The Good and Bad: Week One

1. The Good

   1. The Rookies – This rookie class certainly lived up to the hype last night. Anthony Davis was everything that we expected him to be, not only by the numbers, but on the eye test. He had 21 points and 7 boards against the best power forward of all time, Tim Duncan. That 21 points also led the team in scoring. Damian Lillard joined a group of hall of famers (Oscar Robertson and Isiah Thomas) in his performance. He is one of three players to debut with 20+ points and 10+ assists. He also did all of that against the vaunted Lakers while leading his team to victory, he is the real deal even if he is from the big sky. Another rook putting up a double-double was Jonas Valanciunas. JV put up a solid 14 and 10 last night, oh yeah it was against all-star center Roy Hibbert. JV is not considered fully developed on offense, but more of a defensive stud.
   2.  James Harden – Yeah that guy with the big beard who was sixth man of the year and got traded 3 days before the season, he is sort of good. He like Damian Lillard joined an elite class last night, Harden became one of four players in the last 25 years to have these numbers: 37 points, 12 assists, 6  boards, 4 steals, and a block. The other three players to put up these numbers: Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Dwayne Wade. That is some pretty good company to be in for Harden in what was his first ever game with Houston. Not much more to be said about this except that Houston got the win over Detroit.
   3. Good Extensions – This one is going to be in the bad too, but some teams did have good extensions and good non-extensions. For starters the Nuggets extended Ty Lawson for 4 years and 48 million. This is a fabulous deal for the Nuggets. Last season Lawson was 8th among point guards in scoring per game, 2nd in field goal percentage, 10th in assists per game, 11th in steals per game, and averaged only 2.4 turnovers per game. He is an elite point guard and is probably worth more than 12 million over four years, great deal. Stephen Curry got a 4 year 44 million deal from the Warriors. This deal is odd in the sense that Curry has not been able to stay healthy in his time in the league, but in the two years he played over 70 games he averaged just over 18 points and 5.8 assists per game. If Curry can stay healthy, we have seen that he could be one of the better point guards in the league. The Harden extension was 5 years and 80 million, see above for why that is a good deal. I am not sure what to make of the Taj Gibson deal with Chicago, it is cheap 4 years 38 million that part is good, but he has been a bench player his whole career. I don’t know if he is a starter and if he is when are they going to amnesty Carlos Boozer? The two best non-extensions that occurred were Tyreke Evans and Brandon Jennings. It is really hard to say what the market value is on both of these players and how good they actually are. Jennings was demanding a lot of money, but Milwaukee has another player similar to Jennings in Monta Ellis. It was smart to wait and decide who had a better season, who is the better fit long term, and what the market value will be so they then can decide who they want.
   4. Houston-OKC Blockbuster Deal – The deal is great for Houston due to all of the reasons above about why James Harden is good at basketball. For Oklahoma City it was a very tough decision to make, but according to management they couldn’t pay Harden what he wanted. Having a guy on your team that is unhappy is not going to help the chemistry and chemistry is big in OKC. Now the haul that they got back for Harden isn’t half bad either, Jeremy Lamb, Kevin Martin, two first-round picks, and a second round pick. Kevin Martin has always been great at filling it up and is about on par with Harden in terms of three point shooting. Lamb in my personal view has some of the same abilities as Harden does. If he can put it all together and become consistent he is a very competent ball handler, an above average shooter, and very athletic. If the Thunder can develop him and draft well, which they will they are OKC, they got a great deal.
   5. The Association – It is so pleasing to have the NBA back. The hype around this season is similar to that around the Jordan era and it is a great thing. There were so many games that came down to end of the game and big plays were made in the last few minutes to win games.

2. The Bad

   1. The Rookies – Yes there were good rookie performances but there were also some learning curve moments for the rooks. Austin Rivers is going to take a good bit of time to adjust to the NBA. He shot 1 for 9 last night in the Hornets loss with 3 turnovers. Thomas Robinson went 1 for 5 and also pitched in 3 turnovers in the Kings loss to the Bulls. And finally Terrence Ross was 0 for 2 in his debut against the Pacers in only 6 minutes of action.
   2. Lottery Teams – I didn’t list some rookies in either the good or bad due to just average performance. But other rookies weren’t featured because they didn’t even see the floor. If you are a lottery team and invested your high first round pick on a young talent why is he not playing? This really falls on two teams in particular; Rockets and Suns. Both of these teams drafted young talent that didn’t even see the floor. Right off the bat these players are going to take a self-esttem hit and be confused what their role is going forward. The Suns specifically added Kendall Marshall and then went out and signed Goran Dragic to play starting point guard. Why pick someone you aren’t going to play?
   3. Nets-Knicks – The news that the Nets vs. Knicks game will be postponed is bad news for the NBA and fans. Unless you are a Knicks fan,now you can actually enjoy the games without worrying about your teams terrible underperforming or horrible managing. More importantly this game was huge for the NBA to bring a second team into the New York market and hopefully have these two teams begin a rivalry. This game was also one of only two nationally televised games on this evening.
   4. Philly Fans – This is very minor and has little to do with basketball, but what in the world are you thinking Philly? Andre Iguodala was traded! He didn’t have a choice if he left or not. He was still under contract with Philly and management dealt him to the Nuggets. WHY WERE YOU BOOING HIM!?
   5. Bad Extensions – Toronto. Raptors. What. Were. You. Thinking. Toronto bid against themselves and gave DeMar Derozan a 4 year 38 million dollar deal. He wouldn’t be worth that much on the open market, there is no market for wings that can’t shoot and are not phenomenal defenders. Words cannot describe what they have invested in their wings (see Landry Fields). Jrue Holiday was the other odd extension that went down yesterday. Although not as bad as the Derozan deal it is still perplexing why they offered Holiday money similar to what Lawson will be getting. Holiday’s new deal can be worth up to 46.5 million over the 4 year deal. But what has Holiday done? Last year he averaged 4.5 assists and about two turnovers. His points per game was low at 13.5 and his shooting percentage ranked him in the bottom half of point guards. The key here is teams with uncertainty need to let guys go to restricted free agency and see what their value is.
   6. The Lakers – Last and maybe actually least is the Los Angeles Lakers. After losing to Dallas on opening night, who then got creamed by Utah last night, the Lakers came out and lost to Portland. Portland was a lottery team last year and they put a beating on this Lakers team. The Trailblazers started a rookie point guard and played a rookie center for 20+ minutes. Dwight Howard made 15 of 19 free throws and the Lakers still lost the game. They also had to play their stars extended minutes in back to back games; Kobe, Pau, and Dwight played 38+ minutes each and Dwight actually played over 40. On top of all of that Steve Nash got hurt and only played 16 minutes. Also Mike Brown is a defense of coach that is his specialty and the Lakers have now allowed 99 and 116 points two teams who I don’t think make the playoffs. This is not the team we expected. Although Dwight making that many free throws is something great to build on.