Opening Week Observations

Random thoughts from the first three nights of NBA action

Giannis Antetokounmpo by Keith Allison (CC BY-SA 2.0)

We're already three nights into the first week of the new NBA season (or "Premiere Week" as the NBA is calling it for some reason), and already so much has happened.

The Hayward injury was gut-wrenching

And I don't just mean to look at either (though it definitely was). I feel bad for Hayward, for the Celtics players, the entire organization, their fans. It's pretty cruel to all parties involved for something like that to happen just minutes into the new NBA season.

I wrote more about the Hayward injury and how the Celtics will have to combat the loss here

The CP3-Harden fit looks rocky

Despite picking up the win over the champs on opening night, the Rockets have to be concerned with the Chris Paul-James Harden backcourt marriage. The offense just looked awkward with both out on the floor, especially when Harden had the ball. Paul probably has been the dominant ball handler on every team he's been on since the beginning of time, and it showed in his extended off-ball play. He looked at times like he didn't know what to do while Harden did his thing.

Paul sat out while the Rockets went on their run that won them the game, and that wasn't a coincidence. The Rockets were able to play D'Antoni ball to near perfection like they did last season with Harden running the show. Both Harden and CP3 are just too smart and too good for this to not work out, and there's no doubt they will figure out the best way to play off each other eventually.

Old faces, new places

Dwyane Wade looks SO WEIRD in a Cleveland Cavaliers Uniform (I'm a Heat fan, but still). I'm still having trouble getting used to a seeing couple of the high profile players that changed teams in their new unis. Paul George, Jimmy Butler, and Kyrie Irving all looked sort of out of place in their new duds.

Wade looks weirdest to me, I guess it's a combination of not being a huge fan of the Cavs new uniform in general plus D-Wade wearing a number other than 3. Seeing Wade in a Cleveland jersey was the (second) most gruesome thing I saw on opening night. 

The time of the Greek Freak is now

A popular dark horse MVP pick this preseason seemed to be Giannis Antetokounmpo. 

I'm not so sure he should even be considered a "dark horse" candidate anymore.

I know, I know, It's just one game, and I'm not saying he'll actually win it, but Giannis had a great finish to last season, and he looks like he's ready to make the leap from All-Star to "Top 5 player in the league All-Star." His 37-13-3 (including 16 of those points in the fourth) against the Celtics in the Bucks' opener on Wednesday was pretty dang impressive.

New jerseys, new problems

Surprisingly not bothering me as much as I thought it would is the addition of ad patches to the jerseys. They took a little getting used to at the beginning of the preseason, but, by now, I'm largely forgetting about them already. Bothering me more is the dumb tapering of the shoulder stripes (also pictured is another flaw in the new Nike Jerseys). I realize that it's because of the way the Nike template is tailored, but why can't the stripes just be adjusted so they actually follow along the shoulder opening in the jerseys? Ugh.

Speaking of Ugh, I thought the Clippers' uniforms from the last couple of years could not get any worse, but their blues they wore Thursday night? Woof.

Thanks as always for reading!

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