First Quarter Grades: Atlantic Division

With the first leg of the 2017-18 NBA season coming to an end, teams throughout the league are beginning to legitimize their claims within the standing hierarchy.

As previously done with the Central Division, our Basketball Insiders team is delivering a team-by-team breakdown of the Association’s squads after the first quarter of this new season.

Next up on the list, the Atlantic Division.

Brooklyn Nets 9-14

Coming into this season, the Brooklyn Nets were pegged as one of the league’s worst teams. A roster depleted of talent, and with relatively minimal building blocks for the future, the Nets’ outlook for this season and those to come was regarded as unfortunately bleak.

Bright Spot: The Nets aren’t THAT bad.

Of course, they’re not going to be vying for postseason supremacy anytime soon, but Brooklyn has put together a relatively decent first stretch of the year. Through 23 games, the Nets rank fifth in the league in points per game. All things considered, Brooklyn has been getting good production from its players under Kenny Atkinson. The Nets have eight players who average double-figures in scoring, and their culture of pace-and-space is reflected by operating with the third fastest pace in the NBA.

Areas to Improve: Naturally, that’s combated immediately by allowing the second most points per game of any team. While some of this is a result of the lack of personnel being in-house, the Nets still need to enhance their effort moving forward. Playing fast and with space is the trend the league is moving in for the last few years now. If Brooklyn wants to make the shift as well, they need to on both sides of the ball.

When it’s all said and done, the Nets will wind up in league’s basement yet again this season. But through the first quarter of this NBA year, they’ve been a decent surprise to expectations.

First Quarter Grade: C

New York Knicks 11-12

After trading Carmelo Anthony for the likes of Enes Kanter and Doug McDermott, overhauling the front office and ridding themselves of all offenses and terminology directly related to particular shapes, the New York Knicks looked in store for a rough season.

However, even more so than their contemporary in the neighboring borough, the Knicks have exceeded expectations in the early goings of this season.

The absence of Anthony has allowed Kristaps Porzingis to begin his blossom into an elite franchise player. The Latvian Unicorn is currently averaging 25.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.1 blocks per game, all while shooting 39.8 percent from downtown. He’s been nothing short of incredible.

Bright Spot: Tim Hardaway Jr., who signed a massive contract in the offseason, is beginning to live up to his paycheck and is looking the part of a decent second-fiddle behind Porzingis. Rookie point guard Frank Ntilikina has shown flashes that warranted his top-10 selection, and Jeff Hornacek is coaching with a bit more room to breathe now that he’s not being forced to shove a round peg into a triangle hole, if you will.

Areas to Improve: Boasting a record just below .500, and being in seven games decided by seven points or less, the Knicks need to do a better job at getting an opportunity at free points. While New York ranks near the top of the league in free throw percentage as a team, their attempts rank just 25th. In order to swing a few of those close games in their favor, the Knicks would benefit from attacking the basket in hopes of getting to the line.

Time will tell where the Knicks end up as the season goes along, but the early returns on this new era in New York basketball history have some promising signs of life to it.

First Quarter Grade: B

Philadelphia 76ers 13-10

When word finally broke that Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons were healthy and set to play on the court together at the same time, excitement, intrigue, skepticism, and expectations all flooded the collective well for the Philadelphia 76ers.

In short, the two young Sixers’ stars have been brilliant this season. Simmons is in the midst of a historic rookie season, while Embiid is building off of his 31-game double-redshirt rookie year.

Bright Spot: When Simmons and Embiid are clicking, even with minimal time spent together, the Sixers are already hard to beat. Holding wins over teams like the Portland Trail Blazers, Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz, and Washington Wizards, the Sixers are going right at teams this season that they would’ve been blown out by in years past.

Areas to Improve: Naturally, there are still bumps in the road, like dropping games to sub-.500 teams like the Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns. But of the other five teams with losing records, Philadelphia has played, they’ve come out victorious, showing early signs that they’re capable of keeping composure and beating the teams they’re supposed to beat. It’s an odd situation to be in, considering the Sixers haven’t been supposed to beat anybody for the better part of a half-decade now.

In a situation that is relatively the polar opposite of the Knicks’ problem at the foul line, the Sixers just can’t seem to hit their shots when they get there. Philadelphia ranks 28th in the league in free throw percentage. Along with their struggles at the line, the Sixers need to do a better job at taking care of the ball and committing fewer penalties, areas where the Sixers are ranked 27th and 29th, respectively.

The Sixers have shown flashes from their core that warrants the hype and excitement, but if they truly want to make the next leap, they need to clean up on the little things that separate the good teams, from the great teams.

After making it out of the first quarter, and the roughest stretch of their schedule, three games over .500, brighter days look to be ahead for this budding Sixers team.

First Quarter Grade: B+

Toronto Raptors 15-7

A pillar of consistency in the Eastern Conference, the Toronto Raptors are on track to make a fifth consecutive postseason appearance.

After the last four years of being unable to breakthrough in the East, thanks in large part to that roadblock in Cleveland, the Raptors regrouped and retooled for this season.

Bright Spot: In the first leg of the year, Toronto is sporting a top-five offense and a top-10 defense. DeMar DeRozan is playing MVP-caliber basketball, and his supporting cast is doing their best to keep up and fill in the holes. Kyle Lowry isn’t scoring at the volume that he or his fans may be accustomed to so far this season, and given the Raptors’ success despite that, once Lowry turns on the jets Toronto could be poised to take their game to a whole new level.

Areas to Improve: Despite sporting a new level of efficiency and effectiveness on both sides of the ball, there is still room for improvement in Toronto. In a basketball world where long jump shots are held at a premium, rebounding those shots becomes all the more important. Whether it be on the defensive end to kill an opponent’s possession, or the offensive end to extend a possession of their own, grabbing boards is basketball’s equivalent to battling it out in the trenches. For the Raptors, so far this season, they haven’t won too many of those battles. Ranking 26th in defensive rebounding and 27th in the offensive and overall categories, Toronto needs to see some serious improvement on the boards if they want to continuously win close games as the season moves on.

While there still is a roadblock in Cleveland, and what appears to be one in Toronto’s own division as well, the Raptors look like they’ve added a new twist to their constant success and good be more than just an afterthought this postseason.

First Quarter Grade: A

Boston Celtics 21-4

The Boston Celtics had one of the best offseasons in the NBA. They poached Kyrie Irving from their nemesis Cleveland Cavaliers, and signed Gordon Hayward to reunite him with his college head coach, Brad Stevens.

Moves were made to put Boston in position to finally knock off LeBron James and make their way back to the NBA Finals.

Then six minutes into the season, Gordon Hayward broke his leg; gone for the year.

No matter though, all Irving and Co. did was regroup to have the best start in the league. Twenty-one wins and a 16-game winning streak to boot later, and the Celtics are one of the league’s premier teams this season without their second best player.

Bright Spot: Irving is climbing his way up the MVP leaderboards and continuing unconscious play in crunch time. Stevens is navigating one of the NBA’s most stout defenses. Young studs Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are coming into their own, and then some, and the Celtics are clicking on all cylinders after many wrote them off the night Hayward went down.

Areas to Improve: The Celtics have been dominating on all facets of the basketball court, so pointing out anything they should improve on would more or less be nitpicking at this point. That being said, Boston does just rank 17th in the NBA when it comes to points per game, and their pace ranking is 23rd. Their style is to slow you don’t and drag you into a rock fight, and until now it’s been working just fine. But with potential high-powered offenses as their opponents down the line, the Celtics could benefit from trying to run their scores up as much as possible moving forward.

It’s impossible to say for sure, considering there are so many games left to be played, but this time around the Cleveland Cavaliers-Boston Celtics Eastern Conference Finals matchup will have more in store for NBA fans than a big bag of storylines.

The way the Celtics look right now, they may even be able to beat the Cavs.

First Quarter Grade: A+