Missing piece in Wolves’ championship tilt… is now in New York: Early NBA overreactions

Well, obviously the Pelicans certainly couldn’t have forecast Dejounte Murray suffering a fracture left hand in his first game for the team.

Although given New Orleans’ injury woes in recent years it wasn’t exactly surprising.

But either way, as much as it made sense for the Pelicans to move on from Daniels, it is quickly becoming clear that he is going to be a key piece of Atlanta’s future.

In New Orleans Daniels was largely seeing playing time for his elite defence and even still his minutes fluctuated, largely because an at times inconsistent role meant he was unable to get into much of a rhythm on the offensive end.

A new beginning in Atlanta, however, has brought the best out of the Australian guard.

It has been a natural progression following his breakout Boomers campaign, with Daniels looking a far more confident version of himself on offence — whether he is cutting, setting screens or shooting the ball.

He is the perfect compliment for a high usage player like Trae Young, and that isn’t even mentioning the way his defensive instincts free the Hawks superstar up to focus on his strengths.

Daniels said ahead of the season that he wanted to make the first team All-Defense and he is well on his way to doing just that, leading the league in deflections and constantly proving a menace for some of the NBA’s best scorers when matched onto them.

JOSH GIDDEY HAS A CAREER YEAR

It has been a rough few games recently from a shooting perspective, with Giddey going 1-for-8 from deep in losses to the Nets and Jazz.

But on the year Giddey has been much-improved, shooting a career-high 44.0 per cent from downtown — well up on his previous career-best of 33.7 per cent last season.

It isn’t as if he is attempting less 3-pointers either, averaging 3.6 this season compared to 3.0 in his final season with the Thunder.

Now, of course, there is going to be regression and that early production — especially on such a small sample size — isn’t necessarily going to sustain all season.

But still, it is not a stretch to suggest Giddey could record career-high numbers in points, rebounds and assists this season, surpassing the mark he set in his second year with OKC.

Giddey is already averaging 14.7 points (16.6 career-high), 7.1 rebounds (7.9 career-high) and 6.3 assists (6.4 career-high), with his rebounding and playmaking in particular looking impressive.

There is also the potential for Giddey to see even more on-ball usage given the Bulls shape as a potential seller at the trade deadline, although they have been solid to start the season.

But a 3-4 record in the Eastern Conference isn’t a lot to write home about given the Nets, who should be rebuilding, are 4-4 while the Cavaliers and Celtics have clearly separated themselves as the two best teams.

All of this is to say Giddey has made a productive start to his career at Chicago and there is every chance he could only become even more featured in the offence as the Bulls either move off someone like Zach LaVine at the deadline or look to get a better idea of what they have in the Australian before potentially offering him a new contract.

And given Giddey is playing for a new contract, he has every incentive to produce too.

IF THE LAKERS KEEP THIS UP… ANTHONY DAVIS MAY JUST WIN MVP

If MVP voters had to submit their ballot today, they’d be crazy to not have Anthony Davis’ name on it.

While usual suspects Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jayson Tatum have both been superb — and their teams’ records are slightly better — Davis has been on another level.

He leads the league in scoring with 32.6 points per game to go with 11.6 rebounds and while the knock on Davis has always been whether he can consistently produce at a high level, it seems like he has been empowered under new coach JJ Redick.

It isn’t a surprise either given Redick flagged in the pre-season that he wanted to make Davis more of a factor in the offence, getting the ball to him early and often in the paint and playing through the Lakers big man.

Although speaking to reporters after L.A.’s win over the Raptors last week, Redick said it wasn’t necessarily a case of just force feeding Davis at the expense of other players.

“It’s funny,” Redick said.

“Tonight, we ran a few things for him but it wasn’t like we featured him. It’s a testament to how we envisioned our offence. The ball is going to find our best players. We can certainly put guys in certain positions within our alignments and within our system to exploit their skills.

“But the ball is going to find AD if we play the way we want to play and then we always look for ways to feature him with a set call.”

As long as the Lakers keep winning and as long as Davis stays healthy, which admittedly has been an issue in previous seasons, there is no reason why he can’t put himself right in the conversation for the league’s greatest individual honour.

JAZZ TO CHALLENGE FOR THE NBA’S WORST RECORD

Now look, a team with Lauri Markannen is always going to be capable of winning plenty of games and Utah was able to pick up its first victory of the season against the Bulls on Tuesday despite being without Markannen.

But before that win things were looking really dire, with the Jazz dropping the first five games of the year by a combined 110 points after shooting 28 per cent from deep.

That mark easily ranked the worst in the league and given how important 3-point shooting is to offensive strategy in the modern NBA it is hardly surprising that Utah was struggling to stay competitive.

Of course, the Jazz aren’t going to be shooting this poorly all season but looking at the core pieces of this team outside of Markannen, it is about young guys like Walker Kessler, Keyonte George, Kyle Filipowski and Cody Williams finding their feet and taking the next step.

It is also about what draft pick they get come June next year and while there are plenty of other contenders for the worst record in the league — including the Wizards, Nets, Hornets, Pistons and Trail Blazers — the Jazz could realistically challenge them for it.

The Nets were supposed to be rebuilding this season but have enough firepower on offence, provided they don’t sell too many of their players, to win enough games.

The Hornets have looked sneaky good in spots led by LaMelo Ball while the Pistons and Trail Blazers have stayed competitive in some of their games while even winning a few others.

The Wizards, outside of back-to-back wins against the Hawks, probably look the most likely threat to the Jazz finishing with the worst record and as long as Markannen stays healthy you would have to think Utah will be able to win enough games.

But the way they started the season it is not out of the question.