Observations from the first week of the 2024/25 NBA season

Observations from the first week of the 2024/25 NBA season

We’re only a week into the new NBA season and we’ve already witnessed breakthrough’s regressions, injury concerns, carried over dominance and an historic league first. There’s been so much to see, already!

I’ve made so many observations in an action-packed week one of NBA action that it would be a shame not to share a few of them with you.

Boston haven’t missed a beat.

What do you get when you take a dominant champion and give their best two players fresh new chips for their shoulders? Domination. That’s what you get.

Jaylen Brown got a lot of rest in over the break, though he wasn’t too happy about it. Jayson Tatum got front row seats to every USA Olympic men’s basketball team. In fact, he was so close to the action you could almost have mistaken him for a player.

With something to prove, Boston’s two main men have upped their games in the first week of this season, leading the Celtics to a 4-0 record with an offensive rating of 126.3, a full three points better than last seasons already historic figure. The scariest part? Kristaps Porzingis is still to join the fray.

Serious question: will the Celtics team win 70 games this season?

The Joker can’t do it all by himself.

When you whittle away at something it’s important to remember what you were hoping to create, or else you might end up whittling down to nothing.

Denver, in their intent to use young talent to replace veteran contributors around the best player in the world, have forgotten that it was their veteran know-how that allowed Nikola Jokic to be whatever he had to be in any situation. Now, without reliable contributors around him, he has to be everything all at once.

In Denver’s two wins – a narrow ‘triumph’ over Toronto and an OT ordeal at Brooklyn – Jokic was other worldly. Forty points and 10 boards against the Raptors, a 29/18/16 triple-double against the Nets. And still Denver only just squeaked over the line. Against the Clippers, Jokic tried to solve the Nuggets’ shooting woes by going 7/12 from deep. It wasn’t enough, nor was another trip-dub in their opener against Oklahoma City.

Whilst the youngsters are developing, they’re still not yet championship level. Jamal Murray’s extended slump is fast becoming the norm. Michael Porter Jr remains frighteningly inconsistent. Dario Saric is unplayable at both ends. Predictably, Russell Westbrook is shooting 27% from the floor and 25% from three.

What are the odds on Jokic riding sulkies around Serbia this time next year?

The Thunder are bringing the…uhh…thunder.

The Thunder are, quite rightly, the favourites to top the West this season. For all of their developing offensive stars, it’s their defense that leads the way.

Ranking fourth in defensive rating last season, the Thunder added defensive whizz Alex Caruso who, right off the bat, started doing all of those little Alex Caruso things that tie a defense together:

The Thunder also addressed their biggest defensive need – rebounding – by bringing in Isaiah Hartenstein. It’s almost unfair that, despite the former Knick being injured, OKC solved their rebounding issues internally with Chet Holmgren averaging 13 boards a game thus far.

Bucks aging in dog years

It’s not looking good in Milwaukee. After handling a severely undermanned Sixers on opening night, they’ve not won since. Losing at Boston is fair enough but losses to the Nets and at home to the Bulls are worrying, to say the least.

Giannis Antetokounmpo is still Giannis Antetokounmpo; Damian Lillard looks back to something approximating his best. Yet the offense remains sludgy. The heavily anticipated Dame/Giannis pick and roll has never really developed, and Giannis sometimes looks lost without Khris Middleton out there. Like…what on earth is this?

On defense – their calling card – the Bucks look old, slow and disjointed. The only shining light is that Milwaukee went 1-2 out of the gate in 2021. They turned out OK, that season.

Project, schmoject!

From what was universally regarded as a weak draft, the New Orleans Pelicans might have found an uncut gem the size of a fist in Belgian centre Yves Missi.

The 20-year-old was considered the most long term of projects, teeming with potential but almost entirely unbridled. Thanks to the Pellies bold strategy of entering the campaign without a legitimate starting level centre on roster, Missi has been pressed into action from the off, averaging 21 minutes a game through the opening week.

And hasn’t he made the most of it! A nightly haul of 8.3 points and 5.3 boards on 53% shooting – and a tidy 77.8% from the stripe – is handy enough. Missi is also blocking 2.3 shot per game. They’re not just positional blocks, either. Here he’s materialising from another dimension to reject Jonathan Kuminga, not exactly a bad athlete, himself.

A fully actualised Anthony Davis

We’ve been promised this moment for years. Frankly, I thought it might never come…but here we are: LeBron James has handed over the reins of the offense. And hasn’t Anthony Davis grabbed them with glee!

The 31-year-old (that has snuck up, hasn’t it!) is at long last playing like a top five player, rather than a top 25 player, as he has for most of his Lakers tenure. He is handling the ball more than he has at any time in his Lakers career and the results are telling. He is touching the ball in dangerous areas of the floor on practically every possession, as new coach JJ Redick tilts the floor towards his centre.

If you’re looking for a stat that sums up Davis’ transformation, a career high 32.8 points per game is nice but not the most telling. That number would be 12.8. That’s the number of free throws Davis is attempting per game (making just over 80% of them, to boot). That’s more than four free throws a night higher than at any other point of Davis’s career.

JJ picking the low hanging fruit

For all of the hullabaloo surrounding JJ Redick’s, let’s call it ‘streamlined’ process to an NBA head coaching gig, there wasn’t a whole lot of discussion about whether he could actually coach.

Now, it is early days and there will be plenty of resilience required for the former Dookie to last as an NBA head coach, but he has gotten the basics right, so far.

He very publicly announced his starting five and the very reasonable justification for it. He has his team shooting shots from the right areas of the floor. He’s steered to offense towards an in-his-prime superstar and away from a man whose son is in the league. Speaking of that son, he handled the Bronny James dog and pony show with aplomb.

So far, so good for JJ.

Paolo and Chet on the verge of superstardom

Technically they were not rookies together, but Paolo Banchero and Chet Holmgren, the first two picks of the 2022 NBA draft, look set to dominate All NBA discourse for the next decade and change.

Holmgren has picked up where he left off in year two, demonstrating elite rim protection (4 bpg) and rebounding (13 rpg) despite his thin frame. He’s also upped his scoring into the low 20’s despite his jump shot not quite clicking yet. He’s the perfect (massively overqualified) second banana for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Banchero closed out week one of the season with a performance that 95% of NBA players would be happy to claim as their signature moment.

That’s right: 50 points, 13 boards, 9 assists, a steal and two blocks. He posted a 37, 7, 6 line by half time! That’s absurd! We’re looking at the new Giannis, folks.

They’re very different players, yet both on a very similar path.

Chef Atkinson has the Cavs cookin’

After losing all four of their preseason outings, the Cleveland Cavaliers have come out and smoked the opposition in week one, winning all four of their games by a cumulative margin of 67 points. Admittedly, those first three wins – Toronto, Detroit and Washington – are not exactly an NBA murderer’s row, but beating the Knicks on their own floor has made people stand up and take notice.

It’s not so much the results, but the manner of those results, that is important. New coach Kenny Atkinson looks to have made a concerted effort to put the ball in Evan Mobley’s hands. The young forward now sports the second highest usage rate on the team and with their offensive rating sitting at 123.2, trailing only the Celtics, it appears that unlocking Mobley might be the key to unlocking the Cavs.

Buddy Hield = Klay Thompson

One day the #11 will hang in the rafters of the Chase Centre. But, as the saying goes, time stands still for no man. It was time for Klay Thompson and the Golden State Warriors to say their teary goodbyes.

Buddy Hield, Thompson’s nominal replacement, has stepped in to Klay’s formidable boots as seamlessly as could be hoped at this early stage. Yes, Hield’s absurd 56% shooting from deep (on 7.6 attempts per game) will regress to the mean, but it’s reasonable to expect the 31-year-old to score in the mid-to-high teens, shoot at around 40% from beyond the arc and 90% from the line, and play little to no defense. Which, funnily enough, is exactly what Thompson will do for the Dallas Mavericks. Only Buddy will do it for about half the money.