NBA

Basketball Insiders Week in Review 11/9

Jeff Hawkins Sports Editor

Updated04 Oct 2023

Fantasy: Which NBA Injuries Are Worrisome?

By Susan Bible

The 2014-15 NBA season hasn’t even reached the end of one full week and already fantasy owners are groaning over injuries.

Seasoned owners analyze the injury status of desired players prior to draft day, weighing the damage of missed games against the benefit of eventual return. Of course, some are no-brainers. Kevin Durant (foot surgery) wasn’t among the top two picks in most leagues this season, but he didn’t fall far in the first round. No return date has been provided for the reigning MVP, but he’s projected to return in December. Even Steve Nash was a gamble despite the gushing eyewitness reports all summer of his healthy return. Those who drafted Nash were sorely disappointed when he was officially ruled out for the year (back pain) just five days before the season started.

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How the 2014 Lottery Picks Fared in NBA Debuts

By Jessica Camerato

The 2014 NBA Draft was one of the most highly anticipated in years. Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker and Joel Embiid were touted as players who could have a huge long-term impact on an organization. Others looked ready to make immediate contributions.

Their names were announced as draft picks in late June. Four months later, they were introduced as NBA players. See how the 2014 lottery picks performed in their debuts:

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Extensions Not Always What They Seem

By Steve Kyler

As the season wound down last year, an NBA player posed the question to me, “What do you think the Magic will offer Tobias Harris?” The question was more about trying to gauge his own value, but it also framed the question of what is a guy that averaged 14 points and seven rebounds per game on a team that won 23 games really worth?

Just around Labor Day, the Magic reached out to Harris’ camp to start the conversation and offer up the idea of a deal in the $9 million per year range. Harris’ camp was seeking something more substantial. Those talks were cordial and ended without any sense of progress. The two sides never talked numbers or negotiated again.

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Fantasy NBA: How to Survive Injuries

By Joel Brigham

Three of the eight teams that made the Conference Semifinals in last year’s playoffs have been hit by the injury bug in a nasty way to start this new NBA season, resulting in what has been, in some cases, a pretty disappointing first week of the fantasy season.

Oklahoma City and Indiana, for example, are shells of their formers selves thanks to the loss three players with All-NBA honors on their resumes: Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Paul George. They aren’t the only frustrating injuries these teams have had, however; Oklahoma City has also been playing without Reggie Jackson, while Indiana has gone without C.J. Watson and George Hill, Washington has gone without Bradley Beal, Orlando has gone without Victor Oladipo and New York has gone without Jose Calderon.

For fantasy purposes, this is no good, since a lot of these were players that you drafted. So how do you survive while these studs get healthy? Figure out who’s going to get the minutes in their absence and try to ride them if you can.

Here are a few of the better replacement guys through the first week of the season:

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Young Believes ‘Sky’s the Limit’ for Wolves

By Alex Kennedy

After being acquired by the Minnesota Timberwolves in August’s blockbuster trade involving Kevin Love, Thaddeus Young has emerged as one of the team’s most important players this season. Not only has Young been one of the Timberwolves’ most productive players, he has also been a strong veteran leader for the team, which is crucial since the Wolves have seven players who are 24 years old or younger.

In the first two games of the season, Young averaged 22.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, three assists and 2.5 steals. He shot 54.8 percent from the field and 57.1 percent from three-point range. He also hit a clutch three-pointer with 90 seconds remaining against the Detroit Pistons, which helped Minnesota secure their first victory of the season.

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Williams Brings Valuable Experience to Raptors’ Second Unit

By Cody Taylor

The Toronto Raptors snapped a five-season playoff drought last year when they won 48 games and the Atlantic Division crown. Even though the Raptors were the only division winner in the league to notch less than 50 wins last season, the team still earned themselves lofty expectations heading into the 2014-15 season.

The league saw plenty of moves this past offseason, with many teams signing key free agents and improving through trades. Some big changes occurred in the Atlantic Division that will greatly impact Toronto. The New York Knicks hired head coach Derek Fisher to run the triangle offense and added Jose Calderon, Samuel Dalembert, Jason Smith, Shane Larkin, Quincy Acy and Cleanthony Early. The Boston Celtics acquired Marcus Smart, James Young, Evan Turner, Marcus Thornton and Tyler Zeller. The Brooklyn Nets hired Lionel Hollins and brought in Bojan Bogdanovic, Jarrett Jack, Cory Jefferson, Jerome Jordan, Sergey Karasev and Jorge Gutierrez.

With so many teams opting to make changes to their roster to remain competitive, the Raptors didn’t feel any pressure to make any drastic transactions. The biggest move of the offseason for the Raptors was re-signing Kyle Lowry to a four-year, $48 million deal. In addition to re-signing Lowry, the team also re-signed Greivis Vasquez to a two-year deal and Patrick Patterson to a three-year deal.

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NBA Rookie Of The Year Watch: Parker on top

By Jesse Blancarte

It is just week two of the NBA season, but that doesn’t mean it’s too early to look at which rookies are standing out and making an early case for the Rookie of the Year award. The 2014 draft class has been lauded as one of the deepest classes in recent memory and unlike past seasons, there are several legitimate candidates to win the award. However, not every notable rookie is part of the 2014 draft class. There are some overseas players, like Nikola Mirotic and Kostas Papanikolaou, who came over to the NBA this season, and are likely to have a big impact for their teams. In addition, Philadelphia 76ers center Nerlens Noel missed all of last season, which technically makes him a rookie this season.

With such a small sample size to analyze at this point, we will consider things like which players are showing an NBA-ready skill-set, earning significant playing time, and showing an ability to be a difference-maker for their team, in addition to per game statistics.

Here are 10 rookies that have made an early impression so far this season.

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Lakers’ Struggles a Necessity

By Yannis Koutroupis

At 0-5 the Los Angeles Lakers are off to their worst start since leaving Minneapolis, yet as each loss makes history in the wrong way, it also creates hope for the future that they actually need more than wins right now.

The Lakers have been notorious for reloading quickly rather than rebuilding, especially since the start of the Kobe Bryant era back in 1996. They missed the playoffs just once after trading away Shaquille O’Neal, the league’s most dominant presence at the time, in 2005. Two years later, they were back in the Finals thanks to the acquisition of Pau Gasol and the development of Andrew Bynum.

After missing the playoffs last year for just the fifth time since their move from Los Angeles in 1960, the Lakers had hopes of another quick reloading period this offseason by trying to lure Carmelo Anthony away from Big Apple. For years they privately planned to go after LeBron James, but knew before free agency even started that they weren’t going to be strongly considered by the league’s top player, who was choosing exclusively between the Miami HEAT and Cleveland Cavaliers – not giving other teams any type of serious consideration other than cordial meetings with his agent. They also showed interest in Chris Bosh, but Anthony was always the most obtainable target – and they almost had him. Anthony, who originally wasn’t even going to meet with the Lakers because of their state at the time, left their pitch meeting sold on his ability to succeed there. Gasol was going to re-sign if Anthony made the cross country move, but in the end the money and potential to succeed so close to his hometown with the New York Knicks was too great for Anthony to pass on.

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Travis Wear Takes Road Less Traveled to the NBA

By Tommy Beer

Quicken Loans Arena is rocking.

It’s the 2014-15 Cleveland Cavaliers home opener, which means it’s the first time the folks in Cleveland can fully embrace LeBron James’ return to the city.

The Cavs jump out to early double-digit lead and the fans inside “The Q” are going crazy, giddy with hope and excitement.

With one minute and 30 seconds remaining in the first quarter, unheralded rookie Travis Wear checks into the game to replace franchise cornerstone Carmelo Anthony.

Wear’s defensive assignment? A guy named LeBron James.

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Blame McGrady: Is Irving for Rondo Legal?

By Eric Pincus

Initially, the Cleveland Cavaliers have not taken the NBA by storm, struggling to blend the talents of LeBron James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving.

Irving, in particular, as the “point guard” is dishing just 3.8 assists a game through Cleveland’s 1-3 start, including a 34-point, zero-assist effort on Wednesday in a loss to the Utah Jazz.

That’s former NBA All-Star Tracy McGrady giving his two cents on the Cavaliers, referring to Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo.

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Frustration Building in Oklahoma City

By Lang Greene

The Oklahoma City Thunder have been one of the most successful teams in the NBA over the past few seasons, but to start the 2014-15 campaign the franchise has been besieged by a rash of injuries to key rotation members.

The Thunder have quickly descended from a title contender expected to win the majority of their games, to a team who would be happy hovering near .500 until reigning MVP Kevin Durant (foot) and All-Star Russell Westbrook (hand) return to the lineup.

Frustrations boiled over in the Thunder’s road loss to Brooklyn with veterans Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka effectively freezing out guard Reggie Jackson after the pair became unhappy with his play. Jackson was just returning from injury and was noticeably aggressive in seeking out his own shot attempts.

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NBA MVP Watch 11/7/14

By Jabari Davis

It may seem a bit early to be discussing the Most Valuable Player award and any end-of-season acknowledgement for that matter, but here at Basketball Insiders we tend to look at it as a progressive assessment throughout the season. For us, part of what makes sports – basketball in particular – so exciting are the ongoing debates and conversations about records, awards and accomplishments. Every week, we’ll be releasing our NBA MVP Watch, where we look at the top candidates for the award.

We’ve already seen several pre-season candidates for this year’s MVP award succumb to early-season injuries, which gives other players an opportunity to join the discussion. Kevin Durant’s foot should heal in time for him to play at least 65 games, but the odds are against the league’s reigning MVP finding a way to repeat the feat. The Western Conference looks like a merciless and unforgiving trek once again, so it will be interesting to see and track the impact Durant is able to make upon returning, once he works himself into game-shape and gets back into the Oklahoma City Thunder’s flow. While Durant and potentially even teammate Russell Westbrook could conceivably return in time to play themselves back into the conversation, it is nice to see a few new names within the mix to go along with some of the usual suspects.