Week 4 News recap and Roze's 5 Things

NBA Standings 

Eastern Conference - Games Through November 10th 

1. Cleveland Cavaliers 14-0
2. Boston Celtics 11-3
3. Orlando Magic 8-6
4. New York Knicks 6-6
5. Atlanta Hawks 6-7
6. Miami Heat 5-6
7. Detroit Pistons 6-8
8. Charlotte Hornets 5-7
9. Indiana Pacers 5-7
10. Brooklyn Nets 5-8 
11. Chicago Bulls 5-8
12. Milwaukee Bucks 4-9
13. Washington Wizards 2-9
14. Philadelphia 76ers 2-10
15. Toronto Raptors 2-12 

Western Conference 

1. Oklahoma City Thunder 11-2
2. Golden State Warriors 10-2
3. Houston Rockets 9-4
4. Los Angeles Lakers 9-4
5. Phoenix Suns 9-4
6. Denver Nuggets 7-4
7. Sacramento Kings 8-6
8. Memphis Grizzlies 7-6
9. Minnesota Timberwolves 7-6
10. Dallas Mavericks 6-7
11. LA Clippers 6-7
12. San Antonio Spurs 6-8
13. Portland Trail Blazers 5-8
14. New Orleans Pelicans 4-10
15. Utah Jazz 3-9

Some initial thoughts on the standings for week 4. Look for the Bucks to start and climb up the Eastern Conference in the future. They have a very favorable schedule for the next 4 weeks. Also Pistons have been playing some great basketball, as Cade Cunningham is leading them, along with Jaden Ivey shooting the ball very well to start the season. The Magic has also done a good job at keeping pace atop the conference with Paolo Banchero out for the last couple of weeks. In West the Rockets have been playing amazing basketball, Tari Eason and Amen Thompson have been causing a ton of havoc off of the bench for opponents. The Lakers have also moved up the standing after winning their last 5 games, after a 1-4 road trip. The Pelicans also could be an early candidate for hopeful contending teams to hit the tank button pretty soon. They have a ton of injures to deal with in their lineups. 

News Update 

Sunday November 10th

Chet Holmgren will be out for 8-10 weeks with a hip fracture. The injury leaves the Thunder with a very small lineup. 

Monday November 11th 

Malik Monk will be out for at least 2 weeks with an ankle sprain

Christian Wood will be sidelined for at least 4 weeks after he experienced some knee soreness ramping up. 

Immanuel Quickly with be out for at least a week with an elbow injury. 

Roze's 5 Things

1. High scoring week for players

The NBA season has started to get into its NBA Cup this past week and this came with some fireworks from a couple of players from this past week as teams were excited to get the tournament underway. The week started off on Monday with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander putting up his career-high of 45 points against the Clippers in a 134-128 win. On Tuesday a couple of NBA Cup group play games had a couple upsets, but Wednesday is when the high-scoring outings happened. Karl Anthony-Towns put up a season-high 46 points in a 124-123 loss to the Bulls, Victor Wembanyama turned in a 50 ball in a 139-130 win versus the Wizards, and the night was capped off by 59 points from Giannis Antetokounmpo in an overtime win against the Pistons. All of these performances were topped by De'Aaron Fix putting up a career and franchise high 60 points in a Friday night loss to the Timberwolves and then followed that up with 49 points the very next day against the Jazz. I think the point I am trying to get at is the NBA has a versatile amount of scorers and watching different types of players and positions get rolling is really special to watch. Giannis made 1 three point shot out of his 21 field goals in his 59 point outing and dominated the paint. Wembanyama, who I will go more in-depth on later, is 7'4 and made 8 threes while shooting 18/29 from the floor, KAT was 18/30 from the floor and made 6 threes, and Fox put up a ridiculous 60 points on 22/35 from the field and then followed it going 16/30 from the field in his 49 point outing. The point of all this is, it's special watching NBA players get in the zone and put up absurd scoring outputs like a couple players did this past week

2. Is LaMelo Ball the best point guard in the East?

I'm not saying he is, BUT it's close. The Hornets guard has been on an absolute heater to start his season. Rarely do I dabble in NBA discourse talk, but I think this is warrants enough for a conversation. LaMelo is arguably one of the more exciting players in the NBA and one of the most popular players in the entire league, so why do I think he's in the conversation? Well for starts he averaging 30 points a game on 44.7% from the field and 37.5% from the floor, he's taking 13!!!!! threes a game and averaging just under 5 makes a game. For starters his finishing and touch around the basket have improved greatly since his last full season in the NBA in the 5-9ft area he's shooting 61.3% compared to 50.8% last year and 40.8% in 2021-2022. He's connecting on close to 60% of his floaters as well. The floater shot for him is his scoring threat inside the arc. He's great at getting by bigs in pick and roll and or in transition. At his 6' 7 frame putting the floater high on the backboard makes it hard for opposing bigs to block it. Once he's in the paint his passing is such a threat no one steps up to him and he's able to drop in a floater outside of the restricted area for 2 points. Now let's talk about his three point shooting. LaMelo leads the NBA in fourth quarter scoring averaging just under 12 points a game while making over 2 threes in the final frame.  He's exciting, he's fast, and he makes everyone around him better. Sure the assists numbers are a little lower than they were last year and even than in 2021-2022, but while taking 23 shots a game 44.7/37.5 splits aren't bad, but a true shooting percentage of 58.2% is really good. He's having an All-NBA caliber season so far and should be in the conversation for on of the best point guards in the Eastern Conference. 

3. Tyler Herro is off to great start.

Tyler Herro is an interesting player. He had a great rookie season helping the Heat to the NBA Finals, while having 37 points in the bubble against the Celtics to help the Heat advance. He won 6th man of the year in 2021-2022 and averaged a then career-high 20.7 points per game. However, the last two years have injured-fill, he's always been in trade rumors, and was not wanted by the Trail Blazers in the Heat's effort to land Damian Lillard, Pat Riley noted in a press conference that if Herro wanted to start he needs to be able to play both sides of ball. Through the noise and constant trade rumors Herro is off to the best start of his young career. He's averaging 24.5 points per game, on an unbelievable 49.7%/45.7% shooting splits from the field and three. The main difference for him this year has been his ability to shooting off the dribble and his improved floater, and mid range shoot.  His shooting off the dribble this year has been great. He's taking nearly 4 attempts a game off the dribble from three and hitting on close to 40% while taking 4 game and shooting 47.8% on pullups overall. Typically for younger players, especially guards it takes a little but of time for them to develop the pace and speed to find ways to score in the mid-range, Herro has always been good at shooting threes and is very skilled, but he's not overly athletic to get by defenders. However, he is very skilled and as improved his off the bounce game in recent years. His finishing in the paint his also taken steps forward. He's shooting over 60% on floaters this year and shooting 58% 5 feet or closer and 55% from 5-9 feet. Both of these numbers are a career high for him. Herro is really fun to watch, after a couple of inefficient seasons, he been able to work on his craft and really improve his overall game. Against the Pistons he hit 10 threes, trying a franchise high. I think the stats that show his overall improvement has been he's taking 17 shots a game, 3rd highest of his career, and his usage is at 26.6%, his third highest in his career, Having both stats highlights overall he great he's been to start the season and how efficient he has been for the Heat this year. 

4. Victor Wembanyama is scary 

There might not be a more polarizing player in the entire NBA with Victor Wembanyama. He is appropriately the scary dude in the NBA when he figures it out, which he is starting to. The 7' 3 Frenchman, or however tall he is has really played well since the calendar flipped to November. He's averaging 25.2 points per game on 49.7/38.5 splits from the field and three. He is averaging 3.7 blocks a game and 1.3 steals a game. His arms are so long that on screens  he can just poke the ball away from guards without overextending at all. He's the type of player that takes over a game from an offensive standpoint with how unique he is and how fluid and flexible he moves. Defensively he's able to disrupt an entire game plan from opponents with how much ground he covers and how many shots he can affect both on the perimeter and interior. Opponents are shooting 37.4% when defender by Wembanyama and shooting 38.8% less than 6 feet from the basket, which is insane.  His defense will never be an issue so let's dive into the part of his game everyone else is worried about, his offense. Wembanyama is an unbelievable talent. what makes him unbelievable is his shooting ability at 7' 3, but the fact he can also put the ball on the floor very well too. The main thing pushing his improvement is his shooting, especially from three. He's looking more relaxed in his shot and I think don' think it's a coincidence that he's shooting well with Jeremy Sochan out of the lineup. This has given Stephon Castle more minutes and he's paired much better next to Wembanyama. With Castle on the floor Wembanyama has been punishing small defenders at the mid post, without the ability to see much help. People want to say he should be Giannis and take a bunch of 2s, but that's not what makes him special. His ability to make threes and use his pump fake and drive against his opponents makes his shots at the rim very easy. I think one area where he an help his case is on screens and rolling really hard to the basket. The Wembanyama-CP3 lob connection hasn't been very prolific so far this season, but I think Wembanyama being a better screener and being able to pick off Paul's man can help a lot in this aspect. Paul's hit him a couple times in transition, but in the half court Wembanyama can make it easier on himself by setting good screens. Overall Wembanyama has been playing really well in November and I won't be surprised when he continues it throughout the rest of the year. 

5. What makes an NBA champion?

The final thing, wasn't a specific thing from watching games, but merely a question on a recent podcast I was listening too. A couple contenders have struggled out of the gate so far this season, the Knicks, Mavericks, Timberwolves, 76ers and Bucks to name a couple. I think recent NBA history suggest that NBA champions need to have a high-powered offense coupled with a defense that is at worst top 15 or top 12 in the NBA. However, I also think the assumption all of these teams are banking on and especially with the 76ers and Mavericks right now, is their star player has to be and needs to be the best player on the floor, or at least play like it, in every single series they play. Every recent NBA champion, or finalists, have had the best player on their team in any series they went up against. Kawhi in 2019 was the best player in that series, argue with a wall, Lebron in 2020, Giannis in 2021, Steph in 2022. The exception I can see is the Celtics last year, but the Mavericks made the finals last year with Luka being unbelievable with a top notch defense behind him. All these front offices make decisions on their team based on their best player being himself. Embiid right now is not doing that for 76ers, granted he's coming back from injury, Luka right now is not playing like that for the Mavericks. I understand he's averaging 28 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists, but he's nowhere near the efficiency he was last year, but people are wondering why some of these are struggle. Sure it can be a simple thing, like the Knicks defense with KAT hasn't been great, but Mikal Bridges has not been good on defense to justify 5 first round picks. Luka hasn't been near the MVP-level he was last year, Edwards is playing well, but the team around him is struggling defensively, especially with McDaniels, the 76ers have yet to see George, Embiid, and Maxey together, but Embiid isn't at all near the level he was last year, and the Bucks' Bobby Portis, and even last year with Lillard have not been good. Look, all of these moves from front offices amount because of one simple assumption. If my best player is the best player in every single playoff series, or at least plays like it then I have a shot and I'm going to make moves based that assumption. All of these adjustments and lineup combinations mean something, but sometimes it's as simple as the best player's team in the series won, and he played like for 4 games. Every teams hopes and dreams of winning an NBA title do not exist without their star player playing like an MVP.