5 Main Takeaways From the 1st Quarter of the Season

We are about a quarter way through the season, which means we can actually put some substance behind our Twitter takes and first game overreactions. There is definitely a lot to be said about all performances we’ve seen thus far, but I’ve just kept it to my top five takeaways. I think they’re pretty accurate, but then again, I initially thought the Thunder’s logo looked good.

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1. The Warriors Are Back

For a LeBron James fan from the Pacific Northwest who knows an immense amount of nauseating Warriors fans, this pains me to admit, but it’s just the truth. They are playing at their highest level since 2017-2018 when they were in a state of basketball nirvana. Steph is looking in MVP form; I’d be shocked if he doesn’t win it.

This team’s current top-of-the-league mark is without Klay and I’d imagine he’s going to come back and have a net-positive impact. I’ve never been his biggest fan, but it’ll be great for the game to see him back on the court.

The person who actually stands out the most to me though is Jordan Poole; he snuck up on most people this year and clearly has the keys to the Most Improved Player vault. Also, I guess Andrew Wiggins decided to actually try at basketball for the first time in his NBA career and of course Gary Payton II becomes an impact player this year.

I really hope I’m wrong because I don’t want to see it happen, but I think the Warriors might just win it all. For consolation, I’m sure Steph would find another way to not win Finals MVP though.

2. Lakers Are Inconclusive; Their Volume of National Attention is Comical

The media’s obsessive nature with LeBron has been on full blast this year. It seems that every news outlet has written in their contracts that all show hosts and writers need to give their daily LeBron-and-the-Lakers update. I mean that’s just nuts: he’s about to be 37 in year 19, and the Lakers are nothing to look at, yet are somehow the focal point of the NBA lol.

I get the narrative of their new “Big 3” after their “blockbuster” trade this offseason, but there really isn’t much to say. First off, the trade was trash: Rusty is still Rusty. AD has been solid. Bron is still playing at an extremely high level. However, the three of them are proving to be nothing special as a collective unit. And until that changes, there’s not much to talk about so let’s try that Instagram usage time-reminder and balance the coverage more.

3. Chicago Is Fun

The Bulls were one of the teams I was most excited to see when the season tipped. Are they contenders? No. But they turned a nothing team into something cool and competitive in a single offseason and did it by gathering players that are hard to hate.

What’s most impressive to me is they are playing this well without a perennial superstar. But what is most enjoyable is Lonzo’s role in this story: he is actually playing consistently well for the first time in his career and the Pelicans are imploding. And they won the AD trade? Ha.

4. Leave Dame Alone

The man doesn’t want to leave Portland, so let’s just let him be…at least until the offseason. Yes, the Blazers have been awful thus far and Dame has played far below his standards, but there are potential fixes, so let’s drop the “Dame needs to leave” headline and maybe try “Blazers need to mix it up.” Dame Time is all about Rip City so let’s give him a new iteration of the team to work with. We reached our peak with this current core (Dame, CJ, Nurk, fill-in-the-blank wings) in 2019 when we got to the conference finals and scored more total points than the Warriors but still somehow got swept. We’ll see what unfolds with CJ’s current situation, but Ben Simmons is out there, and Dame wants to play with him; THAT is a real different look for the Blazers, so let’s find a way to make it happen. Or we can rinse and repeat the last couple of years, but since Dame doesn’t want to go anywhere else, let’s meet him halfway and give him something new to work with.

5. Phoenix Is Here to Stay

The Suns are special. That Finals run last year was no fluke. Winning 18 straight is not luck; it’s talent, tenacity, depth, cohesion, GREAT coaching, and playing with a purpose. For the Suns, it seems that purpose is to solidify their reputation in the league and win it all this year, something they very well might do.

CP3 is proving LeBron isn’t the only person capable of extreme sustained excellence. Book and Ayton have taken yet another leap under his guidance. The supporting cast of Bridges, Cam Johnson, Crowder, Payne, McGee, Shamet is for sure the most well-rounded in the league and is proving to be the best. Monty Williams is my pick for Coach of the Year thus far and the Suns have been my favorite team to watch.

Suns vs. Warriors: 7-game Western Conference Finals in May. I’m here for it.