With 15% of the Sched done - Some Early Observations

[Demographic Shift]

The League is about 12 to 13 games in which is about 15% of the season. While its early its a smallish sample size its still enough to start to see some surprises and disappointments and the some pretty predictable stuff.

Under Pretty Predictable

The Lebrons and the Warriors are pretty damn good and while upsets happen its pretty tough to see these two not meeting in the finals for the 3rd straight year. What could change that ? Injury or injuries.

San Antonio is still pretty good and the Exremento Kings need a therapist or an exorcist.

The Timberwolves, vaunted to be in the west playoffs, still look like a collection of really good young talent who hasn't quite figured out the best teams win in the NBA not the team with the most highlight reel segments on Sportscentre. Think the ESPN/CBS types are way out in front of their blocking on when this team arrives.

Philly. Still. Sucks.

Disappointments

The on the rise to the top of the Eastern Conference can't miss Leprechauns seem to be a pretty average team. It can change but its hard to see how its going to change. They can't rebound and the guy who did that for them is rehabbing in Toronto. The 6 and 6 Celtics have had a softer schedule to boot.

The new look fast pace Pacers are struggling mightily. Got beat by 20 at home by Phoenix. Ouch. Maybe Frank Vogel and his defensive approach wasn't such a dunce after all.

The men from Motown are off to a slow start. Picked by a few here and elsewhere to be in the hunt for 4 or 5th seed the Pistons are still a work in progress.

The Whiz are bordering on dreadful instead of being a low seed, perhaps 8th in the East. 3 and 8. John Wall acting out and has been tossed from a couple of games. Wonder if he writes rescue me on the soles of his game shoes.

Surprises

Atlanta... so far so good. Solid looking team and they have a win over the Lebron's when Lebron is dressed. Schroeder hasn't gone crazy and so far Dwight Howard is a model citizen save for the flagrant 2 he got last night in their loss to....

The next most surprising team in the East the BobHornetNetCats. Steve Clifford has these guys playing consistent ball each and every night. Kemba Walker is making a bid to an ASG selection and so far they don't miss any offense from Big Al and Linsanity.

The Bulls are better than most gave them credit for. So far the great Rondo / Butler / Wade stew hasn't gone south and the Bulls are vying for a home court seed in the East.

Brooklyn isnt completely horrible. If they can keep up this pace.. the Leprecahuns draft pick may not be number 1 overall.

Jury Still Out

Portland... last years over achievers have not got off to the start they thought they would put up
OKC..... still hard to tell.. one thing to watch... how will the team react if they go below 500 and Russ continues to be a ball hog extrodinaire.
Dallas.... some had them in the playoffs... some had them in high lottery....
Knicks... the super triangle team still is 50/50 to make the last playoffs slot or to finish 11th.
Orlando... still wonder WtF is going on in Mickey and Minnie land
Bucks... a pretty good set of individual talents(Parker/ Giannas / Monroe/ Henson) but when out on the floor together just don't get it done.. they are always close.. but that only counts in grenades.


I am sure others have views and thoughts as well as the first segment of the season is now in the books... What surprises/disappointments do fellow RapRepublicans see ? All comers and comments welcomed.

[Raptorsnz]

The League is about 12 to 13 games in which is about 15% of the season. While its early its a smallish sample size its still enough to start to see some surprises and disappointments and the some pretty predictable stuff.

Under Pretty Predictable

The Lebrons and the Warriors are pretty damn good and while upsets happen its pretty tough to see these two not meeting in the finals for the 3rd straight year. What could change that ? Injury or injuries.

San Antonio is still pretty good and the Exremento Kings need a therapist or an exorcist.

The Timberwolves, vaunted to be in the west playoffs, still look like a collection of really good young talent who hasn't quite figured out the best teams win in the NBA not the team with the most highlight reel segments on Sportscentre. Think the ESPN/CBS types are way out in front of their blocking on when this team arrives.

Philly. Still. Sucks.

Disappointments

The on the rise to the top of the Eastern Conference can't miss Leprechauns seem to be a pretty average team. It can change but its hard to see how its going to change. They can't rebound and the guy who did that for them is rehabbing in Toronto. The 6 and 6 Celtics have had a softer schedule to boot.

The new look fast pace Pacers are struggling mightily. Got beat by 20 at home by Phoenix. Ouch. Maybe Frank Vogel and his defensive approach wasn't such a dunce after all.

The men from Motown are off to a slow start. Picked by a few here and elsewhere to be in the hunt for 4 or 5th seed the Pistons are still a work in progress.

The Whiz are bordering on dreadful instead of being a low seed, perhaps 8th in the East. 3 and 8. John Wall acting out and has been tossed from a couple of games. Wonder if he writes rescue me on the soles of his game shoes.

Surprises

Atlanta... so far so good. Solid looking team and they have a win over the Lebron's when Lebron is dressed. Schroeder hasn't gone crazy and so far Dwight Howard is a model citizen save for the flagrant 2 he got last night in their loss to....

The next most surprising team in the East the BobHornetNetCats. Steve Clifford has these guys playing consistent ball each and every night. Kemba Walker is making a bid to an ASG selection and so far they don't miss any offense from Big Al and Linsanity.

The Bulls are better than most gave them credit for. So far the great Rondo / Butler / Wade stew hasn't gone south and the Bulls are vying for a home court seed in the East.

Brooklyn isnt completely horrible. If they can keep up this pace.. the Leprecahuns draft pick may not be number 1 overall.


I am sure others have views and thoughts as well as the first segment of the season is now in the books... What surprises/disappointments do fellow RapRepublicans see ? All comers and comments welcomed.

To be fair the Celtics have been missing 2 of their 3 best players (Crowder and Horford) for the majority of the season so far so it's not surprising that they're doing

[Jangles]

It's not easy for Detroit when your starting PG is Ish Smith. Getting Reggie back should have them competing for the 5-7 seeds.

[The Great One]

Surprises:

DeRozan - I know he's a great player but 33ppg?

Harden - He looks like Mike D'Antoni's new Steve Nash.

Lakers - The Lakers have been in every game they've played this season. They're 7-6. They beat the Warriors a couple of weeks ago. Almost beat the Spurs last week. I don't know what to make of this team.

Disappointments:

TWolves - They're 4-8. They should be a lot better than that. A lot better. They have SO MUCH talent on that team. To me, they should be competing for a playoff spot this year.

Wizards and Magic - Wiz are a mess; Magic looks like the worst team in basketball. Going into the season i thought the Wiz are a lock to make the playoffs and the Magic to compete for that 7-8 spot. It's still early though.

[Scraptor]

Disappointments:

TWolves - They're 4-8. They should be a lot better than that. A lot better. They have SO MUCH talent on that team. To me, they should be competing for a playoff spot this year.

Wizards and Magic - Wiz are a mess; Magic looks like the worst team in basketball. Going into the season i thought the Wiz are a lock to make the playoffs and the Magic to compete for that 7-8 spot. It's still early though.

The TWolves are still so young. Wiggins, Lavine, and Towns are all 1-1.5 years younger than Pascal Siakam. They'll be rolling by the end of the year and next year they should be downright scary.

Magic roster is such a mess. The Ibaka trade was one of the weirdest moves I've seen in a while.

To the disappointment list I'll add Indiana. Didn't expect to see them struggle this much but then they have major new pieces and it's early.

[A.I]

The TWolves will pick it up. They are the youngest team in the NBA I believe and they have a new coach, so it will take time.

[KeonClark]

As far as the lakers goes, I think we're realizing Luke Walton did deserve credit for going 28-0 or whatever it was as the interim for golden state. Yes, teams still need good coaching to be truly dominant.

[golden]

Early observation 1: CoJo, Patterson and Carroll have sucked for the most part.
Early observation 2: Kyle and DeMar are saving their energy on D and trying to win games with offense, like 2 seasons ago.

[golden]

Surprises:

DeRozan - I know he's a great player but 33ppg?

Harden - He looks like Mike D'Antoni's new Steve Nash.

Lakers - The Lakers have been in every game they've played this season. They're 7-6. They beat the Warriors a couple of weeks ago. Almost beat the Spurs last week. I don't know what to make of this team.

Disappointments:

TWolves - They're 4-8. They should be a lot better than that. A lot better. They have SO MUCH talent on that team. To me, they should be competing for a playoff spot this year.

Wizards and Magic - Wiz are a mess; Magic looks like the worst team in basketball. Going into the season i thought the Wiz are a lock to make the playoffs and the Magic to compete for that 7-8 spot. It's still early though.

Wolves should have a better record. They have the 5th best point differential in the West. They're young and just don't know how to win games yet, but they're already a playoff calibre team. Thibs will have his stamp on this team's culture (i.e. defense) by the end of the season, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a late season charge after the all-star break, barring major injury.

[The Great One]

Re Harden, I just want to add. They still list him as a SG but really if you watch a Rockets game, he's their PG.

[KHD]

things looking a bit uneasy right now but for context we have had by far the toughest schedule in the league (not to mention the bullshit back-to-back with travel part of it), so hopefully things will normalize.

The defence is struggling for the same reasons it always has: poor perimeter D. Difference this year is that JV is not Biyombo and will not make the spectacular saving plays when Carroll, Demar or Lowry completely fail to even hinder their mark. Pick and roll is a concern with stretchier bigs, but that is always the case, and was the case when we had biyombo, too.

The loss of Greer doesn't help, either.

More recently, we've been taking bad shots on O that lead to transition D, which no team is good at (that's kind of the point of fast break offence). Actually, it's a lot to do with the fact that Demar's no longer hitting at the ridiculous rate he was before, but continues to take questionable shots (surprise surprise). This is a frustrating thing to watch.

Offensively we continue to do the same things that we always do, forcing Demar and Lowry even when other guys have clear advantages. We're not running good stuff, and it's painfully obvious. just watch any team we play against on offence. Such a shame, after the first game i really thought they might start to actually look to their big man, but it was just a mirage.

[CalgaryRapsFan]

things looking a bit uneasy right now but for context we have had by far the toughest schedule in the league (not to mention the bullshit back-to-back with travel part of it), so hopefully things will normalize.

The defence is struggling for the same reasons it always has: poor perimeter D. Difference this year is that JV is not Biyombo and will not make the spectacular saving plays when Carroll, Demar or Lowry completely fail to even hinder their mark. Pick and roll is a concern with stretchier bigs, but that is always the case, and was the case when we had biyombo, too.

The loss of Greer doesn't help, either.

More recently, we've been taking bad shots on O that lead to transition D, which no team is good at (that's kind of the point of fast break offence). Actually, it's a lot to do with the fact that Demar's no longer hitting at the ridiculous rate he was before, but continues to take questionable shots (surprise surprise). This is a frustrating thing to watch.

Offensively we continue to do the same things that we always do, forcing Demar and Lowry even when other guys have clear advantages. We're not running good stuff, and it's painfully obvious. just watch any team we play against on offence. Such a shame, after the first game i really thought they might start to actually look to their big man, but it was just a mirage.

I think the lack of perimeter defense is also the leading cause of the team's decline of 3pt defense. Easy penetration leads to so many problems (no bad puns, please), whether it's the ball-handler scoring, dropping off for an uncontested shot when the help defense rotates over, or kicking out for a wide open 3pt shot (or to start a series of passes along the perimeter to find the open 3pt shot).

The loss of Biyombo and DeRozan's shooting % normalizing only serve to remind that this core really hasn't changed its approach for the past going-on four seasons, for better or worse.

Casey/Lowry/DeRozan do their thing, and the team's success hinges on their shots falling. At the start of the year, the shots were falling and the decision making was more intelligent and team-oriented, to the point that I was very impressed with DeRozan especially. Unfortunately, it seems like when the shots stop falling, the old tendency to double-down on forcing the offense from Lowry/DeRozan is creeping back into the game-plan.

[KHD]

I think the lack of perimeter defense is also the leading cause of the team's decline of 3pt defense. Easy penetration leads to so many problems (no bad puns, please), whether it's the ball-handler scoring, dropping off for an uncontested shot when the help defense rotates over, or kicking out for a wide open 3pt shot (or to start a series of passes along the perimeter to find the open 3pt shot).

The loss of Biyombo and DeRozan's shooting % normalizing only serve to remind that this core really hasn't changed its approach for the past going-on four seasons, for better or worse.

Casey/Lowry/DeRozan do their thing, and the team's success hinges on their shots falling. At the start of the year, the shots were falling and the decision making was more intelligent and team-oriented, to the point that I was very impressed with DeRozan especially. Unfortunately, it seems like when the shots stop falling, the old tendency to double-down on forcing the offense from Lowry/DeRozan is creeping back into the game-plan.

The frustrating thing is that this is an issue we thought we were at least starting to address when we brought in Carroll and Joseph.

[KeonClark]

The frustrating thing is that this is an issue we thought we were at least starting to address when we brought in Carroll and Joseph.

The carroll signing can almost be put in the books as a complete fail. He had surgery a full year ago, started playing 7 months ago and is still "not 100%, rarely closes games and sits back to backs. Looks disinterested, misses back cuts, no lateral quickness...Unless we see a complete 180 which, well, don't bet the house on that...this was a masai blunder on par with fields and turkoglu. Unfortunately still 2 more years so he's not even trade Ballast next year.

[Demographic Shift]

Wolves should have a better record. They have the 5th best point differential in the West. They're young and just don't know how to win games yet, but they're already a playoff calibre team. Thibs will have his stamp on this team's culture (i.e. defense) by the end of the season, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a late season charge after the all-star break, barring major injury.

On paper and in the US based NBA National media the Timber Pups should be top 6 in the west....

Alas the games actually have to be played on the court and the Pups haven't shown much when it comes time to close out teams. In what can best be described as a choke job Minny pissed away a 13 point 4Q lead and went down for the 9th time in 13 games. They scored 12 points in the 4th total. Thats not the mark of a playoff team more like a lottery team.

Thibideau is a good coach and he has his work cut out for him...Its early and there is time to reset but its going to take a couple of 5 or 8 game win streaks to get firmly into the playoff pic for the pups...