What We Learned

What We Learned

After three weeks of an NBA season you can’t really determine a lot. There might be some teams who start off hot, have an above .500 record for a few months, then fade and you never hear from then again. Players start off hot and fade. A lot can happen in an 82-game season, but after three weeks, here’s what we know.

The Warriors are who we thought they were. Golden State is as hot as a team can get to start the season, and Stephen Curry is as hot as a shooter can get to start a season. The reigning MVP is shooting 53% from the field, 47% from 3-point range, and 90% from the foul line. All in all he’s average 32 points, 5 assists, and 5 rebounds per game. The Warriors as a team are 8-0 and putting up a league-best 114 points per game. I’m not sure they have a weakness at this point, but it’s still just 8 games into the season. Nonetheless, the Warriors look like the team to beat in the NBA. They are defending champions after all.

The Cavs aren’t healthy, but are still really, really good. The defending Eastern Conference champs don’t have their starting point guard Kyrie Irving; they don’t have their best bench player in Iman Shumpert but yet the Cavs are tops in the East with a record of 6-1. They might not have Kyrie or Shump, but they do have the best player in the world in LeBron James. The four-time MVP is off to a good start averaging 24 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists. Much like for the Warriors and the rest of the NBA, there is a lot of basketball left, so a lot can change going forward but for the Cavs that change is going to be good.

Andre Drummond might be the best center in the league. The Detroit Pistons have been known for having great centers, Bill Laimbeer in the 80’s and 90’s and most recently Ben Wallace in the 2000’s. You can start to add Andre Drummond’s name to that list. The 22-year old is averaging almost 20 and 20 a game, 19.4 points and 19.6 rebounds per game, and already has two 25 and 25 games under his belt seven games in. The team will hopefully get point guard Brandon Jennings back in the next few weeks, which will mean Jennings and Drummond are going to be the anchors for the Motor City going forward. If Drummond can keep doing what he’s doing, the Pistons will make some noise in the East.

A healthy Derek Rose and Kevin Durant are great for the NBA. Both Rose and Durant have missed significant time over the last 2 seasons with injuries but now both are healthy (knock on wood) and are showing glimpses of what they used to do every night. Rose is going to be the reason why the Bulls get far in the playoffs, and Durant has to be the reason why the Thunder get back to the NBA Finals. Even if neither team makes it that far this season, seeing the two former MVP’s on the floor should make all NBA fans happy.

Stephen Springer, Follow him on Twitter, @stephen_springs