by Stop Mike Lupica on November 5 at 4:59PM
Some stats and thoughts:
-The Pacers are 3-0, which has to be the most shocking thing yet. They've been doing with strong production from Danny Granger and Mike Dunleavy Jr.
Of course, their three wins have been over winless Washington (in OT) at home, over winless Miami at home, and on the road over winless Memphis. In other words, let's wait to see how they do when the schedule gets a little tougher.
The good news for the Pacers: That's not for a little while. Up next: vs. the Clippers, at the Bobcats (also undefeated), vs. Denver, vs Boston. I don't see them winning more than two of those games, then the rest of November includes games against the playoff teams from last year the Nuggets, Mavs, Cavs, Jazz, Raptors and Lakers. Maybe they can beat the Wizards again, and hang in there until the softest two teams in November after Thanksgiving - the Blazers and Sonics. If this team is still over .500 at that point, we'll take them seriously.
-Boston is 2-0. They blew out the pitiful Wizards, then edged the Raptors in overtime. It's worth noting that Garnett has led the team in rebounds and assists in both games, but not scoring. Pierce led the first game, Allen the second.
-The Knicks are the only Atlantic division team that hasn't played a division rival. In fact, the Knicks don't play against their division until November 29th (Boston). The have a tough schedule until then, filled with lots of west coast teams, both good (Jazz, Suns, Nuggets twice) and bad (Clippers, Kings). Oh, and the Pistons and Bulls, too. Rough schedule to start the season for the Knicks.
-The Atlantic round robin tournament looks like this: The Celtics edged the Raptors; the Raptors crushed the Nets; the Nets and Raptors both beat the 76ers.
-Detroit is 3-0 with a plus +12 per game differential. The key stat: the four key starters (Billups, Hamilton, Prince, Wallace) are all under 35 mpg, except Prince (37.7). The bench has been getting lots of minutes, and everyone has gotten playing time. Amir Johnson has only played 5 minutes so far, but the Pistons have been going 9 and even 10 deep every game.
Jason Maxiell has looked great. His stats: 9.7 ppg, 4.7 rpg in 23.7 mpg. Also, he has only turned the ball over once in 3 games (versus 4 assists), showing good hands for a big man. And he's shooting 59% from the field, while getting to the line around 6 times a game (good for second on the team). You couldn't ask for better stats off the bench. My guess: he'll replace McDyess in the starting lineup at some point this season, and won't give it up once he does.
-Chicago is 0-3. Jack Cobra looks at why over here, but the Bulls need to be careful. One, Ben Wallace's injury may be worse than thought. Two, they couldn't beat the freaking Bucks or the 76ers. Three, their schedule looks tough. They get one more cookie tomorrow in a home game against the Clippers, then it's: the Pistons and the Raptors, then a six-game road trip that includes the Suns, Nuggets, Lakers, Knicks and Raptors. Dallas, Detroit and Boston also await in early December. Let's see how the Bulls are doing come December 10th. If they aren't doing well, trade rumors might heat up.
-The Bobcats are 2-0. That's not terribly shocking. But the Wizards and Heat are both 0-3. We thought the Wizards might be in trouble, but the Heat... not so sure. They couldn't beat the Pacers or the Bobcats. That's bad news for a team that now faces the Spurs and Suns.
The good news? Wade might be back after that, and the next games are the Knicks, Bobcats, and Sonics - all winnable. Maybe the Heat can right it at that point.
-We really didn't know how bad the Northwest was until we saw it: the T-Wolves, Sonics and Blazers are a combined 0-8, and really... that's what you should expect. With the Pacers off to a 3-0 start, the only competition for the #1 pick for these three teams should be the Kings.
That means the Jazz (2-2) and Nuggets (2-1) could both end up over 60 wins by default. Don't be surprised if one of these teams (the Nuggets) ends up with a top-2 seed in the Western Conference. Both teams are staring at 12 easy wins.
-Golden State starting 0-3. Not too surprising. The team traded its best player (Jason Richardson) for Brandon Wright and a trade exemption. It's rebuilding itself. I think Chris Mullin the GM never believed in Don Nelson smoke show last year; the Mavs were beaten because they were flawed, not because the Warriors are that great. Or maybe he has something up his sleeve.
Chris Mullin. I saw that what the Warriors cap situation looks like at the end of the year, and at the end of 2009 (the biggest free agent year of this decade). It's a lot different than it looked last season at this point. Mullin went from a going nowhere team with loads of big unmovable contracts to trading two of those contracts (Murphy and Dunleavy) to a white-boy hungry team for their "headaches", which in turn worked perfectly with his mad scientist coach. He then moved his best player (and worst remaining contract) to the Bobcats for an exemption (and Brandon Wright). The end result is that if Baron Davis opts out this year (a strong possibility), the Warriors will have less than $30 million on the books for next season. After seeing what amazing fans the Warriors have, there might be some free agents interested in the bay area. Iguodala, Gordon, Deng, and Okafor are all restricted free agents as of right now. Of course so is Biedrins, who is looking for big money from the Warriors.
Even if they don't sign any big players, the cap number goes down to $17 million the year after. Interesting opportunity for Mullin. He might decide to rebuild the team from scratch, around Brandon Wright, Biedrins, and gunner Marco Bellini. Stephen Jackson, Al Harrington and Monta Ellis are all around for another year, too. What will he do?
In the meanwhile, the Warriors have given up over 123 pts per game! They are streaky, and will surely mount a winning streak at some point this season and get back to .500, but we can't see them being consistent enough to be more than a marginal .500 team who'll slide into the 8th seed.
-Finally, here's something interesting... the Grizzlies are 0-2. We were going to put money on them and the Knicks to go over their expected wins. But we chickened out, and doubled our bet on the Knicks to go over, because the 37 number for the Grizzlies frightened us. Why? Because the rest of their division is no joke. No look at the standings again... the Hornets (who we predict as a playoffs team), Rockets (our predicted NBA champion), Spurs (our backup pick), and Mavs (last year's #1 team in the regular season) are a combined 11-1.
And you can't really be surprised by that, right?
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-The Pacers are 3-0, which has to be the most shocking thing yet. They've been doing with strong production from Danny Granger and Mike Dunleavy Jr.
Of course, their three wins have been over winless Washington (in OT) at home, over winless Miami at home, and on the road over winless Memphis. In other words, let's wait to see how they do when the schedule gets a little tougher.
The good news for the Pacers: That's not for a little while. Up next: vs. the Clippers, at the Bobcats (also undefeated), vs. Denver, vs Boston. I don't see them winning more than two of those games, then the rest of November includes games against the playoff teams from last year the Nuggets, Mavs, Cavs, Jazz, Raptors and Lakers. Maybe they can beat the Wizards again, and hang in there until the softest two teams in November after Thanksgiving - the Blazers and Sonics. If this team is still over .500 at that point, we'll take them seriously.
-Boston is 2-0. They blew out the pitiful Wizards, then edged the Raptors in overtime. It's worth noting that Garnett has led the team in rebounds and assists in both games, but not scoring. Pierce led the first game, Allen the second.
-The Knicks are the only Atlantic division team that hasn't played a division rival. In fact, the Knicks don't play against their division until November 29th (Boston). The have a tough schedule until then, filled with lots of west coast teams, both good (Jazz, Suns, Nuggets twice) and bad (Clippers, Kings). Oh, and the Pistons and Bulls, too. Rough schedule to start the season for the Knicks.
-The Atlantic round robin tournament looks like this: The Celtics edged the Raptors; the Raptors crushed the Nets; the Nets and Raptors both beat the 76ers.
-Detroit is 3-0 with a plus +12 per game differential. The key stat: the four key starters (Billups, Hamilton, Prince, Wallace) are all under 35 mpg, except Prince (37.7). The bench has been getting lots of minutes, and everyone has gotten playing time. Amir Johnson has only played 5 minutes so far, but the Pistons have been going 9 and even 10 deep every game.
Jason Maxiell has looked great. His stats: 9.7 ppg, 4.7 rpg in 23.7 mpg. Also, he has only turned the ball over once in 3 games (versus 4 assists), showing good hands for a big man. And he's shooting 59% from the field, while getting to the line around 6 times a game (good for second on the team). You couldn't ask for better stats off the bench. My guess: he'll replace McDyess in the starting lineup at some point this season, and won't give it up once he does.
-Chicago is 0-3. Jack Cobra looks at why over here, but the Bulls need to be careful. One, Ben Wallace's injury may be worse than thought. Two, they couldn't beat the freaking Bucks or the 76ers. Three, their schedule looks tough. They get one more cookie tomorrow in a home game against the Clippers, then it's: the Pistons and the Raptors, then a six-game road trip that includes the Suns, Nuggets, Lakers, Knicks and Raptors. Dallas, Detroit and Boston also await in early December. Let's see how the Bulls are doing come December 10th. If they aren't doing well, trade rumors might heat up.
-The Bobcats are 2-0. That's not terribly shocking. But the Wizards and Heat are both 0-3. We thought the Wizards might be in trouble, but the Heat... not so sure. They couldn't beat the Pacers or the Bobcats. That's bad news for a team that now faces the Spurs and Suns.
The good news? Wade might be back after that, and the next games are the Knicks, Bobcats, and Sonics - all winnable. Maybe the Heat can right it at that point.
-We really didn't know how bad the Northwest was until we saw it: the T-Wolves, Sonics and Blazers are a combined 0-8, and really... that's what you should expect. With the Pacers off to a 3-0 start, the only competition for the #1 pick for these three teams should be the Kings.
That means the Jazz (2-2) and Nuggets (2-1) could both end up over 60 wins by default. Don't be surprised if one of these teams (the Nuggets) ends up with a top-2 seed in the Western Conference. Both teams are staring at 12 easy wins.
-Golden State starting 0-3. Not too surprising. The team traded its best player (Jason Richardson) for Brandon Wright and a trade exemption. It's rebuilding itself. I think Chris Mullin the GM never believed in Don Nelson smoke show last year; the Mavs were beaten because they were flawed, not because the Warriors are that great. Or maybe he has something up his sleeve.
Chris Mullin. I saw that what the Warriors cap situation looks like at the end of the year, and at the end of 2009 (the biggest free agent year of this decade). It's a lot different than it looked last season at this point. Mullin went from a going nowhere team with loads of big unmovable contracts to trading two of those contracts (Murphy and Dunleavy) to a white-boy hungry team for their "headaches", which in turn worked perfectly with his mad scientist coach. He then moved his best player (and worst remaining contract) to the Bobcats for an exemption (and Brandon Wright). The end result is that if Baron Davis opts out this year (a strong possibility), the Warriors will have less than $30 million on the books for next season. After seeing what amazing fans the Warriors have, there might be some free agents interested in the bay area. Iguodala, Gordon, Deng, and Okafor are all restricted free agents as of right now. Of course so is Biedrins, who is looking for big money from the Warriors.
Even if they don't sign any big players, the cap number goes down to $17 million the year after. Interesting opportunity for Mullin. He might decide to rebuild the team from scratch, around Brandon Wright, Biedrins, and gunner Marco Bellini. Stephen Jackson, Al Harrington and Monta Ellis are all around for another year, too. What will he do?
In the meanwhile, the Warriors have given up over 123 pts per game! They are streaky, and will surely mount a winning streak at some point this season and get back to .500, but we can't see them being consistent enough to be more than a marginal .500 team who'll slide into the 8th seed.
-Finally, here's something interesting... the Grizzlies are 0-2. We were going to put money on them and the Knicks to go over their expected wins. But we chickened out, and doubled our bet on the Knicks to go over, because the 37 number for the Grizzlies frightened us. Why? Because the rest of their division is no joke. No look at the standings again... the Hornets (who we predict as a playoffs team), Rockets (our predicted NBA champion), Spurs (our backup pick), and Mavs (last year's #1 team in the regular season) are a combined 11-1.
And you can't really be surprised by that, right?
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