We're only two weeks into the 2024-25 NBA campaign, but the league has already given us plenty of discussion fodder.

Today, we're refining it into classic "winners and losers" takes.

With a handful of games for every team under our collective belt, here are the biggest teams and names on either side of that line.

Winner: OKC Thunder

Oklahoma City hasn't slowed from last year's first-place finish in the Western Conference. They're a perfect 6-0 with a 17.7-point differential, which ranks second in the league behind the Golden State Warriors (18.0).

Fascinating still, the Thunder's highest-paid offseason acquisition has yet to play. Isaiah Hartenstein (hand), who isn't expected to play until early December, is earning $30 million this season—second-highest on the roster to All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Jaylin Williams is also out (hamstring), but the team hasn't missed a beat.

The Thunder are already a force at the top West. What will they be at full strength?

—Eric Pincus

Loser: LA Clippers

The LA Clippers made the difficult decision to let Paul George leave for the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency, but they retained James Harden with hopes of competing in the Western Conference. The George decision wasn't bad (he hasn't been healthy for Philadelphia), but Kawhi Leonard also hasn't been healthy (knee) for Los Angeles.

Center Ivica Zubac has been putting up numbers. Coach Tyronn Lue is a well-respected tactician who will get the most out of his available players—but that's the primary issue. The Clippers just don't have the roster. It's early, and a 2-4 start is recoverable, but not if Leonard's availability remains tenuous.

What separates the Clippers from a team like the Utah Jazz is the reward at the end of a lost season via the lottery. LA will swap its first with Oklahoma City as part of the original 2019 George trade that also sent All-NBA guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to the Thunder.

Oof!

—Eric Pincus

Winner: Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers are the only undefeated team in the Eastern Conference, starting the season 7-0. With new head coach Kenny Atkinson at the helm, the Cavs are already seeing a massive change on the offensive end of the court.

Cleveland is averaging 123.1 points this season, 10.5 points better than last season's 112.6 points. That is a huge jump, especially when Cleveland brought back the same team.

Evan Mobley looks like a breakout candidate. His scoring is already up from 15.7 last season to 17.7 this year. His usage to start the season is 23.6 percent, which is also up from last season. Mobley has been empowered by Atkinson to be more aggressive, and it is already paying off for Cleveland.

In addition to Mobley's aggression, Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland have become more efficient on offense. The Cavs' offense is exploding, and they are an early season winner.

—Mo Dakhil

Loser: Milwaukee Bucks

It would be an understatement to say the Milwaukee Bucks have had a disappointing start to the season. After winning their season opener, they have dropped five straight, including a loss in a showdown game against the Boston Celtics. The Bucks are in trouble.

The Damian Lillard-Giannis Antetokounmpo pick-and-roll has not yielded the damaging results that many expected when they teamed up. Lillard has had more chemistry in the pick-and-roll with Brook Lopez than he has with Antetokounmpo. The Bucks are struggling on offense (SMALL SAMPLE SIZE ALERT). They are tied for 24th in three-point percentage and tied for 20th in points per game, as of Sunday night.

That is only half of the problem considering their defense has also been atrocious. The perimeter defense has struggled to contain penetration and has given up big nights to Ja Morant, Payton Pritchard, Dennis Schroder and Coby White.

It is possible to recover from a 1-5 start to the season; there is plenty of time. The return of Khris Middleton from double ankle surgery will certainly help stabilize the Bucks.

However, the latest rumor is that Antetokounmpo could force his way out of Milwaukee if the losses continue to pile up.

This will be hanging over the organization for the rest of the season.

—Mo Dakhil

Loser: Jonathan Kuminga

This was supposed to be Jonathan Kuminga's breakout season.

He staked a small fortune on that happening, in fact.

Given Golden State's longstanding need for a Stephen Curry sidekick, one might think the Warriors would be bending over backward to fuel Kuminga's ascension. Instead, they've done the opposite. First, they surrounded him with a batch of shaky-at-best shooters in a starting lineup that masked none of his weaknesses. Then, they plucked the 22-year-old, who was drafted seventh overall in 2021, out of the opening group just three games into the season.

To Kuminga's credit, he responded to the demotion by delivering his best two games of the campaign. Still, he is "clearly not happy about this latest development," per The Athletic's Sam Amick, who added that "rival executives believe the Warriors are more willing than ever to include Kuminga in a trade of significant magnitude.

Honestly, a scenery change might do the bouncy swingman some good. Golden State has never featured Kuminga the way his draft stock suggested it would—he has only started 77 of his 217 career games while averaging just 21.5 minutes—and with the Warriors starting so strong, it's hard to see them rethinking this stance.

All of that said, in a perfect world he would've steamrolled out of the gate, filled the second-star void alongside Curry, cemented himself into the franchise's long-term plans and secured a max-contract payday. Exactly none of that has transpired to this point.

—Zach Buckley

Winner: JJ Redick

You just never know what you're going to get from a first-time head coach, and the situation JJ Redick opted into when he took the job with the Los Angeles Lakers would have been challenging for someone with decades of experience. The pressure-cooker environment of Los Angeles, a roster that made no significant additions, the Bronny of it all—it wouldn't have been an exaggeration to say Redick was set up to fail.

In spite of many circumstances stacked against him, he's succeeded.

Redick has the Lakers looking more like a top-six threat in the West than most suspected. He's freed up Austin Reaves, unlocked Anthony Davis and generally presided over a professional, organized and forward-thinking program. His commitment to featuring Davis, a top MVP candidate if October were the only month that mattered, is paying off.

AD is averaging 6.2 drives per game after posting just 3.8 in 2023-24, and he's getting 45.2 frontcourt touches per game, an increase of about four per game over last year. Still a top-flight defender, Davis seems to have assumed his rightful place as L.A.'s main offensive option. He averaged 30.2 points per game and led the league in free-throw attempts through five October contests, allowing LeBron James to reduce his usage and forcing defenses to defend the Lakers in ways they haven't had to since the 2020 bubble.

So far, so good for Redick, a very early contender for Coach of the Year.

—Grant Hughes

Loser: Nikola Jokić

In several key respects, Nikola Jokić has never been better. That's saying something for a three-time MVP in his prime, but the Denver Nuggets superstar's October numbers have him on pace to set new career highs in scoring, Player Efficiency Rating, three-point percentage, made free-throws, blocks, minutes and a litany of other basic and advanced metrics.

And yet, Jokić rates as a loser.

That's because all that extra work and strain has barely been enough to keep the Nuggets afloat. Diminished supporting talent is taking its toll in increasingly troubling ways, spiking Jokić's on-off splits to new extremes.

Jokić has long been among the league's biggest difference-makers, and Denver's defining characteristic during his reign is its failure to compete when he isn't on the floor. This season, with Russell Westbrook kicking the ball all over the gym and wrecking spacing, Christian Braun getting zero defensive respect and Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. both shooting below 40.0 percent from the field, the on-off stats have gotten completely out of hand.

At plus-41.1 points per 100 possessions, the on-off swing for Jokić is the biggest it has ever been. Denver gets by with Jokić on the floor but is falling apart worse than ever without him. This is shaping up to be the heaviest lift of Jokić's career, a daunting thought for a guy who has essentially carried his team over the better part of a decade.

—Grant Hughes

Winner: LaMelo Ball

LaMelo Ball entered this season as a maxed-out ambiguity. Is he too injury-prone to be a star? Is he even a star independent of durability issues? Would the Charlotte Hornets be better off trading him and reorienting their future around Brandon Miller (and major early-season winner Tre Mann)?

Just a few short games into the season, we are left to contemplate another question:

Can LaMelo party crash the All-NBA discussion?

Putting up 30.2 points and 6.3 assists per game on better than 60 percent true shooting has a way of inciting those conversations. It doesn't matter how good or bad the Hornets become by season's end. Larry Bird, Luka Dončić, James Harden, LeBron James, Nikola Jokić, Michael Jordan, Damian Lillard and Trae Young are the only players to score 25-plus points, dish out 7-plus assists and record a true shooting percentage over 60 for an entire year.

Whether this production holds comes down to why LaMelo is here at all: an evolving play style. The downhill-attacking uptick from last year, in a season abbreviated by injury, is holding up. His rim pressure has not similarly skyrocketed, but he's averaging over 16 drives per 36 minutes and drawing shooting fouls more often than ever. He looks stronger and more comfortable playing into and through contact, a gargantuan development for someone so dangerous as a passer and jump shooter.

If this performance and availability sustain, he will flip the perception of his game and its impact entirely on its head.

—Dan Favale

Loser: New Orleans Pelicans

Injuries alone render the New Orleans Pelicans big-time losers. Herb Jones (right shoulder), CJ McCollum (adductor strain), Dejounte Murray (left hand) and Trey Murphy (right hamstring) are all on the shelf at this writing. That's four of the team's six most important players, if you're keeping score at home. Even Jordan Hawkins, a pleasant surprise so far, is dealing with lower back spasms.

Zion Williamson's performance is only complicating matters. After missing the opener with an illness, he is shooting under 40 percent on twos. That's not going to sustain, because Zion is transcendent. But the Pelicans have little margin for error in a ferocious and fluid Western Conference.

This margin is winnowed down even further by a fundamental failure in play style that may speak to a larger failure in roster construction. New Orleans is 27th in three-point-attempt rate and actually taking a smaller percentage of its shots overall from beyond the arc compared to last year. Absences from Murphy and, to a lesser extent, Murray don't equip this team to adequately live beyond the arc, but the path to noticeable improvement isn't a given at full strength—not even with Brandon Ingram, to his credit, upping the volume.

Playing at such a modest pace is less forgivable.The Pelicans are currently 17th in average possession time, according to Inpredictable. This ranking drops to 24th after opponents hit a shot. That can't fly when you're borderline hopeless versus set defense. New Orleans is decidedly inside the bottom 10 of half-court efficiency and 24th in points per possession after opponents convert a field-goal attempt.

Reinforcements aren't on the way, at least not from within. And it's much too early to expect New Orleans to embrace roster shakeup. On top of all that, Jones' weeks-long absence severely compromises a defense that, despite holding its own, was already undersized and shaky on the glass in the first place. Where the Pelicans go from here is anybody's guess. But the chances of it being nowhere are far higher than is comfortable.

—Dan Favale

Loser: Philadelphia 76ers' Present & Future

Following a summer where they looked like winners on paper, the Philadelphia 76ers have since navigated a rocky start to the season.

A 1-4 record is just the beginning of the franchise's issues, as injury concerns for Paul George (bone bruise) and Joel Embiid (knee) have already manifested. We knew that keeping both healthy for the playoffs would be a stretch, but neither has even appeared in a regular-season game to this point.

The Sixers' handling of Embiid has been head-scratching as well.

After signing him to a massive three-year, $192.2 million extension (bringing his current deal to nearly $300 million over the next five seasons) Embiid admitted that he'll "probably never play back-to-backs the rest of my career." The Sixers have back-to-back games 15 times this season alone.

Philly was also recently fined $100,000 by the league, which stated that the franchise has been "inconsistent with Joel Embiid's health status and in violation of NBA rules".

All of this has put even more pressure on Tyrese Maxey to carry the load with both stars sidelined, as he currently leads the NBA with 41.0 minutes played a night. His efficiency (38.5 percent shooting overall, 26.3 percent from three) has plummeted as a leading man.

Perhaps both Embiid and George return to the court soon and the Sixers can climb back toward the top of the East. For now (and over the next several years, potentially), this could turn into an ugly situation in Philly with a pair of expensive, aging and injury-prone stars.

—Greg Swartz

Winner: Boston Celtics

It's pretty easy to buy the Boston Celtics' chances to repeat right now.

Their only loss was on the road, in overtime and after a 20-plus point comeback. Somehow, the sweet-shooting Cs even looked good in a loss.

And it's already tough to imagine them losing to anyone four times in a seven-game series.

Boston is taking a whopping 50.3 threes per game and is making 38.1 percent of those attempts. The Celtics haven't just leaned into coach Joe Mazzulla's three-point-heavy philosophy; they're swan diving into it, and no team looks equipped to keep pace with them.

—Andy Bailey

Loser: This Year's Rookie Class (so Far)

This year's rookie class was widely panned by draftniks in the lead-up to June, and they've done little to make the experts look foolish so far.

Twenty-seven are currently qualified for the minutes-per-game leaderboard, and none is averaging at least 10 points. Last season, there were six players who checked both of those boxes. The year before, there were seven.

Of course, you have to look at more than points to evaluate a player's impact. But in terms of the eye test, members of this class are rarely jumping off the screen (at least not in a good way).

It's obviously very early. Someone could eventually break out. But it's not looking great.

—Andy Bailey