Panic Meter for Struggling NBA Contenders: Knicks, 76ers, Bucks Down Bad
It's been a rough start to the NBA season for a number of teams we perceived to be playoff contenders.
Several top teams in the East have struggled thus far, even after making some notable offseason acquisitions. The Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers have hovered near the bottom of the conference, while the Orlando Magic haven't been able to generate any sort of offense.
Are the New Orleans Pelicans only grounded due to their vast amount of injuries or do their issues run deeper than that?
It's time to run five playoff teams from last season through the panic meter.
Milwaukee Bucks: Extremely High Panic Level
1 of 5
Record: 2-8
Net Rating: minus-5.1 (22nd overall)
Experiencing a six-game losing streak just eight games into the season probably wasn't the start the championship-hopeful Milwaukee Bucks had in mind.
Their only two wins have come over a Philadelphia 76ers team missing both Joel Embiid and Paul George and a 1-6 Utah Jazz franchise that's very much in a rebuild.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard are still putting up juicy numbers, but only one other Buck (Bobby Portis, 13.3 points) has even cracked a double-digit scoring average. We're still waiting for Khris Middleton to make his season debut following offseason surgery on both ankles.
We thought getting Gary Trent Jr. on a minimum deal was one of the summer's best signings, although the 25-year-old was recently benched following averages of just 7.3 points and 0.9 assists a game on 29.5 percent shooting overall. The Bucks desperately need better depth around their stars.
This franchise ranks in the bottom half of the league in both offense and defense, Antetokounmpo has apparently given up on shooting threes (0-of-3 total in his first seven games), and there's not enough young talent to believe this situation will get better anytime soon.
Milwaukee could still end up being a playoff team with the return of Middleton, although it's clear this roster isn't anywhere close to winning a title.
New Orleans Pelicans: Medium Panic
2 of 5
Record: 3-7
Net Rating: minus-10.6 (27th overall)
The New Orleans Pelicans have been ravaged by injuries in the early going.
Zion Williamson, Dejounte Murray, CJ McCollum, Herb Jones and Trey Murphy III have missed more than 34 combined games through New Orleans' first 10 contests, with Brandon Ingram serving as the lone starter suit up every night thus far.
So does this mean we can blame all of the Pels' struggles on injuries?
Not exactly.
There's still no good answer at center on this roster, as veteran Daniel Theis and rookie Yves Missi have split starting duties. New Orleans (unsurprisingly) has a negative net rating with each, as Missi (minus-11.8) has looked extremely raw.
In the short term, it's a good thing the Pels didn't trade Ingram over the summer as they've needed his scoring on a nightly basis. When Murphy returns to the court, though, New Orleans should again be shopping Ingram in hopes of landing an upgrade at center.
New Orleans just needs to try to scrape some wins together while players work their way back to the court before this franchise makes a panic trade. There's still a lot of talent here, but center remains a big issue.
New York Knicks: Low Panic
3 of 5
Record: 4-5
Net Rating: plus-4.0 (9th overall)
The New York Knicks haven't necessarily had a bad start to the season, but even a .500-ish beginning isn't what they likely expected following such an exciting summer.
Adding Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges to a core of Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and others is a massive amount of talent on both ends of the floor, a collection the Knicks should be patient with.
A 4-5 start to the season is close to same record New York posted last year to open 2023-24 (5-4) before eventually winning 50 games and securing the No. 2 seed in the East.
The biggest difference for the Knicks this year has been the change from Isaiah Hartenstein to Towns, especially defensively. New York's defense improved by 4.1 points per 100 possessions with Hartenstein on the floor last year. Now with Towns, the Knicks defense is giving up a whopping 14.2 more points (7th percentile, via Cleaning the Glass), or an 18.3-point-per 100 possessions swing between the two centers.
Tom Thibodeau is as good as any head coach when it comes to the defensive side of the ball, although even he may have a tough time fixing a defense that currently ranks 21st overall.
It's not time to panic by any means, but New York shouldn't be happy with how they've defended thus far.
Orlando Magic: Medium Panic
4 of 5
Record: 5-6
Net Rating: plus-2.2 (13th overall)
Last year the Orlando Magic were an elite defensive team who struggled with playmaking and making threes.
This season is, well, pretty much the same.
Orlando ranks second overall defensively but has fallen all the way to 25th on offense. The Magic also rank next to last in three-point accuracy (30.4 percent), a noticeable drop from even a lackluster spot (35.2 percent, 24th) a season ago.
Paolo Banchero has missed some games, although even the core of Banchero, Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs has registered just a 111.7 offensive rating, ranking in the 34th percentile according to Cleaning the Glass.
The big signing of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has been a disaster thus far (6.9 points, 21.6 percent from three) even though he's actually getting more open looks this year than last season with the Denver Nuggets.
This roster still needs a playmaking point guard and some additional shooting off the bench to be considered a title contender.
Philadelphia 76ers: High Panic
5 of 5
Record: 2-7
Net Rating: minus-7.3 (27th overall)
It's hard to imagine a worse start to the season for the Philadelphia 76ers, a team that's now endured injuries to all three of its All-Stars.
Joel Embiid has yet to play in a game due to issues related to his left knee and is currently suspended for shoving a reporter in the locker room. Paul George only recently made his 76ers debut and now Tyrese Maxey will be sidelined for a few weeks due to a hamstring injury.
We may not see the Big 3 of Embiid, George and Maxey actually play together until after Thanksgiving. Even when Embiid and George are healthy, the 76ers will be limiting their time on the court.
"We're going to be smart about it," president of basketball operations Daryl Morey told ESPN's Tim Bontemps. "Part of being smart about it is having both Paul and Joel probably not play many back to backs, if any."
We knew that this core could have issues in a few years as Embiid (30) and George (34) only get older and more expensive. Having their stars miss this many games already together in Year 1 has been nothing short of a nightmare in a 2-7 start to the season.
Outside of the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers, the East has been pretty bad, however. The Sixers could win two-or-three games in a row and be right back in the playoff picture.
We'll withhold complete panic until Embiid returns to the court (projected for Tuesday, Nov. 12th), although this situation has the potential to get real dark real fast for Philly.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
