With a plethora of games for “second” opening night (fancy, I just finished second breakfast) it was certainly difficult to focus in on one theme or story. Anthony Edward‘s performance (45 PTS, 10 REB, 3 AST, 2 STL, 1 BLK) against the newly rebuilt Heat (basically Bam and Giannis and no one else) was ultimately the winner, not for really one reason, but scoring 45 and going 9/17 from three certainly was a primary merit achievement.
We all knew this might happen, right? There were many stories this preseason about the “bringing the joy” back by entering into the LaMelo Ball (21 PTS, 2 REB, 6 AST) business. Business of course seemed to be good last season, and what has ANT always wanted but a primary ball-handler so he can do ANT like things on offense?
And now he has it, of course with a side of Jaden McDaniels (17 PTS, 8 REB, 3 STL)… I mean it wasn’t always great, Kuminga (12 PTS) and Rudy (5 PTS, 15 REB) will have to mesh a bit better, but as I said in yesterday’s post, we are dealing with one game, let’s treat the analysis with the same amount of weight.
Here are some other wild hot takes I’ve formulated with the minimum amount of data available, i.e. one game…
Anthony Davis (34 PTS, 12 REB, 4 AST, 2 STL, 1 BLK)… good when healthy. HOTTEST OF TAKES.
Another hot take: I think Luka (28 PTS, 8 REB, 7 AST) is going to be great, and if you had forgotten, he will just generally always be in the top-3 MVP discussion if healthy. And yes, we all knew he was going to take whatever center he had and drag him kicking and screaming into 20/10 land. You could argue Ayton didn’t quite get there, but is Ayton even an NBA center anymore? Checkmate atheists. And despite’s Yaxel Lenderborg’s both correct and questionable take, the Lakers showed that they are just fine letting Luka and Walker Kessler (26 PTS, 9 REB, 12-12) do what they want and filling in the other three spots with defenders and last night, the Warriors were fine just letting that happen.
Not really a hot take, but the Lakers will be good as long as Luka is healthy, and Walker will be good as long as Luka is healthy. Easy.
Warriors looked their age, and while Draymond (2 PTS, 4 REB, 8 AST) and Steph (23 PTS) still showed flashes, but this seems much like last year’s team, just sluggish and mid. Jimmy Butler can’t get back soon enough, but by then, will it be too late?
The return of the Pacers looked clunky at times, but they pulled out a close one against the odd-ball Pelicans. The aggregation is all over the place with this team, but especially in terms of fantasy, give all these players a bit more time no matter the highs or lows. I’ve always been higher than most on this team, but the East is still largely so improved that some teams will struggle. Just something to think about.
Also, will Ty Jerome score 45 again this season? Maybe? I might not bet on it, though I’m not sure if the Utah Jazz knew they were supposed to be competing this season? Cameron Boozer struggled a bit going 2-15, but the Grizzlies have a functional team with some promise.
Keaton Wagler took the first match-up between two rookie-phenoms, scoring 15 points with 5 assists and 5 rebounds versus Darius Acuff Jr.’s 5-24 performance. And with the potential of Darius Garland being healthy and the Clippers needing high volume scoring and usage from him, I sense a stellar year just starting with last night’s 30 PTS on 11-19 shooting.
Jay is a longtime Razzball everything who consumes an egregious amount of Makers Mark as a vehicle to gain wisdom and augment his natural glow. Living in the D.C. area, he also likes spending time visiting the local parks and feeding lettuce to any turtles he encounters, including Mitch McConnell.
