NBA opening action thoughts

Games have been played and thoughts have been had

Now that every team has played at least one game, here are a few thoughts. If your favorite team isn’t discussed, don’t fret, they’re not that important and your fandom is a sham.

*most of these segments were written before games tipped off on Saturday, October 26th.

Uhhhh, the Celtics might be good

After two complete bludgeonings of the Knicks and Wizards, talk of a championship hangover for the Celtics feels quite silly. This is a team that retained the same core that blitzed the league to a historic +11.6 net rating. Even a slight drop in dominance would still keep them in elite territory, and it completely ignored two crucial factors. 

The first is the age of their best player. Jayson Tatum has been in the national discussion for years, but he’s somehow only 26. He’s been excellent to start the season, averaging 31 points per game on a 75% effective field goal percentage, and is apparently out for revenge. What he is avenging isn’t all that clear, but make no mistake, this manufactured narrative has legs. Simply put, when your best player is in their physical prime it’s much easier to keep the pedal to metal. 

The second is Joe Mazzula might be a coaching android sent from the future to destroy basketball. His penchant for bizarre and pseudo-philosophical answers gives him the aura of a poorly designed A.I. program that is 15% Yogi Berra, 20% that annoying guy who just took freshmen philosophy, 35% non-violent sociopath, and 30% Mike D’Antoni. This guy has no chill and as a result, the Celtics will never let up. He’s a basketball-coaching Terminator with the best-constructed roster to orchestrate his plans for utter subjugation. I’m scared he’ll read about Ghengis Khan and start trying to implement Mongolian hunting tactics. Actually, that’d be dope. 

Long story short, the Celtics look amazing, and scariest of all, they look utterly unrelenting and remorseless. If they keep this up, there will be a lot of “they’re ruining the league” discourse. Obviously, they won’t be ruining the league. They’ll just be pushing basketball further and further toward its mathematically most perfect form. Just like an android would…..

Has the Poole reopened? 

As a Wizards fan, I had no expectations for Jordan Poole last season. However, even my non-existent expectations expected him to be a pseudo-functional NBA player. Instead, he was atrocious, but to kick off the 2024-25 season he absolutely torched the Celtics for 17 first-quarter points. He cooled off after that, but it was the best he has looked in a Wizards’ uniform, and hopefully, he can reach those lofty non-existent expectations I held. If he can average 21 points per game on league-average efficiency, that’d count as a fantastic bounceback. Poole isn’t a winning player, but when he’s right, he’s a whole lot of fun. The league is better when bad teams have fun players. So fingers crossed he can keep bombing away at an acceptable level. 

Return of the Balls

The best story of the young NBA season has been Lonzo Ball’s return to play. After years of recurring injuries to his left knee, Ball was left with no meniscus or cartilage. It took two years of surgery, including a cartilage transplant, and rehab for him to make his return to NBA action. At this point, Ball’s production is a moot point. His journey back to the NBA is the feel-good story of the season and highlights both the marvels of modern medicine and the increasing physical demands placed on NBA players. I’m rooting for Ball, who only turns 27 on October 27th, to get at least another five years in the league. He’s a fantastic all-around player who always makes his team better when he’s on the court. 

Lonzo Ball wasn’t the only Ball to return from an extended injury absence. His younger brother, LaMelo, missed 106 games over the past two seasons due to a series of ankle injuries. In his absence, the Charlotte Hornets were dead on arrival, winning a combined 48 games. Somehow, their losing ways in his absence bestowed him the title of “losing player.” It was an odd narrative for a player who had been so statistically productive while leading the Hornets to a 43-39 record in his second season. Fortunately, Ball has come out on fire to start the season, averaging 34 points per game and 7.5 assists. He’s an exceptional player who gets unfairly labeled due to his admittedly ridiculous public persona. But as they say, Ball don’t lie.

Concerning Nuggets

As I’m writing this, the Nuggets are playing the Los Angeles Clippers, but nothing they’ve done has alleviated any of my concerns. Nikola Jokic is still an utter monster, but Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon look a step slow and none of the young guys appear ready to fill the void left by veteran departures. As long as Jokic is at this level they’ll win enough games to make the playoffs, but this should be a franchise competing for titles. In their first game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, they mustered an offensive rating of 86.8 in a blowout loss. In their second game, they lost a close affair to the Los Angeles Clippers, but it took a Jokic 41-piece to keep it within striking distance at the end. It’s concerning when a team with title aspirations has such little margin for error, but right now that’s where the Nuggets find themselves. Things will get better, but this may end up being a transitional season, which would be a huge waste of one of Jokic’s prime years. 

Can Cam Thomas average 30?

The Brooklyn Nets are going to be one of the worst teams in the league, but even the worst teams score a whole bunch of points. Last season, the Memphis Grizzlies scored an NBA-low 105.8 points per game, which means even the dregs of the league will have someone filling up the stat sheet. Through two games, Cam Thomas is averaging 30 points per game on 22 field goal attempts and a 55.9% effective field goal percentage. While he’s unlikely to maintain that level of efficiency, there’s no reason to believe he won’t ramp up his shooting volume to compensate. I don’t think Thomas is likely to average 30 points per game, but I think he does have a chance. The Nets need someone to shoot and Thomas has never seen a shot he wouldn’t hump uncontrollably like a poorly trained lap dog. I’m not a fan of his overall game, but I am rooting for him to have one of the least valuable 30-point-per-game seasons in NBA history. The Nets are boring, but Cam Thomas is a fun little carnival act. I hope he guns his way toward the top of the points leaderboard as the Nets cruise to 23 wins. 

Random NBA History Fact

Since the NBA-ABA merger, LeBron James is the oldest player to average 30 points per game. In 2021-22, he averaged 30.3 points per game in his age-37 season. His geriatric escapades went largely unnoticed as the Lakers limped to a 33-49 record, but his production defies conventional aging curves. His closest competition are Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, and Michael Jordan’s age-32 seasons. Nearly everything about LeBron is unprecedented. He is both the greatest young and old player. Apparently, he wants to play two to three more seasons, which doesn’t seem that crazy considering how high of a level he’s still at, and who knows, maybe he’ll reset this record again.