite thing about the NBA season so far?
Check out their answers and subscribe!
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The Cavs are my favourite thing about the NBA season so far. When Jarrett Allen is thriving, I'm happy, but to see this Cavs team in the place it wanted to be at the end of last season, reuniting Kenny Atkinson with Allen and Caris LeVert, the continued ascension of Darius Garland and Evan Mobley, Donovan Mitchell's total buy-in, heck, even my Summer League standout Luke Travers (he looks like a 1970s time traveller here to race for pink slips) fitting in — this group is firing on all cylinders for me.
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The Warriors' defensive resurgence. Good lord, are these dudes flying around. And it's not just Draymond Green. Trayce Jackson-Davis and Jonathan Kuminga are covering a ton of ground. Gary Payton II is living inside opponents' jerseys. De'Anthony Melton and Kyle Anderson are bringing it every night. Andrew Wiggins is leveraging his length again (at times). Moses Moody, Kevon Looney … even Buddy Hield has been on point for the most part. Everybody is bought in. It's awesome.
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The funky standings stats!
Favorite is probably the wrong word, but I am fascinated by the fact that there are only two teams in the East with a winning record … and Cleveland's 82-0 pace (I'm starting to worry my preseason Cavs skepticism is going to age very badly) ... and most of all the 1-6 plights that have engulfed Milwaukee and Philadelphia. (The Bucks improved to 2-6 with Thursday’s home win over Utah.)
An incredible stat from The Athletic's Mike Vorkunov has been circulating; only 12 of the 150 teams in NBA history to start 1-6 have made the playoffs. Only five of those 12 teams made the playoffs with winning records. Does that mean the Sixers or the Bucks (or both) are actually doomed? Can we see two teams rally from 1-6 in the same season when only 12 all-time have ever done so? Are we really living in a world where one or both of these teams really miss the postseason ... or will they be saved by the fact that the Nos. 7-10 seeds in the East very likely won't require a winning record?
This isn't a particularly uplifting topic at the moment but I can't stop thinking about it ... especially after Philly lost Tyrese Maxey to injury almost as soon as it got Paul George back.
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My favorite thing of the young season has been Kevin Durant playing with a real joie de vivre to go along with his usual supreme confidence and cool. The vibes are finally good in Phoenix after the messy breakup of the 2021 Finals team and the soul-crushing first season of the new big three. Durant is one of the greatest ever, and seeing him get a second wind as an MVP candidate at this age is pretty incredible.
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Maybe not the most creative answer, but it's gotta be the return of Ja Morant.
They say you don't know how much you might miss someone until they're gone, and that's been no more true than in Ja's situation. Post-suspension and post-injury, Ja has resolidified himself as, arguably, the league's most entertaining player, inserting fully unnecessary 360 layups for the pure sake of fan satisfaction. He's electric, he hates the Lakers (bring back real rivalries!), and there's no better player to lift the Grizzlies back to playoff contention.
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Jay Huff. This guy is two years removed from winning defensive player of the year in the G League while showing the ability to stretch the floor. Those facts alone should have landed him an NBA contract sooner, but Memphis is happy they didn’t.
As of this writing, Huff is tied for first with Nikola Jokić in made 3s among centers. Huff has played 133 minutes. Jokić has played 303. The great irony is that Huff was on the Nuggets’ roster last season but logged only 49 minutes all year.
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Karl-Anthony Towns getting traded to the Knicks has been my favorite thing so far, but not for the reason you may think. … His girlfriend, Jordyn Woods, really got the courtside upgrade of a lifetime.
Could you imagine learning that you’re going from courtside in Minnesota to courtside at MSG next to Spike Lee?
It’s the ultimate WAG promotion and the equivalent of going from eating bran cereal your mom forced you to eat as a kid to devouring Cinnamon Toast Crunch every day in the dining hall in college.
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The 2024 NBA Draft class hasn’t set the world on fire, but they’ve been really fun! Multiple players are starting (some due to injuries, but starting nonetheless).
Zaccharie Risacher is rapidly improving on offense and already solid on defense. The Washington Wizards are starting Alex Sarr, Bub Carrington and Kyshawn George as well as second-year breakout player Bilal Coulibaly. Zach Edey has started since Day 1.
All the way into the second round, there are rookies playing significant minutes. That’s great for a class that was expected to take years to have an impact.
Ray LeBov |
My favorite thing so far is the Suns' performance. Why? Because they are a team that recognized its shortcomings, made the appropriate acquisitions and so far has benefitted as planned.
For example, when watching them last season, their lack of flow and organization from not having a true point guard was startingly apparent. Their star-led firepower wasn't enough. They figured it out and responded accordingly. If only that could serve as a model for other teams.
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This will make me sound like the worst kind of hoopster, but watching Jamal Shead terrorize opposing ballhandlers has been an utter delight. The Raptors rookie inks himself into the skin of his foes like a new tattoo, and he proves just as hard to remove. Sure, guys can shoot over him, and sure, the offense is up-and-down, but few players have on-ball defense that pops off the screen in the same way. He’s a big part of why Toronto has been such an unexpectedly enjoyable viewing experience.
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My favorite thing so far: Luka Dončić's newfound motivation to play defense.
I've been one of Dončić's loudest critics, both while working in Dallas for the Mavericks and after.
This season, though, it appears he has cut down on the arguing and instead uses some of that energy for defensive plays I have barely ever seen from him before: He's now flying out to contest 3s, and I even saw him try to contest a dunk.
It might not garner him the MVP trophy, given SGA's and OKC's strong season, but it's nevertheless a welcome change of pace.