NBA PM: 5 Teams That Could Stumble Early

5 Teams That Could Stumble Early

After a busy summer full of free agent signings and trades, meaningful basketball has returned. The 2015-16 NBA regular season kicked off last night with three games, with the rest of the league returning to action tonight.

The results of the first night of action certainly left many surprised. The Chicago Bulls knocked off LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, and even led by as many as 13 points in the contest. The Detroit Pistons scored perhaps the biggest surprise of the night by defeating the Atlanta Hawks. Finally, Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry showed no signs of slowing down this year by dropping 40 points in a win over the New Orleans Pelicans.

There will be more surprises tonight, but it’s important to note that some results shouldn’t be as shocking as others. For one reason or another, some teams could open up the regular season with a slower start than expected. Some teams are simply just banged up with various injuries, while others will need some time to adjust to new lineups.

Here are five teams that we could see stumble out of the gate (in no particular order):

Cleveland Cavaliers

Last night’s 97-95 loss to the Bulls really shouldn’t be too alarming. The Cavaliers are not at full strength right now with injuries to Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert. The starting players didn’t play a ton of minutes during the preseason, and Tristan Thompson just re-joined the team last week.

It’s important to note that the Cavaliers stumbled a bit out of the gate last season, opening the campaign with a 19-20 record through January 13. Since that date, the team finished the season by going 34-9 and would eventually secure the Eastern Conference championship. Of course, the talking heads of the media world might begin to question the team, but a similar start as last year may not be out of the question and shouldn’t be too concerning.

New Orleans Pelicans

It’s possible that no team in the league is as injured as the Pelicans are. The team was without four key players last night against the Golden State Warriors, including starters Jrue Holiday and Tyreke Evans. The team signed free agent point guard Ish Smith on Monday, and Smith turned out to be one of the team’s most productive players in the opening (contributing 17 points, nine assists and three steals in a team-high 38 minutes off of the bench).

To add insult to injury, Anthony Davis was held to 18 points on just 4-of-20 shooting from the field. The team will be counting on Davis to step up with those starters down, but if teams prove that they can keep him quiet, the Pelicans could be in trouble. The team entered the season with lofty goals of challenging for a top-six seed in the Western Conference, but just making the playoffs seems like a question mark at this point given their injuries. Head coach Alvin Gentry has cautioned that the team may not be at full strength until around January, which is an eternity in the West, where every team you face is seemingly tougher than the next.

Miami HEAT

The HEAT open up the season in much better shape than the Cavaliers and Pelicans, but they may go through some growing pains through the first several weeks. Their up-and-down 2014-15 campaign has been well-documented to this point between all of the injuries suffered and the trade that brought in Goran Dragic at the trade deadline. The team’s projected starting lineup has yet to play a regular season minute together and spent the preseason adjusting to each other on the court. The problem, however, has been that the unit didn’t get too many chances to play together with Dragic and Luol Deng missing time due to injuries this preseason.

The team is still searching for an identity and it’s clear that Dragic and Dwyane Wade will need additional time to adjust to playing with each other. It’s clear that the HEAT have one of the most talented teams on paper in the East, and it should only be a matter of time before we see them firing on all cylinders. Fortunately for them, they play an easy schedule in the early going, with 14 out of their first 19 games at home, including a seven-game homestand in November. That should help counter some of the early struggles that may come during the team’s adjustment period.

Dallas Mavericks

The Mavericks will be entering this season as a team that will be integrating new players into their lineup. Also, they’ve had their fair share of injuries up to this point, and it’s still unclear who will be available to play tonight against the Phoenix Suns. Deron Williams, Wesley Matthews, Zaza Pachulia, John Jenkins and Jeremy Evans are all new to the team this year and will be adjusting to a new system under head coach Rick Carlisle. Of that group, Williams and Matthews have missed most of the preseason due to injuries and starter Chandler Parsons missed the entire preseason recovering from a knee injury.

The Mavs lost all seven preseason games they played, as Carlisle tinkered with different lineups to get a feel for his new team. Because we haven’t seen much, it’s hard to gauge Dallas. The status of Williams, Matthews and Parsons is still up in the air, and the team could be forced to rely on other players in the meantime. Once those players finally return, they’ll likely still be easing back into the pace of the game and may not be at 100 percent for quite some time. Matthews is coming off of an Achilles injury, and players have had mixed performances following such a brutal injury like that one. Like the Pelicans, the Mavericks are tasked with playing against Western Conference teams night in and night out, so the start of the season could be tough until they can get healthy.

Indiana Pacers

The Pacers could be a team to keep an eye out in the early going this season. The team is hoping to return back to the playoffs this season with a healthy Paul George available. It seems there will be some interesting scenarios to watch unfold during the course of the first few weeks. The team will be rolling out a new, up-tempo offense after moving on from Roy Hibbert and David West. This offense has seen George play the four-spot at times to stay small and run more. With an offense poised to score more points, how will they hold up defensively? Hibbert was arguably their best defensive player and he’s now gone from the team. The team isn’t exactly stacked with defensive-minded players, so it will likely have to be a collective effort to remain respectable defensively.

The team will be relying more on rookie players this season than they have in the past, which is always a gamble with younger players adjusting to the NBA. Head coach Frank Vogel said that Myles Turner will see some minutes, and the team also has rookie point guard Joe Young. He’s been projected as a steal in the draft. These questions will be worth looking at during the first few weeks of the season. The team also will face a tough opening schedule with matchups against the Raptors, Grizzlies, Jazz, Pistons, Celtics, HEAT and Cavaliers in their first seven games of the season.

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For one reason or another, these could be teams that begin the 2015-16 season slowly. Some teams have been hampered by injuries, while other teams will be adjusting to playing in new styles. While it’s easy to see where these teams could struggle, they could also push past the injuries and actually play to their full potential. Only time will tell.