Biggest Individual Winners and Losers of the 2014-15 NBA Preseason
With the start of the 2014-15 NBA campaign close enough to taste, now seems like a good time to run down the nearly concluded preseason's most and least palatable performances.
We'll stretch the parameters a bit so we can touch on the key storylines emerging during exhibition season, but we'll do it by focusing specifically on individual players.
For guys stuck in less-than-ideal situations like Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony, we'll have to hope the preseason isn't a harbinger of things to come...even though it probably is. At the same time, we'll be rooting for the big winners—a list that includes breakout candidates and former MVPs alike—to sustain the momentum they've built when the games really start to matter.
Finally, and not least of all, we'll celebrate mustaches as necessary.
Because why wouldn't we?
Winner: Steven Adams, Oklahoma City Thunder
1 of 10
To be completely honest, Steven Adams sewed up his winner designation the second he debuted his mouth brow at the Oklahoma City Thunder's media day.
When you show up for an event at which you're certain to be photographed hundreds of times with that thing on your grill, you've got the self-confidence and devil-may-care carriage of a winner. End of discussion.
But Adams did more than rock the NBA's best preseason facial hair; he went on to post some scary numbers—numbers that should finally (finally!) make Kendrick Perkins a fixture on the pine.
Through his first seven contests, Adams has averaged 12.7 points and 6.9 rebounds on 68.4 percent shooting from the floor. He can pass, he defends the rim, and he's brutally physical—as evidenced by his average of 3.86 fouls in just 25.7 minutes per game.
He's also just 21 years old.
I guess that makes the Thunder a pretty big winner, too.
Loser: Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers
2 of 10
There's actually a strong case to be made for Kobe Bryant being a preseason winner.
He hasn't had any significant physical setbacks, he's leading the league in sound bites, and for a guy with 45,567 regular-season minutes on his legs, he looks pretty darn good.
For all that, Bryant is a loser.
Why? Not because of his 39.6 percent shooting. And not because of his missing lift.
Bryant is a loser because he's stuck in a situation that is going to end badly, a situation he is at least partially responsible for creating. The percentage of blame Bryant deserves for the Los Angeles Lakers' two-year holding pattern is a point of serious contention, and one best avoided here.
The important point, and the one that pegs Kobe as a loser, is that the Lakers are going to struggle. They profile as one of the league's worst defensive clubs, Steve Nash's familiar nerve issue has already resurfaced, and Byron Scott is catching heat left and right for antiquated coaching principles.
It's almost impossible to envision the Lakers as a playoff team, and that's going to drive one of the league's best-ever competitors nuts.
It's absolutely incredible that Bryant—at his age (36) and with his recent injury history—looks like he can be a solid NBA player this season. But he's probably not going to have any fun in the process.
With the clock winding down on his career, you can't help but feel forlorn for Kobe this season.
Winner: Klay Thompson, Golden State Warriors
3 of 10
Klay Thompson has never needed much space to get shots off, but now he's got more of it than he knows what to do with.
New head coach Steve Kerr has transformed the Golden State Warriors from a stagnant one-pass-and-shoot offense into a perpetual motion machine of handoffs, cuts, screens and ball rotations. The result has been comically open looks for the team's perimeter shooters.
Thompson, in particular, has flourished.
Per Ethan Sherwood Strauss of ESPN.com, Kerr said, "Klay [Thompson] is at the point of his career where he’s very close to being an All-Star."
Fresh off an eye-opening performance at the FIBA Basketball World Cup, the blossoming guard has enjoyed a scorching preseason. Through six games, he's averaging 19.5 points in just 25.2 minutes.
Thompson has connected on 51.2 percent of his field goals and an absurd 56.2 percent of his triples.
Perhaps best of all, he's doing all this at a time when the Warriors are considering his worthiness for a hefty contract extension. The Dubs have until Oct. 31 to lock him up, lest he enter restricted free agency next summer.
This seems like a good place to mention that in addition to space, great shooters also value timing.
That's clearly the case for Thompson.
Losers: Fallen Heroes
4 of 10
Kevin Durant: Jones fracture.
Bradley Beal: wrist fracture.
Rajon Rondo: broken hand.
Brook Lopez: sprained foot (yes, that foot).
Steve Nash: nerve irritation (luggage induced).
Every preseason, you know a handful of big names will go down. You just hope none of them stays down for long.
The good news for all of the aforementioned players is that, outside of Nash's uncertain prognosis, none of them figures to be out for more than a few months. We haven't had any season-enders since Paul George broke his leg over the summer.
Small blessings, I guess.
These guys aren't losers by any fault of their own, but their preseasons haven't gone as planned.
This is bumming me out. Let's move on.
Winner: Kyrie Irving, Cleveland Cavaliers
5 of 10
Really, everyone on the Cleveland Cavaliers roster could qualify as a preseason winner.
LeBron James is a hometown hero (again) with more toys to play with than he's ever had.
David Blatt has options galore.
Kevin Love is going to make the playoffs.
But Kyrie Irving, probably the game's best ball-handler, is the biggest victor of all because he now has the unfair luxury of playing alongside teammates to whom defenders absolutely must stay glued. That creates loads of space and forces a single defender to focus on Irving without the prospect of much help.
The 2014-15 campaign is going to be one long And-1 mixtape for Uncle Drew, and the preseason is already hinting at what he'll do against hamstrung defenses that can't focus entirely on keeping him away from his spots.
Irving has averaged 22.3 points in 31 minutes, shooting 53.3 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from long range. Numbers aside, he's been getting everything he wants in transition and has routinely caused havoc getting into the lane. Thanks to kick-out options that range from "really good" to "flat-out elite," he's making the easy decisions.
His 5.7 assists per game look fantastic against just 1.3 turnovers.
Defensively, Irving has a long way to go. But if this preseason is any indication of how things will play out during the year, we're in for an offensive explosion from the 22-year-old guard.
You've been warned.
Loser: Matt Barnes, Los Angeles Clippers
6 of 10
Matt Barnes shot 1-of-7 against the Warriors on Oct. 21, and his field-goal percentage went up.
It's a good thing we all agreed long ago that the preseason is meaningless because if we hadn't, there'd be serious cause for concern in Clipperland.
Doc Rivers' club is woefully short on wings behind J.J. Redick, who has played more than 70 games in a season just twice in his career. In 2013-14, Redick logged only 35 games. With Jared Dudley gone and Reggie Bullock apparently not ready to take over meaningful minutes, that leaves just Barnes and Chris Douglas-Roberts to man the wings.
Barnes shot 43.8 percent last year, and he's a career 44.8 percent shooter—not great but passable because of the edge, smart cutting and defensive intensity he brings.
He's also 34 years old, though, and decline is inevitable. Nobody expects him to shoot under 10 percent during the year, but if he can't be at least a marginal threat, the Clips offense is going to suffer.
It's a whole lot easier to cover L.A.'s deadly pick-and-roll game if you can ignore perimeter shooters.
Barnes needs to step it up if the Clippers want to see defenses play them honestly this year.
Winner: Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls
7 of 10At the risk of inviting a jinx that would probably result in a lifetime ban from the state of Illinois, I'm going to say something: Derrick Rose is back.
Now, again, I like Chicago. It's a great city, and I'd love to someday return for a visit. If Rose gets hurt, wears down or for any other reason falls apart during the year, I don't want to be held responsible. I'm just stating the facts here.
Besides, I'm not the only one sold on D-Rose. His sterling 30-point effort against the Cavs on Oct. 20, complete with vintage end-to-end drag-race drives and discerning offensive orchestration, forced a lot of observers to wax happy on what might finally be fair to call "The Return."
Per K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune, it didn't matter that the Chicago Bulls dropped that contest to the Cavs: "All that should matter to the Bulls is that Rose looked like he got shot out of a cannon, scoring 20 first-half points en route to 30 on 12-for-18 shooting. That included 4-for-5 from three-point range."
It was something to see. More importantly, it was something we hadn't seen for years.
This version of Rose feels stable—to the extent any player with so little regard for his own physical well-being can feel stable. We don't have to squint to conjure up images of the former MVP when we look at him now. If we're honest with ourselves, we had to do that in Rose's last abbreviated season.
The blinding speed is back, as is the recklessness.
That's a win for Rose, the Bulls, Chicago and everyone else who just wants to see the NBA's best players on the court.
Loser: Carmelo Anthony, New York Knicks
8 of 10
Question: What do Andrea Bargnani, Amar'e Stoudemire, Quincy Acy and Jason Smith have in common?
Answer: None of them is Carmelo Anthony.
Bonus Answer: They are all likelier to start over Melo at the 4 for the New York Knicks this year, according to Anthony Rieber of Newsday.com.
In fairness, the biggest loser in this scenario is the Knicks organization. Anthony was an absolute monster as a power forward last year. Per 82games.com, he posted a player efficiency rating of 27.1 at the position. His PER as a small forward was 22.0.
And defensively, he held opponents at both spots below the league's average PER—13.7 as a small forward and 14.8 as a power forward, respectively. Taking only the numbers, it's baffling that Melo isn't a lock to start at the 4.
Come on, Knicks; this isn't complicated.
Starting Anthony at power forward would mean playing two of Iman Shumpert, J.R. Smith and Tim Hardaway Jr. together in the first unit. And maybe that's worrisome to the Knicks. But it shouldn't be as scary as giving a starting role to any of the four guys currently vying for that power forward gig.
How is Melo the loser in all this?
Simple: He's losing out on the position at which he's most dominant, and he'll be stuck in a starting lineup with a supporting cast that'll be less potent than it could otherwise be, which makes the Knicks worse.
And we all know who catches the blame when the Knicks underperform.
This isn't fair to Anthony on any level.
Winner: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Charlotte Hornets
9 of 10
Notice anything different about Michael Kidd-Gilchrist's jumper?
For starters, you probably don't have the urge to run out of the room screaming, hoping against hope that you'll someday be able to un-see those mechanics.
In addition, you'll also note MKG gets to show off his revamped shooting form in sweet new duds. That's a double win.
Thanks to tireless work with former NBA sniper Mark Price, Kidd-Gilchrist now looks like a real NBA player when he shoots the rock. And that's important, because in all other facets of his game—perimeter defense, rebounding, passing—he very much is a real NBA player. One who, up until now, simply couldn't make a bucket outside the lane.
His new jump shot, which features an elbow now pointed at the rim instead of toward his own left shoulder, has turned him into a player no longer afraid to shoot from beyond the restricted area.
"The progress is looking good, even if the results aren’t quite there yet. In his first four preseason games, Kidd-Gilchrist has taken 13 jump shots from 15 to 19 feet out, which is already a quarter of his total attempts from that distance in 62 regular-season games last year (53).
"
The term "work in progress" applies in a big way, but it sure feels like we're past the days when MKG's field-goal percentage outside of three feet topped out at 31.3 percent (which is what he made from 3-10 feet last season), per Basketball-Reference.com.
You're a preseason winner, MKG. Onward and upward.
Loser: Jeremy Lamb, Oklahoma City Thunder
10 of 10
We're going to remember this preseason as the one when opportunity came knocking at Jeremy Lamb's door and the Thunder guard was out buying Kevin Durant a get-well-soon gift bag.
The departure of Thabo Sefolosha and Durant's injury should have combined to make 2014-15 Lamb's breakout year. At the very least, he should have used the preseason to take and make a ton of shots as the team vetted him for the starting shooting guard position.
He got the first part done, at least.
"Of players who've appeared in at least three games, only Blake Griffin and Kobe Bryant are averaging more shots from the field than Lamb. Here's how that's working out: His shooting line is 30.4/14.3/77.1. Those are actual numbers. He's also averaging the exact same number of assists as he is turnovers. It's discouraging, to say the least.
"
I'll say.
Lamb is running out of games to capitalize on what should be the chance of a lifetime. The Thunder aren't asking the world of him; all he has to do is score at a respectable rate as the defense ignores him to focus on Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka.
If he can't turn this thing around, Andre Roberson, Perry Jones III and Reggie Jackson will snatch up the opportunity Lamb should have grabbed weeks ago.
Stats courtesy of RealGM.com unless otherwise indicated and accurate through games played Oct. 21.
