By, leonard | Nov. 3, 2019, 8:06 p.m.

It’s NBA opening week, which means it’s time to draw a few too many quick conclusions. Here are a few scattered ruminations on what I’ve seen this week:

Steph Curry won’t go full alpha on offense. He’s subtly hyped The Steph Year on social media to start building his MVP narrative, but we’re looking at a different story on the court. The Warriors are sticking with their egalitarian, hand off driven, offense. It’s early, and losing may force Steve Kerr’s hand, but for now it doesn’t look like we’re going to a massive uptick in Steph Curry isolations and pick and roll situations. I’ll give Kerr credit for sticking with the long vision of things here: it’s probably a lost season for the Warriors. Kerr doesn’t want his multitude of 23 and under players to learn a different system from his proven formula. They’re assuming that with a healthy Klay, and an eventual trade of D’Angelo Russell for a more defensive oriented player who fits their system, they’ll be back as a powerhouse in 2021. Sticking with their offense of the past, even with lost firepower, will ideally train a lot of the young players to be intelligent role players on a future title team. Still, it’d be fun to see Steph truly go off, and Kerr will have to bend here at times, if the Warriors still aim to make the playoffs this year.

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Meta narratives, social media, performance art, all ingredients in the relationship between players and media. Beal is trying his dandiest to perform the correct mannerisms of a guy who won’t be abandoning ship. To me, the abandoning ship narrative has never been fair. The players with the talent should be able to assess their situations and decide where to utilize their talents. Beal has been in Washington for eight years, you can’t say he hasn’t given them a fair shot at fielding a competitive team, but if he eventually requests a trade, the press will paint him as a diva. The Wizards are fighting hard these first few games, and Beal just… seems like a more well rounded leader than John Wall ever was. Some of that is due to the more collaborative nature of Beal’s game, he doesn’t need to play on ball as much as Wall did. Some of that is because Beal just seems more even keeled than the enigmatic Wall ever was as a leader. The pats on the shoulder, the not chewing out young players for mistakes, the way the younger players seem to genuinely enjoy playing and husting for him, Beal is helping his case to be seen as “well yeah, he’s a LITTLE bit of a diva, but he tried his ass off for that team, and he DESERVES to play for a contender” by the press, when he eventually moves on. Which he should.

No, the Wizards don’t have a timeline that matches up with Beal’s prime, and the Wall deal is still an albatross, but there are glimmers of hope. Rui Hachimura is a natural scorer. He has the moves and temperament of a young Tobias Harris. When Harris first came into the league, he bounced around because his three point shot was almost non existent, and he was a minus defender. He added to his game every off-season, and is now a silky efficient scorer in almost every situation, and is at least a passable defender and rebounder. If properly developed, this is Hachimura’s ceiling. Thomas Bryant continues to impress with his great touch and effort, his extension looks like a steal. Isaac Bonga doesn’t have a discernible NBA skill yet, but he’s long and just… interesting… and plays hard.

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Dallas is a little ahead of the curve this year due to the usual sharpness of Rick Carlisle’s rotations. Everyone knows their role and plays to it. It hasn’t taken Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis long to gel. Delon Wright has been a revelation as a big time defender, Dwight Powell can still run to the rim, Maxi Kleber is a smart, efficient player. They just hum. I like them to win 45 games and push for a playoff spot. One knock on Porzingis: it wouldn’t kill him to roll to the basket instead of fading every time, hopefully when he’s more confident in his body after the injuries, that will come.

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A fallen, stubborn, mega star finally having to face himself, nearly losing everything, only to find a second chance to shine in Hollywood? It’s just a great story, and Dwight Howard finally is playing like a team guy. I never thought it would happen after seeing him in Atlanta and Charlotte: the insistence on low post touches, the constant smirk, the lack of defensive effort, the delusional locker room speeches. He’d be out of the NBA if he wasn’t, but Dwight is finally fully focused on using his body to grab rebounds, set screens, and play physical, aggressive defense. His body language looks different too, there isn’t a reluctance there, there’s an acceptance. I’m pulling for him to stick with the Lakers for the full season.

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Dejounte Murray is the real deal for the Spurs. They should look to pivot off of DeMar DeRozan within the next calendar year. Him and Aldridge don’t mesh particularly well, and he’s blocking the spots for younger players. Best of all, even without DeMar, the Spurs can continue to play smart, cranky, basketball inspired by Gregg Popovich’s disdain for the three ball.

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The Harden-Westbrook experiment is interesting. A lot of the Rockets problems in the playoffs have stemmed from only having one gear and pace. The TNT halftime crew have always nailed this: Harden led teams haven’t had the ability to work the ball around for a little bit and find a bucket. If you had told me five years ago that Russell Westbrook could be a catalyst for introducing a little more traditionalism to a team, it would have sounded insane. But he introduces a few more gears here: the ability to push in transition and either attack the basket or kick out, pick and rolls in the half court that allow Harden the ease of playing off the ball a little bit, his abilities as a cutter allow more improvisational looks on offense. They’re staggering, so even Harden ceding a little bit of ball handling duties won’t really cut into his touches by a significant margin, and should keep him fresher for the playoffs, and allow the Rockets to field a more diverse offense. Danuel House and Thabo Sefolosha have added some much needed defense for Houston too.

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Tyler Herro and Kendrick Nunn aren’t afraid to shoot, and the early results have been fun to watch. Jimmy Butler’s return will obviously reset the offensive pecking order, but the Heat should be a fun, gritty team all year. A team that could be in the market for Chris Paul or Kyle Lowry as the season goes on.

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Segway alert. I should’ve written, “it’s early” a half dozen more times than I have here, so I’ll throw it in, but Toronto looks good. Pascal Siakam looks like he can be The Man, or at least do a passable impression of one. Fred Van Vleet is absolutely ready to be a full time starter. OG Anunoby is still viewed by management as a top asset, and he looks way more comfortable shooting and putting the ball on the floor so far. This team is absolutely at least a 5 seed in the East, and is stout enough defensively to scare anyone. Masai Ujiri is a mastermind. Every small move he made since taking over for Bryan Coangelo led to the Raptors ability to gamble big and grab a superstar rental in Kawhi Leonard. He’s smartly positioned Serge Ibaka, Marc Gasol, and Kyle Lowry to be on short term deals. That way, if the team floundered this year, he could excuse trading all of them as necessary for a rebuild. Now, with the teams young assets performing exceptionally well, he needs to maneuver the middle game versus the long game. Winning another title is Ujiri’s goal. Despite Toronto never having clout as a free agency destination, he doesn’t have a “2nd round every year is fine” philosophy, not that there’s anything necessarily wrong with having that. Trading his vets for picks and assets may cost the team a few wins this year, but would put them in a position to possibly contend again, particularly if Siakam can continue to look like he’s taken another leap as the season progresses. People forget how much the Kawhi deal initially burned bridges with the fans and press: DeRozan was a career Raptor, and he was being given away for a rental coming off a mysterious injury season? It was seen as cold, especially as DeRozan had apparently been promised he wouldn’t be traded. Now, Ujiri faces the same dilemma with Lowry. His value is higher now than it’s going to be, and the smart move for the future is to move him to the highest bidder. There are teams that can convince themselves that adding him would push them over the top. Extending him for $32 million for the extra year is a conscientious and calculated move: it’s a preemptive apology for trading him. I trust Ujiri, and am buying futures stocks in the Raptors.

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The Kings look like they’re not in for a leap this year. De’Aaron Fox was able to take a leap last year because the offense centered around running in transition, versus feeding Zach Randolph the ball. The Kings can still run, and Fox has nice secondary options in Bogdan Bogdanovic and Buddy Hield, but the team is a little big and clunky. I don’t like Harrison Barnes at the small forward spot, and the Kings have a few too many bigs with mediocre shooting touches commanding major minutes. Long term, it shouldn’t be hard to swap a big or two for a wing (the Harry Giles Hype Train might finally be shown to be vapor), but Vlade Divac has also committed to big extensions to somewhat one dimensional players. Marvin Bagley has only played one game this season, and growth from him could do wonders. Watch out for the Kings on the trade market this year, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Divac move a pick for Kevin Love.

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The Ayton suspension sucks, but it’s nice to see the Suns playing like a competent team for the first time since the Dragic years. Devin Booker and DeAndre Ayton still excel at different paces, but bringing in Ricky Rubio to bridge the gap was a brilliant move. Booker has looked abjectly miserable the last few years, and Ayton felt he wasn’t getting the ball enough last year. Utah had to move on from Rubio and acquire more dynamic offensive pieces. I can’t think of any contending teams who could use a Rubio, yet he remains an above average player on both sides of the court. Rubio has a an enigmatic mischievousness that accompanies his effusiveness and contagious effort and enthusiasm. He knows what he’s been assigned to do psychologically more than Booker and Ayton know it. He has a Robin Hood and the Gang of Merry Men quality to him. And it’s working, things look a lot merrier in Phoenix. Rubio is empathetic and crafty, he knows how to balance things between Booker and Ayton. Throw in Dario Saric, Kelly Oubre, Aaron Baynes, Mikail Bridges, and it’s a fun, professional, tough, team. Rubio’s timeline probably doesn’t fit with the Suns in a couple of years. He can finish out his career going from melancholy young team to melancholy team, cheer them up and train them for the future. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a Knick in 2023.

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The “honeymoon” phase of Kyrie Irving’s relationship with his teammates is them marveling at his moves. But much like his offense is about avoiding contact through the most elegant improvisations, so is his leadership style. If they go on a big losing streak, he’ll avoid and wax bizarre poetics. I usually like his comments about the press’s relationships to their own narratives and how they frame them as organic as opposed to what they really are, cultural tropes. But uh… yeah, I still think he’s a bad leader because you can’t be a good leader and not know who you are. In any business or field. He thinks he’s a superstar and he’s not, and he will wear thin on his teammates this year.