With the Super Bowl now in the rear-view mirror, sports fans might find themselves with some extra free time in their busy schedules, and a powerful desire to fill it. Resist the urge to reconnect with family members or commit to community service, my friends, for I bring you good news: The NBA is here for you.
The end of the NFL season dovetails nicely with NBA business really starting to pick up: the trade deadline last week, the 2025 NBA All-Star Game this weekend, and the subsequent seven-week sprint to the end of the regular season, setting the table for what promises to be a fascinating playoffs. If you haven’t been locked in since October and want to get up to speed for the stretch run, I’ve got you covered; in case you missed it, we now join the 2024-25 NBA season, already in progress:
Last I saw, the Celtics were winning the title. Are they still good?
Yep! If the most recent image of the NBA in your mind’s eye is a celebration on the court at TD Garden, you probably won’t be too surprised to hear that the Celtics remain awesome. Boston enters Monday’s matchup with the Heat at 37-16, with the NBA’s No. 3 offense and No. 5 defense. Jayson Tatum’s on his way to a fifth straight All-NBA selection, and Jaylen Brown just made another All-Star team. After missing the first month of the season rehabbing his surgically repaired ankle, Kristaps Porziņġis has gotten back up to speed, shooting 46% from 3 in 2025. Derrick White and Jrue Holiday are still holy terrors for opposing offenses to deal with, and third guard Payton Pritchard might be the Sixth Man of the Year.
The Celtics basically forgot how to shoot for like a month and are still on pace for 57 wins. They’re not in line for the No. 1 seed in the East, though.
Whoa! So who is?
The Cavaliers, who won their first 15 games, tied for the second-longest season-opening winning streak in NBA history, and haven’t looked back. They’re, like, LeBron-era good.
Cleveland is 42-10, 5.5 games up on Boston in the race for the East’s top spot, fueled by a retooled offense under first-year head coach Kenny Atkinson that not only leads the NBA in points scored per possession, but ranks as one of the most efficient attacks the league has ever seen.
The Cavs will send three players to All-Star Weekend in San Francisco — established superstar Donovan Mitchell, point guard Darius Garland and making-the-leap big man Evan Mobley — and had a real case for a fourth in rock-solid center Jarrett Allen. They moved to address their biggest weakness at the trade deadline, bringing in ex-Hawks forward De’Andre Hunter — 6-foot-8, 235 pounds, averaging 19 points per game on 39.3% 3-point shooting — to add more size and scoring on the wing in hopes of better matching up against opponents with elite perimeter talent.
Such as?
Well, Boston, for starters, but also — in a potential Finals matchup, if we can be permitted to think such lofty thoughts — Oklahoma City, which has built on last season’s run to the second round of the playoffs and has the look of an absolute juggernaut.
With MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and first-time All-Star Jalen Williams leading the way, the Thunder own the NBA’s best record, at 42-9; its best net rating, outscoring opponents by a mammoth 12.9 points per 100 possessions; and a smothering defense that’s running neck-and-neck with the 2004 Spurs and 2008 Celtics for the stingiest unit in the league since the ABA-NBA merger in 1976.
Top offseason addition Isaiah Hartenstein missed the first 15 games of the season with a fractured hand; OKC went 11-4 without him. Rising star big man Chet Holmgren missed nearly three months with a fractured pelvis; OKC went 32-7 without him. The Thunder have had their hoped-for twin towers look for all of one game and 15 minutes so far this season, and they’re still on pace for 68 wins with the largest average margin of victory in NBA history. With a 7.5-game lead on second-place Memphis, it’s looking like the road to the Finals in the West will run through Oklahoma City.
Hey: “second-place Memphis?”
Yep! Youth is being served in the West, where three of the NBA’s seven youngest rosters are in position for home-court advantage right now. (Oklahoma City only has two players over 26 playing rotation minutes: Alex Caruso and Kenrich Williams. Yeesh.)
The Grizzlies have bounced back from their disastrous, injury-ravaged 2023-24 to zoom right back up to second place in the West at 35-17, with All-NBA candidate Jaren Jackson Jr. joining a (mostly) healthy Ja Morant and Desmond Bane to lead an incredibly deep roster to the NBA’s fourth-best net rating, behind only OKC, Cleveland and Boston. And under hard-charging head coach Ime Udoka, the precocious Rockets have soared to fourth place at 33-20, with first-time All-Star Alperen Şengün and athletic revelation Amen Thompson headlining a physical and aggressive team with a top-five defense and — somewhat surprisingly, given its lack of perimeter shooting — a near-top-10 offense.
OK, so the Thunder, Grizz and Rockets are three of the top four seeds in the West. Who’s the fourth?
That’d be the Denver Nuggets, who have the NBA’s third-best record and net rating since Christmas, thanks to strong stretches from secondary scorers Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., to the ongoing resurgence of Russell Westbrook … and, primarily, to the perpetual excellence of Nikola Jokić, who is averaging 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 10.3 assists per game, putting him on pace to join Westbrook and Oscar Robertson as the only players in NBA history to average a triple-double for a full season:
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After winning three of the last four Most Valuable Player awards, maybe you thought we’d already seen the best of Jokić. Well, maybe you should think again … and maybe the big fella’s about to run that total up to four of the last five MVPs.
Who else is in the MVP conversation with Jokić?
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Gilgeous-Alexander, who’s leading the league in scoring at 32.7 points per game, leads the NBA in raw plus-minus by 230 points, is tied for second in steals and top-30 in deflections for that elite Thunder defense and has been the best player on the best team in the NBA. Decent case!
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Giannis Antetokounmpo, who’s second to SGA in scoring, fifth in rebounding and 29th in assists per game, and who has largely carried the Bucks back to within hailing distance of a home-court spot in the East after their flailing 2-8 start. A persistent calf issue will keep him out of the All-Star Game, and more missed time will drop him below the 65-game threshold for year-end awards; if he’s eligible for a spot on the ballot, though, he’d be tough to keep off of it.
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Tatum, the metronomically consistent bellwether for Boston, averaging just under 27 points, nine rebounds and six assists per game as the prime mover in the Celtics’ elite offense while also enabling their amoebic versatility and physicality on defense.
You could toss a bunch of other names in the running for a fifth spot on your hypothetical MVP ballot, but those are probably the four who’d come up first in the “conversation.”
What about Wemby?
Well, the Spurs are 22-28, so I’m not sure how many MVP votes Victor Wembanyama will wind up getting.
… but what about Wemby, though?
I mean, dude’s been incredible: 24.3 points, 10.9 rebounds, 3.9 blocks and 3.6 assists per game, taking almost nine 3s a game and making 35% of them, continuing to look like an optical illusion every time he takes the court. It’s just that, when you’re in 12th place in the West, staring up at not exactly jugernauts like the Kings, Suns and Warriors in the play-in race, you’re probably not going to be that close to the MVP race.
Have you seen his highlights?
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He should be on the list.
OK, OK, fine, jeez.
Hey, isn’t Joel Embiid typically on this list, too?
Yeah. But injuries — mostly to his left knee, although there was also another facial fracture sprinkled in for good measure — have limited him to just 16 games and fewer than 500 minutes so far.
Between that, massive free-agent signing Paul George also missing a bunch of time (and looking shakier on offense than he has in more than a decade when he is on the court), and overall struggles with defending, rebounding and creating shots, the Sixers have been pretty brutal. Philly’s a dismal 20-32, relegated to slugging it out with the likes of the Magic, Hawks and Bulls for a play-in spot, closer to the rebuilding Nets and Raptors than they are to contention and headed for their worst season since Embiid’s curtailed rookie campaign. Good thing the Eagles can provide some psychological cover and run emotional interference for them; it’s been a long season.
Same question, except plug in Luka Dončić for Embiid.
Yep! He’s played in only 22 games this season, though — been out since Christmas with a left calf strain — and won’t make that 65-game threshold.
Man, that sucks. I bet the Mavericks can’t wait to get him back.
… hoo boy.
OK, so, here’s the thing: Luka’s not on the Mavericks anymore. Dallas traded him.
What?!?!? He just took the Mavs to the Finals like five minutes ago! Why in the world would they do that?
Well, there have been a bunch of different rationales floated. (None of which seems to justify the jettisoning of a 25-year-old perennial All-NBA First Teamer, but hey, your mileage may vary.) Mostly, they center on Dallas’ interest in prioritizing defense, concerns about Luka’s conditioning and some nebulous, seemingly pregnant terms like “character” and “culture.”
“In my mind, the way teams win is by focus, by having the right character, by having the right culture and having the right dedication to work as hard as possible to create a championship-winning outcome,” Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont said in his first public comments about the move. “And if you’re not doing that, you’re going to lose. If you look at the greats in the league, the people you and I grew up with — [Michael] Jordan, [Larry] Bird, Kobe [Bryant], Shaq [O’Neal] — they worked really hard, every day, with a singular focus to win. And if you don’t have that, it doesn’t work. And if you don’t have that, you shouldn’t be part of the Dallas Mavericks.”
There you have it, I guess?
Man. Mavs fans must be losing their minds.
Yeah, they are decidedly not stoked.
So, did one of those teams with like a million draft picks at least give Dallas everything for him?
… not exactly. The Lakers got him for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and one first-round pick.
… Luka plays with LeBron now?!?!?
Yep, although they haven’t played together yet. Luka sat out his first three games since the trade. He’s expected to make his Lakers debut on Monday night against the Jazz.
So are the Lakers a title contender now?
Weeeeeeellll …
I mean, they’re definitely pretty good, entering Monday at 31-19, just a game and a half out of third in the West. And I think there’s a decent chance that an offense built around Luka, LeBron and Austin Reaves on the perimeter, with Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith spacing the floor, could light up the scoreboards. It’s tough to see L.A.’s 18th-ranked defense getting appreciably better without AD or a near-equivalent replacement manning the middle, though.
The opportunity to build around Dončić for the long haul made the trade a no-brainer for the Lakers. Right now, though, “awesome offense and below-average defense” might not represent a dramatic improvement in this season’s championship chances. (Although I bet nobody out West is thrilled about the prospect of seeing Luka and LeBron come mid-April.)
What about AD? Has he debuted yet for Dallas?
Yep, and he went nuts — 24 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and three blocks in his first half as a Maverick!
Awesome! … Wait, why did you only mention the first half?
Um, he suffered a strained adductor muscle late in the third quarter that he said he didn’t think was a big deal, but might actually keep him out for a few weeks.
Jeez. Was that the only bonkers thing that happened at the trade deadline?
Well, Jimmy Butler’s on the Warriors now, which is kind of wild!
Especially because that only happened after Jimmy had been trying to get to Phoenix for like a month, except the Suns couldn’t find a taker for Bradley Beal’s contract and no-trade clause. So then Phoenix started seeing if maybe they could trade Kevin Durant, and maybe even deal him back to the Warriors! Except KD didn’t like that idea, and eventually Miami and Golden State just cut out the middleman to make the Jimmy deal and leave the Suns at the altar.
Oh, and the Lakers did another big deal, this time with the Hornets, for center Mark Williams … only to rescind the trade two days later, reportedly due to Williams (who has played just 85 of a possible 212 games across three pro seasons due to a variety of injuries) failing the Lakers’ physical. That was pretty weird.
Oh, and Dennis Schröder and P.J. Tucker were both technically employed by three different teams in less than a week. I guess that’s more, like, regular trade-deadline weird, though.
Yeah. You got any, like, trade deadline wrap-up stuff that I could check out if I want to dive deeper into all the moves?
You know I do, my man:
Thanks. So, who else is good this year?
The Knicks are third in the East at 34-18, on pace for 54 wins, and have the NBA’s No. 2 offense, thanks largely to the partnership of All-Star starters Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns. They’ve struggled against the best competition, though, going 0-5 combined against the Celtics, Thunder and Cavaliers — something to keep an eye on as the postseason approaches.
Don’t sleep on the team that beat the Knicks last postseason. The Pacers have been awesome over the past two months, posting the East’s second-best record in that span with Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam leading the way while also defending better than they did at any point during last season’s breakout.
For that matter, don’t sleep on the team that traded Towns to New York. The Timberwolves had an up-and-down start trying to establish equilibrium in a post-KAT, Julius Randle-ful world, but their win on Christmas kickstarted a 16-9 run that’s seen them field near-top-five units on both ends of the floor, led by Anthony Edwards, who’s averaging just under 30 points per game on elite shooting efficiency in that span:
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Also — and it’s still early, so we have to whisper about it, knock on the nearest piece of wood, throw some salt over our shoulder, etc. — the Clippers are 9-5 with Kawhi Leonard back in the lineup, have outscored opponents by 81 points in his 356 minutes and are plus-10.4 points-per-100 with him on the court. Be cool. Everybody just be cool.
Who’s not that good?
The Wizards — 9-43, on pace for the third-worst point differential in NBA history — are not only the worst team in the league, but on the short list of worst teams we’ve ever seen. The Pelicans, Jazz and Hornets are all pretty rancid, too. If any of that quartet tops 20 wins, it’ll be something of a surprise … especially considering this year’s prizes for being awful (and thus at the top of the 2025 NBA draft lottery odds) include Duke phenom Cooper Flagg, the Rutgers tandem of Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, and Baylor star V.J. Edgecombe.
Any pleasant surprises?
Yes! The Pistons have nearly doubled last season’s win total in Year 1 under J.B. Bickerstaff and have a real shot at finishing top six in the East and making their first playoff appearance in six years, with Cade Cunningham making his first All-Star team.
Also topping last season’s win total: The Trail Blazers, who have won 10 of their last 12 and defended at a league-best level in that span. Deni Avdija and Toumani Camara muscling up on the wing, Anfernee Simons bombing from 3, Scoot Henderson starting to find his way (42.7% from deep with a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio since Jan. 1) … hardly anybody’s paying attention to Portland, since it all started going down right before the trade deadline. This is the most life Portland has shown since before Damian Lillard left town.
I’m not sure the Blazers will be able to ride this wave all the way to the play-in tournament; they’re still 3.5 games out of 10th and would have to leapfrog three teams to get there. The fact that it’s even conceivable, though, represents significant, and very welcome, progress in Portland.
The phrase “significant, and very welcome, progress in Portland” suggests we’ve reached a pretty natural stopping point for this exercise.
Yeah, that’s probably a good call.
