NBA Panic Meter: How Worried Should Heat, Knicks and Nuggets Be This Early? - Sports Illustrated
By Google News Sports ·
How soon is too soon for an NBA team to be desperate? Although no team has even played 10 games yet, a few squads have an early whiff of misery.
Some are the usual suspects. The Kings and the Nets are both 1–6. Teams beginning a rebuild like the Bucks and the Clippers are right there with them. All of that was expected to a degree. Other teams that were thought to be contenders have had worse starts than anticipated. The defending champion Knicks started their season 0–3 before getting back on track. Miami’s splashy offseason was quickly soured by an 0–4 start.
In the Western Conference, the Suns are in a similar spot. Then there’s the Jazz, who were expected to take a step forward, reeling just seven games into the new year. There’s so much season left and it’s way too early to write any team off, but there’s enough of a sample size to raise alarm bells.
Here’s a look at seven teams across the league off to lackluster starts. Is there a legitimate cause for concern or is it all smoke and mirrors?
The start to Miami’s Giannis Antetokounmpo-Bam Adebayo experiment has been rough. Giannis still does what he does, but Adebayo struggled out of the gate. Adebayo has come on offensively over the last few games, however, averaging 22.3 points and 9.0 rebounds over the Heat’s last three.
Although Erik Spoelstra’s group fought off an 0–4 start, the Heat have some searching to do. Their only wins are against the Hawks and a Pacers team that was without Tyrese Haliburton and Ivica Zubac. The biggest question around Miami was the supporting cast around Antetokounmpo and Adebayo. Davion Mitchell is off to a good start, but Klay Thompson shot 31.7% from the field over his first five games and can’t be trusted as a defender. Andrew Wiggins hasn’t been effective and there hasn’t…
Originally published by Google News Sports