A quarter of the season gone -- what's surprised you so far?

[slamtheking]

A quarter of the season has been played so far (approximately).  Thoughts on what's surprised you so far this season?

My take:
EAST
I expected the Pacers to be in pursuit of the 8th seed and they're doing much better than that so far.
Also expected the Magic, Hornets, Pistons and Knick to be better than last year but not enough to chase a playoff spot.  Seems they've all made a bigger improvement than expected.

Didn't expect the Wizards and Bucks to fall as much as they have -- especially the Bucks.  Nets are the 4th worst team which is within the 'top 5' pick range I predicted.

WEST
In general, the conference has looked like crap outside of GSW and Spurs.  I can understand OKC without Durant but the rest of the conference has underperformed as a rule.  Can't fathom how GSW is still undefeated. 

Figured the Jazz and Wolves to hover around 500 and that seems to be holding true for now.  Can't believe Dallas isn't several games under 500 but kudo to them to doing well early -- starting out with an easy schedule seems to have helped them a great deal.  Portland's been a surprise as well.

Figured the Pelicans to be chasing the 8th playoff spot this year -- incredible disappointment there.  Kings and Rockets also underwhelming so far. 


As of the standings today, C's would have 4 1st rounders.  #4, 15, 20 & 22.  Not exactly the 3 lottery picks I anticipate at the end of the season but nothing to sneeze at either.


Thoughts anyone?

[PhoSita]

Biggest surprises for me:

- I thought the Pelicans might struggle but not this badly.

- Like everyone else, I expected the Warriors to be good, but not this good.  They're way better than last year and last year they were one of the best teams ever.  Unreal.

- I did not expect Porzingis and Towns to look this good this soon.

- Smart has had a disappointing start to the season between injuries and mostly poor offensive showings.  I did not expect that.

- Paul George has turned into prime T-Mac plus elite defense.  He's phenomenal.

- The Hornets have a well above average offense.

- Coming into the season, I was unsure about how to feel about the Bucks.  Loved the Monroe signing for them, but also felt they might struggle even if the ceiling is high long term.  I did not expect them to struggle this much.

- Ty Lawson and the Rockets are just plain bad.

- The Timberwolves might be a .500 team this year.

- Jared Sullinger is on track to earn himself an eight figure contract

- Amir Johnson has been just OK; my hopes were a bit higher for him after a nice pre-season and some early signs of chemistry with Isaiah Thomas.

[esel1000]

Biggest surprise? The Celts at 11-8 are the 7 seed, one game out of the 9 seed. In the West they'd be the 3/4 seed...

[PhoSita]

Also want to add --


Jae Crowder, in 30 mpg, is averaging approximately 12 points, 2 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals on 42 / 33 / 85 shooting.  He's attempting 4 three pointers a game and getting to the line 3 times a game.

That is better than I ever hoped he could be as a starting small forward.  I doubted he could perform this well as a starter, and I was wrong.  Those are Demarre Carroll numbers.  If he can sustain this, Crowder gives us Carroll production at half the price, and we locked him up for five years.  That's stupendous.

[PhoSita]

Biggest surprise? The Celts at 11-8 are the 7 seed, one game out of the 9 seed. In the West they'd be the 3/4 seed...

Wow.  That is surprising.

[footey]

Biggest surprise: Avery Bradley.  Playing at an all star level.  More quiet on the "trade Avery Bradley" front these days.

Second biggest:  Sully. He has played far better than I thought he would.  Has terminated any trade proposals where we say "take kelly or sully, it doesn't really matter".  It does.

[MBunge]

The reversal of fortunes in the East and West.  I suppose it had to happen someday and the West still has more elite teams, but I never expected so many bad East teams to step up and upper level West teams to slump.

Mike

[MJohnnyboy]

For the Celtics:
-Bradley's emergence. That jumper's looking silky smooth and his elite D has come back. He'll be in the running for MIP this year no question if he continues to play like this.
-Sully's effort. He's actually trying on defense and diving for loose balls. I figured the acquisitions of Johnson and Lee would bury him, but they've set him off. It's not the numbers that are impressive. It's the body language.
-IT's transition from 6th man to starter. I still think he's best used off the bench but he's been great. Top-15 scorer in the league who Danny has locked up for the next 3 years at $6.5 million. Thank you Phoenix!
-Celtics top-notch defense. I figured the Celtics would be pretty darn good with Smart, Bradley, Crowder, and Johnson, but I didn't expect Turner, Olynyk, Sully, and even IT to play this well defensively.
-The Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde season it's been so far. Some nights they look elite. Other nights they look awful. It's like Oprah's body weight. Sometimes she's fat. Sometimes she's thin. Go with a route and stick with it guys!
-Turner's transition from starter to 6th man. Am I the only one who thinks he looks better this year?
-Crowder being a capable starter. I also think he's best used off the bench but he's been fine. They should try to get another wing who can score at a higher rate though.

For the rest of the league:
-The Warriors being literally unstoppable this year. I don't know when they're going to lose.
-The east being very competitive this year. I expected an improvement but not this vast of an improvement.
-The Rockets and the Pelicans being bad this year (Though both look like they're starting to get it together)
-The Timberwolves and Magic's youth movement going better than expected. I could see both making the playoffs this season
-The Knicks looking somewhat competent and Porzingis looking like a franchise player.
-The Bucks have been disappointing this year. I thought Jabari + Monroe made them a sleeper team in the east. It might take more time than I thought for them to gel.
-The Pacers look like a great team because of Paul George and George alone.
-The Mavericks look better than expected but like the Pistons, they are coming back to earth.

[Who]

Most pleasantly surprised by Indiana and Dallas. At a lesser level, Detroit + Miami + Charlotte.
Most negative surprised by Houston and New Orleans. Memphis and Milwaukee too.

In terms of individual players, I have been amazed by how much Kawhi Leonard has improved over the last 12 months. Regularly scoring 20-25 points a game. PER up at 27.5. Firmly established himself as the Spurs best player & as a top 10 player in the league.

[bdm860]

He's slowed down a little since the start of the season, but Andre Drummond averaging close to 20/20 for a little while there, and still doing 19/17 is pretty impressive and unexpected.

[Moranis]

For me it is how bad the West has been compared to the East.  Two teams under .500 in the West would be in the playoffs and two teams over .500 in the East would be in the lottery.  I knew the East would be better than last year, didn't expect it to be significantly better than the West to this point though (the numbers are a bit skewed by GS and San An being so good, but still a ton of solid depth in the East).

Individually, Curry being as good as he has been is a real surprise.  The other one is Drummond's improvement without Monroe.  Drummond is up 5 points and 3 boards a game (in just 5 more minutes).  His 16.7 boards a game would be the highest total since Rodman in 94/95 and he is leading the league by 3.5 boards a game.  Between Drummond's rebounding and Curry's shear scoring dominance we are witnessing two of the greatest individual seasons (in a particular category) in a very very long time.

As for the negatives, Milwaukee and Houston being as bad as they have been is a surprise.  Bucks looked like a team on the rise adding Monroe (and Parker) to a young up and coming team.  I expected more.  Houston looks nothing like a team that was in the WCF a year ago.  Complete collapse.  Very surprising.  To a lesser extent New Orleans has disappointed, but I was never really sold on them as a team, that seemed to be the Anthony Davis show, but they are worse than I thought.  I also expected the Lakers to be better.  Not great, but certainly not worst team in the West bad. 

[Neurotic Guy]

I only watch box scores and standings for teams other than the C's so my only observation is that the TWolves and Mavs look better than expected.  The C's could be looking at something like the 5th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 31st picks.   Yikes.  A potential bevy of rotation players to add to our bunch of decent rotation players.

For the C's, Avery's consistency of late and Sully's effort/performance throughout have the best surprises.  I think AB needs to keep shooting even when he gets a little cold -- he needs to shoot through it -- that's what reliable shooters do (actually, IT does this in a rather unabashed way).  Sully is giving it every night.  I look forward to him reaching a double-double average soon.

The biggest disappointment is KO -- last night notwithstanding.  He came out of the gate this season looking like a ball of fire, and subequently has metled into oblivion.   

[fairweatherfan]

- Curry impersonating a flamethrower seemingly every night instead of every 3rd or 4th game like he used to.

- The Spurs inexplicably still flying under the radar after like 18 years of doing the same.

- How badly the Rockets, Clippers, and Pelicans have started off.  Especially the complete failure of the Ty Lawson acquisition and Houston's struggles in general.

- Pacers playing very well, I thought they were borderline playoffs at best. 

- How excellent our defense has become (with 2 or 3 games as glaring exceptions).

- I suspected the Bucks were overrated but never expected them to look this bad early.  The Wizards were always kind of meh but I didn't expect them to be flat-out bad either.

- Towns and especially Porzingis looking so good early.  Expected Towns to be excellent but thought he'd struggle more this year.  Didn't know what to expect of Porzingis.

- The continued lack of Adam Silver conspiracy theories.  After the initial honeymoon period I expected his name would be written over Stern's in the same old nonsense by now.  Good sign for his administration long-term.

[BudweiserCeltic]

I got League Pass this season.

[max215]

-Pacers. Specifically Paul George getting even BETTER after coming back from a gruesome injury.

-Stephen Curry and the Warriors playing at historic levels.

-The Spurs geling immediately. I really thought they'd struggle a bit early.

-Kristaps Porzingis. Specifically his defense.

-Avery Bradley's gorgeous stroke.