1/4 of the way in

[penbeast0]

The season is roughly 1/4 of the way in.

Who is the most surprising winning record in the NBA (biggest difference between expectations and results so far)?

New Orleans, Indiana, Utah, Washington, Sacramento are the 5 "surprises" with winning records with New Orleans having the most wins the 5 and Utah probably the lowest expectations.

Who is the most surprising losing record in the NBA?

Miami, Chicago, T-Wolves, Lakers, Warriors being only .500?

[tsherkin]

I don't think the Lakers or the Warriors were huge surprises, personally. They both had obvious issues. Warriors with losing players, L.A. with issues from the previous season carrying forward. I guess the extent of Golden State's bad start was a surprise, but only so far. Chicago is less of a surprise too. They weren't a stunner last year to begin with, and of course Lavine has missed 4 games and not playing well. They underutilize the 3, which they did last season as well... but they were 4th in 3P% last year and have come out clicking at 15th in 3P% so far. Their offense just hasn't been there and they weren't a stunning D to begin with, nor are they so far.

Miami was a 53-win team last year, though, so rocking a 10-12 to start and opening up 2-5 was a little surprising. Of course, Butler has only played 13 games, and Herro 14. Almost everyone is underperforming in terms of scoring efficiency.

I'm a teensy bit surprised that Minny is only .500. I thought Gobert would be able to carry them a little further. D'Angelo Russell is being permitted to shoot far too much; he flatly isn't a good scorer for the contemporary league, and hasn't been since he was drafted. Anthony Edwards isn't good enough to offset that as a 21 year-old, third-year player. Ten years ago, the story would be a little different, of course, but in this environment, they just don't have the offensive punch. The offense, I expected. Them being the same level defense as last year, however, is very surprising to me.

[sp6r=underrated]

I'm surprised how well Boston is playing. They are beginning to look like a 65 win caliber dominant NBA champion.

[Dr Positivity]

Surprise winning record: Utah
Surprise losing record: Miami

These are pretty clear cut for me.

I didn't see the Pelicans lining up to have a season like 2022 Memphis, but Zion being good on D like Duke changes the game for them, and saves the Zion/Valanciunas fit.

[mdonnelly1989]

The season is roughly 1/4 of the way in.

Who is the most surprising winning record in the NBA (biggest difference between expectations and results so far)?

New Orleans, Indiana, Utah, Washington, Sacramento are the 5 "surprises" with winning records with New Orleans having the most wins the 5 and Utah probably the lowest expectations.

Who is the most surprising losing record in the NBA?

Miami, Chicago, T-Wolves, Lakers, Warriors being only .500?

I had finals expectations for T-Wolves. I wasn't expecting Gobert and Kat to play so underwhelmingly together.

T-Wolves pushed the Grizz to a tough 6 game series, many of whom had the Grizz going to the finals.

On Paper you would think a top 25 player in the league should be able to push them over the top.

It's pretty clear that the game isn't played on Paper.