Our NBA insiders are debating the biggest topics in the league. Can the Jazz, Blazers and Spurs sustain their early success?
Chris Mannix: Alright, Beck, this has already been a season full of surprises—and I’m not talking about Kyrie’s social media, the Lakers’ struggles or Minnesota’s dysfunction. I’m talking about Utah! And Portland! And the Spurs! If you had told me weeks ago that three of the top nine in the West would be teams I would have bet big would be lottery locks, I’d have called you crazy. Yet here we are. But it’s a long season and we have not yet hit Thanksgiving. So do any of these teams have a shot at sticking in the playoff field come April?
Howard Beck: Cue the Herm Edwards “YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME!” memes. Also, cue up every cliche about games not being won on paper, yadda, yadda. Seriously, this is what’s great about sports. Even in an age of analytics and fancy algorithms, we can’t predict everything. We can still be pleasantly surprised. The question is, what’s real and what’s an early-season mirage? If I’m ranking these teams from most sustainable to least sustainable, I’m going Blazers, Jazz, Spurs. San Antonio will be in the lottery for sure. The Blazers easily have the most talent of the group, and should be a playoff team if they stay healthy. It’s the Jazz who are the most confounding to me. Is Lauri Markkanen really an All-Star now? Is this team of (almost literally) spare parts really capable of a playoff run? And, most importantly: Is this actually what the Jazz front office wants?
