Normally the Texas Triangle, or at least the Texas Two-Step, the Southwest Division has been anything but “all Texas,” following the lead of the overhyped Texas Longhorns college football team.
Right now, the division belongs to San Antonio, and it doesn’t look like they’re relinquishing the stranglehold on the top spot anytime soon, as the Wembanyama Era has finally begun.
San Antonio Spurs (5-0)
Undefeated. And without Gregg Popovich as their head coach. Just doesn’t seem to compute, does it? I mean, just two short years ago, it felt like the Spurs were tanking for a tall, lanky kid named Victor Wembanyama with their second 22-60 season in a row – well, they were, and luckily the ping pong ball bounced their way, and the rest is history.
San Antonio brought in veteran guard Chris Paul to redo Lob City, but it was two weeks this past offseason in the mountains of China with Shaolin monks to learn disciplines of the mind and body, including shaving his head and embarking on a vegan diet.
While we can’t give the Chinese all the credit, we can point to the disciplined mindset producing incredible results so far this season. In five games, Wembanyama is averaging a double double at 30.2 points a night and 14.6 rebounds, the league leader on the boards. At 7’4” (and growing?), he also leads the league in blocks – by a long shot – at 4.8 per game.
Memphis Grizzlies (3-3)
When you’re second in the division and only playing .500 basketball, it should be no surprise the Spurs are running away with the division from the outset.
Furthermore, Ja Morant has been suspended for conduct detrimental to the team, allegedly for comments made after the Grizzlies lost to the Los Angeles Lakers last night. “According to (the coaching staff), probably don’t play me, honestly,” Morant said to a reporter. “That’s basically what the message was after, so it’s cool.”
While he has been healthy and seemingly staying out of the kinds of trouble that has created tension and gotten him suspended before, Morant has been horrible from downtown, with only five makes in 32 attempts. His best games were in wins versus the New Orleans Pelicans and Phoenix Suns, where he hit for five of 14 combined; he has had goose eggs in the Grizzlies’ four other games.
Averaging 20.8 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 6.7 dimes along the way, Morant will sit it out against the Toronto Raptors tomorrow.
Houston Rockets (2-2)
It took a couple of games for the holdover Rockets from last season to get into a rhythm with Kevin Durant, but when they did in the third game of the season, it was like watching a beautiful masterpiece beginning to come to fruition – if Bob Ross were a Rockets fan.
Mind you, it was against the Brooklyn Nets, but Durant finished that night with a pedestrian (for Durant) 19 points, six rebounds, and three assists, also getting unexpected names involved in Tari Eason (23 points) and Reed Sheppard (15 points), while Alperen Sengun had 21 on the night. Rockets by 28 points.
On the road against the Toronto Raptors two nights later, it was Durant with 31 points and Jabari Smith, Jr. with 25, while Sengun and Amen Thompson chipped in 18 apiece to seal the 18 point road win, their second victory, and move the team to .500 before they face off against the Boston Celtics in Beantown tonight.
Dallas Mavericks (2-3)
The biggest draft pick in the NBA has a lot of weight on his shoulders, fairly or unfairly, as the next man up to replace the beloved player and personality that Luka Doncic was. That’s a huge burden, and so far, VJ Edgecombe of the Philadelphia 76ers seems to be playing like a Rookie of the Year candidate with no pressure at all.
No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg’s best game thus far has been his third, a win against the Raptors, where he scored 22 points and had four rebounds, and while that doesn’t blow anyone’s doors off, it was a decent progression from 10 points in his first game and 18 in his second, both losses.
Unfortunately, Flagg went well below half mast with a two point performance against the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder, another Dallas loss last Monday night. The Mavericks would beat the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night to get their second win of the season.
In no surprise, Anthony Davis looked like he was massaging what appeared to be an alleged Achilles injury in the Pacers game, but it has been determined to be a calf strain and Davis will be re-evaluated when the team returns to Dallas.
New Orleans Pelicans (0-5)
When I saw all the images this summer of a slimmed down Zion Williamson, I first had to try and figure if it was AI-generated or if Joe Dumars and the Pelicans had finally gotten through to Williamson from a self-discipline point of view.
While he’s definitely slimmed down, so has the talent on the roster surrounding him. Brandon Ingram is long gone, has been since last February, in a trade that netted the Pels Bruce Brown and Kelly Olynyk – now Olynyk and Brown have moved on already – Brown back to the Denver Nuggets, and Olynyk in a trade that brought back Jordan Poole and Saadiq Bey. Jonas Valanciunas signed with the Washington Wizards earlier in the offseason, but is also now with the Nuggets, while C.J. McCollum went to Washington, taking his 19.6 point and 3.8 assist averages along with him.
While winless, Williamson leads the team with 23.5 points, but is behind Trey Murphy III and Yves Missi when it comes to rebounding. He does lead New Orleans with 4.3 assists a night, but well-tested and tenured veteran center DeAndre Jordan is leading the team in field goal percent – Zion isn’t in the picture.
Maybe send him to the mountains of China? I Shao would …
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Tracy ‘T-Money’ Graven is the Senior NBA Analyst for BackSportsPage.com owner of TMoneyMedia.com and also has his posts on SubStack at allballs.substack.com
He has written the NBA, appeared as a guest on NBA Radio, and the last 25+ years for HoopsWorld, Swish Magazine, HoopsHype, the Coach Scott Fields Show, NBARadioShow.com, and also tackles the NFL and NCAA. He’s spent 25+ years in locker rooms in Orlando, Boise (CBA, G League), San Antonio, Phoenix, Denver, Oklahoma City, and Atlanta.
He has raised five kids, and now currently resides in the heart of SEC Country near Knoxville, Tennessee – home of the 2024 Men’s Baseball World Series Champion Tennessee Volunteers.
Reach him on Twitter at @RealTMoneyMedi
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