The NBA regular season is 82 games long. And while it’s easy to get caught up in how teams start, it’s how they finish that really matters.
Every single season has a team or a player who starts off really strong only to cool off later — and the opposite is also true.
Bearing this fact in mind, former Pelicans coach Stan Van Gundy implored fans to wait before making any rash predictions or assumptions.
NBA fans — calm down with reading too much into which players or teams are playing well or struggling so early in the season. Let’s at least get to December before we start labeling teams and players.
https://twitter.com/realStanVG/status/1454114219402661895
For reference, the Orlando Magic started off last season as one of the best teams in the East, boasting a 6-2 record through the first 8 games before following it with a 6-game losing streak. Despite the hot start, they finished the season 21-51 (one of the East’s worst records).
During LeBron’s first season in Miami (2010-11), the Heat started off 8-7 and so many people counted them out, Of course, the Heat would go on to finish with a 58-24 record before going all the way to the NBA Finals.
In truth, the season is too long to make judgments on the first few weeks. Players get hot, teams figure things out, and new circumstances arise that could change everything.
This season, teams like the Warriors, Bulls, Knicks, and Timberwolves have been among the most surprising teams, simply because of how well they’ve been doing out of the gate.
And while it’s okay to get excited about their play, it’s still too early to tell if they can sustain it for a long period of time.
For now, all we can do is watch and wait to see how everything plays out.
