Nine Thoughts From the First Week of the NBA Season

We’re somehow a decade removed from the infamous 2013-14 Philadelphia 76ers, a team that exists in memory to remind us just how many lies are told during the opening week of every NBA season. At the dawn of the Process, those Sixers started 3-0, with a win over the defending champion Miami Heat in the opener.

Philly finished 19-63.

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The lesson is clear. Anything can happen over a few days, especially when players are still adjusting to new teammates, coaches, schemes, expectations, and the general rigors of another season. Still, the games count; observations from them can and should be made. And while most attempts to suss out the difference between real and fake can be exasperating, here’s some of what I’ve seen, heard, enjoyed, and been confused by since opening night.

What’s wrong with the Los Angeles Lakers?

Between a confusing minutes restriction predicament for LeBron James, a lackluster win against the depleted Phoenix Suns, Sunday night’s overtime loss in Sacramento that saw Austin Reaves get benched down the stretch, and a three-point home victory against the Magic, it hasn’t been a great first week for the Los Angeles Lakers.

For those who aren’t ready to think the sky is falling, you’re right. This team won’t finish the season shooting below 30 percent from behind the 3-point line, and Reaves will not finish below 40 percent inside the arc or with the fifth-highest assist rate on the team. Lakers coach Darvin Ham is still tinkering with his rotation—less Jaxson Hayes, more Christian Wood with LeBron at the 4, please—and their second-best defender, Jarred Vanderbilt, hasn’t even played yet. Anthony Davis is an MVP candidate and an early favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year (which would be his first), and the Lakers have generally looked terrific with LeBron on the court.

But some of what we’ve seen from the team’s 2-2 start is a little concerning, especially to those who were skeptical about this roster before the season even started (a.k.a. yours truly). It starts with James, who ran just five pick-and-rolls against the Nuggets on opening night. Five! According to Second Spectrum, he’s finished only one regular-season game since 2013 in which that number was lower.

LeBron’s pick-and-roll volume rose dramatically over the next two games, but the initial stat speaks to the concerns surrounding his workload and responsibility as someone who’s about to turn 39 years old. When he’s off the floor, the Lakers haven’t been able to score or get stops. (Plus-29 with James, minus-38 without.) After logging a controversially low 29 minutes in Denver, James played 35 and 39 in the next two games. If D’Angelo Russell and Gabe Vincent prove ineffective as playmakers and the Lakers continue to be overly reliant on LeBron’s ability to create open shots and get to the rim (which he’s been able to do in vintage form, particularly in transition), they might be in trouble.

Will Trae Young finally do more stuff off the ball?

Young is still polarizing, and this question is one of a few that tend to muddy all the awesome stuff that makes him a magnificent offensive force. But criticism is valid coming off of a season in which he didn’t make the All-Star team or shoot the ball particularly well.

It’s year six now, and there are still a bunch of possessions where Young stands 40 feet from the basket when he doesn’t have the ball. It’s a predictable waste of gravity and intelligence that allows his defender to take a mental break. Hawks coach Quin Snyder knows how effective Young is running a high pick-and-roll. The front office has surrounded him with pieces that make sense in that system. But Snyder also knows how much harder it’ll be to guard the Hawks if/when Young sets an off-ball screen or keeps moving off a couple of picks after he gives the ball up:

Even just having him sprint across the floor forces everyone to react in ways that his teammates benefit from:

Atlanta tends to open its games with designed sets that can unlock all of Young’s value by having him set a pindown for Dejounte Murray or De’Andre Hunter. The ball moves from side to side and forces the defense to shift. The example below doesn’t end with a basket, but if nothing else, it does make Damian Lillard work. There’s randomness here. It’s harder to scout, and everyone gets to touch the ball. That’s not nothing!

Right now, though, Young is still showing little commitment to this type of change. Hopefully, it will tick up as the season goes on, because the Hawks are a different force when guys are cutting, screening, and feeling involved.

While we’re talking about Atlanta, one of the big questions I have is how Snyder will close games. Young and Murray feel like the only two late-game locks on a regular basis. From there, you have three of Clint Capela, Hunter, Bogdan Bogdanovic, future dunk contest participant Jalen Johnson, Saddiq Bey, and Onyeka Okongwu to choose from. Matchups, foul trouble, and the game’s rhythm will influence who plays and who sits on most nights, but right now, no answers are obvious.

Do the Boston Celtics need to share more?

Last year, Boston’s assist rate was 63.2 percent, good for fifth best. Through the first two games of this season, it was all the way down at 46.3 percent, lower than every other team before Monday night’s action tipped off. (It’s currently 27th.)

Adjustments for all are understandable, with a new starting point guard, combo guard, and center to complement Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, but it’s still a little jarring to see them exhibit tunnel vision, hold the ball a beat too long, and settle for contested shots instead of making simple passes to open teammates.

The Celtics aren’t getting into the paint, driving the ball, or passing when they do drive, either. And no one who actually plays has an assist rate above 20 percent, which is kind of amazing.

In general, quick shots aren’t a bad thing. But in half-court spots, Boston’s best players should take more of what the defense is giving. Everyone needs to be less antsy, more patient, and not as reliant on knowing they have at least four guys who can get a decent enough look whenever they want.

Below, Tatum breaks off the initial action (Kristaps Porzingis’s setting of a wide pindown for Brown) by driving right by his man. The decision catches Miami off-balance, but instead of capitalizing with a kick-out to Jrue Holiday in the corner, Tatum takes and misses a tough floater over several Heat defenders:

This will not continue, partially because they won’t play the Heat every night—a team that does unorthodox things to wall off the paint. (The Wizards were a convenient pincushion on Monday.) The Celtics won’t finish 29th in passes per game and will eventually find themselves closer to the 4.5 secondary assists they averaged last season than the two total they produced in their first two games. There’s too much intelligence, space, and time for Boston’s six best players to not create opportunities for each other. Tatum on the block is a skeleton key for 95 percent of the NBA’s low-post defenders. How his teammates respond off the ball will help decide just how high Boston’s offensive ceiling can be.

This type of half-court execution—which makes use of the empty paint (courtesy of Porzingis) and an early mismatch created when Jalen Brunson switches onto Tatum—is what should happen consistently throughout the season. As chemistry builds, Boston will be so much greater than the sum of its (already impressive) individual parts.

Zion Williamson looks incredible in space.

Healthy Zion is such a spectacle. He’s my favorite player to watch and a singular offensive force. Through his first few games, the bounce, impeccable touch, and double-team-shredding pressure are all back. He has dunked on Jaren Jackson Jr., he corralled a half-court lob at the top of the square, and he is regularly leaving the ground 8 feet from the rim and landing underneath the basket.

“Spacing” is an interesting concept for Zion. How much of it does he even need? During New Orleans’s wire-to-wire beatdown of the Knicks, Tom Thibodeau probably asked himself that question half a dozen times:

One play later, Pelicans head coach Willie Green subbed Dyson Daniels in for Jonas Valanciunas, putting Williamson at center in a small-ball lineup that didn’t even feature some of the Pelicans’ best 3-point shooters. The Knicks dramatically shrank the floor with Jalen Brunson at the elbow, but it didn’t matter; sometimes, Zion’s combination of strength and touch is too much for any defensive principle or rotation to handle:

Now watch what he’s capable of when there are actual shooters on the weak side and help defenders aren’t willing to pinch in and touch the paint.

But there have also been other sequences in which the Pelicans can’t space the court and Zion looks mortal, barreling into traffic without the same explosiveness. That aforementioned cram on JJJ aside, there were several plays in Memphis where directly confronting an elite shot blocker looked as logical as it sounds.

But on consecutive plays midway through the fourth quarter, New Orleans turned to a set that’s designed to give Zion the ball in the middle of the floor, where he can’t be double-teamed. The Grizzlies defended it well enough, but neither possession ended in their favor:

On the third play, as Xavier Tillman over-anticipated what was about to happen, Zion spun backdoor for a lob:

New Orleans went back to the same set late against the Warriors. Before they eventually plopped Kevon Looney in the paint to help take away Williamson’s left hand, Draymond Green couldn’t do anything with him:

As the season goes on, Trey Murphy III and Naji Marshall will get healthy and reenter New Orleans’s rotation, diversifying its small-ball lineups and adding even more space. Rookie Jordan Hawkins (whose release is a blur) and sharpshooter Matt Ryan will still be in the mix, alongside Brandon Ingram, CJ McCollum, and Herb Jones.

The Pelicans will use Williamson in more pick-and-rolls, both handling the ball and diving off a screen. (The empty corner action he ran with Ingram against the Knicks was devastating.) Health is always a question when thinking about Zion’s future, but whenever he’s in a lineup that accentuates all the qualities that make him an MVP candidate, it’s easy to be especially optimistic about the Pelicans’ outlook.

What if Evan Mobley doesn’t need a 3-point shot?

Mobley’s outside shot was bad last season. No player who took at least 100 3s was less accurate. At 22, he has plenty of time to get better and knock them down at a decent clip. But that criticism might not even be pointed in the right direction: Not every big man has to take and make a bunch of 3s. There are other ways to positively impact an offense without being a liability. For Mobley, a world exists where his offensive comp is Bam Adebayo, but with better footwork, longer arms, and more touch around the basket.

Thanks to how the Cavaliers were constructed (big, defensive-minded) and how they functioned (with the ball in Donovan Mitchell’s or Darius Garland’s hands), moments like the one seen above hardly ever happened last season.

I realize Jarrett Allen isn’t healthy, and his existence complicates this line of thought quite a bit, but with a high-volume movement shooter on its roster, Cleveland can give Mobley the ball in the middle of the floor, run an inverted pick-and-roll, and then watch him punish a reeling defense.

Furthermore: Let Mobley rip and run off the defensive glass, cook from the midrange, make brilliant reads on short rolls out of the pocket, and develop chemistry as a dribble handoff hub along the perimeter. Watching him work in tandem with Max Strus against the Pacers, a game in which Garland, Mitchell, and Allen didn’t play, reminded me of the alchemy Miami honed with Adebayo and Duncan Robinson.

When judging Mobley’s offensive skill set, these areas—as opposed to his 3-point percentage—may be where he ultimately helps Cleveland the most.

Blink, and you’ll miss the Indiana Pacers.

Can Indiana really have the best offense in the NBA? If it somehow maintains the same energy that’s been on display since its 143-point thunderclap against the Wizards on opening night, maybe!

The Pacers rank first in transition frequency when they rebound a miss. Brick a shot, and prepare for pain. Don’t worry so much about who you pick up, but make sure everyone on the court is accounted for. They’re all threats at all times. Once that initial rush gets stopped, do not exhale, because Indy definitely won’t. It’s dizzying: the constant cuts, touch passes, back screens, and steely drives. The Pacers demand a second, third, and fourth rotation, regularly asserting pressure with multiple quick-thinking ball handlers (whatever decision Bruce Brown Jr. makes, it’s immediate) and outside shooters.

You have to pick them up high on the floor or someone will drill a 3. And the deeper they get into a possession, the wider the areas you’ll have to guard are. It’s elastic, back and forth, like a yo-yo.

After two games, they ranked first in assist rate and turnover rate, and third in 3-point percentage. Check off all three of those boxes for an entire season, and Indiana won’t just have the best offense currently; they’ll probably have the best in NBA history. Drilling well over 40 percent of their 3s for several months isn’t going to happen, but if Tyrese Haliburton and T.J. McConnell stay healthy, while Bennedict Mathurin and Aaron Nesmith continue to act like their hair is on fire, the Pacers will be a matchup that’s dreaded by everyone else in the NBA.

Cade Cunningham: breakout star?

The numbers are terrific: 21 points and 7.5 assists per game while shooting 10-for-25 behind the 3-point line and 47 percent from the midrange. But how Cunningham looks this early in his third season is way more interesting and important. The man is appointment viewing, wise beyond his 22 years.

As a point guard in a forward’s body, and with all systems go after a shin injury limited him to just 12 games last season, he’s running more pick-and-rolls than anyone else in the league besides Trae Young and Tyler Herro. Cunningham takes what the defense gives, doesn’t pound the ball, and is as comfortable as he is effective when a teammate has it. Even when he’s in a tight spot and commits a turnover (there have been quite a few, but many are because he operates in two-big lineups that don’t provide much space), Cunningham exudes a calming energy. You trust the thought behind his decisions and how he reads the floor and weighs risk vs. reward.

As a no. 1 pick, he gets a lot of defensive attention, inching toward what someone like Luka Doncic or Donovan Mitchell draws each night. There are random double-teams, strong-side overloads, blitzes off a screen: anything to squeeze the ball out of his hands. And until his supporting cast learns how to take advantage of that attention, growing pains will endure: When Cunningham moves it, rarely does the ball ping around the floor to punish a rotating defense and leverage that four-on-three advantage. Still, despite those roadblocks, he remains selfless, a franchise-lifting talent who plays at his own pace and rarely looks flustered. There was one pass against the Heat that exemplified how thoughtful he already is:

It didn’t seem like a big deal when it happened, but this early feed to Isaiah Stewart, as he ducked in for post position against Jimmy Butler, mattered in the context of that specific game. Stewart found himself in a similar spot earlier, but nobody passed him the ball, and he wasn’t happy about it. There’s a trickle-down effect. Trust is built. Players (like Stewart) keep working hard when Cunningham is on the floor because they know he’ll see the advantage and reward them. It’s one quality that separates talent from superstardom.

Last week, in my increasingly bold predictions column, I wrote that two of the following seven players would make their first All-Star team this season: Evan Mobley, Desmond Bane, Scottie Barnes, Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Tyrese Maxey, and Jalen Brunson. One reason Cunningham did not crack that list was my assumption about the voting process; that is, fans, media members, and, most important, coaches tend to reward players on competitive teams while ignoring those who are bound for the lottery. That already feels like a mistake. Detroit’s shortcomings do not lie at Cunningham’s feet.

Assuming he keeps playing how he is (on both ends) now and maintains a reasonable efficiency at the same high usage rate, Cunningham will deserve some type of recognition. And, who knows, maybe the Pistons will even find a way to be competitive!

Victor Wembanyama is responsible for the NBA’s most thrilling sequence.

I was watching an old horror movie a few days ago that opened with the line: “They say nightmares are dreams perverted.” Much like every other thing I read, hear, or see these days, it made me think about Victor Wembanyama.

Creating quality shots in the NBA can be difficult, complex work. Wembanyama is a shortcut, though, someone who can contest a jumper, then leak out and catch a 30-foot pass over the opposing team’s head. Below, that nightmare plays out in Wemby’s debut, highlighted by JJ Redick on the live broadcast, a tactic so powerful it has the potential to change how teams approach transition defense when playing the Spurs:

There’s a trade-off on the glass, of course. But soon enough, players who are guarded by Wembanyama may think twice before pulling up, knowing what’s in store if they miss (or even make) the shot.

Don’t sleep on Mark Williams.

These aren’t last year’s Hornets. Minutes restriction—and the fact that he can’t buy a bucket inside the 3-point line right now—aside, LaMelo Ball is healthy, with All-Star chops. Brandon Miller is an unusually serviceable rookie with tangible upside who looks like a 10-year veteran. Terry Rozier, Gordon Hayward, and P.J. Washington are all useful and ready to fill more practical roles when Ball is on the court. But after watching their season opener, no individual’s impact made me feel more optimistic about how competent this team can be than Williams.

Williams appeared in 43 games as a rookie last season. For Hornets fans, only a couple of them provided a whiff of excitement that can rival what he did against the Hawks: 13 points, 15 rebounds, three steals, one block, and 30 minutes of reliable back-line security for a team that finished 20th in defensive rating last year.

Gleefully labeled “the Condor” by Hornets play-by-play announcer Eric Collins, Williams looked like he’ll inevitably crack an All-Defensive team—a mobile, never-endingly tall 21-year-old who knows how to time his jump:

Up against Clint Capela, an ideal player comp who’s spent his career accepting and thriving in the same relatively thankless albeit indispensable role, Williams played with a degree of coordination and energy that not every center can match. He can be a putback machine or destructive lob threat and then also do actual stuff with the ball when it’s passed to him outside the restricted area:

Some of my enthusiasm was deflated in Charlotte’s second game, when Williams struggled to slow down Marvin Bagley III, committed bad fouls, grabbed zero rebounds in the first half, and could not box Jalen Duren out to save his life. But extrapolating over the long haul, this is still someone to get excited about. And in the short term, his production on both ends may determine whether Charlotte can contend for a play-in game.