NBA

Paul Millsap is a Denver Nugget

Posted on by Graham Chapple

The time was 6 a.m. The day was Monday. The date was July 3rd. The year was 2017.

My consciousness is disturbed by a violent vibration as my phone’s alarm sounds at the time I set it to the night before. I had made plans to head to a town near where I live in order to take care of a few personal matters. The bus I would be needing to catch would leave at 8 a.m. and with the bus stop just a minutes walk away, why would I need to wake up so early?

Well, unfortunately for me, my shower here in my home is not a power shower, meaning I have to put on immersion and slumber back to bed while it prepares some hot water that will kickstart my day, rather than just being able to hop into it whenever I want. When I returned to the comforts of my bed, I checked my phone for alerts, to see if any notable free agency news has dropped as I chased my dreams in the depths of the night.

And then I saw the news that I had been dreading: Paul Millsap had agreed to sign a deal with the Denver Nuggets.

I had known that Denver were interested in signing for Millsap (and trading for Millsap when he was under contract prior to the trade deadline) and knew Millsap was more than likely leaving but to see it as official as it gets…it was one of those ‘Oh, that’s it’, kind of moments.

Before leaving home, I sleepily tweeted a few thoughts regarding the news and headed off to meet my brother, who was also taking the same bus as I was.

Once I got to my destination I had time to kill. The bank wasn’t opening until 10, so I checked into a McDonald’s (look, it was the only thing open before 9, which was when I got to where I wanted to get to) and grabbed a cup of tea. It was when I had settled down to drink it did I realise what had actually just happened: Paul Millsap was no longer going to be a Hawks player. And as I watching some Millsap highlights, all I could hear from the McDonald’s radio is “…say you’ll remember me”, the chorus of Taylor Swift’s ‘Wildest Dreams’.

I couldn’t help but laugh, the irony was hilarious. It’s like it knew…

If you didn’t know, I’m an Atlanta Hawks writer. I write at Peachtree Hoops, have been covering the team since 2015 and I have watched almost every single Hawks game in that time period, meaning I have gotten to watch Paul Millsap play on an almost nightly basis. Watching that man play basketball has been the greatest thing about covering the Atlanta Hawks.

Paul Millsap is a wonderful player. He’s so versatile on the offensive end and can score in a variety of ways: can take you off the dribble, in the post, face-up, can shoot the mid-range, shoot the three, can get to the free throw line, he’s an excellent passer etc…I could go on and on — we know Millsap’s body of work too well.

On the defensive end, he was just incredible. He could guard not only his own position but also some centers and — as he often did last season — the opposing teams best player if that player happened to be a forward. Paul George, Carmelo Anthony… And he would do a great job, it was a challenge he loved.

A great teammate, a great professional, a great competitor…I could go on an on. He is just fantastic. I love Paul Millsap’s make-up as an NBA player, and he was the sole reason that I didn’t go absolutely insane watching the 2016-17 Atlanta Hawks, a team I did not enjoy watching at all. For that player to no longer be one that I get to watch on a nightly basis, that saddens me.

The contract that Millsap has reportedly agreed to is astonishing: 3 years, $90 million. The price is not the astonishing part, it’s the fact the third year is a TEAM option. Not a player option or just a regular third year but a TEAM option. That’s quite incredible. As pointed out by Nate Duncan on Twitter, Millsap will earn less guaranteed salary than Timofey Mozgov and Luol Deng.

A lot of people possibly thought the market would be tighter this season but to this extremity when it came to Paul Millsap as to not even warrant a guaranteed third year of salary…that is quite incredible.

It was also very interesting that Millsap, as revealed by Millsap himself to Chris Vivlamore of the AJC, wasn’t even offered a contract by the Hawks. I initially though this was a mistake from the Hawks, but what would’ve been the point of low-balling Millsap (as Schlenk conceded long before free agency that other teams may offer Millsap more than the Hawks were able to [read: willing])?

With teams so limited with their cap space this summer (thanks to many teams’ shopping spree last summer when almost everyone had cap space), cap space is such a precious thing to have this summer — more so now than in recent seasons. The Phoenix Suns have taken the approach of being the team that will have cap space ready so that they will be in a position to take on a young player/draft pick, should a team hope to dump salary in order to sign a player, and I think this will benefit them down the road.

If the Hawks weren’t tied down with the contracts of Kent Bazemore and Miles Plumlee, I wonder if they would’ve made Paul Millsap an offer. If the Hawks would’ve had cap space available after agreeing to a deal with Millsap, I wonder if they would’ve…

But since teams are seemingly not in the market for salary dumps, and Schlenk — at least right now — can’t move either/both of those deals, and he simply needed the cap space but in order to have that cap space, Millsap had to be let go.

But letting Millsap go was, ultimately, the right decision. The Hawks with Millsap (and the players that were currently on the team) had a ceiling, and it was not a very high ceiling at all (as the playoffs showed). It made sense to move in a new direction and now the Hawks have the cap space to chase some free agents that will surely have one eye on the future and — as we’ve seen so far — there’s some proper value to be had on the market if you play your cards right — Ben McLemore comes to mind.

And the Hawks are waiting for that value to emerge, there’s no doubt about it.. It’s June 3rd and players have only left Atlanta, not joined. I think the Hawks are waiting for the notable free agents (like Danilo Gallinari, Gordon Hayward, Otto Porter, Andre Roberson, KCP and Nerlens Noel to name a few) to sign with their respective teams and for those teams to use their cap space and then the real value signings will come to the fore.

Your James Johnson’s, your Jonathan Simmons’, your Willie Reed’s, your K.J. McDaniel’s etc…

It’ll be interesting to see how the Hawks proceed from here, what they do with Tim Hardaway Jr. and who they sign, but Millsap’s decision means that the Hawks’ summer can now begin.

Paul Millsap, I am happy you have gotten the money you deserve, even if you deserve more years on that contract. You’ve made the Denver Nuggets one of my must watch teams next season.

It’s been a joy to watch you. Thank you. And good luck.

The Calm Before the Storm: Free Agency Thoughts

Posted on by Graham Chapple

Feature image: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images North America

I love the off-season. The draft is always fun but free agency is another beast entirely, as fans, writers and even league executives await a tweet that reveals a free agent’s destination, a change in fortunes, a change in scenery, a change in direction…it all happens in free agency if it hasn’t happened in the draft.

And this year’s free agents class is chock-full of great players. Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Blake Griffin, Gordon Hayward Kyle Lowry and Paul Millsap to name a few. Sure, not all free agents will necessarily leave their teams but free agency is a wild beast. You just don’t know…

There’s so much talent available this summer, far exceeding last year’s free agency class. From potential franchise changers to role players…it’s all here this summer.

Quite a number of teams are already regretting how much money they spent last season. Teams like Houston already looking to move on from Ryan Anderson, Atlanta possibly from Kent Bazemore… I think you’re going to find that the teams who didn’t spend all of their cap space for the sake of spending (Boston, Denver, Phoenix etc.) are going to be the teams with a huge say in free agency this season.

Because teams might look to move on from the mistakes of years past, I think you could see a lot more trades that relieve salary so that they can become involved in free agency this season, which may cost teams valuable assets. Look at the Lakers, they had to sacrifice D’Angelo Russell just to dump that horrible Timofey Mozgov contract. The Nets are ultimately going to reap the benefits of the Lakers’ mistake, even if they’re left with Mozgov for a few years.

That’s just one story, are there similar ones waiting to be written when July 1st hits?

We’ve already seen superstars under contract on the move via trade. Chris Paul and Jimmy Butler so far but surely there’s more to follow, and you’d imagine Paul George will eventually join this club. What if OKC can’t convince newly crowned MVP Russell Westbrook to sign another extension? That’s an interesting thought.

Chicago are in an interesting spot. They’re clearly heading for a rebuild but their veterans (Rajon Rondo and Dwyane Wade) will surely seek a way out of Chicago and I think you’ll see them wiggle free. Who knows where they’ll end up.

Boston haven’t looked great recently. With the Timberwolves package that the Bulls ultimately settled for, the Celtics could’ve easily have gotten involved and acquired Jimmy Butler. That’s just a fact. They’ve seemingly been reluctant to overpay but it’s cost them the opportunity at acquiring one star. How will free agency play out?

Restricted free agency should be interesting as always. The Brooklyn Nets are always in play in this market, just waiting to catch playoff teams unawares with big offer sheets that they may not be willing to match. Players like Tim Hardaway Jr., KCP, Andre Roberson and Otto Porter could be pried away with big money offer sheets.

Miami are my team to keep an eye on. Watch out for them, think they’ll be big players in free agency, especially if there’s a resolution to be found with Chris Bosh that will free up a lot of cap space. They’re my favourites to land Gordon Hayward.

Let’s do some predictions. Those are always fun.

Who stays?

Curry and Durant stay, that’s for sure. I think Serge Ibaka stays in Toronto along with Kyle Lowry as will Jrue Holiday in New Orleans — they simply have to keep him.

Who’s leaving? Lots of players.

Griffin, Millsap, Hayward (NOT to Boston…), I think some team will pry Andre Iguodala away from Golden State with an offer he can’t refuse, JJ Redick will leave as will Danilo Gallinari.

It’s going to be a wild summer filled with bad contracts no doubt but, hey, you never know.

NBA Draft 2017 Winners and Losers

Posted on by Graham Chapple

NBFeature image: @Sixers

The one thing I forget about draft night is how long it takes. With teams, most of the time, using all of the five minutes given to them to make their selection, the first round takes an eternity to go by. So, unfortunately, I checked out at the conclusion of the first round near 4 a.m.

Anyways, the NBA Draft did eventually finish, and here’s who I thought did really well for themselves on Draft Night.

Winners

Philly

Fairly easy one here. Philly did what they needed to do and that was add a quality point guard to their cause and they did so in the form of Markelle Fultz. Fultz will come in and, I think straightaway, will contribute and I think that core of Joel Embiid, Dario Saric, Ben Simmons and now Markelle Fultz — if healthy — could make a run at a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Process is sure looking good right now.

Lakers

The Lakers drafted LaVa… I mean, Lonzo Ball last night with the second pick. Despite all the buzz that comes from LaVar’s mouth, Lonzo can straight up play and the fans will love him. The ‘Showtime’ Lakers are long gone but Lonzo will rekindle some memories of those days when he takes to the court.

The Lakers were also busy working the phones and did a nice little deal with Utah (who apparently really wanted Tony Bradley) to fall from 28 to 30 where they selected Josh Hart, who looks like a great pick at 30. He was a player who I loved straightaway when I watched some clips and analysis of him. The Lakers also selected Kyle Kuzma at 28 and that’s also a nice little pick up for the Lakers, whose future is suddenly looking bright indeed.

The Kings

This has to be a mistake, right? Right? Wrong!

The Kings actually had a great draft, hitting a home run when they selected De’Aaron Fox and did a good deal with Portland to move out of the 10th selection to move down to 15 and 20 where they took Justin Jackson and Harry Giles.

Fox has the potential to be a great point guard in this league, and I love his attitude and character. Jackson is a nice pick since Rudy Gay is about to hit the free agency market and now the Kings aren’t under any pressure to pay him/re-sign him (not that Rudy was going probably going to re-sign there anyways). And with Harry Giles, why not? Why not take a low value risk on the injury stricken Giles? He could turn out to be great value at 20.

The future doesn’t necessarily get much easier for the Kings, at least immediately, but they made good progress thanks to their good work last night.

Minnesota

The clear-cut winners from Thursday and it’s not about who they drafted but who they acquired. Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler is headed to Minnesota, who gave up Kris Dunn, Zach LaVine and the 7th overall pick to land the three-time All-Star. Added to this, the Wolves received also Chicago’s 16th overall pick!!

What a steal.

Forget that they drafted a center into their logjam (Justin Patton), they netted Jimmy Butler and get to pair him up with Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins. Wow. Surely a first playoff appearance since 2004 beckons…

Honourable mentions

Shout out to the Spurs for selecting Derrick White in a typical Spurs move near the end of the first round, the Mavericks for selecting a solid point guard in Dennis Smith Jr., the Nets for landing Jarret Allen at 22 and the Indiana Pacers for stealing Ike Anigbogu at 47, who was a sure lock for the first round.

Losers

A lot of teams generally did a good job, so there’s only one clear-cut loser to mention.

The Bulls

Flip me… Why?? Why??

The Bulls got absolutely hosed in this trade…they didn’t receive any sort of star in return for a top-20 player in the league. It truly was unbelievable.

Zach LaVine was having a great season before he tore his ACL…he tore his ACL. Who knows how he’s going to respond to that? That a serious injury from which some players never properly recover from. Kris Dunn proved very little in his first season that he could be possibly be a starting point guard in this league.

With the Wolves’ 7th pick, the Bulls selected Lauri Markkenen, which was a good pick since it means that you don’t have to pay restricted free agent Nikola Mirotic, but then to throw the 16th pick back to Minnesota??? Why??

Gar Forman and John Paxson might be even more unpopular than Phil Jackson right now… Do you know how hard that is to do?

 

Draft Day 2017 Thoughts

Posted on by Graham Chapple

Feature image Source: Christian Petersen/Getty Images North America)

Probably my favourite NBA day of the year is here: Draft Day.

It’s just an exciting time for nearly everyone involved (except the Brooklyn Nets this time around). Young players seeing their dreams come true and for floundering franchises the chance to start over. It’s a celebration and culmination of years of hard work.

With the draft comes immense excitement: who’s going to be selected where and what trades (TRADES!!!) might arise. Last year, we had a very exciting trade which sent Serge Ibaka to Orlando and Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova and the pick that became Domantas Sabonis. In the build up to this draft we’ve already seen D’Angelo Russell (the 2nd overall pick in 2015) traded to Brooklyn and Dwight Howard traded to Charlotte, with other teams rumoured to be trying to trade in/out of the top 5. It’s been exciting.

Markelle Fultz seems to be an absolute lock for the first overall pick for the Sixers, who I think did the right thing in trading up to number 1 — it’s time to get their point guard. Lonzo Ball is also a lock at number 2 with the Lakers, who all but confirmed their intentions when they traded away Russell. I’m disappointed. My ONE hope for this draft was that Ball wouldn’t fall to the Lakers, that’s not happening now…

The Celtics control this draft from the third spot. There has been talk of them perhaps leaning towards Jayson Tatum over Josh Jackson, perhaps they see Tatum similar to a Paul Pierce-type of player? I’d be surprised to see them draft Tatum over Jackson.

De’Aaron Fox is also an interesting player, but surely he falls past Phoenix at 4? They have so many point guards/guards, they either pass on Fox or make a significant trade involving either Brandon Knight or Eric Bledsoe.

After Fultz, Ball, Jackson, Fox and Tatum, the draft really opens up. Lauri Markkenen, Malik Monk, Dennis Smith Jr., Jonathan Isaac and Zach Collins… It’s going to be fascinating to see where they all end up.

My hope is for an unpredictable and entertaining draft with some juicy trades. That’s all I’m looking for tonight.

Can the Celtics Nab the Number One Seed?

Posted on by Graham Chapple

(Feature image)

The most wonderful time of the basketball season is nearly upon us — the playoffs. Once basketball resumes after the All-Star break, everyone sees the light at the end of the tunnel. Those in contention know the playoffs are around the corner and there’s just that extra focus.

For the teams at the top of the Eastern Conference…there’s an extra focus to peak at the right time. Though the Washington Wizards are close, the race for the number one seed is coming down between two teams: the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics.

Screen Shot 2017-03-16 at 10.56.47

Initially, I thought that there wasn’t much of a race here. I thought that period where the Cavs were struggling, one/two weeks ago was Celtics’ chance to take the one seed but they didn’t take full advantage. But upon further inspection, the Celtics could take the one seed yet…

Let’s take a look at Boston’s remaining schedule:

March:

Celtics march

April:

Celtics april

Strength of schedule: .503

Some very nice games here for the C’s. Brooklyn twice, Orlando and Phoenix at home and Philly on the road. But it’s that six game home stand in the later stages of March will have a huge say whether or not the Celtics can take the one seed.

Those are all winnable games but the two big games nestled in that home stand are the Miami Heat and the Washington Wizards.

The Heat, by far, would prove the toughest challenge in a 1-8 or a 2-7 matchup. You could make a strong case that the Heat — if they didn’t have so many injuries earlier in the season — would probably be well in the hunt for home court advantage. This will definitely be a tough game with high stakes for both teams, especially given last season’s regular season finale. I honestly believe that the Heat would beat the Celtics in a playoff series…

That Wizards game could almost decide who gets the number two seed, that’s a huge game in its own right. These two teams have beef.

Then, of course, you had the Wiz players wearing all black for their next meeting — the funeral game — which the Wizards won.

Looking outside of that home stand, the Celtics only have five road games left for the entire season. That’s all. And the ones they do have left should be pretty easy. They’re all against teams with records below .500, bar one in the form of the Atlanta Hawks. And then, of course, there’s the game that could literally decide who takes the top seed in the East: April 5th…a home game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Celtics won at home against the Cavs last time out, so the Celtics’ belief will be there. If the one seed hinges on this game…what an incredible game it will be.

With Avery Bradley also now back in the fold, it sure looks good for the Celtics at the right time of the year.

How about the Cavs? How’s their schedule looking?

March:

Cavs march

April:

Cavs april

Strength of schedule: .494

On the face of it, the Cavs seem to have a much more difficult sled of games than the Celtics. They play a difficult Jazz, embark on a four game road trip, come back home to play one game against a very good team in the form of the Washington Wizards and then head back out on the road to play the Spurs. That’s pretty rough, especially that San Antonio game. Add to that a home game against the Pacers (which could be problematic, you never know with Indy, but Cavs should win), a home-and-away against the Hawks, a road game against the Miami Heat and a home game against the Raptors to finish the regular season.

That’s a lot of teams with a lot to play for. Out of all of their remaining fixtures the Sixers, the Lakers, the Magic and, to an extent, the Hornets haven’t much to play for (Charlotte too far back of the eighth seed at this stage). Everyone else is either jostling for seeding or fighting for the playoffs in general.

There’s a number of factors you have to take into account when it comes to this Cavs team and the number one seed.

Firstly, do they even care?

In this six-year stretch (2011-present) where a LeBron James led team has advanced to the Finals, the Cavs had only had the one seed twice — 2013 and 2016. In 2011 the Heat defeated the top seeded Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Finals. In 2012 the Bulls, again, took the one seed but were undone by the Derrick Rose injury in the first round. In 2014, the Indiana Pacers, to be fair, were basically given the first seed by the Heat. If you remember, the Pacers were awful in the second half of that season, if Miami wanted the first seed they could’ve had it. They met in Eastern Conference Finals and the Heat prevailed in six games. In 2015, the Hawks stormed to the one seed but were banged up considerably by the time they met the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals with LeBron, again, pulling through.

LeBron has shown time and time again that he doesn’t need the one seed to make it to the Finals. I think things would be different if the overall top seed was in play and, as such, home court advantage for the NBA Finals. The first seed in the Western Conference has been the team who has claimed home court advantage for the Finals in recent years. But, once again this season, this is out of the reach of the Cavs.

Secondly, the Cavs want to be healthy  by the time the playoffs arrive. This is the most important thing to them. Kevin Love is close to returning, as is Kyle Korver, and the Cavs have just got J.R. Smith back. The focus will soon switch to LeBron and Kyrie Irving.

Trailing by just .2 of a minute to Kyle Lowry, LeBron totals 37 minutes a night and hasn’t taken a whole lot of time off. Irving, meanwhile, is right up there too, logging 35 minutes a night. Eventually, Cavs head coach Ty Lue will have to bench these guys for some of these stretch games, especially LeBron.

If sacrificing a few games is what it takes to make sure LeBron and Kyrie are ready to rumble for another run to the Finals they should/will do that. But will this allow Boston to pass Cleveland for the one seed?

Another thing to consider is this… If the Heat are looking at the eighth seed and the Cavs are still the one seed…do you try get out of that series and possibly screw the Celtics over with that 1-8 matchup? No team should want any part of the Heat in a playoff series. Their record does not reflect fairly on that team and the Heat have actually beaten the Cavaliers twice in March alone, although one of those games LeBron and Irving were rested but the game Irving and James did play against the Heat — and lost — was in their own building.

None of this is to say that the Heat would beat the Cavs in a round one matchup, but it would be a very challenging matchup for sure, one you’d like to avoid if possible.

For all these reasons, I do think the Celtics will eventually end up with the top seed in the Eastern Conference, but if they face the Miami Heat in round one it may not matter…

Masai Finally got his Power Forward

Posted on by Graham Chapple

Feature image: Carlos Osorio/Toronto Star

Patience is a virtue. It’s also a boring virtue, but it’s finally paid off for Toronto Raptors GM Masai Ujiri. On Tuesday, February 15th, it was announced that the Raptors had acquired Magic power forward Serge Ibaka in exchange for Terrence Ross and the less favourable draft pick between L.A. Clippers’ first round pick and the Raptors’ first round pick.

Ujiri has long coveted a power forward, the Raptors’ most glaring weakness. Head coach Dwane Casey has tried a number of different players at that power forward position including rookies Pascal Siakam and Jacob Poeltl, Lucas Nogueira, DeMarre Carroll had started some games at power forward (with Norman Powell slotting into those particular starting lineups), Jared Sullinger and Patrick Patterson. Nearly half of the roster have tried their hand at power forward and none have stuck, Siakam starting the most games out of all of guys — 38.

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Surprises of the Young NBA Season So Far

Posted on by Graham Chapple

It has been a fun two weeks of NBA basketball so far. Triple-doubles, multiple 50 point games, buzzer beaters… It’s been a good.

Before the start of the season, we form our own expectations of how the season is going to go. We put teams and players in boxes and some out of them. Naturally we don’t get everything right and surprises are always sprung. With that said, here are some of the things that have come as surprises to me so far in this early 2016-17 season.

The Los Angeles Lakers

Are the Lakers actually decent again?? Wow, it has been a long time… The Lakers sit above .500 with a 4-3 record — rolling behind a 3 game streak after they fought off the Suns. And they’ve beaten some decent teams too. The most notable being the home drumming of the Golden State Warriors, but they’ve also beaten the Hawks on the road as well as the Houston Rockets at home in their season opener — all teams that figure to be pretty decent.

And they haven’t been driven by a single player like the Pelicans are with Anthony Davis, it has been by committee. Five Laker players are averaging double digit scoring and Luol Deng and Brandon Ingram are not among them. It has been their bench has given them such a boost: 50 points per game (the most in the league) led by Jordan Clarkson (14.1 PPG) and Lou Williams (15.3 PPG). Brandon Ingram is also coming off the bench to begin the season and I think that’s the smart thing to do with Ingram. There’s no rush here, let him adjust to NBA second units first and take it from there. It’s a long season and injuries happen (especially to Luol Deng), there’s no rush. Good stuff from Coach Luke Walton.

D’Angelo Russell has been pretty good so far, as has Jordan Clarkson. Other players that have impressed are Larry Nance Jr. and Tarik Black, whose emergence meant that Yi Jianlian wasn’t going to play a whole lot of minutes, and he subsequently asked Laker management to be released.

But perhaps the biggest surprise for me is Nick Young is actually playing and contributing in a significant manner. I thought this guy was absolutely done, at least with the Lakers. So to see him actually start and play well (averaging 13.7 PPG and 33% shooting from deep).

https://youtu.be/etJUoj5_4w0?t=17s

The Los Angeles Lakers and Nick Young… Things I didn’t think I’d be talking about at this early stage of the season in a positive manner. It’s early days but this team might have to be taken a little more seriously this season. The Byron Scott chains have been broken!

Dwyane Wade — three-point specialist?

While the Bulls sit with a 3-3 record, they’ve actually begun the season pretty decently. They started 3-0 before losing their next 3 games, but it has been Dwyane Wade that has shocked the basketball world by shooting 47% from three on 3.5 attempts per game.

Let’s just put this into context: for his 13 season career Wade has shot 28% from behind the arc on 1.6 attempts per game — Josh Smith like. So to see these numbers out of Wade is staggering. I certainly thought his Game 6 three-point heroics vs the Hornets (triggered by Purple Shirt Guy) was a one off, but it may have been just the start.

People made fun of the Bulls’ hilarious lack of spacing with Rondo, Wade, Butler and Lopez, but if Wade can even hit 35% of his threes, they might have the last laugh… As they get KO’d in Round 1/2 of the playoffs.

The Washington Wizards

There’s a lot to be said for continuity in this league and the Washington Wizards have been one of the better examples of this in the recent years. The core of John Wall, Bradley Beal, Marcin Gortat and Otto Porter have been together for years now and they’ve done well to add to that core. The addition of Markieff Morris has helped the Wizards quite a bit (an unbelievable upgrade over Nene, holy crap…) and Ian Mahinmi is a player I like quite a bit, coming off the bench. Add to that bench unit of point guard Trey Burke, second year wing Kelly Oubre, veteran Jason Smith, Marcus Thornton and Andrew Nicholson — decent players to have coming off your bench. This, combined with a very decent starting five, is a team that is definitely better than the 1-4 record that the Wizards currently rock.

Their offense has been shaky (96.6 points per 100 possessions) and their defence isn’t good enough to make up for their lack of offense (104 points conceded per 100 possessions). Bradley Beal has been healthy so far but has shot a very poor — for his standards — 29% from behind the arc and John Wall has been turning the ball over an awful lot: 5.3 per game. This is killing the Wizards, who concede 21 points per game off of turnovers — only the Timberwolves concede more in the league.

They have played some tough teams: Memphis, Atlanta twice and the Raptors. Not the easiest schedule but if the Wizards want to be in the playoff picture they need to be beating some of these playoff calibre teams.

It’s early days but in the competitive — at least for playoff seeding — Eastern Conference, but the Wizards need to enforce themselves as a legit playoff contender. They have no excuses right now, everyone is healthy.

The Minnesota Timberwolves

A lot of people where very quick to hop on this bandwagon before the start if the season and it seems as though it was too much too soon — at least at the start of the season. The Wolves sit at 1-4 and things haven’t come together as people expected.

Towns, Wiggins and even LaVine have been great but the Ricky Rubio injury really hurts this team in the short term because now Kris Dunn is thrown into the frying pan. It’s so hard to be a rookie point guard in the Western Conference, the quality of opponent is unbelievable. Steph Curry, Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, Tony Parker, Mike Conley and technically James Harden. These are all the guys you’re facing 3-4 times a year, and that’s tough for a rookie. There’s going to be a huge adjustment period for the Wolves with Dunn and that’s going to hurt them in the short term while he figures things out.

They’re a young team, and with K.A.T entering Year 2, Wiggins and LaVine entering Year 3, Kris Dunn being an interesting prospect and the addition of Thibs on the sideline, I think people expected too much too soon and they’ve been let down by this team just being themselves: young. They’ll get better as the season progresses as they figure out and grow into Thibs’ system and his ways, but it might be too late for the playoffs by the time they do hit their stride.

I would mention Joel Embiid, but his season is of no surprise to me. You only had to look at his college highlights to know that he was going to be a monster if he did play.

And look, take all of these things with a grain of salt: we’ve played, like, six games. There’s a long way to go yet…