The 2023-2024 NBA season is officially here. Though we’re only three weeks into the season, so much has already happened. What intrigued me the most going into the season was how spread out the top talent in the league is amongst the top teams; we are seeing that parity on full display in the first couple weeks. I have a lot of thoughts, so here are a few of my biggest takeaways from the start of the NBA season.
1. The Timberwolves are ready to take a huge leap this year.
Flashback to a year ago when the Timberwolves traded 5 first round picks for Rudy Gobert and everyone in basketball was laughing at their expense. Don’t get me wrong, I was for sure one of those people, saying that it was one of the worst trades in history; boy did this team prove me wrong. Currently the Wolves have the third best record in the west, and Gobert is a huge part of that. They have the top-ranked defense, and he has the best individual defensive rating in the league. But it’s not just Gobert making the defense great, because Karl-Anthony Towns, Kyle Anderson and Anthony Edwards are all ranked in the top 10. Gobert’s tenacity on the defensive side is infectious, and it’s making everyone on the team buy in on the defensive side of the ball. I would argue the biggest reason for their success now and going forward is that Edwards is finally taking that leap into superstardom. He’s currently 27.6 points a game, which is the 11th highest mark in the league. He has firmly asserted himself as the best player on this team, and is putting the league on notice. He was just named the Western Conference player of the week, and there’s much more to come. Edwards has delivered for the Wolves in big moments time and time again so far this season, and I’m positive he’s going to continue doing so.
2. The Sixers are handling the post-Harden era with grace.
Part of the reason I love the NBA so much is how unpredictable it is. Not too long ago I wrote an article on how doomed the Sixers were, and now they’re tied for the best record in the east. In that article, I said that as long as Embiid is on the team you can’t count them out completely, and so far he has proven that sentiment true. He’s averaging the most points per game (33.1) out of every player in the league, and showing all the doubters why he won MVP last year. When discussing the Sixers’ success so far, you have to mention Tyrese Maxey and his brilliant play. Quite simply, he’s playing like one of the best guards in the league so far, averaging 27.6 points per game along with 6.7 assists. In a prime time game against the Pacers this past Sunday, he put up his first ever 50-point game. He’s thriving under new coach Nick Nurse’s system, and so is the rest of the team.
3. Victor Wembayama is everything he was hyped up to be.
I can’t lie, I had my doubts about Wembayama when he was hyped up by the media, not because of anything he did or didn’t do, but because I believed we were building expectations that there was no way he could reach. So far in his young career, Wembanyama has shown he is more than capable. He’s currently 2nd in the league in total blocks, and 3rd in the league in blocks per game. He’s shown an understanding of the game far beyond his years on the defensive side, and his team can feel the impact of that. The Spurs have a 27.0 defensive rating swing when he’s on the court compared to when he’s not. That kind of impact by a 19-year-old is unheard of. The offensive side of his game is still developing, but we’ve seen what he’s capable of. In a close win against the Phoenix Suns, he scored 38 points along with 10 rebounds and 2 steals. He was the best player on the court late in the game, on a court that also had all-time-great Kevin Durrant on it. The craziest part about all of this is that Wembanyama can only go up from here. We’re only three weeks into this season, into his career, and he may already be a shoe-in for the All-star game. It’s safe to say all my doubts have been thoroughly expelled, and I can’t wait to see how great Victor Wembanyama can be.
Nathan Castimore is a third-year Communications Studies major. NC973905@wcupa.edu