Early NBA Takeaways
The NBA season is still young and much of what we have seen this far might be nothing more than a mirage, but after a couple of weeks here are three storylines that have caught my eye.
1. Scoring has elevated. Last year teams averaged 106.3 points per game, whereas this season that figure has ballooned to nearly 112.6 points per game. Why has there been such an increase in scoring league wide? Well, I think a couple of things are at play. First, teams are playing at a faster pace and so naturally they are attempting more shots, many of which are three pointers. The second reason for the uptake in scoring, I believe, can be explained by the shortened shot clock following an offensive rebound. Starting this season, after a team secures an offensive rebound, the shot clock resets to 14 seconds rather than 24 seconds. This change forces teams to play faster, thus increasing their point totals. All in all, I think this increase in scoring is a positive for the NBA, however there does come a point at which there is too much scoring. We haven’t arrived there yet, but if things continue to head in the direction that they are, it might not be long before a change must be made that benefits the defense.
2. Western Conference teams are going to cannibalize each other. Conference imbalance is real. The Western Conference is absolutely stacked and because of that teams will beat up on one another. There are no Orlando’s or Chicago’s or New York’s west of the Mississippi. If LeBron or Dame or AD don’t bring their “A Game” their teams are likely to lose. The ultra-competitive state of the conference will be exciting because, outside of the Warriors, there will be a half-dozen teams all within a few games of one another, thus magnifying the importance of each and every game.
3. New coaches are making positive impacts on their new teams. Dwane Casey with the Pistons and Mike Budenholzer with the Bucks have seemingly made their respective teams legitimate contenders in the Eastern Conference. The Bucks are off to a torrid start and Giannis appears to be really thriving as Bud has surrounded him with a bevy of shooters. In Detroit, Casey has allowed Blake Griffin to operate from the high post and, man, he has looked good. Both the Bucks and the Pistons were missing a few ingredients in years past, but so far in this campaign it appears as though these two coaches are maximizing their team’s potential.
