Opening Week Observations: What We’ve Learned So Far
The 2016–17 NBA season is only four nights old, but tons of storylines have already developed in such a short time. Here’s what we have learned about some players and teams so far this season:
Anthony Davis is still great (the rest of the Pelicans, not so much)
I think Anthony Davis might be a little angry about this year’s NBA GM survey.
Last season, Davis was picked by 86.2% of NBA General Managers as the one player they would pick to start a franchise if they could sign any NBA player.
This year? AD was relegated to the “Also receiving votes” category.
This has a lot to do with The Brow’s suspect injury history and questions about his long term ability to stay healthy, but Davis has been nothing short of spectacularly amazing in the Pelicans first two games of the season.
Here’s his stat line from the first game against the Nuggets: 50 pts, 16 rebounds, 5 assists, 7 steals, 4 blocks
Wow.
How did he follow that up? 45, 17, 3, 2, and 2 against the Warriors Friday night.
The problem is, the two games both resulted in losses for the Pelicans. New Orleans just doesn’t have much around their star. Davis is putting up 47.5 points per game right now, but the rest of the Pelicans combined are chipping in 60.5. With Jrue Holiday and Tyreke Evans gone for the foreseeable future, the Pellies are bereft of quality NBA players to put around Davis and build a playoff caliber team with. Tim Frazier has been a nice story so far — he scored a career-high 21 against Golden State on Friday — at point guard, but outside of Anthony Davis at power-forward-or-center-or-wherever-he-plays, New Orleans is below-average at every other position. AD should continue to put up monster numbers if he stays healthy, but the 2016–17 season already looks to be shaping up as a frustrating one for New Orleans fans.
The Warriors Aren’t Perfect
No matter how much talent a team has or how many cartoon musicals a team has made about them, no team in the NBA will ever be completely perfect.The Warriors proved that with their 129–100 opening night loss to the San Antonio Spurs.
The fact is, beyond their superstars, Golden State is a flawed team. They are extremely thin and they have a dearth of shot blocking. This season will probably make the Warriors appreciate what Andrew Bogut did for them in the past few seasons even more. Bogut was a defensive stalwart, an excellent rim protector, and could facilitate the offense with his stellar pasing. Zaza Pachulia is a nice player—and probably the best that Golden State could have hoped for at the center position given the money they had left after the Durant signing — but he just can’t do the things Bogut did for the 73–9 juggernaut Warriors last season
Whether any of that matters though remains to be seen.
They’re still the most talented team in the league by far and they only just got together. The LeBron-Wade-Bosh Heat went 9–8 out of the gate in their first year together in 2010–11, and they turned out just fine. The Dubs have played pretty subpar defense over their first couple games so far, and they’ve looked sort of awkward at some points on offense, but those are the kind of issues that will likely go away as the group spends more time playing together and jells a little more.
After all, Golden State shot 21% and 32% from three in the first couple games. Can we really expect that trend to continue for a team that has Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Kevin Wayne Durant on it.
The Warriors will start to show their dominance, and, when they do, it’ll still be scary.
They aren’t a perfect team — there is no such thing in the NBA— but they will still be one of the greatest the sport has ever seen.
Dwyane Wade can apparently shoot threes now
File this one under “It’s just one game but..” (shotout to The Starters). Dwyane Wade, who made just 7 out of 44 three-pointers all of last season, hit 4 of 6 in a blazing start for his new team in Chicago in their season-opening win over the Boston Celtics. I don’t expect Wade to continue to shoot that well from behind the arc all season, but who knows, maybe all that work in the offseason we kept hearing about payed off.
The Westbrook Show is going to be epic
Russell Westbrook just might have to average a triple-double this season if he wants to drag his OKC Thunder into the playoffs.
In their first game, Westbrook narrowly missed the trip-dub with 32–12–9 as the Thunder squeaked by the 76ers.
In the second game, Russ tallied the first 50-point triple-double in the NBA since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1975 when he put up 51 points (on 44 shots, but still) 13 rebounds and 10 assists as OKC got by lowly Phoenix in overtime.
If those kind of performances are what it takes to get wins over what we think are bad teams, the Thunder’s playoff hopes could be bleak. OKC’s situation is a little bit similar to Anthony Davis and the Pelicans’, with not much around the franchise superstar. True, the Thunder do still have Steven Adams and Oladipo, but it might be hard for them to compete with better teams unless Russell Westbrook puts up those kind of lines every night. Knowing Russ, he will certainly try to, and he might even be able to. One thing’s for certain: The Westbrook Show is going to be fun to follow this season.
LeBron and the Cavs haven’t missed a beat
With all the ballyhoo of opening night focused on the Warriors, Cleveland quietly got their rings, killed the Knicks, and went on about their business.
LeBron’s been great, getting a triple-double on opening night with 19 points 11 rebounds and 14 assists on 64.3% (!) shooting. Kyire and Kevin Love look like they still have their rhythm from the finals.
To the degree that any LeBron James team can, it seems like the Cavaliers will fly a little bit under the radar this season as all the attention is rightly focused on what is going on in the bay area. LeBron and the Cavs will likely take care of business in the East and size up their foe from out west all season as they prepare for the maybe possibly probably inevitable Finals of Warriors vs Cavaliers
