Three Takeaways From Opening Night In The NBA

Anthony Davis is the biggest quadruple-double threat since the 90’s

In what would seem like an early season candidate for a top ten stat line of the season, Anthony Davis made it look effortless.  Falling a block short of getting a triple-double, Davis reminded basketball fans of his ability to light up the stat sheet on day one of the season.  Putting together a stat line of 27 points, 16 boards, 9 blocks, and 3 steals on the first night of the season is just a sign of what’s to come.  The near double digit shot blocks by Davis was enough to tie a career high, but that won’t be the case for long.  Davis is sure to hit the double digit mark this season.  Having Omer Asik (5 blocks himself) behind him to protect the rim allows Davis to take more weak side gambles as a shot blocker without losing much in terms of team defense.  In last night’s game Davis showed he can run the fast break as well as any big man in the game by getting completely behind the defense several times after stealing the ball.  It was a complete Unibrow highlight reel  In his quest for getting a quad dub, the biggest challenge will be getting to double digit assists (or can you imagine steals) on a night that he reaches the plateau in blocks.  His current career highs in those categories are 5 assists and 6 steals.  However, as Davis becomes the team leader, it seems very plausible that the offense will start to run through Davis in the high post.  This will allow him to become more of a distributor finding his streaky guards cutting to the basket and dishing the ball off as he draws double teams.  The scariest part?  He’s only 21 years old and on pace to get a hell of a lot better.

Welcome to the league, rookie.

The Chandler Parsons contract looks laughable

Once upon a time, before LeBron James stole the show in the off season with his well-timed letter that proclaimed he was taking his talents back home, there was Chandler Parsons.  When the clock struck midnight on July 10th, Parsons was famously found signing his max contract extension at the club with Mavs owner Mark Cuban.  This put the Rockets on the clock to match the contract, which they would have done had Bosh agreed to join forces to build an instant contender.  In the end, Bosh chose to stay in Party City, and the Rockets ultimately decided to allow Parsons to head to their Texas rivals in Dallas.  In a spin of irony, the Rockets chose his replacement to be the guy that they awarded his first big contract in 2009 in Trevor Ariza before jettisoning that contract to New Orleans the following summer.

Fast forward to opening night.  Parsons, $16,000,000 richer is wearing blue taking on the Spurs, and Ariza is back in Rockets red making roughly half the money that Parsons signed for.  In his first game making big money Parsons put up a stinker hitting just 2 of 10 shots to score 5 points with no assists.  With the chance for redemption with two seconds left, Parsons found himself wide open for the game winning three, but failed to convert.  His defense wasn’t as atrociously bad as the Harden-like reputation that he’s started to garner, but he’s out there to add offense which he did not do in his debut.  Meanwhile, Ariza put up a nice game statistically against the Lakers hitting 5 of 8 from deep, but also provided perimeter defense on Kobe that the Rockets haven’t had since Parsons rookie year when he actually put forth effort on defense.

Parsons will play better, but the Mavs need him to play about $15,000,000 better than he played last night.

While it’s far too early to call Parsons a complete bust on his new contract, he is past the point where he can have a free pass.  The problem isn’t that he got paid.  He’s a very good player and deserved to get his pay day.  The problem is that he got paid like he’s a franchise cornerstone to build upon.  When he signed that contract, Rockets GM Daryl Morey saw it as crippling, preventing any further roster moves.  You only match that contract if you think that Parsons is the kind of guy that can put you to contender status.  The Rockets did not.  Now the Mavericks will have to hope that their big free agent signing can start to produce at an all star level, because Dirk is not getting any younger.

The Kobe vs Dwight feud is alive and well

It didn’t take long for Kobe to get into it with another ex teammate.  In Howard’s first game playing against Kobe since leaving LA a late game altercation involved Kobe trying to slap away a Dwight rebound, while down 25 points in the final quarter.  Howard tried to clear space which ended up with Kobe taking an elbow to the mouth.  The two had to be separated as words were exchanged.  The exchange went something like this.

Kobe: “Try me.”
Dwight: “I know you, dog.”
Kobe: “Try me.  Try me.”
Dwight: “I know you.”
Kobe: “Soft.”

“I know you, dog.”

According to sources other words were exchanged as well with Howard saying, “You’s a pussy, dog,” (which I’d assume means, “You’re CatDog”) and Kobe shouting at the bench, “You a bitch ass n-word.”  Although the Rockets dominated this game from start to finish, the exchange was particularly intriguing.  Comments from Lakers fans across the internet would lead one to believe that Howard is under investigation for raping someone in Colorado with all that was thrown around about the minor exchange.  And the scenario was just that, a minor incident.  The reason that the incident intrigues me is that it adds further fuel to the fire that Kobe chased Dwight out of Los Angeles in free agency with his demanding personality, and the, “Let me show you how to be a winner,” shenanigans in the free agency meeting while trying to recruit him back to LA.

All in all, it was a minor incident that got way overblown, but it’s still worth discussing because it adds further drama to their next meeting and as NBA fans we all secretly love a little bit of drama.