Now That We're At The NBA's Midway Point, Let's Talk About What We've Learned So Far

In a blink of an eye, we're already at the midway point of the 2022-23 NBA season. That alone feels crazy to me since I could have sworn Opening Night wasn't too long ago. After tonight, pretty much every team in the league will have played either 40 or 41 games, so for the sake of this blog let's just all agree that we're at the midway point. 

We've seen a lot of basketball over the first few months of the season and I think it's safe to suggest that not everything has gone according to what we thought way back in October. Below is a list of stuff that has stood out to me thus far as well as some learnings now that we have a sample size large enough. Let's dive in

Good luck deciding the MVP

I know we generally say this every season, but this year's MVP race really might be the tightest one in recent memory. Through 40 games, can you confidently say who the MVP is at the moment? Nope, you can't. You can make the case for the following guys

Nikola Jokic

Jayson Tatum

Kevin Durant

Giannis

Luka

Donovan Mitchell

Joel Embiid

and that's just the short end of it. There's a strong chance we see Jokic defeat voter fatigue and actually win 3 in a row because he might be having the best year of any of his MVP seasons. Tatum is the best player on the best team while also throwing up elite two way numbers. Kevin Durant looked like Prime KD before his injury. Giannis still exists and is doing normal Giannis things despite some efficiency regression. Luka is making history practically every time he steps on the floor. Nobody is even really talking about Embiid and last I checked he led the league in scoring and is inching closer to a top 4 seed.

There have been seasons where maybe this race was close between 1 or 2 guys. But we're at around 7 right now where I don't think anyone would be shocked if they won. That's pretty freaking insane.

We were all wrong about the Nets

I made the jokes, you made the jokes, everyone made the jokes. There was supposed to be dysfunction, Kyrie was supposed to quit, KD was unhappy, it's OK to admit that the first half of the season has taught us that we were all drastically wrong about what was going on in BKN. Firing Steve Nash clearly helped, and watching them it looks like that roster has complete buy in. 

Suddenly, the Nets have the 2nd most wins in the NBA, they own the 3rd best point differential in the East to pair with the 4th best offense, 9th best defense, and 4th best net rating. BKN leads the NBA in TS% and are 5th in plus minus.

When all that shit was going down this summer and then at the start of the year, did anyone think something like this was possible? It just goes to show that talent truly wins over drama, especially when that talent shows up.

Everyone stinks on the road

Here's something I bet you had no idea about. Of the NBA's 30 teams, guess how many are above .500 on the road?

Two (2).

That's it. That's the list (as of the writing of this blog). Those teams are the Celtics (13-7) and the Nets (14-8). No other East teams and no other teams in the West currently find themselves above .500 away from their own building. Some are a little confusing like GS' 3-16, but you can see how important homecourt might end up being if none of these teams are going to be able to win on the road.

If we compare this to last season, 6 of the top 7 seeds in the East finished above .500 on the road and 5 of the top 7 out West. It certainly doesn't feel like we're going to have that many this year and that is NOT something I saw coming. 

Donovan Mitchell was worth the price

One of the biggest topics of the offseason was the Donovan Mitchell trade. The Cavs certainly gave up a good amount of capital in order to bring him in, and other franchises like the Knicks were praised for not going too far. Listen, all I know is Donovan Mitchell is even better than the UTA version and the UTA version was one of the best players in the NBA.

The fit in CLE has been seamless, there's been no issue between Mitchell and Garland, and after watching the Cavs fizzle out last year because they struggled having another shot creator next to Garland, I'm not sure it gets better at the point guard position at that than Mitchell. Whatever the price was, it was clearly worth it and I wouldn't be surprised if there were teams that were kicking themselves right now for not being in on the Donovan Sweepstakes.

Rudy Gobert was not worth the price

At 20-21 so far this season, the Wolves currently rank 14th in team defense. Pairing Gobert with KAT looked like a disaster in their 401 minutes together, barely putting up a positive net rating while sharing the floor (-0.7).

This was their all in move. The one that was going to get them into contention out West because in theory it was supposed to shore up their biggest weakness. That hasn't happened, KAT got hurt and DLo's tenure is probably about to be over. Given what they paid to bring Gobert in, the early returns on that trade are drastically different compared to what we see happening in CLE.

There was no NBA Finals hangover for the Celtics

Yes, I'm probably the only one who cares about this one, but it certainly was nice to see. A lot of questions about the Celts heading into the year after the brutal Finals loss and then their head coach getting suspended because he was a slimeball. To me, the immediate response to the start of the year proved to me that the Finals loss wouldn't really hang over this team, and that they are primed for another deep run barring health.

They look just as dominant now as they did over the final 4 months of last year, and the NBA's best record backs that up.

The power of the Victory Beam is real

If you are someone who is not actively rooting for the Kings this year, you are a gigantic asshole. I'm not sure many people had this Kings team above .500 at the midway point, a team that is leading their division and has a top 5 seed. Sure this can be attributed to the leap De'Aaron Fox is making, Sabonis playing at an All NBA level and some savvy front office trades/moves.

The real reason? The Victory Beam. Good luck convincing me that didn't completely change this franchise forever

Previous success hasn't meant shit

For some teams, they are given the benefit of doubt becaues of what they may have achieved in prior seasons. So when a team starts poorly it's more of a 

"Whatever, they'll be fine and the bad teams ahead of them will come down to earth"

Uhhh, I'm not so sure that's going to happen. Look at the East for example. Barring injury, teams like the Pacers and Knicks are much better than they were given credit for. I'm pretty sure the Pacers have already hit their win total. Meanwhile, that's not great news for teams like MIA/CHI/ATL/TOR. Those were teams many thought would be somwhere in the top 6-8 right? Well, now there's a chance they all could find themselves in the Play In or worse.

If this season has told us anything, it's that you can't really have the approach of expecting some of these other teams to drastically regress. The talent is too good at this point. 

Offense is getting insane

As of today, 5 players are averaging at least 30 points a game. Last year, that number was 1. The year before, it was 2. We've already had 1 game over 70, 2 games over 60, 12 games over 50, and 77 games from 40-49 points. Every single night it's someone new which is why watching games is so fun. You could get a historic Mitchell 71 or a ridiculous Lauri Markkanen 49.

Some say it's because nobody is playing defense compared to the golden era, but that's not really true

To me, it comes down to this. The talent has never been better, guys are taking more efficient shots (layups/3s) and they are better than ever before at making layups and 3s. Add in some defensive legislation to make things a little easier, it's not because teams are suddenly bad at defense or aren't playing defense. The offensive talent is just that special.

The trade deadline will probably disappoint

With how close everything is in the standings, are we sure there are even going to be sellers at the deadline? Even if there are a few, there are going to be so many more buyers than normal I feel like so chances are we don't get trade chaos. Nobody is going to want to punt on their season if they feel like one good week could have them right back in the race.

On the other side, if you are a seller, well given the demand of how many buyers there'll be, chances are everything is going to cost way more than normal. Maybe you could get a guy for a rotation player and a pick. Well in a month, it might be a rotation player and two picks. Or a better rotation player than you thought. Given that the trade deadline is the best part of the year, all this parity is probably going to kill it. What a bummer.

Anyone can get caught on any given night

We've seen some wild shit so far when it comes to shocking results.  The Thunder blowing out the Celts by 30+, the Hornets blowing out the Bucks by 29, the fact of the matter is if you think you can sleepwalk in any game this year, you're going to be upset once you see the final score.

If you look at how teams did vs teams under .500 last year, teams in the top 6 generally stayed under 12 losses, with only a couple having double digit losses (2 in each conference).

This year? In the East, 5 of the top 6 already have 5 losses against teams that are under .500. In the West, no team in the top 6 has under 6, with the Mavs already having 10.

The point? Bad teams aren't really as bad as you think. There's enough talent on these rebuilding teams where they can catch anyone on any given night. Shit, the Magic have already won 8 in a row this year and they only, have 15 wins total! 

While this can be frustrating as a fan when your favorite team drops one of these games, it does make the day to day watching of the league way more enjoyable. Not having any idea who is going to win is actually a good thing, who knew!

I'm sure there are more that have stood out to you, so sound off in the comments below. If the second 41 ends up being just as good if not better as the first 41, we're in for one hell of a ride that's for sure.