As happens year after year, we present the ten topics to follow closely at the start of the NBA season.
Welcome to the 2024-25 season of the NBA! As happens year after year, we present the ten topics to follow closely at the start of the best league in the world.
Ready for the adventure?
We take off!
1- The furious start of the Cavaliers
Cleveland the best team in the NBA? Oh really? Of course. With Kenny Atkinson at the helm, the Cavs matched their best start to a season since 1976-77. Eight wins and no losses, with Donovan Mitchell y Darius Garland like perimeter stars and Evan Mobley y Jarrett Allen like natural forces in painting.
Cleveland has the best offensive efficiency in the NBA (120 points per hundred possessions) and the fourth best defense in the entire League (105.4 per hundred possessions).
If we add to that that it is the third franchise in history, behind the 1960-61 Washington Warriors and the 1970-71 Pistons, to score 110 points per game or more in an 8-0 start, we will understand the magnitude of what was conquered. Celtics? 76ers? Knicks? Make way for the Cavaliers!
La was fasting LeBron James finally arrived.
2- The Celtics are still the rival to beat
Kristaps Porzingis He continues to recover and is expected to return only after December. For any team this would be dramatic, but not for the reigning champions who, beyond the faces and names, show very high-flying basketball. The stumble against the Indiana Pacers away from home was only a pause along the way, but the seven wins out of a possible eight make it clear that they are on the right path.
Joe Mazzulla’s team has the second best offensive efficiency in the NBA and the third best defense. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Al Horford…let’s also add the early highlight of Payton Pritchard. Boston ruins opponents with its defense and frustrates them with its shots from behind the arc. So much so that at this start of the 2024-25 campaign they have converted at least 13 three-pointers per game and are winning by an average of 14 points difference.
I don’t surprise anyone by saying that they are the top favorite to repeat the title. They know how to do it and they have what it takes.
Of course, the season is just dawning, but these three players are the top candidates to win the award. I’ll be honest: no one is too interested in a distinction that rewards the regular season, so beyond the MVP, I will say in these lines my pedestal of the best players in the world. My three-sided Mount Rushmore is ordered as follows: 3) Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 2) Luka Doncic 1) Nikola Jokic.
It is clear that it will matter how their teams look at the end of the 2024-25 season, but seeing the three of them makes us all better. It improves our day, the week, the month. Of course, I’m going to add a fourth sword to the list: Ja Morant. The Icarus of the NBA, who knew how to burn his wings by flying too close to the sun, returned from ostracism to be the showman that fans need. He does things that others can’t.
Without more words, all that remains is to enjoy them.
4- It’s hard to start: a class of rookies at a standstill
The class started very lightly in the NBA. Zaccharie RisacherAtlanta Hawks’ number one pick, is a versatile forward, a good defender, but for now he seems to be a little more than an average player. Alex Sarr also does not stand out for the Wizards, Reed Sheppard and Stephon Castle play very little in Houston Rockets y San Antonio Spurs respectively, and Ron Holland II has yet to prove anything in the Pistons.
These, as you know, are the first five draft picks that he passed on. Who flies under the radar? Zach Edey in the Memphis Grizzlies. Ninth pick of the Grizzlies, he had 25 points and 12 rebounds in the loss against the Brooklyn Nets. The best of the last draw.
They are hypotheses, we will begin to have conclusions after the All-Star.
5- Joel Embiid does not play and raises alarms
The Cameroonian giant’s career has been one injury after another. In his MVP season, at a very high level with the Sixers, he made water in the playoffs. Let’s count: 31 games in 2016-17, 63 in 2017-18, 64 in 2018-19, 51 in 2019-20, 51 in 2020-21, 68 in 2021-22, 66 in 2022-23 and 39 in 2023 -24.
Embiid is, a priori, a fragile star. This must be clear. The NBA is now investigating Embiid for pushing journalist Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who unnecessarily got involved in an article with the player’s family when it had nothing to do with his absence on the courts.
The reality is that JoJo is not playing and that makes the Sixers, who also did not have Paul George At the start of the regular series due to a knee hyperextension in a preseason game, they have only one win in six appearances.
We already know that they will not play back-to-back games, that they will save themselves for the playoffs, but we must be clear with something: along these lines, they will not play a single play-in. Nick Nurse knows it and so does the entire city.
Welcome Mike Budenholzer’s new Suns! It turns out that Phoenix now attacks (seventh best offense in the NBA) and defends (eighth best defense). Of course, the Big Three of Kevin Durant (especially KD), Devin Booker y Bradley Beal It’s working, but there is a key player who is being glue in the structure: point guard Tyus Jones. Phoenix’s possible kryptonite? His inner game. Jusuf Nurkic and Mason Plumlee know little. We will see how they manage to adjust as the games progress.
The Knicks are an incredible draw in the Big Apple. The town team lost Donte DiVincenzo, but with Karl Anthony-Towns and Mikal Bridges they make up a phenomenal quintet. Tom Thibodeau still hasn’t given his mark one hundred percent, but they will improve night by night. New York’s possible kryptonite? The depth on the bench. An example of this was the loss to the Rockets: only eight players played and four of the five starters were on the court for 38 or more minutes. It’s too much.
7- Pop out due to health issues: the Spurs will navigate through darkness
The development of San Antonio had three legs: two on the field, Chris Paul y Victor Wembanyamaand one out, Gregg Popovich. After the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Pop felt unwell and will now be out indefinitely due to undisclosed health issues. Mitch Johnson will take command of a team that intends to make a rebound next season, but it will not be the same without the coach who won the most games in history (1,370 wins), who garnered 170 playoff wins and five championship trophies.
Popovich, inducted into the Hall of Fame in October 2023, is in his 29th season with the Texas franchise. A whole life. “We have to play hard and compete for Pop because he set a standard,” Paul said when asked by ESPN’s Michael Wright.
The Spurs will suffer from Pop’s premature departure, something that worries not only them but the entire basketball world.
8- Heading to the League Pass team of the season: Oklahoma City Thunder
This spot could go to the Grizzlies, but the Thunder are one step ahead. They are shows, they are basketball, they are joy. They are the future that came to the present. Shai is there to dazzle, but he has a fantastic group around him. Two pieces of information that illustrate what they are: the first team in NBA history to win their first seven games by 10 or more points and the best defense in the NBA, allowing only 95.9 points per appearance. They left five of seven rivals below 100 points, the maximum for a franchise in the entire history of the League considering teams that won the first seven games by a margin of more than ten units.
Chet Holmgren is developing superpowers and is going to be a dominant force in the NBA. While they wait for Isiah Hartenstein, the growth of Jalen Williams is terrifying, and his talent is joined by the experience of Luguentz Dort and Alex Caruso. They are great candidates for the title, but also for the fun of the year award. The Thunder are a continuous basketball roller coaster.
9- The Milwaukee Bucks are the great disappointment of the beginning of the NBA
What a tremendous disappointment Doc Rivers’ team is. Giannis Antetokounmpo If he is frustrated, he seems to be crying out for a change of pace for his career. The Bucks are not pulling and are far from that fearsome Eastern Conference team. They are 1-6, something that equals the worst start in their history in the first seven games: they only started the same in 1968-69 and 1993-94. In addition, they lost six games in a row for the first time since 2015.
It’s really horrible about Milwaukee in this dawn of competition. And it has been a continuous decline since the arrival of Damian Lillard. Added to this is the fact that Khris Middleton, who once knew how to be an NBA figure, continues not to play.
Let’s get this straight: the Bucks are 18th in offensive efficiency and 27th in defensive efficiency. One of the great mysteries of humanity is how they let Jrue Holiday go to the Celtics last season. The years will pass, the players, and we will still not understand it.
10- Can the Los Angeles Lakers be competitive or will they only be in the news because of LeBron?
Anthony Davis He’s playing at a hell of a level. Let’s start there. He is the first Lakers player with four games of 35 points or more in his first seven appearances since Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West in 1969-70. Now, JJ Redick’s team has won four of seven games, is tenth in offensive efficiency and twenty-first in defense.
Beautiful LeBron and LeBron’s father-son moment Bronny Jamesbut when this furor passes and Davis returns to the earthly plane… What will happen to this team?
LeBron is a force of nature like no other. At 39 years old, he has surreal numbers, but it must be said: it is physically impossible for him to keep up with this pace. He stands out in the chorus around the stellar duo Austin Reaves as the third sword, Rui Hachimura provides balance and D’Angelo Russell accompanies, but the second unit leaves a lot to be desired. It is a team without depth.
So? We confirm what we said in the preview: unless they make changes during the course of the competition, if they reach a play-in, they must bring candy and champagne to toast. It would be a resounding success.
