Toronto Raptors small forward Scottie Barnes has wasted little time proving the doubters wrong. Photo: USA Today.

We’re a little under a fortnight into the 2021-22 NBA season and whilst it’s clearly too soon to make definitive statements on what we’ve witnessed so far, there are more than enough interesting trends to keep us enthralled at this early stage.

Let’s take a look at some of the more compelling storylines from the opening stages of the campaign.

Are the Knicks … legitimate?

Since the turn of the century, NBA fans have become almost hardwired to assume that the New York Knicks would be dysfunctional off the court and inept on it. For all the noise that came with last season’s fourth-seeded playoffs berth, there was the inevitable sting in the tail in the form of first-round flameout and Trae Young’s heel turn at Madison Square Garden.

The Knicks made some splashy moves in the off-season, revamping their awful starting backcourt and inking new deals for a raft of last season’s contributors. Those moves were generally seen as locking the Knicks in as a perennial playoffs team, but nothing more. Frankly, after two decades of generally depressing basketball, that was a win in and of itself. But something bigger looks to be brewing in New York.

The 4-1 Knicks currently sit atop the Eastern Conference and it looks for all the world like it’s sustainable. They’re sitting at 14th in the NBA on defence – low for a Tom Thibodeau-coached team and something that should improve – but fourth on offence.

The new backcourt of Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier have certainly helped, their shooting and playmaking poles apart from the men they replaced as indicated by the Knicks ranking fourth in the league in three-point rate (they were 24th last season).

They’ve made life so much easier for star man Julius Randle. Elfrid Payton’s lack of shooting and Reggie Bullock’s inability to create off the bounce made a simple ball screen a non-threat last year – this time around you pick your poison: double-team Randle and release a shooter, or close the jump shot and let the All-NBA forward get downhill. That in turn creates easier shots for supporting players like Mitchell Robinson and RJ Barrett.

Ah, yes: Mr Barrett. The third pick in the 2019 draft doesn’t get the same press as those selected before him (we’ll talk about one of them later), but he’s becoming every bit the player the Knicks had hoped. After expanding his offensive game last season, Barrett publicly announced that he wanted to push for All-Defensive honours this season.

Whilst that can be the sort of meaningless platitude that players spout to show they ‘take their craft seriously’, Barrett appears to be backing his words with actions. He’s always been a potentially good on-ball defender: big, strong and very much quick-twitch. He’s starting to make game-changing plays, now. He repeatedly stoned Celtics star Jayson Tatum down the stretch of their epic season opener.

Barrett’s attention away from the ball had let him down previously, though he’s noticeably improved in that area, keeping his hands high to interrupt passing lanes. His help defence is far better than it’s ever been. His improvement is perhaps the harbinger of the Knicks’ improvement so far this season.

As much as the Knicks fans are shouting, we’re still at the ‘whisper it’ stage, but nonetheless, these Knicks are really, really good.

BING BONG!

Is it time to panic in Lakerland?

Well, you can’t accuse the Los Angeles Lakers of sitting tight. After last season’s opening-round playoffs loss to Phoenix, they completely changed tack. The team jettisoned practically everybody bar their two superstars, with it losing a plethora of ‘three-and-D’ wings. In their stead they added a high-profile star in Russell Westbrook and an army of low-salaried sharpshooting role players.

The return so far has been less than ideal. The Lakers sit at 3-3 including an appalling fall-from-in-front loss to a Thunder squad that is not actively trying to win basketball games this season.

With a trio of high-wattage megastars and shooters dotted around them, the offence has been decent, however the Lakers have been a sieve at the other end of the floor. Coach Frank Vogel – a noted defensive mastermind – is predictably struggling to take some string, a piece of chewing gum and a tennis ball and ‘MacGyver’ a workable defence out of it.

Anthony Davis is a wonderful defender, but there’s not really another noted defensive player on the roster. Russell Westbrook has played, at best, inattentive defence for years; role players like Carmelo Anthony, Malik Monk, Rajon Rondo and DeAndre Jordan are pronounced negatives at that end of the court.

Perhaps most concerning, LeBron James is looking awful on defence. Whilst the soon-to-be 37-year-old isn’t the every-possession lockdown stopper of his prime, he’s still been able to step up when needed and his otherworldly reading of the play has made him an excellent off-ball defender and defensive coach on the floor.

This season, however, James’ defence away from the ball has been utterly appalling. Any player willing to make hard cuts off the ball is catching LeBron with his head turned and feet flat, allowing easy shots at the rim.

On offence, the Lakers have their issues, too. Chief among them is how to get the best out of Westbrook when he doesn’t have the ball. Encouragingly, he’s setting more ball screens than he ever has which should allow him to play off James and Davis, getting downhill where he can still be devastating despite his waning athleticism.

This writer doesn’t doubt that the Lakers will figure out their offence, but until they can ratchet up their defensive effectiveness, they’ll continue to struggle.

Scottie Barnes, proving the doubters wrong

The Toronto Raptors shocked the NBA world when they passed on a ‘sure thing’ prospect in Jalen Suggs to take wing Scottie Barnes in the recent draft. With long-time point guard and franchise legend Kyle Lowry expected to be moved on (ultimately joining Miami) and the team stocked with long-armed wings, Suggs looked the obvious selection. It’s early days, of course, but it looks that yet again Raptors main man Masai Ujiri knows more than the rest of us.

Through six games – including a win over Suggs’ Orlando Magic – the man out of Florida State is putting up 17.7 points, 8.4 rebounds, 1.5 combined steals/blocks and shooting 55 per cent from the field. Most impressive, however, is his composure on the ball.

Coach Nick Nurse is already trusting Barnes’ decision making, allowing him to initiative offence through pick-and-rolls and dribble handoffs. This is the territory of creative guards or far more accomplished wings like LeBron James, Paul George or Kevin Durant. But Barnes’ patience and intelligence have proven to be remarkably well developed for 20-year-old with a single season of college and a week of professional experience behind him.

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At six-foot-seven and 225 pounds, Barnes was touted as a smooth-moving athlete, able to glide around the court, but he’s shown that he’s more explosive in both his first step and ability to finish at the rim, which certainly helps him get into good positions with the ball.

As expected, Barnes’ defence has been very good. His size, speed and seven-foot-two wingspan make him a most versatile defender. He’s also extremely active, always looking to dig in and disrupt his man’s dribble or close a passing lane.

Barnes is the rare rookie that can challenge for All-Defensive honours. Impressively, he’s well on his way to proving himself more than just a defensive stopper. Ultimately the lesson is, as always: Trust Masai.

The more things change in Portland, the more they stay the same

After years of butting their heads against a glass ceiling, the Blazers finally decided to make a serious change in the off-season. Not so serious as to trade either of their backcourt stars for a defensive juggernaut (Hi Ben!), but serious enough to let long-time coach Terry Stotts walk (to the displeasure of superstar Damian Lillard) and bring in the unproven Chauncey Billups. They also moved on from their all-offence bench units in favour of defensive aces in Cody Zeller and Larry Nance Jr in an effort to upgrade their problematic defence.

Schematically, we’ve seen the Blazers blitz or show when defending pick-and-rolls three times as often as they did last season, per Second Spectrum. The results, however, are inconclusive.

The Blazers are mid-table in defensive rating, after consistently ranking at or near the bottom of the NBA for years under Stotts’ tutelage. On the surface, that looks a significant improvement, however the numbers are not as encouraging as they seem.

The Blazers’ increased trapping is, as expected, creating a few more turnovers but it is also leading to more open shots when that trap is broken. So far, the Blazers are benefiting from some opponent shooting luck (Saturday’s game against the Clippers saw all non-Paul George Clippers shoot just 30 per cent) and if/when that changes, combined with their opposition becoming increasingly familiar with the Blazers’ new scheme, that number could plummet.

As always, Portland simply lack the personnel to become a defensive force, no matter the scheme. Lillard and CJ McCollum offer all the resistance of a wet tissue; Jusuf Nurkic hasn’t been the same defensively since his devastating leg injury a couple of years back; Norman Powell is fine defending other guards, but is overmatched having to match-up with forwards in Portland’s three-guard line-up; Robert Covington is an excellent weak-side defender, but a help defender needs some initial resistance to allow himself to get into help positions; Nance is outstanding, but is not a team defence unto himself – he needs assistance.

As Lillard and McCollum begin to age out of their primes, the Blazers need to shake things up. Does that mean Lillard and/or McCollum will be on the market?

Ja Morant is the future. The future is here

In his third season, Ja Morant has arrived.

The ultra-athletic point guard is tied for the league lead in scoring alongside Steph Curry at 30.4 points per game with outstanding 54 field-goal/41 three-point/84 free-throw shooting percentage splits. His 7.8 assists and 1.8 steals place him just in and outside of the top 10, respectively.

The most impressive aspect of Morant’s increased efficiency is that he’s producing it against increased volume, contrary to popular convention. Morant has increased his total shots per game from 15 to over 20, his attempts beyond the arc from 3.8 to 6.4 and he’s shooting an extra free throw per contest, all exceeding his previous career-highs by a big, big margin.

Morant is still getting to the rim with greatest of ease, but it’s his deep shooting – especially off the bounce – that is most exciting. If the early-season shooting is real then there isn’t a single player on planet Earth that can stop Morant from getting to the basket.

It should be mentioned that Morant’s increased usage is partly by design, partly down to circumstance. The Grizzlies are missing Dillon Brooks due to injury and traded Jonas Valanciunas – both players averaged over 17 points last season – for the decidedly low-usage Kiwi Steven Adams in the off-season. Once Brooks returns, Morant’s shot attempts should drop to some degree.

The result is that the Grizzlies, who last season were the only NBA team to finish the season without a 20-plus point-scorer (Orlando traded Vucevic – their only player to hit that mark – at the deadline), now possess one of the most explosive offensive weapons in the world.

Why is James Harden struggling?

The Brooklyn Nets, expected to be an offensive juggernaut, are currently 27th in the NBA in offensive rating (a far cry from last season’s record-breaking numbers), sporting a somewhat underwhelming 3-3 record. Sure, they’re missing Kyrie Irving, but the idea of having a third superstar was to augment any injury-related (or, in this case, vaccine-related) absences to Irving or Kevin Durant.

So far, Durant is carrying more than his fair share of the Nets’ offensive burden. Harden, though, is struggling mightily. Before Saturday’s breakout game against the Pacers (29 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, two blocks and 16-19 from the free-throw line), Harden was averaging 16 points, seven boards, eight assists and just on a block and steal per contest. Most players would give their first born for those numbers. Harden is not most players.

The most prevalent theory for Harden’s struggles appears to revolve around the NBA’s crackdown on ‘unnatural’ fouls. Before Saturday’s explosion, Harden, who averages almost nine free-throw attempts per game, was shooting just the three. Without a doubt, Harden is struggling to adapt to the new officiating conditions – though he has been on the receiving end of some terrible no calls – but he also seems to lack his usual burst off the dribble, his jumps shots drawing front iron, his passes over or under thrown.

To that end, the man himself has said that he’s suffering from not having any sort of significant pre-season. to speak of, thanks to the hamstring injury that robbed him of half of last season and that he then reinjured in the opening game of the playoffs. Not yet having his sea legs would at least partially explain Harden’s inability to hit the deep three or get to the basket with the same ease and regularity to which we’ve become accustomed. It would clearly explain why his usually pinpoint passes are not finding their targets.

There is an elephant in the room, though: Harden’s minutes.

Over the past decade, only Lillard has played more minutes than ‘The Beard’. At age 32, with over 35,000 minutes on those legs, are we beginning to see the decline of one of the single greatest offensive players to grace the hardwood?

The next month of basketball will tell a story.

The Cavaliers 1980s tribute act is somehow working

Whilst the basketball world downsizes, looking to emphasise skill and speed at the expense of size, the Cleveland Cavaliers have gone the opposite way, choosing to start a trio of seven-footers. None are especially proficient playmakers, two of them can’t really shoot and playing big presents some obvious issues in as far as perimeter defence and ‘switchability’.

Yet, weirdly, it’s working.

The Cavaliers are using Lauri Markkanen’s shooting to create space for guards Collin Sexton and Darius Garland, who both prefer to get to the basket than spot up from deep, whilst allowing Jarrett Allen to thrive as a rim runner.

That shooting is something that natural wing Isaac Okoro can’t provide. What Okoro does give the Cavs – something that Markkanen most certainly does not – is excellent perimeter defence. Coach JB Bickerstaff has come up with a novel solution to keep Markkanen on the floor with prized rookie Evan Mobley in this supersized front court: healthy doses of zone defence.

Inspired by how the late Flip Saunders used Kevin Garnett, the Cavs are using Mobley at the point of a 3-2 zone, where his seemingly endless arms and lateral mobility create all sorts of problems at the point of attack. It’s wreaked havoc on the usually potent Hawks, Nuggets and Clippers so far, though the league will prepare counters as the season progresses. How the Cavs adjust to those counters will be fascinating.

This jumbo-sized frontcourt may not pan out in the long run, but it’s unique, it’s fun and we should enjoy it whilst it lasts.

You can also view Jarrod’s work at leading independent sports media site Vendetta Sports Media