First-Quarter Report

Well, I was planning on writing a weekly wrap-up each weekend this season, but I’ve been alternately busy and lazy, so I haven’t gotten around to it till now. As such, this first installment of the Weekly Report will, in fact, be a look at what we’ve learned over the first quarter of the season. Teams have played between 17-21 games, so we know enough now to make some really concrete statements about where everyone stands.

- If your pick right now for the title favorite isn’t Boston, LA or Cleveland, you’re out of your mind. Those teams are playing at such an insanely high level right now that they’re head and shoulders above the rest of the league. What are these teams doing so well? Well, I’m glad you asked.

Boston – Basically, they’re doing exactly the same things they did last year. No team defends collectively as a unit as well as Boston does, and they again lead the league in defensive efficiency by a decent margin. They’re holding opponents eFG% under 45% right now, which is just absurd, and they’re top ten in both defensive rebounding and forcing turnovers as well. Offensively, they’re top ten right now, and the scary part is that they should be getting better. KG had a terrible start to the year offensively, and is just now starting to round back into form. Pierce’s numbers have also been down, as have those of support players Leon Powe and Kendrick Perkins. Really, it’s amazing that they’ve faired so well offensively, given how those guys have struggled. They’ve basically been carried by the rejuvenated Ray Allen and a breakthrough season so far by Rajon Rondo, who finally decided that since he can’t shoot, he should probably just try to get to the rim as much as possible.

LA – Would you believe me if I told you they were doing it with defense? Well, you probably would, since I’m only the 400,000th writer to point it out. While Kobe is always going to draw most of the attention, the truth is that the Lakers’ dominance has been largely due to the dominance of their big men. The combination of Bynum, Gasol and Ariza has been the league’s best frontcourt so far, and they’re dominating on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor. Bynum’s rebounding and shot-blocking on the backline has transformed their defense, and few teams can match the size and skill of the two seven-footers on offense. With the Lakers currently sitting at 2nd in the league defensively and 2nd offensively, there’s not a deeper, more balanced squad out there.

Cleveland – If you’d told me that through 19 games, Cleveland would be leading the league in either offensive or defensive rating and asked me to guess which, I certainly wouldn’t have said offensive. And yet the Cavs hold a significant lead over second-place LA for the distinction of best offensive team in the league. I mean, this is a team that ranked 20th in the league offensively last year. 20th! The team had a lot of lineup changes last year, but with the midseason acquisitions now more comfortable with the system, the Cavs are thriving. Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiack and offseason addition Mo Williams are all having strong seasons, and have made it that much harder for defenses to key in on LeBron. Also, speaking of that LeBron guy, he’s pretty good (more on that later).

- This year boasts one of the most impressive rookie classes in recent memory. We knew coming in that this was a strong draft class, but who could’ve expected that this many first-year guys would be making significant contributions this early? Lottery picks Derrick Rose, Greg Oden, O.J. Mayo, Kevin Love, Jason Thompson, Brook Lopez, Michael Beasley and D.J. Augustin are all making significant contributions, and even more surprisingly, a glut of later picks have made an impact. Unexpectedly strong play from George Hill, Marreese Speights, Rudy Fernandez, Marc Gasol, JaVale McGee, Ryan Anderson, Nicolas Batum, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Mario Chalmers and Robin Lopez has earned them significant minutes early on, and they’ve made the best of it. Anyway you slice it, that’s a staggeringly deep class, and there look to be some legitimate stars in the group.

- There’s been a surprising amount of early-season trading going on. The AI-Chauncey trade is looking like a brilliant one for Denver, though I doubt they’ll still feel that way when an aging Billups is still on the roster in two years and they still haven’t gotten out of the first round. The Harrington-Crawford trade I could care less about, since neither of those teams is going anywhere, but I am impressed that New York actually managed to drop Zach off on somebody. In fact, the Clippers are starting to become the new Knicks, making bad free agent signings and taking everyone else’s problems off their hands.

- Teams that are better than their current record.

Indiana – They’ve played an absolutely brutal schedule, their starting center missed 4 games and they’re still missing Mike Dunleavey. Honeslty, check their schedule, it’s been ridiculously tough. Watch out for them, they’re only going to get better from here on out.

San Antonio – They played most of the first 20 without Parker and Ginobili, and were able to pull out a 10-8 record anyway. With those two back and rounding into shape, the team will be all the more dangerous because of the playing time guys like Hill and Roger Mason got these last few weeks.

Portland – Yes, the surprising young Blazers with the second-best record in the west may well be BETTER than their record shows. Not only were they missing Greg Oden for the first 7 games (and despite what people say about him, Oden has been very productive in limited minutes so far), but they’ve also had a brutal home/road split, playing 6 more road games than home games. With a young core that should continue to improve, the Blazers may be better than you think.

- Teams that are worse than their records

Detroit – So, the Allen Iverson experiment, it’s not working out so well. There’s still the chance that they improve when the both team and AI adjust to each other, but they’ve certainly taken a step back from the dominance of previous years. Despite their 11-7 record, they have a meager +.8 point differential (-1.6 since Iverson’s arrival) and 5 of their losses have been by double-digits. That doesn’t bode well for the rest of the season.

New York – You can believe that Chris Duhon is going to continue playing like Steve Nash-lite and that the Knicks are going to hover around playoff contention in the east all year. Or you can realize that the teams they’ve beaten have averaged less than 6 wins, and that they’ve jettisoned two starters in trades. I’m thinking they’re probably gonna get significantly worse.

Phoenix – Oh how the mighty have fallen. The league’s marquee offensive team for years, the Suns are now in danger of falling out of the top ten in that category, and they’ve gotten worse, not better, defensively since Mike D’Antoni left. Their 11-9 record conceals a negative point differential, and they’ve lost their last four games by double-digits.

- LeBron James is the MVP right now. I don’t want to hear about Kobe, Wade, Howard or Paul. LeBron has been the best player in the world this year and it isn’t even remotely close. LeBron is second in the league in usage rate behind Dwayne Wade, and a staggering tenth in the league in offensive efficiency. Think about that. He takes on more of an offensive load than almost anyone in the league, and he’s one of the ten most efficient players in the game. On top of that, he’s transformed himself into an impact defender and keeps getting better as a rebounder. I know it’s heresy to bring up Jordan’s name in comparison with anyone, but he’s the only reasonable comparison for what LeBron is doing right now. I realize that it’s more fun to have an MVP debate, but it’s time we started appreciating just how historically good LeBron is.

xphoenix87 is a contributing writer for BallerBlogger.com. x is a college student who dreams of one day writing about sports for a living. Since that’s not gonna happen, he’ll do this instead.