Five big questions for the NBA’s biggest surprises

We’re just over a week into the NBA season and surprises abound. Players and teams are veering sharply from expectations in all sorts of crazy directions. We have questions and answers.

Can the Trail Blazers really be a top-10 defense this season?

Ben Ladner (@bladner_): Doubtful. Their numbers are super inflated right now because they played the Suns on opening night. A backcourt of Dame and CJ, while explosive offensively, is pretty catastrophic defensively, and I’m not really sold on any of their big men to be real rim protectors. Harkless and Aminu are valuable on wings and combo forwards, but guarding other positions will be difficult.

Jeremy Lambert (@jeremylambert88): Do they play the Suns 79 more times? (Narrator: They do not.)

Paul Centopani (@PCentopani): Stop it.

Bryan Toporek (@btoporek): Did they trade Damian Lillard or C.J. McCollum? No? Then no, they cannot. With that said, they’re facing a bunch of offensively inept teams in the coming weeks, so a top-10 rank through November is possible.

Philip Rossman-Reich (@philiprr_OMD): What is defense? I sure have not seen much of it in the NBA so far this year. It feels like a lot of teams are still settling in, particularly on defense. But some of these scores early on? Sure, why not. Giving up 100-plus points per game is not the albatross it once was.

Brandon Jefferson (@Jefferson_Hoops): Until they find a way to clone Al-Farouq Aminu, no.

Nikola Vucevic? Wut?

Ladner: Vooch has been stretching his range out for a couple years now. I guess it was only a matter of time before he started launching 3s regularly. I’m a big fan of the Magic playing guys at their correct positions, too, though it still worries me that Aaron Gordon and Jonathan Isaac might not play a ton of minutes together this year. It wouldn’t surprise me if Orlando sold high on Vucevic at some point this year.

Lambert: It’s amazing what happens when you still have too many bigs, but you finally figure out the best way to utilize them. Vucevic was good two years ago, but the Magic still decided to trade for Serge Ibaka and sign Bismack Biyombo. Biyombo is still there, they drafted Jonathan Isaac, and added Mo Speights. So, nothing really changed with the front office even though they fired Rob Hennigan. Frank Vogel just realized that Biyombo got that playoff money and actually isn’t great, Isaac doesn’t need shots, and Speights is best used as a quick hitter off the bench.

It also helps that the great Jonathon Simmons is on the team.

Centopani: Do you believe in Magic? It’s been four games, Orlando is 3-1 (beating Miami, Cleveland, and Brooklyn), and Vucevic is draining 3’s while averaging 24 and 10. I’m not saying the Magic are definitely gonna make the postseason, but the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff bracket is prettayyyy prettayyyyyy open.

Toporek: Isn’t it funny what happens when you use players at their correct positions? Wow, suddenly Aaron Gordon doesn’t look lost on the court. Hey, Vucevic can suddenly get loose since you aren’t stuffing three frontcourt players into the starting lineup. Who would have guessed?

Oh, that’s right: Everyone.

Rossman-Reich: Nikola Vucevic finally harnesses his hatred of Kylo Ren into a points tantrum that would make the new Dark Lord of the Sith proud. Or angry enough to destroy everything in his faux Death Star. Kylo Ren is a weird emo kid. I get why Vucevic hates him. Any time a center with his shooting ability adds a 3-pointer, it immediately opens up his game. Especially for a team that has little shooting (or so we think <eye emojis Aaron Gordon’s 5-for-5 3-point shooting performance Tuesday>), that helps tremendously.

Jefferson: Nikola Vucevic has quietly been stuffing the stat sheet in the oblivion that is the Orlando Magic roster for a few seasons now. However, there are two significant takeaways from this early run of fantasy basketball dominance — Frank Vogel had enough of the whole “Play Everyone at Random Positions” experiment and the Magic are winning games! Vucevic can work inside and out and is a handful on the glass. Many from the outside looking in always wondered why Orlando kept trying to fit square pegs into round holes, but this year it seems like they sanded out the edges of the pegs to make them slightly more circular.

Would you like to take this opportunity to apologize to the Grizzlies for counting them out of the Western Conference playoff race?

Ladner: I picked the Grizz to finish seventh in the West, so I will be accepting apologies on Memphis’ behalf. #ConleyForAllStar2018

Lambert: No, because I never doubted the duo of Mike Conley and Marc Gasol. They say all things are possible through Christ. I say all things are possible through friendships as strong as the one between Conley and Gasol. Sure, it’s a bit wordier, but Twitter will give me 280 characters at some point.

Centopani:  Dear good people of Memphis,

I am writing to personally apologize for besmirching your basketball team heading in this season. They lost two of their figureheads in Zach Randolph and Tony Allen during an offseason where nearly all their conference adversaries improved. As a result, I picked them to finish tenth in the West. It wasn’t personal. Turns out, the pillars of Mike Conley and Marc Gasol are strong.

*extremely Tim Riggins voice* Grit n’ Grind forever.

Sincerely, Paul

Toporek: I’d like to thank Blogfather Matt Moore for talking me back into them as a playoff contender before the season started! They’re still one Conley or Gasol injury away from a complete implosion, but for now, kudos to the Grizzlies for throwing egg in the faces of us haters. Can we pump the brakes on the Dillon Brooks hype train, though?

Rossman-Reich: Dearest Memphis Grizzlies, I sincerely apologize for counting you out. Like the San Antonio Spurs, I should never doubt your grit or your grind. The death of the Grindfather has shown no ill effects. Don Grizz, I beseech your forgiveness.

Jefferson: Forgive me “Grindfather” for I have sinned. (How weird is it that Tony Allen is NOT on the Grizzlies anymore?)

Who gets their rhythm first — the Nuggets or the Thunder?

Ladner: The Nuggets. They have fewer egos and starpower to manage and their offense is much less reliant on individuals creating and making tough shots. It’s only a matter of time before those backdoor cuts and DHOs start opening back up.

Lambert: The Nuggets. The Thunder will only figure it out when Carmelo Anthony figures it out. Russell Westbrook has been more than accommodating, Paul George is slowly coming around, Melo still wants 30 shots a game. When he accepts that he should have less than 20 on most nights, that’s when Oklahoma City will be fine.

It may take awhile.

Centopani: I have high hopes for both these teams. The Thunder are one Andrew Wiggins 30-foot bank shot buzzer beater from being 2-1 and removed from this conversation.

I’ll play devil’s avocado on this and pick Oklahoma City. The sorting out of egos aside, I love the way this team fits. Similar to that 2010 Heatles squad, there’s too much talent here. They’ll figure out the right balance and settle into roles.

The Nuggets haven’t looked great so far, but they should take this opportunity of struggle and put together a trade package for Eric Bledsoe centered around Kenneth Faried and Emmanuel Mudiay.

Toporek: The Nuggets. Jamal Murray has to get going eventually, right? Or, hell, Eric Bledsoe could be in a Denver uniform soon. Either way, I trust in a team without three players used to being the No. 1 option on their respective clubs finding its rhythm faster than one with three would-be No. 1 options all getting used to their new reality as super-sidekicks.

Rossman-Reich: It will probably be the Nuggets. Denver really just needs time for the familiarity to kick in. Once they get their turnovers under control, they will be back to their offensive ways. I think the Thunder have some real issues to figure out. But they will still win as they figure them out because, you know, they have Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony. Those guys are pretty good.

Jefferson: I choose the Oklahoma City Thunder. Yes Russell Westbrook is deferring too much to Carmelo Anthony, and yes Paul George fouled out in his “revenge” game, but they at least are producing slightly along the lines of what we expected. I don’t know what happened in Denver. The “Nuggets had the best offense in the NBA since December 15, 2016” stat has been like a second byline in every article about Denver in the leadup to this season. However, their offense has sputtered early and they haven’t shown signs of turning it around in the immediate future.

The new and improved Raptors are totally……………..?

Ladner: …a tease. They’ll be really fun in the regular season, and their more modernized offense will win them a bunch of games. I’ve loved OG Anunoby since he was a freshman at IU. Kyle Lowry is still really underrated. But I won’t really trust them until they prove it in the playoffs.

Lambert: …still in the regular season.

Centopani: …five years late. What, am I supposed to be impressed they joined the rest of the league in shooting 3’s? They’re still the East’s Lob City-era Clippers, i.e. capping off at the second round of the playoffs.

Toporek: Going to lose in the second round of the playoffs. Rinse, repeat. Unless, of course, they draw the Bucks in the first round again. This time, they won’t be so lucky to escape.

Next: 25-under-25 -- The best young players in the NBA

Rossman-Reich: Like Pinky and the Brain. They are doing the same thing they do every season… dominate the regular season and fall flat in the Playoffs. Narf!

Jefferson: O-G, triple OG (Annunoby).