Two weeks into the 2024-25 NBA season, every judgment, stat and opinion needs context. One bad game is still enough to skew overall results, and we're still early enough in the year to chalk up some struggles to rust.

This is a time when nuance is necessary and most takes on teams and players require caveats galore.

In other words, reductive analysis is usually a mistake. Keep all that in mind as we bounce around the league and describe each team's performance to this point with a single word. Hopefully, we choose wisely enough for the word itself to tell a story. But don't worry, we'll lay out the explanation in more detail.

Just to get right into the swing of the exercise, the word we'd use to describe this introduction is "over."

Atlanta Hawks: Permissive

New year, same story: The Atlanta Hawks can't stop anyone.

After ranking 26th in defensive efficiency last season and below the league average for seven straight years, the Hawks are again among the league's defensive laggards. A blowout loss to the Boston Celtics on Nov. 4 dropped Atlanta to 27th on D.

Boston is handing most opponents double-digit defeats, but Atlanta hasn't exactly fared well against softer competition. The Washington Wizards, a popular pick to win fewer games than anyone else this season, handed the Hawks back-to-back losses at the end of October, averaging 127 points in the process.

Trae Young remains a feeble point-of-attack option on defense, and Dyson Daniels hasn't been good enough to compensate for his teammate's frailties or the gaggle of injured teammates thinning the rotation.

Basically, Young (who sustained a rib injury against Boston) needs to head a dominant attack for the Hawks to have a chance at success. Even mediocre scoring puts Atlanta at a huge disadvantage because it can't string together enough stops. If that breakdown sounds familiar, it's because Atlanta has been a one-way operation for a decade.

Boston Celtics: Indomitable

No Kristaps Porziņģis, no problem.

We should have known the Boston Celtics would be just fine without their floor-stretching, shot-blocking, mismatch-obliterating center. They won 10 of the 12 postseason games he missed en route to the 2023-24 championship, proving KP is more of a luxury than a necessity. He takes an already great team and makes it borderline unfair.

Boston isn't showing any of the typical championship malaise. There's no coasting here. No throttling back, no reliance on switch-flipping, no sense that these regular-season games are somehow less important than the ones coming in April. Just the opposite, actually. The Celtics are bombing threes at a historic pace, defending with elite competitive spirit and generally operating like a team that has everything to prove.

Celtics fans should be thanking USA Basketball. Jaylen Brown's absence from Team USA and Jayson Tatum's benching in the Olympics seems to have lit a fire under a team that was already good enough to burn down the competition.

Brooklyn Nets: Frisky

There'll be plenty of time for the vibes to change after the Brooklyn Nets inevitably trade away veterans and angle for top draft positioning. For now, a team that most people expected to post a win total in the teens is playing competitive ball, particularly on offense.

The Nets are getting the expected amount of chucking from hard-wired scorer Cam Thomas, whose 24.9 points per game lead the team. But Dennis Schröder's play rates as one of the season's biggest early surprises. The 31-year-old managed only 13 points in Brooklyn's opener, but he cracked the 20-point mark in Brooklyn's next four games, peaking with a 33-point effort in a 13-point road win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Oct. 30.

Cam Johnson has been a reliable, high-volume three-point shooter. Noah Clowney is showing flashes of plus-starter upside. And even Memphis Grizzlies castoff Ziaire Williams has had his moments on both ends.

Even the negatives—Brooklyn is bleeding points by putting opponents on the foul line more often than any other team but the Toronto Raptors—are tied to effort and activity. The Nets are going to pile up losses eventually, but they're competing. And believe it or not, they're kind of fun at the moment.

Charlotte Hornets: Progressing

When a player wins Rookie of the Year and then makes the All-Star team as a sophomore, a jump to All-NBA contention would be a reasonable expectation for his third season. Unfortunately for LaMelo Ball, he essentially lost his third and fourth years to ankle injuries, interrupting that trajectory.

Now that he's 23 and healthy, he's picked up right where he left off.

Ball's early performance is absolutely All-NBA caliber. He's averaging a career-high 28.6 points along with 5.7 assists, 4.6 rebounds and better-than-ever efficiency. Though he's still something less than elite as a two-point finisher, Ball is jacking up more threes (11.7 per game) and getting to the foul line (5.0 attempts per game) at rates he's never touched before.

Charlotte scores 18.6 more points per 100 possessions with Ball in the game than it does when he sits. That massive jump is fueled by spikes that Ball creates in effective field-goal percentage and free-throw rate. Those stats square with the eye test, which shows the Hornets getting better looks and compromising the defense more consistently with Ball at the helm.

Two years off didn't do anything to interrupt the progress of one of the best young guards in the league.

Chicago Bulls: Satisfied

That word could definitely be construed as a criticism of the Chicago Bulls' longtime acceptance of mediocrity, but that isn't the intention. Instead, Chicago should feel satisfied that it waited to move Zach LaVine.

Though he's cooled off after a brilliant four-game opening stretch that saw him average 26.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists on a 55.2/45.7/82.4 shooting split, the two-time All-Star shooting guard has boosted his trade value from where it was last year and over the summer. It wasn't long ago that many expected the Bulls would have to give up first-round picks to move the remaining three years and $138 million on LaVine's deal.

Now, with LaVine proving he's still a star-caliber offensive player, the Bulls should get picks back from whenever they send LaVine.

Chicago has made its share of mistakes, macro and micro, and it still isn't all that well-positioned to get a proper rebuild going. But holding onto LaVine and waiting for his value to rebound (which was never a given) looks like the right call.

Cleveland Cavaliers: Optimized

Few head-coaching stints start off as well as Kenny Atkinson's has with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Good health has contributed to the Cavs' 8-0 start, but they look like they might be the second-best team in the conference. That ties back to Atkinson's rotation management, tactical acumen and relationship-building skill.

Atkinson is empowering Evan Mobley on offense, unlocking him as an aggressive driver and passer. Much like JJ Redick has done with Anthony Davis in Los Angeles, Atkinson is making sure Mobley is involved on as many offensive plays as possible. Donovan Mitchell and Mobley are seeing more time together on the floor, much to their mutual benefit, and even reserves like Caris LeVert are thriving because of Atkinson's presence and influence.

For much of last year and through a good chunk of the 2024 offseason, it seemed like the Cavs would have to shake up their personnel—both because of Mitchell's contract status (which is no longer an issue after an extension) and because it wasn't clear the two-big, two-small mixture was good enough to drive real success.

As it turns out, the Cavs just needed the right coach to optimize their operation.

Dallas Mavericks: Enormous

The Dallas Mavericks haven't leaned on oversized looks much in the early going. At least one of the relatively diminutive Kyrie Irving and Spencer Dinwiddie has been a fixture in their nine most-used lineups.

But when they want to be, the Mavs can get positively gargantuan.

One such look, which featured Luka Dončić, Naji Marshall, Klay Thompson, PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford, has a hilariously high plus-91.1 net rating. As you might expect, opponents have had trouble scoring against all of that size and length.

That lineup aside, Dallas has so many options to overwhelm teams with sheer mass. Gafford and Dereck Lively II don't play together, but the Mavs can easily slot Maxi Kleber next to one or the other with some combination of Thompson, Washington or Marshall on the wings. Whenever Dončić, who's listed conservatively at 6'7" and 230 pounds, is the smallest player on the floor, it means the Mavs are towering over the competition.

Regardless of whether Dallas intends to play big more during the regular season, it's going to be an option in the playoffs. And it might come in especially handy in a hypothetical rematch with the Celtics, who tend to prefer two-big lineups and oversized wings themselves.

Denver Nuggets: Two-Faced

There have basically been two versions of the Denver Nuggets for as long as Nikola Jokić has been their best player. Over that near-decade stretch, Denver has reliably thrived with Jokić on the floor but just as reliably withered during his absences.

That already extreme trend is somehow intensifying this season, as the on-off gap between "good Denver" and "bad Denver" is widening.

With Jokić in the game, the Nuggets outscored opponents by 9.6 points per 100 possessions through their first six contests. With him on the bench, Denver lost those minutes by 25.6 points per 100 possessions. That's an almost unfathomable 35.2 points-per-100-possessions swing. Well, it would be unfathomable if the Nuggets hadn't put up numbers nearly as staggering over the last few seasons.

Last year, the gap was 20.4 points per 100 possessions, while it was 22.9 in Denver's championship 2022-23 season.

Maybe this should have been the expectation after Kentavious Caldwell-Pope's departure, which followed Bruce Brown Jr. and Jeff Green's exit two offseasons ago. A team that couldn't afford attrition endured even more of it, and this is the result. Aaron Gordon's calf strain will cost him several weeks, only worsening the issue.

Denver has two separate selves: one that dominates with Jokić and one that gets dominated without him.

Detroit Pistons: Settled

Jaden Ivey has looked better next to Cade Cunningham this season more so than at any point in the past. He's averaging 19.6 points and 3.6 assists on a 46.7/39.0/76.3 shooting split and is regularly handling first-option playmaker duties when his star teammate sits.

Shooting was a major question for Ivey coming into the league. If he could turn that into a strength, it would remove a lot of the questions about his fitness as Cunningham's long-term running mate. He's answered it by maintaining last year's volume but increasing his efficiency, particularly on spot-up shots.

Ivey is canning 52.0 percent of his catch-and-shoot threes, up from 35.5 percent a year ago.

In addition to threatening defenses as a spacer, Ivey is also attacking the rim with renewed vigor. When headed downhill, Ivey's athleticism pops in ways few others' does. That burst, paired with improved shooting, has Ivey looking like the guy whom Detroit hoped it was getting three years ago in the draft.

The Pistons' backcourt of the future now appears to be settled.

Golden State Warriors: Frenetic

Brandin Podziemski isn's among the NBA leaders in plus/minus because he's shooting the cover off the ball. His tidy plus-100 across his first 197 minutes speaks to something else he's doing right: creating one of the most intense and frenetic on-court environments imaginable.

The Golden State Warriors are flying around the floor like never before, a shocking change from last year's slower, more subdued and restrained (read: old and unathletic) style. The Dubs are creating turnovers, taking charges, pushing the pace and cranking up the chaos in ways that would have seemed impossible a year ago.

A lot of that has to do with Podz, who is again leading the league in charges drawn (he's tied with teammate Draymond Green), dives on the floor several times per game and otherwise imbues his minutes with contagious hustle and urgency. The rest of the Warriors are following suit.

Depth is a key feature of this Warriors team, and the contributions of newcomers Buddy Hield, Kyle Anderson and D'Anthony Melton can't be overstated. But the biggest difference is stylistic, and that traces back to Podziemski's influence. When he's in the game, everything turns into a glorious mess, and the retooled Warriors are thriving in it.

Houston Rockets: Overstuffed

The portion of the Houston Rockets fanbase fixated on Fred VanVleet's rough on-off splits might think they have an early solution to the problem. But settling on who should and shouldn't play is going to be an issue all season.

Houston is getting smacked whenever VanVleet is in the game, but it's too early to strip a veteran leader of his minutes. If nothing else, reducing FVV's role could hurt his trade value. Any Rockets fans who want him gone should know that benching him will have negative effects that could outweigh suspected on-court gains.

The Rockets are struggling to navigate a difficulty that many saw coming. They have too many players who need minutes, most of whom fall into one of two categories: critical developmental prospect or necessary veteran stabilizer. Even among the former category, it's hard to figure out which of Houston's many young players makes sense with one another.

It's not necessarily a bad thing that Tari Eason can take over entire halves, Amen Thompson can defend Luka Dončić as well as any human on the planet, Jalen Green can score like a superstar and Jabari Smith Jr. is blossoming into a budget Kevin Durant who defends. But the Rockets can't feature everyone, and they need to find out which of their prospects is worth keeping and paying beyond Green and Alperen Sengün, who already got their extensions.

Indiana Pacers: Familiar

Remember when a dynamic lead guard carried his team to a surprising Eastern Conference Finals berth, seemingly announcing his and his squad's emergence among the league's contending class?

No, we aren't talking about the 2023-24 Indiana Pacers, who pulled that off last year. We're talking about the 2020-21 Atlanta Hawks, whom Trae Young took to the ECF against the Milwaukee Bucks. That Hawks team bore striking similarities to today's Pacers, which is not a great sign for Indy.

Atlanta hasn't won more than 43 games in a season since then, hasn't sniffed another deep playoff run and has spent significant time retooling around Young in hopes of putting off the difficult step of trading him as part of a more thorough rebuild. (That's an especially tricky task since Atlanta doesn't own its 2025 first-round pick.)

Indy isn't necessarily consigned to the same fate, but it's jarring to see major decline from an offense that ranked second in the league last year. This season's Pacers are scoring at rates right around the league average, Tyrese Haliburton hasn't found his form, Andrew Nembhard has struggled mightily after earning an offseason extension and very little suggests a scoring surge is imminent.

Everyone loves a breakthrough, but sustaining a new, higher level of play isn't easy. Just ask the Hawks...or this Pacers team that seems so eerily similar.

Los Angeles Lakers: Floundering

It's hard to be sure just how good the Los Angeles Lakers will be under head coach JJ Redick in an objective sense. Maybe they only have the talent to finish as a play-in team in a crowded Western Conference, or perhaps they can climb into the top four with a few good breaks.

What's clear is that Redick will allow the Lakers to reach their potential—whatever it may be.

Early on, that potential seemed high. Los Angeles started 3-0, leaning heavily on Anthony Davis, who's on pace to set career highs in scoring and free-throw attempts. Austin Reaves also appeared unleashed after struggling to get involved last year under Darvin Ham.

Then came a difficult road trip that saw the Lakers yielding transition buckets in bunches, looking shockingly slow and unathletic in the process.

Los Angeles initially seemed organized, connected and focused on the right things. That all changed in the second week of the season.

Los Angeles Clippers: Handsy

The Los Angeles Clippers' surprisingly competent start has little to do with James Harden bringing heliocentrism back into style. Through L.A.'s first seven games, it averaged 110.0 points per 100 possessions on offense, a bottom-10 figure in the league.

The results have been better on D, where a particularly handsy and disruptive Clippers defense is scrambling around and making life uncomfortable for opponents.

Even Harden, who's never been known as a defensive ace, is getting involved. Check out the four deflections he logged on a single possession against the San Antonio Spurs on Nov. 4.

The Clippers are seventh leaguewide in deflections and eighth in loose balls recovered per game, which is a big reason why they also rank among the top 10 in defensive efficiency. While it's hard to imagine them sticking around at that level unless Kawhi Leonard returns and plays like himself, it's nonetheless impressive that the 3-4 Clippers are staying competitive by winning the hustle-points battle more often than not.

Memphis Grizzlies: Resourceful

The Memphis Grizzlies set an NBA record by using more different starting lineups last season than any team in history, so they're no strangers to cobbling rosters together amid injuries. In fact, the trials of that difficult year might have boosted Memphis' talent-evaluation powers.

That's how it seems so far, as the Grizzlies have unearthed multiple helpful finds like Jay Huff, a former two-way player whom they recently converted to a standard contract.

Huff is a 7'1" center with decent mobility for his size, a reliable three-point shot and a propensity for surprising highlights. His reverse dunk off a timely baseline cut was the top "where'd that come from?" highlight of the season's opening week. He also put up 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting in only 14 minutes during Memphis' 124-107 over the Philadelphia 76ers on Nov. 2 and has filled in admirably enough to end his journeyman days.

Huff played for a different team in each of his first three seasons, splitting 31 total games between the Lakers, Wizards and Nuggets. It now seems like he's found a home with the Grizzlies, who deserve credit for seeing what other teams couldn't.

Miami Heat: Confusing

What happened to Bam Adebayo making an offensive leap? Until busting out with 32 points against the Washington Wizards' then-30th-ranked defense in Mexico City on Nov. 2, the Miami Heat center hadn't scored more than a dozen points in any game this season.

That was a shocking early trend for a couple of reasons.

Adebayo showed off intriguing three-point range during his stint with Team USA in Paris, and many have expected that he'd eventually turn into a more serious spacing threat. Considering how the Heat have struggled to score consistently over most of the last half-decade, it seemed likely that Adebayo would come out firing.

Instead, he's averaging his fewest points and free-throw attempts per game since 2019-20.

The Heat have managed fairly well because Tyler Herro and Terry Rozier are letting it rip from three with great frequency and accuracy. Both are hitting over 43 percent from deep, and both are getting up around eight three-pointers per game. Still, it's hard to understand how, with Jimmy Butler slowing down and Miami in need of more offense, Adebayo is essentially functioning like a No. 4 option.

Milwaukee Bucks: Finished

The Milwaukee Bucks logged dispiriting losses to the Chicago Bulls and Brooklyn Nets in the season's opening week and haven't done anything to suggest those were flukes. Those defeats and the team's broader failings indicate the Bucks aren't a contender anymore.

The bigger issue: They don't have a way to become one again.

The Damian Lillard trade was essentially Milwaukee's last card to play, and it hasn't paid off. Though Lillard is shooting the ball better than he did last season, and though Giannis Antetokounmpo continues to put up MVP-caliber numbers, the synergy between the two remains imperfect. Combine that with a supporting cast that hasn't produced and a head coach in Doc Rivers who has so far underperformed Adrian Griffin, the man he was hired to replace, and things are bleak.

The Bucks don't have any first-round picks besides their 2031 selection to trade, and they face all of the strictest limitations of the second apron, so there's no way out of this mess short of a full rebuild. The only way to trigger one of those is to trade Antetokounmpo for draft assets, which suddenly looks as likely as it has in years.

Minnesota Timberwolves: Uncommitted

You've got to pick one: Either get back in transition, or crash the offensive glass. Doing neither is inexcusable, not to mention a recipe for losing games you shouldn't, but that's where we find the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Adjustments were bound to take time in the wake of the blockbuster trade that swapped out Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo, but it's no less concerning that Minnesota is 25th in offensive rebound rate and 26th in opponent transition frequency.

The Wolves aren't overcommitting to the pursuit of second-chance points, which can compromise transition D. But they're also failing to get back.

Maybe this is just a symptom of a lumbering, unathletic roster. Outside of Anthony Edwards, who has as much speed and bounce as anyone in the NBA, the Wolves aren't loaded with hard-charging sprinters. Rudy Gobert runs well for a big, but that qualifier matters, and Mike Conley is close enough to 40 for a slowdown to be natural.

At the same time, a lack of speed doesn't excuse poor offensive rebounding. That's an issue tied to effort, tactics or both. At the very least, a Wolves team that doesn't get back and never pushes the pace when it has the ball (they're 30th in offensive transition frequency) has to clean the glass more thoroughly.

New Orleans Pelicans: Beleaguered

Trey Murphy III started the season on the sidelines with a hamstring injury, and it didn't take long for Dejounte Murray, the New Orleans Pelicans' biggest offseason acquisition, to join him. The point guard suffered a fractured hand in the fourth quarter of New Orleans' season opener against the Chicago Bulls on Oct. 23 and hasn't played since.

Herb Jones (shoulder) and CJ McCollum (adductor) went down soon after, removing at least three starters (maybe four if you suspected Murphy would overtake Brandon Ingram) from the list of available Pelicans. Most ominously, Zion Williamson has also missed time with a hamstring injury.

Considering that New Orleans also began the season without an established first-unit center, few teams could afford to lose so many important pieces.

The early losses, which included a 22-point defeat at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers and a home slip-up against the underwhelming Hawks, were just part of the problem. The larger issue is these injuries' role in preventing the Pels from getting a sense of how this roster should function. Whatever small-ball aspirations New Orleans might have had are theoretical now because it can't surround Williamson with enough shooting and secondary playmaking.

In a frustrating continuation of the trend that has plagued the Pelicans for several seasons, they still can't get everyone on the floor together. That's setting them back competitively and in their efforts to gather information on how to adjust the roster going forward.

New York Knicks: Generous

It's a good thing the New York Knicks are scoring so effectively. If they weren't, their wildly permissive defense might have them bringing up the rear in the East standings.

Through their first six games, New York allowed the highest effective field-goal percentage in the league. Your first thought upon hearing that should be something along the lines of "well, three-point variance can skew that number, and there's way too much noise to trust it this early in the year."

That's a fair argument, and it's also true that the season opener against the Boston Celtics, in which the defending champs hit an NBA-record-tying 29 threes, is wrecking all of the Knicks' full-season stats. It will continue to do so for another several weeks.

Here's the problem, though: New York isn't just suffering from anomalous shooting nights and noisy opponent three-point shooting. It's also giving up way too much around the basket.

Opponents are converting shots within six feet at an unfathomable 83.3 percent clip when Karl-Anthony Towns is the closest defender. Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart and OG Anunoby are all surrendering at least a 70 percent conversion rate in those same situations.

If the Knicks can't start preventing attempts and forcing misses at the rim, they're going to have a long season on defense.

Oklahoma City Thunder: Predatory

It's been almost 30 years since a team caused as much chaos on defense as the Oklahoma City Thunder, the league leaders in forcing opponent miscues.

Relentless point-of-attack pressure from Alex Caruso, Luguentz Dort, Jalen Williams and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is just the start of it. Chet Holmgren looms on the back line as a second-level deterrent. Any ball-handlers fortunate enough to make their way into the lane face not only Holmgren, but the inevitable reaching, poking and prodding of all the help defenders converging on the ball as if they're being pulled toward it magnetically.

The 1997-98 Boston Celtics were the last team to top the Thunder's current opponent turnover percentage, and that group ran a gimmicky full-court press under Rick Pitino. Oklahoma City isn't resorting to anything quite so ridiculous as that, and it's safe to assume it'll top that Boston team's paltry 36 wins.

A seeming lock to run away with this year's top defensive rating, the Thunder's only real competition on that end of the floor may come from decades past. Just try to imagine how disruptive and steal-hungry this team will get once Isaiah Hartenstein is back in the rotation.

Orlando Magic: Disrupted

Every team suffers when its best player goes down, but the Orlando Magic's plans got uniquely ruined by Paolo Banchero's oblique injury.

An offense that ranked 22nd last season looked better this year and was holding steady at No. 15 through Banchero's five pre-injury appearances. The 21-year-old had cracked the 30-point mark twice and even produced his first career 50-point outing on Oct. 28 against the Pacers. All indications were that Banchero was taking a large enough leap to drag a ho-hum Magic offense toward mediocrity.

Combined with an elite defense, that modest level of scoring efficiency could have been enough to keep Orlando in the mix for a top-four spot in the East. Now, an offense that couldn't afford to lose its key piece will have to figure out other ways to score.

Maybe Jalen Suggs can continue last year's shooting leap and mix it with some development as a playmaker. Perhaps Franz Wagner will justify the max extension he signed over the summer by playing an alpha role. Who knows, maybe Anthony Black will seize his moment as a rising second-year star.

Even if Orlando gets all those breaks, it's going to desperately miss Banchero. One of the league's most exciting ascents is in a holding pattern for now.

Philadelphia 76ers: Undefined

Almost none of the attention paid to the Philadelphia 76ers this season has focused on the actual games they've played. Instead, everyone's fixated on who hasn't taken the floor and what's gone on inside the locker room.

Paul George's return on Nov. 4 finally gave fans a glimpse of the offseason's biggest acquisition, but the Sixers are going to be exceedingly careful with him throughout the regular season. They've already pledged to operate similarly with Joel Embiid who, at this point, might be lucky to appear in half of Philly's games.

It may take months until we get a real sense of how good this team can be, and even then, we may only get to see it in fits and starts. Embiid and George won't play in back-to-back sets, and we should expect cautious approaches to any health issues that arise. In fact, it's possible Philadelphia will be hard to get a handle on until the playoffs. That, of course, assumes the 76ers will even get that far.

It makes sense to be careful with Embiid and George, but the Sixers have to know that the regular season matters—at least insofar as it determines whether they get to reach the postseason on which they're so fixated.

In that sense, maybe being "undefined" isn't so bad. If Philadelphia's best players can't get on the floor consistently at some point, the scarier word to describe it might be "eliminated."

Phoenix Suns: Distant

That's right: distant. As in, "far away from the rim."

For years, the Phoenix Suns have been fans of mid-range shots. With a couple of No. 1 rankings sprinkled in, they haven't graded out lower than sixth in mid-range attempt frequency since 2019-20. That's a surprisingly sticky trend, one that has hung around through significant coaching and personnel changes.

That offensive style flies in the face of norms that say shots at the rim and from beyond the three-point arc are best, so it's encouraging that this year's Suns have finally modernized in one sense. They're sixth in three-point frequency after ranking 19th, 18th and 25th across the previous three seasons, respectively.

However, the rim remains off-limits for Phoenix. The Suns rank dead last in rim attempt frequency, a spot they have occupied three times since 2020-21.

The issue is the extremity this season. The Suns are taking only 23.3 percent of their shots from close range, well below their 30th-ranked averages of years past.

When you have Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, you can lean on jump shots more than most. But at some point, the Suns will have to prove they can generate a few more high-value looks closer to the basket.

Portland Trail Blazers: Emerging

You would have had to be paying close attention to notice, but the Portland Trail Blazers are getting some encouraging signs from the younger half of their strangely split "win now vs. win later" roster. Namely, Scoot Henderson is making all of the incremental gains you'd hope for from a prospect in his age-20 season, and Toumani Camara is doing his best to prove he's got a shot at some All-Defensive nods in the future.

The former matters most, as the Blazers spent the No. 3 pick on Henderson in the 2023 draft expecting to get what many believed was the best point guard prospect in years. A dismal rookie season dampened hopes, but Henderson is quietly rekindling them while coming off the bench behind Anfernee Simons, whom Portland has to be showcasing for a trade.

Henderson is using his quick-twitch bursts to get to the foul line more often and is generating a far higher share of his shots at the rim than he did a year ago. With his turnover rate down and his assist rate up, Henderson is also climbing out of the true-shooting-percentage cellar he occupied in 2023-24, when his 48.9 percent figure was the worst among all high-volume shooters.

Much remains to be seen, and the Blazers still have too many veterans in the way to truly hand the team over to the youth. These first few games suggest the transition, whenever it comes, could go pretty smoothly.

Sacramento Kings: Balanced?

The question mark is deliberate, because the Sacramento Kings' two-way competency would have seemed impossible prior to the season.

Offense was never going to be an issue for a team that set the record for scoring efficiency in 2022-23, retained the players that produced that mark and added DeMar DeRozan this past summer. But defense was going to be almost impossible, even if the Kings slotted the disruptive Keon Ellis into the first unit.

Fast-forward, and it's mostly been Kevin Huerter joining De'Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, Keegan Murray and DeRozan for opening tips. Murray is the only one in that quintet who's widely regarded as a good defender, yet Sacramento is somehow just outside of the top 10 in defensive efficiency through the season's first two weeks.

That isn't a byproduct of luck, either. Opponents are shooting 38.2 percent from deep against the Kings and are hitting over half of their long mid-rangers. If anything, normalized luck would see Sacramento's defensive performance improve.

Considering the personnel—chiefly Sabonis and DeRozan, two historically weak defenders—the Kings' work on D to this point is as stunning as their solid scoring is predictable. We'll see if that balance persists.

San Antonio Spurs: Searching

Victor Wembanyama is scoring via assists far less often than he did last season. That's a surprising development in the wake of the Chris Paul addition that everyone believed would result in loads of spoon-fed gimmes for the reigning Rookie of the Year.

Just as strangely, Wembanyama's offensive game is moving farther from the basket in the early going. He's shooting more threes, which is true for just about everyone in the league this year, but he's also firing up more long-mid-rangers and attempting a lower share of his shots at the rim than he did in 2023-24. His average shot distance is 16.0 feet, up considerably from last year's 13.0 feet.

His isolation frequency is up, his post-up rate is down and his percentage of plays as the roll man has barely changed at all.

Wembanyama's defensive impact is beyond question, but we're seeing early signs of a suspicion that cropped up often last season. It's not easy to figure out how a player as unusual as Wemby should be used on offense, and the Spurs don't seem to have any clear answers on that front just yet.

Toronto Raptors: Precocious

Injuries and a lack of depth has the Toronto Raptors turning to young players much earlier in their development arcs than expected. So far, rookies Jonathan Mogbo and Jamal Shead are way ahead of schedule as positive contributors.

Mogbo, whom Toronto picked 31st in this year's draft, has had a major impact as an energetic big off the bench. Though he's undersized against most conventional centers and power forwards, the 23-year-old's quick hands, hustle and surprising ability to make decisions on the ball offensively have allowed him to produce quality minutes on both ends. He has already tallied the fourth-most deflections of any player with 150 minutes or fewer on the season.

Shead hasn't shot it well, but the No. 45 pick already has a nine-assist game (in only 20 minutes versus the Charlotte Hornets on Oct. 30) and has been a reliable facilitator whenever he's on the floor.

Toronto has endured multiple key injuries, not the least of which being Scottie Barnes' fractured orbital. That misfortune is creating opportunities for some of the Raptors' young players, and their small-sample success stands out as a silver lining.

Utah Jazz: Resolved

It appears the third time is the charm for the Utah Jazz, who squandered their last two chances at premium lottery position by logging too many early-season victories to win the race to the bottom of the standings.

This tanking attempt looks far more serious, which means Utah is in prime position to Sag for Flagg.

The Jazz are giving their young players more court time, which is always a solid way to lose games under the guise of developing prospects. Five players aged 23 or younger are getting at least 15.0 minutes per game, and though Taylor Hendricks' season-ending leg injury means vets like John Collins could see more time, Utah is still skewing young at the positions that have the most influence on winning or losing.

Point guard Keyonte George leads the team in minutes and shots. Despite occasionally passing the eye test, the second-year player's inefficient shooting and turnover issues are a huge reason why Utah ranks last in offensive rating. George will benefit from all these reps, but the Jazz are going to struggle to score as long as he's in charge.

That's the plan, and Utah is finally following it from the jump.

Washington Wizards: Promising

If you squint, Bilal Couliably looks like a star, Kyshawn George has All-Defensive upside and Alex Sarr isn't the bust many suspected he'd be.

For the Washington Wizards, that should be more than enough.

The Wizards spent years chasing the No. 8 seed, drafting poorly and generally avoiding the difficult decisions that could eventually lead to sustainable future success. That they're now featuring so many young players is a win in itself. It certainly doesn't hurt that the ones we just mentioned, plus rookie guard Bub Carrington, are showing real signs of promise.

Coulibaly is the undisputed focal point here, even with Sarr toting the superior draft pedigree. The second-year wing's game has expanded dramatically this season, to the point that he belongs on the list of the league's most intriguing prospects. At 17.7 points and 5.8 rebounds on a 60.7/47.6/70.2 shooting split, Coulibaly's production makes it easy to forget he might actually have the higher ceiling on D.

These are good days in Washington, even if they won't feature many wins. They've been a long time coming.

Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Accurate through games played Nov. 5. Salary info via Spotrac.

Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@gt_hughes), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.