Fool’s gold or not? Let’s review Celtics, Lakers and Nuggets

We’re just over a week into the NBA season. Each team has played four or five games, so of course the popular artists on TV and the Internet have these fun topics to talk about:

• Do the Celtics have a chance to be the best team ever?
• Are the Lakers title contenders under new coach JJ Redick?
• Are the Nuggets in trouble?

If the season ended today, you could easily say yes to all of these questions. But the NBA season is 82 games, not four or five, so let’s take a look at these early trends and assess whether they’re sustainable, fool’s gold, or somewhere in between.

The takeover: The Boston Celtics (4-1) are the best regular season team in NBA history!

As evidenced by our preseason power rankings, there are a lot of similarities between the 2023-24 Celtics and the 2014-15 Warriors. Both had historically great regular seasons with double digits per 100 possessions: Celtics at plus-11.6, Warriors at plus-10.2. Both stormed through an injury-riddled field of opponents (not their fault!) en route to the championships and perhaps didn’t get the respect they deserved going into their championship defenses.

The 2015-16 Warriors started their season on a 24-game winning streak and dominated the rest of the NBA (except for their last three games – all losses – losing the NBA Finals to Cleveland) winning a record 73 games in the regular season. .

Led by Jayson Tatum, a bona fide MVP frontrunner, the Celtics won their first four games this season in similarly impressive fashion, with a net rating of plus 15.3, before dropping an overtime game to the Pacers on Wednesday. Boston leads the NBA in three-point attempts (51.6), three-point hits (21) and is second in three-point efficiency (40.7 percent).

Will this trend continue? Yes! Well, at least within reason. There is more parity and talent in today’s NBA than there was in 2015-16, and the team will be without Kristaps Porzingis for a few months, so the Celtics probably won’t win more than 70 games. But don’t be surprised if they walk away from the NBA again (although the Thunder and Cavaliers might stick with them).

The takeover: The Lakers (3-2) are title contenders again!

I told you Redick would make a good coach. The Lakers came out of the gate with three wins against quality opponents before losing to the Suns and Cavaliers.

Anthony Davis has gone into full Godzilla mode, averaging 30.6 points, 12.2 rebounds, three assists, two blocks and 1.6 steals per game, and could likely win the MVP and Defensive Player of the Year win trophies if he continued to play this way all season.

LeBron James, even if he looks rusty, is still capable of putting in GOAT-level performances, like his fourth quarter performance against the Kings on Saturday.

Will this trend continue? Yes, with some caveats. As always, there’s a “if LeBron and AD can stay healthy” caveat. Additionally, the front office needs to do something to increase rotation depth, perhaps adding Jerami Grant from the Trail Blazers or blue center Jonas Valančiūnas from the Wizards.

The takeover: A lack of depth will doom the Nuggets (2-2).

Here’s a stat that doesn’t even sound real: Through the Nuggets’ first three games, the team had a net rating of plus-1.5 when Nikola Jokic was on the court and a net rating of negative 30.5 when Jokic was off . He was on the field for only 33 minutes per game. The curse of Russell Westbrook, now with the Nuggets, is real!

The Nuggets (2-2) got smoked by the Thunder in their opener, lost to the Clippers and needed Jokic to don the Superman cape to escape potentially catastrophic losses to the lowly Raptors and Nets. We knew about the front office’s decision to let Bruce Brown walk two seasons ago and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope could come back to haunt the Nuggets last summer, but no one expected them to struggle out of the gate this season.

Will this trend continue? Probably not. The Nuggets should be fine as long as Jokic stays healthy. The two overtime wins over the Raptors and Nets should have been losses, but Jokic calmly went to work on every possession and made sure Denver got a high-quality shot. And guess what? He’s going to do that in every close game — he’s still the best player in the world — so as long as the Nuggets don’t get blown out, they should still be a playoff team and potential contender.