Five early-season surprises in the NBA: Ajay Mitchell, Austin Reeves and more

We are officially one week away from NBA The season and level of competition across the league was unreal. It seems like every nationally televised game has gone to overtime, if not double overtime. Victor Wimbanyama plays a style of basketball that has never been seen before. Stephen Curry is cooking his usual dishes. Luka Doncic Average 46.5 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 8.5 assists.

But on some level, none of this is surprising. We knew the Knicks would shoot more 3-pointers under Mike Brown (they already are) and we knew the Celtics would probably struggle (they did). But what about things we didn’t expect to happen? This could be a long list (is the Jazz any good?), but I’ll focus on five of the best Week 1 surprises.

Austin Reeves is your leader in total points

Reeves’ legitimate card has long been stamped, but this is something else. Through four games, Reaves is averaging 35.8 PPG. His 143 total points are tied with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for the lead in the league, which begins play on Tuesday. He went for 51 Sunday in a win over Kingshe missed a triple-double with one assist and became the first player in history to score at least 50 points, eight rebounds and eight assists on 80% true shooting in a single game.

Then he backed that up with 41 on Monday in a loss to the Blazers.

Do the math, and that’s 92 points in about 30 hours for Reaves, who is bidding for a max contract when he becomes a free agent next summer. The numbers speak for themselves, but it’s worth noting that Reeves did what he did against the Blazers, even though he was the clear focus on defense with both Luka Doncic and LeBron James out.

Reeves has made a league-leading 51 free throws so far and he’s not shining. He’s more elusive than you think and a real power-hitter. He’s one of two players in the league to average at least 35 points, eight boards and six rebounds (the other being Luka Doncic, who has played in just two games), and his 57/43/88 shooting is scorching by any measure, not to mention the volume that Reeves has energized.

Reaves’ usage will certainly decrease when James returns, but by playing like this, you can make the case that LeBron is the one to adjust to what might be LakersNew dynamic binary, short and long term. A first-round All-Star selection could be in Reeves’ sights if he continues at anything close to this level.

Kuminga and the Warriors have moved on An arranged marriage of basketball soulmates In the blink of an eye. Through four games, Kuminga, who had 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting, 10 rebounds and four assists in the Warriors’ win over Memphis on Monday, is averaging career highs across the board: 18 points, eight rebounds and four assists on 69.5 true shooting percentage.

Kuminga has never been anywhere near this efficient. He’s never rebounded like this. It passed like this. Drive like this. His surprising feeling about Steph’s playoff movement system for the Warriors and his place in it was clear. Steve Kerr has been glowing about Kuminga’s maturity, and understandably so. After his contract saga soured this summer, he returns to a team that only seemed to sign him because no one else would trade him much, likely with the intention of still trading him before the deadline, and playing with that kind of commitment to, well, a team These are extraordinary things.

With significantly less usage than was required in the past, Kuminga does more work than ever before; The mid-range, single-tasking guards he shot at at a paltry percentage are long gone. After a couple of bad shots in the season opener, he played essentially perfect basketball, and as such appears to have cemented himself, at least for as long as this lasts, in both the starting and finishing lineup.

Back when the Warriors signed Kuminga to a two-year, $46.5 million deal this summer, with a second season being a team option, it was widely viewed as a contract priced to move. But if Kuminga continues to play like this, barring some sort of star deal in which Kuminga is the outgoing central figure, Golden State may not be able to afford to lose him.

The bulls are undefeated!

Everyone’s favorite “what the hell is their plan” line began the season with wins over the Pistons, Magic and Hawks – all teams widely considered Eastern Conference contenders – by way of a 104.4 defensive rating tied with Oklahoma City for the league’s class.

This won’t last. But the Bulls look really good with a deep roster quietly filled with quality NBA players, six of whom (Nikola Vucevic, Josh Gedi, Ayo Dosunmu, Kevin Huerter, Matas Bozlis and Trey Jones) are averaging 13 PPG or more. They’re contesting every shot (even if there’s always shooting luck built into defensive metrics early in the season, it shows), and they’re rebounding at a top-five rate to go with all those stops.

In the win over Atlanta on Monday, eight players scored at least 12 points, led by Dosemno, who scored 21 points off the bench. Vucevic has been on fire all year, albeit likely unsustainably. Jedi plays like an all-star. Dosumnu, a red-hot defender, made nine of his 15 3-pointers. If you haven’t already grabbed a seat on the huge Buzelis train, sorry, there’s no room left.

Things are about to get tough for the Bulls, who face the Knicks twice, the Sixers, Bucks, Cavs, Spurs, Pistons and Nuggets in eight of their next 10 games. We’ll see if this is something to really talk about or just a false hot start from a team heading right back into action, but something tells me this is a team that’s going to cause a lot of problems for a lot of opponents this year.

Just when you thought the Oklahoma City Thunder, with a young championship roster and 11 potential first-round picks over the next seven drafts, couldn’t get any richer, here comes Mitchell and perhaps the Breakout player of the young season.

It didn’t come completely out of left field. You saw his potential last season in the offseason/clearance and he was one of the summer league stars, but there was no room for him to get consistent minutes. He was not part of the playoff rotation. But with Jalen Williams, Isaiah Joe and Kenrich Williams out for the start of the season, Mitchell took full advantage of his time to shine by scoring at least 14 points in all four games off the bench.

These are not complementary things. He was a legitimate scorer in crucial periods, almost impossible to guard at times with his outstanding balance, shifty/stop-and-start pacing, and deft gray zone touch in traffic.

MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander says Michel “knows how to play,” and as generic as that assessment may seem, it couldn’t ring truer. Watch the footwork. Master the video tutorial in its demo and navigation tours. His pump craft is fake. His mid-range bag is deep. He can do it both ways, and his acceleration on downhills packs a punch.

It’s actually laughable that OKC, with all its talent and future assets, has a good guy lurking in the shadows of the depth chart. Every team in the league would kill for a backup goaltender like this; the mavericks, missiles, timberwolves, Or six other teams will jump at the chance to include him as their team Getting started Point guard now. This is not a coincidence. This dude can play it flat. He’ll be a major contributor for the Thunder even when all those guys return, and he could become one of the league’s hottest trade assets as the deadline approaches. As if the Thunder needed more of those.

Buffet consisting of 50 pieces

The regular season is one week old and we’ve already had four 50-point performances. Aaron Gordon went crazy in Denver’s opener against the Warriors with 50 on 10 3-pointers. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hit a career-high 55 in a double-overtime win over the Pacers. Austin Reeves, as mentioned above, pinned 51 for the Kings on Sunday. On Tuesday, Lauri Markkanen gave the Suns 51.

This is only the second time in NBA history that we’ve had four 50-point games in the month of October (Wilt Chamberlain did it four times himself in 1962, and Blake Griffin, Stephen Curry, Derrick Rose and Kyrie Irving did it in 2018). That gives us four nights, starting Tuesday, to break the record with another 50 pieces.

Honestly, the record should have been broken already. Luka Doncic went to the line with 48 points against the Timberwolves but could only split free throws before finishing at 49.