Well, let's get caught up now.
Each NBA team’s biggest concern right now: From Warriors’ youth to tanking woes
https://theathletic.com/3907466/2022...cerns-2022-23/
The Athletic polled and examined each team as to its biggest concern now, about a month into the season. I recap:
Atlanta Hawks - What’s wrong with … Trae?
"The good news for the Hawks is that their biggest concern is not what usually has been their biggest concern: defense. Entering Thursday, the team was 12th in defensive rating at 111, which is a monumental leap from 26th (113.7) last season. But equally stunning is that Trae Young has struggled with his shooting. It’s not a major concern at this point because the Hawks are off to a good start and Young leads them in scoring at 27 points per game. But through 14 games, he had career-low percentages in field goals (37.8 percent, down from 46.0 last year) and 3-pointers (30.9, down from 38.2)."
Boston Celtics - Robert Williams’ health
"Despite the jolt of Ime Udoka’s suspension and the impact of Robert Williams’ early-season absence, the Celtics are cruising along. Eventually, they will need Williams to return and play at a high level. His absence has left holes in their defense and revealed a lack of frontcourt depth."
Brooklyn Nets - Where do we start?
"Ben Simmons looks like a shell of himself after undergoing back surgery and not playing in 16 months, and he’s missed multiple games due to knee soreness. Kyrie Irving is currently suspended, and his return is unknown. All of this puts an extra burden on Kevin Durant to carry the team, which was one of his reasons for asking for a trade over the summer."
Charlotte Hornets - Injuries … again
"LaMelo Ball was out until last weekend with his ankle trouble, and, guess who, Gordon Hayward has missed most of November with shoulder trouble. As any Hornets fan can attest, Hayward’s inability to stay healthy and his massive contract have wounded this team deeply, and the trend continues."
Chicago Bulls - Stuck in the middle
"The short-term concern has materialized into a hard truth: The Bulls are mediocre and maddeningly inconsistent."
Cleveland Cavaliers - Recent struggles on defense
"The Cavs have to find their way back to being a strong defensive team and playing to the standard they set last season."
Dallas Mavericks - What’s up with ballhandling?
"The way this roster is built, it must unavoidably lean on Luka Doncic and Spencer Dinwiddie above all else — for scoring, for shot creation, for offensive initiation, even simply for ball possession. Without Doncic, as seen in Wednesday’s loss to Houston, his teammates look flat and diminished."
Denver Nuggets - The Jamal Murray experience
"These Nuggets will only be a title contender if Murray looks like Murray on a consistent basis again, and it’s still too soon to tell if that will be the case."
Detroit Pistons - Can the Pistons develop amid injuries?
"Detroit’s rough start to the season wasn’t all that unexpected. The Pistons are a young group and had a pretty difficult schedule through their first 10 games. The real concern rests in the ability to progress toward the next stage of the rebuild, and finding a way to do it with so many injuries."
Golden State Warriors - The state of the youth movement
"James Wiseman is in the G League, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody are on the fringe of the rotation, and both Patrick Baldwin Jr. and Ryan Rollins are never used. In the cases of Wiseman, Kuminga and Moody, that’s a hindrance on their development. It’s difficult to get better if you barely play. They need countless reps, and they’re barely getting any on a win-now team employing Stephen Curry."
Houston Rockets - Inability to take care of the ball
"The Rockets’ 17.9 turnovers per game is the worst in the league. Young players tend to make mistakes, and Houston is stocked to the brim with them."
Indiana Pacers - Can they tank?
"This is going to sound slightly crazy, but the Pacers biggest challenge is going to be getting themselves back into the Victor Wembanyama Sweepstakes. Following the example set by the Utah Jazz and the Oklahoma City Thunder, the 7-6 Pacers are doing a miserable job of tanking, playing inspired, free-flowing, 3-point-crazy basketball while standing sixth in the Eastern Conference entering Friday."
LA Clippers - Kawhi Leonard’s availability
"It’s not Leonard’s injury status that is the biggest concern, as the team hasn’t been discouraged along his path to get back on the floor. It’s the fact that the team has been so ordinary without Leonard, even with Paul George playing at a high level and the schedule resembling the opposite of murderers row."
Los Angeles Lakers - Deficit in the standings
"The Lakers’ slow start isn’t exactly a surprise considering their roster construction and strength of schedule. They’ve essentially only played playoff-caliber opponents. But few expected them to be *this* bad. Just about everything has gone wrong for them: injuries, historically poor 3-point shooting, collapses in crunchtime, two five-game losing steaks."
Memphis Grizzlies - Bench play
"The starting backcourt is going gangbusters, but it’s already clear the Grizzlies bench isn’t going to carry the team the way it did a year ago."
Miami Heat - Roster construction
"When they play through Jimmy Butler, the Heat look like a team capable of getting within one shot of making the NBA Finals. Otherwise, it’s a disjointed mess, in which the 3s are not falling like last season ... That’s one problem. The other — the Heat aren’t defending right now (18th in defensive rating)."
Milwaukee Bucks - Can offense flip the switch?
"The Bucks haven’t been healthy thus far this season. Khris Middleton and Pat Connaughton have yet to play a game, and Jrue Holiday and Giannis Antetokounmpo have each missed games, so there are plenty of reasons to believe their offense, currently a bottom-10 unit, will get much better. But, until it does, that will be the Bucks’ biggest concern."
Minnesota Timberwolves - Can Towns and Gobert play together?
"There are small signs of things starting to smooth out, but the early returns have been that Towns is having a hard time closing out to shooters on the perimeter as a power forward and Gobert is not yet synergizing with Russell and Edwards on offense the way the Wolves envisioned."
New Orleans Pelicans - Consistent stops
"The Pelicans have as much offensive talent as almost any team in the West. Zion Williamson is a monster in the paint. Brandon Ingram is one of the top wing scorers in the league. CJ McCollum is finding his way as a full-time point guard. Jonas Valanciunas is even a potent weapon in the post. But the Pels have to find lineups they can trust at the end of games to get stops."
New York Knicks - Shooting — as we all expected
"The Knicks are 28th in 3-point percentage ... The Knicks could use shooting; they could use space. They’re finding other ways to score, like upping the pace of the offense. But once they get into the half court, things get cramped quickly."
Oklahoma City Thunder - Can the young guys shoot?
"The truth about this Thunder team is there is truly no pressure on them. If they win? Well, they are ahead of schedule and it’s a sign of things to come. If they lose? Well, they were supposed to."
Orlando Magic - Where are the guards the team can rely on long term?
"That super-big front line is coming together well in Orlando, but the guard play, well, not so much."
Philadelphia 76ers - Offense, particularly without James Harden
"Even if Joel Embiid doesn’t put together more 59-11-8-7 lines, he appears to be back to MVP-level form. That is good news. The problem is all those numbers were necessary for Philadelphia to beat Utah recently. Particularly worrisome is an offensive scheme that is isolation-heavy. Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris have struggled shooting, and without Harden, this has turned into a team entirely reliant on defense."
Phoenix Suns - Devin Booker’s durability
"With Cameron Johnson (knee) out indefinitely and Chris Paul (heel) banged up, Booker is carrying a heavy load ... He can handle this in the short term. But if it becomes the norm, the only way Phoenix can win, it will hurt his production."
Portland Trail Blazers - Jusuf Nurkic
"... if there has been a shaky-at-times link to the free-flowing joy that has been the Blazers, it has been Nurkic’s durability and consistency ... history tells us the Blazers are usually at their best when Nurkic is available and contributing."
Sacramento Kings - How to (finally) defend
"The Kings have been playing horrendous defense for the past 16 years, and that has everything to do with their playoff drought that is the longest of any of the four major North American sports teams (beginning in 2007). Yet while this present-day team has looked capable of breaking that streak for the past few promising weeks, the awful defense remains."
San Antonio Spurs - The play of the veterans
"The problem is that Doug McDermott and Josh Richardson have been two of their least effective players; these were the guys who were supposed to both steady the ship for the kids and offer a return as trade bait come February. Both those premises feel shaky at the moment."
Toronto Raptors - Scottie Barnes’ sophomore slump
"The Raptors need to get healthy, and the half-court offence remains a big issue. However, from a big-picture perspective, Barnes’ so-so start to the season is the thing to monitor. Barnes’ playmaking skills have flashed multiple times, but his shooting from all areas of the court has lagged, especially since Pascal Siakam got injured."
Utah Jazz - Turnovers and transition defense
"These mesh into one big issue for the Jazz. They have been awful at both, and it has had a big hand in a three-game losing streak after a 10-3 start."
Washington Wizards - The inconsistent defense
The Wizards’ defense has been up and down ... For Washington to contend for the playoffs, it must continue to play strong defense, particularly on the perimeter.