7 NBA overreactions after one game of the 2022-2023 season

Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images

It’s time to overreact to what we saw on NBA opening night.

After one game of the NBA season, your favorite team is either winning the championship or on the verge of disaster. That’s typically how fans feel when they wake up to see either 1-0 or 0-1 next to their team in the standings. In reality, NBA teams are of course built to thrive or fail over an 82-game regular season, but that won’t stop us from making bold proclamations about what we saw in the season openers.

This list will not include anything on the Milwaukee Bucks or Los Angeles Clippers, because they are the only two NBA teams who didn’t play in the season’s first two days. Coincidentally, that’s my NBA Finals prediction for this year. For everyone else, it’s time to let some hot takes fly.

We did this after the first game of last season, too. It’s fun to look back on those takes now. Will this post age any better this year? Let’s find out.

1. The Pelicans are going to make a deep playoff run in the West

The Pelicans looked simply incredible in demolishing the Nets, 130-108, in Brooklyn. One of our preseason takeaways was that Zion Williamson is poised for an All-NBA season, and that certainly looks like a strong call after one game. Williamson returned to the court after missing all of last season, and looked great in his debut. He’s so explosive going to the basket, and has such soft touch around the rim. The number of players in the league who can stop him in one-on-one situations can be counted on one hand.

The Pelicans are so much more than just Zion, though. Brandon Ingram is a deadly halfcourt shot-maker whose game should be even more valuable in the playoffs. Herb Jones is already one of the league’s best defensive wings. C.J. McCollum can still fill it up as a backcourt shooter, and the young players like Trey Murphy III and Jose Alvarado thrive in their roles.

I think the Pelicans can be one of the last four teams standing in the 2023 NBA Playoffs when it’s all said and done.

2. The Jazz need to make some trades to truly tank

The biggest surprise of opening night was the Utah Jazz blowing out the Denver Nuggets, 123-102. I predicted the Nuggets would win the most games in the NBA this year, and also tabbed the Jazz as one of the most likely teams to be bad enough to land French super-prospect Victor Wembanyama in the draft. How did this opening night upset actually happen?

The Jazz tore down their roster over the offseason by trading Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, and Bojan Bogdanovic, but there are still plenty of legit players on this roster. Collin Sexton popped off for 20 points, Lauri Markkanen added 17 points, and Malik Beasley had 15 points after all three players were acquired in the Mitchell/Gobert trades. Rookie center Walker Kessler looked good in his debut too with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

If the Jazz want to maximize their odds at winning the lottery, more trades need to be made. Every contender looking to load up before the playoffs should make Utah its first call. There’s still some real talent on this roster.

3. The Blazers finally added some beef next to Dame

Even during Damian Lillard’s best years, the Portland Trail Blazers have always had a serious dearth of size, length, and athleticism next to their superstar guard. Portland sought to address that this offseason by trading for Jerami Grant, signing Gary Payton II away from the Warriors, and re-signing Josh Hart. While Payton was sidelined for the opener as he recovers from abdominal surgery, the Blazers’ other additions looked phenomenal in helping carry them to an opening night win over the Sacramento Kings.

Grant had 23 points on 5-of-11 shooting, made all three of his three-pointers, consistently got to the foul line, and added eight rebounds. Hart plays with a tremendous edge defensively, can score in transition, moves the ball, rebounds, and simply does all the little things teams need to win. Anyone who watched last year’s playoffs knows that GP2 will be a major boost to the defense.

The only worry for Portland? Lillard was kind of pedestrian, finishing with 20 points on 5-of-18 shooting by going 1-of-8 from three. If Dame can still be one of the 10 best players in the league, Portland might finally have the right pieces around him to get back in the playoff mix.

4. Ben Simmons is broken

The last time we saw Ben Simmons on a basketball court, he was passing up wide open dunks in the Eastern Conference Finals and having one of the wildest individual meltdowns the NBA has ever seen. Simmons famously demanded a trade and sat out all of last season until he was traded to the Brooklyn Nets, where he promptly was sidelined by a back injury the moment he was supposed to play. Simmons finally returned to an NBA court in the Nets’ season opener, and he certainly looked like a man who hasn’t played a competitive game in 17 months:

Simmons looked scared to attack the basket, probably because he didn’t want to get fouled (he went 0-for-2 from the line on the night). He had no prayer of staying in front of Zion Williamson on the defensive end. The Pelicans were able to totally ignore him in the halfcourt and send extra defensive attention to Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Simmons also had a few unnecessary frustration fouls to foul out of the game when Brooklyn could have used him.

It’s easy to forget that Simmons was named an All-Star and First-Team All-Defense in the season leading up to his playoff meltdown. This was not an encouraging debut, but Simmons has plenty of time to work himself out.

5. DeMar DeRozan is having another All-NBA season

Your leading scorer in the NBA through one game is … DeMar DeRozan.

Many people predicted DeRozan would fall off after enjoying the best season of his career at age-32 with the Bulls last year. Good luck with that. As we said in our preseason takeaways, DeRozan’s career-year was no fluke. He’s too skilled as a midrange scorer, too crafty at getting to the foul line, and too heady as a playmaker to regress. This is just who DeMar is now, whether he makes an All-NBA team again this season or not. The Bulls have a chance against any team in the league as long as DeRozan is still playing like a legitimate superstar.

6. The Suns will be fine

It’s been a rough few months for the Phoenix Suns after their shocking loss in the second round of the playoffs to the Dallas Mavericks last year. This tweet basically says it all.

Losing to the Adelaide 36ers in the preseason didn’t help, either.

It seemed like the Suns were ready to start this season with another disaster: the Mavs led by 22 points midway through their season opener. Somehow, some way, the Suns battled back, and won the game on a clutch shot by Damion Lee late. The core of a team that won a league-best 64 games last year is still in place, and Monty Williams remains one of the league’s best coaches. It’s certainly possible the Suns missed their title window the last two years, but this should still be one of the better teams in the West.

7. The Lakers are going to miss the playoffs again

LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and even Russell Westbrook all played great for the Lakers in their season opener, but LA didn’t get anything from its role players as they lost to the Warriors, 123-109. The Lakers still just don’t have enough defense or enough shooting around James and Davis. Even LeBron agrees.

Yes, the Warriors are a very difficult opening night opponent. The fact that Davis looked so good — we predicted a bounce-back year for him — is the best thing that could happen for the Lakers. LeBron is still playing at a high enough level to be the best player on a championship team in the 20th season of his career.

The Lakers have just done a very poor job putting their best players in a position to succeed. Maybe new head coach Darvin Ham will figure it out, but the roster construction has done him no favors.