What we know so far

After the first two nights of the NBA season, here's what we know so far:

* The Celtics are loaded. Kevin Garnett has restored their defensive swagger, and Rasheed Wallace has made them more potent on the offensive end. Big Brawler ... I mean, Big Baby ... needs to chill.

* It's too early to panic about the Cavs' 0-2 record. But with their offense reverting once again to LeBron Against the World, and with coach Mike Brown searching desperately for the right combinations, you can definitely see how things could unravel pretty quickly. The Cavs miss John Kuester, who left his post as Brown's de factor offensive coordinator to coach the Pistons. The Cavs have zero identity as an offensive team, and they're not digging in defensively, either -- especially when Brown goes big with Shaq and Zydrunas Ilgauskas on the floor together. Let's scrap that look, shall we?

* More on the Cavs: As the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Brian Windhorst pointed out, the most alarming stat from Wednesday night's loss in Toronto: Shaq's plus-minus was minus-25.

*And one more thing: Kuester's role of drawing up offensive sets has fallen to assistant Mike Malone, the son of Magic assistant Brendan Malone. The Cavs believe the younger Malone is going to be an excellent tactician, but the Cavs are going to need strong leadership to get through the early part of the season. That has to come from the head coach.

* Vince Carter will fit in just fine with the Magic.

* The Nuggets and Jazz came out of the gate Wednesday night with playoff-like intensity, with Denver outlasting Utah 114-105 behind 30 points from Carmelo Anthony, 25 from Chauncey Billups, and 17 points, six assists, and four rebounds from rookie Ty Lawson. The Nuggets didn't make any offseason moves? Whatever. Trading into the draft to snag Lawson looks like a pretty good move to me.

* The Nuggets A) Don't need Stephen Jackson, and B) Haven't been in the discussion with Golden State beyond a brief exploratory talk between respective GMs Mark Warkentien and Larry Riley. The reason? Jackson's $7.65 million salary isn't a match with the Nuggets' $7,404,385 trade exception. Case closed.

* The Sixers are going to need some time to adjust to Eddie Jordan's Princeton offense. More importantly, after giving up 100 points to Orlando through three quarters and allowing 16 3-pointers in Wednesday night's 120-106 loss, they need a defense to go with it. Elton Brand (2-for-7, eight points) struggled in his debut under Jordan, but he wasn't the only one. If players don't trust Jordan's ball-movement offense, the tendency is to revert to an endless flurry of isolations, which is what the Sixers did on most trips when things broke down after 10-12 seconds on the shot clock.

* With 25 points from Richard Hamilton and 22 from Ben Gordon, the Pistons took an important step toward dispelling the belief that there won't be enough shots for Hamilton, Gordon, and Rodney Stuckey. Then again, it was only Memphis. Of more concern to the Grizzlies is the fact that Iverson already is dropping hints that he won't accept a reserve role once he returns from a hamstring injury. Gee, who could've seen that coming?

* DeJuan Blair (14 points, 11 rebounds in his Spurs debut) is as good as advertised.

* The Bobcats (59 points in their opener against Boston) are as bad as advertised.

* This blog is better than advertised.

Yikes! it is a little early in the season for everyone to be quite this hissy. I think what Berger wrote was ok, he is probably right in his choices, it sounds as if more people are upset that it was cursory rather then bad, because it was not that bad, just a little short on info is all, it seems as if, this blog, did it's job, we did actually receive information on other teams from infuriated blog readers :). I will attempt to add my two cents. I watched the Blazer game the other night, they look ok, they look a little out of shape, you can see the potential is a lot closer now then last year, there were moments when they simply dominated, really. They will play plenty well this year, as long as they pin down their rotation, Andre Miller was electrifying, a real general on the floor. This we know, no longer the young unblooded kids on the block, the blazers are here now, they may not win a title, but I bet no one wants to go through them to get one.

19thTee Reputation: 97 Level: Superstar Since: Dec 19, 2007	Posted on: October 29, 2009 3:45 pm Score: 132 Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: What we know so far I agree with almost everything in the blog except the last statement. It is worse then I thought. How about Portland, Utah, Atlanta, Miami? All those teams have played but "we" don't know anything about them? "We" already knew there was going to growing pains in Cleveland and that Boston was going to be an elite team without you but thanks anyways. Try to write something people don't know similar to the brief part about Stephen Jacksons salary not a match for the Nuggets trade exception. That was interesting but you only put a little blurb about it and then went to how A.I is to selfish to come of the bench...no kidding? [ Reply to Comment ]
psubeerman21 Reputation: 97 Level: Superstar Since: Dec 19, 2006	Posted on: October 29, 2009 3:47 pm Score: 61 Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: What we know so far The Bobcats scored 59 points? For an entire game?? Good Lord... [ Reply to Comment ]
wizfan89 Reputation: 95 Level: Superstar Since: Mar 25, 2008	Posted on: October 29, 2009 4:21 pm Score: 89 Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: No Mention of the Wizards or Gilbert Arenas? Very surprised that there was no mention of the Wizards or the healthy return of Gilbert Arenas in the blog. The Wiz look to be the most improved team from last year in the NBA and could make some noise in the Eastern conference. The performance by Arenas alone after essentially missing two seasons and 3 knee operations was a big oversight. [ Reply to Comment ]
redskin81hof Reputation: 99 Level: Superstar Since: Feb 24, 2007	Posted on: October 29, 2009 4:23 pm Score: 134 Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: What we know so far The article - not a blog - is pedestrian and lazy. At a minimim if you are going to cover the first few days then do it. How about Gilbert Arenas and the Wizards winning on the road at Dallas. How about how far the Mavericks appear to have fallen? How about Portland and their young team playing together? Does anyone except Ohio even care about the Cavaliers? I want them represented but we shouldn't have to read about them anf James in every single basketball article. Did they win a Championship? at least if we have to be bores to death we should be bored by the Champion lakers and Kobe! As I said a lazy article, pozing as a blog because blogging is cool. Guess what doing your homework and writing an article that actually ads to my intelligence about anything rather than dumbing me down, would be cool. [ Reply to Comment ]
bertabin Reputation: 87 Level: All-Star Since: Sep 1, 2006	Posted on: October 29, 2009 4:43 pm Score: 70 Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: What we know so far How about Flynn essentially carrying the T-wolves from almost 20 pts down in the 4th quarter to victory in his first game as a pro? [ Reply to Comment ]
Ken Berger Reputation: 98 Level: Superstar Since: Mar 28, 2008	Posted on: October 29, 2009 4:55 pm Score: 80 Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: What we know so far next time I contemplate taking a few minutes to give you something to read as I pack my suitcase and race to another airport, redskins81hof, I won't. [ Reply to Comment ]
h0sti1e17 Reputation: 61 Level: Pro Since: Oct 11, 2009	Posted on: October 29, 2009 4:59 pm Score: 86 Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: What we know so far I would be worried about the Cavs is they will be a shell of last season. Starting 0-2 is just the beginning, I could see it being a couple weeks before Orlando abd Boston each lose 2 games. And as the season goes deeper and deeper the more talk there will be about LeBron and where he will play next season. As that talk intensifies the worse they will get. Cleveland is not a team, they are Lebron and friends. I see a long season ahead. They will make the playoffs(only sub .500 teams miss playoffs in the east, and even then they may make it in), and probably win a round, but that is it. [ Reply to Comment ]
lpmagic Reputation: 99 Level: Superstar Since: Apr 11, 2007	Posted on: October 29, 2009 5:11 pm Score: 129 Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: What we know so far Yikes! it is a little early in the season for everyone to be quite this hissy. I think what Berger wrote was ok, he is probably right in his choices, it sounds as if more people are upset that it was cursory rather then bad, because it was not that bad, just a little short on info is all, it seems as if, this blog, did it's job, we did actually receive information on other teams from infuriated blog readers :). I will attempt to add my two cents. I watched the Blazer game the other night, they look ok, they look a little out of shape, you can see the potential is a lot closer now then last year, there were moments when they simply dominated, really. They will play plenty well this year, as long as they pin down their rotation, Andre Miller was electrifying, a real general on the floor. This we know, no longer the young unblooded kids on the block, the blazers are here now, they may not win a title, but I bet no one wants to go through them to get one. [ Reply to Comment ]
Suicide_King Reputation: 87 Level: All-Star Since: Nov 4, 2008	Posted on: October 29, 2009 6:07 pm Score: 105 Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: Raptors How about the Raptors not being as bad as everyone thinks they are? i don't know why everyone is ranking the raptors so low but they've improved in just about every role position as well as at the starting sf position. people forget that bargnani averaged 19 points a game during the second half of last season and he's picked up where he left off with 28 in the opener. but of course.. it's the raptors no one gives them any love even when they're doing well. [ Reply to Comment ]
brand111 Reputation: 96 Level: Superstar Since: May 25, 2007	Posted on: October 29, 2009 6:30 pm Score: 63 Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: Log-in to rate: What we know so far Now don't threaten / tease us now. [ Reply to Comment ]

Ken Berger

BergerSphere