It's too early to make season-long judgements on NBA and NHL. In the case of the NBA, they just started their regular season. Teams began playing games only last Tuesday. So, that's fourteen days or exactly two weeks. That's way too small of a period to make accurate assessments. For the NHL, their season began on October 8th. They've played for a little more than four weeks, 30 days. 30 days is a month so you have a larger sample size. However, it isn't big enough to predict a team or individuals performance over six months. Tomorrow, we'll look at the the NHL. Today, we'll examine the NBA.
In the NBA, teams have played between 6 and 8 games. Cleveland, Atlanta, Brooklyn, Boston, San Antonio, New Orleans, L.A. Lakers, Golden State, Minnesota, and Denver have played the least number of games (6). That's 4 Eastern clubs and 6 Western clubs. 8 of the 15 eastern conference teams and 8 of the 15 western conference teams have played the median number of games (7). If you're good with math than you know this without thinking and better than me getting headaches over single numbers. Three teams from the East {New York, Chicago, and Indiana} and one team from the West {Utah} have played the most number of games (8).By the way, I have a headache as I type this. No sarcasm garbage here.
The Cleveland Lebrons...errr...the Cavaliers started losing three of their first four games. ESPN commentators were debating whether we should be concerned, uh...no. Let's not get carried away. Cleveland won on Friday in Denver. They were on a west coast road trip, 2-3 time zones away from Ohio. On Monday, they returned home and defeated New Orleans. Cleveland is 3-3 after a 1-3 start.
Injuries also play a role in misjudging teams based upon success in previous years and expectations for future years. Two teams who exemplify this are the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Indiana is without All-Star Paul George for the season after breaking his right leg in a Team USA Basketball practice. In addition to George, the Pacers are missing David West, George Hill, C.J. Watson, and Rodney Stuckey due to injuries. OKC are without last season's NBA most valuable player Kevin Durant for an undetermined time, due to a fracture in his right foot, and fellow All-Star Russelll Westbrook broke his right hand during the first game of the season and is out for 4-6 weeks. The Thunder are 2-5 in the West while the Pacers are 2-6 in the East. Again, these teams aren't this bad, when your team's best players get hurt, the worse results occur in most cases. The good news is there are 82 games in the NBA regular season, nobody has played 10 games yet, forget 20, 30, or 40.
I would wait until around Christmas time to give a more well-rounded look at the NBA. That's six weeks. Am I that number-savvy? No...I counted the Tuesdays after this one and allegedly came up with six. I would then give a mid-season report card when everyone plays 41 games. Then, I want to reexamine after play on February 12. There's a break of six days between games due to the NBA All-Star Weekend and extended weekday break. Finally, check-ups are mandatory on March 1, April 1, and a full prognosis after games on April 15, the season's final night. I sound like a doctor, I don't play one on TV, just the Internet. Everybody, it's early, relax.
No comments:
Post a Comment