What has the first half of the NBA season shown us?
The NBA has reached the end of the first half of the 2022/2023 season. This exact moment in the season is the perfect opportunity to recap a season that has brought us many surprises and disappointments. Every fan probably has his or her own list of both, but in this week’s Grosbasket blog you can find the ones that are the most surprising to us. So, what have we all been most amazed or frustrated by in the first half of the NBA season?
The rise of young basketball players
Let the young basketball players who have surprised the whole basketball world be the first on the list. We have highlighted three youngsters who have impressed us with their play, something we have not seen in previous seasons due to injuries or lack of opportunities. They are Lauri Markkanen, Bol Bol and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Let’s start with SGA. He is on fire for the Oklahoma City Thunder, keeping the team on the edges of the play-in tournament and the playoffs. With Chet Holmgren absent and Luguentz Dort in poor form, young Shai is also high on the MVP list. Last season he averaged 23.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.9 assists, but has played “only” 91 games over the past two seasons. This season is a different story, with 30.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, 5.5 assists.
Lauri Markkanen started his NBA career in Chicago, then went to Cleveland and is now in Utah. After a successful Eurobasket performance, coach Will Hardy has handed over the Utah Jazz to him. Last season, he averaged 14.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists. In the first half of this season, he is arguably one of the best basketball players on the floor, scoring 24.6 points, 8.6 rebounds and 1.9 assists.
The tall Bol Bol didn’t find the right game, let alone the right chances, in Denver. His path led him to the Orlando Magic, where they exclusively target young basketball players. Let’s get to his stats. In his three seasons for Denver, he averaged six minutes per game in 53 games, scoring 2.7 points and 1.2 rebounds. In nearly as many games this season alone, he’s averaging 11.9 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.5 blocks.
5 teams that disappointed in the first half of the NBA
There were no big disappointments for the teams in the NBA East. The only exceptions are the Atlanta Hawks and the Chicago Bulls. They have had a few injuries that have lingered for half of the season, but they are still on the brink of the play-in tournament. Atlanta is near the top of the standings, but that could change dramatically.
The West is the one that has surprised in the disappointments. The Golden State Warriors, the reigning champions, are currently in the fight for the play-in tournament. Not bad, but not deserving of the championship. On the verge of the play-in tournament are the Minnesota Timberwolves, where the experiment of Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns has failed (for now).
There are even more surprises in Portland, where the Portland Trail Blazers with their star player Damian Lillard are once again failing to pick up wins. The Phoenix Suns are a team that seems to have completely collapsed and given up. The same with the Los Angeles Lakers, who can’t find a way to get more wins, but are having some quality moments waiting for LeBron James to break Kareem’s record.
The team that impressed
Sacramento Kings. After 20 years of disappointment, Sacramento is at the top of the Western Conference. The Domantas Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox connection is working, and they are surrounded by snipers, or so it seems. Coach Mike Brown has given the team enough enthusiasm to succeed. They are scoring 120 points per game, a historic high, and are in the top three of the league in all categories except blocks and rebounds. They face the 17th toughest schedule in the rest of the season, which points to a crazy season in Sacramento. As they say after every win: “Light the Beam in Sacramento.”
With thirty teams and more than four hundred basketball players, the expectations of the fans are high across the board. What was the thing that excited or disappointed you the most?