Nikola Jokic is still absurd, the Warriors are back, and 9 things we’ve already learned about the NBA this season

We're over 10 percent of the way through the 2024-2025 NBA season. While that remains a small sample size in the grand scheme of things, it's enough to start drawing some conclusions about what we think we know.

Nikola Jokic? He remains a terrifying force of nature who literally does it all and then some for the Denver Nuggets. The return of the Golden State Warriors? Hoo, buddy, they're making it feel like the mid-2010s again. A slate of underwhelming also-rans everyone was really optimistic about as contenders? Well, there's still time for the Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, and Philadelphia 76ers to turn it around. But they really shouldn't lollygag for any longer. Their respective fanbases' collective sanity depends on it.

What's stood out from the early portions of this NBA season? What feels sustainable, and what's pretty alarming when you consider the deeper ramifications? Let's talk about it all with some early-season lessons.

1. Nikola Jokic has widened the gap between him and the NBA’s second-best player to a comical degree

I touched on it in a column earlier this week, but it's worth repeating.

Nikola Jokic, a man with three regular-season MVPs and an NBA Finals MVP, is somehow ... better than ever. In this early portion of the season, the do-it-all big man is the biggest reason Denver remains a top-class championship contender.

Seriously, folks, Jokic is essentially averaging a 30-point triple-double on 67 percent true shooting so far. Do you understand how hard that is to do on a nightly basis? Do you understand how much sheer responsibility he holds on his shoulders for Denver's success every single night? According to Cleaning the Glass, the Nuggets have a 43.7 on/off differential with Jokic. I mean, my goodness. While Denver does have a good and promising core, it would be nothing without Jokic's success.

There's a clear edge to Jokic's approach this year, and he has subsequently turned the gap between himself and whoever you think is the NBA's second-best player into a Grand Canyon-sized chasm. In case they were still raging on, those debates are over. This Serbian dude is in another stratosphere compared to any of his peers.

It's time to shed all "arguably" sentiments when talking about the clear best player in the world.

2. The Cleveland Cavaliers are legit because they're finally leaning into their strengths (also, they're healthy)

Last year's Cavaliers were good, not great. They had talented players like Donovan Mitchell but were mostly nothing to write home about. Under ex-head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, you could usually game-plan for them and exploit their biggest weaknesses without breaking much of a sweat.

That is not the case under new head coach Kenny Atkinson, who guided the Cavaliers to the eighth 12-0 start in NBA history. Five of the last seven teams to accomplish that feat qualified for the NBA Finals. Suffice it to say, the Cavaliers are legit. And you wanna know why?

Because they finally know who they are.

Neither member of Cleveland's starting backcourt -- Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell -- are stalwart defenders. But they still fight hard through screens and force opposing guards and forwards into the lane against perhaps the NBA's best defensive frontcourt between Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. Garland has morphed back into an efficient facilitator and the perfect complement to Mitchell's penchant for microwave scoring. Ty Jerome is an early top candidate for Sixth Man of the Year. And everyone touches the ball in an offense that emphasizes constant movement -- the Cavaliers are seventh in the NBA in assists per game (28.2).

Even from a glance, the Cavaliers' overall resume is impressive. Cleveland is first in points scored, seventh in points allowed, second in offensive rating, and sixth in defensive rating. That's unimpeachable. It also helps that the Cavaliers are finally healthy. Pillars like Mitchell and Mobley missed significant time last season.

Now, they're keeping a contender in an awesome groove.

3. Giannis Antetokounmpo deserves so much better from the Milwaukee Bucks

As he usually has over the last half-decade, Giannis Antetokounmpo is currently averaging a 30-point double-double. He dropped 59 points the other night, showing that the 29-year-old is still at or near the top of his game. And the Bucks are 4-8. The only time they were over .500 was after winning their season opener. Yikes. Yuck. Gross. However you want to put it.

How did the Bucks get here? They doubled down on a 2021 title-winning roster that needed a healthy retool instead of simply running it back. Every current Bucks starter is in their 30s (sans Antetokounmpo, who will turn 30 in early December). In trading for a semi-washed Damian Lillard, they surrendered Jrue Holiday, a dynamite point-of-attack defender they have to replace. To move past former head coach Adrian Griffin, they hired Doc Rivers, the modern NBA coach infamous for squeezing as little as humanly possible out of his rosters.

Antetokounmpo is an all-time great, one of the most unique talents we've ever seen play basketball. It sure feels like the Bucks are wasting his time. At this point, Milwaukee's only saving grace is that it plays in the Eastern Conference, which means that even with that disaster 4-8 record, it's still just 1.5 games back of a top-four seed.

Unless the Bucks turn it around in earnest over the next few weeks, don't be surprised if Antetokounmpo requests a trade. He deserves more.

4. So does Erik Spoelstra from the Miami Heat

Erik Spoelstra is widely considered the best coach in the NBA. He's probably going to coach the U.S. men's basketball team at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He could really probably turn a [expletive] sandwich into a chicken salad if you know what I mean.

But these mediocre Miami Heat are testing that limit. After Spoelstra's rage non-timeout blew a win against the Detroit Pistons the other night, let my pal Prince Grimes tell the story here:

Prince is absolutely right. The Heat have an incredible coach. They need to start doing right by him again.

5. Norman Powell is the Most Improved Player in the spirit of what the award should actually reward

I'm with my friend, Mike Sykes: no second-year player should ever win Most Improved Player.

NBA sophomores are already expected to make sizable leaps. Their candidacy is not legitimate in that regard. I would also extend this to third-year players who have already made big leaps in their second year and are now just a little better (like, say, the Oklahoma City Thunder's Jalen Williams).

If we want the Most Improved Player honor to be more respected, the early-season frontrunner is easily the Los Angeles Clippers' Norman Powell -- a long-time NBA veteran finally shining in a much bigger role. For years, the 31-year-old Powell has plugged away as one of the league's better bench scorers as a sixth man. However, with Paul George in Philadelphia and Kawhi Leonard nursing a knee injury, Powell has been forced to step up and play more in the Clippers' rotation.

In a year where Powell is currently averaging 24.9 points per game, 3.4 rebounds, and 2.6 assists while shooting nearly 50 percent from behind the arc, he hasn't missed a beat. The man has been around the NBA forever. He's been one of the league's good soldiers. As long as he can maintain this level of play, the Most Improved Player award should be his to lose.

6. Tyrese Haliburton flew too close to the sun, and so did the Indiana Pacers

Last year's Pacers made the final of the NBA Cup. They made a surprising run all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. They were fun and fast, and their joy on the court was palpable and enriching for even the most casual of NBA observers. They were supposed to build on that success this season. Instead, it's time to start wondering what's wrong.

The problems mainly start and end with starting point guard Tyrese Haliburton. After earning his first-ever All-NBA selection last season, there hasn't been much juice to Haliburtion's game. He's averaging just 16.4 points, 8.5 assists, and four rebounds per game. His true shooting percentage is just 50.7. These numbers aren't bad by any means. But they're hardly that of a person many believe is a franchise cornerstone worth building around. They're more like second-option numbers, at best. If we're being honest, they're more in line with who Haliburton was during the second half of last season -- a solid player but not the full-on superstar we thought he was.

Of course, hamstring issues might be the culprit for Haliburton's relative problems. They plagued him throughout much of last season and ended his playoffs early, too. It's fair to wait for him to return to comfortable form when you know this. But until Haliburton starts playing like a legitimate talisman again, you can likely safely write off the middling Pacers. They are not the same team unless he is firing on all cylinders.

7. The Timberwolves are probably cooked unless Anthony Edwards is a quality volume 3-point shooter

The Timberwolves were forced to offload Karl-Anthony Towns for second-apron reasons. They were forced to work notorious ball-stopper Julius Randle into their already flawed offensive lineup. And after back-to-back losses to the lowly Portland Trail Blazers, one thing is fair to wonder:

Does Anthony Edwards have it in him to carry a roster that otherwise has a dearth of playmaking and creating?

This seemed to be the case in the early season when Edwards started on a heater from behind the arc. The star guard shot an unreal 50 of 104 (48 percent) from the 3-point line in the Timberwolves' first nine games, carrying Minnesota to a 6-3 record while alleviating its spacing concerns. In the three games since Edwards has been shooting just 8 of 33 (24 percent) while still jacking up roughly 10 attempts per game. It's no coincidence Minnesota has lost three straight.

Edwards will have his good shooting nights throughout the year. He is too talented to expect anything less. But this process where he's a high-volume 3-point shooter in the vein of Steph Curry isn't remotely sustainable. As a downhill scorer with a sparkling mid-range game, he's just not that kind of player. That might be a death blow to a flawed Timberwolves team that needs greatness from him at all costs.

8. The Golden State Warriors have staying power in their resurgence, and the Phoenix Suns do not

Two surprising teams are near the top of the Western Conference so far this season: Steph Curry's Warriors and Kevin Durant's Suns. But I'm here to tell you only one of these squads has a sustainable process, and it's the one with the greatest shooter in history.

We tend to think of the Warriors as this tremendous jump-shooting squad. That they're overly reliant on 3-point attempts because Curry plays for them. When that's not really the identity of their team. At all.

At the core of Golden State's early-season success is some trademark defensive dominance spearheaded by Draymond Green. The Warriors are fourth in the NBA in defensive rating, namely because they have the ultimate defensive quarterback (Green) corralling a deep group of defensive wings with Andrew Wiggins, De'Anthony Melton, Brandin Podziemski, and Jonathan Kuminga. They hound opposing teams like no other in the clutch and let Curry (and, to a lesser extent, Buddy Hield) close games on offense. That offense, especially, is actually driven by constant cutting, not 3-pointers. Only the Nuggets are averaging more cuts per game, which tells you how much the Warriors are moving around and stressing opposing defenses.

On the flip side, the Suns have bought into new head coach Mike Budenholzer's math philosophy of getting as many 3-point attempts up as possible. They're averaging 41.2 attempts per game, which makes sense with a roster featuring Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, and Tyus Jones, among others. But Phoenix still does not defend (it's just 17th in defense). Its offense is just 11th because it has no other notable dimensions besides shooting 3s like other contenders. And the best big man on the team is, uh, Jusuf Nurkic? These are not recipes for sustained success.

The Warriors will probably continue to cruise. Don't be surprised when the Suns fall back to Earth.

9. The New York Knicks will be fine, and the Philadelphia 76ers won't be

Finally, we go to the Eastern Conference and center on two struggling teams who were supposed to be contenders. At the time of this writing, both the Knicks and 76ers are under .500. New York's starting lineup -- with Karl-Anthony Towns in the fold -- has one of the worst defensive ratings in the NBA. Philadelphia, meanwhile, has yet to play a single game with all three of its stars available: Joel Embiid, Paul George, and Tyrese Maxey.

In more projection, I actually think the Knicks will be fine in the long run. I do not share that same faith about the 76ers. Yes, you guessed it, it's because of health.

One of the biggest reasons the Knicks are struggling to stop teams is because they're playing Towns out of position at center. He's shown he's a good individual defender in the past, but having him act as your defensive anchor in the paint on a nightly basis is shaky. And when OG Anunoby is playing power forward as the low man, you're just asking for trouble. I have a feeling that New York will stabilize and start making a run when Mitchell Robinson returns so they can slot down Towns into his natural position.

I'm less optimistic about the 76ers because their hole is already so big. Even if they have the good fortune of playing in the East, starting 2-9 is horrific. Philadelphia will have to go on an extended winning streak just to fight back to .500. The likelihood of that happening seems minimal when you recognize that Embiid won't play on back-to-backs all year, George is older, and has played in more than 56 games just once since 2018, and that Maxey likely needs the gravity of Embiid on the floor to feature like a star. Plus, even if Philadelphia is more concerned about the playoffs now, the 76ers' big three needs time to gel and develop chemistry over the course of the entire season. If all three guys aren't going to be consistently healthy, it's going to be a lot of stopping and starting any time they start to build a good rhythm.

The Knicks will be one of the last teams standing in the East. The 76ers have to hope they even get to put the finish line in sight.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Nikola Jokic is still absurd, the Warriors are back, and 9 things we’ve already learned about the NBA this season