By Dan Golden, Staff Writer
We are a few weeks into the 2024-25 NBA season, between the Cleveland Cavaliers starting the season 12-0, only three teams in the East are above or at .500, or the myriad of injuries to the league’s biggest stars, there is a lot to talk about. Locally, the New York Knicks showed promise early on, yet they have fallen short and lost multiple winnable contests in the past week and the Milwaukee Bucks seem ready to fully collapse.
Nick Fioravanti, a senior broadcasting major and contributor to LIU Sports Radio had some thoughts about the Cavaliers’ unbelievable start to the season.
“Donovan Mitchell has kind of stepped up and become the guy in Cleveland. The whole offense is centered around him and he’s playing great. Darius Garland and Jared Allen are stepping up. They have a lot of role players and they all seem to find their rhythm.”
Speaking of teams in the East, only 2 teams have a winning record (Celtics and Cavs). Nathen Benjamin Chen, a senior film major, speculates why the Eastern Conference is off to a slow start.
“Maybe because of all the injuries, the East record will naturally play out. The East kind of plays a little bit of a different style of basketball than the West,” Chen said
Chen shared his thoughts on the injuries sustained by multiple big names in the league including Kevin Durant and Joel Embiid.
“I think there is a large factor that comes into play for all these injuries; teams are shooting statistically a lot more threes so naturally players are running up and down the court trying to keep up, which causes more non-contact injuries,” he said.
Fiorivanti sees it differently.
“I think I was watching a segment earlier on ‘Inside the NBA’ with Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal and they were talking about Joel Embiid before the season even started, he mentioned to the press that he was somehow going to limit himself before the season even started and not playing in back to back games. This isn’t isolated, players across the league were sitting out for a couple of games to manage injuries,” Fiorvanti said.
The New York Knicks entered the season with high expectations. Offseason moves such as Jalen Brunson extending his contract, the acquisition of Karl Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges via trade, and the re-signing of OG Anunoby, have not met expectations thus far.
They have had a mediocre start to the season and have lost three very winnable games in the last few minutes of regulation.
“These are the growing pains of a new squad figuring out their chemistry,” said Chen. “Like the Big 3 on the Phoenix Suns of KD, Bradley Beal and Devin Booker, they need to figure out their hierarchy on who takes control in clutch time situations down the stretch.”
Another underwhelming Eastern conference team is the Milwaukee Bucks, who have started the season at 3-8. With superstars like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard and head coach Doc Rivers, you’d expect a winning record especially considering how weak the East is. Yet these pains are familiar to Milwaukee as they were an 1st round exit in the playoffs last season. The question is now stay the course, or blow up the team and trade your superstar in Giannis.
“I think that the Bucks are going to eventually trade Giannis,” said Fiorivanti. “I don’t think they’re going to trade Damian Lillard because he might be an easier guy to build a team around going forward, I know both of them are kind of unhappy with the situation that the Bucks are in, Giannis maybe more so.”
That may be considered an understatement by many, as after a crushing loss to the Knicks last Friday, Giannis experienced his frustration,
“Hey man, if you don’t wanna be here you can leave,” was shouted by Antetokounmpo to an unknown teammate while giving his postgame interview.
If chemistry continues down this path, who knows where the team from Milwaukee will be in a few games? Chen believes Giannis could be on the move.
“Giannis has his ring already, let him play with Steph Curry on the Golden State Warriors. The Bucks organization seems to be the holdouts on a Giannis trade at this time” he said
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