Weekly: Nov 11

Continuing our early season series of looking at teams, next up: New Era, So Buckets, and Another Bad Creation. [ODE Rankings]

New Era (4-0)
Thien has blasted out of the gates by outdueling all four of his opponents by 6-3 scores in our opening month. It has been a soft schedule, to be sure, as the only 0.500 team they faced was Fat Jubas in WK2, but a win is a win is a win is a win! The injured list is down to just DeMarcus Cousins and Lauri Markkanen and this offense is still doing great things, rated sixth overall behind John Wall, Jimmy Butler, Mike Conley, Gary Harris, and the new life given to Andrew Wiggins.

New Era is dominant in AST, mostly due to the Wall and Conley pairing, and similarly top of the charts in STL with Wall and Butler both being above 2.3+ per game. In all that yields a top ten defense and the only weak point of this team is efficiency (rated fifteenth), as they are terrible at FG%. Without Cousins to man the middle, they are also last in REB, and this is basically a true small ball team for the time being — point guard Wall leads them in blocks.

At the moment, New Era is completely composed of second banana types, but gather enough of them and you have a team that is able to compete with anyone. Outside of Wall, nobody else on the roster is their NBA franchise’s number one guy but as we said, that’s okay! Thien’s squad will continue to roll as the regular season unfurls and we’re gonna see who can take a win off them!

So Buckets (2-2)
One of the rare teams to be top ten in all three ODE rankings, So Buckets has an outstanding second ranked defense to pair with fifth overall efficiency, plus a ninth rating in offense. They are top two in PTS, REB, and BLK, and a lot of that speaks to their twin tower combination of Joel Embiid and Rudy Gobert, who are combining for 44.1 PTS, 26.3 REB, and 4.6 BLK. With that incredible big man duo, the rest of the roster can do what it does best: score.

DeMar DeRozan is having a career year, Kyrie Irving is back to full effectiveness after early season struggles, and CJ McCollum is pouring in points as he always does. Add in the bewildering return of Derrick Rose and this team also sports extra all-offense guys like Jabari Parker and Harrison Barnes. Add all that up, plus the great coaching job Josh has been doing — second-most GP in the league so far — and So Buckets are likely even underperforming a bit at just 0.500. A WK7 matchup against an undefeated Squirtle Squad is something to look forward to and there’s a chance that Dwight Howard’s return will further juice that massive defensive front line. Watch out everyone, So Buckets could soon rise in their new Chamberlain conference digs!

Another Bad Creation (0-4)
Off to a winless start, three-time division defending champ ABC has put itself in an early season hole. To be fair they’ve faced off against a very tough schedule, with no first month opponent playing less than 0.500 ball. Still, a team looking to get out of the first round of the playoffs now face an uphill battle just get out of the cellar. Continued erratic health from Russell Westbrook won’t help matters either, and it’s down to just LaMarcus Aldridge as the offensive cornerstone. Marcus Morris and TJ Warren have been shooting the lights out but without Russ, this team is only rated fourteenth in offense.

And it’s not like their defense has been much better either, as they are rated fourteenth there too, along with a so-so efficiency rating of eleventh. New Pacer Tyreke Evans has completely fallen off and Elfrid Payton has also joined the IR list. Put it all together and the only bright spot of the season so far has been Enes Kanter, who is tossing in huge double-doubles as a starter or from the bench.

ABC is having trouble spacing the floor, spreading the ball around, and can’t defend the rim despite Aldridge’s best efforts. If ABC can’t right the ship soon — and get Westbrook back full time — Oliver may find himself back in the Toilet Bowl, a place he hasn’t been since 2015, when this franchise was still nicknamed Half Man Half ImAsian.