The Top 10 Surprises of the NBA season

It’s exactly 10 days into this NBA regular season, it feels like 10 weeks for those who cover the league on a regular basis, and a whole hell of a lot has already happened.

Few things have gone as expected, of course the undefeated start for the Pacers is an exception, and surprises abound across the league. Here are 10 that immediately came to mind, including a pair of dazzling young point guards, one major market team in big trouble and another that’s downright irrelevant right now.

1) Michael Carter-Williams, Point Guard Dynamo

This was supposed to be the year where Philadelphia challenged the all-time record for losses in a season. There were reservations about Carter-Williams’ shot, his turnover rate, and his ability to run the point as a rookie on what was supposed to be a historically bad team.

Surprise! MCW had a debut for the ages against Miami in an upset over the Heat where he nearly had a quadruple-double and, more impressively, led the Sixers to a 3-0 start.

Carter-Williams became the first person in 21 years to win a conference Player of the Week award in his first year in the NBA. The last person before MCW now endorses politicians and has his own soda brand.

Just check out MCW’s place among the league’s best players after just 10 days:

Carter-Williams now leads Chris Bernucca’s rookie rankings and will remain atop that list until further notice.

2) The Troubled New York Knicks

The New York Knicks were supposed to be a top-five team in the Eastern Conference. Then J.R. Smith got suspended five games and the team didn’t really have a second offensive option to complement volume shooter extraordinaire Carmelo Anthony.

But at least the defense is good, right? It’s currently third in the league at 94 points allowed per game. But in Tuesday’s brutal loss to the Bobcats, Chandler broke a bone in his leg and will miss 4-to-6 weeks. So say goodbye to the club’s defensive anchor for roughly a quarter of the season.

So the 1-3 Knicks can’t really score consistently (25th in scoring, 25th in rebounding, 28th in assists per game), lost their best defensive player for at least a month that will force them to start StatBox favorite Andrea Bargnani at center, has two other big men in Amar’e Stoudamire and Kenyon Martin on a medically-ordered minutes limit and a really impatient owner and fan base.

So New York is in trouble, to put it mildly, and it’s come to a point where a trip to the lottery can’t totally be ruled out.

3) The Efficient Clipper Scoring Machine

The L.A. Clippers were a top-five offense last season, but a few offseason moves optimized the attack. Doc Rivers is utilizing players better, especially new guard J.J. Redick, who’s averaged nearly 17 points per game thus far. Redick, Jamal Crawford, Jared Dudley and Darren Collison (three of the four were acquired this past offseason) are all shooting above 35 percent from three and the Clips are excelling in nearly every offensive category.

Clippers	Number	League Rank
Points	110.5	2
FG %	47.8	3
FTA	29.5	4
Points Per Shot	1.33	4
Assists	25.8	4
Field Goals	39.8	5
Made 3’s	9.2	7

So L.A. scores efficiently, they get to the line, they’re unselfish and they hit threes pretty consistently. And we haven’t even talked about Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. This team is loaded with skilled offensive players and they should continue their torrid offensive pace throughout the season.

4) The Lakers Are Insignificant

On a night where the 3-3 Lakers played in a nationally televised game against Dwight Howard’s new team, the Rockets, and hit a game-winning shot with 1.3 seconds left, this was the ESPN.com headline list as of 10:30 a.m. eastern:

The Lakers are 6th on the list, behind two NFL stories, a college football game, LeBron James’ back injury that he played through and an NFL game. Two hours later, they were completely off the top 10 altogether. And this was arguably one of the most newsworthy games of the team’s season. Let’s face it: The Lakers aren’t really relevant.

That’s what happens when Jodie Meeks is tied for your team’s scoring lead and your team is being outscored by 6.7 points per game.

It’s just not going to move the meter much. In the national landscape, there are many teams you’d discuss before the Lakers.

As the franchise enters this new phase, expect that to become the new normal. Maybe things willl change once (if) they get Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving and/or Kevin Durant.

5) Paul George, MVP?

George’s defensive prowess has been well documented, but his offensive ability has shown a marked improvement so far this season for the league’s lone undefeated team, the Indiana Pacers. Not only is George averaging more points per game than LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony and a higher PER than James and Kevin Durant, but his place on the offensive leaderboard extends even beyond those impressive stats:

Paul George	Number	League Rank
Win Shares/48	0.324	1
Win Shares	1.3	2
3-Point FG’s	16	3
Points Per Game	25.8	4
Field Goals	43	6
Total Points	129	6
PER	27.2	8
Usage %	29.2	9
O Win Shares	0.7	9

So not only has George become one of the best scorers in the league, he’s also become one of the few most efficient players in the game. At this current pace, George is going to be in the MVP discussion with James and Chris Paul. It could very well be that George has made the leap into being one of the elite superstars in the game.

6) The Disappointing Washington Wizards

The World Series of Poker just ended, so it’s actually topical to say that Washington went all-in for a playoff spot this season. GM Ernie Grunfeld is on the last year of his contract, and he traded a lottery protected first-round pick for the expiring contract of Marcin Gortat due to Emeka Okafor’s injury.

This was the year the Wizards would return to the postseason, Grunwald thought. John Wall is locked in to a max contract, Bradley Beal is coming into his own and Gortat and Nene combine to create an interior force on both ends. Right?

Well, so far Washington’s only win is against the aforementioned Sixers against three defeats. Its 106.8 points allowed per game is 14th in the Eastern Conference. Wall is shooting 44.1 percent, the exact same percentage as last season (to be fair he’s scoring more, dishing out more assists and has a markedly improved percentage from three so far. I’m nitpicking, so what?) and his defensive rating is a below average 109. Beal is shooting 32.9 percent from the field and has a negative win share so far.

Maybe they’re off to a bad start and will improve defensively under Randy Wittman. But so far, it’s been a mess in Washington.

7) Eric Bledsoe Wants His Money

The Phoenix Suns are 3-2 and have allowed the fewest points per game in the Western Conference so far. That’s unheard of for a Phoenix team, especially one that was supposed to be one of the three worst teams in the league and a legit Andrew Wiggins contender.

Eric Bledsoe, who the Suns declined to give a contract extension, is one of the major reasons why. Bledsoe will be a restricted free agent at season’s end, and he’s making a strong case that he should be getting big time money this coming summer.