By Jacob Durst & Nathan Janick
No team has played more than five games. You know what that means? TIME TO PANIC ABOUT EVERYTHING! Don’t worry, your weekly NBA columnists will not be ESPN and freak out before things have time to settle in. However, we will steal a cheap gimmick from ESPN and play buy or sell.
Things we are buying: Trevor Ariza, Small Forward,
Houston Rockets:
Jacob Durst: Time for my weekly Rockets plug. Who leads the league in made three-point attempts? That’s right, Trevor Ariza. Not only has he been scorching hot from deep to start the season, shooting 60 percent from three overall, he has also really solidified the Rockets perimeter defense. He’s looking like a better player than Chandler Parsons early on, and he’s costing the Rockets $7 million less a year.
Nathan Janick: I will buy that he solidifies the Rockets perimeter defense that desperately needed some help. However, Klay Thompson has a better chance of maintaining his lead as the league’s leading scorer throughout the season than Ariza does of finishing the season shooting higher than 50 percent from three.
Anthony Davis, Power Forward, New Orleans Pelicans:
NJ: (Editors note: This is probably the first of many times Nathan and Jacob will remind you that they predicted something right in their preview. Direct all complaints about wrong predictions to zachary.j.hudak@emory.edu).
We totally called this, Jake. MVP chants have been shouted, and they have only played four games. For the stat nerds, his player efficiency rating (PER) is 33.8. Durant’s PER last year was under 30, and he won the MVP. Yes we are only four games in, but Anthony is BALLING.
JD: All hail the Brow. He is my favorite for MVP through four games. If the season ended today, he would win MVP. I know it is early (really, really, really, really, really, early), but that means something. His play this season has almost made up for the unibrow.
Things we are selling:
Klay Thompson, Shooting Guard, Golden State Warriors:
JD: Will he make an impact throughout the season? Yes. Will it be to the tune of 30 points per game on 54 percent shooting? No. A lot more realistic expectation is a solid but not great line of 18 PPG on about 45 percent shooting. No matter what people think, I am not buying him as an all-star caliber player.
NJ: I disagree. If you call James Harden a point guard, Klay Thompson is the best two-guard in the league. He is 100 percent an all-star caliber player. If your’e thinking to yourself that Kobe is better than Klay, you can just put down the newspaper right now. Kobe’s usage rate (sorry to get nerdy) is at 36 percent right now, the league’s average is 20 percent, which is higher than it was when he played a season of hero ball scoring 35 points per game. Whenever you have a 36 year old literally doing everything on offense, that does not bode well for your team. I am selling Kobe not Klay Thompson.
The idea of the Knicks and Nets contending for a title this year:
NJ: An unnamed source told me that he thinks that the Knicks will contend for the Eastern Conference title this year. Durst, I will just let you answer this one. (This is the writer equivalent of giving somebody a penalty shot in soccer and then taking out the goalie). Have fun, J.
JD: Hahahahahahahahahahaha. Hahahahahaha. (Catches breath). Hahahahahahahahahahahaa. That just made my day. You should do stand up. Somebody will be better than them. At least I hope for the sake of professional basketball everywhere. (Editors note: Despite journalist standards they really do not need evidence to prove this point).
Do not panic yet:
The Cleveland Cavaliers NJ:
PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC PANIC. Just kidding. I predicted in our NBA preview that the Cavs would struggle at the beginning of the season and they have done just that. The loss to the Jazz on a buzzer beater last night was rough, but I still think 40 games from now this team will be a top five team in the league.
JD: I agreed with you in our preview, but I did not think it would be this bad. I am not sure if they are a championship caliber team, mostly because I do not think they will play defense. Only three championship teams since the merger have ranked outside the top 10 in defensive efficiency, and the Cavs will not sniff that. But maybe they will prove history and me wrong, though.
Pour one out for:
The Oklahoma City Thunder:
NJ: The injury bug is spreading through this team like the flu in a freshman dorm. This team might actually not make the playoffs. We barely got to see Westbrook fully unleashed before he got hurt and now he will be out until December. This is just depressing. Durst, help.
JD: I would be crying as an OKC fan. They might legitimately miss the playoffs now. With Durant and Westbrook out until mid-December, the Thunder are a .300 team. So that is a record of 6-14, for the 20 games at least that they will both miss. This would mean they would be at 7-18 for the season, needing about around 48 wins to make the playoffs. That is a record 41-16 for the rest of the season, for even a chance at making the playoffs. It does not look good for them right now.
NJ: At gunpoint, this team still has a better shot of winning the title than the Nets.
— By Jacob Durst & Nathan Janick
