The first half of the NBA season might have been one of the most entertaining in recent history. Two teams are currently on pace to win 70 games, the Eastern Conference is vastly improved and teams that struggled early in the year are picking it up big time.
Reigning NBA MVP Stephen Curry is playing at an all-time level. Meanwhile, first-year players are making more of an impact this year than we saw at any point over the past decade or so.
Now that we have a clear sample size, it’s time to check in on some of the biggest winners and losers from the first half.
We know about the Golden State Warriors. We also know about the San Antonio Spurs. But who lost the most over the first two and a half months of the season?
A certain guard in Chicago has struggled to rebound from a laundry list of injuries. Meanwhile, a playoff team from a season ago out west struggled through a 1-11 start to the year.
Here are your biggest winners and losers from the season’s first half.
Winner: The defending champs
At 38-4 heading into the second half of the season, the Golden State Warriors are on pace to best the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls for the best record in Association history — a record that most thought was unbreakable.
Despite some recent struggles, the Warriors find themselves in clear position to defend their title. That was magnified to a T in a 34-point win over the defending Eastern Conference champion Cavaliers in Cleveland on Monday.
Not only is Stephen Curry playing the best basketball of his career, both Klay Thompson and Draymond Green have taken that next step.
For Thompson, it’s improvement on the defensive side of the ball that stands out the most. He’s been among the best defensive two-guards in the entire NBA.
That’s an amazing accomplishment considering Thompson was viewed as a one-trick pony when he entered the Association out of Washington State a few years back.
On the other hand, Green might very well be the MVP of the team. What he’s done from an overall basketball standpoint is absolutely stunning. In addition to a NBA-high eight triple-doubles, Green is averaging 14.7 points, 9.3 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game.
With the improved play of Festus Ezeli, Brandon Rush and Harrison Barnes, the Warriors are also deeper than we saw last season — a scary proposition for the rest of the NBA.
Loser: Anthony Davis and the New Orleans Pelicans
This isn’t as much about Davis’ performance thus far this season. When on the court, he’s been among the best players in the NBA. A clear MVP candidate heading into the year, Davis is averaging 22.8 points and nearly 11 rebounds per game.
Unfortunately for Davis, the rest of the Pelicans have failed to step it up. They started the season with 11 losses in their first 12 games and head into the second half of the season in last place in the Southwest Division.
Injuries to key players have obviously played a role here, but Alvin Gentry’s scheme simply hasn’t taken hold early in his stint as the team’s head coach.
The good news here is that New Orleans is playing in a weakened Western Conference, which is an indication that the team could very well make a play for one of the final playoff spots when all is said and done.
In order for that to happen, other players behind Davis are going to have to step up. That’s simply something we haven’t seen this year.
Winner: NBA fans
There really is some high-level basketball being played right now. Both San Antonio and Golden State head into the second half of the season on pace to win 70 games. Back east, the product has been vastly improved from previous seasons.
As of the end of the first half, the Boston Celtics are the eighth seed at two games over .500. This comes a year after the Brooklyn Nets earned the final seed with a 38-44 record.
In terms of all-around play, the likes of Chris Paul, Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook are all having their best seasons. Meanwhile, the rookie class — led by Karl-Anthony Towns and Kristaps Porzingis — is looking darn good.
From an overall basketball standpoint, it’s great to see at least three championship-caliber teams with San Antonio joining the two Finals teams from a season ago. Behind them is a group of a half dozen teams that could potentially challenge for the title.
The Jordan era may have represented the best basketball we have seen. If not that, some might conclude 80’s era NBA was the best. Even then, today’s product isn’t lagging too far behind.
Loser: Derrick Rose
Jimmy Butler With/Without Derrick Rose This Season
With Without
Games 33 6
PPG 20.4 34.3— BucciOT.Com (@Buccigross) January 16, 2016
Rose is the only member of the Chicago Bulls starting lineup to post a negative plus-minus during the first half of the regular season. This just goes to show us how much he has struggled coming back from myriad of injuries he’s suffered throughout the years.
Another representation of just how much Rose has struggled, he’s shooting 24 percent from three-point range while committing 2.8 turnovers per game.
It might not be at the point where Fred Hoiberg has to consider relegating Rose to a bench role, but the Bulls might reach that point relatively soon. Simply put, he’s been Chicago’s worst rotational player through the first half of the season. That’s just sad to see.
Winner: San Antonio Spurs
On pace for 70 wins, the Spurs are playing the best basketball we have seen under Gregg Popovich. That’s insane considering just how successful San Antonio has been under Pop.
The torch has been passed in San Antonio, which is one of the primary reasons this squad is playing at a championship level.
Playing at a MVP level, Kawhi Leonard is averaging 20.1 points and 7.0 rebounds per game while shooting a whopping 51 percent from the field.
Meanwhile, Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili are all playing less than 30 minutes per game.
The idea here is simple. Transition to a new era of Spurs basketball with Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge while keeping the veterans rested.
This has the Spurs on pace for the best record in franchise history. It also has them No. 1 in the NBA in field goal percentage and tops in the Association in points against.
Loser: Western Conference
While Golden State, San Antonio and Oklahoma City lead the pace with some absurd records, the rest of this conference has struggled a great deal.
Coming off a 10-game winning streak, the Los Angeles Clippers are also playing much better basketball.
Instead, it’s the likes of the Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies that have sorely disappointed.
These are two teams that combined to lose 53 games last year. Through the halfway point of the 2015-16 season, they have lost a combined 40 games.
Despite this, both Houston and Memphis find themselves pretty much locked into a playoff spot.
At 24-19, Memphis is currently the No. 5 seed. This comes on the heels of the team relegating Zach Randolph to bench duties earlier in the campaign.
Having fired Kevin McHale after just 11 games, the Rockets find themselves locked into the seventh seed at 22-21 on the year.
This just goes to show us how bad the back end of the Western Conference has been in 2015-16.
Consider this: At 16-25 halfway through the season, the Denver Nuggets are just two games out of the eighth and final seed.
This comes one year after an injury-plagued Oklahoma City team missed out on the playoffs with a 45-37 record.
Based on all this, there’s one reasonable conclusion we can draw when the postseason come calling. The first round of the Western Conference Playoffs will be completely void of drama. The top three or four teams will be huge favorites heading in.
Winner: Kristaps Porzingis
Porzingis is likely going to compete with Minnesota Timberwolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns for Rookie of the Year honors. This is a drastic change from fans in New York showing some angst after the Knicks selected him No. 4 overall in June.
The Latvian big man enters the second half of his rookie season averaging 13.9 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game.
This has been good enough for him to act as a No. 2 option behind Carmelo Anthony for a Knicks team that is surprisingly in the playoff race heading into the second half.
The key here for Porzingis will be to find a way to remain relatively fresh as the season draws on. The 20-year-old big man never played more than 50 games professionally overseas. That’s something to keep an eye on moving forward.
Loser: George Karl
Karl may have his Kings in the midst of a playoff race out west, but he’s had to deal with a whole heck of a lot during what was an inconsistent first half of the season for the team.
Karl’s frustration boiled over following a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers earlier this month.
It’s been a long 40-plus games for Karl. From DeMarcus Cousins continuing to show immaturity with technical fouls to his Kings not getting up to play against inferior competition, this isn’t what the 64-year-old head coach had to envision when he decided to join what was then a sinking ship last spring.
While Karl does have his team playing decent basketball, he’s obviously not the long-term solution in Sacramento. This has led to some rumors that he might be on the outs.
That’s an utter shame considering the situation Karl himself was put in when he agreed to coach this talented but immature squad.
Winner: Cleveland Cavaliers
Let’s put aside the 34-point butt whipping Cleveland suffered against the defending champs on Monday. Despite that horrible showing, the Cavaliers have proven themselves to be the class of the Eastern Conference.
At 28-11, this is also a team that could very well flirt with 60 wins when all is said and done.
The most-impressive aspect of Cleveland’s success thus far this season was that it put up a stellar record with Kyrie Irving sidelined for the first 26 games of the season.
With Irving looking healthy and everyone else on the roster on board, the Cavaliers can now focus on securing that top seed back east. Whether it will be enough to compete with whoever might come out of the west is a completely different question.
Loser: Lionel Hollins
Dealt a dirty hand by Nets’ ownership prior to the season, Hollins acted as the fall guy for an organization that has to be among the worst in the NBA.
Hollins was let go following a 10-27 start to the season. This came on the heels of him leading a talent-stricken Nets squad to the playoffs a season ago.
There’s absolutely nothing to like about this organization right now. The face of the franchise is a 27-year-old center with extensive injury history.
Outside of that, Brooklyn’s second-best player is an individual in Thaddeus Young who was thrown out like trash by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Kevin Garnett trade last season.
But let’s place blame on a head coach that was simply attempting to keep the ship from sinking. Makes perfect sense to this one scribe.