The NBA is back and while the season is only fresh there are already some key talking points to come out of the limited action we have seen so far.
From how the Nets can get the best out of Ben Simmons to trouble in Chicago and the defending champions quelling a key concern. Here are the latest talking points!
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Celtics hold off Heat for second win | 01:13
SUDDEN MEETING SHINES LIGHT ON STARK REALITY FACING BULLS STARS
Heated sideline and locker room exchanges are nothing new in the NBA. Sometimes they are needed.
Having a players-only meeting after just one loss though is something different and it speaks to the fact that the vibes in Chicago are definitely not good.
Obviously being blown out 124-104 in the season opener against Oklahoma City at home was hardly ideal but it was hardly a death knell for the Bulls either.
The fact Chicago players felt compelled to ask head coach Billy Donovan to allow them to have the room to themselves to talk over the defeat though says two things.
One – this is a playing group that is willing to tackle an issue head-on and isn’t afraid to have those tough conversations. That’s a good thing.
But it also says that there had to be some level of concern or tension heading into the season for the players to feel like such conversations need to be had already.
“I thought the tweet was fake,” ESPN reporter Zach Lowe said on ‘NBA Today’.
“They had a players meeting already? They’re 0-1. They got thumped at home but they’re 0-1? This is a team that is built to win now and just has not won enough and at some point they’ve just got to start winning.”
The Bulls did just that against the Raptors, although it was hardly convincing and then backed it up with a 118-102 loss to the Pistons despite getting a career-high 51 points from Zach LaVine.
The rest of Chicago’s core did their best to support LaVine in that loss, with DeMar DeRozan adding 20 points and four assists while Nikola Vucevic had 12 points.
Consistent production across the board otherwise was nowhere to be seen, with the bench combining for just 19 points.
But when it comes to weighing up the future of this roster, it is the bigger names that are more likely to be moved on after only qualifying for the playoffs once in the past three seasons.
Of course, Lonzo Ball’s string of injuries didn’t help but that is the reality Chicago has found itself in for a few years now and patience is starting to wear thin.
DeRozan is a free agent next summer while both LaVine and Vucevic have also been floated as potential trade pieces if the Bulls decided to blow it all up.
‘Four straight 3’s!’: Curry lets loose | 01:15
That possibility may explain why things seem so tense in Chicago this season, with the reality that every loss brings the Bulls closer to having to accept that unfortunate reality.
“We understand that, we’ve been around long enough,’’ LaVine said, per the Chicago Tribune, after the loss to the Pistons.
“Shoot, Vooch has been traded, I’ve been traded, DeMar’s been traded. We understand the business. As much as we care for each other, you understand what’s on the other side of that. It’s just three games in, but we don’t want this to get past three games.
“We don’t want this to snowball.’’
NETS ADMIT BIG BEN SIMMONS PROBLEM IS ‘STARING US IN THE FACE’
Ben Simmons has shown he can get back to playing well, maybe even play like his old self.
But he hasn’t shown he can do it alongside Nic Claxton.
That’s the challenge for the Nets, for whom something good is seemingly always followed by something worrying.
“That’s definitely been addressed from me in front of this group. It is staring us in the face. And like I said, we have to look at how do we play with Ben with another big on the floor?” coach Jacque Vaughn admitted.
“You can only play five dudes out there at one time. We’ve got to start a certain group, we want certain dudes to play; how do we get all that to mesh within the course of a game and the season?
“Ben still has the ability to attack and have pace no matter who’s out there on the floor, especially the way teams are going to guard. So some nights when we do go small and we have more shooting out there, we have to take advantage of that.
“On the nights where Nic is with him, then we have to be better on the defensive end of the floor and allow us to get stops and run. So that’s the connection there.
“Then we can’t allow people to get to the paint as much or to the rim as much with Nic and Ben. … Then we’ve got to figure out, like I’ve talked about, the spacing around it, and not playing in the half-court.
“It’s staring us in the face that we are better at playing in transition and in fullcourt basketball than in the half-court. And the sooner we realise that as a group, the better off we’re going to be.”
It’s hard to imagine the Nets haven’t realized it.
The concern isn’t panic over a handful of minutes this season and last.
Simmons’ difficulty playing alongside another non-shooter has been a topic of discussion since his 76ers days with Joel Embiid.
While Simmons did coexist with Claxton for large stretches last season, the duo was flanked by stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, as well as shooters Joe Harris, Seth Curry, Patty Mills and Yuta Watanabe.
Since the team got remade in February, it’s been more of a struggle.
Simmons had 10 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in Dallas, driving the lane, attacking the rim, and looking like the player Brooklyn needs him to be. He was dangerous surrounded by four shooters, with stretch-4 Dorian Finney-Smith filling in for the injured Claxton as a 6-foot-7, 220-pound small-ball center.
But the dark cloud obscuring the silver lining? He did it with Claxton out and Day’Ron Sharpe logging just four minutes, shorthanded Brooklyn experimenting with a wide-open five-out lineup they clearly won’t start once Claxton returns.
Robbed of so much gravity, the Nets will need to compensate with meticulous spacing.
“It’s reads and learning. Repetition. We haven’t had too many reps of doing it, so I think the more reps the better obviously and we’ll figure it out,” Simmons said.
“That comes with time. It’s basketball at the end of the day; there’s no magic secret to it. It’s a feel, it’s reads, it’s guys with talent, IQ. Just got to play into that, lean and trust — trust in your players.”
While Simmons and Claxton had a plus-5.7 Net Rating in 517 minutes together last season, almost all of those were pre-trade. In their six minutes from Feb. 9 on, they were a minus-70. This season, their Net Rating is a minus-17.6 in 15.6 minutes.
And the nominal starting lineup playing them alongside Spencer Dinwiddie, Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson was a minus-100 (with a horrid 77.8 Offensive Rating).
“[It’s vital that we’re] not playing the half-court where teams are able to use our non-shooters against us to crowd the floor,” Vaughn said.
“So there’s a process I think that we’ve got to be patient about, but keeping things extremely simple, I think will be good for us to live in that space.”
KEY TO DEFENDING CHAMPS’ HOT START AS CONCERN QUASHED (FOR NOW)
Could we be witnessing a mini dynasty in the Mile High City?
While it might be a bit early to throw that out there, if there were any questions around the legitimacy – or hunger – of defending champions Denver Nuggets, they’ve been quickly brushed aside to start this season.
Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets have meant business through one week of action as the first team to improve to 3-0 and thus have claim to the best record in the NBA as well as the No. 1 defensive rating – an area the champs were just middle of the road last campaign.
It included Denver mauling the previously unbeaten Thunder in Oklahoma CIty on Monday and holding Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to seven points, snapping a streak of 37-straight games of 20-plus points for the superstar guard.
Jokic has been, well … Jokic, with the Finals MVP picking up right where he left off in June’s championship series to atypically lead this team by dominating the game in multiple ways.
The two-time regular season MVP winner, who at times during his career has taken a few weeks to get up and running, has bursted out of the blocks, averaging 26.3 points, 13 rebounds and 7.7 assists.
Monday’s big outing against OKC marked Jokic’s 103rd 25-point, 10rebound, five-assist game since 2020 – the most of any player in the NBA during that span, per StatMuse.
Jokic has been well supported by Jamal Murray (averaging 20.7 points, on 54 per cent shooting and 2.7 triples) as the star guard looks to make his first All-Star appearance.
Of course, a big difference between this season to last for Mike Malone’s squad is that it gets a fully fit and firing Murray from the get go, whereas last year he was ramping back up after an ACL injury.
The rest of Denver’s starters – Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – have also played well, with all the key Nuggets pretty well mastering their roles.
The main (and largely only) concern for the Nuggets this season was the impact of the loss of sixth man Bruce Brown and how they didn’t (nor could afford) to replace him after his $20 million-a-season free agency move to Indiana, and from a broader perspective, their bench as a whole.
But with Reggie Jackson looking like his old self again and the likes of Peyton Watson and Christian Braun stepping into bigger roles with aplomb, Denver’s second-unit has gotten a spread of contributions across the board to see its bench post the third-best net rating in the league. For now at least, Brown’s exit hasn’t hurt them.
Mike Malone would be very pleased with how his team has come out in a strong start to its title defence.
Zion takes charge as Pelicans prevail! | 00:39
PAUL’S SELFLESS APPROACH TO ‘DIFFERENT’ BENCH ROLE
Through 1,365 career games across 19 seasons, Chris Paul has been a starter.
But on Monday that changed for the veteran guard when he came off the bench for the first time in his Hall of Fame-caliber career against Houston after Draymond Green returned from injury for his first game of the season.
Paul essentially replaces former Warriors sixth man Jordan Poole in the rotation after the off-season trade that sent the latter to the Wizards.
Though Golden State will miss Poole’s scoring punch off the bench, in Paul it gets a more established floor general and overall leader to run the second-unit and essentially act as an on-court coach.
Plus whenever the Warriors suffer injuries to any of their key stars, Paul will be there to come into the starting lineup and take on a bigger load.
So could it be the move that tips Steve Kerr’s team back into genuine title contention in what could be its last run with this current core? It seemingly has some ground to make up on the likes of Denver, Phoenix and the Lakers.
Paul still played a prolific role against the Rockets and remains a valuable piece at age 38, logging eight points, five rebounds and seven assists in 27 minutes from the bench and finishing the game on the court (though you sense that could be a fluid situation).
There’d been some question marks as to how Paul would handle his demotion, but speaking post-match, his team-first mentality shone through.
“It was different. I mean, Klay (Thompson) told me (I’d started), 1,365 straight games ” Paul said.
“It’s definitely different, but at the end of the day, it’s basketball. So, for me, the warmup is different, a lot of it was, but once you get out there and play in the game, now it’s hooping. It’s cool to be on a team like this where it’s just free-flowing. Everybody playing and sharing the ball.”
Paul added that he was willing to make the necessary sacrifices for the greater good of the team.
“It’s whatever I got to do to help this team win. If that means (not starting), if that means not finishing some games or whatnot,” Paul said.
“If you get a chance to play long enough in this career, there’s things that are going to change and be different. I’m here.”
TEMPERING EXPECTATIONS FOR WEMBY AND ‘EXPERIMENT’ MODE SPURS
And breathe.
Yes, the NBA world must take a collective deep breath with regards to Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs.
For all the hype and excitement that’s surrounded the French phenom and what the addition of the prodigal No. 1 pick means for the Spurs, perhaps expectations went too far … at least in the short term.
There was a view that Wembanyama could effectively lift the Spurs from being a 22-win team last season – the worst return in the West and second-worst record in the entire league – to push closer to the 30-win mark this campaign.
Given the immense potential of the 19-year old under the tutelage of legendary coach Gregg Popovich, you could envision a scenario where Wembanyama literally was the difference of 10 or so extra wins.
After all, we’ve seen franchise-changing rookies immediately turn things around their team’s fortunes and even instantly catapult them into the playoffs. That happened with Carmelo Anthony, Ben Simmons and Donovan Mitchell, all of whom Wembanyama arguably has more raw talent than at that stage of their careers.
It’s still possible San Antonio makes a significant jump, but watching the team early this season and its overall inexperience and how raw Wembanyama is stands out.
Both the second-youngest and second least-experienced team in the league, it was crystal clear during the Spurs’ blowout loss to the more seasoned LA Clippers.
On the Wembanyama side of things, through three games he’s averaged 14.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, two blocks and 1.8 steals with a 52.7 true shooting percentage, which are great pure numbers from a rookie.
He’s shown great flashes at either end of the floor – though particularly on defence – including coming up big in crunch time in San Antonio’s overtime win over Houston.
But as to be expected, there’s also been teething issues at both ends of the floor as the 7-foot-4 giant adapts to the NBA system and effectively leading a defensive scheme.
While Wembanyama is still figuring things out, so are his teammates – both from an individual and team standpoint.
The Spurs are still searching for their identity and which players are going to be best suited to which roles.
Leading scorer Devin Vassell, who’s only just been put into a leading role on an NBA team with the green light for the first time, is still only 23 years old. Zach Collins and Keldon Johnson, who’d be considered two of the key elder statesmen in the rotation, are just 25, while sixth man Tre Jones is 23.
Jeremy Sochan is just 20 and being trialled as a pseudo point guard – a move Popovich admitted is the team’s “official 2023/24 experiment.”
It very much exemplifies what this season is for San Antonio – a trial and error and learning experience for the roster and coaching staff where wins aren’t necessarily the priority – even if things click at some stage and the team goes on a run. Plus, maybe the franchise doesn’t want to genuinely compete yet?
Regardless, you can almost guarantee there’s going to be plenty more bumps along the journey with such a young squad.
Luka magic ruins Wemby’s first game | 02:08
WHY MAXEY BREAKOUT BIDES SIXERS MORE TIME WITH HARDEN… FOR NOW
An unhappy James Harden threatened to derail Philadelphia’s season and send Joel Embiid out the door along with the franchise’s championship aspirations.
For the time being though, even without Harden on the floor the 76ers are doing more than just staying afloat and a lot of that comes back to the continued emergence of Tyrese Maxey.
The young guard, who averaged 20.3 points last season with the Sixers, looks primed to take yet another step with Harden off the floor and it comes at the perfect time for Philly.
The Sixers have been patient in not giving into Harden’s trade demands, wanting to only make a move if it allows the team to keep Embiid and remain a title contender in the process.
A string of losses to start the season would have tested that patience. But the 76ers, well supported by Maxey, have opened the season with wins over the Blazers and Raptors along with a tight loss to the Bucks.
Maxey is averaging 32.5 points, 7.5 assists and five rebounds while shooting 58.8 per cent from downtown, much to the satisfaction of new coach Nick Nurse.
“He’s shooting the ball well and deep, creating space,” Nurse said.
“He’s creating some contact finishing at the rim. He’s getting his chances to get assists but he’s also taking care of the ball… so he did a good job.
“You’ve heard me say this: this is the golden opportunity for him. It seemed like he had 30 points every time we played him when I was coaching against them. So it’s nice to see him continue that with me around.”
Maxey’s emergence also helps Philadelphia better manage Embiid’s workload until Harden is fit to return, with the Sixers star set to be back at practice on Wednesday [AEDT].
The former MVP was in attendance on the bench for the team’s win over Portland and while he still maintains his relationship with club officials can’t be repaired at least there isn’t any real level of urgency for the Sixers to act immediately.
That is what having an in-form Maxey does for you.
