The Biggest Disappointments of the NBA Season so Far

Basically an entire fortnight has passed since the 2022-23 NBA regular season opened its doors, which naturally means enough basketball is in the books to start spotlighting the biggest early-season bummers.

Annual reminder: Missed expectations are the impetus behind every inclusion. If you're shocked by how poorly things are going for the Los Angeles Lakers (iffy roster construction) or the Brooklyn Nets (just generally hopeless), I'm honestly more concerned about you than either of them.

Disappointments related to injury will also be nixed from consideration. Kawhi Leonard, Jamal Murray, Ben Simmons, etc. deserve some time. Let's give it to them.

Finally, this exercise does not imply irreversibility. Every early-season sad-face emoji can turn that frown upside down. Cold streaks will end. Statistical concerns can, at this stage of the year, remedy themselves in two games.

Treat this list more so as troubling trends and developments worth monitoring in the coming weeks rather than a claim of unalterability.

Dallas Mavericks

We can't quibble too hard about a team hovering around .500 with a top-five offense that was expected to take a step back. But Dallas' defense has slipped a great deal, and head coach Jason Kidd is either in full-on experimental mode with the rotation or trying to torture Mavs fans.

From too much JaVale McGee to Reggie Bullock and Tim Hardaway Jr. shooting a higher percentage on threes than twos to Luka Doncic's outside clip submarining after the first quarter, this team is all sorts of weird and unsettling.

Denver Nuggets

Jamal Murray is clearly trying to recapture form after missing last year with an ACL injury. And that's totally fine! The Nuggets have a top-10 offense anyway, and they're on to something with Michael Porter Jr.-plus-bench lineups.

But the defense is struggling, just like it did during the preseason. Denver is 26th in points allowed per possession despite facing only one top-10 offense. While opponents might be getting lucky from distance (39.8 percent on above-the-break threes), the general lack of resistance at the rim is concerning. The Nuggets are 27th in opponent field-goal percentage at the basket and have struggled to contain the ball, and only four teams allow wide-open threes more often.

Staying in front of opposing ball-handlers has not ranked among Denver's strengths, and the team is not forcing turnovers. Both cracks are mildly off-putting after bringing in Bruce Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope over the offseason. Carrying their heads above .500 while they figure it out might be encouraging, but the Nuggets are supposed to be title contenders. Sticking above-.500 isn't anywhere near good enough.

Chris Paul's Shooting

CP3 is downing 22.2 percent of his zero-dribble triples and just 28.6 percent of his wide-open threes to go along with a 38 percent clip from mid-range.

It is incredibly early, and he is 37, and the Phoenix Suns are winning anyway, but sheesh.

Obi Toppin's Minutes

Our expectations were low for you, Mr. Tom Thibodeau, but, like, holy crap.

I can't go full-out nuclear with this concern. The New York Knicks have Julius Randle (slowing down after a nice start), and Thibs is anti-innovation when it comes to his frontcourt combinations. Toppin's minutes are deflated by design.

That doesn't make it OK—particularly when he's drilling 50 percent of his threes and playing with his usual brew of endless energy and infectious adrenaline. New York needs to find more than 15.5 minutes per game for him. If you're a Knicks fan and find this unfair, replace it with RJ Barrett's topsy-turvy defense and outside shooting.

Leeway must be given to the reigning NBA champions, but the Golden State Warriors aren't off to a banner start. Complicated still, no one thing seems to be responsible for their dalliance with below-.500 basketball.

Losses to the Denver Nuggets and Phoenix Suns are whatever. The Charlotte Hornets' overtime loss is more troubling. Falling to the Detroit Pistons one night later lands somewhere in the middle of the spectrum; it was the second night of a back-to-back on the road, but like, it was also the Pistons, who are fun and interesting and not yet good.

Golden State currently hovers outside the top 15 of both offensive and defensive efficiency. It isn't putting a ton of pressure on the rim and is shooting a below-average clip from beyond the arc (while attempting a bunch of triples). The Warriors are 27th in points allowed per possession after making a shot, according to Inpredictable. Minutes without Stephen Curry have so far been a statistical death sentence—even when newly minted nine-figure man Jordan Poole is on the floor.

It absolutely matters many of those no-Steph stretches feature James Wiseman and a host of other backups. That's also sort of the point. Golden State hasn't exactly immersed itself in roster development—court time for Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody has been kept in check—but the cumulative effect of their undertaking seems somewhat grating.

Juggling warring timelines is hard, and key reserve Donte DiVincenzo barely played before suffering a hamstring injury. The starters are slaughtering opponents, and select hiccups won't hold (i.e. Klay Thompson shooting under 26 percent from three and sub-45 percent on twos). But the Warriors have also already entered "Let's see what Anthony Lamb can give us?" and "Should we have waived Quinndary Weatherspoon?" territory.

In a Western Conference with little margin for error, that's not exactly comforting—no matter how early.

At least a handful of the L.A. Clippers' early-season woes have to give. Kawhi Leonard can't get any less healthy. Someone, somewhere, will eventually hit a three. Reggie Jackson probably won't explore the bottom of his finishing at the rim forever. He'll probably drill more than 22 percent of his long twos, too.

And hey, through it all, Ivica Zubac looks gruh-ate. John Wall is still no floor-spacer, but he's converting almost 58 percent of his twos. And the Clippers are sixth in points allowed per possession, despite navigating a bunch of absences and having the room and personnel to force more turnovers. They might be a giant in slumber.

Uh, then again, the Clippers are 29th in points scored per possession, ahead of only the Lakers—who, at this writing, are closing the gap. Bad three-point shooting should be fleeting, but will Leonard (16.7 percent), Jackson (25.8 percent), Paul George (31.1 percent), Norman Powell (22.6 percent), Robert Covington (30.8 percent) and Marcus Morris Sr. (33.3 percent) all progress to higher means?

There still isn't enough variability in how the Clippers play. They don't generate a ton of volume at the rim and from deep, and subsisting on mid-range looks only gets you so far when you're not dominant from another level. L.A. will look to push on live balls, but 79.4 percent of its possessions still come in the half court—where it scores fewer points per 100 plays than the Lakers.

Declaring the Clippers cooked is absolutely premature. But they just needed a superhero crunch-time stretch from PG to come from behind and beat the Houston Rockets on Monday night, with a final score of 95-93 plucked right out of 1994. Though Kawhi's absence because of right knee stiffness looms, this is also an offense he alone won't fix.

Jimmy Butler remains a force of will and Tyler Herro is lighting it up and...that's about where silver linings end for the Miami Heat.

Granted, they haven't slogged through the easiest schedule. Nor do they have an inexplicable loss under their belt. Falling to the Sacramento Kings isn't a great look, but they're peskier than their record suggests.

Still, the Heat are comfortably under .500, with a vulnerable defense and unimpressive offense. This goes beyond Victor Oladipo beginning the season on the shelf and P.J. Tucker absconding to Philadelphia.

Kyle Lowry's best nights are uneven these days. Will he go 1-of-4 of or 3-of-8 from three? We can't be sure. Bam Adebayo is averaging fewer shot attempts and free throws per 36 minutes than last season and has more turnovers (25) than assists (19). Caleb Martin-at-the-4 arrangements have generally not worked outside the starting lineup.

Duncan Robinson has gone cold after an encouraging start. Omer Yurtseven is nursing an ankle injury, and that feels like it matters, and that's wildly troubling, but at least we get to see some Nikola Jovic-at-the-5, baby.

Miami needs to shake up the rotation via trade. That is not hyperbole. The frontcourt rotation needs depth and diversification. The Heat could use another half-court creator, too.

Truthfully, this is rapidly starting to seem like a contender past its expiration and imperfectly built rather than a slow start that'll fade over time.

Climbing back to .500 is quite an accomplishment for the Philadelphia 76ers. They opened the season 1-4 and had many rethinking their trying-to-be trendy (but not unreasonable) title pick.

Rattling off three straight wins against the Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors and Washington Wizards is encouraging. Especially when Joel Embiid didn't appear in two of those three victories.

Tyrese Maxey looks like an All-Star and is playing too much and remains criminally underused, all at once. Tobias Harris, De'Anthony Melton and P.J. Tucker are shooting roughly 1 trillion percent from three. James Harden is a different player; the share of his looks coming at the rim has reached an all-time low, and he's canning fewer than 33 percent of his triples. He's also still really good. Defenses continue to work themselves into a tizzy when he attacks, even at noticeably lower-octane speed, and he's downing 37.5 percent of his step-back-threes (9-of-24).

This is all a detour-dense way of saying the Sixers offense is pretty darn equipped. The defense is not.

Calling their transition D "really bad" misses the mark, because it implies their transition D exists. The Sixers surrender 142.9 points per 100 plays on the break—by far the worst mark in the NBA. Only four teams allow opponents to get out in transition more frequently.

Not unrelated: Philly lets rival offenses shoot an NBA-worst 70.7 percent at the rim. That number has actually ballooned to 74.2 percent when Embiid is on the court.

Myriad concerns have been cited for the Sixers' warts, as previously outlined by Bryan Toporek at Forbes. Crappy communication, confusion over assignments, new-player integration, a complete lack of failure to get back even when given the chance—you name it, Philly's transition defense has suffered from it. The past three games, all wins, have featured some improvement. But will it hold?

Unless otherwise noted, stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference, Stathead or Cleaning the Glass and accurate entering Monday's games. Salary information via Spotrac.

Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.