15/16 first impressions

[BTP]

The new season has started. I'm hyped. At the start of each season, I usually give (almost) all teams a look once they play a game within my time zone. What we'll do here is discuss and voice our impressions of all the teams.
How are new players working within a system?
Who has improved?
Who's in line for the Ty Corbin memorial award?
Intriguing story lines?
Who dominates?!

 

[addictionary]

I was wondering about those championship rings. If a player, say Klay Thompson wins the ring then gets traded to say Lakers in the offseason, does he receive his ring in a ceremony or in a more low profile way?

 

[addictionary]

The rings are a terrible design btw.

 

[BTP]

What I liked about the first Pistons game was Drummond. I always felt like he was some DeAndre Jordan type of player who hasn't realized yet he shouldn't attempt shots other than Dunks. But I think he has better upside now.
He doesn't seem like he's 'only' got good feet and explosiveness despite being overweight. He has reduced his weight and has altered his free throw technique.

Instead of taking 2 dribbles, putting the ball in front of his chest, bouncing on his knees and going up after the 3rd bounce to release it, he's now taking 2 dribbles, putts the ball in position horizontally right in front his right breast(Looks a little bit like a shot putter in his preparation phase) He then takes a deep breath, focuses on the target and throws it in one motion, while focusing on the follow through. His elbow looks less like a resonance catastrophe with that technique. Still inconsistent with that mechanic and sometimes he still fails at choosing the right length badly. But If he can become a 55% shooter in a short period of time, that would be a huge improvement for him.
The flight curve is also no longer like a rainbow.

When you give him the ball and he has options offensively, he's still struggling with that process, but he's got good body control finishing off balance lobs. He's still got a great 2nd jump to go for his own misses and defensively he has a good feel when it comes to timing contests.

 

[Game6Conley]

I was wondering about those championship rings. If a player, say Klay Thompson wins the ring then gets traded to say Lakers in the offseason, does he receive his ring in a ceremony or in a more low profile way?

Pretty sure they'd wait for that team to play the Warriors, then present it to him pre-game..

 

[Game6Conley]

What I liked about the first Pistons game was Drummond. I always felt like he was some DeAndre Jordan type of player who hasn't realized yet he shouldn't attempt shots other than Dunks. But I think he has better upside now.
He doesn't seem like he's 'only' got good feet and explosiveness despite being overweight. He has reduced his weight and has altered his free throw technique.

Instead of taking 2 dribbles, putting the ball in front of his chest, bouncing on his knees and going up after the 3rd bounce to release it, he's now taking 2 dribbles, putts the ball in position horizontally right in front his right breast(Looks a little bit like a shot putter in his preparation phase) He then takes a deep breath, focuses on the target and throws it in one motion, while focusing on the follow through. His elbow looks less like a resonance catastrophe with that technique. Still inconsistent with that mechanic and sometimes he still fails at choosing the right length badly. But If he can become a 55% shooter in a short period of time, that would be a huge improvement for him.
The flight curve is also no longer like a rainbow.

When you give him the ball and he has options offensively, he's still struggling with that process, but he's got good body control finishing off balance lobs. He's still got a great 2nd jump to go for his own misses and defensively he has a good feel when it comes to timing contests.

Can't wait to see Drummond vs. Gobert. hopefully Rudy and Favors can set the tone early. Was watching Drummond's FT shooting closely as well, I think he might be able to reach 50%. He still looks like a catch and dunk player, not someone you want to feed in the post..

 

[BTP]

The T-Wolves are surprising. My expectation heading into the season was to see a team that just was a tiny bit too talented to compete for another top3 pick, but too inexperienced to win. Their roster read like: Young talent that takes turns at falling behind.
I didn't really think Towns was ready to contribute. And I mean contribute meaningful in general. Not just compared to his current rate.
I felt his jumper wasn't polished enough to create attention, his post game promising, expanding, but too 1 dimensional to be a weapon.
But he's really improved a lot over the summer. Scary.
And that's not even addressing his defense. His energy and focus is great. He always talked about his desire to be a good defender at Kentucky. But a lot of young bigs say that when having a microphone in their face. Looks like he's planning to keep that promise.

The improvement part qualifies also for Wiggins. Getting more accurate on "non-dunks" is so key to open the game. In college his jumper had great elevation, while still maintaining balance and good form. He still wasn't able to convert them reliably. Same happened in his rookie year. I was like: Is he bad at aiming? Seems like he just needed a couple years to adapt his aim from smaller highschool gyms where you always have the wall as a reference point to big arenas that don't provide that per se.
So far he looks so much improved. He always fancied his spin moves on drives. My expectation when I saw him rely so strongly on that was that that's gonna make him play unnecessarily below the rim and spin right into help defense using length.
But he's looking phenomenal fooling defenders. He can still elevate and finish above the rim after spins. Such efficient use of athleticism.

It looks like their timeline has massively accelerated if Rubio can stay healthy. With Rubio they still need at least 1 big who can shoot on the floor at all times, but in 2-3 years, I'm confident Towns can do that. I expect them to be active in trades somehow to find available talent that fits around Towns and Wiggins. Imagine a lights out spot up shooter...

 

[BTP]

Rick Carlisle is the most underpaid coach in the league(Since there's no longevity sample size of Stevens)
What he's done to keep the Mavs competitive regardless of their roster has been very impressive.
I think at this point people have written them off like the 3rd time. And even I was completely on board before this year.
But somehow he's managed to resurrect so many individual careers, it's jaw dropping.
All the peripheral players of his 2011 championship team were overpaid by other teams as a consequence. I say overpaid because none comes to mind who delivered similarly as they did on said 2011 team.
He's been handed second, third and fourth choices since. Most of them worked out pretty well.
His teams are constantly exceeding expectations cohesively.
Look at this year's collection of players who were on the verge of retiring/being out of the league.
-Pachulia is playing like he stole someone else's abilities over the summer. Space jam style!
-In Deron Williams's last years in Brooklyn he looked like he was just waiting for his contract to end so he could finally retire. Now he looks like a decent starting point guard. Maybe it's just the new haircut.
-Carlisle excels at recognizing who of his "heat check" candidates is gonna get more minutes in each and every game. Overall the stats of Barea, Harris, Villanueva and Felton aren't looking good. But they still have very good individual games, where they play 30+ minutes.

The Mavs have started the season very convincingly with wins over potential championship contenders, so it wasn't just "bullying the Sixers" that lead to their 9-4 start. And all that happened while Parsons is still having issues after his microfracture procedure he underwent this summer and Wes Matthews shows a different face every night as he tries to overcome his Achilles rupture.
Heck even Jeremy Evans looks like an NBA player.
I don't think they can keep that pace up long term as other contenders and pretenders are still trying to find their rhythm, but Carlisls 35/5 extension is a bigger bargain contract than Dirk's 21/3. Massively underpaid and underappreciated by the media.