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We're a month into the NBA season and teams have played more than a dozen games, and that is a sample size big enough for a report card! Let's check in across the league and see what the buzz is, and what trends have real staying power for the season.
By Spencer Galloway | November 21st, 2024
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As I write this, we are dangerously close to reaching the one-month mark of the season. At this point, rotations are mostly set, and teams are getting closer to finding their identity for the remainder of the season. It's early, but for those teams who were slow to get out of the gate, it is only getting harder to dig themselves out of their early ruts (coughs Sixers, Bucks). For other teams, say the Cavs, they are no longer just on a heater and are actually making history with their blistering 15-0 start (only the fourth team in NBA history to do so).
Does this mean the Philly big-three is officially a more failed experiment than "Trust the Process"? (Wait, are they still doing that?) Does it mean that the Mavericks' hopes of a repeat finals appearance are doomed, or that the Klay-less Warriors are the best that the West has to offer this year? While the answers to some of these questions, and plenty more, are starting to present themselves more clearly, let's take a deeper look into what is real and what is not as we cross the one-month finish line.
Golden State Warriors: Addition by Subtraction
Despite being labeled as nothing more than the guy who went 0/10 in an elimination game, Klay Thompson is still a valuable piece to a contending team. However, when the Warriors decided it was best to let him walk, I didn't at all disagree, especially factoring in the cost implications given that keeping Klay aboard would have sent the Dubs over the league CBA's 2nd apron. Add in the fact they added Buddy Hield, who is a perfect Klay replica, and De'Anthony Melton, perhaps the league's most malleable, plug-n-play guard, and I thought they were having a home run of a summer. Increased minutes for Jonathan Kuminga and Brandin Podziemski haven't hurt either, especially since we are uncomfortably reaching a kind of now-or-never time for Kuminga.
The Warriors sit towards the top of the West at a rock-solid 10-2, and that is including missed time for the ageless Steph Curry. Buddy Hield stands to be the greatest beneficiary of the Warriors turning the page on the 'Splash Bro' era, as he slots in perfectly alongside Curry. Hield is averaging his highest PPG averages in more than two seasons and is shooting over 46% from three on eight attempts per game! (Nearly 11% better than Klay I might add.)
There is plenty of reason to assume that the Warriors will continue their early season dominance, as Curry is back full-time and has been as electrifying as ever. Golden State leads the league in assists per game and is second in three-point FG%. Perhaps more impressively, they are top-ten in the following defensive categories: OPPG, OFG%, O3FG%, BPG, SPG, and RPG.
As much as it physically pains me, I must give credit to a Steve Kerr-coached basketball team, as they are playing levels above what the roster would tell you they are as a team. Easily their most promising start to a season since their last championship year, it feels good knowing that Steph Curry is playing meaningful basketball on a nightly basis.
Cleveland Cavaliers: Will They Ever Lose Again?
Holy shit! Coming off a relatively sweat-free extinguishing by way of the league's eventual champion Boston Celtics, the Cavs ousted head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and set out on their path to change absolutely nothing about the incumbent roster. It looks like they were right in doing so. Even the most adamant of those who preach patience to franchises, myself included, were ready to see a change in Cleveland.
Many of us had anticipated one beyond the team's control in the departure of Donovan Mitchell, which of course never occurred as he inked a three-year extension with the team this summer (Has Pat Riley's superstar pull ever been more in doubt?). I questioned their ability to run it back with the double-big lineup, and whether Darius Garland would return to the peak of his powers he had shown a season prior.
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The Cavs sit atop the league a perfect 15-0 with the Celtics on the menu this Tuesday night. Despite the sex appeal that comes with being undefeated and being the no. 1 seed in the league, most folks would still declaratively state that Boston is a much better team. (I am absolutely scrapping to get this article uploaded in time before this game tips, but if I don't, you must take me at my word for anything that is said following this note) Boston is still a vastly superior team, with vastly superior star power, no matter how highly you think of Mitchell/Garland/Mobley (Strus?).
No matter, Kenny Atkinson has unlocked the best version of this Cleveland squad, as the Cavs are FIRST in PPG, FG%, and 3FG%. Not bad. Have a season, Kenny Atkinson! The Cavs are firmly set among the best teams in the East and deserve to be held in higher regard than Milwaukee and Philly for the time being (TBD on the Knicks.)
Milwaukee Bucks: Inching Closer to Blowing it Up?
We often do not get to see such a clear visual for which teams have either won or lost a trade in this league, but when the Bucks and Celtics faced off in an early season matchup, we were gifted exactly that. Jrue Holiday seemingly couldn't resist making the right play down the stretch of that game and got meaningful stops time and time again when guarding Lillard. While the Bucks and Celtics did not exactly trade Jrue Holiday for Damian Lillard one-for-one, the Bucks had to know what was at stake when they sent Jrue packing to a short-term stay in Portland.
The Bucks have been able to rest last season's concerns about their new superstar duo on the fact that it was their first season together, or that Giannis missed the first round of the playoffs. However, early returns in year two of the "superstar" partnership show that the Bucks almost certainly made the wrong choice in dealing away Jrue Holiday for this version of Dame. (Giannis is clearly still incredible and is no worse than the third-best player in the NBA. Dame, however, has been slipping from the good graces of the term "superstar" and I am about ready to bunch him in with the rest of the league's "stars". You know, like Brandon Ingram and Zach LaVine?)
You know what didn't make a ton of sense at the time but makes less sense now? Hiring Doc Rivers. You know what didn't make any sense at the time but somehow makes even less sense now? Hiring Darvin F----NG Ham!!! This is the same guy who instead of drawing up plays during Lakers' timeouts last season would interrupt the damning silence with hard-hitting "motivational" messages.
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Look, am I really blaming the failure of the Bucks on assistant coach Darvin Ham? As much as I'd like to, no. However, the Bucks' decision to go after "big-name" coaches is interesting. There were better options than Rivers and Ham, and one of them, Charles Lee, left with Jrue Holiday for Boston. Lee was on their bench and was heavily sought after by several franchises and now coaches his own team in Charlotte. Going after a "big name" star in Dame over the proven guy who already was a major contributor to your 2021 title was the first of subsequent suspect moves that indicate a shift in the line of thinking for Milwaukee. I can't help but think that the line of thinking in play could loosely be coined "Whatever You Do, Don't Let Giannis Leave!"
Superstar preservation has become more and more prevalent in today's league, especially when it comes to small markets trying to hang tight to the talents of the ilk of Giannis. This season will likely be the last that Giannis plays in full for the Bucks if it continues to play out in the ways that it is currently.
Philadelphia 76ers: Process Failure
How much longer can Philly fans, or at least those who still believe, lie to themselves that a Joel Embiid-led team can land themselves in an NBA Finals? Hell, even a conference finals appearance would quell some of the questions surrounding the most troubled big man of the last decade. Coming into the season missing games due to injury, followed immediately by missing games due to a suspension for b̶e̶a̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ t̶h̶e̶ s̶h̶i̶t̶ o̶u̶t̶ o̶f̶ a̶ r̶e̶p̶o̶r̶t̶e̶r̶ a physical altercation with a reporter, Embiid has finally returned to action and is playing perhaps the most underwhelming basketball of his career.
He is clearly not in shape, which doesn't come as a surprise at this point. If Basketball Reference decided to create a stat for the players who are quickest to put their hands on their knees, Embiid would lead it without question. Embiid, through three games, has scored 20 points just once, and it was on an abysmal 5/15 FGs and half of his total points came from the free-throw line.
In other, better, non-Embiid news, the Sixers' drafting Tiktok darling Jared McCain appears to have been a home run. He is playing insanely high-level basketball for someone this young, thrown into such a messy situation. In his last six games, he has averages of 25.2 PPG, 4 APG, and is shooting over 44% from three on over NINE attempts per game. He is rocketing up the ROTY odds and should easily be seen as the favorite if this level of usage continues for him.
Getting pretty deep into this Philly breakdown and realizing I still haven't addressed Paul George, who has been straight-up awful by the way, reminds me of just how much Sixers material I have. Which reminds me, I wrote about their offseason back in July and I had this to say:
"Congratulating Philly for anything makes my stomach churn slightly, however, they drafted my favorite player from this year's class, so I will make a one-time exception. As much as the Celtics fan in me wants to now reduce Jared McCain to "TikTok boy" or make a dumb joke about his draft night painted nails, I can't deny he was my favorite player to watch this season and is a high-character guy who screams "winner". If only he was like his Duke teammate Kyle Filipowski and had a strange Mormon thing going on and fell to the Celtics at 30. Yeah, that was weird.
Obviously, the 76ers' big win this offseason was signing some Joel Embiid insurance in the form of Andre Drummond. Given Embiid's shaky health, getting a proven commodity such as Drummond is a huge win. This is a guy who can give you a double-double in a blink.
The 76ers also have brought in Paul George, a nice player who will be making $56M when he is 38 years old."
Look, I know I'm pretty green when it comes to this writing thing, but if there's one thing I've learned early on it's that you have to hang your hat on your wins. And this was a big one. I nailed it on McCain, Drummond is almost averaging a double-double and has played way more than Embiid, and Paul George is just whatever and certainly not contributing to winning. Not bad!
Kawhi Leonard: A Superstar No More
Kawhi has missed more than two full seasons of regular season basketball since the 2017-18 season and has yet to play a single second in 2024-25. Not even StatMuse could tell me how many games Kawhi has missed due to injury! Due to COVID-shortened seasons, recounting history at the turn of the decade gets a bit fuzzy. My calculations suggest he's missed 174 games since the year he turned his back on the Spurs. Or the other way around? There was that weird thing with his uncle? Whatever.
The point of it all is that Kawhi Leonard is no longer an established superstar, at least not in my book. I have a threshold for how many years I can say "when healthy..." because he just isn't ever healthy. I feel for Kawhi, I'm not mad at him for his unfortunate health streak, even if it is upsetting that one of the most dominant forces in the sport has spent the majority of his prime in and out of street clothes.
Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA Today
Do you know who isn't upset at all? James Harden! My guy! He is just absolutely wallowing in the spoils of being "THE guy" again. Surprisingly enough, however, Norm Powell actually stands to be the greatest beneficiary of Paul George's departure and Kawhi's body failing him. I mean who had Norm pegged as a 23+ PPG game guy? We're a month into the season and Powell is averaging more points a game than Curry, Wemby, Trae, Zion, and a dozen other "WTF!" level names.
The Clippers are amidst a change in identity, with a new arena and a new logo to kick it off. As for their identity as an actual basketball team, it's up in the air. For now, they are competitive enough and have an aging star that will fill up enough seats of "The Wall". Whether Kawhi Leonard will take part in this iteration, and future iterations of the Clippers is yet to be seen, but things aren't particularly looking up.
Bonus: Paolo Banchero 'Ewing Theory'!
Paolo Banchero went down with a devastating injury and the Magic have... won six games in a row! It is quite puzzling just exactly how that is when their most played lineup is one of the league's most underwhelming. Per Cleaning the Glass, the Magic's most used lineup of Suggs, Pope, Wagner, daSilva, and Goga are in the bottom half of the league in Pts/Poss, eFG%, TOV%, and FT rate. Things are just as bad or worse for that same group on the defensive end.
Has superstar Franz Wagner been unlocked? via StatMuse
Nerdy stats aside, they have been winning, albeit not against the best the league has to offer. No matter, stringing wins together when your star goes down is a sign of a well-rounded, often well-coached team. They've done more than just keep their heads above water and have kept pace with the top of the east, trailing only the Celtics and Cavs. That may not mean a whole lot given that Orlando is just one of four total teams to actually have a winning record in the East (sigh). Regardless, you play who you play, and Orlando has played well enough during Banchero's absence.
Franz Wagner has seen his usage increase significantly in Paolo's absence, and it seems his three-point shot has turned up after an extended hiatus. If he and Paolo can coexist as 25-point-per-game teammates, they will be the best homegrown duo out of the East since Brown and Tatum. Banchero getting back to action should only elevate Orlando, and I for one absolutely cannot wait for his return as he seems to have made another leap in his development.