The NBA season is back! We are well and truly back in the midst of all of the highlights, drama, and suspense that comes with every night of the action. As with every new year, some teams are suffering from the hangover of success, while others are hungry to prove that they are once again, forces to be reckoned with. Now a month into the season, let’s take a look at some of the key storylines that are capturing the limelight of it all.
Warriors and Cavs back in the thick of it
Is it 2016 again? One of the most fascinating storylines of the early NBA season has been the revitalization of the two powerhouses of the late 2010s. While both are sporting very different lineups than the teams that took them to so many consecutive finals appearances, both the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors seem to be championship contenders once again.
Following a disappointing 4–1 defeat in the second round of the playoffs, the Cavs came into the season with tepid expectations. Following the firing of head coach, J.B. Bickerstaff, Cleveland pivoted and hired Warriors’ Assistant Coach Kenny Atkinson to be the new man for the job. The early returns on this move have been better than they ever could have expected, with the Cavs starting off the season undefeated through the first 15 games.
A large part of the success that Cleveland has found has been through their committee approach that has seen six players averaging nine points or more, headlined by Donovan Mitchell. Additionally, the Cavs big-men, Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley have anchored one of the league’s best defenses, giving the team a deadly combination of elite play on both sides of the ball.
The Warriors have found similar unexpected success through the first part of the season, finding themselves with a 10–2 record through the first 12 games. The Warriors seem to have returned to their signature “Strength in Numbers” approach that saw them rise to a historic peak of NBA performance. With this style of play, Head Coach Steve Kerr and his team perfected the art of ball movement, building around their superstar Stephen Curry in a way that revolutionized the formula of success.
Despite losing one half of the duo that made up the “Splash Brothers,” the Warriors made a number of under-the-radar moves during the offseason that made better use of the limited cap space that they had. One of these acquisitions has been the signing of Buddy Hield, one of the premier sharpshooters in the NBA, who has been nothing short of superb. Hield has been knocking down threes at a nearly 47% rate, making him one of the best value contracts in the entire league at only $9 million a year.
Additionally, Draymond Green and Curry look to be back to their best forms, perhaps the most integral part of the Warriors’ success. Green already has a highlight reel of defensive masterclasses this season and is making a case to be the frontrunner for the Defensive Player of the Year award. After winning Clutch Player of the Year last year, Curry seems to have picked up from where he left off, absolutely scorching teams in the late moments of the game.
While it remains to be seen whether both teams can keep this performance up throughout the rest of the season, they undoubtedly need to be watched out for as dark-horse contenders to win it all.
Mayhem in Milwaukee
I think it’s safe to say that the Doc Rivers time in Milwaukee has been nothing but an unmitigated disaster. Since the firing of coach Adrian Griffin after beginning the 2023–2024 season with a 30–13 record, the Milwaukee Bucks have been on a disastrous downward descent under Rivers, managing only 22 wins from 51 games. For a team with both Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard (even though he has been on a decline), this is simply unacceptable.
A month into the season, the Bucks now sit towards the bottom of the Eastern conference with a dismal 4–9 record. While they have been competitive in some of their losses, there have been a number of defeats to teams that they simply shouldn’t be losing to. To add onto this, Antetokounmpo has been off to one of the best starts of his career, averaging an absurd 32 points and 12 rebounds a game.
One of the issues has been the middling defense, ranking 15th in the league in defensive rating, despite being a historically strong aspect of the team. The offense has been similarly below-average, ranking 18th in the league. This has combined to form what has been a disappointing all-around performance from a team that had high expectations in their second year with Lillard.
While the hopeful addition of Khris Middleton back into the lineup will help with these issues, there is still no timeline on his return, so the Bucks cannot rest all their hope on that. Milwaukee will need to get their act together sooner rather than later, otherwise they may risk missing the playoffs entirely, simultaneously placing a cloud around the situation with Giannis. As it is, trade rumours around the Greek Freak are already circulating, and it could be only a matter of time until he begins to become upset with the trajectory that the franchise is heading....
Influx of the three
One of the pervading themes of the NBA over the last decade has been the increasing importance of the three-point shot. For a long time, people believed that there was no way that teams could win with an offense that was built around three-point shooting. The Warriors dynasty crushed this idea, and, since then, we have seen a massive uptick in three-point attempts, leading to what many have labelled the “3-Point Revolution”.
This season, we have seen what looks to be a second revolution as teams continue to increase the amount of attempts to what is verging on absurd levels. At the forefront of this shift are the defending champions, the Boston Celtics, who are currently attempting 51.1 threes a game, by far the most by any team in NBA history. If these rates continue for the remainder of the season, there will be four teams that find themselves within the top eleven of most three-point attempts per game.
Ultimately, this represents an ideological shift in the NBA, and we will likely see this continue to take shape over the coming seasons. While it will be very interesting to see if teams continue along this trajectory, detractors —most notably, legend Shaquille O’Neal — have identified this as an issue that is hindering the growth of the NBA. Given this, the NBA may elect to take things into their own hands to decrease the volume of attempts, something that we will need to keep an eye out for in the future.
