Nearly one month into the 2016-17 NBA season, here are 10 early disappointments that are worth keeping an eye on.
The NBA is one of the more predictable professional sports leagues, with the title contenders and bottom-feeders being fairly easy to peg entering each new season.
However, there’s always plenty of room for surprise over the course of an 82-game season, and each year there are both enjoyable cases of overachievement and unexpected disappointments to pour over.
Though we’re only three weeks into the season, several summer narratives and predictions already feel off-base. The Chicago Bulls are winning despite their lack of shooting, the Los Angeles Clippers have the best record in the NBA and the Los Angeles Lakers have a winning record 12 games in.
The pleasant surprises are easy to peg, however. The question is, after nearly a month of NBA action, which teams, players and coaches have been slight letdowns so far?
These early season trends are by no means guaranteed to continue throughout the 2016-17 season. They could just be a case of small sample size, injuries play a role in several of them, and in some situations, a rotation change could very easily set things back on the right course.
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But in the interest of being thorough, here are 10 early season NBA disappointments that have caught our attention and may be worth keeping an eye on moving forward.