The Bulls, Knicks, Warriors, Heat and Wizards are tied for the league’s best record (5-1) entering the final night of October, having opened the season on a strong note.
Chicago is sporting a new core that includes Lonzo Ball, DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic in the starting lineup — its only loss came against the Knicks on Thursday in a one-point game.
New York is looking to build on its success from last season after adding Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier to a battle-tested core. Golden State has seen strong performances from Stephen Curry (28.7 points per game), plus two backcourt pieces in Damion Lee and Jordan Poole (combined 28.2 points per game).
The two Southeast Division teams on the list, Miami and Washington, are enjoying win streaks of four and three games, respectively. The clubs have played well despite dealing with various absences, including Bam Adebayo (knee) and Daniel Gafford (quad) on Friday.
The million-dollar question is simple: which of these teams are most likely to sustain a high level of success? Chicago and Washington have relatively new cores, while Miami and Golden State have veterans and coaches with valuable championship experience. New York remains a hungry wild card.
From a long-term perspective, the Heat and Warriors are still waiting for Victor Oladipo and Klay Thompson to return from their injuries. Chicago has also lost second-year forward Patrick Williams, who’s expected to miss at least the rest of the regular season with a dislocated wrist.
We want to know what you think. Which of these teams are more likely to succeed than others? Is it still too early in the season to draw any serious conclusions? Take to the comments section below!
Wizards will fade and unless the Bulls solve the PF situation then they could be the weakest Playoff bound team on this list…
the bulls have a great core but depth is an issue in my opinion. need a big man & losing PW44 is a tough loss
Lol we have a bench that stole that Celtics game, we just need one more bid and Coby to get healthy.
Standing
Warriors absolutely 1 seed in West
Warriors are really not good, just not good
Deep your haiku is
I think it really is a question of your definition of “success” with these teams. I suspect all of them will be better than they were last season. At least a little. To me, that is a successful season.
If your definition of success is more narrow than that, then who knows?
Last season
Conference Finals Suns vs Clippers
Both teams are one injury away from lottery teams
Let’s say Ayton were injured,
Did you die before you finished that thought? Was that the end of your comment? Are you literally waiting for us to say “Ayton were injured?”
Okay, Ayton were injured…now what?
Sounds just like that scene near the end of Monty Python and the Holy Grail where there’s a carving on the wall of a cave telling the location of the holy grail being in the Castle of Aaauuuggghhh…
Great reference.
The splash of a new thought
leads to a hasty comma
and the long pause of a gnarly hypothetical
6 games is 7% of the season which also describes my confidence that any of that field of teams reaches a conference final.
I dont know ehats going to happen with the Heat, now losing Max Strus. Hopefully he’ll be fine, but it looked like an instant replay of Klay Thompson tearing his ACL. Heat need him too. Big reason they beat Charlotte and Memphis in those matchups…this literally always happens to them. Every single time they have things going, injuries. It’s so incredibly frustrating
If the worst injury the Heat have all year is a hyper extended knee to Strus…. they’ll be just fine.. this isn’t shaq and wade both blowing their knee’s against the pistons in 2005. And considering Strus walked off the court on his own barely limping… i doubt its an ACL… could be wrong though
I’ve had that exact injury and kept playing…walking doesnt mean anything. It looked bad. Hopefully he is fine, but him being out is a big deal
Bulls look good, I think they are for real. DeRozan has given Lavine some rest, and the bench has improved dramatically. PW is a big loss, but playing small has worked well for them against non-mobile bigs like Gobert.
Others like Jokic and Embiid will give them fits, but Bradley might learn how to use all 5 of his fouls to slow them down.
I am hopeful for this roster, they are developing good chemistry, and Donovan is a master at rotations. When White comes back, the 2nd unit will be able to score as well as hold leads.
Can you react more?— teams get injuries. You overrate backup wings on every team. Few are familiar with Strus, PER10. The Miami local barely noted that Strus hurt his leg in paragraph 6, no further info.
Maybe they should play Caleb Martin more… one third the minutes but PER24. This injury would be a poor excuse to backslide.
They should play Caleb Martin more… but I dont understand why missing a rotation player wouldnt matter, when there isnt anyone else with that same skillset on the roster. I overrate backup wings? Or I correctly identify that who plays in certain matchups, and where they play in the rotation against those matchups, matters
It matters a little. When a guy gets leaned on more, with more minutes, the odds increase for injury. Next man up… hope Lowry stays on it, or Herro will have to shift over, and he’s best looking for his own shot at the 2.
It’s too early to tell. With all the roster shuffling, most players don’t even know all their teammates’ names yet. But one has to think that Miami and GS are for real.
Why? GS didn’t really get better and they couldn’t even sniff the Playoffs, the rookies look like they will be getting all their minutes in the G league this year, and Klay is no more than an X Factor at this point.
The Heat haven’t even played to their full strength in a single game.. yet they are 5-1 blowing out most teams they face…. when Kyle Lowry finds his shooting stroke, and Duncan gets back to his career average shooting numbers.. the Heat are gonna score 115-125 a game and have the best defense in the league.. not sure that’s beatable… outside of beating themselves (mistakes and injuries). Oh… and they will get an All-Star off the bench in a couple months without trading for anyone lol
Bulls don’t have Coby, have the same record and people act like they just pretending even after Jazz and Celtics and they only lost one game by one point no OT games either.
Curious to see which of these teams keeps it going the longest