Ten early conclusions at the start of the NBA season

The first two weeks of the regular season of the NBA and it is time for early conclusions in AM850.com. The idea is simple: print this column, lock it up and publish it again in mid-June. What was accomplished? What hypothesis collapsed along the way? Behold, then, our dawn of story lines in the best basketball in the world.

Let’s move forward.

Rookie Watch: VJ Edgecombe will be Rookie of the Year

It’s not about the numbers, but about the shape. Edgecombe came to the NBA to cause his own revolution. He plays basketball with ease, with elegance, but also with fury. His life story is absolute improvement and the Sixers, who seemed to navigate inconsequentiality with a Joel Embiid in cotton, have five wins in six appearances in the Eastern Conference.

I’m sorry for Dylan Harper (We still don’t know the extent of his injury against the Phoenix Suns, but what a great player the San Antonio Spurs took) and especially by Cooper Flaggwhich will go from less to more but still needs, on its route to stardom, the hours of flight that Edgecombe seems not to require. You have to be patient, but the first foregone conclusion is already among us.

Victor Wembanyama will be the Defensive Player of the season

I like to say this after a horrible game of Wemby against the Suns. Forward conclusions work on issues that will happen months later. In this sense, If health is with him, there is no player like Wembanyama. Not only does he average almost four blocks per appearance (3.7 more specifically), but with his extension of arms and movements he provokes change of shots and fear in any attacker. to stand in front.

From this point of view, I see no serious opponents on the horizon.

The route to the MVP is not a matter of four: add a fifth element

Yes, I know, Wembanyama He demonstrated after his Kung-Fu summer that he can be the alien that specialists once anticipated. Nikola Jokic (my favorite for the award, Gru) averages a triple-double (22.7 points, 13.2 rebounds and 11.3 assists), Luka Doncic records 165 points in four games, the most for a Laker in all of history and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander…well, it’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Only undefeated of all NBA superheroes. A phenomenon that continues its overwhelming course, even without Jalen Williams as a colleague on the perimeter.

So far, everything we know, but: Who is the fifth Beatle in this discussion? Cade Cunningham. He averages 23.6 points, a career number, but his growth is in assists. His average today is 9.6 passes-goals per game, when his history was 7.4. It is the evolution of talent: not only to shine in the statistics but to create for others. The Pistons are fourth in the East and growing.

The Mavericks will not be candidates for the title

Obviously it’s early to say, but in this installment it’s a question of temperature. We will say what we feel. The early injury to Anthony Davis and the necessary adaptation that Flagg requires forces us to think that perhaps placing Dallas as a candidate in the West is an initial error of judgment..

Of course, big names abound, but Klay Thompson is in the epilogue of his career and Kyrie Irving is still recovering from a torn ACL. We’re just getting started, but the signs are not encouraging.

In these lands the widows of Luka Doncic still shed tears.

The Grizzlies will be the great disappointment of the season

Ja Morant is a fallen angel. An icarus that flew too high to get sunburned. From his old incidents with weapons, suspensions (deserved) and injuries, he returned this season and we didn’t get to two weeks before we had his first incident. Publicly criticizing coach Tuomas Iisalo, saying that he is not happy, that he has a bad time, blah, blah and more blah.

Morant does not understand that Memphis needed him as a leader, not as a capricious young man. It has gone from disruptive to unbearable. Today it would be great for the franchise to get rid of it and start over on a map that looks more like the times of Marc Gasol, Mike Conley and company. The team plays poorly, is anarchic, has no roadmap and much of this has to do with the lack of commitment of its star player.

Someday Morant will realize that the world doesn’t revolve around him. You will understand what could have been and what finally was. It will be painful, but that’s how life works: when that happens, it will be too late.

The Spurs are emerging as the pleasant surprise

I really like San Antonio’s start, beyond the bad game against the Suns that marked the franchise’s first loss in a regular series, the break of the spell called Wembanyama and Harper’s untimely injury that will keep him out for several weeks. But of course, San Antonio got the start 5-0 without De’Aaron Fox, Jeremy Sochan and Kelly Olynyk in the rotation. And also without Luke Kornet in the last four games.

Joel Embiid is at the beginning of the end of his career

I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the Sixers intern’s last season.. In the last five regular series, Embiid played 196 of 334 possible games. In the current season, he has already missed two games. That’s a problem, but it’s much more important if you watch him play: he has a hard time jumping. His knee problems cause him pain, insecurity and also lack of movement in a league that has become extremely versatile.. Of course, he is a player of great quality and still manages to make up his present with interesting numbers, but There is little left of that man who managed to be MVP in 2023.

Since Paris 2024 until now, the sporting life of the Cameroonian center has been a nightmare. In a foregone conclusion we can – and must – predict this scenario.

The best reinforcement of the offseason is… Kevin Durant

The frenetic pace of the current league is difficult for him at times, but how wonderful Durant is. A talent who overcame a ruptured Achilles tendon and who remains one of the most dangerous offensive weapons in the NBA. Today, in the Rockets, he averages 27.2 points, 5.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 55% in field goals. Remarkable at 37 years old: KD is the gray hair that a young team needs to call on experience in crucial situations.

The Rockets want to go all out this year. Without Fred VanVleet, who could miss the entire season due to a torn cruciate ligament, the team navigates the uncertainty of how to replace him in the transfer. Beyond everything, Durant is the piece that completes the Ime Udoka puzzle.

Other notables in the race: Norman Powell on the Miami Heat, Jalen Green on the Phoenix Suns and, surprisingly, DeAndre Ayton on the Los Angeles Lakers.

The worst reinforcement of the offseason is… Bradley Beal

He played only three games for the Clippers and his numbers are sad: 8 points, 1 rebound, 1.5 assists and 48% shooting from the field. This man was the second leading scorer in the NBA in 2020-2021 with an average of 31.3 points? It’s unusual. He seems to have lost his powers after his fateful time with the Suns.

Back pain is starting to be frequent for Beal and, I’m very sorry, but this is the team of Kawhi Leonard and James Harden.

There are no longer traces of his fiery time through the Washington Wizards.