What We Learned During First Week of the NBA Season

And just like that, the first week of the NBA season is in the books.

Joel Embiid and Paul George have yet to play together for the Philadelphia 76ers, Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry sprained his ankle and could miss multiple games and the New Orleans Pelicans are already without prized offseason acquisition Dejounte Murray, who fractured his left hand. 

Not every team has been hit with early-season adversity. 

Three are off to perfect starts, among them the defending champion Boston Celtics.

There’s a lot of basketball left, but here are three things we’ve learned so far:

Celtics are still the team to beat

Riding the bench for most of Team USA’s gold medal run at the Paris Olympics clearly stuck with Boston star Jayson Tatum, who has made any critics of his game eat their words by averaging 28.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.5 assists. He is connecting on 51.3 percent of his shots from the field and 41.9 percent of his attempts from downtown. 

Tatum has been the driving force behind the Celtics’ 4-0 start, but whoever opposing teams decide to sag off of can still inflict damage. What Payton Pritchard did on Monday night in a 119-108 win over the Milwaukee Bucks is a perfect example. He came off the bench, drilled eight threes, finished with 28 points and was in bed by midnight.

If you’re only as good as your weakest link, Boston has nothing to worry about. Everyone is contributing, and the Celtics are averaging 124.3 points per game despite not having big man Kristaps Porzingis (ankle).

Once he comes back, the sky is truly the limit for this team.

Tyrese Maxey is the 76ers’ most important piece

Employing Embiid and George is all well and good for Philadelphia, but that duo can only make an impact if it's out on the floor. 

That hasn’t been the case so far, making Maxey the Sixers’ frontman for the time being. He fully embraced the role on Sunday, pouring in 45 points as Philadelphia beat the Indiana Pacers 118-114 in overtime for its first win of the campaign.

Sure, Embiid and George missing three games right now might not be a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but they’re not going to go out there and have a clean bill of health for the remaining 79. It’s not a matter of if injuries will plague them again; it’s when.

Maxey could end up logging the most minutes for the 76ers this season, so don’t be surprised if he completely takes over the spotlight. 

This draft class is brutal

Last year’s draft gave us Victor Wembanyama, and it now looks like the basketball gods are making us live in squalor. 

Zaccharie Risacher and Alexandre Sarr, the top two picks in the 2024 class, have been, well, uh, underwhelming—to say the least. Does it help that Risacher is on the Atlanta Hawks and Sarr landed on the Washington Wizards? No. But still, you’d think one of these guys would have shown us something by now.

Risacher, who went first overall, and Sarr got their first head-to-head look at each other on Monday when Washington edged Atlanta 121-119. Instead of fireworks, we got sparklers from the dollar store, as Risacher finished with more fouls (five) than points (four) while making 1 of 8 shots from the floor.

Sarr wasn’t much better, going for seven points on 3-of-11 shooting. He also had nine boards.

It’s going to take a Hall of Fame career from Bronny James to save this draft class.