Don’t look at the standings. Just don’t. That’s the number one rule of the beginning of the NBA season. It takes longer than a few weeks to determine the best and worst teams. There’s a reason why the schedule is 82 games.
Well, OK, that’s a complete lie. There’s actually no good reason that the NBA schedule is that long, but the point stands. The Cleveland Cavaliers aren’t going to be fighting for the eighth seed in the East as the postseason looms. Conversely, the Memphis Grizzlies won’t be resting players those last few weeks of the season, having long since secured the best record in the West.
At least this prognosticator desperately, desperately hopes.
Too many Waiters
The biggest story out of Cleveland really should not be Dion Waiters, not this season anyhow. LeBron James’s triumphant homecoming has been dulled by a lackluster 3-3 start while his old team, the 5-2 Miami Heat, has been playing great without him. There have been rumors about Kevin Love, who still could possibly exercise the opt-out clause in his contract, eying the Los Angeles Lakers should the Cavaliers fall short. Yet it’s been Waiters, the polarizing shooting guard, who has become the number one topic out of Cleveland.
It’s perhaps not too surprising. During a disastrous and embarrassing 2013-14 Cavaliers season, Waiters was often singled out as the biggest problem in an openly dysfunctional locker room, with reports of clashes with nominal team leader Kyrie Irving. After the team revamped in the offseason, the unspoken thought was that Waiters would, rightly or wrongly, take the brunt of the blame if things didn’t start smoothly.
Well, things haven’t started smoothly. After stumbling early, the Cavaliers made the likely inevitable move to bench Waiters, an event he had been preemptively protesting for weeks. After the demotion (veteran Shawn Marion has taken his place), Waiters was absent during the national anthem for his first game as the reluctant sixth man. Following the game, Waiters reportedly explained that his disappearance was due to religious reasons.
It’s probably a testament to Waiters’s inability to get out of his own way that he came up with an explanation that resulted in way more backlash than if he had just said he was unhappy that he was no longer starting. After some outrage, Waiters somewhat unconvincingly denied having said anything about his no-show being faith-related.
— Dionwaiters3 (@dionwaiters3) November 8, 2014Lol I wasn't going to even say anything about the situation but whoever made that up about me & the national anthem is a damn lie....
In the midst of all of this controversy, Waiters responded on Friday by having his best game of the season in a 110-101 win over the Denver Nuggets, scoring 17 points in 24 minutes off the bench. Unfortunately he was also shoved by the Nuggets’ Darrell Arthur, a flagrant foul that resulted in Arthur’s well-earned ejection but also re-aggravated Waiters’s already sore back.
A hurting Waiters was out for Monday night’s game against Anthony Davis and the New Orleans Pelicans. Without Waiters, the Cavs managed to win and LeBron James, struggling by his standards, tallied a triple-double in the process. (Well, OK, turns out it was a scoring-error-assisted triple-double when reviewed the next day, so it’s officially a triple-double minus one.) It was a solid team performance, which bodes well for the Cavaliers’ future, if not Waiters’s.
There are at least two different Dions, which is entirely too many Waiters. The Nuggets saw the Dion that was talented enough to be the Cavaliers’ fourth overall pick. This version of Dion, who tends to show up when he’s playing well, could be a cog in what could and should be the best team in the Eastern Conference if it can find its identity. On the other hand, the sulking, disruptive Dion, the one that tends to show up when he’s facing adversity, is entirely dispensable. If he keeps making headlines, expect Cleveland to dispense with him.
Rubio, Smart go down
Friday was a rough night for injuries, even by NBA standards. It started with the Minnesota Timberwolves’ game against the Orlando Magic, where point guard Ricky Rubio rolled his ankle, an injury that put the team’s best player on the shelf indefinitely. It was particularly terrible timing for the Timberwolves, just a week after they signed Rubio to a $55m extension.
It’s not a huge disaster in one respect: Minnesota weren’t playing for anything even with Rubio, so potentially losing him for a few months might not matter. It’s a more depressing development from the standpoint of recent franchise history – yet another setback-via-freak injury for a team that has had far too many of them, including the ACL tear that prematurely ended Rubio’s dazzling rookie season.
A few hours later, another non-contender lost one of its most intriguing players. While squeezing out a victory against a decimated Indiana Pacers lineup, the Boston Celtics saw promising rookie Marcus Smart go down with a sprained ankle. Seeing Smart carted off the floor in a stretcher brought to mind the worst image of the young NBA season: the Los Angeles Lakers losing Julius Randle to a broken leg in their very first game. That most likely ended Randle’s rookie campaign before it even properly began, leaving the Lakers with the dreadful consolation prize of an injury exception to replace him on the roster.
The news wasn’t quite as bad for the Celtics, as they may only lose Smart for two to three weeks. Look for the team to make certain Smart is 100% before putting him back on the court, as he looks like he could be a big part of the Celtics’ future, whatever the heck that will be. Although Boston only has a .500 record, they have been in every game of the season, looking particularly dominant when Smart has been sharing the floor with Rajon Rondo and Avery Bradley.
Warriors lose perfect season
A battle between unbeaten teams on Saturday ended with the Golden State Warriors defeating the Houston Rockets 98-87, improving their record to 5-0. Golden State’s triumph would be short-lived. The next night, with Klay Thompson on the sidelines, they lost to the Phoenix Suns in a turnover-heavy contest that ensured, once again, there would be no 82-0 team this NBA season. Their momentum thus dissipated, the Warriors would fall to 5-2 on Tuesday night with a loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
Still, the Warriors have started off the season strong enough to garner attention, and, perhaps surprisingly, not because of their offense. During their perfect run they were possibly the best defensive team in the NBA. If they can keep this up, and if Steph Curry and Thompson score like we know they can, this roster could very well be one of the more balanced ones in the league.
Well, they do have a fatal flaw: their unfathomable turnover rate. As of Tuesday it was at 22% which, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe has pointed out, would put them on pace for the worst TO rate in NBA history. This is most likely a small-sample-size aberration, but new head coach Steve Kerr has to be concerned about this trend going forward, or memories of the Warriors’ perfect start will fizzle quickly.
There are no undefeated teams in the NBA, but what of defeated teams? Around an hour or so after the Warriors fell, the Los Angeles Lakers picked up their first win against a Charlotte Hornets squad that fumbled away a second-half lead. It was great news for Lakers fans, as well as NBA analyst Charles Barkley, who had vowed to go on a hunger strike until they had a game in the win column.
The victory over the Hornets did not spark a winning streak, however. On Tuesday night the Lakers dropped to 1-6 after losing to the Grizzlies, a game where Kobe Bryant fittingly broke the NBA record for missed field goals. The loss actually is not a huge embarrassment, as Memphis currently sits on top of the Western Conference, their record now 7-1 after the win. Since this writer predicted Memphis would miss the playoffs entirely, let’s just pretend that the Grizzlies’ hot start is also a small-sample-size aberration.
The Lakers’ victory on Saturday meant that the only winless team left in the NBA is the Grand Experiment In Purposeful Failure that is the Philadelphia 76ers, who are currently 0-7. The dream of 0-82, for one team at least, is still alive.
The mother-bleeping Sacramento Kings
DeMarcus Cousins is making the leap. Yes, “Boogie” Cousins is finally living up to his spectacular nickname and starting to look like the unstoppable force he could be rather than the tantalizing liability he has been. His defense has been tenacious, he seems to have improved offensively, and he has zero technical fouls on the season. Somehow.
It helps that the team around him has stepped up so far. As SB Nation’s Tom Ziller notes, the Kings’ success is not just because of their franchise center:
After Cousins fouled out with 39 seconds left in regulation on Friday night against the Phoenix Suns, it would have been easy for the Kings to fold. Instead, they ended the first overtime on a 7-0 run and the second with six unanswered to pick up an improbable win. The biggest difference is the team’s defensive efficiency. Last year it was 106.3. This year it’s 98.7, which ranks seventh in the league.
Not bad for a team that was all but shipped away to Seattle two years ago.
Not that everybody in the league believes in the Kings. After a loss to an Oklahoma City Thunder team still missing Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, a Vine emerged showing that Thunder center Kendrick Perkins told his team-mates “these motherfuckers are still the Sacramento Kings” during an in-game huddle.
— CBS Sports NBA (@CBSSportsNBA) November 11, 2014OKC's Kendrick Perkins in huddle: 'These motherf------ are still the Sacramento Kings' http://t.co/ZevnhRiAD4 https://t.co/j1EMf40Lgn
Although the idea of one of the NBA’s most ridiculed starters pointing out another entity’s poor reputation is laughable, Perkins could very well be right. It’s early and, well, these guys are still the Kings. What if he’s wrong though? Could it be that this isn’t the same old Sacramento? Could the 2014-15 Kings, currently 5-3, shock the basketball world and remain in the postseason hunt like the 2013-14 Suns? It’s all up to Boogie.
Other things we’ve learned
- Lance Stephenson of the Charlotte Hornets shot his first three-pointer of the season on Friday. It just so happened to be the buzzer-beating game winner in a double-overtime 122-119 victory against the Atlanta Hawks. Timing is everything.
- Lakers fans don’t understand that basketball isn’t golf. Perhaps they’re angry at management for how badly the Steve Nash trade went or just the winless start of their season, but this is a bad look.
- Also something that Steve Nash would like to stress takes different muscles than professional basketball: retweeting NSFW images from adult actresses.
- The Detroit Pistons, in one image:
— NBA Legion (@MySportsLegion) November 11, 2014The Pistons spelled Andre Drummond's name wrong on his jersey tonight. pic.twitter.com/CSq7W19lrH
- Brooklyn Nets’ Brook Lopez on how he’s different from his brother, Robin Lopez of the Portland Trail Blazers:
— devin kharpertian (@uuords) November 9, 2014Brook Lopez, on his brother: http://t.co/6gyTDWw0cW pic.twitter.com/rKAmia4Zgx
- Bethlehem Shoals of the semi-dormant and entirely legendary Free Darko blog has the perfect guide for anyone trying to find the best way to follow the NBA this season. It ends with this advice:
... the only reason to bother with close reading or a demanding time commitment is if you know that every single night, you’ll be sucked in by a game, watching for a reason, chasing something more than just a headline. If you aren’t watching the NBA to enjoy it, you might as well not watch at all.
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