Cade Cunningham and the Pistons are 1-1 against Payton Pritchard's Celtics but sit atop the Eastern Conference standings.
Cade Cunningham and the Pistons are 1-1 against Payton Pritchard's Celtics but sit atop the Eastern Conference standings.Erin Clark/Globe Staff
As we approach a quarter of the way through the NBA season, we have been presented with surprises, injuries, disappointments, brilliant performances, and impressive winning streaks.
The Pistons tied a franchise record with 13 straight wins to take early control of the Eastern Conference. The Thunder have navigated the start of their title defense without a glitch, 18-1 despite still being without All-Star Jalen Williams, who returns from wrist surgery this weekend.
On the flip side, the Pacers won’t be defending their East crown, losing 16 of their first 18 games as they approach Tanksville. The Pelicans were the first team to fire their coach and tanking won’t help anybody besides the Hawks, who have the Pelicans’ first-round pick.
While the Thunder remain the prohibitive favorites to win the West, the East is suddenly super competitive with Toronto, Miami, Cleveland, New York, and even Atlanta and Orlando having a shot. Let’s look at the top five surprises and disappointments of the first six weeks of the season.
Surprises
Suns: Trading Kevin Durant to the Rockets and waiving Bradley Beal has been addition by subtraction, relieving the Suns of bloated championship expectations and helping them just play hard under new coach Jordan Ott. The Suns are tied for fourth in the NBA in 3-point percentage, Dillon Brooks having emerged as the No. 2 scorer behind mainstay Devin Booker. The acquisition of Mark Williams has given Phoenix a rebounder and rim protector, while Collin Gillespie has emerged as a capable reserve. The Suns are off to a 12-7 start with Jalen Green, their prized acquisition in the Durant deal, playing just two games because of a hamstring injury. Phoenix was expected to be a lottery team, but had no incentive to tank because its next two first-round picks are gone because of the Beal and Durant deals, respectively.
Raptors: After a nearly five-year rebuild, they finally have enough pieces to claim a top four seed in the East. Scottie Barnes has been the nucleus of the franchise, but has been joined by RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, and leading scorer Brandon Ingram, who for years has been expected to emerge as a frontline scorer but had been plagued by injuries and inconsistency. Throw in ultra-productive center Jakob Poeltl and a deep bench, and the Raptors have as good of a chance at coming out of the conference as any of their competitors. Under the radar since winning their title in 2019, after giving up Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby for draft picks and prospects, the tank process is over.
Heat: They didn’t chase that major free agent over the summer, instead allowing the roster to develop chemistry along with changing their offense for a more fast-paced style. The result has been the NBA’s second-ranked scoring offense and the development of center Kel’el Ware, who has turned into an impactful defender and lob threat. Tyler Herro is just returning from ankle surgery, so his impact on winning could be major, while Bam Adebayo has been his reliable self and the addition of Norman Powell has provided another quality scorer. For the first time in years, Miami isn’t waiting to pounce on some disgruntled superstar looking for better weather. It is winning with homegrown prospects.
Ryan Rollins: The Bucks point guard bounced around the league and had some off-court issues, but finally landed in a place that needed a floor leader. Rollins has provided the skill set the Bucks needed when they decided to part ways with former All-Star Damian Lillard. He’s the leading candidate for Most Improved Player, averaging 18.6 points in his first prominent NBA role. Rollins was drafted by the Hawks in 2022 out of Toledo, traded to the Warriors, traded to the Wizards in the Jordan Poole-Chris Paul deal, waived, then signed by the Bucks where he is a bargain at $4 million per season. Rollins, who played just 22 NBA games before landing in Milwaukee, is a potential cornerstone.
Austin Reaves: The undrafted guard out of Oklahoma in 2021 is 13th in scoring at 27.9 points/game, reaching the free-throw line nearly 10 times per game. Reaves’s rise from a complement for LeBron James to one of the main cogs with James and Luka Doncic has been stunning. Not only do teams have to deal with Doncic, who is leading the NBA in scoring, but Reaves is shooting nearly 50 percent from the field as the Lakers emerge as a legitimate NBA Finals contender. The Lakers refrained from trading Reaves in recent years; their patience with his development has paid off handsomely, as he is a Most Improved and darkhorse All-NBA candidate.
Disappointments
Ja Morant: We’ve seen the artistry on the floor, the athleticism, the midair spin for layups, the swag, and the flashy assists, but those moments are fleeting. Morant can’t stay healthy and the Grizzlies continue to sink, their window as a Western Conference competitor now a mere delusion. Morant is making more headlines for trash talk to Klay Thompson while he’s injured or clashes with coach Tuomas Iisalo than performance on the floor. It’s a precipitous drop for a player once considered one of the league’s great rising stars. In 12 games this season, Morant is averaging 17.9 points, his lowest since his rookie season in 2019-20, and has missed 50 of 60 3-point attempts.
Clippers: They entered the summer with great optimism. Kawhi Leonard was completely healthy and general manager Lawrence Frank decided to take the risk of acquiring Beal and John Collins for the productive Powell. Just a few weeks into the season, the Clippers are in serious trouble. Leonard has been mostly injured. Beal is out for the season after six games. Collins has proven to be a poor fit while Powell is flourishing in Miami. (Frank essentially made the move because he didn’t believe Powell and Leonard could play well together.) Oh, and there’s no incentive to tank because their first-round pick goes to the … defending champion Thunder, the final payment from that disastrous Paul George trade six years ago. So how’s your ball team doing?
Mavericks: All general manager Nico Harrison wanted in Dallas was a full season with a healthy Anthony Davis along with No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg, but Davis is again sidelined, the team is terrible, and Harrison was fired because the fanbase was never going to forgive him for abruptly trading Doncic for Davis, a role player, and one first-round pick. Davis could be moved by the deadline to a contender seeking frontcourt help, while the organization wants to make Flagg’s transition to the NBA as smooth as possible and build a young core around his skill set. Until then, it will be tough times in Big D.
Kings: A team that has DeMar DeRozan, Domantas Sabonis, and Zach LaVine shouldn’t be 5-14, but that’s the story of the Kings. Coach Doug Christie, in his first full season, was supposed to inject enthusiasm and passion into a perpetual underachiever, but all he has been good for is fiery postgame rants after losses. Sabonis is injured and could be on the trade block as new general manager Scott Perry determines whether a total rebuild is required. (Hint: it is.) The Kings won’t win with their current crew, but they’ll score a lot of points on some nights. Their passionate fans deserve better.
Injuries, overall: As much as the NBA has stretched out the schedule — no more four games in five nights, added offdays to the All-Star break, shortened preseason and training camp — injuries remain one of its biggest nemeses. It’s likely Victor Wembanyama, Giannis Antetokounmpo, James, and Herro (among others) won’t be eligible for postseason awards because of games-played minimums, and a rash of soft-tissue injuries such as calf strains has shut down top players. There isn’t much the league can do to solve the injury issues while teams continue to play it cautiously and exercise load management.
Michael Porter Jr. (left) scored a game-high 33 points on Nov. 21 when the Nets beat the Celtics at TD Garden.
Michael Porter Jr. (left) scored a game-high 33 points on Nov. 21 when the Nets beat the Celtics at TD Garden.Barry Chin/Globe Staff
TANKING RIGHT
Nets losing, but they’re no losers
Jordi Fernandez is the latest Brooklyn coach to be assigned the unenviable responsibility of trying to create a winning culture with a team of essentially teenagers. The Nets selected five players in the first round of the 2025 draft and have six players ages 21 or under. They are essentially less concerned with winning and more concerned with development, making losing a constant occurrence.
The detractor from tanking is there risk of young players getting used to losing, thus preventing a winning culture. There have been plenty of franchise rebuilds that failed because the younger players never really got tired of losing, especially when the paychecks were clearing regularly. Fernandez is determined to prevent that mentality.
“It’s something that you have to live day to day. It’s not something you just say and that’s it,” he said of changing the culture. “Going back to the beginning of our season, we played some of our games where we felt like our competitiveness was not there. I can talk about ball pressure, full-court pickups, deflections, paint touches, everything we track based on what our staples and basis are, and it was not there in the last four games. We’re 1-3 … the record is what it is, but all those numbers are way better and our guys feel like we’re getting better as a group, but each player is getting better as well.
“Making sure we have a purpose on how we do things is important.”
Fernandez, the former Kings assistant and Team Canada coach, appeared to be the right man for the rebuild. The Nets are getting better. The younger players are taking steps forward. Brooklyn plays hard, is improving, and appears to be enjoying the journey.
“There’s a difference between losing and being a loser,” Fernandez said. “Losing is just not getting the outcome that you want. And being a loser is when you lose, they don’t care, or when you’re not willing to do whatever it takes to be successful. And guess what? Sometimes you’ll do whatever it takes and in the NBA, there’s very good teams and there’s teams that can have a really good night and you can still lose, but if you can do it over, over, and over, you’re going to get better.
“I think that our group now has embraced that. The challenge is to do it again, again, and again, which is really hard. When the outcome is not what you want, it can be a little deflating, but so far right now our wins have given us energy to go back to work and watch film and do all those things. I give our guys a lot of credit, but there’s a positive environment, and I have to be the first one to embrace that. I know it’s not easy and it’s easier said than done, but we believe that it’s the way we want to build this.”
Jaylen Brown and the Celtics ended the Pistons' 13-game winning streak.
Jaylen Brown and the Celtics ended the Pistons' 13-game winning streak.Erin Clark/Globe Staff
MOTORING AGAIN
The Pistons have arrived
While the Pistons’ 13-game winning streak ended Wednesday in Boston, their journey to respectability is complete. Detroit is a bona fide contender, led by the savvy and surgical Cade Cunningham along with strongman Jalen Duren. The team scored big in free agency with Tobias Harris and Duncan Robinson, while first-rounders Isaiah Stewart, Ron Holland, and Ausar Thompson have proven to be a productive foundation.
Harris, a well-traveled veteran, has blended nicely into the ascension.
“I’m extremely impressed,” he said. “These are goals that we set up as a group on day one. We hold ourselves to a very high standard. So obviously, in this locker room we understand that we control our destiny as a group. We understand that a night where our focus to the details that have enabled us to be in this position were off, and we were just a second slow on too many plays [against Boston]. When a game comes down to 1, 2, or 3 points like tonight, where all of those many plays throughout the whole entire course of the game, they add up. So we know our standard, and we know how good we need to be, and locked in that we need to be to win games.”
Cunningham has turned into the unquestionable leader and face of the franchise.
”We’ve been playing good basketball. Defense has been at a high level, connected. I think everything we wanted to do coming into this season, we’ve been doing,“ he said after Wednesday’s loss. ”So it’s just a bump in the road. It’s a loss, but that’s part of the NBA season, so we aren’t going to hang our heads. We are going to stay with it and get back to the crib.”
New Jersey Nets' Aaron Williams gets off a shot against Rodney Rogers (54) of the Boston Celtics, while Walter McCarty looks on during first half action in game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, Wednesday May 29, 2002 in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Rodney Rogers was a midseason acquisition in February 2002, joining a Celtics team that lost the Eastern Conference finals to the New Jersey Nets.MARK LENNIHAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Layups
Farewell and blessings to former Celtic Rodney Rogers, who died Nov. 21 at 54. The former Sixth Man of the Year spent the final 17 years of his life as a paraplegic after a 2008 ATV accident in his native North Carolina. In his prime, Rogers used his hulking body to not only create space in the paint, but he had a feathery touch from the 3-point line. The NBA was more regimented in Rogers’s days, meaning power forwards weren’t supposed to be living at the 3-point line. In today’s game, Rogers would have been a floor-stretching asset with the ability to score at the rim with his size and athleticism. Rogers played 43 games with the Celtics in 2001-02, including the team’s run to the Eastern Conference finals … It’s been a difficult month for NBA alumni with the popular and troubled Michael Ray Richardson passing away at 70. Richardson was a flamboyant point guard who could shoot the jumper, score at the rim, and defend with the league’s best. He always relished playing the Celtics, especially against Danny Ainge, often telling anyone who would listen he was going to punish Ainge before Celtics-Knicks or Celtics-Nets matchups. Richardson was suspended from the NBA in 1986 for repeatedly violating the league’s substance policy, but was able to resurrect first his career (overseas), then his life, becoming a spokesman for player mental health and avoiding the pitfalls of NBA life … Former Celtic Chauncey Billups pleaded not guilty in New York to charges of participating in fraudulent poker games that swindled players out of millions of dollars. Billups, the Trail Blazers’ coach, was released on $5 million bail; he’s due back in court March 4. Billups is unlikely to coach in the NBA again even if he is found not guilty. Portland has moved on under acting head coach Tiago Splitter and has played reasonably well, routing the Bucks on Monday in Damian Lillard’s return to Milwaukee. Lillard, recovering from a torn Achilles, is not expected back this season, but did travel and shared laughs with his former teammates. The Bucks abruptly waived Lillard last summer to create salary cap space to sign Indiana center Myles Turner. Billups is one of 31 defendants in the poker case, with the trial expected to start next September.
Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.