NBA PM: Early-Season Surprises

While we’re only three nights into the NBA season, there have already been a number of both pleasant and unpleasant surprises that have turned a lot of people’s expectations onto their heads. While the preseason appeared to show some trends that looked promising (or not) for the upcoming regular season games, nothing is set in stone until things count for real.

Things count for real now, and already with just one or two games under every team’s belt there have been a number of surprises in the young season’s first three days:

C.J. McCollum’s Offensive Outburst

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the year so far has been C.J. McCollum’s explosion on the offensive end in the team’s opening night blowout over the New Orleans Pelicans. After scoring an unbelievable 22 points in the first quarter alone, McCollum finished with 37 points overall to go along with six rebounds in a performance that really established him as the important part of this offense many hoped he would be.

As the only real reliable scoring threat for Portland other than Damian Lillard, McCollum always was expected to be an integral part of the offense, but what’s surprising is that he was the focal point for much of the evening, even with Lillard scoring 21 points and dishing out 11 assists of his own. Remember that McCollum topped 30 points twice in five games during the Blazers’ first-round playoff exit last spring, so this could be the start of a monster year for a lottery-selected Portland guard from a small college. That story sure does sound familiar, doesn’t it?

Anthony Davis and the Pelicans Looking So Bad

Alvin Gentry was supposed to maximize the offensive talents of this New Orleans Pelicans team, but through two games, neither of which the Pelicans have won, they have looked terribly inefficient on that end of the floor. Anthony Davis is shooting 14-for-37 from the field (including 15 straight misses in the first game of the season) through his first two showings and New Orleans has lost by an average of 17 points in a couple of blowouts to Golden State and Portland. The defense has been bad (they’re allowing 111.5 PPG so far), and injuries have been problematic enough so far that Kendrick Perkins has started both games at center.

It’s an ugly start for a team that was supposed to make a big leap forward this year, but there are 80 games left for them to turn it around and Davis is talented than good enough to have plenty of better games ahead of him. He’ll only get serious MVP consideration if his team gets better with him, though.

Kobe Passing On a Game-Winner

Everybody knew that the L.A. Lakers were going to be in a weird state of limbo this year with Kobe Bryant playing out the last, expensive year of his contract before giving serious consideration to retirement, but what nobody expected was seeing Bryant complacently accept his role as an in-bounds passer on a potential game-winning play that ended with teammate Lou Williams clanging a close-range runner off the back of the rim.

There were flashes of good play from Bryant, who finished the opener shooting 8-for-24 from the field, but it was surprising that he wasn’t given the opportunity to take the final shot of the game considering his resume with such things.

D’Angelo Russell has great vision, Jordan Clarkson is developing into quite the NBA scorer and Julius Randle kicked off his first full NBA game with a double-double. The future isn’t all that bad for the rebuilding Lakers, but it’s odd to see Bryant willingly accepting a backseat while his young teammates politely ask him for his torch.

Chicago Putting Out Exactly the Same Players, but Playing So, So Differently

Through two games, it is already very clear how differently Fred Hoiberg is going to coach this team compared to Tom Thibodeau. Already it has become clear that Hoiberg is comfortable playing every active player on his team whereas Thibs would have picked his seven or eight favorites in a given year and then run them into the ground. Jimmy Butler, who led the league in minutes played last year, is still averaging 35.5 MPG, while Pau Gasol and Derrick Rose are at 31 MPG through two contests, but beyond that there’s a lot of parity down the lineup. There are 10 guys playing 15 or more minutes so far, which means there has been a lot more E’Twaun Moore, Tony Snell and Doug McDermott than we’re used to seeing.

The floor spacing has looked great, and that has provided the team with plenty of open three-pointers. Young players that were once relegated to the bench are playing with a sort of confidence we hadn’t previously seen from them, and Chicago is among the top 10 teams in terms of points per game in this young season. Based on their pace and shooting, there’s little reason to believe that won’t continue.

Odd how the roster with the least amount of overall changes could be one of the most transformed in the league. So much depends on Rose’s health, but it looks like the team is enjoying the Hoiberg Era as a breath of fresh air.

Houston Getting Drubbed by Denver

While Dwight Howard admittedly was serving a one-game suspension for flagrant fouls last year, there still isn’t anybody who would have thought the Rockets would lose to the Nuggets on opening night in such convincing fashion. This was a matchup between a team that made the Western Conference Finals last year and another team that many expect to be among the worst in the conference this year, so to have this sort of blowout the first game certainly was a shock to Rockets fans.

The biggest issue for the team is going to be figuring out how to work Ty Lawson into the mix. James Harden has had unquestioned control of the basketball during his time with the Rockets, which is a huge reason why he was a legitimate MVP candidate a year ago. Taking the ball out of his hands and letting someone else be that facilitator clearly made him uncomfortable on opening night. He’s going to work more without the ball, much like he did in Oklahoma City once upon a time, but it might take some time to adjust to that role alongside Lawson.

Howard will be back for the team’s second game, and Harden should eventually find his groove in this offense, but that was an ugly start for the team. Much uglier than anybody expected.

Detroit Offering An Interesting and Effective New Mix of Players

In the Central Division, there has been plenty of talk about the Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers and Milwaukee Bucks, while there even have been plenty of write-ups discussing how the Indiana Pacers could be a surprising playoff team this year. Left out of those conversations more often than not, however, are the Detroit Pistons, who at 2-0 actually already look a lot better than many predicted.

Andre Drummond has been a monster, scoring 18 PPG and hauling 14.5 RPG in his first two contests, all while shooting 67.5 percent from the free-throw line on 21 attempts, which is fantastic for a career-40.3-percent shooter. Reggie Jackson has been as well-rounded as advertised, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope clearly has taken a huge step forward and role guys like Marcus Morris, Stanley Johnson and Aron Baynes are proving how well they fit into this Stan Van Gundy offense.

There’s a very real possibility that Detroit is the third-best team in the Central Division, which isn’t something many people predicted heading into the year. It’s already becoming clear that they may exceed expectations.

More surprises are obviously coming, and it would be silly to overreact to just a handful of games in a handful of days, but it’s great to have real basketball worth dissecting again.