6 days Ago By Dan Favale
We inevitably reach a point in the NBA regular season at which the "It's still early!" caveats no longer apply and hopeless spades must be called hopeless spades. Fortunately for the teams we're about to discuss, we're not there yet. Silver linings do not spring eternal, but for now, these disappointing, if not hapless, squads have the runway to turn things around.
Our mission is to spotlight and appropriately celebrate the biggest reason why. And in the absence of turnaround potential, well, we're just here to spread good vibes. Teams will be evaluated for inclusion relative to expectations.
If you were banking on the Utah Jazz to win noticeably more than 20 percent of their games, that's on you. Descents and struggles fueled entirely by injuries will excluded. The New Orleans Pelicans can thank us later.
Let's roll. Silver Lining: The offense and defense both rank in the top 10 despite being sub-.500.
There is not a team with a losing or dead-even record about which we should all feel better than the Dallas Mavericks. Single-game performances can still skew offensive and defensive returns this time of year, but this isn't a case of small-sample luck. If anything, the Mavs are here in spite of their luck.
Dereck Lively II just recently returned after missing four games with a sprained right shoulder. Luka Dončić has seen his efficiency drop off from just about everywhere and turned in some crunch-time stinkers. P.
J. Washington (who has missed time) and Naji Marshall are shooting under 30 percent on wide-open threes . Dallas is top-10 in offense and defense—with a positive net rating—anyway.
That is huge. Even if you have little faith in Washington or Marshall and the bench at large, you can't believe Dončić will continue to be this inefficient. His progression to his own normal is inevitable and the biggest deal of all.
Bonus Silver Lining: Jason Kidd postgame press conferences are extremely meme-able. Silver Lining: Giannis Antetokounmpo is flat-out hooping . Fresh off dropping a 59-point boomstick on the Detroit Pistons in an overtime victory that gave the Milwaukee Bucks their first batch of consecutive wins this season, Giannis Antetokounmpo is now averaging a league-leading 33.
3 points to go along with 12.1 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.
4 blocks. His shot diet includes more long twos than last year, but that's at least partially a function of Khris Middleton's absence. They also haven't come at the expense of rim attempts, and oh yeah, he's banging 'em in at a 50 percent clip .
Even by his own intergalactic standards, these numbers are bonkers. If the Bucks were any less sad, Giannis would (potentially) be challenging Nikola Jokić for the pole position in early-season MVP ladders . Granted, the 29-year-old is not having a perfect campaign.
The free-throw shooting remains an issue, and he is not blameless in Milwaukee's off-again, on-again, but-mostly-off relationship with the defensive side of the floor. Still, there is a visible shift in the intensity with which he's playing the past few games—the kind that puts (some) trade chatter to bed and, more importantly, gives the Bucks immediate hope as they (presumably) get healthier. Bonus Silver Lining: Opponents still struggle to score on Brook Lopez at the rim.
The Silver Lining: Tyler Herro is making an All-Star push. Is the world ready to hear All-Star cases for both Norman Powell and Tyler Herro being made with not only straight faces but with real, live, actual merit? Ready or not, they're coming. Herro, in particular, has become a shining light for an otherwise aimless Miami Heat squad.
He is averaging right around 25 points and five assists on true shooting north of 65. For reference, Nikola Jokić is the only other player currently doing the same. But this isn't just about Herro's scoring and efficiency.
It's about how he's arrived here: by materially changing his shot selection and distribution. Close to 45 percent of Herro's field-goal attempts last season came from mid-range. That share has dipped all the way to 27 percent this season, and he's attempted just seven twos outside the paint.
What's more, he's exchanged pull-up jumpers for more zero-dribble opportunities—shots on which he's posting a 73.6 effective field-goal percentage (combined efficiency of twos and threes). To what end Herro's ascent can salvage the Heat's season is debatable.
It feels more and more like they no longer have someone good enough to be the best player on a contender. Regardless of where they're headed, though, Herro's offensive evolution is more than fit for it. Bonus Silver Lining: Haywood Highsmith looks capable of playing a bigger role.
The Silver Lining: The most pressing problems seem fixable from within. Turnovers, shaky shooting from Mike Conley, Donte DiVincenzo and Jaden McDaniels and transition defense make up some of the biggest issues fueling the Minnesota Timberwolves' .500 start.
Most of them seem addressable. Conley's age is an overarching concern that won't go away. Thirty-seven-year-olds don't get better.
But lingering wrist injury and all, his shooting splits and offensive decision-making won't fluctuate so wildly game-to-game. We know Jaden McDaniels won't take more threes. We also know he can hit them at a clip north of 27.
5 percent. And we definitely know DiVincenzo can drill more than 30.6 percent of his triples.
Minnesota's turnover problems and defensive ricketiness, meanwhile, are inextricably tied. The team is getting hammered by opponents after coughing up possession, per Inpredictable . Cutting down on turnovers is possible with the current personnel and addresses some of the defensive warts.
Though the spacing won't be pristine in every lineup, the Wolves have lost more possessions to bad passes than every team other than Atlanta, Detroit and Portland, according to PBP Stats . Improved decision-making should come in time as everyone adjusts to new additions and shifting roles. Bonus Silver Lining: Anthony Edwards is still having one of the most efficient high-volume three-point-shooting seasons of all time.
The Silver Lining: The offense ranks in the top three and hasn't hit its stride. Scoring 1.21 points per possession is a pretty big feat for these New York Knicks under the circumstances.
Sure, they're #builtforit. But they're not regularly playing like it. Karl-Anthony Towns generates all sorts of space for everyone and has spit out a few volcanic detonations.
He also remains one of the league's most turbulent roller-coaster rides, mostly because of his unparalleled ability to fade in and out of aggression, but also because the Knicks haven't done enough to keep him involved. Jalen Brunson is culpable in the unevenness. He has wider runways than ever yet has labored through uncharacteristic stretches of over-dribbling and unnecessarily increasing the level of difficulty on himself.
Mikal Bridges has room to increase his volume and efficiency, weird-looking jumper be damned. New York's fourth-quarter offensive rating remains below average even when filtering out the opening-night suckfest against Boston. The Knicks also rank 28th in points scored per possession during crunch time.
At least a handful of these issues will self-correct—normalize. And, uh, that's kind of terrifying when New York already has a top-three attack. Bonus Silver Lining: OG Anunoby exists, and so the hope for reasonable defense persists.
The Silver Lining: Joel Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey have yet to play a single minute together. Searching for solace in the Philadelphia 76ers' invasion of injuries is hair-of-the-dog territory. They are in this compromising position because of them.
Can that really be a source of comfort? Not typically. But this isn't a typical situation. The Sixers aren't billowing in the wind solely because of the forever-injured Embiid.
George and Maxey have both spent time on the shelf, nuking any chance the team has of establishing chemistry and an identity. Look at the lineup-pairing breakdowns: And to answer your question: Yes, you are reading this correctly. Of the 2,690 total minutes played by the Sixers this season, fewer than 2 percent have featured more than one member of the Big Three.
This is unsustainably horrifying. That's a good thing! The Sixers will get healthier, even if only because they can't get unhealthier. And while plummeting to 14th place in the East isn't ideal, the lesser conference remains forgiving.
Philly is currently three losses behind...
third place. Bonus Silver Lining: Jared McCain looks like Desmond Bane and Donte DiVincenzo merged into one player..
